The Power of Mass Communication..

Since taking up the role as the Vice President Public Relations of HELP's toastmasters club in July, I have been unconsciously applying mass communication to publicise our club. I used to think mass comm is just a term related to languages, communication, event management, meeting-with/working-for the press, etc. Until recently, I finally took note of the word 'MASS' in this widely used 'career jargon'.

First let me share with you how I came to notice this word.

I started off by creating a database for our club. Business cards and contact details were all that I cared for during meetings. Each time, I made sure every member/guest that visits our club will have my business card and vice versa. Then you have events like Club Officers' training. You meet HUNDREDS of new faces coming to HELP, how're you going to network with SO many people at once?

I was really shy and just stuck myself with the HELP gang.

However, there seemed to be another part of me telling me THIS IS THE BEST CHANCE to expand our database. Its D-chance to make our club successful! But then again, I thought, how am I going to start the conversation with the auditor from KPMG? Come to our meeting every Saturday and exchange business cards? Nah... doesnt sound sincere... Get feedback about the venue from the bank manager of HSBC then exchange business card? Doesnt sound very convincing either... Then I thought....ahhhh, I will ask about how did they get themselves here, was it difficult? Then exchange cards so that they can call me when they get lost!

I've found the PERFECT trigger for my conversation without sounding insincere or pretentious.
You must be thinking, is that the end of the conversation already? Probably, since I didn't prepare much. True enough, the next problem arose, what to say next? "The sky is blue today, dont you think? " Speak that, and they would probably look into your eyes with the 'OMG' kinda face and just walk away. Its just TOO bad don't you think?

NO! of course I didnt say that. Most commonly, you'll get interrupted by somebody else, and you just move away. Or sometimes, just say that you wouldnt want to take away their precious tea break time and then make a move. Afterall you only wanted to receive as many cards as possible, right?

What did I do next with ALL these cards?

Data entry. It was then that I realised how important data entry was. I virtually took my sleeping time just to key it into our HELP's gmail account. Its really tedious, but its the outcome that was in suspense... I told the other Exco to do the same thing whenever they're free.

The time is Perfecto! Its time to prepare my email.

Objectives :-
1. Publicise the club blog
2. Invite them to your meeting
3. Make known to them that they're attending a President's Distinguished Club.
4. Make it clear what is the purpose of their attendance

After that, it's time to put them in words. This was the hardest part as i had to strike a balance between making the write up interesting yet professional at the same time. It was not an easy task. What I did about the club blog is that I told them details about out Club Dinner, but not entirely. I created a link just so the HAVE to visit our club blog.














I was shocked to look at the number of unique visitors to our blog (31st July, one day after I sent the mass emails). It was only about 2 weeks old, and there it is. Obviously thats not the actual number of readers daily. They probably really wanted to know about our dinner, or could have clicked it by accident! LOL. Yup that was when I thought, mass emails, is it like Mass Comm??


Mass communication is the term used to describe the academic study of various means by which individuals and entities relay information to large segments of the population all at once through mass media.

- Quoted by Wikipedia


Then I noticed that the number of readers declined. Sigh.. what to do?

I just continued sending them those mass emails, about our club, and kept updating our blog with Shoes. NOt daily yet, just once a week.


Today, we even have visitors all the way from US, Japan, Spain, Brazil, Australia, Singapore, Italy..etc WOW!


















Not only that, I found out that our blog is actually worth $1,129.08 . I'm still wondering how is it calculated. This blog is still worth $00.00 . LOL

Anyway, still learning how to make successful blogs! Care to shed any lights from you readers?

=)

Perhentian...

7+ hours of bus ride + 3 hours of relaxing + 45 minutes of Speedboat ride = Pulau Besar Perhentian

Our bus left at 10:30 pm sharp and lead us on a hideously bumpy ride. Though there were several spot checks by policemen, we sailed smoothly past ALL of them. You must be thinking, weren't the bus driver speeding? Of course he did, but lets spare the details behind the scenes so as to support our 50th anniversary of Merdeka. Yeah.. We're only Malaysians =]

The night-ride was filled with laughters as a result from lame and failed ghost stories told by Fong Wen. You see, when you you're listening to a ghost story, you'd expect people to scream for their lives telling the teller to STOP. That was not the case for FW, as her stories ended like "the sound you heard was from my dad's fart!" uhuh

or rather,

"There was this passenger in the taxi who was wearing very dirty looking clothes. But after a while, the taxi driver noticed that he's clothes had been cleaned. The taxi driver was very anxious over his encounter as previously there was a stench, but now its only fresh sweet smelling frangipani. So the driver asked the passenger what had happened to him? Was he using somekind of black magic?"

Then FW stopped the story to tell us about how she would face some consequences if she told us the secret of behind what had happened to him. Cliche-d i know, but we continued to bug her about it and finally she gave us the answer.

"USE FAB "

A moment of silence. DOT DOT DOT was on everyones' minds. Now I see you rolling your eyes!

However, she's definitely one hell of a joker who kept the bus ride alive of course. Great one FW! At 4 am, we stopped around Gua Tempurung for food.

Another 4 hours of bus ride ended with panda eyes for all of us. We hardly slept due to those chatty voices from EVERYONE.

At 0530 hours, we were stranded at Terengganu as our speedboat would only arrive at 0830. The long-wait was not that painstaking afterall as we caught a glimpse of sunrise. Then, came the speedboat ride to the big island which was awesome!

I won't go into details of the happenings on all 4 days, but i'll share the gist with you.

Activities
1> Typical aimless volleyball games by us rookies whereby pain+direction was the failing-factor.
2> Snorkelling (RM35/pax) at 4 major sites - the coral reeves, giant turtles, sharks, colder water coral reeves, and final stop was at a freezing fresh water stream.
3> Jungle Trekking cum island hopping by foot. Island hopping was not intended, but at the end of the trek, we were at another side of the island. So we hopped around 4 beaches, 2 more treks and 2 staircases, and one dip into the sea (it was high tide, so the stairs were halfway covered in sea water).
4> BBQ Party organised by Flora Bay Resort..
5> Kayaking + snorkelling on our own
6> Team building games...
7> Joanne's infamous birthday celebration.. you'll know why soon. READ ON!


FLORA BAY RESORT, Perhentian - "The scorching sunlight was quickly shadowed by gloomy clouds; wind hit hard against coconut trees depicting its mood swings. Soon after, the unforgiving whether took a toll on the beach by wiping out the white sand with rain water, closing every possible crab hole. The devillish vampires too were caught red handed, leaving only a small number of them cheating death. These mosquitoes were huge; i'm guessing it needs trice as much blood as the ones here. They were not so lucky afterall as next they had to battle against the fumes released by BBQ. It was Friday the 13th, the night of the living 'blithe procastinator' JOANNE TAN! "

Extracted from The Hanky Minute


Our fellow brilliant classmate Yuhhui came up with the impossible dare for her Birthday.

1. To enquire about condoms at the reception. DURATION: 5 minutes of conversation.

Storyline :

Girl: Bang, sini ada condom tak? *looks at him hornily*
Guy: er, ada! Ada beberapa jenis - untuk malam, untuk pagi, untuk... *continues to smoke*
Girl: Boleh tunjuk ar? *interrupting his sentence*
Guy: Er perlu ke? *shy face*
Girl: MESTILAH! * continues stare*

Guy shyly picks up 3 condom boxes, and left it on the table. While his left hand continues to bring the cigarette to mouth, only this time, at a faster pace. He was actually blushing.

Girl: Berapa satu kotak?
Guy: RM7.80 sekotak.
Girl: WAH, mahalnyer, KL baru RM5 lebih.
Guy: *stares at her, shocked*
Girl: Eh bang, mana lebih bagus?
Guy: Tak tau lah, I tak guna pun. *looks down, giggling to himself *
Girl: Bang mana tak guna? Mesti guna punya... *speaking with persuasion*
Guy: . . . *speechless*

You should have seen the look on his face. At this point, everyone was already chocking themselves with their own laughters. Thank God Yuhhui indicated the time-out sign.

2. To give a flying kiss to a caucasian at the resort.

Storyline :

Girl stares at this young lad with 6 packs. He was eating on the opposite table, while girl just sat and looked at him for a long long time. The moment came when he finally looked up to take a peek at who's watching him. Girl immediately took chances. First, she gave him a seductive-one-eye-lashed wink. He got so shy. He quickly looked down.

Then another chance came and this time, she gave him a flying kiss. He immediately blushed. It was RED as blood! I wonder what his parents might think about her. They must be thinking, WOW! Malaysia's got young hookers who's interested in my 15 year old son! Yes, he is very young. HAHAHAHA

We all had a great laugh.

3. Kiss a guy on his cheeks.

THis one very common la...so nothing special

4. Wear her red panties outside her pants like superman, and knock on every chalet door to say hello.

THis was going to be the best dare ever. Imagine her knocking on to that young lad's door, this time with red panties. LOL. Before this, they wanted her to sing at every chalet the birthday song dedicating it to herself...LOL.

Unfortunately, it was kinda late already, so this dare was eliminated.

THis friend of mine really had so much guts to do all these; she's really funny and spontaneous as well.

*TO BE CONTINUED. Up Next, 'the three man cell' and pictures

The drive of life..

Whats your drive in life?

Do you live by..
Heartfelt inspirations?
Guilt and remorse?
Lifetime lessons?
expenssive dreams?
indulging passions?
Forced oscillations?

Watch this and feel the drive of life. =D

My life-line is missing..

Seriously, I felt like I have been cut off from all resources.

I've lost my phone. Though I still have one last chance to find out tomorrow whether I've left it in my dance teacher's studio; suspending my phone-line is the best solution now. Thank god they have forgone the RM 50 replacement fee. However, there would be a RM10 processing fee.

*phew*

I have been very busy dancing since Perhentian. Trainings were vigorous, and mind exhausting. Its not like studying for an exam where you just have to understand/memorise concepts which requires a little critical thinking. Its more like observing, and practising coordinations and techniques, and finally getting a little scoldings here and there just for encouragement. (btw, we had to learn 3 dances in 2 days)

The studio is located at Sri Petaling, about 30-40 minutes drive away. Thank God I have Seok (dance partner) to send me there for lessons. Really, THANK YOU SO MUCH.

No matter how good you are, you'll still need initial guidance with the dance steps. Its true that you can learn it from tapes/DVDs; however, learning it from a teacher is totally different. Thats why there's a hole in my pocket now. Private lessons are NOT cheap at all. Uncle William was generous enough to give us student discounts, and of course extra teaching hours too. He may seem to be very commercialise, but to be honest, he's not like other dance teachers I have seen and heard so far. If you want to start dancing, you may want to consider William and Louisa Danceworld. ( He's dance choreographies are very up to date too )

Competition is this Sunday (22/7), so lets hope for the best. Right Seok?

I have so much more to blog about, ie Perhentian trip, the birth of twins from my guinea pig, dancing, Toastmasters...etc... It will be soon.

I will be updating the Help Blogspot now.

Quote of the day : Patience is a virtue. Seriously, things would've gone bonkers without it.

btw, i just found out i need RM400K to go to Melbourne Uni. Thats so exp.

Copied and Pasted...

If you think copying and pasting is a piece of cake, think again. Well, probably word to word files are easy, but word to Blog? You try it out.

I have been copying and pasting for the past few days, it's all about TM stuff. And everytime you modify something in Words, what you get in your post is TOTALLY DIFF. You spend hours and hours just trying to change here and there. Finally its done. It looks great.

Then you click 'preview'....

ITS DIFFERENT AGAIN...

another few more hours wasted just to change that defect. Finally, you realised, isnt it better to just retype the entire thing? And there it is, a new post in just 5 minutes or so...

The above statement is highly exagerrated, while only half is true the other half are purely rants..

Off to perhentian.

First blog picture...

'He's ancient. Infamous yet reputable - yes, a direct contradiction. Frictions of his strings have made some cry emotionally; roar angrily; laugh incessantly; stoned unintentionally; and even slept peacefully. The magical sounds produced by him left jaws of people dropping, as if they were trying to prove Newton's Law of gravitation. Magnifique! '

Extracted from, The Hanky Minute

Tadaa...

Birth of 'frictions'

Thats my brother's Viola actually. Its the violin's brother. Sounds are pitched lower than the violin, but much more variety in tones compared to violins.

Picture taken by my brother's new Nikon professional camera. Dunno whats the model. But I would love to own one in the future too. Reminds me of Jeff's Canon cam... COOL!

Frictions. COMING SOON!

Food Hunt in Penang!

This trip to Penang was so unexpected.



It was planned in such a rush that I had to leave home at 10pm (Friday) with my cousin. My grandmother had been hospitalised due to Lungs Infections on Wednesday night, and many of them thought she might go anytime. She's 81 this year. Thank god, her condition stabilised after the 3rd day in the hospital.



I have never been to a General Hospital before this. But now I have seen, heard, and smelled what is it like being in a general hospital. Honestly, it wasn't that bad IMO. My grandmother was put in a wad which had almost 50-60 beds that were divided into male and female sections, and almost everybed was occupied with patients. Though the toilets werent in the best conditions, the floors were sterilised everyday (at least from what i'd seen).



Patients there were of various age group and backgrounds - the teens ( 15 year old swallowed 20 aspirins to attempt suicide ), the middle-income ( unfortunate accident cases, kidney failures), the olds (old age,lungs infection,food poisoning), the criminals ( they were escorted by policemen, apparently they had a fight) etc.



Whats most intriguing to me was the doctor:nurse:patients ratio. There were hardly enough qualified doctors/nurses on duty; yet they still managed to keep the patients alive. That is why GH is the best place for future student doctors to learn i guess, as there was never a time where they had enough docs. ( btw I saw PMC students there everyday, taking notes, doing some practical works and learning the skills required by a doctor; and that was the time i started thinking about becoming a doctor..hmmmm..)



Everytime a patient leaves the bed ie death/discharge, a new patient comes in. And if you stood at the emergency entrance, you would see patients coming at the rate of 1 every ~30 minutes. Thats scary!



Ok, I have diverted too much from my topic.



Anyway, the hectic time of standing by my grandmother's side (no chair) for few hours had been replaced by Penang's delicacies.



Frankly, Penang has become Extremely commercialised. You can never find the good 'ol o-chien (fried oyster with egg) or Asam Laksa or Curry mee at Gurney Drive or tourist attractions. You can still get them there, but they are not as nice as before. Thank god I had my cousins to bring me into smaller town areas to taste the original recipies. I HAD 5 FREAKIN' MEALS EVERYDAY!!! FELT LIKE HEAVEN !! =)

Typical meals :

Breakfast with family - biscuits, roasted pork(not everyday of course), curry mee

Branch with family(so fast?..YUP) - Rice, home cooked food

Lunch with cousin (yes its that quick) - Indian Mee Goreng, Sar-hor-fun, Assam Laksa

Tea with cousin ( once more ) - Ice kacang, Mua Chi, Hokkien mee

Dinner with family ( 2 hours break Thank GOd) - Loads of food.

Supper with cousin ( Still going...yum) - O-chien, Yee min, Sate, Chee Cheong fun



Thats 6 meals already!!!



Trust me, you think you've had enough, but when the food comes, you start to pinch, and eventually own it. Furthermore, food there are not THAT expenssive. Its almost like 'Eat all you want!' kind of concept. BUt then again, it depends on where it is.



Looks like i have to resume jogging REALLY soon now.



I wonder what my dance teacher will say when he sees me...



"you've put on weight!!!"







Quote of the day : BUY INSURANCE!! You wouldnt want to go to GH in the future!