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Disappointed, thats one way to summarize the movie for me. Maybe I was hoping the movie would stay true to the original cartoon or maybe I was hoping more then just a handful of transformers in the movie but whatever the reason is I didn’t like the movie.

Firstly I think there really wasn’t a proper story. To me it looked like the movie was written around the fight scenes. Its as if they went ok, we need to have one big fight here, two big fights there, a small one here and a nice big one in the end, now go write a movie. I know this movie is just an action packed movie with special effects made for the general audience but after Lord of the Rings this is no longer an excuse. You can have amazing special effects, lots of fight scenes, great characters AND a deep intriguing story and still make it mainstream and a box office success. Seriously with a franchise like Transformers how hard could it have been to write a proper script?

My second problem is the actual Transformers, they neither resemble nor act like their cartoon counterpart. I hate the super detailed industrial look of the movie robots, I prefer the sleeker and simpler cartoon version. Another thing, Megatron is supposed to be a gun not a plane, Ratchet is supposed to be white (thats why my MacBook is called Ratchet), Bumblebee is supposed to be a VW Beetle and Starscream is supposed to be annoying as hell! I used to love watching Megatron and Starscream argue with each other in the original cartoon but it doesn’t happen in this movie. I can’t help but feel this movie should have been an epic not a quickly scrambled together movie. Look at Star Wars and Star Trek! Because the story was short but the fight scenes extremely long, we never got a chance to get close to any of the Transformers, maybe Bumblebee since he had the largest role but he also hardly spoke. All of them actually barely had any speaking lines! My favorite part in the movie without ruining it for people who haven’t watched it is when the Transformers went to the guys house to get “the thing”. There were a bit of funny moments there and we got a feel of the different personalities of the robots but that was it, no other scene even got close to that.

Also, whats up with the heavy advertising in the movie? The guy is video conferencing with his wife and there is a huge ass “Cisco Networking” logo on the screen, a Transformer crash lands from space and visits the Pontiac dealership, another a Hummer dealer. Oh and they are ALL American cars! They took Bumblebee, a German VW Beetle and turned him into an American Cheverolet Camaro. Later in the movie you also have the Sprite machine and Xbox 360 transforming into robots which is fine if all these incidents above happened casually but instead they were very obvious which I felt was tacky.

On a positive note I really enjoyed the acting of the main kid in the movie and the visual effects of the robots was just incredible. The movie was fun to watch but I wouldn’t watch it again. My final score is a 3 out of 5.

My favorite thing about Ramadan is that I get off work at 3PM. This allows me to have a ton of free time to do stuff I wouldn’t usually do like riding my bicycle.

Yesterday I went riding with Nat and the weather was surprisingly great. We rode from Marina Mall to Scientific Center, a short route since we didn’t want to take a longer one in case our bikes had developed problems after a year of storage. Imagine riding all the way to the Kuwait Towers and then finding out the bike has a problem and you have to walk back all the way to Salmiya. It would suck…

Riding the bicycle is really different from the motorbike. For one thing falling off a bicycle is no longer a big thing. Nat crashed yesterday when her bicycle slid on a curve and she just got up and continued riding. When the same thing happened to me with my motorbike I ended up with road rash, a fractured wrist and a large repair bill.

There are two brands of bikes I would recommend people getting, Trek and Cannondale. I personally prefer and ride Cannondale. When it comes to road bikes I would go with Trek but for mountain bikes Cannondale all the way. The Cannondale dealer is located in Shuwaikh, you take the first right after McDonalds on Canada Dry street and once you reach the small round-a-bout the dealer would be on your right hand corner. Trek on the other hand is available at GoSport in The Avenues and eXtreme Sports at Marina Waves.

If you are looking for a place to ride, the Gulf Road is a good place to start. For a short trail you can start off at Marina Crescent and ride all the way to Scientific Center and back. For a longer trail you can go from McDonalds on the Gulf Road and head all the way to Souk Sharq and back. Both routes use a sea side trail away from dangerous car traffic.

Cannondale have soooo many hot bikes to choose from, my favorite being the Gemini but the prices can get ridiculous with models costing KD1000 and up. You can spend a lot less of course, a member in the forum recently purchase a Trek for only KD148 and you can even get bikes for under KD50 even although I wouldn’t recommend them at all. The difference between the cheap and expensive bikes is usually weight, quality of parts, the frame and the finishing. Cheap bikes are usually heavy, equipped with the crappiest brands and handle like crap.

There used to be a riding club that met up every Friday at like 7AM to go riding but I don’t think they do that anymore. If anyone knows of another riding club please leave it in the comments below.

For the past two days I’ve been working on a redesigned template for this blog. I really don’t have any major problem with the current design but I do think there are a couple of areas that does need addressing. I was planning on working on the redesign in secret and then overnight just surprise everyone with the makeover but I decided going the other route. If large companies like CNN and Amazon are allowing their users to see and give feedback of their redesign while still in progress why can’t I?

Now I still have a lot more work to do on the redesign but you can take a peak at it by going to unex-t.com/blog. This is more or less how the new redesigned site will look like, most of the changes I am currently working on are the smaller details. I probably will replace the header with a newer one, I might not, I am still not sure about that. At one point I was actually thinking of rebranding from 248AM.com to markandnat.com but decided against it the last minute.

Anyway your feedback is welcomed, I still have a lot of work to do and might take your ideas into consideration. Keep in mind there are a lot of things that aren’t working yet or looking strange on the test site. [Link]

Update: Here is a screenshot of how the new design might look with a black background. I am finding it a bit claustrophobic compared to the white background version. [Picture]

Update 2: Here is another option with a black background which I think works better than the version in the first update but I think I still prefer the full white background. [Picture]

Amazon supposedly redesigned but I have been refreshing my browser for a while now and I still can’t see it. I did manage to find a screenshot of the new design on the page where they talk about their makeover. [Link]

The iPhone software unlock is now available for $99. I was hoping they would sell it for $49 but oh well still not bad. [Link]

update: iPhone Worldwide Unlock is selling it for $50! [Link]

So yesterday I was kinda pissed that I forgot my phone in Dubai but now I am actually enjoying it. It’s been a peaceful day so far and although I should be getting my phone back tomorrow via DHL I think I am going to keep it turned off and see how long I can last without it. If I want a pager (beeper) can I still get one here in Kuwait?

I love Muthana Complex in Kuwait City because it has a lot of interesting shops and the latest I found is called Tea Art. Tea Art as you can guess from the name specializes in Tea and their stock is all imported directly from China. They sell Black, Green, Oolong, Pu-erh, White, Blooming and Red Tea. Their prices range greatly and they even have tea that costs over KD2,000 for 100 grams. I asked if I could try it and the answer was simply no, expensive teas can not be tried before purchase which sucks. Imagine dishing out KD2,000 for tea only to find that it tastes horrible.

They have cheaper teas that cost like KD600 and KD700 and for us regular folks they have tea that cost under KD20 and even under KD10 per 100 grams so it not all super duper expensive teas. Cheap teas (under KD20) make up the majority of their products.

If you are a tea fan they are located on the ground floor of the Muthana Complex next to elevator 6. Their phone number is 2490404.

www.teaart-me.com

Last year I posted about this very strange tourism video I found on YouTube in which three women try to convince the world that Kuwait is a great place to visit. You would think that alone was strange but the three women then take us on a tour around Kuwait highlighting some of its best parts which include Canary Restaurant, Taxi Al Resala and some unknown electronics store. It was extremely weird, cheesy and funny but now the wait is over, the full version of the film is out!

It’s 43 minutes long but you really don’t need to watch it all to realize how unbelievably bizarre it is. The whole time I am just thinking to myself what the hell are they talking about!? In one scene early on in the movie they point out how the new Kuwait is getting built side by side to the old Kuwait and how old and new architecture is merging and creating a new better future. It all sounds decent and corny except for the fact the video accompanying this theory is of the old back alley streets of Salmiya and their idea of old Kuwait are the 30 year old nearly demolished crack houses while the new architecture of Kuwait are the cheap ass multistory tiny bedroom built cheaply out of cardboard to make money apartment buildings. Actually, that does sound about right. A few minutes later into the documentary they take us to meet one of the “important faces in Kuwait”… the sales manager of Holiday Inn!

They are unpredictable and you never know where they will be taking you next but surprisingly I love it! It just keeps getting weirder and weirder and I can’t stop watching it. Although its a really really really terribly shot and produced movie and although their idea of whats cool in Kuwait is very demented, the documentary still manages to crack me up. It’s soooo unreal!

Full version of the documentary on Kuwait [Link]
Short version of the documentary on Kuwait [Link]
Website of people behind the documentary [Link]

While in London I was able to walk around and discover the city without holding a large map and looking like a tourist because of a simple software I was able to get for my phone called A-Z London Maps. I don’t think I would have been able to enjoy my stay without this incredibly easy to use and practical software.

You don’t need a GPS device and you don’t need to connect to the internet to be able to use the map, the software installs everything onto your phone. To use the software all you need to do is type the name of the street you are in and the software will show you on a detailed map where you are. This helped me a lot since if I needed to find my way back to the hotel I would just check on the map to see where I was and then plan my route. Also if I found a street I liked I could easily find my way back. If I was using a regular paper map it would have taken me ages to find my location on it but with A-Z maps I just type my street and the software instantly circles my location on the map.

There are maps for London, Paris, Dubai, Barcelona, Helsinki and more but they only work on some Nokia and Sony Ericsson phones. You don’t need to buy it to try it either, you can download the map and try it out for 30 days before you decide to purchase it.

I only found 2 problems with the software or should I say there are 2 things I would have liked the software to do. The first is the option to work with a GPS device. Although every street corner in London displayed the street name it would have been more practical if the software automatically recognized where I was. The second thing I would have liked would have been the option to search for shop names and then have the software find it for me on the map. Of course thats asking for to much but still, it would have been nice to have.

Final score is a 4 out of 5. If you are interested in the maps you can check out the Lumisoft website for more details and trial downloads. [Link]

I was hoping to rest this weekend but it looks like thats not going to happen since I have a work related trip I need to take. Thursday I leave Kuwait around 1PM and get to Beirut at around 3. I spend the night there and next morning at 9AM I leave to London. I get to London at 1PM then the following day at 10PM I catch a flight to Bahrain where I catch another flight back to Kuwait. Its going to be really hectic but spending a day and a half in London is going to be worth it. Like last weekend I will be blogging directly from my phone which means I will be posting a lot of pictures. It should be a lot of fun.

Picture by kayodeok

We have Yan Yan’s they have Nutella Snack & Drinks. It comes with long stick biscuits, Nutella chocolate dip and peach juice!

My Gulf Air flight arrived at 7AM to Paris. Kuwait to Bahrain was a pretty lame flight, the plane was really old and the seats extremely uncomfortable. Bahrain to Paris was a completely different story. This was my first experience with sleeper seats and I love them. Now they aren’t as comfortable as real beds but they are more than enough for long night flights where you need to get some sleep. The entertainment system is crap though, its nothing like Emirates on demand system, its just the regular old system still used on Kuwait Airways flights.

After landing and checking in to the hotel we decided to do a bit of sight seeing since our first meeting was at 5PM. The weather here is great, yes its raining but I miss rain. It feels like winter and its hard comprehend how its 52 degrees in Kuwait and just 15 degrees in Paris! I should pick up my work schedule tonight and hopefully I will have some free time to do some shopping and take in the sights. [YouTube]

A friend just sent me a link to this site which is basically a Kuwait route planner. I typed in Ikea as my start point and Ace Hardware as my destination and to my surprise it gave me directions. [Link]

Thanks Holla!

This post is a bit technical but its meant to be a small guide for bloggers who want to post using their phones.

The past two days I have been experimenting with different softwares and ways of moblogging. The easiest way I found to moblog was with a software for my Nokia called Shozu. It’s very easy to use, I just take a picture and a small window pops up asking me if I want to send it to my blog. I could then click yes and it sends it or I click on more options and add more details like a subject title and body copy. But I had two problems with Shozu. The first one is the fact that it resized my images down to a thumbnail size and you could only see the larger picture by clicking on the link. I didn’t like that and there was no option to change it. The second problem I had was that since the software is free, Shozu places their logo at the end of your posts. I also didn’t like that, they should at least have an option where if you pay for the software they remove the logo but they don’t so I looked for an alternative.

After a bit of experimentation and googling I found a better solution (for me at least). It’s not as practical as Shozu but I am in total control of everything. I decided to go with the Blog by Email route and here is what I did:

1) Created two new email accounts
2) Got a plugin for wordpress called Postie
3) Got a software for my Nokia called Resco Viewer

I setup one email account on my Nokia to send emails from. The second email account would be the one I would send my posts to. I then installed the Postie plugin in WordPress which is a must have plugin if you are planning to blog by email. Firstly, Postie allows u to attach pictures and videos to your emails and then posts them for you. it also gives you a lot of other options for example Postie has an option where it could palce the image above or below the body copy, I chose above so it would match my regular posts. Postie could also resize your images and compress them before it posts them which is really important if you can’t resize images on your phone. Finally I purchased the software Resco Viewer for my Nokia. With my phones camera I have two size options when it comes to taking pictures, 1600×1200 and 640×480. The max size for images on my blog is 400 pixels wide. If I wanted to I could take pictures at 640×480 and have Postie resize them for me but by resizing the pictures myself on the phone and compressing the images slightly, the file sizes would be a lot small meaning it would be cheaper for me since I pay per kilobyte.

So the process now goes something like this:
1) I take a picture on my phone at 1600×1200 pixels
2) I resize the image to 400×300 and compress it
3) I send an email to my blog and attach the resized image
4) Postie checks my email constantly, when it finds an email it posts it on the blog under the category Moblogging

Now the biggest problem is my phone doesn’t have a spell checker to expect a ton of misspellings. So thats basically how I will be moblogging while in Paris. I will continue to post regular posts but the photo ones are meant to be something new and something I haven’t done on this blog yet. It should prove to be entertaining.

While watching my partner at work try to balance himself while standing on a soccer ball, it reminded me of this toy I had back in the 80’s. It was a disc with a rubber ball stuck in the middle and the aim was to stand on it and jump around.

I spent a good chunk of time trying to find a picture of it but I couldn’t. I remember it being called Disk-O-Jump or something of that sort but I couldn’t find any pictures or traces of it. Then I remembered the Pogo Stick and figured I try searching for Pogo Ball and to my surprise I found it. I really don’t remember it being called a Pogo Ball though… [Link]