Probably the worst timing for a phone to go on the fritz, I was about to start the transfer my basic Sony Ericsson to the Nexus One which was an arduous process in itself since there isn’t a simple process develop by Google yet. Just as I was about to start transferring the contacts through bluetooth to a smart Sony Ericsson it got stuck on searching for Bluetooth devices and didn’t stop, left it for about 5 minutes and it was still on the same screen. Took out the battery and put it back in and the damn thing would just keep restarting with no end in site, I tried connecting to my PC to pull the contacts with no hope, it kept trying to find the drivers but it kept restarting. I haven’t backed up my contacts in a year, I was going nuts and I had to go to a afternoon part of the funeral so I dropped it off at my phone guy since I gave up all hope. I had people calling me and I had no clue who they were, I had full conversations then asked them who they were, I had to keep explaining that I lost my phone, it was the only way.
I dropped it off at 2pm, I was tormented for many hours, I was going nuts. I got a call from my phone guy to pick it up at 8 pm, the screen and keyboard were shot so I was happy that everything was working. First thing I did was back up the phone numbers and performed the transplant to Nexus which is another story.
The last few days have been a practical whirlwind, not enough time to read anything or write anything, just busy with family and work. GulfRun took a nice chunk of the weekend but that was a huge amount of fun and I have a ton of pics to post up. Then there is a lot coming up this coming week and more, not even a minute to scratch my head and a lot of travel thrown in-between. Now that time is a little sorted out I have some breathing room to finish a few task on hand, and catch up on my internet activities.
This makes entering and leaving from Cairo Airport so much easier, I signed up for the VIP service through my travel agency and it turned out to be even better then I expected. When you leave the plane there is a bus that takes all the passengers to immigrations, but in my case a car was waiting for me and takes me straight to the VIP terminal.
You even have your own immigrations and they go get your luggage for you. I just waited in the lounge for everything to be stamped and to go through simply, and within 5 minutes I was out the door and on my way to the hotel. They have made it so easy and simple to go through that it is really worth it to use this service, and once you experience it you will not stop using it. The lounge area is very nice with separate rooms for all the guests and you can still sit in the middle area instead of the nice room. There is free wireless available for your use all over the VIP Terminal, I think that this is the best service they could have provided to passengers arriving into Cairo.
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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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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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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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Back from an adventure for new years, we have been planning this trip for some time and I got back Sunday after having so much fun in the desert. We drove over 6 hours to get there, and almost 1400 Kms of driving in total over a four day period from Kuwait and back. This adventure was nothing short of a Toyota advertisement with two FJ Cruisers and one Landcruiser, the way we were driving was probably the best advertisement Toyota could get. With 300+ photos of the whole trip I will be posting a lot up later but for now this is just a few pics for now. We moved every few hours, right after breakfast we would find another location in the dunes of Dhana, a nomad style of camping which was organized and everyone had their task at every point.
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Taking a nice break for a few days, about 5 days I think in total, the logistics aren’t completely worked out. We are heading out to a location in the Saudi Desert for some fun in the sand. Something different to do for New Years, I wanted to take a break, and this is the best possible break. No forms of communication in any direction, its a risk but really worth taking and I’m going to enjoy every moment of it. I think we will be traveling 800 to 1200 kilometers to get to our destination but it is a beautiful location that we went to in 2007 so I’m looking forward to it, and I get to test the new Landcruiser in the desert.
I hope everyone has a great new years!
It was raining in the city so we decided not to go riding, I worked on a few things before heading out to Wafra for lunch. The weather was perfect, a nice cold chill, a few layers of clothing, a hoody and I am good to go. These long drives have given me a good reason to clean up and work on my playlists, they do need some sorting and adjusting, I keep finding songs that I have completely forgotten about over the past few decades but now I’m getting them back into rotation. Getting the playlists right makes some of them perfect for all kinds of drives and listening to the perfect song when I’m driving, find some good oldies.
This time Bu Jasim was taking care of lunch so I was looking forward to what was on the menu. As usual I was enjoying the drive, and since it has recently rain the ground was solid except for a few soft spots to avoid. I was enjoy the bouncy ride, its like riding on clouds, and as soon as I got in there were more people this time then last time. What surprised me were the dogs, small & big (people) brought their dogs, caramel was the small one, I forgot the labrador name but it was a lot of fun too. The funny part is that labrador only understood Arabic commands, which was amazing, and caramel was a friendly small dog that just walked around and found comfort where he could. Lots of people, perfect weather with a cool breeze, the best part was the tea after the meal and relaxing outside. I can never get enough of this perfect weather and desert, a dose of this every once in a while is perfect.
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I have been saving up a bunch of Blu-Rays for some time now on my Amazon Wish List. And I decided to ship them all one go through MyUs.com shipping service. This was the ultimate test, and I chose DHL Express Service to see what would happen to this shipment and how many BluRays would be confiscated from this extensive list of epic and lifetime movies. And thrown into the mix is one Sonos ZP90, an addition to my current Sonos unit, to play music in other areas.
I had several shipments of Blu-Rays and the ZP90, and MyUS combined all the items into one big box for easier shipping. 23 lbs in total for all the items combined, turned out to be $180, the items got into the MyUS mailbox in Florida over a two day period, so after getting several boxes I clicked to combine them all and ship, the next day I get a DHL tracking number to Kuwait. Three days later all the items are in Kuwait and I just give them my civil ID and pay 10 KD for the tax of the full value of the invoiced items. Overall a much better experience, much faster, cleared in two days from customs and delivered to my house, couldn’t ask for a better service. MyUS is only good for heavy shipments as others have mentioned, its too expensive for small parcels, so if you want to order a bunch of items try combining them one shot and sending them over in one heavy box, turns out to be a lot cheaper then Aramex and a lot less headache. I will use Aramex for small shipments but for big shipments I’m using MyUS.
Items:
- Sonos ZP90
- Justice League – The Complete Series DVD
Blu-Rays:
- 300
- Batman Begins
- The Dark Knight
- Star Trek
- Transformers
- Transformers Revenge Of The Fallen
- Gladiator
- The Matrix Collection
- Dead Space Downfall
- GunBuster The Movie
- DieBuster The Movie
- Robotech The Shadow Chronicles
- Appleseed Ex Machina
- Samurai 7
- Samura Champloo