Singapore parenting, practical reviews and tech notes

Category: Others

5-HTP – my personal recommendation for moodiness, anxiety, depression and general sleep difficulties

Howard Toh

If you feel moody, anxious, depressed, stressed or have any combination of these, I would like to personally recommend you to take 5-HTP supplements.

5-HTP is an amino acid that is integral in the production of serotonin, a neurotransmitter that causes happiness and positivity. Serotonin is produced by the body from tryptophan and 5-HTP is the immediate precursor to serotonin.

5-HTP is a precursor to serotonin and has been studied extensively for its role as a treatment in depression and weight loss. It also has an important role in sleep regulation, appetite control, immune function and cardiovascular health.

Truth be told, I don’t take this every single day. I use it specifically when I have had late nights and felt that I really need to sleep well tonight. Quite consistently, I get restful sleeps without my mind going wild about things I have to do the following day or reflecting on things that have happened. The supplements are not expensive and are pretty safe to consume.

You can get the same brand that I’m taking (NOW Foods 5-HTP 100mg) or get it from your own preferred supplement company.

Where to buy 5-HTP in Singapore

If you prefer buying from Shopee Singapore, these are practical 5-HTP options to compare. Availability and pricing can change, so check the product page before ordering.

Some Shopee links above are affiliate links.

What happens to your Facebook account after you die?

Howard Toh

Social media has allowed us to know of more deaths around us than ever before. So much so that we start to think if the death rate of human beings has increased. Have you ever wondered what happens to your Facebook account after you die? Facebook’s policy on this may change over time but as of now, there are a few possible scenarios:

  • No one has access to your account and no one put up a memoralisation request to Facebook

This is the least ideal situation. Your account sits in limbo. Acquaintances who don’t know of your passing might still post Happy Birthday wishes to your timeline yearly making your family and friends cringe and face palm every single time.

  • You die and your significant other/ family member has access to your password / access to an open session of your Facebook

This is really not the best way to maintain your account after you’re gone. It’s very freaky to have new posts coming from a deceased person. The correct way is to get your Facebook profile memoralised.

  • You die and your significant other / family member knows how to contact Facebook to memoralise your account 

This is good but without a legacy contact, Facebook has no one to hand over (limited) control of your Facebook profile.

  • You die and your nominated legacy contact helps to memoralise and manage your Facebook account

If you do not want to disappear from Facebook upon passing, this is the best way to handle things. Your legacy contact will get limited access to manage your Facebook profile. Read on to find out more about legacy contacts.

  • You die and Facebook deactivates your profile once they are notified of your death.

You have final say on whether you want your Facebook account to be around after your passing. Once you have made this decision, no one else (even your legacy contact) can override this decision. The only exception is if someone has your login credentials and goes in to turn off this setting before Facebook gets notified of your death. For this to work, someone must report your death to Facebook. Otherwise, your account remains active. Having a legacy contact whom you have briefed to inform Facebook about your passing as soon as possible will greatly hasten the process to execute your wish to deactivate your profile once you are no longer around.

Legacy Contact

Facebook introduced a feature that allows you to nominate a legacy contact who will manage your Facebook profile when you’re gone. This person will not be able to logon to your account. read your private message, compose new posts or initiate friend requests but can do the following:

  • Change your profile and cover photos
  • Pin a post to your timeline that can include a final message from you, provide information for the wake/funeral/memorial service, etc (Your setting must allow people to post to your timeline for this to work!)
  • Accept friend requests. Initiating friend requests to others from your profile is not possible for obvious reasons.
  • Request deactivation of your Facebook profile

How to nominate a Facebook legacy contact?

Go to your Facebook settings by clicking on the down arrow on the top right corner of your Facebook page and choose Settings (The way to get there may change over time as Facebook updates their user interface)

Facebook Legacy contact

From there, choose Manage Account and you will see the full settings. You can optionally allow your legacy contact to download a copy of your Facebook data and/or request to deactivate your account when you die instead of memoralising it.

Facebook Legacy contact

How to memoralise the profile of someone who passed away?

Click here to fill up the form: Facebook Memoralisation Request Form

 

 

How to do a ECG/EKG test on the new Helo LX

Howard Toh

We’ve received our new Helo LX and would like to show everyone how to perform an ECG test. It’s really simple! The most important tip is to remain very still during the measurement because movement causes stray electrical noise on the ECG plate and causes disturbances on the waveform. Good luck!

StarHub Happy Roam for my Taiwan Trip

Howard Toh

Disclosure: Although I work in StarHub, I do not work in Marketing, Sales or the Prepaid product team. I have no personal vested interest in the prepaid product, I paid for the prepaid card with my own money and nobody in the company asked me to write this. I am writing this as an original content for my personal blog and also because out of my 5 trips to Taiwan, this is the first time I did not buy their local prepaid card. 

Since this is my 5th time in Taiwan, I’ve gotten pretty sick of queuing at the Taoyuan International Airport and having to present 2 photo IDs in order to sign up for a Taiwan prepaid card. It didn’t help that one traveller is only entitled to purchase 1 prepaid card. This had me scrambling to collect 2 photo IDs from each family member in order to get a prepaid card for each of them. Cost wise, a 10-day unlimited prepaid data plan from Chunghwa Telecom costs $500 NTD (~S$22.70).

In the past, roaming data charges had been prohibitively expensive for casual travellers like me. Although I’m not in ops, I’ve been hearing about how affordable (planned) data roaming can be so I’ve convinced myself to give this a try.

I have a choice between Data Travel and Happy Roam. Without going into the specifics of both, I can highlight that Data Travel is more convenient as you can use your existing StarHub postpaid SIM to roam in a controlled manner. Downside is, the price is a tad more expensive at 2GB/30days/$15 (Data Quota / Validity / Price) compared to Happy Roam’s 1GB/3days/$5. The minor inconvenience for Happy Roam is that you need to get a StarHub Happy Prepaid card.

For me, personally, I’ve already had the intention to plug a SIM into my Mobile Wi-Fi device anyway so an additional SIM means I don’t have to remove my current SIM from my iPhone.

For that reason, I decided to go with Happy Roam. Researching deeper, I found that the Data quota is stackable – I can pay double of $5 to get double the data and double the validity period. This can be stacked all the way to 10GB/30days/$50 as shown in this table below:

Data Quota Validity Price
1GB 3 days $5
2GB 6 days $10
3GB 9 days $15
4GB 12 days $20
5GB 15 days $25
6GB 18 days $30
7GB 21 days $35
8GB 24 days $40
9GB 27 days $45
10GB 30 days $50

Since my prepaid card came with a promotional free 5-day 15GB local data, I did not have to worry about credits depleting due to background data usage just because I put it into a smart phone. If yours does not come with promotional free local data for the first X days, remember to turn off mobile data before inserting the prepaid SIM!

To manage your data usage while overseas, download and install the Happy Prepaid App

IMG_4527You’ll be prompted to enter your Prepaid number and confirm the OTP that is sent to that number. I’ve noticed instances where OTP isn’t required such as when the prepaid SIM is inserted in the same phone that is running the app. Once authenticated, you can go ahead and purchase the plan.

Purchase the plan 3 times if you need 3GB. For me, I had to purchase 5GB despite free Wi-Fi at most of my accommodation in Taiwan since I’m such a heavy social media user.

Do remember to check your balance regularly so that you have ample time to top up and add on an extra GB or 2 if necessary.

Conclusion

The following list of Pros and Cons are solely judged based on my trip to Taiwan.

Pros

  • Skipped the queue at the airport. I was able to get online right after touch down before even arriving at the gate.
  • Price comparable or even cheaper compared to a Taiwanese prepaid SIM if your data usage is 5GB or lesser.

Cons

  •  I had to monitor my data usage carefully on the StarHub prepaid SIM as it is not unlimited like the local Taiwan prepaid plans.
  • There’s a hassle to switch out my original SIM with this new prepaid SIM unless I’m using an external Mi-Fi device.

In the end, I used more data than I expected and had to top up another 2GB on top of my budgeted 3GB but that’s my problem. I would use Happy Roam again definitely if I’m heading to a country where I foresee myself not being able to (or want to) queue at the airport telco counter.

DIY 100% Natural Insect Repellent

Howard Toh

diy-insect-repellent

Seeing insect repellents flying off the shelf and then realising that people are reselling them on Carousell, I decided that enough is enough.

I needed something as effective as Deet but 100% natural for my pregnant wife so I did some research on homemade insect repellents.

I realised that Citronella oils are not as effective as I thought and the only natural essential oil that is as effective as Deet is Lemon Eucalyptus oil!

The problem is, you shouldn’t apply Lemon Eucalyptus oil directly on your skin as it is too strong in its pure form. You would want to mix it with something that is soothing and calming on the skin (astringents) and Witch Hazel is the natural choice. Of course, if you prefer, you can use cooking oil or denatured alcohol but I would really recommend Witch Hazel.

The last ingredient is Vanilla Extract. This is optional but recommended because some people don’t like the smell of Witch Hazel!
diy-homemade-mosquito-repellent-singapore
Now here comes the most important part – putting them altogether. I bought pump spray bottles from Daiso but you can find them elsewhere. I would recommend glass ones if you can find them.

– 120ml Witch Hazel
– 30 to 40 drops of Lemon Eucalyptus oil
– 1 tsp of Vanilla Extract (Optional)

Mix them up and transfer them to pump bottles. The mixture dry up really fast on contact with skin and is good for several hours.