Steppe Magazine already in its 3rd edition published a nice little article on blogging in Central Asia by Ben Paarman. This blog got a little review!

Well-written and entertaining blog…Offers real value and insight

I am very pleased to be worthy of notice and such kind words.

And I should note that Steppe Magazine is a very good read and has breathtakingly beautiful photos!

For all my loyal fans who can’t get enough of my prose style, I have been kindly invited to post on the Transitions Online education blog Chalkboard. So you can check out periodic posts there and read it to keep up with what’s going in education in the former CIS.

As you might have surmised, I took a holiday break to go home and see my family. During that time, work of any kind was forbidden.

Still haven’t gotten back on track, as I am realizing that I am spreading myself kind of thin. And people always want to take up more of my time with something. So much as I love keeping up this blog, one of two things will probably happen:
1) Posting will become even less frequent!

2) Posts will become shorter and less detailed. Usually when I read a news article or hear about an event, I like to do some research, and do longer, more in-depth posts unless it’s something there isn’t much depth to, like kids donating money to an orphanage. Or something I don’t have the skills to analyze well, like shifts in the inner halls of power. I might end up doing more brief, today-the-NYT-said-type posts.

But that might just be the jet lag talking. After all I still manage to find time to keep my facebook page up-to-date so I can’t be all that swamped!

I went a little beyond the old new logo and with some help from my friends, ended up with a crazy new look. Hopefully it’s a little more colorful and friendly looking. Got it pretty much where I want it except that as usual with a new template in Wordpress, certain links just will not behave properly even though every other link in that part of the page is doing exactly what it was told. So if a link doesn’t change color when you hover over it, or suddenly jumps a font-size or two when you click on it, don’t worry about it. It’s just growing pains.

EDIT: Also working on the problem Nathan mentioned in the comments, where posts show up twice on post and comment pages. Any other problems or somments are gratefully accepted.

EDIT The 2nd: Nothing repeating anymore. Still happy to hear about problems or reactions to the new look.

Just a quick word of praise for the best beer in Kazakhstan-one that to me is fully competitive in the international market, Tyan-Shyan Gold. The Tyan-Shyan (named after the mountains, probably more familiar to western eyes as Tien-Shien) brand is not a new one and for a while they have sold light and dark beers. But the new gold label beer is unusual for its sweet and nutty flavor. It really reminds me of McEwan’s and other Scottish beers which are also distinctive for their sweetness. You wouldn’t think a sweet beer would be good, but it is.

Unfortunately Tyan-Shyan is a cheap beer. I say unfortunately because it means that it is not sold in the elite supermarkets like Ramstor or Gros. I have to buy it at the little convenience store next to my house and they don’t always have it in stock. A larger store would have the storage space to keep it on the shelves permanently. I am always afraid that, not being featured prominently in the big, cool stores, sales will never be high and eventually the brewer will discontinue it. So please buy this beer at least to ensure that I have a constant supply!

The other funny thing about preferring a cheap beer (Tyan-Shyan and Derbes are the Bud and Coors of Kazakhstan, always the cheapest buys) is that my friends sometimes assume I order it to save money.
“Come on, get an Amstel or a Hoegaarden.”
“No, I really want Tyan-Shyan.”
“We’ll pay for it, if you want.”
“No, seriously, I want a Tyan-Shyan.”

Anyway, just wanted to give credit where credit is due and encourage Kazakhstan to put this beer up on the international market–because someday we might move back to the US and then what will I do for beer?

Loyal readers will note that I changed the logo. I also took away my commentaries on links leaving you the reader to figure out what these things are. My link list was just getting too long with all those descriptions. I am also thinking of revamping the site a little more, and I would love feedback on these changes and anything else about the layout that you don’t like. Or things you really like. I have nothing specific in mind so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Just to let both my loyal fans know, I will be away on business for about 2 months, so there probably won’t be any new posts here as I likely won’t have Internet access.

First, apologies for the lack of substantive posts. I’ve changed jobs recently and it’s been a bit hectic adjusting to a new environment. I swear I have all sorts of insightful things to say about Kazakhstan and tons of boomarked articles; just no time to write it all down.

Also, a few people got mistaken for spam by my spaminator: It thinks KazakTelecom and the iCard servers are bastions of spam apparently. I have now fixed that problem (with my spaminator–KazakTelecom is on its own) and you should be able to comment. So go crazy!

A dear friend of mine has kindly set up a livejournal feed for this blog, so that is yet another way to get this blog syndicated.
You can check it out at: KZBlog syndicated and click on “Add this feed”

As part of the Wiki Project Central Asia on Wikkipedia.com, I put up a new requested article on the Education System in Kazakhstan: here.

Edit away! I don’t guarentee the 100% accuracy of everything but I figured having a framework up there (adapted from a report I did for a foreign consultant last year) would make it easier to edit and correct, than facing the big, blank screen would!

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In other education news, Bolashak students in Indiana University put on a national cultural program for Republic Day, and to educate people that Borat doesn’t show the real Kazakhstan.