tjansen

What if i I just like drinking and don't care if or when I die?

I have nothing to live for anyhow.

I like to answer questions when I see them, if I can. I felt similarly, maybe not quite as strongly. My wife at the time told me if I kept drinking, it would kill me. I replied, "Good, I don't want to be alive anyway." Something happened along the way, I think it was mainly reading a book called "I'll Quit Tomorrow" which described the progression of alcoholism on the way down, and the progression of recovery on the way back up. I recognized myself perfectly in the first half and was greatly relieved that I had found an answer to what was wrong with me. I also decided I wanted the second half of the equation, recovery, and started considered quitting, which I did not too long after that.

By the way, nowadays I don't try to talk people out of keeping the suicide option handy. I consider it a "safety" valve, the use of which can limit how much a person has to put up with before pulling the plug. I put saftety in quotes because I have read and heard in Dhamma talks that suicide solves nothing. It continues in the next life where we left off. Not knowing the validity of mulitple lives, I hesitate to actively endourage someone to commit suicide.

Thanks for the time. I have another reply further down, or maybe further up, in this thread.

Tom J

So am I I think it is important that those who are struggling with alcoholism, or indeed any addiction, know that they have options. The 'one size fits all' approach to recovery is outdated and dangerous. I want AA to be there for the people who need it, but I also want other options discussed more openly too. We need to get real about addiction and honest about what works and what doesn't. In AA they like to say, 'doing the same things and expecting different results is insanity' - this also applies to repeatedly directing people back to the meetings when it is obviously not working for them.

I'll agree with you that one size does not fit all and AA is not for everyone.

One thing that is going on in AA right now is that many people seem to think that "the program" is all about going to meetings when in fact it is really about working the 12 Steps. I firmly believe that if I had just attended meetings then AA would not have worked for me and I would be drinking again or dead. But that's a whole other discussion.

Edit: The first paragraph is a quote from a post by garro.........I messed something up. Sorry

Hi Graham, I found in my dealings with AA that those who worked the steps did tend to get more out of it. There is a lot of great stuff in the program and I do respect it.

You will have to take my word for it, but I did make an honest attempt to incorporate the steps into my life. The AA way of doing things just didn't suit me in the end. I did stay sober in the program for 2 years during my twenties, but for all of that time I always felt like my sobriety was hanging by a thread. I worked the steps, went to a meeting at least once a day, and had a sponsor. I did a lot of service. None of this prevented me from relapsing. I just didn’t feel comfortable being a recovering alcoholic – it was like I was still being controlled by alcohol.

In reality you could say that many of things in my life today that reflect the wisdom in the steps, but that is just because they are true even for people who don't belong to AA. I don't consider myself to be a recovering alcoholic, and I don't believe that I ever had a disease. When I left the Thai temple I also gave up being an alcoholic. I know that I'll never drink again - that part of my life is over. I'm not saying here that my approach is right for everyone, but it might work for some who are sick of failing in 12 step programs.

Hello Garro,

I have a favor to ask if you are interested in sharing. Do you feel that your 3rd Step was a complete surrender, at least the initial 'decision'? Was there anything at all that you thought of while doing the 4th Step that you decided not to include? Same question about the 5th Step.

I have started doing AA work with Thais, and I am a Big Book Thumper, probably to a fault. It says in the Big Book that if we don't do a thorough 5th Step, we might not overcome alcohol. I have been sober 31 years, but I never had the struggle with a compulsion to drink, even when I resisted doing the Steps for several months, while becoming an emotional wreck (that is how it felt). We use an alternative approach to reading the Big Book, we put together a 4th Step Workshop, preceded by Step 1 and Step 2 review and a working of Step 3, since my own experience calls for such an approach. We have been presenting these workshops in Ban Pong, Ratchaburi and for (alcoholic) patients at some psyche hospitals in different areas of Thailand.

I could ramble on and on about feeling free, feeling happy that I finally got myself meditating (Step 11) after deciding to retire in Thailand about 4 years ago for that purpose.

Thanks for the time and any feedback.

Tom J.

I don't know if this thread is still active. I have done one ten day course at Suan Mokh and three ten day courses at Goenka centers in Thailand. I would like to know if anyone has done the Goenka course as well as some of the other ones mentioned. Right now, I really like Goenka. It is the one that inspired me to start a daily practice a couple of years ago. Having only experienced two different approaches, I am curious how other courses would compare.

If anyone is interested I can share my experience and thoughts about the Goenka course. I am still meditating after two or three years, by the way, after having failed for thirty years to get myself on the cushion while living in the US.

Tom

I'm curious regarding your leaning towards the Goenka retreat.

How would you compare it to Suan Mokkh?

What is it about Goenka that draws you to it?

Hello and thanks for the question.

After the retreat at Suan Mokh I came home with kind of an idea I would like to meditate, and I did do some meditation For me, the retreat, although demanding from a schedule and physical comfort point of view, was fairly relaxed in procedures for meditating and in the daily Dhamma talks, which were done live with an English monk who, while entertaining, was not 'hard-core' enough with facts and techniques for my liking.

On the train home, I met a guy who had been to the same retreat as I, who told me about Goenka--that he had heard a lot of controversial comments about the strictness, the cult flavor of it, etc. I decided I had to check into this. So about six months later I attended the first of three ten-day Goenka courses.

One major plus to Goenka, again, for me, is that everything except answering quesions that arise, is presented by Goenka himself, via DVD and Audio CDs, in English. Some people complained of the lack of the personal touch. I enjoyed it knowing I was getting the straight scoop from the original source (of this particular method).

The next thing that happened to get me on the cushion was Goenka's exhortation, at the end of the course, to meditate two hours per day for one year to give this method a fair trial. I did so (having spent almost 30 years in AA knowing I wanted to meditate and knowing that meditation contained the only lasting answers for me, yet being unable to get myself to do it), and I am still meditating 4-5 hours per week, and missing it when I don't do it. I readily notice the absence of peace of mind during the day when I skp a day or two, even with wonderful reasons. Originally I had thoughts about going for enlightenment, but I have abandoned that notion for now, lacking the motivation to devote my major energy to meditation.

After posting this, I just remembered the comment of a middle-aged Thai man at one of my Goenka retreats, who said he had tried various courses, including Suan Mokh and Goenka. He said he settled on Goenka because Suan Mokh meandered toward the goal, while Goenka was a rifle shot (demonstrated in a languageless pencil and paper sketch).

That is about it. Let me know if there are other questions. I will be glad to answer them as best I can.

Goenka's web site is www.dhamma.org. They have centers in several countries, and all courses are financed only by voluntary contributions from students who have already attended a course.

Tom

I don't know if this thread is still active. I have done one ten day course at Suan Mokh and three ten day courses at Goenka centers in Thailand. I would like to know if anyone has done the Goenka course as well as some of the other ones mentioned. Right now, I really like Goenka. It is the one that inspired me to start a daily practice a couple of years ago. Having only experienced two different approaches, I am curious how other courses would compare.

If anyone is interested I can share my experience and thoughts about the Goenka course. I am still meditating after two or three years, by the way, after having failed for thirty years to get myself on the cushion while living in the US.

Tom

Does anyone know how difficult it is for a Thai citizen to get a tourist visa to Japan? She has a round trip air ticket and has her own business here in Thailand.

Thanks for any help.

Suggest you download libreoffice (now version 3.4, it is free).

Can do an amazing number of tricks using the appropriate spreadsheet. AA

I ended up using "Scenario" in the tools list. I could never get the Data / Table thing to work. The Scenario function did what I wanted. It is just a bit cumbersome and I think only does one scenario at a time.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Tom

Hello, I have read several instructions on this, but it is not working for me.

I have excel 2003. When I follow instructions I have found on the Internet, where they say I should go to Tools-Data-What If analysis.

The only related thing I see on the Data Dropdown is "Table"

I am trying to do a what-if by changing one variable and looking at the result on one output. However when I insert data in Cells A3 to A6 as my input that I want to vary, and I copy the formula that I want to evaluate in Cell B2, then highlight the table, including the formula, as instructed, then click on "Table" under the Data Tab, the box asks for a column input and a row input. The instructions I read made it seem that they would only ask for a column input.

I tried several ways of trying to use this row and column entry form, but I always get an error message.

Any help here? I hope I get notified if I get a reply.

By the way, I posted this on an Excel forum that I am not familiar with. I am hoping for an answer by tomorrow morning, and I know TV is usually quick, so I thought I would post the question here as well. I wrote in a hurry, but hope it is clear.

Tom

My friend wants to visit cousins (Thai) that live in London. She is a high school student here in Thailand. She would like to know what questions she will be expected to answer when applying for a visa and also upon arrival in England.. She plans to stay there for three months with her cousins.

Thank you.

I got some kefir grains from a man named Les, on Thai Visa. He just asked me to pay for postage and shipping materials, no charge for the kefir itself. I have been using it for a few weeks, and it works fine.

i had some brought over from the states

the price was still on it and not cheap at all for 60 caps

however the inside of the capsules look like they are old or the stuff went bad, can see right through them,

its like the ingredients melted and then solidified again

hard as a pebble

though not that old or expired

the name is iFlora multi-probiotic by sedona labs

the label even says no need to refrigerate

anyone know if this is normal or what happened?

got to hot?

thanks

Yes, got too hot and surely died.

Probiotics contain a living organism (a type of bacteria) hence they are easily inactivated.

You can buy online in Thailand from one of the forum sponsors, GoodKarma Health foods. I think the cost once postage is included will be about the same as Infloran

Probiotics are not something one needs to take daily or often. Just when the normal bowel flora has been disturbed, for example by taking antibiotics. A single does (assuming the antibiotics or other cause has stopped) will often do the trick.

It is also extremely easy to make your own yogurt, all you need is some natural yogurt to start with and milk. Has to be milk with some fat, i.e. completely skim milk won't work, but whole milk or reduced (but not 0%) fat are fine. All you do is pour it into a bowl, add a tablespoonful or two of yogurt, stir it, cover with a cloth and leave it somewhere warm (which in Thailand will be anywhere without an a/c) and by the next day you'll have a bowl of yogurt. (If it is an unusually cold day such as we are having lately, may need to put it into the sun for a few hours to help it along, but most of the year no need, ambient temperature is fine).

Save some of that as "starter" for the next batch, eat the rest and voila -- you always have natural yogurt on hand, rich in probiotics.

As a follow-up, I did get some probiotics, the brand mentioned, from my hospital, and yes I needed the doctor to prescribe them. Not knowing the cost, I had him proscribe 200 tablets. Turned out they were $1.00 each. Wow. They also were on ice and to be refrigerated I was taking them, and still experiencing the problem. Then I heard about kefir, and started making and taking that. It seems to have helped my digestion return to normal in just a few days. Of course it could also be a coincidence.

i had some brought over from the states

the price was still on it and not cheap at all for 60 caps

however the inside of the capsules look like they are old or the stuff went bad, can see right through them,

its like the ingredients melted and then solidified again

hard as a pebble

though not that old or expired

the name is iFlora multi-probiotic by sedona labs

the label even says no need to refrigerate

anyone know if this is normal or what happened?

got to hot?

thanks

Yes, you called that one. They did seem pretty open with the fact that they had an engineering problem

Sounds like a glitch at the ISP end, as I mentioned.

They rarely admit that the problem is at their end, no matter which country you are in.

Problem seems to be solved.

Well, they were able to make it out today, rather than Monday, on time, and they resolved the mystery. They changed the router from a cabled one to a wireless one, stating, (I believe) that the original they provided was incompatible with the network. After that, they did some extensive testing and discovered that they had used up the available bandwidth of some "PPP server" I believe. They left and said they would call when they had resolved the issue, which happened about an hour later. Now my Internet works again, and I have a wireless router in case I need it.

Probably influenced by my Catholic upbringing, my weak reading glasses misread the headline as -______________________Break the Culture of ImpuRity?

I failed to mention that I tried all of the obvious fixes, like restarting the modem, restarting the computer, unplugging the cable and replugging.

NOW, for more mystery, this morning, with the same settings, the Internet works. Everything was turned off during the night. ???

Never adjust the TCP/IP settings if the connection has functioned correctly previously and has stopped working for no apparent reason. Just restart the modem/router and the PC, and the odds are it will all work fine again.

The best settings for TCP/IP are usually "auto". I suggest you reset it to that.

Helplines generally dont have a clue what they are talking about.

More help needed on a different topic.

About two weeks ago I subscribed to True. They ran a cable to my apartment (non-wireless modem) and after an initial problem with the connection out at the street, I had good service for a week or two.

Then a couple of nights ago, when I got home, the Internet did not work. The help line person had me change some some settings on the TCP/IP page to no avail. When the technicians came today, they went to the same page on my computer, said something about the wrong numbers being in there, and they reset it. The Internet then worked.

Tonight when I got home, same problem, no Internet. Same routine with the same helpline guy. The technicians have to come out again, on Monday. At least this time I will watch exactly what they do. There might be a little information hoarding going on, because the tech that came out told me to call him directly on his cell phone rather than calling the 1686 help line when I have a problem. Of course, when I tried his cellphone tonight I got his voice mail, so I called the helpline, as I mentioned.

If it makes a difference, during the day, I am at a different location and use a different (wireless) TOT router, but remember, everything worked for a week or so, with me also using a different router during the day.

My DTAC Internet connection, through my cellphone, still works when this condition is going on, still slow, but at least I have a back up.

The numbers the helpline had me put in are

IP Address 192 168 1 3

Default 192 168 1 1

DNS 203 144 207 29

Alternate 203 144 207 49

The settings that the tech put in today (unless something changed on its own) were:

Auto select for the IP Address

Same DNS settings except both of the 207s were 206s

Any thoughts here?

Thanks,

Tom

Looks like I have a lot of choices. The most obvious to me is to get the Volume control from Ebay and, as some suggested, have a local TV repair shop make up a cable.

I have a couple of follow-on questions.

1) Is there a possibility of getting stuck with some disproportionate Customs fee if I order from the US? When I bought the Audio-Technica headphones, I paid something like $20-30 USD extra for customs.

2) I feel silly admitting this, but this acclaimed (on Internet reviews), expensive set of headphones, when the Noise Canceling function is on, has an annoying, intermittent electronic buzz. My guess it is caused by cell phone usage in the area or something like that. Unfortunately, the headphones don't cancel their own noise. Anyone have any experience with this?

Thanks to all for a lot of good input.

Hello,

Does anyone out there happen to have bought a headphone extension cord with a volume control included. I recently bought some noise canceling headphones and would like to be able to listen to them at some distance from my computer, preferably around 25 feet or so. I would also like to have volume control. The headphones are very loud, which is OK, but I would like to be able to control the volume from the headphones, not just the computer. The plug type is what seems to me to be pretty standard, the 1/8" or so. I would guess it is the 3.5 mm variety that I see referred to. There is one plug for earphones and one for microphone.

Getting the product shipped here (Ratchaburi Province) is one concern. When I bought the headphones themselves, from the US, customs tacked on several dollars, I forget how much. I don't go to Bangkok often, so if there is a source there, I would like one that will mail the product to me.

Thanks for any help.

Tom

I watched that video. She is, without any doubt in my mind, pronouncing welcome like a Thai person. Compare to "twenty" sounding like "seventy" from most Thais. The "o" sound that begins the pronunciation of "w", even in English, coupled with the very common "v" sound used for "w" comes out resembling "ov". Add in the de-emphasized "l" sound, and you have ove®come.

The hub bub is quite ridiculous.

At 2 minutes. Actually sounds more like she stumbled on 'welcome' as opposed to overcome.

That's what I needed to know. Thanks a lot.

trains running to Chiang Mai via long diversion round central flood areas from Bangkok Hua lamphung. At present anyway and accepting online bookings.

route info here

online booking here

From what I know buses are doing the same involving long detours but pretty hideous journey times stuck in a bus seat.

Good luck.

Hello.

I live in Ban Pong, Ratchaburi, normally about 1.5 to 2 hours from Bangkok by van. I am wondering what my options are to travel to Chiang Mai ( bus or train ?) for arrival in Chiang Mai early Friday morning, 11 November at the latest and possibly the afternoon of Thursday 10 November. Sorry I don't know more about the locations and accessibility of things at this time.

Thanks,

Tom

Hello,

I would like to find a place, maybe in Bangkok, that would mail me probiotics. I have used plain yogurt to help my digestion, and it seems to have worked well to get me back to normal digestion for a while. Right now, the one source in my town that I know of, a herb store, has been out of stock since the flooding, so I would like to find an alternate source or other solution.

Thanks in advance,

Tom

Thanks a lot for the good information. You are right, a day seems to be a long time in this situation. Asking the mini bus drivers should give me the most up to date info. And I hadn't thought about the big bus. That seems like a possible alternative. Of course, I also need to be concerned about getting back home.

Tom

quote name='asanee' timestamp='1320390638' post='4821317']

as above-how flooded the main roads into BKK will be on that day your main prob.

ASK minibusdrivers the day before-what route they take and how long they think it will take.

I think the very same vans go to both Vict Mon and Phyathai-its so close by. Others end at Pinklao and SanamLnag-this is now flooded=Pinklao

If you are very lucky by then vans can reach the high elev. exway above the sai mai into BKK and run dry till river.

IF for now; take BIG bus into replaced Sai Thai=on Ram2 and change into citybus 558=direct to swampy, but reckon on 2 hrs for this

Hello, I live in Ban Pong, Ratchaburi and usually take a van to the Airport Link near Phayathai (I think that is it) BTS station, then on to the airport on the link. This involves being at street level of course.

An alternative would be to take the van to Victory Monument, then take the BTS to the Airport Link, which I believe does not require going down to the street. I am scheduled to fly on Nok Air from Suvarnabhumi (switched from Don Mueang) to Chiang Mai on the 10th of November, then return on the 12th. Any suggestions on how or bets on whether I will (safely) make it?

Thanks for any help.

Tom

Thanks for the feedback.

We are planning to drive from Ban Pong, Ratchaburi, on Route 323, to a retreat center in the hills in Sangkaburi Province near the Mynmar border. We plan to go tomorrow and be there for ten days. Any thoughts on our odds of being wiped out by floods or landslides?

Thanks

Tom

Kan to Tongpaphum is clear so think you'll be ok road wise. Best to give the resort a call to make sure they are not flooded out though, several are.