62 years ago my country won its independence from the tyranny of British rule… and now on this very same day I’ve liberated myself from the clutches of Blogger and embraced the sweet taste of Wordpress.
Happy Independence Day everyone ! 
15
Aug
Independence
A big “Thank you” to Grey (and family), Mario, Ray and Purple for a wonderful evening today at the blogger meet. Unfortunately Mrs. Blogger Mathai couldn’t make it to the meet thus leaving Mrs. Grey alone with a bunch of guys who yapped like a bunch of excited school boys who’ve just had too many sugary drinks.
It was our first meeting with Grey and the even more famous Grey Jr. who has already started practicing vocals to be the lead singer in a Death Metal band . Even though we always try to avoid computers in our conversation eventually the meeting turns into a nerd convention with terms like DHCP, POE, SSL, DSL, and ASDFGH being hurled around like weapons of mass destruction ( ok, maybe not the last one 
) Which left Purple and Grey looking at us like we were aliens from Jupiter.. sorry guys!
Thanks once again and hope to see more new faces at the next meet.
ps.. the person who can guess each blogger’s phone correctly will win something from me !
update: Grey has just posted about the meet on his blog too [link]
14
Aug
Shrimp overload
We got a whole lot of shrimp today at the Sharq fish market.
The medium sized ones are KD 1.750/ Kg and the bigger ones (not quite jumbo sized) are KD 3.000 /Kg
12
Aug
Shooting light beams
A lot of people create light beams in Photoshop for their action figure shots but then there are some others who want the real deal. I’ve been following the work of various photographers in the Gunpla and Action Figure groups to learn how they achieve this effect and now I’ve done it myself !
You need
1. Focused LED light
2. Candle light or tea light
For this to work, there should be only two sources of light during the shoot or you wont get a good effect. Position your action figure the way you want it and setup the tripod so that its in your range of view. Now Set the Shutter speed to anywhere from 10 to 15 seconds while in shutter priority mode.
Set the camera to go off on timer and then bring the LED to the starting position of the beam and when the shutter opens gently draw along the imaginary light path. When you complete that then you need to fill in the light using your candle or tea light. Make a few passes to highlight the model or create shadows. Thats it ! All this in 10-15 seconds.
Heres what it should look like finally.
12
Aug
Swine Flu Alert
Lets face it, Swine Flu is here and it wont go away easily. In Kuwait even medical staff have been infected and its in our best interests to take some precaution. My fellow blogger ‘Name is Bond‘ has a post on this subject and you can read about it here.
On a lighter note.. I got this in the mail today about what you’ll look like if you’re infected by the H1N1 virus.
11
Aug
Glow-in-the-dark Dino
This is what I bought from Toys’r'us last weekend. I got the Triceratop and they have a few more varieties like the Stegosaurus etc.
Cost: 1.5 KD
When the lights go out…
Warning: Inform your wife there’s a glowing skeleton in the bedroom before she switches off the lights.
11
Aug
Time and place
Ok so its been decided to have the blogger’s meet at our usual location; Coffee Bean in Salmiya. Its the one attached to Al Rasheed Hospital. Theres parking right opposite the coffee shop and it may not be too crowded on a Friday afternoon. Hope to see you guys there by 3.30 Respond by comment or email and let us know if you’re coming or not.
10
Aug
Dangerous Homo's
Recently the Government of India legalized Gay Sex and the amount of media buzz it generated was huge ! There were press comments from religious leaders, political leaders and other prominent members of society about how Indian culture and society was about to do down the toilet coz now two members of the same sex can have some quality time without getting a bum rap (is that even a pun ? I dont know!)
Anyway, the comments from our country’s ignorant millions were fun to read.. let me print a few here as I recollect them from memory. My comments are in brackets.
1. This is against our culture ( where does it say so ? is there a rule book ?)
2. Homosexual relations is a western thing (tell that to the millions of desi bhais who don’t give a damn about the west)
3. Now that its legal everyone will start doing it ! (I was in India last month on vacation and I still had straight sex, so who are these people who will ’start doing it’ just coz its legal ??)
4. If you spend time with ‘them’ you’ll become one yourself (c’mon, its not a virus)
5. Now all the young fashionable people will do ‘it’ coz its the trend (really ? I wouldn’t have gay sex no matter how ‘trendy’ it is)
6. Homosexuals cannot donate blood or organs ( WTF ?? neither can a straight person if he has some communicable disease)
I’ve had enough of of this hype.. all this anti-gay propaganda is another form of racism. Why the hell should someone be bothered about his neighbor’s sexual preference ? Then there are a lot of people who say gay people hit on everyone, well.. so do straight horny guys. I’ve known a few gay people and even worked with a gay European designer on a project here in Kuwait and I’m still straight ! (see ? its not contagious!)
The thing that got me writing this post is the picture that you see at the top of this page ! This is outrageous ! How does Gay Sex become a threat to national security ? I think its a picture from a protest that took place in the United States.
update: I found a better picture of the same poster on Flickr [link]
I helped one of my friends pick out a new camera last weekend while we were at Ashraf and Co. They had just received the new D5000 and we bought it along with a tripod, extra batteries and an 8GB high speed SD card. They dropped a Caselogic SLR pouch into the bag to sweeten the deal.
We just had time to unbox the thing but havent played around with it yet.
Nikon D5000 with rotating LCD
Ashraf and Co. website [link]
10
Aug
These young men!
Last weekend I went out with my friends to 360 mall coz one of them wanted to buy some clothes and accessories from Marks and Spencer but since we’re all hot blooded young men, it didnt quite turn out that way. To make things short this is what happened…
Mathai: hey guys lets check out Toy ‘r’ us and Geant first !
Others: oh alright, you wanna buy some toys right ? still playing with toys ?? *snickers*
Mathai: uh yeah right !Summary of the events afterward
Others: oh alright, you wanna buy some toys right ? still playing with toys ?? *snickers*
Mathai: uh yeah right !Summary of the events afterward
Young pretty helpful sales girl + 4 young men = lots of shopping bags
My friends bought more stuff than I did !!!
