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mrt273nva

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Posts posted by mrt273nva

  1. I am returning to the US in 2 days for the first time in 4 years (I am only going for a month though). I am pretty nervous going back because I have heard that reverse culture shock is often worse than regular culture shock. Does anyone have experiences of returning home after a long stint in Thailand? Did anything really stick out? Was it difficult?

  2. If you are coming here to learn Muay Thai then odds are you will end up in a fight... :o

    edit: oh yeah, i forgot to answer your question. you are fine, Thailand is harmless (except in the ring of course, they are dangerous).

  3. When I was in China I had a similar thing happen to my bank card. It was disabled as a security precaution because it was being used overseas. I was put in a further bind because of torn bills not being accepted at the banks. Luckily I had met with some backpackers the week before and had been traveling with them for a little bit so they knew that I was on the level and helped me for a couple days. When my card was working again I paid them back and treated them to a night out. If I hadn't met those people before to help me get through the weekend then it would have been a rough couple of days with no money. Most likely strangers would have figured me as a scammer and there would be no humanity. It makes me hate scammers even more that they ruin it for the people that are in genuine need.

  4. My wife has a trait which I find quite undesirable. Whenever I am depressed or have the blues it seems that she tries her hardest to make me feel worse. It's like she's kicking me when I'm down.

    On the flip side to this whenever I am going through a really good time she is right there to ride that wave with me.

    The fact that I can not rely on her in my moments of need really depresses me. Is this common in other Thai women as well or did I just wind up with a cold hearted b*tch?

    You made a horrible choice in wives, divorce immediately. Next time take better care to choose wisely.

    I can't just up and do that. I love her very much as well as the son that we have together. She is just a bitch when I need her most which to me saddens me even further.

  5. My wife has a trait which I find quite undesirable. Whenever I am depressed or have the blues it seems that she tries her hardest to make me feel worse. It's like she's kicking me when I'm down.

    On the flip side to this whenever I am going through a really good time she is right there to ride that wave with me.

    The fact that I can not rely on her in my moments of need really depresses me. Is this common in other Thai women as well or did I just wind up with a cold hearted b*tch?

  6. My Linux problems are documented in this forum over the past few months. I have finally settled on the latest version of Ubuntu, 9.04. Everything is working fine for me. At the minute no problems at all.

    isn't junty still in beta? i'm too much a a linux novice to play with a beta. i prefer a stable version.

  7. You tend to find that the people most supportive of piracy are the ones who don't live by their creativity.

    thats right. instead of downloading a box office hit movie you should make one instead. i'm fairly certain that the downloads of pirated movies and music have more to do with the high cost of purchasing the original products than the lack of creativity.

  8. Source: http://www.forbes.com/feeds/reuters/2009/0...Y-UPDATE-3.html

    Pirate Bay fileshare four jailed for a year

    STOCKHOLM, April 17 (Reuters) - Four men linked to The Pirate Bay, one of the world's biggest free file-sharing websites, were each jailed for a year on Friday for breaching copyright and ordered to pay 30 million Swedish crowns ($3.58 million) in compensation.

    Analysts said the guilty verdict in the closely-watched test case could help music and film companies recoup millions of dollars in lost revenues but they doubted it would stem the tide of illegal downloading.

    International trade body IFPI reported earlier this year that about 95 percent of music downloaded in 2008 was illegal.

    On its website, The Pirate Bay scorned the ruling, calling it a "crazy verdict".

    "It was lol (laugh out loud) to read and hear," the message read. "But as in all good movies, the heroes lose in the beginning but have an epic victory in the end anyhow. That's the only thing Hollywood has ever taught us."

    IFPI Svenska Gruppen, an organisation representing the Swedish recording industry, said the verdict was "not only positive for the music and film business, but also for all those producers and entrepreneurs trying to create working and legal online services based on real respect for copyright."

    The men linked to The Pirate Bay -- Peter Sunde, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Fredrik Neij and Carl Lundstrom -- were charged early last year by a Swedish prosecutor with conspiracy to break copyright law and related offences. They denied the charges.

    Companies including Warner Bros., MGM, Columbia Pictures, 20th Century Fox Films, Sony ( SNE - news - people ) BMG, Universal and EMI also sought damages of more than 100 million crowns ($12 million) to cover lost revenues.

    The Stockholm district court said in a statement the four were found guilty of breaching copyright laws and each sentenced to a year in prison.

    APPEAL

    Lundstrom's attorney Per Samuelson told journalists he was shocked by the verdict and the severity of the sentence.

    "That's outrageous, in my point of view. Of course we will appeal," he said. "This is the first word, not the last. The last word will be ours."

    The group that controls The Pirate Bay, launched in 2003, says that no copyrighted material is stored on its servers and no exchange of files actually takes place there so it cannot be held responsible for what material is being exchanged.

    The prosecution said that by financing, programming and administering the site, the four men promoted the infringement of property rights by the site's users.

    Industry experts were not convinced the verdict would have a lasting effect.

    "Every time you get rid of one, another bigger one pops up. Napster ( NAPS - news - people ) went, and then up came a whole host of others ... The problem of file-sharing just keeps growing year on year, and it's increasingly difficult for the industry to do anything about it," said music analyst Mark Mulligan of research firm Forrester.

    Dan Cryan, senior analyst at media research firm Screen Digest, said the lack of international copyright law meant websites dedicated to illegal downloads could simply move on to a new country if legislation tightened where they operated.

    "Pirate Bay was brilliant at self-publicity, but the reality is there are lots of other torrent-tracker sites," he said.

    "The closing of the one that shouts the loudest won't make any difference."

  9. So tell us then where your wife got the information ? Source, web links etc ?

    from some lady downstairs. i guess she knows a few protesters that were there but i don't know the lady or how reliable she is. this is why i am asking if anyone else has information about this. and i guess not. perhaps we will learn more as time passes.

  10. i'm not spreading anything, i am simply inquiring to see if anyone has information to confirm what my wife has heard. i am asking if there are any reliable sources. next time my wife tells me something i will just believe it blindly rather than try and ask if people on ThaiVisa have any information that might be different... geesh

    edit: also, did you not notice the "?" in the title of the post? It is not spreading rumors if you are asking for information...

  11. My missus is telling me that it is similar to the killings in 1992 when the army would kill lots of people at night, then spray down the streets to wash up the blood and then come morning people were clueless, including the media. I'm hearing that it is many more than 2 people but I can't confirm. It will be interesting to see what is uncovered in the weeks following all this madness.

  12. My wife is telling me that the army killed loads of people last night at around 3am. What is going on with this? I guess the Thai news is covering it this morning but I don't know what they are saying.

  13. Loss of freedom is dukkha. As soon as a fish is caught on a hook it is suffering. If it is pulled out of the water it is suffering more, not just because it's been forced into an alien environment but because it immediately starts to "drown" in oxygen. If you've ever got your clothes caught on barbed wire or brambles you'll have an idea how this feels. Not being free to do what you want to do creates instant frustration, which is dukkha.

    the precepts limit what you are free to do and causes instant frustration. is this also known as dukkha? the fish that is on the end of the line should find the middle path and not be frustrated because it was deceived into eating food with strings attached. the fish should also not gloat because it found a piece of food floating in the water where no other food is to be found. instead, the fish should realize that it's self sacrificing behavior that is given to the angler at the other end of the line is a gesture of it's selflessness. soon the fish will obtain nirvana by being one of the few in it's school to graduate from swimming to full on aerial acrobatics in a series of twists and turns that could never be accomplished by a fish in it's own environment. the fish is a hungry ghost (fish not ghost) that is aimlessly looking for that hook in life to pull them from the depths of despair. and also, after you kill it, are you not giving it another chance at a better reincarnated life? it is said that to be reincarnated as a human is rare, so why not give this being another shot at the big time, because it obviously went wrong when it was born as a fish. perhaps the tables were turned and the fish was a former angler that used some random fish a chum to catch bigger fish. the philosophy could go on and on and the scenarios could continue however i have no reel point except that i feel there is no problem fishing and that the fish most likely have no problem being fished. we can't all be at the top of the food pyramid (if you weren't then how buddhist would you really be?). monks could not survive if it were not for the lay buhhdist doing all the dirty work (such as catching fish for monks). anyway, i'm rambling. my knowledge of buhhdism is limited as is yours, so have away at my response. convince me that fishing is wrong and i will stop. if you don't stop me then you are subjecting many fish to further "harm", but that is up to you.

  14. I would suggest getting barb-less hooks so that there is minimal damage done to the fish. The fish can even be unhooked without even leaving the water. If your mind is getting hung up on the fish then maybe it is something you should meditate on and then make your decision whether you should fish or not. Luckily fish have very short memories and will forget that they were even caught within seconds of letting them go (this is what I have heard, but I'm not a scientist) so there is no harm done to the fish.

    Except for that they now have a gash in their mouth and will get gashed again and again due to this supposed poor memory.

    it is a good thing that there are no nerve endings around the fish's mouth and it is also a good thing that the fish has no ego and no sense of vanity so that it wouldn't be concerned with a small hole that would soon close anyway. I guess my first sentence suggesting barb-less hooks to reduce damage went over your head though.

  15. I would suggest getting barb-less hooks so that there is minimal damage done to the fish. The fish can even be unhooked without even leaving the water. If your mind is getting hung up on the fish then maybe it is something you should meditate on and then make your decision whether you should fish or not. Luckily fish have very short memories and will forget that they were even caught within seconds of letting them go (this is what I have heard, but I'm not a scientist) so there is no harm done to the fish.

  16. Yes its great, a 12 yo girl got killed outside our salon this morning, face full of iced water, she lost control of motorsi, straight into an oncoming pick-up, luckily it rained an hour later and the girls blood was washed down the drain, yep, its really great!! NOT!

    that is poor etiquette on the part of the person throwing the water. it makes no sense to try and hit people on motorcycles unless you are trying to do harm or at the very least give them a scare. there are however areas where motorcyclists should avoid because of the common knowledge that everyone is a target on songkran day. it is sad that a life has been lost, but lives are lost every day because stupid people doing stupid things and songkran day is no exception.

    as far as fun and excitement songkran is right up there, it is unfortunate however that it also has a death toll every year.

    on a side note. Before the invention of the motor engine I am certain that Songkran deaths were much lower. It seems that most of the Songkran deaths are motor related (combined with alcohol of course).

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