Barack Obama

This part from Obama's acceptance speech at the Democratic Convention, moved me to tears.

"We measure the strength of our economy not by the number of billionaires we have or the profits of the Fortune 500," he said, "but by whether someone with a good idea can take a risk and start a business, or whether the waitress who lives on tips can take a day off to look after a sick kid without losing her job — an economy that honors the dignity of work."

How true! Obama for President!

中国国歌

Its really quite inspirational the Chinese national anthem. You can listen to it here.



I have also copied the lyrics here with an English translation too.

起来！ 不愿做奴隶的人们！
把我们的血肉，筑成我们新的长城！
中华民族到了最危险的时候
毎个人被迫着发出最后的吼声

起来！ 起来！ 起来！

我们万众一心，
冒着敌人的炮火，前进！
冒着敌人的炮火，前进！

前进！ 前进！ 进！

Arise, ye who refuse to be slaves!
With our flesh and blood, let us build our new Great Wall!
The Chinese nation faces its greatest danger.
From each one the urgent call for action comes forth.
Arise! Arise! Arise!
Millions with but one heart,
Braving the enemy's fire.
March on!
Braving the enemy's fire.
March on! March on! March on!

Foreign Immigrants

i know this topic has been beaten to death in recent days by the local press but let me wade in a little.

specifically lets talk about Singapore's table tennis team. And the local reaction to their silver medal winning effort.

make no mistake, Singapore IS a country of immigrants. But of course. So is China actually, for the Chinese are migrants from Ethiopia too. Some 325,000 years ago of course. Obviously I recognize that immigration has been a trend, and most nations are formed by that. foreign talents help supplement the existing population and enhances its capabilities. thats fine.

But i think there is a huge difference between supplementing talent, and whole sale import of players! The ENTIRE team in Singapore is made up of Chinese talents specifically picked to only play table tennis. That is bordering on ridicule.

I also recognize too that many other countries are also embracing foreign talents in sports. there is a difference though, between specifically INCENTIVIZING foreign talents to join a country using monetary rewards, versus the athlete CHOOSING to defect or migrate a nation on his / her free will without any incentives. THAT, is a big big difference.

What I find objectionable to Singapore's intentions, is that the authorities deliberately went out to get Chinese players by paying them extra money / incentives etc. I embrace Ronald Susilo as although he is foreign born, he did not come here due to badminton but our system helped him reach his potential. Ditto for Tao Li.

But these Chinese table tennis players? Its not about their identity card colours, its about their intentions.

twisted fate

i thought i was on the cusp of something special in my life, but yet again, i guess fate has twisted itself. maybe things aren't meant to be. it was a pleasant surprise to me recently when i heard some good news, and just as i was about to really go for it and do what i wanted to do for a really long time, things changed.

and i think the way things are now, it just isn't meant to be. sigh. never mind, life goes on. maybe its a sign that it just isn't meant to be. i know this sounds really cryptic and probably nobody can make sense of it, its ok. i just venting my emotions through this faceless medium.

Regret

This is a really excellent post from Mr Wang in his blog http://mrwangsaysso.blogspot.com

Do read it. Sobering.

http://mrwangsaysso.blogspot.com/2008/07/your-career-and-other-miscellaneous.html

My friend and I were just remarking the other day, that probably what we should have done, was to do badly in our A levels, and end up in Business Admin course in NUS. We would probably be Citibank bankers now, driving Alfa Romeos.

Tennis Training Videos

Here are some videos of me training. Here in this video, I had 2 bad volleys but the last one was quite sweet, a lot of backspin to produce a nice drop volley.



In this one, you can see me hitting some groundstrokes. I did not do a good job for the last 2 forehands. Hit them off my back foot. Was a bit too tired to do good form for the strokes.

Monopoly and Real Life

So yesterday, a couple of close friends played Monopoly. We had previously played once, about 3 months ago. It was a very fun experience, partly because it had been a long while since any of us played, but also because it was extremely competitive. Yesterday's session was just as competitive and very fun.

The reason why it was very fun, was due to the very interesting dynamics at play. There were 5 or 6 of us, depending on how one looked at it. One of the players was constantly absent from the table, and made the rest of the players play his turn. He gave up any property he happened to land on, putting it up for bidding, eventually quitting the game altogether. The other 4 opponents, were actually 2 couples. I was pretty much the lone one out, which made my role important somewhat, as a potential deal breaker. All these combined with our life experiences as working professionals, made the game extremely satisfying.

I thought the outcome of the game gave some very interesting insights and lessons.

1) I realised everyone was fiercely competitive. In the format that we played, we explored very interesting payoff scenarios and deals. For example, we developed complex deal structures, whereby we were willing to give up cuts of profits, in exchange for investment in housing, or free passes, or combinations thereof. There were intricate relationship and under the table wheeling and dealing which made the payoff scenarios very interesting. It must be the RI/RGS/RJC/HCJC competitiveness that has been burnt into us.

2) Steady, interest / dividend bearing instruments, often give the absolute best return when measured over a long period. For a long time, whoever controlled the railway spots tends to enjoy the best income streams, despite not having any spectacular payoffs. This mirrors real life somewhat --> bonds and index-linked funds historically have performed well but time period must be appropriately long.

3) Leverage can kill you. Some of the more daring players among us, went for very dangerous maneuvers, borrowing from other players to build up massive properties. Highly leveraged, they hoped for that one big payoff. However, it was very much hit and miss again, and when the dice did not cooperate, their poor cash positions did them in. Side moral of the story: Buy OCBC stocks.

4) Angel investing in a diversified portfolio works. One of us in the first game, started the concept of angel investing, where although he owned no property, he kept punting others with little bits of cash, allowing them to build up property, but also negotiating for small cuts of the profits. Eventually although he held pretty much nothing, he was reaping in profits everywhere.

5) You can't beat the market. The one friend before he quit the game altogether, although he did absolutely nothing, bought no property, dealt nothing at all, was the richest guy before he quit.

I look forward to the next round of Monopoly. :)