connda

"Ai Farang!" --Anutin

If I was looking for beaches I'd go to Vietnam.

People like you should relegate your tourism to Singapore and Dubai, and forget about Thailand.

Stop acting like every tourist is a Thai National Security risk from the second they get off the plane. Instead of security guards group beating tourists for disagreements over bills and payment, call the cops and let them do their jobs. Rein in the transvestites who also group beat-down tourists. If you want tourists to understand Thai custom, then create a TAT video on Thai customs and Thai government expectations regarding tourist behavior, and mandate that the video is played during all inbound flights to Thailand. During the mandatory video, explain to the tourist that zebra crossing/cross walk are not like those in their home country and there is no expectation that vehicles will stop, so keep your head on a swivel when crossing a road in a cross walk. Included in the video should be a warning that motorcycle driving tourist are required to have a valid home country DL with a motorcycle endorsement and an International Drivers Permit. Then, stop allowing motorcycle rental shops to rent out motorcycles to tourist who don't have the proper licenses instead of shaking them down at road blocks for money. Collect the fines from the motorcycle shops. (see *Clean up your corruption problem at home which directly affects tourism). Every tourist is not a criminal who needs to be watched 24/7. Rein in predatory taxi and tuk tuk drivers. *Clean up your corruption problem at home which directly affects tourism. If a tour boat operator takes divers into a zone where diving and interacting with sea life is forbidden, it's the fault of the tour boat operator. Charge them with crimes, not ignorant tourist (see *Clean up your corruption problem at home which directly affects tourism). Stop throwing tourist into prison for writing reviews on travel sites. If you can't put up with honest reviews, then turn those sites off at your national firewall. Poor customer service should be pointed out, but if you really really want to lose tourist numbers - remember that the media in those tourist's home country will rake you over the coals for throwing tourist in prison for pointing out poor customer service where it is deserved. Remember - every tourist who has a poor experience in Thailand will tell 10 of their friends in their home country on average. Stop shaken down foreigners for TM30 fines which are the responsibility of those establishments who rent to foreigners. Standardized immigration requirements and practices across the entire country. Immigration laws should correspond to those published in the Royal Gazette and be uniform across all offices by all immigration officers. Individual offices and officers should not be allowed to make up their own rules. I could go on, but that's a start. And remember, if you can't provide tourists with a joyful experience as opposed to a bad experience that is avoidable, then other countries can and will. Remember - if Thailand can't toe-the-line, then GOOD MORNING VIETNAM!!!

My prediction: They'll run Harris and AOC as primary candidates for 2028 Presidential Primaries, and with $200 million USD pumped into the various PACs and SuperPAC - AOC will be the DNC 2028 Presidential candidate - thus exemplifying the Peter Principle to the max. The war chest for AOC presidential run will be in excess of $3 Billion USD. I've come to the conclusion that the average American want's the loonyist of the loons running the country.

I've got a great Black Mirror episode idea. Mr. and Mrs. Smith have a new robot. Mr. and Mrs. Smith disappear but are found buried in the back yard. Comedy and hilarity ensures in conversations between police and "dumb" robot servant.

Yep. Break out the laser weapons. Img_1708.mp4

Man, you're looking in the wrong places.

The vast majority of women in the US range from overweight to obese. It's sad. But - not my taste in women anyway. If you like first-world (heavy-weight) women, you can have them. I've no interest.

Currently reading the Russian translation of a pretty strange and interesting Sci-Fi novel called Roadside Picnic by Boris & Arkady Strugatsky. It's pretty good in the quirky way that I personally like my Sci-Fi. It's 157 pages and can be picked up for free on archive.org. I'm enjoying it! From Goodreads: "Red Schuhart is a stalker, one of those young rebels who are compelled, in spite of extreme danger, to venture illegally into the Zone to collect the mysterious artifacts that the alien visitors left scattered around. His life is dominated by the place and the thriving black market in the alien products. But when he and his friend Kirill go into the Zone together to pick up a “full empty,” something goes wrong. And the news he gets from his girlfriend upon his return makes it inevitable that he’ll keep going back to the Zone, again and again, until he finds the answer to all his problems. First published in 1972, Roadside Picnic is still widely regarded as one of the greatest science fiction novels, despite the fact that it has been out of print in the United States for almost thirty years." https://ia600203.us.archive.org/21/items/TheThree-BodyProblem2024/Arkady Strugatsky - Roadside Picnic.pdf

And then there are those who will deny that Russians, Slavs, Roma, and a host of other Utermenchen were also subjected to genocide in concentration camps and the Nazi Holocaust.

Eighty Years On: Honoring VE Day and Confronting the Rising Tide of Holocaust Denial Should read: Eighty Years on: Honoring May 9th Victory Day and confronting the rising tide of hatred of Russia and denial of Russia's role in the defeat of Germany and the Third Reich.

I treat all of my animals well and with love. I can't do anything about how Thais treat their animals. Draw yourself two circles and label them "What I can control," and "What I can't control." Put you effort into what you can control.

If they can ban vaping they can ban cigarettes too.

One thing ya'll have now that we didn't have when I used CM Immigration: Grab Taxi. However, I'm glad I'm out of that rat race and now report to a regional office where my wife, quite literally, knows about 50% of the IOs. I just shut up, smile, and let her talk. I don't miss CM Immigration in the least. My last extension renewal I used an agent. I ❤️ rural life. Green Acres is the place to be. Farm livin' is the life for me. Land spreadin' out so far and wide Keep Manhattan Chiang Mai, just give me that countryside.

Something like 1 person managed to escape without being killed. Hopkirk covers that in his book if I remember right.

If you want some historical non-fiction which actually reads like an adventure fiction book try this one: The Great Game by Peter Hopkirk Summary from Goodreads: "For nearly a century the two most powerful nations on earth - Victorian Britain and Tsarist Russia - fought a secret war in the lonely passes and deserts of Central Asia. Those engaged in this shadowy struggle called it 'The Great Game', a phrase immortalized in Kipling's Kim. When play first began the two rival empires lay nearly 2,000 miles apart. By the end, some Russian outposts were within 20 miles of India. This book tells the story of the Great Game through the exploits of the young officers, both British and Russian, who risked their lives playing it. Disguised as holy men or native horsetraders, they mapped secret passes, gathered intelligence, and sought the allegiance of powerful khans. Some never returned." You'll come away with a better understanding of today's current Geopolitical turmoil, but also, it was just a marvel what the early explorers of Eurasia endured during their journeys into unexplored (by Westerners) regions of some of the most rugged country on the planet. Like I said, it reads like a fictional adventure yarn, but it's historical accurate. It remains one of the top 5 books I've read in the last 15 years.

I was looking for this sub-forum for books and couldn't find it. Suprised to find it buried here. <shrug> Well two books I can recommend. Summaries from Goodreads. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir - Science fiction which is science based and with humor. Movie in the works. "Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company. His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species. And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone. Or does he? Recursion by Blake Crouch "That's what NYC cop Barry Sutton is learning, as he investigates the devastating phenomenon the media has dubbed False Memory Syndrome—a mysterious affliction that drives its victims mad with memories of a life they never lived. That's what neuroscientist Helena Smith believes. It's why she's dedicated her life to creating a technology that will let us preserve our most precious memories. If she succeeds, anyone will be able to re-experience a first kiss, the birth of a child, the final moment with a dying parent. As Barry searches for the truth, he comes face to face with an opponent more terrifying than any disease—a force that attacks not just our minds, but the very fabric of the past. And as its effects begin to unmake the world as we know it, only he and Helena, working together, will stand a chance at defeating it. But how can they make a stand when reality itself is shifting and crumbling all around them? At once a relentless pageturner and an intricate science-fiction puzzlebox about time, identity, and memory, Recursion is a thriller as only Blake Crouch could imagine it—and his most ambitious, mind-boggling, irresistible work to date." In a day and age where TV and movies are just reboots and pablum, it was great finding these jewels. I'm definitely reading more fiction and watching less of the cr*p on the "boob-tube."

"The corrupt mofo I voted for is a saint!" 😠 "No, he's the devil. The corrupt mofo I voted for is a saint." "No, he/she/it is the devil." They are all corrupt. <laughs>

So you wear your personal sh*t like an anchor. I've never understood people who are like that. Not that I haven't known some - my ex-wife comes to mind. "I NEED MORE STUFF!' Which is part of the reason we split. We had really different desires when it came to holding on to stuff and wanting stuff. Material things have never been an anchor for me. I can and do let them go. Easily.

I brought a backpack and a carry-on. Getting rid of most of what you own is really almost spiritual in nature. It lightens your load. I've done it twice in my life. I could easily do it again if I had to.

All countries engaging in gain-of-function, or in other words, taking otherwise innocuous viruses and attempting to make them lethal, are all collectively responsible. Every last one of them. Because eventually it will get out whether by accident or design. There should be a global ban on gain-of-function.

That's because they are all trying to look unique! If I have facial hair it's because I'm retired and too lazy to shave. But then again I really don't like the feel. so it comes off after a few days.