Rant 1244 / Why Am I Letting Them Accumulate?

30 Mar 2018

Itchy feet but can't travel to anywhere I want to go! I want to go snowboarding again! August, September!

Have to make do with Genting in the coming week instead. Road trip again. A friend initially wanted to book a room for me with excess points (the account had over 90 points, while the cheapest rooms tend to cost 10-15 per night for me) after getting a free room, but somehow the online system refused to finish the reservation process despite using both Chrome and Firefox, so we gave up and I booked a standard room at First World for 60MYR per night.

My friend's account could have booked any night for free even without points, according to the rates calendar online, but I guess they don't allow multiple simultaneous bookings.

Anyway, this time I'm going to test out the theory that the number of points we earn is not based on how much we spend, but how long we spend on a table or machine. What I'm going to do is to stick my membership card in a slot machine and sit there all day long watching movies and playing games on my phone, preferably next to my friend so that we can take washroom breaks while leaving our cards in the machines.

This theory isn't stated anywhere on the RWGenting website, but it makes more sense given how little points we earned during our last few trips despite spending a couple thousand ringgits in total (excluding our wins).




















Well, fuck. Apparently coffee contains enough of this carcinogenic substance acrylamide that coffee sellers in California have to label a warning on their coffees. It's none of my business that they have to go through the trouble of scaring customers away, but doesn't that make coffee on par with cigarettes?

Superior Court Judge Elihu Berle said Wednesday that Starbucks and other companies failed to show that benefits from drinking coffee outweighed any risks. He ruled in an earlier phase of trial that companies hadn’t shown the threat from the chemical was insignificant.

I'm going to have to drink less coffee. Er... hello, Red Bull. JK, Red Bull tastes like shyt.

























15 April 2018

You know, what if all the talk that palm oil is the cause of all the deforestation in various countries like Indonesia, and it's a major factor that leads to the haze that visits Singapore every once in a while, it's like we should be weaning ourselves off palm oil, right?

I mean, they're everywhere, in every food product and oil blends that says "vegetable oil" anywhere on the packaging. It's so widespread it's easy to see why the Indonesians are slashing and burning land as fast as they can to grow more oil palms!

But here's the thing: so what if we stop using palm oil? Our demand for cooking oil is the direct cause of this, and stopping the use of palm oil only leads to using a replacement.

There is a reason why palm oil is the most commonly used oil: it's efficient in its use of fertilizers and whatever chemicals they spray on all of them. In other words, they require the least amount of fertilizers and chemicals per unit volume of oil. That's what I would assume given the fact that palm oil is the cheapest edible oil out there.

In other words, the production of each unit volume of palm oil affects the environment the least already. If we were to use any other oil in this proportion, the effects would be much greater. Again, this is derived from an assumption.

So to reduce the environmental impacts of palm oil, what we really should do is to reduce our need for edible oil. Now that's a totally different ball game.





























27 April 2018

Settling legal stuff, the final bits of stuff I've been neglecting among the estate business of my parents. Supposed to be simple but it's just a lot of waiting.


Went to Genting twice this month, once with 60RM rooms via a road trip, once on free rooms via AirAsia and Grab.

Didn't win anything.

Cheap holidays to beat the hot humid weather here, that's all.

But I've been doing some research on our goal of an Antarctica cruise and although she is still at the stage of deciding between Seabourn and Silversea, I've long set my mind on the latter, so it's just about when and which ship to me.

So Jan is the best time to visit the continent as far as I'm concerned, because the whales are out and so are the penguin chicks, while the temperature is relatively warm, and less popular.

In terms of ships, I'm less inclined towards the most luxurious and biggest because the extra level of luxury in an Antarctica cruise for another US$7-10k seems way too excessive to me, and fewer people on board would make it easier for everyone to get to know one another, so the Silversea Explorer is my choice right now.

The 18-day cruise in Jan 2020 will cost US$17k, or S$23k, per person, so that means we both will have to set aside S$30k each for the airfare to Ushuaia, hotels and etc, and probably the optional shore excursions.

No more big trips exceeding $5k per pax until then.





























30 Apr 2018

So Genting, we have strong evidence that among the machine games like slots or electronic gaming, we score points by the number of games we play. On the other hand, the tables calculate our scores by how long we're there. It was nice to make about 5-7 points by investing just a hundred ringgits at the roulette table.
















Probably no expensive trips at all this year. The only trip exceeding a week this year in consideration is a road trip in Malaysia.Van can't afford anymore serious holidays so I won't be doing much either.






















Cockroaches have been spotted repeatedly in our home for the last several months. Though they have been spotted once in a blue moon in the kitchen over the years, they have never gone past the kitchen door... until now.

Since there is no sign of a cockroach infestation (no faeces other than those of the house lizards and our terrapins, no random dead cockroach until I started spreading over 20 baits and several pandan plants in my room, no egg casing, no cockroach smell), I am 80% sure one or more of our neighbours has/have a cockroach infestation problem. In the past, it might have been the occasional ones that crawl from the rubbish chute in our home that is to be expected, but now, there have been 5 in 12 months.

The first was in our bedroom probably over half a year ago and was caught. The second, if I remember correctly, was in our toilet months ago and was also caught. The third and fourth were spotted when I turned on the light in the bedroom a few nights ago, with one caught. A dead cockroach was found outside the kitchen door after the aforementioned baits were set, though there's no way to confirm that was the fourth one despite my hope that it was. A fifth was spotted in the living room yesterday and definitely got covered in Baygon but disappeared under the TV shelf. I now have 6 traps spread around the house outside my room which still has the baits and pandan leaves.

If the dead cockroach was the fourth one that vanished while I was focused on the third one, then the pandan leaves did work as a repellent.

Rant 1243 / Range Of Motion Is Key

17 Jan 2018

It's already been 11 years since the beginning of this blog, and I don't feel it. Maybe because the past has become fogged up and I can't see too far back.



























23 Jan 2018

Seems like it's close to impossible to defer from the coming ICT unless it's a matter of life and death. Partial loss of income is no excuse, and it probably has to be at least the risk of losing your job to be able to defer from this training. Pulau Tekong for ATEC Phase 2 this time, not looking forward to it.

Trying to get myself back in shape for it now. Haven't exercised much since leaving for Europe and the activities have mainly been for my legs (walking and snowboarding) so my arms are in bad shape. Not square one yet but I could only do 13 standard pushups and 3 military pushups before having to resort to knee pushups yesterday during the P90X3 session "The Challenge".

Nowhere close to my brother's rate of over 1 pushup per second sustained for at least a minute. I imagine it must feel like pushing air at first for him to be able to go at that speed.

Left arm hasn't healed completely though, and my guess is something is in the wrong place in the shoulder joint somewhere due to the different method used to put it back in during the first snowboarding class and the way I pushed it in more (it wasn't in the perfect position after that class but it wasn't painful) during my sleep later that night.

There is a chance the next time it goes back in the perfect position is the when I dislocate it and put it back in again. In the meantime, I have to be careful when I raise it up because for some reason it can sometibe painful like I'm pushing the upper arm bone against something in the joint.




































24 Feb 2018

Went to Danang again. This time I'm going to note down the prices of the coffee I bought.

The 200g bottles of Hello 5 brand Culi beans and Arabica from Big C were 83.9k VND (S$5-6) each. The two 500g packs of Robusta (tbh I prefer Arabica but they weren't very common there) were 115k VND (S$6-8) each. The 500g of fake civet coffee was 200k VND (S$12-14).

Honestly, the fake civet beans smell much better outside of the bag and I can't open any yet to test, so as far as I can tell now, the 200k price seems more worthwhile than the 115k ones, just because if I had wanted regular coffee, I don't have to fly to Vietnam to get it. On the bright side, regardless of whether this is regular or Vietnamese, the prices are below my personal threshold of S$25/kg for whole beans.

Hoi An was a bust. Too touristy, even if the HoiAn Sincerity Hotel & Spa was much much nicer than the Sea View DN Hotel despite being in the same price range. Danang was just much more interesting to us than Hoi An, regardless of how easy things were for us in the latter city.

Heck, the coffee alone was better in Danang than in Hoi An.

Unfortunately, we were in Danang too early in the Lunar New Year so most shops were closed, otherwise I believe I could have gotten better deals and/or beans. Oh well, at least what I got were still cheap.

Lost a lot of arm strength during this trip. 10 perfect pushups were easy, but after that I could only pull off one perfect military pushup. This is a far cry from the 4 that I could do before this trip, and the 8 that I managed to hit before Europe. At least my lower limbs feel much stronger now. All the slopes and steps in Vietnam helped keep that part of me in shape, so that is good for the coming weeks of ICT.


Anyway, if I hadn't mentioned this before, the fast food in Danang and Hoi An and maybe the entire Vietnam come in tiny portions, though in all fairness, the prices were low too. With a la carte burgers going at below S$5 each at Lotteria, it is easy to afford a veritable feast without hurting my wallet as a Singaporean, though eating burgers in Vietnam is only for when you or someone in your group needs some easy and affordable food in a relatively comfortable environment.

Otherwise, I'd rather just keep pointing at random food in the little eateries along the streets of Danang. During this trip, by doing this, we discovered this noodle in an orange soup that we believe to be pumpkin soup. I didn't even know the Vietnamese eat pumpkins!

Also, the seafood at the restaurants near Sea View DN Hotel were awesome for relatively low prices. 250k VND (S$15-17) for 6 shellfish (600g total when alive) that we believe to be rather large razor clams about 10-13cm long, barbecued and garnished with a mix of fried shallots, fried peanuts, fried chopped garlic and fresh chopped spring onions. Not sure if this was really cheap, maybe we were ripped off, but this was not expensive for what they were, at least for us tourists.

Rant 1242 / Was This Even A Thing? Was That?

Spent a month in Czechia and Austria. No kangaroos anywhere.

But seriously, I have to say that the Czech Republic has a lot more to offer than just Prague, Karlovy Vary and Cesky Krumlov.

No idea why, but almost nobody in the English-speaking world seems to know about Marianske Lazne, a beautiful spa town in northwestern Czechia. In a time long passed, it was a luxury mountain hideaway that catered to the wealthy and famous, and even now visitors can still see its intricately designed buildings and drink the hot spring water it was once famed for from the public fountains everywhere.

Speaking of which, tap water in the towns in that part of the country all taste like mineral water we Singaporeans can only taste from bottles. Van didn't like it as much, but after a lifetime of drinking rainwater, the salty flavour felt luxurious.

There are many other smaller spa towns, like Frantiskovy Lazne, which is much quieter but preserved the Victorian-era-looking machine fountains that pump spring water directly from the aquifers. We spotted locals drinking from a few of them and from the little German I could understand from the brochures we found near the fountains, the water is believed to have healing properties. We tried it and it's really strong stuff, especially in sulfur. No adverse effects either.

Cheb may or may not have been objectively the best place to stay in to explore the region, but it was perfect during the trip, especially due to its location. Other than how almost nobody spoke English in the area (our Airbnb host had to rope in the English tutor of one of her kids to translate for us and bring us around, and on a side note, I have to admit we could have been friendlier to him by offering him a beer or dinner but we were too tired from the journey from Prague by public transport to think straight), the other downside was how its history was quite hidden from us.

I have read a little, and one thing that attracted me to that place was that Cheb has had a long history. Yet when I was there, other than the metal axis at the town center that displayed the timeline from its first mention in written history, there was almost nothing - no landmarks, no plaques.

It was only near the end of our stay when Van read up on it further and realized it used to be an important Nazi HQ, something to do with think tanks and the creation of certain important Nazi documents, ie Cheb used to be part of the brain of the Nazis.

No wonder they wiped out almost all their history despite being an important transit stop between various major cities in Central and Eastern Europe. Btw it's still a good transit hub for travellers today.

It's sad, but clearly they're slowly rebuilding after having shed its past, probably due to its excellent location between the rapidly developing Czech Republic and the largest economy in the EU, Germany.

One would have better luck finding German speakers than English speakers in this town.




Cesky Krumlov has a grand castle but honestly, it's hollow. It's entire old town has been converted into a tourist attraction, with hotels lining almost entire streets and covered in souvenirs. It's got history but not worth a stay. That is one thing my last Contiki tour did totally right - brought us there for a tour and got out asap.




Austria is a hidden gem for us - almost none of our friends knows anything about it and there is absolutely no hype around this country as far as we know other than for Halstatt and Vienna.

Probably my best option in travel destination ever - that is how much I love Austria, seriously.

The people are nice, the mountainous regions of the country absolutely gorgeous, and the prices are ridiculously honest. The last bit was the most impressive to me, and here's an example: there is this restaurant on this mountain where we went to for snowboarding classes, and the mountain was always crowded as far as we can tell. The view from every side is epic and there is a ski school there providing ski and snowboarding classes to people of all ages, both group and private, making this area absolutely suitable for anyone. The restaurant, being the sole source of food and beverages on the mountaintop that is a 15-minute cable car ride from the foot, is absolutely packed beyond capacity during lunch hour, yet the main courses were all large-portioned and only 3-4 of them out of about 15 were above 10 euros, net.

They could have ripped everyone off easily by doubling or even tripling the prices, but no, everything was restaurant price at most.

That's what I love most about Austria - the people aren't out to make a quick buck like the capitalists that the rest of us are.

Disclaimer: we saw very little of Vienna and capitals tend to be quite different from the rest of the countries they're in. Also, Halstatt has been ridiculously overhyped by its exposure in social media and is a different story.



Another example is the place we stayed at during our time in St Valentin, near Linz. I was actually trying to get a room in Linz but due to my low price filter, it gave me hotels further out and into St Valentin, and I booked it without realizing that till it was done and non-refundable.

Turns out to be a very pleasant mistake because the hotel was really a family-run restaurant hotel about five minutes walk from the train station - a fantastic transit hub. The prices were very reasonable for the quality and quantity, and I felt the dishes were made with love because they aren't uniform. There were two consecutive dinners when I ordered the same dish, a pork chops wrapped in bacon, and they were different. I asked the server if the chef was different that evening, but no, it's just the recipe that was different. Better, actually.

Call me ignorant, but I didn't know restaurants can change recipes randomly.

I would like to believe the chef cooked his/her dishes however he/she wanted, like a home kitchen, and that lack of sameness gave it a sort of warmth you never expect in a restaurant.



Linz, on the other hand, was a city through and through. If I were to return to the area, I'd stay at that hotel again instead of within Linz.








Anyway if anyone asks whether snowboarding is easier than skiing, I would say it's like comparing apples with oranges - they're just different.

Each is good in its own ways and has its own difficulties, but I find it unfair to say either is easier than the other after having learnt both.

Skiing:

+ It feels more versatile - you can walk upslope relatively more easily without removing a thing.
+ It's also easier to leave them when you don't need them - just stab everything into the snow.
+ Acceleration is also easier on gentler slopes or even on flat ground.
+ You can stand on it like you're wearing shoes, so you can do that when you stop.
+ Most importantly, it is a proven mobility device in times of war.

Snowboarding:

+ It feels safer in that when you fall and roll, it doesn't make your knees rotate in the less pleasant ways.
+ The snowboarding boots feel far more comfortable when you're walking in them with the snowboard off
+ It is just one board, as compared to two skis and two poles
+ It needs less leg strength but more core power.

In terms of learning both, skiing was much less painful. Standing is also an exercise of your heels-only and toes-only balance constantly when you're on a snowboard. However, the risk of injury felt higher with skiing as we newbies have to learn to resist the urge to use the poles to decelerate - it can injure your wrists and arms. Bruises on our knees and butts are nothing compared to possible bone or joint injuries.

Ultimately, I prefer the snowboard. Ski boots are clumsy to walk in and rather uncomfortable while snowboarding boots are really just a comfortable pair of snow boots with locking mechanisms above the ankle. I also have a partial meniscus tear in one of my knees so any rotation feels dangerous to me.

As a practical form of transportation, skiing is the obvious better option. You can go up and down slopes, accelerate even on flat ground, and then take them off without sitting. On the other hand, I really don't see myself using any of these to move around other than for fun, so practicality means nothing to me. The single board also makes the logistics easier if I ever invest in a snowboard.

Oh yes we stayed at a castle near a city unknown in terms of tourism, not even among Austrians themselves. An absolute hidden gem, no doubt, Schloss Mittersill, and I have to return some day.

Rant 1241 / New Challenges Accepted.

27 Aug 2017

After the attacks in smaller cities, like Turku in Finland, a port city in a sparsely populated country, I have no idea where it is safe from terrorism-related risks to travel to in Europe, outside of towns and villages.

On the other hand, the trend in downgrading from bombs to vans and stabbings supports my theory that the drop in oil prices was, at least partly, done to fight against ISIS.











09 Oct 2017

So decided after all to accept my mother's share of the money made from the sale of her mother's flat, after consulting most of my aunts (her sisters). Basically they all told me to take it, so I'm taking it for my bro and I. I plan to keep most of it separate and give it to some of my cousins when they go to uni, if they can.












NZ was nice but the two weeks there last month reaffirmed my belief that we shouldn't migrate there.

Mainly, it's the economy.

Even my aunt there admitted that while everything was awesome in her adopted country, making a living was the only downside. Canada didn't feel as nice the few times I stayed in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal, but survival looks easier, with a more active job market that needs people like us more.

Of course, if it is all about making a living, I should just stay home in Singapore LOL

Canada is still the best balance.

Also, finally cleared all my Asia Miles with this trip so I can let my Marco Polo membership go next year. Cathay Pacific is one of the best airlines I've taken, both in the past and in the more recent years, but their uncompetitive prices outside of China make it hard for me to justify frequenting them every time I'm looking for air tickets. During the AKL-HKG leg, for example, I absolutely loved their tablet holder that comes with a cup holder just under the screen that has a USB charging point underneath. It's large enough to hold my drink, my phone, tissues and snacks while narrow enough to allow anyone to move pass with me out of the seat even when it's open. The variety and quality of snacks at the back of the plane was also amazing, making our flight so much more enjoyable.





























03 Dec 2017

Going to Austria with Van tomorrow. Airport transfer has been arranged and so have 90% of the transport and lodgings. Not the castle-hopping trip we were initially gunning for but it will be nice. I just hope the public transport in Czech and Austria are as punctual as they're supposed to be because there are a few occasions when, if I remember correctly, we have 5-10 minutes to move from one vehicle to another.

Plenty of snow. Maybe we will even find new suppliers of winter clothing during the trip. Who knows?

Prague is going to be snowing when we reach there, and before that, we will try to get a free tour of Doha during the 12 hours of transit in Qatar. Speaking of which, they really tempted me when they offered to upgrade the both of us to Business class from Singapore to Prague for about S$2000. That's basically tripling what we paid for that journey, which is really still a decent deal, but it's not within our budget to spend on that; Austria is already expensive enough as it is.

Which brings me to how worth it my credit card is this year. It credits me one night's charge excluding taxes for each 4-night stay in a hotel I book through them. There are a few restrictions, mainly in that they can only book either through Expedia or directly with the hotel, but so far it's more than paid for itself through that alone, and I still haven't considered all the airport lounge uses Van and I have gone through over the years, plus the free airport transfers . In other words, despite the credit card's annual fee, the card is pretty much paying me to use it.












Wow took me this long to find a chauffeured ride from the surprise place I booked for her to Prague near the end of the trip that is below 400 euros. Previously everyone was quoting me close to a thousand!

Rant 1240 / Too Many Options In Europe

05 July 2017

Finally got the mood to exercise. First session of P90X3 got my core and limbs trembling. Had to sit down to shower and even now my abdomen trembles when I lean forward to type without resting my elbows on the desk. The mug of water in my hand is reminiscent of a certain scene in the first Jurassic Park movie.

The 7th will be an uncomfortable day.



















06 July 2017

As expected, my thighs and abs are aching. Surprisingly not my arms except for my upper shoulders, probably because I'm very cautious with them not to strain them too hard since they need energy to brace for any difficult positions that may dislocate my shoulders. After all, I've dislocated one that one time while I was rushing a pushup to stand up near the end of a P90X session, and I don't really know how it happened.





















07 July 2017

Can feel it. Since last night, I've been feeling warmer than before, exactly how I used to feel until the last few months. Even 25 degrees C is a little too warm for me, and I know that because of the thermometer-cum-hygrometer on my desk. It's also got a clock but judging from the dried stain inside after opening it, the battery probably got so old it leaked, so now replacing the battery doesn't work, ergo no clock.

Anyway my guess is my metabolic rate has been raised and I'm burning more energy even when I'm doing nothing.

Life is slightly more uncomfortable now though, feeling warmer constantly in a humid tropical climate. Makes me miss the cold. Maybe I should consider Canada instead of NZ for the big trip.




















Just heard of Vicuña, an animal that cannot be reared and bred commercially. An adult produces roughly a quarter kilo of wool, and harvesting it involves a bunch of villagers encircling an animal and slowly approaching it till they're close enough to shear it. Once upon a time, they used to hunt and kill the animal for it instead, but this stopped when the animal almost got extinct, recovering in numbers only during recent decades.

The cheapest pure authentic vicuña wool product is 4000USD for a scarf, and an off-the-rack jacket typically belongs in the lower five-digit range, also USD, while any jacket under 15k should be viewed with suspicion. In other words, a pure vicuña sports coat, off-the-rack and not even tailored/bespoke, from Italy can cost as much as a 2-week cruise on Silversea. You know, the cruise line with the 24/7 butler service and free flow minibar in every room.

Basically, if you're wondering why it's so damn ridiculously expensive other than its rarity, the vicuña wool is said to make cashmere feel like straw. Or something like that. This is all hearsay; I wouldn't know - I haven't even seen the wool in reality before.

I'm interested because this is related to my line, but this is akin to a physics teacher reading about the inner workings of SpaceX rockets: I know how awesome it is but this stuff is way beyond anything I'll ever work with in my lifetime. However, knowing what real cashmere feels like, I can only imagine that putting on pure vicuña wool apparel should feel like wearing a piece of cloud.

Finally, "ñ" is Alt + 0241.






















08 July 2017

Pretty good deal from Watsons for 48 pieces of 650ml dehumidifiers at $60, or S$1.25 per piece. In comparison, the so-called budget shops sell these at $2 each.

Also bought a 5mm-thick yoga mat at S$20 through their purchase-with-purchase promo. Definitely not the cheapest I've seen but seems to be worth the money because not only is it as thick as our last one and feels harder, it also has a black-coloured bottom half that clearly has a better grip than the usual yoga mat material. This last bit is particularly good as the last one has been slipping too easily when I have my hands or feet on the grounnd while the other is on the mat in the downward dog pose. I'm tall enough that it's sometimes too much trouble to carefully rest all four limbs on the edges of the mat. Anyway hopefully it actually has a good grip.













This dude is eating 70-year-old combat ration. 72 years, to be exact.

That beef bouillon smelled like cheese but still made edible beef soup. Honestly though, if I were a soldier surviving on that, I would have simply swallowed it like a pill. Maybe crush it a little if it was too big, but there was almost no chance I would savour it slowly as a soup, not in the situations this packet was meant for.

The coffee was as if it doesn't have an expiry date! Obviously I wouldn't try any instant coffee packet that was left lying around on its own for 70 years, but if it was sealed in its packaging like all instant coffee packets are nowadays and then further sealed in a watertight can like that one, yes I can believe it can last as long as the can stays sealed. The sugar was expected, given how we use sugar to preserve dehydrated fruits.

The chocolate bar (2oz = 57g) surprised me though. Does it even contain dairy? Maybe a tiny bit at most, which would explain the off-smell.

Basically proves that you shouldn't just throw food away solely because it's past its expiry date, especially for canned food. I usually judge by feel and then by sight followed by smell to gauge if food is edible, and there have been instances when food went bad before its expiry date.

Anyway his videos are really interesting since I've been eating a lot of Singaporean combat rations in the last several years and I do have some interest in history.




























09 July 2017

Wow... my shoulders are still so weak from yesterday's The Challenge session that I can barely do a lot of actions, including anything that involves raising my arms above my shoulders. Even grinding my coffee beans was slightly more agonising than usual.

This is new. I've never needed more than a night to recover. At most there is an ache but not weakness by the second day.



























12 July 2017

No, massages don't seem to work on me. Lots of pain followed by lots of throbbing pain, but all my aches remain, just like my past experiences with massages.































15 July 2017

Sometimes I wonder why some people love their country. Patriotism is a celebrated trait now but different things were celebrated in different places in different parts of human history that may seem strange, or worse, to people now.

Back let's not get side-tracked. Why are people patriotic? I know its benefits to a society, but people are not that rational when it comes to feelings, and that's where the question is aimed towards.

So the fundamental question to me, at the moment, is: do they love their country for what it is or the idea of their country?

Because the latter must be really well-informed and probably very liberal. To love a country for what it is, one has to embrace everything in it, including the stuff that people don't really want to think about. For example, in my country, do all patriots really understand and accept legalized gambling, the death penalty, the Raffles bubble in the upper echelons of our society, the fact that pawn shops are prospering to the point of having IPOs, and various parts of our history not taught in schools?

Or what about the meritocracy that once existed? Why does it feel like meritocracy is only present between the lower and middle class? The only meritocracy that goes above that level seems to only apply to the merits of a person's networks.

Moreover, most of us don't know that many people. In fact, from  the time we start working, most of us seem to keep our social circles at the status quo or smaller. In other words, we gradually insulate ourselves from the rest of our countrymen.

In that case, isn't the most comprehensive image of our country in our minds based on the media and the same friends we have had for a very long time? And the people we meet in our daily lives, of course.

Does it make sense to say that we don't actually love the country, but the piece of the country we interact with?


























21 July 2017

Started with 1580MYR, spent another 150MYR on a pair of jeans, came back with 6800MYR.

Adding in the expenses $12 for the ride home, converting it to 36MYR, rounding it to 40MYR, further rounding the difference to the nearest 100, that makes a net gain of about 5000MYR.

All thanks to the Texas Holdem at Genting's SkyCasino, with the 5% jackpot coming from my 7-card royal flush (royal flush formed from my 2 cards and at the 5th community card) that amount to just over 5000 MYR.

This isn't a huge number, but it's still good to win a bit of money overall.

The process of handling even just the fraction of the jackpot is that they had to go through the entire deck of cards extremely thoroughly (it seems they have a set of SOP for that) like checking every single card in the deck multiple times by multiple supervisors who were called in just for that, made calls to some mysterious people I'll never know about, and took down my particulars and even took scans of my passport.

To top it all off, after everything was done and the dealer was changed after that one single game we played with her (it was my first round at the table), I scored another triple aces (pair aces in hand, plus an ace among the community cards) in the second game.

The story ended at that point when the dealer was instructed by a supervisor to raise the minimum bet from 25MYR to 100MYR, causing all players to leave. When I returned after cashing in the chips, only one guy was playing at that table, still requiring a minimum bet of 100MYR.

He had taken the seat I vacated.



























25 July 2017

The bak kut teh 肉骨茶 and salted chicken 盐焗鸡 in KL really is awesome but it's because they really love their 当归 （female ginseng) so they put a little of that in both dishes. The original salted chicken is really just salt and chicken, with spring onion as garnish when serving, so what we had was a Malaysian variant of the dish.



























26 July 2017

Weight hasn't gone down but fitness is definitely improving.






















Some girl is apparently jealous to some extent about me being attached with Van. To be fair, I did say that I would date her, but that was a few days before I met Van and had had a few drinks. In Van's case, I didn't just say I would date her, I simply did it. Sober.

She seemed like a friend to the both of us and we did occasionally confide in her in the past, but now that I know that she's been saying all kinds of nonsense about Van behind her back really made me realize I'd inadvertently escaped a major shithole there. Best part was that she told another girl I was "supposed to date her". Made my day. Well, if a girl has been single for a very long time despite having at least one really persistent fan (read: stalker) and a rather significant number of guys expressing interest in her openly online over the years, there have to be at least a few good reasons behind her relationship status.












































13 Aug 2017

So a question: why didn't the British leave Hong Kong after WW2 the way they did in Malaya and Singapore?

I've read about that little part of the history of Singapore and Malaya, and it happened because not only of the corruption ingrained into the local society by the desperation caused by the Japanese Occupation, but also because the British raised taxes dramatically without any effort in rebuilding the infrastructure here.

What happened in Hong Kong back then?






























23 Aug 2017

Well, weight's gone down finally after switching to a pseudo-vegetarian diet for over a week. Last night's dinner was the most extreme with half a kg of jackfruit (weighed with seeds) and a whole brocolli, boiled (and cut before boiling, of course).

Today I'm 98.3kg before breakfast and passing motion, as compared to below 101kg before restarting P90X3 after returning from San Francisco. There was no significant weight loss until about 2 weeks ago when I began eating more vegetables, fruits and rolled oats, but this week, I notice that I feel weaker but not tired, as in I don't feel sleepy.

Somehow I've been feeling the craving for meat less. Good I guess, but it looks like I need to put more meat back in my diet.






















24 Aug 2017

No more updates from AJ Hackett after notifying me via email that I've won bids in all 3 categories of Giant Swing, Skywalk and Bungy. Seems that they have also removed a few bidders above me in Bungy because the last time I checked, a few minutes after the end of the bidding period, I was a few positions lower than the one they told me I'm in.

Not #1 of course, someone went mad and made a bid of over S$6000 just for the #1 Bungy spot IIRC.






















Also thought about the HK issue. I think it began with the self-consoling thought that everything was going to be ok in a century when they would be returned to China. Then as they got wealthier than their neighbours over the decades, the income gap between the locals and the British never became a major issue, because no matter how bad it was, they could just speak to any number of refugees coming in illegally from China and knew it could have been a lot worse. This was probably what happened after WW2. But how did they do better than the people of mainland China?

So I checked Wikipedia and apparently lots of people from the ROC went there as refugees during the civil war. That was during the time when the ROC was losing everything beyond Taiwan. Most of these were skilled workers, and they were followed by businessmen from Shanghai and Guangzhou escaping persecution in China later. That was the perfect mix that led to Hong Kong becoming the first of the Four Asian Tigers in the 50s.

Rant 1239 / Some People Just Need To Get Burnt To Learn Not To Play With Fire. It Is A Fact Of Life.

30 May 2017

The mint plant is growing like so well and plucking leaves for mint tea has been easy. It may look like a huge bush but actually it's just a few of them growing really big and the rest of them filling up the space in between with smaller leaves. Regardless, this pot is providing an easy supply of mint tea.

Kinda miss the rosemary bush though, especially with all the chicken breasts in my freezer. Going to need some rosemary soon, and probably basil.




























09 June 2017

Finished The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye. It really wasn't controversial at all; in fact the part they seemed to be talking about was really non-controversial to me - Charlie Chan tried to copy the story of The Man in the High Castle but changing its setting to Singapore.

I found The Man in the High Castle on Netflix pretty boring once they revealed who the person whom the book was named after was, but maybe the book was more interesting. Or maybe I'm just not interested in "what if".

Anyway it was just a few pages of something most of us would have thought about at least once during our lives - what if the PAP didn't win?

But I didn't start this to talk about this little bit; it's Lim Chin Siong, the man frequently mentioned and depicted as some kind of great person that made me think.

Lim Chin Siong was probably a very charismatic man, so much so Lee Kuan Yew teamed him with him (and a few others) to found the PAP. From what I've gathered, he appealed to the Chinese-speaking demographics very much and was involved leadership roles since his school days, eventually ending up as a MP at the age of 22. Better yet, he was once described as "the next Prime Minister of Singapore" by Lee Kuan Yew himself, probably before Singapore gained its independence.

The problem is not whether he was truly a believer of Communism but that, I feel, he would have had to act like a Communist either way if he had become PM, regardless of whether he was one from the inside.

Back then, a much larger proportion of Chinese-speaking Chinese were more accepting of Communism then those among the English-speaking Chinese because, to make an educated guess, the former group has stronger ties, perhaps communicating more often, with their friends and relatives in China. To be able to appeal to them, you're going to have to be able to mix with them and obviously there were going to be more new Chinese immigrants in their gatherings, and a far greater majority of them were supporters of Mao than of Chiang.

How were you supposed to be their friends if you couldn't be friends of their friends? How were you going to gain their votes if you had avoided the topic of politics when you chatted with them?

And once you had won after being known to be friendly towards Communists, how were you supposed to set any policies that work against them?




























13 June 2017

Finished Mass Effect: Andromeda. Guess it's a much more... mellow game than the original trilogy.

Pacing was far more relaxed than in ME2 and 3 but that meant the main storyline felt less intense. I guess that's a tough line to toe and it can be deduced they wanted that. Maybe that's to nudge players towards multiplayer, the mode that makes games last longer.

Biggest gripe about it is the facial animation, though the voice acting comes a close second. The emotions aren't adequately expressed when the camera closes up on anyone's face and it's just weird sometimes to hear strong feelings while looking at bland almost-unmoving faces. Sometimes the voices just sound too calm or mild for the situation; these people can really take some lessons from Japanese voice actors.

Maybe this is already better than what they had in ME3 because I don't remember.

Honestly, however, the game is as great as I expected in terms of quests, combat and the rest gameplay. I got everything up to 100% viability, completed all quests except for like 7-10 additional tasks, and finished the main quest at level 61. This is on my first playthrough so that is how much I like the game, barring the cutscenes.

And oh yea, the part where the salarian ark escaped from the kett flagship was absolutely painful to watch when the expanded wings of the ship just clipped through the enemy vehicle before activating FTL travel. Seriously, animators, what the heck? It's a major cutscene and you can't even spend more effort on it than that?

Another part is the crafting and it is just strange, maybe clunky too in terms of interface. Just why provide such a complicated crafting system where I can create multiple copies of anything (even if that's "realistic") and I have to scroll through a long list of materials to see what I have?

First, multiple copies. Why bother??? I cannot customise the equipment of my team, just myself. Why bother with more than one of anything?? I'm not a manufacturer; I don't craft stuff to sell, not to mention there's plenty of money to be found by exploring and completing quests already.

Second, can't you create a single list of all crafting materials to be displayed next to the current interface for crafting? When I make something, it is much more convenient if I can see ALL the materials I have so I can decide whether to skip certain items if I'm planning to make an entire set at one go.

In any case, it's a great game beyond these few issues. Really love the exploration aspect since that's my favourite aspect in any of these games. All the places they made and all the datapads just make the entire galaxy come alive! It's reminiscent of Fallout 3 where all the areas have their own little stories, except in MEA they all have their own quests. Love everyone who worked on that because that's love showing in their work.

Combat is the other amazing part of the game. Despite being a sniper who can see through walls up to a certain distance, and shoot through walls of a certain thickness, I have often been forced to move around during fights to the extent where I fired my sniper rifle from the hip during the final boss fight, although I suppose I could have used my shotgun that is rarely taken out. Anyway this just makes life a lot more exciting than simply sniping from afar.

Hope there is a second game because it will be interesting to find the last ark and maybe even news from the Milky Way.



























04 Jul 2017



I believe now that to lose weight, we have to consider why we are overweight in the first place. This is because if we don't, we rebound, an issue that I'm struggling with now.

Simply losing weight isn't enough because if we do not deal with the root issue(s), we will simply revert to the original lifestyle that led to the original weight gains.

My problems are a few:

- when I eat alone, which is 99% of the time, I cannot stop until I'm very full.
- I am so used to the portion size that I used to eat that it is difficult to feel satisfied with smaller amounts of food.
- I eat when I am bored. Nothing else interests me except for good games, but they rarely exist.

So how can I deal with these?

Rant 1238 / Ups And Downs, Ups And Downs, Ups And Downs - That Is How We Roll.

03 Apr 2017

After reading and watching videos on the history of several companies, there appeared to be a pattern among the big brands -  some smart guy or people created the product but lacked the capital and/or the sales expertise to make it popular, so he/she/they sold it to a someone with experience in sales who may even be working for an already large company, and that person made it big.

So it was with Jell-O, patented in 1845 by Peter Cooper, made delicious in 1897 by Pearle Bixby Wait and his wife, and then bought in 1899 for US$12k by their neighbour Orator Francis Woodward whose company was already successful through selling Grain-O.



Wasn't this similar to the story of MCD? Except with a little more guile from Ray Kroc and quite a bit of naivety from the McDonald brothers who decided to get into a business transaction without putting everything in black and white.

And Apple, whose story a lot more people should be familiar with since it's got a film to illustrate it, worked because it was led by Steve Jobs whom I feel was one of the greatest salesman ever.

Finally, there's Microsoft, because Bill Gates managed to sell the world his vision of "a PC on every desktop" within 2-3 decades.


Does this mean that every successful business needs a salesman at its head? Or does it mean that salesmanship is a prerequisite of good leadership?













Can't focus on games so can't play all the good stuff like Tides of Numenera, FF17 and ME:A. They will have to wait till she goes away for externship.






















The plan for Russia is still ongoing but I feel the three of us are kinda sure it will happen. I sense doubt from Lisa and also some at a much lesser degree in Van but it's not too hard to make it happen.

Just wondering how cold it will be in Yakutsk and Irkutsk in October. We have never experienced anything below negative 20 degrees C so the possibility of going beyond negative 40 brings excited anticipation and a slight level of worry.

At least it won't last beyond a month, the maximum period of stay we can apply for in a tourist visa. There are so many questions I will have to ask when I attend some Russian classes in the next few months.

One worry that I cannot do anything about, however, is whether October is when absolutely nothing is happening since it is in the transition period from autumn to winter.




















In the meantime, it looks like it's chaos over in South America.

05 Apr 2017 

My room is a mess.























The Dell laptop is great and I hope using it less makes it last longer. The 15" Dell Inspiron 7567 can play Mass Effect: Andromeda on some of the lowest settings so that's good enough for me, and the cloud save feature on Origin (and Steam for other games) is really appreciated now that I can play the same games on two computers.

Saved about S$200 buying it from the IT Show earlier last month after friends told me the prices on the brochures are negotiable, unlike buying from shops. Since Van has also worked as a expo salesperson before but not for computers, she gave me a rough idea of how flexible prices and freebies can be.

At first when I went straight to the Dell booth to get it, the salesman only gave me about $100-150 off and without any freebie but the warranty, but when he found out only the display set was available, Van showed her bitchy side (really practical in this society) and he pointed us to the Courts booth. TBH I was going to negotiate for another $50 off and take that set since that's already far cheaper than expected.

Turns out Courts had available stock and when I neglected to mention that we came from the Dell booth, the negotiation started anew, resulting in the aforementioned deal of almost $200 off, plus the Dell laptop backpack and a wireless mouse. I also added 3 years of extended warranty, though the accidental damage cover was forgotten in the excitement.

Once the mouse and backpack are sold, the overall discount compared to the price offered on the Dell website will be about S$230-250. The mouse itself can already be sold at S$10-15, and the backpack S$30-50.

However, since we took a bus home and a cheap car ride there, I guess $10 can be deducted from the discount.

No wonder IT Shows and their equivalents that run ever quarter still draw crowds despite the popularity of online shopping. All the big ticket items can be really good deals there.

Oh then I bought two flash drives and a SD card from Changi Airport because I refuse to buy from any sellers that don't appear legit enough. It's really cheap even with the GST when I compared the Sandisk Cruzer between the airport shop and Popular ($12+ vs $17+). Needed one of those to be the laptop's recovery drive, and another for video storage for when I travel.

As for other accessories, got a sleeve that doubles as a hand-held bag for the laptop (S$9), a large mousepad (S$4) and a 5500dpi wired mouse (S$5) from Aliexpress. The mousepad is the only one that's not for the laptop but to replace the old smaller mousepad of my desktop so that I can bring it along with my laptop for my travels.




















07 Apr 2017 


I may be getting most of my new gadgets and accessories from Aliexpress, but it's definitely not the place with all the best deals. Funny thing is, sometimes it's still cheaper to get certain things from other places than from there, like Qoo10 and physical stores, like office chairs with wheels.






















08 May 2017

It is not worth it to go for airline and hotel elite statuses for those of us who do not have our travel expenses fully covered by our companies. This is the conclusion I've come to after the last few years flying round trips almost monthly.

Seriously, I have tried, mainly by always looking out for promotions and searching flights and hotels first on specific airlines and hotel groups, but they rarely make sense in terms of pricing and location vs what I need.

The biggest example is SPG in Seoul for my business trips that I no longer go for. While I need to visit the various clothing wholesalers in that city, none of their hotels are as convenient for me as other hotel chains in Myeongdong, Dongdaemun and Namdaemun and those closest ones are never cheaper than, say, the Skypark chain.

As for flights, Cathay Pacific turned out to be a really bad choice in my situation as their fares tend to be as high or even higher than those offered by Singapore Airlines for routes from Singapore to everywhere I want to go. I'm not kidding when I say it makes absolutely no sense these days for anyone from Singapore to be loyal to CX. Pretty sure the prices used to be more competitive in the past but I cannot be sure. Moreover, their Marco Polo programme is making things harder for those of us who usually fly short distances with the new mileage earning system that seems to favour long-haul flights.

With all the promotions in Singapore for SQ nowadays, it makes far more sense for me to invest in SQ instead, though I am actually flying budget most of the time these days. Hence despite all these analyses, the fact is that in my situation, the most sensible option is to stay loyal to price. Not the absolute lowest all the time, but the lowest price with the lowest acceptable level of comfort, service and punctuality. This tend to be Scoot and Jetstar for the last two years, with full service airlines coming into play when I fly long haul, like China Eastern for my upcoming SFO trip.

The only reason I would pick other airlines more often is if someone else is paying for my travels because honestly, 80% of the time I'm fine with sacrificing various comforts to save hundreds of dollars, like food and beverage and movies on a 7 hour flight for $300 saved.

Just late last month Vanessa and I spent a grand total of S$500 on a weekend 3D2N trip to Da Nang, Vietnam by taking a Jetstar Starter fare that is practically a random seat with 7kg carry-on luggage, and a beachfront hotel found through Expedia that charged S$35 total for a room for 2 nights. We even brought too much clothes since we ended up not using our swimwear, and returned with only 5-6kg of luggage each. How would it have made any sort of sense to use this trip to earn miles on an airline and points on my SPG membership when the trip was perfectly smooth and comfortable as it was? We even had beautiful cloud-covered hills in the north and a gorgeous sea view through the eastern windows that we woke up to each day! For SEVENTEEN DOLLARS A NIGHT!

This is getting stupid, this chase for miles and points. I'm stopping this bs here and just going to use up as many Asia Miles as I can before letting this membership expire.

All I really need is cheap fares and unlimited airport lounge usage. Maybe one of these days, the airlines can offer more lounge usage instead of whatever other nonsense they are trying to bait us with.

























It is getting hard organizing a trip with Vanessa and Lisa. The former doesn't discuss travel plans with the latter so when I raise the conditions the latter stated that do not fit into her plans, I sound like I'm siding with Lisa against her.

This is extremely annoying when every time their requirements don't match and I have to remind her of that, it turns into some sort of "Lisa vs Vanessa" thing.

It's a group trip and everyone has certain conditions. Good thing Vanessa's finally agreed to discuss directly with Lisa instead of going through me so it should get easier from now on.