Since getting the first Android phone I have loved the quick development of the OS and the variety of the phone, the updates were initially extremely annoying but they have gotten much better at it and more streamlined with more manufacturers on board with a larger variety of very cool powerful phones.

My last phone is the HTC Desire and I have banged up the phone until there isn’t much left of it. I have had my eye on the SE Xperia Arc since it was announced and especially since they would launch Android 2.3 Gingerbread with it, not like the mistake they made with the X10. The SonyEricsson Xperia line is a very beautifully designed line of phones, and the Arc caught my eye.

I did the migration between the HTC Desire to the Xperia Arc over a two week period, I wanted to get used to it and small differences between the HTC Sense customization to the Xperia customization, and I am a big fan of the HTC Sense UI so it took some time. Migrating the contact details, emails and usual settings took just 10 minutes. But I took my time migrating the programs, I wanted to see what kind of widgets it had preinstalled and then added the programs I like and the new ones I wanted. My old phone had a limited memory so I couldn’t add any more applications, I kept running out of memory so in this case it had a substantial amount of memory on the Xperia.

Some of the programs I installed:

• 3G WatchDog
• Sonos
• BBC News
• GReader
• Latitude
• FourSquare
• Shazam
• DropBox
• ESPN
• RetroClock
• RetroDate
• Flixster
• Wifi Manager

After using the phone for a few weeks I’m impressed with what SonyEricsson have done and I hope they keep making some high quality phones such as these. The battery life is decent not great, I expected it to be better. The build quality is very nice, one solid piece, and I like the buttons on the bottom but sometimes I touch the screen instead of pressing the buttons which does something else. The feel of the phone is amazing, its very very light, sometimes I forget its in my pocket. The screen is huge, 4.2 inches is a lot of real estate that you can use, and the touch interface and keyboard is very good. The camera is 8MP with a very clear flash, it is seriously amazing, better then anything I would expect from a phone. Overall I think this is a fantastic phone and I love everything about it, except the battery capacity it needs to be doble what it is now

After about two weeks of back and forth and having the time to get the work done I went over to Kuwait Medical Center in Old Salmiya over XCite Electronics. First day I got some XRays done and I needed to get on antibiotics before getting the tooth removed, she said it would require surgery to remove the tooth so she would prefer I’m on antibiotics.

The next day when I came in it still hurt and I was looking forward to having it removed. The tooth is the moler on the left side, lower deck, the one right next to the wisdom tooth. The Doctor leaned me back on the seat and told me that it would hurt a bit and explained what she had to do. When she put a hair net on my head (I am bald) that freaked me out a bit since it got a little more serious at the dentist then I’m used to. They also got into full gear and fully covered, and started with the big metal needle to inject the anesthesia into my and around the tooth. Three full needs and 5 minutes later I can not feel a thing and loved it.

She started with the surgery and I could feel the minor cutting around the tooth, and because the state it was in she had to break it up to pull it out. It came out with one big piece and two small pieces, and it required a screw driver looking tool to push it out, it didn’t come out gently. I had a feeling because of the hour and 30 minutes that my mouth remained open that I would be hurting the next day but I was wrong I was hurting 3 hours later and majorly incapacitated. I was given Pronstan for the pain and told I can take Tylenol with it every 4 hours, with my antibiotics on schedule.

I was hungry as hell when I left and my jaw was completely numb and started feeling that my hunger since I didn’t eat all day. She told me exactly what was going to happen and I would feel a good amount of pain the next day and I would also look like a chipmunk which I did. I’m just happy that it is over and I’m only eating soft foods at the moment but I’m looking forward to eating a lot of other foods when I can, I have been craving everything recently.

A few months back I was in Las Vegas for a few days, and at the time I was with a friend and he recommended that we do some shooting. I’m a little paranoid about going shooting in the US. I always think that thrown in the back of a police car, and I will disappear with from existence and end up an unknown interrogation facility. But I know that was just ridiculous so I went with my friend and I even gave my Kuwaiti drivers license as identification which they accepted. When I walked it I was amazed at the amount of weapons hanging on the wall. For those of you who don’t know Neveda is one of the few states that Fully Automatic Weapons are legal and can be used in the shooting ranges. I have shot some hand guns before but never a machine gun in my life and I was feeling risky.

My friend chose the big black one which could blow holes through walls and a flame which shot out about 1 meter out of the nozzle. In my case I chose the cool looking beige and black gun which turned out to be a modified M16 which fits AK47 clips, I won’t lie it was INSANELY cool. I went into the range and shot single rounds, then set it to fully automatic after I got comfortable. I tried short burst and that gun is LOUD, adrenaline and testosteron levels were through the roof. When I held it down for fully automatic the gun started swinging to the right quickly and luckily the instructor was standing right behind me and held me so I would stay in place. Those guns are no joke and if you have never experienced shooting a fully automatic weapon then you are really missing out. The best part is that you get to shoot a $70’000 weapon for $150 and $40 for a lot of rounds.

Link: AmericanShooters

For the last few weeks I have been busy as hell with a lot of personal stuff, all is well with me but I got caught up to the point that my emails piled up. Thank you all for emailing and checking up on me but everything is fine.

I got busy with GulfRun and usually I constantly post about what I am up to but these days I have had little time in front of the PC. A lot has been going on with me and a lot of things have changed which I will be posting about once I have my thoughts more organized.

Currently I am outside of the US, in New York City to be exact and I’m going to be here for a few more days then to another stop. Its freezing but I’m loving it here, just saw the Superbowl on Sunday, that was an amazing game and well worth watching to the end. Both teams playing very well and honorably.

Just landed in Bahrain and getting ready for GulfRun, I picked up my car and already roaming about Bahrain. I keep having to refamiliarize myself with the roads so I do get a little lost but you can always find your way around. The one thing I want to know is if they have a high quality car wash which does a good detailing job, where can I find it in Bahrain?

Now to get things ready, its going to be a fun weekend with GulfRun 6.

The last week I have under the weather and feeling that I’m losing energy, and wake up with a sore throat and lack energy. The last week and the next few weeks are filled with work and a lot of other preparations, and the last thing I need is to get sick. I didn’t want to take antibiotics as I want sick yet so I started taking effervescent vitamin C with a bottle of water in the morning, even though I want to take it twice a day since it tastes pretty good but the directions state once a day. And I have been taking Nice Lozenges where ever I go and that has helped but its been a slow process, it seems everyone is getting some sort of virus these days. I’m still trying to operate at full throttle but I didn’t jump on the bike this weekend since I felt that I like the energy and the concentration, and when I riding I need to be at my best to ride and I didn’t want to make a mistake so sleeping in was a better choice. One of the highlights though of the weekend for me was going to Ace Hardware and luckily the have a new stock of Craftsman and Stanely tools which I enjoyed purchasing a few. I’m loving the weather the last few weeks, I can just do with out the dust, I don’t mind it raining either, I think we could use a good rain.

2010 has been a pretty great year for movies, a lot of memorable ones and a lot of entertaining ones for the moment. Most the movies on my list are a mix of action and comedy, and some should be higher then some of the others but this is just some of the memorable ones from 2010.

1. Iron Man 2
2. RED
3. The A-Team
4. Unstoppable
5. The Social Network
6. Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Part 1
7. Inception
8. Kick Ass
9. The Town
10. The Other Guys
11. Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World
12. Predators
13. Harry Brown
14. The Hot Tub Time Machine

A lot has happened the past year, and a lot to look forward to this coming year. 2010 was an interesting year with lots of ups and downs, like the end of 24 and Jack Bauer no longer will be a part of our daily lives. Then there was the release of the revolutionary iPad which really change things for the computer industry. The release of the Nexus in January and Android taking the mobile companies by storm. We still want faster internet at cheaper prices and good movies, I’m happy that I am fully taking advantage of riding this season and will continue to ride. Hopefully everyone has had a great 2010 and a fantastic 2011 to look forward to.

I took the late night flight on British Airways back to Kuwait, I left when it was -1 and I was still enjoying London but work was piling up. For the past week I have been catching up with work, and handling a ton of meetings. Running around all over town from meeting to meeting, and only catching up with emails at the end of the night exhausting. I know this doesn’t seem like it will be changing any time soon. I’m looking forward to this weekend to wind down a bit.

While at Terminal 5 I went and got my VAT Refunds, surprisingly if the amount your receiving is more then 1000 pounds the store has to fax the Refund Department in the Airport, so I had a little mix up to handle. I have to say that they were very efficient, they handled my little issue and were processing my paper work very quickly, since they didn’t have a large amount to give in British Pounds they gave it to me in Euros. I enjoyed walking around Terminal 5 and its always fun walking around the stores and checking different places out.

As soon as I landed I was finishing up a few meetings, and getting some work done. People were right the weather has been lovely all week and I hope it continues like that for the next few months, at least until May.

Han from Turkey was to the rescue when I need to get to Old Bond Street quickly and I couldn’t find a Taxi and walking wouldn’t be fast enough. I was about 30 minutes walk from the Old Bond Street and I knew the way but there was no way I would make it in time. I got in the back of Han’s tricycle which is the first time I get in the back of tricycle taxi in London. The guy kept talking about how much he enjoyed London, and he knew his way around town.

I negotiated the price to 10 pounds from 12 pounds but ended up giving him a 3 pound tip. Keeping in mind the guy was pushing really hard and he over took cars at any stop light we really made it there in 10 minutes. Its insane how hard it is to find cabs these days, they are always busy, it takes up to 30 minutes to find a black cab and there have been times where I just walk the distance even if it takes 45 minutes and by then it isn’t worth it to get in a cab. And I think half of the Kuwaiti population came to London during the Eid Vacation, they were everywhere.