gooddream

I preface this the same way I do all of them in saying that about 5 years ago I decided to stop being involved with the time-wasting that is social media.   I got tired of the politics being a part of everything and although I didn't do it as often as others, I was posting things just to get recognition from people I barely know and at times, people I don't know.   It was all really stupid and I decided that I was going to do anything rather than be involved with what I believe to be one of the biggest problems of our current times.

Nowadays, when I have some free time I will do something productive on my phone like learn a few words in some language that I immediately forget, or if I must be mindlessly scrolling, to look through 9gag, which is a collection of mostly memes that the users themselves determine is the best.  

Is there some politics in there?  Of course, that is unstoppable.  However, the self-governing nature of the place means that those posts never make it very far and get downvoted to oblivion.   

Here are the memes that I found amusing or thought inspiring over the past however-long-it-has-been.

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Nadi gives me a look every time I get up to leave the house in a hopeful yet kind of distressed way.   I think she has learned that there is about a 50% chance that she is coming with me every time that front door opens but every now and then she doesn't get to come with me.   When this realization has struck her before I leave she will often pout much like this labrador.   She refuses treats and just looks super sad.   It breaks my heart a little bit every time. 

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This is a stupid meme, but lately I have been getting a kick out of memes that are just dumb.   If you are a bit older though I want you to take a little nostalgia trip with me and remember how they used to be a really big part of your life.  I recall an entire aisle filled with board games in the stores like Wal-Mart or K-Mart and how I would spend hours reading the back of the boxes trying to decide what to get next.   If you are around my age you almost certainly had a Connect-Four.  It's probably one of the best selling games of all time.  

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I don't know if this technically qualifies as a meme or not.  I'm not one of the overlords.  But if you have a friend named Larry, and I think most people do, this is a real picture found somewhere in middle USA.  

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I left the title on this one intentionally.  There is a very large portion of 9-gag that will downvote anything political, regardless of who it is about or if they agree with the message or not.  I am one of those people

on the other hand, this happens to me probably every single time I cut my fingernails.  Every...stinkin'....time.  

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This will likely not mean anything to you unless you are a gamer.  I don't really play videogames anymore but seriously, this was a big part of essentially every action game I have ever played.  

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it's funny because it is true.   Matt Damon became the subject of a lot of meme's thanks to *Team America:  World Police* by the creators of SouthPark.   If you know what i'm talking about I found out recently that Matt Stone and Trey Parker don't have any problem with Matt, but when they were making his puppet it came back from the custom place looking a bit... "special" and that is why they ridiculed him in the movie.   The Internet doesn't forget! 

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Absolutely ferocious animal.  I don't need to say any more

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Are you old enough to remember when Limp Bizkit was everywhere and how they came out of nowhere to basically dominate the charts?  I do.   

This meme was posted as a response to the somewhat political things that get posted about gender ideology.  The 9-gag community is tired of the arguments and whining. Limp Bizkit did kind of accidentally get it right though, didn't they? 

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![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/gooddream/244UqeG7i5t2mhEuPQCzAnmGtpQEtV3nmNfpquKCm2ZRGUrSQRJcwx8eHwwxCDhrnJUVf.png)
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it's true.  Change just one small thing and you wouldn't be seeing it right now, would you?  

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This is not a meme but since I don't have Twitter and find it to be a bane on most people's existence I wouldn't have seen this otherwise.  Bella Ramsey is constantly ridiculed on 9-Gag mostly because everyone hates her performance in *The Last of Us*, I never watched it and have no plans to do so.  

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![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/gooddream/23t8Cb16WiALBhJWQWZcJGg55NVoApNtFYuzR7E1agkoj2japKm6SyxiCi2Qc5RqPwjRF.png)
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once again, not a meme but I like it.   This is obviously a joke but the point is still there.  I stopped getting pirate stuff when streaming services were still a good idea but these days if you want everything it likely would cost more than a premium cable connection did back in the day.

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![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/gooddream/23wr3GzMLyiEdMwuuvoPZaRdK9u2gMFcD35q4rzftVUzJSzD9WC63qn6A7NQaQcAxiVpQ.png)
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last one!   The time I spent in Mexico showed me that the country is very much a drinking culture and I had to ask my family members that live there if this was true and they confirmed that it is.  The birthday parties for children are well-known for being a time when people get even more drunk than they would for anything else and provided everyone behaves themselves, I think that is great.

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I'll leave you as I normally do, with a picture of my lovely dog Nadi. This is her pouting face when I have made it clear that she is not going to come with me when I leave.   The look of absolute depression is palatable, and most of the time she simply stares at the front door for hours waiting for me to return.   Thank goodness she has no concept of time so it doesn't matter if I return in 10 minutes or 10 hours, the reaction is always the same.   

If you have any memes to share back, it is always appreciated.   

Monthly meme dump!  

One of the greatest resorts in Negros Oriental is Dauin Beach because of its view. It is a location that offers happiness, tranquilly, and lifelong memories. As you gaze at the horizon, you get a sense of freedom because the sea is open and wide. Most of the time, the waves move gently, and the sound of the water is soothing. You experience nature up close and personal when you visit Dauin Beach.

<img src="https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/cheezylara/23wqnjtS29wbQt7Exjn7kQX8TAWKnsFPxrAn8hqUXY2LxTP5iEEVMAuyPZgUJPBn1zB7T.jpg" alt="$1">



<img src="https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/cheezylara/23vhuage16RunSyNFPALHWYx3fDXCXpiazgcWAHS54t4vtbsQVx3Bdb987yj8PfRMZyCS.jpeg" alt="$1">

The opportunity to explore is among Dauin's most alluring features. You can take a boat to neighbouring islands if you have more time and money. Each of these islands has its own charm and offers more activities. While some go for adventure, others go to unwind.


<img src="https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/cheezylara/EoeCSdbgpcjR4BAsfyMqxqqPjU4J24vwN8qJyfX8Wvp4e9sCwLch6qyG7yW2Nh6zMtH.jpeg" alt="$1">

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Their movements are lovely, and their colours are vibrant. It's like stepping into a different world, one that is teeming with marine life. In their own unique ways, the sea creatures are amiable. You can see how amazing and inventive nature is when you watch them swim freely. Every fish, regardless of size, has a unique beauty. There is something really unique about the beach itself, aside from the underwater life. Dauin's sand is fine and soft. It's soothing to walk barefoot on it, and occasionally I just sit down and let my feet run in the sand. It is straightforward but incredibly joyful. Together, the wind, the sea, and the sand help you feel at one with the natural world.


<img src="https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/cheezylara/EoH1PpbKqAoNZPdUbdsPnZYA8og5XNWYM2y8cmTGpPsnQhpj9rCRGr2LzQhNABYS7su.jpeg" alt="$1">

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<img src="https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/cheezylara/EpVAfbXfq4ZK3dP7LdRthJZQdPVLFoW1S2CHjLLzsHHiG7aMuLwCbduJjgi6t7FziuE.jpeg" alt="$1">

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I get happier every time I go to Dauin Beach. I get a random smile when I look at the sea. Even when I go there with concerns or issues in mind, it makes me feel better. Negative thoughts can be transformed into positive ones at the beach. It serves as a reminder that there are peaceful and beautiful moments waiting for us to experience; life is not just about stress and hardships.

Dauin Beach is remarkable not only for its natural beauty but also for the emotional connection it evokes. It inspires, gives hope, and brings peace. I feel as though my heart is being healed when I sit on the beach and observe the waves. I start to see things differently, and the issues I carry around seem to be lessened. This beach is a place of healing and introspection for me, not just a place to visit.


<img src="https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/cheezylara/EpGR7ur9i3W4XW6WZBJXfjucAsDTn4KFu6tbg6YiRG6dFaRMCMYV3Gofttvx1ATJqUV.jpeg" alt="$1">

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Dauin is a popular vacation destination, but in my opinion, it is more than that. It serves as a reminder that happiness can be found in the little things in life. Every visit is made extra special by the sound of the sea, the beauty of nature, the quiet walks on the sand, and the laughter shared with friends.

I've always been in awe of Dauin Beach. It seems like the beach is revealing a new aspect of itself with each visit. It still provides me with the peace I need, the beauty I desire, and the solace I yearn for. Dauin is undoubtedly one of the greatest locations to experience nature and the tranquilly that our hearts so desperately need.


<img src="https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/cheezylara/EoiTs6QLuSzSm94Mc5oeTmRG5vzwnxTm8h2PPqDTdAWFSTzvuLw6mk8jCCEYtdZuSJg.jpeg" alt="$1">

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[//]:# (!worldmappin 9.203202 lat 123.191320 long <DESCRIPTION GOES HERE> d3scr)

Dauin, Negros Oriental, is a wonderful place to relax and free yourself from stress.

About 5 years ago I left traditional social media behind because I got tired of the bickering and mostly political soap-boxing.  I miss out on a few pictures of cousins that I forgot I am related to and maybe I wont get to see the picture of an airplane wing posted by someone I went to school with 30 years ago.   For the most part though I don't miss this at all.   

These days the only micro-posting thing that I am involved in at all that could even be perceived as slightly "social media" would be 9-Gag, a site that is mostly memes and some pretty decent links to current events.  Since I live in a country where the local media is completely government controlled, I probably wouldn't know about what is going on in the world if it weren't for 9gag.

In the process of perusing the memes I stumble upon things that make me laugh or make me think and I'd like to share  a few of them with you.

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This will probably end up being offensive to people out there with kids but I think that this notion is pretty widely held for people that don't have any children by choice.  I love baby animals but for the most part when I see a baby human get introduced into some sort of situation I feel like it is going to be an annoyance.   

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I was carrying a bunch of things the other day and accidentally stepped on a sleeping Nadi (my dog) while I was walking.  She yelped and then looked at me like "why did you do that?" and then I spent the rest of the day apologizing and giving her treats that she didn't do anything to deserve.  I think most pet owners have gone through this at one point or another.

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I was talking to some friends the other day and the question came up about how long it has been since any of us have owned a car.   You see, this is not something that most people have in the expat community because there really isn't much reason for you to have a car here.  Taxis cost almost nothing and everything can be delivered.  Even the people I know with children work out ways of getting them around without a car.

I do recall what it was like when I lived in USA though and unless you live in NYC or Chicago, owning a car is basically mandatory.  You can't get things done there without one as public transport just isn't that widespread and taxis are expensive.   When I was a poor college student it was almost as if my car could read my financial situation and any time that I started to have some savings, something expensive would break.

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I am so out of touch with today's slang.  Perhaps a big part of the reason why this is the case is because I refuse to participate in social media.   Every now and then someone will send an abbreviation in a message that I have no idea what it means.   I'm too old now folks, I'm not going to try to participate in the ever-evolving slang notions of the world.   

one thing I think is funny is when older people do try to get involved with slang and use it wrong... they just look like fools.  Even if they do use it correctly they appear like they are trying too hard to be young and cool and they end up accomplishing neither.

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I am almost never rude to people and the above meme encapsulates me perfectly.  The other day I was rude to a guy in a pub and some of my friends were saying that they have never seen me get angry at someone before and well, this guy had it coming.  he was a kind of nuts drunken fool that needed to be told off and that's exactly what I did.  

I have a rule when it comes to anyone:  If you are decent and respectful to me, I will be the same towards you.   It really is that simple.

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This is not a meme technically and posting stuff like this is frowned upon by a lot of the 9gag community.  For me though, this was pretty profound.   I have a lot of degrees and qualifications and I don't feel as though acquiring them really prepared me for anything that I ended up doing professionally.  Once when I was backpacking after graduating I was speaking to a guy that was lamenting the fact that he can't get the jobs he wants because it requires that you have a Masters degree.  I encouraged him to just lie on his CV and say that he did have this degree and see what happens.   He took my advice and then got hired - always living in fear that he was going to get busted.  It turns out he is very good at what he is doing, much better than most of the people that genuinely have the Masters degree.   

While I don't think this is necessarily true for all professions, for the most part I feel like having blanket qualifications such as a degree in (insert whatever here) is a really stupid one.   I have met people with degrees that are some of the dumbest people I have ever met and I know people that didn't graduate high school that are some of the most intelligent people I have ever met.   

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I remember Clippy.   Like most people I hated Clippy but the words in the meme are correct.  Clippy was just an amusing attempt at a help section that was meant to be entertaining and had no ulterior motives.  These days if you encounter a "feature" in almost anything they are likely using you to make money off of you.   It truly was simpler times back in those days and if you are a lot younger than me, data collection has likely just always been a part of your life.  These days it seems like almost anything is trying to steal information from you and I don't like it.

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I will wrap this up  in the same way that I always do, with a picture of Nadi.  The other day I was tormenting her with a delicious pizza and I decided to do a little test on her.  I left the pizza box open on the floor and then set up my phone to record it and her while I went downstairs to get some sodas from the nearby minimart.   I was gone about 5 minutes.   While I was gone Nadi did sniff the pizza and walk around it looking at it from different angles, but she never touched it.  She knows it is not for her unless I give it to her.   I was so proud of her when I got back and believe me, she ended up getting some pizza as a reward.  

Monthly meme dump!

So you may recall about a month ago when I was constantly complaining (informing) about the fact that my back hurt really bad.  It is normal for dudes in their 40's to have back problems but these were really bad.  Bad enough that a guy that almost never seeks out medical treatment because he doesn't have a lot of faith in doctors, went to go see a group of doctors at the most prestigious hospital this city has in it.  

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I went to the doc several times and was taking every test you can imagine.   I have never had an MRI before this hospital but in a few days I had 4 of them.  I also had an ultrasound and a bunch of x-rays as the doctor and later a specialist were interested, or at least did a very good job of pretending that they were interested, in figuring out what is wrong with me.  

They discovered herniated disks in the lumbar area of my spine, which isn't really that uncommon for people my age.  It also can vary from "barely and inconvenience" to "I can't do anything" as far as how much it affects your life.   I was getting to the point where it was something in the middle of those two but I did feel like it was getting worse.  

Now I don't know exactly what caused this but according to a lot of things that I see online and what the doctor said that these sorts of problems can be the result of some sort of slip and fall that went untreated.  Or even if it did get treated there is a good chance that it could come back and haunt you because in a situation like mine where I did fall on some slippery steps and hit my back right near my spine.  Once the swelling went down I didn't really think anything of it and there was no real reason for me to go to a doctor during all of that anyway.  

So over the time that I was in this particular doctor / hospital, they were kind of at a loss as to what could be wrong with me because even after the MRI's and scans and what not, it wasn't terribly evident what could be done other than to give me a bunch of pills and be told to step back on the physical activity.  

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Nadi is a big fan of sitting around and doing nothing.  I would say that it is her speciality.  I'm not like that though so when the doctor told me that I need to stop doing active things for a while I was kind of a jerk saying, "I'm not going to do that, give me drugs that actually work instead."   

This is one of the things that I don't like going to doctors because of.  I feel like often their cure is something that is obvious like "hey, if you don't move at all for a while, the thing that is hurting that moves will stop hurting."   This is not doctor advice, this is obvious advice that cavemen would have used, we don't need medical school for this.   Even though I think often doctors are over-worked and are just being lazy because "stop moving" is an easy prescription to give to anyone in pain I also believe that there is a pharmacological solution to a lot of things, but some doctors are compelled to over-prescribe pills whereas others seem to be vehemently opposed to prescribing anything.

At one point and a bit of goading from me I got the doctor convince that I am NOT going to sit on the sofa and wait this out, and she eventually prescribed me some powerful anti-inflamatories and also some steroids.  Just 10 days worth.  

As promised, I did not sit around a rest for 10 days but she did get me to agree that I would stay away from high-impact sports the likes of which I had been playing such as pickleball and volleyball.   I still went cycling and did a bit of jogging and swimming, but that was about it.

It seems as though our compromise worked out because now here I am a couple months later and I am not taking any medication and my back feels fine.  I went on a rather long job / walk yesterday of around 15,000 steps and I felt fine afterwards and feel fine now.

So the bottom line is I don't know what really happened there. I don't know if what the doctor suggested or prescribed actually did anything or not but at the end of the day I do feel better and if anything can be said about this injury I am taking when my body "talks to me" a bit more seriously than before.  I suppose it is time, because I am no spring chicken anymore and speaking of young . here is a picture of when Nadi was between 2-3 years old.

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I know that pickleball is all the rage right now but I don't think that this sport is nearly as safe as people are claiming it is.   I think it is perceived as "safe" because it hasn't been around for very long and because most of the people playing it aren't very good at it.   

we'll talk about that another time though.  For now, I am just happy that I don't have back pain anymore, and am going to be careful to not have it happen again.  

My back problems just kind of went away.   I'm grateful

Brief backstory:  When I moved to Chiang Mai and then later to Vietnam, I decided to back out completely of traditional social media.  I deleted my IG and I deleted all but one photo (of Nadi) on my FB profile.  I would have closed that as well but I still have a lot of friends and relatives that absolutely refuse to communicate by any means other than FB.   
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I then never posted any personal information and instead, if I wanted some people to see a picture of something I did I would send it to them directly.   This resulted in my wasting considerably less time online and getting a lot more done in my life.  It also kept me out of the petty, mostly political in nature, squabbles that would take place between friends that have known one another for a very long time but would say the most awful things in a public forum about the other person because they had a difference in opinion over some politician.  Truly fucking stupid behavior and I want nothing to do with any of it.  

Now, when I have time to waste I look at 9Gag for memes and while the bots are doing their damndest to invade that space with political horse-crap as well, the users can kind of dictate what gets seen much like we were meant to be able to do here.  

Anyway, these are the memes that I found that made me smile or made me think in the past however-long-it-has-been.  

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Although it doesn't really qualify as a meme because it is just a headline and a photo from a fake news website, I appreciate it because someone wrote an article about something that seriously grinds my gears about being on flights.  People just turn into irrational friggin animals on planes.   I will never understand the frantic nature of people to stand and retrieve their bags immediately upon the plane landing, sometimes needing to be reprimanded like children by the flight staff for doing so.   There is nowhere to go, the door isn't open, the people in front of you have to leave the plane first, what the hell are you doing?   

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While it doesn't happen to me very often since I don't talk to very many people that are 20 years younger than me, the chat abbreviations are always evolving and man, I don't even care anymore.  I'm not going to learn the new stuff.  A few friends of mine that are around my age try in vain to adapt the talky patterns of younger people and in my eyes, just look like jagoffs for attempting it.   You are older bro, just accept it.  When they integrate this way of speaking with me in person or online I will swiftly clap back at them and make fun of them for trying to be a "fellow teenager."  

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This hasn't been relevant in my life for quite some time but I remember it well.  I went to business school and we were frequently put into teams because the professors told us that this will prepare us for the working world.  I believe what is really accomplished was to help the professor do less work and get paid the same amount.  I always felt like my peers were smarter than I was in college, but no matter how my groups ended up being I ended up being on a team of morons who were more of a burden than anything else.  I'm so happy I am not in college anymore and if I had the opportunity to return on someone else's dime I would decline.  

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I've been succeeding at losing a lot of weight lately.  In the past I think it has been 4 months I have lost nearly 15 kg.   Some of my friends send me links to various fitness things but the stuff that I really enjoy are the silly ones like this.  it's a crazy meme, but in all honesty, this would work a lot better if weight loss was your only concern.   

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This one also is not relevant to my current life but for the 11 years that I lived in USA before moving away to Asia, it was a very important, nay, essential part of my life.  You basically MUST own a car if you live in USA and are not in NYC or Chicago.   I didn't have enough money to have a car that was brand new for most of those years and it seemed after a while that my car, and almost anyone else I knew their cars as well, were out to get us.  It's like they could sense that we were finally getting ahead on our bills and maybe have some spare money to put into savings and then the check engine light comes on or some mystery clicking sound starts happening when you turn.  

it was so frustrating having it be necessary to own a car and this is one of many reasons that I am happy I no longer live in such a society.  Here, I have two bicycles and a scooter, and I rarely use the scooter because why the hell would I dive and contend with traffic and absurd parking when I can get a taxi for $1-2?   

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This is not a meme and was shit on by a lot of the 9-gag community for not being one.  For me though, I thought these were pretty profound words although the figures that the person suggests are so far out of reach for most people that he may as well be talking about 800 trillion dollars.   The point is still very valid though.

I like to think about Forest Gump's statement of "mama said a man only needs so much money...the rest is just for showing off"  and I totally agree.  I am not wealthy, I am not rich, I am financially comfortable though to the point where I do not aspire to buy a Porsche and wouldn't know what to do with one if I had it.  Even if I could afford 1st class tickets I still wouldn't buy them because they are a massive ripoff.   

I think that so many people focus on having fancy things to the point where they never start to realize that it is by virtue of having this fancy things that they will never achieve financial peace.   If you have a million dollars, which is what I am told you have to have in order to retire in USA and most of Western Europe (yikes) that you can live out the rest of your life without much worry.  Now move to somewhere like Thailand, Vietnam, most of central America and Mexico, and you can live extremely well with that much money.  I'm doing it with substantially less than that.  

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This last one and all the other heartwarming/breaking memes that are like it, make me sad and also fill me with dread about the coming 3-5 years.   There is very little that I wouldn't do for my dog, Nadi but I also know that when we celebrate her 12th birthday in December of this year, that the clock is ticking since that is the average lifespan of the breed that she is.   I know that we are running out of time as far as this is concerned and because of that I try to give her all that she wants in the time that she has left.  We can no longer say "oh i'll wait until cold season before I bring her to the beach" because each cold season that arrives could very well be her last.  We go NOW.   

Anyone that has ever had a cherished dog would do what the maker of this tweet/meme or whatever it is, is doing.  I know I would.  I torment myself with the inevitable decision that is going to have to be made at some point in the next 3-5 years.   3 years seems like a lot of time when you are young, but it just flies by as you get older.  It is irresponsible to keep a dog alive by medical means once they can't live without it... if you do that, you are doing it for YOU, not the dog.

Sorry to leave you on a sad note but to make up for it here is a cute picture of my sweety-pie Nadi

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This is from several years ago at a pizzeria that had a strict "no dogs" policy that applied to every dog other than Nadi.   We have abandoned the long ear hair policy because it gets on her old lady nerves.  Now we go for straight comfort.   

Has it been 3 months? It's been something along those lines, perhaps a bit more, perhaps a bit less.

For a recap the reason why I even started doing any of this in the first place was because of two things:  I accidentally lost s bit of weight while visiting Mexico even though we never exercised and ate basically all the time.  The big difference was we weren't drinking booze constantly.  That alone resulted in me losing weight.

The second thing that motivated me was running into a friend I have known for more than 20 years and when we were hanging out 20 years ago, we were the same size.  The last time I saw him I reckon I was 20 kg heavier than he was.   I was nearly 100 kg, he was less than 80.  It was a bit of a shocker.

So when I returned I decided to make some sweeping changes to my life and they really haven't been that difficult.

<h3> Started at 99, now I am regularly under 87 kg</h3>

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It's been a bit of a wild ride because in the middle of all of this I ended up having some spinal issues that I have been ignoring for a while and it turns out that they are trauma-related to an incident that happened years ago.   It's not like ignoring it made the situation worse, there's not a lot they can do for falling on your spine on stone steps other than wait a while.   

Then they told me I might have cancer only to tell me "whoops, we were wrong about that!"  6 hours later.. phew! 

But I digress.

Sticking with the program hasn't been that difficult actually since a great deal of my progress has been driven primarily by radical changes in my overall diet.   I now prepare most of my food and eat a lot of steak and potatoes at home with my trusty air fryer.   

The other meals consist of fruit and greek yogurt (the regular yogurt is not at all healthy and normally has as much sugars as candy bars) and for lunch I will have a wide variety of things but tend to stay away from anything fried.  

I weigh everything that I eat at home and this is why my food scale, which was only like $5, is likely the most important purchase I made when preparing to do this change.

I never used to weigh things that weren't illegal drugs in my life, but this cheap piece of equipment has been wonderful.  For example, while they do have health benefits and should be eaten, I was completely unaware how there is a crazy amount of calories in peanuts, cashews, almost, just any nuts.   I would eat these things by the handfuls in the past thinking them to be healthy when they are probably one of the most loaded-with-calories foods that occurs in nature.   

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That's a pretty sizeable portion but not beyond what I think many people would eat in one sitting...as a snack.   100 Grams of cashews has more than 550 calories and to me that is just insane.  A double-cheesburger from McDonalds has **significantly fewer calories** than this.   

I'm not saying to not eat nuts, you probably should eat some, but by weighing my food and checking the nutritional information of them has seriously opened my eyes to the dangers of most things that I just used to eat willy-nilly.

Another bad actor in the things that I just used to eat all the time is specialty coffees.  This is something that I think is going to make Asia fat because they love their coffee and not the kind that actually tastes like coffee.  Particularly among young women I see people ordering something that looks like ice cream and it probably is.   Even something that seems innocent like "Vietnamese coffee" is loaded with condensed milk which is just a crazy made up word for "processed sugar," which is what it essentially is.  

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There you go!  There's your Vietnamese coffee.  So you are essentially eating a cupcake with a caffeine kick here.   I have been drinking these things like gangbusters since I arrived because WOW do they pep you up and I suppose they should since you are essentially eating 2 Snickers bar with caffeine in them.   These small, 2-gulp, coffees have 250 calories in them on average.  That's insane bro. 

Tracking what I was eating and doing the best I can to be honest with myself has done wonders for me understanding what is good and what is bad and some of it was pretty revealing and kind of saddening when I discovered that essentially everything I was consuming is terrible for me.   

I am meant to have around 2500 calories in an entire day.  So let's say that for breakfast I had 2 vietnamese coffees (because they are so small) and a handful of cashews.   Well that is nearly half the calories I am supposed to have in a day and I am not at all full... congratulations!  

There is a reason why they don't make this information terribly public and I wonder how many people are out there gaining weight like crazy that don't understand why that is.   

Any number of free calorie-tracking apps can really open you eyes to how dangerous a lot of common foods are.  In fact, aside from Sodium, if you only drank water and black coffee you could eat McDonald's burgers for every meal and probably be consuming fewer calories than if you did what I had been doing before.   

<hr>

I don't really even exercise very much folks.  For a while there, about 25 days, when my spine hurt really bad, I couldn't exercise but I still kept to my diet.  I NEVER starved myself.  I would always have a calorie deficit every day of the week except on Thursdays and while I weigh myself several times a day out of curiosity, the only weight that really matters is the first weigh-in that takes place in the morning before I have eaten anything.   

As of right now I am 86 kg.  I have lost 13 kg in 3 months.   

This isn't good enough to write a book about or anything, but that is pretty fantastic in my eyes.  I really believe that other people can easily do this as well but too many people are focused on the wrong things.   For me, and according to a lot of the literature that I have read, what you put into your body is so much more important than how much you exercise.  I didn't exercise at all for nearly a month while recovering from the spinal stuff and STILL dropped about 5kg in that month.   

Now for the bad news:  My social life has suffered a bit because of this life change but that is my own fault for having built a "maze I can't get through" since all of my social interactions revolved around alcohol up to this point in my life.   That is slowly changing though, but it takes time.

I also don't feel wonderfully better outside of the fact that I never have a hangover anymore because I don't drink alcohol outside of bowling days.   

My goal now is to get to a stable weight below 85kg, I haven't weighed so little in at least the last 10 years, so that would be awesome if I could pull that off.   

Now none of my shirts really fit me anymore either and that makes me happy.   

Changing my health in Vietnam:  3 months in

Lately I have made some rather large changes to my life in regards to my health and the result thus far has been me dropping nearly 10kg at this point and with plans in the pipe to lose an additional 5.   I'll get into how that has been going and how it isn't that difficult if you have the willpower and willingness to make real change in your lifestyle.

I have lived the life of basically a party animal ever since I got the taste for partying around the age of 19 or so and basically I have spent the past nearly 30 years living it up irresponsibly.  It really shouldn't be a huge surprise that I gained some weight in that time seeing as how I just basically attacked the beers ever since I was nearly legally allowed to do that.  

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Here in Vietnam beer is extremely cheap.  It is estimated to be one of the cheapest places in the world for it and it shows.  There are some pretty insane beer specials here and I was walking down the street the other day and saw a sign for a place that said "Buy 2 get 4 free" and to me, that is just crazy but it was a promotion by the beer company and I guess they aren't allowed to just give it away or something.  I don't think that much thought goes into it.

It got me thinking about some of the rather insane beer specials I have encountered in my years on this planet and most of these crazy specials come from days I spent in college and I thought I'd go down memory lane with you dear reader, if you care to join.

<h3> Mug night at Peasants </h3>

Peasants was the name of this hippie bar that was in my college town and it wasn't really my scene but I had some friends and a roommate at the time that would frequent the place so I thought, what the hell.  On Tuesdays this place would host "mug night" where for $1, you were allowed to fill up any size mug.   Of course there were a bunch of people that were trying to take the piss by modifying a pitcher or some absurd container and put a handle on it, but unless you were really out of control, the staff didn't really care and for $1, they would fill up anything.

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This was right around the time that 7-11 started selling these crazy sized coffee mugs or soda mugs for around a dollar as well and these things started to dominate the scene at peasants and these 100 ounce mugs were just insane.  

For me, I had a normal sized mug, probably like a pint and a half or something reasonable like that because I do not like warm beer, especially if it is the sort of cheap swill that they are going to be giving you for $1 no matter the size of your mug.   

Tuesday was packed at Peasants every week and you only had to pay a cover charge if you arrived after 10pm.  I recall me and my roommate being so stingy we would actually drive down to Peasants before 10 to get a stamp on our hands, leave, then come back at 11 when the place started getting busy.

It's funny to me that we sought out crowds in those days.  Now I actively avoid them.

<h3> penny draft night </h3>

This took place at a number of establishments and most of them were the kind of disgusting "bump and grind" music clubs that had there been smartphones at the time, a large amount of us would never be eligible for public office and quite a few of us would end up on the wrong end of a viral video and probably be classified as sex offenders.   

The way to get people in the door was that they would let you have unlimited tiny glasses of beer, probably like 200-300 ml, served in a disposable cup, for 1 cent.   

You see, they wanted to give the beer away but where I went to college it is illegal for anyone to give away booze for free.  Event though this was more than 30 years ago, people don't exactly run around with pennies in their pockets, and the staff are not interested in dolling out 99 cents in change all the time so the solution was that they had a bunch of pennies lying on top of the bar. 

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When you went up to the bar to get your *definitely NOT FREE beer* you were required to slide a penny from one side of the bar to the other.  Do it not, and they would not let you have the beer.

It's a funny little thing these trivial laws... because the staff were absolutely insistent on you paying for the beer but kind of turned a blind eye to the fact that basically everyone in the place was underage.  

<h3> Add unlimited beer to your meal for $1 </h3>

This happened to me a lot more recently.  I was visiting Korea and went to a place where they have hotpot and my girlfriend at the time knew a place that for lunch had a deal that for $1 you could add all you can drink beer to your meal.  

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My girlfriend did actually want me to try to hot pot, which she said was amazing... and it was.  But the unlimited beer to me sounded like a challenge and even though she was a tiny girl, she could handle her own when it came to drinking as is the case with many Korean women.   

We were there for hours.  We kept ordering food, just enough to not piss them off too much but after I think the 2 and a half hour mark the manager politely came over and reprimanded us for kind of taking advantage of the establishment.  We were not holding up the seats for any other customers or anything like that - I am not that kind of person, but he jokingly told us that most people that get the special will have 2-3 beers, not 20.  

We laughed, we paid, we tipped VERY well and were kind of encouraged to never come back there again.  hahahahahaaha   

<hr>

There are a lot of other things that come to my mind as well but I'll just bullet point the others

* Buy 1 get 3 free at Kniepe (Da Nang, Vietnam) 
* But a beer get 2 free shots of disgusting local tequila (Chiang Mai, Thailand) 
* 25 cent 2-liter draft cup (Alfredo's - Richmond, Virginia) 

This is before we even start talking about the beer-drinking contests that were free to enter that likely resulted in injuries.  Perhaps I will talk about that at a later time.

It's funny to me that for the most part I don't really even want to drink anymore these days.  I went to dinner last night with some friends and this spiraled into drinking an after say my 3rd one, I got "the fear" or what the next day, now today, was going to be like if I continued.  I left early, they did not.  They are all suffering today and I am not.   I guess I just don't want to live that life anymore.  The weight loss is just an added bonus I guess.

What about you?  Do you have any crazy, but legal, beer specials that you can recall in your life? 





 

Reflecting on ridiculous beer specials

A quick refresher course:  About 3 months ago I was visiting a friend in Thailand that I have known for over 20 years.  He and I had always been of similar size and over the years I have gotten bigger and so has he because well, we are 20 years older than when we first met.  However, this time I was substantially larger than him and it has been this way in the past, but this time it was more noticeable to me because his girlfriend is a pharmacist and has one of those super-accurate scales that costs a lot of money.  When it read out that I was over 98 kg  (over 215 lbs) and while he had a bit of a belly, he was nowhere near that bad. 

It was after that trip that I decided a change was necessary and I really put a lot of thought into it and knew what needed to be done.  

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I knew that there was a couple of things that had to be done and it isn't terribly difficult to understand, but you have to be motivated and dedicated in order for it to work.  If I (or you) do this, you will lose weight.  It's science and it is never wrong. 

<h3> Consumer fewer calories in a day than your body burns </h3> 

That's honestly all there is to it.   A lot of people get out there and think that they need to run a race every day or get in the gym and hurt themselves on the first day in order to be fit.   But I am not delusional and realize that I am never going to look like an underwear model.   I just don't want to be a huge fatty. 

So I got a calorie tracking app that has a food database and started logging all the things that I eat and drink.  Based on my age and height it estimates that my body is burning naturally around 2100 calories a day.   Therefore, if I eat less than this I will lose weight.  if I exercise as well, it will lose weight faster.   

It's not that complicated but something that a lot of people struggle with.  

The first thing I did was to change my eating habits.   I had been ordering delivery for nearly every meal and this is always dangerous because you don't know what they are putting in there.  They are almost certainly using bad things like palm oil to cook it in as well because palm oil is the cheapest.  

I then went and filled up my fridge with fresh fruit, greek yogurt, cheese (yes, cheese), and bought a bunch of meat.  Oh and I needed some healthy carbs so I opted for potatoes.  

I now cook most of my meals at home but discovered one place near my house that has healthy options with whole foods and this is exactly what I am looking for.

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You might notice that i have a little furry witness to all of this in the background and don't worry, she got some of that delicious beef.

A word of warning to anyone out there that thinks that salads are the road to healthiness.   Yes, they are mostly vegetables but a lot of places over the years have done this dirty trick to get you to buy salads where they sneakily make them unhealthy by using crazy amounts of dressing that is really bad for you.  I'm not going to get into the specifics but if your dressing of choice has a texture like pudding, it's probably absolutely loaded with calories.   Ranch was always a weakness for me and while it is not the worst one, it's still pretty bad at 90 calories per tablespoon.  So drowning your 80 calories worth of vegetables in 300 calories of dressing well, that is no longer healthy.  Also you have other things that I am not really considering like saturated fat and cholesterol to contend with.

Anyway, i'm no expert I am just looking at an app to tell me these things which even though i am not an app guy, and I never pay for any of them, they are really useful for discovering the truth about what you eat.

Since I lift weights, I also wanted to get a bunch of protein in my diet without breaking the scale with extra calories.  This doesn't mean that you can just eat whatever you want that is high in protein though, and I went with eating a bunch of eggs with cheese cooked in.

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That tastes a lot better than it looks.

My morning routine is like this:  

* wake up at 6
* get a coffee and then watch some news something or other while drinking i
* eat some greek yogurt with fruit 
* put a shirt on... this triggers the dog
* take said dog on a walk of about 2000 steps for humans and about 6000 steps for doggo.  
* come back and eat a bunch of eggs
* do some sort of workout in the gym  that is in my building - nothing major


At that point it is lunchtime and I will get into that at a later date as this post is approaching 1000 words and well

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I started at 98 kg, and two months later my stable morning weight (a good time to weigh yourself from what I hear) is now 90 kg.   I have NOT been doing a bunch of exercise.  All I have been doing is eating mostly whole foods, staying away from snacking, and always staying under 2100 calories per day.   

If you want to lose weight I think you can do it as well.  Get some help from a food tracking app.  There are a bunch of them and they are all free.   

Changing my health in Vietnam:  2 months in

So I didn't make a big deal about this because I just forgot but in the past two weeks I have once again solidified myself at the top of the ladder as far as our local bowling league, which is called DUMBO, and I guess you could say that I am  back at the top of my game. 

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We had a situation where the true champion had to leave the city for some sort of thing he was obligated by family to do, but would be back in 1 week.  We have a rule that any champion remains the champion but since we need to have someone with the belt, there is an interim championship in their absence.  I won this with relative ease because I have found my game recently and no, I don't really even know how or why this is happening / has happened.   

Then the following week, the "real" champion is obligated to defend their real championship against who the interim champion is to determine a true one champion.   I think everyone expected me to lose this game and honestly, I wasn't even that excellent but as can happen to anyone, my opponent just couldn't seem to make things work and I ended up winning that one as well by a mere 15 points across 3 games.

Because of this victory, I felt like I had won enough for that day and decided to sit the next event out and instead look at other people's various bowling styles and see if I can figure out what they are doing.

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I call this sort of roll the "Sniper" because it is a slow approach with a massive amount of focus put in accuracy rather than power.   

There is no rushed run up to the line to get more power, which is what most people do and it is effective, but instead focuses on ball placement and also where a person's hand is on release.  

When you do The Sniper it is important to stay low to the ground and focus on making your complete arm movement in a straight line and also to release the ball right on the particular dot or arrow that is related to the pin that you are aiming at.   

If the lane is perfectly flat, and you achieve the straight line motion, the ball technically go in a straight line towards the pin or pins that you are aiming at.  

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There are several people in DUMBO that use this approach and I find that it is quite effective for people that are just starting out or don't really have a lot of arm strength.  Don't be shy!  If you are smaller just admit that you aren't strong enough to throw a 15 pound ball at a high rate of speed.  In the end this doesn't really make as much difference as you might think because a ball that misses that mark?  Well it doesn't matter if it is going 1km / hr or 25hm/ hr, if it goes in the gutter fast, it still misses the target.  

The low release at the foul line ensures that you are releasing at the correct dot point and instead of aiming at the pins in the distance, instead aim at the arrows that are intentionally put a lot closer to you in order to help you aim.

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The dots on the foul line do line up EXACTLY with the arrows and unless there is something seriously wrong with your bowling alley, the also line up exactly with where the pins are racked.  

So if you can manage a perfectly straight line from dot to arrow and avoid any sort of spin, there is a very good chance that you actually can hit an individual pin 60 feet or so down the lane.   There is very little room for error here, because a slight miss on the arrow is going to result in a lot of shift to the right or left of the pin you are aiming for 45 feet later.

Using the "Sniper" release helps to insure that the ball has a good straight release as well as a good chance to carry on in a straight line.   

No matter how you cradle the ball in your hand, you should really be focusing on limiting or eliminating all spin on the ball because this will change where the ball is going later on down the lane.  

While "Sniper" bowlers have a difficult time getting the truly high scores, they can get reasonable and consistent scores in the mid 150's or so because they have a better opportunity for accuracy.   

I think a big mistake that a lot of people make in this game is assuming that you need to roll the hell out of the ball in order to knock over pins and this simply isn't true.  Especially on your second ball and especially if you are dealing with a single pin, how fast the ball is rolling doesn't really matter.






So if you are struggling with your accuracy in bowling I think it is a really good idea to slow down your game and instead focus on making your arm movement into as perfectly a straight line as you possibly can.  

Of course I am here doling out advice that I can't follow myself but that is because I am a two-finger bowler that is incapable of bowling straight - but I am an unusual case because this started as a joke more than 30 years ago and it has become the only way I can roll at all now.   

See if it works out for you!  

Some various bowling styles and how to use them:  The "Sniper"

I dream almost every night and for the most part, I wake up at least remembering some of what happened.   My nightmares are not the traditional boogieman chasing you or scary creatures of the night, but rather, some sort of dreadful situation that perhaps is possible in regular life.   

This next bizarre situation is something that happens in my dreams on a regular basis - I would say, at least once a month.   It normally happens after something similar but obviously at a much lower scale happens to me in real life and I guess my brain decides to go absolutely crazy with it

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Ok, so to set things up I have been in a bit of a health mode since around the time I returned from Mexico back in November of last year.   That visit opened my eyes to obesity because basically everyone in Mexico is in absolutely terrible shape.   A bunch of awesomely fat people walking around everywhere that you go and nobody seems to even care.   Since returning I have been on a sort of half-assed mission to not allow that to happen to me.   

So I go running every now and then especially during the time of year we are in now where the temperature is pretty cool comparatively speaking.  It's still hot, don't get the wrong idea, but it isn't sweating your face off hot at all hours of the day, yet.  

So yesterday was actually a pretty solid effort on my part because not only did I go jogging for an hour but I also got home and immediately took Nadi (my dog) on a half an hour walk immediately following that.  Then I had a sensible dinner and didn't drink any alcohol, which is rare for me.  

While I was sitting on the sofa there was some skin on my big does that was loose (and I'll spare you any lucid details because it is gross) but I pulled on it and it turns out that a lot of that skin was dead and it peeled right off.  I was being careful to not pull off any of the alive skin because that would no doubt hurt for days to come but I kind of laughed about how I am getting older because this sort of thing never happened to me when I was older and a lot more active than I am now.   

I watched a film, ate some dinner, then went to bed by 10pm like a good well-natured adult and fell asleep really early.   During the night though, my brain wasn't done with me and I had a dream about what had just happened with the skin on my foot but in my dream when I pulled on the skin it removed all of the skin on my foot in one long pull.  Like ALL of the skin.   It was painless but it came off of me like a snake or a gecko shedding its skin.   

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This is really the only part of that dream that I remember because I guess it was a bit traumatizing for something like that to happen.  In the dream it wasn't painful at all, but there was a fear of it hitting a point where it would become very painful kind of like pulling too far on a fingernail and then, well, you know.   

This is a very strange thing to dream about wouldn't you say?  It is also something I regularly dream about.  It's not just skin but often my teeth will painlessly fall out, like all of them, and also I frequently have other painless yet odd things happen like the interior of my legs all of a sudden being exposed and devoid of flesh.   

The rest of what was in my dream I have zero recollection of but that one part must have been the "gotcha" moment because it is all I remember as I sit here in my living room hours later.   

While I am always apprehensive to trust any sort of head shrink about dream interpretation I do find it amusing to see what these people have to say about what goes on in my head while I am asleep.

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<sub> If you know what this is, you and I would probably get along swimmingly </sub> </center> 

So according to the internet experts in dream interpretation, skin falling off in dreams can indicate one or more of the following 

* this can indicate that you are going through a change in your life and your brain is letting you know that you are ready to shed the old emotional baggage that is in your life
* this can indicate that you are going through a sense of renewal or regeneration (whatever that means) 
* This can indicate that you are experiencing negative feelings of not being good enough and you fear rejection from others 


I didn't cite any of those because they are not copy/pastas, they are 
my interpretations of what I read.   

So the reason why I generally have a problem with psychologist interpretation of dreams is because they are very generic like a horoscope and could apply to almost anyone.  This is especially true in the last statement because everyone, no matter how confident and filled with good attributes they are, feels some level of nervousness about the opinions of others.   I feel this, you feel this, world-famous celebrities feel this, everyone feels this.   I don't need a dream to realize that I am sometimes nervous about what other people think of me.  

As far as changes in my life are concerned, well this interpretation couldn't be further from the mark as I am at a point in my life where I have basically zero change or unknowns on the horizon.  

I suppose it could be connected to the change that I am making as far as the fitness is concerned because of my fear of becoming a lard-ass.

For me, I think the strange dream element is interesting and it was a dream that I was happier to wake up from than one where I was being chased by something sinister.   I don't look into it a great deal as I don't think that everything we dream needs to have some sort of underlying reason for existing.  To me, I think it was just a question of having some strange skin issues in real life and then my mind going wild with it.   

If you have any strange dreams to share I always enjoy hearing about them.     

Analyzing my crazy creams:  Skin falling off regularly

I don't normally comment about how airports are doing something right and I am especially critical of immigration departments all around the world, but I will give credit where credit is due in my recent trip from Da Nang to Bangkok to Phuket and how they are handling the passengers that are transitioning through to another city in Thailand once you arrive there.

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First off  I want to commend the Da Nang International airport for having some sort of really intelligent forward-thinking ideas as far as the creation of the international terminal is in the first place.   They built this before the city was immensely popular and it is clear that they made it much larger than was needed at the time.  It 's like they were aware of the fact that this city was going to be a popular international destination and well, it is definitely working out for them.   

Any time I go to the Da Nang airport I do so with a sense of confidence that things are going to run smoothly and they always do.   The above picture is the international departures terminal and at first glace it might just seem as though this is an unpopular airport and/or destination.  That is not true at all.  What has happened here is that the place is enormous and all the various halls such as immigration lines and security were built in a way to plan for expansion in the future.  The "future" is now and still there is plenty of space for the demand now and many year into the distance.  

While other airports that absolutely suck like LAX tell you to be there 4 hours before your departure, they do this mainly because of horrible design and things simply cannot move quickly.   

Well done Da Nang for doing things correctly.  Shame on you USA for claiming some sort of international supremacy whilst at the same time having what is recognized as being disastrous experiences from a travel experience.  

Now on to what this article is really about.  

Bangkok immigration can be a real nightmare because in the past they would have everyone, regardless of their final destination in the country, go through immigration in Bangkok.  This resulted in long lines that never seem to move even though there would be 30 or so immigration officers working in every available booth.   

They changed things in the past year and now, if your final destination is not Bangkok, you are directed towards a "fly through" area where the amount of immigration officers is apparently determined by how many tickets have been determined to be arriving from outside the country, but going to Phuket, not Bangkok, as was the case in my situation.  

What I encountered is something you are not allowed to take photos of but just take my word for it.   There was literally ONE person in front of me in the line to go through immigration because I guess there was only a handful of people on my flight from Vietnam that were carrying on to other places in Thailand other than Bangkok.   A lone immigration official was at the booths and things went really fast.   I think the immigration and security people were actually in much higher spirits than they normally would be as well because they were now not being faced with a massive mob of people that are arriving from all over the damn world.  

This makes a lot of sense seeing as how the airport is extremely aware of what the final destinations of every single customer is.   There is no real good reason to not be doing this.  

I used to dread arriving at the Bangkok airports because not only is Thailand a very popular place to visit, but it is also a travel hub for all of south-east Asia.   There would ALWAYS be long waits to get through to the other side and everyone was in a piss poor mood as well.   

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<sub> unrelated, but airport prices for drinks are just insane... no chance I am paying that </sub> </center> 

This time, the experience was, dare I say, quite nice!   This is coming from a guy that absolutely hates airport travel too.   

I hope that this is something that other countries will take note of because it is so much better of an experience for everyone involved in the process. 

Changes in international transfers in Bangkok just changed everything

I'm a little early this time around and that is because I have been spending more time in the gym than I normally do in an effort to get back into a certain level of shape that doesn't make me want to punch the guy in the mirror.   I no longer participate in "traditional social media" such as FB, IG, and I never participated in Twitter.   I left those things behind about 5 years ago and my life has been a lot better because of it.  So maybe I don't know what my college roommate had for lunch and I no longer get to see pictures of airplane wings or feet in the sand because somebody went on vacation but honestly, my life doesn't change much without that knowledge in it.  

These days I only look at 9gag when I have downtime and if you don't know what that is, that is fine.   It is normally a collection of memes interspersed with political propaganda and the usual arguments that come along with such things.  The difference in the comments section of 9gag pointless political arguments is that the people involved don't know one another so they aren't dissolving lifelong friendships just because one of them likes Trump and the other doesn't.

I save the memes that I find funny or insightful and well, I am here to present them to you.

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I'm starting off on a bad foot here because this is not a meme.  It is a news post made by an oblivious news source called "Access" and I am happy that I have never heard of them.   The response is just gold though, and that is what made me laugh.

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It is well-known that dogs simply melt my heart.  I don't even particularly care for bulldogs but the young ones, well they haven't yet grown into the moody and drooling skin flaps that they will eventually become.  I want to be friends with Winston, of this much I am certain.

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This one is special to me, very special to me, because **I made it**.   I was lambasted by the meme community for my poor cropping but honestly, the commenters on 9gag are just as big of a-holes as anyone else on the internet.  My meme did make it to the trending section though and that was a big win for me.   It is also a true story because this app, called Zalo, is kind of like the Whatsapp of Vietnam.  Instead of talking, people send cute animated animals to one another often and well the real estate agent wasn't being rude but probably just doesn't understand how exclamation points can dramatically change the feel of a message.  

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Is a quote a meme?  well this is a highly contested argument on 9gag and 4chan but I don't care.   I like the quote and the author and it is also quite insightful.  As someone that has been intentionally single for several years now I am on the fence with this one.  I am mostly content being single but there are times when I am lonely.  Nadi helps to take the sadness away on the rare moments that I feel that way, though.

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Tweets are heavily frowned upon in the 9gag community but I always upvote them because I don't have Twitter and never will.  This is something that I can directly relate to and I am willing to bet that it has happened to a lot of you at some point also.  

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They could have chosen a better fond color and trust me, this was pointed out extensively in the comments section.   I know quite a few Canadians because no matter where you are in the world, they seem to constitute a larger that you would expect portion of the expat mix.  I pick on them, and they pick on Americans... that's just the relationship that these two nations have.  It's mostly light-hearted and when I showed this to my Canadian pals, they agreed entirely.

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Not funny, but it is certainly insightful.  How many times have all of us stressed over something that we have no control over?  How many of us have allowed something that you cannot change to affect your overall mood.   I think we could all use a bit of meditation time to do the old adage of "grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference." 

That's it for today.  I will end this as I always do

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There's Nadi in her Kansas City Chiefs jersey that she actually didn't hate because it was cold that day.   She is not a fan of wearing shirts and I am not a fan of putting her little doggy arms in them.   

If you have any memes to share back, please do so.  I am always in search of more dank.  

Monthly meme dump

So about 5 years ago I decided to completely abandon all the major social media sites and apps.   I, like most people, was spending far too much time (wasting too much time) participating in them and a lot of what was going on was simply spiraling into arguments with strangers or even worse, people that I know and have known for a long time.   These situations quickly became nasty and I saw the same people really going after others who I know for a fact they would not treat that way in person.  Like Mike Tyson said "social media got ya'll way too comfortable with disrespecting people and not getting punched in the face for it."

I decided to leave it all behind and while I am no longer seeing pictures of what my 112 cousins had to eat for lunch, I don't think I am really missing out on a great deal of what is happening in the world.   My real friends would contact me directly.   I now spend that time saved on doing almost anything else and my life is better because of it.   I do however, still have downtime and I use that on an app called 9Gag, which is still filled with the same political propaganda that fills up the other ones, but for the most part the people don't actually know one another IRL that are doing he screaming.   

I can find some pretty funny stuff in there or some things that really make me think every now and then and these are the ones that I felt compelled to save.  Maybe you'll find them informative or amusing as well.

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One thing that a lot of people really struggle with in the expat community over here and everywhere else I have ever lived in SE Asia, is that the expats get together and get drunk.  That seems to be almost the only thing that they do.   I am a borderline alcoholic in that when I do drink I am going to drink a TON and the only thing I seem to really be able to do to curb this is to just refrain from drinking at all.   Is my life better due to the absence of drinking?  I mean, I guess so.  I don't have near as much fun but my head doesn't hurt in the morning and I get a lot more done in my life.  

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I don't know what science they are referring to and this isn't a meme, just a snapshot from an article but it made it to the top charts on 9Gag anyway because they love cats and dogs over there even though they seem, as a group, to hate almost anything else.   

I believe this is true about dogs and whenever Nadi (my dog) doesn't seem to want someone around her I listen and am very suspicious of that person from that point forward.  Dogs have powers we aren't capable of understanding and I truly believe that they can see into the essence of a person and determine if they are bad or not.

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Shortly after I left Thailand to move to Vietnam, they made marijuana legal there.  I have only been back to visit a single time but when I was there I noticed how people had become very particular about the kind of weed that they like.   Here in Vietnam, marijuana is still technically illegal although it is very easy to get your hands on.   The above meme is true about what kind of stuff people get and how they refer to it here.  

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Twitter is frowned upon by some in the community but not by me since I don't have Twitter nor do I plan on getting it.   As someone who was born before the turn of a millennium I am starting to get insulted when people I meet are surprised that someone could possibly be born before 2000.  It doesn't happen often because I don't hang with 25 year olds very often but I would imagine that is something that is going to become more prevalent as the years continue to tick by.  

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I send something like this to people that I know these days when they ask if I want to go get some drinks.  I have a drinking problem that I have to be very careful to not let get the best of me though, as I detailed after the first meme.

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The Americans that I know here are intimately familiar with Taco Bell but other nationalities, well there is a good chance they have never even had it.   Before I go on a tangent about how much I love Taco Bell and miss it dearly, I want to point out that in the hundreds of times I have been to Taco Bell, I have never had an upset tummy because of it and don't understand why people associate it with such.   Honestly, if you are merican have you had this happen to you or is it just fun to jump on the train?   

Taco Bell has recently entered the Asian markets in both Korea and Thailand and unfortunately I don't think they are nearly as popular as the owners would have hoped.  That's a shame because when it comes to fast food, Taco Bell is without question, my favorite.  

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This is long, but read it anyway.

As Nadi gets older I start to worry more and more about the fact that in all likelihood, in less than 5 years she is no longer going to be sitting next to me all the time.  I get little previews of what this is going to be like when I take her to the doggy hair salon and she isn't with me for a few hours.  I always think about that when the hair days are upon us and I am truly dreading when that time comes.  I've been through this 3 times before in my life though and while I know it will be tough, it is completely worth it.  I like to think that Nadi is actually quite happy being alive because of me as well.   We are a team that unfortunately and tragically will be split up in a few years' time.  

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I may have posted this already but I don't care.  This was when I took her to a pub during the NFL Playoffs where one team typically wears red uniforms.   I don't really care much for sports but I do love a clean and fresh doggo and she was that day for sure.  She was easily the most popular creature in the pub that morning.

That's all I got for now folks.  IF you have any memes to share back they are always appreciated.  

Monthly meme dump 

I dream frequently... nearly every single night.  As I get older my dreams get to be a big confusing because since I rarely dream of fantasy or scary type situations, I will often not be 100% sure of what actually happened in my life and what happened in fantasy land.   Me and a friend of mine had a real laugh the other day when I got the two worlds confused and was talking about something that didn't actually happen because it didn't happen to anyone other than me in dreamland.   This is how vivid my dreams are to the point where I sometimes have difficulty remembering what was real life, and what is fantasy.   

So the other night I had yet another dream that was so "scary" that when I did finally get jolted awake I couldn't get back to sleep because I was so flustered and frustrated from what had just happened in my head.   I am a grown man and should be able to calm myself down after something happens that clearly wasn't real, but I guess I am just silly like that.  I ended up waking up for the day even though it was 0230.  I  knew this was going to bite me in the ass come the afternoon, which it did.  Thankfully I was able to get an power hour nap in and all was well.

Anyway, let's get into what it is that goes on in this crazy mind of mine that I find so terrifying in my middle age, shall we?

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Short backstory:  I've worked my entire life.  Some of my earliest memories is of having a job.  As soon as I could walk it seems I had a paper route and these jobs evolved over time until I was a teenager and I worked in food-service.   The food service industry in America is one that is very welcoming to young people and if you ever hear about this "minimum wage" debate perhaps you can understand why I am on the side of the people stating that this should not be raised to $20 an hour.   The people in most food service establishments are young people who likely have no financial obligations and this was never meat to be a career outside of the one or two people in the kitchen that actually know what TF they are doing.  Those 1 or 2 people make substantially more than the min. wage kids and for good reason.  

Anyway, so when I got to be a teenager and for most of my college years, I had a job in the food-service industry.  It started out in a local seafood restaurant where I was a dishwasher but eventually and over time I realized that the real money was in the front-of-the-house jobs such as bartending and waitstaff.   So me being the industrious person that I am, I strived to make my way to the front, which I achieved pretty early on.   

The problem with front of the house that for the most part isn't experienced in the back is that when the place gets busy, you get overwhelmed on a regular basis with having too many things to do and remember at once.  One small thing like the service area being out of ice can really set you back and stress you out because there is a good chance that all of your customers are waiting on something and they, the ones who likely never worked in food service, get all flustered and upset with you because they have to wait 2 minutes for an iced tea refill and they presume you are an idiot when the reality is that you have been assigned more work than one person should ever be in charge of.   They do this on purpose for cost-savings.  If they assigned a ton more servers that would solve the problem for me, but it wouldn't solve the problem for the restaurant since outside of peak times, there aren't enough customers to justify the regular amount of servers they have, let alone a surplus. 

So those of us that have had this job end up "in the weeds" meaning that they really have to focus in order to simply manage to get every one of their customers what they are asking for.  So many times IRL I have been in the middle of something only to suddenly remember that someone asked me for something 10 minutes ago and I simply forgot.   

This stress of having that job sticks with me to this day and even though I have not worked in food service for many many years, it is always in the back of my mind.

<center> https://heatherdavisnelson.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/waitress.gif
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During this stress, it is important as a server that you don't let the audience know how crazy it is what you do for a living.   You aren't supposed to freak out on them even though you really want to.  Plus, if you were to explain to them it would take a bunch of time out of your already crammed mini-schedule and get you even further behind plus, they probably wouldn't care.

So in my dream I found myself in an amalgomation of many different restaurants that I have worked at in the past and this particular one had a very complicated touch screen ordering system.   In the dream I was basically assigned an area of the restaurant that was "my zone" and then thrown to the wolves.  Nobody in the dream taught me where anything is, how to use the computers, or even what we sell there.   Also, the restaurant was absolutely slamming busy.  

<center> https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/04/18/dining/18expedite1/18expedite1-videoSixteenByNineJumbo1600.jpg
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There is one thing that I recall from working in busy restaurants and that is the fact that during busy times, even the most friendly of fellow staff members are unable to assist you with anything because they are busy AF as well.   If you just try to get someone to help you out because you don't know where anything is, they will snap at you out of character and probably be overly mean to you because they are juggling 20 different things at the same time as well.  

In the dream not only did I not know where anything was or what we sold there, but I also didn't know any of the staff.  So I am just wandering around looking in this place and that for god knows what, and in that time not only am I not finding what I am looking for but I am also getting in the way of people that work there that DO know what they are doing.  So they get frustrated with me as well.   Every little thing I went in search of would be missing such as the ice tray being empty for the drinks that I finally figured out how to make.   I also had no idea where one might obtain more ice so I'm just standing there like a useless lump.   

In the meantime I am also very aware of the fact that for each minute that I spend standing there I am getting further and further behind as far as service is concerned.  So I'm at a bad impasse in the dream:  I can't go forward but the longer I continue to stand in one place I get further and further behind.   I also have no idea how to use the computer system so I can't order any of the food that they sell in this place anyway.   

For people that have never worked in food-service I can tell you that it is likely the most stressful job that you are ever going to have unless you serve in active combat military duty.   My constant return to this job in my dreams kind of suggests that there is a certain amount of PTSD that exists simply from carrying food to tables.   

It helped me to grow as a person IRL because I learned how to mitigate adversity and how to deal with unreasonably angry people who don't know all of the story.   You really had to juggle so many things at once just to make it in that profession and to this day I have a great deal of patience and respect for anyone that has to work in that field.   

I woke up from this dream at a point where I think I had resigned myself to failure, standing on the other side of the dining room with all of my customers basically shouting at me and me not having a clue what I could possibly do to placate them.   I suppose my "fight or flight" mechanism triggered at that point and I was whisked out of the dream and returned to the real world where my doggo friend was busy snoring right next to me.  

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I realize the difference between the real world and something that just happened in my head.  I'm not insane.   However this feeling of frustration that I had in me after going through what was hours and hours in my head resulted in a feeling that I simply couldn't shake and was still extremely frustrated even though I was well aware of the fact that none of what I just witnessed actually happened.   I got up, went and got a midnight snack and then tried to lie back down and return to slumber only to discover that I simply couldn't shake the feeling of immense frustration and eventually just decided to get out of bed for the day.   

Has this ever happened to you?  A dream so powerful that you couldn't get back to sleep?   

The "experts" state that this sort of dream is quite common and it "can symbolize feelings of being overwhelmed and overburdened in your waking life."   I gotta call bullcrap on this one again, I have a pretty carefree life in my awake world.   

Returning to my crazy dreams that I regularly have

Oh Tinder, the wonderful thing that drives modern-day dating.   I hate it, but unfortunately it is a big part of the dating world these days.   It has its purpose and sometimes that purpose can be really good.  A lot of people met for the first time online these days and I personally know people that have gone on to have a wonderful relationship that they otherwise probably wouldn't have had just because it is very unlikely that they would have even met their partner if it weren't for the app that matched them up.  

For me though, basically every match I have ever had have been a disaster.  Some of them are a bit more nuts than others though and today I want to tell you a story about a girl that I met that was properly crazy.


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Now when I say "crazy" I don't just mean that we didn't get along because with this particular girl we actually did get along initially because I found her fascination with witchcraft quite fascinating the same way that I would find it fascinating of someone was really into anything else and was passionate about it.   I too find the notion of magic and things like that to be a lot of fun but I draw the line at people that think that it is actually real.  

So I don't even remember this girl's name because it was about 5 years ago when we first matched up.  This took place in Thailand and for whatever reason, it is very common for people to suggest to meet up at Sizzler restaurant and yes, that is a very widespread and popular place in Thailand.  So I met her at Sizzler and I noticed right away that she had a ton of tattoos that were basically covering most of her body.  I don't have a problem with tattoos, on some people I think they look awesome but for the most part I don't find it attractive, that is just my personal thing and I am entitled to it.   However, I do know that people who are really into tattoos tend to be pretty passionate about that as well so I asked her the backstory on a couple of them.   

She obliged and I think I might have insulted her a little bit when I chuckled when she told me that one particular one, which was visible near her neck even with a shirt on, was something that keeps a certain kind of bad spirits away from her.   Sort of like a charm or emblem in a fantasy movie.  To me this, in real life, is akin to people believing that vampires are both real, as well as a genuine threat that a normal person can expect to encounter even though none of us know anyone that has ever seen an actual vampire.  I wasn't sure if she was joking or not but I did find it childishly funny that someone would believe in that.   

She didn't like that I laughed and took offense at it so I let it go and because I didn't want a scene I pretended as though I admired that sort of thing although in reality I think it is extremely nuts for a grown up (she was in her late 20's) to get something permanently etched on their body in order to keep evil spirits away from them.   

<center> https://dailydish.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Protection-symbols-unicursal-hexagram.jpg
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it was something like the above but I really don't remember what it was.  

When we moved on from that conversation to talk about something less crazy I could see that she really wanted to linger on that conversation topic so later on I found out that one of the things she does for money is to sell spiritual relics that are very similar to her tattoo to ward off evil.  Now if this is what we had started with I would have found that to be very cool and a lot less crazy because collecting occult items is something I can get behind.   But actually believing that these occult items are magical is not something I think a sane adult would actually do.   Anyway, I thought "well, at least she isn't *typical*" and I ran with it and kept asking her more and more questions about the things in her shop.  I genuinely wasn't being patronizing and was not picking on her hobby or her beliefs.   One thing was for sure though, I could tell that this relationship definitely wasn't going anywhere because to quote Jack Nicholson's character in *As Good as it Gets*, "go sell crazy somewhere else, we're all stocked up here."   

I'm not one to intentionally hurt anyone's feelings so I just asked questions and the conversation was pretty good.  I could tell that she was annoyed that I wasn't one of her kind though and I don't know if she wanted me to sign up for her cult right then and there but I wasn't going to pretend to believe in witchcraft just to maybe get laid.   So we finished eating, walked around the mall a little bit and then I made up some story about how I had to meet a friend somewhere at a certain time.  I'm sure a lot of people have done this before in the past both men and women.  

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Things seemed fine when I left and well, it was an enjoyable time for me even though I had no intention of ever going out with this woman again.   Things seemed fine to me but soon after, she started to contact me rather obsessively kind of like we had been in a relationship for years and she was a jealous girlfriend.  She was questioning what I was doing, where I was, who I was with, and even started demanding photo evidence when I would tell the truth (no reason for me to lie) when I would say I was on a bike ride, at Tesco, or whatever.  I did not provide her with the photos more than once though and basically started to be honest with her about how I had a good time with her but I don't think it would work out with us and that I wasn't interested.

Well she didn't like that at ALL.  

Now make no mistake, I'm not bad looking but I am no Adonis or Brad Pitt, I'm probably a 6 or a 7 out of 10 on the attractiveness scale but this woman now seemed as though she was absolutely obsessed with me.  At one point she showed me some food that she had made and asked me where I lived because she would like to drop it off to me.   There was no way in hell that I was going to tell this person where I lived so I kept making up excuses for why she couldn't come by and then eventually I had to be blunt with her and tell her that we are not going to go out again and there is no reason for her to be making me food or bringing me anything.  Keep in mind that I haven't so much as kissed the girl at this point so it isn't like I pulled a one-night stand and now was blowing her off like some sort of scumbag.  

The crazy got worse from then forward though as she started sending me pictures of her hanging out with guys and some of them were pictures of her kissing or hugging them.  I don't know if she thought that this was going to make me jealous because it certainly didn't.  What it did accomplish was to make me extremely happy that I dodged a bullet with this crazy gal.   I contemplated blocking her because she wouldn't be able to find me in the city of over a million people that I lived in but instead I tried being nice and telling her things like "I'm happy that you found someone and are having fun."   

The fact that her photos that she sent to me didn't make me jealous apparently enraged her even further as she started to send semi-threatening messages in ALL CAPS.   

It's at this point that I just stopped responding to her messages and once again, this just made her even more enraged.   

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I think it was about a month after we went to that wonderfully romantic dinner at Sizzler that she sent me a picture of a ritual that she performed where she was placing a curse on me for wronging her.   I wish I had saved that picture better than I did because I don't know where it is... it was on a phone long since gotten rid of.   

I never responded to anything that she sent to me from that point forward and I muted her on the app that we were talking to one another through.  I didn't block her or report her because I actually found her apparent mental illness to be a bit amusing.   I mean, you don't meet many genuinely crazy people in your life so I found her to be interesting but not interesting enough to get involved with her.  Can you imagine how absolutely impossible it would be to date someone like that?   

It was at that point that I stepped off of Tinder for a while and just decided to hang out with the boys and remain single.   I don't think I swiped on Tinder for the better part of a year after that experience.   

I am extremely grateful that I didn't tell this person where I lived because she seems the type that would break into my house and kill my dog.   

Whatever the curse was, it didn't stick.. well that is unless the curse was to turn me off from using Tinder for a year or so.  If that was the intent, then her spell was effective.   Like most people I meet in life, I hope that she found whatever the hell it is that she is looking for but honestly, I cant imagine the kind of person that would be willing to put up with that sort of thing.  I only spent a couple of hours with her and she became completely obsessed with me for a few months after that.   

Tinder Fails:   Going out with a genuine witch

I spend quite a bit of my downtime looking at a meme site called 9gag that is pretty fantastic for a laugh and it actually keeps you pretty informed on current affairs as well.  The comments section is where you are going to get more truthful information about what is going on in the world than you are going to get from any news outlet so that is a nice by-product.  The main reason I look at it is to laugh or to get inspired though and people will frequently post things that technically are not memes but still make you think a bit and this one that I read the other day hit close to home about how I feel about myself as well as almost everyone that I know.

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<sub> this isn't the meme that reminded me of myself, it's the next one </sub> </center> 

This topic isn't something I really thought about in my life a great deal until after I turned 40, which was a few years ago now.  As a child I always thought that adults lived this grand, serious life and they only let loose to be fun and a bit silly whenever children were around.  I think a lot of us grow up thinking the same thing as well because if you had a good upbringing, your parents were serious and strict towards you to a certain degree but also upheld an air of adulty-ness whenever they were in public.  

I am now older than my parents ever were at any point that I lived in the same house as them and I am almost NEVER serious and stoic about anything so when I read this post that probably comes from reddit on 9gag, it hit close to home.  

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I think that especially if you don't have children, and I don't, that being serious and being "adult" is something that just doesn't really work for me.  All of the people that I know, even the ones that do have kids, rarely seem to act how I envisioned adults would behave when I was a child myself.  I don't think I would be able to maintain a relationship with a person that was serious all the time and I tend to surround myself with people that are childish or at least as childish as I am.   

I'm thinking that maybe my impression of adults when I was a child and even as a legal adult myself when I was just starting out my career might have been really terribly wrong.   I think that this seriousness is just a facade that people put on in their professional lives but as soon as they are just around the boys, so to speak, that they let loose as well.   

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Now don't get the wrong idea here.  I am not a useless man in his 40's, I can get things done when I have to.   I just feel like the level of dedication that my own parents put into being adults is heaps and bounds above the amount of responsibility that I ever face in my life.   I tend to look at almost every appointment, even the ones that are mandatory or will benefit me are just a pain in the ass.   My most treasured moments of every week come from our weekly bowling outings where we all go and get drunk afterwards.   

I think that "roguebelle" in the Tolkien conversation above kind of hit the nail on the head as far as most of my life has been concerned.  I agree with Toys 'R Us when I say "I don't wanna grow up."  I haven't done so yet and it has worked out for me.   I just kind of wonder if all of you out there are the same and live most of their lives in a comical way.   Sometimes I look at my life and general lack of dedication that I have to almost anything and wonder how it is that I managed to be successful?   I think it must be that most people, even those in charge of hiring other people, are not so serious all the time as well.  

A meme I saw reminded me of myself

Let's start with the usual backstory, which gets shorter and shorter every time I tell it.   I stopped using traditional social media about 5 years ago.   The inspiration was mostly because of USA politics and how people were falling out with family and friends that hey have known for years just because they didn't like the same candidate.  Some of the awful things people would say to one another was just remarkable especially since I knew these people and know they wouldn't talk like that to one another face-to-face.   I had a guy tell me to "fuck off, I barely even know you" and then unfriend and block me just because I posted a meme in his comments that was a variant of the "life is short, make sure to spend as much time as possible arguing with people online about politics!"    

<center> https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/25/9gag_logo_old.svg/1200px-9gag_logo_old.svg.png
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So after all of that I deleted FB, IG, and Twitter and I found that my life became a lot better because of it.  Now my only social media is basically 9gag, which is a place where mostly memes are posted all day long.   Sure there is political propaganda in there as well but since the community is very dedicated to tags you can block certain topics.   Some user still try to get their crap through but the very dedicated community will downvote anything, even stuff they agree with, that is intentionally mislabeled.   

So this is how I spend any downtime that I have, looking at memes.   I sift through the trash so you don't have to and these are the ones that caught my eye in the past month or however long it has been.  

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There are a lot of memes on 9gag that are boy/girl differences oriented.  I think a lot of the userbase are teenagers or people in their 20's but this is something that I have seen in my own life.  There are men that I have been acquainted with for years now and we don't even know one another's names.  We likely actually did tell one another our names at one point but for men, that really isn't something we hang onto.  With the women that I know they seem to be prepared to exchange all contact information immediately upon meeting someone.  So when I have a nice chat with a dude I never ask for contact information unless there is a very real reason for us to do that.  It's just kind of funny to me that it seems that almost all guys are like this.

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Ok, this one is not funny but it is something that I think about.   My dog is exceptionally attached to me and I think this is because I am the "magic food giver" and I am really the only stability that she has had in her 11 years on this planet.  The few times I have left to go overseas the people that look after her have said that she seems depressed and often she refuses to eat.   While I find this endearing, I definitely wouldn't want her to think that I left her if I were to die.   I have made arrangements with my close friends here to make sure that she will be with me if something happens.

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This made me laugh because it is stupid and I am childish.   It likely wont be funny to anyone that is unfamiliar with these advertisements and the very catchy earworm of a song that came along with it.  

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This one was funny to me because 9gaggers have a tradition of posting philosophical statements that aren't meant to be taken seriously.   The notion behind it is true though.

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When did "retarded" become a word that we are not supposed to say anymore?  A lot of speech police out there in the world because while I do avoid using this word just to keep the peace I did say "retarded" around a girl that I know not that long ago and she got more upset with me than I think is reasonable.  I was referring to myself when I said it as well and was not at all referring to anyone with genuine mental deficiencies.    I just don't know when the "r-word" became taboo.   It is a genuine clinical term too.   I recall when I was a kid some family friends had a retarded son and that was how Zachary was referred to as.   Nobody took offense at this, certainly not Zach himself.   Zach by the way, was a ton of fun to us kids:  He was 17 but had the mental capacity of a seven year old.   He was a blast to be around but we had to be careful because he was a lot stronger than us and didn't really understand that hurting other people was wrong.  

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9gag is also a great place to find not so nice inspirational quotes.  I send this to friends of mine often when they are spilling their guts about how something in life isn't going their way.  It lightens the mood if they are a good friend and they know I am joking.   

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I have a few German friends in the expat world over here and we get a kick out of how long some of their words are.   I don't know why this is but I think most Germans also thing that their language makes some things a lot longer than it is in other languages.   There are entire YouTube channels dedicated to just this.   

I will admit that this is not my best meme drop:  Because of the election in the US much of the material there has been centered on that so the humor will probably return soon only to fire back up again at the end of January.  

I leave you with a picture of Nadi that I don't really remember taking because I was drunk when I took her for a walk

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She loves to go just about anywhere with me, even if I am not walking in a straight line.   

if you have any memes to share back they are always appeciated!	

It's "cold" season in Da Nang as well as the rest of Vietnam at the moment.   Cold is a relative term and to me, someone who has lived as far North as northern Michigan in the winter, I would not describe 16 degrees C or 60 degrees F as "cold."   But a lot of people and their dogs that have become accustomed to it being 90 degrees Fahrenheit on a daily basis treat this weather as if it was nighttime in Siberia.   I will admit that I wear jeans and a jacket on some nights but I prefer to dress like that anyway so it is fine by me.   

The other day I took Nadi to happy hour and she was on a chair near me and I noticed that she was shivering quite a lot.   I don't ever want my doggy friend to be uncomfortable and someone asked me "why don't you get her a sweater" to which i responded "because she hates them."    My response is true, but I am sure that she hates shivering even more so the other day in the pet shop I found a festive looking sweater that was something like $4 so I figured I would give it a try.

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I took Nadi out  to the same pub that I normally go to for happy hour with the intention of having my normal 3 beers and that is exactly how many beers I had.   In that time the people that all know her there came by to give her plenty of attention and there was even an elderly Japanese woman who wandered by, spoke very little English, but just had a smile on her face the entire time while she was stroking Nadi.   Nadi is not like other dogs so she quickly tires of being pet.   If you ever meet her don't take this personally, she just oddly doesn't like being held or stroked for too long and will move on... Unless there is a thunderstorm, then she wants to be cuddled tightly.

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If she looks to you like she is unhappy about her sweater just know that she kind of has "resting pouty face" all the time.   This isn't a tactic she uses intentionally, but it is part of the reason why she gets treats at a rate that is probably a lot higher than she actually deserves them.   She just looks perpetually sad.  

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The purchase was an easy one for me to make and I spent only about 4 minutes browsing the dog clothing section.  It was red and it is near Xmas so that caught my eye, but also since it says "Cute Baby" on the back I knew I had found the correct sweater for my pup.   In all likelihood I will not be buying her any more of these because I am not a 14 year old girl, nor am I Korean.  

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This last picture is a little out of focus but it is my favorite one of the bunch.   She has a "hey, you lookin' at me?" sort of expression.   

The best news about all of this is that she wasn't shivering the entire time we were there so that's a big win in my book.    

If you have a dog that you put clothes on I would like to see it.  

Nadi gets a sweater (I said I would never do this)

It's been a lot more than a month but I guess we'll have to make allowances for someone that goes on the first vacation of their life in 5 years and let him have a break.   

Here's the usual breakdown that you can skip if you read these every month:   I left all traditional social media about 5 years ago.   I got tired of the identity theft, the self-indulgence and what I perceived to be damage to mine and everyone else's mental health, the infighting among friends over almost anything including politics, and just the amount of time that it would waste in my life that could be spent doing almost anything else.   To fill up the dead time in places like waiting in line or at the gym, I heard about 9-Gag, which is a site that is mostly for memes but also has more than its fair share of political propaganda.   The good news is that the community is self-policing and if someone doesn't label their post with the correct tags, it will get downvoted into oblivion so if you don't want to hear about Russia/Ukraine for example, the tags can be blocked and voila!  You will not see anything about it anymore.     There is a lot of fun stuff to be found on there but there is also a bunch of noise.   These are the ones I saw that made me laugh or made me think in the past however-long-it-has-been.   


I hope you enjoy them

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This time's offerings will be more serious than usual.  I hope you are ok with that

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As you might have read, I have put myself "back on the market" so to speak after nearly 2 years of inactivity.  I don't like using technology to make this happen but that does seem to be the way of the world now.   I have met up with several people and it has gone less than awesome.   I try my best to be cool and kind but the women on there seem to be doing sex interviews and some of them ask some really probing questions about how much money I make and other such things that I don't think are a very good way to start out.   I have only gone on a 2nd date with 2 of the girls I matched with and one of them turned out to be completely bonkers.  I had to have security remove her from my apartment when she refused to leave.   I never even got "intimate" with her so you can't call me a predator or anything like that.   I think I will soon "check out" again if this is what modern dating is going to be like.

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I know a lot of people from all over the world after 2 decades of living abroad and moving a lot.   As cliche as it sounds I truly believe the above to be true.   I know a few people that truly made it as far as wealth is concerned and the "mo money mo problems" has been true for all of them.   I think there is a sweet spot as far as wealth is concerned and just like the meme says, that sweet spot is having enough money that you don't have to worry about your financial future anymore, not really having so much that you can buy anything.   There was a wonderful clip I ran into of Kurt Cobain talking to a reporter right after Nirvana became the most popular band in the world and he talked about how he preferred when he would go into 2nd hand shops and not be sure what he would find or if he could even afford it.   He enjoyed that experience a lot better than knowing that he could simply buy the entire store like he could at that point.   

Being poor and not having certainty if you are going to be able to make it through the next month sucks, this is for sure.   But I don't think that most people actually would do very well with immense wealth and it would result in a net detriment to their overall life.  

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This is mildly political and if that is not your bag, sorry.   I have a few friends that are hardcore feminists and still stand by the gender pay gap thing even though it has been debunked time and time again.   They want it to be true more than they are actually interested in knowing if it even is true.   I don't want to get into that though and this isn't the point.   The point is that the good meme-makers on 9Gag are able to take a hot-at-the-moment political issue and make some good humor about it and I think this is one of those.

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If you don't know who Jim Cramer is, you are better off for that.   He has been bashing crypto since it ever was something the media ever talked about and now he is advising his viewers to definitely get involved.   That is great if you are a HODL-er like me, but at the same time this guy has a reputation for being someone that appear to attempt to manipulate markets perhaps for his own personal gain.   Basically it's an ongoing joke that whatever Jim says to do, do the opposite.   This time I will actually agree with him though.

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The US midwest isn't known for a lot but this is one little tidbit of information that I was unaware of until yesterday.   I guess this is for preservation in case of natural disaster or fallout of some sort?  No matter the reason, I am glad to see that the world is interested in preserving the truly important things in life.  Forget about saving people, we need that cheese for the end-times.  

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This isn't a meme and to some on 9gag Tweets are frowned upon.  But since I do not have Twitter and have never really used it, I like getting things like this.  It also is funny because I am completely out of practice when it comes to dating and flirting.   While I haven't gotten specifically in this situation, I am definitely aloof when it comes to people flirting with me.  I have been told by people after the fact that some girl was interested in me and I was like "really?  I had no idea!" and then I thought about it and the signs were definitely there, my radar is just rusted and broken because of non-use.

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This will likely only have some humorous value if you are around my age.   In the 80's it seemed like every family had at least one of these and yes, they would get used for almost anything.   When we were sick as kids my mom would leave it in our bedrooms and we referred to it as a "burp pan" because we were not a foul-mouthed family at all.   It didn't occur to me at the time but it is kind of gross that this pan would be used for all manner of disgusting things such as holding vomit for a night, and then later be used to bring food to pot-luck suppers at church.   Let me know if you had one because I think it was required by the government in USA at least.


<hr>

I know that is a short list but I have actually been quite busy after spending more than a month in Mexico so I haven't had a lot of downtime.  If you have any memes to share back, I always enjoy seeing them.		

I'm writing about this right after I wake up so that I can get it all down before the memories of the events in my dreams last night fade, as they tend to.  

I'll mention real quick that I dream almost every night and often remember what happens in those dreams.   Lots of people never dream or if they do, they don't remember much of it.  I tend to dream very vividly and remember a lot of it as well.   I can sense whether or not the memories are going to fade though and today is one of those days that I can feel it slipping away.  

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So while a lot happened in my dreams last night I don't recall all of it.  Like most people's dreams there are a couple of major events that take place and the rest of it is probably just overly colorful nonsense.   The dreams don't tend to make sense in a linear fashion and that is fine.  The two major events that take place in my dream last night stick with me rather strongly though.  

As is often the case, both of these deal with having water in them and in a dangerous sense as well.

In the first situation I was at a giant theme park in some sort of flying contraption that would squirt water.  In this ride you had a lot of freedom to ride all over the park most of which was covered with heavy supports made of metal that were rising out of the water.   Since structures like this frequently appear in my dreams I know why they are there even though the psychologists would likely have some sort of mumbo-jumbo reason for why that is.   The reason that large structures rising out of deep water frequently appear in my dream is because there is something about this sort of thing that I find quite terrifying.  

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For whatever reason, this is something that I have always been afraid of and I don't know exactly why.  Perhaps it is partially because people move slower in water, aren't very capable of escape if they need to, and because there are some critters in there that can seriously hurt you and are much faster than you are.   Plus the fact that we can't breathe at all or see properly is a big minus as well.   I actually became a scuba professional that was partially-driven by conquering this fear - perhaps I will write more about that experience at another time.   Anyway, I am scared of stuff like this, my brain knows that I am scared of stuff like this, and therefore my brain frequently features stuff like this in my nightly dream sequences.

So me and some friends whose faces I cannot recall from this "ride" we were on in a theme park decided to land on one of the giant structures that was over the water.   A bunch of people were sitting in little cars that were attached to this platform extending in a bunch of different directions with the spot we landed being where all of them connect.   I got out of my little flying thing and noticed there was a screw on cap of sorts that was at the connecting point of off of the arms extending off of this structure and was suspending all of the cars, containing all of the people, that were hovering over the water.   

I don't want to hurt people, nor am I particularly evil, but I decided to unscrew this cap and sure enough, it was holding all of those people above the water and once I removed it, all the arms that were supporting all of them came detached and crashed into the water.   Like almost all amusement park rides, the people in the cars were strapped in and most were unable to get out of their seats.   My curiosity turned to horror as I saw dozens of people get thrown helplessly into the water where they are now trapped.   

For some reason, I had a scuba diving kit with me and even though it was me that caused this catastrophe, I jumped into the water to try to save as many people as I could.   Because this was a dream the people weren't in any real danger and most of them seemed to be having a great time and were able to get out of the cars on their own.   I never really ended up helping anyone and at that point started to worry that I would be in trouble for causing this.   I guess self-preservation kicked in and I started thinking that "I can't get into trouble for unscrewing an easily unscrewed connector by hand, can I?"    

Flight mode kicked in and I evaded authorities for a little while even though they were not pursuing me and then the dream did this thing that it frequently does where I was magically transported to a completely different area and a completely different set of people.   I never faced the music for my actions in this dream and this tends to be the case in my dreams.   

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The next place I found myself was outside of an apartment that had suffered water damage and I was there to help clean it up even though it was not my place.   I apparently was some sort of expert in dealing with this and even though there were a ton of people that were sitting around none of them were helping.   I was just doing what I do to clean up the mess.

As it turns out the apartment in this dream belonged to a distant ex-girlfriend who I was involved with some 25 years ago.   I'll keep things brief but this was one of my only long-term relationships that I had in my life and for many people that were witness to what actually happened in real life, I did this girl dirty.  I was the bad guy and I make no excuses about that.   In the end (in real life) she was better off apart from me and there is no real reason, especially this long after the fact, for anyone to have any real hurt feelings.   

I don't often think about this girl or really anyone else that I knew back then but she will pop into my dreams every now and then and normally in a not so wonderful way.  It's like my mind is trying to punish me for abandoning her.  

Anyway, she owned the apartment and she was there while I was working on cleaning up the water damage.  She didn't speak to me or even look at me while I was there but she also made no attempt to help me.   She and what were clearly her friends and not mine, all just sat there while I did the job and cleaned it up and when I was done I just opened the door and told her/them that everything should be fine now, then left.   No drama, no feelings, no nothing really.   It was just a statement of fact that the job was done.   I could hear through the door as I was leaving that she said something snarky like "and don't ever come back!" as I closed the door and her friends joined in mocking me for coming there to help.   It made me feel bad in the dream and it wasn't long after that where I woke up into my real life with Nadi next to me on the bed in Danang, Vietnam.   

<hr>

So what does this all say about me?   Well for one thing I think it should be obvious that I feel remorse for how I treated the distant ex all those years ago and perhaps want to atone for it, but just like it would be in real life this attempt at atonement would probably be ill-received even if what I was there for was genuinely altruistic such as it was in my fixing her apartment with zero expectations in return.  Some things just need to be left in the past.   The thing is, I don't have any sort of longing towards this girl and I do not consider who to be the one who got away or anything like that.  I believe that our relationship ran its course and that she and I both are better off because of it.   But I suppose I have a guilty conscious about how I ended things back in the day.   

As far as the water is concerned I have already established that this is just something I am afraid of for some reason and my mind puts that into dreams because well, we have to establish unease in my dream-films and deep water is one way to accomplish that.    The part that perplexes me is the destruction of the over-water tower-ride where people were definitely going to get hurt if I unscrewed that cap, yet I did unscrew it even though I knew what the end result was going to be.   Then I immediately regretted the decision and sprung to action to save the very people who I had endangered by my actions.   

I bet a psychologist would say something about me making rash decisions in life and then immediately regretting them and this is some sort of cycle that I have to work to change.   That isn't what my life is like at all though.  I don't make rash decisions other than towards certain purchases that I tend to regret later on.   

<hr>

I won't dwell on it too much, and I will not make an attempt to find the ex on social media either.   I guess my brain is just having some fun with me in the night and not everything needs to have some sort of higher meaning.   

gooddream (83)

Monthly meme dump!

Dauin, Negros Oriental, is a wonderful place to relax and free yourself from stress.

Monthly meme dump!

My back problems just kind of went away. I'm grateful

Monthly meme dump!

Changing my health in Vietnam: 3 months in

Reflecting on ridiculous beer specials

Changing my health in Vietnam: 2 months in

Some various bowling styles and how to use them: The "Sniper"

Analyzing my crazy creams: Skin falling off regularly

Changes in international transfers in Bangkok just changed everything

Monthly meme dump

Monthly meme dump

Returning to my crazy dreams that I regularly have

Tinder Fails: Going out with a genuine witch

A meme I saw reminded me of myself

Monthly meme dump

Nadi gets a sweater (I said I would never do this)

Monthly meme dump

Analyzing dreams: Are my whimsical nighttime features trying to tell me about myself?