So I lost my ATM card, and I don’t even have the card number to login and transfer the money to another account or something. What would any sane person do on a weekend, given that all banks are closed on weekends.

You go to the airport where you will find the branch of “The best bank in the Middle-East” open all the time and they will help you in each and every way possible.

So I head to the NBK booth at Kuwait International Airport, Say the following “I just lost my ATM card and I need either cash or the number of my card to login online and transfer the money to another account”.

Immediately, they asked for my Civil ID and they proceeded to do some phone calls. I sat down slightly relieved that they are working on it. Few minutes passed by and then they hit me with it, “we can’t give you any cash here”. So I asked “OK, that’s fine … just fetch the card’s number from your database or something so I can login and sort out my shit. You guys need to sit down for this. Do you know what the über-smart clerk did?

“You can’t use the card’s number anymore, sir. We just CANCELED it” so I was like “WHAT? Did I ask you to cancel it?”. “No sir, but if somebody finds it and travel outside they can use it like a credit card”.

Well, remind me if I’m mistaken Mr. Camel but isn’t it my own fucking money? Don’t you need an authorization from my ass to fucking cancel my card? Now I’m even more fucked thanks to the stupidity of your clerks.

So much for “The best bank in the Middle-East”.

Oh yeah and Mubarak 3alaikum El Shahar and all that.

I slept over at my family’s house last night. My parents are going for haj together and I feel like I have to spend more time with them before they leave. I might even stay over with my brothers and sisters for the whole haj period till my parents come back.

One thing I was looking forward was seeing how long it will take me to get to work from jahra. I mean I know I’ve been living in jahra all my life but I just wanted to make sure and just compare it to the long times I spend on Fahaheel Expressway on my way to work from Salwa (where I live at the minute).

I left the house at 7:07 and I reached the office at 7:44. If I left my Salwa residence at 7:07 I would be stuck in the school traffic and barely be able to make it to work on time. (at 8:30) Ok, maybe I’m exaggerating but c’mon for crying out loud, it’s supposed to be an expressway, right?

I lost count of how many traffic lights are on my way from jahra but I can tell you, the are more than 5, 4 round abouts, endless turns here and there. Still, I get to work faster if I’m coming from Jahra.

Few months ago I got an email from someone called …, telling me that he’s starting a men’s magazine targeting middle-easterns. He told me that the magazine will be published in some of the hot spots of the region (dubai, beirut, cairo, …) and that he wanted to do a feature on my t-shirts.

I politely refused, mainly because It’s hard for people in kuwait to find my t-shirts (even through two outlets) yet alone people out of kuwait.

I just didn’t want to tease people with stuff they can’t easily get. I told him that I’m working on a solution and at the same time I planning to take this thing to the next level by importing high-quality t-shirts and starting my own screen printing studio.

I sent him the email but it bounced back, I tried again after few days … the same. I just gave up and he didn’t contact me again, so I thought he wasn’t really serious.

Yesterday, while trying to finish some project at the agency, I get this missed call from Jordan. It was the same guy, He told me he didn’t get a reply and I explained to him the whole thing and again I refused to do a feature on the t-shirts for the reasons I’ve already mentioned and I added another one that been bothering me for a while now. Although I posted the t-shirts on the blog, I think publishing them in a magazine (a printed, more accessible matter) might lead to a chance of my ideas getting copied and abused.

Then he suggested something. He was like “I really like that afro icon, why don’t we do, like, a profile on you”. That seemed like a good idea to me, I mean the t-shirts won’t be the main focus but they will be mentioned on the side. I mean a little bit of recognition won’t hurt anybody if we ignored the inflation of my ever-so-growing ego. Hmmm, That would look sweet on my resumé.

Now with my daily duties in this job and the demanding nature of the advertising business I hardly get any personal time. So the t-shirts project is on some kind of hold till further notice. I don’t think I will be able to follow up with anything anytime soon. I mean don’t get me wrong, I already have finished designing enough concepts for more seasons to come but I promised my self I WILL NOT print anything, anymore, unless it’s on a better quality t-shirts that comes in various sizes, different models and cuts.

I’m not sure really whether to do this free publicity thing or not, it’s like opening a can of worms. Ahmad, the editor of bazar, offered that they do something on me … maybe even do some kind of collaborative project of some sort. I’m all for it but I just keep on post-boning things forever, I don’t know what I’m waiting for really. Hell, I didn’t even write back to Villa Moda when they left me that comment.

Some people saw the big procrastinator in me and offered to totally take over the project and give me ,like, royalties and stuff like that and I absolutely refused. I just don’t like to give others the control end of things, especially with things I love so passionately like this project.

What would you do?

Why do roommates (boys or girls) always assume that we have to do everything together. We are not a couple, you know? I tolerated it when it was a girl, it seemed natural but with a guy it’s seems a bit gay and annoying.

Any experiences or lessons to be learned from my fellow bloggers?

What the hell is happening (or not happening for that matter) with dunkin donuts? Aren’t they supposed to be open by now?

Back with another post, It’s one of these laid-back and chilled out days at the agency. Been reading as many blogs as I can, kuwaiti blogs didn’t even make up 5% of that surfing journey. Every time I check Safat, I see the same old stuff … nothing interesting really. No offense my dear blogger friends, maybe it’s just me.

I remember having this conversation with the don’t-know-where-the-hell-is-she Gigi. We both confessed how became really dependent on blogs (especially kuwaiti ones) to stay informed and “in the know”. Well, I don’t think so anymore, not that I think I know it all and I’m better than anybody else but It’s just the signal to noise ratio is just scary. I don’t want to go through all these blogs and filter the contents and judge. I don’t have time for that.

Especially these days, with the elections and all that. In addition to the visual pollution in the streets I can safely say we have a contents-polluted blogosphere. However I’m proud of all the political initiatives associated with blogging and elections, really proud. I wish I can help with these things but work got me really busy recently.

For those who are curious to know what happened to the goatee, well, IT’S BACK! I was just dead curious to see what would I look like without facial hair. The cool thing I documented that change, including the Ron Jeremy look that lasted one day and a half. I’m gonna stay with this for another five years then see if I ant to change it.

I’m gaining weight and it’s not funny anymore.

Hilton’s pool is ziggaaan, never go there on a friday. Do people ever have a shower before stepping in the pool? You, Yes you with the tight-gay-speedo, fucking shower before you dip your dirty body in there and hey next time you decide to wear a speedo and strut your stuff around, have a heart and trim your pubes, we don’t need to see them to know you’re man.

On a sentimental note, I really miss Gigi.

Is it only me or you too woke up with nasty stings here and there?

Ok, I realize I haven’t been blogging as much as I used to. I miss blogging and I miss the discussions. There are few reasons to explain what’s happening and I’m not really keen on the idea of sharing them.

You see, I kinda kinda live a double life, not a wild difference between the two but I still don’t want them to cross each other. I found out recently that these pages are read by some of my distant family members and while I’m not really ashamed of anything I did or plan to do, I would still appreciate some privacy.

The thin line between these two lives will be blurred eventually.

Silly thoughts like deleting the blog have crossed my mind but keeping it outdated with all the things I see on daily basis is also something that bugs the hell out of me. There are so many things happening in my life I need to share them with somebody.

I’m sorry for my msn pals for not logging in as much as I used to. I miss you all.

Bootyless Bootycall Buddy, Are you back?

So much ass kissing on the radio, can’t take it anymore.

Few days ago I was thinking how it would be nice to finish the books I started reading recently and how it would be nice to have my own driver that can take me around while I get busy with other stuff during the long ride from jahra.

so I guess my dreams came partially true when my shitty car got funked again yesterday. There was smoke coming out of the engine and I couldn’t Identify what was wrong but I just got sick of this car and I think it’s time for a new one but till I find a new car I think I will go back to using buses. so there you have it, reading books in a public bus. The dream comes true, never mind the smell.

I’ve always wanted a nice practical car, with a lot of space. The new Jeep Grand Cherokee looks ugly but not that bad. My brother is raving about how economic is the new car from nissan, Tiida. I’m open for suggestions too. Just keep in mind my budget is something between 3-7 thousands, so be realistic, mmkay?

Note: I wrote this post a few days ago but because of fastelco’s internet issues I couldn’t post it. The car is fixed now, guess I’m stuck with it for now.

note: I wrote this post few days ago.

OK, so who are we kidding? We’re all sad about the amir and officialy we’re stilly mourning but c’mon guys, you gotta admit that we start listening to music again the very next day if not later the same day.

Now we got that outta the way, I just have to give it to the marina FM guys when it comes to picking nice instrumentals to go with the mood the country is having right now.

I just think it’s funny and stupid at the same time of them to think that instrumentals with vilion and oud isn’t really ‘Music’. I think the way they look at it is, like, If you can’t shake your ass to it then it’s not really music. This is almost as stupid/funny as playing the nay instrumental during prayers times on Kuwait Radio or even playing the soundtrack of Al Risallah on 99.7 FM.

I don’t think we have enough musicians in the arabic world doing music without much vocals. I think that’s very limiting for them to come up with any new genres or even innovate musically. I remember once an indian friend of mine who used to DJ all kinds of stuff was telling me “If you hear one arabic song, you heard them all” … I kinda agreed with him.

OK, I’m gonna rant and rant about it … deal with it …

I hate the fact that almost all the known [arabic] singers are signed to one label (Rotana), that will totally kill any chances of being unique and innovative. The label would most probably use the same producers, song writers and maybe even the same direcotrs to direct the videoclips that will be shown on the same channel that the label owns. Doesn’t that just remind you of A.R.T? Oh fuck, where are they now? are they still alive?

Why musicians here who do instrumentals only get stuck doing soundtracks for commercials and producing pop crap while they know and we know they can do better stuff on their own without any shitty posers singing over their tracks.

Why such musicians can only find the recognition they deserve in shitty compilations like buddha bar and shitty compilations like that.

I think starting online labels that are specialized in digital music and maybe doing actual CD releases for their successful artists is something we really need, something will change the face of arabic music. BTW what’s taking rotana so long to make an agreement with apple to distribute music online thru their iTunes store? Doesn’t El Waleed Bin Talal own big shares in apple? Won’t that make things easier? does he really think by doing so he will encourage arabic music piracy?

… and while we’re at it, I compose beats, drumloops and rhythem sections, I would love to work with other musicians on something. ANYTHING. If you play an instrument really good or you know someone who does, let them get in touch with me.

Update: Somebody told me Marina FM already made some ‘patriotic’ songs to celebrate Sheikh Subah being an amir finally. Somebody please remind who owns Marina FM?

Apparently I got infected with some bad virus, people been getting emails from me attached with viruses and shit. I don’t email much anyway, so if you get anything you’re not expecting from me delete it.

Gonna find that motherfuker and I’m gonna burn it burn it down.

Good morning beautiful people

Damn … I forgot my phone at home and I feel totally lost without it. Weird how we get so attached to cell phones.

I drank three cans like 7 hours ago … it should kick in right about now but I’m just too sleepy.

I’m so busy I actually went out and bought me a sleeping bag just in case I needed to crash in the office. Last week I got so many projects it was almost scary. I thought my mom prayed really hard for me. I asked her if she mentioned me recently in her prayers in a specific new way or something? She was like “you and your brothers and sisters are always in my prayers”.

Anyway … Merry Chrsitmas my christian brothers.
Have a good one.

Somebody please shoot me

I realize there’s another version of this ad where the hands belong to men but I’m sure you noticed as much as I did how gulf bank been using this version more than the other. They realize they have a reputation of having the hottest chicks around and the want to emphasize on it? They apply segregation rules where males can’t touch the hands of females?

… and while we’re at it, Why I can’t see one hand of ‘those’ that says “KUWAITI” … I want to see a darker skin, I want to see the tip of an A’bayah … I don’t see “nationalization” in that ad … I see “Lebanization”

P.S: Fuck you gulf bank, your ads are so big they don’t fit in my scanner and, no, you’re not worth wasting my time scanning two parts and attaching them together in photoshop.

… so I didn’t go to the nubian thing but you know what I did? I met Al (friggin) Franken and I even have the pictures to prove it. YES, Al Franken is in the country. I talked with him a bit but it wasn’t about america’s foreign politics or any of that, I was explaining to him what tata botata means.

any body went to the nubian thing? worth it? should I go tomorrow?

So I found this little branch in my chocolate bar and … I chocked on it and I nearly died … yeah yeah … which caused some emotional damage for my family … yeah yeah … and now the chocolate sucks and my stomach hurts … yeah yeah … and I have migraine.

Is that enough?

They just released the arabic edition of Forbes magazine, just looking at this ad I got few notes on the cover.

They couldn’t find a font better than Tahoma to write the word “Al Arabiya”, it’s even STRECHED and it looks ugly and cheap. Couldn’t they get a normal typeface and use it instead of this windows default made-for-screen font.

Maha Al Ghnaaim is bracing their first cover, they can’t go wrong after that. Doesn’t she just rock?
God I love that woman.

Will write a more extensive review once I get my hands on a copy.

Update: Apparently, the arabic edition of forbes magazine been out for some time now.

Nothing is different, It just sucks that I can’t party.
Maybe later … thanks everybody.

You see my beloved readers, my birthday is on the 1st of November (wink wink, nudge nudge). Which means, yes, It will still be ramadhan. So I have two options, either celebrate it next tuesday or wait for after ramadhan, and celebrate maybe the second day of eid.

This is a crappy situation on all fronts.

So what do you think? keep in mind … We can’t have much fun in ramdhan and people are already busy buying stuff last minute. Keep in mind pepsi gets kinda expensive around both times. People are still kinda busy on the second day of eid, maybe not.

Also few facts you might find interesting:

• I never turn down free tickets.
• I love music
• I still don’t have an iPod.
• I’m moving to a shared office in the city (more on that later)
• I have a really crappy car (interesting information for my
  very generous friends, yeah right) :p
• I’m really easy to satisfy
• A card will do, seriously.

I might/ might not add to this list later.

I’m up since yesterday’s futoor, had a quite long day (and a half?) will tell you some interesting news tomorrow.

Now I shall get a very early suhoor and hit the sack ASAFP.

You know the feeling you get after watching a kung-fu flick? When you feel like kicking some ass? Ok, I have a similar feeling after watching ‘Shall we Dance?’ not really kicking someone’s ass but actually dancing, ballroom dancing to be more specific. I think I already know the answer but let me give it a shot, Do you know of any dance schools here in Kuwait? I think I heard of people teaching dancing and stuff privately but they only accept women (as far as I know).

Earlier today and upon the recommendation of one monkified girl I went to see baraka. Click on that link if you need to know about the film because I’m not going to say any thing about it. However I will write about the things bothered me the most while the film was playing, Like how they stupidly censored the film by actually blocking the projector while it was playing, so we were left to the soundtrack and a black screen. I didn’t really get it the first time, I thought it’s some kind of a technical problem but when it happened again (longer) I kinda knew what was happening and my blood was boiling like hell. I was this close of saying something stupid or maybe throwing a shoe at that fat guy in front of the projector. I might write them some hate mail or something like that.

Another thing was the very smart ass who sat next to me (almost next to me, the corridor was between us) he was the only one who had a problem shutting his mouth while the film was playing. There was a scene showing some skulls and he was like ‘جماجم’ … another scene featuring holy Mecca and people around it and he was like ‘حج’. I don’t have to mention the fingers cracking and loud rude yawns and the totally useless and unnecessary comments. I seriously considered shaking his hands and thanking him for his precious information he’s sharing with us.

Last week I was chatting with mom about this and that when she mentioned that she went to a “3elwyah” (although we are Sunni) and asked her to read quran for one of her kids (me) and see “what’s wrong with him?”. She told my mom that I’m “ma7sood” (black eyed?) and I should go to “rugyah shar3yah” to get my dose of quran and to delete all the “7asad” files. While I’m not sure if would go or not, I definitely think I’m “ma7sood”.

Few years ago I used to have one hell of a job, the pay was extremely good for me and my parents couldn’t even believe it. Everything seemed magical to them, you can’t blame them … they were thinking “OMG our son who just graduated from high school actually made a career out of his hobby and he’s making some good money out of this” (keep in mind that I didn’t go to university or anything I just had a diploma in a totally non-relevant thing).

So whenever they got the chance to talk about me in front of our relatives or guests they would, sometimes they add few lies to spice things up and sometimes when they run out of stories they make up their own new ones, 3aaaadi “WE ARE PROUD OF YOU” … I used to tell them everything, EVERYTHING. I guess that what’s made them more excited and kept on telling their own versions of my success stories. I remember once when the added too much spice and ended with a very hot “salfah” … all you need to know is that they mentioned a seven digits number. I definitely was a 7asad material.

This year is my shitiest year ever (career wise). I got laid off from a start-up agency of a friend of mine and I’m freelancing ever since. I discovered I’m not a really good freelancer … I lack some key skills in order to become a successful freelancer, Motivation and Discipline … when you are working outside the agency structure you have to rely totally on yourself to do everything.

I know I used to have the motivation and discipline before, I’m just thinking “7asad” took them away or maybe it’s the lifestyle change I went thru (corporate sucker to independent freelancer). To be motivated I need people to bitch on me (account managers) and to get the much needed discipline I need some one to scare me every once in a while (Creative or Art Directors).

The Butter:
I gotta go to the “rugyah shar3yah” hoping that would work and I should finish my freelancing projects ASAP and get a job in an international agency or something (no local start-ups, ever).

Also, I didn’t know I can write posts this long.

P.S: Purg, STFU.

I’m having a hard time picking the winner of the T-shirt Competition. Damn, some are just too good to lose.

Lemme Think.

Is it only me or every body gets their sleeping patterns funked up in the summer?
Maybe it’s because I don’t have a day job. Yeah, I guess it’s one of the cons of freelancers’ life style.

No, i’m not going to talk about censors and censorship here in kuwait. No, i’m not saying they are stupid for cutting a french kiss while leaving all kinds of cursing, bad language and referals for all kinds of taboos. (kuwaiti taboos that is)

I have a question, Why Blockbusters (which means expensive and high budget) like “i,Robot” get released here in kuwait almost the same time as does in the states and sometimes before europe. While Independent Movies (which means cheap and shoe-string-budget) like “Lost In Translation” have to wait more than a year to get released here.

I need some one to answer me or i will go totally nuts.

Now what’s up with this shit? Emails from watanya and eurika and million other local geezers (la we el title 3arabi ba3ad). They never heard about the rules and regulations about this stuff? oh, but that’s in the states.
It’s ok, i can live with that. Kuwait is small and soon i will find the asshole who’s selling my email and i will kick his asssssss realy hard that he will be afraid of touching computers again.