Acharn

As to why people buy books, it's partly because Amazon can't flip a switch and take it away from you. Some people find reading an electronic book less pleasant than reading a book made from dead trees.

20 hours ago, chickenslegs said:

Breadmaker machines do the mixing, kneading, and baking. They just plug into a normal power outlet.

Thanks. I've expected for several years to build a kitchen with a bread oven, other accessories, a sink, and counters. It now looks like it will be several more years until I have the money for it, and by then I'll be too old. I'll check breadmakers at Lazada.

17 hours ago, bkk6060 said:

Buy a bread maker and make your own.

Without an oven?

23 hours ago, mokwit said:

likewise at CW, also bankbook updated on the day for retirement extension.

How do I print out the TM30? Mine was printed out from the Immigration Office computer and I don't have a copy of the original form or the computer file. I live in Nakhon Sawan. It's stapled in the back of my passport.

16 hours ago, Encid said:

Natthaporn Toprayoon is a hardline yellow shirt headline/attention seeker who also tried (and failed) back in January 2020 when he got the Constitutional Court to hear charges of the opposition Future Forward Party (FFP) and its leader, Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, of conspiring to overthrow the monarchy.

 

<snip>

Thanks for the very helpful post. It's beginning to look like Thai politics will become interesting again. Over the last nine years Thai politics became utterly boring, which was what Prayut and a lot of people wanted. I absolutely do not want to go back to the Red Shirts and Yellow Shirts rioting in the streets, but it will be good to see the backbiting and betrayals in Parliament again. And some colorful political actors, too.

20 hours ago, Mavideol said:

should be finished very soon.... 9 years ago the military guy that grabbed power said is #1 objective  was to fight government corruption, the new NOT elected PM and the NEW Appointed (Not elected) Interior minister just said the same thing thus hope should be the last thing to die, they will get there, when??? your guest is as good as mine, but soon....  555

Throughout Thai history, every incoming king has tried to reform the government and courts. It's always worked for a while, and then human nature exerts itself.

Well, I'm an alcoholic but retired from the Army as an E-7, so don't think of myself as a loser. One thing I have noticed, though. I served 18 months in Vietnam while America was still there. I was a personnel sergeant, which means, basically, office worker. I had a friend here who was stationed in the Delta as an avionics repairmen. I've met an uncountable number of guys who were Special Forces, Marine LRRPs, Rangers, Delta Force, or other exotic combat types, although I know that at least 70% of American soldiers are support people, not grunts. I even met one guy who bragged about being assigned to Operation Phoenix, not realizing he was confessing to being a serial murderer. I've sometimes wondered why that was, but I don't live in Bangkok any more so no longer run into those kinds of guys.

12 hours ago, CDG931 said:

I have been driving in Thailand for over 30 years. 
Road safety is one of the country's biggest issues in my opinion.

I'm not defending the person in the article, and I don't know the whole story. 
But driving here every day, you accumulate so much frustration and even anger because they drive so poorly. He probably snapped.

 

 

Well, I haven't driven since 1989, but before that I found Thai drivers to be no worse than drivers in California or Washington, D.C. Of course, before I moved to Thailand in 1982 I made up my mind that I was the one who would need to change my opinions and attitude, not the Thais.

On 8/29/2023 at 5:58 PM, DaveCW said:

Actually the precious metals are real money, Fiat money (your paper notes) is government-issued currency that is not backed by a physical commodity but merely by the stability of an issuing government. All it takes is for that stability to evaporate and so does your fiat currency, as many countries in both ancient and modern times will attest to. But the metals will still have a physical value. 

I don't understand how a commodity "backs" a currency. So there's inflation and I take my currency to the banks and ask to exchange it for the commodity. They give me the commodity. Now what? What do I do with it? Perhaps back in the 1890s you could take gold dust to a grocery and exchange it for food. I don't think so, but perhaps. I think you had to take the gold dust to an assay office (government office) and exchange it for currency.

By the way, you say "many" nations have had their currencies "evaporate." I won't ask you to name them, but how many in the last twenty years? The last fifty? The last two hundred?

Thais are getting fatter, or maybe I should say more Thais are getting fat. The ones who are still slim eat a lot less sugar than Americans (and, I guess, British and Israelis). I first came to Thailand in 1971. It's changed. Actually, it's changed a lot since Thaksin was first chosen Prime Minister.

All well and good, but you don't say where you get these supplements. Is it from a clinic, a hospital, a local pharmacist? What are their brand names?

3 hours ago, Lacessit said:

IIRC Thaksin was elected democratically.

Yes, and with the first ever (the only ever?) majority party in Parliament. For good reasons. I don't know why so many posters here dislike him so much, but he did a lot for the people of Thailand. I remember what Thailand was like before he was elected the first time, and I've seen it change since then.

47 minutes ago, RocketDog said:

I guess you didn't read the whole thread. My whole point is that in Thailand you sell jewelry to any one of dozens of shops in hundreds of cities.

Metals are metals, cash is currency with no intrinsic worth whatsoever. Metals hold value for centuries, fiat currencies come and go. Fiat currency was invented do governments could spend with no backing at all to fund wars etc. Currencies 'backed' by nothing are only worth what people think they they are. Currencies not backed by anything are just cruel jokes.

They are two separate, distinctly different asset classes.

Personally I hold both along with real estate and equities.

People often state the "cost of gold" in some currency. Actually it's the other way around. Currencies are priced in gold because currencies are just paper. People has lusted for precious metals from the time they were discovered.

The overall trend of the price of gold is up, but there have been times when it went down, too. Or stayed the same for long periods of time while inflation continued. I'm not preaching against buying gold, but don't think that it's going to make you a profit or protect your wealth. Gold is a commodity, like oil or wheat.

5 hours ago, RocketDog said:

<snip>

Two things are for sure though: gold is not colored paper, and everybody everywhere recognizes the value, portability, and security of precious metals.

It is an asset class not to be ignored.

 

Well, yeah, but you have to take it to a specialized enterprise to exchange it for the currency of the country you're in. In the U.S. you can go to most jewellers, or pawn shops. What you can't do with gold is take it to your neighborhood 7-11 and buy a six-pack of beer. In Thailand, and, I suppose, India, you can get a publicly announced price that is the same at every gold store and pawn shop. In most other countries you can't. Gold is not money, and it has disadvantages when used as the "backing" for money.

On 8/4/2023 at 7:26 PM, Liverpool Lou said:

Garbage.  It's frequently part of both!

Well, what I mean is that it's not a requirement for legal marriage, but it is for traditional marriage. Certainly people who marry both ways (a subset of all Thais) use sin sod. I suppose there may be people who marry only according to the legal form who might use sin sod. I just don't know any.

10 hours ago, JBChiangRai said:

I wonder how paying sinsod affects this?

 

If the husband had paid substantial sinsod for the wife and the wife, then commits adultery with another guy causing the marriage to fail, would the husband have a claim against the other guy?

No. Sinsod is part of traditional marriage, not legal marriage. The state doesn't recognize traditional marriages, only the paperwork at the amphoe.

10 hours ago, save the frogs said:

so sleeping with a married woman is morally acceptable to you. 

after all that preaching. 

 

I'm a different poster, but, yes, sleeping (sic) with a married woman is OK with me. Of course I'm not a Christian, Jew, or Muslim. I guess if your invisible sky god tells you it's wrong you shouldn't do it. I march to a different drummer. Quite a few years ago I "slept" with a large numbers of Thai ladies. A few had boyfriends, many had husbands and children. The husbands were OK with their wives working. Some of them had ordered their wives to go out and find some money. Some had left abusive husbands but had children to feed. I never met a "trafficked" one. I suppose there are some. I remember a case down in Rayong back when Prem was Prime Minister. A brothel burned down, and when going through the ruins the fire police found the burned corpse of a woman chained to a bed. Prem said he had no interest in the problems of a prostitute and the matter was forgotten. I mean that was on the news! Otherwise I've seen too many of these people pushing trafficking stories turn out to be grifters.

Pfui. Pure bull****. These people make a fortune from donations to "help rescue" these poor enslaved women and children. All lies.

21 hours ago, Neeranam said:

I meant to say all alcoholics are welcome. 

Non alcoholics are, of course, not welcome. Sadly, nowadays there are more and more, partly, IMHO, due to the short form. 

The short form of tradition 3 was written for treatment centres. 

 

Sorry, I'm pretty out of touch. What is the short form of Tradition 3? The whole thing reads, “The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking.” I sobered up in 1976, and that's the way it read back then. Are you thinking of the substance problem? Back in the '70s a lot of drug addicts were coming to AA because Narcotics Anonymous was just being formed, and a lot of older alcoholics felt uncomfortable with them. The Tradition means what it says, you cannot keep someone out of an AA group who says they want to quit drinking. They don't have to have become homeless or even suffered a hangover.

ETA: Sorry, my bad. I looked up the Traditions and there is a long form. I knew about that back when I was stationed in the states, and forgot.

On 7/22/2023 at 5:38 PM, Sandboxer said:

Thank you gentlemen, that gives me a much better idea of what they're dealing with. The cremation will be on the 3rd day.

 

I haven't been hit up by gf for any contribution but feel somewhat compelled to pitch in even though they don't really need my money (but it's not like they're loaded so I think any extra help is appreciated?). The guy was the first male in the family to really warm up to me once he realized I'm not a douche (well....y'all can debate that later) and I truly liked him.

The neighbors who come to the feast will chip in, but since it's Buriram they won't be able to give much. Most will put a ฿20 bill in an envelope. I'd guess they'll be spending around ฿50,000. Very sorry to hear about such an early death. It would be kind of you to put a couple of thousand baht in an envelope and give it to them if you go to the feast. And you might want to ask your girl friend.

On 7/23/2023 at 9:15 AM, JayClay said:

<snip>

 

If I were an alcoholic and needed support I'd be searching out a group who promoted a belief that anybody has the power to overcome an addiction. Not a group that tells people that they are powerless to counter the problem by themselves ????.

Well, see, that's why members of AA refer to non-alcoholics as "normies." You're not like us and don't understand us. I think it's possible for normies to understand juicers, but there's no particular reason for them to.

On 7/22/2023 at 10:02 AM, Neeranam said:

The Steps are optional in AA. There are no requirements. 

Everyone is welcome and I know many in AA who don't do the steps.

Actually, there are more and more non-alcoholics going to AA these days, and they don't need a spiritual solution to stay sober. 

 

Try it for 90 days, and if you don't like it, we'll gladly refund your misery

I'm sorry to say that sometimes not everyone is welcome. However, in one of the Traditions it says, "The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking." It used to be "a sincere desire," but then they realized how silly that was. No alcoholic can be sincere. I only was able to do the first three steps, myself, but I haven't had to take a drink in 47 years.

The actual phrase is "Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity." I've heard there are groups that are Christian, but most are not, any more. I was always lucky to be able to find groups that called themselves "recovering Christians." The "higher power" can be anything. I just accepted Alcoholics Anonymous for a while, then left it undefined and tentative. It just seemed to me that either there is a huge conspiracy to make my life good, or there's some kind of power watching out for me (since I got sober).

I don't know why you would want to claim you're cured. I never heard anyone in AA say anything except that they were one drink away from being the same as before. You never get cured. You learn to avoid the poison.

Of course I haven't been to a meeting for several years. There's no group in Nakorn Sawan, and I never found being a Loner helpful.

On 7/21/2023 at 8:13 PM, KhunLA said:

Zinger no longer available, and now a chicken burger for 49 baht.  I'd rather pay the extra 15 ish baht for the Zinger.  Won't be getting the Chicken burger again ... nuff said.

Oh, thanks for telling me. My niece usually gets it for me and I hadn't realized it isn't the Zinger any more. It looks, smells, and tastes the same to me. I usually scrape off the salad dressing and put a slice of cheddar cheese on it.

7 hours ago, kwak250 said:

Not seen anything about an Australian on Koh Tao.

It's a shame I spent many many months there between 1999-2005 

Missed sitting in restaurants watching movies on big tvs before the days of the mobile phones .

A lot changed on koh Tao .

It was once my paradise but since going back last year it still is the same Koh Tao but the charm has left the island.

I found the same thing about Pattaya in 1983.