H1N1 knows No Seasons

Unlike most flu viruses, H1N1 is not a seasonal virus,
but tends to survive throughout the year.
That according to Sunday's CBS 60 Minute report.

A four page text can be found at www.cbsnews.com
Some interesting facts in the report:
H1N1 is related to a virus outbreak of 1918, but is not as lethal.
The 1918 virus killed millions
Persons born before 1950 may have some immunity to this virus,
as there were similar viruses in the 30's and 40's.

Hiatus almost over

It's been brought to my attention that the frequency of this blog fell drastically in recent days.

Watching free television on line has occupied much of my time lately.
It's also vacation time for local school kids. There's a daily crowd around my pool and at the PlayStation. It's been so busy, I had to establish "NO VISITOR" days, just to have some quiet time.

What's taken up most of my time is a new GOOGLE service in their PICASA software.
Picasa (photo album) now has facial recognition.
I have spent countless hours adding names to all those faces.
I'm really horrible at remembering names. Thousands of pictures, lots of memories.

More about Television online

I've been avoiding pay services mostly because they don't tell you what you get before you pay. They offer thousands of stations, beyond that they are not very specific. I suspect lots of garbage.
There's plenty of free stuff.
Recently installed Rocket Torrents toolbar onto my web browser.
It offers multiple live TV services from the US, UK, Germany, Holland, Spain and Italy. Rocket Torrents also has plenty of movies that can be downloaded free.
To view live TV you must have a high speed connection

When you install new software BEWARE !

Most newly added software will install into your start-up folder. It slows down your computer and takes up memory. Empty out your start-up folder as much as possible. The only software in mine is virus and system maintenance software. Any other software I start as needed.

GOOGLE

As most of you know I have switched my e-mail to gmail some time ago. They offer free services which other providers charge for. They also offer a multitude of other services.
I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of GOOGLE WAVE now in beta testing.
If you are interested in a free gmail account, drop me a note luanghans@gmail.com, I'll send you an invite.

Sakon Nakhon Web Site

Recently spotted a local website www.sakon-nakhon.com
It's all in Thai, but can be viewed in GOOGLE TRANSLATE
Plenty of useful information and the start of a great photo collection

Three Persons hospitalized after boating mishap

Sakon Nakhon - Nong Hahn (Lake Hahn), October 13

A longboat on the way to honor monks at an island temple capsized when encountering waves apparently created by another boat.
Up to fifteen passengers were thrown into the water.
Three persons required hospitalization.
One of the three, a minor child is being treated in the ICU.

Chance of heavy rain diminished

October 12 & 13

The weather system anticipated to bring us possible heavy rains this week has tuned north, creating cloudy and cooling local weather locally.
The center of the storm is moving into Hanoi.

Feeding the plants

With most of the nutrients in my garden soil washed away during the rainy season, it's time to fertilize my garden.

Over the years I've tried a variety of fertilizers until Tony told me about a fertilizer his family is selling. Been using it for a three years and am extremely happy with it. My garden harvest has increased noticeably.

The rice fertilizer is prized by many local rice farmers. I've heard lots of praise.

Local rubber tree growers also praise the product.

I had shown Tony a preview of this blog entry, asking if he wanted to mention his phone number. Here is his reply:

Yes please. I have some of the lads from (Saka) give glowing reports of there rubber flowing better then ever and are willing to talk to anyone interested.
My wife speaks proficient English and can be reached at 0895722904

The fertilizer apparently is the result of university research.
You can read further about the product here Fertilizer Literature

First rain, then cooling trend anticipated

Possibility of rain this weekend and next week.
The slow moving storm which has been almost stationary over the Philippines for a week is creeping west. Animated satellite weather map

Even more noteworthy is a cooling trend forecast within 10 days.
Night time temperatures are expected to drop into the teens at that time.
15 day forecast

Watching TV online

Satellite dishes I had for the past few years have been hauled away.
With the exception of True-UBC, most other satellite services available locally tend to be pirated. If reception is interrupted and you need repair service... good luck.

Lately I've spent quite some time researching what's available on the net.
There's plenty available, but you have to wade through tons of junk.

Of course a major problem is internet connectivity.
It gets quite slow from noon till early evening, when demand is high.
Demand is increasing, but apparently service is not keeping up.
An there are plenty of disconnects.

By doing continuous maintenance on my own computer, I've been able to watch television with limited interruptions.

Just about any web-page you visit will attempt to deposit cookies on your system. They gather your information and tend to slow you down.
This can be prevented with your firewall settings. Delete all unnecessary cookies.

Removing spy-ware, cleaning the registry, deleting junk files, and defraging your hard drive, need to be daily chores. There's plenty of free software available to make things easy.
I've been using Advanced System Care. I use the software whenever TV reception seems to deteriorate. It improves reception. Cleaning the cache also should become part of the maintenance routine.

I've installed a second screen to my computer.
This way I can watch television and continue with other tasks.

I've mentioned TVU previously. There are plenty of channels to choose from.
But of course you have to wade through the junk. The software is free and allows you to set your favorites. To save your favorites you have to log in and log out, otherwise your favorites are not saved.

TikiLive can be viewed from your browser and offers CNN and Fox News among others.
There's plenty of other FREE software, which I'll mention at a later time.
I'll be collecting a list of television links onto the sidebar, and update it as time allows

Sakon Nakhon Wax Castle Parade 2009

A bit of a humorous event occurred when one of the dancers, a middle aged gentleman, got so entranced in his dancing, he did not realize he was 20 meters behind the rest of his dance troupe. It looked like he was dancing all by himself for some time holding up the next float.
From appearances he looked like he may have been intoxicated.

I wasn't the only one who thought so. A police officer stepped in and quite politely put his arms on the mans shoulders as if they were friends. His trance interrupted, the man rejoined his group of dancers. From appearances, he was not too pleased at having his dance interrupted.

Sitting in the grandstands was not the best place to view the parade this year. Crowd control seemed to be lacking. Countless people with cameras repeatedly walked in front and blocked the view from the stands. I had to severely crop my photographs. Editing my videos may result in a hack job.

What was missing this year were any spot lights, so photographers had to get right into the parade to get their pictures.

A block down the street there seemed to be no crowd control at all.
Crowds had moved into the street, narrowing the parade route from four lanes to two lanes.
Those stands were now one lane behind the crowd and pretty useless for viewing.