Search: “sti”

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]

Google Earth is now available for OS X but only as a Beta. It was placed on MacUpdate earlier but they removed the download link. You can still get it from here though [12.53MB]

I have a quick question. I was driving by Al Khalijiyeh Building in Kuwait City when I noticed the gas station across the street from it was branded “Oula”. Is this part of the gas station privatizing? I don’t think they have a logo yet, it was just Oula written in regular black type on a white background, very dull.

Coca Cola replaced its old tagline “Real” with a new slogan “Welcome to the Coke side of life”. I still choose Pepsi. [Link]

Loads of handy tips & tricks my favorite being the following:

Receiving E-Mails without giving your real address
Sometimes you want to use your GMail address on a website, but you fear you will get a lot of SPAM afterwards coming from that website. So instead of creating another address just for those kind of websites, you can very easily alter your address. if your address is [email protected], enter on the website [email protected]. We will still receive every e-mail, but if the website do send you a lot of SPAMs, you can create a filter for every message sent to this address ([email protected]) to go directly in the trash !

[Link]

A large collection of pictures of video game controllers and joysticks. My favorite is the Coleco controller of course. [Link]

Only video game fans will get this comic strip. I love Killer Instinct by the way.. even though I was never able to perform the 80+ combo moves. My dream would be to buy a Killer Instinc arcade machine and shove it in my living room. Only place in Kuwait I know of that still has the Killer Instinct arcade is Showbiz on the seaside. [Link]

Christmas is coming up and I have decided to put together a gift guide. I chose items that were good deals, my taste and affordable. If you want to buy something for a friend and not pay too much you have that option, while if you want to buy something for a family member and pay more you also have that option.

All items below are linked to Amazon.com

Books
Dear Valued Customer: You Are A Loser ($10)
Sas Survival Guide ($9)
Sneakers: The Complete Collectors’ Guide ($19)
DPM Disruptive Pattern Material ($126)

Digital Camera
Canon Powershot A520 ($174)

MP3 Player
Apple 2GB iPod Nano ($194)

Laptop
Apple 12″ iBook ($999)

Music
Nirvana – With the Lights Out ($41)
Alice in Chains – Music Bank ($45)

Video Games
Sony PSP ($250)
Gameboy Micro ($90)

DVD
Season 1 & Season 2 of Arrested Development ($42)
Star Wars Trilogy ($45)
Sex and the City – The Complete Series ($194)

Home
iRobot Roomba ($149)

Fun & Cheap
Holga Medium Format Camera with flash ($29)
20Q Challenge ($35)
Tamagotchi Connection ($15)
Real Lights Sound Arena ($40)
Rubik’s Cube ($7)
Magic 8 Ball ($8)

Other
Sennheiser PX 100 Headphones ($45)
Moleskine Small Plain Notebook ($15)
Harman Kardon Soundsticks 2 ($109)

More items might be added later…

Heathrow Injection n. Term given to the phenomenon of sudden and very rapid horizontal expansion, particularly experienced by non-British persons, upon settling in London.

Heathrow Injection is an interesting term I just learned the definition to awhile ago and I am thinking it can easily be modified to fit Kuwait since we have the same problem here.

Just got back from Marina Crescent. I went to have lunch there and check out the Ramp Rebel Tour which was being held there this weekend. I have to say I have seen both Ozzy and my brother skateboard with more passion and skill while playing around at home then the two skateboarders I saw lazily play the half pipe. Maybe they were tired or bored but they were definitely not interesting to watch. I stayed there for like 20 minutes watching them just go up and down the half pipe dully and then falling half the time without doing anything. The only reason I stayed that long was because I was trying to find some shots to take with my Holga camera. I think I got some cool shots and once I develop the pictures I will post them here. I used colored film this time around.

Yesterday night I was invited to the soon to open Tai Chi restaurant located near the Sheikh Resort before Palms Club on the Gulf Road. At the moment you can only be invited to the restaurant because the place isn’t yet 100% complete and the staff is still in training, but from what I experienced the place is going to turn out great.

Tai Chi is a Tai and Chinese food restaurant. The interior of the place is very minimalistic with just enough design elements hinting out the cuisines place of origin. The restaurant is two floors but I only managed to see the first since thats where we were seated.

The food was definitely the highlight of the evening. They had a large variety of appetizers and I ended up going for something I can’t pronounce but was basically prawns on toast with some kind of sweet cucumber dip while Nat went for the saute chicken. Both dishes were delicious. The prawns on toast was very light and sweet unlike the Peacock restaurant version which feels heavier and more filling. The saute chicken was also very tasty and it came with this slightly spicy sauce which gave the dish its edge. For the main course I was planning on having my usual sweet & sour prawns but decided to try something new and went with the corn prawns with a side dish of steamed rice. The corn prawns is a combination of prawns, curry leaves and corn flakes! I was really looking forward to the meal because I never had a main dish which involved corn flakes before. As I was hoping, the corn prawns turned out to be very good. Nat also enjoyed her main course which was some kind of weird looking noodles. For desert they only had two options and we decided to go with the fried bananas with ice cream which turned out to be good but nothing special.

Overall it was a very good experience, the service was very friendly, the food was really good and the setting with their stylish plates and chilled out interior was very cool. I didn’t mention anything about the prices because there were none on the menu, the restaurant is still not finished and they only had a Microsoft Word typed menu. I don’t think they have the prices set but I believe they should be cheaper then Peacock. The place is definitely worth checking out once it opens.

Well me and Nat finally decided on the Belgian Shepherd. I am in contact with an amazing breeder in Belgium and he agreed (after asking me like a zillion questions) on selling me a puppy. One of his dogs just had a new litter and he sent me this picture of the puppies with the mother. They were 1 day old in this picture and they all look like little rats.. cute rats. He will send me the puppy after January 14th since they need to be with the mother for the first 8 weeks. Until then I will hopefully be getting more pictures of the dogs and when I do I will post them here.