55Jay

Feelings of nostalgia are normal as we age, as others pointed out, each generation tends to make the same kinds of comments. My grandmother used to read the newspaper once or twice a week and I remember a few times, she looked up at me, shaking her head, and in her quivering grandma voice say, "Ya' know Jay, the world is goin' to hell in a hand basket!". I suspect she spared my little ears the rest of what she was thinking to herself..... "Glad I'll be dead soon".

The internet is very powerful medium, capable of shaping and altering world view, outlook and personality in a "viral" way print, radio or television could only dream of. Unpopular commentary is that the internet should come with a warning label on it.

WARNING: "May cause psychosis, delusions, depression and leaping to tall assumptions in a single bound".

Global events are concentrated and available to binge on in near real-time, often so fast, they lack significant details and background, which can foster and/or intensify cynicism, polarization and confirmation bias. TVF is an excellent swab stain in the internet petri dish but by no means alone. If you feel like the world is going to hell in a hand basket, quite a bit of this material will reinforce that, and the feeling that events are quickening when, in reality, a lot of the same kind of thing was happening decades ago ~

Economic booms and busts, fluctuating commodity and FOREX prices, civil rights clashes and riots, illegal immigration, feminist movement, cold and hot wars, political intrigue, overt and covert military adventures, the drug war, terrorists hijacking cruise ships, airplanes, hostages, bombing of both military and civilian targets, nuclear proliferation tension, famine, genocide, religious violence, unchecked pollution, climate change.

Some of it has been a straight line trajectory leading us to where we are now. Some of it is cyclic. Beards and bell bottoms were in, then they were out, now they're in and will (hopefully) be out again soon.

Village water bill guy showed up yesterday with bill for 210 Baht, 22Jan > 24Feb16. That's about right for when there is water service but we've been on rationing hours since December, escalating to what is now a trickle every 3rd day, if that.

Wife paid the bill but put the water guy on notice. We shut the city water tank incoming valve, cleaned out the tank and started taking well water delivery by truck 3 to 4 weeks ago.

Well water delivery guy came by shortly after this and said we should ensure all our hose/pipe valves are closed as air moving through the pipes at times of random, low pressure delivery, could cause higher, erroneous readings.

Heading out shortly to eyeball the meter and may just shut the master incoming valve altogether. I'm not a natural domestic handyman type so I never gave it much thought until now. Thought I would mention here, although it may be a no brainer to many.

No first hand knowledge of course, but maybe the mooban gardeners aren't sufficiently paid/motivated?

They are an "in place" solution so why not give 'em a go for a couple weeks and see how they perform - meantime sussing out other solutions. If they are ok and the price is right, sorted. If not, move on.

Only pay bribes to reputable, confirmed government officials.

If you want to know how plump ....check this link

ปุ้ย อรัญญา

I now think...the report was being very polite regarding this lady...

Some dudes go for that kind of woman.

The ones who don't divorce them, and move to Thailand.

You should have drafted the complaint email, saved it as a draft, then re-read the next morning.

If it were me, I wouldn't have sent it at all, but certainly not as it reads above.

You haven't identified a rectifiable issue, so there is no solution. You are just venting, and thus, are not likely to receive a response or, at best, a generic one.

A made my point of view clear on board already with my loud voice too,

as soon as I could take action and changed the seating positions to my style again.

Family together not ripped apart!

After the fasten your seat belt sign went off.

The stewardess checked than my boarding passes, but as they had been correct in line with the seating,

she wanted to explain that she meant good and I said I understood but have my own ideas.

I not care much if I get a response or which one, I have to let my steam out!

I understand now.

At our last trip to Los Angeles, Cathay Pacific upgraded me to business class at Hong Kong, but not my wife, so I must decline. They return 5 minutes later and said ok, your wife is upgraded too.

I thought,

as a real Gentleman, you had offered the Business Class upgrade instead to your wife and sent her in the front or upstairs.

She is too much a a gentle lady to accept that, and leave her gentleman husband, who had also decline for same reason.

You should have drafted the complaint email, saved it as a draft, then re-read the next morning.

If it were me, I wouldn't have sent it at all, but certainly not as it reads above.

You haven't identified a rectifiable issue, so there is no solution. You are just venting, and thus, are not likely to receive a response or, at best, a generic one.

A made my point of view clear on board already with my loud voice too,

as soon as I could take action and changed the seating positions to my style again.

Family together not ripped apart!

After the fasten your seat belt sign went off.

The stewardess checked than my boarding passes, but as they had been correct in line with the seating,

she wanted to explain that she meant good and I said I understood but have my own ideas.

I not care much if I get a response or which one, I have to let my steam out!

I understand now.

At our last trip to Los Angeles, Cathay Pacific upgraded me to business class at Hong Kong, but not my wife, so I must decline. They return 5 minutes later and said ok, your wife is upgraded too.

Funny there are a few people sprouting the usual "only in Thailand" thing. I seem to recall quite a few Brit, American and other nationality "virgins" selling the right to be the 'first" in auctions. ( A hooker by definition)

Here we have someone who may be lonely (hopefully not just a publicity stunt) and driven to the act of promoting her wishes of wanting to be married before giving herself up.

Of course those fine upstanding lasses from Westopia are better because they are...hmm. from Westopia I guess

If she's genuine, I wish her luck and hope she finds true happiness ad not just a gold digging gogo dog who's going to milk her for every cent.

Anyone tried calling the number on the billboard?

You should have drafted the complaint email, saved it as a draft, then re-read the next morning.

If it were me, I wouldn't have sent it at all, but certainly not as it reads above.

You haven't identified a rectifiable issue, so there is no solution. You are just venting, and thus, are not likely to receive a response or, at best, a generic one.

Hmm, PR stunt for upcoming role...

That could be. Raising her profile before reading for the role of slightly over-weight, 45 y/o manic depressive virgin who, when the moon is full, dresses like a Ninja and spray paints angry messages on random cars in Bangkok. "You stole my lover!".

FYI....it was a Honda Civic

This happened 6 years ago. Her 2 year sentence was suspended. 48 hours of probation/year x 4 years. 6 years later, she's only done 90 hours and is a defiant, entitled little twerp. Nice BMW she was driving, age 16, no driver's license (as if that means anything), top of the line mobile phone no doubt.

Parents paid lots of money to make this all go away. That also buys them the right to thumb their nose at the puny probation department run by lo-so's.

If ever an Army attitude adjustment was needed......

Yup, thanks.

This happened 6 years ago. Her 2 year sentence was suspended. 48 hours of probation/year x 4 years. 6 years later, she's only done 90 hours and is a defiant, entitled little twerp. Nice BMW she was driving, age 16, no driver's license (as if that means anything), top of the line mobile phone no doubt.

Parents paid lots of money to make this all go away. That also buys them the right to thumb their nose at the puny probation department run by lo-so's.

If ever an Army attitude adjustment was needed......

"Nice BMW she was driving"

Actually the reports say it was a Honda Civic.

OK.

The practice of discriminatory pricing is certainly not unique to Thailand or Asia. Complaints in the West about women being overcharged by car dealers, minorities being overcharged on loans despite good credit scores, or contractors gouging for jobs are not difficult to find.

People also need to remember that things weren't all that different back home in years past. This description from Robert Gordon's The Rise and Fall of American Growth of what shopping in 1870's America was like may sound familiar to many here:

"…a trip to the local general store was both time consuming and a special occasion. The entire family would come along and spend its surplus of marketed food in trade for shoes, men's clothing, and fabrics for the women to use in making their own clothes. …Prices were determined by haggling and the transactions had an undercurrent of tension. …There was also a dichotomy in the prices paid, as rural families were often victims of price gouging by local monopoly country stores, at the same time that it was not uncommon for people perceived to be more well-to-do to be charged more than others."

The book goes on to explain that it was the rise of mail order catalogues, supermarket chains, and department stores which offered standardized pricing which pressured other businesses to standardize their prices. The internet, of course, has accelerated this process even further. You see these same forces at work in modern day Thailand with Lotus, Big C, Makro, 7-11 and the internet taking ever larger market share. Forabee is an outlier example of a retailer hopelessly out of touch with the marketplace forces at play here, the growing sophistication of consumers, and the power of social media. But let's not get our panties in a twist over this, gentlemen; the truth is that things have improved considerably here over the past 10 years.

But please, for goodness' sake, let's not forget that these changes were forced by competition, not because Western businesses have inherently higher ethical standards. Things weren't all that different one hundred years ago back home, examples of unscrupulous pricing can still be found all over the world, and market forces are going to put a stop to these practices soon enough, so I don't see much point in getting worked up over isolated cases such as this. Just vote with your feet. The message will be received soon enough.

I'd say it took twenty posts then.

More than I expected actually. A lot of effort went into writing that post too.....

Your OP lead in question slipped my mind completely. Good one!

<snip>

I then do a closer examination of the bad cable in sunlight...I check both cable ends just with my eyeballs and I think I see a problem on the end with the big connection/the standard USB 3.0A connector. I then get my jewelers loupe and look in the cable end and in the back I see a bent pin...well, more like not properly made at the factory. After several tries in the just the right lighting and view angle I get a picture of the defective connector (image below), send it to the Ebay seller and he refunds my money. Yeap, brand new cable...still in factory packing...defective.

You will notice a bent pin/not formed properly at the factory in the first image below. Per a pin out diagram (image 2 below) this was "Pin 6 StdA__SSRX+"..this is one of the differential data pins on USB 3 cables/ports not used in USB 2 only cables/ports. Since HDD cannot approach/utilize USB 3 speeds they only use USB 2.0 speed which still far exceeds HDD speed and associated USB 3 connector/cable wires are not really needed. However, since a SSD can achieve near USB 3 speeds it does attempt" to utilize the "differential receive/transmit" cables/wires in a USB 3 cable/connector. So, that's why the cable would work with a HDD in the enclosure but not a SSD.

Yeap, strange problems USB cables can cause...various problems. Try another cable if you haven't tried already.

Awesome post/photos, Pib. Digging out my magnifying glass.....

Good for her. What good is having a powerful family in a currupt country if you can't do shady things like this?

Her name is nobel with relation to royalty. She can do whatever she wants.

It may be unfair, but that's life. This is what power can give you. May as well use it. Her punishment will not bring back the dead and there is no such thing as true justice here, especially not for people like her, so she may as well make a mockery of the system and do what powerful people do.

My view is in the minority, I know. But there is no sense in dreaming about a justice that will never happen.

Fair enough.

Wonder what would happen if her sur name was Shinawatra?

The practice of discriminatory pricing is certainly not unique to Thailand or Asia. Complaints in the West about women being overcharged by car dealers, minorities being overcharged on loans despite good credit scores, or contractors gouging for jobs are not difficult to find.

People also need to remember that things weren't all that different back home in years past. This description from Robert Gordon's The Rise and Fall of American Growth of what shopping in 1870's America was like may sound familiar to many here:

"…a trip to the local general store was both time consuming and a special occasion. The entire family would come along and spend its surplus of marketed food in trade for shoes, men's clothing, and fabrics for the women to use in making their own clothes. …Prices were determined by haggling and the transactions had an undercurrent of tension. …There was also a dichotomy in the prices paid, as rural families were often victims of price gouging by local monopoly country stores, at the same time that it was not uncommon for people perceived to be more well-to-do to be charged more than others."

The book goes on to explain that it was the rise of mail order catalogues, supermarket chains, and department stores which offered standardized pricing which pressured other businesses to standardize their prices. The internet, of course, has accelerated this process even further. You see these same forces at work in modern day Thailand with Lotus, Big C, Makro, 7-11 and the internet taking ever larger market share. Forabee is an outlier example of a retailer hopelessly out of touch with the marketplace forces at play here, the growing sophistication of consumers, and the power of social media. But let's not get our panties in a twist over this, gentlemen; the truth is that things have improved considerably here over the past 10 years.

But please, for goodness' sake, let's not forget that these changes were forced by competition, not because Western businesses have inherently higher ethical standards. Things weren't all that different one hundred years ago back home, examples of unscrupulous pricing can still be found all over the world, and market forces are going to put a stop to these practices soon enough, so I don't see much point in getting worked up over isolated cases such as this. Just vote with your feet. The message will be received soon enough.

Excellent post and perspective but frankly, you are attempting to downplay and defend the indefensible.

If you read Thai, and were standing next to a foreigner and saw they were about to pay the 456 Baht for this honey, but you KNEW the Thai signage said less and had no bearing on nationality of the customers, what would you do?

asked, the child bride what she thought of this story, the reply ' the girl is a slut who loves many d|cks', what if they got the wrong car i ask, the reply 'if the other girl that angry to do that, she know the car'.

so guilty, in the eye of the mrs

Your wife actually uses that kind of language casually?

no she does not, but after 10 years of working in accounts and with a shipping department of a company in australia, she has arrived home many times asking what,hunt, puck, dog, slut, oar, pissed, wonker, tard etc, mean.

it hurts me, to tell her the meaning of awful words, but i have asked her brother to explain similar to me.

onya wildman

Logical explanation. Thanks.

where are the Junta defenders today? Out shopping for jackboots?

One or two are probably updating their little lists of those of us who may benefit from a spell in a "re-education camp"!

asked, the child bride what she thought of this story, the reply ' the girl is a slut who loves many d|cks', what if they got the wrong car i ask, the reply 'if the other girl that angry to do that, she know the car'.

so guilty, in the eye of the mrs

Your wife actually uses that kind of language casually?

I think he just wants to brag

About 2 million Baht? Really?

over in the 3 million baht thread 2 million would be enough for a lot of the posters there to live for at-least 20 years !!

Heh heh, indeed, found that thread last night.

This happened 6 years ago. Her 2 year sentence was suspended. 48 hours of probation/year x 4 years. 6 years later, she's only done 90 hours and is a defiant, entitled little twerp. Nice BMW she was driving, age 16, no driver's license (as if that means anything), top of the line mobile phone no doubt.

Parents paid lots of money to make this all go away. That also buys them the right to thumb their nose at the puny probation department run by lo-so's.

If ever an Army attitude adjustment was needed......

The bigger question is "Why would you want to live there ? " All the girls are gone, and are working in Bangkok. Maybe you like the rice fields?

He said "we" were looking. "We" noticed...

Your needs and expectations are not shared by all. I like visiting BKK/Patts, but wouldn't want to live there.

Ooops. Or?

It maybe time for all tourists and expats over 3 years in Thailand, (over stayers need not apply), to complete this training course , it could be run on the same lines as the Mining , oil and Gas induction course, the Junta seem to be having trouble with there own people with this attitude adjustment, just think what an outsider thinks. ..........................................

I was thinking a brief but invasive training course would benefit serial over stayers quite a bit.