So I got on the plane and passed the hell out, the guy next to me was pretty nice. Also a Kuwaiti business man, I put my briefcase between us so I can make my seat as flat as possible. I have to say that Lufthansa Business class seats move in a wierd way, its like flowing from top to bottom adjusting to your controls so it takes a bit to figure out how to move it. Once we took off, I took my shoes off and put my mp3 player on and passed out until the lady woke me up for breakfast a couple of hours later. I have to say that I saw the best looking flight attendent I have ever seen, I really couldnt believe how good looking she was and how nice she was, usually I would be pissed if someone walk me up from a deep sleep, but I couldnt seem to get pissed at her she kept asking if I wanted to eat something and that I didnt eat anything from when the flight took off and if I dont like the food on the plane. I just said thank you very much, I think she was offsetting her partner who was a pissed off old lady who was serving the other side! hehehe!

When I got off the plane I was told not to be all smiley to the Immigration officer so I just said hello and gave him my passport. He scratched the top of the Visa and the top of my ID area to see if its a fake, it was pretty interesting watching him do that, and the same time it was a little nerving. Then he said “What are you doing in Germany? Where are you staying? How long are you staying?”. I wanted to laugh because of the robotic way he said it, but instead I replied in the same way “Business, Rocco Forte Frankfurt, 1.5 days” Then he looked at my picture which is 10 years old then he looks at me (note to self update picture in next passport). He stamped it and said “Enjoy your stay in Germany” then I grinned like idiot and said “Thank you”. I should have sang Da Da Daaaaa. hehehehe

I went to the baggage claim which was a good walk away and I love it that my bag was the fourth one out and I could see it coming out as I walked up to the revolving conveyer belt. I took it to the taxi area, and then I went through my bag looking for the hotel address, but I couldnt find the piece of paper. Then I remembered I printed it but I forgot to take it. So this guy came and took my bag as I was walking which surprised me and he put in the back of his Taxi (MERCEDES), I told him wait and it turns out he doesnt speak a word of English. I thought just my luck. Then I get in his cab and tell him the hotel name and he doesnt know and so he was getting pissed so I popped my laptop hoping that I could get wireless. And this guy was seriously going nuts, I told him to start the meter, and he said “Me 3 HOUR GO ROUND”. I was like holy crap calm down what the hell is this luck. So thank god I could get some wireless signal from T-Mobile and I check my email and show him the screen, then the guy takes off so hard I flew back while hold onto my laptop. I was like crap this guy is nuts. When we got on the highway I looked at my watch and it said 7am so I thought I had a little time before my meeting. it was pitch black outside, and I was thinking we were moving pretty fast which was cool and I look at his speedo and it says 175 kph, damn this guy really is nuts, but there must be a higher limit then we pass a sign and it says 100 kph! I was in shock how was he was going, and I dont even know the guy. Welcome to Germany.

I got to the hotel in one piece, which looks like an old castle from the outside, and on the inside it looks pretty damn cool. The decor is pretty cool with a modern taste and stone walls. I liked it, I checked in and I was expecting them to tell me the room wasnt ready since it was so early. And the receptionist said let me show to your room, which threw me off. And she could tell I was surpised and she said “if you specify in your booking for earl checking we will try everything to make sure we have a room for you.” Now thats service, Villa Kennedy is the place to stay while in Frankfurt. I took a shower and got ready for my meeting and then it was a long day of talking, negotiations, exchanging views, and different experiences. I have to say Germany is a lot nicer then I thought it would be, and whats surprising is that a lot of people dont speak English but they still try with facial expressions and a few hand signals to figure out what you want to do.

Did I mention that its freaking cold, and they call the airport Fraport, so I decided to call it Frankport because it feels funnier!

Since my last delivery of items I havent had that many issues with what was going on with customs, but right now I do have one issue which was the big tes. The three guys above are my security team that get any packages delayed by customs.

• 1 DVD Set – No Delay
• 1 Hard Drive – No Delay
• 1 Personel Box filled with pictures, cds, dvds, eletronics, and a jacket (This for sure I thought I would get stopped, but nothing) – No Delay
• 1 Wireless Router – Not Held to be Delivered
• 1 Box filled with 15 DVDs – Held at Customs.

I will see what will happen today. I just saw the update today, so I shall see what it will take to clear the DVDs, and Im willing to pay the extra 15 or 20 KD because of the amounts of DVDs. So I will keep you guys posted of what is happening.

Update – My dvds will be held for at least two days, it will take that long to clear them. And we shall see if they even manage to get them out without them taking any dvds.

After last week at work my body and mind was in a complete fuzz. I was feeling tired all day, and after futoor I couldnt help but fall asleep at my grandmothers house. It was hard to stay awake at the time. I was falling asleep, and I had a few things I had to do, so I excused myself and went home. I got some rest just relaxing at home, but then I had to go to a 3aza (funeral) to give my condolences to some cousins. And then I went to the family Dewaniya for about 30 minutes since I couldnt stay up anymore. I was running low on battery. So when I got home I sat on the couch while my mother was watching some tv series, and I passed out for a bit thinking about a Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich! I really love those sandwichs! Now I want to figure out how to make one! Its too damn good to miss! I was just laughing that I dreamt of that while passed out for 20 mins! hehehehe! And today is going to be a long day since Im traveling for work tonight.

After I had sometime today to breath. I just made a excel sheet of how time I was working and how much I slept. The only day I managed to catch up on sleep was thursday night. Other then that I dont know how I was awake the rest of the week.

After delivery a few weeks ago I didnt have time to set it up. It wasnt a plug and play type Network Area Storage. So I was putting it together, and it was supposed to have been burned in. I got it from Eaegis and it took about two minutes to boot up. And for a while I couldnt figure out why I couldnt use it or edit any shares. Shares are folders on the Network Area Stoage. And it was already setup as X-Raid with redunancy enabled. But for some reason it wasnt working and it was telling me that one of the Hard Drives was faulty. So I decied to reset it to the factory default and restart installation from scratch. So I started the setup from the beginning with the X-Raid setup and letting the Infrant work on the reorganizing and syncing the four 400GB Seagate Hard Drives. It took about 6 hours and 40 mins for it to finish, and in the manual it said that it would take up to 8 hours. Then everything was operating perfectly, with a X-Raid setup on a 1.6TB NAS you would have 1.1TB for storage. With the redundant setup you dont have to worry about a bad hard drive. So I have started moving things to it since my last problem. After a good amount of use I will post a full review

Link: Eaegis Infrant READYNAS NV 1.6TB

I woke up this morning thanks to an old school bell type alarm that I have had over the past two decades. It was meant as a last course of action since the bell is so damn loud.  Usually my PC kicks in with ClockX and a couple of songs later Im up and about. But this time I woke up fromt he old school alarm, and when I looked at my computer it seemed off, then I realized that it was off. I never turn my pc off! I have two pcs connected to a KVM and an external Hard Drive to each PC and a Network Area Storage. I started looking at them while I was still in bed, in complete shock. Because all the lights were off, and I thought there must have been a shock or something, but while looking at the surge protectors on the floor they were still on and they were a few things that were still on. So the only explanation I have is that the power must have went out in the house.

So I slowly looked around at all the equipment, then I switched on the screen then I switched on my small computer and checked that everything was operating fine. And I booted up the external Hard Drives and they seemed fine, then I booted the Network Area Storage but it needs a couple of hours to resync since its a safety mechanism if it doesnt shutdown correctly and thats what it looks like. Everything seems to be working fine right now and I got all my torrents back up and downloading, but I really dont know why that happened. I was up until 4:30am watching anime and nothing happened. This requires further investigation at a later point, because I got work today on Friday to finish up something important. So I shall investigate later.

Today has been a very long day! As I mentioned before I knew I had to get up in the morning. I was at work around 8 am this morning thinking that I would come in early to fiinish up read a lot of paper work, and making sure things would get done and get an early start. Well thats what I was hoping for, but thats nothing close to what happened. Sometimes the best of plans just go out the window!

After a meeting that didnt go so great at 10am got done at 11am I had a billion things to do. And I think I was literally in the middle of a shitstorm! Its hard to get things done when no information is being conveyed to you! So I was going nuts, and I had a short fuse today, but I made sure to thank everyone who was doing what they were doing and more, because a lot of people werent coming through on their parts. I was going nuts. I was loosing it! It has been a long week, and I couldnt stop thinking of all the milestones, time lines, projects, emails, peoples, prices, things to do, when and where, sooooo much stuff not enough time to think! At least I would always smile to people who werent causing me any havoc, I had a co-worker who is a friend just look and say “I know” and he smiled! Then I just busted out laughing! Things were getting so crazy that I was just laughing! I was tired of being tired a couple of days ago.. now it was just operating on a different level!

I managed to leave work around 4:00pm, but the best part of it is that I have to go to work on Friday at 1pm to finish up a lot of paper work and fine tuning details required for saturday. i really have no problem with the extra work or even the late nights. I get pissed when information isnt conveyed to me, or something is missing because somebody failed to email. Emails should be utizilized more! When I left work I was just happy that I could get some rest, but then I was thinking of my MVP.

MVP stands for one thing to me Most Valuable Person, and thats my nephew. He has been sick the past couple of days, and I havent had a chance to pass by. So I went from work to his home to check on him. On the way I got a message telling me to take him back to our house. And thats what I did, I took him home with me. When he was with me in the car I was the happiest guy in the world. He always looked at me if I wasnt looking at him. So I was driving extremely protective, I would move away from hazords and idiots! But e kept making me laugh!

I like carrying him around like Im the big giant, and he would be entertained by everything I would be doing inbetween. After futoor I was playing with him for a while, but I know I need a nap, so while he is entertained Im going to take a quick nap and Im not that quick!

After this long week I just wanted some time to enjoy myself. Friday is my day to relax with my friends even though I have work thursday. And this thursday is probably the busiest, but I didnt care I just wanted to clear my mind of everything work related or required for me to think. I wanted to just chill and enjoy myself. I got my hands on some Krispy Kreme, I not sure how exactly but I saw it at home when I got back from futoor and decided to take it. And when my friends saw it, people complained that it has too much calories but they still kept eating. It was a good time to start off. I wish others could have made it, but they had their own reasons for not making it, hopefully next time.

Me and my friend started off by playing some Halo 2 while waiting for the others to arrive. And he wanted to challenge me and I told him he is out of his mind. Im pretty good at Halo I know there are those who are better out there, but I have yet to meet one in Kuwait. Only time will tell, but after winning 25-1 we decided to play a Co-op game which turned out to be more fun.

Then when more people showed up we watch two pretty good movies and got some kubah, samboosak, mini-pizzas, mini-za’atar sandwichs, mini-cheese sandwichs, and labnah all over the place. It was pretty light and we were all just laughing at some of the parts in the movie. People coming and people going, but we managed to finish two movies and it was a relaxing night, even though I know I have to be up at 7 am I dont care. I enjoyed the night and its 1:30am. Aaah Goodtimes! Ramadan Mubarak people! Smile today is a good day!

Whats cool about Alienware is that they send you status updates so you know what phase your laptop is in. I think Im supposed to recieve it in 10 days. I cant wait for it! A completely new laptop with Core 2 Duo and its really light. I also ordered a Xbrand Cool Travel, and a Xbrand 360 Adjustable Stand which I think will help when Im taking the laptop around.,br/> and I dont want to place on my lap and a nice setup for placing it on my table.

Laptop Specs:
Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T7400 2.16GHz 4MB Cache 667MHz FSB
Operating System (Office software not included): Genuine Windows® XP Professional with Service Pack 2
Display: Alienware® Sentia m3450 with 14″ WideXGA 1280 x 768 LCD with Webcam – Xeno Grey
Motherboard: Alienware® Intel® 945GM + ICH7 Chipset
Memory: 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SO-DIMM at 667MHz – 2 x 1024MB
System Drive: 160GB Serial ATA 1.5Gb/s 5,400 RPM w/ 8MB Cache
Primary CD ROM/DVD ROM: 8X Dual Layer DVD+/-RW / 24X CD-RW Combo w/Software
Video/Graphics Card: Intel® GMA 950 Extreme Graphics
Sound Card: Intel® 7.1 High-Definition Audio
Wireless Network Card: Internal Intel® PRO Wireless 3945 a/b/g Mini-Card
Communications: Integrated 10/1000Mb Gigabit Ethernet & 56K V.92 Modem
Power: Additional Battery – Alienware® m3450 6-cell Lithium-Ion Battery
Warranty: 1-Year AlienCare Toll-Free 24/7 Phone Support w/ Onsite Service
Notebook Coolers / Stands: Xbrand Cool Travel
Notebook Coolers / Stands: Xbrand 360 Adjustable Stand with USB 2.0 Hub
Desktop Enhancements: Exclusive AlienGUIse Theme Manager

Link: Alienware Sentia

I have been hearing stories left and right for the past three weeks about customs in Kuwait. At this point I want to test the waters and see whats going to happen. I was told that it would cost 15 KD to clear even one dvd or ten dvds.

So I just recently ordered 20 dvds from amazon, and they are of a different combination. A lot is anime, some movies, and some series. Also included in that mix is some electronics, to be exact a different kind of router, not Pre-N or Draft-N, just something reliable with a high gain antenna.

Im going to post about my experience with customs or if anything does happen. As of today I just recieved one anime series box, and one hard drive which I couldnt find in Kuwait and nothing was held. So hopefully there wont be any problems. But I keep hearing otherwise.