Kiwis anyone?

Going to the land of Kiwis (specifically Auckland of New Zealand) in 2 months time for a short family holiday. We've heard of the saying "祸不单行" but there's also another saying "好事成双". Why am I bringing this up? Well, the trip was confirmed about 2 weeks ago, that's the first good news. This is followed by my employment which brings about the second good news.

5 days out of this stressful island sounds good for a short break. A minor problem is whether I'll be able to get away though my employer says it shouldn't be a problem as I'm only applying for 2 days leave effectively. So when exactly will I be away? 31st October to 4th November.

My cousin, Jack, who's studying in Auckland, offered to drive us around over the weekend when we are there. Very much appreciated! Looking forward to the natural and scenic NZ soon!

Final unemployed weekend

The weekend has been one of the busiest weekends for me ever since I've graduated. Coincidentally, it's the last weekend before I start work, so I take it as a form of enjoyment and final relaxation for me to get charged up for the working life.

Friday - Met up with Dawn and Yue Yiao to buy Dawn's birthday gift, an exquisite badminton racquet. Followed by a nice lunch courtesy of Yue Yiao's mum. Spent the afternoon scouting for a nice-looking bag to complement my formal working attire as all my bags are too casual! Finally found one at Robinson's with the help of Kelvin. Dinner was with my NUS Biz cliques and the night was spent catching up and chatting away.

Saturday - Woke up to a pouring day. What a day to start off! Was supposed to go cycling at East Coast since Dawn's 21st party would be held there in the evening. Plans were abandoned due to the heavy downpour which lasted even till the start of the party! We ended up watching Olympics in the chalet, haha! A very huge turnout at the party indeed, with the bulk being Dawn's relatives. Managed to start some conversations with some of her friends and we partied till late.

Sunday - Had a probably final KTV session before I start work at Top One once again from 11am to 6pm. A singing marathon of 7 hours and we still find it insufficient! I still had the energy to carry on despite there were only 3 of us and both mikes were occupied most of the time. Even while driving back, I was still singing along the way. Lol! Even when I reached home, I rushed to catch the final episode of 《命中注定我爱你》 as well as the debut of a new Taiwanese drama, 《无敌珊宝妹》 which I'm watching now while typing this post!

Feel so guilty for not being home for dinner for 4 consecutive nights (I wasn't home for dinner on Thursday as well). Actually, should be home for dinner more often as I wouldn't know if I have the luxury to be home for dinner when I start work!

Raffles Place, here I come!

4 months of searching + more than 180 applications sent + over 200 email correspondences + 1 interview + 1 offer = Working in Raffles Place!

My first desire was to work overseas, preferably either in Hong Kong or London. If I ever have to work locally, I would hope to work in Raffles Place, the heart of the financial district and here I am!

My employer: Some people know them by "The city that never sleeps, so do the employees" while others know them for being notorious of "hire fast and fire fast". Neither of the 2 slogans sounds positive to the employees, with the former implying long working hours while the latter implying a high staff turnover ratio.

What's my job title: Business Analyst. Sounds nice? However, the job scope is more IT-related than finance. Though not my perfect match, but at least a half match (I hope).

What are the working hours: Official or unofficial? Official is 0830-1800. Unofficial would be 0830-(1730 to 2300). Good for you if you catch the meaning. Else, you can slowly think over it. There's no typo. Haha!

Starting date: 27th August 2008. So those of you who wanna ask me out on weekdays, there are only 2 weekdays left!

Last but not least, I've updated the blog title!

Investor vs Gambler

This is an indirect continuation from one of my previous posts "Capital Gain vs Cash Flow". I shall now discuss another area. Many people say they want to invest in the stock market and obtain some additional returns. However, can they really be called investors?

Why do so many people still prefer to invest for capital gains rather than cash flow? Maybe I should direct this question to the financial people (people who work in the finance industry). One of the tools of deception that they use is the promise of a better future. They may say, "The stock market goes up 8% on average every year" or "Your investment will double in 3 years time." Hence, people who cannot find an investment today gamble on the promise of tomorrow. They count on hope rather than intelligence. They have dreams, so they buy lies.

In fact, most financial retirement plans are based upon hope and promises for years. The market is filled with many so-called experts telling you how to find an investment to invest your money in. While there are too many answers to this, one answer is that because these investors still fall back on the fact that they cannot find the cash flow investment today, they thus invest on the hope of capital gains tomorrow. On top of that, they invest without a money-back guarantee which is evident in cash flow investments.

Why do people lose money in investments? One of the primary reasons people invest in tomorrow's hope rather than today's investment is simply because in their minds, they cannot find of afford an investment that pays them today. The money which they take out to invest may not be what they can afford to lose or afford to put aside for a period of time. When a person cannot find an investment that pays them today, they often become believers in tomorrow, which makes them gamblers, betting on capital gains. They are willing to lose money, even if it is only a little every month, in the hope and promise that tomorrow their ship will come in, akin to losing a little money every time a person buys 4D or Toto, in hope that he can win a prize the next time. These people who do not know the difference between cash flow investing and capital gains investing are usually the people who fall prey to losing their money.

Movie Reviews

Watched 12 Lotus and Meet Dave recently.

12 Lotus
This story is adopted from a very sad hokkien song also by the same title, better known as 十二莲花. The lyrics of this song describe the life of a girl who was brought up by a stepmother and subsequently, had to work long hours and all the income she earned had to go to her greedy stepmother. She later married to a heartless man who left her burdened with a load of debt shortly after marriage. In short, her life was in a mess and all she could see was darkness.

The movie followed closely to the song lyrics with some deviations here and there. It's also about a girl, who becomes a songstress for a living and gets to know a man during one of the performances. She was then subsequently cheated by him after marriage and had to endure with the loan sharks hounding her when they could not find the guy as he had disappeared altogether.

The general thought after the movie was: I was moved to tears again! Royston's previous movie, 881, also moved me to tears after watching. I really don't know how he can think of such a storyline to move some of the audience such as me to tears. Apart from that, I would urge those with a good hokkien foundation to watch it as you would be able to appreciate the movie more!

Meet Dave
This is a comedy which stars Eddie Murphy. I always burst into laughter with his comical look. This time is no exception. The comical scenes can't be illustrated with words but it's definitely a good laugh one can get from watching this movie.

The storyline is about an alien coming from outer space in search for a spherical object in order to save their own planet at the expense of the people on Earth. While in search for this object, the alien had to interact with humans and the learning process produced a lot of misunderstandings and awful but funny scenarios which some of us would probably not even think of it in that context! An example is when someone asks you to help to clear the table after dinner, that alien would just simply take his hand and sweep all the plates and cutlery off the table to "clear the table"!

This movie also brought me to tears but laughing my tears out! Haha!

Employers say job creation in H2 likely to slow down

Employers say job creation in H2 likely to slow down

SINGAPORE: Expect a slowdown in job creation and hiring in the second half of this year, said manpower planners and employers on Monday, in view of mixed economic signals and a general global slowdown.

Singapore's Trade and Industry Ministry (MTI) said full-year economic growth is likely to come in at the lower end of the revised 4 to 5 per cent range. The ministry added that Singapore is in for a rough ride ahead, although it will stay above water.

Singapore's job market continues to remain buoyant, even though it is not as overheated as last year, with companies more cautious in hiring and expanding.

Stephen Lee, president of Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF), said: "We need to be cautious. We need to keep our recurring basic pay low and reward workers well through variables. By keeping our basic costs low, we maintain our competitiveness."

Philippe Andre Capsie, country manager, Manpower Staffing Services, said: "Overall, I should say employers will continue recruiting according to their needs, but they will be much more conscious about the productivity of the existing employees.

"For the longer term, they would have a wait-and-see mode, wanting to understand better the impact of the US crisis and the European turmoil on the Singapore economy."

SNEF feels there will not be large-scale retrenchments.

- CNA/so

Chances of getting a job by the end of 2008 remains bleak for me... Am I destined to start work only in 2009?

我的快乐

歌曲:我的快乐
歌手:锦绣二重唱
专辑:命中注定我爱你电视原声带

徘了徊了走了 错了过了等了
累了全都困了 烦的乱的等的
都是真的
疯的想的念的 不安的焦虑的
复杂的梦过的 拥有的失去的
怎么忘呢
你做过的伤 放困了你爱的音
那天的我等著你等成了摆设
我的你的他的 好的坏的难的
灰的蓝的黄的 酸的甜的苦的
都还记得
非常想要忘的 绝对不能忘的
我心要换你的 真的不行那么
只得放了
环岛的火车载著我第几天了
忽然发现这一刻我不想你了

我的快乐 会回来的
只要清楚曾爱得那么深刻
不准问值不值得
我的快乐 会回来的
离开不是谁给了谁的选择

我的快乐 会回来的
只要清楚曾爱得那么深刻
不准问值不值得
我的快乐 会回来的
离开不是谁给了谁的选择
我的快乐 会回来的
只要清楚曾爱得那么深刻
不准问值不值得
我的快乐 会回来的
离开不是你给了我的选择

疯的想的念的 不安的焦虑的
复杂的梦过的 拥有的失去的
怎么忘呢
非常想要忘的 绝对不能忘的
我心要换你的 真的不行那么
只得放了
放了......
忘了......

What happened to the missing unit?

I'm sure many would have came across the following puzzle.



How do we account for the missing unit? In both cases, it appears that the triangles are 13 units wide by 5 units tall. However, it's all but just an optical illusion! Let's solve it using a mathematical approach.

The four shapes give a total of 32 units of area (yellow = 7; red = 0.5 * 8 * 3 = 12; blue = 0.5 * 5 * 2 = 5; green = 8). However, the blue triangle has a width-height ratio of 5:2, while the red triangle has a wide-height ratio of 8:3. With different width-height ratios, how can their hypotenuses be of the same gradient? Thus, the apparent combined hypotenuse in each figure is actually bent!

If we take the area the large triangle formed with the four shapes, we get 0.5 * 13 * 5 = 32.5 units. So in the figure where the 4 shapes totalling 32 units seem to fill up the triangle completely, we can't account for the additional 0.5 units. Similarly, in the figure with a missing unit, the 4 shapes take up 32 units and there's a missing unit, giving rise to a total of 33 units. Again, we can't account for the missing 0.5 units. Adding the differences together, this explains for the 1 missing unit we see. On a sidenote, if we take the length of the hypotenuses of the 2 smaller triangles and sum them up, we get √(82 + 32) + √(52 + 22) = 8.544004 + 5.385165 = 13.929169. The hypotenuse length of the big triangle is √(52 + 132) = 13.928388. So the 2 smaller triangles gives a slightly longer hypotenuse of 0.000781 units, too small to be detected by the naked eye but significant enough to produce an optical illusion!

Intuitively, the top angle made by the hypotenuse with the side of 8 units, and the hypotenuse with the side of 13 units should be exactly the same angle. By the law of similar triangles, all the angles of all three triangles should be exactly the same. But let's take one that's immediately obvious:

sin^-1(5/13) = 22.619865 degrees
sin^-1(3/8) = 22.024313 degrees

Again, we see a mismatch of 0.595552 degrees between the component triangles and the larger triangle they are supposed to build. Just over half a degree is very hard to see by visual inspection and the presence of a thick border line covers the mismatch up nicely!

The power of "I don't like"

Friends approach me for help from time to time. My approach to helping them resolve their problem is generally to look at the problem and analyse all the possible solutions. From those solutions, decide on the most viable or feasible one to resolve the problem. This is the most logical way to help them with their problems. However, I get dejected when they respond with "I don't like" or “我不喜欢”...

These 2 phrases can literally spoil the solution plan completely! Just because he/she doesn't like to do this, even the most feasible or best solution cannot be executed! Taking this out of the problem solving context, even things like day to day activities or deciding what to do or where to eat when we go out, that dreaded phrase can just dampen the entire plan and spoil the outing!

If my friends are observant, they would have noticed that I refrain from using this phrase. I would either propose alternatives like saying, "Maybe we can do this..." or "I may not be so keen in this..." If no alternatives can be proposed, I would just go with the crowd. I will never insist on having it my way (unless I'm unaware that the other party is giving in to me) and I will almost always compromise. Many people failed to take note that this phrase can be as hurting as other profanities, if not worse. For example, I can think of a very nice plan for an outing but someone just has to say "I don't like" and the entire plan is ruined.

Will the world be a better place if everyone does not insist on his/her preferences? Will there be less conflicts as a result?

Just wanna laze for a while...

This is not gonna be a long entry as I lacked the enthusiasm to blog over the last few days. Let the pictures do the talking...


Thanks to Gary who has a ticket to spare at the last minute which gave me an opportunity to catch some fireworks action at the floating platform. All pictures and videos have been uploaded on Facebook. So I shan't repost them here.


The golf "kakis" finally met up again after a long time yesterday evening, just in time for a mini birthday celebration for Soon Fatt.


Was at Pasir Ris Central this afternoon and got "hijacked" by some girls wearing Nussu orange t-shirts for NUS flag day. It was then that I knew the new academic year is starting next week and goodness gracious, I'm still jobless!!!