While in NYC I wanted to get a shave and a quick hair cut, my problem is that I have gotten used to how they shave in Kuwait. With a single blade and they do it very well, honestly I haven’t found very many places that know how to shave your beard and give you that cut that the barbers in Kuwait do. Well I have known about The Art Of Shaving for a very long time and some of those stores have barber shops, not all of them do. It started off as a mom and pop business that grew to several locations across the US and was bought out by Proctor and Gamble who spread it all across the US and with them barbershops.

It has this old Gentlemen’s club feel to it and they have some fantastic products, especially their aftershaves which put out the fire on my skin after a shave. I shaved here once in February and the Barber was Puerto Rican and his name was Azreal, so I called and the guy was there. To say that he was an Artist with the a single shaving blade is an understatement, this guy was good, he was so good that I really enjoyed the shave and booked to come back a week later. For me its a pleasure to get a shave, you lay down, close your eyes get a warm towel and you get rid of that very annoying itch on your neck and cheek. He used the shaving cream and oils from the line of products that I like, and I always end up getting a few things from them on the way to take back to Kuwait with me.

They call their Barbershop the Barber Spa, and it deserves to because these guys are really good and talented. If you are ever in New York stop by the Art Of Shaving on 520 Madison Avenue, best place for a man to get a cut and shave. And I always want to buy some of their blades even though I rarely shave at home, still they have some great products which I use with my barber in Kuwait.

You always hear about the A380 and the double decker plane from Airbus and how many Emirates Airlines ordered from them. Recently I had a chance to fly on one from New York City to Dubai. I heard some conflicting reviews about it so I wasn’t sure what to expect but my expectations were not high. Usually I like flying on the Boeing 777 LR as they are comfortable planes with a very good configuration and long range for for those DXB to US trips.

Now for the first time on the plane I was impressed, it felt like I was going into a building, the thing is huge, no joke, it fits a lot of people. The Average plane fits between 180 to 250 passengers on long haul flights but the Emirates A380 can handle 644 Passengers which is an insane amount 143 of those passengers were in business class which I was a part of. You walk in you can feel that it was a bit cramped but also cozy at the same time, the seats were comfortable and go completely flat. It was a 13 hour flight that got a bit interesting because of a technical delay but the staff managed to keep people happy and we made our connection at the end. Overall there were a lot of short comings that would make me not want to get on an A380 again, it was an experience that I would not like to repeat.

My Overall Opinion:

• You are handling over 644 passengers and business class which is usually 40 seats increased to more then threefold to 143 passengers, and they didn’t increase the staff in the same capacity.
• You don’t get that personal touch that you expect in business class, its still there in first but it feels like you are just part of the cargo in business.
• Asking for a glass of water took 25 to 40 mins when usually it takes them 5 to 10 mins max.
• Overall the experience wasn’t that good, the price for A380 is even a bit more expensive then a normal plane yet you don’t get that extra service.
• Basically you are paying for Business Class seats with economy service, you really get lost with the crowd.
• The Entertainment system in Emirates is excellent as usual, that isn’t even under question and I hope they keep it up.
• The bathroom was another design disaster, usual business class is 2 to 3 bathrooms for 40 to 50 passengers, and in this case it was 4 bathrooms with two that the air staff closed so basically two bathrooms for 143 so initially it was 35 to 1 bathroom but in this case it ended up to be 71 to bathroom which you can imagine was a nightmare.
• All of this was just one thing to take into consideration, when you land into any country with 643 passengers the lines at passport control and customs is a huge disaster, even when passengers from First & Business Disembark from the different walkway then Economy we all end up together outside which is a huge amount of people and the number of bags is a also humungous. Basically its as if you are dealing with three planes landing at the same time.

The A380 may have been a success for Airbus with Airlines but it isn’t an experience I would want to repeat to anyone or one that I think is a success for individuals. As a business case its fantastic for airlines, basically packing more people in and the whole plane was full so they will be making more money, for now I’m going to stay away from any flights on that plane and I will try my luck with the Boeing Dreamliner. Boeing may have been very late with the 787 Dreamliner but that is one plane that I am looking forward to flying on. They designed it so it would be more spacious for the person riding and bigger room, more headspace, overall more spacious and more effecient way of flying. So they improved the flight experience of the travel unlike the A380.

Its like a bonus of items, I love getting packages like these, full of things that I have been looking forward and piling them up together in my mailbox to be shipped together. I preordered the BluRay edition of Star Wars from May or June and now that I have it I have no clue when I’m going to watch all 6 movies, but I want to do it one shot and require people to watch it with.

Books:

• Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World’s Most Wanted Hacker
• Man Machine – Max Barry

Picked up a couple of books that I am looking forward to reading and a couple of design books that I would enjoy going through. Then I picked up the Star Wars special edition Moleskines both the small and large notebooks and I love having them but don’t want to use it. I have other Moleskines that I can use, the normal ones, I like collecting these special edition Moleskines.

Ramadan has been amazing this year, I just love Ramadan in Kuwait even though its hot you get to see a lot of family and friends, it feels like your working a day shift and a night shift but your getting a lot done. I get excited about water activities and riding every weekend, its only the weather that decides what I do and I know its still too hot to ride but once or twice over the last few weeks I went out for a quick joy ride, even though its still pretty hot at night.

The funny part is that the rest of the world rides when its too hot for us to ride and I honestly get jealous that they can ride and I can’t. I have been looking at parts nonstop for the last few months to upgrade and customize my Diavel to my tastes but as usual very few parts are available for this lovely beast, and I have to wait until the Italians get back from the holiday this august to see any parts at the beginning of September. I know I’m still a few months off from Riding but it doesn’t stop me from getting excited, I see the bikes every other day in the garage I can’t help but get pulled to them and take a look at them. I have modified a few things and luckily the first thing I changed was the exhaust and it sounds very beefy right now. I have ridden in a few different countries over the years but I would love to take my Ducati out of town with me, it would probably Pyro because I just love that bike so much. I can’t wait until its riding season but for now I’m going to enjoy the water as much as possible.

The torment that many went through during the Gulf War is still felt to this day by many people. And now we have to live with the Iraq that has come out of Saddam’s ashes, I for one was very happy that they took Saddam out but I knew that Iraq would always remain an issue because of their severe instability and internal issues. Kuwait suffered greatly from Iraq and to this day they do not want to pay the financial damages which Kuwait incurred, and that isn’t even close to the damage suffered by the Kuwaiti people. Kuwait hasn’t been the same since then, it did change and we persevered during that time. I won’t forget seeing CNN with the map of Kuwait and Iraqi invasion written on the screen, I didn’t understand what was going on but I thought it would be solved right away, I thought to myself why would Iraq invade Kuwait. And these days I wonder about the younger people who were born during or after the Gulf War who don’t have a sense of it, even though we were young I remember it vividly as it brought our families together and our parents tried to make it as normal as possible for us even though we knew it wasn’t. They took us to every rally, every protest, and I was so proud to Kuwaiti and so many people wanted to help us, I still have the pins from the marches in my drawers. I remember we loved that the British and US Armies went in and so many countries supported it us, I was shocked so many Arab countries supported Sadam, I found out the meaning of hate at a very young age.

Then when Kuwait was liberated I was so happy but they said that we couldn’t go home just yet, I missed Kuwait a lot. And then when we got back it was all black, it was dark, it was daytime but the sun was blacked out. Then I learned what the meaning of scorched, because Sadam’s last order was called Operation Scorched Earth, they set fire to every oil well as they exited Kuwait destroying as much as they can as they left. I remember going to school wearing a mask for almost a year and it was strange looking up to a dark sky. We were so happy every time they put one out and so many braved people from so many countries risked themselves to put out the fires, it was a painstaking process. But even now 20 years later we see the results of all that pollution and chemical weapons that were left in Kuwait and what damage it has done, now more then ever there are so many cases of Cancer and so many illness popping up at a very high rate in Kuwait it is terrifying. We all loved having our country back and building it back up again, I just hope that people have not forgotten. I for one haven’t.

This was probably one of the funniest conversations I have had with Zain’s tech support, I just couldn’t believe what the guy was telling me. I had a problem with my phone, for the last few days its like my Blackberry was having blackouts a few hours at a time, then I went two days without BB connectivity, only connecting over wifi. After trying everything to troubleshoot the issue on my own I thought to call tech support and see what could be happening, because other people with BB were operating normally, and I recently paid the ridiculous amount so I didn’t have an overdue bill.

Conversation:

Tech – “Hello thank you for calling Zain”

Me – “Hello I have an issue with my Blackberry, it isn’t connecting to any Blackberry services”

Tech – “Did you try switching off your phone and turning it back on?”

Me – “I turned it off and turned it on, I took out the battery waited 10 mins and turned it on, I even took out the SIM card for 10 mins and turned it back on, is there something wrong with my line?”

Tech – “I don’t know, did you try putting another SIM in your phone to check if its not the phone?”

Me – “What do you mean you don’t know? And what other SIM?”

Tech – “Doesn’t a friend in your Dewaneya have a Blackberry? Try his SIM in your phone to make sure the problem is with the phone not the line”

Me – “Ok… Still What do you mean you don’t know if there is anything wrong with the SIM?!?”

Tech – “I can’t tell right now if there is anything wrong with your line”

Me – “Why can’t you?”

Tech – “Oh our system is down or being upgraded for the last 36 hours so I won’t be able to tell”

Me – “OK… So if I put another SIM and the phone works, then that means there is a problem with my line and now my phone, would you be able to do anything about it?”

Tech – “No we won’t be able to do anything to fix your line until our system is back up”

Me – “And when exactly will your system be back up?”

Tech – “Give us a call back in 24 hours”

Me – “Great.. Thank you Good bye”

Tech – “Goodbye and Thank you for calling Zain”

Thats 15 mins of my life that I will not able to get back.

I have had a lot of books pile up over the last year, I keep buying more books then I read and some of them are pretty damn good. I wish I read faster or more, I always feel satisfied whenever I’m done with a book and these days I have some very good books such as the one below. Ben Collins is The Stig from Top Gear and you a get a glimpse into his life and how he became a racer then The Stig, you even get some insight into what The Stig was thinking when doing these crazy stunts which is pretty cool when you remember the episodes that go with it, if you are fan then you have to pick up this book. Shit My Dad Says is purely hilarious, seriously, this guy’s sarcasm is over the top and upfront, you will love it. Simon Pegg is a comic genius and you will love his a book which you gets you laughing form the start. Going to give a full write up once I’m done with these books.

• The Man In The White Suit – Ben Collins
• Shit My Dad Says – Justin Halpern
• Nerd Do Well: A Small Boy’s Journey to Becoming a Big Kid – Simon Pegg

Being disconnected from internet when you have a lot of activities feels slightly strange. Its not that I was completely disconnected, just that I couldn’t really use the internet available very well since it worked at a snails pace. I tried using the internet at the hotel but it would time out a lot and take a lot of time to load normal items such as my email and very light browsing, I tried downloading an attachment but that took so long I had to cancel it.

I was lucky that I got a Vodafone UK Prepaid chip which works fantastic in Europe with Data, just top it up comfortably and even Data works while roaming in Europe in even remote locations but it wasn’t enough to go through my RSS feeds, but I could go through my emails and get on Twitter & GooglePlus. I am loving the Google Plus application on my Android, really streamlines it and gives you lots of options for uploading when roaming. Even the Vodafone UK Roaming chip is 100 times cheaper then Data Roaming on your Zain Chip and much better service and connectivity, I do wish that Zain Services improve until it reaches the levels of Vodafone, but doesn’t look like it any time soon. And before I had a problem with my RSS Feed being over 1000, but now that has gone way past 1000, I think its close to 12000 articles and it would take me at least 3 months to bring it down, and my problem is that I HATE using the “Mark All As Read” button.

Plot Summary: Takashi Komuro is a normal highschool boy, until an infection breaks out that turns people into zombie-like creatures. Along with his friends & the school nurse, they fight their way out and continue their journey to find out what exactly has happened to the world.

This really took a page out of World War Z, a couple of students stuck in school with a few zombies coming in only to find that it is a world epidemic. They all start off in different groups and you see the characters of people in this situation, where kids have to decide to kill to live or just die if they don’t try. The anime is fun and I do love seeing people with sorts and weapons, but this anime takes a turn for the funny and kinky, its serious and funny at the same time. It shows some people doing what they have to do to survive and some hold on to their humanity and some don’t, and then there is the kinky part and it shows up pretty early in the show but its just a fun quick series to watch 12 episodes, I was hoping that we would see what exactly would happen and how they would fight these zombies to an end but it seems they left that part to be continued.

Link: AnimeNewsNetwork
Rating:

Recently for the last few months I have been hitting the maximum capacity of Gmail. I tried going through and cleaning up my mail box but I just ended up making up excuses and keeping the emails, I never really want to delete any emails. So I decided to do two things, one is to upgrade my mailbox and secondly is to really go through it and sort it out. So I went for the $5 plan since it really cost nothing and more then triples my regular capacity, and I ran FindBigMail on my mail box which sorted out my big files and I got to see I had a lot of junk emails that could be deleted that I was reluctant too but it was really junk.

Gmail Storage Upgrade Packages:

• 20 GB ($5.00 USD per year)
• 80 GB ($20.00 USD per year)
• 200 GB ($50.00 USD per year)
• 400 GB ($100.00 USD per year)
• 1 TB ($256.00 USD per year)

Link: FindBigMail