I'm moving over to blogger at http://deobserver.blogspot.com. My reasons are as listed in the first post over there. Also I need a change. If I've added you as a friend, you'll still see the occasional "friend only" post here.

Thanks for being such wonderful readers. I'll still be following your blogs (hehe..is that a threat?) and posting in my favourite communities.

"I’m a little nervous when we apply financial terms when we’re talking about relationships." -- Kat Wilder on Return on Investment in Relationships

Mr. "Sex Me Up" wanted to know why I am still "open to other offers" so to speak when I can just utilise the "back up spouse". It's not so simple of course. There are the mental hurdles to cross (conjuring up carnal thoughts about a long time platonic friend for one) and "due diligence" to be done.

Personally I don't get why people are so jittery about it. Is it so wrong to hedge against loneliness and the cynicism that seems to come with the territory of a single 30-something (male and female)? Using financial terms to describe another situation doesn't mean one is mercenary. Any  more than guilt charges of being a "fixer upper" makes me a renovator. But hey, I'm only a bimbo, so using analogies I understand to explain something perplexing like dating and relationships makes perfect sense to me. 

Interesting post on hunting for a CEO by Bram Cohen of Bittorent fame.

"Unrelatedly, if there was any candidate who literally stood me up five times and then removed themselves from the search as if the job was theirs for the taking, I'd like to let them know that I'd already knocked them off my internal list of potential candidates after stand-up #3, because that was a strong enough hint to make me not care how godlike some people view them. Really, the nerve of some people."

Well, even for a head hunted C-level executive, that's pretty bad behaviour. No matter what your status is, common courtesy should always be extended to everybody.  

 君子怀刑，小子怀惠。君子和而不同，小认同而不和。

I wish my mother wouldn't ask troubling hypothetical questions. How would I know how I'd behave in a given scenario? I could die before her, so the caregiving in her old age mightn't fall upon me.

My grandmother was warded overnight in an "A" (first class) ward because all the "B" wards were full. My family didn't want to put her in an A ward just for overnight observation because of the extra "premium" on billing.

The Bill:
Medication - $150
"Nasal Test" - $80
"Emergency Call" to the doctor - $250
Consultation (5 minutes) - $300
(This might seem cheap to American readers, but it's not over here.)

I think my mother wants me to a marry a doctor, dentist or lawyer because we've been screwed by ridiculous consultation fees. What's not to like about $300 for a 5 minute client reassurance job after all?

Not only that, they wanted to bill for the medication my grandmother had brought in. They had simply recorded what medication she was taking and made it a billable item. When my mother confronted them with the bill, they denied any mistakes at first until she insisted on looking at the records. They then backpedalled and claimed it was just an "oversight".

They also double billed for the medication. How did that happen? The doctor wanted to hold a "discussion" in the office so my mother dutifully went. He told her that my grandmother had been playing fast and loose with her medication dosage and hadn't been monitoring her blood pressure. He suggested that my mother pick up the medication from the nurse outside right away. My mother requested for the prescription so she could buy it outside where it was probably sold for cheaper. He then told her a story (lots of melodrama here, very salesman like) about how a patient of his had not gotten his medication right away (from the doctor) and consequently died from a stroke and how his family members lived to regret it. And what a sad story that was, all because they didn't listen to the sagely doctor. Being the good daughter she was, my mother didn't want to have my grandmother's death weighing in on her conscience. So she obediently picked up the pricey medication and paid for it. Only to be slapped with the same bill item by the hospital the next day. Again, an "oversight" on their part because the accounts people don't coordinate payments with doctors. But it is hospital policy that patients must buy medication from the hospital for "best patient care".

The nasal test? They stuck a cotton bud in my grandmother's nose and took a swab while she was sleeping. Without her consent. Nor the family's. They didn't tell us about it beforehand. When questioned about it, they said it was a germ test because she'd been admitted to another hospital before. Does that mean people who walk in from outside do not have germs?

Remember, every time you receive a bill, go through every single line item. They might just make you pay for their "oversight" and their "policies". Especially if you are at a private hospital like Mount A.

My grandmother has been having heart problems lately. She was warded on Saturday night, placed under observation and released this morning. She felt sick again this evening and she's been admitted to a private hospital (public hospitals are only good for emergencies). They can't operate on her because of her other medical condition and she doesn't want to undergo surgery in any case. She doesn't look as healthy as before. And I know she's really very sick, contrary to what she says, when she's lying on the hospital bed fretting about me being too skinny (all my life, I've been too fat to her). I'm supposed to pay her a visit, but I don't know what to say or do.

"Has the nurse been good to you? Do you need a drink?"

What do you say to a person you have never really had a conversation with? To be sure, she's talked to me before, but it's always been a one sided affair. All I could do was hold her hand the last time. She's the last of my grandparents. Am I being cold and unfeeling?

For some reason, this really tickled me.

Good write up on providing good service, regardless of industry.

It's a bit weird when an ex-boyfriend whom you haven't spoken to for the past 7-8 years suddenly looks you up out of the blue. And after all those intervening years, you wonder what you saw in him to begin with.

I'm just marvelling at the ingenuity of some online companies such as Schmap Guides or Threadless. So now the concept is spreading from books (the whole Chicken Soup for the Soul series) to other items as well.

I suppose it's not entirely new. Linux, and other open source systems have been around for a while, they're all community driven, and have spawned several companies like RedHat and Platform Computing.

** I don't work for any of the companies listed.

Sydney's Shitty Rail....er...City Rail has never been a particularly pleasant experience. Scheduled trains were always being cancelled or arrived late/early. If you had to take a train from a minor station, you might have to wait up to an hour in those situations for the next train to arrive. The worst experience I've ever had was during peak hour and there were some "technical difficulties" along the rail after I boarded the train, which resulted in me being stuck between 2 stations with no escape route. That lasted for almost 2 hours which made me hungry and cranky. I got off at the subsequent (minor) station just to avoid being trapped again, which was just as well because the trains were piling up and moving very slowly. Thank God for boyfriends with cars.

Would you pay for a status symbol or something showy even if a cheaper alternative which provides the same functionality exists?

"Those who desire the milk should not seat themselves on a stool in the middle of a field in hopes that a cow would back up to them." -- Unknown Farmer

Discovered a song through Messing with Sam’s Santa Claus:


It made me think of "A" and Mr "Women Are Gold Diggers". Maybe I should send them a Christmas card with that song.

"Season's greetings! Thought of you when I found this song. Hope you'll play it when you're feeling all lonely in bed! XOXOXO" 

From Going Private:

"Think PAST the numbers. The purchase price is just one part of the story."
"No. Tell me, what is the motivation of the seller here?" "Did you read about his family?"


From Emotion comes Motivation

You can read the whole story at the original blog. It just serves to underscore that no matter what trade you are in, business is all about dealing with people. It is one of the easiest things to neglect as well as the most fatal.  

I met another guy, again through a social network site. The schools I attended weren't listed but he hazarded a very close guess based on my responses to his questions and my answers to some profile questions. His answer was rather interesting when I made him tell me how he deduced my background. 

He was quite fun to talk to on the phone, so I accepted his invitation to lunch. On hindsight, I should have picked up on certain things in our initial conversation and asked more questions even before meeting up. On the phone, he'd said that he wanted a serious relationship and was looking to "settle down" and didn't want to "play any games", so wanted to be upfront about things. That was fine with me.

We met for lunch. The conversation over lunch was a tad surreal. He mentioned that single women in their 30s were quite distinct from those in their 20s. They were less excited about getting married, usually quite (financially) independent, seemed quite cynical/jaded and were more open to casual encounters (f***buddies). He then started to talk about his sexual experience, the women he's met (and had sex with) and asked me about my sexual proclivities. I refused to go into that line of conversation. I explained that it's one of those taboo subjects only to be discussed with close friends I'm very comfortable with. He tried to press me into it. I got annoyed and was more than happy to leave by then. 

Before we parted ways, I did ask what he was looking for in a wife, just out of curiosity. He clearly hadn't thought through what he wanted. Although he did bring up a requirement (nothing to do with sex) which made it clear to me that we weren't suited at all.

He is a Singaporean Chinese male in his 30s. Are Asian men really that different from counterparts elsewhere?

One thing I learned from this: never make sexual innuendos (on a profile), even in jest. Some men might just take it the wrong way.