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I didn’t travel over the holidays, instead, I stayed in Kuwait and just binge watched a bunch of shows. Some were better than others, below is the list of what I ended up watching:

Electric Dreams
This is a sci-fi series made up of short stories written by Philip K. Dick who also wrote Blade Runner, Minority Report, Total Recall and a bunch of other popular sci-fi films. Each episode is a standalone story by itself, and each one stars a really big actor like Steve Buscemi, Bryan Cranston, Terrence Howard and others. Sadly the show was underwhelming and even boring. Out of 10 episodes, I think I just liked two. Things got so bad I didn’t even bother to finish watching the last two episodes of the season. This show is available on Amazon Video.

Altered Carbon
After a disappointing experience with Electric Dreams, I was hesitant to watch Altered Carbon especially since I had read some negative reviews about it. But, 4 episodes in I was hooked and ended up loving the show which stars Joel Kinnaman from one of my favorite shows ever, The Killing. This show is available on Netflix.

Crashing
I heard about this show from the podcast Kill Tony since Tony Hinchcliff guest stars in one of the upcoming episodes. The show revolves around the struggling standup comedian Pete Holmes who finds out his wife was cheating on him. The divorce starts a series of events where he ends up meeting other comedians and crashing on their couches while touring with them. Lots of celebrity comedians make guest appearances including Bill Burr, Sarah Silverman, Jim Norton, Penn Jillette and more. This show is available on HBO Now.

Seven Seconds
No idea why I watched this honestly, but I ended up binge watching 10 episodes over two days and it wasn’t even that great a show. The acting was bad, the dialogue cliche and the story not that interesting. But, I was curious to see the story play out till the end and the whole thing was just a disappointing mess. The only good thing about the show is it got me hooked enough to binge watch it, but that’s the only positive thing I have to say about this. This show is available on Netflix.

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
From all the shows listed here, this was probably the best one. Mrs. Maisel is a housewife in the 1950s who decides to become a stand-up comic after her husband leaves her. The show is funny, Rachel Brosnahan who plays Mrs. Maisel is incredibly good and her wardrobe on the show… I think me and my friend spent more time talking about what she was wearing than we talked about the show. Beautiful wardrobe, incredible sets and locations, definitely watch this show if you had to pick just one from this list. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is available on Amazon Video.

Here and Now
Finally, Here and Now. I started watching this show over the holidays but only three episodes are out so far so it’s difficult to make a judgment on it. So far it’s interesting, I’m still trying to figure out where the story is going but the cast is great and there are enough different stories taking place to make it interesting. This show is available on HBO Now.

Below is this weekends list of events. ComFest is taking place this weekend, The Hound from Game of Thrones is no longer coming but the event should still be interesting to attend. This weekend will also be hosting the last Qout Market of the season, so if you haven’t been to it yet, this is your last chance until next fall. Check out the rest of the events below:

Thursday
SnowTown in K-Town
Baseball Classic Championship Tournament
ComFest 2018
The Writers’ Hub Conference
Cinemagics Rooftop Movie: Baby Driver

Friday
SnowTown in K-Town
Baseball Classic Championship Tournament
ComFest 2018
Kuwait Music Academy at Muse Lounge

Saturday
SnowTown in K-Town
Baseball Classic Championship Tournament
ComFest 2018
Qout Market
Art Brunch
Cinemagics Rooftop Movie: Mother!

If you’d like to share an event on the blog [Email Me]
For a full list of upcoming events click [Here]

Sometimes events get canceled or have details changed so always double check with the organizers.

For those of you in Kuwait for the holidays, below are a bunch of events taking place. If I missed anything let me know in the comments:

Thursday
SnowTown in K-Town
Exhibition: Culture Fair: Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow
Al Farsi International Kite Festival
Comic Con Kuwait
Decopatch
Cinemagics Rooftop Movie: Jackie
Workshop: Introduction to Astrophotography
Ice Skating Rink Celebrations

Friday
SnowTown in K-Town
Al Farsi International Kite Festival
Comic Con Kuwait
Decopatch
National Celebrations Show Jumping Competition
Food Truck Festival
Ice Skating Rink Celebrations

Saturday
SnowTown in K-Town
Yoga with the 3
Al Farsi International Kite Festival
Comic Con Kuwait
Decopatch
National Celebrations Show Jumping Competition
Food Truck Festival
Ice Skating Rink Celebrations

Sunday
SnowTown in K-Town
Al Farsi International Kite Festival
Decopatch
Concert: Los Rumberos de Massachusetts
Ice Skating Rink Celebrations

Monday
SnowTown in K-Town
Al Farsi International Kite Festival
Decopatch
Ice Skating Rink Celebrations

If you’d like to share an event on the blog [Email Me]
For a full list of upcoming events click [Here]

Sometimes events get canceled or have details changed so always double check with the organizers.

The openings of Avenues Phase 4, Sheikh Abdullah Al Salem Cultural Center and the new pedestrian-only street in old Salmiya have all been pushed back. Previously they were set to open during the National holidays but that’s no longer going to happen.

There were also rumors that the inauguration of Kuwait Motor Town was going to take place during the National holidays but those rumors are not true.

I personally don’t mind since they’re all still expected to open soon and I’d rather they open when they’re ready instead of being rushed.

Last month after posting my review on the Bang & Olufsen H5 wireless earphones, I got a message from the audio brand Shure asking me if I’d also like to try their wireless earphones. I’ve been a fan of Shure ever since I got my first pair of in-ears back in 2004, the Shure E2’s, so of course I said yes. A couple of weeks later I got their new SE215 wireless earphones in the mail.

I had a few issues with my H5’s and was curious to see if the Shure’s would solve them. My main problems with the H5’s were the battery life and the low volume level of the earphones. So how did the Shure’s perform?

Battery Life
While the B&O H5 promises up to 5 hours of battery life, the Shure’s promise up to 8. That doesn’t sound like much but in real-world use, it is. With the H5’s I make sure I put them back on the charger after using them for a couple of hours, with the Shure’s I charge them every couple of outings and still have enough juice for a third outing. But what I like about the Shure’s is that if I do run out of battery, I can just charge them using any standard micro-usb cable unlike the H5’s which require the use of the charging station that came with the earphones.

Volume Level
I’m sitting right now at Arabica having my coffee and typing up this post with the Shure earphones on listening to music. I have the music volume at 80% because at 100% they’re just too loud. With the H5’s I would always have the earphones at 100% and wish I could raise them by at least another 20%.

So yeah, the Shure’s do solve my two biggest issues with the H5’s in addition to solving another issue I wasn’t aware needed solving. When you first turn on the Shure’s, you get a voice prompt letting you know once they connect to a bluetooth source and then the voice lets you know how much battery life is left. With the B&O’s I need to launch the B&O app on my phone to find out the battery life which isn’t very practical. Another advantage of the Shure’s is the price, they cost half that of the B&O’s and sound as good if not slightly better.

With all the positives so far with the Shure’s, you’d think I’d prefer them over the B&O’s but that hasn’t been the case. Whenever I leave the house and need to pick a pair of earphones to take with me, I kept finding myself reaching for the H5’s over these Shure’s. The reason for that is the Shure’s are pretty bulky. The battery pack isn’t built into the earphones but instead is located on the cable so it makes wearing the earphones awkward. On top of that, the earphone wires are too thin making the Shure’s feel flimsy and messy because the wires keep getting tangled up.

But in the end, it really comes down to the person’s requirements. Are you looking for battery life or style? If I’m traveling then I’m definitely going to pick the Shure’s over the H5’s. But if I’m just going to a coffee shop for a couple of hours to get some work done, then I’m always going to pick the H5’s.

If you’re interested in picking up a pair of Shure SE215 wireless earphones, they’re available on Amazon for KD45 [Here]

This weekend isn’t super busy but there are some interesting events taking place and most of them are free to attend. Check them out below:

Thursday
SnowTown in K-Town
Exhibition: Culture Fair: Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow
Japanese Movie Night: The Chef of South Polar
Cinemagics Rooftop Movie: In the Mood for Love
Jamstart Band
AMG’s Jazz at Home

Friday
SnowTown in K-Town
BAS 5th International Volleyball Tournament

Saturday
SnowTown in K-Town
Yoga with the 3
Community Table: Khaleej Series
AWARE Desert Camp
Dance Show: Musicality
Cinemagics Rooftop Movie: The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki
Beach Ultimate Frisbee

If you’d like to share an event on the blog [Email Me]
For a full list of upcoming events click [Here]

Sometimes events get canceled or have details changed so always double check with the organizers.

Kuwait Motor Town is set to open next month and the logo for it has now been revealed. From the reactions I’ve been seeing, most people don’t like it mostly because it looks like the Kellogg’s Special K logo. Although I don’t really like the logo, I think its fine.

It’s not a great logo by any means, but compared to other F1 circuit logos below, I think things could have been a lot worse. I mean other than the Baku City Circuit logo and probably the Red Bull Ring, most of the logos are pretty terrible. If Mexico with all their super talented designers ended up with the horrible Autodromo logo pictured below, we’re pretty lucky to end up with our Kellogg’s Special K one.

If you’d like to see the full branding presentation of Kuwait Motor Town, click [Here] They’ve removed the work from their portfolio but you can still access it [Here]

Thanks lovelykuwait

I’ve been watching a bunch of canceled comedies with a friend of mine and decided to list my favorite ones so far. Even though these shows were canceled after the first or second season, they’re still some of the funniest shows you can watch on TV. I think most actually got canceled because the stars on the show became too famous or moved on to bigger things, and not because they weren’t successful shows. Anyway, here are my recommendations:

Bored to Death
This show stars Jason Schwartzman, Zach Galifianakis and Ted Danson. Schwartzman’s plays the role of a struggling writer who gets dumped by his girlfriend and then decides to live a double life by pretending to be a private detective.

Hello Ladies
This show stars Stephen Merchant who many of you might not have heard of, but he collaborates a lot with Ricky Gervais and is the co-writer and co-director of The Office, Extras and Life’s Too Short. In this show, he plays the role of a British web designer living in Los Angeles trying to find the woman of his dreams.

Life’s Too Short
This show is written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant and stars Warwick Davis. Warwick Davis plays a fictionalized version of himself, a struggling dwarf actor trying to find work. The show had a ton of cameos that included Liam Neeson, Johnny Depp, Steve Carell, Val Kilmer and even Right Said Fred.

Party Down
Starring Adam Scott from Parks & Recreation and the super funny Ken Marino (both pictured above). Party Down is about a bunch of actors who are trying to make it big but end up working as party caterers.

Burning Love
Burning Love is a parody of reality shows similar to the “The Bachelor” and is produced by Ben Stiller. The show features a ton of great comedians and a whole lot of cameos by famous actors incuding Kristen Bell, Jennifer Aniston, Ben Stiller and Adam Scott. The show also stars Ken Marino who plays the bachelor in the first season while the second season of the show stars the funny June Diane Raphael who plays the bachelorette.

The IMPROVengers comedy night is back and taking place tonight. There are still seats available so if you’re looking for something to do tonight, I highly recommend this. Here is the list of all the events taking place this weekend:

Thursday
SnowTown in K-Town
Fishackathon
Session: Heritage Workers
Music Night at GUST
Cinemagics Rooftop Movie: Ghadi
Photography Exhibition: Omar Zuriqi
Live Music with Zak Musawi
Live with the IMPROVengers

Friday
SnowTown in K-Town
Fishackathon
Concert: Russ

Saturday
SnowTown in K-Town
Fishackathon
Farmers Market
Guided Tour: Grand Mosque
Cinemagics Rooftop Movie: Cameraperson
Q8 Readers Book Club – Meet Mr. Saud Alsanousi

If you’d like to share an event on the blog [Email Me]
For a full list of upcoming events click [Here]

Sometimes events get canceled or have details changed so always double check with the organizers.

A couple of months back I attended a “Marine Mammals of Kuwait” seminar which focused mostly on dolphins and whales. It was kinda upsetting because it turns out we don’t have that much data on the whales and dolphins located in our waters. We don’t even have a proper database that archives sightings and we have too many local organizations that don’t seem to work or share data together. I actually had a huge rant I wrote right after attending the seminar but decided against posting it because I’m trying not to let shit like this get to me.

Sharks & Rays of the Arabian/Persian Gulf is a book I found out about after attending the seminar. I was sharing my frustration with a friend of mine and she told me about a Kuwaiti biologist who had a deep interest in sharks, so much so that she published this book that documents the sharks and rays in our waters. The book was only available on Amazon or The Palms dive center, so I didn’t end up picking it up until a few days ago when I found out that the book was now available at the Scientific Center gift shop.

The book costs KD10 with 60% of the income going to support sharks and rays research around the Arabian Peninsula. So if you care just a little bit, then you should really pick up a copy of this book.

I posted my first blog post ever exactly 15 years ago to this day. It wasn’t on 248AM, I launched that two years later, it was on another blog called qHate. Back then I was still living with my parents, I was piss-ass broke and didn’t really know anyone in Kuwait. Crazy how that was just 15 years ago since a lot has happened over that time. It’s kinda scary when I think about where I’ll be 15 years from now, probably in L.A. working in the electronics section of a Walmart would be my best bet.

My computer setup back in 2003

There are dates that represent important moments in my life, I was born in 1978, 1988 was my first trip to L.A., the Gulf War in 1990, graduating from high school in 96 and so on.

2003 is when I started blogging.

I’ve seen this building a bunch of times and always wondered what it was. The below was taken from archofkuwait:

Bait Ghaith Bin Abdullah Bin Yousif was built in the 1930s. It is located in Sharq, near the Museum of Modern Art, which was previously Al Sharqiah School for Girls.

Bait Ghaith is one of the old Kuwaiti houses and represents social, economic and cultural features of Kuwaiti society in the past. The house features an intertwined architectural layout typical of the original urban structures in old Kuwait City, particularly in terms of its empty space, its multifunctional features and the way it was built.

The house is located on a 280 sq.m. of land and was adjacent to several stores and houses including the Rashid Al Omer, Humoud Al Mutawa’, and Abdullah Al Madhi houses. The house of the late Ghaith Bin Abdullah Bin Yousif comprised a backyard, two rooms, a store, a bathroom, a kitchen and an upper room for his privacy. The house also contained a cistern to store water.

Ghaith bin Abdullah Bin Yousif was a merchant who used to buy goods and merchandise such as fruits, crates… etc. from ports and ship it to various countries by boats.

Today the Ghaith house maintains its characteristic architectural features, such as the wooden ceiling, the beams, and some of the wooden doors. In addition, the rooms still present the original construction of walls made of sea rocks. The National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters refurbished and maintained the building as an example of the old Kuwaiti architecture.

Bait Ghaith before restoration, 2005

For a few more pictures, click [Here]

Earlier this morning I was able to tour the new phase of Avenues, Phase 4. The Avenues extension is set to open on February 25th and so they invited the media today to walk around, explore and take photos.

Avenues Phase 4 includes expansions of existing districts like Prestige, Grand Avenue, and The Souk. But, they’ve also added new districts that include Arcadia, The Grand Plaza, The Forum, Electra and The Cinema, as well as a five-star and four-star hotel.

Phase 4 is HUGE, and its beautiful. They’ve basically taken the Grand Avenue indoor-but-looks-like-outdoor-look and built on it. It’s bright, airy and the main street is wide with lots of little alleyways that connect the various districts.

From what I saw there won’t be much open by February 25th other than a bunch of Alshaya brands, but it will still be a great space to wander about and explore.

If you want to check out more pictures of Phase 4 then check out my story on instagram. I’ve archived the story and so it should be up for some time. Check it out @mark248am

Update: I was just informed that February 25th is the target date but they’re still unsure if they’ll open by then. Also I uploaded a bunch of photos in hi-res which you can view [Here]

This is such a great show, mostly because of how super weird and dark the subject matter is, and yet, its a comedy. This Netflix original focuses on James, a 17-year-old kid who enjoyed killing animals while young and now is considering killing this girl he met called Alyssa, but he kinda likes her. Super weird yet very cute at the same time and I love that.

The series is 8 episodes long and each episode is just 20 minutes so you should be able to get through it in one night. Its super entertaining and pretty fast paced without a single boring moment. The casting director did an incredible job with the show which is filled with great personalities. If you have Netflix, you need to watch this. [Link]

Lavan is a new Indian restaurant that opened up in the city last month. When I first got invited to Lavan I didn’t really have high expectations. Lots of Indian restaurants pop up all the time and most tend to be average so I wasn’t expecting Lavan to be any different. When I got to the place I realized my expectations might be right, the interior was bland, so much so that I wasn’t even sure I had walked into the right restaurant. There was nothing Indian about the interior and the fact the restaurant didn’t have a sign outside didn’t help either. We definitely didn’t start off on the right foot.

But once the food started coming out my view of completely changed. Every single dish we had ordered was just delicious. I left so impressed that first time, I went back three more times since then. I’ve now practically tried every dish on the menu and it’s my favorite Indian spot at the moment. Here are some of my favorite dishes:

Starters
Sweet Potato Chat
Prawns Amritsari

Tandoor
Humour Tikka
Tiger Prawns
Lamb Tikka

Biryani
Chicken
Mutton
Lavan Special (Goat)

Pricing is on par with the likes of Asha’s and Copper Chimney which I think is very reasonable. You can get a better idea by checking their menu which I’ve uploaded [Here]

Like I mentioned earlier, Lavan is currently my favorite Indian restaurant. I still find the interior bland and lacking charm, but the food makes up for it which is why I keep going back. For a map of the location as well as more photos, you can check out their instagram account @houseoflavan