Furioso

I'll go to the show as long as Cleese brings his chap Chapman with em'.

What the heck, it comes in sharkskin too?

If I'm choosing between EV or ICE TODAY I am choosing ICE every single time. However, it has to be something like a Prius, a small car that is very practical and gets very high gas mileage, especially since I'm extreme at hypermilling.

Part 1: Money/Greed: Well, they are struggling way worse than we are. To deal with the greed I make sure I get some interesting insight/conversation or a laugh before I make the purchase. For instance, today I went to my favorite Big C as I had to buy a King bed set. I've never really been successful at buying bedding, always screwing it up by getting the wrong size, too heavy/too light, wrong color, too cheap, too expensive, etc. So, I trudged my old carcass to the back of Big C, trying to decipher what a 6 is, will it fit? Thankfully, the bedding lady(what's her official title?) snuck up behind me. I did have one trick up my sleeve. I had typed my old King comforter dimensions in my Color Note app( a must for any Andriod owner, unless you have a better one). She was in full sale mode and I was more than ready to play her game. I said "what's all included in the bed set? She took one off the shelf and explained 2 different sized pillowcases(4 total), 1 fitted sheet, & comforter/blanket. what about this size? She asked what sized bed? I said King, then showed her the info(in CM) typed in my Color Note. She said it must be a 6, I totally believed her and yes, this is the first day of my life I know a 6 is the size for a King bed. I even now know that a 4 and 5 are Twin and Queen, respectively. Then we got down to colors, anything with white was OUT. We pulled 3 different sets off the shelf, and plopped them over the sheet display. I rubbed my chin in deep thought, all the while thinking these are the 2,500 baht suckers, I've NEVER paid that much for this type of thing! But I've got savage allergies, the old bed set has to go, TODAY. 2,500 baht? Steep but it is less than 100 euros, can't complain too much. The lady was doing great, honestly I could NOT walk away without buying something from her, plus this is something I really needed. I'm thinking, she's got this job and she has to deal with customers like me? And she's doing it with a mask covered smile on her face. Would I get anything close to this type of service back in my home country? F_¢k NO! All 3 of the bed sets looked great, I gave her the option to pick for me, she was very hesitant, really such a nice lady. Somehow we veered to the really stunning blue and the deal was done. I grabbed one of the other 2 and started to return it to it's original location and she tryed so hard to stop me lol. I guess storing is just another component of her job as well. All in all it was a fun encounter, kind of unexpected but thankfully I live in a country where a store really does have people that work and assist customers. Was I obliged to buy? In my book yes. When I got home and threw the old shi+e out and replaced it with my brand new Studio One Denzel bed set, I was very happy with my purchase.

US and Europe are huge economic powers that have civility and stability. Yes, I know the war in Ukraine but just proves Russia has been trouble for way over a century. The rest of the world? Australia and Japan and that's about it, and they're close allies to US/Europe.

You'll never see them. Gotta replace the mattress/bedding.

It can be really bad. Hundreds of thousands of American's live in the Philippines, doesn't mean it's a great place to live. And, from what I've seen of both Mexico and Philippines they are pretty much dumps.

One story I heard from an expat who was living in Merida, which is supposed to be very safe compared to the rest of Mexico: He gets a knock on the door, a very self confident Mexican man says "my boss sent me here to talk to you. He says you have a problem. No, no problem why? Somebody yelled at his kids, they say it was you. No, I didn't yell I just let them know it wasn't safe playing in the street. I was quite nice about it. I don't know Senor, my boss says you got a problem you got a problem. I tell you what Senor, I give you 15 minutes and the problem goes away. Fastest packout in history. Wallet, passport, cash, laptop, toothbrush, backpack. Didn't bother going out the front door straight to the bus stop and could not stop shaking, no sleep for days.

I took a deep dive into moving to Mexico. Ultimately it's one of the worst countries south of the U.S. to move to. I've lived in Panama, it's okay but I would never move back. 7 months(Apr-Nov)of rain., Panama City very lound/noisy/polluted. Interior mostly boring but the people are very nice. Dec - Mar wouldn't be bad weather wise. A lot of people move to South Brazil, day 1 start learning Portuguese and it can be a very happy place.

I have a TextNow App and for a few months it worked great. I paid about $10 for 200 minutes of talk/text. BUT, the other day I wasn't receiving an authentication text from my bank. 1. In an act to fix the problem I signed out, now it won't let me log back in. 2. I am using a VPN. 3. Now it also says "Your current region, App..is not supported". 4. No answer from their help desk. I'm thinking my best plan is to reduce the amount of U.S. financial websites down to as few as 3..and these are the ones that I can log into with no need from SMS authentication OR they will send SMS to my AIS Thai number. I do have to make an occasional call to the U.S. I think I can call via my AIS Thai # for 8 cents a minute. Yes, I would like a U.S. number but it seems too difficult nor do I want to pay a monthly fee. I would love to log back in to my Text Plus app but I think that ship has sailed, that dog won't hunt, those were the days.

I'm so thankful I've got the few friends I've got now I'll be even more thankful if I have the same friends when I'm 70+. I'd make sure they're well taken care of. Pus I would go out of my way to make someone that has to grind out a living smile every day. i.e. a good tip, a joke, a small gift, etc.

To the OP, I've cloned about 10 PC's over the last 10 years, but I used a special SATA cable made by the Apricorn company. This cable, along with the E-Z Gig software allowed me to clone in just an hour or two. I forgot to bring the damn thing when I moved to Thailand, the SATA clone cables they sell here don't have nearly as fast of transfer rate, that's why it's taking days for your shop to clone your PC.

In answer to the OP, I think people rush to buy a failing business because they hate working a dead end job for no pay. They see an opportunity to be in charge, no longer be treated badly by an employer. I guess if they take over a failing business they at least learn many valuable lessons that can only be learned by getting their hands dirty. Let's face it, working for somebody and getting paid a very low salary is soul crushing. Better to strike out on your own, eventually you'll get it right and lead a much better life.

Right now the truemoney app says "We're sorry for an inconvenient. This service is available for Thai only at this moment."

I've had the same issue. Turned out to be shoulder impingement but I overreacted and went to physical therapy, which was totally unnecessary. Rest works the best.

This is a much bigger(haha) problem than most people realize. It seems to affect women much more than men. It can happen practically overnight too. Is all the food crap nowadays? No, just 95% is crap, you have to search for healthy food. Probably the only thing in 7/11 that's healthy is water, seeds/nuts, and the few fruits on the shelf. Once you start eating this crap it's very hard to stop. That's why Thailand will continue to become VERY OBESE. Sometimes I walk into a store and it seems 50% obese or higher. It's not going to get any better.

I withdrew 500 Euros recently and it cost me 5 Euros in fees. Almost all my other withdraws have been around 1% as well.

You know Putin wanted to nuke em'!

I didn't get any quotes but this is the City Hatch SV I was looking at. If you look closely the sticker on the window says 649,000 Baht. I believe outside the Auto Show the SV goes for 670,000 Baht.

To the OP, yes there is uncertainty ahead that's for sure. I've studied this quite a bit and I found out that there's so much other instability throughout the rest of the world it's hard to confidently say if/when another currency becomes reserve. 1. The Western World. Certainly the most stability by far. The EUR, AUD, USD, GBP are very solid, maybe only the JPY can claim to compete with this tight group. 2. The Eastern World. China desperately wants to have the reserve currency. Is it going to happen? Many say their belt and road initiative is a complete disaster. 1.5 Billion people living under a communist dictator who makes drastic changes at the wave of his hand isn't the definition of stable either. 3. Russia. I probably don't need to delve too deep into Russia's problems. At best they are China's bitch. At worst their country is in deep trouble if they cannot defeat Ukraine. Maybe on the verge of complete collapse. Nothing lasts forever but wow, what a run the western world has had over the last century. Historically, China has gotten really big, then quickly shrinks back down. It looks like this is going to happen again. Russia wants to be a super power again, they'll be lucky to survive as a nation much longer. I wouldn't put it past them to drop a few nukes on their way out.

First thing you gotta dump that super negative friend.

You are 100% correct!

I have the same issue, for quite some time too. I've slowed down, mainly due to laziness, which I think is a big part of the problem. I used to jog/run a lot. I'd train for weeks and months to enter a 10km or half marathon. It really took me out of my comfort zone, which in hindsight was a great thing. I see joggers on the side of the road, I want to yell at them to stop rolling their shoulders. I've tried other sports, but they aren't as fulfilling as running 4 or 5 times a week, trying to improve time, find better running shoes, trying a different route, setting up a travel schedule for the next event. A lot of it is a big pain in the <deleted>, I get grumpy, dirty, sweaty, smelly, angry about all the costs involved and I still can't break the 2 hour point. But I have no choice, I have to start running again. Probably until the day I die.

This past year it was really nice from Nov to early Mar. Not very hot, almost no rain, and lower humidity. As March marched on the pollution was very bad. April even worse with heat, humidity, and pollution. Now that we've had some rain in May the pollution isn't nearly as bad, but it is very hot and humid. If I could be out of Thailand for 3 months I'd choose: Oct too much rain. Mar/Apr too much heat/humidity and pollution.