Every Day You Wake Up Is A Good Day
Stickman asked for more submissions and I decided to answer his call and write something about my experience with a web board in Thailand.
The headline “Every day you wake up is a good day“ is a quote from a post on a board that I find very interesting. It means basically that every day starts with a positive event – you wake up, and it is up to you what to make out of the day from there, once you stop waking up rest assured there will no more problems bothering you.
I am not quite sure when I started reading the Stickman website, but I think I stumbled across it in 2002 and started reading the weeklies around perhaps 2003 on a regular base. Stickman is not providing a forum for public feedback and I guess about 2005 (I am very bad with dates, so maybe I am wrong here) a forum called “Schoochers” was set up by some people to discuss submissions and the like related to the Stickman website. On this forum I started posting and I really liked it. I think in 2006 Schoochers closed for whatever reason and I looked for another forum, and finally ended up with a Pattaya based, not really a Secret but I want to talk about forums in general and I guess they are more or less similar, with a different flavour and different levels of moderation. If you are interested in forums just check Google and you will find a couple of them.
You could see me as the usual 2-week millionaire spending every holiday in Thailand and dreaming about living there permanently enjoying the sun, the food and the temples, as most western males would tell their families in Farangland about the reasons they spend all their holidays in Thailand. When not in Thailand the forums act as a good way to stay up to date regarding what goes on in Thailand and many things related to permanent living in Thailand, like what kind of budget you need, visa rules and even some picture threads with pics from Pattaya or other places.
For me the forums are really fun and on occasion I find real gems like the headline, that really improve my life but mostly I get at least a couple of laughs out of the different posts each day. Over time I noticed that certain topics always pop up again drawing the usual responses and then disappear until someone brings them up again. I will mention a couple I noticed:
1) Thai apologist
This normally goes like someone is complaining about the Thais being lazy, unorganized or whatever and then come suggestions that things in Farangland are far better and the Thais should adopt the Farang ways of doing things. The response then is mostly ”If you are not happy in Thailand, there are plenty of planes leaving Bangkok each day and if you are not happy here, no one is stopping you from leaving!“ The usual response to this is then “You are a Thai apologist, in your view the Thais cannot do wrong, a man is only a man if he lives by his principles, no matter where he is..” or something like this. It will go on a bit back and forth and finally die down until the next person starts another round.
My take is that it is perfectly fine to notice what you like or don’t like, but there is little you can do to change things in Thailand and the best course of action is to adjust to the Thai ways and live a peaceful life, or the other option is to be annoyed by this and that and send your blood pressure a couple of times a day to unhealthy levels…
2) Thai dating scene
In Thailand it is quite easy to meet local women, and you just need to look for bright red lights and loud music. There are even many places where girls wait outside and kind of drag you inside to get to know you better. They are actually quite open-minded and kind of fall in love with you within seconds. In the West you would maybe invite them to a fancy restaurant and pay the bill and hope to get to know them more privately. In this bars you can pay the bar a compensation and just agree a fee with the girl for her time, normally in the region of what you pay for a fancy dinner in the West. And off you go and if she likes you then you can repeat it again and again… The discussions here mostly refer to the fact that you give money to the girls directly and instead of handing it over to a restaurant or so, in my view the end result in the morning is the same, you have less money in your pocket, and I find it always helpful to make a girl happy. I don’t care about minor details..
3) Thai politics
Here it goes mostly about that the politicians in Thailand are not perfect and only think about their own advantage. In my view Thailand is doing quite well compared to the West.
I haven’t heard about any Thai government trying to convince other countries that the Thai way is the best way by dropping bombs on countries across the globe or spending a lot of money on NGO (Non Government Organisations) to convince other countries what is the right way to see and do things. Thais are mostly happy to mind their own business, and this is something the West could learn from.
As I said, you get used to these recurring themes and over time I learned not get involved anymore or if I feel bored I know how to start another round of discussion.
I think being on a board improves my understanding of different viewpoints and this helps me in real life as well. I just don’t get excited that much if someone disagrees with me. I am used to it and know it will mostly cool down within a day or 2.
Seems I met the required 800 word by now and will leave it to Stickman to decide if this is worth publishing or not.
Enjoy life while you still wake up…
Bobby B
Stickman's thoughts:
I used to like the forums in the past but sadly I think they have deteriorated and seem to be dominated by miserable retirees who ended their work life too soon, have become bitter and they spout a lot of crap and poison at others and generally say things online which I seriously doubt they would say to someone's face. It's really disappointing that despite there being so many more sites and so many more forums these days that the peak was probably back around 2005 / 2006.
