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On 27/10/2018 at 9:12 AM, Gormongous said:

 

Spoilered because this isn't the cat thread:

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I don't even like animals all that much (very allergic) but those are good cat pictures

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Same here: allergic to cats, but love seeing them frolic around. It's quite an ordeal when I'm with friends who have an adorable persian.

 

So, ever since a few years I've noticed, much to my surprise, that the shift to wintry times is weighing on me quite a bit. We're currently enduring the first real cold and sun-deprived week in the Netherlands, and it's affecting my mood. I'm staying chipper, but I feel it gnawing at the fringes of my mental state. A pervasive sense of mild dread and tension. I hope it'll pass next week, when I'm used to grey skies and fell winds again.

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It's beautifully sunny here in Vietnam here and although today is much better than normal, I've very much felt dread setting in. I think it's partially due to all the madness going on. I really sympathise with those in Brazil and it's a terrifying sign of what's to come. Especially since there's been a lot of talk about 'purging' and 'not enough killing'. Who knows.

 

But on the bright side (for me at least) I've started coding again with Treehouse. They had a free trial week and it's got me definitely paying for the next month at least. The course is really well designed and they've got a bunch of courses available if anyone's interested in any programming stuff. I really feel like it's worth the $25. The videos are still full of stuff I don't understand, but it's really well broken down and explained and you have to use the stuff they teach you. I'm gonna keep going with it and it's giving me a good sense of purpose.

 

My girlfriend and are planning on moving to New Zealand so if there's any thumbs that far down south let me know!

 

Roderick what are the Dutch winters like? I loved British winters coz they were so crisp, but it also gets dark around 4pm around December.

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Is Vietnam teetering on a political knife edge, Dosed? Feels that way from your words. What a nasty turn the world has taken. What the hell is up with all the rampant nationalism and the sudden desire to have nigh-autocrats take reign to purge and cleanse and close borders? Good lord...

 

Dutch winters are quite varied. I'd imagine they don't differ all that much from British winters. We have lots of crisp days (we call it a 'steel blue sky'), off-set by weeks shrouded in grey clouds. Some winters are wet and sloppy, other frosty. It rarely dips below 5-10 degrees centigrade, though depending on the wind it might feel a lot colder.

 

Winters are fine. I just need to get used to them nowadays! Currently I started a Jan van Haasteren-puzzle (of a wintry scene, coincidentally) to ease my mind a little in the evenings, and it works like a charm. I might set up the Christmas tree a few weeks early, just to get some light and luster into the room.

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I mean honestly I don't know. There's a lot of censorship here. You can't access the BBC (you can get to the recipe site though for some reason), and Twitter has been inaccessible for the last 3 weeks or so. Even googling why that might be revealed no results. 

 

There was a riot a few months ago in Hanoi and that didn't seem to be being reported on, and there was a big protest about something which also didn't turn up on international sites. It's pretty scary.

 

Honestly though I can't really tell how the locals feel about it. I can't speak about it to them, and the ones I can communicate with would rather not talk about it. The same thing happened while visiting Laos and Cambodia. 

 

It's late here now so I don't want to read about it but it seems Bolsonaro has recently done some scary stuff to do with teachers.

 

It honestly seems to me like we're on the brink of our generation's/century's dark times. Whatever that means. I feel like I'm going to live my adult life in a very different world to my childhood one. I'm sorry this got so dark.

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In a related note, this just got posted a few days ago:

You can go to jail for 15 years for this kind of stuff in Thailand

 

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On 10/30/2018 at 10:56 AM, Roderick said:

(we call it a 'steel blue sky')

Never heard that one (staalblauw? wat?) 'tight blue sky' (strak blauw) is the one I'm familiar with.

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That's a perfect example of local variations in language! You live way up in the North, I'm from the South. Staalblauwe lucht is a very common expression there.

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Just to clarify when I said I sympathize with the Brazilians it's not because something as explicitly or overtly evil is happening in Vietnam. It's just I've been reading about Brazil and he seems like an awful, evil man and I worry about the more outspoken opponents and what he'll do to them. Unfortunately, in this part of the world stuff like what you posted, @twmac has been going on for a hell of a long time.

 

The weather has just turned to autumn/winter weather here and it's lovely. It's like an ideal British summer day. Bright, warm(ish) and no where near as humid. I never spent anytime in The Netherlands during winter, but I loved it in the summer as a kid. I spent a lot of holidays in Delft and really miss it.

 

I'm really enjoying my programming now. I've just started learning about lists in Python and it's giving my brain a run for its money. It really is like learning a foreign language. I see things earlier on that I have no idea what they could possibly mean, and then they show up in a later part of the course and I think "I bet I know what that does" and maybe 50% of the time I do! I'm a genius. The course is way more aimed at beginners and isn't bogging me down in how the language itself works, so I'd highly recommend it.

 

 

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Yeah, I've been here for a couple of years - but there are some old timers who have been here for two of the coups that reinstated the monarch as the lead figure head of the country.

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What are you doing in Thailand? We're actually gonna visit Bangkok on 1st of January for a couple of days. Any recommendations?

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About two weeks ago I got into an argument with a friend of 10 or so years that ended up breaking our friendship. So now I’m going through a sad period because in some ways he was a good friend and losing him hurts somewhat.

 

But on the other hand I’m feeling incredibly relieved, because we had been growing apart for the last several years and I hadn’t actually realized how burdensome his friendship had been mentally. It’s mostly about his worldview - he always presented himself as liberal, but in all arguments seemed to be taking the side of pick up artists, trolls and even neonazis up to some point for some inexplicable reason. He respects individual freedom and believes people should have equal opportunities, but then is completely privilege blind, believes himself to be higher than others (esp. e.g. restaurant staff), keeps insisting on using insulting terms for black people at least when none are around, thinks feminism is stupid etc.

 

I’m so glad to not have to deal with that any more.

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Sounds like an upgrade to be rid of such a person. Oftentimes it's best to cherish the memories, but not stay caught in a friendship that doesn't feel fine or fun anymore.

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Yeah. I think we had many commonalities also, that even other people have noticed. And we shared some hobbies. But there were always big differences as well in the way we thought about everything. I thought I could ignore that to some degree, but eventually the differences grew more noticeable and it anyway led to what I now feel was an inevitable breaking.

 

I even now feel like maybe I should have broken it earlier, because I sometimes already felt these differences quite strongly 5 or more years ago. But he is a very active person in some ways and mostly he kept initiating things and often it was good to hang out together at least when certain things didn't come up. We also have a very large group of people in common - we worked together and even might again in the future, although I think I will now avoid going to work in the place he went to if there are other good options. And besides that I'm also now friends with a few of his childhood friends, with whom I now get along somewhat better than with him, even if we don't share as many hobbys and interests.

 

Anyway, I hope this will actually give me the push to make some new friends or strengthen some other friendships with people I have much more respect towards.

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On 02/11/2018 at 12:25 PM, Dosed said:

What are you doing in Thailand? We're actually gonna visit Bangkok on 1st of January for a couple of days. Any recommendations?

 

Sorry, didn't see this until now.

 

Are you looking for touristy things to do, good places to eat and drink and/or do you know where you will be staying?

 

I do a little work remotely and am trying to figure out what to do next since my divorce.

 

Send me a private message and I can recommend a plethora of things.

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Okey doke! I'll send you a message.

 

My time in Vietnam is coming to an end and I'm succumbing to the feelings I always get when I leave a place. It's my fourth big move in my life and I always start to appreciate/like everything more in a place when I'm about to leave. I know it has to happen coz we're just not happy here unfortunately. The weather has been surprisingly cold here recently. Very crisp and clear, which is my favourite type of weather.

 

I'm still plugging away at my course and I finally got my head around what padding actually does on a webpage. I think.

 

What are people's Christmas plans? Since it's my first one away from home, and my girlfriend's third, we're gonna treat ourselves to a spa day and a nice meal and cocktails.

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For sure dude - I can offer all kinds of suggestions.

 

I am going to Cambodia to renew my visa and also get drunk for a week as a means of celebrating Christmas

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Thanks for the info on Bangkok twmac! And for those who think it looks like I'm low key shaming them... they did send me a list of recommendations in a private message. Unfortunately we did go to Khoa San road just to gawk and be amazed by everything. It was worth the trip in my opinion. We ended up in China town and managed to find a little bar attached to a car park which reminded me a lot of Vietnam and the owner was blasting live versions of everything from Bon Jovi to Lady Gaga on their phone. It was great.

 

I've moved to New Zealand to look for work and travel with my girlfriend. We're gonna look for seasonal work picking fruit at the end of January and then just play it by ear. It's really weird being in a part of the world where the sun doesn't always set at 5:30-6pm throughout the whole year. I keep being baffled when the sun is still out at 8:30pm. Craziness.

 

What's new in every one else's lives?

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On 17/01/2019 at 12:31 PM, Dosed said:

Thanks for the info on Bangkok twmac! And for those who think it looks like I'm low key shaming them... they did send me a list of recommendations in a private message. Unfortunately we did go to Khoa San road just to gawk and be amazed by everything. It was worth the trip in my opinion. We ended up in China town and managed to find a little bar attached to a car park which reminded me a lot of Vietnam and the owner was blasting live versions of everything from Bon Jovi to Lady Gaga on their phone. It was great.

 

What's new in every one else's lives?

 

 

Hhahah - I only saw this now, you never replied to my message so I figured you did your own thing. Khao San road is weird because it has always been a mess but now it is becoming popular with young, rich Thais as a place to slum it with crusty foreigners. I hate it there and only go if I am looking to get shit-faced or hook-up (and even then, at 38 years old it is an awkward thing to meet people on Khao San)

 

China Town is really nice and I am glad you found a good place to sit and drink. I love Bangkok a lot and wish I could stay here forever, but I am already looking at jobs in Toronto, Edinburgh, London and Brighton.

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I am totally sleepy all the time. And when I get to my bed, I can't sleep because I'm too tired and closing my eyes causes headache. Is it normal? 

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