Lucky

A 59 year old Florida woman has died after being in a diabetic coma for 42 years. For 37 of those years, her mother stayed faithfully at her bedside, turning her over every two hours. For the last 5 years, the sister of the now deceased woman has performed the watch. It's a sad story. The mother felt that her daughter was happy despite the coma, and chose to keep her alive and devote her own life to the daughter's care. The mother felt the presence of another mother in the room with her- that presence, she thought, was the mother of Jesus. Author Wayne Dyer wrote a book about the mother's promise to always be there for her daughter. These facts are gleaned from an LA Times article on the death: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-woman-dies-after-42-years-in-coma-at-home-20121123,0,735117.story In 2005, the LA Times wrote a feature piece on both the woman in the diabetic coma, and the story of another mother who chose to end life support for her son after 12 years of being in a coma following a motorcycle accident at 25. The contrast between the two stories makes interesting reading: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-obara-column-one-20121123-m,0,4503559.story?page=1 When we think life is hard, it is stories like these that make you think some more. Perhaps the first mother was delusional in thinking her daughter could feel happiness, yet even the other mother who ended life support still waited 12 years to do so. Letting go must be very hard for a mother. If I am in a coma, feel free to let me go! But when...???

Costco did take the keyboard and mouse back without the packaging or the receipt. I went to get another one since the price was right, but there were no more keyboards of any kind.

But thanks for acknowledging who had it first!

That's what they get for raising their rates so high!

Yes, we are getting off area and off price. My original thought that was on my first night, why spend big bucks for a room that you enter at 2 am? Would the lower-priced Tarntawan be a good substitute? If I am going to pay big bucks,then the Le Meridien is awfully nice and right in Patpong. Or the Hilton Millenium on the river- a great place. I stayed at the Renaissance and did not like all of the security. It was thought to be a target for terrorist attack.

He's good at standing at attention, and boy, can he do drills.

I know that Spider Man is eating well this Thanksgiving.

Thanks for the info, firecat. I did stay at the Centre Point Ratchadmari this year for a few nights and liked it.

In real life, there would be numerous erections in that video.

We also canceled cable tv and don't miss it. In response to lurkerspeaks, libraries are not allowed to censor the internet. Kinko's does though. At least that has been my experience.

Cannot that rich friend of yours help out? I think his name is Rich, or Rico maybe... Seriously though, good luck with the finances. I have been broke and it is no fun. But things can change...

I saw him in Evita, from my fifth row seat. I did not take my eyes off of him much, as he is just a delight to look at. I had seen him twice before, once at a Tower Record signing, and once just on the street after a film shoot. He seemed quite friendly.

Remember when Stephen Gately of Boyzone came out in 1999? It was huge news then and finished the band. I used to like hearing his nasal singing on their tunes, Some time after the band broke up, I had occasion to see him live, playing Joseph in the show Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I had a great seat, so got a real good look, only to be a bit disappointed. How anyone could have missed that he was gay mystified me, as my gaydar was quite abuzz.. But the girls in the audience didn't care- they hooted and hollered. Gately died at the age of 33 from a pulmonary edema. My favorite song:

Thanks, hito. I will try tomorrow.

I rounded off, as my point wasn't the passage of time since, but the memory that stays with me. By next year I could be in heaven with JFK, screwing women together. So I had best report my memory now!

For years, once common thing has been that everyone knew where they were and what they were doing the moment they heard that the president had been assassinated. Now as the population ages, plenty of folk see his death as ancient history. But I am one of those who remember distinctly where I was- in class in school. An announcement came over the PA, where a breathless priest announced that news had come over the wireless that the president was dead. He actually used the word wireless to describe the radio. We all headed to church. The entire weekend was devoted to watching the television. Every minute we could get of news was not enough. Then Jack Ruby killed Lee Harvey Oswald as the nation watched in horror. Could things get any worse? What were the Soviets planning? In my opinion, Jacqueline Kennedy kept the nation whole that weekend. Her grace under pressure and subdued grief was something we all admired. Time passed, and Johnson became entrenched in the office. That it was 50 years ago seems stunning. Kennedy would now be 96 if he had lived.

Recently I bought a new Logitech wireless keyboard from Costco. It came with a wireless mouse. Everything worked well, so I tossed the packaging. I cannot find the receipt. But, yesterday the keyboard developed a glitch. The main thing I noticed was the failure of the delete key to delete. I am well within the return period, but have tossed all the packaging. Any advice on how to get this working without having to return it?

Thanks Oz. I remember seeing the advertisements for the Holiday Inn when I was last there. but this trip I won't be traveling solo, so small rooms might not work out.

Thanks for the reply, Casteran. I have walked by the hotel and know the area. But it's a comfortable bed I want most. Le Meridien had the most comfortable beds and is just down the street. But their prices are up. Booking.com has it at $260 a night, whereas other sites are half that. I paid $105 in January. The Crowne Plaza is,I believe, previously a Pan Pacific. I stayed there for its soft opening and paid $126 a number of years ago. I had to check out as it was so noisy from room construction,which, of course, the front desk denied was happening. You could hear it everywhere since the hotel faces an atrium. Do you have any Asia travel stories to add? I love hearing those.

Oh, you mean I could go back and "unlike" the posts of mine that I checked "like" on before I understood that it was for others to say, not me? I wish I didn't know that...

Any reviews on this hotel from posters here? I hate to pay big bucks for a hotel when I am only going to arrive about 2 a.m. The Tarntawan is about $89 for a deluxe room, which is higher than I thought it would be. What I want, though, is a comfortable place to be following a 24 hour or so trip across the ocean. Sleep will be what's on my mind before bar boys. So far I am only in the planning stage- this after telling myself no trip to Thailand next year. (Blame Oz and his highly exciting posts on Thailand!) The hotel very subtly says on their website "no joiner charge."

I titled the thread on the apparently mistaken assumption that I was among some traveling folks here. A least, travelers to Asia. So, if I could type the headline again, it would be Places I Have Enjoyed In Asia. (hint) I have been to Montreal's dismal Chinatown, and I have been to the Web, but back when it was truly geared to Asians and their fans. However, each Asian person you encounter counts a bit toward having been to the land he came from, no?

I am toying with the idea of taking the President's lead and visiting Yangon. It's a convenient 90- minute flight from Bangkok, and, as a tall white guy, I would be the focus of fascination by those who see few of us. (This happened to me once in a small Chinese town. People rode their bikes up and down the street just to have another look at the strange foreigner.) It makes me wonder which of you has gone where in Asia. I started with Bangkok, Pattaya, Singapore and Tokyo in 1987. My repeated trips to Thailand allowed me to see much of the north, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, and the border town Mae Sa, where I did walk across the border into Myanmar on one of the rare days the border was open to foreign tourists. All we could do then was walk around, but the people were very friendly and happy to see us. In Chiang Rai, I went with my all-time favorite bar boy.We stopped at his home, where he no longer lived, but kept a bedroom. It was filled with gifts from other farangs like me, mostly clothing. But, unlike those other farangs, I got to go to the temple with his mother, where she had me dancing with her in some kind of festival. You should see the picture! All of this after spending the night in bed with her son. Since I have gone to Phuket, taking the boat tour of the exceptionally beautiful Pang Na Bay,where the James Bond island is. No doubt the Muslim fishing village we visited was washed away in the tsunami. (It was built on stilts over the water.) Another tour I took from Bangkok was to the ruins of Ayuthya, and another trip to the river Kwai. In Singapore it is not that hard to see much of the country. But I was so bored. Gay life then was suppressed. But I did make a day trip into Malaysia, so, technically I have been there too. In Japan I visited Tokyo, Kyoto, and Hiroshima, riding the famed bullet train there, and getting to see Mount Fuji on a day when it chose to appear. The Peace Park in Hiroshima is very impressive, with a ruined building remaining and a room-sized scale model of the city after the bomb showed the widespread destruction. I didn't like the way those little Japanese kids looked at me afterward! Kyoto looks beautiful in the pictures, but in reality is a cramped and crowded megalopolis- or so it seemed. Hong Kong is fascinating, although I was there pre-1997. But it's a neat place still, no doubt. From there I took a hydrofoil over to Shenzen, then a bus tour to Guangzhou, stopping in the village where I was such a celebrity, albeit briefly. The bus had stopped at a restaurant enclosed from the village, but I didn't like the food, so took my walk. What's left? Oh, Vietnam, but not as a soldier. We went to Ho Chi Minh City,then flew to Co Mau and took the boat ride I described in another thread. And then there is Siem Reap, in Cambodia, which fascinated me. It's the home of Ankgor Wat. Another place with friendly people, unless they were killing each other. The village is quite interesting too. My last night there I finally cracked the secretive gay life. They do have a gay-friendly bar, but it was always rather empty and showed no signs of being gay other than that familiar rainbow. But return trips always involve Bangkok for some reason. I think I have been all over that city. And you? Where in Asia have you been?

But clothes make the man. Would this guy be as sexy without the props? Yes, the pants, but the bike, the sunglasses, the headphone.

Would you want me to agree with your ultra liberal nudity in public views? What fun would the forum then be? Since I started the thread opposing nudity in public, are you not the one being contrary? hehehe! (Beyond that, we now have lookin at 5 posts for the day! What would that count be if I had not posted this?)