Katia

*Headdesk*  I mean, one stop of one Chao Phraya boat will churn out more smoke than some temples do with their incense all day (and some, all week!)...

I would've kept my aircon on 28 all the time, except with the AC running that little, I started having mold issues.  It sucked having to freeze in my own home to try to keep my stuff from being ruined, but I wasn't there long enough to justify spending a few hundred bucks for dehumidifiers instead.  Humidity was the only thing I didn't like about Thailand-- living in it, no problem, but its effect on my stuff sucked (mold on anything wood or leather and sometimes other stuff, anything faux-leather disintegrating, moldy-sweat smell from shoes).

Don't know if I could've managed with windows open, though (maybe that would've helped mitigate the humidity issue, maybe it just got trapped in my apartment-- I never thought of that until later).  I was never sure about BKK air pollution, plus I lived near a construction site (who in Bangkok doesn't...) and I don't know if that was why my floors were constantly filthy-- no, of course I didn't wear my shoes inside-- but if they were always that dirty with windows closed, I can't imagine if I left windows open...

4 hours ago, keemapoot said:

Yeah, this is really strange seeing the right win media turn on Trump on this issue when they have been absolutely falling over themselves fawning over him for two years. Ann Coulter even appeared on Bill Maher's show and trashed Trump. However, Trump's biggest fan, at Trump's biggest fan club, Fox News, Sean Hannity has called for this to stop. So, I expect this to be a temporary aberration and things to return to normal soon.

Yeah, but didn't Coulter essentially call him a pussy?  So she doesn't think he should've caved, yes?  It's like saying you're against Jack the Ripper... because he didn't kill enough people for your taste.  IOW, she doesn't think he has gone too far off the deep end, she thinks he hasn't gone far enough... not exactly what I'd call a good example of other right-wingers turning against him (I don't know about the rest of them).

Just now, Basil B said:

He was not disputing anything in the budget, it was what was not... $5.7 Billion down payment on his wall.

Yes.  He wanted that to be in the budget, correct?  Therefore, the budget was in dispute.  So: give money to everything that nobody has a problem with, and address the part that there is a problem with, namely, the wall.  Again, these other agencies have nothing to do with The Wall (Pink Floyd needs to bring a copyright infringement suit), so give them their money, let them go on their merry way, and stop pulling them (and their employees and customers) into this.

1 minute ago, sirineou said:

The only thing in dispute is trump's wall

Yes, that was exactly my point.  I mean, I get it-- holding up other parts of the government are the only thing keeping this thing going, because if they had to argue only on the wall, they'd have a lot less teeth, but again, why should everyone else have to pay for that one little squabble?

3 hours ago, RocketDog said:

He has not "invested heavily in your future with his degree," unless you're considered to have done the same with yours.

 

Yes sir, I certainly think that my 6 years of engineering school and two years of pre-med, all paid by scholarships and year round work in the engineering labs, was a definite investment in my future.

 

My first job out of school was working on a National Institute of Health grant to develop an artificial heart, headed by one of the most famous (still) heart surgeons in the world. From there I opened an Engineering Consulting business, was granted 4 patents, and successfully retired two years ago.

 

Perhaps you consider your degree worthless, assuming you have one.

I'm sorry you wasted your time.

I think you sound very bitter.

 

When you abbreviated my post you left out the most important line: "To the Op". That salutation was intentional. Frankly I don't give a hoot what you think about me or my reply to her.

 

 

I didn't say I wasted my time with my degree (and yes I do have one, but nice try at insult, that was cute), nor that you did (and no, I really don't care what you've done with yours, but go ahead and talk about it if it makes you feel better).  Read my post again and actually try to comprehend it this time.  You told the OP that her fiance has "invested in their future" with his postgrad degree as an excuse for why she shouldn't expect him to pay his own way, while ignoring that she also has postgraduate education, as if hers is worth nothing.  They both have an education to invest in their futures.  Give credit where credit is due.  The only difference is that she actually has money (or admits to having money, not sure which is his issue-- being broke or just saying he is). 

Nor do I give a crap whether you care what I think of you or your reply (although the fact that you bothered to both address it and to take it personally tells me that yes, you do care).  If you want to put on Offense Glasses and read way too much into my post, knock yourself out.  I merely pointed out that I disagree with a few points you made, something people do on this forum about every three seconds, so if you're not used to that by now maybe the internet is not for you.  My reply was also addressed to the OP, in case you hadn't noticed (again-- really-- maybe actually read my post before you get offended by something in it and proceed to let your offense cloud your reading), so you're right, you don't need to worry about it at all.  You gave advice, I gave advice, some of my advice happened to not agree with your advice.  Life goes on.

Maybe they should have to approve all parts of the budget that aren't in dispute and only hold the ones that are.  I could see shutting down Agency A partially if it was their budget that was being argued about and there was a genuine worry that "Hey, our operating costs will be X amount this year, we might not get X amount, so we need to cut."  That would be the same as if you planned out your personal expenses and then found out you might have to take a pay cut and were like "okay, I need to curb the eating out and the guitar lessons because I might not have money for them." 

But if nobody has a problem with Agency A's budget, then give them their money.  I mean, the reason only part of the government is shut down is because some agencies' budgets happened to get approved before this whole fiasco went down, and others that came after got stuck in the loop.  I get it, shutting down totally-unrelated agencies and departments IS the bargaining chip, it's like in elementary school when the teacher is like "NOBODY gets recess until the mess made by this one person gets cleaned up!", but it's not any more fair than it was in elementary school.  Go through line by line: "Do we have a problem with this item?  No?  Then it's passed.  Agency A is funded.  What about this item?  No?  Great, Agency B is funded."  Etc.  Find another way to work things out than holding hostage money that has nothing to do with the argument at hand.

Also, as others have said-- make it so if people working in government don't get paid, neither does Congress, nor do they take breaks (it was a bunch of BS, this "well it's the holidays, they're not going to be at work."  Sorry, but you don't decide a bunch of people aren't getting paid and then YOU go on vacation.  Nope.  You're there every day until you fix it.  I don't care what time of year it is.  It'll ruin your holidays?  Good, then it'll be just like the people who had to cancel or rearrange *their* plans because they found out they weren't going to get a paycheck right at the time of year when people are spending money-- and expected to, to "keep up the economy"-- and traveling to visit family).  They haven't any incentive to get things done if it's only *other* people suffering for it.

16 minutes ago, Basil B said:

What other civilized country shuts down because the Government can not approve a budget???

It's posturing, nothing more.  Shut down Agency A because there's a dispute for the budget about something completely different, no dispute about Agency A's budget and they're going to get their money but for this other little tiff, but they don't get to operate anyway as if they're not going to get their money at the end of the day.  It would be like your bank saying "Yes, you have money in your account, we're just not going to let you have it."  Even better if the reason for it is because the CEO stubbed his toe and isn't coming to work today and the bank just can't function without him.

Furlough a bunch of workers, decide to pay them anyway, but still don't let them go back to work for... what reason?  If they're getting back pay anyway, they're just like everyone who's at work without getting paid, so why make them stay home?

IOW, it's a game.  It's just one that the upper echelons of government play and the American public lose.

7 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

What's a sea star?

Starfish.

Oh, come on.  In the West you can't even get everybody to vaccinate their kids, let alone their pets.  Why would Thailand be any different?

No worries, the deal is just temporary... we'll be doing this again in three weeks.  ????

5 hours ago, Benmart said:

Many times, change is made by action and not sitting back waiting for "someone else". Eight-hour workdays, over-time pay and sick leave were all done by action. Same here.

Is that not what I said?

12 hours ago, TheDutchEngineer said:

300 is just a part of it. plus additional 'administration fees' and other irregular manipulations. 

Okay, that makes sense.  All they mentioned in this article was the 300 baht.

I went there once... never actually figured out if the stuff they had was actually for sale, or if it is more like a museum now!

Truncated for sake of brevity:

On 1/22/2019 at 9:09 AM, RocketDog said:

To the OP:

I read your post and all the responses. Some were sincere, many were either derisive and/or useless, and a few were sad  attempts at humor. 

I didn't intend to reply but am doing so because I don't think you're a troll and deserve a considered response. I'll try not to repeat what others have said except to summarize or clarify. 

 

 

Here goes. 

HIM:

I don't think your fiance is a worthless bum, insincere, or immature.

...

 

YOU:

You have taken a giant step up for yourself and your family by long, hard work and dedication to your education. Y

.....

 

BOTH OF YOU:

The fact that you both share a secondary language may have seduced you in to assuming that you also share a common world view.

 

...

Can't say I agree.  I don't care how "embarrassed" he is that he can't support himself, the fact still remains that he'd d@mned well better learn and fast.  I've always been of the opinion that anyone who wants to live like an adult-- have own place, marriage, children-- had better start, well, living like an adult, which means supporting themself, first.  I'm sorry he's having financial issues but many people are, and they realize that taking on additional responsibility when they can't even be responsible for themselves is not a good idea.  He can't even pay rent and he thinks he's going to be a husband and father?  While still expecting you to pay all the bills?  He has to have mommy and daddy help buy wedding rings, which one can get pretty cheap if one wants to? 

You are working multiple jobs while he whines that he can't get a job-- and blames it on you to boot.  He claims he has no money but then spends half of what you want for sin sot (and whatever percentage of his share of the bills that amount would be) flying "home" (why, does he miss mummy and daddy?).  He "is hoping" he will get a job in Thailand some day (what if he doesn't?  Will you support him forever?  Will he expect you to pack up and go back to his home country?)

And no, he doesn't hate paying for a meal for you because he's so egalitarian.  Every relationship I've been in, from friends to significant others, has understood that every so often it's not perfectly equal and one person pays for the other, no nickel-and-diming or keeping score and it all comes out in the wash.  Trust me, I'm the very independent type and I don't like *anyone* paying for me-- not friends, not SOs, not even my parents-- and even I can understand this.  So don't buy that BS from him that it's all about equality.  It's not (otherwise he would be equally as bothered with you paying for everything).  He's just cheap.  (And yes, I know-- student loans are expensive.  If he's so worried about money, why's he living in Thailand, getting a woman pregnant, and thinking of getting married?)

He has not "invested heavily in your future with his degree," unless you're considered to have done the same with yours.

I agree with everyone else: say "no way Jose" and let him know he's welcome to marry you *when he is self-sufficient*.  You don't have to cut him out of your life, but you don't have to take on him and his personal expenses "forever" ("til death do us part/as long as we both shall live") until you know that arrangement won't have to be forever.  I am not saying he should support you; I am saying he should be able to support himself, as you already can, and then you pay the bills together.  Otherwise you're going to be a mother twice over.

And yes, in this case, asking him for the sin sot is a bit ridiculous, and I can even see why he thinks so.  You can't ask him for rent, you can't ask him to help pay for the wedding, but then suddenly you manage to ask him for sin sot?    He can't even pay for basics and stuff that matters, he can't even support himself, and this is what you want him to come up with money for?  That's like looking at your friend who can't pay for food or rent and inviting them to go on vacation with you, or being that person with thousands of dollars in credit card debt and buying expensive clothes.  Frankly, I think he's right on one thing-- there are better things he could spend that cash on, like helping to pay the bills and for *his child.*

And I hope in future the both of you-- educated people that you are-- will evaluate your birth control choices together and find one that is effective.

On 1/22/2019 at 7:52 AM, SOTIRIOS said:

...why was this even allowed here...???

 

(A few foreigners have tried to post their ordeals with Thai women...here.....and they have been insulted, scorned and even accused of being scammers....)

 

...go figure....

And do you complain about it when those other threads are posted?  Or is it just when the tables are turned that you have a problem with it?  (And it sounds like she's also been insulted and scorned, so this thread should fit right in.)

Does anyone actually think Taco Bell is spicy???

On 1/22/2019 at 6:46 AM, observer90210 said:

Tasty surely depending on one's taste buds....but no secret that over spicing food,  is not good for the body and health ! Go slow on all that pickle out there.

On the contrary. 

There's a study that shows otherwise.

It's only one study, but...

Some kind of fungus?  The two on the right look like very dirty walnuts, but the other two look like rocks.  So who knows.  ????

When I went to the Snake Farm in Bangkok, their King Cobra is huge.  I only saw part of it as it was stretched out amid plants and such but it was massive... would've liked to see the whole thing stretched out (from far away, lol)... this one gives me a bit of an idea of what it may be like, though I think it may be bigger yet than this one.

Strange, working for me now.  That snake only weighs 10 kilos??  (Hey, I could almost carry him onto an Air Asia flight!)

1 minute ago, mtls2005 said:

 

This makes about as much sense as the GoFundMe campaign.

 

Don't hear too many crowing about how successful that was going to be?

Somebody told me he tweeted that he could pay for the wall using federal employees' salaries... did he really?

1 hour ago, wayned said:

They wouldn't be fired, who would they hire to replace them if the only offer was we might pay you $X sometime in the future when Trump stops his tantrum.   Now they are recalling 46000 IRS workers who have been furloughed to work without pay so they are no longer eligible for unemployment.  They should do the same thing.  In addition nobody is saying anything about the couple of million contract employees and private businesses that are suffering because of his crap! DT is a psychopath that cares absolutely nothing about anybody but himself!  It's time that someone really stuck it to him!

Do you think he'd have any qualms about firing them all?  Remember, this is the guy who likes to fly off the handle without thinking.

Is the link working for anyone else?  Daily News site seems to be down.

Well, getting fired, especially by the federal government, is still considered a black mark on your resume, and especially if it's for refusing to go to work.

(I have a coworker who pointed out that Border Patrol should all walk off the job and see where we stand then... that one would be interesting.) 

12 hours ago, balo said:

Good hosts indeed.

"It's high season so all prices are now increased."  

6 hours ago, possum1931 said:

Yes, look at some of the hotels and guesthouses, some have even put their prices up on 1st October instead of 1st November for the beginning of the high season.

All hotels everywhere do that... is it whatever the high season is in the area?  is there a festival or conference in town?  Prices get cranked up.  This is nothing new.