Johann Low

日曜日, 4月 24, 2005

[Creative finally concedes defeat./ Jpn test ENDED!!!!!]

Finally,our big cannon Uncle Sim's inferior deformed mutants clones decides to humble themselves before the mighty throne of Apple's ipods and concede defeat as can see from the below link and some extracts. With inferior arsenal like Zen and Nomads and wanting to take on Apple's angelic and halo ipods armed with innovation,style,ease of use and quality, its almost suicidal.

I know some of our peasant consumers are blind but I think the majority are not. How many people do u see hanging a plastic colorful brick ard their necks? In fact these days, I see so many people sporting typical the white ipod earphones in mrt and almost everywhere. Of cos I still see a fair share of people wearing the cloned white earphones from Creative.

Anyway, I had my dreaded Jpn test yesterday afternoon. The paper was not as hard as described by my friend,only to realise my sensei had fine tuned the paper to my class's level...which is quite below the intended level. In other words, it was simpler lah! As usual, I was quite panicky and forgotten some of the most commonly used kanji. But I managed to retrieve them back later.

I finished the test in abt 1 hr or so. While going through the paper, several students were asked to go to the next room to take the oral exam. I took mine at around 3.35 and I came out at 4.00pm! My classmates said,"Wah u took the longest leh" I did not even realise I took more than 20 min. I believe most of the time spent in the room was in thinking what to say than saying what I thought. haha.

Anyway, we took a class photo after the test. I was planning to leave already but I was held up awhile cos I was paying for the fees for next sem. So my sensei managed to catch me and we had a class photo session.

I managed to take a look at the Advance 1 level's test paper. Fcuk man, I cld hardly understand.

http://www.asiaone.com/st/st_20050423_313128.html

CREATIVE Technology's net profit for the three months ended March 31 plunged by a worse-than-expect- ed 72 per cent to US$15.9 million (S$26.4 million), due largely to a price war in the MP3 player market.

Creative had to use a 'very competitive pricing strategy' during the quarter to match Apple's price cuts, said Creative chairman Sim Wong Hoo during a media conference call.

'The strategy is to drive market share. The whole market is at an explosive stage. There are a lot of young users. We need to get them early...if we lose them to somebody else, we will lose them for life.'

Creative's dismal earnings were in stark contrast to Apple's sterling results for the quarter ended March 26, which leapfrogged even the most optimistic analysts' forecasts, rising by six times to US$290 million.

Analysts said that Creative is sacrificing profitability in its pursuit of market share - but it will still have to be content with playing second fiddle to Apple.

'It is almost impossible to displace Apple, so Creative will have to contend with other players such as iRiver and Samsung for second place,' said Mr Sim.

Mr Sim seems to have conceded the dominant position to Apple, which commands a 60 to 70 per cent market share compared with Creative's estimated 22 to 25 per cent. 'We are working hard to be a strong No. 2 player in the market,' he said.

STILL IN THE GAME

'We are working hard to be a strong No. 2 player in the market. The strategy is to drive market share. The whole market is at an explosive stage. There are a lot of young users. We need to get them early...if we lose them to somebody else, we will lose them for life.' -- MR SIM WONG HOO of Creative.

elow at 10:34 午前 | (0) comments

土曜日, 4月 16, 2005

[My PC is sold/Tiger Unleased/Digusting optimism]

Finally, after months of leaving it at the TV deck to collect dust, my 1+ yr old P4 2.8C is finally sold! At a loss obviously. It is stil quite a decent piece of machine actually. Well it does have some glitches. The Windoz Explorer will crash at times if I am transferring or accessing video files. Apparently, Windoz is not that equipped for heavy files? ANother prob is that it will reboot itself out of a sudden at times.

Still it has a pretty decent boot up time but nothing compared to my Mac of cos. My Mac can boot up in less than a min. I have ordered OS X Tiger which is the latest release of the Mac OS X. The best thing is I am getting it at a hugely discounted price!!! WHHAHAHAHA Retailed is $248 but I can get at ard $220 at my local store. But thru a forum friend (mac user of cos) who happen to hold a student card and many other student cards from her siblings n cousins, I manage to get the excellent OS X Tiger at $149!!!!! WHAHHAHAHAHA

Working is honestly very tiring. Everytime after knockoff, I will simply KO inside the train. I wil purposely pick the middle seat, the one with the plastic frame bulging out to rest my head. To secure a seat, I will go all the way from Dohby Ghaut to Marina. Marina is as always dead quiet but things are different at Raffles Place. There will hordes of people awaiting near the door, once the train door open, the people will literally gush in like a broken dam.Imagine the scene of the Sentinels gushing into the under ground city in Matrix Revolution.

Sometimes it's interesting to see prettily dressed young women with nice makeup rushing for seats and their expression when their targetted seats are taken by someone else. Of cos there are times seeing bimboos standing near the door chatting chatting without moving their legs towards the middle of the car. Perhaps they are more used in spreading their legs on bed.

I just added this guy from a local forum into my MSN. Frankly, he is getting on my nerves. First of all, he called me uncle which i absolutely abhore unless that someone is a little cute kid, my close friends or relatives. The other thing is his unwaning cheery disposition and tone. Someone so optimistic and so onward thinking that he can change the world, make a difference and making the world a better place. The first thing which came to my mind was, is he a Christian from Shitty Hav$t Cult? SUPER OPTIMISTIC and cheerful people irks me. They are absolutely disgustingly naive thinking the world is a nice place, everyone is nice blah blah.

Another thing is, he is from NUS. Someone who our dear gahment classify as elite. Why would an elite will wanna bother abt making friends with a "2nd class" poly grad worker like myself? I deliberately (or not) showed him my discontent in the NUS elites and how these elites work in the real world, the unfair treatment, how NUS people look down on poly grads blah blah.
Guess what he told me, he LOVE to have poly frends and he actually did rebuke his fellow elites for looking down on poly grads. WTF? What's the point of telling me all these?

Pls loh, most of the time. A lenient estimate (99.8% of NUS/NTU Uni esp those from NUS LOOK DOWN on poly grads. They see them as technical workers while they themselves are the managers n directors. ITs a known fact. Then he will go yakking abt why I dislike NUS people so much, this that. Good lord man, he is 24!!! Still so naive in this thinking? Still so Christian like in his thinking? What is he thinking? To me, people like him have not seen the world yet. All these while they are in this ultra protected enviroment where their eyes are shielded from the world's ugliness. These are e people who have done nothing in their life except to memorise,memorise,attend lectures,copy notes,write thesis crap. Thus that exuberance of oh-im-so-happy, oh-i-can-make-a-big-difference-in-this-world, oh-i-can-make-the-world-a-better-world, oh-world-peace.

This is the excellent by product of SG's educational system for the people who opted for JC-Uni. Now they are trying to change everything. How to when these roots are so deeply etched and achored into the mindset of Singaporeans? So pathetically peasant.

FUCK THE ELITES 2

elow at 11:21 午後 | (0) comments

日曜日, 4月 10, 2005

[Denial]

Are the Japanese proud of their WWII doings or are they too ashamed to acknowledge the balant truth? It has been years and they have did nothing to show their younger generations of their atrocities they had committed during their quest to conquer Asia. The younger generation probably know nothing abt the real truth about what their acestors did during WWII.

The ties btwn Mainland China and prob most of the countries where the majority of Chinese live have been strained. I honestly do not understand Japanese. What's so difficult of showing regrets abt their atrocities? Or is it their government which is still headed by older generations of Japanese deeming their past doings as "acceptable" and honourable?

Then again, I can understand the uproar. In the meantime, it seems that China and rest of Asia has difficult putting the bloody past behind them. Is the scar too deep to heal? Any sparks with relations to their dark history will ignite fires of humilation and sufferings felt during WWII? Japanese have strange fetish for being stubborn and also a sense of superiority against the rest of Asia.

No doubt, Japan is superior in their technology advancements compared to the rest of Asia. Japanese are very proud, sometimes their this sense of superiority almost seem overboard. Proud simi lanjiao? The Japanese lanjio is not as superior to the Chinese hor! Japanese lanjio is not as "superior" to the ang mohs hor! Superior their shit la. Maybe these Japanese lanjiao lang shld get this in their lanjiao head, their fucking Japanese language is derived from Chinese kanji!!!!

Well let's not get too heated up in the past. Now is now. History will be history. Perhaps the Chinese should learn to let go abit and also the Japanese should know how to show some forms of apology for their deeds during WWII.

Anyway, if any of my readers (if any) wanna show their discontent to Japanese. Here's a few words to scold them. >:D

1) Kudabare! = FUCK U!
2) Kuso kurae! = SHIT U FUCKER!
3) Kono kuso nihonjin no inu me! = U this fucking shit Japanese dog!

Have fun memorising! WHHAHAHAHAAHHAHAHAHAHA

elow at 11:16 午後 | (0) comments

木曜日, 4月 07, 2005

[Quitting or not / tired / fetching guest]

Its been in ringing in my head like a incessant hum. Sometimes it gets louder sometimes it will just be covered by work or by sheer letharginess

This ringing is the ring for me to quit my current job or not. Its not that I do not like my current job. In fact it has been interesting as I travelled to various nice hotels (and not) in Singapore. Best of all, I have learnt new stuff, new Japanese words,had lunch at a fancy Italian restaurant in Fullerton. The main problem at work now is communicating in Japanese with my Jpn manager.

He perpertually have a stressed look and a tulan look on his face everytime I asked him some qns. I know my speaking and listening in Jpn sux. I already told him that during the interview. Also I do not understand how business Jpn is like. I hardly remember keigo (honorific form).I have not worked for a Jpn firm or worked with Jpn before.

AND I am not from a tourism background, I am pretty amazed of myself as during my short stay of 4 months, I have learnt how to make reservations, read some funny abbreviations, arrange tours,translate English schedules to Jpn, arrange restaurants for guests, arrange tour guides, arrange buses for tours.

Its weird how Jpn work or rather how the language works. Jpn is not an easy language to master. Its is so complicated. 日本語ってさすごくややこしいことばなんだ。There are soooooooooo many types of forms, sentence structures etc etc.

*shrugs*

This evening I was told by my manager to go to Changi Airport to fetch one Jpn tourist. He said its for me to "study". But i was with a guide lah..this lady guide's Jpn is amazing. She had 20 yrs of working with Jpn tourists. -_-||| This Jpn is from Osaka, so I thought he might be speaking the Osaka ben.hahahahaha. He turned out to be quite a nice jiji, can joke,laugh and chat with.

Some Jpn are quite a pain in the ass. Some insist on drinking Evian mineral water only even when it costed them S$12.00 per bottle. wtf? S$12.00!!!!! drink my urine wan or not? There are some who commented on a $200+++ piece of steak that is not even fit to be fed to his pet dog.His dog dun eat normal steak, the steak mst be from a certain portion of a young calf which mst not be older than a certain age and mst from a certain breed,fed with certain cow feed. If a pet dog eats a S$500++ steak, then what do its master eat? Canned dog food?

There are some Jpn, mostly the older generation who feels they are superior to other Asians. pls loh, ur economy is a slum down, superior simi lanjiao?

ahahahaha

elow at 11:46 午後 | (0) comments

土曜日, 4月 02, 2005

[Excellent Service @ 6 Star Hotel]

The below entry goes to show how 3rd worldly our service of standard is. One of my tour guide was so pissed off. This was what she told me.

1) A Japanese grp checked in at one of the most expensive hotels at Beach Road, Raffles Hotel.

2) There is this fucked up Front Desk Assistant Manager by the name of Mr T Toh.

3) This manager is one of a kind. Firstly he got the tour leader and also the tour members names all wrong when he was checking them in. He did not apologise for the mistake and even walked away. He repeated the mistake TWICE when he never properly instruct his subordinates.

4) He asked for credit card no. when the guests were checking in. WTF? He also asked for breakfast payment. Honestly he was trying to con some money outta them. Breakfast IS included for all room types.

5) He only have eyes for the ang moh, he purposely ignored my tour guide TWICE and attended to angmohs first. After attending, he wil walk away or make himself to look busy.

6) When my tour guide had some arguement with him, he apologised with glaring eyes and said "So are u satisfied?"

7) He never attended to the tour leader's room electrical problem.

I went there to make some dinner payment yesterday. Sure enough, they attended the angmohs with big wide grins and open arms while they treated me as if i was transparent esp those front desk managers.

Excellent huh? Honestly this I got a feeling that this hotel's staff has eyes for the angmohs and treat them like gods. Oh I know, this hotel is named after Sir Stamford Raffles who is an angmoh!!! No wonder !!

Well not all, at the least the accounts pple are nicer.

After working in my current company for the 4th month, I have been to several 4-6 stars hotels. Their standard of service honestly need to improve big time. The staff at Marina Mandarin now called Aqua Marina is not that helpful too. While one thing I dun like is they do not smile when I approached them.

Meritus Mandarin while is not that bad. Fullerton is good too. The one which I will give the thumbs up is probably Shangri-La. Most I will say see ang mohs as if they are gods and goddesses.

Anyway Im not too impressed with the amt of money one wil need to pay for a stay at Raffles Hotel and the standard of service rendered. Well of cos this is only IF u r an Asian. Things will be in flavour if u are someone labelled as Ang Moh.

What a shame to see such pathetic staff training in one of the most "prestigiou" hotel in SG.

elow at 11:02 午前 | (0) comments