Jo.O

When I was younger and penniless, I told myself that I want to earn enough money so that I can say -

Any problem that can be solved by money is not a problem

In this complicated world that we live in, there are countless problems that we face everyday. When we're kids, we have problems like school (although some may not see it as a problem like I do). It was a constant struggle with homework deadlines, last minute studying for exams and probably some teenage angst. We want to finish school as soon as possible and say sayonara to the boring teachers. Stepping into the working world, we face another set of problems. Money. Handphone bills, internet bills, utilities bills, car loans, mortgage loans, etc. Amid high inflation of 7.5% in Singapore (recorded last month), many people are struggling just trying to feed themselves and their families. I should be counting my blessings but I, too, am tightening my belt. I still have a wedding and a mortgage to pay for.

Problems, problems, everywhere. No wonder Singapore is one of the most unhappy countries around. I divide problems into two categories - one that can be solved with money and the other that can't. Problems that you still can solve with money shouldn't have to bother you (that much). For example, my small car accident earlier today. Assuming the worst case scenario which I can't get the old uncle to fork out my repair fees, I will have to fork out a couple of hundred bucks myself. Out of nothing but bad luck. Is that going to kill me? Probably not. Should I be sulking and be miserable because of this? Probably not. It certainly is a stupid nuisance but I ask myself which is worse? Losing two hundred bucks and be miserable over it, or losing two hundred bucks, getting over it and be happy.

There are real problems which we have no control over it in life. Like love (or the loss of it), illness, death. Your family and loved ones are the real deal. Materials like cars, bicycles and money are not. If we can still afford to get a problem out of the way using some money, why not? Just get it over with and be happy. Life carries on. Life is too short to be bothered with too many problems. Everyone has their own problems. There seems like never an end to problems. We should only let the real problems bother us, not those small and superficial problems.

How you think about a problem is more important than the problem itself - so always think positively
- Norman Vincent Peale, author of The Power of Positive Thinking

Wow, I still remember my password!

 

What a lousy day today. I was driving inside this car park, behind an old white Nissan. Suddenly, the Nissan stopped. Without switching on the hazard lights, it reversed. Ok, fine, next to me was a handicapped car lot, maybe the driver is a handicapped, I thought. Hence I started to reverse too, as it was obvious that I was blocking the lot. In a flash, bang! The Nissan hit the front of my car. What the F? Some of my car's paint was scrapped off and the hood seems a little out of place. The Nissan's driver was not a handicapped, he was some old uncle and obviously he had a problem with driving because when he tried to reverse into the handicapped lot again, he mounted the bloody kerb not once, not twice but thrice. Just my god damn bloody luck. 

 

Well it seems like a bad day for driving, so I tried cycling. With petrol prices at record highs, it seems like a good idea to rely on good old leg power. Hence I bought a pair of new bikes yesterday, for Kris and myself. So this evening, we thought we will do some cycling, but no, the day won't pass without more nasty surprises. Kris' bicycle had a flat tyre. Why? I don't know why. It was barely a day since we bought it. I took it to the nearest petrol station to try to pump some air into it but no, the pump was spoilt today. Great luck. Just great.

 

So this week, I have to go and settle the car and the bicycle. Out of nothing. Just suay.  

 

Good riddance to bad trash, 25th May 2008. You sucked.

The mean absolute deviation (MAD) is less than or equal to the standard deviation.

 

For not knowing this, I lost 2 marks in today's exam. %$#@!

Page vii of the Schweser study notes (Book 1) for the 2006 CFA Level I Exam says that if you start your studies late and decide to read every reading in detail, you will drive yourself crazy and will not enter the exam with the self-confidence that is required to pass.

 

How true!

Terrence has two fathers and he sings a song about them.

Nice song.

Link to youtube video

救护车一响

一头猪白养

住上一次院

一年活白干

辛辛苦苦几十年

一病回到解放前

You know that something is wrong in Singapore when

 

Michael Fay is jailed 4 months in jail, fined S$3,500 and given 6 lashes of the rattan for vandalism but a man was jailed for a mere 8 weeks for torturing a cat to death and another man was jailed just 3 months for the abuse of cats and kittens.

 

The police did nothing when a doctor got beaten by 6-8 punks but has time to harrass 'Mardi Gras girls', catch 'seditious' bloggers and investigate a peaceful and silent protest supporting 'mr brown'.

 

The MIW talked about "Staying Together, Moving Ahead" but Singaporeans living in dipilated HDB flats in opposition wards are constantly placed at the bottom of the HDB upgrading priority despite paying the same income tax and doing the same national service like other Singaporeans.

 

18 year old army boys are allowed to carry a M-16 (or SAR-21) but not allowed to watch R(A) movies.

You know that Singaporeans have it too good when you see people writing in to the Straits Times complaining about rowdy kids, leaves blowers and aunties talking in dialect.

 

Straits Times
Hush S'pore, you're too noisy

I found the article, 'Drowned In Sound' (The Sunday Times, July 9), interesting.

I have been complaining about the noise in Marine Terrace often to my MP. First, there are many rowdy neighbours with rowdy children. For example, making noise late at night while waiting for the lift.

Also, one is rudely awaken by three to four grass cutters early in the morning, which unfortunately happens very often. Then there are the tree trimers who cut off branches mercilessly that it makes me wonder, why bother to have trees when they cannot even spread out their branches to give us shade.

You also have the leaves blowers. I feel that the old fashion way of sweeping leaves with brooms is more effective. Plus it does not generate diesel smoke or have a droning sound.

To add to that pollution, vehicle owners often leave their engines running while waiting for family members or girlfriends. The Land Transport Authority should issue some kind of deterrent against such drivers to protect the environment.
For many years I have to put up with all this as I live on a lower floor.

When I step out to visit a shopping mall, what do I hear? Music blaring. Should there not be some kind of guideline regarding the volume of music in public areas?

Shopping in Australia, for example, is a joy because you do not get all these extra noises.

Then on the bus you have the TV Mobile or two Ah Sohs talking in dialect on their mobile phones!

Even at the NTUC Fitness Health Club I have to bear the blaring sound of rap music which at times just rock my brain till I end up with a migraine. Competing with this loud music are members talking loudly in dialects.

I now go out with ear plugs which I have on standby in all my handbags. It cuts off the volume by about 30 per cent.
It is a pity that a day outing in this beautiful country can be ruined by too much noise.

Koh Geok Lin (Mdm)

 

My reply to Mdm Koh:

 

Dear Mdm Koh,

 

I couldn't agree with you more on your complaints.

 

Kids, as the two of us know, are really stupid noisy, although one shouldn’t fault them for behaving the way they do for it's only in their nature to be stupid noisy. If you really can’t stand kids being noisy while they're waiting for the lift at night, not even for a minute, what you can do is to rush out of your house and give them two tight slaps (one for yourself and one for me). It would be best if you can take out your kitchen knife and stab them repeatedly in the chest so as to prevent future occurrences of noisy kids. Of course, you face the possibility (certainty, if you didn’t finish off the parent as well) of going into jail but hey, the prison is a pretty quiet place, I’ve heard.

 

The grass cutters need to work early in the morning because they are probably foreign talents labourers who are not as privileged as you and me to be able to sleep at that time of the day. They also probably don’t write in to the newspapers to complain about going to a foreign country to work under the hot sun from morning to night while the foreign country’s citizens bemoaned about them making too much noise while they are sleeping, so it's really beneath our level to be complaining about them. What we can do is to keep pressuring our MPs (that's what MPs are for right?) to sack these grass cutters. Then we will have grass the height of humans to act as sound insulators. Especially since you're staying at a low floor because you can't afford don't want to pay a higher price for a higher unit.

 

The tree trimmers are probably a bunch of tree haters hence they make cutting tree branches a living. It is such a pity that the government hires a bunch of tree haters to trim trees so that we couldn’t have the branches spread out all the way and finally drop onto and crush some poor passerby. That would be so fun to see!

 

And of course, it’s more efficient to get those foreign labourers to clear the leaves with brooms, instead of powerful leaves blower machines. After all, they are supposed to be low cost and meant to be exploited by us right? Add to that idea by restricting all foreign maids to take buses on Sundays such that they can only walk! Then we will see fewer buses on the roads which translate into less diesel smoke and noise around us as well. I’m a genius!

 

The point which I agreed wholeheartedly with you is the one about the two ah sohs talking in dialect on their mobile phones in the bus. How do they even dare! People like you and me who speak English should be addressed Sir and Madam and thus allowed to talk on our mobile phones (in English of course) in the bus. People like those ah sohs who can only talk in dialect should not be allowed to own a mobile phone in the first place! How do they dare to pollute our ears with their low-class dialect conservations!

 

I think I am going to follow your cue and start wearing ear plugs. In fact, to prevent my eyes from getting polluted by those unsightly grass cutters, tree trimmers and dialact-talking ah sohs, I think I'm going to start wearing eye masks when going out.

 

It is truely a national disaster when a beautiful country like Singapore can be ruined by these inconsiderate people. Luckily for Singapore, there are still people like you, Madam Koh, who dares (and has the free time) to stand out and write letters to the Straits Times to bring to light these burning national issues. It's a pity the GE is just over, otherwise I'm sure these issues of noisy grass cutters and dialact-talking ah sohs will take top priority over those childish issues those politicians took up with instead.

 

The country needs you, Madam Koh! Will you be willing to stand for the next GE? 

 

Regards,

Sir Joo

After my own personal narration of that world cup drama at Holland Village, here is the public version as published in the Straits Times today.

 

The Straits Times
July 5, 2006

 

Fracas after crash in Holland Village

 

 A Malaysian tourist caused a ruckus in Holland Village in the early hours of Sunday. Witnesses said that at about 1.30am, a Malaysian- registered car skidded and crashed into a cab along Lorong Mambong in Holland Village. The 48-year-old driver apparently got out of his car and exchanged some harsh words with the cabby.

He then got back into the vehicle, reversed and crashed into the cab another two times, causing the taxi to mount the kerb.

An angry group of people then tried to get the driver out of the car, banging their fists and smashing a plastic chair on it.

The man drove off with the mob following for some distance. Police nabbed him at the junction of Commonwealth Avenue and Ghim Moh Road. The unemployed man was arrested when he refused to give a breath specimen. He was released on bail on Sunday evening.

 

TRACY SUA

Video Link

Based loosely on a true story

No, this isn't about how Portugal knocked England out of the World Cup. The off-pitch action that happened to me during the match must be a hundred times more exciting than the match itself. Including the penalty shootout. This is super drama including smashing of beer bottles, ramming of cars and a crowd which almost turned into a mob.

 

In fact, I’m so glad to be writing this right now. Alive. I could be lying in a hospital right now with my head smashed by a beer bottle. Or knocked down by a car. I could be, *shudders*, gone from this world.

 

It was a Saturday night and England was facing Portugal in a World Cup quarterfinals. As my sweetie was away in London, I asked Feiyan out to watch the match at Holland Village. We went there late, and all the pubs were super full, but we finally got ourselves a seat at the Village coffeeshop around the corner.

 

And so it is, we sat there watching the match rather happily and peacefully. During half-time of normal period, two friends of Feiyan arrived and joined us. After the 90 minutes went by without a goal, some people were leaving. I could never understand why people only want to watch the 90 minutes and not the extra-time and penalty shootouts. Are these people hard-core Singapore Pools pundits who are only interested in the normal period full-time score? Anyway, that’s another story. Apparently, one of these people leaving was Feiyan’s ex-boss from his former job. And the ex-boss offered the four of us his table, which is just in front of the TV. Our original table was along the pavement, which offers a lot of legroom but a very skewed TV watching angle. The table offered was inside the coffeeshop, offering a great TV view but very little or no legroom at all. The coffeeshop was literally packed like sardines with the audience stacked shoulder to shoulder.

 

Anyway, we took up the offer and changed our table. So I sat down and tried to make myself comfortable as it was damn squeezed. This guy next to me tapped my shoulder and said the seat I’m sitting on belongs to a guy and he might be coming back. I noticed that there was still a half-full beer glass with a couple of beer bottles on the table in front of the seat and so I said I will move if the guy comes back. The guy, an uncle in his 50s, came back. So I shifted to the next chair. As the uncle sat down, he told me in Hokkien, “don’t mess with my chair”. I was a little taken aback at his “frankness” and I just said ok.

 

By this time, the first half of the extra time in the match was starting. I was so squeezed in my seat that my two tights were clamped together and yet the uncle’s shoulder and legs were pressed hard against mine. Yes, it was really so packed. I regretted moving to this table but our old table was already taken over by others. As the match goes on, the uncle was blabbering to me and Feiyan’s friend (who was next to me) about secret societies, faked secret societies and other bullshit that I was filtering out. I just took him to be a run-of-the-mill uncle who had a little too much to drink.

 

But he was getting aggressive. He began blabbering some other nonsense (which I had filtered out) to the coffeeshop auntie and the coffeeshop auntie entertained him a little by pretending to listen attentively. Then he started to get really aggressive and took out his Malaysian passport. He kept throwing his passport around the table and saying he wants to see the boss of the coffeeshop. I really sensed something was wrong then. The lady boss came and pretended to listen attentively to what the drunken uncle had to say and tried to pacify him. By then, I was feeling really threatened, sitting next to this crazy and drunk uncle. I thought I better move away at half-time. I told Feiyan that his ex-boss must have hated him very much and thus offered this table to us. No wonder they left at full-time of normal period! They must have known that this uncle is crazy! Bloody hell.

 

Back to the action, the lady boss did not manage to pacify the drunken uncle and the coffeeshop owner had to be activated. The owner tried shaking hands with the drunken uncle but the drunken uncle was pissed by now. He refused to make peace and said he don’t know who the owner is. The drunken uncle even picked up a bottle and sticks it hard into his glass, inverted. I think this meant a challenge and he was trying to provoke the owner. By then, I could really feel the tensions and madness from this drunken uncle. I couldn’t wait until half-time. My life was on the stake. This crazy uncle felt like he could smash me on the head anytime with his beer bottle. And so I told Feiyan, who is seated furthest from the uncle among the four of us, that we better move outside and watch the match, standing.

 

It was at this precise moment that things turned scary. The drunken uncle picked up the inverted bottle and smashed it onto the ground. Barely 10cm from my feet. I tried to flee but tables surrounded me and the only way out was blocked by the drunken uncle. He smashed a couple of bottles on the table and floor and I finally took the cue to run out as he ran out of ammunition (beer bottles). I was shaken. In fact, my legs were shaking as I stood outside the coffeeshop wondering what the hell just happened. The beer bottle could have hit my feet or worse, the drunken uncle could have smashed my skull with a bottle as he switched on his destructive mode.

 

The coffeeshop owner and a couple of helpers then dragged the drunken uncle outside of the coffeeshop. The owner shouted a few Hokkien expletives at the drunken uncle and challenged him to go somewhere else to settle the issue. And so the drunken uncle, the owner and a few other guys went in the direction of Crystal Jade. Of course, many more other kay poh audience followed, including Feiyan. I, on the other hand, went back to the seat to watch the beginning of the second half of extra-time. It was then that I realised I had a few cuts on my feet. Remember that the beer bottle was smashed 10cm away from my feet? And because I was wearing slippers, there were some cuts on my feet inflicted by the flying shards of glass. I can only curse my luck but at the same time, I was thankful that I’m still alive.

 

A few minutes into the second half of extra-time, the coffeeshop owner retuned back. Feiyan too. Knew from Feiyan that the drunken uncle was now lying in front of Delifrance, beaten up pacified by the owner. And also knew that the reason for the uncle being so pissed is that the coffeeshop auntie refused to serve the drunken uncle more beer as it was past the permitted time that the coffeeshop could serve beer. As the uncle’s Malaysian passport was still on the table when he was dragged out of the coffeeshop, Feiyan passed the passport to the lady boss who gave it back to the drunken uncle who was then already pacified by the owner. Feiyan did catch a glimpse of the uncle’s year of birth, which is 195X. Not that it’s important to me.

 

And so, we continued to watch the match, thinking that all was over. But we’re so wrong.

 

As the second half of extra-time drew down to what would be a stalemate, all eyes were glued to the TVs. And suddenly, there was a loud screeching car-braking noise and we all heard a loud bang. A black car had just rammed full speed onto the back of a taxi parked outside the coffeeshop. The coffeeshop crowd (except the taxi driver inside the taxi) apparently thought it was funny and shouted “GOAL!”

 

Wait a minute! The man in the black car was the drunken uncle! He’s back with a vengeance! As a crowd began to surround the two vehicles, the drunken uncle stepped out of the car and squatted outside for a couple of minutes. Nobody moved. All eyes were on the drunken uncle and his black car, instead of the soccer match. The drunken uncle went back into his black car and reversed his car. Then, BANG! He rammed into the poor taxi one more time. And, BANG! He smashed into the taxi for a third time, this time, pushing the taxi up the pavement, knocking down the tables and chairs on it as the crowd ran away. It was fortunate that no one was hurt. The crazy uncle could have rammed his car first time into the crowd that was standing outside the coffeeshop watching the match. Or the sitting crowd along the pavement. Or worse, drove straight into the coffeeshop like a terrorist bomber.

 

This time, the crowd decided that enough is enough and about 10 people surrounded his car, kicking and smashing the windows with chairs. It was like a mob! At this time, I sort of imagine that the drunken uncle will be dragged out of the car and torn apart by the mob, as I have often read in the newspapers as happened in some other unlawful countries. Luckily for the drunken uncle, he managed to drive away. As his car was driving away, people chased and threw chairs at the car. Even people inside the coffeeshop were throwing chairs! I saw a person who tried to throw a chair at the car but hit another person’s head instead. I was worried that another fight would start, there and then, but luckily, it didn’t.

 

A few guys had, by now, called the police. And a few had taken down the license number of the black car, which is a Malaysia registered car. At this point, the England-Portugal match was going into a penalty shootout.

 

Just as the first penalty was about to be taken by Portugal, the black car appeared again! This time, the drunken uncle drove straight past the coffeeshop, without stopping or ramming into any other car, as if to say, “fuck you and catch me if you can”.

 

Moments later, England was knocked out of the World Cup and the first police car finally arrived. An ambulance and two other police cars followed later. I wonder why is the ambulance there. For me, because I had cuts on my feet? Or for the poor guy whose head was hit by a flying chair not intended for him. Anyway, the ambulance left shortly without attending to anyone.

 

Just like England who is going home now, the crowd soon dispersed as there’s finally no more action, on-pitch or off-pitch.

 

I think I am very suay. But even more suay was the guy whose head was hit. Or the taxi driver whose taxi was rammed three times by the crazy uncle. The taxi had an equally unlucky number to boot. Plate number X444. Despite the cuts on my feet, I still have to count my blessings that I can still be here, typing away on my notebook. Perhaps there will be a silver lining out of all this mess as I’m going to buy 4-D tomorrrow!

 

P.S. Don’t worry about me, darling, I’m fine now. ;) 

My local office has a headcount of 19. And in this group of 19 people, one of them shares the same birthday with me. Super coincidental? Nah. There's a probability of 38% of that happening actually.


The birthday "paradox" states that if there are 23 or more people in a room then there is a chance of more than 50% that at least two of them will have the same birthday. This is not a paradox in the sense of leading to a logical contradiction; it described as a paradox because mathematical truth contradicts naïve intuition. Most people estimate that the chance is much lower than 50%.


A group of 10 gives you a probability of 12%, 20 gives you 41%, 30 gives you 70% and 50 gives you a very high chance at 97%. I remembered back in university, one lecturer offers such a bet with the class which consists of more than 23 people. In the end, it turned out he lost, although I still think that at that point in time, the risk-reward ratio is good and favourable towards the lecturer. Afterall, he has odds at more at 50% of winning. But in life, as always, nothing is certain until it becomes fact.


P.S. This is worrying. I'm lazing at home with nothing inspiring to do except to calculate and plot charts of probabilities of two people having the same birthday in a group of N people on Excel. Anyway, here's the Excel chart. =D

For more on the birthday paradox and its probability computation, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthday_paradox

 

Magical thinking is a term used by historians of religion to describe one kind of non-scientific causal reasoning. For example, someone may believe a shirt is lucky if he had won a bowling competition in it. He wil continue to wear the shirt to bowling competitions, and though he continues to win some and lose some, he will chalk up every win to his lucky shirt.

The same can be applied to my two rabbits. Everytime I took away the food bowl from them, they would start turning around in circles at very high speed. Initially I thought that they were excited because they knew food would be coming, but now I think that they associated the appearance of food with their turning around in circles. To put it simply, my rabbits believed that their "magical behaviour" or their turning in circles is the force creating the food.

 

Magical thinking can be found in most people actually. In the stock market, traders utilize trading strategies of unconfirmed hypotheses, rather than evaluating their historical performance using scientific methods. People are reluctant to change their beliefs, even when presented with evidence. Some traders might believe in the "effect" of red underwear while some refused to wear anything red (as red normally means a negative P/L). And strangely enough, most of the traders are not systematic in their approaches. "Gut feel" is still the most important element in their decisions. I call it luck sometimes.

 

For more of the phenomenon of magical thinking, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magical_thinking

This is for my poor darling, who is away alone on a business trip in the cold and faraway city of London.

 

I miss you and the food you always cook for me.

You don't just provide me food

For you are the nourishment of my soul

I know I'm no cool dude (or poet)

But you still like me as a whole

Thank you for all your love

I couldn't thank you more

I don't take you for granted

I will cherish you and more

For every day for all the days ... in my life

 

Thank you dear, I love you and I can't wait for you to be back.

 

P.S. Too much hawker food can be sickening.

If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.

(Hardly seems worth it.)

If you farted consistently for 6 years and 9 months, enough gas is produced to create the energy of an atomic bomb.

(Now that's more like it!)

The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body to squirt blood 30 feet.

(O.M.G.!)

A pig's orgasm lasts 30 minutes.

(In my next life, I want to be a pig.)

A cockroach will live nine days without its head before it starves to death. (Creepy.)

(I'm still not over the pig.)

Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour.

(Do not try this at home. Maybe at work.)

The male praying mantis cannot copulate while its head is attached to its body. The female initiates sex by ripping the male's head off.

("Honey, I'm home. What the....?!")

The flea can jump 350 times its body length. It's like a human jumping the length of a football field.

(30 minutes... lucky pig. Can you imagine??)

The catfish has over 27,000 taste buds.

(What could be so tasty on the bottom of a pond?)

Some lions mate over 50 times a day.

(I still want to be a pig in my next life...quality over quantity)

Butterflies taste with their feet.

(Something I always wanted to know.)

The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue.

(Hmmmmmm........)

Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people.

(If you're ambidextrous, do you split the difference?)

Elephants are the only animals that cannot jump.

(OK, so that would be a good thing....................)

A cat's urine glows under a black light.

(I wonder who was paid to figure that out?)

An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.

(I know some people like that.)

Starfish have no brains.

(I know some people like that too.)

Polar bears are left-handed.

(If they switch, they'll live a lot longer.)

Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure.

(What about that pig??)

It was a big shock yesterday morning as my darling screamed and called out to me.

 

How could something like this happen? It has never ever crossed my mind. What am I supposed to do? I have never plan for something like this.

 

For the whole day yesterday, my mind was filled with potential life-changing options and decisions to be made. I was at a loss and feeling pretty stressed out the whole day.

 

Can I finally overcome my fears, take control of the situation and move ahead a better man?

 

I'm glad to report that I'm feeling much better now. To take a leaf out of my darling's book, everything happens for a reason.

 

P.S. There better be a good reason why our two "female" rabbits can produce three little baby bunnies.

01:02:03 04/05/06

Just to show that I'm still alive...

At first, I felt lost, confused and angry with myself.

 

I felt despair and grief.

 

I felt shocked. I couldn't believe it's gone like that, just like that. Without a warning at all.

 

I felt like a part of me has been robbed. Killed.

 

I lost my fucking thumbdrive and I couldn't believe I didn't back up the data all these while. Bloody complacent. I thought the thumbdrive would be the safest place for all my intimate data. And no, I didn't have any DIY sex videos in it.

 

I do have some pretty cool spreadsheets in them. And it's devastating that they are gone now. And it's even sadder to find that a few spreadsheets could hit me so hard. Since when has life become so complicated? Your treasured items are not just a couple of sentimental old photos, letters and mementos, but gigabytes of pictures, spreadsheets with tons of numbers in them, your high-tech gadgets and many other things.

 

Right now, I'm taking this loss pretty cool. It dawned on me that I shouldn't be taking a couple of excel spreadsheets so hard. Just a bunch of numbers anyway. Am I missing the big picture of what's important in life? Your loved one next to you? Your family and friends? They are real, unlike a bunch of binary 1,0,1,0s of a spreadsheet.

 

Life has truly become much more complicated than before. People can't live without their cellphones, or internet, or their laptop. People prefer talking through the internet, rather than face-to-face. People prefer storing their photos digitally inside a computer, rather than print them out to display in traditional photo albums. While all these technology has enabled life to be more convenient, you can't help but be dominated by them. We're supposed to be their masters but sometimes, it seems like we're more of their slaves.

 

I need my thumbdrive back.

Property fever is on as new condominiums are being launched or en bloc deals being announced very few other days. A house is, more often than not, measured in terms of its monetary worth, rental yield, whether it is "en bloc potential" and what have you. In this rush for capital appreciation, it is worthwhile to listen to an alternative voice...

 

The Straits Times Forum, Saturday, 11 Mar 2006

 

Hit by en bloc sale fever? Not this sad home owner

 

I REFER to the report, 'En bloc fever grips home owners' (ST, March 8). Sales of entire property developments or estates are indeed the rage now.

 

Many an owner of apartment dwellings, whether in small developments or in larger but older estates, is eager to band together with fellow owners to sell the entire property as collective sales fetch an estimated 30-50 per cent more than what individual apartments would fetch on the open market.

 

An entire development can be put up for collective sale when 80 per cent (90 per cent for developments less than 10 years old) of the home owners agree.

 

Yet not everyone within the majority may have been willing to sell, to begin with. Often, it is a few prime-movers, who have much personal interest at stake, who drive the process. They work hard at every turn, in overt or covert ways, to convince other individuals so that the mandatory figure can be reached. At times, the not-so-overt ways employed is questionable.

 

Collective-sale efforts generate a lot of awkwardness and tension, if not outright divisiveness and animosity among neighbours, what with the second-guessing and suspicion - which side are you on?

 

But should we not ask the question: are we wasting resources with all this selling and buying of large-scale properties?

 

Another issue to consider is the notion of 'home'. In all the excitement and rush - even panic - to launch collective-sale bids, the clear message that comes across is that the value of a 'home' is largely the monetary returns it can yield. Never mind that a home is a sanctuary for one to touch base with self and family, a retreat after a long and often hard day at work or at school.

 

Perhaps not every home owner attaches the same value to the property he owns. Some may own multiple properties so the secondary ones are dispensable.

 

But for other home owners, the property they live in is where many significant life events have taken place - marriages begun, children raised, values taught and learnt, routines established and habits formed. For this group of home owners, a collective-sale effort is both pressurising and unnerving.

 

There are rounds and rounds of talks, reasoning, negotiation. Sometimes there will be misunderstandings and, at times, intrigues. These all create undue pressure and an unpleasant atmosphere.

 

What is also unnerving is that the home that is a sanctuary can never be viewed in the same way again because a huge question mark hangs over its continued existence.

 

I am one such home owner, caught unwittingly in others' feverish pursuit of the en bloc sale of our property.

 

Perhaps I attach too much emotion to my earthly home. It is not a fancy or swanky apartment by any standard but it is a cosy nest, a nice-enough space for my family to live in and enjoy amid lots of clutter and chatter.

 

It is a place which I am proud to call my home, its value to me is far more than the amount that the agent keen to market my development promises me.

 

Unfortunately, today I find it hard to enjoy the real value of my home when others insist on putting a monetary value to it.

 

Perhaps it is time to have a reality check on en bloc sales.

 

Marie Tan (Mdm)

First comes NUS' Graduate Employment Survey, saying that 94% of their graduates have already found jobs with the average pay being $2,500 per month. The NUS student featured in the article commands a starting pay of $5,000.

 

Today, February 28, 2006

 

Rosy report for NUS grads

 

WHEN it comes to employment, it seems graduates from the National University of Singapore (NUS) have it good.

 

According to the university's latest Graduate Employment Survey, those who graduated last year are getting jobs in less time than the previous batch — and they are receiving higher salaries and multiple job offers to boot.

 

The annual study revealed that 94 per cent of the graduates already have jobs. This is a 2 per cent increase over the previous year, which was a record then.

 

Among the 29 courses surveyed, 10 had a 100 per cent employment rate for its graduates.

 

The average starting pay for an NUS graduate has also increased by more than 5 per cent to $2,500 a month.

 

Professional degree holders now start at an average of $2,750 and non-professional degree holders start at $2,300.

 

Of the 3,050 survey respondents, nearly all landed jobs within six months of graduation.

 

An all-time high of 84 per cent of the graduates found jobs within three months.

 

Slightly more than one in two graduates received two or more job offers, the highest in five years.

 

In fact, one in 12 actually received more than four job offers.

 

NUS Vice-Provost for Education Professor Lily Kong attributed the rosy report to the improved economy, as well as the enhanced services of the university's Career Centre, which organises job fairs, career skills workshops, and recruitment talks.

 

One value-add was the overseas exposure some students received during exchange programmes and at NUS Overseas Colleges (NOCs).

 

Mechanical Engineering graduate Juliet Low, for example, went on the NOC programme at Silicon Valley and is now commanding a salary of $5,000 in her first job.

 

"I was able to hone important networking and leadership skills and learnt to adapt quickly to new situations," she said.

 

NUS is convinced venturing out of Singapore is the way to go.

 

Said Prof Kong: "These jobs require three or four years of experience but some NOC students managed to get them. We can definitely do more in this direction." — Lin Yanqin

 

Next comes SMU who went one up over NUS by declaring proudly that 100% of their graduates have landed a job within six month of graduation, with an average starting monthly salary of $2,500. In addition, SMU pointed out those who graduated with distinction earned an average of $3,000 a month, trumping NUS again. Last but not least, SMU told the Straits Times that 11 out of its 288 graduates who responded to the survey are pulling in between $5,000 and $10,000 a month, clearly taking the shine away from NUS' $5,000-a-month featured graduate.

 

Today, March 8, 2006

 

No job worries at SMU
100% of students find jobs within half-year of graduation

FOR the second year running, every single graduate from the Singapore Management University (SMU) has landed a job either before or within six months of their graduation.

 

This is according to a survey of the cohort of 337 students who graduated last year conducted by the university.

 

In fact, three-quarters of the graduates surveyed found jobs within a month of graduation, and more than half had already clinched jobs prior to graduating.

 

Forty per cent found jobs in the banking, finance, auditing and accounting sectors, while 21 per cent accepted job offers from the companies in which they had spent their internships. And even as the job market veers towards contract hiring, nine out of 10 graduates found permanent, full-time jobs.

 

SMU graduates earned an average starting salary of $2,500 a month, with business management graduates taking home $2,600 a month, up 5 per cent from 2004. Those who graduated with distinction earned an average of $3,000 a month.

 

A National University of Singapore survey of 4,000 graduates last week showed a similar starting salary. NTU will be releasing the results of their Graduate Employment Survey today.

 

Said SMU president Professor Howard Hunter: "The 100 per cent employment rate shows that SMU's flexible but integrated curriculum is producing a certain competence that is highly sought-after."

 

The graduates' versatility is also reflected in how some of their graduates are able to cross seamlessly between industries.

 

Ms Sarah Seow forms part of the 21 per cent of SMU's 2005 batch of accounting graduates who did not take the obvious path of signing up with an accounting firm. Instead, she joined GE Energy Asia-Pacific as a financial analyst under the company's prestigious leadership training programme, the Financial Management Programme (FMP).

 

She said: "Accountancy gives you valuable 'hard' skill sets. And SMU also taught me 'soft' skills like how to present and explain numbers to a layman. We didn't have our noses in books all the time."

 

GE Energy's finance director Steve Dwyer added that "SMU seems to be doing well" in equipping students with good communication and leadership skills. — Lin Yanqin

 

Not to be outdone, NTU released their employment report, trumpeting that one of their computer engineering graduate is earning an entry-level salary of $11,000 a month! Higher than those top 11 income earners of SMU who earn between $5,000 to $10,000 and clearly above the featured student of NUS who earned only $5,000 monthly. In addition, the average monthly salary earned by the rest of the graduates is $2,600, outdoing NUS and SMU. And note this, NTU did not include the $11,000 man inside the survey calculations, for fear of distorting the figures. Very yaya papaya indeed.

 

Today, March 9, 2006

 

NTU graduate lands $11,000-a-month job

TWO local universities have so far released glowing employment reports about their graduates, complete with higher starting salaries.

 

But beat this: An entry-level salary of $11,000 a month? That's what a Nanyang Technological University computer engineering graduate is earning as a software engineer at a multi-national corporation.

 

His monthly salary dwarfs the average monthly salary of $2,600 earned by the rest of the graduates — an all-time high for the university. NTU did not include his salary in their Graduate Employment Survey calculations, for fear of distorting the figures.

 

The 24-year-old, who declined to be named, professed to have an entrepreneurial streak and in his undergraduate days, took part in business plan competitions organised by NTU. He landed his dream job while attending a recruitment event facilitated by NTU's career service.

 

Mr Ian Loo, 27, a mechanical and aerospace engineering graduate, now a project analyst at Ford Motor Company in Japan, said: "Careerhub and the Office of Professional Attachments helped to make everything easier. They provided the avenues."

 

The survey also found that more NTU graduates found jobs within a shorter time compared to previous years. The top 20 per cent of earners for engineering graduates had an average monthly salary of more than $3,380, while business and accounting's top earners got $3,050. — Lin Yanqin

 

I do wonder how accurate are such surveys. First of all, graduates who haven't found a job wouldn't be very inclined to take part in the survey, isn't it? Who wants to take part to declare that you haven't find a job? Same goes for graduates who are working temporarily, or earning a low wage relatively to their peers. So in the end, you take out the low end of the spectrum, leaving just the middle to high salary earners, and you declare them to be a good representation of the entire graduate cohort. This whole survey is biased and skewed towards the high end, to begin with.

 

Next, I also wonder if some graduates who do take part inflate their monthly wages by including projected bonuses, overtime claims, transport allowances and what have you. I assume that there is a negligible bunch of graduates who would deflate their earnings (and ego), by reporting a lower than actual salary. So you have a bunch of proud and arrogant graduates who are more eager to inflate their income, and what results is a higher-than-actual average salary.

 

So do take these silly surveys with a big pinch of salt. Lastly, I wonder which company, in their right frame of mind, would pay a fresh local graduate, $11 f**king thousand a month. Either that guy is really gooooood (which I will be damn impressed with) or ... (you fill in whatever you think).

Picked up this piece of news report accidentally in Bloomberg. Funny stuff because it's not everyday that you have a bunch of members of parliament gathering to discuss how sex should be done in Singapore. And this is the result...

 

By Linus Chua

     March 8 (Bloomberg) -- Singapore lawmakers called on the government to revise sex education offered in schools amid concerns the current system is outdated.

     Member of Parliament Ong Ah Heng cited an incident where a 17-year-old student filmed her sexual encounter with her boyfriend on her mobile phone. The handset was stolen and the video clip was circulated throughout Singapore, local newspapers reported. Ong is a member of the ruling People's Action Party.

     With sex education in place, "we now have such events happening and I wonder whether the Ministry of Education has taught the wrong thing," Ong said in Parliament today. "With such lessons, our students seem to be going in another direction, which is contrary to the program."

     Sex education is often an awkward subject for a city-state that bans Playboy magazine and other publications or films it considers pornographic, and had until about two years ago banned bar-top dancing. Still, the government has taken what Member of Parliament Eunice Olsen called a "pragmatic" approach by legalizing prostitution.

     "The truth is many of our teenagers are having sex," she said. "But nowadays, it would seem youths are having sex at an earlier age. So, I think the key message in the Ministry of Education's sexuality education should be adjusted."

     Olsen, a former Miss Singapore and co-host of Singapore's version of "Wheel of Fortune," pointed to the more than 2,000 teenage pregnancies in the city-state each year as a source of concern. She's a nominated member of Parliament, one of about a dozen lawmakers not elected by voters.

     The government said it would strengthen the training of teachers selected for sex education, and may have smaller group discussions to reach out to students.

     "Sexuality matters have become increasingly complicated in a rapidly changing world with evolving mores," Hawazi Daipi, senior parliamentary secretary at the Ministry of Education, said in Parliament.

The Business Times today reported that Simon Cheong of SC Global has bought 13 freehold apartments at The Tomlinson along Cuscaden Road for about S$55 million or S$1,500 per square foot, according to sources.

 

In January, the same newspapers also reported that entities controlled by Simon Cheong had bought six Good Class Bungalows (GCBs) along Peirce Road for S$35 million. Man, is this guy super bullish on local property or what?

 

Seems like we are hearing reports of en bloc sale every few other days. This time, it is Eng Lok Mansion who was sold off for S$138 million or an amazing S$1,218 per sq ft per plot ratio (psf ppr) last week. In fact, the freehold property along Napier Road has now officially claimed the title of being Singapore's most expensive collective sale site per unit land.

 

Eng Lok's price beat the previous record held by Hong Leong Group who paid S$1,122 psf ppr in 1997 to redevelop Boulevard Hotel into a condominium. It also broke the S$1,093 psf ppr that Far East Organization paid for Scotts Tower in 1997, previously the highest price fetched in a collective sale.

 

So what does this mean? Prices for prime district land are back to before the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis! The Sail @ Marine, Sentosa Cove and Orchard Turn, just to name a few, are all creating new positive buzz for the local property market. City Developments is launching its super-luxurious St Regis Residences condo soon, at prices as high as S$2,600 psf, setting a new benchmark for local property.

 

Unfortunately though, residential prices outside of the city or the other prime districts are not as hot. Many house owners are probably still reeling from the 1997-98 and 2000-2002 property meltdown which landed them in negative mortgage equity. The disparity between prime property prices and suburb property prices are getting wider and wider by the day. There have been quite a number of condo launches near the city, like in Tiong Bahru, all trying to get a piece of the action. Some obscene prices have been seen even for 99-year leasehold. And looking at how income levels have remained fairly constant along these years, I wonder how property prices could shoot up.

 

Most of the action are provided by the foreigners who, under the policies of the government, snapped up, not just apartments, but entire levels of a project. I guess rich locals like Simon Cheong also contributed to the sharp rise in local property prices. In addition, Singapore is actually a laggard compared to the property boom seen in Hong Kong and USA. Industry professionals like real estate analysts and property companies have been calling for a rise in Singapore property, including the broader market, but they have vested interests, remember? I can't help but wonder, are all these sustainable in the long run, without the participation of the broader local market?

 

Of course, I, myself, have vested interests too in wondering whether the property boom is a fluke. I have yet to own a house in the city and it's getting darn expensive by the day to do so! 

For all women, may you have a Happy International Women's Day.

 

No one is quite sure why this date was chosen. In Chinese, 三八 (three eight) represents 8th March which is also The International Women's Day (三八国际妇女节).

 

Sometimes the term 三八 is used rather degradingly to describe noisy women. Gone are the days when women living in foreign territories inside the Shanghai Bund, were only allowed to travel outside the Bund on the 3 and 8 days of the month (ie. 3, 8, 13, 18, 23 and 28). On these days when they were allowed to explore the larger Shanghai areas normally out of their bounds, these women got rather excited and "noisy", hence the term "三八" was used to describe them.

 

Far from being noisy, women represent half the world's population. The other half that many men cannot live without.

 

Below is a wonderful poem by one of the most beautiful women in the world, Audrey Hepburn, who wrote when asked to share her "beauty tips". It was read at her funeral years later.

 

For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.
For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.
For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.
For beautiful hair, let a child run his/her fingers through it once a day.
For poise, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone.
People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone.
Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you will find one at the end of each of your arms.
As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands; one for helping yourself, and the other for helping others.

 

- Extracted from an email from a broker who always write interesting stories

'The sense is the PA is low-class and heartlander. We want to change that,' said the chief executive director of the People's Association, Mr Tan Boon Huat.

 

And to kick off this news article which appeared today, the Straits Times began with this line - Mention the People's Association (PA) and out pop these adjectives: low-class, heartlander or cheap.

 

Which we all really know actually, the phrase "heartlander" is just a nice code word coined up to address the poor, low-class and cheap people of Singapore.

 

Welcome to the heartland.

The newspaper can be a source of humour at times. Today's Straits Times is certainly very entertaining and sometimes, bordering on being ridiculous. Let's see...

 

Singapore's first food centre with wireless hot spots in Tampines
Apparently, this particular hawker centre in Tampines is providing wireless hot spots where people can connect to the Internet using their laptops. I wonder if anyone will be using this service; for I know if I bring my notebook there to hook up, I will leave with a greasy notebook. I know the government is pushing for us to be like Korea, a super broadband-connected nation, but this seems a bit silly to me. The money will definitely be better spent elsewhere at this point of time.

 

Victims fall prey to personalised e-mail promising easy money; five people here lost $900 to $300,000 last year
What can I say? After so many years of such con jobs, from letters to email, people still fall for them. This is classic greed, combined with naviety. Sigh, who to blame? Some people still don't get that there's no free lunch in the world.

 

Community urged to deal with terror problem
Two emergency exercises were held in the heartland yesterday, one at Chomp Chomp and another in Bedok. Seems like terrorist attack drills are becoming the 'in' thing after Exercise Northstar V, as grassroots leaders fall over each other to organise such drills for their own community. I wonder if the craze will go on until there's actually a real attack and people still think it's just another drill, as it goes for the boy who cried wolf.

Read a totally intriguing article in the AWSJ yesterday on how some economists are studying game shows in a variation of "game theory", seeking to explain the economic behaviour of normal people like you and me.

 

There is a game show, "Deal or No Deal", which originated from the Netherlands and is now broadcast in 38 countries. The rules are simple and requires no skills whatsoever, unlike other game shows like "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire" and "Jeopardy". It starts off with 26 briefcases. Inside each of the briefcases is cash with values of $0.01, $1, $5, $10, $25, $50, $75, $100, $200, $300, $400, $500, $750, $1,000, $5,000, $10,000, $25,000, $50,000, $75,000, $100,000, $200,000, $300,000, $400,000, $500,000, $750,000 and finally, $1,000,000. Of course, the actual values might range according to the country you're in.

 

Next, you choose a briefcase. Then as each round progresses, you must either stay with your original briefcase choice or make a "deal" with the bank to accept its cash offer in exchange for whatever dollar amount is in your chosen case and stop playing. Of course, the bank will always offer at a discount to the fair value.

 

Here's a link to a simulation game found in the U.S. version of the game. It's really pretty interesting; Kris and I had a great time playing with it, haha. The game is pretty stupid sometimes though. For example, when left with just $200,000 and $300,000 to choose from, the banker offered $177,500. I hope any one reading my blog is capable of spotting this stupidity. The discounts which the banker offered are also much larger at the beginning of the game, compared to the end, perhaps trying not to make the participant take the money and leave, hence lengthening the time of the show.

 

Most interesting is when you imagine you're playing the real game. If left with only two choices, $1,000,000 and $1, what is the threshold for you to take the money offered by the banker and leave? Fair value is $500,000.50, of course but how many of us can really have such a high threshold? If the banker offers $250,000 for example, will you take it? I believe most people, who have never earned $250,000 under one hour, will. All these is very interesting which really makes me want to write a thesis on it, haha. Anyway, here's the very interesting article which got me all started...

 

Why game shows have economists glued to their TVs

Thursday, January 12, 2006

By Charles Forelle, The Wall Street Journal

 

Daryl Johnson, a 27-year-old actor and freelance Web designer -- "which means I don't have a job" -- was shifting his weight nervously on the TV game show "Deal or No Deal."

 

After disappointing rounds that dashed Mr. Johnson's hopes of walking away a millionaire, the host, Howie Mandel, offered him $37,000 to quit. Mr. Johnson still had a one-in-five shot at winning a briefcase with $200,000 hidden inside. So he turned down the $37,000.

 

Later, with only a one-in-three chance left of winding up with the $200,000, Mr. Johnson was offered $67,000 to give up. He rubbed his hands. He drummed his fingers on his chest. He shook his head no. The audience hooted.

 

"You're very gutsy," Mr. Mandel said.

 

To Thierry Post, a professor of finance at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, Mr. Johnson is also an invaluable subject in economics research. "His risk appetite is really abnormal," the professor says of Mr. Johnson. More precisely, he calculates, Mr. Johnson displayed a "relative-risk aversion" measure of 0.006 -- unusually, almost completely, indifferent to financial risk.

 

Mr. Post is part of a small, intense cadre of economists who study game shows in a variation on "game theory," seeking to explain the situational choices contestants make, and the clues those choices may hold for economic behavior in everyday life.

 

In a 2002 paper notable in game-show delving, two economists calculated the "unique subgame-perfect Nash equilibrium" -- roughly, the best way to play -- in a segment of "The Price Is Right." They found that contestants frequently deviated from it, acting too conservatively when worried about being eliminated.

 

Other shows that have been studied include "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" and "Jeopardy!" But "Deal or No Deal" has created particular excitement, in part because it involves no skill whatsoever. That reduces the variables when comparing subjects.

 

"There is no doubt that these are real people making real choices for high stakes, and we rarely get to observe such pure decisions," says Richard Thaler, a leading behavioral economist at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.

 

Economists aren't the only ones captivated by "Deal or No Deal," which originated in Holland and has been broadcast in 38 countries. The U.S. version, broadcast several times on NBC last month, will return to the air after the Olympics.

 

Mr. Post is studying the show to see whether it might help explain why people make irrationally risky economic decisions. He and his colleagues have recorded dozens of episodes. They've traded online with TV-show collectors around the world and have even hired Turkish-speaking students to transcribe data from Turkey's version of the show.

 

How risk affects financial behavior bears on such weighty matters as deciding which assets to put in an investment portfolio and how much governments should spend on social safety nets. But actual data are rare. Giving away millions of dollars to subjects of an experiment would be "hard to justify to the National Science Foundation," and others who pay for research, says Ian Walker, a professor at the University of Warwick in Coventry, England, who has studied "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire."

 

"Deal or No Deal" works like this: Twenty-six models each hold a briefcase that contains a sum of money -- varying from one cent to $1 million in the U.S. game. The contestant picks one briefcase as his own and then begins to open the other 25, each time, by process of elimination, revealing a little more about what his own case might hold. At the end, the contestant can also trade his briefcase for the last unopened one.

 

Suspense builds -- and the contestant's chance of hitting it big grows -- when small sums are eliminated and the $1 million or $750,000 cases remain unopened and winnable. Periodically, as cases are eliminated, an ominously shrouded "banker" offers a deal conveyed to the contestant by Mr. Mandel. The proposal is: Stop playing now and take the money offered.

 

What interests Mr. Post is how contestants respond to these offers, which are related to which dollar sums remain winnable. If the $1 million and $500,000 briefcases are left, for instance, the offer will be far higher than if they aren't.

 

This can create anguishing scenarios. What to do if the last two briefcases hold $1 million and $10, and the banker offers $450,000? The contestant has a 50-50 chance at a million. Probability theory says his "expected value" is the average of the two unopened briefcases, or $500,005. Classical economic theory says that people with relatively small net worth, likely never again to see a $450,000 check, would take it. Behavioral economists say that isn't always the case.

 

In this game, there's no trivia. No vowels to buy, no wheels to spin. Decisions involve only dollars, and contestants have just one choice at each juncture: Is it a deal or no deal? "You are a complete moron" if you don't understand the show's simple pattern, says Mr. Post, who is head of the finance department at the Erasmus School of Economics. It is thus "a dream come true for any behavioral economist."

 

Studying 53 episodes of the Dutch and Australian shows, Mr. Post finds that some contestants behave as the classical model predicts, locking up a sure payoff rather than risking it even with favorable odds. But others don't. The distinguishing factor, Mr. Post's data show: Players take more risks if they suffer setbacks early in the game, such as opening the million-dollar briefcase. That supports prospect theory, one of whose creators received a Nobel Prize in 2002. Prospect theory holds that people evaluate prospects for gains and losses from psychological reference points that may shift over time -- instead of seeking to maximize the "utility" they receive from money under an unvarying formula.

 

Zur Shapira, a psychologist at New York University's Stern School of Business, has been studying the qualifying rounds of the annual championship series in "Jeopardy!" He and a colleague, Elizabeth Boyle, calculated the best way to bet in Final Jeopardy, when players wager all, part or none of their winnings on one last question.

 

In the 1994 tournament of champions, contestant Tom Nichols had $8,200 going into the last round of his qualifying game and was in first place. (The winners of each qualifying game advance automatically to the next round, and the four highest scorers among the nonwinners also move on as wild cards.) Mr. Shapira's model holds that Mr. Nichols should have bet zero -- risking nothing for a solid shot at winning a wild-card slot for the next round -- instead of gambling for a win.

 

Balderdash, says Mr. Nichols, a political scientist who is now a professor of strategy at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I. "You'd have to be a boob" to assume the $8,200 "was gonna slide you into the final game," he writes in an email. Mr. Nichols bet $6,300, and was eliminated from the tournament when he named Alexander as the last king of the Hellenes. (It was Constantine II.) "This is so painful to remember," he says. "It is seared in my memory." Had he bet nothing, Mr. Nichols would have squeaked into the next round.

 

In "Deal or No Deal," Mr. Mandel says, the most surprising moment so far came when Karen Van, a self-described "sexy grandma," turned down $138,000 and ended up with a $25,000 prize. Ms. Van says her husband, who was in the studio audience, egged her on.

 

Mr. Johnson, who turned down eight deals, was faced with an ultimate choice between two briefcases. One contained $200,000, the other $50. The banker offered $99,000 to quit. "I'm no damn fool!" Mr. Johnson exclaimed. "Deal!" In an interview, he said he had, indeed, been gambling in the earlier rounds. Still, he wasn't going to go all the way.

 

"Fifty dollars is a gas tank," he said.

This is a very thought-provoking and pretty sad article I read in Today today. Yet, it serves a timely reminder to us, how not to take things for granted, how to accept both the good and bad things in life and especially how fragile one's life is. What I always stand by is how happiness is a choice one can choose regardless of the circumstances.

 

There are many things in life which are beyond our control, but our emotions, our feelings, we can control. As people always say, when life hands you lemons, you make lemonade. Of course, life is never as easy as that. But the little things in life that so often piss us off, perhaps we can learn to be more tolerant. Afterall, being humans, we always pay so much attention to the lesser matters of life (like your job, the crowded morning traffic and the neighbour that makes a din), in the process, neglecting the more important things in life.

 

Here's the article...

 

TODAY - January 12, 2006

Angeline Koh

In the face of death, I learned to live

 

"Angel, come see this," my sister quietly called to me. I remember that day like it was only yesterday. There she sat in front of the mirror. She ran her fingers gently through her soft, black hair and bunches of it began to come off effortlessly. She had already a pile of it on the dresser. Like a wig she slowly took it off bunch by bunch. I stood there stunned, unable to utter a word.

The doctors had warned Cynthia that the day would come when she would lose her hair. The nerves in her fingers were dying.

"Without the therapy, in the worse scenario, they could just drop off," the doctor said. "Better to lose my hair than to lose my fingers!"

She was able to laugh it off some time later, but that day, Cynthia sat in front of the mirror, looked at me and said: "I'll be all right. Just leave me for a while."

She sat there and cried. I turned around, walked out of the room.

I couldn't stop the tears.

My little and only sister died on Dec 31, 2002. She was 37.

For 20 long years she had battled with Lupus, a blood disorder. She watched as the world passed her by: A friend's call to talk about her boyfriend or job promotion, a wedding invitation from a classmate, an invitation for a friend's first child's birthday.

Time stood still for her, as she lived with constant uncertainty. She had more near brushes with death than I care to remember. Lung infection, kidney infection, stroke, the list went on.

Cynthia had three sets of clothes in her wardrobe: small, medium and large. She put them on depending on the medication she was on. Some of the drugs made her lose her appetite so that she happily fitted into her "S" clothes. On those days, she walked around with a lilt, quite proud of her figure.

On other occasions, her friends could not even recognise her because she was so bloated.

I saw my sister go through seasons of deep depression, promises of healing from a new treatment or some healing service, moments of hope that quickly vaporised at another reality attack.

She eventually came to terms with her condition — not with resignation and hopelessness but with courage and determination.

The doctors said that Cynthia lived beyond the life expectancy of a Lupus patient — seven years to be precise.

Four years ago, we found out that part of her heart had already failed. She had to drop everything immediately to rest whenever she felt breathless or tired or risk having a heart attack. I spent that night alone with her after the doctor broke the news to us.

We cried together until there were no more tears to cry. That night, many things didn't seem urgent or important any more. We began to bare our hearts to one another, the two of us.

But we also began to talk about the real hope that we had in this life and the life after. And we clung on dearly to each day grateful for every day and every beat that her heart pumped.

"Remember the time when we did …" one of us would suddenly break the silence. There were so many occasions when she did things that we only later realised were a real danger to her life — even a simple thing like walking when she felt tired.

Unlike certain illnesses, the doctors were not able to say how long she would live: One day, one month, one year?

In the face of death, we talked about hope, real hope. We talked about what really was precious in life. Cynthia prepared for her funeral — her favourite songs she wanted sung, the text she wanted read.

"Please for goodness sake, don't sing THAT hymn," she pointed at one as we flipped through the hymnal.

"That sounds SO sad ... like a funeral!"

I still wonder at her sense of humour.

According to the doctor, her pulmonary heart tension measured 110 at the time of her death. The reading for a normal person is 20.

I found out only after her death that that was the rate her heart had been pumping at during the last five years of her life!

And I was with her, watching the monitor, when her heart beat went from 120 down to a complete halt.

In my grief, I have often turned my thoughts to the good memories we made together. My sister taught me by her simple faith never to take life or health or my loved ones for granted.

I learned to focus on the majors, and to not pay so much mind to the minors — what is not so important.

I learned the reality that there are many things in life that are beyond my control.

I learned to accept both the good and the hard things and to receive each one with gratitude.

I learned that happiness is a choice that I can choose regardless of the circumstances.

I learned to tell my loved ones "I love you", or to say "I'm sorry", and not wait because tomorrow may never come.

In the face of death, I learned to live life.

 

Angeline Koh is a reader of Today. She contributed this article after reading their story on lupus - which affects an estimated 4,000 Singaporeans. The disease causes patients to produce antibodies that attack healthy tissues instead of fighting bacteria.

As I look out of my office window in preparation to go for lunch, I can't help but notice how sunny it is. And I can't help but break out into ...

 

Sunny Day
Sweepin' the clouds away
On my way to where the air is sweet

 

Can you tell me how to get,
How to get to Sesame Street

 

Come and play
Everything's A-OK
Friendly neighbors there
That's where we meet

 

Can you tell me how to get
How to get to Sesame Street

 

It's a magic carpet ride
Every door will open wide
To Happy people like you--
Happy people like
What a beautiful

 

Sunny Day
Sweepin' the clouds away
On my way to where the air is sweet

 

Can you tell me how to get,
How to get to Sesame street...

 

How to get to Sesame Street

 

Singing and humming the song actually generates positive and good feelings, as if the troubles of the world are behind you. It reminds you how beautiful and happy life can be.

 

Happiness... Isn't it actually all inside us?

 

The state of happiness. Who controls it? You, or others?

Came across this interesting article in the AWSJ, so I thought I should highlight this.

 

Faith in Theory
Why "intelligent design" simply isn't science.

BY JAMES Q. WILSON
Monday, December 26, 2005 12:01 a.m. EST

 

When a federal judge in Pennsylvania struck down the efforts of a local school board to teach "intelligent design," he rightly criticized the wholly unscientific nature of that enterprise. Some people will disagree with his view, arguing that evolution is a "theory" and intelligent design is a "theory," so students should look at both theories.

 

But this view confuses the meaning of the word "theory." In science, a theory states a relationship between two or more things (scientists like to call them "variables") that can be tested by factual observations. We have a "theory of gravity" that predicts the speed at which two objects will fall toward one another, the path on which a satellite must travel if it is to maintain a constant distance from the earth, and the position that a moon will keep with respect to its associated planet.

 

This theory has been tested rigorously, so much so that we can now launch a satellite and know exactly where it must be in space in order to keep it rotating around the earth. It was not always that way. From classical times to the Middle Ages, many important thinkers thought that the speed with which an object falls toward the earth will depend on its weight. We now know that this view is false. In a vacuum, the two objects will fall at the same speed and, thanks to Newton, we know the formula with which to calculate that speed.

 

The other meaning of theory is the popular and not the scientific one. People use "theory" when they mean a guess, a faith or an idea. A theory in this sense does not state a testable relationship between two or more things. It is a belief that may be true, but its truth cannot be tested by scientific inquiry. One such theory is that God exists and intervenes in human life in ways that affect the outcome of human life. God may well exist, and He may well help people overcome problems or even (if we believe certain athletes) determine the outcome of a game. But that theory cannot be tested. There is no way anyone has found that we can prove empirically that God exists or that His action has affected some human life. If such a test could be found, the scientist who executed it would overnight become a hero.

 

***

 

Evolution is a theory in the scientific sense. It has been tested repeatedly by examining the remains of now-extinct creatures to see how one species has emerged to replace another. Even today we can see some kinds of evolution at work, as when scholars watch how birds on the Galapagos Islands adapt their beak size from generation to generation to the food supplies they encounter.

 

The theory of evolution has not been proved as fully as the theory of gravity. There are many gaps in what we know about prehistoric creatures. But all that we have learned is consistent with the view that the creatures we encounter today had ancestors from which they evolved. This view, which is literally the only scientific defensible theory of the origin of species, does not by any means rule out the idea that God exists.

 

What existed before the Big Bang created the universe? Is there an afterlife of heaven (or hell) that awaits us after we die? Can a faith in God change our lives because of how God acts toward us? There are religious scientists who believe that God exists and operates on us today and there are scientists who reject the idea of God and his benign interventions.

 

Isaac Newton was a deeply religious man. No doubt he thought that the Newtonian laws he discovered existed because of God's handiwork. Charles Darwin, though he started his adult life as a deep believer and a student intending to enter the ministry, abandoned any belief that God has created animal species and replaced that view with his extraordinary, and largely correct, theory of evolution.

 

Proponents of intelligent design respond by saying that there are some things in the natural world that are so complex that they could not have been created by "accident." They often use the mousetrap as a simile. We can have all of the parts of a trap--a board, a spring, a clamp--but it will not be a mousetrap unless someone assembles it. The assembler is the "intelligent designer."

 

But since mousetraps are not created by nature but are manufactured by people, we must ask them what part of natural life is so irreducibly complex that it could not have evolved? Some have suggested that the human eye is an example. But the eye has been studied for decades in ways strongly suggesting that it has evolved. At first there were light-sensitive plates in prehistoric creatures that enabled them to move toward and away from illumination. For a few animals, these light-sensitive plates were more precise. This was the result of genetic differences: Just as a (very) few people today can see a baseball as well as Ted Williams could, so then some creatures were able not only to detect light but to see shapes or colors in the light.

 

When those talented creatures lived in a world that rewarded such precision, they reproduced and untalented creatures died out. Maybe the talented ones were better able to find food or avoid being eaten and the untalented ones could not. These first steps were followed, over millions of years, by more adaptations so that genetic accidents that made it possible for some creatures to see very tiny objects or see at great distances had an evolutionary advantage over ones that could not do these things.

 

But if an intelligent designer had created the human eye, He (or She) made some big mistakes. The eye has a blind spot in the middle that reduces the eye's capacity to see. Other creatures, more dependent on sharp eyesight than are we, do not have this blind spot. Some people are colorblind and others must start wearing glasses when they are small children. All of these variations and shortcomings are consistent with evolution. None is consistent with the view that the eye was designed by an intelligent being.

 

***

 

What schools should do is teach evolution emphasizing both its successes and its still unexplained limitations. Evolution, like almost every scientific theory, has some problems. But they are not the kinds of problems that can be solved by assuming that an intelligent designer (whom ID advocates will tell you privately is God) created life. There is not a shred of evidence to support this theory, one that has been around since the critics of Darwin began writing in the 19th century.

 

Some people worry that if evolution is a useful (and, so far, correct) theory, we should still see it at work all around us. We don't. But we can see it if we take a long enough time frame. Mankind has been on this earth for about 100,000 years. In that time there have been changes in how people appear, but they have occurred very slowly. After all, 1,000 centuries is just a blink in geological time.

 

Besides, the modern world has created an environment by means of public health measures, the reduction in crime rates, and improved levels of diet that have sharply reduced the environmental variation that is necessary to reward some genetic mutations and penalize others. But 100,000 years from now, will the environment change so much that people who now have quirky oddities will become the dominant group in society? Maybe.

 

Mr. Wilson has taught at Harvard, UCLA and Pepperdine, and is the author, among other books, of "The Moral Sense" (Free Press, 1997).

Dear Santa,

 

I wanted to clarify something regarding my X'mas wish yesterday. When I say I want a job under the old NKF management, I mean one which would place me under the privileged category of Mr peanuts man's selected few cronies.

 

This is because while normal NKF staff must 'scrimped and saved on the ground for the patients', according to one of NKY's staff, Mr peanuts man and his cronies could have generous pay and perks, flew first class and have several significant pay hikes and bonuses in one year! I especially  do not want to be like one particular NKF driver who worked there for 10 years and have not once received a bonus.

 

In addition, normal staff are not allowed to cash in their leave but Mr peanuts man was allowed to encash his 70 days of leave into $73,000. Isn't that so cool? This is what I call "special treatment".

 

I believe the old NKF is an organisation that truly knows how to reward its staff. See, one senior NKY employee had four salary increments in less than a year, such that his salary doubled within a year of joining the charity. Another employee had eight increments, more than doubling her starting pay two years earlier. And one employee had ten pay rises in less than five years! His pay jumped from a lowly $1,900 to $12,000 a month. This guy must have been damnnnn good. The best thing is, these pay rises were likely to be backdated, which means more money for them! In 1997, when Mr peanuts man had a 39% pay increment to $25,000, this was backdated 11 months! How generous can NKF can? It's an organisation full of opportunities! Suck up well and perhaps your pay will jump!

 

I can't wait to have this job, Santa, because I never knew that part of the requirements of working in a local charity organisation means flying first class around the world. On one trip in March last year alone, Mr peanuts man and his "entourage" went on a first class trip which covered London, Paris, Boston, Chicago, Chennai and Colombo. Wow. Seriously, I never know to work in a local charity, you need to travel so much. Must be a lot of work! Mr peanuts man is really devoted to his work, I'm truly impressed with him. Of course, that trip alone costs a total of $133,200 on air tickets but hey, when only 10 cents of every donation dollar goes to the patient, there's naturally a lot left for Mr peanuts man to spend right? So you couldn't really blame Mr peanuts man for wanting to go on a first class round-the-world journey, as he really wanted to help the organisation to spend some money. He's such a helpful guy. Afterall, if you don't spend the money, how are you going to tell the donors next time that you're short of money right?

Dear Santa,

 

For my present this Christmas, I wish that I can have a job in NKF, or rather, the former NKF, under the management of Mr peanuts man and gang.

 

This is so that I can receive pay rises every few months. Yes, I know this will create such an erratic and volatile series of cash flow for me as I will have to adjust up my personal consumption budget every now and then, but trust me, I am able to take it. My inspiration comes from a certain ex-employee whose monthly salary jumped almost 1,000% in 9 years, from $1,300 to $12,500. Yes, that's the salary increment benchmark I will be aiming for, an annual compounded growth rate of almost 29% for 9 years!

 

To show that I'm really sincere about this job, I won't accept all of the bonuses offered to me. This will demonstrate a sense of righteousness and modesty to outsiders, especially if I made self-righteous comments like not doing justice to the patients if I don't decline some of the bonuses and that it will be painful for my family who has to be contented with the "limited resources" I can provide them but it's ok, my personal sacrifice will benefit the patients. On the inside though, I know that I will be given substantial pay increments which can be backdated such that the actual bonuses given out are actually much more than the original amount which I had declined. Of course, it's a tough act to match, but I will learn hard from the master himself on how to play this "less is more" game, the craft of receiving much more while appearing to accept less.

 

I also know that part of the job scope would require me to travel to far-flung places like Las Vegas for research purposes. Yes, we have so many different charity shows going on every year, all gunning for the same donor dollar, it is only necessary to travel to Las Vegas to study and learn how to produce better shows to persuade the public to part with more of their hard earned money. I'm all prepared for such hardship. It helps that I can travel on first-class and claim overtime pay on such overseas business trips spanning weekends and public holidays. I'm deeply inspired by the peanuts man himself for receiving $187,000 in "overtime" pay between 1997 and 2003. The man must have done a lot of overtime. Where can you find such committment and diligence nowadays?

 

And oh yes, how can I forget about the golden tap? I accept the odd job hazard of having to wear sunglasses to work to avoid the glaring shine of the golden tap as it's all part and parcel of work. I understand the importance of having a golden tap for long-term investment as gold was a record high recently, above US$500 per ounce, and it only makes sense to install gold taps as a form of alternative investment.

 

I understand that the job requires a creative mind, one which can conjure up creative accounting to dodge rules which require charities to limit its fundraising expenses to less than 30% of the proceeds, as well as the ability to make misleading public statements like grossly inflating patient figures and talking down the reserves of the fund while at the same time, manage to look honest and sincere. Of course, anyone who can announce to the public that 52 cents of every charity dollar went towards patients' direct treatment costs when the truth was closer to 10 cents deserved to be paid handsomely. Perhaps he deserved to be paid the 42 cents discrepency for being able to blind everyone.

 

In addition, I'm impressed that the organisation is quite an enterprising corporation actually. One must have the wits and profit-making mindset of an entreprenuer in order to succeed in the job. Examples of such enterprising acts include charging the patients a premium for certain discounted drugs, instead of passing on the savings to them. What can I say? From the drug sales alone, the corporate in this "non-profit" organisation made almost a million last year! Hats off to them when they actually claimed that they helped its patients to save over $3.5 million in treatment costs. Gross profit margin worked out to almost 40% each year, when most of the local companies are struggling to produce double-digit margins! Just to state an example, NKF said one drug cost $25, it gave patients a $13 discount and charge them $12. However, NKF only paid $8.20 for the drug due to rebates it got on its bulk purchase of such drugs, hence in reality, NKF pocketed a 46% profit! Such bold and enterprising acts! I'm glad the government's drive to promote entreprenuership paid off in this organisation at least.

 

Yes, the job really sounds tough but I'm glad that I will have sufficient leave to recharge myself every now and then. With leave being retrospectively awarded as far back as seven years back, I'll have no such fears of being overburnt with the demands of the job as I can always go on long holidays, all expenses charged to the corporate account of course. I go on holiday so that I can recharge and do more for the organisation in the future. And relax, I won't claim overtime pay for my holidays.

 

I'm also comforted by the other perks and benefits like multi-million insurance coverage, free movie and concert tickets and almost unlimited corporate credit card allowance. The peanuts man himself charged an average of $32,952 a month to the corporate card last year, which only shows how much work and effort he is putting in to the job. To be able to charge so much every month, one must be doing a lot of running about and entertaining clients and guests, which in this case doesn't sound appropriate for a charity organisation; but you have to understand, the man is so devoted to his work he must be doing a lot of non-core work for the organisation. It must be tough on him to spend so much money alone, that's why I hope to share some of his burden.

 

I'm also surprised by the thoughtfulness of the organisation in not leaving out the tiniest details. It paid for the peanuts man's personal car expenses, such as road tax, insurance, maintenance and servicing and even topped up his wife's CashCard! I'm truly impressed! I don't own a car, so all I hope is that the organisation will top up my Ezlink card monthly. I'm sure such a small request is not too much to ask for.

 

Besides, I really like the post-employment packages which include departure bonuses, ex-gratia payments and encashment of unused leave. As mentioned earlier, as leave can be awarded as far back as seven years ago, you can imagine how generous all these payments can add up to. Once again, I'm inspired by the same certain employee who was given a six-month bonus of $75,000, an ex-gratia payment of another $75,000 and an $79,195 encashment of unused leave. Oh, and did I mention that the organisation awards out multi-million IT contracts to ex-employees which the organisation will write off as project failures in the future? I really like this feature as it ensures a legal and justified method of passing on money to employees who have left the organisation.

 

Santa, I have been a very good boy this year so I hope you will give me this job. And I don't mind being paid peanuts, really.

Received an email today from ST Forum Page informing that as they receive 70 letters on average each day, such limited space means they can publish only about a dozen in the print edition of The Straits Times.

 

I thought it's another gone case. Afterall, I've been rejected by the Straits Times a couple of times for my letters. However, turns out they've created a ST Online Forum (http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/forum) so
that more views can be aired and my letter has been published online! Well, if I can't get to the top dozen letters, it's a consolation knowing that I've at least made it to the next twelve or so.

 

Access to all Forum letters, in print or online, is free and mine is here.

I refer to the report regarding the raising of Aids awareness among women in the heartland by the Action for Aids (AFA) (ST, Nov 26).

While I applaud the actions of the AFA, I feel that the term "Ang Mo Kio aunties" is derogatory and degrading to the residents of Ang Mo Kio. As if being labeled as a "blue-collar heartlander" is not bad enough, now residents of Ang Mo Kio (especially the aunties) have to put up with a new sub-label "Ang Mo Kio aunties".

Is it because Ang Mo Kio happens to be the town with the lowest average monthly household income, according to HDB's Sample Household Survey 2003, or is it because "Ang Mo Kio uncles" are generally perceived by the AFA as blue-collar workers who engaged in casual sex or sex with prostitutes?

They pissed me off again.

 

As reported in the Straits Times on 26th Nov, Action For Aids (AFA) is taking the battle against Aids to the heartland of Singapore. Since the typical Aids patient is a male, blue-collar worker, aged between 30 and 49, who was infected through casual sex or sex with prostitutes, this naturally puts their wives at high risk of infection. Hence, the next frontier in the battle is to raise awareness of Aids among the women in the heartland, or what the AFA calls, the "Ang Mo Kio aunties".

 

As if being labeled a "heartlander" is not bad enough. Now they have narrowed in, and made Ang Mo Kio the representative of the heartland.

 

So what is meant by a heartlander? As popularised by the local media and politicians, a heartlander is a blue-collar worker who has grown up and live in a HDB flat. The truth is he is likely to be poor and his level of education is low. I guess a heartlander is simply a label for the poor Singaporeans. The hawkers, the taxi-drivers, the delivery men, the factory operators and the list goes on.

 

And now, they have taken a step further and created a sub-label for older women living in Ang Mo Kio. The "Ang Mo Kio aunties". Is this the subtle Singapore way to segregate different castes of the population, according to the district you live in? People living in districts 9, 10 and 11 are considered as the highest caste, while people staying in old HDB towns like Ang Mo Kio or Bedok belong to the lowest caste, the heartland of all heartland.

 

So why is Ang Mo Kio being made the representative of the heartland? Is it because Ang Mo Kio happens to be the town with the lowest average household income, according to the HDB's Sample Household Survey 2003? Apparently, the "heartlander" vs "cosmopolitan" differentiation is not enough. No way, we need more levels to make up the Singapore caste system. So now, right from the mouth of the heartland creator, we know people staying in Bishan, Pasir Ris, Punggol and Sengkang belong to the higher caste of heartlanders. Yes, they stay in HDB flats but their flats are new and pretty, the residents mostly young, educated, yuppie couples who work in banks and other big corporates, not taxi-drivers or factory operators. Then we have the bottom rung of the caste system, people of Ang Mo Kio, Yishun, Bedok and Toa Payoh. The old HDB flats, with uncles sitting around at the void decks or coffee shops whole day. People who don't work in big banks or big MNCs. People who are lowly-educated, ignorant and haven't seen the world. Ah yes, now I know why Ang Mo Kio is the poster boy for the Singapore heartland. Afterall, the heartlander is just a term coined to represent the Singapore poor.

 

The next time I see someone who stays in districts 9, 10 or 11, I better get down on my knees and kow tow to him. Afterall, who am I but a true-blue heartlander who grew up and lived my whole life in Ang Mo Kio, the mother of the heartland?

My darling put out a blog posting on the various seven wonders of the world. Which makes me wonder. Why must all the various wonders of the world be in sets of seven?

 

Then it struck me how many times mankind use the number seven. At least much more than the rest of the numbers in the numeric system. There are the seven deadly sins, seven heavenly virtues, Snow White and her seven dwarfs, the seven days of the week, Shakespeare's seven ages of man, 7-Up, 7-11, the seven-year itch, lucky seven, the seven seas, the seven colours of the rainbow, the seven continents of Earth, the famous spy 007... A find on the internet reveals even more, there are the seven daughters of Atlas in the Pleiades, the seven levels of hell, the seven primary colors, the seven notes of the musical scale, the seven-point rating scale, the seven categories for absolute judgment, the seven objects in the span of attention, and the seven digits in the span of immediate memory!

 

The Chinese always refer to 7x7 = 49 days as some magical period of days.

 

God created the universe in seven days, as written in the bible. In fact, there's a whole study on the numerous appearance of the number seven in the bible!

 

The Pythagoreans called it the perfect number, 3 and 4, the triangle and the square, the perfect figures.

 

The Arabians had seven holy temples.

 

The Goths had seven deities, as did the Romans, from whose names are derived our days of the week.

 

Now for some mathematical wonders of the number seven. Seven is the one number which cannot be divided evenly into the circle.

360 divided by 1 = 360

360 divided by 2 = 180

360 divided by 3 = 120

360 divided by 4 = 90

360 divided by 5 = 72

360 divided by 6 = 60

360 divided by 7 = 51.428571

360 divided by 8 = 45

360 divided by 9 = 40

 

Intriguingly, the dividend from the division of the circle by the number seven is very close to the outer angle of the Great Pyramid: 51 degrees and 51 minutes.

 

Now, what about the magic number Pi? Isn't it expressed by 22 over 7???

 

This is a trivia but seven is the smallest positive integer requiring two syllables in English.

 

Of course, there're many other more references to the number seven. Just do a check on google and you will know!

 

So, is the number seven really magical?

The FBI had an opening for an assassin. After all the background checks, interviews, and testing were done there were 3 finalists. Two men and a woman. For the final test, the FBI agents took one of the men to a large metal door and handed him a gun.

 

"We must know that you will follow your instructions no matter what the circumstances. Inside the room you will find your wife sitting in a chair. Kill Her!"

 

The man said, "You can't be serious, I could never shoot my wife." The agent said, "Then you're not the right man for this job. Take your wife and go home."

 

The second man was given the same instructions. He took the gun and went into the room. All was quiet for about 5 minutes. The man came out with tears in his eyes, "I tried, but I can't kill my wife." The agent said, "You don't have what it takes. Take your wife and go home."

 

Finally, it was the woman's turn. She was given the same instructions, to kill her husband. She took the gun and went into the room. Shots were heard, one after another. They heard screaming, crashing, banging on the walls. After a few minutes, all was quiet. The door opened slowly and there stood the woman. She wiped the sweat from her brow. "This gun is loaded with blanks" she said. "I had to beat him to death with the chair."

 

MORAL of the story: Women are evil. Don't mess with them

"The stock doesn't know you own it. You have feelings about it, but it has no feelings about you. The stock doesn't know what you paid. People shouldn't get emotionally involved with their stocks."

- Warren Buffett

I just thought I should log into my blog to see if I still remember my login name and password. And yes, I still remember!

 

I know I should have been regular in updating my blog, but I'm really too busy at work. Yes, I know it's the same old excuse but what the heck...

 

And I have to go now... Will be back soon though, since I've finally mustered the energy to log back into my blog.

Queen

I was born to love you
With every single beat of my heart
Yes, I was born to take care of you
Every single day... 

I was born to love you
With every single beat of my heart
Yes, I was born to take care of you
Every single day of my life

You are the one for me
I am the man for you
You were made for me
You're my ecstasy
If I was given every opportunity
I'd kill for your love

So take a chance with me
Let me romance with you
I'm caught in a dream
And my dream's come true
It's so hard to believe
This is happening to me
An amazing feeling
Comin' through

I wanna love you
I love every little thing about you
I wanna love you, love you, love you
Born - to love you
Born - to love you
Yes I was born to love you
Born - to love you
Born - to love you
Every single day - of my life

An amazing feeling
Coming through

Yes I was born to love you
Every single day of my life

Go, I love you babe
Yes I was born to love you
I wanna love you, love you, love you
I wanna love you
I get so lonely, lonely, lonely
Yeah, I want to love you
Yeah, give it to me

It was a glorious 2 days of leisure (aka sloth), pleasure (aka sin) and treasures (aka gifts).

Yesterday was my birthday. Birthdays, to me, have all along been pretty much non-events. Left to my own choice, I wouldn't celebrate it, just like I wouldn't celebrate Christmas, New Years and other festive "significant" days.

But this time, it's different. I was treated to such a superb weekend that I can safely say it's the best birthday I've ever had.

I wouldn't share the details here, just that it's good, it's superb! Yes, go ahead and be envious... Hahahaha...

Thanks darling, for all your surprises, pampering, and gifts... :)

Someone gave me a present today.

To other people, the present will seem cheap as it only cost a few dollars. The present will also look simple as it consists of only a few basic common items. In fact, the present will be completely worthless to others, who will dump it away as trash.

But to me, the magnitude of the gift overwhelmed me as I open it. That was the best gift she could have given me and she did. In fact, that is the best gift I had ever received in my entire life. I'm so touched and happy... :)

Thank you sweetie, you couldn't have make me any happier. You truly make my day, everyday...

By Caroline Baum

 

June 27 (Bloomberg) -- One of the more memorable moments in presidential debates occurred in Cleveland in 1980.

 

Incumbent president Jimmy Carter accused Republican challenger Ronald Reagan of planning to cut Medicare. Reagan, shaking his head, straightened up his 6-foot-1-inch frame, looked Carter in the eye and said, ``there you go again,'' before making mincemeat of the soon-to-be-unseated president.

 

Reagan's phrase comes to mind every time oil prices levitate to new highs. The breaching of the $60 per barrel price barrier last week triggered a predictable gusher of gobbledygook from economists and analysts, as reported in the media.

 

Never mind that $40 oil was going to sink the global economy. Then it was $50.

 

Now that crude oil prices have averaged almost $50 --$48.46 to be exact -- for the past year, $60 has become the new tipping point.

 

New highs in oil prices ushered in the same old nonsense. Analysts will tell you that oil consumption remains strong at $60 a barrel. They claim that prices can move higher still. And, without missing a beat, they predict those higher prices will further depress economic growth, meaning current prices have already done so.

 

So why is demand for oil still strong at $60 a barrel?

 

Stronger demand pushes up prices. Higher prices reduce demand. According to this analysis, we're just slip-sliding along the same demand curve. Or are we?

 

Ps and Qs

 

If I could pick one graph in the entire field of economics to illustrate my columns, be they on the Federal Reserve, the yield curve or oil, it would be the supply and demand curves.

 

I would draw a vertical axis marked P (price) and a horizontal axis marked Q (quantity). Then I'd draw a downward- sloping demand curve and an upward-sloping supply curve. I'd mark the point where they intersect ``E,'' for equilibrium: Supply and demand are in balance.

 

Economics textbooks are very good at explaining this stuff. Really. Economists are equally good at forgetting it.

 

For starters, the texts explain that consumers, represented by the demand curve, and producers (supply curve) respond to prices.

 

As the price of an item rises, the quantity demanded by consumers normally falls, and vice versa. Producers supply more as the price rises and less as it falls. Both of these responses are expressed by movements along the respective curve.

 

If the supply and demand curves describe the response of consumers and producers to changes in prices, what makes prices change?

 

Curve Shift

 

One curve or the other has to shift.

 

Let's say new research suggests that Omega-3 fatty acids, found in fish such as salmon, are not only heart-healthy but also prevent cancer. Consumers now want to buy more salmon at any given price than they did before. The demand curve shifts outward, to the right. The new equilibrium reflects a higher price and a higher quantity demanded.

 

If we were dealing with crude instead of fish oil, analysts would now claim that higher prices are going to slow demand and economic growth.

 

The supply curve shifts as well. When technological innovation allows businesses to produce more widgets for the same cost than they did before, they provide more widgets at any given price. The pictorial representation is an outward shift in the supply curve, resulting in a lower equilibrium price and a higher equilibrium quantity. Productivity, in other words, keeps prices down.

 

Shocking It's Not

 

Let's leave the world of theory for the practical universe. In 1973, oil prices soared when OPEC instituted an embargo on oil sales to the West. Prices rose, output fell, as the supply curve shifted inward to the left.

 

Today's situation is completely different. Oil prices have been rising because of strong demand. No one has suggested a cutback in global supply, although some economists continue to misuse ``oil shock'' to describe the effect.

 

With China and other emerging nations hungry for raw materials, world demand for oil has increased. There is more demand at any given price than there was before.

 

Here's where economists go astray. If one were to move along the initial demand curve to a price of $60, the quantity of oil demanded at that price is less than it was at $50.

 

Leaving Kansas

 

We aren't on the old demand curve anymore, Toto! The demand curve shifted out. That's how the price got to $60. It didn't get there because producers cut back on oil supplies. At current prices, any profit-maximizing company or country with spare capacity is pumping to meet demand.

 

Last week, I actually heard someone on TV claim that once Americans started consuming less oil in response to higher prices, ``the forces of supply and demand might get a little more in sync.''

 

And here I thought I was witnessing the harmonious interplay between the two.

 

In 1973, the Arab oil embargo was exacerbated by government price controls. The result was right out of the textbook: shortages, long lines at gasoline stations, the creation of a black market.

 

That's what happens when the market isn't allowed to ``clear,'' when prices aren't allowed to do their job of rationing scarce supplies. An artificial price cap acts as a disincentive to producers and an incentive to consumers. The amount of gasoline demanded is greater than the amount supplied. Supply and demand aren't in balance.

 

This is true of every market, not just oil. Yet there must be something unique about oil that causes a thinking malfunction (maybe it's the fumes?) when it comes to the application of the law of supply and demand.

 

When it comes to analysis of the housing market, for example, no one's claiming higher home prices will reduce demand.

 

Caroline Baum is a columnist for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are her own.

Yes, I did it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I passed my IPPT just now!

Phew, less than 2 months before my window closes and failing which, I have to go for the much dreaded Remedial Training whose 2 initials "RT" strikes fear into even the most 'lao jiao' of NS men.

Location: Maju Camp

Sit Up: 40 = 5 pts
Broad Jump: 225 cm = 3 pts
Chin Up: 8 = 3 pts
Shuttle Run: 10 sec = 5 pts
2.4 km Run: 11.56 min = 2 pts

It's quite a pity for I missed Silver grade by 16 seconds, which I would have get $100 more! I'm now wondering if I should go through the torture chamber one more time before my birthday in August to try to get this extra $100... Hmm...

What the heck!!! I passed!!!!! That's all it matters! Now I can go feast on all the sinful food!!!!!!! Gluttons Corner! Here I come!

I'm also thinking of joining California Fitness gym at Bugis Junction... One is to train myself to be fitter so that I don't need to go through the same mental torture and anguish next year this time. Next would be to build up a better physique... hee...

I have to thank my sweetie too for constantly encouraging me and rooting for me. When I was jogging, I always kept this visual image that she's at the finishing line waiting for me... Heh... That helped a bit I suppose... Without imaging my sweetie rooting for me at the finishing line, I would have never ever passed! Therefore, I'm going to use the $100 reward to give her a good treat! =D

And Renee! For wishing me good luck on MSN this afternoon and telling me to visualise that she is chasing after me during the 2.4km run... Hahahaa...

Phew, now that the torture is over... I can finally relax... WOOHOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She cuts a lonely figure
Standing there by herself
Two shopping bags by her hand
But she doesn't look triumphant

Strangers hurried past her
A few stared at her and cursed
Why is she blocking their paths?
But she doesn't look like she cares

She seems to be waiting
For someone close to her heart
With a little impatience and annoyance
But she doesn't look bitter

Who has the audacity to do so?
Let the girl wait all by herself
Among hordes of strangers she never met
But he doesn't want that too

He hastened his steps
Beads of sweat on his face
His shirt wet from the brisk walk
But he doesn't look bothered

Sorry my dear that I'm late
He said to the girl who waited for him
The girl whose smile lighted up his day
Even though it was already night

光良

忘了有多久
再没听到你
对我说你最爱的故事

我想了很久
我开始慌了
是不是我又做错了什么

你哭着对我说
童话里都是骗人的
我不可能是你的王子

也许你不会懂
从你说爱我以后
我的天空星星都亮了

我愿变成童话里
你爱的那个天使
张开双手变成翅膀守护你

你要相信
相信我们会像童话故事里
幸福和快乐是结局

一起写我们的结局

Last Friday, I did something which my trader describes as suicidal.

After much hesitation and procrastination, I finally mustered the courage to go up to my lady boss and tell her that I feel underpaid in comparison to my peers.

I said places like Barclays and UBS are paying their fresh graduates (even those with 2nd lower honours) a starting pay 32% higher than my current pay. Given that i'm a 1st class honours graduate, I feel bad naturally.

I don't know if it's good people management or what, but I think my lady boss treated the issue nicely. She said she's glad I came to her as they have no idea what's the market rate. She thinks I'm one of the best in my field (for a fresh graduate) and she thinks I should be paid above the market. So she's going to check around with her peers and get back to me.

Today, while I was rampaging through the pantry for some biscuits, my lady boss approached me and said she've checked around with her friends "all over" and that they will be revising my pay. She said she will sit down with me tomorrow to talk about this.

Ahhh, I wonder how much will they be revising my pay... Strangely though, something tells me that I would be disappointed tomorrow... I hope my sixth sense is wrong.

They say that the world has a six billion population
But why is it, without you, my world seems to be in isolation

They say that the mind is alive and never lonely
But why is it, everyday, I can only think of you and you only

Oh darling, you’re on my mind every day
Even when you’re thousands of miles away

Do you know how much I miss you dear
How I wish you’re somewhere near

If I can just see you with a smile on your lovely face
Nothing else matters anymore, nothing else left to chase

Are you thinking of me my dear
Oh please tell me you will soon be here

How I wish you’re by my side today
Instead of two thousand miles away

Oh darling, I can’t wait to see you so
To hold you, kiss you and never let go

Counting down the hours, I’m beginning to crack
Oh when will my darling be back

She will be back tomorrow!!! Woohoo!!!

P.S. I know I'm no poet... but I try, for you :)
Version 1.0

Siemens AG, Germany's biggest engineering company, agreed to pay Taiwan's BenQ Corp. 250 million euros to take over its unprofitable mobile-phone business after the unit's market share slid to a six-year low.

Another prime example of Asians buying western business... TCL and Thomson, Lenovo and IBM...

The demise of Siemens mobile phone unit is not too surprising if you will just take a look at this bizarre "That's So Tomorrow" advertisment... Weird Germans...

It remains to be seen if BenQ can turnaround the phone unit as global leaders Nokia, Motorola and Samsung have been pulling away from the rest of the competition. Most research houses have Sell or Hold recommendations on BenQ...

Good luck...

Norah Jones

What am I to you
Tell me darling true
To me you are the sea
Fast as you can be
And deep the shade of blue

When you're feeling low
To whom else do you go
See I cry if you hurt
I'd give you my last shirt
Because I love you so

If my sky should fall
Would you even call
Opened up my heart
I never want to part
I'm giving you the ball

When I look in your eyes
I can feel the butterflies
I love you when you're blue
Tell me darlin' true
What am I to you

Yeah well if my sky should fall
Would you even call
Opened up my heart
Never wanna part
I'm giving you the ball

When I look in your eyes
I can feel the butterflies
Could you find a love in me
Could you carve me in a tree
Don't fill my heart with lies

I will love you when you're blue
Tell me darlin' true
What am I to you
What am I to you
What am I to you

Mary Alice: "So what did Carl say when you confronted him?"
Susan: "You'll love this. He said, it doesn't mean anything. It was just sex. And then he got this Zen look on his face and said, you know, Susan, most men live lives of quiet desperation."
Lynette: "Please tell me you punched him."
Susan: "No, I said, really? And what do most women lead? Lives of noisy fulfillment? I mean, of all people, did he have to bang his secretary? I had that woman over for brunch."
Gabrielle: "It's like my grandmother always said. An erect penis doesn't have a conscious."
Lynette: "Even limp ones aren't all that ethical."

* * *
Susan: "I just don't know how I'm going to survive this."
Mary Alice: "Listen to me. We all have moments of desperation. But if we face them head on, that's when we find out just how strong we really are."

* * *
Gabrielle: "Since we're doing true confessions, Carlos and I once broke a waterbed in Cancun."
Mike: "How'd you manage that?"
Gabrielle: "Well, he used to have a thing for spiked heels."
Carlos: "I'd just like to make it clear: she was wearing them."

* * *
Bree: "Rex cries after he ejaculates."

* * *
Julie: "I still don't understand why you don't just ask him out on an official date date!"
Susan: "Oh, I'm trying a new strategy. I'm playing hard to get."
Julie: "How long do you think you can keep that up?"
Susan: "Oh, maybe until noon. Then I'm gonna have to run over there and beg him to love me."

* * *
Gabrielle: "Doesn’t it make you nervous, a boy alone upstairs with Danielle?"
Bree: "Oh no, I don’t worry about John. Both he and Danielle are in the abstinence club."

* * *
Dr. Goldfine: "Bree, you know, it’s not uncommon for people experiencing sexual repression to distance themselves from the act."
Bree: "Is that how you see me? As some sort of prude who just lays there like a cold fish? I love sex."
Dr. Goldfine: "All right."
Bree: "I love everything about it. The sensations, the smells. I especially love the feel of a man. All that muscle and sinew pressed against my body. And then, when you add friction. Mmm ... The tactile sensation of running my tongue over a man’s nipple ever so gently. And then there’s the act itself - two bodies becoming one in that final eruption of pleasure. To be honest, the only thing I don’t like about sex is the scrotum. I mean, obviously it has its practical applications, but I’m just not a fan."
Waiter: "Can I get you something?"
Dr. Goldfine: "Uh, just the check, please."
Waiter: "Sir, you haven’t ordered yet."
Dr. Goldfine: "Oh.

I dream

Someday we'll go round the world
I know you like travelling
I'll make the trip worthwhile

I dream

Someday you'll accept me
Pure bliss and happiness
I'll make the journey exciting

I believe in the future
I don't wanna be alone again
Now that I've known you

Until that day arrives
I'll be here where I've always been
I'm gonna be your friend
I'm gonna live to be your man

Lisa Ono

Why don´t we take a little piece of summer sky
Hang it on a tree?
For that´s the way to start to make a pretty world
For you and for me

And for the sun we´ll find a lemon bright balloon
You can hold the string
Oh can´t you see this little world of ours will be
The prettiest things?

We can gather rain enough from a stream
To hold our happy faces
If you want a breeze
I´ll blow you a kiss or two

Take me in your arms
And our little world will be the place of places
Nothing else to make
But breakfast and love

We´ll hang a little sign that just says
Paradise population two
I know together we can make a pretty world
For me and for you
For you
That´s what I´m longing to do
To do
To make a world with you

To make a world with you

There she is, away again...

Here I am, still in the office... alone.

Nothing to look forward to; work provides a timely distraction...

I wish I have a home, where someone is waiting for me to go back to...

A home where I can relax, and enjoy the company of my loved one...

Don't get me wrong, I love my mum and family but I also need someone romantically linked to my heart...

If I have never tasted this sweetness, I might not have desire such heavenly bliss...
..
But now you've left my heart burning and me yearning for more...

I can never go back to the days of being alone again...

I wish I have something to look forward to every day...

I like the thought that someone in this world is thinking of me, waiting for me to knock off, to come back home...

Just like how I'm thinking of her, how I can't wait to knock off, to go back to her, and our home...

A home, sheltered from the sadness and problems of the outside world...

Our own world...

Just you and me.

Yellow Pages (YPG SP) reported its FY05 earnings yesterday that missed market consensus forecasts by a big shot. It also reported an FY06 sales warning.

What a major disappointment! DBS summed it up best when it said "Yellow Pages' performance is a bitter disappointment. At this point, we recommend investors take profit and invest in other yield stocks that offer higher yields with less risk. SELL"

Yellow Pages plunged 16.3% from closing at $1.78 yesterday to closing at $1.49 today, reaching a low of $1.45.

I always like high yield stocks but this made me realise that high yields have to be alongside with sustainable dividends. Never assume that the company will continue to pay good dividends every year.

On a side note, I failed to get any IPO shares for the Macquarie International Infrastruture Fund (MIIF SP) that's listing tomorrow. What a shame. It should open above $1.10; IPO price being $1. Might get some in the market tomorrow if it don't run up too much...

So make sure you are there when your kids are growing up!

They say the earth has more than six billion people
But why is it, without you by my side, the world seems empty

They say the mind is capable of a million different thoughts
But why is it, every day, I can only think of you

Every minute, every second, you’re constantly on my mind
Even when you are thousands of miles away

Do I know how much I miss you darling
And how much I think of you

If I can just see you in person, with a smile on your lovely face
Nothing else matters anymore

Are you thinking of me as much as I am thinking of you dear
Oh please tell me you will be back soon

How I wish you are by my side now
Instead of two thousand miles away

Oh my darling, I can’t wait to see you again
To hold you, kiss you and never let go

Counting down the days, the hours and the minutes
Oh when will my darling be back

The Business Times, 17 May 2005
By DAVID LIANG

I just moved to Singapore from New York City several months ago. I can't help but notice the stark difference in the investing mentality between investors in the US and their counterparts here in Singapore.

In the US, the most 'popular' investment is stocks. Even after the bursting of the Internet bubble, the percentage of US households that have some exposure to the stock market remains above 50 per cent. Those who cannot afford to put a downpayment for a house are likely to have some types of brokerage accounts.

In Singapore, real estate, particularly the condominium, is the first choice of investment. The stock market is regarded as one giant casino, and a lot of people here have the perception that putting money in the stock market is akin to gambling.

Because of the way most market participants trade stocks and the overwhelming popularity of technical analysis, I am not surprised that the stock market has such a bad reputation.

This makes my job as a fund manager that much tougher - although it is somewhat offset by the fact that I see many opportunities to make money in the Singapore stock market.

Because most market participants here treat buying and selling stocks like gambling, some valuations are completely out of line with the companies' fundamentals. At present, there are a lot of good companies selling at ridiculously cheap prices.

Then there is the fact that residential property investments offer extremely low returns. This is consistent with the law of supply and demand: because so much investors' money goes into real estate, property prices are sky-high, driving down rental yields.

The opposite occurs in the stock market. Lack of investors' enthusiasm keeps prices low - which means earnings yield combined with dividend yield from stocks are much more attractive than rental yield from properties.

Let's look at one example: a three-bedroom unit of about 1,100 sq ft on Killiney Road less than 10 minutes' walk from the Somerset MRT station.

According to the Urban Redevelopment Authority website, which compiles past property transactions, the fair market price for the condo should approximate $800,000.

Let's assume you buy the property by putting down 20 per cent ($160,000) and borrowing 80 per cent ($640,000) for 30 years.

The bank may charge you lower interest rates in the first two years of the loan. But after year 3 and beyond, the interest is likely to climb to over 3 per cent.

Yield vs inflation

The market rental price for similar apartments in the area is less than $2,000/month, but let's say you manage to get a tenant who does not mind paying $2,100/month - just slightly below your asking price of $2,200 (according to late March/ early April 2005 rental property listings).

After paying the building maintenance fee of $200/month, you are left with $1,900/month to meet the monthly payment to the bank. At a 3 per cent interest rate, your monthly payment to the bank comes to about $2,700/month, which means you have $800/month or $9,600/year negative cashflow from this property.

Let's say you do not mind paying the principal portion of the payment from your own pocket as long as the rental income covers the interest. Over the 30-year life of the loan, the interest portion itself averages $1,600/month.

After deducting $200/month maintenance and $1,600/month average interest, your profit is $300/month or $3,600/year. Because you paid down $160,000, this means that you make about 2.25 per cent annual return on investment on your rental property.

A 2.25 per cent rental yield barely beats inflation which, according to the Singapore Department of Statistics, stood at 1.75 per cent in 2004. In fact, there are even some bank CDs that offer annual interest rates higher than 2.25 per cent.

You may think you can profit more if the price of property goes up. Well, think again. So far we have been ignoring the fact that if you had bought the condo directly from the developer in the late 1990s, it would have cost you $1.25 million instead of $800,000 today.

Whoever bought the condo then would have lost $425,000 in equity by now. Also, just drive along River Valley Road, which is adjacent to Killiney Road, and count how many new residential projects are currently being built. With so many new units entering the market in the next few years, how can prices go up?

The laws of supply and demand suggest it is highly unlikely.

The situation is exacerbated by the fact that many property owners currently have negative equity on their property investments. In other words, the proceeds that they stand to collect by selling out are less than the loan balance they owe to the banks.

This structural problem keeps prices artificially high because even the most desperate property investors cannot afford to sell out, unless they compensate the banks for the balance.

Stock yields

What about stocks - can they provide investors with more than a paltry 2.25 per cent return? Yes, very likely. First of all, just from dividend alone, there are a lot of stocks that offer yields higher than 2.25 per cent.

In addition, stocks are selling at relatively cheaper valuations compared to residential properties. According to Bloomberg, stocks in the Straits Times Index traded between 11x and 14.5x P/E multiples in the past 12 months. This 11x to 14.5x P/E translates into between 7 per cent and 9 per cent earnings yield.

Outside the STI, there are many stocks that are selling at even lower P/E multiples, which means even higher earnings yields (P/E multiples are inversely related to earnings yields).

There are even profitable companies whose stocks are selling very close to their net cash per share. Therefore, just from the dividend alone, stocks can be a more profitable investment vehicle than property.

If total earnings yields are taken into consideration in addition to dividend yields, investing in stocks certainly provides a better return than investing in residential properties.

It is true that stocks can be extremely volatile. Just look at what happened to US equities in April. They declined sharply although the outlook for profit growth has actually improved. Stock prices fluctuate up and down every day, every hour, and every minute.

The underlying business fundamentals, however, do not change that quickly. Stock prices are influenced by human emotions. The underlying business is much more stable, and in the long run, stock prices do eventually reflect underlying business fundamentals.

Another thing that you have to consider is buying at reasonable prices. Of course, this is true of all types of investment assets, not just stocks.

A lot of people lost money after the Internet bubble because they bought when valuations were highly unreasonable.

At present, however, stocks are selling at much more reasonable levels compared to residential properties.

The point is that if you buy stocks of companies whose underlying businesses are in good shape and growing, if you buy them at reasonable valuations and if you ignore short-term gyrations, you would stand a very good chance of making good returns on your investment.

David Liang is a fund manager for a private investment partnership

Older women, younger men! The love that dare not speak its name

by Leanna James

Do we dare date -- or better yet marry -- a younger man? You bet! Writer Leanna James shares her experience.

I couldn't resist the headline: "Older Women, Younger Men: This Year's Hottest Trend!" I plucked the magazine from the stand near the checkout counter and flipped to the article. The photo inside featured a stylish woman of about 35 in a cherry-red power suit clasping hands across a restaurant table with her dinner date. He was a clean-cut, clearly muscular young man wearing a snug white shirt and a satisfied-looking smile. A half-finished bottle of wine and a slender vase holding a tropical flower rested on the tablecloth, still-life fashion, between the glowing pair.

There was nothing else in the photograph. No other diners sneaking glances, no waiters raising eyebrows, no former spouses or lovers storming into the restaurant to stage a jealous scene. A snapshot of my own life three years ago would have included all the above in the first take. And that would have left 23 more exposures on the roll, each documenting another reaction, another consequence, another sea change flowing from the choice I made.

I skimmed the article, looking for any parallels between the women I was reading about and me. "Fabulous sex!" the first woman, "Geri," announced. I could almost hear her contented purr. "Barbara," a 30-ish accountant who had dated a 22-year-old lifeguard, confessed: "My affair with Steve worked wonders for my self-esteem!" "Revitalized my life!" a therapist called "Karina" exclaimed, who went on to describe scuba-diving and motorcycle adventures with her 20-something sugar. All this checked out with my own experience -- the sexy parts especially -- but it was still too tame for me.

Wait a minute: tame? Harleys, coral reefs, Olympian sex-a-thons? How much further can you go? I'll tell you how much: I broke a taboo none of these women spoke about. None of them mentioned, God forbid, love. None talked about a future. And none were so extravagant, so wild, so foolish as to marry the guy … and then have a baby with him. I did.

The roar of social approval dies down awfully quickly when your "wild side" turns into a wedding -- and less than a year later, a brightly painted nursery. I was supposed to have had my fun and moved on. What woman in her right mind would choose a man not quite old enough to rent a car to be the father of her child? Or, as my best friend put it: "How can you be serious about a guy who was just learning the alphabet when you started college?"

When I met D, I was 36 years old; he was 24. I had been married once before; he had lived with a girlfriend for two years after college. Our experiences were not comparable. Nothing in our backgrounds suggested our paths would ever cross, much less merge: D grew up in the South Bronx, where life unfolded (and sometimes exploded) on the streets, the stoops and the asphalt lots. I grew up in a Southern California suburb, where life was contained within beige-colored walls and plushly upholstered cars, and walking anywhere was considered as uncivilized as cleaning your teeth with a twig.

D won scholarships to Ivy League schools, studied economics and went to parties with the sons of senators. I went to a liberal women's college where I studied feminist literary theory and performance. At our parties, people drank wine and debated sexual symbolism in Victorian women's poetry. When we met, he was working at a bank and I was working on a novel. He knew how old I was (he looked up my statistics in the bank's database); I thought he was older, or at least old enough to have a cup of coffee with. When he told me, I almost spilled my latte in his lap. "Twenty-four! But … you're a baby!" I thought.

He was, by definition, emotionally immature, reckless, unwise about women. How could he be otherwise? He probably thought dating meant splitting a pizza and rolling around on the couch, and kept nothing but beer and mustard in his fridge. I pictured evenings watching The Simpsons reruns with his roommates and crossed his name briskly off my list.

But here's where life played a trick on me. D didn't buy my version of things, wouldn't let me put him in a box labeled "kid." He persisted, and slowly a person emerged, a person who loves Mozart and James Brown, Shakespeare and Toni Morrison, politics, history, long walks in the woods. He likes smart conversation with smart women, and thinks a woman without character and life experience is boring. He also likes kids -- and told me, much later, that he'd started to dream about our family on our third date.

This younger guy turned out to have more depth and emotional maturity than any of the men I'd fallen for before, most of them boys of around 40 or so. Grown-up boys who could charm birds out of trees but would never change a diaper, who could dance and dazzle but never hang in there for the laundry, the bills, the baby throwing up in the middle of the night. When our daughter cries, D is often there before me. He changes her diapers and sings to her, brings me coffee in bed, rubs my feet at night when I come home from teaching. He tucks love letters under my breakfast plate and tells me I'm beautiful. And he has the energy to play chase and horsy and piggy-back with our daughter for hours on end -- and still have plenty left over after she goes to bed.

When our daughter wakes up in the morning, we know she is waking to a world of both love and pride: not only between a pink mommy and a brown daddy (which we are and proud to be so), but between an older mother and a younger father who are willing to replace social convention with the powerful, risky conviction of their hearts. Not everyone would agree this is the best model for a child. There are safer choices, certainly. But we would rather our daughter learn to choose courage over conformity, to honor what is unique about herself and let that be her guide when the day comes when she, too, must navigate the terrain of adult love and longing.

And although it's early still, the signs show that her spirit is as dauntless and bold as we could wish for: a princess, yes, but also a tiny female warrior-in-the-making. Sound perfect? Sorry if I misled you -- our marriage isn't a fountain of joy 24 hours a day (and if it were, no one could stand hearing about it). Like every other married couple on Earth, my husband and I have our problems. But they are not the problems you might expect. It is not that I can talk about feelings and he can't. He can, actually, very well. And it's not that I'm settled down and he's still wild. I'm the one who wants to vacation in Morocco; he'd rather rent a log cabin in Maine.

Our problems, unlike our relationship, are not unique at all. When we argue, sad to say, we become the most boring, average couple in America: "Are you going to let her play with that?" "What do you mean you left the diaper bag at home?" "You sure you're not in the mood?"

I wish sometimes I could tell staring strangers what our relationship is. I'd like to tell the teacher at a preschool fundraiser who continued to believe, even after I corrected her politely, that D was one of the young caterers, and kept handing him her glass. I'd like to inform the mother at the toddler playground who announced to my husband, as he came in through the gate on his way to join us at the swings, that only parents were allowed. She continued to eye us both suspiciously even after I planted a kiss on his cheek and our daughter yelled, "Daddy!" and jumped into his lap.

I'd like to write to the author of a study on evolutionary psychology, who "proved" that husbands and fathers (not wives and mothers, apparently) are fettered by family and need freedom outside it. This means, naturally, having access to new, ever-younger sexual partners. I'd ask him: what about my husband and me? I can imagine the writer's response. "He may adore you now, but when your hair goes gray, he'll be whistling a different (evolutionary) tune!"

Is this true? Will my younger, handsome husband want me in 10 years? Twenty? Will he still take off my T-shirt with eagerness, or will he peck my cheek and roll over to dream of nymphets? I gave serious thought to this before we married. It hurt to succumb to that fluttering doubt, but then our culture has always equated a woman's aging with high tragedy. The fall of the Roman empire is nothing compared with the fall of a female face. How can I fight against hundreds of years of history, all telling the same story?

I look at my face in the bathroom mirror and note the changes, the laugh lines around my eyes (at least I've laughed them there), the strand of gray that my daughter, giggling, pulled at last night while playing with my hair. My husband comes up behind me, encircles my waist with his arms, and whispers in my ear, "You're beautiful. You're beautiful now and you'll be beautiful in 50 years." I look in the mirror again, look at the wisdom and depth that is beginning to show in my face, and think, "Why not?"

So maybe there's another story. Maybe we haven't been told the whole story, or we're simply inventing a new one. There are a few of us out there: Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins come to mind (I couldn't ask for better role models). And from history, more inspiration: the poets Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning, who eloped to Italy when the bride was 40 and the groom 33, and whose happy marriage lasted the rest of her life.

"The road behind us, literature tells us, is strewn with the forms of the female abandoned."

Ah, but poets? Actresses? Those are the romantics, the exceptions. What about all the women who've been left? The road behind us, literature tells us, is strewn with the forms of the female abandoned. The majestic Léa, in Colette's celebrated novel Chéri, stands bravely aside as the love of her life marries a girl of 19, for society's sake. Sasha, in Jean Rhys' famous Good Morning, Midnight, ends up in her 40s abandoned in a shabby hotel room with only a bottle of wine for company. This raises the inevitable question: when I start to look older, will my husband hit the road? Will I be left to raise my child alone? That's the real fear in the collective unconscious of women my age. And the answer?

Truthfully, I believe my husband has as much reason to stay with me as I do with him. We're both lucky in this relationship (although he calls himself the lucky one). And if our luck changes, well, if I lived my life in anticipation of all the rotten things that might happen, I'd move into the hall closet and never come out. Men leave women all the time, and women leave men, for as many reasons as there are human beings. Or … they don't leave. They love one another and keep loving through all the challenges this existence offers, including the demands of children, the struggles over money and even, yes, the aging of the body.

I believe my husband and I will stay together. But marriage and children are still no guarantee. Neither for us -- nor frankly for anyone else, no matter how encircled by tradition. Divorce statistics are only too clear on this point. And yet our marriage, here on the fringes of what security is supposed to look like, feels dynamic and alive. We don't have society's approval, so we make our own.

Our anniversary is approaching soon. We plan to celebrate at our favorite Italian restaurant. Look for us there. Like the woman in the magazine photo, I'll be wearing a cherry-red dress -- although it may have milk stains from my daughter's bottle earlier that evening. I'll be holding hands under the table with a striking young man, but one who wears, as I do, a gold wedding band.

Look closely. Memorize the details. Candlelight flickers over my husband's face, illuminating his dark eyes and the faint shadows beneath them, shadows from a long work week and a need for sleep -- our daughter's been climbing out of her crib at night. I stroke the inside of his wrist and he smiles, a smile that has the same effect on me now as it did the first time I saw it, behind a paper-cluttered desk at a downtown bank. "D," I begin, wanting to tell him, but he speaks first.

"To us." He raises a glass of wine. "Happy anniversary." He reaches across the table and brushes my cheek softly as a waiter hovers discreetly in the background. "Here's to 50 years more."

"Fifty at least."

No, we're not the power suit and her romance-novel date. When we leave, we'll be going home to a babysitter and a messy flat, not a sexy hotel. But I doubt we're any less happy than that air-brushed magazine couple. Our happiness is something you can touch and hold. Something you can look at and know: these are not models. These are human beings, one older, one younger. In the end, what does it matter which is which?

I like the feeling when I wait for you
Like a flower waiting patiently for spring

The anticipation…
The expectation…
The avalanche of joy within me

Do you like the feeling when I wait for you?
The knowledge that someone is thinking of you
And missing you
Waiting for you
Just you

Every moment sure feels like eternity without you
But my heart knows that you will be here
No matter how long it takes
No matter where you are

I’ve waited my whole life just for you
And my heart knows that I will see you soon
No matter how long it takes
No matter where you are

I like the feeling when I wait for you
Do you know how much I like to wait for you?

Out of the blue will pop your face
Followed by your smile and my silly grin
My spring has arrived
Oh what glorious spring!

Alas, I thought I knew so much
Of love, and yet I know so little!
For I cannot stop myself loving her
From whom I shall never have joy.
My whole heart, and all of me from myself
She has taken, and her own self,
and all the world,
For when she took herself from me,
she left me nothing
But desire and a yearning heart.

- Bernard de Ventadour -

Had my lunch today at Tatsu Sushi in CHIJMES. It was free =) The next few paragraphs are going to make me look like a mountain turtle but I don't care.

This is the first Japanese restaurant I went to that requires me to take off my shoes. Wow, like a real Japanese restaurant I see in TV. Well, it's not exactly like those you see on TV that you must sit cross-legged or (even worse) kneel on your knees; this one, you can choose to sit like that or you can still put your legs down into the hole under the table.

I ate a lot. I had a Take Bento, soft shell crab handroll and end with a black sesame ice cream. Wow, the chawanmushi is nice man! At first I had my reservations because sprinkled over the chawanmushi were lots of very small and tiny mushrooms but they turned out to be so delicious! Both the chawanmushi and the mushrooms! The soft shell crab handroll is really nice too... And it's my first time eating black sesame ice cream. That rocks too!

To summarise, I must say that the food at Tatsu Sushi is really quality man... And the service is also quite impeccable. I know I will be back there again... =)

Note of caution though, just lunch alone will set you back by $30-50 per head... Dinner will be much more expensive...

GIC said to be an investor in loss-making fund
By Siow Li Sen, 6th May 2005, Business Times

(SINGAPORE) The Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) is said to be an investor in Aman Capital Management - a hedge fund that has lost tens of millions of dollars through trading derivatives.

'I think the government is very angry with them,' a hedge fund manager said yesterday. But a GIC spokeswoman declined to comment.

Sources say Aman Capital - one of the biggest home-grown players - lost 18-22 per cent of its US$250 million fund through trading derivatives in April.

Aman Capital has since gone into cash only and is ready to deal with investor requests for redemption, one source said.

It is not unusual for a hedge fund to close and return money to investors when it does not perform.

When Aman Capital was set up in late November - by partners Mayur Ghelani, Rahul Kumar and Michael Syn - it quickly became the poster child for Singapore's rapidly-growing hedge fund industry.

Mr Ghelani, a former foreign exchange and credit specialist with Salomon Brothers and UBS in New York, declined to comment when contacted by BT yesterday.

Mr Syn is a former derivatives specialist at UBS.

UBS is Aman Capital's prime broker - and some have questioned its role in setting limits on trading.

A UBS spokesman said yesterday: 'As prime broker to Aman Capital Global Fund, UBS is working closely with its client to execute its instructions consistent with the Fund's internal requirements. It should be noted that UBS had no discretion over the investment decisions of the fund. Nor was UBS mandated to provide any risk oversight functions to the fund.'

There is talk that investors are thinking of legal action, though it is not clear if they are after the principals of the hedge fund or the administrator, said to be London-based Globe Op. As administrator, Globe Op basically would have kept records for the fund and communicated regularly with investors, including keeping them up to date on the fund's performance.

It is not clear if Globe Op also provided risk services for Aman Capital.

When Aman Capital was marketing its fund, it is said to have highlighted its state-of-the-art risk management controls.

A report in Britain's Financial Times on Wednesday said the company had confirmed the departure of Mr Syn.

Globe Op is said to have launched an independent review, which is expected to complete soon.

Although people that BT spoke to said they were surprised to hear of Aman's losses, they noted that hedge funds are for sophisticated investors who understand the risks.

As an Exempt Fund Manager (EFM), Aman is neither licensed nor regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

An EFM cannot have more than 30 qualified investors - defined as individuals with net assets of $5 million or corporations with net assets of at least net assets of $10 million.

The first quarter of 2005 was tough for hedge funds - especially those involved in derivatives trading - because of uncertainties in the market.

The ABN AMRO Eurekahedge Asian Hedge Fund index was minus 0.32 per cent in April and only 1.9 per cent up year to date.

'We need to be mature about this industry, that investors know what they're going in for and understand the risks,' said DBS Bank's head of treasury Wong Ban Suan.

'Investors should know they can lose everything. That's why it's meant for sophisticated investors.'

Aman Capital employed a global macro strategy - which basically means trying to capture trends in interest rates and global currencies - but with an Asian focus.

A Eurekahedge study found that Singapore was the top choice of hedge fund managers in Asia last year.

In all there were 19 new fund launches here last year, beating centres like Hong Kong and Australia, which each saw 13 fund launches.

Hong Kong, however, continues to be ahead of Singapore in total assets under management. According to a Eurekahedge paper on trends among Asian hedge funds, the Chinese city weighed in at US$9.3 billion at end-2004, against Singapore's US$2.8 billion.

The average fund size in Hong Kong was also heftier at US$114 million, versus Singapore's US$46 million.

When Genius Failed
The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management
by Roger Lowenstein

Description
John Meriwether, a famously successful Wall Street trader, spent the 1980s as a partner at Salomon Brothers, establishing the best - and the brainiest - bond arbitrage group in the world. A mysterious and shy midwesterner, he knitted together a group of Ph.D.-certified arbitrageurs who rewarded him with filial devotion and fabulous profits.

Then, in 1991, in the wake of a scandal involving one of his traders, Meriwether abruptly resigned. For two years, his fiercely loyal team - convinced that the chief had been unfairly victimized - plotted their boss's return. Then, in 1993, Meriwether made a historic offer. He gathered together his former disciples and a handful of supereconomists from academia and proposed that they become partners in a new hedge fund different from any Wall Street had ever seen. And so Long-Term Capital Management was born.

In a decade that had seen the longest and most rewarding bull market in history, hedge funds were the ne plus ultra of investments: discreet, private clubs limited to those rich enough to pony up millions. They promised that the investors' money would be placed in a variety of trades simultaneously - a "hedging" strategy designed to minimize the possibility of loss.

At Long-Term, Meriwether & Co. truly believed that their finely tuned computer models had tamed the genie of risk, and would allow them to bet on the future with near mathematical certainty. And thanks to their cast which included a pair of future Nobel Prize winners investors believed them.

From the moment Long-Term opened their offices in posh Greenwich, Connecticut, miles from the pandemonium of Wall Street, it was clear that this would be a hedge fund apart from all others. Though they viewed the big Wall Street investment banks with disdain, so great was Long-Term's aura that these very banks lined up to provide the firm with financing, and on the very sweetest of terms.

So self-certain were Long-Term's traders that they borrowed with little concern about the leverage. At first, Long-Term's models stayed on script, and this new gold standard in hedge funds boasted such incredible returns that private investors and even central banks clamored to invest more money. It seemed the geniuses in Greenwich couldn't lose.

Four years later, when a default in Russia set off a global storm that Long-Term's models hadn't anticipated, its supposedly safe portfolios imploded. In five weeks, the professors went from mega-rich geniuses to discredited failures. With the firm about to go under, its staggering $100 billion balance sheet threatened to drag down markets around the world. At the eleventh hour, fearing that the financial system of the world was in peril, the Federal Reserve Bank hastily summoned Wall Street's leading banks to underwrite a bailout.

Roger Lowenstein, the bestselling author of Buffett, captures Long-Term's roller-coaster ride in gripping detail. Drawing on confidential internal memos and interviews with dozens of key players, Lowenstein crafts a story that reads like a first-rate thriller from beginning to end. He explains not just how the fund made and lost its money, but what it was about the personalities of Long-Term's partners, the arrogance of their mathematical certainties, and the late-nineties culture of Wall Street that made it all possible.

When Genius Failed is the cautionary financial tale of our time, the gripping saga of what happened when an elite group of investors believed they could actually deconstruct risk and use virtually limitless leverage to create limitless wealth. In Roger Lowenstein's hands, it is a brilliant tale peppered with fast money, vivid characters, and high drama.

SINGAPORE (XFN-ASIA) - Aman Capital Management, a 242 mln usd hedge fund based in Singapore, may have incurred over 43 mln usd in trading losses last month, the Financial Times reported, citing unnamed sources.

Aman Capital told the newspaper it had suffered trading losses but did not disclose the extent of losses.

A company official declined to comment on the likely cause as the fund's administrators have already launched an independent review of the matter, according to the report.

Industry experts told the newspaper the fund may have lost more than 43 mln usd, or 18 pct of its assets, in April by investing in derivatives based on the Korea Composite Stock Price Index.

Following the losses, Michael Syn, a former derivatives specialist at UBS, the Swiss banking group, has resigned from Aman Capital, the FT said.

Notwithstanding the losses, the company official said: "All investors have rights of redemption and the fund is in a position to deal with such requests. The fund's strategy was to reduce risk to ensure that commitment to investors will be met."

In a statement, Aman Capital said: "The risk management regime is being reviewed and we are looking into certain controls and processes to prevent [a] reoccurrence."

"Both the investment manager and the board of the fund remain in close touch with all investors."

The Aman Capital Global fund, which was launched in November 2003, invests in currencies, commodities, equities and derivatives.

It is managed by a team led by Mayur Ghelani, a former foreign exchange and credit specialist at Salomon Brothers and UBS in New York.

This is going to put more emphasis on risk management, from both investors as well as regulators. Oh yeah, my job will gain more recognition... as well as being put under the spotlight.

The Korea Composite Stock Price Index dropped 5.63% in the month of April and its annual volatility is approximately 18% (according to Bloomberg) which translates into a monthly volatility of 5.2%. Hence, a drop of 5.63% isn't exactly too out of the blue. A simple risk management system would be able to pick up this huge risk exposure easily.

My risk management program would be able to pick up this huge risk immediately :D The exposure must be damn big to be able to lose US$43m. However, I'm sure the people at Aman Capital are able to detect the risk. And they knew the risk they are taking. The problem is there's no one to say "STOP" when the risk limits are exceeded.

Well, genius can fail sometimes too.

Haa, found this from ivillage.com...

One of the great fine distinctions of all times. Here goes...

"In love" is that giddy, crazy, hormone-fueled state that makes otherwise sane people do insane things -- like emptying their bank accounts to give to a brand-new beau present, being talked into having a quickie in the office bathroom with a faulty lock during a company party, and tossing off the words "I'm in love" when what you mean is, "I'm crazy in lust."

Loving someone is that rational though joyous state you arrive at when you've been with someone for a while, had countless discussions together about spiritual philosophies and life goals, know not just their erogenous zones but favorite ice cream flavor, have had nights where you'd rather just cuddle, and no longer consider them perfect (far from it!), but know that that's okay.

"In love" can develop into love, or it can fizzle into, "What the @#$@$ was I thinking?"

Only time will tell.

Pretty funny, but I like the part about no longer considering your loved one as perfect (or even far from it!) but know that that's okay. You still love him/her anyway... :)

I've had 3 consecutive days of rotting at home. No going out, no exercise, no work done, nothing productive at all.

To my surprise, I actually don't like it very much. I'm all ready to go back to the office, to work. Gone are the days when I could wake up at 2pm in the afternoon and feeling all shiok. Guess I'm too sick of this lifestyle, this lifeless lifestyle of mine.

Something is not feeling right again.

I'm not feeling happy.

Perhaps I've been too much of a fool.

Perhaps ...

I need to clear my mind ... relook at my life again ...

A new perspective ...

Staying at home too much makes you think too much ...

Something is just not right ...

Not right ... not right ...

To You,

Maybe I'm to you, just a friend, an acquaintance, a brief passenger in your life.

But just for this moment, please do me a favour. Forget about everything and see me...

as a guy...

who sees you...

as more than a friend.

It's a tough decision really to confess to you because telling you will change everything about us. A good friend may not be someone you love romantically and confessing to you would force you to reject me, and we will never be comfortable around each other anymore.

But I have to take this selfish decision otherwise my mind will simply explode.

And as you're reading this, I hope you know who you're and maybe, just maybe, you'll fall for me just as I've fallen for you.

Whenever I tell you how beautiful you're or how lucky your future husband will be, you'll brush it off saying that I'm being silly.

You believe you're only a daisy but you're my rose. If other people see you as a daisy, that's because they look at you with their eyes, not with their heart.

And whenever you pine for that someone to love you and hug you, I wish you had considered me.

And when you laugh, nothing else matters anymore.

If I can just see your smile everyday, how lucky is that?

I never expected to fall in love with you, but I did.

Please let me know if you like me too. I know you're reading this.

With love,
Me

The above letter is not really written for anyone. Just a thought that popped into my mind on a lazy and boring Saturday night.

So for those female friends whom I know and read this, please don't freak out.

I'm sure there'll be times in our lives when we're cursed with a friend whom we like romantically.

You enjoy the company of this friend and would like to take it a step further. But you're scared. Scared that you will rock the friendship boat. Scared that you can't even be friends anymore if you confess your feelings.

You try to drop subtle hints but she/he ignored them and you take it as a sign that she/he is not interested in you.

Some days, she/he appears to be very warm and nice towards you. Some days, she/he is cold and treats you like a stranger.

You're confused. And your head and heart are moving in different directions, tearing you apart. Every second after you sent her/him an sms seems like an eternity. You wonder if she/he is ignoring you. Your mind starts playing games with you. She/he replied. You immediately check your handphone. She/he replied a short "ok". Your heart is crushed.

You decide it's safer and better not to reveal your feelings to her. Perhaps time will kindly wash away your feelings. Perhaps you're being silly and it's just a case of temporary infatuation.

You move on in your life, but there's always the lingering question of what if you had...

I thought I better write down my version of the story before Kris remembers to write in her blog and attempts to paint me as an idiot.

Well, me and Kris were walking past this dessert shop along Liang Seah street (which's next to my office) when she exclaimed that she wanted to eat "炖蛋". So after eating hokkien prawn mee (so-called best food in Singapore) for dinner, we proceeded to the dessert shop for "炖蛋".

I don't know what's "炖蛋" so I asked Kris what is it. She told me it's egg with milk. I thought that sounds yummy so we ordered one 鲜奶炖蛋 to share, since we're both quite full after the main dinner. When it arrived, I opened the lid and said hey, it looks like chawamushi... Kris gave me this "ar-ber-then" look with raised brows and asked me what I thought it was originally.

I told her I thought it's more like a hard boiled egg floating around in a bowl of milk, then she bursted out laughing in uncontrollable fits that I almost called IMH. I told her that geniuses like me tend to think out of the box but she couldn't understand.

Later on, when we met up with Angel for a show, Kris asked Angel what she thought a "炖蛋" would be. Angel said something like chawamushi, which immediately gave an evil smug look to Kris' face. I tried to explain that 99% of the people would guess something like chawamushi because they are normal and typical. Geniuses like me have creative minds and we think out of the box but well, they don't understand.

But that's alright.

Afterall, they are mere mortals who wouldn't understand the anguish and discrimination a genius like me face in a mainstream society.

陈小春

曲：陈国华 | 词：李安修 | 编：包小松

求求求 求爱 Shopping Mall
我们有各式各样温柔
不用最低消费 随你挑选 服务世界一流

求求求 求爱 Shopping Mall
哪怕你是个爱情孤儿
只要你有 Timing 又有Money
爱情属于你的

求来求 求爱 Shopping Mall
如果你总是孤单寂寞
请你不要伤悲 不要泪流 我会为你打折

求求求 求爱 Shopping Mall
每个人都在寻找快乐
只要你有真情 我有真意 就是完美组合

给我爱情爱情 给我爱情爱情 一点就足够
给我 Money Money 给我 Money Money
随便你喜欢什么

给我爱情爱情 给我爱情爱情 具余都别说
给我 Money Money 给我 Money Money
一个人没有爱又算什么

一个人没有爱 没有情 没有笑
没有泪 没有钱 又算什么

Feeling down at work.

Don't get me wrong though. My job's still fantastic. I still like what I'm doing. My colleagues (most of them) are still nice. And I get to have so much freedom and say in my work.

But... I'm still demoralised. My classmate who is going to graduate soon got a offer from a foreign bank which is paying 32% higher than what I'm getting now. And she's two years younger than me. And she took 4 years to complete her honours while I took 3.5 years. And she didn't get 1st class honours while I did.

You can understand?

No doubt there can never be an end if you like to compare, and comparing can make you so miserable sometimes. People say don't compare, but hey, only by comparing can you improve yourself. That's how I strive to obtain my 1st class honours.

The lure of the foreign banks, with their fat paychecks and branded name vs staying put in a locally incorporated hedge fund, with the remote possibility of becoming a portfolio manager in the future.

I really don't like to work in a foreign bank. If I go there, I will be starting off at the most junior level, doing stuff that don't really matter. There will definitely be more red tape and bureaucracy. You work hard and don't see daylight. The only attraction is the high pay and the branded name.

I think I will need to talk to my boss about my growth and prospects in the fund. Will he be expecting me to stay on for long? Will he be expecting me to focus on risk management or will I have a chance to make it as a portfolio manager in the future?

If I'm expected to stay on in the risk management side, then I guess I will be better off doing risk management in a foreign bank. If I have to stay in a dead-pan job, then at least give me a higher pay.

If I have a chance to make it as a portfolio manager, then I will stay on. But I will request for higher pay, perhaps not matching those of foreign banks but at least comparable to my peers over there.

I guess I will apply to foreign banks too, at the last quarter of the year. Curious to find out if I can succeed in my application and as well to check out my market worth and enhance my bargaining power.

In the meantime, I just have to dig in, take one day at a time, and make myself more valuable to the fund. Of course, I will do well to remember that no one, absolutely no one, is indispensible...

Caught my first film of the Singapore International Film Festival '05 with Kris and Angel...


Pin Boy / Parapalos
Director: Ana Poliak
Country: Argentina
Duration: 93min
Year: 2004
Rating: M18

Story (on the SIFF website):
Adrian (Adrian Suarez) works as a pin-setter in one of Buenos Aires’ fading bowling alleys, daily darting the hurtling bowling balls and racing against time to set the pins in time for the customer’s next round. It’s a fast fading occupation as the age of automation begins to take over. Despite this, Adrian does his job with a fastidious dedication that lovingly unravels the idiosyncrasies of daily working life, listens to the stories of his co-workers, particular the bum and wanderer Nippur and then returns home to the tiny cramped flat he shares with his cousin Nancy. Poliak pays careful attention to her characters and observes the minute details of their lives in a minimalist and graceful manner.

It actually won the First Prize at the Buenos Aires Film Festival 2004.

I almost fell asleep halfway into the movie. It really wasn't my fault. The movie was too slow moving and the conversation pretty much lacks of depth and direction.

I thought it would be a movie similar to Amelie (just look at the description of the film given by SIFF!) but I was so wrong... When there's no action and special effects, no intelligent conversations and no breath-taking scenery, there's really nothing left in the movie to look forward to.

Probably that's why quite a number of people left before the show ended. And Kris was screaming at me to end her life. Well, how could I bear to, she's my sweetie...

So in the end, the 3 of us left disappointed and begrudged that good money had been washed down the drain...

Kris' take on the film

刘德华

若我是他我一定娶你　可是我啊！
没那么幸福　唯有他才叫你倾心
你爱的他对你冷冰冰　我对你啊！
怜爱又疼惜　唯有我未合你心意

从一开始就情不自禁深深被你吸引
但知道你盼望他与你定情
从今以后你和他已不再是一对情侣
怪他没长好眼睛　如此错过你

若我是他我一定娶你　愿上帝啊！
给我一点好运　唯有你能给我奇迹

It's Saturday night. What the hell am I doing at home?

I guess I'm not used to being at home on a Saturday night...

It used to be good and relaxing, rotting at home but recently I've been going out with my very good darlings, Kris and Angel, during weekends. And I guess Saturday nights have been busy affairs. Well, tonight, they have their own respective hot dates... So, well... here I am.

Home alone.

I guess I can't chain the girls forever huh... Hahaa... Right, girls?

Managed to catch the film Road to El Dorado just now on TV though. Always feels good to catch a whole movie free on TV at home... Although it's kind of bored to watch it alone and laugh alone.

I always say that being alone is definitely not equivalent to being lonely. I always have my brain for company and sometimes my brain can keep me so well entertained. However, there're times where you do feel the need for another human being to accompany you.

Two people. That's all it takes to have a world. I'm not saying one person can't have his own world, but two makes it perfect, in my opinion.

Bubbly. Intellectual. Homely. Understanding. Talkative (to me at least, to others I don't care). Able to cook char png (and preferably more dishes). Cheerful.

I guess the above are characteristics of the girl I'm looking for. If there's anymore I can think of, I will add it in... :p

Is such a girl hard to find? Hmm, I don't know. In such a modern and fast-paced society, everyone (almost) is so busy that they don't have time to stop by in your life. Will just have to wait patiently til a ship is ready to dock permanently in your port. Hmm, sounds funny...

As much as I hate to admit it, I guess I'm actually lonely inside. I need a companion to share my life with but you should never rush such things. If it's meant to be, it will be.

Afterall, as I always said, I believe fate will deal all of us a good hand one day.

张国荣

曲：李迪文 | 词：林夕 | 编：George Leong

这一生 也在进取 这分钟
却挂念谁 我会说 是唯独你不可失去
好风光 似幻似虚 谁明人生乐趣
我会说 为情为爱 仍然是对

谁比你重要 成功了败了也完全无重要
谁比你重要 狂风与暴雨都因你燃烧 一追再追

只想追赶生命里一分一秒 原来多么可笑
你是真正目标 一追再追
追踪一些生活最基本需要 原来早不缺少
HA...... 有了你 即使平凡却最重要

好光阴 纵没太多 一分钟又如何
会与你 共同渡过 都不枉过
疯恋多 错误更多 如能从新做过
我会说 愿能为你 提前做错

谁比你重要 成功了败了也完全无重要
谁比你重要 狂风与暴雨都因你燃烧 一追再追

只想追赶生命里一分一秒 原来多么可笑
你是真正目标 一追再追
追踪一些生活最基本需要 原来早不缺少
HA...... 只得你 会叫我彷彿人群里最重要

一追再追

只想追赶生命里一分一秒 原来多么可笑
你是真正目标 一追再追
追踪一些生活最基本需要 原来早不缺少
HA...... 只得你 会叫我彷彿人群里最重要
有了你 即使沉睡 也在笑

Water-inspired stuff! I love the sea! Weeeee!!!!!!


Pine Cone Hill
Edleweiss & Monty Fuschia chair
$1,766 at PineConeHill.com







Crate and Barrel
Audrey dinnerware
$31.95 to $126.95 at CrateandBarrel.com






Company C
Yukata poppy/aqua bedding
$55 to $395 at CompanyC.com







Hable Construction
pillows
$95 to $140 at HableConstruction.com

Springtime delights!


Kate Spade
Litchfield Lea collection
$80 to $331 at KateSpade.com






Helene Verin for Michaelian Home
handmade pillows
$120 at MichaelianHomeRetail.com







Pier 1 imports
grassy print vases
$12 to $ 16 at Pier1.com







Indomata
eco-friendly home furnishings
Sofas starts at $2,200 at Indomata.com

MICHELLE Tan thought it was an April Fool's joke when she was informed that she had won a Peugeot 206 cc in the Burger King Great Meal Deal Lucky Draw.

The 26-year-old teacher said: "I submitted two entries and didn't expect to win. I still can't believe it's true."

About 800,000 entries were received in the lucky draw, which was open to customers who bought a meal at Burger King.

Michelle received the keys to her green Peugeot last Saturday.

- Elisa Yang, TODAY

Alright, this is great... I didn't win it...

More irritating public transport to come...

It's amazing how you learnt new things everyday, be it stupid facts or life-changing discoveries...

Today's new discoveries! I learnt from Gwyn that Canberra is 2 hours ahead of Singapore's time. This came about when I tried to greet her happy 24th birthday at 11pm Singapore time without knowing that it's already 1am over at Canberra. Well, we all learn, don't we?

And, to my greatest embarrassment, I also discovered that Canberra is actually the capital of Australia! Gosh, I always thought it's Sydney... What the... Now my lack of intelligence is exposed!

Canberra is Australian Capital Territory or ACT for short. ACT was a wild bushland less than a hundred years ago. While deciding between Sydney or Melbourne to be the capital, they decided to build the ACT out of nothing for the purpose of creating a neutral location for the government of Australia.

One more interesting note is that Canberra was named after the aboriginal word 'kamberra' which means 'meeting place'.

Very cool.

And I also learnt that never to piss Kris off... and that she can be very bochup when she's irritated...

Oh and Happy 24th Birthday, Gwyn!

Now I know everything there is to know!!! :) I'm a genius!!!

One of the perks of my job. You get to have free meals.

Went to the Tower Club today for a luncheon presentation of a locally listed company.

Located on the 62nd-64th floor of the Republic Plaza, the Tower Club, in my opinion so far, provides the best view you can find in Singapore. You can view the entire Sentosa from there, see the whole western part of Singapore and more. The view of the sea expands til the horizon. It was awesome.

Here's the menu for the day:
1) Dim sum combination
2) Braised shredded duck soup
3) Wok-fried fresh prawns
4) Deep-fried 'live' Soon Hock
5) Fried rice
6) Crispy banana & red bean puff

The dim sum combo, duck soup and fish are superb! Really tasty...

Ok, I know I'm too boliao to copy down the menu...

Floral prints! So pretty!


Isaac Mizrahi for Target
poppy bedding
$9.99 to $99.99 at Target.com






Garnet Hill
slipper chair
$585 at GarnetHill.com








KAS
black calla lilies rug
$499 at KASrugs.com







Judy Ross
hand-embroidered pillow
$180 at JudyRossTextiles.com







I think I'm turning into a sissy!

I think you're starting to develop gay tendencies when you start taking the sides of women.

When you hate those brainless and shallow "man talk".

When you have a soft spot for woman.

When you become emotionally sensitive.

When you hang around women.

But then, I think all men (including me) are bastards.

I can definitely live without a man in my life (hahaaha) but I don't think I can live without a woman!

Therefore, I don't think I'm gay! Yippee!

Nothing would happen... at least not for the next 8.5 minutes.

This is because the light and gravitional force from the sun would take 8.5 mins to reach the Earth even by travelling at the speed of light. For the next 8.5 minutes after the sun suddenly disappears, people on Earth would continue to see the sun in the sky even though there is no longer a sun at that moment.

We wouldn't have notice anything wrong for 8.5 minutes. After 8.5 minutes, daytime would become night time at the blink of an eye, Earth would become much colder than before, and Earth would no longer be orbiting around the sun which is already gone but travel in a straight line tangent to our previous orbit, at the previous orbital speed.

I wonder how long can we survive without heat? How cold will Earth be without the sun? If we are unlucky, Earth might even slam into another planet, assuming we survive til then...

A fart is a combination of gases that travels from a person's stomach to their anus.

When a person swallows too much air or eats food that the human digestive system cannot digest easily, gas becomes trapped inside the stomach and the only way for this excess gas to exit the body is through the anus.

Additional info on farts: The average person farts 16 times a day, mostly in their sleep. Animals fart too, especially elephants. Farts that contain a large amount of methane and hydrogen can be flammable.

陈小春

曲：陈光荣 | 词：包小柏/陈小春/易家扬/小蛙

很无聊整整一天懒的动
望着我竟然是无辜的一条狗
在它眼里很难说出口
跟我一样想找女朋友

说起来心理很痛
感情没成就
其实我还不坏 有点钱 长得不错
为了什么没人看上我
阿诺说 没关系身边还有我

OH～
爱总是让人发疯
为了爱我愿意摇尾又摆头
掏心掏肺 只想有人爱我

OH～
爱总是让人发愁
一条狗 一个人
枯坐淡水河口
大声喊着
我们都要女朋友

幻想着一家四口坐满餐桌
家里头大小事交给我准没错
你的幸福是我的所有
全家快乐是我最要紧的梦

11.12pm

Bored at home, charging my newly purchased iPod, importing songs from the CDs and wondering what to do while waiting for these processes to complete.

No one that I want to talk to is on the MSN.

There's nothing to surf on the net.

And I wonder... and think... and daydream...

Perhaps this is one of the times when you seriously need to look at your current lifestyle and think what is missing and what you need.

I thought I should stay single and free for at least a couple of years, but unwittingly, I think that, down inside me, I'm searching for someone special.

Yes, singlehood is freedom and friends are there to go out with you, watch movies, drink, eat, etc... but in times of need, when I'm feeling down, I really want someone special to be there for me, to console me, to support me, to motivate me.

I think I'm becoming a wuss... sheesh...

Now is monday morning 8.43am, I'm already in my office, staring at another week of work.

Just came back from my Genting trip with my two lovely escorts, I mean travelling companions. When I said "just", I meant I cleared the Singapore customs at 1am, reached home, bathed and slept at 2+am and I'm now in my office at 8.45am. Damn those jams at the 2nd link. I'll never attempt to travel to Malaysia on a long weekend again...

If the purpose of the quick Genting trip is to take a break from work, revitalise and energise myself, I guess it didn't really work. I enjoyed myself at Genting, perhaps enjoyed too much that it makes me feel like not working.

Don't get me wrong though, I like what I do for work. However, work will always be work, it's not really something that comes first to your mind when you think of having fun. C'mon, I'm not really a workaholic as some people might think.

As I was putting my shoes this morning and grumbling about having to work, I was thinking of what motivates me to work. Money, of course, is an important factor but you can't be motivated by money forever. You need something more. Perhaps I need a cheerleader, someone who can cheer me on when I'm down, like now. Someone whom I work to earn money for, to gve her a comfortable lifestyle? Someone whose kiss on my cheek elevates all my troubles away?

Ever since my break-up, I thought singlehood rocks. I like the freedom. To be able to choose whatever you want to do and how, when to do it. Not having to accommodate another person's habits that clash with yours. But I suppose when you're truely in love with the destined one, accommodating habits shouldn't be a problem. Everything is then done out of love. I'm not sure though if that's always a good thing because sometimes, people are blinded by love and do foolish things. As the saying goes, Fools rush in where angels fear to thread. You have to be careful that you don't fall into the same trap.

Do you marry because the "time" is up, or because you think you are no longer young, or because simply it's the thing to do after a long courtship? I don't know. Would you go for a nice but dull guy or would you go for a not-so-nice but fun kind? Do nice guys always finish last? This thought is so sad if true most of the time.

I'm sure the ideal love exists out there but if it didn't happen to you, would you go for someone you love very much but doesn't love you that much back, or someone whom you don't love very much but loves you back a lot?

A friend remarked that she likes herself better when she is single. Perhaps it's the lack of freedom. The restricted self when one has to think not only for herself but also her partner. Having to do thing that go against your wishes at times, so to speak. Sometimes, when you are in a relationship, you strayed away from your true self and you, unknowingly, becomes another person, perhaps a person that your partner wants, but not who you are or want to be. I understand because I was like that too...

If a relationship makes you so miserable to the extent of disliking yourself, then it's probably not the right one. I believe my friend will find her destined one soon as I think she will make a good girlfriend, wife and mother (ok, perhaps that's thinking too far), and this time, I hope, she will like herself even better than now.

Everyone need a motivation, not just to work, but also to live. And the best motivation can only come from your loved one(s).

So where is my motivation???

A lot of people are actually curious about what I did when I was in the army.

I was a boatman.

Then they go "Huh, what's a boatman? Are you in the navy?".

No, I'm not in the navy, I'm in the army.

I drive an assault boat, used for ferrying infantry troops.

Here's how these boats look like...

Now you know what kind of boat I used to drive in the army...

Watched 2 nice movies yesterday, which are Hitch and In Good Company...

I'm beginning to like watching movies, like I used to. And I love romantic comedies. I love feel-good movies. Basically, this means I love watching movies that are unrealistic and faked, some might say.

But I beg to differ. My life is so uneventful and dull that I love to escape into the movies, even if that's just for a couple of hours. I like to indulge in the colourful lives of the characters in the movies, experience their emotions and live moments that will take my breath away.

As Hitch said in Hitch:

Life isn't about each breath you take, it's about the moments that take your breath away

I guess that's why I like to read comics before. I like to and want to escape from my own life to another world, an idealistic world where true love is simple, justice prevails and where people are less complex.

Perhaps that's why I love to daydream too? My daydreaming is not unrealistic; they are my dreams, where I want to go and what I want to be.

"Nothing much happens without a dream. For something really great to happen, it takes a great dream." - Robert Greenleaf

Yes, that's right. I may not know who the hell is Robert Greenleaf but dreams are what make us step out of our shadows and pursue the future, whatever it might hold. Dreams inspire us, and give us zest for life.

I don't want to live my life to a hundred years and find myself doing nothing throughout the journey. I want my life to be like a movie. A feel-good romantic comedy. I want to experience moments that can take my breath away and I don't mean taking thrill-rides literally. I want to feel ALIVE!

I amaze myself that beneath this boring and dull exterior of mine lies a warm and life-loving soul. Haha...

I don't really know what to write to get my new blog kicking... but I shall try to the best as I can to reflect my most inner thoughts and feelings as accurate as possible...

Walking away from a failed relationship that lasted more than 3 years is never easy. Failed relations complicate matters and mess people up. I've really gotten over it but I still felt guilty over the break-up. Seems to me that Jolyn hasn't completely gotten over it even though she has got a new boyfriend. And this casts a shadow over my heart.

She told me last night in MSN that she isn't happy with her new boyfriend and found him too childish. What am I supposed to do? I must admit it is all over for us and there's no way we can be together again. I wish time will pass faster so that the problem can disappear over time... It has been 4 months since our break-up and I really don't wish to be tied down to it again.

Other than this problem (which I thought had resolved when she got a new boyfriend), I must say my life has been going on pretty well. My new job has been an excellent learning ground. I get to apply what I learnt in school to practical real-life work. I get to meet CEOs of listed companies. What more could I ask for? Maybe an increase in the pay will help...

I also met new friends from the net or more specifically from the sgforums. My first outing was quite a disaster as I thought some of the people were rather weird, very different from me and my normal real-life friends. Luckily, I managed to know more people from the forums who are pretty normal and we went out often, had dinner, watched movies, chilled out with drinks, etc. So far, it has been really fun.

In particular, I'm now pretty close to 2 kakis, kris and angel. I singled them out for special mention because if I don't do that, I might get brickbats from them... We always go out for dinner, movies, drinks... moving forward to mahjong sessions, squash, tennis and even holiday trips! It's a pretty nice threesome relation. :)

Life seems to be looking great... Singlehood rocks... What I need now is just to cast the shadows of my past relationship totally behind me...