The "blue screen of death" and other none non-sequiturs.

 The “blue screen of death” episodes are becoming more frequent on my computer. Soon it will be in hospice care. Fortunately everything is backed up. If I need new one it will be easy to find but Windows will be in Russian. Now I haven’t “learned” Russian beyond a limited, very limited, vocabulary so having Windows 7 (yes, 8 and I were not on speaking terms the last time I tried it), might facilitate some rapid learning, if not a lot of cussing. Of course I am in miserable shape, have been eating a lot of very fat meat with an extra helping of fat (the milk here is 2.5% butterfat although there is 1.5% if you can find it), and what with my well earned coronary just over the horizon and such, learning Russian through endless frustration might just tip me into myocardial mischief.

I’m back in Semey, a town I have come to love. Not sure why; it is a gritty, working class town of 300,000 hearty folks that have seen it all. From 500+ hydrogen bomb tests, up wind mind you, to the smoke and soot from local heating plants, to the Lada eating pot holes, somehow the place has really grown on me.

I am back giving master classes to interns and local colleagues and they seem to be well received. This represents a rather sizable change from my Almaty experience where the indifference can be palpable. Semey dates back 200+ years when there were seven sod and brick huts here. Seven is pronounce “seem” in one short syllable, hence the name Semipalatinsk or Semey. Many of the homes are constructed with logs and are air tight. I have included pictures of them in other blogs posts but just can’t seem to resist documenting this type of construction. So if you’ll bear with me here are some more.

The market (bazaar) here is a warren of shops that would give the average architect dyspepsia. Little if any obvious organization but everyone knows where everything is. All the public toilets in the bazaar are of the pay variety, generally for the equivalent of 18 cents. There are areas that are themed as it were; auto, home, food, even bikes. Again, everyone knows where things are, just not some taller American guy who is walking around in wonderment. I am only lost if I care. And why care? I think of all the things I would miss.

This year there are daily reminders of The War and its end 70 years ago. It is a source of enormous pride here and explains in part the large, dramatic, hirsute statuary dedicated to the warriors, male and female of that era. No one here didn’t know someone who died in the war and many are aware of the Battle of Stalingrad. Many of the TV stations will review what was happening on the same day in 1945. The grandiosity seems justified.

This herring bone theme seems to everywhere on older construction

Latch had to be as old as the home

 Rope used to make the home tight

Junk yard dog. Came up and wanted to be petted.

Hering bone facade on a log home

Apparently "Vlad and Natalia" are an item

It was COLD and gray in the bazaar unitl I saw these paper flowers

One of several bazaar bike shops

A sign celebrating 550 years of Kazakh statehood, 170 years since the birth of Abai (a revered poet and writer), 70 years since the end of WW II, and 20 years since the writing of the constitution of Kazakhstan

These signs are everywhere advertising invivo
facilitation of pregnancy

So here’s to a short post with lots of photos and no more blue screens.