Intellectual Stimulation

[Miaow]

Everyone's different you guys. I am not being snooty, I just get bored and even a little depressed if my brain is not thinking about other stuff! God it's so hard to find the right words on this topic. My life is here but I miss libraries and great chats............. don't all jump on my head please!!!!!!!

Do You like playing chess?

[seonai]

Thanks to ALL the posters who understood my question from the start. To the others - who did NOT - I just want to tell you that you misinterpreted what I asked. I am not and never have been BORED. I speak FLUENT THAI and speak Thai more than any English here. I can cook Thai food for my husband so no need to go to cooking classes!!!!!! I teach my own son from home so we are constantly on the Net looking up stimulating things.

Like someone else said, it's a very personal thing "intellectual stimulation"... I was merely asking you WHERE you find yours. I did not complain or say anything negative!!!!!!

There, finished for now.

Seonai

[Miaow]

Everyone's different you guys. I am not being snooty, I just get bored and even a little depressed if my brain is not thinking about other stuff! God it's so hard to find the right words on this topic. My life is here but I miss libraries and great chats............. don't all jump on my head please!!!!!!!

Do You like playing chess?

This is what i do when i get bored or need stimulation... I play chess online and have great chats with my opponents

[astral]

Books

Internet

Conversation with friends

My work

Not necessarily in that order.

[thaibebop]

I realise this may be a difficult one but...... well it's something I sort of thrive on - food for the brain. Where do you all get yours? I am geographically challenged so decent conversations face to face are few. And when they do come, it's a tourist who is leaving tomorrow!!!! Right now I read the Telegraph, The Independent and The Guardian online.

I particularly enjoy the biographies, interviews, opinion pieces, book sections etc.

Anyone know of any other good sources on the web for reading?

Seonai

I get mine anywhere and everywhere. Getting stuff for my mind to occupy itself with is the only way I stay sane.

[seonai]

Hi Miaow,

Where is the place you play? I like chess but I am very average. Cam I meet a similar opponent?

Seonai

[monochaser]

you can play chess right on yahoo

[monochaser]

there is also a great site for chess and stratego called Gravon

[Jim 50]

Thanks to ALL the posters who understood my question from the start. To the others - who did NOT - I just want to tell you that you misinterpreted what I asked. I am not and never have been BORED. I speak FLUENT THAI and speak Thai more than any English here. I can cook Thai food for my husband so no need to go to cooking classes!!!!!! I teach my own son from home so we are constantly on the Net looking up stimulating things.

Like someone else said, it's a very personal thing "intellectual stimulation"... I was merely asking you WHERE you find yours. I did not complain or say anything negative!!!!!!

There, finished for now.

Seonai

Your OP implies you are seeking this information for your own use as you are "geographically challenged". Maybe you do not as fluent in English as you think.

Reading your above post it is clear you have other problems as well.

[seonai]

How dare you Jim50. What a load of rubbish. How dare you attack me? Sounds like you have nothing else to do.

[Stephen Cleary]

I dont quite get it.

Seonai has told us that she speaks fluent Thai but finds only intellectually stimulating conversation with passing travellers!

This is what i don't get.

Personally, i dont find conversation with passing travellers to be any more intellectually stimulating than that of my Thai friends. Sorry, but there are plenty of so-called Thai intellectuals out there. If you are as fluent in Thai as you say you are, then i dont understand why you cant find any Thai friends for a 'good chat'!

[Tywais]

Your OP implies you are seeking this information for your own use as you are "geographically challenged". Maybe you do not as fluent in English as you think.

[seonai]

Hi Steve Suphan, where I live the local people worry about rubber cutting and fish. No I.S. conversations there!!!!! Sorry to have started this topic - so many of you don't get what I mean. But there again, lots of you did

[camerata]

I realise this may be a difficult one but...... well it's something I sort of thrive on - food for the brain. Where do you all get yours? I am geographically challenged so decent conversations face to face are few.

Although there's a lot of good stuff on the Internet I, personally, prefer books. If you don't have access to good bookshops, you can always use Amazon or second-hand online bookshops like www.alibris.com and www.abebooks.com. You'll have to spend some money, but it's a lot more relaxing reading a book than reading online. And a book is usually written better, if you want an in-depth look at something but written for the general public.

I started my own website on a subject that interested me. That brought me into contact with other like-minded people and developed into other related interests. You could also try blogging. If you pick a good blog server and a popular subject, it could develop into something more interactive through comments from the readers.

Perhaps you could try that word game, Sudoku, since there are free puzzles online. Whatever your interests are, the best idea is to find like-minded people and get together with them, even if its only through Yahoo forums online. For example, I like opera and Mozart, but there's no one to discuss it with on TV, so I go to more specific forums on the net for that.

[Ijustwannateach]

Books, internet, teaching itself (you find out how much you really know about a topic when you're teaching it)...

but for the greatest social intellectual stimulation, I try to keep a group of friends who are an average age 20 years greater than my own. I'm not sure how I'm going to keep that up once I'm in my seventies and older, though...

"Steven"

[Sing_Sling]

Thanks to ALL the posters who understood my question from the start. To the others - who did NOT - I just want to tell you that you misinterpreted what I asked. I am not and never have been BORED. I speak FLUENT THAI and speak Thai more than any English here. I can cook Thai food for my husband so no need to go to cooking classes!!!!!! I teach my own son from home so we are constantly on the Net looking up stimulating things.

Like someone else said, it's a very personal thing "intellectual stimulation"... I was merely asking you WHERE you find yours. I did not complain or say anything negative!!!!!!

There, finished for now.

Seonai

Your OP implies you are seeking this information for your own use as you are "geographically challenged". Maybe you do not as fluent in English as you think.

Reading your above post it is clear you have other problems as well.

Umm, may I suggest that Seonai's language skills easily outstrip most other's on this board, showing clearly that she is very well educated. It's not surprisingt hat she seeks intellectual stimulation from outside her geographic boundaries. . . . Not pot pointing fingers, JIM

[gwmss15]

for me this an important topic

newspaper "IHT/THAI day on subcription

Magzines business and science ones purchased from book shops

Magazines and newspapers sent from overseas every month most of this railway and transport related

Radio metropolis 107 fm

DVDs and VCDs from rental shops around thailand more for entertainment than anything.

Internet forums railpage, busaustralia, ktmrailfan, peakoil, thai visa etc

[seonai]

Thanks Camerata, Steven and Sling Sling - some great tips there.

Seonai

[sbk]

I know where Seonai is coming from. Koh Phangan has been like that for most of the time I have lived here. Travellers come and go, you click with someone and the next few days they are gone. I used to think the locals must be having really interesting conversations but as my Thai improved I realized the men are mostly talking about fishing, boats and other vehicles, the women their kids, their houses, their husbands and their families. Or the latest soap on tv. I think that most people on a really slow place like an island find themselves slowing their pace so much that the intellectual part can get lost too.

I can't recommend enough a website called daedalus books. They sell remainders, have an incredible selection of the most unusual and interesting books for very good prices. Their shipping is a good deal, get the surface rate -- we are on islands, we are used to waiting

Also, last year I did my genealogy with my dad's help. There is alot of information on the web and it took me the better part of a year to track alot of it down. It made for very interesting reading (one of my ancestors was hanged as a witch in Colonial America!) and kept me quite busy!. We now have a small website, and a book that we printed out.

Also, if you have a library card from home you can access their website, the library in the city my mom and dad live in has an extensive selection of e-books to check out.

And never mind the critical people who don't have a clue what your life is like, its easy for some to judge someone that they have never met and know nothing about.

[camerata]

DVDs and VCDs from rental shops around thailand more for entertainment than anything.

Also, there are some excellent Chinese historical series available on VCD and dubbed in Thai. If you speak Thai, you can watch with the family and learn about Chinese history while enjoying the intrigue. The most famous one is Romance of the Three Kingdoms, 56 disks and available online from eThaiCD.com if you can't find it locally. There are several others that are well above the level of soap operas and filmed on location in China.

[seonai]

Ooooohhh thanks Camera...... I love Chinese history. Great idea.

[camerata]

Ooooohhh thanks Camera...... I love Chinese history. Great idea.

Just make sure you get the ones based on historical events because they have much better production values and sets. Off the top of my head, some other good ones are Boo Chektien (Empress Wu), Jin See Hong Tay (Emperor Chin - the building of the Great Wall), Seuk Sai Leuat (about a succession struggle early in the Ching Dynasty), Seuk Lam Nam Leuat (about the Grand Canal and end of the Sui Dynasty - stars Tony Leung), and Su-si Thai Hao (The Young Dowager Empress).

[skylar]

Is Romance of the Three Kingdoms the same story as mentioned in the novel Letters from Thailand by Botan?

[khall64au]

Books, internet, teaching itself (you find out how much you really know about a topic when you're teaching it)...

but for the greatest social intellectual stimulation, I try to keep a group of friends who are an average age 20 years greater than my own. I'm not sure how I'm going to keep that up once I'm in my seventies and older, though...

"Steven"

I have to agree with Steven there. One of the best chats I have had in a long time was with an 80 year old chap who has lived a long and interesting life and is very well-travelled. I too live on a small island and, although a lot more cosmopolitan than Seonai's island, it still has its limitations. Most conversations I have here are business-oriented as everyone is far more interested in making money to consider how the world goes around.

My outlet is generally the net, books and magazines also.

[camerata]

Is Romance of the Three Kingdoms the same story as mentioned in the novel Letters from Thailand by Botan?

I haven't read Letters, but I'm sure it would be. Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a classic of Chinese Literature which is well known all over Asia. Many Thais would know some of the famous quotes from the book, such as when the principal bad guy says, "Better I betray the world than let the world betray me!"

[Jim 50]

Your OP implies you are seeking this information for your own use as you are "geographically challenged". Maybe you do not as fluent in English as you think.

[Miaow]

Hi Miaow,

Where is the place you play? I like chess but I am very average. Cam I meet a similar opponent?

Seonai

Here is the link for free player registration: http://stansco.com/netchess/index.html.

You can create your own challenges stating your Level, just go in Challenge central or you can directly challenge me by going to my player page, my member name is Ice Pack .. I am intermediate ( Level 3) and i would love to play and chat with you..

Edited March 21, 2006 by Miaow

[seonai]

Miaow I registered etc and called myself Islandwriter but I can't figure out how to start a match?????????? Or find your player page?????????

Seonai

[Miaow]

Miaow I registered etc and called myself Islandwriter but I can't figure out how to start a match?????????? Or find your player page?????????

Seonai

Hi Seonai..

Check your inbox...

[cobra]

We all have to come up to the surface for an intellection fix now and again,

Play chess ? if not start, get a game in a day,

Set some links up for most of the national and international papers,

(and yes, the New York Times among others can be hilarious),

remember, 90% of the story is in the headline anyway, the other 10% is just pulp and details,

I've butted in, excuse me, politely interjected in many overheard conversations in coffee shops, etc, and ended up meeting and making some new unexpected friends, being on the slightly over-caffeinated side my day always begins or intersects with a cafe or two,

Start writing your memoirs, blogs, or just a running commentary on the condition of man,

and of course there's intelligence-o-plenty down at the bar ...