Sun On Fire

You will not believe this. Around an hour ago I copied my pictures from the camera to my mac. When I was done I deleted the pictures off my camera as I usually do. So then I went to check out the pictures and I couldn't find them! I did a full harddisk search and I couldn't find the pictures. I must have not dragged and dropped correctly or something because none of the pictures got copied onto my mac! I tried using the software Data Rescue but it couldn't recover anything for some reason. What was I gonna do? I needed a picture of a day. I took a quick glance around my room and couldn't find anything worth shooting and talking about so I got an idea. How about I shoot something that looks cool and then tell you how I did it? So thats what I did. The picture above was taken straight off the camera. Like all my other pictures on this site no special effects were added or photoshopped. So how was this picture taken? Its very easy and you can do it yourself. All you need is a camera where you can control the shutter speed, a dark room with no lights coming into it at all, and finally, a light source that will give out a faint light like for example a laser pen or an LED like I used. Now that you have all the items go to the room where you will shoot. Setup your camera on a table or a chair or something solid. Then make sure the camera's shutter speed is set to 10 seconds. Turn off the lights and close the door. Now go hit the Shoot button on the camera and quickly stand in-front of it and wave your light source and voilà! Easy no?

Blue Is My Favorite Color

Sorry but nothing interesting to look at today. I woke up around 9ish after going to bed around 3ish. The bedroom was too hot and I couldn't sleep any longer. I think tonight I will turn on the AC because I really hate waking up early and hot. Anyway after playing some Metal Slug on the Xbox, me and nat went to the BMW dealer to get my car an oil change. I really was not in the mood to take any pictures today. Neither was I yesterday. I think vacations kill my creative mood. There is just a lot of time to kill and no pressure or anything so I just become lazy. Later on in the day we passed by the Jeep dealership. I think nat will be getting a Jeep Wrangler. The price is good and we want a "go anywhere" kind of car. I really love the Land Rover Defender but they are too pricey and only come in manual. The Jeep Wrangler is like the second option. Its rugged, it has a classic look that won't grow old, and best of all, we can go anywhere with it. We really want to start driving into the desert and stuff or park our car somewhere on a ridge and then take our bikes and go for a ride. You know some outdoor activities. With my car I can barely drive over a speed bump yet alone into the desert. Now that we found the car we got to do all the papers and crap. Hopefully that won't take long. Tomorrow I have boat trip with my agency. Its our 140th year anniversary (isnt that odd, our agency is older then Kuwait) and the whole company will be going out on a boat. I get sea sick so I passed by the pharmacy today and they gave me like 2 different pills I need to take. They better be strong or else I am gonna spend the whole trip puking and wishing I was dead. Hopefully I will have a better picture tomorrow.

Don't Spray and Drive

Tonight I drove down to Kuwait City. Me and Nat were playing some NBA Street V3 on the Xbox when we just suddenly got bored and wanted to leave the house. We decided to skip Salmiya since we figured there would be too much traffic and decided to head down to the city. We hit the Istiqlal highway when we got stuck in a traffic jam. I figured it must be because of the celebrations and figured we would spend the rest of the night stuck stuck there in our cars. But it turned out there was a minor car accident and thetraffic cleared. 2 minutes later we hit more traffic and once again turns out it was a minor car accident. The whole way from Salmiya to Kuwait City and back we might have been in at-least 3 accidents and we saw around a dozen other accidents. Yesterday when I was out on the streets I didn't really notice this but drive by spraying is dangerous. Some people are very careless and thats why there were so many accidents. I was driving on the far left lane when suddenly a Pajero swerves from the middle lane towards my lane. Why? There was another car to his right trying to spray him with foam so he was trying to escape by changing into my lane. This happened more then once and I spent the whole ride just keeping an eye out in every direction for potential problems. I am definitely not against any of the celebrations but I think foam spraying should be left for the Gulf Road and not the main major highways. Or at-least not when everyone is driving at 100+KM. Anyway what happened to all the nicely lit up buildings in the city? Usually I would find tons of colorfully lit up buildings but this year I couldn't find anything worth take a picture of.

Kuwait National Day

What a day. Me an Nataly spent most of the morning cleaning (well she did the cleaning I watched tv), then at around 3 o'clock we went out for lunch. It was raining outside and I was pretty disappointed because I was hoping to see people on the streets celebrating national day. We had lunch at Chillis and finished around 4 O'Clock and headed back home. The road was pretty packed as in it was not moving at all. I realized that although it was raining people were still gonna celebrate national day. So I exited the Gulf Road, took the Istiqlal highway and headed home quickly. Me and Nataly geared up in our semi-weather proof clothing and our Timberland boots and headed by foot towards the Gulf Road with our cameras. It was 4:30 by now and Nibaq was supposed to join us but he chickened out because of the rain. LOSER! So we get to the Gulf Road and then walk north towards Shaab Park. From last years experience I know there are only a handful of major spray zones on the Gulf Road, one of them was the area next to Shaab Park. So we walk towards it and its raining like crazy. We get near Shaab Park and the streets packed with cars decorated with flags and people honking and yelling out their windows. On the side of the road you also had tons of people ranging from families to groups of kids to teens and adults. Every kind of demographic was just hanging out on the side of the road waiting for cars to pass by and then spray them with foam. It was crazy, I mean its fucking raining and no one cared, infact they seemed to enjoy it. Its wonderful watching people having so much fun. We hung out there for awhile and then I told Nataly we should pass by the #1 spray zone which is the Sultan Center area. Thats where all the action takes place and for good reason. 1) you have a lot of parking space for people to park their cars and 2) you have a nearly unlimited supply of foam cans available at Sultan Center for only 220fils. This makes the street next to Sultan the place to be. So we start walking south towards Sultan and get there around 6PM but to my surprise the streets empty. I was disappointed. The rain had fallen to a drizzle now and we just stood there for a few minutes while I tried to figure out why the place was so abandoned. Nataly also looked disappointed, I mean we walked this far and nothing was here. I look further down the road and I spot what seems to be some kind of traffic. So we head towards the Scientific Center and I was right there was traffic but nothing major at all. So we decide to turn around and head back. By the time we got to Sultan Center now, things were COMPLETELY different! The area was packed and loaded with cars. The kids with foam cans were all over the place. It was crazy, 30 minutes ago nothing and now foam everywhere, people dancing on the streets, it was incredible. And the kids with foam cans, they are unbelievable. Not only do you have to make sure when you pass them your windows are closed, but you also got to make sure your doors are locked. Every car that passed by them they would try to open the doors and spray the people inside. These kids know what they are doing. I saw one car slow down and one of the kids went and opened the door, suddenly there were around 10 other kids with him spraying everyone and everything inside the car. Unbelievable site. Anyway we got back home around 8ish and were completely soaking wet. We had spent over 3 hours walking mostly in the rain but this was a once a year thing and something that no one should miss. No where else would you ever see this. I love it.
Click here for pictures from today

Drive By

I just finished watching the movie Identity. What a disappointing movie. I think it was trying too hard to be different and the ending.. really crap. Anyway, today I picked up nataly from work so we could go have lunch. Everywhere we went was packed. We passed by Ceasers chinese restaurant in Salmiya and it was packed, TGIF.. packed, Chillis.. ultra packed. Then Nibaq called us and we decided to go have lunch together. We went to Baba Taher, one of my favorite restaurants which I will be reviewing tomorrow on 2:48AM. It wasnt packed at all and lunch was amazing. Afterwards we drove back to Salmiya on the Gulf Road. The cops are everywhere this year, we counted 5 police cars at one intersection! Then you have all these regular cars but with black tinted windows and a blue flasher on the roof.. the undercover cops or something, these guys are all over the place this year also. Tomorrow is going to be really cool, hopefully like every year the streets will get totally packed and grind to a halt. And everyone will be outside the cars dancing and spraying foam and stuff. Nataly has never been here during national day and I told her what she will see tomorrow she couldn't imagine it. People really love to celebrate here. Last year me and nibaq got sprayed with foam due to my stupid mistake. We were at a traffic stop when we saw a guy with foam walking by looking for people with open windows. My window was open and I saw that he saw that. So I quickly pressed the button to close it, the automatic closing got activated but then just as he got closer I panicked and pressed the close button again, this made the auto close stop and it left around 10cm of the window still open, that was more then enough. Few seconds later he walks on down the road looking for another victim, while me and nibaq recover from the foam attack.

Think Global, Act Local

Today I got an email from FILE Magazine telling me that one of my pictures of the Kuwait Towers was going to be in their collection. I went and checked their website and there was my picture, on the main page of their site as a "Featured File". It felt great seeing it there but it also made me think about a lot of things, mostly about the direction this site is headed. Why did they choose the picture of the Kuwait Towers? Why not one of my other pictures? The Kuwait Towers picture was definitely not one of my favorites and I am sure I have better pics lying around here. Then I figured it out. Most of my pictures are not very Kuwait related. By that I mean most of the pictures if you see them you couldn't guess which country they were shot in. My teacher back in university Halim Choueiry used to keep telling me "Think Global, Act Local". I gave them something that was local but with global standards. There are millions of pictures of birds, raindrops, grass, clouds, whatever.. you can shoot them anywhere in any country. But there is only one Kuwait Tower's and you can only shoot it right here in Kuwait. So starting from today, I will start trying to take pictures that are directly related to Kuwait. Stuff that people outside most probably have never seen, stuff that nobody can shoot unless they were right here in Kuwait. I won't make promises and say that every picture from now on will be like that. Its already hard enough to try and take one good picture a day and I really cant handle any more pressure. But, I will try to think more local, and since the next few days we will be celebrating the National and Liberation day of Kuwait, I shouldn't have a hard time getting some good "local" shots. About todays picture, I found this really cool shot, it was the Kuwaiti flag fluttering in the wind with the beautiful sky in the background. By the time I took out my camera to shoot it, the wind just died and never came back. I waited a few minutes and then I just took the picture and left.

Red Red Wine

I love Aramex. I don't know what I would do without them. Today I passed by to pick up some packages that arrived. I had 3 packages. The first was a 512MB iPod shuffle for my mum. The second package was a pair of limited edition DC Shoes for me. And the final package contained a whole bunch of magazines, 2 RollingStone issues, esquire, FHM, WIRED, Official Xbox Magazine, Mac Addict, Cargo, Print and Baseline. When I picked up my packages I took a peak at the new offices they are decorating. It looked pretty cool so far, the walls are bright Aramex red. Gives the place a funky feel. I understood they should be moving into the new offices by next week. For those of you who are Aramex Shop n Ship customers please click here because they need your help. If you don't know what Shop N Ship is then also click here for a description.

The Mega Sphere

Drum rolls please.. Today is DAY 100 of the Miskan project. Time flies when you are having a good time. Since Miskan started on my wedding night it means that I have been married for 100 whole days. Anyway lets get back to todays picture. Around 2 years ago I think (probably more) I was reading an article in WIRED magazine about a guy who invented this toy that expands really big from something really small. He later went and started applying this technique in architecture. So since that article I always wanted that toy. Last month, I was watching One Hour Photo with Nat (my wife) and there was a kid in the movie who was playing with that toy. So I told Nat how much I wanted that toy. I couldn't search for it on the web because I had forgotten what the toy was called and who the creator was. So yesterday night we were at Toys R Us, I was checking out some Hot Wheels when Nat calls me to the back. There it was, Hoberman Spheres. So thats what they were called.. Hoberman Spheres, no wonder I wasnt able to remember the name! Their were 2 Mega Spheres left, a bluish one and an orangish one. We left the place purchasing the blue Mega Sphere. This thing grows big! Starts off as a sphere, maybe 20cm in diameter and then expands to 1.2 meters! Best of all it cost only 7.5KD. Today we went back to get the other orangish Mega Sphere but it turned out someone else had bought it. Sucked, so we ended up buying 2 Mini Spheres (3.250KD each). I was also talking to the employee there, he told me they were currently looking for a bigger place for the store. He also told me they were planning on opening the largest Toys R Us in the world.. in Dubai. Lucky them! So want to watch a video of the Hoberman in action? click here..

Super Pipe

OK, these construction sites in Salmiya are driving me crazy. Before, when they were in the new Salmiya next to Sultan, I didn't mind them. When they moved over to the Salmiya next to Marina Mall, I still didn't mind them. But now, when they moved to under my house, and they dig up the only exit of my street.. now I have a fucking problem. What is this construction for? Sewage? My complex from the front side and the back side is dug up. There is one pipe that starts from Salmiya Palace Hotel (opposite AUK) and passes in-front of Sultan, in-front of Eureka, across the street, in-front of Marina Mall, across another street, in-front of Al Ghanim Electronics and then all the way down to the end of Salmiya near Jeita and Marroosh. Thats one pipe that goes from the beginning of the new Salmiya all the way to the end of the old Salmiya. What is this pipe for? I was telling nibaq that I was gonna dedicate a website to this super pipe. Its not big enough for sewage, but its a good size for water, but where is the water coming from, and why are they sending it across Salmiya? Can't they get water somewhere closer? You guys must have noticed the pipe. Outside Marina Mall they have it stripped in red and white. Passes outside Richou and Paul. They better fucking fix the road under my house once they are done. I already regret not getting a 4X4!

BTW, have you checked out my new blog recently? I haven't added a counter there yet so I don't know if anyone is actually reading it. The blog is located at www.248am.com. Some good articles there today.

Barbershop

Today I went to get a shave at my barbershop. The place is under my building and it costs me only 1KD for a shave and 1KD for a haircut. I go there once a week for a shave, and twice a month I get a haircut with the shave. I am what you could call a VIP customer there. The guy in the middle is my barber. The guy on the right I dont like the way he shaves me, but the guy on the left is the pro shaver. I think he is the most qualified from the 3 in shaving. I had him a couple of times and he was great. BUT, because the first time I went there I went with the guy in the middle, from that day on he became my barber by their rule book. Recently my barber (guy in the middle) travelled for 3 months on vacation. So I started using the guy on the left. It was perfect, my dream barber was finally shaving me and cutting me. But then, 3 months later, my old barber comes back. So now what happens? Do I go back to my old barber? Or do I destroy their way of life and go with the barber I always wanted? Will my old barber get pissed or even allow this change to take place? I decided to leave it up to them to decide. So last week I go to the barbershop and turns out my old barber was busy with a customer, so my temporary barber (guy on the left) cut my hair. I was lucky that time, no one had to make a choice. Today I went to my barber and all 3 had no clients! They were just sitting. So I walk in and there was this pause, time slowed down incredibly, and I was like now what, do I sit in my old barbers share, or is it automatically assumed that since the other barber was cutting my hair for 3 months that I should continue with him? Suddenly, my old barber got up, came towards me shook my hands and made me sit in his chair. My old barber is back, and now I am stuck with him for another 3 years or something until his next vacation.

PS: I just finished setting up my new blog called 2:48AM

Man Down

I was coming back home from lunch when by mistake I forgot to take the turn to my house. I was busy trying to find this Nirvana song and I just forgot to take the turn. So I continue over to the next traffic light when I notice people running towards the left side of the road. Turns out an accident had just happened. Two cars (the other one is to the right of the Buick) somehow ended up jumping the curve and both hit this large 4x3 billboard on the corner of the road. I stopped at the traffic light waiting for it to turn green and snapped some shots. You can see one of the drivers lying unconsciously on the ground. I told my wife I was gonna park my car and go down take some pictures, but she thought I would get in trouble and we ended up driving off. Later I was thinking about it and I realized that I might have taken some pretty interesting pictures if I had parked my car. So I told my wife if you are not gonna push me forward.. then you are just holding me back. I should have parked the car and I should have gone down and taken some pictures. Maybe she was worried my pictures would come out better then hers.. hmmm.

Men at Work

Today morning I woke up early and went looking for guava for a photography shoot we had scheduled for 10AM. Believe it or not this is the second day we looked for guava and its the second day we had to cancel the shoot because we couldn't find decent guava in the market. When I ended my guava search I drove into old Salmiya because I needed to pass by an ATM machine. It was still early and the shops were all closed when I noticed like 3 different work crews all working trying to fix various stuff. Mind you this is the old Salmiya street, the one with Al Ghanim electronics, so we don't usually see anyone fixing anything here. Its like everyone has forgotten about us and all the work crews are focused on the new Salmiya were Starbucks and McDonalds are located. So I was very surprised to see so many workers here fixing stuff up. After my successful shooting of the cop the other day (that didn't sound right) I decided I would shoot one of the workers (still doesn't sound right). Believe it or not, this worker asked me more questions then the cop did. He kept wanting to know why I wanted to shoot him and for what. In the end I just ignored him and took some pictures. Hmmm.. For some reason I just remembered the movie Men at Work starring Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez.

As Seen On TV

I met up with Tivo Guy for lunch, we went and had Burger King at Muthana Complex. After lunch I took him upstairs to check out the shop that sells the Japanese robot toys and stuff, then we decided to walk around the mall a bit just to kill some time. We went into this one corridor which led us to some shops in the back and I found stuff I didn't know existed there like the official Asus dealer. We also found a "As Seen On TV" store. I loved it! Its really cool to see the crappy stuff that they try to sell you on TV but now in front of you live. Now you can actually test the product before you buy it. The place was packed with a lot of stuff from gym gear to little toy model cars. Really cool. Anyway, I just came back from dinner, I was at Johnny Carino's. I had the Chicken Fettucini and I think I am gonna puke. Its just too heavy to have for dinner, I didn't even finish my plate! My wife had the Lemon Rosemary Chicken and I tried a bit of that and it was delicious. Definitely gonna order that next time. Does anyone here watch the show Rides by the way? Its such a fucking cool show, its like American Chopper and Pimp My Ride combined. They put it on the Discovery Channel like once a week I think. Very cool.

Terrorist Fighting Commandos

I think the Kuwait Towers are really under appreciated here in Kuwait. How often do you visit them? I visit the cafe on top a couple of times a year. I usually go there around 10:30pm. Thats when its nice and empty, very peaceful and quiet. I haven't visited the restaurant ever, but I heard its crap so thats why I haven't bothered to try it. Today on my way to work the towers looked really nice, the sky was nice and blue and their was a bit of sun and it seemed to have been focused completely on the Kuwait Towers. A very beautiful site while driving half asleep to work. Anyway something cool happened to me tonight. I went to visit a friend at the Mubarek al Kabeer Hospital, he just had surgery and me and my wife decided to go check on him. So I get into the elevator and up to the second flood where his room is supposed to be and as soon as the doors open I see 3 Kuwaiti commandos standing there with their M4A1 Colt's. They ask me where I was going and I give them my friends name, they check their list and then let me through. We walk down the corridor towards my friends room and notice a couple of doors down the hall around 5 more commandos were sitting fully armed on chairs outside one of the rooms. So I go in and check on my friend, he tells me that the terrorists that were injured from the recent shootings were staying down the hall. Fucking creepy, terrorists right down the hall.. sucks. So on my way out I decided to ask the commandos if I could take their picture, I went up to them, there were 4 of them now, I asked them if I could take a picture, they shyly all said no no no and one guy mumbled something about how they would get in trouble if they let me. Again very nice people, you hear so much bad stuff about the police in Kuwait and I don't know why, even the terrorists fighting commandos were very nice and if I was a girl would probably use the word adorable to describe the way they all were like no no no. very cool people.

Friendly Neighborhood Cop

I was on my way to Burger King for lunch today when I saw this cop giving out parking tickets. Everyday the same cars park in the same spot, and everyday they get tickets. Its not all fancy cars, yeah there is the new corvette which parks in the no parking zone daily and gets tickets, but you expect that guy to have some kinda of "wasta" or even if he didn't you know the guy can afford to pay the fines. But, you also have these low end cars also parking in the no parking zone daily and it makes you wonder, do all these people have wasta or are they just no getting it?? So anyway I walked past the cop at first and then I thought it might be interesting to take his picture. I figured I would pretend I am a tourist and ask the cop in English if I could take his picture. So I went back to him and I was like "Can I take your picture please?", he replied "picture me? yes". So I took out my camera and took a few shots. I was a bit nervous cuz it was a copy you know, but he turned out to be very nice and friendly. I like pretending I am a tourist. I look like a westerner anyway and my English is pretty good so its easy for me to become a tourist. Also if you are a tourist taking pictures, no one cares because you are a tourist and you should be taking pictures. But, if you are a normal guy, an arab, taking pictures.. then you stick out like a sore thumb and people start to wonder why is he taking pictures.. cant be anything good.

Calligraphy

Today a calligrapher came to the office to help me out on a logo I was working on. I really love arabic calligraphy but I never had the chance to see a calligrapher work on something live. So when the guy came today I sat down with him and watched him work. Its really unreal. The guy can change handwritings as if I am changing fonts on a computer. He can flip flop from one style to another with such great ease it makes it all look too easy. Its seriously wonderful watching an artist at work. When I was studying design at university I always hated arabic type. Then one time I had to use it for a project and from the moment I started breaking down the letters I fell in love. Arabic is very flexible and you can do a lot with it, stuff you cant do with english. It is a lot harder to work with and learn though, but once you get the hang of it things do get better. By the way, any guys here planning on taking their girlfriends to McDonalds? I passed by today for breakfast and the place was decorated for valentine. Why? Do people actually go and celebrate valentine at McDonalds?

Kuwait Zoo

I woke up around 12:30PM today and didn't have that much to do since I already watched most of the movies I had over the weekend. So, me and my wife decided to go to the Kuwait Zoo. It was our second time there in recent months, the last time we got there just before they were closing so we had like 30 minutes to quickly see everything. Today though we were there earlier and had all the time we wanted to really check out the place. We got there and found the parking lot full, many people had a day off today and the sun was out so the zoo had more traffic then usual. Entrance was 500fils per person which compared to the prices in the states is ridiculously cheap. The zoo has many problems though here in Kuwait, the main one being that its really unorganized and unpractical to walk through. When you first get in you have three different directions you can go. When you choose a direction (we chose right) the road then also divides in another 3 directions! This basically means there isn't one road that will take you through the whole park. You have to do a lot of back tracking and weaving across the whole zoo trying to see everything and making sure when you chose your route you didn't miss out on some animals. The animal cages are also tiny. There were around 4 large lions in a cage the size of my bedroom! Its very sad actually going to the zoo. You wonder how the animals can survive in a place like this. And it all really doesn't make sense. How come the leopard is all alone in a giant area with sand, water, hills and a tree, yet 4 lions are stuck in a small, tiny concrete cage!? Another issue is the proximity of the animals to the people. There really isn't that much separating the two and in some places all that separates you from the animals is a single ordinary fence. I saw one man pulling on an ostrich's feathers trying to pull them out to give to his son as a souvenir! Where are the animal caretakers and the security? We were at the monkeys cage and there was a large sign that said do not feed the animals stuck on the cage, yet there were a couple of kids with their parents throwing peanuts, chips and fruits at the monkeys. We later saw one animal eating a plastic bag which one of the kids had thrown in. The alligator's cage is unbelievable. I swear I could reach out and touch them because they were so close. Its really dangerous and then you see a stupid woman take her kid and carry them over and put them down on the fence so that the kid is now sitting just a meter away from a sleeping alligator. Also the way the animals are organized next to each other, its like, African Lions, Leopord, Tiger, Hippopotamus. Hippopotamus? Why are they next to the dangerous carnivores? Shouldn't they be with the other "friendly" animals? Oh and Pony is STILL spelt Bony at the zoo. Urgh.. it all pisses me off! The zoo has a lot of potential in becoming a wonderful place but the tiny cages, the maze like passageways and the way the people abuse the animals just makes the place very sad. I took a whole bunch of quick pictures at the zoo you can check them out by clicking here.

The Merger

The coolest thing about getting married is the merger of ones belongings. Me and my wife we have the same taste in music, movies, and books, so when we got married our stuff merged. Our CD and DVD library grew in size, our book collection became larger.. but now, we also have many duplicates. Since our tastes are so similar, when we were still dating we used to buy two copies of stuff, one for her and one for me. I would like a certain design book, and would recommend it to her, then she would go and get it. She would like a certain CD, she would recommend it to me and I would go get it also. So now, after our "merger", we are left with a lot of duplicate items. Take this S,M,L,XL book in the picture. This book at one point was very rare and fetched prices as high as $1250. When it was rereleased a few years ago for $75 we both purchased a copy each the day it came out. Now we have two. The Radiohead Amnesiac album. When I first purchased the limited edition version I loved it so much I quickly bought one for her. Now we have two copies. The list goes on and on. We can't sell the items either, or give them away since we usually have sentimental value attached to them. So in the end, although we are married and our stuff merged, the duplicate items I guess are the only items where one can say "this is mine". Today was day 90 of my project.

Gay in Kuwait Again

Is being gay or a lesbian legal in Kuwait? I wonder if most people know what a rainbow flag means and stands for? I would bet you that if some of the guys in Kuwait knew what the rainbow flag meant and saw it on a car with a chick driving, I swear they would probably spend the rest of their lives following her trying to chat her up just because she is a lesbian. Although it would be useless I don't think they would care, just the thought of seeing a real live lesbian in-front of them would get them all excited. Yeah this girl kisses other girls.. like in the movies! Most probably though, the person driving the car would be a guy, and he probably got the rainbow flag sticker thinking it had something to do with reggae music. People, the rainbow flag is the symbol of gay pride. I told many people about this already but they all tell me, its a rainbow flag, maybe the guy likes rainbows, its a common symbol. Sorry but no, a rainbow flag on a car or on someone's backpack means that that person is either gay or a lesbian. I found out about this maybe like 6 or 7 years ago, I was trying to hook myself up with this girl I had just met at Ben and Jerry's. After around 30 minutes of me pulling all the moves and stuff she points to a rainbow flag badge she was wearing and asks me "do you know what this is?". I was like a rainbow flag? She was like "this means I am lesbian, so you can stop hitting on me". We then went on to become good friends and she introduced me to all her lesbian friends and the underground lesbian community in Lebanon. So anyway, this was the second time I see a flag on a car here. The first time was on a Porsche Cayenne and now on a beat up ford explorer. For more info on the rainbow flag click here..

Eat and Die

The weather today was perfect. I wish it could always stay like this. Not freezing cold, but just cold enough to wear a nice cozy jacket. I took a walk in Kuwait City today during my lunch hour. Summer is coming up really soon and I want to take advantage of this awesome weather and walk around as much as I can. I went to this shawerma place called Tarboush. Its located near Burgan Bank in Kuwait City next to Sheraton. If you are walking and you take a right at Burgan Bank, you then take a left into this narrow street full of indians and philipino shops. The shawerma place is there. Although it didn't look very appetizing I decided to give it a shot and try it. It was terrible. Like gross terrible. The chicken looked raw, the place wasn't clean, AND they use mayonnaise instead of garlic. The shawerma guy looked creepy and wasn't very friendly. shawerma costs 250 fils which I think is too expensive for the location and quality. Across the street I could have gotten a better shawerma for 200 fils. I quickly ate my sandwiches and left the place. This shawerma shop gets a 1 out of 5 rating in my book. This means I will never eat there again and would never ever recommend it to anyone. Its the eat and die (kol oo mout) type of place. On the way back to the office I passed behind Salhiya in that small alley way. I love that strip since its quiet and empty. Thats when I took a picture of the JW Marriott sign. I really find it ugly I dont know why. Kinda looks cheap compared to the rest of the building. Maybe if they went with a metallic look or something, I mean it couldn't have come out worst then this cheap plastic look it has now. At first I thought this was just a temporary sign until they made a better one but its been on for a while now and there is no sign they will change it.

Found a Bug at McDonalds

Today I found a bug in McDonald's pricing. If you order a Big Mac combo its KD1.200. If you want an extra Fillet O Fish sandwich with it, thats an extra 600 fils. This brings the total to KD1.800. Now, if you order a Fillet O Fish sandwich, thats KD1. If you want an extra Big Mac sandwich, thats an extra 650 fils. This brings the total to KD1.650. Thats a 150 fils difference just by the way you order your meal! This works for other stuff also not just Big Macs. So keep in mind next time that if you are planning to order a combo and a side order of Fillet O Fish, make sure you ask for the Fillet O Fish as a combo and your quarter pounder or whatever as your side order.

The Shawerma Review

What a day today. A lot of crap happened. The highlight though would have been when a bedouin in a white pickup pulled over to start a fight with me. Some fucking people. I was in the left lane, he was on the right, we were passing in-front of Jeita in Salmiya when he starts moving to the left and is about to hit me, so I honk my horn. The guy proceeds to move to the left starts slowing down and then stops, gets out of his car and starts walking towards me. I was like what the fuck. The guy wasn't big or anything and I am six foot one and weight 83KG, I could easily have fucking kicked his ass, but, if I did, I would be 100% sure I would have to look over my shoulder the next few days because next time I would see the guy it would be him, with his brothers, their sons, their friends and most probably all carrying metal pipes. Or thats at-least how the myth goes. So instead of provoking a fight, I stayed cool, I had a hundred other things in my mind and I really didn't need more issues. After he said what he had to say, which was basically don't honk next time, he left. The guy wasn't aggressive or anything, I think he realized I was bigger then he was and didn't really try to push for a fight. Whatever the case, I felt like a pussy afterwards, I could have kicked his ass, plus it was gonna happen in-front of a Lebanese restaurant whos employees I all know. I don't know, its just weird, it was the first time I walk away from a fight and I am always trying to find an excuse to fight with someone. Anyway, I am gonna start reviewing shawerma places every now and then. Today I am starting with Chicken Tikka. Yes they have shawerma and they are really crap. I rarely find shawerma uneatable. There is only one place I have ever found a shawerma uneatable and that was Famous Shawerma in Souk Sharq. Tikka's shawerma was eatable but just poorly put together. The bread felt 2 days old, and the whole thing was just tiny. The guy was stingy on the chicken which I really hate. Its like the year 2005 and their are still shawerma places that are stingy, hard to believe. The garlic wasn't bad, its strong and will stink your breath. The shawerma cost 250fils and came in nice Tikka branded wrapping and a red Tikka branded paper bag. No pickles with it or anything. Out of a total score of 5, I would give Tikka a 2. My scoring charts is the following [1=Never going back / 2=If no other place around, will do / 3=good shawerma, just nothing special / 4=A favorite, will definitely keep going back to and recommend to people / 5=Absolutly the best shawerma place in the world, the ultimate]. No place has ever scored a 5. Famous Shawerma got a 1.

Mohawk

My brother came back from Lebanon yesterday. He has a really cool mohawk. I always wanted one but I was always too lazy and too chicken. I just finished watching Visitor Q. One of the most boring movies I have watched. If this was one of the most shocking movies they ever made in Japan then they are really dull people. I spent most of the movie forwarding trying to find a shocking scene. Thank god its over so I can go to sleep now.

Really Wasted

I was leaving work today when I saw a double decker bus. Since when have these been active? It wasn't the government bus, it was for the City Bus company. Before I closed down my old moblog I had taken a picture of some deserted government double decker buses so it was cool so see this new one today. City Bus must be doing good business. Last time I rode a bus here in Kuwait I was still in high school and couldn't afford a cab. It was either a bus or hitchhiking with a Pakistani workers. I actually have a video of me and my best friend getting a ride with a Pakistani worker. It was really funny, we told the guy I was the son of the Canadian ambassador and the guy wanted me to help get him a visa to Canada. Ok, maybe not that funny now but it was back then. I don't know why but every-time I was with my best friend I would always end up being the son of the Canadian ambassador. When we were in Lebanon I got really wasted at this concert, like really wasted and was causing problems, so when the security guards came to kick me out, the same friend quickly told them they couldn't do that because I was the son of the Canadian ambassador, they then let me go! Those were the days.

Assholes

Me, my wife and nibaq went to The Coffee Bean cafe in Salmiya next to Subway. It was my first time there and I didn't like it at all. I placed an order for 1 chocolate chip muffin, 2 cafe lattes and 1 hot chocolate. I paid for that and then I decided to get a chocolate chip cookie, so I told the chick and she thought I said chocolate chip MUFFIN. Not a big deal, she canceled the order and then put chocolate chip cookie. So I go to the other end of the counter to get the stuff and then a guy came up, I think the manager, he wanted me to write my name and phone number on the back of the cancelled chocolate chip muffin receipt. I asked him why and he was like its for the office, its because I ordered the muffin and then changed my mind. I was like what the fuck, what do you mean give you my name and number. I told him that I didn't change my mind, its just that the chick thought I said muffin when I said cookie. He was like its ok sir can you still write your name and number this is for the office. I was like no fucking way I am gonna give you my number. Its not that I am worried about them calling or anything but whatever happened to my privacy. Its bad enough the cashier lady wanted my name so they could call it out loud when my drinks are ready, but now they want me to fucking give them my number? What a bunch of assholes. Couldn't they give numbers out on the receipts like they do at Starbucks?? Don't I have a right to keep my name private? If this incident wasn't bad enough the food and drinks were awful. My hot chocolate was terrible, I make better ones at home. The cookie was also the second worst tasting cookie I have ever had (Costa holds the first place in the worst cookie department). My wife also didn't like her cafe latte and only nibaq seemed happy but his vote doesn't count because he is connected to the place. I can't wait for Tim Hortons to open up next door. In conclusion, out of a max score of 5, I have to give The Coffee Beans a 2. The place is cozy, but the food and service sucks.

I See Dead People

I left work today at 1:30pm and the sky was really blue and full of clouds. So I took out my camera and kept it next to me in the passenger seat. Every traffic light I stopped at I would take my camera and shoot the sky. Summer is coming which means the days of the nice deep blue sky with white fluffy clouds are numbered. As I was nearing home I spotted a large crowd of workers gathered around someone lying on the floor. There was an ambulance parked near by and 2 ambulance people were running towards the crowd. While driving by I took a few shots but sadly my terrible aiming wasn't able to capture the body on the floor. On the brighter side, I was left with this nice colorful image to share with you.

Dazed and Confused

I used to go to Johnny Rockets when they first opened I think back in 1995 or something. It was the coolest place to hang out back then. The majority of the restaurants lining up the beaches now didn't exist in 95. I think Fuddruckers was the first one that opened and the only one back then. Anyway, Johnny Rockets would be packed with students from all the schools. Everybody gathered up at Johnny Rockets first and then from there we would decide what to do. If there was a party some where you would find out about it at Johnny's. Everyone knew everyone, and if you didn't then you would sooner or later. The atmosphere was like something from the movie Dazed and Confused. Back then there was also no minimum order per person. So, we would be like 4 people and one person would order tea. Me and my friends were all broke back then. We used to spend all our money on tapes from Video Club, so the only thing we could afford was tea. Johnny Rockets wasn't making any money off us and all us students kept coming in every weekend, scaring away the older paying customers. Thats when they hit us with the 1.5KD minimum order per person. Everyone stopped going there. Some people started going back to Fuddruckers where you could get 1 coke, drink it, then give the cup to your friend to get a free refill, some people moved upstairs to McDonalds, and some people just started hanging out outside Johnny on the corner next to the No Entry sign, that didn't last long since the cops would come and tell the students that gathering on the sidewalk wasn't allowed! Kuwait was really boring back then. Salmiya wasn't the way it was now. There was no Fanar, and the road from the new salmiya to the old one wasnt yet connected. Across the street from NBK was an underground pedestrian passing. It used to really stink of piss. There was a large sheesha place on the other side and a popular music shop called Subway. Sometimes there would also be like 20 bedouins all aged under 10, and they would hide in the bushes and if they saw anyone coming out of the underground tunnel they would start throwing pebbles at them. Yeah the good old days.

Mind Your Language

I went to the bookshop today looking for an atlas to use for one of the jobs at work. I was also checking out other books, trying to find something interesting. I wasn't looking for anything specific like a design or photography book but just browsing for something to catch my eye. I got to the back corner of the place when I spotted this book called "Learn Arabic in 30 Days". What caught my eyes was the colors and the fact that I could learn Arabic in 30 days. 30 days? That sounded a bit optimistic. So I got the book and it cost me only 650fils which I think is a really good deal. So I started flipping through the book and this is just the funniest shit I have read in a long time. Its full of the strangest sayings and the english grammar is just terrible. I found this saying strange: a'atinee taz:kirat(an) daraj(an) awwal(an) ilaa baghdad. Which means give me a first class ticket for Baghdad. Shukr(an), nahnu nureedu an nazoor as-sweera. which means Thank you, we wish to visit Switzerland. What foreigner would use that saying in Arabic? Also sweera i think should be sweesra, they spelt it wrong. There are many typos like this. On a brighter note, for the people who party on vacations you can now say "I had vomiting too" in arabic. I swear thats how the english grammar is in this book! "Anaa kaana 'indee taqayoo'a(un) ai'dan" is how you are supposed to pronounce it for the arabic. I would really advice people to get this book, its only 650fils and is a good laugh. I got mine from the Muthana Complex bookshop in the basement.