This Monty Python sketch reminds me of how some people interact during a dinner or social occasion.
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I love this picture. It reminds me of American Gothic. It gives me this feeling of hope and a better future when it was taken in 1964. A young Indian couple just moving to Kuwait starting their lives together.

This is an old long debate that even the word blogger is not limited to just blogs anymore. So seeing this article Literary Lesson: Authors, Poets Write the News where the Haaretz decided to send their 31 journalists and replace them with writers, poets and authors.

The TV review by Eshkol Nevo opened with these words: “I didn’t watch TV yesterday.” And the weather report was a poem by Roni Somek, titled “Summer Sonnet.” (“Summer is the pencil/that is least sharp/in the seasons’ pencil case.”)

What it did was create a different interpretation of the news. Journalists are trained to provide data, they can’t offer an opinion on what occurred or even interfere. They are observers, their paid job is to simply report and, in essence, find the truth of the matter; and by printing it they allow the readers to decide. Bloggers, like writers and poets, don’t follow the journalist decorum. First off they aren’t paid to be unbiased since this isn’t a paying job. They simply interpret the data they get from journalists and offer it in a different light by attaching emotion, or making it abstract so that it is transformed into something that moves the reader passionately.

This is usually where the trouble begins: the reader gets motivated by the bloggers’ writing based on the journalists’ effort - wherein the blogger gets most of the credit, even though the blog post has a link to the original article. This ends up with newspapers calling bloggers parasites for stealing their hits and ad revenue. Yet it is a symbiotic relationship.

Newspapers have to catch up with what the reader wants and offer both. Simply put: make it a competition between bloggers to have their interpretation of the journalistic alongside the main article. How this would work is quite simple. The main journalist’s article is published and a select group of bloggers will interpret the the news and submit their posts to the editor to be placed next to the article. What happens here is that newspapers gets the best of both worlds and don’t lose their ad revenue from external hits. The added benefit for the bloggers is that they get paid for this.

One caveat is that I don’t see this as an up voting system that creates a competition based on fan base. I leave this for the editor of the paper to create their own system and rules. It is their job to manage the paper and offer the reader the best commentary.

This is a time lapse of the Kuwait Towers with storm clouds slowy brewing.

Whats fascinates me is the sun moving across and damn is it bright.

It finally hit 50C in my car temp. Most likely its higher than that but it is limited at 50.

I been on Twitter for a while and seeing many Kuwaiti companies making a account and not knowing how to use it for their benefit. Thinking just opening an account will simply generate sales. Well here are some pointers you can use for your advantage.

Dont Spam
I can’t stress this enough. Just repeating the same statement over and over again will annoy us and will simply block you. You aren’t doing anything to make you different.

Engage
You have to engage your followers. Dont just offer the latest sales promotion. Give them updates on what you are planning to do, and working on. Reply to their tweets. Their feedback is important. Twitter is giving you a direct access to them and vice-versa. If you ignore them they will ignore you in return.

Educate
Link to other sites with tips and trick as well as reviews of new products as well as features and options you dont and see if they are interested in them.

Encourage
Have other members of the company also participate with their on Twitter accounts. Have each department have their own offer their own take on whats happening. Also if you are a big company have a dedicated customer support team for dealing with problems and solving them on spot.

These are just some basic guidelines. Each company, restaurant, shop etc is different. Once you start dont stop because you dont have immediate results. It take time to build a following and figure out what works best.

Oh this just came to me. Restaurants can post if they are full or not and how long the wait will be. I am sure many people would enjoy that during busy weekends. Bakeries can tweet how many cakes or muffins they have left if anyone wants to make a quick order before they get sold out.

When you ban something you just make that much sweeter. Bahrain Ministry of Information has done just that by banning their own BahrainBlogs.org. Their version of Safat

I am sure this will be a big boost for blogging and freedom of speech in the island Kingdom.

I Cant believe it will be higher than the Liberation tower. It will really be a marvel in the Kuwait sky line.

I am not sure where the photographer busted this out, but a true classic!

The rain is a bit late but very much appreciated.