I emailed the company to remove me from their mailing list.
Apparently, after receiving a reply from them asking me to unsubscribe from their newsletter and me writing back to them why can't they just take my email off, the correspondence got lost in cyberspace. And I'm still getting email from them. Click here for the article. Have you ever seen those digital feedback monitor installed at the entrances of public toilets like the one below for users to feedback on the cleanliness of the toilets? They have it at the airport, public libraries and some shopping malls. The intention is to gather feedback on the condition of the toilet and grade the cleaner's service. This morning, I walked into a public toilet and bumped into a cleaner grading himself on the monitor. A manager was recruiting a contract staff for a project in his department.
They went through a few shortlisted resumes and interviewed the candidates. A candidate was offered the post. She has in fact received another job offer which is a permanent position. However, she has declined the full time job in favor of the contract job. The manager requested the HR staff to clarifies a few questions before offering her the job. A few days later, the HR staff came back and told the manager that the lady has declined the offer as she has decided to take the permanent position. The HR staff then said there is a staff from another business unit who can take up this position. It's a tough economic situation at this time. An elderly couple is selling necklaces & bracelets, wallets & purses, belts and other stuff along a sheltered walkway in a housing estate.
They have their items displayed on a bench. This is illegal in Singapore. A lady in her 60's bought a pink bracelet from the couple a few days ago. Her friend saw the bracelet and wanted to buy one. The lady went back to them and ask if they have the same bracelet for sale. They have the same design but only in another color. The lady said she's not sure if her friend would like the color. The seller said, "If you don't buy it, later someone buys it and there's no more." Remember the post about Amazon Web Services Summit? (Click here for the article)
Yes, the one where everybody was busy queuing at every booth and going round collecting stamp on their booklet. Well, you guessed it. This is one of the easiest and fastest way to collect as many leads as you can within a short time frame, apart from giving out freebies. Where else could you get a whole bunch of people patiently queuing up, performing whatever instructions you want them to do (like filling up survey forms) and giving you their personal particulars so willingly? While not all the 4,000 over attendees are going to do around completing the booklet, a 10% rate would translate into at least 400 leads which you can follow up. Judging from the queues, I guess that would be much higher. Isn't that what most companies do at exhibitions? Scan visitors QR code on their badge to get their details, get them to fill up forms, drop their name cards, like their Facebook Page or follow them on LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram in exchange for free gifts or lucky draws. Leads. Leads. Leads. So that you can justify your investment in the exhibition and also follow up with these people and hopefully close sales. True enough, a few days after the event, I started getting follow up emails from these exhibitors. Some of them invited me to attend their free workshops, free trials or perform some assessments. All of them provided links to learn more about their products or services. One company sent three emails within two weeks for follow up. One thanked me for stopping by their booth. One thanked me for joining them at their booth. One thanked me for visiting their booth. Two said it was great meeting me at the event. One said "It was a delightful experience meeting me." Of course, these are basic courtesy opening messages and serves as trigger for me to recall where we met. I have a rather good memory and could still remember the faces of a few of the exhibitors. But given the sheer number of attendees, I'm not quite sure how many of them I could remember if I'm in the exhibitors' shoes unless the person has an unique feature, dressing or behavior. Coupled with the fact that most of them were busy focusing on scanning the QR codes and stamping the booklets, they didn't even have the time to speak a sentence more. It's just like a production line and the inputs are the attendees (humans) and the outputs are the scanned codes and stamped booklets. So I'm really puzzled by their opening greetings. I wonder how that few minutes of queuing and two seconds to get my QR code scanned and my booklet stamped translate into "great meeting me" or "delightful experience" for them. I was queuing to do an onsite registration for a friend who is attending the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Summit at the last minute. (Read the other article here).
The onsite registration is for those who did not register online. You could either attach your name card or fill up your particulars and answer a few questions on the registration form (if I remember correctly). The registration forms were placed on a table. Everyone is given a form and a queue number ticket. Most people who just arrived simply joined the queue as they assumed that's the procedure, and that includes those who have registered online. A staff was going down the queue asking everyone if they have already registered online and received the QR Code emailed to them. For those who have, they were directed to the QR Code scanning stations to pick up their badge. The staff was also collecting the completed registration forms from the visitors and passing them on to his colleagues in charge of keying in the details and printing the badges. The whole process was rather messy. The visitors did not receive their badges according to their queue number. Those queuing behind got their badges before the ones queuing in front. A few were delayed as they couldn't find the registration forms. The queue number ticket served no purpose (no matching of form to queue number) other than perhaps for the staff own tracking purpose. The staff at the counter was apparently stressed as the people in the queue got impatient as they were rushing to attend the various talks. I guessed she had to key in all the details and the answers to the questions into the system which slowed down the process. To make matter worse, the two computers connected to the printers were taking turns to hang. And then they run out of cards to print the badges or run out of lanyard. Someone in the queue commented, "It's faster to just write out the names on the badges." Why not just print the badge and key in the details later? Or simply write it out like what the person suggested. That's probably more interesting to look at rather than the standardized badges the rest of us got. And maybe it could be an ice breaker topic. Perhaps it looked more professional to have the badges printed. It's a tech event after all. I attended the Amazon Web Services Summit last week.
There were over 4,000 visitors for the one day event. Registration starts at 7:30am and the first 350 attendees to register will receive a door gift. There was already a queue forming as early as 7:00am and by 7:30am, the queue was snaking all the way to the end of the exhibition hall. There were about 20 stations for attendees to scan their QR code sent to their email addresses when they registered. Registration was fast but there was a slight commotion when the queue was broken into three lines and some queuing behind ended up registering before those in front. I noticed that there was a queue forming at one of the exhibitors' booth and went to check it out out of curiosity. It turned out these people were queuing to receive free gift in exchange for filling up a survey form. They also get to enter into a lucky draw by finishing a few activities during the event. The more activities one completes, the more chances he or she gets by dropping the tear out from a booklet that comes in the bag that was given out at registration. These people must either be seasoned attendees at this event to expect this or they have ran through the bag quickly to find out about this. It took me a while to figure out that there is a passport booklet which you can get them stamped at all the exhibitors' stands. You can exchange it for a lucky draw spin after getting all the stamps. Very soon, queues started forming at all the exhibitors' stands. As with all shows, there were freebies given out. Some exhibitors were giving out free vouchers for completing survey. Some have spinning wheels for prizes. There were laptop cover, tee shirts, popcorn, chocolate bar, stress balls and pens. And it's not difficult to find out which exhibitors' freebies are perceived to be of higher value. Just find the ones with longer queue. The more desirable your freebie, the more people you are able to attract to your booth. Everybody were busy queuing to get their booklet stamped and collect their freebies. Looking at the overwhelming number of people, these exhibitors also devised a faster way to expedite the queue. The staff will go down the queue and scan the QR code on your pass (to capture our details) and hand out survey forms, if any, so that by the time you reach the counter, they just need to collect the form and stamp on your booklet. While waiting in a queue to get my booklet stamped at an exhibitor's booth, a staff came down the line and started to scan our passes. He said to me, "I don't like the queuing thing." I guessed he must have meant that a lot of time is wasted with all these people queuing up to stamp their booklet, which could be better used in giving demonstration of their services or serious business talks. No doubt there are many people who were not going around to have their booklets stamped. But there are surely a lot a lot more queuing to stamp their booklets. That's when I decided to do a test. I wanted to see how long it takes for me to get my booklet completed. So I devised a strategy myself. I went for the shortest queue or the one where the queue seemed to be moving much faster. I spent the whole morning going round queuing and getting my booklet stamped until it was almost time for the event to starts. I needed two more stamps to complete the booklet. Just when everybody started going into the event hall, I popped by one exhibitor and asked for the stamp. The lady told me they have stopped it as the event was starting soon and to come back later during the break. During the break, the queuing started again and by the time the next session started, a lot of people were still queuing outside. Did you watch the video of a man being dragged off an United Airline plane because the flight was overbooked?
The fiasco went viral after someone posted the incident online. Most people have a love-hate relationship with the word viral. Business people want their products or services to go viral. Marketers want their advertisement or event to go viral. Internet singer wannabes want their Youtube videos to go viral. Bloggers want their next post to go viral. But there's no way that you can manage it no matter how well you execute the plan. And sometimes the reason you want it to go viral goes viral for the wrong reason or in totally unforeseen directions. The CEO issued three statements on the incident only to land himself and the company into a public relation disaster which will probably becomes a classic case study. The snowball effect is so great that even several US Senators have ordered a full review of the incident and a full account report to be submitted. Even US President, Donald Trump, has something to say. It was reported the company's shares slide by 6.3% and lost $1.4 billion in a day. The incident has also led to a public outcry to boycott United Airlines and a petition. There were speculations that the man was treated this way because of his race. Many Asians were outraged and also call to boycott the airline. The fact that the guy is a Vietnamese-American does not stop China's citizens from erupting in anger and commenting on US double standards in treating people and human rights stand. Over 100,000 signed a #ChineseLivesMatter petition on the whitehouse.gov petitions page calling for a federal investigation into the incident. In a day, the man's identity, occupation, personal history (he was a poker champion previously), his brush with law (his medical license was suspended for trading prescription drugs for secret gay sex) were all over the net. There's also finger pointing. Some say it's the fault of security at airport. Some say the airline should be responsible. And some say it's the fault of the passenger who shot the video. What's interesting for me is not how the CEO is going to salvage the PR flop, how much the airline is going to suffer from this incident, what compensation is the airline giving the man, his private live or who's right and who's wrong. I'm sure many of us suddenly become aware of the word "overbooked flights." Do a google search now and you will see major news sites like CNBC, CNN, Fox, BBC talking about overbooked flight and why are airlines doing it (in economic sense and using probability), how they manage an overbooked flight, how to avoid getting bumped from an overbooked flight and even what are some of the incentives you may get for volunteering to get off an overbooked flight. I'm not sure about the rest of you but I've never come across this term and never (should be haven't) encounter this in all my travels. It turns out that when you purchase an air ticket, you are just buying a journey from one point to another. Even though you've selected the date, time of flight or even pay for a specific seat, the seat is not guaranteed. Airlines have all the small prints to protect themselves which none of us will ever read. Paying does not mean you will be getting. By the way, I've also found out that there may be laws governing taking video inside a plane. It was 7:20am in the morning.
I was seated at a fountain at a shopping center while waiting for someone. Have you been in a shopping center that early? It was so quiet and peaceful, unlike what we would expect to experience in a shopping mall. The sounds that I could hear was from the piped-in music, which sounds especially loud and overwhelming in this hour and those that come from the staff of kitchens of eateries preparing for the day. I was engrossed in reading the newspapers. A man in short, singlet, flip flop and carrying a backpack came and sat next to me. I would not have noticed him if not for the "piak piak" sounds coming from his flip flop, which sounded kind of irritating and unwelcome at this hour. We know that shoes make sounds when we are walking and different kind of shoes sound different. The materials that shoes are made of, the surface that shoes come into contact with and the surrounding space also make different sounds. A pair of leather shoe will sounds different from a pair of rubber leather shoe. Walking on marbled floor sounds different from walking on a parquet floor with the same pair of shoes. High heels click-clack on solid floor. Track shoes make almost no sound on the same floor. Walking along an empty long hall way creates loud and long echoes from the high heels. In an enclosed room, the sound becomes short and drop. Some shoes are made to create certain sounds or loud/louder sounds to evoke certain perceived feelings. It seems good leather soles make more noise than rubber soles or poorer quality leather soles. When we hear solid sounds coming from a man in leather shoes, do we perceive the person to be more stable? When we hear some people shoes making louder noise, do we perceive them to be more important or successful or higher up in the career ladder? Sometimes, it could be due to habit of the person who is wearing the shoes or the culture. You know when a person is dragging his or her feet by hearing the sounds when he or she is walking. Can you tell if a person is sloppy from the sounds of the shoes? It's very easy to recognize Singaporeans overseas especially if they are wearing slippers. They always make a lot of "piak piak" noise which they may not realize it themselves. Some nationalities make no noise at all wearing slippers. The guy in flip flop seemed a little different. It's not so much of his walking style or habit. It seemed that he is trying to make a statement - to announce his arrival. I could be wrong but I couldn't recall hearing the "piak piak" sounds coming from afar towards me. The man only did it when he was just a few steps away. As a natural human reaction, I turned to see where is the noise from and who was making such a din to break the silence everyone was enjoying. I continued reading my papers after realizing it's the guy who was now sitting behind my back. He noticed that I saw him and made another "piak" sound with his flip flop while seated. I turned again, this time feeling a bit annoyed. And immediately I had my back against him, he made another "piak" sound. Was he trying to irritate me? If I was to turn and look again, I'm quite positive that he will repeat his action. So instead of doing anything, I did nothing. I continued reading my papers and ignored him totally. He "piak" a few more times as if he's trying to irritate me. Somehow I just treat him as invisible and decided not to waste time and energy getting irritated over the incident. Thinking back on this incident, I wondered if the guy is feeling insecure, desperately in need of attention, gets a kick out of irritating others or just crazy. A man was looking through three resumes sent in by different recruitment agencies for a one year contract position in his department.
All three candidates are of the same sex. One in mid forties, one in mid thirties and one in early twenties. As with all other resumes, the candidates all provided information on their educations, skills, work experiences and expected salary. The most senior candidate has a short write up about her job. None has a cover letter, probably due to the fact they went through recruitment agencies. The man was comparing them based on the information he has. The most senior candidate has experience in the same industry but is asking for a salary more than he is going to offer. He's also concerned about the working attitude and mindset of people in this age group. She can starts work immediately as she is currently in between jobs. The one in mid thirties worked in varied industries, has good knowledge of computer software skills and needs to give six weeks notice which he cannot afford to wait. The youngest one is fresh out of university and currently working in a contract job. She is asking for a salary close to the second candidate. All three have the relevant skills required to perform the job. There was a news two days ago about more people signing up for cycling course.
Yes, you read correctly. With the government promoting a car-lite society and encouraging cycling, there is an increase in interest in this sport. In fact, this "fad" started quite a few years back where you start seeing cycling events organized by companies. Suddenly, cycling is no longer a leisure activity that you only see people doing at parks and seasides. There are organized cycling groups on Facebook. You see cyclists going for night cycling or overnight cycling. You see people cycling on the roads with the cyclists in full battle gear that you used to see only in Tour de France or the Olympics. This is definitely necessary given how dangerous it is to cycle in a city like Singapore. The sports council even tie up with schools to provide cycling lessons to students. I did a search online and found some schools conducting such lessons. They have cycling lessons for adults and kids and cycling safety course. The lessons are structured. Mounting and dismounting, balance and coordination, how to steer with confidence, how to start and stop safely are some of the skills covered. If you feel rich or shy, you can even go for private coaching. The schools promised the lessons will be painless and one even has money-back guarantee if you ever fail. The one that I really liked promised this: "You don't fall. Period." There's nothing wrong paying someone to teach you learn a skill. That is how we all learn new skills in the fastest way. Sign up for a baking course if you want to learn how to bake a cake. Take swimming lessons to learn swimming. Learn Taichi from a Taichi master. Take up accounting lesson to learn accounting. Now with the internet, you can easily pick up a skill without having to take up any courses. Want to bake a cake, just look up on Youtube and there are many choices for you to choose what kind of cake you want to bake. My sister learned how to bake cake this way. The difference between having someone there to teach and guide you is that the instructor would be able to explain why you need to do certain things in certain ways. He or she will also be able to answer any questions that you have in your head. This speeds up the learning process instead of having to trail and error or try to figure out things yourself. But isn't that one of the best part in your learning journey? If you discover that if you add the butter after you've mixed the ingredient, the cake will be spongier, will you remember it the next time? If your instructor told you that these are the steps to bake a cake, would you have asked why or tried a different method and discover something better? Some skills take a longer time to learn while some can be easily picked up. Learning to play the piano takes a long time. You need to learn how to read scores, the different notes and keys on the piano, the amount of pressure to apply on the pedal and the keys, where to emphasis, how fast or slow to play at various stages of a music piece, the rhythm and even your mood and breathing. Swimming may not take as long as learning to play the piano. You learn how to float, the different swimming styles, how to tilt your arms at the right angle, how to repeat the strokes, how to breath and how to handle leg cramps, etc. You will start by demonstrating a few strokes for a short distance and go a lbit longer and longer until you get the hang of how your whole body coordinate. But if you have a fear of water, then it may takes a long while. I remember when I was young, my parents were too poor to be able to afford to send me for piano, swimming and cycling lessons. Learning piano is a luxury reserved only for the rich kids. Swimming wasn't so common in the past as there were few public pools. The only time I got to dip in water was at the beach and that itself was rare. I didn't even own a bicycle but somehow I managed to learn how to ride one. My childhood was spent at playground and playing badminton and table tennis, which were rather inexpensive sports and popular then. I learned to cycle through my neighbor who's family was better off. He would cycle until he got bored of it and then I got the chance to ride on it. I couldn't remember how I actually learned cycling. Perhaps like all other kids, we started by learning to ride on a four wheeled bicycle which is more stable and steady. As we proceed to two wheeler, we started off by using our legs to move the bicycle as we sat on it. And we put one leg on the pedal and started cycling on one side while the other leg still firmly on the ground. Then with someone holding to the back of the bicycle to make sure it doesn't shake too violently, I took the leap and have both my legs on the pedals and trying to pedal while controlling my shaking hands to stable the front wheel. Before I finished one full pedal, my legs were already on the ground. The second time I tried, I managed to complete two full pedals and the distance got longer while I kept asking my friend not to let go of the bicycle. And when I realized that I'm cycling, I turned back and found out nobody is behind holding my bike. When that happened, I fell. But that alone had given me confidence that I could cycle now. With my newly acquired skill, I would go cycling with my neighbors round the estate before handing it to the other kids to repeat the whole process. This is a daily routine for as long as I could remember. I've also got into many accidents as well. Running into railing and hurt my fingers, colliding with other cyclists, falling from the bicycle that's out of control or losing my balance and having bruises and bloods all over. I learned how to swim without learning from a coach. I would go to the pool and watch how others swim or strategically positioned myself near to swimming instructors teaching other kids and study what he taught. Then i would try out the strokes starting by swimming from breadth to breadth before I could finally swim a full length. And this is what baffled me. Cycling is a skill which can be learned easily. Why would anyone wants to spend up to $200 to take cycling lessons. If you are interested and not afraid to suffer some bruises along the way, you can easily learn how to cycle in one afternoon. As our society advances and people get richer, have they become lazier or too afraid to fall? Maybe they find value in such course. We are all different, after all. The cycling schools should seriously consider giving out certificate of attendance, certificate of completion and a certificate of cycling test. A lady in her sixties has three trolleys of books.
These books are wrapped in many layers of plastic and recycle bags of various sizes and stacked to the brim of the trolleys like what you will see in people delivering cartons of drinks. The trolleys are really heavy and need lots of effort to pull them. As if it's not heavy enough, there are bags of books hanging on the trolleys wherever there's space. On top of that, she has about fourteen bags of books (also in plastic and recycle bags) weighing from 3kg to 6kg. Every day, she will goes to the library with her possessions. In order to move all these things, she has to move them bit by bit for a short distance, repeating the process till she reaches her destination. And her books seems to be getting more and more each day until one day, she was seen pushing a supermarket trolley filled with her bags of books and her three trolleys. To many people who see her, they would think that she is a hoarder. There are many such people who like to keep accumulating stuff that they do not have any use for. And it seems that it's a kind of mental health issue. It turned out that this lady is homeless. |
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May 2020
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