connda

I'm afraid that I'm going to have to report half the posts here to the Scotland Police as Hate Crimes. Boy will you farangs be sorry when you're extradited to Scotland. <caveat - parody>

The answer is "No." You can open a regular account with any Thai bank and then submit the Direct Deposit paperwork with SSA Manila. The Bangkok Bank "restricted account" that could only be withdrawn in person as the only option is a throwback to days I'd prefer to forget.

Mooooo!

Looks like they have a Decathlon Chiang Mai out on the ring road. I'll be in the vicinity next weekend and will check them out. Thanks!

I checked our Big C in Lamphun today - nada. Nothing.

Yeah - it was a "senior workout" on Youtube that suggested the 12kg kettlebell. Anyhow - that is another reason why I want to "handle" a set before buying. Although I've got a lot of past experience with free-weights, I also understand my present fitness limitations. So finding a store with kettlebells is also about picking them up and doing some routine movements with them before buying. I'm not interested is tearing a tendon.

Exactly. I planned to buy cast-iron.

And yet? These are from verified purchase. I don't want to send damaged goods back to either of these outfit as it is a pain in the butt. Been there, done that. So - still looking for a brick-and-mortor fitness shop in CM that sells these.

I used to lift free weight but those days are over basically due to lack of access to a gym. And I'm wayyyyy out of shape. I had a friend years ago who swore by kettlebells. I've been reading about them and they appeal to my 70+ year old body where I'm less interested in muscle mass gains and more interested in working more full-body muscles in compound movement - i.e., my sexy man days are over, I just need to get in shape again at a whole body level. Anyway - kettlebell purchases. I looked on both Lazada and Shopee but the reviews of the kettlebells I was interested in all indicated they arrived damaged. So I'd rather purchase from a store. I'm not familiar with which stores in Chiang Mai would carry them. Has anyone seem kettlebells stocked in fitness stores and which fitness stores did you see them in. I'm interested in a 12kg kettlebell to start with. If anyone has advice about training with kettlebell, I'm all ears. Thanks!

Buy a custom-built desktop for home use and a laptop for when your away from home. Then you're pretty much set.

Also - although I have bought laptops with AMD processors in the past, I'm now pretty much set on using Intel-based CPUs as I run programs like "Whisper" (audio to text translation) which at this time don't work on AMD. And I now tend to also buy computers with higher end video as well (GPU). I don't game but I do use programs that will use GPU cycles like if you're playing with any sort of AI at the OS level as opposed to online. It's a different world then even 5 years ago - but then again - that's Moore's Law for ya!

I tend to agree. I don't shell out 15K to 20K for a computer without using it first. Laptops, when I replace them (taking about Acers FYI, previous commenters had a point) to go to a shop and use the demos machines. That usually entails bringing along a "Live" copy of Linux and Windows on a USB drive and making sure I like what I see.

Then why not a dashboard giving daily/weekly updates on Dengue, TB, Malaria, influenza, STDs, AIDS, Japanese Encephalitis. Why just Covid/Sars-Cov-2? Think about it. I've had Dengue. If I get it again it could kill me. But I don't revolve my life around worrying about Dengue and a daily/weekly basis. So why compulsively worry about just one disease?

I believe it's now a UCMJ offense to pay a bar-fine. Well, you gotta get caught first. I find it funny considering DEI and the acceptance of 150+ genders by the Pentagon that they would seek to strip a guy (or gal or whatever) of their rank, half their pay, and confinement for bonking a bar-girl/bar-guy/bar-tranny - well, if you're enlist that is. But that's today's Navy I guess. I sure as hell wouldn't have enlisted like I did a whole lot of decades ago in a military environment like this. But - different times.

Today in sick-bay. A few hundred guys getting a swab shoved up their ding-dong to test of STDs.

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.