For the past few weeks I've been following Kuwait's latest attempt at promoting mediocrity as a patriotic and courageous fact of life and history. As if there isn't enough mediocrity to around already anyway!

Long story short, a retired Army Commander (I'm not sure about the exact rank upon retirement) and former MP called Nasser Al Duwailah has made some extremely grandiose claims about Kuwait's Military past in a book he'd published about 4 years ago. However, it's only now making it to the top bookshelves, albeit not for it's literary beauty nor it's historical accuracy, not by a long shot! While I admit that I haven't read it personally, nor do I own a copy, nor do I know of anyone who does, I have made a great deal of effort at concentrating on some of the details that were divulged in a series of television interviews with the author himself. I won't discuss his claims about Kuwait's navy occupying the Southernmost territories of Persia during the 18th and 19th Century, or the fact that Kuwait's Military might span the entire Northern part of the Arabian Gulf during that time (yes, that's what he wrote!)

Borders in Kuwait soon!!

Rejoice all ye Reading fans! Borders is setting up shop in Kuwait's The Avenues Mall pretty soon. It would the the second in the Middle East, after Dubai's Outlet, which opened 2 years ago. Here's hoping all those anti-literature fanatics don't shut it down, or force it to downsize like they did with Virgin Mega store fiasco!

How to be a Weasel at Work

I just started reading this book by Scott Adams, the Author of the comic strip Dilbert. It's not a Management theory book as much as it's a comedic guideline to how do deal with management. Personally, the joy of actually noticing those subtle feelings you get when you're with co-workers and other managers and supervisors, so accurately described in detail within this book, made me wish I had read it instead of all those other management & leadership books, which as as much use to me here in Kuwait as a pair of snow skis!

For example, in his other book, "The Dilbert Principle", he summarizes it as:
"A retarded chimpanzee can drink a case of beer and still perform most management functions"
The he justifies this theory by listing the management functions as:

• Avoiding decisions
• Attending meetings
• Babbling
• Demanding status reports
• Not reading status reports
• Handing out random rewards and punishments
• Scowling at people who believe the Open Door Policy

In this new book I'm reading, and I'm only on the first chapter, Adams includes an email from one of his friends, in which it's stated:

Dear Mr. Adams, At one high-tech company the employees have been notified they will be laid off when they finish projects the company deems critical. How long do you think those projects will last?

The funny/sad thing is, this single email describes cases that happen almost everywhere in Kuwait.

More updates as I read them.....I'm loving this book already!

The Best SciFi Movies Poll

BBC just quoted SFX Magazine that "Serenity" has been voted the Number 1 Scifi Movie in terms of Special Effects! Here's the complete list:

1. Serenity (seen it)
2. Star Wars (seen it)
3. Blade Runner (seen it)
4. Planet of the Apes (seen it)
5. The Matrix (seen it)
6. Alien (seen it)
7. Forbidden Planet (seen it)
8. 2001: A Space Odyssey (seen it & read the book)
9. The Terminator (seen it)
10. Back to the Future (seen it)

My number one favorite out of this list would have to be "The Matrix", followed by "Blade Runner", and I include Sound, storyline, ingenuity as well as special effects.

And on that note, The X-Files universe is looking towards making another movie, finally!! I miss watching Mulder & Scully fighting off their attractiveness to each other as well as the evil aliens!!

What I'm reading these days

After a short but rich period of SciFi intrigue, eating away almost all publications made by Issac Asimov (who is still my best SciFi author) I thought i'd give current affairs a try.

I just finished reading a book called "Gideon's Spies" (the 2005 edition), a great espionage biography about the Israeli Mossad and how they operated, how they executed their operations, and other gung-ho 'for God & Country' stuff. It's ok from a 'gripping' point of view, but it does give some insight into some details for the detail-hungry history buffs out there.

Nowdays, I'm reading Thomas L. Friedman's "The World is Flat", and although I'm on my first few chapers, I am catching myself saying " AHA! That's what I thought" all the time, or "Hey, it DOES makes sense". It's ok, so far, and gives novices a great opportunity to get up to date with current Internet-related events, activities, technologies and services.

I'll see how it goes...but so far, it's way better that Berners-Lee's "Weaving the Web". Stay tuned. :-)