If you live in SE Asia you no doubt heard the stories (or perhaps felt it yourself) about the 7.7 earthquake that rocked Myanmar and was felt all throughout the area. You have probably also seen the videos of the hotels shaking in Bangkok and the swimming pools that were overflowing to the streets below. And you almost certainly saw the video of the large building collapsing in Bangkok online somewhere.

I don't smoke so it is impossible for me to understand the need that some people have to smoke or to vape. It is a very widespread thing in SE Asia though and a lot of that has to do with the fact that vapes and cigarettes are very cheap and accessible. You are also allowed to smoke almost anywhere that you want. When vaping hit the scenes a few years ago, a lot of people transitioned away from cigarettes and towards vaping and to me, this was an improvement because I would much rather smell strawberry or some of the fruit smell than that awful ashtray stink that comes along with traditional cigarettes.

If you ever find yourself somewhere in Bangkok you will almost certainly get at least a bit annoyed about how the footpaths / sidewalks are nearly unusable because they are either too narrow or they have been turned into motorbike parking lots or places where people set up mostly illegal stalls to sell anything you can imagine.

It is a bit shameful to me at times when I speak to people back in the US or anywhere in the west, but Thailand is known for a lot of things but one things they are probably known for more than any other and that is being a bit of a sex-tourism capital of the world.

I posted back at the end of December about how I was transitioning over to Linux Mint on my new (new to me) computer that I had just bought. I am doing this because I am starting to get very concerned about Windows being "free" because nothing is free and Microsoft didn't get to be one of the largest companies in the world by giving things away. They are definitely doing something you would rather them not be doing with any product that they give away.

I know quite a few people that have overstayed on their visas in multiple countries. I accidentally overstayed on my own visa but it was for a single day and it only happened because of the fact that my flight was a red-eye flight in the middle of the night and I failed to take into account that 1:00 AM is actually the next day. It's a dumb mistake and I wasn't in trouble for it. Immigration was cool about it but they still charged me 500 THB for what I had done.