Categories
Fashion Interesting Kuwait

Audemars Piguet

The other day I watched Terminator 3 and I was a bit surprised in one scene. The scene in question is when Arnold comes to the present time, goes into a bar, steals a strippers clothes and car keys, then goes out to the guys old beat up truck and drives off. Just before he drives off he puts on the strippers watch, an Offshore Audemars Piguet. I found that a bit odd since the watch cost A LOT more then the guys truck. A LOT more then the guy could ever make. It was total bullshit, no stripper working in a bar like that could make enough money to buy a watch like this. So I was kinda put off at the lack of realism in the scene. Anyway, yesterday I found out that this watch store I know in Kuwait has two special edition watches. An Audemars Piguet, Arnold Schwarzenegger edition AND a Montoya edition. So I did a bit of research turns out AP and Arnold have a pretty good relationship and they have worked together on many things from charities to movies.. I found this page that talks about the T3 movie tie in.

Now, lets talk about the coolest watch of the two, the Montoya edition. I didn’t even know such a watch existed. I am a great fan of Montoya since his Indy days and I am a bigger fan of Audemars Piguet watches. So combining the two is too extreme. Here is some info I was able to obtain about the Montoya watch:

Juan Pablo Montoya Royal Oak Offshore Chronograph
This watch was released in tribute to Formula 1 race car driver Juan Pablo Montoya. This watch features a 45mm titanium case with carbon fiber inlaid accents all over the top of the bezel and sized of the bezel and sides of the case. Every shape on this watch and every feature is designed to resemble a Formula 1 race car; The chronograph pushers are styled to look like air-intake cooling flaps, the Bezel screws are shaped like cylinder head screws, the winding crown resembles a wheel axle, the winding Rotor of the movement resembles a clutch disk and the strap resembles the racing suits of F1 racers. And of course, the watch is adorned with inlaid carbon fiber on the top and sides of the bezel. This is a very limited and near impossible to find watch, the Titanium model was released in only 1000 individually numbered pieces with current retail price as of March 15, 2005 of $19,500.

Here are some pictures of the Montoya watch.

So how much are they selling for in Kuwait? The Arnold version is going for KD7,000 while the Montoya version for KD12,000.




Categories
Food & Drinks Interesting Kuwait

A Phenomenon

Today I bought a pack of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit chewing gum and something phenomenon happened. Something that has never happened in all the years I have purchased Wrigley’s chewing gum. One of the gum sticks was double wrapped! Here is a picture.




Categories
Food & Drinks

McDonald’s

Starting today I will start posting what I had for lunch. It will go under the Lunch category and it will help me (and anyone else) keep track of how much junk food I am eating. Today I had McDonald’s. 1 Fillet-O-Fish combo supersized, and 1 double cheese burger.




Categories
Gossip & Rumors Movies Television

Rambo 4 – Al-Qaeda’s Blood

Yesterday night on the Conan O’Brien show, Sylvester Stallone was one of the guests. I really like him (Stallone) a lot, he is one of my favorite actors. Not because of his acting abilities but because of his personality as an actor and the fact that he made the movies Rambo and Cobra, both favorites of mine. So yesterdays show was extremely funny, Conan was able to get the best out of Stallone, he joked about Rocky and stuff, plus asked if Rambo would make a come back and surprisingly Stallone suggested he might. Conan made a good point by suggesting Rambo now has a new enemy to fight, Al Qaeda. Stallone joked saying that Rambo is old now and probably won’t travel that far from home, he said Rambo would probably just drive down to Mexico and fight someone there. Stallone is a really funny guy, watching him yesterday made me feel like watching Cobra again. Anyway here is a recent picture of him with Arnold Schwarzenegger.




Categories
Interesting Internet

Spell With Amazon

Similar to the flickr site from the other day, this site spells words using thumbnails from Amazon.com. It works differently from the flickr one so its interesting to try. Here is the link.




Categories
Kuwait Movies

Bumfights

I went for a long walk in Salmiya tonight and found a kid selling some DVDs. I don’t usually buy of these street kids since the quality of the DVD recording is usually terrible. I still decided to check out the dvds though and to my surprise I found Bumfights volume 1. What is Bumfights? Well these guys went around paying homeless people to fight each other and do stupid pranks like set their hair on fire or pull their teeth out using pliers all on film. When the dvd first got released it caused some controversy and thats when I found out about it. Its not a major movie release or anything so I was surprised to find it here on the streets. Its amazing how you can find the strangest stuff in Kuwait sometimes.




Categories
Blog Info

Am I Alone?

Anyone noticed that Nat hasn’t been posting here? I should just kick her out of this blog.




Categories
Interesting Video Games

The PSP Rant

I am pro Sony PSP. I definetly think its a way cooler machine then the GameBoy DS which is big and clunky. The Sony PSP games are way cooler and the connectivity features of the PSP are also a lot cooler. In a recent comparison in WIRED magazine between the PSP and DS, the PSP ofcourse came out on top. But today I read an argument about the PSP that I found interesting. The PSP is better then the DS, we know that, but how much better it could have been is the issue here.

Here is the rant I read taken from Joystiq:

The PSP’s battery is a topic of huge debate. Depending on use, a single charge can last anywhere between 6 hours all the way down to 1.5, depending on which features the handheld utilizes. Why is this?

I seriously ask, should you as a consumer and gamer, have to juggle volume and brightness to eke out a bit more play time? Should game developers be asked to manage the battery consumption or should that be an issue for the developer of the system? Basically, shouldn’t the system, when used at maximum capacity, have a reasonable battery life?

If Sony hadn’t tried to force an optical drive in the PSP, there would be much more room in the system for a larger capacity battery. Load times would be nonexistent. The system would be less fragile and prone to breaking due to mechanical failure. The system wouldn’t have the shuriken UMD ‘feature’. Overall, it would be a much better system. Sony’s reliance on the optical disc has resulted in a worse product than could have otherwise been built.

Why? Why did Sony insist on putting an optical drive in the PSP when it had to compromise on so many other issues? Simple, Sony wants to sell you movies and music on the UMD. They want you to buy a UMD movie for $20. That UMD movie has 1/3 the resolution of a similar priced DVD. That UMD movie can’t be played back on a TV. That UMD movie does not have additional DVD features, menus, subtitles or other cool things you may find on a DVD. Sony makes nearly 100% profit on movies and music.

Sony sacrificed the PSP in order to make money off of movies.

Now, before you start calling names, I’m not laying hate on the PSP. Nice screen. Sleek, shiny case. Good graphics. Nice.

I look at the decisions made by Sony and I see decisions that are absolute trash for gamers but great for lining Sony’s pockets with money. I feel frustrated knowing the PSP could have been so much more if they would simply step up to the plate and decide to knock a home run out of the park instead of walking to first base on the back of movies and music. The missed potential for a system with an 8 hour battery, fully loaded with wi-fi on, makes me weep.

4 hours isn’t enough. 2 hours is a downright embarrassment. As gamers, we should demand more.




Categories
Information Kuwait

4×4=16

Today is the first day of the 4×4 event at Marina Mall. I passed by yesterday night and they were still setting things up. Basically various car manufactures are going to be displaying their 4X4’s plus on the beach there is a 4X4 offroad course with little hills and stuff. I heard you will be able to test drive any car for free on this course including an H2. We will have to wait and see if this turns out to be true or not. The event is from March 8th till the 18th if I remember correctly.




Categories
Interesting Kuwait Music Technology

My Autographed iPod mini

Do you know who originally created the iPod? If you guessed Steve Jobs then you are absolutely wrong. The father of the ipod is an engineer called Tony Fadell. Another interesting fact is that Tony Fadell is a Lebanese citizen. I contacted Tony Fadell last year and I had a nice chat with him via email. He turned out to be a very cool guy. I asked him if I could send him my iPod mini so that he could autograph it for me. He told me I didn’t need to and then fedexed me an autographed blue ipod mini skeleton. So anyway thought I would showoff share a picture of my autographed blue mini with you.




Categories
Gossip & Rumors Interesting Television

Quentin Tarantino directs finale of CSI

From the superficial: “Quentin Tarantino has signed on to direct the May 19th season finale of CBS’s “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation”. Tarantino also came up with the episode’s storyline, which will put one of the key members of the CSI team in danger. Details are sketchy, but it might also involve a bunch of guys in suits doing a lot of shooting and maybe a kung fu master doing kung fu. And a sodomy scene. There’ll definitely be a sodomy scene.”




Categories
Kuwait Personal

No Way Hosay

OK, I left the office with everyone else around 10:30AM and got to the marina near the Sultan Center restaurant at around 10:45AM. I saw the yacht and it was pretty big. But I also noticed that while the boat was parked inside the marina in very calm waters it was still bouncing up and down and sideways. So I decided not to get on the yacht. No way you know. If it was bouncing while parked I am sure it was gonna be bouncing a lot more out in the open sea. So now I am back at the office, I am the only one here and I am gonna catch up on some work. I would rather be stuck here in the office then be out at sea.




Categories
50s to 90s Kuwait Personal Video Games

My Vintage Gaming Collection

I was reading Puss-In-Boots blog and she said she loves to collect rare stuff. But she didn’t say what stuff she collected. I know Nibaq likes to collect toy figurines, but what else does everyone collect? I personally collect 2 things. Wired Magazines (I have every issue since 5.01 and my oldest is 3.12), and also videogame systems. So since today is cleaning Firday, I decided to take out and shoot all my systems and then wipe the dust off before I put them back into the cabinets. Below is a list of all the systems I currently own and they link to their pictures.

Atari Jaguar
Atari Lynx
Coleco Vision
Commodore 64
Commodore VIC 20
Dingoo A320
Game & Watch – Chef
Game & Watch – Donkey Kong Jr.
Game & Watch – Mario Bros.
Microsoft Xbox
Microsoft Xbox 360
MSX2 (Sakhr)
NEO-GEO AES
Nintendo 64
Nintendo DS
Nintendo DS Lite
Nintendo Gameboy SP
Nintendo Gamecube
Nintendo Wii
Panasonic 3DO
Sega Dreamcast
Sega Gamegear
Sony Playstation 1
Sony Playstation 2
Sony Playstation 3
Sony PSP
Speak & Spell
Super Nintendo
Super Simon

I still have a couple of systems I would like to own, mainly a Nintendo Virtual Boy, a Sega Nomad and a Sega Saturn.

Before I got married and moved into my own apartment, I didn’t have any room to display the stuff in my old room so I had them all under my bed. Now though since I have my own place I have them all displayed in my cabinet (1,2) with the boxes and some accessories in the drawers and closests (1,2,3,4).

So what do you guys collect?




Categories
Food & Drinks Kuwait Reviews

Shawerma Review: Salmiya’s Jewels

Passed by Salmiya’s Jewels (Jawharet Salmiya) yesterday night for dinner. Its a Shawerma place I frequent often because of the lack of other decent Shawerma places in the area. The Shawerma place is located on a corner of the building next to the Lime Light boutique in Salem Al Mubarek street. Its not a big place but the Shawerma guy is very friendly and nice. They don’t have meat Shawerma only chicken. They give you two options for the bread, you can either have a hot dog bun which is my favorite or the regular bread. Price of the Shawerma is 250fils and they sell cans of softdrinks for 100fils. They have Shani available. The garlic is pretty good and strong and be-worn, it will leave your breath stinky for the next couple of hours unless taken care of. The place although doesnt look it, is pretty safe and clean to eat at. I have eaten there numerous of times and never gotten sick. There is a small seating place outside but its not very comfortable. The place doesnt have much competition around if any. The closest Shawerma places to him are Kurdo which is down the road towards McDonalds, and this other unknown place in an alley accross the street from Marina Mall. Over all the place gets a 3 out of 5. Its a decent score for a shawerma place in this range.

Here are two pictures of the place:
Picture 1
Picture 2




Categories
Information Technology Video Games

Preorder your Sony PSP now!

Thanks to BusyNow for the heads up. Amazon.com is now allowing you to preorder your Sony PSP value pack for a price of $250 (KD73). The value pack includes a 32MB Memory Stick Duo, headphones with a remote control, a battery pack, and a movie/music/video game sample UMD. Sony is also tossing in a special UMD-version of the film Spider-Man 2 with the first one million PSP Value Packs sold. So preorder your PSP now, this is the link.

This is my order:
1 of Sony Playstation Portable (PSP) Value Pack
Sony Computer Entertainment; @ $249.99 each

1 of PSP Ridge Racer
Namco; @ $39.99 each

——-
Item(s) Subtotal: $289.98
Shipping & Handling: $5.48
Total Before Tax: $295.46
Tax: $25.48

TOTAL: $320.94

Update: Amazon has stopped the preordering. It seems the first batch of PSPs on Amazon have already been preordered.