ronz28

Hey you all,

I was born in Austin and raised in San Antonio Texas—city life but I rode horses bareback. milked cows, and herded sheep on my relatives farms in other parts of the state during summer. I lived in Brooklyn New York while stationed at Ft Hamilton for about 9 months and quickly picked up the Brooklyn accent but it has long gone now. What a time that was--one day I am on top of the Empire State Building looking over Manhattan on a windy day and feeling the building sway by several feet...a few days later I am in Bangkok trying to explain in English to a Taxi driver who spoke very little English how to get to the Chavalette Hotel ....Back in Austin now with my lovely Thai wife... Ahhh Hah!

Vrrroommm!

http://bandwidthplace.com/speedtest/results.php

Speed

1.3 megabits per second

Communications 1.3 megabits per second

Storage 157 kilobytes per second

1MB file download 6.5 seconds

Subjective rating Good

Info

Date & time Sunday, February 20, 3:23AM*

Test type IDT4 Free

Connection type ADSL

Region Texas

Data size 1024KB

McAfee- Zone Alarm

yeah, forget about Norton. oh yea, you talked about McAfee. is it make your pc slow? or just normal?

McAfee Virus scan doen't slow this Sony P4 2.8- WinXP down but I don't use their firewall because I tried it when it first came out on a older computer and it slowed it down. I then used Zone Alarm for a firewall with the McAfee virus protection on the older computer and it worked fine so that is what I went back to. Norton came free for a while with the new Sony but when it expired I switched to McAfee becaues it is now free with my ISP- AOL.

Norton sucks

I just switched from Norton to McAfee and scanned with Norton before the switch and nothing was found. I was using the Norton security suite with fire wall. With my first scan using McAfee it found 8 trojan horses. Norton?- never again!

If its warts this electronic device kills them off

There is an electronic frequency zapper that kills the virus you can build described in the February 2005 issue of Nuts and Volts. It sounds easy to put together and effective.

http://www.nutsvolts.com/toc_Pages/feb05toc.htm

My Thai lady and I have lived together in the US for almost 35 years now and its been good, I have always wanted to live in Thailand but when I landed a job there once she said no at the time because she wanted the kids to grow up in the U.S. It depends too on where you live in the U.S. A Buddhist temple nearby helps and living in some areas of the U.S could be negative. I am certain every person is different but our experience has been as follows:

- Will the Thai girl lose the charming "up-to-you" attitude, and become more independent and Western thinking? Nope, she still offers me the first bite after cutting an orange to eat, etc. Things have not ever been totally up to me but the Thai attitude has never changed.

- Will she be bored and watch soap-operas on TV all day and become another couch potato? Will she become a party freak and want to go dancing with local Farangs? Or, will she pick up and do some positive activity (read: go to school or start a business)? Mine went to college and got a job. She has now retired from it and watches Trading Places and other home remodeling shows now- not soaps. Since retiring a year ago she has painted and reorganized every room in the house. Not a party girl and it takes a lot to get her to go out for an evening.

- Will she adopt some of the “strong” attitudes of Western women where divorce court is just around the corner for a 50% split of all marital assets? The Thai girl might even enjoy to learn from her new Western women friends that the major income earner (read: Western husband) will pay for the legal costs for both parties in a divorce! No such attitude change and no experience here for me with that.

- Will she be hassled by other men - because she is Thai, young and beautiful? Perhaps an older man (like me) with a 20s young girl will be seen as fair game for a young romantic Western male, or does the Western male keep his distance and respect? Never had that problem though she is good looking but always dresses appropriately.

- Does the Thai girl show disinterest when approached by an interested Western male, and does she decline to get involved with needless chat and refuse to give out her cell phone number etc? In my experience Thai girls do not like to say “no” to a phone number request, even if they have no intention to start a romance. She knows how to say no but has not been hassled.

- Will she adjust to the new Western culture, without convenient food vendors offering food and fresh fruits wherever you turn? Yes but still enjoys eating out at Thai restaurants and cooks Thai food daily.

- Will she get used to the Western middle class suburbia, without taxies and people walking around in the neighborhoods? Things may be very quite and boring compared to sanok Thailand. Yes, but she must have her own car, access to the internet, time at the Buddahist temple and some even need Thai cable TV. Don't forget to get her a dog that can live in the house.

- Do you have any other cultural comments to help to set me straight on whether to bring my future wife to America or not? I believe Thais get along well in places like California, Washington State, Hawaii, Austin, Ft Worth and Dallas Texas. I don't think my wife would like living in the country (small town with no Thai community or Thai food) so , to me, it really depends on her and specifically where you want to take her. We are thinking of moving to Thailand when I retire but she is a little negative on the idea and just wants to vacation there. Good luck.

Rewarding those soldiers is a good thing!

They endured a lot and I am sure they saw some unspeakable sights and worked passed exhaustion. All those that endured so much in a short period of time working tirelessly to help the country return to normal deserve everyone’s gratitude. These guys can't choose to volunteer. They must go and work past exhaustion in times of need convenient for them or not. So some recognition is warranted and probably not that costly since most will be promoted in their career path anyway. I can't think of a better reason to reward a military man or woman than for helping protect one’s own country from invaders or the disease that could have followed the devastation without such a quick response.

The garbage and pollution bugs me the most.

We have cleaned up quite a bit of our U.S. pollution over the last 40 years by educating everyone about the environment and showing people maps of where the cancer hot spots are. I worked at an engine plant in Florida for a while and it seemed like an unusual number of people were dying from cancer. A nearby University did a study and found engine parts solvent that was a known carcinogen in the water supply. Yes, they found old rusted barrels outside leaking into the ground eventually getting into the water supply and cleaned it up after the fact. Lesson learned but not before many died. I don't even want to know what is in Thai water. I think all Thai people have to learn that all that pollution will end up killing a lot of people sooner or later. There needs to be environmental education in the schools, public advertising of how to solve the problem and government leadership involvement to turn this problem around. It such a massive problem in Thailand and I am sure every Thai student that has studied abroad has seen the difference and knows this has to be Thailand's number one problem.

Why don't ducks fly upside down?

I dunno y?

So they won't quack up!!

Quaaaaack, Quack, Quack, Quack, Quack, Quack!!

CNN, BBC Etc. Should Take Responsibility to Warn People from now on

The world wide news organizations have meteorology departments with worldwide weather information, and news. If they don't have an alarmed earthquake detecting seismograph or are not plugged into the world wide information systems like NOAA etc. they need to get it. Ted Turner created CNN and said he would give billions to the UN to help children - if only he would have made his network a part of the worldwide earthquake warning systems. Governments have demonstrated they drop the ball in being the middle man with the information. CNN, BCC, etc. just need to immediately announce major earthquakes and provide a little information about getting away from the Tsunami waves. I don't know of anything that could get the word out faster than satellite TV. We are dealing with 500 MPH waves here so extraordinary action is needed. Enough of the people would then have the information they need and would spread the word. We got to get this out of Government hands. They have failed us. I would far rather have been alerted about a major earthquake that doesn't impact me than weather in 50 cities around the world.

It doesn't take two cents for a warning system. It takes current government oceanographers, other scientists, military or broadcasteres in many countries paid to watch seismographs who see a 9.0 earthquake to immediately call CNN, BBC and other broadcasters in the area to beg them if necessary to warn coastal areas that a tidal wave may be coming and to get away from the beaches. Don't throw millions of dollars at those that had the knowledge and didn't act on it to warn those that didn't know. I believe we should hold those that knew but didn't warn others accountable. I heard an oceanographer on PBS yesterday say that Oceanographers knew a Tsunami was likely but no one asked him.

Good deal for New Year's most people are up and partying anyway. I find it hard to understand why people want to be in the bar past 1 A.M. for the rest of the time. But for those that do I can understand limiting it to a few areas away from places where people sleep so all the drunks don't mess up the quality of life for the rest of us. Its not a matter of wanting to control others. We just want to sleep without having to pass out due to all the noise.

To avoid mosquitos, slip a bounce fabric softener sheet through a belt loop or in a couple of pockets and the mosquitos stay away. Deet is effective too but I would try the dryer sheets first as they generally work and your not having to grease up with a chemical.

How do you stop a mob with selfish and unreasonable demands threatening to do harm to you and other peace loving people? Those trouble makers must face reality and get along like everyone else or face the consequences necessary to protect the rest of the peace loving people. If they can't control themselves they should move to a country that has whatever it is that they want and not try to force everyone else to change since that's not going to happen. I think the Thais are more than reasonable with those trouble makers. Those doing this should work to live their lives the way they want in this free country and quit blaming the government for their own failure to work. If not, the government should do what is must to protect everyone else including putting the attackers in jail and stopping any riots with whatever it takes.

What a scumbag, He ought to be executed immediately. Letting him suffer in jail is too good for him. Get rid of him.