So Lucky is planning to give a live webcast later on today, at around 6pm (our time – should be midday in Britain, 8am on the East Coast in American, and 9pm in Japan?)
Anyway, here is the man himself explaining a little more in a YouTube vid he uploaded on the subject.
I’m going to be teaching an English lesson around that time, but hopefully there’ll be some sort of archive so I can play it back, even if real time interaction is out the window…
So, head over there if you want to ask an American living in Almaty, Kazakhstan what life is like (though he probably answered a lot of your questions in his other YouTube videos, so go and watch a few first 🙂 ).
Hang gliding in the mountains around Kazakhstan’s former capital city, Almaty. One of Lucky‘s older videos, but well worth a watch if you have some how missed clicking on my previous links to his channel etc.
Kazakh (specifically Almaty) police get jumpy when stopping a foreigner. With his wicked backhand badminton swing, and his constant spam-ban-baiting hip hop talk, who can blame them. (See his twitter account if that makes no sense, and I don’t really mind that much if you don’t use backhand swings (or call them that) in badminton. It is a silly game that involves staring at (shuttle) cocks anyway.) Let’s see if that gets a reaction 😉
Beer in the river, kebab (kebob if you’re American?) on the fire, friends all around. Another trip into Almaty’s surrounding natural beauty. If only he’d be in Astana, he could have done so in the desert instead. lmao.
Seriously, we do have some pretty lakes and stuff around Astana, it isn’t all steppe.
This is the intro to the weekly vlog series from Jason/Lucky, down in Almaty. Also a short interview with one of the entrants to this year’s Mongol Rally. The same rally that the famous ‘Tupac In Kazakhstan’ video came from. Hmm, I thought I had posted that video already. Can’t seem to find it in my archives anywhere. More than likely it is hiding in one of the draft posts for this blog, or a series of bookmarked tabs in Firefox. I’ve got Kazakh related news articles from early 2008 in my Bookmarks menu. Not a lot of point in posting about most of those, I guess.
So, why haven’t I embedded Lucky’s video in this post? Because I want you to explore his YouTube channel for yourself. Once you’re knocked over by his style and content, leave a comment on a video or two, and consider subscribing 🙂
So, Lucky21842 asked me (via his twitter account) to give a quick heads up to my readers on his 7 days of VLogging. I think we’re roughly half way through them already, so make sure you click the first link in this post to visit his channel, and watch some more. The embedded video below was his introduction to the series of V-Logs, and as I get through watching the others, I’ll be sure to post any that made me laugh / cry / feel some love 🙂 I may even decide on a spelling of the abbreviated form of Video Logging to stick to!
Oh, and although you’ll often find this request in his info section for each video, if you have a YouTube account and find Jason/Almaty or Kazakhstan interesting, consider adding the video as a favourite, rating it or just subscribing to his account.
As you may have guessed from the category this post is in, all these blogs are connected with Kazakhstan. I’ll try to remember to write a post soon re-capping all the blogs I already follow with interest, for any new visitors to this site.
Even Goes To Kazakhstan – Studying at KIMEP university in Almaty. Norwegian, so not all posts in English.
ABCyrillic – Love the name, this is another PCV, who I believe has just started their time in this country. I especially related to her stray puppy story, though mine was a kitten, back when we first moved to Astana. Where are you Charlie? I hope you survived the winter after apparently running away.
hmm, thats it apprently. I had thought there were another couple of blogs I’d also found via twitter, but is there were, they’re now hiding.
So here we have a video I recorded from the World News Report – Business Edition from the BBC World channel. (I did try to find one officially uploaded earlier in the day, but couldn’t locate one, so I used my AV card). Anyway, our friend Natalya Kim lives in Almaty, and as I don’t see her city often mentioned on the news, I thought I’d show it here. It contains information on the global financial crisis and how it effects Almaty residents, especially those involved in the construction industry.
I was a little surprised that the correspondent didn’t make mention of the Prime Minister and President’s recent speeches on the matter – you can read more on this over at EurAsiaNet’s article.
I suppose it is possible this was recorded a week or so ago, and they didn’t have time/didn’t think to re-dub it?
[edit]
OK, so that video was originally uploaded and ready for embedding in this post an hour or so ago. Then I checked it’s YouTube page, and the audio had pitch shifted down a few octave! I’d not originally had the speakers on as I didn’t want to risk waking Ira, servers me right for not (quietly) checking it before uploading I suppose. This one should be ok, and don’t blame my poor AV card for the video quality – thats down to YouTube’s conversion process I’m afraid. Better go and find out how you get those ‘Watch In High Quality’ links on your uploaded videos I suppose.
Ira will be driven to Astana airport, where she will fly to London, via Austria, for a meeting KMG has. The kittens have enough food in the cupboard, there is juice and water, the bills have been paid, and I’ve promised to not set fire to anything. Fingers crossed, all will be well 😉
Seriously, although my dearly beloved will be away, I have enough work to do, to keep me occupied, and I’ll be meeting up with David and another Chris this Friday, as David has arrived in Astana. (I say that, but the last I heard, his flight from Almaty was delayed. On a positive note, it turns out Almaty airport has free wi-fi available, so at least I know for the future that I can distract myself next time we fly through there.)
I hope Ira has a safe journey, a not too stressful time in London, a safe return, and that I manage to keep the flat in some semblance of tidiness…
OK, this is one of the last posts I will make whilst in Kazakhstan, so I intend to use it to catch up with a few articles, videos and sites I have been meaning to post about in the last few weeks. Otherwise I will return in a little under a month, and forget all about them probably…
BBC article on the growth in high tech online crime. Article on 50 Cent’s promise to quit, which he gave prior to his album being beaten to the UK#1 spot.
Related article on fiddy postponing his European tour.
Cool article on speech to sign language translation software. Most impressive.
Another article, this time on how DNA data could be at risk if funding organizations succeed in twisting researchers’ arms. Article on how Chernobyl is to receive a new steel cover.
Were they pushed, did they jump, or were they stage managed dives? Check out a little background info here on the continuing political family soap opera that is Kazakhstan… Article on beloved uncle Pres Nazarbayev not being nominated for the Nobel prize. Never mind, he got a consolation prize.
From 3 weeks ago, an article on arrest warrants being issued over the Aliyev case. Piece on two bodyguard’s return to Kazakhstan and their confession live to the media. (Related to Aliyev’s alleged criminal activities).
VOA (Voice of America?) summary of the recent elections held in this country.
Is Kazakhstan to follow Russia’s example by moving in on, or at least re-negotiating contracts with, Western oil and gas companies? The International Herald Tribune’s website has a report on the goings on.
Reports from foreign diplomats/govt workers on Astana and Almaty. I had especially wanted to give these two pages their own post. Some of the information is incorrect, some is simply out of date, though there are some gems in there for those considering moving to this country. I may remember to make a more detailed post when I get back half way through October.
Finally a couple of YouTube vids that caught my attention, both from members over at the channels.nl forum I believe. The first is on a man with a lot of vision, and quite a variant on the static art you’ll see in most galleries…
Secondly, we have a video that will have little cultural reference if you are not in the right age band, but is about who would win if all the super heros and villans had a big scrap. Hmm, not sold that too well, sorry. Unless you have tight bandwidth restrictions per month, trust me, it is worth listening to 🙂
