Learning to say no

I need to learn how to say NO.

Perhaps it's the up-bringing or the circumstances that lead me to think that being a nice-guy, you have be as agreeable to everyone as much as possible. Even to the extent of sacrificing yourself for the 'greater good'. But experience had told me that there is no greater good to sacrifice, most of the time. Whatever passed off as greater good is just someone's or some group's selfish personal agenda. Hence, whatever sacrifices you made so that there a greater good is served is just pure delusion, mostly on my part, egged on by my false sense of what being a nice guy entails.

I am one who usually don't exert my rights to others. I'll just suck it up. But it's time to change. No point being a nice guy when others don't play nice. AND more importantly, I've to realise that it's okay to say no. I won't become a devil by saying no when I really mean it. I should practice saying no everyday. These are a few examples:


1. Can you help me with this? No, I'm busy.

2. Can you come over at this time because I'm only free at this period of time? No, I'm not available at other times.

3. Sorry I mixed up your orders and added ice to your drink, is it okay for you to take this nevertheless? No, I want it to be replaced without ice, sorry.


I guess part of the reason why others can say no easily is because they are not afraid to exert what is right for them. I always 'system-think' too much instead of exerting my own individuality. I should be more individualistic instead of group thinking too much. Part of learning how and when to say no is also the fact that I become more attuned to what I really want. I want to live a life for myself instead of living someone else's life. I shouldn't take myself so seriously and think that when I say 'no', things will fall apart. Things will most likely carry on with or without my affirmative yes.

Yes, life will still carry on with or without my participation.

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The year 2012 viewed in the eyes of books

I always like to note down the books that I've read and note down the ones that I might want to re-read again. By looking at the books that you've read, I'd like to review the year that had passed in 2012 too. It's a bit late, I know, but better than never, haha!

I've read a total of 35 books, way lower than the usual 52 books per year. I know I've said that I no longer want to count the number of books that I've read, but the funny thing is this: when I stopped counting, I stopped reading. Or reading as much. Sometimes the target to always read 1 book a week just makes me scrimp and collect all the weird pockets of time to do some bit of reading. To finish reading a book, you need discipline. As simple as that. A good book will help you to finish it in double quick time, no doubt. However, I realised that before you start to like a book, when the characters are strangers to you and you don't give a shit whether they are alive or dead, you just need to hit that psychological milestone pages before you can get 'into' the book. That requires discipline.

For those parents who dish out ipads and multi-media tablets to kids, beware of raising a generation of kids who can't delay their gratification and who wants instant rewards, especially when it comes in visually appealing graphics and nice sound effects. When you're reading, your mind creates all these itself and there's no need for external stimulus to make reading enjoyable. I feel this is very important to train in the youth these days, especially when it's so easy to get our kicks from the ubiquitous ipads. Something to think about.

Anyway, here's the list of books that I've read in 2012:

Alien Interview - Lawrence R. Spencer

Writing Tools: 50 essential strategies for every write - Roy Peter Clark

Fengshui for the classroom - Renee Heiss

Thick face, Black heart - Chin-Ning Chu

The elements of Persuasion - Richard Maxwell & Robert Dickman

Courage to teach - Parker J. Palmer

The truth about teaching - Coleen Armstrong

Influence - The psychology of persuasion - Robert B. Cialdini

The 22 immutable laws of branding - Al Ries

Guerrilla Marketing for Free - Jay Conrad Levinson

Secrets of building multi-million dollar business - Adam Khoo

The Night Eternal - Guillermo Del Toro / Chuck Hogan

Advertising for Dummies - Gary Dahl

The Fall - Guillermo Del Toro / Chuck Hogan

The Strain - Guillermo Del Toro / Chuck Hogan

I am Legend - Richard Matheson

The Last Colony - John Scalzi

The Ghost Brigades - John Scalzi

Old man's war - John Scalzi

The bed of procrustes - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The sea of swords - R.A Salvatore

The Silent blade - R.A. Salvatore

The spine of the world - R.A Salvatore

The end of days - Zecharia Sitchin

A Thousand Orcs - R.A. Salvatore

The Cosmic Code - Zecharia Sitchin

Wool Omnibus Edition (1-5) - Hugh Howey

A Clash of Kings - George R.R. Martin

The Chaos Curse - R.A. Salvatore

The Fallen fortress - R.A. Salvatore

Night Masks - R.A. Salvatore

In Sylvan Shadows - R.A. Salvatore

Canticle - R.A. Salvatore

Speaker for the Dead - Orson Scott Card

Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card

Those at the bottom of the list were books that I read in the earlier part of the year, and it's arranged chronologically. The ones I've highlighted are the top 5 worth re-reading again.

Let's see:


1. Wool omnibus (1-5 books)

This one is by Hugh Howey. I don't really buy physical books, but I will buy his books for keepsake. That's how good his works are. I recently also bought another omnibus, a series of 3 books by the same author from Amazon. If you like wasteland, fallout, end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it kind of apocalyptic books, this is for you. That song from Fallout by Inkspots kept playing again and again in my head when reading this...tsk tsk... By the way, my list of books to re-read seldom include fiction. This must be one of the rare ones to appear in the list.


2. Secrets of building a multi-million dollar business

I don't usually like Adam Khoo's books, but I think this one is quite a easy read. It's good for people who wanted to have a brief overview of starting a business. If anything, Adam Khoo is a successful businessman located in Singapore. It's good to see what sort of viewpoints or advice he can give to someone starting out in Singapore too. That's plenty of general advice in other books, but this one is local and so it's more tailored to our unique context. I've read this twice already, and I'll probably read this again. It's still in my list of books to read in the future.


3. Guerrilla marketing for free

A marketing guru - Jay Conrad Levinson is the authoritative voice in this aspect of business. It's good for everybody because we're all salesman in one form or another. It gives you ideas - plenty of it - to think about and to use as you see fit. It's very readable, not like those textbooks for formal studies and I'm pretty sure some of the techniques work good too, because I've tried it myself. Definitely a good book to re-read in the future.


4. Influence - the psychology of persuasion

Oh man, I can't recommend this book enough. I've read this for maybe 2 times? Remember this name "Robert B. Cialdini"...if you see his books, just read it lah, can't go too far wrong. If you notice my books list for this year, I've already read another book co-authored by him, called 'Yes!'. If you ever need to persuade people, and we need to do it on a daily basis, then you should read this book. You should read it per year like me, just to remember the lessons learnt.


5. Alien interview

Usually this isn't a book that I'll recommend...I'm quite sick of reading about aliens. But this book is special because it's about an interview with an alien that survived the crash in the Roswell incident. You can take it as fiction or fact, it doesn't really matter. It's the ideas that count. The theory that is explained by the alien is so mind blowing that I think it can explain all the sort of things that I'm puzzled about. It's like the encompassing theory to tie up all the loose ends about the different religious beliefs regarding life on earth. Mind blowing, I repeat. It's a very short read, so I will recommend this to anyone interested in the mysteries of life on earth, about reincarnation, about aliens and ancient astronaut theories...very very refreshing read. Again, I stress that there's debate on whether this is real or just a work of imagination...it doesn't matter to me. Either way, I treat works of facts like fiction and fiction like works of facts. The essence is what is important here.


Special mention: Cleric Quintet (Canticle, In Sylvan shadows, Night masks, The fallen fortress and the chaos curse) by R.A Salvatore

The author should be a familar name for those who love fantasy books like the Drizzt series. Having read many books on Drizzt already, I found it pretty repetitive. There's only so much adventure with the infamous dark elf ranger. That's the reason why the Cleric Quintet is so refreshing. It's a very engaging series of 5 books, following Cadderly, the prodigy cleric and his monk wife Danica. If you like the style of writing by Salvatore, this is going to be a great journey for you. Prepared to have nights where you just spent reading so deeply that time seemed to fly past.

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How the things that I'm familiar with no longer exist

I was lamenting to wifey that a lot of things in Singapore had changed, for better or for worse. This  came on the weekend when I visited Bras Basah complex near City hall / Bugis area. I was there, intending to go to one of the restaurants there for dinner and alas, I realised that the restaurant had closed down. It's now changed to some sassy Korean BBQ place that is sprouting out like here and there all over the island. The place is complete with posters of Korean actors and actress with their smiles and poses.


Oh how I missed the steamy hot xiao long bao, the soft twirls of the white buns and the juicy meat inside the Chinese pizza... I would have visited it again if I had known that it's going to close down. But that's just part of life - you had to deal with the uncertainty.

Tian Jin - the restaurant I'm talking about. Photo courtesy of  ClaireChing's blog

I've many memories of that place, having visited it a lot when my wife and I were dating. I bought a few friends there for dinner too, so to me that place is more than just a place for food. It's also a place for small talks and big dreams. It's gone now.


During that weekend, when news of the veteran actor Huang Wenyong's passing reached me, it just deepens this sense of loss. It's a very generic sense of loss of something intimate and familiar to you, a loss of something that will trigger your memories whenever you see it.


Here's a list of 3 things that are precious to me but is now replaced/gone:

1. My primary school - Bedok View Primary school is no longer around. It's replaced by a special needs school for children. Spending 6 yrs of your life in a place means that the building isn't just a building to me anymore, it's like a second home. Near the school compound, there is an ancient tree that is cut off to make way for new buildings around the vicinity. THAT is unforgivable. In my old home, I can see THAT tree from the view through my window and that tree is part of a landscape that is supposed to be FIXED. The tree had been with me since I was near the sand pit playing hopscotch. It's gone now.


2. Marina sq - this place is filled with memories. I spent quite a fair bit of time here while dating. There used to be 2 or 3 food court in that place alone. I wouldn't use 'food court' in the modern sense of the word, it's really just a few plastic chairs and tables with metal frames fixed to the floor...a tad dirty but who cares, the food is great. I used to frequent the one nearer the cinema area, where there used to be a sort of tze char stall, called Ron's seafood. Beside spending a lot of time there with my wife, I also remembered spending a lonely Christmas eve there with a friend. It's supposed to be a group outing, where there's at least 3-5 people attending, but everywhere can't make it in the end. It's not a good experience but it's just my memory. It's gone now.


3. Tanah merah hills - this is the latest invasion of the old and the familiar. This is my neighborhood. I spent a a few decades of my life here and I recognised some of the trees that grew up with me. A condominium that sprang up not too long ago just bulldozed in and literally tore down a big part of that tanah merah hill. Ironically, the name of that development is called eco. It's very very sad when people treasure man-made landscape instead of natural ones...those trees are ancient, and they have to make way for new things to come. Eco my ass...if you have to tear down old trees so that you can plant new ones and call it green living, I want no part of it.


All these small things are pushing me away from this place. Maybe when the proverbial final straw came in, you can see me pushing all these away for good too.

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Learning how to fail

Would you do the same job that you do now, if you do not need the money?

I think not many people would say yes, after all, we have to be practical and not follow our passions all the way to the long kang, especially if our passions cannot support ourselves financially. It's kind of sad, isn't it? Life is not too long nor too short, and here in Singapore we spend a good part of our lifetime educating ourselves. Thereafter, we spent another good part of our lifetime working, likely in a job that if we can afford to do so, we'll never do it willingly.

I'm sure you've heard many times about following your passions, and then the money will follow you. I won't say it's false, but sometimes, the problem is that our passions are really not marketable, or that we're really not good at something even though we're passionate in it. Kinda sad, but that's reality.

Therefore, I'm extremely fortunate that I stumbled upon something that I like to do and will continue to do so as long as I'm able to do so. I like teaching. It's not so much about loving the subject that I teach (some subjects I don't even like it myself) but more about teaching people. I love teaching young people. I love the sudden sparkle when they heard something for the first time, or see the world in a different lens that they've never used before. That is electrifying and very addictive to me. I feel more energised after teaching. When I feel depressed, I feel better after teaching. I really think that teaching is the way that I got myself out of depression in the past.

I wrote this article because the last few days, I knew of this very intelligent primary school girl who is suffering from mild depression because of stress in an elite school. It was so bad that she had to take MC to recover from all the issues from school. This is a complex issue revolving around low self esteem and inability to take failures. I was asked to help her out and I think I did something meaningful to at least let her forget her troubles for a couple of hours. I let her play with LEGO, something that girls of her age is not familiar with.

I did it out of instincts, even though I was asked to help her out on maths, which is the area that is causing her stress. But I thought that the root problem isn't the math itself but something deeper, so the best way is to use a non-threatening environment to tackle the root problem - low self confidence. What is LEGO if it's not a toy? So after conducting the lesson and letting her build a model of a race car, I guided her to come up with theories and then testing it to see if it's true. I want her to experience small failures in a very safe environment, where there are no marks or exam papers for everyone to see her failings. She also had some problems fixing the LEGO bricks (usually girls don't get to play with LEGO, so that sort of hampered her ability to connect the bricks compared to boys of the same age), so solving her own problems independently with my supervision will create that kind of safe environment to fail.

My idea is that the confidence and self esteem is like a muscle. To train it, you got to learn how to fail in small ways and progressively fail in bigger ways without letting that negative feelings overwhelm you. After all, to be successful in life is to be progressively defeated by bigger and bigger obstacles. If not, you're not growing.

I hope I've made her day. She probably had no idea that she taught me a lot more than I taught her.

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How to register as a user in the cbox

Hi folks,

Those who had been to my site at bullythebear had always found that the cbox is one of the best things that this site has to offer. You can see a lot of people who came from all walks of life coming together to talk about almost everything. I had met a lot of people from different age groups that I would never had met if I had not the fortune to set up this cbox. I do hope that you would find it as meaningful and fortunate as I had.

Due to the nature of the cbox's structure, there had been quite a number of irritating incidents where you find regular nicknames being imitated. I think that's very irresponsible because there are some people who would use this as a way to create all sorts of mischiefs. In order to better regulate the authenticity of the users identity, and also to make this community an extension of the face to face meet ups that we have every now and then, I decided to make this cbox a little more exclusive.

New users who wishes to join the cbox can no longer log in directly. Instead, he/she now has to email me (my email is all over the place, do take some effort to find it!) and I'll assign the nicknames and password. This way, there will be less bot spammers and less human spammers, besides the obvious advantage of regulating the authenticity of the user identity.

Obviously this would create more work for me, but it's alright. I'll strive to reply the requests from new users as soon as possible, within 24 hours maximum, so that you can participate in the cbox as soon as possible. If the nickname is not used for 3 months consequentively, it would be deleted automatically and the user will have to re-register again so as to free up the nickname to others.

I take these steps to regulate the cbox to make it a more enjoyable experience, not to monitor your ip or your real name or any other nefarious schemes. Rest assured that whatever information you shared to be a registered user of the cbox will be not be used for any other purpose. You have my word of honour on it :)

LP
Blogmaster of bullythebear

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Results of cbox contribution fund raising

Hi folks,

This is a follow-up post after the call for donations to support the cbox contribution fund. First of all, thanks for all the contributors who funded the cause. I seriously didn't think it would work but if we don't ask, we would never get it, right?

A total of 8 contributors made the donation. I don't think I should put down the list of contributors because some of them privately messaged or emailed me, so I guess it's good to keep the names hidden this way. A total of $101 is collected (you know who the $1 belongs to, haha!). This sum is more than enough to cover 4 yrs of cbox fees, if they don't raise it further!

What am I going to do with the excess cash? Don't worry, it'll be used to do things related to the website for the service of the regular users :) Thanks for all the support folks!

LP
Bullythebear blogmaster

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Cbox contribution fund

Hi folks,

Have you benefited from those who shared freely in the cbox? Did you get useful advice, not only in stocks, but also in other areas of life or other lobang? If you have and would like to contribute back, please do consider donating a small sum to fund the cbox premium, which is the cbox version that I'm currently using. The cbox had served me well and the platform allows me to meet a lot of new people whom I wouldn't have met otherwise because of the differences in age group or just plain shyness in real life.

If you've personally benefited from the transactions and exchange between all the regular cboxers, and there are quite a few, including:

1. Iphone lobang
2. Bags/t-shirts/shopping lobang
3. Stock picks
4. Advice on technical, fundamental, accounting, business, tuition knowledge
5. Advice from those who had experienced a lot more in life
6. News, broadcast from stocks to everyday news
7. Lunch/dinner treats from other cboxers who donated generously to our meal funds
8. Meeting new friends from all over the globe and from all walks of life

Did I miss out anything?

I couldn't subsidize the cost of this from my pockets all the time, even though the advertising do help a little to defray the cost. So please, donate a small sum, nothing more than a few dollars, to help pool the cbox fund so that I can defray the cost of the premium cbox edition. The current premium version would expire in 1 week's time, on 8th Feb 2013, and the cost of the premium version is all in this website link here. So do hurry and help contribute a little to the cbox fund!

Here's how you can contribute:

1. Paypal: duckula06[at]yahoo[dot]com, do replace the at and dot by their respective symbols....I don't want to get spammed ya?

2. My posb savings account: 543-60484-4

If you have any other ways that you want to pass the funds to me, just email me at the same address as the paypal account. In either case, do drop me an email too if you donate, so that I can thank you personally!

If I can't get the required amount, I might consider dropping the premium version altogether. Then we'll be back to the days where there'll be no administrative powers, irritating ads, constant pressing of the refresh button since there'll be no longer auto-refresh and many more irritating things that would dilute your cbox experience. I'm sure you won't want it, me too....so please, just a few dollars for the cbox fund.

Thanks in advance for your contribution!

LP
Bullythebear blogmaster

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Show, don't tell

I received a brochure from an English enrichment class near my home. I was super impressed because of the great advice it gives to students - Show, don't tell. Basically that advice - for good writing to students - means that instead of saying that John is smart, you say everything that describes why he is smart. In other words, you show, you don't tell. I'll probably write something that goes like this: John can solve problems at a snap of a finger; problems that normally take others a good while to figure out.


I was pretty impressed! I thought in life, we should do all that. You know the thing about communications in Singapore, especially Singlish, is that we tend to jump to the point very fast and efficient. We Singaporeans are man (or woman) of few words, and some say fewer emotions.

Examples? Here we go:

1. What you want? (imagine the position of your hand with palms facing down, then you flip it up at the same time you raise your chin)

2. Makan? (coupled with a gesture of the index and middle fingers pointing out like a chopsticks, scooping imaginary rice into your mouth)

3. Makaned. (with hands rubbing your belly)


I think we should be less efficient. Talk more, describe more, show more instead of just telling. Try telling your boss everything except saying that you need a raise in salary. Try telling your wife everything except saying that you love her. Try writing in your resume everything except that you are hardworking, creative, smart and have good management skills. For the stock gurus, try showing more results instead of telling, haha!

It might very well change your life :)

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Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear

I was having lunch with my wife and I happened to chance upon this car with a very special wording imprinted on the side mirrors. It's not the first thing that I came across this particular phrase but it's the first that I've seen printed on the side wing mirror itself. I don't think it's pasted on the side wing mirrors as I did not observe signs of a sticker's edge anywhere. I could be wrong though. Here's how it looks like:

If the words are not clear, it says "Objects in mirror are closer than they appear"

A warning, printed on both the mirrors read, "Objects in mirror are closer than they appear". The first thing that came to mind is that not all images formed by a mirror will appear closer than it really is. Only mirrors that are not flat but convex in nature would have images appearing closer than it really is. So the rear view mirror, which is flat, would have images appearing exactly where it should be, but not the convex side wing mirror. That is, of course, secondary school science knowledge. Good to know.


The second thing that came to mind, is of more importance to me. This is a reflection (haha, the pun) after knowing how successful students can have their past success impeding their future success. Strange isn't it? Past success should contribute to future success, and certainly not impede it! I've read reports where researchers did on gifted and normal students and see how they react to situations totally outside their domain of knowledge. For the gifted and very academically successful students, they tend not to try something that they are not immediately good at. The key word here is 'immediately'. They will give it a shot, and if people who are around them are perceived to be more superior and are receiving all the praise, these gifted students will give up. It almost seems that the gifted students are afraid to lose their excellent track records. If they are not going to be a prodigy in that new area, they are not even going to try it.


On the other hand the normal students, who are average or below average in academic results, will try out the new things until completion. They exhibit a better attitude towards trial and error and are more tolerant of failure. I guess they have nothing to prove and nothing to lose too, and that is exactly why they don't mind suffering all the failures that comes before success is reached.


Perhaps in light of the warning given on the side wing mirror of the car, good students should be given a warning in their report books too. What should it say?

Are you guilty of that too? Perhaps in your investments? Perhaps in your career? Perhaps in your life? Or maybe you've seen someone else do it too?

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THAT which is sacrificed to the god of Aphorism

As work begins to wind down, I started reflecting more on the articles that I read on other blogs. One of the articles struck me as worthy of further reflection, and so I mused more on it. The article talks about how compounding can be magical in the way that a seemingly small sum of money that is put aside will grow into a gigantic sum over a long period of time. There's a story of this lady Grace Groner who, shall I say passively, put a small sum of hundreds into the shares of a company that she worked for. Without taking anything out and throwing in an exciting mix of  bonuses, dividends and splits plus the most important ingredient of all, time (all 75 yrs of it), into the mixture, you'll hear a BOOMZ and out comes the magically surreal sum of 7 million.

While this story of an unknowing young lady blossoming into richness is pretty inspiring, I wonder whether the moral of the story can be as simple or as magical as "Compounding makes you Rich". I think the gadget called 'Compounding' isn't just a black boxed machine that churns out money after you add in the raw materials of time, interest rate and a principal sum of money. While these raw materials are necessary, they are not sufficient. In life, the things that are not seen are usually the most important. 

Grace Groner - the above said lady who is a closet millionaire that you would never suspect

I think the important unseen ingredient here is picking the right stock. But 'right' is so vague, so unspecific. In a general world of things, drawing a random line down the middle will divide all the things into two parts. Those that are not on the left side is on the right side, and we are none the wiser what constitutes the right side. Alright, bad pun aside, being right on a stock consists of many things. I'll try to list down some of them:

1. At the right time

2. At the right price

3. At the right amount

4. At the right industry

There are possibly many more 'rights' but my nutrient starved brain and sleep deprived body can't think of much at this moment. Ultimately, we know we're right when the market price eventually rises higher than our purchase price. It might rise slowly over a long period of time or immediately within the next few days, but we know it's going to be right when the market price rises higher than the purchase price. 

But that's the problem isn't it? Prices don't go up all in a straight line, neither do they fall linearly. When the price goes down, do we say that it's no longer right? What's the threshold that you are going to take before you call it quits? If you have a high threshold of pain, then you'll be accused of buying and holding a wrong stock and the magic of compounding becomes the curse of compounding, working against you instead of for you. I'm sure there are  many captains who went down together with the ship when their Titanic stocks hit an iceberg and starts sinking. But every once a while, you'll see cases when a seemingly sinking ship rises to the surface and soars to the sky. Are you going to be kicking yourself because you called it quits and throw down your shovel when you're only 1 inch away from striking gold?

I'll share with you this example. I bought HSBC shares in 2007 at a price of 137. When the financial crisis hit, the prices of all bank stocks plummeted and I seized the opportunity to get more of it at 28. My average price is around 75 but it keeps going lower because I participated in the scrip dividend program, where all the dividends that I get quarterly are channeled to buy more shares lesser than the allocated lot size. The year now is 2012 and 5 years had since gone by. I'm still making a loss of around 10% (there's many factors for that, one of them being the exchange rate, but that's another story another time) after 5 yrs. So what am I going to do? Am I going to be buy and hold or be right and hold? If I sell it, am I going to kick myself when HSBC soars up, say after 30 yrs, when my initial investment blossoms into a princely sum of millions? Or am I going to hold it, thinking that the magic of compounding will work its magic over time but ultimately letting my money sit on an old horse lagging behind all the thoroughbreds? 

I gave this example, not to seek advice on what to do, but to illustrate the difficulty of following market wisdom. For every market wisdom out there that extols the virtues of holding stocks for the long term and letting the magic of compounding do its magic, there'll be another one saying quite the opposite. Does it mean that only one of them is correct? Not necessarily. More and more, I think they are cosmic twins, the yin and yang of the stock market where there are no opposites but simply complementary pair. The real wisdom in reading market wisdom is to distill all the good advice and see which advice to follow and WHEN to follow. I stress the word 'WHEN' because I think all good advice has its place and while it doesn't take much intelligence to understand what a particular advice means, it does take a lot of wisdom to know when the advice is applicable and when the complementary pair is a more appropriate fit at the point in time in that particular situation. Market wisdom are supposed to be simplified reality squeezed into easy to remember sound bites. However, in the process of simplification, certain details such as the circumstances in which the advice is valid, becomes sacrificed to the god of Aphorism.

Perhaps in a parallel universe, there is this same lady who did all the same things but instead of getting 7 million, she found out that the stock she had invested went into trouble and all her money is gone with the wind. I wonder what sort of advice and moral will it be now? 

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I'm a true neutral druid/wizard!

Did this survey to find out what my alignment and class is for the D&D role play found here. It's a humongous 129 questions survey - pretty long - but it gives a very detailed result which I put it below. Have fun, and do share the results if you did it :) Sadly, I'm no longer a ranger class now, haha!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

True Neutral Elf Druid/Wizard (2nd/2nd Level)

Ability Scores: 

Strength- 10 Dexterity- 13 Constitution- 13 Intelligence- 18 Wisdom- 13 Charisma- 12

Alignment:

True Neutral- A true neutral character does what seems to be a good idea. He doesn't feel strongly one way or the other when it comes to good vs. evil or law vs. chaos. Most true neutral characters exhibit a lack of conviction or bias rather than a commitment to neutrality. Such a character thinks of good as better than evil after all, he would rather have good neighbors and rulers than evil ones. Still, he's not personally committed to upholding good in any abstract or universal way. Some true neutral characters, on the other hand, commit themselves philosophically to neutrality. They see good, evil, law, and chaos as prejudices and dangerous extremes. They advocate the middle way of neutrality as the best, most balanced road in the long run. True neutral is the best alignment you can be because it means you act naturally, without prejudice or compulsion. However, true neutral can be a dangerous alignment when it represents apathy, indifference, and a lack of conviction.

Race:

Elves are known for their poetry, song, and magical arts, but when danger threatens they show great skill with weapons and strategy. Elves can live to be over 700 years old and, by human standards, are slow to make friends and enemies, and even slower to forget them. Elves are slim and stand 4.5 to 5.5 feet tall. They have no facial or body hair, prefer comfortable clothes, and possess unearthly grace. Many others races find them hauntingly beautiful.

Primary Class: Druids- Druids gain power not by ruling nature but by being at one with it. They hate the unnatural, including aberrations or undead, and destroy them where possible. Druids receive divine spells from nature, not the gods, and can gain an array of powers as they gain experience, including the ability to take the shapes of animals. The weapons and armor of a druid are restricted by their traditional oaths, not simply training. A druid's Wisdom score should be high, as this determines the maximum spell level that they can cast.

Secondary Class: Wizards- Wizards are arcane spellcasters who depend on intensive study to create their magic. To wizards, magic is not a talent but a difficult, rewarding art. When they are prepared for battle, wizards can use their spells to devastating effect. When caught by surprise, they are vulnerable. The wizard's strength is her spells, everything else is secondary. She learns new spells as she experiments and grows in experience, and she can also learn them from other wizards. In addition, over time a wizard learns to manipulate her spells so they go farther, work better, or are improved in some other way. A wizard can call a familiar- a small, magical, animal companion that serves her. With a high Intelligence, wizards are capable of casting very high levels of spells.

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Singpost's quiet rise

Singpost's shares had been climbing up steadily, but especially so after the announcement of the new thompson mrt line. At least it seems so to me. The volume of the shares transacted daily also rose up appreciably, whereas in the past, this is usually a quiet counter. Out of curiosity, I went to dig up some figures to see how much the postal building at the affected Thomson Road Post Office located at 246T Upper Thomson Road is worth.



From commercial property guru site, a mall shop, 99 yr leasehold located at Upper Thomson Road is selling at $1.5 million for a 31 sq m space (built in). This works out to be around $4.5k psf. The Thomson Road post office is also a leasehold property of 99 yrs (since 31st March 1992), occupying a land area of 2753 sqm and a building floor area of 1793 sq m. Just as a ball park figure, this works out to be around $86 to $130 mil, depending on which area you multiply with the psf figure. The weighted average number of ordinary shares is 1,900 million shares. So if they are going to distribute out all the money from the property transaction, it'll work out to be around $0.045 to $0.068 per share.



Of course, this figure could be way way off, because a lot depends on the fair value of the property, which is hard to determine. I only know the comparative value based on another property which is trying to sell at this price, meaning that the price is not even the actual transacted price. So let's give and take - we'll take 50% of the lowest price of $86 mil, and that works out to be $43 mil and see what's the dividend like. It turns out to be $0.0225 or 2.25 cts per share.



Compared to the usual quarterly distribution of 1.25 cts and final distribution of 2.50 cts, this can be quite a bounty. Is that what people are buying up this quiet counter for?


(You do realise I'm not a qualified surveyor or property guru for that matter. The figures are just numbers plucked from a certain number of key assumptions that may go all wrong. If you buy the counter based on what I wrote here, you're nuts. Either way, the disclaimer at the bottom of the blog applies.)

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How to borrow ebooks from NLB

Some of you may heard that our very own national library board (NLB) had begun lending out ipads with books preloaded inside or downloadable from the library site, in order to encourage the younger ones to take up reading. While I reserve my judgement on whether it's a good thing using ipad to encourage reading before children actually learns to read good old boring books, I think libraries going the way of lending out digitized content is actually a good thing. If you look at the many physical book stores that go bust or downsized (think borders, mph, harris, page one and times) and compare it to the proliferation of online book stores, it's not hard to see the growth of digitized content readers. This trend is certainly helped by cool gadgets like kindle and ipad, as well as smartphones.



And this post is going to share with you how to get e-content from NLB. Firstly, you'll need to sign up as a member. If you ever borrowed a physical book from the NLB before, you're already a member. If you are not one yet, join it, it's the wisest use of your tax money and it's free. Let's go:


1. Go to this link from the NLB site. Click on number 5, the overdrive site highlighted below.

2. You'll be prompted to log in using your NRIC, the first word of your name and your date of birth. If you are not a member yet, just join in. It's free and it takes only a few minutes to sign up.

3. Once you logged in, you'll be back to the screen in 1. Click on the same thing again, and another tab will open up with the opendrive website. You can search for books here. But most require you to download Adobe Digital Editions because the books that you can 'borrow' comes with DRM (digitilized rights management). You have to downloaded the Adobe software first before downloading the ebooks. After that, you can just click on the ebook and open it with the adobe digital edition. Since this is a library afterall, you need to 'return' the book after a number of days. In this case, after 21 days, the book that you downloaded will expire and you can no longer read them. Please don't send the expired downloaded books back to NLB by email, lol!

4. For example, if I liked this particular book, Zombie Economics. I can see that there are 1 library copy in total and 1 available copy for me to borrow. I think due to IP requirements, NLB cannot just let a lot of users download the ebook. It's silly, really, so let's hope this kind of thing that governs physical books be removed when it comes to ebooks. You just click on the add to cart button, highlighted below.

Then click on the proceed to checkout button to go through the transaction. After clicking that, you'll be asked to enter you NRIC and date of birth (again) before you can go on to the next step. So enter them. You'll then see a screen telling you how many books you can borrow. If you're a normal member like I am, you'll be able to borrow up to 6 books, each book being 21 days before expiry.

5. Once you confirmed the checkout, you'll proceed to the download screen. Here, it's important to download the Adobe Digital edition software (free of course), before you download the ebook. The ebook that is downloaded here has DRM and has limited reading period (it expires after 21 days), hence you need another software to prevent piracy. So click on the purple highlighted link first before you download the ebook.

You'll see two available softwares here. I selected on the Adobe Digital Edition. Not sure how the Overdrive media console is about, but you can try. Both should work. Anyway, for illustration purpose, select the highlighted one.

It'll bring you to adobe website where you can download the required software. Before you can access it, you can need to have an adobe id, which means an email and a password to have an account with them. Once that is done, you can finally click on the download button (highlighted pink) from the screenshot above this current one. Save it somewhere and click on it. It should open up Adobe digital edition and you can read the book off your desktop or laptop. If it doesn't open up, right click and choose to open with adobe digital edition.

This is how the adobe digital edition looks like. There's also 'days left to expiry' on each borrowed book.

Happy reading!


There's quite a few selection from just that overdrive site alone. If you're interested in children's books, you can select other links, though personally I've not tried it before, so no advice from me there. You can even browse singapore historical books and documents. Those are very interesting. Like this link, it'll lead you to a book that contains historical photos of Singapore in the 1900s. If you're so inclined to read the memoirs and even orbituary of Raffles, you can also find it somewhat there. It's almost like I've stumbled into an Indiana Jones' tomb of ancient historical relics!


Let me know if you encounter problems. I'm not an expert, but I'll try to help :)

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Kindle dx graphite edition review

I very recently bought a kindle graphite dx. This is the newer version of the kindle dx that I had and it comes with free 3G, a usual 9.7 inch display but with the newer e-ink (pearl) display. The 3G really works and I can access a very basic web browser with it. Don't expect to do fantastic surfing with the browser because the refresh rate and loading speed, at least here in Singapore, is rather slow. I'm sure if I'm residing in US and with the whispernet available there, the surfing speed should be appreciably faster. Still, I'm happy with the basic free 3G services for stuff like looking up the kindle store, google stuff and checking wikipedia. That's a huge improvement because my older kindle dx does not have all these functions. These are secondary improvements to me, because the main function of having a kindle dx is just to read. The rest of the features are good to have, but not essential ultimately.



The best thing that I liked about this newer 'graphite' edition is that the contrast is much much better. I've had the older one for 2 yrs already and it's okay to read it with sufficient lighting. But once the lighting drops, you find that you have to squint to make out the words because the contrast isn't good enough. The newer one has purportedly 50% improvement in contrast compared to the old one.

As you can see, even without words, the background of the new pearl e-ink technology shines through. The older (white) kindle has a more grayish background compared to the graphite one.

Reading pdf files on the new kindle is better than ever. When reading pdf files which I do very very often, the older version will experience a drop in contrast. Some pdf files are thus 'unreadable' because you really have to make out the darker gray words against the gray background. Not a very good reading experience at all.

Two of them side by side. You can see the words jumping out of the background for the graphite edition, whereas for the older version, the words and background are sort of merged together.

But the graphite edition makes the contrast so much sharper. I tried reading in a place with very poor lighting and I'm happy to say that it can still be done. Reading pdf files in the past will also experience a drop in the page turning rate, meaning that it will take a longer time to turn the pages. Amazon made tremendously improvements in this department. There is still a very short lag between pressing the 'turn' button and actually seeing the page flip, but it's tremendously shorter. It doesn't affect my reading experience, even with the older version, because you can get used to such things after a while. It's like just before reading the last few words, you start to press the button already, and when you actually finish reading the words, the page turns just in time for you to have uninterrupted reading. You know what I mean.

Reading text files. Again, the words are clear and sharp for the graphite edition. This is not to say that the older version is not readable...it's just that you need better lighting to do it. 

Nothing much is changed when reading mobi or amz format. The text size changes seems faster than the older version, but you don't usually change text size on the go, so it's not going to affect much.

Comics look great on kindle dx. The large screens size means  more can be packed in one page without sacrificing readability. Try reading comics in a small screen and you get what I mean.

Due to the improved contrast, I think I can start reading more comics on the kindle. I didn't do it in the past because the words can barely be read using the older kindle. I'm actually looking forward to this!

A real work of art. The screensaver when you're not reading literally tempts you to unlock it and start using it.

I bought this for $370 from a kind gentlemen. He found the kindle dx with the big screen too huge to carry around, so he got himself a smaller one. I'm unlikely to carry this around with me and it's meant for reading when I'm not travelling, so the size is okay with me. It comes with nearly 1 yr of warranty so I practically got a new set with a huge discount. For readers who want to see what I had blogged about for the older kindle, do check this out.


With the new 3G function, I wonder if I can subscribe to some periodicals and newspaper and have it wirelessly transmit over to my kindle for my reading pleasure. It certainly opens up a whole realm of possibility. I'm going have a few sleepless nights of reading again...

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Online loans

Online Quick Loans—Great Solution to Overdrafts


Payday loans are now one of the most convenient ways to borrow money. Banks offer loans with low interests however; approval takes some time because of several factors. Cheapest pay day loans UK offer online quick loans to borrowers who need loan for emergency situations. People have been using bank loans but recently, payday loans have become relatively popular than banks. “Cash loan instant” is now being chosen by people to get immediate money without undergoing long process and extended wait.


Payday loans can be costly because of the high interest. But still, this type of loan is fast and reliable since it can be approved in a short period of time. As long as the borrower completes all documents and meet the requirements, lenders can release the loan within the day. The loan amount is also dependent on the borrower’s salary figure.


Banks versus Payday Loans


Interest on payday loans can reach as much as 25 percent and must be paid in a short period of time. In a month’s time, borrowers should make the repayment of the whole amount plus the interest rate. Banks offer a minimal percent and it’s done on an annual basis. However, borrowers can be charge of a higher interest during bank overdrafts. These overdrafts are limits set by the bank on accounts. When limits have exceeded and extended, borrowers will get high interests and should be paid sooner than the expected time. Cheapest payday loans UK offers a one off payment in a month’s time. This process is more convenient since payday loans will not go through overdraft. People are now resorting to payday loans because of overdraft experiences. Some of these are unauthorized and cause problems due to high interest rates given by banks. Overdrafts are required to be paid in days or months which are expensive on borrower’s end.  Online quick loans can be easily accessed through the Internet. This can be a cash loan instant thing because of its simple process. Applications can be done online and once approved; it will be deposited on the borrower’s active account. This is a very convenient way because it’s a one day process as long as documents and requirements are complete. People who have experienced troubles with overdrafts have resorted to payday loans for their emergency needs.


Cheapest payday loans UK can offer you as much as £750 and can get it the same day. There are also other online quick loans that provide higher amount. Approval of applications is dependent on the capacity to pay and salary range per month or per annum. If you want a cash loan instant approval, you can check the Internet for more information.


Payday loans have become popular because of their accessibility. These types of loans are ideal for people who are in need of urgent financial assistance. There’s no need to wait for a long process and approval. As long as you meet the entire requirement, you will instantly get the money deposited into your account. It will not also give you headache on overdrafts because payday loans are set to a one off payment.

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Diablo 3 hardcore

There's this game called Diablo 3 by Blizzard that I'm spending quite a fair bit of my time on. Having played the normal aka softcore mode using all the different characters available, I thought I'll try the hardcore mode for the wizard character. They said it's going to be a wild ride and it sure is. In hardcore mode, you can only die once and if you do, your equipment that you carry with you when you die will be erased. The gold that you kept will be saved for future hardcore characters though, so at least you don't have to begin everything from scratch, as I do when you switched from softcore mode to hardcore mode.



When you begin to realise that dying actually matters, not just in terms of the huge repair cost in light of the recent patch, you start to see things in a different light. Things that you take for granted, like wading right into the thick of battle, going off to the toilet while you're in the dungeon and taking on something bigger and meaner than what you can fight...all of these starts to become an important factor in deciding your longevity. I think everyone who plays hardcore mode knows that their character is going to die one day, but they still play it, although more cautiously (and justifiably so) than softcore mode.



I think there's a lot of relevance between playing hardcore mode in Diablo 3 and life itself. The lessons that I take away from playing hardcore can thus be equally applied to the game of life. Except that in life, you can only play hardcore. There's no ifs and no buts, no server lag excuses. If you die, you die. So make the best use of your life. The memory of the deceased will live on, even if the life and body did not.

Draziw....I'm never really imaginative, so says Zoltan Kulle

Hardcore lessons:


1. Buy the best gear that your money can afford. Constantly upgrade yourself. There's no point hoarding so much especially when you do not know when you are going to be killed by the next monster or server lag. Whatever left that is in your bank account will be left aside for the next character. Therefore money that is not spent on yourself now is not yours.


2. Spend more on vitality (aka health). If you know you only have one life, you had better spend more time building up on your vitality. More vitality, more health, and you last longer.


3. You have to play the game cautiously, but you can't play it too cautiously. If you spend so much on vitality and ignore your damage per second (DPS), you're just running on the treadmill - you can't move on. Take risk when you are ready, if not, your self doubts and lack of confidence means that you are depriving yourself of life itself, even though you are trying to prolong it by playing it safe. That is not the way the game is meant to be played.


4. Choose the right partner. Even though I played the game solo, there are times that I wish there's another hardcore character to team up with me. When choosing partners, it can be a double edged sword. Once another character joins in  your team, the monsters' health doubles - it actually become harder to kill. Hence, it's important that your partner knows what he is doing in order to maximise each other's ability. If not, he's just dead weight and will drag you down. Imagine you fighting solo for 100% of the monster's health, and you fighting solo for 200% of the monster's health while your partner is idling somewhere. It's just not right.


For all the Diablo 3 players out there, happy gaming!

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Is it fair?

In my neighborhood there are three stalls selling economic rice. They are all selling around $4 each plate. One day, the stall that I've been buying for the past 4-5 yrs decided to change their price. They decided to import better rice and meat and fresher vegetables, with a catch of course. The catch being that they will reduce the quantity of the rice, the meat and the vegetables by about 1/6 of the original amount and it'll cost the same price. Despite being complained by consumers all over the neighborhood, the stall refused to budge with their plans. Their reason is that most consumers do not finish their plates and perhaps only 1% of the people buying their economic rice finish the entire plate. Since 99% of the people could not finish their plate, therefore they would not even notice if the amount of food on their plate is reduced by 1/6.


What's worse is that the surrounding stalls also followed. One of the stall haven't really raised its price yet so maybe I'll have to wait and see how it goes. Despite complaining to the authorities who governed hawker pricing, nothing is going to be changed. In fact, the authorities said that it's fair practice to reduce the amount of food but charge the same price since it's a universally accepted practice in other countries as well.


Seriously, what a bummer.

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The hen, the pig and the man

A man has two best friends, one a hen and the other a pig. However, he is unsure what their level of commitment that they have towards him. For all he knows, it may just be a one sided friendship. So one day, he asked a fox for help. The wily fox agreed and set to action immediately. On the pretext that the fox had kidnapped the man, the fox asked the hen and the pig to put out their most valued possession that they have in order to raise the money to pay handsome ransom to the kidnappers.



The hen clucked and said that she would give off 5 of her eggs to pay a part of the ransom. The fox nodded and accepted the offer. The pig, however, took out a knife and was walking towards the fox. Thinking that the pig wanted to attack the fox, the latter shrieked and was about to run for cover when the pig snorted that he is willing to kill himself so that the fox can cure it as a bacon to pay the ransom. Before the pig can plunge the knife, the fox stopped him and said that the intention would suffice for now. With that, the fox ran off to report to the man.



What do you think the fox said to the man? Who is the more committed friend? There's no right or right answer of course.



(To readers who found this story familiar, I twisted the story from Singapore Man of Leisure's blog. I've no idea why this story floated to my mind when I was having dinner tonight. I can't remember the exact story but the fun thing is that it doesn't matter. The gist of it, once captured, can be transmuted in infinite ways and still, it would retain the original flavor.)

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A frustrating week

I've had students who asked to stop the tuition once they did well for their exams or once the holidays are here. Usually I don't agree, especially for graduating students because I think the time spent with me is worth many hours spent doing their own revision, unless proven otherwise. I'm in this business too for the money of course, but there are times where I think the student is so well trained and I've nothing more to offer to them, then I would either reduce the tuition time or simply drop the student. I think that's only fair. No point getting short term gains in terms of higher tuition fees now but lose your professional reputation. I'm in this for the long run, so no short term fix for me please.



When weak students requested to stop the tuition during the holidays or because of their good results, I feel cheated. Sometimes it's like I'm being penalised for doing such a good job to turn around their grades. It's almost like hiring a very good team of police officers to take over a crime infested part of town. When the crime rate starts dropping, the people who hired them suddenly felt that the high pay of the police officers are unwarranted. What's the point of hiring such a good team of officers when the town has low crime rates now? I realised there are two ways to see this problem. One is that the crime rates are low because the police officers are here. The other is that because the police officers are here because the crime rates are high. Since the crime rate is no longer high, the police officers should no longer be here.



Being the person paid for a fee based job, I'm of course impartial. But those who knew how to use me as a mentor/tutor would know that I offer a lot more than just to improve a short term obstacle such as an exam. It's the framework of looking at things that I can impart to students who stay with me for a long period. It's the observation and basically knowing the characteristics and behaviour of a person (I know a student would think this way or that before he or she even knows it) so intimately and well that I can offer advice tailored just for that person. Do you change a GP who had looked after your family for years? Do you change a dentist that had cared for your teeth for decades? Do you change the hairstylist who had cut and trimmed your hair every month for a good part of your life?



I doubt so. But people view tutors as replaceable. I despise that and I hated being used as such. Is it because of the high fees I charged? Perhaps. But I did offer suggestions on how I can charge a lower rate. Just find another person to group together. You can't expect me to give you the best that I can offer but not reciprocate by letting me earn my living. I'm a full time tutor. I do this as a profession and I do not have any other jobs besides this. Did I not compromise by lowering down the rates because you said that we could have more lessons since he needed the help? But when the exams are over and the holidays are here, you now said that the kid must learn how to depend on himself but if there's any questions or doubts, can he clarify with me? My phone is on 24/7. The kid can ask me anytime he needs and I'll solve the question on the spot for him, without charge even when I'm busy. Is that not support given enough from my side?



I'm perfectly fine with that if you really want the kid to learn how to be independent. But if it means that I've to work doubly hard after the holidays because the kid couldn't remember anything anymore and I've to revise everything again and at the same time, do the new stuff when school starts again, I'll tell you gently - I quit.

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Noble chart

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