KFC & McD Going Green... with different strategies

I'm not sure if this is happening in other states as well, but I found out recently that McD and KFC have been participating in the "No Plastic Bags" campaign. It has started for quite some time, but since I haven't visited these two restaurants for the past few months, I was not aware of this.

Apparently, McD and KFC are not giving out plastic bags for Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. While I'm neutral towards these kind of campaigns, it is the differences on how these two restaurants tackle this matter that fascinates me.

For KFC, it's simple... they automatically charge you an extra RM0.20 every time you make an order on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. They did not even bother to ask if one would want the plastic bag. They just add in 20 cents when they punch in the order.

For McDonald's instead of charging their customers, they replaced their plastic bags with paper bags. And if you order two or more drinks, they'll give you a cardboard coaster.

It is in my opinion that McDonald's strategy is of a better one. It reduces the use of plastics while not inconveniencing customers. While it is true that we can use shopping bags while shopping in supermarkets, I don't think that it is a viable option when shopping for food. 

KFC's strategy is does not really help much in conserving plastics as they assume that each customer need plastic bags by automatically charging them.

So, conclusion? Support McDonald's! :P

Make Your Dreams Come True Day

Did you know today is a "Make Your Dreams Come True Day"?

Yeah, I know it's a really obscure day that no one knows about... but it was here in my calendar which has every single celebration day in it from the famous Mother's Day to the unheard of Pharmacist's Day (which is yesterday). Unfortunately, a search in the internet while confirms the existence of the MYDCTD, did not result in any detailed information about this day... on how it come to be, where it started, etc... even the great and mighty Wikipedia did not produce any results! But then again, I think it's pretty much self-explanatory :P.

So, May All Your Dreams Come True!

Smaller Car, Cheaper Petrol...

[“The bigger the engine, the higher petrol will cost,” Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said yesterday.] - From the Star

Muah hah hah hah... while my aunt was looking down on me 5 years ago when I decided to purchase a 1.0 Kelisa instead of 1.5 Proton, now who's laughing? Muah hah hah... but then again, I supposed she doesn't mind paying the extra money :P.

 Read more here: Fuel price by car size - The Star

Game by Olay

Well, my friend the Witch challenged me to an online game... challenged me... ME!!! Of course, being a really competitive person, I responded immediately. There were some minor problems with registration, but after registering twice, I managed to get in.

It is actually a flash game by Olay... for marketing purposes, of course. Also, Nuffnang held a competition where there're prizes. I for one, is too lazy to tag five different people and challenge them to the game... actually, come to think of it, I don't think I have 5 friends who write blogs. Besides, I never win any competition anyway and the deadline is so near (by 31st August 2009)... so I'm not taking part of the competition. I'm not sure what's the criteria to win the prize but my marks are definitely not high enough to be winning material. And my writing style is not interesting enough to win too... so why bother? :P I'm actually being very accomodating by registering before playing the games... I hate registration process, not to mention that my mailbox is gonna to be bomb by junk mails in the future!

I'm posting the online scores just to show the Witch that I have higher scores than hers:P. Of course, she should have got higher scores than this by the time I posted this but I'm comparing my scores with her scores that she posted in her blog.

Anyway, if you're interested in this competition, visit her blog and follow the instructions there.

Bamboo (1099) vs the Witch (912)

Bamboo Wins!

Bamboo (638) vs the Witch (530)

Bamboo Wins!

Bamboo (1313) vs the Witch (947)

Bamboo Wins!

Bamboo (571) vs the Witch (532)

Bamboo Wins!

Bamboo (1192) vs the Witch (998)

Bamboo Wins!

Bamboo (560) vs the Witch (1274)

the Witch wins loh :P

Okay, I'm pretty sure that the Witch cheated in the final game one. There's no way one can get that high marks... okay fine, I'm terrible at searching stuff... I'm wearing specs with 1000+ power okay... still, I won 5 out of 6 games! Hurrah!

What to do if you lost your passport?

Well, I finally got my new passport back and here are the incidents from when I lost it to how I got it back.

This whole fiasco started when my mum threw away my 'hidden' passport when she was cleaning up my room. That happened around August 2008. When I went home to Kampar on December 2008 for the long holiday, I realised my passport was gone and immediately went to report this matter to the police.

Now, I am unsure if it is acceptable for you to report to a police station different from the region where you lost your passport, but to be on the safe side, always make reports on stolen stuff, accidents, etc. with the police station in the region it happened. So, basically, you need to tell the police how, when and where you lost your passport and you pay RM10 (I think) for the report to be printed out and you're done! Of course, you need to tell them your passport number as well.

(Important note: It is of extreme importance that you remember your passport number. I would recommend you to photostat a copy of your passport and keep it somewhere... or at least jot down the passport number, passport validity period and also the time and places you traveled to with your passport to overseas.)

After this, you would need to see a detective where you'll be subjected to what they called 'interview'. In my case, I had to meet with the detective the next day I made my report. I had heard of the terrible stories on how they would grill you for info but the detective (who is a woman by the way), is quite nice. Anyway, before you went to this interview, please prepare all your documents and information. Well, the detective will tell you which documents to bring but basically they are, your IC, passport size pictures (4 pcs , I think), birth certificate and preferably your name card of the company you work in as well. Please make a photostat copy (2 pcs) for the IC (front and back) and the birth certificate.

I don't remember all the questions she asked, but here are some that I remembered:- parent's birth date and age, parent's occupation, your birth date and age, your occupation, schools and year that you studied in, your siblings birth date and age, your siblings, education level, your siblings occupation and in more detail, you need to explain again on the how, where and when you lost your passport... and also your passport number, the validity period, the number of passports you have had, the place you applied for the passport, the places you have travelled with your passport and the date.

After doing that, you must proceed next to the immigration department to report you lost passport. You must bring passport sized pictures (4 pcs), original and photostat copies (2 pcs) of birth certificate, IC and police report. You will be given several forms to fill in... one is the passport application form, one questionnaire form, another questionnaire form and one checklist. One of the questionnaire form need the signature from the commissioner of oaths, who should be available near the immigration center. I think he charged me RM30 for his signature!

The questionnaire forms, you will be asked to write down again your details, how, where and when you lost your passport, details of your passport (validity period, previous passports numbers, countries travelled to, etc.) Please ensure the information you give is the same as the answers you gave in the police report and police interview, or you'll be in deep trouble.

After finishing everything, you'll meet up with an immigration officer who will be asking you the exact same questions in the questionnaire... again, please ensure your answers are the same as what you have written. If he is satisfied with your answers, he will tell you that you'll get the application results within a month.

In my case, I had an incident with the application. Since my passport was lost since August and I reported it only in December, and someone was apparently using my passport during that period, it is my responsibility to prove that I did not use the passport during that period. Thus, it is important that you make your report immediately you lost your passport or in case you're unlucky enough and your passport is being used by someone else, you'll have to prove that you're in Malaysia and is not using that passport. Luckily, I was on a shopping spree the day my passport was being used and thus I was able to prove that I'm not using the passport at that time.

Anyway, you'll receive a letter like this after several days:-

If you can't read it, it just state that my application has been received and is in process and it will take approximately one month to complete the investigation.

And 3 weeks later, I received the good news! My application is approved! But as a punishment, I can only get a 2 year passport. I will be able to get a 5 year passport only after this 2 year passport is invalid.

Letter stating I can get my new passport that is valid for 2 years

Well, since I was not planning to go anywhere, I did not apply the passport yet. However, there were some questions that I wanted to ask them... such as will I need to pay extra money, how long I can hold out my application for the new passport and if I needed to fill up another form to apply the new passport.

So, in March I went to immigration (during one of my forced leaves) and showed the letter to the counter and ask to see someone who can answer my questions. I waited and waited for like 45 minutes and my number did not appear on the board! So I ask them again and 15 minutes later, my number appeared on the board and I eagerly went to the counter shown. To my horror, I was told to scan my thumbprint and at that moment I knew that they were preparing the new passport for me! Luckily I brought enough cash with me! I had to pay RM300 for my new 2 year passport. Usually RM300 is for a 5 year passport, I guess that's their punishment kua... but it still is better than the horror stories I read online where I had to pay another extra RM300 as punishment!

Anyway, do you know that it is extremely fast to get a passport nowadays, it was written on the receipt that I can get my passport 2 hours after I made my payment! So, I went out to have a long lunch and voila, it's ready when I returned! I was planning to use a better looking picture for my passport, but they used the one I gave them in January and it was horrible! Never realised I'm really THAT bloated. :(

Anyway, the summary of steps are:-

1. Report to police

2. Attend interview with detective

3. Report to immigration

4. Attend interview with immigration

5. Receive letter of approval

6. Get new passport

Documents needed: IC, birth certificates, passport sized pictures and money!

Oh, by the way, I was lucky because they did not deem my case as lost due to negligence. They can withhold your application for new passport for 2 years if they think that it's due to negligence... and if you lose your passport more than twice, you'll never ever get a new passport ever again!!! And remember to photostat a copy of your passport and keep the information of all your previous passports just in case!

Credit Card Cancellation

Wow, I had one of the most pleasing service encounter with phone banking today! I figured that it is just stupid to pay RM2 everytime I pay my Citibank credit card charges every month, so I decided to cancel the card... although I really love their Evergreen point reward system.

Anyway, I phoned them and ask for credit card cancellation. The person on the other line did the normal stuff by confirming my identity by asking some questions. And then, inevitably, she offered to not charge me annual fees for the card, which by the way, is a whooping RM195! Yup, they sort of force me to change my Clear card to a Gold card and so, my annual card fees are RM195! Who the heck would want to pay that? Sure, I could have made a call and they are supposed to waive that, but why the hassle... why not just get one that is free for life in the first place?

Anyway, back to the topic, I steadfastly refused to accept the fee waiver in order to continue to use my card. Besides, as I said, it was really the RM2 Giro fees that puts me off. And of course I did not say that or she'll launch into a tirade of counters and reasons. But I was really itching to tell her another reason I wanted to cancel the card. It was something that happened two years ago (yes, once someone slighted me, I'll remember it forever!). I was purchasing something which was above my card credit limit (and by the way, they gave me a really low credit limit). I had to use Citibank card because it was the only card that I have that allowed me to pay the product in 0% interest installments. So, I phoned them and asked for a temporary limit increase and was rejected... which would not have made me angry if that guy did not give me the reason for doing so.

He actually said that he rejected my application because my account was not good! That **********!!!!! I'm like Monica (from Friends) in some way. I pay the credit card charges immediately when I receive the bills every month and I pay in full! And since I changed my statement to E-statement, it meant that I pay it every month immediately the statement is available online! And he has the balls to say that my account is bad!!!

Well, one of my friend theorize that their definition of 'good account' is for someone who uses a lot and pay the minimum only every month so that they can suck your blood through the interest rates. Well, if that's so, I'd rather be a 'bad account' customer.

Phew, it's good to get that off my chest since I did not tell that to that gal. And surprisingly those were the only attempt that she made to convince me to stay back as a customer. I guess I really am a customer with 'bad account' afterall huh? :P

And when I check my credit card account online shortly afterwards, it was already cancelled! Talk about efficiency... there's where one should benchmark it!

First Blind, Then Deaf

Sigh, this body of mine is getting worse everyday. Previously, I talked about how I had problems with my eyesight and today, I found out that I'm partially deaf! Now I know why when everyone at my age is enjoying music while I thought of them as just loud gibberish. And why I can't listen clear enough when watching tv series if there're no subtitles.

My lunch buddies were talking about ringtones that were set into a certain frequencies and that older people won't be able to hear them. Actually, it isn't really anything new. I remembered watching this Hong Kong tv series by Bobby Au that mentioned this too. Basically, younger people are able to listen to higher frequencies while the older ones would have a lower frequency hearing range. Which is one of the reason the elderly do not like the latest pop music. They would not be able to enjoy the full quality of a high quality CD music because they can only listen to a limited range of the frequencies emitted by the CD player.

I should not have been so busybody. Curious, I googled for these frequency hearing test and I found several. However, I found this one test which indicated the frequency range that a person of certain age should be able to hear. You can find it here: http://www.freemosquitoringtones.org/

However, I must warn all who visit this website that I will not be held liable if you fell into a depressing state... just like me. Sigh... my maximum hearing frequency is actually 15kHz!!! That's for those at 39 years old... my hearing capability is actually more than a decade older!!!

Argh... isn't it enough that my eyesight is so poor that I'm almost blind and I look old with my poor complexion? Now my hearing too???!!!! What did I do to receive such punishment????!!!! I have always dislike loud music. I rarely listen using earphones and I started to use handphones only 3 years ago and I use it rarely too.

So, why did my hearing deteriorate so much? This is unacceptable. I demand an explaination!!! Hmmm.... or maybe the classifications are wrong? Well, you guys take the test and then tell me how it is. Maybe my hearing is actually the best amongst others... that just make my day! :P

Digi - Reload Before 31st August!!!

Well, I'm not sure if anyone knows about this... but I just found this out yesterday when my mum informed me... yes, my mum. Usually when it came to promotions and updates, I'm the one who informed her... but this time, she won.

I supposed I have a valid reason for not knowing this promotion... afterall, I read newspapers online and I haven't checked the digi website for eons... I mean, why on earth would I want to check their website? Well, now I know why.

I know, I know, I have talked for so long and I still haven't talked about the promotion yet. Well, the promotion is suitable for a few rare people only lah. If you reload a value of RM100 before 31st August 2008, your pre-paid duration would be valid for 1 year!!! That means if you reload on 29th August 2008, you can make phone calls until 29th August 2009 without reloads anymore... that is provided you still have credit lah.

That's why I said it's applicable for a few rare people like me only loh. I have yet to know any friends who has credit left before the end of the validity period. Most of them would have used up RM30 before the 30 days period end. And thus, this promotion would not be useful for them.

As far as I know, only me, my mum and one of my friend in Melaka who would find this promotion to be an astounding gift... but then again, my friend in Melaka is not using Digi. I have been having headaches on accumulating too much credit in my pre-paid phone. I usually reload RM50 and by the end of the 50 days calling period, I would have mostly used only RM20 and even during CNY period, where my phone calls are the most, I would usually use only RM40 for the 50 days period.

Also, for pre-paids, there is this birthday bonus where I'll get 50% extra reload bonus. I usually reload RM100 to get another RM50 bonus at this time :P.

Well, that's it guys... just wanna share some info I found. For more detailed information, please go here... remember to read the FAQs!!!