A quick recommendation of my breakfast reading today:
Why Gandalf Never Married - 1985 Talk by Terry Pratchett
It discusses the portrayal of gender and magic in fantasy literature (he later wrote Equal Rites on this theme). While there are a number of references to the fantasy genre, I think his sense of humor is generic enough for everyone to enjoy. *dangles bait*
It's been a long time since the last blog. There's work, and then there're other things... The usual excuse, you know the drill, lol. I guess I just didn't have as many introspective moments as before, or as many mini-epiphanies I think worth sharing.
Something important to me actually happened recently: my first trip to Japan. =) The main purpose was to attend a work-related exhibition in Tokyo, but of course, I didn't miss the chance to go to a planetarium. Two 40-min shows back-to-back. =q I also briefly infiltrated Tokyo University, indulged myself along the Used-Books Street, got a cheap music CD from the famous Akihabara (and got tempted by a new Sony Ericsson / Cybershot model that might not even make it to Singapore), and took really pleasant strolls along the vast gardens / parks / shrines despite the spring season not yet arriving; among other adventures (and misadventures). Facebook photo albums will follow soon, maybe. (For those photos, I definitely still love my Elm.)
The second-last day of my trip coincided with the Sendai earthquake, which was also my first earthquake experience. It was rather frightening when the building shook violently, but having no prior scale to compare, at the moment I had no idea how severe it was and so didn't really panic. =X Everyone around were calm, even though they did say it was stronger than usual. So it was only later when I realized that public transport had all ceased operating, that I started to feel lost and worried about getting back to the hotel and contacting my family.
Long story short, I had a long long walk (and climb) back to my room that day, but still considered myself lucky when I saw the stranded people sleeping on the floor in the hotel lobby / McDonalds / any available indoor space on my way back, and even more so when I watched the round-the-clock TV news on the tsunami-hit areas. The aftershocks continued to worry everyone, but my flight back departed as scheduled, and here I am.
So yeah, I was happy to be there, and also happy to be back. Warm and humid tropical weather that's kind to the skin and a solid ground you can take for granted. Not traumatized, for sure; I definitely still want to visit Kyoto and Nara one day. =) And having a not-so-bad experience of the earthquake firsthand is good for heightening my empathy towards natural disaster victims. (To quote from Les Miserables, "A little drop of rain can hardly hurt me [...] and rain will make the flowers grow.")
Moving on... I'd say it was back to normal life, but there have been some new experiences at work (attending some intimidating meetings) and outside it (trying to impart my half-baked skills to a group of youths with my half-baked teaching competence; contributing to fundraising projects...) as well. There were also catching-up meet-ups which went pleasantly. I think I'm pretty much enjoying life as it is right now, the excitement and the placidity alike.
A reflection to close off: I dropped by Eka's blog where she wrote at one point:
"It's between choosing your heart and your head. The sceptical-in-love me really wondered if choosing your heart will always make you happier."
That reminded me of a review on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice by Michael Cohen, who said of Elizabeth and Darcy's marriage as
"a marriage [...] that shows us not that prudent choices lead to happiness but that the prudent are happy choosing prudently."
(No full source, but it was quoted here.) I think that is very well put.
me and my bits of happiness
a sound,
a sight.
we and our bits of happiness
a touch,
a smile.
The Four Seasons
NIKIIE
Don't stop talking; please try to go on,
since these unsettled feelings have surfaced.
Nights so lonely that your tears won't fall,
how many of those have you endured alone?
Those who say "I can't"
are not those who want to run away,
but those who don't want to give up.
Because there is spring, summer comes;
Because there is summer, autumn comes;
Because there is autumn, winter comes;
It is a natural thing that the world changes.
Being free from trouble, is that happiness?
It is when you're deeply troubled that certain things will surface.
Those who say "All of myself vanishes"
are not those who want to erase things,
but those who want to change themselves.
Because spring comes, winter is dear;
Because winter comes, autumn is dear;
Because autumn comes, summer is dear;
It is by oneself that the world is changed.
What is it that can't be given up? Who is it that won't give up?
You know it from the start, don't you?
Don't stop talking; please try to go on.
Because there is spring, summer comes;
Because there is summer, autumn comes;
Because there is autumn, winter comes;
It is a natural thing.
Because spring comes, winter is dear;
Because winter comes, autumn, too, is dear;
Because autumn comes, summer, too, is dear;
It is by oneself that the world is changed.
---
Post title has nothing to do with the song, but the conveyed meaning is certainly related.
I really should have stalked her better. Not only so that I wouldn't discover these beautiful things so late, but also so that I can perhaps start saying what I've been hearing people say about k.d. lang: "This woman can do no wrong." =D
Katie Melua - Blowing in the Wind (Bob Dylan cover, live)
There have been many renditions of this song but the only one I've heard before this is Peter, Paul and Mary's acoustic version (at the time when I haven't known what the lyrics meant yet). While I like this one for its own style, the comparison just added on to my marvel at the dynamics in Katie's rendition.
On the topic of seeing the sky...
Welcome back, my beloved clouds, colours of sunset, glimpses of stars.
心配していた--
また会えて良かった。
...which are not so green new anymore, but it's only now that I get the time AND motivation to write about them, so. =D
Roses Are Green
--A new cell phone last August, because I renewed my line subscription (and because I lost my old one around May and had been getting by with a borrowed phone). It's Sony Ericsson Elm, with a 5 MP camera (for all the photos I like to take on the move) and a "normal" keypad (I do not trust touch screens as yet). Loving the camera so far. =)
It's also a green (eco-friendly) model, so I get interesting reminders such as after setting the alarm: "works even when phone is off"; and after charging: "unplug the charger from the socket as well to save energy". =D But seems it's considered an old model in this country because I couldn't find a screen protector for it anywhere (I usually like my gadgets accessory-free, but this one gets dirty easily and more persistently than I can tolerate), until a helpful shopkeeper in City Plaza got me a similar model (G700, note to myself) that works satisfactorily.
And yes, as the image shows, it's pink (or as per the official description, "pearly rose"). ^_^ The customer service guys (seen more than one of them 'cos the process had involved other complications not elaborated here) sounded skeptic when they told me the alternative black was not in stock, but I actually do prefer this colour. (Metallic makes most colours okay!) It's prettier, no?
It's Black, It's Green, It's Not Blinking Red
--A new portable hard disk from COMEX 2010, because the last one, an 80GB Samsung (a case-it-yourself which was still common back then), went puff without warning a week before (good timing?). But seeing as it had lasted five years in my not-so-tender care, I had good opinions about it, so I decided to get the same brand. This time I got a 320GB G2 model, which is also a green product (thus cheaper than the slicker S2 series).
I don't get why the reviews have been keen on the G2's visual design, with the dots and novel colours... I happen to not think it's nice, so I chose the least-offending black (^^0), but otherwise it's been working great -- lightweight and quiet.
On the note of dead hard disks, I have recovered data from a few before, but this latest one was a tougher case as the hard disk couldn't be detected by the PC, knocking noises and blinking red light and all. So I tried the freezer trick. Still no luck after a 24-hour freezing, nor a 3-day freezing, after which I abandoned it in the fridge and went on to dig up old backups. =P Three weeks after, I thought I had to put a proper end to it, so I took it out and gave it a last revival attempt, which, to my pleasant surprise and absolute delight, worked!
I'm not trusting any more important data to it, but it was still working okay the second and third time I plugged it in, so maybe there's life in it yet. =)
The Colour of Magic (Is Probably Not Green)
By DIsk's recommendation I got to know the wonderful wit of Terry Pratchett, whom I first ignored because fantasy was not my usual genre (LotR and HP have been somewhat short-term interests =P). As it is, I think it's more his fresh sense of humour that baited me, though the fantasy setting certainly lends a unique quality to it.
The title of this subsection (minus the bracketed part) is the title of the first book in his Discworld series, which ironically I haven't read (but soon will!). I started from the second book, and have since acquired the National Library membership (which I'd been postponing to do) just so I could start on a quest to consume the entire series. Do try it! It took only one line (conveniently the first in the book) for me to decide I love this author, so I'm venturing to say you won't waste much time testing the waters. =P
(In a semi-fandom clash, the latest release names of the VideoLAN VLC media player (used in my work project) seem to hint that the developers are sharing this interest. =D)
Green with Evil, We're Not
This is a closure to my previous post on Werkz. I have received response from NUS as well as an apology token from the studio, possibly after a follow-up from the university. I haven't quite expected this level of response, and it made me feel a little bad for the "blow-up" of the issue, though I guess it should've been the whole point of making a feedback. =D; Myself may still avoid dealing with them in the future, but I hope this incident has somehow improved things in the big picture...
Green Green Grass (Among Other Things) of Home
"I always say home is where you hang your hat."
"Um, no," said Twoflower, always anxious to enlighten. "Where you hang your hat is a hatstand. A home is--"
-- Terry Pratchett, "The Light Fantastic"
And this is just a notice that in two days I'll be disappearing for a while (not that I haven't, judging by the interval between my recent posts) for a trip back home. =) Back here mid-October, when you'll hear from me if I have anything worth publicizing. ^^
This is going to be one spiteful post, my apologies. (If I know something is bad and I still do it, what does that make me? --Not caring, for once.) I experienced so much annoyance with these people that I'm actually writing this with the intention of leaving an online trace for anyone who may be googling for a review of Werkz Photography. (I'm even avoiding to hyperlink that to their site for fear of inadvertently helping them advertise; that's how spiteful this will be.)
I have sent separate feedbacks to somewhat-relevant parties, but there of course I limited myself to somewhat-relevant points, while here I wouldn't hold back so much... so I'm making sub-titles in hope that anyone finding this tl;dr can just skim through! ^_^0
* Background
It started July this year, around my Commencement ceremony in NUS. Werkz was the official photographer for the event, so it was the one providing the stage photography service (during the ceremony). I was looking for a studio to take a family portrait for this same occasion, and I decided to take up the offer from Werkz, as it conveniently came packaged with the stage photography. I thought this studio should be credible since it was the official photographer, and the staff who talked to me at the stall was a pleasant uncle.
* Photographing: Nice
The photo-taking session itself went pleasantly. The photographer was good at lifting everyone's spirits, and the helper showed a lot of care when helping me adjust the graduation gown, directing us for poses, etc. The photographer did jokingly say something along the line of, "I'm not the one who's going to take your money, though!" and looking back now, that turned out to be quite ominous...
* Purchasing: Money-minded much?
The package I took was for one framed family portrait and one individual portrait, each with 6 preview-sized prints. When I signed up, I asked how many takes we would get, and the answer was, "We will take many; we use digital films so it's not limited. You can choose afterwards."
Well, during the photo-taking we took a variety of arrangements by the photographer's suggestion: other than the whole family posing, we had my-parents-and-I, my-sisters-and-I, and so on. But it turned out that the 6 previews we could get were all of the same arrangement (the preview sets were fixed); we had to purchase the other arrangements separately at a minimum print size. (I forgot the detailed numbers and pricing myself, but I found belatedly this forum post relating the similar experience with better details.)
I said to the uncle at the counter, "But these previews are already done. Can't you just give these to us? We don't need extra printing." He insisted that even if we took those small-sized previews, we had to pay the price for that minimum print size.
Now we do understand that business people certainly can't make money if they easily give things out for free. They didn't exactly breach any term either, as we could indeed choose which photo to enlarge (obviously); it just didn't occur to me to clarify during sign-up whether we could choose the preview sets. At most I could say they weren't flexible about it. But it was the way he put it across that really got on our nerves: "[Just taking these?] Nobody does business that way!"
* Upgrading: Snide is worse than Snape
Anyway, we decided not to make the extra purchase, and settled with one family photo to be enlarged and canvassed, though we did upgrade the size. The uncle then offered to do the same for the individual photo for 30 dollars, which I turned down because I didn't plan to display my own face so prominently in our house, heh. Admittedly it was also largely influenced by my already deflated opinion of them.
The uncle nevertheless kept applying the pressure, saying that it would be a good investment because photos last longer when canvassed, especially since we wouldn't have the digital softcopy. At length, tired of his persuasion, I told him we could get it reproduced on our own if we ever wanted it (though I omitted the detail on how my sister used to work in a photo studio back home and still had friends there) and he outright laughed at me.
I could chalk that up to merely my hurt ego, what with his remarks implying how a "Doctor" was so stingy and misguided, but I seriously questioned his maturity (being disrespectful here given he was a generation older than me, but really!) when he deliberately said to his passing colleague in front of me: "She said she could do it herself! Hah!" I guess in certain cases annoying someone might get the person to do what you want them to do, but in this particular one, the more I'm annoyed the less I'm inclined to let him earn money.
(If my assumption is true that they were also the ones (with official photographer badge) taking photos in the post-ceremony mingling session outside the UCC Hall, then I have also encountered another photographer of theirs who came out of the blue and took our photos all cheerfully, and when we didn't want to buy them (we'd taken photos with our own cameras after all), said aloud, "So stingy!")
* Collection: Unapologetic mistakes
(This is still fresh in my mind, so there'll even be [paraphrased] dialogue! xD)
Then two months passed, and as promised, last weekend I received a notification that the processed photos were ready for collection, so I made my way there.
They produced the family portrait promptly, but the individual photo was missing. While a staff was searching in the back room, another staff, this time an auntie, showed me the receipts and said that I needed to pay 30 dollars more because the abovementioned uncle had made a mistake in the calculation, blaming it on the erroneous calculator. 0_0
In our upset mood the last time we had only made sure the component figures were correct but had not verified the summing itself (upgradedPackagePrice - stagePhotoDiscount - voucherDiscount - deposit) and now I saw that the sum was indeed mistaken. After re-clarifying that they had counted all the promised discounts, I paid her the balance -- reluctantly, to be honest, but at least that was fair.
And then the auntie mentioned (her speaking tone was probably naturally casual), "Oh, if that is a photo-only, without frame, then the amount is correct, because there should be a price reduction." Well, at least she was honest enough to tell me that even as an afterthought! The 'photo only' was clearly written there, and now I realized it was actually that individual upgrading part I rejected (I didn't know the upgradedPackagePrice had included that even after I said no), and I told her so.
"Then it's also a mistake, he should have put down here 'minus 30 dollars' and it'll add up," she said. So what, I thought, that is still your side making the mistake, but she continued, "We'll see when it's found, if it's indeed without frame, then I'll return the balance to you."
"But even if it's with frame, I didn't ask for that!"
"Then we'll just take it out, lor."
...-_-0
Well, I got the money back, but as for the photo, someone had apparently thought it should be framed yet hadn't, and thus had sent it back to the lab for framing. "But they did sent you the notice to come and collect?" she clarified, somewhat apologetic, or so I hoped. "Could you come back another day?"
I didn't feel like making the effort to fix the mistake they made, so I asked her to send the missing photo to me via post.
"But it cannot be sent, what, the material--" At this point she seemed to notice how I was ready to lecture her on the secure postal services available to the general public, and instead of finishing that sentence she quickly sent someone to try recovering the photo from the lab while I waited.
In the end, she told me they couldn't get it because "the lab was busy", but they would send the photo to me, though she still couldn't say when I could expect it because "we need to find it at the lab first".
* Feedback: Prompt response
I had thought of writing a blog entry to this effect after the photographing session, but I had only worked out the motivation after that second experience. Thinking that a direct feedback would be better than a whiny blog, I first wrote an email to Werkz. To quote the main bits:
"...I want to re-confirm that your studio will resolve the issue and send the pending photos to me, as soon as possible. I plan to bring the photos with me when I travel to my hometown in a few weeks, and I hope you will understand that my family has been looking forward to this.
If I may also offer a feedback, the studio photography session was pleasant and the photography staff were very friendly and helpful. But afterwards, during choosing/payment, and now during collection, I'm afraid the service attitude was disappointing, even if we tolerate the honest mistakes. This makes me worried if the studio will handle the pending issue well, and so I feel the need to write this email."
Against my grim expectations (considering that the ones reading the email might be the same problematic staff), the studio's reply was fairly prompt, via email and followed up with a phone call within 2 days, which almost made me feel that I'd been too harsh. Probably the same auntie (judging from that casual tone) talked to me, saying that they would send a courier to my office the following day, or latest on Monday, and she asked me to call back if I had not gotten it. That actually made me glad and thinking that the feedback had worked after all.
* (Failed) Redemption: Irresponsible claims
Today (the promised day), I hadn't thought much of it while at work, until she called me some minutes after 3pm and asked if I had gotten the photo. I told her I hadn't.
"But we have sent someone out this morning, you know? He said he would get there by 4pm."
"Did he actually report back that he had left it here? Because maybe he got to the reception [of my office] and not me directly."
"Yeah, so could you maybe check with them if they have received it?"
I okay-ed, a little worried that some mishap had occurred, and then went to check with our receptionist, who told me firmly that she would have called me if there had been any package for me.
I called the studio back, but before I could ask if she was sure the courier had come, she went back to her previous statement of "if he has not reached by today, then you will get it Monday". Whatever had possessed her to call me up then? If she had misunderstood anything I'd never know because she didn't utter a single word of apology.
...And that was the point where I decided that a whiny blog post was needed after all, because they have even messed up in the process of redeeming themselves in my opinion, not that I think they intend to nor care about it at all. They probably have enough customers, and so this evil part of me wants to ruin that just a little bit...
* Conclusion (?): Problematic attitude
I have also sent a feedback to NUS through the Alumni office, mainly relating the attitude I found unprofessional in contrast to the trust one might unsuspectingly place on the studio given its official photographer status, but I frankly don't expect much could be done on that front -- it might be a stable decision with a lot of considerations that will take stronger and more voices to change than just mine. But to quote what I said there in conclusion:
"To be fair, from what I have seen, they deliver good quality products, and the glitches might just be isolated incidents, but their service attitude has made it an overall unpleasant experience for me."
Of course this is a very subjective experience; your mileage may vary; there are certainly people who have no clashes and no reason to be upset with them, and so on. Every time I complain about someone's service attitude I do have to pause and think how much of it is (equally problematic) customer's higher-than-thou ego -- rather than the "customer is king" concept I much prefer the "civilized human give-and-take" concept.
So again, sorry for spouting all this negative energy; but at least I've gotten some weight off my chest (and into the cyberspace) now.
Unless they somehow find another way to annoy me come Monday.
