impulse

Are you sure she didn't ask if you have a member? If you answered "no", she figured she was doing you a favor... On a more serious note, maybe the popo is sending foreign volunteers to catch them out?

That's why I mentioned Silom. If you didn't know better, most people would take the Lumpini exit. But that's a longer hike. Just like most people take the MRT Chatuchuk exit to go to Chatuchuk market. But that's not the best one.

A symphony concert isn't everyone's cuppa. But I thoroughly enjoyed tonight's. They did some classical and some contemporary and movie stuff. They had a male and a female singer and it was apparent he's a big deal in Thai circles. She had a great voice, and very attractive. They'll be doing it for the next 6 Sundays, same time and place. Then it gets too hot.

The other situation that used to bite us regularly is the woman who was applying for a $50K job. She'd get the job, be non-productive for 6 months going through training and learning lumps. (normal and expected). Then her $200K husband would get his bi-annual promotion and transfer, and she'd leave without ever having contributed anything. BTW, you're not allowed to ask her marital status, much less what her husband does. We've been sued for even asking.

Two repeated examples in my career where laws and their enforcement have hurt Blacks and Women. 1) You can't fire a Black employee without risking a huge discrimination lawsuit... Every employee you bring on has a risk that they won't work out, and you'll have to fire them. What's the best way to reduce your risk of being sued for wrongful termination? Don't hire employees that can sue you (and win) if they don't work out. 2) Several companies I worked for won't hire women of a certain age. Again and again, we hired women who were already pregnant (you're not allowed to ask). Six months later (do that math), they take their paid maternity leave, burden the company insurance policy to pay for the care, then don't come back when the mandated pregnancy leave runs out. It was clear from the results that they just hired on for the benefits and never had any no intention of staying. Can anyone think of a good way to prevent that abuse of the laws and the system? I can. Both of those are clearly abuse of the system. But the lawmakers (and the deep state) keep passing stupid, easy to game regulations. The ones that are hurt are the good Black and female employees.

Title says most of it. One of my favorite things about Bangkok (in season). I stopped in and they're set up and the sound people told me starts at 5:30... Well worth a visit. Free. MRT Silom, BTS Sala Daeng. Edit: Bring a folding chair if you have one. They used to have a couple of guys who rent roll up mats. I suspect they still do...

The problem with that plan is that it guarantees a high turnover of your better employees if you pay them less than they can make down the street. The slugs will stay with you forever, because that company down the street won't poach them. And some of them have become masters of doing the minimum they can get away with and not get run off.

Was it because they couldn't assess risk, or was it because they were considered sacrificial because they were morons? Not meant to be a pointed question. I don't claim to know.

Then why did the Biden DOJ sue Sheetz (gas stations), because they did background checks on their applicants for criminal charges? The DOJ claimed that the background checks discriminated against certain minorities who had a higher probability of a criminal record. Ponder that one, on several levels. Of course, it could be because Biden got the cold shoulder from the "crowd" at a Sheetz a few days earlier during a campaign stop.

Maybe I have my nomenclature wrong, but whenever I used the KBank debit card at a KBank ATM when I worked in Thailand, I'd get an alert on my phone even before I even finished the transaction. I assumed that meant the debit card was linked to the SIM. Is there another way that they do that? I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm trying to understand. This thread reminds me that I have to top up my annual AIS SIM, because it expires in February. I want it to be functional at wheels down on my next month trip...

Laws that are only enforced in one direction by the current knobs in office. But all that changes on January 20.

First you said it, quite clearly and unambiguously. Then when you get called out on it, you denied that's what you meant. You must be a lefty.

That may be how it was intended but just watching those 5'4" Secret Service ladies pretending to be human shields for a 6'4" Trump showed us all we needed to know. Had there been more than one shooter, someone else would be getting inaugurated later on in the week.

Steak ‘n Shake announced that they will switch completely from cooking in vegetable oil to “100% all-natural beef tallow” by the end of February. I remember how the taste of fast food fries took a nosedive when they went from real fat to faux oil. Thirty or 40 years later, we've found out that most vegetable oil is horrible for you. I switched back to real butter 20 years ago for cooking at home. And it tastes so much better than margarine. Can't wait to taste French Fries cooked right. https://dailycaller.com/2025/01/17/donald-trump-robert-f-kennedy-jr-beef-tallow-steak-n-shake/

When you get the message, do you have to approve it, or is it just an information message with no reply required? I swap out my Thai SIM with a China SIM when I'm in China. Also, that could explain why the KBank debit card was declined after I'd been in the USA for awhile, though the account still had plenty of balance. That was back around the start of Covid, and I wasn't using my Thai SIM in the USA, either.

Good question. I've got a year to figure it out. Since I'm only in Bangkok for 4 days this trip, I had more important (and fun) fish to fry today.

Between cell phone pings and gait recognition cameras, anyone who thinks they're anonymous in public are fooling themselves, masked or not. And nowadays, there are for-profit companies scraping up all that information and selling it to companies that want to avoid hiring problematic employees.

I don't object the 250 baht fee. I do object to having my card declined for lack of 250 baht when I have about 200K baht in the account. Seems to me like the prudent thing to do is decline the card if the balance gets below 250 baht plus whatever I'm charging.

I've never gotten that message when I was out of the country. I think it only shows up at domestic ATMs and maybe even only KBank ATMs. Maybe someone knows for sure?

I moved to Huntington Beach in the mid '90s and some of my coworkers had bought their homes for under $100K. And these weren't old geezers who had been there from the '40s or '50s. They were in their 30's so they had bought in the late 80's, and their homes were already worth $350K. Had I been transferred to SoCal a few years early and bought in, I'd probably still be living there. But I was on a TDA so I looked at the prices and rented.

A few days before my flight to Bangkok yesterday, I plopped down the old KBank debit card at a Sams Club (Walmart) in China. It was declined, but no big deal. I carry cash for just such cases. This morning, I tried the card outside a Bangkok branch and the ATM declined it. The guy who doles out the queue tickets tried it, and it didn't work. Then the cutie behind the counter took me out to the ATM to show me how to do it. It was declined yet again. Then she fiddled with some ATM menus and figured out that I needed to agree to the 250Baht annual debit card fee before it would work. Almost 200K in the account, and the card was declined until I got to Bangkok and agreed in person. Live and learn.

More than the pomp and the speeches, I'm looking forward to the Day 1 "dictatorial" edicts he's been promising.

Didn't see that coming. Too busy counting the brown envelopes to notice.

My best day in Huntington Beach was morning coffee on the 75F beach, hop in the car and drive through the 100F+ desert to snow ski in the mountains at Big Bear. Wore myself out and was back at the 75F beach for an evening stroll and dinner at the Ruby's (burgers) on the pier. I loved it there. But no way I could afford to move back. Normal working people can't afford it unless they bought their house before it went crazy.

I disagree. Thailand has changed, for sure. But so has "back home". The correct comparison isn't Thailand 2025 vs Thailand 1980. The best comparison is Thailand 2025 vs Back Home 2025. When I returned in 2019 to the USA after 20 years in Asia (10 of those in Thailand), it was not the same place I left. I'm staying in China now for personal reasons (sick GF), but I plan to retire to Thailand. I love it here. (I'm in BKK for my monthly visa run). But I'd also be remiss not to check out Mexico, just because it's a 2 hour flight to see the family and get Medicare, not a 30 hour travesty from LOS. That's the only downside to Thailand, especially with "pre-existing conditions" that make health insurance so expensive at my age.