Bahrain Falls to Demonic Plans

News-Flash: Bahrain has been taken over by the demonic plans of a number of vicious and immoral companies, headed by Playboy. The bunny logo has been spotted everywhere from supermarkets, to perfume and accessories shops, and it renders anyone staring at it for more than 2 seconds to be transformed into an immoral sin-making-machine.

People have been seen outside in the streets committing acts of adultery, as well as violence and theft. Rape and murder are on the increase, as Playboy and it's partners continue to place the logo in highly visible locations, entrancing it's victims to live an existence of sin.

Oh yeah; another strike by our lovely MP's; you know, those people voted in as part of the governments measures to fix the economical, societal and political issues that the country faces.

But what do they do? They object to having rabbit logos everywhere.


Yup, the infamous playboy bunny. Now we all know that Playboy publishes a well-known magazine, which breaches Islamic values, but apparently this is enough to ban the sales of everything bearing the company logo, whether it's perfume, accessories, or anything else, no matter how harmless these products are.

I don't think the MP's understand that this is a 'brand'. You know, like Coca Cola? McDonalds? Mercedes? Sony? It doesn't represent a specific image (especially not those from those magazine you hide under your bed, Mr. MP). It's just a bloody brand. Get over it; our youth won't get corrupted from seeing a cartoon image of a rabbit head everywhere.

I pray for you to be kind to the real rabbit's around the country, because the way this is going, we just might see rabbit hunts and cruelty towards them on the increase.

Call for 'Playboy' boycott
25 December 2008

A CALL to withdraw all Playboy products from Bahrain's market went out from an MP yesterday. The company produces a magazine that goes against Islamic values and must be banned from selling other products in Bahrain, said parliament's legislative and legal affairs committee vice-chairman Shaikh Jassim Al Saeedi.

He said that he was shocked to see that many products with Playboy's logo were being sold in the market.

Mr Al Saeedi is now urging the Industry and Commerce Ministry to carry out immediate inspections on shops and stores to remove the products.

"Playboy items are produced by the same US company, which produces the magazine famous for its indecency and immorality," said Mr Al Saeedi.

"There are a lot of Playboy products - ranging from perfumes, accessories, make-up items and women's clothes - being sold in our market, giving the message that we agree with what this company is doing.

"Who allowed those products to enter the market? How are they being marketed at shops and stores?

"What is Industry and Commerce Ministry doing to stop this market invasion?"

"People should also help us get these products removed from the market, in view of the harm this brand may cause to our Islamic society," said Mr Al Saeedi.

"The availability of those products in our markets is just the first of many steps to invade us morally and intellectually.

"There are other companies trying to do the same and they should be stopped too, before our society falls victim to their demonic plans."

Bush Press Conference Security

New security measures used at all upcoming President Bush press conferences (click for large size):

Good Music Videos

Lol. I heard a song on the radio yesterday, a song I actually know from a few years back with a pretty funky video, which prompted me to look it up. There's not much real life in today's music videos; most have some guy standing and singing (trying to sing) in front of a bunch of expensive cars, people dancing around in a club, some girl playing a piano by the beach somewhere, or something equally cliche.

This was pretty funky though; besides the tune (which will stick in your head and repeat itself over for the rest of the day if you're not careful), whoever came up with the idea and directed this video needs some sort of award; there's a specific 2 or 3 second clip for every note/sound/tune in the video, which is shown every time that sound comes up in the song, and putting them together just works out really well.

There's no real point to the video, but it's creative and fun - enjoy:

Wiseguys - Start the Commotion

The June Bug

Keywords:

June.
Blogger.
Title = Garbage
More than just rubbish.
Closed Down.
No, moved!
New blog.


...


For all of you who are a little slow and didn't get that, our lovely blogger June, who used to write 'Garbage', has moved to a new blog! Very simple. She's pretty awesome, and a fun read too. Why should you read her blog? Well, because she just had an encounter with Paul McCartney, and you didn't.

That should sum it up.

Go now; June Bug

Just another five minutes at the checkout counter...

'Twas the night before Eid, and the stores were superbusy with everyone rushing to get their last minute shopping done, just in time for the festivities the next day. I was at a hypermarket getting a few basics, five minutes before closing time, and looked around for an empty lane to pay and leave through the busy crowds of shoppers, all dressed in their warm jackets and sweaters, keeping away the cold of the winter outside (and the frozen foods section).

As the case always is with Bahrain, the '10 items or less' counter is always lined up with queues of people buying trolleyfulls of rubbish, so the concept of buying a few small items really doesn't mean you're getting out of there much faster than anyone else. I waited as the truckloads of groceries and household goods infront of me were loaded onto the checkout counter, and everything seemed to move slowly but smoothly.

As I waited, I dazed off to a warm beach on a far away land, relaxing on the golden sands next to a cool blue sea. People played beach volleyball to the sounds of funky reggae tunes, while others just basked in the sun or swam in the sea. The waves were smooth, swayed around by the light breeze, as the sounds of an angry screaming lady rang in the background.

Huh??

I came out of my little daydream, only to realize the lady in the line infront was shouting at the checkout assistant. I wondered what had happened during the few minutes on my island, and realized that one of the items she wanted to buy had no tag on it. The checkout guy requested one of the staff members to get another one of the items to price it, and the whole process seemed to be taking a little over a minute or two, which seemed to be too much for little screaming woman to wait.

"What kind of service is this?!" she shouted as her tempers started to reach the boiling point. "I have things to do and I can't waste my time waiting for your people to get a tag!"

Classic example of idiotism and intolerance. First of all, if you're so damn busy and don't have much time to waste, explain how long you wasted filling up two trolleyfulls of stuff? Second, this is a huge hypermarket, sometimes tags tend to fall off things, are removed by other customers, or disappear for whatever reason, get over it. Third, the checkout guy is doing his job and hasn't been inefficient in any way. He even tried explaining to the lady what the problem was, to be met with more screaming and howling. Fourth, if your time really is that important, why don't you just leave your untagged budget pyjamas for today, pay for everything else and leave?

Lots of people overestimate the concepts of customer service. It's not even taking them for granted, it's actually expecting everything to be totally perfect. Sure, I can understand that businesses try to aim for it, but in most cases, this isn't a utopia, and things don't always come out flawless.

This situation was a little silly, considering that this was a normal inconvenience, and a pretty common occurence, especially considering the size of this hypermarket; the lady really didn't need to get too upset. Also, she let out all of her fury on the checkout guy, who was actually doing a good job, probably had nothing to do with the cause of the situation, and really has no way of fixing it in the long term; any complaints should be directed to either management or customer service.

Get over it woman. Unless your service has been compromised directly by this guy, shouting at him really doesn't do much more than make you look like a bit of an ass to everyone around you. And this goes out to all of you reading this; if you get served by anyone, just know that they're usually trying their best (well, usually). You're probably the hundredth person they've had to deal with today, and i'm willing to bet quite a few have acted (unnecessarily) like miss howling woman here. If they've still got a smile on and doing their job, give them a break.

The tag finally came, and the lady took her budget pyjamas and left. Checkout dude heaved a sigh of relief, as did most of the shoppers around who had to listen to her shouting. I got my items checked, paid, took my change, and gave the guy a heartfelt 'thank you'.

He smiled, and I left. More shoppers, more tags to check, more items to sell. Just another five minutes at the checkout counter.

Mall Randomness

No matter how many things we have to do in Bahrain, somehow we still end up cruising around the malls.. Passed by Seef and City Center malls yesterday; a few fun pics from both (click for large size):

Here's what happens when you mix our culture with the West; tadaaaa, Baklava Blizzard at Dairy Queen! (If you don't already know, Blizzard's are ice creams infused with some sort of cookies, chocolate chips, etc. Baklava is a traditional Arabic pastry dessert) The two actually don't taste bad together at all!

Speaking of mixing East and West, check out our very own Bahraini Christmas trees, with the whole Arabic theme going on and all:


Buying phones: You can either get the original Nokia, or you can get the Chinese version! Half the size, half the price!


This has got to be the most boring job in the world; you see, there's a special stand in the cinema for HSBC credit card holders (some sort of privilege you get for signing up for an HSBC credit card). It doesn't really offer any benefits besides having a special queue; ie, no special seats, no free popcorn, no nothing. Now first of all, the most i've had to wait in the cinema queue is about 3 or 4 minutes, and that's at an extreme. Usually I have to wait more like 30 seconds, if not immediately since the stands are hardly busy. Second of all, HSBC accounts cover less than 10% of Bahrain's population, and most of these people have savings accounts, and not credit cards. Third of all, not all of these credit card holders are regular movie-goers by any means; therefore leading to this really really bored lady in the HSBC privilege stand on the right, with hardly any work to do:


Oh, and the regular cinema stands didn't actually have anyone in the queue.

Moving on... Someone is obviously not happy with people eating or smoking in his shop!!!! (Can you add a few more exclamation marks please? I don't quite seem to get it).


Then it was off to City Center, the mall of funny mannequins. No seriously, I don't think the people in the shops here understand the concept of them:


Yes, uhh, those things are used to put clothes on, actually... But even when they figure out that you can put clothes on them, they still can't strike the right pose:


This mannequin sort of says: "This suit feels so good, it makes me want to pee!"

Of course, we couldn't pass up the opportunity for a hot Krispy Kreme donut! Red light is on, warm donuts coming out!


And I decided i've had enough with waiting, I finally got myself a Blackbery Bold! Yuppeeee!


Same night I saw the news about the Nokia N97 coming out sometime next month! Dammit!

Anyway, that's enough mall hopping for today! Go get yourselves a donut or something.