Colin Charles Agenda » Life

Taxis in Bangkok

Colin Charles — Sat, 23 May 2009 09:12:53 +0000

Bangkok is always an interesting place for me. For example, I was at the hotel, and needed to get to Asoke. It was apparently going to take an hour in a taxi, so I was advised to take the Skytrain. 20THB, and 3 stops later, I was at my destination. Win!

Coming back, was of course interesting. I hailed a taxi, and got in, but the first cabbie had no idea how to get to the Intercontinental. So I got into another, and he said the same thing, but had now moved me to another street. I got into yet another taxi, and it seemed like this guy seemed to know, but a little while down the road, he asked for like 500THB. I said no, the meter needed to be used.

He stopped me by the side of the road, to “negotiate”. I said nothing doing, I’d report him otherwise. He started using vulgaraties, so I took a photo of his cab, and told him to fuck off. He wasn’t too pleased, but I know my rights. Found another taxi, and this time, he took me to Siam Paragon, and another hotel completely. I mean, like, what the fuck, this should be easier. I paid him a paltry sum, and ended up getting into yet another taxi, to take me back to the hotel.

How many taxis did I take? Five.

Conclusion? This can be improved. Tremendously. Suddenly, taxis in Kuala Lumpur or Penang, don’t seem half bad.

Branding mind tricks

Colin Charles — Thu, 07 May 2009 16:35:58 +0000

So, I just came back from watching Star Trek, which I believe premiered tonight. I’m by no means a Trekkie, but I think the movie was great — you don’t need to be a die-hard fan, to enjoy the show.

Some friends of mine, had already seen the movie last week, as it was available for friends and family of the screening company. Both @mikefoong and @thechannelc didn’t notice the Nokia phone quite early on in the film.

But they did, this time around. Coincidentally, Nokia did sponsor the screening.

Does the mind play tricks when it comes to branding? I know most of the James Bond films have Sony-Ericsson phones there. I distinctly noticed the Nokia, but then again, maybe I always notice phones.

movies, recently

Colin Charles — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 11:46:24 +0000

in recent times, caught:

28 days – just remotely enjoyable, nothing too fancy, she found herself and all…
underworld 3: rise of the lycans – not seen underworld 1 or 2, but this was most interesting. lots of action, worth seeing on the big screen
harold & kumar escape from guantanomo bay – left me in stitches, i highly recommend it!

Semi-private vacation locations

Colin Charles — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 06:51:56 +0000

A note to my future self…

I really like to have vacations in private spaces. I value my privacy, and enjoy not having to see screaming kids, et al during meals, or when I lounge on the beach. I also like top notch service.

You can get that with the idea of a “private island”. For me, Nikoi Island, off the coast of Bintan, in Indonesia, hits it spot on. It was recommended to me by Adri, and I can’t thank her enough.

Next up, I definitely want to try out Damai, in Bali, also in Indonesia. Sure, its not a private island, but its got luxury villas, and all’s expected to be well. Looks fun, I can even go dolphin watching!

So, while it might not be a private island, it looks fun. More fun than the Eastern & Oriental Penang, might be I’m sure (which I should add, is another top notch hotel – staying in the Penaga Suite, their butler service was excellent, and the whole place, was exquisite).

Facebook kills

Colin Charles — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 14:40:24 +0000

People tend to be excited when a Facebook status changes. In fact, Facebook gives it a lot of prominence by embedding it on the start page of your friends.

This Facebook status message thing though, can cause a lot of misunderstandings. If you’re not listed as single, it doesn’t mean you’re in a relationship (it could just mean that you’ve stopped looking, decided to become a priest, celebrate celibacy, et al). Whatever.

For some, it can even cause death. Via The BBC, in Wife murdered for Facebook status:

A man murdered his estranged wife after becoming “enraged” when she changed her marital status on Facebook to “single”.

…
Fiona Cortese, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “Richardson became enraged when Sarah changed her marital status on Facebook to single and decided to go and see her as she was not responding to his messages.

I’ve read about breakup’s on Facebook. I’ve read about people’s happiness on Facebook. But this is a first, I’ve read of a murder thanks to Facebook. Waste of a twenty six year old life. Bad social networking.

life, updates of some sort… welcome 2009

Colin Charles — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 08:46:55 +0000

the days have all gone by very fast, during the last month or so, since i last decided to document my life.

a lot has happened. i think it mostly can be summarised as:

christmas vacation – fun, broken up in-between for some work in kolkatta, spent some time in bangkok
trip to penang. discovered the city, ’twas fun, since i had only gone there for food (lots of it) before. nice to know a bit more heritage stuff
seeing good friends and spending time with them. it was great to hang with jeffrey for the short while he was back from HK (for coming back, he gets special mention)
christmas party was good – pictures will make it soon…two year bonus even
hanging out with sk2 and getting to know her (more) has been awesome
snippets of family time, always fun
saw Ip Man. based on a true story, completely in chinese, and i actually enjoyed every bit of the show. highly recommended.

highlights… sea of humans during new years eve…

most useful christmas present, a money clip!

receiving the most thoughtful christmas present in all my life – a healthy, dandy breakfast basket… yum

its that time of year where i should really be making resolutions. but maybe, for 2009, i just won’t make them… i’ll focus on a general long-term plan (kind of like the malaysia plans that come out), and see where i stand, every quarter? hmm…

Success

Colin Charles — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 08:09:54 +0000

“The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.” Vince Lombardi (via someone on FriendFeed…) Related posts:On microblogging (FriendFeed, identi.ca) FriendFeed feeds that refuse to die! great success Related posts:

Learning how to take a shit

Colin Charles — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 03:41:34 +0000

A new way to teach your child to get potty trained. Comes in both a boy or a girl version. Correct potty usage of course, gives you a sticker as a reward. I don’t recall reading about (and getting rewarded) for using the potty. Is this Parenting 1.5?

The last few days in review

The Eight-Week Rule

Colin Charles — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 12:17:50 +0000

I really like The Age’s Blog Central. I wish more papers took on new media (The NYTimes is another shining example, of a good new media citizen, coming from the old media world). The Star Online tries with the Citizen’s Blog, which is crowd-sourced blog entries. The Age explores new boundaries, topics that may not make its way to print, but can definitely be OK for online dissemination. Plus you get comments. Crowd-sourcing blog posts, under the guise that you’ll get more readership (for the author) probably doesn’t make too much sense… everyone will jump on the idea of creating their own blog, and harnessing the many ad networks there are out there…

What’s hit my RSS reader for today? The eight-week rule from All men are liars.

…formalisation of a new dating regulation – the eight-week rule – a time period “at the commencement of a relationship, in which there is no obligation on behalf of either party to offer any form of commitment”.

“On one hand, the eight-week rule offers (dare we say encourages) eight weeks of carefree fun, even when you know full well there is no future in the relationship. On the other hand, it forces you to lay your cards on the table after eight weeks, and discourages you from stringing the other person along or getting too comfortable with a person you’re not that interested in,”

Read it. Laugh at it. Realise it will probably never make a print magazine/paper, unless its the relationship column of some rag. But go on and read the comments. Some are downright witty. They make for excellent Sunday reading. And urban myth or not, this eight-week rule (or Sam’s three-week one) makes a lot of sense

On touch, technology alienating humans, senses

Colin Charles — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 11:54:13 +0000

Halim brought up a great topic on how computers are alienating us from the outside world… (c.f. finding information from the library might take an hour, but a Google search will take all of 30 seconds – plus don’t forget they scan books now too).

“”…we got out. We saw other people in the street and in the library: a man in a wheelchair, a helpful librarian, folk reading magazines. Although we didn’t speak to anyone, we interacted with them: a nod, a smile, and people saw us too. We were out there in the community.

It’s a pity that our computers have taken us away from other people.”

Really though, what have computers taken away from us?

Nodding, smiling? These are nice, polite gestures, but there’s no love lost, if you don’t do that (to randoms you find on the road). A really common practice in Australia (especially in the smaller cities, like say, Port Pirie even!), but a not so common one in Malaysia.

We have senses. Is it about the senses?

Sight – you can see someone via a video-conference. Google has brought this to GMail, so it can now happen in-browser. Skype has had it for ages… 3G video calling means you don’t even need to be chained to your desk
Hearing – you can already hear a person… most IM clients now have voice components, and we’ve had the telephone for ages.
Taste – I doubt you taste the humans you meet, but maybe this can be locking lips? OK, this is still a in-person thing, if at all
Smell – no smells through a computer yet… and smells can evoke emotions… I know the whiff of hair, or even a some perfume can subtly excite someone, so this is still an in-person thing
Touch – I think this might be the most important of all the things that computers have taken away from us. Why, later

So, if its a friend, or even an acquaintance, the sight and hearing is all you need. If you’re intimate with someone, taste, smell, touch make sense… so its a given, intimacy doesn’t happen through a computer keyboard.

Touch is important. I dislike touching people, unless I’m comfortable with them and they’re in the inner circle. The other day, I hugged a close friend I’d not seen in over a year. It felt good. Closest human contact I’ve had in a long time (to put it in context, I can’t even remember the last time this happened). I can see the importance in touch, and I wish it happened more often, I guess

Why do I dislike touching people, as a generalisation? Shaking hands… rabid passing of germs!

OK, this is getting on to becoming a pointless rant. I don’t think computers alienate folk – sight and sound is all you really need, for 95% of your relationships (ok, that number pulled out of the hairs on my arse :P). ’nuff said