Gadget Geek – SerSiTiv.com

Here goes the GST hike as of 1st July 2007, Singaporeans now play 7% GST for things they purchase rising from the previous 5%. The great part about this is the the government is very nice to give us a “package” to cushion the “blow”. Well there is the best part about this, in order to prevent oneself from paying more then what the offset package provides you can only spend SGD$10,000 so that the SGD$200 covers your hike of 2%. Well that being said, it is good as at least I can save more and spend less. Those who are poorer and do not even get SGD$10,000 a year would definately benefit from this program and it becomes an ideal situation as the poorer would benefit from this. Yay for being poor ya?

NOT…

Why do I say this? reason being the GST only went up by 2% but vendors have already started to take advantage of this hike and make ridiculous and blatant increases in their prices. I’ll cite an example, I went to Maxwell market to have a Po Lo Bao, so prices were usually SGD$1 for the bun which I felt was just okay, I mean it’s just a bun and some char siew inside it. So I paid up and was stopped by the kind auntie who said, sorry mister the price has risen to SGD$1.40. I was taken a back and being the nice guy I paid up and then started to do some maths.

The bloody bun went up 40%! 40 freaking percent, I mean come on using the hike to create an opportunity to exploit the public. If I want to pay SGD$1.40 for a freaking bun from a hawker center I rather give it a miss and just have something else. It’s a bloody rip off if you tell me, please wake up your idea and think about it. I can get something of a even higher quality at breadtalk and still show off that I’m eating expensive bread. They should be fined for making such blatant increases!
Consumer protection is really poor in Singapore and retailers will continue to do as they please. I feel that one day I’ll be one of the poor ones in this country. Prices are just going to continue rising in this cut throat society. It will just suck and suck you dry, one day GST will go up again and it’s all right because they say so and retailers will continue to play games with the consumers. If nothing is done about “controlling” the retailers the consumers will just suffer, this is one of the perhaps many other cases I have yet to encounter.

Worked late last night and hailed a cab home. Well I waited and to my delight I got a Mercedes cab and quickly hopped into the cab thinking that I’ll have a great ride in luxury and comfort but I was sadly mistaken.

Before I could even belt up the taxi uncle just sped off, perhaps the closest scenario that could come to my mind was that of the scene in the French film Taxi. Imagine for the first time in my life I actually felt and heard a cab wheel spin! Okay, it was brief but the wheels actually lost traction with the road and boy was I in for a surprise. The guy drove like Daniel, the main lead in the show taking small lanes, heavy acceleration and braking making the ride less then pleasant.

I was tired and all I wanted was the luxury of comfort or what I thought I would be getting when I hopped into a Mercedes cab at least. What good does it do when a company tells you that you should travel in style and feel comfortable when not a single ounce of my body felt so. This is a good example of a staff having a total mis-match with the prevailing brand personality of the Mercedes Cab fleet.

The worst part about the ride was that the car was never meant to be a race car and it damn well felt uncomfortable cause the spring settings and such were not developed for such intense driving. I arrived home feeling even more worn out, I hope my next experience will be a better one.

Yeah man, for the last month weeks seem to be eaten up by some invisible monster who loves time, every single day at the office is like entering a vortex where time is grossly accelerated and before you know it, the day has come to an end and it’s time to go home, to go back to rest so that I can be productive at work the following day.

Really will rest ever come? IDIs, meetings, audits, analysis, brain storming, CRM. Hmm… I really wonder what I am good at, do I know myself, do I know what I am doing really? Who is SerSiTiv?

I think it’s time to take a bit of time off and reflect on life and find out my real self, do a little personal branding and see what it does for me and of course with that I think a revamp of this website will be underway if I ever get down to do some personal branding.

Ok time to end the day, or so I think… Sorry if I sound disjoint cause I’m quite brain dead already. Hope tomorrow will be a better day.

Life in Singapore is some times quite crazy, I really do wonder if we are just Kay Poh by nature. It’s like this in built sensor that drives us crazy if we do not address this need, and this sensor is set off by things like accidents, fires etc. But really is all the visual stimulant necessary or just a plain waste of time.

This really sparked me off on this topic as I was traveling along the CTE this morning, and yeah an accident occurred before I made it to the 2nd gantry. Of course it was already about 7:28 when I was caught in this jam that entailed from the first gantry. So well I had to pay the stupid ERP charges because of the jam. What fascinated me really was that Singaporeans slow down to watch. I mean you want those 4D numbers or are you just plain Kay Poh? It’s an accident, someone got hurt but what about the stupid gantry? Come on, move on and save $0.50 for the guy behind you, not that it’s a big thing but it’s still money.

I think it’s a ploy by LTA, arrange a “mock” accident and delay the cars behind so that you can get more ERP money. Well stop being to Kay Poh and drive when you need to or else you may be the next “thing” that people will be kay poh about!

Hello yes I’m blogging again, this time quite early in the morning. I guess you can say that it was quite a refreshing experience getting up earlier. Maybe it is because of a interview I would be going to later. No if you were thinking Job Change that is not the case.

It’s quite interesting the things you see in the morning, I’m kind of siting at Starbucks having a brew of the day and listening to what goes on around here, there is this guy who is speaking his heart out to a Caucasian lady. Talking about technology and such, I’m starting to understand how come some would find it a turn off and it’s time I start to get my mind involved in the more human kinds of stuff like reading more newspaper. Oh yeah turn off because the other party cannot understand what I am talking about hahaha.

Life has been great I should think, I do not lack anything but I think I’m just complacent about life. But humans, being the way we are would never be satisfied when we see others having more. It’s really about capability and how one strives to become “bigger” in this society. Why? Cause I was just thinking how come I would choose a Starbucks for coffee when I could get one at a near by cafe which brings my average cost up 4 times. It’s something in me, I really do think I need to start picking up my bible more often and get my daily spiritual nutrition, when faced with more then 18 hours of crap a day a 15 min devotion is such a small fraction of that time.

Well that is that and good morning life, perhaps this should be a turning point. Can I do a second “life” physically or even spiritually? At this cross road I can only stand and stare, a little afraid, a little pessimistic about the next step to take.

I’ll end here for now to save those reading from absorbing my negativity, time to log off and prepare for the interview at the same time perhaps take out my devotion notes and devote some time to them.

Oh BTW in Sunday School when teachers teach you about envy and that it is bad, trust me it is bad. Be satisfied in life and you’ll live to be a happier person. If not the never ending cycle to attain what others have would leave you rather miserable.

Hi everyone or anyone who ever does read this blog, welcome back to my life again. This place was created as an avenue for me to release my neural capacity because soon I’m going to explode with billions of electron transfers encased within my skull.

Work has been quite demanding for me, without prior training or experience I placed myself in a industry where I would potentially be unable to perform. But on the other hand it would be a good way to experience more of life and build up myself to meet greater demands in the near future.

The only problem or perhaps one of the many problem I have is the way I present myself, my whole library of words and phrases is in a rojak bowl, full of everything. Somewhere in the pile I have some programming conventions and languages, somewhere else I have my English grammar, somewhere there I would have my report writing set of words and phrases. As you can see it is definitely Not Organized at All.

The weeks are passing by really fast and my mind if full of what I potentially have to do the next day, it’s a crazy race to ensure that deadlines are kept so that clients are happy and your boss would be happy. I’m starting to feel the strain of being too many things in one, ideally I wanted this role so that I can expand my capabilities and add value to the company. But now I guess I’m struggling with even the most basics of basics. Perhaps I’m really what they call a Jack of all trades master of non.

So lets keep this blog as simple as possible for my readers, that is the way business writing should be ya? Simple and straight to the point, I think life is crazy and every single day flashes by so quickly it seems quite hard for me to breath. I guess it’s time to take a little time off, go for some R&R, recharge and move on again.

On the side note, EntityX do you have gala premier tickets to transformers?

And life goes on…

Got a new pair of shoes after shoving around the warehouse for about 30 minutes or so. This pair cost me $43 quite affordable for me. Simple design in a dark shade of brown. Suddenly I feel like a woman, what the heck was I doing at such a shoe warehouse sale?

*Checks below* Seems fine to me…

Yes I am back again this time with a load of crap up my …. desk, lots and lots of this crap is accumulating up here. The reason being that the crap will just find it’s way when I’m not at my desk and conveniently place itself here. Getting back from an interview or a meeting only makes me face this ever growing pile.

It gets worse when I go for interviews, I come back and find that I have to stack some more crap on top of this pile of existing crap. The crap at the bottom of the pile needs more attention else it becomes hard crap and then it will be very hard to scrape off the desk. Hard crap is also liable for attention from the Boss and they will ask you why you never take care of the hard crap first and it gets thrown at your face and because it is hard it will hurt.

So remember to always remove the crap from your table by converting the crap into a more presentable form and handing it over to the relevant parties.

And thanks very much for reading my crap.

There comes a time where there is a need to sacrifice in order to succeed, and I think the time is now. The transition of moving from IT centric job scope to a branding job scope is trying and of course hard. It has not been an easy 3 months but nothing unmanageable. I guess it’s really myself. If I sit down and take the time to read through what I have to do and of course see it with an open perspective I think I’ll adapt to the new life ahead.

Once I cross this hurdle I want to move forward, I want to differentiate, I want to innovate and become someone who can add value though what I can do. Trying times are ahead. Brace yourself and move quickly, the wave is here, grasp it with open arms because a hero is not someone who let others decide what he should be but one who show others who he truly is.

It’s been a long long time since I have last posted on my blog, the work is great, but it seems to me like it’s starting to make me feel really tired. Super drained from all the activities, the work, the music practices, the running around, the IT support and all the other things that occupy my time. I think it’s time to slow down a little, Ten Thousand Thoughts per Hour is how I describe my life now. Thinking all the time, no time to rest for a little relaxation. Maybe that is why I decided to come in here for a little anger release, I think…

Things in life are falling into place, little pieces at a time, small but the picture is forming in my life, opportunities, chances, hard work. I need to find the time to spend in quiet meditation, a place that I can release my spirit and soul to the one I call God. Somehow I feel that I’ve lost a crucial link in my life, something I know I need to connect with but am somehow unable to reach out and make that connection.

It’s time I stop thinking and start to do, time to move from this crazy life, everyday is a damn rush, today was a rush, the last 3 days were a rush, it feels good to work, but at the same time it’s starting to make me feel so tried. There are tons of work in the pipeline, research, findings, reading, photography, videos. Wow I think I’ve started to value add my life, I’m alive!

Okay so what is this post about, well it’s just to put things simply, I’ve got 10000 things running though my mine every hour, time to slow down and find out what matters most.

It’s been a month, full of transitions, work, travel, research, lies and many other things that happen each day of our lives. I’m moving into the Branding job pretty well with lots of help and support from my colleagues and mentors. This has been a trying period and I fell sick for almost 2 weeks. I’m about fully recovered, and of course this means that I’m just in time for the Chinese New Year.

IPT started and the instructor super on! What the heck, everything also need us to be in our top form. I cannot really feel my legs and I’m on for another “session” tonight, hope I make it through. Arrrr, so many things to do yet so little time to do it! Why? Why? Why?

Of course here I am “bitching” about life. But of course great stuff happens once in a while and I hope something happens real soon.

I’m starting to feel that I’m a very angry person, maybe it’s accumulated hate or anger that is all boiling inside of me just waiting for the right moment to be released unto innocent by standers. I’m just constantly hating stuff in life which is not a good thing.

I just like to be cheesed off at people, a person who took the last serving to Kway Teow at my regular hawker, the lady who refused to walk up the escalator during the rush hour traffic. The people who refuse to move into the carriage when there are people who want to get into the train. So in my mind I’m just unhappy and constantly “cursing” those people. I think that sucks, sigh.

I just want to be happy and hope I can do something about the noises in my head. Break free from all the bad things, the nonsense in my mind. I want to clear things up, get rid of stuff love those around me. Meet up to expectations, do well where I am, achieve something in life.

Sigh the pressure is up, and my enthusiasm is down, I need to recharge, refresh and make a rush to build my future. I just pray that I’ll follow God’s way in this journey, it’s been a rough ride and life is only going to get rougher.

Lets hope that I’ll stop hating and start loving.

I’m pissed at the crappy service and customer value from Starhub. Being a customer with them has bought me more sorrow then enjoyment. Upload speeds are bad, the customers are not valued. No special promotions for loyal customers, the phones are always engaged, been on hold for more then 10 minutes before. The best part is this stunt that they pulled on us during the last Sitex exhibition.

Those who signed up before Sitex and on the first day of Sitex were not offered the following. 1. $150 off upgrade of HP notebooks and 2. $40 worth of Sakae Sushi vouchers. The question I want to place for Starhub is this, if you have the capability of providing your customers with this plan at Sitex why not extend it to all those who signed up for your services? The Singnet offer is IMO better then what you guys offer so I believe it was a tactical move to allow MaxOnline to enjoy more customers What I’m most unimpressed with is their views on customer loyalty.

I giving them a call and see if there is anything they can do for me.

Counted down in church, because it’s a ritual to pray into the new year and here we are again talking about our Church direction and such. I’m like zone out at the moment.. I just want my bed and have a nice sleep.

Can I go home now…. Tired

I hate it, everything! It just sucks, I hate being the organizer, it’s hard, people expect everything, people want this want that. Everything was to be a normal simple party, just chill enjoy the company and be merry. No they had to fuck my day up by adding a HEN party, seriously!

I’m their expense of entertainment? It’s hard being nice, I hate being nice and accommodating learning to be firm should be the top of my priority list not the soft person anymore, well anyway there goes the night think they’ll have loads of fun I hope I do too. I’m just a tired guy trying to find some rest. I need a holiday and I need one soon.