I was in Canada a little while ago and while I was there I discovered what fast was, we have been living in the dark ages. Every year for the past decade we discover one extra megabyte going faster and faster. I plugged in the ethernet cable to the laptop only to discover light speed internet connectivity and the downloads were insane. I had it for about 5 days and it was bliss, thinking that we can only have a maximum of 20 MB with fiber connectivity is something to look forward to but 30-60 MB Downloads with 57MB Uploads are what dreams are made of.

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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

Flatly I want Wataniya Airlines back!

For local travel within the region there wasn’t an airline that could beat its price for comfort package, and the airport was so convenient that every other factor was minimized in comparison. Many people including myself are sick of Kuwait Airport, its a jungle and its frustrating getting to the planes when at Wataniya Airlines it was so easy and enjoyable it didn’t feel like you were in an airport. I got my starbucks, went to the lounge, sat down and relaxed before the flight.

These days I dread having these impromptu meetings in all different areas. I have to check Emirates, Middle East Airlines, Gulf Air, Jazeera, Royal Jordanian and any other airline thats going in the direction that I am going. I got used to only being at the airport 30 to 45 minutes before the flight, and now we are back to leaving the home 2 hours before the flight just to be sure I make it or nothing stops us.

I’m not the biggest fan of Jazeera since they treat their customers like cattle and if they could charge you extra for being a big guy then they would. Surprisingly Jazeera increased their prices from 20 to 60% for many of the desitionations right after Wataniya Airways made their anouncement. They still have their deals but it isn’t what it used to be, and its not like they aren’t making a lot of money with all the ridiculous amount of extra fees.

There is still hope for Wataniya Airways yet, and this is just a rumor that Wataniya Airywas will be coming back in different form. A lot of employees have found new jobs after leaving Wataniya because they didn’t know what their job status was and I’m assuming there is going to be a lot of legal issues going on with them. Wataniya Airways is now a nonoperating Airline but they aren’t going to be bought out, what they are trying to do is bid to buy Kuwait Airways. Wataniya Airways have 7 planes, 3 or 4 parked in Kuwait at Sheikh Saad Airport and the rest in Amaan Jordan, and they will have to pay $70 Million to Alafco as part of their lease payments for these planes, and that doesn’t include the other incuring expenses. The rule that has been stipulated in the bid for Kuwait Airways is that who ever bids for Kuwait Airways can’t be an operating airlines, and the government is reaching the final stages to put Kuwait Airways for a bid. So the step Wataniya Airways took is so they would be in prime position to buy out Kuwait Airways, and if they do take over then it would be a fantastic development. I really don’t have a clue how this is going to work out or how long it takes, but I hope it happens soon and I do hope that they take over Kuwait Airways.

While in the US I usually make stops at Book Stores, its either a Borders or a Barnes & Nobles. And I remember reading over some news that Borders were having from Financial problems but not really going into it. Check out the Wall Street Journal for more details.

Only after seeing that the Borders that I always go to is completely shutting down, and selling its books at reduced prices. I thought its probably a chance to start hoarding some books so I walked into the Borders and it felt like a frenzy of people. It feels like the place was robbed, that people just snatched books and ran, piles of messed up and misplaced books all over the place, bare minimum employees, its just really sad.

You don’t get that feeling that you are surround by an assortment of books and you may never know what you may find. I went to the scifi section which wasn’t too battered and scifi geeks were putting the books back in the place but the fiction and nonfiction section look like they were hit by a storm. I managed to pick up a few books, since they were on sale I thought why not. Then I took the barcode scanner program on my android only to find that even with the 25% to 50% sale price that Amazon is still cheaper. I put the books back because it just didn’t feel right buying the books there. Another funny thing is that nobody touched the Sarah Palin books, the pile is the only set of untouched books in the non-fiction section.

I’m going to head over to Barnes & Noble to buy my books because sometimes you might something that you don’t know that you were looking for in the first place. I hope that Barnes & Nobles survives more and they still manage to keep growing, I think that Book Stores are essential to discover something new to read.

There has been a lot of noise about this musical online so I interested to see it if I had the chance. I’m a very big fan of musicals and shows, but its rare that I have a chance to be in New York to see them at the time of their showing, and some run for yours but I missed them. This time around I had the chance to go see the controversial Spider-Men Turn Off The Dark. It became one of the most expensive productions in Broadway history at the cost of 65 Million, and since the beginning of the show it has been plagued with issues from malfunctioning stunts, to injuries, and cast leaving with new ones being added.

After hearing so much about it I really wanted to see it, it couldn’t have been as bad as many people were saying and honestly it wasn’t. As a huge comic fan I was very excited to see what they were planning on doing. It was an exciting musical to watch and it was more like a show from Las Vegas with all the acrobatics and machinery involved then it is a Broadway musical. But something that I found strange is that they took a very strange approach to the story and modified about 40% of it which I didn’t care for too much. The story was decent and the action around the theater was a lot of fun but you can imagine that one of these guys can fall on the crowd, they get really close. The slow scenes were a bit annoying but the bad guy playing the Green Goblin was very funny and was the best actor in the whole musical. It has more action then the usual musical and kids really seem to love the show but its not for everyone, and comic fans love Spidey but the show just isn’t a fit for fans.

Link: SpiderManOnBroadway

This is shocking and very sad news that is going around. Wataniya Airways will be announcing its Bankruptcy very soon and shutting down completely and will no longer be operational. I honestly thought they would be able to reorganize themselves and adjust their issues to get the airline back on its feet. I didn’t think that it would reach this point, and I don’t care what others may say Wataniya Airlines had excellent service and I was very happy traveling on their airlines, they made it enjoyable to travel again. Now we are back to the old options of Jazeera Airways, Middle East Airlines, and Emirates Airlines for travel within the region.

If you have purchased tickets from Wataniya Airlines you only have 45 days to get a refund for any tickets. And it will probably insane over the next few weeks if this is the case.

Business and First Class travel is something to look forward to in the Middle East, Europe, and Asia, but not in the US. Usually in the US the Airlines are outdated, the staff are somewhat not in the best mood and your stuck in your seat until you get to your destination. I usualy try to avoid flying long trips within the US, I usually try to take a long haul flight that lands in the city of my choice so that I can drive to my next destination or a short trip away. And the airport security experience is another story in the US, and the tedious security procedures.

That is my usual experience but this time around I have had a very different and extremely surprising experience. Usually I fly Southwest or United Airlines when I’m in the US because they are usually on time and get me where I need to go but this time around I took Continental and booked BusinessFirst and to my shock they had sleeper seats on the plane. The entertainment system had a few updated movies and tv shows, with a very detailed flight map with information. The seat was very very comfortable and becomes fully flat, and it is comfortably wide. They are upgrading their fleet and most of the Boeing 757s are done, and 777s are completed, but they are still working on their 767s. This surprise was a nice turn around for a US airline which is usually lacking in comparison to its International counterparts but in this case the flight was comfortable, I watch one show while having some yoghurt and then passing out for the rest of the flight. Now Continental has jumped to the top of my preferred list for airlines to fly within the US. And they have merged with United so lets see what the results of that will be as well, I hope they continue to improve their service.

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.

At times certain ideas and designs are beyond financial justification, and the Concorde was that, an engineering feat. It was a beautiful machine, this shot shot was in 1988 at Heathrow Airport, a gathering of great machines. These planes surpassed all designs for almost a decade, they were beyond their time and spaceage looking, all they had to do was angle up and enter space. The supersonic form of this plane was unmatched, no one has yet to build a plane that could take so many at supersonic speeds. I remember flying on this plane twice in my lifetime, both to New York when I was very young, to New York in 3 hours and that is still unheard of. I even remember the Concorde Lounge at Heathrow Airport being a higher class then even first class, I consider myself lucky to have seen and flew on a technological marvel, not its a part of history but I hope that they come up with a plane such as this in the near future.

Link: Gizmodo