GammaGlobulin

My Dearest Friends, There are only a very few UTUBERS based in Thailand which I have respect for, and THIS UTUBER is one. Apparently, and according to this UTUBER, Portugal is FAR better than Thailand in too many ways to be denied. And so, it has gotten me thinking. And, thinking seriously. I could move to Portugal if I wanted to. I COULD. I could leave here, and live out my days in Portuga. I have spent most of my life in Asia. And, I REALLY always enjoyed my time in Macau, during the early days. So, what do you think? Now that the CCP has completely destroyed Macao, or Macau, then why not go to Portugal to live out the rest of my days, however many might still be allotted to me by the Powers that be? Listening to this UTUBER, Portugal has just TOO MUCH to offer, it seems, compared to the Thailand of Today. I am getting tired of the VISA Rigamarole, not to mention the increasing numbers of tourists, and low-flying aircraft buzzing me, overhead. And, the ROOSTERS, let’s just say that you cannot escape these beastly beasts in Thailand, wherever you go. I do not want to write too much, initially, because, I hope that I might add further comments below, as needed. Just in case you might think this is some sort of idle-chatter post…IT IS NOT. Although I have never been to Portugal, myself, I HAVE been to Luxembourg, and I assume the two places are not far apart in terms of culture. I KNOW!....right? Originally, I had thought that I might go to Scotland. But, Scotland might be too expensive and too cold. After reading this recent UTUBER upload, and I will NOT post the link, I have changed my mind. Portugal might be EVEN BETTER than Thailand…Maybe. Have you ever seen the movie dealing with the theme of a grape-vineyard owner who loses his vineyard? THAT was a great film! And, here is a lesser film…. Anyway…I think I am DUE FOR A CHANGE. I have spent almost my entire life in Asia. And, what do I have to show for it??? Maybe it is time to head to Portugal! Also, my DEEPEST Thanks to the great UTUBER who, very recently, suggested 5 better places to retire. Thank you, Sir! You know who you are. You are a VERY nice guy who deserves a VERY happy life. Regards, Gamma Note1: This UTUBER is much to my taste, possessing a bit of dry wit, but not over the top. Note2: This UTUBER is also a super nice guy, who graduated from a decent school and loves to swim in Thai swimming pools, after having swum in pools at school in the UK. Note3: This UTUBER does not mind sharing artifacts concerning intimate details of his life in Thailand, even though, as we all know, lurkers and viewers can be harsh in their judgements of UTUBE content producers. In fact, my hat’s off to this very nice guy who is, probably about now, in the UK. What more can I say? Should I gush further? Some UTUBERS from Thailand have things meaningful to say which affect me, deeply, like Marylin Monroe, and..like Sergei Rachmaninoff.

I have read this book three times. I read it twice in Taipei. In my opinion, German culture has almost always been outstanding. And, in fact, Noam Chomsky agrees. German tumblers, for example, are super high quality, and consequently more expensive than Asian glass, and Asian ceramics. There is just something about glass furnaces and ceramic kilns which turns me on. Most girls in Pattaya have never even seen a firey pot, such as the Germans'. Need I go on?

I read the book. Das Boot (German pronunciation: [das ˈboːt], English: The Boat) is the title of a 603-page 1973 German novel by Lothar-Günther Buchheim (1918-2007), which deals with the author's personal experiences recorded as a war correspondent on U-boat submarines. Fantastic read! I highly recommend it to everyone.

By the way, my rather innocent quip alluding to Ms. Jeane Brodie was nothing more than my reaffirmation of my continuing preference for all things of Scotland. Someday, I will visit Scotland, and I will take the measure of Scottish trout...Maybe not now, but soon. I just cannot imagine that my days here in Thailand will end before seeing Scotland. My days posting on TV began with Scotland, and may they end, too, when my hoof touches the blessed soil of that faraway land. Glass and glasses are things I love. Therefore, please pray for me that I breathe my last breath with my nose in a priceless Scotch-whiskey snifter. Mixed drinks, like Mai Tai, are for girls. MaoTai Jiu and Scottish Whiskey are reserved for men.

And this is Upper Darby Talk... For What? Jingthing, I think I love you.... But, I wanna know, for sure. Jingthing, you MOVE me...

One of the PRIME reasons, as Miss Brodie often stated, why I so much LOVE glass, is that glass is one of the few beautiful examples of a super-cooled liquid at room temperature. I know you all agree with the logic of Miss Jeane Brodie. So, Listen Up!, girls.

When choosing glass, why not choose the best?

Dear Friends, Here is a topic dear to my heart; I mean the tumbler. I love glassware, first of all. And I love crystal, too. I even used to love glassware fit for the Chemistry Lab when I was in school. For me, the more lead in the glass the better I like it. But I am not here talking soda-lead glass. No. I am talking SODA-LIME GLASS. For our purposes today, just think about any old drinking glass, one which can be classified as a tumbler, that has no lead. Don’t try to stretch your imaginations overly much. If you want a crash course in glass blowing, this is also not the place for that. You know, my friends, when I was younger I used to work with glass factories and ceramics factories, and I loved the sound of crackled celadon crackling. But you can get the same sound even without celadon crackling, sometimes. Visiting a glass factory in Asia is best done in the winter months due to the terrific heat produced by the furnaces and also the kilns in the case of ceramics. But I won't bore you with that. I just want to know what your favorite tumbler size and shape might be. I will attach an image of my favorite tumbler, MINUS any BRANDING INFO. This tumbler is just over 600 milliliters in volume and it has a beautiful shape that fits my hand perfectly. This is the ideal size for drinking beer, iced tea, iced water, and a veritable plethora of other liquids. But, if you tried to drink a glass of Remy Martin Cognac, filled to the brim, you might not be able to walk out your living room and up to bed. Make that TWO glasses of Remy, which would then be over 1200 milliliters of Cognac. That could be expensive in Thailand, too, a place where good Cognac is not so plentiful at a reasonable price. Personally, I prefer to fill my tumbler with Iced Green Chinese Tea from places like Sichuan or the mountain plantations in Taiwan. This tumbler is truly beautiful when seen full of light green tea and floating ice cubes which I make myself using silicone molds. The only problem with this tumbler is that, when empty, it is a bit top heavy, and the sides of the glass are quite thin. Over the years, maybe during the past five years, I have, so sadly, knocked over about SIX tumblers on the ceramic-tile countertop, and they shatter like crazy every time you do this. So, here is what this thing looks like: I know. It’s a beauty, right? I really do not know who designed this magnificent thing, but I worry that, one day, they might stop producing them…and then…where would I be? So what I have done is to order 18 more of these tumblers. I had 12 tumblers five years ago. I then shattered six during the past five years. And, now, I just ordered an additional 18 tumblers. This means that I should still have tumblers left to drink from over a decade in the future if I do not exceed my historical-rate of breakage. Do you agree? (Six were shattered during a five-year period. I will now have 18 tumblers in 2023. You just multiply SIX by 18, and then divide by FIVE. It’s all done with ratios, you see.) I mean that my annual rate of breakage is 1.2 tumblers. I have 18 tumblers now. So then, I should have around ZERO tumblers left, if I do not re-order more tumblers, by about the year 2038…! And, when I even think about the year 2038, I often think that I will not be drinking out of tumblers, but, instead, being fed with a spoon by some Thai nurse not yet graduated from nursery school, today. This whole idea of Tumblers and Aging seems to be intertwined, in fact, when one begins buying Tumblers in Bulk. Best regards, Gamma

I have a 17.8 Cubic refrigerator that will hold 504 liters. But, I gave up drinking LEO and now drink Chinese Green Tea, and some High Mountain Tea from Taiwan. I have over 4 Kilos of Tea in the Fridge. And, I am NOT feeling a bit tired, so far. Beer made me tired. Quinine water made me queasy. Tea is better if it is costly.

It really GALLS me, almost infinitely, when I make stupid spelling errors, and I am such a lazy person for not wanting to proofread my many habitual typos. "I need to work, as I assume you do to, just in order to have enough energy to get out of bed in the morning. You really gotta have a purpose." You see what I mean? How difficult could it be just to add an extra ZERO to "to", if I had only taken the time to skim what I had written? Hopefully, and hopefully soon, AI will put an end to both my typos and to my writing. I know it will. But, for me, the question is WHEN!?? I have no doubt that, this time three years from now, much of what is being written here will be written by computers with very little human intervention. I am not sure that any computer, no matter how advanced, could write like I do, but I am prepared for this eventuality if it does, indeed, happen. Maybe someday soon, I will finally be able to lay down my quill, and sip piña coladas, instead. I am not sure if I have made any typos in this comment, this time, but I am afraid to look. Years ago, I developed a very bad reputation for creative spellings. I have since taken on a different writing style, but my misspellings persist. I am sure that I will be out of a job, even a non-paid job, fairly soon. Obviously, the dream of programmed learning is almost upon us now, and BF Skinner would have said that he told us so.

My Friends, Socks and Golden have made another prediction about AI and the redundancy of 300 million jobs due to present-day advancement in AI. Here is the beginning of this article: "Breakthroughs in generative artificial intelligence have the potential to bring about sweeping changes to the global economy, according to Goldman Sachs Research. As tools using advances in natural language processing work their way into businesses and society, they could drive a 7% (or almost $7 trillion) increase in global GDP and lift productivity growth by 1.5 percentage points over a 10-year period." https://www.goldmansachs.com/intelligence/pages/generative-ai-could-raise-global-gdp-by-7-percent.html So, if the economy grows so rapidly due to AI, will there be, even, any need for us to work? Will we all be able to retire early, and apply for retirement visas, too? What will you do with your newly found free time? Personally, I will DEFINITELY continue to teach English and English Terminology for Science, and Concepts of Science and Biology. Biology is becoming increasingly important in today's world of silicon wafers and silicon-based intelligence. I need to work, as I assume you do to, just in order to have enough energy to get out of bed in the morning. You really gotta have a purpose. You must have something to contribute, and there must be a need for what you have to offer. So, what about you? What will you do with your increased time and increased AI-derived wealth? Will you squander these two important resources in Pattaya? Or, will you do something useful with the rest of your life? Regards, Gamma

The MGB was a great car in the 1960s.

Some days, I wish I spoke more-fluent German. Fortunately, some of JS Bach you can understand without German if you just Close your Eyes, click your heels together three times, and repeat, "There is no God Like Bach. There is NO God like Bach. There is NO GOD like Bach!" It really seems almost incredible that this interview was conducted over 45 years ago. Those were the good old days when great music was all around us. This world seems to be going to heck in a handbasket, and great music is important. Note: When I say this interview was conducted years ago, this is an example of punning.

Doing so would be far too simplistic, wouldn't you say?

Thailand has been missing a fourth season for centuries. And, I wonder if this missing fourth season is responsible for all the problems with the Popular "Music" here, and I am referring to the So-called Music. If Thailand had Four Seasons, then would Thai music sound more like this?...... I grew up listening to Karajan in Philly, where he was sort of a GOD on the local classical radio station. It was always Karajan this, and Karajan that. I love Karajan, despite his questionable affiliation, historically speaking. Anyway, I never care about what an artists thinks. I only care about the art he produces. Wagner, for example, I also have no problems with. The ONLY thing I have problems with is the "So-Called Music" here. Why can't they play something I enjoy listening to??? Have they never listened to serious music in their lives, for example? By the way, I also love listening to Chinese classical music, played on guzheng, erhu, etc. And, I enjoy the Thai music played on traditional instruments, provided that this music is not too far from Chinese music. They do say that those who enjoy classical music have a far higher IQ, and I am sure this is true. Some scientists have actually done a few studies proving that listeners of classical music are smarter, and by a LOT. This does not mean that if you listen to classical music that you will gain a few IQ points, and far from it. Because, if you are able to think that, then you are way LEFT on the IQ curve. I met some smart guys at the local university here. But, even they didn't know any JS Bach tunes. Vivaldi is my second go to composer, after JS Bach. And who does not just die for all kinds of Baroque? So, anyway... Just sayin'... Regards, Gamma

Dear Friends, I never watch TIKTOK, but you don't need to be a TikTok addict to know about MONK MODE, especially in Thailand, one might guess. I have been in MONK MODE since stepping ashore here about a decade ago, when, not for the first time, I came to this large-and-getting-unfortunately-larger city in the north. Without having resorted to MONK MODE, I doubt very much that I would be able to read Thai script, and I enjoy this lifestyle mode, as well. If you often enter MONK MODE for weeks, months and years, how has this choice benefited (benefitted) you? If you are still not crystal clear whether or not you have ever entered MONK MODE, then here is a link to an article addressing the topic from The Guardian, a rag that many of you might find annoying: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/apr/03/can-monk-mode-help-improve-my-productivity I plan on remaining in Monk Mode for many good reasons, such as there are too many tourists here now, maybe the smoke, the heat, and also my laziness when it comes to getting out the door unless I have a delivery from Lazada. Maybe all of the above is true of you? Best regards, Gamma

Square Hole; Round Peg? Good old Peggotty, do you remember her? In days gone by, people were permitted to be eccentric. Many decades ago, people enjoyed and glorified the Dickensian characters they met on the street. Now, nobody tolerates a fool. I grew up immersed in books that I loved. These characters were my friends. Life, for me, was just too boring. Here I am, for example, with my nursemaid Peggotty; And what a kind person was she. I would never speak anything but the highest of praises for her kindness and selflessness toward everyone she met. Most people here do not understand me. And, this misunderstanding sometimes breeds contempt. I understand this and easily accept this without reciprocating anything but good will towards all. I am sure that if more people had read books, like me, when they were young, everybody might now be benefitting from such a novel pastime. I am full of puns today, it seems. Good day! Regards, Gamma

Did you say, "Normal Farangs in Thailand?" Definitely not. That's impossible. Farangs in Thailand, for the most part, have been considered very STRANGE in their home countries. and have consequently been banished, mostly. This is why I never: Hang with Farang! Yes, in reply to the OP, Farang in Thailand are most certainly strange, and stranger than most Thai understand. Only the Doors knew how strange the Farang can be, when cornered in Thailand:

What is the highest frequency tone you can hear at this point in your life? The highest frequency tone one can hear, beginning from birth to death, can be graphed on a curve with a slope that is negative and never positive. What is the highest frequency tone (sound) you can hear this year? I can hear about 14.2kHz. And, from now on in, I know that it will continue to be downhill from here. What about you?

What a fantastic Songkran Holiday this has been. Hopefully, all contributors to TV have enjoyed blessed time with their families and close friends. I know that I have; I mean that I have spent time here with you. And now, it is a New Monday, a New MANIC Monday, perchance. And it is time to get back to more reality and fewer water blessings. So, until next Songkran, I bid you....a fond and semisweet adieu. Next year at this time, I hope to share with you, once again, .... Another TOP 1O of the Global TO 50... Because, for sure, I will be tuning in to Rick on his UTube channel, 12 months from now, to see what is new, and what is just the same old, same old, as usual. I found Rick Beato's Utube channel last week. I had gone in search of what might be wrong with this year's Top 10. And then, Rick's Hilarious Channel popped up. It was just what the doctor had ordered, I guess. I have no idea who he is or what he stands for, if anything. But, why wait for next year when you can get next year's TOP 10, NINE Months ago!: These Great Songs never change, really... Enjoy if you will...

I should have come to Thailand sooner. I should have spent half of every year in Thailand, and the other half of every year in China/Taiwan/Kyoto/Hong Kong. This way, I would not have any regrets. I also regret not having spent an additional 10 years at university. Those good years, when one is young enough to study hard cannot be recouped later in life. What is the purpose of life, anyway, if it is not the pursuit of knowledge? Or, maybe some are just not curious enough? Curiosity is the only real spice of life. Show me someone without a basketful of curiosity, and you will have found a dullard. Curiosity about reality is not something that one can enhance through hard work. More is the pity that curiosity cannot be learned. Because, we do know, for example, that there is an inverse correlation between much of schooling and the sense of curiosity. One should, however, never be curious about what is beyond the grave, unless one is not a scientist. We also should not be too curious about crop circles, unless we understand that they are not created by ETs. I regret that I will never have the opportunity to visit Mars, most likely. The great potential regret that I might have suffered did not happen. The Webb Telescope is now fully deployed, and did not blow up during launch. It seems to be performing flawlessly. At the very least, I have lived long enough to see the Webb in operation. Such a magnificent achievement. So...I am lucky. I do not have as many regrets as I would have thought. ChokDee

Who can believe? Another year gone by. Such nostalgia for last year, and the years that went before that one, too. So much water under the dam and over the bridge. Look out, though. It's all gonna be comin round again. Can't stand the thought. The Itzy Bitzy Spider song from this film gives me the creeps. I refuse to do this all again! Still, and maybe, our days may just be finally numbered, this time? Such Heartburn.