//beconfused

I haven’t really been blogging till, erm, today. I sort of excused myself. I wasn’t feeling happy enough to blog I guess. These days, life got a little harder - expectations to be met; procrastinations that I am still trying to kill; and the renewed interest in the art of daydreaming.

It’s funny but today I actually felt like writing something. And the irony is that I am one hand handicapped today. I had a slight swell on my finger and the doctor had to run layers of bandages to make himself feel proud of his skills. I stared at my nicely-done bandage while listening to him accuse me of eating too much protein. I ran through with him the meals I had the past week and he went on blaming my fish, my meat, my chocolate bar (hey it’s just one) and the soya bean drink I had on Monday.

I type with one hand. I consumed the medicine with a hand. I eat my pasta with one hand. It wasn’t the best dinner experience I guess but still it felt kinda good. I hadn’t been going out much if not for school and work. My life seem to be revolving around purposes and goals that I forget to enjoy.

So when a friend asked me out for a dinner (yeah the pasta one), I accepted. Something rather ad-hoc but I just said okay. I keep telling people to plan dinners at least 2 days ahead and that I won’t want dinners to occur all of a sudden. Perhaps that’s just a mistake, I kinda miss these random insertions of my day.

Maybe things would get more exciting if life’s a little more random, a little less planned.

A couple of personal problems. A couple of down moments. A couple of days wasted.

Things should get fine. Right?

You know what’s worse than nerd talk at Geek Terminal? Four friends playing their own Nintendo DS in TCC without talking to each other. And most people there are catching up with one another.

A while later, I found myself with 2 friends in a stationery shop admiring office tools. Then we heard a scream.

“Stop him! He’s a thief!” she screamed.

I turned and looked, wasn’t this like one of those dramas on television. I never heard anyone shouted ‘thief’ before. My friend ran towards the direction she pointed immediately. I see a few others running towards the exit towards the overhead bridge.

I was feeling confused. I didn’t run. “He’s a thief” she turned to me and screamed. I looked at her and I somehow the only thing I blurt out was, “yeah, I realized.”

From a distance, I saw a hero pounced onto the alleged thief. I guess I didn’t really know how to react. It’s a little exciting but I was in a state of confusion. I didn’t know what’s happening, they caught him on the road and locked him down. I see many confused passersby.

She walked in front of the alleged thief making all sorts of accusations. I vaguely have a picture of what happen. Out of curiosity I asked for more details. Turns out that this thief is a fraudster. He attempted make multiple claims for television sets through a promotion. He used a fake identity card even. He got a free television set through an M1 promotion and he photocopied the claim letter with the M1 letter head.

The staff found the paper to be of a different quality and got suspicious. She questioned the fraudster and he just ran. And she could only think of chasing after all. He made 2 successful claims for the television sets according to her.

The fraudster even called the policeman himself. Then started calling his friends and talking rather nonchalently. He then told the man who detained him, “you don’t need to hold me down, if I run away then I’m gay.”

I laughed.

Anyway, the police came eventually and the fraudster just couldn’t be bothered it seems. He talked to a policeman and ignored the other policewoman who questioned him several times, he finally said something like, “sorry I don’t speak English well I talk to him first”. As the police are jotting down their stuff from the other girl, the fraudster just continued to talk on his phone.

The police probably found him irritating and tell him to get into the police car and shut the doors while the police take down more information. Oh, they confiscated his mobile phone too. Hooray.

We left the scene soon after. The shopkeeper thanked us repeatedly. I didn’t do a thing, just watched. I don’t mean to be sadistic or what, but it’s just very interesting how people work together and provide a helping hand for the someone in need. I think Singaporeans are quite a helpful bunch.

So the fraudster has been caught. So blahblah. We stood there for an hour to see the whole situation but I don’t think it’s just wasting time. We decided to go to TCC and rest our tired legs.

And you know what’s worse than nerd talk at Geek Terminal for an hour? Four friends still playing their own Nintendo DS in TCC.

[Note: I love geek talk. I love Geek Terminal. And I love Nintendo DS too.]

I was searching through CASE (Consumer Association of Singapore) with Google and I found this little section where they tell you some CASE tales. One of which goes this way:

A consumer had been using a set of kitchenware from a direct sales company for several years, but then received a phone call from a lady, asking for permission to send personnel to her flat to check the kitchenware. She agreed, thinking that she was calling from the company. The ‘technician’ that came to her flat told her that the kitchenware was defective, and not safe for cooking food. She was ‘persuaded’ to purchase a new set of kitchenware (and paid S$1,000 as deposit), which she later found out, was from another direct sales company instead. She approached CASE for assistance and advice.

CASE wrote in on behalf of the consumer to the 2nd direct sales company, citing that it had violated the Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Act, by making misleading/false claims, and by not informing her of the 3-day cooling-off period. The vendor eventually made a partial refund of S$800 to the consumer. (Source: CASE)

(more…)

My mother just got cheated by some salesperson and is to pay $3200 for a wok and 6 lame designer pots that she doesn’t need. I’m sorry I’m just fucking pissed with the 2 salesladies.

They came to our house at 2, my mother let them in and it was a prearranged meeting. They gotten hold of our contact because my mother bought pots and pans from them 30 years ago. Can you believe it? Thirty years ago! God hasn’t created me that time.

And today, they came and start introducing. I have nothing against them trying to sell a product. They talked till 5. I was a little afraid that my mother would buy the product so I went to check on her.

Me: What are you selling?
She: A set of pots and woks, they win a Red Dot Design award and… (I don’t remember what she said, she talked for 5 minutes while I was eating an egg tart.)
Me: How much does it cost?
She: Oh, you can’t buy it.
Me: (puzzled) So why are you here?
She: I am here to conduct a survey.
Me: No, you’re selling something. How much does it cost?
She: You cannot buy this outside one. This set is exclusive.
Me: So how much does it cost? (I was feeling so what-the-fuck that time.)
She: This one is only available because your mother is a customer and she bought another set of pots and pans 30 years ago. She can trade in and get these new set of pots and woks in an exclusive deal.
Me: How much? (By then I am losing my patience.)
She: 3000-plus.

Conduct a survey. My ass. This type of sales tactic I see before like a hundred times. I left the house and my mother convinced me that she would not buy it. And guess what, my brother just informed me my mother decided to purchase it. (more…)

Everyone is talking about Web 2.0 these days. Honestly, I don’t really like to use that term a lot as it has been overused and has, in my opinion, kinda lost its meaning.

Today, Web 2.0 can mean anything - video content, social networking, social news, social bookmarking, Ajax, Prototype libraries, JSON, accordion visual effects, mash-ups, Ruby on Rails, XML, and whatever.

It’s a marketing term for any webservice that is published after 2005. Google managed to revolutionize the way people understand ‘beta’. Today, some products is following some sort of a perpectual beta idea, meaning it’s just beta forever. That, once again, is pure marketing.

(Facebook has communities for Web 2.0, Web 3.0, Web 4.0, Web 5.0 and in case you haven’t noticed - Web �??.0.)

Has the web really changed that much? Sure it has, but it didn’t just come overnight. It came a long way and Web 2.0 describes the awakening - the awakening of ordinary people such as my mom and my elephant - and the reintroduction of these technologies. Magazines that cover whatever Web 2.0 ideas are selling like hotcakes and if you actually read a couple of them you’ll realize none is particularly clear of what Web 2.0 is.

Because it just is so many things! But ultimately, I think Web 2.0 is about you and me addicted to connecting and sharing information. It’s as if we allow ourselves to be part of a whole movement. Just thinking of that scares me, but the thought never fails to make me tingle with excitement.

I haven’t been blogging as regularly. I was busy with a couple of projects, learning some Japanese and a horrible upcoming math exam.

My project is just hanging that, it’s not moving as fast as I thought it would. There are lots of mistakes I made and sometimes I wasted a lot of time implement stuff wrongly. I hope I don’t make the same mistake again… It’s so time-consuming.

On a happier note, I finally, finally finally, decided to take up some Japanese class and learning some あいうえおかきくけこ. It’s an interesting language and I bought a book to help me along. It’s just something I thought I’ll pick up during my free time as some sort of an educating leisure.

And yes math. I didn’t like math too much. I can score quite well for it strangely. It’s the subject I do best it. But somehow I just didn’t like it. I like knowing history, I sucked at history.

Finally a friend is leaving Singapore already. I have so many friend leaving Singapore these days. We’re doing some farewell thing for him. It’s great because I get to meet all the army guys again. We still don’t like the commanders so no commanders shall be invited.

I just watched the National Day Parade. It’s the retelecast, I sort of missed it because I somehow forgot. This year’s location seemed different from the previous year but it’s one of the better locations. I love the city area. Perhaps one of the better NDPs; wished I were there.