wedding bells

It's that time of the night when everything seems just a little bit funnier even though my eyes ache. Yet I'm driven on by the cravings for sugared drinks and an overactive brain that refuses to rest, even though my body is physically shutting down. It's almost 1 am. I'm old, I know.

Lately the fiance is busying herself with wedding packages, wedding gowns and wedding photography. Always the practical one, my job is to continue the unromantic task of finding a roof over our heads. But lately I've started giving some thought to wedding videos, and a recent post by syntaxfree jolted me to the sudden realisation that we have a potential problem on our hands. What will the wedding music be like?

The problem, of course, is that we are both quite passionate about music. But we are passionate about rather different music. I, for one, cannot imagine a wedding to bubblegummy pop tunes like Daniel Beddingfield or James Blunt that seem to be the rage these days. I suppose they have lyrics that superficially fit the occasion, but somehow I would just get goosebumps. Maybe they are too overplayed, or just too fake.

I could imagine a rock theme, with Always by Bon Jovi or Cloud Number Nine by Bryan Adams. Or perhaps a country theme with Little Moments by Brad Paisley or My Front Porch Looking In by Lone Star. Or I could just take the entire X&Y album from Coldplay. Or some haunting ballads like Eternity, No Regrets or She's The One from Robbie Williams. Or chillout music like Basia's Angels Blush and Tori Amos' A Sorta Fairytale. But somehow I don't think she'd agree to any of the above.

She'd probably want to do something in grand baroque style, and certainly find a prominent place for Pachelbel's Canon in D. Lots of instrumentals and piano music. And she's definitely big on the soppy love ballads. But as long as she doesn't play her new favourite song, Listen by Beyonce, I guess I could get by.

Trawling through my 15GB music collection, I realise one disturbing fact. I like sad music; and sad music doesn't really go with weddings. A psychology major once pointed that out to me in college. She said hanging out in my room with my music was making her depressed. Maybe I shouldn't be picking the soundtrack.

But there's one song I would definitely want in, to which I think there would be no objection. Jason Mraz's Bella Luna. I just can't figure out where to use it.

wireless freedom

I have a new toy!



Finally, something to alleviate my offline existence during the week with a little spice. At 384kbps (in reality, up to 30 kbps) for $22 a month, it's pretty decent to check e-mail and do online trading. But don't even dream of youtube. Of course, there are faster and costlier plans for real road warriors.

My one gripe about this little baby is the radiation. After 10 to 15 minutes of surfing, I can feel my hair stand on end, my head gets heavy and I begin to get wild thoughts wondering if I am being irradiated or sterilised. For now, I shall put my trust in IDA and FCC and hope that these devices are safe for consumers.

the ring 2

Just because the girlfriend accepted the proposal with a calamari, I wasn't going to shortchange her on the real deal. So in the midst of the early frenzy to find a hotel before all the places got booked up, there was a parallel and equally urgent effort to find a bling befitting of a lovely wife-to-be.

So first we combed the jewellers at Takashimaya - Larry's, Tiffanys and Charlotte Atelier. But they didn't have any pretty rings. Then we tried the heartland - Lee Hwa, Soo Kee and Goldheart. These, too, were disappointing in design and exhorbitant in price. (Eventually, someone has to pay for all those Destinee ads you know.) And finally, we made our way to the Delfi Orchard area - Fairy's Inc, Diamond Warehouse and Canary Diamonds. And there we struck gold!

It's kind of funny how despite all our divergent opinions (not that mine really counted) on the earlier rings we saw, we had an instant agreement when we found the right one. Both the setting and the rock struck a resonant chord with us, and suddenly we knew we were looking at the one.

The ring is actually bigger than it looks, but it's dwarfed by the meaty fingers. (Ok ok *ouch* I'm kidding! *ouch* I'm kidding!)

For prospective propositions, here are some of the pros and cons of proposing by proxy. (Say that fast and you have a great tongue twister.) Some of them I only realised later.

Pros
1) Taste - Guys generally have different taste, it's much safer to let the girl pick a ring she likes
2) Time - If you spend most of your free time with her, where are you going to find time to shop for a ring on your own? On the other hand, it's a great activity to fill empty pockets of time between activities. ("What shall we do for the next hour until dinner? Let's go shop for rings!")


Cons
1) Budget - You have to tell her the budget to make this work. (I tried to keep it a surprise at first but it's very difficult to make decisions.)
2) Time - She wants to go ring shopping all the time (ok I'm just kidding!)

quite an earful

It's been a while since an album got me excited from the outset. Music usually takes a while to grow on me, and I might listen to an album many times before I begin to notice the songs I like. But Jars of Clay's latest album, Good Monsters is a notable exception. Almost immediately, the songs began buzzing around in my head. And unlike some of the more eclectic genres I've been exploring, Jars of Clay is more mass appeal, with a more radio-friendly style. In other words, I think everyone should check it out. From the infectiously energetic Dead Man (Carry Me) to the soaring crescendo of Oh My God and even the countryesque duet Mirrors and Smoke, this is an excellent album.

A music review I once read commented that while some breakout artists have excellent debut albums, honed by years of refining their best material, it is the sophomore effort that will really indicate if it is a band with staying power or another one-hit wonder. So here are two sophomore releases that I have enjoyed immensely. Muse's Black Holes and Revelations brings to mind Deep Purple in a techno age, especially opulent anthems like Knights of Cydonia and Starlight. And Snow Patrol is a familiar name by now, although I must add that Chasing Cars is by far not the best song on Eyes Open.

Having said good things about the sophomore releases, it is only natural to go back and check out the debut. And I was not disappointed at all. Snow Patrol's Final Straw, especially has some superb stuff, and you can't go wrong with a song titled Chocolate can you? This is the other album I would really really recommend, especially for people who liked Eyes Open.

Apart from these four, other promising stuff I'm checking out includes Blue October's Foiled, Arcade Fire's second release, Neon Bible and James Morrison's Undiscovered. The Killer's Sam's Town has a few really good tracks too, but overall it's a disappointment compared with the first album Hot Fuss.

goodreads

Today I was invited to join the latest incarnation of Friendster, albeit with a literary twist. Goodreads is a website that let's you add friends (but of course), rate and review all the books you read. It seems pretty interesting, so I've decided to try it out. And while it would be too laborious to list out all the books I've read in my whole life, I've kick started it by listing some of my recent reads, as well as a whole bunch of books still sitting on my shelf to be read.

While my recent reading has revolved mainly around religious explorations, my other favourite genres include Leadership/Management, Science Fiction, Psychology, (Military) History, Biographies, Singapore/Southeast Asia, Political Economy.



Add me and try it out!

impersonal god

Preparing for a youth bible study some weeks back, I was presented with the question "Discuss some of your struggles after you've had a personal encounter with God." I cringed and got someone else to lead the study. But I noticed that he totally skipped the question as well.

I have always hated the topic of personal encounters with God because as far as I am concerned, I do not have one. Neither have I ever had a personal walk with God, a term commonly bandied about that I could never understand. In the past when my approach to religion was very emotional, I was deeply troubled at the absence of any personal relationship with God. No matter how much I prayed, I could never seem to get any reply from God and this led me to despair and abandon the faith for some time. But since my renewed interest and more pragmatic approach, I suppose I have logicalised the personal aspects out of the religious experience.

Part of my lack of personal encounters probably stems from my cynicism whenever I encounter potential answers to my prayers. Many people tell me that God talks to them through the bible and through other godly people. This means that when they are seeking an answer to an issue, they are likely to take very seriously any sign that could possibly be interpreted as reply from God. This would usually come in the form of things people say, or bible verses read during personal devotions or in church. Usually it involves a certain element of chance, such as a verse that seems to be a direct answer to a problem, or the repeated encounter of a particular verse in totally unrelated contexts. While one can believe that God can talk to you, how do you know when he is talking to you? How do you filter it from the outside noise of life? After all, God is not the only one who can talk to us, and it is a dangerous assumption to accept everything and anything that seems divine.

My problem is that while I contemplate the possibility that such occurences may be inspired by God, I generally attribute them to coincidence. And I probably always will until I see the burning bush or the writing on the wall. Unfortunately, these things don't seem to happen anymore nowadays, and we are told not to expect them.

On the other hand, I do not ignore such encounters altogether. If a Christian offers good advice on an issue I am struggling with, I would weigh it on its own merits and consider whether it is in accordance with Christian principles. Similarly, there are many times reading the bible when reading a particular verse has caused me to see an issue in a new light, from a new angle, or been reminded that God's law in the bible has already prescribed certain guidelines for dealing with my particular situation. So whether or not I believe a particular utterance or verse if God's direct answer to a prayer, my desire to choose according to God's will should still set me on the right path.

Of course I do believe that it is possible to have a personal encounter with God. There are plenty of modern-day accounts of miracles to support this. And while I used to pray fervently for a personal encounter, I no longer do so because based on anecdotal evidence, personal encounters with God are usually accompanied by extreme physical or emotional tribulations which I am not particularly enthusiastic about. So I will just summarise by making the bold statement that I believe it is not necessary to have a personal relationship with God, whatever that is. Although I suppose I still hold out hope that I will discover it somewhere, somehow.

hdb vs condo

We've pretty much picked the rock and hotel, now it's time to move on to the biggest financial decision of our lives: where to live.

This is something we have agonised and debated over for quite a number of months now, and it basically boils down to the choice between condominium or HDB. (Unfortunately, we do not qualify for the HDB subsidy or this would not be an issue at all.) The pros and cons of each are pretty intuitive: condominiums have much better finishing and additional facilities. HDBs are more spacious and have better locations (since our tight budget cannot afford an MRT-side condo). For quite some time now, the argument has stalled on my reluctance to buy a HDB because I feel it is a depreciating asset in the long term, as compared to a 999-year or freehold private condo. This weekend, I took out the spreadsheets and put this assumption to the test.

The results, rather counter-intuitively, are that HDB flats are a much better investment. This is predicated on the assumption that with a fixed budget, the money not spent paying off the much higher loans for a condo can be invested to reap a conservative return. Thus, although the HDB value is lower in the long term, the HDB buyer has a lot more money in the bank.


Specifically, I tested the hypothesis using the following basic parameters: the initial cash available from savings is $100,000 and the amount of cash available to pay installments is $3,000. The annualised investment yield from a conservative diversified portfolio is 8%. And the two properties under consideration are a $500,000 3-room condominium or a $280,000 4-room HDB flat. (For those not familiar with the terms, both configurations have 3 bedrooms.) Additional renovation costs of $20,000 and $40,000 were incurred for condo and HDB respectively, in order to bring both to a similar comfort level.

In the calculation, I used a 20-year time horizen. Over this period, I assumed that the condo would increase in value by 50% while the HDB dropped in value by 10%. To finance these homes, the following loans (from the OCBC Loan Calculator) can be taken:

First, the 20-yr condominium loan, leaving $30,000 cash on hand.

Next, the 20-yr HDB loan, leaving $32,000 cash on hand.

Finally, a 10-yr HDB loan, also leaving $32,000 cash on hand. This would also mean that interest repayments would be high for the first 10 years, but for the next 10 all available income would go into savings.

Below are some graphs that show the Net Asset Value (NAV) of various homeowners over a period of 20 years. NAV is calculated as the value of the home + accumulated savings - loan outstanding. The loan bit is not entirely accurate because you can reduce interest payments by terminating early, but its accuracy will increase towards the tail end of the time horizen which is the main point being examined.

Condo Buyer would be worth $750,000 (Condo value) + $214,156 (Investment Savings) for a total value of $964,156.
HDB Buyer with 20-year loan would be worth $252,000 (HDB Value) + $941,854 (Investment Savings) for a total value of $1,193,854. This is about 24% more than the condo buyer.
HDB Buyer with 10-year loan would be worth $252,000 (HDB Value) + $831,445 (Investment Savings) for a total value of $1,083,446. This is approximately in the middle.

Of course this calculation depends on many assumptions, but the verdict seems quite solid. Ceteris paribus, here are some observations on how variations in data affect the result:

1) Property Values. Condo would be a better investment if its value doubles in 20 years while HDB value remains static. But I am not that bullish on the private property market. An AMEX graph (below) shows that an increase of more than 1.5 times would bring us above the historical high, which I feel is unlikely. This would probably only happen if there is significant developments (MRT, malls, schools) in the surrounding area. The HDB price index also suggests that HDB prices should be fairly stable.
2) Investment Returns. All three net asset values would approximately equalise if the return on investment drops to only 4% per annum, which is about equivalent to the loan rate. But given that the STI went up about 14% in 2005 and 24% in 2006, this seems rather unlikely over a 20-year average.

In conclusion, a HDB seems to be a much better choice to meet capital preservation objectives, even if one does not qualify for government subsidies. It is also much more affordable - how many of us really have $3,000 a month in spare cash, and how many will continue to do so after adding additional mouths to feed and possibly losing a breadwinner.