For years, I have noticed a peculiar relationship between MacBooks and Starbucks cafes. More specifically, people sitting at Starbucks and pretending to work on their MacBooks.
Woman multitasking on Macbook and iPad
Basically, a vast majority of people sitting at Starbucks have Apple MacBooks. These people sit at Starbucks for hours with their MacBooks and pretend to work on them. I don’t understand what it is about Starbucks that attracts such people. And this is not limited to a specific country. I have seen this across multiple continents.
Guy pretending to work on Macbook
Almost all of these people are just sitting there with their MacBook open in front of them and pretending to work. I have hardly seen any of them doing any actual work; instead they are actually talking/doomscrolling on their phones. They buy a drink and sit there for hours. It is especially infuriating when you can’t find a place to sit and you see such people without any beverages just sitting there.
Group of people pretending to work on Macbooks
More peculiarly, I have seen this only at Starbucks, not at other cafes or cafe chains. I wonder what the people with more pedestrian laptops feel and which cafes they go to.
As discussed before, I have been on medication to treat my GAD for the past few years. I was lucky to have found a doctor who prescribed me medication instead of sending me to therapy. The medication had been working beautifully, but I always assumed that I won’t take them forever. When I moved to Bangkok, I decided to quit, as I won’t find a doctor here to continue the prescription. I put it off for many months fearing medication withdrawal. Running low on supplies, few weeks ago, I decided that that time was here.
I had been on the following medication to treat my GAD
With high optimism and hope in my heart, I started the process of quitting, one medication at a time.
Levowave
Getting off Levowave was relatively easy. First I halved my dose for a week and then changed it to 3 days a week, then stopped completely. I had some confusion, irritability, anxiety, tremors for a couple of days but after that I was back to normal. No impact on sleep at all.
I assumed that the withdrawal for the other medications would be as easy. How wrong I was!
Buspin
I assumed this one would be the easiest to stop, but I was dead wrong. I halved the dose and in just 2 days, shit hit the fan.
Night 1/Day 2 – Uneventful
Night 2 – On night 2, suddenly I woke up at 01:00 AM with my heart beating fast, for no apparent reason. I was up for an hour, but was able to go back to (restless) sleep afterwards.
Day 2 – The entire day I was full of anxiety, irritable and confused. Lost my appetite. There was also a phase where I had to abuse random strangers on twitter for no reason.
Night 3 – Night 3 was horrible. I slept at 21:30 but woke up at 23:00. After that whatever I tried, I couldn’t go back to sleep. I either felt too hot (sweating) or too cold (shivering). After tossing and turning for hours and rousing the rest of my family, I think I finally managed to fall asleep at 04:00. Libido was also up 10x. Heart rate was above 90 bpm throughout.
Day 3 – Day 3 started slightly better than Day 2. I started running again, which brought back my appetite. But later in the day, my heart rate rose above 100bps doing nothing. A sense of doom & gloom pervaded my brain and I had only negative thoughts.
I Quit
Sometime in the afternoon of Day 3, I realised that I cannot go through with this and decided to go back on my remaining pills. I booked a doctor’s appointment to get a prescription to resume the medication.
Day 4 – I woke up refreshed after 10 hours of beautiful sleep. The world seemed brighter, and life seemed more beautiful.
After resuming my medication, I finally saw a doctor here. Fortunately, he was kind and patient and prescribed me medication to continue. Unfortunately, not all my medication is available in Thailand, so I have to switch medication.
Taking my series global, here’s Pathetic Fool 4 from Thailand.
Pathetic Fool
Because he’s white, he is free to go eat at a fine dining establishment wearing a shitty white vest. Not one of those fancy ones which gym bros wear, but a shitty white one.
I wrote about Thai people before. After living here 7 months now, I present a new & updated collection of Thai quirks; things only Thais do (As far as I know).
Women adding “Ka” or “Na Ka” to the end of every sentence, even in formal communication.
Men adding “Krub” to the end of every sentence, even in formal communication.
It is very common for Thai women to marry visiting European/American men. I know countless such cases personally. However, the opposite (with Thai men & foreign women) is not common.
Agreed, most of my knowledge about America comes from movies, but I have visited USA once. I noticed this obsession for the first time when visiting Palo Alto. The guy I was meeting said he drove to his hometown airport in his car and parked it at the airport. At San Francisco airport, he rented out another car and came to work. When I asked him why he needed his own car while travelling, he looked at me as if I am crazy. Car Rental is a huge industry in USA. Later, I realized that most Americans really don’t believe in walking or public transportation.
To say that an average American’s life revolves around their car is an understatement.
For most of the world, a car serves a utilitarian purpose. People use cars to get from point A to point B in relative comfort. Americans however, love their cars. Like American food, most American cars are also supersized. Average engine sizes are all above 2.5l and “real men” drive cars with >4.0l engines. In many families, everyone has their own car. Some families have more than 1 car per-member.
Americans eat food in their cars, watch movies in cars & sometimes sleep in their cars. In fact most Americans (if I were to believe movies) even lost their virginities in the back seat of a car. I have even seen homeless people who cannot afford food, driving cars. The birthday gift for most kids turning 18, is a car. Unlike Europe, in America, you can be old enough to drive a car, but not old enough to drink alcohol. Crazy, right?
Not to mention Pickup trucks. Why do Americans even need “trucks”? What is it that the regular Americans have to carry on a daily basis that the rest of the world doesn’t?
Many Americans love buying old cars and restoring them. I don’t think this is as common a hobby in the rest of the world as it is in America. In spite of being so passionate about cars, most Americans can’t even drive cars with manual transmissions.
Most of the developing world cannot afford cars. European cars are very utilitarian. So why are Americans so obsessed with cars?
Reminds me of the Fear Factory cover of Gary Numan’s cars, which I saw a decade ago in Test Drive 6
Asking for “extra gravy” and “extra pieces” when getting food packed from restaurant. Later complaining that the quantity has gone down since last time.
People calling cousins “brothers” & “sisters”.
Having “Pure veg” restaurants.
Calling unrelated people “uncles” & “aunties”.
Hating on China & the Chinese while being surrounded by & using cheap Chinese products.
Stock trading at work.
Not considering Onions and Garlic as vegetarian food.
Having the cheapest Telecom service in the world and still complaining/cribbing about bills.
Preferring to ask random strangers for directions than using GPS on the phone.
Children staying with their parents and/or siblings even after growing up and getting married.
Harassing Indians in the service industry, like waiters, flight attendants etc.
The swear word to insult sisters (Behenchod) is more popular than the swear words to insult mothers (Machod, Madarchod). Maybe because Patriarchal Indian men are more protective of their sisters.
You know the feeling of guilt you experience when you see that guitar gathering dust? Or the expensive camera that you don’t use anymore? I discovered some time ago that the only way to overcome this guilt is by getting rid of stuff. The KonMari method suggests getting rid of stuff which doesn’t bring you joy anymore & I follow this method in day-to-day life.
My Gadget Boxes
Below are some examples of stuff I have gotten rid of, in the last many years:
I used to have a cupboard bursting with clothes, as my parents and in-laws kept gifting some every year. Yet, I noticed that I would only wear the same 4/5 T-Shirts and 2 pairs of jeans over and over again. One day I dumped all the clothes I didn’t wear (At least 30 shirts & T-Shirts, formal trousers) and gave them to our ironing guy. It felt so good to have a simplified wardrobe. I continue to maintain a sparse wardrobe till date.
I sold my second Motorcycle because I just didn’t ride it anymore.
Got rid of my bench-press and weights as I gave up exercising at home.
I digitized and got rid of all old photo albums.
Got rid of all the gadget boxes that had piled up over the years
Got rid of my electric guitar because I couldn’t be bothered with setting the equipment up and plugging everything in anymore.
I got rid of my 5.1 surround sound system as I didn’t use it much and the cables were a nightmare to maintain. Instead, I switched to Bluetooth speakers in different rooms.
I sold my Gaming PC as it took up too much space. Instead, I switched to an Xbox for gaming and a Surface Pro 3 for computing.
Sold the Surface Pro 3 as all I did on it was photo editing and got myself an iPad Pro.
I sold my DSLR camera and lenses after pursuing photography for many years, because I lost the passion. Part of the reasoning was that phone cameras were now good enough for 90% cases.
Handed down my iPad Pro to my daughter because I didn’t need it for photo editing anymore.
Regularly donate my daughter’s old toys and stuff when she’s not at home. She doesn’t even notice.
I continue to follow the ethos of getting rid of stuff I don’t use anymore. This keeps my mind at ease and stops feelings of guilt of owning something I don’t use. The only things I can’t get rid of are my books, however old they may be.
I had thought about getting LASIK many times throughout my life, but never followed through. By 2016, when I couldn’t wear my contact lenses anymore, I decided to finally take the plunge.
I went to my favourite hospital and consulted an Ophthalmologist. She explained to me the process in detail. I had a Pentacam test which showed that my corneal thickness was in the risky zone. However, the Ophthalmology director gave the go ahead for waveform guided LASIK. I also needed a retina test which involved dilating my pupils and shining a very bright light into my eyes. The most difficult part was not wearing my contact lenses for 3 weeks. This was so that my eyes would go back to their original shape and provide the most accurate correction readings for LASIK.
During this waiting time I also contracted Blepharitis which delayed the surgery further. However, on 13 Dec 2016, the day finally came to get operated on.
I went to the hospital excited like mad, armed with money donated by my mother. They took one final set of measurements and started putting anaesthesia drops in my eyes every few minutes. Soon my eyes were numb and they took me to the procedure room.
The process itself was uncomfortable but not painful. They use speculums to keep your eyes propped open and ask you to look straight. Then they use a suction ring to keep your eye straight. This step feels like enormous pressure on the eye but is not painful. Your vision goes all wonky. Then a Femtosecond laser creates a flap on your cornea. The eyesight at this point becomes blurry. When they lift the flap, you can see only a bright light.
At this stage, another excimer laser re-models and corrects your cornea as per the requirements. You can smell something burning (your cornea). Then the surgeon restores the flap, flattens it and wets the eye. The entire process is repeated for the other eye.
The entire process only takes 15/20 minutes and after that you can get up straight away. Your vision is still blurry and you cannot look at lights. My wife helped me go home where I immediately went into a dark room. Even a small sliver of light from the corner of the curtains was excruciatingly painful. I spent the entire day moping in darkness, not being able to do much except listen to music.
The next morning was beautiful. When I opened my eyes, I could immediately notice that I could see clearly without any aids. I took a cab to the doctor and had my first post-op check up. She inspected the flap, gave me medicines and sent me home. At this point, my vision was not perfect, but it kept on improving over the next few weeks and months. I would still see Halos and blurriness around light sources at night for many months.
Vision Log before and after LASIK
Reading and using the computer for the first few weeks put a lot of strain on my eyes but temporary reading glasses helped with that. I developed a habit to check my vision regularly by closing one eye at a time while driving and trying to read the license number of a car ahead of me.
Slowly but surely, my vision improved and thankfully, now I have 6/6 vision in both eyes without any visual aids. Now waiting for Presbyopia to strike me in the next few years and add a fourth installment to this series.
So I was newly out of quarantine in Thailand and had started going to work. The first few weeks, I went by Grab Bike, after which I started looking for a more permanent mode of commute. I noticed that many Europeans in our office commuted by Bicycle. After 2 weeks in quarantine, I was also missing some exercise. At that moment, I decided that I would also buy and commute by Bicycle. How naïve I was!
So one day after work I went to the closest Decathlon looked at a few bikes and got the Riverside 120. I also got a helmet, cycling shorts & some other paraphernalia. This was my first bike with a gear shifter, something I had dreamed of when I was young. Giddy with excitement, I left the warehouse, riding a bicycle after at least 2 decades. On the way home, I accidentally took a wrong turn and rode 6km instead of 3.5km home. By the time I got home, my legs were shaking and I was drenched in sweat.
Still, the next morning I was excited to go to work on Bicycle for the first time. I packed my work clothes in my bag, put on my cycling shorts and left for work. The ride was actually exhilarating, but the last few meters going 2 flights up the parking ramp almost killed me. At work, I changed into my office clothes and got to work. But even after cooling down, I couldn’t stop feeling dirty and disgusting/sticky. I thought about it, but surely I couldn’t take a shower after getting to work. And another one after getting home in the evenings.
By the second day, I started having serious doubts about my purchase. But I had spent some chunk of money on the bicycle, so I kept at it. For a few more days.
Last Ride
When I came to know that my neighbour was selling his motorcycle (that I already had my eyes on), I knew that the Bicycle had to go.
So within a month of buying the bicycle, I advertised it for sale and luckily managed to sell it within a few days. Eventually, I think the following factors contributed to all this:
I hated changing clothes once I got to work and once again before leaving
Felt dirty not taking a shower after my ride to work.
I am lazy.
Had to take a shower after coming back home.
I am lazy.
Every minor bump on the road was transmitted as a shock through my ass, spine to my entire skeleton.
Lazada sucks balls even worse than Flipkart does. It is one of the reasons I miss Amazon so much.
Lazada is one of the leading eTailers in Thailand and in South-East Asia. There are other options here, too, like Shopee, but they suck balls just as hard. Shopee doesn’t even have an app for app store regions set outside Thailand so I don’t use it at all. But in this post, let’s look at Lazada.
As soon as you open the app, you are greeted with a fullscreen advertisement that you can’t dismiss immediately.
Greeted with a Fullscreen Ad
Once you get past the obnoxious advertisement, you go to the main screen of the app. Notice how 70% of the interface is actually just ads?
Interface full of Advertisements
Not only is the interface full of advertisements, everything uses bright, garish colours. Its as if the designers targeted the app at school kids. Lazada sucks so hard, the interface is also full of useless notifications at the bottom.
Once you try to order something, you cannot see the estimated delivery date on the item page. You need to add the item to cart and make it all the way to the checkout page before you can see when it can be delivered.
Even when you get through all the cringe and actually order something from these bastards, your ordeal is not over. You sit and wonder why the item you order has not shipped yet. It is because once you order the item and even pay for it, you still have to sort through hundreds of messages in the spam section, find a message like below and “confirm” your order. When I paid money for the item, was it not confirmation enough for you pricks?
Have to confirm, lol
Once the item ships, you have to manually check the status to see where it has reached. This is because as soon as you install the app, you have to turn off all notifications from it, lest the spam notifications take over your life.
All the spam notifications lead to the “messages” section of the app. The app clearly has an identity crisis and cannot decide whether it wants to be a shopping app or a messenger.
Bullshit messages
Spam
Messages, LoL
The “messages” section is a quagmire of spam, as expected.
If they are using any AI/ML/targeting for the spam that the app is full of, I can’t see it, because nothing here is relevant to me or remotely close to what I would ever want to buy.
I wonder why these eTailers think it is OK to bombard someone with spam so aggressively when they are already trying to spend their money on your platform to buy something. I can’t wait to go back to India and start using Amazon again.
