problem after problem

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Probably flunked my Stats exam. I think the only good thing that has happened this week is tonight’s dinner with Christina and Stephanie. Ok…maybe the “loot” I got from attending the talk by Mary Kay Haben and the Stats homework deadline got extended to Monday. Just when I thought I could enjoy a breather from exams and homework, another problem falls into my lap. Great. Like major FML right now. Oh well, I guess we are all great problem solvers. Our mission in life is to solve problem after problem.

On a brighter note, here’s a kinda happy hippie song. There’s something about this song that attracts me. Not sure what. The woman has this weirdly annoying tone, but somehow it doesn’t really bug me that much. I remember I heard it somewhere and then one day while I was working in the Buzz office, it was played on the radio and Annaka was singing along to it. From then on, I really wanted to know what the song title was. And of course, Annaka helped me identify it. Yay. The mtv reminds me of the ’60s-’70s hippie period. It’s titled “Home” by Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros.

“Alabama, Arkansas, I do love my ma and pa, not the way that I do love you…”

Note: Found out later that it was used in that viral video of the guy that walked across America.

my life is officially screwed

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All the coffee I downed just to stay awake has gone to waste. My life is officially screwed by the stats exam. Almost panicked and blanked out. Told myself to calm down and think, but ran out of time to think logically. To think that I was half confident that it would go ok since I did one practice exam paper and it was easy. How many times must I screw myself over before I realise that preparation for an exam must be done way in advance? The little voice in my head is nagging at me. It says “You suck at time management.”

FML.

blogging anew

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Yes, I got a spanking new blog and no, I’m not ditching this one. I just wanted to encourage myself to write more. I think I used to use this place to give boring everyday updates of my life. Then as I got older, I found it more and more boring. Finally when I entered college, I wrote only occasionally. Each time was just a rant or a random video. I finally understand the importance of giving your blog a theme. So ok, this blog will still be my ranting ground and place to share my thoughts. The new one will be to write one blog post a day with the help of Plinky. And the third is a blog at the217.com where I share my thoughts of life as a Singaporean in Champaign-Urbana.

Then there are the blogs for class…ok, not going to those since those are just for class requirements.

a lesson on customer service

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I hate businesses who use generic email addresses.

No scratch that. I hate incompetent people who can’t do their job well. Whoever is hired to reply to emails isn’t doing their job well. What is the point of having an email address and asking customers to email to it when you’re not going to check it anyway? Don’t tell me that I don’t know what I’m talking about. I work in a job that requires me to check emails. Even if the reply is short and generic, I make sure I reply to everyone so that they know their email has been read and considered. This is good customer service. It’s letting customers know that someone is listening and a way for them to know who to contact should they run into a problem in the future.

Second point, new/junior staff, nobody is saying you cannot don’t know stuff. However, you should know that you cannot say you don’t know to a customer. Also, don’t try and hide the fact that you don’t know what to do by insisting a customer follows the guidelines. What you’re doing is just pushing the customer away and hoping he/she never calls again. That my friend is not good customer service. Guidelines are meant to help you, but it is not the law. Most people fit into the general where the guidelines would help them. However, you will meet people who don’t fit. So, don’t keep repeating the same thing over and over when I’ve tried explaining that my situation does not apply to whatever you’re telling me to do. Either you’re not listening carefully to my case or you don’t know what to do and you’re hoping that I’ll just hang up. I will, but I’ll make sure your company gets to know about it too. And if they don’t care, I’m going to boycott your company and well, you’re just going to lose a customer. I’m not saying that customer is king, I’m trying to say that you got to value your customers.

What you should be doing is to offer to either transfer the call to your superior or ask your superior about it and then get back to the customer. And make sure you really do get back to the customer. This is good customer service and taking the initiative to go beyond what is required of you.

I think the problem with some people is that they think a job is just something to earn income or get on their resume. I’m sorry, I look at a job as something which helps people reach their goals in the process of reaching my goals. When they are happy, I will be happy to know that I’ve done my job well too. I think that is the greatest satisfaction one can get out of a job.

something is missing from my horfun

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Moments ago, I was enjoying my beef horfun from Golden Wok while watching a documentary by History Channel on 9/11.  Yea, weird mix…I was feeling sick halfway through my dinner watching raw footage of the World Trade Center towers from a dozen civilian phone cameras. Anyway,  the horfun from Golden Wok is by far the best horfun. Tastes just like horfun back in Singapore. I was halfway through the horfun when I realized something. Something’s missing…
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fishcake.

ooh look, pretty wallpaper

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I mentioned to deary quite recently on how people seem to behave around me. Despite my contributions, I somehow end up being part of the wallpaper or I somehow just blend into the background. I’m the person who when somebody mentions me, the other person goes “who’s Elisia?” Don’t ask me why it happens. It just does.

Who’s Elisia? I’m the person who almost practically sold my soul in trying to make things better for the damn organization. I’m the person who BOTHERED to stay in the same position for more than a year coz I believed I could do something and I wanted to do something, not coz I needed the position to pad my resume. I’m the person who cares about doing good work and in the event people can’t be bothered and do half-hearted work, I will try my best to pick up the shit left behind. I’m the person who hangs out behind the scene and tries to keep believing that one day someone will appreciate the work I’ve done, but so far it always only happens to those who speak up a lot (and sometimes it’s just a lot of big talk and nothing done).

Before you tell me that that’s coz I’m quiet and I should speak up more, yes, I’m not the most articulate person, but I think I deserve some recognition. I know it is difficult to remember names especially in a large social setting, but it doesn’t take a lot to remember faces. I’m terrible at remembering names, but in place of that I take the time to remember people based on face recognition. I can remember classmates even from my kindergarten school days, I kid you not. I don’t mean that people have to adore me and worship the ground I tread upon, but a friendly hi when we see each other along the hallways would be nice. Sure, if we were in the same class and we didn’t even talk to each other, it’s fine if you don’t want to say hi. It is worse when I know we’ve talked and now you pretend that we don’t even know each other.

You know what? The next person who pretends to not even know me, I will make it so. I will not bother to ever talk to you again. I will pretend you are invisible just like you did to me. To me, you are not even WORTH my time.

Ok, I’m done ranting. *breathes*

how far would we go to obey?

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A few weeks back, we were talking about social influence in Social Psychology class. We touched on the topic of obedience where my TA talked about an experiment devised a long time ago by Milgram. It was an experiment where a volunteer was assigned the teacher role and the other person was assigned the learner role. The teacher and learner sat in separate rooms. The teacher was supposed to “teach” the learner a set of words. The learner was supposed to remember those words and responded to the teacher’s questions. If the learner answered incorrectly, the teacher administered an electric shock and increased the voltage each time. The voltage ranged from 0-450mv. Of course, 450mv was fatal. What the teacher didn’t know was that he/she wasn’t really administering any electric shocks. He/she would hear recorded groans and screams. Whenever the teacher felt uncomfortable and wanted to stop the experiment, the experimenter would not say “no,” but would say that the experiment required the volunteer to continue. What the experimenters wanted to know was the level of obedience to authority of the volunteer in the face of evil. The volunteer “knew” that the electric shocks were fatal. The experimenter did not disallow the volunteer to stop the experiment, he merely said that the experiment required the volunteer to continue. Shockingly, 65% of the volunteers continued all the way to the fatal 450mv. This experiment was later disallowed and labeled as unethical. However, it was done again in 2009. This is only the first part of the full clip. To watch the full clip, go to YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PassGyF8X8

The end of the clip has the most impact as the experimenter talks about the experiment. I swear that if you ever did something like this (whether you’re the experimenter or volunteer), you’ll just become disillusioned with life and people. I also think the level of obedience depends on the age of the volunteer and how much it differs with the experimenter. The younger the volunteer and the larger the age gap, the more obedient the volunteer is. That scares me a lot as this would be true for all kids in school. Although they have the knowledge of right and wrong, they also fear and respect their elders which would often trump their knowledge in these situations.

perspectives

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I have started blogging for the217.com. It’s more of a themed blog where I discuss about life in general in CU occasionally making references to life in Singapore. By the way, I’ve not moved, this blog is still functional.

Now, on to Perspectives…

seeing underwater

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Muahahaha…soon I’ll be able to do that and I will be able to see those fishies when I go snorkeling again during Winter break. Of course, that comes with a massive price tag after I went to the optician today. I had to go through an eye test and fitting of contact lenses and all that jazz.

No, that does not mean I’m going to permanently ditch my glasses for contact lenses. You must understand, I started wearing glasses since I was 8. I’m too used to wearing them. I tried switching to contact lenses when I was 19 (I think), but it just felt too weird. Nobody understood when I said things seemed to be bigger. Felt really weird.

Anyway, I told that to the optician and he explained that it’s not that objects are bigger. It’s the glasses that makes things seem smaller. I kinda of figured that out since contact lenses are directly on your eyeballs, but glasses are a distance away. Just needed confirmation from someone and not have people think I’m crazy saying that things seem to appear bigger.

Another reason why I will not ditch my glasses. If you look carefully, one eye is smaller than the other. Glasses kinda hides that and doesn’t make it obvious.

I had no idea that different brands of contact lenses have different curvatures. I was given a trial pair to put on while at the optician’s and was having a hard time getting them in. Ok, I admit perhaps I need to get used to putting on contact lenses again, but don’t get me wrong, I know how to do it unlike the first time I got contact lenses. After what seemed like forever (and two teary eyes later), they were in. However, the left eye was really uncomfortable. It felt like there was something in my eye and whenever I blinked, it made my eye tear. The optician thought I had put it on the other way round. Doubt so since I know how to see which way is the correct side…the whole bowl shape thing. I had it on the right way. He went into the store and got out another brand of contact lenses with a greater curvature. This time it felt perfect. No discomfort. He told me that my eyeballs were more curved.

Oh, and damn was I impressed that they actually have trial pairs in their store that were my degree. As most know, I’m as blind as a bat and not many people have that high a degree. Most who have it probably have gone through lasik to correct that. The only people I know who can match that are my sister and Ling.