singapore vs malaysia @ kallang stadium

went to kallang stadium to watch the semi-finals between singapore and malaysia on sat with mika. the atmosphere was great and the crowd was extremely boisterous. but cannot help to note that singaporean soccer fans are v unsportmanly. haha. there was really more jeering of msia team than cheering for the singapore team.

v apparent in the penalty shootout. everytime the lions successfully converted their kicks, the cheers will be loud, but for a while only. cos the msia guy who stepped up will receive an even louder and super long BOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! with many thumbs down and the occasional MISS MISS MISS MISS chants.

here got some evidence of the jeers. clips not taken by me.


thought this was quite mean... the goodbye song was sang after msia loss to the msian fans. hmmm. when we were walking out, i think we walked past the msia camp. the singaporeans were singing this song v v LOUDLY.



the famous butoh! ok. you only hear the butoh! here. actually, there's supposed with the 11 claps/horns thinggy. in the past, it was 11 horns + SINGAPORE! now it's 11 horns + BUTOH!! it became so catchy that when we were walking back to Kallang MRT, some cars will do the 11 horns and the crowd which is walking will shout BUTOH!!! ok. for those who are clueless on wat butoh means, here's a link to (you guess wat?) wikipedia. Not a v nice meaning though.... meaning of butoh




ok. here's a better video clip of the butoh thing. haha.

regardless, JIAYOU SINGAPORE!!!

Broadband Finally

Haha. Finally decided to upgrade to broadband with starhub. Signed up a one year contract under the Starhub corporate plan with 10% discount. well, quite pleased with the speed which i can surf now. but wanna complain about the poor (though not dysmal) service standards of the sales personnel. here are some excerpts of the correspondence between the two of us, and my displeasure with this mr raj.

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Hi, Mr Mao

I have received all your documents via fax. I have arranged for an installation on the 16th of Jan 2007 between 1830--2030. Please let me know if it is a convenient time. There will be an installation charge of $52.50 and subsequently the monthly subscription will be $52.92 inclusive of a 10% discount. Please contact me if you have any further enquiries.
Thank You


Raj

StarHub Ltd CIS

Telesales

Consumer Sales & Customer Experience

~~ Our People, Our Passion, Our StarHub ~~

DID: (65) 6725 2211

Fax: (65) 6725 9796

Email: cis-corpsales18@starhub.com

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Ok. This is not the first time someone got my surname wrong. so i dropped a hint to him.

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Sorry. But the time is not convenient. Would a weekend be possible?

What do I need to prepare?

Regards,
Kiah HanMao

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But he replies:

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Hi, Mr Mao

I will reschdule the appointment to 20 Jan 2007 between 0900--1100 if that is convenient . You do not need to prepare anything, however it will be good to be there when my tech guys come over, if you do have any enquiries, they will be able to assist you with it. We will be billing you the installation and subscription charges which you can subsequently pay vis credit card.
Thank You
raj

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hint not strong enough.

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How about Sun 21 Jan 0900--1100?

Thanks.

Kiah Han Mao

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Hi, Mr Mao

We do not do installation on Sunday.
raj

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????????!!!!!!!!!!!! Ok. My hints are not good enough. Maybe i should be blatant.

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Ok. For Sat, when is the installation up to?

By the way, my surname is Kiah. I hope the form i submitted indicates it clearly.

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Hi, Mr Kiah

Can I get the tech guys to come between 11am to 1pm. I will get them to call you before coming.
Thank You.

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Finally he gets it right. Maybe i'm too sensitive. but isnt it customary for ppl to apologise after making a mistake in addressing ppl? Anyway, i wasnt too uptight about it. What really pissed me off was the next incident, as i describe in the next email.

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I think there's some big communication problem in your company.

I received an SMS telling me your tech guys are coming down on Tue. I called up your Customer Service Hotline and talked to this Stephanie and arranged with her for the guys to come down today on Thu between 1830 and 2030 because Saturday I'm not free in the morning. Today I rushed down from work to just to be home by 1830 and now at 2115, there are no signs of your staff. Don't you guys have the courtesy to inform me earlier?

Now, I'm only available after 1200 on Sat 20 Jan 07. Your guys better call me at 94312567 before coming. If your guys do not arrive by 1300 on Sat, then forget it.

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Ok. maybe i'm v harsh. but hey! i'm the one who rushed down for nothing. Well, what was irritating was the next email from mr raj.

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Hi, Mr Kiah

I was not informed of your conversation with the Customer Service Officer, Stephanie, however, like I mentioned the appointment I made is between 1100 to 1pm. I understand you are only free between 1200 to 1pm. I will get the guys to come between that time and call you before that.
Thank you
raj

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This really put me off. Not a single word of apology. Is it now my fault for not informing him of my conversation with his other staff? Geez. Has the word "Sorry" been erased from his vocabulary? Sigh. This is not even about service standards. It's about basic courtesy.

Think this is quite common in many service industries. First, they are polite in enticing you into a plan. Once you signed up, they become utterly bochup. they risk offending you on the assumption that you wont waste your efforts by cancelling your plans. Geez. Mr raj was q right on this point. in the end, the guy still came today to do the installation. but he was wrong on another point.

i didnt forget about his indifference.

freakonomics: a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything, by steven levitt and stephen dubner (followed by a short folklore)

the former is a full economics prof (and under forty) at university of chicago and the latter is a journalist with new york times and new yorker. as described in its title and like malcom gladwell (and other modern writers), the book attempts to provoke the modern mind and explain modern day phenomena and debunk conventional wisdom. but interestingly, the book is based on papers written by levitt, an economist, and most of the book’s ideas are backed by data. a massive amount of them.

like john allen paulos, in innumeracy, the authors analyse data, crunch numbers and present their findings to show how much one can glean from facts and numbers, and how wrong some “experts” can get by simply theorizing and arguing. thankfully, the tools levitt and dubner used are more advanced than those in paulos’ book, probably signifying a progress in the numeracy of ppl (and also, probably this book is not about the inability of pple to read numbers, but about the tendency of ppl to not rely on data to back their ideas).

there are many ideas which may occur as novel or refreshing. but i will blog about them another time. wat struck me though was the pluck (and some tact too) the authors had to put up seemingly unpopular and “politically incorrect” propositions based on data (of course, there’s also a great financial incentive in boosting book sales). the openness in revealing facts based on numbers are certainly missing in some societies as the next FICTIONAL tale (i heard last year) reveals:



Once upon a time, there was a village, which relied on rearing catfish for survival. The feed for the catfish is controlled by a village council. Decades ago, the village had a problem of overpopulating catfishes of the local breed. The Council then therefore restricted the rearing of catfishes and since then the problem of overpopulation came under control. Now, the Council faced the reverse of the problem – dwindling population of catfishes. To cut the long story short, the Council then decided to bring other breeds of catfishes to rear in the village.

Initially, there were the Red catfishes which ate plenty and were thought to fetch good prices too. Recently, a new breed known as Breed C was brought in. They ate little, but they are available in huge quantities. Now, the problem: all the catfishes, local and imported alike, were fed by the feed provided by the Council. Of course, there were protests amongst the locals. Local feed should be for the Local breed. The Council then assured: Local breed will always come first.

So much for the background info. The saga starts here. One statistics teacher at South School (interestingly, the school was located in the west of the village) looked at the available data. Like Levitt, he analysed it and came to a surprising conclusion: “of the new feed introduced by the Council, a disproportionately bigger share of the feed goes to the non-local breeds.” (Note: disproportionately bigger should not be read as grotesquely larger, but read as the non-local breeds taking more in proportion than it should. For example, suppose the non-local breed is 5% of the whole catfish population. The non-local breeds are taking more than 5% of the feed. Note again, these are FICTIONAL figures.)

And somehow, the conclusion was published in the village papers, and the Council was not very happy. They called up the Teacher and told him to withdraw his conclusion. The Teacher refused as the facts were there and the conclusion correct. Big (but contained) hoo haa followed. The School Headmaster was called to the Council to mediate the situation. Well, the Council was cognisant of the facts and was trying to amend the situation. However, they did not want the locals to know. The Teacher stood by his findings and refused to admit to mistakes that he did not make.

In the end, the Council prevailed. The papers in the following weeks published a statement from the Council, pointing out a gap in the Teacher’s arguments. The Teacher had forgotten to take into account of some factor and if the factor was considered, the conclusion would not follow. Well well. There are many stands to take for this episode. See Benevolence See Wisdom. A local Constable upon hearing the inside story exclaimed, “The Teacher’s statement could have started a riot!” Hmm.




I have to emphasize again. the story is FICTIONAL, MADE UP, and ANY RESEMBLANCE TO REAL CHARACTERS AND EVENTS IS TOTALLY COINCIDENTAL. where do i stand on this issue? i have no idea, but my tendency leans towards the Teacher. in fact, when i heard this tale, i said that the stand one takes reflects the level of maturity one perceives of the locals of the village. That is, the Teacher perceives the Locals to be mature, while the Constable does not. Just like a parent who reveals more to his child only when the former deems the child is of the age to know more.

does this mean that americans are more mature? i dunno. but in light of levitt, to find out, we just have to find a way to measure the correlation of “maturity level” to “exposure to controversial statements”.

bangkok

wanted to blog about our trip to bangkok. but in view of the recent tragic events, decided against it.

just want to write that bangkok is a vibrant city, filled with life.

hope that the violence will not mar her charm.