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Actual for You - Kazakhstan - NOT Borat Land
Recently I've had a few writers seek me out for consultation because they were dealing with the fortunate mishap of having more than one agent interested in their work. That may sound fantastic if you haven't been able to get anything other than single sheet rejections in your mailbox, but these writers found themselves feeling like the dog chasing cars who finally caught one! What to do now?Below are a few points to consider, but note this: each one involves an evaluation of yourself and the agent. Ideally you'll be asking yourself, "What do I want here?" and then "What does the agent offer?" You'll see what I mean as we go on.The Art of CommunicationThis first point is all about how the back-and-forth communications between you and your agent will happen. Will you mostly talk via email? Or telephone? How easy will it be to get your agent on the phone? Now, what do you want your communications with your agent to be like? A couple of the writers I spoke with weren't happy with the agents who didn't return their phone calls or answer their emails in a
Bureaucracy - if you are on holiday, rather than emigrating, coming into and out of the country is the most likely area you’ll possibly encounter any problems. To be fair, we’ve not been stopped in a couple of years, but if they decide you look like a likely person to have violated a rule, there isn’t a great deal you can do about it. Coming into the country, they can decide not to let you in at all, and worse, leaving the country, they are only too well aware that you need to be available to get on a plane pretty soon.
Once you arrive in the country, you will need to register your presence, within 3 or 4 business days. There is nothing
So you want to know where to start with an online business? To get the full potential out of any online business you will definitely need a website. When I say website I don't mean a page that some programs give you with your affiliate ID attached to the end of it, but your own domain name and a good provider to host it on. But before we get into domain names and hosting accounts let's start at the beginning with the business idea itself.You first need to decide what your new website will be focused on, or your niche market. While there are thousands of work at home websites on the Internet, and the competition is well established, you can still find your own little niche within this bigger category that has been overlooked and is less competitive.Keyword research is crucial to determining your sites theme and the success of your online business. Keywords or keyword phrases are something that you will hear a lot about as you progress and start to develop your website. Even if your website is a pre-designed Plug-In Profits site It should eventually be optim
Things that may grab your attention whilst you’re over here:
Men nearly always shake hands upon meeting one another, even more so if it is the first time you’ve met. Women don’t. If they are family, there may be a peck on the cheek, or a quick embrace. This area is still a little fuzzy to me, so I just stand back and accept whatever comes my way :>
If someone thinks you look a little different to the accepted norm for a Russian or Kazakh person, they will simply stare at you. This shouldn’t be taken as an insult (or an invitation to get to know one another ;>). It is just if they want to get a good look, they won’t be subtle. People have different coping mechanisms for this behavioural trait. Some avert their eyes, others pretend not to notice. Still others will decide to turn it into a juvenile game. Whoever breaks the stare first loses, and you can keep a tally through the whole day you are out. Once you are up at the end of a day (18-3 for example), you can assume you’re no longer feeling like such a wimpy foreigner. Ummm, or so my friends tell me ;>
Whilst we may all joke about British manners and overly polite social standards, standing in line for something over here is an experience you’re not likely to forget very quickly. You’ll also be likely to quickly re-appraise your understanding of the term 'line' or 'queue'. People will have no shame, nor should you, about pushing their way to the front of what could have been a perfectly civil and organized wait for the bus/ticket desk/shop assistant/train. I still draw the line at elderly/young people, other than that, its every queue jumper for themselves, ultimately. (This does tend to mean most elderly/young people get served/on the bus before me, but I have this thing against trampling over brittle bones/people smaller than me.)
Upon arrival/exiting the country, be it 8.30pm, 3.45am or 3pm, you’ll likely find yourselves being greeted with a small (OK, more likely a table laden with more stuff than you’d normally see for a ‘light’ meal) snack and some drinks, to celebrate your arrival/time in the country, if you are staying with people, rather than a hotel. You might not feel exactly like wolfing the whole lot down, but if you take your time, with the food and the drink, you should do fine. DON’T feel obliged to down shots of Cognac/Vodka each toast. Unless that’s your adjusting mechanism to the flights & time difference ;>
Bureaucracy - if you are on holiday, rather than emigrating, coming into and out of the country is the most likely area you’ll possibly encounter any problems. To be fair, we’ve not been stopped in a couple of years, but if they decide you look like a likely person to have violated a rule, there isn’t a great deal you can do about it. Coming into the country, they can decide not to let you in at all, and worse, leaving the country, they are only too well aware that you need to be available to get on a plane pretty soon.
Once you arrive in the country, you will need to register your presence, within 3 or 4 business days. There is nothing
In wedding preparations, budget and space allocation is yet another point for consideration. While couples would normally have a hard time determining who to invite, chances are they would have to whittle down the guest list to accommodate the feasible amount needed to grace the special occasion of holy matrimony between the two.Determining the list of guests to grace the wedding would usually be a matter of priority. Depending on the type of celebration, relatives will always be the first consideration or even the priority of the bride and groom. Friends would follow and then colleagues and acquaintances as long as the allocation for accommodating the said guests allow.It has been a common issue that people planning their wedding tend to overdo it a little and tend to invite people who are not that important in their lives. It is a natural reaction! Relatives for example may extend beyond close kindred. It may seem harsh, but sometimes decisions have to be made to limit the number of true relatives not only because of the costs involved but also because yo
If someone thinks you look a little different to the accepted norm for a Russian or Kazakh person, they will simply stare at you. This shouldn’t be taken as an insult (or an invitation to get to know one another ;>). It is just if they want to get a good look, they won’t be subtle. People have different coping mechanisms for this behavioural trait. Some avert their eyes, others pretend not to notice. Still others will decide to turn it into a juvenile game. Whoever breaks the stare first loses, and you can keep a tally through the whole day you are out. Once you are up at the end of a day (18-3 for example), you can assume you’re no longer feeling like such a wimpy foreigner. Ummm, or so my friends tell me ;>
Whilst we may all joke about British manners and overly polite social standards, standing in line for something over here is an experience you’re not likely to forget very quickly. You’ll also be likely to quickly re-appraise your understanding of the term 'line' or 'queue'. People will have no shame, nor should you, about pushing their way to the front of what could have been a perfectly civil and organized wait for the bus/ticket desk/shop assistant/train. I still draw the line at elderly/young people, other than that, its every queue jumper for themselves, ultimately. (This does tend to mean most elderly/young people get served/on the bus before me, but I have this thing against trampling over brittle bones/people smaller than me.)
Upon arrival/exiting the country, be it 8.30pm, 3.45am or 3pm, you’ll likely find yourselves being greeted with a small (OK, more likely a table laden with more stuff than you’d normally see for a ‘light’ meal) snack and some drinks, to celebrate your arrival/time in the country, if you are staying with people, rather than a hotel. You might not feel exactly like wolfing the whole lot down, but if you take your time, with the food and the drink, you should do fine. DON’T feel obliged to down shots of Cognac/Vodka each toast. Unless that’s your adjusting mechanism to the flights & time difference ;>
Bureaucracy - if you are on holiday, rather than emigrating, coming into and out of the country is the most likely area you’ll possibly encounter any problems. To be fair, we’ve not been stopped in a couple of years, but if they decide you look like a likely person to have violated a rule, there isn’t a great deal you can do about it. Coming into the country, they can decide not to let you in at all, and worse, leaving the country, they are only too well aware that you need to be available to get on a plane pretty soon.
Once you arrive in the country, you will need to register your presence, within 3 or 4 business days. There is nothing
Just about everybody gets them...I had them just recently...Yup, I had a serious case of the "poor me's", those down-in-the-dumps, pitiful, worthless feelings of failure and scarcity. I mean, I threw a full-blown pity party.My web host went down, so no one could see my web pages. I couldn't get my email. I couldn't even get into the control panel to make sure I had a current list of subscribers for this newsletter...Then, just to make sure I was good and miserable, I threw in a few "what-ifs".What if the database is gone forever?What if I never build it back?What if my business fails and I have to go looking for a J.O.B.?What if I can't find one?What if we lose the house...?By the time those poor-me's and what-if's got going, in my mind we were living in a cardboard box and it was all my fault...Oh, how a good night's sleep can change things. I got up the next morning, and started on my normal routine. Part of that routine is spending at least 30 minutes reading something good. Something that wi
Whilst we may all joke about British manners and overly polite social standards, standing in line for something over here is an experience you’re not likely to forget very quickly. You’ll also be likely to quickly re-appraise your understanding of the term 'line' or 'queue'. People will have no shame, nor should you, about pushing their way to the front of what could have been a perfectly civil and organized wait for the bus/ticket desk/shop assistant/train. I still draw the line at elderly/young people, other than that, its every queue jumper for themselves, ultimately. (This does tend to mean most elderly/young people get served/on the bus before me, but I have this thing against trampling over brittle bones/people smaller than me.)
Upon arrival/exiting the country, be it 8.30pm, 3.45am or 3pm, you’ll likely find yourselves being greeted with a small (OK, more likely a table laden with more stuff than you’d normally see for a ‘light’ meal) snack and some drinks, to celebrate your arrival/time in the country, if you are staying with people, rather than a hotel. You might not feel exactly like wolfing the whole lot down, but if you take your time, with the food and the drink, you should do fine. DON’T feel obliged to down shots of Cognac/Vodka each toast. Unless that’s your adjusting mechanism to the flights & time difference ;>
Bureaucracy - if you are on holiday, rather than emigrating, coming into and out of the country is the most likely area you’ll possibly encounter any problems. To be fair, we’ve not been stopped in a couple of years, but if they decide you look like a likely person to have violated a rule, there isn’t a great deal you can do about it. Coming into the country, they can decide not to let you in at all, and worse, leaving the country, they are only too well aware that you need to be available to get on a plane pretty soon.
Once you arrive in the country, you will need to register your presence, within 3 or 4 business days. There is nothing
If you are about to get married and you are getting a lot of pressure from your wife to be, its probably because she is so stressed out about her wedding day. She is feeling all the pressure of making everything perfect. Well this shouldn’t be a stressful day either of you, this should be a time for both you to relax and focus on where you are going to go for your honeymoon.Reality check, this doesn’t usually happen, what happens is she winds up trying to all of this here self. So here is how you solve this problem. You take some of the load of her and you place it somewhere else. How, you ask, well you should first start by appointing jobs to your wedding crew. Who are they, this is no other then your groomsmen and her bridesmaids. This could be people coming to the wedding your parents for instance, this should be a stress free time and they will understand and probably love the ideal that you want to make them part of the creation of your wedding day.So where to begin, well you should start with your parents find something that they can do that wont take
Upon arrival/exiting the country, be it 8.30pm, 3.45am or 3pm, you’ll likely find yourselves being greeted with a small (OK, more likely a table laden with more stuff than you’d normally see for a ‘light’ meal) snack and some drinks, to celebrate your arrival/time in the country, if you are staying with people, rather than a hotel. You might not feel exactly like wolfing the whole lot down, but if you take your time, with the food and the drink, you should do fine. DON’T feel obliged to down shots of Cognac/Vodka each toast. Unless that’s your adjusting mechanism to the flights & time difference ;>
Bureaucracy - if you are on holiday, rather than emigrating, coming into and out of the country is the most likely area you’ll possibly encounter any problems. To be fair, we’ve not been stopped in a couple of years, but if they decide you look like a likely person to have violated a rule, there isn’t a great deal you can do about it. Coming into the country, they can decide not to let you in at all, and worse, leaving the country, they are only too well aware that you need to be available to get on a plane pretty soon.
Once you arrive in the country, you will need to register your presence, within 3 or 4 business days. There is nothing
I recently had a chance to see and feel how a few simple words can really make the difference in changing and enhancing your Customer Service interaction.I had been in Dallas for an extremely exciting and fun convention. (see, already simple words at work. “Exciting and Fun”) I was tired and ready to head home. I arrived at the airport, feet dragging, sleepy and a little early. After waiting two hours, we were boarded and ready to go.After we had pushed from the gate, the captain came on, and I was expecting the usual pre-flight “Welcome to our Airline” spiel, when I was pleasantly surprised.The Captain announces “Welcome to our Airline, and briefly I want to tell you a little about our plane and crew.” This is different I thought to myself.“This plane is a Super 80 aircraft and is designed to provide you with the quietest and nicest ride.” Wow, nice and quiet ride. “Our crew is the happiest and friendliest crew and on behalf of them and myself I invite you to sit back and enjoy our service.” The happiest and friendliest crew proved to be a
Bureaucracy - if you are on holiday, rather than emigrating, coming into and out of the country is the most likely area you’ll possibly encounter any problems. To be fair, we’ve not been stopped in a couple of years, but if they decide you look like a likely person to have violated a rule, there isn’t a great deal you can do about it. Coming into the country, they can decide not to let you in at all, and worse, leaving the country, they are only too well aware that you need to be available to get on a plane pretty soon.
Once you arrive in the country, you will need to register your presence, within 3 or 4 business days. There is nothing to worry about regarding this procedure; it is just so they can know who is officially registered where. Whilst this country is a lot ‘freer’ than it may have seemed to Westerners 15 or 20 years ago, you will have to remember that the approach taken by the government over here to maintain control of the population is not how we view ‘best practice’ in the West. Tough luck, their country, their rules, which, all in all, seems fair, if the roles were reversed, we’d not expect people to complain too excessively about our customs/social rules/laws.
Re. CDs/DVDs vs. portable hard drive. I’ve read around, and people have less difficulty taking hard drives out of the country than lots of discs, apparently. I couldn’t find any info on importing. Personally, I’ve never had a problem in either direction. There is apparently a rule, on your way out of the country, that if Customs discover discs in your luggage, they must have been previously inspected and sealed by a dept. elsewhere in Astana. You’ll need to do this four or five days before the flight. Some people stock up on cheap Software, Music and other media, though don't forget your home country may not allow you to keep these items if they search your luggage on your return.
When in the country, you will see some people walking around in army camo fatigues, most of these people are manual labourers, who use them as hard-wearing clothes to work in. If, however, you see a group of 2-6 young men wandering in ‘urban’ colour camos (blue/purple), these are some sort of street patrollers. No idea on their legal/military/civilian status, I just make sure I’m not littering/jay-walking when I see them around :>
Then you have the regular police force, who you will see in cars (often using their PA systems as public education systems (’Drivers! Do not park here’ or ‘Move out the way NOW’)), on foot, or in little kiosks at key strategic civic points. The worst you can expect from them is a request to see your ID and/or passport.
There is also a traffic police force, who occasionally turn off the traffic lights, and get out their little wands to manually direct the traffic. Unless you intend to drive over here (don’t forget to apply for an International Driving License in the UK, if so), you can safely ignore them. Finally, you’ll occasionally see the Army guys marching round in unison, but they seem to stay off the streets for the majority of the time.
“So how much money should I bring?”
Well, not sure on total, but if I give you an idea of how much stuff costs here, you’ll be better informed to guess a holiday total I suppose... (All prices are approximate and sampled in Early 2007)
20 fags (Parliament) - $1.50
20 fags (Marlboro) - $1.00
20 fags (Russian smokable stuff) - $0.40
Bottle of coke in a shop - $0.50
Bottle of vodka in a shop - $1.60 to $8, depending on the brand (from drinkable to
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