Gecko123

Forensics should be able to determine where the fire originated and if any accelerants were used to start/speed up the spread of the fire.

Plenty of reason to be suspicious. Should be pretty easy to determine whether accelerants were involved. Article says mother and son borrowed the money from the bank, but who exactly incurred the debt is what I'd like to know. Isolated road, no witnesses, van is engulfed in flames while he's outside of vehicle. Would also be interested to know if van had physical damage coverage on it. Not saying it didn't happen the way the son reported it, but plenty of reason to be suspicious.

Some of this might help you blend in.

That's exactly what I'm saying. If the owner shushes the dog when a Thai stranger visits the home, the dog will typically comply with the owner's command quicker and respect the Thai person's non-threat status in the absence of the owner quicker than it typically would for a foreigner, i.e., the foreigner will have to initially put up with more aggressive barking upon the initial encounter, and the dog will be slower to accept the foreigner as a non-threat whether in the owner's presence or not. That's assuming the dog is a barker. Of course, there are dogs who are totally laid back no matter who is in their territory. By the way, in an urban environment a dog's natural territorial instincts are overwhelmed due to congestion, pollution, and lack of opportunity to socialize/compete with other dogs, and if they're outside they have to be on a leash. Out in the countryside, it's a completely different story.

You've never noticed that Thai dogs bark more at foreigners, and are slower to accept foreigners into their territory? It practically took a decade before the dogs stopped barking at me when I visited my neighbors down the road, and that's only because I started feeding them stock bones. Thai dogs can definitely bark more at foreigners. Not because they're "racist" but because they can detect their "non-Thainess." Body odor, height, weight, skin color, unfamiliar vocal sounds? I can't read dog minds, but that's definitely the case, just as, I might add, dogs can become agitated more than usual if a black person walks down a street in an all-white neighborhood.

Those dogs absolutely terrify me. Especially when you consider how many Thai dogs become over-agitated when they spot a foreigner.

You've basically implied that many of the people who have reacted unfavorably to your posts have PM'd you to confess that they are bitter and lonely or going through a tough time. Send us a screen shot of your inbox with the senders names blocked out to back up this claim, or retract this highly dubious claim. You don't seem to be aware that you have a reputation for posting maliciously dispiriting posts directed at Thailand's expat retirees. A good example is your most recent post which seemingly aimed to put readers on a guilt trip about having started a new life in Thailand and neglecting familial responsibilities back home. Given your posting history, I am frankly skeptical that many would see you as an inviting shoulder to cry on, but even if it were true, it's still pretty passive-aggressive to publicly claim that people are privately confessing to you they're bitter and lonely and apologizing to you for having made nasty comments on threads you've started, and for you to be making veiled threats to reveal who these people are. The vast majority of your "Debbie downer" posts fall wide of the mark for me, and only rarely hit a nerve, and as such, I can find the entertainment value in your posts, but I don't think you becoming an ASEANNOW crisis hot line counselor is in the cards.

He was probably thinking, "Am I giving off some kind of vibe? Why do these homosexual serial killer types keep making passes at me?"

You follow a total stranger into the men's room and while they are urinating and without knowing their marital and family history, ask where his ex-wife and kids are? That is next level creepy, dude. I think I would call the cops if that ever happened to me.

I don't believe half your married Thai friends have Mia nois. I don't believe half of the unmarried friends with girlfriends have side squeezes. And if by some freak chance they do, those are some low class guys you're hanging around with. Not yuppies, not upscale; low class karaoke bar afficionadoes, aka, alkies. I don't believe they're your wing men giving you pointers on how to pick up Thai women, and I certainly don't believe you're giving them assists in scoring with Thai women. I also highly doubt that the women you're hooking up with aren't in the bar girl/hooker class despite all your efforts to make people think you are operating in a rarified social milieu above Nana Plaza. LOL. You're the one posturing as Mr. Social fabric, lamenting the corrosive effect foreign men have on Thai society. I guess there's a big exemption for you as a Western man sexually exploiting Thai women because your so-called buddies are doing the same thing, and you haven't been "brainwashed by feminism." Well, if you're such a proud Neanderthal why are you coming on the forum lamenting physical violence against women? Following your reasoning, if your Thai buddies occasionally slap their wives and mistresses around when they get out of line, that makes it OK, right? By the way, please don't lecture me about Thai male attitudes, sir. I know more about the Thai male psyche, how to converse and have amicable interaction with them then I suspect you ever will, and just for the record, I don't need to get <deleted>faced in order to make it happen. I strongly suspect I could run circles around you in Thai and I have a wide range of Thai male acquaintances spanning a wide range of ages and occupations, so lose your condescending attitude sir, and PS stop referring to yourself as POTY. You didn't win anything, and I doubt you ever will.

Damage to social fabric and violence against women can take many forms, including sexual exploitation.

The OP tries to ingratiate himself with his Thai drinking buddies by agreeing with ugly and false generalizations about the expat community based on a recent but atypical flurry of negative news stories. Then he comes on AN to make the same ugly and false generalizations. It's called being maliciously dispiriting, and I'll leave it others to speculate about the psychological motivations behind this behavior. If there's an underlying risk factor for why guys "act out" when the pressure gets to be too much, it's probably due to social isolation and a lack of a social network to function as a safety valve for these pressures. A lot of that alienation and keeping your distance mentality starts on social media, like ASEANOW. Posters posturing as though they are psychological confections with impeccable social skills while talking to everyone else as if they're a ticking time bomb mental/social misfit is not helping to improve things. It actually is making things worse. If you want to make the world a better place, start with the man in the mirror. For example, if you find exploitation and violence against women so deplorable, how do you justify bragging about using your Thai language skills and finances to entice vulnerable factory girls into one-night stands, and providing the financial lure underpinning the sex industry? Do you really imagine your Thai male friends think such behavior is any more acceptable?

If it turns out to be a talking horse, any plans to raise a consensual sex defense might have to be scrapped.

Just one last suggestion. Take a look at your sleep quality and sleep hygiene. Keep a sleep diary for a month and see if any patterns emerge. Poor sleep quality => low energy level => low activity level => poor sleep quality. If you're physically inactive you're likely to have developed some joint pains which can disturb sleep every time you change sleeping position. Doing strengthening and stretching exercises that target specific joint pains can improve sleep quality => encourage more physical activity => improved cholesterol numbers.

Come on guy, 74's too young for the rocking chair. But I agree the climate makes exercise a challenge. Any swimming pools around where you live? I exercise early morning (walking and mountain bike riding), driving to a long stretch of back road with almost no dogs or traffic. I always carry a small flashlight. Wish you the best of luck achieving your fitness and health goals.

Well I'd say his comments pretty effectively wiped that smug smirk off of Mr Bobblehead's face. Judge for yourself.

Reducing alcohol consumption and increasing physical exercise can definitely help reduce high triglyceride levels. High BMI is associated with increased levels of LDL and cholesterol and decreased levels of HDL. My advice to OP would be to shoot for one hour daily aerobic exercise, and staying active as much as possible during the day, cut out drinking (if any), cut out sugary and baked goods, try to reduce total caloric intake, and move towards plant based diet. These are my recent numbers, following above program: FBS 85 Total Choles 198 Triglyceride 73 HDL - Chol 42 LDL Chol 115 Weight 227

Simon: My number one concern would be what would happen if the person you enter into a contract with dies or the title on the land changes hands. The character and trustworthiness of the new owner(s) may not be on the same level as your friend's. You would be creating a moral hazard by building on land in someone else's name. Regardless of how airtight a contract you draw up, if someone down the road decides to violate the terms of the agreement, you could be looking at a protracted legal dispute and a situation where you're constantly having to look over your shoulder.

Pretty sure I saw a jolt of fear in Mike Johnson's eyes when Biden delivered the line about how the Supreme Court was about to find out in November just how much of a political voice women had.

Chiang Mai zoo. Fenced in monkey cage. Reached out to commune with the monkeys. One of them managed to grab me by the wrist and started pulling my hand towards its mouth. That monkey's grip and arm strength was superhuman. Scary looking incisors. Not ashamed to admit I screamed like a little girl. So relieved when it let go of me.

A video from a source that is not credible, has been removed.

No...its not the start of a pogram. I think it's being driven by millennials, digital nomads, early retirees, and Ukraine war refugees and draft dodgers who think Thailand's labor laws don't apply to them.

Were Thailand ever to implement more stringent mental health, criminal background, or social reputation screenings of expats in an effort to prevent future incidents such as this, it would make for a more arduous and expensive visa renewal process for all of us. So it's in our collective self-interest to try to work towards reducing the odds of situations like this occurring. There is a deeply entrenched loner culture in Thailand's expat community, and it's almost in vogue for expats to socially shun other expats, all of which contribute to the likelihood of guys like this going off the deep end. If Thailand's expat community made more of an effort to be more socially supportive of one another that would probably help reduce the likelihood of events like this occurring. There are also too many foreigners over here who think that civility, personability, friendliness, kindness, charitability, etc., is the other guy's responsibility, and who make little effort to socially engage with Thais or to learn the language. Sadly, such attitudes are all too often encouraged and reinforced on social media platforms such as this one. My point is that what people post on ASEANNOW is not separate and detached from the real world. It's all intertwined.

I thought "David"s visa revocation was appealable to a court. Now that the Interior Minister has weighed in, does that make that appeal process moot?

positive msg much appreciated