I bought some Wii games from europe and I’m trying to play them on my Japanese Wii and they’re not working. Its saying that its unable to read the disc. I read over the net that my Wii console is an NTSC one and the games I have bought are PAL. Is there any way to still be able to play the games? any software or modification?

posted By Yousef

My vacation is finally coming to an end. I’m leaving this beautiful place tomorrow back to Kuwait. I spent over two months here, and I still have it in me to stay for an extra year or two..

I took my suitcase and checked it in at the airport so i wouldn’t feel rushed and in a hurry on the day of flight. The bag was heavy and there was possibly a 2 or 3 kilos of excess weight. We did some precautions and brought an extra bag with us to lighten mine just incase it needed some lightening, thank God that didn’t happen, coz we were lucky to have dealt with a guy, not a girl, at the check-in counter. Girls at check in counters are crazy, no offense, but the ones I dealt with are.

Anyway. I hope the weather in Kuwait isn’t too cold coz I didn’t pack any warm clothes.

Just got a flickr account. Check it out HERE. I will add more pictures soon inshallah.

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My Mother and I were in the car the other day. An old guy with black clothing and a black hat wanted to cross the road and i stopped for him. Mom then pointed out that this guy is a jew.

This got me thinking about how we’re always taught to hate the jews, never talk to them, not be friendly with them..etc.

Me: How come we’re taught not to like and interact with jews?
Mom: No, there is nothing wrong with befriending the jews.
Me: But we were always lectured on how its almost a national duty not to like them.
Mom: We don’t like Israel. The country and the government but not the jews themselves. The prophet (PBUH) had jews connections and did trade stuff with them.
Me: oh..
Mom: We were talking about the jews in Kuwait the other day and flana (a relative of ours) told me this interesting story about them living in Kuwait back in the 30’s.

There was a street in Kuwait that was famous coz a lot of jews were living there, they called it the jews street, “fereej ilyohood”. they lived among us till the 1930s. They used to come visit every once in awhile. They liked my mother’s mother. They left kuwait in the late 30’s to Israel. They were rich people; they did a lot of lending and saving, they also had lots of gold. When they decided to leave Kuwait to Israel (via boats to Basra, Iraq), the news travelled fast (back then everybody knew everybody else, literally) so some young men from various Kuwaiti families (young guys from the royal family too) wanted to steal the jews’ gold. They waited till it was dark and no one was around, then went to the jews’ boats and dug holes in them. When the jews set sail in the early morning the day after, the boats started leaking and eventually they started sinking.

Almost all of the jews lived in Kuwait and left with no harm and were treated nicely. Only a small group were targeted by an even smaller group of Kuwaitis (Sawwadallah wyoohom) and when their boats went down, they left a lot of gold behind.

PICTURE

Brief History:

The restaurant was recommended by 9K2HN. He ate at this restaurant with his family and cousins more than 20 years ago. He came to know about this restaurant when they were staying in one of Geneve’s hotels back in the mid 80’s. Back then they weren’t familiar with the country as much as they are now, so they asked the hotel and were recommended this restaurant. They took a taxi and went there. They liked it and kept the restaurant’s card. In the coming years, whenever they wanted to go back to this restaurant, they’d go to the Noga Hiltion Hotel (Now its Kempinski) and take a taxi from there to the restaurant coz its so hard to get there without a taxi. fast forward to yesterday.. 9K2HN, his brother and me wanted to go back there. He dug up the restaurant’s card and used modern day technology to get there, A.K.A. the GPS. The waiter was very surprised to see the restaurant’s old card with us, He said he recognized the logo but not the card itself coz its too old.

According to 9K2HN, the restaurant is still as it was over 20 years ago. Its basically a villa somewhere in geneve (I don’t think I can get there without a GPS either). You can choose to sit inside or in the terrace. The inside of the restaurant feels like you’re in a hut or cabin. The restaurant specializes in Grills. They bring you your own little coal filled barbeque grill and you do the grilling. You can choose one or a mix of their boneless meats. They offer: beef, lamb, chicken, duck, turkey, fish, shrimps and squids. Each dish comes with fries and an appetizer of your choice (smoked salmon, salad mêlée/mix…etc.

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My friend just sent me a link for a site where you can find a ring tone for almost every arabic name. I found my name and my parent’s. Click HERE and find yours.

A ringtone with my name 😛

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Thanks INM.

^Click on the picture for a bigger version. Would make a nice wallpaper, don’t you think?

Google “photoshop actions” and read about them. Great and easy to use for these types of nice outcomes.

P.S. Labeeba, those are your floweres 🙂

master, over at fyonkat just wrote a post about her embarrassing encounter with a waiter in geneve, Read it here, and She inspired me to write about my own embarrassing encounter with a waiter. It happened in 1996. Here is how it went:

Me and my friend were sitting in a cafe near the lake. We ordered cokes and the waitress brought them over, she was very friendly and all smiles.

I tend to spill drinks at restaurants. Sometimes when I try to describe something my arms make drawings in the air and other uncontrollable motions. Lets just say I can’t sit at a cafe or a restaurant without making a scene and most of the time the spilled drink finds it’s way to my shirt, and this time it was no exception 😀 I spilled the coke all over the table with one swift motion. The waitress came running and said “C’est pas grave” (no problem) and brought a towel and started to clean the table.

Waitress: So…who is the pig!
Me: *pointed at my friend* HIM! he’s the pig! He spilled it!

The waitress smiled.

Friend: Me.
Me: *I was amazed at how he was ok with being called a pig*
Waitress: what day you were born?
Me: 1st of january.
Waitress: wow! 1st of january! on new year!
Friend: and I’m on 25th of december.
Waiter: WOW! he’s on new years and you on christmas!

We all laughed and chatted for awhile and then she left. I then asked my friend about the “pig” thingy and then he said..

Friend: She did not say PIG! she asked who is BIGGER! OLDER! not who is the pig!

Ohh….. hehe… Errrrrr….

The first class passengers on Emirates’ A380 can now enjoy private suits/spaces, shower spas and lounges up in the air.

And in other related news, Kuwait Airways stooped lower than ever and started flying with broken toilets.

Click HERE to see the rest of the pictures.

Thanks Zaid.

My father used to take us to this restaurant when I was a kid. Back then I didn’t care much for staying in the restaurant, I was more interested in the swings outside.

The place was run by a nice old lady, her and the cook were the only 2 people working there. Now the old lady has left and her daughter took her place. We went on friday and were greeted by the Chef, he showed us to our table, gave us the menus, brought the drinks, cooked the dishes, presented them and gave us the check!

The dishes are amazing in this little place. They’re very simple and not a whole lot of choices are there to choose from, but from my experience, you cannot go wrong with their limited variety, well.. if you’re going to order a goose liver or a monkey’s feet thats another issue.

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^Click on it for a bigger version.

This castle or château as they call em here in france is not so far away from our place, its less than 10 minutes away by car, and yet this was the first time we tried to take a closer look.

I like old buildings and the history behind them. I looked this castle up in google and it turned out to be older than what I thought. It was built in 1328 and owned by the Compey family of Geneva, it was passed to other owners later. In 1589 it was taken by force by the troops of Geneva who entered the Savoie region, till 1606. it is owned by a farm now.

Castle’s Location.

It’s been awhile since I last heard something new from Whitney Houston, but Whitney is back people! I just got her new song featuring Akon, titled “Like I never Left”. Its a nice breezy summer song, a catchy slow jam and for some it could be a perfect sing along song. Just the perfect song to ease back into the public and for the people to warm up to her again. Akon’s part is good too, their voices compliment each others.

I think its good they decided (and by they I mean Clive Davis) to leak a song like ‘Like I Never Left’, which I consider a safe song. Vocally and lyrically its very safe and could be received well at radio. They could’ve easily gone with a big production big over the top vocals, but They were smart not to do so, imo, and by leaking this song so casually without announcing to the world that its her first single from her new album, they’ll get a chance to remind people of Whitney and at the same time avoid getting harsh criticism for it not being first single material.

I like the song a lot. Here, listen for yourself:

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Thanks a lot loco.

^Click on the picture for a bigger version.

Aix Les Bains is a beautiful and quiet place in france and it overlook one of the most picturistic lakes I’ve seen. The first time I ever been there was when Mom insisted we go see the place where the pasha (of an old egyptian movie) supposedly spent his summers. The pasha had a really good taste, I liked the place a lot.
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I was hungry all day and couldn’t wait to dig in. It was perfection.

The post wouldn’t be complete without the Muchboos Anthem:

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By Alia Al Theeb, Staff Reporter
Published: July 29, 2008, 17:15

Dubai: Lebanese singer Suzan Tamim has been found murdered in an apartment in Dubai Marina late on Monday, police sources said.

Some Arabic websites said the singer was found stabbed and disfigured.

The singer was living in Dubai for the past eight months, according to the websites.

Suzan Tamim shot to fame in 1996 after she participated in the popular ‘Studio Al Fan’ television show and won the top award.

Tamim has released two albums in her career and has married twice.

Gulfnews.

posted By Yousef

The oldest domains on the internet:

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When we were on the train on our way to Salzburg, we talked about the things we still remember from our last visit 20 years ago. I said that I still remember The Sound Of Music home, the old walking street with the cafes and shops, our hotel (which assumed I would be ok sleeping in a baby’s crib! I was 6 and did not find them funny at ALL) and I remember that we bought 2 toys from that old street, we bought a little orange warm attached to a transparent nylon thread and a puppet with strings, it was an ostrich with beads-like legs. The warm did not last long, but that little ostrich puppet lasted well into the early 90’s.

When we first entered the old town, memories started flowing back. less than 20 meters into this narrow walking street, we saw something VERY familiar. We saw that little ostrich puppet with its green hat and red feathers! it looked exactly like the one we bought 2 decades ago! Mom said that I SHOULD buy it. So I went up to the lady carrying the basket full of puppets and started talking to her. It was raining and I was trying to open my wallet and holding the umbrella at the same time, so she offered to carry the umbrella for me, she was so nice and speaks english fluently, so I thought I’d tell her about our old puppet..

Me: You know, 20 years ago I came to salzburg with my family and they bought me a puppet that looks exactly like the ones you’re selling me now.
Puppet Lady: 20 years? Well, I’ve been selling these puppets for 23 years.
Me: *stared at her* oh.. really?
Puppet Lady: Yes, 23 years. No one sells them except me. *smiles*
Me: You mean……?
Puppet Lady: It’s probably me who sold your parents that first puppet.
Me: *Shocked*
Puppet Lady: *laughs* Yes it was me.

^This is the old town in Salzburg, a walking street with lots of shops and souvenirs shops can be found there, and all are in old buildings dating back to the 13 centuries. You can see above the mountain and overlooking the town there is an old castle, this castle was built over 600 years of constant work and remodeling. The tour guide said that every king (archbishop?) used to change things and remodel it and no one lived up to see it completed.

^20 years ago we sat at this restaurant/cafe. I remembered once I saw the path leading up to it!