auyongtc’s blog

It’s inevitable (no don’t start laughing tsewei ), isn’t it? In a widely-connected world of today, we’re bound to experience being put on hold on a telephone call every now and then.

Whether it’s a call to a customer service helpline or even a call to your husband (put you on hold either to speak with his boss, or mistress ), you might just find yourself being put on hold, often against your will. Nowadays it seems the customer service answering your call will nicely ask for your permission before piping you soothing music that will supposedly calm even the fiercest caller out there. And we’ll obliged to the request, despite the fact that we’ll be telling ourselves deep inside NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

And then we’ll be a slave to our phone, plastering the earpiece to our ear listening to whatever crap they want to pipe to us (stop laughing there you lucky bastard with a speakerphone!)…

Of course, often enough before we even get to speak with a customer service rep that would eagerly put you on hold once s/he gets your name (”hello there, who am I speaking to please? Oh hi Mr Au Yong, please hold…”). That’s why I really appreciate any customer service number that picks up a call with a human voice, instead of those pre-recorded drony female voices they call IVR (Interactive Voice Response). Navigating cryptic and maze-like IVR systems these days can easily speed up blood pressure and activate the Tourette Syndrome that’s hidden inside every one of us.

Back to the stupid HOLD button … since I don’t think we’ll ever do away with the HOLD button, we’ll have to figure other ways to make us, the consumers a lil more in control! Then again, if we can ever get rid of the HOLD button, I reckon 95% of the people manning customer service lines will quit, while the remaining 5% stay on coz they’re too lazy to get another job…

Don’t you find it absolutely frustrating to be put on hold and while you’re in the middle of being enslaved to the phone, you need to get off the phone, perhaps an emergency trip to the toilet, or that you’re late for an appointment? At times like this, I really hate to put down the phone and then at a later time, start over the whole agonizing process of calling up the number, finally getting through, navigating the IVR, getting a new customer service rep listening to your case and putting you on hold! I don’t think so!

So what can we do about the HOLD button? I just thought of this earlier… we should include a feature that we can use to get the attention of that person who put you on hold. There’s no way we should allow them to control the call. We should be able to press a key like 0 or * to get his phone to ring, signalling to him that you need to speak to him ASAP, before you miss that flight, or your bladder giving way!

Yeah, we should rally up and lobby to include this feature in every phone systems that provide a HOLD button feature! Anyone with me? Please?

P/S - Check out this old but funny clip about the Internet Helpdesk

UPDATE @ March 2, 2005 7.58pm:
Just heard a cute sarcastic line from today’s episode of Gilmore Girls…
Cust Rep: Can I put you on hold?
Lorelai: Of course I’ll hold. I thought you’d never ask!
– another –
Cust Rep: Can I put you on hold?
Lorelai: Well, of course! Holding is one of my great pleasures

w00t! This blog is now on the new WordPress v1.5.

If you haven’t notice by now, I’ve also changed the layout a bit. There’s still a bit of construction and refining work on this blog. So please bear with the noise and potholes until it is done. Let me know if you stumble into any bugs.

… tweaking my ADSL modem?

Actual Bit Rate (NEAR END FAST CHANNEL): 5152 Kbps
Actual Bit Rate (FAR END FAST CHANNEL): 736 Kbps
Actual Bit Rate (NEAR END INTERLEAVED CHANNEL): 0 Kbps
Actual Bit Rate (FAR END INTERLEAVED CHANNEL): 0 Kbps

Now if only I can improve my line’s SNR (Signal-Noise-Ratio) and hold on this speed stable. SNR is quite bad at the moment for my line

Hehehe, introducing the God Dog of Gambler 2005:

Introducing the pedigree breed of mahjong extraordinaire: Gigi

Gigi: *sniff sniff snifffff!*

Gigi: w00f w00f w000f w0000f w00f! (translated from Google: Let me guess… diamond 7!)

Gigi also said: w00f w00000f w000f w00f w0000f w00f w00000f!
(translated: Gambling is bad, I was duped into doing this coz of the milk bone and mandarin oranges lure )

There are 55 minutes left till the end of Valentine’s Day this year as I start blogging this…

I’ve stayed home the whole day. Kinda good also, that I don’t contribute to the long reservation/waiting list at restaurants, long queues at cinemas, jam-packed crowd at every love spots. Yeah. this year I’m staying home for a quiet Valentine’s Day. Then again, that’s also because tsewei is still in Ithaca, New York, United Land of People Who Voted Bush Back Into Administration

One good thing about her being there, is that how accessible it is for me to shop for something to be sent to her - online shopping is really a breeze over there. Alas, due to the incompetence of Pos Malaysia (having closed for business during the week-long Chinese New Year holidays), cards from tsewei still did not reach me… haih… Malaysia bukan tak boleh, tapi Malaysia mana boleh?!

Okay, rants about Pos Malaysia aside, I feel like blogging about how we all began…

I knew tsewei pretty much due to coincidence, where she has the same full name as my godsister. Can’t remember exactly when we knew each other, but last documented date points to October 8th, 2003. Since the day we knew each other onwards, we’ve gotten along quite well. She became a friend that I can comfortably talk to, one that I can really relate to. She studies in NTU, Singapore and even though sometimes I feel that I have quite a liking in her, the distance between us is almost always a major turn-off. She’s still to spend the next 5 years in Singapore, both studies and working commitment.

People who knows me well, would know that I’m never a fan of long distance relationships (LDR). However, when we both seriously developed feelings for each other back in October 2004, it became really awkward. We were both fond of each other, yet we aren’t fans of LDR. Feelings grow day by day, but we kept telling ourselves that we won’t be together, due to the distance (I know it’s just 4 hours by car, but still… )

Then came the holiday season, when she came back to town. I picked her up from the train station, filled up her stomach with good dim sum for breakfast, and sent her home. The next day, we met up at KLCC for a lunch date and a nice time around the city (well, sort of nice, except that KL Monorail really sucked and packed during peak hours in the evening). After the 2 days spent with her, I then realised…

Realised that I should just throw away all my reservations about LDR, my worries about it all, and just go with my feeling. Heck, when I’ve nothing, I’ve really nothing to lose, right?

So I told tsewei of my feeling, my intention, and asked for her opinion. After all, this is not just about holding a girl’s hand and being attached. There need to be a lot of commitment and effort on both ends to really make this LDR work. I told, I expressed, and I asked. Then waited. And waited. And waited summore…

Then she agreed, feeling the same that this is really too good to not let it a try. And that, boys and girls, are quite how we started (politically correct, but may not be chronologically accurate). And then everything else started falling into place. Which was good. Really good.

And then before long, holiday season comes to an end, and she had to leave, not for Singapore, but to New York, for her student exchange programme (why they didn’t get me a hawt caucasian babe in exchange for tsewei still got me stumped, I think they did, but tsewei switched her flight to Timbuktu or something )

Things then became more challenging for us, indeed, with the 13 hours time difference and all. But we’re still pulling it through, thankfully. Thanks to the easy availability of technology, we’re now more connected than ever. There’s always Skype for voice calls, MSN for chats and webcam, e-mails, and SMS. Phew!

Luckily I did get the webcam that was on offer for free with a year’s subscription to PC.com magazine. CheeV and I both jumped on it when we saw that promotion in Midvalley. Didn’t have a use for the webcam back then. The most also was to chat with ChrisHoo and the Hooligans

I’m glad, that tsewei and I are both well equipped to survive this LDR. I just hope that we can really stay together through this all, to be together, once again.

To tsewei (and tsewei only, kids, close your eyes, or surf on to www.michaelooi.net),
Happy Valentine’s Day, dear. This time next year, it will be better. I’ll promise you that. I love you. *muakz*

Happy Chinese New Year! Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Just the other night, my sister noticed Gigi (my beloved pet pug) playing with an angpow packet (the red packet where money is placed in to be given away to kids by married people for blessings during the Chinese New Year). So we took out the trusty Oly digital camera and started snapping away…

She really looked like a small lion dance fooling around with the red packet. But then again, who am I kidding? Gigi’s so fat and lazy that she sometimes wouldn’t even bother jumping around for treats… hehe, here you go, enjoy the pix

Muahahaha, I snatched Yvonne’s angpow! Hope it’s got RM 100 inside, can get myself a lot of dog treats!

Hmmm, no fun! Yvonne’s not trying to snatch the angpow away from me. Darn, I bet this angpow is actually empty!

Okay, I’m bored now… this is not as fun as I thought it would’ve been

Did I smell food? *sniff sniff*

Hey! It’s an orange, a mandarin orange! Sweet!

Erm, anyone there? I need help peeling this orange here… hello

That’s all folks… hope you guys have a prosperous and joyful new year ahead…