RocketDog

Also, it gives me an excuse to buy more power tools! Yay!

Yes. And I think if I hear the euphemism 'mandate' again I'll puke. ONCE AGAIN: A COUPLE MILLION VOTES OUT OF HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS IS NOT A MANDATE. Just another maga wet dream fantasy for those who forgot their 4th grade math and can't really explain what % means.

Just hope Trump doesn't ask to speak to Mr. Ping. But I reckon he also will demonstrate his 'low information' voter mentality. It usually pays to know somebody's proper name before negotiating/threatening them.

Good. You met some of what I listed as prerequisites. Hiring her and her knowledge and contacts was the key to your success. I must admit I was lucky to find a skilled team that did major work on my house, but I've been waiting a year for them to find time again for my smaller jobs. As you say, the ones with real skill are always too busy to mess with small fry. So I'm out on the road again kicking stones to see who I can find. If all else fails I have the skills to do what I need but just don't want to do it myself. I must point out though that renovationg a condo is quite different from building a house. You have fewer options and things like electrical and plumbing are preordained. Example: did You move a shower or toilet to a different location? More different skills and experience is needed to build a house from scratch. In other words, there's more ways for things to go wrong. Nonetheless you were successful because you foresaw the possible difficulties, which was the main thrust of my post.

Exactly. No need to bring sand to the beach. Many wonderful animals here to adopt including puppies and kittens.

You hit on the major issue about building a home here. I too wanted to build but after being here I've realized this is only reasonable if you personally fulfill two requirements: 1. You are experienced and have some degree of expertise in all phases of home construction including structure, foundation, plumbing, electrical. 2. You are willing to proceed slowly enough on construction that you can personally monitor and oversee the workers doing their jobs. Yes, I suppose that somewhere in Thailand there are competent builders and workers who can perform these duties for you. I've just never met any am not willing to trust someone to pick them for me. After living in a rental house and then buying and making numerous repairs on what I bought I have a clear view of work standards and the expertise of all the flavors of 'engineers' I've seen involved. Some of their techniques offer gifts that keep giving for years. Little or no solvent used on plumbing pipes and Fittings, poor electrical connections, wire laid in unsealed pvc conduit and the buried having nicks in insulation that eventually finds moisture and electrolyses the copper until it dissolves, poorly laid tile with inadequate mortar that rise like tombstones as time passes, etc. ONE THING THAT MUST BE DONE! I would never build a house here without ALL plumbing and pipe runs, except septic tank/sewer runs, being FULLY ACCESSIBLE along side of foundation,under a raised floor, or in the attic. Failure to do so means you will eventually find yourself breaking up concrete floors or walls to access and repair the poor workmanship as I have found on several occasions including all the pipe feeding and circulating my pool water. My observation is that everything in Thailand must be done three times to actually succeed at any task including immigration, repairs, new construction simply because it is NEVER done right the first time. So if you need a hobby that keeps you busy f**king with your house for the rest of your life then let them build it for you without any oversight. If you can't provide or hire the right knowledge and experience to look over the shoulder of each and every tradesman continually as they work then you will pay for it many times over. You are facing an almost insurmountable challenge. You've been warned. Your mileage may vary but mine has averaged -30mpg for over 8 years. (a leak in the tank,fuel lines,fuel pump,etc )

Ugh! Been to all three. Never again. To each his own.

I can bring my usa social security into Thailand as it is excluded. That's a million thb per year. Sufficient for my needs.

Your last statement is absolutely correct. I won't file unless I owe taxes but will be well prepared to defend my decision.

Oh, you are right. I have no illusions about that. All the parts I'm talking about are from China and absolutely are not original in any other sense of the word. I just wanted folks to know they can buy replacement parts for the Chinese junk we are forced to buy here and typically lasts for months at most.

Sure is red! "Far from it" is a bit misleading. Venous and arterial blood are in fact very close to each in the capillaries. So a needle prick is a mixture of arterial,venous, and interstitial fluid liquids if fact; that's the purpose of capillary beds after all. https://www.labce.com/spg296242_venous_arterial_and_capillary_blood_specimens.aspx "Capillary Blood Capillary blood is obtained from capillary beds that consist of the smallest veins (venules) and arteries (arterioles) of the circulatory system. The venules and arterioles join together in capillary beds, forming a mixture of venous and arterial blood. The specimen from a dermal puncture will therefore be a mixture of arterial and venous blood along with interstitial and intracellular fluids. Capillary blood is often the specimen of choice for infants, very young children, elderly patients with fragile veins, and severely burned patients. Point-of-care testing is often performed using a capillary blood specimen." So where in the capillary bed does arterial blood change to venous blood?? I've done animal surgery and never seen a black demarcation line. AC1 doesn't use capillary blood for exactly that reason; it is drawn from a vein. Also, venous pressure in the extremities is very low, so without arterial pressure the blood drop would take a much longer time to form than it actually does. You're right, but I'm not wrong. Or, I'm right but you're not wrong. Take your pick. I'm not challenging your authority or experience, but I have some myself, just in a different area I'm guessing. From 1974-1979 I was the principal biomedical electronic engineer on an NIH grant to develop an artificial left ventricular assist device; Dr. Micheal DeBakey was the Principal Investigator. I've patented and published several papers on heart valves and valve testing. I've spent my share of time time in OR and wet lab and performed numerous animal surgeries myself. I have spent many hours with some of the best cardiovascular surgeons in the world and long ago learned that they are not gods with all the answers; nobody is. The human body is a mysterious and tremendously complex thing. I always advocate for patients to be active and informed as possible and to always question their primary care physicians until they understand the issues.

It's important to note that the three methods mentioned so far test different blood. The needle pricks measure arterial blood, the CGM uses interstitial fluid, and the AC1, if done properly uses actual venous blood. There are conversion factors that adjust the differences. If one is persistent one can simply use the accu check unit to take a reading several times during the day and night over a longer period of time to get a daily cycle profile. It's important to also note each reading with data on what you eat throughout the day. The more data you have the more you will understand your personal situation. Doctor visits are important but first hand information is invaluable. Each person is different. Know yourself and the cheap but accurate meters empower you to do so at low cost.

I recently found parts for my mower, my tiller, and my string trimmer all on lazada. I could have bought all the parts for the trimmer minus the engine for a fraction of what I paid for it at Global House. It turns out that many 'brands' of such things are actually just assembled from such parts and then sold as a new brand. I recently paid 3000thb for the worm gear transmission fir the tiller plus 1000thb for labor. A day layer I found three lazada stores that sold EXACTLY the same part, simple bolt-on, for 500-700thb. I felt like a fool. The giveaway was when the shop delivered the repaired machine with an extra set of blades. All three replacement stores provided the transmission with extra blades. So the shop made an extra 3000 with ease. I bet if you're persistent youll find what you need on lazada or shopee.

Couldn't the same be said for your posts? Are you more or less of a expert in this area than any of the rest of us? Maybe a self-anointed expert? This is where your credibility ends.

Agreed, but the fundamental mechanics can, and the few basic steps to follow. The words "adequately learned" is the existential point here. More people are likely to pick up the basics, at least, from YouTube than by making the effort to take classes and periodic refreshers. Such individuals may feel empowered to at least try to save a life than they would if totally ignorant. The same reasoning follows for the Heimlich Maneuver. In the news recently was a 9 year-old saving his younger brother from choking to death. I'm willing to bet he never had any training but got the idea from TV. In many cases limited knowledge is worse than none at all, but for this situation I'd say that's not the case. I didn't like kissing a fat dead guy for 20 minutes but knew I was his only chance. There were over ten other people standing around clutching their pearls. They were incoherent and couldn't even tell me how long he had been laying there before I arrived. Needs must. All that said, I highly respect your experience and knowledge in matters medical and find your advice always beneficial. Thank you for your efforts in these forums.

Indeed. If I witnessed what appeared to be an apparent act of magic, such as making an elephant disappear, I could choose to investigate how it happened while still keeping an open mind that it might really be magic until I could understand what happened. OR I could just mutter 'fake news' and walk away convinced and smug in my knowledge which is actually no knowledge at all. Personally I believe that the current backlash against all science is the result of people being woefully ignorant of any science. To save face they remain ignorant and obstructive to reality. As an electronic engineer and microcircuit designer my whole career I could not afford to blithely decide what physics was true and what wasn't. Stupidity cannot be cured and the only cure for ignorance is knowledge. Science is the only source of understanding the world. Everybody makes a choice; most today choose ignorance.

So you're saying that even with a trained expert CPR is often not successful and that retraining is necessary repeatedly. Realistically that is just not going to happen. For me it's more a case of using the best efforts one can make at the time needed regardless of actual talent since the outcome without intervention is usually pretty clear. I also experienced cpr as I was the only present who was willing to try. When I arrived at the scence people were wandering around in shock and couldn't even tell me how long the patient had been unconscious. So I bent the head back, cleared the tongue, started alternating compression and breathing. I continued this on a dead body until the ambulance arrived. I figured the guy had been dead for a while but what choice did I have? Doing nothing is what everybody else on the scene did. I think rendering inexpert aid is better than none at all. It's an imperfect world but we do all we can. If you are suggesting that anybody not thoroughly and repeatedly trained in all the nuances of CPR is the only one who should render aid I have to disagree. Most people cannot spend the time and energy to become experts in preparation for an event they will probably never experience. It takes experience to be an expert on using an AED too but they are ubiquitous in public areas. I'm going to assume they are there for people besides a doctor or paramedic to use. I can appreciate your response and recommendations but if you ever need CPR yourself just hope somebody not an expert is at least willing to give you a chance at life.

So true. Models have become the norm in exploring scientific issues. The good models predict reality and the bad ones don't. But to say all models are false is simply ignorance. But when pressed on such points the answer quickly becomes: FAKE NEWS. Go on, admit it L. You made up those pictures with colored pens.😃

Agreed It's not rocket science and there are literally hundreds of videos.

The really cool part though if it didn't have to be planned in advance except for this: Move to another country,like France or Germany. Have boatloads of kids that far outstrips the birth rate of the nationals. Then it's just a matter of time. Works every time.

Will a dictator style bigot grifter work? If so, you've gotten your fondest wish, which will soon turn into your scariest wet dream.

Thanks for that. I was not aware. Any chance you have a link to the new law? I want to print it out, hopefully it's in Thai and looks official. I can just give it to the courier if I choose to invoke it. Any further help would be greatly appreciated. I suspect others would too. Little nuggets like yours are the main reason I even read these forums anymore.

Appliances too. And there should be a section for free items too. Sometimes I have very useful items that I just don't want anymore and will be happy to give away if somebody takes them.

Wow. What a crippling comeback. Remind me not to mess with you!

I guess you're pretty excited about Christmas coming too. Will Santa Claus bring you a new bike? Maybe even a Trump action figure for your burgeoning (look it up) collection.