« first day (1952 days earlier)      last day (2719 days later) » 

12:10 AM
I used a VPN to get iPlayer for some of the Olympics, since I can't stand the US broadcast
 
@ZachLipton British voices are soothing sometimes :)
 
I watch lots of stuff on DVD
 
I watch stuff on VHS. (No, not really.)
 
 
5 hours later…
5:17 AM
@Fiksdal: Hi. Regarding the question being over your head posted a self answered question consolidating inputs to hopefully make it easier
 
 
3 hours later…
mts
7:59 AM
@MarkMayo why would you put a bounty on this question??? travel.stackexchange.com/q/73886/32134 That is the guy who wanted to overland a fire truck from Sweden to Japan via North Korea, along with several similar mildly realistic questions.
 
I forgot about that guy
to the extent I wrote him a lengthy answer on travel.stackexchange.com/questions/79355/…, though that's only a moderately odd one (who takes their 37cm television with them?)
 
 
4 hours later…
11:51 AM
@Fiksdal you're welcome :)
 
 
1 hour later…
1:19 PM
@mts I've been bountying old questions for ages
it's similar to a question a friend had when I first started on Travel.SE as well - he was riding a scooter from London to Mongolia
so it was interesting
we'd originally considered the Turkey->Iraq route
too hard.
 
mts
No probs and sure is, but the OP seems more of a troll to me.
 
I read that as "more of a troll than me" and was confused ;)
In other news the BBC just called me about a question on this site
well they messaged me yesterday, then called tonight
136
Q: Tactics to avoid getting harassed by corrupt police?

Mark MayoIn Uzbekistan I was stopped, searched and questioned six times in one day. At the border with Tajikistan, one official tried hiding my paperwork to elicit something from me. In Kyrgyzstan, I was physically harassed and detained by the police, and about US$30 taken while they searched everything...

doing a story on corruption, finding sources at present
 
mts
Ahaha I am sure I'm somewhat of a troll at times ;)
nice!
 
anyway, that was new!
 
1:21 PM
Will you or Travel SE be mentioned?
 
I doubt it at this stage, it was just fact finding. Initially it was going to be about travellers experiencing corruption, now it sounds like the editor wants him to pivot to locals experiencing it, so I put him on to some contacts I have who have friends in Kyrgyzstan.
 
I see
anyway still a great story :)
they should make a documentary about all of our greatest questions travel.stackexchange.com/questions
 
I'm still considering a podcast where I interview people on here about their questions/answers :)
4
 
that would be awesome
 
I'll keep you posted ;)
 
1:28 PM
cool
your blog would need an update anyway ;)
 
indeed
it'd be a new site, I suspect
 
yes, but the old one was always interesting to read
 
thanks
@JonathanReez @pnuts you're both pretty good at reducing unanswered questions ;) Any chance you could go on expats and do some close voting on stuff that seems vague or unanswered?
or anyone else for that matter
957
Expatriatesexpatriates.stackexchange.com

Beta Q&A site for people living abroad on a long-term basis.

Currently in public beta.

it has decent traffic and experienced users, but the answer rate is too low
@GayotFow maybe you too, since you're answering questions there in the last few minutes ;)
 
2:10 PM
@MarkMayo I did what I could on Expats by answering Czech Republic tagged questions (my only area of expertise), but there aren't a lot of them
I will try to go through
 
@JonathanReez yeah even if you get to the close vote queue, @JoErNanO has just done a few as well
 
2:33 PM
@MarkMayo this question has a self-answer that does actually answer the question but was deleted by a moderator. I don't quite understand why; the answer is simple, but so was the question: expatriates.stackexchange.com/questions/2767/…
 
@MarkMayo This is, with only 500 rep I can't do much.
 
2:57 PM
Where could they possibly squeeze in a new runway at Heathrow?!
 
I went through Expats Unanswered queue and most of the questions are impossible to answer without intimate knowledge of the local system
and the questions are often extremely dumb
I don't think that site will ever be a success
 
3:16 PM
@MichaelHampton The M4 is wide enough. And absolutely useless. Don't you know?
@JonathanReez Don't tell @MarkMayo that. You'll crush him. :P
 
Travel SE and Expatriates SE should be merged anyway
 
@RoflcoptrException No NO No! Please no! Take that back.
 
@RoflcoptrException oh god, no
 
REVOLUTION!
MUTINY!
 
I see, not a very popular opinion :)
 
3:22 PM
@RoflcoptrException See how you killed the chatroom?
@RoflcoptrException Do you want to kill the site?
:)
 
@RoflcoptrException go figure, I was thinking (REALLY!) in the last weeks how Travel and should be simply renamed "The World Exchange" and be about the world itself, not just traveling :-)
 
@motoDrizzt Then why not name it "The Exchange" so that it can be about just everthing
2
 
@motoDrizzt How about The Exchange?
Ach.
 
@JoErNanO I'll quietly find more supporters for my idea and the I'll be back!
 
well, it's already about the world, with the excuse "it may happens during a travel"
sometime questions are even tweaked so to say "In case I travel, I was thinking what if..." :-D
and it's been done by mods and high rep users :D
Now, I'm not going to propose it, but actually we reply to tons of questions about the world itself, not just traveling :-)
 
4:06 PM
@motoDrizzt Shhhhh.... Get out of here with your logical arguments.. You are undermining our whole right to exist!
 
4:18 PM
@MichaelHampton did they finally manage to tell of the NIMBYs?
 
5:46 PM
@MarkMayo Do you have any insight into what happened here? meta.travel.stackexchange.com/q/3976/41775
 
5:59 PM
@Fiksdal yeah Pence is scary
because he has scary policies, but unlike his orange running mate, he's not visibly a lunatic
 
6:15 PM
And he says he wants to take an "active role" like Cheney.... @ZachLipton
I always thought of Cheney as Palpatine and Bush as his apprentice...
In order to have Cheney as your role model you have to me seriously messed up...
 
@Fiksdal well if this report was accurate (slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/07/20/…), Pence would effectively be President if he won, so maybe Cheney as his role model does make sense for him
 
@ZachLipton That makes sense.. Trump doesn't have the experience with day-to-day politics, so it would make sense of him to delegate it. Although then he's basically admitting that he's not competent, LOL.
 
well yeah, if you delegate both foreign and domestic policy, that's kind of the entire job
 
What worries me even more though, is that he says a known war criminal, war profiteer and thoroughly corrupt fraudster and liar is his role model, LOL.
 
except for the turkey pardonings and other fluff
well yeah, that is indeed concerning
 
6:25 PM
I wish all of this was a bad movie.
 
yeah but the screenplay needs a lot of work: newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/…
the writers seem like jerks
 
@ZachLipton Haha, yeah. I'm probably giving it a 4/10 on IMDB. Certainly gets some points for the hilarity and absolute insanity of the whole thing. Entertainment value. Sort of like Monthy Python or something.
 
yeah, and I'd agree if it were in a more surreal style, but due to the haunting realism of it, the hilarity is hard to see from up close
maybe if you watch the film from father away, like the moon?
 
India is far enough for me.
I certainly sympathise with people who actually live in the middle of this.
To me it just seems like a far off, insane dream. A total movie.
You're right, though. Unfortunately this has serious real-life implications.
 
 
2 hours later…
8:20 PM
Woohoo finally I was able to answer a question. Hadn't time for ages :) There are just too many flags :)
 
 
2 hours later…
10:17 PM
3
Q: Irish Extension Reply - can I wait?

AussieTravellerTalesSo I applied for a medical extension on a Irish 90 day visa. I enclosed medical note and cancer unit recommendation for followup now due to new symptoms. I sent a registered priority mail a week ago for consideration. I sent follow up emails in past 3 days. I got a reply from email today sayin...

She's back!
 
10:58 PM
Medical problems, UK boyfriend, needs to see her accountant in person, working on a business, staying in Ireland for 6 months doing god knows what...
seeing Qs like this makes me appreciative of the Immigration Officers work
 
just sorting out someone's story could take an IO all day
 

« first day (1952 days earlier)      last day (2719 days later) »