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.