Have you bought new shoes for new year?

Is it a tradition to wear new clothes and shoes when a new year arrives? I wonder if partly it is due to technology and quality of these products in the old days cannot last too long. Thus, is there still a need to buy new shoes each year?

Recently, I commented at a blog about this issue. Would you buy a pair of shoes at $40 each year because you want/need a new shoe each year? Or would you buy a pair of shoes at $150 that is very likely to last you at least 4 years?

Ultimately it is not about money

Recently I've been reading about financial planning. I am not a book person, instead of books, I read about some blogs whose authors describe their journey of growing wealth. Learn a lot from these readings.

An important concept in financial planning is deciding between wants and needs. Even though this is subjective, most if not all understand that money is not everything. A purpose of growing one's wealth is to have good life, not to have huge numbers to describe how wealthy one is. Thus, it is unwise to go too much towards one extreme where one minimized his wants, and even needs.

I think there are important things that shouldn't wait. I think many people in Singapore waiting for a new HDB flat for starting family is a terrible

Is this the only PC shop in Toa Payoh?

I would like to make some good comments about a newly opened computer shop in Toa Payoh Central, Ability Computer Accessories.

My 5 year old computer had been very slow for years and failing to boot up frequently. Two weeks ago it became so bad that not even the first beep sound is heard. Finally, last week, guessing that it could be the PSU faulty, and I happened to walk past this newly opened computer shop, I bought a PSU from the shop

Legal vs safeness

The title of the news report, More cyclists caught riding illegally on footways focused on legality, while the contents, "accidents with pedestrians can result in serious injuries" highlighted safety concerns.

Strictly speaking, accidents with pedestrians are not only caused by bicycles on footpaths. Seriousness in an accident largely depends on the momentum, which is product of velocity and mass. Thus, any heavy enough fast moving object can cause serious accidents. Thus, even a teenager running fast enough may injure someone and him/herself seriously. Nevertheless, bicycles are heavier and able to travel faster than humans, although not necessarily.

On the other hand

Merry Christmas!

To all who celebrates Christmas. Yes, Merry Christmas!

Now, please stop reading as the rest will likely make your Christmas less merry.

Bidding for charity

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Bidazzled. All opinions are 100% mine.

Bidazzled seems quite successful from what I see at their site just now. A number of bidders were actively fighting for a 50bids pack at $50 during the last few seconds. In the final minutes of the bidding, the bid price went from about $27 to close at $32.50!

I like its idea that bids are limited. They sell bids. Why do people buy the bids? Other than to bid and buy things at cheaper than retail price, I think it is also for the fun of it, as the phrase on the website says: "entertainment auctions".

What's more attractive to me is that, accordingly, they started off to fund a lung cancer charity (see below). Currently, there is also a promotion until January 15th. I'd like to join once they allow non-US addresses on the sign up page. More information:

My cycling in Singapore experiences - defensive cycling

Trying to restart my blogging on cycling. Recently Jeanette at The Straits Times Blogs mentioned in her article Two wheels for a change that she started riding bicycle to reduce her use of cars. Among the comments, someone displayed unhappiness worrying that her promoting of cycling on road is irresponsible. However, ironically, studies show that the more cyclists, the safer each will be (see More cyclists means fewer accidents, says report, A Virtuous Cycle: Safety In Numbers For Bicycle Riders and my earlier post).

That will take times. Meanwhile, cyclists should put their own safety at very high priority. Here, let me share about some of my thoughts on defensive cycling.

Firstly, my definition of defensive cycling is a way of cycling to achieve

Cheap, fast and also with other advantages

This is a good option to commute:
I like the Strida folding bike except the price :(

Another alternative, cheaper but less flexible way is to own two cheap bicycles to be used at the two ends of your Bus/MRT route.

Would you like to vote?

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Syndacast. All opinions are 100% mine.

Nowadays, there are many things to vote for, especially in Facebook. Now, Carlsberg would like to invite people to vote for Mike's Wishes to come true this New Year, in Carlsberg Wish in a Bottle campaign.

Who is Mike? You can watch "his" short video to learn more about him and his wishes. I noticed that in the comments some are doubting how real is this, which I would be wondering too. I think it is real since Carlsberg is willing to sponsor this blog post, and I hope my blog post is good enough :P

If you don't have a Facebook account, unlikely though, or you prefer not to use it to vote, you may also vote by SMS (not sure does it cost): Send Carlsberg Name NRIC Wish Number to 78111
Example

Vehicles in the eyes of toddlers

A friend's son favorite toys are heavy plants such as bulldozer, huge trucks, and etc. I was wondering why these things attract the boy attention. My own son is also very interested to know about these and different vehicles. At 1+ year, he could identify taxi, bus, van, lorry, concrete mixer, bicycle, etc. I has been wondering why too.

Another related question I have is why characters in children stories are usually animals, and wrongly suggest that they talk like human?

This morning, I thought of a possible reason