Rant 1008 / What Colour Is In?

Filled the new recycling bag today right after we got it.

The recyclers come every fortnight to collect the filled bags and give us a new one. I still have another fortnight of recyclable trash to go and my bag's already filled.

Last weekend I decided to sort out the mess around our shoe rack that no longer holds any shoe that anyone normally wears.

What's the point, right?

So I threw all of my mum's shoes, my ancient patent leather shoes that have only been used once or twice for some presentations in school, my old hiking shoes because the outsole has reached the point where simply applying half a tube of shoe glue isn't working anymore, my bro's old shoes, and all of our old sandals and slippers.

There were five full plastic bags of them when I was done, and I think all my neighbours noticed the giant pile of trash. Heard someone ruffling through it (carefully, fortunately for me, or I'd have to tidy them up) and one little boy from next door asking someone why there were so many shoes there. I was still tidying up the shoe rack behind the closed door so I heard everything.

Used some old shoe boxes to hold the less-used shoes neatly. Deliberately chose the ones with covers that weren't attached and kept them open so that no one has to search for anything.

Now the more frequently worn shoes are on the mats and the less-used ones and my suede shoes are on the rack.

Actually I don't even know I should call it a rack since it's more like a shelf. Shoe shelf?

I'd place my suede shoes on the mat but I don't want the housekeeper to accidentally wet it while mopping the floor.

And it feels nice to have a whole compartment just for the pair. The rest of the shoes are placed two pairs per compartment.

There's still one compartment empty which his girlfriend hasn't realized that she can use. Doesn't really matter since she's got only three pairs here and she seems to use all of them often.


As for the new bag, I filled it with all the reusable sheets of paper, half-used and unused exercise books, and notebooks (the paper sort) I've collected over the years because I no longer need paper these days.

I have an iPad now.

I also have half a mind to fill another bag with the three years' worth of the National Geographic magazines in my room, but now I'm thinking of asking my neighbours if they want them if I ever see any of them before the recyclers return.

TBH I rarely see any of them because of my... different... work hours. Like my mum before me, I go to work only after 9.30am and come home before 5pm to avoid both crowds and taxis' peak hour surcharge.

I've almost never met any of my neighbours between these times and usually I only see some of them when I go for grocery shopping on Saturdays.


So the recyclers are going to have a field day again when they return. I'll probably have another giant pile by then partly because I throw in all the used envelopes and any paper I find.

I also remove the transparent plastic from the envelopes before I throw the paper in while I'm watching videos or streams. I think it helps them but I'm not sure how much work the people there are willing to put in to separate the plastics from the papers.




Next, I think I'll sort out the mess on the large shelves right outside my room. I have a feeling that if I can move the whole mess away, there are a lot of things my bro and I can do with all that room.

Maybe even put a decent terrarium there for our terrapins.

I used to imagine that if I could buy some cement somewhere, I'd make a very low wall somewhere to make a pond.

Now that I think about it, if I do this, it's going to be a lot more complicated than just a wall and floor.

For one, I have a wooden floor. Do I want to cover the floor with more cement or do I want to find some way to prevent the cement from coming into contact with the wood?

Also, how do I change the water then?

I'll probably have to go with a large fibre glass tank.




















When I first saw bamboo fleece, I was excited. This fabric's relatively unknown and I thought it sounded like a good idea.

No it wasn't.

It is just rayon.

Rayon is an artifical fabric that can be made from a number of plants, and bamboo is just one of those. It's just cellulose transformed by (usually) harsh chemicals.

Yes, growing bamboo is very environmentally friendly compared to cotton because it needs a lot less pesticides and other chemicals, and they grow really quickly, but the process of rayon production is rather controversial.

Worse is that pure rayon is very sensitive to water and not stretchy.

Nope.





















I'm so glad I went to the bank to remit the money last Thursday.

That was the day the Singapore Dollar peaked so far this month. Got the best rate possible since the middle of last month when it rose above the 5CNY per SGD level.

I didn't actually expect it. I chose that day because I was lazy and wanted to postpone it for as long as possible. Then I recalled my past experiences with visiting banks on Fridays and thought I really should avoid that as much as possible.

At first I wanted to go on Wednesday but I felt lazy again and saw SGD on a rising trend.

So I went on Thursday.

And that was possibly the wisest choice I made this month because it dropped like 0.05CNY on Friday and has been dropping this week.

It did rise sharply when markets opened on Monday but that was nullified by an insane drop followed by a mediocre recovery. I think the difference between the peak and the nadir was about 0.1CNY.

That's a significant difference because the increment I'd have to pay could have covered my transport costs for at least a week.



















Woohoo! I'm getting Siri for free just because I have the new iPad!

iPad 2 owners don't get Siri, but they still get iOS 6 free. That's better than, say, Microsoft. You will never see Microsoft offering free upgrades for Vista users to Win 7; it's as likely as me discovering a way to divide by 0.

But the new iPad owners get Siri. That would be like getting an upgrade to Win 7 and a free copy of MS Word.

Well, almost, because there are free legit clones of MS Word that work just as well as the original but there are no good clones of Siri on tablets.

And Siri opens apps! No more awkward silence as I search for the right app while I'm talking to my buyers.

It really sucks when the tablet refuses to detect one of my fingers so I couldn't minimize or switch an app until I do the gestures like 5-6 times. With Siri, I expect to just talk.

On the other hand, I have no idea how well it can handle my Southeast Asian accent. The dictation tool on the iPad's keypad has been pretty disappointing so far. Furthermore it's totally useless when I'm at home because I always need a fan blowing straight at me (too broke for air-conditioning) and the wind ruins the voice detection.

Like just now when I said, "120501 needs to be changed sleeves need to add one inch," it thought I said,"120501 needs to be taken seriously -"

I can't take down notes with that.
























Been looking at other forms of savings products by Prudential.

Some of them sound like the crap one of those UOB bankers tried to feed me.

But others look kind of nice, like PRUcash max limited pay

Guaranteed 120% plus possible bonus plus non-guaranteed interests after 15 years?

Doesn't beat inflation but better than fixed deposits.

Assuming inflation = 3% p.a. (which is lower than the current rate in Singapore), to beat it I will need 1.03^15 = 1.558 or 155.8% returns after 15 years.

The bonus is totally unpredictable and the interests are non-guaranteed 3% of the annual instalments you want to accumulate at Prudential.

The other one that looks nice is the PRUincome rewards. The concept is intriguing but the rates are not displayed, probably because the premiums depend a lot on my age and health.

You pay for 10 years, or up to 50 or 60 of age and after another 5 years you get monthly income for another 15 years plus 2 lump sums at the beginning and at the end of those 15 years.

The main issue is that they are not saying how much is guaranteed vs the premium rates.


Using the example on the website,

Total premiums paid = $61200

Total guaranteed returns = $99110

99110 / 61200 = 1.619 ie 161.9% returns

Inflation for that length of time assuming 3% p.a. = 1.03^45*100% = 378.2%

So... hmm... Terrible idea, eh?

Also, the Needs Analysis Tool there is scary.

I just learnt that I'm going to have to save over S$5000 a month for the rest of my working life if I want to afford a monthly expenditure of S$2500 for 25 years post-retirement.

This is based on a return on investment (ROI) rate of 2% and an average inflation rate of 6% which is quite likely given the current economic climate.

For the S$2500 monthly expenditure, it also includes the possible medical costs but averaged out. I certainly do not plan to spend that much every month after I retire if I live long enough to retire, even with inflation taken into consideration. Maybe $1500 a month.

Hmm... perhaps $1000 a month for medical costs is a little too low. Not sure and I probably can't tell right now anyway.

Finally, 25 years of post-retirement life means death is expected at 90. That is definitely not what I have in mind but there's no such thing as dying with too much money. Someone somewhere is bound to be happy when something like this happens. And if I do live till 90, well, then it was a good idea to have planned for it.

Saving $5000 a month? This is kinda close to my definition of impossible - I don't even net half that amount a month right now.

This may be very inaccurate, but I realize that I cannot just live comfortably with a little more than what I have now.

Even if I only have to save $3000 monthly, simply expanding to another store or two won't be enough.

Fuck.