3%! That's like almost 4 times of what I'd get for a fixed-deposit in most Singaporean banks (0.8% right now). Fuck!
So I googled for "singapore online savings account". Only one exists and it offers only 0.5% interest for the amount I have in mind.
This sucks.
Was looking at VoIP phone rates and found that they're very relevant to my interests. They're very cheap. For example, pfingo has a basic plan that charges $24/yr ($2/mth) and charges $0.02/min for local outgoing calls. Incoming calls are always free. SMSes are priced at $0.03/SMS for local and $0.10/SMS for overseas. Also has the usual stuff like CallerID and Missed Call notifications.
Only catch? People cannot SMS you unless you SMS them first, aka people can only reply to your SMS within a certain time period after you send your SMS but not initiate a SMS conversation with you. A huge drawback, IMO. I rely on SMSes almost completely. In fact, I rarely call anyone at all and most people would rather SMS me because I usually don't answer calls. Bad habit caused by a strong dislike of being interrupted when I'm watching TV shows or playing games.
$2... so attractive, but so useless.
Maybe I should talk to some pfingo user friends to understand how they deal with this problem.
Found this very useful website for knowledge on investments. Good reading materials.
Weird that many people seem to write that it's normal to have the urge to spend when you have a large pile of money. When I first learnt of the exact amount of money I inherited from my late father, I had no interest in it at all. Serious. I was that far into gaming. LOL!
Later my mum decided I should put the money in fixed deposit accounts. I agreed and have been doing it ever since. But now that I'm reading on the interest rates, I realize I'm making almost no money, and the invisible effects of inflation is actually reducing the money I have. I need to put it somewhere that can help my little pile of money grow despite current inflation rates.
Now the only tendency I have when I see a lot of money is to make more using it. I want to, but have no idea how to.
How do I even find a financial advisor? Need to read more...
Why don't milk companies sell breast milk powder? Why must they stick with cow's milk? And why is it that only hospitals store breast milk from lactating mothers who have extra milk? Why not let breast milk be sold by mothers to companies which will store them and sell them like as middlemen? I mean, mothers who just give birth can't work and this will give them a small income from the extra milk they can't really use anyway. You don't think the fathers would use extra milk in their coffees, right?
And breastmilk can't be made into cheese anyway. So it will be wasted when the parents begin to wean the babies while the mother is still producing milk that no one is going to drink. Maybe she would, herself, but that's just a wild guess. My mum didn't breastfeed me, so I can't ask her. My maternal grandmother didn't breastfeed either. It would be horribly awkward to ask someone else's mum what she does with her extra milk other than donating it to a hospital...
Maybe I should start a company that buys and sells breastmilk lol! I haven't read anything about this idea, but there's probably some huge obstacle or someone would have done so already.
Oh wait, almost forgot about this. Why don't they eBay their milk?? LOL!
Shit, better check eBay...
Checking...
...
Phew, no one is selling breastmilk on eBay.
Anyway I'm not being a pervert here. This is a pretty serious thought. I know some babies need breastmilk because they can't drink cows milk or those commercial stuff. I know someone who, when he was a baby, could not drink those commercial formula milk (or whatever they're called) and cow's milk. Somehow he didn't throw up only when he drank goat's milk, which is rather hard to find and more expensive. And no they didn't have breastmilk at his hospital.
But if breastmilk ever becomes a popular commercial product, I can imagine farms of mothers who just sit around in rooms where sterilized milk pumps are installed and connected to pipes that lead to a factory next door. Human farms, where the mothers sit around from 8-5 with plastic suction cups to their breasts. If they want to, they can even stay there and get paid with food and lodging. Food provided to ensure their diet is healthy to maximise production and maintain a high quality in their milk.
Imagine that! Then no woman will need to become prostitutes to make money even if they have no skill! That is, unless they have problems lactating or something. Well, they can still be whores if they want to, but if selling milk can provide a roof and food, many women in the poorer countries would kill to get such a job.
Or at least, it will provide a small additional income for mothers who need the money.
Of course, production costs won't be cheap. There are several tests necessary before the mothers' milk can be bought from them, like HIV tests. Then the milk will need to be pasteurized and frozen for storage.
In the US, the only country from which I can get such information from, breastmilk can only be donated, not sold, to milk banks which will process them as described above and sold at about 3USD per ounce. One american ounce is around 30ml.
Might be profitable. In fact, one company in the US is already selling donated breastmilk. But I don't think that's fair to the mothers. They should be paid for it. But then, if I compare it with blood donations, then I guess I will have to argue that people should be paid for their blood.
Hey, that is not a wrong either, to pay for blood. Then people will have one more reason to give blood! Even if it's like $0.10 per litre, it's still money. People sell newspapers to karang-gunis for less! Usually people donate half a litre each time, so if $0.10 /l, they make $0.05 per trip. In the US, people are allowed to donate whole blood every 8 weeks, or 2 months. 6 trips a year will make $0.30.
Or if we only look at plasma, which our body can replace in a few days, the amount will increase dramatically. In the US, donors can give up to 83l of plasma. If the rate is the same for blood plasma, a person can make $8.30 a year just sitting there and letting the nurses poke a needle in you. And you get free snacks. It's basically free money!
It'd be even better if you can sell your piss but that'd be asking too much.
I'm getting really tired of listening to the same song from next door over and over again for hours on end. And wait, here's the problem: it's not just his computer playing the song anymore - it's my neighbour himself singing the SAME FORSAKEN VERSE REPEATEDLY!!
FFS!! Learn to sing please! Or go to a fucking KTV! Or just stay in the showers. It's not just that he is slightly out of tune, he's singing in the wrong fucking octave altogether!! I'm sorry if he believes in his right to do what he wants in his room but courtesy is not only needed when you're in public places. I admit I don't know what it's like in his home or his home country. Maybe it's normal to close the door by swinging it shut even if it's 2am. Maybe it's normal over there to hear loud bad singing from your neighbours.
But I believe when you're in a very quiet environment, you should maintain the silence. Our hall, or at least my floor, is usually very quiet. I know some of my other neighbours do play some things very loudly even at 4am, though I don't hear them when I close my door. Only this guy living next door can make noise I can hear when I have my door shut because his window is very close to mine.
The thing is, just because you know some other people are inconsiderate on this floor doesn't mean you should be the same. That they are all assholes won't make you any less of one.
At the very least, learn to sing with your singing voice please! Your speaking voice is named that precisely because it's for speaking, not singing! And you'll get to practice your singing for real, not that fake shit singing you do with your normal voice that can only be appreciated if you're in a KTV.
I'd rather he play his songs repeatedly. His speakers aren't as loud as his voice and the songs sound way better.
So I'm not totally silent when I'm in my room, but I make loud throat-clearing noises only because of necessity. Sometimes I clear my throat when I'm excited, like when I get killed in a game. But that's all!
I can see that the old plan doesn't work. Study hard, get a good job, save money, raise a family, live happily ever after.
Doesn't work.
Main problem is with saving money while raising a family. Then there's that thing about living happily ever after.
Divorce is rising, no denying that. 10% last year. If it doesn't go up anymore from now on, there's still an average chance of 10% that you will have a shitty marriage.
Don't raise a family. Just raise a kid if you really want a child. Local divorce laws are so biased against men and no one is bothering to change them even though social trends are. Men are no longer the only gender who can support themselves after a divorce. Men are no longer the only partner who would stray during a marriage. Hell, women are the ones who want and initiate the divorces most of the time!
These days, it's pretty normal to find married women working. So why does the law think that women cannot support themselves after a divorce? Where is the logic?
And single parents? What's so bad about them?? Bill Clinton and Obama were both raised by single parents! The bullshit about kids who are raised by single parents won't be as good as kids who grow up in whole families... is bullshit.
Marriage is unfair towards men. It's a trap! All you get is a piece of paper and you run a constant 10% chance (at least) of divorce which will definitely end in your misery (if you're a guy), whether or not it was your fault. But if you're female, it may not be a negative experience altogether, especially if you were the one who had an affair, then initiated the divorce. Plus the alimony...
And don't give me that true love bullshit please. Marriage is nothing but a ceremony and a legal procedure. If you truly love each other, marriage doesn't make you love each other more nor make your relationship last longer. In fact, I don't really see the link between true love and marriage anymore. Because of the concept of divorce and its popularity, it is now a symbol and does not in any way ensure that only in death do you part. Not anymore. If you know your girlfriend truly loves you, I think the knowledge itself and the trust that comes with it are enough. Same for your girlfriend for you.
Marriage is a custom, not a law, not a duty, not anymore. A custom is merely a necessity gone obsolete but kept in place by social inertia. But as I've always said, it's your life you're living, not mine, so go for it if you wish. As for me, unless I've gone head over heels in love and driven mad by uncontrollable desire, I'm skipping the "marriage" part (and probably the "raising children" section too) and go straight to the "retirement" chapter of life.
I can imagine someone thinking "enjoy being a single senior citizen in the future," when they see declarations like this, but things look kinda morbid in my family tree's medical history, so in a way, that's solved. If I ever get cancer, the lack of emotional attachments like a wife or children will make it easier for me to euthanize myself. Screw my bro.
Am I too pragmatic? I don't believe so but comparing my views with those I see online, there is a slight possibility that I am.
I find the Just Talk Lah section of stomp.com.sg very much like a sg version of 4chan, full of future adults giving comments that are both pointless and crude. Just like 4chan, there are also a few people who actually do know the stuff and can give some useful replies once in a while. This section is a local and censored (also can be described as local) version of 4chan/b/. No pictures, no vulgarities but full of teenagers bursting with hormones.
Unfortunately, people can't post anonymously, so I can't just go there and talk shit. Too much trouble to make new accounts.
No comments:
Post a Comment