Western Governors University (WGU) is a non-profit online university which aim “to improve quality and expand access to post-secondary educational opportunities by providing a means for individuals to learn independent of time and place“. It provides flexible study plan with affordable tuition fee. One of the most interesting characteristics of the online degree programs provided by WGU is the motto of “Pay for the time, not the courses”.

They charge students by terms instead of the number of units taken, with affordable fee as low as $2,890 per six-month term.

WGU offers programs from 4 main industries:

1. Teaching
2. Business
3. Information Technology
4. Health Professions (Nursing)

However, WGU currently only accepts applications from individuals living in the U.S.

I’m most likely to be interested in getting an online business degree, especially majoring in Business IT, since I used to study IT. But when time passes, the urge of studying just fades away.

I actually got an online Bachelor’s Degree from University of Portsmouth, UK. I have experience in online study and it’s actually very hard!! You need to have a good time management and the determination to focus on studies when you have full access to the Internet.

Even though I have a 2nd class honors Bachelor’s degree, it didn’t help much at all. Maybe I’m noob and I don’t know how to search for a suitable job. I have been working for 3 years and my salary is never more than RM1200 (approximately USD 350) per month! OMFG!! Please tell me I’m underpaid.

It also depends on which industry you are in, and what job scope you have. Well, for my job, I don’t think they need a degree holder to do the job. Anyone with minor hardware knowledge, capable of typing, word processing, communicating..is more than enough.

Anyone wants to employ me? LOL

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This is all I can see about SPM from the official web!! Only time table? For what???!

This is an online era, why can’t the government setup an online portal for students to check their results online?? Or at least through SMS?? I remember few years back, when I was still in high school, I could check my UEC results through the online portal. Yes, I’m from Chinese private school.

Even private school can do this, why can’t government school do it too?

Go online lah!
It definitely facilitates many parties.

Last but not least, wish all the SPM 2008 students all the best upon receiving your results.

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What’s the difference between a guarantee and a warranty? [Source]

A guarantee:

• Is usually free
• It’s a promise to sort out any defects with a product or service within a fixed period of time
• It’s a legally binding contract, even if you didn’t pay for it
• It must explain how to go about making a claim in a way that is easy to understand
• It should add to, not take away from, your rights under consumer law
• It works whether or not you have a warranty

A warranty:

• A warranty is like an insurance policy for which you must pay a premium.
• Sometimes it’s called an ‘extended guarantee’.
• It might cover a longer period than a guarantee, and it might cover a wider range of problems.
• A warranty is a legal contract, so you can take the company to court if they don’t honour it.
• The terms of the contract should be clear and fair.
• Having a warranty doesn’t diminish your rights under consumer law.
• A warranty can run alongside a guarantee.

However, warranty is actually not a guarantee. Many consumers misunderstood the meaning of warranty. Different products have different warranty coverage with terms and conditions applied. Most of the time, when a faulty product with physical damage* is considered void for its warranty.

*As in damange caused by human abuse, intentionally or unintentionally human fault.

This is a notebook sleeve.

I laughed aloud when I saw this item was sent for warranty claim. It’s a notebook sleeve, and I believe it’s a low cost product. There’s a “hole” in the sleeve. I don’t know the full story but from what I heard is, this is actually a warranty exchange for a customer. I don’t know if this “hole” is stretched by the customer accidentally or once it was bought, the “hole” was there already.

I believe the item was sold when it was in good condition. Most of the time you will check the item before purchasing it, right? This is just a very minor case. Sometimes, more ridiculous case will occur. Say, a compatible notebook adapter which is bought for more than 3 months…

In my company, almost every spoiled/damaged/totured units will be sent to warranty department. Hey, you think warranty department is recycle bin?

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After work, I went to meet with Orange and had our late dinner. We were kinda sleepy after the meal, so I decided to go back earlier to have some rest. Once reached home, locked up all the doors, walked into my cosy room and thought I could finally call it a night. When the light was switched on, I don’t know for what reason, I looked at the wall and shouted!

The unwelcome guest is in the room!!! Go away, you creepy creature!!!! I’m SO AFRAID OF YOU!!Yes, I’m afraid of reptiles. The most common one is lizard. It can be found almost everywhere. And I assure you, I’m really afraid of lizards! Orange knows this very well. The creature that is (yes, it’s present tense. It’s still here.) in my room looks more like a gecko. Look at its tail, it doesn’t look like any common home lizards.

I was so scared and felt my skin tinkling, just like something is crawling all over my body!!! But I still manage to hold still my camera to snap some photos of it.

The funny thing is, when I was editing these photos in Photoshop, where I can view the images in high resolution, I nearly cried!!

How am I going to sleep well tonight? Aaaaaaaaaaaarghhh…

Herpetophobia – Fear of reptiles or creepy, crawly things.

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Obvious enough, this is considered as warranty void according to BenQ Malaysia’s warranty policy. The customer kept insisted that he did not dropped nor “abuse” the camera. Complaining that once he switched on the camera, the lens just became like that – stuck.

Look close at the picture above, can you spot the lens is scratched and dented????

Let me quote the most important part of the Policy.

This warranty automatically becomes void under following circumstances:
(a) the product has been physically damaged or rendered defective due to accident, misuse, or abuse, or other circumstances beyond BenQ Malaysia’s control;
(b) use of the product with parts or peripherals not manufactured or supplied by BenQ;
(c) use of the product within an improper operating environment;
(d) unauthorized modification of the product;
(e) the product serial number or warranty seal being removed or defaced;
(f) the product serviced or repaired by non-authorize personnel;
(g) the LCD Panel has cracked internally due to whatsoever reasons

Not like I didn’t want to help proceed on warranty claim. I admit, I’m not good in oral communication. Most people prefer to talk over the phone (I have phone phobia) or communicate face to face. On the other hand, I prefer written communication because you can think thoroughly of what to say over and over again before ink (typing). Furthermore this type of communication has a (written) record, good for future reference. (You can’t record speech all the time unless you have a recorder beside you which is always on when you start talking.)

Maybe I’m really not good in oral communication, as this post title suggested, oral communication is an art! I tried to talk politely over the phone and the customer started to shoot me. Okay I know, it’s human nature to blame others first, regardless of it’s your own fault or not. He even hang up my phone (fuck!). I tried to control my emotion. Oh, I think I need to improve my EQ too.

At last the customer agreed to repair the camera with a charge of RM250 barely for the parts. Thanks to my colleague who is much more better in communication.

I felt bad so I dug an old textbook on business communication. Here is the summary.

Factors that add impact to face-to-face communication:

• intonation of voice
• facial expressions
• gesture
• posture
• movement

To commence effective face-to-face communication:

• Plan what you will say. Prepare supporting notes and gather any relevant documents.
• Consider the person to whom you will be speaking. Take account of their position, background knowledge and experience.
• Speak appropriately to the situation. Be chatty, friendly, informal or formal, etc, in accordance with the situation and the topic.
• Be open-minded. Consider the matter from the other person’s point of view and be as open-minded as possible, but have counter-arguments ready just in case they are required.
• Consider the location. You will feel more comfortable in a familiar environment. Try to avoid distractions like telephone calls or other interruptions.
• Dress appropriately. Your appearance indicates your personality and what you represent.

Listening is also a skill, it’s half of oral communication:

• Prepare to listen. Clear your mind so that your attention is assured, and concentrate on what is being said.
• Be open-minded. Hear what is being said, not what you would like to hear. Appreciate the speaker’s point of view.
• Establish eye contact. This shows that you are listening, as does your posture.
• Avoid prejudgement. Do not prejudge the speaker because of appearance or occupation, or make conclusions about the speaker before hearing what is said.
• Extract main points. Pick out key words or phrases to help fix in your mind what is being said.
• Beware of distractions. Try not to be affected by what is happening around you.
• Give feedback. Learn to give positive feedback verbally and non-verbally, eg. by nodding, smiling, etc, to let the speaker know you are following what is being said.
• Make notes. Record important conversations afterwards – your notes will serve as a useful reminder. Develop your note-taking skills by jotting down the salient points of lectures or meetings.

How about communicating over the phone? As you cannot see the speaker or know what he/she is thinking, the intonation and style of delivery used is very important. Here is a list of do’s and don’ts of telephone effectiveness.

It really takes time to put all those points in actual use. I’m actually a hot tempered person. I have to always control my tone and my emotion as I know what I say will represent my company. So just imagine how hard is it to be an operator (though am not one), or from the company’s perspective – how hard is it to search for a suitable employee to work as an operator.

Sometimes its really hard to communicate with others when you thought its more like common sense. A friend of mine discussed about common sense, which is quite true. Worth a read!

Yea, customer is always right (screw that!).

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Nana, my god sis who is 2 years younger than me, was married in 2006 and has just gave birth to a baby girl early last April. Look at her tiny hand. You won’t cut a new born baby’s hair or nail for the first month after birth. (that’s the Chinese culture, not sure about others)

It’s a very wonderful thing to watch a small cell grows and become a human being. Tender, love and care will be given to the new born. It’s nice to watch your kids grow. But it is heart tearing when your kids grow up and start to become less obedient.

To raise a baby is also quite a burden if you have not have some financial background. I bet Nana and her husband will be buying more and more things just for their first born child. In the near future, they may want to purchase things like the Maclaren stroller, more baby clothing, etc.. Milk powder is expensive too! And not to forget the poison milk powder in China!

Recently, friends around me is getting married. I always have a mixture of feelings whenever I see friends getting married. It seems romantic, but what will it look like ‘behind the scene’? That’s a lot of things to consider, especially when you want to build your very own family. All invovle money~

What do you think?

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What ISP are you using? In Malaysia, we have Streamyx broadband and other ISP. Sad to say that in Sarawak, the only broadband service we have here so far is only Streamyx. It sucks a lot recently!! Search around the net, you can find a lot of complaints about this ISP. Orange is frustrated with the situation too!

Even if I have the best cable and or Cat5e Keystone jack, I still can’t get a good connection, because it’s the ISP that matters. I hate the phrase “Service Interruption” from Streamyx. I found out an announcement made on 13th August from Streamyx, saying that they are undergoing an email upgrading exercise. Does that explain why recently I always get “Page Load Error”  or “Connection Interrupted” errors in my Firefox browser??!?!

The worse thing is, how long do they need just to upgrade the email service? “14th August 2008 until Tuesday, 2nd September 2008.” (source), stated Streamyx. Gosh!! They are not punctual as well.

Normal Internet user may not feel much difference, but for hardcore user like us, we need to upload and download a lot of things, it’s really irritating to have bad connection!

Imagine air tools cutting through your body. But of course not that, but these:

Scary?

Cherry insisted me to stay beside her during the whole removing process. So I watched everything..

Just by watching, it really creep the hell out of me. >< It must be pain for Cherry. Haha…I remember when I was around 7, I been to the eye specialist once to remove the unpure from my eyes. Ouch~

Well, have you been through any similar experience for your eyes?

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No matter what life is meant to you, it is precious and really unpredicatable. Therefore, a business opportunity known as the life insurance is created (for money sake? Need life insurance quotes?).

We know that Thailand is really creative with their advertisement, and normally very funny. But they can be touching as well. Check this advertisement below.

Now, do you think that life is precious and unpredictable?