sleepyjohn

Hi

I have an old yeng chang, the big Thai "sofa" with the spindled gating around the sides and back.

It is a very good and large example in excellent condition. All the spindles are still there and actually all still turn.

It has gloss varnish which is not very high quality, and would strip or sand quite easily.

I would prefer to take it back to bare wood, then perhaps put a wax or emulsion type stain on it.

In fact if anyone can recommend something good which isn't a "skin" like varnish, please say so.

My main thing is the rather complicated spindles, 20 of them, around the gating would be very difficult to sand so perhaps the way to go is sandblast or strip.

Anyone have any experience here?

Can you recommend anyone/anywhere?

thanx v much

John

Without intending to be rude, how do you know your boyfriend is depressed and why do you think that him reading about it will make any difference to him.

A pretty large study was done on just reading the 80's cognitive therapy book "Feeling Good" (Burns). It was termed bibliotherapy, and compared not only against non-therapy but against therapy under a mental health professional.

It may surprise you to learn that the bibliotherapy came out even with the professionally led therapy.

(If the OP would like to inform herself I recommend the above, still excellent, also Three Minute Therapy, much better than it sounds, demonstrating the mental toxicity of "musty" thinking.)

The depressive has likely used unwholesome and irrational self-talk (ie thought, and probably subliminally) to get himself into the state he's in over a considerable period of time. He needs that thinking challenged with rational and reasonable alternatives, preferably in a form where he himself comes up with the rational answer after being presented leading series of questions. It will likely also take considerable repetition and time to amend the unhealthy mental habit patterns that are now there. As a friend of mine who used to work in a hospital for the criminally insane said

"It ain't much fun".

Good Luck

John

"Use Ciprofloxin 500 mg for 2/3 days..."

I believe the normal course for antibiotics is longer than 2-3 days.

I took the Cipro for the full ten days.

John

Well it's now two or three weeks after the course of CIPRO.

To remind readers I was questioning the judgement of prescribing something not recommended for ears and shown in Lancet to be useless for the next nearest narrow channel in the head type thing, sinusitis. (My ears were also cleaned BTW).

So 2 or 3 weeks later I am still noticing a feeling in my left ear which feels as if the canal is kind of a bit closed, like the sides are occasionally touching or something. No pain as such, but something's not right.

The question is: Do I go to the same doctor? Was it in fact a reasonable treatment?

This is not the first time people have been jailed under strange circumstances after visiting King Power

This is the sort of company king power are,

That's slanderous. I think unless you have something better than your cigarette anecdote and have evidence of company instigation of or acquiescence to any related activity you should take it back .

Seems to me the owner of Kingpower would be extremely upset about all this.

If I were the complainant I'd be straight on the blower to him.

Seems like he'd be the best person to get things done and get heads chopped if he were sent the relevant information.

John

John; As a TV member for several years, have you kept abreast of King Power and their slight of hand measurements, etc at Swampy? Your last sentence would seem naive at the least as Thailand seems to be a country that defies the law of gravity, 'sh t' (in this case money) does roll uphill. This can be readily verified by the division of fines, legal fees, bail monies, etc which some of the Thai authorities themselves have mentioned.

I don't find my statement the least bit naive but rather the most sensible option.

I have to say I think loose accusation is rife on forums like this and would prefer posters were tighter with their facts,as sloppiness weakens the argument in general. Kingpower may have all sorts of loose business practices. To suggest, when talking about kidnapping that "that's the sort of company kingpower is" is however to my mind slanderous and beyond the pale and will not initiate an appropriate response.

John

My girlfriend's car's modestly shaded film has seen much better days.

On enquiring I thought the price for a film job was surprisingly expensive at several thousand baht for a very mass produced item in a competitive country like Thailand.

Is all the money going to 3M or is there a cheaper way to do it in CM?

In any case where's the best value?

John

This is not the first time people have been jailed under strange circumstances after visiting King Power

This is the sort of company king power are,

That's slanderous. I think unless you have something better than your cigarette anecdote and have evidence of company instigation of or acquiescence to any related activity you should take it back .

Seems to me the owner of Kingpower would be extremely upset about all this.

If I were the complainant I'd be straight on the blower to him.

Seems like he'd be the best person to get things done and get heads chopped if he were sent the relevant information.

John

I'm surprised anxiety wasn't mentioned for a long time.

I suffered from IBS along with a bad period of anxiety some years ago. I mean irrational anxiety, an illness really.

I was prescribed peppermint oil in capsules by my pretty modern doctor which I believe helped.

As the anxiety lifted, so did the digestive symptoms.

Good Luck

John

...I have become rather interested though in how doctors in places like Thailand, once they are qualified, get their information about new or improved methods of treatment, and in this case, pharmaceuticals...

The salesmen (medical representatives) of pharmaceutical companies or importers/distributors talk the doctors into prescribing/selling the latest, most expensive products.

That's the obvious assumption. I wonder though how much fact there is in it and/or whether there is some systematised educational update thing. There certainly should be. I would like to think my treatment was evidence-based.

cheers John

I think it has become inbuilt in man as a (natural) selective advantage.

The man whose mind scans the possible futures for danger is the man likelier to survive. Not to be happier, but to survive. To survive is to propogate. To propogate is to pass on the selective advantage.

Luckily we only need to realise this to take some of the wind out of it's sails, and a mind calmed by practise is no doubt less affected too.

Does this reveal a catch 22 situation we find ourselves in?

On the one hand having a mind in the future enhances survival & propagation amongst other things.

On the other hand our meditation & self awareness practice is designed to bring us into the here & now, to live in, and experience the present.

Luckily natural selection gives us enough positivity, QED, to balance, in fact outweigh, the negatives associated with dukkha.

Luckily again, it seems to me, is that simply realising what's going with our "unpleasant" mental factors makes them impotent at best and less potent at least. (The same of course applies to the pleasant sides).

We may have to be satisfied with less than perfection in our self-training. Our brain has developed over long ages to act in certain ways, one of them being to scan futures for danger and the best option. To not be in the present.

Telling it not to do so, certainly at first, is somewhat like telling our heart not to beat. Luckily not quite so difficult!

Luckily also being out of the now is nothing bad. It's just a matter of realising that if we're out of the now we're in a world of concept which is all too easy to forget as something we habitually reify into something "real". And from that reification there's a simple chain to potentially painful consequences. We don't want that do we?

cheers John

Buddhism teaches that suffering derives from karma, the causes that we ourselves have created for ourselves in the past.

I think there is more than one facet to dukkha.

There is the one as described in the posts above for which the quoted statement probably holds.

Then there is a subtle not-quite-rightness, a what-if-ness, what one monk friend, Charles at Wat Umong, describes, I think well, as a tension.

Personally I think this last is not at root the result of karma, ie karma vipaka.

I think it has become inbuilt in man as a (natural) selective advantage.

The man whose mind scans the possible futures for danger is the man likelier to survive. Not to be happier, but to survive. To survive is to propogate. To propogate is to pass on the selective advantage.

Luckily we only need to realise this to take some of the wind out of it's sails, and a mind calmed by practise is no doubt less affected too.

Which is good.

I have since enquired and my assumptions in the last post were accurate. He does indeed have a 401K and so do his employees.

Thankyou all for all the input.

I should say I'm not particularly bothered about my particular case of ear infection although it's slightly disturbing to read what I read about no evidence of efficacy in sinusitis and no recommendation at all for ears.

I have become rather interested though in how doctors in places like Thailand, once they are qualified, get their information about new or improved methods of treatment, and in this case, pharmaceuticals.

Can anyone fill me in?

cheers....

Ah now this is turning into a really useful thread already, thankyou Carmine et al.

I shall try to ask the more exact details from my friend tonight (not easy in his condition) but I remember him saying he sort of was in charge of investing the "retirement fund" for his employees and was feeling rather over-responsible doing that. (I advised he therefore start to withdraw from this). That suggests it's a typical small business where he has started things up for all of them, and so far I'm thinking he's not the sole 401'er but all of them are.

Do keep it coming and I'll advise more detail ASAP.

He is a nice person who regularly helps others, and now needs help from us.

cheers...

Normally 401Ks are protected. But if it's just him in the 401k, it could be up for grabs. Need to talk to a lawyer about that.

Thanks but I hope to get some advice from the forum here which I have sometimes found amazingly informative.

Two days ago I went to the Ram in CM with an ear problem. After an earache free life I have had several recurrences over several months. Moderate discomfort and considerable swelling in the left side canal and noticeable when chewing. In a previous episode it may have caused an ache along the line (forgotten the name) where skull plates join above the ear. Each time it has cleared itself up symptomwise.

The doctor washed out my ears, telling me an infection was less likely to hold in a clean ear (although I'm not sure how that gels with wax being antimicrobial).

He sent me off with a prescription for ciprofloxacin, a fluoroquinolone.

As antibiotics often work fast and no improvement in 48 hours I looked up Wiki.

I read that because of various factors this a drug of last resort.

In the adult population ciprofloxacin is limited to the treatment of proven serious and life threatening bacterial infections

and

Normally ciprofloxacin should only be used in patients who have failed at least one prior therapy. Reserved for the use in patients who are seriously ill and may soon require immediate hospitalization

I went on to look at appropriate conditions but ear canal was not one of them.

The nearest was sinusitis which I guess is about internal narrow tubes like the ear, but:

Antibiotics do not improve sinusitis symptoms a number of studies have shown. Primary care physicians (family doctors) commonly prescribe ciprofloxacin to treat acute maxillary sinusitis (inflamed membranes of the sinuses), although there is no evidence that this approach is effective. A report in the British medical Journal the Lancet found that antibiotics did nothing more than the placebos used as the control.[152]

(my bolding)

Within a recent study concerning the proper use of this class in the emergency room it was revealed that 99% of these prescriptions were in error. Out of the one hundred total patients studied, eighty one received a fluoroquinolone for an inappropriate indication.

So is this a billion $ drug which I shouldn't be taking.

And what are the alternatives?

cheers John

Old 24K gold is no more valuable than new 24K gold, so what is it that you do not like about regular gold shops? The all have 24K gold.

I guess you mean 23k.

What is it I don't like about the jewellery from regular gold shops?

It's the cheapest possible option......and to me it shows.

As for a watch I'm talking about a classic like an old Piaget I used to have long ago.

Thanks for the replies.....more welcome.

hi

I have a friend undergoing severe anxiety and depression brought on by a couple of poor decisions made much worse by the world economy.

He is incapable of thinking clearly for himself right now and I am trying my best to understand his affairs.

He has a small business of 20 years in the US employing eight people I think. He manages to live in Thailand about half the time. In the recession he says it is suffering badly and he is very concerned it will go under. From there he is fearful that his property payments will get behind resulting in foreclosure.

Here is the bit I am interested to learn about:

He is worried that his 401K is vulnerable as a source of prospective debt repayment to debtors.

I asked him what sort of company it was, whether it had limited liabilities, but he seemed to think he was vulnerable.

So....can a 401K be sequestered by a court to repay debts?

thanks on his behalf

John

My guess would be Ratchada-Lat Phrao Market in BKK. I doubt if there is anything like that here.

Thankyou Elektrified

do they have quality stuff there?

Anything in CM anyone?

Land Department (72.22%), followed by tambon administration organisations (68.52%), provincial administration organisations (60.52%), highways and traffic police (59.08%), and local politicians and influential figures (44.76%).

Can someone explain how the police topped the list?

Hi there

1. it's all in the title really.

I really don't like the stuff in the regular gold shops.

If I want to have an investment which really has some quality in return for a reasonable premium, where can I go?

2. An additional question:

Is old gold usually the same grade as the new stuff......and if not do they rub test it or what?

3. BTW what about really nice watches?

4. Thanx for all help!

Why I could never buy a Fortuner.......

A car designed for the gas greedy USA doing 3 point turns just to get out of the driveway in a soi? When I see that or someone parking one I cannot hide a (slightly annoyed) chuckle.

I had a girlfriend who had the third one in CM some years ago. She asked me to drive it as she found it very difficult to park. Well at 6ft 3 it felt like I needed a periscope to look over the windscreen which is probably why one can only see the eyebrows of Thais driving them. As for them reversing.....watch out.....

Averaging 15.3 half around town, half open road. That went up from 14.1 as soon as I put a deck lid on the back.

.....hmmm impressive.....in a Hummer sort of way!

I mean really if you're going to take more than your fair share of gas and road space, why not get a Range Rover and do it in style?

cheers

I don't think it will do any good to complain. This is Thailand and all you'll get is a nice smile and probably no verbal reply. However, they are great at giving excuses.

Don't know how long you have been in Thailand, but that's the way it is. Don't cause yourself any more grief. Concentrate on any/all of your medical problems. Don't make things worse.

Systems theory says the tighter the feedback the more intelligent the system and I find feedback sadly lacking in all types of organisation here Jimmy. The very top down, rule/role culture has been instilling it for centuries.

If others had complained about this sort of "treatment" we all might not be receiving it. That's my thinking. Thanks anyway.

Still interested in informed opinion here.....

John (over 5 years here)

You want to solve healthcare, Jingthing, then cut out the lawyers.

Yes it's truly time for a revolution in the US.

The US population seems to have gradually accepted as normal the most egregious health care system with the moneygrubbing hands of insurance compnies, lawyers, pharma and yes very much doctors bleeding you dry. The US has people have been slowly conditioned into thinking it is normal, and yes a European or a Canadian model is exactly what you need. You have become a country so obsessed with perfect health and perfect teeth that people work themselves to an early death struggling to acheive it, and if you have the misfortune to be in ICU well you're simply not allowed to die.

I am disappointed that Obama, who promised to get rid of insurance companies, is not now doing so.

What the hel_l have insurance companies got to do with deciding who should get treatment? Why are they even there?

Hi there

Early last month I had the most comprehensive medical check of my life. All the normal and a few extras.

Three very consequential and unconnected problems showed up.

Two I'll ignore here but I'm interested in our informed posters opinions about the other one.

The radiologist did his job well and on my chest XRay just on the top edge of the screen noticed my trachea was really quite curved to the right at T1-T3, suggesting a growth in the thyroid.

Went to the endocrinologist and as soon as it was pointed out it was very noticeable and was the obvious reason for the odd constricted feeling I had had training when I reached my arms over my head. When I cough the left side truly bulges out it rather shocked my girlfriend. The endo told me the rough odds about the possibilities and said a multi needle biopsy was on the cards. I had had a body ultrasound which showed up one of my other problems, but he immediately sent me for another ultrasound specific to the thyroid. It showed a considerable growth of 4.4 x 6.8cm in the left paratracheal region. That's somewhat bigger than a golf ball. My Adam's Apple is actually somewhat shifted to the right and I'm amazed I never noticed it.

Here's my gripe:

The first thing on the menu for my medical was a physical examination.

When I look back I remember thinking it was rather cursory. I didn't realise it was so cursory that it missed a potentially deadly growth in my neck which if memory serves me right should be examined before the torso.

So I am considering complaining about something that it seems to me should have been unmissable and for which constructive feedback would seem essential.

My question is, is there actually any excuse?

Or is it the gross incompetence I'm thinking?

cheers John