HappyExpat57

I worked for Royal Caribbean. After four months visiting some of the most spectacular destinations, eating the same food as the guests, I WAS BORED STIFF! Three years would become a prison sentence. We had a little joke amongst the staff. At the start of every cruise with new guests arriving, we were supposed to greet them on the first day with a warm, hearty "Welcome aboard." We tweaked it a bit to "Welcome I'm bored."

As soon as I see that NOT-news tag, I stop reading, including the comments. The same sh!t from the same people. We've lost the ability for cogent debate, it merely devolves into a mud-slinging contest from both sides.

Prepare yourself by learning basic Thai phrases. It's a difficult language, but I've found the locals appreciate the attempt. Also, don't burn any bridges. Many of us love living here (almost 18 years now for me) but Thailand is not for everybody.

My favorite rock stars were from Rush. When they finished a gig, they would go up to their respective hotel rooms and read a book.

The former guy is in a whole species unto himself. I'm not even sure if it's a subset of human. All politicians stretch the truth, but 45 is a blatant, pathological liar. Every one of his attorneys who has ever been asked if 45 should take the stand to testify about ANYTHING has vehemently shaken his/her head and said 45 wouldn't know the truth if it fell out of the sky, landed on his face, and started to wiggle. (I made that last part up but it works here)

Physical exercise of ANY sort is the only thing that works for me. If I spend too much time sitting in front of a screen doing the armchair warrior thing, then I get into too many stupid arguments with folks here (you and I have gone around a time or two) and, honestly, what the hell good does THAT do? I was lucky enough to find a part time teaching gig, and this occupies just enough of my time and energy to keep me busy, as well as losing notches off my belt. How many of us open up AN, or Facebook, or name-your-poison, time and time again to see if anything new or interesting has come up, or play the same boring video games over and over? My gig has me in a happy place - but I had to get off my butt and find it. It didn't find me! What's that saying they use in Thailand? Oh yeah - up to you! Get busy living or . . .

I bought a set of Bose blue tooth over-the-ear headphones from Lazada that usually cost $300. They work GREAT, and I only paid 700 baht for them. Are they genuine Bose? Of COURSE not, but I certainly got more than my money's worth. I mean, they have "Bose" stamped on them! ????

I wonder if all his accounts have been frozen as well?

Wow - that was really special. Thank goodness I didn't waste time reading it after the first sentence as it was obviously an argument looking for a venue.

I read the article, and this teacher's behavior is wildly inappropriate. As a teacher, you are under scrutiny 24x7. I learned this lesson from a physics teacher years ago: Think back on your grade 3 teacher (approx 8 year old students). Now imagine that teacher walking into a bar. Of course there's nothing illegal about this teacher's action, but as a young person you hold these teachers in extreme revere and could never imagine them doing such an act. The defenders of this warped individual try to spin it as "endearing affection towards the child, expressed through light-hearted humor." No, this is not correct for a teacher to do something this stupid in a public forum.

Well, when you start by accusing me of basically being an old duffer, what else could I conclude?

I sincerely believe you completely missed my point. I don't care what he did, but obviously the powers that be in Thailand did. So instead of say, "Oops, my bad" and apologizing, he puffs his scrawny little chest out and says, "Oh yeah? I'll kill myself if you threaten me!" That kind of attitude gets people killed here almost every day.

My initial reaction was "There are already too many people stealing my air, so go ahead and off yourself." Of COURSE this is an idle threat he makes. Most likely, if he'd just shut his mouth and shown a little humility, 500 baht and a sincere wai would have gotten him out of this strait. Instead, he's challenging authorities way beyond his comprehension. Som nom na.

Brown shirts and white hoods have been traded in for red hats.

I sincerely hope not! I want him to get his just deserts.

This is a crass, despicable excuse of a man. Anyone who puts up on his fake social media, "Eff Biden and eff you for voting for him" CANNOT be allowed back in to the White House. He's stoking the flames of division and his cult followers are eating it up with a big ol' spoon. This says everything you really need to know about him and his sheep.

I dated an insurance agent for a year and got to see the "behind the scenes" operations. It's nothing but legalized extortion and their default position is to deny anything and everything they can. Yes, the circumstances surrounding this event are unknown to us, but the insurance companies' primary goal is always clear - deny, deny, deny!

OK. You have to admit, the default on this forum is to put on boxing gloves and smack each other. ????

Do pot smokers exhibit the same violent behavior? I doubt it.

I'm looking for a recommendation for a good urologist in Pattaya. Getting up too many time a night, so it's time to have the plumbing checked.

I've read from others it's available at Fascino's.

This article states "one thousand," not "ten thousand."

Learn to torrent with a vpn if you're not in Thailand. If you're in Thailand, just torrent.

So you haven't heard anything about the algorithms Facebook employed to stoke anger because it helped their bottom line? $$$$$$ "That means Facebook for three years systematically amped up some of the worst of its platform, making it more prominent in users’ feeds and spreading it to a much wider audience. The power of the algorithmic promotion undermined the efforts of Facebook’s content moderators and integrity teams, who were fighting an uphill battle against toxic and harmful content." No, my friend, they were very instrumental in creating an antagonistic environment. https://www.niemanlab.org/2021/10/more-internal-documents-show-how-facebooks-algorithm-prioritized-anger-and-posts-that-triggered-it/

In its infancy, it was MySpace on steroids. It was used as intended, and basically allowed family and friends to stay in touch, instantly and for free. Then politics and bad intentions grew, festered, and now it's become a dangerous weapon of misinformation. The people who are supposed to monitor and protect the world from such threats are ignorant and woefully ill prepared to handle the challenge. For the life of me, I don't see a solution. This world has become so splintered and inhumane, and Facebook has been a major influence in doing this.