3. Just rent the scooter

When you’re outside of Bangkok, either in the countryside or on an island or otherwise in areas that don’t have a large amount of transportation, from either Tuk-Tuks, taxis or motorcycle taxis, just rent a scooter. It doesn’t cost much and it will make your life so much easier.

This is especially important on islands in Thailand, and I imagine other locales throughout Southeast Asia.

The scooters are not very hard to ride, renting them is cheap and it beats any other form of transportation when you’re outside of the big cities.

The same applies to Vietnam. If you’re not in a densely populated area, rent a scooter.

(They are not that hard to learn to ride).

Find all of the travel lessons curated here.

12-8-2015-gasoline-2-1-of-1-900x600

On one of the islands, outside of Krabi in Ko Lanta, everyone used scooters and you would see this little kiosk like things on the side of the road. Everywhere. Notice the scooters in the background.

This farmers market somewhere on Ko Lanta was gotten to by scooter, something I'd never ridden before. I only had one fall. Just one! Taken on Dec. 11, 2015.

This farmers market somewhere on Ko Lanta was gotten to by scooter, something I’d never ridden before. I only had one fall. Just one! Taken on Dec. 11, 2015.

2. Get a SIM card from a telephone vendor as soon as you get in country.

The title says it all. Get a SIM card as soon as you get in country.

My first time around, when I went to Thailand, I waited far too long and then tried to do it myself. I don’t remember if I thought I could save money or if I wanted to get a better deal or I didn’t want to be connected to life like I am at home or I was just busy.

It doesn’t matter.

I should have switched my SIM cards out either in the airport or the following day at a telephone vendor. I think I was under the impression there would be enough WiFi networks to connect to. I was wrong.

I instead waited for a week and a half and tried to get it set up myself, and then tried to get the people in a 7/11 to set it up. It never worked very well and I really wish I would have just had some god damned 4G when I needed it.

On the other hand, the next year, when I went to Vietnam? I got a SIM card in the airport. Maybe it cost me a little more than it should have. I didn’t care. I had a functioning phone with a working phone number and internet access.

Trust me. You want to be able to access the internet, without having to rely on WiFi.

The flip side of this lesson is to make sure your smartphone both has a SIM card and that it can be used on overseas networks. If it doesn’t, consider buying a used smartphone that will work in the countries you plan on visiting. I bought my last and current phone, an HTC One M8, used, through Swappa. It still works like a charm and I can use it overseas.

The costs are minimal and they are worth it. Remember that if you go to a different country you may, or may not, need to get a new SIM card. Depends.

Find all of the travel lessons curated here.

A woman cleans a fountain in a park, Dec. 4, 2015 in Bangkok, Thailand.

A woman cleans a fountain in a park, Dec. 4, 2015 in Bangkok, Thailand.

Last December (2015), I flew to Bangkok, Thailand, for a two and a half week vacation.

I read a fair amount about what I should do beforehand but there was still a fair amount I learned while in country, and things I wished I had either done before, brought with me or what I wish I could have known.

This list is not made in any sort of order of importance and these posts will be put one on top of the other until the list is complete at which point, I will compile the big list in one post.

1. Have multiple debit cards linked to multiple checking accounts.

I learned that lesson the hard way when, halfway through my trip, I left my debit card (my one and only) in an ATM in Bangkok.

My problem was not that it was stolen, or used somewhere else. It wasn’t. My problem was that debit card was my only source of cash. Yes, I had an international (that is, no foreign transaction fees) credit card but getting cash from a credit card is a very expensive proposition and it’s not the easiest thing in the world. In fact, when I tried to do it, I was stymied by paperwork that I didn’t have.

I personally bank with Bank of America. I can now attest their international support is abyssal at best.

After trying to call their international collect line to no avail, I was finally able to get through in a browser messenger. The first person was dealing with was helpful, until the computer crashed. The second person I dealt with was half as competent and was unable to pull up any of the previous chat logs.

In the end, BofA supposedly sent my new card to some island in Thailand. It never arrived. UPS did not deliver it because they needed a better address and BofA never told me anything about the new card.

I was lucky enough to get the help of a Scot who took out the equivalent of $500 while we were at the secondary airport in Bangkok. (He was going to Chang Mai and I was heading to Phuket).

(Tip: There are no ATMs beyond the security checkpoint at the Don Muang airport, which serves domestic traffic).

I also learned that PayPal is worthless overseas. Despite multiple tickets, attempts, etc. to get PayPal to allow me to transfer that $500 to that Scot, nothing worked. In the end, I had to have an American relative wire the Scot the $500.

What’s the lesson?

Have multiple debit cards attached to multiple checking accounts. Lose one? No sweat! You’ve got two more. That’s my plan for my next international vacation.

An adjunct to this lesson is to have a checking account with a bank that does not charge for either a certain amount of ATM fees or charges no ATM fees (that is, ATM fees are reimbursed). In doing my research, I found two options: The Charles Schwab Bank (investor checking account, which must be opened in conjunction with a brokerage account that you don’t have to fund or use) and Fidelity Bank.

Find all of the travel lessons curated here.

Vendors (center) set up their booths on the street on Dec. 4, 2015 in Bangkok, Thailand.

Vendors (center) set up their booths on the street on Dec. 4, 2015 in Bangkok, Thailand. Since most transactions are cash, get a debit card that doesn’t charge ATM fees, or reimburses you. Also, have multiple debit cards, in case you lose one.

Since I haven’t updated the blog in quite a while, I thought it would not hurt to cross-post my guide on looking up federal search warrants on PACER, in New Mexico.

This was orginally posted, as part of a work-in-progress cops and courts guide, here: http://nmcourts.wheelerc.org/.

Looking up federal search warrants on PACER

Searching New Mexico federal search warrants requires a PACER account and a willingness to shell out some cash for unneeded documents.

But, maybe we can change that. I’m currently hosting (on google drive) all of the federal search warrants (the dockets, the reports and the affidavits/applications) I download when looking to see if anything has been filed for my jurisdiction. If anyone has a better way to archive and share them, please let me know. I would like to make it as open and easy as possible.

Here’s the link. Want to add more? Please email them to me. As will be explained below, the report should be saved (into a PDF) and the date it is run should be listed on the document name. (More warrants are unsealed as each month progresses.)

(LINK: On Google Drive)

If you’re using pacer, you should have RECAP installed. (It’s PACER backwards). I find it works best on Chrome, although it also works on Firefox. It automatically uploads the document to the Internet Archive so whenever someone else looks at case file/docket you’re looking at, they can bypass PACER and download, for free, from the Archive. This also includes you, if you lose the document or can’t find it on your computer.

There are two ways to search for search warrants. The first is the easiest, but requires running reports, which could (technically) cost well above the normal $3/30 page ceiling for charges on PACER.

The second merely requires the knowledge that search warrants use the two middle letters of “mr”. Example: 15-mr-439

As an example, a civil case is usually numbered by: the last two digits of the year (15) – CV for civils – the number of the case here, such as 125. Example: 15-cv-00125.

Criminal magistrate cases are MJ. Example: 15-mj-00125 or 15-mj-125.

Criminal district court cases are CR. Example: 15-cr-00125 or 15-cr-125.

The first method (for illustrated first method, see below).

1. Log into pacer and go to the NM District Court.

2. Click on “Reports” at the top of the page.

3. Under criminal reports, click on “Criminal Cases.”

4. Under “Office” select “Albuquerque.” Under “Case types” select “Miscellaneous Criminal.”

5. Click on “Run Report.”

6. Choose which warrant to view. The report should only show unsealed search warrants.

The second method

1. Go into PACER, NM District Court, and search for the year of search warrants you desire, using the middle letters of MJ. It should for 2015, start at 15-mj-00001.

The first method, illustrated

1. Log into pacer and go to the NM District Court.

2. Click on “Reports” at the top of the page.

Fed SW Step 1A

 

3. Under criminal reports, click on “Criminal Cases.”

Fed SW Step 2

4. Under “Office” select “Albuquerque.” Under “Case types” select “Miscellaneous Criminal.”

Fed SW Step 3

5. Click on “Run Report.”

6. Choose which warrant to view. The report should only show unsealed search warrants.

Fed SW Step 4

 

This guide, website and all the information contained therein is distributed under a Creative Commons 4.0 Attribution-Only license.
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This review was originally posted on Goodreads.com and reviews.wheelerc.org on July 19, 2015.

Tony Hillerman’s Seldom Disappointed: A Memoir is both sorely disappointing, for how badly and boringly it is written, and how much of a sell-out shill Hillerman, despite still calling himself a “journalist.”

Please, let us be clear: I do not just mean “shill” as a put down. I am being exact in language here. Hillerman is a shill and he should feel deeply ashamed and ethically compromised for it.

Even if Hillerman weren’t a shill and a disgrace to the journalism profession, his memoir is still a terrible and boring read.

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This review was originally posted on Goodreads.com (truncated) and reviews.wheelerc.org on July 5, 2015.

There are two kinds of violence in Among the Thugs.

The first is the violence we, the reading and civilized public, are supposed to abhor: violence perpetrated by the football (soccer) hooligans.

The second kind of violence is that perpetrated by the police forces against protesters of all stripes, including those football hooligans, American author Bill Buford all but outright states is an entirely acceptable form of violence perpetrated by state actors.

Don’t get me wrong: Among The Thugs is an enjoyable read and the violence is certainly disturbing.
However, Buford falters many times and a large portion of his falters are the sanctioning of state terror and violence.

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This review was originally posted on Goodreads.com and reviews.wheelerc.org on May 31, 2015.

Dear Life: Stories is, as one reviewer posited, a bad place to start reading such an acclaimed author. This may very well be true. Either way, I have no intention of continuing to read any of Munro’s work after reading what amounts to an extremely over sold and boring set of stories.

I honestly have no idea where Munro earned her reputation from, earning the Nobel prize and all. Then again, Humboldt’s Gift by Saul Bellow earned the Pulitzer and I’m stuck a third of the way through that. So, yes, I can see the award winning, I just can’t understand it.

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This review was originally posted on Goodreads.com and reviews.wheelerc.org on Jan. 17, 2015.

A fast-paced novel, Clans of the Alphane Moon has a little of everything: a meditation on the civil rights of the mentally ill and the freedom of free will and free agency; the trials of marriage and divorce; the insanity of a paranoid security apparatus.

Far from being the failure or claptrap Barry Malzberg calls it (sci-fe being a lesser genre in his not-so-humble opinion) in at least one edition (Bluejay Special Edition) of the book.

Worth the read.

On Goodreads

This review was originally posted on Goodreads.com and reviews.wheelerc.org on March 26, 2015.

Certainly a valiant and well-written first attempt, The Broom of the System falls short. It’s not a classic, it’s not a great, but it’s more or less enjoyable. It is, partially, a story about stories. Also, the use of different forms of media forms (transcripts, journal entries, etc.) is a welcome touch that has not, unfortunately, caught on.

On Goodreads

This review was originally posted on Goodreads.com and reviews.wheelerc.org on March 25, 2015.

Samaritan, the first Richard Price book I’ve read, reminded me why reading can be so enjoyable. Plotting, pace, dialogue, characters, it’s all brilliant here. Easy to look over are the beautiful turns of phrase.

I will admit, at the end, the morality starts beginning to feel less like a revelation after the fifth or sixth time and more like hammer banging on an already flush nail.

Leading up to that morality, and the play itself, was not something I realized until I finished the book, was not something I was cognizant of. Brilliant.

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