Looking Back Over 500+ Posts At Year's End

The end of a calendar year is often a time of reflection for me, and since the blog has recently passed a minor milestone - today's is the 508th post - I thought it also deserved a pause to say thanks to you who have read my stuff, and to those who've participated in a positive or otherwise constructive way as I've bumbled along here for the past 22 months or so.

Also, I thought I'd share replies to combined questions and observations from emails I've received over this past twelve months as a year-end wrap up.

First off - yes, I've noticed folks elsewhere on the web with more spare time than sense have sometimes taken me to task for nothing more than being graced with enough emotion to see past the world of sex tourism in Thailand, but thankfully many of you regulars appreciate a wider scope of life in Thailand, as I do - and I'm content with that. There are already plenty of sites recycling photos found on the web as their bread and butter, as far as I'm concerned - sometimes with photos having nothing to do with Thailand most of the time.

I don't personally have a problem with most R- or X-rated curmudgeon wannabe bloggers. One of them evidently looks in here every so often to lift an idea, re-word it and post it. Imitation is a form of flattery, I suppose, but I can say with a clear conscience that what's appeared here has been the unembellished truth written by yours truly, unless I've noted otherwise.

It also probably bears repeating that while I freely admit I appreciate a fine male form - much as some of you enjoy seeing photos of those of the opposite sex - I don't feel a need to post lewd photos to build a readership or any other such thing. Again, I'm not playing the game of search engine optimization or any other such ramp-up for a business for me... it's just a hobby that I hope will entertain, and in doing so also help. Maybe even educate; no day's a waste if we learn something new.

Speaking of photos, I've been asked why I use a watermark on 99% of photos I've taken here.  The answer is pretty simple, really: while there's no real way to stop people with no scruples from stealing a photo to use for their own sites (usually for profit) the watermark slows most of them down.  Although my attorney friends who practice this kind of law would do any necessary pit bull work for me for free they advised the mumbo-jumbo under "The Standard Legalese" - and the watermark, too.  The watermark was too large, though, and I adjusted it earlier this year.

In that same folder are the requests for more pictures of the trade workers I've interviewed over the years. Most "night workers" don't want to be identified as such, and as I mentioned in the first post back in March of last year this is - first and foremost - a blog to share my observations and experiences of times in Thailand overall.

As a side note I'll offer that seeing someone visiting or working in a Gay establishment is no more of an indication that the person themself is gay than seeing someone in an auto repair shop and assuming they're a mechanic.  For example: a major percentage of go go boys in any given club in Bangkok are heterosexual.

There.  That's enough from me for this year.  I wish all of you a safe and sane New Year's Eve, and wherever it is you are for what many of my Thai friends call "countdown". I hope you can look back over this year with few regrets - and look forward to 2012 with hope and a heart full of realistic, healthy goals.

Happy New Year!