Racial Preference At The Mandarin Oriental Hotel?

This post was going to be all praise for the Mandarin Oriental hotel, until they blew it literally at the last two minutes of my visit there.

I was at an informal discussion at the hotel. I hadn’t been there prior to their renovation and I must say the place is really swanky. On entering the hotel we were greeted nicely, when I asked for the restroom the lady literally walked me to it to make sure I didn’t take a wrong turn. In general, they were courteous, polite, hospitable and everything that hotel staff should be to make you feel welcome and at home.

That is, until I was going home.

Queuing up for a taxi, Howie was in front of me, I was next, and two Caucasian men were behind me. When a cab drove up, the attendant asked Howie where he was going, skipped me (although I had indicated I was not going together with Howie), asked the two Caucasian men, and then proceeded to give the taxi to them.

Now before you say hotels have “hotel guests have priority” policies, let me show you the sign at the stand, taken with my handphone.

The text may not be clear, but it reads: Priority is given to hotel residents going to the airport.

Incidentally, the two Caucasian men were headed to South Bridge Road, not the airport.

So the question to Mandarin Oriental Hotel is: What gives? Are you polite to all guests, as long as they’re not “competing” for resources? Next time when I ask for the restroom and the lady is walking me there, if a Caucasian guest asks for new directions, will she walk off midway? I don’t think this is acceptable practice for a hotel at all.

One thing I know: it only took this incident to completely ruin any positive impression that the rest of the hotel gave, because of inconsistent service, and I’m pretty sure that I will never recommend this hotel to anyone I know visiting Singapore.

Let’s be clear that I’m not accusing the hotel policy as being racist. That clearly can be read into the situation, but I pose it as a question in the title of this post, and invite Mandarin Oriental Hotel to respond to this and clarify the situation.

Free Comic Book Day 2008 – Today!

If my Dark Tower graphic novel post hasn’t indicated already, I’m a huge comic book/graphic novel fan and have been collecting them for the last 11 years.

I know the perception is that comics are expensive (they are), so here’s a solution: Today is Free Comic Book Day (FCBD) and that means certain comics are….. free! So no investment from you at all, pick up a couple and see if you like them.

Here’s what I picked up today:

Superman, Hellboy, Cable, X-Men, Transformers and an independent comic.

Where can you get all this? I got them from G&B Comics at Bras Basah. It’s on the third floor, can’t miss it. You can check out their details (and a special FCBD sale) from their blog or check out a blog report from the Fortress of Testicular Fortitude, complete with great pics!

Also picked up today, the long-awaited X-Men: Messiah Complex hardcover. The online community generally said this has been the best crossover since the 90’s, so I’m really looking forward to it. A 13 part story for $40. Kinda expensive, but awesome.

Finally, full disclosure: I recommend G&B because it’s the comic store I go to. I don’t get anything from recommending their store here! This is just me sharing my passion (obsession?) with comic books and hoping to get a couple of people interested.

Stephen King’s Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born

“The man in black fled across the desert…. and the gunslinger followed”

With these words I first entered the first book of Stephen King’s Dark Tower series, The Gunslinger. I picked it up last year partially because I knew Marvel was doing a graphic novel and partially because apparently a lot of the Lost mythology is inspired by the Dark Tower. I was curious.

Of the seven books I’ve read three. And today I finished the graphic novel by Marvel called The Gunslinger Born, essentially a prequel to The Dark Tower, showing the early life of Roland the Gunslinger which is referenced in the books. I have to say it’s one thing reading about his battle with Cort in the novels and actually seeing it unfold in the graphic novel. Jae Lee totally outdid himself here together with Richard Isanove’s colouring.

One thing I appreciated was the plot. It’s intricate yet simple, with compelling, distinct characters that it’s never hard to tell them apart. Of course Jae Lee’s designs helped here too. I’m sure even someone who’s never been introduced to The Dark Tower before would be able to read it and not be lost. It was nice seeing Susan Delgado who’s referenced in the books as well as Alain and Cuthbert who don’t appear in the books at all.

One thing you’ll probably need to get used to, which I had a problem with in the novels, is certain speaking patterns like Sai for sir, ka for fate/destiny, kennit for understand and what certain phrases like “you have forgotten your father’s face” mean. Although I must say it was much clearer in the graphic novel.

Final verdict: Great book, great art. I think it’s only out in hardcover now, but it’s definitely worth the cash. If not you can probably wait a couple of months for the softcover. Also, the second series is in the works right now too.

Great book. Read it. Do ya kennit?

New Ipod Touch Usage: Verifying The Truth – Rock Band Is In Singapore!

Yesterday I was walking around with Reuben talking about games. He said “Damn I want to buy Rock Band”. I said nonchalantly, “Why don’t you? It’s available what.”

He said “No it’s not”, I said “Yes it is! I read about it on a blog.” So he refused to believe me until I whipped out my ipod touch, accessed wireless@sg, got on Sheylara’s blog and showed him multiple pictures of her Rock Band set.

If this had happened today I’d have showed him the tweet from Mark:

We later realised that it was a PS3 version and not Xbox360, but that’s besides the point. Later I asked why in the world he wouldn’t believe I said Rock Band’s in Singapore and he said he didn’t have faith in my ability to distinguish between Rock Band and Guitar Hero.

I feel my ability to tell apart one guitar and one guitar, drum set and mic to be horrendously undervalued.

My First iTunes Purchase, And Why I Don’t Like Apple

I really wanted to come home and write a glowing review of my iPod touch and iTunes, but as usual with Apple, it’s not to be.

I was sitting at MacDonalds today waiting for my exam and idly trying out certain functions of my iPod touch. So the top song on iTunes is 4 Minutes by Madonna, Justin Timberlake and Timbaland, and it’s actually a pretty good song. So I decided since I have $15 in my iStore account, why not just buy a track and see how it goes.

So I got it and I was pretty with it, till I came home and tried to transfer it back to my iTunes library, only to find that I can’t unless I sync my iPod (which I hate to do).

Once again, Apple forces me to do something I don’t like and so it’s going to be unlikely I buy another song off iTunes on my iPod touch again. If I need to I’ll just get it from my desktop so at least I can transfer it easily.

ps: If you happen to know a way to do this, please let me know. I honestly hate how iTunes works so it’s possible that the function is there but I’m just unaware.

Cab Hike = Take Less Taxis

I used to be an avid taxi-taker (if that makes any sense). Until I got back from New York in December, not fully aware of the details over the fare-hike, and got shocked to my ba!!s when I saw the eventual cab fare.

So I understand that taxis are expensive to rent and all that, but I’m not sure this is really helping on the demand side because my cab habits have changed from taking cabs at least every week to a grand total of 5 cab rides this whole year. (2 because I was lazy, 2 because it made more economic sense and 1 because I was very very late).

I don’t think the issue for me is in terms of absolute cost, it’s not a lot more to pay, but rather it’s relative to the price-value offering of the bus and MRT. Previously the trade-off between taking a bus and a cab may have been $5 and 30 minutes. Now that it’s probably something like $6.50 and 30 minutes, it doesn’t always make economic sense.

So that’s me. What about you? Cab usage up? Down? No change? Let’s hear it.

Meet My Ipod Touch

Remember what happened to my Ipod screen? Well, the feedback came in and an Ipod Touch it is.

Thanks to Wanida, I got it from Apple and saved some money and I’ve been playing around with it for today and here’s what I really like:

• The screen – Wow. 3.5 inches makes a huge difference over 2.5 inches. Utterly amazing to watch videos on this thing. My flight to Canada is going to be so much more enjoyable now!
• Photos – The capability to zoom in on your photos and move them around and everything is just phenomenal. Such a great way to show photos to friends and family!
• Wifi – I tested the Wifi at home and it’s great. The way I can zoom in on certain parts of the webpage and them navigate around is really amazing. If I’m at a Starbucks and have both my phone and Ipod Touch with me, I’ll use the Touch even though my phone gets wifi too.

Un-surprisingly, I’ve used the Touch for everything but music. I do think this is the ultimate in media portability. Music, videos, tv series, podcasts, video podcasts, pictures and the internet all on a neat (but expensive) device. Next best technological purchase next to my phone and mobile broadband modem.

Oh one thing though, I’m glad the Iphone wasn’t my eventual decision for the new gadget. I had to retype my username and password for Gmail four times because I couldn’t get the darn keys right!

Check Out What Happened To My Ipod Screen

I dropped my Ipod a short distance the other day. Here’s the result:

Listening to the Official Lost Podcast

Watching Mythbusters

So as you can see it’s a little bit annoying. Normally I wouldn’t really care, but now that I’m using my Ipod for podcasts, vodcasts and video, I actually need to look at the screen. Given that I’ll be traveling to Canada for about half a year, I need something with video for long trips.

So what should I do? I can think of 3 options:

1. Get another Ipod – but that would be boring
2. Get an Ipod Touch – very nice, sexy, bigger screen but low on memory space
3. Get an Iphone – this means I only need to carry one gadget around, but the lack of a physical number pad bugs me.

Any opinions?