Cry Me A River

Great cover of a previously uninteresting track! Thanks ben heh.

You told me you loved me, why did you leave me all alone?
Now you tell me you need me, when you call me on the phone
Girl I refuse, you must have me confused with some other guy
Your bridges got burned, now it's your turn to cry
Cry me a river, Cry me a river, Cry me a river, Cry me a river

Hello, world

Photos from France and Germany are up on facebook. Public links to the albums are here.

In reverse chronological order,
Colmar & Riquewihr, Alsace - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=29999&l=794dd&id=500345338
Strasbourg, Alsace - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=29997&l=49076&id=500345338
Reims, Verdun, Vezernay, Champagne - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=29996&l=b83ae&id=500345338
Paris in 3 parts:
3. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=29995&l=ab260&id=500345338
2. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=29991&l=a12c1&id=500345338
1. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=29989&l=76e93&id=500345338
Rudesheim & Frankfurt, Germany, also in 3 parts:
3. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=29988&l=0e9d9&id=500345338
2. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=29986&l=a0ad1&id=500345338
1. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=29984&l=1c556&id=500345338

Post-mortem? of course, no one died. however, in the spirit of post mortems, i suppose things could've went better for the trip. reflections for my personal consumption heh.

coming back earlier was the right thing to do, without doubt, if not only because of frozen roads and gastric flu, the latter having left me with a bloated digestive tract for the past week.

You're finally here heh

Six Hundred and Sixty Four days ago, they took away my liberties, my rights, my civility. Now, it's all come back. M*%$&$f&%#%%s (heh it so happens that the cover of Hallowed Be They Name by Cradle Of Filth's playing).

If I remember correctly, the song I'd resolved to play the night before ORD was "It Ends Tonight" by the All American Rejects. I suppose this would do for now. heh. It's hard to describe the feeling, though. Surreal would be one good word, albeit heavily overused.

Had dinner at Tony Roma's with Calvin last night, and it didn't seem so long ago we were Foxtrot 2 Sect 3 Bed 7 and 8 at SISPEC; not so long ago we had shots of tequila, declaring "ONE YEAR TO ORD!" at MoS; not so long ago when "aiya, wait until after ORD then say" was the ultimate excuse for procrastination - ORD happens to be sunday, or rather, friday if my news sources are reliable. So we've survived - now what?

For starters, I've got SAT 2 chem this sat and I'm kinda screwed. Shall get to work on that once I'm done here. Noted (a word whose use has become less than comfortable for me). Actually it's just the inorganic parts, but I won't wager too much on my capabilities. After that, it's off to Frankfurt, then the northern regions of France. Damn my passport isn't here. Shall have to check that out. SHIT.

And you, this is for you: Take your time to sort it out - we, or at least, I, know all too well the rationale behind "more haste, less speed". I don't REQUIRE anything; in fact, all that is so far has exceeded reasonable expectations and greed isn't a path I intend to head down. It's probably an apt coincidence that I'll be heading off for a fortnight, giving you a chance to work it all out. I hope whatever conclusion you get to is favorable, but the bottom line should be your benefit.

Come on feel the noize, girl rock your boys, we'll get wild wild wild; wild wild wild. - Cum on Feel the Noize, Quiet Riot.

Someday I'll Be Saturday Night :)

Hey man, I'm alive, I'm taking each day a night at a time
I'm feeling like a monday but someday I'll be saturday night

Hey my name is jim where did i go wrong?
My life's a bargain basement all the good shit's gone
I just can't hold a job, where do i belong?
I'm sleeping in my car, my dreams moved on.

My name is billy g my love is bought and sold
I'm only sixteen i feel a hundred years old
My foster daddy went, took my innocence away
The street life ain't much better but at least i'm getting paid and

Tuesday just might go my way - can't get worse than yesterday
Thursdays, Fridays ain't been kind
but somehow i'll survive

Hey man, i'm alive, i'm taking each day a night at time
Yeah i'm down but i know i'll get by
hey hey hey hey man, gotta live my life
like i ain't got nothing but this roll of the dice
I'm feeling like a monday but someday i'll be saturday night

now i can't say my name or tell you where i am
i wanna blow myself away don't know if i can
i wish that i could be in some other time and place
with someone else's soul, someone else's face

oh tuesdays just might go my way, can't get worse than yesterday
thursdays, fridays ain't been kind
but somehow i'll survive

hey man i'm alive i'm taking each day a night at a time
yeah i'm down, but i know i'll get by
hey hey hey hey man i'm gonna live my life
i'm gonna pick up all the pieces and what's left of my pride
i'm feeling like a monday but someday i'll be saturday night

someday i'll be saturday night, i'll be back on my feet, i'll be doing alright
it may not be tomorrow, baby that's okay
i ain't going down, gonna find a way

hey hey hey man i'm alive
i'm taking each day a night at a time
yeah i'm down, but i know i'll get by

hey hey hey hey man i'm gonna live my life
like i ain't got nothing but this roll of the dice
i'm feeling like a monday but someday i'll be saturday night

oh i'm feeling like a monday but someday i'll be saturday night

Clarification, Gentlemen

It has come to my attention that people have become concerned regarding my attitudes and behavior with respect to my soon-to-be-ending army life. Most regard it as a move to the dark side, especially with "excused accordingly" in effect till after ORD and my considerations for OOC-ing int spec course very much in place. As such, I find it befitting to clarify my position, for I'm not one who acts without considering consequences. In fact, these actions were taken in full knowledge of consequences, at least, those pertaining to myself.

First, on the issue of diametrical change. To people who've worked with me like Zhenghong and Sherwin (not berne, of course.. he'd know better haha), I seem to have gone against what I used to stand for: working hard, doing things the right way etc. Superficially, that is the case. More than that, though, it would be appropriate to realize that circumstances have changed. Fundamentally, my goals have not. In training, it is in my best interests to secure respect and avoid people getting the idea that i'm slack, such that I have bargaining power when it comes to the most important thing in army life: SLACKING. getting days off, essentially, is impossible when commanders have a bad impression. On the micro level, the only reason why I decide to sleep early during training time is so I get enough sleep (reminder: i love sleeping); the reason I decide to wake early is to beat the toilet rush so I can go down to wherever we need to fall in and, you guessed it, SLEEP. so, I am consistent. I have not changed my stand.

Secondly, addressing Sherwin's question: "... how you change until like that [i.e. the status quo]". To this, the best answer would be "the same reason they, whoever 'they' are, can decide to mess up my last three weeks in army before i ORD, spoil my plans, burn my off and proceed to impose a ban on me clearing my DESERVED off even if i OOC and go back to 42." Now does that make sense? to a regular, probably. to an officer, probably. if so, DO IT TO YOURSELVES. If you have the right to impose your morality and values on me, then don't blame me when I fight back. Let's just make it clear here: I've NEVER bowed down voluntarily to anyone (yea maybe except God, but he ain't human so that doesn't count). I respect, but never to the extent of BLIND OBEDIENCE. IF you expect me to, so to speak, "LAN LAN SUCK THUMB", then honestly you don't know me well enough. Circumstances are man-made, and are hence man-modifiable. There.

Finally, but clearly not the end since I expect more attempts at curtailing my liberties on the way, this goes as a amicable warning. All this time I've decided to play along with your little "i have rank therefore I PWN you" game - wake up to reality, idiots. This isn't the real world. Go fight your imaginary enemies - I don't give a hoot. Try pulling me into your little make-believe world one more time and you'll regret you ever enlisted me and put me through everything you did. I planned for my tolerance to last with the previous flow of events, such that when i ORD i'll minimally be AMICABLE - I won't kill. Now you've exhausted the last vestiges of my tolerance, don't blame me if i turn murderous. Trust me, I'm capable of it, for "The pen (or in this case, keyboard and printer) is mightier than the sword (or your rifles, tanks, whatnot, no thanks to your hierarchy being no more than a sad cycle where the bottom is really the top. don't get it? go ruminate, cows)".

I'm proud to oppose.

I swear, one day the idiocy that so clearly characterizes the SAF will be put to an end. even if not by me or someone i know.

Honestly, which decent, reputable (in the good sense) organization does things like give one week's notification that:
1. I've been selected (smell the odor of sarcasm in that heh) for Intel Spec Course at SMI, and that the course duration is from 8th oct (next monday) till 2nd NOV (sounds familiar? ORD!!!)
2. now that really isn't the problem. the problem is here: i've got LEAVE. 8 days leave + 3 days off = 11 days. as of last week, i'd only be able to clear 5 days, leaving 6 to burn.
3. as of now, i've only cleared 1. and it's wednesday. wonder why? cos some IDIOT had to mandate that shooting around at SAFTI 100m range in BODY ARMOR is a requirement to ORD.
4. point to note, i was notified of tuesday's shoot on monday. cool eh? after i CLEARED out my cupboard.

seriously, all this wouldn't have happened if those creatures actually took the effort to decide who to send earlier and let us know what's coming up. ironically, the SAF doesn't practice what it preaches (or demands).
- if you wanna take off, you must give early notification so THEY can plan manpower schedules; THEY, on the other hand, have the right to do anything they want, even with 2 hours notice. seriously, we're not on perpetual 2NTM.
- THEY speak so strongly of us fulfilling OUR obligations to the country (or rather, just their cause to reach higher ranks); the reverse, obviously, cannot be expected. (also in line with the abovementioned cause)

these are just pertinent to this issue. everyone knows all the other rubbish that goes on eh? honestly, i don't want to bother. but burning 7 days of my leave is a mockery, so i have to care, no?

欠我十塊

Lyrics included hahaha.

欠我十塊

推你落懸崖，沉尸落大海
等你變鬼來。
時間被安排，造一場意外
你身手分開。
地點在城外，濃霧散不開
屍體誰在擡？
我聼不出來，救命不純在
是你被活埋。

夢醒來是誰在門外，鐵鏈打不開？
那包如長椅的火柴
全家葬身火海~!

我送你投胎，欠我十塊
你死了活該~!
投資失敗，或許不該
還要借高利貸。
我送你投胎，欠我十塊
你尸剖還在。
利息和來，大卸八塊
用一刀去頂債。

我追數又淋紅油附帶
表演非常精彩
聽説你還有漂亮太太
我幫你安排
我追數又淋紅油附帶
表演非常精彩
聽説你還有漂亮太太
怡紅園賣

醫生讓你DIE，警察將你害
我一早收買
你女兒可愛，認試了拐帶
我弄溼現在。
骨頭廚房拆，帶雪衣猶在
你卻不回來。
被新聞覆蓋，我說的追債
越辯太越帥~!

夢醒來是誰在門外，鐵鏈打不開？
那包如長椅的火柴
全家葬身火海~!

我送你投胎，欠我十塊
你死了活該
投資失敗，或許不該
還要借高利貸。
我送你投胎，欠我十塊
你尸剖還在。
利息和來，大卸八塊
用一刀。。。

我送你投胎，欠我十塊
你死了活該
投資失敗，或許不該
還要借高利貸。
我送你投胎，欠我十塊
你尸剖還在。
利息和來，大卸八塊
用一刀去頂債。

basically i'm home thanks to the most productive excess i have - excess of teeth. went to remove stitches today, and since my off pass said "170907 to 170907" i shall take full advantage of that and have dinner, clean up my teeth and THEN return to camp. no, i'm not skiving. i'm taking care of my teeth and the surgical wound. there is a huge hole behind my last right molar, just in case anyone's wondering, and it needs to be flushed 3 times a day for the next 7-10 days. literally.

in any case, in 7 days i'll pull the OTHER tooth. heh yes we can all see the general direction this is heading. shall be implicit about this :)

Picked up a few CDs from Paragon just now: The very best of Carole King, Love changes everything - Sarah Brightman, Astrud Gilberto's finest hour and a compilation of Andrew Lloyd Webber songs. Always good to remember to diversify music haha. In compensation for the heavy weightage of what i'd term conservative music, wednesday will have to happen. Check out the "True Faith" MTV by New Order, esp the slapping (literally) and the fighting lol. and sign language as mambo moves is totally... extraordinary? :S

I feel so extraordinary; something's got a hold on me
I get this feeling I'm in motion - a sudden sense of liberty.
I don't care cos I'm not there, and I don't care if I'm here tomorrow;
Again and again I've taken too much of the things that cost you too much.

I used to think that the day would never come
I'd see delight in the shade of the morning sun.
My morning sun is the drug that brings me here:
to the childhood I lost - replaced by fear.
I used to think that the day would never come;
That my life would depend on the morning sun.

When I was a very small boy, very small boys talked to me.
Now that we've grown old together, they're afraid of what they see;
That's the price that we all pay: our valued destiny comes to nothing.
I can't tell you where we're going - I guess there's just no way of knowing.

I used to think that the day would never come
I'd see delight in the shade of the morning sun.
My morning sun is the drug that brings me here:
to the childhood I lost - replaced by fear.
I used to think that the day would never come;
That my life would depend on the morning sun.

I feel so extraordinary; something's got a hold on me.
I get this feeling I'm in motion - a sudden sense of liberty.
The chances are we've gone too far: you took my time and you took my money.
Now I feel you've left me standing in a world that's so demanding.

I used to think that the day would never come
I'd see delight in the shade of the morning sun.
My morning sun is the drug that brings me here:
to the childhood I lost - replaced by fear.
I used to think that the day would never come;
That my life would depend on the morning sun.

okay all of you, paiseh la

sia la i thought no one reads anymore so like.. ya the last two were supposed to be for keng to try and dissuade him from his little mlm frenzy.. but apparently i'm getting the wrong audience :s k la zl and xh, my fault.. and it's not a freaking intellect thingy can.. it's just a.. ok nvm this only goes to invite flaming..

the english's gotten ostensibly worse, and it's gonna remain that way for awhile i suppose. even mrs chiang po lin said so. blame it on SAF, seriously. no one spoke, or wrote, this way in jc. 53 days ya?

okay, so my status quo revolves around one thing: MC. heh. lower right wisdom tooth went out this morning, and it's MC all the way till saturday, guard 2ic on sunday, gotta remove stitches monday, 3pm. why the strange time? cos guard rest lets me sleep for awhile, then i book out, then i come back again. hopefully, by that time i'll have the AH referral in hand. In any case, first wk of oct or sometime like that i'll have the lower left tooth removed so that's another week. so BLAH to you, saf.

preview of post ord: er basically, france - the nightmare that is voyages-sncf.com is the main thing pissing me off. sncf, as educated by png zhiheng, is the french railway company. and being french, the english version of the website simply doesn't work. for some reason or another. so i resort to copying entire pages, sticking them in a translator page, and thereafter slowly filling stuff in. one thing i learnt, though: nom = surname, prenom (with the tick on the e which i can't be bothered to find) = name. so ya. i guess if you don't have a surname, you'll be nameless, so to speak.

so basically it's a low budget trip, just me and my dad, and it'll be to frankfurt, germany, and back from paris, france. Frankfurt, Champagne, Alsace, Burgundy, Normandy (png zhiheng take note, i'll be hunting you down 16th nov), then paris, then back. ya. okay that's it for post ord activities. oh yes, zouli, the countdown. will try to go. TRY.

next, uni. okay for the most part of this year i'd resigned myself (slightly demeaning, the use of this..) to NUS, free with the undergrad scholarship. but resignation isn't stopping me from giving it one last shot - after all, now even better, got safety net. minimally, i'll have somewhere to study heh. So, i'll need some help here. anyone who's made it to the following places, please please be generous and share some pointers? Princeton, Columbia, Nottingham and UCL. Maybe LSE too.. i'm more hoping for the US unis la, but then again, i'll try submitting psc (sell my soul, yes, but at least i hold PINK ic right.. better than selling soul + pink ic), then see can suck some govt money into my bank account or not.. okay maybe not suck - i did sell something :s

IF i stick in NUS, however, the econs/law double's gonna get reduced. econs only. really. nothing against law - it's a nice place, but econs WAS what i started out wanting to study and i think to be fair to myself, just stick to the original plan (stop vacillating), and if at the end of yr 1 i get 3.5 or higher, reapply.. ya..

okay, the two of you.. or rather, three including zishan. normal enough?

It has come to my attention, through my networks (heh) that i have supposedly been misinformed. The clarification on the question "how to generate 10x profits TURNOVERS?" is simply that the massive amounts being shared out are well, sales, and can hence total the insane amounts that people are "receiving".

For 15 minutes after I heard this, it kinda worked: multiplier effect allows a single injection of expenditure to create several times the total income due to spending. And they were happy. The problem, however, lies in leakages.

Assuming a multiplier value of 2.72x, the maginal propensity to consume (proportion of each additional dollar of income, or in this case revenue, consumed - in this case, passed on to another subsidiary) works out to be 0.63. Fair enough. It however leads us to ask several questions:

1. Expenditure by a firm goes into raw materials and labor, generally. A set of firms can only grow on themselves by spending on each other in a manner similar to Firm A -> Firm B, Firm B -> Firm C, Firm C .... Are these firms existing in a sort of vertical integration model of infinite length? The main issue in this point is length: the multiplier assumes a sum to infinity, stopping anywhere before infinity only makes the sum of the GP (geometric progression, mind you) less than its expected sum to infinity.

2. Even if these firms exist in a chain of perfect integration on a production process, which of course, is an extenuating assumption, we recall that in Macroeconomics, the multiplier can exist in its full form only because we are examining the expenditure of a single currency - currency that can only be used in one country and nowhere else. In the case of a set of firms, salaries paid out, in addition to costs like Rent and Utilities Bills, are not recirculated - even if recirculation occurs, it would most definitely not be 63% of expenditure. Imagine a typical employee (by which I mean technical personnel, administration assistants etc) receiving her salary: is it possible that all but 37% of her pay is recirculated into buying services from the company? Certainly, HER OWN bills have to be settled, and that constitutes a leakage. In the macroeconomy it really isn't a problem, since all money circulated is still WITHIN the economy - but in this micro macro-economy we're talking about, this isn't the case. So, LEAKAGES cause the multiplier to NOT be at its ideal level.

3. Therefore, if we assume, quite reasonably, that wages paid out are not recirculated in the figure for corporate expenditure, the expenditure of each company towards the next-in-line in this vertically integrated economy-of-scale, so to speak, is then approximately 63% (based on a net return to the company of base revenue + 1.71x base revenue generated that is shared in sales = 2.72x. 2.72 = 1/(1-mpc), theoretical MPC = 1 - 0.367 = 0.633 = 63.3%), equating to a remainder of approximately 37% of revenue in each company paid out to OTHER expenditure - rent, wages, utilities etc (since these cannot be provided by the firm's fellow subsidiaries) - and profits, making it all not that feasible to be turning humongous profits to share. Almost any average company has an annual profit margin of less than 10%, and we don't see them disbursing profits as rebates, especially if they're in dire need of cash for development.

4. Which brings us to the next point. Fact: the company needs money, hence the sale of GPs. Yet, in the shortest time imaginable, money goes back out. First it was profits, then corrected to be read as "turnover". It makes even less sense this way, as much as it is now more mathematically feasible. Imagine NTUC owning the entire production line all the way from the slaughterhouse to the cashier: your purchase of a spring chicken generates several times in terms of total sales, true enough; but they take all of that sales from every single subsidiary, bundle it up and give it back to you, leaving themselves with profits that can barely pay off their taxes. All I can say is: "wtf???"

The impossibility of it all

I must say, it looked very impressive at the start.

Oh, this post might be damaging, so as usual, I'd do a disclaimer. I have no intention of, as one'd put it, "spoiling the market", so to the best of my ability, I'll leave acronyms as acronyms, such that only those involved to some degree can understand.

About a month ago, a good friend of mine asked me to join a MLM company, the name of which I shall not disclose. They offer an extremely attractive package for us to market - an attraction I soon found to be mathematically infeasible, coupled with glaring issues with their business plan that somehow no one noticed. Here I attach my "thesis", so to speak, which was meant to explain my decision and partly, to get my friends to reconsider becoming more involved in this business.

The GP Impossibility Theorem

Much less a theorem than a set of logical questions and conclusions made based on given facts and conservative assumptions that, in all futility, attempts to salvage the impossibility.

Disclaimer:

This write-up serves to portray the author’s personal questions and issues with the system. All information presented as factual are correct (at least, claimed to be correct by the company’s managers) as of 27^th Aug 2007. This article does not, however, constitute an attempt to defame and/or malign the company in question, and beyond all certainty, a cause of action for libel against the author is a no go. Written from the perspective as a now non-functional member of the organization, this serves both as an explanation for the author leaving this seemingly lucrative trade and as a call for existing members to take a step back and consider carefully what they are promoting, and the possible ramifications on their relations with their clients.

First, the facts:

An individual GP account costs $11520, and the CRP, although factually isn't guaranteed, is presented with a strong implication that it is. CRP “promises” $19200 over approximately 17 months, under a scheme of profit sharing out of what appears to be corporate gratitude.

It follows that if we take $1100 as the benchmark payout (the oft presented range being $1100 - $1200, fluctuations accorded to “profit levels”), $19200 is disbursed over 18 months.

Monthly monetary injections can then be averaged out at $11520 / 18 months = $640 per month. (Total outlay / total time = mean rate of monetary input – for calculation purposes)

To be able to pay out "returns" so readily, the company must be turning a pure profit of
$1100 / $640 = 171.875% per month (mean per-month profits / mean per-month outlay)

Final fact: Company claims that most profits come from emall, which they expect will do better than eBay. eBay's annual profit for 2006 was USD$297.2mil, with total sales of USD$4.6bn. (Public Record. No such information for EGA companies exists at this point in time. Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/01/19/ebay_results/)

So, the assumptions:

Downplaying the popularity and price of GPs, and ignoring the 12,000 units sold in Genting ‘07, we assume over the last 10 months from Aug 06 - Jun 07, 5000 GPs on average were sold per month at a mean price (aggregating price increases over time) of $10,000 per GP.

Total outlay by the public would value 10 x 5000 x $10,000 = $500,000,000 SGD. $500mil.

Next, the calculations:

Having downplayed the payouts per month to the lower limit of the projected range and calculated the required profit to be 171.875%, we then calculate with relative ease the total profits directed into GP payouts.

$500,000,000 * 1.71875 = $859,375,000. $859.375 mil

Assuming 50% of total profits returned as dividend-like annuities to GPs, total profits = $859,375,000 * 2 = $1,718,750,000. $1.71875 bn

Returning to the assertion that most of the profits come from emall, we conservatively take 50% from emall and 50% from the rest of EGA (which we will not look at due to lack of information on their part).

Total profits from emall = $859.375 mil.

Using eBay's 2006 profit margin as a guideline, and knowing for a fact that profits (USD$297.4 mil) make up a fraction of total sales (USD$4.7 bn), we find that for eBay, this fraction is
$297.2 mil / $4.6 bn
= 6.4608695652173913043478260869565 %. Approx 6.46%

Assuming emall is as efficient as eBay, even though it's only been around a fraction of the time, we then take SGD$859.375mil / 0.0646 = SGD$13,303 mil = SGD$13.303 bn.

Since ebay figures are declared in USD, emall sales in USD = SGD$13.597 / 1.6 = USD$8.498bn. (Assuming exchange rate of SGD$1.60 = USD$1 – another generous assumption)

Projected annual emall sales = USD$8.498bn / 10 * 12 = USD$10.1976bn
$10.1976bn / $4.6bn = 2.216x eBay's annual sales.

The possibility of such humongous sales figures is beyond my discernment, but it starts to worry when we look at the prospect of an entity like emall turning sales profits almost equaling a quarter of a developing country’s GDP. USD$10.197bn approximately works out to be a quarter of Cambodia’s 2006 GDP (USD$41.359bn).

Figures quoted from wikipedia.

In addition, all EGA companies, especially SSE, are Pte. Ltd. – Private companies limited by shares, with the recent exception of EmCom.

"Limited by shares" means that the company has shareholders, and that the liability of the shareholders to creditors of the company is limited to the capital originally invested, i.e. the nominal value of the shares and any premium paid in return for the issue of the shares by the company. A shareholder's personal assets are thereby protected in the event of the company's insolvency, but money invested in the company will be lost.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_limited_company_by_shares

So, the issues:

1. Each GP includes 14,400 mall points for expenditure on emall, points purchased within the initial cost of a GP. So-called "sales" on emall would then be sales made in terms of mallpoints. Just like redemption of loyalty points at petrol stations don't constitute a sale (since points were sold at the onset), emall transactions in points don't constitute the supposed sale. How do profits appear then?

2. Assuming everything on emall's sold for cash, can it hit a total value of $8.498bn (even for the 10 months in question)? Taking the most expensive items spotted - hand phones - that are going at somewhere around the equivalent of $800 SGD, a total of 10,622,500 hand phones would have to be sold (at full profit to emall - we all know online commerce platforms take but a fraction of sales so let's not go into those figures.)
For reference, eBay’s fees can be found here: http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/fees.html

3. With expenditures like EPV and EmCom projects in Taiwan, we question if SSE has the ready cash for large scale liquidation. Deferred payment is an unacceptable defense, since the term "payouts" implies a payment that has ALREADY been made, not credit. Every e-point must be backed up with cash - the company is not a bank with credit facilities, especially not when it is itself, the debtor. Uncompleted projects require cash injections - withdrawals from the company's reserves; contributions to revenue from these projects cannot be expected.

4. In addition, most EGA companies are Pte. Ltd companies - Privately owned, limited liability. Paid up capital, according to ACRA, is $150,000 - grossly insufficient. Court action brought against the company would only bring a limited amount of damages, way smaller than its total liabilities (since e-points are supposedly readily liquid CASH, with a real cash value).
Conservatively speaking, maximum legal liability / true liability
= $150,000 / $859,375,000,000 * 100 = 0.00001745%.
Let’s not go there - too small.

5. Basic economics, or rather, common sense dictates that Total Revenue = Total Cost + Total Profit. It follows that total profit CANNOT be greater than total revenue. So 172% return as "profits" in the GP is mathematically infeasible.

6. In addition, if most of the customers of EGA are SSE members holding GPs, the bulk of revenue must, therefore, come from GP sales. 172% returns, based on the conjecture that e-points are a form of electronic credit and the substantial evidence pointing to a lack of physical cash backing up each e-point, would constitute something closer to a falsified payment.

7. Escalating month-on-month sales, although seemingly good news for merchants, are pointing to a disaster. While all transactions are technically legal, legal doesn’t equate to right. For as long as monthly sales exceed the preceding month, payouts are essentially secured (barring large scale liquidation). While this is true, when the limit is reached, what then? The technicalities of the system essentially make it a money game, made legal through dummy transactions.

8. Sustainability of the company is built on faith. For as long as liquidation of e-points remains a small proportion of total e-points erased (managers’ re-entry erodes their account balance and the company’s short-term liability; managers closing deals for cash serves the same purpose) or external cash inflow through new members injecting money into the system, the company is seemingly fulfilling its obligations by crediting electronic balances to accounts each month – no real money is paid out until liquidation occurs. Given how members are discouraged psychologically by the 0.5% admin charge, liquidation is low. Money in > Money out, business goes on. Of course, this does not constitute a challenge to prove me wrong by liquidating 100%, although it’d be interesting. Inability to pay up reinforces points 4 and 6.

9. Regarding the issue of whether CRP is guaranteed, there have been several citations of payouts being discretionary and not guaranteed. Evidence, however, does not point to that being made clear during sales pitches. The general implication, when stories of 70, 80 GPs being closed are told, is that CRP is made out to be guaranteed. A utilitarian attitude towards what the GP entails, with only the slightest hint of speculation, would never rationalize purchasing 70 x 4yrs = 280 years of 2100mins/month of talk time. Clearly, the speculation involved is strong, and indeed, without being fairly convinced payouts for CRP are minimally guaranteed, no rational person would play around with the required outlay – 70 GPs cost at least $700, 000, a figure smaller than reality would permit given their escalating cost.

10. The aims of the company put forth to questioning clients regarding the motive behind a huge payout, most ostensibly to expand consumer awareness of the services provided and creating a consumer base, are also contradictory. Setting a high unit cost does not encourage purchase (only possibly made up for by an implicit promise of monetary gain), and allowing huge purchases per client only serves to deplete the (seemingly unlimited, but portrayed otherwise, hence this assertion) stock of GPs, depriving other willing customers of this limited package. As it is, no one is deprived, which once again puts the true supply of GPs under scrutiny – infinite supply, constituting a scam?

Prologue

Seemingly glaring inconsistencies that no one bothered to raise have been put into light. Why, one may ask. Perhaps the answer lies in how the management pushes members into sales and away from considering the nature of the good (or in this case, package) they are selling by constantly asking them to believe in the company, the president and the system. Indeed, more time is spent igniting desires for money than a true understanding of the product, understandably so, given that careful thought detached from the burning desire for high income would lead, quite readily, to the questions and implications raised above. No accusations will be made on my part; simply questions that I hope will be answered in an acceptable and mathematically feasible manner. Transparency is clearly lacking, leading to me wondering if the gold studded environment in which deals are made everyday is, in reality, just glittering gold paint. Many more issues regarding the non-usage of other means of advance funding like banks, IPOs and other monetary instruments can be raised, but will only serve to complicate the fundamental issues – after all, how is it acceptable for a supposedly successful company to not have these instruments at its disposal?

The perspectives portrayed here are probably superficial – there may be more than meets the eye, but as it is, the lack of transparency leaves me unable to see any merit in the company’s business plan. Indeed, it bothers me more that even such a superficial analysis can turn up this many factual inconsistencies. In a hierarchy where those higher up are responsible for those below them, we see a clear and glaring need for accountability – both on the part of the company and the merchants who catalyzed the transactions. It may very well be no fault of individuals, but when it comes to the crunch, everyone gets hit at the same time. Being accountable for one’s bigger clients who sank more into this plan might turn out to be harder than just saying, “Well, you chose to take the risk – now you bear the cost”, especially when more often than not, close friends and family make up our first client pool. Trust, once lost, loathes returning.

I once heard this argument: “How can this be a scam? If the company really has the money to pay so many people to come here and act, company must be quite rich!”

To this, I now reply: “Not necessarily, as long as these actors BELIEVE they’re being paid.”

Together in electric dreams

Philip Oakey and Giorgio Moroder

I only knew you for a while
I never saw your smile
Till it was time to go
Time to go away (time to go away)

Sometimes its hard to recognize
Love comes as a surprise
And its too late
It's just to late to stay (to late to stay)

[Chorus]
We'll always be together
However far it seems (love never ends)
We'll always be together
Together in electric dreams

Because the friendship that you gave
Has taught me to be brave
No matter where I go
I'll never find a better prize (find a better prize)

Though your miles and miles away
I see you everyday
I don't have to try
I just close my eyes
I close my eyes

We'll always be together
However far it seems (love never ends)
We'll always be together
Together in electric dreams


so amazingly.. sweet.. haha time to go away.. i guess we don't always have the privilege to see the people who've gone once they've left our lives, not even in electric dreams..

PASSED!

the word says it all. i'm driving to school for uni. and back. lifts for people who live near my area only :p petrol isn't free, seriously.

sadly, xiaohui qualifies. HAHA

the better end of the deal

so, in a stroke of what appears to be a good deal, in that i had to pay a reasonably small cost for a immeasurably larger benefit, i fell sick with a 38.4 deg fever sunday night, round about 1900 hours. for a small price of discomfort, extreme fatigue and the need to wake up every 6 hours to swallow pills, i got myself 2 days of MC.

and no regular two days, these past two were. washing ovm on friday (escaped with a smart decision to take the whole day off for a 100min session of driving), and extreme cleaning yesterday and today - granted by the 2 day mc I got. oh, the other end of my bargain i'll have to fulfill probably goes somewhere along the lines of buying food for them but then again, i'll find my own benefits from that :)

that aside, i now declare myself a proud (and equally deprived) owner of a Sony Ericsson k810i cybershot phone - armed with a 3.2 megapixel camera, everything a REAL cybershot can do (including the slide down lens cover heh), with phone functions, minus the auto-shaking that zhenghong's does. no, really. and it's least because of the image stabilizer function. REAL cybershots don't shake automatically so that the stabilizer's abilities can be er, manifested.

sadly, i shall have to revert to my puny (yes it's relatively smaller, ironically) nokia 1100. i shan't hide my distaste for nokia phones, really. they're horrendous. that being said, it's the only reason i'm using a nokia phone in camp. how can any decent phone be dignified by the number of times its brought outfield, especially in the pocket of a scout TC? utterly undignifying, treatment deserved only by a nokia phone. well, that counter down there counts down to ORD, and also the days from which i can use my lovely new phone full-time.

had the time to run through my song collection these few days since mc, or militarily speaking, attend c, doesn't allow me out of my home except for visits to the doctor and as i've recently discovered, meals. not that i mind - home is a nice place to be :) digging through a collection of incriminating file size inadvertently leads to me stumbling over certain tracks that haunt figments of my memory - some, sadly, i'd rather not recall. it's just this strange association that takes place, especially when i flood myself with certain songs at some points in my past that were pretty much inundated with extreme emotion or stress or whatever. pre a-levels, for example, was haunted by Aerosmith (thanks to the CD i had playing in my discman all the time we were mugging in the Hub), Iron Maiden (thanks, more, to eric and "Rainmaker" heh).

Oh, jolly, guess what's playing now. Angel by Aerosmith. Lyrics are the kinda things i'd really want to say but i guess it's not really relevant at this point in time.

Don't know what I'm gonna do about this feeling inside
Guess it's true - loneliness took me for a ride
Without your love, I'm nothing but a beggar
Without your love, a dog without a bone
What can I do, I'm sleeping in this bed alone

I shan't dwell, lest this ramble turns into a lyric post. yes, i do realize this is very much a ramble. heck it la, seriously.

I suspect my depravity is something i'll have to pay for one day. hmm..

NOT surreal.

it's a common thing, when milestones are passed, for people to start remarking "i can't believe it's over", "it's so surreal", "whoa, it's finally passed.. so fast.."?

NOT THIS TIME.

it's over. the outfield to end all outfields. trust me, i won't be there for reservist outfields. i will find 10 million reasons for me to stay in a tonner, tentage, bunk - anywhere but tvma. in reservist, i will be CPL - trooper, no responsibility, no obligation.

just like ben and yao guo :D

so now that it's passed, we count to the inevitable end. 112 days away as of date of typing, a day that cannot, will not be changed. sunday, the 4th of november 2007, will end the stasis of my life. enlistment day feels just like yesterday, and everything in between seems (rather, is) like some meaningless blur of time's passage. honestly, i can't even recall what we did on mission 2 (not without a significant amount of effort at least).

so, gentlemen, i'm now here to collect my off, clear them and screw off (as in, "Screw off" not screw -> off). get my pink ic back and that's the end of 1yr 10 months (of wastage, learning the unorthodox skills of life, getting our minds twisted and corrupted big time, becoming the scum of the battallion.. yea, what a meaningful time i'd say).

so yes, not surreal, no "i can't believe it", no "wah, so fast..".

of course i believe atec's over, of course i believe ord's coming, of course it's not "SO FAST". please, it's been too long. WAY TOO LONG.

Wei Xun says:
he's king of deaths man
Eugene; ORD LOH! 113 and counting. says:
wad he didn't just die ONCE?
Wei Xun says:
2 times in 1st mission 1 time in 2nd mission
Eugene; ORD LOH! 113 and counting. says:
wah shit
Eugene; ORD LOH! 113 and counting. says:
how to die twice?
Wei Xun says:
3rd mission they didn't get past our IDL so no chance for him to die

hmm.. i'm lucky then.. didn't die :)

Staring - straight in its face

We've come a long way - and for that, credit goes to every one of us who's survived till now. Tomorrow, we face our last outfield. (not the last physical thing for me, since i've still got SOC wth) Nonetheless, the beginning of the end is near. That adorable little counter at the bottom left of the screen says 118, and the next time i see it, it'll be 114. Maybe i should rename it to "days to end of ATEC" and relish the feeling of seeing "ORD LOH!!!" once the counter hits zero..

it's now or never. I guess CO's right, in some sense. Yea he's an army man, depending on this ATEC for the rest of his future. And he's a nice guy. So for CO, Sgt Peter, Dick, Berne, Ben and Yao Guo - Here's to performance worthy of redcon 1.

For the kick. More importantly, for the off. (this will piss sgt peter off big time but hey, the ends justify the means!)

Living Stones - Thoughts and reflections

People who know me well would probably miss out one word when asked to give a list of adjectives to describe me - religious.

Even I'd agree, with my horrendous attitude in camp (which would qualify as a working attitude, although the main difference lies in the voluntary aspect of the job - an issue we shall not touch on today) and my sinfully high frequency of sleeping in church, enthusiasm at a church event would probably be the last thing on my mind. And the sad truth is, before I got to ywca, that was possibly the only thing on my mind - to get it over and done with.

By sunday afternoon, over lunch, I was somehow hoping it'd get extended - that i'd get ONE more day, at least, at the event. Aside from the rooms being wonderful - with comfortable beds and great roommates Daniel and Jeremy - and the food decently good, I discovered a part of myself that I'd thought lost in the meaningless, repetitive time I've spent in the army. I wouldn't phrase it as rediscovering my faith, although that's just part of it. More aptly, I managed to save, in the nick of time, the last glowing embers of what used to be, and thankfully now is, that burning passion to teach, to share what I believe in.

Checking in late on friday night was, initially, a bad start to the conference. At least that's what i thought; it didn't actually affect anything, but I did miss a huge chunk of a highly entertaining session with Bro Collin Wee on Encountering God in your Inner self or something like that. Of course there was part 2 the next morning, but still, i thought it'd have been useful to have been there earlier. The night obviously didn't end with talks and going to bed - at least not for Daniel, Kelly, Michael and I. After a wild goose chase around Boat Quay for a Starbucks branch which, as it turned out, was supposed to be a Coffee Bean branch - egregious mistake courtesy of Kelly's wonderful hearing - at circular road (heard, once again, as Circuit Road - MacPherson, not Boat Quay). Confusing sentence? It's probably less than half as confusing as that night.

Eventually, we landed up at Timbre, where the 22 yr old Kelly got called back by her mom round about 12 midnight, and Michael being the gentleman he is, finished up his glass of Happy Hour beer and accompanied her back to Fort Canning Lodge, leaving Daniel and I at Timbre. Incidentally, Timbre's at the bottom of Fort Canning, but that was an irrelevant fact in Kelly's argument with her mom. Really. Bumped into Daniel's friend Rachel Tan or something, supposedly from AC, SB Combi, my year, but as always I had no idea.

So that was night 1, ending at 3am when we finally went to bed. Jeremy had just got back from his lesson plan discussion thingy (hardworking eh) with Germaine and Shermaine. No they're not sisters. So while we were pubbing, he was working. Somebody pass the award to the hardworking ex-SMI instructor, who worked under Cpt Joel and Staff Alan at the school from which I hail from. Scum school. nevermind.

Day two was relatively dry. Part two of Bro Collin's talk, followed by a session with Sister Edwina Yeow on breathing and speaking. Interesting stuff, really. She's a great presenter/speaker, and those who didn't know she was a Sister actually thought she was some drama coach. The next speaker on the agenda, sadly, was one who would have really needed Sister Edwina's session - Bernard Wee. Honestly, after the 2.5 hour session, I've still got nothing but a nebulous idea of what he wanted to convey. Sad, but true.

Thankfully the night ended on a high note (at least for me, at my table) at Coca Restaurant. Steamboat isn't exactly my cup of tea, but that night was insane. Probably because of the two bottles of wine per table allocation which resulted in Daniel and I downing most of the wine and getting rather inebriated. I actually ate crab. Let's see, at our table, there were 9 people: Andrea, Dom, Daniel, Anne, Joanne (is it?), Me, Greg, Santoso and one more person whom - with deepest apologies - I can't seem to recall. Blame it on the wine, really. 2006 wine opened in 2007 wasn't an enjoyable experience - too sharp in the beginning, too sweet after aerating.

Following that was the insane cable car ride to sentosa and back from mt faber. On board my cable car was Keenan, Daniel, Dom, Andrea, Greg and I - an insane combination which soon became an oscillating jukebox/screambox suspended on a cable. Of course, we weren't the only ones making noise. Face it, there were many others, much more significant contributors to noise pollution that night than us.

I ended my night with tao huay, concussed on my bed. Thanks to kelly who went to god knows where to buy tao huay from.

And started my morning the next day LATE. But keenan was fine with it. For dry details, refer to kelly's article in the church bulletin. Actually, i'll just footnote it after i'm done.

So, yes, it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Any day, I'd sign myself up for it again. Of course, at a discounted rate. I'll probably be involved in next yr's planning, thanks to my violent opposition tothe venue being Orchid Country Club. Honestly, imagine trying to get to Timbre from YISHUN. No way! Orange Grove road or Stevens road would be WAY better locations. Let's hope I can make it work in a better way, for all of us :)


This is kelly's article, last few paragraphs by me (if you recognize the drastic change in style :) )

Come as living stones, and let yourselves be used in building the spriritual temple, where you will serve as holy priests to offer spiritual and acceptable sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 2:5

The first ever St. Mary’s Catechists’ Conference was held at the Fort Canning Lodge YWCA. The theme “Living Stones” was chosen, emphasizing the role of the catechist in helping to build the foundation of the parish community. The main purpose was to forge stronger bonds between the catechists, to equip the catechists with classroom techniques, encounter spiritual growth and last but not least, rejuvenate, relax and have fun!

The first talk was presented by the ever zealous Brother Colin Wee, titled “Encountering God in Your Inner Self”. His talk was intriguing, elaborating on the different levels of thinking. It made us more conscious of our behaviour and the impact of our words on our youths.

A classroom presentation workshop was also conducted for the Primary and Secondary levels by Victoria Dinesh and Edwina Yeow respectively. Useful classroom skills such as voice control and specific breathing techniques were taught. Using our diaphragm, we learned how to project our voice and the correct intonation to use in order to keep our students interested. The usage of props, skits and story-telling was especially useful for the Primary level.

The second talk on “The Person of the Catechist” by Bernard Wee allowed us to reflect on who we were as catechists and why we became catechists in the first place. Sitting in groups of five, we each took turns to describe our journey towards being a catechist.

Besides self-development, we were also taught how to fully utilize the manuals. “Call to Faith” by Susana Huang was conducted for the Primary level while “Thomas Zanzig” by Bernard Wee was conducted for the Secondary level.

The concluding talk, “Stone by Stone: Building up the Youth for Ministry” by Keenan Tan was a vivacious one with the empowering aim of keeping the youth in our church. Similar to a symbiotic relationship, Keenan outlined how the Youth Ministry and the Catechetics Office could complement each other in achieving its aim in building the parish community. The sharing session with Father John Paul that followed soon after was especially fruitful as there were productive exchanges of ideas and feedback for further improvements.

Talks and workshops aside, there were no reservations when catering to our need for fun and laughter. Our stay at the YWCA Fort Canning Lodge was pleasant, to say the least – panoramic views of Orchard Road and Fort Canning Park from our rooms were treats for our eyes; Meals at the hotel were always enjoyable, with tea and light snacks provided in between talks over and above buffet breakfasts, lunches and dinners.

The second night of the conference saw the catechists treated to a fun-filled dining experience at Coca Restaurant, with no shortage of wine and delectable steamboat. Laughter and smiles were abundant as we all took the chance to sit back and relax with our fellow catechists.

Following a sumptuous dinner, we were whisked away to Mount Faber for a round trip cable car ride to Sentosa and back. The serenity of the night ride gave us an opportunity to savor the views from what could qualify as the top of the world, at least for that night. Sporadic bursts of screaming punctuated the silence as certain cable cars went by – no worries, we all got off safe and sound.

Overall, the catechists’ conference has been a rather successful one. On behalf of all the catechists and myself, I wish to take this opportunity to thank our spiritual director Father John Paul, our catechist coordinator, Agatha Cheong and our recreation coordinator, Priscilla Wee and all those who have helped out in one way or the other for dedicating their time and effort in making the conference a resounding success.

The end is near. really.

It's been a long while, this disappearance of an entire month. Yes, i'm still here, thanks to the fact that Shane doesn't bother to fix up his MT system. Then again, i might just permanently migrate here.. i dunno, seriously.. the cool domain name's too cool to give up. xquisitely non-functional heh.

so we've been through a 3d2n full troop ex, holiday in our beloved training area. and we're looking at something around a week (9 days or so) to the beginning of our final exercise. once that's over, i'll have to start worrying about how i'm supposed to pass SOC with my sad combat fitness standard. seriously, can we just not clear? i don't mind ord-ing with a soc FAIL heh. honestly, i really don't care!

the other highlight of this month, as in the month of june (rightly so, today being the last day), would probably be the catechists' conference - which i'll elaborate on in a separate entry for the convenience of people like kelly who might want to rip ideas off for her bulletin essay heh. but yea, that was 1 x good experience.

more recent events include wjn's birthday yesterday - happy bday dude, if you ever happen to stumble on this obscure corner of the www.. and the sp coy commanders cohesion at east coast park - photos on facebook :) well, cohesion's fun, but when it caused me to reach wjn's place at 11 and leave at 11.30, it's kinda lame. seriously.

finally, these sad days are ending.. the dark ages, so the speak..

once again i'll be able to bathe in hot water all the time, sleep at home every night, be able to do anything i want without always worrying about meeting some retarded timing simply because of the prospect of punishment (that is warranted only by the need to maintain a useless degree of discipline).

yes, the time is drawing near. 160 days, or rather, 159 by the end of tomorrow.

oh yes, no more guard duty, COS, and any other ridiculous "regimental" duties.. screw regimentation - the world functions based on order not dictated by people (mindless ones at that). the order, well, just happens. kinda like the invisible hand, no?

to myself: look at the bigger picture - they're not gonna keep you there for any longer than you have to be kept, which is really just 159 real days away, not even counting non working days (like the long weekend next week). it's almost over.

it ends tonight. (self reminder: play that song on that sunday night. the 4th of november 2007.)

It Ends Tonight

The All-American Rejects

Your subtleties
They strangle me
I can’t explain myself at all.
And all that wants
And all that needs
All I don’t want to need at all.

The walls start breathing
My minds unweaving
Maybe it’s best you leave me alone.
A weight is lifted
On this evening
I give the final blow.

When darkness turns to light,
It ends tonight
It ends tonight.

A falling star
Least I fall alone.
I can’t explain what you can’t explain.
Your finding things that you didn’t know
I look at you with such disdain

The walls start breathing
My minds unweaving
Maybe it’s best you leave me alone.
A weight is lifted
On this evening
I give the final blow.

[Chorus]
When darkness turns to light
It ends tonight,
It ends tonight.
Just a little insight will make this right
It’s too late to fight
It ends tonight,
It ends tonight.

Now I’m on my own side
It’s better than being on your side
It’s my fault when your blind
It’s better that I see it through your eyes

All these thoughts locked inside
Now you’re the first to know

[Chorus x2]


learnt of this song from zouli haha.. and dude, honestly, i think it's quite nice.

gst offsets

alright, i'm not complaining about free money. okay, maybe it aint' free per se, but it's not something we worked for. just something we deserve. you're raising our taxes dude, and it's so clearly regressive.. esp for poor nsfs like us.. imagine everything now costs 2% more..

how does it help i can't figure out.. if the average cost of living inflates, shouldn't wages inflate as well? after all, theoretically, people will be willing to work only if offered more wages.. agreed, we dont' have a superpowerful union, but the labor market is still, well, a market..

so we're not gonna just get poorer like this, are we? we are elastic!!! i hope.. :s

american idol

berne made it to the finals :D

don't know who? wait for a time when i can get my hands on berne's photos on friendster plus jordin's photo - a little photoshopping should reveal the similarities.

bad positioning

this is bigoted, i admit. after all, the stylesheet was made for a 1280 x 840 resolution.. but it's okay, just in case you're looking at a very screwed up scatter of div tags, i'll have it fixed up when i get home.

the flu isn't going away, and to give zhikai due credit, it's "zhikai's fucking virus", not "sherwin's". sorry for that dude :)

stand down

bad news aside, though, here's a consolation.

if i'm not wrong, 46 SAR's taking over the ABTF standby and we're standing down.

HELLO OVERSEAS TRIPS ONCE MORE! :D

When darkness turns to light, it ends tonight; it ends tonight.

so does the abtf standby.

A sad move, really

So while shane's hard at work fixing up the MT blog, i've taken the liberty to duplicate (quite badly, i'd admit) that layout here.. it's hard to do, really, especially when i've got no idea at all (okay, maybe some, now that it's already done) how the corresponding tags in blogger function.

then again, it just takes time, no?

anyway, here's something that's well, just for fun :)

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