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macaroni21

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  1. Like
    macaroni21 got a reaction from Lucky in Horrific behavior--but is it murder?   
    See https://www.justia.com/criminal/offenses/homicide/second-degree-murder/#:~:text=Second-degree murder requires that,and understanding of his actions.
    I quote from above "Second-degree murder requires that the defendant acted impulsively, and without premeditation, but with an intent and understanding of his actions"
    The article makes clear that she was convicted of second degree murder. She might have acted impulsively in speeding, but she sped intentionally, and she would have an understanding of the risks and consequences of her decision to speed. Thus I think the verdict is justified.

  2. Like
    macaroni21 got a reaction from reader in Horrific behavior--but is it murder?   
    See https://www.justia.com/criminal/offenses/homicide/second-degree-murder/#:~:text=Second-degree murder requires that,and understanding of his actions.
    I quote from above "Second-degree murder requires that the defendant acted impulsively, and without premeditation, but with an intent and understanding of his actions"
    The article makes clear that she was convicted of second degree murder. She might have acted impulsively in speeding, but she sped intentionally, and she would have an understanding of the risks and consequences of her decision to speed. Thus I think the verdict is justified.

  3. Like
    macaroni21 got a reaction from Axiom2020 in Went to Russia   
    Let's assume the story is true, even if there is some exaggeration or missing elements. I for one am not surprised. Rightwing nuts live in their own bubble, consume their own media and therefore see the world through absurdly distorted lenses. They believe what they want to believe. Out of the millions of rightwing nuts, there will surely be some who act on those beliefs, like this man and his family. 
     
  4. Like
    macaroni21 got a reaction from vinapu in Went to Russia   
    Let's assume the story is true, even if there is some exaggeration or missing elements. I for one am not surprised. Rightwing nuts live in their own bubble, consume their own media and therefore see the world through absurdly distorted lenses. They believe what they want to believe. Out of the millions of rightwing nuts, there will surely be some who act on those beliefs, like this man and his family. 
     
  5. Like
    macaroni21 got a reaction from t0oL1 in Pattaya Laundry near Boyztown   
    If you took a quick look at the Gay Pattaya section, you'd see that I asked the same question late last year and @floridarob was kind enough to reply. See 
    I used the shop's services and found them to be good. The clothese were ready the next day. I have marked the location of Nok Laundry on my map of Pattaya Boyztown/Pattayaland https://shamelessmacktwo.travel.blog/2023/12/14/map-of-pattayaland-area-december-2023/
  6. Like
    macaroni21 got a reaction from unicorn in Went to Russia   
    Let's assume the story is true, even if there is some exaggeration or missing elements. I for one am not surprised. Rightwing nuts live in their own bubble, consume their own media and therefore see the world through absurdly distorted lenses. They believe what they want to believe. Out of the millions of rightwing nuts, there will surely be some who act on those beliefs, like this man and his family. 
     
  7. Like
    macaroni21 got a reaction from Riobard in Went to Russia   
    I had exactly the same question and doubletake moment as @Riobard
  8. Like
    macaroni21 got a reaction from floridarob in Pattaya Laundry near Boyztown   
    If you took a quick look at the Gay Pattaya section, you'd see that I asked the same question late last year and @floridarob was kind enough to reply. See 
    I used the shop's services and found them to be good. The clothese were ready the next day. I have marked the location of Nok Laundry on my map of Pattaya Boyztown/Pattayaland https://shamelessmacktwo.travel.blog/2023/12/14/map-of-pattayaland-area-december-2023/
  9. Like
    macaroni21 got a reaction from vinapu in Moving to Pattaya, looking for translator   
    I'm kinda shocked too 😲 I thought us temporary tourists are automatons, rushing from one rentboy to another. Some of us (wink wink, we know who) have inhuman levels of energy, hitting up to four boys a day.
  10. Haha
    macaroni21 got a reaction from Olddaddy in Moving to Pattaya, looking for translator   
    I'm kinda shocked too 😲 I thought us temporary tourists are automatons, rushing from one rentboy to another. Some of us (wink wink, we know who) have inhuman levels of energy, hitting up to four boys a day.
  11. Haha
    macaroni21 got a reaction from 10tazione in Moving to Pattaya, looking for translator   
    I'm kinda shocked too 😲 I thought us temporary tourists are automatons, rushing from one rentboy to another. Some of us (wink wink, we know who) have inhuman levels of energy, hitting up to four boys a day.
  12. Like
    macaroni21 got a reaction from splinter1949 in Airports of Thailand to invest B4.4bn in Suvarnabhumi expansion    
    On a related note, I departed Bangkok last month via the satellite terminal. Here are some pictures I took, which should give you an idea of the shiny new addition to the airport.
    The gates for the satellite terminal are numbered starting with the letter "S", as you can see from the sign hanging from the ceiling in the main terminal. 

    Follow the signs and they will lead you to a set of escalators going down deep into the basement.
     
     
    More escalators, but this time there are staff to make sure that you're headed in the right direction. 

    Then you're down into an utterly sterile space where you wait for the shuttle train.

    To be continued.
     
     
     
  13. Like
    macaroni21 got a reaction from vinapu in List of gay brothels in Japan   
    @Japan lover Trying to call or speak is not a good idea unless you speak Japanese. They are not likely to manage English at the other end, with the odd exception. As @fedssocr mentioned, most of the businesses that serve foreigners have online forms on their websites. It is best to use them, because the shop can then do Google Translate with whatever you have written and understand you that way.  Naturally, you should keep your sentences simple and avoid slang, abbreviations, or expresssions unique to your country, which Google translate may not be able to handle.
  14. Like
    macaroni21 got a reaction from BL8gPt in Better to be retired than retarded - Thailand and Cambodia in January 2024. Trip report, brief but long.   
    It's very hard to visualise how much labour and skill went into building these monuments and sculptures. It's no easy thing to shape stone and rock into these complex forms.
  15. Thanks
    macaroni21 got a reaction from a-447 in List of gay brothels in Japan   
    @Japan lover Trying to call or speak is not a good idea unless you speak Japanese. They are not likely to manage English at the other end, with the odd exception. As @fedssocr mentioned, most of the businesses that serve foreigners have online forms on their websites. It is best to use them, because the shop can then do Google Translate with whatever you have written and understand you that way.  Naturally, you should keep your sentences simple and avoid slang, abbreviations, or expresssions unique to your country, which Google translate may not be able to handle.
  16. Like
    macaroni21 got a reaction from Riobard in How to find hidden cameras in hotels and house rentals   
    Read the full article. The reported used five different ways, one of which cost $400, and yet "In total, Victor found 17 out of 27 cameras — not a bad result, but not a great one either, especially given the time he spent locating them."
    I can only hope that whatever anyone manages to film of my body in a hotel room has absolutely no marketable value.
  17. Like
    macaroni21 got a reaction from Boy69 in Pattaya celebrates completion of Jomtien beach restoration   
    The gay section was predominantly farang. It was supported mainly by the winter exiles from Europe and North America, who would stay two or three months each time. Their headcount was never that many, but because they were temporarily resident, they could make frequent visits and so the gay section looked well patronised. On a typical high season day, there might have been 10-15 gay farangs per concession stand at any one time. Multiply that by about 6 concession stands, and there would have been 60-90 gay men on the beach at any one time, many with twinky companions from Sunnee as well. That was what made the scene.
    Of course there were also those who made shorter trips to Thailand (like me) and spent a few days on the beach, adding variety to the mix of clients. Short visitors also helped during the middle of the year when the winter exiles returned home. However, because of the rainy season, the crowd was always thin between May and Sept, perhaps 3-4 clients per concession stand at midday. So even back then, it looked half dead some months of the year.
    So, what happened? Well, some of those farangs have since gone over to the big beach in the sky. Others, and potential replacements of a younger generation, no longer find it affordable to stay 3 months in Thailand. Costs in Thailand have changed considerably.
    Thailand has, over the past 20-25 years seen the rise of the gay Asian tourist. They have different tastes from the gay farang. Asians are less into sun and beaches and they're mostly not into fem twinks either, so Pattaya and Sunnee held little interest.  But most important of all, they do not stay 2-3 months. They make short trips instead, and stick mostly to Bangkok.
    Paralleling the decline of the numbers of long-stay winter exile farangs have been the decline of Sunnee and the Chiang Mai tourist scene (which got life from the side trips that the winter exiles used to make to break the monotony of staying in Pattaya). 
    There are plenty of retired Asians. Japan, Taiwan, Korea, China and Singapore are aging societies. Besides the non-interest in beach and fem twinks, I have explained in previous posts additional reasons why retired Asians don't mirror the same pattern of spending winters in Pattaya. Three reasons: these countries don't have generous pension schemes like in the West; their winters are relatively mild (or like Singapore, no winter) so less need to flee; don't speak English.
  18. Like
    macaroni21 got a reaction from Travellerdave in Pattaya celebrates completion of Jomtien beach restoration   
    The gay section was predominantly farang. It was supported mainly by the winter exiles from Europe and North America, who would stay two or three months each time. Their headcount was never that many, but because they were temporarily resident, they could make frequent visits and so the gay section looked well patronised. On a typical high season day, there might have been 10-15 gay farangs per concession stand at any one time. Multiply that by about 6 concession stands, and there would have been 60-90 gay men on the beach at any one time, many with twinky companions from Sunnee as well. That was what made the scene.
    Of course there were also those who made shorter trips to Thailand (like me) and spent a few days on the beach, adding variety to the mix of clients. Short visitors also helped during the middle of the year when the winter exiles returned home. However, because of the rainy season, the crowd was always thin between May and Sept, perhaps 3-4 clients per concession stand at midday. So even back then, it looked half dead some months of the year.
    So, what happened? Well, some of those farangs have since gone over to the big beach in the sky. Others, and potential replacements of a younger generation, no longer find it affordable to stay 3 months in Thailand. Costs in Thailand have changed considerably.
    Thailand has, over the past 20-25 years seen the rise of the gay Asian tourist. They have different tastes from the gay farang. Asians are less into sun and beaches and they're mostly not into fem twinks either, so Pattaya and Sunnee held little interest.  But most important of all, they do not stay 2-3 months. They make short trips instead, and stick mostly to Bangkok.
    Paralleling the decline of the numbers of long-stay winter exile farangs have been the decline of Sunnee and the Chiang Mai tourist scene (which got life from the side trips that the winter exiles used to make to break the monotony of staying in Pattaya). 
    There are plenty of retired Asians. Japan, Taiwan, Korea, China and Singapore are aging societies. Besides the non-interest in beach and fem twinks, I have explained in previous posts additional reasons why retired Asians don't mirror the same pattern of spending winters in Pattaya. Three reasons: these countries don't have generous pension schemes like in the West; their winters are relatively mild (or like Singapore, no winter) so less need to flee; don't speak English.
  19. Like
    macaroni21 got a reaction from vinapu in Pattaya celebrates completion of Jomtien beach restoration   
    The gay section was predominantly farang. It was supported mainly by the winter exiles from Europe and North America, who would stay two or three months each time. Their headcount was never that many, but because they were temporarily resident, they could make frequent visits and so the gay section looked well patronised. On a typical high season day, there might have been 10-15 gay farangs per concession stand at any one time. Multiply that by about 6 concession stands, and there would have been 60-90 gay men on the beach at any one time, many with twinky companions from Sunnee as well. That was what made the scene.
    Of course there were also those who made shorter trips to Thailand (like me) and spent a few days on the beach, adding variety to the mix of clients. Short visitors also helped during the middle of the year when the winter exiles returned home. However, because of the rainy season, the crowd was always thin between May and Sept, perhaps 3-4 clients per concession stand at midday. So even back then, it looked half dead some months of the year.
    So, what happened? Well, some of those farangs have since gone over to the big beach in the sky. Others, and potential replacements of a younger generation, no longer find it affordable to stay 3 months in Thailand. Costs in Thailand have changed considerably.
    Thailand has, over the past 20-25 years seen the rise of the gay Asian tourist. They have different tastes from the gay farang. Asians are less into sun and beaches and they're mostly not into fem twinks either, so Pattaya and Sunnee held little interest.  But most important of all, they do not stay 2-3 months. They make short trips instead, and stick mostly to Bangkok.
    Paralleling the decline of the numbers of long-stay winter exile farangs have been the decline of Sunnee and the Chiang Mai tourist scene (which got life from the side trips that the winter exiles used to make to break the monotony of staying in Pattaya). 
    There are plenty of retired Asians. Japan, Taiwan, Korea, China and Singapore are aging societies. Besides the non-interest in beach and fem twinks, I have explained in previous posts additional reasons why retired Asians don't mirror the same pattern of spending winters in Pattaya. Three reasons: these countries don't have generous pension schemes like in the West; their winters are relatively mild (or like Singapore, no winter) so less need to flee; don't speak English.
  20. Like
    macaroni21 got a reaction from 10tazione in Airports of Thailand to invest B4.4bn in Suvarnabhumi expansion    
    After a short ride, I think about 5 minutes, the shuttle train arrives at another shockingly sterile station on the satellite terminal end.  Go up the escalators.

    Once up, the first thing that you see is a phalanx of duty-free shops, But of course. Actually, they're not that many. Perhaps more will open when passenger traffic increases, but....

    Here's a map of the satellite terminal. The commercial spaces are coloured in tan or dun. As you can see there are not that many spaces earmarked and most of those lots in the middle part of the terminal are already occupied. So I don't think there will ever be many more of these duty-free and brandname shops. In any case, I have long wondered who the heck goes to airports to buy fancy brand merchandise. But then, Thailand has long been a bit behind in its thinking, still catering to glamour travel when the age of mass travel (complete with football yobs) has been upon us for decades.

    They did learn from the mistakes when the main terminal was first built- which for some mysterious reason had next to no toilets for the public or passengers. In the main terminal, they went totally overboard in allocating spaces for commerical use (RENTAL INCOME!!!) such that basic amenities like toilets and sitting areas were totally sacrificed. Looking at the map above, the toilets appear to be plentiful in the satellite terminal. 

    The floor above the concourse level has lounges. Or maybe just the one lounge "Miracle Lounge". As members of the board may know, I don't fly business class (waste of money, and not being plus-sized, no need for larger seats) or care for lounges, so I didn't go up to explore.

    There were only four F&B outlets in the staellite terminal. Fortunately, I was flying on a full-service airline. If one were on a low-cost airline that does not serve meals on board (other than instant noodles, etc, at ridiculous prices) and needed to eat before boarding, options would be limited to McDonalds, Burgerking, Ginger Farm Kitchen and Koh Hup (which also serves burgers + some Thai dishes). The airport authority does not look very smart in its choices of F&B; they could have had a wider range of food.




    Another difference from the main terminal is the way the gates now do not come with them own designated waiting rooms. It's open-plan now. There were few flights out of the satellite terminal, so it was mostly deserted.

    Another proof as to how behind the curve the airport designers/authority are lies in the provision of charging points. These are few and far between. You would think that every row of seats should be equipped with them, but no, only about one in five or six rows. So that means roughly one set of outlets for every 50 seats. I tried to charge my phone just to test them out (I really didn't need charging, but just wanted to try) and guess what?  There was no juice. The electrical outlets, even when installed, had no electricity! 
    I tried another one. Also dead.
    In this picture, notice how only the front row has charging points. The rows behind do not.

     
  21. Like
    macaroni21 got a reaction from dscrtsldnbi in Times changing?   
    You've only noticed it now? I've been saying this for years now. It's also been there in the official tourism statistics for over a decade. Asian tourists far outnumber westerners in both the general as well as gay traffic. And here I qualify that I am not using "asian" in the UK sense where it means indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi, but I mean the oriental Asian (what a quaint term).
     
  22. Like
    macaroni21 got a reaction from reader in Airports of Thailand to invest B4.4bn in Suvarnabhumi expansion    
    After a short ride, I think about 5 minutes, the shuttle train arrives at another shockingly sterile station on the satellite terminal end.  Go up the escalators.

    Once up, the first thing that you see is a phalanx of duty-free shops, But of course. Actually, they're not that many. Perhaps more will open when passenger traffic increases, but....

    Here's a map of the satellite terminal. The commercial spaces are coloured in tan or dun. As you can see there are not that many spaces earmarked and most of those lots in the middle part of the terminal are already occupied. So I don't think there will ever be many more of these duty-free and brandname shops. In any case, I have long wondered who the heck goes to airports to buy fancy brand merchandise. But then, Thailand has long been a bit behind in its thinking, still catering to glamour travel when the age of mass travel (complete with football yobs) has been upon us for decades.

    They did learn from the mistakes when the main terminal was first built- which for some mysterious reason had next to no toilets for the public or passengers. In the main terminal, they went totally overboard in allocating spaces for commerical use (RENTAL INCOME!!!) such that basic amenities like toilets and sitting areas were totally sacrificed. Looking at the map above, the toilets appear to be plentiful in the satellite terminal. 

    The floor above the concourse level has lounges. Or maybe just the one lounge "Miracle Lounge". As members of the board may know, I don't fly business class (waste of money, and not being plus-sized, no need for larger seats) or care for lounges, so I didn't go up to explore.

    There were only four F&B outlets in the staellite terminal. Fortunately, I was flying on a full-service airline. If one were on a low-cost airline that does not serve meals on board (other than instant noodles, etc, at ridiculous prices) and needed to eat before boarding, options would be limited to McDonalds, Burgerking, Ginger Farm Kitchen and Koh Hup (which also serves burgers + some Thai dishes). The airport authority does not look very smart in its choices of F&B; they could have had a wider range of food.




    Another difference from the main terminal is the way the gates now do not come with them own designated waiting rooms. It's open-plan now. There were few flights out of the satellite terminal, so it was mostly deserted.

    Another proof as to how behind the curve the airport designers/authority are lies in the provision of charging points. These are few and far between. You would think that every row of seats should be equipped with them, but no, only about one in five or six rows. So that means roughly one set of outlets for every 50 seats. I tried to charge my phone just to test them out (I really didn't need charging, but just wanted to try) and guess what?  There was no juice. The electrical outlets, even when installed, had no electricity! 
    I tried another one. Also dead.
    In this picture, notice how only the front row has charging points. The rows behind do not.

     
  23. Like
    macaroni21 got a reaction from ichigo in Airports of Thailand to invest B4.4bn in Suvarnabhumi expansion    
    After a short ride, I think about 5 minutes, the shuttle train arrives at another shockingly sterile station on the satellite terminal end.  Go up the escalators.

    Once up, the first thing that you see is a phalanx of duty-free shops, But of course. Actually, they're not that many. Perhaps more will open when passenger traffic increases, but....

    Here's a map of the satellite terminal. The commercial spaces are coloured in tan or dun. As you can see there are not that many spaces earmarked and most of those lots in the middle part of the terminal are already occupied. So I don't think there will ever be many more of these duty-free and brandname shops. In any case, I have long wondered who the heck goes to airports to buy fancy brand merchandise. But then, Thailand has long been a bit behind in its thinking, still catering to glamour travel when the age of mass travel (complete with football yobs) has been upon us for decades.

    They did learn from the mistakes when the main terminal was first built- which for some mysterious reason had next to no toilets for the public or passengers. In the main terminal, they went totally overboard in allocating spaces for commerical use (RENTAL INCOME!!!) such that basic amenities like toilets and sitting areas were totally sacrificed. Looking at the map above, the toilets appear to be plentiful in the satellite terminal. 

    The floor above the concourse level has lounges. Or maybe just the one lounge "Miracle Lounge". As members of the board may know, I don't fly business class (waste of money, and not being plus-sized, no need for larger seats) or care for lounges, so I didn't go up to explore.

    There were only four F&B outlets in the staellite terminal. Fortunately, I was flying on a full-service airline. If one were on a low-cost airline that does not serve meals on board (other than instant noodles, etc, at ridiculous prices) and needed to eat before boarding, options would be limited to McDonalds, Burgerking, Ginger Farm Kitchen and Koh Hup (which also serves burgers + some Thai dishes). The airport authority does not look very smart in its choices of F&B; they could have had a wider range of food.




    Another difference from the main terminal is the way the gates now do not come with them own designated waiting rooms. It's open-plan now. There were few flights out of the satellite terminal, so it was mostly deserted.

    Another proof as to how behind the curve the airport designers/authority are lies in the provision of charging points. These are few and far between. You would think that every row of seats should be equipped with them, but no, only about one in five or six rows. So that means roughly one set of outlets for every 50 seats. I tried to charge my phone just to test them out (I really didn't need charging, but just wanted to try) and guess what?  There was no juice. The electrical outlets, even when installed, had no electricity! 
    I tried another one. Also dead.
    In this picture, notice how only the front row has charging points. The rows behind do not.

     
  24. Like
    macaroni21 got a reaction from ichigo in Airports of Thailand to invest B4.4bn in Suvarnabhumi expansion    
    On a related note, I departed Bangkok last month via the satellite terminal. Here are some pictures I took, which should give you an idea of the shiny new addition to the airport.
    The gates for the satellite terminal are numbered starting with the letter "S", as you can see from the sign hanging from the ceiling in the main terminal. 

    Follow the signs and they will lead you to a set of escalators going down deep into the basement.
     
     
    More escalators, but this time there are staff to make sure that you're headed in the right direction. 

    Then you're down into an utterly sterile space where you wait for the shuttle train.

    To be continued.
     
     
     
  25. Like
    macaroni21 got a reaction from TMax in Airports of Thailand to invest B4.4bn in Suvarnabhumi expansion    
    After a short ride, I think about 5 minutes, the shuttle train arrives at another shockingly sterile station on the satellite terminal end.  Go up the escalators.

    Once up, the first thing that you see is a phalanx of duty-free shops, But of course. Actually, they're not that many. Perhaps more will open when passenger traffic increases, but....

    Here's a map of the satellite terminal. The commercial spaces are coloured in tan or dun. As you can see there are not that many spaces earmarked and most of those lots in the middle part of the terminal are already occupied. So I don't think there will ever be many more of these duty-free and brandname shops. In any case, I have long wondered who the heck goes to airports to buy fancy brand merchandise. But then, Thailand has long been a bit behind in its thinking, still catering to glamour travel when the age of mass travel (complete with football yobs) has been upon us for decades.

    They did learn from the mistakes when the main terminal was first built- which for some mysterious reason had next to no toilets for the public or passengers. In the main terminal, they went totally overboard in allocating spaces for commerical use (RENTAL INCOME!!!) such that basic amenities like toilets and sitting areas were totally sacrificed. Looking at the map above, the toilets appear to be plentiful in the satellite terminal. 

    The floor above the concourse level has lounges. Or maybe just the one lounge "Miracle Lounge". As members of the board may know, I don't fly business class (waste of money, and not being plus-sized, no need for larger seats) or care for lounges, so I didn't go up to explore.

    There were only four F&B outlets in the staellite terminal. Fortunately, I was flying on a full-service airline. If one were on a low-cost airline that does not serve meals on board (other than instant noodles, etc, at ridiculous prices) and needed to eat before boarding, options would be limited to McDonalds, Burgerking, Ginger Farm Kitchen and Koh Hup (which also serves burgers + some Thai dishes). The airport authority does not look very smart in its choices of F&B; they could have had a wider range of food.




    Another difference from the main terminal is the way the gates now do not come with them own designated waiting rooms. It's open-plan now. There were few flights out of the satellite terminal, so it was mostly deserted.

    Another proof as to how behind the curve the airport designers/authority are lies in the provision of charging points. These are few and far between. You would think that every row of seats should be equipped with them, but no, only about one in five or six rows. So that means roughly one set of outlets for every 50 seats. I tried to charge my phone just to test them out (I really didn't need charging, but just wanted to try) and guess what?  There was no juice. The electrical outlets, even when installed, had no electricity! 
    I tried another one. Also dead.
    In this picture, notice how only the front row has charging points. The rows behind do not.

     
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