Shilo

Only one...no close second. Euro Optics 2nd Rd. Across from Royal Garden.

This is one of the tricks that I heard about in the past...where someone clicked the wrong link that sent a virus but it also captured all of the contacts of the victims address book...then it sent the virus link to all of his friends from his account.

Thanks for the responses... The email in question was titled District Court and seemed to be a noticed that I was to appear in court. But I have never had a problem here in Thailand, haven't been in the states for the past 7 years (again with no problems) and once I opened the email there was nothing that mentioned me by name or identified the court or "district" in question. Needless to say, I didn't bother to click the link that claimed to offer the details of the court issue... Thanks again

A quick question... Every so often I get a "questionable" email that ends up in my junk folder. Generally I just delete them and move on...but sometimes the title gets my attention and I'm tempted to open one or more of them. The question I have is: can you get a virus from just opening the email its self. I have always thought that you actually have to click on a link or download something to cause a problem... If I just open the email to see what is inside and do nothing else can this act alone cause a problem? Thanks

Had lunch yesterday with Greg_B and OJ...as before the food was good and the portions generous. Spoke with one of the owners and they are expanding the menu...they're adding chicken wings, White Castle sliders, and chili dogs made with Cincinnati Greek chili. This won't mean much to many of you but for this Cincinnati Kid who grew up on this stuff it's a dream come true if they can get it right (or even close).

Not disagreeing with your point... but you have to understand that they are using the same counting process that has been in place for the past several decades. So comparing apples to apples (rotten though they may be) you have to say that there has been a huge improvement during his time in office.

I have some serious issues with Obama but we should at least give the man his due: The stock market is at record highs Unemployment is below what I learned in college was considered the full employment rate Job growth is the strongest it's been since...well, the last Democratic president. Granted, most of this came about from the irresponsible actions of the Fed. But it is amassing that the man was able to accomplish anything with the GOP continuing to pursue the "Just Say No to EVERYTHING" mantra.

Just to close the circle and because I am getting tired of playing Wack-a-mole with the up again down again earlier shows... here is a link that has seems the most stable and has all 6 segments: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxuOh0w-DIjrgDdft1Iek9Q/videos

Ep. 3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzpOMyeyk_o

Ep 4 (while it lasts...)

Might as well finish what I've started... Ep. 3... enjoy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uwBi_W8j1Y

Try again... not sure why the last guy took his video down but I found another one and made the change. It should work now.

Here you go...Eps 02 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pitkMumlNBc

If you mean do I have a guess on how low the ruble can fall against the baht... well, my guess is as bad as the next guys. But I'll stick with the number I posted on a different thread asking for 2015 predictions. I'm watching for the number 35 I think that the US dollar could rise to 35-1, the Russian ruble could fall to 35-1 and both would be in large part because I believe that oil could drop to $35 per barrel.

The downgrade to junk status is actually a pretty big deal for the Russian exchange rate. Most countries will use their bond markets to keep the currency rates in line. If the currency gets to strong they will lower the interest on bonds to discourage foreign investment and curb the inflows of capital... this makes their currency weaker. Or they will raise interest rates to attract foreign investments into their bond markets to support their currency when it is weak. This is what happened a few months ago when Russia raised the interest rates from 10.5 (already very high) to 17% overnight. The act put a floor on the drop of the ruble at around 50-1 against the Thai baht. And on the street in Pattaya the Russian tourist where lucky if they could get 48-1. Granted still down by half from what they were getting a year ago but at least a floor seemed to be holding at 50. This new downgrade has thrown all of that out the window. When bonds get a junk status it means that the market (not Russia) will apply a higher interest rate. And many of the biggest bond investors (mutual funds) will have to sell their holdings and or will not be able to buy new supply. The result... the 50-1 floor has been broken and now sits at 48-1. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/01/27/remember-russia-its-still-doomed/

A couple of quick questions... I ask because I honestly don't know the answers. Which has the higher markup (profit margin): a bottle of beer, a well made mix drink or draft beer? If it turns out that the well made mix drink makes the most money per unit then it is sheer stupidity to water it down. You might make a little more per drink but you would lose a ton of sales to those like myself who switched to beer... The the ladydrink mills like Sensation... i seems that their business model is built around offering eyecandy and pushing drinks. Are their drinks any better then the competition?

I think it was PattayaPete who once told me years ago that the Pattaya bars adopted the English measure of a "shot" with a 25ml measure. While in America the common measure was closer to 45ml. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shot_glass So even before others come on and suggest that it might be a problem with bottom shelf products, watered down products, or other slight of hand gimmicks that are used in many bars around the world... you have to realize that your starting with a standard that might be half of what you are use to. Bottom line: good bars serve a good drink that encourages the patrons to buy another round... poor bars don't. Personally, I drink beers in Pattaya bars, my old favorite Jack Daniels in my home and lots and lots or Rum in AC.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1b76z_7driI

This is the case that many of us have been making over the past several years. But we keep being shot down by those who suggest that the Thai economy is stronger then ever, that the girls have many other attractive options and so silly crap like "the girls should demand and deserve 3000 for St and 5000 for LT and not a single baht less..." is logical. Anyone who spoke out about the changes that have driven away the "average" punter are accused of preaching Doom and Gloom. Well I'm not going to suggest that the Pattaya P4P scene has reached the Doom stage... but it's looking pretty damn Gloomy.

I got together with several of my friends on Wednesday (31th) afternoon for a bite to eat and some friendly conversation. Everyone there was an expat and to the man they all said the same thing. Their plans for that evening was to stay in and avoid the streets... I would guess that the week between Christmas and New Years is now my second least favorite time to be in Pattaya... just behind Songkran.

In case anyone is interested. Here is the best source for torrent news that I have found... http://torrentfreak.com/

Just wanted to send out a short message to congratulate Marks' Vogon Rams on a great finish. Mark has been up there at the top of the table year after year and it was great to see him sitting at the top of our league. It was a strange NFL season (IMHO) and to come out of it beating 99.9% of the site is nothing short of remarkable... Again, Congrats to Mark... well done-:) And as promised on our league message board... For those who aren't burnt out with Fantasy Football, I have set up another post season league for the Gridiron Playoffs. Here is a cut and paste of the invite with the link you would need to set up a team. This message is from Shilo's Prowler who is challenging you to play Gridiron Playoff Challenge on ESPN.com. This game challenges you to build a playoff roster of pro football players consisting of 2 QBs, 2 RBs, 2 WRs, 1 TE, 1 Kicker, and 1 Team Defense, while staying under your team's $50m salary cap. Best of all, it's FREE to play. Get in the action now: http://games.espn.go.com/nfl-gridiron-playoff-challenge/en/group?groupID=26659&invitesource=email&inviteuser=NTM3NTA4MTU%3D&ex_cid=invite-email-gridironpc Group: Pattaya Wannabes Gentlemen (and as always I use that term loosely) enjoy the holidays, the playoffs, and this years Superbowl... Hope to see you all again next season. Shilo

Somehow I'm thinking that sending the missus to a shopping mall to save 10 baht while paying an electric bill might not be cost effective in the end.

I'm afraid that many people are missing the point. There is a good chance that EVERYONE will feel the "negative effect" of this crisis before it's over. Right now we're talking about the Russians. I've read a few items that suggest that the satellite countries around the Soviet Union are feeling the pinch. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-19/belarus-steps-up-capital-controls-to-stem-ex-soviet-currency-rot.html Oil producing countries (such as African) are having their own problems: http://blogs.platts.com/2014/12/16/africa-oil-politics/ Or Venezuela : http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2014/12/venezuela_collapse_oil_dropping.html If the price of oil stays low and the Russian currency crisis continues then one of the least bad options for Russia will be to sell more oil at even lower prices just to get the dollars and avoid defaults. And speaking of defaults that brings in another batch of countries that could feel the pain in their banking systems... countries like Austria, the Netherlands, Italy, France... many of their banks have seen their stocks drop by 30% in the past month alone: http://www.businessinsider.com/banks-most-exposed-russias-looming-debt-crisis-2014-12 This ballgame is only in the second inning. Putin himself said yesterday that he expects this to drag on for the next couple of years,

Some interesting numbers in this small piece about the importance of Russian tourism to Thailand: http://thainews.prd.go.th/centerweb/newsen/NewsDetail?NT01_NewsID=WNECO5712190010007 They said the number of Russian tourists coming to Thailand rose from 90,000 in 2003 to 1.75 million in 2013. Last year, the revenue gained from Russian tourists alone made up as much as 10.1 percent of all revenue generated from tourism. According to the analysts, the Russian currency has already fallen from 30 rubles per dollar early this year to 62 rubles per dollar at present. They cautioned that should the value of the ruble nosedive by more than 300 percent as in 1998 during which time Russia faced a severe economic crisis, the number of Russian holiday makers may shrink by 30 percent compared to the number this year. The tourism sector may as a result lose 50 billion baht in revenue next year or about 0.5 percent of the country’s GDP. - See more at: http://thainews.prd.go.th/centerweb/newsen/NewsDetail?NT01_NewsID=WNECO5712190010007#sthash.U6YGZMpI.dpuf They said the number of Russian tourists coming to Thailand rose from 90,000 in 2003 to 1.75 million in 2013. Last year, the revenue gained from Russian tourists alone made up as much as 10.1 percent of all revenue generated from tourism.