Furioso

No problem, it's like getting a brand new car when you upgrade the sound. GL!

might be a good idea to engage with the person first "you seem to be struggling are you ok?" If they signal they're not ok then "I'm going to try to help you ok?" Around here it's an older crowd, and a lot are unhealthy people that are probably dealing with problems like this daily. They seem like they're on the verge of death but they can somehow manage.

Yes, Reagan and Thatcher's actions probably accelerated this capitalism on steroids quite a bit. Over the last 50 years, Wage Theft is one of the biggest crimes in the western world. I don't think the average citizen noticed what was being done to them until maybe 15 years ago. Some people took to the streets but it never caught on. Just think about how many people have sold their soul for a buck/euro/pound. Pathetic.

The western world is still great, so many fantastic things done right for almost 100 years. But over time, all corporations in all western countries have become more and more evil, and have way too much money and power. In today's western world, it seems that about 10% have it real good, while the other 90% fight for table scraps. Both the people and the politicians are slaves to the corporations. And now it's time for the people, not the politicians, to rise up and crush their masters, before it's too late.

That dissected body displayed in the movie Quantum of Solace was that of a murdered Chinese dissident. Think about that!

I have bookmarked dozens of YT channels. Here's just a few of them that I enjoy: https://www.youtube.com/c/serpentza/videos https://www.youtube.com/c/laowhy86/videos These two guys befriended each other in China, when it was fun lol. Now they're out of China but give regular updates on the inner workings of the worlds most populated country. https://www.youtube.com/@ExploreWithUs/videos https://www.youtube.com/@CoffeehouseCrime/videos Long form true crime drama, not for the faint of heart. EWU usually dives deep into interrogation videos. Coffeehouse reports on strange or unsolved crime cases with a lot of empathy for the victims, without being overly dramatic.

YouTube will pause a video if you haven't interacted with it, usually around 45 minutes. I use 4K downloader to download YouTube videos to my harddrive, then play from there using either PotPlayer or VLC media player.

I didn't buy a fancy wireless keyboard(Logi K350) but I've learned to go over a certain price point otherwise the keyboard either won't work well or will crap out within a year. I wish I could remember the name of the store, but near or on the top floor of Central Festival(under the bowling alley) there's a really nifty store that has one row of wired and wireless keyboards/mice that are very reasonably priced. If mine ever conks out on me that's the first place I'm going for at least an "emergency" replacement.

I prefer NJSOUND above everybody else. Also, I've had a lot of car stereos. I know you just want improvement over your current stock speakers. However, I always recommend at least a small amp/subwoofer to go along with new speakers. Otherwise you'll hear very little difference. From what I remember the ZS doesn't come with the same touchscreen as the HS. Or does it even come with a touchscreen? Maybe just a regular head unit?

To the OP it's not ok to lie. If you're honest and they're not or if you're a liar and they're honest it's a bad relationship. My woman lied to me, and wouldn't stop. One day she came home from work and I was gone. Both of us knew why.

To whomever said "you marry the culture" I'll say from my experience this is mostly correct. I lived in several countries around this big ole' globe, here's what I've seen. Well, most guys who married Korean girls ah, it was mostly pretty pathetic..I went over to a few houses the Korean woman was usually on the verge of hysterics anytime the husband walked out the door, even to go to work. Basically the man was a weak slave to his Korean wife..and she kept all the money, always looking for free stuff or sales. The guys I knew who married Panamanians their wives usually got fat and very unattractive pretty quick. Sad, pathetic, no way in hell I would go through that. One guy told me once he and his wife moved to the U.S. she did very little but eat donuts. I couldn't have my wife to that, not for more than one day. Call me crazy. In Japan, it was during their lost generation a few guys I knew married Japanese women, usually from dysfunctional families. One VERY INFAMOUS story was this Japanese family married off their mentally ill daughter to a guy I knew who worked down the hall from me. She was a sweet woman, just not well at all. The HUGE story everybody knew was where she tried to put eyedrops in their dogs eyes, except it was Krazy glue. Other guys that married Japanese girls was the typical case where she didn't like Japanese guys so she married a Gaijin and was totally dependent on him. Basically stay at home mom. Let me see, Guam? Yeah, nobody I knew bothered. Oahu? Very rare unless they were going to stay on the island forever. Turkey? I knew an older guy who married a hot younger Turkish girl, she did it to move up in status QUICK, then screwed the guys around him that were more her age. Big trouble. A few other countries I won't name..the guys I knew married very plain looking women that they didn't match up well with anyway. I've got lot's of crazy stories I can tell..the guy who's wife would slash him with a knife as she was an ex bar girl who drank to excess..he showed me the scars, he stuck with her way longer than I would have, which would have been <5 seconds. But yes, I can definitely see how you can marry a foreign woman, have a child, and then one parent pushes the child to excess, while the other parent goes along with it until they realize they're in a big mess that's hard to either fix or escape without severe family disruption.

No kid should have pressure like this at such a young age. It isn't healthy. I would let my wife know that it's more important to have a happy, healthy, stress free childhood then an overambitious race to the best university, prestigious career. Man, if one unreasonable parent is running the show then it's NEVER going to work. The one reasonable parent MUST take charge and if they cannot then IT'S OVER. Ideally both parents should be on the same sheet of music, but that's never going to happen in Thailand.

are those single speed pool pumps? If so, that would explain the high elec bill.

18,000 USD for a 3 day stay is insane.

Before I left the U.S.(Las Vegas) last year I sold my car to a older guy, who was definitely well off but we talked about getting screwed by medical/dental/optical costs, along with inflation in general. I won't delve too deep but they basically lie to your face and in a somewhat sneaky/sophisticated way charge you 100's over what they initially advertised. Seriously, they'll get you in their chair and try to charge you 600 USD for a "special" teeth cleaning, which really isn't necessary. 600 USD for eyeglasses too, if they can get away with it. I mean, it never ends and they don't take in consideration if your poor or desperate, they're practically screaming "GIVE ME YOUR MONEY YOU STUPID CUSTOMER!" Anyway, this older gentlemen who was buying my car was a great guy, very energetic, had 2 kids in their late teens/early 20's. I offhandedly said "Don't let these jokers win, just beat them at their own game". He looked at me, furrowed his brow and said "how can I do that?" I said "take a vacation to Mexico once a year, take care of all your needs then". Well, he about had a heart attack, he said he's been to Mexico a few times, even once to have a veterinarian look at his 2 shizu's. He said how great they treated him and his dogs, he never thought about teeth cleaning, eyeglasses, medical checkups, etc. Of course in his case he can probably drive to Mexico in one day..but as someone mentioned in this thread, India isn't too many hours away by plane. Medical is definitely cheaper there. Heck, I get the feeling here in Thailand that all the Thai's get their medical for free, subsidized by falangs paying millions of baht which is way, way over freaking priced. My point is, look for other opportunities to take care of your health needs. Sure, there's always a chance you have an emergency here and have to go to the local hospital..but you can do almost everything else someplace else.

EDIT: My previous post was wrong, here are the new calculations, which I hope are not wrong. I'm going to break it down: 1.8 million Baht = 51K USD 46.5 EUR 8 Tons = 17637 lbs. 17637 lbs. = 8000 kg. ฿102 for 1lb of Durian. ฿225 for 1kg of Durian. 51K USD/17637K lbs. = $2.90 for 1lb of Durian. 46.5 EUR/8000 kg. = €5.81 for 1kg of Durian.

EDIT: My previous post was wrong, here are the new calculations, which I hope are not wrong. I'm going to break it down: 1.8 million Baht = 51K USD 46.5 EUR 8 Tons = 17637 lbs. 17637 lbs. = 8000 kg. ฿102 for 1lb of Durian. ฿225 for 1kg of Durian. 51K USD/16K lbs. = $2.90 for 1lb of Durian. 46.5 EUR/7250 kg. = €5.81 for 1kg of Durian.

Wow, thanks for the info, 17637 is a lot different than 16,000. Recalculating! Recalculating!

I'm going to break it down: 1.8 million Baht = 51K USD 46.5 EUR 8 Tons = 16K lbs. 16K lbs. = 7250 kg. ฿114 for 1lb of Durian. ฿248 for 1kg of Durian. 51K USD/16K lbs. = $3.2 for 1lb of Durian. 46.5 EUR/7250 kg. = €6.4 for 1kg of Durian.

I've already dealt with these strips on Thepprasit..and, there are several other street constructions ongoing near my Condo. It's amazing/frustrating as every single of my once awesome shortcuts are now blocked, sometimes forcing me to take 5km detours. As of now there are little gaps in the Thepprasit medians, which I think makes it a lot more dangerous.

Yes, don't let them eff you. Pay as little premium as possible right now and save for when it really does get expensive.

Honestly I would go with this 31.5K plan, a 12% increase over the 28K. You're in good shape, probably won't need to use it anytime soon.

16,000 tons at 1.8 million baht? Isn't that like 3 USD a lb. or 7 Euro a kg? seems very high, my math must be wrong.

A lot of Thai's are unhappy, and rightly so they're getting effed..HARD. I'm thankful to be here, I try to make it a little easier on them. Lot's of helpful suggestions in this thread. They may not like falangs but if you wear your mask they will at least respect you.

I've had this happen, mostly when I lived in S. Korea. I used to take the bus to Incheon airport every 3 months to renew my Visa. A lot of times Koreans wouldn't sit next to me..then one day the bus was full so a Korean had to sit next to me lol. Another time I was in the very back and the bus was completely full except for a seat by a foreigner. Oh yeah, I was watching this situation like a hawk! We came to a bus stop and the Korean had to sit next to that foreigner. And to my absolute amazement, he sat with his legs dangling over the arm rest, where his back was to the foreigner and his legs were dangling into the aisle! Finally, a friend of mine reminded me I'm a foreigner, the media bashes us foreigners. The people easily become brainwashed that we all have diseases, a cough, a cold, the flu. I do take countermeasures, however. I try to leave a good impression, I crack a joke, or ask an innocent question..something they don't get very often. I also wear a mask, I think this really helps as well. Finally, if I'm out and about alone I notice they're very wary of me, much more than if I'm with a friend. I call it "The Curse of the Lone Wolf". A man, alone, he's got to be up to no good.