This post contains spoilers for the September playthrough of Pandemic Legacy Season One.
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Oh wow. I am still reeling in shock.
I have won 100% of the games so far, and this was the first game I lost. And it was all because I found the damn Paranoid Soldier.
It was the worst case scenario - the Paramilitary Escort upgrade was on my most powerful character, the Quarantine Specialist. I had 4 Yellow cards on her, with the 5th one to be passed next turn for the insta-cure. Instead... well. Without going into details, she had to die.
With my QS dead, I had no way of containing the Faded outbreaks, and died to a chain outbreak shortly after in about 2-3 turn cycles.
I'm going to have to revisit my strategy now, given I've permanently lost the QS. Probably need to use some of the military characters to deal with Faded.
Well done Matt Leacock. I hate you. And respect you somewhat.
Saturday 22 September 2018
Friday 31 August 2018
Pandemic Legacy Season One - August First Game
This post contains spoilers for the month of August.
Last month, I picked up the upgrade that let me remove faded when my character leaves that city which seemed pretty OP.
This month introduced a self sacrifice Mechanic to take a scar to avoid an infect phase or something. I pretty much forgot about it because it seemed stupid unless I know for sure another Infect will do critical board damage.
There was a Virologist to Search for this game, but he is slightly harder to find than the Immunologist (did I get their roles wrong? Maybe it is Immun this game and Viro last game)
As I START the game with 6 military bases, there was no more need for an Operations Expert, so I ran with Researcher, QS, and Dispatcher.
This game was VERY strange. Had a very optimal opening sequence and card draw , found the Viro really quickly, and cured 2 diseases. Then I got stuck. I basically had 0 of the last color cards until the last 1/3 of the game, which meant I spent most of my middle game firefighting and removing Fallen figurines with my upgrade.
Thankfully, the final color did come out, and I swiftly cured it once I had 5 live cards of that color. Was in no real danger of losing despite having 4 epidemics! On to the next month...
Last month, I picked up the upgrade that let me remove faded when my character leaves that city which seemed pretty OP.
This month introduced a self sacrifice Mechanic to take a scar to avoid an infect phase or something. I pretty much forgot about it because it seemed stupid unless I know for sure another Infect will do critical board damage.
There was a Virologist to Search for this game, but he is slightly harder to find than the Immunologist (did I get their roles wrong? Maybe it is Immun this game and Viro last game)
As I START the game with 6 military bases, there was no more need for an Operations Expert, so I ran with Researcher, QS, and Dispatcher.
This game was VERY strange. Had a very optimal opening sequence and card draw , found the Viro really quickly, and cured 2 diseases. Then I got stuck. I basically had 0 of the last color cards until the last 1/3 of the game, which meant I spent most of my middle game firefighting and removing Fallen figurines with my upgrade.
Thankfully, the final color did come out, and I swiftly cured it once I had 5 live cards of that color. Was in no real danger of losing despite having 4 epidemics! On to the next month...
Saturday 25 August 2018
Pandemic Legacy Season One - July First Game
This post contains spoilers for Pandemic Legacy July gameplay.
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July introduced a new ‘Search’ mechanic where you can discard cards when you’re in a research station IN a Fallen city to advance a search token to eventually ‘find’ an important person that will help with the CoDa virus.
I played with the (what I think is) optimal team combi of Researcher (I swear my games will be ten times harder without her), Quarantine Specialist (what else to deal with Fallen?), and Operations Specialist (need for those Mil Bases! Though now as I approach 6 permanent Mil Bases, I may See his use fall off though there isn’t really a better military-tagged character, pending my further evaluation)
I didn’t think I would bother with this objective, but it ended up being the first objective I completed due to nothing else better to do in the opening turns. My Epidemic #1 and #2 were spaced so far apart that I actually completed 3 objectives before hitting the 2nd Epidemic, but not the mandatory cure 3 diseases one so I had to keep playing.
I ended up ekeing out a surprisingly narrow win - the last color virus was close to running out of cubes (2 left) due to a chain outbreak, and right before my winning turn, a 3 chain outbreak of Fallen pushed the Outbreak counter to 7. Whew.
That’s 7 wins out of 7 games now (with some asterisks on Feb/Mar wins due to a rules misinterpretation, but come on,,, I wasn’t going to lose those! Haha)... wonder when my first loss will come!
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July introduced a new ‘Search’ mechanic where you can discard cards when you’re in a research station IN a Fallen city to advance a search token to eventually ‘find’ an important person that will help with the CoDa virus.
I played with the (what I think is) optimal team combi of Researcher (I swear my games will be ten times harder without her), Quarantine Specialist (what else to deal with Fallen?), and Operations Specialist (need for those Mil Bases! Though now as I approach 6 permanent Mil Bases, I may See his use fall off though there isn’t really a better military-tagged character, pending my further evaluation)
I didn’t think I would bother with this objective, but it ended up being the first objective I completed due to nothing else better to do in the opening turns. My Epidemic #1 and #2 were spaced so far apart that I actually completed 3 objectives before hitting the 2nd Epidemic, but not the mandatory cure 3 diseases one so I had to keep playing.
I ended up ekeing out a surprisingly narrow win - the last color virus was close to running out of cubes (2 left) due to a chain outbreak, and right before my winning turn, a 3 chain outbreak of Fallen pushed the Outbreak counter to 7. Whew.
That’s 7 wins out of 7 games now (with some asterisks on Feb/Mar wins due to a rules misinterpretation, but come on,,, I wasn’t going to lose those! Haha)... wonder when my first loss will come!
Plica Syndrome - Day 25 - Quad loading begins
Knee flexion has improved tremendously though it’s extremely tight and slightly painful to fully flex the knee. Almost full range of motion. I had been doing heel-wall slides to help with this, think it helps.
Still experiencing tightness/dull pain in my VMO+ scar tissue area, especially when walking/standing/going down stairs.
I shared these points with my physio Mark. For my physio session today, Mark did some manual therapy to loosen up my VMO + ITB, and it was straight to rehab work! Mark said it was time to start loading my quads as my left quad apparently has atrophied (shrunk) quite abit. We did some bike work, some light leg press, and some hip stability drills. Mark keeps emphasising ‘strong hips, strong knees. Not the other way round’.
We finished up the session with abit more manual therapy for my VMO as I was complaining of tightness, and he also applied sports tape on my knee which is supposed to help with the VMO tightness.
And it did!! The leg feels surprisingly better with just the tape and no knee sleeve (which I had been wearing before). Mark said he expected me to be jogging by Week 6... which seems unlikely at the moment lol, given how my knee feels still. I think I’ll get significantly better once the scar tissue (a tough little lump under my skin) decided to break up and disappear.
For home therapy, supposed to do some wall-assisted half squats, stand-sit from bed (not sure how to describe this lol. Resembles a half squat but the load is on hamstrings/glute), hip stability drills, calf raises. Hope I get better fast!
Still experiencing tightness/dull pain in my VMO+ scar tissue area, especially when walking/standing/going down stairs.
I shared these points with my physio Mark. For my physio session today, Mark did some manual therapy to loosen up my VMO + ITB, and it was straight to rehab work! Mark said it was time to start loading my quads as my left quad apparently has atrophied (shrunk) quite abit. We did some bike work, some light leg press, and some hip stability drills. Mark keeps emphasising ‘strong hips, strong knees. Not the other way round’.
We finished up the session with abit more manual therapy for my VMO as I was complaining of tightness, and he also applied sports tape on my knee which is supposed to help with the VMO tightness.
And it did!! The leg feels surprisingly better with just the tape and no knee sleeve (which I had been wearing before). Mark said he expected me to be jogging by Week 6... which seems unlikely at the moment lol, given how my knee feels still. I think I’ll get significantly better once the scar tissue (a tough little lump under my skin) decided to break up and disappear.
For home therapy, supposed to do some wall-assisted half squats, stand-sit from bed (not sure how to describe this lol. Resembles a half squat but the load is on hamstrings/glute), hip stability drills, calf raises. Hope I get better fast!
Tuesday 14 August 2018
Pandemic Legacy Season One - June - First Game
This post contains spoilers for Pandemic Legacy Season One - June.
June's new thing was 'equipment' - you get to stick stickers on city cards, which make them dual-purpose and also an 'equipment'. The equipment abilities weren't that amazing, so I didn't really focus much on it apart from using the singular (and most op) one which allowed that card to be used as a 'wild card' for curing disease (essentially it is any colour).
I also learnt from my May game, and went for the easier objective of building 6 Military Bases. The funny thing was, approaching the end of my game, I realised I was closer to meeting the 'Quarantine 7 Fallen cities' objective rather than Eradicate (From Jan-June, I had always eradicated at least one virus each game), due to some unlucky Epidemics. I ended up winning that way, and didn't eradicate any virus for the first time.
The card draw was both good and bad - I didn't see black City cards till towards game-end - at one point I had met 2 objectives, but was still left with black virus to be cured. But the infection cards were generally quite favourable, until after the 3rd Epidemic, when I got 2-3 Fallen outbreaks, which resulted in
- One city reaching Rioting Level 3
- Two black cities becoming Fallen (my blue virus is the c0Da evolved virus)
It will be interesting to see how the spread of Fallen cities affects the difficulty in future games - on one hand it is quite damaging to have an irreversible virus spreading; on the other, it also makes eradicating the non-evolved virus easier since there will be fewer of that virus' cubes spawning.
Oh, I used Researcher, QS, and Operations Expert again, and took 2 permanent Military Bases as my upgrades. It seems pretty OP... just one more time and I will have 6 permanent Military Bases from the start of game, which basically insta-completes one objective. Looking forward to July!
June's new thing was 'equipment' - you get to stick stickers on city cards, which make them dual-purpose and also an 'equipment'. The equipment abilities weren't that amazing, so I didn't really focus much on it apart from using the singular (and most op) one which allowed that card to be used as a 'wild card' for curing disease (essentially it is any colour).
I also learnt from my May game, and went for the easier objective of building 6 Military Bases. The funny thing was, approaching the end of my game, I realised I was closer to meeting the 'Quarantine 7 Fallen cities' objective rather than Eradicate (From Jan-June, I had always eradicated at least one virus each game), due to some unlucky Epidemics. I ended up winning that way, and didn't eradicate any virus for the first time.
The card draw was both good and bad - I didn't see black City cards till towards game-end - at one point I had met 2 objectives, but was still left with black virus to be cured. But the infection cards were generally quite favourable, until after the 3rd Epidemic, when I got 2-3 Fallen outbreaks, which resulted in
- One city reaching Rioting Level 3
- Two black cities becoming Fallen (my blue virus is the c0Da evolved virus)
It will be interesting to see how the spread of Fallen cities affects the difficulty in future games - on one hand it is quite damaging to have an irreversible virus spreading; on the other, it also makes eradicating the non-evolved virus easier since there will be fewer of that virus' cubes spawning.
Oh, I used Researcher, QS, and Operations Expert again, and took 2 permanent Military Bases as my upgrades. It seems pretty OP... just one more time and I will have 6 permanent Military Bases from the start of game, which basically insta-completes one objective. Looking forward to July!
Sunday 12 August 2018
Pandemic Legacy Season One - May Gameplay
This post contains spoilers for Pandemic Legacy Season One , May.
May forced you to complete 3 objectives, which meant I shouldn’t ignore the military bases Mechanic anymore.. but I still tried to. Against my better judgment, I aimed for the Quarantine 7 Fallen cities objective (along with eradicate, since that’s a joke now with my black virus upgraded 3 times).
There was also a new complication where any Player cards you drew that were the colour of the mutated untreatable / uncurable virus WOULD ALSO place Fallen figurines on the board!! That’s crazy. This meant the mutated virus basically spreads twice as fast compared to everything else since you get it from 2 sources!
My luck was absolutely terrible too as I drew many Blue (my mutated virus) cards early, along with a 3 cube Blue in the opening infection draw. This meant I spent the whole game spamming Quarantines, trying to keep blue at bay and also meet my 7 Quarantine objective.
When I won, I was 1 outbreak away from losing, and down to 4 Player cards. This was the closest I came to losing in 5 games.
I decided to play along with the Military Bases and took 2 upgrades to have 2 Military Bases on my board at the start, instead of upgrading my black Virus to tier 4, which I deemed not that critical given how my biggest issue was containing Fallen with their double spawn rate. Let’s see if I can beat June more comfortably!
Saturday 11 August 2018
Plica Syndrome - Day 11 - Stitches Removal
Knee extension is almost 100% (I can straighten my leg), but according to my physio I'm still walking with my leg slightly bent. This is because I feel this little bunch of muscle above my knee being very tight still, which subconsciously makes me bend the leg. Knee flexion is still bad, I can't go beyond 90 degrees much, something tight is pulling me back at the knee.
Physio work today involved riding a bike, some other stretches/exercises that Mark guided me through. More interesting and worth it than lying on a bed and letting TENS zap me. He gives me a glimpse of his 'roadmap' for me, which sounded interesting I suppose, being my first time working with a PT. Looking forward to recovery!!
After the physio session, I went to see Dr Lim to remove my stitches. It was fairly simple, just snip the knot at the end, and gently tug out the thread with a tweezer. I barely felt anything, not even a tugging sensation. Wounds seemed to have healed alright, but still some swelling there.
Recovery will be training the quads to prevent atrophy, getting range of motion back. Will post the next update probably in 2 weeks time (about Week 4) when I visit the physio again. Ciaoz
Physio work today involved riding a bike, some other stretches/exercises that Mark guided me through. More interesting and worth it than lying on a bed and letting TENS zap me. He gives me a glimpse of his 'roadmap' for me, which sounded interesting I suppose, being my first time working with a PT. Looking forward to recovery!!
After the physio session, I went to see Dr Lim to remove my stitches. It was fairly simple, just snip the knot at the end, and gently tug out the thread with a tweezer. I barely felt anything, not even a tugging sensation. Wounds seemed to have healed alright, but still some swelling there.
Recovery will be training the quads to prevent atrophy, getting range of motion back. Will post the next update probably in 2 weeks time (about Week 4) when I visit the physio again. Ciaoz
Friday 10 August 2018
Pandemic Legacy Season One - April - First Gameplay
This post contains spoilers for Pandemic Legacy April.
One of the hallmarks of Pandemic is the sudden realisation that you messed up a particular rule. The first time I played Pandemic, I thought the Researcher’s ‘pass any card’ ability was also a ‘take any card’.
When playing April in Legacy, I suddenly realised I was playing Quarantine Specialist wrongly - I was using her Quarantine-from-anywhere ability more than once every turn, completely missing out the ‘Once every turn’ wording. That could have explained why March was so easy... luckily I found out pretty early in the game, so I would place an asterisk only on March, and maybe Feb.
Anyway, I quickly corrected myself and played it as it should be, which did make the game a bit harder.
April’s curveball was the introduction of ‘Fallen figurines’ replacing your mutated untreatable, uncurable disease. The major downsides of Fallen are:
- If you start your turn in a city with any Fallen, your character gains a scar
- If Fallen outbreaks to a neighbouring city of a different Color, that city becomes Fallen as well and will permanently spawn Fallen if infected.
The way I see it, this makes the QS even more of a necessity, and may warrant the use of Mil Bases eventually (I don’t quite see the need yet) if they have some proxy-Quarantine ability. It makes the whole Blue side basically out of bounds, and I’ll have to dart in and out if I want to Quarantine it, a whopping 3 turns just to do that. Will need to re-evaluate in May how best to deal with Fallen...
Anyway, April ended with a win, with 2 outbreaks and one city hitting Rioting level. I continue to snowball my disease mutation powers with one eradication. (Random thought - what if you spent a disease upgrade on the eventual cODa virus? That would suck). One third the way through to saving the world!
One of the hallmarks of Pandemic is the sudden realisation that you messed up a particular rule. The first time I played Pandemic, I thought the Researcher’s ‘pass any card’ ability was also a ‘take any card’.
When playing April in Legacy, I suddenly realised I was playing Quarantine Specialist wrongly - I was using her Quarantine-from-anywhere ability more than once every turn, completely missing out the ‘Once every turn’ wording. That could have explained why March was so easy... luckily I found out pretty early in the game, so I would place an asterisk only on March, and maybe Feb.
Anyway, I quickly corrected myself and played it as it should be, which did make the game a bit harder.
April’s curveball was the introduction of ‘Fallen figurines’ replacing your mutated untreatable, uncurable disease. The major downsides of Fallen are:
- If you start your turn in a city with any Fallen, your character gains a scar
- If Fallen outbreaks to a neighbouring city of a different Color, that city becomes Fallen as well and will permanently spawn Fallen if infected.
The way I see it, this makes the QS even more of a necessity, and may warrant the use of Mil Bases eventually (I don’t quite see the need yet) if they have some proxy-Quarantine ability. It makes the whole Blue side basically out of bounds, and I’ll have to dart in and out if I want to Quarantine it, a whopping 3 turns just to do that. Will need to re-evaluate in May how best to deal with Fallen...
Anyway, April ended with a win, with 2 outbreaks and one city hitting Rioting level. I continue to snowball my disease mutation powers with one eradication. (Random thought - what if you spent a disease upgrade on the eventual cODa virus? That would suck). One third the way through to saving the world!
Wednesday 8 August 2018
Pandemic Legacy Season One - March - Game One
This post contains spoilers for Pandemic Legacy. You should not read on if you do not want to be spoiled.
For my February gameplay, click here.
For my January gameplay, click here.
March introduced 2 new objectives, on top of the requirement to cure 3 diseases. I needed to either eradicate a disease or build a Military Base (a new structure) in each of the 6 major areas of the game (e.g. Asia, North America, South America, etc). It also introduced a new character, Operation Expert, who could build Military Bases for free, without discarding a card.
After evaluating, I figured the military base objective was way too troublesome, so I went with the same character setup (Op Expert would only be useful if I was doing the military base objective) of Researcher, Dispatcher, and Contingency Expert.
This game was quite underwhelming, but largely due to a very lucky card draw. My 1st and 2nd Epidemics were VERY far separated, and by then I was almost winning. I ended the game with zero outbreaks, and only 2 Epidemics drawn. I sieved through the Player Deck and realised the 3rd and 4th Epidemic were back to back (it's better right? Assuming you draw both in a single player turn, you avoid double-drawing a City card)
I find the Researcher is just too powerful, coupled with the Co-worker 'share anywhere' mechanic, I just use the Researcher as a card dumper, QS to control any potential outbreak with remote Quarantines (and also control the uncurable disease), and Dispatcher to maximise moves. This combo seems unstoppable, as shown by my easy win this game, without any funding to boot.
I'm not sure why it was so easy... could also be because I recognised the snowball potential of Disease Mutations (upgrades) so I focused on them from January, and I already have 4 upgrades which makes Curing a lot easier.
Three for three so far, looking forward to April!
For my February gameplay, click here.
For my January gameplay, click here.
March introduced 2 new objectives, on top of the requirement to cure 3 diseases. I needed to either eradicate a disease or build a Military Base (a new structure) in each of the 6 major areas of the game (e.g. Asia, North America, South America, etc). It also introduced a new character, Operation Expert, who could build Military Bases for free, without discarding a card.
After evaluating, I figured the military base objective was way too troublesome, so I went with the same character setup (Op Expert would only be useful if I was doing the military base objective) of Researcher, Dispatcher, and Contingency Expert.
This game was quite underwhelming, but largely due to a very lucky card draw. My 1st and 2nd Epidemics were VERY far separated, and by then I was almost winning. I ended the game with zero outbreaks, and only 2 Epidemics drawn. I sieved through the Player Deck and realised the 3rd and 4th Epidemic were back to back (it's better right? Assuming you draw both in a single player turn, you avoid double-drawing a City card)
I find the Researcher is just too powerful, coupled with the Co-worker 'share anywhere' mechanic, I just use the Researcher as a card dumper, QS to control any potential outbreak with remote Quarantines (and also control the uncurable disease), and Dispatcher to maximise moves. This combo seems unstoppable, as shown by my easy win this game, without any funding to boot.
I'm not sure why it was so easy... could also be because I recognised the snowball potential of Disease Mutations (upgrades) so I focused on them from January, and I already have 4 upgrades which makes Curing a lot easier.
Three for three so far, looking forward to April!
Tuesday 7 August 2018
Pandemic Legacy Season One - February - Game One
This post contains spoilers for Pandemic Legacy. You should not read on if you do not want to be spoiled.
After a fairly easy but interesting January game, I approached February with high hopes... which were immediately met with another cool twist when I opened the Legacy deck which has my Mission briefing.
I thought the mutation of one virus such that it needed an extra action to treat was bad enough... now the game tells me this virus has mutated further to become IMMUNE and I can’t even treat or cure it?! Wow. (Since Jan, the win condition changed to curing just 3 of the viruses)
Before I could rip apart the rest of the game in frustration, it introduced a new role and Mechanic, Quarantine+ Quarantine specialist! Quarantine is a new action any character can perform if they are in that city - you place a quarantine token on it, which basically means the next time you need to place a disease cube on it, you remove the token instead of placing the cube. So it’s like a shield!
The Specialist basically lets you quarantine any city without being there physically (and retains the token if your Specialist is in the city which just got a disease cube)
I figured the optimal strategy was to use this new character, and basically perma-Quarantine the immune virus. I dropped Medic, and ran with Quarantine Specialist, Dispatcher, and Researcher.
I added Co-worker and Family Member as my relationships.
The game went fairly smoothly at the start, but got very tense towards the end as I was left with one disease to cure but I wasn’t even drawing any of that colour, and a few cities were in danger of outbreak, even the untreatable disease. Thankfully, I emerged fairly unscathed with just one outbreak, and won with one eradication too.
Looking forward to what twists March brings... and how I will fair with ZERO funding! (Your level of funding basically indicates how many event cards you put in the deck. Each time you win, you reduce your funding by 2)
After a fairly easy but interesting January game, I approached February with high hopes... which were immediately met with another cool twist when I opened the Legacy deck which has my Mission briefing.
I thought the mutation of one virus such that it needed an extra action to treat was bad enough... now the game tells me this virus has mutated further to become IMMUNE and I can’t even treat or cure it?! Wow. (Since Jan, the win condition changed to curing just 3 of the viruses)
Before I could rip apart the rest of the game in frustration, it introduced a new role and Mechanic, Quarantine+ Quarantine specialist! Quarantine is a new action any character can perform if they are in that city - you place a quarantine token on it, which basically means the next time you need to place a disease cube on it, you remove the token instead of placing the cube. So it’s like a shield!
The Specialist basically lets you quarantine any city without being there physically (and retains the token if your Specialist is in the city which just got a disease cube)
I figured the optimal strategy was to use this new character, and basically perma-Quarantine the immune virus. I dropped Medic, and ran with Quarantine Specialist, Dispatcher, and Researcher.
I added Co-worker and Family Member as my relationships.
The game went fairly smoothly at the start, but got very tense towards the end as I was left with one disease to cure but I wasn’t even drawing any of that colour, and a few cities were in danger of outbreak, even the untreatable disease. Thankfully, I emerged fairly unscathed with just one outbreak, and won with one eradication too.
Looking forward to what twists March brings... and how I will fair with ZERO funding! (Your level of funding basically indicates how many event cards you put in the deck. Each time you win, you reduce your funding by 2)
Pandemic Legacy Season One - January First Gameplay (Spoiler Free)
After a long time of deliberating whether to invest in this game, I finally took the leap! I decided to go solo, as it would be quite troublesome to assemble and keep a regular group going for 12 weeks (minimally) to complete the game. I've heard nothing but good reviews for this game, so... why not?
Right out of the box, there's intrigue - a set of dossiers labelled 'Top Secret', a rulebook, a big sticker sheet, and a set of instructions to immediately follow.
Ok I'm going to talk abit about my experience, and I'll keep it spoiler free in the sense that I won't reveal anything that is only revealed later in the game. Meaning I'll only mention things outright described in the rulebook at the start.
One of the key new mechanics is panic level - everytime an outbreak occurs, that city's panic level goes up by 1 permanently. There were some really shitty permanent effects if the panic level got too high, so I tried my best in my first game to control all outbreaks - unfortunately I still got one. Oh well.
The first game went fairly ok - I decided to go with 3 characters, Medic, Dispatcher, and Researcher, which I deem to be the most powerful. I read online that 2 was too easy, and 4 felt abit clunky due to the card passing required and I thought I would more easily lose track and mess up given I was playing solo.
I won without too much difficulty (was never close to losing), and even managed to eradicate two diseases, which net me some cool upgrades for the future (you get 2 upgrades after every game which makes things easier for you in your next game).
But I did find myself spending A LOT more time thinking about each move, as I felt that each decision was many times more important than before, since things that happen are permanent and have lasting effects on the rest of your 12-24 games. I think playing this with friends may be slightly easier, as you can bounce ideas off each other, and weigh the pros/cons of certain decisions. After this first win, I even ran to my wife (who wasn't playing, but played Pandemic before) to ask for her inputs for an upgrade decision I had to make.
One of the new mechanics is a 'Legacy deck', which you are supposed to draw cards that have instructions on them that may change how the game is played; there is a preset order to draw them, and you will know exactly when to stop and draw. The first Legacy deck effect was mindblowing - it fundamentally changed how the game was played and I was just reeling from it. I wonder how it will affect future games?!? And if this was only the first thing, how else could the game be modified? I can imagine by the time I hit November/December, the gameplay would be REALLY REALLY different from the base game. I can't wait!!
First impressions - really good. I love the creative angle of the 'Legacy' style gameplay, which adds weight to every decision. From the first 'twist' of the Legacy Deck, I'm already super stoked to see what further twists the game makers have for me. The whole feel of the game just feels amazing and fresh, the components are well made; would have loved some better compartments for the cubes instead of ziplock but I guess I'll get a Plano box to resolve that myself.
Looking forward to February!
Right out of the box, there's intrigue - a set of dossiers labelled 'Top Secret', a rulebook, a big sticker sheet, and a set of instructions to immediately follow.
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| One of the first instructions was to stick a sticker on Packet 8, which is a sealed, perforated box: 'Open only if you lose 4 games in a row'. Ooooh mystery. I aim to never open this!! |
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| Board looks similar to regular Pandemic, with some extra things. |
Ok I'm going to talk abit about my experience, and I'll keep it spoiler free in the sense that I won't reveal anything that is only revealed later in the game. Meaning I'll only mention things outright described in the rulebook at the start.
One of the key new mechanics is panic level - everytime an outbreak occurs, that city's panic level goes up by 1 permanently. There were some really shitty permanent effects if the panic level got too high, so I tried my best in my first game to control all outbreaks - unfortunately I still got one. Oh well.
The first game went fairly ok - I decided to go with 3 characters, Medic, Dispatcher, and Researcher, which I deem to be the most powerful. I read online that 2 was too easy, and 4 felt abit clunky due to the card passing required and I thought I would more easily lose track and mess up given I was playing solo.
I won without too much difficulty (was never close to losing), and even managed to eradicate two diseases, which net me some cool upgrades for the future (you get 2 upgrades after every game which makes things easier for you in your next game).
But I did find myself spending A LOT more time thinking about each move, as I felt that each decision was many times more important than before, since things that happen are permanent and have lasting effects on the rest of your 12-24 games. I think playing this with friends may be slightly easier, as you can bounce ideas off each other, and weigh the pros/cons of certain decisions. After this first win, I even ran to my wife (who wasn't playing, but played Pandemic before) to ask for her inputs for an upgrade decision I had to make.
One of the new mechanics is a 'Legacy deck', which you are supposed to draw cards that have instructions on them that may change how the game is played; there is a preset order to draw them, and you will know exactly when to stop and draw. The first Legacy deck effect was mindblowing - it fundamentally changed how the game was played and I was just reeling from it. I wonder how it will affect future games?!? And if this was only the first thing, how else could the game be modified? I can imagine by the time I hit November/December, the gameplay would be REALLY REALLY different from the base game. I can't wait!!
First impressions - really good. I love the creative angle of the 'Legacy' style gameplay, which adds weight to every decision. From the first 'twist' of the Legacy Deck, I'm already super stoked to see what further twists the game makers have for me. The whole feel of the game just feels amazing and fresh, the components are well made; would have loved some better compartments for the cubes instead of ziplock but I guess I'll get a Plano box to resolve that myself.
Looking forward to February!
Sunday 5 August 2018
Plica Syndrome - Day 6 - Regrets?
Day 6 after the op (counting the day of the op as Day 0) I can start to walk without a crutch but with a big limp. There's some swelling on and off, which I realised seems to happen if I remove the light compression sleeve the doctor gave. I'll ice, elevate, and put the compression sleeve back on and the swelling subsides.
Sometimes I wonder if I should have had done the surgery. When I read online of other people who also had plica syndrome and hence went for arthroscopic surgery, their symptoms always sound a lot more severe than mine.
All I had was a persistent discomfort in the knee, the feeling that something is rubbing on the inside of the knee, and the joint gets warm and painful after I deadlift / hurts when I run. Other people have constant pain, clicking in the knee, pain when going up/down stairs. I can even play basketball/sports if I wear a knee wrap!
The problem was the discomfort didn't go away, and didn't seem to be improving after 9 months. I had 2 options:
Option A: Start seeing a new physio and try out another treatment plan (After 9 months of trying many plans) and hope it reduces and eliminates the problem eventually.
Option B: Do the surgery, then see that physio and rehab to 100%.
The problem with option A is that the recovery is not guaranteed and the problem plica is still there. Well not that option B is guaranteed recovery, but at least the problem is removed and I can actively rehab and feel progress.
My only fear now is that I don't actually return to 100%, and some lingering issue remains to haunt me. Then it will remind me of this $11+k plus 3 months of suffering (the estimated recovery timeline) wasted. oh well.
Sometimes I wonder if I should have had done the surgery. When I read online of other people who also had plica syndrome and hence went for arthroscopic surgery, their symptoms always sound a lot more severe than mine.
All I had was a persistent discomfort in the knee, the feeling that something is rubbing on the inside of the knee, and the joint gets warm and painful after I deadlift / hurts when I run. Other people have constant pain, clicking in the knee, pain when going up/down stairs. I can even play basketball/sports if I wear a knee wrap!
The problem was the discomfort didn't go away, and didn't seem to be improving after 9 months. I had 2 options:
Option A: Start seeing a new physio and try out another treatment plan (After 9 months of trying many plans) and hope it reduces and eliminates the problem eventually.
Option B: Do the surgery, then see that physio and rehab to 100%.
The problem with option A is that the recovery is not guaranteed and the problem plica is still there. Well not that option B is guaranteed recovery, but at least the problem is removed and I can actively rehab and feel progress.
My only fear now is that I don't actually return to 100%, and some lingering issue remains to haunt me. Then it will remind me of this $11+k plus 3 months of suffering (the estimated recovery timeline) wasted. oh well.
Saturday 4 August 2018
Clash Royale - Masters League!
Finally hit a new milestone today, obtaining Masters League after a pretty nailbiting final game
The deck used:
The core cards I used were Hog Rider, Goblin, Zap, Musketeer - mainly because they were maxed out. I'm currently maxing out Fireball so I guess I'm stuck with that xD. Ice Wizard has saved me too much defensively, so the only 2 variations I played with were the Cannon/Ice Golem.
I've tried Inferno Tower but didn't like the lack of versatility it had - I wasn't facing Golem/LH all too often, and it usually isn't that great against Giant (due to the opponent's ability to stack other small things behind it). Cannon is all around more versatile and fits into my cyclish deck better.
The last card, Ice Golem, was a last moment of inspiration. For a long time, I was using a Level 9 Mini Pekka or a Level 6 Pekka - clearly suboptimal at the trophy levels I was playing at where most people have maxxed out cards. I thought I needed some sort of tank killer, and even considered my Level 2 Lumberjack.
Eventually I realised I needed a card that was level-neutral - i.e. performs just as well even when underlevelled. There are 3 cards that fit this bill - Ice Spirit, Skeletons (99% of the time you don't rely on their damage anyway) and Ice Golem. After a few playtests of Ice Golem, I loved how high skill cap this card was and how efficiently it trades up for things like Pekka, Prince, EBarbs, Valk, etc (basically just kite them into the opposite lane, and play a Ice Wiz/Musketeer in the middle to pick it off as it's being kited)
With the deck locked in, it was just a matter of dodging some of the deck's weaknesses - any Lava Hound deck would destroy me once they kill my Musketeer (e.g. with Lightning); Giant / Golem decks will be quite tough as I have no tank killer, and I have to rely on split pushing to win. True enough, as I advanced up, I lost most of my LH/Giant/Golem games, but thankfully I didn't face them too often in the final push.
And the one true test came in the final game just before Masters - I was 8 trophies away... and faced a Golem deck. Thankfully, my gambit-style play worked as we took each other's Princess Towers, and he couldn't really defend my quick Hog cycle pressure on his opposite lane as he tried to Golem deathball my King tower on one lane.
Yay!
The deck used:
 |
| Average Elixir Cost: 3.0 |
The core cards I used were Hog Rider, Goblin, Zap, Musketeer - mainly because they were maxed out. I'm currently maxing out Fireball so I guess I'm stuck with that xD. Ice Wizard has saved me too much defensively, so the only 2 variations I played with were the Cannon/Ice Golem.
I've tried Inferno Tower but didn't like the lack of versatility it had - I wasn't facing Golem/LH all too often, and it usually isn't that great against Giant (due to the opponent's ability to stack other small things behind it). Cannon is all around more versatile and fits into my cyclish deck better.
The last card, Ice Golem, was a last moment of inspiration. For a long time, I was using a Level 9 Mini Pekka or a Level 6 Pekka - clearly suboptimal at the trophy levels I was playing at where most people have maxxed out cards. I thought I needed some sort of tank killer, and even considered my Level 2 Lumberjack.
Eventually I realised I needed a card that was level-neutral - i.e. performs just as well even when underlevelled. There are 3 cards that fit this bill - Ice Spirit, Skeletons (99% of the time you don't rely on their damage anyway) and Ice Golem. After a few playtests of Ice Golem, I loved how high skill cap this card was and how efficiently it trades up for things like Pekka, Prince, EBarbs, Valk, etc (basically just kite them into the opposite lane, and play a Ice Wiz/Musketeer in the middle to pick it off as it's being kited)
With the deck locked in, it was just a matter of dodging some of the deck's weaknesses - any Lava Hound deck would destroy me once they kill my Musketeer (e.g. with Lightning); Giant / Golem decks will be quite tough as I have no tank killer, and I have to rely on split pushing to win. True enough, as I advanced up, I lost most of my LH/Giant/Golem games, but thankfully I didn't face them too often in the final push.
And the one true test came in the final game just before Masters - I was 8 trophies away... and faced a Golem deck. Thankfully, my gambit-style play worked as we took each other's Princess Towers, and he couldn't really defend my quick Hog cycle pressure on his opposite lane as he tried to Golem deathball my King tower on one lane.
Yay!
Plica Syndrome - Part 3 - First Physiotherapy (Day 4)
Went for my follow-up visit with Dr Lim Mui Hong today when he replaced my bandages and checked on my wound - nothing amiss, except for the $100+ from my wallet. Will be going back one last time in a week's time to remove the stitches.
The highlight of my day was my first visit to my physiotherapist, Mark from The Physio Movement. It's my first time seeing him, and they are well-reviewed online. It's a bit too early for me to leave my review, so I'll save it for a few weeks time.
Mark is a friendly guy, trying to chat abit to break the ice. During the session, he did some manual therapy (basically some massage to release tight muscles), a 15 mins session of TENS, and he ended it off with some advice on walking with crutches (try to retain my normal walking gait, don't overcorrect with a limp), and prescribed some daily exercises to do at home.
He told me that:
- I should walk without crutches in 2 weeks
- After 5-6 weeks he may let me do some light jogging
- Back to normal activity after 3 months
I'm slightly disappointed with the recovery timeline, as my informal Google search showed some people who actually went back to normal activity in 2-4 weeks. Oh well, have to trust the process and just pray for speedy and FULL recovery!
The general progress so far is some slight improvements in knee extension over the past 3 days. Knee flexion entirely depends on how much swelling there is in the knee... today there suddenly seemed to be some swelling so my sub90 knee flexion became a very tight 90. Bearing weight on the knee is still quite uncomfortable, though I can generally survive on one crutch, even no crutch if I limp hard.
The highlight of my day was my first visit to my physiotherapist, Mark from The Physio Movement. It's my first time seeing him, and they are well-reviewed online. It's a bit too early for me to leave my review, so I'll save it for a few weeks time.
Mark is a friendly guy, trying to chat abit to break the ice. During the session, he did some manual therapy (basically some massage to release tight muscles), a 15 mins session of TENS, and he ended it off with some advice on walking with crutches (try to retain my normal walking gait, don't overcorrect with a limp), and prescribed some daily exercises to do at home.
He told me that:
- I should walk without crutches in 2 weeks
- After 5-6 weeks he may let me do some light jogging
- Back to normal activity after 3 months
I'm slightly disappointed with the recovery timeline, as my informal Google search showed some people who actually went back to normal activity in 2-4 weeks. Oh well, have to trust the process and just pray for speedy and FULL recovery!
The general progress so far is some slight improvements in knee extension over the past 3 days. Knee flexion entirely depends on how much swelling there is in the knee... today there suddenly seemed to be some swelling so my sub90 knee flexion became a very tight 90. Bearing weight on the knee is still quite uncomfortable, though I can generally survive on one crutch, even no crutch if I limp hard.
Tuesday 31 July 2018
Plica Syndrome - Part 2 - Surgery + Post-Surgery
Just got home from my knee arthoscopy surgery for my plica syndrome!
I decided to journal my experience so others can have a point of reference.
To read more about my exact condition, you can check out part 1 here.
After a long time of ruminating and consideration, I decided to go for a knee arthroscopy surgery. According to my doctor Lim Mui Hong, it’s a fairly minor surgery with low risk. He seemed quite confident so that was reassuring.
My surgery was scheduled at 9.30AM, which meant I was asked to check in to Mount Alvernia Hospital at 7.30AM. I had to fast for >8h before the surgery, which meant I skipped breakfast and didn’t drink anything in the morning (I read that you can actually drink, just not eat. All the Nurses who asked me a gazillion times also only asked ‘when was your last meal’ and didn’t ask when did I last drink water so.... maybe you can drink? Check with your doctor)
Checking in was pretty fast, and I was changed into my operating gown by 8+ and chilling in my ward. As it was my first surgery, I was pretty nervous and didn’t know what to expect. Thankfully the Wife was with me!
Just before 9, someone came to wheel me up to the operation theater. It is time!!
It was a surreal feeling being wheeled in the bed/gurney... slightly disconcerting.
When I reached upstairs, I had to wait again as it wasn’t time yet. It was an uncomfortable (and cold!) 20+ mins as I heard patients being wheeled around me and heart rate monitors beeping out of rhythm. Can be quite unnerving! Not sure why the air con was so cold too, won’t the surgeon shiver or something.
Luckily the surgery was very punctual - at 9.25 my anaestheologist came to me and briefly explained what was going to happen. ‘You will go to sleep, and it will be done!’ He said cheerfully.
THEN he wheeled me into the operating theatre and suddenly like ten different things were happening at once. Someone was preparing the operating table for me, another put a heart rate monitor on my chest, another took my pulse, the anaestheologist was inserting the tube into my hand which my GA would be fed in, and my surgeon was jokingly asking me ‘so which knee ah?’ It was very confusing, but impressively efficient too as each staff worked like cogs of a wheel and had me all hooked up and ready to go within a minute.
I wasn’t asked to count down from a 100, unlike all those stories you hear. I don’t really remember what the last thing said to me was, probably ‘is that bozo still awake?’., I don’t remember dozing off. Next thing I knew I woke up in my ward, about 1.5h later, and my whole body felt like it was still asleep due to the GA still in my system.. I groggily said some stuff to my wife to tell her I’m awake then went back to sleep as the drugs slowly wore off.
I was kept in bed for another few hours (including a lunch break of porridge) and my surgeon came by at 3+ to check on me. Everything went smoothly, and he told me to do some quad squeezing and leg extension/flexion, with the goal of regaining full range of motion.
Currently my knee feels very tight, and I can’t bend it nor extend it fully yet, especially with the thick bandages still wrapped around it. Quite hard to move around without crutches too since the joint is quite weak and stiff.
Hope it gets better quick! Will be going back to see him for a follow up in 4 days time, and also see the physio for some PT.
I decided to journal my experience so others can have a point of reference.
To read more about my exact condition, you can check out part 1 here.
After a long time of ruminating and consideration, I decided to go for a knee arthroscopy surgery. According to my doctor Lim Mui Hong, it’s a fairly minor surgery with low risk. He seemed quite confident so that was reassuring.
My surgery was scheduled at 9.30AM, which meant I was asked to check in to Mount Alvernia Hospital at 7.30AM. I had to fast for >8h before the surgery, which meant I skipped breakfast and didn’t drink anything in the morning (I read that you can actually drink, just not eat. All the Nurses who asked me a gazillion times also only asked ‘when was your last meal’ and didn’t ask when did I last drink water so.... maybe you can drink? Check with your doctor)
Checking in was pretty fast, and I was changed into my operating gown by 8+ and chilling in my ward. As it was my first surgery, I was pretty nervous and didn’t know what to expect. Thankfully the Wife was with me!
Just before 9, someone came to wheel me up to the operation theater. It is time!!
It was a surreal feeling being wheeled in the bed/gurney... slightly disconcerting.
When I reached upstairs, I had to wait again as it wasn’t time yet. It was an uncomfortable (and cold!) 20+ mins as I heard patients being wheeled around me and heart rate monitors beeping out of rhythm. Can be quite unnerving! Not sure why the air con was so cold too, won’t the surgeon shiver or something.
Luckily the surgery was very punctual - at 9.25 my anaestheologist came to me and briefly explained what was going to happen. ‘You will go to sleep, and it will be done!’ He said cheerfully.
THEN he wheeled me into the operating theatre and suddenly like ten different things were happening at once. Someone was preparing the operating table for me, another put a heart rate monitor on my chest, another took my pulse, the anaestheologist was inserting the tube into my hand which my GA would be fed in, and my surgeon was jokingly asking me ‘so which knee ah?’ It was very confusing, but impressively efficient too as each staff worked like cogs of a wheel and had me all hooked up and ready to go within a minute.
I wasn’t asked to count down from a 100, unlike all those stories you hear. I don’t really remember what the last thing said to me was, probably ‘is that bozo still awake?’., I don’t remember dozing off. Next thing I knew I woke up in my ward, about 1.5h later, and my whole body felt like it was still asleep due to the GA still in my system.. I groggily said some stuff to my wife to tell her I’m awake then went back to sleep as the drugs slowly wore off.
I was kept in bed for another few hours (including a lunch break of porridge) and my surgeon came by at 3+ to check on me. Everything went smoothly, and he told me to do some quad squeezing and leg extension/flexion, with the goal of regaining full range of motion.
Currently my knee feels very tight, and I can’t bend it nor extend it fully yet, especially with the thick bandages still wrapped around it. Quite hard to move around without crutches too since the joint is quite weak and stiff.
Saturday 21 July 2018
My Plica Syndrome - Part 1 - Pre-surgery
It was a seemingly harmless niggling feeling in my knee after running.
I decided nothing too bad, and went for another run the next day. And then walked a whole bunch in Korea the following week.
What followed was a 9 month long knee pain/discomfort that I couldn't really explain for the first 6 months until MRI results showed a medial plica in my left knee that was possibly causing my problems.
My exact symptoms evolved and varied with time, but some of them:
- Tightness in both quads, at the blue spots marked above
- Tightness in hamstrings
- Abovementioned tightness would happen mostly with prolonged standing, and very oddly, when any fabric rested on my knees.
- Rubbing sensation on the inside of left knee (plica)
- Knee would feel warm at the red region after certain exercises (e.g. deadlift)
- Weakness/tight feeling in left knee.
- Tightness can evolve to pain if I keep applying pressure on left knee.
I did everything - see multiple doctors and specialists, physios, even TCM. But nothing helped. I stretched diligently every day, foam rolled. But nothing helped.
So after a long and fruitless battle... I gave in and decided to try for the last resort, surgery. It would be a simple procedure - a knee arthroscopy, where the doctor makes 2 small incisions on each side of the knee, and goes in to shave away the plica.
The thing is, there is no guarantee that this will take away my problems. It is the best hypothesis as to what was causing it, as doctors had ruled out ligament / meniscus damage. I'm quite apprehensive of this surgery, as I've never gone for surgery (or been under GA) before.
My surgery will be in 2 week's time... I'm hoping it will go smoothly, and recovery will be quick and easy. I'll update again then.
I decided nothing too bad, and went for another run the next day. And then walked a whole bunch in Korea the following week.
What followed was a 9 month long knee pain/discomfort that I couldn't really explain for the first 6 months until MRI results showed a medial plica in my left knee that was possibly causing my problems.
 |
| red area is where the pain/discomfort is. Blue areas are where i experience tightness for unknown reasons. |
My exact symptoms evolved and varied with time, but some of them:
- Tightness in both quads, at the blue spots marked above
- Tightness in hamstrings
- Abovementioned tightness would happen mostly with prolonged standing, and very oddly, when any fabric rested on my knees.
- Rubbing sensation on the inside of left knee (plica)
- Knee would feel warm at the red region after certain exercises (e.g. deadlift)
- Weakness/tight feeling in left knee.
- Tightness can evolve to pain if I keep applying pressure on left knee.
I did everything - see multiple doctors and specialists, physios, even TCM. But nothing helped. I stretched diligently every day, foam rolled. But nothing helped.
So after a long and fruitless battle... I gave in and decided to try for the last resort, surgery. It would be a simple procedure - a knee arthroscopy, where the doctor makes 2 small incisions on each side of the knee, and goes in to shave away the plica.
The thing is, there is no guarantee that this will take away my problems. It is the best hypothesis as to what was causing it, as doctors had ruled out ligament / meniscus damage. I'm quite apprehensive of this surgery, as I've never gone for surgery (or been under GA) before.
My surgery will be in 2 week's time... I'm hoping it will go smoothly, and recovery will be quick and easy. I'll update again then.
Tuesday 12 June 2018
A new bulk and cut cycle
I started taking my diet seriously in August 2017, and I saw the most pronounced changes in my body composition that I've ever seen in my life (and I've been training on / off for about 5 years).
In mid-Aug 2017, I started a bulk that ended about Nov 2017. In that period, I went from around 66-67 kg to 73.3kg, the heaviest I had weighed in my life.
Nov 2017 - Feb 2018: Started cutting, went down to 67kg
Feb 2018 - Apr 2018: Started bulking, went from 67kg to 71kg
Apr 2018 - Jun 2018 : Started cutting, went down to 65kg (current).
I'm at the tail end of this cut, and aiming to end at about 64kg so that I will be really lean, and plan to start on a much slower bulk.
From the previous experiences in bulking (especially the first bulk cycle in Aug-Nov 2017), going up too quickly (0.5kg seemed a bit too fast) just made me look fat at the end of my bulk. My previous cut to 67kg I didn't really see leanness/abs that I liked, hence I pushed lower this time with the goal of 64kg. Realistically, I think I'll need to hit 62kg to really get the 'shredded' look, but I don't think I can bring myself to do that.
First, some progress pics:
For this upcoming bulk, I'm planning to REALLY take it slow, aiming for just about 0.5-0.6kg gain in two weeks. I'm hoping that this slow bulk will mean I retain my leanness as I put on mass. The target is to hit about 69-70kg in 16 weeks, eat at maintenance for 2 weeks (apparently helps to reset hypertrophy pathways), then cut back down to 65 in 8 weeks (i.e. half a year; 26 weeks cycle). The general goal is to push up my 'bottom weight' by 1kg each cycle.
I'm not sure how easy it will be to maintain a constant rate of weight gain/loss, and I'm expecting to hit some unexpected plateaus or spikes that will necessitate some modifications to the plan, but I plan to bump up my calories by 200 initially (assume that's about maintenance for me) for a week. If no weight change, I will bump it up by another 100. If there's weight change, I will maintain that calorie intake until weight gain slows to less than 0.15 a week. For bulk phase, I will not be rushing, so I foresee I may actually end up under 70kg at the end of 16 weeks. For the cut phase, I will be more aggressive in my reduction of calories if my weight doesn't move week-on-week.
The eventual goal is to walk around at 70kg, lean, and maintain that. To achieve that, it seems like it will take 3 years, assuming a 6 month bulk/cut cycle. So will I have a lean, mean physique in 2021? I certainly hope so!
Some of the changes that I will be adapting for this bulk cycle is also to try to maintain a 50:50 eat clean ratio. Previously, I was more or less going IIFYM style, eating whatever just to hit my calorie target. I will be more deliberate this time, and hopefully it will help maintain leanness.
Training-wise, I will stick to N-suns for a while, and hope that I can break 100kg on Bench Press once I start eating more (I was at 97.5kg for 3 reps at one point). I have little doubt this programming will help me bring my Deadlift (once I can start doing it) up to 100kg (and beyond) too, so I'm looking forward to that. Hope my knee gets fixed soon.
In mid-Aug 2017, I started a bulk that ended about Nov 2017. In that period, I went from around 66-67 kg to 73.3kg, the heaviest I had weighed in my life.
Nov 2017 - Feb 2018: Started cutting, went down to 67kg
Feb 2018 - Apr 2018: Started bulking, went from 67kg to 71kg
Apr 2018 - Jun 2018 : Started cutting, went down to 65kg (current).
I'm at the tail end of this cut, and aiming to end at about 64kg so that I will be really lean, and plan to start on a much slower bulk.
From the previous experiences in bulking (especially the first bulk cycle in Aug-Nov 2017), going up too quickly (0.5kg seemed a bit too fast) just made me look fat at the end of my bulk. My previous cut to 67kg I didn't really see leanness/abs that I liked, hence I pushed lower this time with the goal of 64kg. Realistically, I think I'll need to hit 62kg to really get the 'shredded' look, but I don't think I can bring myself to do that.
First, some progress pics:
 |
| Even though I lost 8(!) kg, my muscles actually look more defined. It's clearer in the next picture. |
 |
| Gosh, I look overweight in the 1st pic. |
I'm not sure how easy it will be to maintain a constant rate of weight gain/loss, and I'm expecting to hit some unexpected plateaus or spikes that will necessitate some modifications to the plan, but I plan to bump up my calories by 200 initially (assume that's about maintenance for me) for a week. If no weight change, I will bump it up by another 100. If there's weight change, I will maintain that calorie intake until weight gain slows to less than 0.15 a week. For bulk phase, I will not be rushing, so I foresee I may actually end up under 70kg at the end of 16 weeks. For the cut phase, I will be more aggressive in my reduction of calories if my weight doesn't move week-on-week.
The eventual goal is to walk around at 70kg, lean, and maintain that. To achieve that, it seems like it will take 3 years, assuming a 6 month bulk/cut cycle. So will I have a lean, mean physique in 2021? I certainly hope so!
Some of the changes that I will be adapting for this bulk cycle is also to try to maintain a 50:50 eat clean ratio. Previously, I was more or less going IIFYM style, eating whatever just to hit my calorie target. I will be more deliberate this time, and hopefully it will help maintain leanness.
Training-wise, I will stick to N-suns for a while, and hope that I can break 100kg on Bench Press once I start eating more (I was at 97.5kg for 3 reps at one point). I have little doubt this programming will help me bring my Deadlift (once I can start doing it) up to 100kg (and beyond) too, so I'm looking forward to that. Hope my knee gets fixed soon.
Wednesday 16 May 2018
Short Story - Jimmy
JIMMY.
BEEP BEEP BEEP!
It’s 7 AM. My hand instinctively went for the alarm to mute it, as my eyes opened slowly. I rolled over and looked at my wife, Emily. She stirred, but she didn’t move any further. I thought for a second whether to lean over to give her a back hug, but decided not to wake her fully. Instead, I leaned in to the nape of her neck and took a whiff. A faint scent of jasmine, probably leftover from her bedtime routine. I smiled at the familiar, comforting scent.
I got out of bed and went about my usual morning routine – a hot shower to wake myself up, while brushing my teeth. As I looked in the fogged up bathroom mirror, I smiled wide. Handsome looking chap! I chuckled to myself.
After a quick breakfast, I was dressed and out of the house. From the bed to the door, I typically take about twenty minutes. I am quite the efficient person.
As I waited in the lift lobby, I saw my neighbour, Gerald, coming out of his house. ‘Hey! Morning’ I shouted. Gerald and I are not just neighbours, but friends. I know all about him, as we chat regularly when we bump into each other. He has been married for 10 years, and has 3 cute sons, ages 10 (Ha! Probably a wedding night baby), 7, and 3. At that moment, his 3 year old was coming out with him, but when he saw me he darted behind his father’s legs.
‘Aww, still so shy eh? Hello Lucas!’ I tried to use a sing song voice to make myself less threatening, but the 3 year old Lucas stayed behind his father. Gerald walked over and returned my greeting. ‘Morning Jimmy!’
‘So how’s the renovation project?’
Gerald raised his eyebrows. “How do you know about that?”
I laughed. ‘I saw you bringing home a new drill last week, and then saw the deliveryman bring in some disassembled stuff.’ I lowered my voice jokingly and said the next line with a wink: ‘I’m quite the Sherlock Holmes you know’.
Gerald laughed too. He really likes my sense of humour. That’s why we get along. Gerald stepped aside and said ‘Lucas, say hi to Uncle Jimmy!’
I bent down so I was at eye level with Lucas. ‘Hello Lucas! How are you?’ I reached over and ruffled his hair. His eyes went to the floor, and he kept silent.
‘Lucas…’ Gerald began, a note of consternation in his voice.
‘It’s alright! He’s just shy.’ Children normally love me. This one will warm up soon enough.
---
It’s seven thirty in the morning. My train arrived quite quickly, thankfully enough. I don’t like being late. I always aim to arrive at office at least ten minutes before ‘official working hours’, and the daily commute takes the good part of an hour. Need to keep up the good impression I have among my co-workers!
The train rumbled on, and I turned and saw a familiar face. A young, twenty-something girl with soft features and a cute nose, the kind that looks like a rabbit’s nose and you just want to tap it lightly and go ‘boop’. We made eye contact and I flashed her a big smile and a thumbs up. She looked flustered and nodded in acknowledgement. Don’t worry, I’m not a creep. I know this girl. There was once when it was raining, and I offered to shelter her with my umbrella all the way home. We had a lovely conversation along the way. She’s a university student, studying Life Sciences. Did I mention she had a cute nose?
I looked up from my thoughts and saw she stood a little further away than when I first saw her. She must be getting off soon.
---
It’s eleven fifty in the morning. My stomach was growling, and I can’t wait for lunch. But first, I had to get through this meeting with Ms Chan, my supervisor. I was presenting my arguments about a particular policy we had to change, and I had just finished up my 3 point argument. She seems to be deeply considering it. Either that or she is hopelessly lost. She’s a nice old lady, but not very wise. I’ve had to repeat my brilliant arguments multiple times before she got it. Why is she looking at the figures now? That’s not the crux of the issue. Any sensible person will know that it is the trend that matters, not the details. And the arguments are definitely strong and correct.
I leaned back in my seat as her frow furrowed, and she flipped through the pages of the printout. I glanced at my watch again. It has been twenty minutes. When will this meeting end?
‘Jimmy, let me get back to you again on this ok? Perhaps we can discuss after lunch.’
“Sure Ms Chan!” Actually, I did not want to return, but I wanted to get out of the stale room that smelt of lavender (probably some weird air freshener she used), so I didn’t say anything further. I’ve gotten used to it, my bosses, colleagues, not being able to keep up with me. That’s the problem of being too smart.
The clock finally turned twelve, and I walked around my colleagues’ cubicles. ‘Lunch time!’ I saw Rachel and June huddled at Stephan’s desk laughing about something, but they stopped when they saw me. ‘Lunch?’ I repeated.
“Oh yes, definitely! Give me 5 minutes!’ Rachel chirped. June also smiled at me, while Stephan was still looking at his screen. These three were my lunch buddies… though you could say they were just some of my lunch buddies. Being quite sociable, I tend to mingle around a lot with all of my co-worker, and have good relationships with all of them. Today shall be Rachel-June-Stephan day. I stepped away to my desk to grab my wallet.
---
It’s six thirty in the evening. Time to head home! My wife, Emily, is a primary school teacher, so she always reached home before me. I whipped out my phone to send her a message.
‘Hey darling. What would you like to eat?’
I’m so grateful for our relationship. Just today, at my mid-day socialising, I heard that one of my co-workers was getting a divorce. Not me! Emily and I have a tight bond, and we spend a lot of time with each other. Every time when I reach home, we’ll chat about our day, before I get on my computer to play games and watch some shows.
DING.
I looked down at my phone. “You decide! What’s your ETA?”
‘About twenty minutes? Ok, I’ll get Western.’
Life is really going well for me. I have a loving, supportive wife, I have a great job which I am good at, and awesome co-workers. I’m on good terms with even my neighbours. I’m not sure what could go wrong.
DING.
‘Ok, no rush! I’m not that hungry yet.’
Emily always reads my mind. I was thinking she may be hungry, given how she has a tendency for small lunches. Sometimes if school kept her busy, she may even skip meals. I shall get her an extra serving later. If she can’t finish it, I’ll have it. Sounds good.
It’s seven in the evening. As I entered the lift of my flat, a well-dressed man came out. As I passed him, I caught a whiff of jasmine. Nice cologne! I like jasmine. The lift went up, and I entered my house.
“Honey, I’m home!”
---
EMILY.
BEEP BEEP BEEP!
It’s 7 AM. Emily stirred awake, but quickly stiffened. Fuck. If I show that I’m awake, he’s going to roll over and start touching me again. Stay still, stay still. Emily kept her back turned towards her husband, Jimmy, and tried her best to lay very still. She heard some movement, then felt a warm breath on her neck. Eww gross. Please don’t touch me please don’t touch me…
To her relief, Jimmy got off the bed and left the room. She rolled over onto her back and sighed. She wasn’t sure when it started, but she had begun to find Jimmy revolting. It didn’t help that they were growing distant by the day, as they barely communicated apart from a very brief chat about their day. She couldn’t remember why she married him. She picked up her phone and scrolled through the messages, until she reached one called ‘Victor’.
She eagerly keyed in the message: ‘I'm on leave today. Usual time?’
---
GERALD (and LUCAS).
It’s 7.20 AM. Gerald peered through his peephole, and didn’t see anyone. All’s clear it seems. He stepped out of the house, and held the door open for his son, Lucas, to step out.
“Hey! Morning!”
Gerald froze. Crap. It’s him. He forced a smile to his weary morning face (when you have 3 kids, you will always have a weary morning face) and looked over to the lift lobby. Lucas scrambled behind his legs to hide, and for good reason too. This Jimmy is really creepy.
Back when he first moved in, he remembered how Jimmy practically pounced on him and asked him a million questions about his personal life. Such an overbearing character. He doesn’t seem to know any boundaries. Every time he met Gerald, he would ask a dozen probing questions. Even his children were beginning to fear Jimmy. He remembered how Jimmy bent over and pat Lucas persistently, and pinched his cheeks. Who does that to someone you just met?! The poor boy gets so frightened when he sees Jimmy now.
‘So how’s the renovation project?’
What the heck? How did he know about that? Is he some Grade A stalker or something? Maybe he is a registered sex offender or something… “How do you know about that?” Gerald asked.
Jimmy laughed, in the creepy, staccato way he always does. ‘I saw you bringing home a new drill last week, and then saw the deliveryman bring in some disassembled stuff.’ Jimmy suddenly lowered his voice, and gave a weird wink: ‘I’m quite the Sherlock Holmes you know’.
Gerald felt goosebumps when he saw the wink, and laughed nervously. ‘I need to be careful… maybe I’ll need security cameras…’ he thought. ‘This is so awkward. How do I change the subject. Oh right, Lucas’
“Lucas, say hi to Uncle Jimmy!” Gerald stepped aside to allow his son to greet the weird neighbour.
Jimmy bent over, and did what Lucas hated – he ruffled his hair. Gerald could see Lucas flinch, but he stood his ground. ‘What a brave boy. I must comfort and praise him later. I know I teach him to be nice to people… but… Jimmy is just… so weird. Better get Lucas to say hi, otherwise Jimmy may keep ruffling his hair.’
“Lucas…”
‘It’s alright! He’s just shy!’
Gerald looked at the optimistic smile beaming across Jimmy’s face. ‘Or maybe he just hates you, weirdo.’ Gerald smiled back.
---
THE GIRL.
It’s seven thirty in the morning. I rubbed my eyes and continued scrolling through my Instagram feed as the train rumbled on. My other hand grasped tightly to my Life Science textbook, as I consciously tried to steady myself. The train had a slight lurch, and I stumbled a step and looked up.
Oh shit!
I inadvertently locked eyes with someone familiar. What was his name… Jason? No that’s not it. Jimmy? Yes. Jimmy. That perv. His double chin wobbled as he gave me a big smile and a thumbs up, which made me shiver. I nodded and quickly looked away from his acne-scarred face.
I remember that day very clearly. How could I not? They say that our sharpest, most lasting memories are those that have emotions attached to them. This one had plenty. Mostly fear.
I was on the way home, and it had begun to rain. Jimmy approached me, and offered to share his umbrella with me. I wasn’t in a rush, so I politely declined, but he insisted – he threw his arm around me and pulled me along! I was stunned and too afraid to make a commotion, as I felt his firm grip on my exposed shoulder. That began the most awkward ten minutes of my life, as he peppered me with questions about where I studied, how many siblings I had, and more. I think he even mentioned something about my nose… and the whole time I was seriously considered spinning free and just dashing through the rain. He walked me all the way to my block, and thankfully, he went off after that. I had to keep looking back to make sure he wasn’t hanging around to suddenly dart into the lift with me.
I shuffled deeper into the train to get further away from him. Who knows, the train may jerk and he may ‘accidentally’ brush my boob or something. What a perv.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him look up again at me. Whew. Good thing I’m further away.
---
MS CHAN.
MS CHAN.
It’s eleven fifty in the morning. Ms Chan rubbed her temple with her forefingers as she glanced furtively at Jimmy, who sat across her desk, looking cocky. Jimmy was her worst employee. He always made mistakes, and always had weird ideas about how things should be done. She scanned the documents in her hands, and tried to ignore the glaring typos. ‘I need to put this in a tactful way… but this is really a horrible job,’ she thought. She flipped to look at the figures in the excel spreadsheet. ‘Oh my god. How can he mess up a simple formula? The figures are all wrong’.
Ms Chan looked up at Jimmy, who seemed to be lost in his own thoughts. ‘Is there anything between his ears? He was so confident when he presented what he called his ‘3 point argument’ earlier. Every point is utterly useless. I’m not ready for this. I need my post-lunch coffee. Maybe I should fire him. I’ve endured this for quite some time.’
“Jimmy, let me get back to you again on this ok? Perhaps we can discuss after lunch.” Ms Chan finally said.
“Sure Ms Chan!”
--
RACHEL, JUNE, AND STEPHAN.
RACHEL, JUNE, AND STEPHAN.
It’s twelve noon. Rachel and June were huddled at Stephan’s desk. ‘Did you see Jimmy’s submission to Ms Chan? I was CC-ed in it… ok words can’t describe how bad it is. Come see,’ Stephan said.
Rachel and June went around and looked at the screen. “Why did he indicate that the trend is positive? Isn’t it a clear negative trend?”
“Maybe he was looking at it upside down?” June offered, and both Rachel and Stephan guffawed. They quickly stopped as they saw Jimmy come around. ‘Lunch?’ he said.
“Oh yes, definitely! Give me 5 minutes!” Rachel said hastily. June shot Rachel a look, but just gave Jimmy a weak smile.
When Jimmy walked away, June harshly whispered, “Didn’t we say we would try to avoid having lunch with Jimmy today!!?”
“Sorry… I panicked… what excuse could we give?” Rachel sheepishly replied.
“You could have said you were busy with work?” Stephan said, while turning his head upside down to look at the screen, which made the two girls laugh again.
Nobody liked Jimmy. The only thing worse than being stupid is to be stupid yet think that you are clever, which was exactly Jimmy’s problem. And Jimmy seemed oblivious to the fact that his work was not up to par, or that his colleagues were all gossiping about him behind his back.
--
EMILY.
It’s six thirty in the evening. Emily lay in bed naked, panting, as Victor lay next to her, his manhood flopped to the side.
DING.
Emily glanced at her phone. “Shit, it’s six thirty already? My husband’s coming home!”
Victor rolled over and wrapped his leg around Emily’s hip. “Screw him.” He said, as he nuzzled her neck.
Emily giggled, and playfully pushed Victor’s head away. “Hang on, let me find out how long we’ve got.” She used one hand to key in a reply, as her other hand caressed Victor’s hair.
“Why are you still with him anyway? For his money?”
Emily sighed. “I’m not sure too. Haven’t found a lawyer to settle the divorce?”
“You already say he neglects you every day and just spends the entire night on his games or shows. He’s growing fatter by the day. Never helps out with any chores. I can take better care of you babe.” Victor crawled to his knees as he mounted Emily, and flexed his arms.
Emily laughed and pulled Victor towards her and kissed him.
DING.
Emily looked over at her phone, and quickly keyed in a message. “We have fifteen minutes. What do you want to do?” She asked playfully.
“Let’s make it twenty.” Victor said.
“I don’t think you can last that long,” Emily grinned.
“Try me.”
---
Victor adjusted his shirt collar as he waited for the lift to travel down. When the lift doors opened, he felt his hairs stand as he recognised the short, pasty man who was about to walk in. Jimmy… in the flesh. Wow, he looks worse in person. Victor quickly turned his face and strode past Jimmy.
Jimmy took the lift up back home.
“Honey, I’m home!”
Thursday 26 April 2018
How I averaged 26% profit in investments without really knowing what the heck I'm doing
I have, at best, a rudimentary understanding of economics / how the stock market works.
I do NOT do any technical analyses of companies' financial statements / share price trends (nor do I know how even if I wanted to)
I spend less than 5 minutes a month thinking about my investments (probably less).
I've made $12,168.95 in the past 3 years with my blue chip investments.
(Total invested = $39,392.5; Total sold = $51,561.48; an average of 26% profit)
I've been buying shares with OCBC Blue Chip Investment Plan (BCIP), which is basically a method called Dollar Cost Averaging (this is not a paid advert. But if OCBC wants to pay me I welcome it)
Before I explain, let me do a quick summary of my investment outcomes with some simple graphs:
Y axis = $ value of share bought
X axis = time / months
All of these figures have accounted for the transaction fees that OCBC charges (0.3% or $5 each counter, whichever is higher). The figures also do NOT include dividends that I've received from the 4 counters, which amounted to $1,491.78.
--
So what is the secret? To preface what I'm going to say, I must state again that I am no guru. I am an absolutely clueless financial nitwit. I am not responsible for any of your financial decisions after reading this.
What is Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA)?
A simple explanation of dollar cost averaging (DCA) is this - you put in a fixed amount of money each month to a particular share. You will buy whatever number of shares that amount can afford.
You do this month after month, and over the long term, you profit. A longer explanation can be found here. In short, when the price is lower, the system will help you buy more shares. When the price is higher, you buy fewer shares. But the approximate amount you put in each month is fixed at a certain amount.
The key benefit of this method is that you are not trying to time the market (e.g. only buy when you think the share price is low enough, and you think it has potential to rise). Ever heard of someone 'getting their fingers burnt in the stock market'? Well, that person tried to time the market. And failed. Horribly.
You simply decide how much you are comfortable with investing each month (for me it ranged between $400 - $1500; at one point when I was job-searching I cut it off entirely, just in case I needed money), and plug that number in to a share counter you are comfortable with, and just leave it to work its magic.
Three Simple Benefits of DCA
It is less daunting to get started.
Let's just take my SIA investment - would you be willing to put in $8,000 in an investment without knowing if it will do well or not? How about just $600/month? or $900/month? This point should be self-explanatory.
Market movements do not worry you.
Share prices dropped by 20%? While everyone is jumping, you are peaceful and calm, as you do not worry about day-to-day or even month-to-month movements. Lower prices just mean you get more shares that month! Yay!
Little technical expertise is needed.
P/E ratios and market caps? Quarter-on-quarter revenue growth and typical yields? I've no idea if these terms are even real investing terms, but I may have seen them in some articles. My eyes glaze over when I see them, so if you are like me, maybe you need a simpler method like DCA, where you don't need to know any of these things. Just pick a share, and chill.
Further questions
Are profits guaranteed?
Of course not. In theory, if a share price permanently declines, that is definitely a loss. The beauty of relying on OCBC BCIP is that all of the choices are blue chip companies.
From my limited 3 year experience with DCA, I have yet to make a loss as you can see from the above summary. Blue chip companies generally don't decline all the way.
How much time do you spend on this? How do you select which company to buy?
I rarely check how the share is doing, unless I'm bored. Every month, I receive a paper statement from OCBC about my investments, so that is the only time I pull up my spreadsheet to update that month's purchases and look at the share price. That takes like, 1-2 minutes maybe?
You only need time to select which company's counter to buy once every.... however often you sell and re-buy your shares. For me you can see it's about once a year. Each time, that takes about... 10-15 minutes maybe?
My personal method is I just check the 1-month, 1-year, and 5-years trend on Google. If the share looks like it's trending up and is generally on a high price compared to historical trends, I will avoid it. If it's on a low price compared to historical trends, I will consider it.
Warning - graphs incoming. Don't worry, it's very simple. Just look at how the line is moving.
Of course, the more cautious of you may want to do some due diligence to check why the share price has been dropping. You would also want to be comfortable with investing in that company. One example was Comfortdelgro actually had a favourable-looking graph:
But in my mind, I didn't have much confidence in ComfortDelgro given the proliferation of businesses like Grab and the like, so I didn't want to invest in this counter.
My latest investments are in Singtel, Sembcorp Industries, and Starhub. I chose Starhub because its share price kind of collapsed in the recent quarter. My 5 minute Google search told me it was because their revenue reports for the latest quarter were quite bad. No problem, I just put a conservative sum of $400/month in it, and see how it goes. If it builds back up, I just made a steal.
Singtel, as the major player in the telco industry, is unlikely to go anywhere or do very badly, and its dividends were pretty good. Price was reasonable, so easy decision here.
Sembcorp had some interesting high spikes / low drops in its past year, and happened to be in one of its lows. Seems good to enter at this point.
As you can see, very fuss-free, very time efficient. The most time I spent was after I sold and was trying to figure out how much to cash out my wife for xD
When do you decide to sell?
My personal benchmark is 20% profit; you can vary it according to your own preference. I sold the Nikko counter earlier as I didn't see it getting much better.
Ha! Only 26%? I make 100% profits in my investments! You noob!
Do share with me how you do it! If there is an equally easy (or not that much harder) way of investing that is more profitable, I would love to learn about it.
How do I get started with DCA?
1. Pick a medium
I'm using OCBC BCIP as mentioned, as I'm used to the UI / i-banking etc and it's fairly convenient. There are other alternatives, like POSB, CIMB, etc. Do your own research! At the end of the day, I think the differences are not VAST, so just pick something convenient.
2. Decide on an amount to invest each month, and key it in.
3. That's it!
You may want to set up a simple tracking sheet so you can monitor progress each month. Do account for the transaction fees!
What other forms of investments do you dabble in?
I made the above table, somewhat as a joke, to share with my wife, to compare my DCA method with other typical savings methods. But it does show the importance of getting started on some form of investment, as the interest rates that banks give are quite low and is unlikely to outpace inflation.
But ok, serious answer time.
If you are reading this part, you may be considering what to do with your money. This is my personal advice:
- Set aside 3-6 months of salary as an emergency fund. Do not invest/spend this.
- Once you have the emergency fund, consider buying insurance. If you have HDB loans to pay off, some kind of insurance to protect that may be good (including life insurance). Otherwise, personal accident insurance is key (I just saved $500 recently thanks to my insurance).
- Account for any upcoming big ticket items you may need to save for.
- Then, you can consider how much of your income you want to set aside for investments, based on your monthly expenses.
As you can tell, I am fairly lazy, so I go for convenience in my investments. Hence, all of my other investment instruments are via NTUC Income. I am quite low risk, so I don't do anything fancy like cryptocurrency or shares trading.
If this is so good, why doesn't everyone do it?
This is not a get rich quick scheme. You generally need to hold your shares for at least a year or maybe more to see profits. If you looked at my graphs carefully above, you'll see I held each counter for at least 6 months:
Also, DCA is generally seen as a low risk, low yield investment method. I mean, I'm not the most acquainted with investment yields, but 20+% sounds pretty good to me! How much do you earn with other methods?
I've also tried the 'standard' way of buying shares - I bought one lot (1000) of ST Engineering in 2014 for $3,678, and only managed to turn a profit some time in 2017 (the price never went above what I bought, despite it being 'low-ish' when I first bought it), and quickly sold for $3,761, for a measly 2% margin. Never again.
Can I invest with you?
For now, no. Firstly, it was a big headache trying to calculate how much to pay my wife when I sold off some shares. Can't imagine with more people.
Secondly, as mentioned, I am a finance noob so I don't want to be responsible for losing your money.
Thirdly, while I can see some logic in pooling resources to avoid transaction fees... this is really as fuss-free as it gets so don't be lazy! It will probably take you 15 minutes or less to set it up.
--
Ok this turned out longer than I expected. If you want to tell me how dumb I am, or want to discuss investments, do feel free to hit me up! I am always keen to discuss. You can drop me an email at atqhteo[at]gmail[dot]com, or Whatsapp me if you know me. Good luck and happy investing!
I do NOT do any technical analyses of companies' financial statements / share price trends (nor do I know how even if I wanted to)
I spend less than 5 minutes a month thinking about my investments (probably less).
I've made $12,168.95 in the past 3 years with my blue chip investments.
(Total invested = $39,392.5; Total sold = $51,561.48; an average of 26% profit)
I've been buying shares with OCBC Blue Chip Investment Plan (BCIP), which is basically a method called Dollar Cost Averaging (this is not a paid advert. But if OCBC wants to pay me I welcome it)
Before I explain, let me do a quick summary of my investment outcomes with some simple graphs:
Y axis = $ value of share bought
X axis = time / months
1. Keppel Corp Pte Ltd
Amount invested/month : $600 - 1400 (not to time market, but because my wife wanted to join in)
Invested: $21,029.82
Sold for: $29,342.09
Profit : 39.5%
My biggest profit margin.
2. Nikko AM STI ETF
Amount invested/month : $1000
Invested: $6,099.75
Sold for: $6,860.00
Profit : 12.46%
3. Capitamall Trust
Amount invested/month : $600
Invested: $4,192.69
Sold for: $5,372.64
Profit : 28.14%
4. Singapore Airlines Pte Ltd
Amount invested/month : $900
Invested: $8,070.28
Sold for: $9,986.75
Profit : 23.75%
All of these figures have accounted for the transaction fees that OCBC charges (0.3% or $5 each counter, whichever is higher). The figures also do NOT include dividends that I've received from the 4 counters, which amounted to $1,491.78.
--
So what is the secret? To preface what I'm going to say, I must state again that I am no guru. I am an absolutely clueless financial nitwit. I am not responsible for any of your financial decisions after reading this.
What is Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA)?
A simple explanation of dollar cost averaging (DCA) is this - you put in a fixed amount of money each month to a particular share. You will buy whatever number of shares that amount can afford.
E.g. You choose $100 as your fixed monthly amount. The original share price is $5. You buy 20 shares in your first month.
In the second month, the price went up to $5.20. You can now only afford 19 shares. You buy 19 shares in your second month, and the remaining $1.20 is credited back to your account.
You do this month after month, and over the long term, you profit. A longer explanation can be found here. In short, when the price is lower, the system will help you buy more shares. When the price is higher, you buy fewer shares. But the approximate amount you put in each month is fixed at a certain amount.
The key benefit of this method is that you are not trying to time the market (e.g. only buy when you think the share price is low enough, and you think it has potential to rise). Ever heard of someone 'getting their fingers burnt in the stock market'? Well, that person tried to time the market. And failed. Horribly.
You simply decide how much you are comfortable with investing each month (for me it ranged between $400 - $1500; at one point when I was job-searching I cut it off entirely, just in case I needed money), and plug that number in to a share counter you are comfortable with, and just leave it to work its magic.
Three Simple Benefits of DCA
It is less daunting to get started.
Let's just take my SIA investment - would you be willing to put in $8,000 in an investment without knowing if it will do well or not? How about just $600/month? or $900/month? This point should be self-explanatory.
Market movements do not worry you.
Share prices dropped by 20%? While everyone is jumping, you are peaceful and calm, as you do not worry about day-to-day or even month-to-month movements. Lower prices just mean you get more shares that month! Yay!
Little technical expertise is needed.
P/E ratios and market caps? Quarter-on-quarter revenue growth and typical yields? I've no idea if these terms are even real investing terms, but I may have seen them in some articles. My eyes glaze over when I see them, so if you are like me, maybe you need a simpler method like DCA, where you don't need to know any of these things. Just pick a share, and chill.
Further questions
Are profits guaranteed?
Of course not. In theory, if a share price permanently declines, that is definitely a loss. The beauty of relying on OCBC BCIP is that all of the choices are blue chip companies.
''Blue chip companies are known to weather downturns and operate profitably in the face of adverse economic conditions, which helps to contribute to their long record of stable and reliable growth"
From my limited 3 year experience with DCA, I have yet to make a loss as you can see from the above summary. Blue chip companies generally don't decline all the way.
How much time do you spend on this? How do you select which company to buy?
I rarely check how the share is doing, unless I'm bored. Every month, I receive a paper statement from OCBC about my investments, so that is the only time I pull up my spreadsheet to update that month's purchases and look at the share price. That takes like, 1-2 minutes maybe?
You only need time to select which company's counter to buy once every.... however often you sell and re-buy your shares. For me you can see it's about once a year. Each time, that takes about... 10-15 minutes maybe?
My personal method is I just check the 1-month, 1-year, and 5-years trend on Google. If the share looks like it's trending up and is generally on a high price compared to historical trends, I will avoid it. If it's on a low price compared to historical trends, I will consider it.
Warning - graphs incoming. Don't worry, it's very simple. Just look at how the line is moving.
 |
| highest in 1 year (and 5 years too), and general upward trend. |
 |
| Quite a low price compared to historical trend, and the downward trend seems to have stabilised. Seems good to buy. |
 |
| Fairly low price compared to past trend. |
My latest investments are in Singtel, Sembcorp Industries, and Starhub. I chose Starhub because its share price kind of collapsed in the recent quarter. My 5 minute Google search told me it was because their revenue reports for the latest quarter were quite bad. No problem, I just put a conservative sum of $400/month in it, and see how it goes. If it builds back up, I just made a steal.
Singtel, as the major player in the telco industry, is unlikely to go anywhere or do very badly, and its dividends were pretty good. Price was reasonable, so easy decision here.
Sembcorp had some interesting high spikes / low drops in its past year, and happened to be in one of its lows. Seems good to enter at this point.
As you can see, very fuss-free, very time efficient. The most time I spent was after I sold and was trying to figure out how much to cash out my wife for xD
When do you decide to sell?
My personal benchmark is 20% profit; you can vary it according to your own preference. I sold the Nikko counter earlier as I didn't see it getting much better.
Ha! Only 26%? I make 100% profits in my investments! You noob!
Do share with me how you do it! If there is an equally easy (or not that much harder) way of investing that is more profitable, I would love to learn about it.
How do I get started with DCA?
1. Pick a medium
I'm using OCBC BCIP as mentioned, as I'm used to the UI / i-banking etc and it's fairly convenient. There are other alternatives, like POSB, CIMB, etc. Do your own research! At the end of the day, I think the differences are not VAST, so just pick something convenient.
2. Decide on an amount to invest each month, and key it in.
3. That's it!
You may want to set up a simple tracking sheet so you can monitor progress each month. Do account for the transaction fees!
What other forms of investments do you dabble in?
I made the above table, somewhat as a joke, to share with my wife, to compare my DCA method with other typical savings methods. But it does show the importance of getting started on some form of investment, as the interest rates that banks give are quite low and is unlikely to outpace inflation.
But ok, serious answer time.
If you are reading this part, you may be considering what to do with your money. This is my personal advice:
- Set aside 3-6 months of salary as an emergency fund. Do not invest/spend this.
- Once you have the emergency fund, consider buying insurance. If you have HDB loans to pay off, some kind of insurance to protect that may be good (including life insurance). Otherwise, personal accident insurance is key (I just saved $500 recently thanks to my insurance).
- Account for any upcoming big ticket items you may need to save for.
- Then, you can consider how much of your income you want to set aside for investments, based on your monthly expenses.
As you can tell, I am fairly lazy, so I go for convenience in my investments. Hence, all of my other investment instruments are via NTUC Income. I am quite low risk, so I don't do anything fancy like cryptocurrency or shares trading.
- I have an OCBC 360 account. Not the highest IR in the market anymore, but reasonable. Do note that their 1.5%++ interest only applies to the first $70,000, so if you have more than that, you can choose other banks / investment tools
- NTUC Income (generally all 5% yield or more)
- Revoretire - a retirement savings plan. $2,400/year, till 65 years old. Will give me a hefty sum then (can choose to pay out over time for more profits), and together with my CPF, should be more than sufficient for retirement.
- Revosave - a 25-year savings plan that matures when I'm about 40. $1,175.25/year. Will get about $64,000 I think? Not sure. This is an Investment-linked product meaning it has some Insurance functionality too which I didn't bother to remember.
- Growthlink - some investment plan which I kinda regret buying and is making a loss now. Minimum $30,000, basically sell when you are comfortable with current price. Bought this together with my wife, we figured we can use this for our kids (if any) university fees.
If this is so good, why doesn't everyone do it?
This is not a get rich quick scheme. You generally need to hold your shares for at least a year or maybe more to see profits. If you looked at my graphs carefully above, you'll see I held each counter for at least 6 months:
- Keppel -> 24 months
- Nikko -> 9 months
- Capitamall Trust -> 9 months
- SIA -> 11 months
Also, DCA is generally seen as a low risk, low yield investment method. I mean, I'm not the most acquainted with investment yields, but 20+% sounds pretty good to me! How much do you earn with other methods?
I've also tried the 'standard' way of buying shares - I bought one lot (1000) of ST Engineering in 2014 for $3,678, and only managed to turn a profit some time in 2017 (the price never went above what I bought, despite it being 'low-ish' when I first bought it), and quickly sold for $3,761, for a measly 2% margin. Never again.
Can I invest with you?
For now, no. Firstly, it was a big headache trying to calculate how much to pay my wife when I sold off some shares. Can't imagine with more people.
Secondly, as mentioned, I am a finance noob so I don't want to be responsible for losing your money.
Thirdly, while I can see some logic in pooling resources to avoid transaction fees... this is really as fuss-free as it gets so don't be lazy! It will probably take you 15 minutes or less to set it up.
--
Ok this turned out longer than I expected. If you want to tell me how dumb I am, or want to discuss investments, do feel free to hit me up! I am always keen to discuss. You can drop me an email at atqhteo[at]gmail[dot]com, or Whatsapp me if you know me. Good luck and happy investing!
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