This news makes no sense. Two points.
1) The Minister is implying that we should not react to the absence of free money just before the election.
2) The lift upgrading project was a "hongbao" in a way.
Not that I care about the extra thousand bucks. What's it going to do for me? My family consumes more than that per month (food, bills, etc) and there are twelve months in a year.
Now that I'm done with the disclaimer, let's move on to the actual point. He did admit that the economy did well last year. We all know we did get more foreign investments ever since the US tried to turn its currency into the new banana note (well, they kinda tried but not quite succeeded anyway).
So we're not getting free money this year even though the economy was good?
Despite all that, I do respect their choice not to buy our votes outright with (our own) money this time. I'd rather they spend the money on grants for the poor or raise their contributions to Edusave accounts.
The second point was just painful to read. It was such a feeble attempt to put them in a better light I felt it just backfired.
To put it succinctly, all the households paid $3000 each. Only the residents in 15 households per block benefited.
And it was figuratively described as a "hongbao", a red packet filled with money. The main thing is that nothing was free in this case, which is what most Singaporeans look for especially when it comes to hongbaos. It was nice, yes, because there are still lots of buildings out there without lift access on every floor. But to describe this as a "hongbao" would take a pretty broad interpretation of the term.
Nevertheless, if I ever vote I'll still be voting for the PAP. The most important Singapore has, IMO, is stability. Heck, we'd have nothing if not for that. To change the ruling party would destabilise our country. No, the situation is not dire enough to me that I would try to risk that.
Oh wow the last video was not transferred properly last night even though I gave it over 3 hours to finish the job. Before 10pm I had set the PC's shutdown timer to 1am and went to bed. It was at about 9% of the fourth video out of 7.
Amazingly slow.
After watching the videos that were successfully transferred over, it appears that it's only the end of the disc that's not so readable. The last second video was barely playable and keeps pausing after 6 seconds. The final video is taking forever to even begin to transfer.
Have to finish my assignment for Chinese Reading And Comprehension today by 2359hr. Chinese comprehension, university level. Ugh. Good thing this course has recorded lectures that I can watch if I forgot anything. And podcasts too. I love the organization of this course.
After such a long wait for A Dance of Dragon, I can't help but agree with this article. I've been waiting for the book for about 5 years, since the release of the 4th of the series. There has been so many deadlines I've given up on believing them until I see them available in online stores, and not just for pre-orders.
So if you're interested in reading A Song of Ice and Fire, don't. If you're currently reading the books for the first time, do yourself a favour and put it away. Do what I did for The Dark Tower series by Stephen King - discover it only after the final book is published.
The wait is bad. I want to read the book every time I see it mentioned somewhere, but I can't because it isn't out and even if it is, it's definitely going to be a long time before I see the following book after I finish it.
If he's going to take the same amount of time to finish the next 2 books, let's put it this way - he's already 62. I'm not going to talk about death because the national average in the US is 78. What I'm concerned about is the possibility that he could keep on writing till that age.
How often do you see a new bestseller on the shelves that's written by someone in his/her 70s?
As much as we avoid to mention it, minds age. He could write, but could he write well?
I understand that he doesn't focus very hard on it probably because you can't write well under heavy stress. Still, I'm fed up with the wait. I'm definitely not buying his books till his last one is out. I'm not going to refresh that urge to get the next book that won't be out for another 5-10 years.
It's not like it's entirely impossible. The Dark Tower series by Stephen King took 6 years per book for the 4th and 5th book, 5 years for the 2nd book and 4 years for the 3rd. The entire series was published over twenty-two years, from 1982 to 2004! He began the series as a budding writer，and ended it as a celebrity in the literary world.
People have died not ever knowing the ending of the story. Lots of people. According to King, dying grannies and death row inmates have written to him begging for hints of the ending. And he couldn't tell them simply because he didn't know how it was going to end either. Not knowing the ending of something is probably one major reason why people wish for immortality or, at least, longevity.
Almost done with this assignment, left 3 questions out of 12. One and a half hours remaining, but my brain is unwilling to work. Damned poetry. I can't even appreciate English poetry, let alone a Chinese one. And half the paper is on a poem.
As far as I can tell, <<雪花的快乐>> is about beauty and freedom. That's probably all I can confidently say.
Done! Not satisfied with the quality but I need a break if I'm to write any better than this, and there's only 20mins remaining. 15, since I prefer to hand it in 5mins before the deadline. I should probably have finished it yesterday to give myself another day to proofread and edit, but I never learn.
Finished New Vegas again. Didn't enter the NCR Correctional Facility to wipe out the Powder Gangers but I did accidentally wipe out their leadership when I cleaned up all the vaults in the game. Also forgot a few quests like the ones for Raul, Lily and Arcade. Not that I mind, since I'll have more stuff to do next run this way.
This is actually my first time getting Raul. He's not useful and in fact, I wasn't even planning on getting him. I only accidentally met him while exploring Utobitha, where the crazy Super Mutant with the blonde wig and sunglasses was broadcasting on one of the radio frequencies. I'm not actually sure he has a quest for himself but the ending seemed to imply there was one.
I was really planning on completing Arcade's quest but I really forgot. Really wanted to see the Enclave appear in this run.
As for Lily, I never knew she had a quest until I read about her on the Fallout Wiki after finishing the game.
Strangely, the Brotherhood was not mentioned in my ending. I did all their quests, let the Elder remain and then left them alone. When I left, he was telling me that he was going to end the lockdown, begin to explore the Mojave again and regain their strength.
According to Mr House's calculations, they would become the most dangerous enemy left in the Mojave after I defeat both the Legion and the NCR. One would have thought the ending would describe how the Brotherhood came back and demanded technologies from me or something. But no, their absence was conspicuous.
I think it has to do with a bug. As I recall, the conversation that was supposed to happen between Veronica and the Elder when she first returned to the bunker was never triggered for me. I think something bugged it and everything else after was not triggered, including Veronica's ending.
Finally, about the final battle, it was a big disappointment. I kept forgetting to set the difficulty higher and in the end, it was too easy even though all my bodyguard Securitrons died. I myself was never close to dying while the Legion soldiers died seconds after they appeared, causing long peaceful lulls during the battle, something I don't remember seeing in my first run.
Next run, I must make it a point to play on the highest difficulty (on Hardcore of course).
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