Crash course in PR needed

I was very interested to discover that one of the contacts of a friend of mine was recently confronted by a classic case of PR-defiency syndrome. It's hat happens when the people in charge have no idea of how to about handling the matter.

Case in point: This contact recently bought a ring after specifically enquiring as to whether the said ring could be engraved. Assured, she bought it and left it with the jeweller who told her to return in a week and collect it.

She returned a week later to be told that it could not be done, and dissatisfied, she did what any self-respecting Netizen would do with a blog account. She blogged. They found out, and the manager called her up offering to take her for lunch. Now, that all seems well and good, until you discover that the manager was also bringing a lawyer.

Now, the first thing that popped into my friend's head was that that lawyer was going to persuade her to 'sign away' all her rights to claims etc. The thing was, she had done nothing wrong, merely bitched about the service, etc., which is perfectly within her rights. The best part was, she's also holding a law degree.

Interesting no? What you should NEVER do. :)

Big boo-hoo

In 1997, Malaysia had the MSC. This has affected my life in two ways:

1. LUCT decided to move itself to Cyberjaya.
2. Most people are using windows rather than free Linux.

Well, I can only bitch about the first, but it is rather interesting to hear that Gates is sitting on the tech council that advises Malaysia on her tech policy. Interesting, no?

Reviewing TOS

*In case you're curious about some of the terminology, check below*

As some of you (read:one) readers may know, I'm part of this online Forum/Community called Gaia Online. It's one of the few websites that I really enjoy and would love to see more of my friends on. They recently underwent some really nice changes to the layout, the design and more importantly, they changed some of the scripting to enable faster responses and also to streamline the servers.

They also made it mandatory for all current users to review the Terms of Services, and I notice that there was a part that no one really took notice of, which is the cybering part. No one is allowed to *cyber (because Gaia PG-13) and it's nice to see them take care of their users. :)

You know you have really good moderators and creators when they actually create a forum for people to SPAM. Gaia has this currency called Gold, in which users can use to purchase items for their *avies and use it like money. Because everything you do on Gaia (especially posting) earns you gold, there's bound to be people who will post simply to get gold. They created Chatterbox just to let people do exactly that. Spam. Aren't they nice?

Okay, as you can see, I really like Gaia Online. It's a really nice place to be. Check it out, ya?

The add is:

Blood is not thicker than water

The men of my family are real hypocrites! They say one thing and mean another, and when they are at fault, they don't admit it. It's something that my mom and I are not only annoyed, but angry. Case in point:

My friend called me up to tell me something about the transport today. I tried to call my father, but his phone was off. Then I tried my brother. His phone was in the room. So that meant there was no way to contact my brother and dad while he was sending them to school! And this coming from a man that scolds me if I switch my phone off.

My mother is also the same. She's bugging me to clean my room, which I refuse to do so on a matter of principle. One of the reasons is that unlike most cases you read in the paper, I have gotten closer to neither my father or mother. I merely respect them out of fear.

Trusting them was never an option. Not after they betrayed my trust over and over again. That's something that I cannot and will not forgive.

Damn that feels good!

CONGARTUALTIONS FANTASIA BARRINO!

Yes, this is overdue, but I can only say Congratulations. I just finished listening and watching the finale of American Idol 2003, and Fantasia, you are FANTASTIC. Really...

I got goosebumps while listening to you singing Summertime, but listening to you singing I believe was the best. It was simply stunning and unbelivable. Congratulations! You go Girl!

And BTW, God Bless you and your family, particularly Zion. She is truly one of the most beautiful girls I've seen.

What happens...

When you put two LimKokWing Mass Communications students in a line for the Malaysian Idols audition for more than three hours?

We don't get bored, we get CREATIVE.

Hehehe... For those of you who DIDN'T know, Tiara (a new friend I made through Dennis- Thanks Dennis!) and I went for the Malaysian Idols audition held at Berjaya Times Square yesterday (10 June 2004). She reached there at about 9.30, I about ten, fifteen minutes later (muse: you don't really recall, do you? Me: *sweatdrop).

I was shocked to see the line for those who had registered online to be so long... WOW! Talk about QUEUES! It was really long... Let's just say this: I think that that is the queue you would get when Malaysians are lining up to do everything last minute at the government counters. It was basically a four hour long line.

What we did was to create jingles. You heard me. Jingles. You see, Tiara and I were basically bored and we were acting like nutcases (I'm serious! :) ) and we started singing songs and improvising the words. We also wanted to garb a little attention (for the pure fun of it). Wanna hear the jingles? (Bold indicates melody song taken from)

Phantom of the Opera- Tiara's own work)

We came in droves to sing
To gain some fame
When we get on TV
You'll know our name
When will all this betgin
This Idol game

We're all going to stand in line for Idol!

Bagaikan Puteri -Mine

Jika dunia aku yang punya,
Akan ku menangi,
Malaysian Idol tanpa ujibakat,
Tak perlu beratur dan terus menyanyi
Sehingga sakit tekak. :)

Tis the season to be jolly- Both

Tis the season to be singing, Fa la la la la la la
Idol Bells are all a ringing- Fa la la la la la
Butterflies floating in tummies- Fa la la la la la la la la la
Will we end up being dummies? Fa la la la la la la la la!

(The following were supposed to be aired on 8tv, but I guess they edited it out! :( )

The itsy-bitsy spider

Everyone's camping in the Idol Spot
Down came the rain and washed their voices out
They all auditioned drenched from head to toe
And now we have the Wettest Idol show. :)

12345, Once I caught a fish alive

12345, Standing in the Idol's Line
678910, Learning our words over again
But when it came our turn,
We forgot what we had learnt
And then in the end
On our behinds did we land. :)

Have fun! :)

Quote

Judy Garland once had a very good and interesting quote:

Always be a first-rate version of yourself, rather than a second-rate version of somebody else.

It's advice I suppose that should apply to everyone. Why be someone else and uncomfortable with it, when you can be yourself and to hell with everyone else?

Then again, there's also something interesting to consider.

If you have been studying philosophy or the readings of some academicians, it would seem to suggest that we, as humans, are naturally at the same time, both social and loners. Then it came to me (because I love writing): What gives us humans the ability to distintguish ourselves?

You see, in my story, there is a small group opf people that the Weavers of Fate and Anake (Goddess of Fate) cannot control. They are beyond their power because of an agreement made a long time ago. Because of that, it got me thinking. How am I suppose to make Karma (my name for her) and the others control this group? So that they will do what they are supposed to do. How do you control something you cannot see?

Then I thought that what makes us make the choices we make are the circumstances surrounding it. The choices are almost always two obvious choices, something that we can't see (not at first) and not to do anything at all. That got me to thinking about how we are what our relationships and social levels dictate.

Does that make sense? I didn't think so either. Just thought I'd let this stew for a little while. :)

Sony pulls out of PDA market

In case none of you have heard, Sony is pulling out from the handheld (PDA) market. They will no longer market their PDAs anywhere else but in Japan. No reasons were goven for it, but the good news is that support for the Clie and its' numerous variations will last up to three years and that they will honour the one-year warranty from the date of purchase. It's a really sad story as it looks like Microsoft will be the winner, but then again, is all what it seems?

Politics

I had a talk with one of my lecturers recently, and she mentioned that the only way to really change this country is to go into politics. I was thinking of that as well, particularly after the last general elections. With all the young-and-upcoming politicians now on the scene, I figured that it should be a good time to get involved.

Two things stop me:

There is a ruling inthe University and University-Colleges Act that state that no student, while in school, may join or take part in politics. (This was mainly because the opposition were getting support from the public universities).

Another is that I don't know what party to join. MCA was never an option because I can't speak the language. Neither is Gerakan.

DAP... Nah. I don't like them.

Keadilan? I like their mission statement and all, but it's Anwar. And I don't like HIM.

PPP? Maybe... They have the potential.

We'll just have to wait and see, no? :)