Jingthing

I think it's time for me to exist this thread as I've said pretty much all I have to say on the matter: -- I think Central's good intentioned idea of Kid's Pride was ill advised. -- But it was obviously about inclusiveness and acknowledging that LGBTQ people don't magically come into existence only in adulthood any more than straight people do. -- Central was obviously not promoting grooming or predation. To charge them with that is completely outrageous. -- Kids that feel "different from the rest" and they may feel that from very early ages deserve messages of support and inclusion from both societies and adults in authority. Without that such kids are at unusually high risk of depression and suicide.

Sexualization of children? End Child Pageantry | A Psychological Nightmare (psu.edu) Behind the business of Asia's child beauty pageants - BBC News

Again. FACT: LGBTQ youth DO exist. At What Age Do Kids Identify as Gay? - Family Resources (familyresourcesinc.org) AT WHAT AGE DO KIDS IDENTIFY AS GAY?

Heterosexuality isn't invisible at all in schools! The total opposite really. I kind of understand. Most heterosexuals are conditioned in such a way to be totally blind to heteronormative culture which is everywhere, and totally dominant. To them that is normal so they simply don't see it. The kids that happen to feel "different from the others" certainly feel the rampant, blatant heteronormative culture and sadly it makes them feel alienated, often depressed, and tragically much more suicidal ideation or even actual suicide than non queer youth. Messages even from ONE caring adult that their life still has value regardless of their difference can have a huge benefit. Yes such messages might also come in a book, in a movie, perhaps even a Pride flag.

You can try to make LGBTQ youth invisible like some political demagogues but try as you might they still do exist.

Rammed down your throats l. Gays too dern uppity! There it is.

But no interest in protecting LGBTQ children or children from families with LGBTQ parents.

I'll go on record with this. There will never be any consequences for ignoring that report.

MIsuse of the word grooming by the anti LGBTQ right wing. https://www.adl.org/resources/blog/what-grooming-truth-behind-dangerous-bigoted-lie-targeting-lgbtq-community What is “Grooming?” The Truth Behind the Dangerous, Bigoted Lie Targeting the LGBTQ+ Community Far-right and extremist voices have launched a significant attack against the LGBTQ+ community in 2021-2022, demonizing people via repeated false claims that LGBTQ+ people are “pedophiles” who are “grooming” children in order to abuse them. This false and malicious narrative has been weaponized to label the LGBTQ+ community as “groomers” and has fueled a slew of hostile legislation and policies aimed at erasing the discussion of LGBTQ+ related issues in schools, removing LGBTQ+ books from schools and public libraries and, especially, to ostracize, defame and harass transgender people.

Baits ignored.

As far as LGBTQ civil rights certainly they should extend to LGBTQ youth as well. Also consider that many children have LGBTQ parents and they need their families value affirmed too. Compare to racial civil rights. Are those only for adults?

The grooming attack line is pure anti LGBTQ right wing propaganda

That's a completely false representation of reality.

I'm in the market for a new one. My criteria are -- reliability good service when there are problems reasonable speed (don't have any kind of job need for the highest though) able to download torrents / Kodi preferably without VPN (uh oh) Cost Cost is my lowest priority. Comments / suggestions are welcome

Thighland in the news again from U.S. politicians. Previously we had a politician mispronounce Thailand as Thighland out of ignorance. Now we have a report of a politician INTENTIONALLY mispronouncing Thailand as Thighland to see how compliant female dates are. If they corrected his pronunication, it was game over. Rather revealing behavior. Wonder why Thighwan doesn't get this kind of fun action? Now that the cat is out of the bag, the Thighland gambit is now useless. Perhaps, men afraid of assertive women can say Singerpore instead? Or Vietname? How about Bally for Bali? Feel encouraged to come up with your own date testers. Gov. Ron DeSantis used to pronounce Thai as ‘thigh’ to assess dates, former Yale classmate claims (yahoo.com)

OK, here goes. Until recently I hadn't ever bought a pint of ice cream in Thailand. The reason being I like Ben and Jerry's but I find the price here to be obscene. I would even be embarrassed to pay it at a counter but of course it could be delivered. I remember paying as little as 2 bucks a pint on sale in the US but here it's generally 350 baht and you don’t see promotions. Yes I know it costs more than 2 bucks in the US now but still much less. Yes I'm aware it's a good thing health wise to not frequently be eating pints of ice cream. Anyway recently I broke down and bought a pint of Buds of San Francisco ice cream. Mocha Almond Fudge it was. While they absurdly promote their brand here with a very old review saying it's the best ice cream in the world I know it to be of mediocre quality. But it's been so long. Maybe I would like it more now. Nope. Still not wonderful at about 150 a pint here. Not worth the calories. So the ice cream hole I was trying to fill wasn't satisfied. Moral of the story. Just spring for the freakin' Ben and Jerry's! What's your favorite BJ flavor? I guess maybe Cherry Garcia for me.

Guestimate of course. Includes street food of course. Includes drinks with meals but not bars. Just for you, one person. Prorate if you're paying for more people. Does not include groceries for cooking at home.

Many of us already figured this out. There was a similar member report on the same subject many months back. The subject is at Jomtien immigration office (not sure about Chonburi office or the few other offices doing this) expats doing their annual retirement extensions based on a bank method (800K, probably combo too) are given a page ORDERING them to come in after 90 days to show proof they are still in financial compliance (still have 800K in the account and never under one baht). It's rather intimidating but in reality you DO NOT need to actually do it. How do I know? It wouldn't be prudent or diplomatic to share all the details or name names of exactly who I spoke to, now would it? But it was definitely something that I learned from a reliable source and I think others should know, take it or leave it. So you can choose how to react to this information. This is the information. There is no consequence to ignoring the report. Doing it or not is entirely UP TO YOU. The reason the order exists is so that if you don't comply with the actual balance requirements throughout the year your next extension will be denied, and the order is stictly a CYA move so that if that happens, you won't have a leg to stand on to protest that. Summary: The minimum balance requirements are real. You MUST comply! 800K two months before extension appointment 800K three months after extension granted 400K for the rest of the year up until 800K two months before NEXT extension appointment The "show money" order is not actually a rule you must follow. It's something they do the drive the message home that you must comply with the ACTUAL balance rules. So you can ignore the order but you can't ignore the balance rules. Also: The 90 day "show money" rule whether you choose to do that or not (again you do NOT need to) has nothing to do with 90 day address reports (which are seperate and you DO need to do those). While I don my flak jacket, I hope that most of you will take this shared information in the spirit it is given. To be helpful.

I was aware for a long time that there is at least one agency that will assist UK nationals with passport renewals. But I never heard of such a service for USA nationals. Yes I know you can do it yourself, but what if you want a service to do it, that would not involve worrying about dealing with the mailing and receiving yourself or going to Bangkok (multiple times)? So I thought some people might be interested. My passport is OK for now but it's nice to know there is help available when the time comes. My last renewal was done first in Pattaya when embassy staff visited occasionally but they stopped doing that long ago. There really is no point posting that nobody NEEDS this service. Perhaps not but I can assure you some people WANT this service. So UK and USA passport renewal service available here: Home - Thai Girlfriend Visa from the top visa company in Pattaya - Key Visa (keyvisathailand.com) Note well: The US service is not listed on the link but I know it is offered because they owner recently discussed it on a youtube video. Does anyone know the fees for these services?

Keeping on the theme, how about Portugal? Portugal continues to be high on the list of welcoming, high quality, more or less "affordable" expat destinations. They have a quite organized visa program for this. I had some interest in Portugal but a while back determined that my pension was inadequate to quality, but have recently read some items that maybe it would be OK. I'm not sure if the policies have liberalized or I've just read misinformation (before or recently). The process must start in your home country not Portugal. It takes a long time. Whether the Portuguese embassy in Bangkok would process non-Thai expats for this I don't know. Some difficult things with it is that you must have an address in Portugal to be approved (not sure at which stage) and having a Portuguese bank account with proof that you can flow in your funds is showing up in enforcement. In other words not only proof of finances but proof that you can get the funds to Portugal which sounds logical enough but you'd obviously need to be in Portugal to open a bank account. As far as cost of living, my general impression is that in general Portugal is not as cheap as the usual Asean places Thai expats are looking at. Particularly with housing. But of course like anywhere it's one thing living in central Lisbon and another living in a non-touristic smaller town. English is widely spoken especially by younger people, but I think you would need to learn the language to progress to higher residency or citizenship status after five years. Personally I find the Portugal Portuguese language to be much less fun than Brazilian Portuguese and also weirdly it sounds like Russian. Yes I have been there long ago driving a lot of places around the country even to the interior but I didn't make it as far north as Porto. I did make it to Coimbra though. Porto is landing on lists now as one of the top expat destinations in the world now for both retirement and digital nomads. Non E.U. people would need to buy private health insurance. While much less expensive than U.S. based private insurance, people would have the same worries about issues with age and preexisting conditions. My personal feelings about Portugal are mixed. It is Europe and Europe on a lower budget The food and wine are great. It's a smaller sized country which has its advantages. It's closer to the USA than Thailand by far. The negative part is more about my emotional reaction to the place that can't really be quantified. Visa info. https://www.globalcitizensolutions.com/portugal-d7-visa/ https://www.d7visa.com/portugal-retirement-visa/ So have any of you considering moving to Portugal. Have you lived there before?

This is a new concept in restaurant review threads. I hope y'all enjoy it and participate. Pattaya I think is a better food city than many people know or think. Time to spread the word, in a short and sweet way. Suggested Guidelines: Make it short! (and sweet) Emphasis on reasonably priced restaurants! (most of us are not made of money) Emphasis on less than famous restaurants! (most of have heard of the Sizzler) Emphasis on new "discoveries" to you, not necessarily new restaurants! (if its new to you, it may be new to us too) Emphasis on places with at least some good dishes! (seeking pleasure here, not pain) Emphasis on places that offer something a little bit "different"! (green curry isn't different) Include a link if you like! (this is the internet after all) Try to indicate location! (location, location) So the idea here is a running thread with perhaps "twitter-like" quick HIT and RUN reviews on a variety of places you've experienced and would like to share. As opposed to threads about one restaurant, or threads on one food type like pizza. I will start with THREE of my own Hit and Run mentions to illustrate the concept. I think in general doing ONE at a time (one post, one mini "hit and run" review) is probably better but I wanted to get the ball rolling with three. *************** Ons Moeder Dutch Restaurant, Jomtien Menu is in Dutch. Daily three course meal -- 280 baht Many classic Dutch dishes. Try the super thick pea soup! Some say the best Dutch food in Thailand, I wouldn't be surprised! Dutch hangout, you might not feel that you fit in if not Dutch but its worth going for the food. Near the inner Jomtien beach police box area http://www.ons-moede...aya.nl/map.html http://www.tripadvis...i_Province.html **************** "The Place" Israeli Restaurant Menu in English and Hebrew and maybe Thai (I forget) Hard to find Israeli specialties: Shakshuka served with bread (this is very similar to Mexican Huevos Rancheros I kid you not!), Hummus with spicy meat, Hummus with organ meats, Baba ghanoush, Full platter dinner meals, Homemade soups such as chicken or lentil I think probably the best Israeli "place" in town and yes of course an Israeli tourist hangout Soi Boukaow, not too far from Pattaya Tai https://foursquare.c...a52fadb3461eb25 ****************** Umanchu Okinawa Food Also has Thai food. Okinawa food has different dishes than standard Japanese. Featured Okinawa dishes: Bitter gourd with pork and egg stir fry / Okinawa soba with pork belly style pork (both offered in small sets 200 baht) Prices moderate, portions on the small side. Good clean flavors. Only a few tables and they are outside! Across the street from the Montien Hotel, 2nd Road http://en.wikipedia....kinawan_cuisine http://www.foodpanda...anchu-(Pattaya) _________________ The idea NOW is for you to add YOUR own hit and run snippets about places YOU would like to mention and share. My "vision" for this thread is just a bunch of posts only with these mini hit and run restaurant mentions, but I understand people are probably going to want to COMMENT on the restaurants other people have mentioned. I guess we'll see how it goes (if it goes at all).

Some of you may have noticed that I am one of the top posters here; I mean in VOLUME. Believe it or not, that wasn't really my goal. In fact it is rather embarrassing. I am totally in the closet in my actual persona being "Jingthing" and such. I don't attend Thaivisa gatherings and I've never told a soul I am Jingthing. But it has occurred to me at this point, I may be FAMOUS among expats in Thailand. Now I know not all expats read this site, so I am assuming this "fame" if it really exists wouldn't go beyond readers of this forum, correct? But there ARE lots of forum users. Do you think I'm famous? Do expats talk about me (mostly dissing I assume) when they meet over beers? And most importantly, please advise on how I may be able to make LOTS OF MONEY on my fame (if it exists)! If you have serious proposals on the money question, feel free to PM me with the particulars. Cheers.