panadolsandwich

2 hours ago, Flashermac said:

 

Have a nice day. 

 

 

My apologies wasn't a very nice thing to say.  Have a nice day yourself. 

1 hour ago, Coss said:

making the Earth flatter 

 

Self-styled Flat Earth daredevil dies in crash after rocket launch in US

 

https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/119744854/selfstyled-flat-earth-daredevil-dies-in-crash-after-rocket-launch-in-us

This news considerably cheered me up.  His primitive 'rocket' and his bizarre flat earth theories.  Damn it the world today is missing an idiot - and welcome to the Darwin awards. I wonder if in his last moments he believed in gravity or that the earth is solid. . .

The reason I brought up the Cambodian fiasco is I was tasked with assessing their surgical standards.  Take careful note: I've never been known to say anything except what I think. 

So I knew as I looked at my wounded hand, bearing in mind these are surgeon's hands.  I was the most qualified person in the country at the time to deal with it.  So I did. 

I've often saved children's lives by quick thinking.  But the emotional toll it takes on me makes me unable to cope anymore.  The junior doctors are mediocre.  They're not there for any talent or skill, it's just that the rich family want a doctor. 

I'm trapped in a war with my conscience.  I'm extremely good at what I do.  I can't handle the toll it takes on me.  If I could quit believe me I would have done it a long time ago.  I identify with sanders in that regard. 

A new novel brain virus appears to have affected the GOP.  The disease presents itself usually as confusion, tremor, the ability to see text, but not read it.  It's rumoured the source was from Trump who it appears rogered a beaver. 

3 hours ago, Flashermac said:

Bernie wins in Nevada. Is the contest for the White House to be between two guys in their 70s?  Bernie is even older than I am.

p.s. Putin should like Bernie, since he spent his honeymoon in the Soviet Union.

 

I find the reaction to Bernie winning as a 'surprise' fairly offensive. 

Also Flash I expect much more from you then just regurgitating propaganda.  I mean I don't mind an interesting news item placed without out any comment.  Frankly I thought you must of been in your late 80s.  Kind of like posting something and then forgetting why the hell you are posting it.  A harmless old codger in other words, we kind of indulge, listen to his detached memories whilst bored out of our minds, smile and wave at then turn the corner and think, bloody hell he got old awfully quick.  Well at least he won't be around much longer. 

52 minutes ago, cavanami said:

$160,000 is only one stream of income. Appears you cannot understand the generation of income.

Please continue with your medication(s0 or consult with a doctor as maybe there is a better medication(s) for your illusions of grandeur.

Delusional disorder is a serious mental illness where you can’t tell the difference between what’s real and what’s not. Delusions, or false beliefs, comes in several types. Delusions of grandeur are one of the more common ones. It’s when you believe that you have more power, wealth, smarts, or other grand traits than is true.
Sometimes, delusions of grandeur can be a symptom of another mental illnesses, including bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

I'm genuinely glad you wrote this.  You've just described Trump perfectly. 

I however have a rather different background.  I benefited from an excellent education.  I have real wealth I derived from my good wits, and I have a brilliant wife that loves me.  Yes, I was born with good looks.  But as described people are surprised by my accessibility.  I'll happily talk to a lonely person for hours if they want to, knowing I'm going to have to stay at work longer.  I'll happily sit with some Thai guys that call me over, give them some money to go get some beers and talk about all kind of things.  I'm very curious about things.

Yes I'm incredibly talented, but I'm very flawed as well.  I often go drinking, industrial quantities and I as well as everybody I know can't believe how I survived and emerged completely unscathed.  The Cambodian slum incident is only a long line of these types of incidents. 

I do save lives often by improvisation.  I suppose I develop a species of arrogance, but it's tainted by caring for other people's welfare which is quite humbling. 

Believe me when I can say I do understand you.  Muff thinks you're not that bad.  The children of the world can see it - a better future.  Why would you wish to jeopardize their vision?  Are you that cruel hearted?

Muff Richardson (MR) on the secure line.   You're not going to believe this Panadol.  C'mon Muff I'm busy here, get to the point.  Well it turns out this lone guy has penetrated the Russian cyber war effort and he's kind of reversing it all.  Using all their machinery to make people vote for Sanders.

PS: Well I suppose you don't have to be a Russian to meddle with things I suppose.  Sounds like  whoever that is, they must be fairly clever.  How is the latest modeling going?

MR: Beautifully, I'd give it another day.

PS: Hmmm, I think we should ramp up a little bit, you know give a flying start to the work a day crew.  We can bend them into any shape we want them to be.  Mind the timing.  What was for breakfast?

MR: Chocolate chip pancakes with maple syrup.

PS:  Jesus I didn't realize things were that bad.  Ok, move onto waffles.

MR:  What the hell is it really that bad?

I'm afraid so Muff, I'm afraid so.  And try to catch some sleep. 

Sanders is leading in the Nevada caucuses. 

https://edition.cnn.com/politics/live-news/nevada-caucuses-live-results-updates-2020/index.html

10 minutes ago, cavanami said:

“By 2009,” pens Schweizer, “she was making $160,000, including benefits.”

Kind of sounds like a pittance to me.  Especially if as you claim she was ripping people off.  I'd earn that in a good week.  All above board. 

I wonder, you're not broke are you?  You never got back to me on that.  Silence does speak in volumes.  I mean 160k is kind of meh.  For a whole year's work?  Man that sucks.  It must really suck to be you if that is your idea of living high on the hog.  

2 minutes ago, cavanami said:

You gaslight soooo welll 5555555555555555555

You might as well be patting yourself on the back.  Also rather busy right now, the latest code is almost finished compiling - Muff is nearly finished, I don't really know when Richo ever sleeps.  He sent me a picture of thes lovely looking caramel and sea salt flaked crepes - which can only mean one thing.  There is about to be some rather spectacular news coming out in this field of US politics, it will be dropped when the timing is right. 

I'm well off.  I'm young, if I decided to retire right now, I could live a very rich lifestyle for the rest of my life.  When I go to a foreign country people are surprised by just how accessible I am; and even though half the time I don't know the words they are saying (I'm learning it all, I can often mimic what some stranger said to me years ago), I almost completely understand them.  Deriving understanding from context, body language etc inferring things.  I've saved many lives by quick thinking.  I don't want any credit for that. A good education and being well compensated is enough for me. 

The point is I realized very early on lost and incredibly drunk in a Cambodian slum (and let's face it determined to do myself in), when a family came to my aid and took me in.  I crudely stitched up a wound that was very deep and ran the length of my hand with some needle and sewing thread, I was losing too much blood.  They kind of watched me with a kind of fascinated horror.  I gave the young boy some money to guy buy a bottle of spirits.  He came back very quickly and I splashed some on my hand and downed the rest in one go.  I took about 500 hundred dollars and put it on a  nearby table.  I hope you don't mind taking this, I make this in a couple of hours of work.  And walked out of there. 

What I realized is that the poor are much more likely to help you in an hour of need even if they have nothing.  The won't rob you, they'll work tirelessly for almost nothing, and I reserve the highest contempt for people that look down on them. 

I wandered out of the slum which took a long time - often having to lean against a wall.  Eventually I got back, the pharmacy was open and I bought all the items I needed to disinfect and re-suture the wound which I did in a bar whilst drinking a jug of Angkor.  I gave myself a tetanus shot and an antibiotic injection.  The girls that knew me there were distraught saying I should go to a hospital - one more jug of Angkor thanks, I *am* the hospital by the way and you don't know how much it's cost me.   It was a very nasty wound, you could see tendons and bones but you have to understand I deal with this stuff all the time. 

What I mean is that we all try to, try to wash the grey away.  We pretend to not notice poverty, children dying because they couldn't get a clean cup of water with some salt and sugar in it.  It's your shame, it's my shame. 

Why do people with virtually nothing share it with someone - a stranger no less?  That strange night in Cambodia completely changed my thinking.  On a side note you can barely see any sign of a scar on my hand, the stitching virtually perfect.  Well it it is my day job.  What is more worrying is there is no memory of how I got there or how my hand was wounded.  Still you can't have everything I suppose. 

3 hours ago, cavanami said:

Try to focus....we are talking about Sanders and the 100s of millions of dollars that his family has profited from Bernie being in politics. Trump is another discussion.

Classic projection, highly amusing.  What's next?  Sanders paying hush money to his porn star conquests?  You do realize once Trump is gone you'll fall into a kind of depression that once over you'll feel very much better.  Kind of like the euphoria you experience after an extreme bout of projectile vomiting. 

3 hours ago, cavanami said:

Sanders has enriched his family and the people around him. His present wife has especially benefited from his years in office.

And so what?  Do you expect the guy to camp in the streets?  What is so amusing about this line of thinking is that Trump a pretend billionaire that won't even release his tax records because he fears it will reveal the truth - that he is hopelessly in debt and desperately trying to repay it by being a corrupt puppet for the Russian government.  They got him.  They really did get him.

My wife is extremely beautiful, kind of like a chameleon really.  She can change her entire look and appearance in a matter of minutes - she laughs at me when I tell her how unsettling it is.   But the most unsettling thing is she is hyper charismatic.  Well no reason to be shy here, I'm a very charismatic guy, but she takes it to a like five levels above. When she was in Brisbane we walked into a club and people were taking photos, thinking we were famous. And of course she's lapping all of this up.  I'm kind of hissing in her ear, this could damage my career.  She hissed back in mocking Isaan I don't want to be famous, I just want people to think I'm famous. 

I saw the wisdom in this.  The thing was regardless of her beauty, she often made comments like this which I thought were rather clever.  But it's my impertinence (she is extremely offended by this, so of course I needle her with it), being so consumed in my own world that infuriates her so much.  Our epic arguments would revolve about trying to resolve some silly point, and then we would collapse in each others arms realizing how ridiculous we were being. 

We started to strategize.  I can't own large rural estates in my own name, but they are being sold off for virtually nothing.  You can have the business in Thailand, but you are going to have to pay off on these other financial investments I've got.  I mean, if the business doesn't work out in Thailand, so be it, can't see how it won't, but you'll still own the land.  And then it's kind of trivial to explain the rest.  She started a financial empire in Thailand whilst I maintained the ones in the West. 

Together  we're kind of invincible.  A true team, the beauty and the beast.  We compliment each other so well it's uncanny.  I installed five 50 inch TV screens in our house with some custom software to monitor our investments.  She noticed something going wrong and when she couldn't get through to me me she, well let me just say don't piss her off.  I explained to her it's bad for business.  But I noticed it did actually work.  We had a rather interesting chat after that you could imagine. 

She is very likely to resort to physical violence with all her wealthy connections, I temper that with a kind of soothing type of intelligence.  You know, let us use some diplomacy here.  I mean if you piss her off she will be hell bent on tearing your life apart.  When I explain you are hurting yourself as well by thinking like this she just kind of hugs me very tight, and by tomorrow it will be forgotten. 

She is incredibly smart, when she speaks to people she obviously considers inferior to her, she has a tone that I often use, except hers is rather over the top - telling a workman he is both a fuckwit and a shithead and them terminating his employment.  I go to the workman, tell him I'm the boss here not she, come back tomorrow after I've had a chance to talk to her. 

She is highly competent, she can run a business without even trying and she can speak six languages fluently.  We do have inevitable fights, but both of us find it incredibly hard to stay angry at each other for long. 

She will play the ignore game, but I'm a master of that game.  I don't really care.  You see I'll never give in.  You'd have to kill me first and then claimed I gave in.  When she realized that she had to revisit her strategy.  I was already miles ahead of her  She just kind of nudged up to me in the bed, and whispered to me you won. In that case what are my winnings?  

29 minutes ago, chocolat steve said:

I'm not sure if any of his policy views are because of lobbyist money. But his core views, abhorrent as they are, are at least honest. 

The only people who find his views abhorrent, are the people that stand to lose if he wins.  Sanders is popular with people because he chimes with their own beliefs.  The only real poll that counts is the ones that will make him the presidential candidate and ultimately president.  And so far he is going very well.  It well worth pointing out a lot of his enemies are in the DNC.

A lot of people in politics, the wider media, absolutely loath him because he's committing the cardinal sin of actually caring about poor people. 

Not addressed to you Steve, but people in general: If you find yourself despising Sanders, take a good hard look at yourself - you've been conned, clear and simple.  No shame in that, just wake up to yourself, try to discover things out by doing a tiny bit of research.  I admit it's not nice to discover you've been conned but it's not the end of the world.  Move on, learn a lesson from it. 

29 minutes ago, cavanami said:

Even after the big purchases, the couple has around $500,000 in cash and investments, including three retirement accounts owned by Jane Sanders.

Bernie the multimillionaire!

I would hardly call it as impressive as you make out.  For a tireless, hard working Senator it's preposterous how little he owns in the pie chart you present.  I'm not very old, but I'm doing rather well for myself, certainly a hell of a lot better than Sanders, on a surprisingly high scale.  In fact I'd be worried if my finances were as poor as Sanders. 

Cav, not having a go at you or anything, but it's okay if you think Sanders is rich, but the flip side is kind of - well just how bad are you going if that's your opinion?

Sanders is about orienting society to a place where you don't need a solid gold toilet to feel rich.  How about providing the basic services for people that pay taxes for anyway.  Think about it.  If you don't have to pay out of your pocket with your after tax cash for medical expenses.  If basic comestibles were made available cheaply.  All that extra money you have makes you a lot richer.  Say you want to go to the opera, but could never afford it before.  Or you have a passion for sailing and you decide to build your boat as hobby, perhaps the start of a successful business?  I'm sure you can think of many more examples.  What does a solid gold toilet achieve?

Old man (OM) takes my hand after breakfast at the temple and we wander into the forest. 

OM: I think you were a tiger in your past life. 

PS: Well I think that's quite a compliment although I do look more like a leopard you know, I nod my head forward staring intensely through my eyes - I mean I'm often seen with a bottle of Leo in my hand and some people say wow, you look like Leo!  So what were you in a past life?

OM: I was a snake.

PS: Well I did read this story once were a snake saved everyone's life on a doomed ship, hey that could have been you. 

We pass the blossoming flowers of dragon fruit I and an my family had planted several years ago as we come up to the new temple, still under construction. 

OM: Do you think we should use this grey rock here or this light pink rock?

PS:  Well I do think the pink one is rather more fetching, and it would reflect more light at dawn when services are starting.  Let's put one of each on this trestle over here and we'll come and check it out early tomorrow morning.

OM:  Okay and what do you think of this paving rock?

PS:  Well you know I think we could do better ourselves by getting some forms and making them ourselves, it would be a rather good project for the monks I think.  You know, I happen to be going Udon the day after tomorrow,  I'll organise some forms and we can kind of do a trial run. 

And so on and so on.  My wife would come up to me, barely concealed delight I was being treated with so much respect and all I'd say was, 'What a nice old man'. 

24 minutes ago, Coss said:

Any one who tries to stop me eating my beloved Duck Blood Lahp, will find that it does indeed cause medical events, specifically, my fist in their face.

I worry more about bats, civets and pangolins being put in the soup.  I remember an old man, very senior at the temple (later found out the most senior) hand feeding me all kinds of insects, worms raw larbs and mysterious soups which I politely asked for a description of before eating it, most likely wanting to get some squeamish reaction out of me but I played along (that's what I thought at the time, now I believe he was just being friendly - he often takes my hand and we'll wonder off deep in discussion walking through the forest - some of the weirdest and most wonderful, but odd,  conversations I've ever had in my life).  However if he had tried to feed me a bat, well old man, and being at the temple and all despite all that it would have been extremely hard not to apply the old fist in the face approach there. 

I accidentally clicked an someone's username and it took me to their profile, you know, number of posts that kind of thing, but I was intrigued by this new feature: 'days won'. 

I started clicking on other users to gauge their success and was a little bit surprised by the results. 

Fiery jack had 10 days won and 3000 posts.  Flash had like 400 days won, but with a massive 50,000 posts.  That's like seven posts a day for like 20 years!  A bit of a disappointing ratio really.  However you have to bear in mind a lot of his posts are interesting  tid bits that he links to, and I think his ratio should be a hell of a lot higher with all his insightful comments. 

Coss appeared to really be firing along with 13,000, but nearly 300 days won - quite a dark horse.  Buffalo Bill is doing a very respectable 61 days won of 3000 or so posts.  Chocolate Steve also has done rather well with a 10000 to 120 days one ratio.  Of course my own ratio isn't that shabby, a 1000 to 10 days won.  Quality, not quantity I always say. 

But really a quite welcome feature for the forum, and if it encourages people to contribute content then well done I say!

I question the reasoning calling it racism.  I think there is a rising panic that China won't act to stop people consuming exotic wildlife.  And living in the West how do you compel China to do so?  No doubt there is a massive element of racism, but when even Chinese Americans and Chinese Australians are adamant about it, not to mention most Chinese nationals are incredibly angry about it, you have to really regard it as a more complicated phenomenon.  Of course the upshot is there will be racism, but the Chinese have a responsibility also if they wish to integrate with the West.  Or have their own citizens travel internationally. 

At the moment as far as we know if you get the virus you've got about a 1 in 10 chance of dying from it.  Of course if you are a child, or an elderly person or your immune system this is very much increased, practically a death sentence.  This is a hell of lot worse than SARS. 

And yet already we are already seeing opinion articles trying to downplay it - look over there!  See how many people died of the flu last year.  I'm not sure were this is coming from or for what purpose.  But I can tell  you that dying from pneumonia is a horrible way to die.  You basically are just slowly drowning to death. 

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/02/20/us/coronavirus-racist-attacks-against-asian-americans/index.html

There is a rising panic about coronavirus in the US with many people blaming the virus on Asian people.  A Chinese American even admitted they give Chinese tourists a very large berth when she sees them, even dashing across the road in peak hour traffic. 

And now with rounds of  Chinese eating things like bat soup and live mice being shared on social media, people are becoming incensed. 

Chinese medicine has long been blamed for causing the near extinction of various rare species.  Now people in the West are becoming outraged by the risk being imposed on their health by these odd beliefs.  Zoonotic disease caused by peoples penchant for eating rare and exotic wildlife are becoming more prevalent with globalism and cheap air travel. 

A lot of people are becoming understandably upset that someone can eat a virus infested bat, jump on a plane and come to infest your home town causing panic, death and pestilence.  Whether that should be called racism is a good question.  And it doesn't help that China tried to cover up the SARS outbreak and are now undoubtedly doing the same with this latest outbreak.  And what was learnt from SARS?  How to build hospitals fast and how to bury people really fast.  It's now clear to see no real lessons were learnt from SARS, we can only hope this time there will be.  

There is even talk of making these current quarantine requirements for Chinese a permanent thing.  At least until the Chinese start to crack down on themselves by closing down these diseased markets and stopping the people that patronize them from traveling internationally.  Fine, build a hospital in ten days well done.  But cracking down on the source of the outbreaks should be of the highest priority. 

4 hours ago, chocolat steve said:

The theory PS is that we will have nationalized healthcare at that time. And they will be paying taxes. When these young retirees liquidate their stocks or if they receive passive income from the rental real estate they own, etc, they are paying taxes on that income. 

I think you are under the impression they are living off the state. I have met a few of them. Bali has several young people there who have made hundreds of thousands from eCommerce, Youtube videos, etc. 

You sound like you have a beautiful family. Congrats. Its also evident you care about the future your child will be living in. 

Again thanks for you kind words Steve.  Certainly not under the impression they are living off the state.  As I say I regularly meet the demographic you describe and it's almost heart breaking how polite and respectful they are.  Thais most definitely embrace this people and respect them.  However they are in a real minority.  The millions of disenfranchised youth are skulking around in regional areas.  It's not hard to divine their beliefs.  Just go ahead and ask them.  They will describe the world as being out of reach.  Or it will never belong to me.  I mind I've been kind of depressed, waging chemical warfare against myself.  But to see it in such a large scale in such a population is particularly frightening. 

We kind of wander around in this shameful shadow land.  We see the filth in the streets, step over the bums with contempt, we crush the pollen of flowering plants with our crude feet, we kind of engender a peculiar contempt for the very thing that allows our survival.  I can't stay here, it's become extremely painful.  It's an entirely sick world.  But I can't go.  

Because if noone changes anything.  You know what?  We are all going down, together.  These days my ship has sailed.  Where the sea doesn't meet the sky.  No moon will raise the tide.  Because I will drift until I die.  And no ship can ever return me.

Whoops sorry had a fevered spell I was on one of those corona virus cruise ships. 

Asleep the phone rings, I'm hoping it's her.

Her: Do you know where you were last night? 

Panadol: It is a bit hazy, look no, it's a complete blackout.  Do you know?

Her: You were walking through the slums chatting to people, acting like you owned the place. You then got into a moto and went to this part of town asking for him to wait for you.  I paid him.

Panadol: I yeah I kind of do remember that, thanks for squaring me up.   I think what happened was I got on a different moto and he took me back. 

Her: So why do you walk through slums.

Panadol: I walk through anywhere, best way to visit a city.  If I encounter a slum then I'll walk through it.  The most likely explanation was I was bored.  Still, don't really remember it.  If you are going to keep following me then I'd appreciate if you'd take the occasional photo, or even a small bit of video footage. 

5 hours ago, chocolat steve said:

Hey Panodolsandwich, I welcome your view and input. You always have good insights and ask good questions. I don't think the youngest generation will solve everything...haha...but they are the future. The 2 youngest generations will determine what the future is. Many of us (assuming you are baby boomer or Gen X) will be around when they take over. So, what they think or do is very important globally. They will be the decision makers on social security, taxes, the size and scope of government. 

There is a popular strategy that millenniels are employing called FIRE, Financial Independent, Retire Early. So, no they are not living like bums if they employ this strategy. The plan is to be extremely frugal, save as much as you can in your 20s into your 30s, invest the money and they hope to retire by 35 or 40 with income for the rest of their lives.Is it possible? Well, many have done it, some fail I suppose. 

Traditionally, in all generations, the youngest, newest voters vote the least. However, there was a huge up surge in young people voting in Obama's first election in 2008 and in 2016 and this year for Bernie Sanders. The stats bear that out. https://www.vox.com/2019/4/26/18516645/2018-midterms-voter-turnout-census

Presumably they will be voting in higher rates and at some point a millenniel today will be President and have the same mindset. The Federal Reserve will have a different view of things. 

As for me personally, I'm fine. I don't have kids but I worry about yours (if you have) and others kids and their future. I have a plan for my future and am working it right now. 

Thanks for your generous words.  I wouldn't care so much if I didn't have children.  When my wife presented me with our daughter I just clutched her to my chest and wondered what the hell I'd done.  With my wife being a 10, and I having very strong Scandinavian heritage as she grew older she my dread grew.  As a Eurasian she is incredibly beautiful.  People often take photos of my family thinking we are famous.  When she started talking, my heart dropped into a sea of black.  She has that exact kind of precocious  inquisitiveness I had when growing up.  Difference being I am quite a physically imposing man accompanied by a general bearing that kind of screams out just try to fuck with me. 

Anyhow sorry about that tangent.  Don't be offended, but these FIRE characters have kind of decided to quit the system, and live a kind of wretched life.  I mean it's okay by me if they want to burn their cash, howl at the moon, live off spliffs and watermelons and who knows a handful of lentils and rice, whilst they fuck themselves senseless.  But when they inevitably become sick owing to malnutrition and alcohol abuse, I'll look them up and down, put them on drip, most likely pabrinex known to be useful for psychiatric states of dysphoria, mania and hysterical tantrums. 

Again being curious, I'll ask them what the hell they think they are doing?  I mean you were virtually dead when they brought you in here.  'Because I want to fight the system'! The system doesn't want you dead.  'Yes they do'.  I shouldn't be saying this but if you are against the 'system' so much, the next time you are incredibly ill and on the verge of dying don't come here again.  'That's exactly what the people like you from the system want me to think!'   I entirely understand what you mean, but you must try to remain composed and relaxed. 

Talking to the nurse in the hallway, this patient is displaying highly worrying symptoms of hysterical mania, dysphoric state, and if we don't tranquilize her immediately I fear she will become a danger to the other patients and of course your colleagues.  I hand over a prescription with enough potency to knock an elephant off kilter.  She rushes off.  I look at the prescription pad, and I look around the hospital.  I then repair to my office and write off the necessary documentation to get the woman transferred to a secure mental facility.  I didn't feel particularly bad about this.  I thought a spell in the 'system' would be a kind of interesting experience for her.