After a week of working I started getting used to it; and in fact I started liking it. This is probably the trend when you start getting acquainted with the people at work and then you don’t mind helping them anymore. I experienced this while in National Service as well. Unfortunately I know the next step too well; you start getting to know people a bit too much and they are no longer that courteous to you and start making you the scapegoat for their mistakes. This next stage doesn’t set in all the time; usually if you maintain your integrity, stay as a great worker, it might never come in. For me, it set in really late during National Service. It was by a certain time when I started diverting energies back into the real world that I realised work feels crappy when it is done in camp.
So when I started out at work, I kept comparing it with the kind of life I had in camp and it becomes rather miserable. Then as life moves on, you discover that there’s something new you learn everyday and when you talk to people and learn about their lives, about their history and each individual’s purposes, you think there’s so much more to the work then what you have been dealing with and in most cases, you can actually find out. You can work on and fulfill your purpose and also that of others. You can commit yourself to a vision someone has shared with you, or you can be inspired to create your own and move ahead with it.
And soon enough, life is going to be pretty exciting for you.
My Jetstream pen costs me $1.85 and the refill costs $1.75. My question: should I be getting a refill or a new pen? I ponder over such questions frequently, often wondering if what we normally consider good value bundles or stuff that are ‘worth the price’ are truly good purchases. I figured out that we need to think about the value the goods offer us. If something offers zero value and yet comes at a cost, it is not wise to make the purchase at all. This is especially true for bundles. For example, I am offered to buy 100 Lipton Tea Bags at $7 and the package comes with a free mug. Should I take it up if I need the 100 Tea Bags but the mug would only take up extra space in my house without being used at all and 50 Tea Bags comes at a price of $3?
Basic math and cost-benefit analysis suggests that if I value the cup at more than $1 then I should buy the package. Unfortunately, most people would just consider ‘When would I get another opportunity to get a Lipton limited edition mug for $1?’ It is obviously the wrong question to ask. And that’s why I opt to get the refill. While I know that the pen casing with the spring and the clicking mechanism in the Jetstream pen probably cost more than 10 cents or comes close to being around 10 cents, it is a question of how much I value it. Since I can’t use the pen casing without a refill it’s value is zero and so I’d rather buy a refill that helps save me 10 cents.
Writer at ERPZ. Writer for Insights. Economics Tutor. Maths Tutor. Admin Support and Sales at a small firm. Learning Driver. IT Saikang Warrior for Alumni.
To think that for a time I thought I’m going to be very free. Well, to have time to blog this entry is probably good enough…
Just a couple of days back I got the chance to stroll down Orchard Road and realised how much have changed. I’ve been to ION Orchard a couple of times already so it’s really nothing but I haven’t got to walk down to look at what comes after Ngee Ann City that was newly completed. I walked through the Mandarin Gallery, 313@Somerset, and Orchard Central.
Most of these malls are very standard. An Apple retail outlet seem like a must-have in these malls and they’ll have a big jewelery boutique and high-fashion (usually Forever 21 or Zara) sort of shop in the ground floor. They’d have fast food, maybe more of Burger King and Long John Silvers, both of which are more high class sort of fast food rather than the standard KFC and McDonald’s. They’d have a cafe too, Coffee Bean or Starbucks in addition to a whole spate of other small eating places in the basement areas. Most would have a CD/Music shop somewhere on the higher levels too.
As we shop around places we complain that every mall offers somewhat the same things but then it is seeing familiar stuff that comforts us when we are overseas. More often than not in Singapore different places are just different configurations of the same old stuff. There’s this tension between the search for novelty and the fear of the unknown and the mall designers and developers will all have to work to balance these forces in the minds of their patrons. Tapping on popular brands help draw the usual crowd that makes the malls less cold to those genuine customers even if the rest of the crowd spends little money. While it is the big names that establishes the mall in the minds of the people, it is actually the small unique shops that defines them.
Seriously, when you’re the Full-Time National Servicemen you think about going ‘out there’ to work and complain about the lack of freedom, the alienation, the pile of self-created workload and stuff like that. A word for you NSFs from someone who ORDed, the outside world is the same. Or to say the very least, it isn’t any better. Sure enough you get to go home after work but the traveling makes you tired; you get to choose what you want to eat during lunch but more often than not you just eat the few lousy food choices you have (some of them made lousy by the frequency by which you eat them); you get to go out and do all sorts of stuff like eat supper, buy whatever you want, go shopping but all that is going to happen only on weekends because you’re going to be tired from work.
Civilian life subjects you to more forces of circumstances, that’s all. Those in camp, rejoice!
When packing, I try my best to rid myself of nostalgia attached to the items I uncover from my room. I make use of the leanest guidelines you’ve ever seen for treatment of the items:
First I ask myself if I’m going to use it or need it any time in the future at all. Yes for stuff like my books and notes and No for stuff like under-sized or over-sized clothing and kiddish toys. Next I ask myself if there’s anyone I’ve in mind who would need or want the stuff I don’t. If yes, I’ll set it aside to be given away or else I’d dispose them.
Utilitarianism is good for packing stuff.
After the 100-day self-imposed Coffee Ban, I’m back to drinking coffee. I’m not entirely very keen on getting back into drinking coffee and after tasting it once again, I’m not particularly impressed. I’m not sure if it’s because of expectations. Nevertheless, I’d still enjoy sipping on 3-in-1 coffee that’s made from boiling hot water (which can really make a huge difference to the taste of the coffee) and munching on Wife Cakes (老婆饼) from good bakeries (Hang Heung from Hong Kong is good; so are the ones from Crystal Jade).
Having all these while reading a good book back at home would be heavenly.
