When guys go bald

When guys go bald

It happens to some people as we grow older, we start going bald. It happens to me. Suddenly my raging hormones stopped working the way that I am used to. The results became more and more pronounced as the years tolled by. The density of my hair started falling after my 23rd year on Terra. After dragging my feet for a couple of years, avoiding the issue isn't an option anymore. My sister, SY brought me back to my senses one more time. And thus, I decided to join my friend YE, to try a hair loss drug Propecia.

The active ingredient is finasteride, an antiandrogen which acts by inhibiting 5-alpha reductase. So what it does is to reduce production of DHT which is a key factor in male hair loss. That's right, this drug works only for guys. Ladies, you are out of luck.

Finasteride is primarily used to treat prostate enlargement and cancer. The interesting side effect of regrowing hair was discovered sometime later. The drug takes 6 to 12 months to see improvement, works until you stop taking it, and the regained hair will be lost within 6 to 12 months of stopping. The younger that you start on the drug, the better the chances. 48% of those treated with Propecia experienced some regrowth of hair, and 42% had no further loss. That's 90% already. I don't know what happens to the other 10% but I am not even 30, so my chances is good.

I went on Propecia (1mg Finasteride) for 2 months, paying $80 for 28 pills before a colleague, JF, told me a more economical solution to my hair problem. The original drug, marketed as Proscar (5mg Finasteride) is sold for $120 for 30 pills. Since the dosage required for hair treatment is 20% of Proscar, we can go overdose a bit by buying Proscar and cutting each pill into 4 with a pill splitter. This effectively turns the 30 pill Proscar into 120 doses of Propecia ! This translates into a effective dosage cost at $1 per day compared with $2.86 per day for Propecia ! My colleague now sports a full crown of hair !!!

The same nasty company that tried to rip us all off with a lifestyle drug gave us the original drug at 1/3 the cost !!! At least they are kind enough to do that.

It's sold at prescription at your favorite doctor, so my dear friends who are still wondering what to do, get your ass moving and try this drug ! Enjoy this great deal and the rare public service by the otherwise nasty grumpy man.

A rude and inconsiderate woman

While making our way back from to the office, my colleague, Ronald and I have to pass through this glass swing door at Harbourfront tower 1 because it was pouring outside. As the passage way isn't exactly wide, we have to move through the door in a file. Usually the considerate people in front of us passing through the heavy glass door will pull the door open and hold it for a while for the next person, and the not so considerate one will walk quickly through the door. But not this lady right in front of us.

It's fine that you don't want to hold the door, but she pull the door CLOSED behind her instead as she walked through. The door instead of closing slowly, closed rapidly instead. Ronald almost destroyed the glass door had he not stopped in time. I didn't know what she was trying to achieve by the rude and inconsiderate act, not to mention dangerous too, but this act pisses us off.

Since no one was injured, and Ronald didn't fumed, he let the matter slide. So we just did some grumbling about our new found asshole as we take the lift back to the office. She had been lucky. If I was the one behind her, she would have been given a scolding that she will never forget from me. This woman has certainly redefined the word asshole.

People working at Harbourfront beware ! This woman asshole is lurking somewhere to will slam a door into your face !

What happens will Snowy get scared

On friday night, being happening people, we did not stop after a shopping trip to Tampiness Ikea and Giant. We proceeded to Helen's place for wine appreciation.

Helen's and Darren's dog, Snowy must have really bad experience with Desmond. The moment Desmond came into Helen's flat, the dog went nuts and shitted in 6 places, and urined in another 2 places. According to their owners , Snowy's tail was pointed down, meaning it was frightened. All the fingers were pointed at Desmond, who promptly denied that he have consumed any dog meat before. Maybe it's Desmond's 杀气.

Ipoh trip

Read all about it here ! here here here !

Yes that's right, I have been too lazy to type out a blog entry for the trip. My father decided to lay back and relax, so I ended up planning the trip and running the show. So I am so glad that my sister did the honours.

It took us 10 hours to reach, we stayed for 17 hours, and race back to SG in another 10 hours. Tiring, and probably a painful drain on my $$$ and time. It didn't help when I have to pay for most of our family expenses.

要出力，又要出钱, 命苦啊 !

Ipoh is a old mining town. To me, it has always been a sleepy, dying and boring town. Half the shops are closed in the day, not many cars on the road, no where interesting to see, and I didn't see a single babe in Ipoh for 2 days. Whoever told me Ipoh have a lot of chio bu must have smoked me. No wonder all the young guys and girls deserted Ipoh for KL. Not much hope in Ipoh, I didn't see any source of jobs. Only a old, worn down city area.

Oh ya, if you think HDB flats are badly designed or too cramp, my 舅舅's house is worse off. The kitchen is so big that we can barely fit 3 person standing side by side, and the 2 bed rooms are small and cramp. Confirm smaller than my old rental 2-room flat ! For RM$8000, it's a good deal. When my mom suggested we buy a house like that in Ipoh, I can only laugh at her mockingly.

I need a REAL holiday.

Chiong iPhone for you?

The chiong iPhone have made it's debut !Not only it looks nice, it looked NOTHING like the real thing too ! Hail China !

Quoted from engadget.com, article link here :

"We've gotta hand it to them: electronics conmen are extremely confident in their belief in the ignorance of the masses. Gaze at the unbelievably poor "Ipod [sic] style Mobile Phone iPhone" rendition above, and then suck in the £75 (around $150) pricetag. It comes complete with an iPod-esque white finish, Mac OS X wallpaper, and a strange Quicktime skin for the included media player, but the kicker has got to be the modified Apple logo -- as if the extra leaf is going to fool anyone."

Crappy crab

During the return leg of my Ipoh trip, our driver took us to Ria Sea View Village restaurant in Seremban to top up our hungry stomachs for dinner. It was suppose to be our best meal for the trip, a feast to end the trip blah blah blah. The menu wasn't nicely done, with only a few dishes per category. That's a far cry from our fanciful names of our featured on our restaurant menus, complete with descriptions and nice designs. Bbut whatever we wanted is there, except for my favorites 煮炒 dishes : 铁板豆腐 & 咕噜肉.

The manager managed to come up with 铁板豆腐 minus the egg anyway but wind up short charging us with this ...

Guess what, I am very sure that I have ordered 肉蟹. Instead of meaty claws, one of the claws looked so empty inside. My father came up with theory that this is a claw from another crab, to replace a missing claw from our original crab. But this replacement crab claw was starved for don't know how long (不新鲜), hence we got this skinny crab claw.

This restaurant is now in my black list. No discount, only lame excuses. At RM$50 per kg, this is a 黑店！If not for the fact that the driver suggested the place, I would have make a scene. Count them lucky.

Most badly executed promotion ever- Part II

The half-hearted HP compromise

(Last Updated 13th Feb 2007)

DO NOT COPY OR QUOTE ME ON THIS. IF YOU ARE AFFECTED, PLEASE USE YOUR OWN WORDS AND WRITE YOUR OWN COMPLAIN EMAIL !

It has become necessary to break this topic up. The longest ever complain blog entry has came to round II. On 8th Feb, I received a reply from HP that is as followed :

Dear Foong Jia Khang

Thank you for your email of 5 February 2007.

There was an inadvertent mistake to the advertisement as we have
earlier clarified. (I didn't receive any clarification until I complain)There was no available HP Centrino notebook with the same specifications as the one provided under this promotion. (This is an outright lie. HP/Compaq laptops are individually customisable. You can order a laptop with your own specifications here. The truth is that they customised the laptops to use the Broadcom wireless chipset instead as you can see that under Networking, they offer only 1 option : Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 3945ABG, and removed the bluetooth module. Why? Cost cutting obviously.)

As a goodwill gesture, we are pleased to offer you a nine-month
warranty extension for your notebook. This carry-in warranty is worth
$99.00, and covers all parts of the notebook excluding batteries and
accessories.

This goodwill offer is valid for a period of 10 days from the date of
this email. Please indicate your acceptance of this goodwill offer by
signing below and returning us this email by fax at 6725 1603 or by
post to 2D Ayer Rajah Crescent AOS Building Singapore 139938,
StarHub-Customer Affairs by 18 February 2007. Otherwise, this
goodwill offer shall lapse without further notice and be no longer
capable of acceptance. (Take notice the 10 days limitation for later)

You will receive an acknowledgement letter from HP for the warranty
extension after you have accepted this goodwill offer. Please note
that the warranty extension will take effect about two weeks after we
have received your reply. (Take notice the 2 weeks needed for updating)

We thank you for your patience and support.

Best regards

Vianny Tjen
Customer Affairs

____________________________

I, , NRIC No. _______________________, accept this
goodwill offer for the notebook as a full and final settlement of
this matter.

(Here is the essense of the email. They wanted this to be "a full and final settlement of the matter". They wanted this to indemnify them from further actions from me)

__________________
Name:
Date:

Best regards

Vianny Tjen
Customer Affairs

",1] ); D(["mb","

____________________________

I, , NRIC No. _______________________, accept this
goodwill offer for the notebook as a full and final settlement of
this matter.



__________________
Name:
Date:

",1] ); D(["mb","

Incoming E-Mail from Foong Jia Khang

",1] ); D(["mb","

Subject: Re: Feedback on MaxOnline Promotion - Customer No. 71556710
To: customerservice@starhub.com <customerservice@starhub.com>

",1] ); D(["mb","

From: Foong Jia Khang <jiakhang@gmail.com>
CC:

",1] ); D(["mb","

Received on: 05/02/2007 11:40:32 AM

",1] ); Sounds friendly at the first sight? I didn't fax this back immediately because I wanted to observe the situation. Not too long afterwards, I received a letter by snail mail with the following content on Monday, 12th Feb :

Dear Jia Khang,

9-Months Warranty Extension

Thank you for your support.

We confirm that the warranty for the Compaq Presario notebook, redeemed from StarHub's MaxOnline Year-End Promotion, has been extended by a further (9) months carry-in service. The original warranty will take effect from the date of your notebook collection. The extended warranty will take effect from the end of the original warranty period.

If you have questions regarding your HP equipment, please call our HP Customer Care hotline at (+65) 6272 5300 (select option 4 followed by 1). Our highly trained service technicians will be glad to assist you. Alternatively,, you can visit our support website at www.hp.com/support

Thank you, once again for choosing us and we welcome you to the world community of Hewlett-Packard. For more information, you can visit our website at www.hp.com.sg

Yours sincerely

Hewlett-Packard

Note: This is a computer-generated letter, no signature is required.
Please retain this acknowledgment letter and bring it together with your redemption letter for servicing.

Please allow 21 working days for your warranty extension to be updated in our systems.

Sounds good ? No ! Instead of waiting for my fax or snail mail to confirm the settlement, they are forcing it down my throat now. They didn't want to wait for the indemnity fax/letter, they simply assume that me to take it as it is. Not that I mind, but if you read the wordings carefully, this is a badly worded letter. Why so? Here is the nit-picking part.

"The extended warranty will take effect from the end of the original warranty period."

The problem lies in the definition of "original warranty period". The original warranty period can be interpreted in several ways :

1. 3 months + 9 months = 1 year
   Valid for those who opt for the V3131TU Core Duo notebook, assuming "original warranty" is as stated by Starhub advertisement, barring any more "inadvertent mistake".
2. 1 year + 9 months = 1 year 9 months
   Valid for those who opt for the V3135TU Core Duo and V3136TU Core 2 Duo notebooks, assuming "original warranty" is as stated by Starhub advertisement, barring any more "inadvertent mistake".
3. 1 year + 2 years + 9 months = 3 years and 9 months
   Valid for those who bought any of the laptops, bought the extended warranty (HP carepack) and the 9 months extension warranty can extend beyond the 3 years carepack.
4. 1 year + 2 years + 9 months = 3 years
   Valid for those who bought any of the laptops, bought the extended warranty (HP carepack) and the 9 months extension warranty CANNOT extend beyond the 3 years carepack.

Scenario 4 is the one I am most afraid of. Especially in the light that the fine print at the end of the letter reads :

"Please retain this acknowledgment letter and bring it together with your redemption letter for servicing."

Bare in mind that a HP carepack can only extend a warranty period to a maximum of 3 years when purchased within 3 months of the system purchase, this can mean that the warranty extension may not be official or not enforceable. The warranty period they will recongise worldwide is as stated in HP warranty check. If this is not reflected in the warranty check, it's a worthless promise. They can simply claim that their system does not show the extended warranty period, and hence, they are not going to give you anything!

In short, for those who bought the 3 years carepack, the 9 months free warranty out of "goodwill" may not be getting anything at all. In the telephone conversation with Jess Yong from HP, I have stated clearly my concern regarding the warranty period. She confirmed the fact that it will be 3 years and 9 months. Wow, that will certainly break tradition and rules. Meanwhile, I will be checking my warranty to see if it's going to be 3 years and 9 months for the next 3 weeks.

Update 12/1/2006 : The warranty will be based on a letter sent to us. Crappy.

Most badly executed promotion ever- Part I

(Last Updated 6th Feb 2007)

DO NOT COPY OR QUOTE ME ON THIS. IF YOU ARE AFFECTED, PLEASE USE YOUR OWN WORDS AND WRITE YOUR OWN COMPLAIN EMAIL !

It's very unlikely any of our major ISP will ever give us a deal with involves free laptops for the upcoming months. For those who didn't know, Starhub blew it big time in their recent promotion last year at Sitex 2006. Without further ado, here is the beef.

Names have not been censored to protect the guilty, but my privacy is protected :)

This is a on-going drama unfolding. This entry will be updated whenever there is a fresh development.

My first email to Starhub / HP

Incoming E-Mail from Foong Jia Khang
Subject: Starhub/HP Centrino promotional notebook fiasco
To: customerservice@starhub.com,starhub.helpline@hp.com
From: Foong Jia Khang
CC:
Received on: 01/02/2007 3:24:51 PM

To whom it may concern,

I have signed my re-contract at Sitex on 2nd Nov 2006 and was told that my re-contract application will be processed in 7 days. It was 2 weeks after the show (approx 15th Dec 2006) before someone from starhub called me to confirm my re-contract. I told that I should be getting my notebook within a month from the confirmation of the re-contract.

By right, my new contract should start on the day that is was signed, or at very least, within the 7 days frame as verbally told to me by the Starhub Staff at Sitex. Instead, it starts from 12 December, meaning I have to incur addition charges as my new contract have a 10% discount for the re-contract. This also means my contract starts
later, and therefore, ends later. This also adds a delay to my notebook collection as HP takes a month to process my order AFTER Starhub confirmed my re-contract. My last re-contract and contract at Singtel was effective on the day of signing, why is Starhub so different? I congratulate Starhub for having a overwhelming response
for this promotion, but post dating, stretching the contract, the resulted additional billing and delayed delivery of the laptop irks me.

The Starhub staff who called me to confirm my recontact told me to wait for HP to call me for the laptop itself. The wait stretched on and on and I waited patiently until I have to call up Starhub at the end of the second week of January when everyone else already got their notebooks. To my horror, no one can give me a date when anyone from Starhub or HP will call me. My new contract has been running since 12 Dec, and one month later, no one from HP or Starhub called me. Does this indicate that my order wasn't processed at all, and didn't reach HP after 8 weeks after the show? My friends in the same queue in front and behind me have already received their laptops. That goes for the same for my friends who signed up before and after Sitex. Why am I the only one delayed so badly?

Regrettably, I have to resort to calling up your helpline again to demand HP to get back to me to confirm my notebook order. HP did so in a week, and confirmed my order. After the call from HP, I was able to pick up my notebook from Richland within the following week at 29 Jan.

The laptop I ordered was a Compaq V3136TU. It was a upgrade from a Compaq V3131 which was advertised as a Intel Centrino Duo Core laptop. The upgrade specifications was clearly for the additional ram, DVD writer, CPU and extended warranty. But the V3136TU is not a Centrino laptop, which is not mention anywhere when I re-contract, or during the calls from Starhub or HP. I paid the highest premium for the upgrades and instead, receive a DOWNGRADE without warning. This is a breach of contract, as the goods delivered is not as advertised. This is totally unacceptable. I waited 2 months for this, which could have been much longer if I had not been persistent, and finally received the wrong laptop.

I am well aware that there is a price premium for Centrino laptops, which is the reason why the Starhub offer is attractive in the first place, By changing to a non-Centrino Laptop without prior notice, this is a really a unethical move to cut cost. Please do NOT try to tell methat the Intel wireless chipset is not important, or it has the same functionality as the Broadcom wireless chipset. I am a IT professional and this is an obvious case of short-changing if it is not a
mistake. If this is a mistake, is there going to be a recall ?

This promotion appeared as the best from Starhub initially, but is now
the worst experience so far. There were no notification for the numerous delays nor things was carried out the way that it could have been done. I am very disappointed at the handling of the promotion which is filled with frustration. This is compounded by the fact that I actually recommended this promotion among my friends, and several of them did signed up, only to encounter the same inconvenience and bad
experience as I did.

I wish to be contacted about these issues as soon as possible.

With disappointment and anger,

Foong Jia Khang
Customer No : CENSORED
HP order : CENSORED
Mobile : CENSORED

Starhub's Reply (Standard template reply obviously)

	date			Feb 2, 2007 2:05 PM
	subject			Feedback on MaxOnline Promotion - Customer No. CENSORED
	mailed-by			starhub.com

Dear Foong Jia Khang

Thank you for your email of 1 February 2007.

Due to overwhelming response from our customers, there has been a
delay in delivering the HP premium. We sincerely apologise for the
inconvenience it caused you. We assure you that we have been working
with HP closely and allocating all of our resources to maximise
efficiency and minimise your waiting time.

We would like to inform you that there was a communication error on
the branding of the Intel Core Duo Mobile Technology in the
advertising materials pertaining to this promotion. It was an error
leading to the inclusion of the Centrino name and logo in the
technical specifications of the notebooks. The original text should
have read 'Intel Core Duo Mobile Technology' instead of 'Intel
Centrino Duo Mobile Technology'.

HP and StarHub would like to apologise for the error. However, please
rest assured that the notebook that you are receiving will have the
same functionality, and that all other details mentioned in the
promotions were correct.

In addition, the specifications of the notebook that were
communicated clearly on the order confirmation page where the
customer confirmed his/her order contained accurate information of
the notebook specifications from the start of the promotion.

We will take note and share your valuable feedback with the relevant
departments for their consideration to improve in this area.

If you have any questions, please email to this address or fax in to
6725 1603.


Best regards

Vianny Tjen

Customer Affairs

My second email to Starhub / HP

Feb 5, 2007 11:37 AM

Re: Feedback on MaxOnline Promotion - Customer No. 71556710

Starhub is a well known name in the IT / Communication industry, and it's hard to believe such a mistake could have occurred. There is a clear distinction for a notebook with a notebook with Centrino technology and the Centrino name and logo were used in the advertisement. For the reason that you are offering a Centrino Core 2 Duo notebook, I took the offer instead of Singtel's Sony LCD. Even if there is a communication error, this is ridiculous.

> HP and StarHub would like to apologise for the error. However, please
> rest assured that the notebook that you are receiving will have the
> same functionality, and that all other details mentioned in the
> promotions were correct.
I assume that the reply to my initial email was a template reply. And the person who forwarded me the template reply did not read the content of my email.

Therefore, I shall repeat myself again

I am well aware that there is a price premium for Centrino laptops, which is the reason why the Starhub offer is attractive in the first place, By changing to a non-Centrino Laptop without prior notice, this is a really a unethical move to cut cost. Please do NOT try to tell me that the Intel wireless chipset is not important, or it has the same functionality as the Broadcom wireless chipset. I am a IT professional and this is an obvious case of short-changing if it is not a mistake. If this is a mistake, is there going to be a recall ?

I paid a premium for the laptop and I expect to get what I have paid for. If you deem "have the same functionality" as the reasoning, you might as well send Celeron and AMD laptops to me. They all have the same functionality.

> In addition, the specifications of the notebook that were
> communicated clearly on the order confirmation page where the
> customer confirmed his/her order contained accurate information of
> the notebook specifications from the start of the promotion.
There is no such order confirmation page. A HP staff called me, took my order and confirmed my order via email, which contains the following:

1.0	Upg 2; NB V3136TU (RL377PA); SH GO SITEX
1.1	RL377PA Compaq Presario V3136TU NB PC
1.2	RV673PA HP SCV Nov 06 NB Offer
1.3	RZ380PA SCV SITEX $150 Discount Voucher
1.4	U4819E Pick Up & Return, HW Support, 3 year (Consumer)

It makes no mention that this is NOT a centrino notebook. It merely states the model, no specifications at all. It is only natural to assume that the notebook I will get is as advertised when I signed up. No one from Starhub or HP had notified me on this, nor I was told during my 5 calls with Starhub and 2 calls with HP. Therefore, I am not informed of the problem before and after the purchase, and found out on my own after I have received the laptop.

A apology and a excuse like this is NOT acceptable. Not only the laptop is late by twice the time stated during the promotion (and more if I didn't call in), it's the wrong model as well.

With disappointment and anger,

Foong Jia Khang
Customer No : CENSORED
HP order : CENSORED
Mobile : CENSORED

----------------------------

Phonecall from HP

6th Feb 2007 - 10.08 am

Jess Yong from HP called up on my mobile. First she tried to smoke me by saying that the $329 upgrade option means upgrading to a "Intel Core 2 Duo" laptop. She asked me if I have the advertisement with me for the promotion. This is an obvious act to smoke people. Most people will not have the advertisement with them, allowing her to say anything in her favor. Luckily, I have a scan of the promotional material which I can bring up in seconds. I quickly refute her by stating that that only refers to the processor. Centrino is a 3-part package. I paid $329 to upgrade the CPU, RAM, DVD Burner, OS and Warranty. The "Intel Core 2 Duo" is an upgrade for the processor. Since the original specifications denotes it as a Centrino laptop, it should stay as a Centrino laptop after upgrading as it didn't states that it will be changed to a non-Centrino laptop because of a change in the wireless chipset. There is no where in the material that says otherwise. It makes no sense to paid for the upgrades and get a downgrade. I must repeat, that this is another unethical tactic to pass the buck rather than admitting it. Imagine those poor people who did not have the advertising material anymore. She will insist that the $329 upgade actually means downgrading to a non-Centrino while upgrading the rest of the notebook. Such nonsense.

For those who didn't know what's a Centrino, apart that Intel kept pushing the magic word into your skull. It means the following must be present to qualify :

1. Intel mobile processor
2. Intel mobile wireless chipset
3. Intel mobile motherboard chipset

The dispute arises when Starhub promoted the offer as Centrino laptops. But they gave us a non-Centrino laptop instead by substituting the Intel mobile wireless chipset with a 3rd part Broadcom wireless chipset instead. Probably a cost saving move, and undetectable to non computer savvy folks. No, they are not getting away with this. No way.

I told her that something has to be done about this, so she offered me 2 options :

1. Canceled the subscription to Starhub and return the notebook
2. Get a free 9 months warranty from HP

Being the evil bastard, I asked her if HP will pick up the notebook if I choose to cancel. Why is this evil you might wonder? This will be a nightmare on her end. I will make them refund my payments to HP, ask them to pickup the notebook from me, cancel my subscription to Starhub and blow up the case. Further more, it does me no good to cancel the subscription now as I have already paid for 1 month on the new subscription and I have already missed the Singtel LCD offer. Certainly, they are not going to refund me the subscription.

She didn't want to continue to smoke me on the technical grounds, so she went on to her second line of defense. She kept insisting that there was a mistake on the advertisement and the laptop is nice and functional. It looks great and such blah blah blah obviously trying hard to me to agree to keep the notebook.

At this point of time, I was already angry at her attempts to smoke me. So I proceed to tell her that even if what she said is true, I didn't care. I paid a premium for a Centrino notebook, and insist that I should get one even if there is truly a mistake. If I were to cancel the subscription, are they going to give me Singtel's LCD offer ? (Obviously trying to make her life hard here since it's not possible to)

Then I let up and asked if it's possible to refund me my 2 years HP carepack instead and give me the 9 months warranty, hence netting a 1 year and 9 months warranty with $219 cash back. She said no, which is quite expected since it will create problems with their systems. It's hard to get a refund. Therefore I asked if the 9 months warranty can be stacked on top of my 3 years warranty.

<15>

Yes. It can be done she replied. So I will have to send her my notebooks serial number to update the warranty period. So we came to the end of our conversation. Seriously, I don't mind an addition 9 months extension of the warranty to the notebook. A notebook doesn't last so long nowadays and get worse with age. Such a long warranty will certainly safe guard the future of the notebook.

I don't like to stress people over the phone like this but they insist in covering up and smoking me, I am not going to tolerate this nonsense. I have to be a nasty customer in order to get what they are suppose to give me in the first place.

I will just say that Starhub / HP screwed up big time in this promotion.

I will be making sure that I actually getting 3 years and 9 months of warranty before I end this post. I really doubt that it can be done since the max duration of a carepack I know is 3 years.

Currently, my warranty stands at 3 years. Let's see.

And meanwhile, the saga continues...

Additional reading material :

1. How to get the extra 9 mths warrenty from SH? (Hardwarezone)
2. MOL Promo (Hardwarezone)
3. ZDnetasia News article

Resources

1. HP warranty check

Terrible translations

What do you get when a Ang Mo runs through China and Taiwan ? He went to China and Taiwan and found many really terribly translation words. It's bad that it made my tears flow ... from laughter while reading his site. While ordering his meals, he found some gems hidden in the menu like ...

各式油菜 = Every form rape
烧春鸡 = Burn the spring chicken
家乡一品锅 = 1 article pot : home town

He called it Manglish. It's sure to make you really hungry after laughing so hard. His site also contains articles on his experience there. Quite interesting to read how things looked to a foreigner.

Check this link out ! Very entertaining.

Meanwhile, back to WoW exp grinding.

当了一个晚上的跟班. Stalking a journalist

Breaking tradition, instead of laughing at the people on 10 o'clock news, I went to the new year 2007 countdown at Esplanade to join in the super big crowd of 160,000 waiting to catch the fireworks display at midnight. In additional, I get the unique chance to see how news is being recorded.

It was meant to be a gathering for my TPGS friends but things fell apart as the hours approached. So in the end, everybody except Cuiyan put aeroplane for various reasons. Well, she had to be there for the entire duration as she had to do a 2000 words write-up on the merry making event at Esplanade. Hey not bad leh, where else can i land myself a job which let me report for work at 5pm at SPH, go over at over New Year 2007 countdown @ esplanade and all these counts as a working day ? Think of the hours you can pig before reporting to work. *drooling*

The standing order of the night was :

1. Watch the whole thing
2. Interview a couple, not necessarily male-female
3. Interview a angmo, someone who is from far far away
4. Interview a group of friends
5. Interview a family
6. Watch the aftermath

Anyway, after a 点心 dinner at It's Dimsum resturant at Marina Square (food is not bad), we caught the first round of fireworks blasting from the NTUC towers rooftop at 10pm. It was quite nice but was sadly, incredibly short. The whole thing went for 2 mins tops. Joy quickly turned into disappointment. Everyone's reaction was like, WTF, that's all ???!?!?!

That's right folks, just right under 2 mins of kaboom. The next 2 fireworks displays were just as short. In-between the 2nd and 3rd display, heaven was just as pissed off. So we got drenched in short order. Everyone tried to get into the nearest shelter at the Esplanade but expectingly, it's already jammed packed with people. Fortunately, heaven didn't have a full bladder that night. The rain subsided as quickly as it came and left the night cooler than before.

The countdown didn't actually happened. There wasn't any countdown to be heard from the organisers and so the festive feeling was missing. The year 2007 started with spectacular fireworks, blowing tens of thousands of dollars with every bang. The background music was missing though. Basically the fireworks display was similar to the national day 2006 version, with an new addition which looks suspiciously like signal flares. Despite the shortcomings, the crowd clearly enjoyed the show. The finale lit up the entire sky in dazzling golden shower. I really wonder how much did they blew up this time round.

After the fireworks, as we waited for our pre-booked cab, we took a break at 2Hot cafe at Esplanade. The aftermath of the event was a badly littered park. As Cuiyan went off interviewing the cleanup supervisor, I sat back at the sight before me. As half a dozen cleaners cleaned up the grass field before me, people kept throwing more rubbish onto the ground. A lazy restaurant employee conveniently pushed out rubbish from the restaurant premises onto the grass field. 好顺便阿! 干得好!

Oh by the way, what are the chances that you meet 2 out of 3 groups of 早报 photographers in the huge crowd of 160,000 ? We did. Wow. Must buy ToTo this Thursday.

Also watch out for lurkers around every corner for nig brother is everywhere. The next time when venturing outside your home, it's best to watch your tongue and put on your best behavior . You never know when a media photographer and journalist will sneak next to you and ask you for an interview. A journalist can decide to write something about what you have done and they don't walk around with a sign board screaming their occupation. They are like everyone else. Scary bor? From my observation, there is a 100% snaring rate. Everyone approached by Cuiyan agreed to be interviewed. The only concern was from a local family who didn't want to have faces on the next day's papers.

Being a journalist have it's bright side too. Most people have this fear or maybe even hatred towards strangers who approached them on the street. Approach anyone and identify yourself as a journalist, and they eventually help you with your job. I shall name this behavior trait as the anti-credit cards / anti-salesman / anti-insurance reaction. The reaction is always the same, the skeptical look, the attempts at evading even before the start of the conversation and the stunning relief that it's not another salesman. Maybe she needs some "preventive measures". I believe that by not taking out a little notepad and pen before approaching the target victim interviewee, people will not run away so much. If you must make a difference between yourself and some other salesman, this has to be it. Salesman approaching you from the street with a notebook ? Shooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!Go away... Gooo !!