Saturday, June 30, 2012
My favorite pictures from a chill Sunday at botanics:)
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
I'm rather bored tonight in camp, and my unit buddy that I've been closest to in camp for the past 9 weeks has gone for his course as a CQ. Usually we'll have quite nice talks at night or at least keep each other company, but tonight i'm alone:( except for my new understudy. What a strange situation this is. I'm REC and this new guy also OOTed so he's REC too, but I've been here longer and he's taking over my job scope, so I'm his upper study. Strange that a REC is managing another REC. Anyway, I find it quite hard to click with this new guy. He's kinda strange. And we haven't exactly got any common topics. So our morning walks to cookhouse are usually silent. Then I ask if he's going to eat or just take a drink. And we sit down at the table, silently eating. Then we walk back to the bunk, nothing to talk about once again. He also isn't the most intelligent around. 1st Day, I did the work to show him how its done. Full explanations and all, tried to make sure he understood. 2nd day, I asked him to do the work, while I sat beside and completely guided him. 3rd day, I asked him to do the work while I sat beside him just to make sure he did it right. But he still seemed very unsure when doing it. Everyday its the same buttons to click! I can't stand slow learners:(Oh well, on another note, I signed up for national championships (Time trials) which will be held this Saturday morning. Did intervals this evening when I went home for my nights off. Not expecting to come out anywhere close to the top because firstly my equipment is road race equipment and not time trial aero stuff, and also because I haven't trained enough. Last year's road race I did really poorly, and I said i would train for this years'. I think i would have been quite prepared if not for the interruption when I dislocated my kneecap. And also from all the studying for A levels. And the fact that the competition was announced so last minute for this year! But anyway I've definitely improved from June last year till now. Oh and I'm competing in the men's open this year, not the juniors, so that makes things even harder. I shall make sure I use the next year to train even harder, that I'm actually "competition-grade" by next year's nationals.
Monday, June 04, 2012
Hahaha would I be writing essays like those in uni? I'll be going to NUS Business Admin (Accountancy). I think it's essentially SMU's Business and Accountancy double degree, but I'll only be getting a single degree. Oh well, I quite like studying in Utown plus I've been quite pessimistic of my chances of getting into NUS in the past. All their courses are like AAA/A and make it seems like the new saying should be "... is as easy as AAA" instead of ABC. So it came as a pleasant surprise NUS accepted me based on discretionary (which means I'm bottom 10% of the cohort) and I just decided why waste the opportunity. Kent ridge is much nearer and way more convenient too. Would've liked to accept all 3 though. See if NTU accountancy is as good as everyone claims and if SMU is really the business school to go to for preparing for the working world.
I've been spending too much recently. I only earn $440 every month and I don't draw pocket money anymore but I spent close to $800 last month! Some of the money will come back though because I'm going to sell some of the stuff I bought for a small profit. But anyway, the main point is the cut down on my spending. I've stopped clubbing for about 4 weeks already because it's quite a waste of money. There's the cover charge ($30-35) then the pre-drink drinks ($10-$15) and the cab fare home ($10) and sometimes supper costs and the cost of dinner before that. It all adds up to quite a sum every weekend. And the net gain at the end of it is some fun (the endorphin level on weekend nights doesn't even go to half of what mambo night can produce) and a lot of unhealthy habits. Alcohol, sleeping late and hence warped body clock and the oily supper. These can all be further broken down into the individual demerits of these "unhealthy habits". So all in all, I decided to give myself a break from the 3 weeks in a row of clubbing. I'm not quitting, taking a break is just something I felt I need to do. I'll go regularly occasionally (once in a few months/weeks). It's like mcwings meal. So unhealthy, but I like to have some when its not considered too much.
So back on where I was initially coming from- the part about cutting on spending. Recently I tend to feel the strong urge to spend cash I see in my wallet, like a teenager. Of course, for many years I've had a good habit of suppressing my spending quite well. I see cash and I feel the urge to collect more. Guess the teenager instincts have finally gotten to me. But I want to stop the habit of spending cash whenever I have some. So anyway, I was thinking of buying a bike magazine (Cycling Plus) to entertain myself and pass some time since I was on mc today. Usually I buy the magazine and after the curiosity dies down I kinda regret the purchase. It costs $15 and that led me to think what else I could buy with $15. When you cut down on spending, you give yourself less "disposable disposable income" so that's how I started thinking of how to make the most out of my every dollar. The first thing that came to mind were the movie tickets. Now this is where my thought on the perception of money comes in (that's why I'm writing this post). We tend to either look at whether something is worth based on the cost of production. But subconsciously we also judge the worth based on the satisfaction it gives us. Between a movie and a magazine, the movie obviously costs more to produce. Seeing that some blockbusters can easily cost $100 million to produce. Whereas a magazine in comparison, few thousands maybe? But perhaps it's gonna be a boring horror movie or a thriller which just frustrates (I don't like thrillers or horror) so then of course the magazine is more worth it. What I'm saying is, maybe we should start processing the worth of a good by looking at the vector sum of both aspects rather than just one perspective at a time. I find myself tending to just look at only one factor each time I decide if an item is worth. Is a caramel macchiato worth? I used to say no, actually. Come on, milk and vanilla syrup and coffee don't even add up to 2 bucks. Yet, I find myself always choosing to buy it most of the time. I never asked myself why. And now looking back, I would never have been able to answer the question. It's like human psychology. Well now I can answer it. On the conscious part of our mind, we think about the cost of productive vs price, and that gives us the value or worth of the buying the good. However, subconsciously, our brain is working on the pleasure aspect of the product. Sipping on a caramel macchiato sure tastes better than the $3.70 brew of the day. And that's why we choose the caramel macchiato.
This is the second part where I try to figure how I can make the most of my money. Somehow this is related to the worth which I wrote about earlier but I feel it's a separate aspect enough to warrant a new paragraph. Recently I realized a behavior of mine which puzzled me. I spend $35 to enter a club to dance and all for a few hours in the night and then at the end of it I gain nothing material. Not exactly memories either because usually there's the intoxication or that the place is so messy that the episodes of clubbing all merge into a confusion of one. Never mind the gaining nothing part, but I don't even think twice of blink before I fork out the cover charge! For an entrance, not even a physical product! Yet when I look at the menu of a fine dining restaurant and I see " rib-eye steak with - $35", I can say "This is so expensive, I'm not paying for this, give me the $22 salmon fillet instead". And hey I am pretty sure the exotic rib eye is going to be more nutritious than a few hours of dancing. Plus i personally think fine dining is more valuable than a room of entropy. And as a result, I begin to look at such things differently. Cut down on the anyhow spending, and try not to mind so much about spending on the $6.50 Ikea coffee mug set. Yes, I hesitate like mad and finally decide not to make the purchase when it comes to such minor things. I hope my perception of prices gets less warped from now on.
So in conclusion, with a post which digressed from one topic to another, I'd like to say that when deciding if something is worth our money, we should try to remember to consciously factor in the amount of satisfaction, in addition to the cost of production. Otherwise, everyone would be watching transformers and nobody at all would want to watch Yes Man (comedies obviously more satisfying).
So back on where I was initially coming from- the part about cutting on spending. Recently I tend to feel the strong urge to spend cash I see in my wallet, like a teenager. Of course, for many years I've had a good habit of suppressing my spending quite well. I see cash and I feel the urge to collect more. Guess the teenager instincts have finally gotten to me. But I want to stop the habit of spending cash whenever I have some. So anyway, I was thinking of buying a bike magazine (Cycling Plus) to entertain myself and pass some time since I was on mc today. Usually I buy the magazine and after the curiosity dies down I kinda regret the purchase. It costs $15 and that led me to think what else I could buy with $15. When you cut down on spending, you give yourself less "disposable disposable income" so that's how I started thinking of how to make the most out of my every dollar. The first thing that came to mind were the movie tickets. Now this is where my thought on the perception of money comes in (that's why I'm writing this post). We tend to either look at whether something is worth based on the cost of production. But subconsciously we also judge the worth based on the satisfaction it gives us. Between a movie and a magazine, the movie obviously costs more to produce. Seeing that some blockbusters can easily cost $100 million to produce. Whereas a magazine in comparison, few thousands maybe? But perhaps it's gonna be a boring horror movie or a thriller which just frustrates (I don't like thrillers or horror) so then of course the magazine is more worth it. What I'm saying is, maybe we should start processing the worth of a good by looking at the vector sum of both aspects rather than just one perspective at a time. I find myself tending to just look at only one factor each time I decide if an item is worth. Is a caramel macchiato worth? I used to say no, actually. Come on, milk and vanilla syrup and coffee don't even add up to 2 bucks. Yet, I find myself always choosing to buy it most of the time. I never asked myself why. And now looking back, I would never have been able to answer the question. It's like human psychology. Well now I can answer it. On the conscious part of our mind, we think about the cost of productive vs price, and that gives us the value or worth of the buying the good. However, subconsciously, our brain is working on the pleasure aspect of the product. Sipping on a caramel macchiato sure tastes better than the $3.70 brew of the day. And that's why we choose the caramel macchiato.
This is the second part where I try to figure how I can make the most of my money. Somehow this is related to the worth which I wrote about earlier but I feel it's a separate aspect enough to warrant a new paragraph. Recently I realized a behavior of mine which puzzled me. I spend $35 to enter a club to dance and all for a few hours in the night and then at the end of it I gain nothing material. Not exactly memories either because usually there's the intoxication or that the place is so messy that the episodes of clubbing all merge into a confusion of one. Never mind the gaining nothing part, but I don't even think twice of blink before I fork out the cover charge! For an entrance, not even a physical product! Yet when I look at the menu of a fine dining restaurant and I see "
So in conclusion, with a post which digressed from one topic to another, I'd like to say that when deciding if something is worth our money, we should try to remember to consciously factor in the amount of satisfaction, in addition to the cost of production. Otherwise, everyone would be watching transformers and nobody at all would want to watch Yes Man (comedies obviously more satisfying).