I have some storage cupboards which I use for all my books, dvds, cds, and miscellaneous items which have piled up over the years. Whenever I finish ripping a few CDs to my hard drive I take those CDs to the cupboards, and whenever I finish a few books, I shift a couple of books upstairs as well. That cupboard is also housing all the books, DVDs, CDs, and items from my college days.
There are also a few notebooks that I wrote in before going to college which have information about all the upgrades and technical work I wanted to do on a truck I would get during college. I’m happy I have all these items to look at every once in a while, I forget that I have them and when I do read through them I remember what I was thinking during that time and how things have progressed and changed, it also has notes of things I wanted to do and places I wanted to go. Always keeping the good things in mind while learning from the bad. There are a lot of books up there that I haven’t read yet which I’m anxious to read as well, I even remember why I bought every book that I bought, I’m happy that I do remember the reason behind each book and what I had in mind at the time.
There is a bunch of martial arts books that I was reading through in 2001 when I was taking Akido, and Kung Fu classes, it was a really good time and I got the hell beaten out of me. Did my fighting skills improve after those classes for 6 months, I think slightly, and I had one hell of a bruised ego. This was just one of the reasons for those books, and I laugh at what I was doing at the time and I don’t regret anything that I did do.
Its always good to remember all this, I need to go through all the books and sort them out but that would take a couple of days to go through them. I also have to digitize some of the good CDs that I have since I have a lot of good music which I don’t have access to at my finger tips.
This short summer vacation I was in California and during that time I drove a lot and during that time I managed to get a few speeding tickets in that time. I crossed from Southern to Northern California and back at least 3 to 4 times which led to the incidents with the police. I took different steps with different tickets hopefully to lower the damage done to my insurance.
Ticket 1:
Location: Orange County
Situation: Racing a 2007 M5 in a faster car and I managed to hit 178 mph and braked really hard before passing the cop.
Ticket: Speeding more then 90 mph (Lucky he didn’t know the real speed)
Fine: $340
My Action: Paid $378 for Fine and online traffic school to avoid point.
Ticket 2:
Location: Los Banos
Situation: In the mountain pass with an empty road driving fast, around 134 mph.
Ticket: Speeding, doing 96 mph in a 55 mph zone.
Fine: $430
My Action: Paid $430, since there is nothing that can be done and its in the middle of nowhere, and I can’t take traffic school for it. So I got the point for this one.
Ticket 3:
Location: San Mateo
Situation: Driving fast to San Francisco and pass a hidden cop hiding under a bridge
Ticket: Speeding at 80 mph (which isn’t too bad, when I was doing 95 mph)
Fine: $200
My Action: Paid $150 to Lawyer to fight it and drop it.
This is going to be really fun, there are is a good number of people going. I know only half of them, I don’t know the other half but they seem like decent people. There are a few things taking place that we need to do to get things going like details with your car and everything like that. I really like how organized the people are, and they have a lot of the paperwork ready to go through to get things done, they are also helping some guys with tickets and problems to get their cars cleared for transport.
All these events are open to the public if anyone wants to check them out its worth going. 24 cars from Kuwait so thats going to be fun, and I think a few from Bahrain.
Event 1:
Time: Nov 11th, 8:00pm
Location: Al Falah Car Wash in Sharq
To get cars cleaned and then applying the Gulf Run stickers to all the cars, I want the number 24!
Event 2:
Time: Nov 12th ,4:00pm
Location: Parking Lot on Seaside next to KPC in Shuweikh
Transporting the Vehicle, there will be a special police escort from there down the gulf road to the docking area by entertainment city.
Nov 15h : Gulf Run
8am to 6pm
Link: TheGulfRun
I had 95% of my sound system except for the dyanmat but I decided to go ahead with the install since I wanted it to be done during the day time. I knew the install would take about 2 – 2.5 hour since its a clean install and it seemed simple enough, but I was off the target since I assumed they would only be working on my car.
When I got there at 5:00 pm they just started working on a Chrysler 300C which was installing two amps, a capacitor, and wiring. Basically that car kept the stock speakers, but new head unit and a subwoofer was installed in the middle of the handrest in the car. It seems the Kenwood dealer in Kuwait fried this person’s headunit and computer when installing so he is filing a report with the consumer protection department in the government and it is going through.
They have one person named Sakem who is quite knowledgeable regarding sound systems because I looked at the instructions with him and we decided how I wanted the speakers wired for a specific flow of sound, and where to put the amp. The first person working on my car almost messed up if I wasn’t on top of him, so I told him just to dismantle what was there, basically making sure he doesn’t solder anything or install anything. He knew to a degree what to do, but he didn’t know what I wanted and I was afraid he would destroy some of my equipment, because Sakem was busy with the 300C.
They started with the wiring since I told them where I wanted everything, they used 8 gauge wiring for all the speakers, head unit, and amp which is fantastic for sound but difficult to wire inside the car. It hurt to see the guts of my car being ripped out like that, I knew what they were doing was right without damaging anything. On its own it took over an hour and a half just to put the wires through all the hidden area to the back. They finished the 300C around 7:10pm and things got going with my Landcruiser from there, the wiring was all ready and the old speaker mounts were used to mount the new speakers which fit perfectly even though they are bigger. I have to say Toyota did an excellent job with the wiring and everything else, very simple and perfectly done. I helped them fitting the wires and pushing the main 4 gauge wires through the firewall to the battery. By the time things got going it was taking 15 minutes for every door which got us to about 8:40 pm. All wires were going to the back and were putting together each door once it was done, it worked systematically and there were five people working on the car including me. I was happy I had jeans and a t-shirt on since I did get dirty, but it felt good that things were being done right. The headunit took some time to install because it had at least 36 different wires and he had to dismantle the wiring of the main part in the Toyota connection to connect it to the Kenwood Headunit.
Then they tested each speaker to see where the sound was coming from to connect it to the correct port in the amplifier. Overall it was a great experience but it took to 9:25pm to finish the car since there was one before mine, if there wasn’t any other car I still think it would have taken until 8:30pm at least to finish since it wasn’t easy to get the wires around. Then we spent 10 minutes tweaking the sound since it was at least 4 times louder then before, but tweaking the sound is going to take at least an hour of time which I will do later.
The install, wiring, and equipment cost 100 KD which is worth the value since they did do a good job overall and when Sakem was working on the sound system I could tell he knew exactly what he was doing and what can’t be done. The stock speakers are 20 Watts, the new Boston Acoustic speakers are 125 Watts so its 5 times more powerful and it can be easily heard, its iPod & Mp3 player ready, rear camera ready, navi ready. I might get the rear camera but thats about it everything else is ready to connect. It was one hell of a night but I was happy everything was done the only thing I forgot to check was the radio quality, I just have to go back because the antenna isn’t going up and down like it is supposed to before, I’m sure its a simple switch since its right next to the temperature and clock.
I have never had such a full day as this in a long time, it was insane and fun.
9:00 am – 3:00 pm – Red Bull Flug Tag
3:10 pm to 3:30 pm – Shower
3:30 pm to 5:40 pm – Halo 3 (3 players)
5:40 pm to 6:05 pm – Getting food from Ghadeer (4 guys, and entertaining driving on the way there)
Ghadeer:
- 12 Kabab Sandwichs
- 5 Chicken Shawarmas
- 5 Meat Shawaramas
- 2 Lg Humus
- 1 Lg Cocktail
- 1 Lg Strawberry
6:05 pm to 7:35 pm – Dinner & Movie, some KDD ice cream (We devoured 95% of the food)
7:35 pm to 11:48 pm – Halo 3 (4 players)
What a day, it was really just a great day and you get that perfect sleep at the end of the day.
Halo 3: 6 hours 23 minutes (Social and Ranked Games)
Wednesday night I left work around 9:00pm and went to my cousins dewaneya wear only two of us sat there for a bit. I had a lot of work so I stayed late, but then I passed by my cousins since I was hungry and I knew there would be food. I honestly got dizzier by the minute so I left early and went to Zait & Zaatar to pick up a few sandwiches, and when your hungry you tend to order more then you really need.
I was happy to get home and eat some food while watching anime. I was very happy after finishing the meal and about an hour and a bit later I was asleep around 11:15 pm because I was so tired and full.
Then around 5:15am I woke up and felt something very strange and within seconds I felt pain in my chest, I got right up. I knew what it was after a bit, it was a lot of built up heart burn hitting me one go. My fist was clenching my t-shirt and I knew I couldn’t do anything about it. I drank some cold water but that doesn’t really help. So I got up to walk around but that didn’t help much either, so I walked out of my room to get me a fresh yellow apple. After eating it and drinking some water the pain started dying down after 5 minutes, and I did feel better. It was all my fault and I wouldn’t want to repeat that mistake again, it was a freaky feeling to wake up to.
I think this is probably one of the funniest things we have done with as little effort as possible.
I just saw some of the planes there, and some people brought in German Engineers to make some of them, and some spent thousands on their planes. I don’t know what they were thinking, but it wasn’t what we were thinking.
People may think the Imperial 27 plane is ugly or might not fly, but we will have a blast jumping off the 11 meter high ramp. I saw how high that ramp is, and it is a freaky looking from the top. I thought to hell with it, I’m jumping off after the pilot even if the water is really really cold.
We had fun through out this whole mess, and one thing is for sure if this thing flys it will have to defy gravity.
I’m just waiting for one more package to arrive which is the Dynamat Extreme. It is a material to be used in the door and roof lining to absorb all vibrations, lost sound, or any distortions through the material. Its a performance sound deadening material which will help the sound of the speakers be precise in their distribution. It is really imporant, and almost everyone forgets to add it when modifying the sound system. I have used it twice before and everytime it cleans up the sound within the vehicle.
Business in Dubai is very interesting there are lots of meetings upon meetings upon meetings. Its really good how much work they get done, and the tools they have at their hands to get things done. The one thing that I did find odd is the lack of Emirates working at all these privates companies, I went to three major companies and I saw none. I was told that one major company had a group and they were group but that was it.
When I went to all these meetings I had a dishdasha for everyday and I had an extra one just in case of any accidents. At every building that I went to I got the weirdest looks in the world. People were staring just above their cubicles and I felt like they were staring, it was the weirdest sensation. Even my coworkers were saying that it was strange everyone was staring, its as if they haven’t seen a person in a dishdasha. It seems they don’t get too many people in a dishdasha coming by or working there. Its funny even a few people asked if I was some special person visiting, I got used to stares and just laughed it off. Still I think its a loss for Emirates not to work at so many of the good companies they have to choose from.
I was checking on my packages when they arrived in Kuwait on the 27th in the early morning based on the tracking system. I thought that is perfect, I would get all the products by the time I get back from my Dubai trip. I kept checking everyday for the delivery and I kept seeing the packages on hold which I found surprising, one package maybe but not all three packages since they are all electronic items and the same type available in Kuwait.
I tried all day calling Aramex but they didn’t answer, and then I asked a clearance guy I know to pass by since he was in the vicinity he called me from there to tell me I just need to pay 65KD for the whole amount. I said I would pay but I want my packages, when I asked them why customs stopped them the person the phone asked me to hold for a minute which I did, when she got back to me she told me that they weren’t on hold at customs but since they had a huge shipment come in they didn’t deliver a lot of items which I thought was a really bad excuse and misleading, I was ticked off and said I shouldn’t be paying that much if they aren’t going to deliver as soon as they receive it.
I’m just happy I got my electronics and I will be fitting them in the car after the weekend, so thats going to be a lot of fun.
