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This is what I call a photography studio. This picture only shows half the place, there is still a similar sized area to the right of this picture. The studio is on the 4th floor of an old warehouse in an industrial area. There is a large lift that fits cars, thats how that benz is up on the 4th floor. Its actually higher then the 4th floor since the first floor is like 4 stories high and then the rest of the floors are as high as this studio. S

Why don’t we have studios like this in Kuwait? How hard is it to find a large warehouse and turn it into a studio?

Private bars in hotel rooms are amazing. They are filled with the coolest munchies and for some reason a Pepsi can always looks a lot cooler in these hotel room fridges then in yours back home. The items are also extremely overpriced and thats why its usually a good rule never to get stoned in a hotel room. A coke can costs KD1 ($3) while a tiny bottle of Black Label costs KD5 (I could still buy it and bring it to Kuwait and sell it for profit). The most expensive thing in my fridge at the moment is the 1/4 bottle of champagne costing a nice KD20. The cheapest thing is Kit Kat which costs 800fils.

Click here to view a picture of my rooms mini fridge.

Took a cab ride today in one of those old beat up Mercedes cars. In Lebanon these cabs are called “service” (pronounced serveece) and they ride up and down the streets picking up people. They pickup more then one person and you usually get off on the main road near your destination. They charge LL1000 which is like 200fils (I think like 50cents). The driver I took a ride with today turned out to speak fluent Arabic, French, English and Indian. Turned out he used to work in construction back in Saudi and moved back to Lebanon in 1993. He ran out of money and couldnt find another job so he ended up becoming a cab driver. These kind of stories are pretty comon here sadly.

I flew to Lebanon and back with Jazeera Airways last week and I decided to share my experience with the site’s readers. I had purchased two tickets online around 2 months earlier and all I needed to do was print out the confirmation email they sent and present it at the Jazeera Airways counter at the airport.

I arrived 2 hours before the flight and checked in my bags. Jazeera Airways allows you to check in only 20KG for free, anything above that you have to pay around KD1.250 per extra kilo. Unlike other airlines Jazeera can’t be flexible with the weight. On Kuwait Airways for example they allow you 30KG of weight and anything extra they can sometimes let you through without paying anything. Since Jazeera Airways profit margins are so slim they can’t be as flexible and I personally don’t have a problem with that. I paid my weight difference and got on the plane.

When I first entered the door of the Jazeera Airways aircraft I was kind of shocked. The plane is tiny with a seat formation of 3 – 3, meaning you have 3 seats on the left hand side of the plane and 3 seats on the right hand side with the aisle in between. I sat down in my seat which was in Row 10. When I was booking online the website didn’t allow me to book a seat closer to the front, the first 4 rows were first class on the website map while the seats from row 5 to 9 were not selectable and so I wasn’t able to book those. I later found out that the rows 5 to 9 are sometimes kept aside in case they needed to expand the first class to more seats. This brings me to another subject, the first class. The first class on Jazeera Airways doesn’t differ at all from the economy area. They have the same seats as us and the only difference is the middle seat on each side is temporarily converted into a table so it basically becomes a 2 – 2 formation. The leg room is also exactly the same although this is usually the biggest difference on other airlines between the first class and economy. Once the plane took off we were allowed to change seats, since the first class was only the first 4 rows I was able to go and sit in row 5. The plane had max 40 people on board and so everyone was allowed to change their seats as they pleased.

I have to say the flight was extremely comfortable. The leg room was just amazing, me being 6’1 I usually end up getting cramped on planes but Jazeera has the largest economy class leg room I have seen. The seats are all leather, very comfortable and if you lift the hand rest up you could comfortably take up the empty seat next to you. There is no free food on board only free bottled water. Sandwiches cost KD1, muffins cost 500fils, chocolate costs 300fils, softdrinks 400fils and Sunkist 250fils. Jazeera have Sunkist on board so you know they are cool and very local. The chief crewman walked around and mingled with the passengers asking their opinion on Jazeera airways and if there was anything they could do to improve the experience. I managed to speak to him and get some information off him. He explained to me why sometimes I couldn’t book the seats from row 5 to 9 online and how easy it is for them to expand or decrease the size of the first class section. He also told me Jazeera currently operate only 2 planes and the airlines is rated Class A. He explained to me how 1 plane flies from Kuwait to Beirut and Kuwait to Syria daily while the other plane flies from Kuwait to Bahrain and Kuwait to Dubai daily while also flying to Jordan three times a week. Once we were done chatting he offered me complimentary food and when I told him I didn’t need anything he still went and got me a bag of nuts to enjoy.

The plane left Kuwait on time and arrived in Beirut ahead of schedule, it was a very nice flight and I was able to watch 2 episodes of Arrested Development and 1 episode of Lost before we had to land. The flight back to Kuwait was as comfortable and although I had already booked the seats on row 10 online I was able to change it at check in to seats in row 4 since on the way back they only had 3 rows of first class.

I am extremely satisfied with Jazeera Airways, their prices are great, the planes are brand new and the service is very friendly. They seem to just want you to have a great experience. Even once we landed in Kuwait and we were on the way out of the airport a Jazeera Airways representative caught up with us to ask us if we had any feedback and if we enjoyed the experience. This is what I call good service and I would definitely recommend Jazeera to everyone.

I recorded a small crappy video showing the inside of the airplane. I didn’t know if they would allow me to shoot so its kinda shaky and short. [Video 932KB]

For more information and pricing for Jazeera Airways visit their website. [Link]

I got a new Eastpak backpack called the Little Beaver. Its from the Breakaway series made specially for traveling. Its made for people who go on short business trips because there is room to put clothes in it. I currently don’t have any clothes in my backpack but I do have the following:

– iPod Video
– Sony PSP
– Shure E2 earphones
– Sennheiser PX100 headphones
– Parker black pen
– Nikon D70
– Holga
– 4 rolls of film
– My eastpak camera bag (yes bag in a bag)
– Power adapters and cables for the ipod and psp
– passports, cash and other documents
– Wired Issue 13.12

For pictures of the bag [click here]
The bag cost me KD32 and I purchased it from Eastpak in Salmiya opposite Marina Mall.
With all the stuff above there is still a ton of room left!

I hate sandals but this impressed me. How do they stick to the feet??

Topless sandals – also called “down unders” – simulate walking barefoot while protecting your feet. Topless sandals stick to the bottom of your feet, but leave no residue on your feet when you take them off.

[Link]

My flight is early tomorrow morning and I haven’t packed yet. I don’t know what I am waiting for, probably the last minute. I didn’t even prepare my “what I need to take” list. I am just sitting here in front of the TV watching an old rerun of American Hotrods (Bluebear still on the show) waiting for Nataly to come home so I can start watching Lost. I am up to episode 18 and things are starting to pick up.

I can’t get the song Hung Up by Madonna out of my head. When I wake up in the morning the song is usually stuck in my head, I am always singing it when I am not paying attention and I am always listening to it on my iPod.

ps: I just realized the only lyrics I know from the song is the one line “Time goes by, so slowly time goes by..” I think I will learn more of the lyrics at least..

update: just got the lyrics click on more to read them

Around 2 or 3 years ago I got a really old medium format camera as a birthday gift. I don’t think the camera works or if it does I haven’t figured out how but today I found the camera in my closet and when I was fiddling with it I noticed a hidden compartment. When I opened it up there was a role of exposed film just lying there. I don’t know who its for but I am guessing it belongs to the person who owned the camera previously. I am not an expert in cameras but I think the camera is over 50 years old at least… I think, so if there are any pictures on the film they should be interesting. Tomorrow I am going to take it to have it developed, hopefully I will have something interesting to share with everyone.

I am staying late at work today trying to finish up a campaign thats due to be presented tomorrow. I hate staying late when I am not prepared for it but today I came in and I had my mind set on staying late and its really cool. No one is in the office so I have the window behind me open and my music blasting out loud. I am really taking my time and enjoying what I am working on because I no longer trying to finish up before the end of the day, I now have the whole night to work on this. No one is here to interrupt me, no one is here to tell me to lower my music and no one is fighting. Its so peaceful.

A guy in China found a shop selling duck eggs which still had babies in them. He took pictures ofcourse and you can check them out but they are really gross. I warned you. [Link]

[source metafilter]

Yesterday we decided to return our hamster his old name Zero after taking it away from him last week. Choosing a name for our dog is really a difficult thing, you don’t want something thats common, you don’t want something you can’t pronounce, you want something with a reason behind it and you want something that works on dogs. Yesterday we finally decided on the name “Geo”. It was the only name both me and Nat agreed upon. We arrived at the name after I suggested we call the dog after the legendary video game console the NeoGeo. Nat then suggest we call it just Geo since she thinks it sounds Italian like Aqua di Geo for example. So I like it because its from a Japanese video game console while she likes it because it sounds Italian, two completely different views on the name but both of us like it. Here are some other names that we couldn’t agree upon:

Dyski (from Grendizer)
Bauer (as in Jack Bauer from the show 24)
Jack (again as in Jack Bauer from 24)
Magnum (from the 80’s show Magnum PI)
Zero (Smashing Pumpkins song)
Magnus (as in Magnus Samuelsson, the world´s strongest man)

According to the breeder we should get the dog around February 4th. We will be paying for the dog in 3 payments, we paid the first payment yesterday, second will be end of the month and the third at the end of January just before they ship the dog. Hopefully we won’t change our mind on the dog again because we need to email the breeder today with the name. I am still hesitant a bit between Geo and Magnum as names but I will be asking around the office and get various peoples reaction on the two before I email the breeder. If anyone has any comments on Geo and Magnum that would be great. The picture above is the latest picture we got from the breeder.

Update: There is one more name which I suggest to Nat yesterday but she didn’t like but a lot of people at the office seem to like, Kouji which is also from Grendizer.

I am going down to Beirut next week for a 10 day vacation. I don’t know if I will have Internet access there so I might not be posting anything till I come back.

The other day I mentioned there was a competitor for Aramex, I just got the details now by email so here it is:

Dear Valued Customer,

IEC forwarding services eliminate the difficulties encountered when purchasing from US retailers. In particular:

– Many US retailers will not ship overseas.

– The US retailers that do ship internationally charge very high shipping rates.

With an account at IEC, these problems are solved!

IEC provides you with a genuine US street address that is unique to you. This is not a Post Office Box! This is your own street address that US retailers will accept as a valid shipping destination.

Account holders at IEC also enjoy very low international shipping rates, much less than rates from US retailers. Save up to 70% on international shipping!

This is an Excel file with 200 logos in it. The aim of this test is to try and name the brands which belong to the logo. I was able to guess 83 right and ended up with a 42%. There were a couple of logos which looked really familiar but I just couldn’t remember who they belonged to which made things really frustrating but still very fun. [Link]