Dave Hounddriver

But I do care if someone uses the Hmmmmm. Fer chrissakes learn the words so no need to hmmmm. (Joking with ya Jack), but there are already enough icons that are short on meaning. Let's take a quick look at them. Hmmm = Hmmm what? Different readers would use their own cultural and language bias to decide that and it's probably not what was intended by the icon. Like = Like what? Does it mean that the poster is a good guy? That the post is funny? The post is accurate? In many cases it means the post is bland and non-controversial and has nothing to do with any Philippine Expats but the poster is a good guy so we'll give him a like. Sad = Different things in different areas of the world Google "Urban Dictionary Sad" and there are pages and pages of different meanings so it is probably the most useless icon we have. Thus, for those who wonder why I do not put some kind of icon on their post, it has nothing to do with whether I like you or your post. I probably forgot or just did not want to add an icon that would confuse people about what I really think. What I really think is we have way too many of these icons now and the only ones that come close to getting my "personal gaf seal of approval" are the like and the thanks. Those are pretty normal icons and even if a person misreads their meaning, at least it is a positive experience. Edit: The Ha Ha icon is pretty good too, It lets people know if they are getting close to the point where they can quit their day job.

I'm tall this month. Lynne wasn't home for two weeks. Somehow the money lasts longer that way. Strange

You are not wrong. I dislike getting Eddie fired up but unfortunately, there is no button for that (Joke Eddie). But seriously, anyone who wants to change things should have a look around. Not many are speaking up to jump on that bandwagon, no matter how loud the band gets. Thus, whilst we welcome all the opinions, the administrators have to keep an eye on the squeaky wheels, and on those who would grease the skids, AND the silent majority who haven't anything to say as they don't think anything is wrong. To put forward my opinion, (which seems to match some others I have read). I do not give a flying feck if someone likes my opinion or not. I do not need a like button for people to "approve" of my opinion and I do not need a dislike button to tell me someone does not like what I have said. If you like my comment, thanks now let's move on. If you dislike it, don't read it or skim over the first bit and move on. That should be the end of it. Some may politely talk about "thin skins" or "onion skins" but I call it like it is. Maturity. Grow up, people!

Depends on the smoke. In Canada they recently decided sucking certain kinds of smoke into your lungs can be prescribed for medicinal purposes.

Close, but Napolean was French and is actually believed to have said " Laissez donc la Chine dormir, car lorsque la Chine s'éveillera le monde entier tremblera" Google translates that to mean "So let China sleep, because when China wakes up the whole world will tremble" Why the semantics? Because there are more misquotes than actual quotes on the Internet so I believe none of them without doing proper research.

As long as we are pissing about with telling people we dislike something (what they said, how they said it, who they are, whether they have bad hair - not sure what we are disliking). Continuing on, as long as we are disliking someone, let's have a "loserboard" At the top right of your screen, you can see a leaderboard. These are the people who are the . . the leaders of the forum?. . . . . HellifIknow. I think there are some there who Eddie might dislike. So let's make a loserboard so we can vote for the biggest loser on the forum. I mean if we have a leader it stands to reason there must be a loser. Who will start? Who should lead the loserboard?

Here ya go

We don't need a dislike button. We need a sign! Watch and learn.

Doesn't matter what anyone tells him, he's German so he isn't really going to listen. Stubborn men, them Germans. If he REALLY wanted to know then he would ask the people at BI but I know from experience that when he gets close to the three year mark they will not extend his visa unless he can show a plane ticket out of the country before his 3 years are up. So no need to tell him anything. He will be told by the folks at BI

As I see it, the Dislike Icon turns the forum into a popularity contest. Not all opinions are popular. My parents taught me if I cannot say anything nice then say nothing at all. Our Jack taught me it's not what you say but how you say it. Our Eddie taught me if there is no dislike button you can mention how certain members have been tossing their toys out of the pram. All this works for me. if we start with a Dislike button, the next request will be for a Strong dislike button, then a pile of shit button, then a "feck off" button. It does escalate. Seen it on other forums. They pretty much stopped doing it. But nothing to stop you posting something like: "I dislike that post, Dave, because .. . . " and that is what we call constructive criticism (if done in the right way) I shall add here that the Like button already turns the forum into a popularity contest. But we manage that because people like to be liked. But as an example: On another forum a member with the most likes got his nose all out of joint when the admins told him off (He figured he must always be right because he was the most popular poster). He was told that anyone could get the most likes if they have a lot of friends an post a lot of stuff that their friends like. It was also illustrated to him that one click by the administrator can eliminate all his "likes" and he is back to zero again. Anyway, I'm rambling but I hope you get the point. On a side note, I keep meaning to contact you (Eddie) to arrange a meetup. I have that jolly jumper I told you about in the back seat of my car waiting to catch up with you and give it to you, so drop me a line here or get Noime to arrange with Lynne (via messenger) when you will be available to meet up. I am frickin horrible with phone calls. My bad.

Well ya see? That goes to show ya that expats should not teach Geography. There are at least 23 cities named Paris in America.

Ok, I admit this is off topic but I believe this old joke fits here: 3 guys are working on a high rise. Every day at noon they stopped to eat their bagged lunch. The first one says "Peanut butter sandwiches AGAIN! If I get this crap in my lunch one more time I'm gonna jump off this high rise. Enough is enough." Next day the same guy opens his lunch bag at noon and says "Feckin PEANUT BUTTER again. I'm done!" And with that, he leaps off the highrise to his death. The second guy says: "WOW. What's up with that? Why didn't he ask his wife to make something different?" And the third guy says: "Because he makes his own lunch." Now the moral is we make our own forum here, so stick around and improve it or jump off, but no drama, please. And no blaming other people. Everyone gets their say and if you don't like that person's opinion then skim over it.

It works the other way too. I stayed for 5 nights at a hotel in Cebu using a sale price I got on Agoda. At the end of the 5th day, I asked at the desk if I could stay 2 more days as I was happy there. Nope. Not unless I paid double the rate I paid on Agoda. So, I went back to my room, got on my laptop, opened the Agoda site, and booked 2 more nights at their special rate. I went downstairs and showed them the booking. No problem. 2 more nights at the Agoda price. Strange places these hotels. For those familiar with it, this was at the Quest Hotel in Cebu.

Are you positive on that? I notice their site says

A former member, who has since passed on, used to say great things about https://www.slingbox.com/ I have not tried it but you may want to look into it.

Run for government office? I use this as an example. I strongly suspect there are other things a naturalized citizen cannot do but I don't really feel like researching it.

The beatch in question had Lynne in tears as she was there on her own and the B was lording it over her. We have since got it sorted but the B stated that her "main concern" was having recently "rescued a minor from a foreign country" because the mother and child went with her unmarried husband to his home country and the mother had a "nervous breakdown" while she was there. Sounds like a crock to me but I am told the B in question was the biggest fish in that small office. We all know there are people like that. They lord it over their fellow countrymen until they get tears. If they tried that on a foreigner they would get anger. IMHO it is abusive to do that but I cannot change the system. Lynne seems OK now and we found a work around. EDIT: Jack, I am sure we could report her but it would be useless. Abusive people like that know how to suck up to their superiors and look like perfect angels when being investigated. It is an art that abusers learn to perfect.

Getting a ride in their car or on the plane with them Some/many of us have been with girls who have family members in high and might positions. In rare instances, the high and mighty will acknowledge the poor relation. I suspect it is usually out of curiosity to see who the foreigner is that their poor relation is with. When this happens they are on their best behavior and trying to show how important they are. So we do not get to see what they are like at home. Their maids can tell a more intimate story and a couple of my exes have been maids to some of the high and mighty. it is not usually a nice story.

From what I have seen, you are correct provided you are thinking fo the extreme upper class and rich. But that kind of person also has their nose in the air and does not marry a foreigner. Racism is alive and well in the upper crust, IMHO. That said, there are Filipinas who come from middle-upper-class families and are a lot richer than many of us here on this forum and, to agree with Jack:

Yep. She had a problem with us living together without benefit of marriage. She apparently said she would sign it in a heartbeat if we were married. It seems the reason for the paper is because the child is school age (4 going on 5 but they say school age is 3) and not yet in school. So we found a "helper" to get around the BS and we will put him in school in June. But really: Has to be in school by age 3???? Dumb ass country.

I will be. I understand that the information on the Internet is rarely 100% accurate when dealing with Philippine high and might bureaucrats but I did find this: Sounds like someone is playing God with Lynne, perhaps hoping for some under the table persuasion. I will find out.

This is a new one for me and only just now coming to light. I have not got all the details. When my live-in spouse started the process of getting a passport for herself and her fatherless child she was informed that she needed all the usual bureaucratic crap but the child needed very little. The main thing the child needs is a letter of permission from the DSWD. They refused. So what do I mean by a fatherless child? A child who was fathered by a man who denied any responsibility. A father who said, "It ain't mine, you must have had a bunch of other guys so blame one of them". So the birth certificate says father unknown and there was no father figure on the scene until I came along. Has anyone else had to get a letter from DSWD to get permission for a child to get a passport? How did you solve it?

Most people say that until his friends start telling him that all of his friends have been sleeping with his wife when he is at work. I had that happen to me and it still amazes me to think that I blamed all my friends at that time (I was in my 20s) and it took quite a while to realize the one to blame is the wife. Love is blind, deaf and dumb!

It isn't that I do not believe you. But I also read sites that say "how to Block a number on ANY cell phone" like the link I will give. I have to wonder about your phone. https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/how-to-block-a-number/

You too? Happy Birthday Jack. May you have many more years of touching people in a very special way. And also, Happy Birthday @Old55 who's been quiet about it, possibly because it is not yet his birthday in that part of the world. Its still yesterday over there.