Search: “mis”

A contact sent me this random bit of information, it seems you now need to get permission to tow stuff with your vehicle. Previously anyone could just connect their jetskis or boat and just tow them down the road but they recently started cracking down on this by applying some new stricter rules. For example if you want to tow a trailer, then the trailer now must have reflectors, turn signals and brake lights on it as well or else you’ll get fined.

I guess this new towing permission is an extension of those new safety regulations. According to my same contact, if your car has a tow hitch (pictured above) you might get fined even if you aren’t towing anything. Not sure how accurate this information is, but if your car has a tow hitch then you might want to double check on this.

Thanks Fahad

Over the weekend I had the strangest encounter with someone on Facebook. A girl who I’ll just call “F” added me as a friend and I accepted thinking I knew her because we had a lot of friends in common. But, after flipping through her photos I realized we had never met so I unfriended her. She didn’t take that very well and sadly, this isn’t the first time where my none offensive or aggressive actions were misunderstood. I don’t know what it is about me but it’s really weird how I tend to piss people off pretty frequently without even trying, check out the conversation below:

(Warning: May contain drama)

F: I recall adding you. and i recall an accept but thank you for the unfriendship

Mark: hey, just saw this message, sorry i accepted your friend request thinking we had met before but when i realized we hadn’t i unfriended.

F: sure no worries. my intention was to get to meet everyone in Kuwait so far everyone i added on fb from kuwait i had met
sure good luck !

Mark: i hope you didn’t take it personally, its just with my facebook account i only add or accept people i’ve met in person before.

F: no i don’t take it personally i dont even know you 😉

***** Next day a friend sent me the message above so I messaged her back *****

Mark: ummm why are you asking my friends about me?

F: because i dont trust ur answer and i thought it is weird and odd

Mark: ?

Mark: Which answer

F: and ur enttiled to do what ever u want just i like i am

F: i use facebook differently and now i m sure 100% u have a problem with me
so i got my answer it is not because you do not know me

Mark: Lady I have no clue who you are, Don’t take it personally

F: what bothers me is how people are easily lie to one another without confronting the truth
it is not taking it personally too to ask about it
i cant trust you

Mark: I think you’re mistaking me for someone else
We’ve never met

F: oka i think you r are violating my personal space ..
maybe ur right. i think your someone else.

Mark: Listen not sure what your problem is but I just thought it was weird you were asking people about me.

F: not asking them im questioning your credibility
and your honesty
and what i got is that your weird.

Mark: What does my credibility and honesty have to do with me unfriending u cuz I don’t know u?

F: because i have 5000 friends and i always use facebook to get know people .. i use it for many reasons .. and i found your justtification totally odd

Mark: Wtf

F: okay i have to go back to work..
take care..

F: you know whats funny ? is that i added like 41 people who are friends with ****** because im back home to kuwait and i didnt know anyone .. and thought of making a film about their work and get to to know their life and discover the new kuwait i have been absent from.. so i thought you are one of those open minded people who are trying to create a good mood here and social life.. with your blog.. but again.. your atittude is strange to me and i never saw it from anyone of the 41 pees i added so hence the shock..

F: now it is not your fault it is my fault for thinking you are like me.. open to socializing and new friendships. please refrain from talking to me and sorry about bothering you 🙂
have a wonderful night.

The LOYAC series Mishwarna is now being produced and released every two weeks instead of a weekly basis because the producers want to spend more time on the production. I didn’t notice an improvement in production quality this week and the content still seems very short, especially for two weeks worth of work. Personally I think they should go back to doing this weekly because 4 minutes of content every two weeks just seems a bit lazy.

In this episode of Mishwarna, Rawaf and Tamara covered Souk Mubarakiya but they barely share anything. They didn’t recommend places, share an interesting little spot they found or even share their favorite spots. So what was the purpose of the video? For something as busy and packed with interesting things as Mubarakiya, I am surprised they weren’t able to create a much longer video with so much more interesting content.

For those of you who’ve been questioning why I’ve been sharing these videos on a weekly basis even though they’re not great its because I’m supporting them. A lot of people create content but then get demoralized and kill the project when they don’t get enough viewers. I wanted to send viewers their way in hopes of getting them more excited about these videos so they could work on improving them. But 7 episodes in I still haven’t noticed an improvement and it’s actually taken a step backwards by now taking two weeks to produce the same content they were producing weekly. This is why unless there is a dramatic difference in the next episode, this will probably be the last video of the series I share. [YouTube]

In this weeks episode of Mishwarna, Rawaf and Tamara visit the soon to open Al Shaheed Park which I also posted about last week. [YouTube]

Mishwarna episode 5 is out. In this week Mishwarna introduces you to the LOYAC Academy Of Preforming Arts (LAPA). [YouTube]

In episode 4 of Mishwarna, Rawaf and Tamara explore a few of the places in Kuwait where you can go and eat healthy food. [YouTube]

“Mishwarna” is a new weekly YouTube show produced by LOYAC and hosted by two of their interns. The show is all about finding new and interesting things around Kuwait and sharing their discoveries with their viewers. They upload a new episode every Thursday and the one above is their third. If you like the show then you’ll have to subscribe to their YouTube channel to be notified on new episodes. [YouTube]

Although Kuwait isn’t known for holding the best events, every now and then we do get some spectacular ones that are world class. The most recent one that took place was the Battle of the East event two weeks ago and the next great event is taking place starting tomorrow. Nuqat has now become the largest creative conference in the MENA region and they’re into their 5th year. It’s such an impressive and organized event that its hard to believe its a locally created concept. Every year it just keeps getting bigger and this year isn’t any different.

Lectures
Nuqat will be taking place at the Amricani Cultural Center and will comprise of two main parts, the first is a three day lecture that will be taking place this weekend starting from tomorrow Thursday 13th and ending on Saturday the 15th. There will be 24 short lectures taking place over these three days that will be given by different speakers from around the region (pictured above). The cost to attend these lectures is just KD30 for the three days and you can check out the full schedule on their website [Here]

Nuqat 2013 [YouTube]

Workshops
The second part of Nuqat is the workshops. This year there will be 11 workshops ranging in subjects that will be held over four days either 9AM to 1PM or or 2PM to 6PM. I’m personally considering taking two workshops, the first is “Furniture Design: Defy The Existing Function” and the second is “Wearable Technology: Fashion meets technology 101”. Furniture Design and Fashion Design are two topics I have no experience in which is why I’m excited to try out. It’s something new for me and new is generally always fun. The workshops cost KD110 which is ridiculously cheap compared to regular workshop prices in Kuwait and also considering who the lecturers are. To sign up and check out all the workshops available click this [Link]

Cultural Entertainment
There will be a lot of food stalls and pop up shops in the courtyard of the Amricani Cultural Center so even if you’re not signing up to the lectures or workshops it should still be a fun social event to check out. I tried my best to condense as much information as I could into this post without making it too long and boring which is why I’ve left out other activities that are taking place like film screenings, book signings and more. To really get a proper idea of what exactly is taking place you need to visit the Nuqat website. It’s a great event that shouldn’t be missed. [Link]

Since it’s a slow news day, here is a video and photo from a house thats under construction in Mishref that caught fire awhile ago.

[YouTube]

Thanks Wahab

Around a month ago I got a phone call from a reporter at Al Qabas newspaper. He was doing a story on the state of the local blogging scene and had some questions he wanted to ask me. On Saturday the article was finally released with a large dramatic headline that roughly translates to “Blogs have Declined by 97% while Instagram Grows and Grows”.

I started blogging back in 2003 when me and a friend started Qhate, which at that time was the first and only blog in Kuwait until Zaydoun launched Kuwait Unplugged soon after. I’m going to sound like a grand parent reminiscing about the past but I’ve seen hundreds of blogs come and go during this time and the whole local blogging community evolve. It wasn’t just us geeks and dorks anymore sitting on a computer and writing into the wee hours of the morning while snacking on Nutella sandwiches. Everyone suddenly wanted to become a blogger and one by one people started setting up their own blogs and posting. Many and by many I mean 97% of them were rubbish either just copying pasting articles from other international blogs or just became a tool for local advertising and media agencies to hawk products and services to readers who were naive enough to fall for the posts.

The fact that blogs in Kuwait have declined by 97% is a good thing.

A lot of people ask me all the time why I haven’t shifted to Instagram. Simple, Instagram isn’t a replacement for blogs.

What I found ironic about the Al Qabas article was how they made it seem like blogging as a medium itself was dying when ironically it’s the newspapers who are the ones suffering because of blogs and other online news sources. I mean the article itself uses a screen capture of my blog from back in 2012 and what I am guessing is a screen capture of The Blogs Lounge from around the same time. Where the hell did they even manage to find a capture of my blog from 2012 and why couldn’t they get a recent one? Newspapers are large companies while blogs are like mom-and-pop stores, we actually care about our posts and readers.

I don’t think of myself as a great writer and I never pretend to be one either. But I can tell you one thing and that is the fact that I dedicate every waking hour to this blog trying to find something to write about so everyone else can read it. It’s in my head all the time, everything I do everywhere I go I’m always looking for something to write about. It’s taken over my life and my thinking process. It’s become my life actually. It’s so difficult for me to focus on something because I’m always distracted, I’m always reading, I’m always trying to absorb as much information as I can hoping one thing or another will trigger an idea for a new post. It’s a challenge every single day because this is Kuwait and not a lot of things happen here. It’s exhausting and sometimes I just wish I didn’t have this blog just so that I could shift my focus onto other projects.

But I love it, I love what I do and I love how I somehow manage to find stuff to write about on a daily basis and I’ve been doing this for over ten years now. It’s something I’m really good at and as long as I can keep coming up with interesting content for my readers this is something I am going to keep doing.

So yes most of the blogs in Kuwait are dead but mine isn’t and I’m not going anywhere.

Taken by @nazmraz

[YouTube]

Tonight is the last night to attend the For Art and the Earth event that is taking place at the Kuwait National Museum. I passed by last night to watch it but got there late so missed a few of the opening acts. The event is a journey that starts off in one hall of the Kuwait National Museum were artists like Sons of Yusef and Zahed Sultan perform before the crowd is moved outdoors from location to location to watch various performances take place around the museum grounds. The video above is of one of the stages of the event. So try to pass by tonight, for more information click [Here]

[YouTube]

The Arab Times have an interesting Q&A with Kuwaiti film maker Shakir Abal on the demise of theaters (not cinema) in Kuwait. The most fascinating part for me had to do with censorship:

Q: So there is a very strict censorship in Kuwait?
A: When you read the censorship laws, it is not very strict. But the problem lies in the unpredictability which in turn is due to the fact that it is open to interpretation by whoever it is. So when you have invested say 50,000 KD in a play or 100,000 KD on a production, which needs to be done even before the first show is staged, you cannot afford for this one guy who comes from the censorship one day and tells you ‘Well this is wrong. You have to close the play down for whatever reason”.

Q: So you mean to say there are no clear cut ‘dos and don’ts’ as far as censorship is concerned?
A: The laws are not clear cut, and it is, unfortunately, being controlled by people who lack in knowledge. I am 56 years old. I do not like a 25 year old putting restriction on what I can see or cannot see. And that is what is happening. That is wrong. If a script is approved, it is approved. End of the story. If they cannot or do not know how to read the script, then it is not my fault.

Who would want to invest time and money in a show if it could get shutdown without warning by a censor? Obviously not a lot of people hence the demise. Check out the full interview on the Arab Times website [Here]

Alain Robert is a French rock climber and urban climber who is also known as “the French Spider-Man”. He’s famous for scaling skyscrapers using no climbing equipment except for a small bag of chalk and a pair of climbing shoes. Turns out that Alain Robert was in Kuwait and climbed Hotel Missoni yesterday as part of the celebrations for National Day. Not an amazing feat as climbing Burj Khalifa but still one that should have been better advertised. Judging by the photo above, it doesn’t look like there was a large crowd.

Shakshooka, the nomadic farmers market is taking place tonight from 6PM to 8PM (Jan 9th) at AlOthman Fashion store in Salmiya. Here is the location on [Google Maps]

Don’t forget to bring cash and a carrying bag if you will be buying stuff.

Photo above by @faisalthef