My Empty Soul

Let's say I'm a bit "emo".

I was called up by Yuan Tian to take charge a talent time section in the Rainbow Junior Choir Group. Well, not exactly talent time, but asking me to perform a dance. (Yuan Tian, say so-la... you want me to dance, not organising a talent-show contest... hahahaha XD)

Bad news. Yesterday I played football and thus injured my leg badly. Blame my stupidity for play barefoot whereas others wearing football boots. Ouch ouch ouch. So, I asked Yuan Tian's permission to perform a piano recital, although I have no piano to practise at home. Permission granted.

After that, I followed my brother to the Bunka Kaikan in Cheras to get used to the digital piano in the dorm over there.

My eyes became wet when I tried playing a song.

After six stupid months of my piano's absent (sent to charity because "no place to put at the new house"), finally I could get to touch the keys of a piano. It was really overwhelming to me when I started to play Pachelbel's Canon. So many memories of my piano rushed through my mind. Some were sweet, some were bitter. My piano was my most trusted companion during my childhood. Every time I went into depression, I would calmed myself just by playing. Most of my composed song have its' stories of its' own.

I continued playing the piano for the next two hours until a lady came in, prayed for 20 minutes, then went to sleep. I decided it's time to stop.

This morning, I introduced the origins of the piece "Pachelbel's Canon". Amidst the quiet audience, I started playing. I just let go everything I know. After the song, the juniors called out for an encore. I decided to play my own composed piece titled "My Final Farewell". This is my first time performing my own composed piece.

This time, I let go even more, literally. I'm afraid I have shorten the life span of the digital piano.

I'm almost going to cry at the end of the song, but the cheers from the juniors interrupt my tears glands, thus no tears in my eyes (whew, no embarrassment). If you knew why I composed this song, maybe you will understand why I almost cried.

Now back home, I missed my old companion. I longed for a piano. I will just wait.

Worked in PC Fair 2007

It was somewhere in the month of March. Chee Hoe found a post in the forum: "PC Fair promoters wanted". I thought it was a bad idea, since it's from a speaker company named Edifier and the pay was only RM60 per day plus commission. In the end, I used Chee Hoe's forum account to sign up for the job.

Few days later, I got a suspicious missed call... wait, It's the guy in the forum!!! ARGH!!! (Quickly call back)

*Relief* I got the interview.

During the interview, I met Marcus, the interviewer and the distributor of Edifier (Later, our supervisor). He seems worried because everybody at the interview (including me and Chee Hoe) are VERY quiet. Such ironic, imagine promoters in silent mode as the speakers blast behind them. Marcus was picturing the embarrassment. He even says that he does not want "under-age" people (he meant me and Chee Hoe). We both already lost hope. To make matters worse, Chee Hoe's car got fined RM50 for parking at the side of the playground. What a beautiful day.

Few weeks later, I got the call from Marcus. So is Chee Hoe (last minute call incident just like MIFF). We got the job.

The day before the first day of work, I really got nothing to do. So, I made a decision on the spot right after I thought of it. Get my hair dyed.

Can't see the colour? Darn, my RM60 not worth it.

First day of work was simple. All we need to do was carrying the boxes from the truck to the booth in the hall. The booth is still under construction, so we have to delay a bit before we can shift it behind the booth. Everybody is a stranger to each other. Marcus wants us to help each other in promoting and selling. So, you can imagine his frustration. We were quite quiet too throughout the day. That makes Marcus' blood pressure increase. He wants people who are cheerful and talkative, not a bunch of guys who just nod their head when answering a question.

Next day, it's the first day of the fair.

One row of speakers are blasting through our ears. Now we know why Marcus was worried. Everyone adapted into the situation easily. Well, I did not. I only managed to sell two unit of speakers on the first day. It was very disappointing to me. My legs were already numb, my voice slowly become a croak, my mind is full of frustration. Luckily, Marcus went up to me and reassured me, "First day like that one lah...". But seeing other promoters managed to sell more than 10 units make me want to slap myself.

Second day, I finally got into the mood of selling. Marcus mentioned something during the morning briefing that rescued me from frustration. "Just keep talking, don't stop, or else it will be the I-look-at-you-and-you-look-at-me situation. This will make them walk away." I put the advice into good use. Result: sold 5 sets. Not bad compared to the day before. But still, my concentration was distracted by other promoters who always asked each other how many they sold. I could hear them saying 9, 10, 13, 15 etc., etc.... *Sniff* *Sniff* By the end of the day, we all sold a total of 259 units, 1 more unit to our target sales. The boss was kind to considered that we have reached our target. So, we got RM15 as our incentive.

Third day was what I called fun.

The crowd was really massive, which became the advantage to us. As the crowd slowed down, I tried to bring people into the booth. I also realized that talking to customers need skills and confidence, because customers can sensed it and therefore make a decision to buy or not. I can say that I was really eccentric, talking with emotion, hand movement became a weapon of getting sales, smiling at every second. The sales I made was so many that I lost count. I think I roughly made more than 25 sales. Sometimes I get help from other promoters to convince the customers, there are times when I help others too. All the sales I made are from hard work (defined as talking and talking and talking until the sales are closed). Each customer I made conversation with were as long as 30 minutes average. So, closing a sale was a big relief.

There were many issues where customer would say "Let me take a look around" to a promoter and later come back to the booth and asked another promoter to close a sale. Which means the commission will go the the latter, not the former. But we all brushed aside that issue (maybe I was a bit angry when it happens to me) because we were supposed to help each other. It doesn't matter who got the customer, but whether he wants to buy it that matters. I praised every promoter for not being selfish, but keep helping each other to the end.

At the end of the day, the total sales closed are 315 units, 5 more units to our sales target. Our boss made us all happy by giving us incentive of RM20. We all got a free earphone and the T-shirts are not required to be given back. Wow. That made us all really high. Marcus thanked us all for not disappointing him. I should be thanking him for the experience.

Edifier's M360. I looked darn sexy with it hanging at my ears.

Edifier's T-Shirt exclusive for PC Fair 2007. I will be proud wearing it.

The experience as a promoter in the Edifier booth was really exciting. From a very deprssed mode to the maximum dopamine count in the brain. I met many friends who worked side by side with me. Hoping that the next PC Fair, I will have the chance to work under Edifier again.

By the way, I loved Edifier's M3300, M2300, S2000, S5.1MK2...