From Bandung with Love

So, I've been home for almost a week now.

The Recount:

It actually had been kind of odd. I had known for a little over a week that I would be visiting the family for a little over 2 weeks. Because of the insane workload, the prospect of 17 days for doing nothing had seemed almost like an impossible thing that I neglected to prepare for it and or even get excited about it until I was actually at the airport waiting for my flight home. In effect, I forgot to go shopping for gifts for my loved ones. Well, they just have to be happy to have me at home, that's the gift.

So... I'm here, finally. It's been so great not to be doing anything nor have any concerns in the world and to be listening to news in Indonesian.
When TV programs in Japan always evolve around food, TV shows in Indonesia is an abundant collection of celebrity news and talk shows. We even have Oprah on TV. It's very interesting.

Haven't done or had anything dramatic at all in the past 6 days. I've been sleeping in, a lot. And for a change I'm listening to noises at home that I don't personally create, such as domestic arguments between members of the family, in a really odd way, it gives a feeling of contentment.
My favorite afternoon time is bugging my snoozer of a sister to hop in the car and patrol some local food vendors around the town and balloon ourselves up with many different kind of local delicacies.

We've decided that our annual homecoming will embrace the usual culinary theme. Everyday we will eat the food that is 1) unavailable in our resident locations, 2) a lot of hassle to make, 3) cost next to nothing to buy.
Our daily agenda evolves around food. It's the best thing in the world.

Since we cancelled our trip to Bali, we won't be visiting any 'exotic' destination. The locale will be some places or restaurants in the area.. so for the remaining 11 days, my entries will be, just like the theme of the visit, on food.

So, next in our agenda: Mum's birthday yesterday right on Boxing day. We had a small party inviting our North Carolina neighbors. We will be discussing the food we consumed at the party. They were awesome.

Call me on Friday, please!

I am jumping up and down with joy, with bells in tow, trumpets and saxophone blazing loud, taiko drums beating like thunder in my heart.Red Rudolph-like dot on my nose, doing the rain dance.

My three weeks of reporting from hell is finally over!!

I'm soooo happy.

I can get reacquainted with my old friend... Sleeping. How are you my friend?

And... my 5 seasons of Alias DVD set and Twenty-Four season 5 DVD set have just arrived from Amazon. I am going to hybernate.

Taking a day off tomorrow. With all due respect, shoo away, my friends. I will not be answering any calls. For 1 day, I don't exist.

I shall resurface again from Friday onwards - with fully charged holiday spirits!!!

You say Bono, I say Vertigo!

"Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaagggghhhhh! In the name of loooooveeeeee....!!!"

Thanks to Deenster's impromptu invitation, I finally got a U2 experience. Deenster and I met up at Tokyo station to catch a train that would take us to Saitama Super Arena, where U2 had their Vertigo tour. Our festival area tickets said BL 2000 something. We were wondering why we were advised to get to the concert place at 6 PM when the ticket said that concert time was 7:30 PM, only to understand as we got there.
We had to line up, along with about 4,000 other people (strictly for the festival area, others are already with seating arrangement), so that latter on we could fight for the furthest front area as possible. Gathering the fact that our number is 2000 something, there were literally 2000 more people in front of us. The whole line looks like a labyrinth. We could not make the head nor tail of it.

The huge arena was packed with U2 fans, hardcore and mediocre.
Bono and the gang finally came out at 8 PM. They were late, but it was well worth it. Very energetic performance. Very communicative attitude were displayed. You must applaud Bono's persistent attempt to say some thing Japanese. Owing to his non-existent sense of Japanese pronunciation, we had no idea what he was saying, but of course just the fact that he was saying something was enough to make Deenster, me and about 10,000 other people cheered in unison.

I have to be honest that I didn't (and still don't) know that many U2 songs. I shamelessly admit to Deenster that my knowledge of U2 stretched as far as "With or Without You"; but I was more than happy to be there with Deenster and in my sister's spirit. Both Deenster and my sister are hardcore U2 fans, so it was very important for them to be there.
Once the band started playing I quickly recognized the songs in their collection which made it a whole lot easier to mingle with the jumping crowd. Everybody tranced in unison, dancing, singing, jumping about and generally were having a great time. The coolest thing of all was that we were allowed to bring our camera and since I always have a camera in my bag, I started taking pictures like a mad photographer.

U2 means Bono and Bono means Amnesty International. The concert was heavily promoting the "No More War" slogan, human right and other world peace related spirit. Nearing the end, Bono had everybody from the audience pulled out their cell phone and waved it around. That was really neat, it felt like you're in those vigilant times with 1,000 candles lit up, except that they're all lights from the many cell phones.

All in all, it was a super fun time. The only catch was that the fact that Deenster and myself are females of average height; and the same comment applied to Bono and his band members. So, of the 2 hours we were there, we could see very little of them physically, the rest was from the giant screen above the stage.
It was a very expensive TV experience. haha.... But, Deenster, don't you worry - I had a FANTASTIC TIME!

We ARE women of average height!


Our view was mostly restricted to the large screen


But, what is most important is that we had a FANTASTIC time!

A Jarful of Pebbles...

I have this jar thing going on where I collect pebbles for each time somebody asked me what the difference between marketing and market research is. And now that jar is full of pebbles (about 100 or so), so that means I have to, for once and for all, share with you what the fundamental difference is.

On average, people seem to think that my job is a marketer who makes brochures and publication stuff to be used for a sales activity.
Every time somebody assumed that about my profession, I have to disappoint them with generic answers like, "Yes, a marketer's job in a nutshell is to provide the sales team with marketing materials to be used in a sales activity, that is correct, but that is not what I do."

"So, what is it that you do? Aren't marketing and market research the same thing?"

No, they are not. They are, in fact, very completely different things.

By Wikipedia definition, "Marketing" is a social and managerial function that attempts to create, expand and maintain a collection of customers. It attempts to deliver demand satisfying output through profitable exchanges.

Now, this is a very holistic way of defining "Marketing". And I don't care much for the language used here, too text-book.

In my general definition, "Marketing" can be defined as something that you do or make to increase sales and revenue for your business.

While this sounds very important and vital, this is really NOT what I do.

What I do is "Market Research".

Wikipedia has cleverly summed up what "Market Research" is all about.

Market research is the process of systematic gathering, recording and analyzing of data about customers, competitors and the market.
Market research can help create a business plan, launch a new product or service, fine tune existing products and services, expand into new markets etc. It can be used to determine which portion of the population will purchase the product/service, based on variables like age, gender, location and income level. It can be found out what market characteristics your target market has. With market research, companies can learn more about current and potential customers.

As an example of how Market Research plays an important role and help the Marketing team do their job is as the following

Client: An exotic liqueur company

Background: they want to change their logo and packaging to introduce a new brand image and new USP (Unique Selling Proposition)

Research Objectives:
1. Whether the new brand image and USP is understood by the market.
2. Whether this new brand image is a direction that is good to pursue, if it is embracing a new audience (customers)

Where Market Research comes in:
1. We provide qualitative and quantitative insights for the client company to use.
Quantitatively you speak to 500 consumers of the brand or competitive brands and evaluate their reactions to the brand image concept and USP. There is a large variety of ways to conduct this: online, telephone, street intercept or mail intercept.
Qualitatively you speak to 8 groups of people, 8 respondents and 2.5 hours in each, all consumers of the brand or competitive brands. They gather in focus groups and discuss in-depth their reactions and impressions to the brand and image concept and USP.
(On the side note, Qualitative Market Research Techniques vary a great deal, so that one example I gave is one of the methodologies that we used)

2. The data that has been gathered will be analyzed and summarized and concluded, and finally we will give some directive recommendations. This is where we are worth the money, because our reports are helping the clients take the necessary actions for the best interest of the business towards the more attractive direction.

So, in a nutshell, basically we're a bunch of nosey little smurfs.

Oh, btw, I don't do quantitative research (by personal preference). I am just a little qualitative market research analyst. No quant for me please.

Free Sweet Potato!!

Well, today I came home early to see doctor Bones (btw, his name is doctor Nakatani) for a final check-up. He said that everything is progressing as it should and he no longer expects to see me anymore, unless I decided to do something interesting again to other bones. He really said that. You really have a funny sense of humor, doctor Bones, I like you. yeah. I just don't like you that much to want to pay you a visit anytime soon.

Getting home, I decided to pay a visit to the little grocery shop down the road and spotted Mr.Tofuman with his tofu-scooter and decided to stop by to get two blocks of momen tofu for my week load. Now you'd think that one can't last a week with just getting two tofu. Well, the thing is, for the many years I've been getting my tofu at Mr. Tofuman, he always, always, always gave me extras. Sometime 1 extra, sometime 2. Today I paid for 2 and I came home with 4.5 blocks of tofu.

Moving along, I went to Mr.Hooper's Store (well, not exactly Mr. Hooper, but similar, three middle-aged guys opened this tiny little grocery shop). I needed to get some beansprout, persimmon, oranges, radish, and a bunch others.
Mr. Hooper 1, 2 and 3 are always very interested in my personal life. Everytime I go, they always ask if I was cooking dinner for a date. Another time, when I was only one-handed, they would always chop my veggies while condemning the fact that I live alone and only one-handed. Another time, they would question me over and over and over (during the 10 minutes I was at their store) why could I possibly be unmarried? Why? Why? And they never stop! haha.
In anycase, I just laugh along everytime this happened. I figured that I'm just some sort of entertainment for them. That's OK. They keep me supplied, I gave them a few laughs. Just like Mr. Tofuman, they always, always, always give me something free. Today I bought lemon, they gave me free lime.
Yesterday I bought bok choy and spinach, they gave me free morning glory.
Now that the day is cooler, in Winter time, they give away free baked sweet potato to anyone who goes shopping at their store. Even in one day you go more than once, each time you are guaranteed to get a sweet potato.
As for me, sometime I'm too lazy to cook, but I want the sweet potato. So I went and chatted and we exchange some vegetable knowledge, and then they give me a sweet potato. Even when I did not buy anything. Everytime. *grin*

I love my neighborhood.

ps: I make muffins for them sometime (just in case anyone think I am taking advantage of Mr. Tofuman and The Hoopers trio...)

The Hoopers Trio

I'm so sorry, Pino...

I am ashamed of myself.

Since I started riding my scooter again a week ago, I have been feeling that the tiny scooter is not running properly. It seems like it's heavy for no reason. I checked the oil - no problem. Gas - full tank. The fuse - replaced ( but then again, it started just fine anyway).
So, this morning, for the first time in 2.5 years- I added some air to the scooter's little wheels at the gas station. The dude at the gas station shook his head and said, "You have two sorry little wheels." So he fixed them up for me and the scooter looked a little taller all of the sudden.
Oh my gosh, what a big difference!!!! The scooter is now running very swiftly and happily and... (hold your breath)... QUICKER, too!

My darling little Pino, I am so sorry for having forsaken your tires. I will never ever do that again. Ever.

Gosh, what was I thinking? That the wheels will keep themselves inflated automatically. Stupid.

I promise you, for as long as you are in my care, I will remember to check on the air pressure in your wheels.

Me and my darling little Pino