Search: “sti”

We took Geo to the Marina Crescent beach tonight. The weather was pretty cold but it didn’t seem to bother him at all. I came to two conclusions today, the first is something I have known for a while now, I am unfit, the second thing is that when Geo grows up he is gonna kick my ass. Geo is a really fast runner, although he is still a puppy he could keep up with me when I was running. If he can keep up with me now I can only imagine how fast he will be once he grows up. Whenever I watch a movie and there is a criminal escaping police dogs I always imagined myself doing better if I was in his spot. Well thats bullshit because I could barely run for 30 seconds before collapsing from exhaustion tonigh. Damn I need to exercise. On our way back to the car Geo saw his friend Bozo, a white Labrador puppy he met on his first beach visit. They played a bit before we had to tell them goodbye and go home.The picture on top is of Geo chasing Nat on the beach.

I mentioned the other day that Geo my dog will be on a raw meat diet. This means I have to buy him fresh meat every other day and luckily there are 3 butchers near my apartment. The problem I figured I would face buying 1KG of the same meat every other day is the curiosity of the butcher. If I start passing by the butcher every other day, over time I will become a good customer and I am sure he will also want to start a conversation with me and maybe even ask me what I am doing with the meat. I don’t want to tell him the meat is for my dog because I don’t want him to give me the crappiest meat he has. I want the best for Geo and thats why the butcher must never find out the meat will be going to my dog. So I had to create a story in case he does ask me what I will be doing with the meat and its a good thing I did because yesterday he asked.

Around 4 days ago I past by one of the butchers which was recommended to me. It was my first time visiting a butcher but I had spoken to my mum earlier and she told me what to tell him. So I go in and I tell the butcher and I need 1KG of cow meat. I want sirloin, without fat and diced up and split into two packages each containing half a kilo. Five minutes later I walked out with the meat, it cost me KD2.

Yesterday I was planning on going to another butcher so that I could spread out my meat purchases so that I don’t arouse suspicion but my mum recommended I stick to the same butcher all the time that way I can get the best meat. I guess it works like sushi places, the more you visit the better the quality of fish you get. So I went back to the guy and I repeated the same thing I told him last time, except this time he started asking me questions. He was like you want it steak? I was like I want the same thing you gave me last time. He is like but you want it steak? I was like umm, you know chopped up into pieces.. like 2 days ago. He was like what will you use it for? I told him I just started a low carb diet and I am grilling the meat. He was like in that case take the fillet, its a lot better. I was like how much does a kilo cost? He was like KD2.5. I was like no its ok, just give me what I took last time, I don’t want to spend this much money for dinner. He was like listen I will give it to you for KD2, and I am telling you once you have this meat you can’t go back to the other one, you will love it. So he gave me the meat and it looked really good, so red and soft and no fat at all. I paid him KD2 and left.

Geo is really getting the star treatment from Nat. yesterday for breakfast he had 2 boiled eggs and 3 brown toast. For lunch he had chicken with basmati rice and for dinner he had leftovers from lunch followed by honey on toast. Now if she will only start cooking food for me!

Update: I just realized something, the older Geo gets the more food he will eat. What am I gonna tell the butcher when suddenly I am buying 5KG of meat every other day?

Update 2: Fuck I just realized, 5KG of meat every other day means I will be spending KD150 on raw meat a month. Fuck! I miscalulated. Its KD150 if I am feeding him 3 times a day but once he becomes an adult its only once a day meaning KD50 a month which is pretty decent.

Having trouble knowing which Danish brands to boycott? I don’t know why I didn’t realize this earlier but Bang & Olufsen is Danish.. I wonder if their store in Fanar is still open? Anyway I did a bit of research to see if there were other brands I liked that were Danish and I found out that my favorite brand of gum, Stimoral is Danish. I need to check and see if Sultan Center still carry them but I am guessing they aren’t. Here is a nice list of Danish products I found, I don’t know if all of these are available in Kuwait:

Food & Beverages
* Arla Foods – milk and dairy products
* Danish meat
* Carlsberg – beer and softdrinks
* Tuborg – beer and softdrinks
* Suntop – orange drink
* Puck – cheese spread
* 3 Cows – #1 feta cheese in Kuwait
* Dano – powdered milk

Danish design
* Lego – Toys
* Bang & Olufsen – Music systems and televisions
* K.I.S.S. – DVD Recorders
* Stelton – Danish design
* Jacob Jensen – Danish design
* Alfi – Danish design
* Rosendahl – Danish design
* Louis Poulsen – Lightning
* Skagen Watches – Danish watches
* Danish Furniture Online
* Piet Hein – Fritz Hansen furniture
* Arne Jacobsen – Fritz Hansen furniture

Candy
* Toms
* Galle & Jessen
* Stimorol Chewing Gum

Cigarettes
* Prince

Healthcare
* Novo Nordisk – Healthcare

Clothes, textile & Shoes
* H2O
* Jysk – Quilts, pillows, mattresses
* Hummel
* Ecco
* Jaco
* Inwear
* Matinique

Other
* Maersk Sealand – one of the largest shipping companies
* Aqua – pop group (Barbie Girl)

Yesterday evening we took Geo to the Marina Crescent park to meet up with Fadibou and his puppy Mikki. Turns out Geo and Mikki really liked each other and they spent most of the evening playing together on the grass and sand. Only problem is that Geo is 13KG while Mikki is 1.5KG. So Geo was like hurting Mikki accidentally while playing. Anyway we walked further up the beach and met with 3 other puppies. the oldest being 3 months old. All 5 dogs spent around an hour running around playing with each other in the sand. They were 4 males and 1 female but Mikki was the star, all the dogs seemed to want to play with him. Geo had a lot of fun and I was hoping all this playing would get him tired enough to put him to sleep early and I was right.. for a while. Geo ended up going to sleep at 10PM in his fenced off area and we went to sleep right after since both me and Nat hadn’t gotten any sleep the night before. Everything was fine until around 12:30AM we woke up to Geo’s whining and barking. He must have woken up in the middle of the night and realized he was all alone downstairs and he just went ballistic. The book we read said this would happen and that we should leave him alone but he was just too loud. I called up my brother next door and asked him if he could hear Geo and he told me he could very clearly. So not to get in trouble with the neighbours we solved the problem by Nat sleeping on the couch in the living room with Geo on the floor next to her. The living room has hardwood floors so in case Geo decided to “go” during the night it wouldn’t be that a big a problem while our bedroom is carpeted and would be a lot more difficult to clean. So now hopefully next week we will be replacing the carpet in the bedroom with hardwood, that way Geo can sleep with us in the bedroom, the only way we will ever get some sleep..

Geo arrived yesterday night at 12:05AM via KLM. When I had spoken to a KLM representative earlier in the day he told me I needed only 30 minutes to clear Geo once he arrives.. what bullshit. After 2 hours of running around to 6 different locations at the airport cargo terminal and after going and coming between these 6 offices a total of 11 times, I was finally able to clear Geo and take him home. Mind you I was the only one there clearing anything and it took me over 2 hours so you could imagine how painfully long the process would be during the day when every trader in Kuwait is at the cargo terminal clearing their products. All the employees were very nice and tried their best to get all our papers completed asap but its just a lot of stuff that needed to be signed and at full speed it just wasn’t possible to take less then 2 hours. Oh a strange thing, we were sitting at the vets office at the terminal and one guy there was like did you check on your dog, is he alive? I was like no I hadn’t seen my dog yet but what the fuck, do dogs arrive here dead? The guy was like yeah, many times the dog arrives to Kuwait and its dead. I am guessing this happens often during the summer when they keep the dogs locked up in their tiny travel cages for over 2 hours in the hot summer heat waiting for their owners to get all their paperwork done.

Anyway we get home and Geo is all active and shit and wants to play. So we play. We figured he probably just was so bored trapped in his cage and he just wants to let off some steam. So we played with him until 4AM and Geo was still jumping around all excited. We decide to lock him up in his area downstairs and go up and sleep. His area consists of half the bottom floor of our apartment separated by a 1 meter high fence. His area is around 4×6 meters and the floor is covered in vinyl in case he goes to the bathroom indoors the mess would be easier to clean up. So we lock him up and go upstairs and Geo starts to whine which we were expecting. Suddenly he stops and I was thinking wow that was easier then I expected and so I decided to sneak downstairs quietly to watch Geo sleep. So I am standing in the stairway trying to sneak a peak at Geo sleeping but I couldn’t find him in his area. Suddenly I see Geo walking out of the first floor bathroom casually.. he had escaped from his area! So I realized there was a weakness in my fence design and Geo was able to squeeze out from the far side of the fence. I solve that issue by blocking his escape route with his travel cage. I go back upstairs and I am about to go to sleep when suddenly Nat is like “Mark, Geo is here”. He had escaped again! So I went back down and realized he had climbed over his travel cage and then over the fence. So I solved that problem also and on my way up the stairs I look back and I see Geo squeezing out from between two fences. Fucking A thats like 3 prison breaks in 15 minutes. Good thing I don’t design prisons for a living. We decided to solve the fence issue the next day and for the night he could sleep with us in our bedroom. That didn’t work out the way we planned it either. Geo spent the whole night whining wanting to play with us. At around 7AM we all fell asleep. 9AM I wake up to realize Nat and Geo were missing, seemed they both had woken up at 8AM and Nat made him breakfast and took him down for a walk. It was a totally sleepless night.

We spent most of today fixing his fence issue and taking naps whenever we could. I wasn’t able to post more details earlier because I was dead tired but I just woke up from a 30 minute nap and I feel a bit more energized. I spoke to Fadibou on the phone and we will be meeting up with him and his dog Mikki at Marina Crescent later tonight.

Overall I am really glad we got Geo. He turned out to be much more cuter then his pictures had shown him to be and he is also a lot bigger then I expected. He is silly and dumb at times (like yesterday he got introduced to the concept of a glass door after ramming into it 2 times) and loves playing with Amazon boxes. He doesn’t bark and he’s extremely playful. I will record a video of him soon and upload it once I get my DSL connection back at home. For now I just have the picture I posted earlier today.

I just checked my email today morning and found an interesting offer by Jazeera Airways. Two return flight tickets to Beirut plus a one night stay at a 4 star hotel for only KD129. Not a bad deal and not a bad idea at all. [Link]

For nearly a year now I was using my Sony AV3000 universal remote to control my living room setup made up of a TV, DVD player, Xbox, AV Receiver and Tivo. Instead of having multiple remotes spread out over my table the idea was to replace them all with one device. This idea failed since although my Sony universal remote was great, it wasn’t as practical as the Tivo or Xbox remote. So I mostly used the Sony remote to control my TV, DVD player and AV Receiver but continued using my original Tivo remote (which many say is the best remote design ever) to control my Tivo and the original Xbox remote to control my Xbox.

A few months back a friend of mine Rami ordered the Harmony 880 remote. He had been a Harmony user long before Logitech acquired them and as soon as the 880 was released he placed an order for one. He kept telling me how great the Harmony remotes were and how the new 880 was just really the best remote he had ever had. Finally I decided to order one and I got it last week. I have to say Rami was right, this is one of the best remotes I have ever had!

The Harmony 880 is a universal remote on steroids. It has a number of impressive features the most important being the colored screen and the fact it uses rechargeable Li-on batteries which you can charge by placing the remote on the dock it came with. To setup the remote you need to create an account on the Harmony website and then transfer the date to your remote using the included USB cable. I don’t know why they did it like that since I would have preferred having a local software on my computer to control my remote from. If you don’t have Internet then the 880 remote would be useless for you since you NEED to have an Internet connection to set it up the first time.

The colored screen on the remote is a really cool feature but the quality is similar to older mobile phone screens like the Sony Ericsson T68i. Setting up the remote online was a breeze and using the Activities button I was easily able to enjoy watching TV right away. The Activities button allows you to tell the remote what you want to do. Do you want to watch a DVD? Click on the “Watch DVD” button and the remote will turn on the DVD player, AV receiver and TV for you, it will then put the TV on the right channel and choose the correct input on the AV receiver. Want to watch Tivo? Click on the “Watch Tivo” button and the remote will turn the TV on, put it on Video 2 and then turn the AV receiver on and change the input to AUX. All this with a click of a button. Although things look simple, for hardcore users you have a whole amount of detailed control underneath this easy to use interface. How long does your TV take to warm up before it would accept commands? 2 seconds? You can teach the remote that. Do you want to change the on screen icons to your own design? You can do that. This remote is just loaded with a ton of features like that, little but important stuff for people who want more control.

The most important deciding factor in a good remote is its ergonomics. How does the remote feel in the hand? How easy is it to use? Is it practical? Well the Harmony 880 remote feels like the Tivo remote with the main important controls located in the middle while other lesser used controls are spread out on top and bottom. The 880 has a motion sensor so when you pick up the remote it automatically lights up the screen and all the buttons.. no more fumbling around in the dark trying to find the pause button. I wouldn’t say the 880 is better ergonomically then the Tivo remote but it really is very close to being as good. I mean, I have stopped using both my Tivo and Xbox remotes in favor of the 880.

I could go on and on in more details about why this remote is THE remote to own but there are tons of other reviews online that do that. I just want to back up all these reviews and say that everything you read about this remote is true. I love it, it looks good, its easy to use and hold, its fully featured and it allows me to do so much. I couldn’t believe it when this remote gave me features my original TV remote didn’t have! The only negative thing about the remote is the fact that you have to use their website to set it up. Maybe under usual circumstances its not a big deal but since I have been having Internet problems at home I am forced to take my remote with my laptop to starbucks or work and set it up from there. Not very practical and this is why this perfect remote will get 4 stars and not 5.

Buy the Harmony 880 from Amazon for $224

Update: If I had to review the remote again I would give is a 2.5 out of 5 because I am having a lot of problems with Harmony’s web based software. Their servers are slow and I am getting a lot of time out errors everytime I need to change an option on the remote.

Finally got my Mac to connect to my phones GPRS connection. I spent like 30 minutes now trying everything and for a while I thought it must be because both my PowerMac and Nats Powerbook are running OS10.4 but then when I tried it on my clamshell iBook which was running OS10.3 it still didn’t work. After a bit of playing around I found the solution and decided to post it here incase someone in the future does a google search looking for help.

If you have a Sony Ericsson K700 or K750 and are trying to get you Apple computer to connect to your phones GPRS connection using bluetooth, when choosing modem type choose “Ericsson R520 28.8”. I was getting a “No carrier detected” error message while using the default “Ericsson Infrared” selection for the modem which used to work perfectly fine with my older Sony Ericssons T610 and T630.

I don’t have internet at home which sucks. Something is still wrong with the phonelines in my area. I am posting with my old Palm Tungsten PDA. Finally found a use for it.

A friend of mine just sent me this video clip of a funny prank. Some guys from a tvshow tied a deer to a hood of a car and parked it outside a supermarket. When people pass the deer they would make it look like the deer is still alive and talking to them. Its a lot funnier then how I just explained it, just watch it and see.
Right click and save as [WMV 3.7MB]

Two days ago I tasted the best cookies I had ever had. A friend at work had received these cookies in a glass jar as a gift and I asked if I could taste them. The jar looked interesting and the cookies inside looked tasty so I took a cookie and tried it. It was soft, fresh, inviting and just fucking heavenly. I asked my friend where I could find these cookies since I never noticed them at Sultan Center or any other supermarket and she replied telling me she would ask her friend who sent them to her. A few minutes later I found out that Choowy Goowy is a place in Kuwait that makes and delivers cookies to your home or office. She showed me the glass jar the cookies came in and pointed towards a tiny message on the label which said “For a refill call 2626559”. I quickly picked up the phone and dialed the number to find out all I could about this interesting service.

This is basically what I found out. Choowy Goowy is a local creation, 100% made in Kuwait. I spoke to the owner who’s recipes the cookies are made from and he was very nice and polite. He spoke good English and explained to me how they originally started off in 2002 with Arabic icecream. They created a service called Booza Booza which delivered iceream to your home but since icecream is a summer product they needed a winter one also and this why in September of last year they started Choowy Goowy. Choowy Goowy makes 5 kinds of cookies, the regular Chocolate Chip, Peanut Butter Cookies, Cinnamon Cookies, Cookies with Macadamia and finally double chocolate cookies. A jar with a dozen cookies inside costs KD2.5 except for the double chocolate which costs KD3.5. If you have a jar and want a refill its 500fils cheaper so KD2 or KD3 depending on which cookies you order. They deliver two times a day, before lunch and in the afternoon, that way you get a fresh batch of cookies whenever you order them.

I placed my order yesterday night and told them I wanted my cookies the next day at 7PM since I would have come home from work by then. You don’t have to call a day ahead though, a fellow employee called them up in the morning and asked to have the cookies by noon and they were delivered to her without a problem. I ordered the regular chocolate chip for KD2.5 since I think the double chocolate at KD3.5 is over my cookie budget. The driver had some problems finding my building (I actually had to run down the street after his van when he missed my house) but since it was his first time I didn’t mind. I told him to remember my place the next time because I would definitely be ordering again.

We were in the middle of episode 13 of Prison Break when the cookies arrived so the timing was perfect. I quickly snapped a few pictures of the jar and then proceeded to quickly open it and let Nat have a taste of these cookies since she had only heard about them from me but never tasted them yet. Within 10 minutes I had eaten 6 cookies while Nat had eaten 2, I would have eaten more but there were only 4 left and I wanted to save some for later. The cookies were amazing. They taste similar to the Fuddruckers cookies except without the nutty flavor which I really dislike. The Choowy Goowy cookies are the best cookies I have ever tasted and the fact that this is a local creation makes me appreciate it a lot more.

Even though these cookies are the best in Kuwait I would have to give them a 4 out of 5 because of the price. Without the jar a dozen cookies cost KD2, thats double the price of the Fuddruckers cookies. On the other hand you are having the cookies delivered right to you which is a big plus and I would have to say these cookies taste atleast twice as good as the Fuddruckers ones. I would really really recommend everyone to try these cookies, they are seriously amazing. Choowy Goowy have the best cookies in Kuwait, give them a call on 2626559.

Update: The owner sent me a message saying that the reason the cookies cost more then your average cookies is because they are made with the best quality ingredients. He also stated that in Fifth Avenue New York there are some places that sell a dozen cookies for $50 and they are always sold out. Finally the cookies are also trans fats free.

For some reason I was expecting this movie to be based in a jungle on an island, I guess something like the TV show Lost. I don’t know where I got that visual in my head but it put me off about the movie and I wouldn’t have watched it if Nat hadn’t nagged the hell out of me to get it.

The main star of the movie is Ewan McGregor who I will continue to dislike more and more until he shaves his head and goes back to being the still unknown but really cool actor in Trainspotting. Ewan has become too mainstream for my taste and after starring in Moulin Rouge which I will never ever EVER watch, I have started to think he might be turning soft. In the movie The Island he wasn’t that bad, it suited him more then then his previous roles like Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars and Ed in Big Fish. I think when Ewan plays the role of a young carefree guy it suits him the best.

Plot Outline: Lincoln Six-Echo (McGregor) is a resident of a seemingly utopian but contained facility in the mid 21st century. Like all of the inhabitants of this carefully controlled environment, Lincoln hopes to be chosen to go to the “The Island” – reportedly the last uncontaminated spot on the planet. But Lincoln soon discovers that everything about his existence is a lie. He and all of the other inhabitants of the facility are actually human clones. Lincoln makes a daring escape with a beautiful fellow resident named Jordan Two-Delta (Johansson). Relentlessly pursued by the forces of the sinister institute that once housed them, Lincoln and Jordan engage in a race for their lives to literally meet their makers.

This movie is an action packed fast moving sci-fi which sounds good until you realize its over 2 hours long. No one wants to sit for over 2 hours watching an action movie with a plot thats so predictable that you just want to get the whole thing over with. I think thats the movies biggest fuck up, if it was a one-hour-thirty-minute in-and-out thank-you-goodbye flick then it wouldn’t have been an issue. The movie does have some really good chase scenes which were really fun to watch and that why I am giving this movie a 3.5 out of 5 instead of a 3.

I am not a wristband type of guy, the only thing I wear on my wrist is my watch.. I don’t even wear any jewelery other then my wedding ring. Things might change though now that I have discovered what must be the most practical fashion accessory out there.. the Imation Flash Wristband. Its a flash stick which you simply wear around your wrist, how simple of an idea is that? It also doesn’t look bad at all just maybe a bit geeky. I couldn’t find the price but it was supposed to have been released mid January at Target stores. I checked the online Target store but I couldn’t find it and I couldn’t find on either Newegg.com or Amazon.com. [Link]

I am at work and I am online using Qualitynet dialup again. It turns out that although Fasttelco brought back online most of its services yesterday night, their Kuwait City users will remain without Internet for another day or two. All phone numbers starting with 24 still do not have Internet access.

Dear Mark,
We would like to extend our sincere apologies for the difficulties you may have encountered with our Internet and Data services on 28th Jan 2006.

The problem was due to a major failure at Ministry of Communication Building that impacted our services.

We would like to assure you that series of measures have been taken to avoid such incident in the future, while a total restoration was carried to have our service back to normal..

If you are still encountering any problems please do not hesitate to contact us.

We regret any inconvenience caused to you in this regard and take this opportunity to thank you for your understanding and patience.

Best Regards
Customer Service
Qualitynet
For Support Call 804444