After washing, my two bandannas became slightly rectangular, likely due to the stretching done by the washing machine.
Regardless, that deformity can be hidden while I wear it since this is how I'm wearing it:
Half is folded diagonally underneath the other half. Except mine is a little too small, so I shouldn't use this style with that. Instead, I feel that it's better suited for this:
But while browsing through Google's selection of bandanna pics, I found this style that I haven't tried but I think I should.
Since my bandannas have turned rectangular, this might be even more suitable. I'll have to try it later.
Meanwhile, the multi-scarf has arrived. Apparently that's the name of the elastic cloth tube because that's what's printed on the packaging.
Worn as a skullcap, this is better than the bandanna since it's clings, making it feel tighter and safer. It may be because it's meant for smaller heads, and this is derived from the fact that there are several ways to be worn that feels too small for me, like the neck scarf style.
And if I'm going to wear a neck scarf, I'm definitely using the bandannas for it.
Too bad the sale was over last week. Now it's back to S$3.50 apiece from $2.50 that it was at for the whole of the last. Free delivery, but still, even with my 30+ coupons I won't get that kind of discount.
Together with the fact that I don't wear this all the time, I'm going to wait till the discount's back again.
Strange that they aren't doing a western release of the Monster Hunter MMO. Wasn't Monster Hunter incredibly popular everywhere?
Been using the heavily marketed Hairvolution products by Silkpro since yesterday.
Holy shit the tonic BURNS!
Previously I've used only the Damange Control shampoo and the conditioner, both in the form of single-use packet samples.
They felt good although I have no idea if they work.
My bro has been using the pretty well-known Keratase and he couldn't confirm if it works since like me, the problem is either mild or non-existent.
Regardless, I thought it's a good idea to try it before I know for sure, so I asked him to get some from me when he goes to NTUC or something.
That's also partly because I've just received two S$5 NTUC supermarket vouchers by filling in surveys at MyMailMoment.com. I haven't been going regularly but there were a few days last month when I was so bored filling surveys actually felt interesting.
I missed deadlines for several surveys that could have given me a lot more points but what I had was enough for the $10-worth of vouchers.
Turns out he thought of a better idea - Watsons.
On hindsight, all those pharmacies like that would have better chances of having them in stock.
So he bought the whole treatment I asked for - the shampoo, conditioner and tonic. The salesperson was nice enough to throw in four tiny 15ml tubes of L'oreal Charcoal Black Scrub facial cleanser. I really didn't need that but I have this suspicion that that was the best freebie the store could have offered me or my bro.
The shampoo and conditioner were exactly what they were like in the samples, so nothing new there.
The tonic is the expensive item.
The 630ml bottle of shampoo cost $16.90, the 200ml conditioner $7.90, but the 50ml glass bottle of sacred tonic cost a S$28.90.
That tonic was so precious, it came with the nozzle detached plus a safety cap for the nozzle in the box.
Upon use, IT BURNS!
At first, it burns the nose. Spraying it on my hair makes all the air in my bathroom unsafe for breathing. Note that my nose couldn't feel anything a month ago when my doctor sprayed something inside my sinus, and I have yet to receive treatment.
This tonic burns so bad, I get to get out of the bathroom to breathe.
However, it could have been a bad idea to spray 6 times around my head. When I sprayed only 4 times just now, it wasn't as terrible.
Since this whole set is so expensive, I'm only going to use it once a day in the evening. Other times, I'm sticking with the shampoo bar I recently bought and the conditioner my bro no longer wants.
Whether the new Silkpro products work, who knows? I don't even know for sure if I have a hair problem in the first place!
Started cleaning stuff with warm water. Without a thermometer, I don't know where 60 degrees Celsius is but I just mixed boiled water with warm water from my shower till it's too hot for my feet but tolerable with my hands.
Planned to pack up my mother's room tomorrow but I have things to do then, like going for the SAFRA roadshow and going to work.
I was advised to do it ASAP and I'm still dragging.
I'm dragging so many things. But she was right in many ways. Now that both my parents are gone, none of my relatives are in this country and without a religion, I have literally nobody to answer to, nothing to work for. My life has absolutely no meaning.
I knew the online shopping fix is only a temporary measure, a sign that something is wrong that needs a more permanent solution.
This is not Japanese. This means THE INSANITY IS SPREADING!
Nah, this is just a parody.
Uncooked white rice can be stored for a decade or more if sealed in an airtight container. Too bad those 10kg bags are usually not airtight, especially the cheaper brands.
If it isn't stored in airtight containers, I know very well through experience what can happen to it even if it stays dry.
One, weevils. That happened to one of the 10kg bags I bought before I learnt that washing the bucket I hold the bag in helps. Now my rice is always weevil-free.
Two, booklice... or at least I think that's what they're called. They're very tiny white bugs that are found on walls and within books (hence the name). Since these bugs can live anywhere, they tend to stay in areas that are rarely touched, including rice that isn't moved for a long time. Learnt this when my parents used dried (by heating in a wok) rice to store dried ginseng. Sure, no mold, no rot. Baked rice really works as an excellent dessicant. But after a few years when I took out the jar out of curiosity, it was filled with lice.
The ginseng was fine though. Booklice don't feed on blood, so they don't spread diseases. But they do contaminate things just by being there.
There goes my plan of buying rice in bulk during promotions. I could buy airtight storage bags that work with vacuums but the prices of these doesn't seem like they will make it cost-effective.
For about S$30 I can get four 100*80*20cm box-shaped bags. These should be able to hold two 10kg-bags each. Maybe four.
After some googling, I realized that a bag meant for 10kg of rice is only about 40*60cm generally speaking. Those airtight bags will easily handle four of these bags then. The only issue is whether I have to keep sucking air out of them every month or something.
In any case, there are no rice promotions for the SNS housebrand rice yet. My plan is to either buy the airtight bags when they're on promotion or when there is a discount on that brand of rice. The latter should work since leaving the bags unopened for a while should be ok. At worst, I'll find some dessicants and seal them together once the bags arrive.
...
Ok, bought 3 suspiciously cheap Made-in-China vacuum bags during a sale. They don't have to be used for rice but it's an option. I also have plenty of stuff I can store in these bags like extra blankets and clothes.
Found something called a "security wallet" on Qoo10 and thought that's a nifty idea for my business trips. I also thought the security holster (which is like a gun holster but has zipped compartments instead of a holster. Like a sling pouch with a belt.
Then I thought the holster would be like a giant "FOREIGNER" announcement painted on my forehead.
After last year's waist pouch, I found that I needed to blend in more by not using that. Some of the touts seemed to pester me more than others.
Hence that security wallet, which is a flattened pouch with zipped compartments and an elastic loop that seems to be designed for wearing around the neck and under my clothes.
I'm planning to get two if my bro doesn't want one, just to get free shipping.
It's a stupid idea since the free shipping only saves me a dollar and I'll still need to fork out the extra S$2.24 to get a tracking number. S$2.24 is exactly what Singpost charges for articles registration ie tracking service.
But having two is good too. I'll use one under my clothes for most of my money and passport, and one in my pocket looped around my belt for a much smaller amount of cash.
I'm also trying to find a way to carry my iPad as surreptitously as possible so a small backpack or one of those "messenger pouches" look like a good idea, except I dislike backpacks since they're not secure enough IMO.
Or maybe I should just get a detailed map of the city plus a notepad. But I'll also need to carry a bottle no matter what. Hmm...
Water pouch?
I think I'll have plenty of time to decide since I'm only buying from that store when it's having a promotion or 3 weeks before my next trip.
Two days after I started using the remaining Pantene shampoo, my hair started clumping together into hard sticks again. The upside is that I don't have to style my hair with gel or whatever. The downside is I don't style my hair with gel or whatever in the first place.
I guess it is now beyond doubt that it is the Pantene shampoo that's causing some kind of chemical buildup in my hair.
I've already bought that organic herbal shampoo bar from Qoo10 and waiting for it to arrive this week but in the long term, I don't know if I should stick with that. I'll have to see if it does anything. I think it will make my scalp dry but I haven't actually used it yet.
Moreover, I'm more inclined to use an anti-hairfall shampoo like the recent heavily-marketed Silkpro Hairvolution Hairfall Control shampoo. Tried its sample the other day and it felt really nice to use that strongly mentholated shampoo instead of the cheaper ones from the budget stores. Not sure if it really does anything to reduce hair fall though.
Or maybe it contains eucalyptus oil, not menthol, but the feel's the same anyway.
I need my own weights. Sharing them is making life inconvenient. But 1.25kg weights seems to be so popular in Singapore that it's actually hard to find right now. Most stores are out of stock only for plates of this weight.
Decided on the US$9 bracelet reward and since the shipping charge is up to us, I gave them US$19. Probably not enough should they use certain courier services but US$10 should be more than enough if they use the cheapest postal service available together with corporate/bulk discounts, unless the bracelet and the other gifts are heavier than I thought.
If so, I can always raise the pledge to US30. For a research project like this, US$30 is not a big deal, but I'm keeping in mind that this won't be their only KS fundraising project so I'll try to keep my donations conservative. Simply seeing the title had already excited me.
For now, this first KS project is a minor one with a US$8000 goal, though it's already exceeded it by US$2000 at the moment with another 17 days to go.
The stated goal of this project is to set up a helium-balloon-lifted 2km-long cable with a test platorm on top plus robots to climb it. The rest of the money goes to rebuilding a community which I believe means maintaining their website and stuff.
Stretch goals are starting with extra sensors like GPS and weather sensors at US$20k, followed by an extra 1-3km of cable and video feed from the top at US$30k and etc up to US$3M.
IMO it's probably only going to hit US$30k at most unless some big shot comes in and floods them with cash, ie a miracle happens.
Since this is just the first project, I don't think anyone will do that. They will have to prove themselves through this before any big roller's going to open his wallet.
I'll have to admit this is really too small to appear to be any good right now and the final elevator is planned to be constructed on the Moon, but this is the most anyone's ever done towards building a real space elevator at all that I can help with, so that's why I'm contributing a token sum.
I mean, as they have stated, eventually they're going to have to ask for US$3M. I'm not going to give everything I'm willing to donate right now, just in case it doesn't work out in the end.
...
Holy shit!
14 days to go and they're at US$32k - 400% of their original goal!!!
All the publicity they've been getting on various online media must have worked really well! Looks like there are plenty of people who are also excited about this great idea like I am.
Since this is so, I'm going to say it's going to hit $75k at least.
However, as of this moment, I'm still right about the absence of high-rollers jumping onto the bandwagon. There are only 8 people pledging at least $250 and none higher. 99.9% of the people backing this project are contributing $100 or less, though it's actually spread more evenly than I expected among the different levels.
It would have made more sense to me if the number decreased as we move up the pledge amount levels, but there are about 100 people at the $1, $9, $35 and $100 levels. Of course, a lot of them probably gave more than that in order to cover shipping since that amount is up to us to decide.
So Qoo10 has a kind of coupon called "cart coupons". This really reduces the value of normal coupon in my eyes.
Normal coupons can only be used on individual item types. For example, a store may sell multiple items. Normal coupons can only be used on one or more units of each item, instead of being on all the items you buy from that particular store.
After a bit of experimentation, I found that cart coupons are to be used on whole orders on top of these normal coupons. For example, cart coupons can be used on an order that consists of multiple different items from multiple stores, even if normal coupons have been applied on every of those items.
This is so interesting, and it's really smart of them to think of such a coupon because now I really feel like using it.
But it's a $5 coupon with a minimum purchase of S$50 (excluding other coupons' discounts), so I'll need to buy quite a few items.
Still, it's very cool because lots of sellers are beginning to wise up to the usual coupons by having extremely low basic price while every item adds an extra charge. There's even been one shop that sells everything for $0 but every item charges pretty average prices. The thing about this is that the minimum purchases requirement does not take into account these extra charges that were meant to be for people who want the more expensive options, like larger bottles. The cart coupon takes into account the nett price so this stupid trick doesn't work on it.
The catch is that it's very rare.
The Omen Machine, the latest book by Terry Goodkind, was a disappointment.
It was so obviously meant to be half a book that when published by itself it broke one of the cardinal rules of storytelling.
All plots must build up to a climax slowly before cooling down again with an ending.
The Omen Machine, in contrast, got to the climax and finished abruptly with an ending.
Richard Rahl was doing his own thing throughout most of the book until the last 10 pages when, all of a sudden, he went Super Saiyan mode and killed a little-mentioned supposedly powerful henchman. The end.
I am not amused.
I like the story up till the end, and despite the characters' behaviour being kinda obnoxious at times (as usual), I have nothing against Terry Goodkind's style.
Until now, that is.
One does not simply chop a long story into two and label them as two volumes.
It doesn't even feel like a cliffhanger when the protagonist can't know for sure who the final boss is.
Then again, Goodkind could probably turn on Richard's god mode in the sequel like he did in this book and a few others and suddenly the protagonist would know everything including how he could go about defeating the boss whose powers he so far knows nothing about.
I am not sure if it's just me, but I do not like heroes who magically know the secret weaknesses of the villains at the very last moment through some extremely vague hints in the absence of pretty much all information.
I mean, how the feck can anyone figure out that "to let the truth out" is to slice open the leather that sealed her mouth simply by noticing them?
How the feck did he associate them together at all?
How the feck did he know she would open her mouth?
How the feck did he know "the truth" didn't mean something about the Omen Machine instead, since it was describing what it did as the messenger of truth? Or something about his sword since it was, after all, the Sword of fcking Truth?
Of all the things that could have made a lot more sense, he was able to link "let the truth out" to "unseal her mouth".
I am truly disappointed with this book. I guess this is probably what a lot of ME3 players felt - it was great all along until the end.
Speaking of ME3, now I feel like playing it again, except I've already finished it so recently that it's going to be boring.
Oh fck yea! SAFRA is having another NTUC Income insurance promotion at the Toa Payoh roadshow from the 1st of September!
I am SO going!
My plan is to get the S$200k Living Care plan with that S$40 monthly premium. According to my simple calculations using their annual premium rates, which are lower than the sum of monthly premium rates, despite the rising premium rates as I grow older, it's going to be worth the money even if I'm more fortunate than my parents and cancer hits me only at the age of 65.
Since the full sum assured ($200k in this case) is claimable when I get hit by any of the most common cancers. This means that when I finally get by cancer, I'll make a profit of S$150,164, or more if it comes before I reach 65.
Moreover, after calling the hotline, I was told that the premium rates are fixed across the board (but the fineprint says they are subject to review from time to time, probably also across the board due to factors like inflation) regardless of whatever existing conditions I may have. This is important because I'm currently seeing an ENT specialist about my nasal problem.
Apparently, at most they will tell me that they won't cover that problem, and I'm cool with that.
Also, I'm currently waiting for the person at the call centre to get back to me on which cancers are covered. Mainly, I just want to be covered for all common cancers like liver, lung, colon and prostate. Breast too, just in case.
Finally, if the guy at the roadshow confirms that I can get another set of freebies just for signing up for another policy, I'll get a $100k Essential Term in addition to this. It's not important but my profits from the first policy will more than compensate for the premiums I will pay for this life policy by the age of 70.
I'll still have a net profit of about S$137k if I somehow live beyond the age of 65, and keep all my fingers and toes and etc.
And if I am alive and well till the policies' age limit of 70, the rest of the premiums for between 66 to 70 for the Living Care policy will be
($4384 * 5) = $21,920
The only downside to all this, financially speaking, is if I live healthily without major illnesses till after 70, but the chances of that are so slim I'm never going to bet on them. I mean, if that happens, cool, I'll be perfectly fine with not getting anything from the $85k worth of premium payments, but either way, I win.
Oh wait, there IS a real downside to this: I lose everything if I change my citizenship before I get cancer.
...
Ok she got back to me and told me that the definition of "major cancers" isn't specific cancers. Instead, the term, as NTUC Income defines it, means malignant tumours. That's... not exactly what I expected.
My concern is derived from the fact that my mother had benign tumours the first time. So it's not guaranteed that I will get that profit, though it's still very likely. Just not guaranteed as I thought it would be.
I'll still get it anyway, just for a sense of security. The premium rate is only $40 a month right now till I hit 31, so it's not going to be any problem.
One thing that surprised me was that she noticed that my birth date and wished me a happy birthday. That really caught me offguard because I had completely put that out of my mind.
Similarly I had forgotten about it till the night before my birthday when someone else said the same thing to me and my first reaction was to think,"Wait, it is?"
I had to jog my memory to recall that it really was.
Argh! The Choice groceries vouchers are sold out! Apparently they get "sold out very fast" and next month, only Sheng Siong vouchers will be available.
No!
Oh well.
I was actually planning to go to SAFRA Mount Faber and two other places this Friday and kill three birds with one stone, but now I'll change my plan to just the two of them on Saturday.
So FB friends and Twitter followers can be bought with money. Guess how much I paid for 11 subscribers.
7 years of my life.
Honesty is expensive :S
Someone recommended chia seeds after I asked about honey. Apparently she mixes the both of them and it actually worked on a diabetic person she knew. That person, after a month of chia seeds every morning, got his diabetes medicine reduced from 3 pills to a single pill per day.
However, chia seeds are kinda unproven according my google results, so I'll just get a small packet to try. Or rather, I'll let my bro try since he's got mildly high blood pressure and chia seeds supposedly helps with that too.
That stuff is expensive - it's about S$10 for just 250g!
That's like gold, but edible.
Major sale is coming and I've got something to buy in Oct.
Since this is about our water supply, the change will be gradual. I imagine the prices of all kinds of meat will continue to rise while non-meat foods will either stabilise or rise at a relatively slower pace.
But... what about camel meat?
Maybe. I mean, camels are some of the most water-efficient mammals in the world. Since this is about lacking the water to raise the cattle for human consumption, won't switching to camel meat make sense? Furthermore, Middle Eastern countries have already been raising these animals for meat anyway.
On the other hand, since it is so water-efficient, the meat will likely be dry too. That means tough.
According to Wikipedia, camel meat is best suited for slow cooking. That probably means the shank cut sort of tough.
This sucks.
By 2050, we'll all be eating camel stews for dinner.
Why don't cheap wallets have coin pouches???
Are those pouches so expensive??!??!
Do people who use these wallets leave their coins to jingle in their pockets with every step?
So I didn't buy GW2.
I simply don't see how I can make it worth the US$60.
Branded cosmetic products may be more expensive but a portion of the money goes to R&D. Off-brand ripoffs, even if they contain exactly the same formula through reverse engineering, do not have to invest much on that department.
It's not fair but such is the way of capitalism. That's why they spend so much on marketing campaigns and building a reputation.
Bought a small bottle rack from a budget store downstairs for S$14.50. It's quite small at 21.5 * 9 * 9cm, and it's made of metal so it will eventually rust.
This is actually about the same as the ones I saw on Qoo10 except those have a shipping fee of $4 for every 4 items.
So far it's been several hours since I placed it on the wall and left a few bottles inside, and nothing's happened yet.
Meanwhile, my bandannas are here!
Ok, just the two from one of the shops I bought from for S$11.40 nett and they're not big enough for my head, at 49*49cm. Next time I'm going to try the 55*55cm ones, although the only design the shop has for this size are not that nice.
Unexpectedly, I am unable to really tighten it because it doesn't cling to my skin. Without that friction, I have to let it be just barely tight enough but I'm not sure if that will work. Normally I make sure my towel is really tight around my head so that it doesn't loosen. However, the bandanna's still just long enough for me to tie two knots, one over the other.
These two bandannas CAN cover my head but they're a little too short so only the very tip of the back corner is pressed down by the knots, thus it kinda puffs up on both sides of my head.
As for the printing, it's the cheap hard plastic sort that will crack and fall off over time. Not impressive but it's ok I guess.
Providing "practice-oriented, industry-relevant courses" is for polytechnics. These institutes are meant to produce people who do the actual work except for the blue-collar labour. The graduates are supposed to be the link between theory and real life application.
Universities, in contrast, are meant to produce scholars. Their students are to be trained to do the abstract thinking and handle the theories.
Clearly this has not been the case for a long time, and it's now come to the point where the difference between these two is the starting salary level of the graduates.
Hence on, universities will have to be semi-polytechnics.
This just means that regardless of what people say, university graduates are too numerous and have been devalued to where polytechnic graduates used to be at.
Ever since I started looking at Qoo10 regularly I noticed that most of the products offered at discounted prices on various Singaporean Groupon clones are actually exactly the same items offered on Qoo10.
I see what they're doing. I pity the fools who had ever bought from those sites. At least on Qoo10 I can grab free coupons everywhere and get a further discount of a dollar or two.
MFW I've been making my passwords so complex I forgot my FB password (among others) after not logging in for quite some time. I've actually had to hack my own account with brute force attack until FB told me to cool down and take a break.
Then I reset my password to something similarly complex before I could log in.
Sashimi.
I thought this seriously fatty belly cut would make some fantastic sashimi, then at dinner I got hit by an overdose of Omega 3.
Seriously, some of the slices had more white than orange.
Next time, I'm mincing it and making simple salmon don.
Then again, maybe not. The bones are hard to detect in cuts like this because sometimes the bones may be long enough that the very tips can reach this part of the belly. I couldn't find any by simply feeling the entire slice but I found one tiny piece while slicing. That was luck.
After two consecutive days of salmon sashimi (the first night was much leaner salmon), I also realized it's possible to slice sashimi without removing the skin first.
By accident, I found that I could cut downwards till I find resistance from the very tough skin, then push the knife sideways and tilt the knife a little as I continue the slicing motion.
This does make some ugly slices when I do not keep the knife perfectly even but it's way easier than simply removing the skin, a task that's far easier said than done.
Watched my bro play GW2. Pre-purchases come with 3 days of early access in addition to the likely discounted price, so he's been playing that the whole day.
Looks nice, sounds nice.
But it's US$60, and I'm not sure if I can make it worth my money.
D:
Came to the conclusion that it's too hard to order deliveries only once a week when I know I can afford it. I can cook but I get tired of cooking every so often. Cooking in bulk works but it's boring.
So I decided that I have to do it twice a week again and ordered Mad Jack just now.
Bad burgers.
Despite the prices, it will be a long time before I call that number again.
Ordered the 5-patty burgers, a beef and a chicken, and both had bland meat patties.
Whatever they used as a filling, they are using way too much of it, so much so that I can barely tell whether it's supposed to be chicken patties or chicken-flavoured filling patties.
Ugh, even the too-lean patties that I make taste better. I'd even go as far as to say that MCD has the better-tasting patties, regardless of what some have been saying about their ingredients.
Even I noticed I've been describing more spending and less saving.
This is a worry.
It may even be possible that this is as low as I can go, and the only way to loosen the tighting gap between my income and expenditure is to raise the former instead of mainly lowering the latter.
It is now useless as a hammock, though I can still use it for other stuff.
Maybe as an exercise mat.
Or I'll just keep it somewhere till I feel generous enough to spend a hundred bucks on a hammock stand.
On the other hand, if I ever do that, I'd probably get a good hammock together with it too. Maybe.
That may not happen because I found out that I can actually buy hammock stands from the Chinese manufacturers. Surprisingly, some of them actually allows an order of single stand. Still, it's may or may not be significantly cheaper.
Almost bought a few bathroom racks from Qoo10 but decided not to.
Prices are comparable to similar products found at a hardware store in my area. Went to check them out just now to confirm the prices at the store, and the soap dish costs over S$7 while the largest bottle rack was about S$17.
Meanwhile on Qoo10, despite a promotional discount of S$1.10 for every product, the cheapest soap dish is still S$4.90 and the rack is over S$24, and there's still a delivery charge of S$4 for every 4 items or less.
Though the suction pads at the hardware store appear inferior, I think I'll chance it anyway. I could get a soap dish and a rack for about S$20 while the same would cost a minimum of around S$35 at Qoo10. That 75% price difference is worth the chance IMO.
The Japanese have been doing such videos since a long time ago, except they show everything. I guess the difference between modern art and porn is whether there is any room for imagination.
Ugh... My router/modem died this afternoon. And then I realised I have completely forgotten my FB account's password.
Best day ever!
Nah, not really. But this has made me realise one thing: I don't usually need that awesome fibre connection that I have right now.
Really, I am perfectly content with the mobile modem I am using ATM to blog on my iPad while playing offline games on my PC.
And what a huge backlog of them I have!
But mostly I'm just playing the latest version of Towns, v0.50b.
I made a nice town previously that got wiped out by mass starvation when I gave them so many orders at one go they forgot to harvest food.
I returned too late to reload the monthly autosave.
So now I'm playing on a new Mixed map where the monsters are everywhere because it's got all sorts of terrain in a single map, ie more terrain containing hostile creatures.
Fortunately I managed to find a corner filled with fruit trees, so I levelled a mountain to use the dirt for a long mud wall to wall off my own little Garden of Eden.
Anyways, it's not that I don't need the fibre speed at all, but that I don't need it as often as I thought I do.
Regardless, I'm sticking with this. For some things, it's always better to have too much than too little.
But it still feels uncomfortable not having good Internet access on my PC. The mobile modem has a slow speed and it tends to KO temporarily when it overheats.
Ordered Long John Silver's today for dinner because Dealivery jacked up its delivery fees for almost all it's restaurants due to a shortage of riders.
The only options still with the $5 delivery fee were LJS and Subway.
Wanted Baja Fresh but with the additional $5 I was unable to get 3 burritos below $50.
So, LJS. For $47 I ordered more than enough and now I have a box and three drinks in the fridge for breakfast.
Not as fantastic as MCD but I am tired of their products. Now I am tired of LJS too.
The hammock is taking forever because the seller is using China Post.
Though I do business with Chinese factories, they have never used that postal service.
Now I see why.
Seriously, the Korean airmail is faster than this by far.
Unless, of course, the seller isn't even using airmail but surface mail.
You know what? That sounds about right. If surface mail is as fast as surface shipping for cargos, then 2-3 weeks sounds like the correct amount of time it takes for things to arrive from China.
Wow. They use surface mail and they still charge over S$20 for their hammock?
Seriously?
I am so glad I ordered it when it was only S$10 net because now they are no longer giving $20 discounts even when it's on sale.
My books arrived! Woot!
THU
The Starhub guy came over and discovered that our modem was dead. Free replacement.
All's well.
Didn't sleep much last night so I'm tired but due to my routine workout I'm able to resist sleep at 1.30pm despite the bed being right next to me.
Couldn't sleep because I was reading. It's been so long since I had good books. According to my Purchase History on Opentrolley, the last time I bought such books was in July last year. Bad memories.
Anyways, my books are here and I predict more sleepless nights to come.
I don't know if it's just me, but when I get my hands on books I really like I'd read so long I'd only stop when I no longer understand what I'm reading.
It's a gradual process. Initially, I'd have to keep going back to look for parts I had forgotten (even though I had only went through them less than a minute ago). Eventually I would get to the point where I realize I'm skipping whole paragraphs because I don't care for the details anymore and I just want the plot to keep moving. I would be unable to understand some of the things but I don't care as long as I get the general idea.
Finally, words would go into my eyes and out of my mind right away. My eyes still scroll through the printed fonts but nothing registers in my head.
That's when I close the book and go to sleep.
That's also how I know what it's like to be brain-dead.
I really don't mind this because it allows me to re-read the books another time soon after I finished them the first time. The second time I read them, things tend to make a lot more sense and details pop up that I don't recall seeing at all.
The Citygas guy came by today to check our gas meter after I call the company 2 days ago to ask for a check.
I had to - one month our gas consumption was 50kWh, this month we got billed for 100.
The man assured us that there was no leak but if we want to we can hire someone on our own to do a check on our gas installation. In addition, he told us we could just check on our own by watching our meter when we're not cooking.
Yes, facepalm right there.
Finally, he gave us a form that showed that he was there to check the gas installation which also included a number we could call to get a free change of gas meter.
In conclusion, it's weird but we really have been using more gas since last month. Must be all the gas I burned to make soups and curries. I tend to cook the bones for hours to just make the basic chicken broth.
The postman decided not to deliver my hammock :(
My bro got three packages today. THREE!
I got nothing :(
According to the delivery status reports on the Singpost website, it was delivered to the delivery base of my neighbourhood and it was on "Delivery in progress" since the afternoon. Then at around 7pm he gave up for some reason, updated with "Held on hand" followed by delivery to the post office near my home.
:(
My hammock :(
Meanwhile in Towns, I discovered I could build entire floors attached to a single unit of wall. All of a sudden, this opened a whole new world of architectural impossibilities.
I am now building each floor on a single unit of scaffolding. In the future, I plan to a sky platform that spans most of the map. Since plants here can't be cultivated on my sky platforms and they don't need sunlight, I'll eventually use the whole ground level as a farm.
This is hilarious.Just makes me feel like reinstalling LoL.
They may be developing Fallout 4 now!
Rumours have it that Bethesda employees are researching the Boston area including MIT, which is just across a river from Boston.
Fuck yes!!!
Bandannas. I ordered them.
Found some tube masks on Qoo10 that were going for S$3.50 (now $2.50 just for this week) with free shipping, so I ordered one. Not sure if it's called a "tube mask" since the Korean store called it "Headwear Neck Bandana Multi Scarf Tube Mask Neck Warmer". Being a cloth tube, I thought that "tube mask" sounds like the real name except there's no such thing on Google.
So whatever.
Ordered one of those because I've been tying towels around my head during my workouts and found them highly effective. It's like a sports band but uglier and more cost-effective.
The idea here is to see if I'd feel ok wearing it outside. Of course, I'm going to test it out at work before that.
Also almost bought some bandannas from Rakuten. After making the order, I realized I had made a terrible decision and emailed them to cancel it. Fortunately I had chosen to pay by Paypal, and for some reason Rakuten doesn't charge the money immediately if I chose that mode of payment.
Instead, I was supposed to wait for an email with a link to it... I think. Rakuten has some horrrendous translation for its English site and not everything is made very clear.
Cancelled it because I found that I could just get them from Amazon, which can offer me cheaper prices overall.
Too bad even that is a little expensive. The best I could find in terms of both quality and quantity was a dozen black paisley 22" by 22" single-sided bandannas for around US$35 total shipping included via ComGateway, which is cheaper than VPost.
This was cheaper than the Japanese order by a lot (Japanese shipping was S$30 and that's using the promotional discount by the forwarder, Tenso) because for S$40 I could only get like 5-6 bandannas, but the Amazon order still wasn't cheap enough for something of such low importance.
In the end I decided to try my luck with the smaller 49cm by 49cm bandannas on Qoo10 being sold for S$6.20 apiece with free shipping.
Kinda worried that they may be too small but at worst, some of my handkerchiefs are fading anyway.
If both work the same, I'll get the tube since it's far cheaper.
I was right - the coconut milk should only be added just before serving the curry.
I'm adding the curry paste into a chicken broth made with the bones from my chicken breasts, then boiling the potatoes in it. I only add the chicken when the potatoes are cooked, since the only way a potato can be overcooked in that is if it's dissolved. I test them by poking random cubes with a chopstick, so it's not as bad as waiting till the corners are rounded or something which I did consider previously.
But my previous attempt was not very successful because I added the coconut milk together with the paste right at the beginning, causing the chicken pieces and potatoes to lack that curry flavour inside.
The effect is the same as adding milk to coffee - not only does it do what it's intended to do, it also covers up the flavours of the original mixture to some degree.
This time, my curry is pretty damn good, but still not as fantastic as the stuff the Indonesians sell at the food centre nearby.
OnLive's move was a stroke of genius. An evil genius, but genius nonetheless.
Too bad a sole proprietorship is under a very different set of law compared to companies, so I can't save that in the back of my mind as a backup plan.
What they did to avoid bankruptcy and all the troubles that come with it was to set up a second company and hire all the employees they intended to keep.
Every debt and everyone they were going to fire got left behind in the empty shell of a company.
For those who are more ignorant than myself, legally speaking, a company is its own entity just like individuals. Its debts are its debts, not its CEO's, not it's shareholders' and definitely not its directors'. In the eyes of the law, a company is almost a person.
It's clear that someone or some people over there read the Thirty-Six Strategems because this is "金蝉脱壳" (jin1 chan2 tuo1 ke2), and this is one of those rare moments when a company followed one of them so literally.
Although the point of that strategy is to escape unnoticed, what they did allowed them to escape noticed but without consequences anyway (legally speaking) so it can be said that they basically accomplished the same goal, since to escape unnoticed is to avoid the consequences of getting caught doing so in the first place.
While dismantling the box packaging of the old Linksys USB network adapter that recently stopped working, I recalled that it might have a warranty, so I looked through the contents and found the receipt.
Nope, it seems it was bought in September 2009.
Which means it has been around for far longer than I thought.
It felt like it's only been a year TBH. The adapter still looks so new now.
Oh well, I guess it was really worth the money.
Now I've got this TP-Link 300 Mbps High Gain Wireless N USB Adapter model TL-WN822N as the replacement and it's pretty cool. Mainly it's because of the extra cable that I've connected to the USB extension cord I've been using for the Linksys adapter.
The combined cable is so long I'm able to leave the adapter outside my room, ensuring optimal signal strength even with my door closed.
When I leave it in my room, the strength is around 80-90%. Right now, it's steady at 100%, dropping to 98% once in a long while.
The other day I tried using the dumbbells for my bicep curls again. What I was expecting was the resistance I felt in the past but the first rep was more bicep swing than curl.
They felt so light!
Damn! Those resistance bands are hard!
And this is what NASA's going to be playing when Curiosity finds Prothean tech on Mars.
Mass Effect's also going to be having an anime out in November and it's going to be set during the timeline of ME2 about Vega's mission.
And of course there's that film whose film rights have already been bought. Now we're just waiting for someone to actually do something more than that.
And then parents wonder why the government isn't giving them more money to help them with their kids.
How can they save for retirement when they have to struggle just to send their children to school and tuition?
Don't have kids since you clearly can't afford it.
I may be cruel to say this but it's not a new idea.
Oh please, people have been following this rule for a very long time! Back in the day, it was worse. You think not getting enough government money is bad? Wait till you see arranged marriage. Yeah, go to India and take a look.
The basic idea is the same - don't start a family if you aren't going to make enough. If you do, don't blame the world for not helping you cover up your mistake.
Now I am addicted to online shopping. I browse online stores like 3-4 times a day looking for cheap crap I can buy, though I don't actually buy something everyday. I just like the feeling of opening packages sent to me.
From what I gather, this game is going to be the result when Supreme Commander and Sins of a Solar Empire get together and have a baby.
I am indeed excited about the game but not enough to fork out money for it.
Moreover, the US$15 early bird option has already been sold out - all 5000 slots of it. The current cheapest option is $20.
It's only been around since the 16th and it's already hit over US$500k of its US$900k goal.
There's no doubt that it's going to exceed the goal, and probably by 100% at least. At this rate, US$2M isn't too high a goal to hit by the 15th of September.
Meanwhile on the Design side there's a not-so-original idea that is still more practical IMO than most of the other ideas.
This may not be the first solar energy project on Kickstarter but it's the first that's both useful and usable without much effort. Yes, there's already another project for a solar panel that charges your phone, but I can find 50,000 similar ones, albeit also 50,000 times shittier, on DealExtreme. Long story short, it's been done before, just not as well.
The Forty2, on the other hand, is a 2ft *3ft 25lbs (24" * 36" or 60cm*90cm and 11kg) laptop-style solar panel with a 350 watt-hour lithium ion battery and generates 180-200W of power.
In comparison, an iPhone charger only handles 10W of power.
It's still not a lot; a decent PC can have a power supply unit that handles 600W. Moreover, those numbers are only for optimal conditions, and Singapore's pretty cloudy on a lot of days. Still, I guess that's good for a large campsite or something.
One issue is how long it can last versus the cost of electricity.
In this project, the lowest price of each unit is US$500. Meanwhile, electricity in Singapore currently costs around S$0.28 per kWh.
US$500 is around S$650 - S$700, so that's 2321 - 2500kWh.
My home consumes about 350-400kWh monthly, so 2500kWh will take slightly over half a year.
But that's only if I use the unit to power everything, which is impossible unless they finally allow us to plug our own generators into our electric supply. Otherwise I'll probably only use it for my fan and lights, and at the 50W for my fan, 2500kWh is going to take 50,000 hours or 5.7 years even if I leave my fan on at full blast 24/7 throughout.
Or if you're using a small chiller/personal fridge, that may work too.
So yea, that thing is practical, but not for everyone. But it's way better than the solar phone chargers.
Ok, it's not practical :P
Got to face the facts. 350Wh means it will power my fan for 7 hours. I sleep longer than that, so unless there's a way for my fan to automatically switch power supply, this won't work at all for me.
Though it will come in handy if you're going camping and decide to bring a few larger electronic items with you, the thing is, if you're going to lug those things around, chances are you're going to drive, which means you can afford to get the heavier alternative of an insulated container filled with ice.
I guess this leaves one last scenario - going to some rural area in a developing country.
Wait till they discover that Nazi Germany was the first host country to broadcast the Olympics on TV.
A court in the US has just allowed a private company to patent human genes. It has begun.
Soft pillows are too soft.
Curry is another convenient food that can be cooked in bulk.
It's so convenient, I'm about to make a second batch soon.
I think it's so awesome not only because it can be cooked in bulk but also because it can be stretched.
Oh yes, it's one of the few dishes I can cook decently that can be stretched.
At first, it's just simply following the instructions on the back except with a lot more coconut milk. I do that because I bought a 1-litre pack only to realise I don't have much use for it.
I don't make melon sago dessert all the time, and that milk has got to go somewhere soon.
And I used present tense there because I still have around 200ml left in that pack for the next batch of curry.
Anyways, when the curry is half gone, I add more water and salt to it. It's nowhere as fantastic as before but it still works.
It's basically converting a small amount of good curry into that watery yellow liquid they pass for curry at our mixed rice stalls. Both are edible, and with enough potatoes and some random vegetables, the latter works decently too.
Chicken breasts work but not very well in curry. In the end, I have to admit that the limits of the versatility of chicken breasts seem to end here.
I mean, it's ok in the original curry but unless you like overboiled chicken breasts, they just don't belong in a pot of "stretched" curry.
Chicken thighs, though, that's a whole different story. I can cook them in curry, store the whole pot in the fridge overnight, and they still taste good the next day, or even two days later.
That's clearly why each thigh costs as much as a whole breast (as in both sides).
Potatoes are another part of good curries. Heck, they probably belong in ALL curries. They even go well in the "stretched" curry I made. Seriously, the only bad thing about them is that they're not meat.
I just found a good pair of black patent leather oxfords on Gilt that had my size and only cost US$49!
With the $10 credit I have, the nett price inclusive of shipping was a mere S$79.20!!!
Then I realised I couldn't justify the purchase.
I already have this awesome pair of suede oxfords which can be worn with blazers or khakis, ie works perfectly in both formal and casual events. I could go to a wedding and a BBQ in that pair of shoes!
It was so hard to resist the frickin good deal I deleted the Gilt app from my iPad. So what if I still have the $10 credit that will be expiring next month?
I simply cannot buy anything without a minimal degree of justification.
But it is so hard to forget! S$79.20 is at least S$20 lower than either of my shoe purchases so far!
My heart scream "YES!!" but my mind insists on "No".
I should have thought of this before I started browsing that app daily.
...
So I just learnt that oxfords and derbys are different. They have basically the same appearance but oxfords have closed lacing (you don't see the tongue between the laces) while derbys have open lacing. This difference makes derbys less formal than oxfords.
Regardless, both can be worn in either formal and casual setting so nothing changes for me. The only difference will solely be in situations where I need to be as formal as possible, in which case oxfords would have been preferable because they're the next best thing after black patent leather dress shoes.
Good thing I do not foresee such a situation arising in the future at all. It's hardly possible that I will need to attend an event more formal than weddings.
Moreover, with a pair of long pants on, it's going to be hard for people to see the type of lacing on my shoe anyway.
Ordered Baja Fresh from Dealivery this week for a dinner. Two chicken burritos and a triple taco set. The tacos came with rice while the meal itself came with a large packet of good nachos (as compared to the stuff they sell in supermarkets) and a lot of dips.
Quality, as in the freshness and all that, is good. Taste, from a carnivore's perspective, is decent at best. Quantity was better than expected, though it was nothing compared what I could have bought from MCD.
Price for this meal was S$51 and it was worth the money. I know I'm unimpressed by the taste but it was undeniably a great way to be almost-vegetarian.
I mean, seriously, the only meat in the entire order was the grilled chicken cubes in the burritos, though these things were huge. One burrito is enough to fill even me.
Except I was so distracted by work in the afternoon I skipped lunch, so I gorged myself that night with the whole packet of nachos that my bro didn't want, one taco and all the rice.
Fantastically healthy, but I overate nonetheless.
The two burritos I got were Baja Chicken and Ultimo Chicken. I took the Baja Burrito and it was all chicken. Or rather, it was 2/3 chicken, 1/3 vegetables including quite a bit of avocado working as some kind of lube to make every cube try desperately to GTFO with my every bite, and all wrapped in the tortilla.
According to my bro, the Ultimo was a lot of rice, some chicken, cheese, and lots of onions and other vegetables.
I'm sticking with Baja next time then.
There is, however, one issue: the order exceeded S$50.
I paid S$51 for this meal!
Next week I'll still order from Baja Fresh, but I'll replace the tacos with another burrito, and that will leave me with a few more dollars for an extra side of beans. Or maybe replace them with a fajita. We'll see.
Fallout 1 and 2 feels so much easier when I'm using this weird stats combo to begin.
In FO2 I used Gifted to add 1 stat point to all of SPECIAL, reduce Perception to the minimum (2), raise Strength to 6 (expecting to get Power Armour to boost 3 points and something else to boost another 1), Endurance to 6, Charisma and Intelligence and Agility to 8, and Luck to 9.
Then I tagged Melee Weapon, Doctor and Speech.
I did something very similar in FO1 too.
Now the games are so easy!
I had played FO3 first before FO1 and 2, so in the past I was using a more Intelligence- and Speech- focused build with very attention on combat.
It works in FO3 and FNV but not in the first 2 games, probably because combat is much tougher there. In FO3, even on the highest difficulty, I can always go to Pipboy at any moment and spam Stimpaks to heal. With enough of those, I'm practically invulnerable!
Not so in FO1 and 2. In these older games, simply going to the inventory during combat costs AP. If I go to my inventory in every turn, I lose 1-2 chances to attack out of my usual maximum of 3. Moreover, everyone gets a turn to move before my turn comes again, so I can't quickly use Stimpaks after receiving a single blow from one enemy like I do in FO3.
However, I have to say that FO1 and 2 aren't very focused on melee weapons either. The bias seems to be in favour of guns, with conventional weapons in the beginning and middle and energy weapons at the end of the game.
With a melee-focused build, the game feels a less interesting because I keep picking up so many guns and ammo that I can't use. Though it just makes life easy since I now have plenty of loot to sell to every merchant I come across, it just feels like the game isn't designed with melee weapons as the main focus.
Still, it makes the game easy. With all the loot I'm picking up, I can easily afford the best armour the merchants I find have to offer.
The thing is that even though my character is practically blind, this handicap doesn't seem to affect his hit probabilities. Apparently it only affects ranged weapons, because at the end of FO1 I was using the Alien Blaster and I couldn't hit an adult mammoth 10 metres away.
Not that there are mammoths in FO1 but it serves to illustrate how awesome his miss rate was beyond point blank range.
Holy crap! Towns 0.50b looks awesome!
I've been neglecting the game since last month because it was getting monotonous, but now I saw these:
FFFFFFFFF!
The game finally has a real multi-level system now!
It used to be that there's a ground level and the different levels of dungeons, and when you look at each level, you can't see the other levels.
Now, as shown in the first screenshot, you can now see multiple levels at the same time.
In addition, multi-storey buildings are now available!
This game is really fleshing out very well. I'm no longer having any buyer's remorse anymore.
The fact is, there have been times when I thought I had overpaid for such a simple game. I mean, I paid more for this game than I did for the DLCs of the Fallout games.
Just received a 300ml bottle of Lifebuoy Total Protect body wash today. 300ml is pretty huge for a free sample.
The catch is that they only allow 1 bottle per address so my bro couldn't get it. Well, neither could my parents but that's another story :P
The important thing is that it proved that the 10 bottles I recently purchased online weren't imitation goods. I am very sure that this sample was from the company directly, so when it smelled and appeared exactly the same as the ones already in my possession, the matter was settled.
Unilever has yet to get back to me but that's no longer an issue. Whether they ever will isn't important to me anymore either.
However, this means that Lifebuoy has indeed recently adjusted its formulae, hence this online store is able to sell the soap so cheaply.
StanChart pays US$340 million to get out of the mess. I guess that kinda makes sense. Money makes the world go round. The bank regulator saves on all the expenses of a long trial and StanChart can soon pretend this never happened once the public forgets about the headlines it made in the last few days.
I mean, eventually it was going to end in a fine anyway, so this is just an expedited version of it, except the fine is now called a "settlement" and doesn't come with a criminal record.
Just tried using DBS Vickers to buy a Singapore T-bill just now. Only 1, just to see if I'm doing anything wrong. Spend a thousand bucks and chose to use a non-competitive bid, which I think means it will guarantee that I will get it, but the rate will suck.
TBH it will suck anyway. Singapore's so safe the interest rates for lending money to our government is at around 0.25% p.a. in the short term.
It's ridiculous but it's a step above the usual rates of 0.0X% for most savings accounts here.
Getting a little nervous and the pace is picking up. Big event coming next month and I'm not just concerned about whether I'll be able to provide the quantity but also what discounts they will be offering there.
Unfortunately, though they will be having new deals everyday, these will only be advertised on printed newspapers which I no longer subscribe to.
What's so hard about going online for this??
Dammit! You can just get a random student to handle a Facebook page and update it daily throughout the event!
My USB network adaptor died.
Since my iPad can still be used to surf the net, I wasn't motivated enough to go out and get a new one after coming back from work.
Better yet, my bro's gf is a member of Challenger so they could go on a weekend date AND get me an adaptor.
Meanwhile I am typing this part of the rant on the Blogger app on my iPad.
Now I know that the tablet really is a very personal thing. Seriously, I bring it with me wherever I go except when I take my showers, and this incident merely further confirms this.
DX:HR was an excellent game that had no issue. It's problem was that it had nothing outstanding in a positive way either. It's a great game, though not as epic as ME3 (sans the ending), but there's really nothing that would make me want to play it over and over again.
Like anyone who sees Tibbers walking around will live long enough to dial that number.
That debate between Sylvia Lim and Shanmugam is moot and I think both of them recognized this.
The reason is simply because both sides have correct logic that is based on different assumptions.
All logic is based on a set of assumptions, and when the problem lies in those foundations, arguing is pointless.
Lim's
stance seems to be that Wu's sentence was too light, while Shanmugam
was trying to say that the sentence was consistent with similar cases in
the past.
A major point in this debate:
Should a man's sentence be proportional to his crime or his social status?
The legal system is founded on the ideal that all man is equal. Justice is blind, yes?
So in the eyes of the law, the former is right - a convict should only be judged by the magnitude of his deed(s).
However,
there are people who seem to be arguing that the wealthier a person is,
the tougher his sentence should be. To these people, there is no
equality between the social elites and the average joe, hence their
opinion.
That is the very assumption that is different from that which the legal system is based on.
The
way the legal system works is that sentences and rulings are almost
always based on preceding similar cases, hence the judges' decisions in
new types of cases are known as "landmark decisions" - they basically
set the standards for all future cases that involve the same elements.
In fact I believe law students have to study a lot of these cases in
their curriculum, because that's what I had to read through for that one
semester of basic law I took at UniSIM.
That is why Shanmugam's repeated quotes of past cases made sense - that's how things work in their world.
IMO
he recognized this immediately and believed that Lim, as a fellow
lawyer (heck, she was a law professor until recently!), should also know
this, therefore her motives for asking those questions might have been
more about taking the populist stance than for actually believing that
the sentence was not right, which in turn led to him asking her to
"leave politics out of it".
Of course, I'm just a simple layman and there might have been more to it than I could comprehend.
Also, I'm not saying which assumption right. Both lead to very sound reasonings and both are unfair in some ways. I could take a stance and say that the legal system is unfair, but what's the point?
Legs' been aching for two days since I started doing lunges with my dumbbells.
It's only 10 per set, and by 10 I mean 5 per leg.
I didn't know I've been neglecting my legs so much they ache after the 20 lunges on the first night.
Of course I didn't do any cooldown stretching, and clearly I've either underestimated the difficulty of lunges or overestimated myself.
But I can't stop. It's currently the only lower-body exercise that interests me.
I've been adjusting my workouts whenever I find it boring. The resistance bands were one but now I've reduced it to just bicep curls. The same two bands are way too difficult for upright rows and I don't want to have to remove and replace one of the bands for every set, so I've reverted back to using dumbbells for that.
The side raises are getting easier; I can sometimes do 10 per set, though generally I still stick with 5 unless I don't feel tired by the fifth rep, which happens if I've been doing some significant physical work beforehand like lugging 10-15kgs of groceries from the market. Now every single raise I do is perfect and without pain.
I can totally tell that there's a difference and it's not even a month yet. Normally by the time I bring the 10 chicken breasts and two large bags of vegetables home, I'd be too tired to raise the bags up to the table, so I'd either be raising it with a trembling arm or with both hands on each bag.
This didn't happen the last time I went to the market. In fact, the entire trip felt like a good warmup for the workout I went on to do after arranging everything neatly in the freezer and fridge.
:D
Nothing's visible yet but the feel is definitely there.
Nevertheless, this is nothing compared to my bro. Then again, he's been working out since he went to his unit back during NS.
I'd do it, although I'm sure Google has already thought of this already.
And Blogger's screwing up! Things go missing or get duplicated.
Anyways my 10 litres of soap have arrived!
The labels are printed slightly differerently but I'll find out eventually if they're imitations. My bro is using Vita Protect he bought from NTUC or something and I have three of those in my order.
The seller hasn't even changed the order status to "Shipping", so I can't confirm delivery on Qoo10 and give them the awesome review they deserve.
They even threw in a 1-litre pack of Paul's skimmed milk for free! How nice! I love water!
But I've been reading the seller's catalog and their prices are actually quite... average. More expensive even, for some items like the rice.
It seems they are offering cheaper rates on Qoo10, perhaps as loss leaders as a form of promotion.
Whatever. I'm not buying anything that I can buy at the same price right here in my neighbourhood. If both are offering the same prices, I'd get it from the shops in my area. First, Goshopeasy charges a delivery fee. Second, I have 3% cashback for Shop N Save on Saturdays.
This is ridiculous! I thought Qoo10's Korean sellers are supposed to offer cheap imitation goods!
I bought this exact same model 9110 from the Philips warehouse sale some months back for like S$11 or S$12!
S$21.40 is like double the price!
No wonder it's got free shipping. The difference is about the same as my cab fare!
Single trip though, not return.
The funny thing is, I can get it for S$21 directly from Philips if I spend 9 points. I have over 200 points right now, so 9 is nothing. If I buy there, I can either collect it from the Philips showroom at Toa Payoh or pay $15 for delivery.
You can say that it's cheaper than buy directly from Philips... kinda.
I didn't actually find it that interesting but somehow it just kept playing in my mind today.
Ryan's proposed fiscal plan was pretty much universally slammed on the very first day for being merciless towards the poor.
Is Romney even supposed to win the election????
Because from my angle, it looks like the entire show is just that - a show. My impression of Romney's campaign, regardless of how awful Obama's supporters are, is that it's just gone fubar.
And Ryan's supposed to help. Help! How's the terrible plan supposed to help anyone?
I suppose he's thinking along the same path as our government, but still, this is one of the worst possible time for this sort of thing. I'd be surprised if the unemployed and lower-income households don't make it a point to vote for Obama in November.
No wonder Obama was so sure he was going to win last year - the entire election seems to be rigged!
Guns for self-defense? Ohhh, you mean all those people who defended themselves with guns in that theatre, right?
TUE
The shipper's late! It appears that they aren't very anxious to get paid. My cheque's been clipped at the door since 4 hours ago and they aren't here to collect it yet.
FFS! The ship's ETA was yesterday, and they usually arrive here at my door by lunchtime.
Oh I'm sure they will come, because I've been owing this shipping company the payment for that extra huge shipment since May, and the boss politely asked for it when she informed me of the ship's ETA last week.
The problem is the time. If they arrive in the late afternoon we can't unpack them today. I don't like to leave such things half-complete before closing, but neither can I make my staff stay for OT.
Rant 1041 was evidence that I'm pretty uninformed. There's already a department for procreation but they just call it a Committee.
So I tested both the new Lifebuoy Vitaprotect from Goshopeasy.com and the one my bro bought from Shop N Save.
They were different!
!!!
The new soap was much paler in shade and had a milder fragrance.
Either the manufacturer is cutting costs or I'd just received some imitation goods.
My immediate reaction was to call Unilever Singapore immediately, and the person on the phone took down my contact number and promised to get the brand's people to call me back.
It is suspicious but it is also true that they were from different batches according to the labels. The one from Shop N Save was from an older batch and used data between 2009 and 2010 for its self-promotion stuff on the label. On the new one, it used data from 2010 and 2011 instead.
Still, I called to confirm, just in case. I have nothing to lose anyway.
So paraffin wax is bad for my health and may even cause allergenic reactions.
I'm pretty damn sure the box of 100 tealights I bought at the budget store are all paraffin wax.
I still have about 60+ remaining.
:|
Good non-paraffin-wax tealights are expensive though.
Backed this comic about superheroes gone crazy on Kickstarter despite my own budget issues. I think I've just hit the nadir of my income graph of the year. At least, if I'm right, there's nowhere to go but up from this point on.
So anyways "Leaving Megalopolis" is about a world of superheroes gone wrong and for reasons that aren't explained (spoilers obviously), the people are being attacked by the heroes who were supposed to protect them.
Reading the description reminded me of this fantastic book I read last year titled "Ex-Heroes" and I just had to support this project. It's just 9 USD for a PDF set (which I could have acquired elsewhere if I didn't really want to support them) so I just clicked on it.
Clearly I'm not the only one to like this idea very much because the project's already hit 100% of its target of US$34,000 within 5 days and it's still got over a month remaining.
Speaking of Ex-Heroes, it's got a sequel, "Ex-Patriots"
This reminds me to shop for all those series I've been following while the GSS discounts are still available on OpenTrolley.
But it looks like it will be quite different from the book. While the original is about the witness reports of the entire war from start to end, the film appears to be about just the start.
...
Nice! There are 6 books that I am getting now and quite a lot more for Christmas sales... hopefully they will be out then.
Though it just cost me a hundred bucks I just cannot resist it. How can I not buy the sequel of Ex-Heroes immediately despite the current small discount???
Around S$10 of discounts and free delivery (they charge S$4.90 for orders under S$50).
Now I just need to wait for the three post-Jordan Wheel of Time books to be out in paperback (the last is in preorder status... for hardcover) and the final book of the Runelords. Maybe I'll buy them next year since it's unlikely that the paperback version of WoT book 14 will be out in time for Christmas 2012.
Also, I noticed OpenTrolley categorized "The Prince" by Machiavelli under "Poetry and Drama".
What?!
What poetry??
What drama???
Mind status: Blown.
It should be under "Personal Development" instead!
FFS that book is a five-century-old how-to guide!!
One problem is that young couples worry that having children will dramatically affect their current lifestyle. The current subsidies are simply not effective at reducing this issue. For example, the baby bonus is nothing compared to the rest of the costs of raising a child. This is a long term issue that requires a long term answer; one-off aids will not work.
IMHO the priority given to this must be roughly the same as what is given to public education. After all, what's the point of a good education system if there are not going to be a lot of local students? If you just want to make money off foreign students, you should just privatise everything and let capitalism work its magic.
In other words, why not consider setting up at least a whole department within one of the ministries just for procreation? If you're desperate, that's an extreme measure right there.
Otherwise, there are other extreme measures that could work.
For one, instead of subsidising public education, make it free for citizens. Furthermore, make all textbooks, work books and a specific amount of stationery free every year up till the tertiary education level. C'mon, this is nothing compared to what Mindef is forking out for our soldiers, although to be fair, Mindef only has to do it for slightly over a decade per batch and it's mostly for guys, ie half the generation.
In addition, provide child care services and school meals for free.
You want to let couples stop worrying if their kids will change their lifestyles and kill their budgets? That's how. Even if you give ten thousand bucks per baby, that's still going to be nothing.
All the ministers have their own families, so they should know.
Seriously, I'm only one step away from suggesting that we have 24/7 child care services that might as well be a national orphange, except everyone knows who their parents are from birth.
Y'know what? If you're desperate enough about raising our birth rates, you could consider even that. Have huge residential areas specially for our next generations where they live under the supervision of government-funded specialists. Like boarding schools but on a much larger scale.
How about that?
And this will obviously be subsidised for citizens.
See where I'm going?
Younger people do not want all that commitment. Plain and simple. You reduce that, and babies will pop out.
Having one child is a pain; having two or more is a leading source of hair problems.
Don't look down on the younger generation for hating that extra commitment. They aren't as free as their parents were. Adults today have lots of things to do, other than working OT.
All the different forms of entertainment, like spas, KTV, theatres, iFly and etc, these are the reasons our capitalistic world works and these are the reasons we need a lot of time for ourselves. We just have so many things to do, so many things to spend money on.
So you want our money machine of a society to work and still encourage young educated (ie making decent money) couples to have kids?
You better have some seriously badass incentives waiting, because that's what it's going to take to compensate for a minimum of 18 years of pure commitment per baby per parent from people who are going to be in senior management in a decade or two.
36 man-years, buddy. Thirty-fucking-six.
You think a few tens of thousands of dollars' worth of cash and subsidies will do the trick?
Dream on, sir. Dream. On.
Where will the money come from? Why? I don't know. That's what your bean counters and top-grade ministers are for, aren't they?
