Mescalito

I have about 180K miles left in my Delta FF balance and they do me almost no good anymore, at least for trips to LOS. There are NO upgradeable tickets available anymore between LAX or SFO and BKK, and getting a free ticket now costs 2x the miles it did just 5 or 6 years ago. I usually go on China Airlines because I get Delta miles that way, but I buy the ticket from CI directly and give them my FF # at check-in because it's a lot cheaper than buying the same CI ticket from Delta. Korean Air is one of their partners, too, but their air fares have become enormously expensive. Why couldn't I have been born rich instead of handsome and charming?

Agreed. I always start with Kayak, then when I find a decent fare I go to that airline's web site and see if I get an even better one; I almost always do. I'm in Thailand 2-3 times a year and with very rare exceptions have been on China Airlines or EVA. Their best rates on their own sites are better than their fares listed on 3rd-party sites like Kayak.

Ditto on the recommendation for Solar. Their office is just off the lobby at Tara Court Hotel. They've been doing this for years, know all the courses and their management very well, and have it down to a science. About they only thing you'll have to do is show up; they take care of the rest.

I'm not sure if this one qualifies, but it did for me. I was at Edwards Air Force Base in California to watch the space shuttle Challenger land on its maiden flight. Quite an inspiring event to witness, and even more so now in retrospect as it's the one the blew up on a few years later.

An icon and superstar in the truest sense. Makes me shake my head in wonder at what passes for a celebrity these days. RIP, Elizabeth.

I've used China Airlines for most of my trips out of LAX and SFO. They've generally had the best prices, esp. for biz class. Their 747's for the trans-Pacific leg are getting a bit long in the tooth but still good, but the TPE-BKK legs have generally been on newer Airbusses (340's, usually). I've flown EVA a couple of times when their prices were able to beat CI's, and found them quite acceptable, although I though CI's food was better.

It may be Brit-specific in its wording, buit I think it applies to politicians pretty much everywhere.

When I was still very single and hadn't yet been to LOS I used to get this all the time here in California. I had a few regular hangouts here in LA, a great tapas bar/restaurant among them, where this "interview" was a regular phenomenon. Some would even try to pin down where I lived to the specific neighborhood, probably because they could gauge my financial status that way. I was always vague about that, and when asked what I did for a living my answer was always, "Oh, work is the last thing I feel like talking about when I go out at night". Some took that well enough; others were clearly frustrated by my unwillingness to let them vet my financial status.

It's a bit odd, really. Falang women that 10 years ago would have stopped me dead in my tracks I barely notice anymore. And as much as I hate to generalize, falang women, at least here in the US, do seem to be a lot more self-absorbed than Asian women in general, and Thai women in particular. I found myself wondering one day about what the biggest differences were between my falang ex-wife and my Thai girlfriend, and I finally figured it out . . . . . . I have a habit of being a little disorganized, scattered, and rushing around as a result. My Thai girlfriend is constantly reminding me to take things slowly, not try to "think too much", etc.. Why? Because she wants to me feel less stressed. My ex-wife, on the other hand, got after me about these things not because she wanted me to experience less stress, but because she saw them as character flaws and was afraid of how it would reflect on her.

I generally sleep OK on the flights over and back; OK, not great. I pop 2 Advil PM's with my dinner onboard, washed down with a glass or 2 of wine or maybe another scotch, then watch a movie until the pills kick in. One thing that probably helps me is that my outbound flight from either SFO or LAX (on China Airlines via Taipei) generally departs about 1:00 AM, so I'm ready for bed by that time anyway.

Did you hear about the dyslexic agnostic with insomnia? He would lay awake at night wondering if there was a Dog.

I have the Rosetta Stone program and it's very good, albeit definitely on the pricey side compared to some others. I paid about US$250 for it, but I just checked their web site and it's now on sale for $179. Its best feature is the voice-print analyzer. You hear a word or phrase spoken by a native speaker and see a graphical display. Then you say the same thing into your microphone and the program shows you a graph of how you pronounced it compared with the native speaker. You can repeat as many times as you need until your pronounciation closely matches the native speaker. The TAT also also released a free iPhone app called "Speak Thai" that's pretty good for what it does. It gives you the written and spoken versions of key phrases in various settings: shopping, dining, travel, etc.

I'm self-employed as a headhunter/recruiter; a mix of contract consulting work and contingency. Hope to get to a point where I can relo to Thailand and run it from there.

My congratulations to Team Europe under the able leadership of their captain, Duncan. While we definitely got our asses kicked by a resounding 4 point margin, it was still a fun day and I look forward to next year. And thank you, Frosty, for not posting any pic's of me tumbling ass-over-elbows into the ditch on the 1st hole!

It looks like you're stuck with me again, Callum. Unless business obligations get in the way, I'll be there. Hcp -- 6 Shirt -- Large Team -- US, of course

That line from King Lear came immediately to mind when I ran across this story on the web. You just know the family has some issues when a daughter builds a web site telling people not to vote for her father in the upcoming election: Do Note Vote For My Dad

I'd like to see a pic of these new seats since I can't figure out how "thinner" can be more comfortable. If it's the cushioning that's thinner I'd think that's less padding between you and the hard plastic that makes up the structural part of the seat. And an inch-and-a-half more legroom? Is that enough to even notice, much less benefit from? That's roughly the length of my big toe.

Mine's linked to my PayPal account, which in turn links to my debit card. I have it set up to automatically re-charge my Skype account when the balance drops below 2 dollars. Never had a problem with it.

I think I'll copy and print this onto cardstock and mail it to the Vatican as a Christmas card. I'm sure I'm going to Hell anyway so what do I have to lose?

Most of my trips over the last few years have been on CI and I've always enjoyed it. The food's been good, the service just as good, and the planes themselves quite comfortable. And if you want to spend the extra money, their biz class is probably the best value out there.

I use it daily from the US to talk with the GF back in Thailand, and since we both have web cams on our laptops we make video calls with Skype. The only problem we ever have is the result of her connecting to the 'net via a wireless aircard as opposed to a cable or DSL connection; the calls drop sometimes. I use it when I'm there, too, to call back to the US and have found it to work very well.

Here's one my father told me about. Dorothy Parker, the poet, satirist and world-class wit, was about to enter a ballroom for a party when a young starlet stood aside to let Parker go first, saying to her, "Please go ahead, Miss Parker. Age before beauty." Parker replied, "No, my dear. Pearls before swine".

You're not really old until you sit on the toilet and your balls hang in the water.

I can sympathize. I used to go outbound to BKK from SFO or LAX on China in biz class, and back on Korean in biz because for some reason it worked out a lot cheaper than r/t fare on either one of them alone. The homeward flight on KE in biz class was only a little for more than 800 bucks a couple of years ago, but now it's about 3 times that . Too bad, too, since KE was the best airline I've flown.

"Allah" is simply the Arabic (and Farci) word for "God"; it's not the name for some other deity that Muslims believe in. The god of the Torah, the Koran, and the Bible is (are?) one and the same. Same general story, same characters, different authors.