From the creator of NegativEffect comes The Hot Foot, real life reviews of machines, and vehicles. I love the motto of TheHotFoot “Reviews on anything driven by fuels”, passion for machines. As usual NegativEffects does wonders with pictures, and this time around its no different but you get a feel for items in the land, sea, and air. I really like the presented format of the reviews and machines, its really viewer friendly and very easy to navigate, he already has some reviews up, right now my favorites are the Aprillia Shiver, Honda Civic Type R, and the Nissan GT-R. I’m looking forward to seeing more of his reviews, I bet they are going to be just as fun to read and sea.

Link: TheHotFoot

We have been passing by Al Hamra for years not realizing the architectural significance of this building, it is the highest concrete structure in the world, they really turned this building into an icon. I know a few people who have been working on Al Hamra Tower for over 5 years now, and I’m happy they are getting the recognition they deserve for their work, its sad how much bureaucracy they faced in Kuwait which was a huge hurdle when they were making an amazing building for Kuwait. They even offered to expand and adjust the roads in the surrounding area to accomodate for the extra traffic that this building will cause but the Baladiya refused. At one point they had to educate the Baladiya (Municipality) about structural codes and regulations regarding sky scrappers since they dont have any regulation for it and they aren’t really bothering to educate themselves. I’m a big fan of Discovery Channel, I always enjoy these types of shows and I was proud to see a building such as this representing Kuwait. For once it feels like its not just about commercial return but creating an icon and I think that is what they have done with the building. This is the whole episode that can be watched here, and looking down from that height I would be freaked out.

It seems that you will be seeing less and less of the Hummer vehicle line in Kuwait as of this year. It seems the reality of GM’s actions are now reflecting in Kuwait, I knew a while back that they are no longer selling the vehicle and that they are not available but now since the deals fell through and they shutdown the plant its come to a different end. No longer will the dealership be able to support any of the vehicle with our without warranty, the H3 or H3 or the pick up versions of them. Spare parts will cease to be provided by end of 2010, and as that happens even if someone wants to keep their car they have to cannibalize vehicles in the market for spare parts. So if you own one your going to be out of support soon. I think its going to be the same case across the GCC, but I thought they would manage to sell the brand and continue to make the vehicles.

A new car listing website popped up in Kuwait or more like the GCC, there are a few of these around these days. I have been tinkering around with the website for a bit now and I like the interface, its intuitive and there are a lot of cars use and new. But they do offer different services then the normal car listings.

• To list your car you just have to create a username and login, uploading 4pics is free
• There are listings for Kuwait & UAE, Almost 4000 cars at this point
• KSA will be added soon
• They can help arrange shipping to your home, pick up from seller and deliver to driver, which is pretty good

Overall a good listing with content I spent some time going through the cars, always fun to see whats being sold.

Link: MyGulfCar

I always try to think better of those in public service even when I have dealt with some scumbags but there are good people working in the public sector, even when they are hard to find.

Case 1:

This happened on Sunday last week, one of our coworkers, a 40+ yearold indian gentlemen came into work late which is odd for him because he is usually the first person there. He told me that he got his license taken by the police, when he asked why they just told him its a 5 KD fine and to go away. He told me that he was stuck in traffic going under the 5th ring road heading towards Bida’a round about, Rumaithiya on your right and Salmiya on your left. He said there were police checking car after car, and he was slowly moving in a que. Then the police men at the check point told him to pull over, there were news cameras taking pictures of police men giving tickets to foreigners and drivers. So when he gave me the form it said 120/80 meaning that he was speeding 40 kph over the speed limit which I knew was a lie since he doesn’t drive over 70 kph. They were basically pulling people over and giving mass fines, they took over 50 licenses, and the photographers were snapping away as if they are doing a great job. So what is a foreigner supposed to do, I called up a few people and turns out it was a publicity stunt for the MOI. The process to get your license is hell and to try to prove its a false accusation is nearly impossible. At the end after calling several people I managed to get his license after about three days of looking for it. But how can you prove that they are falsifying information when they don’t have to prove what happened.

Case 2:

My friend left Signor Sassi with his family in front of him. He was in the left lane to make a u-turn on a Thursday night from the GulfRoad. The u-turn was packed but going straight was empty so he cut right while the road was empty and sped up to catch up with his cousin and family in the other car. He got to about 100 kph while the speed limit was 80 kph, and way back there was one car all the way in the right lane. The car suddenly sped up with only the lower lights on coming behing my friend, then the police lights came on. He pulled him over and so did his family pull over, they were wondering why he stopped him. My friend got down said hello, he gave him his drivers license and vehicle registration and told him he just sped up but was over the speed limit and he apologizes for that, and will accept that fine. Then the police men said no you cut me off and I’m going to tow your car to the police station then to the impound lot, my friend was shocked from what he said. Then the policemen said you cut me off and you were doing over 180 kph, my friend replied saying you were on the right lane and I was behind my family how could I be going 180 kph, and I wasn’t speeding at that speed. Back and forth, back and forth but the guy was being an ass towards him even though he was being very polite and enquiring why the extreme punishment for going only 20 kph over the speed limit. Then he had to follow him to the impound lot in Sharq, he called several people to see how he could help. He managed to get to friend by the time he got to the lot, he said to hold tight while he made his calls. My friend again tried reasoning with the policemen but he said no you either take your car in or I take your car into the lot. Then he said I’m getting a phone call can you speak to the gentlemen and the police men refused but then he got the number to his direct superior who told him to release him and the car, but while on the phone with his superior he said that the driver endangered my life and many others on the street and kept adding to the form. He added “reckless driving”, “endangerment to people lives”, “refusing to pullover” while on the phone to his superior so that he can get his car locked up. I know that my friend is very polite and doesn’t argue since he was still in shock but lucky to find someone that can help. Now how in the hell are you supposed to get policemen like this off the streets, who lie and do whatever they want to persecute people for no reason. Seriously this is insane, even after getting all the details sorted he was trying to stop my friend from getting his license the next day. The problem is that in Kuwait is that the word of a policeman is not questioned in court but in situations such as this there has to be proof, its getting ridiculous the extent some of these men go.

I have heard of many stories of policemen harassing females and doing whatever they want on the road. How do you expect people to respect them when they do this, its sad when its just few who are like this. They should be held responsible and thrown off the police force, and not be employed in any other government body.

Monday night I was driving to see some family around 7pm heading to Shamiya on Airport Road (50), at the light its two lane wide and I’m on the right lane. We are all going to make a left, nothing much to it simply going forward and making a left. As we turn to straighten, I’m in the middle lane of the 2nd ring road which is a 3 lane wide road. This car on my right being driven by a female (wearing a hijab) and she is having a conversation with the gentlemen on her right, her car gets a little too close to mine and I move a bit to the left when she laughs and pulls left to hit my car. Her side view mirror flew off, I heard a thud and I was very annoyed, any further left and I would have hit the car on my left. I really didn’t want to stop and head to a police station, she freaked out, I stopped and took a picture of her license plate. I told her I’m not going to the police station since its your fault and I don’t want to bother waiting for paperwork. I think she was afraid I would start shouting but I was pissed and left. I honestly don’t know why my luck is like this, statistically speaking 90% of all my accidents and close calls involve women with hijabs, seriously this is just driving me nuts, no attention to the road, and not paying attention the cars on the roads but maybe its just my luck. I thought she dented my door, but she dented my fender just under the light. I was lucky it wasn’t a hit to the light, so it was a dent but on the protection where I head my Huper Optic protection.

Now for the interesting part, the Huper Optik protection did its job, it protected the paint from getting damaged and its only one dent albeit a sizable dent but still manageable. And the black line is the plastic which rubbed onto my car, it comes off with some elbow grease. One of my friends said that since there is no paint damage that I can take it to DentXpress and they could take it out easily, so I’m going to try my luck and hopefully they can get it clear out.

I just had the urge to shoot guns, I called up some of my friends and picked them up. They dropped off their car at Al Falah Car Wash so while it was getting washed and cleaned we would get some shooting done and come back when the car was nice and clean. The NRC is open every day from 5-9pm except Friday, but I’m not sure if they are open earlier on Saturday.

We came in, gave our IDs and took the visitors badge, anyone 15 and above can come to the shooting range. Surprisingly this is a rule made by the Shooting Range, I’m not aware of any laws that specify who can shoot at a shooting range. We headed down luckily there weren’t that many people, we decided to shoot the hand guns first then the sniper rifles. I went for the 44 caliber Glock and so did my friend, and one guy took the 9mm gun. For about 8 KD you get 10 bullets, and you pay in increments of 8 KD for 10 more bullets. After that we went for the .308 caliber rilfe which is damn big and has a nice kick to it.

While there we saw one of our friends from 4thringroad who is a regular at the NRC. And he showed us some of his personal collection that he keeps at the shooting range, and all of these machines have permits and are licensed. It was a Genuine Israel made Desert Eagle, which is basically the most accurate and powerful handgun out there, and it said Made in Israel which is banned in the GCC, when I asked him how in the hell he had one, he just smiled. That wasn’t the surprising one either, later on at the rifle range it was another machine.

When we got our Glocks, I was loading the bullets giddily, I don’t know why I have had the urge to shoot a gun since the last time I did in the Emirates. As soon as I had the Glock in my hand and shot the first bullet I had a surge of excitment and fired off, getting between the 9 and 10s in the target and it was damn good. The barrel of the gun was hot, I reloaded the bullets and went at it again, it was lots of fun. Then we went to the rifle range which is across the hall, they got us our rifle, then our friend was shooting as well. When we started shooting he showed us a Special Forces Spec M16 which he also keeps at the shooting range and gave us the chance to shoot with it. After I finish all my .308 caliber bullets in the rifle I picked up the M16, I felt like I was in a Rambo movie. You aren’t allowed to use in the fully automatic mode and I didn’t know how to do that either, surprisingly it had very little recoil and was stable. What an adventure for the first time in my life I got to shoot an M16 and enjoy all the other machines, my aim is pretty good too, the instructors said I have a steady finger, my thanks goes back to Halo.

NRC is located after the Equestrian Club just off the Six Ring Road.
Phone: 2475 9999

A lot has been going on with Wataniya Airlines over the past 6 months. They got a new plane, now it seems like they have a total of 5 planes, and more staff hired. They are now even changing the way you check in at first class, and now as soon as you check in, you can have your passport stamped right away so you only have to go through security to board the car to the plane.

New Routes:

• Rome
• Vienna
• Istanbul
• As well as all the others

Now they are even expanding the First Class lounge as they are expecting more and more people which is a great idea, I think they can even have more seeting inthe current area without any issue. So the old passport area for first class being turned into a lounge for First Class. The best part now is that they offer Zaijil Wifi services in the lounge and airport, so you can purchase 2 hours for 1 KD or 24 hours for 3KD, and you can do the whole thing and charge it to your Zain mobile phone by sending a few sms which was extremely easy, and I was online with my iPad. Now this makes it easier to sit early in the lounge and relax without any issues.

I have been flying Wataniya Airways continously throughout the Middle East and so after a couple of months I go to the Silver Diwan Card from the Purple Card. So even if I fly economy I get to use the lounge now and also get one person in with me which is pretty good for Silver, usually that doesn’t happen until your Gold with Emirates and that takes a lot to get there. I just hope they open up more routes and hopefully to London soon with a new plane that can fly a longer range, as it is right now British Airways is too expensive and the services are lacking for that price.

Bayt Abdullah, the first children’s hospice in Kuwait and the Middle East. It is a hospice, free of charge, to all nationalities to care for children in distress at a moment when hospitals are no longer needed.

This campaign is the first of its kind in Kuwait as the response of each company or individual contacted has given a full support in their capacity to offer in kind a generous contribution.

Bayt Abdulla is a new concept to Kuwait, something that we have been lacking for a long time. I have been interested in it for some time and lots of people I know involved in it. The main idea is providing a facility and services to care for children who are ill or terminally ill that need a help regardless of the period. When asking about what exactly they do, here is simple question:

What is Pediatric Palliative Care?
Pediatric palliative care is a philosophy and program of care for children with life-threatening conditions focusing on enhancing quality of life and relieving suffering for the child, family members and other significant people in the child’s life. To “palliate” means to make comfortable by treating a child’s symptoms from an illness or medical
condition.

Through the efforts of everyone and every company involved they have managed to make this amazing facility. Providing help to any children that fit the criteria regardless of nationality or religion, the main. A specialized professional service, free of charge for all children in Kuwait who meet the criteria for admission to the hospice, regardless of nationality or religion. Ansam already posted about an event that has taken place, but you can also help through donations or helping them any way you see fit.

Link: Bayt Abdulla

Being the techi guy in the house I’m referred to as the Electrician, and my family expects me to know all the details of Orbit and ART and how to get new channels. I was never too fond of Orbit, Showtime or ART but at this point they have all pretty much gone down the drain. They change the way they would broadcast, we had to change our decoders then they changed it back to another way because everyone got really confused. The shows on the channels have honestly improved but the decoders have really gone down the drain. Previously Orbit had a very good way to display and categorize all of the channels, even when they reached 60 channels it was still pretty good. Now going to the generic system they have honestly confused the hell out of me, and if you can’t navigate through 400+ channels to find the right channels. When getting a new decoder I go through the painstaking process of creating favorite lists based on the channels they want, and that takes hours and hours to get done. The worst part is when a decoder crashes or when it updates they erase the whole damn channel favorites that you have worked on. Sometimes I spend over five long minutes looking for one channel in that insanely long list, and sometimes I give up and just leave the TV. Luckily most everything I watch is online, or downloaded or other forms of content delivery that does not require me to interact with OSN or ART decoders, but if something is wrong then I am the first line of support for the family. With the new decoders they basically made it impossible for people to find a channel or to enjoy it, they should work on the interface not just the channels, it would make things a lot better.