The Virtues of Buying Used

In the book about millionaires that I read, one thing fascinated me to no end. They buy used stuff!!

There are 2 basic types of millionaires - the self-made ones and the inherited-tons-of-money ones. It is the former that has this incredible habit of buying used items. And because of that, among other things, they last longer as millionaires. The "inheritance" millionaires don't do so well in the endurance test.

It makes a lot of sense. Buying used items, even though you can afford new ones, saves you a lot of money. Case in point. Buying a car. It is well established that the moment you drive your sparkling brand new car out of the showroom, the car would lose 10% in value. So, if you can find a 6-months old car, which I gather would be as good as new, you would save more than 10%. Same thing with watches. If you can get a 1 year old Rolex, you will save at least 10%. And watches of Rolex caliber can last for generations, so what is 12 months on somebody else's wrist. Same principle applies on a lot things. If you happen to like guitars, like I do, you can get a brand new Fender American Stratocaster for RM8k or a 5-year old Strat for RM3k. And as an added bonus, some things get better with age (like the guitars).

Another fascinating habit of the self-made millionaires is that when they buy new, they will always buys things on sale. No discounts, no deal. That Armani suit looks good. No special offer at 40% discount, no deal. That ASICS running shoes look really nice and comfy. No 30% less, no deal. If the millionaires have this habit, what of us mere mortals. If it saves you money, it's a good habit to have. And it is a habit that is quite easy to internalize. At anytime of the year, go to a shopping mall, you would find it very difficult not to find a store not on sale. And better still, go on a shopping spree during the Big Malaysia Sale.

I believe a big part of the reason why people refused to buy used or wait for sales is that little thing called ego. You want to feel good buying new stuff. It is the latest thing, so you can't wait for the sales. No wonder forward-thinking people called ego "expensive". If you have this trait, like sometimes I do, try this. Go to a used clothing store (we called it a bundled shop here in Kuching), and buy yourself a used t-shirt. Go home and washed it and then wear it. It will do you a world of good to tame that little thing called ego.

And imagine all that money you will eventually save.....

problematic....

i don't know....

why our problems never go away... why do we have to face problems and suffer from them... why? why? why? everytime we solve one problem, another will come. if it's not money, it's the children.. if not that, it's work-related... n if not that, it's the car.... then there's the problem with the spouse or girlfriend (for those lucky dudes)...

i mean, if you stop and start thinking about it, our lives are just a bunch of problems and the solving of those goddamn problems.... admittedly, some problems are bigger than others... but no matter how small the problems are, they are still problems that need to be solved... n problem-solving takes time (definitely)... and money (sometimes)... and worse of all, in my humble opinion, takes the spirit out of you.... and the worse offenders are health-related, legal ones and the problems of the heart... such problems are just sooo difficult to handle... i'm the first to admit that when such problem arise, i would immediately lose focus, my hands tremble, my spirit's down... n my interest in anything just vanish.... i ask myself.. "does this happen to anybody else?"

when u are faced with "big" problems, the spirit in you grows thin... and this can be dangerous.... when the spirit is sparse, anything can happen... and now basically you do not have the care in the world anymore... u can kill, u can turn bad, u can walk away from your family, u can just.. vanish!!!!

now the problem with this is that, even if u vanish, the problem stays.... it might not be the same exact problem, but it definitely can turn into something even bigger.... URGHHHHH!!!!!

now what do we do?

accept problems as part of life? shall we adopt a "take it as it comes" attitude? shall we care less and die young?

why am i so lazy (sometimes)...

the pavillion in kuching

have u had days when your body n mind just do not want to do anything... 

actually, that's not quite correct... we always do something somehow....

i mean doing things that u must do... not of your own choice... especially things that r related to work...

on my lazy days (that means too lazy to do things that r work related), i would be more than willing to join u for a photography session, a game of badminton, a timeout with the kids, or even a jamming session... so that is to say i'm not actually lazy full stop.... just lazy when it comes to work...

if it's not work, i'm ok... so, when people call us lazy, what do they actually mean?  almost always it means we r lazy for not wanting to do things that other people want or expect us to do...  

but, if we do things because we want to do them, then we will never be labelled as lazy... or do things that conform to the expectations of those who r watching us (the bosses, parents, lovers...)

so, we r lazy n not lazy at the same time... hmmmm... so, what do we do now?

it's all there....

what photography has taught me is that, if u start to see like a photographer, u'll discover things... magical things.  things that u never knew were there are there... just waiting to be discovered...

take sunsets... most of us know how beautiful sunsets are.  do we?  i've been taking many many sunset photos n what really amazed me is that they all different.. i mean really different.  n the excitement that u feel when u see those sunset rays through the barrel of the camera lens is special.  the changes in colour n texture in that few minutes of the last phase of the sunset are fast n furious.  they r exhilirating.  they made my heart beats a little bit faster...

same thing with birds... i didn't even know that there r at least 12 different species of birds living in n around my house compound.  n boy, what beautiful creatures they r.  n now wherever i go, i

see birds.. n i hear them too.. singing my blues away.. curious...

n u can go on n on... even things society generally labels as ugly can be captured as beautiful...  i was in bintulu recently n saw this empty oil drums n i thought "wow.. this is a good photographic opportunity"... here's proof.

  n if not for this interest in photography, i would just ignore this "beauty"...

n here's the final point... once u r sensitised to this environment around u, u will find how beautiful this place of ours is.  i luv it!  n u will too...

so what r u waiting for... grab that camera n start discovering... god bless...

unlimited resources...

i read a book...

in it, it says that our resources are really unlimited...

put it another way, our resources are limited only by whatever our earth contains... u see, since whatever is on earth remains on earth, n nothing from outside our atmosphere can add to what we already have on earth (apart from the odd meteor that drop by once in a million years), our earth's resources stays the same...

the book further explains that everything on earth can be broken down into individual atoms, and these atoms will never vanish...  they just become part of something... they form a building block for something... 

let's demonstrate... let's say an atom named 'x' lives in a cat.... the cat dies, its body decomposed, atom 'x' got seperated from the cat's carcass and washed out by the rain and ended up in some tree which will be cut by some nice logger and turned into a floor board.  The house with the floor board got burned and atom 'x' became ash n blown all the way to the pacific ocean where it ended up in a shark's bait.... 

u got the point.... the journey for atom 'x' just never ends... n as mentioned earlier, all things on earth consist of atoms... u, me, fiber optics, flower, table, car, fuel, dogs, milk, n blah... blah... blah....

n all resources are made of atoms... n since atoms never vanish, our resources never vanish... to be more accurate, the resources might just evolve into some other resources... when we run out of oil, some other things will be our energy resources...  so what if we run out of oil? we can use palm oil... or hydrogen fuel... or methane fuel (this i know because we r planning to put one for our dairy farm)... or wind.. or solar..  it is, afterall the same atoms....

as long as humans are around, we'll be alright... as long as we don't kill each other silly... that's why we must be antiwar....  god has given us humans this incredible thinking n creative abilities... we'll be alright...

but the implications n ramifications from the journey of our atom 'x' are far and wide....

for your consideration.... 

an honest start.... hopefully

honesty.... such a lonely word... - billy joel

i honestly do not know what to write about... it's amazing how many subjects one can write about... it is truly mind-boggling... but why is it that not a single thing could provoke my interest enough for me to start writing... i wonder how these famous and not so famous bloggers seem to have these words flowing through their minds and fingers... interest? gifted? determined? perseverance? command of the language?

but given time, i'll come up with something... divine intervention possibly?? better still, bloggers' interjection..

hmmmm....