It seems everyone is delaying their meetings these days because the weather has gotten cold and unpredictable in Kuwait over the past week. It has been hard for me to get into a start for work when I have been off for a week. Jumping into work, I found a lot of stuff were pending and I had to jump right into it from the first day I had 5 meetings and next day I had 6 meetings, it was pure insanity!
Stats:
- 9 Days Away
- 385 Emails (Legit)
- 492 Junk Mail
It took me three days to really go through those emails and make sure I had everything covered. Going to work felt like trying to untangle a ball of strings, everything is tied up and messed up. It takes sometime but I sort it out in due time, this cold weather is helping out at all. All I want to do is stay at home and watch some TV!
 
I knew that I have had packages on the way from Amazon but I think the best part was seeing all the packages piled up like it was christmas, I wasn’t sure what was in which box and I wasn’t sure of everything I ordered.
The unboxing is always a good time, seeing that I got everything was great and it only got held up in customs 1 to 2 days.
The List:
- Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM
- iRiver Clix 8GB (Qty 2)
- Alpinestars SPS Leather Gloves
- Letal Weapon HD-DVD
- Army of Darkness HD-DVD/DVD Combo
- The Italian Job HD-DVD
- Blade Runner Collectors Edition HD-DVD
- The Bourne Trilogy HD-DVD
- MASH – Complete Collection
- Mars Daybreak Vol 6
- Highlander – The Search for Vengeance
I have been asked this question a few times, basically how do I find the anime that I watch. Well it would be considered a complex formula with multiple layers to it. There are lots of sources of information and recommendations for anime, then there are the fansubs (the people that translate the Japanese dialogue and insert the subtitles).
My source of information is AnimeNewsNetwork, they provide me with information regarding any Anime in its Japanese or English name. The first thing I do is see if the story interests me, and I’m usually interested in all forms anime.
Information: AnimeNewsNetwork
Then I take a look at the Fansubs and what they are currently working on, having a quality fansub can make or break an Anime, a bad fansub will get you annoyed with the storyline since the dialogue won’t match the action taking place and it would drive you nuts, so quality subtitles is important. So if a fansub group is working on a new project then I check out a few episodes, and if I like it then I follow it.
Fansubs:
- Shinsen Subs
- Dattebayo
- Ani-Kraze
- Triad
- Mendoi
- Shinsen-Corp
- Megami
- GG
- Order
- BSS
The only issue with Fansubs is that the smaller ones disappear after a while, the bigger ones stay like the ones from the top of my list.
Another way is to check out a few forums or groups for anime, but some anime forums are too intense. One forum that I recommend for anime is the OffTopic Forum, but only the anime part of the forum because the other part they are a bit too aggressive.
Then there is MyAnimeList which is a really well built social site for anime and those who want to follow their anime or see recommendations. One person built the whole site, and it is amazing how simple and useful the site is. I use it to get a few recommendations as well as keep tabs on all the shows I am watching.
This has been my luck when I go to Egypt, I knew that at some point that I might get food poisoning but I was hoping to avoid it. I don’t think there is a possibility of going to Egypt without getting food poisoning.
Our flight was Friday afternoon from Alexandria so we had to leave around 7:30 am from Cairo to take a minibus to Alexandria, it was a funny road trip and we were going to enjoy ourselves. For the few nights I was there I only ate out twice and I ate with a lot of friends, and at very good places. It was a three hour drive to the Alexandria Airport, we had to take Emirates Airline from there since every flight from Cairo was booked.
Towards the end of the bus trip I was feeling a bit queazy, I wasn’t sure what was wrong, I thought it was just a case of heartburn. When we were about to get on the plane I had a 7-up but it didn’t help. It was a 3.5 hour flight, and a little bit into the plane I felt things get worse and then I knew something was very wrong. When they served lunch I took one bite from the food and then went to the bathroom and vomited quite a bit. I felt better but really out of it, I went straight back to my seat and fell asleep, I didn’t want to eat a bite.
As soon as I got to the hotel in Dubai I asked for a doctor who prescribed to me three medications:
- Bascopan (Pain)
- Imodium (Clearing Poison)
- Primperan (Naseau)
Drinking water felt a little bad even afer a few hours so I wanted to get a bite to eat. Later in the evening I had a little bit to eat, and I threw up again but at that time I think I cleared up everything in my stomach. After that I passed out until the morning, and I felt a lot better in the morning, now I just have to take it easy.
This has been one hell of a vacation, from meeting with all my friends and going to all the dinners with friends. Three days in Egypt were insane, with very little sleep and the wedding was nothing short of fantastic. It was a great wedding at the Four Seasons at the Nile with about 350 people. It was hectic since we were with the groom and he had a lot on his plate and helping him with a lot of different things.
I was only there for a three days in total and on the fourth day I traveled with a few friends to spend New Years in Dubai.
I got a call the other day, I was invited for a lunch in Wafra with some friends. I thought why not especially in this beautiful weather. As soon as I got on the road it was a drizzle and then it turned into a full on monsoon on the drive to Wafra.
I called for directions since I knew I would pass the turn, I was counting the numbers of turns and then suddenly the road was upon me as I was flying past it. I made a quick stop and made the turn, luckily there weren’t that many cars on the road.
The best part about these long drives is enjoying the music I had, it really is an enjoyable drive especially when you have the right kind of music.
I managed to find the compound pretty easily, especially after entering the wrong one the first time around and it turned out to be a family there instead of my friends so I quickly backed out of the their before heading to the next camp. It was perfect and they had different tents for different uses which was very practical. The best part was the duwa which was filled with coal and warm and crispy by the time I was close to it.
The lunch was very good, and the company was even better. There is something about being in the desert that is just very different then anything else.
This has been a good week since I have been organizing a few things, and multitasking as well.
Tasks being worked on:
- I have had a large amount of magazines to read over the past couple of months, the pile has gotten so big that I have lost track of what motorcycle magazine I have read and which I haven’t. So I have been going through them trying to remember if I did, and if I did I would put them in a while. I also got rid of some old magazines to clean up the areas on my couch and around my desk. I have been successful in this task, the mountains of magazines have decreased a lot over the past couple of days.
- I have been organizing a lot of the time I have on my computer and moving them around to the appropriate area as well as archiving series, anime, and movies that I have watched. I have emptied out some space while keeping things more organized and accessible on my PCs.
- I have checked on the latest episodes of anime, TV series and movies that I have and I felt like I haven’t downloaded in a while. So I went on a downloading rampage for the past couple of days taking full advantage of my bandwidths. This has worked very well since my anime stash is stocked up and my TV Stash is stocked up.
- While organizing the files, I have been listening to all the CDs I have and ripping their music to my computer. After finishing with a CD I take up stairs to storage so that it doesn’t take up any space. I have the music that I want, and the CD case won’t be taking up any space when I put it in storage.
A few more things to organize but this is always an on going task, the moment everything is nice and organized, things get messy again, a continuous process.
Since I have some time this weekend I’m trying to download as many shows as possible to enjoy over this period:
- Mr. Woodcock
- The Seeker
- Shoot Em Up
- Blonde Ambition
- Resident Evil Extinction
- The Heart Break Kid
- The Kingdom
- Eastern Promise
- The Flock
- Stardust
There are some movies that I really want to watch, and some that I have found interesting and I want to have a selection to choose from. I’m looking forward to Stardust but I will watch that on my own since its a little too much fantasy for some of the guys.
I called Alghanim Electronics to check on the status of my Creative Zen and I got answer I wasn’t really expecting. They told me the hardware is gone and the board has to be replaced. I asked them how much it costs, they told me the cost of the unit since it has to be ordered and it isn’t covered under warranty since I got it from out of town.
I have to say that this is very frustrating, I had a feeling they might say it will take a while to fix but not like this. If the firmware is shot it just needs a clean reinstall but they need the right equipment, which it seems they do not have. The listed Creative Dealers say they don’t have Creative and they don’t even know what it is, they are Al Sarraf Electronics and they are clueless. Now I have a 60 KD paper weight to keep or a projectile weapon, at least I have my iRiver.
This was probably one of the most interesting and surprising conversation that I have had in a long time.
I got a call in the morning and he said “hello, Mr So and So, this is So & So from the British Embassy”
Me, “Yes, Hello”
Him, “I’m calling regarding your Visa application, your Visa has been denied”
Me, “What?!? Why, what happened? Or what was wrong”
Him, “Sir, in our system you are a British National and you are entitled to the British Nationality”
Me, “What? What are you talking about, something must be very wrong.”
Him, “It says that you were born in the UK before 1983, and therefore you are a British National”
Me, “That is true, but I didn’t apply to a citizenship and I am a Kuwaiti National, and I don’t want to change that”
Him, “Sir you could apply for a different entry which is called the Certificate of Entightlement, which means you are a British National with a different passport living outside the UK.”
Me, “Is that my only option, I don’t want to do that, or pay UK Taxes”
Him, “You are exempted from Taxes, and you have to apply for that”
Me, “I have been applying for the regular Visit Visa for the past 26 years what exactly happened in the last year”
Him, “This rule has been enacted since that time, but they have gotten stricter this past year over all the rules, and it has applied to a lot of Kuwaitis who were born in the UK”
The conversation was a lot longer then that, and there was a lot of give and take with information. The gentlemen was very helpful and he pointed me to forms that I could submit directly to the embassy instead of the application center so I don’t lose paying my fee, which is 120 KD. All that they needed was my original UK Birth certificate which I had no clue where it was and it took a few hours to find it. Now they shall be giving me that little sticker in my passport which is basically an entry type which lasts as long as my passport.
First thought in my head after things became clearer later in the day, “I don’t want to serve the Queen” and “I could become James Bond”