BELLAMYBUDIMAN

One of the strange things that I have to live with everyday is the fact that I sneeze every time I ate chocolate. This is true, and I couldn’t even remember when was the first time I had this reaction. And yes, I know that it is strange. Who the hell sneezes over chocolate? Of course that didn’t stop me from eating it, although I always assumed that it was a non-lethal allergy.

I somehow had the urge to Google this up earlier to see if this is in any way, scientifically explainable. Then I came across this article. I was relieved that I’m not the only one.

The condition is called a photic sneeze reflex, which is also the explanation why some people sneeze when looking into the sun (I do, too, except that it is not every time). There is no known cure to this, and it is apparently genetic in nature, not that it’s life-threatening. Then I also realized that this could also be the explanation behind why I sneeze after taking a shower, something that my Dad seemed to exhibit as well. So yeah, it is genetic.

Finally there’s something logical behind the mystery I tried to solve for years! Now I can proudly say that this is scientifically acclaimed! The same situation appeared back then when Arleen and I were debating that contagious yawns are not scientifically explainable. Unfortunately, I lost the debate.

I just don’t know why this seems like a national-wide plague in automotive service centers, but it seems that everyone that is working there doesn’t seem to know what they’re doing. Back when I’m still using the Avanza, when I needed a new synchronizer ring replacement, the Auto 2000 spare parts officer doesn’t seem to know what a synchronizer ring is, and in fact, he asked me, “Itu di bagian mananya ya, Pak?” Awesome.

Today, my friend Taja and I met the same situation in Ford Jaksel with our Fiestas. The story goes like this, Taja’s Fiesta cannot connect to the iPhone and have songs playing in the car without connecting it with this cable:

It has to be connected to the car via USB and the AUX port at the same time, while mine works perfectly with a normal iPod USB cable. Coincidentally, I was there to claim a broken windshield seal rubber, and he was there to make them fix this annoying USB cable problem. On his first attempt, the tech said that every single Fiesta is like that, and people need to purchase this cable from them for 500k. Although it’s a fact that many of the first Fiestas in the country are experiencing this problem, this is just simply bull crap.

We then went comparing our cars side by side, and proved that the normal iPod USB cable connection worked flawlessly in my car. A truly on-your-face moment for the tech, and Mr. Schmuck seems to feel that he’s not the smartest guy anymore, beaten by a couple of customers, and proving that his “cable solution” is in fact, a dumb solution. He then went to ask me on what software did I install in my car. Software? It’s been like that since day one, and it is funny since Taja’s Fiesta is newer than mine, there’s no reason why it has an older firmware. However, even after “diagnosing” my car for “special settings”, the tech can’t seem to answer this.

After a few more minutes without answers from the tech, I decided to leave and told Taja to fix the car himself. I then told the tech to go to this site, download the firmware update, and then he can probably help other customers in the future. Basically a polite version of “You’re an idiot, you should know this. You’re the goddamned tech.” The Ford Mobile Connectivity website has been circulating around in various local and foreign forums and it fixes exactly that problem. The tech even tried applying the settings file he copied from my car to Taja’s. As predicted, it wasn’t really a spectacular result.

The fix is actually easy, and Taja can do this by himself for probably less than an hour (which he did at home and succeeded), but that is not the point. Authorized technicians should know better about the cars they sell, no? This proves that service providers in this country has very little knowledge in the products they sell. This is stupid. Imagine the cost that uninformed customers have to pay just to fix a minuscule problem like this, 500k for a stupid cable that doesn’t fix the actual problem? We can now conclude that if you want to have something fixed, then try fixing it yourself. It actually works better most of the time.

No, it’s not a major incident, nor an incident that causes damage to my car whatsoever. The story goes like this. I went to Shell Karawaci to top up my fuel, left the car there and told the attendant that I want it to be filled up until it reaches the nozzle sensor. Then I went to the restroom.

When I returned, there was this huge pool of gasoline underneath my car. The supervisor in charge told me that the nozzle sensor didn’t register itself, and the fuel leaked out. I suspected that there was around 3 liters of fuel down there.

I then gave the guy my credit card to pay for the fuel, and the supervisor said that everything was free of charge. It was a pure incident, and they don’t know how much fuel exactly went in to the tank, and how much was wasted. So even when I insisted, the supervisor insisted back that it was free fuel day for me today.

I must say that this is the first time this thing ever happened to me, and I really do admire the supervisor’s swift decision making when handling incidents like this. Incidentally or not, should this happened in Pertamina, I’m pretty sure that they would ask me to pay for every bit of fuel that’s on the floor.

Good job, Shell. Nice to see a company here with good service.

Yes, as we all know, we’re pretty much familiar with the text message above. Appearing randomly and annoyingly at times that made us want to smash our phones with rage (although it’s not its fault). Today, I received an SMS from Mbak Nisa, an installment loan salesperson. I usually just curse the goddamned salesperson right away, but I decided to do something different today. I was in a good mood.

Coincidentally, I am currently (and seriously) playing Tiny Tower. My tower is quite high, and today I just spend 200k worth of credits to build a new floor, and I’m around 50 tower bux short until I’m able to upgrade my tower’s elevator. AND YES, I NEED TO STAY IN THE COMPETITION. That is what Game Center is all about. Therefore… I replied the SMS and Mbak Nisa went on with the conversation…

Unfortunately, Mbak Nisa didn’t reply for quite some time. Feeling impatient, I went on to fire another text message on the other number she provided me with:

After a while, I think Mbak Nisa realized that I was making fun of her, so she stopped replying. No fun, Mbak Nisa, no fun at all. I was expecting that you’d be a joker with a higher degree of integrity. I mean, don’t you play Tiny Tower? Everyone does, Mbak Nisa! Do you realize the complexity of this matter and the implications to national security?!?!

So my reply has not been answered yet, and the question remains:

“APAKAH BAPAK GEORGE BAKER INI SEORANG PEMANGGANG ROTI?”