分享 - 当我老了

早上在 电台听到了这篇文章，觉得很有意思，想跟大家分享。配上蔡淳佳的"陪我看日出",相当的感人.有时在忙碌中会遗忘父母曾给与我们的关怀与照顾.

[youtube]hTfj8LSTCVo[/youtube]

当我老了

当我老了，不再是原来的我.请理解我，对我有一点耐心。

当我把菜汤洒在自己衣服上时，当我忘记怎样系鞋带时，请想一想当初我是如何手把手地教你。

当我一遍又一遍地重复你早已听腻的话语时，请耐心地听我说，不要打断我。你小的时候，我不得不重复那个讲过千百遍的故事，直到你进入梦乡。

当我需要你帮我洗澡时，请不要责备我。还记得小时候我千方百计哄你洗澡的情形吗？

当我对新科技和新事物不知所措时，请不要嘲笑我。想一想当初我怎样耐心地回答你的每一个“为什么”。

当我由于双腿疲劳而无法行走时，请伸出你年轻有力的手搀扶我。就像你小时候学习走路时，我扶你那样。

当我忽然忘记我们谈话的主题，请给我一些时间让我回想。其实对我来说，谈论什么并不重要，只要你能在一旁听我说，我就很满足。

当你看着老去的我，请不要悲伤。理解我，支持我，就像你刚开始学习如何面对生活时我对你那样。当初我引导你走上人生路，如今请陪伴我走完最后的路。给我你的爱和耐心，我会报以感激的微笑，这微笑中凝结着我对你无限的爱。

摘自《参考消息》

SingTel mio TV promotion - not signing up after all

A few weeks ago, a SingTel mio TV promoter came to my place and told me I was eligible for a SingTel's mio TV promotion as I was a mio plan user. After he told me the benefits of the promotion, I proceeded to sign up. I distinctively remember that it was a six month free trial, but I had to subscribe to at least one channel. To me, that means I don't have to fork out a single cent for it, right?

First problem - loss of DSL signal from my modem/router

On the day of the installation, the tech guy came down to do the set up, but he noticed I has lost my connection. After checking with his colleague and some testing of the phone-line, he concluded that there was a misconfiguration at the back-end for the mio TV. This resulted in the loss of the DSL signal. He wrote down some stuff about the failed installation and ensured me I won't be charged for the follow-up installation as it's not my fault. He also told me the connection would be back up within the day and gave me a number to call in case it didn't .

As it turned out, the connected failed to resume and the no one picked up the number. The following day, I called again and was told to call the mio hotline. Conveniently, it was Sunday and there was no one to service me. The next day, I called up the hotline again and was told to call the mio TV hotline. The tech support wanted to step me through the troubleshooting process but I was at work. By the time I got home, I was finally reconnected.

Installation date - no arrangement

I was told that someone would contact me to arrange another date for installation. I waited a few days but no one contacted me. In the end, I called up the hotline again and asked them about it. I also told them I was disconnected for 3 days and was seeking some form of compensation. So after an exchange, I thought my problem was noted and waited for a reply. But there was none.

Checking for date of installation once more

After a few days, I called the hotline again and told them my problem once more. For some reason, the CSO told me they don't have a record of my previous call and was unaware of my problem. But she did finally manage to get someone from the installation team to contact me. That was after I found out it's not entirely free after all.

What kind of free are we talking about?

I was browsing through the hardwarezone forums when I came across the following exchange.

nWo:

Hi guys,

I tried to access the MIO webpage, but I had to fill up the information and select the channels? Seems to be that it will bill me for the full amount.

Will it be a free trial offer as you guys are having?

alanchia67:

you may have misunderstood the offer. the miotv promo is that they will not enforce the minimal billing amount. if you get miotv without DVR (digital video recording) and no pay-channel, it will be free.

I called up the CSO and she confirmed that the promotion is the waiver of the minimum charge for 6 months and some additional discount for mio plan users. What kind of "free" is that? I promptly told her I do not want mio TV after all. I hope I will get my compensation for 3 days of loss connectivity.

Some things to note when upgrading to WordPress 2.3

Was upgrading to WP 2.3, got the following error message during the course of upgrading.

Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 8388608 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 46080 bytes) in XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX/xxx.php on line 68

The solution is provided by riteshTilve here.

To quote him:

In cache.php, add the following code at the top in line 2 just after "<?php" :

ini_set("memory_limit","12M");

If even then it fails, try increasing the 12M to 20M.
After the upgrade runs successfully, you may remove that line or keep as it as you wish.

After that was solved, I tried to post something, but realized that the visual rich editor was missing. That is an easier problem to solve. Just hit the F5 key to refresh, and it should appear :)

The tricky thing is, somehow WordPress decided to delete my last post on CPF changes. It's a really weird bug, so I had to somehow recover it. I could grab it from a backup of the database before I updated WordPress. But I decided to use Google to try and retrieve a cached copy as it's faster. Thankfully it can be found there. So I copied the post in it's entirety and made some quick edits. Now it's back online again.

$20,000 requirement on CPF OA

(Reposted as WP somehow deleted it.....)

I’ve read the Sunday Times piece on 7th Oct 2007, “Taking a closer look at the growth of unit trusts”, with great interest, because I’m concerned with the impact the latest changes to CPF will have on my funds bought under the CPF Investment Scheme (CPFIS).

There will be a minimum requirement of $20,000 on the Ordinary Account (OA) before you can use money from the OA for investment, so if you have $25,000 in the OA, you can use only $5000 for investment. It seems that the changes will take effect in April 2008.

I’m a little dismayed by this development, because my financial advisor has helped me come up with a portfolio that’s beating 2.5% by a mile. Even with the additional 1% on OA interest that is part of the CPF changes, I’m still getting much better returns on my portfolio than from CPF. There is a lot of talk about the risk-free nature of CPF returns, how the government guarantees it and no one else can make such claims.

Risks besides loss of capital

Yes it is risk-free returns, but are there other risks besides potential loss of captial? I think so. To me, there is a potential loss of opportunities. I’ve randomly selected some bond funds from fundsupermart:

ABN AMRO Star Asia Bond
AIGIF Singapore Bond Fund
Franklin Templeton F-Global Bond Fund
Henderson Global Bond Fund - Class A Units
ING Singapore Dollar Bond Fd
Schroder Asian Premium Bond Fund
UOB United International Bond Fd
UOB Optimix Asian Bond

I looked at their performance for the last 10 years, and all of them beat 3.5% with the exception of Schroder Asian Premium Bond Fund which has been established for less than a year I think. This is just a quick-and-dirty look, let’s see what the Sunday Times report says:

How CPFIS funds have done

    THE Sunday Times commissioned fund data house Morningstar Asia to assess the performance of CPFIS-approved unit trusts over a 10-year period up to the end of June this year. Note that the table provided does not reflect when a fund joined CPFIS. Its track record might range from three to 10 years, but it may have joined the scheme two years ago, for example.

Of the 53 funds with a 10-year history, 43 grew over 5 per cent every year in the period studied. Of the 156 funds with a five-year history, 128 beat this growth. In the three years to June 30, 145 funds out of 185 have managed at least a 5 per cent annual return.

While underperforming funds tend to be excluded from the CPFIS, it seems clear that, in absolute numbers, more funds have beaten the annual 5 per cent returns in recent years.

My point is that it is risk-free returns, but there are other opportunities lost as well, especially when so many of them have beaten the annual 5% returns rate.

Different minimum requirement based on age

It’ll take me some time before I can invest again, once the new changes kick in. What I cannot understand is why can’t they have some sort of tiered system where you have different minimum OA requirements based on age. For example, let’s say you’re 20-29 years old, you need to have $10,000 in the OA, anything above that you can invest. If you’re 30-39, you need to have $20,000, or something like that.

The article, “Taking a closer look at the growth of unit trusts”, is reproduced on:

ChannelNewsAsia Forums

Alvin Soong

Cheer Chen 陈绮贞 - [ A Piece of Summer 2007 Singapore ]

好不容易等到了这一天,二零零七九月二十九,一个难忘的夜晚.音乐才女陈绮贞在新加坡Expo, Max Pavilion,举行的一场大型售票演唱会!我还记得,她曾经来过新加坡,和陈升一起.那时错过了,感觉很可惜,所以告诉自己不要浪费这一次的机会.我一向很欣赏她,总觉得她在音乐创作上很有自己的想法,而且嗓音很独特甜美.最大的加分点是她是个很棒的吉他手!所以我对她情有独钟.

倒数八点十五

约了朋友的朋友做伴,入席时是七点半.我们坐在右边前方,察看四周,人群相当稀疏.难道喜欢陈绮贞的新加坡朋友那么少吗?朋友说,她在台湾演唱会的票一小时就卖光了,我听了吓了一跳.在两地的人气有那么大的落差吗?我的担心是多余的,可能是国人的迟到习惯在作祟,仁然有人在演唱会指定开幕的时间从入口进来. 十五分钟后,现场几乎爆满,大荧幕上也计时倒数.五,四,三,二,一. A Piece of Summer, 引爆!

嫦娥绮贞

四周黑暗,台前的白幕后,一道光照出一个人影.这道光形成了圆形,像足了月亮,月里的人更像是月宫中的嫦娥.嫦娥正拿着一把吉他.尖叫声四起,只因今夜嫦娥就是绮贞.白幕落下,弦声响起,她头戴花圈,身穿白色长裙,唱起了一首我不熟悉的歌曲.这是"九份的咖啡店"吗?这是收录在已绝版的"Demo3"的歌,而"Demo"系列正是我收集中的缺憾.但能够听到这首歌在现场演唱,也算难得.


振奋人心的曲目

鼓手槌起了浑厚低沉的鼓, 槌的不只是鼓,也包括了观众的心.手风琴弹出悠悠的欧式风情.在这样的配乐下,绮贞弹唱了"就算全世界与我为敌","小尘埃",及其它优美的歌曲.但让观众情绪高涨的是电子吉他带动的"Sentimental Kills","华丽的冒险".观众都站起来随着节奏拍手,甩荧光棒,有一群蜂拥到台下,还有很多站在椅子上.


零距离的接触

当绮贞唱着"女明星"走进人群中,观众骚动了起来,纷纷往走廊上挤,为了要跟她牵手打招呼,做零距离的接触.坐在走廊旁的朋友真走运!无缘的我只能在旁迟迟的望着...


经典的绮贞

我想我还是最喜欢她经典的歌曲." 告诉我","让我想一想","还是会寂寞",虽然已不新了,但依然那么的清新悦耳.而我相信,这也是许多人的想法,是这些歌让我们认识了她.当我看到不论是十来岁的少女或是三四十岁的中年人不止懂得唱,而且还很投入得唱,我再次的确认了这一点.



五个Encore仍意犹未尽

观众的热情与表演者的不舍,把我所讨厌的结束往后挪,虽无法避免,但能多看她一眼,多听一首歌,我就觉得开心.所以我很感谢那些头戴安全帽的可爱家伙,他们猛喊"encore",带动我们也跟着喊,收获竟然是五个"encore"!其中包括我正在学弹的"太聪明".一首"微凉的你"为这个微妙的音乐会画上了美丽的休止符. 她说,她毫无保留的献给了我们.她的诚意, 我们感受到了.


看了演唱会后,让我了解到了不单是旅行的意义,还包括了安全帽的意义...哈哈!Special thanks to fellow Cheer fans slowstatic, Greenstone, and beast78 from Hardwarezone for allowing me to use their pictures :)

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呵呵 - A helmet-wearer!

难忘夏姿 - 陈绮贞A Piece of Summer演唱会