Grendizer

Today me and my friend passed by this shop in Muthana Complex. I don't know what its called but it sells some really cool Japanese toys, mostly limited edition stuff. Anyway my friend had seen the Grendizer set on display in the window and wanted to purchase it but the store was always closed. Today I decided to go with him and luckily the place was open. Sadly though they had no more Grendizer sets for sale. The one in the window display was for the shop owner and he refused to sell it, even for 200KD. It originally costed KD79 but they are very hard to come by. The owner told us how he originally had 80 pieces and he couldn't get rid of them, then each of his friends purchased 2 or 3 sets off him until they were finished. Now he gets a couple of sets every now and then and they get sold as quickly as he gets them. He sold the last set 2 days ago! The guy also has a really cool limited edition Optimus Prime set but again he had only 1 left and it was his and would refuse to sell it. I like the store and i find the guy very interesting. He is very passionate about the stuff he sells. For you transformers fans I am sure you noticed that recently in the market in places like Debenhams, Ace Hardware the Fantasy World you might have seen these really cool transformer cars. They cost 10KD and are made of plastic. Well this guy has the limited edition metal transformer cars and he is selling them for 30KD! A really good deal. If anyone is interested in knowing where the place is located, its in Muthana Complex, Kuwait City. Mezzanine 1, right behind Andalus Electronics.

Shootout with Terrorists

Today morning my wife calls me and tells me there was a shootout on the seaside in Salmiya. From all days today the internet wasn't working at the office so I didn't have a clue about anything. We had information trickle inside to the office but it mostly consisted of rumors and word of mouth. Around an hour later my sister calls me with more details. Most importantly she told me exactly how to find the place. So when my lunch break came I decided to quickly drive down to Salmiya and try to take some shots. I didn't know if i would be allowed to take pictures or not but I put my camera on consecutive shooting and figured worst comes to worst I drive by shoot (pictures). I got to the place from the sea side and there was a bit of traffic, i took a couple of shots and then decided to park my car and try to get closer. I got to the site and found alot of cops. I quickly snapped pictures of all the damage and the cops and decided to swiftly leave before anyone decided to harass me. I shot around 60 pictures, here are the best..

Sunroof [open]

OK since everyone posts their playlists, I will also post mine. These are the CDs currently playing in my car:

1) Nirvana - Incesticide
2) Nirvana - In Utero
3) Nirvana - Nevermind
4) Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine
5) Nine Inch Nails - And All That Could Have Been
6) Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile
7) Korn - Life is Peachy
8) Korn - Follow The Leader
9) Tool - Aenima
10) Marilyn Manson - Smells Like Children
11) Marilyn Manson - Mechanical Animals
12) Alice in Chains - Jar of Flies
13) Alice in Chains - Nothing Safe
14) Alice in Chains - Facelift
15) Rage Against the Machine - Evil Empire
16) Rage Against the Machine - The Battle of Los Angeles
17) Rage Against the Machine - Renegades
18) Ministry - Filth Pig
19) U2 - The Best Of 1980 - 1990
20) Smashing Pumpkins - Gish

Anger Management

I love OZ Racing wheels. I wanted to get some 18" Super Turismo's for my beemer but they were just too expensive. So today I was in the car/phone street in sharq and I found this Porsche Cayenne with some 20" Canyon ST's OZ Racing wheels and they looked really stunning. I spent more time drooling over the wheels then the fast cars all around me. Later me and my wife went shopping. We got into a huge fight, I wanted her to get this really cool DKNY Jeans jacket and she gave me a silly excuse that the jacket was a bit big, although her size is small and the jacket was small. Its not the first time she does this, something would look really cool on her and she would give me the excuse no its not fitting right. Today though I just couldn't take it and I blew up. When I get pissed I just throw and kick things out of my room. Last time my wife finished my cornflakes and I just REALLY hate it when I feel like having cornflakes and cant find any, so I kicked out a garbage bin and a stool, today I threw some cd cases and the same stool as last time (2KD IKEA stool). I am now ok though, after a big argument we went back and got her the jacket.

twenty four

It was my wife's birthday today, she turned 24. For lunch I decided to take her to Peacock since she hadn't been there yet and she loves chinese food. The food was great, though I could have easily done without the soup nor the appetizers since by the time the main courses arrived we were completely stuffed. When we were done we past by IKEA since we needed a table for our art room. We got a cutting mat around 2 weeks ago and we have been using it on the floor which isn't good for the back at all. In the evening I played some Need for Speed underground 2 which is my game of the week. Later we met up with some friends at Marina Crescent and had dinner at Lina's. I had the croque monsieur which was pretty decent but nothing spectacular. I have had better. We couldn't end the night without some rounds at Gameworks. I personally don't like the place since I have 80% of the games at home on my videogame systems. But I do like the games upstairs, like the basketball hoop thingy. My best friend Nibaq scored the highest on the TWO Quick & Crash machines. Thats the ultimate. We finished around 11:15 and everyone just went home. A pretty full day.

Fuck Me Boots

I got a whole bunch of stuff from Aramex today. I got some of my magazines including Baseline, Rollingstone, Wired and the official xbox magazine. I also got some DVDs like The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.. extended edition which is a whopping 4 hours and 10 minutes long. I haven't watched the third and final part yet since I only wanted to watch the full extended version. I got Visitor Q which is supposed to be really cool and very gross. I also got Good Bye Lenin, The Triplets of Belleville, The Dead Zone, Apocalypse Now Redux, Garden State and finally one of my favorite movies of all time, The Lost Highway. My wife also got some fuck me boots. They are Dr. Martens and are really high, 20 holes high to be exact. They look really cool. Now I have to plan my whole week out fitting in at-least 1 movie a day. Other then the DVDs I got my tivo has a couple of movies it recorded. There is House of Sand and Fog, Sgt Bilko, Clueless and The Butterfly Effect all waiting for me. This is gonna be one cool movie week.

Beautiful Day

Anyone else notice that everyday this week we have had a different kind of weather? The other day it was sunny while I was having lunch at Blue Fig (REALLY crappy food btw), the day after that it started raining, the day after that it was freezing cold, and today there is a dust storm. Tomorrow I predict either snow or a tornado. I think these are the only 2 things left. But seriously though, this weather is confusing me. I spent the whole weekend sick and I just recovered today. I don't want to get sick again.

Super Size My Ass

I finally gave up trying to watch "Super Size Me". I tried to watch the movie, but I couldn't. Whenever I tried to watch the movie I would start it, watch a bit, and then feel like having McDonalds. So I would stop the movie, go to McDonalds and when I come back, I wouldn't be in the mood to watch it. I did that 3 times. I don't know what it is, but every-time I start watching the movie I just feel like having a Quarter Pounder with Cheese combo. The movie was also total bullshit. Come on! Day 3 and the guy starts puking. What a fucking load of crap. If the guy is a pussy don't blame it on McDonalds. The funniest thing is they interview this guy called Don Gorske. He holds the record for eating Big Macs. He has eaten nearly 20,000 Big Macs and is in the Guiness Book of World Records. The guy is 6 feet tall and 180 pounds. He eats 2 Big Macs a day and drinks little besides coke. This guy is a perfect example that McDonalds doesn't make you fat. Anyway I didn't bother finishing the movie because I got tired listening to the guys bullshit. Oh no I am eating McDonalds for the 15th day in a row! Good Morning buddy, welcome to college life! So today morning on the way to work I felt like some McDonalds breakfast so I went to the drive thru and got me a Egg McMuffin with Sausage.. delicious!

Hala February 2005

I was dropping my wife off to work today morning when I noticed that the main shopping street in Salmiya was closed down. It looked like they were preparing for an event of some sort. When I picked her up for lunch my wife told me that its a parade for Hala February which is the official shopping festival month for Kuwait. So after I dropped her off back to work after lunch I decided to park my car and check the parade out. You could not imagine how many people were there. The last parade had maybe half the amount of people compared to todays. It was crazy. Lots of entertainment going on and I think there will be a draw for something tonight because they had a huge stage set up infront of starbucks with that thing which you use during draws. The one you spin and then you randomly choose a winner. Anyway more pictures of the event can be found by clicking here

Life Something..

Today I woke up and to my surprise it was raining and freezing cold. Just yesterday I was at the Marina Crest getting a tan while having lunch and today its dark, cloudy and wet. The weather this year has seriously become very unpredictable. In the afternoon me, my wife and my best went to the new Life Center or whatever its called in Shuwaikh. The new Eureka and Midas place next to IKEA. On our way we nearly ran over this idiot on his ATV speeding on the wet highway. The "Life something" place was actually pretty cool. Eureka was over priced as usual but the Midas place was actually impressive. The whole decoration and style was very un-midas like, trendy, spacious and cool. The prices I guess are ok. Cheaper then THE ONE, more expensive then IKEA. Will definitely go back there again next time I am bored and have nothing else to do. Today is also DAY 70 of the project if anyone cares.

Incest

There is this shawerma place I have been eating at a lot recently. The shawerma tastes really good and best of all you cant taste the garlic. So tonight I told my best friend to come and try it. We were standing there waiting for our shawerma when I noticed one of the employee's come with a large jar of mayonnaise and empty it into what is supposed to be the garlic bowl. I figured maybe they are mixing the mayonnaise with the garlic to make it taste better or maybe they actually mix the stuff in the kitchen but store the garlic in mayonnaise jars. So anyway we got our shawermas and start eating when my friend tells me he doesn't like it that much cuz they put too much mayonnaise for him. Thats when it hit me, the reason I haven't been tasting garlic in the shawerma is because they don't put any! They fucking use mayonnaise instead! I couldn't believe that. Thats like really gross and I will never be eating there again, can't believe I was having it every night this past week and didn't realize this.

The Red Light District

I decided to take my wife to the Ice Skating ring today. She hadn't been there yet and since we had nothing else better to do I figured why not. We got there around 6ish I think and we found out that the main large ring was closed because they were preparing it for a concert or something and that only the small one was open. We decided to skip the ice skating and just have dinner. To my surprise there was a McDonalds open at the ring. Turned out they had just officially opened it an hour earlier and we would be one of the first customers! We went in and I ordered a quarter pounder with cheese combo and you can tell they were all beginners. Their were 2 cashiers and each one had a higher ranking official (manager maybe?) watching over their shoulders. The guy told me to take a seat and he would bring me my order. I decided to wait and watch them prepare my burger. 5 minutes later my burger was ready, my drink was ready.. and where was the fries? Turns out no one had bothered to make the fries! I now had to wait another 5 minutes till my fries were ready. When they were done they apologized for being late and gave me my food. What? No free burger or maybe supersizing my meal on the house for making me wait? Not very McDonaldy. I have to say though, this must have been the best quarter pounder and cheese combo I had ever had. I guess because everything was still fresh and the oil sparkling new. Its a pretty cool place and overlooks the ice skating ring. Definitely going back again. When we finished we took a walk outside and onto a pedestrian overpass where I took this picture. Now I am back home and we are going to watch SuperSize Me on DVD.

Where Apple's Go to Die

I passed by an old Apple Store today. I used to pass by this store back when I was still in highschool. I used to admire the macs they had on display and always beg my parents to buy me one.. which they never did. Surprisingly the store hasn't changed much. It was freaky checking out the place from the outside. It's as if the shop was stuck in its own time-zone. The shop seems to have been closed ages ago. A thick layer of dust sits on top of everything. What struck me the most though were the "Think Different" banners. They're gorgeous and seeing them in the store window gathering dust and being unappreciated pissed me off. The place felt like a graveyard. In a way it was, the rainbow logo, the beige machines, the old Think Different banners, the Garamond typeface, etc. That's the Apple that existed when I first started using Macs, and its all gone now. On a brighter note, I read that an Official Apple Store will be opening in March here in Kuwait. That should prove to be interesting. More pictures here

Castle of Justice

The weather was very refreshing today so I decided to go visit the park next to my office. The park turned out to be a very nice place. It was empty except for 2 low wage workers having lunch under a tree. The place is clean and green and believe it or not there is actually a pretty large "working" fountain in the middle. While I was standing and admiring the place I noticed the large court house across the street. So I decided to go and check it out. I always wanted to sit and watch a court in session and I figured I might do that today. So I got to the main entrance of the place and noticed that on the way into the building they had metal detectors and X-ray machines. I figured walking in with my camera wasn't going to go very smoothly. Then I noticed a cop come out of the building, so I went up to him and asked him a few questions. The cop was very nice and helpful. He told me anyone is free to come and watch a court in session but that there usually isn't anything going on at 1pm and to come back during the morning hours. I personally think that is really cool. So I will be definitely passing by one morning before I get to work and checking out how courts work in Kuwait. The place in arabic is called "Aser el 3adel" which means Castle of Justice in english. I think they got the name from one of the Lord of the Rings movies.

The Dragon is Snoring

I used to love it when it rains. Recently though every-time it rains I worry a bit. A few weeks ago I noticed the rubber seal at the bottom of my cars front windshield had started to crack and at one spot a small piece of the rubber seal had actually fallen off. I have been too busy with work and extremely lazy to go and have it checked and fixed. I don't even know where to go! The BMW agent would want to keep my car in for a few days for a full checkup and probably charge me a leg and an arm to get it fixed. The regular garages near my house I barely trust to fix a flat yet alone this. Plus, my problem isn't a mechanical problem.. its a window seal problem. It really sucks. I tried using duck-tape (got the idea off the pre-pimped out cars on the "Pimp my Ride" show) but duck-tape on a 2001 BMW coupe REALLY sticks out. So now, every-time it rains I get worried water is actually seeping into the car. This is the first winter where I wish it doesn't rain anymore. I need to get a Made in Japan SUV.

No Entry

There is a holiday coming up this weekend so everyone is out shopping. I went down to the shopping street in Salmiya and the traffic was crazy. Since many new buildings are being constructed, vacant sand lots are hard to find since where you used to park is now an apartment block. This means less "free" parking for everyone which means there are more people driving around the back streets of Salmiya trying to find a place to park. I don't know of any country that has cheaper parking then Kuwait. When I was in New York, 20$ an hour parking-lots are not an uncommon sight. Yet here, people are too cheap to pay 33 cents the first hour, and half that for every hour after. The worst thing I hate about Salmiya when there is traffic is when cops start closing down roads. I would spend 30 minutes in traffic, and just when I think I finally got to where I wanted to be, turns out the road is closed and I have to make a huge turn through more traffic just to come in from another side of the street.

London Bridge is Falling Down

I find these wooden skeletons scary. I don't know how these Egyptian workers can climb and work on them. These skeletons go up many floors high and all that keeps them from falling apart are a bit of rope. I actually don't understand the physics behind them. How come they don't wobble and shake? How can it handle all these workers? You could give me a thousand bucks and I wouldn't climb on one. You would think by now, the year 2005, they would be using more modern methods instead of wood and rope.

One Hour Photo

I just finished watching One Hour Photo. Its starring Robbin Williams and it played on the Movie Channel a few days ago but I had my tivo record it and i watched it now. I didn't like the movie that much because it had a lot of suspense and I can't stand that. The movie did involve photography which was interesting. In the movie Robbin Williams says something about how people take pictures of stuff they want to remember, and how no one takes pictures of stuff that make up a persons real life like a used band aid or a picture of a wasp in your jelly or something along those lines. In the end of the movie his last roll of film is of items that make up his daily life, like light switches, a remote control, bathroom towels etc.. this is why I decided to take a picture of something that went along with that theme.

NBK

NBK recently did a re-branding. They updated their logo with a red swish. Its terrible what they did. I really don't like the red nor the swish and find no reason for it. Not only that but I heard that when NBK were having their logo redesigned they had requested for versions of the logo WITHOUT the camel! IMAGINE THAT! NBK without the camel. I have known NBK since their old camel in a hexagon logo when they were using gold and dark green. For them to come and remove the camel now would be the stupidest thing they can do. NBK is so Kuwait, the blue, the camel, its very patriotic. But now they have the stupid red swish underneath and they were considering the removal of the camel.. I am just very shocked. By the way the log in the picture is the old one, for the new version go to nbk.com

Observation Deck

During my lunch break I walked towards the Liberation Tower. I read somewhere there was an observation deck on top that was open to the public. So i went to check it out and was met by a very friendly security guard at the entrance. Turns out the tower is currently closed because a company is planning on reopening a restaurant up there soon.

Apple Computer Inc (AAPL)

Today Apple launched the iPod Shuffle and the Mac Mini. I love the Apple events, I usually watch them live online if its broadcasted or if not, I would visit the macrumors or macmerc chatroom and read about whats going on during Steve's keynote. Today there were over 900 people in the chatroom, it was really great. I wish I could buy stocks in Apple. I am checking out now how the stock is doing and its going down fast, already went down 5% after the keynote. Turns out the Apple stock usually inflates on the rumors and the buildup to the mac expo and then after the event people cash out.

Sportage Launch

Tonight I went to the launching of the new Kia Sportage. I think it was a cool event but it was really overcrowded and then dragged towards the end. It was at Al Raya ballroom and the place was made to look like a carnival including real grass on the floor. There were also a whole bunch of game stands and the food was really good.

Happy Meal

McDonalds are giving away some cool toys with there happy meals. They are giving away toys for the movie the Incredibles. My wife got one with her happy meal that lights up and spins. So of-course I turned of the lights in the room and turned the thing on and it was really cool I had to take a picture of it.

Tradition

Is it tradition in Kuwait to turn a building inside out before demolishing it? I have seen this being done more then once. The shop owners destroy everything, the building owners throw everything out, and the scavengers turn things upside down looking for something that might be worth anything.

Blue Wall

I love having a blue wall in the living room. I love shooting things in this room. When my brother comes over I spend a lot of time taking pictures of him. He could be browsing the web or eating and i would be clicking away trying to capture him in different situations in-front of this blue back drop.

irreversible

I watched Irreversible today. Its supposed to be a shocking movie featuring a 20 minute gruesome rape scene that is supposed to haunt you permanently. I was excited and a bit worried to watch the movie, who would want to be haunted permanently by a rape scene? Well I watched the movie and was disappointed. It wasn't bad definitely but I think it could have been maybe a bit better. Without ruining the plot, the movie plays backwards, the last thing that happens in the movie is the first thing, which is cool but the fact is that once u know what happens, and once you know why it happened, the movie becomes boring. Nothing to expect anymore. I think the movie delivers allot really quickly the first half of the movie and then lets you absorb it the other half. The rape scene wasn't that bad. I have seen worst. The internet has made me immune to a lot of things.

The Dark Half

When I go to have lunch at KFC I always have to pass under these pigeons. There are like hundreds of them that gather up and fly around in this area just before KFC. I hate them. I always feel like one of them will end up shitting on me and ruining my day.

Deconstruct

Last week I found a stencil book at Virgin for like only KD3. It was full of stencils for Caterpillar trucks. So today I finally traced and cut out one of the stencils, then traced and cut out the word Deconstruct and went on a spray painting rampage in my buildings underground parking lot. I love spray painting its so easy and permanent.

Graveyard

Ok so maybe you can't really see it in this picture but that large empty piece of land is a graveyard. Thats the view from my office window.

Darth Vader

I love the color combination of the Salhiya Complex. I haven't seen another building with the same color combination around. The colors look dark and aggressive. Like I was saying before, todays buildings all look the same. They use the same colors, they all want to be tall and they all want to look modern. How boring.

Fridays

For lunch today, me and my family went and had lunch at Fridays. They upgraded there menu I think to compete with Chili's. Why Chili's? Well I am guessing Chili's since Fridays now has the Country Fried Chicken, a favorite of mine at Chili's.