Wealth management

Too many people spend money they haven't earned to buy things they don't want to impress people they don't like.

--- Will Rogers

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Learn to distinguish all the "wants" in your life from the needs.

Be focus on the needs, grow your asset through investment instead of wasting money on those unnecessary things.

A victim of your unnecessary wants make you poor! 

A farmer of wise investment make you a rich and wealthy person!

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If you do not like to invest, you may do some charity work or donate some money for a good cause every now and then.

Make yourself a farmer of good karma, and be a rich and wealthy person spiritually!

That is another way of investment, and it will make you a happy and wealthy person all the time!


Dexterine Ho Soo Miang

Support Bibliographic Control Works on 11 - 13 Mar 2014

Here is the announcement I received from LAS lately:

 

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Dear LAS members,

LAS is pleased to organize the fourth run of the LAS WSQ Level 2 training for Support Bibliographic Control Works on 11 - 13 Mar 2014. 

 

This 3 day course will be held at Library Training Room, Level 9, Temasek Polytechnic Library. (Getting to TP).

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN. 

 

Register at: http://www.las.org.sg/eforms/view.php?id=41

 

This is one of the 5 competency based programmes at entry level which together form the WSQ Higher Certificate in Library and Information Services.

 

Important Note:

 

§  Upon successful registration for the training, you will receive a confirmation message & email.

 

§  The registration page will also display a message when the class is full. You will not be able to key in personal particulars when this happens. 

 

§  The course fees are listed in the course schedule here.

 

§  On enrollment, you are deemed to have committed to both the training and proposed assessment dates.

 

§  Participants or institutions who wish to withdraw from an enrolled course must submit reason(s) in writing to training@las.org.sg. Where notice of withdrawal is given before the start of the course, an administrative fee of $25 is payable to facilitate the withdrawal from the course.

 

§  Please view full Terms & Conditions for LAS WSQ Level 2 courses.

 

For more information on the module, please refer to the training page.

 

Organized by:

LAS Training & Development Committee

Email: training@las.org.sg

 

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Source of information:

Email from received on Wednesday, 12 February 2014, 12:25, lassec <lassec@las.org.sg>

We are all gardeners

My mind is a garden.  My thoughts are the seeds.  My harvest will be either flower or weeds.  --- Mel Weldon ===== We are all gardeners in the world of knowledge.  Some planted great trees! Some even created great botanic garden! Others may only have the capacity of taking care of a  small pot at home, yet they are far better than those who just let the weeds grow! Dexterine Ho Soo Miang

Through our connections with unique people ...

Learning is all about connections, and through our connections with unique people we are able to gain a true understanding of the world around us.

--- Peter Senge, MIT-based author, researcher & educator

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This year, I find the connections I have via my blog, LAS networks, painting groups, and other connections at home and other links established over the years have made me understand the world better.

I am able to gain a true understanding of the world around me, be it interesting life experience, misgivings or unfortunate encounters that I had to endure for months/years.

Some are positive and great learning experience!  Others, may be classified as negative and miserable, yet, the worst outcome to me, was the best teacher in life journey!

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I train myself to be less emotional.  I learn to solve problems created by others and move on ...

I never knew that I can be so calm, resourceful, and am able to control my emotion so well and make the most out of adversities.

I just hope that those who have experiences which are not desirable in life, can start to ponder what can be the best route under the worst circumstances.

No one live an eternal life, and within a short span of our time on earth, what is best for us to do is ...

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If we can take care of ourselves, we will create less trouble for others. 

When we are facing trouble, there are still ways to make the rest of life journey great for others to remember us when we pass on...

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At my dental treatment at NUH on 12 Feb, with all the pains that I had to endure while on dental chair, a thought flashed in my mind. 

I thought of my dad's last wish, i.e., organ donation before he was diagnosed with critical disease. 

Now, I would like to explore one step further, i.e., body donation for medical studies.

The student dentist helped me to find the link for the form within second:
http://medicine.nus.edu.sg/ant/body-donation/ 

I am now looking at it and printed it for my reference. 

I think it is good to look at your funeral ceremony and be positive about it. 

To me, body donation is not only a green idea for the environment, it is a good deed too if the body can be used for medical advancement. 

I think it is great too if whatever we can not use can be up-cycled by others physically.  I find it meaningful to do it at the last phrase of my life, and have my future planned that way.

When I look at the journey of life with death as the end point, I see it as an inevitable and irreversible process! This inevitable used to make me fearful.  Even now, at this very moment, I am still uncertain and sceptical about how I could possibly get through the fear...

*fearful about death
*fearful about uncertainty in life
*fearful about the suffering from illness in the journey towards death
 
Nevertheless, whether I fear the process, or fearful about the journey itself, it is there for me to pass through or experience. 

We have life, hence we have death. 

It is like the fact that a coin has two sides. If you are able to live and spin the coin well, life seem to carry on forever, ever though we know the coin may stop spinning and death may come at any moment.

In life journey, we keep our life goes on like the way we toss a coin, we try to strike well, create a balanced movement, and hope the coin will keep dancing in front of our own eyes.

We also admired those who can toss a coin well and make it dances glacially. Yet, we know we will see the dancing coin will come to a stop ultimately.

Despite all these thoughts that haunted me for years, I think I have to plan for it and make my plan known to anyone who can help me fulfil my last wishes!

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Every cloud has its silver lining!

Life is not all the time so negative, thankfully!

There are good encounters too in my journey in life, especially in the beginning of this lunar new year!

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I meet my new "soul-mate-like" friend who travelled from Taiwan to JB and Singapore.  She is an academic staff member in a university in Taipei, married to a Taiwanese and has one 14 years old daughter.

She contacted me after reading my blog on my "Teochew" story and other related postings.  When she sent me an email suggesting the first meeting on the 5th day of Lunar New Year, I was a bit skeptical, yet found it a new experience and liked to see how things develop.

She flew from Taipei, and took one day out of her one week holiday in JB to have a meeting and discussion with me. I felt both weird and honored, and tried to read between the lines ...

To kill my curiosity, I decided to give it a go ...

===

Before we fixed our first meeting, we had multiple email exchanges and I could see that she is sincere and was a "real" being!

From the Google search results and information I could gather via the net, I knew I was dealing with an academic from overseas.

With the photo sent before our meeting, and other family details she shared, I am certain that she is a real and sincere lecturer for business course in a university in Taipei. 

We met on 5th day of Lunar New Year. This first full day meeting was a memorable and unforgettable movie like experience.

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Both of us felt that we were like old friends having our re-union meeting.

We shared too many things in common and our life experiences had a lot of similar trials.

The most amazing thing is that we studied at the same UWM in 1990/1991, and we might had met each other in Milwaukee without knowing it!

The way I link with her, her family, i.e., parents, brother, cousin, nephews and nieces, is so similar to that of the links with my long term friends in Singapore and Hong Kong.  We can talk for hours and still continued talking...

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The learning in the beginning of 2014 is all about connections, and I am thankful for all, be it positive or otherwise!

And, I hope, those who have negative experiences, can create positive experience for themselves.

I hope that they are able to walk in their life journey with the right mindset, be it the last lapse, or the first baby step.  We are all capable of making positive imprint when we interact with others, with whatever little means available to us.

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My best wishes to all in my connections!


Dexterine Ho Soo Miang


Notes:
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This post was first published on 11 Feb, and updated on 14 Feb 2014.  In lunar calendar, it is the 15th day of Lunar New Year, the Chinese Valentine day too.

To me, be it Eastern or Western Valentine day, the day is only meaningful if we have great friends to share our joys!

And I am glad, I have a meaningful day today!

For those who are reading this post, I wish you make every day a Valentine day, or a meaningful day worth sharing and living too!
 
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The second revision of this post was uploaded on 4 April.  Thanks to Y C Ko for her hard works this week and spending one hour going through the article on some details with me!


 

Cathay 契丹

Cathay is a name we are so familiar with.  I had never thought of its origin and was delighted to discover the links between Cathay and China, Cathay and  契丹 (its Chinese translation)  from:

http://international.confuciusglobal.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=512:2012-05-31-16-53-30&catid=4:2&Itemid=11

The full text is in Chinese:

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儒學傳播英國

岳陽大學儒學研究所  朱仁夫  新加坡大學  魏維賢

英國了解中國，始於14世紀。當時，馬可·波羅的中國遊記在歐洲傳誦，英國人喬叟寫作《侍從的故事》裏，提到了成吉思汗“勇敢、善戰、賢明、富有、守信、仁愛”。

歐洲人通稱中國為“契丹”(Cathay)，稱中國人為“契丹人”。

南宋時代，中國北方為遼，遼原名契丹。

元朝統一中國後，歐洲人仍沿用舊名稱中國為契丹，英國莎士比亞戲劇裏幾次提到契丹人。

世界地理大發現後，西元1576～1581年間，英國有一個向外發展的計劃，名為“契丹探險”(Cathay venture)，目的在尋找一條近路，通往亞洲，參加者有政界人士、朝廷官吏、商界領袖、航海家、輿地學者，伊莉莎白女王充任該計劃股東。

但是計劃未能實現。後來，歐洲人又稱中國為“塞利卡那”（Sericana），意謂“絲綢之國”；稱中國為“西那”（Sena），其來源是Sin，Thin，Chin(秦)。

Source of information:

http://international.confuciusglobal.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=512:2012-05-31-16-53-30&catid=4:2&Itemid=11

8th Feb, Chingay 2014

For a long time, Chingay was just an event I joy with family members in front of  TV at home during dinner time!

This year, with the invitation of my good friend, May Lan, I went for Chingay Parade and be an audience and enjoyed the life performance from 7pm to 10pm on 8th Feb 2014 with her and her family members.  

Our seats were at G5, section 1, and it was quite near to the next section, where Dr Tony Tan, our presidents and other VIP were.  

I enjoyed the 3 hour event with lots of excitement, and if you miss it, there are video clips and great photos from: 

https://chingay.org.sg/event-highlights

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How I feel about Chingay this year?

Nothing beats the numbers, and I see how numbers count in grand event like Chingay 2014:

I withness in person, the 8,000 multi-racial, international and multi-cultural performers, I am sure it is the first-of-its- kind outdoor community drama.
I was told, it is the grandest opening, with the world longest and largest Batik Art of 360m x 10m presented by 1,000 Performers. I like the grand parade of batik fabric which is so colourful and it is simple, elegant, and have its unique spirit when you see them in rolls and move in a wave and tide-like manner. In this ocean of fabric, there are connection that I can make with others, some how!	Exotic Performances from China, Indonesia, Italy, Korea and Philippines
For the first-time, 4m Giant Artistic Puppets, come closed to us! The energetic multi-cultural youth and the young at heart performances, move me and I just cannot sit still!
It was also the first time Ge Tai (歌台) was performed in Chingay! The last high light was the Grand Finale by 3,000 Performers and 720m of Colourful Knitted Tapestries

"Vibrant floats, dancing dragons, prancing lions, stilt walkers, wushu master, performers of different races in their traditional costumes and many, many more..."

https://chingay.org.sg/about-chingay

Here is the information from the above official web page:

"This National Event is also the largest street performance and float parade in Asia. From the main parade site to the heartlands, this street extravaganza epitomises the dynamism of Singapore's vibrant and multicultural society.

The word Chingay is equivalent to the Mandarin zhuang yi (妆艺), which means "the art of costume and masquerade" in the Hokkien dialect. "

What about the history of Chingay?

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"The First Formal Chingay Parade in Singapore was mooted by the then-Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew who was also the chairman of the People's Association (PA). Chingay, with all its noise and gaiety, would compensate for the ban on firecrackers, a customary New Year practice to drive away evil spirits.

For its first street parade on 4 February 1973, the PA teamed up with the Singapore National Pugilistic Federation for a grand show in the Year of the Ox, depicting aspects of Chinese culture – dragon and lion dances, martial arts and street opera.

So well received was the first Chingay Parade that the PA made it an annual festival. It celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2012.

Chingay took on a multicultural flavour from 1976.

Today, Chingay has become a uniquely Singaporean Lunar New Year tradition, held during the first weekend of the Lunar New Year. This yearly street parade is now a national festival, celebrated by Chinese, Malays, Indians and Eurasians alike.

In 1987, Chingay featured its first foreign group when the city's main English newspaper, The Straits Times, sponsored four pop singers from Tokyo. Since then, this signature event had extended invitations to international artistes and troupes.

Indeed, for the scores of spectators, the Chingay Parade could well be a treasured glimpse into the different cultures of Singapore and the world. Here age, race, language and creed are no barriers. Here, we celebrate together as one."

Source of information:

https://chingay.org.sg/about-chingay

Class gathering on Lunar New Year

Today, the 4th day of Lunar Chinese New Year, Wen Wen invited all the classmates to her house at Bukit Timah Road for our class gathering.

The following was an email I helped to send on her behalf some days back:

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Dear Classmates,

Happy New Year!  

The History classmates gathering on the 4th day of Chinese New Year is initiated by Wen Wen. It will be held on Monday, 3rd Feb 2014.

All History Classmates are welcome to gather at Wen Wen's house at Bukit Timah Road between 2.00 pm to 4.00 pm. Please let me know if you are able to make it.

Confirmed coming are:

Liew Peck Gan

Goh Geok Kee

Ng Koon Lay

Ho Soo Miang

Tan Sin Week, Tammi

*Yeo Kheng Kwang 

Informed they may not be able to make it:

Wee Lin Mui

Koh Mui Hoon

Lim Ang Kan

*Wong Loy Yoon

*Information was updated today
 

If you have other classmates' contacts, do help to send out this invitation for Wen Wen, as she will be on holiday between 30 Jan to 2 Feb. So if you are able to come, do indicate in your reply to me asap.

I will help her to do emailing and sms invitation and she will be informed 3 days before her departure for CNY tour overseas, on 26 Jan.

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We had a happy three hour gathering and left her house at around 5pm.

A big Cheer to our happy hours!

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Thanks, Wen Wen for hosting this year!

She served us "High Tea!"  

I love the delicious Tarts and Chinese carrot cakes etc... bought from Crystal Jade.  

I had the ice lemon water mixed with some sweet drinks and like the taste of it. I had at least three full cups and felt so contented at the end of the day!

I think it is the joy of meeting old classmates and friends that make all the food and drinks taste extremely nice...

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With the advances in digital technology and Internet,  I received two photos of our happy re-union at 21.20 hour from 新玮 Tammi Tan, our photographer of the day, and here is her message:

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Hi to all,

Happy New Year! Great to see you all at Wen Wen after such a long time.

Wish you all a healthy, peaceful and prosperous year of the Horse!

Here are the photos taken today to share with you all!

新玮

Tammi Tan

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The photo I posted above is one of them, and for those who cannot make it today, they may share our joys the e-way via this blog!

(7 of us out of a class of 15-16, the total turn out is 46.66 %, a great response for a class gathering, if you know that we graduated from University in 1978, about 36 years ago!)

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Notes to history classmates: 

新玮 Sin Week (Tammi Tan) would like to have an up-to-date phone list and contact list of all the classmates.



You may like update your contact and send her your latest email and phone address.  

If you have contacts classmates not listed in this blog, do forward to her too!

Great to learn that we have her to host our next new year gathering in 2015 in Jurong, somewhere in Pioneer Road.  I look forward to visiting her new house in the year of the goat!

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A big thank and cheers to all who can make it this time!



Many thanks to Wen Wen for being a great host and fill our hearts and stomach with joy and contentment today!

When I did the summary of today's event, I would like to have blogged it in Chinese, yet my typing of Chinese words in Hanyu PinYin mode is so slow that it frustrated me. 



I think we can express our joy and gratitude better if we use our Mother tongue!  If you do have something to share in Chinese, just let me post it on my blog on your behalf!

舒敏

Dexterine Ho Soo Miang