OneMoreFarang

Recently we had some topics with arguments about bar girls and normal girls. And what we like and what we want. One member pointed out that looking at some pictures which I published here from time to time, I would be probably not interested in normal girls. My reply was that most normal girls, i.e. in offices, just don't turn me on. Today I had the perfect opportunity to think about this. Some time ago one of my favorite bar girls, Jane, was a professional accountant. She was smart and pretty, and she decided to work in a bar to make more money and later she found a rich sponsor. One reason was that she wanted to have someone to finance a good school for her son. Today I was in a meeting with a high-ranking accountant. And the funny part was that this accountant looked a lot like my favorite bar girl Jane. Similar face, height, age. But the accountant in that meeting had almost no makeup, a normal hairstyle, and ordinary office clothes. She was still pretty, but even if I would be single, I wouldn't have thought about asking her out. Now if I would see the girl from the meeting with a short skirt, made up hair and good makeup, then I would probably be very interested. So the member who "accused" me of not being interested in normal girls was right. Normally I somehow don't see them if they don't spend time to look sexy. How about you? Did you meet your gf or wife when she did her best to look good? Would you have "seen" her if she would have had different or no make-up, different clothes, etc.?

It seems you think you can hear the difference. So just to confirm, you say you will hear the differences between 128kbps and 256kbps MP3 and FLAC (lossless), correct? Do you hear that with any setup? Or just with very good headphones? Or 5k speakers? Any music? Or only your favorite tracks? I agree these days there is no reason for compression anymore, disk space is cheap, and bandwidth is no problem. But is that a reason to delete all those old mp3 files and start from scratch? Personally I don't think so.

If the source is very bad, then obviously nothing will make it good. But 128kbps MP3 is already good. Not excellent, but good. Nobody would have used it for years if it would have been so bad. When MP3 emerged about 30 years ago lots of people compared files with different bitrates. And people tried to save disk space. Most people at that times were happy with 128bkps. This is why lots of files are in that format. I am sure also today most listeners wouldn't be able to hear a difference with ordinary speakers in ordinary rooms (maybe with AC running). There are only few people who have the high-quality devices and the hearing to differentiate between good and very good.

I recently saw a video from a professional fire fighter. He showed a couple of ways which are not successful to stop those fires. His summary: Just let it burn. And try to make sure nothing else catches fire.

Sure But then there are those people who think they are smart and who buy cheap. And then they are surprised when bad things happen. How could that possibly happen? ...

And people should remember their passwords. I met lots of people who had backup of their phones online. But they were never able to access those backups, or continue with their accounts, because they entered once some passwords, probably short after they bought their phones, and then never used those passwords again. And then there are consequences. It seems too many people don't understand the consequences or can't be bothered to think about them and make sure they don't end up without their own data.

Maybe he can convince the mother that there is more to life than only good grades. At least I think that is what he should try.

You have a point. And in a way it is good when the mother looks that the child gets a good education. But there is something like too much learning. For proper development kids also have to play with friends and alone. And when kids didn't have that over the years when they develop nothing can make those kids "healthy normal" again. He should try to find a solution where the kid learns and plays.

I share your concern about Lithium battery fires. But electronics can be cheap and without any regulation the batteries would die on the first charge. There will be some electronics. How good or bad or reliable is a different question.

I imagine that decent teachers and decent schools know that a child should not study 24/7. If a school and teacher and mother insist that your child lives like that then they don't have the best interests of the child in mind.

And then other tourists go to other places in Thailand and complain that the locals don't speak English, don't offer proper (western) food, that the food is too spicy, etc. For most tourists it's a good idea to go to tourist places.

With your not existing knowledge about phones (and prices) I suggest go to a proper shop. And if you think you don't want to spend a lot of money then buy a cheaper phone - and not a cheap knockoff.

Like the author of Private Dancer...

A long time ago, when disk space for mp3 files was still an issue, I listened to file in 128kbps, 192kbps and higher. On "normal speakers" in normal environments (like AC running in the background), I couldn't hear a quality improvement with better compression. With expensive headphones (about 3oo USD at that time) I could hear a difference. The source only becomes and important issue if you have a high-end setup, especially speakers.

Good idea, I never saw that old video. I only knew this version:

Billy Idol on full volume with > 200km/h on the Autobahn.

At least you should offer him to compensate him for his expenses and time.

Sure, cables and connectors make a difference. But mostly it's about using a big enough copper cable and gold-plated connectors. Lots of fancy cables are just eye candy. Luckily my system is all digital up to the active speakers (with digital input). The cables with XLR connectors cost a couple of hundred THB.

Can he explain? Or can he, or anybody else, measure a difference? Too many so called audiophiles believe they can hear a difference, but they can't measure any difference. Modern measurement techniques are extreme good. And 20kHz or even 100kHz is nothing demanding. And even if cables would be 0.001% inaccurate, how about speakers? This is a sample from a very good and very expensive speaker. And this is considered very good. Now think about the measurements of a cable...

My gf used to gamble a lot. When the police came and wanted money, she paid. When the police come again and arrested her, she paid more. And at that point she decided playing cards is fun but paying too much money to the police and getting arrested is no fun. Summary: Most of the time she doesn't play anymore. In general with my gf, I have no problem if she plays cards from time to time. She is good at it and mostly she wins. And she knows that I won't pay for the police. If she gets arrested, then it's her problem to get out of the mess.

Maybe that was mentioned already: Gambling, including playing cards, is illegal in Thailand. If the cops see it, then they arrest the gamblers - also up country in the villages. Or the gamblers have to pay the police not to get arrested. So if you want to stop any game, call the police and let them arrest her and her friends. Maybe that is "incentive" enough for her to stop.

She presented a solution to you.

Don't waste that money. Read or watch what Amir has to say: www.audiosciencereview.com

I think part of the problem is that we have to decide how good is good enough. I.e. I would say I am happy with my long-term gf maybe 90% of the time. In parts of the remaining 10% I really think I don't need this s#$%. But she is smart enough to behave again sometime soon. I never asked her about which percentage of my behavior she likes or not... I don't think there are perfect relationships. We have to decide when good enough is good enough and if it makes sense to chase for something better which maybe doesn't exist.

About the same age I also thought about building my own speakers. But I never did it. Now I just decided to buy some professional JBL speakers. I think that was a good decision. ????