My Bluecar experience

Hello,

The sharing economy is here. Looking at the mass of bicycles lying all around the grassy patch reminds me of my inability to cycle. However, BlueSg caught my attention. Car Sharing is new in Singapore and being a driver who doesn't have a car to drive, I was attracted to open an account and try their services. But bad press about their cars being abused have made me afraid of driving their car.

But with my fiancee getting her licence, it spurred me to start an account to let me haolian my driving skills to her.

I literally burned a hole in my pocket because i bet against

her passing her licence and lost a Kate Spade to her.

BlueSg

So what is bluesg?

It is just an electric car that you can rent by minute basis.(with minimum of 15minutes)

Sounds cool but still unsure if you would like to open an account?

Steps to Open an account
According to their official 9 page guide, it seemed pretty straightforward in getting an account set up.

- Username/password
- Personal Details
- Driving licence and NRIC photo (confirm easier than the selfie required by CoinHako)
- Payment for your premium membership* (the membership is Free if you register the premium membership before 31st March 2018, but you still need to insert credit card details to charge $0)
- Go to booth to activate EZlink card or use their provided token that will be posted to your address.



But...
Do note the fine prints!!
- It takes 10 minutes to create an account, but approval for you to start driving takes maybe a few days, though mine was approved pretty quickly.  Do make your account in advanced instead of leaving to the last minute.

- You need to go to a car booth to pair your EZlink card within the stipulated period.
I am not sure what will happen if you didn't pair in time.
 

- Free membership for first year but auto renewal of membership is activated! This meant that if you forget to close your account, you will be charged membership fees! And hear me clearly, Close your account, not cancel membership. Basically their 1 week membership is a trial for new users and you need to sign a 1 year membership in order to drive their cars. That is $180 at $15 per month! And if I am not wrong, you need a 1 year membership every time you register!
Last but not least, NO REMINDER FOR THE EXPIRY OF YOUR ACCOUNT.
You have been warned.







































- The touchscreen on the booth is pretty crappy. I kept typing the wrong pin. Do note that when you take the car, you can only type your pin 3x. DO IT WITH CARE!

- You MUST remember which credit card did you charge your usage to. There is no way to check back which Credit Card you charged to other than calling their hotline! Neither can you change your credit card with ease. The only way to do it is to call their hotline.



How it felt driving BlueCar
Quiet, like real quiet until I didnt know the engine is on. I was having difficulty with driving it because I cannot "feel" the car.
The car is pretty weak and small, but really quiet.
The car even rolled back if you are on a slope and you stop on it.
There is no pushing force if the car is not accelerating.

You also get a lot of eyes staring at you, because BlueCar!


The Damage
According to the app, I drove about 43 minutes, which translates to $14.33!


From my experience, if I were to take a ride during off peak hour for 43 minutes, it will cost me approximately $20. So yes, it is indeed cheaper by a bit if we compare to off peak rates. However, the inconvenience is that the parking locations is pretty little and not near to where I or Chew stays.

So yes, it is fun to drive this car for fun, but to use it for commutation will have to wait for it to further set up more spots for returning the car.

Life Insurance and your health

Hi,

Disclaimer:
this post is not an advertisement for insurance, nor is it a sponsored post by Insurance agents. my personal profile can be found here.

This entry is to share that health is wealth, and that postponing insurance buying could result in being unable to buy insurance at all when things happened.


People my age are now shunning the random calls and surveys that people in the "financial industry" conducts. This is because we find them irritating and overbearing. Moreover, being young would mean that you are now healthy and well, so insurance is always the purchase you can put off until you have completed the other big ticket items. And with the myriads of insurance providers, people my age are spoilt for choice and are going into very fine details down to the cents and service levels.

Myself?
I am the complete opposite. I speak to any insurance agent who is willing to try. I apply for almost all company that existed. Some advisers even spend their own money to retrieve all those medical records that is required for me to pass underwriting. Others fill in all those forms many times. But before you call or message me to tell me you are willing to try for me with your company's underwriter, I have to show you all those rejections i have received.

I am 27 years old that is suffering High Blood Pressure and Kidney is unhealthy (High Creatine). It has all started when I was 20 years old due to a Urinary Tract Infection. I am given PES E due to this. My doctors have been saying that my condition improved and that it has stabilized. However, when i read the medical report submitted to the insurance company, I truly thought that they have given me a report for a 70 years old person. They literally say that i have all sorts of problems despite the doctors saying it is normal to have them ( think mild sleep apnea).
Here is a summary!
 

The insurance i am buying are Whole Life and Term Life.
I have included Critical Illness and TPD to my plans.

Total Company Rejected:
NTUC Income
AIA (not officially)
AXA
Aviva
Manulife
Great Eastern

 


And the ONLY company accepted is Tokio Marine
But, with conditions of:
No Critical Illness
200% loading for Term Life (approx 3k per year, until 99 years old for 350k coverage)




OR
3.4k per month for 15 years (Whole Life insurance, 300k coverage until X age(cant remember) and 100k thereafter)




























This post is not to tell you how bad my health is. Truth is, I do feel good. I can still swim, I can still run and I am still very happy with life!
But this is a gentle reminder to my friends who is getting older, and that health is wealth. As your age climbs, your insurance premium will climb to an amount that it is better you don't buy than you buy. As you age, working life will diminish you healthy lifestyle and make you deskbound more than you hope you will be.

I used to think like my parents, who have minimal coverage, why should i buy insurance to let those alive enjoy when i die?
but i know its not true. this money is to buy myself out of debt so that i don't burden the next generation with my medical bill. Do you think Medisave and Hospitalisation Insurance is enough to cover everything in a costly Singapore? The way Singapore does things is to provide best treatment, instead of a choice to euthanize. It gonna be costly if you are very sick, and yet takes years to die!

So my dear friends,
Look at insurance agents differently.
Not all is out to earn your money. Some truly just want to help.
If giving them some commission buys you peace and safety net, that is something i am so willing to do but wasn't given a chance to.

But a gentle reminder, buy within your means. don't go broke making your next generation rich. (3k a year is too much for me)

A heartfelt thank you to these agents who spent hours and even money to help me go through medical tests, get medical reports and speak to underwriters. I am sorry that your investment in time and hours have gotten you no commission.
Kris (GE)
Alvin (Manulife, Tokio Marine, MFA)
Kelvin (AXA, NTUC Income, Fnexis)
Hux (AIA)


Regards
Benjamin Chai

Spark and their free photos

Hi,

I am here to introduce a pretty interesting app that allows you to get free photos!

Yes, i am talking about Spark!!

Spark's concept is to get people to print photos for free, while earning from advertisements.

So one side is the photo of your choice, while the other side is an advertisement that sometimes contain pretty good deals.

Every month, a user can only print 10 photos of choice, and the photos will be mailed to you. You can choose to do self collection as well. This will in turn give you more free prints.

Enough of words, let me share some nice photos of mine with you!!

the adverts

the high quality print!! and oh, that sexy cat is called wang wang. you can find him at instagram as meow.with.chew

disclaimer:
I do not earn a single royalty from this "advert". i just think this is an awesome app to get free and high quality prints and hope to share with friends and family.

Bangkok with Chew

Hi,

People have been asking how is thailand, if it is fun.

My reply is that it is downright boring (for me)

Let me elaborate.

I am literally the slave dog carrying everything, feeding my princess and flooding her with shitload of water. How can that be fun to me?

Glow Pratunam was a pretty decent hotel with nice toilet and clean room. However, it is not a "easy to find" place when you come from the airport BTS. Tell people you are heading towards Platinum Mall or Shibuya Mall. The hotel starts from level 7 of the Shibuya Mall. Once you find that place, you will realise that the hotel is pretty decently located.

Many blogs would advise to take the BTS or MRT as much as possible, and i agree. The jam were horrendous, and taxi fares aren't cheap even if you convert. However, if you are going with a shopperholic who also happened to go to BKK for the first time, i suggest you wear a good pair of walking shoes and start training long distant walking 2 week prior to going there.

Weather is hot and so far, she only thinks Pratunam Market and Chatuchak have good priced item. She thinks that Platinum mall is a tad expensive, although the shopping environment is a lot better. Union Mall was total disappointment. While items similar to Platinum Mall, Chatuchak and Pratunam Market, the price is a lot more steep.
Special Mention to Pratunam Market; walk deeper, endure the heat with shitload of water and fruits, and you will realise that it is the perfect place for ladies.

Food wise, all was well. Street food is a must try, but do drink more water and bring some diarrhea medication. Both of us have no issues with the food, but i cannot guarantee others wont have an issue as the food prep wasn't that clean after all.

Guys shopping? Almost non-existent. Platinum Mall have a section for it, Union Mall have a section for it. But nothing suitable for me personally. But suit making is a good to go item. Their prices are pretty standard if you go to the 4 shops at Armari Watergate Hotel. Bring SGD as they do accept them. 1 suit cost about $220(top and bottom). Google Armari Watergate Suit and you will have many reviews around that area. I personally made mine at Admire.

4 Days 3 night is quite a good length for shopping. Anything more i think my legs will break. But 4D3N meant we didnt cover any tourist attraction, apart from shopping. And having 1 day weekend was my best decision (many markets are only open during weekend, like Chatuchak). But she hoped to have more, so that she can buy even more.

That's all folks! The most useful guides comes from AroiMakMak!!

The most expensive Cabinet!

Hi,

Disclaimer:
I am Apolitical. But I am totally against gutter journalism. Even though we are in an Information Age, people are usually lazy to cross check their facts and take sensationalised news as facts and consume them, which in turn breed some hatred in them.
I am by no means trying to call out anyone, but I am trying to cross check the facts given.
And I am interested in numbers.
My personal profile can be found here.

So i was browsing through facebook and chanced upon a certain ex-presidential hopeful's sharing. It is about "New Singapore Cabinet cost S$49 million a year excluding bonuses" by States Time Review. It also states that "Ministers with different portfolios will only be counted once, and the calculation is as follow:"
However, I do realised they still do double counting for some people like Desmond Lee, Sam Tan etc.

I understand that they are trying to simplify calculations using the below as a simple number calculation. These numbers are the pay our ministers get BEFORE bonus.
"Prime Minister – S$2.2 million
Minister – S$1.1 million
First time Minister – S$935,000
Parliamentary Secretary – S$572,000"

Being curious, I am interested to know the real number instead. 

So i dug out some interesting reports from 

http://www.psd.gov.sg/white-paper/white-paper

http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest+News/Singapore/Story/A1Story20120104-319812.html

http://www.salarysingapore.com/minister-and-president-pay-cut-36-to-53-percent.html

According to these reports, 

I gather that Minister of States, and Minister have a difference in pay, and according to this awesome picture, we seemed to only have them as Full Ministers. 

Picture from Straits Time, taken from PM Lee's Facebook page.

Of course, since we do not know their grades, there will be some assumptions and guesses to be done. 

Minister Grading System

The grading are:

PM (Prime Minister)

DPM (Deputy Prime minister)

MR1

MR2

MR3

MR4

SMS (Senior minister of state)

MOS(Minister of state)

Mayor

SPS (senior Parliament Secretary )

Parliament Secretary

Pay Framework

Their pay structure is similar to our pay structure. 

13 months of fixed pay and the rest Variable.

Their worked example states that 

So, with this example stated, I can determine a MR4 Minister pay is $715k excluding bonus.

This table here provided by the white paper states that a MR4 is getting $1.1mil, which is the equivalent of 20 months pay for comparison.

So by doing some back counting, we will be able to tabulate that their pay without bonus is actually far lesser. 

So how much does our cabinet really cost?

$99 of course!

Okay lameee.

With the assumption of their grades, here is a simple calculation of their combined cost.

Strictly speaking, this is the cost of the cabinet, but according to that article, they included Minister of States and Parliament Sec into the picture. 

A grand total of both the numbers would be

$41,987,000 based on 20 months (1 Month AVC+ 3Month PB + 3 Month NB, realistic)

$27,291,550 based on 13 months (0 months for all)

$55,632,775 based on 26.5 months (1.5 month AVC + 6 month PB + 6 month NB, Maximum)

In conclusion...The article that states that 49 million for our cabinet without bonus is super sensational. The real number is a number closer to 28 million. But the number is indeed closer to a realistic payout to the cabinet INCLUDING bonus. But that doesn't change the fact that our cabinet are indeed paid well. Thank you for reading, and please do point out my wrong calculations, if any. All assumptions made are random, and i do not have a formula nor reason why i assume their grades as that. I just randomly group them into an average of 4 of each grade, with MR4 only 3 because the 2 SMS will eventually become MR4.

GE 2015 by the numbers

Hi,
Disclaimer:

I am no politician nor statistician.

I am apolitical as well.

Whatever posted here is a series of googling and hoping that the figures are accurate.

I am just a lowly engineer and you can see my profile here.

Please do tell me to.change my numbers or remove my post should it offend you, and in what way are you offended. My purpose is to do some mathetical calculations and logical analysis.

My personal profile http://b3nchai.blogspot.com/2015/05/my-personal-profile.html

So i was inspired by a facebook post claiming that there is an increased in voters this elections, and it is due to "new citizens" that oppositions lost votes percentage.
Is it really true that the "new citizens" were to be blamed for the lackluster results of the Oppositions? Unfortunately the original poster removed his facebook posting already.

Hence I done some research of my own and here are my findings.
By the numbers 

Referece
http://www.straitstimes.com/politics/ge2015-voter-turnout-at-9356-per-cent-improves-slightly-from-2011-record-low

http://www.eld.gov.sg/pressrelease/ParE2011/2011_05_11%20Press%20release%20on%20total%20voter%20turnout.pdf


http://www.singapore-elections.com/general-election/2011/


With the basic numbers, it is obvious that oppositions actually lost a lot of support in terms of number of voters, even though they have contested in Tanjong Pagar GRC for GE2015. An approximate of 800k voters in GE2011 compared to 680k voters in GE2015. Its a good 120k voters gone. 
(i have classified all as oppositions, even though there are some who are independent like HHH and the bukit batok guy, just for simplicity sake)

If the oppositions supporters numbers are similar, we could have blamed the swing on first time voters. But nope, the oppositions lose supporters, and a huge chunk of it, despite having 25,943 in Tanjong Pagar GRC added to their vote count. We are not even talking about percentage. Why have 120k supporters switched sides? 

There are also an increment of ~110k voters. Some crazy people claimed that it is due to influx of "new citizens". But from what I found out, it doesn't seemed to be the case. 
The increment in electorate is also mostly birth citizen as stated below. 

Citizen or "New Citizen" ?

Death of citizen

By using an average of 18k for death rates, 18k x 5(2011-2015)=90k (it should be lesser since the year in not fully over)
Do note that there is only information from 2011 to 2013 currently. So it is a simple assumption.

Citizen by birth

Eligible first time birth citizen (1990-1993)
In GE2011, people born in 1990 are not eligible as they need to be 21 at 1Jan 2011.
Similarly, in GE 2015, 1994 will not be eligible.
Hence, Birth Citizens eligible are 51,142+ 49,114+ 49,402+ 50,225 = 199,883

Total expected Delta
200k-90k=110k new voters in GE2015
Difference in electorate number: 112,053(between GE2011 and GE2015)

Of course, we cannot count a perfect number as we have not included people who have migrated, ineligible voters who gave up their voting rights and such. But with these numbers, we can comfortably say that it is not "new citizens" that swing the vote in favor of PAP.

Why would i have such a conclusion?
If we have approximately 110k new voters expected due to birth Singaporean being eligible to vote, and there are an increment of 112k of new voters. A naive calculation would be to say that "new citizens" are only approximately 2k in numbers.
To negate the issues of first time voters who should be excluded from this 110k voters due to migration and being ineligible due to various reasons, let's drop the number by 20k and give this 20k to "new citizen"
Even with 22k "new citizen",  it constitute to approximately less than 1% of the eligible electorates for new voters.

So seriously? "New citizen" swing votes?
i disagree.


Reference
http://www.ica.gov.sg/data/resources/docs/Media%20Releases/SDB/Annual%20RBD%20Report_2013.pdf

In conclusion...

I get it that we are afraid that "new citizens" will cause social problems for us. But are they a great cause of concern that will cost the oppositions votes? 

Please do not be xenophobic and blame everything on the "new citizens" 

The Opposition lose a lot of votes, and there are various stuffs that could be a contributing factors.

If you say voters became humji, then why would those 120k voted for opposition last election and decided to be hum this time?

Unless all 90k who passed away are opposition voters, all 150k+ who didnt vote are opposition voters or all 47k rejected votes also belonged to opposition voters, then it might be a different story.

Regards

Benjamin Chai

A Data Dictionary for GE 2015

Hi,

Again, I shall start off with a disclaimer. My personal profile is here, and i am no professional politician.
I do not support any party, and neither do I want to take sides in Singapore Political landscape(at least not in this blog post).
But what i do want to do, is to consolidate some of the more interesting and commonly used words in politics, and yet sometimes, we don't understand them.

So here goes:

Incumbent
Current Office Holders. Most of the incumbents are from PAP, and some part are WP.
Not all words with 'cum' in it are bad.

The Lighning Party
People Action Party (PAP)

The Hammer Party
Worker Party(WP)

The Ice cream logo Party

SingFirst Party. No shit, people thinks that their logo resemble Walls Ice Cream.

RP
Reform Party, not to be confused with Republic Polytechnic.


AHPETC
Aljunied Hougang Punggol East Town Council. The Town council that combines all of WP controlled Constituency.

GRC
Group Representative Constituency. A team of people you would require to choose, which must consist of at least one minority race. You would be required to vote the whole team in, even though only one of them will be serving your region.

SMC
Single Member Constituency. One person you would require to vote for to represent you in the parliament.

Minority Race/Ethnics 
Anybody who is non-chinese, in the case of Singapore.

Hara-kiri
To commit suicide when you do something wrong or dishonorable. usually only done by samurais.
Used in one parliament speech to ask people to step down after their wrongdoings.

Co-Driver
A person who is sitting beside the driver, to help the driver and "slap him awake" if the driver falls asleep.
Used in 2011, to call for more oppositions to be in the parliament to keep the Incumbent on their toes.

Mandate
Has nothing to do with man nor dates(English is a profound langauge).
To give someone the vote of confidence.
In this case, to ask for mandate is to ask for vote of confidence to the team.

Accountability
This is a pretty big word. It is to be responsible for something. Similar to accountable.

Loony Fringe
Used to describe a group of Activists for doing crazy stuffs. No names shall be named.

Suicide Squad 
In the context of this election, it would mean a team of people with no chance of winning, and yet contesting for the sake of participation points, which could possibly cost them their $15k election deposit.

Anchor Minister/Man/veteran
A term used to describe the most influential person, the vote magnet and the team leader of the GRC. If it is an incumbent team, it is usually a current Cabinet Minister, hence the term Anchor Minister.

Gerrymandering
Manipulation of boundaries of the constituency to one's favour.

Manifesto
A published set of declaration, motives or views of a person or a party.

Dangling Carrots
Sorry guys, but no physical carrots are involved.(ENGLISH)
To provide benefits to attract you to support or vote for them.

Gutter Journalism
To do put it bluntly, it just meant shit journalism; journalism to sensationalized,instead of educate.
Reporting of half truths or rumours are considered gutter journalism because journalism is supposed to be "fair and unbiased and truthful"

 Nomads
A group of people with no place they call home. An analogy to describe opportunists who would call any place their "home", so long there are benefits.

Orh Luak
Oyster Omelette. Seriously, I dont know how can this even be politicized.

FMSS
FM solutions and services. The people who are managing AHPETC.

Paper General
A term to describe Army General that have never gone to war.

MSM
Mainstream Media, pointing to state controlled media, and in Singapore's case, SPH and MediaCorp.

Sedition
This one big word that is kinda hard to explain.
To create a commotion of discontent against someone. Machiam like defame a person.

Grassroots leaders
Nothing to do with grass nor roots(ENGLISH AGAIN)
A person who is on the ground with the people to understand the problems faced and then help to do something about it.

IB
Internet Brigade. A team of keyboard warriors whose job is to discredit opponents.They usually act as if they are a supporter who was disappointed of the party they support, and want to support alternatives. Posts like (I used to support party A, but they disappointed me, and now I will support party B) are usually ASSUMED to be written by IB.

Hansard
Hansard is the traditional name of the transcripts of Parliamentary Debates.
This word sibei chim....


Alright,
That is all for now!