GammaGlobulin

After 9 years, here in Thailand, I had never heard of Sangsom, which, after googling, turns out to be a Thailand rum spirit. Is it good? Can it beat The Real McCoy? I do not drink spirits. When I was young, I once had some Wild Turkey, 101. Probably, the only thing better than LEO is something like Remy Martin, and the most expensive of Remy is definitely worth paying the extra price. I just wish that I could be afforded a Remy Ration, just as the sailors in the British fleet, back in the day, once had a daily rum ration, for free. Probably, and in my opinion, cognac is the most beautifully smelling drink. And, for this, you need a snifter, same as with Coke. I never tried coke, though, years ago, drank much Coke, a habit I stopped years ago, after Coke Light became Coke Zero, and then refused to take the sugar out of coke in Central and South America, due to the diabetes issues, etc. Still.... There is nothing wrong with a snifter of very expensive cognac. This is the delight of the gods. It's strange, because, after reading so many books in my life, and being so old, now. it has turned out that I have lived my life mostly through books. One other important observation, though, is that: When the Grim Reaper comes for me, I will be able to look him in the eye.

Rather than bragging about what I did, I would prefer to mention what I did NOT do. My mother wanted me to become a proctologist, after studying medicine. Instead, I studied human behavior, and resultantly became completely disillusioned with my findings. Consequently, these days, I am spending my days working on ways to create a pill which, when consumed with one's meal, will turn one's waste into nothing more harmful than Swiss Chocolate.

My Dear Friends, Most guys, one might imagine, imagine coming to Thailand for the purpose of sampling sugar plums, one after the next, and almost for free, or at least, this seems to be their ultimate goal. They seek candy they cannot find in countries they come from. Maybe they think that women they once knew were too hard, or to dried up, or just not like the low-hanging exotic fruit they saw painted by Paul Gauguin. And, they imagine, wrongly, that they will be able to easily pluck this fruit, without paying a cost. Little do they know that there is always a cost, and that this cost might turn out to be more than they can pay. Their Prime Directive in coming to Thailand is to find suppleness which might bend to their will, young things willing to give them endless massages, and just love them to death, something which, unfortunately, occasionally happens, indeed. But this is only the case of most guys. I cannot speak for others’ motivations. All that I can tell you is that I came here because Conrad told me to come, at age 13, and for no other reason. Speaking of the heart of darkness, or even a total apocalypse, you can probably find your sorrow in the bars of Pattaya, as I have recently learned from listening to one of my favorite YouTubers, one who reads interesting stories about Crash and Burn accounts sent to him from regretful souls, those who finally learned a good lesson the hard way. I just wish to mention that this YouTuber seems to put out some interesting content, just a bit more meaty than most YouTubers in Thailand. Well, anyway, this YouTuber is no spring chicken. And, I doff my cap to this guy, for working very hard in order to put out some content which is somewhat riveting, at times. His Crash and Burn stories that he reads are ultimately entertaining, because, these stories ring so true. You know, since first coming to Thailand, I have never set foot, nor toe, in a Thailand bar. And, neither have I had a massage of any sort. For me, the pain of it is not worth it. What I prefer, instead, is to rely on my memories for stimulation and entertainment. Of course, Conrad is an amazing author. And, as you know, reading Conrad can only be done when one is 13, or 14. I mean, one cannot read Conrad after this age, simply because so much is lost in the translation, especially the true impact of Conrad’s stories. So, anyway, how much low-hanging fruit are you enjoying these days? And, is the low-hanging fruit measuring up to your expectations, or not? I know that most of you are interested. Best to you, Glob Note: Be wary of the heart of darkness that some will encounter when they seek what should not be sought. My best advice: Take care.

Actually, I did read your post about vagaries and dangers involved with mindlessly relying on GPS, which you posted weeks ago, as I recall. Also, TV, not to mean TV in Thailand, this forum, has been a unifying force, during the past 70 years, ensuring that we are all equally dumbed down, in 2022. At least, we, in the same country, are speaking with the same accent. Singaporeans do not speak English, however, as you may or may not agree. They speak a polyglottish English, instead. ====== At least, you have not yet lost your touch. However, back in the day, you could have easily trumped this post of yours, I dare say.

Did you say unwaxed? Hope you did not mean that she was subservient to you, though. Just wondering, however, if she understands Newspeak. In the end, anyone who hooks up with a Thai GF who loves to read, is so very much blessed by his/her GF who appreciates this pastime.

Sorry: What I meant to say is that... The UK is and always was a place from whence all great English flows, only to become corrupted in the former colonies, such as America, Singapore, British Malaya, and Australia, not to mention New Zealand and so many other colonies. These days, almost everyone around the world is getting on the English bandwagon, just hoping they will be able to speak with the lilt and erudition of Oxford grads, if only they find the right tutor. Some places, such as Singapore, are instead satisfied to increase their mishmash of what was formerly known as English. So, the question might be: Will English become, in the future, no longer one language, but several English languages, each rendition of English mutually unintelligible to speakers of the other form of English? The answer is definitely, YES. This is already happening. So, if you are seeking Golden Years, then I hope you will not spend your time in a land, or former colony, where you find it annoying and difficult to understand the English spoken in such circumstances. From my perspective, I find it difficult to understand the form of English spoken in India, and also Singapore, and some other thankful colonies. Maybe you might try places like Bermuda, for example. Far better, I would say, is to just give up on relying on using English for everyday communications in your new chosen land. Instead, for example, just learn Thai. And then, you can write letters home to speak with former friends who have a respectably high command of what we know to be English. Don't compromise your English standards.

In this case, I would choose to say, "Words are among our greatest means of of communication". However, either among or amongst will definitely do. Same with while and whilst, we are perfectly justified in using either one. Language is ever evolving, and if this were not so we could not speak about our present world, and make our meaning clear.

I have never paid for sex. Still, I doubt that not having paid for sex necessarily qualifies me as a Real Man. Also, we need to be meticulous when speaking about "real" men or women, wouldn't you say? Sometimes, while walking on the wild side, what seems to be a real woman might turn out to be a Real man. Of course, I know what you mean.... Which is...paying for sex helps nobody, be they real or not. Paying for sex, or buying sex, is like buying sand if one lives in the dessert. Sand and sex is always around, and paying for it leads to loose morals.

Came here in a wheelchair. Now walking. Coming to Thailand has been far better than drinking the water in the Grotto at Lourdes, at least for me. I agree with you!

Actually, they DO NOT pronounce it falang. In fact, this is a TRILLED R sound which is neither an R sound in English nor an L sound in English. Anyway, all guys who have studied linguistics know about these sounds, which are different from any sound in the English language. As any fool might know, and I am DEFINITELY one of those fools, too, learning trills is not easy. Also, there are many sounds in Chinese which are not common in the English language. Speaking of fools, I love the Doobie Brothers, too. What A Fool Believes....

After so many years, I have DEFINITELY never heard these terms applied to me, or to anyone. We here in Thailand are just too polite for such.

BEAUTIFUL. Your story is an example of one of the many stories that, although they surely exist, we rarely hear enough about.

CORRECT! Absolutely, ZERO mockery in this term, as you say. One's best friends refer to one as farang, as I do, also, to myself. I wish that we could take out the misperceived false meaning in this very neutral term. Doing so, would be good. (the word farang has ZERO negative connotations attached to it. Zero!)

"the homeland evolved beyond all recognition" NAILED IT! Just 6 words. Anyone who has been here, or there, for awhile, understands these six words, in a way that others cannot. Nailed it. ((One can NEVER return to a place, or a home country, that no longer exists. Just ask Christopher Reeve. Somewhere in Time.) Reeve struggled valiantly. And, even Superman met his kryptonite, in the end.)) We are somewhere in time, or somewhere in Thailand......stuck between.... And.... Loving it....!

Thank you for your example of LOW ART in your posted link. I only meant that there are few examples of fine art, using the color pink. Fine art, also referred to as “high art,” has long been held up as the highest standard of artistic expression. Fine artists make work that is purely created to be aesthetically pleasing. The aesthetic purpose distinguishes the fine arts from the “low arts” which are traditionally designed for more practical purposes. Of course, there are other colors in fine films, such as the film, The Color Purple.

When you say tiny and poisonous.... Do you mean that you were not able to tolerate the tiny hot chili pepper that we love so much in Asia? So many women, all throughout Asia, are as hot as these chili peppers. Maybe, too hot for you?

Obviously, your are in the pink, in both mind and spirit. Are you too young to recall the term, pinko? As in referring to communism? Also, thankfully, the term PINKO has taken on more liberal connotations, recently, and has been resurrected in a far more positive way. As is always true, my friend, to poke fun at oneself, and even to poke fun at one's own pinkness, or pinkishness, takes the gas out of any barb others might cast one's way. Also, since you say you are here for the art, .... then.... what art, per se? Is there any fine art in all of history which is pink? Besides this.......?

Just a few questions: aa. Why are you here, as a farang? Did you come for fun, only? Did you hope to improve your life after a breakup? Did you come to learn the Thai language? Did you come to save the fauna here, including tigers and elephants? Why are you here, really? There must be an overriding reason. So, what is it? bb. So many farang can't spell farang, nor can they pronounce farang. Some write farang as falang. They add an L in place of the R. The reason they do this is because their falang ears are unable to discriminate the L and R sound in Thai, one might think. cc. In fact, the term farang is rather interesting in its derivation, and I like it, much. From Wikipedia, we can see that farang is a Persian word that originally referred to the Franks and later came to refer to White Europeans in general. dd. Some guys don't seem to care, too much, for being called a farang, but I enjoy it. ee. In Southeast Asia, a farang is a "person of white race". Well then, I cannot say that I am not, since I am clearly white, meaning a person with less melanin. ff. Of course, there is also some slang related to the word farang which I will not discuss here. gg. You know, if we are students of language, then we should never become outraged by language, but only be thankful for the differences, and maintain our curiosity concerning the evolution of language. For example, I am always happy to know that I might be called either a farang or a guava, which always used to make me smile, until I tired of this interesting sort of pun. hh. My advice is for you to investigate and research the multiplicity of meanings associated with the word farang. Because, if you do, then you will be as proud as I, and also you will enjoy your research. ii. Finally, attacking the question, as posed above, then.... What is your main reason for coming here, in the first place? Each of us might have several reasons for being here. And, after a while, these first reasons become dull and boring. And, after that, then we must find new and better reasons for being here. However, one reason I am here, which will never die, is to keep learning the Thai language, even though, periodically, there have been setbacks in pursuing my goal. I like to listen to the birds here in Thailand, which is another important pastime of mine. I like to smell the air, here, too, which is low humidity in certain months. Coming from a country with extremely high humidity, being here, now, and smelling the air, is often invigorating, and I very much appreciate this effect. Maybe I do not have the best set of reasons why I came to Thailand, from others' perspectives, but these reasons are good enough for me. No doubt you have far better reasons for devoting the remaining years of your life to living here. Here is a farang I found on Wikipedia, which, I think is quite nice, also quite a beautiful artwork, as well. Really quite amazing. Hopefully, this files size will be OK.... By the way....I want to say something.... (In case I have not said enough, so far) For some reason, we have known of farang who, through misunderstanding, may not realize that being called a farang in Thailand is ===COMPLETELY ...... OK.=== Please do not worry about this. Being called a farang is quite a neutral term. Therefore, just enjoy this, and never mistakenly take umbrage, because, .....then, ......one would be taking umbrage mistakenly, as everybody knows. If you get clued in to the culture here, as soon as you can, then you will be doing yourself, and everybody else, a service.

So, anyway.... Can we change things around, at the drop of a hat, as we obviously need to do, right now? Obviously, the answer is NO. There is HUGE Momentum acting against us, right now. aa. Huge Momentum in the atmosphere, after having uploaded 2500 gigatons of CO2, over so many decades, and still going up, month by month. bb. Huge Momentum behind the social forces which make it almost impossible to change as soon as we must, in order to avoid the catastrophe heading our way. It's just a matter of momentum, after all, in the long run. And, it will be this inability to radically reverse our direction, due to this momentum, which will surely be our undoing. In the end, for sure, we will become..... UNDONE. Still, As we all realize, the very best place to become UNDONE, when this happens, is, for sure, Thailand. Among all the countries in the world, about 197, Thailand is the best for this. We should count ourselves lucky, and feel grateful, for the everlasting positive thinking here, as well as smiles and great kindness, too. Everything will be hunkydory for awhile, maybe until we reach 2 Degrees C.

How do we know that Dylan Thomas was a fool? Same as how Everybody else, now alive, are fools. All of us are engaging in self-destructive behavior. And, in the end, like cancer or cirrhosis, we will pay the price. But, it might not be just one who dies. It might be almost all of us.

Should we continue to go blindly into that good night? Or, should our old age burn and rave at this avoidable close of day? RAGE, RAGE against the dying of humanity. And you, my father, there on the sad height, Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night, still possibly avoidable. RAGE, RAGE against the dying of the so-called supreme intelligence, which will surely be soon snuffed out. OR, just let ourselves snuff us out. And let us burn bright like fools, While we may. ======= Ah, Dylan Thomas, Such a fool was he.

One thing I cannot understand is why we continue on paths which are guaranteed to lead to our ultimate collective demise. I mean, I understand why we do this. But yet, I still cannot understand it. We believe that we are logical creatures. Yet, deep down, we are illogical, obviously. Do we, in fact, ultimately, just have a wish to destroy ourselves? Why are we not able to overcome these Thanatos-type yearnings to End it All. IF we see clearly through our mirrors DIMLY, then we, for sure, know what the End Game must surely be... Right? You know. I know. Everybody knows. So why? From the perspective of some Alien Being, of higher intelligence, maybe from Mars, looking down at our lesser world, perhaps we, as humans, might be defective in our willingness to survive, at the expense of controlling our baser needs for greed. Maybe we just want to go out in a blaze of glory, singing hymns, or singing in bars in drunken stupor. Your guess is as good as mine why we humans are unable to act sensibly and logically. Perhaps, we are defective? BUT, NO, this is not it, because, in fact, we humans have been a very successful species of animal. One thing to consider, however, is the amount of time any given species endures.... Humans have been successful, very successful. And now, like all other species, our days are numbered. Long Live AI!

2long, and everybody else, who has a Thai wife, is extremely lucky. Otherwise, who might care about you? Honestly speaking: Truly fortunate. And, this is so true in the majority of cases. Therefore, LUCKY.

I first came to Thailand around 1970. Some of you might have been here when I first arrived, but not most of you, just because that was over 50 years ago. Things were different then. If I could only return to those days, in 1970, then I would. So much less to fret my mind, back then. Back then, we were at only about 325 PPM of CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. Nothing to worry about, so we thought. Those were the Good Old Days in Thailand...because.... So Care Free, and nothing to do besides concentrating on things like the Old In and Out, as you will recall. In fact, one of the greatest of pleasures in life was The Old In and Out, back in the day. But, these days, one cannot concentrate on doing the In and Out without being distracted by Global Warming, which is a real existential issue, plus one's phone, which, for some, leads to sudden member dysfunction. And, in fact, with all this valid worry about the loss of the north polar ice cover, making love, these days, .... is just something that becomes often halfhearted. What is the pleasure in it, anyway, when the ice sheets are melting? There is just too much, these days, to worry about, while making love, which causes this act of lovemaking to become almost not worth the effort. And, sometimes, making love is just too much effort, unless one pays for it in Pattaya, for example, a place which is more exciting and hot. So, you might wonder why our fertility rates are going down, all around the world. Maybe the reason is that we see no future in it. Why procreate when procreation is something that has become so risky? These thoughts, and other similar thoughts, I have no doubt, are shared by many, both here and elsewhere. Most of us do not like to talk about what we find most intolerable to think about. Still, just wishing things away, without taking action, we will still need to face the results of our unwillingness to face facts, sooner or later. And now, it seems, we will need to face facts far sooner than we had thought. Even Musk, the Alpha Male of all Alpha Males, must, sooner or later, realize that BLASTING OFF to the Moon or Mars is utter idiocy, knowing what we know about the ever increasing progression of Global Warming. Still, there is always a silver lining to every distasteful truth.... And so it is, in this case, too. The hotter it gets, the more the globe warms, then the easier it will become to fry an egg on the pavement.... Years ago, frying an egg on the pavement was not so easy.

WOW, Man! You are almost completely ON TARGET. You KNOW me, full well. So, do you really want me to post my REAL photo here, for you to see??? OK. IF you insist.... Here I am, almost the same as you envisioned me.... Chomsky: Love him or leave him.