“0o” or “o0”

Sawadee Khrap

Two young guys appear in court after being arrested for smoking dope.  The judge says, "You seem like nice young men, and I’d like to give you a second chance instead of jail time. I want you to go out this weekend and try to convince others of the evils of drug use. I’ll see you back in court Monday."

On Monday, the judge asks the first guy, "How did you do over the weekend?"
"Well, your honor, I persuaded seventeen people to give up drugs forever."
"Seventeen people? That’s wonderful! How did you do it?"  "I used a diagram, your honor. I drew two circles like this: 0 o.   Then I told them that the big circle is your brain before drugs, and the small circle is your brain after drugs."

"That’s admirable," says the judge. Then he turns to the second guy and
asks, "And how did you do?"  "Well, your honor, I persuaded 156 people to give up drugs forever."  "Wow!" says the judge. "156 people! How did you manage to do that?"
"Well, I used a similar diagram," the guy says. "I drew two circles like this: o O.   Then I pointed to the little circle and said, ‘This is your asshole before prison…?

Thanks Kevin – point well taken – as they say food for thought.

Ciao

Shout from the past

Sawadee Khrap

I just received a phone call from a gorgeous ex-boyfriend who this morning called ‘out-of-the-blue’ to see if I was still around.   We lost track of time, chatting about the wild, romantic times we used to enjoy together.  I couldn’t believe it when he asked if I’d be interested in meeting up and rekindling a little of that "old magic".      "Wow!" I was flabbergasted.

"I don’t know if I could keep pace with you now", I said, "I’m a bit older and a bit greyer and balder than when you last saw me. Plus I don’t really have the energy I used to have."   He just giggled and said he was sure I would "rise to the challenge".

"Yeah." I said. "Just so long as you don’t mind a waistline that’s a few inches wider these days! Not to mention my total lack of muscle tone…everything is sagging, my teeth are a bit yellowed and I am developing jowls like a Great Dane!"   Again He laughed and told me to stop being so silly.

Then he teased me saying that tubby, grey haired, older men were cute, and he was sure I would still be a great lover.    Anyway, he giggled and said, "I’ve put on a few pounds myself!"   So I told him to fuck off.

Thanks Paul for this great story – Paul’s Sunday Funnies

Ciao

Got rid of the Plavix

Sawadee Khrap

Just got back from Chiang Mai – 2 days of doctor and friend visits. – Plavix out – but they did add another blood pressure reducing med – Cardoxa – “doxazosin”   this stuff is a inexpensive mild blood pressure reducing Med. which relaxes the blood vessels and also relaxes the muscles in the prostate gland and bladder.  I needed a little boost for the Valsartan to get me to 120 without the Plavix.  I started back on 1 baby aspirin for blood clotting and will continue to take the Fish Oil – standard twice a day but substituting Blackmores concentrated every other day at lunch ,  I hope for better cholesterol control.  The doctor also commented that my latest cholesterol reading are probably not accurate – because they show it as “ideal”  which he thought was too good to be true – so I’ll have those tests run again.

Love this Cardoxa -  warnings state “inform our doctor immediately if you experience an erection that is painful or that lasts for several hours” –  several hours !!!!    damn right  I’ll call him up and thank him.  Hopefully wont need the Cialis any more –  but we’ll see how that will work out. Not supposed to mix the two.  But is I get one that lasts over 15 min you can be assured I’ll be on the phone calling someone to get their ass over here as soon as possible. – haha -  pardon the pun.

Trip was great – flew both ways  – had dinner with friends each evening and met a old friend from San Sai – young man but old friend – so back to the old routine now but taking it slowly till I get used to the new meds.  Now gott’a see if the hip pain, while walking,  is going away – maybe take a couple of days but should be better without the Plavix.

Ciao

Lost in the Fifties – Do you remember these ?

Sawadee Khrap

50's

Click on the image or here to play the movie

If you remember these things than your getting up there – funny it seems like yesterday that I saw or did these things – I was also a “Soda Jerk”  at a small drugstore Ice Cream Fountain in Omaha almost exactly like the one in the movie – watch for it  – maybe you had a “malt” there too and later in the 70’s I had a TBird like the one in the picture but mine was Red.

Thanks Kevin for the link.

Ciao

Open Source or Freeware software I use

Sawadee Khrap

Several people have asked what software programs I regularly use.

I run a 64 Bit  Win 7 system with 16 GB RAM and  4 GB video Graphics card – Wacom Intuos Digitizer board with mouse/Art Pen and 2 – 24in Benq Monitors.  This setup has done almost everything I need it to do and with good Disk Image Backup program – Reflex, registered – I keep my  4 TB of data protected.

I am a Photographic member of Adobe Creative Cloud so Photoshop CC, Bridge and Lightroom are my main programs.  And of course I have registered copies of  Win 7, 64 bit – and a very fast image viewer – FastPictureViewer.   However the rest of my needs are satisfied using Open Source  and/or Freeware Software.

  • OS — Scribus – Desk Top Publishing  –   InDesign
  • OS — InkScape – Vector Image Editor  –  Illustrator
  • OS — Gimp – Bit Map Editor -  however here I use Photoshop
  • OS — Avidemux -  Video Editor – 
  • Free -MPEG – Streamclip – Video Editor
  • Free -VideoLan – Video Player
  • Free – Super – video converter
  • 30 Day – Total Movie Converter – Video Editor
  • Free -MediaInfo – Displays video information of files
  • OS — Open Office – Word, Access, PowerPoint, Spreadsheet (Excel)
  • OS — Jarte -  Very fast word processor
  • OS — NotePad++  -  Quick ASCI editor
  • Free -WordWeb – Dictionary
  • OS — Audacity – Audio Editor
  • Free -BandiCam – Screen Recorder (Monitor)
  • OS — Filezilla – FTP  (file Transfers)
  • OS — KeePass  -  Password storage
  • Free –AMP Font Viewer – viewing fonts
  • OS — WampServer – Unix emulation shell
  • OS — GeoTag -  geotagging images
  • Free -Comodo – Antivirus and Firewall control
  • Free -Sophos Virus Removal Tool -  antivirus 
  • Free -FlashGet – download manager
  • Free -Windows live Writer (Win Essentials) – Blog commenting
  • OS — 7-Zip – Zipping program for files
  • OS — FireFox – Browser
  • OS — ThunderBird – Email Client
  • Free -Foxit Reader – PDF reader
  • Free -Google Earth – maps
  • Free -Skype – VOI – phone
  • Free -Nexus – Apple like Launcher for Windows Desktop
  • Free -CCleaner -  Registry and Performance checker
  • I didn’t put in the links to the homepages as all can be easily obtained from Google.

I’m hoping someone can find this valuable – all the software I show above I use and I think are the best of their class and easiest to use – and except for my registered ones are FREE.

Ciao

Earthquake Data

 

Sawadee Khrap

I just received a comment for a 2007 Post  – Another Earthquake – about the Burma quake near Chiang Mai from a reader – Sharon Thornton from the “International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics”.  IUGGWOW,  thanks Sharon for reading the blog and finding some of it’s articles of value.  I have added your comments to the actual post in question so others can benefit and I also will post them here.  It’s nice to know that people of all walks of life are finding something of value in the Blog besides just looking at the pretty pictures of the boys.  I really appreciate the interest and comment – Thank you.

  1. Earthquakes Data magnitude 5.0 and Over 2005-2014   (This reference is also a subtle ad – but I think Krill Oil is of great value,  – however at the present time, I personally take Blackmores Omega Memo Fish Oil )
  2.  Seismic Monitor
  3. Quakes – Live Earthquakes Map
  4. USGS Earthquake Data

I’m planning on moving back to Chiang Mai after the first of the year and will certainly use the sites you pointed out to monitor the possibilities of future quakes around or near CM..

Again thanks Sharon.

Ciao

Plavix update

Sawadee Khrap

I just walked back from lunch  – actually I felt I wanted  to walk back from lunch – what a difference from just 3 days ago – walking was a strain and something I dreaded.  Every morning I would eat my oatmeal, take my meds and then go for a 1/2 mile walk around the buildings – usually with aching hips ( actually I am told its my gluteal muscles that are aching).  I wanted to increase the distance but the hip pain would get too great.

Since I hadn’t had a stent placement and Plavix is usually recommended after operations to eliminated buildup in the stent – I thought it was probably not necessary for me to continue taking it – but had read that to just stop cold could be dangerous and everyone recommended weaning off it.  That would also cut my meds cost.  I am taking Aspin and that should have been enough thinning to eliminate possible strokes.  So I started cutting down on it,  weaning off the Plavix  (blood thinner) by extending the days between doses and had really started feeling better but found that my morning “wood” was diminishing – couldn’t have that – so I started taking it again –  what a shock that was – hip pain back.

WOW – this stuff was causing all my butt muscle pain – I have now stopped for 3 days and already my desire for walking has returned – little and/or no hip pain, getting better every day -  but this means the “wood” problem will have to be addressed in another way – but it is apparent that having thinner blood is allowing better erection response.  So after a week free of Plavix I will check to see how the erections are going and look for an additional blood thinner that will help – preferable natural, maybe garlic, turmeric, or better yet the Blackmores fish oil that I’m taking now will also help in this area in addition to the cholesterol control.   I want to cut my meds down to as little as possible and hopefully to only natural food sources if possible.

But for now – NO PLAVIX – this stuff is poison for me, as was all the earlier heart medicines that had been prescribed before -  I have also found out that I need to take the fish oil at lunch – giving it all day to take affect because taking it at dinner was affecting my sleeping  – probably because the evening kicker dose of Valsartan and the fish oil were combining and that made it hard to fall asleep.  Anyway I am now taking the fish oil at noon and so far blood pressure seems ok – I’ll check sleeping problems tonight – I’ll also have a blood test next week to see if everything else is where it should be or getting better – I’m also planning on having another CAT scan done, about  Feb – almost a year from the first one,  to see if there is improvement or not……  Should be interesting.

Ciao

Jomtien update

Sawadee Khrap

For those of you who have been to Jomtien within the last year and a half – remember the holes in the sidewalks – well something is being done about them finally.20141001_10134120141001_101439

Theses are shots from standing in front of the “Sketch Café” looking both directions – apparently they will be finished soon – wires are still overhead but I guess you have to start somewhere – so I suppose in late 2015 or 2016 we can expect that they should be underground –  Moving on to Jomtien Complex  – I took a shot of the new 20141001_101908“Boy GaGa” and as you can see “X-man” next door is no longer around – many other changes but I didn’t get photos yesterday , I was just walking to the bank and snapped these quick shots.  I’m going to have to go down and document  the whole area and the venues there now.  Maybe some nights shots too.

If you go to the beach – Jomtien Dongtan Beach  – you will see that the chairs have been moved back a little – not as far as I think they should be – but at least a move in the right direction. – More area to walk up and down the beach without getting in the water.  There have been threats of the Army coming in and fixing the situation if the vendors don’t conform to the allotted spaces – but they are still playing the defiant role and I guess just waiting to see if the Military is going to have to remove them – which they will – only time will tell here.

Ciao