Back in hell

[minionofmidas]

So leave then.  Why the f**k are you here?  Oh, I forgot.  To get money.  If you had the courage of your convictions, you'd leave and never come back.  And America wouldn't miss you.

I agree completely. You do nothing but bitch about how terrible America is --- just never come back. It's so much easier.

I wish!  But I'm afraid its not possible guys.  Have to mooch a bit to get through the dry spell between the semi-annual disbursements.  How would you get money abroad?  Please, I'm all ears..

I think they're thinking of working.
Those two cats are waay overfed btw.

[opebo]

I wish!  But I'm afraid its not possible guys.  Have to mooch a bit to get through the dry spell between the semi-annual disbursements.  How would you get money abroad?  Please, I'm all ears..

I think they're thinking of working.
Those two cats are waay overfed btw.

Well, it is illegal for foreigners to work outside their homelands, according to my understanding of the law. 

[minionofmidas]

Not necessarily. It requires paperwork.

[opebo]

Not necessarily. It requires paperwork.

Sounds bad.  Anyway, persons who suggest work as a solution to anything are very lacking in understanding.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Anyway, persons who suggest work as a solution to anything are very lacking in understanding.

Of you're parasitic lazyness?

[opebo]

Anyway, persons who suggest work as a solution to anything are very lacking in understanding.

Of you're parasitic lazyness?

Well, in a sense.  Lacking in understanding of the difference between a life of leisure and a life of work.  The former is worth leading, the latter, almost always not.  Nice song by Pulp along those lines (those boys seem to understand what a working-class life is like):

Common People
Pulp

She came from Greece, she had a thirst for knowledge
She studied sculpture at Saint Martin's College
That's where I caught her eye
She told me that her Dad was loaded
I said "In that case I'll have rum and coca-cola
She said "fine"
And then in 30 seconds time she said
"I want to live like common people
I want to do whatever common people do
I want to sleep with common people
I want to sleep with common people like you"
Well what else could I do?
I said "I'll see what I can do"
I took her to a supermarket
I don't know why
but I had to start it somewhere
so it started there
I said "pretend you've got no money"
but she just laughed
and said "oh you're so funny"
I said "Yeah
Well I can't see anyone else smiling in here
Are you sure
you want to live like common people
you want to see whatever common people see
you want to sleep with common people
you want to sleep with common people like me?"
But she didn't understand
she just smiled and held my hand
Rent a flat above a shop
Cut your hair and get a job
Smoke some fags and play some pool
Pretend you never went to school
But still you'll never get it right
'cos when you're laid in bed at night
watching roaches climb the wall
if you called your dad he could stop it all
yeah
You'll never live like common people
You'll never do whatever common people do
You'll never fail like common people
You'll never watch your life slide out of view
and then dance and drink and screw
because  there's nothing else to do
Sing along with the common people
Sing along and it might just get you through
Laugh along with the common people
Laugh along although they're laughing at you
and the stupid things that you do
because you think that poor is cool
Like a dog lying in a corner
they will bite you and never warn you
Look out
they'll tear your insides out
'cos everybody hates a tourist
especially one who thinks
it's all such a laugh
yeah and the chip stain's grease
will come out in the bath
You will never understand
how it feels to live your life
with no meaning or control
and with nowhere else to go
You are amazed that they exist
and they burn so bright
whilst you can only wonder why
Rent a flat above a shop
Cut your hair and get a job
Smoke some fags and play some pool
Pretend you never went to school
But still you'll never get it right
'cause when you're laid in bed at night
watching roaches climb the wall
if you called your dad he could stop it all
yeah
You'll never live like common people
You'll never do whatever common people do
You'll never fail like common people
You'll never watch your life slide out of view
and then dance and drink and screw
'because there's nothing else to do
I want to live with common people like you.....

[minionofmidas]

Yeah, great song...

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Why don't you go live in Nevada while you're here? You can get a job easily, and there's still legal hookers.

[Nation]

Anyway, persons who suggest work as a solution to anything are very lacking in understanding.

Of you're parasitic lazyness?

Well, in a sense.  Lacking in understanding of the difference between a life of leisure and a life of work.  The former is worth leading, the latter, almost always not.  Nice song by Pulp along those lines (those boys seem to understand what a working-class life is like):

Common People
Pulp

Bill Shatner does a better cover of it. And you idiot, it's a story of a slumming, pathetic rich girl, not some expose on how working-class people live.

[Joe Republic]

Common People
Pulp

Laugh along with the common people
Laugh along although they're laughing at you
and the stupid things that you do
because you think that poor is cool

they'll tear your insides out
'cos everybody hates a tourist
especially one who thinks
it's all such a laugh

You are amazed that they exist

That song is ridiculing how patronizing rich people can be about poor people, and the way they sympathize with them without really having a clue about their real problems.

Quite appropriate that you brought it up, it seems.

[John Dibble]

Common People
Pulp

Laugh along with the common people
Laugh along although they're laughing at you
and the stupid things that you do
because you think that poor is cool

they'll tear your insides out
'cos everybody hates a tourist
especially one who thinks
it's all such a laugh

You are amazed that they exist

That song is ridiculing how patronizing rich people can be about poor people, and the way they sympathize with them without really having a clue about their real problems.

Quite appropriate that you brought it up, it seems.

LOL!

[Colin]

Update From Hell:
I am sustaining myself on a survival diet of nuts and berries in this hostile terrain.  I had a couple of $50 meals, but they were of worse quality than my seventy-five cent meals in Thailand.  I also had an encounter but the American-style full figure made me ill.  How do you people live in this place?  You must be very hardy.  Some views of America:

Oh yes opebo, America is horrible. It can't be any worse than this:








Oh yes opebo what a wonderful country you live in. [/sarcasm]

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Thailand is being sucked dry by a parasitic seat that is in effect choking on itself

[opebo]

Common People
Pulp

Laugh along with the common people
Laugh along although they're laughing at you
and the stupid things that you do
because you think that poor is cool

they'll tear your insides out
'cos everybody hates a tourist
especially one who thinks
it's all such a laugh

You are amazed that they exist

That song is ridiculing how patronizing rich people can be about poor people, and the way they sympathize with them without really having a clue about their real problems.

Quite appropriate that you brought it up, it seems.

Yes, it is ridiculing rich people, of course.  But it is also presenting the obvious fact that the life of the poor is a meaningless, miserable horror. 

I don't see how my own condition has any bearing on my commentary on the life of the working-class. 

[opebo]

Thailand is being sucked dry by a parasitic seat that is in effect choking on itself

Hah, that could be said of any capitalist country.  I'm sure the right-wingers would not call it 'being sucked dry' but rather being Developed.   Actually Bangkok is not so bad - the traffic is no big deal now that they have the skytrain and subways.  Anyway I never spend any time in Bangkok.

[Alcon]

Thailand is being sucked dry by a parasitic seat that is in effect choking on itself

Hah, that could be said of any capitalist country.  I'm sure the right-wingers would not call it 'being sucked dry' but rather being Developed.   Actually Bangkok is not so bad - the traffic is no big deal now that they have the skytrain and subways.  Anyway I never spend any time in Bangkok.

Hey, we have the same things in the U.S. and the average person is more wealthy! Poverty rates are lower! Fancy that.

[ATFFL]

Common People
Pulp

Laugh along with the common people
Laugh along although they're laughing at you
and the stupid things that you do
because you think that poor is cool

they'll tear your insides out
'cos everybody hates a tourist
especially one who thinks
it's all such a laugh

You are amazed that they exist

That song is ridiculing how patronizing rich people can be about poor people, and the way they sympathize with them without really having a clue about their real problems.

Quite appropriate that you brought it up, it seems.

Ahhh, sweet, sweet irony.

[opebo]

Thailand is being sucked dry by a parasitic seat that is in effect choking on itself

Hah, that could be said of any capitalist country.  I'm sure the right-wingers would not call it 'being sucked dry' but rather being Developed.   Actually Bangkok is not so bad - the traffic is no big deal now that they have the skytrain and subways.  Anyway I never spend any time in Bangkok.

Hey, we have the same things in the U.S. and the average person is more wealthy! Poverty rates are lower! Fancy that.

Poverty rates are merely statistics.  The fact is that quality of life is higher in Thailand for the median person, simply because everything is so cheap, but even more so because everything is of such high quality.  The meals I bought for seventy-five cents in Thailand were healthier and made of fresher materials than anything I could buy in any American restuarant for $30.

For example, I discovered through aquaintances that the monthly salary of the workers in the ubiquitious 7-11s of central Thailand is about 10,000 baht per month.  That's about $250.  Well, an apartment is about $50-75 per month, and food eaten out is about $3-4 per day, and is delicious.  Health care of a basic nature is provided by the State.  A motorbike is $25/month.  A pleasant existence.

In Missouri, convenience store work pays about $6-8 an hour.  So times 32 hours a week (not many places will allow 40 hours), we get $224 before taxes.   Thai workers taxes are negligable (even the upper classes only pay at most 20%, most workers none at all), but to be fair lets not even take into account America's higher taxes.  So this person makes $896/month.  An apartment is $500/month.  Eating out is $15/day at a minimum, and the quality of food is atrocious, as wellas unhealthy.  We're already at $950/month!  Even before considering transportation, this person cannot afford to live in the same style as the Thai worker.

[Jake]

The majority of Americans don't eat three meals out a day. Cooking two meals and packing a lunch runs a few dollars a day.

[opebo]

The majority of Americans don't eat three meals out a day. Cooking two meals and packing a lunch runs a few dollars a day.

That is my whole point!  They can't afford to!  Working class Thais can afford to eat out more frequently than working class Americans, and the food there is of enormously better quality.  America, again, loses.

[Jake]

Eating food at home is much better quality than most restaurants here. Nine times out of ten, I'd rather eat a cheaper and better meal at my house than go out to eat somewhere.

[opebo]

Eating food at home is much better quality than most restaurants here. Nine times out of ten, I'd rather eat a cheaper and better meal at my house than go out to eat somewhere.

Correct, American restuarants are garbage.  In addition, the food you get at the grocery store is mostly processed garbage.

In Thailand, the food sold on the street and in small restaurants for $.75 is better than anything I ever find in the US, at any price, and to top it off far more convenient.  In other words there is something wrong with America's functioning, and right with Thailand's.  Alas I fear that as the world is Americanized someday within my lifetime all food will be disgusting and poisonous - the process has already begun in Thailand.  Tragic.

[??????????]

Ok Opebo. What exactly[/i] do you hate about American food? Taste? Cooking style? What?

[opebo]

Ok Opebo. What exactly[/i] do you hate about American food? Taste? Cooking style? What?

It is hard to explain to someone who hasn't been to a country where food is good.  I think the main problems are lack of freshness, and processing. 

In Thailand I eat rice, enormous amounts of fresh vegetables, incorporated into soups, curries, etc, including lots of green leafy vegetables.  Oh and everything picked that day, nothing refridgerated or transported long distances.  Meat in moderation and lots of fish, and nearly all of it killed or caught that day.  The food is just so vibrant, fresh, and always prepared just right.  I admit I hate the heavy meat and potatos blandness of 'Western' cooking, but it it more than just personal taste.  Like so many things here, American food is just a sort of half-assed compromise, a 'good enough' solution.  In Thailand I think there is more pride in cooking because every little restaurant, including mobile street food stalls, are owned by independent small business people - not these disgusting chains we have here.

And Thai food here is enough to make me cry.

[??????????]

Did you enjoy eating the dog & cat that they often serve there? lol