Ah the tiredness of long days and work, I really have been busy lately at work I usually find time during the day to blog about stuff or even just comment on random things, but lately there hasn’t been time.

The past two weeks I haven’t really been in my office more than a total of 30 minutes. And that is if I walk in the office. It has been really quick in then a quick out, mostly to sign papers or to pick or drop something off.

Something things I will maybe write more detail later

Marina Hotel - This place is NICE, the decor, location etc everything.

Cafe Blanc - The food is decent, but their presentation and service and location makes up for it.

Shateh Watiya (or how ever you spell it) - If you ever have some guests from out of town and want to eat Kuwaiti food just take them here. The food is bland compared to home cooked meals but then you can’t take them there. The use of the old Kuwaiti building gives it ambiance and makes them feel its traditional food.

Amazon Prime - Thanks Mark!

City Planning - Basically Kuwait city needs to implode not explode

The Weather - I thought I would die yesterday with allergy attacks with the dust storm but luckily I had no severe sneeze attacks, either I got immune or this was a cleaner dust.

Digital SLRs - Been thinking of getting one lately, but quite annoyed with that whole preview system and there hasn’t been one that made me go WOW I want now!. I played wit the Nikon D70 and Canon 350, both nice and full of features. But all of my cameras are so manual that I love em. I really dont know how to use auto focus or any of that additional functions like auto rewind. My second gen Canon F1 that I got from my dad takes amazing pictures and I have lots of great lenses for it; same with my Minolta X570. I enjoy the process of it, focusing imaging what the picture will look like at different F-Stops and speeds then when I know I am ready, I hold my breath push the button and wait for that shutter to go snap. I think I will wait for the next gen of DSLRS I just dont feel that they are ready yet they still feel rough and not up to their full potential.

Miranda IM - A nice simple IM client for windows.

Abdaly - That is where I will be tomorrow.

Music that is in my car:
Beck - Guerro - sounds like Odely with Sea Change
Mars Volata - I liked them better when they were At the Drive In
Cyndi Laupers Greatest Hits - Girls Just want to have is one of the greatest songs ever, and so is She Bop.
Brazilian Girls - Brazilian Girls - This album is a must have for this summer I dont think I will be taking it out of my car for a while, been having it on repeat for a couple days.
Miles Davis - Tribute to Jack Johnson - Miles, ’nuff said.
Uncut Complication - Best of 2005

I got Beck and Mars Volata from tata, big thanks!

Robot Chicken - This show is just too funny, thanks oilrig!

Guess that is about it for now.

Oh and going to renew my gym membership even though I haven’t been there since January.

Lately with computer animation getting better and better it is now harder to guess which is real or fake.

So why dont you test your skills with this: Fake or Foto?

I got 6 right, can you spot the fake?

Temptations of late:

Some Hello Kitty Stickers, then there is this scarf and this bowling set or these figurines

Then there this stuffin electronics Wireless scanner and this wireless chat thingy

This weekend I am so going to splurge on goodies for myself.

~I am going to push the button

When checking out Mahmood’s blog I saw this post that Bahraini website have to register with the Ministry and will face legal actions based on the countries laws and regulations concerning the press.

I am mixed about this.

First I think it is a good thing for websites that consider themselves journalists and run a media site. This can have them considered a company and also some what protection. A lot of US bloggers are actually working on having their blogs considered a journalistic site, and giving them equal status to print media companies.

Why it is bad, well it is forced and we know that the Bahraini Ministry is just doing this to keep track of the anonymous people that are posting about the problems and issues they are having with the government. Just look at what they did to people who were and could be found. So automatically their motives are not for the benefit of the people. Another thing what is considered a “Bahraini” website? Websites run by Bahrainis? Or what about expats living in Bahrain, will they be under this law? Or is it just for the websites they they dont like?

Our problem in the Gulf is that governments still think they can control what we read, watch and listen to. They act like they are waging an on going battle, but the truth is we already won the war. They have tried on numerous occasions to censor internet, ban satellites, black out magazines etc and that information still gets through to us. These aren’t black boxes that you can stop at borders, but ideas and thoughts that are going to shared, discussed and shared again.

Mahmood is setting up a good program for this situation in order to deal with it accordingly. And I pledge my full support to the Bahraini bloggers, this is not just their fight but ours as well. If this succeeds in Bahrain, who says we aren’t next?

What happened to the weather today? I was awake at 7:30 nice weather outside birds chirping, cat lounging in the sun it was all nice good day, by the time I leave and go with my brother for his paperwork stuff it turns to an all our dust storm. Then traffic just goes crazy, I was going to take the 5th ring and saw traffic stopped on the King Fahad/Magreb road, so go and take the 6th. Then then as I am going on the 6th I see traffic stopped on the King Fahad/Riyadh road.

The streets have turned to a mad house with this weather.

I let Rampurple borrow some books of Marshall McLuhan for her research paper.And I actually had a hard time giving them to her cause just opening them up and reading passages from the pages just makes me want to take them home and read them again.

McLuhan was a pioneer when it came to this stuff, his works really changed my outlook on media and content. I think it was cause he wrote it around the 60s and this was before internet and satelites and just his form of writing and the style of the book. He was really ahead of his time.

If you want to know how new forms of communications like internet and blogging are changing our world and what we can expect read his books.

Anyways the 2 books I leant her were:

Medium is the Massage
Counterblast

I am actually on Amazon now getting more of his books.

Last week was just long and tough, I must have racked over 1000km on my car. My schedule last week was:

Monday: Wafra
Tues: Sulabiya, Amghara
Wed. : Shagaya
Thursday: Wafra

There was also the side trip to Mutlaq on Wed to get high.

It was just one thing after another this past week, and since I been out of the office with these runs when I came in today I was confused on what to do. Need to write a todo list of stuff for this week and stuff that I need to complete from last week.

Need a vacation from vacation to actually catch up on stuff.

I love good design, scratch that I love good functional design.
For me design isn’t just something that looks pretty it has to serve a function too. When objects have a dual purpose but do it some wonderfully together and just are seamlessly together you can’t think of how they can be apart or even existed before.

One such object that has really caught my eye and can’t wait to have it on myself is the Targets new perscription bottles. WOW, Deborah Adler has designed it right! She took all the wrong thigns with the old bottles and made it useful functional and also look good. I just love how she created this system for the information. It really makes sense and very practical. My favorite part from it is that it is upside down:

Klaus Rosburg, a Brooklyn-based industrial designer hired by Target, came up with an upside-down version that stands on its cap, so that the label can be wrapped around the top. Every piece of paper in the package adds up to one eight-and-a-half-by-fourteen-inch perforated sheet, which eliminates waste and makes life easier for pharmacists.

Wonder how long before we see those in Kuwait?

Another great design with function is these pizza cutters. They are ussually bland and with a straight handle. These just take them to a whole new level of comfort with that handle grip but then just takes breaks all barriers when he pimps them out like choppers!

Last night I had another attack of bad service at a food establishment.

First let me say how much I feel about service. To me it is one of the breakers or makers at a place that I wish to eat at and will frequent. What I consider good service is promptness, respect and my main thing is acknowledgment. I hate it when I go to a place and they just ignore you, and this is anytime during my visit.

For me when an establishment, like a restaurant where I am going to be giving them money for the services they render feels they can slack off or just ignore me makes me feel that they dont deserve my money. I get this feeling that I should just walk out and not even pay for anything.

This happened to me yesterday with Burj Al-Hamam. I felt the service was lousy cause they weren’t acknowledge me. They have this reputation for being a good place to eat with excellent food, decor etc. This I believe has gotten to their head and ignore their customers since they feel if they lose me someone else will take my place.

With their arrogance they forget that word of mouth is one of the greatest marketing tools, and bad reviews people remember more than the good ones.

So back to last night it was with Hagen Daaz at Souq Sharq. The service their just sucked, we were waiting outside for someone to notice us, nothing. My dad went inside to get their attention, they came out with a menu and then forgot about us. The waitress came around us, past us, but no look. Didn’t even bother asking if we were ready to order.

Now what is different between these to places was that Hagen Daaz is a simple place and the employees there just really dont know any better. So Even though I was annoyed and told them I couldn’t hold it against them. Burj Al-Hamam on the other hand is a reputable place and which strive to a better and higher level of service.

Customer service seems to be a problem in Kuwait. Many places are focusing on marketing campaigns and decor etc and neglecting their customers. Yet I believe what all these customers are looking for is acknowledgment.

Wrote this Wed. just didn’t have time to post it.