114891238547035384 Monday, May 29 2006

back from pulau dayang!! went with kelvin, ian, kangyeow, zhiyang and his friend, together with other NTU peeps.

nice diving holiday after almost 2 years since i obtained the open diver licence. travelling there takes quite a while.. requires a 3 hour bus ride and a 4 hour boat ride. the boat ride to the destination was overnight. couldn’t sleep at all as it was hot and stuffy and the boat was rocking on torrential waves throughout. and something extremely unpleasant happened but i was not going to let it affect my whole experience there.

a little background about pulau dayang.

three words to describe it : back to basics. ok not really, they do have air-conditioning and electricity, will post a few pictures taken over there soon. anyway, it’s just basically a place for divers, and offers absolutely nothing else, unlike koh tao which boasts a huge variety of restaurants, massage centres, water-related activities etc.

the food at pulau dayang is all approved by ministry of health as “Healthier Choice”. apart from being virtually tasteless, dishes like the scrambled eggs are even calcium-enriched as one can find bits and pieces of egg shells stuck in them. apart from the breakfast today (and even the curry shown will probably, by richie’s standards, rate a solid ‘G minus’), the rest of the meals put SFI and its efforts in generating the least appetizing food around to shame.

the stay at pulau dayang is basically sleep, eat, dive, smoke, eat, dive, smoke, eat, dive, smoke, eat, smoke, drink, sleep. and the cycle repeats. obviously this isn’t exactly a very healthy trip for us. 4 of us finished 10 packs of marlboro menthol light in 4 days. and averaged 5 cans of beer the night before.

as for the dive sites, they’re decent! and really easy sites, with only occasional surges and currents, suitable for beginners like me, zhiyang etc.

most of the people are open water students, but even though the few of us already obtained the licence, it doesn’t reflect accurately on our diving skills; we still struggle with our buoyancy. a lot.

one funny incident occurred when kelvin and zhiyang attempted to take an underwater picture and forgot to keep track of their buoyancy and ended up ascending to the surface without realising it.

and we use a hell lot of air , esp. me and kelvin, who’s my dive buddy for the last few dives (we were split up in the first two dives cuz kelvin was too preoccupied with taking underwater pictures and i was struggling to avoid hitting onto sharp coral beds…).

another funny incident occurred when kelvin who was low in air (50 bar) informed the divemaster about it and wanted to surface, but the divemaster signalled to him that he had a lot of air and that kelvin could share air with him with the buddy regulator. then kelvin signalled back to the divemaster that i was equally low in air (40 bar) and the divemaster had no choice but to let us surface.

luckily for me, i refreshed my memory by the second dive, of course with the help of various divemasters and dive buddies. unluckily for zhiyang, he had a sinus problem which led to continuous nose bleeding and had to abort four dives.

dive sites visited during the trip:

Telok Telurau
Pulau Lang
Crocodile Rock
Rayner’s Rock
Pulau Jawa
Captain’s Point

marine creatures which i spotted and identified during the dives:

A hell lot of jellyfish (had a few close and scary shaves with them.. several times i had fellow divers pointing behind me and i turned around, thinking it could be an unusual find, only to be shocked at the sight of a pink jellyfish just inches away from my face. swam away just in time… but a few other people were not so fortunate)
A hell lot of sea cucumbers
Starfish, mainly Crown of Thorns and Blue Sea Star
Wart Slugs
A school of barracudas
A school of trevally
A school of sergeant majorfish
Clownfish (adults and cute babies) and anemones
Pufferfish (kept blowing itself up when being poked with a stick.. really cute.)
Boxfish
Snapper
Kuhl’s Blue Spotted Stingray (hidden beneath a bed of rocks.)
Batfish (really cute curious little creatures, keep swimming in front of your face to take a closer look at you but swims away when you try to touch them)
Lizardfish
Parrotfish
Moon wrasse
Butterflyfish
Angelfish
Giant Clams
amongst many others

marine creatures i missed (or couldnt identify) but were spotted by others:

Turtle
Squid
Triggerfish (fierce creatures, attacked a diver causing his head to bleed and damaging his mask)
Moray Eels
Gobies
Grouper
Bumheads

many more pictures to come later…

in the meantime, gotta rest up for.. WORK tomorrow. ARGH!! totally unmotivated already.. but never mind just give my best with whatever stamina i have left in me.

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114860358863416856 Friday, May 26 2006

You are an enbodiment of a strong and resilient human spirit.

I may not know you, but I do know that you’ve found a better place now. God bless

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114856235863971604 Thursday, May 25 2006

haven’t been doing very well in sales this week, in fact didn’t hit the hundred profit benchmark at all. but coincidentally the whole office did very badly; yesterday only one person earned over a hundred bucks.

anyway, had a very nasty encounter with some fucked up asshole today. was assigned to beach road, pitching at coffee shops as usual during lunchtime. had a long series of “nos”, which was expected. then went to this couple who were having lunch.

me: excuse me, i don’t want to disturb you for too long, but i have this really cool walt disney kit…

lady: erm, we’re eating.

me: yea i know that. cool, how about you, sir?

man: (in a very raised voice) we’re eating!!!

me: ya i can see you are eating.. you don’t have to be so rude. jeez… (intending to leave already)

man: (stopped eating at once and stared at me) we are NOT being rude. we just don’t like to be disturbed when we are eating, ok?

me: err ok.. but like everyone else is also eating over here right… then who do i pitch?
(Note: I was just stating a fact. He was already very pissed off while I was controlling my temper very well. In fact, I was smiling when I said that.)

man: what’s your company? what’s your name? stanley isit?

me: yep (flashed my id tag) i’m stanley from xxxxx company. call this number for further enquiries.

man: good. i will remember it.

me: (about to leave) anyway, for your information, i have been very polite all these while…

man: (interrupting) GET OUT OF MY SIGHT. NOW!!

GOOD GRIEF! now i realised that i’m just doing this job for fun; no harm playing with him more. it’s FREE SPACE anyway right? i should have just said man, i’m shagged from all the walking let me just sit down beside you.

fucking hell man. are all door-to-door salespersons pushovers? is it like what qingxiang says, the culture of blasting “pesky” salesmen trying to sell you stuff is ok, and the salesmen are not even allowed to stand up for himself?

i can’t repeat more: we are doing a decent living here.

to those people who think they can just anyhow screw salespeople upside down just because they “disturb” the lunch, get this:

we don’t owe you any fucking thing. you are in a fucking public space, so, like it or not, be prepared to be approached by us. i wasn’t being pushy, and i will never be. despite how desperate i am to get sales done.

we are not to be stomped about by all you motherfuckers. we give you a bloody choice, and we deserve some goddamned respect for what we are doing.

if you can’t treat a human like a human, then you don’t deserve to be one as well.

we are doing a fucking decent living. get this, motherfuckers.

jeez.

ok i feel better now.

anyway.

getting ready for my diving trip tomorrow. woot! almost had to pay an additional $60 as i declared i am a non-student.. but realised that an acceptance letter by NUS is enough to prove that i am one. $60 is steep, as my earnings aren’t many, looking at the several discounts i’ve given to bargaining customers.

took a break from work yesterday. went for advanced theory test, which i passed thankfully(rather scary, as i was like the first guy to finish the test and if i failed it would be very embarrassing). after which shopped for kangyeow’s present (last minute LOL) before rushing over to his chalet for a short while. then met shiqing and dezhi for dinner and watched X-Men 3 which is really quite nice.

i may quit my job anytime now. mainly because of the system in the company which isn’t right for me. and considering the current status (about half the members are quitting mainly because they’re too fatigued – physically and mentally. even the pretty energetic girl in my office stopped working already because she’s too tired) i don’t think i’ll be motivated more in the near future. the moment shiqing quits, i’ll stop as well.

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114760851776684549 Sunday, May 14 2006

gahhhhh… it’s sunday night. have slightly less than 12 hours before my weekly routine starts all over again. but i really shouldn’t be complaining because i already skipped work on saturday because of “tuition”. gotta take a break man.. 6 day work week is just too much for me! gotta strike a balance between work, play, and rest.

as such, the “visit to the temple” last friday afternoon was really watching “bewitching attraction” with kelvin and ian. (by the way, “date movie” has found a contender.) at least i still worked half day on the holiday!

also, the “tuition” yesterday was a lunch at chutneys (an indian restaurant) with zhongyang, zhipeng, yauhong and tenghwee.

quite a nice restaurant there, with several pics taken but just too lazy to go and make a collage out of it.

about chutneys. basically we pay a basic price for the “naan”, another version of prata, and roughly $10 for a curry dish of our choice. i chose the “lamb rogan josh”, which consisted of mutton in tomato curry. not too bad… but the “salted lassi” (indian yoghurt) was terrible. should’ve just gone conventional and order mango lassi / strawberry lassi like the rest.

after that, went with yauhong to heeren to check out on the reputable tattoo shop at 5th level. yeap! i was intending to get myself a tattoo.. my idea is some cool weaponry on my right arm, with the sharp end pointing downwards such that it protrudes out when i wear short-sleeved. budget around $150 or so. but now i think i may want to change my mind since i realised that tattooed people aren’t allowed in hot spas in japan, which i will be going next month!!

went to HMV as well. and bought the following albums:

damnit! i thought this was the da vinci code soundtrack but turned out to be just “music” inspired by da vinci. it’s a collection of gregorian-style new age songs.. which turned out to be quite nice heh. they’re an acquired taste though.

latest goo goo dolls album.

the real tuition today was cancelled as my cousin wanted to celebrate mother’s day. as such, i went to the library to hunt for tourism books for my upcoming japan trip.

toa payoh library was hopeless; not a single japan book available, but the ang mo kio one was stock-filled with guides to tokyo, including some really nice pictorial ones, which i borrowed.

after that, went on an out-of-point “shopping” trip. as such, in a matter of two days, i bought:

1) two music albums
2) two asian horror vcds
3) a hand-made soft toy
4) a gold-plated miniature wishing well
5) a fascinating but utterly useless “magic-in-a-can” set.

this will be the last time i’m doing this.. i guess it’s ok. since i saved on my tattoos, it’s only nice that i indulge myself in some toys. but i gotta know that this newly-acquired purchasing power isn’t going to last long zzz.

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114735931771703842 Thursday, May 11 2006

updates of this week.. (warning: self-important posts about my job lie ahead. can’t help it.. but no obligations to continue reading.)

passed my 6-day evaluation trial and was promoted to stage 2. i’m making a decent amount of sales, and according to my colleagues, my performance has been quite impressive, not just for a starter, but for a salesman in general. in reality, i’ve received tons of help from helpful colleagues… but nonetheless i’m still proud of myself.

my boss asked me to make a pitch for this product cuz i have been making rather above-average sales for that as compared to some of the rest. which is quite embarrassing, and all the more stressful for me because now i’m even more driven to perform and to prove that my decent sales are not just due to strokes of luck. (and now i’m having doubts of that myself.)

today, i kena teamed up with, of all people, my boss! there could be a number of reasons why i screwed up this morning. firstly, i injured my ankle and had been limping all the way. secondly, i was so stressed about performing to his expectations that i probably lost my attitude. but whatever it is, the morning was super slow. didn’t get much sales, no matter how i tried.

afternoon was ok. probably due to another stroke of luck.. i scraped the bell (earned a minimum of $100 commission.). managed to sell out my toy cars, and had a decent number of radios sold. not trying to show off here, but i have been ringing the bells quite a number of times, which i SERIOUSLY think it’s due to strokes of luck because during each time i tried SO hard but sales were so slow and it was only until i almost gave up when people started seizing products from me at the last minute and in the end i hit the bell. that is luck. not skill…

this sucks. because luck don’t last forever. there’ll come a day where i start to earn less and perform way below average, which is ACTUALLY my true standard.. and my upperstudy is going to regret why he chose me to be in his team in the first place.. ahh wtf why am i so bothered by all these… it’s gonna be my permanent job anyway.

today i also lost my temper at two customers.

the first was a lady who looked up when i greeted her but immediately looked down again when i introduced my radio to her. she never looked up; she totally ignored me. which really pissed me off cuz probably i wasn’t doing well today in the morning.

i walked beside her ear and said very loudly

“if you don’t want you can let me know right?! keep quiet for what?”

she momentarily looked shocked but went back to her noodles.

the second was a fucker who was reading the business times when i approached him. like the previous person he totally ignored me. after saying so much, he didn’t even look at me. as if i was mr. invisible. seriously. i know my products aren’t very well-received by the public (i do’nt like them myself) but a simple “no, thanks.” would have made such a difference!

i was so pissed at that time, that i really yelled at him “you’re the rudest customer i’ve ever seen! i’m only trying to make a decent living here right!”

he continued reading his business times. in my opinion, he really should just fuck his business times… he oughta start reading books like “How to Develop Manners” and “How Not to Discriminate against People who are making a decent living, no matter how irritating they seem”.

which reminded me of a signboard shiqing saw at far east plaza which read “please do not be tricked by sweet talking personnel trying to sell you useless stuff so they can earn their easy money.”

i have a few things to clarify.

i’m sorry if it sounds too self-important, but this is one general perception i feel needs to be changed. i promise never to write about this anymore, unless i feel so strongly about this AGAIN, like i did today, thanks to several very rude customers.

firstly.. “easy money”? i think its far from it. a working environment where having breakfast before work is being frowned upon, where lunch time is only 15 minutes, where working hours is between seven forty five to seven thirty. where we sweat like pigs 80% of the time. easy money? think again.

secondly, “sweet talking?” ok, that is true to a certain extent. the art of persuasion… but isn’t it being used everywhere else?

thirdly, “tricked”. we don’t trick people. we give people stuff worth the money they paid. contrary to popular belief, we don’t retain extra profits. we don’t run away after selling a faulty item, and after giving a defunct number. we do have a warranty system and everytime an item is faulty we will get them replaced, even if it’s meeting them after office hours.

as i said before, this is an honest living. so i don’t see the point of people just ignoring us, being rude to us, telling us to fuck off etc.

to all those who have offered me jobs elsewhere, be it friends or strangers who have seen me pitching on the street, i’m grateful. and to be honest, if i had been offered that job by kelvin to work in the customer service office earlier, i would have gladly chosen it over this one. but sad to say i have already progressed a wee bit in this job, and that the people are willing to take me in, i think i will stay… as long as i don’t break down! LOL. but at least now i’m truly proud to be what i am.. that’s the point.

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114697588382271574 Sunday, May 7 2006

wheee! turned 21!

coincidentally, my boss birthday was yesterday, and declared everyone a day off.

it was quite a great weekend yesterday, had a few really mini outings using my birthday as an excuse.

had lunch at spagheddies with shiqing, dezhi and tenghwee. after which, bought two long-sleeved shirts and two pants, for my job before having a “tea” at food republic.

had dinner with the prev-med guys. initially couldn’t find a place to eat as the town was swamped with people yesterday. eventually settled for fish and co. the food was very nice and filling.. seafood platter was above average (though it’s still a far cry from the one i had at perth). live band was not that bad, although, according to jeff, the skills were only average. the only screw up was the sudden blackout which rendered all of us virtually blind.. except for guojie who conveniently switched on his torch function on his handphone and dug in as if nothing had happened. (damn! my phone doesn’t have it!)

after that went clubbing at double-o with another bunch of prev-med guys, where i was smart enough to induce myself to vomit three times in an attempt to avoid getting drunk, esp. after drinking three shots, one syringe shot, one flaming lambo, one volcano and miscellaneous jugs (grrr, i’ll get you guys for ganging up against me during the cai quan!!)

but still, the volcano was so potent that i couldn’t tahan anymore by two plus and had to leave early.

special thanks to
* kangyeow (belated) for the card holder
* shiqing, dezhi, tenghwee, zhongyang, qingxiang, andre, pakwing, zhipeng for the really cool timex watch!!
* richie, jeff, jiahao for the very interesting t-shirt:

(i’m seriously very touched!!!)

and the relevant self-improvement book. thanks!
* shiqing, anthony, ah beng for planning the lunch, dinner and clubbing respectively!
* all the rest for turning up!!!! really appreciate it!!

collages from ytd’s outings… i looked like shit in the club.. it’s the stupid volcano..

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114658428057870312 Tuesday, May 2 2006

it’s been my fourth day with this sales company, and i’m starting to get the hang of the life of a salesman. actually, not yet, it’s still fucking tiring for me, but for a start, my image has changed.

i’ve now:
1) bothered to dress in long sleeved, black pants, leather shoes, complete with tie, for the perfect salesman image.
2) stopped bringing my mp3 player along with me… adds to the bulk of my pants which wouldn’t look nice.
3) changed my wallet from the faded teenager-ish blue billabong to a black leather one.
4) changed my handphone ringing tones to more professional-like tones, which of course would be the nokia defaults. it wouldn’t be nice to have opera-ish within temptation screaming or some incoherent shouting from all-american rejects (both were my previous ringtones) while i am in the middle of pitching a sale.
5) removed my metal studs, replaced with transparent plastic ones.

secondly, my attitude has somehow changed slightly.

initially, i would be freaking embarrassed to approach a group of people talking loudly while eating at a coffeeshop, or enter a factory and demonstrate my product with a whole bunch of people staring at me.

but after awhile, especially later in the day, i would become numbed to the sensation. i would bravely ask everyone without fear, or shout to get everyone’s attention in an office, and face rude rejections with a smile. it’s as if i’m not in my body anymore. any abuse directed at me does not make much impact, if at all.

speaking of rude rejections, i have received plenty of it everyday so far. and i deserved it i guess, since i myself would have been quite a rude customer before i took on this job. here are the top 5 most annoying responses from customers i’ve had so far:

5) Me: Hello, excuse me, i don’t want to disturb you but i just got a quick special…
Customer: How dare you just barge into my office like that without knocking! You’re just wasting your time with me cuz i’ll never say yes! (continues ranting….)
Me: Err.. actually I did knock but it’s ok, thanks, BYE!

4) Me: Hello, excuse me, i don’t want to disturb you but i just got a quick special…
Customer: …………….. (staring into space)
Me: (looks at customer in the eye) Hello, sorry to disturb ya, but…
Customer: ……………….. (looks away, staring into another portion of space)

3) Me: Hello, excuse me, i don’t want to disturb you but i just got a quick special….
Customer 1: (giving a dismissal wave frantically) thank you thank you thank you…
Customers 2 and 3: (joining the chant) thank you thank you thank you thank you…

2) Me: Hello, excuse me, i don’t want to disturb you but i just got a quick special…
Customer: You sell to me $1? I’ll buy. (Original price is $15)
Me: Ok.. how about $14?
Customer: Er.. ok. Final offer. $2!
Me: Never mind, thanks. (proceeds to leave)
Customer: (stops me while i’m walking away) Okokok you win! $3 and i’ll buy your stuff!
Me: …

1) Me: Hello, excuse me, i don’t want to disturb you but i just got a quick special…
Customer: I am very interested in your items. Care to give more explanations?
Me: (gives a long explanation)
Customer: (with a condescending look) Actually I’m not buying your items. But good luck to you in earning money for your next meal!

obviously i underestimated the challenges i will face when i signed up for this. apart from the long working hours, the super-negative responses that salesmen receive periodically, i realised that we have to grapple with various ethical issues as well. just a few to note:

Issue: Several buildings are guarded by security who disallow walk-in sales. To sneak in or not?
Decision: Yes. If it means i can earn more money, i believe this is just a matter of irritation and not ethics ultimately. willing to risk the wrath of guards and the embarrassment of being yelled at from the other side of the building.

Issue: Some goods are found to be faulty (and this is a surprisingly common problem). To return the damaged goods back to company means I have to pay for the item, which would be really steep.
Decision: Either sell it to the customers, BUT informing them of the defects and charging them cheaper, OR return back to company without declaring the defects, heh heh.

Issue: We are sometimes tempted to pitch higher to people who have more or less confirmed that they will buy our products.
Decision: This is a resolvable problem. Due to some policies made, we actually gain more when we sell them to their money’s worth (which means giving tons of “free gifts”)

in conclusion…

just a few thoughts about entry level sales in my company. with several incentives available to us (i.e. daily cash-ins) and the environment / culture that has been set (good recognition for high earnings, several inspiring speeches and sessions), everyone is so performance-driven and satisfied that the company can actually economize on welfare costs without worries. i have to admit this is a really smart idea.

and this is also where my main concern lies. it’s no longer whether i can withstand the hectic nature of the job. i still worry about that, but it’s not as much as whether i can live up to expectations or not since the performance of every merchandiser is being watched closely by our superiors. my pitching skills are considered abysmal, as compared to the rest who can earn as much as what i earn the whole day in barely 3 or 4 hours! will i improve at all? another thing, it has usurped so much into my life that i have dreamt of myself walking down the streets selling screwdrivers the past two days.

the past weekend was mundane. attended a worker’s party rally, watched a movie, and attempted to teach jeff piano (but ended up making of fool of myself.) just simply too tired to do anything else heh.

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