Guitar God

I still can't get over all the scooters on the roads at night without working tai lights, headlights or both. See lots of cars and trucks with no tailights too.

I wondered what a "ute" was too. I knew a married guy with three daughters and he used to say how he liked getting out of the house full of utes (uterus owners) and having guys to talk to for a change.

Fairmont.com isn't the correct url, do you have another one or the full name? I did book a room for an upcoming trip there though.

Half the used car ads I see that appear to have a low price are people looking to sell a car for some cash and then have you take over the remaining payments. Add the two together and you're usually better off buying a new car.

My wife found a few ads for decent 5 year old cars for 200k-300k where similar cars a few months ago seemed to be 30% higher though.

Thanks for the info I will check out Fairmont.com. I didn't think Thailand had any reciprocal agreements with regard to payroll tax, just the US-Thai Amity Treaty which lets a U.S. business operate in Thailand without the need for any Thai shareholders. Neither of those factor into my situation as my company is in a European company that I'm a resident of which does have a reciprocal agreement which prevents double taxation on income .

I'm not 100% sure if that also applies to social/medical contributions. I think since I'm required to contribute to the medical program there and already have (excellent) medical coverage that it's unlikely I have any obligation to pay more into Medicare in the US if I only have foreign income. My Social Security statement says I've satisfied my obligation for Medicare.

It's only since the beginning of 2014 that I could be considered self-employed and I'm still not absolutely sure if I fit the criteria.

Now I own a foreign corporation which employs me. Both the corporation and I pay income tax in that country and file returns in both there and the U.S. Since the personal income tax there is higher than in the U.S. I have zero income tax liability in the U.S. because of foreign income tax credits which exceed my U.S. tax liability.

From everything I've read, if a U.S. citizen is working abroad and paying into that country's social security, healthcare, unemployment systems then they are exempt from making duplicate payments into the U.S. system.

I am an employee of a foreign company already paying all the taxes I'm supposed to be paying.

The only question for 2014 is, since I'm majority owner of the company if I could also be considered self employedi the U.S.? I've had Dutch accountants and U.S. tax preparers say "no".

Was Bill Gates self employed when he was CEO of Microsoft? Elon Musk, Donald Trump?

I just set up shop. That's my story and I'm sticking with it.

If you're having second thoughts about having your pet spayed or neutered, I think you've lived in Thailand too long. It's the responsible thing to do and has many advantages and minimal risks.

So if she's found guilty, and if she is sentenced to serve time in jail (yeah, I know, a lot of "if's") does she end up sleeping on the floor in a cell with 20-30 other prisoners serving time for selling yaba or cutting off their farang boyfriend's junk like the rest of the prisoners do, OR can she pay for a private cell and furnish it with all the mod-cons like Pablo Escobar did in Mexico?

Since the son of the Hi-so man in the news the other day never spent a day in jail for purposely ramming a bus shelter and killing someone, I don't think there's much of a chance of her doing time but, what happens to her if she did?

Bangkok bank debit cards with a chip only work in Bangkok bank ATM's here. I don't even bother to bring them to the U.S. or Europe. Maybe if the ATM had a chip reader? Haven't tried my Kasikorn or other cards. Have a plan B is my advice.

I left my wallet at a little booth that makes keys in Unon, retraced my steps and as I was walking up the owner pulled it out of the drawer he put in in for safe keeping and gave it to me. He wouldn't accept one baht for a reward. Not a thing was missing from it. A taxi driver in Da Nang found us in a restaurant on the third floor of the building he dropped us off at after he realized I'd overpaid him. Honesty seems to be the norm from my experience. It's still good to read stories about people doing good things instead the usual stories about animal torturers, suicides, accidents and crime.

If you're addicted, why stop? I'm not the one to ask, even at airport lounges I'm silently judgmental of people drinking during the day.

Segregating prison population due to severity of the crimes seems perfectly logical to me.

Why give hardcore criminals easy access to vulnerable, desperate people to lure or force them into doing their bidding?

Locking up users who may be victims themselves is inhuman.

I doubt the majority of people in jail for using yaba to stay awake to study or go to school after they worked all night at a market selling clothes or food went into it deciding to become a drug addict. Many probably took a "caffeine " pull or "vitamin " on a "friend's" suggestion and ended up hooked on meth.

Most logical idea I've heard on this subject from the government ever. Kudos.

Just because they don't have enough (or any) qualified counslors right now, that doesn't mean they couldn't train or import enough to cover the need.

I wonder what the senior police officials who are taking money under the table to allow illegal activities to go on in their territories are thinking?

Do they think they're too smart or too well-connected to get caught?

Are they crossing their fingers and hoping the army never finds out? Or at least the army doesn't find out until after the elections and the coup is over?

Are they making so much money that they just keep doing it anyway and socking the cash away in a safe buried in their backyard and hoping when they do eventually do get found out that they'll have enough money that they don't care if they're fired and their pension is taken away?

An illegal casino or whorehouse or umbrella rental business in your territory is hard to disavow knowledge of if they people busted say they were allowed to do it because they were paying off the local police. It's like having a meth lab or counterfeiting setup in your house, a chop shop in your garage or a pot farm in your yard, it's difficult to claim it's not yours and that you knew nothing about it.

I have a tambien ban so I'm not sure that would be required. For some reason on this extension, they asked for her tambien ban, copy of her passport and aked her what day she returned to Thailand from holiday with me. This was for an Non-O retirement. Perhaps it's because I'd moved since my last 90 day report?

At the end, right before I finally got my passport back, the officer asked where I'd last worked and in which country. I think that was after he'd filed everything in so I'm not sure why the curiosity.

My last extension I handed my passport, copies and one or two papers to my lawyer when we were at Chaengwattana and paid the fee and was out in 30 minutes, including waiting time. No questions about my wife or I.

I swear I posted this question a few days ago but I can't see it anywhere.

I was at Ubon immigration on Thursday and they officer told my wife, not me, that the next time I returned to Thailand from abroad via BKK that I needed to go report to the immigration office in Phibun, show them my arrival stamp and say "Honey, I'm home" to the immigration officer.

I've never heard of this. Is this a new requirement, something unique to Phibun or a misunderstanding?

I read everything on their walls and only saw that I could do 90 day reporting my mail. I was the only one there but all five employees were busy with papers and it took over 90 minutes to get an extension and multiple entry. All my papers were in order, I only had to sign a couple stacks of copies I'd made of my passport pages. I don't know what took so long.

I did see a couple Lao hookers come in though, show their passport, answer a couple questions and were out in a matter of minutes and it seemed like they were reporting arrival back into the country.

The article says "teachers" yet every other comment is about teaching English. Are there no foreign teachers in Thailand who teach subjects other than English language?

Seven pages of posts and I've yet to read one cogent argument against a country requiring teachers to be familiar with the culture in the country they're teaching in.

The government as good as said the integration courses and tests weren't for university educated westerners brought up in a first world country and yet it was a requirement just to live there, not to work there, not to teach children, just to not get kicked out of the country or fined for not complying.

Like I said, it seems perfectly reasonable for the government to expect teachers to know a little about the culture they're working in. Just because you have a Thai wife or girlfriend or go to gogo bars and shop at Top Market it doesn't mean you have the same cultural awareness as a native.

Seems reasonable to me. I lived in the Netherlands almost 20 years and last November I had to go back to take 7 hours worth of cultural integration tests to prove I knew I wasn't supposed to park my camel in the front lawn, slaughter goats in the house, shoot guns in the air to celebrate weddings or New Years , let religious leaders mutilate my daughters genitals and that I knew the proper way to cut in line.

Yep, nothing racist, bigoted or marginal in that comment

Did they specify "teaching English" in the article?

I thought it said "teachers".

I sure slept better these past six months knowing that an other-wise law-abiding Chinese citizen was in jail for smoking weed in his apartment, instead of say, not locked up in jail and smoking weed in his apartment or something.

Seems reasonable to me. I lived in the Netherlands almost 20 years and last November I had to go back to take 7 hours worth of cultural integration tests to prove I knew I wasn't supposed to park my camel in the front lawn, slaughter goats in the house, shoot guns in the air to celebrate weddings or New Years , let religious leaders mutilate my daughters genitals and that I knew the proper way to cut in line.

I ordered a couple water hammer, arrester tees off Amazon to put on the washing machine and dishwasher. All the toilets turn off gradually and the RO machine has a very low flow rate so I'm not concerned about them.

I built an air chamber as described above but popped the inner tube filling it up the first time, before it even moved the pressure gauge because part of the tube from the 3" pipe developed a hemorrhoid trying to excrete itself through the 3/4" reducer. I built a new one and didn't inflate it as much. I thought of putting that one by the pump outside but I've read that it should be installed as close as possible to the devices with the solenoid operated valves. I'm not sure how much good it would do if it was next to the pump and the furthest away.

To try to sort out my low pressure, low flow issue with the shower, jacuzzi and faucets for watering the lawn, I bought a Hitachi WM-P750GX750w constant pressure, inverter pump. It's supposed to have 20% higher output and constant pressure at all faucets. 40% more efficient and 280% more expensive so it's probably got a 50 year payback time so I hope it lives up to its promises and it give me the kind of shower experience I'm expecting. I'm bored with waiting a half hour to fill the bathtub.

It's being installed tomorrow so I shall soon know if it's going to blow my pipe fittings apart.

Next problem will be lower water heater temps with what I'm hoping will be a higher flow rate. At least it's heating up here so the well water in the tank is warmer going into the heater than it was a couple weeks ago.

Good riddance. Defunding it would be a step away from the fascist direction the country is headed.

The active analgesic in Tylenol PM is acetaminophen (Paracetamol, APAP marketed as Tylenol or Panadol depending on where you're located), the ingredient which makes you drowsy is diphenhydramine hydrochloride which is a first-generation antihistamine whose side effects include sedation.

Acetaminophen is hepatotoxic, easy to OD on and especially dangerous if used past it's expiry date.

Unless you need an NSAID, if you're going to use an antihistamine off label you're better off just buying some Benadryl. I still think melatonin is a better option.