情牢

歌曲：情牢
歌手：李克勤
专辑：最多李克勤精选

你说会永远想念我
我知道爱情已经死掉
你把自由还给了我
我却无力可逃
分分秒秒都想起
你对我的好

我想要一帖相思的解药
被回忆关起来教人受不了
你宣判我的无期徒刑
孤单是我的背号
我在漆黑的夜里
看著心被爱焚烧

**你给我一个爱的监牢
用思念作一副手铐
我号啕大哭
我颓废的笑
外面有没有人听得到
我知道爱是一个监牢
可是我不能不往里面跳
吹寂寞的风
守时间的孤岛
心睡在冰雪里
而明天只是个问号

Your Call

This is the transcript of a radio conversation of a US naval ship with Canadian authorities off the coast of Newfoundland in October, 1995. Radio conversation released by the Chief of Naval Operations 10-10-95.

Americans: Please divert your course 15 degrees to the North to avoid a Collision.

Canadians: Recommend you divert YOUR course 15 degrees to the South to avoid a collision.

Americans: This is the Captain of a US Navy ship. I say again, divert YOUR course.

Canadians: No. I say again, you divert YOUR course.

Americans: This is the aircraft carrier USS Lincoln, the second largest ship in the United States' Atlantic fleet. We are accompanied by three destroyers, three cruisers and numerous support vessels. I demand that YOU change your course 15 degrees north, that's one five degrees north, or countermeasures will be undertaken to ensure the safety of this ship.

Canadians: This is a lighthouse. Your call.

Building Trust

Have you ever thought about why some people trust you while others won't? It's a very interesting question for a salesman to ask himself. Some people trust you because you have a natural rapport. You get along with them easily, & a mutual relationship develops that you can build a sale & a customer relationship on.

Natural rapport doesn't occur with every, or even most prospects for us in selling. Many prospect's perceive us sales guys as different from them though. As untrustworthy, as sleazy, as liars, & cheats out for nothing but the buckaroos in their back pocket.

As a result of such prejudging & bias on the part of our prospects, many will not tell us why they might want to purchase what it is that we have. Instead they simply tell you they want to look at, or evaluate what you have. Then they may or may not make a decision. It's their prerogative of course to do nothing if they "don't feel like it".

The rookie salesman handles a prospect who wants to immediately evaluate his stuff as a great lead. He believes that he's got a hot one, and all he has to do is close it. The senior salesman knows he has a low chance of closing such a prospect unless he the salesman can understand the prospect's problem and vision of solution and then reengineer the prospect's solution vision to match what he the salesman sells.

The trust needed to find out your prospect's problem & current solution vision can be built two ways. One way is subconsciously. Every time a person encounters someone new, their subconscious searches the memory to see what similar people & behavior to this has been encountered before. A gut level, unconscious reaction is formed, & person decides, mostly without even being aware, whether or not they like this new person. Fortunately this subconscious process is one that you can take conscious control over. You can learn how to match & adapt yourself so that you are more subconsciously trustworthy to your prospects.

The second way that you can build trust is to ask important questions. When you probe & ask questions that uncover the nature of the prospect's problem & the consequences of it to him, you are getting him to think. And when you get him to think in this way, he also begins to think of you as someone who is helpful, & not someone who is a liar, a cheat, or someone simply trying to reach into his back pocket.

Some people will naturally trust you then. And most are probably pre-disposed to not trust you, but you can change this by taking conscious control of the unconscious process of rapport & learning how to ask important questions of your prospects.

Happy selling, my fellow salesman! And sell with pride!!

Transformers: Ratchet

Name: Ratchet
Affiliation: Autobot
Sub-Group: Micro Vehicle
Alternate Mode: Hummer H2
Function: Search & Rescue
.
Motto: "You break it, I'll remake it. All life is precious"
.
Character Description:
The medic & scientist, Ratchet has a strong sense of duty to protect life. When there are other robots in danger, & nothing will save them except a foolish charge into the dangerous & unknown, it's always Ratchet that gets called in.

Last Day for 5% GST

Still planning that trip to the mall to pick up some large price items?

Good news: You still have less than 24 hrs
Bad news: You only have less than 24 hrs.

Start getting used to it, my friends. The 7% GST (Government Says Tax) is here to stay until ... the next hike. So, before the next impending increase, stay calm, cool, & contented. Yeah, be content, cos that's easier done than complaining.

But then again, the rising cost of living in Singapore is starting to hit a lot of people, me inclusive. I am not complaining; I am just contemplating. Everything in Singapore is getting expansive, well almost everything. I missed the uncle at Golden Shoe Hawker Centre (where I used to work near Raffles Place) that serves his $2 for any 4 dishes lunch (& the other $2 food stalls). Now, the best deal I can clinch is $3.00 for a one-meat, 2 veg lunch!

Fact is: Taxes are up from the initial 3% -> 5% -> 7% with effect from tomorrow, over a period of 13 year. That's more than 100% inflation just over a decade! What's next? For drivers like me, ERP will rise, private car park vendors all around Singapore will increase rates. COE will go down so that there will be more cars to tax (& fine) on the road. More cars means more jams, slower traffic, longer engine idling time, more fuel burnt . . . man, I am switching to motor-cycle next week.

Everything is rising except the most important thing: take home pay. Well, at least that's my least concern since I have shed my corporate employee outfit & join the ranks of the self-employed. With the exceptions of bankers (who get pay rise recently), most of my friends (who are in the wrong line at the wrong time) do not see an increase in the amount they’re getting. In fact some of them have to bite the bullet & get a pay cut to maintain their jobs. Sad, but true.

Of course, we heard that a lot of housing agents are making it big recently. How not to? A recent 5500 sq ft condo unit in downtown was sold at a record $31 million, making it the most expansive unit to be transacted at more than $5600 per sq ft! Even that buyer was smart enough to save the 2% from the GST hike!

Okay lah, I am going to sell my humble 5-room HDB next week, switch to real estate as a real estate agent, sell my car, get a new motor-cycle, open a new bank account to deposit whatever I can garner through these changes. Anyone wanna join me?

Memory Lane is a nice place to visit once in a while, but terrible piece of real estate to invest in.
- Joseph Isaac