MTGS

I recognize Tosh and Wei Liang from the Ah Boys to Men movies, and this video is really funny and original, must support local product.

Seems like the leaders of US, Britain and France are very eager to punish Syria for the alleged gas attack, but also seems like their citizens have no wish for their country to intervene, I'm actually very curious why the allied powers are so eager, in fact too eager to attack Syria, how come they are so sure that the Syrian president is guilty? Why don't they wait for the findings of the UN inspectors? But one thing for sure is Britain is now officially out because their lawmakers voted against an attack. Today, I read a news that says the UN inspectors are really there to determine what kind of gas was used, it's not their job to determine who used it, so it's actually quite pointless, I think somebody should take the effort to dig out the culprit instead of hurling threats, shouldn't the big boys at least show the world some proof before they bring their country into a conflict? I really hope that the US and France would at least wait for what the UN has to s...

News of the likely attack on Syria by the US have dragged down the index, this really came as a surprise, last Friday I thought it was on track for a rebound, and earlier on, I saw a video of a gas attack in Syria but thought it was a prank, little did I know everybody was taking it so seriously, even Britain and Australia were backing the attack, and the attack is supposed to happen tomorrow, wow, it's like so fast so furious. But recalling the video, I felt that it looked a bit fake (that was why I thought it was a prank), there was a part where a man was foaming at the mouth, and the guy filming just continued doing it, that video-man should at least call for some medical personnel or something, isn't that weird. And the weirdest thing was, everybody was like poisoned, sitting around, lying in beds, and then there's just somebody filming non-stop, it's like this video-man was expecting something to happen hence he brought along his video-cam for night shooting. A...

I haven't had the original KFC for a long time and so today I decided to try out their Ultimate Zinger Box which came with a Zinger burger, a whipped potato, a piece of original chicken and a soft drink of my choice, and I chose Mountain Dew. The meal costed me S$7.30 and the Zinger was okay, but I remember it used to be much bigger, whipped potato was the way I remembered, tasted quite good, well-peppered, nothing much to say about the soft drink, but the original chicken was bland, tasted like one of my mother's failed fried chicken experiment. I remember the first time I had KFC, which was a long time ago, they didn't have the spicy version, back then their original chicken was really good, well salted, truly finger lickin' good, and what I had today was a total disappointment. Actually it was the spicy version of the chicken that killed the original recipe, when it first came out, it was immensely popular, I think everybody just switched and stuck to it, and if yo...

I asked my wife whether she wants to get a new phone but she said she doesn't need it so I re-contracted and sold the mobile phone instead. I paid only S$48 for a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0) Silver, and then I immediately sold it to a mobile phone shop for S$260, a S$212 profit. I think I might be able to sell higher than that to someone who wants to use it rather than to a dealer because eventually the dealer will sell it to a user, maybe for S$300 or more, but I'm too lazy to keep posting on forums and waiting for a genuine buyer, it's just so time consuming, and even if I get someone who wants to buy it, I still got to travel and meet that person, sounds really tiring. And when I was at Starhub shop, I saw an auntie with 2 Filipino guys, I heard that she was also re-contracting and I think she was going to sell her phone to those 2 guys, and what a coincidence, she was also getting a Galaxy Tab 2, same model as mine, I think she also think it's a good deal, maybe sh...

Last time out of nowhere they charged me for the Connecting Tones Service, now they charged me more than what I signed up for. Last month I signed up for their Surf and Watch package, it's an internet plus cable TV package and the cost per month was S$66.65 inclusive of GST, basically the internet costs S$39.90 and the cable TV costs S$26.75, and the cable TV was supposed to be HD upgraded. The salesperson also told me that the S$66.65 was before Hub Club discounts, which means the bill will be lower. But when I received my bill, I was puzzled by the cable TV charges. Cable TV Charges As you can see in the picture, if you take 45 - 11.887 = 33.113, so how is that cheaper, and that's after my Hub Club discount. So I called 1633, and they informed the billing department to call me back, and when they did, the billing department told me they need to check and will call me back, but instead of them calling, the salesperson got back to me and told me actually the HD Upsize ...

Source When I reached home today, my father was telling me a car flew down from Genting, I was having my dinner and I looked at him in bewilderment, and he had this serious face, I was thinking why the hell would anyone do that. This kind of news really sends shivers down my spine, now I think it will really take a lot for me to go there again, the last time I went was in Apr 2012, actually before I went, there was a news report of a coach overturning, also during descent, I was quite worried that time because I was going with my parents and my wife, and when we were descending, I was praying in my mind, damn scary, luckily nothing bad happened. 150 meters, that's really high, a coach falling down that kind of height, with 49 people inside, damn, and they confirmed 32 deaths, really sad. I think if I were to go again, I would probably take the cable car, but the cable car is also damn scary.

When the government introduced the new borrowing policy, the COE price for Cat A plunged, but now it's going up again, I think the demand is there that's why dealers will bid for it, which also mean people are willing to buy it anyway. Cat A COE on Aug 13 2013 Let's look at the new borrowing policy that was introduced this year. If your car OMV (Open Market Value) is <= S$20000, you can loan up to 60%. If your car OMV is > S$20000, you can loan up to 50%. The maximum loan tenure is 5 years. So let's say you buy a S$95000 car, you have to pay S$38000 i.e. 40% in cold hard cash, as for the other S$57000, you can only loan up to a maximum of 5 years, say at 2.88% interest per annum, you will need to pay about S$1087 a month. Car Loan Calculation Top that up with season parking, ad-hoc parking, fuel, ERP, road tax, insurance, maintenance, ad-hoc maintenance, I think it can all add up to more than S$1600 a month, I can understand if people buy it a...

"We will always make sure that a HDB flat is always within reach -- affordable and available to Singaporeans. Don't worry. Go ahead, plan on it, get married, get your flat." - PM Lee Yet I am married and I can't afford my own home, how ironic. The 2-room BTO is a joke, we can only apply at the age of 35, factor in the waiting time, we would probably get the keys at 38 or 39, I'm not saying it's totally bad, it's good for Singaporeans at that age, but for people like me who is only 30, either we wait or try to have baby or stretch our necks and buy resale. But then again, even if they allow us to buy at 30, I don't think HDB can cope with the demand, look at the Jul BTO, there were 55 singles applying for each 2-room flat, so what happens to those who didn't manage to get it? Well, either they keep trying if they don't mind waiting, or buy resale. I can understand how difficult it is, too many people, too little housing, of course there wi...

I discovered this browser only today, it is a 64-bit version of Firefox and it's named Waterfox, don't they sound like siblings. Anyway the design goal for Waterfox is Speed, now that really piques my interest, I've been looking for a browser that can compete with Google Chrome, seems like I found one. But do note that it only works in 64-bit Windows, and also seems like I can't have both Firefox and Waterfox together, if I run Firefox, it will end up running Waterfox, my colleague had it the other way, when he ran Waterfox, it ended up running Firefox, so we both uninstalled Firefox, this fixed my colleague's problem. I tried Waterfox for a day, it really does feel fast, I can't really tell the difference in speed between Waterfox and Chrome, both seems equally fast, now I'm just waiting to see if Waterfox will freeze up, you know I have this problem whenever I open a link in a new tab in Chrome or Opera, and if that tab contains Flash player stuff, it wi...

Recently I noticed a few attempts from people who tried to advertise their site by posting in the comments section, I know because whenever someone posts a comment, I will get notified via email, strange thing is when I go check out my site, I don't see the comments there. So I checked my blogger's comments section and found there is a spam section, those comments were automatically dumped there. So spammers, I don't really mind you posting but you got sniffed out by blogger, so too bad, and I'll leave it as it is because I don't wish to encourage spammers.

Part 1 Part 2 Seems like most offenders are for drug trafficking, 99 year sentence, wow...

The billed amount was 15,333 Thai Baht and it was for: 8 days of hospitalization in a 6-bedded ward. 4x INR each day. 1x Echo-cardiogram. Fees for cleaning her up after her miscarriage. Medication for during stay and after discharge. For those of you wondering what INR is, it's a blood test to check whether a patient's Warfarin dosage is okay. I gave her S$1300 when she left on 01 Aug, the exchange rate then was 1 SGD to 24 THB, so we'll base her hospitalization charges on that. 15,333 / 24 = S$638.87 It's just way cheaper than in Singapore, I remember I paid S$478 just for her Echo in Singapore, really a world of difference. Anyway, next time round I will definitely send her back to Thailand once she is pregnant, and furthermore, her mom is always available to take care of her, she'll just suffer if she stays in Singapore, and I'll suffer financially. So to all Singaporeans with foreign spouse out there, if your foreign spouse is p...

She has been staying in the hospital since 06 Aug, the doctor checks her blood 3 times daily, and she is instructed to be on bed rest and no walking around, not even walking to watch the television, I think it's at another corner away from her bed. Everytime I call her, she is lying on the bed, but she sounds better now. I think her mom is really nice, she has been staying there with my wife since day 1, cleaning her, buying food for her, I asked my wife where her mom sleeps and she says on the table, must be really tough, if it was me I would have body aches, and she's been sleeping like that for almost a week. I should have sent her home when she was 4 or 5 weeks pregnant, staying in Singapore she has to do the chores and all, my mom doesn't help much, and if my wife doesn't do it, my mom will find fault with her, it's just very annoying, it's as if she's taking my wife for a maid, I tried to help out as much as I could but I can't be home all the ...

My wife had a miscarriage on 07 Aug 2013, the doctor took the baby for investigation and my wife and mother-in-law are still waiting for the findings. We don't know what went wrong, is it having sex during pregnancy or eating certain food or exhaustion due to household chores, I really don't know but for our next try, we will be very careful, and I'll have my wife stay in Thailand with her mom so she'll have someone to take care of her. And you might be wondering what will happen to the baby, the doctor offered two options, one is my wife can bring home the baby, two is we let the doctor keep the baby in a jar for exhibition, like in horror movies I think, but either way, we will need to perform a ritual for the baby so that he can go to a better place, we will need to buy clothes, milk powder and some other necessities for him, and the ritual will be done at a temple. We choose the latter, at least our baby can help the educational cause, and we can visit him anytime...

The logo is so fake that I don't even need to check the links and I know immediately it's a phishing attempt. Anyway the links are pointed to some dubious location. And then this "No authentication of email address has been performed.", what the hell does it even mean lol? Fail Phishing Attempt Be careful people, stay safe from scammers.

You can read my last post here . It's pretty much confirmed now, the baby will not survive, my wife was experiencing heavy bleeding, the nurse at the hospital changed 4 blankets for her, can imagine how much blood there was, they were just waiting for the baby to be expelled naturally, then the doctor will proceed to do cleaning. Me and my wife have mostly accepted the loss, what to do, of course we feel sad, we were thinking of Chinese and Thai names for the baby, I was thinking of having the baby learn Thai, English and Mandarin, now it's all gone, we can only look forward, but still, it's so hard to accept, I'm feeling so helpless. The doctor told my wife that we can try again after 3 months, but next time round, my wife has to avoid any strenuous activity, avoid garlic and ginger, and to see the gynae as soon as my wife is pregnant. I think maybe we will try again next year, let my wife recover both physically and emotionally, we'll see how. Update: The ...

Today my wife called and cried on the phone, she said the gynaecologist in Thailand said the baby is positioned very "down" (I have no idea what that meant, very close to the vagina?) and there will be a miscarriage eventually in a few weeks time, and even if the baby managed to survive, the baby will not be strong, and my wife should go for an abortion. I don't understand why, my wife said the ultrascan shows that the baby is doing fine, and before she left Singapore, she also did a scan and the baby was doing fine, her heart surgeon also said my wife's heart is doing fine, her INR reading is a bit low (1.78) but the doctor have adjusted her Warfarin dosage, so that should be fine too. My wife also told me she had heavy bleeding yesterday night and there was a large jelly-like substance and she is very worried about it. I really don't know what to say, I was at a loss for words. She then asked me whether we should go for the abortion, again, I was at a loss f...

Sometimes I wonder if my personality will do a 180 degrees turn when I get rich, especially the way I talk to people. I heard from my mother that in Kampong days, everybody had everybody to depend on, when relative A runs out of cash at the start or end of a month, this relative would send their kids to relative B to borrow some cash, but basically, all my relatives were poor at that time. I heard from my mother that although my father used to earn S$700 after CPF, every time when a relative asked for financial help, he always tried his best. I have this fourth auntie, she used to phone my dad to borrow money, and my dad would ride his motorbike with my mom to her house with the money, even when returning the money, she would also phone my dad and he would go collect, I can guarantee you will never find this kind of service anywhere else. This fourth auntie is now doing well, her son lives in a condo, youngest daughter married a rich man, eldest daughter seems to be doing well, and...

Just returned from the cremation ceremony of my second uncle; my father is the youngest of four brothers. Let's just call this second uncle "Lao Er" (meaning number two). I heard many stories about uncle Lao Er from my parents, he was both a heavy smoker and gambler, and his gamble was on 4D and TOTO. I also heard that he can spend hundreds of dollars in a week on gambling. When uncle Lao Er was still around, he was earning about 500 Singapore dollars a month, I'm not sure if his wife is working. My uncles and aunties would sometimes chip in some money for him, but I heard he would spend it on gambling almost immediately. He and his wife were living in a 2-room flat rented from the government, I heard they paid 100+ a month. He has a son and a daughter, his daughter is married and seems to be doing fine, his son is not doing so well. Let's call his son Ah Boy. Among the 4 brothers, uncle Lao Er was the most worst off, he used to own a 3 or 4-room HDB flat, I r...

My health insurance is under NTUC Income, the plan name is Enhanced IncomeShield (Advantage) and I have an Assist Rider. I signed up last year, first time I paid S$102 via CPF for the main plan, and S$100 in cash for the rider. This year they informed via post that they will deduct via GIRO S$118 for the rider, then I logged into Income and checked my main plan, it says I will need to pay S$209 for my main plan, so that's like a 51.19% increase for the main plan and 18% increase for the rider. I don't remember receiving any notice about the revision of premium rates, I checked my policy and read this clause, Non-Guaranteed Premium The agreed premium is payable to effect and keep the Rider in force. The premium rates are not guaranteed and may be reviewed and varied by us by giving you (30) days' prior written notice to your last known address. Then I emailed their customer service, and they said the revision is due to a recent MediShield change, The Ministry o...

So today a lady from ICA named Nabila called me, she explained that there could be a miscommunication, she asked me what was said to me by my wife, I told her when my wife tried to surrender her LTVP at the immigration counter, the officer asked my wife to provide a cancellation form, my wife then called me while I was on my way back home, and I had to rush back to the departure area, I think I told her almost the whole story which I wrote in my last post , except the part where I tripped and fell at the escalator LOL. After I finished with my storytelling, Nabila sounded very sorry and she apologized, she then said the officer at the counter should have clearly informed my wife on what to do. She said the procedure for surrendering LTVP is to go to the DO Counter (DO for Duty Officer), there my wife will need to fill up a cancellation form to surrender her pass, but this has not been conveyed to my wife. She also said the officer who attended to my wife is her junior and she has spo...

My wife left for Thailand today to follow-up on her pregnancy, I read a clause in the Terms and Condition for Long-Term Visit Pass that states the following, Under regulation 8(5)(f) of the Immigration Regulations, should you intend to leave Singapore and return only after the expiry of the Pass issued to you, you are required to surrender this Card to the Immigration Officer at the Checkpoint at the time of your departure . The "you" in the clause refers to the holder of the LTVP i.e. my wife. Her pass is expiring on 31 Dec 2013, and she will return after that date because her expected period of delivery is around Feb 2014, so that means she will have to surrender her pass. But when my wife tried to surrender her pass at the immigration counter, the officer told her to provide a cancellation form, my wife then called me and I rushed back to the departure area, I tripped and fell at the escalator, how clumsy of me. I was panicky because her flight was at 10.55am, by ...