JustJack

I not sure if you are in the same era as me. But does “Panini” ring a bell to you ?

If it does i think this should be a nice little read.

I am sure you remember how keen you are as a kid waiting for that next packet of Panini stickers. That anticipation of opening it and discovering the new stickers that you can add to your collection.

When i was young i remember my dad buys the Panini for us. Now i remember clearly. Panini is something that is available in Singapore that time when i was young. My dad works in Singapore while I studied in Johor Bahru. I remember how happy i would be when i wake up seeing Panini stickers in its package.

When you are young you do not know how expensive these things are actually. you keep on asking your parents to buy and you thought its not much for them to afford. but i think it is not as cheap as we used to think it is.

I come across panini again now at the age of 28. Instead of animal stickers.. now they have Hannah Montana on them. or High School musical 3 on them. I look at them in 7-11. It is about 1.50 per packet. it maynot be much now to me because i am an adult and earning a 5 digit pay. but i reckon it was expensive back then to my dad who tries to buy it for me.

Now i buy these panini stuff in bulk. ten packets at a time. I open them … but they no longer give me that great surge of joy like it did when i was younger. Its the same panini game but a whole lot of changes in the perspectives.

The $1.50 worth of happiness when you were young is much bigger than the $2,000 worth of happiness buying a LCD TV now.

Joy is so much simpler back then. And so much more meaningful.

Panini has thought me a lesson. The lesson of joy.

I have been wanting to write this article for sometime now. An article on lottery/betting.

I have always thought that i have what it takes to write a book on this. I think it all boils down to only a very few ideas. It is never about writing a very thick book that will earn me a doctorate. It is about winning money.

From 4D,Toto to Soccer and horse, these are the main form of betting that any layman can get in touch with. Of course there is genting where you can play roulette and stuff. But unless you stay beside genting it is really better for me to be good at games where i can invest at my friendly neighbourhood’s pools outlet.

So what is the scoop? What is the winning way ? Again, you will ask why share if you know its the winning way? and if have found the winning way why are you still poor?

Simple because my winning formula does not make you buy 4D every draw. And also it is not easy for anyone to get into the state of winning. This state is more spiritual than anything else. seriously and yet i cannot ask you to take my words too seriously.

Let me share with you some methods.

On winning 4D and Toto

Buy only when the number presents to you. The feeling is very unique. The number calls out to you and begs to be bought. The number doesn’t rush you to buy it. neither does it requires you to buy it for 3 or 10 consecutive draws. This number will appear and present itself to you in the most natural state and expects you to buy it in the most natural state as well. No rush no compulsiveness. It just happens as if you mum gives you money and ask you to buy your food in the canteen. you take the money with no question you buy your food with no question and you eat your food with no questions. Natural.

The only 4D i have won are presented to me just like that.

as for TOTO, i do not advocate looking and searching for numbers. This doesn’t mean you can’t choose your own number. The numbers must come just so naturally to you. One time .. i was at the booth listening to my heart. my ears heard numbers yelled by betters ard at the booth. i took the 6 numbers that came by… and won a small prize. Effortless. Natural. aint compulsive.

if you fret over lining up to buy it, please don’t buy it. also when you really feel right and natural, please buy damn big.

All you need is a few good wins and the rest settle itself.

On Soccer betting

There is no sure win matched. There is no feeling. No emotions.

Pick any bet u wish as long as it pays more than 2 times. start small. Say $10 or $20 for lay man like us. Bet on one category a match per time. If you win keep it and keep to the intial bet amount. if you lose double it on the next match. This will GUARANTEE you profit in the long run. What is long run ? you will see results in 6 month MAX if you bet every other day.

lastly horse betting.

All you need is the newpaper. take the newpaper 3 stoogies who predict the horses week in week out. HOLD you bets for the first 5-6 runs. and look at the real result as compared to their prediction. You will find a pattern. Each of us sees a different pattern. Choose on that works for you. and also.. limit yourself to betting only 2 races per race day. This will guarantee you profit solely base on pattern spotting.

Anyway. Thats about it from me. There are plenty of web sites out there that shares these insights too. I am just a product of my own experience and knowledge. You may laugh at some of my methods. but you got to try it and digest it. You may find some if not all being true to yourself and experience too.

I am not teaching you to be rich. I want u to be rich from being at peace with your being. Money will follow. and again its effortless and aint compulsive.

And so everything seems to be collapsing. Numbers didn’t make sense and stock markets are going down and down. People get laid off and people have no money and people stop spending and more people get laid off and on and on.

It’s easy to understand this.

And suprisingly there are many books out there by famous authors trying to demistify this in a very complicated way. Some use history to explain and some use numbers to explain.

And so some of us “trying” to keep up with this “understanding” keep on digging numbers too. I often shout out to my colleagues how our company shares are doing. Numbers after numbers. I hear my boss talking about indices as if she is so familiar with it. But really, is this just all a meaningless frenzy ?

The amount of information you suck in everyday thru the news papers will render expired just as you grab a new copy. You fill your mind up and empty them and fill it up again. And yes, you get tired at times don’t you. And yes, you  want to stop this at times don’t you.

Stop the number crunching. It is not needed.

I believe it is actually all in front of you. as long as you are true to yourself you will respond to your truest logic and act in the best way for yourself.

The smartest people do not get the best. The simplest  people gets the best. Why do you hear so many success stories from so called “failures”.

They must have followed their simplest logic and acted upon them.

I think this applies to everything. including buying lottery. You have a number and you feel that it will strike. You buy only that and you buy big. Simple.

Why spread out and buy soo many different numbers.

As long as you keep it clean. you get it clean.

So how? crystal ball for 2009 ?

there is no crystal. You need to find it yourself. Which industry will do well? which will not? is it important to know that to earn money? again is it important to earn the money?

Look ard and the answer is clear what makes money what doesn’t.

Today i went to the hawker centre. The longest queue earns. It happened to be the vegetarian stall. The answer is often in front of you . I happen to be in the long long queue. It just striked me that now thats not the queue you want to be in. Duality tells us.. thats the queue you want to serve !

Numbers in the financial market are virtual stuff. If you sweat over it you will be wasting your precious time.

Happy 2009. Make it the best year you have ever have yet.

Sitting at the back of the pick up truck
Enjoying the fruit in the bumpy ride
without caring the stickiness that is left on your hands
Just a cheerful self. nothing else matters.
Only a sorrow soul like mine would feel the greatness of their happiness.
snapped in picture. felt in the heart.

The picture maybe said a thousand words to me

I can only thank that I am honored to have taken this at the right moment

Probably one of my top 10 pictures in my life till now.

Shot in Chiang Rai 1st Jan 2009. The little girl is my friend’s niece. But I always had the impulse to think that she can be my own daugther.

Can’t blame me for her being just too adorable not to consider her my dearest.

With my wife holding her hand in the background it added flavour.

It’s just flavourful. Doesnt mean its a too sweet a picture. its just a flavourful picture.

I touched down back in Singapore after a 2 week holiday. And discovered that my company is doing “restructuring”. I no longer report to my good old work-your-ass-out boss but in place i would report to an american boss in New york. * Thunder Thunder Thunder plus more Thunder *

Now the equation has changed.

So our team of “service delivery ” people ( about 6 of us ) reports not to our good old boss but to a new boss that is REMOTELY monitoring from US and he is from a bank that we ATE up recently.

What does this show ?

Show 1 - Does it mean that the Bank we ate up is MORE POWERFUL ? This is threatening to the “respect” element we needed at work. This is like saying.. hey Reebok .. come .. why not you look after how Nike Shoes are produced. This couldran of mis-political move is just starting to boil.

Show 2 - So now.. my good old boss went from having 15 ka kia’s under her to being a Business Analyst. Or perhaps a Senior Business Analyst. It seems like a downgrade somehow even if my boss is given a dotted line reporting from us. This is disastrous for her ! from a very capable, self sacrificing boss who has build her empire and gave her almost everything to being stripped of her empireship. I sense that there will be some discomfort. Its all the work of the ANG MOH. Ang Moh likes to play this…..

Show 3 - Does restructuring mean head count cut ? Well I will just let it be. in anyway its not gonna please All for sure. So it a roulette game. Only the lucky ones will survive.

I am not fond of “exciting” times already. It seems like all empty promises.

Even the usual wayang wayang that i can put up with i think i have had enough of the usual wayang wayang. Because in unsure times wayang wayang is just disgusting.

So My 2009 seems to have started a little late. it didnt feel that it started because i didnt celebrate new year eve at home counting down to a new year. In fact i was in Thailand going thru this new year transistion.

The vacation camouflaged the year transistion very well and it sort of like extended my 2008 for another 10 days. And enough of the new year resolution stuff which somehow I tend to do yearly even though i didnt really look forward to making them.

Its a bliss in the end.

Like any other good trip i have made to Thailand I have plenty of ideas in my mind that i would like to pen down. Good ones and bad ones and uncertain ones.

In fact even on the plane back to Singapore, i am still in a soft denial that my holiday isnt going to end. This is not a holiday but more of an immersion for me. An immersion into an environment which i find that is very suitable for me to be in. For those who are finding this a little hard to comphrehend, this is actually my desire to want to retire in North Thailand. Especially Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai.

i had a good 12 day stay this time round and have a greater exposure to the life in North Thailand. Chiang Mai ( which I have visited for 3 times already ) has progressed. Now there are more traffic jams. Chiang Rai is a more watered down version of Chiang Mai thus a slower and casual life there. Nevertheless both are equally conducive for city dwellers like me to take 3 steps back and taste life in a very different light.

I was robbed of a few things when i hit Chiang Mai this time round.

1) No TV

2) No Phone

3) No news/newspaper

4) No internet

This has proven to be good for me. i didnt “started” to live without them. In fact i didnt try at all this time. I just lived without them. There was no need to have them. And yes i left my Ipod touch at home too. So there was no Ipod Touch that i can fiddle with. I stayed in a hotel with TV but i didnt switch it on. I brought poker cards but i didnt played a game with it with my wife ( we always do but we didnt at all this time)

So its all sharper. Senses are shaper. My concentration started to shift towards different things. My mind started to wander. As there are no other distractions (1-4), i am able to try to answer the questions that arised in my mind.

Day in day out. Probably because its all new. Perhaps. Perhaps its all a vacation. It all seemed well to have less city stuff and more down to earth travelling. From the time i touch down back in Singapore till now everything seemed very detached. i have no intention to want to feel part of the city again. My heart starts to shrink till it feels trapped and suffocated. I sigh at the way the life is now in the city.

I am going to get back to work like tomorrow. Oh its just agony perhaps.

Its all not so meaningful anymore. What i do . its just sad that its all an illusion that all are good. but all are not.

In chiangmai people harvest from the earth. Food.

In Singapore… the so call “service” industry is not so meaningful afterall. like air. You can not see it. but yet you need it.

It doesnt make sense but it neednt be. I know perhaps in a weeks time i will get used to this cold city again. But i know i would move to where i need to in a clearer direction sooner.

” Hi would like to invite you to my wedding dinner on 30-nov fullerton. Let me know if you can come. ” The message that burst thru my phone. It came from my secondary school friend . I told myself ok .. the day has arrived finally. Even though i have never consciously waited for this day but somehow it seems like a naturally closure somehow. Or perhaps not. Just a natural thought of self-emphaty or self-contemplation on life on the grandeur of things.

I replied the sms in the most welcoming fashion ” yes i will be coming to celebrate your big day”. This followed by so many seemingly unimportant questions. Who is he, what does he work as , how long have they been together, what is his name, is he a nice guy … its all about he he he he he and wait.. its about she, will she be happy with him , has she found the guy she really likes, is this really for real. But no again. its really about me.

Its about me. Its about creating this drama in my mind that I needed. I toiled ard with the idea of bursting thru the heavy wooden doors of the room during her solemnization, shouting “wo fan dui” at engineer precision moment. I toiled ard with the idea of writing her a “goodbye” letter and put it in the angpow for her to read my feelings. i toiled with the idea of stuffing obscene amount of cash into the angpow to let her know perhaps she made the wrong choice. gosh how raw can this feeling get. This is soo close to human nature. So naked in front of me and for anyone who is reading this. plain drama but plain honesty.

but its just toiling. A mind stimuli when i have nothing to do on the train to work.

i enjoyed the dinner tonight. It has been a few very very busy days for me. I seemed to be on auto pilot mode since thursday. I am not able to get in touch with myself really till now when i am writing this. But this dinner was great. I get to chit chat with friends that we have not get to see for a bit ( well ten over years) . Its just another mind fuck again speaking to them because you start to ask just the most un-cultured questions like what are you doing now, and go yeah yeah yeah thats a very interesting job you have there. But deep inside you are punching the life calculator and compare his/her life with yours. And sadly often tricking yourself into believing that yours is just somewhat better than theirs.

People come to these weddings prepared. Amazingly true. Thinking of how to pan out a conversation with mr so and so or miss so and so . Calculated , motivated. Subtly trying to out trump somehow someway.

its just fun to be a by watcher to these mind dramas.

I perhaps played my role as well active and also counter active ones.

I think my friend is in good hands. I saw their photo montages ( those hour fillers that you can do without sometimes ) . They seem happy and the picture is just so well painted. I am not over excited but i think its a well planned out one. Her husband should be from a well to do family to start off with . He should be driven as well. So it sort of like made this calling to the little voice in me to let go and be fully convinced that she found someone really special. I am not at all bitter . its a kind of … oh now thats how things is turning out to be for the girl whom you once wanted to give you all for.

i could probably not make this emotional at all. come and go. but i think my feelings are genuinely close to heart which i need to come in contact with. raw and naked with myself. human are afterall being with emotions. If not we will never live a colorful life.

the food was so so. nothing to shout about at all. the wedding plan was almost perfect. to the point of sterile. but its ok. we pay to go thru the motion. but i am glad i had some fun with my old friends and the waitresses.

I am starting to think again.. who else i would have made me feel the same way too.. i think only 1 more candidate fit the bill. This one is much stronger i guess. I may just burst thru the doors and really shout ” wo fan dui “

Doesn’t seem too long ago that i went for the COMEX and this year its the first year that i am attending SITEX held at EXPO. I really do not want to make this too funny because perhaps it is really not funny at all being at this SITEX.

I reached this long awaited electronic gala for perhaps a month. Aim is simple. And that it is “perhaps” to buy a facourite gadget that i have been longing for. The Ipod Touch Generation 2. Its really yawn yawn to some people on this Apple product. But i guess its really my slow build up to it that is making this into a drama by itself. I remember i spent months talking to my friend about this. As he owns a 1st generation Ipod Touch he is able to relate really well with my desire to have one.

Its like ANY other purchase process. You long for it. You dy for it. You saved for it. You talked about it. And its all orgasmic. Till the point you buy it. got the product in your hand and suddenly … EMPTINESS. I don’t mean emptiness in your bank. But more of emptiness in your heart.

The build up today was really shopping around, well horsing around the 4 different booths that re-sells Apple Products. I never felt so aunty before. Its like buying vegetables at the wet market. But just more high tech now. I grabbed the brochures and the innocent sales girl near me and interrogated her as if she is Steve Job. I didnt ask the girls ANYthing about the functionality. I asked them ” what free gifts you give ah ” . Now thats so aunty. Its like shopping to “earn” that few freebies. Now perhaps i start to understand why housewives love to yah-ya about saving 10 cents or 20 cents. Just perhaps . I do .

In any case i settled for a booth name : GreenLight which is actually under Song Brothers for an Ipod Touch 32gig . The other three booths selling at 648 SGD. but GreenLight sold it to me at 603 SGD. I saved about 45 dollars.

For those who are either faithfully reading my blogs for entertainment reason i just want to share with u this tip. Greenlight tries to sell me a 2 year extended warranty on the Ipod touch at 78 Dollars. So i get 3 year warranty ( 1 yr by Apple, 2 year by Song Brothers) . So that will make it 603 + 78 = 681 SGD. And they will throw in a good pair of ear phones.

Did i bite it ? Not at all. Do you think Song Brothers will do a good job for you ? I am sure there will be some gimmicks for the 2 yr extra warranty. Moreover i would reckon that this Ipod will work fine for a good few years. And also .. do you think it will be hard to find a good Ipod replacement in 2 years time at a much cheaper price ? You can do the “logical” thinking yourself from here.

Add ons are always the items that earns the best margins. The BASIC attractive items are all good bargains until you add on the add ons. This is clearly a sales tactic. And i am glad i applied this into my advantage today.

I bought some external hard discs today. Well they are ALWAYS good valued compared to the last one you bought. So i am not going too deep into the mathematics here. But i think the future of such hard disk for now lies only in the design. Brand name would perhaps become more and more secondary. I decided my choice today BASED SOLELY on COLOR ! how superficially effective! Good work Toshiba.

Overall i didnt really enjoy today’s computer parade. EXPO is a good place but i prefer Suntec still. At suntec at least the goods are separated into a few levels. Those who are zooming into smaller products like empty discs, small thumb drives can just go to the higher floors and avoid the mindless LCD panel auctions with the biggies at the main halls.

I took no less than 10 mins to move from booth to booths. Perhaps it is the last day, thats why discount hunters come by train in swarms.

If you feel that the economy is in recession and you need a uplifting pill, always go down to these computer fairs. They give you the feeling that its really just United states. Singapore’s OK. ok ?