2007-01-31

tck inside

Check out Amer's excellent post about Third Culture Kids.

If you find out you are a tck, feel free to use this badge.


tck inside

2007-01-30

McDonald's is changing its fries soon

Hurry everyone; go to your nearest Mc Donald's and stock up on the fries. I tried all kind of fries but nothing tastes as good as the Mc Donald's fries. It is slightly crispy outside and soft inside. You can take a single piece of fry and break it with a distinct snap to it. You can see the vapors float up from the two broken pieces. The taste is also better. I have been told by an expert cook that animal fat is used with the fries and the proof is when the fries cool down they are still crispy and not soggy like all the other fries. According to my expert friend, only food cooked with animal fat can do that.

Mc Donald's just announced that they will be changing their frying oils but did not announce when. You can read more here.

I think I am going to buy a few hundred kilos of McD fries and cryogenically preserve them, and then when they stop producing the classic fries, I can resell it for a higher price to my nostalgic customers or on ebay.

2007-01-28

I'm Rich! I'm Rich!

Chad Hurley, co-founder of the popular Internet video sharing web site YouTube, said that the company is working on a plan for users who upload videos to be paid for their contributions. More here.

I started posting stuff on YouTube over 10 months ago. I posted videos that I got from my mobile camera and clips that friends sent over to me. A few I posted on this blog and others I kept on YouTube. Now the YouTube benevolent owners want to send some dollars over to me. Thank you very much Mr. Chad. The YouTube team still did not finalize the plan yet but if you want to make me richer, check out my YouTube posts by clicking on the pretty YouTube mosaic on the top left.

One thing I noticed, three days ago I put up a video of a lady rolling cigars, and in the first 3 hours it got around 270 views. My most viewed video is Saddam Hussein's sentencing with 48,087 views.

What does this tell me? That I should post more girl clips, and recent political events. That's stuff I usually try to avoid posting about.

Oh well I might not get rich as fast as I thought.

2007-01-26

The Twilight Zone


The Twilight Zone


For all of you who remember the Twilight Zone, here is a treat for you. Most of the original black and white series can be found here.

WARNING: If you are easily scared, spooked or have psychological problems, don't watch the Twilight Zone, it will scare the heck out of you.

Sharks and Stingray

Here is a little clip I took at the Kuwait Scientific Center a long time ago.





If you have not gone to the Scientic Center at the end of the Gulf Road, go today. It is a lovely day and you will not regret it.

Here is a little map to help you out.

2007-01-25

Supersized Ghoozi Feast

Ghoozi is lamb with scented rice served at Arab feasts such as wedding and other distinguished occasions. It is usually served on large trays of rice with the roasted lamb on top and guests share from the same tray. The ghoozi here is on the largest tray I ever saw. This feast appears to be in Saudi Arabia.



Something Old, Something New, Something MBC2

I was watching MBC2 and I saw this movie and I could not remember the name. I racked my brain, but no name pops up. I was fiddling with the remote and hit the [i] button, and the name appeared with the channel info. I hit the [i] button again and a little brief about the movie showed also over the channel info.

This might be old to the techies out there, but it is new to me. Very cool.


MBC2 Info

Swearing

Do you start swearing if things don't go your way? If someone cuts you off while driving and nearly pushes you off the road, do you start bleeping loudly to yourself and anyone within earshot?

What if it was a life threatening situation like your parachute not opening the way it should?

Here is a Russian parachutist whose parachute got tangled, he started swearing at it in Russian (sorry, I won't translate and have my blog blocked).

Don't play the video if you have Russian speaking people around you.



2007-01-23

Office Tea

In most Kuwaiti offices, someone is employed to serve tea and coffee to the employees so that their caffeine level is raised sky high and makes them buzz all day at maximum efficiency. That person is called a farash or Tea boy. A lot of farash's are jealously guarded by their respective departments because they know how to do the coffee just right, or cook the tea to a millisecond precision and add the exact proportions of milk to it. Other farash's that are not so talented, make you hate your morning.

Here is a little movie of our Farash doing his magic:



2007-01-22

Letter to Dr. Ruth


Dear Dr. Ruth


If you don't get it, you are probably too young.

iPhone and the rest


iPhone


The iPhone created a mini revolution once it was announced with all the mobile companies struggling to catch up with its looks and features. You can expect a lot of lookalike phones to enter the market and it already started with the first shot fired by LG with its Prada designed phone.


Prada LG Mobile


Excuse my limited fashion knowledge, but doesn't Prada make shoes? How would they know what sort of phone would be useful to me. If that is the new trend, associating your self with a shoe maker, you can expect zanooba mobiles or tamima mobiles.


DG RAZR


Motorola already released a D&G RAZR a few month ago, doesn't D&G make overpriced T shirts and Jeans? How can they contribute to making a mobile better? All they did was paint the RAZR gold. If the mobile companies don't come up with more innovative ideas, the iPhone will eat up the market once Apple decides to release a cheap iPhone version a la iPod shuffle.

2007-01-20

Balancing Trick

You know how you can balance a broomstick on your palm and and try to keep it upright until it comes crashing on the floor? Or those chinese acrobats where the guy balances the girl sitting on a chair with the chair leg on the guy's forehead?

Well here is a little act with a little person, or rather a 5 month old baby. Simply amazing! Click here to see it.

2007-01-19

iPhone Ringtone

Everyone recognizes the Nokia ring tone.

Well here is the iPhone midi ringtone and MP3 ringtone that you will hear if the iPhone proves to be as popular as the iPod. For those musically inclined you, can find the music score here.

You know its your lucky day...

... if you are crossing the rail tracks at the railway station and the train is 2 seconds away from running you over and you just make it to the other side.



2007-01-18

Ghetto latte


Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting


On my Google Home page I have a list of the top 30 keywords requested in various search engines (I think, it could be some other source). You have your usual Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, etc. but one set of keywords that caught my eye was Ghetto Latte. I like to think that I know my coffee but I never heard of Ghetto Latte. So I followed the link and after a few clicks I found out.

According to the Free Dictionary, "Ghetto latte or bootleg latte refers to a latte where the customer has used the free milk and other condiments to convert a cheaper drink into an approximate copy of a more expensive one. This practice can be regarded as a form of arbitrage. Similar forms of arbitrage have existed in the past for other products including hamburgers."

So that means, you go to Starbucks, order an Espresso, go to the condiments stand, pour yourself some hot milk, pour your espresso over it, add sugar, stir and you get your Ghetto Latte.

You learn something new everyday.

2007-01-17

Camel Jumping



A beautiful sports, it has everything, excitement, challenge and camels.

2007-01-15

You know how to love but don't know how to write

This goes out to all those that are in love but are poetically challenged. Here is something to help you in expressing your undying love. You can find it here.

Terrorist Blooper

A wannabe terrorist commits a blooper on his broadcast video.



2007-01-13

Car Accident

Cast:

Man Driver
Attractive Lady Driver
2 Cars
1 Hotdog

Story:

Car Accident

Moral of the Story:

Don't Panic

2007-01-12

Today is not your lucky day

If this ever happens to you:



The Illusionist

Cancel the Oscars, close down Cannes, put all the Oscars and Palmes d'Ors in a big box and send it to the cast, crew and production team of the Illusionist. The movie has mystery, magic, intrigue, romance for the softies and a true tours de force ending.

I will not spoil the story but you can see the trailer below.



2007-01-11

Coffee Shop Incident

Filipino Waitress


I was sitting at a Coffee shop in Dubai and asked the Filipino waitress if she had honey to sweeten the cafe latte that I was ordering. She replied, "We have playboy only" I paused, trying to comprehend, "What?", I asked. "We have playboy", she repeated. "Excuse me? What do you mean?", I asked again. "we have playboy, we have caramel, banila, chokooloot playboy". "Ok, thank you, no playboy for me" I answered.

2007-01-10

Get your calculator

Get your calculator, and write these numbers down, then turn your calculator upside down:

376006, 6078, 5318008, 5317738, 55378008, 531608, 5372215, 5378806, 376006, 316008, 71077345, 0553

If you are not old fashioned like me and don't own a calculator, you can use your mobile.

Geeky but cool, right?

2007-01-09

Dot on Forehead

Did you ever wonder what the dot on an Indian lady's forehead means? This video explains it.



2007-01-08

Amazing Stunt

You have all seen this in the movies. A guy on a power bike is chased by a car, a flat bed semi truck is in the way, so the guy slides with his bike under the semi for a quick escape. Well here is one stunt that only Bollywood can deliver:

My Tube

You all know youtube, that ubiquitous video publishing sharing site that got bought by Google for a billion dollars and change, well I have a youtube page for myself which you can check out here.

A lot of videos that I uploaded at youtube, I have already posted here but there are some more that I did not post. Check out my favorites also.

If there are any videos you like and would like to keep, well you can always follow the instuctions here on how you can download youtube videos.

2007-01-07

Back

I just returned from the vacations and would like to wish everyone a belated happy Eid / New Year / Christmas / Year of the Dog / Saddam Hanging / etc. vacations.

I know I have been away but I am back now with some pictures. I went to Dubai for the week long holiday and did a little exploring over there. I will not go on about how fast Dubai is growing and the magnificient generic landmarks like the Emirates Towers.

Emirates Towers


Instead here are a few pictures of cool stuff I found in Dubai. I found cans of Spam stocked on a supermarket shelf. I wanted to take those cans and trash them because I hate spam in my email inbox but managed to control myself :-)

Spam Cans


Something more exciting is an actual size replica of the Predator character made out of little gears, tractor chains and metal bits and pieces.

Predator


While walking around the smaller streets of Dubai I came across a Wimpy Hamburger place. Wimpy in the late 70s was in every Cooperative Society in Kuwait, then other hamburger and fast food places took over and Wimpy disappeared.

Wimpy


I ordered a Wimpy Cheeseburger meal and sat outside to eat it.

Wimpy Meal


As I was about to bite into my hamburger, a street cat walked under my feet, spit out the cigarette it was smoking and gave me a menacing look.


Street cat


So I shooed the cat away and enjoyed my rare meal.

I went to the Emirates Mall where they have a ski slope built inside the mall. It was cool, but what was cooler was when I ordered from a sandwich shop called Toast and they gave me an electronic beeper that beeped when the order was ready.

Toast Beeper


On my return to Kuwait, I found out that the monitors where all blank down at the luggage carousel.

Blank Monitor


No one knew which bag came from which flight.


Track


So, just in case they still did not fix it and you are due to arrive in Kuwait in the near future, the trick is to go to each of the carousels and read the luggage tag which shows the flight it came from. If you find your flight, stand near that track and wait for your bag.