Forex

One of my best friends has been encouraging me (and a few others) to take up Forex trading. When we show reluctance, he gave us an inspiring 'speech'. I was so touched I decided to share it with everyone.

Anyway just to tell you guys why I started trading, I have a few goals.
Financial freedom, for one. I don't want to keep relying on the mercy of a company to earn money. Why trading? Because it's a solitary effort. You don't get burdened by politics or interaction with people or any external factors that usually hinders people in their career/business. You deal with money, not service or business. Other than initial capital, the only other thing you need to master is yourself. Nothing else. So it's very attractive to me.

Other goals of mine would be to be able to teach it to others. This world is a cruel world, where you need to excel academically in order to have an easier life. What about people who are too late? Or people who are handicapped? Trading resets all that to an equal standing ground whereby it does not matter who you are or what is your qualification. As long as you are determined, your account will speak for it. If I can teach this life skill to others and they can earn through trading, I consider it a good thing. It's sorta a second chance for everyone, at least that's how I view it. No matter if you went to prison before, or your grades were horrible, as long as you persevere, trading won't discriminate you.
Now you all know what drives me to learn this trading bizniz haha..

The feeling worse than seeing your archenemy living her dream is probably seeing her living your dream.

I don't remember how to spell archenemy doesn't mean I don't remember hating you.

"Oh"

"Oh" is one of the most versatile words in human language.

When you're too shocked to say anything.
When you're moved by a touching story.
When you don't care enough to say anything else.
When you have nothing nice to say.
When 'ok' is not short enough.

"Oh" comes in just fine.

Leap of Faith

Sometimes, you have to make the leap of faith.
The trust part comes later.

-a Priest in Man of Steel.

Doctor Love

The quest of understanding women has been going on forever after. But it still surprise me to find out about Doc Love, who apparently has a whole talk show and website dedicated to teach men 'womanese'. He's selling a book at $99 on The System of the Venus and even coined the term 'women's interest levels' in relationships.

I read a few of his articles in askmen.com and I think the man knows what he's talking about. Mostly, though, I'm more touched knowing men spend so much effort and money to understand women.

But here's a real advice by the mallard duck, that I agree on:

I understand myself and know the games I play and I hate myself sometimes. But let's not go there. I just want to say that when it's about making your female counterpart happy, it's really not that complicated.

Simple (and free) ways to be a perfect boyfriend:

1. Hold her hands, especially when crossing the road.
   Really, you're going to leave her on the other side of the road when the cars start speeding by?
2. Offer to pay.
   It's tapping on the ancient note that guys provide. Most nice girls will still insist on splitting the bills, but even if she doesn't, so what? It's a cheap price to pay for her love, no?
3. Tell her jokes.
   It subconsciously means 2 things: You want her to laugh, to be happy; and that she's special in your eyes cos you tell the joke to her, not anyone else.
4. Always, always let her walk in front of you.
   It's being respectful and protective at the same time. All the wins for you.
5. Compliment her at random times.
This works both ways. You'd love it too when your gf compliment you, right? So give her that happiness. God forbids somebody says the compliment first at obvious time, like when she wears a beautiful dress or shoes.

If all else fail, just buy her expensive gifts. It does the trick most of the time.

Sure, Doc Love is not really about making your girlfriend happy, but also about getting the girl you want to notice you. Maybe it's slightly more complicated. I'll need to read The System first before I can comment further. Meanwhile, enjoy this favourite joke of mine (be sure to tell it to your gf!):

Genie's Highway
A man was walking along a California beach and stumbled upon an old lamp. He picked it up and rubbed it and out popped a genie. The genie said "OK. OK. You released me from the lamp, blah, blah, blah. This is the 4th time this month and I'm getting a little sick of these wishes so you can forget about three. You get one wish!"
The man sat and thought about it for a while and said, "I've always wanted to go to Hawaii, but I'm scared to fly and I get very seasick. Could you build me a bridge to Hawaii so I can drive over there to visit?"
The genie laughed and said, "That's impossible! Think of the logistics of that! How would the supports ever reach the bottom of the Pacific? Think of how much concrete...how much steel!! No, think of another wish!"
The man said OK and tried to think of a really good wish. Finally, he said, "I've been married and divorced four times. My wives always said that I don't care and that I'm insensitive. So, I wish that I could understand women...know how they feel inside and what they're thinking when they give me the silent treatment...know why they're crying, know what they really want when they say 'nothing'...know how to make them truly happy..."
There was a silence. And then the genie said, "You want that bridge with two lanes or four?"

30 Seconds to Mars - "City of Angels"

If I can just have one-tenth of his singing talent..

There was truth, there was consequence, against you.

A weak defense, then there's me.

I'm 17, and looking for a fight.

All my life, I was never there just a ghost, running scared.

Not loving their first hit of the latest album Up in the Air, this song might restore my love for 30 Seconds to Mars. I'm loving the acoustic version, still undecided about the original.

Pain and pleasure

It's so hard to forget pain, but it's even harder to remember sweetness.
We have no scar to show for happiness. We learn so little from peace. - Chuck Palahniuk

A book and its cover

My Hush Puppies luggage has this glitch ever since I bought it last year: the handle sometimes won't go down all the way. It's stuck at medium height at random times, and so it's frustrating when I have to put the luggage in baggage or car trunk.
I've been meaning to bring it to the service centre, but as with most adults, I always loss my time doing I-have-no-idea-what.

Finally today my boredom reached its peak and I decided to drop by Hush Puppies main agent near Tai Seng MRT.
The complete address is:

Lohmun Leather Products Pte Ltd
153 Kampomg Ampat #03-04,
Jun Jie Industrial Building, S368326
Telp: 6282 8255

There's no easy way to reach there (except by taxi or personal vehicle, of course), I had to walk 15 minutes from MRT station. Even when I reached the building, I had to go through turns and trucks to reach the service centre.

But once I reached the building, everyone there was so helpful, it's almost comical. The security saw me dragging my luggage and immediately said, "Straight, to the left, take lift, 3rd floor." As I was walking to the lift, another person standing there said, "3rd floor number 4." When I reached 3rd floor, the lift opened up to another person and he said "Your left, to the corner." As if somebody knew I was coming and made the whole script for me. Just to piss-off my atheist readers, I would say it was God who planned the whole thing for me.

The service centre turned out to be not so much a centre, just a workshop. I expected to fill some forms, show my receipt etc etc. But I was only greeted by a technician with this stern looks about him. He merely said, "what happened?" I explained to him and he took my luggage, give it a few spins and a few drops of oil. And just like that the glitch is solved! Literally 5 minutes. He works so fast it's like watching an F1 technician at work.

Apparently there is nothing broken, the handle just needs some oil. I feel so embarrassed. I think it happens a lot to ignorant buyers. The technician merely said, "anything else?" while checking for other parts of the luggage. Amazed, I said "that is all". He then taught me how to do the oiling to my luggage and sent me off my way. I wasn't charged a single cent for all these. Such a nice guy! I want to take a moment to praise Hush Puppies customer service *slow clap*

Moral of the day:
Don't judge a book by its cover. It's not only talking about judging people from his looks, but also about addressing a problem. A problem might looks life-ending but the solution could be so simple. Or on the contrary, it may looks easy, but there might be invisible impacts to other aspects in your life.

The secret is, be honest to yourself. Like Steve Jobs said, your intuition somehow already know what's going on. Most of the time, it's our mind that wants a dramatic existence and  makes things worse than it really is.
In Syrio Forrell's words, see with your eyes. See things and people as they are. Is this an obnoxious person or just a nice person who's having a bad day? Is there really no solution to this problem or uncle Google can help you solve it? Don't let your feelings or memories or worries add cloudy filters to them. Otherwise, you'll end up wasting time and energy like I did.

Chef Ramsay said...

"When you're good at something, it creates confidence.

When you're insecure about something, it creates an arrogance."

-to David Miller in MasterChef s 1 ep 1.

Interview with a banshee

I guess if you go to enough job interviews, you're bound to meet some strange people.

I went to my hundredth interview today (nah..not really; I've stopped counting after 80). Going to an interview is scary enough, yes? Trying to scram all the information on the company and great answers into your head. Well, imagine coming to an interview not knowing anything about the company cos you can't find any information in Google, and not knowing even who send you the email (whether it's a he or she) as the person did not even have the courtesy to tell you his/her name.

Actually, I did find some things about the company that can't help me with the interview: an abandoned website, a website on a free platform, another useless website, a blog entry saying how horrible the company is, and an MOM article mentioning salary payment problem. WHOA.. should I still go to the interview? Do I really want to join this company?

Well, I'm desperate and it doesn't feel right refusing a job interview invitation. Besides, the company has great location in International Plaza, Tanjong Pagar. On level 24, no less. So to International Plaza level 24 I went this morning.

I arrived 9.55 am, 5 minutes earlier that asked. But 10 seconds before me, there's another guy just stepped into the office. I saw the guy rang the bell and stepped into the office before I realise it's the same office I need to get into. So I reached the door as it was closing. I had to ring the bell again. The secretary (let's just call her the secretary) asked me to sit down and went to tell the boss. As I sat down, I heard the boss scolded the secretary "DID YOU OPEN THE DOOR?" That's when I figured the boss is a female.
Secretary: *assumed nod here*
Boss: "THEN WHY DID THE DOORBELL KEEP RINGING?"
*secretary explaining the situation*
Boss: "I CAN'T HEAR YOU WHEN YOU MUMBLING LIKE THAT".

There are a few things that are wrong here. First, I can hear the secretary talking from the seating area near the front door (like 5-6 m away from the boss' office) and the boss can't? Second, do you have to scold your employee 10 am in a Monday morning? Third, the boss scheduled another meeting at the same time as my interview timing? I don't appreciate that.

What I appreciate even less? The guy was allowed to meet her first. Probably he's bringing business while I'm only bringing a potential employee *sarcasm sign*. And so I wasted about 30-40 minutes waiting for my turn.

When I finally met the boss, she did not so much introduce herself nor offer a handshake nor ask me to sit down. Just went to the questions straight away. All the while I was answering, she's doing something with her phone and PC. Ok, multitasking busy businesswoman, I get it. But the total turn-off was when I asked her "May I know how many team members in this office?" She's looking at me as if she doesn't understand the question. So I said, "Um, employees?" Then she snapped me, "What does it have to do with anything?!" What does it have to do with anything? Well, let's see, I want to know about the company I will work for; how many colleagues I will work with. MOM will want to know if the company has enough quota for SPass. So what does it have to do with anything? Nothing, just everything.
I was so shocked I managed only to say, "Well, I'm curious about your company." She cut me off again, "Well, I'm curious about YOU, so tell me about YOURSELF." GREAT human relations.

The interview lasted literally 5 minutes with the boss implying she doesn't have any other questions until I send her my portfolio (articles I wrote).

While I was walking out of the office, I remember I don't even know her name. So as the secretary approached me, I ask her whether there is any namecard I can have. The secretary went back to her office, asking the same thing.. and she just looked at her secretary with this killing look. I was stepping inside the office again, to answer for anything myself, but the secretary turn around and said "Sorry, so sorry.." along with a gesture escorting me outside. Then I said "None, then?" but she just keeps saying "Sorry, sorry." Wth?

Funnily, I feel better about myself after I talk to her. I am a better person than her, after all. At least I have basic human interaction skills, and I try my best at any time to make people good about themselves.

I wonder why these kind of people can have their own company? How? Well, assuming it's her company. I can't know, I don't have her namecard.

I don't usually mention names in my blog to protect both the guilty or the innocent. But in the spirit to protect all the innocent job-seekers out there, please take note (if you haven't figured it out from the links yet) the company is
Formula 1 Furniche Pte Ltd
If working for a female with strong personalities suits you, you can send your resume to wsheraton@gmail.com.

Update:

I promise the boss that I will send her my portfolio. So I did along with an email telling her that I'm not interested in joining the company anymore. I still tried to be as polite as possible:

I got the name of the boss "Ms. Shalini K. Sharma"  after further searching old files in Google. Then this is what I got. I assume I wasn't communicating with the boss, then, as the email was signed as 'Jim':

I was so upset I sent her back:

I should've just addressed "Dear Jim/Sharlini/whoever the hell this is". If they replied with anymore rudeness, I swear I'm suing someone.