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Call Me! – Futurephone
David Pogue explains how you can call from the US to overseas, from a regular phone, for free: Free Overseas Phone Calls There’s an interesting back end to this story as well, which he covered in his e-mail newsletter this week: From the Desk of David Pogue: The Final Word on Futurephone ////////////////////////////// By now, you might be sick of hearing about Futurephone, the company I recently profiled in my blog http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2006/10/09/09pogues-posts-4/ because it offers totally free international phone calls to over 50 countries. No signup, no fees, no surrendering your name or address. Man, we’re a cynical bunch these days. Very few of you were persuaded that Futurephone’s business…
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Thailand: Webcam Visa Extensions?
I’ve only got a couple minutes before I’m abducted by rogue water buffaloes so I’ll just throw fellow expats in Thailand an interesting link: Webcam extension of foreigners’ stays okayed Before you get too excited, there is of course a catch: “the bureau is only making its mobile services available on condition that the company involved must have at least 80 foreign workers lined up for renewal.” And now, I hear the thundering of hooves…
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Sticky fingaz
There are two medium-sized geckos living in my bathroom. I chased one out from behind his hiding place with spray from the shower. Later, as payback, he ran over my foot as I sat on my throne and literally scared the crap out of me.
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Arrival
Just a quick note – we arrived to our house in Sarakham safely. We have been here for 36 hours, but our net connection was down. I have a feeling that will happen a lot here, at least more than I’d like. In the past day I’ve snored loudly while getting a massage, wielded an ancient Chinese sword, and met an astronaut. More on this later…
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Tribute to Silvia
We are half an hour out from heading to the airport, but this morning what I miss the most is my car… Bye Silvia! You served me well…
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Moving update: The home stretch
We are emptying out the house at midnight and listening to Neil Finn.
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Moving update: House slowly emptying
The shipper came to pick up my two cubic meters of stuff and friends came by to help relieve us of furniture and 100V electronics (Thailand is 220 – 240VAC). We are wasted. The house is almost empty. My beloved hikari line (FTTH) and wireless card are shut off. I’m surfing in seemingly slow motion from a neighbor’s open wifi access point (and sadly, still getting twenty times the speed I will have in the Thai countryside, although, come to think of it, I’ll trade bandwidth for mangosteens any day of the week). I’ll miss B-Flets, but happily take 3 dollar foot massages in return. Also, my Towers of Power…
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SDS-WAVE??? (Super Discount Shop rip off)
I ordered a Coolpix for a friend through an online electronics shop a couple days ago after finding the cheapest price on kakaku.com. These are the fuckers in question: http://www.sds-wave.com This is the camera they sent me: That’s basically all it can do, is display this initialization screen for about ten seconds before shutting itself down. The shit is obviously broken. Yet, SDS-WAVE will not let me exchange it for a new one, refund my money, or fix it for me. I told them I am leaving next week for another country and they were like, “hey, it sucks to be you, gaijin. Have a good time working that claim…
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Leaving a country
…you have lived in for a long time, there are certain truths you must face. This is somewhat unpleasant, like suddenly feeling queasy after just a couple of drinks at a club, after not having imbibed for months and suddenly acting like a lightweight, and just as inevitable as puking into the gutter. A seemingly long period of wishing you hadn’t done what you did, followed by complete release and relief.
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Red Tape
Thanks to three different departments at city hall (including one who claims my wife “does not exist”), the tax office, the social security fund office, NTT, international banking problems, and my landlord, my head is about to explode. Luckily, living vicariously through the exploits of The Claw operator at the end of my street serves as a good release: The Claw
