connda

From a teaching perspective, most US NES speak English without an accent. Yeah, there are regional US accents, but in my experience most of the Americans showing up here are US city-dwellers and are pretty much accent free. If I'm around family I can drop into a regional dialect. Outside of the family I speak clear, accent-free US English. Now compare that to someone from the UK. Snobby-Cambridge-educated-upper-crust accent, Newcastle accent, Liverpool accent, rural nowhereville accents, Welsh accent, Scottish accent, and on and on and on. English is difficult enough to understand without trying to decipher someone's accent as well. Phraseology? Who cares? If a student studying English can get their meaning across to the average English speaker, then they are speaking English.

If you really want to be fearful of something, then look at the Thai roads. Your chances of getting killed on Thai roads are exponentially higher than dying of a Sars-Cov-2 infection if you are a average person in relatively good health. I really can't understand what drives others to continue to hype Sars-Cov-2 as The Plague four years after the fact and at a time when virtually the entire world (with exceptions like pockets of people suffering from Covid Mysophobia) has gotten on with life and now accept Sars-Cov-2 for what it is - a mild, seasonal, flu-like viral infection that some people will get and most people won't. And yet, sadly for some, Sars-Cov-2 is the "monster-under-the-bed" that is going to get you if you ever let your guard down. What a terrible burden to carry though life.

Caveat Emptor - Buyer Beware. Of course, Thailand isn't in the "first-world" category for a reason, like not having a functioning Federal Trade Commission with a Consumer Protection division that actually has teeth. So - it's Caveat Emptor, or every man and woman for themselves. Bad guys prey, suckers pay.

100,000 THB fine is a slap on the wrist. Jail the top hospital administrator and those responsible for rejecting the patient. That behavior will end. A 100K fine - that won't stop them from doing it again.

Carry your valuables with you. Leaving them in a hotel room is not a good idea. The only other way around that is to place a handle lock on the exterior door.

The corporate sharks, not satisfied with the hundreds of billions of USD in revenue now smell blood in the water and go on the attack to rip and shred one of their own. Greed and Corporations are synonymous.

I've started wearing my T-shirt with "BIDEN 2024" on the front, "TRUMP 2024" on the back, and my hat which says "TAYLOR SWIFT POTUS 2024" I'm thinking of getting a henna ANITFA tat on my left arm and a PROUD-BOYS tat on my right just to mix it up. Hell - might as well confuse the ideologically confused haters. Everyone but Taylor Swift sucks anyway. And half the people here probably thinks she sucks too. I can appreciate her as a musician - AND as President!!! Lord I ❤️ these stupid election seasons.

So you'd like to kidnap the children for their own protection? My guess is that is often said by the parent seeking to rip custodial rights from other parent. Good luck. Stay out of jail.

If you're planning to taking your kids from their mother, well, really reflect on that action. If the mother has actually abandoned them, then seek legal advice.

Let me know when the homes on Mission Beach can't get insurance because the polar ice caps are melting and nobody can sell because they can't get title insurance.

Which has to do "what" with rising sea levels and beach front properties? FYI - I lived in CA for 8 years and fires up and down the state were a problem as far back as I can remember. For me that was close to 40 years ago - back when Fairfield was becoming a bedroom community for the Bay Area. About 20 years later that was Sacramento. Now its Lake Tahoe. Let's not even talk about So. Cal 💗 and San Diego. There are millions of new homes, a total lack of new PGE infrastructure (the old stuff keeps creating fires it seems), and then an eco-warrior mindset that seems to think that if enough "wild-fires" are set (another name for arson in the name of global warming) then the state will revert to neo-feudalism and force all the pleb into 15 minute cities where they can eat bugs and "be happy." Insurance companies are happy to oblige. I can remember back when there was a major "hill-fire" in Oakland. All the houses on the hill-side were toasted -except one which was built by an engineer who engineered it - not to burn. It can be done - but there's not will to do it. For anyone mad enough to live in CA these day. Sucks to be you. I loved my time there but I'd never go back.

Source? It's hearsay without a source that explains the big picture. Then wake me up when the Biden's, Obama's (including all the properties on Martha's Vineyard), and the Gore's properties are condemned as uninsurable - or - when the sell them and find they can't obtain title insurance. Ain't gonna happen.

Talk about government officials who simply can't be happy: Feast - unhappy Famine - unhappy

And yet high-ranking politicians and the millionaire/billionaire classes enjoy their beach front properties world-wide without a care. Hint: It sea levels were rising, then none of those beach front properties on the oceans could be insured. And those same people fly private jets which spew enough CO2 for hundreds of people. If this was real then all private jets should be immediately grounded to "save the planet" and all of the billionaire/millionaire classes force to take commercial flights and yet? None of that happens. Why? It's all 🐂💩 Climate is cyclical and that cyclical nature is due to that big yellow thing up in the sky. Not cow farts.

Exactly!

Dental World Chiang Mai. My wife experienced that same thing with a dentist in Lamphun. "Sorry, no see root canal dentist for three weeks." Called Dental World and was in the next day. If you're in pain - fly to Chiang Mai. Dental World is a large organization with a lot of dentists and specialists and I'm sure they can fit you in ASAP.

"Do whatever you like. Live with whomever wish. You're my brother so your sexual orientation changes nothing between us and I'll always love you as my brother." Well - unless it does change things between you - but that would be on you. I've had gay friends and family members all my life. Their sexual orientation isn't about you or me. You accept them or you don't. If you don't - well - your loss imho. Don't walk around him like your stepping on eggshells.

Is your Caps-Lock stuck?

Palliative care is in the stone-age here in Thailand. Thai medical "authorities" view on the subject of pain medication is that if you haven't developed Buddha-like abilities to sit in pain-free samadhi, then it's your bad karma to suffer in pain and agony. So they have to keep pain meds away for the public - you know - like people dying of stage 4 cancer or those suffering with kidney stones. Someone might "abuse" the medicines so everyone needs to be kept from using them.

Well - if this isn't a latent "April Fools" joke, then it is a positive for Thailand's abyssal lack of effective palliative care for cancer patients and others suffering end-of-life maladies. But then again, a signature on a piece of paper doesn't equate to the implementation of compassionate palliative care.

Make sure to personally get all of your shots and every available booster whenever they are available. Never miss one. Otherwise, Killer Covid will get you. Safe and Effective.

There's a sucker in every crowd. And a farang sucker funding every "traditional" Thai wedding. A million THB. <laughs> Run.

Free - I point the kids to the Amphur office where they free to get married.

This sucks.