Shilo

Here you go... broken up into 8 parts. http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt9fR4ku7aSgqwKS3HoWQiA/videos Part 1 to give you an idea if it's worth the effort: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1-uIQupnzY

9 Friggin years... It was 9 friggin years ago that I got the bright idea to start a 10 team draft league. And in all of those years I have never had a chance to win a single trophy... nothing. I have had a iron strong lock on the 5th-6th spot. But that all changed this year. This weekend I get to play in the Championship Game. It's a 2 week process and I won the 1st week 150-77 and the preview rankings show me as a +37 point favorite going into the last week. So finally, after 9 Friggin years I will have something to put in my virtual trophy case.

Some would argue that this is a prime example of what is said in a book called "White Girl Bleed a Lot". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns9ujAQ2VQM Personally, I'm just glad that I no longer have any skin in this game... what surprises me most is that there isn't a greater level of social unrest back in the states. Forgetting race just for a moment, the degree of unfairness on the social-economic stage over the past decade is staggering...

Another update and an invite... Well, we are in the last week of the BYE weeks and our little league is still going strong. Out of the 28 teams playing in our group we have 8 that are in the top 90% of the site. As expected there has been some shifting within our table but at this point my Prowlers are still in the lead and have even breached the rarefied air of the Top 100. At this posting I am sitting at 67th out of the roughly 250K players across the site. Woo Woo. Footypjman has fallen a little off the pace but is still crushing the competition across the site beating 99.1% of the site players and needs just one break to shoot up the ranks and or flip over my bandwagon. Strangely, this year his biggest threat is coming from the same source but from 2 different directions... Me. This year we were able to field 2 teams so I just happen to be in front of him with the top team and I find myself nipping at the heals of his second place team with my other team that is sitting in third. It'll be fun to see how this part of the game plays out because I have been forced into taking on extra risks to catch him. Special mention goes out to Belem (95.6%), 49ersinCrisis (95.0%), and gforney (93.6%) who are also having great years and could easily make a solid run to the finish with 6 games left to be played. Now for that invite: For those that are interested I will be setting up a Post Season Gridiron League this year. It'll start with the beginning of the playoffs and run through the Superbowl. Naturally, everyone in our current league is welcome to play and I'll send out an email to all players once the new game comes on line in late December. But to ANYONE else that missed out on the start of the current league but might be interested in joining the fun... let me suggest that you go back to the beginning of this thread and use the signup info to join our league. Obviously, you won't have any chance of catching the players who started in week 1 but you will be able to set up a team, transfer in and out players each week, get a feel for how the values rise and fall, basically get a dry run and overall understanding of the game to prepare for the Post Season version and or next year's league. Anyway, it goes without saying that being at the top of the hill I'm having a blast this year. And I hope everyone else is enjoying the ride. Good luck to those playing with the back half of the season and WELCOME to any new players that decide to join us... Shilo (proud mangers of the Prowlers)

Maybe one more question: How long is a single reentry permit good for? If I was to pick up one next week... how soon would I have to take a trip before it would expire?

This is an old thread but I thought that I might just bump it up rather then starting a new one... Anyway, I'm just looking for some current info on reentry passes. My understanding is that you can buy a one and done or an annual pass that can be used as often as you like for one year. I also seem to remember that the one and done pass cost about 1000 baht and the annual multi-use pass was around 3000. So first question is: are these prices still about right? And secondly, I'm on a one year retirement visa that starts in mid-June so I am about half way through my current term. Should I buy a multi-use annual pass and assume that it will be good for one full year? Or should I just get single passes till next June and then buy a multi-use pass when I reup my visa? Thanks

Just starting to put together my plans for the 2014 Escape from Songkran Trip... It looks like Cebu has stopped flying to Clark. Tiger is an option at a cost of around 9000 baht round trip. Are there any other options?

I see that Chelsea's best striker scored another goal tonight... that makes 4 in the past 3 games. That's 4 more then the other 3 strikers who have a combined total of -0- Will someone please explained to me how the manager got the nickname "The Special One"...

Time for the first update on the 2013 season of the Gridiron League. For those who have played before, it's clear that the Gridiron Season can be broken down into 3 parts with a possible bonus round. We just finished what I would call Part 1, where each team took the same budget to create a line-up out of the same pool of players. In short, we all started even on a level playing field. And at the end of each game week the value of the players were adjusted up, even, or down based on performance. Naturally, we all wanted to get out to a fast start with as many points as possible. But there has been a new twist added this year with the new Floating Cap pricing structure. In the past, you would add a player at say 5.5 mill and if he did well then you could see his value go up to say 6.0 mill. But then he gets hit with a small injury or has a bad matchup and you would have to decide: do I keep him and cross my fingers or trade him for someone else knowing that I'm limited to the original 5.5 mill cap ie: settle for a lesser player. This year that 5.5 mill investment that moves up to 6 mill allows you to fully benefit from the new 6 mill valuation. So you can drop a stud player and pick up another equally valuable player or maybe even use the added money to improve other positions in your team. But where there are added rewards there has to be added risk... This year you also get burned when a players' value goes down. So that 5.5 investment that drops to 5.0 mill you're still trading value for value and will be stuck kicking the tires of the 5.0 mill options. So where do we stand after the end of the first 3 games? Once again, we have several guys in our league that are ranked amoung the best on the ESPN site. We have 5 teams that are beating 90% or better of all the teams on the ESPN site. I'm happy to claim the top spot with my Prowlers' with a total of 450 points and beating 98.6% of the site. Belem is running a VERY close second with 449 points. Nohoihoewa and Footypjman are in a dead heat with 416 points each. After that another 6 teams are above 400 points so as expected it's still any ones race. Now we go into what I think of as Part 2 of the season... the dreaded BYE weeks. And this is where the new Floating Cap rules are going have have a MAJOR impact. I have Peyton Manning on my team. The old guy is having the best year of his career and maybe is on pace to have the best year of any QB in the history of the game. Needless to say his value has gone up since I added him in week one. And last year I would have happily held on to him through the BYE week and settled for a -0- rather then drop him for a lesser player and lose the chance to have him for the back half of the season. But this year I can drop him and add Brees/Rogers/anyone and if they cost less then I bank the extra money and get Manning back after the BYE week. BUT, that only works if the guy I choose stays even or goes up in value that week. If the new guy drops in value I may not have the money I need to get Manning back on my team. And I can't afford to just let him sit on my team and except the -0-... not with Noho and Footypjman nipping at my heals... So congrats to those who managed a quick start to the season, good luck to those who are just off the pace, and have heart to those who seem to be lagging far behind. It's a new season with a new scoring system and I've got a feeling that we'[re going to see a lot of rotation in our league table as we progress through the BYE weeks.

One of the things that I miss about home is access to really good cured hams. With the holidays just around the corner I have a hankering for a baked ham dinner... and maybe more importantly, those great ham sandwiches that come from the leftovers. You would think that in a country where just about every meal is made with either chicken or pork that it would be easier to locate a ham store... errr So here is my question: Can anyone suggest a place in or around Pattaya that would offer cooked or fresh cured hams? And if not then could anyone point me in the direction of something called "pink salt" which I understand that I would need to cure my own.

Hopefully, someone will offer a decent choice. I had used a place that is a few doors east of the intersection of 2nd Rd. and Pattaya Klang. There was a young Thai guy who worked there and several expats (incl. myself) suggested that he was the best in town. But he left a few months ago, coworkers saying that he went back home to Rayong... and I've been looking for a replacement ever since...

Last call before the season starts...

Petrol would have the biggest impact because it goes into so many other products and has a direct effect on energy costs. But seriously, a weak baht would push prices up on just about everything that isn't produced domestically... The bigger issue right now is the draw down on foreign investments. If this was to continue then yes the baht rate would go down but so would the Thai stock market, interest rates would go up, which would cause the cost of new construction to increase, and growth could slow... It might help exports but outside of rice I'm not aware of any other "large" Thai export markets. And any improvement for the rice export market might be offset by other SEA competitors. Bottom line: seeing a downturn in foreign investments is seldom a good thing. And unless a country has a viable domestic market it can cause some serious pain.

OK... now you're hitting on one of my passions... good home-cooked food. The best book that I have found is "Easy Italian Cooking", put out by Amarinpocketbook http://www.amarinpocketbook.com/news/game1005/Default.aspx Scroll down to the last grouping to see a picture. I found it in the large bookstore on the 4th floor of Central Festival (sorry can't remember the store's name). Great for Lasagna, pizzas, pasta... just don't be surprised when she puts thai peppers in the sauce to "improve" the flavor. But for a much better experience I would suggest using Youtube. I have video bookmarks for all of my favorite dishes. But here are the two best channels I have found for sharing with your Thai lady: http://www.youtube.com/user/RinSilpachai/videos And this one has a TON of suggestions that cover all kinds of foods... but sadly, no English... so it's more like a treasure hunt: http://www.youtube.com/user/MrFoodandTravel/videos?flow=grid&view=0&sort=p This should keep you busy...

Nearly all of the Emerging Market currencies have been taking a hit. There seems to be 2 causes. First is the announcement that QE will be rolled back in the US soon. Just a "hint" that the easy money might start to dry up caused a good amount of "hot money" to flow out of the Emerging Markets. If (WHEN) the QE actually does begin to dry up is when the crap will hit the fan. The second cause is the efforts to control the rise of easy debt in China. Along with the QE efforts, this has been the other main driver of growth in the world for the past 5 years. It's been a double blow to the EM currencies but it is also the main force behind the drop in the currencies of countries that have benefited from the sale of natural resources like the Aussies. These are all problems that people should be aware of but not the real issues that will tip the balance going forward. None... I repeat... NONE of the issues that caused our financial problems in the past have been resolved. They have only been "papered over" with sovereign (read: gov't) debt. The Japanese experience shows that this "treatment" can go on for a long time. But at the cost of real growth and future imbalances. IE: we're not out of the woods by a long shot.

We're up to 20 teams with less then a week to go before the start of the season... still time to join if interested. You need to pick 2 QB's, 2 RB's and 2 WR's. I think it is pretty much a no-brainer to pick the top in each position: Brees/Peterson/Cal. Johnson. The winner this year will be determined by the guy who makes the best picks for the #2's and manages the BYE weeks. Good Luck

Here is something else I found that gives an account of when things go badly... again, recent (3 months old), done in Thailand... couldn't cut and paste so just click link and scroll down to 4th-5th entry... http://www.steadyhealth.com/How_long_does_vasectomy_recovery_take__t53521.html?page=12

Worth a read: http://www.living-thailand.com/2013/01/29/vasectomy-in-thailand/ Dated Jan. of this year, cost estm. 5000 baht in gov't hospital, 17,000 in private... 30 minute procedure, 3 day recovery, 3 months followup. Been thinking about this myself for a while now. Would like to hear of some local, recent, experiences with recommendations.

18 teams so far... lots of the old guard and a few new faces.

What doesn't make any sense, is for Chelsea to leave Lakuka on the bench and then sub Torres for the last 30 min.'s You would think that if Lakuka could pull a hat-trick at OT (as a sub no less) with West Brom for support last season then a goal in this game even off the bench was possible... This game was more about "mind-games" then capturing points.

I currently use Sophon Broadband Cable Service, where I pay 7095 baht every 6 months (or 1013 baht per month) for 10mbps (down) and 1mbps (up). I have no problem with the price, service, quality, and most importantly reliability of the product. But I have had the same service for the past 2 years and I realize that what's offered in Pattaya may have changed and hopefully improved during that period. So using my current product/rate/service as a baseline... can anyone suggest a better value?

I have had a multi-year love affair with the NFL but I only play with the EPL with short times... So like you I have the Gamepass package so I don't miss any games and watch them when I want. For the EPL I look for simply inexpensive options to get my fix. For live games it's either a visit to a bar or wizwig... but you're right, depending on the time of day (night) and the connection, it can be a little choppy. The best offering I have found on wizwig is: http://www.frogihost.info/index.htm Nice, clean format, with a clear program guild on the right and no pop-ups or annoying chat boards. If the choppiness gets to bad then I wait till the next morning and use a torrent to pull the game... best I have found is: http://thepiratebay.sx/user/Nepotu This guy covers all kinds of sports and uploads most of the better games... Bonus treat: something I miss from back home in the states but great for an overview of the weekly review of the EPL... Match-of-the-Day http://thepiratebay.sx/user/lucabara/

2 more weeks of the Preseason and then it's on to the real thing... personally, I'm getting by with watching EPL games on my computer... but my Bengals are getting me excited about the new season. We've got 13 teams so far in this year's Gridiron... still plenty of time for anyone who is interested in joining our merry little band of fantasy managers.

Glad to have you back. You had a rough start to last season but came on strong in the second half. I edged you out in the end but it took a massive final week to pull it off. If you get a fast start out of the gates this year you'll easily be among the leaders again.