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Showing posts from August, 2014

So Many Comment Spammers

Even though Blogger has a fine spam filtering system but I still get the spam comments into my email, sometimes I couldn't differentiate from the genuine comments so sorry if I did not reply. Maybe I should put the captcha test but I don't like captcha, it's such an annoying and yet useful feature but I find it more annoying. And I know why they are posting in my comments, it's because they want to promote their website, it's really such a lame way to promote a website, if you put genuine comments then fine, well at least be relevant, all of the spam comments don't make any sense, like this guy who keeps posting in Japanese, what the hell lol, or another who tells me he has problems with hackers, viruses and then he drops a link to a website selling shoes.

Ekin Cheng Wind and Cloud

Just watched the movie, this song is so classic, next time I have children must let them listen lol...

Trying for Baby Again!

Somehow I feel that everything is settled and all I need to do is to have a baby, I mean house, job, wife's PR all settled, what else. I feel even more motivated when I heard that the wife of my 26 year old colleague delivered her baby recently, I'm already 31 and my wife 28 and we still don't have baby, so what are we waiting for. Anyway I already have a plan in mind, once her pregnancy is confirmed, I will straight away buy tickets for her to go home, have discussed with her, the cost here in Singapore is just ridiculous even if she is PR, of course if everything goes well then no worry but for her case is very hard to say, what if there are complications, the cost can shoot through the roof, really no point paying that kind of money. So when she stays in Thailand, I will visit her once every 2-3 months, now I have plenty of leave so no problem. Maybe we might get a car there so it will be easier for her to get to the hospital. Now I'm thinking how much I should g

In-camp Training Again!

Next month going back for ICT, see my old friends again, but damn stupid, waste of time, probably go back and wait for time to pass, go canteen break, walk around, go emart, talk cock, sleep, what else, maybe go range, go get $200 also not bad, nowadays the range at the new facility, it's almost as if they throw money at you, there's no way you cannot get the money, they let you take until you get marksman. And maybe I can get to clear my IPPT via the new system, sit-up, push-up and 2.4km, lol sure pass and sure get $200, go one ICT can get $400, really not bad. Sometimes I also feel bad, I'm a taxpayer and I'm wasting my own money, funny right.

Sunday Lunch at Home

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My wife cooked my favourite stir-fry pork with chili and long beans, fried egg and chili petai with pork. Yummy!

Sheng Kee Food is So-So

This morning me and wife went to Clementi Mall to try new food, we passed by Sheng Kee so I suggested to try it since we never eat there before. The eating space is very small, even the tables and chairs are small, true to what I heard from my colleagues who went to Hong Kong, they say the eateries there i.e. Cha Chan Ting (茶餐厅) are very cramped, people have to eat quickly and the shop helpers will chase you out if you are not eating or have finished your food because their space is very limited, we must be very lucky to be able to take our own sweet time here, anyway I don't like small eating spaces, so uncomfortable, unless the food is superb then I don't mind, unfortunately the food at Sheng Kee is just so-so. We ordered: Dry signature noodle $8.50. Rice with chicken and sausage $6.90. Milk tea $2.90. Add Gui Ling Gao and carrot cake for $1.90. Subtotal $20.20. Add $0.20 service charge and $1.43 GST, total $21.85. The signature noodle comes with 2 pieces of Shui

Starmex Aircon Very Easy to Clean

The vanes can be removed easily because the middle and left section can be unlocked and the inner vanes can be pulled down by unlocking it, exposing the fan takes less than a minute, but nothing much to clean because we only used it for about 2 months. I think overall I'm very satisfied with my aircon, the cooling power is solid, at 24 degrees it's so chilling, have the Genting Highlands feel, 25 is just nice for me but my wife prefer 24, I can't imagine 23 and below, must be super cold. The best part about this aircon is they have this silent fan mode, you turn it on and there is barely any sound coming from the aircon, it's as if the aircon is not even there, and the difference between silent mode and normal fan mode is just that silent takes a little bit longer to cool the room so no biggie. One problem with this aircon is the fan is too powerful, previously I was using auto fan mode and when the fan goes into high speed, it will vibrate and make a lot of noise,

Wife Completed PR Formalities

Our appointment was at 1.45pm, we reached ICA building at 1pm and registered at about 1.05pm, the PR services centre at level 5 was quite empty so we didn't have to wait long, about 10 minutes later our number was called, we went to submit my wife's passport, her long-term visit pass plus (ICA will keep this), 2 passport size photograph taken at the same level (4 pieces for $5), the approval letter, paid $200 by NETS ($100 for entry permit, $50 for re-entry permit, $50 for blue IC), and finally collected my wife's entry and re-entry permit and a slip of paper to register an appointment to collect her blue IC. And she got a new IC number starting with S, her G number is no longer in use. The whole process ended before 1.45pm, faster than expected, I thought we will be stuck there for at least 2 hours lol. And just to share an incident while taking photo at the level 5, the uncle insisted that my wife put on a coat for her photograph, I checked the approval letter and there

Sichuan Mala Pot Really So Expensive!

This is the part two of my first post . Today I checked with my colleagues, one told me he paid $26 for two when he ate at Chinatown, the other told me they went to eat in a group of 4 and they paid $28 which comes to $7 per pax, now I can see this mala pot, oh wait, the correct name is Mala Xiang Guo i.e. Spicy Fragrant Pot lol, is not cheap food, even though the ingredients are cheap but the actual price is not, we are not eating at restaurants, it's just food centre or food court, how can they sell so expensive, ridiculous.

What to do When ICA Rejects Your PR?

I like to share stories so let's start by sharing my wife's PR story. I married her in Sep 2010 and I applied LTVP for her, then in May 2011, I applied PR for her, waited for about 6 months and it was rejected with no reason given, boy was I pissed, but I knew I was simply trying my luck so I had no intention to appeal nor submit it again as soon as possible, that is because I did a lot of research on this topic, spoke to a couple of friends, co-workers and relatives, and I realized that if there is not much change from point of submission to appeal, then there is really no point to appeal. For spousal PR application, ICA will assess both of our eligibility, just look at the Form 4 , they want to know our occupation, salary, education level, number of children, then they will also want to know our IRAS and CPF information, so what I'm saying is if there is not much change in those information, then really no point to appeal or submit soon. So for my wife's ca

First-Time LTVP Applicant is Required to be Present in Singapore

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Thanks to an anonymous visitor who encountered this issue and also updated back to this blog. The reason why first-time applicant is required to be present in Singapore is because when the applicant submits the application online at e-VP , one of the mandatory field is DE Card Number, this number comes from the white card a visitor gets when he/she enters Singapore. For renewal, there is no such requirement. I have attached following screenshots from the original posting for reference, the comments was posted at  How to Marry a Thai in Singapore . Original Comments

Office Connection Damn Slow

I heard that my office building is using 10Mbps internet connection, basket such a big building with so many users and they only have 10Mbps, ridiculous, so in order to speed things up, I brought my work home, my fibre connection is so much faster, what a world of difference. I really think large organizations should spend a bit more on faster connections, why scrimp and save on this kind of necessity, it's the internet age, 10Mbps is not acceptable! At least 100mbps please.

Sichuan Mala Pot So Expensive

Just now my wife tried the mala pot for the first time, it's not the steamboat kind of mala pot, it's the type where you choose some ingredients and then the chef will stir fry it in the mala sauce. She ordered seaweed, black fungus, sliced bamboo, enoki mushrooms and sliced pork, guess how much, $15, what the heck, ok the serving is enough for two but $15 is a rip-off and it doesn't even come with rice, I can buy whole packs of everything and cook it myself for less than $10 and serve at least 4, anyway they only gave two small slices of pork in case you think it might be the pork that is expensive. It's mostly just veggies, how come they can charge so much just for veggies, the mala sauce is not expensive, you can get it at any supermarket for around $2+. By the way it's at a food court, Kou Fu at Commonwealth MRT, even so, the price is still ridiculous, I wonder if this is the normal price for mala pot, it's our first time eating it, my wife told me the two

Eldest Aunt Struck with Cancer

Just now went to visit her at KK hospital, she looked really tired, I think it's due to her medication and she told me she might not make it, her neck is swollen and she can barely move, she's 68 years old, I think as a person gets older, all sorts of illnesses start to appear, it's just part and parcel of life. I was not sure what I should say to her, I kept telling her to rest. She is now in a single bedroom, I think it's the ICU, tomorrow they are going to transfer her to a healthcare home, I think it's a charity home so the costs will be lower. She told me to take care of my father, I just said okay sure.

Just Configured My Blog to Auto Publish to Twitter

Haha, yes I have a twitter account, bet you didn't know that lol... Anyway I can't find much use for twitter, I really have no idea why it is so popular but it sure is good for people to post real-time updates, or maybe that's why it is so popular. So today I decided to make use of it, I found this web service  twitterfeed , I can configure it so that whenever I make a post on my blog, it will automatically publish to my twitter account, I can even configure it to do the same for Facebook, too bad I don't have a Facebook account now, maybe I'll create one later, nowadays it's all about the likes lol. So let's see if this post gets auto published to twitter, be going for lunch now, ciao!

Dreamt That I Got Fired

The scene that I saw was a big corporate room with someone who seems to be the CEO, not my CEO in real life though, this dream CEO is younger without any white hair. Me and two or three other people that I have never seen before were sitting together in the room, what happened next was the CEO telling us that we are terminated immediately, everyone else said nothing and simply walked out of the room, I tried to ask for the reason but the CEO said nothing. In my mind I was so worried, so angry, so confused, wondering how the heck am I supposed to get a job, wondering why the heck was I terminated. Next scene was the company HR passing me a payment slip, seems like the CEO ordered the HR to make immediate payment on the next day, obviously because I was terminated and he wanted to pay me fast so I can get lost fast. After that, I woke up, so scary, now I realize that I'm scared of losing my job, fortunately in my company, it's not easy to get terminated, you really have to sc

Automatically Reload Properties File in Spring Framework

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Can't believe I spent so many days trying to get this to work, in the end it is actually so simple lol, now there is no need to restart my server whenever the properties file change, spring will detect and reload it on the fly. I created a demo project in hope that it will help someone, there really is no need to spend days looking for such a simple answer ;) My Project Structure demo.jsp <h1>${hostname}</h1> <h1>${driver}</h1> <h1>${reading}</h1> <h1>${writing}</h1> database.properties hostname=localhost driver=oracle.jdbc.OracleDriver language.properties reading=english,chinese,malay writing=english,malay web.xml <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <web-app xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"  xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee"  xmlns:web="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd"  xsi:schemaLocation="htt

Woman Relieves Herself in Public

Source Wow, seems like she took a dump, in public, and at the MRT station! It's getting worse, the last news that I read about such incident was a young boy pissing into a bottle on the train, are these people mad or what, we are not living in the jungle, you don't shit or piss wherever you like, not in public view, at least take cover, find somewhere isolated, shit or piss onto grass patch, it will be useful as fertilizer, but this woman is the ultimate, she outright shits on the floor, so who is going to clean up after her, at least the boy pissed into a bottle.

My Job is Secured for the Next 8 Years

Today we just took over a new project, this is the one where I was supposed to be the lead but luckily my boss decided to let my senior take the lead, I find that I'm not leader quality lol, no actually being a lead is quite a pain in the ass, have to prepare monthly reports, attend meetings, just taking over this project I've already attended a lot of meetings and I don't really enjoy it, I'm the hands-on type of person, I prefer to get things done, meetings are a waste of time to me. Another thing is I realized that I won't get a promotion even if I get to be the lead, haha now you know why I say lucky, more responsibilities for the same pay. Anyway I heard from my lead that we won the project with a contract of 8 years, that means I will have a job for the next 8 years unless I resign or get terminated, I don't think I will get terminated, I got to really screw up real bad in order to get terminated but of course I will be trying my best not to. So in this

How Much Will I Leave Behind If I Die Now?

Recently this question popped up in my mind a few times, I think maybe because I'm the only person working so I'm a bit worried about my wife's future if I should suddenly leave this world. I should take this chance and find out how much I can leave to my wife if I die. Dependants' Protection Scheme $50,000 in the event of death or total permanent disability. Term insurance with rider $100,000 for main plan, $50,000 for rider, total $150,000 in the event death or total permanent disability. Company term insurance 24 times of my monthly salary, 24*3944=$94,656. Home Protection Scheme It will fully pay up my HDB loan so my wife won't have to pay anything more. CPF monies (as of today) Ordinary Account (OA) $4,151.53 Special Account (SA) $20,147.32 Medisave Account (MA) $23,386.47 Total $47,685.32 So she can get $342,341.32 and a fully paid 2-room resale flat, not bad huh, she can either sell the flat and go back to Thailand or continue to stay here

Fix XML Error When Adding Read More Function

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The read more function is here . Easiest way is to remove the entire highlighted part The reason why it throws error is because in xml, every tag must be closed, so other than removing the entire line, you can also do it in following two ways: Method 1 - add a slash to close the tag. <img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1vpGPR2cMdiQtyoxBtE1Nl2AEvjWrkGsWwW3mKJl8DD01Onv_6knyLz81rFCUc3YN8epCjt4eUERQ7rFgv8jPIQncGQbcUznKf1dA_gBosqlD2D8qrkXOgHEaMyoJFBkR_LALKXtWm2A/s1600/1x1juice.png" / > Method 2 - add a closing tag. <img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1vpGPR2cMdiQtyoxBtE1Nl2AEvjWrkGsWwW3mKJl8DD01Onv_6knyLz81rFCUc3YN8epCjt4eUERQ7rFgv8jPIQncGQbcUznKf1dA_gBosqlD2D8qrkXOgHEaMyoJFBkR_LALKXtWm2A/s1600/1x1juice.png"> </img> That's it!

Google Adsense New Payments System

They updated their Terms and Conditions . They also have a new payment system . One of the main changes is that they are calculating my earnings directly in Singapore dollars instead of US dollars. Another change is that my payment threshold is now $150 Singapore dollars instead of $100 US dollars, overall it's higher but well, doesn't really matter much. Now I'm more curious about how they make the conversion from USD to SGD, I hope I don't suffer a loss in payments after the conversion! Anyway let's see how.

Just Added a Read More Function and a New Related Posts Script

Haha, finally I found a good related posts script that looks nice and is easy to customize, the last one was terrible because I have no idea how I can customize it, the read more function is also great, now I can put more posts in my home page, previously some posts were too long and my home page looked really messy, at least now my blog has a more professional feel lol. Thanks to the following sites for the scripts. How To Add Automatic "Read More" Button/Hack in Blogger . How to Add Related Posts Widget with Thumbnails to Blogger / Blogspot .

KFC National Day Celebration Combo at $4.90

Just now we went to KFC for a quick snack, there were long queues, most people were queuing for the Celebration Combo, why not, cheap and good deal at $4.90. So what is included? Two pieces of hot and crispy chicken that comes with a small flag that says " HAPPY BIRTHDAY SINGAPORE", a regular whipped potato and a Nestle Sjora mango and peach drink, not bad right, I'm not sure how long does this promotion last so go grab yours today.

Adjusted My Blog Layout

A few weeks ago I added a Qoo10 link to try out their affiliate program, it didn't work out, worse of all it probably is more distracting than useful, I think a lot of clicks are wasted on it, so today I took it out and changed my site layout to focus more on Adsense, we'll see how it turns out.

Britons Murdered in Kuching

Source Neil Dalton and Aidan Brunger, both 22, were on a six-week work placement along with five other medical students to put the skills they had learnt during their time here at the university into practice. The two were found murdered at 4.15am on Wednesday with stab wounds on their chest and back following an early morning quarrel with several men in Abell Road. SAC Chai said initial investigations indicated the incident started when the two Britons, who had been drinking, began arguing loudly between themselves in a bar. The four suspects, who had also been drinking, confronted the medical students and told them to be quiet, he added. "One of the British students slapped one of the men, turned over a table and walked out," he said. When the students left the pub on foot, the suspects pursued them in a car. One of them got out of the vehicle and attacked the duo. When you are in a foreign land, always respect the laws and the people there, the worse thing that c

Bought 2 Lots of CDL Hospitality Trust at $1.65

Just about 2 weeks ago it was at $1.795, today when I checked out the price I was quite shocked to see it at $1.65, lowest was $1.64, so I quickly went in and grabbed 2 lots, that's all the spare cash I have now haha. I like this counter very much because it has properties in different places, especially in Maldives, and the price fluctuates a lot which means this is a popular counter, anyway I'm now focusing on Cambridge Industrial and CDL Hospitality trusts, I realized that I don't have to buy too many counters, I just need to focus on a few good ones.

My Utilities Bills So Far and U-Save

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My utilities bills so far. JUN, JUL and AUG First two months was low because we haven't move in yet, by the way first month they charged a $60 deposit so the actually bill was $7.18. So for this month it's $97.39, much lower than expected, every month I set a budget of $150 for utilities and service and conservancy charges (S&CC), my S&CC is $28.50 because mine is a 2-room flat, so 150-28.50=$121.50. I think my utilities bill can be lower because last month we had a leak in one of our toilet bowls, I fixed that about two weeks ago, so next month my bills should be slightly lower. I also checked with SP Services how come I didn't get any U-Save rebate, the lady on the line said I am eligible and it should have been credited in my July bill, she will check and get back to me.

Setting Up J2EE Development Environment Using Eclipse 3.5.2 and Weblogic 10.3.3

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Just to share with everyone how I setup my development environment at work, I'm using Windows 7 and you will need to download 3 softwares: Java SE Development Kit 6u24  - i586 Eclipse Galileo SR2 Packages (v 3.5.2)  - Windows 32-bit WebLogic Server 10.3.3 Step 1 you download and install the JDK, it's very straightforward, just double click to run and install with default settings. JDK Installed to My C Drive Step 2 you download Eclipse and extract to whichever folder you like, I put it in my C Drive. Eclipse in My C Drive Too Step 3 you extract WebLogic to whichever place you like, for me is also C drive. WebLogic also in My C Drive Now go to your WebLogic directory, edit configure.cmd, add MW_HOME and JAVA_HOME, MW_HOME is the place where you extracted the WebLogic, JAVA_HOME is the place where you installed the JDK. Add MW_HOME and JAVA_HOME Open up a command prompt and cd to the location of the weblogic directory, for me is C

Today I Played with Spring Framework

Currently I have a tool written in JSP, all the java code is running inside the JSP, it's very messy and not easy to maintain, well, I had to do it this way because it's piggyback onto an existing application, I don't want to touch anything existing, and doing it this way is very easy to deploy. So anyway, I was thinking of doing it in a more standard way using a framework, so today I tried struts and spring, I find spring easier to implement, just need to download the spring libraries , and apache commons logging , dump it into WEB-INF\lib, configure web.xml for the servlet, create a controller class, create a JSP, create a servlet xml, that's it, so easy haha. If you are interested you can check out this tutorial , it will get you started real quick. I think I might be able to convert my tool into spring by this week. Oh by the way I'm using weblogic server 10.3.3, I run it from my Eclipse, so after I make the change, I just deploy and run locally, very easy t

Qoo10 Auction Looks Promising

After I bought my chin-up bar, there was an option to give feedback after which they will give you some points, and from there I realized that they have this daily lucky draw, you just need to log in, click on the Open button, and then Q-chance. It's a wheel of fortune style kind of lucky draw, everyday you get to draw once, and after every purchase you also get to draw once. I still haven't fully figure out what I can do with the stuff there but I learned that I can bid for items using the green, silver and gold mameq, but so far I haven't won anything but the beauty of it is that it's not difficult to get the mameq, just log in daily and click the lucky draw and then try your luck in bidding.

Singapore's 49th Birthday

I didn't know it was our 49th birthday until I Googled lol, every year pass by so peacefully that our National Day seems just like any other day, most years I don't even watch the parade, not even on TV, yeah we have had some scares in recent years, SARS, financial crisis, terrorism, Nicole highway collapse and etc but nothing our ministries cannot handle, to be honest I find our ministries very efficient and effective, yeah some policies are crap but our ministries are always open to feedback from the public, and they actually do something about it, which is a good thing, how many countries out there bother to listen to what you say and then do something about it? Anyway when was our last military conflict, none after World War II, we have enjoyed a long period of peace, some scares here and there but nothing catastrophic, I think it's easy for me to say now that I am a reservist but I feel that military service is very important, as an NSF if you ask me whether NS means

IKEA Meatballs Okay

This morning me and wife went to have our "brunch" at IKEA, unfortunately we were a bit late for their breakfast menu, I wanted to eat their toast set but anyway I took 15 pieces of their famous Swedish meatballs for $8, 4 veggie spring rolls for $2, two Sunkist bottled orange juice for $2, a chicken cordon bleu for $7.50, a poached salmon for $7.90 and a almond cake for $3, all for $30.40 GST included and no service charge, it's all self-service so obviously there should be no service charge. The meatballs were okay, that was my second time and my wife's first time eating it, meat-wise I think their fried chicken wings are the best but I didn't order any today, my wife don't really like the meatballs. The chicken cordon bleu is quite nice, it's a large piece of fried chicken breast stuffed with a bit of ham and cheese and it comes with some veggies and mashed potatoes with a buttery sauce, not bad. My wife's poached salmon was fresh, if you don'

Credit Counselling Singapore (CCS) Can Help

Today I read about this story where a 33 year old man paid about $70,000 in interest to a licensed moneylender over two years based on a principal loan amount of $20,000 and every month he is paying $4000 which is 88% of his salary, so as you can see his salary is actually very high, but unfortunately he got himself into such a situation because he did not control his spending. Initially he only owed banks money via his credit cards but due to pressure from the banks to take him to court if he was unable to pay, and out of fear that he might lose his job if his financial situation was made known to his employer, he turned to licensed moneylender. That was a very bad move, and also because he was not aware that CCS can help him, so here I want everyone to know, CCS can help you if you are in debt, I also don't think it is limited to credit card debts only as what you might see in online forums, no harm checking it out, no matter what it is still better than approaching licensed m

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