Rule Tightening Expected For Thai Tourist Visas

Thaivisa.com have been advised that from February 1 2008, the Royal Thai Consulate-General in Penang, will only issue Tourist Visas to those in possession of an air ticket departing from Thailand to an international destination not local in the same region. (i.e. not Vietnam, Malaysia or similar.)

It is believed that the reason for the tightening of the rules is to reduce the number of foreigners using tourist visas to stay long term in Thailand, and not for tourism purposes for which this visa is intended, therefore abusing the system.

Our source is from a reliable person, who normally provides us with accurate information, and we have no reason to doubt the accuracy of this information. The new ticket rule is not officially confirmed as yet. [via Thaivisa.com]

Sierra Tangos

• Pattaya Rag Quiz sponsored by Club Blu (soft opens tomorrow, Feb 1)

I will post questions most days from my Jan 19 post until Jan 31. You should e-mail your answers to me at pattaya.rag@gmail.com . You can e-mail me each time there are questions are you can mail me one time with all answers before midnight (Thai time) Jan 31. The questions will be sequentially numbered so you will know if you've missed any. Include in the mail the name you want to be known by if you win. I don't want to use a mail address to identify the winner. The winner will be announced on Feb 1.

The prize for the most correct answers is a free 'barf' in Club Blu so it will be of most interest to residents and regular visitors to Thailand. Here's the final question:

Q20. What famous song title can you find in the picture? Clue. It's not, "Man United are a bunch of wet arseholes".

Note: Barf covers the barfine only and not ST/LT fees. Also, it's up to you to get your choice to say "yes".

• Tough Year Ahead For Operators. Hotel and tour operators foresee a tough time this year from several uncontrollable factors, including a global economic slowdown reducing tourist arrivals as the number of hotel rooms increases.

The Thai Hotels Association (THA) said big new hotels featuring more than 30,000 rooms were being developed nationwide and would open between now and 2010. Of these, about 12,000 rooms are scheduled to become available this year.

The THA's eastern region said advanced hotel bookings for Pattaya during this year's first quarter had already dropped, because foreigners had postponed their trips to Thailand, especially tourists from Japan and other Asian nations.

The strong Baht has been cited as one cause for the drop. International tourists, especially Japanese, are avoiding Thailand due to the 50-per-cent increase in travelling costs caused by the weakening yen against the stronger Baht. [via The Nation]

• An Englishman and his partner got the shock of their lives when they were visited by the police and arrested for involvement in making and distributing pornography via the Internet. A Press conference was held on the 30^th January at Pattaya Police Station in the Operation Center for Suppression Special Crime and Transnational Crime, that after a surveillance operation on the couple, 55 year old Londoner, Mr. Tony Shaffer and his Thai wife, Sudjai, aged 37, had been arrested at their home in Banglamung for advertising an Internet home sex service and producing pornographic material which they also distributed via their own website on the Internet. [via Pattaya People]

• Almost 60% of people questioned by the Abac Poll believe the new government under Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej will be in office less than two years. The poll, conducted by Assumption University, assessed opinions of 3,506 people living in 27 provinces between January 20-30.

"People believe that the government won't be able to complete its term because it is a coalition that includes several small parties," said Noppadon Kanikar, director of Abac research centre. "This may cause conflicts between allies." [via Bangkok Post]

• Belgian drugs, chemicals and plastics maker Solvay (SOLB.BR: Quote, Profile, Research) plans to build a 6.07 billion baht ($184 million) chemical plant in Thailand, the state-run Board of Investment said on Thursday. The BOI board had approved investment incentives for the plant, which would produce epichlorohydrin, a feedstock for epoxy resins, on the Map Ta Phut industrial estate in the eastern province of Rayong, the agency said in a statement. Epoxy resins are used widely in the electronics, automotive, aerospace and windmill sectors. [via Reuters]

• Shell smashed all-time British company profit records today, posting 2007 earnings of $27.5billion (£13.9billion), and immediately ran into a storm with union leaders, who are demanding the Government hits the oil giant with a windfall tax.

Shell's profit surge - it is now making a staggering $75million (£38million) a day - on the back of a booming oil price that touched $100 a barrel this winter, was labelled as "obscene" by Tony Woodley of Unite, the UK's largest trade union, as Britons struggle with soaring energy costs.

"Shell shareholders are doing very nicely while the rest of us are paying the price and struggling," said Woodley. [via HuffPo]

• Download All Your Blogs with Blogger Backup

Unlike WordPress, there’s no export feature in Blogger that can help you download or backup your blog entries and comments left by readers.

There are however some third-party options and the best among them all is Blogger Backup. This Windows utility that saves your entire Blogger posts to the disk and can easily restore them in case you accidentally delete your blog or some of the posts.

You login with your Blogger / Google account and select one of the blogs that you want to archive locally. You can either save all your blog posts to one file or let the software create new file per blog entry. It can also backup reader comments.

If you ever want to recover blog posts that are in the local backup folder but deleted from the actual blog, just hit the "Restore Posts" button, select the entries and they’ll be back online in almost no time.

Blogger Backup follows the incremental backup style so if you run the software again after a week, only blog posts and comments published during this seven day period will be downloaded locally, not the entire blog.

Though we covered Blogger Backup some time back, that version did not play very well with the new Blogger but this new release fixes all the previous problems and is extremely fast. Highly recommended. [via Digital Inspiration]

• Portable Scribus - a powerful, free (portable) desktop publishing tool. You really do have to love open-source. Open-source software is free and can often replace costly commercial apps, which is the case with Scribus, an open-source desktop publishing and page layout application that puts professional-looking documents within the reach of non-professionals like me, and maybe you. I’ve chosen to feature the portable version of Scribus because it is a lot simpler to download and install than its full-sized cousin. It works within the Portable Apps suite, featured in an earlier post on this blog.

Portable Scribus, like Scribus, is a fantastic tool for creating all kinds of great-looking documents: everything from magazine pages to newsletters, invitations, brochures, calendars, you name it. Learning how to use Scribus is made easy by virtue of the simple tutorials available and the large community of Scribus users who freely give their tips and advice.

Typical word-processing applications like Microsoft Word have a very limited ability to combine and manipulate a variety of page elements like text and graphics. If all you need is a simple document with an uninteresting layout, then Scribus is overkill. But if you want your document to look like it was designed and created professionally, word-processors will let you down. That’s when you need an application with the power of Scribus. As the illustration above demonstrates, Scribus has what it takes to put true desktop publishing within your grasp without the huge cost of its commercial brethren.

One of the coolest things about using Scribus is the boatload of user-designed templates

that are available for you to download, like the one below. You can also upload and share your own.

When you download the compressed Zip file, simply extract the downloaded folder to your thumb/flash drive within the Portable Apps directory. Note: You should install Ghostscript before installing Scribus. Ghostscript 8.60+ or newer is recommended. This is important for EPS,PS import and print preview. [via Online Tech Tips]

• A Nuts set of Gemma Atkinson pics. Works for me

• Keeley Week - Day 3

• Kevin Keegan signs Dennis Wise

• Ted Kennedy's come out in support of Obama and this political cartoonist hits the nail on the head with a brilliantly cruel cartoon. Ted Kennedy will never be allowed to forget his mistake at Chappaq...., Chipaw...., Chapa..... err, Martha's Vineyard.

• A nun was sitting with her Mother Superior chatting.

"Mother Superior, I used some horrible language this week and feel absolutely terrible about it."

"When did you use this awful language?" asked the elder.

"Well, I was golfing and hit an incredible drive that was going to go 280 yards, but it struck a phone line over the fairway and straight down to the ground after only 100 yards."

"And that's when you swore?"

"No, Mother," says the nun. After that, a squirrel ran out of the bushes and grabbed my ball in its mouth and began to run away."

"And THAT'S when you swore?" asked the Mother Superior.

"Well, no," says the nun. "You see, as the squirrel was running, an eagle came down out of the sky, grabbed the squirrel in his talons and began to fly away!"

"Is THAT when you swore?" asked the amazed elder nun.

"No. As the eagle carried the squirrel away in its claws, it flew near the green and the squirrel dropped my ball."

"Did you swear THEN?" asked Mother Superior impatiently.

"No, because the ball fell on a big rock, bounced over the sand trap, rolled onto the green and stopped about six inches from the hole." The two nuns were silent for a moment.

Mother Superior sighed, "You missed the fucking putt, didn't you?"

Technorati Tags: Pattaya, pattaya, pattaya_rag, pattaya_nightlife, go-go_bars, bar_girls, pattayarag, bar_go-go_pattaya, beach_pattaya, news_pattaya, girl_pattaya, girl_thai, bar_girl_thai, lady_boys, katoeys, asian, bangkok

Bottom Feeding In Pattaya?

Met Smitty of Big Mango and Farang Speak 2 Much fame for a couple of beers earlier in the week and he's my sort of guy. He paid for the beers.......

We met in Peppermint and he got the attention of one of the Amazonian's from the cage but he showed little interest in a girl who will get plenty of attention from the Pattaya crowd. His lack of interest in the Amazonian and his comments on the quality of girls in Bangkok gentlemen's clubs like Forte, Pent and St. Moritz, left me with a feeling that we are bottom feeding in Pattaya. Those are my words not Smitty's and he admits to enjoying Pattaya in small doses. I'm not saying there's anything much wrong with bottom feeding but the opportunity to mix it with tattoo-less, beautiful, Uni students with fewer miles on the clock sounds appealing to me. Even if it requires a bit more effort, patience and money to close the deal.

For the younger guys out there with their bits and pieces still intact and an indifference to the price of an ale, I recommend you check out Smitty's world before you get stuck in a Pattaya rut, (pun intended!). You can read all about his world at Farang Speaks 2 Much.

I'm going off on a tangent here but why do so many young, farang guys in Pattaya court mature (I'm being kind) Thai ladies. My dear old mother-in-law is of the opinion that farangs have problems with their eyes. I say that's exactly the reason I married her daughter which usually gets me a couple of grains of rice with a plate of small chillies for lunch. I'll try and get some photos of what I mean for you. My guess is the guys don't realise they can pick the lookers. Maybe they have a mother fixation or a self esteem shattered by a farang ex. Whatever the reason, somebody should do the decent thing and put them straight. On second thoughts, feck that. Let the tourists have the grannies and the residents can have the 'lookers'.

Sierra Tangos

• Pattaya Rag Quiz sponsored by Club Blu (opens in just 2 days)

I will post questions most days from my Jan 19 post until Jan 30. You should e-mail your answers to me at pattaya.rag@gmail.com . You can e-mail me each time there are questions are you can mail me one time with all answers before midnight (Thai time) Jan 31. The questions will be sequentially numbered so you will know if you've missed any. Include in the mail the name you want to be known by if you win. I don't want to use a mail address to identify the winner. The winner will be announced on Feb 1.

The prize for the most correct answers is a free 'barf' in Club Blu so it will be of most interest to residents and regular visitors to Thailand. Here's the next question:

Q19. Written by Alfred, which poem starts with the line, `On either side of the river lie`?

Note: Barf covers the barfine only and not ST/LT fees. Also, it's up to you to get your choice to say "yes".

• Walked passed Club Blu this evening and the windows were all covered with canvas sheeting to prevent passersby seeing inside the bar. What's going on I wonder? Are the management looking for a bit of privacy so they can break in the staff?? We'll soon find out.

• Nakhon Ratchasima health officials are on high alert for the bird flu virus after dozens of chickens were reported to have died mysteriously at a local farm. Orders were issued to chicken farmers in all 3,712 villages in the northeastern province to carry out tests at their farms to locate the virus and to spray disinfectants. [via Bangkok Post]

• The 5th Annual “Ride for Peace” will feature at the Burapa Pattaya Bike Week. The Bike Week takes place between 15th and 16rth February with the Ride for Peace starting on 13th February at the Malaysian Border. The bikers will arrive in Pattaya and will be welcomed outside the Jet Petrol Station in South Pattaya. A convoy will then travel to the Pattaya Indoor Stadium in Jomtien and the following day there will be a convoy around Pattaya and the bikers will then make their way back to Malaysia. The Deputy Mayor offered his full cooperation with the event. If you would like further details on the “Ride for Peace” please call Khun Min on 081 000 1498. [via Pattaya City News]

• The Tourism Authority of Thailand has set a target to increase the number of Indian visitors to 600,000 this year from 500,000 in 2007 by focusing on attracting people in major cities that have high purchasing power. [via Hotel Online]
  

• Pattaya By Night magazine, (2nd issue) is in shops now.

• Chris, a reader, has sent me this update on Qtrax which I mentioned in yesterday's post.

Imagine the surprise of the file-sharing community when 12 PM EST rolled around and Qtrax didn’t launch their new music downloading service. Such legal and industry authorized promises have been made before - remember MashBoxx? Despite a media frenzy preceding Qtrax’s launch, absolutely nothing has come to fruition. No downloading service, no MP3s, and apparently no deals with the entertainment industry.

Did the major four record labels (Sony-BMG, Universal Music, EMI, and Warner Music) back out, or were they never really on board? As it turns out, currently NONE of the major 4 record labels are currently on board with Qtrax [via Chris and Slyck News]

• Extremely Useful Firefox Extensions:

After playing around with dozens of Firefox extensions in the last few years, here I share ten extremely useful extensions that will definitely improve your browsing experience:

1. Aardvark - If you regularly print web pages, this is a must-have Firefox add-on. With a simple shortcut key, Aardvark lets you remove elements from a web page that you don’t want in the print version. This could include advertising banners, HTML tables, graphics, etc.

To use Aardvark in Firefox, hover your mouse cursor over areas of the web page that you don’t want to print and press E (erase). That’s it. See “Reduce Printing Costs”

2. BlogRovR - As you browse the web, this extension will quickly show you what your favorite bloggers have said about the web page that is currently open in your browser.

You just have to pass a list of your favorite blogs to BlogRovR and it will automatically fetch articles/commentary that link to whatever web page you’re viewing.

3. Morning Coffee - With Firefox, it is possible to set multiple homepages (separated by | ‘pipe’) so all your favorite sites will open in different tabs each time you launch Firefox.

But imagine a scenario where you want a different set of website to launch depending on the day. For instance, one of your favorite website may not be updated on weekends while another one (like PostSecret) posts new content only on Sunday. With Morning Coffee, you can organize websites by day and open them up simultaneously in tabs.

4. LinkAlert - - When you click an hyperlink on a web page, you normally expect it to point to another web page but that may not be the case always as links can point to PDFs, Office Documents, MP3 files, zips, email addresses, etc.

You know the frustration when you click a PDF and it starts to load Adobe Reader causing your browser to freeze for some time. Or you click an email address accidentally and Outlook opens up. With LinkAlert, such accidents may become a thing of the past as it appends a small visual icon next to links on web pages that are not HTML documents.

5. HyperWords - When you select any word or phrase on a web page, HyperWords lets you explore the web without leaving the current web page.

For instance, you view pictures on Flickr related to that selected word, read the Wikipedia entry (if there’s one), convert currency, translate text, view dictionary meanings and so much more right from the Firefox menu without having to click anything. Read “HyperWords Review”

6. IE Tab - Firefox is popular but we routinely encounter so many websites are designed for Internet Explorer only. A good example is the Microsoft Windows Update update.

IE Tab brings the Internet Explorer rendering engine inside Firefox so you don’t have to leave Firefox in order to view those IE only websites.

7. Scrapbook - This is like OneNote for Firefox as you can save clippings, images or even entire web pages to the local disk with a simple right click or a drag-n-drop. Scrapbook lets you search through the clippings and it also saves the original links incase you need to cite or revisit the original source.

8. FireBug - While this is primarily for web designers and developers, what I like about Firebug is inline image editing that lets you modify web pages while it is still loaded in the browser.

That means you can modify the HTML or even Javascript of the web page while maintaining all the links and CSS layouts. And with Firebug installed, you can also read Wall Street Journal online for free.

9. CustomizeGoogle - Google is the best search engine out there but it is not the only one. With CustomizeGoogle, you get to repeat the same search on other popular search engines from the Google website itself. I use this all the time.

10. PicLens - If you spend time on Flickr, Picasa or Facebook photo albums, PicLens will completely change the way your browse pictures on the web.

It adds a small icon near the pictures, you click it and the browser transforms into a full screen slideshow viewer. PicLens Also works with image search engines of Google, Yahoo!, etc.

[via Digital Inspiration]

• LiquidPlanner - Trust your Schedule. LiquidPlanner is online project management software designed to help teams of all sizes manage complex projects. It is an ideal project planning tool for teams who value efficient collaboration and project tracking. LiquidPlanner is built on an innovative scheduling engine that gives you a project schedule you can trust even before you know how long it will take to complete individual tasks. [via Go2Web20]

• FHM keeley Week Day 1

• FHM Keeley Week Day 2

• Ann van Elsen, Miss Belgium, in Playboy

• Q. Why do female black widow spiders kill the males after mating?

A. To stop the snoring before it starts.

• Q. Why can't men get mad cow disease?

A. Because they're all pigs.

• Q. How does a man show he's planning for the future?

A. He buys two cases of beer instead of one.

• Q. What's the difference between Big Foot and intelligent man?

A. Big Foot's been spotted several times.

BuzzNet Tags: Pattaya, pattaya, pattaya_rag, pattaya_nightlife, go-go_bars, bar_girls, pattayarag, bar_go-go_pattaya, beach_pattaya, news_pattaya, girl_pattaya, girl_thai, bar_girl_thai, lady_boys, katoeys, asian, bangkok

Bar Closures Continue Over Video/DVD License

There is a new license that bar owners need for showing video's and DVD's. Its a government license that isn't the same as the copyright one and once you get it, its listed on the company papers.

If you play Thai or farang CD's then you will still need the copyright license which is an independent setup.

Soi Yamato & Soi Post Office have taken the main hit with bar closures including:

• Moulin Rouge
• Coopers
• Monkey Bar
• Jungle Bar
• Nice 'n' Eazy
• Yates
• office Girls
• George+Dragon
• Spricey Bar
• Gothia

[via Thai Anxiety]

Spoke too soon. Tried my upload today with multi images and Google again responded with "remote server error" message". Arghhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Sierra Tangos

• Pattaya Rag Quiz sponsored by Club Blu (opens in just 3 days)

I will post questions most days from my Jan 19 post until Jan 30. You should e-mail your answers to me at pattaya.rag@gmail.com . You can e-mail me each time there are questions are you can mail me one time with all answers before midnight (Thai time) Jan 31. The questions will be sequentially numbered so you will know if you've missed any. Include in the mail the name you want to be known by if you win. I don't want to use a mail address to identify the winner. The winner will be announced on Feb 1.

The prize for the most correct answers is a free 'barf' in Club Blu so it will be of most interest to residents and regular visitors to Thailand. Here's the next question:

Q18. What is the collective term for a group of racoons?

Note: Barf covers the barfine only and not ST/LT fees. Also, it's up to you to get your
choice to say "yes".

• Issue groups in 19 northeastern provinces on Tuesday lodged a protest against Boon Rawd Brewery - makers of Singha beer - for naming its newest brew "Isan Beer." Isan, meaning the Northeast, is the country's largest region. They said the name "Isan Beer" could lead to a misunderstanding that northeastern people of Thailand, fondly called Isan people, are obsessed with drinking alcohol. [via Bangkok Post]

Ed. Maybe Isan Moonshine would have been a more acceptable name....

• Pattaya Women's Open Tennis Tournament, Feb 2 - 10, Dusit Thani Hotel

• Interesting article in the UK's Finance Daily about buying property in Thailand. I find it hard to believe that Finance Daily's are offering an un-biased opinion when in the section of the article headed, Cons of Buying Property in Thailand they manage to work in the following little nugget:

However, many experts expect Thai property to perform particularly well in the coming years. Finance website internationalhorizons.co.uk noted that "blossoming demand for good properties has generated exceptional increases in house and land values".

The site added: "It is quite within the realms of reality to expect to make 70 per cent, 100 per cent or in certain cases 200 per cent gains within something close to three or four years."

• Sex bad for grades, Cambridge survey shows

Promiscuity leads to academic failure, according to a new survey of the sex lives of students at Cambridge University. Researchers questioned more than 1,000 undergraduates and found those at poorly performing colleges had the most number of sexual partners.

Peterhouse, for example, came near the bottom of the 2007 Tompkins Table, which ranks Cambridge colleges in order of their students’ academic performance, but third in the promiscuity list.

Its students had an average of five sexual partners compared to three at Christ’s College, which came second in last year’s academic table.

Christ’s also had the highest number of virgins, with more than a quarter of respondents admitting that they had never had sex. [via Telegraph.co.uk]

Ed. That's it, my daughter's going to Christ's..........

• Free and Legal Music Downloads - Qtrax is the world’s first free and legal peer-to-peer (P2P) digital music site. Music lovers can discover new music and legally download full-length, high-quality versions of their favourite songs while compensating both the artists and the record labels through non-intrusive and relevant advertising. Qtrax has the unparalleled support of the major record labels and all of their respective publishing divisions. [via Go2Web20]

• Add more programs to your Quick Launch Toolbar - one of the most useful features that I use very often in Windows is the Quick Launch Toolbar that sits on the left side of the Taskbar, right next to the Start Button. It’s great because it allows you to open a program in one click only! Even if you have programs pinned to the Start Menu, you still have to click on the Start button to view them!

  However, one of the biggest problems with the Quick Launch toolbar is that it starts to get WAY TOO LONG very fast! If I can access my favourite programs in one click, then I may as well throw every last program I use onto it! However, unless you’re running a resolution of 1900×1200 or higher, which most people are not, then you probably can only fit a handful of programs into the Quick Launch bar before it starts taking up too much space.

  Wouldn’t it be cool if you could customize the Quick Launch toolbar so that you could add a bunch of programs to it without taking up any more space than it is already!? Sounds crazy? Then you need to check out a cool little app that allows you to significantly enhance the functionality of the Quick Launch bar.

  

  FreeLaunchBar is, as the name applies, a free utility that acts as a replacement of the Windows Quick Launch toolbar. You get all the same functions that exist in Quick Launch, and a lot more! The major difference that you will see in using FreeLaunchBar is that Free Launch Bar allows you to combine your program shortcuts into groups that look like popup menus.

  This simple change vastly improves the management of your shortcuts and saves a ton working space on the Windows Taskbar.

  Using FreeLaunchBar, you can create nice menus with all of your shortcuts organized into nice little categories, like shown above. Here are some of the major features of the software:

  • Create menus on the taskbar with unlimited levels
  • Compatibility with Windows XP
  • Integration into Windows Shell
  • Low usage of computer resources
  • Compatibility with the Windows Quick Launch
  • Ability to create separators to group shortcuts inside menus
  • Different view modes
  • Hotkeys for shortcuts
  • Ability to use PNG pictures as icons
  • Support of Windows Drag & Drop technology. To add shortcuts you can simply drag them onto the menus.
  • Improved tips when hovering. You can include some of HTML tags into button description.
  • Fast toolbar switching
  • Completely FREE

If you really like the program, you can buy the PRO version for $20 that includes features like plugins (Mail monitor, wireless monitor, weather forecast, etc), virtual folders (you can drag any folder, printer, or control panel item into a menu), skins and custom colors, profiles (different Quick Launch bars for different computer users), auto-update, and backup/restore options.

Overall, it’s a really cool Quick Launch replacement and works really well! I would highly recommend it to anyone who has a million icons on their Quick Launch bar already! [via Online Tech Tips]

• Survive power outages with Cyberpower battery backup. Just what the doctor ordered for $29.99.

• Sara Ceccarelli in Fox

• Sara Jean Underwood - maid service

• A little old man shuffled slowly into an ice cream parlor and pulled himself slowly, painfully, up onto a stool. After catching his breath, he ordered a banana split. The waitress asked kindly, "Crushed nuts?" "No," he replied, "Arthritis.

Flickr Tags: Pattaya, pattaya, pattaya_rag, pattaya_nightlife, go-go_bars, bar_girls, pattayarag, bar_go-go_pattaya, beach_pattaya, news_pattaya, girl_pattaya, girl_thai, bar_girl_thai, lady_boys, katoeys, asian, bangkok

Samak Thailand's 25th Prime Minister For Now

With the naming of Samak Sundaravej as prime minister on Monday, Thailand has completed a transition from military rule back to democracy. But analysts predict that the bumpy ride is not over for Thai politics: Samak's tenure is likely to be tempestuous and his government fragile.

A highly divisive and outspoken political veteran who is prone to profanity, Samak is disliked by the Thai press and intelligentsia and is deeply resented by civil rights groups for his support of deadly crackdowns on peaceful protesters in the 1970s and 1990s.

Despite his victory, there is already talk that Samak could soon be replaced by someone more conciliatory. The Thai media has been running daily speculation on who might emerge as compromise candidate for prime minister.

"I think the Thaksin group will try to find a way to get rid of him over the next few months," Jon Ungpakorn, a former Senator and democracy activist, said of Samak. "He was an asset in the election. He will be a liability as prime minister. [via Herald Tribune]

For the first time since Jan 17, I have been able to upload an image with my post. From tomorrow, I will return to my original format with images.

I suspect thanks should go to Mike in California, a Pattaya Rag reader who contacted Google direct on my behalf. Many thanks Mike for clearing the roadblock.

Sierra Tangos

• Pattaya Rag Quiz sponsored by Club Blu (opens in just 4 days)

I will post questions most days from my Jan 19 post until Jan 30. You should e-mail your answers to me at pattaya.rag@gmail.com . You can e-mail me each time there are questions are you can mail me one time with all answers before midnight (Thai time) Jan 31. The questions will be sequentially numbered so you will know if you've missed any. Include in the mail the name you want to be known by if you win. I don't want to use a mail address to identify the winner. The winner will be announced on Feb 1.

The prize for the most correct answers is a free 'barf' in Club Blu so it will be of most interest to residents and regular visitors to Thailand. Here's the next question:

Q16. Which well known brand`s secret ingredient is codenamed x7 ?

Q17. Which 5 American Football teams in the NFL use a bird for their name?

Note: Barf covers the barfine only and not ST/LT fees. Also, it's up to you to get your choice to say "yes".

• Nearly one-third of the light bulbs on the runways and taxiways at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport are dysfunctional and haven't been replaced because of procurement problems, a news report said Monday. Airports of Thailand (AoT) President Chana U-sathaporn has sought government approval to speed up the purchase of 2,000 new light bulbs by next month to assure the airport meets safety standards [via EarthTimes]

• New Frank Sinatra song - It should be played at all airports. Very clever. Don't forget to turn up the volume.

• Google Docs in Firefox Sidebar

Google Docs Bar is a Firefox extension that shows the list of documents from Google Docs in the sidebar. The extension has many features from Google's file explorer: you can search for a file, restrict the list to documents, spreadsheets or presentations and view a certain folder (the subfolders aren't yet supported).

A great feature that makes this extension more valuable is uploading files using drag and drop. Drag one or more files from Windows Explorer to the sidebar and they'll be uploaded in the background.

For those who are worried about security, the extension sends your credentials directly to Google and stores them in Firefox's password manager. After installing the extension, you can make the sidebar visible by going to View > Sidebar > Google Docs Bar. The sidebar will always show the list of documents and it's useful if you frequently use Google Docs.[via Google Operating System]

• Create cartoons, sketches, avatars from your digital pictures using BeFunky - have a ton of digital pictures that you would like to take and create e-cards, cartoons, or sketches out of? The cool thing about taking pictures in digital format, rather than normal 35mm, is that you can then harness the power of web and desktop applications to manipulate your pictures into creative and expressive pieces of artwork!

BeFunky is a cool website that allows you to take your own digital pictures and make them into “funky” works of art! They have two tools that you can use to create funky pictures: Cartoonizer and Uvatar.

Using the Cartoonizer, you can re-create your images by turning them into digital paintings, cartoons or comic strips. Click on the Cartoonizer link located under Create Menu. Cartoonizer will open in a new window where you can then upload your own images. After uploading your images, you can use the menu located on the top to warp, sketch and color the digital images.

The Sketch tool creates a black and white pencil drawing of the digital photo. You have three options (Low, Mid, High) for setting up the sketch details. You can also set the brightness of your sketch. After you set the all of the options, go ahead and click Apply to complete the sketch of your photo.

You can use the Color tool to adjust the color level to determine color variety and density in your cartoon. Put in larger values to bring out less detail and put in smaller values to include more detail in your cartoon. Once you have adjusted the color level, click apply to cartoonize the image!

This is where it starts to get fun! The Warp tool lets you push and pull any area of the digital image. This tool gives you warping capabilities in a freeform mode. Go ahead and set the width of the brush that you want to use to distort the image, hold down the mouse button and pull. You can also set the brush strength for pulling.

Want to crate your own Avatar for Yahoo or some other social networking service? Uvatar is a hand-made cartoon of your portrait, an exact illustrated representation of you. You can customize your uvatar by changing visual features such as clothes, accessories, hairstyles, scenes.

Click on the category tabs to find items to try on. When you find something you like, click on it and you’ll see it instantly change in the Uvatar preview section.

You can then take your cartoonized image and easily share them with others on Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Friendster, Xanga, or on your blog or website with the supplied embed code!

Overall, it’s a pretty cool service for expressing yourself and getting creative with boring digital pictures! [via Online Tech Tips]

• Webmynd - An extension for Firefox that aims to be "TiVo for the web". Record the content of web pages you're browsing to view, revisit or search later [via eHub]

• Iga - In or out of tartan

• Karina Jelinek slips one out

• Dan was a single guy living at home with his father and working in the family business. When he found out he was going to inherit a fortune when his sickly father died, he decided he needed a wife with whom to share his fortune.

One evening at an investment meeting he spotted the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Her natural beauty took his breath away.

"I may look like just an ordinary man," he said to her, "but in just a few years, my father will die, and I'll inherit 20 million dollars."

Impressed, the woman obtained his business card and three days later, she became his stepmother.

Women are so much better at estate planning than men.

• Did you hear about the shoe factory that burnt down?

Two hundred soles were lost.

43 Things Tags: Pattaya, pattaya, pattaya_rag, pattaya_nightlife, go-go_bars, bar_girls, pattayarag, bar_go-go_pattaya, beach_pattaya, news_pattaya, girl_pattaya, girl_thai, bar_girl_thai, lady_boys, katoeys, asian

Bar Closures And PPP Hardly Have Their Foot In The Door

In the last few days, a number of Pattaya bars have been shut for 30 days by the Bangkok police for not having the correct licences:

• Two bars in Soi 7 including the one with all the TVs opposite Happiness Bar
• 4-5 bars in Soi Post Office including Coops Bar, Kittens and one of the blow job bars
• and rumours of many more around Pattaya

[via 7robbie7 @ Pattaya Secrets]

Ed. It looks like the smaller bars that are being hit but why it's the Bangkok police I'm not sure. I mean, we are between governments, so it's not as if it's a new Thaksin clampdown. Unless the BIB want to show they've been doing a good job in his absence.

 

Sierra Tangos

• Pattaya Rag Quiz sponsored by Club Blu (opens in just 5 days)

I will post questions most days from my Jan 19 post until Jan 30. You should  e-mail your answers to me at pattaya.rag@gmail.com . You can e-mail me each time there are questions are you can mail me one time with all answers before midnight (Thai time) Jan 31. The questions will be sequentially numbered so you will know if you've missed any. Include in the mail the name you want to be known by if you win. I don't want to use a mail address to identify the winner. The winner will be announced on Feb 1.

The prize for the most correct answers is a free 'barf' in Club Blu so it will be of most interest to residents and regular visitors to Thailand. Here's the next question:

Q14. In which Clint Eastwood film was the catchphrase `Go ahead, make my day` first used??

Q15. Which character has been played by Robert Donat, Kenneth More and Robert Powell in three versions of a British movie?

Note: Barf covers the barfine only and not ST/LT fees. Also, it's up to you to get your choice to say "yes".

 

• Aviation and ground units from the Royal Thai Air Force and Army, US Air Force and Marine Corps, and Republic of Singapore Air Force have begun Cope Tiger 2008, a multi-nation field training exercise in Thailand.

The war games began on Saturday and will last until Feb. 5. Cope Tiger is an annual, multilateral large force exercise conducted in the Asia-Pacific region and is the only multilateral field training exercise held in Thailand. Headquarters are at Korat Royal Thai Air Force Base, Nakhom Ratchasima, and at Udon Thani Royal Thai Air Force Base. [via Bangkok Post]

Ed. Will Pattaya see any additional business from the visiting forces?

 

• Living the dream in Pattaya according to YouTube 

 

• The Meteorological Department has issued a storm warning for the Gulf of Thailand for the next two days as the northeasterly monsoon strengthens in the region. Tourists were urged not to swim in the ocean, especially in the area of Cape Samila of Songkhal in the South, where strong winds and high waves have been forecast. [via Bangkok Post]

 

• Northern train lines were halted on Sunday morning after a train on the Tapan Hin – Bangkok line derailed in Nakhon Sawan province. [via Bangkok Post]

 

• A Finnish man was beaten up by six or seven Thai men after the tourist, who appeared drunk, destroyed properties of some bars early Sunday. Police said Numela Matti Juhani, 54, was hit by the Thai men until he became unconscious. The attack happened at about 3 am. The Finnish tourist suffered a severe cut on his head apart from bruises all over his body.

Witnesses told police that the man damaged some tables and chairs in a bar where he was drinking and paid for the damages and left. While he was walking through Soi Pattaya 8, he also damaged more properties of other bars until he was attacked. Police are hunting for the Thai men. [via The Nation]

 

• Miss Michigan Kristen Haglund is the new Miss America for 2008

 

• MAGMYPIC - fake magazine covers with your picture

 

• Six Most Useful Web Hosted Apps

Great Google offers high profile applications that aren’t necessarily the best. You may want to check out the alternatives. Many load faster, bristle with more functionality and simple offer more usability for the average Joe.

Calendars

1) Remember The Milk. This bizarrely named but smoothly designed app focuses on three lists- tasks due tomorrow, due today and simply overdue. The locations for the jobs are pinpointed on a Google map and allows you to share delegation with other Milk users. With Google Gears support, you can take them offline and sync with a Windows Mobile Phone.

2) Planzo. Similar to Milk and Google Calendar, good ole Planzo shares your itinerary with the web browsing public. The service throws in the basic to do lists and notebook features at you.

Document Creation

3) Think Free. It looks like MS Office and sure acts like it. There’s a Word, Excel, and Powerpoint variant which clones the MS Office interface. Throw in real time collaboration and 1GB storage and you’ll wonder what’s so smart about forking $340 for MS Office!

4) Zoho Office. Like Thinkfree, Zoho behaves just like MS Office. There’s a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation software, database and word pad program. Now the service goes beyond and bundles in CRM, project management, poll taking, wiki and even web conferencing facilities! With it’s 1GB storage, your laptop will run leaner and meaner by offloading those megabytes to the company’s server.

File Storage

5) Scribd. The service is the Digg of documents and takes in Word, txt, PDF, PPT, excel and a host of other files for public and private sharing. Forget rapidshare. Scribd’s got more functionality and security.

6) Windows Live Skydrive. Create and account and be awarded 500MB of storage that you can keep private or share with others. You’ll need a windows Live ID for this baby.

[via Connected Internet]

 

• Busty Iga in bed

 

•  Top 10 Blonde Celebrity Topless Scenes
  • Reese Witherspoon In Twilight
  • Erika Eleniak In Chasers
  • Natasha Henstridge In Species
  • Pamela Anderson In Snapdragon
  • Madonna In Body Of Evidence
  • Bo Derek In Some Movie Getting All Kinds Of Naked
  • Kelly Preston In Mischief
  • Jamie Pressley In Poison Ivy 3
  • Heather Graham In Killing Me Softly
  • Sharon Stone In Basic Instinct

Clips from all the above can be found at Unibrow

 

• Saw a billboard that said:

Need help, call Jesus.

1-800-005-3787

Out of curiosity I did.

A Mexican showed up with a tow truck.

 

• Prince Charles decided to take up jogging. Every day, he'd jog past a hooker standing on the same street corner. He learned to brace himself as he approached her for what was almost certain to follow.

"One hundred and fifty pounds!" she'd shout from the curb.

"No! Five pounds!" He would fire back, just to shut her up.

This ritual between him and the hooker became a daily occurrence.

He'd run by and she'd yell, "One hundred and Fifty pounds!"

He'd yell back, "Five pounds!"

One day, Camilla decided that she wanted to accompany her husband on his jog.

As the jogging couple neared the working woman's street corner, Prince Charles realised she'd bark her 150 pounds offer and Camilla would wonder what he'd really been doing on all his past outings. He figured he'd better have a good explanation for his wife.

As they jogged into the turn that would take them past the corner, he became even more apprehensive than usual. Sure enough, there was the hooker.

He tried to avoid the prostitute's eyes as she watched the pair jog past.

Then, from her corner, the hooker yelled,

"See what you get for five pounds, you tight bastard?!"

Ed. This was originally a Bill and Hillary Clinton joke but it works just as well with Charles and Camilla

 

LiveJournal Tags: Pattaya, pattaya, pattaya_rag, pattaya_nightlife, go-go_bars, bar_girls, pattayarag, bar_go-go_pattaya, beach_pattaya, news_pattaya, girl_pattaya, girl_thai, bar_girl_thai, lady_boys, katoeys, asian

Google - Why Can't I Upload Images To Blogger

Sierra Tangos

• Pattaya Rag Quiz sponsored by Club Blu (opens in just 6 days)

I will post questions most days from my Jan 19 post until Jan 30. You should e-mail your answers to me at pattaya.rag@gmail.com . You can e-mail me each time there are questions are you can mail me one time with all answers before midnight (Thai time) Jan 31. The questions will be sequentially numbered so you will know if you've missed any. Include in the mail the name you want to be known by if you win. I don't want to use a mail address to identify the winner. The winner will be announced on Feb 1.

The prize for the most correct answers is a free 'barf' in Club Blu so it will be of most interest to residents and regular visitors to Thailand. Here's the next two questions:

Q12. What are the first names of the twin girls in Bart`s class in The Simpsons?

Q13. What was the name of Yuri Gagarin`s space ship?

Note: Barf covers the barfine only and not ST/LT fees. Also, it's up to you to get your choice to say "yes".

• A bus packed with passengers heading to a funeral tumbled down a mountain in western Thailand on Saturday, killing nine people and injuring 26 others, police said. The accident occurred after the driver lost control of the bus in Kanchanaburi province, about 131 miles west of the capital, Bangkok, said police Gen. Raewat Klinkaeson. The driver then fled the scene, he said.

"It is a steep path down and we are investigating if the accident occurred because the brakes failed or if the driver was negligent," he said.

About 40 passengers from Pathum Thani province near Bangkok were on their way to a funeral of a respected abbot in Sangklaburi district when the accident occurred, he said. [via L.A. Times]

• Thai pharmacist Krisana Kraisintu has been named Reader's Digest Asian of the Year for 2008 for her tireless work on researching and manufacturing generic HIV-Aids and malaria treatment drugs [via Bangkok Post]

• Major Police and Army Operation took place at the Samaer San Beach area in Sattahip. A sweep of the area took place and at the end of the operation, the Police informed us that 28 illegal immigrants, 7 suspected drug dealers, 10 drug users and 2 men were caught with guns. 214 Yabba Tablets were seized in the operation which was declared a success by the General. [via Pattaya City News]

• Julie Benz on Rambo - "In Rambo," she deadpans, "I play ... Rambo. Okay, okay, I play a missionary, and I come to the northern part of Thailand, and I want to go into Burma with my missionary pals to bring medical supplies to the people who are being massively killed, because there has been mass genocide in that part of the world for over 60 years. "So we convince Rambo to take us into Burma, and once we get there we end up being kidnapped by the Burmese military, and then he has to come back as a mercenary to try and kill them all."

After all those weeks roughing it on location in Thailand, she was just as happy to leave it all behind. And that's all of it ...

"They told me I could keep my wardrobe, that it was in my contract," she says, rolling her eyes. "And I'm like, `Who put that in?' I mean, seriously, a dirty, smelly tank-top, with bugs crawling in it? My wardrobe from Rambo could have walked away on its own." [via TheStar]

• Google Document Uploader - Google has just release a document list uploader to help you upload your stuff in large batches, and this is one smart move, since I had some frustration a while back because of this. Nevertheless, this application is much more that meets the eye.

All you need to do is enter your email address, your password and off you go, you can even get it to place a menu entry into the right-click menu, so you can upload things on the fly. Ok-ok, so why is it more than meets the eye?

The reason I think this is so awesome is that this app is just a sample of what you can do with the Google Api. You can find this app in the articles and tutorials section in the Google Code FAQ, and they have a very extensive and helpful article on the subject. Apart from letting you get to know the uploader, it shows you how to modify the code, how to create balloon tooltips, system tray apps, and a whole host of features.

Google is earning more and more respect in my eyes (it already has a lot) with these new steps they are taking. A few years back we would never have dreamed about this, can you imagine Microsoft creating a public api for anything? Well perhaps in time they will, all thanks to Google. [via gHacks]

• Preview file information with InfoTag Magic - wish you could find out more about a file without actually, you know, opening it? InfoTag Magic is Windows shell extension utility that lets you read file information for certain file types just by hovering your mouse over a file.

For example, with music files including MP3, WAM, OGG Vorbis, and other audio types, InfoTag Magic will show you the ID3 information including artist, title, album, duration, and year.

With plain text files including TXT, INI, LOG, and BAT files, InfoTag Magic will display a preview of the text contained in the file when you hover your mouse. The program will also display properties like target file name and location for Windows shortcuts and version information for executable files. [via DownLoadSquad]

• Aden Bianco in Playboy

• Keley Hazell and friends in 2008 Page 3 calendar outtakes

• The best Lady Boys in Bangkok on YouTube

• A stand-in minister is doing the rounds and goes into a Scottish hospital as a stand-in for the hospital priest.

He's being escorted around one of the wards, goes up to a patient who immediately launches into a rendition of "Wee cowerin' timourous beastie".

The minister, not being able to get a word in, goes to the next bed where the patient launches into "You take the high road and I'll take the low road and I'll be in Scotland afore ye!"

The minister, now rather troubled goes to the next bed and gets assailed with "On the bonnie banks of loch lomond" followed by "Get down South you Sassenachs!"

Finally the whole ward resounds to "Wahay the Scots and Bonnie Prince Charlie and Rabbie the Baird and the Lord of the Isles!"

The minister looks at the Doctor and asks "Why are they all spouting Scottish poetry and the like? Is this the mental wing?"

"No," says the Doc - "this is the Serious Burns Unit!"

[Sent in by ChangFai]

• Two friends, a blonde and a redhead, are walking down the street and pass a flower shop where the redhead sees her boyfriend buying her flowers.

The redhead sighs and says: "Oh crap, my boyfriend is buying me flowers again".

The blonde looks quizzically at her and says: "You don't like getting flowers from your boyfriend"?

The redhead replies: "I love getting flowers, but he always has expectations after giving me flowers, and I just don't feel like spending the next three days on my back with my legs in the air".

The blonde says: ........"Don't you have a vase"?

IceRocket Tags: Pattaya, pattaya, pattaya_rag, pattaya_nightlife, go-go_bars, bar_girls, pattayarag, bar_go-go_pattaya, beach_pattaya, news_pattaya, girl_pattaya, girl_thai, bar_girl_thai, lady_boys, katoeys, asian

Google, A Faceless Internet Gorilla

There I am trying to get Google to fix my Blogger account so I can upload images and all I get from them is the following message saying they're deleting inappropriate photos from my Picasa Web Album:

Please be advised that we have recently received reports that inappropriate content has been posted to your Picasa Web Albums account. One or more photos displayed in your gallery violates our Program Policies and has been removed.

Our Policies state that images displayed on picasaweb.google.com cannot contain obscenity, pornography, promotions of hate, incitement of violence, or spam, malicious code, or viruses. Please note that if you continue to violate these Program Policies, we may suspend your Picasa Web Albums account.

Thank you for your cooperation

It looks like yesterday's Diem, the Vietnamese beauty did for me - there's not one nipple left in the album by Big Brother Google.

The question now is have they intentionally blocked images on my Blogger account. It's unlikely but it would be a question worth asking if if I could only find a human to interact with at Google. They have to be the most faceless Internet Gorilla around. I've just gone from frustrated to homicidal!!

Sierra Tangos

• Pattaya Rag Quiz sponsored by Club Blu (opens in just 7 days)

I will post questions most days from my Jan 19 post until Jan 30. You should e-mail your answers to me at pattaya.rag@gmail.com . You can e-mail me each time there are questions are you can mail me one time with all answers before midnight (Thai time) Jan 31. The questions will be sequentially numbered so you will know if you've missed any. Include in the mail the name you want to be known by if you win. I don't want to use a mail address to identify the winner. The winner will be announced on Feb 1.

The prize for the most correct answers is a free 'barf' in Club Blu so it will be of most interest to residents and regular visitors to Thailand. Here's the next question:

Q11. What guerilla fighter had a biscuit named after him?

Note: Barf covers the barfine only and not ST/LT fees. Also, it's up to you to get your choice to say "yes".

• The Livestock Development Department confirmed the second bird flu outbreak in Phichit province Friday. Laboratory tests showed samples from villagers in Sak Lek district to have the H5N1 virus. According to official, about 30 chicken in Phichit have already died. This is the second bird flu outbreak in Thailand. The first outbreak was confirmed on Thursday in Nakhon Sawan province. [via Bangkok Post]

• Create Mp3 files from text - Vozme is web based tool that turns any snippet of text into an MP3 audio file that you can either listen online or download to your local hard drive.

You just have to copy the text from a web page or an email and paste it inside the Vozme text box. While there are tons of solutions that convert text to spoken words, what I liked about Vozme is the clutter free interface and the fact that it runs inside the browser without requiring any downloads.

Bloggers can easily integrate the Vozme feature in the site so visitors can either listen to your full blog posts or they can select a portion of text and have Vozme narrate it like a speech.

Vozme accepts Spanish, English and Italian languages. [via Digital Inspiration]

• Wish you could extract all of icons stored on your computer? If I were to ask you how many icons you have stored on your computer, would you be able to tell me? Probably not! Nor can I! Actually, most applications store their icons directly in the EXE (executable) file itself, which indirectly hides those icons from you.

I sometimes enjoy changing the icons on my computer for a specific application or maybe for a certain file that I use very often and want to visually differentiate from everything else. You can quickly change the icon on a program, file, document, photo, etc by simply right-clicking on it and going to Properties. Click on Customize and then click Change Icon.

This is great for the most part, but the problem comes in trying to find a suitable icon to replace the current one with. By default, when you change the icon for a folder or program, Windows will bring up a list of icons from SHELL32.DLL, which has a bunch of generic-looking and crappy icons. Now going around and randomly clicking on EXE files or DLL files to find icons is not fun nor efficient.

IconsExtract is a cool freeware application that you can use to automatically find icons that are stored in EXE, DLL, OCX, CPL, and other file types. You’ll be amazed at the actual number of icons stored on your computer after using this program!

The program is a standalone executable and does not require any installation at all, which means you can run it on any computer easily! You can also filter the search by icons or cursors, by icon size, and even by the number of colors.

You have 2 main search options when you start up the program:

1. Select only a single file. For example: C:\WINNT\System32\shell32.dll. You can either manually type in the filename into the textbox, or select it from a dialog box by clicking the “Browse Files” button.
2. Select multiple filenames by using wildcard characters (? and *). You can select the folder that you want to scan by clicking the “Browse Folders” button. If you check the “Search Subfolders” check-box, all of the subfolders of the main folder will also be scanned.For example: if you type “c:\*.*” in the filename text-box, and check the “Search Subfolders” option, IconsExtract will search for icons in all folders and files on your C: drive.

After the search is complete, you will find the icons displayed in the main window of the program.

You can then save the icons into ICO files by selecting the ones you want to save and then choosing Save Selected Icons from the File menu.

You can also copy a single icon to the clipboard and paste it into another application by pressing the standard CTRL + C key combo. This will copy the icon in the standard dimensions of 16×16 or 32×32. If you want to copy a different size, double click on the icon and select the specific image in the properties window and click Copy Selected Image.

Overall, this is a very cool application for anyone who likes to customize their icons or who wants to take a cool icon from a program as use it as a Fav Icon or something similar. Definitely worth check out! Enjoy! [via Online tech Tips]

• Nina Moric 2008 Calendar - bit off a stunner

• Boob flashers of the world unite

• Burns Night - Two clever limericks and an ode (?) in honour of the great man:

A Lad For All O' That

Oh, our Robbie had humanish faults,

He would flirt and consume single malts,

But the words that he writ,

On Scotsmen's hearts sit,

More treasured than coin in their vaults.

by J. Michael O'Neil

To Irn Bru

Woke up with sweat upon my breastie,

Ma heid was sair, my breath a' yeastie,

Had been a night of drams and gin,

Dancing an reelling in an awfie din,

Gawking at limmers and getting fu,

May the lord be thankit fur Irn Bru.

by Magnus Mcdermid

Burns Night (a Golf Widows reply)

To Robert Burns we owe this night

To men in general woman's plight

We fall in love, our heads we lose

Our hearts we give, for men to use.

We cook, we sew, we clean the house

Sometimes we play the timorous mouse

We give up jobs and raise the kids

Clean his loos and lower the lids.

Around life's course we carry his clubs

Retrieve him from his many pubs

We hear of shots, of putts he made

Through gritted teeth we say, well played.

What women want is hardly news

Some words of love, advice on shoes

So listen men these words are true

I'm saying men, I'm meaning YOU.

Tell your girl, your woman, wife

You are the meaning of my life

Though golf may take you far away

Without their help you could not play.

For who would keep your trousers neat

Who would keep your kit complete

In all of this I tell you laddie

A woman betters any caddie.

by Ken Batchelor

• Recipe for the Perfect Marriage

1. Two times a week, we go to a nice restaurant, have a little beverage, good food and companionship. She goes on Tuesdays, I go on Fridays.
2. We also sleep in separate beds. Hers is in California and mine is in Texas.
3. I take my wife everywhere...but she keeps finding her way back.
4. I asked my wife where she wanted to go for our Anniversary. "Somewhere I haven't been in a long time!" She said. So I suggested the kitchen.
5. We always hold hands. If I let go, she shops.
6. She has an electric blender, electric toaster and electric bread maker. She said, "There are too many gadgets and no place to sit down!" So I bought her an electric chair.
7. My wife told me the car wasn't running well because there was water in the carburettor. I asked where the car was; she told me "In the lake."
8. She got a mudpack and looked great for two days. Then the mud fell off.
9. She ran after the garbage truck, yelling "Am I too late for the garbage?" The driver said "No, jump in!"
10. Remember: Marriage is the number one cause of divorce.
11. I married Miss Right. I just didn't know her first name was "Always".
12. I haven't spoken to my wife in 18 months. I don't like to interrupt her.
13. The last fight was my fault though. My wife asked, "What's on the TV?" I said "Dust!"

del.icio.us Tags: Pattaya, pattaya, pattaya_rag, pattaya_nightlife, go-go_bars, bar_girls, pattayarag, bar_go-go_pattaya, beach_pattaya, news_pattaya, girl_pattaya, girl_thai, bar_girl_thai, lady_boys, katoeys, asian