This Christmas fell on Friday and it made a very happy long weekend for us working folks. And it was a perfect time to catch up on the tonnes of movies in my collection. So I spent the long weekend watching:

• District 9 (love it!)
• Primer (very difficult to understand...)
• The Proposal (funny, feel-good show)
• Julie & Julia (Meryl Streep, food and blogging - what's not to like?)
• Inglourious Basterds (typical Tarantino movie - dark humour and violent blood shed)

This coming week has another long weekend. Let's see if I could continue with this pursuit. I might have a more important thing to work on. Hint: a new toy. *grin*

Last Saturday morning, I saw in the Straits Times that Courts was having a promotion on a LCD TV I had been eyeing for a long time. It's the Sony Bravia S20, with about $200 off the usual price. I decided to go get one from the outlet at VivoCity since it was nearest to my house.

When I got to the small outlet, the display set did not state that it was on offer. It still got the original price tag. So I asked Salesman A about it. He looked at me questionably but proceeded to check the computer and confirmed that it was on offer. Great, I decided to get one. I would get the white one, I said. We only have the white one. You don't say.

Since I wanted the white one, I didn't mind. I followed him to the cashier, thinking he would go into the store and get me a set. But he pointed to the box at the corner with many other items stacked on top and because of that, the box looked a little squashed.

"Can you get me a new set?"

"This is a new set," he said without batting an eyelid.

I opened the box to take a look. OK, the TV was covered and protected with foams. I was quite relunctant, but I didn't want to make it a wasted trip. I relented. I'd take it, I said.

While in the queue at the cashier, I asked 3 different salesmen including Salesman A about 1-1 exchange and warranty card. They all looked like my parents owe them some money. Maybe it was because of the stuffy little outlet (I was perspiring just standing in the queue). Or maybe it was because it was a Saturday and they really didn't want to work while their friends were out shopping. Anyway, 1-1 exchange could be done within 7 days of the purchase. As for warranty card, they assured me it was stamped and in the box. It was my mistake not to check for the card on the spot, for there wasn't any card in the box when I opened it up back at home.

Now, if you had tried to call Courts, you would know they have only 1 customer service hotline, regardless of outlets. So there was no way you could call the outlet directly. Although the hotline let you select an outlet to speak to, no one would pick it up, of course. So I waited for ages, before someone picked up the call (not from the outlet).

There was no greeting; just "HELLO?" like I just interrupted her TV show. I told the lady about the warranty card. Without hesitation, she told me Sony TV warranty had to be registered online, so no need warranty card. Oh great! I thanked her, put down the phone and proceeded to go to Sony's website to register. But wait a minute, what is this that said I needed a reference number which should come from my WARRANTY CARD? ARGH! At this point, my blood was close to boiling point. I repeated the whole fucking call process and waited until the same lady picked up the call. (I had a feeling that there was only ONE person manning the hotline). I told her about the reference number, and this time she took down my name, contact number and address and said that she would ask the outlet to mail me the warranty card.

Coincidentally, my brother was going to VivoCity the next day, so I asked him to take the receipt and helped me collect the warranty card. I also asked him to give them a piece of my mind.

This was the first time I bought a big item from Courts and it will be the last. I had much better buying experience from neighbourhood electrical stores.

While waiting for someone to pick up my call on their hotline, there was a message playing - Courts cheap sale is now on. No frills, no gimmicks, no fancy ads. They forgot to add "no customer service" in there.

Here's another unsatisfied Courts customer's story.

My company uses Microsoft Sharepoint for internal workspace and content sharing and collaboration. One of its capabilities is blogging.

A couple of poor souls in the Marketing department got tasked to blog for the company, for internal consumption. I'm not sure how many people actually read the posts, because the blog doesn't provide a regular RSS feed for subscription. You can only subscribe it from your own personal Sharepoint site. No one bothers about their personal Sharepoint page, so no one subscribes to the blog. With no subscription, no one knows when there is a new post, unless one is so free to check the site everyday (who does that these days anyways?).

So why bother, really. Why bother to make a product that allows people to blog, but doesn't provide RSS feeds? And I'm not sure if the Marketing department would wonder why they bother to blog too, if they know no one really reads it.

I haven't been posting much to my blog these days because I'm being kept busy by micro-blogging and typing in 140 characters or less.

The blog was my outlet for my day-to-day musings, gossips, info-sharing, complaints and bitchings. But ever since I got an account each on Tumblr, Plurk and Twitter, I did not have to do them on my blog anymore. I now share links, videos, photos on Tumbling jinnPod. I muse, complain and bitch at Twitter and Plurk. There's really no need to have a long blog post for these stuff anymore.

So follow me at these places:

• Tumbling jinnPod
• Twitter
• Plurk

Photo by justin

A week ago, I finally went for the LASIK surgery on my eyes. I had been thinking about doing it for a long time, but it had always been very expensive and I wasn't sure about the reliability; you know, the complications after the surgery and whether you would get the perfect eyesight even after going through with it, that sort of things. It wasn't until a handful of colleagues went for it last year and the results have been nothing but positive. And they all got theirs eyes done at the same clinic - Lasik Surgery Clinic. That was when I decided I should do it too.

You see, I was never a fan of contact lens. My eyes never felt comfortable with them. But I wore them when I did sports. It became a bit of a chore to put them on and take them off. Sometimes I would forget to pack them.

It still cost me a lot of money but it's definitely worth it. Immediately after the surgery I had regained back most of my vision. I couldn't believe it. The next day, I could actually drive myself to the clinic for the 1st review. Right now during the day, I would say my vision is clear. But at night, things get a bit blurry because of all the lights; I see halos around the street lamps. In about 2 weeks, I'll be going for my 2nd review and the doctor will be testing my eyesight.

So, no more:

• fogging up of my glasses when I get out of an air-conditioned place or drinking hot soup
• feeling the chore of putting contact lenses before sports and taking them out later
• waking up to the world of blur
• wiping accidental finger prints off my glasses
• wiping off oil and prints off my glasses after shooting every picture when using my DSLR
• wondering what kinda haircut my hairdresser is giving me

Plus, I can wear sunglasses that can be bought off the rack and looking all stylo-milo.