A cappella

A cappella music is vocal music or singing without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way.

Here are some a cappella songs:



I don't know who these guys are, what language they are singing, or anything else about them, only that it is extremenly catchy.


This Cuban group, performs "Hotel California", the legendary Eagles song, with no instruments at all!



Not strictly an a capella, there is a piano accompaniment, but Esmee Denters does a great rendition of Justin Timberlake's song "What goes around".

Girls just want to have fun

and watch football.

Neighbours

The neighbour cleans his rug and puts it over your shared wall.

Is this:

1. Totally unacceptable; call the cops and make a big stink!


2. Bad manners; call the houseboy, shout at him and have him remove the rug immediately.


3. OK; its only this one time.


4. Cool; I'm sure he would be happy if you cleaned your rug on his wall.


5. Pretend you did not see it.

What do you think?

MP3 Downloads

I found this Russian site that has all the latest MP3s. It contains a mixture of russian hits, English hits, DJ mixes, mashups and oldies.

The site is in Russian but you can read the English titles and download English MP3s if this is what you want. It also has a lot of floating ads that you can close.

I found the MP3 to be high quality samples and 192 Kbits and very clean.
You have the English and Russian alphabet at the top to find the song you want.

OK, I will not ramble on about the site, the site is zaycev.net.

Have a great musical weekend everybody.

Car Wash and Meal

With all the dust storms that we had in last few weeks my car needed a good wash outside and in all the hidden places where dust loves to collect.

I went to Canada Dry Street from the Third Ring Road and took the first right and I drove into Al Roudha car wash and parked my car next to the car wash attendant holding a water blasting hose.





I left the car in his capable hands, and went to sit inside. The waiting place was designed like a Diwaniyah with long chairs, a tea kettle and always on television. As I was about to walk in, I noticed the staircase leading up to an Indian restaurant also part of the car wash. I was feeling hungry so I decided to have something to eat while my car was being restored to its original color.

Right next to the restaurant's entrance was a Menu stuck to on the wall.





It reminded me of French Café's in Paris where the menu is displayed right at the entrance so you can check if they serve what you like, or if the price is agreeable.

I walked in. There was a preparation area for quick sandwich orders.



Right next to it, was the kitchen where the pots of rice dishes where cooking.



I sat down and ordered chicken biryani.



In less than a minute my order was placed in front of me. I especially liked the spicy maraq that came with it and I asked for another serving of maraq. The cook happily obliged.

From the restaurant's window, you could see the car wash below.



I finished my meal, my dishes where quickly whisked away and a glass with one single tea bag placed in front of me. As I was sipping my tea, I was interrupted by the car wash attendant who found me in the restaurant and told me my car was ready to be wiped and I needed to move it to the other side. I invited him to join me for a glass of tea, but he declined. He must have had other cars in line for his expert attention. I finished my tea, went below to the car wash area and watched as my car was patted and buffed until it shone like new. The job was done, the meal was gone. I got in my car and drove out after paying.





Price for car wash - KD 1.500
Price for Biryani - KD0.900

Happy Car / Happy me - priceless.

Youtube is Hiring

Youtube is hiring more staff, for the full list you can find it here.

One job that caught my attention was, Country Editor, EMEA

EMEA is an acronym for Europe, Middle East and Africa.

What are they looking for exactly? Let us go through their list, with my comments preceded with a *:




Positions are available across EMEA.

*meaning you get to work wherever you live as long as it is in EMEA.

Are you amazed by the power of YouTube? Do you consider yourself a trendsetter or “cool hunter”? Is the Internet second to oxygen on your must-have list?

*I understand this to mean, do you spend most of your waking life on the Internet, I can see that applicable to a lot of people over here.

YouTube, the leading Internet video sharing company, is looking for enthusiastic, savvy and “plugged in” Country Editors to curate the site and localize programming for international markets. Country Editors also play a key role in building community among regional users by working directly with content creators to honor their feature requests, encourage engagement with the site, and troubleshoot where needed. Country Editors serve as model YouTube users themselves, maintaining a channel, leading by example, and actively engaging with local communities through video responses, blog entries, and more.

*That fits perfectly with most of the bloggers that like to tweak their web pages and update their blogs as soon as something interesting happens to them.

Responsibilities:
Sourcing the best videos on YouTube in your language, videos that best speak to your culture’s general (and niche) interests.
Brainstorming innovative ways to package and present video content for your market.
Programming the site on a daily basis using our content management tool.
Daily research on what the v/blogosphere is buzzing about, pop culture happenings, current events, etc. in order to make intelligent and timely programming suggestions.
Community outreach – connecting with content creators in your region.
Producing content for and maintaining editor vlog(s).
Maintaining local-language YouTube blog.
Coordinating with editorial team in San Bruno when/where it makes sense.
Coordinating with regional customer service teams to address user issues.

*Most of the bloggers on Safat can do this with one hand tied behind their back.

Coordinating with regional business development teams to review content from partners as well as to make suggestions of partners to join the YouTube platform.
Coordinating with local PR and marketing teams to fulfill content needs/requests.

*The above needs networking and people skills, true isolated nerds, need not apply.

Requirements:
Excellent language experience – native tongue + English. Any European languages are a plus.

*A lot of bloggers, again on Safat, are bilingual, trilingual and quadlingual not counting the many Arabic dialects we all know.

Knowledge, experience, and a passionate user of YouTube.com.

*That is a no brainer, we all know how to watch TV, and therefore Youtube.

Proven editorial track record.
Show your blog, if it is properly edited and laid out, then you got a good chance.
Extensive experience in a high-tech and/or editorial environment.

*Meaning, serious blogger.

Excellent written and oral communication skills.

*blogger again.

Incredibly plugged in to the Internet, technology and pop culture.

*ditto

Detail- and deadline-oriented.

*ditto.

Apply here, I have a full time job right now but you can apply and tell them Don Veto sent you.

Bruce Springsteen Dancing In The Dark (1984)

Who is that girl dancing with Bruce? Answer here.

Fantastic 4 Day

I went with my kid to Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer. It was basically fantastic, from the cosmic ray powered surfing of the silver surfer to the Fantastic Jessica Alba with her invisibility and telekinetic powers.


I took this picture inside the movie, I never knew that was possible.


The movie is not Oscar material, but it was very entertaining, like a wild roller coaster ride. One thing I noticed, in the trailer Johnny, the fire boy when asked to chase the silver Surfer and he needed to turn on his flames, said "I just bought this tux", because if you flame on, your clothes naturally burn off. In the movie, he said "It's a Dolce", hmm, perhaps some last minute product placement.



Watching the silver Surfer surf all around the cosmos and on our planet Earth reminded me how I used to skateboard. I never surfed before but I am a pretty decent skateboarder. One time I skateboarded a few kilometers down a steep Swiss mountain road, I managed to skillfully avoid all the obstacles until I hit a little pebble at the end of the road, and that made me fly 20 meters and and land on my forearms and knees. I did get some bloody scrapes but still ended up in one piece with nothing broken.

After the movie ended, we walked out and it was fantastic how the kids left their trash when the lights came on, they probably thought their babysitter was around to pick up after them.





Outside in the Mall, there was a scary clown doing back flips and a blue ant following him, I don't know what that was about but it was fun to watch.





That was the end of a very enjoyable evening.

Do you recognize this tune?

If you don't then you have not lived in Kuwait, or you are 5 years or younger.

It is the theme tune for a very popular Kuwaiti Serial called "Darb Al Zalag", meaning the slippery road. It is the story of a family as the oil boom was just starting in Kuwait. People see it as a funny serial, I like to think of it more as a documentary.

Boys just want to have fun

He must have been inspired by the Fantastic 4 and the Rise of the Silver Surfer.

Worlds' Best Guitar Players

According to me, starting with:



Jimi Hendrix performing Purple Haze, even when he is spaced out, he can still play the guitar effortlessly.



Eric Clapton performing Layla.


In 1969, Clapton fell in love with Pattie Boyd, the wife of one of his best friends, Beatles' George Harrison. At about the same time, one of Clapton's friends gave him a copy of "The Story of Layla and Majnun" as written by Azerbaijani poet Nizami. The book moved Clapton profoundly as it was the tale of a young man who fell hopelessly in love with a beautiful, unavailable woman and who went crazy because he couldn't marry her. Clapton saw the correlation with his own life. more here.



The Who headed by Pete Townsend performing "Who are you"

"Who are you", is now recognized as the theme for the popular CSI series. "Who are you" is a rock classic, Pete Townsend managed to slip in "Who the f*ck" are you" which passed the censors when it was performed on American TV for the first time.



Slash previously in Guns and Roses, performing the Godfather theme on electric guitar.


Slash dropped a note in the 1992 Argentina performance but the crowd loved it anyway.




Last but not least, Lynyrd Skynyrd with Free Bird.


You might have heard this song in Forrest Gump.

Shamiyah Starbucks Suggestions

I always take my laundry to the Shamiyah Laundry. I tried other Laundromats and they always return my clothes faded different colors or wrongly pressed.

Today, I went around 8pm to the Shamiyah Laundry. The clothes where not ready but I was promised that they would be ready by 9pm. I thought it would be a good opportunity to have a coffee at Starbucks and read a newspaper while I waited. Starbucks is just a few meters from the Laundry inside the Shamiyah so called Mall.

I was sitting, enjoying my coffee and catching up on the latest news, when one of the waiters came by and asked me to fill up a suggestions pamphlet. I don't have any major complaints about Starbucks; their service is ok and reasonably fast and clean.

After I finished reading the newspaper I took pen in hand and wrote some suggestions.





My handwriting is atrocious, so I will translate here:

1) Deliver order to table.

It would be really nice if they delivered the order to the table, I don't mind standing in line to place my order, but I don't like to have my number called like a nameless sheep and rush to the red light to take my order.

2) Don't ask or suggest extras for my order.

I know what I usually want for my order, I don't need extra whipped cream, or banila blaybo added.

3) Don't shout the everybody's order.

Legend has it that Starbucks did a study and found out that their workers are more productive if they shout the order to each other. Well I don't care much for Starbucks culture, just take the order quietly and make sure you make it fast and right.

4) Put more couches and satellite TV.

Starbucks contrary to other places have nice comfortable couches to allow you to lay your lazy ass and drink your coffee. Everyone likes those couches, so get rid of the chairs and put more couches. While you are it, install flat panel TVs everywhere with satellite and put remotes on each couch.

5) Put video games.

If they apply my suggestion number 5, might as well put some video games and have people playing their hearts and fingers out.

6) Allow customers to make their own coffee.

Watching all these Starbucks waiters make coffee for me I thought it would be fun if I was let loose on the coffee machine, I would make a four shot espresso with a little vanilla steam the place up.

7) Give free WiFi Internet.

The cofee is already steeply price, I don't think Starbucks will lose much if they made the Internet free as part of the service.

Japanese Public Service Announcement to help you survive a Mugging

A Japanese public service announcement video that teaches you basic English in case you are ever mugged in an English speaking country.






PS

This is not a joke clip.

Jalal Talabani - The Comedian

Jalal Talabani saying some funny jokes.

Lego Goes Online

Virtual worlds are becoming very popular. Sites like Second Life and World of Warcraft have members numbering in the millions. Virtual Currency is being exchanged back and forth into real currency.

Lego has decided to join these worlds by releasing an Online World. More about this here.

Nokia thinks Saddam is still in Power

The new Nokia N95 has GPS capabilities with basic maps showing your location and important landmarks preconfigured.

While browsing around the different areas, I discovered that the Baghdad International Airport is still called Saddam International Airport.

What is Wrong with this Picture

The Mother skipped out of the car to go to the Coop. She left the car in park with the air conditioning on and the 3 year old kid with the maid. The kid cannot be controlled, he jumps into the driver seat and start turning on and off the windshield wipers. Very soon, he could possibly put the car in reverse or drive and have a serious accident.

Internet in South Surra

South Surra is a new residential building Area in Kuwait. A few years ago, there was no infrastructure. Today roads, electricity, water, sewage and most importantly Fiber to the Home, exists. The only service you can get from the fiber right now is basic telephone service.

According to KEMS, we can expect Internet service in South Surra as soon as the end of June 2007. Initially they will be offering 256Kbps for the first 2-3 months and later will go for higher speeds up to 4 Mbps. You need to have a telephone line, but the technology used is not DSL but fiber, so none of that splitter business but rather, you connect your router / switch / hub directly to the RJ45 port found in your "telephone" box. The existing fiber hardware supports up to 1.5 Gbps, but no promises yet on when this could happen.


Fiber Point


Close Up of Connectors

You plug into LINK1 and from there you can connect to the Internet.

If your fiber point is in a concealed location in your house, you need to do some wiring and extend a twisted pair cable from the box to the place where you want your Internet to be.

No news about pricing, my assumption is it will be similar to what KEMS is offering in its current DSL pricing.