Whilst I was waiting for a friend at Orchard mrt today, this teenager approached me and asked for 30 seconds of my time. Honestly, it is a complete waste of my time. He was actually selling me photo albums, and he took quite long to get it that I do not see the point in buying photo albums from him.

At first he seemed like any normal direct sales person. He informed me that it’s a Disneyland design photo album and it’s being sold at $9.90 for two photo albums. Personally I do not need a photo album, and if I want to get a photo album, I won’t be getting those kind of photo album. I prefer the big book kind where I can put my photos any way I like it.

So he tried to persuade me. He said photo albums are good for preserving memories. Granted, that’s correct, but I told him I don’t need a photo album. He then proceeded to say that photo albums can be used to store old movie tickets. Yes, that sounds logical, except for the fact that it seems like a huge waste of space to me, and that for the past few movies I have watched, I have not collected my share of the ticket stub. Furthermore, the ink on the ticket faints after a year, so what kind of memory preservation is that. Hence I just told him I do not need a photo album.

But he didn’t get my message. He tried to continue, and I told him, I don’t need a photo album because for people nowadays, we store the photos in our hard disk, and we rarely print photos out. Hence I won’t need a photo album at all.

He continued, asking, what happens when those storage methods fail. In my mind, I got slightly pissed. That’s a stupid method of asking me to buy. What happens if a fire comes and burn all my albums? Besides, there are many ways of preserving photos. Hard disk, CD-R, and even online methods. I listed down the means I can preserve my photos, but he still didn’t leave.

I told him I’m a student and I don’t get any allowance, so it makes no sense for me to buy any photo albums. 10 dollars is a huge amount and I can eat like 3 meals in NUS? It makes no sense to waste the 10 bucks on something I’ll never use in the near future? And it’s not some special edition album anyway. I didn’t tell him about the last part about the special edition though. No point criticizing a product.

He then asked, “so your parents give you an allowance?”

I said yes.

He then said, “Well, my parents do not give me any allowance, and I’m working to earn my own money. And some people have supported me already”. He took out some money from his pocket. And then he told me to support him.

Honestly, what for? It’s not some charitable work, and neither am I interested in the product he was selling. Who the hell buys photo albums from someone in the MRT station? It’s a very ordinary product that has NO benefits to me AT ALL. I was really pissed off by then, because as a direct sales personnel, he should be telling me the benefits of his product and why should I buy it. Supporting him is not why I should buy that product. Hell, do I have to buy a product from each store I walk past just to give them my support? Seriously, selling photo albums is a really lame job.

I told him, “What do you want me to do? Take pity on you to buy the photo album?”

He said no, it’s not about pity. And he continued saying he has no allowance and that I should support him. NONSENSE! Which part of “I don’t see a point of buying it” does he not understand at all?

He then said something really stupid after I told him if its a charity, I would consider buying based on pity, but he’s not a charity and I have no obligations. He said that if I buy his product, his company will earn money and hire more people to sell the product.

WTF? Now I’m supposed to spend money so that his company will hire more idiots to sell idiotic things like photo album? Am I converting Singapore to a place where lazy people just go around getting people to buy things because we have to support them? EG1413 tells you that this is APPEAL TO PITY. Seriously it’s stupid. His boss probably came. Stood very near the poor guy who’s job seems to be to piss me off. I didn’t like the way his boss stood. The body language seems to be trying to intimidate me into buying, and I was really angry with his stupid company.

So I told him in an absolutely “I’m pissed off and if you say anymore I will punch your face” tone, that I do not see the point in pitying him and I do not see the point in buying the photo album especially when I don’t have a use for it. I handed his photo album back, made him take it so he got the idea.

Finally I had some peace.

A few lessons here. If you’re selling something, make sure I feel that I need that item. Make me feel that it’s beneficial to me. I use money to exchange something of an equal perceived value. I don’t give money to someone who tells me he has to work for money. That’s stupid because I work for money too. But I work in a company using my skills and not by making people feel obligated to help you out. It’s like those ex convicts selling pens. Why should I be pitying you? I support the yellow ribbon project. I agree that jobs should be given to ex convicts, if they qualify. But I don’t see the point in being sympathetic to someone just because he can’t find a job other than selling pens. Seriously, is it my fault he went to jail before? People who have two hands and legs, go and find a decent job.

Appealing to pity is not the way you get people to buy from you.

More updates on my holidays as it reaches the mid point. In about 3 more weeks it’ll end and another semester will begin again. In about 2 days (or actually less than two days), the results will also be out. Once the result is out, I’ll then replan my whole schedule for the rest of my university days and see if I need to rethink about my module choices. It’ll be a scary day and I’ll just hope for the best.

The Advisors Alliance program has also reached the middle and I’ve passed two examinations already and this coming week will be relaxing for me as I’ll only need to attend two half day of programs and there won’t be an exam, so I can concentrate on my Japanese lessons.

As for Jap lessons, I’ve also attended 3 lessons already. There is much to catch up and memorize, especially all the new words. I should probably be more diligent.

I’ll also have to read some books which I borrowed from a friend. I haven’t had the time to read since I’ve been going out for programs and watching drama at night. I’ve watched a few drama sets already. At night I watched Duke of Mount Deer, the new version, as well as Moonlight Resonance, which I’ve just completed.

On my way to programs or meeting with friends or Jap lessons etc, I’ve watched Dexter Season 1 and 2, and I’m now watching Prison Break season 1 on my Zen Vision:M.

I’ve kinda neglected a few things, one like my blog. Perhaps I have to find the drive back to write again. The other one is the website I had, NextTutor, which is kind of rotting since I’m not doing anything with it, just leaving it there for people to use. I’ll think about what to do with it when I’ve got the time I suppose.

I’ll see how!

It’s been a week since I last blogged, and since then I’ve started my Japanese lessons. I think I need to start preparing adequately for the lessons because they are extremely intensive since the bulk of the lesson is conducted in Japanese. There are more terms now to memorize and each term has many different forms, and they are quite confusing. Elementary 2 seems much more harder than elementary 1.

I’ve also started on an “internship” program. It’s actually some entreprenuerial program by the insurance sector, and they are having courses on finance and insurance and even signing us up for the test. At least there’s something to do during the holidays, and I guess it’s good to learn something during the holidays. Tomorrow I’ll sit for a test about the rules and regulations for the finance industry, and they have quite a bit of information that I guess gave me a greater understanding towards the finance industry. There’s some information on CPF too, so I just learnt good knowledge! Haha.

Next week will be another busy week, and there’s the 2nd test where I’ll learn about life insurance. There are 3 tests in all.

I’ve just bought concession because I’m going to keep taking the mrt for this course, and it’ll be good for me to have concession to save money.

My whole body is aching after the exercise yesterday in school. It’s quite a tiring day yesterday. My arms are tired. Got to train up more. Got a new pair of Brooks for my exercise needs. Ah well, busy lately. Take care everyone.

I have been free from my examinations since Monday, and the reason why I haven’t been blogging after the examinations have ended is because I have been out trying to enjoy myself. The enjoyment ended yesterday night and one of my friends have gone back to Malaysia today, and another is going back to Indonesia tomorrow afternoon.

The rest of the people will probably not meet during this time, and everyone has their own things to do. The GS will also be going to China for holiday, so effectively there’s no chance for a uni clique outing till they all come back.

It’s about another month to go before I’ll see them again, and I’ve now got an entire month free to do what I want, and I guess I’ll continue to enjoy myself for a few more days before deciding on what to do. One thing for sure, I have to resume my Japanese Language revision since my 2nd course starts this Sunday.

On Monday after my marketing paper, we went to Megabites at Science to have a nice lunch, then we went to Bugis to walk around, eventually going down to Funan and then to Nelson’s house. I satisfied my craving for Prawn Mee though it wasn’t that fantastic, and then the slurpee machine gave me problems at 7-11. We ended off the night going to Crown Center next to Coronation Plaza for ice cream.

On Tuesday we went to Har Par Villa to look look see see, then to Vivocity for lunch. I had my first Carls Junior meal there and it is really big and expensive too. A meal costs $12+ there. I can have a Burger King meal at $6+. Granted the burger is bigger and probably slightly better in taste, but the cost is doubled! After that I was too full to actually want to eat anything else.

We headed down to Parkway Parade and took a shuttle bus to the Big Splash where there’s the liliput Mini Golf place. We paid $15 for the game and $2 for the socks because I wasn’t wearing any socks and you’re required to be in socks for the game. (No shoes!)

There are 18 holes, each having a theme unique to Singapore. The first being Changi Airport, and others include Esplanade, Zoo, Bird Park, Sentosa blablabla. The photos are on Facebook and I have quite a few, but they are mainly blur, I don’t know why.

It was quite enjoyable and we ended up having loads of fun. Then we ate at Parkway Parade, and we wanted to go for xiaolongbaos but there wasn’t any at the Crystal Jade because it’s the wrong kind of Crystal Jade, so we just went home after that.

I’m just happy the semester is over and I can enjoy myself.

I’ve got another thing to talk about though, something which I refrained from talking about, mainly locking up the posts whenever I feel down and I needed an outlet to destress. It’s about my break up last May, just after my examinations for Semester 2. It’s been a whole semester and 7 months later, and I finally got over it. I think the whole experience made me learn many things and I understand myself better and understand what I want in my life and what kind of person I would want to share my life with. I’ve since sorted out my feelings and I’m not deeply conflicted anymore. There have been a spate of problems after the break up and I’m just glad it’s finally over. I can’t be bothered if people were to judge me. I’ll just wait for the right person to come along.