Categories
In Focus Kuwait Photography

In Focus: World Photo

Once upon a time there were two cool photography stores in Kuwait City. One day the building that hosted the two shops got demolished and the stores disappeared…

After a bit of looking around I then noticed one of the shops ended up moving to Muthana Complex but since I didn’t know what happened to the other store I assumed it just closed down. Then out of the blue, a friend of mine tells me he found the place in Shuwaikh. It seems when they demolished the building they decided to move out of Kuwait City and into the industrial area of Shuwaikh for some reason. I passed by and noticed they still had all the used film cameras and lenses on display for sale. They also still have Cokin filters and various tripods, camera bags and studio lights for sale. I was checking out the Nikons, they had the F3, F4 and F5 for sale but none of them were really in great condition. They had two medium format cameras (a Kiev and Mamiya) and also a bunch of compact cameras.

If you’re interested in passing by they’re easy to find. Go to Canada Dry street and if McDonalds is on your right keep going straight past the traffic light and straight under the bridge. Keep going straight you will see a huge place on your left called Ramez. You need to keep driving until you hit the round about and then do a u-turn and head towards the direction you came from. Before the Ramez building you take a right and then you turn left behind the building and drive straight. You should see World Photo in front of you.




Categories
Animals & Wildlife Kuwait

Hello Dyski

As you know the Animal Friends shelter burned down last week and many of their dogs were left without homes. The Royal Animal Hospital near the Friday Market were kind enough to host their dogs while they found homes and yesterday we ended up passing by and getting the dog above which we’ve decided to call Dyski. Originally we were going to call him Blacky but figured no one would realize we meant Blacky from Grendizer. We then thought about Kooji (also from Grendizer) but realized it sounded like Gucci which would have been lame. Anyway Dyski and my dog Geo (named after the Neo Geo) weren’t really getting along the first day but now it seems they’re doing ok. I am hoping they both bond and become best friends like big dogs and small dogs usually do in cartoons.

If you’re interested in fostering a dog temporarily until the Animal Friends shelter gets rebuilt please call 66187301 or e-mail [email protected].




Categories
Food & Drinks Guest Bloggers Healthier Lifestyle Information

You’re not fat, but your butt’s too big

Posted by Fahad AlYehya | Core Fitness – Kuwait

“Dude, I’m really skinny up top, but down below I’m a MESS!”

“I’ve been doing ab work for ages! I literally spend hours in the gym everyday crunching and leg raising my butt off! Why do I still have this belly!? Where’s my six pack!?”

“I might as well paste that muffin I just ate on my thighs, because eventually that’s where it’s going to end up.”

“I’m a 27 year old guy that has better breast development than Pamela Anderson!”

“I’ve been on Lipo-6 for 3 months! Nothing happened!” Me: what’s your diet like? “I pretty much eat whatever I want.”

These pretty much sum up what I am about to tackle today (and obviously the title). Before I do, I’d like to point the finger of blame:

1) Training is 20-30%; it only refines a physique.
Nutrition is the other 70-80%.
2) Abs are made in the kitchen.
3) Why are you crunching with no weights when you clearly don’t have any abdominal muscles?
4) The abdominals are a muscle. If you work a muscle everyday it’ll shrink and never grow.
5) If you eat like a pig and train like a horse, you’ll lose overall weight; except for those stubborn fat stores you want to get rid off.

Too many of you quit too early to see any significant results. You tend to give it all up once results start to slow down. It took you years to gain all that fat, so why do you expect to lose it in such a short time?

It’s hard to make your first million, but once you do, you’ll know exactly what kind of work ethic you’d have to give in order to get it. Same thing goes with a set of abs or shapely thighs; you’re pretty vague about how long or hard your journey will be, but once you give into the commitment then it’ll be all worth it.

I’m here to serve as a guide to that journey, where simple bouts of information may prove useful for that much needed push you’ve been looking for.




Categories
Design Fashion Kuwait

Imitation


I got an interesting email from Mohammed Boland the creative behind local fashion label Capital District last night. It seems a Saudi based fashion label called Kalimah Jeans has copied one of his popular designs. He was walking at the Avenues when he spotted the familiar design in a shop display. Understandably he’s upset and he knows that very little can be done about it which must be really frustrating. I’m not sure which store in Avenues was selling the shirts but maybe if the owners found out they would be willing to withdraw the item from the store and return it to Kalimah as a way of supporting local talent.




Categories
Animals & Wildlife Events Information Kuwait

Help rebuild Animal Friends

As you know by now the Animal Friends shelter was engulfed by fire and so they now need help rebuilding it again. Animal Friends are going to hold a meeting on Friday to discuss the next steps in this rebuilding process. This is the email I received from them on this subject:

The outpouring of support and generosity since the fire has been overwhelming. Whether it is volunteering, donating, fundraising or fostering, your offers of help are hugely appreciated and will go a long way to help us get the AFL shelter back up and running as soon as possible. We are holding a meeting to give everyone the latest information, to discuss what the next steps are and how we can work together to help the animals.

When: Friday 26th March
Time: 4.00pm to 6.00pm
Location: Moevenpick Al Bida’a. Gulf Road Salmiya
Room Slaysell 2 & 3

Please email Olivia at [email protected] or call on 9737 7867 if you have any questions.

A big thank you to the Moevenpick Al Bida’a who are big supporters of Animal Friends and are allowing us the use of the meeting room and equipment free of charge.




Categories
Kuwait Personal

Happy Shiny Teeth

I finally got my veneers installed a couple of days ago at Bayan Dental and my teeth look really great. I also just realized that I used to be a bit self conscious before about my teeth without really knowing it. I only found out now because when I smile or laugh I’m now much more comfortable doing so than I used to be which is great since I spend most of my time smiling or laughing (happy happy joy joy).

I honestly couldn’t imagine getting my veneers done any other place in Kuwait and I’m really glad my dentist (Dr Samer Khaddour) was the one who installed them for me. So if you’re looking for a good dental clinic I highly recommend Bayan Dental. Both me and Nat have been going to their Salmiya branch for over 5 years now and we’ve never had anything to complain about. Here is a link to their website [Link]




Categories
Animals & Wildlife Information Kuwait News

Animal Friends: A Second Extremely Devastating Fire

Last night I posted about the second fire at the Animal Friends shelter and I now just gotthis email which they sent out on their mailing list that contains more information on the fire and on how you can help:


There has been a second much more devastating fire at Animal Friends. This fire was in the main building and 39 animals perished. Several more are struggling to hold on.

Two fire investigations have shown that the fires were caused by a surge of electricity from the main lines. After the first fire, an inspection of the shelter elecrical system was conducted and smoke detectors and fire extinguishers were puchased and donated enmasse. Despite these precautions, a massive surge occured to the now weakened main electrical lines. All staff were sleeping nearby when the fire started. The fire was not discovered until aerosol cans near the source of the fire began to explode. At this point, the fire was fully involved and too dangerous for anyone but the fire department to fight. Our shelter staff acted herroically to save as many animals as possible, and the fire rescue team also showed great courage as they entered the building to release the dogs from their firey prisons while the fire was still burning. Despite these acts of bravery, at least ten animals died in the fire and many were so badly injured that the arriving shelter staff had to work frantically and desperately to triage them and provide euthanasia where necessary. Thus far, the fire has cost the lives of 8 dogs and 31 cats.

One whole section of the shelter is completely destroyed the entire building will require extensive repairs from smoke and fire damage. Animal Friends and the animals we care for have never needed your help more. Animal Friends simply will not survive without help from all of you. Below is a list of things we need in order of priority.

1. CASH! The rebuilding is going to cost KD50,000. Please donate what you can, hold small fundraisers and get as many people involved as possible. Checks should be made payable to: Ayeshah Waleed Al-Humaidhi and below is our bank information for a direct transfer. If you need further information please call 97377867 or e-mail [email protected].

Bank Name: Bank of Kuwait and the Middle East (BKME)
Branch: South Surra
Name: Ayeshah Waleed Al-Humaidhi
Address Line 1: P.O.Box 71, Safat 13001
Address Line 2: Kuwait
Account: 42043311
SWIFT: BKMEKWKW

2. Foster Homes. We have no shelter and currently have the animals housed at the Royal Animal Hospital and in outdoor enclosures at the shelter. These are obviously temporary fixes. The construction is going to take about 3 months and we are appealing to all of you to house an animal until it can be adopted or returned to the rebuilt shelter. If you are able to foster an animal please call 66187301 or e-mail [email protected].

3. Volunteers. We need help with clean-up and helping care for the animals. We need to salvage anything and everything we can from the building before the demolition starts. This weekend, Friday-Saturday (26-27) are going to be huge clean-up days. Your help would be hugely appreciated. The map will be uploaded to the website shortly.

4. In Kind Donations. We will be putting together an extensive list of items we need in the next few days and will send it out to the list as well as post to our website.

Thank you in advance for your help and support and we hope to rise out of the ashes bigger and better.




Categories
Animals & Wildlife Information Kuwait

Big fire at Animal Friends

Just 10 days ago I posted that the staff building at the Animal Friends shelter caught fire and today I found out that last night there was another bigger fire that engulfed the main animal shelter this time killing 30 cats, 3 dogs and 4 puppies. Two fires in 10 days, it sounds very suspicious but they’re saying both were electrical fires. It’s very sad that some animals died but many more were rescued and are currently being held at the Royal Animal Hospital next to the Friday Market. I’m curious to why they were not placed at the International Veterinarian Hospital (IVH) which is A LOT closer than RAH since it’s located right before Wafra.

They’re now in need of more help and donations than ever so please if you can spare some time they desperately need volunteers tomorrow to help box all items that have not been fire damaged so it can be moved to storage while the shelter is rebuilt. If you are able to help, please call Olivia on 97377867.

If you can donate some money here is the bank account information:

Bank Name: Bank of Kuwait and the Middle East (BKME)
Branch: South Surra
Name: Ayeshah Waleed Al-Humaidhi
Address Line 1: P.O.Box 71, Safat 13001
Address Line 2: Kuwait
Account: 42043311
SWIFT: BKMEKWKW

Here is a link to their Facebook group where I’m getting all their updates. [Link] and here is a link to their website. [Link]

Update: Here are some pictures of the damage which were taken by Areej Al Sultan




Categories
Events Funny Kuwait

Event: Allah Made Me Funny

This is another comedy act that also seems interesting and the ticket prices are cheaper than the AUK show. Allah Made Me Funny will be taking place 7PM on Thursday April 1st, 2010 at the Gulf University for Science & Technology.

You can buy tickets online from their website [Here]
or by calling 55258454/94415462
Regular tickets are KD15 and VIP are KD25.




Categories
Shopping

Ace Hardware has restocked

I was at Ace Hardware picking up a clog remover (my 4th bottle and I’ve still got a clog) when I noticed they’ve completely restocked. Around once or twice a year Ace Hardware gets their big shipment and it seems a new one arrived. All the shelves are packed with stuff including the pet section. The picture above is of all the doggie treats. The hardware section and car section have also been restocked. Lots of cool stuff.




Categories
Events Funny Information Kuwait

Event: So you think you can laugh

Axis of Evil are going to be in Kuwait for the “So you think you can laugh” comedy show that will be taking place at AUK on March 29 @ 7:00 PM.

The performers are: Sugar Sammy, Dean Edwards, Maz Jobrani and Ahmed Ahmed

Tickets are sold at AUK
For more info you can call 9999-1008
Limited Capacity.
Regular tickets are 20 KWD and VIP are 40 KWD




Categories
Food & Drinks Guest Bloggers Healthier Lifestyle

Summertime

Posted by Fahad AlYehya | Core Fitness – Kuwait

It’s almost summer time and all the gyms around Kuwait are packed! People have locations to travel too, beaches to swim in and jet skis to ride, but you got to look good doing it. What’s the sure-fire, shortcut approach and rapidly fast solution to all this? A truckload of performance enhancers, dietary supplements and A LOT of chest and bicep exercises! That was the norm back in my university days, but people now demand abs too; but no legs, definitely no legs. They are evil and such a pain in the butt when exercised.

The summertime crowd is a lot more demanding and highly impatient in comparison to other seasonal clients. They expect so much in such little time. Moreover, they tend to quit early if extreme results are not presentable within 72 hours, literally. This is how a typical meeting with an average “I need to look like 50 Cent within a month” client:

Client: “All I’m looking for is definition. I need to tone my arms a bit, expand my chest and work on my abs. As you can see, I’ve got the jello jiggles all around dis area yo.”

Me: “How long do I have in order for to make these changes?”

Client: “Brah! I’ve got a month and I’ll be hittin’ da beaches of Ibiza. If things don’t work out with da visa (that rhymed, dude must be a rapper), I’d might extend it for another month and go to Sharm.”

Me: “What you’re asking for is a shortcut, which is highly unlikely since you’ve got no muscle for me to tone and a spare tire around your waist.”

Client: “NO YO! I’ve heard Core Fitness does wonders. I need to lose all of this and gain poundage’s all ova my upperbody. Wam, bam, do me SON!”

Me: “Uhh, no, we don’t offer doing anyone, we just provide you a diet plan, a workout plan and absolutely no happy endings.”

Client: “And yo, no legs. I’ve got more jiggle than Santa Claus lying around this lower area as you can see, so no leg workouts whatsoever. I don’t want to be looking like an Egyptian belly-dancer yo.”

Me: “I hope you realize you’re whiter than I am. Anyways, cutting out legs isn’t a good idea; it’s literally half your body. If you want those changes, you have to give us a minimum of 2 months. It’s a lifestyle.”

Client: “Dude, I’ll pop pills! I’ll drink dem powders! What’s dat white stuff called? Crac….I mean creatine? Yeah, I’ll give that a try!”

Me: “No. What’s your current diet like?”

Client: “I’m not a breakfis’ person, so screw dat. At around 11 am at work, I pass by a Starbucks and order a triple-shot-venti-half-caf-half-decaf-French-roast-2 caramel pumps-extra-whip-non-fat-mocha-with-extra-foam……Oh, and a low fat muffi’. At home, I eat pretty much what I want and for dinner, strictly fast food.”

Me: “I swear to God, if you don’t stop talking like that I’m going to punch you on the face.”

Client: “Ok man, jeez…so I’ll give you two months. Does that work for you?”

Me: “Two months, our workout routine and a strict diet plan should do.”

Client: Ho-nee FUT! DUDE, DATS INCWEDIBUL! You ma boi!!!”

Me: “Get the f%$k out.”

Health and fitness is a lifestyle. If you want to look good and feel good from this day onwards, you need to understand that it requires a lot of effort at first, and once you get used to it, it’ll be like breathing air and drinking water.

Reality

For every goal you set, commitment must be taken into consideration; the greater you want the end result to be, the harder you have to push yourself to achieve it. For example, in order for me to maintain the current weight and body fat percentage I am on, I’d have to consume a specific amount of calories, weight-lifting poundage’s, and rest and recovery. Since summertime is approaching, my meal plan has to be a lot cleaner, sometimes tasteless and slightly low in calories, with the addition of cardiovascular activity. If I expect a leaner set of abs, I need to put in the effort in order to achieve this.

A lot of you have slowly introduced this lifestyle and are witnessing good results. If you’ve currently stopped producing any significant results (i.e. fat-loss or muscle-gain), your eating and training habits have to be a lot stricter, which may include cleaning out or adding in calories; this is only assuming you’d want more results.




Categories
Apple Apps Blog Info Interesting Kuwait Personal

The 2:48AM iPhone App

It took a lot of my time but I finally finished my very own iPhone app. I actually launched it last week on my twitter page but I didn’t officially announce it since I wanted to get some feedback and fix any bugs that I might have missed first. Good thing I did since I spotted a silly bug the first day it got released and quickly released a version 1.1 update a couple of days later. Now the version has gone up to 1.2 and I’ve been able to introduce a few nifty features which I felt helped round off the app and make it launch worthy.

Originally when I went about creating the app I didn’t know what the use would be. Already the blog was very viewable on the iPhone because of a plug-in I had installed that formatted the site to work perfectly on the iPhone so if my app did the same thing it would be useless. I kept thinking about what else I could do and bit by bit I started adding stuff to it that made it more useful. Here are the things you can currently do with my iPhone app:

– Check my latest posts
– Check the latest comments on my blog
– Check the latest posts in the forum
– Check my twitter
– Check my YouTube channel
– Check latest posts on Safat
– Check latest Kuwait news from Arab Times
– Check the weather via the Kuwait Meteorological Center (contains more details than the default iPhone weather app)
and my favorite…
– Get the latest traffic updates via #q8traffic on Twitter

These are just the features I have currently but hopefully will be adding more stuff down the line. If you want to download the iPhone app search for 248AM in the app store or click the following [Link]




Categories
Personal Travel Work Related

Off to Beirut

I am leaving to Beirut for a few days and will be back early next week. While there I will be carelessly indulging in an unlimited supply of Cadbury Chocolate Milk while having some of the best Nutella and banana crepes. Posting will continue as normal while I am there.




Categories
Automotive Geek Kuwait Reviews

Review: Alpine iXA-W407

Here is a quick review of the Alpine iXA-W407.

It works great with the iPod as expected. I previously had the Alpine iDA-X001 installed in my Wrangler and one annoying thing in the X001 was searching for an artist. It doesn’t get much better in the W407. You can’t search using an onscreen keyboard to type an artist name for some reason instead you need to scroll down to the artist u want. You can scroll down by letter as in if you are looking for Smashing Pumpkins you can press “page down” when u r at A and it will take u to B and u keep pressing till u get to S. A painfully long process which I do not recommend while driving. Once you get to S you then have to scroll down regularly by pressing “down” untill u get to Smashing Pumpkins. Takes forever and not practical at all.

On the bright side, that’s the only negative thing I found. The multi display screen is very cool (see picture above) which basically allows you to display up to 4 different kinds of information on the same screen. I Just wish there were more widgets to add out of the current 6 including calculator and sound adjustment which are not pictured above. What I would have liked to have seen is a weather widget (could use my iPhone’s internet connection for the date) or an RSS reader.

The W407 has Bluetooth built in. Once I get into the car my iPhone connects to the Alpine automatically and whenever I want to call someone I bring up the phone number on the Alpine screen and call it. When I get a phone call I can either answer it on the Alpine or if I want privacy I can talk directly on my iPhone. Now all thats pretty normal but my favorite thing is the fact that I can stream music from my iPhone to the Alpine using Bluetooth. Like my iPod and the Radio I have Bluetooth as an audio source. When I select Bluetooth as a source whatever sound my iPhone makes I hear it on the cars sound system. Other than listening to your iPod’s music wirelessly or playing games and have the sound blast out of the cars sound system, another cool feature is the fact I stream music from the web over 3G and onto my car stereo using bluetooth. I’ve got the iPhone app WunderRadio (which I’ve posted about before) and I use it to tune into radio stations in Lebanon and stream them into my car. I don’t have any problems streaming the Lebanese radio stations since they broadcast in EDGE but Ministry of Sound UK for example streams as 3G and after a minute or so the music cuts off and I have to buffer for like 10 seconds which is very annoying. But, I am going to be upgrading my iPhones internet connection from 600kb to 14.4MB at the end of the month which should solve my problem.

I really like the iXA-W407 and if I had to do the purchase all over again I would in a heartbeat. The final score is a 4 out of 5. The lack of a decent search feature and the fact there aren’t any extra widgets I can download and install are the reasons it’s not perfect. If anyone has any specific questions regarding that Alpine unit or the install just ask it below and I will try to answer it. Regarding the PAC TR7, it worked perfectly with the W407. With the TR7 install I can watch videos and change the stereo system settings while I am driving. Without the TR7 I would have to put the car in PARK and raise the handbrake. I also had the PAC SWI-Jack installed which allows the Alpine to be controlled with the FJ’s steering wheel buttons. The PAC SWI-Jack works on a number of cars and with a number of sound systems.

I ordered all my items from Amazon, here is the list with links:

Alpine iXA-W407 Digital Media Station $554.48
Alpine HCE-C107D Rear View Camera $176.99
Scosche TA2076B 2007 Toyota FJ ISO/Double DIN With Pocket Kit $19.58
Scosche Stereo Wire Harness Toyota FJ Cruiser $12.31
PAC TR7 Multi control interface bypass module $23.26
PAC SWI-JACK $42.90
Total: $829.52