Songkran Festival Part 3

Songkran celebration lasts about 3 to 5 days and sometimes you may see a parade as part of those activities.  And of course every parade needs to have its beauty queens and its marching bands.  It's no different here in Thailand.  Out in the country, you'll also see a lot of the traditional music and dancing.  This pictures are quite as interesting as last week.   I took these again at the same time as before -- in 2002.  Essentially, what you see here has not changed in subsequent years.  Its a shame that I don't have sound for this because the traditional music is interesting.  Perhaps we can add that at a later time.

The first picture above actually captures our factory in the picture.  This was 3 years before we actually rented our space in that building.   Notice in second picture above, they are holding a whisky bottle.  Drinking is a big party Songkran and this can be a real danger.  I was riding around in the back of a pickup truck during Songkran one year with about 12 people throwing water out and when the driver of the truck become inebriated and began to swerve too much, I jumped off, continued my celebration on foot.

You'll notice that umbrellas are a very popular item out in the sunlight.  Many people wear hats, etc.  The Thais equate dark skin with poverty and low class people.  We of course in the west think in exactly the opposite terms.  We look at white skinned people as those who are stuck in office jobs and can not get down to the Bahamas for a vacation.

Here whit skin means you don't have to work in the field and cultivate rice.   Many Thai already have beautiful tan skin but in the sun, they darken quite easily.  I can't think off hand of a girl with tan lines, but you may see girls with tan lines down in Pattaya where some of the "fun" girls have taking a liking to beaches and bikinis.

Songkran on the Streets...

Here are the typical pictures you see from Songkran.  I have only post a small number of them here because there are many of this type up on the web.   This first picture is literally one of my first pictures here in Nakhon Phanom.  I was walking around with my camera and someone offered to take a picture with me in the photo.  As you can see by the powder on my face, I had already been introduced to the festivities. (talcum powder is mixed with water and applied by hand to the face of another)

I don't know these kids.   I don't even know if they are still here.   This is the type of friendliness you experience in most places up-country.    I enjoy it everyday.  These are the people of the earth and they I get along with them just fine.

Here you see just how small some of our party goes can be.   I wrote an article a few weeks back about me accidentally running into one of these small guys last year.   The cars and trucks generally travel pretty slowly and don't notice a serious problem with safety around town.  But, it is known that the Songkran holiday takes a lot of lives every year in Thailand.  I believe most of these are lost to drunk driving.

You'll notice some girls on motorcycle in this line.  Girls on motorcycles are special targets by the guys who stop them and smear the liquid baby powder on their faces.   In some cases, guys take "some liberties" with the festivities to spread those hands and powder all around.  Girls are armed on days like these with their bra, and about 3 layers of shirts and jackets.   I have seen the guy "check out the goods" with open hands on the outside of the clothes on a few occasions -- the girls seem to begrudgingly take it in stride and tolerate it.

Take a close look at the third picture in this line.  This is the classic "let's get the farang shot".   These two girls left their post to come all the way across the street to dump water on me.  And really, this would be done for anyone who they felt was a special target like a well know business man around town, etc.   I did not know these people and to this day I still don't know who they are.

These 4 shots are from last year Songkran 2006.  The city organized a special place this year for everyone to gather together. There were a coupe of bands playing and quite a wild party going on.  I rode through there on bike a couple of times with my light duty scuba wet suit.  During one of my trips through there, a young 20 something year old girl jumped on the back of my bike.  She was hammered and completely uninhibited.   Very quickly one her friends came over and pulled her off my bike because they knew she would have have been all to happy to go home with me and strip off all those wet clothes.   It might have been fun, but I never mind losing just one opportunity - this is Thailand and I get the "Tom Cruise" treatment here on almost a daily basis.  (besides this one was fairly drunk which I don't particularly care for)

The Galt Finally "Gets It"

I have to admit, MangoSquashDave and Marc Holt, and Dr "Zachary Smith" Earnshawe (publishing over at StickmanBangkok.com) had me in a quandary.  I was at a loss to understand how they were gaining their insight when they started referring to me a child molester.

I received in email this week from a reader who clued me in.  Here is what he wrote:

I think what this guy is saying (this is obviously more of a Stickman reader) is that because I have written about children in my articles and in particular a smaller 7 yr old girl, people are making the leap to the concept of "pedophile".  Is this what is going on?  This particular reader is also quite miffed at the idea that I have have access to younger beautiful women.    Yes, all the email that I post at my site is real.  Yes, all of my postings are my own genuine experiences (unless otherwise noted as someone else's experiences).

So, am I to believe that these readers are jumping to conclusions?   Let me tell you people, my job has nothing to do with kids during the day.  If I really was a predator of children, chances are much more likely I would be involved with teaching children in the big city.   I'm in a small city and everyone knows my business.   I am watched quite a bit, more for reasons of curiosity rather than anything else.  But, I'll guarantee you that if I was up to "no good", it would have come out long ago.   I would guess that a pedophile can get lost in the big city.  Not here.   Furthermore, I can not be accused because I never put myself in a place alone with a child.  Never.  I absolutely never, expose myself to that kind of risk.  No one can come here and accuse me of anything because I don't have any private contact with kids (this is western thinking of course).   My computer doesn't browse to those places and I have no interest in these things -- why would I when I have beautiful 18 to 24 yr old females smiling at me most everyday?   If you are jealous, I understand.  I hate the west in terms of the limits of young beautiful females and I don't want to feel old.  No one does.

Let's take one more look at Marc Holt.  I believe I have uncovered the reasoning behind his instincts to label me as a sexual predator.  The reason lies in the way he thinks.  I read this article called "The Expat's Survival Guide - Chapter 1"  Take a look at the section called "Breakin' up ain't hard to do".  Here is an excerpt:

If I have read this correctly, Marc is suggesting that you break up with an old girlfriend by letter her catch you bed with a new girl friend?   What kind of screwed up approach is that?   He is inflicting emotional damage on someone using sex.   These are exactly the type of situations where crimes of passion occur and he uses this method to break up with his girl?   What about the new girl who is completely innocent and doesn't know what he are about to do?  Does he care about her embarrassment and bad feelings?   Or, is this just a case where he doesn't give a shit about either one of them?

And he writes that he has done this a number of times with mixed results?  Based on what he writes here, if you had at least one successful break up with this technique, then you have a "couple" of girls who where "mind f'ed" into staying with you for longer, then you must have employed this technique no less than 3 times.  Does this really make you feel good inside -- to hurt people like this with purpose?   Did you prefect this technique each time you used it?   Was it hard to get the timing to work so that you were in the middle of the sex when your girlfriend came home?   Did you call he on the cell phone to make sure she was on the way or something?  Did you leave the bed sheets off so the shock value was at it's highest when the door to the bedroom opened?

People, I think we have identified something that should NOT be done.   Evidently Marc previously allowed his relationships to fester with problems.   He may have played with these girls, emotionally pulling them in and pushing them away for sport to the point where they were very confused about his intentions, or he just didn't communicate the terms of the relationship, or he didn't give them a way out.   (All of these issues must be addressed and handled in an honest and respectful and FIRM way.)  Maybe Marc liked to beat their self esteem down to the point where they just didn't have the strength to leave.   Some guys fancy these types of mind games.  Then when the big day came for Marc to stop the relationship, the girls didn't respond correctly and he resorts to something that inflicts a lot of pain and incites violence AND he does it with sex.   He even says that "you may be in for a real good fight".   Would that be a physical fight or just yelling and screaming?   If they struck you physically, did you strike back?  In any case - it's a potentially violent; sexually based aggressive hurtful action.  I think this action is a very personal attack against females.  I think it's very painful to anyone on the receiving end (kind of the point of your recommendation isn't it Marc) and I believe it's very much below the standard and any decent human being.  The general public of course is free to disagree with me on this position.

NOW, this is the same guy who in his fiction writing has proposed that I "John Galt", is a pedophile.  I can now certainly understand how his brain is wired into thinking along these lines.   And let's not forget that Paul Owen published and endorsed this publication by saying things like "A lot of good, solid tips here", "A fabulous series", "A fun fictional story" at the end of each of Marc's columns.  So, let's keep the pressure on in calling Stickman to clean up his act a little bit.   He should be taking a little pride in honest information that doesn't hurt people.  It doesn't have to go the way of MangoSquash to be interesting.  Evidently, he is not reading his own columns again OR he is completely in agreement with it.   I don't accept the possibility that he is too stupid to know what's going on.  He can be a man and own up to it.

OK, so Stickman "the Bangkok Commentator" doesn't' comment very much anymore.  I'll accept that.  He can still exercise a little quality control on what he endorses at his web site.   (Stick - your wife would be embarrassed if her family knew what you were endorsing with your site).

By the way people, Marc Holt and Paul Owen have been very good friends for a number of years.  According to Marc's latest article on Stickman's site, Marc asked Stickman to be the best man at his wedding.   Wow, Marc really feels close to Stickman.   Additionally he then, "called Casanundra, BKKSW, Korski, Dana, Pusiwaet, Frank Visakay, Sonia and Rick, Almost Anonymous, Union Hill, and a bunch more. Unfortunately, the professor was still on ‘is bloody honeymoon" to attend his marriage."  So, now you understand Marc's motivation in taking liberties and publishing derogatory comments about me on the Stickman's site.  If he and Stickman are so close, then you might understand why perhaps Stickman isn't exactly the poster child for farangs that you have been lead to believe. 

Meet the 7 Yr Old - Her Name is Ooi

I'm not afraid of talking again about the 7 year old girl who I talked about having an anger problem.  I made it a point this week to get some pictures.   Ooi had not been with her mother or grandmother at the night market for a few weeks.  But last night, (Sunday night) I lucked out and she was there sitting a table behind where her mother who sells mango and sticky rice.   Ooi was in a very happy state today.  She even waved at me and smiled, I was surprised.   Her whole demeanor seemed changed.   She didn't come up to me and I didn't walk over to her table but that was ok.  A small handful of kids in the local community who see me frequently do come up to me and give me a hug or they shake my hand.   This always happens in public and in full view of a parent or guardian as this is the only way I would let it occur for my own protection.   The Thai people are fearful at times and they can be spooked.  So, you can believe me when I tell you that I would not knowing allow myself to be a position of risk of this nature.   I'm sure Stickman feels the same way and he has a lot of exposure to children.  He even wrote a weekly column that contained a story about discovering one of his boys masturbating during class.  At that point should I have written that Paul Owen was a possible pedophile?  That has got to be a tuff because you instinctively want to do something about those types of disruptive situations but you are also restrained from being involved with topics that are sexual in nature.  

Ooi is on the right in the back.  I even caught her smiling.  She was surprisingly very happy this day.   If you look on her plate you'll see Vietnamese food.   Her grandmother in the red apron makes and sells this food.   Ooi's mother is in the yellow shirt.  She sells sweet Mangos and sticky rice.   Certainly her grandmother has been working at the same location for more than 5 years.   I haven't ask her how long she has actually worked there.   Ooi's mother has been working this stand off and on for 2 or 3 years.

PS.  The guy in the background is washing dishes in large buckets of soapy water as there is no normal running water at the market place for basic kitchen duties.   They pull buckets of water drawn from taps along the street.

Let's Take Whack At MangoSquash-Dave

Last week I wrote that David at MangoSquash censors the comments that are placed up at his site.   He posted a response on his sight refuting my accusations.  Seems David is very sensitive about being called a hypocrite because he has attacked other people for it.

Here is what David posted --->

David has a very short memory.   When Stickman colluded with David to post my name and other personal information, Dave published all that in this November 13th article two weeks before I released Paul's name and work place information to the internet.   I think we all remember his unwillingness to publish Paul's name at the same time.  After all, Paul Owen (Stickman) cut a deal with David to do a public pounding on me so that I would just go away.  Unfortunately, to Paul's disappointment, he underestimated my tenacity.

Here is one of MangoSquash's postings from that Nov 13th article complaining about the censorship.

As you can read here, David sites some kind of moral decision about how it would be wrong to publish Paul's name.  That looks like censorship to me particularly when a number of readers clearly didn't agree with David.  I'm not saying censorship is a bad thing -- I'm saying David does it and he does it on a regular basis when it suits his web site ratings to do so.  His readership needs to understand that David uses their anger as a lightning rod for web traffic.

I won't post over there anymore.   He thinks this is because I can't handle ridicule in a public forum.  David, I'm ridiculed everyday somewhere on the net.    And I handle it better than you do, because I'm in plain view.  People know who I am and I don't hide like you do.   Why don't you out yourself David and tell the world who you are and then lets see how you handle the ridicule.   Are you up for that kind of public forum?  Can you cut the mustard?

This final examination is a simple exercise is basic Thailand BS filtering.   Attention farangs-- let's do a little deductive reasoning on Dave's claim that he does not censor his columns.  Let's put it through the Galt BS filter.

People, look at the end of each and every column on the MangoSquash site.  You'll see "Comments must be approved by the Editor before they appear. Thanks for waiting. Email addresses are not published and you won't be spammed."

Now, what is the purpose of that?  David says he doesn't censor anything.  In fact the most foul three, four, and five lettered words are plastered all over his site.   So, David certainly doesn't use this "approval process" to remove bad language.  What does David use the "approval process" for then?   The answer is simple, he censors the comments as he deems appropriate to generate the most controversy (and to keep him from looking like an ass).

Need more proof?    Want to test the DaveMangoSquash censorship system?    Just try to post a comment about Paul Owen being Stickman.  Just try that and see how many times that gets through onto the MangoSquash site.  My bet is you'll have zero success with that posting.   100% censorship is predicted by The Galt.   This because Paul Owen knows who David is.  They are loosely associated.  Dave cetianly doesn't want Paul to give me his identity.  These two have "cut a deal" with each other.  OH yes.  See how this whole Thailand Internet landscape is full of shady characters?   Making money on the Internet will almost always be about taking advantage of readers.   Don't let these guys BS you into patronizing any of their sponsors.   Just read the articles and do your own research on buying services in Thailand.   Ask around and talk to friends, etc.  You don't need much else.

David the readers know already who is lying.

The Galt's Greatest Achievement?

Some of you have been asking to know more about me.  I do plan to put a biography together in the future.  I want to do this for my family.  It won't be for general publication.

One of the things that is interesting about me are my exercise habits.  I've been a runner for a number of years.  I was never that great in my youth.  I was above average.  I won one ribbon, and two trophies.   I won the trophies in the last two races that I completed in back in 1992.  That was the last time a actually entered a race.  I haven't raced since.   I've been training but I don't like to get up at 6am in the morning so I just haven't run any races in recent years.

This picture to the right is me at age 16 (I'm in the white shirt).  I was a freshmen in high school.  I was running only about 6 months here.  I started when a neighbor kid's father invited me to go running with him.  And it all started from there.   I would say that I've run regularly in 20 out of the past 28 years; the last 5 years here in Thailand being my most consistent.  I'm running about 800 miles a year right now.

This achievement has been sneaking up on me, but I would have to say that my running will end up being my greatest personal achievement at the end of my life.  I didn't plan it that way - I just like how I feel when I'm in good shape.  Running helps me eat better, sleep better, and feel good.  And when I'm feeling good -- I'm naturally feeling young.

This next black and white picture here is me a senior in high school.   I had already managed to run a sub 5 minute mile at this point and I personally logged 1,000 miles on the road a year before this, so I was seriously into running at this point.  As you can see, I bulked up quite a bit.   (Actually, 1,100 miles a year is not that much really)  I didn't have a job back then and I literally ran 2 or 3 times each day to build myself up.  I was running about 7 to 10 miles a day at one point but my training was not that consistent year round.   My fastest mile was 4:55.  That is decent but not good enough to win races in track where my team mates were running 4:25's and 4:35's.   I also ran cross country.  Again, I was just above average.    The only thing that is interesting is that today I might actually have a shot at being outstanding in my age category.

When I first came to Thailand 5 years ago, I was 20 pounds heavier than I am right now.  Today I'm still over my best running weight by about another 20 pounds.  I certainly can't do what I once did.  I still feel good.  My energy is lower and when I'm out on the road I have this feeling like there is a sponge in my gas tank.   I just can't quite get the power going.   That might improve quite a bit if I can get the last 20 extra pounds off.  In this picture I am 135-140 pounds (62 kg).   Right now I hover at about 73 kg.

Dr "Zachary Smith" Earnshawe the Bullshit Artist?

I've written about this guy before.  He is connected to StickmanBangkok.com.  He is one of Stickman's more prolific writers and submits articles there on a regular basis.  In the past he has "written some fiction" and called "NotStickman" some bad names.   I wrote about this 2 weeks ago in my column.

Seems like now - he has grown comfortable enough talking about me to use my real name.

Lately he has been opening his trap and laying down some heavy comments about Evolution, Entropy, Enthalpy, and n Thermodynamics.   Here is what he wrote over at MangoSquash.   Take a look through all this and then read my comments.

This guy has a complex that make him want to feel superior to everyone else.  (sound like a familiar concept in Thailand?).    He writes like everyone is his student.

I know doctors of science.  I personally have studied under a number of them in Science and Mathematics, etc; all professors with PhDs.  I have copied down by hand every single word these professors spoke and wrote in class. 

I know how PhDs speak.  I know how they write.  I know how they handle themselves.  I have also worked with PhDs.  PhDs don't typically try to lay down bullshit.  

Professors are keen on evidence and truth.  They don't make things up.   They really don't like rumors and speculation.  They want to know the facts.  And typically they don't lord their education over others with statements that call attention to themselves.

Professors avoid making false statements.  A real professor would never talk bad about someone without considerable proof.   They are unlikely to even engage in bad mouthing people without a very good reason.   Their instincts aren't like this.

And guess what -- The professors that I know have never called me a "Mutant" as Earnshawe did in his piece.   The professors that I did know have always gotten along with me quite nicely.

For those of you who are technically "in the know" notice that the good doctor here  wrote about both Entropy and Enthalpy.   These are basic concepts taught in first year Chemistry and Physics.

Entropy is a measure of disorder.  There is natural tendency for system to a high state of order to a lower state of order.

Enthalpy is the sum of internal kinetic energy of a system.  The natural tendency is for a system is to go from a high energy state to a lower energy state.

But, the good doctor didn't remember the name of Enthalpy.   He doesn't write the word Enthalpy anywhere but he wrote the word Entropy 8 times.

He did write about concept of Enthalpy, he just didn't remember what it was called.  Odd.

As a doctor of science how would he forget this most rudimentary term?  Typically, these two concepts are taught together because they are related to each other.  This is especially true in Chemistry.

This whole article is kind of "goofy".  It's just not professional.  It's just kind of drawn out and jazzed up to show off.

What does this mean, "but overall the net effect of being alive is to increase the total entropy of our surroundings"?  That is BS.  That is goofy.

I'd say this doctor relies on Google too much for his information.

My guess is that this doctor is a fraud.  He just brushed up on the subject through by reading the page on Thermodynamics at Wikipedia.   If you look at that page, you'll see they use the word "Entropy" up at the top.  The doctor didn't look for enough down to stumble onto "Enthapy".  So, does this explain his omission?

My guess is that he does not have that much formal education.  He probably reads a lot of books and he is a doctor want-a-be.

He is someone who is trying to feel good about himself.   It's fine to want to feel good about yourself, just don't bullshit people to do it.  People should just be who they are or take up a hobby or something.

Stickman -- Your Chemistry PhD at the school can vouch for my comments - that is if he is not this Dr Earnshawe himself.

See the kinds of people who are writing for you?   But, hey, it is free labor I guess.

Stickman even has an article over there with the cure to HIV.   Why would he keep such garbage on-line?   Isn't that embarrassing?

Stick - Can you ask one of your writers to put a submission together on cold fusion or something like that?  Now that might really be helpful to the world -- maybe even something on perpetual motion.  I think we can find some uses for that.  Maybe Earnshawe can tackle that topic.

Numbers for the Week

I delayed the column last week by one day.  That kind of screwed the curve so I can't take any credit for extra readership between those two days (Thursday and Friday).  The numbers were pretty typical this week. 

The Wrap Up

People, my writing has certainly taken on a critical tone in recent weeks.  It's a souring feeling.  I personal don't care for it.  I'm much rather be talking about females and interesting Thai customs. 

I don't know if the Galt bashing will continue on these other sites -- it probably will.   From time to time I'm going to have to clear the air.  I work really hard on my publishing to be fair.  I make efforts to keep it honest.

I'm very interested in being helpful to the general farang population here in Thailand.  I have no concealed and secrets planned to cleverly strip money from your pockets.  I'm just a guy who is happy to help you "Stop The Not" (little Ripley's humor there).  I love Thailand.   I appreciate it's people.  I think there are some wonderful opportunities here for everyone who finds this type of culture interesting.  I firmly believe that Thailand will embrace you if are doing the right things to bring some of your value to the Kingdom.   And I certainly hope that my publishing helps you gain the right understanding on how to handle your affairs when you are here.

There are many other good sources on the web.  Hunt around for them.  Weigh everything you read (including this site), and certainly don't believe everything you read.   Prove it to yourself and come over for a visit if you have not had a chance to do so before now.

I didn't put any "water fighting" pictures in this Songkran article.  These types of pictures are what you see most of on the web.  I do have a bunch of those.  I'll post those next week and wrap my Songkran series.

Thanks for stopping by.

John Galt