I have never ever imagined what it would feel like when I arrive at this day. However, I do feel that I have grown at least a bit since the last year. The funny thing with growing up and getting older is you appreciate what you have today and at the same time you wanted to go back to your high school years in some ways too. It takes a lot of years to morph into the person you are today and you wondered what it would be like if you are this version of yourself 10 years ago.
Humans keep changing, and at the same time, human nature is the same. There are parts where we are essentially still the same person 10-20 years ago, but there are parts of ourselves we keep tweaking and keep 'current'. Information learnt from daily interactions; from people; from movies; from media; from social circles; societal customs and etiquette; all of this contributed to the changing line of thoughts which directly influence how we behave, how we respond.
As for me, I am the same person 10 years ago, yet I am a different person from a year ago. I wanted to be same naive and idealistic person yet at the time I was more awkward and scared about the world then. I am more confident and as ease with my current self yet I lost some of the youthful ignorance I had years ago. Family relations have grown stronger though, friends are more or less the same bunch, with changing level of friendships now. Good thing about being older is you are more comfortable in your own skin but more selective in your view of the world, that's maybe the bad thing about being older as well. No wonder people always say we need 'fresh' perspective of things. Fresh no more, are we?
Rants aside, I am grateful for living this long and having the family and friends that I have. I hope everyone keeps a healthy mind, body, and spirit. Om mani padme hum.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Customer service nightmare
I recently used a concierge service from Belgium-based Borderlinx to purchase some products from a US merchant that I could not buy with non-US credit card otherwise. The customer is provided with US and UK suite addresses and will only pay shipping fee after the packages arrive at their suite addresses. The company then ships the package to the customer's local address in his home country. I have been a loyal user of VPOST for this kind of service in the past and decided to give Borderlinx a try on recommendation from a friend who was a satisfied user.
It turned out to be a nightmare. The edge that Borderlinx has over VPOST is that the concierge service is free, and shipping is reportedly cheaper than what VPOST offers. But boy, what I thought would be a breeze turned out to be a torturous experience!
Here are why:
1. Concierge only allows you to place 4 items per order. Then you have to divide your items into separate orders. Some US merchants provide free shipping for orders over a certain amount, and you have to re-calculate which items in your order add up to that amount to take advantage of this option.
2. After I painstakingly input all the item description, price, size, URL link one by one, the website returned that the transaction had been rejected. No reason was given. I called my credit card company to check if there was anything wrong with the card, they said my card was perfectly fine. Did the data input more than 15 times before the website lets it go through. Hell #1.
3. After 3 orders had been submitted (12 items in total), I waited.
4. Two weeks passed, the package for my last order arrived at my US suite address. At this point, I was wondering why the last order arrived but not the first two. What makes it even more frustrating was, only 3 items arrived instead of 4 as what I ordered. Hell #2.
5. Borderlinx provides live customer service chat to their customers around the clock, not unlike many other corporations. I chatted with the first customer service rep, explained the situation, and was told to wait. Fine.
6. Every other day I chatted with different customer service reps, and had to explain the situation every single time. Sometimes they understood my predicament, majority of the times they didn't even understand what I wanted and transferred me to the original rep who handled my 'ticket' (log). The answer given was they would contact the concierge department and promised someone would reply within 1-2 days. No one even came close to replying, let alone giving me the answer. Hell #3. This is the source of my biggest frustration.
7. My latest dealing with the customer service department came to their agreeing to refund the items that did not arrive. After more than ONE month and I had to be the one to follow up. I sent email too, there wasn't any reply. And the refund has not come through. Hell #4.
My biggest complaint is with the concierge department, as customer is unable to directly place order with merchant, customer has to place his trust in the concierge; how and when the concierge actually places orders with the merchant is not within customer's control. This is a big risk to consider before customer places any orders. It is not that all the customer service reps are incompetent, but the working of the company as a whole; not responding to customer's repeated cry for help is just plain unacceptable, especially the concierge department.
It is unlikely I will place orders with Borderlinx again. I learned my lesson.
It turned out to be a nightmare. The edge that Borderlinx has over VPOST is that the concierge service is free, and shipping is reportedly cheaper than what VPOST offers. But boy, what I thought would be a breeze turned out to be a torturous experience!
Here are why:
1. Concierge only allows you to place 4 items per order. Then you have to divide your items into separate orders. Some US merchants provide free shipping for orders over a certain amount, and you have to re-calculate which items in your order add up to that amount to take advantage of this option.
2. After I painstakingly input all the item description, price, size, URL link one by one, the website returned that the transaction had been rejected. No reason was given. I called my credit card company to check if there was anything wrong with the card, they said my card was perfectly fine. Did the data input more than 15 times before the website lets it go through. Hell #1.
3. After 3 orders had been submitted (12 items in total), I waited.
4. Two weeks passed, the package for my last order arrived at my US suite address. At this point, I was wondering why the last order arrived but not the first two. What makes it even more frustrating was, only 3 items arrived instead of 4 as what I ordered. Hell #2.
5. Borderlinx provides live customer service chat to their customers around the clock, not unlike many other corporations. I chatted with the first customer service rep, explained the situation, and was told to wait. Fine.
6. Every other day I chatted with different customer service reps, and had to explain the situation every single time. Sometimes they understood my predicament, majority of the times they didn't even understand what I wanted and transferred me to the original rep who handled my 'ticket' (log). The answer given was they would contact the concierge department and promised someone would reply within 1-2 days. No one even came close to replying, let alone giving me the answer. Hell #3. This is the source of my biggest frustration.
7. My latest dealing with the customer service department came to their agreeing to refund the items that did not arrive. After more than ONE month and I had to be the one to follow up. I sent email too, there wasn't any reply. And the refund has not come through. Hell #4.
My biggest complaint is with the concierge department, as customer is unable to directly place order with merchant, customer has to place his trust in the concierge; how and when the concierge actually places orders with the merchant is not within customer's control. This is a big risk to consider before customer places any orders. It is not that all the customer service reps are incompetent, but the working of the company as a whole; not responding to customer's repeated cry for help is just plain unacceptable, especially the concierge department.
It is unlikely I will place orders with Borderlinx again. I learned my lesson.
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Sports and endorphin
You take a deep breath and dunk your head in the water, you emerge after two seconds, take another breath and repeat the cycle. You do this for half a lap, one lap, and finally, 15 laps. You keep counting. All this while, how many thoughts have gone through your head? In my case, many.
There are many ideas, or some could argue, almost all ideas, which were born outside of a formal setting where the idea is seemingly more appropriate to be generated. Offices, no. That is perhaps not the most conducive of places to breed ideas. Unless, if your office is Google's complex. Bathroom, yes, kitchen, yes, outdoor playing golf, definitely. You see, in our modern daily life, we are conditioned to do multiple things at the same time. We watch TV while we eat, and at the same time, read magazines. We typed our emails and remembered something that our boss wanted us to do. The kind of life that an average office worker lead is loaded with many tasks, which required a multi-tasker to do, as is often pointed out to be a strong point during job interviews. We don't have the time to sit and think when faced with multitude of tasks around us. That decreases our ability to focus or to just sit. When the body is still, the mind is active. When you do an activity that requires your body to have a constant motion, or be still, that is when the mind wanders. The mind not only wanders, the mind imagines, the mind travels to places, the mind is communicating with another being, the mind visualizes, the mind shapes and shakes things.
Whenever I am exercising, especially sports that require repetitive actions such as pounding the legs on the street or treadmill, with noticeably fewer visual stimuli, or swimming, repeatedly swinging our arms and legs; I always never failed to have thoughts and ideas passing through my mind. It's a lot like laying on the bed before sleeping. The mind is active, the mind doesn't want to calm down. I had to take control, and started to read about meditation. I even tried meditating, but I have yet to arrive at the place where I know for real what meditation is. Give up too soon?
Does sports make your life better? I would say yes, do more sports, be active. It engages not only your body, but your mind. In cases where you require other people to play certain sports, it benefits you in the form of social contacts. These things are beneficial to our health. Endorphins are released, we get companionship and support. It enhances your stamina and ability to focus and some studies even reported, to think. You know how they say people experience runner's high where they feel a sense of euphoria engulfing their bodies, feeling the air and the body is one and the same? That will probably be my goal. If I have the mental power to torture my body for that long, that is.
There are many ideas, or some could argue, almost all ideas, which were born outside of a formal setting where the idea is seemingly more appropriate to be generated. Offices, no. That is perhaps not the most conducive of places to breed ideas. Unless, if your office is Google's complex. Bathroom, yes, kitchen, yes, outdoor playing golf, definitely. You see, in our modern daily life, we are conditioned to do multiple things at the same time. We watch TV while we eat, and at the same time, read magazines. We typed our emails and remembered something that our boss wanted us to do. The kind of life that an average office worker lead is loaded with many tasks, which required a multi-tasker to do, as is often pointed out to be a strong point during job interviews. We don't have the time to sit and think when faced with multitude of tasks around us. That decreases our ability to focus or to just sit. When the body is still, the mind is active. When you do an activity that requires your body to have a constant motion, or be still, that is when the mind wanders. The mind not only wanders, the mind imagines, the mind travels to places, the mind is communicating with another being, the mind visualizes, the mind shapes and shakes things.
Whenever I am exercising, especially sports that require repetitive actions such as pounding the legs on the street or treadmill, with noticeably fewer visual stimuli, or swimming, repeatedly swinging our arms and legs; I always never failed to have thoughts and ideas passing through my mind. It's a lot like laying on the bed before sleeping. The mind is active, the mind doesn't want to calm down. I had to take control, and started to read about meditation. I even tried meditating, but I have yet to arrive at the place where I know for real what meditation is. Give up too soon?
Does sports make your life better? I would say yes, do more sports, be active. It engages not only your body, but your mind. In cases where you require other people to play certain sports, it benefits you in the form of social contacts. These things are beneficial to our health. Endorphins are released, we get companionship and support. It enhances your stamina and ability to focus and some studies even reported, to think. You know how they say people experience runner's high where they feel a sense of euphoria engulfing their bodies, feeling the air and the body is one and the same? That will probably be my goal. If I have the mental power to torture my body for that long, that is.
On movies
I recently watched a movie on a whim due to a recommendation from two friends a long time ago. In the middle of watching the movie, I was doing a lot of other stuff. My mind just would not sit and go through the entire length in one sitting. When I finished, I was baffled. It wasn't good at all, in fact, it was so, so bad. Why did my friends even recommend the movie (it's When In Rome, by the way)?
That got me thinking. Several years ago (I say several years because I cannot quantify the time when I started to think differently), I probably would've thought the movie is okay. You know how the movie review websites always have ratings that reviewers and audiences give and how sometimes both of them doesn't match at all? I thought that it would be a case like that but I find myself siding with the reviewers most of the time. Have my taste in movies change or have my ability to observe and judge a movie change? The latter is probably an indication that the rate of enjoyment I take from watching movies is less now as I don't lose myself simply just having a good time being entertained.
Of course the second reason could be because I did not watch the movie in a cinema, very rarely would my focus waver if everything around me is dark. When watching movies in the confines of your room or house there are things that distract you, or things that cross your mind that you are afraid that you will forget if you don't do it right then and there.
Regardless, as they say, movies appreciation is a personal thing, but hey, without a consensus, things won't get done anyway right? Rotten tomatoes exists to inform, educate, and maybe occasionally berate most movies it carries.
That got me thinking. Several years ago (I say several years because I cannot quantify the time when I started to think differently), I probably would've thought the movie is okay. You know how the movie review websites always have ratings that reviewers and audiences give and how sometimes both of them doesn't match at all? I thought that it would be a case like that but I find myself siding with the reviewers most of the time. Have my taste in movies change or have my ability to observe and judge a movie change? The latter is probably an indication that the rate of enjoyment I take from watching movies is less now as I don't lose myself simply just having a good time being entertained.
Of course the second reason could be because I did not watch the movie in a cinema, very rarely would my focus waver if everything around me is dark. When watching movies in the confines of your room or house there are things that distract you, or things that cross your mind that you are afraid that you will forget if you don't do it right then and there.
Regardless, as they say, movies appreciation is a personal thing, but hey, without a consensus, things won't get done anyway right? Rotten tomatoes exists to inform, educate, and maybe occasionally berate most movies it carries.
Monday, January 03, 2011
Sunday, January 02, 2011
Saturday, January 01, 2011
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Doing things slowly and deliberately
It's probably a better way, as I am slowly discovering. It is related to being in the moment and enjoying it. We all know and probably have read about how we are more productive when we do one thing at a time, and the results of our work are better than when we were doing multiple tasks. I used to want to do things very quickly so I can move on to other stuff, sometimes doing 3-4 things at once. Turns out, I was making more mistakes that way. Doing multiple things at one time makes us lose focus at the present task we're attending to. As a result, our work is of less quality and costs us more time to fix it. On the other hand, it takes us some time to adjust back to the 'mode' of the task, so it takes longer time to finish all of them.
When I was writing an email and suddenly remembered that I need to call someone, after the call, it's harder to get back to the emailing mode than if I were to finish the mail first then pick up the phone. However, I suppose you already know all this. Recently I've just only begun to be aware of these little actions that I'm taking that was very routine stuff for me previously. Some of these routines are like riding bicycle, stuff you do automatically once you're in the environment, like taking out trash, folding the plastic bags after putting out all your groceries, or even washing your face. I find that when we are more aware of what we are doing right _now_, we do better, thorough jobs. Like, washing our face!
Besides the obvious benefit of doing a better job, doing things slowly teaches you patience! I can only relate my own experiences in walking home with sore feet and carrying heavy groceries. Acknowledge the discomfort, and take one step at a time, eventually you'll get there. Deal with the blisters later!
The only time I can think it'll be more efficient to multi-task is when we are cooking food (boiling, mostly). Forgive me for the lack of examples.
Love the summer sky!
When I was writing an email and suddenly remembered that I need to call someone, after the call, it's harder to get back to the emailing mode than if I were to finish the mail first then pick up the phone. However, I suppose you already know all this. Recently I've just only begun to be aware of these little actions that I'm taking that was very routine stuff for me previously. Some of these routines are like riding bicycle, stuff you do automatically once you're in the environment, like taking out trash, folding the plastic bags after putting out all your groceries, or even washing your face. I find that when we are more aware of what we are doing right _now_, we do better, thorough jobs. Like, washing our face!
Besides the obvious benefit of doing a better job, doing things slowly teaches you patience! I can only relate my own experiences in walking home with sore feet and carrying heavy groceries. Acknowledge the discomfort, and take one step at a time, eventually you'll get there. Deal with the blisters later!
The only time I can think it'll be more efficient to multi-task is when we are cooking food (boiling, mostly). Forgive me for the lack of examples.
Love the summer sky!
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