Johann Low

月曜日, 10月 23, 2006

[Samsung LCD TV]

It was a rather fruitful Sat. Mum and I went down to Thomson to bring some incense paper to my uncle. Also we intended to look at lcd tvs @ best denki and later to Courts and Gaincity. Best Denki is having some Samsung promo and I was quite impressed by the clarity n colors displayed by the Samsung models. I was very keen on getting a Sharp Aquos but those Sharp models dun display impressive pics..anyway they were simply showing TV signals, how good can they get? But then there were not any promotions on Sharp models..so the prices not too 'good' I initially thot 26-27" is too small but in actual fact it is not as small as I thought. In fact it is almost the same as a 29"CRT since the viewable area of a 29" CRT is 27-28" only. I was quite tempted by a slightly older 27" Samsung model. The only thing I dun like abt Samsung models are all come with 1 X HDMI port..well some models like Sharp comes with 2.

Anyway we went down to Courts @ AMK to look ard. We were shocked to see tthe same model which is selling @2399 in Best Denki to be selling at $1999 (with a so called tv 'trade-in', in other words. it is just on paper only) The smaller model is selling at $200 less. The 32" model comes with the same 'free' gifts (either xbox360 or a home theatre system) My mum was not very keen on having the freebies...and the price tag of $1999 does not very appealing too..so the sales person there introduced us another model which is slightly 'older' cos it was produced in the earlier half of 2006. What was impressive was it has wide color gamut which is said to be able to produce more natural looking colors, as demo by them. And it won a EISA award for pic quality this yr. AND they are limited to only 5 sets per store and 1 was sold already.

THEN my mum and I went all the way to gaincity @AMK Industrial Park 2 hoping to get a better price,somehow i knew that the price offered @ Courts was quite hard to get cos that model with WCG is considered a higher end model. @ gaincity there are nothing much and the prices were not as good as I expected...so we decided to go back to Courts to buy that model. The salesman saw us coming back and shld know we wld be making a purchase..so we selected that 32" model with WCG (wide color gamut) and it was delivered to us the next day! I need some time to adjust to viewing tv on a 16:9 (widescreen) format, haha..e sound is ok..pic quality is not bad. Sad thing is I dun have a HD setup box, the closest thing will be a PS3? which I dun think I will get until 1-2 yrs later.

I do hope I will get selected for HD Trial, haaha.

elow at 12:32 午前 | (0) comments

月曜日, 10月 16, 2006

[procrastinate]

it is one of those days where I will do something 'outta blue' like disappearing from work (with an excuse) and will coop up at home. I wonder if I did it too often and now I kinda like it? I simply like to do nothing and then find something totally non-constructive to do. Such as thinking of what to buy, procrastinate and procrastinate and procrastinate and procrastinate..ahaha..so recently, it is procrastinating what gadget to buy cos I not been doing that for sometime. The objects of desire are SE K800i and the new ipod video (30GB version) which costed only $390!!! To think even the lowest end ipod will cost up to $500+++ 2 yrs ago..Anyway due to cash strapped problems, it is more 'advisable' for me to get the ipod for now cos it is much cheaper than K800i (S$620). But the awfully bad haze today simply put off some of the flames for me to get the ipod..and also there's only black available.

Anyway,I just need to BUY something..something to take up my attention for sometime. So in the end, I bought Fish Leong's QinQin album which seem to have great reviews. I need a few more times to see if i will like it.

Finally I get to catch one whole episode of Princess Hours! Fwah nice manz...esp Caijing..so cute.haha...Oh my 10 yr old 29" Phillips Matchline CRT conked out this evening..finally..It has been ailing for the since last yr already and this evening it cld not show any pictures. Haiz..now need to source for affordable HD Ready 32" LCD TVs, YAY!!!!! Oh after reading some stuff on HDTVs, I realise it is not a must to get top of the line 1920X1080p models..which will cost abt $5-6k (it's not like we cannot afford it). The mid-range models those with 13XX X 768p are good enuff cos if u r getting a relatively smaller model (lesser than 40?") u cannot really tell the difference btwn a full HD playback and a scaled down version. Unless u r getting those 50-65", then a 1920 X 1080p will show the difference.

Side track, I concluded tonite after some short msn conversation that......some people are really redundant..and it does not make any difference if they r there or not. Very much like me, I am probably redundant in my 'friends' list..or to those chaps in my msn...just a name, just an entry,just a name to fill up a 'slot' in the name list.

elow at 11:46 午後 | (0) comments

[oh life IV]

the week's been hectic. I cld not rem a day which I had some form of free time. Honestly the details were blurred and not worth mentioning..but I felt that the week was long tho busy.

The haze is on and off. It was especially bad ytd. It did not help cos I had a 4+hrs ktv session wif 2 friends. Pretty fun and 4+ hrs seemed too short. Party World is great, nice big lcd/plasma flat screen TVs in our room (I believe all the rooms have the same equipment) After KTV, we walked ard Chinatown area. Suddenly that place seemed alien to me. All those rows an rows of painted shophouses,food stalls all so deliberately painted to attract foreigners. The weather is blanketed with a stagnant coat of soot and the heat seems impenetratable. Anyway we saw an interesting grp of people running in reds, from red lingerie to red bikini to red night gowns all red! Not sure what was it for but managed to perk up that dead enviroment.

Then we had our dinner @ People's Park Complex which is newly renovated. It is now much brighter and looks cleaner..but the price of the food definitely pricier than before. The cheng teng dessert I had costed me $2.50. After dinner, we walked ard some of the shops above and we discovered some gems. There are a series of beauty pdts shops from Lvl 2-4? Among these shops was one called Swanston..It prob is the most well stocked shop there. It has sooooooo many brands of beauty pdts including Tigi and my matt gum which is only sold in salons! My matt gum costed me $25 from my salon and there @ Swanston it is only $16! And it has a superhold version (red tin) while mine is the medium hold (silver tin) There are also arrays of pdts at great great prices..some can be a whopping $10+++ difference from pharmacies. There is also one shop called Basic Beauty which brings in quite a no. of Jpn pdts.

The night wld have been greater if not for that farking haze. It was hot,hot and hot. Pretty much the same for today. The heat just dun seem to go away. As for today, it is a boring day. But most of the time was spent on deciding if i shld buy the new ipod or tthe new phone. thanks to my mum...the phone is put on hold for the moment. $620 is tad exp for now.

elow at 12:20 午前 | (0) comments

火曜日, 10月 10, 2006

[....]

it is like that time again...where esteem starts to dwindle down a spiral. Mind is a blank..most of the time..oblivious
(or trying to be oblivious) to all that is happening ard. Working life makes me feel like a machine which needs to be turned on every morning at this time and then off at that time. Yet men are not machines and cannot really function like one. Trips home are often spent dozing off (only @ certain stations like Raffles,CityHall etc, some time is spent on bio-ing pretty office ladies, ehehe). This evening's train was so stuffy, I guess the a/c was not working. Once again, I dozed off and slept for most of the trip home.

I dunno wat..but something is just drainin my energy away and things do not really matter anymore. Maybe I need a trip on a plane to somewhere far away....and its for leisure not work!

elow at 11:44 午後 | (0) comments

日曜日, 10月 08, 2006

[needs and wants]

Few months back I was slightly tempted by the new SE K800i. Its slick classy looks lure me. But somehow or rather, this urge to own this phone subsided..and back then I still feel my Toshiba 904T is one of the top in terms of design and hardware. Then ytd I find that it is so slow...I mean I do like that it is a Jpn phone and all but.....ah nvm..

Anyway the urge to get a new local phone came..and here I was comtemplating if i shld get it. @ the regular shop where I usually buy my phone, I was quoted $620 for the one with a 64MB M2 card and $650 for the package with the 256MB card. It seems that the 256MB one is more worth the money. I almost went to buy this phone but my mum told me to hold it until next week. Who knows the price might drop further hehehehe. Reviews all seem to be good. The cam is prob one of the best out there. Best thing is the price. It prob have more or less the same specs as Nokia's N93 which costs prob abt 1k+. I honestly dun understand why a phone like the N93 or N90 (then) can cost up to so much. I handled the N90 before and was not too impressed with the built quality..and that SIZE..wah lao so big.

Ok..so I will see wat I will do abt it. Hope price drops hehe.

elow at 11:50 午後 | (0) comments

木曜日, 10月 05, 2006

[Biz Trip in details]

Flew off on a Monday night,transit in Bangkok for a flight to Osaka kansai airport. I was flying with Thai Airways, so far flew once with them before in 1999 where I went to Bangkok for transit (again).Thai Air is not bad honestly, the service is good and so is the food. I love that chicken which is cooked in some curry like sauce..sooo appetizing. The air stewardess are pretty too haaha..I saw some really sweet one on my way back frm Bangkok to SG. I was at the old Bangkok Airport, it is kinda rundown, looks very 70-80s. It is dark and so.....service is so so too. The transit lounge is crowded,carpetted floor is littered with tissue papers,snacks and plastic bags.

Anyway got my butt onto the plane bound for Osaka and reached there ard 8+++am

Thanks to terrorists, immigration @ Osaka recently is uber strict, I was intergorrated like some criminal and was held up there for almost 15 min! Then I was asked to open my luggage to check. I waited for my boss until 1+++pm cos 1) I dunno my way to the hotel 2) I dunno my way there. True enough he was also held up at the customs immigration there. Osaka is HOT(besides the babes), the weather is not much different from SG! It is only cooler @ night. As for the babes, I realised the gals in Osaka have long,layered,wavy,colored (some not) hair, applied dark eyeliners and some wore short skirts. Boss and I were supposed to meet up one client, anyway we were late and we had a late lunch which tasted really yucky. I had curry rice, my boss told me that they simply heated up some pre-cooked curry packet and then poured it onto the rice..WTF? The curry got nothing except gravy and some 0.5cm cube like beef. The udon my boss ordered was also pathetic. I can finish in like 5 mouthfuls? But the dinner was much muuch mucch better. Had some mala bringal pork rice which was absolutely GREAT. I was given 50,000yen for transport and food and 26000 was spent on 2 shinkasen tickets! WTF..and with discount somemore! The shop attendant who was selling the tickets was kinda cute hehe.

Anyway the next day was from Osaka to Tokyo via yes Shinkansen. We took a train to Shin-Osaka station to take the shinkansen to Tokyo. As Osaka is a big city, we got lost when we were trying to get ou butts to the station. Some cock gave my boss the wrong directions and we walked one big circle..ard 10km? My boss asked me to ask some other person (like a shop attendant, not those golden hair chinpara WHHAHAHAHAHAHA) Ok so i asked one shuaige working in Starbucks and bingo! we got to the station. Anyway it was quite amazing cos I cld not really make out what he was talking about but only some main words.

Ride on the shinkansen was smooth and comfortable and fast. When we reached Tokyo, we were kinda late cos we were supposed to meet one client. So it was another hour or so of rushing n rushing..and it was drizzling...we got to the hotel rather late and my client waited for 1 hr!! But lucky he is a nice man and he understood that it was raining..it was rather pathetic when we came into the lobby wet n messy. We had a short lunch at one of the nearby restaurant. Later my boss and I went back to the hotel where he took off by himself tot meet another client while I waited at the lobby to check in! I was supposed to bring the 2 China colleagues (in charge of the China factory) to the hotel but one of them told me it was not neccessary. So i was playing the internet in the lobby until 4pm and those Jpns really insisted I cld only check in @ 4pm...wtf

The rest of the evening was spent 'touring' Tokyo wif my China colleagues. The GM of the factory is so demanding, want this want that...I felt like a enunch. One big hassel was she decided to keykiang, wanna invite one of my Jpn client for dinner..so I told my agent and he told my client..while in the taxi, they decided not to have dinner cos it seemed troublesome..anyway, it was quite a ride cos we need to inform that the dinner was cancelled, then they want it again..but in the end I settled it. Dinner was at a nice restaurant. I had eel.........sushi..which was tasty but the rice had too much vinegar n wasabi. Later we walked ard, took a taxi and then stopped at a nearby drugs cosmetic store. 1 funny incident was the China GM was trying to pay via her China CCs but the cashier told us she needed to call to verify the card ahahhahahaha..i dunno why until i asked my boss. He said they were worried cos it is a China CC. ahahhahahaha..ok so i got my collagen for a friend, great deal for 2 X bundle of can (amt for 28days) and 1 collagen drink for ard SGD28!. In SG, just the can collagen alone is selling at $58 under promo. That 250ml of collagen drink is $5.80!

Right so the next day was the main 'event' of the whole biz trip. Meeting my Jpn agent and client over some compensation issues. Details shld be spared anyway. Oh yeah I was asked to bring back one blardy soundproof sheet sample back and it was like 20kg? And that wobbly trolley from China was kinda..getting me worried it might break under its weight.

29th Sept - time to go back SG! My flight was 11am..so tentatively I need to be at Narita by 9am..Bus trip from T-CAT (Tokyo Central Air Terminal) is abt 1 hr. Hotel to T-CAT was suprisingly fast, I think it took less than 10 min. The bus trip to Narita was very comfy (limousine bus leh) Hardly any hiccups. Narita is crowded as usual. Oh the tape which was used to bind the stupid heavy box housing the sample snapped and in the end I checked in 3 luggages haha. Anywya the best thing was at the new Thai airport. It was huge! and definitely hella inefficient! Since I was supposed to transit there, the signs shows 2 completely opposite direction, one to the right and one to the left! WTF! So I went to the wrong one, in the I walked like 2KM to the next one..and I got like 20 min to board my plane?

Best best thing was when I reached SG, all I wanted was a fast trip home..who know the fucking airport pple delayed my luggage! I was waiting at the luggage pickup area like 30min. I was seeing all the same shit luggage coming in and out and not mine! So I went to one of the grd stuff and I made some stupid report etc etc. wah lao 1st time leh, luggage delayed. Ok so my colleague who was supposed to get the sample drove me home instead. Another best thing happened was I dropped my COY sim card!! and I did not even realised it until the next day hahaha...

Ok so I got one call at ard 8+ in the morning telling me my luggage was 'found' and wld be delivered to my house anytime from 10am - 1pm..They arrived @ 12.45+ ahaha. As for the SIM card...it was quite unbelievable that I managed to find @ the spot where I alighted frm my colleague's car!!! Cos I was worried that some blanga or cheena worker might find it n used it to call home..but i called my COY line for sometime and i cld not get thru which means no one picked it up....Ok I was out then I decided to make one rd to try my luck if i can find it and I found it! Miracles do happen.

so this ends my adventure in Jpn,Bangkok and SG.

elow at 12:14 午前 | (0) comments

月曜日, 10月 02, 2006

[Jpn Biz Trip Sept 2006]

Osaka Kansai Airport.

The airport is huge no doubt but there's not much shops ard. But restaurants are aplenty. Anyway now the immigrations are darn strict on foreigners entering Jpn. I was interrogated like some terrorists and had my luggage opened. The check-ins for foreigners is veryyy slow, took almost an hour.

Shinkansen

Probably an experience no one ought to be miss if they are in Jpn. The interior is like an airplane! The ride is smooth and fast and sometimes u do get that air pressure thing. Anyway there are again certain classes to different cabins.

On the way to Tokyo

Room @ the hotel in Tokyo (with Meiji collagen haha)

Finally bought the stuff my friend wanted. 2 X Meiji collagen at 1980 yen each. Very good deal cos it comes with a 250ml collagen drink which costs a whopping $5.60 in SG. And the canned version of the collagen costed $65 in SG. in Jpn? less than $30.

What I will be wearing the next day

yes ties n suits.

Pics taken from meeting room @ client's office

And my latest Korean craze:

elow at 12:31 午前 | (0) comments