Discovering Big Apple Donuts

Last weekend, I went to The Curve. The best part of hanging out there is it is just 15 minutes drive from my house and the parking fees is literally free of charge (the trick is to buy something at Ikea). Besides that, there are 3 malls you can walk around if your leg and feet can handle it. I lost count of how many times I’ve visited The Curve Mutiara Damansara but I’ve never went to a place call the Big Apple Donuts. I’ve passed through in front of the shop so many times but I’ve been put off by the price I guess.

So last Sunday Afternoon, I decided to accompany LV for a treat at a Wi-Fi enabled shop and found out The Big Apple Donuts provide free Wi-Fi. So, after trying out a box of donuts worth RM9.50 per box, I think it’s worth the price I’m paying for:


Having a Treat at Big Apple Donuts The Curve Mutiara Damansara 


The yummy donuts from Big Apple Donuts & Coffee 

I guess I’ll be dropping there some other time soon.

Getting My Car's Air Conditioner Fixed Again

It has been a crazy week for me. Blame it on this morning’s presentation and my latest obsession of playing Mayor in Simcity 4 game. I’ve overworked my poor old Acer Aspire 3683’s Intel Celeron M processor to the max. Hopefully my CPU processor wouldn’t give up on me yet.

Last week, I sent my car to the workshop. I have this thing whenever I’ve chosen a workshop, I’ll stick to it. Since Fasfik doesn’t cover air-cond and accessories repair, I went to my regular workshop located at Batu 4, Jalan Ipoh, KL. It has been over a month my car’s air conditioner couldn’t provide cool air especially when driving through the city traffic of KL. Car air-conditioning has been a regular issue I’ve been facing since I got my first car 8 years ago. My current Proton Iswara just got it air-conditioning back working after more than a year being without air-conditioning. Upon arriving at the workshop and popping the hood, the mechanic immediately pin-pointed the main problem my car is having. The cooling fan doesn’t work.

This had happened to me on my previous Daihatsu Charade car where I bypass the electrical wiring to save money on repairs. I don’t encourage you to do so because it will affect your car’s morning start. Anyway, back to my story, the mechanic then remove the fan and replace the motor with a new one. Apart from that, I’ve also replaced my broken odometer ever since it got changed after my car's seat theft 2 years ago. Enjoy the picture below:


My Air-Conditioning and Accessories Repair Shop 


My broken Air-Conditioning Fan Cooler 


The repair workfloor 


My dashboard being removed 


My Broken Odometer 

My total bill came in at RM305 altogether. RM185 for the new odometer, while RM110 for the motor fan repair. Hopefully this time, my car's air-conditioner will last long.

The Freeze Craze in KL

I saw a very cool videos a couple of months ago about a freeze stunt by a group of people organized by Improv Everywhere a New York City based group. Check this out:

Grand Central New York Freeze (31 January 2008)

URL: http://improveverywhere.com/2008/01/31/frozen-grand-central/


207 undercover people involved 

I find it very cool! Apart from that, there was also a No Pants day and over 70 missions that they've successfully launched. It has gotten a lot of mainstream media attention all over the world and it has arrived here in Malaysia as well.

Now compare what has happened on the other part of the world with the recent local attempt:

KLCC Shopping Center Frozen (30 March 2008)

 

They tried to do it for almost 10 minutes which I think is too long. They then got busted by the security guards.

Yesterday someone organized another one. This time, the event was spread mainly through Facebook (Improv Malaysia Group). The freeze lasted for 4 minutes with coverage by local media as well.

Pavillion Freeze (13 April 2008)

KL Freeze in Unison from smashpOp on Vimeo. 

Here's another view from another perspective:

 

You can read more of this event on Zestful's blog. Personally, I don't think I'll ever freeze like what the people did just for the fun of it. I think it is somehow silly but if I get paid to freeze, now that's another story.

Checking Out MAC Cosmetics Girls

Last weekend, while walking through Suria KLCC heading to CIMB Bank over there. I came across a small crowd having a look at some promotional gimmicks. Check this out:


MAC Cosmetics Models at Suria KLCC Concourse 

They looked like a real life power puff girl don’t they? If you asked me whether I like looking at hot girls, my guy instinct would instantly say ‘yes’, but of course LV would give me a stinging pinch for that. Anyway, I have no clue when it comes to cosmetic. My dear LV would definitely be an expert when talking about cosmetics since it is a requirement for her in her dance performance field. One of the reasons I fell for her though.

LV told me that she doesn’t MAC Cosmetics and with so many types of cosmetic brand, it is up to each individual to choose what kind of brand which suits you. Personally, I have no preference in any kind of brand. I normally buy any kind of brand which suits my budget.

I’ve never heard of MAC Cosmetics before so I searched on MAC which stands for Make-up Art Cosmetics on Wikipedia. The most interesting fact I found is the brand became famous through word-of-mouth endorsements by professional makeup artists, models and celebrities.

Now that is smart leverage!

Sneaky Telemarketer Strikes Again

In one of my previous job, I was a telemarketer selling a vacation club membership exclusively on through the phone. That was one of my most challenging job that I will never forget. That was also one of the most valuable exposures in the world of direct sales since I had to deal with rejections.

Earlier today, I mysteriously got a phone call by someone who didn’t even bother to introduce himself properly. I think one of the reasons he got my contact detail is because I recently collected my brand new CIMB Petronas Credit Card:


My Brand New Petronas CIMB Bank Credit Card 

One of my reasons to apply the card was to enjoy the 2% rebate every time I pump my car with Petronas fuel. One thing that bugs me is I can’t apply my Kad Mesra to collect points at the machine itself. I wonder why? The other thing is, I suspect the credit card collection agent themselves is selling their database to these people. If not, how on earth did these people got my phone number, right? Anyway, back to my story.

The telemarketing guy then kept on talking and talking and talking and selling. I was very skeptical as always since I did this job before asked a few key questions. Since I was online that time, I did a quick search and found out about the company. They seem quite legitimate since at least they got a website eventhough the guy didn’t tell me their URL.


Sri Vacations Club
 

The most annoying part is, if you try to tell them that you’ll consider about it and get back to them later, they will always insist on the one time offer and you will not be eligible over the offered price later on. It would definitely scare someone who hasn’t been approached by these salespeople but it doesn’t scare me at all because I know that is just one of their persuading techniques.

Another part is they will always assume you are already sold so they keep on asking you to feed all the necessary information right up to your credit card number and ultimately, your 3 digit security number on the back of your credit card. I didn’t even bother to take my credit card out from my wallet and gave the guy a phony expiry number.

In the end, I got fed up with the guy who didn’t even gave me a chance to think for even one second and disconnected the call after almost half an hour on the line. I immediately switched off my handphone to prevent him from calling me back, at least temporarily. I’m sorry, I don’t think I am in need for a discount card or any holiday package which I have to pay RM488 upfront. If I am interested to buy, I’ll find and persuade one of you guys that I really like to give me the same price so that you can earn your commission. A trick I learned after becoming a telemarketer myself.

Update: My brother who holds a CIMB Credit Card earlier than me told me that he also received similar calls like I did twice. This is an indication that the bank themselves are selling leads for these direct sales company to gain more businesses.

The Effects of Rapid Land Development

Last Friday we witness a heavy rain which lasted more than 2 hours. The downpour causes something unusual to happen, the water seeps through the ground floor of my office area. To make things worse, the water came from the underground septic system which caused a very horrible smell.

I’m lucky my place is located on the 1st floor. I can only sympathize to those who are working downstairs mainly two person whom I know are also fellow bloggers, EstNora and Afif. Anyway, here are a few snapshots I’ve taken:


Taken from the 1st floor of my office 


Septic water managed to get inside the ground floor 


Check out the water level 

Ady Romantika wrote about Rain Inside Alamanda Putrajaya the same moment when the heavy downpour hit our area (my office is just 10 minutes away of Putrajaya). Luckily the heavy rain lasted no more than 3 hours or else we would have been forced to shut down since it was a major distraction for almost everybody. The area currently is surrounded by major construction of highways and real estates development which might have been the culprit of this flash flood we've experiencing.

This week, the ground floor has gotten their stinky carpets removed. Lucky for us, the data center wasn't affected or that would have been the worst case scenario for us.

Why I Was Only Granted a One Time Entry United State (US) Visa

The beginning of the week, my brother and I went to the American Embassy located at Jalan Ampang to apply for a Non-Immigrant Visa. It was just a short 20 minutes drive from my house. I arrived in front of the American Embassy guard house at 8.30am since I’ve already booked an 8.50am appointment:


In Front of KL US Embassy 

The booking was done online here and I’ve already prepared all the necessary documents. Among them were:

• My Passport


• Alliance Bank Pay Slip


• The interview appointment letter


• Filled DS-156 form


• Filled DS-157 form


• An official employers letter verifying my employment


• My Itinerary


• My event schedule

I had to hand over my handphone since they don’t allow handphone inside the Embassy. There were two metal detector door which everybody have to go through. Took a queue number and waited inside the waiting room.


My American Embassy Queue Number 

The Mistake

Half an hour later, it was my turn and I surrendered all the filled documents only to find that my photograph were wrong. It had a blue background. The grumpy Indian lady then handed me a yellow slip and asked me to go out and take a new photograph that has a white background. It was my fault of not reading the instruction properly and entrusted the girl at the photo shop of the colour of the background since I thought she had done it before. What a waste of RM18 for that photograph.

I then walked half a kilometer to Ampang Park to get a new photograph with a white background. I discovered that different Visa application photo had different requirement when the shop asked me which country I’m applying for my visa. That place was expensive because I had to pay RM10 for just 2 pieces of photo. I should have gone for other shop but that’s the only shop I found which was opened at 9.30am and I am in hurry to get back to the Embassy before 10.30am. Because of this mistake, I had to take another queue number and was among the last to finish the interview.

The Interview

I lost track of the waiting time already, when my turn is up after gotten my fingerprints into their system, I was interviewed by an American lady. She asked about my company and why am I going to the US. I explained briefly about my company and the reason which was to attend a product update training, a business partner meeting and a conference. She then proceed and asked about my previous employment , my salary and my current job position. It was kind of lengthy (which my brother find odd since his interview was short) but of course I had to endure it.

She then told me the result of the interview, I was only granted a one time visit to the US. She elaborated on the reasons; it’s my first time going out of the country, I have to build more reputable career line (I guess she saw me as a job hopper) and I need to build more credibility on my profile. I almost argued with her but she said she could have refused my application but didn’t want to because she’s giving me a chance. I had to calm down after that because it would be difficult for me on my next application if my paperwork had some negative mark on it.

The validity period is only 6 months (it’s more than what my brother got last time-3 months) and once I stepped into the US, my visa will lose its validity.

The Disappointment

It was rather disappointing the fact that all my effort to get my passport done, getting my US Visa and all the additional hours of doing travelling research went pointless as there was a change of decision in my company’s management. I appreciated my boss for letting me know earlier that there was a slim chance of the travel trip would have to be revoked. However a part of me was also relieved I didn’t make it for the trip since I haven’t prepared anything for my luggage and all the additional spending I had to bare for the preparation of the trip in such short notice.

Anyway, I treat everything that has happened in my life as a good experience and it would always be treasured in this blog to share with everyone.

Can Enterprise Online Sales Demo Really Work?

I’m writing this post using my brand new upgraded Wordpress 2.5 platform. I find it good enough although I do missed the big old dashboard that has all those big fonts. Anyway, last week Thursday night there was another webinar which I’ve forgotten that I’ve already signed up to attend it online. I just realized about it the last minute when I suddenly received a reminder e-mail just before the online webinar was about to start.

Since the webinar was organized by Citrix, the organizer had everybody attending to install their software in order for them to show their presentation slides. Unfortunately, the audio is only accessible by dialing a toll free US number. Again, I used Skype for this purpose. It was interesting despite living in Malaysia, I have the same facility as what my counterpart in the US have. I just love being online on the World Wide Web. Here’s a screenshot of my desktop setup. (For those of you who like to analyze what type of person I am, you can see what application I have on my desktop as well *wink*)-


My Desktop Preview 

I love how the Citrix online presentation flow was handled. I’ve been to a lot of presentation from my experience attending talks, seminars and webinars and normally I can spot which presentation can attract my interest. This one, eventhough I can’t see the speaker’s face, the presentation style is quite good plus there wasn’t so much of a hard selling effort. Here’s an interesting slide I’ve taken from my desktop screenshot while hearing to the webinar:


Citrix Online Webcast 

Last year in December, I attended an online presentation meeting with a Canada based company. They use Adobe Connect to perform their slideshows and again Skype as the main audio communicator. That was my first time I’ve ever experienced a one to one online sales presentation and it opened my eyes to a whole lot more the usability of the web. I recorded everything using Camtasia software for my keeping.

An interesting perspective here is, not everybody is exposed to this new technique of doing demo presentation live on the internet. It might be useful at some point but there is so many technical aspect to take care of, at least initially. Anyway, the future of doing web conferencing online looks quite promising and I do look forward paying attention to it very closely.