Dear Readers,
My sincerest apologies. I have missed a posting yesterday. I will not be posting regularly from now onwards. I have been very pre-occupied, stressed and bothered with my new Project. 
If you would like to continue to read my posts in future, please subscribe in the form on the right column of the page, so that you will receive the email whenever I post something new. 
I will still come in and post once in a while when I have an urge to rant or have thought of some innovative thing to write about. 
I thank all my readers for your support and encouragement and apologize deeply that I will not be able to continue writing for the time being. 
I will be back.

Thank you, stay safe, save hard and work towards early retirement.

Besst Wishes
​ERSG



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I think about this a lot.
I'm 34 years old.
Can you remember those days? 30 years ago?
Look at the roads. How have they changed?
Look at Sentosa. How has it changed?
Look at Changi Airport. There used to be 1 terminal, now there is going to be 5.
When I was young, pagers were around when I was in secondary school, 14 years old. (yr 1996)
When I was in JC, 17 years old (yr 2000), I regularly carried around my mother's phone when I went out so that they could contact me.
I played Utopia, an online game in my JC library, cos I did not have internet access at home.
When I had internet access at home, it was only a few hundred kbps. It was a dial up modem.
Then cable modems came along with a few hundred mbps.
Now we are surfing at 1gbps.
Handphones were those big klunky things. 
Then came smaller models and Nokia was popular.
Then Siemens and Samsung and Motorola had their time as well.
We carried around our phones in my NS days to call family when we were at Tekong. (2002)
Some people were even talking about how is Starhub's reception. Now, no one asks about reception. Good reception is a given, people don't ask about it anymore. 
​Facebook was launched in 2004. People still had to use their PCs to access Facebook.
In 2009, iPhone3 pops up. Suddenly the information age changes. 
Everyone is now connected. Information flows around at a snap of your fingers. 
2016, things are becoming more automated.

Imagine we were our parents. They lived through this as we did. Travel was not as cheap previously. People didn't really go on trips every few months. Now international travel is all over the place. People go on holidays twice a year. Imagine we were our parents, do you think you would see international travel so regular? Such a normal thing for everyone? 
Would you even imagine that information would flow around so freely? 
That you could so easily get porn on demand?
That you could have a touch screen device to surf internet? Facebook? GPS and maps?
No... I doubt any of our parents, when THEY were 20, 30 years old, they would never have believed such stuff would appear when they are now 50,60.

Now think about where we are now. I am 30. Project this 20-30 years into the future.
Imagine. What things could be. Now, destroy whatever you have imagined. Cos that is wrong. 
You can probably never imagine it. 

30 years into the future, the world could go to war.
Or we would have nuclear fusion energy, the power of the sun, clean sustainable energy.
Solar power could be the next in thing, a device the size of your phone put on your roof could power your whole house forever. You really never know.
Do we even need to travel to work any more? Do we even need to work anymore? 
We now have VR, we could hold meetings at a virtual work place. Discuss with people and talk, even see their facial expressions just via VR. 
Maybe you could even 3D print food. Food is just elements, molecules which are formed into proteins and other stuff you eat. So maybe we could load elements into a device and it could print out any food you wanted. Why not? Impossible? Did your parents think that the internet was possible when they were 30 years old?
Or artificial intelligence could be so human like that they would be walking with us and no one would know if they were human or robots. They could do all the work. They could be as or more intelligent than humans. Robots could do coding, take care of children, farm, do medical stuff, everything. Then humans would just need to exist. There would not be anything necessary to do. 
Impossible? Really? How do you know?
Maybe humans would have colonized Mars?
Would the stock market still function? Why would it function? Everything is free. No one needs to work. Robots do everything. 

Or? Or? What?

How would we know?
Can you imagine? If you can imagine something, think further, think more impossible thoughts, cos in 30 years, it's going to be even more impossible than you could probably imagine now. 
Just think about when your parents were 30, and where we are now. 
Then think about now when you are 30, and where you will be at 60.

30 years is a long time in terms of technology. It's barely enough to just pay up your housing loan, but in technology years, 30 years, everything could be different, and the world as you know it now, will also be vastly different.

No... Everything will be different. We probably can't even imagine it.
Also think about your children. Don't think about what you want for them now. Cos that will all change. Think about what they would have wanted you to do for them, so that when THEY are 30, are they ready for the new world?



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I've been busy recently. It's quite amazing.
Cos I never thought I would be doing something like this.

So as all my other posts have been, I've been trying to look for something to pursue.
Then as chance would have it, I thought about a mobile game concept.
Now, everyone thinks about ideas all the time.
And everyone thinks their ideas are, duh, the best.
So I don't think I'm unique, cos everyone thinks they are unique.
But I want to try it out. Cos I think it would probably be interesting to play.
I would like to play it and my partner also thinks so.
But all businesses start this way.

So I've been pretty stressed recently.
Thinking of the game concept, how the game play is like, how to attact players, how to retain them, how to make them spend money, small little details here and there. And there are so many little details. It's like opening a food outlet. You even have to think about where to buy the sugar, salt, soy sauce, type of soy sauce, how to store the sugar, efficient ways to keep inventories, etc.
It's going to be a long challenging road.
I've already come across a few road blocks which I've had to change strategy. And thats within 2 weeks.
The strange thing about it is, I haven't been so fired up in a while. Like I wake up thinking, what ideas should I build, what add on details can I add to the game, how should I market, who could I contact who might be able to help me, what else can I do... etc.
I do hope that I will be able to break down these barriers and find a breakthrough.

3 key issue which I feel would be big challenges are
1) Funding
2) Marketing
3) Development

Everyone asks "who got lobang" or "if you have business ideas, investment opportunities, must call me".
But really, it's easy to talk in the coffeeshop. Cos all business ideas "succeed" in the coffeeshop. Cos it's all talk. You can talk about how great it will be, how you will market, how many people will consume your product, etc. And it's all easy, when it's in the coffeeshop. Sure make "money".
But when someone REALLY has a business idea, like now, and I go up to the coffeeshop friends, and now I say, I need SGD30k are you with me or not. Suddenly, no one is interested in businesses anymore. They may think the idea is cool and will have a market, but no one is interested to hear much more or to discuss the business. They start talking about other things. 
Furthermore, I've tried to get support from Government platforms for funding. Cos apparently, the Government is trying to spur the game industry of Singapore, in terms of development capabilities. But there's no good avenues to that as well, they don't have a pool of angel investors which I can pitch to.
So funding is really going to be a challenge. 

Then there's marketing. It's ironic, cos I hate marketing. But still gotta do what I've gotta do. 
I'll need to find a way to reach out to a large number of people. And in the game industry, marketing is a large portion of running the business. Basically, for games, it's all about development and marketing. So I can either find a game publisher to help me with the selling of the product, or spam money myself, which once again leads to problem number 1. IF a game publisher backs my product, I'm pretty much done. Then I can just focus on development and concept. Else, marketing itself will be another big headache. Many people who aren't in business don't really understand. Marketing ISN'T easy. People always say, just advertise online, Facebook, Google, etc. It's not that easy. Everyone is marketing the same way. How do you get the right traffic? You are just a drop in the ocean, it's not easy to redirect traffic. It's the same as this blog. It's not easy to get people to come and read it.

Another big issue is development. I'm not a developer. I've just come up with the idea. I'm funding a prototype with my partner. So a lot of this has to do with how well my developer is able to produce what I think. And that's not so easy too. Cos what I imagine, vs what the developer has in his mind is not the same. So getting the end result the same as what I envision is also highly likely a huge challenge. Although I'm not too concerned with this issue, cos I already have a contact and I'm working with them and they are quite forthcoming with ideas and from what they suggest, it also appears that they are also gamer and can understand/relate to what I am trying to create.

So yea, it's going to be a long journey for the next few months. I've been having sleepless nights thinking about what to do, how to do it and how to handle the different issues which I will face.
I'll try to keep my posts regular. Now I'm trying to do 1 post per day on weekdays. 

Wish me good luck. I'll need it.
Oh yes. If any readers know of any lobang for a marketing/advertising company who is reliable and can help with a marketing campaign, can drop me an email please.
And if any readers are interested to invest in my business, please drop me an email as well. The funding phase is after my prototype is completed. So I will have a prototype to showcase. The funding is so that I can continue to develop the prototype to completion.



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I just got my utility bill yesterday. 
I realized my utility bill has been relatively constant between SGD75-85.

I'm wondering is that normal? Am I spending more or less than others?
So what do I spend on?
I stay in a HDB 4 room flat.

Electricity
I turn on my air conditioning at around 9:30 pm til 6:15am (approx 9 hours) only 1 room.
I don't turn on any other air conditioning.
My fridge is the usual fridge for a couple. Not those big 2 door type.
I have one fan almost always turned on to air my bedroom and dry the toilet.
My living room ceiling fan is also almost always on.
We do one load of washing almost everyday. Cold water wash.
Sometimes I use the dryer, especially these days when it's raining.
I used the dryer more in Dec than in Nov.
Modem is always on. Duh...
We take short showers, around 10 minutes or less. Instant heater.

Gas
I cook almost everyday.
We boil water daily using a normal kettle and pour it into a thermos.
Gas is cheap but it's very sensitive cos the quantum is low.
Like if I don't cook for 1 week, then my gas payments drop by like 20%.

Water
I reckon this is the most stable in pricing.
One kettle of water daily.
One load of washing daily.
One shower each.
Nothing really changes for water. Unless we come back from a holiday then we do 2-3 loads of washing consecutively.

I know neighbours who's utility expense is like SGD150-200.
I was quite shocked seriously. Cos I'm home most of the time and they aren't cos they are working. 
But they do on the air conditioning in the living room when they come home.
Or they have big two door fridge, or they have a small wine fridge.
Or they have other types of water heaters.
Or they have those electric hot flasks.
Or they have a NAS on all the time. (Not sure if this is important in energy consumption)
They also have security camera on as well.

So I've come to a conclusion.
Anything which main objective is to affects temperature and is kept on for the whole day will cost you a bomb.
So like air conditioning, fridge, hot water flask (those that are always hot not those electric kettle).
I knew of someone who kept her instant heater on for like half the day DAILY. She didn't know that the power consumption was so high. I told her to off it. Her utility bill dropped from SGD200 to around SGD80. She bought me lunch.

However, if you look at fans, computers, TV, etc. These don't really consume a lot of power. Even if you keep them on for extended periods of time. 
So it's like, if you feel hot, buy 6 fans and blow them all at you.
The inital purchase cost is cheaper, and the electricity cost is also cheaper. 
I'm not kidding. You can buy 1 fan for like SGD30.
I also don't turn on the air conditioning when the sun is up. Cos that will make the air con work harder to bring the temperature down. Whereas at night, the temperature is already cool, so turning it on isn't that bad. (It's still power consuming, just better than when the sun is up).

Then when I read my electricity bill, I see that I'm below the Singapore average and neighbour average. WooHoo!

So I'm thinking. Where do other people spend on? What other utilities do they use? Why are their bills more than mine every month?
Like I don't think we are too concerned over our utility usage. We turn on the air con when needed, we do our laundry when needed, we use our dryer, etc. So we don't really take a lot of additional care to keep the utility bill low. Thus, I'm wondering where/how other people are managing their consumption.

Please comment below so that we might be able to better analyze our different consumption habits and how it would impact our expenses.

Thank you!!



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Unless you are reading this post that is.

No, really. I've always been someone who believes in light phone usage.
Else I wouldn't be able to do my SGD4 phone plan. 
My phone is usually used for Whatsapp, calls, finding my way around, other uses include entertainment such as Facebook or reading some articles when waiting.

So really, please just put down that phone. There's someone who wants your attention, your kid, lover, family, friend, etc. They may not look like they want your attention, or they have moved on and started using their phone already. That sucks. 

When do I think it's not ok to use the phone. 
Mealtimes - please respect the food, the chicken, fish, etc which died so that you could eat

Eating/Hanging with someone - please respect the person accompanying you. I've seen a scene at Swensons, when a WHOLE family of 4, (2 parents and 2 kids), sitting around the table, the food hasn't come and they were ALL on their phones. Seriously, then why eat together in the first place?

When you're on transportation in another country - I believe in paying attention especially when in another country. You never know where your driver is taking you. People may say it's low risk, but any chance is still a chance. So I don't believe in posting those recently taken pictures when you're in a cab/uber overseas.

Basically, I think people should really just put down that phone whenever there is someone else around. We live, here, here as in the current space you are standing on, sitting on, not in some cyber reality in machines. I don't see what the addiction is. Now, I don't mind people checking messages. You never know if their parents are in need or some accident has happened or whatever. That's why we are now so connected. So a quick glace, sure, I think thats reasonable. But when I see people using their devices so wantonly, it makes me wonder, where have all the people to people relationships gone? Have people grown so attached to their devices that they have forgotten or never learnt how to play or interact with other people? To hold a decent conversation?

What are your interests? What did you do over the weekend? How are your parents/kids? How was that kickboxing course you signed up for? How is work? 
These are stuff which you are supposed to talk about so as to better know your colleagues, friends, family, everyone! What happened to all of those? You're supposed to talk about  government, complain about money, discuss about ideas, so many other things. What happened to them?

But NO! What I see are people using their devices almost all the time. There's no middle time, like if people are planning to eat together, means the activity is eating together. So from leaving the house, the device is free for all, during the car ride, the device is also used, walking to the restaurant, same, then ordering requires some attention, then back to the device again when waiting for the food. Ok food is here, the device is put down. Eat, talk a little, whoever finishes eating first, back to device. The same thing happens on the way back.
Sure, this might be a super exaggeration, but in reality, things don't happen too differently.

Really, live for the real people around you. Give them the attention they require, they should do the same back to you. Life is really just a fleeting moment. Imagine the people on MH370. People boarded the plane thinking it was just a normal short flight. They never returned. If someone dear to you was on that flight, would you think, if only I spent more time with that person? If only I showed I loved that person more? Did they leave without knowing how much I cared? People always think there's always tomorrow. Usually there is. One day, there won't be. Remember that Mercedes which travelled the opposite direction on the expressway? Someone died that day. It was just another normal day for him. He also never went home. That could have been anyone around you or it could have been you. Would you ever think, if only I spent more time with my kids, family, friends, or told them I loved them, when the mercedes rammed your vehicle? Would you have wanted 5 minutes more with that somebody? Or would you rather waste 5 minutes on Facebook?

The people around you could just leave you at the snap of your fingers. They went out that door this morning, or YOU went out that door this morning, and never came back. You read about these on the newspaper. Well they were someone's kid, mother, father, friend, colleague, whatever. That person on the newspaper could have been anyone. It could have been me or you or someone you know. Life's really fleeting.

No, seriously, just put down that device. Someone around you needs you.

So when do I feel it's reasonable to use your phone?
When there's no one around you, duh, obviously. 
When you're on the MRT going to work and you're ALONE without a companion. I saw a teenage couple once, they were hugging each other on the MRT, AND using the phone with their arms around each other. Like you know, you hug the person, your head is on their shoulders, then the arm is behind the other party, yeah, they both had their phones in their hands and looking at it.

Or use your  phone when you're waiting for someone. You're early for an appointment. Sure, by all means use the phone to pass time. There isn't anyone around you who needs your attention right now. 
Or when you're trying to waste time at a job you hate, or when you're in the toilet.

There WILL be a time for you to use your device. There will be plenty of time. And even if you don't what's the loss?

At the rate we are using our phones, you'd think we'd all be dying if we were in the 1990s when phones weren't so common. Come on! I can even leave the phone at home for a whole day and not feel nervous. I know people who can't handle it. Think about what you did when you were younger. The iPhone 3 was released in June 2009. That was when it all started. That's just 7 years. What were you doing 7-10 years ago without your device?

So, yea, after you read this post, go and message someone you haven't talked to for sometime. Your grandparents or whoever (That's a legit reason to use your phone). Ask them how's their day. Or just put down your phone can chat with your kids, spouse, whoever's around you. THAT is your real life. 



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We read this all the time, XYZ company predicts the markets will... whatever in 2017. 
Or so and so believes that oil will ... whatever by 2020. 
News articles run reports on markets, commentaries, the whole load of them. The info business is a big market. 
You see, we are all human, and uncertainty drives us nuts. We just need to know. It's in our nature. 
Imagine, you go to a financial institution and they tell you, "I don't know." 
Well, typically, a customer will just go to another bank/institution til one of them says, "Markets will go up, so you should invest in XYZ product with us."
We just want some certainty and anyone who is willing to be confident and give a prediction will get business, so these institutions just sell confidence and people will believe it.
But seriously, no one knows jackshit. 

I worked in a big financial company previously. They made a lot of investments. Lots of highly intelligent people with all the right paper qualification and experience. So like everyone else, I always thought someone knows something. Someone just HAS to know something right? That's why there are hedgefund managers and CEOs and all those folks running multi million/billion dollar investment companies. So someone up there MUST know something that I don't know and IF I can get close enough into the inner circle, I can find out more about how markets will perform.

One day, I sat at a meeting. It was a large meeting with some of the big shots in the company. We're talking about the top guy and the country heads across the world. Like, head of US, China, Japan, Europe, Australia, these top guys run multi million/billion dollar portfolios. So the top guy asks, "Ok, so what do we do about our China portfolio. China seems a bit peakish so what do we do?" Then all the country heads give their presentation of data and numbers and "if this then this" and more data and pictures and pie charts. And then the top guy says, "But no one has given me the answer. So what do we do with our China portfolio?" Then the country heads go... show data, numbers pie chart, if this then this, etc... This goes around a few times and the top guy says again, "You guys still haven't indicated what we should do with our China portfolio." 

This day made me very irritated and dejected. Basically, it told me, NO ONE knows ANYTHING. No big shot, no smartass, no country head. Really. Everyone is just estimating. If you think someone, some CEO knows something you don't, WRONG. They may have more information, but their guess is about as good as yours. And in any prediction, some guys will be right, some guys will be wrong. So if you think that if you get into the big boys club, you can get more information, don't bet on it. Markets are erratic and cannot be predicted. Things are changing everyday. Oil prices, interest rates, global economy, China economy, etc. Everything is uncertain. Anyone who can tell you anything with certainty is lying. And if it turns out that he is right, he's just lucky.

So in a world of uncertainty, what can a normal guy do?
There are a few simple ways to invest. I won't say which is better. To each his own.

1) Passive investing
Passive investing comes in different ways.
You can buy an index tracker/ETF, like S&P500 tracker, Dow Jones tracker, STI tracker, etc.
These trackers aim to follow the investments in the index itself so if the index moves up or down, the tracker moves in similar fashion. This gives good diversification across industries and sectors. Essentially it's like buying a large basket of companies and hoping the basket will do well. Historically, markets tend to move upwards.

Passive investing also can be buying some good stocks and holding them for years. Similar to the above, you can invest in a basket of stocks, but instead of following the index, you pick the stocks which you are interested in, or have a closer risk profile as yourself, or you may believe this sector will do better, or you like higher paying dividend stocks, etc.

In both the above, TIME is your friend. You aren't too concerned with how much you buy them for. You aren't timing the market. You can buy it for more expensive than average but as time passes, you are hoping that it will increase in price.

2) Value investing
Different from the above value investing is what Warren Buffet does. Many others also claim to be value investors but whether they can deliver is another question.
In value investing, you aim to buy something worth $1 by paying $0.50. Then you wait for the price to go to $1 and sell it. So you are looking for good deals.
Also you can look for companies which is worth $1 but you think it will go to $2, so you are willing to pay $0.90. Wait for it to go to $2 and sell it. Still looking for a good deal.
Note that there is a difference between value and price.
Value is what the company is worth and price is what people are willing to pay for the company at whatever point in time.
So when you look for a good deal, you buy when you get good value for the price you pay, and you sell when the price others pay is equal or more than the value the company is worth. 

This is different from passive investing. You are looking for GOOD DEALS.

3) Bond investing
Providing loans is a "low risk" way to invest. This includes buying Singapore Savings Bonds. You get interest by lending money to countries and organizations. You can get between 1% to 8% or more returns depending on the credit rating of the company you are lending to. 
You lose most of the money if the company goes bankrupt or experiences a credit event. Else, you probably won't lose money, cos if you hold til the end of the bond, you can get back your principle sum. 
Unfortunately, there aren't many options to invest in the Singapore Bond market.

4) Whole Life Insurance
No. Really. Why not? If you don't like the stock market cos it's risky and you can't sleep when the prices move up and down, then buy a whole life policy. In the long run, it provides something close to 3% returns. It gives you insurance coverage upon death, terminal illness. So if anything unfortunate happens, your family will be well taken care of. You don't need to think about it very much. 
You might want to diversify and buy multiple whole life policies from a few insurance providers though. Just in case one of them closes down 30-50 years down the line.

So yea. There are multiple ways to do investments. Most important is to know your risks and your  own risk appetite. Even if you buy some financial product or structured product from some financial salesman, buy with the understanding that he doesn't know anything. So if you don't know what you're buying and the risks involved, understand that he doesn't know anything too. But that's fine. You may be lucky. And yea, if you read those articles on the news about the markets and why the stock market went down yesterday, etc, yea, those guys commenting and predicting, yea, they don't know anything too. But that's all cool. As long as you know they don't know anything, then you know the risks of listening to them. So you're still a well informed investor.



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I love playing RPGs, or Role Playing Games.
This ranges from just RPGs on console, like Playstation, Sega Saturn, Sega Genesis, to MMORPGs (Massive Multiplayer Online RPG) online.
Where you get to interact with other players and trade with others and stuff.

I'll describe what an average RPG or MMORPG is like. 
RPG typically follows a storyline, the main character forms a team, they level up, gain better equipment to fight a final boss who typically wants to destroy the world, in between the story, the main character will travel across the world to search for items or abilities or friends to help with the conquest.

For an MMORPG, there are many similarities as there are differences. Typically, there isn't a final completable storyline. You just play and keep training, gaining gold, items, you usually play as one character only. If you gain friends, they are real life other players who are connected online. You can trade with others, duel with others, called PvP or player vs player. You can travel the world, but there's no storyline behind it so you can travel alone to fight normal monsters or you can team up with your friends to fight bigger boss monsters.

I've realized how you play RPG or MMORPGs really give an indication of how you live your life. 
For example. When I play MMORPGs, I play the game for a short time, level up to an appropriate enough level, where it is efficient to train until. Cos most MMORPGs will let you level up until a certain level easily, then anything further than that will be really tough to level up. So I will reach around this level, then I will move on to trade. So I buy items from other players and resell them at higher rates. And I spend most of my time selling stuff. I hardly even play the game for the purposes of training anymore. Usually, I will trade and earn money til I can buy almost all the best items, and yet I will still be of lower level than my friends. Cos my friends will continue to level up and train like what the game was meant to be. And I'm ok to be of lower level than other people. I'm happy playing the game by trading and yet, trading isn't supposed to be the way the game is meant to be played. You are supposed to go out and kill monsters and level up.

I compare that with my real life and I find many similarities. I worked and reached a high enough post where I can earn money efficiently and yet still have a good work life balance and saved up my money. Then I left to try to find something else to do. Unfortunately, the real world doesn't really have an inefficient market like in games for trading of items. And I'm ok to be of lower level than other people. I'm happy doing what I want to be doing, instead of doing what everyone else is doing. Some people may think I'm not living the way life should be cos many people think that life should be about accumulating stuff, and yet when I play the game or live life, who cares right? As long as you're happy playing the game or how you live your life, who is to say what is right or wrong, cos the main objective to play the game or live is to be happy. If you aren't happy, playing game or living, then why are you even bothering to do either?

Then there's this thing called grinding or farming. Grinding is something you do repetatively. Like grinding a millstone, so you can grind for levels or you can grind killing monsters hoping that a particular monster will drop something good. Farming is typically killing monsters for their items or gold. Usually an efficient monster where the effort to kill is low and the drop rates are better than average. Many people hate grinding or farming. It's boring. But it's gotta be done to get better. And I think, sometimes, if you understand that grinding to reach a certain level and then moving on is fine. Like if you are saving up for some high powered equipment and you farm for a week killing the same monster, I think that's quite ok, or you want to reach a certain level so you kill the same monsters for 2 weeks to reach whatever level which allows you to fight a bigger monsters. That's probably fine too. But I know some people train for the sake of training. Like they just HAVE to reach the max level. And they grind for days and months just to "complete" the game by reaching the max level. And yet they don't enjoy the grinding. And when they reach max level, they lose interest in the game. So in my mind I'm thinking. Then why are they grinding? They make it a chore, and yet after they finish the chore, they stop playing cos they've nothing more to do after that. 

It's like playing Pokemon GO. I'm sure many of you played it. I played it too. Well... sorta... I didn't like the idea of playing Pokemon GO. I'm the kinda person who doesn't like it that society has reached a point where people don't interact with the here and now and they spend much of their time on the phones when the people they should be talking to are right in front of them. But I'll probably do another post on that next time. Today is about games. So I "played" Pokemon GO. I didn't like that the game knew where I was, I didn't like the game made people glued to their phones like zombies. So I didn't play it the normal way... you get what I mean? *cough* I caught them all in like 4 weeks... Even those overseas in Australia, USA, Europe, Japan *cough* and let me tell you, even if you don't play it the normal way, it's not easy to catch them all. So for folks who said they played it legitly and caught them all within a month, I highly doubt they played normally. So after I caught them all, I lost interest cos there was nothing left to do. Similarly, I had a friend who really played it normally and caught all the Pokemon available in Singapore. He played it religiously like so many other Singaporeans. The way I hated it cos he neglected his children, the people around him, etc. He did it like a chore, and after he caught them all, he lost interest and stopped playing. THEN WHY DID HE PLAY IT FOR IN THE FIRST PLACE? He even spent real money buying virtual stuff!!

I see people like this all the time. Rushing through their lives or activities like they were just chores. That things will settle down when they reach... 50, 60, whatever age. Well, life never settles down. There's always something else you want, something else you want to do. You have to settle down your own life. Most people just keep pushing for more. More this, more that, more money, bigger car, etc. And at the end of their life, what is the most important? Health, family, the people around you. I'm not saying they are mutually exclusive. You can have both health AND money. But many people do sacrifice health for money, in terms of stress, sleepless nights, high blood pressure, etc. But it IS possible to win them all. Some people can win them all, some can't and it's important to know where you stand and prioritize which battle you want to win.

So life is really like playing a game. Have you lost the fun of the game since you started? Are you farming or grinding and it has become a chore? Sometimes people grind so long in games that after they grind for so long, and they have reached their objective level or gold target, they log in the next day and they don't know what to do next. Cos they are so used to logging in and grinding, that they aren't able to play the game normally and enjoy it for what it is anymore. Has work become like this? That after you reach a certain level of financial security, people just continue working cos they don't know what else is there to do with their lives? Cos it's so easy to wake up and just change and go to work? Look at children. They play, give them more time, they continue to play. Give adults more time and they don't know what to do. 

So really. Remember what you are living for. Remember why you are playing your game. 
You play games for fun and enjoy the process. Same as living. If you need money, grind and farm. But remember there's more to life than just grinding and farming. There's many other things to do and you need to do them. Relax and play the game and enjoy it. Else what's the point in playing anyway.



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