JackGats

Yeah, it's a disgusting dressing. I made a mental note of remembering it so that I can avoid it like the plague in the future, be it at Pizza Company or at Pizza Hut.

Really? So not having to renew the visa each year, not having to do the 90-day reportings, paying 50k Baht for 10 years multiple re-entry, and getting a legal tax exemption on your pension (doing away with the need to season the money for one year) count as "absolutely nothing"?

My embassy (EU-country) didn't provide a letter, in fact adamantly refused to provide one, saying the IOs had been warned and if difficulties occured I should tell them to call the embassy. The visa agency called someone on the phone (probably a contact in Immigration), then told me "with [name of my country] ok without letter". The transfer indeed went through without a letter. It seems embassies have had their way. Some embassies (eg Germany) will still provide a letter for a fee though.

They're difficult to destroy. I've read a strong magnet can remove the data, but where do you get a strong magnet these days? Could heating them in a fire for some time do the trick?

Cannabis inhibits REM sleep. Antihistamines like Dramanine take ages to kick in and leave you with a hangover in the morning. Melatonin is worth a try. I found Theanine to work pretty much like Melatonin but with the effect lasting longer. Trazodone can have horrid side effects in men, I know a guy who nearly lost his best part because of Trazodone.

Too few proteins overall. First thing to do would be to remove the punitive custom duties on dairy products.

Indeed. When he fell out with Cleese, Eric Idle said "He's always in need of money, why does he keep marrying"? He's probably bored to death with his work but has no choice but keep slaving away. Same predicament as Robbin Williams. Sad, but party self-inflicted. Mention men's rights to him and all he would come up with would be a lame jibe. His talent pretty much dried up after Faulty Towers.

If any job more poorly paid than at first expected is tlaffickin', we all got tlaffick'd at some point in our lives. Everything is rape, everything is abuse, everything is tlaffickin'. Everyone should apologise to everybody and their cat. Everyone should sue everybody including themselves.

“I used to think the worst thing in life was to end up all alone. It's not. The worst thing in life is ending up with people who make you feel alone” (Robbin Williams)

While they're at it, why don't they torture animals with electricity in public? That should be über-halal.

I had my pic taken at Bangkok Bank 2nd road. Haven't done any payments since then, so I can say nothing about whether it works.

Are you a hetero US citizen who lives in Thailand (when he's not in Medellin, Tijuana or Frankfurt)? Because if you are, why are you wasting your time here? You should instead be having no-holds barred group-sex orgies in the Land of Liberty. There are so many pleasures of life you are missing out on by not living in the country where the pursuit of happiness (except yours) is written in the Constitution: false rape accusations, sting operations, paying child support for DNAed children who aren't yours, being treated as a felon in family court, serving time in boot-camp prison for being late on your alimony, getting MeTooed and pregnancy-raped by thots, IMBRA ...

I couldn't help but laugh at this post because it is exactly the way I feel after learning Thai for 3 years. I have been making good progress but there's nothing I ever really liked about Thai. Learning it has been a drudge and will remain a drudge. The phonetics is grating to the ear. The writing system seems to have been invented to make reading slow and laborious. To make things worse, the Thais do not seem to want me to speak their language. In the beginning I thought that was because my Thai was poor. But now they still mostly refuse to speak Thai with me even in cases where my Thai is infinitely better than their English. This is very disappointing. I end up asking myself "what's wrong with these people". No such problem in South America. The people there will love to speak their own native Spanish or Portuguese. It would never occur to them to try to be cute in mickey mouse English instead.

The 10-year tax exemption on foreign pensions was repealed a couple of years ago in Portugal. The present tax rate is still no higher than 10% though. If I'm not wrong Greece is now the latest EU-country levying no taxes on foreign pensions.

Pity straight men do not show "extraordinary courage" too in fighting for their sexual rights in the US.

People who say they are hearing voices unfortunately may be de facto hearing them, ie they really hear someone "talking" to them as far as they are concerned. The brain manufactures real language sound as though it were coming through the ear-drums. This was brought home to me when a girl-friend in Thailand had a recurring bout of schizophrenia. She was a foreign girl "working" in Thailand. Eventually the voices told her to go to the airport in order to bord a fly home. She had entered Thailand illegally and got herself arrested big time. She spent some months in the IDC where she continued hearing voices. I wish I'd taken her reports of hearing voices seriously, instead of just telling her "stop the nonsense". So when George Bush said God told him to invade Iraq, he may have meant it, alas.

I ran to my usual visa agent, who then proceeded to lose my passport (or have it lost by immigration, who knows?). This debacle happened around Songkran. I described it in its own thread on Aseannow. My hopes are now set on the LTR visa, for which I qualify hands-down but which I might still miss on technicalities. What I liked about Thailand is that I could live in hotels and short terms rentals while not paying a rent for months when I was not in Thailand.

I was asked for a rental contract when I tried to renew my retirement visa on my own (without an agent) at Chonburi immigration. I was caught by surprise. Such a requirement couldn't be more akward since I renew my visa every year just before flying back to Europe for 4 months (ie just before my rent ends).

Mexico is more of an alternative for US citizens since it is very close. Otherwise if you must fly half-way around the Earth there are other countries in Latin America which don't tax foreign pensions, like Colombia, Peru, Chile, Argentina.

What is one trying to divert attention from with this scare-mongering about AI? The problem with machines are noisy dumb machines - like lorries - that crush and kill and belch fumes, not silent intelligent machines that interract and take over drudging work.

Punitive custom duties.

How did she get into Kenya without the yellow fever vaccine?

Wouldn't they be progressive morons in this case?

Having availed myself of legal cannabis in Thailand over the past 8 months, I'm amazed at how little addictive it is. I stopped one week ago to allow for some washing-out of my system ahead of my flying back to Europe for the summer, and I feel no missing, craving or withdrawal whatsoever. If I delay my morning coffee by as little as a few hours I get a stiff headache.

People with real money do not retire in a country with no road safety, no walkable streets, no environmental conservation, no town-planning rules ...