jas007

One of my best friends built high dollar custom homes. And he's had water problems in his own home that he can't seem to rectify. When I was a kid, I used to live tight next door. Similar problems, once in a while. Water can seemingly seep in from anywhere, and it's hard to track down where it's coming from. My last house had roof issues, and the cost of a new roof was around $125,000. And even at that, I might still have problems.

Only 100? Has the world firefly population suffered a serious decline? I can remember as a kid going out and catching the things in a jar. I forget why we were doing that, other than for fun. There must have been thousands of the them, flying around. Maybe more than that. Millions? I'll have to look it up. But if you only see 100, that's crazy.

And what, exactly, was your "argument"? Or your post? Explain for the Peanut Gallery.

Wow. Off the top of my head, I'd say that unless you're getting this place for almost nothing, pass on it. And even then, I'd pass on it. Water leaks can come from just about anywhere. And you can spend the rest of your life trying to fix something that can't easily be fixed.

Correctamundo, as the saying goes.

And yet he seems to be on the right track. It's one thing to be a kid. It's something else again to be a grown adult still hanging around a university because you can't hack it in the real world. I've been to more school than I care to admit. But one thing I'm sure of: the adjunct professors from the real world taught me more than any tenured professor from the elite schools. I've had both, and it's not even a close contest. It used to drive me nuts, though. From the real world professors, I'd get one of the highest grades in the class. From the Ivory League professors, not so much. Whatever. I survived. My father used to teach, when he wasn't busy being one of the best in the world at what he did. I've seen it all from the inside. And unless your idea of success is to hang around a university and never leave, then maybe you're the one that needs more education?

Question: is it unusual for the same condo to be listed with multiple agents? Or is that fairly typical? I'm in the process of moving, and when I see a condo online that I like, I do a quick search, just to see what I can find. And sometimes, I see the same condo listed with several agencies. Maybe some of those are just old listings, but I'm not sure. And the funny thing is, the same condo can be one price with one agency, and another price with another agency.

Does your Air B&B agreement not specify what electric rate is being charged? In any event, and for what it's worth, I'm in a 42 sq. meter condo in the Pattaya area, and, except for one day when my aircon unit was being cleaned, it has been turned on 24/7 for almost the last three years. I set it at 25 C and forget it. Always on. And the bills have ranged from 1600 baht a month to around 3300 baht a month. Your bill seems excessive, unless you had all your windows open and were trying to cool down your section of Bangkok.

Technically, you're right. The 1st amendment applies in the USA. But so, too, does the right of America to determine who visits and who doesn't. A fairly simple construct.

I don't know about teenagers these days, but when I was 15 1/2 back in the USA, in my state you could rent a motorbike, no questions asked. They were Honda 50cc, but enough to get you killed. And back then, for all practical purposes, I was an idiot. I had no understanding, whatever, of what would happen if I had a wreck. We had no helmets. Just idiot kids trying to be daredevils. I'm lucky to be here today.

How to avoid health insurance? Don't buy it. If you have the type of visa that doesn't require it, then you're all set. Just don't get sick. That means staying healthy. Eating right. And good genes. Accident insurance probably isn't a bad idea, though. In case some motorcycle runs you over.

In any event, NYU is the better school. It's right in the middle of Greenwhich Village and has world class teachers from the real world. People who actually experience reality. And as far as NYC goes, living there is one of the best educations a kid could receive. Harvard is a bunch of Ivory Tower idiots that couldn't make it in the real world, and so they became professors. I've been lucky. I've had teachers from NYU, Yale, Harvard, Columbia, the University of Chicago, and so on. Back in the day when those were real schools. Baron Trump made the right decision.

I'm not going to read through this thread, but this sounds like a good idea to me. Punish the regimes that stifle free speech. I can think of a few good examples. It's too bad for the average tourists, who have nothing to do with the nonsense, but maybe their leaders will wake up and see the light? Doubtful, but why not try?

I still remember back when the Hunt brothers tried to corner the market. Was it gold or silver? Whichever it was, it worked, until it didn't. It was fun while it lasted, though.

Just an update. Yesterday I got the little projector I ordered: "270° Adjustable Stand & Electric Focus]Mini Projector with WiFi and Bluetooth, 2025 Native 1080P TOPTRO Portable Outdoor Movie Projector, Auto Vertical Keystone, Home Projector for Phone/TV Stick." Amazon had an $80 off coupon, so the grand total, shipped to Thailand, including import and duty fees, was about $164. I'm getting ready to move, so I just played around with it a little, casting it to my white ceiling at an angle. Set up was fairly easy, so long as you have your wi-fi password. But then it took me a while to figure out how it all worked. And it was finicky, at least in terms of how I wanted the setup to work. Theoretically, so long as all of your devices are on the same network, they can all work together. Apple TV for the picture, which is then sent to the projector via screen mirroring, while the sound plays through the sound system of the Apple TV. But that was on again and off again. Maybe the signal wasn't strong enough, or maybe I had something set wrong. I'll have to try again later. I finally tried Airplay from my iPad, but that was also finicky. One minute it was connected, and then it would disappear.. When it worked, it worked, butt not for long. And the sound was coming from the small speakers on the projector. I finally settled on trying the wired approach. from my iPad to the projector via the supplied HDMI cable. That worked the best, after I fooled around and looked for the proper adapter. USB. to Lightning. The picture quality wasn't bad. Not the best available, obviously, but decent, and it would probably be much better with one of the special screens made fr that purpose, which can range up to 150 inches.

Thank you

The 90 day report in Pattaya is due the first week of July, but if I move, it will be shortly after June 1. Anyway, I don't have a problem filing a 90 day report in person in Bangkok, sometime after the TM30 is filed and well before the 90 day report is due in Pattaya. I use an agent in Pattaya, simply because I'm lazy and they only charge me 100 baht. I have now and always have met the financial requirements. So I just bring my lease and a copy of the TM30 to Bangkok for the 90 day report, sometime in June. Correct?

My current immigration TM 30 was filed by my agent in Pattaya and is set to expire the first week of July. The O extension itself runs until December, sometime. Assuming I rent a new condo in Bangkok beginning June 1 or so, and that agent files a new TM30 for that location, am I right in assuming that resets the clock for my 90 day report, and that I can just forget about the report I'm supposed to do in Pattaya? And can I further assume that when the O extension itself is due for renewal, I just handle the matter at Bangkok immigration? Thanks

For years, people have floated different plans to limit or restrict Social Security Benefits, or to entirely privatize it. And most such schemes have gotten nowhere. Critics claim the privatization programs are simply a devious attempt to place the retirement money of millions into the hands of Wall Street. As for the plans to have some sort of income test? That sounds problematic, unless they set it up with a sliding scale. For example, a slight reduction in benefits would be made at some threshold level, gradually increasing with the recipient's income.

The Bone Phone:

Despite your impressive sounding credentials, I think you're misinformed or just don't understand how quickly the world of AI is progressing. Everybody should know by now that in its current iteration, ChatGPT is a toy, of sorts. And large Language Models have their limitations, depending on context. So it can be garbage in garbage out, and in such situations the only intelligence at work is the intelligence of the user asking the questions. But don't think for a minute that true AI isn't coming soon. Apparently sooner than you seem to think. To believe otherwise, you'd have to believe that many of the world's most important corporations are now engaged in constructing massive AI complexes around the world, simply to create better "toys"? Trillions of dollars invested, just so people can play with a toy? Hardly. The potential is real and it's coming soon. Very soon. The progress is exponential. And don't forget what quantum computers can now do. Have you followed that?

Well, I'm sure I had one, but it may have been 1980. At the time I was living at the beach in Southern California and had been since 1977, and I used to run every morning and then sometimes later in the day I'd take a walk on the boardwalk. A trendy neighborhood, and if there was a new product to be had, you'd see it there first. Anyone remember the "Bone Phone"?

And so you now rely on another part of the mainstream propaganda machine? As I've said, not everyone is stupid. It's sad, really, what happened. People trusted the "authorities" and thousands died. Innocent people removed from the gene pool at an early age, all because some clowns have a depopulation agenda. And, whether you know it or not, that's what it was. Not my problem, at this point.

Certainly you must realize Wikipedia is not a reliable source for anything. I'm not sure what your game is, other than to be another part of the propaganda machine. It doesn't matter I guess. You're doing your job. Just realize, not everyone is stupid.

Once upon a time, I went for a few years with no kind of phone at all. Back in the 70s. I didn't want to pay for a phone, so I didn't have one. Anyone who wanted to talk to me could write me a letter or come over, or see me at work or at school. I don't remember feeling particularly deprived. I had a TV and a stereo and a Walkman, and life was good. I'd go back in a nanosecond. I got my first computer in the early 80s. Back then, we had dial up modems and internet services that charged by the hour. I think I got my first cell phone in the mid 90s. A Motorola flip phone. Blackberry's came next, and then the I-Phone sometime in the 90s. Today's phones have everything and make life simple, but if your life is already simple, mostly what you're doing on all the social media platforms is wasting time.