Life

Some weeks back, I suggested to one of my friends about conducting some consistent activities to train our brains, so that they don’t rot so fast while we’re in NS. Before long, fortnightly Floating Bridge sessions are started. All who can play float bridge is invited!

Generally, we began with quite some difficulties as we need exactly 4 players at the minimum for a meeting to be successful. After all, national slaves hardly have the time; even if they do, how many would be available for bridge games?

Thankfully, we still managed to get at least four people every time for a great game. Unfortunately, some of the people are here on a temporary basis and managing attendance is one of the hardest things to do given the strict limitations of the game.

That said, it’s mainly a social gathering. Let me know if you want to join us for some floating bridge games, all who can play, and are willing to contribute effort into playing, are invited. We’ve got at least 3 decks of cards.

As the year comes to a close, cliqued as it may sound, it is the time to take measure of the past year, and to look ahead of what to do.

One of the things I like to do is to pray about the future, plan about what I ought and should achieve, and commit all that in prayer. Failing which, time flies extremely fast, especially when I’m in a position where I can be at stasis.

A great goal tracking framework that I’ve come to love is the one produced by my pastor, a copy which can be seen below.


I use it as a yardstick to ensure that I haven’t been slacking behind too much. National Service does things to you, one of which is to loose track of your ambitions and goals, if you haven’t got them clearly imprinted somewhere.

At that, if you want an editable soft copy of the above template, drop me an email.

Tell someone so that the someone can let someone know what someone thinks:-

Reminds me of my work place – to get things done, and fast, you’ll actually need to know people.

Have a merry and blessed Christmas.

He’s the reason for the season:-

The past few days had been a great experience. The new batch of people are enlisting and new faces are being drafted into my HQ. It certainly brightens the mood with new people and more people. The coincidences of whom I see is amusing.

I saw, from far, my neighbour. What a small world.

I’ve always suspect that I suffering from a certain degree of mental degradation, of which has been uncertain until now. Through this week in Hong Kong, I’ve experienced first hand my poor my memory has become; I could barely remember the way to the computer mall that I’d frequent – I was guessing rather than recalling.

My just-in-time Mandarin to Cantonese pronunciation has degraded to such an extent that I actually had difficulty communicating with people.

What astonished me most was my game of DotA today. I don’t even recognise myself playing! I hardly know what to do with the shops, what recipies to get, and generally how to play.

Stunned and horrified, I decided that I must do something against this unfortunate side-effect of national service.

Thinking on your feet:-

“¹⁹He shall deliver you in six troubles, yes, in seven, no evil shall touch you. ²⁰In famine He shall redeem you from death, and in war from the power of the sword. ²¹You shall be hidden from the scourge of the tongue, and you shall not be afraid of the destruction when it comes. ²²You shall laugh at destruction and famine, And you shall not be afraid of the beasts of the earth.” (Job 5:19-22).

In famine and destruction, you shall laugh. Isn’t that great?

I’ll be back in Hong Kong on the 1st December, 2008. Let me know if you want anything. But please, keep it simple to buy and not too expensive that I’ll go broke.

Generally, food and packaged products are easy, clothes slightly harder, and loose electronics the hardest to buy.

I’m back from the Shoalwater Bay Training Area and it’s been an experience to fathom, thanks to the company of great companions. The environment is rather harsh and it’s something that Singaporeans can get to experience out of their usual living conditions.

The nights are chilly and the days are hot; winds stir up huge clouds of dust; dust trails from vehicles colour everything around brown.

That aside, I’ve also gathered sufficient evidence on why flight is better than fight in a conflict involving Singapore.

With that, here’s one of my favourite songs, Today is the Day by Lincoln Brewster:-

Today, I’d received a piece of mail addressed to me in my former school’s letter head. Inside, it’s a copy of the invitation to an ‘inaugural reunion’, printed on letterhead.

I mentioned this letter to a couple of friends and all have concurred with me their suspicions. The most amusing part was that suspicion greets us the moment we receive anything in the mail from the school; what a great way the school administration has brought us up to be!

The usual questions we asked ourselves were – Where’s the food? Where’s the entrance fee? Where’s the programme? What’s their motive?

We made a few guesses... A survey on university acceptance? A chance to sell us something? Maybe more speeches to teach us what to blog about?

The joke is, the letter reads pretty like a multi-level marketing (MLM) invitation, if not for its name.

What do you think?

Taxes have always been unpopular but necessary to fund the government. It also has an effect in limiting the money supply, similar to the effect of increasing interest rates.

Inflation on the other hand has always been the pain in every financial planner’s neck. It’s easy to bring it up and extremely damaging to control and reduce it.

I’ve been wondering lately about the recent spate of price increases and the seemingly unrelated inflationary pressures.

Given the dichotomy of the credit freeze and the spiralling increase of prices, based on money supply theory, both effects should cancel each other out. However, I’m guessing that as this effect is not in equilibrium and hence further money supply manipulation is required.

As mentioned, one of the effects of taxes is to reduce the amount of money flowing in the economy. Though possibly effective in annulling the cash injections by the central bank, it is highly unpopular and enacting it is not an option in technical recessions. The GST trump card however can’t be used again as it has been played this year. The next possible avenue to do so would be in the pricing of commodity items which everyone needs, desperately. Something that just functions like a tax but with another name.

And so, conveniently blaming the market, we see a 21% hike in tariffs with little reason.

Do I make any sense? What do you think?