Excellent Customer Service – Moen

After blogging about this musician’s horrible customer service experience with United Airlines, I am happy to blog about something wonderful. So let me blog about my Moen experience. Specifically,

Moen Lifetime Warranty: All Moen faucets come with a Lifetime Warranty against leaks, drips and finish defects.

Our house came with a Moen Faucet in the kitchen and it was leaking a little this last few days. I got my nice neighbour to take a look of the faucet and we finally figured that the water is probably leaking from some very tiny tiny cracks/gaps on the faucet wand.

And when I called Moen to try to find out how much is the replacement wand, I was very pleasantly surprised that Moen is going to send us a new replacement – Free of charge! This is what I call great customer service and standing behind ones products.

Thanks to the wonderful and nice Moen customer service agent Denise, I am a happy Moen fan! I know Moen is a great brand but my personal experience has turned it into a Lovemark for me! Check out their bathroom and kitchen collections here.

green thumbs at greengate of heaven

Last week, I discovered (to my horror) that some insects were eating our roses and rose buds! Our neighbour gave us some tips and suggested we visit greengate garden centres in South West Calgary to see what the experts may suggest to solve our problem.

When we got to greengate, we were amazed by the many beautiful flowers and plants. greengate looks like a heaven for green thumbs! (see more flowers and plants at the end of this blog entry)

And when I asked a staff for help, she suggested we talk to Troy, one of their rose experts. Upon seeing pictures of the bugs that were eating our roses, Troy immediately identified that they are Rose curculio (also here and here). Tory then suggested a things we need to do to try to handle the bugs, without using chemicals and even without buying anything from the store! (see these pages) Troy suggested hopefully those methods should work and we can check with him again if our problems get much worst and he has other things we can try.

Before we left, we saw a copy of gardensense, a 100+ pages booklet full of good flowers and plants information published by greengate, and a friendly and helpful staff got us a copy to bring home. To gardeners, gardensense has many useful information and I am happy that I asked for and got a copy.

I don’t put ads on my blog. But when a store does thing right like greengate, I am happy to blog about how great they are. Free of charge! If you live it Calgary and love flowers and plants, visit greengate and check them out.

Shakespeare & Company, Paris

What a lovely quote,

BE NOT INHOSPITABLE TO STRANGERS
LEST THEY BE ANGELS IN DISGUISE

[HT: Shirley & the lovely movie Before Sunset]

Wikipedia-bio of George Whitman here. More photos here.

Best Job in the World – And now, it is also the Best Advertisement in the World!

Best Job in the World? Many people around the world think so. Congrats to Briton Ben Southall.

And now, after so many newspapers, TV shows and radio programs have given tons and tons of free air time, I am declaring (along with many others) the “Best Job in the World” campaign is one of the Best Advertisement campaign in the World!!!

And we had so much fun watching it. We need more ads like this where we willingly watch an ad!

P.S. Now, it will be interesting to see what Ben does on the island in the next six months.

2009 Woodstock of Capitalism

My two good economist friends told me I am too uncritical of Warren. My reply is I might appear to them (and others) that I am “too uncritical” but deep down, there are times for admiration and there are times for being critical. I think the trick is to be admiring and critical at the same time.

The 2009 Woodstock of Capitalism is tomorrow, and there will be 6 hours of live Q&A on anything shareholders ask. How cool is that!!!

P.S. I’ve sent in my questions for Warren to the reporters. Will see if my question get picked or similar questions get asked. It should be fun if it get picked.

David Mirvish Books – Thanks & Goodbye

I am really sorry to hear that David Mirvish Books had closed its doors after 38 glorious years.

For the first two years of my life in Canada, I lived steps away from Honest Ed’s and David Mirvish Books. I remember carrying bags of grocery walking the less than two blocks from Honest Ed’s to my rented room during my student days. And since DM Books is so close and I love books, I often went into the book store just to browse books. As a poor student, I couldn’t afford most of the books so I often wait for its yearly Boxing Day sales to hunt for great books on bargain price. All of these book are still treasured by me as theys have opened my eyes to many different worlds.

Here are four of the treasured books listed here, in memory of my great time at DM Books,

1. Life Style (Light Blue silky cover) by Bruce Mau (with Bruce’s autograph)
2. I. M. Pei: A Profile in American Architecture by Carter Wiseman
3. Nagel: The Art of Patrick Nagel
4. Grand Design: The earth from above by Georg Gerster

DM Books, Thanks for the great times and wonderful memories.

Our collective hypocrisy (Susan Boyle vs. Ellen DeGeneres)

Hi John,

I really enjoy your Globe and Mail article “Britain’s Got Talent and our collective hypocrisy“. Very well analyzed and written even though I’ve drawn a different conclusion than you. For example, you wrote (emphasis and link added),

“See, the Boyle phenomenon is well and good, but the problem with it is that it reveals our collective hypocrisy about reality TV, beauty and talent.”

I would have said,

The Boyle phenomenon is wonderful because the unintended benefits of it is that it reveals our collective hypocrisy about reality TV, beauty and talent.

You wrote,

“Why on earth do you think every supposedly serious crime drama on prime-time TV features a young woman in a tight top who is obliged to run at least once an episode, just so her swaying bosom becomes the focal point on the screen? Because broadcasters study what we want and give it us — youth and beauty.“

[K: I totally agree!!!]

“In the Boyle case, though, the true irony is that it’s possible we have been expertly manipulated. There is something far too slick and staged about the clip of Boyle on Britain’s Got Talent. Simon Cowell is one the great Svengalis of popular music. The idea that Cowell was completely taken aback by Boyle’s voice is simply too far-fetched.“

[K: I think articles like yours will help inoculate the general TV viewing public of all the manipulations by TV/film producers. As "manipulations" should be assumed in all cases. But I am willing to differentiate manipulations that are awful and pointless in nature to other ones that are "nicer" and more "constructive" (or at least less destructive).]

And John, you concluded with (emphasis added),

“And every time Ellen DeGeneres grins and says, “Inner beauty is important. But not nearly as important as outer beauty!” we know we agree. We know it’s hypocritical but we enjoy the joke. Now we will delude ourselves that we believe in inner beauty, too. At least in certain cases, like when the person has a great voice and deserves a break in the showbiz racket. We’ve probably been hoodwinked into this. We are hypocrites. We are idiots.“

Now John, you are being too harsh again. There is nothing “too wrong” to be hoodwinked into something once in a while. Ultimately, we are all humans, and we need “hopes”, “aspirations”, and “dreams”. There are so much more horrible reality TV out there on the tube and in pilot and would you rather have more of those?

And yes John, we are hypocrites, and we are idiots. So what? Get used to it!!! If on the journey of life, we are always “perfect”, how boring would that be?

Regards,
Kempton

P.S. While you trashed CBC’s “Dragons’ Den” mistakenly when it first came out in 2006 and I pointed out your flawed analysis. It is my pleasure to write you a nice email when I see you write sometime insightful and enjoyable.

P.P.S. While I won’t defend things blindly (including Dragons’ Den), I hope you don’t dislike Dragons’ Den as much now. Now that it is a popular and money making show, there are things that bugs me very much in Dragons’ Den. But I take the good and the bad, and on balance, there are much more good than bad.

Susan Boyle & Jian Ghomeshi taught us making a viral video is easy, it just takes …

Making a viral video is easy, it just takes talent, luck, plus a life time of hard work.

Here are two examples: Susan Boyle and Jian Ghomeshi.

Susan Boyle – Singer – Britains Got Talent 2009 (click to view video here)

(news: Guardian, Telegraph, NYDaily, BBC, ABC)

As some has said, “Chance Favors the Prepared Mind“, and Susan Boyle and Jian Ghomeshi both had grabbed their chances with their prepared minds. Congrats and good luck.

Jian Ghomeshi interviews Billy Bob Thornton

P.S. Now that we can potentially command the attention of the world in days or hours, what will you do if you get the chance? How will you handle the attention?

Super man flies (for real)

English: Ueli Gegenschatz explains the hows and whys of wingsuit flying using his squirrel suit to fly at 100+ MPH。

Chinese: Ueli Gegenschatz說明他如何使用”squirrel suit”飛(wingsuit fly)每小時100+英里。留意短片在5分50秒Ueli的示範。

Congrats Dr Shan Muk Lam – Respected Writer, Journalist, Outlier

“A good newspaper, I suppose, is a nation talking to itself.” – Arthur Miller

When my friend forwarded me the wonderful and well deserved news of Mr. Shan Muk Lam (林行止) being awarded an honorary Doctor of Social Sciences degree, I immediately thought of the above quote.

Congrats Mr. Lam.（Click here for the Chinese version of this article. 這篇文章的中文版在這裡。 ）

Here is an excerpt of the information and citation at HKU (emphasis added),

Dr Lam founded the Hong Kong Economic Journal in 1973 and the Hong Kong Economic Journal Monthly in 1977. For 25 years, he wrote a daily column, ‘Politics and Economics Review’, in which he analysed Hong Kong and international affairs. Dr Lam’s articles are widely acclaimed for being objective, insightful and well-argued. Since 1997, ‘Lam Hang Chi’s Column’ has seen him writing about an even wider range of subjects, including economic theories that interest him, and which he hopes the reading public will find educational and interesting too. His writing has been anthologized into over 100 books in Taiwan, Hong Kong and the Mainland. Dr Lam was awarded an OBE in 1991 and an honorary degree from Lingnan University in 1999.

In recognition of his contributions to the journalism sector in Hong Kong, HKU will confer upon him the degree of Doctor of Social Sciences honoris causa.

Citation

I believe that Mr Lam Shan Muk will be the first illegal immigrant to be awarded an honorary doctorate by this University! Since his unconventional arrival, Mr Lam has, of course, risen to become one of Hong Kong’s most famous and respected writers and journalists. Of the profession of journalists, Warren Buffet wrote:

`The smarter that journalists are, the better off society is. For, to a degree, people read the press to inform themselves and the better the teacher the better the student body’.

Through his writing Mr Lam Shan Muk has proved himself a remarkably able teacher and Hong Kong society, together with his Mainland and Taiwanese readers, have greatly benefited over many years from his enlightening editorials and articles.

Joe Schlesinger

Congrats to Mr. Joe Schlesinger in receiving a well-deserved lifetime achievement award from the Canadian Journalism Foundation. I have the pleasure of watching some of Joe’s reports over the years and fully enjoyed them. Congrats Joe for a job well done.

Whats in Facebook’s TOS Pandora’s Box? – Thank you Suzie White

Many things in life is not as simple as it seems. The recent flip and flop of Facebook’s changing of it Terms of Service is an example of a Pandora’s Box that is now opened and has some serious implication.

For Facebook, it has been forced to take the high road and created a Facebook group for concerned users to help draft a “Facebook Bill of Rights and Responsibilities”. So the genie is now out.

More interestingly, this Fox news article is reminding us the Terms of Service we may have agreed to already if we are users of gmail, LinkedIn, Monster.com, Apple iTune, YouTube, etc. It will not surprise me if some of these services’ TOS will eventually be tackled and forced to change some draconian provisions. Strategically, since Facebook has already invoked the high ideals of a “Bill of Rights”, it makes sense to sort out the TOS with Facebook first. Like other negotiations, whatever Facebook set as a standard can be easily used as a benchmark to try to get compliances with other companies.

In the upside down world of social network. The straw that broke the camel’s back may end up helping the camel gains strength to lift the world and teach users around the world to organize and help change “routine”/”standard” industry practice.

A friend suggested these kind of draconian provisions are not new and users have been agreeing to them for years. I thought about this a little. I suppose my reply is US had slavery for years, and then “suddenly” the practice of slavery become unacceptable to some. In our social network age, the original post that pointed out the TOS issue became a lighting rod which focused all the negative attentions onto Facebook and forcing it to address the problem. But you see, with Facebook’s initiative to draft a “Facebook Bill of Rights and Responsibilities”, people around the world have been taught an important lesson of the power within them.

Call me naive, Suzie White, Corporate Counsel for Commercial Transactions, should be credited and thanked for opening Facebook’s Pandora’s Box and triggering an avalanche of change. It is about time the extreme and draconian provisions of these TOS be removed/rephrased/reworded. Again, it is paradoxical that an act to maximize a private corporation’s legal protection may have launched a movement to reduce corporations’ legal protections to a necessary (and minimum?) level.

P.S. Some entrepreneurs or business investors may be wondeing what all the big fuss about TOS. And how dare “customers” are complaining about things like TOS when they are not even paying a cent for these great services.

Prada Economics

I came up with the idea for Prada Economics while writing my Panda Economics – Lessons from 看熊猫 & 红烧熊猫.

The study of Prada Economics is a study and discussion of the love & hate and the “prices” people pay for international fashion brands like Prada, Gucci, and Louis Vuitton in Hong Kong.

While I think these brands/lovemarks have been popular in some circles of the rich and famous for many years but the pathological obsession and blind lust and admirations of these famous brands by young school girls to ladies of all ages is a more recent phenomenon.

The almost benign form of “admiration” by purchasing fake brand name handbags with prominently displayed logos to enhance ones’ image has a price. In fact, for some girls and ladies, these fake bags may be their toy-cigarettes and simulate-cocaine that trains their minds to view these brand name expensive goods as a total-representation of their beings and self-worth. Unfortunately, I’ve also read reports of some extreme cases where young school girls were selling their youth and sex to older men so that these innocent girls can earn the thousands of dollars needed to buy these latest brand names handbags and shoes, etc.

For the working ladies of Hong Kong (especially those in the business district of Central), brand names expensive handbags, shoes, and clothings are almost like uniforms that formed a de facto dress code. While I respect these working ladies’ freedom to to spend their hard-earned money on anything they wish or desire, I submit some of these ladies may have unwitting have these material goods as a measuring stick of their social standing and self-worth and I think this approach can be detrimental to their ultimate growth as a woman.

I wander if the schools (the equivalent of grade 1 to 13) in Hong Kong (including teachers and school principals) are working with parents in Hong Kong to try to reverse the tides of materialism and blind lust and admirations of luxury brand names in Hong Kong? Ultimately, has Hong Kong lost a few  generations of girls and boys in the battle of blind lust and admirations of luxury brands?

Here is one of the quotes I love,

“The most beautiful make-up of a woman is passion. But cosmetics are easier to buy.”
- Yves Saint Laurent, Fashion Designer

Here is my take.

A complex set of qualities like smarts, smiles, looks, wits, caring nature, gentility, insights, etc makes a woman charming and attractive. But designers handbags are easier to buy.

Brands/lovemarks like Prada, Gucci, and Louis Vuitton have their places in the world. But in the current twisted value system of Hong Kong, it pains my soul to see generations of HongKongers being engulfed by the tidal waves of blind lust and worship of expensive brands like Prada, Gucci, and Louis Vuitton etc.

In my humble opinion, the high prices (especially the non-monetary prices) are too high to pay for these brands. As a former resident of Hong Kong, I can’t do anything but I can only hope there will be movement to change Hong Kong for the better. Someone has to start it. If you live in Hong Kong and are in position start the change, why not?

HSBC at CYVR, CYYZ, EGLL, RJAA (40+ airports in 17 countries worldwide)

Interesting to see HSBC created a program to brand itself at 40 airports worldwide including Vancouver (CYVR), Toronto (CYYZ), Heathrow (EGLL), and Narita (RJAA). I like the idea and the exposure this campaign will give HSBC. Nice job in giving us the impression that it is “the world’s local bank“.

As an aside, I think HSBC can be considered as one of the first banks that come clean about its mortgage loan problems as I blogged in Feb 2007 and they seemed to be willing to work with their suffering customers as I blogged in July 2008. It will be interesting to see what kind of results HSBC will report in early March, 2009.

Again, nice campaign to project the image of “the world’s local bank“.

We

The dance rehearsal video.

HT: AdAge’s “What T-Mobile’s ‘Dance’ and Ikea’s ‘Du’ Teach Us About Messaging” (emphasis added),

There is a recent trend for brands to go for this more personal language. Even the biggest German social campaign — an initiative of a number of the biggest German companies — says: “Du bist Deutschland.” This would have been a great issue not long ago, as it would have been considered “improper language.” A different — but very exciting — “We” approach is the much-discussed T-Mobile viral, which is taking the “We” beyond family into a completely new field of social interaction.

Frank Gehry talks about his first Canadian work

From CBC, an exclusive interview with Frank Gehry, who’s first Canadian work opens to the public next week (wmv video).

*******

Nov 11, 2008 Update: Here is Susan Abbott’s experience of her first visit.

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Found this Charlie Rose interview with Henri Cartier-Bresson.

I just love the chat. Highly recommended if you love some of these photos by Henri.

The hatred (or love) for Jamie Oliver?

From Guardian, “Why the hatred for Jamie Oliver? His ideas are pukka“

Justin Trudeau

Justin, Congrats for winning a seat in the riding of Papineau. It is nice to see you follow the footsteps of your father. I am sure you know a lot during the years by your father’s side and you will learn the ropes quickly.

Congrats, Looking forward to seeing you speak in the House.

“Reason alongside Passion.”

The FLICK OFF Express – Love it

Check out the FLICK OFF Express.

Rally against climate change.

Love it.

Instant Lovemark for me.