Friday, November 27, 2009

Cocky and Arrogant BlogShop

Here's a true experience that one of et's colleague, H, went through. H is quite fond of shopping online, as there are some items that blogshops can offer lower prices than the traditional boutique stores and shopping malls.


Take a look at the exchange of messages between H and that particular blogshop owner.



Remembered I said I ordered a legging from some online shop named http://the bend and snap.blogspot.com  on Wednesday?

She told me to take size L so I did. I told her to do a COD on Thursday at oneU anytime from 9am - 6pm. Then I'll hand her the money on the spot.

And she never show up or sms so I emailed her yesterday at 5 sth.. n her reply was like this:
if tom can ? are u working in boutique ?

 Then I never reply liao. Too much, she thought I sit here waiting for her all day ar?
 This morning, she sent me this sms:

Her: Babe, cn I just post it? I think I dn have time to cod atm. So busy with final work. :)
Me: Hey, just cancel it. Don't want anymore. Gd luck in final.
Her: Ok. Ur name and details will be banned n put in back out byers list. Thanx
Me: Excuse me, u were the one who backed out from the COD trade . Have some business ethic.
Her: Im a office working person ok. Back out COD never listed in trade matter. Anyway, I think bttr you cancel it cz I dn have XL and L size atm. It just wasting my time to find it. Thanx
Me: Well you just ruined a business and your reputation. Dun promise if u cant make it, glad I didn't buy it from ya. Have a nice day.
Her: I dnt thnk so. Stil many buyers waiting for my service. Thanx too. Daa





Arrogant shithead.

Horror KTZ Restaurant experience

This is a true story related by et of her colleague's experience in KTZ Restaurant.


First of all, KTZ Restaurant is a chain of restaurants that one can find in KL. KTZ stands for "Kee Tak Zek", pronounced as "Kei Tak Sek" in Cantonese which means 'Remember to Eat'.


About a week and a half ago, her colleague, let's call her P, went to the KTZ restaurant in 1 Utama for lunch. The KTZ there is very popular among shoppers as it offers an extensive range of food and drinks, coupled with very competitive economical prices.


P ordered one of the noodle selection from menu. About halfway eating her bowl of noodles, she found not one, but FOUR worms in her soup!!!  Talk about nasty!


P proceeded to summon the waitress, who without nary a word, took the bowl into the kitchen. Some moments later, she came back to P's table saying "It's not my fault", and left the table. Without an apology. Without an explanation. Without even a replacement meal. Without any hint of customer service ethos. Nothing.


You can imagine P's rage.


KTZ has now been banned by P and the rest of her colleagues. Having been patron to the restaurant for at least once a week for the past year and half, this is a strong statement for the KTZ restaurant in 1U.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

The excellent Kura Japanese restaurant in One World Hotel.

Due to the disappointment of the Kissaten restaurant in Jaya One the previous day that I wrote about here, I wanted to make it up for et by bringing her to the Kura restaurant in One World Hotel. Now Kura is what one would definitely be referring to as a Japanese restaurant. Far more authentic than Kissaten the faux Japanese restaurant.

We had the Snow Crab sukiyaki, Garlic Fried Rice, and a Sushi Bento that comes with grilled chicken. All 3 selections were really good, especially the superb Garlic Fried Rice. We were totally satisfied with the food we had in Kura, and left without doubts that we’ll definitely be going there again in the future.

I wanted to write on how good the food was in Kura, but I think I’ve used enough superlative terms describing its food to convey the message. As for its ambience, Kura uses the room concept, meaning that each table is its own room. This definitely is a very good place for private dining. Have no doubt, Kura is worth the price.

  

Faux Japanese restaurant in Jaya One, PJ

2 weeks ago, we went to Jaya One in section 17 Petaling Jaya to celebrate a birthday occasion. That was only the second time us being there, the first being almost a year ago.

In the time gap between, we noticed some changes and some that were the same. Duck King is still more or less as crowded, though the queue previously was a little more longer. A few other eateries/cafe were still there, such as Old Town White Coffee kopitiam, Nando’s, Starbucks and a few others. However, there are some that seems to have closed. A kopitiam, probably Kemaman, had closed, and a bar is now in its lot. From the looks of things, business is not hot for this bar as well. Il Divino was not open, probably closed. Another Chinese eatery on the Wai Sek Kai row was closed as well.

Anyway, after taking a short tour of the area, we decided on a restaurant with a Japanese name, Kissaten. The waitress outside introduced the restaurant to us as a Japanese restaurant. So, in we went. The interior decor was minimal and simplistic, one that does not resemble a Japanese restaurant. That should have been the hint to us. The menu shows a few dishes, barely disguised as Japanese. There were more Oriental and Western selections than Japanese ones.

For our order, I went for the ABC Pasta, which turned out to be Fusilli with the very oriental ABC soup. The base soup seems to be seafood in nature, probably clams or mussels, served with the typical ingredients of carrot, tomato, potatoes etc. This combination is not great, as the soup was the watery for the pasta. Once in the mouth, the soup will be down the throat quickly, leaving you to chew the pasta getting mostly the wheat taste.

As for et, she went for the Rice with Japanese Curry and Chicken Fillet. The chicken fillet was generous in size. However, the curry was just that, the curry sauce only without any other ingredients. That made this particular dish on the plain side. Not great at all.

We were entirely unimpressed with food, nor the setup. For the restaurant, it does not look Japanese, it does not taste like Japanese, it does not feel Japanese, but it’s called a Japanese restaurant by its staff and its name. So we call it …. a faux Japanese restaurant.

Surprisingly though, the place was full during the time we were there, which probably speaks more of the Jaya One place than the restaurant itself. Business condition in Jaya One seems to be a tough one, as only a few eatery has the crowd. Kissaten has the crowd, but I’m venturing that it’s probably due to selection, or the lack thereof, that’s available in Jaya One.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Wordpress vs Blogger. Which is better?

For many who was interested in starting their own blog, the question had been which blog host is better. There are plenty of options out there now. Wordpress, Blogger, Tumblr and many more.
However, looking at just Wordpress and Blogger. Which one is better?


Having used both sites now, this is what I think.


Blogger
Less structured as Wordpress. Beginners usually "gets it" straightaway when all one needs to do is just post blogs. And when the beginners begin evolving into intermediate level and start looking at Search Engine Optimization, Javascript, etc., then they'll find the ability to customize their template is a really powerful Blogger feature. But of course, not everyone is bothered with SEO


Wordpress
More structured than Blogger. Have a distinction between Page and Post. When a blogger starts a new blog in Wordpress, the blogger should spend some time doing the initial planning on how the blog structure will be like. Once that's done, then there's nothing much else to do but to blog posts. Wordpress takes care of the 'googlejuice' factor. But for those who uses the Wordpress.com hosting service, they will find that Wordpress imposes a lot of restrictions as in, no Javascript, no embedded form etc. No such restrictions if you have your own host, and installed Wordpress into the host.


Conclusion:
Wordpress is better for beginners, especially after some initial thought and planning.
Blogger is better for intermediate level bloggers, as they can customize to their hearts content.
Wordpress probably edges it in advanced level, as their structured blog holds more 'googlejuice' in the long run.




p/s: 'Googlejuice' - the factors that determines how Google Search ranks your site. 

Got rejected by Google Ads

Not too long ago, thought of signing up for Google Ads out of curiosity, since the "Monetize" option is always prominent whenever one is logged into Blogger.


So, I followed through the instruction steps, and waited.
After 48hrs, a non-replyable email from Google came informing me that this blog has been rejected for Google Ads placement. Reason? 
Unacceptable Content
Oops ...  
Does Google prefer only blogs with specific content, rather than the general content we have here in this blog site?
Or just that there haven't been much updates here?
I've seen sites with only 1 page with lots of outgoing links that have Google Ads placement.
Hmm .... go figure.



Tiring and Exhausting, yet Interesting and Fun

In the past few weeks, we had been shopping for baby products as if they're going out of fashion! 
It's been tiring and exhausting. Not easy to go to shopping malls a few times in a week after work in order to survey and shop for baby products, especially for those on promotions.
It's been interesting and fun. There are loads of baby stuff now compared to the years of yore. It's been very interesting to learn about all the stuff a modern baby can have now. Lucky fellas to be born now  :)


As of now, our biz site is slowly being updated with more and more items as we "bake", as in build, more of them.


Though this has left less time for this blog here, it won't be fully abandoned either. From time to time, we'll update this site even to just continue to chart our journey together  :)


Have a look at our site. And leave a comment to let us know what you think of it  :)


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