How to connect an Arduino with an NFC shield?

One day, at a spur of the moment, I decided to buy an Arduino uno R3 and a dynamic NFC shield. I read a few websites that sang praises about the Arduino's capabilities and ease of use by hobbyists (who need not be electrical engineers) so I thought that it should be easy to connect, much like how you plug your monitor to your CPU or similar.

The packages arrived through mail and when I opened the box, I was clueless at how I should connect it. I read the "datasheet" and "schematics" documentation but could not understand how it could be called documentation -- it did not tell you step 1-2-3, do this, do that, etc.

The documentation is in the form of a link like that: Arduino Uno R3 schematic.

NFC shield schematic. The diagram shows that there are 2 LED lights. Those will light up when power is connected.

Editted on 16 Jan: It turned out that a Male-Female jumper wire (easily searchable from google) was require to connect the NFC shield with the Arduino. All 6 pins were connected and it functioned as a tag.

The NFC shield has 6 pins.

Pinout diagram that I referenced from blog.arduino.cc.

The same pinout diagram with the 6 pin holes highlighted.

Unfortunately, at this point, the example code I test-loaded on the board still did not work, so I am still figuring that out.

I wanted to write different URLs dynamically to a tag as an advertisement. At this rate of fumbling, I have no idea when that idea will see light.

[Updated on 5 Feb 15]: After writing on the supplier's facebook that the example code didn't work, and nobody replied to 4 of my emails sent over 2 months, a reply came within the day that the example code was wrong and I was provided with a working code.

Choosing shares - what do I believe in?

This is the question I always ask when I meet a like-minded investor.

When my friends ask me what shares to buy, I ask them the same question, what do you believe in?

The principle behind this simple question will determine how you approach choosing the "right" share for you. As strangely as it sounds, there are shares that are more "right" for you, than your neighbour, although the shares' performance are independent of the buyer.

Long-term partnership
The share you choose will remind you of its existence every day, for as long as you keep it, through the monthly statements sent to you from the central depository. It will show you how much it is worth based on the last done price for the month, and at the end of every year, an accumulated dividend payment statement. Choosing the "right" share will mean that you will likely be in a better position to perform your yearly assessment whether to keep or sell or buy more. In bad times, you also need to know the fundamentals of the share well to know whether the share's future's performance will be better or worse. Treat this as a long-term partnership, and know your shares like how you would approach choosing your partners. I choose the companies that interests me or that I would consider working for given the chance.

Short vs long-term goals
Know your short, long, and longer term goals, and always review them yearly. I have my yearly reviews at the end of the year when everyone starts reminding me about "new year resolutions". My goals had changed over the years. Ten years ago, my short term goal was to concentrate at building my honey pot, so I buy and sell shares whenever the sell price is more than my buy price by 20%, if the time gap is less than 2 years. The reason behind that "formula" as that I will get to "cash in" on the dividends 2-3 years in advance, and channel the money into another share for growth. My long term goal then was to buy a fat bucket of blue chips after I save up my honey pot. I had since filled my honey pot and am filling my bucket (not fat yet) with blue chips and that "fattening" has become my long term goal. My immediate action plan to fatten my bucket is to choose asset-rich companies with high capital appreciation growth -- prime real estate and specialised skills trade. My short term goal now is to invest in Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) to secure an income stream early to benefit from the effects of compounding.

If you can get through these two points, you are on your way to a great start every new year!

Whole life insurance - what made me buy it?

I had always been a staunch DISbeliever of insurance. When I first started a temp job before undergrad studies when I was 18, I started to read about insurance and what I had to prepare for the illusive "work life" that was about to begin in a few years.

Firstly, we work for money. Insurance companies and agents work for money too. As such, I saw them as a casino banker where premiums are just odds in the game of life (and death and accidentals and whatever-insured) priced such that they will earn enough to pay their shareholders. In other words, we will likely be at the losing end unless we become an insurance agent to benefit from the system. (It did cross my mind to be an insurance agent at some point, but it was just against my conscience.)

Secondly, nobody will look after our interests more than ourselves. If I were to spend 8 hours a day working hard to earn my salary, I will likely feel more interested to safeguard my money than someone else who did not have to work for it. Imagine how many parents complain about their children spending money without knowing how hard it is to work. Insurance is similar. The agent you engage, may not even earn more than you do, lest have your interest at heart. His priority is probably his commission from the sale because it translates to his livelihood.

With these two reasons, I was sufficiently convinced that I had to be my own financial planner to insure my livelihood. After planning for myself and achieving desired outcomes, I am even more convinced that insurance is a luxury product.

There are different areas of insurance, but most people will likely "need" the same few bare minimum. The "wants" begin at #6. The following is in order of importance (from my point of view).

1. Basic medical insurance: In Singapore, this is called Medishield, which is the bare minimum that every citizen needs and are subsidised to buy by the government. When you do claim, it's a fixed sum, and you have to pay the balance, which can be substantial. Hospitalisation charges are not covered for private hospitals. Premiums are payable through Medisave (under Central Provident Fund CPF).

2. Private medical insurance (top-up of Medishield): In this top-up version of medical insurance, the insuree pays the first $3,000 and co-pays 10% of the balance. The premiums are payable through Medisave. If I earn a gross <$3,000 a month salary, this was the most I will buy.

3. Savings: Save money in your piggy bank. After having your medical expenses covered, a saving regime is essential if you intend to continue to live in expensive Singapore. For this, the cheapest savings plan is to be self-disciplined and set aside a fixed sum every month. For the ill-disciplined, the banks have some savings plan that help you to lock up your money. If you have someone you can trust, do a recurring monthly transfer to their bank account and ask them to hold the money for you. If all options are out, I will say volunteer at an old folks home or any charity organisation for a few months to gain enlightenment. Maybe listening to a few bankrupt or gambler re-tell their stories and regret may make you a little more aware of the importance of savings. Endowment plans are NEVER entirely equal to a saving plans, because you need to have savings that are liquid -- you can draw on them in rainy days. A sizable piggy bank for day-to-day use is 3 months of your monthly salary.

4. Personal development: After you have succeeded in a savings plan, work on improving your own worth with constant skills learning and upgrading and make it a habit, a life long one.

5. HDB mortgage: If you have to take up a mortgage loan, choose the HDB loan whenever possible because it comes with a (mandatory) mortgage insurance that is cheaper than commercially available ones, and more importantly, allows premiums to be paid with your CPF money, which means there will not be additional cash outlay, assuming you do not overstretch your loan in the first place.

The "needs" will end around here, and the "wants" will begin.

6. Term life insurance: At this point, if you are the sole breadwinner for your family, and have children, a term life insurance will become essential. This premium should not be more than 1% of your income. If the sum insured sounds too little, you should start cutting on expenses whenever possible.

7. Emergency Fund: This is for use on rainy days. This amount should be over and above whatever you have set aside for #1 to #6, and be between 9 to 12 months of your monthly salary.

8. Education: Your children's education is important and will likely cost more and more as the years go by, so you might be tempted when the bank or insurance agent tries to sell you endowment policies for education. This will be about the right time to learn how to invest in stocks.

9. Opportunity Fund: Stock markets have cycles and you will not want to miss the party or the boat when it comes, so having a stash of cash for such opportunities will go a long way.

10. Retirement: The Supplementary Retirement Scheme (SRS) allows you to top up your retirement fund with a maximum of $12,750 a year in cash and enjoy tax reliefs. You can withdraw your money from this fund at the statutory retirement age. Topping up your non-working spouse/parents CPF accounts will entitle you to have tax reliefs, so max these out if you are feeling rich.

11. Whole life insurance: Finally, you have sufficiently insured yourself from key areas of your life and if you still feel that you have "spare" cash in the bank that you want to insure more parts of your life, then yes, I will say that it's probably the right time to consider whole life insurance.

I bought my whole life insurance at 31 years old. I actually did not want to buy the whole life insurance, but the product that I wanted to buy ("female medical illness cover") was a "rider" for a whole life insurance plan. After doing my sums, I settled for the lowest plan that had $100,000 sum assured, so that I could buy the "riders". I ended up with other "riders", such as "waiver of premium", "early critical illness cover" and I cannot remember what else. It was also an investment-linked policy, which I did not like, but it came as a package. I did not like it that I could not choose what funds to buy because I did not meet some criteria about "financial knowledge proficiency" because I didn't have a finance degree, finance certifications or work in finance.

Argh! the regulations to safeguard consumers! In any case, I hope this will help you make an informed choice about whether to buy a whole life insurance.

How do I start investing?

Myth: A common myth when it comes to investing is that one needs to be rich, to be rich.

Premise 1: Rich people have more money (say $1M), so each time they invest, they earn a lot ($50k).

Premise 2: I don't have as much money as them (say $1k), so each time I invest, I earn very little ($50)

Conclusion: Therefore, I will not be able to become as rich as them.

Fact: Assuming you invest in the same stock as the rich person you are comparing with, you will get the same yield. In this example, we used 5% yield for illustration purposes. In terms of yield, you had made as good an investment as the rich person. Everybody starts somewhere, and little by little we will get there.

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Myth: $50 is too little and not worth my time, so I can't be bothered to invest $1k. I will invest when I have $10k.

Premise 1: The stocks that have good 5% yields are beyond my reach ($10k/lot).

Premise 2: I need to spend hours researching what to buy with $1k to get $50 which is not guaranteed.

Conclusion: Therefore, I will not bother to buy the penny stocks.

Fact: Everybody starts by learning baby steps. Starting with the lower-priced stocks also mean that any losses incurred would be lower in absolute terms. When you invest $1k, a 5% loss in capital is $50, whereas a 5% loss on a capital of $10k is $500. You lose more when you invest more, so start small to lose less, and most importantly, learn from these less expensive experiences.

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Myth: Rich people pay wealth managers to manage their money to become rich.

Premise 1: Rich people pay wealth managers to help them invest.

Premise 2: Rich people are rich through these investments.

Conclusion: Therefore, I should trust wealth managers because they know how to make money for their rich clients. Wealth managers should know more than me about investment because they invest for a living.

Fact: Wealth managers earn a living out of investors who are willing to pay 1-1.5% of management fees. Rich people probably earn more elsewhere than investing the money themselves, so they pay people to do the investing (which entails research, reading, calculating, monitoring prices, submitting orders, paying for orders, etc.) The rich people can afford it, but can you?

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How do I start investing?

1. Decide on a fixed amount to set aside monthly and don't touch it. Schedule an automatic monthly fund transfer to another bank account and don't check on it until 6 months later. It's fine if the interest rates are low. It's really fine. You will lose more by spending it.
2. Prepare for your first purchase by creating your CDP account and brokerage account. 
3. Start reading up about how to read financial reports if you don't have a finance background.
4. Read about Initial Public Offerings (IPOs). You can google for "singapore ipos" and read blogs to learn how people assess these stocks. These are the easiest to understand because the share prices are offered at fair values and purchase transaction fee is just $2. When you ballot, you will unlikely be fully alloted. There was a freak case of full allotment from EMAS Offshore Limited, and it is the one and only case I had noticed in the past 14 years of my investment journey.
5. Add some stocks to your brokerage account watchlist to monitor how buy and sell queues work. Learn how to read the time and sale charts, historical charts, and observe correlation patterns between price and volume, and price versus Straits Times Index (STI).
6. Set a target buy, sell, cut-loss price for the stocks you intend to buy, and re-adjust your valuation of the stock throughout the monitoring period.

Open your piggy bank after 6 months of studying and spend 50% of it to buy your favourite stock at your target price. Keep the other 50% as your opportunity fund (buy when the market crashes, which can happen anytime and you will never be able to time it).

Maximising benefits from cashless payments - OCBC 360 and NETS FlashPay

Disclaimer: I am not paid by any companies mentioned here to write this. I am writing this purely because it is really a productivity improvement to maximise benefits from cashless payments. All computations are in S$.

Possibly the best savings rates in 2014 -- OCBC 360 Savings Account

I had signed up the OCBC 360 account 6 months ago and had been reaping the full benefits from the account - 3.05% p.a. interest paid monthly on account balances up to $50,000 when you satisfy 3 conditions, which essentially are promoting cashless payments.

1. Your employer credits your salary into the OCBC 360 savings account through GIRO. (1%)
2. You perform 3 online bill payments a month. (1%) 
3. You spend at least S$400 on your OCBC credit cards (combined). (1%)

#2: These bill payments include your own OCBC credit card(s) or non-OCBC bank credit card(s) payments. If you sign up for GIRO payment of bills (e.g. credit card, utilities, town council, income tax, property tax, etc.) you literally can ignore the tracking of payment status of these bills.

#3: If you charge your recurring bills from utilities, handphone, internet, town council, etc. to your OCBC credit card, these amounts will still count towards the spending requirement.

Why am I sold?

There are certain expenses that I will definitely incur, so I should maximise my benefits from these expenses.

Assuming you have these monthly recurring bills:

• Utilities ($100)
• Handphone ($30)
• Internet ($40)
• Town Countil ($50)

Total: $220

What this means is that out of the $400 minimum spend, I will need to spend another $180 to qualify for the bonus.

This is where we start to look at NETS FlashPay

Other potential monthly expenses:

• Public transport - Train/bus ($80)
• Food court
• Medical 

Depending on our consumption, the amount varies, but the important thing here is the Auto Top-Up facility by GIRO or Credit Card. 

By linking to the top-up to your OCBC 360 account, every top-up will count as 1 bill payment.

By linking to the top-up to your OCBC Credit card, every top-up will count towards the $400 spending requirement.

Most optimised approach is to top-up with an OCBC credit card because it is very easy to get 3 bill payments if you have 3 credit cards.

Caveat: Top-up service fee is $0.25 per top-up, but waived until 31 Dec 2015. If you sign up now, you even get $5 cashback, which means you are paid to sign up. $5 will cover 20 top-ups. Just choose to top-up the maximum of $50 each time, and $1000 (20 x $50) cashless payments through FlashPay will probably last a year.

Note 1: OCBC Frank credit card has auto top-up activated before they send the card to you, so if you try to set up the auto top-up, it will fail. I learnt it the hard way.

Note 2: Auto Top-up only works at tap points at MRT and buses only, not at NETS merchants.

Which 3 credit cards?

1. NTUC Plus card for Link Points
2. Frank card for 6% rebates for online purchases if you spend $500 on the card, capped at $60/month. (particularly useful when you buy air tickets)
3. Titanium card for the NETS FlashPay top-up because currently only Mastercard is supported, except UOB Visa.

More perks for NETS FlashPay

1. 5% for Comfort cab expenses (min $30 a month), suitable if you take cab a lot. There is a transaction fee of $0.30, so to breakeven and benefit, you use FlashPay when $0.30 is less than 5% of your cab fare, i.e. $6, inclusive of booking fees and ERP charges. Unless your cab ride is less than 5 minutes, I am quite sure you will have to pay at least $6. You can also sign up for CAB rewards to get points everytime you use EZ-link or FlashPay to pay cab fares. Get $5 voucher when you accumulate 1000 points. If you sign up now, you get 800 bonus points, which is worth $4.
2. Some food court stall with NETS terminals accept NETS FlashPay too. Even hawker centres has a pilot set up! Beo Crescent and Clementi 448.
3. General Practitioner (GP) Clinics that have NETS terminals accept NETS FlashPay too. For me, I visit Ma Kuang (TCM) and they accept NETS FlashPay.

Lucky Draws:

1. $5000 cash until 31 Dec 2014.
2. Win a unit at Stratum Condo and 20 winners get $1000 cash.

Conclusion:

• I benefit from OCBC 360, which is a maximum of $1525 a year ($127/month), based on 3.05% of $50000.
• I benefit from NETS FlashPay by charging my previous cash expenses to the credit card by choosing to auto-up my FlashPay card by Credit Card.
• Saves time topping up cards, payment bills, etc. 
• My time savings are spent on personal development, researching for investment opportunities, and sleep.

SKII Facial Treatment Mask

I found a website selling these masks had a steal S$11/piece and decided to try it out. Initially I had my doubts because of the discount but I guess the supplier had some means to get the stock from Hong Kong at a lower cost.

In any case, the packaging states that it is made in japan, and after multiple usage, my skin had not become worse. After 10 minutes, the mask managed to hydrate and retain whatever was absorbed in my face for a day. My skin has been quite difficult to handle because it is a mix of combination and dry skin type - some parts are dry while some parts are oily and some parts are just right). Sometimes when I get allergic reactions to products with collagen, the salesgirls just shrug it off as sensitive skin, but it really is about the ingredients.

Radiance. What causes your face to shine, other than good lighting, is the amount of water on your skin surface. This is what I had derived after many years of skin care. This is the only scientific reason I can convince myself to want to maintain a good complexion at a low cost. Drinking lots of water and eating lots of fibre are the pre-requisites before any skin care products can improve any skin condition.

Compared with traditional masks, this SKII facial treatment masks is soaked with pitera. It's a really pungent smell if your nose had not adapted to it. The texture is slightly sticky, but I attribute this sticky texture to its amazing quality to hold moisture in the mask. The mask is noticeable heavier than other masks. By other masks, I refer to masks in the cheaper price range. 1 mask is stated to weigh 20 ml on the packaging. The most the skin can absorb is probably 5 ml.

How do I "ration" 1 mask to make my purchase value for money? You may need to experiment and waste a bit of "juice" (what I call the combination of whatever the mask is soaked in). After taking the mask out, I will usually have about 1/3 of the juice in the packaging, and I will use an air-tight clip to seal it and keep it in the fridge immediately. I will then place the mask on my face for 20 minutes which is usually about the time the masks start to dry up, and then rub the balance juice on my arms and legs. Over the next 1 week, I will apply half teaspoon of juice on my face every night. I use a small disposable plastic spoon that people normally use for yoghurts.

The result? Continuous radiant and smooth face every day at a low cost. The effects stays for a few weeks after the 1 week of continuous usage, but you will realise that after a while, you will need more juice to pump up your face.

Osaka Grand Front Bornelund Kid-O-Kid

Situated on the 3rd floor of the Osaka Grant Front just outside JR Osaka Station, Kid-O-Kid is a playground by Bornelund - a maker of educational toys. The marketing concept was to attract the parents and children to the playground to try out their range of toys and then (hopefully) purchasing a set home later. Their designs were also very attractive in terms of colour, shape, concept (animals are little toddlers' favourites) and the mechanics behind it develop motor and fine motor skills, making the playground suitable for babies aged 6 months to 12 years old.

Entry charges were relatively high for per minute charges. 600 yen for 30 minutes, 100 yen for every subsequent 10 minutes, 500 yen per adult entry. 1-day pass is 1,700 yen for 1 child and 1 adult, which was still relatively high, but when you read more into the table, they also had a monthly pass which was more cost effective at 4,400 yen for the size of the playground.  

大阪府大阪市北区大深町3番1号 グランフロント大阪 ナレッジキャピタル 3階
JR大阪駅 ／ 地下鉄 御堂筋線 梅田駅 ／ 阪急・阪神 梅田駅

Supplementary Retirement Scheme (SRS) Account

I had been reading about the mechanics of the SRS account, and I finally decided to open an account and completed my first trade.

Compelling motivations for the decision:

(All calculations are based on present value)

1. Maximum contribution of $12,750/year for Singaporeans, i.e. 31 years of contribution to accumulate $400,000. 31 years is just the ball-park figure for a round number for illustration purposes.
2. Tax relief on contributed amount. The tipping point is actually if you have to pay 7% or more in income tax because if you are in the lower brackets of income tax, the money you keep could probably earn a 5-6% yield in the stock market. If you pay 20% tax, then the savings will be more. How you calculate this is savings is $12,750 x tax %.
3. At retirement age, $400,000 will be distributed over 10 years, which is $40,000/year or $3,333/month. Only 50% of the amount withdrawn are subjected to tax, and assuming tax rates remain, and the first $20,000 are tax-free, then the $40,000 is tax free because 50% is $20,000. 
4. As dividend from SGX stocks are tax-exempted, you can continue to earn dividend as you buy stocks with this money that is locked in the SRS account.
5. If you are terminally ill or disabled and cannot work, you can withdraw all the money at a 5% penalty, before retirement age. It's better than nothing when you are desperate, but health insurance definitely comes first before putting excess money into SRS.
6. No mandatory contribution like insurance premiums. On years where you don't have excess because of unforeseen circumstances, then you don't contribute.
7. Finally, paying stocks with SRS does not incur any additional steps on the online brokerage. 

I bought blue chips with my first contribution to the SRS account and I am looking forward to hatching eggs 30 years later.

How to choose a stroller?

I went through many phases of asking myself whether I need a stroller, what do I need from it, do I still need it, and finally, I think I should contribute to help others understand more about strollers.

Before 0 months
I decided that I would use a backpack to ferry my little girl because it would be more convenient. None of the strollers in stores attracted me because they were all bulky or flimsy. Seasoned mothers told me that I definitely need a stroller but I didn't believe but they couldn't convince me.

First 2 months
Both mother and baby will need lots of rest so an infant carrier is more convenient. I used infantino sling that has a back support until my baby turned 5 kg and 55 cm long at 2 months.

3 to 6 months
Those 4 months were the most difficult because the baby was too big to fit a sling and too small for standard upright carriers. I know many people still use upright carriers but carrying babies upright would compress their spine which would deprive them of the growth spurts at 3 months and 6 months, so I went to get a stroller. These were my consideration factors:

• Back rest that can be lowered to be flat (160 or 170 degrees is the usual amount advertised);
• Reversible handle to make baby face you when you are pushing the stroller;
• Removable seat cover for ease of washing in case of puke or drips;
• Wheels must be rubber to withstand travelling (I had to push it for 1 hour everyday to and fro home and infant care centre)
• Stability of the frame should be good enough to withstand shakes because of bumpy roads and train vibration when I am travelling.
• If outdoor travel is expected, rain cover would be required.
• Weight wasn't as important because I would not be taking the bus with it.

6  to 8 months
This was another difficult period because the baby is required to be able to sit up for a long period to be able to use the backpack (spine sufficiently developed). I ended up buying the baby carriers that were carried in front of the body. This was just to address my requirement of folding the pram when I take the bus or taxi. I couldn't fold with 1 hand. An essential requirement if you travel alone frequent or not, is to have one-hand operation of the stroller to open and close.

9 months to 36 months
These months were suitable for the backpack carrier. The backpack carrier could take up to 22 kg of load - baby weight + additional things you load into the 20L compartment below the seat. As I really value the mobility factor, I felt that the backpack carrier was worth every cent. The most benefit was derived from being able to board and alight from buses easily, not having to look for escalators or lifts when there were stairs, trekking, and finally travelling up the snow mountain (train, ropeway, bus, walk). For the not so adventurous, a stroller would meet all travelling requirements.

Essential requirements of a stroller at this age was the maximum weight it can take and 5 point harnest seat belt. I eventually bought the second stroller (because the first stroller's frame broke apart after 1.5 years) that could take a maximum load of 25 kg. Stroller weight was 6 kg. I haven't found a lighter frame for a maximum load of at least 20 kg. Load means baby, basket, and any additional bags you would definitely need to hang on the stroller to free your hands to push.

For added mobility, I use a 25L backpack for my daily travelling with the stroller to free my hands to hold on to the more important toddler who wants to walk but can't walk long enough for you to ditch the stroller. The 5 point hardest seat belt is required because with a bigger body that has more energy and had a tendency to fight with you to sit on the stroller (happens a lot when she refuses to go home), the kicking and struggling is very dangerous. By the age of 24 months, mine was smart enough to wiggle out of 3 point seat belts on hair chairs (move 1 leg out and put the leg in the other hole and a slide out). We the 5-point harnest, by the time she wiggled out of the shoulders straps, she would have realised that she was still trapped and couldn't lift her legs out.

Universal Studios Japan

We really have to give credit to the Japanese when they design public amenities because every need is taken care of. The path to USJ is flanked by a row of shops and restaurants called Universal City Walk by Kintetsu (housing the takoyaki museum). To the left, a huge area is under construction, possibly another hotel of more shops. There are already 2 hotels outside USJ and the prices are steep.

The entrance showed the usual grandeur of universal studios and the music that welcomes you to the land of happiness, back to the future style. The obligatory Japanese lady smiles and bows at every visitor at the entrance with a Minnie mouse ears hair band, beginning your journey even before you reach the ticketing counter.

The ticket counter have signs in English and Japanese, and while they try to cater for tourists, I would say that in they still remain very Japanese. It's easy to buy tickets and signs are bilingual. The only difficulty one may face is trying to figure out whether the one-day ticket entitles a re-entry for a lunch break and restaurants outside the park, the answer is no, and these instructions were in Japanese.

The park had changed a lot from my last visit 5 years ago. Notably, the number of F&B had been tremendously increased. The number of themed shops, though smaller, had also increased. These themed shops are at every attraction's entrance and exit, capitalising on the long queues for the bored customer's mind to want to take a look after their ride because they would have been sufficiently engaged by then - blankly staring at the flow of customers to the shop, feeling the ride was amazing, or simply having to just keep a memorabilia because of the anticipation built up during the X-hours long queue. Anyone interested in marketing or consumer behaviour would definitely pick up a few tricks.

With a toddler in tow proved a different sight seeing experience. She was scared of the screams from the roller coaster, a boat making a big splash from a 4-storey inclined descent, mascot dinosaur from the movie Jaws, and the sheer crowd.

Her haven was actually a section of the park with a sesame street themed wonderland designed for children 7 and under - Elmo's Imagination Playland. Our introvert didn't like the crowd outdoors, so we gave the carousel and mini car ride (meant for children aged 3 to 5) a miss. She found her space in the indoor area where there were large spaces with individual play items to keep every little one occupied without feeling threatened, which was an enlightening design. These items were very simple - balloons, blocks, balls. Three types of objects, three areas of play.

The ball area attracted our girl a lot because they had a very interesting sink that takes in balls and spit them out through the shower head. It was cookie monster having a bath!

Unfortunately we didn't get to taste fantastic food because cafes and restaurants either had long queues or no queue. The cafe at the indoor area had no queue hence the food was understandable.

Overall it was not worth the money for us but it was an enlightening experience for me to learn more about how Japanese businesses design products or services to capture the market of the young parents and children. Eventually, when they grow up, they will return to these places they had good memories of. I would never have been able to experience and appreciate these designs had it not been for travelling with our girl, who was 3 years old when we ventured on this USJ excursion. I wouldn't go back again until she is older because of the high entry cost, but if I were a resident, I would buy an annual pass and visit it every week!

Kids Plaza Osaka

One of the bigger indoor playgrounds for kids in Osaka city is called Kids Plaza Osaka, suitable for kids from 6 months to 12 years old. It's half-like a science museum and half-like an indoor playground.

Admission per entry charges for unlimited play for the day only apply to children aged 3 and older with various tiered prices. 300 yen for pre-schoolers aged 3 to 6, 600 yen for school students aged 7 to 12. Adults have to pay 1200 yen. All these are available on their website.

There are 5 floors of activities with the 4th and 5th floor being the most crowded. Our 3-year-old was not comfortable with the bigger children on the 2-storey slides and the huge play area was a little too daunting.

Instead, she enjoyed the smaller exhibits like top spinning, percussion instruments, balls, bubbles, etc, which were at a quieter section of the playground, which was more like an interactive museum exhibit. For a person who enjoys science, I truly enjoyed watching the children play at the exhibits because the exhibits' design really made science and engineering really looked fun to learn and meaningful to our daily lives. I am confident that these exhibits contributed to the number of students who choose science and engineering careers eventually. The SG government had been spending lots of money promoting engineering careers and I believe that nobody had thought of simplifying our science centre exhibits into a kids playground for younger kids to enjoy.

The other section which was extremely crowded was a small supermarket section for children to role play cashiers, packers, and customers. Observing their behaviour was an enlightening experience because the older girls were the cashiers who would check the items, scan the barcode, collect the imaginary money and returned change. The only boys who were playing were the little toddlers who were intrigued by plastic models of common supermarket items. The interest in the supermarket cashier is likely linked to the prevalent number of women cashiers working in supermarkets across Japan (actually in SG too) as a social mould.

The other section that was popular with the boys (schooling age) was a simulated train station, platform and train car. In this exhibit, children get to experience what it is like to be on the wheelchair and taking the train. They will sit on a child-sized wheelchair and navigate through the gantry and to and from the train. Personally, I felt that the exhibit is a Japanese pride in their efforts to promote social inclusion. Toddlers are likely too young to understand.

The exhibit that I was attracted to and played (by spinning the wheel for 5 cycles even though my girl had ran off to play with bubbles) was the mechanical water pump. I had always wanted to know how water pumps worked and this exhibit showed all the small details within pipes to pump water with just your hand spinning a wheel. In modern days, pumps are powered by electricity but this centerpiece shows you how you could build one with different shapes of wood, plastic and metal, which is sorely missing from modern education.

My little girl's favourite was the corner with soap and metal rings to make bubbles. Unfortunately she got herself all soapy and also hit other smaller kids with the metal ring because she was too engrossed with swinging the ring to make bubbles. Unfortunately I could only offer an apologetic look and sorry-s.

Other sections that we did not have the time to explore where the infant area for those mothers who need to entertain the younger ones (very considerate design because it's next to the toilets!), cooking studio which had closed, and digital games.

This place is definitely worth a visit for anyone. There is a very big eating area at the 4th floor for the adults to eat and rest while the children go while on the 5th floor. The full day admission tickets also allow re-entry for the day so it will be considerably value-for-money for a whole day's fun for the children. 3 minutes (just need to cross 1 road) from JR loop line Temma station.

Access Map 

Angklong

Ball race - if only I had this to visualise when learning Physics in school about gravitational potential energy

Bicycle dynamo converting mechanical to magnetic energy

Different notes at different spots - I still can't figure the science behind this! 

Travelling Overseas with a Baby

My friends had been very interested in how I manage to travel with a dependent - toddler and how I actually plan and execute the actual trips. As I am also a logical person and risk adverse, I started with a trial run to somewhere nearby.

Subject: 10-month old girl

Trial run key objective: Flight test, public transport travelling test, hotel bed sleep test.

Preparations: Toys and activities to keep the 1 year old entertained and occupied. Backpack carrier for baby. Clothes and loads of medicine spares for cough, runny/blocked nose, fever, diarrhoea, vomitting.

Considerations: Supermarket, departmental toilets, baby changing facilities, ease to get baby supplies/food, and security (risk of riots/protests at airport/child kidnap).

Duration of trip: 3D2N

Destination: Penang, Malaysia

Hotel: Traders Hotel Penang

Test observations:

1. Our girl was generally tame on flight. However, this behaviour was suspected to be due to exhaustion pre-flight. This was achieved by arriving at the airport early and allowing her to play at the baby entertain rooms, walking, climbing stairs, and simply observing all the sights and sounds at the airport.
2. Choose a seat where you think will have a higher chance of an empty seat, so when we choose seats, we choose seats with 1 empty seat in-between and hope that nobody sits there.
3. Meals on flight was difficult to handle single-handedly because of space constraints. She would grab the cutlery, cups, and anything shiny. I never knew I could finish my meal with 1 hand until that fateful day we flew on the plane with her on my lap for 1+ hour.
4. Take-off and landing was a jittery affair as she did not like to be buckled up. The stewardess were understanding and allowed me to only buckle just before the plane took up. This was also to minimise the restrained period and was critical to maintain good temperaments. Snacks like baby puffs and biscuits were essential to keep her occupied for that short 10 minutes.
5. Bring in an empty water bottle to fill water after the immigration counters. This is also to help hydrate both baby and self before the flight. Always change diapers before the flight.
6. The baby cot provided by the hotel was not comfortable and she ended up sleeping on the bed with us. Using a pillow to block the edge of the bed was sufficient to keep her from rolling off.
7. Having a big variety shopping centre near by would be very useful to get the much needed breakfast, lunch and dinners when you are exhausted from the full day of baby sitting and travelling.
8. Keep her warmer than normal to prevent any chance of catching colds. Err on the side of caution and make her sweat instead of feel cold.
9. Always upkeep good hygience through the trip by washing hands whenever there is a toilet in sight and before and after meals.
10. She enjoyed her trip a lot because her smiles lasted the whole day and everyday.

The Deuter Backpack carrier that allows you to place her on the floor when at the restaurant.

She sits and sleeps comfortably throughout the trip.

With an empty seat, she can comfortably sleep on the plane.

Humble Beginnings

I spent about 25% of my time sleeping, another 25% working, and the remaining 50% babysitting, and that these three major activities contribute as the source of inspiration for what I do.

Unfortunately, I burnt another overtime weekend this week and while I was out with my little girl getting her a TCM massage, I was suddenly struck with the idea that I should really start writing (both for the sake of writing, and for that distant glimmer of hope that I may one day be able to make a living out of just pixels on a screen) and for a start, the name shall be little brush. A quick consultation with Google showed that little brush was associated with make-up, hence I decided to go with little toy brush.

Little brush was meant to represent my time as a brush, cleaning up after people's mess, both literally and figuratively - toilet brush. If you think deeper into the word toilet, it really sounds like TOIL-er, which sounds like a distant cousin to my occupation at large, and the word toy, would be a suitable candidate to cover-up this connotation.

temporal phase shift

"Temporal phase shift" suddenly appeared in my mind while I was on my way home and while I was wondering what it meant, I googled and figured that it most probably was something I learnt in some yucky signals or electrical engineering related module which I didn't comprehend a word.

What was really in my mind at that point in time was "opportunity cost" and "diminishing rate of return".

How I really was feeling was exhaustion due to a very frantic past two months due to massive temporary exodus of keyboard warriors and telephone operators, hence resulting in a lots of interference when calls go hunting down the line.

Why I was feeling as such was most probably due to the fact that I could not complete anything that I had planned to complete in that two months.

Who could have caused that feeling was most probably my upper food chains that have been introducing interrupt requests, race conditions, asynchronous interrupt and acknowledge intervals, buffer overflow, timeout connections, or simply entertaining slow loris'.

Collectively, that could be the enlightened term - "temporal phase shift".

I was looking back at the time I spent on work and divided them into either 1. I didn't learn anything; 2. I learnt something.

Here is my analysis of opportunity costs for the two categories of work:

1. I didn't learn anything. What this probably could be will range from something like copy and paste 1000 times, to explaining the security requirements in the specifications. From an efficiency point of view, I probably was able to complete the unit task in a very short time. By that I don't mean I spend a short time on the task in totality, but when divided to a unit task, it's short. For example, copy and paste 1000 times will take 1 second per copy and paste, as compared with someone who needs to learn how to copy and paste and spend 1 minute per copy and paste. From a productivity point of view, which looks at the time spent on the total task, the longer I spend on a task of this nature, the higher the opportunity cost to the organisation because it means that I am over qualified for the job scope and I had to sacrifice some other work in place for the 1000 copy and paste for example. From an effectiveness point of view of the one who assigns me the task, it's very effective because I can complete the task in a short time and he/she can meet his objective earlier, but from an organisation point of view, localised effectiveness will forsake overall organisational or divisional operational effectiveness. Hence, diminishing rate of return.

2. I learnt something. By now, you should understand what this category means - basically it is something which I had to spend more than average time to get it done. For example, it can range from learning how to fix the table headers for tables that span over many pages, or how to pay an invoice, to learning how to ensure that your boss doesn't screw up and create more work for you. The last part was just an illustration and any resemblance is coincidental. From an efficiency point of view, I will be utterly inefficient, hence rendering me ineffective and unproductive. For example, having to spend 1000 minutes to complete 1000 copy and paste as compared with another keyboard warrior who can complete 1000 copy and paste in 1000 seconds. The organisation pays for my 1000 minutes to learn how to copy and paste 1000 times, and that's the opportunity cost. However, if my main job scope is to specialise in copy and paste, then this would have a lower opportunity cost as I gradually complete my task (over someone whose main job scope isnt copy and paste) and increasing rate of return because the more I practise, the better I will become at copy and paste - potentially 1000 seconds if i master the technique from the other guy who can complete in 1000 seconds.

I wasn't doing 1000 times of copy and paste, but close. The optimal work assignment is to assign the didnt-learn-anything work to people who can complete in short spurts, much like how you queue 4 hours to see a specialist for 2 minutes and pay $200, and allow the specialist to delegate the routine check up work to the i-learnt-something person who will have increasing rate of return. After some time, the i-learnt-something person will feel that he has diminishing rate of returns and that is when his opportunity cost is reduced, the organisation gains the productivity and then move him into something else where he can reset his equilibrium. In this aspect, the specialists need to be given some space to also learn something, else they risk diminishing rate of return and lower organisational effectiveness, even though they charge $200 for 2 minutes of consultation.