My Random 25

I thought I'd post it here too, just for the posterity of it all.

1. I like the color purple. The shades that aren't awfully gaudy anyway. I love the life and vibrance of this simple mix of red and blue. Some say that makes me a king; others say it makes me a queen. It doesn't matter. Purple, I love you.

2. I am a signaller in the 8th Signal Battalion of the Singapore Armed Forces, dedicated to homeland security. If I tell you anymore than that I shall have to order in the commandos at my disposal to wipe out your bloodline.

3. I have rediscovered my love for reading (proper books, not blogs and FB notes) in 8 Sig Bn. Go figure.

4. My sources of digital entertainment are my Creative ZEN, Nintendo DS, XBOX 360, and my absolutely sexy MacBook Pro. Although the last two aren't too portable. I mean ideally I'd move all 4 into camp but...

5. I disliked coffee when I was young. After I entered uni at age 16+, I slowly began to drink coffee like an addict. I heartily blame Geek Terminal for sealing that addiction into my life. :)

6. I am allergic to peanuts. I will get an uneasy sensation in my mouth and if left unattended I will lose my voice for the day.

7. My mom ate a shitload of peanuts when I was gestating. Protein or something. Guess it was abit too much.

8. My musical tastes have evolved as follows:
Pri sch/lower sec: pop/boyband/radio hits
Upper sec: hardcore opera
Uni: death/black/power metal
Uni ending: add on abit of post hardcore
NS: revisiting classical music, symphonies concertos and chorals.

But I still do listen to my previous interests... the above are just my main focuses.

9. Red Cliff finally got me interested in The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and I bought the Moss Roberts abridged translation.

10. Hero and Red Cliff also got me interested in ancient Chinese music.

11. Oh speaking of music, I'm an amateur audiophile. When I... um acquire music I try to get it in high bitrates. I'm still trying to decide whether having my files in WAV format is really worth it. Damn space-costly. The history of my earphones are as follows:
Apple in-ear earphones ($68)
Creative EP-630 ($45) - one of the best budget earphones you'll ever find.
Creative Aurvana ($169) - though I got it for far less. Lovely phones they really are, but no match to even the lower end prosumers. For example...
Ultimate Ears Super.fi 5 Pro ($399) - Do you know, once upon a good time, it used to be 299. Then Logitech bought over UE and fucked it all up. Royal arsewipes.

12. My ambitions have evolved as follows:
5 years old - Sebastian the crab
14 - actor
14.9 - journalist
15 - newscaster
16.2 - errr somewhere in the media wherever
17 - marketing/advertising
18.5 - Public Relations FTW!!

13. Being Communications Scapegoat for Tech65 sealed the above decision for me.

14. It is also my distant dream to conduct Tchaikovsky's 1812 overture, complete with cannons and a chorus.

15. I played quite a bit of pool and foosball in uni, because SIM's recreation room (now a gym) had two pool tables and a foosball table.

16. As foosball players we dreaming youngsters developed signature moves and gave them names. One could do an uncatchable arc from the defender and swing the ball in from the side - he called it the Comet. One struck from the attackers with blinding speed and precision - he called it the Heavenly Striker. I discovered a strange strength in my wrists, and developed a morale-dropping move I called Raishin - Japanese for Thunder God (yeah, shut up). The ball dropped into play, rolled along the line to my midfielders. Nobody moves. It reaches the center man, I rotate my players slightly back. All they see is a blur, all they hear is a crack. The ball disappears into the goal. The same thing done from the defenders or even better, the keeper, I called Ten no Raishin (Thunder God from Above - shut up).

17. It was a good thing there was a glass panel over the table to stop people from pocketing the ball. It also stopped plenty of eyes from getting taken out.

18. I got a beautiful black metal Seiko watch from Japan, solar-powered, sapphire-coated glass, and the ability to do a once-a-day check with Japan's time radio signal towers and sync the time accordingly. It cost S$400, which I later found out was half price. Either way, my mom had a black black face for quite some time after, but had to grudgingly admit after a few weeks that it absolutely suited my personality. When I'm out of camp it follows me everywhere I go.

Thanks mom, dad. :)

19. I lack in psychomotor skills. Slow reactions and butterfingers (limbs). In my early early years my parents were worried because of this that I was mildly autistic.

20. I personally believe that in some miraculous strange way, I do have a very mildly autistic part of me, which hardly shows up the typical ways autism do, but would account for quite a chunk of my personality.

21. I am an extremist. Even on the same subject I can at times lose interest in a matter of seconds, or get glued to it for hours. I have mild obsessions with newfound interests - buying hundreds of Magic cards to find they're essentially useless, complete sets of movie promotional magnets or calendars just for the heck of collections, buying every game I think I might like when I got my 360. List can go on. And that is why I am extremely, extremely cautious and apprehensive about getting into prosumer photography, even though I love it.

22. I am anarchically untidy in certain matters and dictatorially neat in others. When some switch in my mind is successfully flicked, I will arrange books on my shelf in order of descending height, or use a ruler to ensure the three stacks of various books on my table are in line with each other. Otherwise, the place in question basically looks like an aftermath of an earthquake hurricane and tornado combined.

23. As I was saying, I love photography because it allows me to share the little pleasures and sides of my life that I don't think people usually take notice of. Perhaps it is for that reason that I especially indulge in macro shots.

24. I get long-winded. But perhaps you have already noticed. That explains why I often give up on my own blog post drafts (yes, loso until no patience to continue. winner right?) or else write posts so long that it spans the entire webpage.

25. Ok, last one. I indulge heavily in the individuals I consider friends. Time, abit of money, favors, extra miles. My only expectation is that they will readily do the same for me. And God knows how many a quibble that has caused. :)

I do hope you've enjoyed this little indulgence in myself. As the other notes say, I would like to know you that little bit more if I tag you, so if you're willing to take some time out (I think I took 1.5h) to do this note too, be sure to tag me back. Shalom~ :)

Ambition's Evolutions

My youngest recollection of an ambition, one which my parents and cousins still bring up from time to time, was a unique one. From a young age I knew I was different. And by that I don't mean that I'm gay, but that I knew I was destined for greater things, to be above all.

I wanted to be Sebastian the crab.


As I grew older I must have realised that the closest I'd ever get to that would probably be joining the cast of Disney on Ice and wearing an 10kg plushie suit of my crustacean hero. But knowing my butterlimbness (because I slip and fall too, not just drop things), I'd have probably sliced myself into four with those terrifying blades of glory. I'd probably be lipsyncing to Undar da see too, and not actually singing it, a fact I never would stand for, given the unfounded pride I have in my mellifluous voice.

In secondary school I discovered my passion for acting. Unfortunately I never quite got the roles I wanted - I was always pushed to play female roles. And my teacher always made me do that faux-Singaporean-caring-mother voice that Koh Chieng Mun did for Dolly in Under One Roof. I didn't like it one bit. I got into the ELDDS executive committee and moved to backstage management and abit of directing those couple of times when my teacher instructed me to put the performers into shape. Sounds wow, absolutely isn't. I loved comedy, but the comedy my teacher wanted me to do wasn't the comedy I wanted to do. I love Arrested Development, Ricky Gervais, and Catherine Tate. Enough? And as for my parents, they were worried about my ability to survive in the acting industry. Competitive, number one, and they worried about my being just too nice to people. I'm to this day still learning how to be a fucking arsehole when required. So they were rightly worried that I'd be conned into trafficking drugs and get fucked big time when I got caught. Hey, that's their impression of the industry. Can't say I absolutely disagree.

They kept pushing me to try for newscasting, which involved, in their opinion, having to study hard, get into the prestigious NTU Mass Comm course (or was it NUS I forgot), and flying high the traditional Singaporean way. I was essentially, an Academics FAIL, and with 17 points for O levels my parents sent me to UB@SIM to be part of the pioneering batch of B.A. in Communication students. Neither parents nor students had the faintest idea what was in store for us, and honestly I doubt the management staff did either. But it turned out to be a wacky angry melodramatic rollercoaster ride I'll be wont to forget (but probably will anyway), and for two years all I could give to the magical question was, "I have no idea. But somewhere in the media definitely."

My Public Relations module was a failure. I was interested in the subject because I was eager to be proven wrong that all PR folks are lying bastards (I know now only a few are). But my lecturer was a China lady with a heavy accent and kinda no idea what she was talking about herself. At least though I now knew abit about this curious profession, this calculated dance between brand and customer. At the same time Tech65 started picking up and as the closest thing to a communication professional I happily volunteered to be communicator for Tech65, spreading the word about what we do, attending events to stuff my face with sauteed Wagyu beef and ride on the Flyer (before the motor started rusting), and baiting companies to drop us test products. I started getting into contact with amazing PR professionals like Brian Koh, Tania Chew, Pat Law, Melvin Yuan... oh my God the list could go on for... well one more line but I still don't wanna type it all out. And as I talked to them about this whole industry I found myself staring at the beautiful crossroads of public relations and social media.

And I threw myself at it. My ambition finally took serious, concrete, almost tangible form. I subscribed to PR news sources on the net. Started reading PR books. Started perking up at every advertisement, or campaign, or PR news release or contact, approving of and criticizing practitioners' techniques and tactics, deciding what I will and will not do in the future.

I'm glad. Ambition isn't something that shapes itself up in time for your 22nd or 24th birthday. But a colossal series of events brought me to where I am today. Or else I'd still be floating about, and when I happily receive the kick in the arse out of NS on 4th June 2010, I'd stumble and fall into an immense world, speeding too fast to sit me down and counsel me on my life and what I'd like to do with it.

My ambition, or should I say dreams now that I'm older than 5, may change in a few years time. I don't know. All I know is for all the risk that comes with it, I could never survive working in a place I don't belong.

Link

Ho ho ho.

I was just reading Kevin Lim's latest blog post about Facebook network graphing, and tried it out for myself. Quite interestingly my friends are quite neatly categorizable.

I quickly noticed a node in the center of my UB-SIM and SG Blogosphere continents and hovered over it. Who should I find, but good old...


I should have guessed. After all he was to blame for hooking a whole damn class of about 50 onto Blogger, Second Life and Twitter.

Kevin! 我们永远支持你！AHHHHHHHHHHHH~!

The Part That I Missed

This Valentine's Day, 20th of my life, was as lonely as the last 5. Yeah, 5. Before that I was too young anyway. Well, this time I had the slight exception of the timely arrival of my XKCD tee.

Went to GT, eager to record 65bits but there were too many guests already (fine, just leave me out), made a hard decision to buy Street Fighter IV from Gamescore instead of waiting for my usual game shop to receive the second cheaper shipment. Helped my friend buy another copy and he swung by in a lovely new MX5 to pick it up, played it, sucked at it, went for the musical production my brother was starring in (basically, the who's who of Hwa Chong actors/resses were on stage).

And this was one of the parts that I missed.

I knew I was going to learn things that my JC friends won't for a few years yet, when I went to SIM with my parents' (financial) blessing. And as I went through the crash course of maturity that uni brings, I began to realise and accept that there will be things that JC kids will endure and enjoy, that I will miss out on. There's no CCA to have to join or face the MOE consequences in SIM. There weren't proper avenues to unleash our passions, to destress (not that we had alot to destress compared to them).

Come to think of it, there were. There were clubs. There was the... I dunno the Theatre Club or Drama Club or what had they in SIM. But we lazy buggers felt we had enough work on our hands to want to pick up on more responsibilities. Which we did. Shitloads of projects and research papers to think about. Except the JC kids (I should stop calling them kids they're my peers but who cares we all know them as JC kids) had that, and CCA(s), and still can pass with 6 A's. Us? "Have you seen the latest Bleach episode?" "Omg, fuggin' awesome, the bankai." "Totally. Hi 5."

Yes. We never did bother. With no law or grades to threaten us we didn't bother. But I realised today that I missed acting. The rehearsals where we broke down and giggled at stupid lines, quarreled about whether the chair should be a 1m stage right or 1.1m stage right, gossiped viciously about know-it-all prima donnas. Those few hours on the other side of the universe where you put all your energy, your heart, your soul, into being someone else, and that someone could be part of who you really are or a textbook polar opposite, it didn't matter. The applause, the blinding lights, the butterflies and racing heart, the applause.

Tripping over a mic cable and sending the mic and yourself flying smack in the middle of stage.

No that never happened to me. Or to anyone else in my life. God forbid.

There's something about live performances that make them magical, isn't there? But there's nothing enchanting about it. It's magical only because it had life in it. Life, passion, living breathing energy.

Once, I went to see my friend's three-man band play at Blujaz. Bass guitar, electric guitar, soprano saxophone. And they started playing Kenny G's famous hit, whatever the hell it's name was, and the whole cafe piped down, like a magical hushing spell, and listened with held breaths to the rendition. He wasn't Kenny G, I don't think he was omg genius-good, but it was all his passion, resonating in our ears. My friend raised his eyebrows and smirked at his mate at the sound of the applause they got.

The singers at my brother's performance, they were good. They were above average, in fact rather talented. But they weren't anything scream about. They weren't The Beatles, or OneRepublic (yep), or Nat King Cole. But they were real. They were there. Their mental weight was all leaned on the meaning the songs had in line with the play. And again, like magic, the crowd was deathly silent as a confused girl sang Nature Boy, as advising friends sang Hey Jude, as a boy hurt by rejection sang Apologize.

And as I watched, and applauded, I felt a little sad. Sad that I had to let my chance go to take a path less travelled. Actually, yet travelled. I was the first batch of my course. Yes I'm showing off.

Because amidst all the mindcrushing stress of having exams that would, as always with the Singaporean system, decide your life path, these JC kids could have a little fun.

And they would remember, in retrospect, that these two years were to be the last two that they were able to enjoy absolutely carefree fun. Before all the grown up shit comes in. God, they're worse than Left4Dead zombies.

Overlooking and Underestimating PR

I have been keeping mostly quiet about the announcement and developments of the Association of Bloggers (Singapore), because apart from memories of being naively indignant about the whole ECL vs Ping issue, and indignantly appalled with the DK Banned affair, I felt that I knew far too little of the complete story to make fair comments. You know lah, I'm a PR-practitioner-to-be, so I get almost paranoid about what comes out of my mouth or fingers these days.

Now that I've been watching the events unfold though, I thought it appropriate to give my speech standing on familiar territory.

That is, Public Relations.

What could well have been the One Ring to Rule Them All instead crashed and burned slowly, torturously, and spectacularly, complete with exploding fuel tanks and screaming passengers roasted alive. Some questioned why the traditional media knew before the new media whom this was squarely targeted at knew (hoo. Nice mouthful there.). Some (choke)slammed Association Protem President ECL of establishing the association on petty terms and using it as a chance to get back at those who have in one way or another snubbed her. Some, as everyone's favorite werewolf said here, ridiculed the association's redundancy, and in an embarrassingly Singaporean fashion questioned its arguably exorbitant membership fees. And now, to seal the kiss, seven of the ten Protem members have stepped down from their posts. How's that for a first week at work?

All that I have just mentioned made for just about the perfect PR disaster. Wrong introduction to the wrong target, dirty linen of leaders, dubious agendas. First of all, the Association appears to have been a solo effort, with ECL taking most of the questions and the brunt of the backlash. Most if not all of the Protem are well-established and experienced bloggers, and I cannot see how everyone seems to have failed to caution their President that bloggers are a vicious bunch of piranhas that will jump on anything that tickles their irritant bone and bash it to pulp. Now I want to say this very clearly that I am not hitting out on any of the Protem members. Including the President. Some of my good friends are in the committee, and in all sincerity I hold them in high intellectual esteem. Mistakes have been made, and I'm mapping it out in a... not so nice manner by not pulling any punches. And you will see why, I hope, by the time you get to the end of this post. So please be patient and read through.

While this cannot be applied to every situation, I believe it's still common sense - please know your market before deploying your product and its introductory processes. If you aren't already confident that you know your target market well, take time to research on their likes, dislikes, habits and quirks. One should know that with such a product that concerns the very fundamentals of blogging, secrecy is not the way to go. And that an exclusive interview with traditional media, the friendly nemesis and benevolent antithesis of blogging, is bloody suicide. That interview should have been no surprise to the blogosphere. It should have served as information to people who don't care all that much. It should have been old boring news to the blogosphere.

Then there were ECL's responses to the backlash. Did she act by herself? As with presidents and prime ministers, one should never make the next move without consulting your committee. It is understandable that one gets offended, insulted and indignant when the baby you have so painstakingly nurtured in the past few months gets thrown about and laughed at. But the response wasn't a one-paragraph shoot off. It was a long detailed return. There should have been more than enough time to consider one's actions before proceeding further. Whether you get dragged into the situation or not, one should always distinguish clearly between organization and self. Failure to do so would result in one acting in a capacity greater than what is required, and further ruin the already damaged image of the company.

That said, I wonder if I am being idealistically demanding when I ask - Where was the committee then? Having seen the negative reactions of the community, why did they not gather around their president to discuss solutions? Or did they already do so to the President's deaf ears? And because there is no PR or communications-related post in the committee, I will turn on the next closest discipline. The marketers of the committee seemed to be doing nothing at all to repair the damage done to the organization's reputation, nor to curb the President's inflammatory remarks, nor to advise her, it appears, on how to deal with further attacks, at least until it was far too late. Nor, while we're on the subject, did they seem to plan the execution of the introduction. If they had given it some thought, it wouldn't be half the flop it turned out to be, I think. Because really honestly, some of the mistakes made in this case are palmface stupid.

What I'm saying is this. Never, ever, leave PR out of the equation. You just cannot afford to nowadays. Your PR person, assuming he/she is competent, is there to be a firestarter and a fireman. If things go awfully wrong as it has in this case, he will be there to put the fire out. If things go well, he's there to spread the good fire of your product, and watch triumphantly as it spreads farther and farther. And especially in today's marketing world, where we're dealing more with bloggers with just about no need nor incentive to write responsibly, you will need your PR to deal with them. Okay, us.

It is a daunting situation for ABS now, one that will convince many that there is no need to bother fighting anymore. But I think there's still a slim chance, if they can hang on tight to their cards and play them well.

One more mistake though, and it will all over. And when that happens, belief can help them no further.

Company

Yesterday, I met up with my friends from my time in university. All four of us were the same, entering uni after O levels, and unwittingly convincing everyone we tell this to afterwards that we're absolute genii. 7 months after we left graduated, we met up with each other - one in unit (me, cos I'm fat and went in much earlier), one freshly passed out from Police Academy, one in OCS, one not long into SCDF training as a fireman (tough shit).

We went to Bukit Panjang Plaza (great mall, but fucked up place to get to -_-") for Jack's Place and nearby for LAN to play Left 4 Dead. It's a fantastic game. But as I see it much of the enjoyment depends on co-op. I dunno how much fun it will be playing alone with 3 bots for company. I do know that there's a chance that a controller flung out of frustration might crack my 42" LCD TV.

But that's the thrill of it all. Wondering if I should buy it for the 360 - should be able to tide me over till Street Fighter IV (!!!!!!!) and Resident Evil 5 and Final Fantasy XIII (HAHA PSers HAHA).

More importantly, as we talked and shared and boasted about our NS life (we may not have been able to share much pain and bitchiness because we were scattered all over, but it's fun in its own way listening to stories from other metaphorical islands.), complained about bunkmates, and reveled in each others' simple company, I began to realize just how much I missed this crowd of people. This gang of madcaps. This clique of intelligence. And I don't mean intelligence in a sense of IQ, but rather one where we're tuned to the exact frequency, able to understand each other effortlessly. I won't pretend that we're a smart bunch above common folk - how smart do you think you are when the entry requirement is $60 000 and 6 O level passes? But the unique education system, the amount of interaction we went through seeing and working with each other for 3 years that sped by just like that, it just sets us apart from others. And I look back and see how much I was teased and how awkwardly I stood out in secondary school, how university was such a world of a difference where I felt very at home, and how I'm back to square one now, and I realize that my blind insistence and parents' hope was right - I'm quite hopelessly tuned to respond favorably to the US education system. And these months in NS, I've had my fun, of course I've had. I gained plenty of experiences that I could finally identify with others. But the magic of it all, for now, will remain in this clique of mine.

Perhaps it should remain this way, that we meet once in awhile and realise how much we took our company for granted.

After all, absence makes the heart grow fonder, and familiarity breeds contempt.

Love you guys. And thank you for memories undoable.

Got such a word meh undoable? But it sounds nice lah. Chim.

Happy moo year.

Customer Disservice

I honestly don't know whether I have too high standards, or expectations, or it was the crowd, or just a bad bad day. How often though do you get served poop on a silver platter two times in a row?

Story is, my parents announced to me that they wanted to invest in a home theater (love their choice of words). The only condition is wireless, because we don't have/don't want a rug in our living room, and with wires running smack across the floor, either you die, or the console crashes. Or worse, the whole TV. I don't like the idea personally, I want to avoid wireless as much as possible, but it is a very valid concern, and it's just too bad that this very valid concern is mine.

So we decide to go to Vivo City to check it out, and with the others trailing behind me I make a beeline for Best Denki. When I first reach the home theatre section we were attended to quickly. But I honestly dunno what was up with the sales guy. He was so slow and blur I started wondering if he was mentally challenged. Almost every question was returned with a "Hah? Err..."

Part of me wanted to tell him to find someone more competent please because you're wasting our time, but I didn't. I really, really, knnbccb really am too patient and kind for my own mental health -_-"

After awhile, while we were testing some of our music, he just disappeared and we never saw him again. An older guy came along and apparently was in charge of the entire section, but after awhile when my father kept insisting that he turn up the bass, he said, "I go call my sound guy." This next guy appeared but he was supposed to be in charge of the Yamaha section. He was honestly the most helpful and knowledgeable guy but he had an area to stick to and other customers to attend to, so he left us to find for ourselves another salesman. I randomly walked to the shavers counter and told one younger salesman that I wish to be attended to by someone from the home theatre section. After physically searching for some guy in mind, and paging him over the store PA for 10min, we were still unattended to. Someone else came along, and was equally clueless about wireless home theater products. He however introduced us to some new information, that some wireless technologies use infrared, which requires direct line-of-sight, which I think is fuck-you stupid, but anyway. My parents said "never mind, we'll take our time and research. No rush." So I walk out dejectedly of Denki (yeah it's not best). True, there was no rush really, but I had asked my parents and aunt to detour to Vivo for a solid purpose, and utterly failed to meet it because of a whole fucking store's incompetencies. We'd all have been chilling at home an hour earlier if we didn't go to Vivo only to find out that Denki's customer service fell to a new low.

As we were walking, my dad was chattering away about how Samsung came out with this new phone that looks even better than the Omnia (turned out to be the Pixon he was talking about). And both of us realized at the same time that Samsung had home theater systems displayed there as well.

So excited again we went to the flagship store. And great, this guy at least knows his products. Even if he can't recite the power distribution in middle left right rear left rear right speakers backwards, at least he could tell you immediately which systems supported wireless rear speakers, which is all we needed, not a completely wireless system. We tested a frankly sexy system, the X715. After I was satisfied with the stereo playback, I asked for a DVD to hear the 5.1. "Don't have." What the fuck is the meaning of don't have? You sell 5.1 systems without media to show of 5.1 capabilities? After repeatedly asking, he went to dig up the Cars DVD, and again the system performed well. My parents were ready to pay up after he's answered their million questions. Then I enquired about my Xbox and how it would be wired up. And though not his fault, I was disappointed because it seemed that I cannot retain my high def video and have 5.1 at the same time. The last time I clearly remembered a salesman show me an amp module with HDMI in and out, for configurations such as these. My father made a comment about how this set didn't have as much connectivity as the other set we saw in Denki, and I shrugged because shucks USB input isn't important to me. As I was playing with the console later though, I switched through the modes and landed smack on USB mode.

And true enough to my deduction, our friend apparently missed out on the cosmetically concealed side flap containing a USB port, Aux in, and Headphones out.

Ticked me off a little, but again, these aren't the most important features to me, so I told my parents "Go ahead and get it if you want. I'll solve my own problems after." After which I spied the Guitar Hero station empty and went to play. I haven't even gotten through half the song when my dad called to me.

"The guy says there's no stock at the moment, so you give him your number and he'll call you when he's checked."

We motherfucking stand there, excited for half an hour, and at the bloody END of it all you tell me there's no stock? NO STOCK??

I hide my anger and give him my particulars, and we go home, me still in a bad mood. I'd asked for a brochure for the system, and got more like a catalogue instead, but no matter. I get back home and my dad says "Hey look, this one does wireless too."

Following instructions I went to dig up their number from Vivo's website and the guy who answers says that the model is not on display in the store. Great, then? Don't need to know ah? Don't see don't know, is that the new policy now?

"Right well, then what's the price?"
"Ahhh that one we don't have it in store sir, so we dunno the price. You can check with Best Denki or Challenger for the price. I think Best would be a better place to check."
" ... Do they even have it?"
"Uh this oneeee.... You have to check with them, sir."

There. Picture-perfect don't-see-don't-know.

Is that it? Is that the state of electronics sale in Singapore? Try smoke your way through uninformed customers? Say you find someone else to assist us and disappear in the smoke? Not know BASIC features of a product and say it's not there? Know that products exist but have no information about them because they aren't in your showroom?

Utterly disappointing. Denki's bad enough, but this is Samsung's FLAGSHIP store we're talking about you know! Flagship store where Tech65 recorded. Where SMB5 was held. Whose space will be offered to many more events yet. Is this the sort of sparkling image you want to give customers? Worse, to bloggers who'd have no qualms about tearing your brand name apart letter by letter?

Something had better be done by management level island-wide. STARTING WITH THESE TWO STORES.

Ambiguity Cost Me $10

So yesterday after an awesome 100th 65bits episode, I went with DK, Nicole, Jean, Alice, Vincent, and sorry Jean's friend your name slipped my mind, to watch Bolt. We wanted to catch the 3D version, and were disappointed that The Cathay only had one show at 3.15pm (it was 4.30 by then?). The other alternative was 6.30 at Tampines Mall, which I didn't mind but the other westies did haha. So after digging, we found a fantastic timing at Cathay Causeway Point, and went ahead.

When we walked into the theatre, we got no 3D glasses, no 3D movie.

Now I'm paying money for Bolt only because I was under the impression that I was going to watch it in 3D. I don't want to pay to watch the normal version. I'm not too happy to discover I blew 10 bucks like that. Look at this.

This is what you see when you go through the Movies page on Cathay. So SWEET we were happy with the 3D sign, and totally didn't see the fucking fine print Exclusively at The Cathay Cineplex. So we clicked on Book Tickets Online to move forward...

And this is what the link brings you too. Tell me, 1) after seeing that 3D sign on the previous page, and 2) being a customer who doesn't know/realize that screenings in special formats, ie. Digital and 3D, would be indicated, would you not assume that all three locations were playing in 3D? But in fact...

Bolt 3D is hidden inside the movie dropbox.

How misleading is that?

And on a sidenote, you know that 3D is the attraction of this movie, why are you not promoting it actively? Why are you not bringing prospective customers to the 3D page first, and provide a link out to a normal screening if they don't want 3D? Isn't that Marketing 10fucking1?

I'm swearing alot nowadays right? Yeah. Sorry la. Boy boy's growing up.

Now this on the other hand, is GV's Now Showing page. And you can see that instead of one synopsis pointing you to two different types of screenings, it's two types of screenings on two pages with the same synopsis. See, if it is indicated like this, customers have far less excuse of saying "WTF? You didn't tell me this wasn't 3D??" Simply because this is the FIRST thing you see, when wondering what movie to catch, or when you want to confirm timings for a certain film or screening type.

Can you say we were at fault for not noticing the small print on the 3D sign? Yes. It was carelessly overlooked, I'll grant. But to that I also say "Fuck you we're not trying to discern counterfeit money we are trying to watch a movie here". And all the manager at Causeway Point could say, bless his soul he also dunno what to say I think, was to keep insisting that special screening formats are only played at The Cathay, and that we must know that these formats are separately indicated. I think you better teach your managers to say something else before they get slaughtered by popcorn and straws one day. And if your business method is to make it the customer's responsibility to scrutinize every damned pixel or ink blot to figure out for himself where you're screening what, then I couldn't care less if you're the only company who manages to import award-winning films from Tuzilihastokhan, I'm not going to put myself at risk of wasting money by patronizing you. I'm travelling across the island to GV Tampines for my 3D show.

I've always loved The Cathay for its extra comfy seats, and digital film options. It's what a cinema should be (that's only one cinema venue of theirs but still). And this incident is very disappointing and smears stinking dirt on the wonderful image that I have of them.

I hope this message gets passed along. Something needs to be done about this. Do not let your, I'd say prestigious image fall so easily because of such a flaw. Leave no room for error and keep your customers' loyalty.

Family Man

Early last week, I had a little fall. An emotional fall. I rang my dad up during a long break we had and a long teary conversation ensued about directions, purposes, life in the army, and life outside.

As early as a year ago, I cringed every time my dad launched into lectures about family togetherness. They were getting one too many, and it's frankly amazing how they can repeat the exact same phrases each time they go into it and never realise it nor get tired. By then I'd heard many things about the history of my paternal family, and it wasn't exactly happy hour with them. Alot, alot of crap happened, and seemed to come one after the other after the other, like a well planned attack. All I can say is that for the stubborn, sometimes narrow man that he is, I'm very glad that he pulled through the right way, instead of turning to... ok well, the dark side.

My dad was glad that I called to talk to him, because my extreme moodiness every Sunday evening did not escape his eyes (not that I made much of an effort to conceal it anyways), and he was concerned about what was bugging me. Such an inexplicable depression falls over me when I think about camp and training, and I get extremely reluctant to leave home and its now precious comforts. It honestly doesn't help that all my campmates seem to be able to say are "Oh dear how I don't think we're going to pass our summary exercise and will not turn operational and suffer another month of slavery and oppression". It irks me every time they do that.

What touched me so much was that after the call, which was in some ways comforting already, I went for my all day rather intensive training, and when I came back, there were missed calls and SMSes telling me to hang in there and keep happy. The whole family rose at my dad's call to pick me up from my fall, and help me stand again. I was so amazed, and I knew that I'd never disagree with the high importance of family support ever again. The next thing I knew, my dad texted a day later to say "We're going for a family dinner on Sunday. Is Brazil (churascura) ok with you?" I said it was abit too meaty, and he replied, "Ok. We'll go to Melt at Oriental then."

"That's so expensive... we could do with cheaper food, we're still spending time together anyway."

And you know what the man said? "It's ok. Nothing costs too much for good family bonding time."

It was quite hard to control myself.

Monday night when I booked in I was compelled to thank him again and again he said, "Nothing costs too much too make you feel good and loved. Keep your spirit high and overcome temporary obstacles knowing you have strong family support always."

So this is love.

Thanks dad. Thanks mom. Thanks Renjie. Thanks Sandra. Thanks Kat. Thanks MKT.

Ok ok on a not so emo note, for nom-nom love, I've got the FB album link here. Go ahead, hate me. :)

Your Special Symbol

Symbols were developed right from the beginning of time, and has not only stayed with us till today, but developed into a discipline so complex that some devote their lives to decoding. Symbols come in many forms - the letters of the English alphabet you read now are symbols, a medium to convey my thoughts to you in the symbolic form we know as writing.

And symbols can also come in the form of physically tangible objects, a thing that reminds you of something else, a more intangible concept. My bible is one such object.

I have my piece to say regarding religion and science, but let's save that for another post. For now, whether it's the concept known as A Holy Anointing, or another known as Psychology, my bible is to me a powerful object of comfort. Every time I look at it, touch it, feel it in my hands, fan the pages, it reminds me of the very essence of my church's teachings - that God is there with me, and for me. That He loved us so much to send His only beloved Son Jesus to suffer what is now known as the most inhumane execution method, to die for sins that would only be committed 20, 200, 2000 years later. That as one who has left his entire life in the mercy of God's ever-loving hands, I can rest assured that He is in complete control of my otherwise messed-up life, that when I slip and fall, I will fall within the Ark of the New Covenant, not into the raging seas. And such a sense of peace, comfort and security just falls upon my heart when I hold my bible, that my worries and fears just melt away.

For the moment, at least. Come on la be real. Emotions cannot last. Faith can. Amen. :)

Another Christian object that holds a symbolic significance is the mazzah bread I'm privileged to be consuming every Sunday for Holy Communion. The appearance, the holes, the breaks, the burns, and especially the smell, reminds me of Christ's loving sacrifice for us. I guess it's important that this habit was cultivated in me at a mature age, when I at least understood something, and that it was a new object. If you gave me like... a nua-nua piece of Gardenia bread, I eat that half the time for breakfast. How do you expect it to hold any special meaning? (That said, my church does make a special effort to import mazzah direct from Israel, so can't really compare la).

Christians or non-Christians, what are the objects that hold a special meaning for you?