Johann Low

月曜日, 5月 31, 2004

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Did anyone do a comparision of Jean Yip,Marie France Bodylines' commercial with the recent one featuring Florence Tan?

I thot the printed advertisment looked quite good but the one on TV is so pathetically amaturish. Another fine example of cheapskate local company local TV commercial. The entire video was probably shot using a normal home use video cam. Those made during the early or mid 90s. The video had poor lighting or none at all, the makeup was horrible. The video quality is worse than my video cam. It was so grainy !! When now almost company toks abt image packaging and here u go, to save money, make cheapskate shit which is too much even for the commoners' eyes.

Jean Yip,though now it trying to get into the more "upper and sophiscated" class, made an effort to make itself look good. But I just felt they are trying too hard to potray a "oh-so-glamourous" image. Marie France with its star dudded casts of international stars simply prove its stand in the slimming and beauty industry. Now everyone wants a piece of the pie. There is Genosis featuring Quan Yi Feng and Ann Kok and some others featuring unknown people. Spas are EVERYWHERE. Much the same like last year's craze of Luo Han fish shops which sprang like mushrooms after the rain.

elow at 12:16 午前 | (0) comments

月曜日, 5月 24, 2004

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yay one more week to being jobless.

24 years old and jobless. how nice.

elow at 2:27 午後 | (0) comments

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I hate fighting. Yet there is a daily struggle against something, against a long deep rooted addiction. I hate it, I really do. I wish I can put an end to it but there's no seemingly any way to do it. The only feasible solution is only to end my life ? I felt being torn in the teachings of the Bible and in the way of this world. Which is which ??? What is the Truth ? How can one proclaim the truth of the Bible as what is it ? How can one stay in the high moral standards of the Bible and not dwindle to the more humanly facade of the "real" world ? What is wrong what is right ? Who set the rights and the wrongs ? Why does things become so complicated as the way it is now ? Can things be simple, peaceful, clean and work in the way it should be ?

It is so painful trying to fit into 2 places at the same time not knowing which is the right place that you should belong too. It's psychologically very tiring to try maintain a "sane" self, a facade to the outside world of how normal you are while inside its simply in wrecks and shambles in a vacuum longing for something to fill and pick up the pieces.

Beginning to sound depressed and getting more like Prozac Nation's author Elizabeth Wurtzel.

止めろ！！！！！

elow at 12:33 午前 | (0) comments

日曜日, 5月 23, 2004

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The weather is making almost everyone sick. The air is stifling and my office is cold like winter. I loathe working on Sat. It is UTTERLY boring boring boring boring and boring. There is practically nothing to do and you have to act as if you are damm busy cos the senior manager is around.

My whole body was aching as if I just sparred with Mike Tyson. 1st it started out as a minor discomfort in my head, then it got worse. It turned into a throbbing heahache. Soon the ache spread to my whole body. I felt like a walking corpse. Suprisinly I still got appetite for lunch. Oh i forgot to add that i have been having stomach disorders / diarhorrea for the past 3 days, thanks to possibly one bowl of "lou mee". Its mst be the cb chilli. Anyway I used to frequent this stall though i realised the way they handle food is not very hygenic. Think im going to lodge a complaint to MOH. AHHAHAHAHAHAH

One of my closest friends has just graduated from SIA Lasalle. Managed to go see his graduation show at The Arts House on Sat after work. I was quite suprised at how few students took part as I thought it will be like my poly's graduation show where it would be noisy crowded. Well the atmosphere was TOTALLY different. It was more like viewing an art gallery of works. Quite, 'arty', classy. And I even had the impression it was an outdoor's event !! WHAHAHHA.

I splurged again. This time on a pair of speakers which I had been eyeing since sometime ago. Well guessed I made quite a deal as I got them for $239 while the retail price is $259. They worked well of cos but then the sub was not as "BOOM" as my smaller set. Return of the King DVD is out !!!!!! I was having a dilemna on whether to choose the LOTR Triology DVDs or the speakers...The thing is, the extended version is not out yet which will be 4 hours 10 min long instead of the 3 hours 20 min version...so I decided to wait for them..if I can. There was a package selling the 3 normal widescreens edition ( code 1 ) for $149.90 which i think is abit expensive cos if buy seperately, each dvd will be at most $45+++ ?

So to buy the extended version or not ? Will i lost my interest in them ?

elow at 12:01 午前 | (0) comments

月曜日, 5月 17, 2004

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What's wrong with the weather !!!!?!?! The air is so thick with humidity I can hardly take a breathe !!!! Every single breathe of air i take in feels like im breathing in some vacuum.

My gf's elder sis just got married last evening. The wedding dinner was held at SAFRA Yishun Country Club. Well the food was oke, not FANTASTIC but well, oke. HAHA. The appetizer was not as good as what my company's dinner's. Anyway, here's the list of dishes, appetizer,steam sea bass(?)in superior soy sauce, roasted piglet,sea cucumbers with mushrooms and some veg which is often grind to make veg noodles,prawns cooked in Chinese wine,fried scallops with celery,fried ee fu noodles,red bean paste with ginko nuts and one which i cannot think of now.

I must say the wedding album was very well taken.

Does anyone know if this movie called Prozac Nation is ever shown in Singapore? Im not sure if the movie is as good as the book but if anyone will wanna know the pains of a depression patient, they should seriously read this book. Here's some abstracts of the book in Chapter 1. It describes depression PERFECTLY.

"But depression is not a sudden diaster. It is more like a cancer: At first its tumourous mass is not even noticeable to the careful eye, and then one day--wham!--there is a huge, deadly seven pound lump lodged in your brain or your stomach or your shoulder blade, and this thing that your own body has produced is actually trying to kill you."

"Depression is in an altogether different zone because it involves a complete absence: absence of affect, absence of feeling, absence of response,absence of interest. The pain you feel in the course of a major clinical depression is an attempt on nature's part (nature, afterall, abhors a vacuum) to fil up the empty space."

Isn't this so dammmmm TRUE ?Anyone who had been through or going through depression will know. Well how do I know? Cos I been thru it myself. I was under anti-depressant medication and therapy when I was in army. Every session costed about $200 at a good private psychiatrist. Perhaps most pesants here are skeptical about depression. To most people I know, anyone who sees a psychiatrist is someone who is "mad" This is not so true at all. During that dreadful period, I was under constant fear or virtually nothing. My feelings was like a roller coaster ride, ups and downs ups and downs, rarely at a standstill. My mum at home then was not helping. She was one of my cause for my depression.

Ah well, everyone has a sob story to tell.

elow at 12:36 午前 | (0) comments

金曜日, 5月 14, 2004

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Been reading Prozac Nation lately. I can't believe I actually bought this book. In fact I came across this book by chance when my colleagues went to MPH on Tues. I was simply browsing around then I saw this title. Prozac is one of the most commonly adminstered anti-depressant drugs. The side effects if Prozac is not too good as what my friend had told me before.

Somehow the title captured me and the moment I flipped through some pages I felt like I'm being hooked onto this book. Well I probably know the exact reason why I like this book and I shall not disclose it here. The author who had survived depression wrote an intimate experience of her depressed days. She was under several kinds of anti-depressant drugs of which some she grew so independent on and yet wanted so much to break away from them.

Oke 'nuff said

My senior manager had asked me this afternoon if I want to continue to work in my current company on a paid by hour basis (part-time), I should be doin the same jobscope but pay is definitely lesser than of a full-time's.

During lunch this afternoon,i got to know another of my colleague will be tendering her resignation soon. Well no matter from what point of view, if a company has too high a turnover rate, it does not reflect good on the management.

elow at 12:06 午前 | (0) comments

月曜日, 5月 10, 2004

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Watched Van Helsing with cute ball yesterday afternoon. It was a good and entertaining movie. But then not all was well before and during the movie. When the movie began, the damm spotlights in the theatre were still on ! It was fcuking irritating. I wanted to go down inform those eng wah pple to turn off the bloody light but someone went before me.

Thought everything will be fine until some young teenagers began to shine their laser points every now and then onto the screen. It WAS annoying and a fucking irritant to have something to divert ur attention away from the movie. I was not sure who were these bastards until my gf told me it was some young kids sitting infront. These bastards kept shinining their pointers every 5 mins. My blood was boiling and I had the impulse to beat them to a pulp but i was keeping it cool at least on the outside. then someone shouted in protest and I did the same in Hokkien. HAHAHA...they stopped for awhile before they started to do it again..but not to a point where it was so fucking irritating.

It really somewhat spoilt the entire movie. I wish someone will treat me to watch it again.

Well speaking of courtesy, it's a shame to have our government to keep reminding us, to keep having courtest campaigns. Does other countries like Japan and US or other European countries have such nonsense ? Why would we need someone to remind us of such basic manners? The reason is, most of local peasants do not have any sense of basic manners. It is a local culture. Local peasants are such a babaric bunch. Look at young kids nowadays. Donned with high tech gadgets like the newest samsung or nokia or sony ericsson camera phone,ipods, laptops...where in the world do these bozi (kids in jpn) get those cold cash from ???

I can't believe it as some young punks can actually afford an ipod which cost like $548 retail for the lowest capcity model. And of course nowadays kids are so pampered. They are so feeble that they cannot endure any blows. One scolding from a teacher and they will resort to suicide. What the fuck is this ? Like one of my closed friend had mentioned in his blog, only a deity can take the role of a teacher these days. Well I wanna add this, only a high ranking deity can take the role of being a principal these days. :P

Why are kids so pampered nowadays ? Well it is because most parents now usually dun have more than 2 kids, thus their children to them ( as to all natural parents) are precious darlings, like the Ring to Smigel. Thus they give them the best of everything they can. but there is this problem, working life is very hectic. Bosses require their employee to work 24/7. So what happen ???? These working parents thus have lesser time to spend with their children, leaving them to the care of Indonesian house helps who sometimes killed them, abused them. In order to make up to these neglected children, these parents will give in to EVERYTHING their children want. The saying " Spare the rod and spoil the child" is obselete. Now the trend is educating your young 2 yr old with love. yeah yeah love, so too much love give rise to such weaklings ?

So in the end, who is to blame ? yeah blame the GAHMENT LAH !!!! Now they are trying to remedy all those shit they have done. Declining birth rate, late marriages...

elow at 11:38 午後 | (0) comments

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There I go again, being indecisive whether if I wanna discontinue my contract or not. I do not wish to be drawn into a whirlpool of over considering it. It is too mentally exhaustive for me and I do not like it.

Scenario : My manager spoke with my General manager about my case. My GM is willing to put my 1st 6 months of work into consideration of a 1 year contract which means literally I will only need to sign for another 6 months contract but with the benefits such as paid leave. If this is so, then this means that I have made a "loss" as I was not entitled to any of those when I signed this 6 month contract ! Well this sounds like some kinda deal but in actual fact, the company still benefits.

I asked several friends on this issue and most of them advised me to continue. For me, my decision is somewhat made. Just that I can be easily affected by other people's advise or whatsoever.

Pros of continuing : I can be assured of monthly income for another 6 months, no need to compete with fresh uni and poly grads. I can buy my own things which is something im quited getting addicted to recently. Yes, I am addicted to shopping !!!!!! I am addicted to the thrill of buying stuff !! New gadgets ( like my ipod and phone ) Anyway the main pros is just money.

Cons of not continuing : No pay= no money. Not that im completely broke, but I have no money to substain luxuries, haha. opps.

Pros of quitting : Freedom, I can have alot of time for myself to do other things such as my models, my portfolio, brushing up on Maya,Flash, photoshop,illustrator,freehand blah blah. I can get to watch the 7 o'clock serial too.

Cons of quitting : no money.

Hmm...as like what one of my closed friends has said, no matter which decision i make, it's beneficial to me.

elow at 11:59 午前 | (0) comments

水曜日, 5月 05, 2004

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ahem, backside itch again and this afternoon i went to simlim with the intend to get myself a DVDROM. Well I wanted to get a pioneer drive but ended up there was no stock for it. Anyway it was an OEM model, not the retail box. Thus i decided to get the sony model which i was told to be quite an oke drive. The thing is with sony dvdroms is that they are quite sensitive and dun read some discs well. But then, the brand and the price for the sony drive is within my intended budget.

In the end, I got myself a MSI 16X DVDROM for $55. I managed to get it at a cheaper price and well, it also came with a DVD playback software which is a good thing becos my windows media player can't play DVDs !!!! I have no idea why this happen. But with the bundled software, there are no problems playing any dvds. Another attraction is that this dvdrom is region free, unlike other brands and models. Well region free or not is not a big problem as there are tons of downloadable firmware cracks to make any drive region free.

I just hope this drive will last. Anyway all dvdroms now are made in China.

elow at 8:29 午後 | (0) comments

火曜日, 5月 04, 2004

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Today i think is the official launch for another courtesy campaign on the MRT featuring Jacky Neo's cast. It's not too bad except it's so local and so ah lian and ah beng ( again ). And did anyone see the Jacky Neo's cast on some sms contest event showing on all those low end plasma displays at MRT stations ? One word to describe those so called advertisments - horrid.

Look at the colors, look at the cheapskate lens flare effects, look at how slipshot the images were edited, cut and pasted ! It's simply downright piece of horrible shit to be shown on public places like the MRT stations. Those people shld be ashamed of themselves to put such hideous "works" even on their low end plasma or lcd displays. Its better they show Ow Xuan's SK jewellery ad than this horrible #)(%*^@~$

And I think the idea of using only voice to "educate" the public on MRT courtesy is not enough, how abt tons of posters and moving visuals ? Does a picture not surpass a thousand words ?

As I watched the daily news, it just came to my mind that all those troublemakers, terrorists attacks are all done by extreme Muslims. So what is their fucking problem ?

elow at 1:41 午前 | (0) comments

日曜日, 5月 02, 2004

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Things are getting a bit messy abt my work as there is a contract confusion issue going on for my case. As my 6 months contract is ending soon and i have no intention of continuing it for one year, another viable option for me is another 6 months extention for me but there will be no forms of benefits whatsoever. Only the oneyear contract will have such BUT it is a 1 year commitment. If i breach it I will be liable to pay the company 2 months of salary which will turn out to be ard $3000 ?? This is exploitation ! Now im hopping i can stay on in my company on a part time basis but still doing the same work until i get another job.

I had a long discussion with my assistant manager on Fri mainly it was regarding the email which i sent to her, the other 2 managers and the GM. There's nothing much in the email except for somethings i have observed with the sales team. My team so called "ops team" have realised that the sales team is seriously under staff. To me the reason is because 2 other colleagues who are supposed to be helping out from another department are not here. There have been countless cases where there will be walk in enquirers or call ins and there will be no one to attend to them. Now that the company has been restructured, only the sales team will be involved in attending to enquirers.

The last straw which made me to write that email was a feed back from a colleague of mine. She told me that once, a couple came in wanting to know more abt business courses being offered through us, there was no one in the sales team (again), so my colleague was told to make a call to those 2 ladies who are supposed to help us to well, help out. the maddening thing is that lady promised to come down but she never did. Luckily, another member of the sales team came back from dinner. If not, the couple might have to wait for eons.

My manager told me she liked this positive attitude of mine as I am not the type who will keep mum if problems get out of hand. To me, its just another way of helping myself. I have given suggestions on how to improve the effiency of the company which i dun think others bothered to do that. Then the manager told me something which struck my mind a bit. She said, if the company is so well organised and everything is in place, there will hardly be another place for u to do that something little extra to distinguish urself. You will jus be like another worker as you cant really make significant contributions.

Been sourcing for a DVDROM. No, its not a DVD writer, a DVD writer is afforable now but the technology is still in the infant stages. There is no 8x medium when now all writers can write DVDs at 8x !! There is also no commercially avaliable technology to write dual layer, although i read news that it should be the norm in abt a year's time or so.

I got myself another MG gundam model !! whahaha..its my 1st Zaku II. Its a birthday present from my colleagues. Well from my male colleagues as I am closer to them. haha...so now i got 2 models semi completed and 5 still in their wrappings.......oh noooooooooooooooooooo..... :P

elow at 2:11 午前 | (0) comments