2-years? Already?

I think I'm being hit by the 2-year itch just a couple of months early. It's that combined feeling of, "oh my god the work doesn't stop coming" and "my butt and back hurts from sitting in a computer chair so much".

Actually, it isn't even technically 2 years. Sure, I've been employed for 2 years, but I was moving around and not permanent for a good 1 year 2 months, and 1 of those months was spent in the wilderness of Sabah. So what I have is a 8-month itch.

If I wasn't living on my own with no savings, I'd probably quit at this point and do my masters or something. But no, I had to move out, and I had to start the CFA process. No escape for at least another 2 years and 2 months. I feel trapped. I can't breathe.

Dua Sen

1 sen: Bailouts
How will bailouts help? I mean sure, you spend money today and it helps the economy, but unless the money is spent on something that will result in sustainable development and will continue to provide economic/social benefits to the society, all we're going to end up with is a bunch of white elephants that are sucking the taxpayers' resources to maintain.

2 sen: Bailouts - Medium Term Impact
Does anyone else think it's getting out of hand? Billion Dollar and Trillion Yen bailouts are being announced in so many countries that I can't keep up. Here's an Economics 101 on what could and might possibly happen:

• Inflation, because every Mohammed, Raju and Ah Boy knows that when people spend too much, prices go up and up, and bailout packages in the billions and trillions is pretty much the equivalent of a medium-sized country's GDP. Malaysia's bailout package alone is a substantial percentage of Malaysia's GDP.
• Higher taxes, because the money has to come from somewhere, and the American tradition is to spend now by issuing more debt securities. Once the securities mature and it's time to repay the bondholders, all they do is refinance with new debt securities and increase taxes to pay some of it off. It's called intertemporal financing, i.e. the future generation pays for what we're consuming now.
• Recession, because the majority of developed countries (and lets face it, global demand is dependent on them) is made up of aging populations with very serious population decline issues. In today's overpopulated world, it would be a good thing except their governments are inevitably xenophobic and restrict migration. Alors, in 20 years, they will have a much smaller workforce, meaning that national production will likewise be much smaller and absolute national spending power will be (what a surprise) much lower.

Bailouts aren't the answer. Controlled spending is. You heard it here first.

3 Steps to a Better Engine

Just for fun, here's 4 quick steps that takes no effort at all to have a healthier, more efficient (and therefore more environmentally friendly) engine.

1. Take a few seconds to start up your car

You may have noticed that there's 3 stages in your car's ignition as you turn the key. At the first stage, the battery turns on but nothing works. At the second stage, everything works but your engine isn't on. Finally, the third stage turns on your engine.

Best practice is to turn the key until the second stage. At this point, your dashboard lights will light up and then start going off. In some cars, a sign might appear saying 'System Check'. That's exactly what your engine is doing. The online computer is checking the system, and just like a normal PC, it's better to let it get through with that before doing anything else.

Wait until all the lights on the dashboard have gone off, and the normal display returns to your dashboard. Then turn the key the whole way through to start your engine. This takes less than 3 seconds to do, and it will help your engine run much smoother in the long run.

2. Warm up your car

When you start up your car in the morning, wait until the needle moves out of the blue zone on your temperature gauge. Quite fortunately, in our climate, this takes almost no time at all. I timed myself this morning and it took literally 1 minute, and I was good to go.

If you don't know where your temperature gauge is, it's the one that looks like this on your car.

3. Give it 3 seconds before you start moving

After putting your car in gear, be it automatic or manual, count to 3 before you move. This gives the car time to circulate the fluids that it needs to maintain your engine. It takes less than 3 seconds, but let's be safe rather than sorry.

4. Warm down your car

It doesn't take very long. Just wait 10 seconds from the time you become stationary so that the engine goes into idle. You can use this time to collect your things from in the car, undo your seatbelt, turn off the radio, etc. All it takes is 10 seconds.

Listen to children? What?

From The Star: Listen to your children's views, educationist urges parents:

IT IS important that parents listen to the views expressed by their children, Sri Murugan Centre (SMC) director Datuk Dr M. Thambirajah said.

Tamil Nesan reported that Dr Thambirajah had told parents that they could decide later whether the views expressed by their children were acceptable.

He was speaking to reporters after launching the five-year educational development programme for Indian students who are taking the SPM examinations in Kuala Lumpur.

“Parents usually assume that their children are ignorant and will not listen to the views of their children,” he said, adding that while education is being provided in schools and at SMC, parents must ensure that love and support are given at home.

What? Listen to children? That's ridiculous. They're younger! They don't know anything! Listen to children... HAH!

Confessions of a Shopaholic Mother

Here's my not so subtle entry for the TongueinChic Confessions of a Shopaholic contest. The contest is to promote Isla Fischer (a.k.a. Mrs Borat)'s new movie titled, what do you know, Confessions of a Shopaholic! As if you didn't know, it's based on the hilarious Shopaholic series by Sophie Kinsella, and is purported to be the new generation's answer to Sex & the City.

Essentially, I wracked my brain for a good story for a few days before I discovered that I don't have one true story of shopaholism that is worth a Gucci tote with 18K gold tag.

I have, however, several shopaholic stories about my mother. And so, my entry will be entitled, "Confessions of a Shopaholic Mother", with the tagline: 'Please let me win this contest so that I can present my mother with a Gucci tote with 18K gold tag in the hopes that she will be so grateful at her daughter's thoughtfulness that she will give her the bag'.

There was this time that I was in Siem Reap, Cambodia with a couple of friends on a holiday because we decided we needed to immerse ourselves in history and Angelina Jolie Tomb Raider-ism. We templed ourselves out on their historic ancient monuments. My parents were also "coincidentally" in Cambodia on holiday. I'm guessing that the reason they were there had more to do with the fact that it was my first international trip without them rather than with coincidence. Nevermind that I was 20. I was still their little girl.

Following is a conversation that I had with my mother just before she boarded the plane out of Siem Reap.

Mum: Adek, I just saw this gorgeous beige silk pashmina at the airport. It's really quite pretty and I don't have a pashmina in this colour yet.

Me: Uhhuh.

Mum: It's USD400. I showed it to your father but he became black-faced and started complaining about how much it cost.

Me: Uhhuh.

Mum: Here's what we're going to do. You charge the pashmina to the supplementary credit card, tell Abah that it's for your friend and that she will pay him back because she had no cash at the time.

Me: Uhhuh.

Mum: I'll give you some money when you come back.

Me: Uhhuh.

Mum: Ok, love you. Bye Adek.

And that is the Confession of my shopaholic mother. If I win this, my shopaholic story will be about how I entered my mother into a contest so that I could win a Gucci tote bag with 18K gold tag.