smccolley

MSG occurs natiurally in a number of plants, like mushrooms and tomatoes. Why doesn't anyone have a heart attack from pasta sauce? Oh, because MSG is harmless...

The octopus was funnier, but this could prove to be a good distraction if the games get boring. Kudos for thinking up this stunt, I am sure money will be made.

I tried it today based on this recommendation when I was in Bangkok visiting my company lawyer. It wasn't bad, but the shrimp/fish sauce was more than I prefer. My wife enjoyed it for sure. Not what I would consider Michelin rating however

Sorry, my serious suggestion would be immediately removed by moderators. Who is the boss here? If you let animals control you I think you have your priorities wrong. Why are you even asking?

4 hours ago, jimn said:

I find it unbelievabele that you have never done a 90 day report. Do you have an extension of stay or have you been on overstay since 2006. I would have thought that if you have an extension of stay that a lack of 90 day reports would have been picked up. Or maybe you have an illegal one.

I have an extension of stay based on marriage and a WP. I just travel a lot and the longest I have been in the country is 54 days.

I have lived in Thailand since 2006 and never done a 90 day report. I travel once or twice a month and don't have to worry about it.

When I ran an auto shop in Phoenix I would tell folks you are not buying a battery only renting. They rarely lasted the guaranteed life because of the heat. We would just credit them the remaining battery life when they traded it in for a new one. 

Cost of living in paradise. :)

I didn't read through all the posts, but I have had an accident when I was 17 where I had a massive compound fracture of my arm, 5 broken vertebrae , a ruptured disk in my neck, a skull fracture and a brain injury and was sent home with paracetamol after resetting my arm. They called me the next day to re-examine my neck  but the ruptured disk was not discovered  until 8 years later and the epilepsy from the brain injury was not diagnosed for 20 years.

This happened in the US where i had access to "good" doctors. Let's all take things in perspective.

On 2/24/2018 at 3:56 PM, bbz404 said:

 

Ive has a Citi Bank credit card for more than 2 years now. Credit limit got increased to 524,000 Baht within the first year. No trip to NCB, messenger from Citi came to my work place. Smooth sailing. 

I never use their credit however. Just pay 100% each and every time. 

Collected so many miles last year, the wife and I can go to Europe and back for free this summer. 

I just got my Citibank ROP card last month as well. I have a work permit and good income here, so they gave me a 400kTHB limit. Hopefully I can raise it after a few months as my monthly expenses can easily exceed that.

I had 5 years of credit using AMEX Thailand and 2 auto loans, so it was just as easy as the above poster mentioned.

Glad I got to visit again in December, wouldn't want to go there now even though the resort islands should be relatively unaffected.

I spoke with my company's law firm yesterday about this, and I think the answer is that no one yet knows how this will work. I am hoping that by the time my visa is up for renewal in May that the law firm is able to find out all the details.

As of now they are unable to determine how to qualify a company and if the company has to be working on government project in the specific areas in question.

At this point it is just wait and see, and it may end up not being real...

15 hours ago, mark5335 said:

The BOI has finally issued details on the SMART Visa application process, with applications to be accepted from 1st Feb 2018: http://www.boi.go.th/index.php?page=Smart_visa

I am definitely going to talk to my company's law firm when I see them Monday - a 4 year visa and no work permit will save the company a fortune and me a lot of time.

1 hour ago, MartinBangkok said:

It's a tax-trap. The hidden agenda here is tax.

Not really - I already pay Thai tax. The advantage is that my company could stop paying the law firm every year to renew my visa. It always interrupts my projects as well.

I'd love to get it, but not sure internet/telecom will be allowed under this scheme.

I wonder if working for Cisco Systems, Thailand would work. It is definitely high tech, but not particularly Thai. I have been with them for years and am sick to death of the annual visa thing.

I have found it is a useful coin for trading really low cost new coins. Many wallets and exchanges accept it and you can use it to buy actual coins... Just saying it seems to have found a niche.

Also, when withdrawing/transferring it the cost is far less than ETH or BTC.

I am doing exactly butkis about it. It has been there for years and no one has ever exploited it before. I check for the prerequisite malware already, without that nothing can exploit the bug.

Not even sure i want the fix now, sounds like a huge performance hit if you install it...

2 hours ago, cms22 said:

I've said it before: the Thai government is quite happy for these people to suffer. Remember, those who die are predominately the poor, the uneducated, the farmers, the labourers, the prostitute, the children, the innocent. When did this government actually give a hoot about these people?

I am not sure that is exactly true. I'd have to say the middle class is also impacted. These are people that scrounged enough to buy a car (never learned to drive though) or a bike and are out on a fast(er) road. Falling off the farm scooter on a dirt road is not fatal as often as the highway...

I think it is impacting all aspects of Thai society, except for the rich of course. The really rich are only what, 1%? That means the other 99% are impacted by this elephant-sized problem.

Just now, OldSiamHand said:

whatever that means, it sounds impressive.  how does she compare against the champ from the west?

She probably does not compare very well to all students everywhere, but it does show that she is diligent and punishing her for other's behavior is not appropriate. It actually made her afraid to go to school until we confronted the teacher and it stopped.

My son is not that diligent a student and when he has willfully ignored a  homework assignment,  I would not be opposed to a reasonable level of corporal punishment.

On the other hand, my daughter is ranked number one in the east on a number of subjects and she was spanked because another person in the class was bad. I called the teacher out on that one and it has stopped.

I think it depends on the student, but it takes a special teacher to know when it might be right... I don't think there are a lot of teachers in Thailand that know the difference.

Pics or it didn't happen!

I worked there on and off for 18 months a few years ago. What a s$%2thole. I actually felt more at risk in a car there than I do here. In that time I was hit once while in a car and once in a crosswalk. It was normal to see more than one major crash in the 15 minute drive to the office. Compare that to Thailand and I have only had two near misses in 12 years.

That being said, one missile and one attack on a place you can't get near is pretty minor. I can think of dozens of places in the US that it would be eminently more dangerous to be, depending on your ethnic persuasion.

2 hours ago, garbolino said:

I do NOT THINK any records are kept regarding a person going to see a doc at a clinic.....so YES must have clearance from a BRAIN DOC.....who, no doubt will NOT CHECK brain for driving skills !!!

Umm, not sure why all the loud words, but I was competent to drive before the seizure, and the brain doc was simply making sure I did not have another seizure, She certainly didn't check my driving ability, but lets just assume I hadn't forgotten how in the 18 months since I stopped. Not surprisingly I didn't forget how and haven't had a seizure at the wheel ever, and certainly not in the 27 years since my diagnosis.

After a big seizure I was diagnosed with epilepsy my neurologist told me she would not formally take my license as long as I promised not to drive until she said so. I immediately sold my car and did not drive for 18 months. Even now I never drive for work, I use a car service if I have to go somewhere.

The problem (at least in the US) is that no neurologist ever wants to sign off and say you are fit to drive. If anything ever happened they would be liable in court. So if you do lose your license the change of you ever getting it back again is slim.

That being said, anyone having a seizure while driving should definitely be evaluated for their capability to drive and not drive until they have this under control.

8 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

11 hours ago, LALes said:

I had an S4 until it was stolen.  I really liked it.  I got a new J7 last year as a cheaper replacement.
Screen is bigger at 5.5 instead of 5.  Doesn't have all the bells and whistles of the S series but it is faster.  I bought a new S4 on Ebay for $120 a few months ago to have a back up/replacement phone.  Its kind of clunky in comparison with the J7 but the screen is 1080 compared to the J7's 720.  I like the smaller size of the S4, too.  
Be aware that if you plan to travel with your phone, you might find it obsolete.  In the US, T-Mobile is upgrading their towers and there is major compatibility issues with older phones.  You won't be able to get 4G or even 3G with some older phones.  My J7 was limited to "E", which is basically dial-up speed, and even my S4 was limited to "E" in Hawaii.

Also one of the advantages of the J7 is dual SIM. So i keep my Thai and UK SIM in there

Well, My new S8+ has dual SIM, it was the reason I switched from my S6Edge...