Everybody loves Air China

Air China is famous for its bad customer services. I've heard dozens of complaints from friends about how this company encouraged its customers to its competitors.

However the fares from this company are reasonably low compared to other operators. And you can even purchase tickets online, though the system is one of the worst, which is better than China Southern Airlines (on whose website you can't change your departure dates once you have proceeded to the fare page) and China Eastern Airlines (on its local website you can't even select any international departures; on its international website you can't even proceed).

As you probably have been aware of, I am planning a trip to SE Asia. Well at first I was thinking about going to Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, or at least any combination of them. Then it turned out I have to go back to China for a week so I cut the journey to only Malaysia. I've booked return tickets to and from MEL/KL but I had difficulties in finding the right one to China. At first I wanted to go through Tianjin by Air Asia however the flight has been suspended due to weather conditions and therefore I had to land on some southern China city if I want to go by Air Asia. At this moment, Air China caught my eyes. It offered a price directly from KL to BJ at only A$240. What a bargain!

However, after I booked my ticket, and received my confirmation letter, something strange happened. I found that my family name and given name were reversed. How come? So I went back to its website and Geeeeeeeeeeee….. It was the first airline website in English I've seen that put last name before given name…..

I am afraid this might be a problem. Then I called Air China Melbourne. After three minutes of busy tones, the call was disconnected automatically. Then I called Air China customer service in China and enjoyed five minutes of classic Chinese music. Then a girl picked up the phone and forwarded me to the website department because I ordered online. And then the staff at website department who has such a strong Beijing accent told me in deep sorrow that they were only in charge of Chinese website, not international website.

So I had to dial Air China Melbourne again because I ordered through airchina.com.au. A lady picked the phone and said there was nothing she could do unless I pay $100 to change the name. Then she realized I was not flying from Australia so she suggested me to call Air China Kuala Lumper to find out whether Malaysian people have a different position.

So I did. Unluckily it was morning in KL so I waited for half an hour for them to have a breakfast and a cup of tea and gossip times. Then the phone was picked up and girl, once again, forwarded me to their website department.

'So are you Chen Li?' asked the lady from website department. 'No I am not I am Li Chen' I answered for the fifth time. 'Alright if this is the case, I am sure you will be all right based on your passport information provided.'

Should I be happy? Should you love Air China?

The Gambler – a novelette

I read The Gambler from the latest issue of Science Fiction World Translations brought for me by Li Meng during his last trip home. It was a special issue for the Hugo Award nominates 2009. The Gambler was nominated as a best novelette but unluckily did not receive the award.

It was a story about a young Lao journalist in LA who fled to US after unrest in his country and arrest of his farther. He struggles in keeping himself as a responsible writer to the environment and society, whereas the journalists were judged by the clicks of his blog received.

The government in that story just reminds me of what I saw in the movie Persepolis. Same fear, same darkness. I sometimes question myself, will I have the courage to do what they do when confront the same scenario. Probably not. But I certainly will go abroad, infinitely.

But at this stage, I'd rather take my responsibility doing something for the environment. Yes, I did study Environmental Sciences while I was in China and about to choose something similar in my honours study. Maybe I will be an environmentalist rather than an agricultural scientist. But anyway I will never choose a career which may turn out as a threatening to the earth.

If I can't make a difference myself, at least I can help those people by subscribing their blogs, buying their books, even donating them. If more and more people are concerning, there will be some changes.

Goodbye Connex Party

Melbourne Uni Post
Originally uploaded by shangyuan

Do they really think MTR is better than this one?

I love to see changes.

Last year I was a commuter from a nothern suburb (Preston). Everyday I took a train to uni and a train back. What annoyed me was that there was 20 min between to trains. I can remember the moments of seeing the gates of the train shutting with a bee-bee in front of my eyes while I was on the out side... Then I have to press the button again and agian hoping the next train is coming a little bit earlier which they never did....

And I also remember the days of track maintenance when we had to take a bus as a replacement. The bus was good when it was express to Bell station. Other than that, I don't like standing in the dark outside of Victoria Park Station with wind blowing under my pants, esp when I was alone.

But I don't think the new operator will prevent the aformentioned scenarios. Frankly, it's not connex fault. ( I am not sure to put a 's here or not)

However, if u hate connex performance and expect to 'give some colour' to the new operator. Or u simply just want to do it. Please clickk the following link for details.

www.resistance.org.au

-----------------------------------------
GOODBYE CONNEX PARTY!

Let's put public transport in public hands!

From December 1, Connex will no longer run Melbourne's trains
Here's our chance to say goodbye once and for all!
It's also an opportunity to put the new company on notice that we’re not giving up the fight for better public transport.

Theme: affordable, accessible, reliable, frequent public transport
Featuring: guest speakers, party food, bands and a giant goodbye card
Where: Flinders st station steps
When: Thursday December 3, 4pm (Connex apologises in advance for any possible delays)
BYO – public transport horror story!
RSVP: goodbyeconnex@gmail.com or call Resistance 9639 8622

(the above information is a result of Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V. The arthor is not responsible for any consequences.)

Fwd: Your order has been shipped!

This is an email I received from Better World Books, a us-based
website selling seconed hand books to all over the world. I must say
when I first read this email on my N95 I was so suprised and happy.

Acturally the following email is from my second order. As I supposed,
the email didn't change except for the names of the books ( which have
been hidden by me for unknown reasons).

I'd appreciate it if the website has three or four different version
of order confirmation letter and send them randomly. (Maybe it is
exactly what they are doing and I, for some reason, just received the
same version twice.)

Anyway shopping online is not exciting except for when you think about
the gap between retail price and on-line price. What's more, a score
of book stores may offer u a better bargain.

One thing I want to complain about is the high price of Australian
books and CDs. They are so expensive, if you compare with their
'counterpart' in US.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Better World Books <help@betterworldbooks.com>
Date: 2009/11/19
Subject: Your order has been shipped!
To: ---------------

Hello Chen,

(Your book(s) asked to write you a personal note - it seemed unusual,
but who are we to say no?)

Holy canasta! It's me... it's me! I can't believe it is actually me!
You could have picked any of over 2 million books but you picked me!
I've got to get packed! How is the weather where you live? Will I need
a dust jacket? I can't believe I'm leaving Mishawaka, Indiana already
- the friendly people, the Hummer plant, the Linebacker Lounge - so
many memories. I don't have much time to say goodbye to everyone, but
it's time to see the world!

I can't wait to meet you! You sound like such a well read person.
Although, I have to say, it sure has taken you a while! I don't mean
to sound ungrateful, but how would you like to spend five months
sandwiched between Jane Eyre (drama queen) and Fundamentals of
Thermodynamics (pyromaniac)? At least Jane was an upgrade from that
stupid book on brewing beer. How many times did the ol' brewmaster
have one too many and topple off our shelf at 2am?

I know the trip to meet you will be long and fraught with peril, but
after the close calls I've had, I'm ready for anything (besides, some
of my best friends are suspense novels). Just five months ago, I
thought I was a goner. My owner was moving and couldn't take me with
her. I was sure I was landfill bait until I ended up in a Better World
Books book drive bin. Thanks to your socially conscious book shopping,
I've found a new home. Even better, your book buying dollars are
helping kids read from Brazil to Botswana.

But hey, enough about me, I've been asked to brief you on a few
things:

We sent your order to the following address:

hidden for security reason

Order #: -----------
Item Titles:

We provide quick shipping service to all our customers. You chose
International Mail shipping, your book should arrive within 10 - 21
business days. Some shipments may take slightly longer to arrive.

At this time, we are not able to offer tracking on our International
Mail shipments.

If you have any questions or concerns, please email my friends in
Customer Care at help@betterworldbooks.com. If you could please
include your order number (---------) that would be very helpful.

Eagerly awaiting our meeting,

Do they NEED a job?

Today a guest speaker gave out a speech over the issues related to how government would deal with unemployment. He made comments about how the current policies and programs work and what improvements there would be. As usual, he started with why government needs to take unemployment seriously. He said unemployed people are more likely to suffer from un-well-being.

This is true perhaps. And for me, who have experienced a phase of jobless and desperately job hunting, I understand the feeling of being abandoned.

But as the speech went on, when he talked about the economical benefits and costs of government by implementing such programs, like when they were talking about health insurance, obesity, smoking and other policies, I suddenly wondered, why are you pushing people to have a job?

I read a book yesterday which has a very interesting statement. It said in modern society, working class are people who have boring jobs in order to pay their debts, and middle class are people who have boring jobs in order to pay their bigger debts. This is so true.

He said the basic concept of capitalism is to induce materialism, to encourage people consume the goods they do no really need. So people work hard just to buy the products being most advertised and overpriced. The sad thing is THINGS are born imperfect. This imperfect attracts people to consume more.

So if we wouldn’t have such desires toward THINGS, we could live happier and work less.

While I have to confess I am already becoming a victim of the massive capitalism brainwashing. I have to give up my favourite courses because they are ‘less profitable’ and have less possibility to afford my bills of my ‘dreamed life’. I am doing a job to get money to buy things which I don’t really need or which have cheaper substitutions.

And I am not likely to go back.

But some people can stay where they are and we should respect them.

I remembered a scene from Trainspotting in which the angry young lad was so annoyed of intensive mandatory job interviews that he ended up with attacking the interviewer. I would never do this. But I can feel his anger, in some way.

I know it seems childish to publish a blog like this but this is really what I think. Help people but respect their choices.

Campaign Stuff, Campaign Staff

The Chinese boy walked into Union House with cheerful yelling from all of us, iUnion people, Synergy people. He was the last voter today, and the last voter of this year.

I was supposed to help iUnion for this whole week. However, I got to work at Tue and Wed, and had a conference on Thursday with cropping farmers up in a place I have never heard of in Victoria which is four hour away drive from Melbourne where I had free lunch and knocked into a lot of people whom I didn't suppose to meet up there.

So I only campaigned on Monday and Friday, the former was raining, the latter is windy. But Chester the endeavor overcame all odds and successfully made it there.

By 'made it', what I mean is I got a lot of people voted for us, or at least they said so. Monday I was standing in front of Union House and it was lunch time. A lot of friends and acquaintances were walking through the scenic professor walk to buy food, or drink but it was not a big difference. So I waived to them dramatically and in most scenarios it was easy because of the so called 'peer pressure'. Some people came over to Union House all the way up from law building in the pour and asked me where to vote when they saw my T-shirt. I must say we campaigned successfully on Xiaonei and Facebook.

Then I was just away from uni for three days at least at day time (I had to use Internet from uni at night because there's not yet in my place), during which I've heard a lot about things happening. When I returned to Union House at Friday, things are different. Most people claimed they have already voted when being caught by a campaigner. I firmly believe most of them don't. But you can't just point out. At least they are not voting for our enemies.

There were some dirty games within the campaign. Photos, lies, I've seen a couple of them. But in general, from my perspective, it was quite a clean campaign. At least there was no betray, no fighting, no cursing....

Something About Opening Up

Generally speaking, there are two reasons why men (or women - following the tone of David our lecturer) sign up a blog service provider and type whatever they like on the wide or narrow screen. One is self stimulating, they keep the journals or the wesite secretly, only to review (or not, by any means...) by themselves. This is what I have done with my nearly-up-to-dozen sleeping blogs, who have been ignored by myself and anybody else and half died there in the mist of data. The other reason, more commonly, is to share, or expose, yourselves, to the public. I have an experience on a Chinese SNS website xiaonei.com, which is famous for its suprisingly up-to-date unauthorised imitation from facebook.

Now I have to admit I have confessed an addiction to opening new blogs, wanting to share my 'feelings' with others. None of my previous blogs have satisfied me. Therefore, I, once again, opening up a new blog. Hoping to attract more friends.

Come and See.