Search: “kuwait”

Last night Qaiss, the owner of Digumz called me up and he told me he wanted to offer my readers a limited time deal on the occasion of Eid. After a bit of discussion we agreed on a deal that would be cool for my readers while still being fair to him. Starting today and for 3 days only he’s reduced the KD15 monthly membership price down to just KD10. The offer is available starting from now and for the following days:

Thursday, November 3rd
Friday, November 4th
Saturday, November 5th

KD10 a month will allow you to rent as many video games as you would like as long as its one video game at a time. Your membership will also continue to renew at the special offer price of KD10 a month and not KD15. If you’re interested, here is the link to sign up [Link]

Franklin Marshall opened up yesterday (I think) at the Avenues Phase II opposite Paul Smith.

I was also at Marina Mall last night and noticed SuperDry is opening up in place of where Diesel was located.

Finally some sad news, it seems my favorite Japanese restaurant in Kuwait Kei will not be reopening at Marina Crescent and instead Nestle Toll House will be opening in its place. Originally Kei closed down for renovation but they then gave half their shop to Columbus Cafe Caribou Coffe and it seems now they’ve given the other half to Nestle Toll House. They still have their JW Marriott location but I preferred the Marina Crescent branch since it was right next to my house.

Toll House picture by Mohammed

Bianca the owner of Early Bird is starting a new YouTube show called Bird Talk in which she will be video blogging about things to do in Kuwait other than the usual ones. I’m not a fan of video blogs but the trailer above looks pretty damn good and if her shows are going to look like that then I’m definitely going to watch them. [YouTube]

via Blogyac

Update: Found the video below in their channel and I think it’s their first episode.

[YouTube]

The Gulf Run karting event is coming up pretty soon. The race is taking place in Kuwait City on the 25th and 26th of November and it’s going to be a non-stop 26 hour endurance event. If it’s anything like their previous Gulf Run events then you know it’s going to kick ass. They still have some open slots so if you’re interested in putting together a team to participate it’s not too late. For more information and details check out my previous post [Here]

Last year I upgraded the FJ’s head unit and this time around I decided to upgrade the speakers. I had to order everything online except for the amp which I luckily found locally. Upgrading the car sound system is a complicated process in Kuwait because of the fact we don’t have any good quality components available locally so your only option is to order everything from the US which means you can’t hear the speakers before buying them and you also have to pay expensive shipping charges.

I went looking for the items locally first but I couldn’t find anything I wanted here. The best brands I found here are Alpine, Rockford Fosgate, Pioneer and Kenwood. X-Cite is the Alpine dealer but they’re currently revamping their entire lineup so I couldn’t find anything except for the Amp which was part of their clearance sale. They’re also the dealers for Rockford but their collection was very limited. Pioneer and Kenwood aren’t really know for having the best sounding car speakers either, their head units are decent but their speakers are just average. The brands I was interested in were MB Quart, JL Audio, Polk Audio and Massive Audio, none of which were available in Kuwait.

After doing a lot of research I ended up going with Polk Audio for the subwoofer since I needed to install the sub into the FJ factory sub enclosure and some guys in an FJ forum managed to fit the Polk 8″ sub without too much modification. Since I was going with Polk for the sub I ended up going with the Polk 6.5″ components for the front as well. I also ordered a pair of 3.5″ Rockford Fosgate speakers for the rear pillars, some Dynamat for the doors (sound deadening material), a StreetWires Amp kit and some RCA cables. Shipping cost me nearly as much as I paid for the items which was depressing. The biggest culprits were the sub, the Dynamat and the Amp Kit. I also ordered some speaker adapters from tacotunes.com which would allow me to fit the front speakers into the existing factory FJ mounts.

For installation I headed to Zaharat Al Naseem again. They’re the best local car system installers and I used them last year to install my head unit. It ended up taking around 4 hours for the installation which was longer than expected since I had a few things that needed modifying and customizing. The most difficult part was getting the sub to fit in the factory box (check picture below) but with the help of a Dremel tool we managed to get it to fit nicely.

My sound system sounds pretty cool right now even though it still needs a bit of tuning. The best part is that everything fit into the factory locations so the car looks unmodified until you turn the sound system on. I’m not sure why we don’t have a high end components available locally, I guess the market is too small or just not interested in quality car sound systems.

Update: They’ve moved, here is their new location [Google Maps]

If you’ve never been to a Cinemagic rooftop screening then this would be the perfect month to do so since the weather really doesn’t get any better than this (when it’s not dusty). Also this month they’re playing some great movies with my favorite being Goodbye Lenin! Check out the full schedule below:

Thursday, November 10th at 7:30pm
GOODBYE LENIN!
In 1990, to protect his fragile mother from a fatal shock after a long coma, a young man must keep her from learning that her beloved nation of East Germany as she knew it has disappeared.

Saturday, November 12th at 7:30pm
DOG DAY AFTERNOON
A man robs a bank to pay for his lover’s operation; it turns into a hostage situation and a media circus.

Thursday, November 17th at 7:30pm
COLONY
Several beekeepers around the U.S. cope with colony collapse disorder – the phenomenon that has caused millions of bees to mysteriously disappear.

Saturday, November 19th at 7:30pm
WAKING LIFE
A man shuffles through a dream meeting various people and discussing the meanings and purposes of the universe.

Thursday, November 24th at 7:30pm
LA JETEE
Time travel, still images, a past, present and future and the aftermath of World War III. The tale of a man, a slave, sent back and forth, in and out of time, to find a solution to the world’s fate. To replenish its decreasing stocks of food, medicine and energies, and in doing so, resulting in a perpetual memory of a lone female, life, death and past events that are recreated on an airports jetée.

Thursday, November 24th at 7:30pm
SANS SOLEIL
“He wrote me….” A woman narrates the thoughts of a world traveler, meditations on time and memory expressed in words and images from places as far-flung as Japan, Guinea-Bissau, Iceland, and San Francisco.

Saturday, November 26h at 7:30pm
ALICE
A surrealist re-visioning of Alice in Wonderland.

Cinemagic Kuwait, is organizing these events as part of its efforts to contribute to the development of an internationally competitive Kuwaiti audio-visual production industry, partly by bringing the filmmakers and audiences together and by Increasing the public’s interest in – and appreciation for – the art of film-making. Cinemagic movies are screened in the old Salmiya, on the roof on top of Alghanim Electronics and LG. Entrance is free of charge and includes refreshments, popcorn and much more. Here is a link to their Facebook group [Link]

Back in April I posted about the popular Japanese thrash metal band UNITED that features Kuwaiti Faisal Al-Salem as their lead singer. Well Faisal just emailed me telling me they just finished playing at the Loud Park 11 event which also featured Limp Bizkit and White Snake. He sent me the video above of his band playing and I think it looks pretty fracking crazy. [YouTube]

The new Kuwait Science Club offroad RC track just got completed and it looks incredible. I’m going to be out of the country this weekend so I’m only going to get to try it out next week. Only 1/8 scale truggies and buggies are allowed on the track which is located near the Kuwait Science Club behind 360 Mall. [Link]

There is this building behind the old souk in Kuwait City that didn’t look like much today but I always imagined it when it was first constructed and how beautiful it must have looked back then. You can’t tell in this picture but it had a nice retro design with a great looking base structure that gave the building a look like it was lifted up in the air with pillars. I noticed the building has now been vacated and I’m really hoping it’s getting renovated and not demolished. There’s some great looking architecture that really needs to be refurbished and brought back to life.

Earlier in the month I posted about my quest to find a good car cam, a camera I can use to record what’s happening on the road while I drive. My thinking was I might one day capture something interesting that I could later upload onto YouTube and post about on the blog. I was looking for something affordable with decent video footage and after a bit of research I was leaning towards the Muvi Micro camera. A reader then pointed out that X-Cite were selling the same brand so I emailed my contact and managed to get 3 cameras sent over to review.

Muvi Micro Pro vs Muvi Atom
I’m going to start the review comparing these two cameras since they are priced similarly and offer nearly the same quality footage. Both these cameras are extremely small, if you look at the picture on the top of the page, they’re the two tiny cameras in that photo. The Atom is the smaller of the two and comes with slightly more accessories but both come with the very important clip. The clip snaps on to the back of the cameras and you can then clip them anywhere including your rear view mirror (if it’s not very thick).

Both these cameras don’t do HD but at this price point and with this physical size I wasn’t expecting them to. The video footage from both cameras is practically identical in terms of quality. The only difference I found is that the Micro Pro’s footage was slightly sharper when compared side by side with the Atom. But, the Micro Pro also has an annoying time-stamp that’s imprinted on the bottom of the video which killed it for me. Battery life for both these cameras is not that great, the Micro Pro lasts for around 90 minutes while the Atom just 45. On the bright side they both can be powered by USB and record while charging at the same time.

If I had to choose between the two I would most likely go for the Atom just for the fact that it doesn’t have the time-stamp on the video. The footage from both the cams aren’t that great but for YouTube they should work out fine as you can see in the sample videos below. I uploaded two videos shot simultaneously so you could compare the quality of the footage between the two cameras. I start off the video in an underground parking lot so you could see the low light performance and then I’ve got outdoor footage after that.

Veho Muvi Pro Sample Footage
Veho Muvi Atom Sample Footage

Muvi HD Pro
The HD Pro is larger than the other two cameras but it’s really not that big, it’s just that the other two that are really small which is why the HD Pro looks more bulky. Unlike the other two cameras the HD Pro has an LCD screen so you can actually see what you’re shooting instead of just aiming and hoping for the best. The HD Pro also shoots full HD (1080p) and has a battery that lasts up to 3 hours. So that’s three major advantages over the other two. The camera also comes with a ton of accessories most of which are mounting adapters including a windshield mount. You’re paying for all these extra features and accessories though since the HD Pro is double the price of the other two cameras. There is a more affordable option called the HD10+ which is the same camera but comes with less accessories and the price ends up falling between the HD Pro and the other two cameras.

Check out the comparison videos below between the HD Pro and the Muvi Pro.

Veho Muvi Pro Sample Footage
Veho HD Pro Sample Footage

Originally I was leaning towards geting the Muvi Micro from Amazon (a step down from the Micro Pro featured here) but after seeing the difference in quality between the Micro Pro and the HD Pro I realized it’s better to spend and get the best quality footage I could afford. With that mindset I ended up ordering the Contour+ which I’ll post about once I test it out. If you’re looking for an affordable camera to shoot video with while driving, walking (you can clip the Micro and Atom to your pants) or maybe mounting it on your RC car, then these cameras are worth looking into.

All the camera’s in this review were supplied by Alghanim and their prices are listed below: (They’re more expensive than Amazon)

Veho HD Pro KD89
Veho Muvi HD10+ KD69
Veho Atom KD40
Veho Muvi Micro Pro KD39

Digumz is a local video game rental website which I posted about back in March. Three weeks ago I decided to sign up and try them out and I’m really loving them so far.

Registration was a pretty simple procedure and I had two options for payment, K-net but I would have to leave a deposit or credit card and no deposit. I opted for the credit card payment and once the account was setup proceeded to order my first game. I went with Gears of War 3 and they managed to deliver it the same evening. They drop off the games and pick them up when you’re done and there are no delivery charges which is fantastic.

Their website is really easy to use and practical. Ordering a game is pretty simple and quick. You flip through their site, find a game you want and then click on the “Rent Now” button and it will be added to the queue list. If you don’t have anything on that list the game will be dispatched to you immediately. You could then continue to add games to your queue list and arrange them according to your priorities.

When you want to swap a game you go to your “Games I have” list and click on the “request game exchange” button and the next game on your list gets dispatched. In case your first choice isn’t available they will dispatch your second, if the second isn’t available the third and on and on.

Now there really aren’t any negatives, at least not for me since when I signed up their prices started at KD7 a month. For that price I can rent as many games as I want per month but only 1 game at a time. A couple of weeks back though they increased their prices and now the most affordable package starts at KD15. Lucky for me and everyone who signed up before the price increase, our memberships will continue to be renewed at KD7 a month which is great. At KD15 a month I don’t think I would have signed up since I am probably going to be renting only 1 game a month. For KD15 a month I might as well buy a game a month instead of renting. If you are planning to rent at least two games then KD15 a month would make more financial sense. They also have other packages in which you could rent more than a game a month but of course those packages also cost more.

Here is the link to the Digumz website [Link]
They also have another website where they sell games, here is the link to that website [Link]

At KD7 a month I’m really loving Digumz.

I already knew Kuwait was in the top 10 but 74.2% overweight sounds too high. Follow the link for the full infographic on Obesity Worldwide [Link]

Thanks Vineeth

Some guys from Kuwait took a Rolls Royce Phantom out on the Bahrain Formula 1 track and filmed it for YouTube. Sadly they just took it for a cruise and didn’t speed or anything with it. [YouTube]

Thanks Burhan

I spotted the flyer above at the gym. If anyone is interested you can call them up on 22520407. If you don’t know what Core Fitness is click [Here]

Fatburger is finally opening up their Burj Jassem branch in Kuwait City on the 25th of this month. Burj Jassem is located opposite the Ice Skating Rink.