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MY365

So this is it. Its been one fucking long year since I started this project and now its over. I am flipping through all my pictures trying to figure out what to say but I can't think of anything. It was fun and I am kinda glad its over since it was alot of pressure trying to find something to shoot everyday but I will miss it thats for sure. I will continue to post on my blog 2:48AM but as of today Miskan is over. I will keep the site up, I won't shut it down, if anything I might redesign it into something alot cooler.

When I first started this project it wasn't meant to be shared, it was supposed to be a private thing I was going to do for myself, but in the end I decided to upload my pictures nightly and share them with everyone hoping that your motivation would keep me going and it did. I know Nat is going to be glad this is over since I no longer have to drag her out of the house randomly to go shoot something. She did play an important role in Miskan though and she deserves credit for being patient with me and helping me out whenever I needed help.

I am most probably going to end up publishing this project in form of a book. A friend of mine who recently published a book is going to hook me up with his publisher. If that doesn't work out I will just publish it myself on my own account. If anyone wants a copy of the book just leave a comment below and I will contact you and mail you a copy whenever it gets done.

Today is the last day and I decided to end it with a self portrait. The theme is "Abduction". I hope you enjoyed the project, thank you and good bye. Today is day 365 of the project.

D70

Todays picture is of my Nikon D70 camera which I used for nearly all the pictures on Miskan. I started off this project shooting with my Sony F717 but 2 weeks into the project I went and purchased the Nikon D70. My first post using a picture taken by my Nikon was on November 29th. I took todays picture of my D70 using my Sony F717 with both night vision and macro mode turned on. Once the project is over I think I will let my camera take a nice long vacation. Today is day 364 of the project, I have only 1 more day to go.

Getting Personal

Todays picture is of my work station at home. This is where I sat every night choosing and then uploading the pictures to Miskan. What you can't see in this picture is the opposite end of the room which is basically a mirror image. I have two more bookshelves filled with magazines, another desk with a cutting mat opposite my computer desk and in the corner opposite the IKEA chair is another desk where Nat can work on her Mac while looking out the window. I have decided the last three pictures of Miskan will be about me, this is the first of three. Today is day 363, I have two more days to go.

Car Show

I past by the Car Show tonight and it was extremely packed with people. We had to park outside the Fair Ground since there was no place inside. There were loads of cool cars including the new Audi Q7, Porsche Cayman, Carrera GT, Ford GT, Lambo's and my favorite car from the show, the Audi RS4. I love the RS4, its has a V8 engine pumping out 420HP but the price tag is too rich for my blood coming in at just over KD27,000 ($92,000). I am probably going to pass by next week again when hopefully it will be less packed. Today is day 362, only 3 days left.

Second Chance

Back in January I took a picture of the Liberation Tower but it was pretty boring and didn't really show that much. Today I was passing by after picking up a package from Aramex and the sky was perfect so I decided I would take another shot of it. The result was positive, todays picture turned out way better then the previous picture. Today I was also thinking of my project and I think I am going to have issues when I stop. Today it hit me that after the 365 days are done, the project would be really over. That means I no longer need to carry my camera around everywhere I go and I no longer am under pressure to take a picture every fucking day. Its going to be really weird. Today is day 361, 4 days to go.

Human Life

This sign and signs similar to this are located at most traffic lights. This one makes absolutely no sense and the typography is horrendous. Today is day 360 of the project. Only 5 more days left.

Red Apple

My plan to make the last ten days the best ten days of this project seems to be failing miserably. I have like 6 days left and I guess I just can't wait for them to be over. I wanted to shoot various places in Kuwait but by the time I finish work at 6 I just want to get home. I do want to try and shoot The Red Fort before the week is over but can anyone help me by telling me how to get there. Todays picture is of my sisters new PowerBook. Its silver but the red bed sheets were reflecting onto it and I thought the various shades of red looked interesting.

Golden Shower

I hadn't shot a sunset picture yet on Miskan so today since I had no work I decided to go out to the seaside in the Shuwaikh area and find a sunset scene to shoot. I ended up shooting a couple but I found this to be the most interesting. I found 2 issues in it though that would have made the picture allot better. The first problem is the building sticking out on the left side of the woman silhouette. If it wasn't there it would have been much better. Second issue is the land on the horizon, if it was all sea it would have also been a much better picture. Still though I think the picture turned out interesting.

Wrong Parking

I found a bunch of these stickers stuck on cars that were parked illegally. Anyone seen these before? The car I took a picture of had 3 of these stickers, one on the rear window, one on the front window and one on the side window. I don't think a cop stuck them because there were no tickets. I think someone who seems to have had enough of all the terrible parking decided to go around sticking these on cars. Pretty cool.

Song & Dance

Tonight outside Marina Mall there was a traditional Kuwaiti troop playing and dancing. I was lucky to find them because if I hadn't I was going to post another sky related picture today since I didn't really go anywhere special. I have 9 days left before the project ends and I am trying to figure out what places in Kuwait did I forget to shoot so I could fit them into my schedule. Hopefully I won't leave out anything important.

10 Days

Their were a bit of clouds in the sky today. The weather is getting better for outdoor shooting but sadly I only have 10 more days left before the project ends. Today is day 355 of the project.

Beige

The buildings in Kuwait all seem to be the same color, I hate it. If its not beige its peach and if its not peach its beige. Kuwait is visually boring and it sucks.

My Nat

Todays picture is of my wife Nat. I was fooling around taking some pictures of her when an idea came into my head for the last picture of the project. I am thinking maybe the last picture should be a self portrait shot of myself. That should prove to be the most difficult picture I would have taken in this project because I personally hate being photographed. The last time I shot a self portrait it was back in university and I ended up going with a goth theme involving vampire bites and cocaine. I doubt this time around its going to be as dramatic as that but it should still prove to be interesting.

Let go of my Eggo!

Yesterday night I purchased a Braun toaster from City Center so today I passed by Sultan Center and got a whole bunch of Eggo Waffles. I first got into Eggo back when I was in Canada and I saw an Eggo Waffle ad staring Charles Barkley who was my favorite NBA player back then. I decided to buy it and try it and I loved it. It was my favorite snack for a long time but then suddenly for some reason I stopped getting it. Today was the first time I got Eggo in years and I used my new toaster to heat it up and then I spread some Nutella on it and it was fucking amazing!! Now I think I am going to have it as my midnight snack.

Humid

What happened to the weather, the humidity outside is unbelievable. I just checked the weather forecast and it says 83% but it feels more like 100%. I had plans to go biking but this weather killed my mood. I couldnt go outside and shoot either because the lens would fog up so I took this shot from the inside of my house, its the humidity on my window.

Stuck in Traffic

I past by Hawalli tonight to get some computer supplies. I ended up getting stuck in traffic so I started taking some shots. Just before I got home I witnessed a fight which I posted about on 2:48AM. Sadly I had my camera on manual focus and couldn't take any decent shot of the fight. Today is Day 350 of the project. 15 days to go.

Have You Ever Been Mellow

I had a healthy lunch today at Chilis as part of my new healthy diet plan. I had a cup of chicken and mushroom soup, a turkey sandwich, a corn on the cob and a small bottle of water. Later on when I got home I had melon for desert. I took todays shot outside Chilis, I deliberately over exposed the shot since I wanted most of the image details to wash out like the floor for example. I didn't have my tripod with me and I figured a normal shot with no tripod would come out really boring so thats when I decided to spice things up a bit and shoot the shot over exposing it to see what kind of interesting mood I could get. I got mellow.

Mein Kampf

Was buying gum from the Marina Crescent bookshop when I noticed they had Mein Kampf and The Davinci Code in Arabic. I found that weird, a few months ago The Davinci Code was banned in Kuwait and now its available in Arabic. Notice thought the Arabic cover is cheaper then the original one, they couldn't even get the color right.

The Two Cops

I was on my way to lunch at McDonalds on the Gulf Road when I spotted this fresh car wreck. Seems the driver was speeding like crazy, lost control, hit the curb, and flipped upside down into the middle of the road. The driver of the car must have been taken to the hospital before I arrived because I didn't see any ambulance or anything. I parked my car near by and walked to the scene with Nat to take some pictures. Before we got to the scene I told her not to speak in Arabic because I wanted to use my "I am a foreigner and don't understand a word you are saying" approach on the cops incase they stop me from taking pictures. So I get to the scene and their were two cops, a black guy and a white guy. The white guy was talking on the phone and the black guy was just looking at me. I took out my camera to take a picture and black cop came towards me yelling something out in Arabic. I yelled back "Can I take a picture?" he was like "what?" as in he didn't understand a word I was saying. I asked him again "Can I take a picture?" and pointed to my camera. He said yeah yeah take. So I started setting up my shot when the second cop saw me and came walking towards me yelling "mamnoo mamnoo" meaning its not allowed its not allowed in Arabic. I told him "Why not I just want to take some pictures" and then the other black cop told him in Arabic that I just wanted to take pictures and then I would leave. The white cop told the black cop come on man you know its not allowed and then he walked off continuing to talk on the phone. So I ignored the cops request and continued taking my pictures while listening in on the conversation the cop was having on the phone. Basically what I heard was that they wanted to leave the scene of the accident to go have their iftar but there was no one else who wanted to come in their place and the tow truck driver was no where to be found. In the end they parked one of their cars in front of the wrecked car and turned on the sirens, then they got into the second cop car and drove off leaving the accident scene unattended to. I have a closer picture of the car on 2:48AM if you are interested and you can check it by clicking here.