Gaccha

Two years ago, the prediction was that CA WOW would be going under...and it's still operating.

In post #114 I said it was bleeding to death. It is. I could not, nor could anyone here predict the amount of capital that would be pumped into it by outsiders to keep it going. The jouissance that you are taking from the failure of the predictions is absurd and premature.

The CalWow carthorse is in so much trouble that it I feel a delicious exuberance in starting my analysis. But let us begin at the problem.

It is bleeding to death...

Market Capital:

Revenue:

Return on Equity:

It is being propped up my massive blood transfusions of cash and a large share issuance:

The Company has as required written to the Thai Stock Exchange and states:

"the Company has multiple material uncertainties relating to the going concern matters may have severely impacted to the Company’s financial position, results of operations and cash flows"

And on the 24th Feb. CalWow Chief Operating Officer wrote:

"Besides, the Company is on the process of negotiation with the loan banks to reschedule the debt and/or find new source of funds to repay debts to such banks. These situations; however, indicate

the existence of multiple material uncertainties which may cast significant doubt on the

Company’s ability to continue as a going concern and as a result, the Company may be

unable to realise its assets and discharge its liabilities in the normal course of business."

The Thai Stock Exhange on the 24th Feb announced it was considering delisting the company.

This company is dying. Consider yourself warned. I expect it to be closed within 3 months.

The Farang living in Thailand are subject to lots of narratives that wash and wade through their lives. These narratives convulse and compel the bearers of the narratives to behave and respond in different ways.

There is, unquestionably, a narrative that says "western women in Thailand are desperate". We've all heard it. I think the mistake is to then ask "is it true?". Precisely the existence of this narrative subjects farang women to tactically employ it in their armoury of behaviour. For example, in meeting farang men, aware of this narrative, they feel the need to behave more 'easily' since they fear the ladies aroudn them will employ similar tactics to get the men. In other words, the narrative generates the reality. The nexus of power and knowledge needs to be understood.

So I look at this from a recent experience. I met a gaggle of Western girls who were living in Thailand for various reasons. But one admitted to being a bit stunned at the end of the night because I had not hit on the cutest one. I must be gay, the girl talking to me sincerely explained.

I felt this interesting in two senses. I think like many young westerners living here, it is like shooting fish in a barrel getting a nice, cute, educated Thai-chinese girl. So I become 'unenergetic' towards the task of 'pulling'. Secondly, the girls are evaluating their position of trying in an unusually short space of time to bed a man to be the norm. Back in farangland, typically a girl will not sleep with a man without 6 hours face time. This varies slightly; in France it is around 4 hours, in Italy 8 hours, UK is 6 hours, United States is 10 hours. But here, the girls have dropped this marker to about 2 hours. Partly, because they can. The social ramifications of being classed as a 'whore' are minute. Their reputations need not be protected, for they are in a faraway land.

The point to note is this: the narratives, hwoever they come about, create the reality. The reality does not have some far off grain of truth, it can be entirely the consequence of unfair and cruel controls on the creation of knowledge.

It's not the same thing as ulcers. It's Aids and it's caused by a virus. It's a virus that isn't so easy to transmit but it's a virus nonetheless. Period, end of story. There are also people who still believe the earth is flat.

Next ...

That there are still people like Jingthing who believe that people believed the Earth is flat is bewildering. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myth_of_the_Flat_Earth]

The irony is painful. Not as painful at AIDS though.

Next...

Sumatriptan is available in Thailand as Imigran, an imported brand.

Which means it will be expensive.

Thanks Sheryl. That eases my concern about my readiness to continue the ergotamines. If it is the choice between being ripped off by the US drugs manufacturer or posioning myself on old drugs, then I'll take the latter. Darth Vader will just have to make himself home next to the French paratrooper I saw last night.

Please define a 'real' hallucination .....isn't that a contradiction of terms? The information is appreciated though. I suffer from migraine several times a year.

The real is to contrast with the obviously- not- there- hallucinations that are readily experienced with the ingestion of LSD or magic mushrooms. Typically a pseudo-hallucination is very colourful or odd patterning effects. In contrast, I saw Darth Vader in perfectly rendered 3D standing in my room. I could walk up to him and walk around him. And I observed from his breastplate that he was from Episode IV. Now that is a real hallucination.

I have been using ergotamines in Thailand. I use Cafergot which is a combination caffeine and ergotamine package. It works. It also has fascinating side effects such as real hallucinations (as opposed to pseudo hallucinations of LSD etc.).

But I am aware that these are regarded as quite stone age medications compared with the preferred Triptans. See: 'Triptans for the management of migraine.' - Johnston MM - Drugs - 20-AUG-2010; 70(12): 1505-18 and 'Marketed oral triptans in the acute treatment of migraine: a systematic review on efficacy and tolerability.' - Pascual J - Headache - 01-SEP-2007; 47(8): 1152-68

There appear to be 7 available around the World. They are Sunatiptan, Rizatriptan, Zolmitriptan, Naratriptan, Frovatriptan and Eletriptan and one more that I know not. I know that Sunatriptan and naratriptan are now Over-The-Counter drugs in the USA. I also understand Rizatriptan has the quickest effect, and Frovartriptan has the longest effect and lowest level of recurrence.

I wonder about their availability and prices in Thailand. I am keen to switch if the price is right. The Cafergot is at a cheap 50 baht for 10, since it's a second generation drug. Any users out there and perhaps Shelly has an opinion.

And with 17% of women and 6% of men having migraines, I can only wish you all a headache free day.

:jap:

Thanks Koon Rikker. That is deeply reassuring. I thought I was going completely mad when I thought I heard the prisoner mention divorce.

A comment on the 'megapixels'. It is interesting it didn't become a loanword, but instead the Thai uses 1000-pixels. It reminds me of my discovery that MP3 is translated as a full loanword but MP4 is not. That is to say, the 4 is translated to Thai.

I am trying to decide if 'Phone 4 U' were blase with the translation, the film company deceived the phone company, lazy as to the translation or there was a metajoke going on, where the joke was on the audience. I hope it was the latter, but I suspect the first explanation is nearer the truth.

Free advertising for UK phone distributor... because advert has Thai language content

So here they are:

Main advert:

Subsidiary advert:

Now, they are apparently intended to be funny but I don't find them funny. I think the humour is the exotic relocation of a mundane activity (picking phone contract) for the ever so exotic but familiar enough for the lower income brackets of England.

Anyway, what interests me is the gap between the subtitle translation and the actual Thai spoken.

Starting with the first sentence spoken:

What the subtitles say: "Easy internet access"

What they say: "very easy to use"

Does anyone care to transliterate so I can get the whole advert...

...particularly, when they write 'fooolishman'. What does he actually say? and when they write 'OMG', What do they say? "make them believe him.." or something like that...

:jap:

>snip<

Sorry this is a long post , and I apologize if I came across as overly blunt or to the point. However, the better someone understands what it is you want; the better they can tailor lessons to achieve your goals.

I think you've made lots o fgood and worthy points. The thing is, I know exactly what I am doing. I got to a very high level of Japanese by the method I outlined.

You're right, specialised topics require specialised vocabulary. That's why I'll know the vocab before I go for the chat.

I don't struggle with the word order. it is the hardest point of Japanese so something I was very alert to when I started the language study.

My weaknesses though are precisely what I am not worried about but precisely would become an issue if I did the standard classes. Let me engage you on this. The aim of the exams are to categorise you into a form of knowledge that the language school has about the nature of language ability. For their form of knowledge they must have a structuring of that knowledge, a way to derive that aquisition of knowledge. I have very limited writing ability with a pen or pencil. I can write with a computer. So in their system I may be quite weak, and be put into 'Basic' class, yet I can read newspaper articles on a ratification to a nuclear proliferation treaty. Where can they put me? It makes sense for them to get my writing level up. But I do not want it 'up'. There is no need for me at any moment to write in biro any Thai. i can only win on this point by controlling the tutoring.

Let me give you an example of epistemological flaw in the teaching at the acute level. I have a decent listening ability but my speaking lets me down owing to saying the wrong sound . Even though I know what is the right sound, a typical Thai speaker will say that I could not get the right sound. This is because of the knowledge framework they live in-- the episteme-- if you will. They are led to believe that farang will struggle with pronunciation, so a mistake on my part 'reveals' this gap. In fact, I can hear and copy the sounds, but a lack of repetition causes the word to come out wrong. They suffer from a bounded, canonical understanding of errors. To eliminate this error requires that I control the tutoring.

A further thing I have noticed is that a certain minority of Thais are painfully unable to pick up language where trivial tonal errors are made. I say the errors are trivial since all the other Thais will without effort understand the entire conversation. As an example, I was with a group of young Thais. The one Thai I spoke to, no matter how slowly and carefully, could not seemingly understand a word. The other 5 Thais listening, could understand at normal speed everything I said, and engage me in a routine conversation. They even expressed disbelief at their friend for not understanding. Comically, they repeated word for word what I was saying to her. But there is a further group that I will call 'educated parochial' Thais who are determined to not understand. They have pre-determined to not understand what you say. This is a Thai-specific 'language war'. Once you have absolute dominance of their language it fades away. I must reach lower-advanced level to pre-empt this language war.

My slow (for me) acquisition of Thai is not down to the language. The language is by some degree easier than Japanese. Thge problem are situational factors. These are to do with the learning and aquisition environment.

I am interested in a very specific activity:

I want a Thai chat on a topic of my choice for around 40 minutes a week. I don't want a teacher to choose the topic and I don't want them to chronically correct me. I want them to not intervene in the flow of the topic. I only want them to explain grammar or vocab or accent when asked. It would be one to one.

Can you deliver this? And how much?

I've tried with Thai friends but it doesn't work. They seem to always want to teach. They feel a need to follow the way they learnt. So I need to pay someone not to teach me.

Thanks in advance.

**the best book for short, serious articles on Thai modern culture**

For anyone above intermediate-beginner level. A book with Thai and a Japanese translation.

日本タイ　クロスカルチャー (Japan Thai Cross Culture)

199 baht

(318 pages)

(sold at Kinokuniya CentralWorld, in the general books shelf)

This one is a winner for Intermediate and above learners. It has about 100 short chapters on issues that interest Japanese towards Thailand. The chapters are roughly a page long. They start with a conversation between a Japanese and Thai to set up the key issues. There is then a remarkably insightful analysis of the differences. It does not shy away from controversy. My Thai friends were shocked by some of the analysis, but it seemed to me to hold weight.

Example chapters are 'Not keeping time', 'Buddhism: Part 1', 'Academic credentials and society', 'Driving manners', 'Sexual equality', 'Privacy', 'Signatures', 'Aging society' etc.

It is doubly interesting for a Westerner to read what Japanese think are signficant about Thai society. The stale West versus Thailand debate is replaced by the more nuanced discussion of a Japanese view and a Thai view. The discussion on how Thai's don't like losing face is contrasted with the Japanese tendency to be quick to accept blame. The issue of sexual equality raises the point that women can be far more successful in their careers in Thailand but in other ways are more repressed than the Japanese woman.

The shame is there is no audio. Perhaps a Thaivisa member can offer that service...

:jap:

[Obviously it is annoying that there is no English translation. I have offered to the publishers of all the books I have promoted to translate the books for them either commercially, for free, or any other way. I always get no response from them.]

Link to Part 3:

Years ago when I was there, some gay boy in a group of his buddies ran up on me with a crotch grab followed by a "hello sexy man.." I was in a lil bit better shape back then, so I guess the tight shirt fooled him lol! anyway I gripped him up off the ground shook him up, yelled at him and tossed him like a rag too the ground. His punk friends dissapeared and he waited till I was half way down the street to pull a knife and wave it at me halfheartedly.

>>facepalm<<

Somebody had the courage to show they fancied you and flirted with you in the routine way in that neck of the woods. You admit you appeared to be just their type (a tight shirt made you the target par excellence) and you responded by extraorindary and unnecessary violence. And despite all the years that have passed you are still unable to perceive this situation as anything more than you getting the better than somebody. A boy displayed affection to you, and you return the favour by bigotted violence.

I want you to promise that next time a young boy touches you, you give him a nice french kiss, and blush red. That would make you a man.

>snip<

Always buying double strength pills, if available from the medicine prescribed and splitting them with a splitter or razor blade saves a great deal as well.

The above strategy is potentially extremely dangerous. The active component of the medicine does not necessarily spread across the whole pill. You could be effectively be taking a placebo and then double-strength the next day. Not recommended.

Your local doc.

You sound worried.

You know that if someone thinks about or chats online with young kids and what they want to do with them, that is the first step and can be treated as perverse and not even reality as it is the internet and in your mind.

But if someone takes the next step and acts upon those thoughts or chats, then they enter a new phase where the real possibility of them offending takes place.....if they do not intened to do anything, as many claim, why take that next step and enter the real world.

You seem very worried for these people that take the next step......I just wonder why.

What exactly is this rambling nonsense? Did you even look at the link I included in my earlier post, or what I said about it?

Nawtier's invidious views are trully repellant. If you are not with him, then you are one of them. Nawtier's first post against you, that effectively accused you (Darrel) of being a paedophile was bad enough but his nasty insinuations have not abated. Of the first time on this forum I came close to reporting his posts for abuse, but I should think Darrel can make up his own mind. Darrel, there are many against these vapid witchhunts, that cause enormous damage to social relations.

Putting aside that the extension of sovereignty onto another country's criminal jsutice system is not simply patronizing but also provocative, I wish these nasty do-gooders with their wilfully manipulated views of the world would at least think of the damage they do. The ongoing angelification of children, which operates as an infantilisation process, is then compounded with the key gatekeeper to generational relations, the young mother, blocking access to children to all men, through a false fear of danger. Thankfully, these views have not spread to Thailand except among the Daily mail readers and their ilk.

Darrel, I am Spartacus.

>snip<

There is also one about 200 metres into Soi 11 on the right (don't know the name) but I wouldn't recommend this one.

Interested to hear you've had no more luck than I on this one. Looks like I'll be giving Fuji in Siam Paragon a visit.

Disregard the above.

This one on soi 11 is the only genuine Japanese restaurant in the area. It's the only one with an almost exclusively Japanese clientele. And it shows-- very high quality product. Not that expensive.

Meditators often do see visions of their past lives or other realms.

I can't say I've ever come across any who claim to, except perhaps over excited beginners.

Even so a vision doesn't provide proof of anything, except perhaps an overactive imagination. After all if a vision were proof of anything then theists and new age types would have a monopoly on truth.

Perhaps not visions, but Buddha did appear to claim to "remember his past lifetimes as far back as he wanted" (David Loy). But your epistemological doubt still stands.

Pre- Socratic greek philosophy had a man whose name was Heraclitus. At the time of the Buddha his cosmology had convergences with the Teaching of the Buddha and Taoism.

The end of the Velama Sutta

“…and though he developed universal lovingkindness, the fruit of cultivating the awareness of anicca-even for the moment of a finger snap-would have been greater.”

Anguttara Nikaya, Navakanipata, Sutta 20

and Heraclitus

"Ever-newer waters flow on those who step into the same rivers ."

Everything changes and nothing remains still .... and ... you cannot step twice into the same stream"

We both step and do not step in the same rivers. We are and are not."

I seem to have found in the short piece by David Loy the person I was looking for. Someone in Buddhism attacking all the onto-theology of Buddhism. His name was Nagarjuna and his core text was the Mulamadhyakmikakarika. He writes there was/is no Buddha and attacks nothingness as itself an onto-theological trope. The attack on metanarratives is itself a metanarrative. Nirvana is the everyday world. Nirvana is sunya.

Here is the core 20 or so pages, freely available on the internet, but I've stuck them into a PDF format.

LOY The Deconstruction of Buddhism.pdf

:jap:

>snip<

[You'll find more connections perhaps with contemporary physics. Matthieu Ricard is good on this. Buddhist ideas have also migrated into post-Freudian psychology, but I doubt you'll find enough there to meet your stringent epistemological expectations. I sympathize with you, but at some point, critical doubt either disappears into absurdity (an inevitable outcome really), or it is reborn as critical belief, which allows for constructive thought without floating off into fantasy forms of faith.

Camus and other absurdists (I include myself among them) accept the final outcome of thinking logically about existence, but many feel there's plenty to think about and act upon short of that finality. The Buddhadharma has a lot to offer and is worth investigating in its own right.

That is a very nice pointer. The books of Ricard are on my to-find-list. Are you aware of any Western philosphers going at it from the other direction? I know one book of Ricard is discussing similarities of ideas with his father, a French philospher. But what I mean, do you know of any modern philosphers that have followed the tropes of French academic work, and discussed Buddhism via peer-reviewed journals. I want to read Buddhism through the familiar lense of these tropes before moving in from the other side.

I got interested in this after being a guest of a Thammasat University course which reflected on Western philosphy (mostly pre-Socratic) and Chinese philosophy (mostly Taoism) in the area of politics.

Came across this in Amazon at http://www.amazon.co...y/dp/0742534189

Buddhisms and Deconstructions (New Frameworks for Continental Philosophy) [Paperback] Jin Y. Park (Editor)

Product Description

Buddhisms and Deconstructions considers the connection between Buddhism and Derridean deconstruction, focusing on the work of Robert Magliola. Fourteen distinguished contributors discuss deconstruction and various Buddhisms--Indian, Tibetan, and Chinese (Chan)--followed by an afterword in which Magliola responds directly to his critics.

There's a substantial Wikipedia article on Magliola at http://en.wikipedia....Robert_Magliola

Thanks again.

I found a nice quote:

"What is interesting about Buddhism, from a deconstructive point of view,is that it is both onto-theological (therefore what-needs-to-be-deconstructed) and deconstructive (providing a different example of how-to-deconstruct). What is interesting about Derrida's type of deconstruction, from a Buddhist point of view, is that it is logocentric.

What Derrida says about philosophy, that it "always re-appropriates for itself the discourse that delimits it", is equally true of Buddhism. Like all religions, Buddhism includes a strong onto-theological element, yet it also contains the resources that have repeatedly deconstructed this tendency. Thanks to sensitivities that Derrida's texts have helped to develop, it is possible to understand the Buddhist tradition as a history of this struggle between deconstructive delimitation and metaphysical re-appropriation, between a message that undermines all security by undermining the sense-of-self that seeks security, and a countervailing tendency to dogmatize and institutionalize that challenge."

----The Deconstruction of Buddhism

by David R. Loy

>snip<

[You'll find more connections perhaps with contemporary physics. Matthieu Ricard is good on this. Buddhist ideas have also migrated into post-Freudian psychology, but I doubt you'll find enough there to meet your stringent epistemological expectations. I sympathize with you, but at some point, critical doubt either disappears into absurdity (an inevitable outcome really), or it is reborn as critical belief, which allows for constructive thought without floating off into fantasy forms of faith.

Camus and other absurdists (I include myself among them) accept the final outcome of thinking logically about existence, but many feel there's plenty to think about and act upon short of that finality. The Buddhadharma has a lot to offer and is worth investigating in its own right.

That is a very nice pointer. The books of Ricard are on my to-find-list. Are you aware of any Western philosphers going at it from the other direction? I know one book of Ricard is discussing similarities of ideas with his father, a French philospher. But what I mean, do you know of any modern philosphers that have followed the tropes of French academic work, and discussed Buddhism via peer-reviewed journals. I want to read Buddhism through the familiar lense of these tropes before moving in from the other side.

I got interested in this after being a guest of a Thammasat University course which reflected on Western philosphy (mostly pre-Socratic) and Chinese philosophy (mostly Taoism) in the area of politics.

Every Buddha has to be born as a man...since otherwise people will believe he can do things because he is superhuman.

However he is more than just a normal man, because he has been perfecting himself as a Boddhisatva for innumerable aeons...which is why when he was born he proclaimed that there was no being his superior in any of the 31 realms....quite true.

I find this epistemological arguing genuinelly enchanting. Obviously, it is the key discussion of Western philosophy for the last 30 years. It struck me how useful Foucault's History of Sexuality Volume 1 or, say, Todd May's 'Between Genealogy and Epistemology' would be to the monk.

FabianFred is arguing the transcendental card. While other writers are arguing for the indeterminancy of truth or the non-existence of truth. Indeed, I think one writer is arguing that the non-existence of truth is a transcendence. All interesting because the vocabulary of the Western philosphers is not picked up on, so it has a sense of innocence about it.

I wonder if I am actually having a genuine Buddhist meditative existence by my interactions with French philosphy over the last 5 years.

I had Thai friends push me to go to a Buddhist camp by some Japanese monk in a temple in Thailand. They suggested he would listen to my arguments. I declined since to turn up to his camp would be to imply his superior knowledge over mine. I suspect my thoughts on knowledge are greater than his, and my reading wider, yet this would through the semiotics of the temple/monk/layman nexus of power/knowledge be regarded as arrogance.

Ask yourselves: how is that which you claim to know? Some of you speak of insight or 'analysis', but what is your epistemology to realise this 'analysis'. How can you know truth when you see it? Why do you believe you can find it? There are foundational assumptions of 'received knowledge' that imply superiority through some supernatural unknown. That is fine, but then, you do you know this to be true, how do you know it can exist?

I find Albert Camus' argument of the absurdity of life much more compelling than anything I hear from the works of Buddha. But I am open to doubt.

:jap:

I find Albert Camus' argument of the absurdity of life much more compelling than anything I hear from the works of Buddha. But I am open to doubt.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I don't doubt.

http://mettarefuge.w...surdity-of-life

Adjahn Thanissaro (English Translator of one part of the Pali Canon, Wat Metta California, Dhammayuth Theravada)

>snip<

You'll be painfully aware that I could deconstruct or dissemble the essay of Ajarn Thanissaro... but I'm not going to do that. I want to look deeper for crossovers of Buddhist ideas and Western philosophy.

I could start by examining the genealogy of the notion of 'self' as extracted from Ajarn Thanissaro's piece. His 'self' concept seems to universalise and make it transcendent, while many Western thinkers have argued for its specificity in the domain of capitalism, as a construct of the modern society where people can carry out activities that imply a uniqueness, and a privatization of the self. I am saying that I think Ajarn Thanisssaro may be trapped or coopted by the dominant episteme of his time.

The 'Four Noble Truths' that he refers to fascinate. They are positioned as realities that the Buddha experienced, according to Wikipedia. But how do we know that which we claim to know? How do we know he was right? What grounds of knowledge are we using to determine this? If you claim a unique or received knowledge for Buddhism, then it is no better than the miracles of Christianity etc.

I think working through what can find 'truth', and if there is one or many to be found, is actually the only game in town. All the rest is fluff. AS soon as somebody says using 'insight' or 'analysis' I am trained to smell a rat. For it must follow, what basis of truth is being used to make the insight. You cannot use the method of insight to justify the insight. This is a recursive loop. If as an alternative, the truth is then positioned as the loop, then what truth generates that truth.

I wonder, and I'm not joking, that the works of Philip K Dick can assist. He plays around with notions of Reality to an extraordinary extent. See Ubik and VALIS, and Radio Free Albemuth.

:jap:

I think the posters demanding to know why others don't leave Thailand are invariably those who are only aspirationally resident in Thailand. They dream of it, and since it cannot be achieved, they gain a certain jouissance from finding doubt in others.

I have never met any farang who complained of being here. Indeed, many have a rather giddy smile on their faces.

It is of no surprise that the OP does not live here. I only hope that while flipping burgers in Burnley Whimpeys he can find solace that I live my life with the personal assistance of a personal cook, a cleaner, a lovely city view, and great deal of smiley people.

I came to Thailand with no high of expectations. I have lived most of my adult life abroad. Thailand has exactly matched my expectations. I feel no affinity to such people as the OP simply because we have similar skin colour and are categorised as Farang. The Thais also have little trouble distingushing the Burger Flipper from Burnley and the educated man. Perhaps the OP should head to Alabama for his next holidays. I hear the Meth prices are jolly good at this time of year.

Every Buddha has to be born as a man...since otherwise people will believe he can do things because he is superhuman.

However he is more than just a normal man, because he has been perfecting himself as a Boddhisatva for innumerable aeons...which is why when he was born he proclaimed that there was no being his superior in any of the 31 realms....quite true.

I find this epistemological arguing genuinelly enchanting. Obviously, it is the key discussion of Western philosophy for the last 30 years. It struck me how useful Foucault's History of Sexuality Volume 1 or, say, Todd May's 'Between Genealogy and Epistemology' would be to the monk.

FabianFred is arguing the transcendental card. While other writers are arguing for the indeterminancy of truth or the non-existence of truth. Indeed, I think one writer is arguing that the non-existence of truth is a transcendence. All interesting because the vocabulary of the Western philosphers is not picked up on, so it has a sense of innocence about it.

I wonder if I am actually having a genuine Buddhist meditative existence by my interactions with French philosphy over the last 5 years.

I had Thai friends push me to go to a Buddhist camp by some Japanese monk in a temple in Thailand. They suggested he would listen to my arguments. I declined since to turn up to his camp would be to imply his superior knowledge over mine. I suspect my thoughts on knowledge are greater than his, and my reading wider, yet this would through the semiotics of the temple/monk/layman nexus of power/knowledge be regarded as arrogance.

Ask yourselves: how is that which you claim to know? Some of you speak of insight or 'analysis', but what is your epistemology to realise this 'analysis'. How can you know truth when you see it? Why do you believe you can find it? There are foundational assumptions of 'received knowledge' that imply superiority through some supernatural unknown. That is fine, but then, you do you know this to be true, how do you know it can exist?

I find Albert Camus' argument of the absurdity of life much more compelling than anything I hear from the works of Buddha. But I am open to doubt.

:jap:

Easiest? Well, if you want to avoid traffic as much as possible.

Walk to Wanglang boat pier. Take the express boat to Saphan Thaksin. Take the BTS from Saphan Thaksin to Ekkamai.

At Ekkamai go to the bus station, then catch bus. make sure said bus is taken at an odd time of date to avoid traffic jams (perhaps 10am or 10pm). Wait 4 hours and you will arrive at the bus station on the North side of central Pattaya.

Enjoy.

Fake Club is located near to Chatuchak market and the Railway Park. It is the main club in a row of clubs and bars dedicated to gayness, in its broadest form. It is a unique proposition.

The customer base is around 80% Thai-Chinese effeminate boys/men. The average age must be around 20. The skin colour is pure white. It definitely doesn't operate as a pick up joint since for those effeminate boys there is simply nobody there to pick them up.

...but for a Farang with an interest in such boys this is clearly one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

Until 2am you could be mistaken into thinking you've gone to the wrong place when matched against the above apparent hyperbole. But just wait. Until 2am you are unlikely to be approached many times, and perhaps only 2 or 3 boys will talk to you. But at 2am as the police close down the disco the entire street (or at least up to the central reservation) becomes like the Savannah in Africa 15,000 years ago. The prey is the white man. The hunter packs are the screaming packs of effeminate boys who, having downed a few bacardi breezers, are now intent on nabbing the prize par excellence.

Wherever the whiteman goes a horde of Thai-Chinese boys will follow. The standard weapon of choice is to talk to their friends in English as the whiteman dodges past. The secondary weapon is to push their friends into the whiteman until a conversation is forced. The whiteman must then use every weapon at hand to stop prying hands upon his crotch, telephone numbers being seduced off him, and vile invitations to head home.

I recommend the experience and wish you good luck. I just pray to God you don't need to go into the toilets.

To give my personal interest in this. It seems I am not gay. I am hyper-liberal and thought that maybe a very effeminate boy would appeal to me. But it didn't turn out to be true. But there were a few girls there, and heck, some pretty ladyboys too. A true pic-n-mix for even the most discerning party.

**As a warning: If you look over 30 then you will look so out of place that a rupture in the time-space continuum could take place. I suspect some boys there were as young as 15.**

The lack of A-B repeat function on all the iPod devices made them the worst MP3 players to use in the study of a foreign language.

The A-B repeat allows you to select part of a track (perhaps 2 seconds, perhaps 3 minutes etc., up to you) to listen to repeatedly without having to continually manually reset the start position. This is essential if you want to hear and understand a tough Thai language dialogue.

About 8 years ago, most MP3 player had an A-B repeat. Apple made the decision not to include this function as it felt it would confuse their customer base. Apple does not have a high opinion of its customer base.

Finally somebody has made an app to resolve this problem. Works on iTouch, iPad, iPhone.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/repeater/id359823184?mt=8

Annoyingly for me, I still can't use on my old-style iPod.

(By the way, if your looking for A-B repeat on your computer I recommend the GOM player)

Anyway, let's have some feedback if you load it onto your MP3 devices.

:jap: