Random thoughts: A Sunday family time

Where to go? Cheap and good!

Heard of Changi Coastal walk?

We had a good walk before we go for a sinful but delicious brunch at Changi Village Hawker Center.  

We were treated to more than cheap food. We were treated to a great view.

I took another photo with this as the background but including my wife and son in it. I wrote this in my face book: your company is heaven on earth.

We did went to the nearby Tampines one for a walk. My wife told me she need a spray bottle. I went to Watson and saw these:

The empty bottle costs $ 3.9 after discount, the hair mosituralizer cost $2. It is a bigger bottle too.

Guess which one I would get? But knowing my wife I told her to make a choice. She said get empty bottle as she does not want to waste the mosituralizer but throwing it away. I said ok. But I think wasting $2 is waste too.

Man and woman, or perhaps me and my wife difference. 

What would u get? Empty bottle or pour away the liquid in the hair spray?

Recent action: Accordia Golf Trust

Accordia Golf trust is the only counter I managed to get when market goes tipsy recently. I didn't get it at the bottom, I paid 62 cents but I think it's good enough. I queue for more STE, and was hoping venture go lower, but nope... 

I have 2 bug bears on Accordia. 

1) no injection of driving range as asset by parents.

2) possible currency weakness

The Q1 report however gave me some confidence as despite the vulnerability of weather, it still manage to edge out a decent operating number. If we annualise the q1 payout, we would get >10% yield. The management seems able to manage cost and squeeze out decent return from their golf courses 

FCF was enough to sustain their current dividends, with minimum capex. 

Yen was strengthen instead of weakened as a result of recent Yuan Scare ...

Need not worry about the refinancing of loans untill 2017. 

So, what have u gotten during black Monday and Tuesday? 

Random teaching ideas: P6 market

While the pupils are improving in a upward trend, I seriously do not think I can meet the sales target set by my boss. LOL.

I am quite sure there are 2 pupils in my class who finally got it, their disappointment will be in not getting their A and no longer worry about passing. 

I am betting on vocabulary segment for this weak class. It turn out ok for most people, with the drill and practice etc. 

The oral exam is under the bridge and I hope they did ok. 

Opened ended comprehension is a lost market, I think beside the 3 - 5 who could apply the technques, the rest are really gone... I could try to set complete  the conversation with the words revised so that it reinforced the words. That perhaps will allow me to steal some market.

Writing is about the conclusion weakness and the  lack of vocabulary. Should go into daily spelling of lines !! I will use the holiday to work on booklet 4!! 

Hmm... Think that's about all the time I have... Maybe the comprehsion questions can set from the 课文同步 articles ... MCQ options is painful. Maybe I will just ask them to circle it.  

Include all these in the final exercise of Term 4 for final push to PSLe

May luck be with them LoL

Nice, clearer mind again! Yippee 

SILLY in Vested Teachers

Random teaching ideas: New product launch

Think I will start a new series.

This is purely for me to crystallize my thoughts as I would for investment reflections. Give it a skip when u see such a tag.

P4 results did really badly as compared to competitors. I pushed for another chapter beyond what is required in CA so that I have more time fr Oral practices in term 4. I am
Not sure if the subsequently lack of time for revision is the reason for the poor performance.

One bright girl and a obedient boy suffered a big drop of marks. Surprisingly, those on my "hate list" where I always barked at did reasonably ok.

The bright girl was absent rather frequently and hell that I didn't follow up is a big slap I should give myself. The bright boy seem less motivated and I wrongly assume he should be able to take care of himself.

I have also seemed to have placed the bets at the wrong time. I went for compo writing and comprehension and give less emphasis on vocabulary since this is a high ability class with lesser need for vocabulary explanation anyway. But I think the drill and practice should not be compromised, at least not when nearer to the exam. I could have thought of more games and activities to drill and practice with more fun.

The dilemma is, if I spend more time on these and lesser preparing for the longer term weakness of oral conversation, comprehension and writing, would not the final paper do worse?

I hope my bets are EoY correct and the sales pick up at the end of the year for a Christmas rally that will offset Q3 numbers.

Going forward, since my bets are on for writing and oral. I think I will continue to do that but add the element of vocabulary drill nearer to the exam. It is quite evident that they are writing better than 3 months ago. The conversation framework was caught on by a few, and I think I need to emphasized the link and start to do close oral recording and follow up to capture the market of reading and conversation.

As compared to failed comprehension attempts, more pupils are passing it. Will continue to expand this market. The rewriting skill of comprehension need to be work on and I will do gallery walk for this component and break up the SPRC framework for different groups.

In terms of vocabulary, beside guess the pic game, which the pupils are already sick of, I could add mermory game with questions.

I could also ask pupils to form questions using the rewritten sentences and organized an competition to get them to learn comprehension in a fun way.

The bets are still in the few markets segment I am eyeing by I am not sure if I will be caught with the same problem of not having enough time.

Thanks goodness that Psle is over earlier, I  will spend week 4 onwards on additional supplementary classes for this P4.

Hope sales get better. P6 is another product for another post another day. Time to do some marking...

Blogging is therapy even in area of teaching... My mind is clearer now ... Thanks...

Silly in vest teacher

Random thoughts: Creative technology

I read up on Creative Technology AR for the past 15 years. I have wanted to do a case study but decided to tag a random thoughts to it because I thought there are more reflections than analysis.

First, when I google "why did creative fail", this blogger gave the best answer. He seems like a insider of the tech industry and I shall

Not parroted his views on the products. 

https://erictayet.wordpress.com/2013/06/01/creative-technologies-missed-opportunities-or-lost-cause/

However, at his hey days of late nineties, Creative did diversfy. It is a capital Venture company, investing on small Tech start-ups that look very promising with over 100 million profits in just 1 year. Thereafter, it is a roller coaster ride.

Even within the core audio market, there is clear market segment that creative want to capture and that is one period of time they were into the Internet business, broadband etc. 

Also, unlike NOL which is slow in getting mega and green vessels and expanding at the wrong time. SIM did correctly spot the  trend of personal entertainment devices, which is like known as MP3 player.

So what went wrong? Was it possible to spot it earlier? If u look at Creative numbers prior to 2004, the FCF is super high and beautiful albeit volatile, but never negative. So if u think only debts kill a company, u like me, could be placing too much faith in numbers such as FCF. 

When its operating numbers start faltering, creative place big bets on ther personal entertainment devices market, believing that as first mover, they can capture that market. The segment revenue grow very strongly as it challenge Apple and it became the biggest segment of revenue generator but it's margin became raZor thin and subsequently become loss making.

That could well be the first red flag that "outsider" could spot without hindsight.

After looking at Creative and look at Venture, I read it's AR all over again. I think the remark of moving to higher margin product is "bullshit" but the actual fact is their major customer in printing and imaging is not doing as well due to  competition and is starting to rely on in-house capability to produce. Nonetheless, that Venture never show a negative operating profits and did diversfy successfully means it might have avoid death. But was it just economic bad times? Not, I do not think Venture could go back to days where it could be a sexy "grower" again even if economy do turn very quickly. It might however be able to grow slowly. 

This reading exercise highlight the risk of 1-2 major customer/ segment/ where if u fail, we could well be seeing dogs. 

Then, it's sembcorp marine going the way of Creative? Was it a economic bad time or was it going to be killed by competition. I am hell cutting loss when marine announce Operating loss, even for sembcorp industries.

So, if u are looking at UMS or namlee who is highly dependent on 1-2 major customer, it pays to look at the customer closely. 

------

When I am Driving to see a doctor today, I have this thought. I am like creative... 

I used to be the "golden boy"

But have since lost some of the mojo judging by my pupils' results. 

So how to prevent a Creative? Diversfy and capture new markets fast!! I better try new ways of teaching and see the results first! Different pupils are like consumers, what worked in the past seriously is not working well now, and my hybrid method of changing and improving my teaching at the corners is seriously not working well. 

I have 2 new products, and 1 new production method, I only have 2 more months to show results. Hope reception is good. 

随心笔：一个人潇洒，还是一家人生活

最近，和一个朋友聊天，他对我说，他选择一个人的自由，所以以后会承受孤单，因为他自私地生活。

一个人有什么罪？

如他说的，是一种选择。

选择了潇洒，放弃了天伦。

有家庭的人，晚年不一定幸福，没听过败家子吗？

一个人独处，不一定寂寞。

最要不得，是有了家庭，还完完全全想着自己的潇洒。

Random thoughts: practicing Zen through markets volatility?

This post is kind of inspired by SMOL.

He mentioned he practized Zen through the volatile market. Of course, as a trader, his roller coaster ride would be different from mine. Mine is little big club thrill ride. Only for those below 7 years old.

My thought is: if markets really give u so intense a emotion that it became a zen moment, we have to really ask how long we have been investing and how many cycles? 

I think 2015 is really shaping up as a watershed zen moment for me. From my mother illness, to the inferiority complex at work, I think I can going through the mill now.

I used to get upset when my MIL has problems with my maid. Now, I just zen through.

I used to think how unlucky I am to need to cope with caregiving and work, until I realized most people nearing 40s had that experince in one form or another. Maybe they dun blog.

I am really talking to people. Listening to their stories. I am also listening to my emotions and my loved ones more. 

Zen... It comes and go, the state of equilibrium ... Is but a passing cloud... The sufferings are more intense like standing under a rain, but it will stop and change.

Under the rain, we owned it to ourselves to smile and open up the arms. Cry or smile, and enjoy getting shit/ or soaked. Instead, we could curse, swear and whined. If u have someone under the rain with you... That's more complicated. Do u usher her to shelter for fear of her getting sick? Or do you ask her to enjoy the rain? 

Walk with her to where she go, stupid! Enjoy holding her hand be it in the rain or rushing for shelter. Seize that moment of love to build up your base. Feel the hand. The cursing is music... Fixated on the rain ? Change ... Is zen 

I cherish every zen moment, it comes after a difficult morning.