Valorous Halcyon

I have been reading a lot on credit card lately, and I am applying one which I will elaborate further later. For those who already have a credit card or a few under their belt, you will understand that credit card can work as a double edged sword. If you think you will be out of control when you are on a shopping spree, and if you are the kind of person who will keep spending even though you are unsure of how you are going to finance it in a month time, it is advisable that you keep yourself as far away from credit card as possible, until you learnt the proper way of controlling your own spending habit. The key here is to spend less than you earn. However, if you are like me who will think not twice but thrice about buying something, and able to pay the bill on time, owning a credit card can provide you two main benefits: 1)  Building up your credit history. It is very essential to have your credit history built up once you have started working because sooner or later you will ...

Ola everyone! Hope you guys are doing well. As usual, I have yet to receive any substantial work nor get assigned to any division so again I am pretty much free. As the seniors say, be happy with your free time now and enjoy as much as you can. But today as I was doing some reflections, I just want to share about my focuses and I see this blog as a perfect avenue to pen down every single thought. Personal development I see myself as a shy person, particularly to new people I have met. But this identity must change. Few days ago as I was reading a book called "Winning the Game of Life" by Adam Khoo, one of the topics wrote about changing Your identity. One core takeaway from this topic is that you will work towards what and how you view yourself, your perception and your own mindset. I find it particularly challenging to reflect on this, because all this while I have been telling myself I am an introvert and therefore it is natural (and it is okay) fo...

Hooorayyy!!! My exam is over, and let me tell you how I felt immediately after the exam. I felt happy ostensibly like many other friends, but honestly I felt really empty inside, for all in sudden I didn't know what to do after one whole month of nerding, burying myself with notes and past year papers. I actually felt so emo on the day after, thinking hard of what should I do. All in sudden, I thought of playing Texas Hold'Em Poker in Facebook. I bumped into playing poker a week before (just a day after my Economics Paper 4 exam), and I started to learn how to play. But the hard thing comes after learning. Learning how to play poker can be done in less than 10 minutes, but to master it takes a whole life! Just in case you don't know what is poker, poker is a card game that involves betting based on the two cards that you are holding distributed by dealer. You are required to put a blind (minimum stake) into a pot (if you decided to play that hand), and to call/raise/fold ...

Most people are emotionally driven, and that includes me and most people I know. We feel sad and heartbroken when we lose something; happy and excited when we gain. But what I would like to discuss here is the overwhelming sadness engulfing us when we lost something. Losing something, in my opinion, is a very common experience that everyone would encounter at least once in a lifetime (even that also considered as extremely rare). The 'magnitude' of sadness engulfing us largely depends upon losses that hit us, either in the matter of finance, health, relationship with friends and family , and loss of a loved one. Seeing the sadness and heartbrokenness that overwhelmed me and some of my close people due to financial loss, I would love to go deeper into it and share some of my views on financial loss. This was particularly evident yesterday within my circle of close people. Some individuals kept emphasising the emotional pain of losing something expensive, without realising th...

Hello people! So it's sermon time again! This is the sermon for Sunday service this morning, delivered by Pastor Sandra! Before commencing the sermon, Pastor read through the biblical scriptures! So here it goes: Bible verses: Revelation 22:17, John 14:1-2, Matthew 24:36, Acts 1:6-7, 9-10, 1 Thessalonians                     4:16-17, Ephesians 5 - Remember Bible verses can help people in all sorts of circumstances, with God speaking to you. - There is an angel watching over everyone of us. - God gives us another helper (Holy Spirit). - When you hear the trumpet sound of archangel, Jesus is coming! - Jesus is our bridegroom, and He is now busy building our mansions in Heaven for us! - Jesus is waiting to come and get us, His second coming! - Jesus is coming back to get His bride (the church)! - We need to get ready as a bride, by improving ourselves for our bridegroom (Jesus), befor...

Remember I was contemplating between Warwick's MORSE and Cass's Actuarial Science? Thanks to my seniors and friends, I've finally decided on my firm. You know who you are. =) My major concern was whether the interesting optional modules offered in MORSE worth the longer timeframe of the qualifying process to be an actuary. After seeking advices from many people, I would firm Cass as my first choice. Here I would give 3 good reasons why I would choose Cass over Warwick, but nevertheless both are very good schools and both courses are good. 1) Uncertainty of MORSE's optional modules   What do I meant by this? It's true that MORSE does offer lots and lots of good interesting modules that captured my interest. Particle physics, Quantum Phenomena, Number Theory, Numerical Analysis, Partial Differential Equations (PDE), Stars, Galaxies, Geometry and Motion and so on. Those are really interesting, and the attraction of me towards these modules was further intensified...

This question has been revolving in my mind for a few weeks and now I'm still contemplating over this. People have been saying it ultimately boils down to what I want to do, and it's really up to me to choose which one to go. But I will evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of both schools and courses, and I believe this would be really helpful for anyone having the same dilemma with me. I would start the evaluation with MORSE (3 years) at Warwick. Its optional modules are enviably interesting and broad, a course structure that one wouldn't be able to learn in Cass. Stars, Galaxies, Number Theory, Particle Physics and Quantum Mechanics, just to give a few examples. It provides me a greater exposure to various topics in maths and physics, aside from probability and statistics that primarily involved in Actuarial Science. The reputation of Warwick as one of the top 6 universities in the UK also provides many career opportunities as graduates from MORSE are often sought af...

Wooohooo A2 trial is OVER!!! I was so excited when the invigilator said 'Time's up!' yesterday upon finishing my Maths P4 (Mechanics)! Praise the Lord! I didn't have much time to update these 2 weeks cause I was too busy preparing for trial exams! Last week was the worst, with Economics Paper 4, Further Maths 1, and Further Maths 2 on consecutive days. So after 3 ridiculously stressful days of studying, time to camwhore myself! HAHAHA! Well quite unexpected from me, but it's my first time enjoying camwhoring so much! =p I think if you were my friend in my FB, you will be able to see... uh... suffer muahahaha! =p Despite having busy schedule, I still had time (especially when I was hopping on the bus from college to Casa or vice versa) to pick up a book. I've been reading 'The Quant' by Scott Patterson borrowed from the library 2 weeks back before trial started, temporarily stopped reading 'Fooled by Randomness' by Nassim Taleb for a while. ...

Good morning people! I'm awake now and it's wayyyyy too early for a weekend! The malfunction of my alarm clock has definitely trained me well to rely not on him, but rather my most reliable biological clock! I'm lazy to change the battery, or buy a new battery, cause this has never came across my mind recently! Too busy with study. Wait, really? These few days I woke up everyday automatically at 6.15 - 6.20am, with the first thing in mind is... trial is coming in less than 3 weeks! Stressful. =( I praise God for waking me up, take shower and prepare myself for class commencing at 8am every weekday. My breakfast has been the same too, for this whole week; yet I enjoy eating it so far; 2 bananas, 3 slices of wholemeal bread with peanut butter spread, 2 eggs and a cup of low fat milk. This can last me for another 4 hours before my break time at 11am. This week I spent quite a considerable number of hours teaching my juniors too, mainly on applied maths (mechanics and stati...

On Tuesday, I attended a talk organised by Acts Church intended for young working adults, on managing our financial health. It was quite beneficial even for me, a campus student. The talk was conducted by Dr. Wong Hong Meng, a Chartered Accountant with over 30 years of professional experience. I heard that his first seminar on goal setting was rather boring, but thank God this time it was in fact very informative! It's never too young for a person to start thinking about retirement (preferably now), cause when it would be too late when you start thinking about it at the age of 55. For me, I'm aiming to spend most of  my retirement period in Perth (Australia) cause I personally think that it's a very calm and serene place. There are 4 key elements in personal finance i.e income, expenditure, assets and liabilities. The inequality between income and expenditure would result in saving, while that between assets and liabilities would result in net worth. These are two cases ...

'How's Cambridge decision?' and  'Got any reply yet?' are among the most common questions that I got these few days. The actual decision was revealed finally after a few months, on last Friday. Some of my friends (in fact a lot) got rejected as always, and some of them got pooled. I don't personally know of anyone who got offer from the University, until just now someone told me that one of my friends got offer. I would like to congratulate those who got offers and commiserate those who got rejected. To those who are being pooled and waiting to be fished, good luck and have faith in yourself! =) Unbeknownst to me, I was waiting for my decision like anyone else. Thanks to my senior, I was advised to stay calm and not to expect too much. Indeed, expectation would influence your immediate reaction at the moment you get to know your result. If you hoped too much, you will be very disappointed when you were rejected. If you did not expect much, you wouldn't fee...

It's been a few days and I'm back! Well I'm always here. I have so much things to tell yet couldn't put it in words. I just don't know where to start. I've attended a few events these few days - a gathering for Christian Fellowship members in TCSJ (2010) and an annual general meeting for alumni of Alam Shah Science School (OASIS). I wouldn't tell everything in detail cause that would certainly bores you to death, but I've noticed something in common. And I feel obligated to share it with you, my reader. First of all, I felt extremely happy and grateful to gather with many old friends (some of them even lost in touch for ages). I was happy for their well being now, and definitely hoped that they would continue to do well in their life. Some of them do extremely well and have already proceed to doing their respective degrees, while some of my seniors from my previous secondary school have already started working. Some of my CF friends are taking gap year...