uncle lim kopi

For myself, first and foremost, it was the silent drive, lack of silly vibrations as the car ages, and the instant torque and buttery smooth acceleration and precise control via a single pedal.  And it wasn't a financial question, though for my case, it worked out to be slightly cheaper compared to a full petrol car. I am not sure how it compares to a hybrid, but I guess it would be similar, given that both ICE and Hybrid engine cars will still need regular oil and plugs change, while I literally have no maintenance required on my EV, except for wear and tear items that are common with any other cars. Now, what about environment?  It's not my top reason for buying an EV, but when I think of it, it does help in significant ways, mainly to create a more pleasant living environment where I live. This comes from lower noise and tailpipe pollution. One great example is Chinese cities like Shanghai, where you are surrounded by EVs and electric scooters but yet it's pleasant due t...

 It’s really easy to live a decent and not too expensive life here in Singapore , as long as you can afford a place to stay. If you want decent food, you can learn to cook it and buy fresh produce at good prices at mass market grocery stores like NTUC and Sheng Siong . Even upmarket ones like MeidiYa and Cold storage can give good deals if you can spot it.  If you want furniture and things in your home, you can go Ikea , Nitori , and even Muji . If you need clothes, there’s Uniqlo   If you want sports attire and gears, there’s Decathlon   There’s no need to buy expensive branded stuff at all.  If you need medical things, take a bus to JB! 

 As I lay comfortably on bed before dinner time, listening to K-pop music while admiring my tastefully appointed bedroom and looking out the windows through the gaps of my real wood blinds, it hit me. What? Well, if I was still slogging my ass off in a day job in office, this scenario will be extremely rare. I leave for work just when sun is about to rise and reach home after dark. And weekends? There will be errands, shopping etc, and we are hardly at home. Groceries run, exercise, shopping etc all squeezed into the weekends.  So it’s ironic that many of us spent so much money and efforts to buy a nice condo apartment, spent money and time to renovate it extensively and also buy so many things to fill it up nicely, and yet we don’t really spend time to savor all of it. By the time we retire when we are old, the condo is also old and worn down. We never enjoy it when it was new and shiny. It’s so dumb. I am glad I can enjoy mine now while it’s still new.  What a blessed t...

It takes an open and mature mind to look at new technology objectively without personal judgment and without taking hearsay as is. I am talking about ICE car owners in SG. So many times I have heard them saying things that paint a bleak picture of EVs, based on hearsay and rumors, and not based on objective reasoning or real life experience or talking to actual EV owners who are friends  How do you criticize a technology when you don’t read about it carefully and without bias ? Or you don’t read about the actual rules and regulations pertaining ownership of EVs? It’s just make for illogical coffee shop chatter. Zero substance and all entertainment 

 Every morning during school going hours, maybe around 7-720am, everyone with kids going to schools will be taking the lifts of the apartments down to ground floor or basement carpark floors. Sometimes, there will be a choke point created when someone in the higher floors decided to hold the lift to wait for maybe their kids to complete wearing their shoes, thinking they will “save time” by not needing to wait for the next lift.  This is, first of all, totally anti social and selfish behavior.  But also, ironically, if you think about it, this doesn’t really save time for the joker who held on to the lift. In fact, he or she would had reached the ground faster by simply waiting for next lift! Why? See, it’s peak hours. So there is a high chance that each floor will have people waiting to take the lifts. If you hold the lift at your floor (high floor) for too long, the number of people waiting at lower floors increases with every second passed. So what happens to you? Well...

 Looking back, I really had pure good luck during Covid’s times. I was gainfully employed, well compensated for the work I do, had good work to do and good colleagues, and most importantly, had been working remotely from home full time even before Covid came. That meant job security and money was never a pressing issue for me and family during those uncertain times. We “only” had to deal with disruptions to kids schooling, anxieties related to household supplies and keeping up with the constantly changing rules that the govt doled out non stop. I cannot imagine those families where parents lost their jobs or had to go out to do their jobs while no one could help them with their kids at home.  This has tremendously helped my family weathered the storm extremely well and we came out unscathed and in fact became even financially stronger as we continue to hold on to our well paying jobs and our investments in the markets and properties came out well and fine. So, I must always ap...

 With AI tools everywhere becoming more and more powerfully and fast, people are worried about their jobs. That’s expected. However, have we ever thought about the huge time savings we can enjoy with such AI tools?  It’s like having an army of well trained and 24x7 ready helpers to do things at your command for you. And you have the final say. Say, you are a IT engineer, instead of writing temp scripts to deal with a one off issue, ask AI to write for you while you focus on what the script should do. You just saved yourself 3hours! So why worried about losing your job? You can now do your job more efficiently and effectively while spending the same about of time at work.  So is the worry because of you had been slacking intentionally ? Dragging your feet to do a task over a week which could had been done in 3 days? So that you can show your boss your accomplishments? For real productive workers who want to achieve more, AI is a godsend