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Whatya doing in there?

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PearlWatson said:
Whatya doing in there?

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Just sitting here, with the porch light on, waiting for someone to stop in.

Well, maybe a few other things. . . .

baling hay, feeding cows, fighting off job offers, and writing a novel "The Man", right here in JazzFanz{see novel thread}, watching Dr. Who episodes with my sci-fi addict daughters and critiquing the whole Brit social mindset about believing in Lords and elitists in general while invoking magical concepts like time travel combined with robots with powers superior to mere humans. . . . the whole transhumanism fantasy that traces back to Lord Byron if not the antediluvial genetic mutant movement God had to put a damper on just to keep humans human. You know. . . . . preaching against the whole crowd of very special folks hanging out in the Bohemian Grove and a thousand brothels staffed with slave girls and boys, prattling on about the glories of the UN new world religion, "We ARE Special". Which is what The Man will be more or less addressing. . . .

so you had your fill of the National Park system, just in the nick of time before Obama shut them all down?
 
babe said:
I haven't had much updates on your travel and adventures . . . . maybe I've missed some things left in other threads. . . .

Still in the suburbs of Bangkok??? Been out to any little home group meetings in any bamboo houses???
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Wow.. sorry just saw this post... I've been back for a month now...

Bangkok was... Bangkok... ~__~ ... seriously... if anyone says that it doesn't bring out the worst in people, and/or change you as a person, they are lying. I guess it's like any big cities.. full of people fighting to get theirs. Waking up early, getting on the trains, work work work, finishing work late, fighting to get on the trains.... everyone looking out for Number 1.

What I really didn't like was the "social obligations" or the "social pressures" or what Thais call the "Social tax", I was forced to adhere to while I was there. If you have friends (and most people have to have friends) - then you're forced to dress nice. You're forced to have a nice House/Condo. You're forced to have a nice car. You're forced to go shopping at least once a week to buy "nice things" to show off to all your friends and your mates. You're forced to go out and eat at nice restaurants. Finding new restaurants to go to weekly is what they do. Meeting with friends becomes an "obligation" to go out and "spend money".

You can "try" to fend off these "pressures" - but at the end of the day it's just too much to bear and you just have to try to "fit in". Either that or live alone by yourself and don't have any friends. Tough choice.

At the end of the day it was hard to leave Bkk. Family is there. Friends are there. You don't have to cook - food is so so cheap. You can eat eat eat all day and you just don't gain weight - the heat means you're in a constant sauna. Everything is so so convenient. Department stores closes at 11pm. Food stores closes at 3am. Restaurants basically EVERYWHERE. It takes you 5 min. to walk from one 7 Eleven to the next. Foot Massage is like $10 an hour - can't beat that.

====================

Would I go back there to live permanently? May be. But not in Bangkok. May be Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Hua Hin... somewhere you can appreciate and enjoy the nature a bit more...
 
Hotttnickkk said:
Wow.. sorry just saw this post... I've been back for a month now...

Bangkok was... Bangkok... ~__~ ... seriously... if anyone says that it doesn't bring out the worst in people, and/or change you as a person, they are lying. I guess it's like any big cities.. full of people fighting to get theirs. Waking up early, getting on the trains, work work work, finishing work late, fighting to get on the trains.... everyone looking out for Number 1.

What I really didn't like was the "social obligations" or the "social pressures" or what Thais call the "Social tax", I was forced to adhere to while I was there. If you have friends (and most people have to have friends) - then you're forced to dress nice. You're forced to have a nice House/Condo. You're forced to have a nice car. You're forced to go shopping at least once a week to buy "nice things" to show off to all your friends and your mates. You're forced to go out and eat at nice restaurants. Finding new restaurants to go to weekly is what they do. Meeting with friends becomes an "obligation" to go out and "spend money".

You can "try" to fend off these "pressures" - but at the end of the day it's just too much to bear and you just have to try to "fit in". Either that or live alone by yourself and don't have any friends. Tough choice.

At the end of the day it was hard to leave Bkk. Family is there. Friends are there. You don't have to cook - food is so so cheap. You can eat eat eat all day and you just don't gain weight - the heat means you're in a constant sauna. Everything is so so convenient. Department stores closes at 11pm. Food stores closes at 3am. Restaurants basically EVERYWHERE. It takes you 5 min. to walk from one 7 Eleven to the next. Foot Massage is like $10 an hour - can't beat that.

====================

Would I go back there to live permanently? May be. But not in Bangkok. May be Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Hua Hin... somewhere you can appreciate and enjoy the nature a bit more...
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It's been a while since I asked about this, and since then I sorta saw some stuff here in JF that made me wonder if you were still there. Nice to be able to just go when you want to, and come back when you want to.

Of course these social pressures are real almost anywhere you go. . . . . they are there even at the ranch out in the middle of nowhere, with folks eighty miles away in either direction knowing more about you than your wife does. . . lol. . . . well, maybe if I spent more time with my wife that wouldn't be true. . . lol. But I just don't tell them when
I go or come back, and don't show up at Church or the local bar, and I've been doing that long enough I've become a legend in my own time. . . .lol. Not at all sure what that legend amounts to, but it's obvious when I cross paths with them anywhere they know all about me.

So anyway, so much for the idea that the social pressures are any less in the bundoks than in the cities; if anything, it's more. People who have money often have nothing else in life. . . . and so of course that's what life is all about.
 
babe said:
It's been a while since I asked about this, and since then I sorta saw some stuff here in JF that made me wonder if you were still there. Nice to be able to just go when you want to, and come back when you want to.

Of course these social pressures are real almost anywhere you go. . . . . they are there even at the ranch out in the middle of nowhere, with folks eighty miles away in either direction knowing more about you than your wife does. . . lol. . . . well, maybe if I spent more time with my wife that wouldn't be true. . . lol. But I just don't tell them when
I go or come back, and don't show up at Church or the local bar, and I've been doing that long enough I've become a legend in my own time. . . .lol. Not at all sure what that legend amounts to, but it's obvious when I cross paths with them anywhere they know all about me.

So anyway, so much for the idea that the social pressures are any less in the bundoks than in the cities; if anything, it's more. People who have money often have nothing else in life. . . . and so of course that's what life is all about.
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Yes I do realize social pressures are there almost anywhere you go...

But say here in Christchurch, NZ. Most people cook at home most of the time. Some even grow vegetables and just have that for dinner. An average family or couple might go out for dinner once every 2 weeks, or once a month. Once a week is really frequent. If you're going out on a date, it might be like a picnic at the park, etc. If you're meeting a friend for a meal - you might decide to invite him over for a bbq and that's cool.

In BKK, there are soooooooooooooo many restaurants on the street, in department stores, etc. You eat out virtually EVERYDAY and EVERYNIGHT of the week. Most apartments don't have a kitchen - cos they know people just won't use it. And people don't use it.

And when you eat out, you have to dress nice, you want to try different places all the time, yada yada yada... It's all about the $$$$.

=========================

The bottom line to me is this: It's OK if you have plenty of $$$$ to burn and can just enjoy that lifestyle... (someone like PKM would fit there perfectly). But most people aren't even that well off and they have to work 8am-7pm, 6 days a week, earning an equivalent of $1000 a month or $12,000 a year while having to eat out almost everyday and everynight.. (can you imagine that?) It's really shocking to me how they can sustain that lifestyle... (but that's a story for another day).
 
Hotttnickkk said:
Yes I do realize social pressures are there almost anywhere you go...

But say here in Christchurch, NZ. Most people cook at home most of the time. Some even grow vegetables and just have that for dinner. An average family or couple might go out for dinner once every 2 weeks, or once a month. Once a week is really frequent. If you're going out on a date, it might be like a picnic at the park, etc. If you're meeting a friend for a meal - you might decide to invite him over for a bbq and that's cool.

In BKK, there are soooooooooooooo many restaurants on the street, in department stores, etc. You eat out virtually EVERYDAY and EVERYNIGHT of the week. Most apartments don't have a kitchen - cos they know people just won't use it. And people don't use it.

And when you eat out, you have to dress nice, you want to try different places all the time, yada yada yada... It's all about the $$$$.

=========================

The bottom line to me is this: It's OK if you have plenty of $$$$ to burn and can just enjoy that lifestyle... (someone like PKM would fit there perfectly). But most people aren't even that well off and they have to work 8am-7pm, 6 days a week, earning an equivalent of $1000 a month or $12,000 a year while having to eat out almost everyday and everynight.. (can you imagine that?) It's really shocking to me how they can sustain that lifestyle... (but that's a story for another day).
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OK. . . . I haven't been there. . . . .

as for how the poor can live "eating out" it probably isn't really a fact on the exact details you're projecting into their situation. . . . just guessing. . . .

we have a lot of fast food joints around here. . . in SLC. . . . or even in the bundoks. . .. and in my humble observations, you can eat as cheap outta the lower echelon of fast food service than the retail chain grocers. . . . depending on your idea of "eating". . . . if you buy pop and crackers it'll cost as much as a hamburger at McD's. I get a bag of sunflower seeds and jug of milk, and can of salmon. . . . . a five pound bag of carrots. . . and I only do social stuff online. . . .

when I was in the Philippines, knocking on every door in the squatter shantytowns, I saw a lot of people with no kitchen. They had little hot plates, sometimes, or maybe shared one with five or six other little cardboard shackdwellers, or cooked with woks and a few sticks. . . . rice. . . and fish dredged with nets from the skunge ditch tidal estuaries. . . . a lot of these folks did their little bonfire woks out in the alley, with maybe thirty folks hoping to get a bite, but at least there was less risk of burning out the whole neighborhood. . . . uuuhhhhhmmmmmm. . . . and they called this "dining out".

and then there were the sidewalk vendors, charging bencinco sentimos for a singed hotdog stick with a few strips of meat and a lot of pineapple chunks in between. . . . this, also, was "dining out".

and I saw some families with eight kids sitting on dirt floors "spooning" rice from one bowl with their fingers who gave the appearance, to my uncomprehending eyes, of enjoying life because there was rice, that night. . . .
 
I agree with the OP
 
babe said:
OK. . . . I haven't been there. . . . .

as for how the poor can live "eating out" it probably isn't really a fact on the exact details you're projecting into their situation. . . . just guessing. . . .

we have a lot of fast food joints around here. . . in SLC. . . . or even in the bundoks. . .. and in my humble observations, you can eat as cheap outta the lower echelon of fast food service than the retail chain grocers. . . . depending on your idea of "eating". . . . if you buy pop and crackers it'll cost as much as a hamburger at McD's. I get a bag of sunflower seeds and jug of milk, and can of salmon. . . . . a five pound bag of carrots. . . and I only do social stuff online. . . .

when I was in the Philippines, knocking on every door in the squatter shantytowns, I saw a lot of people with no kitchen. They had little hot plates, sometimes, or maybe shared one with five or six other little cardboard shackdwellers, or cooked with woks and a few sticks. . . . rice. . . and fish dredged with nets from the skunge ditch tidal estuaries. . . . a lot of these folks did their little bonfire woks out in the alley, with maybe thirty folks hoping to get a bite, but at least there was less risk of burning out the whole neighborhood. . . . uuuhhhhhmmmmmm. . . . and they called this "dining out".

and then there were the sidewalk vendors, charging bencinco sentimos for a singed hotdog stick with a few strips of meat and a lot of pineapple chunks in between. . . . this, also, was "dining out".

and I saw some families with eight kids sitting on dirt floors "spooning" rice from one bowl with their fingers who gave the appearance, to my uncomprehending eyes, of enjoying life because there was rice, that night. . . .
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Yeah except it's not the poor I was referring to. Someone on a $12,000 annual salary is, believe it or not, a middle income earner. The "poor" usually earns about half that per year.

As you've said the poor lives very simply. But these middle income earner strives to have everything that the rich has such as iPhone, iPads, iPods, etc. An iPhone for example would cost 1/12 of the annual salary. It doesn't stop there though, they also want to wear designer branded jeans, jackets, etc. The list goes on.
 
babe said:
Just sitting here, with the porch light on, waiting for someone to stop in.

Well, maybe a few other things. . . .

baling hay, feeding cows, fighting off job offers, and writing a novel "The Man", right here in JazzFanz{see novel thread}, watching Dr. Who episodes with my sci-fi addict daughters and critiquing the whole Brit social mindset about believing in Lords and elitists in general while invoking magical concepts like time travel combined with robots with powers superior to mere humans. . . . the whole transhumanism fantasy that traces back to Lord Byron if not the antediluvial genetic mutant movement God had to put a damper on just to keep humans human. You know. . . . . preaching against the whole crowd of very special folks hanging out in the Bohemian Grove and a thousand brothels staffed with slave girls and boys, prattling on about the glories of the UN new world religion, "We ARE Special". Which is what The Man will be more or less addressing. . . .
Click to expand...

I knew it.
 
40000

All right, everybody. . . . . lol. . . . .

We made it to 4000.

I have always dreamed of being a sportscaster. . . . my only experience is when I played both teams by myself on the dirt court in my backyard. We had a big dirt court, with two baskets, set apart like a gym basketball court and about the same size. . . . it was a big yard, and this space in no way compromised the grapevine patch, the barn and corrals, or the two fields, or the garden, or a whole lot of almond, walnut, pecan, pomegranite, fig, apricot, plum, fig, and cherry trees. . . .

I never did hoe all the weeds, either.

So anyway, when I'm really really bored, I think I'm gonna post a play by play record of my own in here. I figure a game ought to be worth a few hundred posts, at least. But since I've gonna actually remain busy most of the time, I welcome anyone in here to tell me what they think of the games, the players. . . ..

yep, there is a Jazz section to this place, and I expect the real serious fans to patronize the threads in there. This is just for fun, and all I ask is enthusiasm. . . . on the side of the Jazz. . . . .
 
So besides being just a typo, lets say 40,000 is the goal for this season. When the lockerroom lights go out at the end of this year, let's make 40,000.

Yaaayyyyy!
 
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