Notices by Patrick V. ???? (patrick@sea-mstdn.social)

Have to say, the size of an #Airbus A380 stays impressive, not matter how many times you’ve seen it…

@clacke @scottearle I get my extension based on my marriage to a Thai. I could get approved immediately, but that would mean switching to an extension for a different reason (retirement). Faster and easier, but also double the financial requirements (park 800K THB on a Thai bank account). Now I only need to do 400K THB.

@scottearle @clacke correct. And again replenished to 400K at least 60 days before next year's request, and so on, and so on... ?

@clacke @scottearle it's 1 month. I have to return for a final stamp in my passport on the 31st of March.
In reality: the chance that I'll get refused should be extremely small. They do check all the papers when you hand them in, but there's also a background check. The first year that involved a house visit by the Immigration police, witnesses that could vouch for my marriage etc., but that's only for the first year. After that they don't do that anymore.
So should be smooth sailing.

@clacke @scottearle I can assure you: bureaucratic efficiency is not a thing here. I've never shuffled so much paper in my life as in the last 2+ years I'm living here.

Today is the day I'm filing for my next 1 year extension of stay in #Thailand.

I've got my stuff prepared: 29 documents (+ 29 copies), all signed, 2 passport pics, bank book proving that I have the required funds + a letter from my bank confirming it's really MY bank account...

It's the yearly ritual every foreigner living here has to go through...

If I would be refused (extremely unlikely, but this is Thailand, so you never know) I'd have to leave the country on monday...

Wish me luck! ?

? 3/7 - When I gave him the phone I dumbed it down as much as I could, and the whole family has repeatedly tried to teach him how to make even basic use of its functions. How to look at a picture, how to respond to a message, how to even know he has a message, very simple stuff like that. But he simply does not seem to take it in.

? 2/7 - It’s me who has to call him, because he still doesn't know how to call me. I usually have to retry the call a few times because more often than not he fumbles the tap gesture to answer the call. I can't send him pictures, because he doesn't know how to look at them despite my family teaching him over and over again. I can't send messages to him because he doesn't know how to read them. And even if he could, he seems incapable of using the touch keyboard to send an answer.

?1/7 - My dad just celebrated his 90th birthday and is still very much sound of mind and body. When we moved to #Thailand 2 years ago I gave him a smartphone with WhatsApp so we could stay in touch. I taught him how to turn on/off the screen and how to answer a video call. Anything more complex than that he could not seem to comprehend.
He refuses to call it a phone, instead he calls it "that box"... We video-chat every Sunday, and he often tells me it makes him happy that we can do that.

? 5/7 - Is it fear of technology? Of breaking things he wouldn't be able to fix? Does he simply not want to learn because he doesn't understand it and therefore has decided that it's “not for him”? Is he scared of looking stupid in the eyes of me or other family members?
I genuinely don't know, but after 2+ years of trying, both myself and my family have simply given up on teaching him anything more about it. He either refuses to take it in, or he’s genuinly incapable of it. I don’t know.

? 4/7 - Now my dad is not stupid, and he still very much has his wits about him and has always been quite smart and good with his hands (and still is). I remember from my childhood that he was capable of figuring out how to do just about anything. So I’m wondering where that inability to do anything else except answering a call on his smartphone comes from.

? 7/7 - The lesson is: we all take modern tech for granted, we live a large portion of our lives through our phones and our computers, but there’s a big group of people like my dad who are completely cut off from that world and that way of living and communicating. Be kind to them, allow them to be who they are, assist them where you can, and provide alternatives they can and want to work with.

? 6/7 - It saddens me a bit. We could have so much more contact and direct and frequent engagement in each other's daily lives, which I know he would want to have too, but instead we have to restrict ourselves to that Sunday video call. It's better than nothing, but it could be so much richer...

@antonioyon @atomicpoet @playdate @fediversenews @panic you’d have to get into the whole class vs instance debate. The broad public just does not understand that, neither do they care, neither should they care.
Personally speaking, I’m not too hot on “community server” because I find it a little generic and non-descriptive, but tbh: I don’t have a better suggestion…

@antonioyon @atomicpoet @playdate @fediversenews @panic yeah, I get that, but you’d still have to explain the word “instance”. It’s not part of common vocabulary. Techies all understand it. The general public does not.

@evan Bitcoin wallet private key tattooed where the sun don’t shine ?