Just in case you didn't know, ORD stands for Operationally Ready Date, which means i'm officially ready/available for any sudden activations that may occur if Singapore was to go to war. :o
So i'm not exactly free from NS, i still have my 10 cycle liability.. but other than that
I'M FREE ZOMG
Well technically my ORD is on 10th November, but after booking out this morning I don't have to go back to camp anymore till 10th Nov to collect my pink IC =) so.. cheers :D
Ok this post is gonna be like a... reflections post or something. I don't really have a very definite picture of what i'm going to write, but i'll just.. type as the things come to my mind.
Let's start with a 'no more' section:
No more waking up at 6am in the morning and having to fall in for first parade by 715. SLEEP.
No more cringing when hearing the word 'book-in'
No more eating cat-food-standard SFI food. I mean, everyone feeds the food to the cats. And i dont know how many times i've opened a packet of rations from SFI and spent a good 30 seconds trying to process what on earth is edible in the box, then decide that nothing is and hence closing the box.
No more facing the horrible 'birdman'. no elaboration as i can't be bothered wasted words on him.
No more missing WoW raids. :o
No more having difficulty sleeping because the other people in the room sleep later and hence don't switch the light off and carry on talking
No more thinking when i next have to book-in
Some of my worst moments were in army. In fact, i think the worst day/night of my life is definitely in army and i can remember it very clearly -
it was during my Sispec overseas training, during one of the days of field camp. It had rained every single day of the outfield training, leading to a very miserable mood among everybody.
So imagine us - wet, soaked, drenched (ok all 3 words have the same meaning i don't know why i just used them in sequence) and cold, and night fell upon us. The rain had softened abit - softened, not stopped.
We knew we had to build some form of shelter, since it was probably gonna rain again (dark clouds, lightning/thunder were a dead giveaway) So we built some shelter with our groundsheets, etc, then all hid under it. I recall there were 4 of us under one groundsheet.
The worst part wasnt my body being wet - i had no problems with that, besides being very chilly. The worst was the wet socks. They clung to your feet and made you feel extremely uncomfortable. and there's virtually no way of drying them (besides changing them, which is pretty pointless considering they'll get wet before you can even put them on, and even after they're on they'll just get even wetter)
So us with the wet socks and shivering bodies, we were huddled together under shelter. Guess what? Of course, it rained again. it poured. The entire night.
I had never felt so cold before in my life. Maybe it was the rain, or the cold, or the outfield.. or a combination of all three. But i really felt like i was gonna get hypothermia or something. The 4 of us huddled together and were practically hugging each other, to no avail. It was FREEZING.
And that was how we 'slept' through the night. WORST NIGHT EVER.
And of course, my worst sickness (besides the fits i had when i was small which i have no recollection of so they're not counted) was also during army.. this time when i was in my unit, during our overseas training.
I was healthy as a fiddle all the way till the morning of R&R.. when we were scheduled to go visit theme parks and shop and enjoy ourselves.. when i woke up that morning, i knew i was screwed.
My stomach felt twisted in a million ways. I had a bad diarrhoea and couldn't stay out of the toilet. I constantly felt like vomiting.
The doctor at the camp there gave me a jab and some medicine, but it didn't help much. I still constantly felt nauseous and had diarrhoea nonstop. When we stopped for lunch at some restaurant, i took a nibble out of literally 3 grains of rice.. but when the scent of food settled on my tongue i immediately wanted to vomit and my stomach churned. so i couldn't eat.
This carried on till i returned to Singapore.. how sad eh. Even on the plane, i visited the toilet 6 times. I think i'm totally familiar with the small lavatory on the Silkair plane now.
~~~~~~~~~~~
So now, on to the next chapter of my life. Which is.. well, before uni even starts, is having a part-time job. I've never worked in a part-time job before in my life. So.. lol.
I'm trying to apply for a relief teaching job in my old school.. probably my primary school. Hope i get it!
Till then.. i'll be extremely free, except for mon/wed/fri nights when i have WoW raids. otherwise, ASK ME OUT!. yes yes. free as a bird.
-flaps wings-
Wednesday, 4 November 2009
Sunday, 1 November 2009
clever mcdonalds
I must say, Mcdonalds has excellent marketing ploys.
If you haven't heard of their latest marketing gimmick, they offer 2-4 coupons per EVM that you purchase (4 for upsize). These coupons can be peeled open to reveal the potential prize that they may grant you.
There are some instant win prizes, but most are color coded to a Monopoly game board. To win, you need to collect all 3 of the same colour to form a set , as in Monopoly when you want to build houses/hotels.
The biggest catch is the dark blue set, which consists of coupons 'Sentosa Cove' and 'Marina Bay'. If you collect them both... YOU WIN $50 000!!!!!
OMG! like that's alot of money right? sounds too good to be true? well, it probably is. From what i know, there are many 'Marina Bay's (i have one myself), but only ONE 'Sentosa Cove' coupon in the whole of Singapore.
What's the odds of winning that?
And so throngs of people flock to McDonalds to pursue this elusive Sentosa Cove, in the hopes that they win the smooth $50k. Of course, there are other rather attractive prices, such as $3000 courts vouchers, etc. But i'm sure these are the same , with many of 2 of the colours, but the 3rd coupon that you need to make a complete set is extremely limited.
Has anyone ever wondered - What if there is no 'Sentosa Cove'?
It would be a terribly evil scheme wouldn't it? I can offer $192837123 as the prize money, but simply make it impossible to win the contest. In this way, I attract a countless number of people (completely random note - is 'countless number' a paradox? If something is countless, it cannot be defined in any numerical way can it? ) to buy my stuff as they're all greedy and want to win that $192837123 but actually there's no way of winning at all.
Seriously, McDonalds' marketing team is simply brilliant. At the moment there's another offer for those who order Mcdonalds via Mcdelivery: 'Win a Hello Kitty Sony Ericsson W395 mobile phone! Every $10 food purchase gives you 1 automated chance to win!"
I can imagine how that marketing board meeting went:
Chairman, McDonalds : Hmm, not enough people order via our Mcdelivery service! is there any way to boost the sales in that aspect?
Marketing Director 1 : We could remove our delivery charge? That's what some other fast food chains do?
Chairman: Are you insane? We are not 'some other fast food chain'. We are McDonalds! King of the fries! We do not have to conform to others. Anyway, if we remove delivery charge, what are we going to pay our already-underpaid deliverymen with? We provide them with cool Mcdonalds bikes and free meals already, but I don't think they'll work for us if we don't give them a basic salary at least.
-Marketing Director 1 slumps in shame-
Marketing Director 2 : How about we tag some attractive but useless prize for Mcdelivery?
MD 1 : Yea! We can call up some of our corporate allies and see if they have any redundant stock that they need to get rid of.
Chairman: Sounds good. Do it.
-several moments later-
MD 2 : Sir, I've contacted Sony and they told me they have a huge stock of redundant Sony Ericsson handphones they can't sell! Apparently, it is a Hello Kitty themed handphone, and it looks too ridiculous for people to actually want to buy it and so they have difficulty selling it!
Chairman: Excellent, take their whole stock, we'll use them as prizes for an automated lucky draw for our Mcdelivery service!
MD 1 : But Sir, who would actually want these stupid looking pink phones? Only girls? From our data survey last year, 80% of our customers* are male!
*totally made up statistic
Chairman: Sigh. It doesnt matter, Singaporeans are so kiasu, if they see anything free, they'll want it. This has been perennially proven by the sales of our 'Happy Meal'. The kids use the toys for maybe a few weeks and throw it away! Yet they still keep buying it! We even tagged on prices to some of these toys remember? And still, people buy them.
MD 2 : Ok sir, i'll make the necessary arrangements.
Chairman: Good. Now next on the agenda.. How to make the display photographs of our Mcdonald's menu even more misleading?
MD 1 : Increase the size of the pictures?
Chairman: We've already done that in 2007, we probably have to wait 2 more years or so for people to not notice the subtle change. any other ideas?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-the above scenario is entirely fictitious and is a product of the author's imagination-
Ok, time to finish up my Mcdonald's lunch. Anyone has Sentosa Cove? I'll split 20:80 with you!
If you haven't heard of their latest marketing gimmick, they offer 2-4 coupons per EVM that you purchase (4 for upsize). These coupons can be peeled open to reveal the potential prize that they may grant you.
There are some instant win prizes, but most are color coded to a Monopoly game board. To win, you need to collect all 3 of the same colour to form a set , as in Monopoly when you want to build houses/hotels.
The biggest catch is the dark blue set, which consists of coupons 'Sentosa Cove' and 'Marina Bay'. If you collect them both... YOU WIN $50 000!!!!!
OMG! like that's alot of money right? sounds too good to be true? well, it probably is. From what i know, there are many 'Marina Bay's (i have one myself), but only ONE 'Sentosa Cove' coupon in the whole of Singapore.
What's the odds of winning that?
And so throngs of people flock to McDonalds to pursue this elusive Sentosa Cove, in the hopes that they win the smooth $50k. Of course, there are other rather attractive prices, such as $3000 courts vouchers, etc. But i'm sure these are the same , with many of 2 of the colours, but the 3rd coupon that you need to make a complete set is extremely limited.
Has anyone ever wondered - What if there is no 'Sentosa Cove'?
It would be a terribly evil scheme wouldn't it? I can offer $192837123 as the prize money, but simply make it impossible to win the contest. In this way, I attract a countless number of people (completely random note - is 'countless number' a paradox? If something is countless, it cannot be defined in any numerical way can it? ) to buy my stuff as they're all greedy and want to win that $192837123 but actually there's no way of winning at all.
Seriously, McDonalds' marketing team is simply brilliant. At the moment there's another offer for those who order Mcdonalds via Mcdelivery: 'Win a Hello Kitty Sony Ericsson W395 mobile phone! Every $10 food purchase gives you 1 automated chance to win!"
I can imagine how that marketing board meeting went:
Chairman, McDonalds : Hmm, not enough people order via our Mcdelivery service! is there any way to boost the sales in that aspect?
Marketing Director 1 : We could remove our delivery charge? That's what some other fast food chains do?
Chairman: Are you insane? We are not 'some other fast food chain'. We are McDonalds! King of the fries! We do not have to conform to others. Anyway, if we remove delivery charge, what are we going to pay our already-underpaid deliverymen with? We provide them with cool Mcdonalds bikes and free meals already, but I don't think they'll work for us if we don't give them a basic salary at least.
-Marketing Director 1 slumps in shame-
Marketing Director 2 : How about we tag some attractive but useless prize for Mcdelivery?
MD 1 : Yea! We can call up some of our corporate allies and see if they have any redundant stock that they need to get rid of.
Chairman: Sounds good. Do it.
-several moments later-
MD 2 : Sir, I've contacted Sony and they told me they have a huge stock of redundant Sony Ericsson handphones they can't sell! Apparently, it is a Hello Kitty themed handphone, and it looks too ridiculous for people to actually want to buy it and so they have difficulty selling it!
Chairman: Excellent, take their whole stock, we'll use them as prizes for an automated lucky draw for our Mcdelivery service!
MD 1 : But Sir, who would actually want these stupid looking pink phones? Only girls? From our data survey last year, 80% of our customers* are male!
*totally made up statistic
Chairman: Sigh. It doesnt matter, Singaporeans are so kiasu, if they see anything free, they'll want it. This has been perennially proven by the sales of our 'Happy Meal'. The kids use the toys for maybe a few weeks and throw it away! Yet they still keep buying it! We even tagged on prices to some of these toys remember? And still, people buy them.
MD 2 : Ok sir, i'll make the necessary arrangements.
Chairman: Good. Now next on the agenda.. How to make the display photographs of our Mcdonald's menu even more misleading?
MD 1 : Increase the size of the pictures?
Chairman: We've already done that in 2007, we probably have to wait 2 more years or so for people to not notice the subtle change. any other ideas?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-the above scenario is entirely fictitious and is a product of the author's imagination-
Ok, time to finish up my Mcdonald's lunch. Anyone has Sentosa Cove? I'll split 20:80 with you!
Tuesday, 20 October 2009
america's got talent?
ok i know i'm a little slow to talk about America's got Talent since it ended quite some weeks ago.. but hey it's not like i get alot of free time outside to watch shows.. so. yea.
anyway, dunno how many of you actually follow America's got Talent.. I think Singapore is actually slow a few weeks? i'm not sure. has the finale shown yet? if it has, then read on, if it hasn't and you don't wanna be spoilt, stop reading.
.
.
.
Ok the winner of the contest was this fella called Kevin Skinner. I didn't follow the show so i had no idea who he was, so i just youtubed his Finals performance video:
Kevin Skinner cover of Don't want to miss a thing
what the hell?? He isn't good at all?
Aerosmith sang this song with great soul and emotion - this song was probably used by countless 'emo' videos , like those used at high school graduations or whatever.
and i think it basically ruined the song with his weak voice and pitchy singing. He didn't even stay in tune for half the song?!?
(in case you want to hear the original song, here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vo_0UXRY_rY )
I can see how he got famous (kevin skinner) from his audition video, which is really not bad, where he sang 'Tomorrow never comes'. But i think the nicest part is his guitar playing? lol. and he had a little sense of humor and likeability cos of his humble comings.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X29t9gfU5p4
i can't find a decent video of it on youtube it's all bad quality. this is the best sound quality one. The guitar playing is really nice! i wanna learn =X lol.
But his finals performance was really bad?
I mean, you wanna see a zhai finals performance, check out britain's got talent's finals performance of the winner. It's a dance group so it's a little different.. but it's quite breathtaking!
here:
Diversity
BANG! their ending is just superb isn't it!
If you liked it, you should check out their other performances, each one of them is highly entertaining and damn good
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pg3fvanDDc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPcGy77Gru8 (<-- their audition, SUPER NICE)
Their rival, Flawless, are also extremely talented, but i just find their performances not as entertaining. and their finals performance wasn't very entertaining. But they're definitely good.
sigh ok i'm so free to post all this nonsense cos wow is having maintenance. think i'll sleep early today and wake up early tomorrow to play =) nite!
anyway, dunno how many of you actually follow America's got Talent.. I think Singapore is actually slow a few weeks? i'm not sure. has the finale shown yet? if it has, then read on, if it hasn't and you don't wanna be spoilt, stop reading.
.
.
.
Ok the winner of the contest was this fella called Kevin Skinner. I didn't follow the show so i had no idea who he was, so i just youtubed his Finals performance video:
Kevin Skinner cover of Don't want to miss a thing
what the hell?? He isn't good at all?
Aerosmith sang this song with great soul and emotion - this song was probably used by countless 'emo' videos , like those used at high school graduations or whatever.
and i think it basically ruined the song with his weak voice and pitchy singing. He didn't even stay in tune for half the song?!?
(in case you want to hear the original song, here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vo_0UXRY_rY )
I can see how he got famous (kevin skinner) from his audition video, which is really not bad, where he sang 'Tomorrow never comes'. But i think the nicest part is his guitar playing? lol. and he had a little sense of humor and likeability cos of his humble comings.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X29t9gfU5p4
i can't find a decent video of it on youtube it's all bad quality. this is the best sound quality one. The guitar playing is really nice! i wanna learn =X lol.
But his finals performance was really bad?
I mean, you wanna see a zhai finals performance, check out britain's got talent's finals performance of the winner. It's a dance group so it's a little different.. but it's quite breathtaking!
here:
Diversity
BANG! their ending is just superb isn't it!
If you liked it, you should check out their other performances, each one of them is highly entertaining and damn good
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pg3fvanDDc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPcGy77Gru8 (<-- their audition, SUPER NICE)
Their rival, Flawless, are also extremely talented, but i just find their performances not as entertaining. and their finals performance wasn't very entertaining. But they're definitely good.
sigh ok i'm so free to post all this nonsense cos wow is having maintenance. think i'll sleep early today and wake up early tomorrow to play =) nite!
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