smoker Posted September 7, 2009 Report Share Posted September 7, 2009 Hi. I figured I'd introduce myself and see if any of us have anything in common other than Thailaind. I'm 40, a smoker, single, and like to drink, play guitar hero, read crime novels (the new Karen Slaughter is great) hit the beach, check out hotties, listen to the Rolling Stones and Metallica and eat spicy food. What is everyone else into? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrazyExpat Posted September 7, 2009 Report Share Posted September 7, 2009 I am into travel, good food, nice hotels and good cigars. I don't smoke cigarettes though. Sorry Smoker. I do enjoy an occasional cigar. I love working out and going on adventure trips. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smoker Posted September 8, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 8, 2009 I worked out once and decided that exercise was not for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desiree Posted September 8, 2009 Report Share Posted September 8, 2009 I'm a woman who is 29 and holding. I enjoy reading, traveling, listening to great music, raising children, and have more dogs than I need. They seem to keep finding a home at my house. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smoker Posted September 9, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 9, 2009 What kind of great music? I'm a Stones and Metallica fan myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desiree Posted September 12, 2009 Report Share Posted September 12, 2009 What kind of great music? I'm a Stones and Metallica fan myself. Neil Diamond, the Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, etc. as well as some classical. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smoker Posted September 12, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 12, 2009 Neil Diamond deserves more respect than he gets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desiree Posted September 12, 2009 Report Share Posted September 12, 2009 Neil Diamond deserves more respect than he gets. Smoker, I like you already. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smoker Posted September 12, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 12, 2009 You might like me less if you knew how boring I found the Beatles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
funfun Posted September 13, 2009 Report Share Posted September 13, 2009 Hi. I figured I'd introduce myself and see if any of us have anything in common other than Thailaind. I'm 40, a smoker, single, and like to drink, play guitar hero, read crime novels (the new Karen Slaughter is great) hit the beach, check out hotties, listen to the Rolling Stones and Metallica and eat spicy food. What is everyone else into? im chris about 46 ish, live in pattaya, been here for only 4 years, live north pattaya area near big c, and have a couple of bars to keep me ocupied, i love to travel and im up to 8 packs of cigs a day, admitedly some customers smoke em, but still its far too much. i love koh chang and spend a lot of my free time down there, im easy to talk to and up for a laugh, i like a good drink, but am slowing down with it now, well only cos i get drunk earlier now!! i used to post a lot on thaivisa which i still think is a very good website and informative purley due to thier no's, but some of the mods on there are a bit like well, school prefects, some have very little knowledge of what is bieng discussed but cant wait to tell you that your wrong, and when you show them you are indeed correct, they send private messages and then delate your posts as they are shown up for what they are, hence i was asked to leave, ha ha ha, but thats just me, if im wrong, im first to admit it,if your wrong, dont keep arguing with me cos ill argue all day, im stubbon ha ha ha, but im very helpfull and will do my best on here at the same time as learning of all you. i started, and kept upto date with lots of help from others the "Vientiane Laos for Thai Visa continuing updates" back in dec 2007, its had 1,222 replys and 90,345 views and probobly one of the best visa colums for many expats. chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smoker Posted September 13, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 13, 2009 Nice to meet you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eleothegreat Posted September 18, 2009 Report Share Posted September 18, 2009 You might like me less if you knew how boring I found the Beatles. I like you less. LOL. Seriously, you do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eleothegreat Posted September 18, 2009 Report Share Posted September 18, 2009 I'm justine. 21. will be visiting bangkok really soon. to visit. to shop. actually, just to visit. i deserve a vacation. i love online shopping - yeah, superficial i know. i live by the beach so i have this yearlong tan. my curly hair has sand in it, and i don't intend to wash it off just yet. i think i am a poet. i love long conversations with cigarettes and beer under the stars and the coconut trees (hey, i'm 200 meters away from the beach!). i love reading. about anything, basically. reading tabloids inside the bathroom is fun. i have a one year old daughter, and i'm an advocate of organic products and food. i drink virgin coconut oil and tea. oh. and i love thai food - influenced by my dad. i'm a little left behind on the music department, my music IQ has degraded ever since my baby came out. i like nursery rhymes and classical music now. but im not complaining Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WannaGo Posted September 18, 2009 Report Share Posted September 18, 2009 Smoker: Always glad to run into another fan of crime fiction. I'm crying in my beer right now because I had a chance to meet Michael Connelly at a luncheon but had to pass because of work and other obligations. Huge fan of Connelly, Dennis Lehane, James Lee Burke, George Pelecanos, and Charlie Huston (especially the Pitt novels...gotta love the fusion of vampire/hard-boiled detective fiction). Have been a long time fan of Robert B Parker, but I've gotta say, his stuff has really been going downhill the last several years. Guy I've started reading recently is Ken Bruen, an Irish crime writer. Excellent books about an guy named Taylor who got thrown off the Irish cops for drinking (oh, the irony.) As far as what I'm into, besides crime fiction, I love the state of Florida, where I live. Love all the weird news that comes out of this state, love the weather, love the beaches and cypress swamps and sinkholes (my favorite place is Wakulla Springs), love all the beautiful dark-skinned women walking around in skimpies, love the wildlife like the gators and manatees and black bears...when I lived on the beach, I could look off my balcony and see dolphins and rays and sharks. Now, I live about two blocks from the beach and still see great stuff. Few weeks ago, I had a red fox in my back yard. Besides that, I'm a huge movie geek. Best one I've seen in the last few weeks was an odd little indie movie called "Throwing Stars" about a group of friends who have to help one of their buddies dispose of the body of a dead drug dealer. Actually a comedy, if you can believe that. Best line: "I'm sitting next to a dead guy who's getting jacked off by a monkey." Mostly, though, I prefer horror and crime movies. I'm kind of a musical heathen. Like the Stones, love Metallica, but also have to cop to liking Nickelback. Yeah, yeah, I know. Heard a cool song last night on the radio called "Ain't No Rest for the Wicked," by Cage the Elephant. Oh, and I like to eat, especially spicy food. And I love my George Foreman grill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smoker Posted September 19, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 19, 2009 WannaGo, Have you read any James Ellroy crime fiction? I like him so much I'm actually paying someone to go to a book signing he's doing for his newest book so I can get a signed copy of it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrazyExpat Posted September 19, 2009 Report Share Posted September 19, 2009 i started, and kept upto date with lots of help from others the "Vientiane Laos for Thai Visa continuing updates" back in dec 2007, its had 1,222 replys and 90,345 views and probobly one of the best visa colums for many expats. chris Welcome Chris. We won't ban anyone for speaking their mind. We welcome you with open arms here and hope that you let us know more aobut your Vientiane Laos trips! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smoker Posted September 19, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 19, 2009 I love to learn more about Laos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WannaGo Posted September 22, 2009 Report Share Posted September 22, 2009 WannaGo, Have you read any James Ellroy crime fiction? I like him so much I'm actually paying someone to go to a book signing he's doing for his newest book so I can get a signed copy of it! Smoker, that is so cool that you'd do that. Been a big fan of Ellroy's for about 12 years. I think the Black Dahlia was the first book of his that I read, and after that, I couldn't stop. I've read everything he's written, with the exception of The Cold Six Thousand (just couldn't deal with an entire novel of three-word sentences...irritated me that he would do that experimental crap to his fans). To me, his LA Quartet is to crime fiction what the Godfather is to gangster movies. And, of course, LA Confidential, which treated his book OK, is one of the top 10 crime movies ever, IMHO. Have you read his memoir, My Dark Places? I bought that book one evening in 1998 and started to read a few minutes of it before I went to bed. Stayed up the entire night and read the whole thing, then called in sick to work the next morning so I could stay in bed. The story of what happened to his mother explained a lot about who and what he became, and I could easily see how his obsession with her death led him to write Black Dahlia. Good luck getting your signed copy. I guess you're getting Blood's a Rover? Please let me know if it's any good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smoker Posted September 22, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 22, 2009 The Cold Six Thousand is worth the effort - and it's not all three word sentences. He has some variation. It's closer in style to White Jazz than anything else. And, the thing is that once you read American Tabloid you need to know w hat happens to Pete Bondurant - who is one of the best characters in crime literature ever. Also there's this sense of them having to live with the weight of the JFK hit that is amazingly well done. And, it explores the ideas of compartmentalization in amazingly interesting ways. I loved My Dark Places - it lets you know just how batshit crazy the dude really is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WannaGo Posted September 24, 2009 Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 It's been so long since I read American Tabloid, I would have to read it again before giving Cold Six Thousand another shot. I'll wait and see what I hear about Blood's a Rover, and if it looks pretty good, I might go back to American Tabloid and start over. But I gotta be honest, I tried the first several pages of Cold Six Thousand, and it was just driving me nuts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wino Posted September 24, 2009 Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 I love to learn more about Laos.I would love to learm more about Laos, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smoker Posted September 24, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 Cold Six changes a great deal after the start. He makes the first few pages weird because he wants you to have a sense of how strange those first few hours in Dallas were after the hit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WannaGo Posted September 24, 2009 Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 Cold Six changes a great deal after the start. He makes the first few pages weird because he wants you to have a sense of how strange those first few hours in Dallas were after the hit. If I cheated myself out of another great Ellroy book because I wasn't patient enough to stick past the weird stuff, I'm going to be really irritated with myself. It's getting harder and harder to find really good crime fiction, so I can't afford to skip good ones. Definitely going to re-read American Tabloid, then try Cold Six Thousand. Thanks, smoker, for the push, however subtle. :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smoker Posted September 26, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 26, 2009 Happy to do it! The girl I paid to get my signed copy of Blood's A Rover said he was really, really nice in person, talked with her for about five minutes and that he was way flattered that someone from halfway around the world would pay someone just to get a copy of his book. Cold Six Thousand really starts getting good once Pete Bondurant and Ward Little start to realize the enormity of what they've done. Also, their vietnam "project" is seriously fun. Imagine Big Pete running slaves. And, obviously you know what Pete and Ward have to do at the end of Cold Six... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WannaGo Posted September 28, 2009 Report Share Posted September 28, 2009 Happy to do it! The girl I paid to get my signed copy of Blood's A Rover said he was really, really nice in person, talked with her for about five minutes and that he was way flattered that someone from halfway around the world would pay someone just to get a copy of his book. Cold Six Thousand really starts getting good once Pete Bondurant and Ward Little start to realize the enormity of what they've done. Also, their vietnam "project" is seriously fun. Imagine Big Pete running slaves. And, obviously you know what Pete and Ward have to do at the end of Cold Six... That's so funny...it's hard to imagine the "Demon Dog" being humble enough to be flattered by a fan. Very cool. I'm going to the library tomorrow. I'll see if they have Tabloid, so I can start again at the beginning. If you're looking for new authors to try, I recommend Charlie Huston's Caught Stealing. Or, if you want to get a little retro, James Crumley's The Last Good Kiss. I'm actually thinking of starting a blog site dedicated to crime fiction and crime movies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts