Wednesday 25 February 2009

Lesson In Niche Identification... NOT

Here's an example of what you should never do as a marketer.

Welcome to the Apex Group:
There is one key reason why Apex will drastically improve your unloading process. The reason is profitability. We make less than any of our competitors. While most would consider this a weakness, we consider it our greatest strength. We make less, because we choose to reinvest into our employees and into initiatives that make our company safer and better. While the average unloading contract lasts 2-3 years, Apex's average tenured client is seven years. We build long lasting working relationships that benefit both parties. That experience of working together for a long period of time is what builds continuity and ultimately increases efficiency. Because at Apex, We lift you higher.

The Apex Group. We lift you higher
(Taken from http://www.apexlogisticsgroup.com/index.php)




Audio Candy:
Your Winter - Sister Hazel

Monday 23 February 2009

Voice

Justin was just telling me about some shitty protest in NYU (New York University) where he studies now. It's like the protesters barricaded the school cafeteria and only dispersed after the school cut off the internet service and nobody could get their Facebook updates.

Apparently protests aren't all that fun and games. Protesters are actually disliked by most normal people, because they end up digressing from the original point of protest to a whole host of other insane and stupid things, turning the passing of a simple day into wading through thick sludge. In this case, things started out as a protest demanding that the school admin reveal the budgeting and funding for the school to ensure that they're not fleecing the students, but then their list of demands grew to include stuff like 'the university must give money to the University of Gaza', 'the university must give 13 full annual scholarships to Palestinian students', 'the school library must be open to the public' (i.e. the school library becomes hobo hotel), 'the school must be all green and vegan' (not that bad on first glance, but then think of all the lefty nutjob ideals about the environment), etc, making life here pale in relative excitement. But I won't stake a claim on whether such excitement is good or bad.

In contrast, when our sociopolitical club Apolitical got registered as a CCA under SMU, we definitely got on the radar and some dude made us register under some government list. The specially-designed system either filters us out somehow, or there are people employed just to sniff us or any potential dissent out. Whee.




We defend democracy by forgoing it.

Audio Candy:
David Garrett - Smooth Criminal

Wednesday 18 February 2009

It's Alive!


Prof Luan: "And I will curve the two classes. I will only have so many As and Bs to give, so I do not want the other class to have an advantage and you should not talk about the paper after you are done."

The bell curve. It does exist! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.


Every professor has some excuse not to remember names at the beginning of the term, and then have a miraculous memory upgrade by the time the term ends for class participation grades. They don't give themselves enough credit for that.


In cognitive psychology class: Is a tomato a fruit?

No, because it is not sweet.
Yes, because it has seeds.
No, because it is found in the vegetables section.
Yes, because it is borne from a flower.

Subway sandwiches are healthy because they have vegetables in them.
There are tomatoes in a subway sandwich.
Bad command or file name
MultipleRequestsOnSession




Audio Candy:
Bowling For Soup - High School Never Ends

And Worry Angels After All

It is always funny in a somewhat amazingly stupid manner whenever someone's pre-emptive strike turns into an unnecessary self-jack.



I'm starting to feel the urge to embark on another crazy run. Or cycle.



(Cashmere Mafia)

Davis: How can you do this to me?

Juliet: How can I do this to you? To you. You lied to me, you betrayed me... and you broke my heart. First in little ways, and then, in big ones. Some of those, I can get past; but.. I can't trust you, Davis. And I never will again. Not because I don't want to, and not because I'm not incapable of it, but because you don't deserve it.


Well said, Juliet.




I just want to make sure it’s living hell for anyone out there who’s going to beat me.
- Ken Souza, champion duathlete, on his hellish training regime

Audio Candy:
Paramore - Decode

Tuesday 17 February 2009

Eating The Economic Pie

China has recently stated that she intends to encourage spending and increase imports from other countries. When China makes a statement like that, you'd ignore it at your own peril. If she really achieves what she intends to, it could very well signal a global economic shift, which technically might be for the better (since a major big-ass permanent exporter represents a market system glut of sorts in it's blatant one-sidedness).

If all that global visiting going on lately by China leaders and her attendance at the economic forum at Davos doesn't signify China's assertion that she intends to open up and become an active player, I don't know what is. Along with this could come a day when the world has no choice but to turn to China, because they will start calling the shots and we will have no choice but to obey.


I'm getting some dough from the GST offset package. I suppose this means I'm being manipulated within some larger financial scheme that our bigwigs are tweaking the system with, but I guess I'll feel less guilty when I watch my next movie knowing that the money is going to a bigger noble cause and will be used to stimulate the economy which will guarantee more jobs for our fellow men and probably not a pay-raise for some other inconspicuous and smart people. Hurray!




Only two things are certain in this world: Death and taxes.

Audio Candy:
Rob Pattinson - Never Think

Saturday 14 February 2009

FFS

A horde of opinionated people have sprung up giving their $.02 after Obama secured the USS789 billion stimulus package. Maybe I'm joining them too.

Before this, the Republicans were considering a US$700 billion bailout for major corporations who fucked the US economic system up.


"With 700 billion dollars, you could give everyone on the planet $100, which is more than a sizable percentage of them will make this year.

With 700 billion dollars, you could give every citizen of the United States $2000 - of course, it sort of works the other way around, doesn't it? We're the ones that will be giving the $2000 to foot the bill for this.

Instead, for 700 billion dollars, we are rewarding companies that were mismanaged. Which means, I presume, that a very small number of already-absurdly-wealthy old white guys will be made even wealthier. And I will still be left trying to make ends meet every month.

I'm sure there's a huge amount about this that I don't understand, but what I do understand is that I am being asked to pay for irresponsible management of huge companies, and I also understand that this is not capitalism. This is corporate welfare. This is a handout. And it's a bunch of wealthy people in government rewarding themselves, propping up their own portfolios, and rewarding their buddies on wall street, completely without regard for those of us who foot the bill."


In terms closer to home, it's something like this. A completely screwed up professor commits a crapload of errors over a couple of terms, and then approaches the Dean and says, "I'm really sorry about my mistakes, but I need money to make up for them. Not only that, I'd like a bonus too!" And the Dean approves the request, and gets the students to pay higher school fees.

At one time people were wondering, if the 2nd bailout got through like the first one did, whether we were wasting a crisis.

Obama's call for the stimulus package while refusing to help the major financial players is a good way to go and would potentially save many jobs. Ceasing tax cuts for the rich would begin putting a stop to corporate America's hold on state politics and public policy, which means we would finally see some proper, smart and at least logical decisions being made for once. People have accused Obama of being socialist especially when he's considered seizing errant banks and corporations that have gone bankrupt instead of giving them money 'to stay afloat' but I couldn't think them any more ignorant right now.




Audio Candy:
Stars - One More Night

Sunday 8 February 2009

Comes From Within

"The road that stretches before the feet of a man is a challenge to his heart long before it tests the strength of his legs. Our destiny is to run to the edge of the world and beyond, off into the darkness: sure for all our blindness, secure for all our helplessness, strong for all our weakness, gaily in love for all the pressure on our hearts."

"Life must be lived, even by those who cannot find the courage to face it. In the living of it, every mind must meet the rebuff of mystery. To some men, this will be an exultant challenge: that so much can be known and truth not be exhausted, that so much is still to be sought, that truth is an ocean not to be contained in the pool of a human mind. To others, this is a humiliation not to be borne; for it marks out sharply the limits of our proud minds. In the living of life, every mind must face the unyielding rock of reality, of a truth that does not bend to our whim or fantasy, of the rule that measures the life and mind of a man."

- St Thomas, The Summa Theologica




Audio Candy:
I Am Ghost - The Denouement

Saturday 7 February 2009

Repress

In your eyes I lost my place
Could stay a while and I'm melting
In your eyes like my first time
That I caught fire, just stay with me
Lay with me now



What I did in the earlier part of today completely grosses me out whenever I think about it. If I were ever to commit them again, I would come really close to killing myself.




Audio Candy:
The Used - I Caught Fire