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Back in September I posted about Brotips, a website that belongs to a young 16 year old Kuwaiti called Yousef Khraibut. Well Yousef emailed me awhile ago telling me Mark Cuban has invested in Brotips! How cool is that?! Mark Cuban if you don’t know is a business magnate and investor who also owns the NBA team Dallas Mavericks. That’s pretty freaking cool! Here is a link to an article on this deal at FastCompany. [Link]

There’s a comedy club opening soon in Kuwait (the first?) and it will be called “Live”. The comedy club will be located in the basement of Discovery Mall and will seat approximately 200 people. It was originally scheduled to open up before the end of the year but due to some delays the launch will now most likely be in January. They’ve already got a big name Arab American comedian booked for their launch so should be interesting to see. I’ll post more details once I get them.

I was supposed to start off the weekend by riding out with the Desert Bike Club but couldn’t get myself to wake up at 6:30 in the morning for a 7:15 meetup. But I still managed to save the day by heading down to Bnaider. A friend of mine built an RC track at his chalet so I took two cars, my Tamiya FJ CR-01 crawler, and my Xray 808e buggy.

[YouTube]

The video above should give you an idea about how fun these cars can be. Mine is the pink one that starts off strong and then falls behind.

I like this shot since it captures an interesting moment when 3 off us go airborne but each one heading off to a different direction.

These two aren’t RC cars but they’re still cool toys.

One of the guys brought cheesecake from Firin tonight to the diwaniya and it was pretty good. Like I had two slices good and it’s not even my cheat day. The only reason I actually ate it is because it was wheat free. And yes I’m still on my wheat free diet and I it’s been more than two weeks now.

I actually haven’t had any trouble staying off wheat. The only issue arises on my cheat day when I want to have dessert and end up with a lame chocolate bar from a supermarket because all my favorite desserts contain wheat. I also don’t feel more energetic or more focused like the book says I would feel. Or maybe I’m just not noticing. I don’t know will give this diet some more time and see.

Anyway all of Firin’s products are wheat free and you can check out their website [Here]

The new airport will be completed by 2016. That’s in 4 years time. [Link]

Digumz is helping KACCH (Kuwait Association for the Care of Children in Hospital) collect video games (PS3 & Xbox360) for children all around hospitals in Kuwait. The idea started on the United Nations Universal Children’s Day but they’ve now made some adjustments to their campaign to make it even easier for people to donate games. Here are the options available:

Option 1
If you have 5 or more games you would like to donate (used or new), you can call Digumz on 25733040 and they will come by and pick up the games from you. If you have less than 5 games you can still donate them but you need to drop it off yourself at their store in Salmiya.

Option 2
You can purchase games from the Digumz Online Store by using the coupon code UNCHILDREN. When you use that code you will automatically get a 10% discount and the games will be accepted as a donation for the children and held at the store with the rest of the donated games before being sent out to KACCH.

Note: The coupon code works on PS3 and Xbox360 games only since those are the two systems available to the children. Also, the coupon is entered at “Step 5” in the payment process. You need to enter the coupon if you want to donate the games.

Here is the link to the Digumz Online Store [Link]

I’m not a fan of Sony headphones and I think the last time I bought a pair I was still listening to music from my discman. But while I was in New York killing time as after midnight at a Best Buy I spotted these on display and since I had my iPhone with music with me I figured I would try them out. I played the Tron: Legacy Reconfigured album and was blown away by how good the headphones sounded. Right away I wanted to purchase a pair but they were out of stock so I loaded up my Amazon app on my iPhone and bought it on the spot. It was an impulse buy but it should give you an idea of how good they sounded.

They’re not the most accurate headphones but they’re definitely the most fun. I count the Monster Beats Studio as fun as well but these cost a lot less and actually sound better. You’ve got the deep powerful bass but the mids and the highs are prominent as well. While the Beats can sound muffled with bass sometimes overpowering everything else, I have yet to face a similar problem with these cheap Sony’s. They also don’t need any batteries or a portable amp to power them.

And yes, these headphones look hideous. I own a bunch of headphones from entry level in-ears to 600ohms overheads and these Sony’s the ugliest pair I own but they’re also the cheapest. I can’t believe these headphones cost just $49 and sound this good. I’m not sure if they’re sold locally but you can check them out on Amazon. I love them. [Amazon Link]

I have a habit of installing apps on my iPhone and then only using them a handful of times and never again. Over the years I’ve accumulated a ton of useless apps to a point where finding one I needed became a hassle. So I decided to do some spring cleaning and delete the apps I hardly use anymore as well as apps that do pretty much the same thing. For example I had two apps that I used to re-size images on my phone, two apps to listen to internet radio stations, two RSS readers and so and so. I also had two apps which I used to find numbers of local businesses, iBadala and Urban Moon. So which did I decide to keep?

First I’ll state the obvious, iBadala looks terrible. The app feels like it’s stuck in a bad design time-warp somewhere between Windows 3.11 and the Pontiac Aztek. It’s not a pretty app while Urban Moon on the other hand looks a lot cooler and feels trendier. It has a pretty icon and a nice start up splash screen that really helps with the first impression. So in the looks category, Urban Moon wins hands down.

When it comes to functionality though, things are completely different. Although Urban Moon is the better looking app of the two and one that feels like it should be easier to use, it isn’t. When I run either one of these apps it’s usually because I’m looking for a number, usually a restaurant to call and check if I can reserve or see how long the line to get in is. Whenever I run Urban Moon I first need to wait for the app to check for updates, and if any are found I have to wait for them to download before I can even start using the app. Depending on how fast my internet connection is at that very moment this could take 5 second if there are no updates (on my 4s) or 10 to 20 seconds if there are any updates. The thing is, even 5 seconds is too long since it makes the app feel sluggish right from the get go due to the app freezing on the start up screen until it’s done checking for updates.

iBadala on the other hand takes just 2 seconds to launch and is then ready to use right away. While Urban Moon has all the numbers built into the app, iBadala grabs a number for you from an online database. Although that sounds slow in reality the search can take as little as under a second depending on how fast your connection is. The disadvantage here is the fact that if you don’t have an internet connection you can’t find any numbers.

It wasn’t that hard really to choose between the two. Even though iBadala is an ugly app, I constantly found myself using it instead of Urban Moon to find numbers quickly. Even if there wasn’t a long wait at the start of Urban Moon I still had to enter a section (another 1 second lost) before I could get to the search box. In any case both apps are free so you could download both and try them out and see which you prefer. I actually got Urban Moon back when they were selling it for $3.99 but they’ve recently made it free (but added advertising) which I think is a better way to go about it.

Here are the links for both apps:
iBadala App
Urban Moon App

Last night at the prestigious ICSC Awards that was held at Burj Khalifa in Dubai, our local creation B+F Open Flame Kitchen won the Gold Award for “Best New Retail Concept”. I wouldn’t say I’m too surprised about this since OFK is really that good. [Link]

This is the last Cinemagic screening of the year and they’re ending it with one of my favorite movies and one of the best movies ever made… Brazil. The only other movie I’ve seen on the list is Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr.Fox which was really great as well. Here is the full list:

Thursday, December 1st at 7:30pm
A BAND’S VISIT
A band comprised of members of the Egyptian police force head to Israel to play at the inaugural ceremony of an Arab arts center, only to find themselves lost in the wrong town.

Saturday, December 3rd at 7:30pm
FANTASTIC MR.FOX
An urbane fox cannot resist returning to his farm raiding ways and then must help his community survive the farmers’ retaliation.

Thursday, December 8th at 7:30pm
WE LIVE IN PUBLIC
A documentary focusing on the life of dot-com entrepreneur Josh Harris, and his exploits over the last decade.

Saturday, December 10th at 7:30pm
THE ICE STORM
1973, suburban Connecticut: middle class families experimenting with casual sex, drink, etc., find their lives out of control.

Thursday, December 15th at 7:30pm
THE LEGEND OF THE HOLY DRINKER
This is an enchanting, mesmeric fable. It tells the story of an alcoholic who strives for redemption, but is cheated out of attaining it again and again – either by drink or friends or any of the myriad pleasures life throws at us. And yet somehow – miraculously – the drinker’s soul remainsintact; his final mission frustrated, temporarily foresaken but never entirely forgotten.

Saturday, December 17th at 7:30pm
12 ANGRY MEN
A dissenting juror in a murder trial slowly manages to convince the others that the case is not as obviously clear as it seemed in court.

Thursday, December 22nd at 7:30pm
THE DEVIL AND DANIEL JOHNSTON
Daniel Johnston, manic-depressive genius singer/songwriter/artist is revealed in this portrait of madness, creativity and love.

Saturday, December 24th at 7:30pm
RARE EXPORTS: A CHRISTMAS TALE
In the depths of the Korvatunturi mountains, 486 metres deep, lies the closest ever guarded secret of Christmas. The time has come to dig it up! This Christmas everyone will believe in Santa Claus.

Thursday, December 29th at 7:30pm
BRAZIL
A bureaucrat in a retro-future world tries to correct an administrative error and himself becomes an enemy of the state.

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]

The last thing left to talk about my trip to New York is the Turkish Airlines Lounge. On the way to New York I spent an hour in the lounge which wasn’t much time to experience it but on the way back I had five hours to kill so I then managed to properly check everything out.

The Turkish airport itself is pretty nice. There is a good amount of restaurants and cafes with a bunch of known stores like Hermes and Burberry and then the usual bookshops, electronic stores and souvenir shops. It’s not as big as the the Bangkok airport which I always compare to a mall, but still a lot better than most if not all the airports in our region (I haven’t been to the new Emirates terminal in Dubai). The lounge is pretty sweet, you enter by scanning your boarding pass and once you’re in you’re inside a different world. There’s a lot of seating all around the lounge with different moods and seating styles in each section. You’ve also got a lot of food stations scattered all about, some serving dessert, others freshly baked items a couple of hot food stations as well as four salad/snacks/fruit bars located in the different sections. I spent most of the time in a space at the back of the lounge sitting underneath a tree with a grand piano playing by itself in the background. It was very peaceful and cozy away from all the airport hustle and bustle.

Other than the different seating areas they also have a pool table, a kids games room, a mini movie theater, showers, sleeping rooms and a business center filled with iMacs. They also had a masseur who walks around offering complimentary massage as well as the usual free WiFi.

Overall I thought the lounge was pretty well done. You could even leave the airport from within the lounge bypassing the busy immigration counters in the airport. I don’t remember where but I read that they also offer guided tours of the city if you have a long stay over which is what I should have done since five hours is just too long to spend in a lounge no matter how nice it is.

The first book I bought and read on my Kindle was Wheat Belly. It’s a book that talks about wheat, how it’s evolved and changed through time and how it’s really not good for you. The author at one point compares it to heroin and as a huge fan of bread myself I can completely understand why. I don’t know how accurate all the information in the book is but it was enough to convince me to try and stay away from wheat… at least for a short period of time to test it out.

According to the book wheat has a lot of negative effects on the human body and once you’re off it you should see positive results. Some of the advantages I’m looking forward to is the ability to focus better, less drowsiness and decreasing whatever fat I have left around my belly. So far I’ve been off wheat for just 48 hours and it hasn’t been that hard. My only concern actually is with my cheat days. Every Friday I usually stop eating healthy and go on a binge filling my stomach with burgers, pizza’s, pastas and lots of dessert. But now I have to stop all of that. No more Vertigo burgers, no more pizza’s and no more Dally’s Chocolate Pudding. I actually don’t know what dessert I can have now since all the desserts I love contain wheat!

Still, I’m curious to try this, not sure how obvious the results will be or if there will be any results but I’m going to try and last as long as possible without wheat and then post any findings here (if any).

My flight from New York to Turkey went by pretty quick since I slept all the way but I did experience a few new things I hadn’t experienced on the way there which I felt was necessary to post about. The first is that Live TV was working on this flight. This was my first experience with Live TV on a plane and it was pretty interesting. They had 4 channels to choose from, BBC English and BBC Arabic, Barclays Premier League Football and Euronews. I was watching BBC for example when I found out Gaddafi’s son got arrested so I was in the loop on current events even though I was stuck on a plane for over 10 hours. I did wish they had more channels but really the only channels that would make sense live would be news and sports channels since everything else really isn’t live anyway.

For our second meal on the flight they served breakfast. I had an omelet which even though was good, I was kinda disappointed that I couldn’t have it my way specially since we had a chef on board. I’ve flown business class on another airline with a chef and they allowed me to dictate exactly what I wanted in my omelet. It’s a minor quibble but one worth mentioning.

One major thing I liked about Turkish Airlines is the fact that business class was just 4 rows. On a large plane like the 777, 4 row of business class makes you feel like you’re sitting in first. We also had 2 or 3 flight attendants in our class and a chef taking care of us; that’s a really good ratio. Finally the legroom is just ridiculous. There has to be over a meter in space which gives you a lot of room to stretch your legs but also makes the whole class feel very spacious. The seats are also really wide so once you turn it into a bed you’ve got decent rolling space.

Overall I had a really positive experience on the flight to and back from New York. I’ve got one more post left which is the Turkish Airlines Lounge which I’ll try to have up tomorrow. For now if you have any questions regarding the flight just post it below.

I generally read a lot of magazines and a lot of online content but when it comes to books I hadn’t read one since The Lost World back in 1997. That’s why even though the Kindle intrigued when it first got released, I just couldn’t get myself to plunk down $400 for a device I might never use. Then Amazon started releasing newer Kindles and with each release dropping the price down until it hit $79. I don’t read books but for $79 I was willing to give it a shot so while in New York I passed by Best Buy and picked one up.

First thing I noticed once I took it out of the box was how light and small the Kindle was. It weighs just 170 grams which is slightly heavier than my iPhone but feels lighter due to the weight being spread out over a larger surface. The Kindle easily fit into my back jeans pocket and it even managed to fit into my jackets inner pocket. Because it’s so light you don’t feel it in your pocket and it also makes it easier to hold for long periods without your muscles fatiguing.

I carried the Kindle with me everywhere I went in NY since and whenever I found a free moment I would take out the Kindle read as much as I can and then put it away again. Because it’s a device dedicated to reading it makes reading very easy. I don’t need to turn the Kindle off or on and I also don’t have to worry about the battery dying. In just a few days I managed to finish reading my first book in years and I didn’t even charge the Kindle I just used it right out of the box. I didn’t even have to connect it to a computer I just logged into my amazon account from the device and bought my first book. Buying a book is also super easy since you just find the book you want and then click buy and that’s it. No need to log in or enter a password or anything like that.

For readers in Kuwait the Kindle makes a lot of sense since we don’t have a decent bookstore here but even if I lived in the US I would still prefer a Kindle over a real book. For one thing the Kindle is easier to carry around since it’s thinner and probably lighter. It’s easier to read since you can control the font size and most importantly you can carry more than one book at a time and buy a new one right from the device. Actually you don’t even have to buy books since Amazon offers a ton of books for free as well as other books you can borrow. I was going to buy a book called Elizabeth Street but since I’m an Amazon Prime member, Amazon offered me the option to “borrow” the book which I did. I played with the Kindle Fire and it seemed cool but I saw it as an iPad or Galaxy Tab competitor. The main competition to the $79 Kindle is the Kindle Touch and the Nook Simple Touch. Although I liked the feel of the Nook I thought it was bulky plus you can’t buy books from the Amazon Store which I prefer. The Kindle Touch on the other hand costs more than the $79 Kindle but it also has no physical buttons for page turning and I like the buttons as well as the fact that the buttons are located on both sides (useful if you’re holding the hand with just your left or right hand). The touch is also slightly bigger and heavier. The $79 Kindle does come with adverts but they’re not annoying at all since they never show up while reading. You only get to see an ad while the device is on standby or on the main home page but they’re really not intrusive and they don’t bother me at all.

If you haven’t considered the Kindle before or are thinking of buying one I would personally recommend the $79 version. It’s really cheap and has a lot of advantages which makes it a great buy in my book. Check it out on [Amazon]

I should be posting about the Turkish airport and the Turkish Airlines Lounge but because I only spent around an hour at the airport I didn’t really have too much time to explore it. Since I’ll be spending more time at the airport on the return flight, I’ll post about the lounge once I get back to Kuwait. So instead, I’m going to post about the flight from Istanbul to New York.

The total travel time from Istanbul to New York is around 10 hours and 50 minutes and we flew in their Boeing 777-300ER V2. The business class setup on this flight was the latest one which is made up of just 4 rows split up as 2-3-2. One of the first people to greet you once you enter the business class is the chef which kinda sets a level of expectation on the kind of food you’ll be served during the flight. There’s obviously a ton of legroom in business class and it’s needed since the chairs turn into 180 degree flat beds. I wasn’t sure at first if they would be true 180 degree “flat beds” or instead be “lie flats” which are seats that turn flat but are slightly angled. I’ve experienced lie flats on two other airlines and they’re not as easy to sleep in and I always feel like I’m going to slide off them. Thankfully, the Turkish Airlines seats were proper flat beds which made sleeping really cozy.

Since the flight was long we were served two meals, one around an hour after take off while the other around 2 hours before arrival. The chef handled everything related to the food including handing out the menus which I noticed were customized with our names. It’s a little thing but gives the meals a very personal touch. The first meal we started off with were light appetizers which they rolled out on a trolley. You just tell the chef what you want and he’ll fill up your dish for you. Once we were done with the appetizers we were served soup which they only had one option called the traditional Turkish wedding soup. I had it and it tasted kinda like the Lebanese dish called “kebbeh bi laban” and that’s probably because think they both involve the same elements, beef and some sort of creamy sauce. After that we were presented with three options for main course, Swordfish Brochette, Grilled Beef Tournedos or Artichoke Ravioli. I went with the beef, Nat with the fish. She didn’t end up liking her fish much but I loved the beef. Once we were done with lunch they rolled out the dessert trolley which had a lot of different goodies. I was pretty full so I just went with ice cream. For my second meal later on in the flight I had a pasta dish and it was also superb.

The flight was very comfortable and I didn’t have any issues falling asleep on the flat bed. I’m actually not sure how I can fly economy knowing how much more comfortable it is in business. On short flights it’s not as important but when you’ve only slept for 3 hours and you get on board a 10 hour flight, the thought of being able to fall asleep comfortably on a cushy bed is priceless. Actually not priceless, just a lot more expensive than economy. We had large screens in front of us with a ton of movies and tv shows to watch. One disappointing thing was the fact internet access wasn’t active yet and was still “coming soon” according to the message I got on the screen when trying to access it. On the other hand they did have live news feeds available. Power sockets and USB sockets were available of course. If you have a USB stick or hard drive loaded up with movies you can watch them on your seats screen via the USB port. Not sure what movie formats their media player handles but I would be safe and not take any 720p or 1080p movies with me.

There’s an episode of Seinfeld where Jerry and Elaine’s flights get cancelled and they had to rebook on another flight. They end up finding two seats left, one in first class and the another in economy. Jerry explains to Elaine how she should take the economy seat since she’s never flown first and really wouldn’t miss anything but he on the other hand has and so he could no longer fly economy. Well that’s me right now, next time I fly economy I’m going to be thinking about all the cool things I’m missing from business.