Fantonim.com v 2.0

My arrival to Dubai at about 1:30 in the morning was an adventure in itself. Apparently Dubai airport is monopolized by the local airline - Emirates. Emirates gets the best gates, preferential treatment, better service and buses. All the other airlines are packed into the very end of the airport. Word on the street is that they are building a new airport for all other airlines and this one will be dedicated solely to Emirates!!! Imagine that!

At about 2 am we, S., W. and I, got into the terminal. Thankfully for my business class ticket I had an express line, which still took 40 minutes. The line for “regular people” was 5 times longer. At 2 in the morning the airport is packed with people as if it’s SARS-stock all over again. I have never seen so many people at any airport, not Heathrow, not Frankfurt. I think only Hong Kong may rival with this, but I have not been there personally.

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Warning – tooooo many words!

I woke up by the polite stewardess asking me to put my seat in the upright position as we were landing. Looking outside I saw the desert and after looking closer could make out small fires everywhere. The first thought, naturally, was that Iraq decided to reinvade Kuwait, but looking closer I saw that those seemed to be chimney stacks at the refineries. It seems that Kuwaitis have enough oil to be able to afford to burn some.

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Warning – many words!

Well, I can finally sit down and write about the three day experience that I have had so far. After two red-eye flights in a row and 7 hours of sleep within 58 hours of my travels, I have finally gotten a full night of rest and can safely say that I have adjusted to the 7 hour time difference in Kuwait. I will start from the beginning – a 5 or so hour flight into London, arriving at 8:30 in the morning. The flight was good – premium economy is worth the extra money, especially when you’re not the one paying! Business class was all sold out, unfortunately.

Arriving into London I took the tube straight to the Westminster station to finally get some sightseeing done in the city which fascinated me ever since grade 3 British History back home. Having been in London only once in transit and having only a picture of Trafalgar Square out of a cab, I took this opportunity in a jiffy.

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More in here!

Do you know why the stores still sell tape players? Because they are the only technology that plays the tape from wherever you stopped last time, right? Wrong. Your iPod has that feature as well. The only little hassle is that you have to convert your mp3 or wav audiobook file into the audiobook format m4b.

There is a tool out there that does exactly that. Download MP3 to iPod Audio Book Converter from freeipodsoftware.com or from this mirror.

Add the files that you wish to convert and start the conversion process. The best part is that you can add multiple mp3 files and the program will merge it into a single iPod audio book file. Once the conversion is complete transfer the newly created iPod audio book file to your iPod using iTunes. It will be in the appropriate Audiobook category, not in the regular Music.

Your iPod remembers the position where you stopped listening the last time. So when you continue listening to your audio book, you don’t have to waste time finding the right position to start. This even works, if you are listening to music or other audio books in the meantime.