I was invited along with a number of other bloggers to Wataniya’s “Bloggers’ Night” event at Tatami restaurant a couple of days ago. They briefed us on their new Give Kuwait campaign targeted at Kuwaiti youth with business ideas.

What is Give Kuwait?

لماذا GiveKuwait؟

GiveKuwait هي مبادرة من شركة الوطنية لتمكين المهارات ومنح الشباب من الجنسين الفرصة لطرح إبداعاتهم وإمكانياتهم عبر هذا البرنامج من خلال إبراز ما لديهم من مهارات وتسويق أفكارهم ومشاريعهم. هذا العام، GiveKuwait ستتضمن عدد أكبر من المشاركين وستخصّص لهم فرص لعرض منتجاتهم وكسب الخبرة اللازمة.

ما هو GiveKuwait؟

تبحث الوطنية عن أفكار مبتكرة، منتجات مميّزة وخدمات مبدعة وستختار GiveKuwait المشاركين لتضعهم على طريق النجاح من خلال تنظيم معارض كبيرة تضم 250 مشارك ستتاح لهم مساحات وأجنحة مجانية لترويج سلعهم وخدماتهم لمدة خمسة أيام. كما ستقدّم حملة إعلانية لتعريف الجمهور بعدد معين من المشاركين عبر الراديو، الإعلانات في الشوارع والصحف.

من يمكنه المشاركة في GiveKuwait؟

رجال الأعمال:

• لابد أن تكون لديهم أعمال/أفكار جديدة/موهبة/مشروع صغير

• ليس لديهم محل أو معرض أو منشأة تجارية تخص هذا المشروع

• سنّهم يتجاوز 18 سنة

• يتعاملون مع منتجات مبتكرة بجودة مميزة

• لا يقومون ببيع منتجاتهم أو خدماتهم بصورة غير قانونية أو أن تكون ذات طابع سياسي

• لابد أن تكون البيانات التي يقدّمونها قانونية وسارية

• ما أن يتم اختيارهم، لابد أن يلتزموا لمدة 18 شهراً مع الوطنية بعقد قيمته 35 د.ك. شهرياً في أي باقة من اختيارهم. لضمان مشاركتهم في الحملة الإعلانية والدعائية لمنتجاتهم أو خدماتهم، سيُطلب منهم دفع مبلغ 10 د.ك. إضافية

• يحق للوطنية استخدام إسم المشارك، صور لمنتجاته أو له شخصياً لغرض الحملة الإعلانية في GiveKuwait

• سيُمنح المشارك جناح ومساحة مجانية في المعرض 

• لا يسمح للمشاركين تقديم أي دعاية أو مواد إعلانية لمنتجات أو علامات تجارية أخرى تتنافس مع المشروع المقدّم

المتدربون:

• يجب على المشارك تعبئة نموذج بتفاصيل المشروع

• سيحضر المشاركون الذي تم اختيارهم دورات تدريبية لتنمية مهاراتهم وسيخوضون اختبار شخصية

• ما أن يتجاوزوا الاختبار، سيتم الاتصال بهم لاستكمال الإجراءات

• عند اختيار المتدرّب، لابد من أن يلتزموا لمدة 18 شهراً مع الوطنية بعقد قيمته 45 د.ك. شهرياً في أي باقة من اختيارهم

• من حق لجنة الحكم في GiveKuwait اختيار المشاركين للتأهل لحضور الدورات التدريبية وورش العمل

• تتحمل الوطنية مسؤولية كافة النفقات التي تنجم عن ورش العمل والدورات التدريبية

You can signup here

Our national team bowed out the World Cup 2014 qualifiers after losing to South Korea 2-0. I was a great 1st half with a lot of missed chances. South Korea along with Lebanon advance to the next stage.

I was invited yesterday to attend the 7th annual GulfRun meet up were all the drivers have the opportunity to meet each other and it was also a chance for non-participant/drivers to also meet the organizers and the great guys behind The GulfRun.

The iconic wall of photos was also on display again this year with some fantastic pictures  from previous GulfRuns and had some awesome memories.

Also on display were 3 super cars, a Ferrari 599, Porsche 993 Gemballa and a Hennessey powered Chevrolet Camero LS9 with 725hp.

GulfRun 7 is just a few weeks away, the event will be held at Bahrain International Circuit as usual on the 26th-27th of January 2012. Can’t wait.

If you follow me on twitter you would already know that I got my Samsung Galaxy Nexus Android’s latest and greatest  yesterday from Berserk online store.

As expected the device design looks beautiful, and its just marginally heavier than the Samsung Galaxy SII. The device fits comfortably in the hand and it doesn’t feel huge, even with that 4.65″ screen. The 720p screen looks outstanding, you really notice the bump in resolution.

There isn’t much of a size difference in size between the Galaxy Nexus and the Galaxy S2 as most of the increase in screen size came from removing almost all of the bezel in the Galaxy Nexus and getting rid off al the physical face buttons.

The device also feels very snappy, thanks to the vanilla Android experience I guess. Icecream Sandwich is a complete overhaul and is closer to the tablet Android OS than any previous Android release.

What I wasn’t expecting that the Galaxy Nexus came with a noise isolating in-ear headset that looked very good quality and is not Beats By Dre like some HTC phones but its better than most if not all of the standard headsets out there.

I’m looking forward to spending more time with my new little friend.

As I said, I got the phone from Berserk online store. Their website isunder construction but they can be reached via Twitter, Facebook and even Google+. I got the device for KD265

I’ve been waiting for the rest of my PC components to arrive so that I can really enjoy the gaming frenzy that is currently going on. But my packages have been piling up in customs since before eid and they are still there 4 working days later. I am really frustrated.

Viva:

Even though Viva is the newest Telecom in Kuwait, it has the best packages for the heavy user. It is the only company to offer truly unlimited packages without any kind of throttling. The only issue with Viva is its spotty coverage, but once you get it, its smooth sailing from there. I use it for tethering at work and and its great. But they have a connection problem this week and they say they’ll have it fixed ASAP. It’s also the only company with connection speeds up to 42.2Mb, I haven’t tried it though.

Zain:

Zain revamped their data packages a few months ago (or year not sure) but the new packages now competes with Viva’s unlimited plans. Even though its not unlimited the 10, 20 and 30GB are quite sufficient for mobile usage (no tethering). Zain have a better coverage but that doesn’t always mean 3G, as speed often drop to edge when neither 3G nor HSPA is available.

Wataniya:

I’m sure that Wataniya’s 20MB and 200MB packages where designed for the old dumb phones where they hardly use any data. So they are idiotic at this point of time. The other “unlimited” packages where you get just 1GB or 2GB of data before being throttled to a pathetic 128Kbps is absurd and it has the lowest cap of any of the 3 Telecom companies. I used it to tether to my laptop this week during Viva’s outage and I passed the limit in just a few hours (we are already at the end of the month I know) but I rarely use the my mobile data other than the occasional WhatsApp, Twitter and very light browsing.

Recommendation:

If you have Viva coverage then go with them, as a heavy user myself, I really appreciate the TRULY UNLIMITED packages. If you are unlucky and don’t have Viva coverage in your workplace/home then Zain is the second best option.

A thriller centered on the threat posed by a deadly disease and an international team of doctors contracted by the CDC to deal with the outbreak.

IMDB: 7.2                                                                          Rotten Tomatoes: 84%

Paranormal Activity 3

In 1988, young sisters Katie and Kristi befriend an invisible entity who resides in their home.

IMDB: 6.1                                                                            Rotten Tomatoes: 72%

Prom

A group of teenagers get ready for their high school prom.

IMDB: 4.6                                                                       Rotten Tomatoes: 33%

The video is posted on YouTube and says that it was shot in Kuwait, the accident resulted in a death (I guess the crane operator).

You can skip to the 0:55 second mark.

Johnny English goes up against international assassins hunting down the Chinese premier.

IMDB: 6.9                                                                    Rotten Tomatoes: 38%

Colombiana

A young woman, after witnessing her parents’ murder as a child in Bogota, grows up to be a stone-cold assassin.

IMDB: 6.0                                                                     Rotten Tomatoes: 29%

The Lion King 3D

Tricked into thinking he killed his father, a guilt ridden lion cub flees into exile and abandons his identity as the future King.

IMDB: 8.3                                                                       Rotten Tomatoes: 89%

I’ve been wanting to try out Solo Pizza Napulitana ever since it opened back in May but every time I passed by the place was to crowded and i’m to hungry to wait for a table. I finally decided to pass by a little early to avoid the rush-hour, so I was there by 6:30-6:45 P.M (it opens from 6-11pm) but to my surprise the place was also full but had a couple of free tables outside.

The menu is small and simple, it will take less than a minute to decide what to order. We got a couple of pizzas and a salad. The pizza was amazing if you are a fan of the thin-crust pizza. The place certainly has one of the best pizzas in Kuwait.

After the main course I decided I would like to try the Nutella piazza, their one and only dessert. It was great but I felt guilty after eating that much chocolate.

I used to consider Pizza Rustica to have the best (and only good) pizza in Kuwait. But Solo Pizza Napulitana certainly is competing for that spot. With other places like Open Flame Kitchen and Pizzetta, now we finally get some decent pizza here in Kuwait.

Opening Hours:

6 P.M. to 11 P.M.

Telephone Number:

+965 94434104

Website:

SoloPN

Location:

View Larger Map

Kuwait managed to grab a point after Lebanon were awarded a penalty in the 85th minute. Kuwait’s second goal was scored just a minute after Lebanon’s Hassan Maatouk converted from the spot kick to get his second goal of the night. Musaad Nida scored Kuwait’s first equalizing goal inside of 5 minutes of the second half.

Group standing after 3 games:

S. Korea 7
Kuwait 5
Lebanon 4
UAE 0

This is great, especially that it can be streamed from anywhere in the world (or at least from Kuwait). I posted earlier this year that Who’s Line is it Anyway is coming back. Well, Its been broadcasting for a few months now with almost the same cast. Too bad it got canceled though. I guess its not the same without Wayne Brady.

Link

I was notified by Marzouq yesterday that the GulfRun team had spent the last 5 months fine tuning/developing a racing simulator and it was setup in Baroue in the Avenues’s 1st floor. Of course I immediately agreed for 2 reasons. 1) me being a gaming enthusiast. 2) because everything these guys do is professional and I still haven’t seen them do any half-assed job yet. just have a look at their events, videos, and all other stuff.

The sim was amazing, it is a 3 screen setup that any geek would love and appreciate. A full motion seat that makes turning every corner a thrill and an ultra realistic track-mapping. The track was actually scanned and produced with extreme detail, even the damn bumps in the straight are there.

The GulfRun Simulator is open to the public, the price of admission is KD2.5 and its located as I mentioned in Baroue’s upper level in the Avenues mall.

They were logging blogger lap times, I didn’t even think of asking whats my best time was. But they will be on the side screens for onlookers to enjoy and giggle at.

If I find the time, I might go back there again tomorrow. I think I just found something else to do at the Avenues other than eating Shake Shack burgers.

Picture is from Infiniti Driver

Mr. Infinite Driver/NegativeEffect (you know, the guy behind the awesome GulfRun videos) is holding a competition where the prize is the minimalistic John’s Phone. It’s a really cool phone and the rules are simple:

Rules of the COMPETITION:

1. You must submit a picture of YOUR CURRENT PHONE in an Artistic or Comedic way.
2. The file must JPEG and no more than 1MB.
3. All photos must be submitted before August 31st.
4. The photos will be posted and voted on for the winner.
5. Send your photos to (infinitedriver@gmail.com)

Via ID

Another day another Social event. This time we were invited by Viva to attend the 2nd annual Social event that was held in Marina Hotel yesterday. I finally managed to meet some bloggers that couldn’t make it to Zain’s Event a few days earlier.

MIKE MBALTA3 hosted the event that made it really amusing. He held a couple of competitions were I took part in one and lost to Kuwaitiful (Congrats again Bro)

Viva also held a raffle, the prize was a fully paid trip to watch the Red Devils (Manchester United) at Old Trafford.The winner was first HiKuwait but he refused to receive the prize as he is not a football enthusiast and asked to do another draw. Winner Number 2 was AboFlan who also wasn’t a big fan of football and also declined. I have no idea who winner number 3 was as he said he wan’t a blogger but he was shouting before getting on the stage “I’M TAKING IT, I”M TAKING IT”.

On our way out we were handed little gift bags that contained an IDEOS X5 Huawei phone and a mini gergai3an bag.

Thank You Viva for the invite, it was nice seeing my fellow bloggers in real life again.

So I just came back from Zain’s “Ghabga” that they setup especially for bloggers  were I managed to associate faces to the names I knew for a while now. We Spent a lot of time “Socializing” and then it was off to the buffet were no one touched due to the awkward timing of the event and almost everyone was stuffed.

Before leaving, Mohamed Al-Muhaini, the guy who keeps spamming my email account handed me a small cool looking Sadow bag that contained a pleasant surprise especially for a geek.

So I got to socialize with my fellow bloggers and I got a free phone and a some other cool stuff.

Thanks Zain

Last night for so7oor, a couple of friends decided to head out to the new Hungry Bunny place over at Al-Jahra. It took them 30 minutes to get there so I asked them was it worth it and is it anything like the original.\? Here what they said:

Atmosphere: 3/5

There wasn’t enough tables, you were there 11:40 pm, the restaurant was  clean,

Food: 5/5

For the nostalgia effect, not the best burger but exactly the same old taste, loved it much better than BK, fries more like McDonald’s than BK though. Onion rings were moderate. Chicken Fillet tastes like real chicken, loved it.

Value: 4/5

And by that the Overall Experience is:

From the looks of it, its better than the last time we reviewed Hungry Bunny.

UPDATE:

Hungry Bunny’s location can be found [here].

I’ve been in Brussels the past few days, thats why I wasn’t posting as much. The weather hear is great compared to the heat in Kuwait. Having waffles on a daily bases and also fritz (fries) and the occasional chocolates.

The funny thing is that when we first arrived, the taxi driver apologized for the weather.

But after further inspection to my iphone I noticed an onscreen caution/warning that I never have seen before. apparently the device got too hot it shut itself down. Keep in mind the car was air conditioned at this happened after roughly 5-10 minutes after getting into the car.

So me and my phone got into an air conditioned car at the same time but after about 10 minutes it just couldn’t stand the heat and shut down to cool itself. What about me? Am I expected to tolerate heat more than a gadget?

The line at Shake Shack was pretty long, I almost chose to go to Elevation burger but it was a good thing that I didn’t, as the line was moving quickly and had to wait less than 5 minutes for my order to be taken and less than 10 for me to get my order.

The single burger will cost you 2KD, getting two single burgers is the norm recently with these tiny burgers. What baffled me is why would a bottle of Fiji water costs 1KD?!!

The burger is just as good as the one from Dubai/New York so its an excellent burger. Easily the best burger in K-Town.

First of all the service was horrendous, we waited for 30 minutes for our order to arrive. We ordered a couple of shawerma’s, fool and falafil sandwiches. Don’t know why it took that long.

When we got to the diwaniya we realized after all that wait we still ended up with a wrong order. And also the shawerma was a joke and barley had any meat in it. For 750 fils sandwich, I expected it to be at least decent. The fool sandwich is no where near how I remember it. It used to be one of the best fool sandwiches in Kuwait.

We wanted to try out the “Rice Budding” but thank god they didn’t have any.

I dont think I’ll be going back there and I hope it dies a slow and painful death.

KEMS’s Facebook page operator also used the word “Abusers” to define the people that use too much data by pirating applications and movies as he says. If he truly thinks that then my friend you are misinformed. I can legally download applications movies and tv shows and also pass the stupid CAP that is implemented. What make you think that illegal means we are hogging more bandwidth than legal ones?

I have a number of itunes season passes that can also easily pass the cap as I “BOUGHT” i.e. with my own money, more than 30 HD season passes.

Using steam is also a bandwidth killer. I bought recently a number of games during steams summer sale where they have a number of games each day that are on sale for 24 hours. after BUYING the games that I really wanted/liked/didn’t own on a PC, I realized that only by downloading those games that I PURCHASED I would pass the stupid cap.

I also didn’t talk about updating my PC and 3 laptops, updating my apps on my 2 iphones, 2 ipads, 3 android phones. Updating Navigon on an iOS device is almost 2GB by itself not counting other applications or any other activities like downloading podcasts and watching HD youtube which is FREE the last time I checked.

There is an online bloggers campaign that me and countless of other Kuwaiti bloggers have joined that is against internet capping of any kind. [Link]

Viva la revolucion

According to sources familiar with the matter, Shack Shack will be opening next Thursday, July 7th 2011 at the Avenues Mall.

Thanks Abdulaziz

I posted about Shake Shack 2 years ago when I was in New York. And for me it was the best burger I’ve tried back then (five guys takes top spot now). But standing in line 45 mins for the Shake Shack burger was an absolute nightmare. Thank god that wasn’t an issue in Dubai.

After trying out Shake Shack’s burgers, I can confidently say they are almost identical to the ones in the US. And by that they knocked Fat Burger off as the best fast food burger in the region.

أصدر ديوان الخدمة المدنية كتابا تم تعميمه على كافة الجهات والهيئات الحكومية، بمناسبة عطلة الإسراء والمعراج، حيث ستكون الإجازة الرسمية في يوم الخميس الموافق 30 يونيو- 29 من رجب 1432، بدلا من يوم الأربعاء والذي يوافق 28 من رجب 1432 هــ، الموافق 29 يونيو.

Link

Homepage

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