Of Love and Cabs

I remember reading some chain letter that claimed if you thought of this person or that person non-stop, wishing that you can see him or her the next moment, not wanting to even say good bye at the end of the day - you must be in love with that person. Well, based on this definition, I must be in love. 

Settling down in the morning after speaking to my supervisor, my first thought apart from the arduous tasks ahead, was about 'her'. While typing my password to gain access to my files, I found myself thinking of how smooth she felt under my finger tips. The uncomfortable lags between the start up and operations of my working computer made me even desire her comforting presence. 

Yes, I am in love with my iMac. 

_________

And so I was reading about how 888.com, an online poker site is using cab drivers in london to advertise for them. Talk about being innovative and in-your-face! They obviously know their marketing theory well enough; that word of mouth is one of the most effective ways of reaching your consumer. Perhaps they read the same report I mentioned in one of my previous entries. 

But anyway, can you imagine what will happen if this were to take place in Singapore? 

Politics, current affairs and complaints will become intertwined with your marketing message. Some passengers may only receive half of the message because they are worrying about their lives instead - how do you not get worried with a male, expletive spewing, overly speeding and unduly overtaking taxi driver driving you during peak hour? To add on to the passenger's worries, he has to deal with the jumping taxi meter that increases exponentially. 

How about the other half of the passengers? Most of them will either be engrossed in smses, napping, blackberry-ing or even smooching with their other halves. Some might also 'kindly' ask the taxi driver to concentrate on the road ahead. 

In any case, I don't think we will expect such a marketing campaign on our shores anytime soon. That is if people are still willing to take taxis after the fare hike and the numerous ERPs waiting like venus flytraps all over the island. 

Happy Birthday!

Today holds great significance in my life - it is the day when i say my au revoir to pc and bonjour mac. 

So this entry is to celebrate the birthday of my iMac - ________ 

I'm still trying to think of a name for him/her. Any suggestions? Best suggestion wins you 15 mins with my iMac! 

=)

Work Work Work!

So I finally started work. My supervisor has been really helpful in lots of stuff and I am really thankful for that. Strangely, I am looking forward to the heavy workload - 2 major projects on topics that I know nuts about, regular compilations of data analysis, and being a meeting coordinator of some sorts, having to call up people to pay their debts on the actionable items of previous meetings. And to complete my internship experience, one cannot forget the must-do, must-have experience of being a photocopy boy. While it is not part of my job scope, my name found its place in the volunteer list for helping out someone with a tremendous load of work to do. Not that I am sore about it, but ramblings are about random stuff, no?

So during the intense workout I got from photocopying old transparencies, my mind drifted to the article I read in the last issue of Economist for the year 2007. Apparently, this housewife dedicated herself to finding out the most efficient way of doing housework, in minimal time and minimal effort. She calculated the number of steps or actions that have to be taken with different kitchen set-ups and suggested the optimal conditions or settings for doing housework.

So I began to develop my own photocopy theory, coupled with trial tests. In order to photocopy the old transparencies, one has to first take a transparency out of the transparent sleeve, align a white sheet of paper behind it, load it into the machine, and zap that page. After doing it, you have to put that transparency back into the sleeve, flip the page and take the next one out. So as not to bore you with my little secret experiment in one of the storerooms of the office, let me just say that the optimal process of doing this mundane job, is to take out one of the sleeves from the file, and place it back in at the end. This saved me at least 10 secs for each transparency, and with a total of 59 transparencies, 590 seconds, saving me almost 10 minutes of solitary confinement! =)

Well, that is that, and I am looking forward to getting a new pet called iMac with a Leopard inside. Guess I should be shopping for it soon, cos the photos from my exchange are screaming out to me for editing. Definitely have to clear this baggage before I move on to new projects in Singapore. And I am sure Lady Nikon will be glad that I will be going out with her again soon.