Perception of new-ness..

So I got this John Mayer album yesterday which I was convinced just came out as I haven't seen it in stores prior to this. There’s this certain excitement of knowing you’re listening to something new, possibly ahead of everyone else.

Well, a quick check in Wikipedia put a damper to that. Release date: November 2009.

Still wasn’t the worst case I’ve experienced, though. A conversation with Sarah a couple of weeks back:


CM: hey mun
Sarah: heys meng
CM: I have in my hands the new killers’ album! =D
Sarah: day and age?
CM: day & age, yeah
CM: I like it better than hot fuss somehow
Sarah: ah, i see haha, made me so excited for nothing
CM: well, it’s new to me!
Sarah: hehe


Well, I knew the album wasn’t as new as I thought but I had no idea. A quick check in Wikipedia revealed:

Release date: November 2008

Finger. On. The. Pulse.


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I also signed up for the UNICEF monthly contribution thing. Ooh, look at me, I do charity work. Nah, this isn’t about that. What I want to talk about is the fundraiser manning the booth who was a ridiculously enthusiastic hard-sell.

Among the things he said that pissed me off a little was when he used the break down to daily cost thing.

“RM 1.26 per day only. I bet that *points to my boost juice drink <which is awesome btw>* costs more than RM 1.26, right?*

Of course I realize he’s trying to put the costs in perspective but the problem I had with it was that he was putting you in a spot. It’s rude. If he compared the costs to a general glass of teh tarik, he would be saying: “The daily cost is RM1.26 which is about the cost of a teh tarik; not a lot as you can see”

When he makes a reference to something I’ve bought however, it gets a bit more personal. It’s saying “What, you can spend so much on that particular drink but you can’t contribute to our charity?”

He hardly ever touched on what is it UNICEF actually does with my money or how much of the RM38/month I’m paying is going to trickle down to the children, just about how easy it was to contribute and how little the amount was. When you strip it down, he’s getting people to sign up more through guilt than the understanding that they’re doing something meaningful.

Maybe that’s the whole idea but I just found it very off-putting. I’ve been wanting to sign up for this for a while now even before he approached me however, so I was going for it regardless of what he did or didn’t say which was kind of bad because I was validating his cheese-ball fishing tactics.