Today when I stepped off the train after work, first smell that came to my nose was a burnt smell, barbeque smell, reminds me of last year when the haze was the worst ever, did Indonesia start burning things again? I think it could also be due to the recent dry spell, it hasn't been raining for quite a while the weather is hot and dry, even the grass patches at my work place are all dead, green patch become light brown.
Speaking of barbeque, a few of my colleagues fell ill, I think they ate too much Bak Kwa and did not drink enough water, that's why I try to avoid Bak Kwa, expensive and bad for health, like paying money to make yourself ill, 1KG can sell $50, I was thinking which idiot will buy but during Chinese New Year everyone doesn't seem to mind paying for it, people don't even mind queuing hours for it, actually why not eat after Chinese New Year, it's now selling for $40 per KG, still expensive though, $40 for one KG of meat, might as well go order a few nice dishes at hawker centre.
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Fix for Screen Tearing in Windows 7
I have encountered this problem many times and it usually happens when I click or scroll things too fast and my screen can't seem to refresh fast enough, I thought there was no fix for it until I searched yesterday, the solution is actually very simple, just use any of the Aero Themes and that's it! According to the source, Aero seems to have features in place to prevent screen tearing (double buffering and vertical sync?) and once I switched it on, indeed the screen tearing is gone.
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Singapore Pools $10M Hong Bao Draw on 14 Feb
Today I bought $5 quick pick, sigh, wonder if I can win, at least a few hundred dollars also not bad, I keep thinking what would happen if I win $10M, I think the chances of solo win is very low, chances of me winning is even lower, some people buy $50, $100, wonder how they can spend like that, surely their chances of winning is higher than mine because they have more sets of numbers, but who knows, lady luck might favour me.
If I really win a big sum, first thing I would do is to carry on with my life and slowly think about it, no need to rush into anything, but I think I will go get my driving license and buy a second hand car, and probably invest the rest, maybe tell my wife to buy more land in her hometown.
So don't forget to buy, buy have chance to win, even $1 also have chance, never buy 0% chance.
If I really win a big sum, first thing I would do is to carry on with my life and slowly think about it, no need to rush into anything, but I think I will go get my driving license and buy a second hand car, and probably invest the rest, maybe tell my wife to buy more land in her hometown.
So don't forget to buy, buy have chance to win, even $1 also have chance, never buy 0% chance.
Monday, February 10, 2014
Starhub Upgraded Their Website's User Interface (Finally)
The UI looks so much cleaner and modern now, fonts are bigger and key items are obvious enough, the old UI was terrible, too many things too little space kind of feeling. So other than checking out their main page, I also logged in to rewards, same thing, UI upgraded and I noticed that they merged my rewards points (mobile merged with internet/cable), now I don't know whether they calculate wrong or I calculate wrong, I seem to have 114 points extra, I checked my bills for the past 3 months twice, still the same, they gave bonus points because they upgraded their website or something?
Anyway, I also noticed that they now offer more rewards to choose from, shows that they heard my last complain and acted on it, good, their rewards variety used to really suck, very limited even though they had several pages, most were this plan, that plan, too many repetitions but doing the same thing, at least now they removed all that junk and replaced with a Bill Rebate redemption with multiple denominations ($5, $10 and etc), now they even offer tickets for Universal Studios and a whole bunch of other new stuff, even food vouchers like BreadTalk.
But I can see the site is still buggy, the pictures, lists are all so messy, even the Account Manager shows a whole page of "Error 404--Not Found", I think they are fixing it now because I noticed the pages were a bit different than earlier, I think they need some time to beautify it.
Come to think of it, I find Starhub really good, otherwise I wouldn't have stuck with them since 2000, I should have bought their shares, but unfortunately I didn't, now their share price is $4+, but I can see why, this company has a lot of potential simply because they listen to and cared about customers, they have shown this several times already, like the Odex saga when Starhub tried its best to defend users' privacy, and some other cases which I can't remember, I just know that they left a good impression or else I would have jumped ship long ago.
Anyway, I also noticed that they now offer more rewards to choose from, shows that they heard my last complain and acted on it, good, their rewards variety used to really suck, very limited even though they had several pages, most were this plan, that plan, too many repetitions but doing the same thing, at least now they removed all that junk and replaced with a Bill Rebate redemption with multiple denominations ($5, $10 and etc), now they even offer tickets for Universal Studios and a whole bunch of other new stuff, even food vouchers like BreadTalk.
But I can see the site is still buggy, the pictures, lists are all so messy, even the Account Manager shows a whole page of "Error 404--Not Found", I think they are fixing it now because I noticed the pages were a bit different than earlier, I think they need some time to beautify it.
Come to think of it, I find Starhub really good, otherwise I wouldn't have stuck with them since 2000, I should have bought their shares, but unfortunately I didn't, now their share price is $4+, but I can see why, this company has a lot of potential simply because they listen to and cared about customers, they have shown this several times already, like the Odex saga when Starhub tried its best to defend users' privacy, and some other cases which I can't remember, I just know that they left a good impression or else I would have jumped ship long ago.
Friday, February 7, 2014
Damn Frustrated at Tampines Polyclinic
Today I went to the polyclinic with my wife, she wanted to check her INR level, so we went there, took a number and waited, finally our turn, we went to the laboratory registration counter, the lady asked if we would see the doctor, I said no because my wife don't need a prescription, she still have a lot of her Warfarin from her Thai doctor, then she told me the doctor would want to know her INR reading, but I insisted on not seeing because if we see, we will need to pay the consultation fees, which is $41.70 for non-resident, then another more senior lady cut in our conversation and highlighted that the procedure is such that if we don't see the doctor, we cannot proceed with the INR test, I was surprised, how come there is such a procedure, can't they be more flexible and look at it from my perspective? Not that I don't have the money to pay but it's just that I find it pointless to pay, all my wife needs is to have her blood test done, that's it, we don't need the doctor to tell us whether the reading is okay because we know the optimal range, it's 2 to 3.
In the end, seeing that they are adamant on sticking to their procedure, I told the first staff to cancel our registration and we'll take our leave, out of nowhere the senior staff told the first staff to cancel it and log in as incident report, she said that in front of us and she sounded unhappy, as if she wanted us to hear that, who cares if she log it as incident or not, what the hell man, do I even need to hear that? I find her attitude quite bad, the way she cut into our conversation, the way she sounds so right about her procedures, really disgusts me, as if we don't want to do the INR also cannot? Wah, die die want us to see the doctor? Who pay? She pay or I pay? Please, don't die die stick to procedures, stop and think whether it makes sense or not, at least look at it from other people's perspective, rules are set by people, nothing is 100% right, and as a front desk service staff, her attitude should have been much better.
But I admit I might have sounded frustrated, but of course I was frustrated because of the rigid procedure, plus the way the senior lady talked to me, made me feel frustrated with her.
Anyway this incident led me to checking with HSA on whether we have such a home test kit in Singapore, I checked with a few pharmacists and they either said not sure or asked me to check with SGH or HSA, I thought if we are going to pay $50+ just for a test, might as well buy the damn thing and do it ourselves, and by the way, polyclinic consultation fees keep going up, for sure it will be more expensive in the future, what annoys me is their service is terrible and yet they have the cheek to raise price, damn bad attitude blood suckers, rarely have a good experience there, even the doctors there have bad attitude, but of course there are still the few nice ones, and those with high blood pressure, I hope you will not be unlucky enough to walk into the room with the bad attitude doctors, who knows your blood pressure might get higher instead.
In the end, seeing that they are adamant on sticking to their procedure, I told the first staff to cancel our registration and we'll take our leave, out of nowhere the senior staff told the first staff to cancel it and log in as incident report, she said that in front of us and she sounded unhappy, as if she wanted us to hear that, who cares if she log it as incident or not, what the hell man, do I even need to hear that? I find her attitude quite bad, the way she cut into our conversation, the way she sounds so right about her procedures, really disgusts me, as if we don't want to do the INR also cannot? Wah, die die want us to see the doctor? Who pay? She pay or I pay? Please, don't die die stick to procedures, stop and think whether it makes sense or not, at least look at it from other people's perspective, rules are set by people, nothing is 100% right, and as a front desk service staff, her attitude should have been much better.
But I admit I might have sounded frustrated, but of course I was frustrated because of the rigid procedure, plus the way the senior lady talked to me, made me feel frustrated with her.
Anyway this incident led me to checking with HSA on whether we have such a home test kit in Singapore, I checked with a few pharmacists and they either said not sure or asked me to check with SGH or HSA, I thought if we are going to pay $50+ just for a test, might as well buy the damn thing and do it ourselves, and by the way, polyclinic consultation fees keep going up, for sure it will be more expensive in the future, what annoys me is their service is terrible and yet they have the cheek to raise price, damn bad attitude blood suckers, rarely have a good experience there, even the doctors there have bad attitude, but of course there are still the few nice ones, and those with high blood pressure, I hope you will not be unlucky enough to walk into the room with the bad attitude doctors, who knows your blood pressure might get higher instead.
Thursday, February 6, 2014
Our First Experience at Sushi Express Singapore
So yesterday I said we will go try the new sushi outlet at Tampines One, they are really selling everything at $1.50, very cheap compared to Sakae Sushi, and it was almost full house but lucky today is a weekday so there were still some seats left, but is it better than Sakae? I think in terms of freshness, no comments as both are equally fresh, but in terms of variety, seems like Sakae wins hands down, my wife said she likes Sakae more. Oh another thing, the green tea, Sakae's tasted much better, it has a nutty flavour which me and my wife liked very much, my wife even bought a box of their green tea, as for Sushi Express, their green tea tasted like those supermarket green tea, even tasted a bit sour, don't like it that much.
So conclusion is, we still like Sakae more ;)
I noticed something about their billing, this is my bill:
18 Sushi $27.00
2 Boxes of Oolong Tea $3.00 (my wife picked it up at the counter)
10% Service Charge $2.70
7% GST $2.29
So the service charge was based on the 18 plates of sushi which we ate there, looks ok, but look at the GST, it was based on 7% of 27+3+2.70 (rounded up to 2.29 from 2.289). They actually charged GST on the service charge, which was unusual, first time that I ever saw such a billing, but anyway, the total cost was $34.99 including the 2 boxes of tea, the same meal at Sakae would probably cost more than $50, satisfaction at a lower price ;)
So conclusion is, we still like Sakae more ;)
I noticed something about their billing, this is my bill:
18 Sushi $27.00
2 Boxes of Oolong Tea $3.00 (my wife picked it up at the counter)
10% Service Charge $2.70
7% GST $2.29
So the service charge was based on the 18 plates of sushi which we ate there, looks ok, but look at the GST, it was based on 7% of 27+3+2.70 (rounded up to 2.29 from 2.289). They actually charged GST on the service charge, which was unusual, first time that I ever saw such a billing, but anyway, the total cost was $34.99 including the 2 boxes of tea, the same meal at Sakae would probably cost more than $50, satisfaction at a lower price ;)
Alan Ramos Psychology Graduate Working at IDA
Recently I keep seeing news about this guy, he is said to be a psychology graduate from Harvard who was employed at IDA when he was 22 years old, now he is 26 years old and being charged with underage sex. Netizens were asking how a psychology grad managed to land himself a job at IDA, I thought maybe he was doing something non-IT related, then I checked out his LinkedIn profile, it seems like I was wrong because under his Skills & Endorsements, I see Software Project Management, Software Development, Web Services and etc, those are definitely IT stuff, I'm in the industry so I know.
So back to the question, so how did a non-IT graduate get an IT job? Actually it's not unusual, I read in a book where this web developer is a graduate in marine life or biology, and among my colleagues, I have a physics graduate who is a Java (it's a programming language) technical team lead, a civil engineering graduate who is a software developer, an engineering graduate who is also a software developer, I know of another civil engineering grad who is a project manager, the list can go on and on, what I'm saying is the discipline doesn't matter at all as long as the person has the experience or skill set because at the end of the day, what matters most is whether this person can deliver.
And having the relevant degree also don't mean much if the person has no interest in IT, I encountered Masters degree holder in information systems, computer science graduate and whatsoever IT degree holders, and yet they cannot deliver, ultimately it's a matter of interest, you like doing it you will keep trying to advance, and in the midst of advancement, your experience and skill set naturally expands, it's that simple, you don't like it, no matter how much you force yourself to learn, you can never go far even if your boss hurls opportunities at you, you will simply collapse.
But then, I am puzzled by IDA, I go to transitioning.org sometimes so I know there are jobless graduates in Singapore, it can be hard to believe right, Singapore gives the impression that it is a first world country and yet some of our graduates are jobless, strange right. So what really puzzles me is instead of picking candidates from our local universities and jobless pool of graduates, IDA choose to accept a foreigner, if IDA is a private company, that I can accept, as long as the company follow our MOM's hiring guidelines, I have nothing to say, but IDA is a stat board, a government agency, and since they don't mind graduates of irrelevant discipline, then it's even easier for them to find someone, so I hope they will start picking people from transitioning.org, at least help those older jobless ones first, I'm sure they have bills to pay.
So back to the question, so how did a non-IT graduate get an IT job? Actually it's not unusual, I read in a book where this web developer is a graduate in marine life or biology, and among my colleagues, I have a physics graduate who is a Java (it's a programming language) technical team lead, a civil engineering graduate who is a software developer, an engineering graduate who is also a software developer, I know of another civil engineering grad who is a project manager, the list can go on and on, what I'm saying is the discipline doesn't matter at all as long as the person has the experience or skill set because at the end of the day, what matters most is whether this person can deliver.
And having the relevant degree also don't mean much if the person has no interest in IT, I encountered Masters degree holder in information systems, computer science graduate and whatsoever IT degree holders, and yet they cannot deliver, ultimately it's a matter of interest, you like doing it you will keep trying to advance, and in the midst of advancement, your experience and skill set naturally expands, it's that simple, you don't like it, no matter how much you force yourself to learn, you can never go far even if your boss hurls opportunities at you, you will simply collapse.
But then, I am puzzled by IDA, I go to transitioning.org sometimes so I know there are jobless graduates in Singapore, it can be hard to believe right, Singapore gives the impression that it is a first world country and yet some of our graduates are jobless, strange right. So what really puzzles me is instead of picking candidates from our local universities and jobless pool of graduates, IDA choose to accept a foreigner, if IDA is a private company, that I can accept, as long as the company follow our MOM's hiring guidelines, I have nothing to say, but IDA is a stat board, a government agency, and since they don't mind graduates of irrelevant discipline, then it's even easier for them to find someone, so I hope they will start picking people from transitioning.org, at least help those older jobless ones first, I'm sure they have bills to pay.
Tomorrow Clear Off-in-lieu!
The second day of Chinese New Year fell on a Saturday so my company gave me an off-in-lieu because I am on a 5 days work week. So tomorrow I will bring my wife to the polyclinic to check her blood, and then go find something good to eat, maybe we'll try the legendary $1.50 sushi at Tampines One, my colleague told me it's good and I heard there is always a long queue, even crazy long when they just opened and they were selling their sushi for only $1. At $1.50, I wonder how they make money, my colleague also mentioned that the serving is big, are they making a loss to get the customers first? Maybe, so I'm sure they will eventually raise the price.
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
The Guy with a $15,000 Rolex Watch
As usual, after work, take the train, find a comfortable spot and lean back, then came this very tall guy who stood beside me, he was even taller than me, I'm about 1.81 meters, this guy was at least 1.9 meters, he was talking on the phone, then he said something about his Rolex watch with a market price of $15,000, then he said if he sold it, he would be able to get over his current financial difficulty, he said the watch was of sentimental value so he had no plan to sell it.
That made sense, my grandmother left me a jade-studded gold ring bought more than a decade ago, not very sure how much she paid for it, also not sure how much it's worth now, and if I were to sink into financial difficulty, I don't think I would ever sell it, probably not even pawn it unless there is absolutely no other way. Actually she bought similar rings for all her sons and grandsons, not sure what she bought for the females, I think it was some jade bracelet because my mom got one or two from her. The gold rings for her sons was bigger, grandsons smaller, my father sold his ring though, maybe he needed the cash.
That made sense, my grandmother left me a jade-studded gold ring bought more than a decade ago, not very sure how much she paid for it, also not sure how much it's worth now, and if I were to sink into financial difficulty, I don't think I would ever sell it, probably not even pawn it unless there is absolutely no other way. Actually she bought similar rings for all her sons and grandsons, not sure what she bought for the females, I think it was some jade bracelet because my mom got one or two from her. The gold rings for her sons was bigger, grandsons smaller, my father sold his ring though, maybe he needed the cash.
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
So Many People Queuing at ATM?
Today when I was on my way home, I noticed that there was a long queue at the update bank book machines at POSB, Citibank and DBS, wonder what happened, suddenly so many people using those machines. So I quickly head home to check my bank balance, nothing is missing, also can't find any relevant news online, or is it simply because after Chinese New Year everybody suddenly feel like updating their bank book at the same time? Weird.
Monday, February 3, 2014
Even Foreign Spouses of Singaporeans are Under Attack
Today while browsing Gilbert Goh's Facebook page, I came across some comments that made me both angry and sad, see the following image. In case you don't know who Gilbert Goh is, he runs a support site for Singaporeans at transitioning.org.
Foreign spouse will bring along their whole village into Singapore? What? There is no way to justify that without sounding ridiculous, really. Now let's look at some facts, for LTVP holders, they are not even allowed to bring any of their family member here, even if the foreign spouse attains PR status, at most they can bring in only their parents or children under LTVP, and they will need to be sponsored by the foreign spouse, but I read on some forum that there is a special case where the Singaporean husband was allowed to be the sponsor but that was only on a case-by-case basis, so it's not as easy as said, whole village? No.
Protest against Singaporeans marrying a foreign spouse? Go on, as if only foreign spouse will help to reach the 6.9M mark, but just look at how silly that sounds, if I'm a reporter from another country and I see a bunch of Singaporeans protesting over this kind of issue, I would laugh my ass off.
Cannot help a foreigner even if he/she is the spouse of a fellow Singaporean? If that's the case, don't refer me as "fellow Singaporean", we don't need your help anyway, and for your info, for foreign spouse who are LTVP holders, they do not receive any form of subsidy from the government, for those under LTVP+, the only subsidy is in-patient subsidy, and there are plenty of foreign spouses on LTVP or LTVP+.
I'm angry because they say shit without even bothering to find out more, I'm sad because Singaporeans are attacking Singaporeans, to be honest, I don't find Singaporeans united, not at all, people here mostly care about themselves, bloody sure I'm not the only one who noticed, perhaps it's just the way our life goes on, everyday is about trying to make more money for a better tomorrow, maybe in the midst of all these struggles, people forget about the basic things.
 |
| Sigh |
Foreign spouse will bring along their whole village into Singapore? What? There is no way to justify that without sounding ridiculous, really. Now let's look at some facts, for LTVP holders, they are not even allowed to bring any of their family member here, even if the foreign spouse attains PR status, at most they can bring in only their parents or children under LTVP, and they will need to be sponsored by the foreign spouse, but I read on some forum that there is a special case where the Singaporean husband was allowed to be the sponsor but that was only on a case-by-case basis, so it's not as easy as said, whole village? No.
Protest against Singaporeans marrying a foreign spouse? Go on, as if only foreign spouse will help to reach the 6.9M mark, but just look at how silly that sounds, if I'm a reporter from another country and I see a bunch of Singaporeans protesting over this kind of issue, I would laugh my ass off.
Cannot help a foreigner even if he/she is the spouse of a fellow Singaporean? If that's the case, don't refer me as "fellow Singaporean", we don't need your help anyway, and for your info, for foreign spouse who are LTVP holders, they do not receive any form of subsidy from the government, for those under LTVP+, the only subsidy is in-patient subsidy, and there are plenty of foreign spouses on LTVP or LTVP+.
I'm angry because they say shit without even bothering to find out more, I'm sad because Singaporeans are attacking Singaporeans, to be honest, I don't find Singaporeans united, not at all, people here mostly care about themselves, bloody sure I'm not the only one who noticed, perhaps it's just the way our life goes on, everyday is about trying to make more money for a better tomorrow, maybe in the midst of all these struggles, people forget about the basic things.
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