Category — Personal rant

I thought I had to be more concerned with my looks and images at my age than when I was a teenager. (teenager is the age that concerns about looks the most, but that’s not what I meant.) I thought I would be more stubborn than when I was a kid. No… not at all.

Maybe because at this stage of my life, I don’t have anything to protect like everybody else at my age. I don’t have to act like an adult with responsibility like everybody else. I don’t have to create any image for myself. I can just be an adult the way I am.

It seems to work really good within my social group at least.

You are what you do… Maybe that’s what happens to me. My job in Thailand was just a short period of time. It hasn’t created any image for me, yet. I’m just as new as a new graduate, who has to build himself to wherever it is he wants to be.

1. There is no reason not to be nice to anybody unless they don’t deserve it.
2. It’s ok to let others take advantage of you a little, but never ever take advantage of anybody.
3. Everybody has something worthwhile to listen to even though they’re obviously stupid.
4. Don’t ever blame other people, fate, or luck for your own mistakes.
5. Remember everything worthwhile, and also remember some silly things, too.
6. If you’re like me, your biggest obstacle in life is yourself.
7. Be honest, don’t cheat and don’t lie
8. You will have to do things you don’t want to do a lot more than things you want to do.
9. Be nice to your dad when you’re a teenager.
10. Don’t just let anybody take your “being nice” as an opportunity to walk all over you.

function > aesthetic? I’m talking about website design. A developing country like Thailand seems to think otherwise. Take a look at www.truecorp.co.th and you’ll know what I mean.

True corporation is a big ISP, Cell phone, Home Phone, Cable TV provider company in Thailand. They generally have a lot of information about their operation to show off to web serfers. However, they seem to forget what the website is for, and what do users need from visiting a website.

The other day, maybe my head wires differently than the rest of True internet user, I spent more than an hour to find a way to upgrade my DSL speed from True website. Why don’t I just call the customer support? I did and they told me I could (or have to) change my DSL plan/speed from True website. “Oh, ok, it’s good to know, thank you.” I told them.

An hour later, I finally found it hidden somewhere under the “Online” link. But, that’s not the end of it yet… Well, I filled in the form, select 3Mbps DSL package as my new plan, clicked submit. Bam!…

“Server actively refused your request” waht the fcuk!!?

I tried again, same message. I wasted close to 2 hours trying to do something I should have been able to do in under 15 minutes.

Well, I tried again the next morning, and it worked. Apparently, the automated process wasn’t automate at all. There was nobody sitting behind the server at 2AM in the morning to work on my request. That’s what I think!

Look at comcast.com and educate yourself, True people, or any Thai who keeps telling themselves and everybody else they are a group of new generation, with tons of degree from UK, US, FU, CK, whatever…

Simple things that needs to be changed and you still can’t do it right.

I think it is because we Thais don’t possess an ability to do anything step by step. We know a lot of things, but we only know how to do all those things at the same time, no other ways. multitasking, huh?

I have my first client even before I’m finish with my business plan. It’s kind of a good news in a way, although I’m not really ready. I have all the tools in my box, but I’m just so new to doing business in Thailand. It’s the only part that worries me actually.

I guess I just have to get familiar with the Thai system again. I don’t think I totally forgot about it yet. I just haven’t thought about it for a really long time… that’s all.

After a lot of meetings 4 days straight with friends from high school to after college, I almost have enough information I need to decide which path want to choose.

I’m back to opening my own business. A business which I can start doing it on my own without any help at first. A business which I don’t have to invest a lot of money to get start. A business where I can start from my own comfortable home.

I’ll start writing ideas, business plan, marketing plan really soon. Let’s hope for the best.

It’s not that I know if there’s going to be a part two or three, but the title gives me something to look forward to.
I’m in a process of reinventing myself in this new town. I have a lot of plans, but none of which seems easy. My first plan was to open a little internet cafe close to my house just to give some steady income for my family. However, after I spent some time researching about the particular industry, I didn’t think it was a good idea to invest in that huge amount of money for a really small return. And, like one of my friends told me, I was about 3 years late for this business.

It’s now down to my last resort. It’s not that I hate it, but I used to tell a dear friend back in the state that I would never open a computer store here. Why? I don’t know… I thought after 7 years of working in one, you should just find something else to do instead.
That’s an idealist way of thinking, you might say. Regular people will usually follow their own path, right? After I’ve been working in the computer business for 7 years, why would I want to throw all my experience away?

It’s just that deep down inside, I know I can do a lot more things than just being a “tech”. I’m so in love with myself, I know. But, I refuse to believe I can only be a comp tech. It doesn’t really matter now actually. My precious little sunshine is coming out in 3 months. I’ve got to think of something.

Hope and peace…
…To be continued

I have nothing to add from my last post since it has been a little too long…
It’s pretty long in terms of both distance and time, actually. The US of A seems to be so far away and so long ago I’m afraid I’ll forget all about it soon.

That’s sad if you think about it. I’ve been in Thailand for less than 2 weeks! Not that I’m completely adapted to “Thai way of life”, but I’m getting close. Last time I came here was 5 years ago as a “tourist” with a few filthy American dollars to spend. I remember I was mad at almost everything Thai. I was mad enough to write a complaint to a newspaper about it. Not that it made anything better, but it actually made me more mad. (or madder? is that a word?)

It’s totally different this time. It took me no time to drive, eat and sleep like a real Bangkokean. (My wife is still adjusting really hard, though. She’s still living like a San Franciscan.) Talk about driving, I drive pretty crazy without feeling a thing about it. I could go all the way from the left most lane to the right most without much problems. Why? Because now I know that Bangkokeans are extremely skilled at avoiding driving accident. I could just switch lanes (with about 1 second of turn signal) knowing that the car in the lane I’m switching to WILL either break or speed pass me. The drivers are all really alert, like driving is their second nature or something.

Everything is crazy here. A lot crazier than the Bay area. It’d be nice if I could go back to the bay area… But it’s not possible now. I’ve spent a lot of money for the house already. I’m going to just settle here and be happy about my situation as hard…no..happy and hard should not be in the same sentence. I’m living in the moment and I’ll be happy. That’s what I’m doing.

I stumbled upon this “Immigration bill gets reprieve” article earlier today. Basically, $4.4 billion would be available for “border security” if the bill is signed into law.

I don’t really care or pay much attention to the story or the bill itself, but the article just makes me wonder. What if the US. didn’t have any border at all? If foreigners could come and work in the US freely without having to be US citizens or having work permits, what would the USA be like?

Pros: We will have more choices, more resources to choose from.
The foreign workers would be the main force to drive lazy American to try harder to make themselves better.
We could finally be able to hire somebody to do things we don’t want to do easier and safer, maybe even cheaper?

Cons: Under quailfied US workers will be unemployed even more than before.
The USA will have the highest population in the world in a week, if there’s no limit at the border.
Loads of problems will come after that con#2 above, you don’t even want to take a second look at the Pros again.

Well,… having the border wide open all at once without any restriction is not a good idea. But, you know what I’m getting here.

…to be continued

Is your child an extention of yourself?

I heard a lot of real life stories indicate that parents, especially fathers, tend to think about their children as an extention of themselves.

Of course, fathers always want what is best for their children. Sometimes, what is best seems to be what the fathers wanted when they were a child, but they never got it, or they never had a chance to get it.

Wouldn’t it be nice if human can inherit experiences and memories from their parents? We would never made the same mistake twice. We would never have to teach our children anything. And more over, our children can be exactly what we want without us having to tell them what they should do. For example, I had been trying to get in the PGA tour my whole life without any success. I could be sure that my children will be able to get in without much effort since they would have my experiences, abilities and memories.

No…that’s a silly thought. If humankind has that ability, our next generation will have to work even harder to get to where they want because everybody will be even better and harder to beat, won’t they?

The reason I write this message is just for myself really. I don’t want to make my child an extention of myself no matter how much I want him/her to be. I’ll have to come back to read my own thought later on.

I remember why I hated English class or English language so much back when I was in Thailand.

I took a look at a friend’s English grammar book(which is in Thai.), and it was horrible, such a bad way of learning English. There’s a lot of explaining rather than examples or contexts. It’s so hard to understand how to use grammar if you didn’t have any good example to look at.

Here’s one of the lesson in the book:

——————————————————————-

Present Perfect (Have + V3)
I have run for 30 kilometers.
Present perfect tense emphasizes on the result NOT the action.

Present Perfect Continuous (Have + been + Ving)
I have been running.
This type of tense emphasizes on the action NOT the result.

——————————————————————-

What kind of BS was that? The examples were bad. The explanation was confusing. And we were forced to remember something we didn’t even need to know. (This type of tense is called “present perfect continuous endless loop…” such and such.)

That’s the main reason why I have bad grammar. yea… blame it all on the English teachers.

Ok… I did a search and I found a better tutorial on the subject here and here.