jas007

Surely, people must know that the military industrial complex in the US is huge. Over the years, trillions of dollars change hands. Lots of money for corruption. And the merchants of war can afford to hire the best spin doctors on planet earth. And they have. And, in conjunction with the help of their corporate media buddies, they demonize both Russia and Putin. And the politicians are funded, of course. And so we are all on the brink of nuclear annihilation, all so that some fat cats and some bankers can make big bucks.

Don’t forget, Russia has a legitimate and very reasonable concern with security. Belarus is in their neighborhood, within their sphere of influence, so to speak. Riussia doesn’t want enemy nukes on their border. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, when Russia was promised that NATO would not expand Eastward, NATO has been doing just that. And so Russia is concerned. Moving nukes into Poland would be like waiving a red flag at a bull. Thinking the Russians will sit by and do nothing is not realistic. Image an enemy power moving weapons and munitions (including nukes) into Tijuana, on the US border. The US would most definitely respond. That situation would not be tolerated. Or go back to 1962 and the Cuban missile crisis. Again, the US had a problem with that and we almost had a nuclear war. The bottom line is this: ignoring Russia’s legitimate security interests isn’t going to work. Western leaders who seem to think otherwise are delusional morons of the highest order. Putin is not another Hitler intent on reassembling the Soviet Union. That’s just propaganda. The Soviet Union fell apart for good reason. Russia won’t make the same mistake twice. Anyway, the war to date has been a failure for the West and a disaster for Ukraine. The country is destroyed. Hundreds of thousands are dead. For what?

The sooner this war ends, the better. WW III would mean disaster. The end of the world as we know it. I’m not sure why everyone doesn’t understand that. And yet Poland is now suggesting that its territory be used to base nuclear weapons. I can’t imagine Russia standing for that.

I’m sure there are big warehouses in Bangkok filled with used electronics. Of course, new gear is easy to find. With the Japanese Yen dropping, maybe a person could find some good deals. Back in the states, I always tried to have quality equipment. Every once in a while in Thailand I get that urge, but so far, I’ve only bought some KEF LSX II speakers for my TV that are also good for streaming music. They have an internal amp, so that’s all you need. I can stream Roon, Tidal, Qobuz, Apple Music. Not bad little speakers for not too much money. I think they were around 50,000 baht. Anyway, I’m trying not to accumulate too much junk. I’m sure I cave in at some point, but so far, I’ve resisted.

I’ve got this same problem. When I came to Thailand this time, I had a Mint Mobile SIM card. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of removing it from my phone to install a Thai SIM card. I left the Mint Mobile SIM card on the nightstand and forgot it was there. The maid threw it away when she cleaned my room and I didn’t realize it right away. So, no more US number and no way to do 2FA. Google Voice for my US number wouldn't work. I’ve since switched to using a Thai eSIM, so that much works. My bank still recognizes my IPad, but that’s about it. Anyway, I’m not really in the mood to fly all the way to the USA just to activate a U.S. phone number.

There are a number of risk factors. Age, a history of extreme myopia, cataract surgery, and probably a few others. I was lucky the surgery went OK, although I’m now having some trouble with the same eye. Blurry/cloudy vision that fluctuates. The internal lens that was inserted during the cataract surgery in 2017 became partially dislodged following the surgery after I had a reaction to the steroid eye drops they told me to take along with some antibiotic drops. The net result was less than 20/20 vision in that eye because of a misplaced lens. No blurry or cloudy vision, just a less than perfect focus on distant objects. Anyway, the blurry/cloudy vision came on over the course of a few weeks last fall whereas the lens has been out of place for more than a few years. The eye doctor in Bangkok is convinced that there’s nothing wrong with my eye except for the displaced lens. I’ve had full eye exams, so maybe he’s right, although I wonder. If I eat too much sweet food, the blurriness gets worse, so I thought it might be related to my blood glucose level spiking. So, I went in for a diabetes screening, but they found nothing unusual. In fact, the test results were all more or less perfect. Maybe it’s just some kind of inflammation that’s distorting my vision? Or maybe a nutritional thing. I guess I’ll have to wait and see. Maybe the problem will clear up.

I had a retinal detachment back in 2017 while I was in the USA. This was about one year after cataract surgery for both eyes. Anyway, a few days before it happened I started noticing flashes of light, changes in my peripheral vision, etc. My eye doctor referred me to a retinal specialist who operated on me the next day. That operation was successful.

Has anyone ever hired a moving service for a move? Either within Pattaya or between Pattaya and Bangkok? I’m thinking about moving. Not much stuff, really, but it’s now more than the two suitcases I came here with this time. An office chair, a computer monitor, some smaller miscellaneous items, and a few pots and pans, some small kitchen utensils. Anyway, assuming the cost of movers isn’t too high, that might be the way to go.

It’s difficult to get a good balance between movie dialogue (usually the center channel on a surround system) and the rest of the soundtrack using just two speakers. Typically, the TV settings or the streamer settings will allow for a two channel setup, which will simulate the center channel by distributing the center channel sound equally to the right and left speaker. That helps a little. You might consider using a real home theater receiver and speakers, including a center channel speaker. A 3.1 system or a 5.1 system. It wouldn’t have to cost too much, although you could also spend a small fortune, depending. I’ve noticed that on my Apple TV box, there’s a setting to “reduce loud sounds.” I haven’t tried it, but something like that might help. Turning it on would allow you to increase the volume to have louder dialogue without bothering the neighbors every time there’s a loud portion of the movie.

It seems fine to me. My old MacBook Air was from 2018, so this one seems like a big improvement. My old unit is out of service (one of the recent software updates bricked it), so I had to do a recovery from the Cloud. But the Cloud won’t update everything these days. I had to reinstall apps and so on. I guess that’s for security. I need to start using a local Time Machine backup now and then.

For what it’s worth, I bought a new MacBook Air M3 from the Apple Thailand website a few weeks ago. I needed the US English keyboard. Anyway, it was shipped from China via the express service they use.

I’m in Bangkok and just had a skin cancer check yesterday at Bumrungrad. Just a precaution. Anyway, the doctor didn’t find anything significant, but she did freeze off five or six little growths. Two here “benign” and the rest she called “pre-cancerous.” Those were little specks you could hardly see. Total cost was around 10,000 baht.

Last year I seem to remember having a problem getting my SSA online access sorted out. As part of the process, they sent a login code to my US address. Someone at that end opened the mail and sent me the code, but as it turned out, TurboTax already had the information. I guess that was a service I signed up for the previous year. They will collect all your information from SSA, OPM, banks, brokerages, etc., for a fee. Anyway, I’m in the process of switching everything over to Thailand. No US address. I’ve got to look into Schwab International. I already have a Schwab US account, but I don’t see much of a problem using the international account. It’s a stock account plus a bank. From what I can tell, the bank is US based (Citibank), so I can have pensions or whatever deposited there. Another thing I found out is that you can sign up for direct deposit of pensions, SSA checks, etc., directly to a Thai bank. Every month, the Treasury sends a wire transfer. The details on making the request weren’t exactly clear, but you do have to send an actual letter to each agency. I guess I’ll try it and see. Maybe it’ll be a simple process. This process is different than the process for sending SSA checks to Bangkok Bank.

Prices for just about everything are going up in the US. Food, housing, utilities, insurance of any kind, medical expenses, etc. Many people can’t keep up and are running up credit card debt or cashing in retirement accounts just to pay the bills. I’m glad I’m not there right now. I suppose the situation will eventually sort itself out. It’s not as if the country hasn’t been through periods of inflation before.

Perhaps look for a functional medical clinic in Bangkok. I was looking one time, just to check the cost. Anyway, there are a few such clinics in Bangkok, but their web pages don’t list any prices that I could find. The bigger question is this: assuming your wife’s tests show an imbalance, what to do about it? I think the proper diet is the key. The progress won’t be instantaneous, but a real cure is possible, over time.

My wi-fi is terrible, so I guess the only other option is Tru internet, which can provide a fiber hookup in my building. They’re the one company that can. I don’t mind a reasonable installation charge, but what about the monthly charges? Someone once told me that foreigners were now required to pay the full two year contract in advance. Does that sound right? I could do it, but then if I move I’d lose the rest of the contract amount?

So you think I drank four beers and was knocked out for almost two days? I don’t think so.

It happened to me once, I think. I was out having a few beers one night. I went to a few bars, but I didn’t have too much to drink. Maybe four beers over the course of two hours. Anyway, I started to feel strange and decided it was time to go home, so I ordered a taxi. It finally showed up and he drove me back to my condo. I could barely get out my wallet to pay the driver, but somehow I managed to do that. I then managed to somehow stumble up the stairs and go inside. I even managed the elevator ok. Once inside, I passed out on the bed, fully dressed. That was Saturday night at around 9pm. I didn’t wake up until sometime late Monday. No hangover at all.

The last time I was at Tops in Central Festival, they had some different Campbell’s soups, but not many.

Pizza in Pattaya? Mostly, I just order what can be delivered, so there’s probably good pizzas I haven’t found yet. Anyway, I’ve tried Dom’s pizza, Outlaw pizza, WD pizza, The Wine Connection…. I’d order from any of those places again. I still haven’t found anything like I used to be able to get in NYC. I guess if I had an oven, I’d try making my own.

My condo is quiet, for sure. Just two regularly occupied units on my floor. Once in a while, there’s someone in the unit next to me, but I only saw him one time in a year. And I never hear any noise at all from the unit above me or the unit below. If anyone is making noise around here, it’s me with my stereo. I try to keep it reasonable and I don’t play music late at night, but it’s hard to judge how far the sound travels.

I don’t wear them anymore, but for years I did. I was extremely nearsighted, and they still had my prescription for daily wear. I think I was -9. I had some astigmatism as well. Anyway, just check with Top Charoen optical. There seems to be a shop on just about every block. The worst that can happen is that they don’t have something you could try.

The airflow or whatever they call it is definitely less aggravating. The scale and polish technique isn’t much fun. I recently visited a dentist in Bangkok for a checkup and cleaning. The dentist used the airflow. It seems like a water jet/ultrasonic type deal and they were done in no time. Unfortunately, I needed a few fillings for the first time in 60 years. I had those done a month later and they didn’t use anything to numb my nerves. They used a laser to remove the decay and then used some sort of filling that was the same color as my teeth. Apparently, the laser is a pulse laser and each individual pulse is very short, so the nerves in the teeth are never triggered. The entire episode was a breeze.

You should take a look at some of the functional medicine and diabetes doctors on YouTube. Look into how sugar, glucose, and carbohydrates are metabolized. What you’ll find is that a “fatty” diet isn’t the problem at all. The problem is sugar, highly refined grains, carbohydrates , and processed food. They have everyone brainwashed , though, into thinking animal fat and meats are the problem. The FDA even has a “food pyramid” that I’m sure most people in America have seen. Everyone is supposed to eat lots of carbs, but eat meat and dairy products sparingly. Nothing could be further from the truth. They have it backwards, and many doctors are now realizing that fact. So people did what they were told, ate lots of carbs and sugary foods, and America is now a country filled with obese people.

Well, everyone is different, I guess, so whatever works for you. I’m not sure where everyone is from, but in America right now, there’s a terrible obesity problem. A large percentage of young adults wouldn’t even qualify to enlist in the military. They’re too obese. As for the population at large,, the numbers are even worse. They’re mostly obese or morbidly obese, diabetic or pre diabetic. Blame the typical American diet. And the drug companies, doctors and hospitals are making $$$$ treating these people. And yet there is very little focus on the root cause of the problem. Most of the medical establishment would just as soon prescribe insulin or pills. They tell their patients to eat less and exercise more. Anyway, good information is out there, for anyone needing help.