Rant 1124 / Phones And Cheese Balls

For those who can understand Mandarin.






















So the other day when I was on a cab home from camp after an IPT session, I met this driver that made me feel a little angry.

You see, I don't shower after IPT. Instead, I merely change my shirt and spray some deordorant before leaving the camp. The smell's still there but not as much.

So when I boarded this cab, he asked me if I was there for IPPT. I just said it was for RT, since most people are more familiar with the old system and the new IPT system would have required some explanation that I wasn't in the mood to give.

Like several other drivers I met before, this guy said some things along the line of what a waste of time it was. I don't know why but guys like me who view these compulsory annual training sessions in a positive light must be damn rare.

So I replied that it wasn't so bad since I probably wouldn't exercise if not for it. Then like the other cab driver I mentioned previously who boasted about not attending a single IPPT throughout this post-NS life, this guy told me that it wasn't important. If you die, you die. Moreover, few people have jobs that allow them free time to exercise unless they're "above average".

Then he went on to say that life is pointless anyway, why bother trying to preserve it? If he could, he would get a gun and go pew pew pew.

I'm quoting his words as much as I can here.

Fortunately it was getting close to my destination so I interrupted his self-pity rant to tell him where to stop.

Being busy is an excuse. Few "average" jobs are that hectic. Even for cab drivers, they only work 12 hours a day, but they don't sleep away the other 12 hours.

And the "life is pointless" crap, I don't even know where to begin. I think I've said everything I ever want to say on that topic in the last thousand rants in this blog so I won't say more here.

He does remind me of my past self though, the one who didn't run a business. He could be what I might have turned out to be in 10 years if things didn't go the way they did. Maybe that's why I felt angry. He is what I imagine myself to be if I had continued living life without pride in myself.








Speaking of cab drivers, another time I met this guy who turned out to be an ex-manager of the Shop N Save near my place. Apparently he was there for 3 months and then he couldn't stand how the upper management was trying to push Giant's hypermart concept to a small supermarket such as this, so he left.

I think it doesn't work but I'm not even into retail.

The difference is that Giant's into selling things in bulk to the public. They look at the volume above all else. A small branch like the one in my neighbourhood doesn't have the space for that; it barely had the space for a bit of everything. In fact they always keep a lot of unopened cartons stored outside in the public corridor and have to rely on their own staff to keep watch. Giant's style won't fit a place as tightly packed as this.

But like I said, I'm no expert in this, so we'll see.






















So I have cancelled my Starhub fibre. Apparently, they also automatically cur off my mobile broadband that was bundled with it.

I didn't have to return the USB dongle, which is a good thing because I forgot about it and had only brought the modem itself and not the cap nor the  USB cable.

I might be able to reuse it someday if I ever get just a USB card that I'm only going to use for internet. Unlikely.

This means I will need to subscribe to a mobile broadband plan soon. Probably at M1 which offers the lowest prices at $12 for 2GB.



At the same time, I'm picking a new phone and it's kind of a problem.

I'm preferring the Nokie Lumia 520 but both this and 620 are free for the plan I'm about to recontract with. 520 is better in terms of battery life (the only difference that matters to me) but 620 is more expensive, ie 620 is a better deal in terms of cash value.

This is pretty stupid. I know I should take the 520 but my greed tells me 620 is a viable option.



....


So I got the 520 but now there's a minor complication: it uses a micro-SIM while my main phone uses an old big SIM card.

I chose to recontract using my secondary phone because its contract had ended and I'm planning to share the talktime and SMS between both the phones. The extra charge would still be cheaper than getting a separate plan.

This means that for a few more months, I'm going to have to continue to use my old phone till the contract's up and I can switch it to M1, at which point I'll get a new SIM card (I hope). If I don't get a new SIM card, I'll have to request for one.

Or I could just find some way to cut it but I don't have something to allow my old phone to use the microSIM.
















This is epic! I actually managed to turn a profit last year!

Of course it's mostly thanks to someone who advised me on pricing and etc. I feel that it's mainly the new aggressive strategy that's keeping my goods moving despite their age and if I had followed my mother's way of doing things, I would have definitely made a loss. It's not that her method is inferior but that it relies on actual artistic talent, something I have yet to acquire.

This strategy I currently employ leans more on the "business" side than the "art".

However, now that I've almost run out of old stuff to sell, a new problem arises. I no longer have the baby fats to buffer my lack of new goods so I'm bucking up this year and ordering more samples.

2013 did not have a good start at all, so again, I don't have a high expectation for it.

I don't expect a loss anymore, unlike last year, but I don't expect it to be any higher than 2012's, during which I made less than the average fresh university graduate.

It's pretty damn low by most standards; I'm just surprised that I made any money at all in my first year.























Bioshock is a mildly scary game. The constant scraping/footstep noises in the background keeps me nervous while the sudden spawns in areas I have already cleared serve as a lesson that I should never let my guard down.

The atmosphere is dark and all the areas are quite enclosed. Moreover, enemies tend to try harder at dodging bullets.

Quite a different game from Bioshock Infinite. In fact, the only things they have in common are the combination of magic and guns and the impossible environment.

In other words, when I can't snipe when I feel like it. On the bright side, I get to use the shotgun a lot more than in Infinite.

Playing this game also made me understand why some people say that "hard is the new normal". I played on Hard difficulty on Infinite and finished the game without too much trouble, yet within 10 minutes into Bioshock, I had to switch to Normal, and this really feels like Infinite's Hard.

Hard is indeed the new normal!

The main reason for switching is that I could never find enough ammo and had to always resort to using my melee, which I didn't like to. According to the wiki, not only is ammo harder to find on Hard, they also have 55% more health, ie 55% more ammo required per kill.

Melee is a bad idea on that difficulty because melee does not stun or knock enemies back, so they can also attack me when I'm attacking them. I don't think there's even a way to avoid this. The only thing I can come up with is to stun them with that shock skill but the stun is removed the instant I hit the target, at which point it could attack me before I can leap out of melee range.

The only consolation is that there doesn't seem to be a penalty for dying, although running out of health kits all the time is no fun.


This reminds me of this really stupid thing regarding Infinite. Apparently, I had missed something important throughout the game: there is a shortcut key that lets me change my equipped Vigors.

No wonder the bottles didn't work near the end!