Archive for General
October 25, 2008 at 2:58 am · Filed under General
I was reading about what our grand old man has to say about the world economy on the Channel News Asia Website when I came across this:
On a lighter note, the Minister Mentor touched on what he calls assortative mating, that is, finding a spouse at your level - something he strongly believes in.
He said: “I have explained this. I think I lost votes after I explained the awful truth. Nobody believed it, but slowly it dawned on them, especially the graduates, that yes, you marry a non-graduate, then you worry about whether or not your son or daughter is going to make it to the university.”
Okay, I guess I’m not too well read and I usually don’t give much thought about this topic anyway. For a person who is still resisting contributing to the gene pool, this is seriously the last thing I would bother about ya?
But, assortative mating… that somehow caught my eye today. I think this term has a pretty catchy feel to it. I needed to know more. I did the next best thing and wiki’d “assortative mating” while googling “lee kuan yew assortative mating“. (don’t you just love tab browsing?)
I got to know what assortative mating meant, but I couldn’t find much material on the Minister Mentor’s view. Instead, I found a lot of people in the blogosphere flaming his idea.
I think I get his idea, and I think he has a point. I think I like it. But I don’t think his colleagues in the gahmen gets it. Otherwise, why would they put a foreign dormitory in a middle class residential area like Serangoon Gardens? Don’t they know that there are plenty of graduates and would-be graduates living in this type of housing estate?
I mean picture this… innocent ‘ol me, single and available hanging out in my cosy middle class estate when the ass of this cute female foreign worker catches my eye. I think I’m in love. I marry her. *poof* my valuable graduate genes is suddenly no longer available to a local blue blooded female graduate.
I want to be assortatively mated. A foreign worker dorm next to my house is not going to make it easy for me. I mean, sometimes dunno why ah, but when the planets are aligned and the moon is full, I think with me other head lor…
(Before I get flamed, I wish to make clear that this does not mean I think other housing estate don’t have graduates… I just wanted to point out that Serangoon Gardens have.)
October 24, 2008 at 9:17 am · Filed under General
Research on lab rats has shown that fart reduces blood pressure. Or so says this BBC article. So the next time you get a dirty look after off gasing in the elevator, just tell your fellow occupants that they should thank you instead.
August 26, 2008 at 8:19 am · Filed under General
It was almost 2 months ago when I had two consecutive letters from the LTA telling me that I had to pay a penalty for passing the ERP gantry without a valid cashcard.
I was damn pissed lor! I mean, it is a well known fact, by now that sub standard cashcards were sold to the public creating this inconvenience to the public and at a great cost to the gahmen.
So I wrote in to LTA.
There was no reply, so I paid lor… cussing at both LTA and the big banks that own NETS while typing in the payable amount on my web browser. I mean, better to pay up than to risk a fine ya?
Almost 2 months have since passed and I have since forgotten about the whole episode. This morning, I got a letter from LTA that says that they will reimburse me the admin fees! That’s a pleasant surprise!
I’m still cheesed of that NETS made my life so miserable. I have to waste about an hour to have my IU inspected for no reason. (Who’s paying for my time?) The guys at the inspection center told me that is was the cash card at fault (DUH!) and reluctantly issued me a replacement card.
Guess what? They were reluctant because NETS gave them the same crappy card as replacement cards! Trying to clear stock, I presume.
I still maintain my stand in my letter to LTA. They should take this up to NETS. Claim back all the loss admin charges.
Selling people products that do not work properly is just plain wrong. Complaining that ERP gantries are not compatible is just plain stupid. Without ERP gantries, there is practically no other use for the freakin thing.
It’s like selling a car that breaks down after three months and then put the blame on the roads for not being compatible.
August 20, 2008 at 10:18 am · Filed under General
Evidence that I actually work. Here’s me at a client’s yard.
August 7, 2008 at 8:03 am · Filed under General
Channelnewsasia.com today reported that “local stations lowered prices twice in a day, sparking off what could be a price war and countering talk of collusion among oil companies”. My immediate thought is “Yeah, right.”
A quick check with petrolwatch.com.sg would immediately show you how well coordinated their pricing are like.
Just because two price adjustments occurred over a single day hardly signals a price war! What effectively happend was a mere pump price reduction of about 12% (RON98) since the first pump price reduction was announced on 5th July 2008.
The monthly average price of crude oil increased by about 2% from May to July 2008 and has dropped by 9% since July. Pump price rose by about 4% from May to July 2008. This just shows that the prices are moving in tandem with crude prices. Nothing more.
Channel News Asia also noted that “Professor Chou Siaw Kiang, executive director of the Energy Studies Institute, noted how the perceived “closely coordinated group” of oil companies were “discoordinated” in this round of price cuts. “Perhaps they are not in unison this time round because therapid drop in oil prices is sending a signal, and there is no time to react in a unified way,” he said.”
I am not too sure about that. My cynical mind just thinks that after so much public outroar, these petrol giants just decided to create a little excitement for the press to feast on.
I also noticed this little statement that the Trade and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang told Parliament in April the Government has no “evidence of collusion among retail petrol companies”.
Again, the cynical mind, when working overtime thinks that if no investigation is being carried out, then of course no evidence lor. (So, was an investigation ever conducted?)
I mean, if I went to the toilet to shit, but you never go to the sewers to look for my shit, and hence, no evidence that I crapped, then does it mean that I never shit at all?
While I applaud the price drop, I remain sceptical that these petrol companies are not a “closely coordinated group”.
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