To All Singapore Seniors

Retirement Income

2012-01-06T06:42:00.000-08:00

How many think they do not need income when they retire?

The average Singaporean cannot really depend on children or have enough savings to last 20 odd years...And did you say you will spend less? You have no choice but you will have to spend much less as inflation takes a good bite into your savings every year. If you had enough living on $3000/- ten years ago, the same amount cannot support the same lifestyle today.

If you need $2000/- p month, that translates to $24k p year or $480K in minimum savings.
Do you have that?

This simple calculation assumes you and your spouse have no health care needs, or major household repairs or take into account inflation. No movies or elaborate birthday and other celebrations

So you venture into investments of sorts...Forex for instance...
Can you afford to take high risks at an age when you are basically unemployed?

The successful gurus taking you for a good spin of your money, teaching you to be the next millionaire I suspect are making more by conducting the courses for a tidy sum.

Teach the young to save before it is too late. If it is too late already...

Growing OLD

2012-01-02T00:27:00.000-08:00

Age is in the mind...The only trouble is that your body does not know that.

Last night I met a 60 year old lady with a skin complexion better than mine. I asked her for the secret and she said its special pu'er tea and regular spa. Stay away from facials ...no matter how, it stretches your skin.

Willing to try? Her spa budget is $10,000 a year!

Look at Uncle Dicko..his regime is different. Click the next line.
He sings your heart away

How to attract eyeballs in Russia.

2011-11-29T21:26:00.001-08:00

So in order to blog daily, one must have something to write about daily...and I am thinking of Singaporeans who think they live in Russia. This is a standard joke if you don't already know. They say Singaporeans like to sing (the first part of the country name in case you can't get it) but I think they should be called Russians ...because they like to rush!

The kiasu mentality is not something I am proud of as a Singaporean...graceful living? Visit Mr Brown for more information...don't know why they say its a parody of Singapore life. Not the truth eh?

Anyone care to add to my very short list of things to blog that will attract eyeballs?

latest news - gossip - for women who wants to be in the know
scrumptious food - cheap and good variety - for Singaporeans this is THE TOPIC
politics - for controversy - and obliteration

At last, I am paid to blog!

2011-11-29T01:18:00.001-08:00

Not posted anything for some time now. So recently when a young geek friend said you can make money blogging - we took a look at this blog again. Was it brainy or zanny seniors? How do you even find it after so long?

By the time I got in, we were pleasantly surprised.

Google did give me money!!
It's called Adsense!

So fellow seniors, especially you - who have so much to say at the coffee shop, it pays to blog. Even my inactive blog received money, unbelievable.

Expect more to come from today. Google likes active blogs.

Actually I started another blog....."THE MENTALIST"

Please go to deeptrance.blogspot.com

2011-06-07T21:19:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the reflections and ramblings of a ZANNY SINGAPORE BLOGGER.
Here you will find the senior mindset explored and expanded. I am also very much a 'brain' person and you'll find me writing about the brain often. I am a senior in Singapore and I write this for seniors in the land. My aim is to let seniors know blogging and aging is about the best thing since sliced bread.

Try it my senior friend.And when I am confident enough, I will start a guide to blogging for seniors.

If you find what you like come back often. Feel free to leave comments. Or email me if you think you do not want your comment to be published.

On the other hand, if you don' t like what you read, just X me out. It's the tiny button on the top right.

Told you I'm zanny.

Wordpress

2010-10-18T00:14:00.000-07:00

Have anyone tried wordpress? Its a blogging platform too. I have discovered a simple series of video lessons that will help anyone get started. My other wordpress site is
www.easybrainmethods.com

Go take a look if you like to learn more. Its set up with Wordpress. And get the step by step video lessons as well:

Retirement or a prison sentence?

2010-10-17T23:58:00.000-07:00

I have not posted for some time because I have been researching to advance my posting . Remember I want to lead the seniors in IT.

A good friend of mine just told me that I will live till 120. I said Amen...an agreement to which God will honour.
However I don't want to keep going till I don't have enough retirement funds. Remember the OCBC advertisement? That means I still have to work. Anyone out there will give me a job?

What is your idea of retirement? A friend said that it could be a very simple life, and we do'n need to have to eat lavishly. I agree but don't ask me to survive of porridge and salted fish or eat plain rice. That's not retirement, its a prison sentence.

Countdown Clockgreat free widgetsWidgetboxMore info

All that glitters is not gold

2009-10-19T09:16:00.000-07:00

Ever heard of internet millionaires? I want to be one. So I began looking at the many offers that popped out offering internet ways to get rich.

Be forewarned. I was recently caught in such a scam - or what appears to be a scam.

In persuasive language and pics, I was cajoled to just hand over $67/- and get 5 cash making power websites. So as naive as I was, I did. Product delivered - I did get 5 money producing websites; but I suspected it was producing money for them not me.

Contacted the support email to cancel. They did promise money back if not satisfied for whatever reason, no questions asked. Email bounced. Gasp! Now I am trying to get paypal to help.

The site is run by
Melford & Concetta Bibens, Creators
http://CashMakingPowerSites.com

DON'T JOIN - just look.

Let's see what will happen now.

Think FAST Act SHARP Be READY

2009-07-29T16:19:00.000-07:00

When you read a line like the one above, what comes into your mind? A special person? How about yourself being that person?
This morning I feel I want to share with you how you can be that person.
I want to be that person too.
FAST...SHARP ...ALWAYS READY
Is it possible you ask. I know how it is. The night people tell me that they are not morning people. That means they cannot be FAST, SHARP and READY in the morning but only in the night. The parents complain that their children could definitely never be...unless they are at their favourite activity. And of course children and teens have the same say about the adults, especially about grandma.
So
How does one switch on to be
FAST,SHARP and READY?
The answer is quite simple really.
Its called "movement"
Seniors, take heed - its not in watching TV and transforming into couch potatoes.
It's "movement".
Movement is the first sign of life for the unborn child.
Only living things move and when you cease to live, you cease to move.
That's where BRAIN GYM was born.
Go take a look at the other site of mine. Click on the title to get there. Errr.. I can get that working yet. So go to
www.easybrainmethods.com

Aliens among us

2009-07-26T23:06:00.000-07:00

Recently a tele-marketeer called me with one of the numerous things they try to sell you. Nothing so strange about that. I asked for his name. And surprise, surprise, he or she was called "XENON". Now what planet can that be from. I am sure it is not earth.

And did I tell you about the singtel(that's the local telco company) man who turned up at my door with an acupuncture needle in his nose! Serious! After hearing his story about how he needed it to keep his illness at bay, he allowed me to take a photograph. I'll put it up on line once I find out how to crop it so that it does not identify the guy.

Lol. I hope it makes your day as much as it made mine.

Growing Old and not Senile

2009-06-30T19:24:00.000-07:00

I have never felt my age even when I joined the group of ambassadors for active aging. The reporter called me up and spoke to me like I was from another planet but I told her "I don't feel age at all." She repeated my statement, surprised. I could not elaborate then, but now I know somehow the mind does not age with the body.

So how does one account for the pain in the knee? Whenever I sit too long and get up to walk about from my desk there would be a slight pain in the knee in the motion of getting up. It's like the joint had gone stiff and needed lubrication. The pain goes away once I begin to walk a little.

See the doctor? I think I wasted my money - $100/- for a specialist opinion and pay again for X-rays. What did I get? Painkillers and glucosamine. Pay again for medicine. Hummph, total of $250/- Could have done that over the counter at the pharmacist!

But the brain is still active.THANK GOD

The mind is still there but the body is not switched on. SECRET: movement is the switch. More on this later.

When ready I will introduce you to my website on the brain. This is also done up blogstyle

The lonely Senior

2009-06-21T19:58:00.000-07:00

I have just read bloggers ten anniversary comments and realised that it does a great thing for seniors.
LONELINESS.
As a senior, I feel we experience more loneliness than most; as life cease to be so active and everyone else is busy, the elderly are often in a world that has been bypassed. After all, they think different, and many can't cross the great divide to the young.

Blogging gives expression to thoughts and whether it is read or not, it leaves a legacy when the senior goes across the river to the great hunting ground. My personal emotional needs have been met just by publishing on this blog. Of course I am not as entertaining as the one who know all the bells and whistles, pictures and all; yet it meets an emotional need - to be heard. And I promise you, my reader, that it will get better as I learn more. You should have seen my first attempt - the ugliest theme in the world - I was happy though. To anybody who would listen it was, "Come look, I can blog," I was as excited as a little child.

Any senior wants to join me?

No strangers on this Planet

2009-06-21T18:26:00.000-07:00

"There are no strangers but only friends we've never met" came true for me last week.
My wife and I were hosted in Kuching for nearly a week in the home of someone we just got to know recently.
Thank You, Martin and Zainab, you make life on this planet worth living. When you invited us through email, you could hardly remember how we looked like since we first met on another trip at Penang at the beginning of the year. It was a cursory meeting after all. Trust could not have grown over just a simple conversion between strangers in a hotel tour bus. Yet it did. It is indeed a great privelege to have know wonderful people like you.
Thank you for driving us to the many tourist attractions and accomodating us in your 5-star home. What a blessing! We would not have enjoyed our vacation as much without you.

"The geek shall inherit the earth"

2009-06-07T23:25:00.000-07:00

When Jesus said, "The meek shall inherit the earth". Did God make a typo and mean the geek? The geeks are everywhere. In schools, in homes, in organisations, in governments... you name it, they are there.

In this the era, the computer reigns. True to the science fiction of yesteryear, the super computer takes over the world. The wars of today will be fought over computer dashboards and our children are merely training to fight with their play stations. Which missile or nuclear warhead is not computer based? And I'm sure you have heard of internet millionaires. They are in the business world, young or old.

The most powerful nation in the world today is the nation of geeks! Singapore?....hmmm...

Mumbo jumbo? Its TRUE.

Seniors, must catch up. No option here.

Now life has killed the dream I dreamed...

2009-06-04T04:01:00.000-07:00

Now life has killed the dream I dreamed...

is a line sung from the Miserables; aptly sung by Ms. Susan Boyle,48, whom I am sure has had her dreams as an unemployed churchworker, living alone. But she could sing, a God given talent.

Susan rose from a nobody to fame in a matter of weeks in the Britain Got Talent 2009 show; grossing some ten million hits in youtube.

However, she did not make it to the top but came in second place. That's not too bad. What was devastiating was the stress of public scrutiny. Literally every word she uttered was the subject of research and relentless media stories. From the name of the cat, Pebbles, to how "she's never been kissed" - all told in as much detail as the media could muster.

Now Susan is in hospital; due for group therapy. And I believe its not because she did not win the talent time but because of the relentless interviews and the need to mantain her public image. Can seniors manage a immediate rise to fame - psychologically?

In her defence, she actually has quite a personality albeit hidden behind frumpty looks. Just watch the youtube clip again and you will see a confindent, gutsy susan who said, "I am going to rock the audience". Look at the body language; no judge would be daunting to her.

MORAL: what's us inside is more important than what's outside.

Susan, when you recover you will still do us proud. Go on and don't quit.

Seniors, we only fail if we quit - not if we fall because we can always get up again.

In the words of Churchill when he adressed a bunch of Harvard graduates, "NEVER, NEVER, NEVER QUIT". Glory, what a speech - only one line, then he sat down.

Expose Yourself

2009-05-30T12:23:00.000-07:00

"Do not expose your ignorance" is a famous utterance in my family.

So as a senior we understand you have eaten more rice than we have eaten salt. (if you are Chinese.) As the typical Singaporean you have the face to take care of. The psychologist calls it social acceptance pressure. For some people this face is so very important that they will never forgive you for the sin of not giving them any face. Not till their dying day. And moreover they will take revenge if they can - a typical Asian movie plot. Seen any kung-fu Hongkong dramas? It's there in abundance

What happens to life long learning then, in a progressive nation like Singapore? The face issue is in the way.

When we learn something new, especially a physical skill or even like playing a musical instrument, we stimulate new neural pathways. In other words, you get to be smarter. Consider it a good trade off. There is another word for this - its "humility"

When my daughter was just a little girl, daddy explained to her that he did not know everything. Many times he told her he had to look up the answer from the family encyclopedia.

When we realise that we are not God and admit it, then we begin to learn and grow neural connections. The little girl took this and went on to get into Mensa at age 7.

How then O Senior? Expose your ignorance and learn something that you don't know.

National Child Education Conference 2009

2009-05-23T11:36:00.000-07:00

Yes, I went. The conference had something very interesting..profiling via your fingerprints. They call it dermatoglyphics. Is our whole life fingerprinted?

Its not fortune telling.

The FBI uses it.

Dermatoglyphs give insight into a critical period of embryogenesis, between 4 weeks and 5 months of the infant in utero, when the architecture of the major organ systems is developing.

Research into the formation of ridges on our fingertips began as early as 1893. Apparently as the baby grows in utero, the ridges on our fingers form with brain development. And the amazing fact is that the nerve endings on the fingers are related to the brain function.

Example: the nerves at the tip of the thumbs are related to the pre-frontal lobes; the area that conducts and orchestrates the rest of the brain. This is one convincing fact for me as I have studied about the connections of the thumb to other fingers as in the mudras. I had always wondered why mudras worked and that concluded that they were apparently just religious in nature. Big debate here for my Christian friends.

So we now have technology and statistical evidence to determine the gifts and talents of anyone even from birth.

Interesting Fact: Anyone has the genius print on their thumbs? 70% of suicide cases have this print.

I Googled "dermatogyphics" and I was pleasantly surprised with the information available.

Next my psychologist at home will need convincing. Hehe.. thats the one who is puling my ear in the photo.

Neurogenis and Dementia

2009-05-18T04:11:00.000-07:00

Those of you who read my earlier blog will remember what neurogenesis is. To recap, its the growth of new brain cells which happens when certain stimulus conditions are reached. In the past it was taught that this was entirely impossible once you're of adult age. So a lot of programs were devised and sold to parents emphasising early development of the brain. Years ago I was one of those who bought into this concept for my daughter when she came into this world. There are still many products out there which pitch on early brain stimulus and concerned Singaporean parents are buying. Right brain development; Shuhida methods; Montessori, Multiple Intellgence, etc sell big ticket items and courses still.

Scientists also use the term neuro-plasticity in conjunction with neurogenesis. What is recently discovered is that there are stem cells in the brain. More about that later.

Today I am heartened to read form BBC that activity will easily preclude dementia! If you want details, follow the link by clicking on the word.

'Dementia is caused by the massive loss of cells in the brain, and experts believe one way to guard against it is to build up as many connections between cells as possible by being mentally active throughout life. This is known as a "cognitive reserve".' These connections are between the dendrites of the various neurons and are called synapses. The more synapses you care to build, the more connections and therefore the more cognitive reserve!

So what causes the loss of cells? I think it is no more than what we generally know as "Use it or lose it"

Does 'connections' ring a bell with you? For me it means as we age, we should reach out and find more friends and even blog. Build your connections now. Let there be no lack of synapses in your grey matter.

Leave your comments below to connect!

What's the connection between Obama and Osama?

2009-05-12T01:13:00.000-07:00

As a Senior we think crazy sometimes. But its healthy to laugh the experts say. So this is my first attempt at publishing a contemporary joke book.

Q. What's the connection between Obama and Osama?
A. Look carefully and you will see "bee ass"

My wife says, "Don't be too sophisticated with your jokes. They will only laugh when they wake up at 3am at night"
Me: "I guess I am a bloghead"

TRUE STORY
I asked my learned friend from Penang among us having tea at our favourite Kopi Tiam.
"If the people in Singapore like to Sing, what do the people in Penang like to do?"
My learned engineer and scholar friend blushed and said, "Good grief. I'll have to think about that one and let you know."

copyright: pun publishing people or ppp.

Everyday in Everyway I am learning and blogging

2009-05-10T18:12:00.000-07:00

If you need encouragement to blog, take it from someone groping through like me. I started with zero knowledge - and I want to go to "Hero" from "Zero". The more I write, the more I learn.

So many technical terms to come to terms with. But I am determined, undaunted ever since I learned that my brains will grow with new stimulus. What I post here are significant learning steps that I am making. It helps me to gel knowledge as I speak about it.

New to blogging? Get some help. For me the teenager is coming in three days with her super geek friend to answer my questions. Hoorah. This shortcuts my learning.

Here's a list of tech terms I have learned:

Tags
Permalink
SEO
CEO
DNLO
er, etc

Some of the above do not exist yet. Chief Exec Officer of course has been around for some time but Don't No Lo is strictly a singlish blog word. So dont worry if you are from abroad and dont understand singlish. It's a local dialect of the native speaker here.

Neurogenesis

2009-05-05T23:53:00.000-07:00

Okay here's one for those my age. What happens when you try new things, will you be able to learn again? Will your brain still grow new brain cells? (called neurons)

One of the most important developments in neuroscience was when the official dogma claiming that there was no neurogenesis (production of new brain cells) in the adult brain was toppled. Now we know that the brain is “plastic” meaning that, under the right circumstances, the brain can change in terms of both producing new cells and getting more cells connected to each other.

This is good news to all seniors. Its time to get off the couch and live life to the full! Learn a new musical instrument or start blogging - its good for the brains. I now have blogging neurons; hoorah!

Ahem,... I assume brains are needed for blogging. Last night, a good friend pointed out that brainless blogs do attract quite a readership too.

Also, I went to the mensa page (www.mensa.org.sg)and it looks like a blog or run by a blog engine. Is it or isn't? Any one care to elucidate?

God has given us more talents than we need in a Lifetime.

2009-05-04T10:57:00.000-07:00

Senior, imagine yourself on stage.
Susan only had a cat for company for many years; a churchworker
I believe she had God for company.

Everything is difficult before it becomes Easy

2009-05-02T20:18:00.000-07:00

I could not do much on my first post as I was an ignoramus.

Today I begin to see details of what's available.. and wow..I can do it too. Ha, like why other people's blogs have a comments section and mine didn't. So I was wondering who to ask when lo and behold, it seems you have to click the post title on the right to comment.

If you are an old hand at this, pardon me. I am writing for the seniors like myself who are often stuck when it comes to new things. It was a teenager who showed me how to get started with Blogger. By myself I would not have made the attempt; the voice in the back of my head quietly telling me not to demonstrate my ignorance.

So we can become young again folks! By learning new things just like the infant learning to walk by trial and error. Falling is inevitable but we must get up when we fall.

And so if you are a senior following my rambling, YOU CAN if I can.

The young folks wont understand you, they are not stuck mentally; they don't bother to use proper English and prefer to say "ex" when they mean "expensive". etc etc. You see their mindset tells them its okay to make mistakes. It's what learning is all about..and they are right!

Seniors, ARISE.
We can do better! Its never too late to learn.

We Have to Begin Somewhere

2009-05-01T22:04:00.000-07:00

In Singapore, they (the powers that be) call you a senior when you hit 60. Previously it was 55. So needless to say, one day, you will only be a senior only when you reach 90.

This blog is dedicated to those of us who never grow old. We only grow younger... and this is where you the senior will learn to overtake the junior. After all it was the tortoise who overtook the hare.

To begin with, look at Susan Boyle at 48...frumpy but gutsy. I want to embed her clip from youtube but don't know how yet.

We're learning!