Aug
13
2010
A couple of my friends asked me this question about the KTM ETS train ride. So is it really worth it, or not? I find it very subjective because the sense of “worth” is a very personal thing.
Aug
13
2010
August 12 2010 was the first day when the KTM ETS from Ipoh to KL Sentral (even though we have Time Square that spells exactly like the one in New York but we don’t want to copy the name of the Grand Central Terminal) went into business. I felt so lucky to have the opportunity to get myself a ticket to have a joyride to KL.
Aug
3
2010
Dear Customer Support,
I was touring Japan during Chinese New Year holidays this year and happy that I bought the GH1 there to record my memories. The camera performs well till now, but both of the strap lugs had detached from the body by themselves within 3 months after the purchase. This is clearly a manufacturer defect.
I was away from Malaysia after that incident and was using the camera without the strap (very inconvenient) till I came back a few days ago. I took it to the Shah Alam service center today only to find out that I need to pay more than RM300 to fix something which is not caused by my own neglect. Even checking it will cost me RM50.
I am extremely disappointed with this outcome. It just shows that customers are not the core of the after sales service of Panasonic because the customer care representative just brushed me off saying that she can’t do anything to help me because I bought the camera in Japan. I was told that the warranty is not valid in Malaysia. I just have to pay.
I need to fix the camera anyway because I just can’t walking around with camera with an obvious defect (which does not serve well for Panasonic branding too) in my trips. The RM300++ charges for fixing two camera strap lugs just made a dent into my confidence in Panasonic. I am pretty sure that my next camera purchase will highly probably not be a Panasonic camera.
For your information I am also posting this email to the Internet as well just in case it is being brushed off.
Thank you very much for your attention.
Jul
24
2010
The 15th Hong Kong Independent Short Film & Video Awards (ifva) is over but do not despair fellow filmmakers. The 16th is going to be opened for nomination soon, starting September 2010. No official info on the nomination has been released yet but you can check ifva’s site in August. It has a “Asian New Force” category, so friends in Asia are encouraged to participate too. 
Jun
24
2010
South Africa celebrates Youth Day with a public holiday and I was in Edgars at the Eastgate Mall that afternoon. I didn’t know that Edgars had Youth Day sales until my counterpart from Florida A&M University (FAMU), Professor Joe Ritchie, bought a pair of gloves. This is what happened to him… he took a pair of gloves from the shelf; it was on 25% discount. He took it to the checkout counter and the cashier gave him a Youth Day scratch card. He got lucky. He had another 50% discount as indicated on the scratch card. Not a bad deal after all.
Incidentally, I needed a few pairs of gloves for my students and myself to survive one of the coldest Joburg winters in recent years. And how could I resist the temptation on discount upon discount? So I went to the same shelf, took the same gloves, went to the same checkout counter and guess what? The friendly cashier told me that I won’t be given the chance to scratch the Youth Day discount card because I was buying the discounted item. My jaw dropped, I turned my head and looked at Joe, I think I was able to tell to him that I was denied the chance of my lifetime to try my luck on a huge discount merely through my eye contact. I was devastated. The cashier went on to explain the terms and conditions of the Youth Day scratch card. Utterly disappointed, I told her to save her breath if she was not going to let me scratch the card. Anyway, I still got 25% off the price tag.
I then met up with another Professor from FAMU, Andrew Skerritt, after the scratch card fiasco and he rubbed it in with a joke. He suggested that maybe I am not black enough. He ended his line with his one-of-a-kind laugh. Andrew’s words kind of struck me right on the spot. Joe is African American, the cashier is Black South African and I am Chinese Malaysian, I don’t know what colour category I fall into for South Africans. But wait a minute! This situation became more delicate than I thought: a simple case of misunderstanding and miscommunication at the departmental store checkout counter can be so easily turned into a racial issue based on skin deep appearance. Yes, our minds can be so easily tricked into taking a shortcut to explain our problems. We just need to keep reminding ourselves not to fall into that trap.
To know more about what we are doing in South Africa you may go to the following sites:
- Chinese: http://theicampus.org/worldcup
- English: http://famustu.net/worldcup