Going Big in New York

The Big Apple that is New York City is really big on having everything big! While walking along Broadway I came across a huge McDonald's outlet with signange as glamourous as the Broadway theatre.

Yep, not only are the serving portions huge, the floor area of this McDonald's could fit a theatre in it. Apart from McDonald's, New York City also is known for:




Big ass video screens surrounding Times Square. Yeah baby, a feast for the senses.



Video screens and billboard ads that go right to the top of the buildings! Guess everyone wants their ads to be seen at Times Square so they're willing to pay top dollar for premium placements.



And even more ads. As long as there's a wall, and if that wall faces on-coming traffic, there'll be an ad.



This is a win-win situation for both advertiser and building owner; advertiser gets prime advertsing real estate while building owner makes a tidy profit leasing out ad space and saves on any need to clean or paint that wall as long as the ad stays there.

Positive Brothers

If you happen to be around Battery Park in Manhattan chances are that you would have seen the Positive Brothers in action. It's hard not to miss them since they'll have their stereo blasting away while they entice the crowd will calls of "Showtime!".

As a group of street performers, the trio never fail to entertain the audience with their agility, flexibility and comical sense of humor.

Manhattan from 86 floors up!

This lovely view of Manhattan was captured from the 86th floor of the Empire State Building around 10ish in the morning.



Initially, the spire of the Empire State Building was meant to be a docking point for passengers travelling on zepplins. However, it was deemed too inconvenient and the concept was scrapped.

Lost in Transit: Heathrow Airport

Arrived at Heathrow Airport in transit after an eight hour flight from Washington DC. The flight was bearable thanks to the wide selection of inflight entertainment channels plus loads of refreshments and food served onboard.

Had an hour's grace before catching the connecting flight back to Singapore which was to last a gruelling 13 hours. Time to hook up the ipod and catch up on some much needed sleep!



And away we go!

For a pleasant journey...

Please board the friendship bus as seen in Independence Avenue...



... or in Georgetown. Also, please do not smoke, eat or drink. Keep your music to yourself and do not assault your fellow passengers or the bus driver, unless you want to end up in a world of shit.



Thank you and have a pleasant ride.

The emphasis of 'FAST' in fast food

This was taken in a MacDonald's outlet in Chinatown, Washington DC. In addition, customers dining in are charged a higher tax as compared to those who take away. Definitely not a place for dating couples unless it's speed dating...

Believe in the leaf redux

Recently this fastfood ad shown below has been put up at selected bus stops:



Its tagline, 'believe in the leaf' has inspired me to come up with a tongue-in-cheek version of this ad:



Enjoy! =)

Bleeeeeeaaaah!

Oh lookie here! Miss Puke specialises in foot, Thai, oil and aromatherapy massage (is puke used in any of them?). Eye catching as it may be, did anyone point out that calling your outlet Miss Puke may not be the best of names especially for such a business?

If you're wondering where I took this, the outlet's located by the side of the Novotel Bangkok, Siam Square. And if you're wondering what the big deal is, check out dictonary.com for the definition of puke.

Do My Shoe Pt 3

Touched up the Balzac logo (finally!)



Also got round to putting in the black to both shoes. I've yet to apply the white paint to the logos and I've yet to decide if the tongues are to be just black or if I should do something else...

Thai Patriotism is No. 1!

Just returned from a business trip in Bangkok where I witnessed a true show of patriotism. I was returning to the hotel from meeting our business associates along one of the roads in Siam Square where the Hard Rock Cafe is located.

It was nearing 6pm when I passed one of the buildings which had a huge video screen which was blaring music videos and commercials. At exactly 6pm the Thai national flag appeared on screen followed by the national anthem and everyone within the vicinity stopped whatever they were doing, stood at attention and faced the screen. Even the motorists along that road slowed down. Once the anthem ended, the area resumed its bustling operations.

To me, this was totally unreal yet impressive as it showed how united and nationalistic the Thais are. Imagine doing this along Orchard Road using the video screen at Lido cineplex. Would Singaporeans be as patriotic as our Thai counterparts?

I saw this sign outside a golf shop at Raffles Place. I'm wondering if these golf balls have been in more holes than me...

Give and Take Back

I've noticed that vendors in food courts are practising a bad habit of "give and take back". This practice refers to the act of putting food on the customer's plate and then reducing the portion by sccoping out part of it and returning that portion back to the counter, and in full view of the customer.

Although these vendors have not committed any capital offense, the more picky customer (such as myself) will feel that our patronage and purcahse is not valued. It's also an open confession that these vendors have really poor estimation skills and are giving us customers a full-on demonstration of it.

There was an incident at a dessert stall where an elderly man had ordered a fruit cocktail. The vendor at the stall scooped up the cocktail from the counter and proceeded to puor it into a take away container. However, before she placed the lid the vendor took a second glance and must have realised that this elderly folk was getting more than what he had paid for and proceeded to sccop up some fruit cocktail from the container and return it to the counter. Imagine the disappointed look on this man's face when he saw what the vendor did. He'll definitely boycott the stall from then on!

Stall vendors have to realise that such actions do turn off the customers even though the plate (or bowl) of food has not reached their trays. If by accident that a stall vendor realises that they have exceeded the given portions then they should be discreet about adjusting it or hell, just let it go and make the customer happy.

Afterall, it's better to have a repeat customer than to lose one!

Self Improvement?

I visited a bookshop during my lunch break to have a look at some self improvement books. When I found the isle, lo and behold! To my surprise, the self improvement section consisted of titles related to the Diablo, Warcraft and Battletech series. Here's a pic of the shelf taken using a camera phone.

Heh! The bookshop must be run by a war monger or someone with a twisted sense of humor. The funniest thing is that the shop's situated in central business district and located in a building belonging to a bank. Would be amusing to see a highly strung-out executive wandering in looking for books related to anger management, sees this and raises hell. Yeah baby! Inspiration to go postal!

Revenge of Mobile Ghetto Blasters

Man, I thought that people blasting music from their mobile phone speakers were bad. But someone had to go up the ante by taking this one step further; playing his entire ringtone collection at the highest volume on his mobile phone on the MRT.

This happened on Friday when I boarded the train at City Hall. From there right up to Yishun I was sitting directly opposite a man who was happily blasting his entire collection of midi ringtones at full volume on his mobile phone. And he must have really loved midi deep deep as the whole passenger compartment was treated to a full variety of ringtones from City Hall up to Yishun with no repeats.

To the dude with the expansive midi collection, I salute you for taking it to the limit! Hail to the midi king baby!

Do My Shoe Pt 2

Did some touch ups to the stencil work with a permenant marker.



Now on to the right shoe. The Balzac logo has been stenciled and will be touched up later.

Do My Shoe Pt 1

I've embarked on a little art project which would be to paint two band logos on a pair of Chuck Taylors. For this, I've selected a pair of full white Chuck Taylors. Here's a preview of the pair still fresh in the box.



There will be one logo per shoe on both the inner and outer sides. That's another reason for choosing this pair as the Chuck Taylor logo is a sewn rubber patch as compared to the normal embossed versions which makes it easy to remove as shown in the picture below. Upon removal of the patch, a little bit of sanding is required to remove the glue that has been used to hold the patch to the canvas.



Okay, now let's get busy. I'm starting with the left shoe and I've just finished stenciling the Misfits logo as shown on the left-hand side (see pic below). I've done this on both sides but this is a rough job. Some touch ups will be in order before the paint is applied. More pics will be posted when they're done.

Public Transport Courtesy

Given that car prices here are ridiculous as compared to our neighbors, many of us have no choice but to use public transport. As a commuter, one gets to observe a lot human behavior and the best time for observations would be during rush hours.

Remember my previous entry where I mentioned about the elderly folks charging their way through the crowd to get their much coverted seats? Well, recently my girlfriend experienced a new breed of obnoxious commuters; the bratty bitches.

These are usually young, pregnant mothers-to-be or mothers with their bratty halfs in tow. They are either mute or too dumb ass to talk. They expect you to offer them your seat when they come round and hover around you like a vulture. Even if you are asleep, they expect you to automatically wake up and offer your seat to them.

So what happens when you don't? Well, for one thing, they don't say a word. They start kicking your feet. They kick and kick and kick hoping that you get the hint. And if you do not comply, they will continue until they reach their stop where they will give you the stare of death before disembarking.

Though I have not experienced it personally (they seem to target other women passengers), what I find really strange is that these passengers seem to have a lot of energy to keep kicking the seated passenger. Won't it be more effective if they just opened their mouths and asked, "excuse me, could I please have a seat"? I'm sure passengers are more inclined to give up their seats when asked nicely. And I'm sure that it's less tiring to ask rather than to irritate others.

High Class Hawker

It's really unbelievable that some hawkers are so damn picky about the type of coins they receive from their customers. I experienced this first hand at a coffee stall at the Amoy Street food court.

I had ordered a cup of black coffee and when it was sent to my table, I proceeded to pay the coffee lady 70 cents, one 50 cent coin, one 10 cent coin and two 5 cent coins. Seeing the change, the coffe lady (CF) didn't look happy...

CF: Sorry ah, we don't accept 5 cents.
Me: Why not?
CF: Very inconvenient to bank in.
Me: Well, that's all the coins I have (opens wallet to show proof).
CF: OK lor, but next time I won't accept.

Wah, can threaten me about paying with 5 cents! Nevermind, since you're so high class I'll buy my coffee and drinks from your competitors as my money is not good enough for you. Besides,I've never had such complaints from the teh tarik stalls or from the other hawkers when I buy my food and pay using 5 cent coins.

Furthermore, your coffee sucks!

Lego Katamari!

I'm really impressed by the folks at Namco who designed both Katamari Damacy and We Love Katamari. Whoever coined the idea of designing a game where players roll a sticky ball to collect items really hit the jackpot for casual gaming!

And if you're a gaming and Lego fan, check out these links here and here.

Mobile Ghetto Blasters

Mobile phones have really evolved from huge self defence bricks (or water bottles as I fondly remember) to small little communication units packed with MP3 players, mobile games and what have you. And with the advancement of mobile technology, people nowadays do not need to walk around town with a boombox blasting their favorite tunes. Instead, they play them via the handset's loud speaker.

And that's quite a pain. I know that the doctors have advised us to avoid listening to music using earphones to minimise damage to our ear drums but do we really need to share your favorite songs with everyone?

No matter how advanced or expensive your handsets cost, the sound quality of a handset speaker should be limited to that of conference callls. I can't recall how many times I've heard "The reason" and "My humps" blaring inaudibly from someone's handset. Seriously, it doesn't do the handset nor the songs your playing any justice.

Worse still, try travelling on a train or bus with passengers trying to outdo each other by blasting music via their handsets at the same time. The winner, of course will always be the beng with a comprehensive collection of repetitve euro-techno MP3s.

Let's get this straight, everyone loves music to a certain extent. But please, don't be too fanatic to the point that everyone's being forced to listen to your music blaring from your handset; having an MP3 handset doesn't make you a DJ! Perhaps this year's courtesy campaign should read something like, "Pass on a little kindness by keeping your music to yourself".

Tales from the Bootleg Boutique #2

I'm very surprised that the neighborhood bootleg boutique has stood the test of time. Maybe because the elections are drawing near so no clampdown or raids will be taking place until after we've cast our votes.

Was there the other day on my way home from work when I overheard a guy telling his girlfriend how he despised people who bought MP3 CDs. However, he went on to tell her that it was okay to pirate software and games...

How ironic! As long as you pirate one of the following; movies, music, software, games or e-books you're still a pirate! There's no such thing as pirating one thing being okay while pirating something else isn't. A pirate is a pirate, no two ways about it. Either way, I doubt he succeeded in impressing his girlfriend with his justifications.

And dude, why even bring your girlfriend to the bootleg boutique?

A strange ending to the week

Just the other day I met up with a business contact to discuss the potential of starting a business realtionship between both the companies that we work in. The meeting ended on a good note with him sending me the soft copies of the agreements to look over and feedback. However, when I reached the office the very next day, I got an email from the same business contact informing me that he's tendered his resignation; a significant u-turn within the span of a day...

Can I update my pirated game?

Nowadays software pirates all very bold. Take for example one of customer service case that I handled. The person wrote in to feedback that he downloaded one of our mobile games which seemed to hang on his handset and asked if he could get the latest update from us.

Upon further probing, we found out that a very early version was downloaded and best of all, he claimed that he got it from a website that pirated this game of ours. Damn thick-skinned, can tell us he got it for free and wanted an updated version from us.

So what did I do? Tell him to go fly kite what else?!

The irony of good customer service

They always say that the customer is king. However, good customer service rules! Having said that, I'd like to point out a KFC outlet in Toa Payoh whose staff has never failed in this department. And to top it off, this outlet is run by a crew who are deaf.

From the time your order is taken right up to the time that your food is served, the counter crew will always serve you with a smile and, through out all the times that I've eaten there never once did they get my order wrong though I'm really bad at sign language.

So what's the irony in this? Well, quite often if you were to step into any other fast food outlet you'll often be greeted by sullen, listless counter staff muttering inaudible sentences sounding very much like wookies about to die. What's more, there are times they either don't listen or they screw up the order in which I sometimes even wonder why I even bothered to patronise them.

In comparison, the deaf crew at the KFC outlet greet every customer with a smile, are fast with processing orders and they ensure that every customer has a pleasant experience. So why can't everyone, both able and disabled, have the same drive towards good customer service?

I somehow believe it's the hunger that the KFC crew possess in wanting to prove themselves to us to be accepted as part of society. However, in their drive to do so, they have also shown that many folks in the service industry have often taken the customer for granted and that it's just a job and they're in it to draw a paycheck blah blah blah! Don't get me wrong, I've experienced my fair share of good customer service from able bodied staff. However, with the government's emphasis on promoting good customer service, perhaps they should use this KFC outlet as a model case study for everyone to follow.

Do the elderly have a right to be rude?

As public transport commuter, I have seen elderly folks pushing and shoving they way past the queue to get a coveted seat. I have even seen our dear senior citizens push and shove their way through with such aggression that even our national rugby team will be put to shame.

For most cases my personal experience with these folks usually takes place at the bus interchange when they don't bother to queue up and just board the bus the moment it pulls up. And to top it off, they usually end up grabbing the seat that I want!

So why exactly do some senior citizens act the way they do? Is it because our national courtesy campaigns have not yielded the expected results? When I say this, I'm referring to the campaigns' objective of teaching the younger generation to respect the elders and understand that they (the elderly) have a priority when it comes to limited seating.

Maybe the younger generation are so "me-me" oriented that they have forgotten that the elderly may, more often than not, need the seat especially if they are travelling the entire bus or train route. Perhaps their survial instincts have kicked in for such situations to the point that they can muster enough energy to push and shove their way for a seat thanks to those 6am Taichi sessions.

Bearing in mind that many of the elderly folk have tasted and endured more hardship than most of us have experienced should we tolerate their behavior? Would it help if we gave in a little by letting them board the buses or trains first or if we gave up our seats to them? Maybe if we did, they would not have a reason to resort to such actions. But for now, I'll just have to live with not getting the seat that I want.

Tales from the Bootleg Boutique #1

Nowadays, shops selling pirated software are few and far between. This is due to the government's effectiveness in clamping down piracy. However, ever so once in awhile a software bootleg boutique will unexpectedly turn up in somewhere in the heartlands. It's not hard to miss as they tend to stick out like sore thumbs...

A few months ago I chanced across one on my way home from work and decided to have a look. It was then that I overheard a father telling his daughter:

"Girl, you see this CD? Got 100 over songs, better than the one you bought from the music shop. So cheap somemore. Next time must buy like this..."

Hwah! Uncle teaching his little girl economics. If there ever was an award for promoting MP3 piracy, I think he'll win it hands down for passing on such knowledge to his children...