Search: “cop”

I don’t what the fuck happened but yesterday I took Nat’s camera to the H3 Ride & Drive event and shot a whole bunch of pictures and everything was fine the last time I checked the pictures last night. Then today morning when I conneceted the camera to copy the pictures onto my computer I couldn’t find the pictures. Not only that I couldn’t find a single folder or file on the camera’s memorystick. I even used Data Rescue I and II to try and recover the files but it also couldn’t find anything. Something really got fucked here…

I was just looking for an image on Photodisc.com when I came across an image that looked very familiar. I think I found the image that was used as a starting point for one of THE One’s adverts. Its common for agencies to use a stock image during presentation and then go shoot the advert once approved but this ad I believe won some sort of recognition which I now think they shouldn’t have received since its basically a copy of a stock photo.

THE One granny advert
The original stock photo

The other morning I was looking for my PSP which was on the charger and I couldn’t find it so I figured Nataly might have taken it to work or something. Then while I was about to leave for work I found my PSP with Geo my dog! It seems he found my PSP tucked into its soft cushion case on the table and mistook it for one of his toys and took it down to his play area where he was busy chewing the case. Luckily the PSP was fine and after wiping Geo’s drool from the case it was also unharmed.

Today morning I had my ipod sitting on my foof pod on my Mac which sits on the floor and I was busy copying songs onto it when all of a sudden I hear a bang and Geo running off. Turns out he was playing with my iPod and it fell onto the floor. No harm done and I continue to copy songs. Finally I was about leave and I took my ipod and I was looking for my foof case and I couldn’t find it. At first I again figured Nat took it because she sometimes uses it for her digital camera but I noticed her camera was still on the table. Then it hit me, it was with Geo, thats why he ran away! So I went downstairs and I was right, Geo was sitting there chewing my foof pod.

Its hard to get angry at Geo because he can be really cute. In the mornings for example he usually wakes me up before my alarm by climbing onto my bed and licking my face so that I could take him down for his morning walk. Its cute but if the last time I took him down at night was 10PM that means he comes and wakes me up at 6:30AM which isn’t cute anymore. It seems he can only hold his bladder for around 8 hours so if I am too lazy to take him down right before I sleep at 12 I usually pay for it by having him wake me up super early in the morning.

Yesterday night I finally realized how much he had grown. When you live with the dog 24 hours a day its hard to notice how much he has developed but yesterday I finally noticed. I was playing with him in his play area when I noticed this small hole in one of the large boxes he has. I had cut out that hole back when I first got Geo so he could pass through it while playing but looking at the hole now I can’t imagine how he fit in it. He can barely fit his head in it now and that made me realize that Geo really has grown since we got him back in February and I can’t wait till he grows even more..

Around 10 days ago a fire broke out in the building right in front of my office and today a fire broke out in the building to the side of my office. The firefighter in the picture above was really pissed off at the other firefighters driving the fire trucks since they all parked in the wrong area and he was trying to get them to park in front of the main entrance of the building. He was screaming at everyone and even at the cops who had parked their car strategically between the firetrucks and the building on fire. I snapped a few shots and then left for lunch.

Picture 1
Picture 2
Picture 3

I love hating Wataniya. Have you watched the Wataniya TV commercial where there is a guy walking on a red carpet that keeps rolling open in front of him? Well Kuwaitism found an ad from Taiwan by a company called Mio with the exact same concept. Check it out. [WMV 2.3MB] (right click and save as)

Update: Just uploaded a much higher quality video.

Update 2: Ok, sadly it seems Mio might have copied the ad from Wataniya. I just did a bit of research and I found out the Mio A700 which is the phone advertised in this commercial was released last month but was first announced in October. Wataniya on the other hand released their ad in October, but they must have worked on it atleast a month before. This means that Mio copied the ad from Wataniya.. and managed to do a better production job.

Update 3: Here is the video of the Wataniya TV ad. [WMV 1.14MB]

A couple of days ago I was contacted by Bazaar magazine and was offered a chance to have my own “B-Sides” page in the magazine every month where I could post mini reviews on anything related to Kuwait. At first the idea sounded really interesting, combining blog with print sounded like an excellent opportunity. But the more I thought about it the more I realized.. excellent opportunity for what? What could I gain with this?

Increased Readership
Bazaar prints around 25,000 copies a month while 248AM gets more then 3 times that amount of visitors every month and we are still growing. Bazaar readers would only read around 4 mini reviews by me every month while my blog readers would read at least 4 mini posts by me a day. My sites url would be advertised in that Bazaar page but from those 25,000 readers how many would actually think about checking out my site? When was the last time anyone saw a url in a magazine and then checked it out online.. it happens but just not that often.

Digital to Print
At first this sounded interesting, but then I realized isn’t that a step backward? Isn’t print trying to get online? Shouldn’t Bazaar start thinking about getting online instead? WIRED magazine have a small 2 page section where they print interesting posts from the web but I never liked that section but thats besides the point, WIRED can do whatever they want since their whole Magazine is published for free online anyway.

The Money
The first offer I got was KD20 (yes two and one zero) a month. I calculated the amount of time and effort I would have to put extra every month to have at least 4 mini reviews of something interesting to do with Kuwait and I realized KD20 wouldn’t be worth my trouble at all. Bazaar were nice to say they would consider another amount I had in mind but if they had KD20 in their mind to begin with I doubt they would go that much higher.

The Magazine
Do I even like Bazaar? Not really. I do think its the best locally published magazine but thats because their competition is really crap. I pick up Bazaar once a month so I can skim through it quickly and see if there is anything interesting. I mostly don’t find anything worth reading and the magazine ends up in the trash or left on a food court table. I enjoy reading local blogs a lot more then I enjoy reading Bazaar thats for sure.

Who’s the boss?
When someone suggested to Zaydoun that he should hook up with one of the newspapers as a syndicated writer, Zaydoun replied saying “I am my own editor… I can’t imagine being subjected to deadlines and editorial controls!”.

So taking everything above into consideration, I sent an email back to Bazaar today morning thanking them for their kind offer but that I wasn’t interested. I think I made the right decision.

Back in September, Quark, the company behind one of the most popular publishing software’s released a new redesigned logo. It wasn’t a bad idea if it wasn’t for the fact that their redesigned logo looked like a copy of many other logos. The design industry was very critical on Quarks redesign and it seems it must have gotten under their skin because Quark just released another newer logo. I personally don’t like their latest redesign, it looks like a button. [Link]

Below are a list of TV shows I am currently watching, what I think of them and what episodes I just finished watching.

Grey’s Anatomy (Pictured above)
Season 2, Episode 18
Really entertaining and addictive, I am watching 2 a day.

X-Files
Season 1, Episode 12
Used to be my favorite show, I missed out on a lot of episodes when I was in university so I just started watching them all over again. I got 9 seasons which means I should be done by Christmas!

Prison Break
Season 1, Episode 13
I hated the show when I first started watching it because I didn’t like the main guy. Now though I still hate him but I really like all the supporting actors who are pretty fucked up but in a cool way.

24
Season 5, Episode 12
The best show ever, I have said it a million times already and will say it a million more times, Jack Bauer is just the coolest character ever. I was watching the movie Stand By Me the other day and it turns out Jack played the role of this delinquent teenager. It was an old movie and he was really young in it but he still looked a lot like Jack does now which made things weird.

Family Guy
Season 1, Episode 8
I watched the movie first, then I watched season 4 and now I am watching season 1. Doesn’t make sense I know but better then nothing.

Arrested Development
Season 3, Episode 10
I only have 3 more episodes left and I am scared to watch them. Arrested Development got canceled last year and the show ends at episode 13 of season 3 so once I am done, I am done forever. I never want the Arrested Development experience to end so I am watching only 1 episode a week but I know in three weeks time it will be all over, one of the funniest shows ever made will be over. Its sad.

The IT Crowd
Season 1, Episode 4
“Yeah, you do know how a button works, don’t you? No, not on clothes. No, there you go, I just heard it come on. No, that’s the music you hear when it comes on. No, that’s the music you hear when… I’m sorry, are you from the past? ”

Reno 911
Season 1, Episode 3
This show is like a spoof of the TV show COPS. Sometimes I find it really corny but other times I can’t stop laughing.

Knight Rider
Season 2, Episode 3
KITT was really pimped out. He had a built in video game system, GPS navigation, video conferencing, Nitros, night vision, voice activation… some really high tech stuff..

Desperate Housewives
Season 2, Episode 15
Its not as fun as season 2 but doing a hell of a lot better then Lost (read below)

Lost
Season 2, Episode 15
I have no clue why I am still watching this crap. Season 2 has been a disaster, the show has become extremely lame, boring, uneventful and repetetive. What started off as one of the most exciting shows ever has taken a 180 degree turn for the worst. Total crap.

Curb Your Enthusiam
Season 1, Episode 8
Larry Davids charactar is a mixture of Jerry Seinfeld and George Costanza. He’s a bit weird at first but you get used to him.

Weeds
Season 1, Episode 10
This show started off boring but it started getting really good around episode 3. Its about a school mum who starts dealing weed to make some money. First season is only 10 episodes and now I have to wait till July for season 2, I can’t wait.

Update: I added Weeds, don’t know how I forgot about it.

Susan, a regular reader of the blog just passed by and gave me a copy of the newly released Kuwait Explorer “The Complete Residents Guide”. I have been skimming through the book and at first glance it looks really clean and very nicely organized. I am going to spend the next few days reading it and then give my review on it but so far it looks like it going to kick Kuwait Pocket Guide’s ass. You should be able to find the book at Virgin and the Kuwait BookShop in Muthana Complex. Here is link to the book on Amazon UK. [Link]

As I mentioned yesterday I was going to send an email to Pizza Hut International about the cockroach I found walking on the table. Well they replied to my email and here is what they had to say:

Dear Mr . Mark,

Thank you for taking the time to contact our International Customer Services Hotline regarding your feedback.

As per the standard of Pizza Hut, we aim to provide and serve the highest quality product at all times. Your feedback and comments are very important to enable us further improve our service.

We do apologize for the inconvenience this situation may have caused you. By copy of this note, I am passing your comments to Mr. Louay Ghandour from Al Homaizi Foodstuff Co., our Pizza Hut Franchise partner in Kuwait and I am confident that Pizza Hut representative will contact you to address the points you raised.

Please do not hesitate to contact us again in the future.

Best regards,
Lanie Kadwani

A good reply but lets see how the local management will react.

I have been flipping through some old backup CD’s for the past hour trying to find my original copy of Dopewars (DOS version) and while scrimaging through my old stuff I have been finding the strangest things. I never delete anything so I have stuff going back all the way to 1995. While flipping through one of the CD’s I found a folder containing Apple’s main website dating back to 1998 and I decided to upload it for everyone to see. Here it is [Link]

Susan, a regular reader of the site recently went on a sky tour of Kuwait and this is what she had to say about it:

A recent start-up called Kuwait Sky Tours is now operating in Kuwait and taking passengers on 15-minute helicopter rides at a cost of KD25 each. The 15-minute flight takes off from the helipad behind the Sultan Centre restaurant on the Gulf Road, travels up to Green Island and then back down to the Amir’s Palace in Salwa, before returning to land. It is a great way too see Kuwait from a different perspective. The helicopter is a MD 500-E and seats 3 adults. There is space for a child or a very skinny person between the pilot and front passenger. If you want to go, give Steve a call on 705 6666. They also fly from Khiran and Failaka on occasion. Cameras are allowed.

You can also go on a larger helicopter, for an hour-long flight for the princely sum of USD1,500. Or, try the executive jet, which is ready to fly you and 13 of your friends to any destination in the world! Don’t know that price; I was too afraid to ask!

P.S. Don’t talk into the headset during the flight. The pilot told me off!

Here are Susan’s pictures from her trip:
The Helicopter
Looking North West
Marina Mall and Marina Hotel
The Scientific Center
View of Salmiya
The Gulf Road and Kuwait Towers
House in Salwa
Radisson SAS

I was out and about yesterday walking our dog Geo from Marina Crescent all the way to Scientific Center and I noticed the cops weren’t letting any cars slow down on the road. They were also stopping cars that were spraying foam outside the windows and they had cop cars parked in all the locations were people usually stood on the side of the road to spray passing cars. There wasn’t any traffic building up on the streets and all the traditional foaming was very minimal. Why did they become so strict this year? I used to love National Day because everyone is out on the streets having fun…

I always wanted to be a policeman and it pisses me off that I am not allowed to become one here in Kuwait? I can’t even become a reserve cop! I have lived here all my life and I want to give back to the community by becoming a cop, shouldn’t I be allowed to? If I want to give back to my community what else can I do? What options do I have as an expat?

Two nights ago when Egypt won the African Cup in soccer, large convoys were driving around celebrating by honking and cheering. They were really annoying and kept going at it for 30 minutes around my area before they left somewhere else. If this happened at say 6PM I wouldn’t have had a problem (maybe) but they were honking like crazy at 11PM! So awhile ago I found out that the cops arrested a lot of Egyptians on the Gulf Road that night because while the whole country was mourning the passing of the late Amir they were driving around celebrating a soccer game. I am glad the cops arrested them, I was tempted to call the cops on them myself because they were causing such a disturbance but I didn’t know what number to call (777?) and I didn’t know what to say (people are honking please help me). Anyone else hear them?