She saw this while exploring the city, then decided to take a picture and show it to me. how cool! i have my own street! thank u*

the closest i get to this in singapore is jervois road in tanglin area, which u could probably argue is my name in french. imagine my mails if i lived there:

To: Jervis Chia

6 Jervois Road

Singapore 24899.

HAHA!

One of dad’s parting words were, “…you got to be true to yourself. don’t let what people think of you restrict what you want to do in life, because at the end of the day, what really matters is whether you followed your heart and were true to yourself.”

well, i’m guess he was true to himself and i’m glad for him. it’s not an easy thing to accomplish.

it’s been awhile, and i haven’t really figured out what being true to myself really means. does it mean i don’t do things just because everyone else is doing it? cos i don’t. i never did. i know exactly what i want and that’s it. who cares what the rest of the world thinks?

when i was in primary sch, i remember buying a Camel long sleeve tshirt from OG Departmental Store that said “One life. Live it.” Some time later, that turned out to be M1’s slogan. (haha!) we never know for sure how long we’re gonna live, but i believe most ppl assume that they’re gonna make it past graduation, past their wedding ceremony, have a couple of kids or a small family at least, past mid life crisis and retirement… and that’s the problem with most of us. we assume that our lives will not be short. if i were to tell u right now that you have 6 months left to live, how different would you be living your life?

6 months. that’s it.

think about it, cos about a year ago that’s exactly what my father was told and that was all he had.

One life. Live it.

The story I wanna share today is called The John & Mary Example.

John was a single guy, and because he was single he could afford to save $1000 every year. Mary on the other hand, was cash-strapped because she didn’t have a boyfriend, and she had to pay for all her meals and movie tickets and stuff. (HAHA!) Therefore Mary couldn’t save a single cent when she was younger.

This went on for 5 years, John managed to save $1000 a year and Mary saving nothing.

Then one beautiful summer afternoon, John met Mary and they started dating. They were 25 years old. John was a gentleman, and he paid for all their dates. Subsequently, John couldn’t save a single cent, and Mary managed to save 1000 bucks a year.

10 years later, John proposed to Mary and they got married. They took a peek into their accounts to see what they could afford for their honeymoon.

Remember: John saved a total of $5000. Mary put in a total of $9000. Assume they managed to achieve 10% returns on their money every year.

Guess who had more money?

Link: Cashflow Working

Amazing isn’t it?

John was richer than Mary despite putting aside far less money. This is the beauty of compound interest. It’s simple math that reminds us of the power that compound interest has on our money.

All we need is savings and time. The more we save, and the earlier we start doing so, the bigger our money will grow.

Vincent Tjota has this beautiful music player, and he wants to let it go for $345.

In a nutshell:

Brand new, unopened box.

80GB (20,000 songs)

2.5-inch color display
4.9 ounces (140 grams)
2.4 x 4.1 x .41 inches
(103.5 x 61.8 x 10.5mm)

Leave a message if u’re interested.

Amongst a whole lot of other things, i am addicted to finance.

I would rather spend my entire night working on fundamental and technical analysis of equities than watching prison break or top gear. I want to master financial modeling, FA/TA; i want to learn economics and understand better how countries’ economies link up and affect each other. I’m hungry for knowledge and my appetite is insatiable.

Xinhong once said, our output is only as good as our input. What wise words! We have to constantly expand our knowledge. We need to make sure we digest and master the material we read, and perfect through practice our skills and talent. Karen Gan (my Financial Instruments, Institutions and Markets prof, whom i love to bits) says the best way to learn is to put in our own words the concepts we read in the textbook. In that way, we will be able to better understand the stuff we read.

I love Tiger Woods. His success was founded on his mantra of turning his weaknesses into strengths.

I am 6 weeks into my school term and I am taking only 4 classes this term. I suck at all of my classes because i haven’t been able to focus at all in classes.It’s been hard because I miss my dad all the time. He passed away on 4th January this year from pancreatic cancer. I remember sitting by his side as I held his hand and watched him take his last breath in his sleep. It was about 5am that morning, and it was the longest night of my life. Rest in peace, dad.

Anyhow, I really have to start catching up on my work. I need to start from week 1’s material and bring myself up to speed. I give myself 3 weeks to do this. By the end of my mid term break, I will be at the top of my game again. I need to focus on being the best I can be so that I can add value to the lives of the people around me. God help me.

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Of all the sins that hurt God’s feelings, lying is the worst of all.

In big ways and small ways, lying eats away the heart God gave us and leaves us empty and sad.

If we are going to be happy and go to heaven, we have to tell the truth.

Sometimes we convince ourselves that we have no choice but to lie. First we lie to ourselves, and then to people.

Sometimes all we really have to do is ask ourselves: Is that what God would have done?

Editorial Review

In 2005, James Blunt was everybody’s favorite overnight success story.

In 2007, he’s the guy who’s making rock meaningful again.

All the Lost Souls, the sophomore effort from the Brit responsible for restoring the seriousness of “beautiful” as a compliment, brims with big build-ups, epic-sounding ballads, and lyrics to lose yourself in. The vibe, laid out neatly on first single and opening track “1973,” is clear-eyed and heavy-hearted; in anybody over 35, it’ll produce nostalgia tempered by hopefulness–here’s a set that suggests rock has got its head screwed on straight again, that the path to real feelings need not necessarily be led by Norah Jones. In anybody younger, it’ll cause the unsinkable suspicion that a lot of modern balladeers should be digging deeper. But in both cases it will satisfy.

Compared with David Gray and Damien Rice last time out, this time Blunt seems to owe a debt to Barry Gibb–his voice quavers as sweetly and with the same delicate reach. Stand-outs on a brief but dud-less set include “I Really Want You,” in which the sound of Blunt’s breaking heart is set sparely and elegantly to something approximating the chirp of a cricket, the poignant and desperate “Give Me Some Love”, and the VH-1 ready “Same Mistakes.” -Tammy La Gorce

source: amazon.com

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Yes daniel, it takes time.