Last Tuesday, I got a very rare treat (?). I was invited (under false pretenses I might add) to a seminar trying to sell me to the concept of network markets. It was by a group of people called “Network 21” who supposedly have a corporate partner in Amway.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against these people, I’m sure they’re enjoying themselves looking for sucke-I mean clients, and convincing them to buy Amway toothpaste and shampoo and vitamins and god-knows-what. I wish them well. What I’m particularly annoyed at is the guy who invited me there, a guy from my university who I don’t even know, supposedly to talk about a “career opportunity.”
Hello!!! I’m an engineer, why the hell would I want to sell toothpaste!
“Oh no," he says, “That was my mistake at first. I thought they were going to tell me to sell door-to-door. All you have to do is refer people to our products."
“Excrement!" I wanted to shout in his face, “You get paid if you convince people to buy your products? I think that’s why it’s called selling!"
“Here, why don’t you take this tape before you decide?", he goes on. “After all, as an engineer, you can’t make a decision without information!"
Yeah right, and let you waste another hour-and-a-half of my life? (In addition to the two hours I had to listen to the talk that is.) “It’s not for me," I tell him, not wanting to be rude.
“Why not?" he persists, “How can you know if you don’t listen to the tape?" I wanted to smack him around a bit right there and then.
“Hello! There’s a part of my brain that goes screaming ‘Nooooo!!!!’ if I don’t wanna do something, that’s how I know! If I was the type of person who enjoys gathering people and convincing them to buy expensive toothpaste, then that’s what I’d be doing." Grrr. I left Megamall quite riled up after that. I had lost two hours, possibly of sleep, and I still had work the next day.
They’re lucky I didn’t have homicidal tendencies and a gun.
- Yesterday was the anniversary of Philippines Independence. On June 12 1898, Emilio Aguinaldo first raised the Philippine flag at his home in Malolos, Cavite, officially declaring independence from Spain. At that time the Republic of the Philippines, the first such government in Asia, was born. And today is a legal holiday ^_^
- Random linkage: Click here if you enjoy being tortured by puzzles. I’m currently at the second gate. It has annoying BGM though.
- I got a pleasant surprise yesterday. Former members of the FFF, disgusted by the tyrannical ways of a mad dictator banded together to form a new mailing list, inconveniently named the AntiFFF. (Inconvenient because, well, the group would be stuck with that name forever, always living under the shadow of needing to be better than the FFF was. Well, maybe that’s a good thing in some ways.) Anyway, they’re a fine bunch of guys, the same people who came together at the FFF’s peak.
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