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some updates on second new flats, church ministry, health condition.

October 8, 2014 / / 0 Comments

I finally settled in my new house. All of my stuff is moved over except I not yet to UN box as the sliding door for my bedroom built in wardrobe is not yet installed to be ready this Friday to put most of my stuff in. MY clothing will be pack and bring over by mum once the wardrobe is ready this Friday. Last month there is no updates on my blog. For my fiber broadband the relocation was delay two weeks. It was suppose to install on Thu 25 Sep 2014 but there is insufficient capacity issue so delayed till further notice. Today in the afternoon I received a call from my Internet Service Provider with an e-mail to confirm installation and relocation of my fiber broadband services is done, so I ask them to replace my point at this Friday morning 9am to 10.45am and is confirmed. So the charges of relocation is S$100 include tax and replace point at new location in my house S$220 plus 7% tax done by Netlink Trust as management is changed from previously Open Net. Hopefully there is not much problem. Cable modem is still very slow in overseas web sites like video streaming most Asian Chinese Drama from another ISP compare to this much faster a few times normally I believe.

For the Fibre optic network info in Singapore you can refer to the link OpenNet ceases to exist; is renamed NetLink Trust http://digital.asiaone.com/digital/news/opennet-ceases-exist-renamed-netlink-trust
http://www.netlinktrust.com/

About church ministry, I going to Methodist church to join a traditional choir ministry singing in hymns. But after a month practice a few weeks I having a problem with a church choir ministry leader as he is old man with bald hair head, asking me to lower down and keep quiet as I did not ask him if I singing very loud as I told him I already singing very soft already. So I was totally piss off after this Wednesday night choir practice I go home to send a message to her mobile phone one of my in charge in choir ministry that I do not want to sing in church anniversary on Sunday 3pm and decided to quit joining choir. So she called me when I was on my way home in bus interchange waiting for my feeder bus talk almost an hour then I hung up and board the bus. She told me over the phone that she do not know any problem for me to sing loud in choir as no feedback receive so far about me, just that common sense should be exercise when singing too loud as the sound maybe too sticking out too awful at all times in choir. So I come to attend the Sunday anniversary church service only one service in 3pm. But I saw the bald head old man who is the same choir ministry leader sing doxology with an old woman, I even piss off and went back home after he sing attended the service halfway through not staying back for tea. She told me in the phone almost an hour that I join just over a month should stay a bit more like another month plus to two to see if I like it for me to decide want to confirm pray by pastor to give me a robe to sing in church altar with the choir after the audition is done on my voice. She said in the beginning no one rejected after 3 months after audition if they come to practice to join choir regularly but normally people left after first join to practice a month or two due to their own personal reason. The commitment level is weekly, not monthly or fortnight for practice at 2.45pm Sunday and 5pm Service on same day normally. If I not coming for that week to choir just let her know.

For my health, condition may be improving or not I not sure. Last two months ago I decided to change psychiatrist due to she close down her private clinic per follow up visit of S$80 moved to raffles hospital per visit follow up S$152 too costly. I seen the new doctor for the first time, given a new medicine for mood stabilizer to try out for a week before i see her given a 5 weeks for next appointment after first time visit. At second follow up visit she increase one pill of anti psychotic old drug to two pill with mood stabilizer and with anti depression total of 4 pills, if needed after few days not feeling well like very sleepy or sedative wake up in morning reduce to one pill for anti psychotic. So I taken over 3 weeks plus no issue for 4 pills, one week plus like 5 weeks is the third follow up appointment. Yes I feel a bit better after a month or two compare to previous doctor, but I not able to advise if my condition is improved since I taking 4 pills increase dosage instead of 2 pills. So this question I later will e-mail doctor or ask her at next follow up visit that if I having health active life now does it mean that I will be the same or doing more and better than most people without any medication still healthy active from her medical point of view? At last second follow up visit, she had not direct answer my question that should I let my girl friend know I have this illness as I know her for few months, she said ohhh…. and next appointment again as I waited for over an hour appointment to see her very short while as she had some cases first time spending too much time just now.

Progress of my singing.

August 14, 2014 / / 0 Comments

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This is how I sing compare to last two years ago recording of Italian Arias Caro Mio Ben Classical vocal. Seems like not much improvement like a minute of heaven is ten plus years learn practising on earth. I have no goal of going exam or performance to earn a bit income soon or now not like piano. Projection using whole body was not done at my flat to sing louder.

moving back from dedicated server to my old VPS.

August 9, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Find out that my old VPS is performing faster to do some task like video conversion using ffmpeg. my old VPS I had buy 3 additional cpu core made up to 4 core to use in total to do video conversion for Intel CPU sandy bridge Xeon 3.3Ghz E3-1230 detected on 4GB physical RAM allocated 150GB on raid-10 hard disk is 20% more faster just now at 2pm compare to Intel ATOM 8 core all used 2.4Ghz C2758 CPU with pure SSD Intel 120GB 530 model and 8GB RAM DDR ECC installed.

I had updated my video on my piano playing in HD format, the size different of 1MB for audio bitrate different of 56Kilobits of Stereo 44Hz and now 192Kilobit 5.1 channel 48Hz. The conversion was done if US timing is after midnight to 1am maybe less people using the VPS server compare to I one person using Dedicated Atom server. If peak hour will the VPS server be slower than ATOM dedicated I not sure yet.

Today is my birthday. Going to have a second bigger flat for my family

August 8, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Today is my birthday 07 Aug, I after work went out with a friend who I know her 3 months ago to watch a movie. This is the six outing I with her, 3 outing are movie at weekday evening, 2 dinners are weekday evening and one Saturday afternoon to evening went to see garden by the bay tourist attraction. She is a Singaporean Chinese a few months younger than me height is a bit shorter like 163cm as I am 172cm. Maybe she work a few years earn a bit more got went overseas full time studies in computer sciences bachelor for 1.5 years from poly graduated. She is not a christian so she visit temple a few times in a year as her family does not worship pray at home like mine family do everyday as in my family I am only Christian. Got ask her to come church instead to visit but all the six outing none are in church. She work in project management earn a bit more than me as I do not know her monthly pay exact but far away from my both elder sisters earning now.

I going to move from a flat of 4S 84 Square meter to 4A 104 Square meter, the new house is common landing so got two lift as mine is a bit lower single lift maybe new house neighbor better. It is just  two blocks away and we may get keys next month middle or end of Sept 2014 and in two months time after I have to miss this old flat to move to this flat. It is a resale flat from open market since 1984 build. It is my eldest sister who own it to brought it single name at age 37 four years older than me as she work over 17 years some CPF saving. So evaluation of S$395K I think she get it at S$389K should be final as we got ask the lowest of S$383K below evaluation from seller still at start of last month signed and HDB loan approved maybe now.

So this old flat belong to both of my parents name. But at end Dec 2001, we started moving in so we cannot sell right now. The reason is there are new regulation to sell house. As both of my parents are reaching 55 years old and above which need CPF to maintain at least 155K, and they are second time buying a house just sell it there will be stamp fee of 50K, plus a loan paid half now if took 25 years to pay with interest for HDB loan, so both my parents now both mum 60 and father 62 years old is empty nearly for CPF saving currently I think so. So this old house cannot get back any money for at least a few years or little monthly if deduct current servicing HDB loan, so they want to rent the whole flat out if left my father alone want to come to this new flat. As my eldest sister is working in a office near home about ten minutes walk, she is a manager had many Malaysian colleague in very long waiting list now to rent this old whole flat belong to both parents at offer price of S$2.3K monthly exclude all bills and expenses such as water and electricity.

I still working in this job over 5 months, end of next week I going to receive my six month pay which is out every middle of the month. Still good and relax as no need to work late no pay and report early to work for five days office hour.

Nearly S$5m of City Harvest Church funds used for Sun Ho’s album-related expenses

August 7, 2014 / / 0 Comments

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/nearly-s-5m-of-city/1298220.html

The prosecution said City Harvest Church leaders had tried to hide this, and pointed out that there was no basis for the huge projected sales of Ms Ho’s then-delayed US album.

John Lam, one of the accused in the trial of City Harvest Church leaders.

By Kimberly Spykerman

  • POSTED: 05 Aug 2014 22:24
  • UPDATED: 06 Aug 2014 00:09

SINGAPORE: Church monies to the tune of S$4.79 million were used to meet expenses related to Sun Ho’s music albums, and this was something the church leaders had tried to hide, said the prosecution in the trial of City Harvest Church leaders on Tuesday (Aug 5).

Ms Ho is the wife of City Harvest Church founder Kong Hee – one of six church leaders accused of using church money to buy sham bonds in order to fund her secular pop music career. One of the companies the church invested in was Xtron, Ms Ho’s artiste management firm.

The prosecution said the church leaders wanted to use the Xtron bond proceeds to cover up the fact that they had already used up the church’s advance rental monies to pay for Ms Ho’s album-related expenses. This was not in the bond subscription agreement.

An email showed the church’s former finance manager Serina Wee suggesting that the cost of paying back the rental monies be hidden under a travelling and salary cost in the use of proceeds clause in the agreement.

The prosecution has charged that payments between the church and Xtron was essentially moving money from one pocket to another. Its case is that the bonds were merely a device to funnel money from the church’s building fund into Xtron to be used for the church’s Crossover Project. Fronted by Ms Ho, the project was the church’s way of evangelising through pop music.

“The idea of using Xtron bonds was so it could be presented as an investment, and hide the fact that you were using building fund monies to fund Sun’s career,” said Lead Prosecutor Mavis Chionh, adding that there were telling signs that the bond investments were not genuine. For example, the church did not carry out due diligence on Xtron before subscribing to the bonds.

Money that went to Xtron was largely used to fund the church’s Crossover Project. In cross-examining former church board member John Lam, the prosecution pointed out that there was no basis for Xtron’s huge projected sales of Ms Ho’s then-delayed US album.

Xtron had projected album sales of S$16 million in 2011, and S$23 million in 2012. Ms Chionh pointed out that given there was neither a distribution contract nor an album contract, the figures were either “false, or at very best, purely speculative”.

Lam said it was his belief in Kong Hee’s ability to make the Crossover Project a success which led to him supporting the church’s investment into the Xtron bonds, despite knowing that Xtron was not a profitable company, and that Sun Ho’s music albums were losing money. This led the prosecutor to call his story an “incredible invention.”

– CNA/xy

CHC spent half a million dollars buying Sun Ho’s unsold CDs

August 5, 2014 / / 0 Comments

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/chc-spent-half-a-million/1296604.html?cid=FBSG

These and other details surfaced as the prosecution sought to highlight inconsistencies in the testimony of ex-church board member John Lam, who cited Ms Ho’s success as a reason CHC should invest in bonds issued by her artiste management company.

File photo: City Harvest founder Kong Hee (R), accompanied by singer-songwriter wife Sun Ho, arrives at the Subordinate Courts, on January 13, 2014. (Photo: TODAY website)

SINGAPORE: Sun Ho was not the successful singer City Harvest Church had made her out to be. Evidence showed the church spent about half a million dollars to buy her unsold Mandarin CDs.

The profitability of her artiste management company Xtron was also questioned, as the trial involving the church’s leader Kong Hee and his five deputies resumed on Monday (Aug 4).

The six church leaders are accused of misusing millions of church funds to buy sham bonds to bankroll Sun Ho’s music career.

She had been touted as a big commercial success, but lead prosecutor Mavis Chionh said the financial statements told a different story. In 2004, City Harvest Church spent about half a million dollars to buy her unsold (Mandarin) CDs – numbering at least 32,000 copies – to give away to overseas ministries and overseas churches.

These details surfaced as the prosecution sought to highlight inconsistencies in former church board member John Lam’s evidence. He had cited Ms Ho’s success as a reason the church should invest in bonds issued by Xtron – her artiste management company.

The Prosecutor had strong words for Lam. She called his evidence incredible, and a lie, and said he was desperate to find an explanation as to why he had gone along with a plan to let the church sink millions of dollars into what were essentially junk bonds.

Lam pointed out that junk bonds were not necessarily bad bonds, and added that he had believed that Sun’s US album sales would be good enough to cover the obligations of the bond. But the prosecution said that as a former director of Xtron, Lam would have known it was not a profitable company.

For example, its only asset was a laptop, with all other assets loaned by the church. It did not even have the budget to pay for a S$46,000 freight services bill.

The prosecution also drove home the point that Xtron was not the independent entity it had been made out to be. For one, Lam and his fellow accused Chew Eng Han had agreed to stamps of their signatures being made, to be used on Xtron invoices. Ms Chionh said the two were “happy to rubber stamp decisions”, knowing they were made by Kong and the church.

It was also heard that the bulk of Xtron’s funding came from the church members. For example, Indonesian businessman Wahju Hanafi’s donations to the Church Building Fund were refunded to him, and channelled to Xtron. The building fund pledges and tithes of some other members including Lam were also diverted to Xtron. The trial continues.

– CNA/xy

 

Finally on dedicated server now.

July 29, 2014 / / 0 Comments

I received my order on yesterday morning about 8am Monday 28 July 2014 with login information. So I wake up later in the morning to login and first to do is hit the transfer tool in whm cpanel and took a few minutes since 1130am started. Changed the domain name own DNS server from registrant not from VPS or this server DNS to this new dedicated IP address one used out of 5 and near noon less than half an hour it pointed to the new IP address of this server.

The spec right now is INTEL Atom C2758 instead CPU, I ask them and able to help me changed into Intel 530 SSD 120GB no extra cost even. The old VPS I request them to terminated end of month billing which is next month.

Some setup like OPENVPN done, some compile and testing also doing.

New creation church Singapore help me find my mobile phone drop in seat.

July 29, 2014 / / 0 Comments

This is how I wrote to the church via e-mail hope they will reply soon.

I would like to give a thanks for a team of asher a few of the aunties who help me find my mobile phone drop inside the seat after Sunday Service 2.30pm at the Star 27 July 2014. I was seating in the centre front seat stall middle from a few rows to ten plus row.

From a lady asher she said is from team 10 at the star in charge is Mary Chia. She keep calling my phone to find where is it even my phone is under silent mode.

I do not know is it that I feel unhappy not able to book mid week service online as full or Sunday morning services very far seat not so good seat to give a 10 cents offering on that day or hungry ghost festival on the first day but the church would not believe in this.

But I concern is if people who never go to church before to que up at some location in the morning was chase out by the asher as is full or given a not so good seats at the Star it might be a pernament effect how bad the church is as we are the largest church in Singapore should have many who are new to the faith to visit us.

Video on my piano music progress.

July 29, 2014 / / 0 Comments

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I had been learning piano classical over 6 years as leisure and vocal for over 8 years as leisure. I passed my abrsm music theory grade 5 76/100 marks in Oct 2008 and Grade 6 just pass 66/100 marks in Nov 2010. I contacted ABRSM Singapore representative office and they said the exam registration detail will be out in middle of this month and registration online will start middle of October this year for next year March and April piano practical exam as End February next year is Chinese new year. This is my first time taking piano exam as the only music practical and maybe next two years in 2017 will take grade 6 as grade 5 may be similar to grade 4 except pieces and scale is harder. For vocal lessons I have no goals to take exam yet. The piano ABRSM grade 4 exam practical fee now cost S$250.

Here is the video done conversion manually using free tools of FFMPEG in mp4 to made stream able using MP4Box and the web server need to compile to load a module if you using Linux operating system like centos and web server apache http://h264.code-shop.com/trac H264 pseudo streaming module. The video conversion I did not use a program online running in PHP with MySQL like clip bucket. I using shell command to login into a normal user SSH account to do it well. I have two files, one is loading default of 480p at resolution of 480X720, one if click on HD is it will be at FULL HD resolution of 1080X1920 which will take much longer to load and higher bandwidth larger file so need to use a full computer system as normally smart phone and tablet cannot play load well. But the audio quality the 480p is better than 1080p as the audio bitrate is higher in 480p due to the setting I put in. As such maybe next time HD and normal video should use same audio bitrate. The audio is in digital 5.1 format as my full HD video camera have five condenser Microphone on top. But normally our computer system only have stereo speaker but more audio sound is capture compare to a video camera with stereo microphone which have two only not five. I am using HTML 5 player www.codoplayer.com not flash player as many browser and smart phone tablet able to play it well unless you using a old browser with old operating system like Microsoft Windows XP with Internet explorer 8 which already end of life like since this year April. Plus I have loaded a video thumbnail in JPEG before you click play.

This is piano exam piece B1 ABRSM grade 4 2013/2014 the sun is setting. The sound should have better quality compare to my YouTube channel if you click on my blog link or www.youtube.com/kokwee81

Moving to a dedicated server soon as just order currently in process.

July 20, 2014 / / 0 Comments

I am moving on to dedicated server soon. As Yesterday just ordered a cheap server with www.hudsonvalleyhost.com for a monthly fee of US$75 fully managed with cpanel, WHMExtra and softculous script installer. It take 7 to 14 working days exclude weekend to setup online with login credential. Then domain IP changeover take about 1 to 2 days then terminate my VPS fully managed with cpanel and softculous script installer.

The reason for longer setup time as I request them not to use the default location as I want in LA as shorter route to Asia in Singapore compare to other location. The location charges extra US$25 monthly is wavied and I got a discount of monthly US$20 as existing customer promotion. Also got request of setup IPMI of US$10 also wavied. Hope that by 01 Aug Friday 2014 it will be up and this old VPS will be shut down and terminated at next month before due date.

The spec of the old VPS currently now is 150GB disk space, 4 cores with additional 3 core, 2 IP, 5TB bandwidth, 4GB physical RAM allocated no guarantee RAM monthly cost me US$30 with 40% discount. The new server is normal hard disk 250GB, Intel Atom  C2750 8 cores 2.4ghz turbo boost to 2.6ghz, 8GB DDR3 ECC RAM, 5 IP usable, 10TB bandwidth monthly with cpanel, whmxtra, softaculous script installer included as fully managed server.