Woken up by a dream

Just got woken up by a dream in which I accidentally bit on something hard and broke my tooth.


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Last visit from our part-time cleaner

Today is the last time our part-time cleaner for the past twelve years come to help us with our housekeeping. We learned that she is also going to quit her waitress job. I hope the family does not fall into financial hardship as a result. Usually we give her a bonus near to CNY. We are advancing that this time.

Don't want to let on too much here, but always remember the poor have worries the rest of us just cannot imagine. Stand side by side with them, I can assure you they look at the world completely differently from you.

Europe vs USA

An experiment of contrast is under way between the Europeans and Americans. The Europeans are adopting an austerity strategy compared to the American stimulate to grow out of trouble strategy. Who would come out better?

The fact is the Europeans cannot inflate like the Americans and the US cannot do what the Europeans are committing to.

For now the financial links between the two continents are more important than trade flows.

Frivolous lawsuits

Earlier this week our High Court had to rule over the custody of a dog between a surgeon and his ex. I found the whole episode so silly, I didn't bother to read the details of the story. A couple of days later, the ST feature the story again. Its purpose? To ask if it was a frivolous case. They asked the obvious.

I wonder if as the ranks of the well to do gets thicker, would we not have more of such silly court cases? Concomitantly the poor are getting better at making themselves invisible. I wonder how much of the help they received they used to make themselves even more well hidden. Do they feel ashamed about their status? There is not need to if they have fallen on hard times through sheer bad luck. Unfortunately life is not like that. The innocent woman who got AIDS from her irresponsible husband is looked down upon also. People are quick to judge without first ascertaining the facts.

From here to there -> Lots and lots of work

What my wifey sent to our kids. How appropriate!

Good Bye Dr. Goh

The passing of Singapore's Dr. Goh Keng Swee has caused me to realize that any GKS type talent out there would not want to go into government or politics today. If I am right, this is very sad. It is the earliest possible sign that from here we are on the way down.

Market Bears

Of course all these bears are right. Just need to stay around long enough to be. If anything they have more reasons to than ever.

No use being right and not make any money isn't it?

American infection

The ways of American continues to spread around the world. It is more powerful than ever. Just look a Europe. They have decided to inflate big time in a shock and awe approach reminiscent of US TARP. However hard, especially Germany, not to be like the Americans they just can't. The global financial system in run the mostly in the US way.

If you are 30 or older...

Just got this from someone like me, i.e., over 30 in the email. How true!

If you are 30, or older, you will think this is hilarious!

 When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning.... Uphill... Barefoot...BOTH ways. yadda, yadda, yadda 

  

 And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!  

  

But now that I'm over the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today.  You've got it so easy!  I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia!   

And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don't know how good you've got it! 

I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have the Internet.  If we wanted to know something, we had to go to thelibrary and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!!   

There was no email!!  We had to actually write somebody a letter - with a pen!   Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox, and it would take like a week to get there!  Stamps were 10 cents! 

 Child Protective Services didn't care if our parents beat us.  As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick our ass! Nowhere was safe! 

 There were no MP3's or Napsters or iTunes!  If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself! 

 Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio, and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up!  There were no CD players!  We had tape decks in our car...  We'd play our favorite tape and "eject" it when finished, and then the tape would come undone rendering it useless.  Cause, hey, that's how we rolled, Baby!  Dig? 

 We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting!  If you were on the phone and somebody else called, they got a busy signal, that's it! 

 There weren't any freaking' cell phones either. If you left the house, you just didn't make a damn call or receive one. You actually had to be out of touch with your "friends". OH MY GOD !!!  Think of the horror... not being in touch with someone 24/7!!!  And then there's TEXTING.  Yeah, right.  Please!  You kids have no idea how annoying you are. 

And we didn't have fancy Caller ID either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was!  It could be your school, your parents, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, the collection agent... you just didn't know!!!  You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister! 

We didn't have any fancy PlayStation or Xbox video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics!  We had the Atari 2600!  With games like 'Space Invaders' and 'Asteroids'.  Your screen guy was a little square!  You actually had to use your imagination!!!  And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen... Forever!  And you could never win.  The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died!  Just like LIFE! 

You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing!  You had to get off your ass and walk over to the TV to change the channel!!!  NO REMOTES!!!  Oh, no, what's the world coming to?!?!

 There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning.  Do you hear what I'm saying? We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rat-finks!

And we didn't have microwaves.  If we wanted to heat something up, we had to use the stove!  Imagine that!    

And our parents told us to stay outside and play... all day long.  Oh, no, no electronics to soothe and comfort.  And if you came back inside... you were doing chores!  

And car seats - oh, please!  Mom threw you in the back seat and you hung on.  If you were lucky, you got the "safety arm" across the chest at the last moment if she had to stop suddenly, and if your head hit the dashboard, well that was your fault for calling "shot gun" in the first place!  

See!  That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled rotten!  You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980or any time before!

Regards,

The Over 30 Crowd