Oct 17 2006

West Wing Video Clip

Category: Kazakhstan,Personal,Videos — ChrisM @ 12:19 am

This is Martin Sheen, playing the president of USA, explaining why he wants to make sure their troops have proper coats, before sending them in to repel invasions by Russia and China.

Made me giggle. (It is a tad inaccurate…)

PS If anyone from Text Link Ads reads this, I’ve tried to remove this page from your listings, without much success – I can’t insert the code into this post manually, and your plugin will only go site wide or on the home page. As this post doesn’t have its own template to edit, I can’t add adverts here, and you did not accept my blog as a whole to your program, so I can’t put adverts everywhere…

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Sep 19 2006

Satellite TV Systems – Which, How Much And Why

Category: Personal — ChrisM @ 12:33 am

Although slightly biased towards the USA market, www.all-about-satellitetv.com still has a lot of technological explanations that remain valid throughout the world.

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Sep 17 2006

All Consuming

Category: Books,Personal — ChrisM @ 11:43 pm

As you can see in the column on the right, I’ve signed up at allconsuming.net. You can enter the details of what you’re reading/listening to/doing/meeting.

I need to finish updating a few details, and change the widget used, so it displays previous items properly, but for now, here is the book list (roughly in the order they’ve been read since I arrived in Kazakhstan, in April) …

Jeremy Clarkson – Motorworld
Jeremy Clarkson – The World According To Clarkson
Raymond Khoury – The Last Templar

Lois McMaster Bujold – The Mountains of Mourning
Lois McMaster Bujold – Falling Free
Lois McMaster Bujold – Shards of Honour
Lois McMaster Bujold – Barrayar
Lois McMaster Bujold – The Warrior’s Apprentice
Lois McMaster Bujold – The Vor Game
Lois McMaster Bujold – Cetaganda
Lois McMaster Bujold – Ethan of Athos
Lois McMaster Bujold – Borders of Infinity
Lois McMaster Bujold – Brothers in Arms
Lois McMaster Bujold – Mirror Dance
Lois McMaster Bujold – Memory
Lois McMaster Bujold – Komarr
Lois McMaster Bujold – A Civil Campaign
Lois McMaster Bujold – Winterfair Gifts
Lois McMaster Bujold – Diplomatic Immunity
Lois McMaster Bujold – The Curse of Chalion
Lois McMaster Bujold – Paladin of Souls
Lois McMaster Bujold – The Hallowed Hunt

Richard P. Feynman – Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character)

Dave Barry – Babies and Other Hazards of Sex: How to make a Tiny Person in only 9 months, with Tools You probably have around the Home
Dave Barry – Claw Your Way to the Top: How to Become the Head of a Major Corporation in Roughly a Week
Dave Barry – Dave Barry’s Bad Habits a 100% Fact-Free Book
Dave Barry – Dave Barry is not making this up
Dave Barry – Dave Barry slept here: A Sort of History of the United States
Dave Barry – Dave Barry’s greatest hits
Dave Barry – Dave Barry’s only travel guide you ll ever need
Dave Barry – guide to marriage and/or sex
Dave Barry – Homes And Other Black Holes
Dave Barry – Dave Barry’s Stay Fit and Healthy Until You’re Dead
Dave Barry – The Taming of the Screw

Neil Gaiman – American Gods
Neil Gaiman – Stardust

George Orwell – 1984
Michael Crichton – Rising Sun

Max Brooks – The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead

Edwin A. Abbott – Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions

Isaac Asimov – I, Robot

Ray D. Bradbury – Fahrenheit 451
Ray D. Bradbury – Quicker Than The Eye
Ray D. Bradbury – Zen in the Art of Writing

Arthur C Clarke – A Time Odyssey 1 – Time’s Eye
Arthur C Clarke – A Time Odyssey 2 – Sunstorm
Arthur C Clarke – 2001 A Space Odyssey – Odyssey 1
Arthur C Clarke – 2010 – Odyssey 2
Arthur C Clarke – 2061 – Odyssey 3
Arthur C Clarke – 3001 – The Final Odyssey – Odyssey 4
Arthur C Clarke – Rendezvous with Rama
Arthur C Clarke – The Star

James Clavell – Shogun

Phillip Kindrick Dick – A Scanner Darkly

Diana Wynne Jones – Howl’s Moving Castle

Jasper Fforde – Thursday Next 1 – The Eyre Affair
Jasper Fforde – Thursday Next 2 – Lost in a Good Look
Jasper Fforde – Thursday Next 3 – The Well of Lost Plots
Jasper Fforde – Thursday Next 4 – Something Rotten

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Aug 28 2006

OK, Back To The Planned Blog

Category: Friends,Kazakhstan,Personal — ChrisM @ 1:03 am

It is Sunday, and we’ve just waved Natalya & Oleg (a different Oleg to the one previously mentioned on this site) off. They visited for a long weekend, to do some business and to say hello to some of Astana’s inhabitants. They stayed with us, and when not working, we went out for a few drinks.

We haven’t seen her for a few years, and it was good to catch up. It was also good to meet her friends. We played billiards, which I’ve not done for 5 years. If you’ve never seen it in person, imagine a snooker table with smaller pockets and the cushions have a square angle at the pocket, not bevelled.

Now imagine the balls being almost too big to fit in the pockets, and you start to see the way the game differs from pool and snooker. Luckily we played American Billiards, not the Russian version, which means you can use any of the balls still in play as a cue ball, and any ball can be pocketed, as long as it makes contact with at least one other ball. After a few vodkas, I managed to down a few of the balls.
Losha, Igor and his wife came round in the evening, which was cool, as we haven’t seen them in a few weeks. Lorsha is interested in PCs, and his English is really quite good.

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Aug 18 2006

A Little Later Than Intended

Category: Kazakh Driving,Kazakhstan,Personal,Pictures — ChrisM @ 3:12 am

OK, as promised, here is some more info, from Mum & John’s perspective.

This is basically a cut’n’paste job from an e-mail they sent to family and friends (with permission I hasten to add ;>)

“”For those of you ancient enough to Radio 4 be familiar with Alistair Cooke’s “Letter from America” this is likely to seem a pale comparison. Certainly less erudite and not as well crafted – but hopefully it will inform and maybe even amuse, though the political comment will be markedly absent!

This is Carol’s second visit to this amazing country and my first. As we flew in at night the lack of any settlements for hundreds of miles prior to landing in Astana was perplexing. It was hard to comprehend such vast tracts of land without population. Then Astana appears on the Kazakh Steppes resembling a modern Emirate city. Disney could not have bettered it! When Carol was here last she arrived through the back door, via the old capital of Almaty, then a twenty three hour train journey across a hot and dusty terrain. She made the trip for her son (Chris) & daughter in law’s (Irina) marriage. Jokingly she had said as she left to Irina’s father that he was to have a new airport built on her return. He did – and a pretty impressive airport to boot! It is so refreshing to see architecture which is not afraid to be adventurous, particularly in the teeth of such extreme weather conditions. Thankfully on this trip it has been kind to Carol & me, between 21°C & 30°C. The temperature can famously vary between -30°C in the winter to +40°C during the short summer months.
Continue reading “A Little Later Than Intended”

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