Search: “cop”

Whoever started this car window sticker trend in Kuwait is a genius. I think I first started noticing them at Marina Mall but now other malls in Kuwait are using it and even universities. Basically how it works is if you park in a place you shouldn’t park (handicap spot, over the curb, black and yellow etc..) you get a sticker stuck on your window telling you not to do it again. Doesn’t sound too dramatic but you can’t really just peel those stickers off your car since they tear apart and look horrible. Because it’s actually pretty difficult to get removed is why this is so smart.

Many people would rather get a ticket than get a sticker which is why I think cops should start using these. Anyone caught speeding? Give them a ticket AND stick this on their window. Car illegally parked? Give them a ticket AND stick this on their window. I think it would work.

Last weekend Blink sent me a Logitech racing wheel to review for the blog. It was perfect timing since Nat was out of the country which meant I was home alone with Geo, my PS3 and a copy of Gran Turismo 5. The first racing wheel I ever owned was the Coleco racing wheel which I got back in the mid 80’s (and which I still have today). It came with a gas pedal and a copy of the back then amazing racing game called Turbo. Of course that was back in the mid 80’s and things have come a long way since then.

The first thing I noticed about the Logitech wheel is that it was heavy and that’s a good thing. The weight gives it a solid feel which I wasn’t expecting since the GT wheel is the younger brother of the more expensive Logitech G27 wheel. This is why I was expecting the GT wheel to feel a bit flimsy but it wasn’t at all. The racing wheel comes with a gear stick attached to the wheel and a separate gas and brake pedal with a rubber base to stop it from slipping. The force feedback is just amazing, it reminded me of the days when I used to spend all my money at the arcades playing Daytona with my friends. The force feedback is pretty powerful and I actually have to use a lot of force and fight with the wheel sometimes which again makes this steering wheel feel like it’s worth a lot more.

I tried the steering wheel on a bunch of games including MotorStorm, Formula1, Dirt2 and Gran Turismo. The steering wheel worked great in everything except Gran Turismo. I just couldn’t control my car properly and kept slamming into walls and spinning out. Not sure if it was the settings somewhere or the fact I was still not used to the steering wheel but I just couldn’t drive my car properly. I’m sure it was something from my side since this wheel is actually the official wheel of Gran Turismo which means it should work really well with it. On the other hand the wheel worked great in Formula1 and extremely well in the Baja races in Dirt2. As some points it felt like I was back in the arcade playing Sega Rally which is what I liked the best about the steering wheel. It’s an arcade wheel at home.

Another issue I faced was with the placement of the wheel. At first I tried to use the wheel on my laps (see picture above) but it didn’t work and was actually a bit painful. I then bolted it down to my coffee table but found it too low to be comfortable. Finally I ended up sitting on the floor with the wheel mounted on my coffee table and it felt like I was sitting in an F1 car which worked for me. If you have the space I would recommend you get something like [This]. Overall I liked the wheel a lot and thought it was really well built. If you can’t afford the Logitech G27 or don’t want to pay that much for a wheel then you can get this from Blink for just KD35. I give it a 4 out of 5.

Now if you’re interested in this wheel then you’re gonna like this since I’m going to give one away. If you want to win this Logitech GT racing wheel I just reviewed all you need to do is send me a picture of your PS3 setup. The person with the saddest looking setup will win the wheel. Make sure you have 248AM written somewhere in the shot (so I know you took the picture) and send your pictures to [email protected]. Send all pictures by Saturday 9PM the latest.

There is going to be a partial solar eclipse tomorrow and if you’re interested in observing it you can do so at the home of astronomer Adel Alsadoun. He’s inviting the public to come by and check it out from there since he will have a telescope connected to a large screen to view the eclipse plus he will be providing solar eclipse glasses.

Date: Tuesday, 4th of January 2011
Time: 10:30am to 1:00pm
Address: Fintas, Block 4, Street 9, House 21
Mobile: (+965) 9901-2521

This is definitely the coolest thing Kuwait Times have ever done. Today’s issue of their free Friday Times newspaper was wrapped with a copy of their first issue ever dating back to September 24, 1961. Their first issue was only 4 pages but there are enough gems in there to make it worth picking up. Here are the coolest things I found in the paper:

– An ad announcing a new 1962 model of an RCA TV arriving at Morad Yousuf Behbehani

– An ad from the then not yet opened Gulf Bank (pictured below)

– Kuwait Airport arrival and departure timings. The only destinations were Bahrain, Damascus, Beirut, Abadan, Doha and Cairo. No European or any other countries

– A classified ad for a car “Immediately available Austin 55 – 1969, roughly used by it’s careless owner, with one head lamp broken (by courtsey of a fellow motorist) dented all over it’s sleek frame, springs making noise only when driving on bad roads (bad roads non-existent at Kuwait), if you are still interested, send offers to K.T. Box, No. 524 Kuwait.” What I found funny is the honesty and the fact you need to send him a letter if you’re interested. The postal service must have been very reliable back then

– Kuwait Cinemas schedule, Psycho was playing at Al Andalus, Al-Hamra was closed due to repair, Al-Firdous was playing The Golden Horde, the open air cinema in Hawalli was playing Bayabit Al Ward and finally the open air cinema at Fahaheel was playing Tomb of Love.

I highly recommend you pass by a bakala or newspaper stand and pick up today’s free issue of the Friday Times. And if anyone from Kuwait Times is reading this, if you still have all your old issues, please convert them to PDF and upload them online!

Thanks Q

A friend of mine took the picure above a few moments ago on the Gulf Road. Looks like a police car flipped upside down in front of Burj Al Hamam.

The cops now have new portable cameras and by the looks of it they will be very difficult to spot. Judging by the picture above they will be used to catch the people who drive on emergency lanes which is cool but I believe they will also be able to capture speeders.

The Ministry pointed out that the new radar is accurate and can be transported from one place to another easily, in addition to having the video and photographic characteristics, which confirms the fact of the violation. It stated that the mobile radar is currently working with high efficiency in many locations, especially places of high traffic density, including schools.

Here is the link to the article on Arab Times. [Link]

Just found this documentary about the KLT on their website. It’s really well made and interesting to watch (they’ve been around since 1948!). The documentary is divided into two parts, the first one is above and the second part if below. This is the description posted with the videos:

“From its humble beginnings as the KUOCO Independent Players in 1948 to its present day position as the leading amateur theater company in the region, Kuwait Little Theater (KLT) has undergone quite a transformation. Through archive footage, photos, interviews, and video clips dating back to the early days of The KLT, this documentary offers a fascinating stroll down memory lane of the busiest and best little theatre in Kuwait.

Join us on a journey back to times when sets were painted out in the 40 degree summer sun, theatrical lighting consisted of car headlamps, and staging a live performance in Kuwait meant closing down the local cinema for a night. Then, stroll through six decades of development as the Little Theatre is born and raised by a band of enthusiastic volunteers.

‘KLT – Celebrating 60 Years’ takes you on a journey, not only of the development of amateur theatre in Kuwait but also of the country at large as its members battle the climate, the culture and the aftermath of war to bring live entertainment to the stage year after year.”

Produced By – PANORAMA PICTURES (A division of Agrim Projects Services)
Script writer, Editor & Director – SONU SHARMA

Please write your reviews about this documentary to – [email protected]

Here is a link to the Kuwait Little Theater Documentary [Link]

Firstly thank you to everyone who filled out the survey. I was originally hoping to get around 200 to 300 responses but instead I got 1,000 before I shut it down since I hit my account limit. I saved all the results as a PDF (total of 50 pages of small print) and have copied them over to my iPad so I could go through them. I’ve already got a ton of ideas in my head for the blog and I have a feeling 2011 is going to be a very busy year for me. Anyway below are some results of the survey I thought you might be interested in seeing.

I take the Gulf Road every morning to work and every evening back home. I also take the Gulf Road on my way to the gym and back. Every single freakin day I have to put up with jerks on the road trying to hit on chicks. The Gulf Road is just 3 lanes and if there is a car with a girl in it then you find a car on the left of hers and a car on the right of hers filled with a guy or two driving at the exact same speed as the girl (or girls). It’s ridiculous! Sometimes there would be a car in front of her as well and maybe a car or two behind also trying to get some action. These idiots block the whole Gulf Road driving at a slow pace hoping to get the girls number or whatever (I have no clue how that works) while everyone else is forced to drive at an abnormally slow pace behind them.

It’s not just guys that are the problem, sometimes you get these group of girls with a ton of makeup on giggling and laughing in the car with the windows open driving slow actually wanting the guys to hit on them. It really pisses me off. Where are the cops? Why don’t the cops do anything? Why don’t they assign the female cops (pictured above) to the Gulf Road and have them take vengeance?? Instead of installing new speed cameras on the Gulf Road they should figure out a way to stop these morons.

Sorry I’m venting but I just got home after getting stuck in traffic because of some jerks.

I’m not a big fan of True Value (I prefer Ace) but I was there over the weekend looking for something when I found two interesting items.

The first is this fire safe/waterproof external hard drive. The idea is that you back your stuff onto it and in case your apartment catches on fire your data would be safe. Price was expensive at around KD180. It costs KD113 on Amazon without shipping and the thing is heavy but I doubt that shipping with Aramex would cost more than KD30 or KD40.

The second interesting thing I found were Daisy brand air rifles. They had the Daisy 840 Grizzly rifle for KD39 (KD12 on Amazon) and the Daisy 880 with Scope for KD49 (KD16 on Amazon). They looked pretty nice.

Posted by Fahad

A lot of people crucified Core Fitness thinking that our 20-minute version of a workout was for everybody. As per what Mark has stated earlier, our 20-minutes were meant to cater to those who a) don’t have time for high-volume conventional training, b) new to the world of health and fitness, c) are the center of mockery and scrutiny because they’re too fat and d) hate to pursue health and fitness, but need to lose some weight due to health and Sharm Al Shaikh reasons.

To shed some light on our 20-minute workouts, we are merely a single idea in the fitness industry. We don’t defy ourselves as the be-all and end-all of exercise; we represent a technique that combines both convenience and intensity in one package. One big huge gargantuan awesome incredible package.

Gradual Transition

Back in January when Mark signed up with Core Fitness, I honestly thought the dude was a hopeless case. He looked motivated, but acted kind of lazy. Mark wanted to get in and out and just live life outside of the gym. Gradually, he kept on coming for more and asking for harder diet plans. He even low-carbed his meals without inquiring with me, and refrained from cheating for over a month (which is something I wouldn’t even think of doing).

I remember the day he sluggishly walked into my office. Last Thursday, the dude walked in with his shoulders back and his chest high, ready for what’s next.  I presented him with the idea of signing up for 60-minutes. What shocked me the most is his prompt reply; I even had a list of come backs in order to negotiate him into 60-minutes. Conclusively, Mark now dedicates 5 days of his week to gym and MMA work; he has officially caught the fitness-bug.

By Popular Demand

In order to cope with the  “high volume” and the “we-have-more-than-20-minutes-to-spare” fitness crowd, we at Core Fitness developed a training technique roughly 3 times as intense as our initial 20 minutes, but with 40 more minutes of pain and agony. Keep in mind that we would like our clients to stick to the 20 minutes, so expect 1-hour training to be our way of saying “Today, we will give you 60 reasons why you should stick to 20 minutes. FUL.”

Offering Healthy Lifestyles Since 2008

Does anyone remember the last time Mark posted a burger review? Go ahead and look back at his posts. Taco Bell was a total bust, but they do have a semi-healthy menu. The Abercrombie and Fitch post was LOLingly homorific, but I’ll give him credit for finally setting a target. And what does every strict dieter do? Post about their next cheat meal.

It’s safe to say the fitness-bug he caught also effected his posts, including activity oriented articles and topics pertaining to how people can achieve a healthy lifestyle without sacrificing their current one (Michel Dines in Hell).

The point is, Core Fitness offers lifestyles and not just a means to an end. We at Core want you to be healthy, stay healthy and live healthy, since health and fitness is our business. We promote diversity with our clients by asking them to try out what the market has to offer, and only then can they differentiate a Core Fitness workout from a conventional one. The point is we do lose clients like any other business, but we rarely fail to permanently stamp them with healthier lifestyles.

All top-notch health clubs and gyms in Kuwait already have 60-minute personal training services far before Core existed, but how many of them offer you individualized lifestyles and a training technique?

Training Services

Mark’s currently enrolled in Muscle Building, since he earlier decided to dedicate 30-minutes of post-workout treadmill cardio work to his already activity-infested routine. Mark and cardio don’t mix at all, and I couldn’t convince him to do 10 minutes (I swear to God). Those 30-minutes were his idea.

For the 60-minute personal training workout, we offer 4 training categories specified below:

– Muscle Building

– Fitness Boxing

– Fat Loss

– Sports Performance

20-Minutes is still our Bread & Butter

For those of you contemplating on signing up, I’d advise you begin with at least one 20-minute workout membership to get the feel of the technique. The intensity of our 60-minute workouts are no joke and require a certain level of physical fitness experience. We designed it to transition our current 20-minute clients who have already been through the short torture.

Follow Mark’s foot steps and gradually increase workout intensity and meal planning. You’ll look good, feel good and hopefully live longer assuming a bus doesn’t run into you anytime soon.

For more questions and inquiries concerning timings, prices and location, feel free to contact Core Fitness at 22520407 starting at 12:30 pm to 10 pm, or contact me via my blog here.

Posted by Fahad

The blog Q8geeks spotted the above job opening. I really don’t want to know what this job involves… [Link]

A reader shared a link to pictures of the making of the Kiswah (the cloth that covers the Kaaba) which I hadn’t seen before. You can check out those pictures by clicking [Here]

Here is also bit of info I found on Wikipedia on the Kiswah:

Every year the old Kiswa is removed, cut into small pieces and gifted to certain individuals, visiting foreign Muslim dignitaries and organizations. Some of them sell their share as souvenirs of Haj. Earlier Umar bin al-Khattab would cut it in to pieces and distribute them among the pilgrims who used them as shelter from the heat of Makkah. The present cost of making the kiswa amounts to SR 17 million [U.S. dollar = 3.75 riyals]. The cover is 658 sq. metres long and is made of 670 kgs of pure silk. For embroidery 15 kilos of gold threads are used. It consists of 47 pieces of cloth and each piece is 14 Mts. long and 101 cms broad. The kiswa is wrapped around the Kaaba and fixed to the ground with copper rings. [Source]

Thanks t-num

If any cops are watching this I think it might be easy to catch this guy since his username on YouTube is 6025176 and I am taking a wild guess here but that could actually be his phone number. [YouTube]

Back in May I linked to a PDF taken from a 1969 issue of National Geographic and spoke about the Villa pictured above because I loved the design of it. Well a reader just landed across my post and commented the following:

Hi, this is our house, it used to belongs to my father and 2 brothers, Mohamed, Nasser (my late father) and Faisal Al-Duaijani. It was built and finished in 1968 and we moved into it when I was 5 years old after previously living in Do3′a (Farwaniya now).

The house is located at the intersection of the 4th ring road with Damascus street in Al-Rodah and it was sold to Mr. Al-Mokeazeam (cant recall his first name.. sorry) back in 1985. There was some modifications done to it, they completed the 3rd floor and closed the balconies which really made it lose its futuristic (at that time) looks. The villa was also shown in (Tarbiya Wataniya) elementary school book back in 1979 as one of the landmarks of Kuwait with my uncle Faisal shown standing in the first floor balcony. The villa just next to it was built and owned by my aunt and her husband the late Mr. Jasem Al-3otaiby. It had the same features and it still exists (also with some modifications) but it was sold directly to Al-Banwan family which i guess they’re still living in it.

I’m sorry I can’t recall the name of the architect and I’ll try to ask about it and give tell you if I find out. From what I recall we had big disputes with him about the mocked copies of the villa, the one in 3deliya and the one in Khaldiya about the exclusivity of design and rights to it which believe it or not was stronger back in the 60′s & 70′s than today!!

Aaahh, I’m 45 years old now, where did the good old days go??!!

Thanks,
Abdulla