rants

i find it so hard to please everyone all at the same fucking time.

malaysia, truly asia

That was the JB Sofitel Palm Resort experience for you.
For a picture speaks a thousand words, i think these pictures only speak 3 words, "not that fantastic"

hold your breath for the worst

Temasek
Selling Merrill Lynch
Half or total of 87m shares have been sold off at a loss, according to US recorded filings. By Seah Chiang Nee
Jul 24, 2008

Temasek Holdings has sold off half its ill-timed investment in Merrill Lynch - or about 87m shares, according to a mutual funds report on institutional trades on US stocks.

The online report, MFFAIRS (Mutual Fund Facts About Individual Stocks), reported it sold off 86,949,594 shares (50%), leaving a current holdings of 86,949,594 shares (50%), according to the filings made public.

The report gave no exact date or price of the sale.

(Update: Making no reference to Mffairs reported sale, aTemasek source says its ML shareholding has remained unchanged at 86.9m since March. See accompanying story).

Neither has there been any confirmation from Temasek, which had paid US$48 a share last year. http://www.mffais.com/newsarticles/2008-07-22/2473637-211738.html

Last week Merrill Lynch was traded at $31.

At that price Temasek would have suffered a loss of $17 a share - or a total loss of about US$1.48b for the 87mil shares.

Despite massive write-downs and capital injection, Merrill Lynch's outlook remains uncertain, reports Bloomberg.

The company's equity capital position is weak relative to competitors, said Brad Hintz, a New York-based analyst at Sanford C Bernstein, reports Ambereen Choudhury.

"With $19.9b in CDOs still frozen on the balance sheet and with counterparty risk rising on the hedges underlying these troubled positions, the potential for additional material write-downs remains a concern,” Hintz said.

The New York-based firm's credit rating was cut last week by Moody's Investors Service to A2 from A1.

The third-biggest US securities firm probably will report a loss of $6.57 a share this year, compared with an earlier forecast of $1.07, Hintz said.

The revised estimate assumes the company generates no earnings in the second half.

Merrill may have to take an additional $10 billion of pre-tax write-downs related to its holdings of mortgage securities, Moody's estimates. *GASP*

Huge paper losses

The disposal leaves Temasek Holdings and the Government Investment Corporation (GIC) still holding substantial parts of big troubled Western banks.

Its remaining investments in UBS (Switzerland), Citigroup, Barclays and Merrill Lynch - at an original cost of US$21.88b - have declined on by some 47 percent in value.

That is a paper loss of US$10.28b. However, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew had said these investments were made as a long-term strategy of 30 years.

But as the Merrill Lynch sale shows, Temasek is not inflexible about cutting losses, if things threaten to get worse.

The political leadership has defended its investment of these sub-prime banks as “an opportunistic” foray that can happen once in a long while.

It believes these companies will survive the crisis and emerge stronger.

Some experts believe that Temasek has made an error of judgment.

Investment guru Jim Rogers said in July he believed that US bank stocks could fall further and predicted that Singapore's state investors would lose money on Citigroup and Merrill Lynch.

"I'm shorting investment banks on Wall Street," the successful investor said. "It grieves me to see what Singapore is doing. They are going to lose money."

At the Nomura Dialogue recently, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew reported to investment mistakes, but that no one had benefited from it.

Singaporeans who want to see greater transparency in the government’s investments in troubled companies are unhappy with this vague answer to a serious problem.

One writer said, “Should we just move on? I do not think so. The patently huge mistake is not merely the result of recklessness but rather a systemic lack of accountability in making some of our largest investments.

“Let it be clear, the harm is terminally done. The entire reserves system must be re-examined and audited.”

Said slohand, "I saw the interview on TV last night and felt shortchanged.

"He brushed aside the issues with the logic that since the officers who made the decisions were not the beneficiaries in any sense of the word, such lapses are mistakes and are therefore acceptable...

"..The size indicates that it can only come from the very top."

The skies are dark but the storm has not broke yet.
By Seah Chiang Nee


Source:http://www.littlespeck.com/content/economy/CTrendsEconomy-080724.htm


Honestly, I don't know what to say.
Whatever happened to long term investments? Or will they just tell us it's time to cut losses.
I wish they'll admit this is a blatant investment mistake.

Form B1

Silly me.

I actually filed for income tax before the deadline, only to realise i forgot to click the 'Submit' button until i got a letter from IRAS that says

Reminder To Form B1

followed by a whole lot of bull and then followed by a warning that states i "may have to pay penalty equal to double the amount of tax assessed for that Year of Assessment and a fine up to $1000'

well done to me.

well done to IRAS.

Mitochondrial DNA

As all science students would know, mitochondrial DNA are an exclusive maternal inheritance.
I have therefore come to a conclusion that in the a portion of my very own mitochondrial DNA chain, there is a particular genotype that encodes for a specific phenotype. Let's just call this genotype B.(ATCTTTAACGCGTC)[i'm obviously making this up!] Genotype B has manifested its phenotype during the start of adolescence.

Genotype B encodes for phenotype, Bitchness.

I'm sure genotype B is here to stay in every XX species. Probably one of the strongest and most dominant genotype that is most resistant to mutation or even lead to a genetic drift.

It's amazing how my mom bitches as animatedly as me. Wahahaha. It was comical and entertaining indeed!

Digress a little. Here's what happened a few days ago

Me(to Dad): Sorry, i made you invest in a fund which has dropped by over 50% as of now.
Dad: Yah lah, what crap fidelity fund was that?
Me: I didn't know it would turn out this way, my money was stuck in that fund as well!
-Mom interrupts-
Mom: You don't have to be sorry, we are looking at long term investment. It will surely go up.

I reckoned that was the nicest (and wisest) thing said for the day.

Digress once more.

I've got quite abit of things to look forward to.

1. SHAPE Run. All thanks to work, i won't be able to make it, only because i gotta be in some resort in JB for a retreat. PFFT
2. Nike Plus Human Race

okay, it really is ABIT.

who cares!

financial freedom

Financial freedom is knowing you have one less of a liability. Shackles are unlocked. No more ridiculously high interests nor monthly loan payments.

I am so proud of myself having cleared my university loan. It's quite a feeling. 14k in 2 years, not as bad as i thought.

Good luck to those who just started on their loans. 2 years will past by very fast. Monthly contributions of $603 won't be as painful as it was when you started out. So glad i made a career switch; otherwise working in the lab with a meagre take home pay, on top of my loan payment will leave me no choice but to survive on bread and water.

YAYS

I shall start working hard and save up for a nice car.
That 14k i paid, could've bought me 7 LV bags. :(

for Spudniks has landed

I've decided to muster some determination in overcoming a physical challenge yet again. A 10km run. Good enough for me, at this rate i don't think i can complete half a marathon.

Join the Nike Plus Human Race!

Today for dinner, I had spicy Pasta. It was hell. There were chilli padi, tomato sauce, chicken and green peas (yuck!). It numbed my taste buds that i didn't quite enjoy that strawberry mousse for dessert.

I've discovered that i've got extremely retarded friends who can't read to save their lives.

teller-ulam says:
facegrace
saving grace says:
yes ugs
saving grace says:
wah i had spicy pasta just now
saving grace says:
my stomach is churning
saving grace says:
shit
teller-ulam says:
hahah
teller-ulam says:
what kinda spicy prat
saving grace says:
they added chilli padi!
teller-ulam says:
huh
saving grace says:
fusilli
saving grace says:
tomato based
teller-ulam says:
what kinda prata is that man
saving grace says:
pasta u dumbass
teller-ulam says:
oh
teller-ulam says:
HAHAHAHAHA

Earlier on, Nick and I were talking about geeky stuff. It's amazing when i mentioned Watson and Crick, he knew what i was driving at. The double helix model of course. Not many people who know this, i can't blame them for being ignorant, or rather, they don't see the need to know this.

Precisely why nick and i make good geek buddies.

We were also talking about kreb cycles and oxidative phosphorylation. I was utterly disappointed in myself for i've forgotten the entire cycle and how it the entire pathway works. To think i studied that in JC and in Uni. I'm sure i've sat through at least 4 lectures on glucose metabolism. Sigh.

p/s: my retarded friend happened to be nick.