Nov 05 2010

Discs, Stairs And A Phone

Category: Anna's Videos — ChrisM @ 11:28 pm

This is the second batch of videos from the 11th of April (new visitors note that I don’t have an OCD issue with stating the date for all of Anna’s photo and video posts, I just want to make sure that we have the date recorded somewhere, and I don’t always remember to include it in the YouTube description).

The first clip is of Anna finding motivation to climb the stairs in the form of Dedushka’s mobile phone


Here we have Anna attempting to split apart the stacking pots (to be fair they are quite difficult even for adults to open up) and eventually giving up and returning to her favourite type of toy – gadgets 🙂


There was a time when Anna didn’t know where the eject button was on all gadgets within her reach. Sadly that time has passed. We still need to work on her disc handling skills (fingerprints all over the shiny side mean they sometimes won’t play properly), however she knows how to clean them with a quick breath over them and wiping on her t-shirt. This works a lot better when she isn’t cleaning the label side 🙂


The final clip from that day is Anna deciding not climb the little flight of stairs this time.

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Nov 05 2010

Living Room Investigations

Category: Anna's Videos — ChrisM @ 11:15 pm

The 11th of April saw us back at Ira’s parents’ house again, and the first video is of Anna once again terrorising a poor defenceless stuffed animal. However, when she saw that Babushka had a shiny thing with lights on it, the dog was abandoned with haste…



Upon being told that the camera wasn’t a toy, Anna decided to protest by changing channels on the TV…


And then trying another attempt at camera grabbing.


It is strange to look at these videos from just seven months ago and realise how much Anna has changed, both in terms of her face & body, and her increased confidence in walking around.

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Nov 05 2010

Easter Bread For Anna

Category: Anna's Videos — ChrisM @ 10:50 pm

I don’t normally post such short videos, but I just love the look of joy in Anna’s eyes as she realises no one is going to stop her from grabbing the Easter bread (I think the hand swooping in at the end is just to stop the food from going on the floor). Not much else to add – the video was shot on the 4th of April 2010, the same day as the photos of the Easter bread that were posted earlier. I’m hoping to post up a few more pictures and
videos of Anna, if not tonight then tomorrow.

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Nov 05 2010

Driving, Biking And Singing

Category: Videos — ChrisM @ 10:16 pm

A couple of videos that recently caught my attention on YouTube. Actually I think they came from FailBlog or another Cheezburger related site, but I prefer to giev credit to the original posters where possible, and the quality is often higher…
Anyway, here we have two drivers who truly believe they can multi-task. First we have an American driver who found that talking on the phone whilst driving just wasn’t occupying enough of his mind, so he now completes a couple of other tasks simultaneously…

Now we have a clip from New Delhi (India), where a motorcyclist shows just how laid back he is about traffic in that area. I can’t help wondering, at least a little bit, if it might be a setup, but an interesting video to watch, nonetheless.

Oh, and finally I can’t let this one slip by. I’ve not seen Sesame Street in decades, but I do like their style. Here we have Ricky Gervais singing a sweet lullaby to Elmo (the red puppet that always talks in the 3rd person). Worth sticking through the traditional beginning, and a welcome way to blank out the memory of Ricky’s “music video” in The Office Xmas Special a few years back 🙂

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Nov 05 2010

Amsterdam Page Updated

Category: Amsterdam,In The Media — ChrisM @ 12:29 am

Someone (who I assume wanted to remain anonymous) e-mailed me asking for my POI (Points Of Interest) files for Amsterdam. Although these still haven’t been tidied up (they were originally only intended for personal use), I had already put links up for the KML formatted versions of these files on the Amsterdam page here at this site. As this person wanted them for his TomTom, I have converted the latest versions to OV2 files, as well as GPX (as he requested), and added links to these on the page.

As ever, you are welcome to the files for personal use, however if they are to be used for profit in anyway, please do contact me for further discussion first.
Since Anna was born, trips to Amsterdam have been off the table, so any updates could take a while to get done. If anyone wants the files updated more quickly, and would like me to do it, please cover the cost of : flights (TSE<>AMS), accommodation, a full time nanny for Anna whilst I’m away and the biggest bunch of flowers, box of chocolates and a meal out to try and persuade Irina it is a good idea (99.5% joking) 🙂
If you plan to visit Amsterdam, and the number 420 means something to you, you may well want to visit sooner rather than later, as reports are coming in that the government over there is once again attempting to tighten controls on the grey area of selling something that is decriminalized for personal use, but still illegal to trade large amounts of. See here for a BBC article on the subject. There have been similar reports for years, but as the number of CS slowly decline, there may well come a day when my GPS files are of no use at all 🙁

Oh, and before I forget, I’ll be posting up the video that some kind soul has put on YouTube of Karra’s TV appearance, and also posting more Anna photos and videos very soon. If not tonight, then tomorrow.

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Nov 03 2010

Karra And Others

Category: Dasha&Kittens,Personal — ChrisM @ 9:57 pm

This morning, while Anna and I were at her regular Wednesday kindergarten, Astana TV ran a piece on black cats that I mentioned previously. Someone somewhere recorded it via a camcorder hooked up to the RCA outputs on a cable box, and left me the tape.
Anna, Muska, Karra and I all make a brief appearance (given that she has black fur and is a cat, Karra was on screen for the longest 🙂 ). Now all I have to do is hope some kind soul with a disposable YouTube account uploads it soon, so I can embed the video here!
The journalist is obviously speaking in Russian, so I’ll hopefully find a version with English subtitles. On a related note, checking YouTube will be a faster experience for us from next month, as we have upgraded to MegaLine’s Turbo Plus account, meaning we will get our first 20Gb per month at a speed of 1 to 8 Mbit/sec. Again, as with our current 1Mbit account, after those 20Gb have been exceeded, the speed will be throttled down again.
Hooray for faster internet! Though I’ll have to be careful as we will soon be able to exceed our monthly limit within about three hours of the first day of the month!

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Oct 31 2010

Pumpkin Carving with a gun – h…

Category: Tweets,Videos — ChrisM @ 4:41 pm

Pumpkin Carving with a gun – http://bit.ly/dqOaMa . Happy Halloween / Trick or Treating Day, depending upon your preference.

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Oct 21 2010

Convervatives Throwing Rocks

Category: Videos — ChrisM @ 2:18 am

Whilst testing out a new ROM on my phone today, I came across the following video on YouTube. I don’t think C-Span broadcast staged or fake clips, so I’m guessing this was probably the most interesting thing to watch that day if you’re not into politics at all!
If the beginning doesn’t seem at all noteworthy, it is worth sticking through until you see the slimmer guy and a lady who turns out to be his ex. Oh, and if you are offended by strong language, I’d avoid the comments section for this video on YouTube’s site – it seems to be attracting a few trolls. That said, one of the people left the following comment…
” you can throw a rock and hit one, and what ever? you say will make him angry ” (what the ex-girlfriend says at one point)
Of course they are going to be angry, you just hit them with a rock – dsjj251

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Oct 21 2010

Anna Clapping With The Dancers

Category: Anna's Videos,Eating Out,Kazakhstan,Videos — ChrisM @ 2:10 am

The first of these two videos (featuring Latin/Mardi Gras style dancers) has a brief appearance from Anna in it, hence this post just making it into the Anna’s Videos category. I just wanted to give a quick explanation in case you are watching these clips whilst visiting Anna Merriman‘s site – there is a reason for the scantily dressed women appearing on her site 🙂
As you’ll remember from the recent “Aunty Gulya’s Grandson’s Birthday” post, the 3rd of April saw all three of us attending the Duman hotel for a small boy’s birthday party. He and his friends had a magician in another room, whilst the adult guests were presented with the following. I’m not certain, but I think if you check the April archives on this site, you may find a clip or two of the magician?



This second clip features a Turkish belly dancer entertaining everyone, and proving that her percussion was strong enough to stand on!

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Oct 12 2010

Anna Tidying Up

Category: Anna's Videos — ChrisM @ 12:10 pm

The 30th of March saw all three of us back in Kazakhstan already, and here you can see Anna hard at work helping to tidy up the in-laws’ living room. To be fair, despite her love of shiny things that make noises, she hasn’t yet damaged a mobile phone (that we have noticed at least), and tries to pass us the telephone if it is ringing. Using speakerphone mode normally results in Anna sitting and listening attentively to the person at the other end of the line, or her wandering around the room chattering away to the person on the phone. However, this familiarity with telecommunication devices does have drawbacks – yesterday I found one of our cordless phones still connected to a call (well error tone in this case) nearly two hours after had snuck off and dialled some numbers on it.

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