Search: “sti”

As most of you probably know by now there have been a number of Bird Flu cases reported in Kuwait. The big question of course is are we in any danger? How can we contract the Avian flu? Well I did some research and from what I understood the only way you can contract bird flu is through their saliva, nasal secretions, and feces. Meaning unless you are planning on making out with a bird you should be pretty safe. [Source]

Today I watched a pigeon hatch from an egg right outside my office window. At first it was exciting but 15 minutes later the pigeon still hadn’t finished hatching which made things really boring.

Hungry Bunny is a local creation that opened up in the early 80s in Kuwait. It was inspired by a Australian franchise called Hungry Jack which was what Burger King was called in Australia back then.

In 1997 Al Homaizi Foodstuff Co. who owned Hungry Bunny got the rights to Burger King. Since they couldn’t have two competing franchises they decided to close down all the Hungry Bunnys and open up Burger Kings in the same locations.

Since then there have been copycats the most popular being “Hungry Bunny World” and “Super Bunny” which was named after the famous Hungry Bunny burger. Hungry Bunny World actually opened up a branch on the 4th Ring Road back in 2005 and called it just “Hungry Bunny”. This led to a lot of speculation and rumors that Hungry Bunny was relaunching but they weren’t true. Al Homaizi sued (or threatened to sue) so they added the word “World” on their signage.

I heard awhile back from a friend that Al Homaizi was actually thinking of relaunching Hungry Bunny but I don’t know if thats true or not. For now the only way you can enjoy Hungry Bunny is to drive down to Saudi Arabia where the franchise still exists there. Here is the link to their website: www.hungry-bunny.com

note: the above information is based on my knowledge. If there are any mistakes in dates or events I will fix them but as far as I know the above is accurate.

update: A reader by the name of HaMooR wrote the following:

Dear Mark,

Al Homaizi has the BK franchize since the first hungry bunny openned in Kuwait. and I believe it was Kaifan branch, in order for Al Homaizi to sake BK prudects at that time in kuwait. they have to change the name of BK, because BK was consider in the taboo list (boycott Isreal).

There was a big sign in kaifan branch that says all the meat prudects are BK. So when BK was removed from the list back in 97 .. and there is no reason to for them to hide the name, they switched to BK.

Here are some movies I watched the past few days, I didn’t like any of them.

Blood Diamond
This was a movie I had been looking forward to see for some time now. When I finally got to watch it, I didn’t like it and it was mostly because of the story. The movie is trying to be real and emotional by showing the truth behind the illegal diamond industry in Africa and while all I wanted to watch was a no brainer action movie.

Little Children
Another movie I had been looking forward to see for a very long time. Sadly the trailer painted a different picture from the actual movie. Not that the movie was bad because it wasn’t. The trailer made me expect a thriller but the movie turned out to be more drama mixed in with romance.

Lonely Hearts
I watched this movie because of James Gandolfini. Since the new season of Sopranos still hasn’t started I figured I could get my dose of mob stories from Lonely Hearts. Turns out this movie had nothing to do with mobs and James Gandolfini was actually a good guy. I still gave the movie a chance but it was just boring. The whole movie is about this serial killer which might have been something dramatic back in the 1940s where the movie is based but today with shows like CSI and Dexter, serial killers is something of the norm.

Babel
Finally Babel. This movie has to be the worst of the bunch. Its trying to follow the same style as last years big hit Crash where stories come together but this time there are 4 different stories located across 3 different countries. The stories alone are nothing exciting and even in the end when they all come together it didn’t do anything for me. Crash was a whole lot better.

Now I have one more movie I want to watch today and thats Little Miss Sunshine. Hopefully it won’t be disappointing.

Rado at RatLab posted an interesting post about a large flag on the side of one of the buildings in the city that went crazy. Seems the flag got loose somehow and because it was windy it started slamming into the glass building breaking and smashing windows. The firemen ended up coming and closing down the street until they could bring the flag down. Pictures of the incident are available on RatLab. [Link]

The other day I posted that I had heard about a movie called Shabab Cool and it dealt with street racing in Kuwait. I also heard it was banned and after watching parts of the movie I figured out why… its because the movie is REALLY crap. You have to watch the video I uploaded onto YouTube to really see what I am talking about. Its extremely cheesy with some of the worst acting I have ever seen.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Gr9nAeTNrog

Pan’s Labyrinth (Movie)
I didn’t like it, it bored me and was uneventful.

Harsh Times (Movie)
I hated Christian Bale in this movie a lot and thats why I loved this movie. He is such an amazing actor, so real that the whole movie I thought he was such a dickhead.

Casino Royale (Movie)
He barely had a cool car for 3 seconds, there was no car chase, no secret gadgets tucked up his sleeves, he still drinks martini and there was no nudity. Yawn.

What Dreams May Come (Movie)
Super boring.

Heroes (TV Show)
Really amazing, lots of characters and things happening. My second favorite show at the moment.

Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares (TV Show)
Not to be mistaken with Ramsay’s Hells Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares is a much more exciting show. I really love it, its my favorite show at the moment although I think I have watched all the episodes available.

Lost Season 3 (TV Show)
Extremely boring. The shows viewership in the US has also dropped by half. Hopefully they take this as a sign and kill the show.

Grey’s Anatomy Season 3 (TV Show)
Still fun to watch, things are actually happening on the show unlike Lost.

Prison Break Season 2 (TV Show)
Biggest surprise of the year. I thought once they escaped show would get boring but its one of the most exciting shows this year, they really did a good job with the story.

24 Season 6 (TV Show)
Un-Fucking-Believable.

Seems I pissed someone off at Brainstorm the architecture firm because I said they made a mess of the new Bazaar website (they designed it). Here are two comments left by them on my blog today:

HIHI what is going on… I believe a blog for most of all should be nautral and independant. Or you can call it 248complainingandbitching…

I just checked out the Bazaar site and I think it is very coool and I cant wait to see the readable issue on site.. Because how irritating is it when Starbucks is out of copies. Now what is wrong for an arcitecture firm who also have a grapich department, doing his site….? Honestly we are all designers with new ideas.. and yours are highly appreciated, but stop using your own tast as an agenda.. The site is still under development, so give it some time and you will see. Go and bitch at others magazines who are copying Bazaar big time. That is a crime!!!!

I do not agree that Bloggers are nerds, but I do think that what Bazaar did was right, because it is the freedom of speach. And if that pisses you off so much Mark, why do you bitch and complain about others all the time. We all read your blog and we do like it, but try to be grown up enough to take some criticism and turn it in to something. If there was not a hint of truth to it, you would not react so harsh… I guess all doze long days infront of the computer are getting to you.. you should do some outdoor sport other than walking your dog…and driving your bike.. And leave Bazaar alone , he is older than you by 10 years…

Bazaar Magazine have a new website (finally no more hotmail emails) which you can access by going to bazaar-magazine.com. Sadly the WHOLE site is flash based which is a disaster. Who still does a fully flashed based website nowadays yet alone a magazine?

As K.thekuwaiti put it, Flash is dead. Bazaar should have done a proper online magazine which would archive all their articles so they could at least be search able. They need to start building a database of all their previous issues and their current ones because old fashioned print magazines are quickly becoming extinct. Digital is the future and a perfect example of an excellent magazines online presence is WIRED.

Finally, where is the Bazaar blog? Majority of companies and corporations are adding blogs to their website so its surprising to see that a popular, young and trendy publication like Bazaar still hasn’t jumped on board the blogging wagon knowing for a fact that the editor of the magazine and majority of their writers read blogs themselves.

Currently the website barely has anything to make it worthy of a second visit. Unless they revamp it I don’t think I would ever bother checking it again. [Link]

Here is another classic football song called Al Azraq. [MP3 4.5MB]
Thanks to Holla for sending me this song.

And if you previously missed it, Haydoo.

Today the weather started off perfect. In the morning I went riding with Marzouq on my bike and then in the afternoon drove around in the SLK with the roof down. Its a lot of fun driving around in a roadster convertible, so fun that I didn’t want to even park the car somewhere so I could take shots for the blog.

I was cruising on the Gulf Road with Nat by my side when I spotted k.thekuwaitis car on the other side of the road heading the opposite way. He then called me up and we decided to meet up on the side of the road. Thats when I took the camera out to take shots of the car or else I would have kept on driving.

The SLK although having the small 1.8 liter engine doesn’t feel too slow on the road. The acceleration feels fast and I thought the car was actually faster then my beemer but to my surprise when I checked the stats online turns out the SLK actually is 1.1 seconds slower from 0-100. I guess with the roof down and the sound of the engine blasting it exaggerates the impression of speed.

So far I am really enjoying the car. Its both compact and a convertible so its a lot of fun. Best thing of course is the hard top. Once the weather got really dusty it took a click of a button to put the top back up and just like that its not a convertible anymore, it was a coupe with a hard roof.

Today afternoon I went picked up a red Mercedes SLK from the dealer so I could review it over the weekend. Originally I was supposed to get the G55 but it was out with a potential buyer so I got the SLK instead. Which by the way isn’t a disappointment at all since the weather is perfect for a convertible.

I have had a crush on the SLK for a long time now but the original one, the first model that came out was a bit girlish while the new model looks more aggressive. They gave me the SLK200 which is the low end version of the car meaning no power seats, no navigation and the smallest engine but all that really doesn’t matter when flying down the Gulf Road with the roof down.

The first thing I did once I drove out of the dealers lot was to bring down the hard top with a click of a button. My Wrangler needs like 15 minutes and 2 people to be able to remove the roof and here I was sitting in my car and with a flick of a switch, 30 seconds later the roof was off. How I love technology. I am extremely disappointed that BMW still use soft tops which I really hate.

The color of the SLK is red which matches my Ducati nicely. It was dark by the time I picked up the car so I couldn’t take any decent pictures so I will take better ones tomorrow. While at the dealer waiting to pick up the car I spotted an SLR on display. I was surprised they were displaying it since I thought you needed to order the car. The price is KD150,000 which the dealer assured me is a good deal since it was previously priced at KD165,000. Thats still a bit over my budget.

Why can’t places in Kuwait have decent websites? Speed Zone is a used car dealership located on the Gulf Road opposite Showbiz. They always have interesting cars parked out in front of it and so when I found out they had a website I was excited. I don’t pass by Speed Zone often so I figured I could keep track of all the cool cars they get via their website.

Turns out I was wrong, their website is a mess and contains practically no information whatsoever. I even checked the Arabic version of the site figuring it might be more complete and still ended up with nothing. It would be cool if they had a live webcam over looking their cars but thats asking to much when they don’t even have a photo gallery.

Also whats with the weird spelling and grammar. They have an animated flash saying “Speed Zone which you can’t catch up”. What does that mean?

Check this out also taken from their site:

prief about Speed Zone
This is Speed zone company on Kuwait which care about speed & luxury vehicles. we will provide the new cars, motorcycle and their spare parts which will give you the optimal performance and speed, so don’t miss our site it would be up to date with the new stuff so catch it up or you will miss it with speed zone.

I really hope they fix things because they do get some really cool cars all the time and their site isn’t doing them any justice. [Link]

Whats up with my luck? Thursday I suddenly felt like pizza and ordered from Papa John’s only to end up in a fight with them because over an hour and half had passed and my pizza hadn’t arrived yet. I decided I would never order from Papa John’s again.

Tonight I placed an order for pizza from Dominos. I placed an order at 8:33 and they told me I would have it within 30 minutes. 9:03 the pizza was still not delivered. 9:11 I get a call from the driver, he is around a block away from my house, less even like 100 meters away. He was lost and I explained to him how to get to my place. Take a right and get onto the main road, then take a left and another left. Very easy directions…

Thirty minutes later and the guy was still lost. Everytime I told him to take a left he takes a right, go straight he takes a right, U-Turn and he takes a left. The guy was a complete idiot. I just called and canceled my pizza, told them its been over an hour snce I ordered the pizza and over 30 minutes on the phone with the delivery guy and he still can’t follow directions.

I just called Papa John’s and ordered a pizza from them. I can’t be pissed at both Papa Johns AND Dominos… I have to still eat pizza from somewhere…

note: The guy was an Arab and I was talking to him in Arabic so it wasn’t a communication barrier.

Also while writing this post the Dominos manager called me and apologized. Told me what happened was unacceptable and that before anything they want me to be happy. He told me he would call the Dominos branch now and have them resend me the pizza and it would be for free. I told him thanks but I had already ordered from Papa John’s and thanked him for his call. He was like what can I do to make it up to you, I told him by calling me and apologizing you made it up and I would order from them again the next time. He apologized again and I thanked him and hung up. Thats good service.

update: Papa Johns told me the pizza needed 45 minutes, it arrived in 40. They must have sent me their best driver because he didn’t even call to get directions. Glad my pizza curse is over with.

A while back I posted about a good web space provider and today I decide d I would post about a good domain name provider. Although most hosts nowadays provide you with a free domain once you sign up, I for example have around 30 domains for a whole bunch of various sites of mine so I need a good domain provider where I could manage my domains and not pay an arm and a leg every time a domain renewal comes up.

For the longest time I had been using Directnic for my domain management and purchases. I started using them back in 2000 when they first launched. They were one of the first companies to offer domains for only $15 a year (before that domains cost a lot more). I never had any kind of problem with them but they also never really expanded their services. Six years later there are now many other sites that offer domains for much cheaper then $15 a year and with more features, so I decided to find another domain manager.

My first two options that came up were Joker.com and GoDaddy.com. For some reason I always had a negative impression about Joker plus they sell domains at 12$ a year while GoDaddy is $9 a year, so I went with GoDaddy. After transferring one domain name to them I realized GoDaddy really sucked. Their domain management interface was just awful and unintuitive. Not only that but whatever you wanted to do, buy a new domain name, transfer an old domain name, whatever you want to do they always seem to be trying to sell you stuff. I really hated how pushy they were.

I hated my experience with GoDaddy and I had only one domain there, I started looking for another domain provider and I found NameCheap. I have now been using NameCheap for a few months and I have transferred nearly all my domains there. The interface is fast, simple and practical to use. Their prices are also cheap, they sell domains for $8.88 and they have had this offer now for a couple of months where if you register or transfer a domain name they give you WhoisGuard for free. WhoisGuard keeps your domains anonymous which is pretty handy.

My experience with Directnic was great and I never had any bad experience with them. Customer service was always prompt and helpful but in the end of the day they weren’t offering me much for my money. The WhoisGuard option isn’t even available with them. GoDaddy was just a total diaster and I would never recommend them to anyone. NameCheap is now my new domain manager and I really like them a lot. I haven’t contacted customer service yet about any issues so I don’t know if that department is any good but everything else has just been working out flawlessly and the site is the quickest of the bunch to load. I would definitely recommend them.