Recruitment drive.

I had my experience of recruiting freshies these few days and there is an alarming trend in them....

Case 1:

We persuaded 3 girls into joining our camp and they did seem interested. They wanted some time to consider since they have joined Engin camp already. Somehow, they didnt want to leave down their contact numbers so i gave them mine. They said they will contact us again to confirm.

Outcome: I didnt receive any call from them.

Case 2:

XJ and I persuaded two other girls to join the camp. At one point, one of them even said, "Ok lor, anything bah." Again, they didnt want to leave their contacts. They want to contact us instead. My number was given again, and i knew they wont contact me. But they reassured they will.

Outcome: They didnt get back to me.

Case 3:

I called a guy and briefly told him our camp details. He sounded busy and said he will call me back again at night after he asked his friends about it.

Outcome: He didnt call me. I sms-ed him and he didnt reply.

Case 4:

I have been calling this girl.

First time, she said she is working, to call her back at evening time.

I called her back then, but no answer then i heard this personalised voice message: "Hi this is ***. Im currently busy right now and am not able to pick up your phone. Please leave your contact number and i will call you back as soon as possible." I hanged up without leaving a message, thinking if she has just feigned as a recorded message.

Third time, I left a message, asking her to call me. She didnt call me even after 18 hours.

Fourth time, XJ called instead. She answered and said she was in NUS then, for her medical checkup. Great. Later XJ passed me the phone, talked to her a bit, and when asked if she is in NUS, she told me she is asking her boss later to see if she can come for her checkup.

I asked if she is interested in joining our camp and she said if she joins, she might need to apply leave for two weeks - one for our camp, and the other for Union camp the following week. After some thoughts, she didnt want to join our camp.

Later, I realised she told XJ earlier that she needs to ask her boss first if she can apply leave for two weeks.

Outcome: She is not joining our camp.

Case 5, 6, 7.....14209:

When contacted, they said they will call us back later as they :

need to ask their friends.

require some time to consider.

are busy right now to talk over the phone.

Outcome: They didnt call back.

Conclusion: The freshies cannot be trusted or they do not like me.

My last rest day.

It is my rest day today!

Cluedo and Fright Nite's dry run was on friday and fortunately, I wasnt involved much in Cluedo actually, else i will busy myself to death.

Fright Nite on the other hand wasnt as good as planned.

Well, time was a pressing factor. It was getting late and we just had to rush through, else those councillors will have to take cab home.

Luckily, we had two cars to ferry people around. At one point, going from Engin to Central library, there were 9 of us (excluding driver) squeezing inside JH's car - 2 at front and 7 at the back. Ha, i think one of the doors couldnt close and had to be held tightly by one of the them.

Anyway, some stations were quite okay, but some just screwed up.

Hopefully, it will be better this coming sunday's precamp.

Somebody is complaining.

Jaded

It is so tiring to be a committee of the orientation camp, especially when we have to spend a lot of time discussing the programmes, preparing the logistics, calling the respective station I/Cs and councillors and lots of admin stuffs and yet, receive negative responses.

Went back to school on sunday to prepare for beach games' dry run and ended up sleeping at 4am. But due to certain circumstances, i din get to sleep and even after the dry run has ended, we continued to discuss and return log back to school.

40 hours without sleep. Totally worn off.

Fright night filming for the second time again on tuesday nite and more discussion followed.

Slept at 5.30am.

12 more days to the camp and 1023959 things to do.

Paying off

I've been walking a lot lately, perhaps enough for me to relive my days of route march during NS.

Yesterday, it was a long walk around town - city hall, orchard and bugis. In fact, we didnt even cover the entire route for the actual External Hunt.

Today, it was a long walk in Toa Payoh and Bishan, searching for stuffs to buy for this monday's beach games.

More to come for next week.

Anyway, today i received a surprise call - I've won 4 tickets to the preview of NDP.

Yes, finally after the third year of balloting, i've succeeded.

This year will be the last time the National Stadium is used. And i've got the chance to watch it. Haha...

4 tickets? Hmmm... wonder who should i ask.

Don't play pray.

Somehow, i think the video that we shot for fright night might turn out funny instead of spooky.

We were behind time, reaching the deserted house only at 10pm++.

Then some interesting happened.

I brought a torch with me and it was working well. I switched it on upon reaching the doorstep of the house as it was dark. Shortly, i turned it off to save batteries.

But it was quite dark, hence i turned it on again. This time, the torch malfunctioned. I tried a few times, shaking it and hitting it, but to no avail.

Ahh......

Never mind, we proceeded to prepare a simple praying for smooth shooting of our video inside the house with offering of joss-sticks and paper money.

Then, the torch which XJ was holding worked again. He managed to switch it on.

But, Im not sure if XJ did anything to salvage the torch or not.

Was it concidental?

That when we just reached the place, the torch stopped functioning and when we were preparing to pray, the torch came back to life?

We were acting playing die xian (Ouijia) in one of the rooms and fortunately, nothing happened.


Still, judging how we were acting impromptuly, we got to retake some scenes.

Interesting.

When the surveys appeared harmless... (Part 2)

Just when you thought the insurance agent won't call you, you might suddenly receive a call one day..

Here's the second part to 15 Steps to Deal with 'Surveyors'
when Approached....

For use after Step 15 - You are waiting for their call - and you do receive a call.

10 Steps to Say when They Call You

1. "I'm not free. I'm quite busy with school stuffs these days."

Say this when the insurance agent asks when can he/she meet you to discuss about your financial status and planning. Hopefully he/she can back off.

2. "Im preoccupied EVERYDAY."

Emphasize it if he/she wanted to wait for your school stuffs to finish, even if it is one month later. But this might be quite illogical to use though.

3. "I don't have access to all my other policy's portfolio. How are you going to help me review them?"

If he/she wanted to help you review your policies to find out how the policies, even they are not from his/her company, are doing or which area you've left out. Hopefully, he/she might back off, since there is no way to know what insurances you have bought.

4. "Im not going to buy any insurance since you already know my student status."

Remind him/her if he/she has forgotten.

5. "I think the meeting might be a waste of your precious time and also mine, since im not taking up any insurance."

If he/she is really persistent about meeting you, just to help you plan your future.

6. "Actually, im not very keen about it."

Just be honest.
You are an honest guy when you receive such call, isnt it?

7. "I don't feel comfortable sharing personal information like my financial status with someone i don't know."

Use this with care. You might hurt his/her feeling. This is not tested, yet

8. "Perhaps, my perspective will only change when i graduate -- 3 years later."

When he/she hopes your perspective about taking up insurance will change after meeting up.

9. "I will contact you again should i want to buy any insurance next time."

Be resolute to end the call. Only when he/she finally gives up on you.

10. "Thank you. Bye!"

Be friendly even when you have probably stabbed him/her with razor-sharped statements.

Final advice: You must not be soft-hearted.

Surprisingly, tiring.

I was in a good mood yesterday, just before the first dry run started.

Because, i got into the engineering that i want when the result of streaming was released at 12pm! Haha. Gonna be classmate with KR again. Lol

The dry run was so tiring. And we didnt even try all stations. Well, maybe because we don't have enough people, that's why we had to do a lot of logistics stuff ourselves.

We actually left NUS at 9pm when the dry run ended at 5++pm.

But, Im still happy at my streaming result.

Once i start, i cant stop.

Food spree is one of my favourite past time, albeit only once in a long while and only when im very hungry.

After some recce for beach games at Sentosa and shopping for some stuffs for the games yesterday, i couldnt resist myself when i stepped into Takashimaya's basement food kingdom.

The smell just intensified my pangs of hunger.

In the end, i had....
Tako Pachi and Omu Yakisoba....

but these two couldnt satisfy me... so i bought more.....


Total cost of my extravagant dinner - $13..

The woe of 'too-good' service..

Toa Payoh HDB Hub's NTUC Fairprice toiletries section has a unique customer service. Yet, it is so unique that it is unbearable. Unknowingly, this inflicts a fear in me to even step near that section.

Usually, there are 3 sales promoters standing around there.

Once, i was just browsing and had no intention of buying anything. The moment i was near there, one of the promoters immediately sprung into action and asked politely, "Hi, 要找什么吗?"

I just smiled back, shook my head and walked away.

After a while, i walked back again, wanting to look at some cleansers. However, i was just walking through the shelves when suddenly, she appeared at the end, in front of me... I was trapped.

Turning away would be quite rude, i thought. So I stayed and looked at the items on the shelves while she asked the same question again: 要找什么吗?

Nothing. I was just looking.

She didnt give up. She began to promote an array of facial products.

First, it was a cleanser. I don't need it.
Next, a scrub that can remove black heads. I told her i have already.
Then, a mask. I don't want.

She was persistent. Pushing the box of mask into my hand and telling me to take a look while she took out a sample tube, squeezed out a little and applied it on my hand.

Just try it, no obligations to buy. You will see the results when it is dry. She assured.

Patronisingly, i read the mask's description on the box. But in fact, i was thinking, how to shake her off.

After an agonising 15 seconds, i returned the box to her and told her that i do not want to buy.

Her face changed and asked, "你到底要找什么?!"

Nothing.

I left the place quickly.

Tap in & Tap out

For those who take bus frequently, you will probably know there is a promotion by SBS currently.


Bus concession users like us can earn e-tokens when taking any bus and use them to bid for items such as iPod nano or mobile phone vouchers. The main criteria is to tap out when exiting to earn those e-tokens.

During the last auction, 30 May, i noticed something interesting.....


This person has won 3 of the auction items and used a total of 1492 e-tokens to bid.

Now here is the interesting part:

• Since this promotion only starts from 11 May, she probably only has 20 days to accumulate 1492 or rather, 1500 e-tokens after rounding off.
  
  
• Since each bus ride will give 2 e-tokens while most feeder buses only give 1 e-tokens, she needed to make 750 bus trips to earn 1500 e-tokens, assuming she only take normal trunk services.
  
  
• On average, she needed to make about 38 trips per day.
  
  
• How on earth is a person going to take 38 bus trips per day? Or rather 19 trips to her work place, and 19 trips back home if she is working or going to school.
  
  
• Because it is impossible, there is only one possible way how she earn 76 e-tokens per day:
  
  She will board a bus, tap in, and exit at the next bus-stop, tap out and wait for another bus to come and board again. This will repeat 38 times.

Conclusion: She is very free. Me too.