On how to be a salesperson

Yesterday I was at Prangin Mall (where I very seldom go). We saw a stall selling essential oils and creams and stuff, and stopped to take a look. After a while the stall owner came over to talk to us... and could she talk! Probably one of the greatest sales pitches I've ever heard, and not even a real sales pitch...she kept saying, try my samples first, you can come back later and buy!

Anyway, she let us try hair oil (argan oil, which could also be used for the skin), and at least two kinds of lotion (argan oil and aloe vera). And I'm not sure what else because my head got messed up from too much information :P

Then she gave us some samples:

Actually she first gave us the argan hair oil and CC cream (which is a new variant of the famous BB cream, if I'm not mistaken). Then after we talked a bit more, she went and squirted a bit of argan oil lotion into the transparent packet for us. And then, after my friend bought something, she gave her a free face mask and gave us the argan oil hair treatment sample (second packet from left), which is to be used like conditioner (apply and wash off), and a packet of shampoo (first from left).

And, I'm not sure at which point this was, but when we were smelling the essential oils, she went and put some in that transparent pack for us, and put it into this plastic bag, complete with a paper heart on top, to "show her love for us". lol

She told us to put it on our pillow that night, so that we could sleep well (it's lavender scent). She told us that it can seep through the plastic packet, so it can't keep. I did put it beside my pillow (without opening it, because really, you can feel the oil on your fingers even from touching the packet), but I'm not sure whether it really did help me sleep better. Just smelt nice.

From the beginning, she kept telling us to go and see her Facebook, and at the end, she even asked for our phone numbers. If you're interested in buying the creams/oils (they are not very expensive compared to elsewhere), you can check out her name card in the picture above. And go to Prangin Mall to see her. (her stall is just in front of McDonalds) But make sure you're not in a hurry to go anywhere else. :P


And while I was at the mall, I found these! (in I.S.O.S.; heard of it before? I hadn't.) Yay, now my white t-shirt stock (with Winnie the Pooh, no less) has been replenished! (they also had Mickey, which looked quite nice too, but not as nice as these. And I had to stop somewhere...)

The umbrella switch

These few days it has been raining quite heavily. Yesterday morning, as I was driving to work, I saw a woman with a child walking on the pavement. The mother was holding a small umbrella over her head (you know the cute kind that has ears?), and with the other hand she was holding a second, bigger umbrella over the head of the child.

Get the picture? I guess they each had their umbrella... and in the heavy rain the mother switched the umbrellas to shield the child better.

Nah, no point, just thought it was cute. :P

Tales from grocery shopping

I went to Giant to buy some things after work today. In the Giant food court, the only queue was at the hot plate stall. The other stalls not only didn't have a queue, they didn't have a customer. (some people were eating their food, but no one was waiting at the stall)

The hot plate stall had basically two choices: black pepper sauce or mushroom sauce. Besides that, you could choose the noodles (or even choose rice). I asked for black pepper noodles, but today he didn't seem to care about the sauce; everyone had the same sauce (mine turned into mushroom like the others). And he cracked an egg onto each plate. I know that hot plate stalls love to do this, so I specifically told him that I didn't want egg. But he still gestured me to a plate with egg. I told him, "mine is without egg". So he let the person after me have it. Then he put another six hot plates onto the stoves (there were six stoves)... and then proceeded to crack an egg into each of them. Just before he did the last one, I reminded him again. Luckily he stopped. Somehow I think he was only pretending to forget, so that he could charge me an extra 90 sen for the egg. -_- (that has happened before)


On another note, I bought a can of sardines in olive oil (and chilli, because they had sardines in olive oil and sardines in olive oil and chilli, and I like chilli, so I let myself be tempted to buy the latter (take your time reading the "and"s. :P )). I went looking for it because I wanted to try a little recipe of sardine butter that I had just come across recently. But the can says that it is ready to eat (not that I didn't know that), and now I am tempted to just eat it as it is. Why make sardine butter when the sardines are already delicious? lol (Disclaimer: I haven't tried it yet, I'm just saying.)

I sense another recipe plan going down the drain...

After you

Ever heard the phrase "after you"? I guess you have. I have heard it in movies and read it in books, but I don't think I've ever heard it being used in person.

But today someone actually said it to me.

I was just reaching the door and there was someone not far behind me. I scanned my badge and pulled the door open, nodding my head for him to go first. But instead of going first, he said, "After you".

It's not like this is a very rare situation; it happens all the time. But usually the person in question doesn't say anything. Or those who are trying to act extra-gentlemanly (sometimes I call it over-gentlemanly) would say "Ladies first", as if they wouldn't give way to another guy. But "After you"? Rolling off the tip of his tongue like he didn't even have to think of the phrase? A rarity.

And this detail shouldn't matter, but in a time of racial hate and scorn and what-else, I just wanted to record this down (because I may forget in the future): the guy was a Malay (I could be wrong, but he looked like one). So if anyone decides to do some racial profiling that annoys me, maybe I can look up this post and shove it under their noses, minus this last paragraph.

Of slurping noodles (or not)

Some time ago, I was eating with a friend when a bit of sauce splattered onto my shirt. As I went, "oh no", she said, "Don't worry, it's the same colour as your shirt."

But I still need to wash it off later!! :s

I thought she was the weird one. But recently I found that at least two other people (they happen to be girls, but I'm not sure whether being girls has anything to do with it) share her view.

A not-raised-in-Malaysia friend mentioned that he had only seen people in Malaysia using chopsticks to put noodles on a spoon and then eat the noodles. He said that on TV programs from other countries, they eat directly from the chopsticks. So we decided to tell him the logic of eating from the spoon instead of from the chopsticks: 1) You can eat the noodles with the soup, and 2) You don't get the soup flying all over the place (and onto your shirt) from the slurping.

But then those two said that they would slurp the noodles at home (because more "shiok" la). When I raised the question of laundry (I guess that's a big preoccupation of mine), they said that it wasn't a problem... the problem was having people seeing stains on their shirt.

Sigh... appearance before laundry, huh? I guess in a way, they're narcissistic and I'm lazy. :P

And I happen to be outnumbered right now.

The aquarium

Welcome to the aquarium! You may take a look from the outside, or you may take a walk inside to experience the aquarium life. (extra charge may apply)

Edit (22 Aug 2014):
Sigh... I can't believe I drew the aquarium shape wrong. Here's the correct one. (lazy to take another photo, so I just edited the one above)

(End of edited part)

At the office, the Software section is situated between the Electrical (or maybe I should say Electronics) and Mechanical sections. And since the cubicle dividers are low, when people walk past, they can see very clearly all of us seated there. (they can walk "inside the aquarium" by going between the two rows of seats) Our manager sits at the location marked "Aquarium Owner".

And here are some actual comments from our "visitors":

1) Feed the fish! (at ~12pm)

This happened at the beginning, when we first moved in. Our "strategy" was to go for lunch at 12:30pm instead of 12pm as we did previously in Cyberplex, to avoid the crowd. But the others didn't know that, so when they saw us still working at noon, they were very worried that we would starve...

2) Oh, new fish!

Exclaimed when a new addition is seen in the "aquarium". Need I say more?

3) Where are the other fish?

This comes from those who know that there are some more members in our team who have not yet moved here. And of course, they are concerned... where are they??

4) Can I bring my fish here?

This came from someone who was looking for extra seats for some more people. That person thought that the empty seats were unoccupied (unlike those from no. 3 above who knew there were more people coming).
However, the answer was of course "no", because the space was already reserved for some fish! (the Aquarium Owner's fish)


Oh yeah, the circles in the drawing are shaky, as you can see... so are the words, especially at the bottom, because my whiteboard is at the far end of the desk, and it's hard to write with your hand at arm's length! And it gets harder the closer your hand is to your desk...

This was actually the second sketch I've done in this office; here's the first one:

I guess it can be seen as a little continuation from my previous S post. One S left and was replaced by another. And now they seem strategically located...

I'm trying to come up with a new sketch at least once a month. That's only twelve a year... so that shouldn't be a problem, right? The second one came less than a week after the first, though. Hope I can keep up the momentum!

Only?

On Friday we went to check out the new gym in our new office. The equipment had just been transferred from the old gym (which I had visited once but never used). A few of us girls were looking at the weight-and-height measuring machine. Basically it has an extendable bar with two moving parts so that you can adjust it to your height and look at the measurement. As we were trying to figure out how to use it (do we fully extend one bar or the other? etc...), a guy came over to show us how to use it. So he adjusts it to my height, and then "helpfully" told me, "So you are only ---cm tall."

Ahem...the "only" was kinda unnecessary, don't you think? I have a perfectly respectable height...they say it's the Malaysian average for females! :P

Songwriting needs skill

I heard A Whole New World from the Aladdin soundtrack in the car today. It struck me what lovely lyrics some songs have. Like the following snippets (the italics are mine) :

I can show you the world
Shining, shimmering, splendid
[...]
I can open your eyes
Take you wonder by wonder
Over, sideways and under
[...]
A whole new world
A new fantastic point of view
[...]
A dazzling place I never knew
But when I'm way up here
It's crystal clear
[...]
Unbelievable sights
Indescribable feeling
Soaring, tumbling, freewheeling
Through an endless diamond sky
[...]
A thrilling chase
A wondrous place
[...]

Not only this song, but the other songs that followed (I was listening to Lite.fm, you see).

Recent songs use these words and expressions less and less. Could it be that most people don't even listen to lyrics any more? Is that why songwriters have decided to come up with catchy tunes and repetitive singalong verses? Are songs just for partying nowadays?

It really is disappointing. But then again, I haven't listened to recent songs in a long time (always tuned in to Lite.fm, to the point that when I heard Phil Collins' In Too Deep without knowing who was the singer, I searched for recent songs first, forgetting that all the songs I had been listening to were old songs), so maybe there are a few good ones now?

CSI case #3

Discovery date and time: Wednesday 30th July 2014, approximately 8:30am.
Victim found greviously injured and unconscious in a ransacked cubicle.

Details of victim:
Name: Totoro
Age: 5 days (Victim was born in the cubicle the previous Friday)

Attached is an original photo of the victim:

Investigative report:

Witnesses: None.

Clue(s): This is the state of the crime scene at discovery of the victim:

Debris was found at the area marked 1. Additionally, a new ESD grounding socket was discovered (object marked 2).

Based on the location of the socket and the debris, plus the following facts:
1) The victim was well at 5:30pm on 25th July (Friday)
2) The four days (Saturday-Tuesday) preceding the discovery of the victim were weekends and public holidays
3) To the left of the victim there was a cleared area

It is suspected that the criminal is one of the workers in charge of installing the ESD grounding socket. Presumably the person pushed the victim away so that they could have a place to put down their tools.

Further action: None. The victim has recovered after intensive care and has decided not to press charges.

Status: Closed.

Of ideals and sanity

Lately, the idealistic side of this skeptical mind seems to be rearing its head a little too frequently. It leads the mind to believe that when people know what is wrong, they will cease to do it and instead choose to do what is right. But of course, this reasoning is flawed. What makes this mind think that everyone would do the same? What makes this mind think that others would care if they were uttering something completely wrong? The "tidak apa" attitude just says, "So what? So what if I'm wrong, as long as you know what I'm talking about?"

So, it is time to stop caring. (Again.) It is time to adopt the "tidak apa" attitude, right back at these people. After all, if they do not want to help themselves, there is no way other people can help them.

Do not help unless asked. Do not care what happens to them unless if they, at least, care too. It is the only way to keep this mind sane.