DanD bought round a video that I had hoped to view for months – the one featuring a voice over I recorded just before I left for Britain last year. In the end, the script had major alterations, and I wasn’t around to re-record it, so DanD provided the English audio for the final release. I will try and upload a clip to YouTube soon and publish it on this blog. I’ve learnt my lesson though – I’ll create a new account as I don’t want to risk losing all the personal videos again when someone decides fair use doesn’t apply and gets my account banned once more. This particular film was on Social Entrepreneurship, which in this case basically means government run organizations that plough the profit from their ventures back into improvements for Kazakh citizens, rather than someone’s back pocket.
We first played the video back on our DVD player (the file is some sort of AVI, not yet checked if it is specifally DivX/xVid etc.), and I had a little shock when I heard my voice – as the audio was encoded with a variable bit rate (VBR), our DVD player got a little confused and ended up rendering my voice falsetto, with me sounding like Mickey Mouse! At first I thought the production company had simply sped up my recording in order to make it match the video footage they were using, but once played on our PC, all was fine 🙂
Once I rediscover the exact title for the film on Kazakh Transportation policies for the future, also recorded last year, Dan should hopefully be able to get a copy of that, and we’re hoping the work we recently did together for a film on the International Religious Tolerance conferences should also be available. Something else to add to my CV to make it stand out a little more than the rest, to potential employers back in Britain 🙂
Oct 08 2009
SEC SaryArka
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Oct 01 2009
Off to Astana’s TGI Friday, me…
Off to Astana’s TGI Friday, meeting with DanC’s family. Not seen his newest addition yet 🙂 Wonder how similar this TGIF is to Cheltenham’s
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Sep 18 2009
Ridiculous Bill
OK, so this one is a little late in being published. With catching up with the backlog of Anna’s unpublished photos, I didn’t get around to posting links from news stories that I found interesting. So, just in case you missed it, checkout the BBC’s article that gives more information on the case of a man who bought a packet of cigarettes on his credit card. He got home and later checked his balance. He apparently owed 23 QUADrillion dollars (US)! That is 23 followed by another 15 digits. Somewhat obviously this was an error, as that sort of figure dwarfs even the current American national debt total.
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Sep 17 2009
On The Other Hand…
I’ve written a few times about Special Constables (back in Britain) on this blog, and not been entirely complimentary to the profession as a whole. Overall, they do not get a lot of respect in the UK, and sometimes this is understandable. However, I wanted to post a quick link to a forum post that I found to be an interesting read – What I Did On Duty over at the PoliceSpecials.com forum. Whilst I still believe that there are some specials who do their service no honour, it was interesting to find out what the average (or at least average internet dwelling) special’s shift was like.
Sep 15 2009
Home Delivery Report
So, Kazakhstan’s Astana’s first (?) home delivery service for supermarket shopping have made contact. It looks as though their promise of delivery within two hours of ordering (any time of day at least) is a little hopeful on their part. Given that we are the twentieth order they’ve ever taken, I can’t help wondering if as their popularity increases, their time frames will have to become a little more realistic.
As half expected, the bread crumbed chicken products (the sort of thing I can cook in an oven without starting a fire 🙂 ) were not in stock, and the 72 packs of nappies (diapers) also weren’t available.
They’ve just left. It took them 2.5 hours instead of two. Not bad. A woman looked after the paperwork and money, a man carried the bags up and drives. Four packs of nappies became three, with one the wrong size. Cheddar cheese became ordinary cheese slices. A few items weren’t in stock in the supermarket they use, and we were told, a few items were either forgotten, or simply not in stock and they didn’t tell us. The lady was polite, no one on their staff speaks English (for now), and they hope to have images on their site for each product within a month or so. The total charged was correct, and the lady gave Ira her mobile number when we mentioned we couldn’t find some products on their web site. (Some similar items are in different categories or with differing descriptions).
The charge for delivery is sliding, however in the opposite way to how I’d expected. Whereas some UK sites charge a fiver for orders under 40 pounds, for example, and then no charge for anything over, ZaKazDom charge at three different bands – the more you order, the higher the delivery charge. That said, so far, overall the prices have been cheaper than getting a taxi to a traditional supermarket there and back, and certainly a lot more convenient that hauling all the bags, Anna, her car seat and pushchair frame up three or four flights of stairs.
Overall, I’m happy to recommend trying them out, though if you have some last minute shopping to do for a specific meal, where exact ingredients are needed, a walk to your local shop might be safer. I’m hoping the few issues we encountered were down to the company being new, and that they’ll improve over time.
Oh, the web site address might be useful for you – Dostavlyika 🙂
Sep 15 2009
A New Kazakh Experience
We have the honour of being order number 20 for a relatively new start up business over here in Astana, Kazakhstan. Although America and Britain (and by extension, I’d assume the mainland European Continent?) have had supermarket deliveries available for years, this company seems to be the first in this city at least. I’ll not provide a link until we’ve seen the goods arrive (sometime in the next 2 hours) in one piece, with the correct money being charged, but if all goes well, I’m happy to recommend them. I’ve already passed on their details to one friend over here, so I’ll compare experiences to make sure any good/bad points aren’t isolated.
Aug 15 2009
Feeling Itchy Yet Fred?
I received an e-mail that got around my GMail spam filter by keeping the main message within an attached document. Anyway,
‘Fred Driver’, using captfreddriver1@gmail.com as his e-mail address sent the following…
Hey!
Plz view attachment for your message.Cheers
Fred
attached was the following request…
Dear Friend,
I am Capt. Fred Driver, an American Soldier, I am presently attached to a security company here in Iraq, I am assigned with the 1st Armored Division (Basra) here in Iraq. I am writing following an opportunity that will be of immense benefit to both of us.
As you know we are being attacked by insurgents on daily basis coupled with (Improvised explosive device) explosives we encounter almost every day, this has been responsible for the loss of both US & British Soldiers more than combat confrontations.
After the fall of Saddam Hussein, we discovered various amount of funds running into millions of dollars which we returned to the new (Iraqi Government) as you can see on this website: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2988455.stmHowever, when the situation became critical and we began to loose soldiers on daily basis and coupled with the recent deployment of United States Soldier out from Iraq, I decided to keep some of these funds we discovered just to help our family in case we didn’t make it out of Iraq alive. The total amount in my custody here is US$12.5million dollars in cash.
PLEASE COULD YOU KINDLY TELL WHAT PERCENTAGE (%) OF THIS MONEY (US$12.5million) YOU WOULD LIKE TO TAKE AFTER THE TRANSFER TO YOUR BANK ACCOUNT?
All you have to do is just help me receive these funds in your account for us to share. On receipt of your details, I will properly guide you on the procedure we will adapt to facilitate a smooth transfer of these funds.
Kindly send me an e-mail, signifying your interest including
Your name:
Age:
Telephone/fax numbers for quick communication:
Contact address:
Occupation:
Nationality:
NOTE: This transaction is risk free and the case can be shipped out within 48hrs after we have both agreed to carry out this venture.I urgently hope to get your response as soon as possible.
Regards,Capt. Fred Driver
Deciding to check if s/he had used that alias before in other 419 scams, I came across a couple of instances back in May, thought about making contact and seeing if I could waste some of their time, but got bored very quickly writing a reply. So the following got sent instead…
Fred,
Congratulations on your promotion from Sgt. to Capt., and I am glad you have managed to sort out $6 million dollars already, since May 19th (see here and here).If I had the time right now, I would gladly engage you in a long running e-mail exchange, in the hope that any time of yours that I wasted would be time you couldn’t be successfully conning at least one gullible person out there.
I spent quite a lot of time dealing with 419ers in one of my old jobs back in England – using the deaths of soldiers in Iraq is pretty fricking low, scraping the bottom of the barrel like those scammers who use names of those killed on 9/11.May you get a crab infestation and your arms be too short to scratch, or failing that, at least get a conscience and decide to do honest work for a living.
Yours,
Chris Merriman
http://ChrisMerriman.com
Aug 05 2009
Don’t Leave Us!
Hmm, Orange are making it a little difficult to downgrade from a pay monthly mobile account, to pay as you go (weirdly enough 🙂 ). When we first returned to Kazakhstan, I wanted to have a functioning UK mobile number as well as my usual Kazakh one, in case there were problems in the first few weeks with communicating back with Britain. However, now that all seems well, I want to save money by changing back to pay as you go. (If I cancel the account completely, I’ll obviously lose my number. Orange PAYG accounts don’t work over here in Kazakhstan, as they apparently have no contracts with any of the Kazakh mobile networks. Pay monthly does however. So when Orange reminded me that I owed them some money, I went to my account on their site, and looked for a way to swap to PAYG. None to be found. I’ll now need to call them up (can only find a UK mobile number to call, that is going to be a bit expensive, even if I use Skype…) to downgrade again to PAYG.
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Jul 26 2009
It has now been raining solidl…
It has now been raining solidly for 9 hours or so here in Astana!Welcome break from the on-off heat wave (By UK standards) we’ve been having
Jul 08 2009
Bill Bailey, TVs & Hairdryers
I wanted to send some advice to Bill Bailey (see his twitter account here) re. his misbehaving television, but quickly realised that 140 characters (the limit for tweets) would not really provide enough space. So here is the post I’ve written for him and linked to in said tweet.
If you’re reading this on the front page, don’t click the link below to read any further, until you are sure you….
- Understand and comply with safe working practices with high voltage equipment.
Do not have a warranty left on your television.
There are no children, pets, other humans, farmyard animals or anything basically alive in the house at the time.
Realise this procedure is described for educational purposes only, and should never be attempted in real life.
Take full responsibility for your own actions.
If you have come to this post directly, please either match the conditions above, or promise to close your eyes until you’ve fumbled for the back button in your browser…
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