Moving on
Finally things are almost settled, or at least I have started trying to settle things. I will be going to Singapore next day, although the exact date still eludes me because of my weakness.
Still trying to sell my possessions. Seriously we accumulated too much unneeded junk. Look around you, how many things you have are not actually what you need? All those iPhones, PS3, gadgets.... I am ashamed of myself for falling for this temptation that was way too easy. In the end, all our needless consumption is going to bring this world that we know of to an end. Surely, technology has saved us time to time. All the prophecies of doom has, thankfully, not come true. But the more disasters we avert, the more sinister, deeper problems we uncovered - the diseases, climate change, depletion of resources, and all. Will we survive? I have no time to think about that. Heck, I have a final exam to write tomorrow and I have not even started studying yet. I derive guilty pleasures from pretending to prepare for my departure than having to study.
Today I phoned my phone company to put my phone plan on hold since I am leaving Canada for more than half a year. It was pretty straightforward, just press *611 then press 0, and wait for someone to answer your call. In the end my only option for keeping my line was to pay $10 every month, even though I will not be using it at all - great! To top it off, right after I converted to the bare-minimum plan, another person from the phone company was suddenly concerned about what I think about their service before bringing up the issue that I changed my phone plan to the cheapest plan. The phone companies are a devious bunch, I tell you. I think the hidden charges alone would set you back about $8-$10 a month. It is a global phenomena. I was looking at some phone plans in Singapore and what seems to me like a good deal actually had a catch. Always read the terms and conditions. Even though the font size are barely legible, it actually contains the most important information about what you pay. Free incoming calls (Font 20 or 30 - I don't know)! Terms & Condition: you must activate some free incoming plan which cost $0.49 a day (Font 8 and hidden at the very bottom). Free voice mail. T&C: you pay this and this after first month. Sigh, all these tactics to trick us into spending...
Anyway I might be able to pull this off - not resorting to summer storage (mine is actually more-than-summer storage since I will still be gone for 4 months after summer). That would save me about $300-400 maybe. Then I am staying illegally at friend's living room (the hobo-under-a-roof concept) saving more than $500. My concern now is that I won't be able to sell off my textbooks while I am away, while unethical publishers keep on churning out new editions with about 1% change from previous ones every year or two. That's why if you keep your perfectly good textbook for a long period of time, most likely it will end up with maybe 10% (or less, gasp!) of its original purchase value. Shucks!
Time to get back to work... zzzme#$%&zzz...
Still trying to sell my possessions. Seriously we accumulated too much unneeded junk. Look around you, how many things you have are not actually what you need? All those iPhones, PS3, gadgets.... I am ashamed of myself for falling for this temptation that was way too easy. In the end, all our needless consumption is going to bring this world that we know of to an end. Surely, technology has saved us time to time. All the prophecies of doom has, thankfully, not come true. But the more disasters we avert, the more sinister, deeper problems we uncovered - the diseases, climate change, depletion of resources, and all. Will we survive? I have no time to think about that. Heck, I have a final exam to write tomorrow and I have not even started studying yet. I derive guilty pleasures from pretending to prepare for my departure than having to study.
Today I phoned my phone company to put my phone plan on hold since I am leaving Canada for more than half a year. It was pretty straightforward, just press *611 then press 0, and wait for someone to answer your call. In the end my only option for keeping my line was to pay $10 every month, even though I will not be using it at all - great! To top it off, right after I converted to the bare-minimum plan, another person from the phone company was suddenly concerned about what I think about their service before bringing up the issue that I changed my phone plan to the cheapest plan. The phone companies are a devious bunch, I tell you. I think the hidden charges alone would set you back about $8-$10 a month. It is a global phenomena. I was looking at some phone plans in Singapore and what seems to me like a good deal actually had a catch. Always read the terms and conditions. Even though the font size are barely legible, it actually contains the most important information about what you pay. Free incoming calls (Font 20 or 30 - I don't know)! Terms & Condition: you must activate some free incoming plan which cost $0.49 a day (Font 8 and hidden at the very bottom). Free voice mail. T&C: you pay this and this after first month. Sigh, all these tactics to trick us into spending...
Anyway I might be able to pull this off - not resorting to summer storage (mine is actually more-than-summer storage since I will still be gone for 4 months after summer). That would save me about $300-400 maybe. Then I am staying illegally at friend's living room (the hobo-under-a-roof concept) saving more than $500. My concern now is that I won't be able to sell off my textbooks while I am away, while unethical publishers keep on churning out new editions with about 1% change from previous ones every year or two. That's why if you keep your perfectly good textbook for a long period of time, most likely it will end up with maybe 10% (or less, gasp!) of its original purchase value. Shucks!
Time to get back to work... zzzme#$%&zzz...