I’m usually not the type of person to generalize but its hard not to feel there something very wrong when my car always gets hit by a woman, specifically muhajabah (Those who wear scarfs on their head), or they try to kill me while I’m on the motorcycle. I honestly don’t think any female has an intent to kill any person while on the road, and oddly enough its always a muhajabah who takes me out or hits me. This time it was the most annoying accident I have ever had, I’m happy it wasn’t a bad one but I was pissed as hell when my car was hit.
I’m in the left lane by the main Mishref Co-op and the right lane isn’t moving because a car is waiting for another car to exit. I’m moving about 5 kph per hour, snails pace and stopping when they stop when I hear I thump and painful metal screech. I moved and heard my car screech from the rear, I got out to find that a woman in a gold Jaguar four door hit my right rear passenger door. I pulled forward away from traffic and told her to stop behind me. I was pissed, very pissed, how in the hell could she hit me, I wasn’t moving and neither was her side. Her front left fender was bent and front left light was broken, while my door and rear right wheel well has a nasty dent. I spoke to her and she automatically said that I was moving too fast and she didn’t see me, I answered saying that I wasn’t moving and the car in front of me wasn’t moving and you hit me in the rear so if we go to the police station you would automatically at fault. She then said she is sorry because she was turning left when she was looking right so she won’t hit the car in front of her so instead she hit me, I tried to calm down because I saw she had a child in the car with her. I asked to speak to her husband and I will sort it out with him, I told her the damage is minimal on both cars please pay attention next time, then I spoke to her husband. I told him what happened and to check on his wife but everything is fine except for the damage, I asked him to come to the police station with me to state that I wasn’t at fault and I wouldn’t want anything from them except the police report as my insurance would cover it. I told her to go home and not to worry about anything, I calmed down but I was still really annoyed, its annoying that she wasn’t paying attention and tried to blame me right away but what calmed me down quickly is seeing the child with her and didn’t want to make the kid upset so I told her to go everything will be fine. Went to the police station three days later with the husband and sorted it out, we had to wait an hour for the accident investigator which is a short time from my experience, he was apologizing and asking to fix the car, I thanked him and said this is more then enough, I’m lucky that he was a good man because I know that being nice and letting the lady go I could have been screwed but I wouldn’t do it any other way. Still its very annoying, why don’t women pay attention, that is what freaks me out the most when driving people who don’t pay attention to the rode.
I was in need of some tools, a tool box, and a small storage box for different types of screws that I have. I passed by Ace Hardware after work as they have the best selection of tools from all the other stores in the market. I was surprised that they have stocked up with tools now, they also have the Bosch blower back in stock, about 7 or 8 boxes were on the shelves. They had even some cool Stanley tool boxes for the car garage, nice and big with wheels and a few other items.
I found a nice compact storage box which you can pick up like a handle, and picked up a nice small Stanley tool box for all the tools I had in mind. I am always working on servers, computers and other electrical equipment, wiring things and taking things apart. What I need is a good tool set, organized, high quality and a nice range of sizes to be used for different applications. I picked up a Craftsman and Stanley screw driver set, since they had different ranges and they are quality made products. Then I picked up a few individual items such as cutters, pliers, allen keys, and a few other items. Overall I put together a quality tool box for every day use with a few specialized tools all for 38 KD, and it helped when I was working on the server and putting things back together again.
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This has probably been a disaster for any Zain subscriber over the last three days who has been using his or her phone outside of Kuwait. I got numerous calls from family members over the weekend from strange lines to check with Zain why did they disconnect their lines, I called up Zain to ask about different people and a few were even with Zero balance. Now they told me they were having a small glitch in their system and they will be back up in a matter of hours, I conveyed the message, usually that means 3 to 4 but even 10 hours later it was still the same situation. I called numerous techies of Zain and they kept telling me the nothing is wrong with the lines, but they are making a slight upgrade which could have had an impact on roaming Zain subscribers, so another story this time. The third time I just went to the one at the airport and those guys were swamped, turns out it was a company wide problem not just a few people for the last three days. Then the guy at the counter told people to contact the Ministry of Communication as it was their problem. So Zain did something to mess up all roaming calls, or pissed off somebody at the MoC, or MoC did something that damaged ONLY Zain’s roaming lines. Yet all Viva and Wataniya customers were working fine, for those who were expecting business calls or contacting family or any form of communication through a Zain line was practically out of luck. What ever the problem I’m surprised its still some what of an issue and at the end as usual the customers bore the grunt of the damage, I doubt Zain will offer them anything to compensate some of these damages.
This was a relaxing fun weekend for me and some of the guys, we chilled at the shaleh with a bunch of TV shows and movies. Also outside during the day one of the guys had prepared 1440 water balloons with two large sling shot launchers for them. This was anything but a normal weekend, the goal was to move as little as possible those few days and to remain close to home base.
On the day of the 25th I took three showers, change four times and I did a lot of damage with the water balloons. On the 26th I was merely spectator as I was out of energy from the day before, we took some hits and I hate foam but water balloons aren’t bad. This is first time I participate in the National and Liberation Day festivities in at least a decade. It was a lot of fun and we are lucky our side wasn’t too crowded, but it was crowded enough to be fun. I loved the next door neighbor kids who were playing around, some were adorable, and some of those 7 to 11 year olds had damn good aim. I realized during this weekend how out of shape I was but that is for another day, we had a blast and it was a lot of fun but the dust was very annoying.
Going to Kuwait airport you tend to see a lot of strange and odd things and not think too much about it, but what I wasn’t expecting was female officer. I stood there for about a minute staring, stunned by what I was seeing in front of me. I have seen female immigration officers, they are better then the previous male immigration officers, and now Female Police Officers, Officers meaning high ranking police not the ones with a few slash marks but a Star or Mulaazim, an Officer. She was young and at the airport around 4 pm having a serious conversation with a two starred male Officer or Mulazim Awal. I’m not sure of the English translation of the rank but it was a sight, lets just hope the female injection into the police force will have a positive effect on the streets and functions, because right now most of these guys aren’t too functional. There could be hope in Kuwait with decisions such as these taking place, I’m always optimistic but this site I was happy to see, as a track record female PMs are making better decisions then some of the idiotic PMs. Still that was a shocker for me, now what would a guy do if he is stopped by a good looking female police officer since I heard they are also in the traffic police.
This was the second time I go to PF Changs and I was planning to order a few dishes I had in mind. Last time I didn’t really have a chance since it was a quick bite. To be honest I wasn’t a big fan of PF Changs from the states, its more like Americanized Chinese Food and in the states you can find some really good Chinese restaurants. But it was a change and worth trying out, I walked it to get a table since it’s first come first serve basis. I keep hearing mixed opinions about the place, either people really like it or really don’t like it, so I curious to give it a full try.
I was there a bit early so I went through the menu asking questions and deciding what I wanted right off the bat while waiting for everyone to arrive. Didn’t take too long and so we ordered the Chicken Lettuce Wrap, Dynamite Shrimp, Spring Rolls, Calamari for starters and Lo Mein, VIP Duck, Monogolian Beef, and Sweet and Sour Chicken for main course. It was a wide selection of items, I was impressed with the appetizers so I had high expectations for the main course but that turned out to be a little to high. Most of everything was a little on the bland side, it felt like something was missing. Overall the place is nice, the service is good, but the food isn’t the best, its ok. The appetizers were good but the main course was lacking, the only real good dish was the Mongolian Beef, the rest of it wasn’t that great. I wouldn’t probably plan for a night to eat there, but if I’m in the mall in the first place I wouldn’t mind eating there.
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Since opening in Kuwait I have been to Office Depot a few times, its not 10% of the size of the Office Depots I have seen in the states but its a good change to have inside the Mall. Its come to the point where Avenues is majority clothing or food and not much else, but Office Depot is a refreshing change and I wanted to pass by to pick up some post its and paper since I was heading to the Avenues in the first place.
Its good they have a nice selection of printers, with Brothers being the one with the most features and more reasonable pricing. I like how they have a huge selection of paper and the different kinds of packaging and folders that you can have, I picked up an expandable plastic folder to use to organize my bills and other paper work. I can’t resist looking at USBs and external hard drives and they had a nice selection. Another part of the store that I really like is the pen and pencil section, I’m very particular about pens and pencils, I like to have ones which have a certain amount of ink when used on paper and how it feels. Then there was the calculator section which reminded me of my old scientific calculator and having to store formulas in the memory and all. Overall there should be a few different stores within the mall and its desperately needing a change, maybe a big book store would really help.
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QualityNet
I have upgraded my DSL account with qualitynet to the MAX Dsl package, which ranges from 5 to 24 MB. Basically it goes to the maximum capacity of your line and I am very happy with this package. Especially that the prices have dropped drastically over the years and Qualitynet leading the pack with the price drop.
Qualitynet does have its issues but their service is solid with me, and it seems if they don’t have any MOC issues then the connection works perfectly. When there is an MOC issue you are out of luck and most the time it won’t be resolved and you are stuck with what you have, the problem is that once that happens you have already paid for your connection and are stuck with it. But in my case these lines seem to be solid for now, sometimes the MOC does mess things up.
As of right now my download speeds are ranging from 1090 KB/s to 1210 KB/s which is fantastic compared to my previous connection. This connection have been consistently stable, and it has reduced my download time of large files by 20%.
Kems
My Kems connection was upgraded to the maximum possible speed of the line which is around 7MB, and at this speed I’m downloading from 780 KB/s to 920 KB/s. Kems has the best technical support I have seen from any ISP, the guy on the other side of the phone knows what he is talking about and can help solve the question or give you a realistic answer which helps not to frustrate you more when there is a problem.
After making the payment I get an sms two days later stating that my service has been upgraded and it is now active which went very smoothly. In this case it was 40% more expensive then the Qualitynet connection but this is the maximum capability of the this current line. Oddly enough I bought this line over two years ago and its of lower quality then the line we have had for 30 years and can support much higher speeds. Between the two ISPs Kems seems to have a better consistent upload speed, and this has been my experience with it.
Need to pick up some tools:
- Screw Driver Set
- Air Blower
- Clear Storage Boxes
I decided to visit Platform then Abyat, the hardest item to find on that list is an air blower surprisingly. I use the air blower to clean hard to reach places then I wipe them down, or to dry the car, or motorcycle. On a good day I like to clean my bike after a ride, it feels refreshing, I keep my head phones on and once I’m done I use the air blower its extremely efficient and quickly to dry with it. I had a Bosch for over two years and it broke even after fixing it twice, so I wanted to get another Bosch from Platform but I can’t find it anymore and Platform didn’t have it. And their tool section is a bit disappointing, they had Great Wall which is Chinese while I was looking for better quality tool sets, so I headed over to Abyat and they had a better section. The Manager at Platform said they are reorganizing and getting more items this coming month and Xcite will be opening in Platform, which is a surprise.
Air Blowers:
- Bosch – Not Available
- Black and Decker – 16.5 KD
- Makita – 22.5 KD
I tried the both the B&D blower and Makita blower, overall the Makita blower felt like it was of better quality then the B&D. B&D is American while Makita is Japanese, but both are made in China. The Makita is more powerful so I went with it and crossing my fingers that it lasts awhile. Went home cleaned up, yes the blower for inside my PCs and Servers, it was nice to clean up the area but that will require a whole day.
Thanks to UpTill1 I manage to see the pricing before heading over to InfoConnect to renew my internet service. Its the best time and best pricing, I have two connections at home, Qnet and Kems, I am happy with both ISPs and Kems still ranks #1 for customer support and resolving issues. I paid 720 KD to Qnet for a 7 MB connection and 299 KD for a 2MB connection for a Kems connection, but not it seems the price have been really reduced, its also due to them optimizing their networks.
ISP Ranking:
- Kems – Best Support
- Qnet – Best Pricing
- Fastelco – Best Improvement overall this year
- Gulfnet – Don’t even bother with them, the worst service possible
I have gone ahead with the Max DSL package from Qnet which ranges from 5MB to 24MB, the stipulation is that it will go to the maximum of line not reduced whenever they feel like it as I have 7MB currently and want faster. Its really worth it for 420 KD and my line supports 11MB so it will be a significant improvement, this increase is supposed to take place by Monday at the maximum so I will test it then.
Now for Kems I have a 2MB connection and I want to upgrade since their prices are very reasonable right now, for 399 KD I can have 4MB or for 599 KD I can have 8 MB. The combination of these two networks would be very much a reality with the ftp downloads at full throttle. I have managed to use each one for a purpose but the packages are enticing.