Dedicated to all the dedicated Workers

Apologies to James Blunt.

Super Cool Laptop

Pocket sized yet so many features.

Survey from KNPC

Here is a survey from our very own Kuwait National Petroleum Company.






Click on the image to see the drop down job choices.

Can anyone tell me what the circled job means?

Bathrooms and American Idol

I was sitting in the airport's bathroom stall doing my business and I hear this beautiful male voice singing, "if tomorrow never comes". I never liked the original Ronan Keating song but this time I was really enraptured. He had a wonderful voice and sang the song from begginning to end. He was better than the American Idol contestants we see with the pitiful attempts at carrying a tune.

I had a flash of inspiration just then, maybe American Idol can be held in the public toilets, with the three judges sitting in the stalls and the contestants entering and singing a tune. If the contestant gets two or more flushes from the stalls, the lucky winner gets to go to Hollywood.

Post inspired by the unidentified talent I heard and by Qatar Cat.

Remember This?

Grendizer Rocks!

Street Sculptures in Prague

I found some wonderful examples of street sculptures in Prague, this one is a cloak with a shadow inside but as you get closer you see it is only a cloak with nothing inside it. I love the illusion.



This one is of a boy and girl sitting close on a bench, the boy has his arm around the girl and his other hand has a bitten apple. They look so life like.






As I looked closer, I saw that the boy had a cigarette in his other hand.




I turned away and looked again and the cigarette was gone. Wow! that boy sure smokes fast for a statue. Notice the carved graffiti on the bench, I though someone vandalized the bench, looking again it was the artist himself that put the graffiti all over the bench. Impressive.

Would You Put Your Money there ?

While walking down the street in Prague, Czech Republic, I came across this bank.





Would you put your money in Bawag Bank?

If you don't get it, ask a Kuwaiti what Bawag means.

For Sale

Good Cop Bad Cop

I never had the privilege of being stopped by a policeman in the United States when I was driving there. I have seen enough TV to know that when a US policeman flashes his sirens behind you, you are supposed to pull over and have your hands clearly visible holding the upper part of your steering wheel. The police car will park directly behind you with the searchlight shining directly on your car. The American policeman will slowly walk against the side of your car, his hand over his gun's holster ready to draw it at the first threatening movement from the stopped car's passenger. The policeman will stand by your car window. He will instruct you step by step on what you need to do like displaying your license and registration and you are supposed to announce what you will do if you want to reach in your glove compartment, or put your hand in your jacket pocket before taking out the requested documents. Any sudden move from your part could get you cuffed or shot or worse. A Very tense situation for both the policeman and you.

Over here in Kuwait getting stopped by the police is more laid back. The policeman flashes his sirens, shouts in his loudspeaker telling you to stop, he then pulls over himself and waits for you to park behind him. The policeman expects you to get out of your car with the necessary documentation and walk up to him. You wait at his car door while he finishes his call on his mobile or taking a few pulls off his cigarette. You feel like you are standing at a goverment counter waiting for your papers to be processed. When the policeman has time for you, he will slowly slide down his window, turn his head and ask you some vague question waiting for your confession. You usually can talk your way out of any infraction unless the policeman had a bad morning. If he is still insisting on penalizing you then you can ask about his name, which district he belongs to and as soon as he confiscates your driving license and car registration, you can call up a few people higher in the policemen food chain and have your papers returned to you the next day. Just a minor inconvenience and no threats of bullets travelling through your soft body.

Which style is better?

OFFICE POLICIES

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When I have my own little company, I am going to apply these rules and keep the serfs employees well behaved.

Sony Erricsson free phone

OK THIS IS A HOAX, read more about it here.

Thanks Mishref for the update.

I got this email below:

Dear All

Please pass on to all your friends and relatives the following mail from Sony Erricsson.

Sony Erricsson is giving away phones for free. Sony Erricsson is trying word-of-mouth advertising to introduce its product and the reward you receive for advertising for them is a free phone free of cost. To receive your free phone all you have to do is to send this email out to 8 people (for a free Sony Erricsson j200i) or 20 people (for a free Sony Erricsson k400i WAP).

Within 2 weeks you will receive a free phone. (They will contact you through your e-mail address).

Please mark a copy to:- anna.swelam@sonyerricsson.com


Give it a try and let me know if you get a free phone.

A Poor Man's Car Stereo

A few weeks ago my car battery died on me and I had to replace it. Everything is fine now except my car stereo stopped working. My car stereo would not turn on, not because of any malfunction, but because it has one of those advanced security systems that requires you to enter a code if you ever disconnect the system and reconnect it again. That might be useful in the States where car stereos get ripped away from cars every few seconds, in Kuwait it is relatively safe and if someone breaks into your car he would be better off stealing the whole car instead of just the stereo. The result is I have been driving in deadly silence for the last several weeks. I am too lazy busy to go to the car dealership to have the Stereo security system reset so I can listen to music again, instead I proudly put together the Poor Man's Car Stereo.



Actually, I think the set up I have is not that low cost, I should call it the Lazy Man's Car Stereo. It has several advantages over my regular stereo with a greater music selection and instant song selection. I don't recommend fiddling with your iPod while driving, only at red lights. Also I need to break the habit of instinctively turning up or down the volume on my car stereo instead of reaching for my iPod and increasing the volume.

Picking Up in Vietnam

When you have a piece of furniture to move around, you wave down a wannette. Well in Vietnam, they do things a little differently:

Kuwait - Among the First

Different lists are floating around about Kuwait's transparency, UN New York Traffic violations, low productivity, etc. Not things we are very proud of. Well here is a little item that we can all be very proud of for our small country.

I was looking around Wikepedia and found that we are among the few countries that have fiber to the home. This list includes 8 European countries, The United States, Australia and New Zealand. In the Middle East, only Kuwait and Dubai Internet City (DIC) are included, and the DIC is only a plot of land and office complex and not really a city.

So walk tall and be proud, there are some good things here that are not very well advertised.

The Wikepedia article is here.

Great Reasons To Be A Guy...

Phone Conversations are over in 30 seconds flat.

You know stuff about tanks.

A five-day vacation requires only one suitcase.

You can open all your own jars.

Dry cleaners and hair cutters don't rob you blind.

You can go to the bathroom without a support group.

You can kill your own food.

You get extra credit for the slightest act of thoughtfulness.

Wedding plans take care of themselves.

If someone forgets to invite you to something, he or she can still be your friend.

If you are 34 and single, nobody notices.

Everything on your face stays its original color.

You can quietly enjoy a car ride from the passenger's seat.

Three pairs of shoes are more than enough.

Car mechanics tell you the truth.

Gray hair and wrinkles only add character.

You can drop by to see a friend without bringing a little gift.

Your pals will never trap you with: "So, notice anything different?"

You are not expected to know the names of more than five colors.

You know which way to turn a nut on a bolt.

You are unable to see wrinkles in your clothes.

The same hairstyle lasts for years, maybe decades.

Gas (at either end) is cool.

Your belly usually hides your big hips.

One wallet and one pair of shoes, one color, all seasons.

Fall of the Berlin Wall

Intlxpatr wrote about the fall of the Berlin Wall that happened on 9 November 1989, seventeen years ago from today. This represented the end of the Cold War and set the world on a new path.

On this occasion, here is Winds of Change by the Scorpions

Vampires do not Exist, or do they?

University of Central Florida physics professor Costas Efthimiou claims that vampires do not exist and he proves it mathematically. The article can be found here.

His theory states that On Jan 1, 1600, the human population was 536,870,911. If the first vampire came into existence that day and bit one person a month, there would have been two vampires by Feb. 1, 1600. A month later there would have been four, and so on. In just two-and-a-half years the original human population would all have become vampires with nobody left to feed on.

Professor Costas is assuming that anyone bitten by a vampire would turn into a vampire. I suggest he watches a few recent vampire movies like Blade, Blade II, Blade Trinity and Underworld and Underworld Evolution. Maybe, read a few Anne Rice Books and watch a few Buffy episodes also.

He needs to know that you do not become a vampire by being bitten by one, you need to be sired by a vampire to become one, meaning having the vampire offer you some of his blood to drink resulting in you joining the undead.

Therefore, mathematically, vampires can exist. Good try Prof Costas, but your comclusion is wrong.

Wonderfully Weird Photos

or is weirdly wonderful photos? Anyway, enjoy and have a wonderfully weird weekend, or is weirdly wonderful?

Just enjoy your weekend ;-)

Saddam Hanging

Coming soon at all Game Arcades:

Um Said Bargaining

Bargaining:

1 : to negotiate over the terms of a purchase, agreement, or contract
transitive verb
1 : to bring to a desired level by bargaining
2 : to sell or dispose of by bargaining.

For an example of an expert bargainer , watch Um Said in action:

Turkish Airlines

Shawarma while flying is the best ;-)

Saddam Hussein Sentenced and His Reaction

Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein sentenced to death by hanging today for his role in the killing of 148 Shiite Muslims in the northern Iraqi village of Dujail following an attempt on his life there in 1982.

Saddam shouted slogans as he heard his sentence. He was also dissapointed because he was sentenced to hang instead of being shot by a firing squad.

Ramsey Clark, former United States Attorney General and part of Saddam's defence team, was promptly ejected from the trial of Saddam Hussein after passing the Iraqi judge a note claiming that the trial was a travesty.

Words of Wisdom

Saddam's Palaces are now Internet Hot Spots

I saw an ad for Satellite Internet in Iraq similar to the set up I have at home. The service provides Internet access to remote locations with no existing communication infrastructure such as phone lines. I was curious to see what prices they are offering so I clicked on the site and found a list of all the installations they have in Iraq. These installations where US army bases and Presidential Palaces.

What was amusing was the Saddam / Presidential palaces having Internet Coverage. I counted 63 Palaces that would mean that if Saddam wanted to sleep in all his palaces during the year, he would average 5 nights in each palace. I don't know about Saddam but I need a few days to get accustomed to a new bed before I can soundly sleep. It takes me 3 days to get used to my new surroundings, so that would mean if Saddam was like me, in 5 days Saddam would only get 2 nights of good sleep and 3 nights of insomnia. Maybe that was why he was bad tempered most of the time.

The full list can be found here.

Back from Eid Vacation

Sorry for the long pause, I was busy vacationing. More posts coming soon.

Here is a little hint of where I am.



And here is a cool 3D Dinosaur for your viewing pleasure.




Note: the two pictures are not related, I was not excavating dinosaurs in some remote area of the world.