Rant 1004 / For Things That Money Can't Buy, There's Always Blackmail.

MON




Been looking at health screening packages. Currently using the list offered by NTUC Income as benchmark.

For my first assessment I'm planning to have a really comprehensive one that men my age do not opt for. Just thought it was a good idea to set my mind at ease.

This means I'm looking for packages similar to their Deluxe Plan which covers:

for S$350.


A lot of websites don't list the prices of individual tests and also don't include all these in any single package, so the comparison is taking some time.

I think I'll make a table to list everything to do a good comparison.

...


Too much work. I only made one for comparing that Deluxe plan with a $195 package offered by Asia Health Partners for DBS card members. They're mostly the same except the one from NTUC has electrocardiogram and treadmill ECG while Asia Health Partners offers Hep A screening, resting ECG, spirometry and tonometry.

The funny thing is that the latter also includes a 60-min body massage or facial.

Right now I'm leaning towards the benchmark package but it's not urgent. I'm going to wait for promotions till the end of the year.

All these right now is only to give me a mental price range and a short self-taught course on the various tests. I can't decide right now because I need some time to consider what tests I really want, what tests I think I should get and how much money I'm willing to fork out.

Currently I think I need all those tests common in most "basic" packages glucose and cholestrol exams, and ECG. I also think it's a good idea to get tested for stomach and colon cancer, and have full kidney, liver and lung tests.

Chest X-ray for TB and all those VD tests are pretty redundant IMO.

Too bad Singapore citizens below the age of 40 don't get subsidised health screening from the government. I'm perfectly willing to go as far as to spend an entire day queuing at a polyclinic if any of them offered health screening services.

..

Looked at the ones offered by NUH, in particular the Evidence Based Plus Screening.

I only need to find out the prices for their optional cardiovascular assessment and the complete liver and kidney check.

Thought about colonoscopy but there's already a stool analysis in the package.

Also checked out Raffles Medical since it's offering 10% off for DBS cards on its enhanced packages but the one I'm favouring, the Raffles Deluxe package, costs about S$400. 10% off makes it S$360. Kinda similar to the one from NTUC.

This package is just like most of the other better ones except it also allows me to take two of the seven available cancer tests - liver, colon, pancreas, prostate, ovary and breast. The last is pap smear.

I'd choose colon and prostate. Liver if it's affordable enough. Those are the cancers affecting the most men in Singapore. If they had a test for lung cancer I'd take that with the colon option, but they don't.

Though it's affordable, the numbers get pretty shocking as I go down the list to the packages meant for older people. The Raffles Platinum, the most comprehensive package they have that is probably meant for people in their 70s, is over S$8400. And that's just for the men; for the ladies, their package cost almost S$9500.

Sucks to be an elderly woman.

This really changed my impression of what I'm going to need to save for my long-term future medical costs. If I'm planning to live till 80, that's going to cost S$84k just for these assessments between 70 to 80, and that's not taking inflation into account.

Of course, we can also just stick with the government-subsidised stuff.



I may be searching for cheap stuff but I'm fully aware that this is another area that I shouldn't be pinching pennies on.

In fact right now I'm starting to like the Raffles Deluxe package. It's more than what a lot of people I know get, like one of my staff who only spends about S$200 at a private clinic and she's older than my mum. The problem is that most people don't have both parents dying at a rather young age from cancer.

I'll have to be insane to not be slightly paranoid about this.





















Booked a dental appointment on Sunday for today. Been thinking about it a lot and finally did it at the dental clinic near my home.

The dentist spent quite a bit of time on scaling since I've not visited a dentist in about 3-4 years. Rinsed twice for scaling, once after polishing.

Halfway through the third part, the polishing, he went back to scaling again.

There was that much tartar.

It was also different from the dentist visits I had when I was younger in that the dentist had an assistant who held two tubes in my mouth when he was working on my teeth. One was a water spray and the other sucked fluids out of my mouth. Only had that since the last visit at the same dental clinic back when I needed a wisdom tooth removed.

Teeth feel different now. For some reason after an hour I still feel like there's a tiny bit of sand in my mouth once in a while even though I've rinsed a lot. I've even used the mouthwash the clinic gave me to be used twice a day.

The most pleasant surprise was when the dentist announced I had no dental problem to speak of other than the 3-4 years' worth of tartar. The gum had clearly receded because of this and I'm going to have to get used to the large gaps between my teeth but apparently it is likely to grow back.

NO CAVITY! WOOHOO!

Asked him about the teeth-whitening options available and he gave me two:

1) for about S$400, a two-week take-home package which strictly forbids the consumption of caffeine and citrus fruits for the entire duration.

2) for about S$1500, a one-off treatment involving laser.

According to the dentist, they're both just as effective.

Anyway the simple checkup with scaling, polishing and the mouthwash (230-240ml) cost me S$75 and the clinic will send a SMS reminder in half a year.

This visit was worth the S$75 but I'm not sure about the future ones when my teeth are better maintained.




















I've looked at T-bills and bonds issued by SGS before but I've never seriously considered it mainly because there's almost absolutely no hype about it.

Now that I've been buying fixed deposits, I realize that those two might have been better options.

The main difference between FDs and T-bills and bonds is that the the first is guaranteed by the bank and the latter two are guaranteed by the government.

Unlike in some other countries, these are practically equally safe here in Singapore.

So I might as well get some some T-bills and some long term bonds when my FDs mature.

T-bills are like bonds. You lend the government some cash and it pays you back when it matures.

However, a T-bill is bought at a discount on its value and you get back that value at the end.

Bonds, in contrast, are bought at the value it's given and you get interests called "coupons" regularly, and you get back the original sum at the end.

Another major difference is that T-bills mature within 1 year at most while bonds are available at different lengths of time up to 30 years.

Sounds pretty cool, getting interests every 6 months for 30 years.

Both of them are sold in denominations of S$1000, so you buy them in multiples of S$1000.

I don't even have a CDP Securities account yet so I'll be applying for this and a DBS Vickers account and maybe apply for a few T-bills with the little bit of cash I have left.

Applying for these is so simple with DBS internet banking. I just need to apply for a Vickers account and download the forms (instead of applying it online) and the form for a CDP account can be found in the list.

Strange that DBS doesn't make this available for online applications.

The only inconvenient part is that it is compulsory to sign that form in the presence of a Vickers staff, so I'll probably have to visit a DBS branch... or if I'm lucky enough, get one of them to come over to my place like my bro did when he applied for a Citibank account.

As for the lack of hype, it's because banks like DBS do not earn any money from handling such transactions, ie they have no reason to promote them.

























TUE


Been a long day.

Technically it was pretty short but it was more tiring than usual.

Got out of bed at 10.30am, got out of the house at 11am, got out of the office at 2pm, took a bus home at 4.30pm, got home after 5pm.

Yea, so technically it's a relatively short day.

But it was tiring.

Spent 3 hours in the office mulling on a rather annoying problem while discussing parts of it with my staff and a supplier of mine.

Got stuck at a dead end and decided to forget about it and go out for some market survey work at Marina Square. Forgot there was ERP being charged at Nicoll Highway and had to pay S$2 on top of the cab fare.

Chose Marine Square because it's one major mall I haven't visited in a long while and there was a Bata store there which sells shoe-cleaning supplies and a waterproofing spray for leather.

Killing two birds with one stone.

Turned out that there was only one store there that specialised in winter apparel while a few others only had a tiny section for it.

Walked randomly and at the same time covered the whole mall. As a result I covered a few parts twice or thrice.

I reached there hungry and ended up only thirsty.

I thought I'd also visit the mall at Suntec but when I reached the part where the conventions and fairs are held, I realized I didn't know how to get to the mall part.

Also went up to take a look at the people setting up the next PC Show (or whatever it's call this time). Saw booths being set up and Acer boxes in a stack.

Then I checked my phone and saw it was already 4.15pm, so I just went to the bus stop and coincidentally there was a direct bus to my home. Nice. I think taxis charge an extra fee for trips starting at Suntec, so I was hoping there was a direct bus I could take instead. Anyway a quick online check showed that it was Singapore Expo, not Suntec.



Got home and thought I should buy dinner instead of cooking something. Called my bro and we came to the conclusion that whatever I bought would get cold by the time his girlfriend gets here after work, so they might as well go downstairs to eat then. She doesn't like cold food.

Just pointing that out because in contrast, my bro and I are fine with that. I'm even fine with unthawed dinner leftovers. Just heat the vegetables and meat and pour them on the semi-frozen rice and that's lunch, except if the rice has been left there for two nights because at that point the rice gets really frozen/dry and it feels like chewing sand.

Before I got to buying dinner I saw that there was a fruit-and-vegetable stall open in the market, so I went there instead.

Found some fruits on offer and took them. The really ripe jackfruits were being sold at $2 per packet and $5 for 3, so I took 3. Each packet had like 6-7 pieces.

Coconuts! Each was $2 and it was $4 for 3, so I took 3.

They look like the one on the right of the red square, and then like the one inside the square after I was done cutting. For some reason they also packed them in ice. Maybe coconuts turn bad easily. I don't know. Doesn't make sense though. No, I think it's the husk. The ice is so that the husk won't spoil or turn brown or something.

But they were heavy!

Also took a lot of effort to open one because I didn't know how.

At first I just slammed my cleaver into it to make a triangle shape that I could perhaps pull out.

Nope, didn't work.

Went back to my room to google and eventually figured out that I should cut it sideways to remove the softer white husk at the top to reveal the harder shell inside. Managed to cut off a small chunk of the conical top.

With the white husk gone, it was so much easier to cut the shell open.

In conclusion, coconuts are easy if you know how and have a cleaver.

By the time the coconut was ready, I looked like I had been walking through rain and had to take a second shower.

Coconut and sesame paste tangyuan for dessert. Feels good, man.

Been buying tangyuan a lot these days after I learnt that the stall offers three kinds of soups instead of the peanut one my mum always bought, and one of them was almond soup. It was just simple almond-flavoured water to be consumed together with the dumplings but the overall experience was much better than if it was peanut-flavoured. Don't know why, maybe it's because I just like almond flavour.







Halfway through the walk from the market home, my left shoe suddenly felt like it's got something very sticky on the heel.

Lifted my foot up and saw nothing.

Then it hit me - oh fuck my sole is coming off!

The outsole had detached from my shoe on the back half and was only holding on between my toes and a little bit behind the ball of my foot.

After that I thought about the short distance home and decided to just ignore it and hope it doesn't come off completely before I get home.

Walked the rest of the way feeling as if I was wearing flip-flops because the outsole kept slapping my heel after every step.

But it held on!

And when I got my, my new shoes were waiting for me on my desk. My bro had signed it for me.

:D

And all is well again.

But I have to say, the timing of the both of them was impeccable.














EDIT: No idea why I remembered the price of the coconuts as $11 for 3. I saw the receipt just now which stated it was $4 for 3 and I've corrected this since.

Rant 1003 / Need New Discounted Pants

I wonder what I said in the last rant that attracted the 28 pageviews within 24 hours. Most of my posts don't get this number of views this quick - even the thousandth only got 26 pageviews so far.

And pageviews only increase when people go to the link of that post specifically instead of reading it on the main blog page.

I honestly have never fully understood why people come here at all.

If it's because there are people who actually like to read about my work, be prepared to be disappointed.






















Was checking the laundry when I found a pair of pants belonging to my bro's gf. Nice material.

Asked him about it and fortunately for me, he had bought it for her so he could check the website for the material.

Turned out to be just cotton with a water-resistant plastic layer similar to what I have on all the jackets I sell.

So I went to the website and I have to admit it's got some pretty damn good selection. It was the first website where I could find pants my size and larger within the first 5 items I clicked on under the Men's Pants category.

They even state the inseam lengths available, which is not standard practice for me and the pants I sell.

That was pretty nice.

By the way it's JShoppers.com.

It's slightly inconvenient because the website seems to only allow prices to be displayed in JPY and GBP, but I have a currency converter website bookmarked anyway.

Prices aren't cheap, eg the cotton chinos pants I like with the same water-resistance costs almost S$50 each. Nonetheless I find these prices reasonable because Japanese goods are known for their consistent and reliable quality even though they're mostly China-made.

In addition, shipping and handling charges for my country add another 900JPY (S$15) for orders under 12kJPY (almost S$200).

TBH I can just buy 4 pairs but the problem is that I'm reluctant to buy regular-priced items.

This is a pretty hard decision for real.

Should I keep wearing these cargo pants (some of them with rather visible faded hem lines) or should I spend the extra $40 I can probably save by buying at the end of the year (if it turns out to be a 20% discount)?

I am tempted to buy but after some consideration I concluded that it's not necessary.

All my current buyers are already used to my appearance by now and I'm not planning to make cold calls this year. In my office, I want to maintain the appearance for very obvious reasons.

So I think I'll keep my money. Maybe at the end of the year I can get my bro's help.

If they restart their current referral campaign then, I'll get him to refer me and consolidate all our orders into whichever account allows the biggest discount.

If they don't, we'll just use his account.

In addition, we'll see what other promotions they have then and make adjustments to this plan depending on what surprises we find.






Cotton chinos pants, casual suede shoes, polo tees, I think my wardrobe is about to be completed within this year.

Just need some shorts for home use and shoe cleaning supplies.

I think I'll get those sweat shorts from JShopper together with the pants, unless I find cheaper alternatives. Stuff I wear at home don't need quality and therefore should be as cheap as I can find.

The suede brush and spray, I'll probably get it tomorrow at a random Bata store. Heard they sell those.






















Just got an email from Gilt about my shoes being shipped.

Holy crap! They're using DHL!

No wonder shipping cost US$20!

Rant 1002 / Purchase With Purchase Is Such An Awesome Idea

Made some bad mistakes today. I told one of the buyers the cost prices of some sweaters I'm about to order.

The purpose of showing them was to see their reaction, to see what happens if I show them to these before I order them.

I used to only tell their most senior buyer these things and show her before I order, but these time I did it with them.

Might or might not be a good move. I don't know.

What I do know is I probably came across as a really naive guy, or worse, an idiot.

I shouldn't have showed them, on hindsight.

That's not a really bad mistake though. These designs I showed them were edited versions of those I noticed elsewhere, therefore they weren't original ideas in the first place.

Letting them steal my ideas would be perfectly acceptable to me. Even if they don't, I'm coming up with new stuff anyway. In fact, since the day I sent the orders for these samples, I've already saved a number of new ideas ready for another order.

The more senior one even told me to email her the photos of these sweaters in case she forgets about them by the time they arrive (I honestly told them these were meant for the end of the year). There was no way I could have politely refused her request, so I'm going to do it on Monday.

Obviously I'm going to see these on their racks soon... and they won't be mine.

Which means I'm not going to tell the manufacturer to produce these exactly.

More work, but the thought of making a profit from my own designs gives me a feeling that I don't get from selling my mum's old stuff.

In other words, I'm only slightly annoyed at this.

The more major mistake was telling them the cost prices. That was probably a huge thing.

I'm so glad my mum instructed me to absolutely never reveal the actual prices, regardless of who is asking, so all the numbers I said were instinctively jacked up.

Nevertheless I'm rather pissed that I did that at all because those numbers can still give them a price range that's too close to the truth for comfort.

I was talking so fast I didn't even realize it was a bad idea until one of them told me I didn't have to tell them the cost, just the selling prices I had in mind.

le sigh

On the whole, logically speaking, these are probably (and hopefully) inconsequential. Now they probably have the impression that I'm way too honest and I didn't really lose anything (again, hopefully) in the process. I say hopefully because I know I'm not particularly smart and therefore I'm unlikely to have thought of all the possible consequences of my actions today.



Also, showing clients the stuff and asking for advice before ordering them is not standard practice. I'm just taking full advantage of my "noob" status to test the water. Right now anything I do wrong, I can say, "Sorry, I didn't know."

I won't be able to do this all the time next year.

People don't do that because it's easy to steal ideas, especially when small-time players like myself can't fight the big companies. In my case, they knew my mother so I'm betting on their sympathy to keep them honest to some degree and give me real feedback on how to improve on the designs before I get them manufactured.

Running a business with the barest minimum of basic knowledge, I need all the help I can get if I'm to survive over the long term, by hook or by crook.

It's dishonest, I know, but it's not like it's going to harm anyone except myself. In fact under normal circumstances, anyone else doing what I did would have to be extremely stupid.





As for my income, holy crap this month is terrible!

I had thought that traffic would pick up when the Great Singapore Sale began but the only thing that's going up right now is the Chinese Yuan.

The GSS isn't working and apparently never did!

Not for my industry anyway.

More people need to visit Australia! >:(

And I'm sooooo reluctant to pay that supplier in China for the latest batch of pants right now.

1SGD = 4.929 RMB

What.

It was like 4.98 just a couple months ago the last time I made a payment.

Meanwhile nobody is ordering much from me. I can totally understand what my staff is saying when they complain about having to dig through the stock to take out merely one piece of clothing. It feels almost like a total waste of time and effort TBH.

Before I visited the buyers, the original main goal was to gauge their traffic. When I arrived, it was clear to me they weren't lying when they told me they weren't getting much business during this period. The traffic was really no different from previous months.

Same with another store that I visited on a separate occasion.





















Been reading up on savings accounts ever since my bro signed up for one at Citibank and it's got some nice benefits over our DBS accounts, like a free chequebook and a slightly better debit card than my Visa debit card.

During the process, I've also been looking at the few lower level private banking services of some of the major banks here in Singapore that I qualify for. A lot of them are simple to join - just have enough money there and they will automatically enroll you into whatever you qualify for.

For example, the HSBC Advance Account only requires S$20k in any combination of deposits, insurance and investment or a loan of S$100k.

This is like the lowest I can find so far, if it can even be considered as private banking, and its privileges are proportionally poor.

However, I don't see how I can use most of the services offered by the banks. They mostly provide advice on investments and give nice discounts on a lot of things.

The problem is that I can't take risks. Heck, I've got plenty of risks right here in my office ever since I signed the 5-year contract with the landlord. That's the biggest investment in my portfolio ever and contains risks I'd rather not think about often.

Not interested.

Other than that, you usually get nice cards, sometimes for free, filled with better privileges and reward programmes. For a person with my kind of spending habits, this can be completely ignored, leaving me with practically no benefit that I can get from their services.

In any case, when I said I qualify for some of these, I mean I would have to throw in every cent I have. Well, except for the HSBC Advance, but that's pretty much pointless.

I mean, their rates for everything are just far too shitty for me to even consider considering. For example, 0.19% for a 12-month SGD time deposit? Are you kidding me?

In the end, I remain in favour of the Citibank Maxisave account.

I may just transfer most of my cash from DBS to Citibank if it's worth it. Probably not. The card's just a flat 1% cashback (with min. spending of $500 a month) compared to the 0.3% of my current card and the chequebook is useless.

The downside is that Citibank branches aren't as conveniently located as DBS and POSB branches. With internet and mobile banking, this isn't really a big issue at all.

The decision can then be boiled down to convenience of physical branch locations versus the 0.2-0.7% increase in cashback. Two almost negligible issues.

Hard decision.

Rant 1001 / Palindromes

With over 6k dislikes and 3k likes, it's clear I'm not the only one doing mental facepalms watching this.


























Augmented reality (AR) should work with cabs. People waiting along the road would type their destinations into their mobile devices and taxi drivers will see a translucent virtual signboard above their heads stating whatever they typed in.

Maybe the AR display could be inserted into or onto the windscreen so that drivers won't have to put on any glasses or whatever.

The implementation could get problematic. I can already see a few problems with it that will need to be fixed.

For one, the virtual signs may block the important parts of the driver's view of the road, especially at the junctions.

Another thing is the number of signs when there are queues. If ten people are squeezing into a taxi stand on a rainy day, how can the signs be separated?

Third, how can the developers make sure the signs are only displayed when the users are actually waiting for a cab? For example, what if a user forgets to turn it off?

But if these can be solved, life will be much more convenient for both taxi drivers and their passengers.

I'm just saying because taxi drivers here tend to have a specific destination at certain hours when they change shifts. At most taxi stands, only a few at the front of the queue would be able to ask the driver if they are able to drive them to their destinations. No driver ever bothers to ask the entire queue or waits for everyone to ask.

AR would allow drivers to immediately pick their passengers without much hassle. This will require some form of two-way interaction in the programme though. Maybe the mobile device would ring or beep and it would display the taxi's plate number when the person is chosen.

Someone steal this idea please. It's really annoying to wait for cabs at around 4-6pm here in Singapore. During that part of the day, it's actually not abnormal to have 7-8 empty taxis pass by.

Hell, this programme can even allow people to share cabs with strangers. Dammit, this idea is getting more awesome by the minute.

AR can also replace road signs, allow driving despite bad visibility and even provide ad space when the car is not on the road.

Oh yes, and it can also replace rear view mirrors. In fact, with cameras being so cheap these days, you can easily fix enough of those on the car to give the driver a 360-degree view around the vehicle - on both the horizontal and vertical axes!

By the way, I don't think there's any point in looking directly up or downwards but it sounds cool.

The key to implementing this entire concept is the windscreen. Coming up with a cheap and easy way to display AR on a vehicle's windscreen is the biggest obstacle, but that's up to the engineers to solve.

I'm sure it's possible, just not cheap and easy at the moment.


























Do people really still wear perfume to cover their body odour?

Why not use deordorant instead?

Just noticed that my housekeeper wears perfume (and she's been working for us for years now) to work and doesn't shower before she leaves.

Used to assume they all do because the ones before her did, but I noticed she doesn't do so ever since I started waiting for her to finish to pay her before she leaves.

Hence my questions.

Before I was the one paying her, I used to close my door the entire day since she irons our clothes right outside the room. Never really watched them work.

It's the same with one of my staff who uses some pretty strong perfume.

Actually I'm not too sure if that's also her reason. Nevertheless the whole office is always filled with her perfume whenever I go to work in the morning.

I don't know if it's polite to ask either, and it's not important enough for me to risk it.

It's just weird. Nobody I know other than these two women wear that much perfume at all.

Moreoever, isn't deordorant cheaper and lasts longer?

Less feminine I guess but I don't see what purpose their feminity serves when they're at work.






















I don't know if this is really true but apparently some people are saying online that it's imperative that the colour of the belt must match the colour of the suede shoes. Preferably but not necessarily a suede belt, and the colour must be the same. The shade doesn't seem to matter though as long as they're close.

Time to get a new belt. Not exactly an issue because the one I'm wearing is pretty ugly when exposed. I say that because it's usually covered by my tucked-out shirt.

I've never been to anywhere formal enough to require tucking in after secondary school.

A new belt wouldn't hurt. My belt has lost most of its paint over the years and whatever's left are in the form of cracked flakes that continue to drop off gradually.

But it's not urgent and shall be placed on my list of things to get at the end of the year when all the major Christmas sales begin.

Thought about getting a suede belt but I don't think it's a good idea to have yet another suede item that requires extra attention. I'm just not that kind of guy. I'm already concerned about whether I'll care for the shoes enough in the long term.


















Fishcakes!

Bought some fishcakes on Sunday afternoon and the market was pretty empty. The seller was free enough to talk to me and give me tips on how to cook it.

I was planning to make some kind of soup noodles initially but she told me I could fry it a bit before cooking it with vegetables.

Tried it and she was right.

More variety!

Also bought 60 fishballs from her. Those things, like the fishcakes, are so versatile.





















Bought a Neoflam non-stick wok today at 40% off. Pretty awesome, the 40%, but the final price was still over S$80.

Someone recommend it to me and I was in need of a new non-stick wok. My current Tefal one has become very, very sticky and has a few scratches from my brother's and my early cooking mistakes.

Cooked today with the new wok. Felt so damn good.

It's supposed to have a ceramic coating known as "Ecolon" that doesn't have the PFOA stuff that other non-stick layers contain so I don't have to worry when it gets scratches or something other than about its non-stick feature.

The ceramic material also makes the coating more durable.

For $80, it better be.

The 30-cm wok is deeper than the Tefal wok of the same diameter I've been using but has a smaller bottom. Easier to cook in IMO.

Also got a voucher from the purchase for a free synthetic diamond or a free pearl.

Wasn't interested.

Since I have yet to find a use for the last free pearl I redeemed (and I've already forgotten where I kept it), they can keep their pearls and diamonds this time.

What can I do with a diamond anyway?

It's not like I need a glass cutter or something.

Neither was I interested in the S$25 voucher for the Renoma stuff they sell in the store. They don't sell belts and they don't have pants my size.
























Courts obviously is doing well with its Flexi plans but I do not have a positive opinion about it.

It's pretty much BS IMO, this instalment thing. 12-60 months? I can't imagine paying for any of my furnitures for 5 whole years!

If you can't afford to buy something with a single payment, you probably shouldn't buy it at all. Furthermore, defending yourself by citing your low income only makes it worse.

If you can afford paying a small fee regularly, you can start saving a bit of your income regularly.

If you can handle the latter, you could have paid less. In Court's case, 12% per annum less - minimum. And if you're taking the 60-month plan, that's a whopping 60% over the original price at least!

The other possible reason for going for the Flexi plan is that the customer might want to change his furnitures before all the payments are made.

Actually I'm not sure about this and Courts isn't very clear about the terms of such a contract on its website.

But theoretically speaking, if Courts merely takes back the furniture in the event that the customer stops paying before it's paid in full, this could be exploited.

On the other hand, it would make more sense that Courts would impose a heavier penalty for such a thing.

In any case, it still doesn't really make sense for people to go for its Flexi plans. They're almost like the furniture's equivalent of the home loan, except I don't expect the average guy to ever manage to save up enough money to buy a house before he needs one.























Played ME2 on Insanity a little. Reached Mordin's clinic but got a little bored.

I really should change my class. I've already played as the Sentinel before and it's kinda easy.

Maybe I'll take the Infiltrator this time. The skills sound fun.

So the next time I play, which is probably tomorrow night, I'll be restarting it with another class.























The UN proves to be another League of Nations by being completely incapable of handling the situation in Syria.

You can blame China and you can blame Russia, but back when you were considering letting them into the Security Council you should have seen that coming. Predicting the future, aka having foresight, is part of the jobscope of any leaders of any countries.

Rant 1000 / A Kilorant Of Words

This feels kinda like the Internet - it was never expected to go this far.

Similar to the IPv4 system, I started with three digits for the number since my first post and thought it was more than enough.

One thousand posts.

Thought about doing something special but didn't see the need for that.























I didn't use to notice the benefit of having iced water when it's hot but now I do.

I was desperate since I'm too cheap to get my AC repaired and I needed a way to endure the hot weather.

It's 32 degrees right now.

It feels even hotter after meals.

So I got a large cup of iced water... and I stopped sweating for a while.

This is even better than the wet towel I used in the past.























It's high time I start working now. My anxiety has reached the point where I won't be able to sleep if I don't do anything about it.

I'm not eating tonight until I've done what I need to do - find some designs.

I don't even know why I procrastinate - I have practically nothing to lose and everything to gain!

...

3 hours spent on scanning through over 7000 jackets.

My mind is now numb.


...

Designs were chosen for the next phase.

Yay!

But more is required. Can't just do unisex.

But I don't have to give a feck about men's jackets anymore for the rest of this year.

























The Greeks are in denial. This is... just wow.

Solemn warnings from abroad that Athens cannot stay in the euro while rejecting the terms attached to the billions offered to pull Greece out of its financial hole are widely disbelieved in a land that considers itself the envy of foreigners.

Frankfurt and Brussels say it is impossible for Greece to have one without the other: no bailout means no euro and a return to the drachma - "drachmageddon", as some Greeks call it.

"Empty threats!" said Nikos Sokos, 29, who works in a cafe in central Athens. "There's no way they're going to kick us out. There won't be a euro zone if they do that."

They can and they will if nothing is done to plug the giant financial black hole that is their country. What choice will they have? From Germany's perspective, they would rather kill the euro (if that is the result at all) than let the entire Eurozone go bankrupt just because of them.




























You know SWTOR is dead when...

D:






















It's been getting harder to rinse shampoo off my hair these days. I'm not sure when this began but it's probably since last year.

At first it was just one patch of my hair but now it's the entire crown.

Basically after my hair dries, they stick together and become hard like there's dried shampoo inside.

Except I've been trying to rinse my hair pretty thoroughly recently and it's not working. And yes I've tried massaging my scalp and all that.

After some googling, it seems this is likely to be caused by a buildup of some chemicals in my shampoo.

No idea why it only happened now. Maybe it's this Pantene shampoo I've been using consistently ever since I began buying my own. It's cheap, only S$6.50 for 700ml in this budget store in my neighbourhood.

I think I may have to visit an actual hair salon or buy some clarifying shampoo, if applying vinegar/baking soda doesn't work.
























Oh fuck! The bank in Hong Kong requires the letter of administration to be resealed in Hong Kong.

Fuck!

I don't think there's enough money in that account to cover another lawyer's fees and a return air ticket there.

According to my lawyer the resealing of the letter of administration is going to be a repeat of the application process, ie I should avoid it if possible.

I'm now asking the bank to be lenient and just send me the money. If not, and if I'm right about the amount there, I'm going to just forget about it.




























The worst thing about it was the silence. The absolute silence.


























"There's a fine line between my ass."


























Went to the Philips Carnival Sale on the 26th. Initially planned to buy just the Airfloss and a steam iron but ended up with a nose trimmer too. It was cheaper than if I had used my points in its online store.

New toys!

The Airfloss requires an initial recharge of 24 hours before I can use it though :(

As a Philips Family Rewards member, I also got a set of iPad casing and screen protector for free.

It's kinda nice especially since my screen protector has yet to arrive after 2 months. I'm not in a hurry because the order isn't going anywhere and I'm already used to using the iPad without it. At worst I'll just ask them for a refund which will most likely be in the form of store credits.

As for the casing, it's made of a softer leather than the one I'm using. Not sure if it's better but it sure feels like it is.


























Tomorrow the reyclers come to get their green recycling bags.

I wonder if they will accept my old pots. Not because they're old but that they've been left in the open in the kitchen for so long a thick black greasy layer has formed on all of them.

And by "long" I mean years.

It's disgusting enough that I couldn't touch them with my bare hands.

























So apparently there was this shooting in a Finnish town on Friday. Now the interesting thing is that a Finnish guy told me a major newspaper in his country printed a map of the town center and explicitly explained how this man maximised his coverage with his rifle on the roof, almost as if its teaching readers how to do it.

I'm surprised they didn't tell everyone how to make bombs after all these terrorist attacks over the years.

The people have the right to know the truth!
























Just tried the Airfloss.

Nice gadget. This feels so much more convenient than using actual floss.

This thing has a tiny piston inside which I could feel compressing what I'm guessing to be a mix of air and water (could be just water, but that would take a pretty damn impressive pump inside) whenever I press the button.

More likely, it was just air and it works like a perfume spray.

Another nice unexpected effect was the lack of kick from the piston. I had half-expected some form of recoil when I heard the sound but I couldn't feel anything but a small sudden vibration.

When I floss, it's usually quite troublesome to get the floss between the teeth at the back. I'd have to twirl it around my fingers a few times to get a good grip for every gap, and the worst part is when the floss somehow catches onto something and untwines as I pull it out, leaving some tiny threads stuck between my teeth.

I solve that by flossing it with a new piece of thread but it's still very annoying.

With this machine, I won't have this problem.

The catch is that things that are very firmly stuck between the teeth, maybe like a piece of bone or just tartar like I have between a few of my teeth, won't be affected by the water spray. Good idea to have some floss around as backup.

Before this I was planning to revert to normal floss when this thing stops working but now, I may get a replacement when the time comes, depending on my income then.



















I'm now going to drink tea on each day that I'm not going out to see anyone.

Tea is like a weaker version of coffee to me, especially since I drink like 5 cups of it when I do.

The idea is to go cool turkey whenever possible so that the next cup of coffee gives a stronger kick when I need it.

Another reason for this is that I have no idea what to do with all this tea leaves my mum left behind. Despite the fact that most of them were vacuum-packed, there's only one of me and like several kilograms of them dried leaves.

I only need about half a tablespoon a day since I'm not into the hardcore thick stuff like my mum was.

At the current rate I'm going, some of them are bound to expire before I can get to them.

Too bad. None of my relatives like them. I don't particularly like that tea either because I'm more into a mix of tieguanyin and jasmine. She bought several types of leaves most of them tieguanyin and oolong and the stuff I'm using was from the large can she used to store her preferred mix.























I think the problem with internet discussions is that there is too little participation from the intelligent and the successful.

The result is that most internet discussions I see are made up of stupidity and ignorance.

I mean, since when has anyone been required to fork out 200k SGD as downpayment for a 300k HDB flat in Singapore?

That's not even the worst part. That distinction goes to the fact that almost nobody disagreed with the comment.

I strongly believe that more is required to correct misinformation and these festering boils of idiocy that are everywhere on the internet.

Apathy can kill.

Or am I one of the few people who are willing to do what must be done when a problem arises, while everyone else just waits for someone else to do it?

And I can't believe the number of Singaporeans who can spend all their time on the internet whining about how the government is making them "pay and pay".

If you have the time to whine online, you have the time to find out ways to make more money outside of your full-time job, like my accountant who's working full-time in the accounts department in some MNC, studies part-time in a university with course fees fully covered by the company, and does bookkeeping for us small businesses on the side.

That makes you more money; sitting around talking about how you have none doesn't.

I just cannot stand how the stupidity is allowed to grow on its own. Stupid people are fine but stupid people converting others to their religion of Stupidity are simply outrageous.

In addition, here in Singapore their misinformed whines and subconscious need for scapegoats for their own problems feed on each other till they become hateful morons who think everything can and must be blamed on the current ruling party of our government.

Can't get a good job and you have to pay your home loan for the rest of your working life with nothing left for a safety net? Blame the PAP.

An ex-bankrupt who can't get a loan and hence can't afford a home? Blame the PAP.

An ex-convict with the same problem? Blame the PAP.

Students dying from mysterious reasons? Blame the PAP.

Some dude killed his ex-lover? Blame the PAP.

Tampon not absorbent enough and blood is leaking from your panties? Blame the PAP.

There's a fly in your soup? Blame the PAP.

You've just wasted 5 minutes of your life reading my blog that you will never get back. Go blame the PAP for that too.

More of us need to get out there and correct their opinions. One or two of those may have been fine, but when there's enough of those voices, something called "mob mentality" kicks in. The resulting hate and idiocy can be greater than the sum of the individual parts.

Don't give me that bullshit about how everyone's entitled to their own opinions. That's only said by apathetic people who haven't seen enough. Moreover, it doesn't mean we should just let things be.

Because how about people who believe that drugs should be legalised? Not just weed but other stuff like Ecstasy and LSD.

Or mass suicide cults?

Or all those people who are now as good as bankrupts because they thought the end of the world was going to happen earlier this year?

Or people who worship serial killers?

More is needed to save the misguided from themselves. Even if we do not change their opinions, at least something should be done to correct the misconceptions of the uninformed.

A country is made up of its people. When the masses become idiots, the country is ruined and the fault lies in everyone who saw but did nothing to stem the tide of stupidity.

Case in point: Nazi Germany.
























And suddenly I feel like having Hamburgers from MCD. At S$1.50 on its delivery menu, I think it's kind of a good deal now that I think about it.

Then again, it can get pretty dry after a while.





















Bought a pair of casual suede shoes on Gilt.

Undeniably a hasty decision because I only spent about 10 minutes googling and thinking about it.

I don't know why but I just like that pair of suede shoes. Just a simple design yet not too plain.

Just a pair of suede derby shoes

Looking at it just gives me that excited feel that I don't get from looking at other shoes. As for the brand, TBH I've never heard of it. Eastland? Probably not big here in Singapore.

First of all, I need a pair of shoes like yesterday. My current pair is old and breaking apart. I've already glued it thrice now, first time with superglue meant for wood and plastics, the latter two times with shoe glue. As the result of my lack of dexterity in my hands, the shoes are now fcking ugly.

The right sole is currently not attached to the shoe at the toe tip and above the heel; it's only hanging on at the bottom. The left sole is also not attached at the toe tip.

This is the pair I've been wearing for everything including work, ie including to meet buyers.

Secondly, it's a pair of Columbia hiking shoes. Heavy and probably has more traction than I need, yet strangely it still slips on wet tiles. The sole isn't even that worn out yet, with no flat areas anywhere.

Initially I wanted to get another pair of such shoes but after a bit of reading up on footwear, I decided to get something less out-of-place and was thinking of getting walking shoes instead.

Then I saw suede shoes on sale on Gilt a few days ago and I just liked the look immediately.

Usually when I go shopping I don't bother even glancing at most shoes other than the sports shoes, so I've never noticed suede shoes here in Singapore.

In any case I managed to stop myself from buying any of it that day but not this time.

I am aware that it would be a better idea to get out tomorrow and find some suede shoes to get a general idea of the price range here, but I just wanted it. It's that urge, that feel in the gut that says," That's it! Look no further! That's what you've been looking for! Now get it!"

Things I took into consideration before I succumbed to tempation:

1) It is a terrible idea to buy something without comparing prices.

2) Shoes my size are hard to find, even on an American site such as Gilt. If I wait, it might get sold out. I can only reserve it for 10mins at a time.

The last, combined with that urge, was the most important factor for my purchase.

Of course I made sure it was my size before I bought it. I even checked my shoes before I clicked.

In the end, the final net price of this decision was S$136, well within my budget for my next pair of shoes (I was having a max limit of S$200).

The problem now is that suede shoes require extra attention because the material can get ruined more easily than all the other shoes I've ever worn in my entire life.

Before it arrives somewhere between the coming week and the next, I'm also going to need to buy a suede brush and a suede spray.

That's important because it MUST last. I've never had a pair that lasted less than two years and I don't want this to be the first.






I also need a few pairs of pants but Gilt has nothing I want. The ones I'm wearing are fading, a few quite visibly. I should have bought some earlier this year when there were sales but it's too late to think about it now.






If this doesn't work out, at least I'll learn something.

In the event that it does, I'm going to need some new pants to go with it other than my current pairs of cargo pants.

Rant 999 / What Security?

Just realized that Procaster has a very unstable connection sometimes. Normally I close the window while I stream (it's invisible to viewers) but when I was recording my Mass Effect run, I left it open for a while and saw that it was disconnecting and reconnecting.

When I went into Procaster studio, the recording was split into like 20 videos that varied between 1 to 20mins.

What the heck?

So now I'm uploading the master copy from my PC. I'm just glad it records in both the Livestream server and my computer.


















Just watched 1911.

Realized that one unspoken important aspect of such a major revolution was that it also clears the debts of the previous government.

Well, most of it anyway. Britain still held Hong Kong, Portugal Macao and Shanghai remained kinda like a pizza split among everyone after the revolution.

Another thing I thought was that it would be nice to have a war movie that portrays both sides of the story.

Most movies are about the winning side. The people on this side are usually portrayed as heroes and the other side is full of dumb fucks.

That's not true.

If say, someone makes a movie about Napoleon's wars, he'd be the hero most of the time until Waterloo.

But Napoleon I was an ass from the start when he twisted the French Revolution for his personal ambitions. He betrayed his entire nation and was basically just like Yuan Shikai. In fact I thought Napoleon's story showed what China would have been if Yuan Shikai had managed to hold on to power.

Or maybe Stalin would have been a better example, since the weak military of China combined with its terrible political situation in those years would never have allowed Yuan Shikai to invade neighbouring countries successfully.

So as I was saying, the movie might have been more realistic if it could show more of what the Qing supporters were doing. Surely there was some good men among them, people who were as idealistic as Sun Yat-sen except they believed they could change the government from the inside and did all they could.

Just as there were assholes like Yuan Shikai on the Revolutionaries' side, I'm certain not all the high-ranking Qing officials were greedy bootlickers; people are never as uniformly conforming as that.

However, doing so would have changed the focus of the film from celebrating and commemorating the revolution to being anti-war.





















For some reason, my modem died this morning. The LED light for internet access went red on my gateway device (the technician described it as "a modem and router combined") and it's been like this since.

Restarting it doesn't work at all and the tech support hotline didn't know what to do either.

I'm now on my USB modem whose router is being recharged constantly by my PC so it gives me internet access but with crappy 3G bandwidth.

...

Okay it resurrected the following day. All is well again.





















I;ve just spent US$5 on this RPG called "Unemployment Quest".

WHAT HAVE I DONE??!

It's just a 2D RPG a la classic JRPGs about... unemployment.

I'm not spending anymore at this site from now on until I see something really good. This was a really hasty decision.

I've also backed Legends of Eisenwald with US$15 but that's a turn-based tactical RPG which I feel the PC platform sorely lacks these days.

On the other hand, it's US$15. I paid less for Fallout: New Vegas and Fallout 3.

Still, it's an indie developer with a good idea.

The last project I'm backing is Kitaru, which may or may not succeed. Most likely will, but who knows?

It's hit 72% of its funding goal with 14 days to go, so I'm not sure if it will succeed. Likely but nothing is certain.

It's also a RPG, albeit turn-based active time (think FF franchise) but the important thing here is that it's going to be on both the PC and iOS.

My iPad is like the PS3 right now - no gaems.

There's actually just one interesting game at the moment called "Castle Master 3D" which is a strategy game and action RPG combined.

Since it's a mobile app, the aspects of both genres have been greatly simplified from what it can be on the PC.

Since this game is about you saving the almost extinct humans from the monster invasion, the strategy comes in the form of retaking the castles which have been uniformly spread across the land.

You can only attack monster-controlled castles that are next to your own castle, and you begin with just one right at the southwestern corner in a rectangular map.

Castles generate income and train soldiers. Money is placed into a unified treasury but soldiers are garrisoned into the castles they were trained in. They can then be transferred manually and this process takes time, money and control points.

Control points can be recharged for free to max capacity of 150 points daily. More can be bought with real cash.

To provide a sense of scale, each invasion you attempt costs 5 points and each transfer, regardless of number of soldiers, cost 2 points.

Money is earned by the automatic tax collection that happens regularly (not sure how long). The amount is affected by your Intelligence, the number of citizens and their loyalty.

The number of citizens are gained gradually, usually through good random events and are limited only by level of the castle (there are three). Their loyalty decays gradually from a maximum of 120, although it can be raised by spending money or by good random events. There are bad random events that decrease both.

And that's that for the big picture.

Zooming in to the warfare, we have five kinds of soldiers: spearmen, scouts, warriors, gladiators and knights, arranged according to cost.

By the way there are no guides or wikis on this game, so everything here is either from the ingame tips or my own observations.

Anyways, spearmen are the most useless. They are multiple times as tanky as scouts but they do shit all damage.

Scouts, vice versa.

Warriors have the second best damage in the game and they're about twice as tough as scouts so they're the real damage dealers when money is not the issue.

Gladiators have insane HP compared to everyone else, or twice as tough as knights, so they appear to be the real tanks... except they do area damage with the whirlwind-like skill they use with their axes. So I'm thinking they're not tanks but damage dealers specialising in AoE damage.

Knights have the highest damage and second most HP in the game.

What I know for sure is that in desperate times, gladiators and knights are my best friends. Seriously, during the few times when everyone in my army is dead, only these two types of soldiers remain to help me defend my castles.

These guys actually last; everyone else is just support. With them around, I've won defensive battles against 150 enemies with just 60... and lost 10.

Furthermore, each type of soldiers can be individually upgraded. Each upgrade cost money and takes time and will apply to all soldiers of the type across the map.

Now to the micro scale, the RPG. As I have mentioned previously, you have Intelligence. Other than that, you have Strength and Constitution. Strength increases damage, Constitution increases HP and Intelligence increases the damage of your special skills and the taxes you collect.

Weapons come in three types - shield-and-sword, dual-wield shortswords (or daggers, whatever) and broadsword.

The first increases your toughness, have average movement speed and the first special skill is basically shield bash - cheap MP cost, quick recharge, does crap damage and pushes the target back.

The second gives you more damage, a fast movement speed and the first skill is just more damage with average cost and recharge speed.

The third has the most damage, slow movement speed and the first skill does AoE damage with high cost and slow recharge.

I'm only discussing the first skills because that's how far I've gotten.

Weapons and armours are all readily available at the shops but other than the prices, they have level requirements, forcing you to buy one set at a time every few levels.

The problem is, it's not completely necessary.

With high Int, I can raise more taxes, train better and more soldiers and just watch my men fight. Although they can't be controlled, when there are even 50 soldiers, micromanagement kinda becomes obsolete anyway unless you're Korean. Coincidentally, that's where the game's made. I guess the devs were kind enough to level the playing field for the international players.

Of course, the other way is by brute force and become a force of nature with high strength and/or constitution, therefore rendering your troops pointless.

Actually I'm not sure if this path is possible because you would have to kill really fast. Otherwise, enemies further from you may just ignore you and attack the castle gates which you have to defend.

In my first try I went for this path and lost because I lost everything but my first castle.

Right now I'm typing this because I just lost one fully upgraded castle due to my carelessness.

Which brings us to the point that this game is as hardcore as classic games.

It shows no mercy. If I accidentally let myself die by not watching my HP bar, my army automatically loses even if it vastly outnumbers the enemies.

So if I'm defending, the castle just get lost to enemy hands. Worse, it loses all its upgrades, so that even if I retake it I have to rebuild it from scratch.

Retaking is easy if I retaliate immediately before the AI has time to dig in (bring reinforcements, upgrade defenses), hence I keep large garrisons in every castle just in case.

Fortunately, I don't have to stay inactive like in Mount & Blade in which I'd be held as a POW for ransom, so I can act quick.

Speaking of defense upgrades, there is almost none, just a tougher gate and some damaging spikes near it.

Finally there is the time.

The game does not progress when it's closed like other games because time is an important aspect of the game.

Everything is in real-time, so enemies can invade at any moment. This can get particularly irritating when you have only a skeleton force in a castle because the AI would keep throwing everything it has against you thinking it had any chance of succeeding against my army of 30 gladiators and knights with its army of 100. At one point I barely had time to restock my potions before the next invasion countdown ended.

Of course I have to get in the fray myself. The game would be so boring if I just watch, although I risk exactly what happened to me just now when I fight. Moreover, with my army so badly outnumbered, I had to do everything I can to stop my soldiers from dying.

But usually, the AI only attacks once in a while, especially once I have a sufficiently large garrison in each castle.

As for the very beginning, I start with a small army and one castle and the enemy has never attacked me at all until I invade any of its castle.



Anyways, it's getting too annoying due to my carelessness. Also, can't reload because it's always autosave.























So the Trappist (a Roman Catholic Order) monastery in Hong Kong known as the "Trappist Haven Monastery" produces and sells milk, and it's called... "Priest Milk". It practically blew my mind with the amount of sense it made.

Actually it would be more accurate and less hilarious to call it "Priest brand milk". And maybe less "English" too.






















Diablo 3 is encountering a major security issue - what security?

A quick glance online shows multiple reports of Diablo 3 accounts being hacked, suggesting it is a growing issue. Players have seen the loss of items stored in character inventory and stash, and gold removed as their accounts are stripped bare. Blizzard has been working to "roll back" affected characters to a point before accounts were compromised, but some progress is lost.

This is pretty epic. Nobody really knows how they're doing it and Blizzard isn't saying anything. It's kinda like the start of most zombie flicks, before people realize they have to shoot them in the head.

Nobody knows how to prevent it. The current popular theory is that the hackers were hijacking session identifiers, a sort of temporary key that allows data exchange between the user and the server.

Official Blizzard advice isn't working either.

Blizzard offers an Authenticator designed to provide extra security to your account. Donlan did not have the authenticator before the hack, but reports suggest accounts have been compromised even with this enabled.

This is really bad. The authenticator is similar to those used by banks in that it provides a temporary code through a mobile device to be used to log in.

For local banks in Singapore, this is an almost obsolete technology in the form of the tiny device that shows a code based on an insanely complex time-related algorithm. Nowadays, the better banks like DBS use codes that are sent via instant messaging to our phones for online card transactions. Heck, even Google uses that (for this Blogger account, for example, I have to enter a code they send me every time I log in).

One bank I know that still uses only the authentication device is the Singapore branch of the Bank of China, although its internet banking is completely useless TBH so the security is pointless anyway. Even if someone steals my account, there isn't anything they can do with it. You can only transfer funds between accounts you own, and I only own a single account.

So in any case, if you own a legit copy of D3, it's probably for the best if you stop playing for a while until Blizzard fixes this.





In this video, the people moving around were hacked characters stripping and selling everything for gold in preparation for the release of the AH in the near future.

If you lose anything, there's no guarantee you're getting them back.

Rant 998 / Two Short For A Grand, Too Long For A Rant

It's a good thing I'm not an Indian. Think of how many mothers I cannot comment on!

Except that's in the Old Covenant which Christians don't really follow. He'd be better off saying he can quote the Torah instead.






He has a point. Why do they care so much about what people do when they're together in private? "Nobody's being gay at you."









J. Edgar Hoover was a hipster fag. He was gay before it was mainstream.


























Diablo 3 won't be cracked for some time as far as I can tell because the game uses server-based AI scripts, meaning the codes for the behaviour of the monsters and NPCs are on the servers and not installed on the users' computers.

It's almost like a MMO in this aspect, so it's almost impossible to "crack" the game now.

To create a server emulator, AFAIK there are at least two possible methods:

1) create AI scripts similar to the legit ones.
2) hack into Blizzard and steal the codes.

Those are what MMORPG private servers usually use anyway.

Anyways, I believe D3 is setting an example for future big-budget games. The game has basically prevented piracy by storing half the game on its on servers, and now that most people have good broadband access, the always-online thing shouldn't be a problem.

Sucks for people with internet or power issues though.

























Oh wow they're now selling the exact same portable router I'm using on some discount site for... S$35 (U.P. $75).

Right.

I bought 2 for US$22.70 each from DX back then, so that was roughly S$29.50 each.

And the $35 was only for self-collection; delivery costs $5 more.

Even at S$140 for 4, that's still $35 ie free delivery for a single order of 4 of those.

That's stupid. For four pieces, I could activate bulk rate for my order on DX and get the "3 or more" price of US$21 each, ie S$26.25 using the current rate of S$1.25 = US$1.00.


And that's a good example of how non-PRC-based retailers in Asia, online and physical, should not take the "cheap" path - it's a dead end.

You just can't beat the retailers from the country of origin of everything you sell!

This didn't use to be true back in my father's day but now that the Chinese retailers are going online, the rules have changed for every country that has good internet access availability.

Here in Singapore, the story is no different from that of Hong Kong, where retailers and wholesalers have adapted through quality assurance. Since there's no way we can beat the prices offered by China-based stores, the easiest path is to build up a reputation of reliability by spending more effort on checking the goods. We make sure we don't give you shit as often as Chinese sellers do, and in return we charge you more.

In a way, you can say that part of our job is to absorb risks for the consumers. If anyone ever thinks that he gets a lot of defective goods from SG or HK sellers, that person probably has no idea how terrible they really are over in China.

It's kinda like luxury retailers and posh restaurants which spend a lot of money on appearance and hype. They must spend more than others on their own products but that alone cannot justify their charging what they must to cover their costs.

For example, jewellery stores need more security than other kinds of retail stores (in addition to other higher costs like special expertise), but you can't just charge customers for that, so they make pretty boxes and bags, and use ambiance to make everything look high class. Those don't actually cost a lot and technically, they're nowhere close to justifying the differences between the costs and the selling prices of their products, but the feel of buying something from them that the combination produces do.

Anyways DX is a HK-based company which has a warehouse right next to a postal office. Clearly you will likely be able to find the same products sold there even cheaper if you went to China yourself or find an actual China-based online store, but DX allows free exchange for defective products and will pay for the postage when you mail it back.

There - reliability.

If I were to try and compete with that, I will have to find a way to justify my even higher prices since the import taxes and shipping charges here in Singapore are much higher.

In other words, I will need something that can beat that free exchange policy (and other things that DX offers, like reward points) without increasing my costs too much.

Until then, no Singapore online store will be able to match DX and similar websites (and there are A LOT of those).

Mankind is doomed! She has bred!























After overcoming a few challenges in Towns 0.46 I've got a town with a few heroes. It always felt like such a hassle to manually order my soldiers to explore the dungeons, so when the heroes arrived and automatically explored, killed the monsters and actually survive everything, the game felt so wonderful all over again.

The new challenge I'm facing is the lack of food partly caused by a complete absence of iron on the surface. I've fully explored the first level dungeon and all I've found is a lot of coal and copper deposits, yet not a single bit of iron.

Without iron, I can't make a stove. Without a stove, I can only keep making campfires to cook meat.

Anyways, my current solution is to build dining rooms in the further parts of the map that my people frequent together with a few barrels for storing prepared food and campfires so that there is an incentive to bring food to those dining rooms at all.

TBH this isn't really helping so I'm kinda out of ideas at the moment.

I have another idea which is to make a few plantations close to every entrance to the lower levels but that would take a lot of work. Trying to see if there are simpler solutions before I do that.

Meanwhile, my population has dropped from its peak of 41 to 13 due to sieges and starvation.


...


Ok it's been rising and dropping between 16-22 people. I'm not sure if hunger has been the issue since I haven't been checking on them while I was doing some other stuff but I've watched as a few of them were killed by dungeon mobs chasing injured heroes.

The residents are now wearing a mix of bone, iron, spiderite, goblinite and direrite equipment but most of them are still too weak to fight against a bunch of hobgoblin kaisers.


...


And it doesn't load my save after I restarted my PC.

D:

Oh well, I don't miss it anyway. Yes I have put in a lot of work but since I've never reached that far into this game before, most of the town was just an inelegant hodgepodge of temporary solutions.

This time, it's going to look nice.

























So it's not just Greece, but in several other western European countries people are transferring their bank savings elsewhere, although it is particularly serious in Greece.

Greece's banks have lost 72 billion euros in deposits since the start of 2010, or about 30 percent, according to data compiled by Thomson Reuters. Five of Greece's top banks saw 37 billion euros taken out last year, including 12 billion from EFG Eurobank (EFGr.AT) and 8-9 billion apiece at National Bank of Greece (NBGr.AT), Piraeus (BOPr.AT) and Alpha Bank (ACBr.AT).

More than 120 billion euros was taken from two banks in Belgium alone, including an exodus of customer deposits from Dexia (DEXI.BR) which had to be bailed out and restructured. KBC (KBC.BR) also saw a big outflow.

Some 90 billion euros was taken from France's banks, including around 30 billion each from Credit Agricole (CAGR.PA) and BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA).

Imagine if the Greeks reverted to their drachma. Dohoho!



























Why would I donate money to the family of the taxi driver who died in the recent accident with the speeding Ferrari when there are worthier causes to donate to that are featured in flyers I get together with my utility bill every month?

Even if the widowed wife is unskilled, the three children are aged 17, 19 and 21! All of them could take care of themselves, and surely the insurance will provide more than enough for the funeral and living expenses for at least a couple months.

The 17-year old could get a shitty part-time job, the 19-year-old should be going for NS which means SAF is going to provide for him for two years, and the 21-year-old is either working or studying at an university or poly soon, which means she's qualified for some better-paying part-time jobs.

Donating hundreds or even thousands of dollars to them does not make sense to me, especially since I know how well hospices do in Singapore.

I still remember that one time after the funeral when I called the nurse counter there and asked if they still wanted the unused adult diapers I got for my mother before she was hospitalised. I clearly stated that they were unused but the bags have been opened and they were a little dusty.

Frankly, I was taken aback by the sense of urgency she had in her voice when she exclaimed,"Yes! Yes! Yes! We want! We want!"

Whoa! Chill! Those were just diapers!

I didn't even bother to mention the cheque donation. Didn't want her to jump and scream or anything like that. Those patients there need the tranquility.

And if a hospice, a place which few Singaporeans ever visit (and many more don't even know what "hospices" are), can run on such a tight budget, then what about all these free clinics that SP Services are helping to advertise?

That family can take care of itself financially but these clinics are probably barely able to operate every day.

If I had the money to donate, that family would be the last group of people I'm giving it to. I'm not going to donate money just because someone died tragically. Let me put it this way: he died a quick death unlike my parents, so I have little sympathy for him, and only slightly more for his surviving family.

What they really need now is psychological and spiritual support, not financial.























I don't get why D3 is getting so much hate, but I believe it's because other game companies are behind it.

Would Blizzard really make such a bad game?























That feel when I'm sending an email in the cab and realize that my router died while I was typing it.

I really need to get into the habit of recharging it every night regardless of whether I'd only used it for 20mins the day before.

Or at the very least, take it out of my bag everyday and put it back in before I go to bed, just to force myself to think about whether it needs to be recharged.

It's annoying when I need to get that email out before office hours end and I won't be reaching home that soon.
























I turned on my phone's wifi the other day at about 5pm and left it on.

Nothing happened.

1am. New message on Whatsapp.

Message was sent 13 hours ago at 10am.

Oh Whatsapp, you so hilarious.

It's funny because it's true.
























Right now I worry about the end of the year. I'm watching what videos I can find on fashion shows for autumn/winter 2012 but I can't see much.

I have no idea what to look out for.

I'm probably wasting my time.

But I need to get some designs out soon to order them in time for our winter season, and I haven't got any.

I'm not even going to release anything new for June and July, just reorders for old stocks. Kinda learnt something from the last few months. Shit doesn't move and just clog up my storage space.






















So the terahertz range is great for data transmission but it doesn't work over long distances.

Routers.
























I want to sell my TV but... I haven't finished my PS2 games.





















To me, the worst thing about witchhunts in medieval times was not that innocent people were killed but that there were witchhunters who killed them and yet lived for the rest of their lives believing they had never made a mistake and were even rewarded and respected for their deeds.

Which only goes to show that justice cannot be taken for granted.






















The poor does not like meritocracy. It is fair but unfair.

All these unhappy voices online, they are the victims of meritocracy. Pity the poor, they say. It is not always their doing, they say.

And I agree with the latter.

If not for what my parents left me, I would be struggling through life with a terrible job.

More importantly, I'd be one of those voices.

I'll do what I'm willing to do to give them more opportunities but never will I give the poor man a fish. Medicine, maybe, but no fish.

The question is: do the talentless and the unfortunate deserve sympathy?

Should we feed the useless just because they are human?

I agree the question was phrased harshly but the purpose is to exaggerate our differences.

That man who is strolling nonchalantly across the road when the green light is on for the cars, and then shouts vulgarities and gives the finger to the drivers who horn at him, are we equals?

Yes. Despite my disdain, I must say yes.

However, should we treat the talentless and the unfortunate the same?

If not, how do we differentiate between them?

And don't give me the nonsense that nobody is useless. Tell that to the blind beggar in the streets who has no legs, no education and only has working experience in some form of manual labour. Go ahead and tell him he is a useful and productive member of his society.

Or tell that to Kony.