Macbook Air... For Sale

Ouch

Sad, Frustrated, Angry, Disappointed and above all... SHOCKED

I was riding a huge pride wave that made me believe a win against Philly was a sure thing... I mean let's face it, we were the #1 team in the NFC, Philly barely made the playoffs thanks to a bunch of very crazy week 17 games.

We are the defending Super Bowl champions, coming from last season when we beat the undefeated Patriots in the biggest upset in Super Bowl history; we had a remarkable record despite having the toughest schedule for any team in NFL history. We had a running game that was pushing everybody out of its way, we had an excellent passing game that was downgraded to very good thanks to a stupid received named Plaxico Burress, we had excellent special teams. How on earth could we lose?

The game's final score was: Eagles 23 Giants 11

It will take some time for me to swallow this one.

My chants of "Go Big Blue” and "Go Giants" have come to a shocking end... till next season at least.

Youtube

I had a busted Harddisk on my PC, one day I switched off the PC and wouldnt boot again unless i detached this harddisk. A store in Hawally told me he can recover what's on it but the price was too hight (KD 300 for every 5 GB of data).

I looked into youtube and found this wierd solution for my problem... the initial part is not important, skip forward till 2:00 to see what I had to do:

Frankly I didnt think his "Freeze and Spin" technique would work, but I had nothing to lose so I tried it... IT WORKED.

Now I have all the data on a new HDD (I even got a backup storage device so I don't face this problem again)

I know this post is meaningless but it's been a while since i showed up here and I have nothing else to blog about.

MAC

I've been a die hard windows user my entire life so I know those who know me will give me a tough time for blogging this but let the truth be told.

Ever since Macbook Air was released I was very impressed with it's size and weight, I have added it so many to my amazon shopping cart only to come back to my senses and remove it before i complete the order.

One fine day (after my friend Saad bought one) sitting at the office chatting with my brother (who always defends apple products) about what problems I would face if I got a Macbook Air and -knowing me very well- answered every question with the words "buy a Sony Vaio" as he knows how much I disliked MAC O/S.

I kept asking and asking and I got the same answer, I still added the macbook air to my amazon shopping cart. Finally I asked "would I be able to connect remotely to a windows PC from a mac laptop" and I told him that this would be a show stopper. He said no... I clicked "Submit order" :)

Now how to I bring this up to the rest of my family and friends without getting harassed?? I've always spoken against MAC and now I am becoming a user.

Today, I am a happy MAC user, the transition from windows to MAC was very very easy and I am loving it.

Dear Friends and Family... Let the jokes begin.

UPDATE...UPDATE...UPDATE

The 3 months of fun is over, I still can't do without a Windows PC, there's just so many applications that I use in windows and there's nothing as good as they are for a Mac.

SUPERBOWL

Burres was amazing

Bradshaw was awesome

Jacobs was Great

Tynes finally made the Field Goal

The entire Defense played one of the best games and so, the N.Y. Giants are going to the superbowl

GO BIG BLUE

Go Giants

.

.

.

...................مهزلة...................

.

.

.

كلنا معاكم

. التجمع اليوم الساعة 6 مساء أمام مبنى إدارة أمن الدولة في جنوب السرة

Theeeeeeee dive of a lifetime

I was gonna write something in this post but why bother... A picture is worth a thousand words, right..

Well I have a few pictures and a video of the most amazing dive I've ever been to since the day I started diving, so I will let the pictures speak for themselves :)

I saw a Whale Shark for the first time, it was almost 7 meters long and its face was almost 1 meter wide

Isn't it cute!!

My brother and I took turns taking pictures and videos as this experience may never ever happen again

And because we had so much fun, we decided to go diving in the same place the next day too

It is strange how a fish that large is not only harmless but curious and playfull, the Whale Shark kept on swimming next to us for a very long time.

We finally decided to just ignore it and swim away... Now I am really regretting leaving it

Bye Bye

Diveplace: Qarrouh

Date: Friday 27/7/2007

Beware.....غشيم بيدش البحر

After a long wait, I finally got to take my boat on it's 1st test drive.
The weather was amazing, boat ride was cool (though we had to drive slowly to break down the new engines) and the dive was excellent.

On top of all of that we got to catch a fish (Faskar) while spear gunning... (notice how I am not mentioning the many other fish we missed)

The amount of jelly fish on the way back was unbelievable, the sea was filled with jelly fish like I've never seen before.

Article 36

قلنا نبيها خمسة وسويناها خمسة

الحين نبيها حرة... خلونا نسويها حرة

بعدين ترى حجب مواقع المدونات شي سخيف والكل يقدر يحط بروكسي ويشوف الي يبيه

عنوان الموقع

http://www.article36.com

للتوقيع على العريضة
http://www.blajat.net/36

الشعار لإستخدامه كتوقيع بالمدونات والمنتديات:

Alcohol legal in Kuwait

In a surprise move aimed at fostering tourism, Kuwait's government announced yesterday that alcohol would be legalised in Kuwait starting May 25 after more than 40 years of prohibition. Alcohol will be available only in five star establishments or at state liquor outlets and sold only to non-Muslim expatriates holding a liquor-consuming ration cards. Each expatriate will be allowed five bottles of liquor or 100 bottles of beer per month at government regulated stores. Any Muslim caught buying or consuming alcohol will face stiff penalties.

In December 1964, Kuwait's government banned all liquor within its borders following a series of drunken driving fatalities, primarily of citizens. Prohibition triggered a flourishing underground bootlegging trade both in smuggled alcohol and bathtub gin.

This past week, international beverage firm Eastern Liquors has won the sole distribution license and will be partnering with local establishments for sales and marketing. EL is a regional leader in beverage distribution, with operations in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Doha and Manama.

Sources within the security forces told Kuwait Times that a special squad of 225 local police have already undergone training in the United Arab Emirates and Britain for handling drunk drivers. Persons caught driving while intoxicated face up to five years in jail and a KD 10,000 fine.

Happy April Fools’ Day

Tribute to Tiki Barber

I know at least 95% of Kuwait population cares less about this post but I am publishing it anyways as a tribute to a man who was the strength point behind the New York Giants for the past 10 years.

After confirming his retirement while he is at his peak performance level, Tiki Barber played his last NFL game yesterday at the Pro Bowl (hell, he even scored a touchdown).

Career Accomplishments:

• 15,232 career total yards (8,787 rushing, 4,718 receiving, 1,181 punt returns, 544 kickoff returns and 2 fumble yardage), the highest total in franchise history and the 18th-highest in NFL History
• Rushed for a franchise record 8,787 yards (on 1,890 carries)…
• His 4.7-yards-per-carry average is the highest among the top 10 rushers in franchise history
• The 1,890 rushing attempts place him 1st on the team’s career list, ahead of Rodney Hampton (1,824)
• 1st on the team’s career list with 50 rushing touchdowns
• 2nd on the Giants career list with 528 receptions, 1 behind of teammate Amani Toomer
• 4th in Giants history with 1,181 punt return yards
• Played in each of the last 3 Pro Bowls
• Broke his own franchise record with 2,390 total yards in 2005, the 2nd most in NFL history.
• His previous record was set in 2004 with 2,096 all-purpose yards (1,518 rushing and 578 receiving)
• Has 3 times set the team record for most receptions in a season by a running back, 1st with 66 in 1999, then with 70 in 2000 and finally with 72 in 2001.

Thank you for 10 years of excellence

Saved by a salesman (بنك البعير الجزء الثاني)

Well, back to the topic of NBK... They just continue to screw up time after time after time. As explained earlier, I got my NBK Visa card re-activated by signing the stupid Cinet form as it was too late to change banks when my trip is just a few days ahead. I flew to Sharm el Shaikh with my wife to have a week of relaxation and to celebrate our 10 year anniversary.

Things went fine until I started running out of cash, so I hit the closest bank to withdraw cash using my recently re-activated NBK Visa Card... Slipped the card inside the ATM, choose language, enter PIN, choose amount, wait... wait... wait... then I get a "Transaction cannot be completed" message. Ooops

OK, I might have punched in the wrong PIN number, open my wallet, pull out the PIN slip ( I know I shouldn't keep it in my wallet but I had just received it a few days back) well, the PIN is correct, so I try the card another time..... Same result.

So I decide to walk to the next bank, same thing......... Keep walking to the third bank, same thing so I pull out my ATM card and try it... same thing. Although both cards worked for regular purchases, it's just cash at ATM that keeps on failing. I call the call center and they tell me the card looks fine at their end. So I decide to call it a day and try the card again tomorrow.

Next day I do the same thing and get the same result... hmmmmm, things are getting interesting, I am almost out of cash and we still have a good 3 days ahead of us and NBK employees say everything is OK at their end. I am really out of options here but decide to continue enjoying my trip and not to use the remaining cash unless I really have to.

Went to a T-Shirt store, bought some T-shirts gave the guy my card, transaction approved, I signed the slip, and immediately I realized that the guy punched the amount as 3310 pounds instead of 310.

After a long sing song with the salesman he gave me a cash refund of 3000 pounds (he was trying to rip me off by refunding me less that 3000 as the bank takes a certain commission from him which I refused as it is not my fault that he keyed in the wrong amount).

I walked out of the shop feeling relaxed - finally - knowing that I finally managed to get cash out of the damned NBK cards.

I was saved by the salesman's mistake. Otherwise I would still be stuck in Egypt, probably washing dishes for a meal that I could not afford.

Thank you NBK

بـنـك الـبـعـيـر

I've been a bank employee throughout my whole employment life upto a few months back so I never got the chance to experience the so called "Excellence" of the National Bank of Kuwait as my banks mandated that my salary is posted to their accounts (naturally).

So ever since I got this new job, I was really between 2 Banks... Either Gulf Bank or National Bank as they seemed to be the leading banks in Kuwait.

After a lot of thinking I decided to go with NBK thanks to my wife and my brother who did a very good marketing job in convincing me to do so.

It's been almost 3 months now that I am with NBK and I HATE IT ALREADY.... wanna know why:

1. The so called "best bank in the middle east" promised to pay me KD 150 as soon as I transfer my salary to them. Salary was transferred and I got nothing.... I sent them an email.... Still nothing... I send another email and they respond by saying they didnt receive the 1st one (although it's in my sent items folder on NBK's Online page) and they came back saying they received my salary credit but they didnt know that it was a salary (although their statement says salary credit) and they didnt pay..... So I called a friend who happens to work in their call center and he got the thing done....
The need for "Wasta" to get what's rightfully yours is not something that the best bank in the Middle East would want

2. I get an internet card issued and transfer my showtime, orbit, ART...etc subscriptions to it and get billed twice by orbit, I understand that this is a mistake by orbit not NBK so I send NBK an email to chargeback the transaction as it is processed twice.... NBK goes and charges both transactions back and I receive a call from Orbit saying my subscription will be cancelled as my bank has rejected the duplicate transaction as well as the genuine one. So I call NBK and they LIE and say that the refunds are from orbit and that they had nothing to do with it.

Now if I hadn't worked in the credit cards business for the past 13 years I would have believed this..... But having 13 years experience in cards I can clearly see that when a transaction description says "SALE REV" it did not come from Orbit.
Justifying a mistakes by lying to the customer is not something that the best bank in the Middle East would do.

3. I Apply for a Gold Visa Card and they deliver the card to my house along with the application form and all the documents that they want me to sign (which is excellent service, I'll admit to that), I use my card for over a month and one day it disappears from my NBK online banking page, I call their call center and they tell me that the card is cancelled!!!
Cancelling a customer's credit card without prior notification is not something that the best bank in the Middle East would do.

They claim that the reason for cancellation is that I have not signed the Cinet Form.... Having worked in credit cards for 13 years I know that the Cinet form is not something you sign with each new application. It is a document you sign once which gives all participating banks and companies listed with Cinet the right to inquire about your credit history. I have already signed this document more that 2 years back... so there is really no need for me to sign it again.

NBK has 102 employees in their card center but it seems neither NBK nor any of the 102 cards employees has any idea what Cinet requires.

Based on the above I have made the decision to move to another bank, unfortunately I have made extra payments to my NBK card so that I have enough money to cover next week's trip expenses so I am forced to go to NBK and sign the stupid document and submit it to their stupid employees to get their stupid card and use it for one more week.

Best bank in the Middle East... I am not impressed
Gulf Bank, here I come

Phew, that was one long post, I think I won't be placing any new posts for a year

مع السلامه ام المرادم

تحت اطار القرارات الغبية للحكومة الكويتية فقد تم الاتفاق على اغلاق جزيرة ام المرادم في وجه مرتادي الجزر الكويتية بشكل نهائي و لن يتم السماح لرواد البحر من استخدام شواطئها

.

تعتبر جزيرة ام المرادم اقرب جزيرة من جزر جنوب الكويت الى البر ولا يستغرق الوصول اليها اكثر من 25 دقيقة للقوارب الراسية في مرسى الخيران مما يجعلها مكان مرغوب خصوصا في الايام التي يكون الجو فيها غير ثابت حيث لا تكون هناك خطورة من الذهاب اليها لقربها و سهولة العودة منها في حالة تغير الطقس الى الاسوأ

.

وبغض النظرعن ذلك فقد قامت الحكومة الكويتية الرشيده (رشيدة طل بعينها) باعتماد مشروع يقوم بتحويلها الى ميناء جنوبي يتم فيه تطبيق اجراءات الوصول والمغادرة بما فيها اجراءات تتخذ في المنافذ البحرية ويتم تطبيقها على السفن الداخلة والخارجة من المياه الاقليمية باتجاه الكويت

.

ولن يسمح لمرتادي البحر بدخولها إلا في حالات الطوارئ والظروف الجوية السيئة بعد تعريف هوياتهم لعناصر القوة الأمنية في الجزيرة ليتسنى السماح لهم بالرسو وتقديم المساعدة لهم. وتضم الجزيرة حاليا مركزاً لخفر السواحل قامت الحكومة الرشيدة بانشاءه خلال السنة الماضية ويضم مرفأ على الجزيرة على حساب تدمير جزء كبير من الشعاب المرجانية الموجودة حول الجزيرة والتي كانت تعتبر من المناطق الجميلة والمرغوبة لعشاق هواية الغوص

.

السؤال هو ما هو دور لجنة حماية البيئة من هذه المشاريع التخريبية ولماذا لا يتم النظر جديا في هذه المشاريع وابداء الرأي فيها للمحافظة على الحياة البحرية في الكويت؟

.

الموضوع على جريدة الوطن

John Claude Kizzab

I have been listening to this song for almost a year now but I don't know the band name or the song title. First time I heard it was when I was getting my tattoo done at the basement of the Virgin Megastore in Lebanon :(

I liked the song and the guy who was fixing the tattoo on me (John Claude kizzab as my sister-in-law called him) was kind enough to give me the CD which was playing but even he didn't know the name of the band or the song.

Can anyone help identify it??

LISTEN

I'll be giving a reward of 5 Pepsi cans to the first blogger who get's it right :)

وأخيرا صارت

Zidane...

Is he one of the best??
The greatest soccer player of the past 20 years??
The Brazilian nightmare??
A legend

Call him what you want, truth is; his head butt of the Italian player Materazzi at the World Cup final is just not acceptable.

And I don't want to hear no excuses. This is nothing new to Zidane, he has had many irresponsible moments on the field.

Zidane seems to have always had issues with discipline.

He was suspended for France's final group match in this World Cup after receiving yellow-card warnings for fouls in each of France's first two matches.

During group play of the 1998 World Cup, he received a two-game suspension for stamping on the back of a Saudi Arabian player.

In 2000, he was barred for five matches after head-butting an opponent while playing for Juventus of Turin in the Champions League, Europe's most prestigious club tournament.

Stupid

I don't know about the call but the ref sure took his time and it seems that the call was only made after a re-play was shown on the screens, and that is a violation of FIFA rules, this is not the NFL, you don't call a foul based on a replay.

I don't want to be in his shoes

Journey underwater

I leave you with a few pictures from the underwater world:

Coral (UAE)

More Coral (UAE)

Fish Trying to hide (UAE)

Lobster (Oman)

Fish you could swim through (UAE)

Rarely seen fish (Kuwait)

Old and Ugly (UAE) I mean really, this fish looks like the skin of an old man

Spiky (UAE)

Parrot Fish... Lovely (Kuwait)

The closest I've ever been to dolphins in open water(Kuwait)

More Parrot Fish (Kuwait)

More and more Parrot Fish(Kuwait)

And there are things you have to take a photo with... Like this very nice turtle (I know, we're not supposed to grab them. But can anyone really resist it??

This dive was the best when it comes to visibility underwater... Kuwait waters are usually not so clear, but visibility it was exceptional that day. (Kuwait)

You may also come across fish where you really have to shoot and that's when a spear guns comes really handy... yummy yummy (Kuwait)

You still have to keep an eye for dangerous fish... Awareness is really important when you're diving in a new region for the first time

Lion Fish DO NOT TOUCH (kuwait)

Sting Ray... Really really nice yet dangerous (Kuwait)

Eel, I didn't see any in of them Kuwait (UAE)

That's all folks the dive is over...

till next time (hopefully next weekend, it's only been 2 weeks of bad weather and it feels like ages, I need to dive SOOOON)

هم نبيها خمسة

See you there

الديمقراطية الزائفة

يا أهل الكويت من صجكم مستانسين انه عندكم ديمقراطية؟؟؟

من عليه تكذبون ؟؟؟
تسمون الي قاعد يصير ديمقراطية؟

مو ديمقراطية شراء اصوات بالعلن
مو ديمقراطية سكوت الداخلية عن عمليات شراء الاصوات داخل مقرات التصويت
مو ديمقراطية امتناع الداخلية والمباحث من متابعة قضايا سجلت ومحاولات رشوة علنية
مو ديمقراطية تصوير عمليات الشراء امام مقرات التصويت وهم ما تتحرك الجهات الحكومية الي المفروض يكون هذا شغلها

لا نقص على روحنا ترى والله ما شمينا ريحة الديمقراطية

للأسف اعترف بكوني احد اعضاء الدائرة العاشرة ومن سكان منطقة الخرفان الي انباعت، منطقة الجابرية

يا حسافة تري بس لو درزن من هالخرفان مصوتة للراشد بدل العمر ما كان نجح جمال العمر

الفرق بس 23 صوت تدرون يعني شنو 23 صوت يعني الدائرة العاشرة انباعت عشان 12 خروف يكشخون بجنطة شانيل

والله عيب

والله عيب

نقلا عن ساحة الصفاة

حربنا ضد الفساد مستمرة
دعوة للجميع

تجمع اليوم في ساحة الإرادة حيث نصبت خيمة وشاشة كبيرة لعرض ومتابعة نتائج انتخابات مجلس 2006

يبدأ التجمع في الـ9.30

نراكم هناك .. :)

Documentary of the year

والله و انكشفت يا جمال العمر

والله وانكشف معاك تقاعس الحكومة والمباحث الي صايرين بس يبيعون كلام يدعون فيه ضد الفساد وضد الرشاوي وهم نايمين ببيوتهم. يعني ودي احد يفهمني وين كانت الصعوبة بان المباحث تسوي الي سوته بنت الكويت(يعطيها العافية) وتصور عملية الرشوة والقسم؟ ليش يصعب على جهاز دولة كامل ان يقوم بمراقبة المقر الانتخابي لشخص عليه تهمة عرض رشاوي والكويت كلها تتكلم عنه وعن وقاحته؟ في اشخاص ظهروا بوضوح، ليش ما تقوم الدولة بملاحقتهم؟

تدرون ليش، لأن مثل ما يقول المثل: لي حبتك عيني ما لامك الدهر... الحكومة حابتهم... ما تبي تفضحهم وتتستر عليهم وعلى فضايحهم.

بس ما أقول الا يا ظالم لك يوم. و يا حكومة لك يوم. ويومك قريــــــــب

=============================

اليوم الاربعاء 28/6/2006

الساعة 7:00 مساء

أمام مخفر الجابرية

خلونا نسمعهم صوتنا

فشله

ترقبوا

فضيحة جمال العـمر

اليوم الساعة 3 عصرا

على موقع ساحة الصفاة

اللــه يستر

3 Days to go...

I get the feeling that with all the bribery going on, all hope of a better future is shattered, but then I listen (and read) some of what you guys are saying and it's motivating. There are people who are standing up for what is right, not only by words but by very brave acts, acts that we didn't see in previous elections. These acts make me think that maybe, just maybe there is a chance... a chance for a better future... a chance for a better economy... a chance for a better Kuwait

Sadly, bribes are becoming an acceptable thing to many Kuwaitis, this is a real shame in a country so rich. In other countries, people who are poor and who can barely feed their kids are saying no to bribes, and what are we doing?

We are selling the future of this country, the future of our kids... and for what? a fancy bag, air tickets, money??... And I keep asking myself two things:

1. When did we stop caring for this country?
2. When did Kuwaitis get so cheap? We are willing to sell our future for such stupid items.

Can any one answer me?

3 Days to go people

3 Days to go till June 29th

3 Days

I request you.. I beg you to do what's right. Don't sell Kuwait.

و اللـه يستر

العاشرة ليست للبيع

المهرجان الشعبي بعنوان

"العاشرة ليست للبيع"

ينظمه مجموعة من شباب الدائرة العاشرة

الساعة التاسعة مساء اليوم السبت

بصالة الميلم بجانب نادي كاظمة بالعديلية

أحضر وسجل موقف ضد مشتري الأصوات المفسدين

ورسالة يصل تأثيرها لجميع الدوائر

نراك هنا

باعوني

بعض الناس طايحينله أغاني جوليا

أنا ودي أرجع حق أغاني من التراث الكويتي القديم

الأغنية هي اغنية باعوني للفنان الكبير عبد الكريم عبد القادر

خلونا نتخيل لو الكويت بتغني هالاغنية بهالايام، شنو راح تقول الكويت

خلونا نسمع شتقول:

باعوني

عافوني

و أنا الي شايل حبهم في عيوني

و أنا الي ما كنت افتكر تنسوني

من اجل جـنطه

من اجل جـنطه

من اجل جـنطه للاسف بعتوني

Here I go

Hi everyone (assuming that someday, someone might actully check my blog)

Just starting my blog. really have nothing important to say cause miscellaneous, jabriya, and kuwaitjunior didn't leave a whole lot to say for your average not-so-active citizen, it seems that they're doing all the work and we're just enjoying the ride.

Keep going girls and guys Kuwait is gratefull for everything you're doing (well not really everything but you know what I mean)

Nabeeha 5