Cairo for 25 Hours

Going to Egypt I had about three meetings to take care of, two the day I arrive and one the next morning, its one of those compact trips, all in one shot. I took this trip because I had to have this one meeting, and then other two just piled on. I knew one thing when going to Cairo, to ask for the VIP service at the airprot which is $100 for arrival and departure, and your travel agent can arrange for it, you have to ask for the VIP terminal. You walk through and sit on a counch while you wait for your passport to be stamped and your bags to come out, but in my case I only had one carry on, so out the door I went, I was outside within 11 minutes from departing the plane which is fantastic.

I have a simple rule when in Egypt, I only stay at the Four Seasons Nile Plaza, this rule is there because I have suffered food poisoning every time I eat anything outside, but staying at this hotel I can order any food in mind and I’m sure its safe. Even when I had a dinner meeting I said that I’m not hungry and kept drinking water, as soon as I got back to the hotel I ordered room service, I have had too many bad experiences to take a risk. Too much work to do in Kuwait, so I flew back the next afternoon to get back in time to eat some food, and I passed out the whole flight back because I was so exhausted from this short trip and waking up early.

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Botamba Blog Aggregator

Just got listed on this new Kuwait Blogs Aggregator which seems to be very easy and fun to read. You can easily submit your blog with image your would like associated with it, I chose the usual Z as the symbol and some really interesting blogs on there. And I really do like the name to Botamba, the blog listing is done through icons on the right, I have a feeling thats going to grow big and really fast, I don’t know how they plan on handling a lot of listings at a later point but for now its a good start.

Link: Botamaba

THE A-TEAM – Trailer

This is a dream come true, to see this show turn into a movie is fantastic, and Liam Neeson is playing one of the leads its bound to be good. The assortment of characters is fantastic and its going to be an explosion filled nonstop action flick that will have you grinning ear to ear.

The Arrival of the Nexus One

I ordered the phone after seeing the post on Uptill1, I wasn’t keen on it right away but after reading the specs I decided to jump onboard to the Android platform. Also because my Sony Ericsson phone now hangs whenever it feels like and lets me access my contacts when it feels like, so its time for a change.

I really like the clean packaging of the box, you open it up and see the phone as it has been in all the blurry images. The Nexus One is a lot bigger then I expected, its just as big as the iPhone but a lot thinner which is nice, compared to the Blackberry 8900 Curve its thing but tall.

Now the process begins to transfer the contacts to Android platform, and I know you get really tied up with your Gmail account because of this. Now I have to figure out a solution to transfer 800+ contacts from my old Sony Ericsson phone to my Nexus One, I have a feeling it will not be a pleasurable experience. You would think that after all this time someone would come up with a software to transfer contacts without any mistakes that you may face, and I know that outlook process is a bit on the retarded side, it doesn’t take all the information of your contacts, if one contact has more then two to three numbers assume a few of the details will be disappearing, overall its going to be annoying. Other then that I am really looking forward to trying this phone it got a lot of good reviews, and what criticism it did get it doesn’t bother me.

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Review: Invictus

The true story of how Nelson Mandela joined forces with the captain of South Africa’s rugby team, Francois Pienaar, to help unite their country. Newly elected President Mandela knows his nation remains racially and economically divided in the wake of apartheid. Believing he can bring his people together through the universal language of sport, Mandela rallies South Africa’s underdog rugby team as they make an unlikely run to the 1995 World Cup Championship match.

This movie delivered the story of Nelson Mandela as he became president of Africa, and Morgan Freeman was perfect for the role. Its uncanny how he has the same mannerisms and speech pattern of Nelson Mandela, you see a side that you have never seen before, his personal side and what he did to unite his country. His name is known the world over just as Mother Teresa or Dali Lama, and this movie pulls you in and you wrapped in the story. As the story develops you get to understand what Mandela sacrificed and get excited towards the end, but even at the end of the movie I don’t understand rugby’s tactics.

Link: IMDB
Rating:

Sonos – ZP90

Having this music system integrated with my iTunes library and internet radio services has been great. I have had the Sonos system since 2005 and decided to expand it to another location which is the media room, and so I purchased the ZP90. A solid piece of audio hardware plugged right into my Onkyo A/V to route the sound through the Home Theater Speakers. Plugging it in and setting it up took less then 10 minutes and music was blasting through smoothly, I plugged it into the A/V using RCA cables but I’m planning on upgrading it to an optical connection when I get the cable. Overall an excellent piece of hardware for any music fan.

Pro:

• Simple Setup, Hit Mute & Plus Volume to add it to your Zone
• Compact & Small
• Quality Build Product, It feels solid.
• Full Integrated Music System – Internet Based Music (Rhapsody, Last.fm, Sirius, and more), Music File Server, and seamlessly connects to iTunes
• Connects direct to speakers or to A/V to use large speaker system
• Sonos iPod Application can control the system, or through the computer, or through the CR100 or CR200 remote

Con:

• Price – But you pay for the quality of the product.

Link: Amazon
Price: $349
Rating:

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My Top Retro Cartoons

There was always something special about the cartoons back in the day, I would be stuck to the screen. I remember Mumra from Thunder Cats really scared me and pissed me off, I don’t know how many things I broke swinging a stick around saying “Thunder Cats, Thunder Cats, Thunder Cats! HOOOOOOO!”, I remember even hitting our Sony Tri-Color TV back in the day, and it weighed around 60 Kgs.

My List

• Thunder Cats – The best cartoon of the 80s, Panthera was cool always making gadgets and still kicking ass
• Voltron – The best of the 80s
• Silver Hawks – They were really cool!
• Centurions – Man and Machine Power Extreme! I wanted to be Ace McCloud, always wanted to fly!
• Brave Star – Some many different powers!

Worthy Mentions

• He Man – I wanted his tiger!
• GI Joe

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V – It Begins

Now this show lived up to its expectations and left me wanting a lot more, they introduced the V, the story line and lots of action and suspense. Anna is the leader of the V, they have shown up hovering over all large metropolitan areas, people don’t know what to expect. What the humans don’t know is that the Vees have been on earth for decades infiltrating their system and reaching sensitive locations and positions within governments and businesses. ABC only released for episodes but they were amazing, the best part is where this will go, the ending is leading us in an interesting direction. I like how they have kept the quality of the story at a high level, so many complex stories to work with, a great series and a lot of room for it to grow, can’t wait for them to release more episodes.

Link: TV.com

Review: Spread

Ashton Kutcher trying to play a troubled young man bumming around in LA unable to commit to a woman, until he finds a woman like him. I’m a fan of Ashton Kutcher, pretty much since he made “Dude Where’s My Car?” but that is the type of movie I expect him to be in, and he shouldn’t have been in this movie. His role as a troubled young man trying to mooch off women, and continue living his life as it is just seems a bit off, the character seems bland. Its one of those movies you watch and wish you didn’t since you can’t get time back, the sex scenes were a bit on the vulgar side, just annoying, not flowing, the whole movie is a waste of time.

Link: IMDB
Rating:

Friday – Breakfast Ride

Getting up early in the morning isn’t too hard when the weather is this nice and sunny outside, it was perfectly chilly. Showered and went down, got my leather jacket out and ready to go, warmed up the beemer for the ride, Robo was ready to go. I have been enjoying riding Robo a lot recently, I have missed this beast and he is one hell of a beast, a scary mechanical brute who can destroy all at will. All my bikes have personalities in my head and Robo in this case has the soul of Iron Hide from Transformers, ready to fight, shoot first and ask questions later.

We took an easy route by the sea side then heading to the free zone, and I was just enjoying the brute force of this machine. Monichum was enjoying the joyride we were taking, every corner was an adventure, from turn to turn, the best part is how empty the roads were, and then head to the free zone for a few shots. After we were done we met up with the guys at Prime & Toast, pretty much we were the first and got the seats together before the other lazy guys got up and came over.

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