Out of Luck

The Oxford letter came in today - in a small, thin envelope. I was exhilirated at receiving the letter after waiting so many days for the response. Most people had already known their admission status. But I also know that a small, thin envelope can never be good news.

True enough, when I open the letter there was no good news in it. I’m disappointed for not being admitted into Oxford to read PPE.

Now I only have offers from UCL and Warwick to read Economics and PPE respectively. I was also accepted by Birmingham to read Economics and Political Science.

Well, I don’t really know what to make of this situation after being rejected by Oxford and LSE a few months back. But then again I guess this is a blessing in disguise. Ever since I came back in KL I was severely disillusioned about my course of study in UK. My dad is questioning my logic of studying Economics in university. What will I do with an Economics degree? No technical, specialised skill with such a generic degree. Don’t even mention Philosophy and Politics. He can go bonkers. What can I possibly do with Philosophy and Politics? Not much jobs directly related to PPE - all indirectly related through the skills and thought process of studying PPE.

I guess I will be giving up on my childhood dream of studying in UK. I have dreamt of studying ever since I was a young boy. I still have 2 offers, but they are both London universities. My dad can’t afford to pay for them. I know I can still fight it out to get a Malaysian government scholarship to study there. But the thought of spending my next 6 years bonded to an organisation without much prospects and with low pay is a depressing thought. I would rather be free to work wherever I want and to quit whenever I want in any private company. And I would like to set up my own company a few years after graduation. Singapore seems to offer me the best opportunity - 3 years bond in any Singapore registered company that is just about the right time to get my job experience.

And since I pretty much corked out my UK university application with Economics and PPE, I will still have a second chance of selecting courses in Singapore universities like Banking, Finance, Accounting, Business etc. I will have the next 3 months to do a proper research of the prospects and type of jobs with a degree in any one of those courses.

Well, the UK dream is not entirely over. I can still pursue my Masters in UK. Well, that we might probably afford. Since I might not be going to UK, I will just start backpacking to Europe soon. I am looking for a partner to follow me. Any takers?

2008 Christmas Resolution

These days in KL, time seriously STILL passes by so quickly. HOW CAN THIS BE?
While in Singapore, it was understandable that I complained of not having enough time because there was a lot of things to do. But now? In KL, post A-levels?

There is nothing much to do. But bumming around spending time in front of the tv and the computer seriously causes time to fly by pretty quickly. And it is not unusual for days to past without me doing anything productive.

This can’t go on. I can’t waste my 8 months doing nothing. Since it’s Christmas, I’m gonna start a Christmas Resolution. This is weird, but nevermind. Who does a Christmas resolution? No one but me.

So my 2008 Christmas Resolution, tenable for at least the next 8 months before my university starts will be………to do something productive everyday.

And I shall do my best to chronicle my productive activities here in this blog under the header:

Productive Activity of the Day (2008 Christmas Resolution)
~Some Productive Activity~

The Spirit Movie Premier

This is retarded. I was supposed to go to Sunway Pyramid today to watch The Spirit movie premier at 9.30pm cause I won 4 free invites from hitz.fm….The DJ told me the other day that the movie starts at 9.30 and I can collect my ticket from 7.30-9.30pm. So I was at Pyramid TGV Cinema at 9.00pm to collect my ticket and the hitz.fm counter is already closed. Total WTH.

Perhaps I had a call from hitz.fm this afternoon, but I did not manage to answer the phone. Missed call la. Called the number back, but it was a generic number at Astro and the caller could not be tracked. At least bother to message or call me a second time to confirm my ticket collection.

So apparently the story was - I was late by 5 minutes and the hitz.fm counter closed on me. Screwed up.

Luckily Advertlets was also giving away free tickets to the movie premier. I talked nicely to one of the lady manning the Advertlets counter there, Vernice (Did I get your name right? I know you will be reading this. Sorry if it’s wrong.)

Told her how I’m a member of Advertlets and hitz.fm screwed up on me. (Hey, you see Advertlets ads here rite? Told ya I’m not lying. You can check my history. I was already paid RM100 by Advertlets. Strong supporter for a long time.)

And how I needed 3 tixs for the movie - me, my sis and my dad. I will be screwed nicely by them had I not obtained the movie tixs. So thank you very much for providing me with the tickets and saving my butt from being spanked by them.

Nice Advertlets stickers. These stickers are going up my sticker wall on my room door.

Advertlets is cool. They have paid posts. And it’s the fastest way to reach the checkout target. Btw, how do I join Advertlets Titan? Is it an automatic thing as long as I have Advertlets ads running here and no other ads from other online advertising company from South East Asia? Kindly enlighten me. Thank you.

Lastly, THANK YOU again for letting me in the movie premier.

Colin in KL

Han Sen, Colin, me

Here’s a photo of us in front of Colin’s hotel. Should have taken one with Nelson in front of the twin towers but forgotten. We watched Yes Man there. We wanted to get cheaper cinema tickets by using our Ezlink card to proclaim us as students. RM11 for a ticket and yet we still want discounts. But that day being a Saturday, we couldn’t obtain student price. Damn cheapo right?

So you Singaporean friends, next time you in Malaysia, bring along your Ezlink card and get more discount when you watch movies here. It works. Once, on a weekday afternoon I forgot to bring my card and another friend brought hers and she managed to get a ticket for RM8 while I had to pay RM12. Gah!

PageRank 1

Why the hell was my blog demoted from a Google PageRank 3 to a Google PageRank 1?
This is bad.

WHY? WHY? WHY?

This sux.

Tags: PageRank

8 months break.

Now I haven’t really given much thought into how I’m gonna spend the 8 months after A-levels. Before A-levels, I was just too busy studying to indulge in these thoughts. Post A-levels, I was busy preparing for application to US universities before I decided to discard those applications since it was simply too tedious. Once back in KL, it’s just meeting up with friends. And I still haven’t called out all my friends for a hang-out session.

It’s not just simply meeting up with friends. I have been involved in a pretty large-scale project to sell I Love KL T-shirts. Spent a lot of time meeting up and discussing with Bryan@WenPin. We finally finalized our  plans to take a rather big risk to print 200 t-shirts and to take up a booth in the upcoming Youth’09 - Malaysia’s Largest Youth Lifestyle Festival in Putra World Trade Center, KL from 9-11 Jan 2009.

This is our poster:

Come support us. Show us your support by posting the poster on your blog and/or by buying one shirt. Come down to our booth on the 2nd weekend of the new year. This event is gonna be a blast!

***

That’s part of the plan. How else can I kill 8 months of my time? This is a tentative list that I’ve just come out.

• Obtain driving license (by mid-Feb)
• Learn Chinese
• Go holiday to Surabaya, Indonesia with Nelson to visit Irvan and Alvin
• Join a ToastMasters Club to improve my public speaking (after my driving license)
• Get a job (after CNY)
• Go back secondary school and try to start a speaking career
• Sell as many t-shirts as possible
• Start a mini investment fund to invest in equities
• Climb Mount Kinabalu (by April)
• Go holiday to Bangkok (very tentative)
• Go holiday to Medan to visit Paul (very tentative)
• Complete several popular philosophy books

How does this sound? Too ambitious? Too idealistic?
Sounds very plain also. I need to fill this plan with more events. Need to do more things in this coming 8 months.
And I’m almost broke. This I Love KL Project better kick off and be successful else I’m in deep shit.

Tags: Holidays, I Love KL

An Intuitive Reaction to MAS New Air Fares

I applaud Datuk Idris Jala’s cost cutting measures at MAS. I applaud his efforts to innovate and increase the company’s revenues. I applaud his efforts in turning around the company. And I welcome changes to the way things are done at MAS.

BUT I have huge reservations to the latest initiative launched two days ago on the new airline fare structure. I understand the need for MAS to stay competitive. I understand that the 4 new airfare structures introduced by MAS is a covert method of more perfectly price discriminating passengers to increase total revenue. Theoretically, by charging 4 different prices for the same air route, MAS will be able to more perfectly exploit the different elasticity of demands for different passenger groups and hence increase revenue.

BUT this is what I have to say. The new airfare structure is simply TOO COMPLICATED AND COMPLEX for the average customer to understand. And this might work against MAS.

Four different price structures is a little too much for the average consumer to grapple with. There are just simply too many subtle differences in terms and conditions.

A few years back Celcom also experimented with this system for its prepaid customers. It launched 3 different plans for prepaid customers – Celcom Xcel, Xceed and Xplore. Theoretically it seems perfect. It offers value to different segments of consumers and tends to increase Celcom’s revenue. But I’m guessing the intended result did not follow the standard Econs/Biz manual. I do not have the data to support my point here, but I’m guessing that the program was not as successful as the management had planned. Celcom eventually merged its 3 prepaid plans into what is now known as Celcom Xpax.

So MAS, I would like to say the following to the management. Consider the SUBTLE INTRICACIES of offering so many options to customers. Maybe the more savvy ones will spend more time researching about your different plans. But will time-constrained consumers be willing to spend time understanding your 4 new structures? Or will they just give up and fly SIA or fly budget AirAsia?

Look, I’m not saying all is lost. There is pretty much nothing MAS can do since it has already launched the airfare to much fanfare 2 days ago. What MAS must do now is to engage in an aggressive marketing strategy to SIMPLIFY the structures.

I was reading newspaper reports on the 4 structures and they are very vague. Failure to do a good marketing strategy will simply result in disastrous losses.

I am seriously wondering why MAS is taking a budget approach towards airfares when it already has FireFly to service to budget segment. Look where SIA is going? It’s taking the luxury approach and is posting remarkable profits year after year. It stopped flying economy class to New York and now only flies business class there.

MAS, your cabin crew is one of the best in the world. Make full use of it. KNOW YOUR MARKET. Don’t be sucked into a futile competition with AirAsia. Both of you are competing in different market segments. And most importantly, don’t do a Qantas.

Tags: Airlines, Economics, MAS

Teaching Science & Maths in Mother Tongue for Primary School

WTF? Dong Jiao Zong (however u ever learned how to pronounce that) wants Science and Maths to be taught in Chinese in Chinese Primary School? WTF. WTF. WTF.

WHY ON EARTH?! Are you people nuts? It took the government such a hard time making English the medium of instruction for Science and Maths in schools and now you want to revert the policy? And your argument is to protect Chinese culture?

Hello, being in a Chinese environment with Chinese subjects is not good enough to learn Chinese eh? Not all Chinese kids are good in English too ok. I see so many students from Chinese schools graduating with poor speaking and writing skills. Do we want our Chinese kids to be further disadvantaged in this globalised world?

Anyway, this is a note the Education Minister. PLEASE KEEP THE CURRENT POLICY OF TEACHING SCIENCE AND MATHS IN ENGLISH. I was the last batch of students to be taugh in Malay and I despised that fact. I went on to pursue my A-level in Singapore where everything was taught in English. Luckily for me, I use English at home and I did not have to struggle much in Singapore with language. But for many others I bet learning everything in English was tough. So please keep the current policy for our future generation’s benefit.

Tags: Education, Malaysia