connda

I initially was looking for a NUC, but found I could do better just building a standard desktop from a price standpoint as well as easily upgrading it. Form factor wasn't that big of a deal to me. But with that said, NUC are kinda cool new tech.

No he can't. My name is on the Charnote at the land office which is why I have the usufruct. It would be like a Thai attempting to kick a foreigner off land that they leased to the foreigner. If they could do that then leases in Thailand become a joke and business would avoid Thailand. Consider the usufruct to be the equivalent to a lifetime lease. "But maybe your son goes crazy and shoots you." There are some things in this world I'm not worried about and that one of them.

Both those location have been a horror story for driving in a car. Nothing new there. Other places were turned into ghost towns (some still are). Overall driving city-wide isn't much difference between now and when you left. I wouldn't use Nimmanhaemin and Chang Phueak as your gauges for what all of Chiang Mai driving is like. Also, Chiang Mai is expanding outwards. There are a lot of new bedroom communities springing out where they were still growing rice a few years back. So I'd expect traffic to get heavier on those artial highways branching out from the center of CM while central Chiang Mai deteriorates.

Just bought one myself. Inside of Computer Plaza. North side of canal. 18.795908, 98.980924 It's the shop on the right as you go in the front door just before JIB if I remember right. I had first gone to JIB (or whatever the fancy looking shop was), but then decided to sit down with the sales staff in the rather cramped looking computer store right before it. Told them what my basic parameters were (I run VirtualBox VMs on Linux) and we picked out the motherboard, Intel i5 CPU, 8 GB RAM, Nvidia graphic, SSD drives, desktop housing, and peripherals including a new monitor. They took it back to the back of the shop and had it built in about 20 minutes. Total cost was less expensive that any of the pre-builts in the fancy showroom store. Took it home and I'm a happy camper. The gal at the register speaks good English and the staff are efficient. Highly recommend them.

I'm wondering if the average Thai will take off their mask anytime this decade.

Kad Suan Kaow Shopping Mall Chiang Mai.

They do that. Be nice. Invite them in to have a cup of coffee. Smile. Be respectful while asserting your own status (you're better off than most middle-class Thais). Wish them well on their way out the door.

Cool-Hand Luke <laughs>

Forget that. I like meat in all forms. Eggs too. I even like some bugs (the WEF breaks out with applause). After 70+ years of life and a lot of reading including medical journals - scary stories aren't changing my lifestyle. By the way - water fasting improves glucose and lipid profiles. But most people don't have the self-control. My POV? Everything in moderation. The Middle Path. It fits well here in Buddhist Thailand.

Ah-huh...

Well, fool me twice and BOHICA.

Nobody trusts that the government isn't going to do the "Pandemic Lockdowns" as soon as they can. Unlimited power. Aphrodisiac extraordinaire. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice???

What's a "pen gun." Is that what we'd call a "zip gun" in the 60s?

Saves lives. <laughs> CDC director fully vaccinated but has had Covid twice. "But the vaxx saved her life." Ok The CEO of Pfizer fully vaccinated but has had Covid twice. "But the vaxx saved his life." Ok At our ages, my wife and I should be dead. No mRNA shots. Follow a prophylaxis protocol that will go unmentioned. All our family member are fully vaccinated for Covid as well as most of the villagers around us. All our family members have had Covid. Some twice. Most of the villagers have had Covid. Some twice. My wife and I have been around most of our family members while they had active Covid and I have never worn a mask in the village. My wife does because of "face." How many times have we gotten Covid? Never. In fact, I haven't even had a regular cold or any upper respiratory infection since starting the prophylaxis. Whatever. Moderna made $12 Billion USD in 2021. Pfizer made $24 Billion USD in 2021. Politicians and regulators are well funded. All is well. People are getting rich. I honestly recommend that everyone get the Covid mRNA shots (I actually mean that too). Get those shots every opportunity you have to get them. Every 6 months? Good. Every 4 months? Better. Every 3 months? The best!. When the experts say get the shots, get the shots.

Really. How about you come to my house and we have my dogs have a go at you. This is the problem in Thailand. "I'll cover your funeral costs." The dog needs to be shot and the owner jailed and fined in civil court. If that happened to my wife or kid? I'd cover the owner's and the dog's funeral expenses.

Here in Thailand you can run over a motorcycle cop and call a couple thousand quid "acceptable compensation." Then if that isn't good enough, just jet-set out of the country and wait out the statutes of limitation as you Jet-Set the F1 Tours world-wide as nobody can "see you" even though you have a Interpol Red Notice filed that doesn't show up in the Interpol system. Bottom-line (no pun intended). The rich and cosmopolitan get to live by rules not made for the "commoners." Somebody bumped my butt. I need 3,829,588.75 THB at today's exchange rate for my mental anguish. What did that cop's family get? 100,000 THB (2,350 GBP). Death? Or a slap on the butt? Somebody slap me on the butt, please!

What an "F"ed up world.

I don't worry about it. <period> Do I have "high cholesterol?" Yep. I also have had MRIs and CAT scans done in the last couple of years What do my arteries look like? Pretty da*m good considering my age (over 70). My sister is the same. She has some really scary high cholesterol readings. And she has no Arteriosclerosis issues. Neither one of us seem to have the profile that killed our parents - like a lifetime of smoking and drinking. We don't smoke. We drink in moderation. Why worry? But if you need to? Take statins. Then you can worry about your liver. Best to take life as it comes, do your own research (no I don't 'trust experts), and live the life your allotted. Best of luck!

I've been contributing to a post that was asking questions about property and probate after a Thai wife dies. My current wife is number 4. If she died. I'd remarry. Why? I prefer being married. Simple as that. Here's where the brainstorming comes in. I personally have a Usufruct contract and my wife's Thai will giving me 100% of her possessions except for the land which would go to my step-son (who I've taken care of since he was 13). If I remarried I'd want to live on our property (my son's land, my usufruct for my houses and other chattel). So, how would that work with immigration. 1. Married to a new Thai wife. 2. Living on my son's property although with my Usufruct lien giving me the use of the property for my lifetime; 3, Living in a home Willed to me by my wife. The new wife may have her own property or be registered in a Blue Book at a different property. I know Thais who own multiple properties - yet - which is considered the primary domicile? So here's the question: Regardless of where the new wife's Blue Book is registered, if she is married to me and living with me (yet perhaps owns her own property or is registered in her family's Blue Book - how is Thai immigration going to process that? Now, I originally came here on a Business Visa although I married my wife the year I started working (I'd been with her for close to a year on tourist visas as I was traveling back and forth between the US and here). After 3 years I quit working at the end of an annual contract. I obtained my first Marriage Extension Based On a Non-B Visa in Korat although my wife had reasons to live in a Chiang Mai apartment but had a House Book in Lamphun for the land and house she owned. It's been awhile but the only residency documents we had at the time were a monthly lease on an apartment in Korat. I had no problems getting the Marriage Extension in Korat although my wife had an apartment in Chiang Mai, a house in Lamphun, and I had an apartment in Korat. I'd petitioned the business that I worked for to transfer me to their Chiang Mai office the year I started working for that company. After 3 years it became obvious that management in Bangkok and Chiang Mai were not going to approve the transfer (I had stellar evaluations but it seems that age discrimination is a real issue here and management in CM wanted "young employees." So be it. I got to see my wife one week out of every six. After three years I'd pretty much had it. Family does matter and I was done living like that as I had expected a transfer and it was obvious that wasn't going to happen. My Non-B ended in March, my Employment Contract ended in April, and them we moved to Chiang Mai and lived there for a number of years in an apartment. Again, my wife's House Book was based on her Lamphun home (which now was my home too as we had two domiciles - an apartment in Chiang Mai and her home and property in Lamphun). I didn't formally obtain my Yellow Book until we pulled up stakes three years after leaving Korat - and yet I was obtaining a Marriage Extension yearly with the wife's House Book in Lamphun although we lived in an apartment in Chiang Mai most of the year - i.e., we had two domiciles. So after that long story the question becomes: If you live in one place, remarry, your new wife has a House Book in a different location yet she lives in your house? Which means she has two domiciles. How is Immigration going to handle that? It was never a problem when my wife and I lived in an apartment in Chiang Mai yet her own House Book was in Lamphun (and for a short time we had an apartments in Korat, Chiang Mai, plus her Lamphun home). If I remarried, perhaps my new wife would have a House Book in some other province, and yet lives most of her time with me at my home in Lamphun. How would that work to get an Marriage Extension (granted, I'd have to have all the forms from probate, death cert, new marriage cert, etc) How would that work? What hoops would need to be jumped. @ubonjoe Again - this is a thought exercise just like the thought exercise posts regarding Wills and Usufruct Contract and "Mortality" in general. I expect my wife to outlive me as she is 8 years younger than me - but? Maybe she doesn't. Trying to think this out before hand.

My wife must not be a 'real' Thai. We discuss death and post-death often enough as we age. Actually, "most Thais" I know (out here in the rice-fields of Northern Thailand) are pretty matter-of-fact about death and dying. Cosmopolitanism Thais may have a different view. It's just the way it is. We have also contributed to buy coffins for poor and indigent people. Death is a fact of life in a village. During the year there is a steady stream of dead bodies taken to the local temple to lay is state for 3, 5, 7 or whatever lucky number the family and monks chooses, after which they are hauled down the road through the middle of the village to the crematorium. Fireworks, chanting, gifts for monks, last viewing, and in to the cosmic cooker, more fireworks to send the departed off - then generally a party that night. So I've never found "most Thais" queasy about talking about death at all. "Most Thais" I've met (at least Buddhist villagers) have a pretty healthy view of death, i.e., death is just part of life (birth, ageing, sickness, death - it's the way of it). The people I find who are morbid and reluctant to discuss death are most Westerners that I know. Most Westerners I know consider death to be this one-off event that needs to avoided at all costs. Compared to the rather festive affairs that the normal 3 day funeral ceremonies are in Thai villages, comparable funeral ceremonies in the US are just horribly morbid affairs. So it's good to see farangs come to grips with their mortality and finally get to the point where they are willing to discuss Last Wills, Living Wills, Usufructs, what to do with your dead body, and eventual probate for those who are left. Those who can't discuss this with their Thai families and leave it up to a Thai probate court are going to be in for a shock.

Close the borders! Why don't we see these warnings every time and new 'Cold' or 'Flu' variant surfaces. Shouldn't we know so we can fearfully prepare?????

Keep getting those mRNA shots: Safe And Effective! https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36436002/

I put up a white board in our living room for writing notes and meeting dates. I also includes a column for things we ordered COD online, total price, and who we ordered from.

And the hatching mark out parts of lane where it is essentially illegal to drive. They use them, especially in Bangkok, to mark the area where roads merge and the police in Bangkok DO ticket drivers who drive into the hatching marked lanes while trying to merge onto the highways. It's a money maker.

You need a usufract contract. That will give you the legal 'use' of the land for your lifetime. Your name will be placed on the Land Deed and filed at that land office. You have a lien on the land regardless of who owns it. As a family you all need to have this legally settled before it happens. In my case. 1) I have a usufract contract plus the annotated land deeds 2) In my wife's will the land goes to her son. All non-land assets on the property goes to me, i.e., I own the house (not the land), the guesthouse, the out-building, and everything in them and on them. My wife, and step-son, and I have all discussed this. There are no surprises. All the necessary paperwork (usufract, will) are in my safe deposit box, and my son has been given copies. I'll have my lawyer take this to probate with myself and step-son present. Once I die, everything goes to my step-son. You need to sit down with your family, figure out who gets what, and then have a lawyer draw up the paperwork. You may need to lawyer to get the Land Office to modify the Land Deeds. Been there, done that.