Here's My Story

Everyone is impatiently awaiting the details but it's not the devil that's in the details, it's all of hell. - Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Europe's long-awaited master plan to fix the eurozone debt crisis

Psychology is often the bearer of the "bad tidings" that comfortable folks belief do not stand up to the cold light of day. Perhaps it is not surprising that many people would like not only to ignore the message but also to do away with the messenger. - Keith E. Stanovich in the book "How To Think Straight About Psychology"

For those who are thinking hard about whether they are gay or not, my advice is to look out for any telltale signs in the past. For example, if you regularly find yourself in situations where your friends remark aloud, "Oh wow, look at that hot chick across the street." while at the same time, you silently thought, "Omg, look at that gorgeous guy next to her.", then please seriously (re)consider your (homo)sexuality.

Here's an update of historical average dividend yields of shares I own: Please note there's a change to the calculation method compared to that in my previous post : 1) Dividend yield = dividend amount / cost of shares (2) Annualised dividend yield = sum of dividend yields pro-rated to a year

It's been an 'exciting' (read: nerve-wrecking) period these few months. Share markets globally plunged, eked out some gains and then plunged again. Rinse and repeat. I took the opportunity to add some shares to my modest portfolio: (1) Boustead Singapore Limited. Although I did some cursory research about the company, chiefly about its operations, geographical reach and its profitability, I admit that I rely quite heavily on someone else's analysis. I like the business strategy, its diversified nature and, of course, its past performance. While keeping the amount invested in this company low, I'll keep an eye on any news and analysis of the company (2) CapitaRetailChina Trust: I've always wanted to invest in REIT that owns good shopping malls. Problem is that I am only familiar with malls in Singapore. After speaking with some friends who just recently moved from China, after years living there, I decided to invest a nominal sum in this trust. So far, R...

Please don't install this programme. Why? It's a pain to uninstall it. Firstly, it doesn't have a folder in the programme list for you to open and select 'Uninstall'. Secondly, if you try to uninstall it via 'Control Panel', it would appear to have been uninstalled instantly but it is still there. Even if you choose not to install it, there have been reports that it would still be installed (what the?!). Where on earth did it come from? It rides on Skype. There's a detailed account of how to manually uninstall it here . However, I find it difficult to (1) discern the corresponding jargon for Vista (the instruction is for XP) and (2) to find the specific items (likely due to the overprotectie nature of Vista). I tried using the removal application by the game publisher but I when I executed it, nothing happen. Later, I got it to work but running it as administrator (damn Vista!).

Ban regularly teases me for putting up all my car's windshield wipers, especially the back, by saying that other drivers find that strange and so purposely try to park close to my car :) Well, I'm not the only one: I also notice that the car has shades up at the front side of the car (but not back), similar to how I handle mine.

It's right for the mantle of rule to be heavy, Richard, but you can't let it crush you. - Kahlan Amnell to Richard Rahl/Cypher in the book "Blood of the Fold" of the "The Sword of Truth" series

Someone on my gtalk friend's list had the status "Studying for exam". So naturally, I asked him what exam it was. Shockingly, he reacted in a angry manner, lamenting why people kept asking him that. Duh. Another time, a friend's status indicated she had some problems. I was concern and so asked her about it. I was reprimanded for being a busybody. Duh. It's unpleasant and grossly unfair to be angry with people who are concerned about you. If you don't wish people to ask you about your status update, don't display them at all. Keep it private.

On my recent trip to Singapore, I took the opportunity to come out to a rather good friend, whom I befriended during my university days. He was someone I used to have a crush on but thankfully I moved on. In fact, at one point, he did suspect but I denied it at that time. I wanted him to meet Ban and so I came out to him over the phone. Remarkably and thankfully he took it extremely well: "Of course I'm ok with it. You're my good friend." Due to the sheer amount of news we exchanged, I totally forgot to ask him whether he had any questions to ask me pertaining to my homosexuality. Oh well, perhaps next time.