This site had a sudden influx of more than 1,000 visitors a day thanks to someone’s link to my blog on a forum. I’ve been taking privacy issues for granted, and have since made some adjustments to certain posts to protect a certain someone. 

As a result, I closed this site for almost a week as I had no time to work on it while rushing a thesis final draft deadline and design layout deadlines at the workplace. 

Deadline for entrance to dreamland is now.

My macbook may be the one single possession in my life that saw through a month of research, scouting, and waiting. I’ve read up, compared prices, and waited for the best offer before bringing it home. Impulse buy, this is not.

I was hesitant at first, buying  a macbook in Shanghai. Forum users were skeptical too, most suggesting buying from Hong Kong or getting a friend to bring it over from the States.

I gave Shanghai a chance. There are parallel imports, stolen goods, and imitation goods for almost everything here. Parallel imports may suit our purposes better at times, like for phones, because wifi-enabled China phones do not exist. If you want a wifi-enabled phone, you have to either buy a parallel import (usually) from Hong Kong, or a stolen unlocked phone (that used to belong to some unlucky person). Or get yourself or someone to buy it from out of China. Nevertheless, there are genuine stuff in the storerooms in Shanghai, and my macbook was one of them.

China’s Apple site states the selling price of my unibody macbook to be 10,898RMB. Most electronic marts in Shanghai like Yolo obeys this price, while small shops in Xujiahui’s 太平洋数码场offer slightly lower prices, with the lowest being 9,500RMB for a Hong Kong set, with apparent proper paperwork. Best Buy was the best bet, displaying the macbook for 10,298RMB. But there’s more.

At Best Buy (Shanghai), you can buy a 10,000RMB gift card and get 3% rebate, in 3 working days. So they’ll give me, in 3 working days, an extra 300RMB, making a total of 10,300RMB, slightly more than enough for my macbook, when I only need to pay 10,000RMB. But wait, there’s more.

Labour Day holiday promotions (30 Apr - 4 May) throughout the store. Plenty of package deals, plenty of slashed prices, plenty of vouchers to be collected and lucky draw prizes to be won. And guess what? My macbook is going at a discounted rate of 9,999RMB. That’s almost 1,000RMB less than Apple website’s price! But I’m not done yet!

For every 1,000RMB spent during the Labour Day holiday, one will get a 100RMB voucher (Household appliances get 150RMB!) to use before 4 May, only applicable for regular priced items. But the store is crowded, staff are busy, and… customers  can feign ignorance. MissY and I tried our luck and received 900RMB vouchers to spend, thanks to their oversight. Best Buy Shanghai, your staff are not well-trained, and instead of getting pissed at their lacking in knowledge of the products, we decided to use it to our advantage, hope you don’t mind, though it’s too late. Call me cheapo if you wish/it helps.

If you followed me throughout all my calculations, I received extra 301RMB in my gift card, plus 900RMB in cash vouchers. We lugged home my macbook (9,999RMB), an epson printer + scanner (595RMB), a 320GB Hitachi external HDD (499RMB), and a case logic laptop sleeve (158RMB), paying only an extra 51RMB. That makes it a grand total of 10,050RMB in cost for all that we brought home!

I also have 49 coupons for the lucky draw, plus I’ll be receiving a 100RMB cash voucher for my points accumulation at Best Buy soon.

Now, this is my idea of shopping.

Something complex made easier to understand:

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

I start work come Monday, holding the title and responsibilities of a  “Junior Content Specialist Editor” at a technology firm.

What a mouthful, and possibly ambiguous, but for the first time in my life, I am going to be an EDITOR. A very different concept at an internet company it may be, but well, as long as it has to do with reading, writing, editing, publishing, I’m happy enough. Plus, it may very well be a stepping stone towards something bigger, I hope. Though I’m not entirely clear what my work tasks are for the moment.

So perhaps the content in this blog may get geekier, or come to a halt. I still have a kickass thesis I need to (start) work on, so wish me luck at time management.

I’m happy to finally get busy though. The past month’s schedule was: Wake up, eat, watch drama, eat, watch drama, eat, watch drama, sleep. With some entire days in bed.(!)

I think back of junior college days when every school day’s schedule was packed with lectures, tutorials, training, meetings, and more training during weekends and public holidays; I guess I’ve taken it really s l o w the past few years at university. V e r y  s l o w.

Paradoxically, productivity is probably going to increase with a more hectic schedule. I look forward to things ahead right now, and the new (geeky) people I will meet (I don’t know why I keep mentioning geeky haha).

For those who know of my earlier dilemma, I gave up the option of interning at Shanghai’s “leading English-language city magazine” for several reasons, but I do hope such an opportunity will arise again, preferably without it being an internship.

I’m so going to fit in in Generation Twit.

My webhost provider has started bugging me for payment. My subscription is ending mid-November and I’m wondering whether I should just let this site cease to exist, pay for one year at full price, pay for 2 years at a 10% discount, or pay for 3 years in a row to get a year free. Hmm. Will I still be blogging after I graduate? Hmm.

Leave or continue talking to myself here?

If you are looking for Singapore-specific information on the internet, SPH’s latest oline offering, Rednano, might be just the thing you need. Its search capabilities promises Singapore-centric results presented in a complete package with images, directories and maps.

Rednano Mobile Search via SMS 33333
With one simple SMS, users can also obtain directory information - for instance, contact details of restaurants, transport services, entertainment outlets, or business associates.

To use Rednano’s Mobile Search service via SMS, all users need to do is SMS a keyword to Rednano by sending it to the new SMS 33333 short code, and they will receive an SMS with the address and telephone number of the company or organisation they are looking for.

It is that simple. Rednano’s Mobile Search puts details of over 100,000 business listings and tens of thousands of news articles in their hands. The new SMS 33333 short code is also easy for users to remember.

And, similarly with the WAP portal, there are no charges for the SMS service for a limited period.

Very useful and FREE for now, so I get to save charges on data which I use sometimes for Nokia maps or web via GPRS. It’s about time!

Try it online, or SMS your search to 33333.

How do you run away from all the somehow-unknowingly-self-created drama in your life?

Indulge in retail therapy.

So the drama gets more intense, then college stress pays you an extended visit, and you know your indulgence in retail therapy has drastic effects on what you’re going to eat for the rest of the semester, just play with your latest geek gadget toy.

My Asus Eee PC 8GB, black, 7″, 0.92kg, Linux Xandros.

I’m back here and logged on to what CG calls China’s intranet. Also known as the GFC, I cannot access blogspot, wordpress, wikipedia, etc.

One way to access blogspot is by using pkblogs.com, or any anonymous proxy servers.

But if you’re using Firefox, which you should be instead of the annoying IE, you can use a script to do a quick fix and be able to access blogspot, wordpress, wikipedia, and livejournal.

Check it out here: How To Spot A Blogspot Blog (A Quick Fix)

Flickr images are also blocked. See here to gain access (limited to Firefox).

I decided it’s time to be in the know, time to have some know-how.