| Ayaya's profilerandom thoughtsPhotosBlogLists |  Tools  Help |
|
September 21 The nightmare of Multicarts and Gameboymulticarts.comOne day I browsed the Internet and found that you can get a more than 200 games on one Gamboy cartridge from a company called Gameboymulticarts.com. So, I dished out about $70.00 and purchased a cartridge. The cartridge came after more than ten days from Thailand, and it was a DOA (dead on arrival), it played fine, but you cannot save any of the progresses of the games you played; therefore, you had to start from the very beginning everytime. This makes the cartridge useless -- I do not believe anyone can play a game from the very beginng to the very end in one session. Hence, I sent an email to the company and asked them what to do. There was no response. Then I sent another email message, still no response. I had no choice but filed a complaint with Paypal. This Paypal complaint finally caught their attention. Here is their reponse:
Paypal contacted us about a dispute you have claimed. We have no information about your complaint or did not recieve your email stating your complaint. Please contact us so we can find out how to help you in resolving your dispute. We have a good reputation in solving any problem that arises. Refunds or replacements are possibilities. I thank you for your time and hope to see your reply shortly.
Kind regards,
James Owens
sales manager GBMC Ltd. I responded:
Below are the communications I had with your company, I waited for a whole week before I file the complain with Paypal. The multicart you sent me cannot save any progress of any game. If you try to save it, the next time you start the same game again, the saved information was either "automatically deleted" or "corrupted". I like your product, but if I cannot save the progress of any game on the multicart, then the cartridge is useless.
I would like to know if I send the cartridge back to your company (1) who is going to pay for the postage and do I have use registered mail; (2) the value I need to claim on the custom form; (3) can you guarantee me that the replacement cartridge will work as expected, i.e., I can save the progress of some of the games; if it cannot save game's progress, I would like to have a refund I do not want to try and error like this time.
Thank you.
then Gameboymulticarts.com responded:
I got the email about the defect. Due to ruff handling during post the cartridge can get damaged or can malfunction. If its not possible to fix, you can return the cartridge to us, and we will send you a new one; free of cost. All carts are tested before they leave our shop, and if there are any problems there are not shipped out. What you could try is the following; this is the only long distance advise we can give to fix a problem that happens a lot due to rough handling in transit: Sometimes the chip has been moved a fraction of a millimeter, and the GBA consule does not read the microchip in it anymore. Take the cartridge and slap it soflty; not too soft; on a flat surface, with the open side down, the side that goes down into the GBA. By this the information chip can sick back to its original position and the GBA consule reads the cartridge fine. A tip you can use on malfunctioning single game cartridges as well. If that does not work, no need to try it agian. The address to return the defective game is: K. Donnersly 328/191 Jaransanitwong soi 67 Bang Phlat Bangkok Thailand 10700 It seemed these guys in Gameboymulticarts.com were reasonable. Therefore, I tried to tap the multicart cartridge on a flat surface and it did not work. As a result, I have to send it back to Gameboymulticarts.com. So, I emailed Gameboymulticarts.com again, and again to tell them that I need to send it back, finally I got their attention, and here is their response (May 30th)
I am sorry, I was not aware you had a second and third contact with our company and will investigate why you did not recieve a reply back on your questions. A defect is possible, that is why we have the option of free replacement cartridges. I hope you can understand we can not test every single game and save option on every cartridge. The replacement will be tested, may it act up as well you can get a refund.. Normally for the costs a customer makes for postage back to us, we send them a free single game cartridge with the replacement. May after this still the customer be unsatisfied, the option of a refund is still open. We do believe in a good customer service, I am sorry you did not had a reply back; the start of a good customer service is the reply of questions. Please return the cartridge to us so we can determine the damage and replace it with a functioning cartridge.
Kind regards,
James Owens
sales manager GBMC Ltd. So, I bought a padded envelop and sent it back to Gameboymulticarts.com the next day, it cost me about $4.00 (envelop plus postage and the labor was free). After two weeks, nothing happened; therefore, I sent them another email, they responded that they "just" received the returned cartridge and they would send the replacement out right away, now it is June 14th.
This afternoon I got word from the postal employee that he has recieved the cartridge you returned to us. It will be checked by the tech staff and the replacement plus a gift will be posted out to you as soon as possible, hopefully tomorrow already. You will get an email with the details as soon as it is posted.
Kind regards,
James I guess if did not send Gameboymulticarts.com an email, the postman would never arrive. On June 21 James wrote
August 10 loveLove is like flushing yourself down the toilet, a nice cool ride and a lot crap at the end.
Love is a product that you do not give out free sample. October 28 GREAT QUOTES BY GREAT LADIESInside every older lady is a younger lady -- wondering what the hell happened. -Cora Harvey Armstrong- Inside me lives a skinny woman crying to get out. But I can usually Shut her up with cookies. The hardest years in life are those between ten and seventy. -Helen Hayes (at 73)- I refuse to think of them as chin hairs. I think of them as stray eyebrows. -Janette Barber-
Things are going to get a lot worse before they get worse. -Lily Tomlin-
A male gynecologist is like an auto mechanic who never owned a car. -Carrie Snow- Laugh and the world laughs with you. Cry and you cry with your girlfriends. -Laurie Kuslansky- My second favorite household chore is ironing. My first being, hitting my head on the top bunk bed until I faint. -Erma Bombeck- Old age ain't no place for sissies. -Bette Davis- A man's got to do what a man's got to do. A woman must do what he can't. -Rhonda Hansome- The phrase "working mother" is redundant. -Jane Sellman- Every time I close the door on reality, it comes in through the windows. -Jennifer Unlimited- Whatever women must do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult. -Charlotte Whitton- Thirty-five is when you finally get your head together and your body starts falling apart. -Caryn Leschen- I try to take one day at a time -- but sometimes several days attack me at once. -Jennifer Unlimited- If you can't be a good example -- then you'll just have to be a horrible warning. -Catherine- When I was young, I was put in a school for retarded kids for two years before they realized I actually had a hearing loss. And they called ME slow! -Kathy Buckley- I'm not offended by all the dumb blonde jokes because I know I'm not dumb -- and I'm also not blonde. -Dolly Parton- If high heels were so wonderful, men would still be wearing them. -Sue Grafton- I'm not going to vacuum 'til Sears makes one you can ride on. -Roseanne Barr- When women are depressed they either eat or go shopping. Men invade another country.. -Elayne Boosler- Behind every successful man is a surprised woman. -Maryon Pearson- In politics, if you want anything said, ask a man. If you want anything done, ask a woman. -Margaret Thatcher- I have yet to hear a man ask for advice on how to combine marriage and a career. -Gloria Steinem- I am a marvelous housekeeper. Every time I leave a man, I keep his house. -Zsa Zsa Gabor- Nobody can make you feel inferior without your permission. -Eleanor Roosevelt- October 17 Joke of the Day1. If you have a lot of tension and you get a headache, do what it says on the aspirin bottle: Take two and keep away from children. 2. It's a very strange name they picked for "Social Security." For what they actually send you, you can't afford to be "social" nor can you really feel "secure." 3. Short skirts have a tendency to make men polite. Have you ever seen a man get on a bus ahead of one? 4. It is hard to understand how a cemetery raised its burial cost and blamed it on the cost of living. 5. We are born naked, wet, and hungry. Then things get worse. 6. The 50-50-90 rule: Anytime you have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there's a 90% probability you'll get it wrong. 7. It is said that if you line up all the cars in the world end to end, someone would be stupid enough to try and pass them. 8. If the shoe fits, get another one just like it. 9. The things that come to those who wait may be the things left by those who got there first. 10. Give a man a fish, and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he will sit in a boat drinking beer all day. 11. When you're swimming in the creek and an eel bites your cheek, that's a moray! 12. A fine is tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well. 13. The only cure for insomnia is to get more sleep. 14. Everybody lies, but it doesn't matter since nobody listens. 15. I wished the buck stopped here. I could use a few. 16. When you go into court you are putting yourself in the hands of 12 people that weren't smart enough to get out of jury duty.
October 11 CEO's payAccording to economic principles, a person's wage rate equals to the marginal value of product, i.e., the worth of the last unit of product you produced -- if you actual produce something, be it services or actual product.
As a pion in a company, you are evaluated by what you do and your products are visible. For example, how many customers you helped in an average day, how many lines of codes you wrote, etc. But can you actually measure CEOs' output? They do not actually serve customers, nor write any program codes. They spend most of their days at meetings and do something called "decision making." Theoretically their actions determine the life and death of the company. It does not matter what the CEOs do, but they get paid handsomely; most of the time, they get paid thousands of times of what an average employee gets. Can this inequality be justified? It depends. Firstly, we need to know why a company needs a CEO. The most important thing a CEO can do for a company is not the day-to-day routines of the company, but to provide a long-run vision for the company to follow, so that the company can become successful and making profits. How long is long-run? In my opinion, it has to be over ten years to be called long-run, anything shorter than 10 years, is just short-run. To judge whether a CEO is sucessful, one needs to see whether his vision really works. There is always a time lag between the time a program is executed to the time the program becomes effective, if any. Sometimes, a program will become effective in a year or two, but for "visionary" type programs, they will take a minimum of 3-5 years to see any results of these programs, i.e., whether they actually work or not. For example, for Boeing to develop a new airplane will take many years to design, lots investment, and will take many more years to see whether there are enough orders. If there is enough orders, the decision is worth hundreds of millions of dollars or even billions of dollars; therefore, whoever make the decision should be rewarded accordingly.
A friend of mine once told me that CEOs should not stay in one place for more than five years. The reason -- whatever you did wrong probably will show up in five years; therefore, you would like to leave your mess to your successor. A friend of mine works for a big insurance company and he told me the following story. Insurance companies need to develop new products just like manufacturers do. New insurance policies need information of insurance risks; therefore, every insurance company has lots acturaries. When the risks are high, the premiums should be high too, so that the isurance company can cover the claim and still make reasonable profits. When this company that my friend works developeds a new product, then the actuary who was responsible calculated the required premium, the CEO of the company decided that the premium was too high to attract enough customers for the product; therefore, the CEO "ordered" the actuary to "lower" the premium with the comment that "if you do not want to lower it, I can always find someone else to do it." Why? This is because the CEO's compensation depended on total revenue. The new product (policy) may not have many claims in its early years, by the time that the claims are more than revenues from the policy, this CEO probably has long gone to greener pasture and the company losses money and the blame will fall on the shoulders of the new CEO. It is a crap shot when a CEO takes a company.
In the old days, CEOs usually came from the same company or from a rivalry company. The CEOs usually had pretty good ideas about what to do with the company. But nowadays, the CEOs are usually paratroopers, i.e., they do not have to have the expertise about what they are supposed to do, but it does not matter; because they can hire consultants and consultants recommendations are the CEOs' decisions. Sometimes, in order to push a new policy, the CEOs hire consultants as their mouth piece. The ex-CEO of Morgan Stanley, Philip J. Purcell (1997-2005) had presided over one of the most widely reported corporate governance fiascos in recent times, leading his firm to financial distress and many of his managers to leave. His disposition was so haughty and off-putting that his resignation was greeted with relief by many within the company. What sense does it make to stuff a resigning chief executive's mouth with gold? Expensive ore is the right comparison. The reported payout is $44 million in cash for resigning, presumably without a further fight. In addition are two other payments that, though not as large, are even more outrageous trinkets for the disgraced executive. For his troubles, Purcell will receive a $250,000 pension annually for life. Think of this as a tip to supplement the payout. After all, $44 million at 5 percent yields $2.5 million annually. So, the $250,000 represents a 10 percent return on the pension itself. In addition, Morgan Stanley agreed to donate another $250,000 a year to charities of Purcell's choosing. This nice little gratuity is perhaps the most bizarre of all. What, precisely, is the point? Surely, Purcell can contribute tax-deductible funds from his grandiose settlement and other assets. Why does he need Morgan Stanley to subsidize this particular indulgence? Isn't adding the term "charitable'' an odd way for Morgan Stanley to salvage some higher ground from an otherwise unsavory power struggle? Who made these stupid decisions? Perhaps, the board of directors. Who are these directors? They are cohorts of the CEO. They hired the CEO and gave him unreasonably high compensation, then the CEO would give them handsome compensations in return after s/he takes over the company. The CEOs sit in each other's board, it is a club for them. The losers are the investors of the company. How much the CEOs should be compensated? In my opinion, they should not be paid more than three times the average pay of all employees in the company, but they should be compensated if their policies actually improve company's profits -- only if they stay longer than 5-7 years. The grasshopper type CEOs (i.e., those who job hopping every 3-5 years) should not be compensated anything other than their regular salary. October 04 AN ATTORNEY'S ADVICERead this and make a copy for your files in case you need to refer to it someday. Maybe we should all take some of his advice! A corporate attorney sent the following out to the employees in his company. 1. The next time you order checks have only your initials (instead of first name) and last name put on them. If someone takes your checkbook, they will not know if you sign your checks with just your initials or your first name, but your bank will know how you sign your checks. 2. When you are writing checks to pay on your credit card accounts, DO NOT put the complete account number on the "For" line. Instead, just put the last four numbers. The credit card company knows the rest of the number, and anyone who might be handling your check as it passes through all the check processing channels won't have access to it. 3. Put your work phone # on your checks instead of your home phone. If you have a PO Box use that instead of your home address. If you do not have a PO Box, use your work address. Never have your SS# printed on your checks. (DUH!) You can add it if it is necessary. But if you have it printed, anyone can get it. 4. Place the contents of your wallet on a photocopy machine. Do both sides of each license, credit card, etc You will know what you had in your wallet and all of the account numbers and phone numbers to call and cancel. Keep the photocopy in a safe place. I also carry a photocopy of my passport when I travel either here or abroad. We've all heard horror stories about fraud that's committed on us in stealing a name, address, Social Security number, credit cards.Unfortunately, I, an attorney, have firsthand knowledge because my wallet was stolen last month. Within a week, the thieve(s) ordered an expensive monthly cell phone package, applied for a VISA credit card, had a credit line approved to buy a Gateway computer, received a PIN number from DMV to change my driving record information online, and more. But here's some critical information to limit the damage in case this happens to you or someone you know: 1. We have been told we should cancel our credit cards immediately. But the key is having the toll free numbers and your card numbers handy so you know whom to call. Keep those where you can find them. 2. File a police report immediately in the jurisdiction where your credit cards, etc. were stolen. This proves to credit providers you were diligent, and this is a first step toward an investigation (if there ever is one). But here's what is perhaps most important of all : (I never even thought to do this.) 3.Call the 3 national credit reporting organizations immediately to place a fraud alert on your name and Social Security number. I had never heard of doing that until advised by a bank that called to tell me an application for credit was made over the Internet in my name. The alert means any company that checks your credit knows your information was stolen, and they have to contact you by phone to authorize new credit. By the time I was advised to do this, almost two weeks after the theft, all the damage had been done. There are records of all the credit checks initiated by the thieves' purchases, none of which I knew about before placing the alert. Since then, no additional damage has been done, and the thieves threw my wallet away. This weekend (someone turned it in). It seems to have stopped them dead in their tracks. Now, here are the numbers you always need to contact about your wallet, etc. has been stolen: 1.) Equifax: 1-800-525-6285 2.) Experian (formerly TRW): 1-888-397-3742 3.) Trans Union: 1-800-680-7289 4.) Social Security Administration (fraud line): 1-800-269-0271
We pass along jokes on the Internet; we pass along just about everything. But if you are willing to pass this information along, it could really help someone that you care about. September 20 Bill Gates Said It RightLove him or hate him, he sure hits the nail on the head with this! Bill Gates gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world. Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it! Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself. Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both. Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss. Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity. Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them. Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room. Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life. Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time. Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs. Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one. If you agree, pass it on. If you can read this - Thank a teacher!! If you are reading it in English -Thank a soldier!! September 09 Be 6 AgainA man was sitting on the edge of the bed, observing his wife turning back and forth, looking at herself in the mirror. Since her birthday was not far off, he asked what she'd like to have for her Birthday. I'd like to be six again, she replied, still looking in the mirror. On the morning of her Birthday, he arose early, made her a nice big Bowl of Lucky Charms, and then took her to Six Flags theme park. What a day! He put her on every ride in the park; the Death Slide, the Wall of Fear, the Screaming Monster Roller Coaster, everything There was. Five hour later they staggered out of the theme park. Her Head was reeling and her stomach felt upside down. He then took her to a McDonald's where he ordered her a Happy Meal with extra fries and a chocolate shake. Then it was off to a movie, popcorn, a soda pop, and her favorite Candy, M&M's. What a fabulous adventure! Finally she wobbled home with her husband and collapsed into bed exhausted. He leaned over his wife with a big smile and lovingly asked, well dear, what was it like being six again?? Her eyes slowly opened and her expression suddenly changed. I meant my dress size, you idiot! The moral of the story: Even when a man is listening, he is gonna get it wrong. SEND THIS TO SMART WOMEN WHO NEED A LAUGH AND TO MEN YOU THINK CAN HANDLE September 07 Can the FBI do anything?I applied for a contractor language tester position with the FBI in February. The FBI's own language testing program office notified me in April and conducted the tests -- one for English and the other for a foreign language, and sent me the test results in early May this year.
About a week ago, the regional FBI office called me and want to give me a test because somehow they learned that I applied for the language tester position. I told the guy at the regional office that the FBI language testing program office had already given me the necessary tests and also sent me the test results, however, I misplaced the letter they sent me. The guy said, no problem, he could ask the headquarters to send him my test scores. Well, you know what? The headquarters told him that they have never given me a test; therefore, they do not have any of my test scores. As a result, the regional guy sent in a request to give me another test.
I found the letter they sent me yesterday and call the guy in the regional office. He told me that he has already "ordered" me a new test; therefore, he did not want to see or know what I have, but he asked me to keep the letter just in case he wants it, I can FAX it to him.
The tests I took in April involved one testing program office guy and two contract language testers for each language they tested me. The contract testers get paid about $50.00 for an one hour test and I believe the program office employee gets paid more than the nominal $50.00. Therefore, each test costs about $150.00 and for the two tests, you are talking $300.00 just for the testers. In addition, they have to grade the tests and that's additional several hundred dollars. But the language testing program office indicated that it does not have any record that I took the tests.
This is after 9/11 and this is the FBI, the FBI. The FBI cannot even keep its records straight, what else can it do? If I had these several hundred dollars the FBI wasted in my language tests and bought something, I would know where they are. I do not understand why the regional FBI office did not want me to FAX the results, instead, he had to order another test and wasting my time and tax payers money. No wonder, no wonder, I wonder, can the FBI do anything right? August 30 Young foreign studentsMany years ago, I learned that some rich Taiwanese sent their sons and daughters to the United States and entered them as local high schools as transfer students. The parents had not stayed in the U.S., they just went home and left their precious children in the U.S. alone.
Some people complained that these young foreign high school students used their limited community resources without paying taxes. Note that in the U.S. high schools are mostly financed by local and state taxes. These young foreign HS students did not have employment; therefore, they used the tax revenue for their HS education but did not pay for their fair shares. When the schools were financed purely from property and sales taxes, this argument may not be true, because these young foreign students had to live somewhere and had to purchase food and clothing; therefore, they indirectly paid for the property taxes and directly paid for the sales taxes. When the schools were financed by not only property and sales taxes, but also the income tax, this argument did have some merit.
How did they come to the U.S. and stayed? Some of them were born in the U.S., therefore, they are U.S. citizens and are able to stay in the U.S. legally. A lot of them just use tourist visa or a visa that allow him/her to visit a relative, then illigally stayed and became HS students. These non-US citizens had to come over to the States at young ages, because if they didn't, the males won't be able to get an exit permit from the Taiwanese government, because the male have to serve in the army for two years.
How did they survive alone? The easiest way was if they had relatives in the States, they just stay with their relatives. Or, one of the parents stayed in the States with the student and the other stayed home to make money to support them (in this case, the parent stayed behind may find a mistress or something and eventually the family fell apart). If they did not have any relatives in the States, they could either just lived alone or buy some boarding services. Before 9/11, there were boarding services, if you knew the way, for a couple thousand US dollars a month, the service provider would give your child a place to stay and registered your child to a local school -- the providers served like surragate parents. If the student was lucky, s/he tumbled into good providers' hands and s/he can receive good education and good cares, just like living in their parents' home or better. If the student was unlucky, then who knows what would happen.
Lots of parents of these foreign young students felt somewhat guilty to abandon their children in a foreign country under the good intention that they can go to the States earlier. As a result, these parents provided the young foreign students lots of money to buy whatever they want, e.g., sports cars, houses, etc., and these students were spoiled to the nth degree. Getting spoiled by your own parents comes almost naturally, but at young ages, these young students' emotions are not fully developed nor stable. In their parents' eyes, these students look very mature and should be able to handle their daily routines; however, they either forget or did not notice that the daily routines were the least thing they should worry about, these young students needed someone close to confide with, to talk about what happened during the day, nothing was routine. They could not talk to their service providers about their intimate thoughts. Therefore, some of them commingled with the wrong types of friends, got into sex and drug, and became damaged "goods."
Is it good to send your children overseas alone, e.g., to the U.S.? I do not believe anyone should do it if s/he really loves her/his child. Hold onto them just a little longer. August 26 I am locally infamousWhen I was a federal firearm dealer several years ago I bought two Markorov pistols from a distributor, two replacement threaded barrels (9mm) and an intallation kit from a parts manufacturer in Kentuky. I replaced one of the original barrels with the threaded barrel using the installation kit -- the manufacturer claimed that it should be very easy, just squeez the old barrel out then squeez the new barrel in, a cinch, essentially. However, it did not work the way like the manufacturer claimed. As a result, the threaded barrel cannot be squeezed in all the way and locked with a pin to the frame, but it functions just fine. In the range, people just woo and waa when they saw I was able to hit cans 50 yards away.
About a year ago, a FBI agent called and wanted to make an appointment with me to see and borrow my Markorov. So, he came and told me that there was a crime committed on the west coast using a Markorov that equipped with the kind replacement barrel I purchased, instead of the Markorov round or 9mm, the crime was committed with 380ACPs. Therefore, he wanted to borrow my Markorov and send it to their headquarters for a ballistic test. I said fine, but he had to sign a release form, because the barrel was not pressed in all the way, and it may explode in the tester's face -- a threat. The FBI agent said, OK, let me go back and see whether he could find a release form. The next day, he came back, but he could not find any standard release form; therefore, he wrote something down on the receipt indicating that if anything happened during the ballistic testing, I would not be responsible for it. After he gave me the receipt, took the Markorov away, tested the ballistic, and returned the gun to my possession, I just filed the whole incident away.
Recently, a close friend of mine signed up for the local police academy (this is the top academy in our state) for the law enforcement training, one of their guest instructors was from the local FBI office. This FBI agent actually heard about my Markorov incident and use it as an example to teach the cadets that unless what happened is written down carefully and signed, it does not mean anything in the court of law. I was the only one who asked for a release form form the FBI agent and had the local agent signed it in his 20 years career. Boy, am I famous or infamous? August 15 HiroshimaOn August 6, 2005, some 55,000 people thronged into the peace park in Hiroshima to remember the moment the bomb was dropped by a US plane, at 0815 on the morning of 6 August, 1945. About 140,000 people were killed by the bomb and its aftermath. The 140,000 Japanese is just a very small fraction of the people that were killed by Japanese imperial army during world war II. Therefore, When these Japanese participated in the Hiroshima ceremony, they should have also remember the millions of Asians killed by their Imperial Army.
Japan's imperial army annexed Korea as a colony in 1910 and later seized control of large parts of China and South East Asia as the war dragged on. Its methods were brutal. Following the 1937 capture of the Chinese city of Nanjing, Japanese troops killed up to 300,000 civilians and raped tens of thousands of Chinese women, historians estimate. Japanese atrocities are well documented in many other arts of Asia too.
Xiao Wenhu was a young Chinese boy living in Malaysia when Japanese soldiers came to his village in 1942. "We were terrified, people were so scared. We all fell to our knees. We called out to them to spare our lives. The Japanese soldiers were plunging their bayonets into everybody, stabbing again and again. By around 6pm all became quiet. Everyone was dead," he said.
The Japanese nationalist author Hideaki Kase is adamant that Japan should not shoulder the blame for the war. "The majority of our people believe that Japan was forced into war by the United States. America was making unreasonable demands upon us. So we were fighting a war of national self-defence," Mr Kase said. Although that represents the hard-line end of Japanese nationalism, his sentiments are tacitly accepted by many Japanese. This may explain why several high-profile Japanese politicians, including current Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, feel able to regularly pay their respects at the Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo, which along with other Japanese war dead honours 14 Class A war criminals. Mr Koizumi's shrine visits, the controversy over history textbooks and an increasingly nationalistic tone in some parts of the Japanese press have contributed to a serious deterioration in ties with China, and widespread anti-Japanese sentiment in China and Korea.
During the WWII, Japan had nuclear programs in its imperial army and navy. The imperial army nuclear program was set up in Tokyo, whick had power and uranium supply problems, and the facilities were fire bombed by the U.S.; therefore, it did not developed a nuclear bomb before the end of the WWII. The imperial army's nuclear facility was dismentled by the U.S. malitary right after the war.
However, Japan's navy nuclear program was set up in North Korea, it had hydro power and raw materials (uranium), and allegedly successfully detonated a nuclear bomb before the end of WWII, but it had no delivery system. The navy's nuclear facility and personnel were taken by Russians and haulled back to the Soviet Union when Russians occupied North Korea. Japan's navy actually had plans to launch the nuclear bomb in San Francisco. Just imagine that if Japan had had the nuclear bombs before the U.S., what would happen? I bet either the U.S. or China would be the first nation to be bombed by a nuclear bomb instead of Hiroshima in Japan. It was really scary and I am glad that the U.S. bombed Japan first, forced them to surrender, and terminated its nuclear programs.
Japan should have built a shrine to honor all the Asians, Americans, Australians, Britians, etc. who were brutally massacred by Japan's imperial army. It is a shame that they only remember their countrymen and forget what their low-life countrymen did to other Asian countries. People cannot and should not forgive the Japanese until they admit what they had done almost seventy years ago was wrong and tell their future generations about it. I know that it is not nice, but I would like to say that Japan earned the two A-bombs and it deserved them. August 09 ReponsesYou probably know that there is no free lunch, no pain no gain, right???
 Micro and macro are essentially common senses, you just did not study for them. How hard can it be for demand (price goes up, demand goes down), supply (price goes up, supply goes up too), and market structures (where demand equals supply under different assumptions)? Aggregate demand and multiplier effects are also pertty elementary -- I am just kidding!
If you want to concentrate in advertising, you have to be a "person" person, i.e., you need to be good and very good in presenting yourself and make friends in a jiffy, only you know whether you are one of them. Everyone becomes your bosom buddy in five minutes -- this is the way account representatives operate, knew nothing, but have a big smile on his/her face, anything the client asked, you tell them you'll ask your tech people and get back to them as soon as possible. But nowadays, you need to know how to analyze data, even run some statistical analysis. If you are weak in quantitative methods, you are cooked.
MBA may be a good degree if you want to make lots of money; however, you need to really study for the degree, there is a lot work and case studies. The study requires some basic math skills. In addition, where you get your MBA is also very important. Are you going to apply for the admission to the Asian Tech? The admission may be difficult to get.
Finance is also a good field and there is a demand for graduates of this major, but study finance requires some elementary math skills and a clear head. If you like to count money, this is probably the field for you. It should be less stressful than the MBA.\
Marketing? I hate marketing guys, all they know is BS. I bet you have not learned much about marketing in your BBA degree, right?
If I were you, I'll try either the MBA (if you decide to study harder than what you have done currently) or finance (if you can study just a little harder and don't get C or D in micro or macro). But if you have decided to teach Chinese, then you probably want to get a easy master degree in education or something. If you find modelling is what you want to do, then an advanced degree is not really needed -- but think hard, how many young women have been successful in this field, what are your chances to become successful, and whether you like the working environment.
However, if you have not decided what to do, why not apply for admission to a graduate school. It is one more degree of freedom for you, if you find out that you do not want an advanced degree, just don't register. Nothing is perfect. Nothing venture nothing gain; and no pain, no gain too! You harvest what you have planted. Good luck!
Why don't you just pack and go home after you finish in October, stay home, and being spoiled by your parents one more time while you are pondering what you want to do next? I bet your parents would be more than happy to see you again.
Dogs are domesticated wild animals, they used to run in packs, i.e., they like to have lots companions. Now humans become part of their pack if you keep a dog. Yes, most people who keep pets like them and their companionship. However, pet owners should also consider whether they spend enough time with their pets and whether the pets have enough space to run around. What I really want to say is if you love them, you should let them go at least half wild, i.e., have several of them at a time so that they can run in a pack and have enough space for them to roam around.
Usually, the non-thesis degree is easier and sometime quicker, you just take more courses. Thesis degree requires some research and writing in a foreign language, I guess this is your case, either in Thai or English unless they have Chinese universities there. The thesis degree, in general, is a preparatory degree forf you want to go beyond a master's degree, i.e., if you want to continue to get a Ph.D. or like the non-thesis option, a terminal degree -- i.e., the end of your higher education. Of course you can use the non-thesis degree to apply for a Ph.D. program but you need some luck to get there.
Therefore, if a master degree is all you want for your life time, the non-thesis option is a good choice. However, if you do not know whether this will be the end of your advanced studies, the thesis option will provide you with a more flexible future than the non-thesis option. In addition, based on the the impression I have (personal opinion), degrees in master of education (there are many fields in education in the U.S., you probably need to look into the fields if you decide to study education) are easier than degrees in MBA.
I do not have any idea about what system they have in Thailand, the above observations are based on the U.S. system. If they have similar system in Britian, then the above observations may be all wrong. Form what I know about Thailand, teachers' pays in Thailand are not really good, i.e., you may have to find a millionaire husband
 to supplement your teacher's pay!
For lakota: Most times, I consider the American corporations over valued MBAs, in general. I also have met lots marketing guys and I am not that impressed with most of them. Unless they can do serious research and use the research results properly, they do not have my respect. The MBA program is hard and demanding, but after all, what you learn there is common sense if you are smart enough. The program just gives you a shortcut to become a competent manager. Some MBA recipients cannot never become one, because they do not have the personality and special abilities that are needed for a good manager.
For me? I know that I have the abilities but not the personality, had been there, did not believe I like the MBA kind of job (too fast and not really rewarding); therefore, I will never want a MBA. Some recycled informationIn the 1400's a law was set forth that a man was not allowed to beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb. Hence we have "the rule of thumb" Many years ago in Scotland, a new game was invented. It was ruled "Gentlemen Only...Ladies Forbidden"...and thus the word GOLF entered into the English language. The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time TV were Fred and Wilma Flintstone. Every day more money is printed for Monopoly than the US Treasury. Men can read smaller print than women can; women can hear better. Coca-Cola was originally green. It is impossible to lick your elbow. The State with the highest percentage of people who walk to work: Alaska The percentage of Africa that is wilderness: 28% (now get this...) The percentage of North America that is wilderness: 38% The cost of raising a medium-size dog to the age of eleven: $6,400 The average number of people airborne over the US any given hour: 61,000 Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair. The first novel ever written on a typewriter: Tom Sawyer. The San Francisco Cable cars are the only mobile National Monuments. Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history: Spades - King David Hearts - Charlemagne Clubs -Alexander, the Great &nb sp; Diamonds - Julius Caesar 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321 If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle. If the horse has one front leg in the air the person died as a result of wounds received in battle. If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes. Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, John Hancock and Charles Thompson. Most of the rest signed on August 2, but the last signature wasn't added until 5 years later. Q. Half of all Americans live within 50 miles of what? A. Their birthplace Q. Most boat owners name their boats. What is the most popular boat name requested? A. Obsession Q. If you were to spell out numbers, how far would you have to go until you would find the letter "A"? A. One thousand Q. What do bulletproof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers, and laser printers all have in common? A. All invented by women. Q. What is the only food that doesn't spoil? A. Honey Q. Which day are there more collect calls than any other day of the year? A. Father's Day In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes. When you pulled on the ropes the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. Hence the phrase ......... "goodnight, sleep tight." It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that fora month after the wedding, the bride's father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month . which we know today as the honeymoon. In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts... So in old England, when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them "Mind your pints and quarts, and settle down." It's where we get the phrase "mind your P's and Q's" Many years ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim, or handle, of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service. "Wet your whistle" is the phrase inspired by this practice. AND FINALLY~~~~~~~~~~~~ At least 75% of people who read this will try to lick their elbow. Believe it or not, you can read it! 
I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdgnieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh ?
August 08 MBAMaster of Business Adminstration (MBA) is a degree that lots people want it. A MBA is associated with power and money. If you have a MBA from a reputable university, it almost guarantee you a good pay and an important position in decision making process. The MBA was originally designed to provide engineers with management skills, i.e., after these engineers had their hands dirty, then they need to learn how to use modern technology to manage their subordinates and work. The pre-requisite for the MBA candidates are those who have had work experience and they know how things work; therefore, after they have the training about how to manage people, how to be PC, etc. then they can effectively manage their work and subordinates. How to effectively manage a company or unit is an art, i.e., you need imagination, patience, and above all, people skill -- people is the most difficult thing to manage. Today's MBA programs is quite different from those in the old days. Most universities offer two types of MBA programs. The most common MBA program is to students who have no work experiences, fresh out from college, perhaps, have done some classroom projects. Their teaching include how valuable themselves are, when they finish the program, they become arrogant. For example, one of the so called MBA graduate from our dept. got a job with a processing company. The first day on duty, the company was out of power, therefore, there was nothing for him to do. His boss asked him to work in the stockroom to count inventory and he consider it an insult, here he just received his MBA and his boss ordered him to become a stockroom boy, and after almost 20 years, he still talks about it. Why couldn't a MBA count inventory? I consider it a very good exercise for him, he can actually understand how inventory moved from stockroom to the factory floor, etc. The other type of MBA program is usually called the Executive MBA program, i.e., essentially the original MBA program. This program only accept those who have real world experiences. But, nowadays, all universities want to make money; therefore, they take in students who have only very limited work experience. As a result, the old time honored MBA programs went down the tube. Administration means management. How to become a good manager is an art, not really a science. In order to manage "something" successfully, one needs to know all the gory details about the "something" one is going to manage, i.e., how to do it, how much time it is needed to finish it, what skills are needed to get the job done, and so on. Taking some related courses from ivory-tower professors will not give you enough knowledge to manage anything. To become a manager, the most important element is that the manager needs to be a "people" people, who knows how to deal with people -- both his/her supervisors and subordinates. People is the worst thing to manage because they have emotions. To deal with people requires talents or some special skills, these talents or skills cannot be taught in school, they come with the person and they are persons' natural abilities. Just like arts, not everyone who goes through the art school and becomes an good artist, only those who have special talents can be successful. How can a MBA student get real world experience before they graduated? I really do not know. Coop jobs and internship only offer short term experience and these temperary jobs are usually non-essential; therefore, the experience gained from these jobs is not good enough for them to become managers. Most of the teachings in the MBA programs emphasizes on short-term solutions and most of the work these MBAs do probably can be handled by MS Excel or some simple calculations at the back of an envelop. The MBAs usually do not have long-term perspective about the work they do, because they are too busy counting beans everyday. In general, MBAs are probably good for day-to-day operations, but they may be disasterous for long-term developments. This is because they can only see the trees and cannot see the forest.
PetsAn alien just returned from a trip to the Earth. She told her friends that the Earth has new masters, humans on earth feed them, bath them, clean after them, take them to see the doctors for their regular checks, and when they die, humans cried and bury them. Her friends were so surprised, because humans were so intelligent and how did this happened, humans served other species like slaves? Therefore, they asked this alien who are these new masters of the Earth, the alien told them, they are dogs and cats.
A friend of mine used to keep a dog against her parents objection. She promised that she would take care of the dog, but she was so busy and never did. As a result, her parents and siblings ended up as her dog caretakers. She got married and has a daughter. Her daughter got a dog against her wish. Now her daughter went away from home to college and left the dog for her to take care of. All those who left their pets behind when they left home for to college or for jobs away from home should aware that their pay back time is just around the corner. August 05 Space ShuttleIt seems that the NASA has tons of problems with the space shuttle it just launched. Why?
Remember Challenger exploded on January 28, 1986? According to the government report, before the NASA launched the shuttle, it did assess the situations. Experienced engineers from Thiokol (the manufacturer of the solid booster) insisted that the NASA should not launch the shuttle because of the temperature was too low (below the designed temperature limit of 40F for the boosters) and the ice could damage the shuttle, but the managers vetoed their recommendations. The next thing you know was that Challenger exploded like a bomb.
Then, it happened again -- Columbia disintegrated in mid-air on its way home to Florida on February 1, 2003. Engineers recommended that the NASA should use the Air Force satellite to check the damages on the ceramic tiles, but someone higher up decided that it was not dangerous and cancelled the examination. Whose decision was it that it should not worry about the damaged heat shield? Of course, it was the manager's decision.
 When the NASA launched Discovery, it decided to launch it even it there were minor problems. Now, Discovery is in trouble. The astronauts were able to pull the gap filler tapes and they have decided not to mess with the heat shield around the copit area. When they get rid of the gap filler tapes, there are gaps left behind. I hope NASA's calculation is correct and the gaps won't leak high temperature plasma and compromise Discovery's structure like what happened to Columbia.
Space shuttle is an experimental vehicle, it needs to be examined and improved every time it gets launched, and they should be retired long time ago. Who were these managers and where are they now?
True engineers don't like to become managers, because there are lots brown nosing involved and becoming managers would take away the one thing they like the most -- engineering work. Therefore, the managers are usually half baked engineers if they can find them. When managers lack of true engineering experience, they become very dangerous. What the managers do the best is to push schedule -- let's finish it at a certain time when they do not have any idea about how long a job will take to finish. Whe the top guy was an accountant, a bean counter, this "meeting schedule" becomes the culture. Recently, the NASA says it needs to change the culture. My opinion is, if they really want to do it, they need to get rid of all current managers as the first step. They need true engineers as their managers. July 29 Misc.I noticed that Candy eliminated a couple blog links from her list recently. One of them was a blog whose owner Candy considered very trustful. I visited that blog once and found that the owner of that blog probably had not learned any formal English except several versions of F-words. In addition, it seemed that blog owner was not really interested in blogging whatever he (I assume it is a he) intended to say, but someone forced him to do so. Therefore, he was very impatient and wrote lots F-words in his first blog entry.
I wondered a little why the blog link was on Candy's list.
Well, it seems that I asked one too many question. I probably should not wander too far. Curiosity kills the cat  |
|
|
