Jun 21 2007

Happy Alexa News

Category: Friends,PersonalChrisM @ 5:46 pm

No, not a typo, I am of course glad that Alex will be here in a few days, but I’m actually referring to the Alexa rank on this blog.
Although the system is not perfect, it is an approximate way of measuring how many visitors a site receives, without accessing the raw server logs. Nine weeks ago, this blog was listed in the top 9 millions sites, traffic wise. The rank today (21st June 2007) currently stands at 339,194! Many thanks to those readers who have been here a while, and a big HELLO to those new to this blog.

One way of increasing traffic is to run competitions, which is exactly what the owner of the Reviews and More blog has done, hence this post linking to him. The more people who link to you, the more potential visitors will see your site, and at least consider visiting it. Of course, if you happen to have two sites, you can ask competition entrants to link to both of them, and in case you had not guessed by now, here is the other site – The Chronic Consumer, which is a shopping blog.

It does not effect how likely I am to win a cash prize, but if you get a spare moment, check out both sites, see what interests you, leave a comment perhaps If you think you will want to check back again, consider subscribing to the Reviews and More feed or The Chronic Consumer feed.

Please note, this post is NOT sponsored, it is an entry for the competition mentioned above.


Jun 19 2007

Is It A Bird? Is It Superman? Nope – Its A Helicopter

Category: Friends,Personal,PicturesChrisM @ 11:28 pm

Weekend just gone, when we had Lorsha, Walton et al over, they bought a new toy they picked up in China – a remote control helicopter!
I was completely unable to control it, other than flying up and down, whenever I tried to make it go in any other direction, it just seemed to spin round and around. Anyway, it was fun to have a go, and quite impressive just to watch it in the hands of more experienced pilots.

Helicopter 1 Helicopter 2 Helicopter 3

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Jun 19 2007

Muggers Beware

Category: Friends,Kazakhstan,Personal,PicturesChrisM @ 1:03 pm

A friend came over this weekend, and showed us their new personal protection device.

The (small) mature section of my brain immediately thought the same thing as when I hear about people carrying knives or guns in an effort to protect themselves – there is always the possibility that someone will take your protection, and use it against you.

Although these devices are usually advertised as very effective “personal defense” weapons, many[attribution needed] security operators and martial arts experts genuinely doubt their effectiveness against determined and physically strong aggressors in a real melee combat situation and their value as a defense weapon in general.

They claim that electroshock weapons need much more continuous and uninterrupted contact time with one’s intended target than usually advertised, well above 5 seconds, to stop a determined assailant effectively, and that much time can be impossible to achieve against a physically superior or better trained opponent in close unarmed combat. They claim that in such an event, the likely outcome would probably be merely irritating the assailant and having the electroshock weapon broken, taken away, or used against oneself for retaliation, after giving its intended user a false sense of security and power.

Taken from the Wiki article on Electroshock Weapons

Then the rest of my brain kicked in and just said “cool”, it crackles, looks really cool, and has god knows how many kilovolts pulsing between its metal studs…

Bzzzzzzzzzz Taser

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Jun 19 2007

Scooter Plus Trailer Equals Confusion

Category: Friends,PersonalChrisM @ 1:07 am

1 X 55cc engine.
1 X Austrian Road Trip.
1 X Bloke.
1 X Trailer.

Yep, never seen a trailer on a motorbike myself, let alone a little scooter, but that is the plan apparently. For those that don’t remember, StarGazer is the author of the brilliant WP-Headline Animator Plugin, which automatically produces the following image for forums posts etc.

Headline Animator

Well, his planned road trip has required a little more luggage than can be balanced on the back of a scooter, so he has now bought a cute little one-wheeled trailer for his scooter. Check out the post of the Crazy Austrian for more information.


Jun 17 2007

Alex Is Here In 7.5 Days :)

Category: Friends,Kazakhstan,PersonalChrisM @ 8:11 pm

When I last spoke to her, she mentioned she had difficulty in finding the older Kazakhstan posts on this blog, that listed some of the things newcomes to Kazakhstan might notice, and a few tips for those who have not yet left home.

She came up with the idea of having a static page, with a brief introduction to each post, and then a link, so other people could access them more easily.

She could have just either clicked on the Kazakhstan category, and gone to the older posts, or to the July and August 2006 Archives, but I think her idea was good, so I’ll let her off ๐Ÿ™‚

(Lets see if this gets another complaining comment ๐Ÿ˜‰ )

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Jun 13 2007

Congratulations….

Category: Friends,Personal,PicturesChrisM @ 4:01 pm

On the new arrival to Anthony and Lisa. Baby Amelia was born in Bridgend hospital, and we (Ira, in-laws, friends etc.) would all like to pass on our congrats to the three of them. And of course to John, who is now an even grander dad ๐Ÿ™‚

[edit]
Shortly after posting, I received an e-mail from John (Anthony’s Dad), with a little more info and some pictures…
Amelia weighed in at 4lb 10oz, but is doing well.

Anthony Lisa Amelia Wales Amelia John Wales

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Jun 13 2007

Picnic In The Park

Category: Eating Out,Friends,Personal,PicturesChrisM @ 1:48 am

We recently went to a restaurant in the park near us (named, with some unique inspiration, Astana Park) with Walton and Assel. The place is based around the theme of a famous Russian film set in the desert, hopefully Ira will be able to inform me of its name in the morning.
Ira and I had not been there before, so we didn’t know what to expect. The food was good, the vodka must have been OK, as I forgot I took the following picture ๐Ÿ™‚

Walton Assel Cafe Astana Kazakhstan

When Alex gets over here in a week and a half, I’m hoping we can return the restaurant again. The service was a little slow, and it was yet another example of a place in Kazakhstan where ‘starters’ and ‘main courses’ arrive in a random pattern, but the waitress was pleasant in her attitude, when Ira and I went back there last week.

By the way, the post title is a reference to an annual event back in Cheltenham, where people went to Pitville park, with a picnic, and listened to some bands play…

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Jun 12 2007

Gwen arrives in her new home

Category: Friends,PersonalChrisM @ 10:28 pm

Mum and John have just got their new puppy home. Gwen is apparently a real delight – she got John up at 4.30am as she decided it was time to play!! She’s one chilled puppy, who seems to have forgotten she is supposed to be traumatised by the separation from her mother.
I can’t wait to see her this Christmas, when Ira and I will hopefully be back in the UK. (Obviously our family and friends will also be a welcome sight, but Gwen sounds so adorable…)
As soon as I get some photos of the puppy, I’ll post them up here for everyone to see.

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Jun 12 2007

Karra & Muska Go Exploring

Category: Dasha&Kittens,Friends,Personal,PicturesChrisM @ 12:19 am

Having already ripped the ears of the toy cat in the spare room, smashed the beautiful picture frame from Alex, and torn down a lot of wall paper that was aggravating them, Muska and Karra decided to get to the top of the world, from their perspective at least…
On top of the cupboard, masters of all they survey….

Karra & Muska Go Exploring

This is the room Alex will be staying in soon, and where the kittens complain if they are not allowed access into.

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Jun 09 2007

Pate’s Reunion – Class of 1997

Category: Friends,Personal,PicturesChrisM @ 1:33 pm

A couple of sections didn’t scan in that well, and I had to compress and resize the picture a great deal to stop this blog’s server from going over it’s limits, but here is the Pates class of ’97, taken a year before we all left…
Pateโ€™s 1996 School Photo

Here we have a few people zoomed in a little more, again a few faces (Tiff and Yan especially) are blurred, apologies…
Cut Outs of Pates 1997 Class
From left to right, top to bottom, we have Anne Harmer, John Harris, Tiffany Vincent, Zanya Etheridge, Chris Merriman, Miriam Hale, Chris Ramshaw (looking like an Oxbridge grad already), Michael Bavin and Yan Chee Yu.

It could be worse though, I could have followed Pate’s official site’s example, and used a 500Kb PNG image (check out the picture of the current head there to see what I mean… I’m guessing Mr Thornton was maybe involved LMAO)

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