Ip Man series review

I watched Ip Man 3 on New Year's Eve, in a fully packed theatre. I'm a huge fan of the Ip Man series, so I was quite hyped going to watch it. Unfortunately, it didn't really live up to my expectations of the show, though I did enjoy quite a few parts about the movie.

Warning : This blog post may contain spoilers about the main storylines of the Ip Man series... though who watches this series for the plot! Lol. 

One of the hallmarks of the Ip Man series is to portray Ip Man as fighting only when absolutely necessary, and often in desperate life/death times. In addition, Donnie Yen has the remarkable ability of conveying intensity in his eyes while fighting - sometimes it would be a conflicted mix of not wanting to harm the opponent but having to, sometimes it would be just finally having avenged something, often overlaid with released pent up frustration and tension.

Case in point - the final fight of the first movie, against the Japanese general - just look at Ip Man's eyes as he 'spares' the general's life in his final 'fingers out' blow at 2:40! Absolutely remarkable.

Ip Man versus Japanese General

The first Ip Man movie had the backing of a harsh, realistic context of the movie - in the middle of the Sino-Japanese War. Ip Man had to fight literally for survival, to get food, etc. One of the series most iconic lines was uttered in this show, when he took on 10 martial art experts "Gei wo shi ge!" (or directly translated from the Cantonese lines, 'I want to take on 10') for 10 bags of rice.

Ip Man vs 10 Martial Art Experts

Ip Man 2 was, in essence, East vs West, as the likes of Sammo Hung had to defend the integrity of their martial arts against the powerful Western boxer 'Twister'. The movie built up the animosity against Twister so well that in the final fight scene, as Ip Man rains down punch after punch on Twister, you can't help but feel a swelling of pride in your chest and cheer on Ip Man, despite the horrific and brutal beating he was giving out.

The below is the video of that fight, but I strongly urge you to watch the movie itself, as the story/emotional build-up to this fight adds a lot more meaning and significance to how it played out and ended.

Ip Man vs Twister

Another hallmark of the show is its amazing 1 on 1 fights. Yes, every other movie can do those one hero against a dozen people fights. But Ip Man's fight choreography really shines when it pits just Donnie Yen alone, versus another expert. Those are always a huge delight to watch, especially with all its subtleties and nuances conveyed slyly by the director. For instance, they will always show you Ip Man holding back a fatal blow here, a deadly strike there, etc. with a close-up shot.


So what did I think about Ip Man 3?

WARNING Ip Man 3 spoilers ahead!

The show's opening scene playfully hinted at Ip Man's 'don't really want to fight' nature - as he casually avoided all the blows of a young Bruce Lee, eager to be his disciple.

I didn't really like the general storyline, it felt too typical and trivial. Basically, bad angmoh wants land in which Ip Man's son was schooling at, and then hooligans go and cause trouble, Ip Man swoops in as protector, trouble escalates, Ip Man hunts down those people and fight a ton of them at once.

The showrunners tried an interesting approach though, adding in two side stories which would later prove central - Ip Man's rapidly deteriorating wife; and another Wing Chun expert, Tin-chi, eager to start his own brand of Wing Chun. It was quite sad how his wife's storyline evolved - Ip Man is known to be a strong family man, which was exactly what made the entire predicament more tragic. He was trying to protecting his son/son's school - but at the expense of neglecting his wife who was falling ill. It's a difficult moral dilemma here.

I thought Tin-Chi's side story was a little weird though, it made for a strange story arc where the main narrative climaxes, ends, and you think the show would end there, but this side story suddenly blossoms and there's another 30-40 minutes of show left. But I guess the showrunners felt it was necessary to show the iconic Wing Chun vs Wing Chun fight, in the true nature of Ip Man.

Fights-wise : I've never been a big fan of mass fights - it trivialises the complexity of Ip Man's skill and turns it into any other action movie with dummy actors who can't throw a punch to save a life and just comes in to get beaten up by the main character. Ip Man 3 had too many of those for my liking, though I guess it served an integral story purpose (to rescue his son).

There were 2 iconic fights I liked:

1) Ip Man vs Muay Thai dude
Ip Man at its best here. Close combat strikes and grapples, in a very enclosed area. Extremely exciting to watch, very satisfying fight progression and ending. I can't believe I waited 1h for a good fight (I think all the previous fights were mass fights if I recall correctly)

2) Ip Man vs Mike Tyson
Lol, almost all the show's marketing centred around this. It did not disappoint. Mike Tyson was swift and nimble as a boxer, and threw solid, powerful punches that you could feel from your seat as they crashed into the wall / windows. In one of his interviews, Donnie Yen said something like 'When filming with Mike, it was quite stressful - Mike is obviously a powerful boxer, so I had to maintain my focus 100% if not I would get hit. There was one hook he threw, I ducked it, but it was so fast I felt the impact of the blow lifting my hairs up"

I love it when fights get clever, or when Ip Man 'uses his brain' (e.g. how he defeated Twister in Ip Man 2, by attacking certain weak points). He wasn't doing well at first in his all out brawl with Mike Tyson given his brute force and power, so he began to intentionally block with his strongest points - his elbows and knees, slowing Mike down a bit. He also began throwing some specifically placed counter-punches and kicks to hinder Mike.

Did you notice that Ip Man actually 'won' the fight a few times? The show does its trademark 'Ip Man spares his opponent' moments with its quick close-up shots which you may miss if you blinked. I caught one where he his fist/fingers reached Mike Tyson's eye, which he could have easily jammed in, but he just struck the side of his head. Then a second one where his swinging kick found Mike's crotch, but he stopped short and did not complete the blow.
Basically, I think Ip Man recognised that he couldn't 'defeat' Mike Tyson as there may be repercussions for him - he just needed to survive the 3 minutes to win his respect and the wager they had. And the whole fight scene conveyed this so well but subtly.

I also loved the parting line of Mike, with the symbolic use of his daughter(?)'s balloon. 'Sometimes, we just have to let go', referring to the stray balloon but also that he would give up on the school.


-
Wait wait, I'm not mentioning the final Wing Chun vs Wing Chun fight? Yes, I didn't really like the use of weapons, I always prefer the bare fist fights. And while the fight choreography was no less exceptional than its previous fights, I didn't feel a satisfying 'progression' of the fight.

The 'ending' of the fight came so abruptly - both fighters seemed relatively even with Ip Man landing some better blows, then Tin-Chi landed the cheapshot in Ip Man's eye, and Ip Man responded with some supersonic sensing and dodges with eyes closed, and ended with a kidney shot of sorts.

I get what the fight director was trying to do in conveying Ip Man 'kind of' winning the fight but still holding back, and deciding to go all out once his opponent played dirty. But I felt the 'winning' part could have been conveyed more strongly, and maybe make the fight climax more boldly. Somehow when Ip Man landed his final blow and walked off, I felt it was slightly anticlimatic.

(For a master example of a 'satisfying progression of a fight', watch that Ip Man vs Twister video above. In fact, I think this fight was one of the best fights of the whole series)

Overall, I didn't really feel the intense 'fire' in Donnie Yen's eyes from the previous shows in this one. In Ip Man 3, he seemed to just give his typical stern, serious solemn look. In previous shows, you can almost sense his cathartic fury when he was in a fight / ended a fight. In this one... not quite.

Oh well. Ip Man was a fun journey, and I will continue to enjoy re-watching the iconic fights on Youtube in future years.

Highlights of 2015!

It's when you reflect that you glean new insights. I like to look back at the year to see what has happened. And this year was pretty damn eventful.

1. I played WoW again

To understand the context of why this is a significant event, you must see this post I wrote in 2011:

http://crazerk.blogspot.sg/2011/09/dear-future-me.html

I basically told myself not to play WoW ever again. But somehow, due to the circumstances of my life, I was so free and bored and had someone at work who triggered the spark in me again... that I started playing.

Some scrub PuG at imperator

2. I was gymming regularly

This started about some time in 2014, but I really hit the groove and was super regular in 2015.

This is the buffest I will ever be, because.... I recently decided to stop gymming due to injury :( Already lost a lot of muscle tone. Oh well.

3. I proposed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njZ90zSth9c

After a long period of preparation in 2014, all that was left was to wait for the right moment. And that right moment was on Valentine's Day of 2015. I lured the gf to NUS under the pretense of an experiment by Eri, and then sprung the video I made last year on her. I was pretty nervous throughout, though the gf was bouncing and laughing and was obviously going to say yes. I'm engaged!

4. I went to Hong Kong!

The trip was interesting for a variety of reasons... but it was overall quite fun (for me at least)

Winsome dimsum. Haha. HK is an interesting place, very similar to Singapore. Food is not bad too.

5. I switched jobs

Probably one of the biggest life transitions for me, I moved out from my cushy gahmen job into the brand new corporate world of a tech company.

I recall doing a lot of soul searching, a lot of consulting friends for advice, a lot of helpless laments. But hey, I got somewhere. And I tried something I always wanted to try. It's a pity it had to end.

6. Made a viral blog post

In a most unexpected way, I went viral on social media. The gist of it is, I had a bad experience at a gym, wrote about it here, people shared it, it got picked up by All Singapore Stuff, it went even more viral, and eventually I think over 50,000 people read my blog post.

A summary of events can be found in my follow-up blog post here.

7. I had a sick office

Ok, related to my point 5, my office is pretty sick.

This article talks more about it:
https://vulcanpost.com/310102/garena-new-office-penthouse/

8. Went for a cosplay festival

Never in my life would I imagine that I would go for a cosplay festival, but because of work, I did! I got to meet many cool and interesting (and weird) people. Definitely one of the most interesting experiences of my life.

9. Went to Tioman!

An unexpected island trip with these fine folk. We ran out of things to do after a while, so ended up doing things like swimming and playing ball in the pool and playing pingpong and pool in the games room. That's fine though.

Also went snorkeling for the first second time in my life! Well the first time was around this lame enclosure at Adventure Cove @ Sentosa so it's not counted. This was real sea snorkeling. Quite fun, despite several coral cuts.


10. Played paintball for the first time!

With some church peeps. I can't find the picture we took, so no pictures here. It was fun! But very very tiring. Very quickly breathless. And it's so easy to get shot ouch. I wish paintballs were more accurate though, with a scope and all. Then I'll really go full sniper and leopard crawl and hide my body and camouflage all.

11. Got an iPhone

The iPhone 6S 64GB to be precise. I was on Android for the longest time, from S4 to the iNO2 (because of work), then back to S4, then finally decided to jump back to Apple. Wrote a blog post about the phone, and still loving it!


12. Made new friends and lost them fast

No, we didn't have a falling out or anything. Just that my team formed up really fast, grew to a size that I was questioning every day, and eventually the bubble burst, with people moving out to other places and shrinking to 3 and eventually dissolving to nothing.

Such a strange experience, but I really do like some of these people and hope we can meet up occasionally.

13. Got a wicked sick box for my birthday!

https://www.facebook.com/alan.teo.986/videos/10153037760896356/?theater

My girlfriend fiancee has invested crazy hard work and effort to some of my past gifts, but this one took the cake (maybe because it had a cake in it). This was so creative and amazing and cool. It still blows my mind how someone can care enough for someone else (and that someone else to be me) to put in so much effort to doing something like that. I'm a lucky guy.

14. Went for USS Halloween Nights 2015

We only went for two haunted houses, but I think I'm somewhat outgrowing these things. Don't derive as much pleasure from them as I did, say, 2-3 years ago. Damn. I used to LOVE these so much, and would go at every opportunity.

15. Planned a mass escape game for SEED camp

When Yvonne approached me last year to come up with some escape room game for SEED camp, I immediately knew I would do it. 

When timo approached me this year to do something similar again, I immediately knew I would do it again.

I just love designing these puzzles and thinking how best to frame them. It was a tough journey, but I managed to put together something fairly challenging and enjoyable (I think), hope the youths liked it. 

16. Participated in a cool musical

Well, I wasn't part of the cast, but I played drums for my church's Christmas musical. Was a fun experience, going for rehearsals and watching everyone stumble over their lines and being armchair critics with the band.

I thought that most jokes would be lost, and I'm not sure how many jokes were actually appreciated, but most feedback about it seemed good, so glad it went well! Gotta love the camels, 3 girls acting all bimbotic hehe.

And... that's a wrap! 2015 has been a blast, and I wonder what 2016 has in store for me. Hopefully, I will _ _ _ _   _   _ _ _   _ _ _.

iPhone 6s - First Impressions

It was over 2 years since my last phone update (well not entirely true, as I downgraded when I entered MI N D EF as I had to get a non-camera phone), so when the iPhone 6s announced its release, I knew I wanted to upgrade my S4!


Got my 64GB Space Grey pretty fast - just headed down to the launch event and within seconds of registration my queue number was up. Good job Singtel!

As for what's new, I always like Apple's own copywriting - they have a solid team who drafts the most elegant of descriptions (despite some hyperboles) and makes you feel like you want to get the phone now. http://www.apple.com/sg/iphone-6s/

These are my first impressions / highlights of the phone.


1) iOS is really smooth.
I think the most noticeable thing to me immediately was the speed of the iOS. Having used Androids for 2+ years, I've grown somewhat accustomed to a 1s delay while switching between apps, after pressing the home button, with this delay sometimes going up to 3s (e.g. launching the camera)

When I began playing with my iPhone 6s, transitions were smooth and quick. I like the transition effects too, though the gf told me to turn them off to save some battery. But they look cool! I hope this smoothness maintains - I recall my old iPhone 4 which slowed down slightly over time.


2) 3D Touch is ok, until more apps integrate it.
Marketed as one of the latest, groundbreaking, revolutionary features of the new iPhone, 3D Touch allows you to use a firm press (on top of the usual tap, and long press that we all know) to activate new functions.

It is a cool feature, but it only works for some default apps, such as Camera (a firm press on the Home menu brings up a dropdown menu to 'Take a selfie, take a video' etc. This is somewhat redundant as the switching between function is really quick in the Camera app itself), Messaging (peek and pop, i.e. previewing messages. Abit useless as no one uses SMSes nowadays), and Safari (you can hard press to preview websites. Not sure how useful this is, why would you want to preview something?)

My initial feeling is that for now, this is a little superfluous, and till they can integrate it for more shortcut-like features to improve productivity, 3D touch is just a gimmick. I can think of some possible shortcuts they can implement:

• Firm press on Instagram app icon to immediately choose an image to post
• Firm press on Whatsapp to dropdown the last 4 chats and you can choose which to message
• Firm press to mimic the function of a long press in Android

3) Having notifications centre and the WiFi / Airplane mode shortcuts separate is quite annoying
By habit, I still sometimes swipe down from the top to turn on WiFi or data, but for some unknown reason, Apple chose to split them up. It seems perfectly compatible to combine both (as with most Android phones' notification centres), but.... guess they want to be different.


4) Double tap home button trick!
Can't reach the top left corner with your thumb? I discovered this nifty trick this morning - just double tap your Home button (not press it, just double tap it) and it shifts your screen down! Tahdah.
This function should be turned on by default, if not, just explore the Accessibility settings it's somewhere there.


5) Hey Siri
Haha I had great fun playing with this. You can turn on a 'Hey Siri' function which allows you to go 'Hey Siri' at any time (even with phone locked) and you can give a voice activated function. Like Open Safari, Open Facebook, etc.

--

ok that's all! Hope to get used to the typing soon, adapting over from Swiftkey. I miss swiftkey... (and I don't want to jail break my phone, at least not yet...)

What makes a good TV show?

What makes a good TV show? A good plot? Good dialogue? Good character development? All three?

Some of my favourite TV shows are carried by the strong dialogue, but don't have much plot / character development. For example, Modern Family, Suits, and Psych.

Psych arguably has one of the best two-character chemistry ever seen on TV. Shawn and Gus (James Roday and Duke Hill) interact so naturally on the show it hardly seems scripted... and indeed, sometimes it isn't! From the blooper reels, you can see that many lines are actually improvised on-set by the two of them, especially their back and forth banter. I'm not sure what else is scripted (their spontaneous pop culture references?), but it sure made for an entertaining show.

One of their running gags is how Shawn would introduce Gus, with a WIDE variety of (sometimes outright ridiculous) nicknames. I'm still not sure whether this is scripted or James Roday just rattles off the first thing on his head. Judging from the way Gus reacts (he sometimes plays along naturally, sometimes has a wtf? reaction, so I would think it's improvised? lol)

It's precisely of this strong chemistry / dialogue that made the show last as long as it did - I think it was somewhere around the 4th or 5th season (or maybe later? can't remember) where the show all but abandoned its main premise (Shawn being 'psychic') and became more of a two-bit comedy act with some romance with Juliet and the hilarious Lassider, but it still carried on for a few more seasons.

Suits puts up a strong challenge for 'best two-character chemistry' against Psych, for the stellar performances of its two male leads, Harvey and Mike (Gabriel Macht and Patrick Adams). Their interactions are sharp and witty, their pop culture references roll off their tongues naturally. What puts this show above Psych for me is that this sharp writing (of dialogue) extends to almost all its characters - Jessica, Louis, Donna (sorry, I think while Rachel is hot, she's a boring character with the lousiest lines). While it is a 'serious' legal drama, every episode has its fair bit of funny lines and witty one-liners uttered by any of the main characters.

There is a general theme for each season (e.g. power struggle with Daniel Hardman, within the firm, with whoever), but I won't give any huge points for 'plot/character development' for this show.

Modern Family is a recurrent hit season after season for its relatable family comedy mockumentary style. Apart from its special mockumentary style (not unique, since Arrested Development already did this before), the big strong suit of this show is its witty dialogue. I think almost 80% of lines are actually some form of wordplay /puns, so I really admire the creativity of the writers to consistently come up with such brilliant scenes peppered with hilarious puns or jokes. Of course, it has the backing of a strong cast who convincingly portray all sorts of emotions, and the fan favourite Phil Dunphy, brilliant played by the talented Ty Burrell, who steals every scene he's in.

So these are TV shows driven by strong dialogue, but with little plot / character development. How about a good plot?

A show with good plot needs to well-written - appropriate drama, good pacing, believable scenes. Two of my favourite shows, LOST and Prison Break, fall under this category.

LOST has a very ambitious narrative structure. It abandons the traditional linear storytelling and adopts character-centric episodes with a flashback format which alternates with scenes on the island. Using this unique narrative structure, it somehow manages to seamlessly advance the main story on the island, and provide compelling backstories for most of its characters. I don't know if you ever stopped to marvel at the genius it takes to do this well, but it is truly a masterclass of good writing.

LOST's strong suits are aplenty - deep character development/background, good drama, decent mystery, suspenseful writing, and the fan-appeasement through easter eggs peppered throughout the episodes. This is one show where it's better to watch it live (e.g. week after week) rather than marathon it after it has finished its run - I recall being left in utter suspense after each cliffhanger ending, and googling for the fan theories and speculation.

The now-famous final shot of Season 1

Unfortunately, I (and many others) feel like it was probably too smart for its own good, and ran for 1-3 more seasons than it should have. I know many people who gave up on the show somewhere in seasons 3 or 4, as it was getting too confusing. I personally stuck with it through all 6 seasons, but I can't say I can confidently explain some of the plotlines involving the Dharma Initiative and whatnot.
Nevertheless, it still remained a fairly popular show through its 6 seasons, and ended with a reasonably satisfying ending (though it remains widely debated).

Prison Break uses a not-so-new idea (escaping from prison) but paints a very compelling story with it - a brilliant structural engineer tries to rescue his maligned brother who was on death row from prison. The strength in the show was its ability to build up suspense and tension and advance the plot purposefully with each episode. This is the kind of show which you don't want to stop watching, simply because of how intense the episode ends, it just makes you want to keep going.

[SPOILER ALERT]

I liked how the show transitioned from escaping from Prison (Season 1) to WHAT do you actually do after you escape (Season 2). A fairy tale ending of 'running away into the sunset' simply isn't believable, and I appreciate the realistic handling of this - the Fox River 8 becomes a national manhunt for the FBI. What I didn't like was how the show went full circle back to its 'prison break' roots in Season 3, with the new Panama season, and I think eventually the show began its decline from there.

I still loved the show - there was unmistakable tension and dramatic scenes still, but it just lost the kick and original appeal of the original premise. Also, the overall series didn't exactly have much character development, but that isn't really a big fault of the show.

[SPOILER ALERT END]


How about a show with good dialogue, strong character development, and good plot?

[Spoiler alert for Breaking Bad]

Breaking Bad is one such show - the introduction, growth, development, and decline of Walter White is Character Development 101 at its best. The gradual change is believable, strongly written, and seems almost inevitable, as Walter lets his pride slowly transform him into an anti-hero of sorts.
The show has the support of a few other strong characters - Jesse is brilliant as a problem 'teen' (not quite), who follows Walter in his character arc (His character was meant to be killed off in Season 1, but the showrunners decided to keep him after seeing how good the actor was).

The introduction of Gus was one of the show's golden eras - Giancarlo Esposito is an undisputed star of the show the moment he was introduced, with his polite, professional demeanor, masking his cold, steely personality, accentuated with his precise diction. He's one of my favourite TV villians, and the way the show ended him was fitting, well-written, and chilling (check out how he adjusts his tie just before he collapses). This scene was one of my favourites, not just because of Gus, but because of the  performance of the silent Hector - the amazing portrayal of emotions purely through his eyes. Just watch the wheelchaired man's eyes go from sorrow, surrender, to resilience, anger, pure hatred.

[end of spoiler alert]


The point of this whole post was actually to talk about The Walking Dead. [spoilers ahead]

I started watching The Walking Dead recently, and just finished the third season. I wanted to find out why this show was such a big hit. Indeed, the first season was brilliant and intense - I was at the edge of my seat almost the whole time, and the episodes felt tightly written. However, the show began to take a strange swerve off course, spending an entire season in a farm and then an entire season in the prison.

The problem with the show was that each season felt like a different show. The theme / focus seemed to shift - from zombie-centric to character-centric to... I'm not even sure what. This problem was a real one - I realised it was because the show actually changed showrunner twice (for a total of 3 showrunners)

The show suffered when it chose to focus on unlikable characters (ugh, Andrea) and painting them as a central character when no one really cared about them and they were just plain annoying. That episode in Season 3 which was entirely a chase between the Governor and Andrea felt like an utter waste of time. The show is plagued with loopholes like the magical forest which can sometimes takes days but at other times take hours to travel, and somehow characters end up meeting each other in it. Also, characters often mention 'we are short on ammunition' but in a later scene expend a few bullets meaninglessly.

Zombies also became relegated for human drama, which is an understandable development (since humans probably get used to it and more mentally equipped to deal with zombies), but part of me wishes for the same zombie intensity as Season 1. Huge props to the make-up artist chief who designs all these zombies though, quite impressive how they think of new ways to present zombies, as well as new ways to kill them.

As for character development, Rick's narrative arc from a stoic, righteous leader of the group - to a battle-hardened, slightly mentally unhinged character, was moderately convincing (though some other critics thought otherwise). However, the character of Merle was managed horribly. From his original introduction as a racist blabbermouth bully, to his reintroduction as a more mellow, strategic expert in Season 3, the jump was simply not believable. To make it worse, the writers 'ended' the character in the most ridiculously lame way ever, in some kind of sudden self-vindication/redemption quest as he took on Governor himself in a poorly executed mission (why would you snipe random soldiers and give away your location, and not just take your first shot at the Governor?)

It seems like each character changes its arc every time a new showrunner took over, which sets up a very choppy viewing experience. I was originally considering giving up on the show, but after reading some online posts, I decided to give Season 4 a chance. Let's hope it gets better.

Three Psychological Problems Plaguing my News Feed This Elections

I was generally quite apathetic in the 2011 General Elections, but this time round I've been reading and watching some videos and articles with interest. I'm rather annoyed though by how several flawed styles of thinking keep resurfacing on my Facebook news feed.

I'm not here to debate issues - I'm neither sufficiently eloquent nor knowledgeable. I've just noticed three psychological errors that people commit this GE, and I'm here to call them out.


1) Confirmation Bias

Confirmation bias refers to the tendency to seek out information that supports our personal beliefs, and ignore / overlook / discredit information that opposes our beliefs. This is RAMPANT all over my newsfeed. If I was to draw a comic that illustrated them, it would be someone plugging their fingers into their ears and they're going 'ngah ngah ngah ngah'.

I am right you are wrong no information you present will change my views ngah ngah ngah ngah.

To cite an example, a common criticism I've seen of the government is that 'They don't listen to the people'.

This post is flawed for other reasons, but let's just focus on the confirmation bias part.

But how true is that? Do the government just sit in their ivory towers and ignore the common populace? Let's just examine one case study.

How many of you have heard of the Committee to Strengthen National Service (CSNS)? If you haven't, you can head over here to check it out.

To give you a flavor of what it is, it is a THREE-year long project (still ongoing) by the Ministry of Defence to improve the hotly debated and controversial issue of National Service (NS).
It consisted of a year long consultation period, in which there were focus groups, surveys, town hall sessions, website/Facebook interactions, dialogues within NS units, and more, all to gather feedback about NS from the population. What followed next is they took all these feedback, deliberated them, and put forth 30 recommendations that would improve many facets of NS, such as to improve identity & purpose, support & recognition, and administration & communication.

If this is not public consultation, or 'listening to the people', I don't know what is. This is just one ministry - I know for a fact that other ministries have been having regular public consultations (especially the social ones).

So the bottom line is, the government IS listening. Whether they get the solutions right is a different matter altogether, but you CAN'T say that they are not listening. Insisting that they don't listen is just holding fast to your confirmation bias and being an irrational human being.

Take your fingers out of your ears. Explore the alternatives. Are your beliefs really true?


2) Being Emotional Creatures

Jonathan Haidt, a renowned moral psychologist, once said (paraphrasing his argument): "People tend to rely on their emotions (or as he calls it, 'moral intuitions') rather than conscious reasoning to make moral judgments". You can read more about this in his article, 'The Emotional Dog and its Rational Tail'.

Other than trying to sound smart by quoting a famous person, the point of quoting this is to say that apart from moral judgments, this rule seems to apply to politics too. Many people are letting their emotions rule them and lead them to weak conclusions. If they could be dispassionate for a second, they may realise that their conclusion/arguments aren't that great.

The above Facebook post I linked would be a great example in itself. The poster saw that it was pitiful and sad that the elderly had to work so hard, and concluded that the government was at fault and wasn't listening.
Another example would be the populist policies that some of my FB friends are supporting. Populism is basically pushing for policies that appeals to the interests of the general population (without considering the general feasibility of the policy).

E.g. A particular party promising $500 every month to both elderly and youths. Say what?

This works because it pushes emotional buttons in people, while offering simplistic solutions. Some examples:

• Should the elderly be suffering, working 10 hours a day, collecting cardboard? NO! We pledge to implement minimum wage, and give them $300 a month in grants too! (Watch this video by DPM / Finance Minister Tharman to understand why this doesn't work)
• Are you happy that the foreigners are taking our jobs and overcrowding our trains? NO! We should stop taking in foreigners! [throwback to confirmation bias - ignoring the fact that the govt has indeed tightened up on foreign labour intake]

The bottom line is this - there are no simple solutions to some of our biggest problems. If there were, the thousands of civil servants working on them would have thought of them. Every solution is a complex, multifaceted one, that will impact different groups of people in different ways. Let's not let our emotions rule us, and draw hasty conclusions, such as supporting simplistic solutions.

[ASIDE: I used to work in a policy department in a Ministry, so let me explain the general process of how a small policy change / proposal gets implemented/approved. A minion (me) would first draft an elaborate paper that considers the background, impetus for change, presents recommendations and why, all well-researched from many sources. This draft is then critiqued (i.e. heavily edited or discussed and changed) by the minion's boss. That next piece is then critiqued by the boss's boss, in preparation to present it at a forum (basically a meeting of leaders). That piece is then discussed at that forum, and either approved or endorsed to proceed to the next forum, depending on how big the issue is. It is not uncommon for a policy paper to go through 2-3 fora before it is approved. And I'm leaving out many details/steps such as consultations with other departments / agencies, public consultation, internal discussions, etc.

TLDR: There are many fora through which a policy paper has to pass through before it can be approved, to canvas a wide range of perspectives and views before a policy is passed.

So if you think that the government doesn't consider each policy carefully, you are horribly mistaken. End of ASIDE.]

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3. An empty point.

I don't really have a third point, but people like things to come in threes, so I started off that way.

Here's a kitten to distract you from the abrupt ending of this post.

Click me to see cute cats and dogs squeezing into random things!

What do people think about when they run?

What do people think about when they run?

I don't like running, so this is something I always struggle with. The "occupy my mind for more than 10 mins"  thing. This is roughly what goes through my mind every time:


Huff. Puff. This seems OK. Comfortable pace. Let 's go.

Wonder what I'll do after this.

OK this is getting hard.

OK control your breathing.  One, two puff... One two puff..

Maybe I can go get a nice cold drink.. What should I get.  I deserve a snack after this.

Oh god I'll never finish this.

Just look straight and keep my strides constant.  Come on. I can do this.

Damn that aunty just passed me.

-random thought about whatever game I'm playing recently to try to take my mind off the exertion -

-tries to keep mind on anything but the exertion-

Thinks about how tiring this is and how nice it would be to stop

No, don't stop Alan.  Come on. Imagine what finishing this will be like..

Imagine sh cheering u on.  Go Alan. You can do it.

When am I meeting her next? Maybe I'll text her after this to tell her I finished a run

Yes. I need to finish this so I can say I finished it.  Come on.

Help I'm dying.

My Lungs my legs

Focus on the things I'm passing.. That tree.. The block of flats..

Focus on my footsteps. Maintain.  Maintain.  Resist the urge to slow down or stop

Resist!

Maybe I should stop..

No!

Keep going.

I'm only halfway there??

Ok halfway more..

Deep breaths.  Maintain constant breathing.

What can I think about to distract me.

-thinks about random game-

Gasp.

Feel like slowing down.. That bench there looks nice.

Screw the bench keep going alan

Sh will be proud of u

Imagine sh smiling

OK come on.keep going. One two puff, one two puff

Need to distract myself.

Another runner.  He's going slowly. Ha. Sucker.bye.

Passed him. I'm the best.

I'm tired, I should slow down.

Gasp. I need to stop.

No, maintain alan. come on. maintain the pace, keep going.

Imagine SH cheering you on. Go go go.

I'll have a nice cold drink after this is over.

Why is this so hard.

one two puff one two puff one two puff

-more or less can't think of anything else apart from dying or controlling my breathing / pace the rest of the way -

PL4235 - A blast from the past!

If you do not know me and read this blog, it probably means you first came here because of my NUS module reviews. I have received many emails over the years about my reviews, all asking for further advice about module selection, thesis planning, and general advice. Today, I got an interesting email.

In my final module review post, I reviewed a module which I didn't have a good experience with, PL4235 - Moral Psychology. One year later, I received a notification in my inbox that told me Nina Powell, the professor in question, has left a comment on my blog. No wait, 5 comments. That's because her comment was so long that she had to split it up into 5 comments.

Since she put in so much effort to try to defend herself, I felt obligated to reciprocate and put in effort to respond to her. This was the email I sent her:

Dear Nina,

I have read the lengthy comment which you left on my module review blog, and I felt obligated to respond since you clearly put in some thought and effort in your comment. The text in red are your original comments, and my responses follow them in black.

Nevertheless, I am pleased to have this opportunity to address your concerns and also assuage the concerns of any future potential students reading this blog.

FYI, I get emails from time to time about my reviews, and I have received one or two about my review of your Moral Psychology module. A student was interested in your module, but "after reading your review of her module, I'm really scared."

I responded: "I'm not sure how she is like now, maybe her teaching has improved after a few semesters of feedback. Let me know? :)"

The point of reproducing this short exchange is just to (re)frame what you may think of my views- I am not particularly 'anti-Nina' or despise your guts, and I am aware that it was your first semester teaching and you may have improved since then. I haven't heard from this student again though. 

The feedback that I received from your fellow students in that year (2013/14) was generally quite different from what you provide here. Your fellow students, for example, mentioned finding the course refreshing in its approach to moral psychology and they mentioned enjoying the depth and rigour of the lectures and the reading. Four students nominated me for best teaching, which I found particularly encouraging, thoughtful and kind, as that was the first time I had taught at NUS.

I actually consulted a few of my friends in that class to check if I was alone in my views. Maybe something was wrong with me right? But all of them actually echoed a lot of what I felt, though a few of them were more forgiving, with comments like 'Aiya, it's her first time ma' (Translated: Yea I think so too, but it's her first time teaching, so it is understandable) (Singlish seems much more efficient)

The point here is that you can't please everyone. Maybe there were some students who loved the way you managed that class. Maybe there were others like me who didn't, and find your above lines a little surprising. 

I made significant changes to the moral psychology course after that first attempt. The course now includes a more clearly structured reading list with required and supplemental readings now directly identified. Assessment of the class participation is now more transparent and the fieldwork activity is now based on group rather than individual work. 

Some of the problems noted in the evaluation exercise are echoed in your blog here and so I expect you will be pleased with the changes. 

I actually said most of what I said here in the evaluation exercise. I recall spending significantly more time on it than I originally planned... so yes, I guess it's good that there were changes made.

The reading list was extensive, but not unreasonably so. In general, you were expected to read one chapter of a book and five journal articles per week. At an average of an hour each, that is just six hours reading. For a module where you are expected to do ten hours of work a week, the reading list was, essentially, exactly correct. Moreover, the reading reflected that expected by other universities for students taking highly similar modules. The course on Moral Psychology offered at NYU, for example, requires the students to read 3-5 journal articles per week, plus an additional reading of 3-5 supplementary journal articles per week, and three supplementary books. You can download the syllabus here: http://www.psych.nyu.edu/vanbavel/lab/documents/MoralPsychologySyllabus.VanBavel.pdf

I think it is important that NUS students receive a similarly comprehensive education to students at other institutions because I want our students to be globally competitive. Similar to the syllabus at New York University, and many other institutions, my current syllabus for the course at NUS includes two books and 2-3 required journal articles each week and a further 3-5 recommended journal articles for those who are especially interested in that week’s topic. 

The new breakdown seems more sensible (2-3 articles a week, and optional supplementary journal articles), though it depends on how long the book chapter readings are. While it is admirable that you are trying to keep NUS students globally competitive, you would have to expect if your reading list is more extensive than the 'market rate' of other level 4000 Psychology modules, you would face some disgruntlement about that. I'm not quite sure where you really stand though, you start off by defending a more extensive reading list, but later share that you have trimmed it down. 

Regardless, I don't think a good, holistic, comprehensive education involves flooding students with reading materials. There may be other more effective ways to do so, which you have yet to discover. (I'm not saying I know any better, just that intuitively it doesn't seem right)

I am saddened that you were not sufficiently interested or motivated to read for the course past week 4 and I am somewhat surprised, and concerned, that you did so well on so little reading. I do not think any student at degree level should expect to do well unless they put in substantial self-motivated work outside the seminar room. 

I don't think a 'B' grade is 'doing well'. Nonetheless, if you saw in that post, I did not expect to do well anyway, and predicted a 'B-' grade.

"The essays are weird, I've no idea what she wants even after completing two essays and receiving feedback. Her feedback makes no sense sometimes and seems slipshod. Don't bother staying back for the 'feedback sessions she gives after she returns your essays, she gives generic writing comments which don't help at all as it's not specific to what you wrote. "

I am not sure why you found the essays “weird” because you offer no specific detail. That is exactly the kind of feedback I would have provided to you when assessing your written work. Your criticisms and comments must be sufficiently detailed so that the reader can understand your meaning. That said, I wuld guess that you found my essays “weird” in part because I asked open-ended questions and expected you to pursue your own thoughts and understanding of the topic. Students at NUS appear more familiar with, and more comfortable with, short answer questions that look for specific facts and details. An open-ended essay, in contrast, asks you to identify the relevant facts and details to wield an argument based on your understanding and your integration of those facts and details. It is more difficult, but it is exactly what is required of degree level students around the world. I want NUS students to be able to compete with those students equally, because NUS students are capable of that; they deserve an education that pushes them out of their comfort zone so that they may reach that competitive edge. 

I would love to give you a thorough breakdown of why I didn't like the essays, but I honestly can't remember what they were about. I do remember one major gripe I had was how you appeared to be asking for more elaboration on many things despite the short 500 word cap. 

I am sorry you found my feedback nonsensical, slipshod and generic. Again, it is difficult for me to address your comments because you provide no specific details or examples. It is possible that in my first year at NUS I did not quite connect with the particular difficulties NUS students have with their writing and so I provided comments that were difficult to understand and came across as generic. Nevertheless, I provided every student on the course repeated opportunities for one-to-one discussion and feedback, and I saw improvement in the writing of most of my students. If you felt my feedback was not helping you to improve your writing, you could have talked to me about that during one of your personal discussion slots. 

I'm not sure if I elaborated on this in my module evaluation, but I remember one clear problem of the 'feedback session', which is more of an administrative issue. You tried to go to each student one by one and go through the comments... and by the time you have covered half the class, you probably realised time was an issue and may have rushed through the remaining half. I recall feeling that session an entire waste of time as I waited for over an hour (maybe 2?) only to get some generic comment (I wish I could remember exactly what these 'generic comments' were, but being so generic, they weren't very memorable). 


"She doesn't do much besides read off her slides, and when even so her slides aren't structured well such that sometimes she describes an entire experiment which only had a one line description in the slide, and you are frantically scribbling down the main points of the study."

I find it confusing as to how I both did little besides read off my slides and described an entire experiment from a one line description. Whatever may be true, at university, and especially in a final year seminar-style honours level module, it is not necessary to scribble anything down, frantically or otherwise. The point is to use the lecture to guide your reading and to guide your thoughts about the reading. 

To address your confusion, there is clearly some typo in that sentence, judging from the phase 'and when even so'. Let me rephrase the point - The delivery of your 'lecture' wasn't well synchronised with your prepared slides. Often, I found that you read off the slides without any elaboration on the points. I remember this distinctly because ... ok here, let me quote what I already wrote: 

"She doesn't seem to prepare well for each lecture, sometimes she is reading off her slide and hits a point which she didn't know how to explain, and, I quote her: "ok nevermind skip that." ???

She did this multiple times. in one lecture."

And at other times, you can rattle on about an experiment which had only a one line description. It helps the audience a lot if you could at least provide a skeleton to follow your points, even if it repeats the readings.

"Her 'writing tips' were just strange writing stylistic matters she insisted we follow. Some examples:

- Don't start a sentence with 'However,', no matter what. 'It undermines your argument'. (?? That IS the point gosh.)
- Don't use flowery language, such as 'upon' (I swear, she said this). Use 'on' instead.
- Each paragraph must have at least 3 sentences"

Those are standard rules. However, you are unerring in pointing out that these rules do not have to be obsequiously followed. However, when you are new to writing the rules can help an author better construct his writing.

Quite likely you struggled with reading those three sentences above, and yet there was nothing obviously gramatically incorrect. Starting those two sentences with however throws the reader from one position to another and it is difficult to work out what the author means – should a writer follow the rules or not?! And you probably tripped over “unerring” and “obsequiously”. Here is the same paragraph but written with the aim of it being easy for the reader:

Those are standard rules. You are correct, however, in pointing out that these rules do not have to be slavishly followed. When you are new to writing, however, the rules can help an author better construct his writing. 

There are still problems in that rewrite. I would prefer not to repeat “however” even if it is now embedded in the sentence and thus less distracting. And I would prefer a different word to “slavish” but “unthinking,” or “compliantly” did not quite work for me either. Again, writing is difficult. Writing takes time and thought to find the right word and the right structure to convey exactly what you intend to say. I provide some rules and tips that I hope will help until each student starts to understand the process and can find their own style. Once a student understands the point of the rules, then they can break loose from rules and add their own “style” or “flair” to what they write. 

So you still stand by your statement that 'upon' is flowery language? 

I am ambivalent about this. On one hand, I see value in what you say - teaching a student how to write would reap immense benefits (if the teaching is effective). Doing well academically definitely requires good writing. 

On the other hand, I disagree with the idea of dedicating a large portion of your module to 'teaching good writing'. I'm not sure how it is structured now, but this 'writing' component should be a secondary component, if at all, of the module. When I took the module, it felt like you were giving disproportionate focus to 'teaching how to write' than to the module content. This accentuated my preconceived notion that the syllabus was not well-prepared. 

In addition, I find that writing rules tend to be subjective. I have just completed a one year stint in a policy department within the Singapore government. Policy work requires a great deal of writing, so I've seen my work corrected in a variety of ways by my superiors. I find that the same piece of work can be criticized or praised, depending on who is reading it. Often, the edits made by one person may be due to his idiosyncratic preferences, and when it hits the next layer of checks, that person may revert those very edits.

Back to your 'rules'. I still disagree with your 'however' rule. In your example above, the series of sentences are only confusing because you strung two 'however's back to back, resulting in an awkward flip flop of meaning. When used appropriately, I think 'however' makes perfect sense, as a signal post to indicate a change of meaning, even if placed at the start of the sentence. I'd further argue that placing it in the middle of a sentence (i.e. between two commas) is more distracting as it breaks the flow of the reader.

I did struggle to remember everyone’s name in the seminars and I did find the Chines names hard to pronounce. I still find some names difficult, but I have been working to improve my pronunciation; I am gradually getting there. I am also improving with remembering names and did so even while I taught the seminar you were a part of.

I made an offhand comment about how you struggled with Chinese names and 'gave up learning names after the first week'. Out of everything I wrote in the post, I think this is one point which I would retract as it isn't really fair to you. 

This point was nested in the bigger point about how I was especially disgruntled about how you allocated the class participation grades. I still think it is an unfair and silly system (which I was personally shortchanged) which should be changed (which I note that you mentioned was changed to be 'more transparent').

I wish, Alan, that you might also have had a more enjoyable and beneficial experience from our encounter. That you did not is deeply regrettable.

Indeed, it was regrettable. I had high expectations for the module as it sounded very interesting. It was also unfortunate that the other module I took that semester was very well-conducted, which just served to contrast against the flaws I have highlighted in PL4235. 

I will highlight in the review that you have left a response in the post, so that people are aware. Hope the students of next semester have a great learning experience!

Regards,

Alan

Anytime Fitness, anyhow fitness - Part 2 (The aftermath)

This is a follow-up to my original post which can be found here. I will basically outline what happened after my previous post. Sadly, this probably won't go as viral as the previous one as it's not so 'juicy', but I do hope it gets shared so people know the full story.

Timeline of Events

1) Anytimefitness Malaysia contacted me

9th June: On the day of the post, just about 5-6 hours after the post at around midnight, I got a private message on Facebook from an Anytime Fitness staff from Malaysia.

I thought it was rather nice of her, so I thanked her for her message and told her that I hope that 'something is done to improve the service quality of such errant staff'. 

From the Facebook comments, it seemed that there were mixed responses - some came out to defend the franchise, saying their experiences were nothing but pleasant. There were also others who claimed to have been mistreated by the nex branch too. A recurring theme was this - Anytime Fitness isn't that bad as a franchise, but the nex branch may have some systemic issues.

2) My post on Anytimefitness Nex was deleted and I was blocked

10th June: Some people told me to complain on the nex branch's Facebook page, so I did, including the link of my post for details. However, it was merely deleted later in the day, and I was blocked from posting any further on their page. 

Can still see my blog's URL in the Google search result lol! But the post has been deleted, so if you click it you won't find it.

3) I wrote in to Anytimefitness Asia

11th June, 10 AM: Not knowing whether AF would care about my blog (I didn't know it would be going viral), I wrote in to their Asia HQ. I was seeking some sort of official response from the brand, as they had remained silent and also tried to silence me (on their Facebook page).

4) All Singapore Stuff picked up my blog and republished it

11th June: Shortly after the email, a friend texted me telling me that All Singapore Stuff (ASS) had posted my blog in full on its page. Wow. Shit just got real. I felt mildly comforted that my story was travelling and would be heard. 

5) The story began going viral

11th June: I'm not sure what it was - maybe it was the injustice of the situation; maybe the story struck a chord with people who wanted to band together to protect consumers' rights; maybe people had similar experiences; maybe it was my quirky writing (haha :p ) - whatever it is, people were sharing it. And sharing it fast.

Within a few hours, there were already several thousand views on the ASS website, and their FB post had 100+ shares.

This is the latest snapshot - 22.3k views... that's insane. I think it's easily the most viewed/shared article for the day. From the site, there were over 1.5k shares. (currently sitting at 24k views), and over 400 shares from their FB post.

6) Anytimefitness HQ begins to contact me

11th June, 3.17PM. I think they began to realise the gravity of the situation and how outraged people were, and they began to reach out to me. A friend's friend who happened to be a US spokesman for AF called me but I missed his call. Their Master Franchisee for Asia, Maurice, left a comment on my blog post and sent me an email.

The email is a little long so I won't republish it here, but it's identical to the comment from 'Yours in Health' on the original post here. Basically, they tried to apologise in a very long-winded way. Here's some snippets (the bolding of words was done by me): 

"I am the Master Franchise for Anytime Fitness Asia and our team and all of our stakeholders go to great lengths and invest heavily in time, effort, training and tools to foster enjoyable environments and to create uplifting shared experiences at our gyms in the hope of nurturing our sacred mission - to remove the barriers to a healthier lifestyle and to change lives....sometimes we get it wrong and in this instance, we clearly let you down and I sincerely apologize."

 He did address the main issue on the free trial, stating:

"it certainly is not industry practice to promote a free trial and then to attach conditions or deny the access."

The email ended with:

I seek your understanding and consideration - we have over 3,000,000 members peppered throughout the world and countless numbers of tremendous success stories to share and I ask you to please persevere and give us a second chance - we are making a blanket offer to all Singaporeans to use our gyms for a free one day trial by visiting any one of our Anytime Fitness gym websites and registering with us and we will welcome you with open arms.

I don't know how the 3 million members thing is relevant, and I don't see how the bolded text is new information. In fact, it is a downgrade from the previous 3-day trial (and lower than the international 7-day trial).

The rest of the day, I checked out the comments on ASS / FB once in a while, just to see what was being said, and exchanged an email or two with random commenters and Maurice.


7) Anytimefitness Nex posts an apology on Facebook... only to delete it?

11th June 10pm : Something strange then happens. AF nex posts an apology on their Facebook... which they promptly deleted some time throughout the night (or maybe in the early morning?). Luckily, I had some screenshots:

I underlined the first line in red because that really annoyed me. Firstly, I don't know how else you can interpret a finger hooking action apart from being a rude way to beckon a customer. Maybe this is perfectly normal in Australia, I don't know.

Secondly and more importantly, that was NOT the reason why I felt aggrieved! If you read the original post, you would know I actually felt he was justified for behaving that way because maybe he thought I was a trespasser. What made me write the whole blog post was what happened after that 'non-verbal gesture'. The entire interaction, how I was 'suckered' into paying a walk-in fee (as some netizens say), his odd long stares, his refusal to give me a trial even though I asked several times.

Reading the whole message as a whole, I think it may have been eventually taken down because a more seasoned PR person realized that despite 'apologizing' twice,  it makes three mistakes:
1) Absolves personal blame by putting the blame on me (for misconstruing the gesture)
2) Sidesteps the bigger issue of the entire rude interaction
3) A little too lengthy

Again, these are just my guesses, and I have no idea why it was deleted.

8) Stewart personally apologizes

12th June, 630am: If you missed it, Stewart is the Australian boss, AKA Mr Bull. I woke up this morning to find that he had left a comment on my blog. Here it is:

Hi Alan,

On behalf of Anytime Fitness nex, I would like to offer my personal apology for your unpleasant experience. We pride ourselves on being personable and your experience and feedback shows that we must always work to improve.

Although no longer available we would like to offer you the opportunity to fulfill your No Obligation 3 day pass with us at your own convenience.
Please accept my apology and take up the opportunity to see how good we really are.

Regards
Stewart Hine 

Ah. This is how it should be done. Short and simple and direct. I like it. I appreciate that he did this, even if it was because AF HQ was putting heavy pressure on him. This was also posted on ASS's article.


9) Anytimefitness nex FB has a change of heart

12th June: First thing I noticed was that I was unblocked, and could post on their Facebook page again. [EDIT: Nevermind, I don't know if I am still blocked or they are moderating posts, but I can't see my post appear on their page when I tried to share this. Oh well.]

 Next thing was that whoever managed their Facebook page became disarmingly humble. For example, this interaction:

Chinno: -links my blog- I don't know this author but I pity him. Is this true?

AnytimeFitness nex: It's true. We failed.

And a few more along the same lines where they addressed the service failure head on, owned it, and apologized for it. I respect that. That should be how good PR/service recovery is done! Just acknowledge the mistake, don't make excuses and don't be defensive (unless clearly wronged), and promise to try to improve.

They also mentioned publicly that they had reached out to me, and hope that I would give them a second chance. They also mentioned that Stewart was 'not doing sales anymore', not sure what that means.


10) Outstanding Questions

I had some outstanding questions that were not answered.

a) "Free passes are still available and in fact we have increased the number available due to popular demand"

This was what was posted on their FB page in response to someone asking whether the trial was available. This means the number is still limited? Does this mean it's possible someone may get rejected for a trial when he goes down? Or will the staff manage it properly and not let something like this occur?

UPDATE: I got an answer from Maurice, the Master Franchisee.
"Nex and all of our Anytime Fitness gyms will honor the one day pass. They will definitely not get rejected for a one day pass"
If any of you actually get rejected for your trial from now on, do share it in the comments below!

b) After the trial, does the individual 'lapse' into automatic membership and gets charged for it if he does not return the transponder? Some of the comments I've seen complained about how they were double charged, etc, so I'm concerned about this.

This was what I asked Maurice. It felt like a strange process to have, from a customer perspective.

UPDATE: From Maurice:
"They pay a $68 DEPOSIT which is fully refundable if they do not proceed to membership. They are not double charged"

So basically what Stewart said previously is in complete violation of the franchise's processes(he said that you would lapse into membership and be charged if you didn't return the transponder). 
If any of you get told this from now on, do share it in the comments below!

--

11) Conclusion

Some of you may be wondering - so will I return to AF nex? Or AF at all?

Well, despite the sour experience with the nex branch, AF has shown that they have decent service recovery standards, which is commendable. I may end up going to Fitness First though, simply because it is right next to my office at one north, while nex requires a slight detour and by the time I reach after work it is rather late for a workout on an empty stomach, though AF is dangling some offers at me. I haven't decided, will need to start work first and see how the workload is.

Anyway, thanks for reading, and for sharing the previous post if you did. I hope you don't walk away from this thinking that Anytime Fitness is a shitty franchise, because I really don't think they are, they may just have a few black sheep.

Some people have also asked whether AF is truly and sincerely sorry, or just sorry that they got caught and this blew up on the internet. I've a feeling it's a bit of both. Regardless, from some of the comments, there were people with exceedingly positive experiences as well. With a large franchise like this, there are bound to be a few blips.

Take care everyone, and train hard (wherever it is)!

Have you been denied a free trial at anytimefitness before? Let me know in the comments below or drop me an email, with as much detail as you can, and I'll try to seek some sort of redress for you with the Master Franchisee.