Entries Tagged 'Rants' ↓

Wait a minute! Someone already got it! Dang! Oh wait a minute, someone else got scammed! Phew, thank goodness.

Sounds like a good deal that’s too good to be true? Probably is.

This thing is like MLM. Good only if you’re among the first few to join, not too good if it’s saturated.

Why?

Based on simple maths, the more people there are on the site, the more bids there will be, the more you’ll have to spend on purchasing more bids and the vicous cycle goes on. But the problem here isn’t about any law of saturation or density tolerance but of a more sinister nature. Read on.

This website, www.bidpax.com is a bidding/auction website, which isn’t really like your average auction website.

The reason because, the items are all given away so cheap! Oh, yes really!

So how can they give away the items so cheap? Here’s what’s on the FAQ pages of www.bidpax.com:

The concept of a penny auction is quite simple, the item price rises by 1 penny/cent/rupee (or equivalent in your currency) every time a bid is placed. There can only be one winner on our auctions and only the winner pays the final ending price.

We are able to pay for these items and offer amazing deals by charging users to pay for their bids in order to participate on our auctions.

Voila! I bolded their income or profit generating or scam scheme or whatever it is that it goes by.

I came across the webby while browsing Facebook when a harmless ad screamed at me, ‘Get a macbook pro for $10.57 now!’, and not only by being the dormant Apple fanboy that I am, I swear that an Alien took control of my fingers and made me left-click with the mouse hovered above the ad.

Cheap right? But do you know how much they possibly earn?

Let’s say if the data on their site is anything to judge by, bids are increased by 1cents everytime, and guess how much it costs to make that 1 cent bid? Approximately SGD$1.40! So back to that Macbook pro going for$12.57, if there werereally only 2 bidders, they’ve actually spent a total of SGD $1759!!! And how much does a Macbook cost? Heh. Not so cheap after all.

And you can only have a finite amount of bids, of which you can ‘top up’ for more bids. They really could replace the $ sign in $12.57 with a monkey head and it’ll still be the same scam, except you’d know it was a scam of course.

I simply couldn’t believe my sleepy eyes at 3am in the morning, and I thought I was dreaming, then I saw more ongoing auctions which are simply irresistible, and started to whip out my card in an attempt to register, when I realised something amiss.

The payment merchant (the company in charge of handling credit card data and all the billing stuffs) was a red flag to me — I’ve never heard nor seen them before!

So I had to see if there’s any info I can get on the company, and lo and behold, the contact page is rather an endless loop of info without any proper manner of an address, a proper names, anybody’s face nor any company registration!

AND THIS IS A DEAD GIVEAWAY GUYS! WWW.BIDPAX.COM SMELLS LIKE A BIG FAT SCAM TO ME.

On further research, the owner of www.bidpax.com was previously tied to a similar scam thingy like the now defunct pennyauction.com, until users complained of items not arriving, thus a change of websites to let bygones be bygones, if you know what I mean.

I wonder how many more websites it’ll change to before more innocent internet users (especially the uninitiated youngsters on facebook) get ensnared in this web of deceit.

And to see it being advertised on facebook’s ad network, it’s scary to think how a thin fine line legit businesses and scams operate these days.

So please, if you know of any friends or family or anyone who’s buying into the program or bidding anything at bidpax, please advise them not to.

Don’t even register, cos you do not know where your personal information is heading into. Dangerous, simply dangerous.

Oh, and please if you see the ad on facebook, don’t hesitate to flag it as offensive/scam.

Note to self: For any future internet venture, it’s good to build trust among your potential customers. Put a face to the business. Build a reputable, reliable brand and work hard, hope strive for the best.

Had a real long talk over lunch with J today, and if you’ve seen the part where I gave myself 3 months to decide on my resignation, you’d knew that it’s going to be an awkward talk, mano-a-mano, but one that’s more than welcomed as I seek to find anything that’s remotely close to a closure.

But it wasn’t awkward at all as we chatted over Nasi Ayam Penyek (probably the best in town!!), cos J n me are like brothers already, even though he’s a Malaysian Chinese PR here and I’m a geeky, techy, sporty and positively indecisive Malay lad. In fact, he refers to me as his ‘adek’ (Malay for younger brother) everytime, and let me tell you that this is a very reassuring thingy indeed.

Boss, who is J’s older brother and sole shareholder of the company, don’t speak much English and doesn’t really know how to explain things to me, and I understand that part. Everytime Boss sits beside me, I can sense his anxiety as if he’s trying to come up with the words but they’re simply stuck inside, and we’ll end up exchanging banters on football results instead.

It’s been like that for a long while now. This lack of communication is what I mentioned to J as the catalyst to my paranoia, which led to my thoughts of resignation as a possibility (or is this an escape???). I mean, if I see no security in my future, if I sense no advancements in my developments, if I’m not getting the expected renumerations than that which I can get elsewhere, then am I mistaken if I leave one foot out the door?

Communications is integral in any business (or relationships), and miscommunications are the bane of small companies, who rely so much on the people’s strength instead of product, system or service. Bad communications is still okay, but morale will deteriorate over time.

And then no communications is insanely deriding.

Eg, and if you’ve been to www.SFforums.com as much as I have, I sense this lack of respect from the forum users there against those that make up the government, and I tend to defend the governement’s actions/reactions simply because if it weren’t for them, we (Singaporeans) probably won’t be where we are today. I have as much respect for them as I have for their disregard towards minorities (no, I’m not talking of race age or gender related issue here) of any topics/subjects.

For certain, their communication before action modus operandi is a relief. I’ve yet to pinpoint a situation where they acted without any prior information. Like do you see them raising GST without warning? Or do you see them closing roads for an event without any mention weeks, or maybe months before?

No, I’m not trying to act patriotic towards my government, but I’m simply trying to single out the point that good communications, saves lives — and it’s a dramatic remark, but it does saves lives.

Whoose live and how it saves, its up to anyone’s interpretations, and in coming back to the lunch thingy with J, we commnicated aplenty and as we seeked to resolve each other’s miusunderstandings, we gained nothing less than respect, trust and most important of all, a sense of confidence on the future. At least it’s better than nothing.

So will my time be up in less than 1 month now? Though one of my foot is already out the door, I suppose the momentum of the other has slowed down a little after this simple lunch, and in fact it’s probably going to stay that way for a while now.

My other ventures, while accumulating positively, aren’t exactly flying so I have no concrete reasons to say that I’ve another solid pillar (other than my day job ) to hold onto. So there’s still this little doubt that if I leave I may not be able to sustain my bills/expenses/responsibilities just yet, but I’m not conceding defeat either.

I’ll still work at them steadily, build them incrementally, and all the while persevering through time’s lack of friendliness with me. I can’t create time, but I can certainly make full use of whatever there is and ‘tahan’ (Malay for hold on) longer.

No pain no gain. Right?

Han_Solo will be leaving us for KL again, tomorrow morning and will only be back in about 3 weeks time, so this probably means that there’s another 1 less gaming buddy for the moment. Yunos has already entered camplife for a good 1 month now, and probably would stay inside for another 5 months or so until he passes out. Max1983 could probably be considered a gaming buddy, and if he was one, he’d be an erratic one. Much like his favourite gaming character, where he weaves in and out view, his presence in the cafe is just as brief and casual.

But Han_Solo isn’t going just for a holiday. Much like what he made years back, it’s a brave decision to thrust himself into the business opportunity of multi-level-marketing, or mlm for short. Now I know that soooo many people shun MLM professionals, simply because these people who shun don’t have a business background to begin with. Anyway, since I’m not trying to promote any MLM I’ll leave it at there, and applaud han_solo at the same time for taking those brave steps in the journey.

By the way, it irks me that Han manages to catch reruns of anime episodes, within 1 week what I could only amass within… 2months probably? Yes he has quite a lot of personal time that it bemuses me when I still run myself ragged at work, for peanuts. Indeed, commissions haven’t been the way they used to and I’m feeling the pinch already, thus my forays into the world of internet marketing.

I may have indulged myself and familiarised the jargons in the internet marketing world early during my polytechnic days, but I believe not until this past year have I really indulged myself in ebooks, programs, surveys, forums and newsletters, all in the name of trying to master the art of internet marketing.

Daily, real life marketing is a no problem-0 for me these days, where in fact I now turn away more customers than I used to, and it’s making them come to me for more in fact, which is weird and one where I’d probably give some thoughts to for a blogpost in future, but in internet marketing today, I think I’m still a newbie.

There’s so much to learn, especially with Google and Yahoo, the key to any internet marketer’s success, continually tweaking their search engines. And with Bing’s recent arrival, the competition has just begun. I’ve just spent my whole wee hours of the morning last night completing an ebook, gone through a couple videos and finally managed to complete a website which I’ve been putting on hold for much too long. I did in 4 sleepy hours what I should have completed 4 months ago.

Anyway, now that it’s done and dusted with, I’ll prefer to let it bite the dust and lay it there for now, and since it’s on autopilot anyway, it should be doing it’s job silently behind the curtains — the way that all things should run, right?

And I’ve just made my million dollars. But this post isn’t about me, it’s about the unfathomable and almost always blameless Rafa Benitez.

Someone at work pointed out to me that there are great managers and then there are managers that blame others, and Rafa is one of those that finger points often. According to this guy, everytime Liverpool suffers a setback, he refuses to take the blame of perhaps using the wrong tactics or personnel, but rather choose to deflect the attention towards a pair of squabbling owners who don’t give him enough spare change to play with.

And that is exactly what Rafa has been doing eh? I don’t know. My guy at work points me to example like how Rafa wastefully and excessively purchase unproven youngsters, most prominently players like Lucas and Babel who’ve been warming the seats for too many games and staying cold on the pitch for just as many games.

And then he also points at how Rafa approaches a game and comments on the predominantly defensive tactics of the Liverpool manager, and the cautious approach that he brings to the team, which in turns leads to an over-reliance over burnt-out players like Torres and Gerrard.

Of course, naturally being a Reds fan, I oppose and counter his every allegations, but one allegation I failed to counter was why he brought in an injured player for nearly 20million? Alberto Aquilani has yet to even grace the substitute bench, and as excited as I am in watching what he brings to the team, I’m quite sceptic as to his abilities as well.

First off, he’s Italian, and Italians are never known for their creativity nor flair. They’re naturally good at headers or getting a headbuttm especially from certain Frenchmen.

Second off, he’s young. 22years of football experience, unproven at the world stage and Rafa gambles on this prodigy as a replacement for Alonso.

Thirdly, why didn’t he spend that amount on David Silva or David Villa!?!?!?

These are probably reasons as to why that guy at work thinks Rafa is a douchebag, which is against my sentiments, but he does carry some vital points in his arguements.

So this season’s Championship may appear to be slowly and painfully escaping Liverpool’s grasps, but I hope I don’t have to wait 53,000 years to see Liverpool lift their 19th Championship title, ‘cos I’m still willing to wait till next year.

Heh, the ever so typical Liverpudlian eh? Full of patience… and loads of loyalty!

It was as if he knew what was going on inside my head, when all of a sudden he gave me a congratulatory/reassuring hug and at the same time stressing how important I am to the company. Knowing J as he is, I know that he’s the ‘commando’ worker who will do anything to get things done. I don’t doubt his sincerity, but at the same time this showcase is barely scratching the surface.

Lately I’ve been, as put by Bangau, jaded at work. Wll I guess it’s true. It has become… work these days. Don’t get me wrong, I love to work but there’s a different air about it for the past months and it’s an air that I’ve struggled to get away from, especially from my earlier company. When this new company started out, it wasn’t work.. it was… a labour of love. Indeed it’s true that people change intentions when it comes to ka-ching-ching!

Yes, the company we began is now very profitable and, may I say it, successful too. For almost a year I’ve taken a backseat, letting the chief boss and J run things around. 2 years ago, J barely had the confidence to meet a client and now I guess it’s the other way round. He’s improved tremendously and I think big boss notices it and even though I don’t get any credit for it, I’m happy for J. He does thank me in private for everything that I’ve taught him, and he realises how vital my presence is, but unfortunately big boss doesn’t see the backend work and regular inputs that I’ve done, and am still doing.

Granted big boss spends most of the time liaising with our clients and tending to production, and not knowing anything about computer stuffs or sales and customer support, which I silently spearhead, his judgement is prone to be biased. When the 3 of us first started out, there were weight in my opinions but not anymore. I get the feeling that him, being the sole director of the company, wishes it to stay that way – but I’ll still remember the day he roped me into the partnership. Dear Internet, at this time please note how important black and white is. Never underestimate it’s value in business. Like NEVER.

Anyway, I’m not so hard done by the fact that I’m not getting any director fees or any recognisable titles, cos I don’t really care about these much. But what I do care for is if my baby, my labour of love is being directed in a way which, simply put, isn’t going the way as we planned it in it’s infancy and I do not have the means of changing anything. In fact, the frust that builds up within me is a consequence of company directions that got decided by big boss and J, but without me. In fact, J regular consults with me before he discusses with big boss, but that’s as far as how much my involvement in company directions has evolved, or dissolved into.

Imagine you’re a baker and someone asked you to bake a cake, and not just a cake but your very special cake, and the first time you did it, you chose the ingredients together, and then somehow over time, you’re no longer within the ingredients buying/deciding stage. Fluctuations in raw materials cost have caused a lot of purchasing differences. You simply bake, and when that happens, do you still need to stay as a baker? Sure, you’ll know which ingredients work, and might silently change it if the wrong ones are given, but for how long can you work that way? How long?

So why is this a big concern for me? Simply because I cannot bring my design/sales team to cope with the workload that I foresee coming with the manpower/resources that I have at hand. Big boss and J don’t feel the strain that I do because they’re busy with production and support. In fact, the workload’s been super crazy for the past month and yet our reaction time has been really slow.

Which comes back to why did the younger J gave me a hug. You see, a heated debate with an old client’s new art director led to J to give me a hug, mentioning at the same time how important it is that I continue staying here. J understands my situation and when he sees me, probably for the first time ever that I’m ‘breaking’, in that debate with the new art director, he shared with me his thoughts.

Actually both these men are good men. They may not be a computer genius or speak fluent English but they are good hardworking people. I respect them and that’s why I joined the partnership 2 years ago. They’ve not lost my respect still and they’ve not hindered my work processes in any way but its just the niggling management part that’s biting pieces of me away. Like a river grinding away at a meander, something inside me is begging me incessantly.

Fact: I love running a business. I’m hooked on it. Working sucks. Big time.

An oxbow lake is forming. This meandering can’t go on forever. I gave myself 3 months to make a decision.

And that was 1 month ago.

Lobe: noun lowb

1. (anatomy) a somewhat rounded subdivision of a bodily organ or part.
2. (botany) a part into which a leaf is divided
3. The enhanced response of an antenna in a given direction as indicated by a loop in its radiation pattern
4. A rounded projection that is part of a larger structure

I highlighted it in red just so that I can lull myself into believing that there’s bigger things coming. Is there?

Interestingly, I had a banter with Bangau last night about what a business should be.

Before I get to that part, let me bring the debate a little earlier where I mentioned casually of how certain stuffs can be monetised in a certain way (I can’t recall what it was so let’s call it as  ’certain’ here..) and immediately Bangau quipped that I’m starting to view everything as a business opportunity. Quipping back, I pointed out that that’s only because I see a certain value in a certain item and that this value is potentially harvestable (monetize-able) which could bring about even more value! Now that’s business value!

Of course, Bangau commented that a business should be about profiting the community overall. Something that would benefit socially instead of just for pure monetary gains, and I’m all agreement with this point as well.

Wait, did I mention that before this banter we had an earlier conversation of the methods our prophets used to spread the religion and how the community back then wheeled and dealed. Naturally, Bangau was in a ‘conscientious mind’ whereby what the business receives, it’s given back in some way or another. Profit, or whatever there is left, should be used only to increase the potential/ability of the business.

Now again, I’m mentioning all this off of my head, and not based on some teachings or education which I’ve received ( or never received?) so I do not endorse nor ensure there’s any accuracy, if any, in this post. I’m just a regular guy, doggedly working day by day, by day, by day.. You know~

So who’s right here? Me or Bangau? In fact, I believe, that there shouldn’t be any right or wrong because it all depends on whose perspective you choose to view a business from. Me, I’m only viewing the banter subject from an economist point of view while Bangau chose to see it as a socialist, but we’re still cool. We’re gamers, so everything is debatable.

Anyway, back to this post’s introduction: lobe. ‘A rounded projection…’. My current mish-mash of opportunities and problems? ‘…that is part of a larger structure.‘ My future, or what’s left of it? I’m not sure if it’s really even large but…  I do sense opportunities coming, but at the same time also that the road I’m on seems to be constricting even more. It’s getting tougher, but tell me, what isn’t?

Life in camp offered me the chance to reflect a little on life, and I grabbed it greedily, which I’ve covetously endured for the past few months.

BIG stuffs like contemplating that baby steps into the world of internet marketing, fulfilling that online tee store fetish that seems to be put off for far too long, and other trivial mind-boggling things that border on insanity like resigning from my day job — just so that there’s more time for everything else.

Indeed I’ve gingerly worked out an equation whereby the key component missing and preventing me from ‘living the life’ (as put by my gaming buddies han and bangau) is time, but that’s very cliche eh? I don’t care, bite me.

I realised that work has been hampering my developments elsewhere, but, unfortunately and gratifyingly at the same time, it’s fueled them too.

There’s this crazy equation in my head, but as crazy as my logical head and heart deciphers, the possibility of it tempts me — and as easily tempted as I can be, I’m just not that easily moved.

I don’t know, times are looking good for any kind of movement at all, and I really need to move again soon. Back to camp again. Gaaaaaaah!

Perhaps I need more time to decipher and decode? Well that’s all just too cliche all over again! Heh~

What a week it has been. Let’s recap briefly a little. So I….

1. Completed days of planning only to find it foiled in the end, and having to replan the plan.

2. Spent almost $30 at the doctor getting myself Prospan only for the cough to get worse during camp. Visited the doc a week later and got myself 2 bottles of hard core cough med. Power. This time, just 2 takes and cough almost gone. *Feels high*.

3. Have began to feel less tensed when talking to my men, but actually feel honoured to be able to lead them and teach them *hopefully* my values, if any, and stuffs. This is a case whereby if I cock-up, then they also cock-up. Haha.

4. Got to find out a lot more about internet marketing and eventually finding myself opening a can of worms, the deeper I delve into it the more opportunity/scams/endless loop of worms that appear before me.

5. Thankfully, Ramdhan is here again! Lovely, except that my training days concide with it (last year also same case lah), and that meant IPPT will be a lot tougher! Mind is boggled just wondering how I’d cope with the run and the heat and the exhaustion. Wahh. I wan my $600 worth of incentives (if I get Gold/Marksman) but this is asking too much liao!

6. Yes, I finally earned $0.06 just from reading emails!!! Haha, its not much (yes, just 6 cents) but hey, at least I’m earning reading emails — are you? Well, it’s free for anyone to reegister/signup, so why hesitate?

7. Managed to reformat my Asus netbook at Godma’s after a hal.dll error <– this is a fatal comp error! So sad to see it cos it meant that all my photos for Redlabs Photography got eradicated from the reformat. Oh well, no choice in the solution there = no respite lor~

AND then there were a few interesting conversation that I had, which at that point in time I thought would make good biscuits/cookies for a blogpost, which at this point in time I have totally forgotten about! Hooray for hectic schedule, hooray for drowsy cough med, hooray for everything else!

AND I still want my moviethon, presumably after my reservist. Right Dils? Heh..

Michael Jackson is back¹! No, not from the grave kind but some judge over in US have already given the green light for a movie release, about the comeback show that never was. Mark your calendars hombre and that is October 28th, 2009. Now I’ll be eagerly anticipating this one.

So I’m already into a few days of my Reservist tour of duty and work has been calling me up incessantly. It’s a little annoying when you’ve just returned home from duty at 5pm, trying to catch 40 winks and work’s calling you 5, 6, maybe 7 times and spoils the nap, and you’ve barely even began dreaming, let alone even ‘feel’ that power nap take place but forced to stay up with a headache instead.

It’s even more annoying when you reach office at 8pm only for your colleague to manage to overcome the initial problem which was supposedly un-overcome-able and required your immediate presence! That’s it lah, this frust-mostat inside me is almost reaching critical point, and with that I suppose that this is the post where if my life takes an unexpected turn of events (for the better presumably), it will somehow remind me of that derilious decision I was forced to make?

*calms down* (… and for the records, I calm down and pacify easily. Perhaps too easy??? )

Thankfully, Mustafa Ctr was nearby and I managed to divert my frustrations into shopping for the cheapest pair of socks, boxers/briefs and singlets in preparation for my in-camp training. Almost bought a jersey but thankfully I resisted the urge, amidst all the ‘excitable’ looking items on display.

Oh, have you been to Mustafa Ctr? At first I thought that it was just a glorified mamak provision shop, but after a few visits there I am convinced that it’s not just a glorified mamak provision shop, but a gigantic, humoungous, everything-you-can-find glorified kind of  a mamak shop! There’s so many things that even items that costs $79 or even more get strewn all around the shelves as if they’re $7.90 insstead — and somehow, there’s this comforting ambience that goes within these shelves, like it’s such a friendly or down-to-earth super-department store or should I say, the godzilla of mamak shop?

Heh, I coined that term after most mamak food stalls sells their drinks after legendary creatures.

Come to think of it, why do they even use legendary creatures like dinosaurs and godzilla? Why can’t they just use a term like ‘upsize’ or ‘upgrade’?

Anyway, about the Michael Jackson movie.. I have a tingling sensation that it’s gonna be the godzilla of all movies. I can’t help but wonder what with all the posthumous attention that the late artist has received, will this be another record breaking event?

You know, it’s gotta be, because… this is it¹!

By the way, this has to be the longest post title I’ve ever had. Wow.
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¹Sweet. Here’s the link: Michael Jackson’s ‘This Is It’ 3D movie slated for worldwide release on October 28th!