Here at the Coco Locco resort, an international destination where communicating in many different languages is important, they have managed to create this truly universal sign that can interpreted by all.

I am impressed. You don’t even need to know how read to understand it. You couldn’t achieve these results if you had a picture of a toilet instead, because toilets don’t look the same all around the world.

It’s a high quality, well made sign. Maybe its a little funny, but its still a polite, yet serious expression of a fundamental human need. I find it very welcoming, as though they are going out of their way to make sure everyone who goes there will feel comfortable.

This is a long, flat beach, with packed soft sand, and warm shallow clear water. There were lots of cute little fish, but you’d have to wade out pretty far to actually swim. It would have been great for practicing rope dart if it wasn’t 95 degrees that day.

Not much of a town, but there were some good looking places to eat. You better be comfortable on a scooter if you come here.

I had it made. I’ve been telling myself for the last year or two at my last job. I could just stay there forever, and just coast through the rest of my life without really challenging myself, or trying at all really. I’ve lost track of how many layoffs I survived, I was in an important role that was probably never in danger. People respected me and my work, people listened when I spoke, and I had the autonomy to operate in whatever way was best for me. I had a great work-life balance too, and took generous advantage of the unlimited vacation policy. I think I probably took at least 5 weeks of PTO every year, and honestly, being in such a critical role, I’m pretty sure everyone else around was me afraid that me and everyone else on my small team would burn out if we didn’t take lots of time off, and that presented a very real risk of leading to a catastrophic failure for the business.

There are two kinds of places you can get gas here in Koh Phangan: Gas stations, and random stores selling it out of crates of glass bottles, for 40-50 baht per liter-ish. So far, I’ve seen a lot more gas bottle shops than real gas stations.

Yesterday was my first time getting gas for my rental scooter - which came with 2 glass bottles of gas, so, less than half a tank. On my way to Zen Beach, I thought maybe I would treat myself to a real gas station.

It was June 25th, I was sitting in the immigration office waiting to get my passport back after submitting all the paperwork to extend my visa, and I felt gratitude like I never have before.

My entire life has been preparing me for this journey on the other side of the world, and I felt gratitude for all of the beautiful and painful moments that have lead me here. For the longest time I’ve held the belief about life that I didn’t ask to be here, none of this was my idea. Whatever happens - that’s not on me, this was all someone else’s idea, and all I can do it make the best out of it. It means its ok if things don’t work out, its ok if things don’t go according to plan. I developed that attitude because life didn’t make any sense to me, it was a coping mechanism.

Hi, I’m Lex, or Alex. I prefer Lex, but I’m inconsistent about it, and sometimes that causes trouble, so to be safe, I try to call myself (A)?lex whenever possible because regex can satisfy all conditions.

I sold everything I own, and now I’m a homeless, unemployed nomad, because that’s what I decided to do. Later I’ll make a post about why, but right now I’m trying to set up a blog.