Weight Issues

It was 27 August, almost one month back, when I was recorded as overweight for the first time ever in my life. I was told that I was overweight by almost 3kg relative to my height during a weight loss campaign organised by Health Promotion Board, called 1 Million KG Challenge. For those who have not heard of it, you may have seen this logo before.

I was surprised, and my friends were all surprised too when I told them that. Sure, I have a slightly-bulged tummy, I have a pair of slightly-flabby arm, I have a pair of thick thighs. However, generally I still look slim. The lack of exercise is finally taking its toll.

I was being challenged to shed this 3kg in four weeks, and if I managed to do so, I will get rewarded in the form of some shopping vouchers. Now that the 4 four-week deadline is almost over, I am still nowhere close to shedding the 3kg, because I was simply too lazy to exercise. This got me wondering how I lost my passion for exercising.

I used to be actively exercising during my army days, even when I was not required too. I loved running, and could run on a daily basis. Ever since I left the army, I exercised much lesser. I was still running during the first few months when I started working, about once or twice a week. However, the frequency of my runs decreased gradually. Was it my laziness? Was it the lack of a running partner? Was it the odd stares from colleagues? I am not sure.

Whatever the reason may be, indeed I stopped exercising. I am getting fatter. I am not a narcissistic guy who cares a lot about my appearance, but it still saddens me when I realised I am overweight. I hope this sadness can be a motivation for me to start exercising again, and from this regain my interest for exercising.

-Announcement-

Sorry for the lack of posts in August due to hectic work commitments, and a less happening lifestyle to inspire me of new topics.

I am currently working on a new article, so stay tuned!

-The god has spoken

Gender Equality

I came across an article on the #1 local newspaper, The Straits Times, few days ago, and one article caught my attention. It is about a woman trying to seek maintenance fee after divorcing with her husband. However, the judge ruled that the women do not deserve the fee as she was self-sufficient financially; she earns more than her husband.

This article caught my attention because of the progressive thinking that was displayed. As mentioned in the article, the idea for women to seek maintenance evolved out of the 1961 Women's Charter that was passed to protect women when many were housewives supported by their husbands. However, through all these years, women have been fighting for their own rights, for gender equality, and their efforts are largely successful. Women are now as powerful as men in a society, and they are earning some good money too. Since most of the women are now independent and self-sufficient financially, why do women still feel that they entitled to get maintenance from their divorced husband, like shown in this case?

Women had been fighting for gender equality for years; they even have an association for that known as Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE). Let's take a look at their vision and mission.

Vision 

A society where there is true gender equality – where women and men are valued as individuals free to make informed and responsible choices about their lives. 

Mission 

To remove all gender-based barriers so as to allow individuals in Singapore to develop their potential to the fullest and realise their personal visions and hopes.

Both their vision and mission speak of helping both gender. However, from all the actions that I had heard about AWARE, they seem to be pro-female, which I am totally fine. They are the Association of Women for Action and Research after all.

In the past, women were treated unfairly. Most of them are made to stay at home to be housewives; they did not have equal chances at education and job. Now that this unfair treatment is long gone, women are standing toe-to-toe with men in terms of education and job opportunities. Women had proven themselves to be as capable as men, and should not be looked down upon. Their fight for equality over the years is successful. However, the fight for equality stops just here.

Women have already gotten those that lack of in the past, but have not relinquish those that they have over men since the past. What do I mean by that? Women are still expecting themselves to be treated like how they were treated in the past. They expect men to help them with physical work. They expect men to be the one paying for bills and fees. They expect men to be the one paying for dates. They expect to be given priority over men first, aka "ladies first". So how is this gender equality?

In Singapore, we have the National Service, where all physically-able males have to get enlisted into the nation's defence service. The enlistees undergo physically and mentally tough training for a span of 2 years. What about women? Why are they not part of the conscript? Why are they not fighting to be part of the conscript?

So let's have a summary. 

Some advantages of females over males:

1. A one-way entitlement to apply for spousal maintenance upon divorce

2. Not expected to do physically-demanding work

3. Not expected to pay

4. Gets priority treatment

5. Do not have the spend 2 years serving the nation

Some advantages of males over females:

1. Not that I can think of.

Gender equality? Doesn't seem so to me. Gender equality will not be fully established until females give up on expectations and rights that they are enjoying over males. Don't get me wrong. I am not trying to establish sexism. I am just trying to point out how far are we from true gender equality. 

-The god has spoken

There's No End To Being Slim

I came across an article with the header "Australian Model Posts Untouched Bikini Photo" a few days ago. Just from reading the header, I was awed by the model's courage. We all know that most photos of models are tempered with, so this header caught my attention and I went in to read the article.

The Australian model is Robyn Lawley, and according to the article, she switched from straight-size to plus-size modeling. In other words, she now has a fat body, or in this case, supposed to have a fat body. Why do I say so? You will understand what I meant after you see her modeling photo.

So, this is what the modeling industry regard as plus-size. Mind blown. From a man's point of view, her body looks perfectly fine, and is nothing near fat. In fact, she may even be thinner than majority of the females I know. That's the thing - the modeling industry had set the acceptance level for fatness so low that even the model in this picture is considered fat. The worse part is that majority of the females are buying into this standard. For the purpose of comparison, here are some photos of some other models:

I recognise that this special range of models are what the industry call as too-skinny models, and these are some extreme examples. However, it is the standards and values that the industry is introducing to the world that is acidic. 

Many females look up to models and yearn to have bodies like them. And in order to achieve such bodies, they find all ways to shed off the fats in their body, either by cutting down on food consumption, doing intensive exercises, consuming slimming pills, or doing surgeries. These methods are harmful to their bodies, but they feel that the trade-offs are worthy.

To quote a Chinese comedian Dayo Wong, he once said “ 瘦的官方标准就是 - 瘦，减十磅，为之瘦。” In English, it means "The official standard of slim - when you are slim, reduce 10 pounds, then you are slim." In other words, there's no end to being slim, at least to the females. 

A lot of females are constantly trying to cut down their weight, even when they are already slim and light. They just feel that they can be slimmer and lighter, and that to them, equates to more attractiveness. Truth be told - the ultimate goal of females constantly making themselves look attractive is to attract males. This is the instinct of living things; to attract opposite sex. There's no denying that.

For the female readers out there, I am now going to spill it to you what kind of body attracts male. I believe that I am representing majority of the males when I say this - we do not find skinny girls attractive. Robyn Lawley as shown in the first picture, or even slightly chubbier than her, attracts us instinctively. The 4 subsequent models will turn off most males.

Ladies, be natural, and not be too bothered by your weight. The battle against fats will never end. As long as you are alive and kicking, fats will come back to you. No one can permanently put an end to weight-gain. Don't get me wrong, I am not promoting obesity. I am just encouraging you to not be too extreme when it comes to weight loss. Just do enough to keep your body healthy; that's all that matters. 

-The god has spoken

A Little About Myself #2

Since I talked about education in my previous post, I feel like sharing with you some of my thoughts on our education system and my education history.

I always felt that while education is important, our education system is putting the focus on the wrong aspects. The emphasis seems to be more on memorising theories and facts, than to really teach and learn something practical that value-adds our lives. Thus, I had a nonchalant attitude when it comes to studying (of course, my laziness played a part too). As a result, my academic results were average at best, and always fall a little short in getting to my desired school.

I started in Yishun Primary School. I was consistently in the first class since they started to band us according to our results. I received the honour of First-in-Class in primary three and Best-in-Mathematics in primary four. However, there was a sudden slump in my results when I was primary five. Luckily, I managed to improve on my results during primary six, and got an aggregate of 241 for my PSLE.

My desired school of choice then was Anderson Secondary School, which required an aggregate of 250 then. I was eligible for St. Joseph Institute, where 2 of my best friends had picked as their school of choice, but my family did not allow me to choose a school located too far from home. I was pressured into choosing Yishun Town Secondary School, a mediocre school which I heard was filled with bad kids back then.

I realised I was wrong on my misconception about Yishun Town Secondary School after I went there. It indeed use to have a reputation of having a lot of rowdy students, but that was in the past. A new principal and discipline master was appointed, and the school's culture changed drastically from what I heard.

I maintained my nonchalant attitude towards studying  during secondary school, and expectedly, I went from first class in secondary one to second class in secondary two, and subsequently third class in secondary three & four. Although I was consistently among the top two in the cohort for Mathematics, I was poor in my other subjects, especially English. Throughout my entire secondary school life, 16 examinations, I managed to only pass my English paper thrice. I passed my English paper during secondary one's CA1 and SA1, and failed all the way before I finally passed my Prelims in secondary four. Luckily for me, I managed to pass my English paper for 'O' Levels too. Eventually, I got a L1R5 of 18 and L1B4 of 12.

I never considered junior college as an option due to my poor English standard back then. I was looking at polytechnic, and a diploma in accountancy sounded full of potential to me. I was marginally eligible to take up accountancy course, but was beat by the strong competition for the limited intake of the course. Eventually, I was enrolled into my fourth choice: Diploma in Integrated Event & Project Management at Singapore Polytechnic.

The common belief about Polytechnic is that it is technical, hands-on, and not about memory work. These beliefs are rubbish, at least for the course I took. Sure, there are some technical and hands-on work about once a year, but that's it. The rest are all memory work. In fact, the amount of things that I'm required to memorise made me drop my nonchalant attitude and started to revise for examinations for the first time in my entire schooling life. I remember I failed one of my papers not because I gave the wrong answers, but because I did not answer the question using the textbook answer word-for-word, despite my answers having essentially the same meaning, just worded differently. Overall, I got a pretty poor GPA of 2.6+.

I feel that the current education system is focusing more on expanding the memory capacity than to impart actual knowledge or skills that one can put into use in life. There are plenty of people who can memorise real well and score well in their examinations, but knows little and cannot do much after that. These people are what the society call "paper scholar". Is this what our education system is hoping to nurture? I hope not.

Every individual has different strengths, and our current education system just doesn't allow for some of these strengths to be expanded or showcased. Everyone is being tested on the same thing; some may thrive as it is their strength, while others may falter.

With that, I would like to share a picture which I feel wraps up the flaws of our current education system.

-The god has spoken

Which Is The Path To Success?

My brother and I had a conversation with our 16-year-old sister lately regarding where should she go after O levels. At the tender age of 16, she, like most other teens, has no idea what she wants to do in the future. And frankly speaking, as her brother for 16 years, We're a little ashamed that we don't know what's best for her either. Nonetheless, we broke down and analysed the possibilities for her based on our experience (my brother went to junior college, while I attended Polytechnic).

1. Junior College

Knowing that she is the memorise-and-vomit type of student, junior college's system seems like something that she can thrive in. However, she isn't the smart type (no, having good academic results by memorising your textbook doesn't mean you are smart) and she knows that herself, so she tends to get very tensed up whenever she's mugging for her examinations. The pressure that she gives herself is so great that at times she looked like she's on the verge of breaking down. If she's already unable to cope with the pressure at secondary school level, I worry for her health if she goes into junior college.

The advantage of junior college is that it is the fastest and easiest route to go into one of the 3 government universities (NUS, NTU, SMU). If my sister can cope with the pressure, she should have no problem going into one of the universities through junior college.

2. Polytechnic

Polytechnic, unlike junior college, do not run on a show-hand-in-one-examination system. The students are required to consistently perform well in their assignments and examinations. It is not so much of a do-or-die for the students. However, the students need to constantly be on their toes and maintain a high level throughout the 3 years. Polytechnic's syllabus, generally, are more application-base and pure memorising will not secure an excellent result. This is something that my sister is weak in.

Going to Polytechnic also requires the students to decide on a field to take on. At the tender age of 16, my sister still has no idea what she likes or she is good at. Asking her to choose a field that may likely be her future career right now seems to be a tough choice for her.

The advantage of taking a diploma is that if she do get her degree thereafter, she is more "valuable" than her peers who went to junior college and then university.

After weighing the pros and cons, we still weren't able to decide what's best for our sister. After the conversation, I continued to reflect on the conversation, and I realised that it was only right that we couldn't decide what's best for her. She is the only one who knows herself best and able to decide what's best for her. And this is where an individual  is being defined.

It takes a certain maturity level for one to know what they want, what's best for them, and strike a balance between these two aspects. Truth be told, what you want may not be what's best for you in this practical world. Most of the teens do not have that maturity to make that decision yet, but they are forced to regardless. Those who are able to make that decision, they are the one who can and will succeed in life.

Many people complained about our education system for forcing our youngsters to decide on their future when they are not matured enough to do so. However, if you look at it in another way, it pushes the youngsters to make a mature decision for themselves early instead of continuing to guide them through their life, and delay their maturity.

Whichever path the students decide to take on, as long as they make their decision base on sound and logical reasoning, they will likely to achieve a certain level of success and self-satisfaction. For those who choose where to go for childish reasons, such as following where their best friend goes, will have a mountain to climb.

-The god has spoken

The Simplest Thing May Not Come That Simple

There are many things around us that seem simple, and is already part of our daily life. We are so used to seeing such things that we don't think how did these things come about. No, I am not talking intangible things like friendship, love, care, concern etc like many other articles out there had already talked about. I am talking about tangible things, or rather products. Many products that we use in our daily life may seem simple, but I can assure you that they all take immense creativity to make it happen.

Let's look at some examples:

1. Hot Dog Bun

Hot dog bun is something I'm sure everyone has eaten before, and most people like it. The hot dog adds a salty flavour and chewy bite to an otherwise bland and dry bun, and at the same time make it more filling for our tummy due to the meat content. It seems very simple; just slice up the bun and stuff a hot dog in, and indeed it is very simple. However, do anyone have any idea how much creativity it takes for the first person who came up with the idea of a hot dog bun? At least I know that I'm not creative enough to come up with this idea hundreds of years ago before it appeared.

2. Shelf

A shelf is a must-have furniture in every household because it allows us to organise our things neatly. However, the most brilliant part about a shelf is that it creates additional area that you don't already have using floor area that you already have. Confused? Before the first shelf was being invented, we could only leave our things lying around on the floor. When there are too many things, the things will occupy too much of our floor area, leaving us with little walkway. Surely, smarter people will stack up their things so that there will be more walkway. However, when they want to take a certain item and it is right at the bottom of a stack, it will be very troublesome and time-wasting. By using a shelf, we are creating additional areas to put our things, and they are not stacked right on top of each other, making it easy for us to take any one item.

3. Bag

Having a bag is very convenient as it allows us to bring along with us many items that we could not have managed with our bare hands. It is just a simple container where we can put anything we need on the go. Simple as it may seem, again, will you be able to come up with such an idea before the idea of a bag first surface? Not many people may be able to do so.

Above are just some examples of simple things that we see, use, consume everyday, but the changes that they bring to our life is drastic. Living in this generation, we are all blessed with such simple yet brilliant inventions. Simple as they may seem, these are the outcome of our ancestor's creative brain juice. 

The downside of living in this generation, however, is that we lack such problem-solving creativity. How many of us can create something all-new now? We can only at best modify and improvise on past creations, but not create something never seen before. Our brains are mostly clouded with complex stuff like computer and machine, and the simplest thing somehow become not as simple anymore.

-The god has spoken

It Had Never Been The Same Ever Since...

-This will be my first moody post in this blog. Feel free to skip to my older posts if you don't feel like reading a moody article.-

I had been feeling a little down since earlier this week because I re-watched the film You Are The Apple Of My Eye (那些年，我们一起追的女孩). 

 

It is a really good film. It doesn't have good editing or effects, it doesn't have awesome actors, but the story is so good that it touches almost everyone. It talks about puppy love, something everyone of a certain age had experienced. And it was portrayed in a way so familiar with the audience. To the audience, it is almost similar to their own story.

Anyways, enough of praises for the film. There was one particular scene that affected me the most. The male lead organised a fighting tournament, thinking that it is a chance for him to show the female lead how strong he is. The female lead, however, scolded him for promoting something dangerous. She added "有时候，我真的很不了解你" (translation: sometimes, I don't understand you). This sentence struck me the hardest.

Back during my days in polytechnic, I had a crush whom I was very close with. However, I did not let her know about my fondness towards her due to various reasons. I conceded that we could only be friends, and was contented that we were the best of friends. 

However, as time goes by, I started to have difficulties hiding my feelings, and I started to behave differently. Although I didn't do anything offensive, I kept getting on her nerves. One day, we had a slight argument, and she told me something that made me very upset. 

"I used to think that I was able to read you like a book, but now, I don't seem to be able to understand you."

This may not be the exact sentence, but it was something along this line. And this sentence has an uncanny resemblance to what the female lead in film said to the male lead. I can't help but get reminded of what she told me when I heard that line. I can't help but to recall how the sadness grew in me when she told me that. It was not the devastating kind of sadness. It was a subtle, gradually growing kind of sadness that stays forever. It pinches me every time I think of it.

Ever since then, I always felt awkward when I faced her. Eventually, we had a big quarrel, and the bond between us was never the same again. As much as I would like to, during our graduation ceremony, I didn't have the courage to go to her, to talk to her, to apologise to her, to take a shot with her. I regretted that even till now.

Years have passed, and the unhappiness and awkwardness got diluted with time. We are able to talk again, make fun of each other again, but I don't think it will ever be the same as how it was back then. I lost my best friend due to my childishness. This is the story that the film reminded me of, and this will stay as a prick in my heart forever.

-The god has spoken

Sincere Appreciation, Or Just Part Of Marketing?

1 July is Singapore Armed Force (SAF) Day, a day for the nation to show appreciation to all the current and former servicemen or servicewomen who contributed their efforts to ensure the safety of the country. In the past years, not many citizens know about SAF Day. For those that knew about it, most of them did not bother or don't know how to show their appreciation to these people.


In recent years, SAF took an extra step to let more citizens know about SAF Day, and make sure things are done to let our servicemen and servicewomen feel appreciated. SAF arranged with over a hundred of retailers to provide these servicemen and servicewomen with perks, such as discounts and freebies. All the servicemen or servicewomen need to do is just to show their 11B (SAF's identity card) to enjoy these perks.

Sounds pretty nice, isn't it? The people are finally doing something concrete to show their appreciation instead of simply saying it. However, I came across a Facebook status by my superior during my Army days which gave me a second thought about this whole issue. Here's the status:

It may seem like just a simple complain on surface, but if you think deeper, he do makes some sense. Retailers signed up to be part of the campaign to show their appreciate towards the servicemen and servicewomen, but how many of them did that out of sincere appreciation? Is this just another marketing opportunity for these retailers?

From a marketing point of view, there are at least 3 benefits for being part of this campaign. First of all, the retailers will have their brand being seen across all of SAF's official media platforms. This is advertisement for these retailers. Secondly, the retailers can create a positive image for the brand. "Hey look! We are patriotic, and we appreciate what these servicemen and servicewomen had done for us. We will support them." This is good public relations (PR) for these retailers. Last but not least, they get to increase their revenue through this campaign, albeit having a lower profit margin. They will be able to expose their products to more customers. This is a good sales for these retailers.

If these retailers are keen on expressing their sincere appreciation to the servicemen and servicewomen, they could have put in more effort at point-of-sales, to create a better experience for these people. Like the status suggested, these retailers could have just put up a simple sign to let people know that they are part of the campaign. This way, the servicemen and servicewomen need not constantly go online and check whether if a certain store is having any promotion for them. The staff serving the customer could also have taken the initiative to ask the customer if they have 11B, like how they ask for PASSION card, SAFRA card or certain credit cards, instead of having the customer to flash their 11B and needing to double-confirm about their eligibility for the promotion. Simple acts like these count and will add up to improve the shopping/dining experience for these servicemen and servicewomen.

All that being said, these servicemen and servicewomen still got repaid and can enjoy privileges that others can't. I just feel that things could have been done better on the retailers' side to show that they are sincere in showing their appreciation to these servicemen and servicewomen, and not treat this like just another marketing strategy. They deserve something better.

-The god has spoken

Time Is Money

"Time is money" is a saying that is use to tell us that time is valuable, that time is precious. Of course, we do not take it literally. It is just a perceived value that we give time, using a unit that we all understand and agree is valuable. In this article, however, I will share why we can take the saying "Time is money" literally.

Have you ever been in a situation where you need certain things urgently, and you have to pay money to expedite it? Think express delivery service vs normal delivery service. Think hiring a cab vs taking a bus. Think taking a domestic flight vs taking a long journey train. Think buying a car to cut down travelling time. There are many more other examples. These are acts of buying time, literally.

Some of the jobs out there pay you on an hourly rate. You are being paid according to the amount of time you committed. The employers are buying your time, not so much on your effort. Just to prove the point, we also have jobs that pay you according to the amount of effort put in. Those are what we call commissions, and the employers are buying your effort. This, again, is an act of buying time, literally.

As mankind evolves and improves, we are trying to do and achieve more within a fixed period of time known as our lifespan. When we realise that our time is saturated with our many ambitions and desires, we start to buy time. And when we have buyers, we have sellers. Some people buy time from others to fulfill their ambitions. Some people sell their time to others as part of their ambitions.

Human has never-ending desires, and desires take time to be satisfied. As long as there are desires, there will be people buying and selling time. You just need to make sure you get the most value out of your time, because "Time is money".

-The god has spoken

So, What's Next?

Okay, so I'm finally done with a 5-week event for Fraser. It had been a long and tiring, but at the same time a fulfilling experience from which I learned something. While dragging myself home, I feel a sense of emptiness. I asked myself "So, what's next?"

I am sure many of you have this moment when you ask yourself "So, what's next?" We are constantly trying to fill up every minute of our time with activities, keeping ourselves occupied. Why is this the case? Is it because we are afraid of loneliness and boredom?

I think that this is the result of our life is filled with too many activities, especially in such a fast-paced society, so much so that we sub-consciously lost the ability to spend quality time with ourselves. We are used to constantly having activities to spice up our daily life. We need to do something, or the companion of somebody to feel at ease. Being alone, not doing anything, is something that we are not accustomed to.

I am not disagreeing with spicing up our life with interesting activities. In fact, I think we need to have that so as to keep us connected to our peers, to our society. We need to have sufficient social life in order to stay on track with this fast-paced society.

However, connecting with our peers, connecting with society is not enough. We need to connect with ourselves too. We need to constantly take a step back, look at what we have done and reflect on them. From there, we can analyse what we have done right and what we have done wrong, and thus learn from it and improve ourselves. We need a moment of loneliness, quietness, emptiness, so that we can really sit down and do some self-reflections, undisturbed. We need some time and space to converse with ourselves.

So, instead of constantly asking "So, what's next?", you may want to consider letting your mind run wild once in awhile and think back on the stuff you have done lately, try to see if you could have done it any better. You don't learn just from others, you can learn from yourself too, learn from your past mistakes.

Strike a balance. Assign sufficient time for you to connect with your peers, the society, and yourself.

Now that I'm almost done with this article. So, what's next?

-The god has spoken

Product-Driven Behaviours Or Behaviour-Driven Products?

I have been working with a particular bunch of part timers for the past three or four weeks, and I observed a trend. Each and everyone of them carries at least one portable charger for their mobile phone, or they call it power bank nowadays, with them. For those who forgot to bring their's, they could be borrowing power bank from the others as early as 12pm.

Apparently, people are losing the habit of charging their phones at night. Of course, the heavy usage of their phone plays an important part too. So why are they not charging their phones at night when they are sleeping? The common answer I got is that they always text their friends till they fall asleep.

As a person who are deeply into mobile phone technology, I know that phones, especially flagship phones, are getting bigger and bigger batteries. According to gsmarena.com*, the flagship phones released since 2013 can last at least 60 hours in a single charge on normal usage. Normal usage is defined as 1 hour of watching videos, 1 hour of talking on phone, 1 hour of surfing the net every 24 hours. That's 3 hours of battery-sapping activities per day, and the phone should still last you at least two and a half day before you need to charge it up. 

Remember the days (just 3 to 4 years ago) when flagship phones only had around 1200 to 1500mAH of battery (iPhone 4 has 1420mAH)? We never had problem with battery life, and didn't need a portable charger. Now the flagships all have around 2500 to 3000mAH (Galaxy S5 has 2800mAH), and yet users need to carry a portable charger with them. Mathematically speaking, we are spending approximately four to five times more time using our mobile phone as compared to 4 years ago. 

I started to wonder is it the increase in usage of mobile phone that prompted manufacturers to create phones with bigger batteries, or manufacturers creating phones with bigger batteries spoiled consumers to use their mobile phones more often? I am more inclined to think that it is the consumers' increasing usage that prompted manufacturers to create phones with bigger batteries. 

Too often we have moments in our daily life that we cannot do anything but to wait, such as waiting for elevators, waiting for public transport, waiting for food to be served, travelling time etc. These are time when people have nothing to do, and mobile phone, or more specifically smartphones, are the perfect solution. It allows people to entertain themselves during these moments, be it playing games, surfing the net, or browsing through social media platforms to see updates of their friends. 

Other than that, smartphones gradually became the "excuse" to not talk to each other. There are moments when we have nothing to talk about to another person. In the past, there will be an awkward silence, and everyone will be waiting for someone else to break the silence. Right now, when we have nothing to talk about, we just start using our smartphones. Everyone will be occupied and no one will notice the awkward silence. The word "Phubbing" was created to describe such an act.

Of course, we have the all-popular application known as "Whatsapp" taking over the traditional SMS. As of 22 April 2014, Whatsapp has more than 500 million active users monthly. Whatsapp has more functions than our traditional SMS, which makes majority of the consumer prefer using Whatsapp over SMS. However, one of the only few downside of Whatsapp as compared to SMS is that it requires internet connection, and it doesn't take a genius to know that using internet connection, be it 3G/4G or Wi-fi, is more taxing on the battery of the phone. 

There are many more reasons why consumers are using their mobile phones more than ever, and it doesn't seem like the reliance on mobile phones will go south in anytime soon. It is exactly this behaviour that prompted manufacturers to make bigger batteries for phone. It is exactly this behaviour that popularised portable charger. Therefore, I believe that it is the behaviour of consumers that drives product. What about you?

*gsmarena.com is a leading website that provides news and detailed reviews on mobile phones

-The god has spoken

Be Considerate: Leave A&E for the Emergencies!

My wrist was in pain since last week, and it worsened today, so I decided to get it treated. As it was almost 10pm by the time I end work and go home, the General Practioners (GPs) that I knew were all closed, so I went to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital's A&E department.

The waiting area was crowded with patients. Despite so, I didn't wait too long for my registration. I was told to wait before the triage for my turn. Being the "kiasu"* guy, I waited at the front row of seats. While waiting for my turn, I saw many other patients with way more serious conditions than mine. I even managed to hear some of them when they explained to the staff about their condition. A man in his 50s got his toe smashed by a 10kg rock. An old lady got a fish bone stuck in the throat. A middle-age man scalded himself with boiling water. Another old lady was vomiting as she was explaining her condition.

I suddenly felt ashamed that I was wasting time and resources for such a minor condition. As if it wasn't enough, a screen at my 2 o'clock direction read something like "Non-emergency cases take up time for the emergency cases". I almost wanted to cancel my request, but my $108 receipt held me back.

I waited for less than an hour before it was my turn to see the doctor. After explaining to the doctor my condition, she told me that it should be just a strain, but recommended me to take x-ray just to be sure. After getting my wrist x-rayed, the doctor assured me that there wasn't any fracture or whatnot. I went over to the pharmacy to collect my medicine before I head back home. Before I left, I turned back and looked at the waiting area. The waiting area was the same as when I entered - crowded with patients.

Dear readers, please be considerate. Do not misuse the A&E department of a hospital. There are patients in great pain waiting to see the doctor. If your condition is not that serious, visit any polyclinics or GPs near you. If they are closed, try to endure if you can. Imagine yourself being the one who is in serious pain, but your consultation got pushed back by people with minor conditions. How will you feel? So let me reiterate my point, DO NOT misuse the A&E department. A simple act like this will help to let those in pain to get attended to faster.

*kiasu - afraid of losing out

-The god has spoken

How to Say No

I was having dinner earlier today with a group of part timers from an event that I'm currently working on. Together with us was one guy whom I had not met before. I couldn't care less about him as I was pretty hungry. Despite so, I portioned out some of my attention to listen to their conversation.

The guy whom I had not met before was trying to convince one of the part timers to join him in a Multi-level Marketing (MLM) scheme. I had heard enough stories in the past about MLM to know that MLM isn't good, and I was pretty certain that the part timer wasn't keen to be part of the scheme too from his replies, but wasn't sure how to reject him. I thought that I could lend a helping hand, so I decided to interrupt the conversation.

"Hi, I was listening to your conversation just now, and the prospect of this plan sounds promising. Can I have your name card?" 

"Errr... I don't have a name card." 

"You are working for this company, yet you don't have a name card, and you are representing this company as you are talking to us?" 

"Wait, let me show you my distribution license." He began to clumsily search for it in his bag for about 15 seconds. "You see, this is my distribution license." He hands over a bulky transparent plastic card holder that was flipped to the page with his license.  

"So these numbers represents your distribution license ID? How do I verify it? And under which authority was this license sanctioned by?" 

He started clicking his pen and stutter "Errr... I don't know, but if you all are interested, you can attend the talk that I mentioned earlier on. All your doubts will be clarified there." Signs of nervousness. 

I started questioning the identity of him and the company, and he couldn't answer.  

"Alright, let's give you the benefit of doubt. Just leave your contact with him (the part timer), and if he is intereted or has any questions, he will contact you. Sounds good?" 

"Yeah, good. He already has my contact."

I thought I just did something great, but after some clarifications with another part timer, I then realised that the MLM guy was the friend of the part timer. And I felt bad suddenly, as I was pretty rude, and that could have put the part timer in an awkward spot. I regretted being too harsh, as I should have tried to understand their relationship better before acting.

Feeling apologetic, I kept reflecting on the incident and thought how I could have handled the situation better while on my way back home. I came to the conclusion that there are two ways to reject someone:

1. Direct
2. Indirect

As you are reading this, you may be thinking "duh... I don't need you to tell me that", but my analysis of these two ways of rejection may help you decide how to reject somebody in the future.

Direct Rejection

A direct rejection often involves using a firm, or even harsh tone, and you are straight to the point in expressing your disinterest in whatever the speaker is presenting. Some techniques includes criticism, sarcasm, expressing doubts on the item being presented. What I did earlier on was a direct rejection.

Let's do a simple SWOT analysis* for this form of rejection.

Strengths,  Direct rejection is straight to the point. It allows little points for the opposition to leverage on and continue his presentation, thus ending the presentation swiftly. It also express your disinterest and displeasure in a strong manner, creating a deterrence effect.

Weaknesses.  Direct rejection may come across as being offensive, especially in Asian's culture where harmony and good relationship is vital.

Opportunities.  The opposition will better know what you are not interested in, and may be able to offer something different that may interest you. If he doesn't have alternate proposal, he will leave you alone. 

Threats,  You may leave a negative impression to the opposition. If the opposition is someone related to you, the relationship may turn sour. Even if he has a better alternate proposal, he may not want to share it with you.

Indirect Rejection

An indirect rejection involves using a polite tone, and tends to go in circles before reaching your point. Some techniques includes expressing uncertainty over prospect of proposal, giving excuses, postponing, bring up/create stories that depict negativity of the item proposed.

Let's now do a SWOT analysis for indirection rejection too.

Strengths,  Indirect rejection allows both party to engage in a calm conversation, even though you are gradually steering it towards your favour. It is polite and not offensive. It leaves spaces for the opposition to retreat without making the encounter awkward.

Weaknesses.  Indirect rejection takes a longer time for opposition to get the message that you are uninterested. It leaves a lot of leveraging points for a experienced presenter to exploit and continue his persuasion.

Opportunities,   The opposition will still feel positive about you, and may offer you better proposals that may interest you. The relationship between both parties will not be hurt much, therefore retaining/making a friend, and allows future collaborations. 

Threats.  The opposition may feel that you are a soft person, and will continue to present you with other proposals.

I hope my analysis can help you decide when to use which method of rejection in the future when you come across annoying salesperson, insurance agent etc. However, I will still advice you to listen to their speech with an open mind before you shut them out. Sometimes, they may really have something great in stall for you.

*A SWOT analysis is a method to understand something through its Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threat.

-The god has spoken

How Much Is Your Ego Worth?

I was having lunch with a friend of mine at Junction 8's Ajisen Ramen 2 weeks ago. While paying for the bill, I saw an employment poster at the side of the counter which I thought was interesting and worth sharing.

They were looking for 5 positions, namely supervisor, cook, kitchen helper, dishwasher, and part timers. What caught my attention was that salary of a dishwasher is second only to that of a supervisor. I have no intention of belittling the importance of a dishwasher in a restaurant, but I cannot come around to the fact that they earn more than a cook/chef. Not to mention, the salary of $1700 ~ $2000 is comparable to that of a fresh diploma holder. Some may argue that because it is a dirty and tiring job. Shall we compare it to the salary of a maid, toilet cleaner or a construction worker then?

My friend commented "Aiya, this is like a street cleaner job. If you get a salary of $8000 for being a street cleaner, will you pick up the job?"

It then all come clear to me that a portion of the offered salary is to comfort the ego of the applicant. Everyone has ego. Being a dishwasher is not something you want to write home about. It may sound offending, but dishwasher, along with some other jobs, are deemed as the "lower class" jobs that nobody wants to do. So in order to pay for the loss of pride, a dishwasher is better paid than a supposedly more "high class" cook.

This does not just apply to dishwasher. This applies to all jobs. Your salary can be portioned into 3 parts:
1. Reward for your contribution to the company
2. Compensation for your loss of time
3. Compensation for the hit on your ego

1 and 2 are pretty self-explanatory, so I will not touch on those two. I will be touching on 3.

Every often you hear your friends complain about their unhappiness at their workplace. They got scolded by superior, they got disrespected by peers etc. It is a lot about the ego. More often than not it is a case of "I am not born to get scolded by you" rather than "The scoldings are giving me too much pressure". Some people may have difficulties in identifying which case they belong to. A simple to know is to check how you feel right after the scolding. Do you feel angry? Or do you feel guilty, stressed? If it's the former, it is your ego at work.

Sometimes you feel wronged, especially by clients, and you are required to apologise. Will you insist that you are right and try to defend yourself? Or will you just apologise so as to close the case and avoid causing more unhappiness? If it's the former, it is your ego at work.

So it boils down to whether the money outweighs the ego or the ego outweighs the money. How much is your ego worth?

-The god has spoken

A Little About Myself

I thought that I should dedicate a post to allow readers who don't know me or don't know me well to know a little more about what kind of person I am.

I'm a Singaporean Chinese, born on 17 October 1991. I personally do not believe in horoscopes, but for those who believes in it, I'm a Libra. And according to Ganeshaspeaks.com, I am tactful, romantic, charming, just, diplomatic, balanced, but at the same time, superficial, detached, unreliable, laid-back, indecisive, and self-indulgent. Some of them do apply to me, some of them are disputable.

This sounds somewhat unbelievable by today's standard, but believe me, I had never went to a club before. And I don't intend to. Majority of today's youngsters had gone to clubs to party before. Not all of them like it, but most of them do. For me, I don't need to go to know that I won't like it. Some of the reasons are that it is noisy, crowded, and chaotic. The most important reason, however, is that it is expensive yet it doesn't add value to my life. It may even leave a bad impression for whoever that is judging me.

Yes, I am an introvert. I find it exhaustive to socialise and mix with people, therefore things that people like about clubbing are things that I dislike about clubbing. I require more time to feel comfortable with someone before I start engaging with the person. Some may misunderstood it as me being "dao".

I am admittedly someone who cannot catch up with trend. Or should I say I refuse to catch up with trend? Take social media platforms for example. I have only Facebook, YouTube, and this blog. I do have a Twitter account, but I don't use it. I do not have Instagram. Yes, I do get shocked reactions from people when I tell them that I do not have Instagram. For me, I just don't see the point in it. K-Pop is still the in-thing in Asia, but I condemn K-Pop. I still listen to Mandopop and Cantopop. I watch HK dramas and not Korean dramas. I watch Taiwan variety shows and not Korean variety shows. Perhaps this is why I connect better with older people than people of my age or younger.



I have colour appreciation deficiency, or commonly known as colour blind. I have problems identifying colours with shades of red and green. What does that means? I cannot effectively recognise if the colour is blue or purple, light orange or yellow, light green or yellow, so on and so forth. There are always people who start to ask questions like "So what colour do you see red/green as?" or "So what colour is this? (points at a red/green object)". I actually hate it when people do that to me, because they have a misunderstanding of my condition, and it is hard to explain it to them. Nonetheless, I will still try to explain how the world looks like in my eyes, and share how it affects my life on a daily basis.

This is enough of sharing about myself. These cover some major aspects of my personality and beliefs. If you feel that this post is insufficient in helping you to know me better, drop by my blog more often. I'm sure you will be able to know me better from my future posts.

-The god has spoken