Recycling: When Green becomes Grim

We have all been taught the importance of the 3 Rs: Reduce – Re-use – Recycle.

But like all things in life, commonsense must prevail.


Reduce
One good example:
Reduce waste by mending broken appliances instead of replacing them.

One bad example:
Folks who reduce till they refuse to spend money anymore, even when a small outlay leads to better productivity and time-saving.


Reuse
One good example:
Give unwanted but useable stuff to charity or those who can use it better.

One bad example:
It can be quite a headache when you are the one paying the detergent, scrub-sponges and water bill, and folks at home insist on washing every oily plastic wrappers that contained foodstuff and then take up the whole kitchen space hanging them everywhere to dry.  Worse, the smell of the curry or strong stench which could not be washed off fills up the whole place. 

Commonsense would tell you that some stuff should just be thrown.  They are hard to wash off, without applying much effort to scrub, soak, wash, dry, store.  The amount of detergent that goes into washing such wrappers or disposable containers is often more costly than the wrapper itself.  Not to mention, these folks are the very same ones who can't seem to find time for more productive stuff.


Recycle
One good example:
Materials such as paper and metal can be recycled to generate environmental, financial and social benefits.

One bad example:
Other than recycling what's there in the immediate environment, the inhouse recycling enthusiast suddenly turns the home into a garang guni hoarding centre, where collections from around the neighbourhood and all over pours in to become endless cycles of recycling.  Collections originally meant for recycling turns into hoarding as the sorting out becomes overwhelming, and the recycler turns hoarder. 

Many families have their lives turned upside down when one family member get carried away with recycling.  The once peaceful haven of home can quickly become an unhygienic place to live in, as the constant stream of stuff can sometimes be old, and rather dubious in its origins.

Sleep - Don't Short It

A new finding last year found that when we sleep, channels for waste and neurotoxic substances open up by as much as 60 per cent more. Indeed, in other research, removal of beta-amyloid, a substance implicated in Alzheimer’s disease, was found to be substantially higher during sleep.
~
Commentary written on behalf of the Singapore Sleep Society, to commemorate World Sleep Day on March 14.

Source:
Prof. Michael Chee,
Neuroscience and Behavioral Program,
Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School
&
Investigator,
National Medical Research Council STaR

Credit Card Charge: Transacted vs. Posted Date

When calculating the entitled rebates, Standard Chartered Bank and OCBC Frank credit cards use posted date (date when merchant post the bill) rather than the transacted date (date when the customers uses the card to transact).

This often results in a shorter spending period for the customers who is unsure of when the merchant would actually post. 

It saves the bank money but cause inconvenience to customers.  Many disappointments had been voiced by customers who finds their rebates shrink as a result.

During promos, care has to be taken once again to find out if the charge date refers to the transacted date or the posted date. 

Wish all the credit card companies would just standardize it all to transacted date.  Customers like to have some form of certainty, rather than grabbling with too many variables.

Fear is the Root of Your Problems

Leo Babauta, creator and writer of Zen Habits, advocates self-compassion, to work on the fear that's causing our problems.  He provides good tips on the practice and process of awareness, acceptance, seeing the pain, finding gratitude, and being in the moment without an ideal.

Here's a few examples of how fear manifest in your daily life -

Procrastination
Fear of failure
Discomfort of doing something hard
Fear of missing out something important

Debt
Fear of letting go of comforts
Fear of other's judgment

Relationship problems
Fear of losing control
Fear of not being good enough
Fear of rejection
Fear of letting go

Can't exercise
Fear of discomfort
Fear of disrupting more favored routines like TV and Internet viewing

Can't change diet
Fear of being denied enjoyment of 'comfort' food
Fear of not keeping up with the changed diet

Fulfilling ambition
Fear of failing
Fear of taking the plunge
Fear of not being ready
Fear of not being good enough

Work Stress
Fear of not being perfect (too perfectionist)
Fear of errors and mistakes



Sometimes, when it gets too much, we become paralysed by fear and end up not doing anything.

We have encountered this before, and find that at times, it becomes necessary to reduce clutter, and  basically, to attack big blocks of backlogs, work loads or even emotional burdens by breaking it into smaller tasks or pieces.

We are even prepared to downsize our lifestyle if it gets too intense.

Peace and simplicity rules!

Loaf of Bread - Subway and other Singapore Bakers

After Food Babe Vani Hari's call to action, Subway stores in USA is to remove the harmful chemical azodicarbonamide in their bread.

This is a synthetic chemical mixed into plastics to make them more pliable.  Subway and many other bakers use it as a bleaching agent to make bread look nice, as well as a dough conditioner for faster bread production.

It could be in your burger buns, garlic bread, hot dog buns, muffin, and in many other retail bread.

We used organic flour to bake our own bread using Breville breadmaker.

However, owing to lack of time, we also patronize outlets ranging from Bengawan Solo, Cedele, Delifrance, Four Leaves and its franchise Peck bakery at Takashimaya, McDonalds, Subway, Sun Moulin at Isetan Scotts, to name a few.

They all taste good but how much azodicarbonamide does a typical bread lover consume here in Singapore?

Mirriam MacWilliams Millionaire Trader

Mirriam MacWilliams' free seminars in Singapore must have been very convincing - enough to make a banker friend part $$$.

After sinking $4,000+ into Millionaire Trader programme, a series of emailed courses came flooding in.  In the end, nothing ever comes out of it.

The path to create wealth may be presented simplistically, in order to invite folks who are mostly pressured for times, to join the get-riches-easy club. 

In practice, a certain level of commitment is always required by the consumer who buys into these products. 

In this case, the learning curve from the emailed lessons itself cause the process to come to a standstill.  Don't talk about getting to the first trade.

To do anything  well, time is always needed, no matter what people say, and how things are presented.

If you couldn't commit time, there is no programme in the world that can get you rich.

Set up SingPost collection booths at MRT stations

One of the delights in reading newspapers is the reader's contribution session. 

And, one of the added delight in reading newspapers online is the commenter's response to the reader's contribution.

One extract from Today's reader, published on 28 February 2014:~

Set up SingPost collection booths at MRT stations
From Arthur Phua

The biggest problem with online purchases is that one must be at home to receive the delivery.

If SingPost could set up collection booths at various MRT stations and charge a small fee for this service, it would bring convenience to recipients and reduce SingPost’s labour overheads from not having to deliver to every door.

Such booths need not occupy a big space, and the capacity could be managed via an online booking system.

And here's what the online commenter says in response:~
 Ricky Lye · Top Commenter

Set up post offices next to MRT Stations, no need to set up additional booths for collection.

All very good ideas, considering our experience of SingPost delivery postman/courier leaving a "you-were-not-in' notice far too many times for this excuse to be valid.

At first, when we got such a slip stuck to the door entrance, we thought the doorbell went kaput.  There is always someone on standby, so how could the loud bell be missed?

Then, when it happened even when the door was wide open, and many folks were around, we began to wonder if we didn't splint to the entrance fast enough for the postman/courier to vanish off to his next rounds.

This was confirmed finally, when at the first strike of the doorbell gong, we dash to the door - only to find the same old notorious SingPost slip waiting instead of the postman/courier!  Ta-da .. ta-da .. drum-roll.. .. ..we knew we didn't make it to the Olympics.  The impatient postman/courier obviously felt we were not Usain Bolt standards and too slow for his liking.

SingPost didn't make it to the Olympics too, come to think of it. 

We paid lots for their airfreight from USA, only to find that upon reaching Singapore, smaller items would be segregated from the larger items, and then posted using snail mail instead of couriers.  It took 2 weeks for the smaller items to arrive, after the larger items were received via local courier within Singapore.  All items were in the same pack, coming from USA to Singapore.  The air delivery from USA to Singapore was fast and on schedule.  It was only when all big and small items arrive in the same shipment pack, that the delay became evident.