May 23 2007

Want To Learn English?

Category: Kazakhstan,Personal — ChrisM @ 7:47 am

If you are based in or around Astana, Kazakhstan, and want to learn English, you should definitely pay visit to English Advantage‘s site and their blog.

English Advantage

You will also find their site & blog very useful if you wish to attend a university over in America, or simply wish to learn more about the academic system over there. I particularly found the post on Everyday Manners and Customs in America interesting, as it reminded me of just how different some things are, over here in Kazakhstan.

THIS POST IS NOT SPONSORED … I just know the guy that runs it, and wanted to help him out with a little link love.

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May 23 2007

Summary of the Goings On In Kazakhstan

Category: In The Media,Kazakhstan — ChrisM @ 3:24 am

Last week, a batch of amendments were announced, and if you are at all interested at how the situation in this country will be changing, I’d recommend reading some of the posts over at KZBlog (see the links page for the, well, err… link 🙂 )
If you’d like to read a summary of the changes, rather than a little more details, this particular post is most relevant – New Amendments Clarified in English.
The BBC also published an article on it here, cheers to ChrisD for sending me the link.
Next time one of you feels like moaning about the political system back home in America or the UK, have a quick gander over the ‘improvements’ on the table for RK…

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May 14 2007

Anansi Boys

Category: Books — ChrisM @ 3:55 pm

Anansi Boys – Neil Gaiman

Following on from two other reviews of Neil Gaiman’s books (Stardust and American Gods), we have another trip in the fantasy worlds in the authors mind.

More similar to American Gods than Stardust, this book’s God universe focuses on African deities this time, although the ‘real-life’ backdrop is equally as compelling in this novel. We start off with a ‘normal’ man in London, part of the corporate back-stabbing world, and not highly enjoying it. However, he is to be married soon, and so things could be worse. Deciding to invite his father (with a little prodding from his fiancée) who he hasn’t spoken to in years, he attempts to make contact. Sadly his dad has died, and so he drops everything to fly to America to see to the required arrangements. Strange tales are abound over his family’s history, and he is shocked to be told he has a brother!

There seems to be some confusion over the relationship between this book and American Gods. Although a couple of characters do exist in both novels, they seem more like companions than pre/sequels.

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May 10 2007

2061: Odyssey Three

Category: Books — ChrisM @ 12:43 am

2061: Odyssey Three – Arthur C. Clarke

After Jupiter’s conversion into a new sun, Europa starts to transform, but humankind were warned at the end of the last novel that ‘All these worlds are yours, except Europa. Attempt No Landings There’. The USA, USSR and China are all now at peace with each other, leaving the threat of violence to inter-planetary relations.
Whilst all the events are occurring on Europa (and teraforming on Ganymede), a team of scientists, and celebrities (think of a high class line up from a Celebrity Big Brother but on a space ship) go up to to land on Halleys Comet. At least that is the original plan, but at least one passenger has an ulterior motive; and what is worse, they don’t intend to respect the warning given re. Europa!
Although this book is obviously part of the series, the style of writing seemed quite different; I was still glad I read it, but was surprised how the novel progressed.

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May 10 2007

2010: Odyssey Two

Category: Books — ChrisM @ 12:31 am

2010: Odyssey Two – Arthur C. Clarke

Somewhat obviously carrying on from 2001: A Space Odyssey, this book was written almost 15 years after the original, which had seen a lot of Clarke’s visions of space travel and computing come true already. This time around, the book came first, then the film, though in the edition I read, Arthur does refer to the fact that where the book and film of 2001 split ways in terms of events and facts, 2010 was written more closely as a sequel to the film of 2001, rather than the book.
This book sees the American (especially Heywood Floyd) and Soviet forces join together, in an effort to discover just what went wrong with their previous mission, and although there are a few cultural differences, for the most part, they manage to work together, without too much suspicion on the parts of the astronauts, if not their respective governments. A 3rd party has secretly joined the melee however, and they arrive at the planet first. There appears to be some sort of tragic accident/attack with none of the crew members surviving, which only acts to spur on the USA/USSR teams to discover just what has, and maybe still is, going on.
David Bowman, a major character from the last book, returns in a less than physical sense, and as he now works for/with the alien life forces who originally planted the slabs on the moon and planet earth. He discovers basic life forms, with some hope of evolution, both below the ice of Europa, and also in the atmosphere. This isn’t covered by the film, if I remember correctly, and I was also slightly disappointed with the film’s treatment of the scene where Bowman attempts to make contact with Floyd in a more physical sense, using dust particles to conjure up a mirage like representation of the astronaut’s face.
The book goes on to describe the transformation of the planet Jupiter into a star, via the slabs exponential replication, and how the Moon Europa is allowed to survive, meaning the basic life forms under the ice have the opportunity to progress.
If you read 2001 and weren’t overly impressed, feel free to skip this book, otherwise, if you’re able to skip over little inconsistencies with the previous book, I’d read it for sure.

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May 07 2007

Dave Barry’s Greatest Hits

Category: Books — ChrisM @ 11:31 pm

Dave Barry’s Greatest Hits – Dave Barry

This is the last of Dave Barry’s books that I have actually read. Luckily, I’ve not actually got all his others, otherwise this particular book would have been redundant, as I get the feel that some of these are reprinted either from other books or his US newspaper columns. But then again, that isn’t too surprising given the title, is it 😉

If you want to see if you enjoy Dave’s style of writing, but aren’t sure which subject is most likely to tickle your fancy, this book is definitely a good start. Although it was written in the late 80s, most of the humour has aged well, and unless you have a purtianical approach to humour, you’ll find plenty of mirth inside…

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May 07 2007

Dave Barry Slept Here: A Sort of History of the United States

Category: Books — ChrisM @ 12:44 am

Dave Barry Slept Here: A Sort of History of the United States – Dave Barry

Sticking to his (commendable) formula of making the book’s title explain what you’re buying, Dave takes a look at American history, analyses it and then decides to write a funny book instead 😉

Although it does help if you know a little USA history prior to reading this, there is still enough humour in it to carry you along. One short quote from the book to give you an idea of the (unsophisticated) humour involved, in this case surrounding the War of Independence “Still, the English were undaunted. ‘Who the hell needs daunts?’ was the English motto in those days.”

If nothing else, by the time you’ve finished the book, you’ll be very well aware of just how pivotal the (fictional) “Hawley-Smoot Tarriff” was in the process all Americans went through at the beginning of their life in their country.

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May 04 2007

Why Should You Care That…

Category: Personal — ChrisM @ 6:56 pm

09 is the atomic number of fluorine

F9 Flying Fortress is a spying version of the B-17 plane

11 years is the average length of a sunspot cycle

02 when pronounced in cantonese sounds like ‘easy’

9D a common abbreviation for 9 days

74 is the bus you should take to get from Halewood to Liverpool Town Centre

E3 is an abbreviation for the Electronic Entertainment Expo, an event I would like to visit one day

5B was part of a classified series of US Vela satellites

D8 is airline code for Djibouti Airlines

41 is the international dialling code for Switzerland

56 ‘yeahs’ are sung by Michael Stipe in the REM Song “Man On The Moon”

C5 was a much maligned electric moped made by Clive Sinclair’s company

63 chromosomes can be found in the baby of a horse and donkey

56 men signed the United States Declaration of Independence

88 keys are found on a piano

C0 if misspelt, can mean carbon monoxide

If you would like to know, leave me a comment with a valid e-mail address in the appropriate field.

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May 04 2007

Dave Barry Is Not Making This Up

Category: Books — ChrisM @ 12:49 am

Dave Barry Is Not Making This Up – Dave Barry

Although a few of the stories reported in this book have been covered in earlier releases, there is enough ‘fresh’ content in here to keep even an ardent fan happy. Unlike previous books, most of the items covered in this book are reports of true events, from a Judge proudly proclaiming how to reduce wind problems (of a personal nature, not weather) to snakes that have learnt to navigate the plumbing systems used in American houses!
I had better warn Walton to watch out 😉

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May 02 2007

Dave Barry’s Homes and Other Black Holes

Category: Books — ChrisM @ 3:16 pm

Dave Barry’s Homes and Other Black Holes – Dave Barry

In a similar vein to the DIY book, Dave takes a look at the events surrounding buying and selling a house – be they hilarious, heartbreaking or simply horrendous. Although definitely written by an American, most of the pit falls are the same the world over, and I didn’t find myself regretting reading this book.

For all the warning about the subterfuge estate agents will commit, to try and get you to buy a house, Dave has helpfully included a chapter for the other point of view, simply entitled “Getting Some Fool to Buy Your House”. For anyone able to wait until they get the book, I’d like to include a small excerpt from the book, referring to what sort of budget you should plan for…

Q: What’s the best way to determine a realistic price range?”
A: Take your total annual family income, including coins that have fallen behind the bureau, and any projected future revenue you may have been notified about via personalized letters from Mr. Ed McMahon stating that you may have already won 14 million dollars. Then, multiply by something other than 6.

🙂 🙂 🙂

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