Walker88

Actually, I found my experience at Yodobashi kind of irritatingly humorous. It was so very Japanese. In the time I lived and worked there, there were many experiences that lent incite into the cultural peculiarities of the place. One time, near Christmas, a female colleague asked me if I celebrate. I told her "Of course". Her: But you're Jewish! Me: What gave you the idea I was Jewish? Her: Because you wear glasses. Me: So Takahashi-san is also Jewish? (he wears glasses). Her: Don't be silly, Walker-san! Another time I commented on the katakana spelling of the firm Salomon Brothers on a Japanese trading screen. They used the katakana character pronounced "So", not the one pronounced "sa". I asked another female colleague about it, remarking that Solomon was the king of the Jews. She asked, "In America?" I replied, "No, that would be Alan King". She said, "Oh" Of course I would not expect her to know any biblical history nor Catskills' comedians, but I just found it funny.

Please do us all a favor and list the infractions that are punishable by a lead pipe to the head. Some of us are not as culturally sensitive as you, but prefer to avoid death by lead pipe.

April only? Those other eleven months are going to be envious. Thailand: The Land of the Eternal Wet T-shirt Contest The tag line is getting as long as the holiday.

[I did have some trouble once shopping in Japan, many years ago] It was in 2005. Fortunately, the world has changed. (I also used to buy something at Yodobashi called 'film', which I used in my Leica rangefinder cameras, and only knew what my camera captured after some time in what we called a Dark Room, with which I am sure you are familiar. There was a certain joy in that experience, back when humans had patience and did not need instant gratification. When I saw the digital revolution unfolding, I emptied out all of my favorite films that Yodobashi had in stock, before they were discontinued. I still have a refrigerator full of Kodak Technical Pan and Kodachrome25. I develop the Techpan myself, but no labs remain that develop K25. Yodobashi was one of the two last who did it.)

I prefer to call it top shelf salesmanship.

I did have some trouble once shopping in Japan, many years ago. I'm sure things have changed, but.... I needed a new black cartridge for my printer. I went to Yodobashi Camera. They did not have the specific cartridge for my Epson printer, even though it was the latest model. Unfortunately Epson Japan had made different cartridges for its US models. So I thought...just buy another printer here. I asked the sales woman to show me printers. We looked at a few demo models on the floor. All of the interface was in Japanese. At the time I spoke Japanese, but could not read it all, if it used Kanji instead of hiragana. I asked her if she could switch it to English. She said it was Japanese only. I remarked that I could not read all of the Kanji. She suggested it would make sense to learn (true, of course). I asked if the printer would work with my computer, which was a Toshiba of Japan I had bought in the US. She said probably not, but she had many models of Japanese operating system computers in stock. I then recapped out conversation to that point, and posed it as a question: "So I want to buy a (inexpensive) cartridge for my Epson of Japan printer, but since it won't work with my Epson of Japan US printer, I need to buy a Japanese printer. But since that printer will only work with a computer whose operating system is in Japanese, I also need to buy a Japanese computer. Since the Japanese computer does not have English on it, I also need to hire a teacher to teach me all the Kanji I would need to read the computer, which could operate the printer, whose cartridge could then print out the single page I need to print?" "Hai" (with a bow to boot).

If you want to play the odds for a long and healthy life, you will use protein powder. Strength has a strong correlation with longevity. Muscular atrophy that comes with age + no weight training is positively correlated with all cause mortality. A person utilizes protein less inefficiently as they age. That means as one ages they should ingest more protein, as if the amount is high enough, even with inefficient utilization you will get what you need to maintain muscle mass. Yes, one can eat lots of eggs and meat, but protein powder is an easy way to take in a quick 30 grams of protein. The body can only process about 30 grams at a time, so protein intake should be staggered over the day. Amino acids stay in the bloodstream for only about 30 minutes, so one can add more protein with that in mind. Researchers such as Dr Don Lehman and Dr Peter Attia now recommend a target level of 2 gm per kg of body weight per day. That's a lot of protein, so powders are an easy way of hitting the target amount. Use it or don't, but people have a better chance of living healthy and longer if they take in a lot of protein (plus engage in strenuous exercise). A person can have the vitality and the body of someone 20 years younger if they do this. Is that not worth it?

For rock, I'd put Prince over Beck. If fret tapping is one's thing, I'd listen to Stanley Jordan playing Georgia on My Mind. For classical, and maybe best guitarist of any type ever, Julian Bream For something a little different, Michael Hedges.

One of the oddities of this Forum is that members are always posting about how 'the rich' live or what the rich like or where they want to be, as if 'the rich' are some monolithic entity. "A friend" of mine is rich by any measure. He lives well below his means in Thailand. He enjoys Thailand for the time being, and may one day move on to another place, as there's always something new to experience. He has no budget, so buys what he wants, eats what he wants, does what he wants. Sometimes what he does/buys/wants costs a lot, sometimes it's pretty simple. If you saw 'my friend' you would never guess what he's got, though he might look more than skint, as he's quite fit and dresses neatly all the time. He smiles a lot, too. The great benefit of wealth, or so 'my friend' says, is that it takes away almost all the stress most people experience in life. It allows them to live as they choose, which may not be in the Hamptons or Pebble Beach or Monaco. Heck, such people might not even be particularly demanding, as they're just happy with what life has allowed them to have. To raise the subject in a recent thread, if there's a fly on their pizza, they just pull it off and---unless it was a long one that spread across the entire dish---they'll eat what wasn't touched by the hair. If it spread across the whole dish, they will discretely point it out to service staff and ask for a replacement. No attention drawn. They know stuff like that happens even in a Michelin Star restaurant.

And the short version to the OP: Forget yourself....happiness will ensue.

You nailed it. Accept reality for what it is and enjoy it. The nature of reality is infinitely fascinating, and I never tire of thinking and learning about it, whether considering how cells in a body function, what instinct drives me to do, how some things please or don't, about the vastness of space and time, or how things behave at a subatomic level. All of that---which is real and of astonishing complexity--- is so much more interesting than some supposed creator or worrying about rules that tell you where you can or cannot put your appendages and when, or what animals you must avoid, or how women have to dress like giant eggplants, or telling some make believe entity how great it is and how you love it so. I have no faith and don't think much of any of them, even the ones claiming they're just a 'philosophy', not a religion (at the retail level, its adherents treat it exactly like any other religion, forever asking for things and wishing for all the things that 'philosophy' supposedly teaches them not to desire). Personally, I think its founder was manic depressive and just found his own way to address it. His personal solution subsequently became a faith, similar to how an alibi or lie became another major religion "I swear, Joey, God did it". Many people need to believe in something. Dr Robert Sapolsky is of the view religion was 'selected into' the species in a Darwinian sense, because a belief there is something/someone/meaning/etc. reduces stress, and stress kills. He bases that on the fact every culture has invented myths and control entities. I've always been incredibly lucky. I didn't truly realize just how lucky until I started looking outside of myself. Without going into too much detail, I tried to spread my luck around. I met people who had nothing, and who had a thousand bad things happen every day and maybe one good thing. They focused on the one good thing. I had a life where a thousand good things happened every day, and maybe one bad thing, yet I put too much attention into the bad thing. I learned from them and it took a guy who was generally pretty happy and amped it up. I have almost everything I could ever want or need, except the one thing nobody can have: more time to enjoy this life. Besides the wonders of existence, each of us is sharing this brief time and space with others. Rather than navel gazing, put more attention on those around you. There is always someone who could use a helping hand, or a little confidence boosting, a sympathetic ear, or even a joke or two. Put attention on either of those---the beauty of existence or the interactions with those around you---and the things that ail or worry you disappear. Obviously it is made a lot easier if one is healthy and has daily needs taken care of (that is where my luck comes into it). For the OP, I would advise against producing a kid, as your happiness or meaning is quite a burden to foist on to someone else. Besides, there's plenty of kids out there already who could use some care and attention. Focus outside of yourself, whether it's toward this lovely tropical country or the people around you who you care about. Forget yourself, except to remind yourself how lucky you are to exist and how lucky you are to have materialized where and when you did. Of the 125 billion or so people who have existed since our ancestors walked out of Oldavai Gorge, nobody has come into this world under better circumstances that white males in developed countries. Nothing stood in the way of enjoyment and success except for obstacles one created for himself. Imagine how easy the life of a white male born in a developed nation is vs a female born in rural Bangladesh or N'Djamena. Most of us are incredibly lucky.

I don't see a crisis, but a slowdown is likely. What I have no idea about is the condition of the banks. I learned long ago (in Japan) not to trust the stated level of either NPLs or income. In times of crisis confidence becomes more important than truth or reality. I do know there was a debt moratorium during part of the Covid Era. I also read that the authorities allowed banks to book imputed interest, as if borrowers were actually servicing their debt when they were not. Japan did that in the early 1990s. Japan also changed rules regarding consolidation on the parent's balance sheet, so that losses could be hidden in non-consolidated subsidiaries. I do not know if Thailand also has done that. I just know it pays to be skeptical re banks.

I believe the BoT announced last month Household Debt is now 93% of GDP.

At the citizen level, household debt as a % of per capita income is higher in Thailand than the US, so stimulus would have to come from the public sector. Hence, the 10K baht scheme. The figures Thailand produces re Household Debt do not include, as far as I know, gray market debt. The Thai consumer is pretty strapped right now. The US has the luxury of having the world's reserve currency, a large manufacturing base that is beginning to grow again, the world's strongest military, a well-educated and creative elite (even if the average American seems like a moron), most of the resources it needs domestically or in the land of a friendly neighbor, it produces something like 350% of its caloric needs, and transparent and liquid capital markets. All of those kind of allow things Greece or Spain or Argentina or Thailand could never do. At present, the world could survive a collapse of Thailand (I'm not arguing that this will happen). The world at present could not survive the collapse of the US. Yes, the debt and obligations are massive, but so is the economy. It will all tumble some day, but I suspect most members will be pushing daisies by the time that happens.

I think tourism is a plus for the Thai economy, and might hit 20% or higher of Thai GDP in 2024 (vs 17.8% in 2019). The high season looks pretty good, as better hotels (which might be assumed to house wealthier, more-free-spending visitors) have high bookings. The govt seems to see this, which is why so many of its actions seemed geared toward the tourism sector. (The new tax scheme is not going to help in terms of expats, however.) What bodes negatively for Thailand are the ongoing effects from Covid, and regional competition to be the SEAsian hub and labor source for international firms. The world learned about the threats to supply chains during Covid, and many nations are taking steps to bring manufacturing back home. In a sense the end of globalization may be upon us. Certainly this supply chain issue is impacting China, so it's likely to hit Thailand, too. Factories and plants that are getting long in the tooth and fully depreciated could disappear, rather than be upgraded or rebuilt. Vietnam is heavily courting Japanese manufacturing. That could hit Thai GDP. Many export markets are being hit by domestic issues, most notably China. I'm a bit on the side of Peter Zeihan re China, though maybe for different reasons. The insolvency of Zhongzhi suggests that the fallout from the property sector (e.g., Evergrande) is spreading. China is awash in excess capacity as well as domestic debt. SOEs have always been a basket case, but this could be masked when the economy was on the boil. It's barely simmering now, relative to the last 2 decades. To the extent Thailand's economy is interwoven with China, China's problems will impact Thailand. The ag sector has always been a plus for Thailand, but two things are impacting that: the drought in some regions, and the war in Ukraine which affects fertilizer prices. That might play out more in 2024. Thailand can afford the 10K baht scheme, though it will double FY2024's debt, but I'm not sure what effect it will have.

It must be cherry season, because they're being picked. Chanyanit is one of 66 million. Einstein, Feynman, Oppenheimer, von Neumann, Bethe, Pauli, Bohr, Mandelbrot, Born, Ricardo, Spinoza, and so many others are members of an ethnicity which, in addition to be persecuted for thousands of years, has never been even a rounding error in its percent of the total human population. I do not claim any credit for what your avatar did (including playing the bongos naked), so it isn't any western sense of superiority. I merely look at the data and came to a conclusion. Maybe discovery and invention is partly attributed to a critical mass of intellect being in the same place at the same time, and historical Thailand never enjoyed that critical mass. The Renaissance in Europe had that critical mass. In the UK in the days of Faraday and Maxwell, there was that critical mass. In Europe in the early 1900s, there was that critical mass of physicists. Sometimes events lead to the creation of a critical mass of intellect, such as the emergence of the Nazis brought so many together at Los Alamos (including Feynman). A critical mass developed in California in the 1980s, which led to Silicon Valley and the modern tech economy. Many cultures had their day in the sun. Some had it, then faded away. Some still have it. Some never had it. Lots of books have been written and much controversial research has been done to try to explain this, but either no one has come up with the answer, or the answer is too uncomfortable to consider in polite company. As noted in my post, all cultures and nations create myths which they teach their members. Pride can result, even false pride. Sometimes it even elicits a feeling of superiority, where members think the greatness of their fellows falls a bit on those who achieved nothing. That's the primary currency of the White Supremacists. I think some cultures inculcate that belief in superiority into their members better than others, often without cause or reason. I recall a long ago interview with Orson Wells who was of the opinion that one particular minority had, pound for pound, achieved infinitely more than any other ethnic group. Many, myself included, would agree with him (as is clear in this post). In polite company we might be allowed to have a top, but we are not allowed to have a bottom. Especially today we suffer from a kind of cognitive dissonance, where we accept that there are #1s, but no lowest in anything. Rather than look for reasons and try to correct what may be due to a host of fixable factors, we accept, that except for the #1s we allow, everybody else is equal, when an objective look at reality says quite the opposite. Perhaps someone can explain why achievement is so narrowly focused, not only among individuals, but even between cultures.

I don't feel violated, so no need to call the cops. He has an opinion based on his experience, observations and what people have told him. So do I. We differ in our opinion. This is a Forum, the point of which (besides the owner hoping to make money) is to post opinions. I did not convince him, but neither did he convince me. There is an elite in Thailand who have created a pretty good deal for themselves. 1% control 75% of the nation's wealth. They also control the levers of power, which includes the education system as well as the myths inculcated into the other 99%. As I noted, they even created laws to make questioning of some myths a crime. At the leadership level they miss few opportunities to reinforce the myths, which impacts the people's sense of self and keeps them pliable and corralled. I think if reality, rather than myth, was taught, the people might be unleashed. That might create a larger pie from which the elite could benefit in a nominal way, although the percent of the larger pie the elite control would be less. It seems those who make the rules, the education system, etc., do not want to risk that, as wealth combined with power seems to be their goal.

I buy a lot of wine. I buy enough so that suppliers give me the wholesale price. For many Italian wines of better quality, I pay the same or less than I do in the US. I asked about the tax....I was told that low priced wines get hit with a high tax, but better wines get a reduced rate, as importers claim a much lower cost. For a wine that sells for $15 in the US, it might cost $35 here, but a wine that costs $100 in the US might cost $100 here, or even less. That's wholesale. A medium priced wine like Le Volte or il Bruciato also costs me the same wholesale here as I would pay in a shop in the US retail. Restaurants tend to mark up considerably, depending on how hi-so they are. Maybe some mark up 100%, while others mark up 300%. You can buy a Solaia or Tignanello wholesale for about what I pay in the US, but at a restaurant it's 3x what I pay in a US cave. If the tax is cut, cheaper wines will cost less in restaurants, but the Solaias are likely to be the same, as the tax now is a fraction of the official rate.

You should spend some time in Bangkok. I see guys who are clearly in their 70s walking around hand-in-hand with some real stunners. Yes, some old guys meet a mother-of-5-with-5-baby daddies, but some guys hit the jackpot. The older guys who do well tend to be more fit and dress as if they have money, but nobody with a Y-chromosome could find fault with their tilac.

Not sure what constitutes old, but libido need not fade with age. If one stays in shape, it stays strong. Personally, I enjoy the act as much now as when I first started as a teen. Practice makes perfect, and what is the meaning of life if not a drive to perfection.. One word of advice: TRT is not a good idea. Better to build testosterone naturally via exercise, and maybe supplements like tongkat ali. The body produces testosterone and sperm at the same time. If one gets TRT, the body sees it has sufficient testosterone and stops producing it, which means it also stops producing sperm. Upwards of 25% of those who get TRT never can produce their own testosterone again. Not enough can be said about the benefits of strenuous exercise, including lifting heavy weights. Better sleep, better mobility, a stronger libido, more testosterone and a much lower incidence of ED are part of the benefits. If one lifts very heavy---such as a last set that one can do maybe 3 reps max---the body responds by churning out both HGH and testosterone, both of which slow aging. If the libido is fading---and if you care---get your vitals checked. Find out how much free testosterone you have. If the libido is low, chances are FT is low. Some of this is genetic. I'm lucky enough to have way above average free testosterone, so I have the libido of a teen and not once has anything not 'risen to the occasion'. Maybe---as the OP wrote and Bertrand Russell likely would agree---sex is silly and overrated, but I hope I never come to feel that way. Sex may not be everything in life, but it certainly is one of life's most pleasurable activities. It's also healthy, as it produces lots of useful hormones that can reduce stress and increase blood flow. There is also some evidence that more frequent 'finishing' is correlated with reduced levels of prostate cancer. So do the '[human thing' and have sex.

Obviously the range among people is quite wide. In countries I lived in in the past, I employed household staff who did the shopping and the cooking. They had the weekend off, but on Sunday I would cook pizza for them and their kids, if they had them. My cooking skills declined at the same rate my laziness grew, so while breakfast is at home and lunch is only a protein shake, I eat out every night. Maybe 2-3 times a week dinner is accompanied by wine, which is shared with the table and sometimes with the service staff at the restaurant, as I cannot finish an entire bottle, or choose not to. I suspect my monthly number is quite high, though I've never added it up. I enjoy a good meal and try to vary among different cuisines. If I had to limit myself to one cuisine until getting in the box or the urn, I'd say Italian (with Italian wine). Second choice would be Indian, and a close third Thai. Maybe Thai over Indian...I just love spices and a little zip that chilies provide. Tough to go wrong with any of those.

How does it feel? Exactly the same as if I believed in deities. Sunsets are as lovely, food tastes just as good, a hug is just as satisfying. Deluding myself into pretending some meaning that comes from some creator would take away from the meaning I derive simply from being able to enjoy this brief existence and the people with whom I share time and space. Most people come into existence because somebody was horny. I find that kind of funny. What's funnier, however, is that people think there are some deities watching the whooping, who then send an order to their celestial factory to churn out another 'soul' and stick it where dad just stuck something else.

Similarly nothing proves that the cashier at Food Gourmet who ran up my purchases did not create the Universe last Monday. As for consciousness, there is zero evidence that it continues after the neurons stop firing. Yes, our atoms get recycled, but since there are maybe 10^27 of them in the brain, the odds they reconnect in exactly the same way are slim to none. Drink a glass of water and it's likely at least one oxygen atom was part of Caesar, but I don't feel any stab wounds when I take a sip.

What is a fact is that there is absolutely no evidence that humans are anything more than a biological machine, whose 'consciousness' is a function of biology, chemistry, and electromagnetism. Watch the decline of a person with dementia and this becomes abundantly clear. The same can be observed when a person suffers a traumatic brain injury. What they were is no more. Where did they go? They went nowhere; it's only the neurons and parts of the brain that made them what they once were no longer function, so that part of who they were no longer exists. It is a funny bit of delusion that a person with advanced Alzheimers, who even forgets how to swallow at the end, in the instant of death becomes everything they ever were again, all their memories and personality intact. That may well be comforting for some people, but it has zero basis in fact. And if the dead don't become what they were again, but become something new, they don't remember their previous iteration anyway. Thus, the only point belief has is that some need that comfort while alive. Some do not. I accept that I am a biological machine, whose existence will end for all eternity at some point. My 'meaning' comes from my ability to enjoy this brief existence and the time and space I share with others. As Sam Harris has said, the term 'atheist' is kind of silly. There is no similar term for those who don't believe in astrology, yet there is no more proof any deity is real than astrology is real. Some like to scaremonger and say if I don't believe what they believe, I will suffer some sort of eternal punishment. Okay, which deity or deities are the One True one or ones? Pascal's Wager wasn't an either/or, it was a lottery ticket, because somebody could choose Jesus and then die and find out the One True God is Allah or Shiva or Thor or Zeus or Amaterasu. Choose wrong and one is plumb out of luck getting 72 virgins or drinking ale with Odin in Valhalla.

If any Thai people actually believed that pabulum, they would rush out today and borrow every baht they possibly could from loan sharks, assuming their new master would grant them a debt jubilee.