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I am sitting here listening to the song Crimson by Circulation and I have to say, the PX100 are amazing. When I first got the PX100 I posted about them but now that I have been using them for over a week I am ready to review them. These headphones are really everything I was hoping them to be. They are light, compact, comfortable and sound fucking great.

I usually carry my stuff into work in the morning and then take them with me in the evening. I don’t like leaving my personal stuff behind and thats why I was looking for portable headphones. The PX100 fold up nicely into an amazingly designed case which I can fit in my pocket and then throw into my wrangler knowing that no matter how violent I am with it my headphones are tucked away safely in its hard case. I can imagine this case would also be perfect for throwing into your backpack which would be filled with books and other objects that might usually break your headphones.

During working hours I spend 90% of my time listening to music and if I work an 8 hour shift that means I spend maybe 7 hours listening to music (I know thats not exactly 90%). This is why I really needed my headphones to be comfortable and the PX100 are exactly that. I could have them on for 7 hours straight and not feel the need to take them off. They are super comfortable and light enough for me not to even realize that I have them on.

Now although comfort and portability were a priority in choosing a headphone, sound quality was even more important. Since I also own a pair of Bang & Olufsen A8’s (which suck) and Shure E2’s (great at isolation), I wanted these headphones to be everything the other 2 weren’t.. good in the low frequencies. The bass response in the PX100 is deep and tight and not overdone like my old Technics Dj1200’s were. The highs, the mids the lows, they are all there and perfectly balanced. I enjoy the sound of my Sennheisers now way more then the B&O’s and a bit more then the Shure E2s which is saying alto.

In conclusion I don’t think I ever need to buy another pair of headphones (Actually I do want to try the Grados). The Sennheiser PX100 turned out to be better then I was expecting them to be and I really love them. They cost $45 on Amazon and I think thats a steal, I would pay double the price easily. [Amazon Link]

If MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Jabber, AOL or GTalk is blocked at your office or maybe you are on a computer which won’t allow you to install any of these chat programs, a new website will allow you to get on these messengers. I know there are many other websites that do this but this is the only one I know that uses Web 2.0. I just tried it out now and its great, works exactly like the real thing with chat windows which you can move around and stuff. Give it a try and you will see what I am talking about. [Link]

I was watching 5th Gear yesterday on the Discovery Channel when they had a bit on light poles similar to the ones used on Kuwait streets. They took a regular car and installed hardware on it so they could control it remotely and then driving at 45mph they made it ram into one of these steel light posts. The result was catastrophic. The light pole barely moved or bent while the car was destroyed and thrown violently around. If there was anyone in the car they would have been seriously wounded if not killed.

They then started to tell us about these new types of light poles that are being using in countries like Sweden and Finland, collapsible poles. These poles are made from aluminum and are designed to absorb the impact of a car and slow it down. They look very similar to the regular poles except of course they are very different.

To demonstrate how safe driving into the poles were the inventor of the “safe” poles got into a car wearing only a seatbelt and a helmet (to protect him from flying glass if any) and drove into a pole going at 45mph. It was incredible, once the car hit the pole it bent and the car drove over it slowing down. The car did get damaged but very lightly, the driver got out safely and the car was even drivable after the crash.

Now I have seen loads of accidents here in Kuwait specially on the Gulf Road where people have rammed into the light poles and gotten killed. With all the money in Kuwait how come the government hasn’t installed these new collapsible poles.. at least in places where it is very common for people to ram into them?

Update: Here is a link to an article abou the Lamppost which turns out has been in use in Sweden for the past 12 years! [Link]

Update 2: If you want to download the bit on the lamppost you can from the 5th Gear official website for a price of KD1 [Link]

Update 3: The video is on YouTube you can check it below

The Kuwait Advertising Awards it currently taking place at the Salwa Events Hall near Marina Crescent. I just got a message from my sister who is at the awards ceremony. The event started 1 hour late at 7 and they started of with speeches, according to her its very boring. I received another message from another art director from my agency who is there and according to him the event actually turned out to be very formal, so Nataly was right when she said it was a formal event.

Update: My sis called me after the event finished. Basically out of 22 awards my agency (JWT) took half of them while Nats agency (Saatchi&Saatchi) took the other half. Just to make it clear out of all the awards Saatchi took none were for Kuwait work, and out of all the awards my agency took only 1 was for Kuwait. The event supposingly was very unorganized and chaotic, my sister should be posting about it tonight on her blog.

I was researching on food when I came across this text which I really liked and would like to share:

Eating is a biological necessity, but answers about what is eatable and not only edible, the way we prepare food, the way we serve and consume meals in social settings are to be searched for in cultural and religious contexts.

We are born into a culture with its set of social relations, traditions and developments, values, food standards etc. During adolescence we get taste memories, which have an influence on our food choices, but we are challenged by different kinds of food, different kinds of lifestyles and culturally different ways of eating. We meet the unfamiliar and strange when we travel, through ethnic food restaurants and when we go shopping. The world is not static; changes seem to happen faster in relation to what we eat today, when, where and with whom we dine daily and on festive occasions. Industrial food production and the global market exist alongside the regional and national kitchens. Urban meal traditions, art of cooking, advertising, technology and taste affects us.

Taken from here.

I passed by Al Ghanim Electronics tonight to check out their HDTVs. They had a whole bunch of plasmas on display but none grabbed my interest, I was there looking for regular (tube/crt) high definition television. Turns out they only had 1 which supported the 720p resolution and it was the 36″ Sony which a regular reader (hola) pointed out to me was on sale for KD590 because it was the last piece. Sadly its widescreen which won’t fit in my display and also I was looking for a regular 4:3 ration TV not the 16:9. They had 2 other Philips TVs which supported HD and were pretty cheap BUT neither of them supported the high resolution 720p, just the low res 420p and 1080i. The 34inch was for like KD300 while the 29″ for like KD200.

So if anyone is interested in the Sony 36″ HDTV, its selling for an amazing low price (actual price is around KD800) and they only have 1 display model left.

I really like Supergroups although I would rather call them All-Star bands. Supergroups are music groups that are composed of members from other already very popular bands. Here are my favorites:

Eyes Adrift
Curt Kirkwood (Meat Puppets)
Krist Novoselic (Nirvana)
Bud Gaugh (Sublime)

Audioslave
Chris Cornell (Soundgarden)
Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine)
Tim Commerford (Rage Against the Machine)
Brad Wilk (Rage Against the Machine)

Velvet Revolver
Scott Weiland (Stone Temple Pilots)
Slash (Guns N’ Roses)
Dave Kushner (Guns N’ Roses)
Duff McKagan (Guns N’ Roses)
Matt Sorum (Guns N’ Roses)

A Perfect Circle
Josh Freese (Nine Inch Nails)
Billy Howerdel (Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails, Guns N’ Roses)
Jeordie White (The Vandals)
Maynard James Keenan (Tool)
James Iha (Smashing Pumpkins)

For people who don’t own the new iPods yet continue to say that the new iPods don’t scratch easily thats total bullshit. I have had my iPod video for a week now and it spends majority of its time in its foof pod. Yet holding up my iPod now and looking at it from an angle I can easily see around 30 to 40 minor scratches. This is unfucking acceptable. My Sony Ericsson phone which I have owned now for a few months and which I throw into my pocket with my keys on a daily basis has only 1 scratch on the screen. How the hell does my ipod have 40 scratches in 1 week while it remains tucked away in its nice protective case?

TivoGuy got 2 deep scratches on his iPod because he had it in his pocket when he accidently put a paper parking ticket in the same pocket. A paper parking ticket scratched his ipod!

Apple really fucked up this time around. It seems they have been really cutting back on costs, no power adapter, crappy packaging, easily scratching surface and best of all, if you have your phone next to your ipod and it rings you can kiss your ears goodbye.

Update: just added image to the post.

wwiTV is your broadband Portal to watch live TV broadcasts and on demand TV broadcasts on the Internet. wwiTV is only an index to streaming media available on the web and does not host any of the media. They have over 3000 streams listed but they are mostly news channels. [Link]

This post is dedicated to Nat since she gets hiccups often. She tries to get rid of her hiccups by drinking a glass of water while holding her nose closed. Here is the right way to do it:

1. Swallow 1 tsp. white table sugar, dry. A study found that this stopped hiccups immediately in 19 out of 20 people. Repeat up to three more times at 2-minute intervals if necessary.

2. Gulp down a glass of water if the sugar doesn’t work.

3. Eat a piece of dry bread slowly.

4. Breathe in and out of a paper bag. Do not use a plastic bag under any circumstances, and don’t do this longer than 1 minute.

5. Gargle with water (see ‘How to Gargle’).

6. Repeat the above steps until your hiccups stop.

[Source]

Its a Cam recording of the most recent Steve Jobs spoof on Saturday Night Live. Its extremely hilarious and anyone who’s ever watched Jobs introduce a new product is gonna love it. I can’t wait for the iPod invisa now! [Link]

Update: here is another spoof for the ipod flea [Link] thank you brian

Well the Xbox360 is coming out in a few days and its time to move onto the next generation of videogame consoles. I have been reading most of the Xbox reviews online and I have concluded one thing, I need a High Definition Television. The majority of the reviews I have been reading have been saying that unless I have a HDTV I won’t be seeing much of an improvement over the current generation of consoles. So it seems the wise thing to do is to upgrade my TV which I have been wanting to for a while now. I don’t want to get a plasma/LCD TV for numerour reasons including the fact that the only plasma I can afford are the cheap Panasonic Viera series which are currently being advertised on billboards around Kuwait. The problem with the Viera is you get what you pay for and according to online reviews the Viera series have numerous issues with the most important one being they doen’t support the 720p resolution. I also believe that a high definition tube television would give a better picture quality then the plasmas and LCDs, so until OLED TVs get released I will be sticking with the old tube.

This is where the problem starts, I haven’t found many HD tube televisions in Kuwait. I only found two models at Sony, a 29″ and a 34″ and I haven’t found any other anywhere else. The 34″ seems like my best option at the moment but it costs around KD700-KD800 which brings me to the following question, is it worth getting HDTV in Kuwait?

In the States they already have cable and satellite channels broadcasting at High Definition, from what I know we don’t have anything like that in Kuwait. So paying KD800 for a TV so I can play high definition games on it doesn’t make a lot of sense. DVD’s are supposed to look better on HDTV’s but I don’t buy that many DVD’s and I mostly use my TV for watching TV shows.

So any HDTV experts here? Any tips and advice in purchasing a HDTV and using it here in Kuwait?

iPod Photo
White, 60GB (Fourth Generation)
Like new, used for one month only
Will include 2 hard cases for Free
Will also include 2 DVD’s full of English MP3s
and 1 DVD with Arabic MP3s
Asking Price: KD85

If you are interested leave a comment below.

Just a quick update on my Holga. I just gave in my first role of black & white film to Boushari. Its going to cost me around KD5.500 to develop 12 pictures. Turns out they charge 4 times the regular amount to develop black & white pictures because they have to develop them manually. So in conclusion these 12 random pictures I took better be fucking good and even if they are this is the last time I will shoot with black & white since the whole Holga experience is supposed to be dirt cheap. I never liked black & white photography during university so I don’t know why I bothered to try it again now. Anyway while there I picked up some colored film, cost me only 550fils, really cheap.

Wow, took him 50 minutes to hit the main page with it. View the source. [Link]

update: they pulled him off the main page now.