nuffnang.com as ming lives it

Ming's blog has moveeeddd!!!

2008-04-13T00:09:00.002+08:00

Yes folks!

I have a new blog!

The URL is www.bossming.com!

Do update your links! Thanks!

A surprise birthday gift for Nuffnang Singapore!

2008-03-21T14:52:00.005+08:00

2 days before I was due to drive up to KL for our first birthday bash, I recieved this package at our singapore office.

A presentttt!!!! I inspected the package. It was wrapped up rather cutely in a "Congratulations on your new baby!" wrapping paper. With my curiousity piqued, I proceeded to pick the wrapping apart carefully.

A rather "naughty" message greeted me once that was done. "Notice! The box contains "tools" which are VERY SEXY, VERY KINKY and VERY XXX rated!!! Proceed with caution, unsuitable for the young!"

It continued, "What you can find in the box:

(i) 6 Dildos
(ii) 15 Lubricant Tubes
(iii) 6 Penis Erection Rings
(iv) 40 condoms

You have been warned!"

Now I was interested!!! I ripped open the top, to find .... to my disappointment ..... .... ....

Cheesels, Marshmallows, Chupa Chups, and M&Ms.

WTF are my dildos and Penis Erection Rings!!!????

During christmas time, the Nuffnang KL office also recieved a care package (check out the video).

The Nuffies in penang and singapore felt so unloved, and of course green with envy! NOT ANY MORE!!! Now the penang Nuffies are alone in their envy and lack of love! Thank you Mr Anonymous!

Nuffnang Turns 1!!!! Ming's Thoughts

2008-02-26T22:55:00.020+08:00

Exactly one year ago, on February 27th 2007, at around 2am in the morning, 4 eager eyed young men (Me and Tim included) sat wide awake, hunched over their computer screens waiting for a site to go live. That site, was none other than Nuffnang.com, Asia's First Blog Advertising Community. My love, my life, my precious for the past year!

It's hard to remember the feelings that I felt that Tuesday morning, but I guess it must have been a mix of RELIEF, EXCITEMENT, TREPIDATION and JOY.

Relief that 8 months of hard work was finally bearing fruit, and all those countless sessions of planning (From business planning to website architecture to marketing), was culminating in our labour of love.

Excitement because this singular event heralded my entry into the world of entrepeneurship. People today still ask me, "Why did you start Nuffnang.com?" Well a big part of that answer lay in practicality. With graduation looming, we had a choice to make. Work for an investment bank or MNC like all my friends were doing, or take a risk, go without pay (For almost 16 months we did),invest our savings with no certainty of returns. The road less taken. Yes, the one me and tim chose, and excitement filled us not knowing what was ahead.

Trepidation. This is a feeling that often comes along with excitement. There is no way of looking ahead, and who does not fear failure? Not me, thats for sure. I feared that our website would not stand the test of time, I feared we would not have a network to sell, I feared that advertisers would not take to our idea, I feared that we would run out of money, I feared that we would let all the people around us down. So yes, there was fear.

Joy. If there is a defining moment in any person's life. It has got to be the birth of their child. Imagine a moment,when you hold your flesh and blood in your arms, when his/her shrill cry instead of piercing your ears, touches your heart. Nuffnang.com was our child, and even if it wasn't the best looking or the most technologically advanced at that point of time, we loved it with all our heart, and it gave us joy.

Our baby v1.0! We loved you then.

Our baby v1.5, we loved you a little more!

Our baby v2.0 MUACK MUACK MUACK MUACK MUACK our big babyyyy!!!

The question is what do i feel today? One year on.

4 main emotions. Pride, Confidence, Humility, and Gratitude.

Pride that today, we have not only achieved many things we set out to do, but have exceeded them.

For one, we had hoped for a modest 300 bloggers in 3 months (period), today, Nuffnang SG has close to 9,000 members, Nuffnang MY has 11,000 which makes us 20,000 strong! ZOMG! Give yourselves a round of applause fellow nuffnangers, you are all part of a big family!

Secondly, not only do we have a stable of advertisers, we have an INCREDIBLE stable of GREAT GREAT BRANDS. Brands like Nike, Nokia,Citibank, Nescafe, Disney Pictures, Honda, Motorola,Chipster, LG, Clearasil, Singapore Toursim Board, Health Promotion Board, Durex, Air Asia, TM Net, Digi, Walls, Hugo Boss, TGIF, Guiness,MPH, Tunes Hotel, M1, and more! Thank you to all the marketers who trusted us with their campaigns, and brands! We hope we have served you well, and will continue working hard for you all.

Today, we also have a vibrant community which have gone on many activities together. 3 major movie screenings in singapore alone last year, a talk/workshop, and great prizes/contests for all our members including I pods, Ds Lites, Handphones and more. Plus, the launch of our very own blog aggregator. INNIT! Our improvements to the website have also seen a community bias, and more enhancements will be coming up in that area, so stay tuned!

Our innaugural event. An exculsive screening of Rush Hour 3 for 250 bloggers!

"To blog or not to blog" Workshop/Talk.

Enchanted movie screening, 200 Bloggers!

One of our motorola Q9H winners! Randyyy!

Winners of our nike "This is love" contest, the lovely holly jean.

Confidence. Our positive and astronomical growth so far only gives me confidence that we have what it takes to move forward. We've got a solid solid base and foundation from which to grow on. And, I am excited by new partnerships that will see us grow and expand at greater pace, without compromising the qualities and values we stand for so strongly now.

These are, INTERGRITY, COMMUNITY SPIRIT, and POSITIVE INFLUENCE. For all you loyal Nuffnangers, know this. The coming months will only see the Nuffnang team working harder to maintain the incredible growth that we have experienced so far.

Humility. With our share of successes, we also had our thankfully small share of shortcomings. These experiences, taught me, tim, and the team key lessons, that we will take forward with us. These experiences have kept us humble amidst a large degree of success, and we will learn from them.

"It is on our failures that we base a new and different and better success."

Gratitude. Exactly a year ago, in my "launch" post, I ended off by acknowledging those people who had been the "wing beneath my wings". Today. That list has only grown longer. Now I know why at the oscars, the band starts playing to "shoo" winners off. Because, if they allowed a winner to thank everybody they had to thank, we'd all be alseep, and the show would never end. So I end off in the same way, but dun feel sad if your photo is not in here. THANK YOU ALL for being the wind beneath our wings.

To my business partner/2nd girlfriend, Tiam. Thanks for all the great memories! Its been a ball of a time working with you, but its been a greater pleasure growing our friendship. Today, we have a mutual understanding that few of my girlfriends can surpass! This is quite gay, but its all true. We talk to each other so much on the phone, that sometimes we even call each other accidentally! Let's see this thing through, and take on the world! We dream big! Lets roll!

To my team, Nuffnang would be nowhere without you. Huiwen, for being my dependable, favourite intern! Michelle for answering all our helpdesk enquiries so well, Lee Meng, for your loyalty and support, Tim for you know what (said too many times), Firdauz, same same. EVERYBODY lah huh ...! you guys rawk! We've made mistakes together, we'll go through them together, but from them, we'll grow stronger together. You know I mean it, when I say you guys are my second family.

My family! For doing everything that a family does and more. Moral, physical, financial support! Truthfully, where would I be today, without my dad and mum? I hate to be mushy, so you know what I want to say. I'm going to make you guys proud.

Estee, for just being there.

All the blogger friends I have made. Wendy, Kenny, Dawn, Cowboy, Leslie, Janise Peggy, Jayden, Nadia, QY, Su Ann, Jolene, Gareth, Kimberly, (And anybody I've missed out). Its been a good year, and I look forward to better times together. Stay cool people!

KIDDIES, DUN SEE ON, Kenny Sia doing an Edison! With Mr Teddy .... (Sorry Kenny, i forgot to tell you his sexual orientation).

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And of course to all my friends! You know who you are! So I won't mention names, you're probably reading this blog! Thanks guys!

Sucking too hard on your lollipop!

2008-02-26T10:14:00.003+08:00

In song of the week.

Sucking too hard on your lollipop or love's gonna get you down!

Ming predicts the next american idol! And issues a bet!

2008-02-20T23:25:00.006+08:00

Critical mass does count for something. Its all about the loong tail baby, the long tail.

I'm a great fan of American idol because it embraces the notion that from the masses you can find great great talent.

You won't find a more patriotic singaporean than me, but I'm sorry, Taufik, and Hady (Thank you for doing Singapore proud however), but you guys got a long long way to go. And I doubt we'll ever find talent like this guy right here.

I'm sitting in my room, and I've just been blown away by what a perfomance that would make me put money on this contestant.

The next American Idol is (I'm stealing Ryan's line) ....................... WITHOUT A DOUBT

DAVID ARCHULETA!!!

This guy's perfomances through the auditions have blown me away. And tonight, in the first round, I can already see him going through all the way.

Its his youth, its his demeanour, its his charisma, and most importantly, its that heavenly voice mixed in along with it.

THE PURE TALENT, LOOK AT HIS PIANO SKILLS.

For all those punters out there, the first person who wants to bet against me can do so! I'm putting my money where my mouth is. 100 bucks on David! Comment on my blog if you're taking it up.

You'll be a hundred bucks poorer in a couple of weeks, come on!

This was his perfomance tonight.

WOOT! David, you da man dude! 17 years old!?? Fug what am I doing with my life!!!?

UPDATE: This is him as a kid. Credit to estee for finding this video.

I also like to sing when I young, how come lidat one ... ....

Nuffnang Company dinner part 2 and other bits!

2008-01-16T18:52:00.000+08:00

I know, this is a record even for me!

Almost a month gone by without an update! And yet, my blog is still attracting a steady stream of readers. SOLLYYYY!!!! There's been work, there's been the festive season, and there's been work.

Anyway, to continue where I left off, the Nuffnang team was due to have dinner at KLCC, San Francisco Steak House.

KLCC has got to be one of the most beautiful buildings in the world. And it is in Malaysia! Those towering twin peaks loom over the landscape of KL a resounding public proclamation that Malaysia has arrived.

Inside KLCC was the tallest christmas tree I had seen in 2007.

Ewe Tiam chose the restaurant, KL being his city. I wasn't surprised it was San Francisco Steakhouse.

I'd been to one whilst entertaining some bloggers in Malaysia, way back when we were first starting out. That outlet was in Midvalley. I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the beef. So I was looking forward to the dinner.

The ambience of the restaurant was great. We were seated on the second floor, occupying a long table overlooking the fountain.

After we had ordered, speeches and a surprise I had prepared for the team were in order.

Nuffnang's growth in 2007 has been simply phenomenal. What started out as a four man with two offices, has now grown to a team of over a dozen Nuffies in 3 offices (Singapore, KL, Penang), managing close to 20,000 bloggers including all the top ones (no mean feat, I assure you), and dealing with great advertisers and brands, such as Nike, Citibank, Clearasil, Singapore Tourism Board, Health Promotion Board, HSBC, Nokia, AirAsia, M1, TMNet, Digi, Walls, F&N, Chipster, Honda, Hugo Boss, Guiness, Motorola, Nescafe, MPH and phewwww many more (Just wanted to prove a point :-p).

Nuffnang.com has also undergone 3 redesigns in the short 9 months that we have been in operation. Nuffnang 2.0 is truly something to be proud of, and a look that we're looking to keep, maintain and improve in the long run.

The point is, we've come a long way. And each team member, has contributed in his/her own way. So I introduced the Nuffie awards! Every full time staff got one. With a title that I thought was appropriate for that individual, a title that highlighted his/her strength, and contribution in 2007.

One such individual was Nicholas.

I still remember interviewing Nicholas one saturday morning. Here was a university graduate with good prospects drawing a fabulous stable pay from a MNC asking to work in Nuffnang. I left him in no small doubt that he would be joining a minnow, and would be trading a significant basic pay for a smaller one and stability for uncertainty. He BELIEVED in Nuffnang and expressed that in no small measure, said that he wanted to work with us to grow it. It was refreshing to see somebody as passionate as him.

For that I awarded him the title "Most Passionate Nuffie". In case you're wondering. Nicholas is the first full time member of our sales team. He has made some good headway, and I was soooo happy when he got his first deal.

After having made an award for everybody, I needed one myself! Aiyah, I wanted a momento lah! So I made one that said this, "Cheo Ming Shen, Chief Prawn, To Remind me that The Best Is Yet To be". There is a story behind this. Once, somebody labelled me a "prawn" amongst sharks. I was not bitter or anything like that. In fact, I "acknowledged" it inwardly, and used it as motivation. Even after I have achieved success, I carry that title to remind me that there is more to achieve, that "The Best Is Yet To Be" (ACS Motto in case you're wondering).

Some of the other titles given out included Best Partner (No need to guess that one), Ming's Favourite Intern (Also quite elementary), Most Buaya Intern (This one you all dunno one), Most consistent, long serving intern, Most Punctual Nuffie, and more.

Just after I had ended the speeches, dinner arrived!!! GREAT TIMING! I loveee this place!

Look at that nice juicy looking piece of meaaaatttt! And thosee glooooriousss mushrooomsss!! SHROOOMS!!!!!

After we had devoured our share of cow, we moved on to the gift exchange.

My gift was meant for Tim 2. I got him Call of Duty 4, the PC game. I had seen some people playing it at challenger, and the graphics looked super cool. I mean, it is literally the next generation first person shooter. He had just gotten a kickass pc so I knew his PC could handle the graphics, and mine would not be able to.

I was so happy he liked his gift. There is no better satisfaction than getting a gift somebody appreciates!

My secret santa was firdauz. He got me one a christmas snow globe. It was a perfect gift, considering I loooove christmas. I've put it on my office table so I can wind it up, and shake it up every now and then to give me that warm fuzzy feeling.

Huiwen with her pressie.

And uncle LM with his!

We wrapped up the dinner with resolutions for the new year. Everybody chipped in with their wishes for Nuffnang in 2008.

And of course a group photoooo!!!

The evening was wrapped up by a trip to the Cinema to catch I Legend.

Me and Huiwen left the next afternoon after having a bat kut teh breakfast with the entire team, and having bought a dozen donuts at JCo. Thanks to Nicholas and Skyler for being our Ah Mat and Tour guide.

We both left with a satisfaction rarely achieved, and more importantly in the familiarity of Nice Bus Service!!! 3 cheers for Nice Buss!!! Our first company dinner had been a great success in my mind.

Nuffnang Comapany Year End Dinner Part 1

2007-12-20T11:09:00.000+08:00

I know, I know! Ming has been a baaaaddd baaaaadd blogger. My legions (hehe) of readers dying to get the latest updates have been starved of information. They're in the cold turkey phase by now.

Anyway, December has been a superrrr busy month for me. Besides the campaigns we have launched, there is also the festive programme for Nuffnang. We just had another screening of National Treasure 2 at Suntec Eng Wah yesterday for 200 bloggers, and guests. This is our third such screening in 5 months! First one, Rush Hour 3 at Vivocity, Second one Enchanted at Great World City, and now this one.

If you're wondering why we choose movie screenings, its for the simple reason, that its the easiest, most cost efficient way of reaching out to large numbers of people. 600 Nuffnangers has enjoyed our screenings so far.

Me and Huiwen feel like seasoned mass event organisers. The process gets smoother with each event!

Anyway, last friday, the 14th of December, was our first Nuffnang year end/christmas dinner. I had mooted the idea to timothy, and he saw the merits of having the whole team together for just one evening. KL was chosen for convenience, and me and huiwen headed up north, whilst the penang nuffies headed down south.

Being holiday season, my usual coach was fully booked, so I decided to try another service. Airebus business class.

What an adventure. All credit to Airebus, I overheard a number of people (presumably) regulars talking about how good it was, it must have been their unlucky day. Or ours!

Me and Huiwen has opted to leave early (actually i chose), at 8AM, so we could get in to KL and have lunch with the team. The bus was 15 minutes late. After which, there was a jam at the second link (friday jam presumably, and no fault of the coach company) which delayed us another half an hour.

But wait a minute! My seat belt isn't working!!! WTF!!! I know I'm Kiasi!!! BUT MY MUM ALWAYS SAYS, "WEAR YOUR SEAT BELT and DON'T SEAT IN FRONT". NOOOOOO!!!! Hahaha.

Midway through we stop by for a break. One that the driver well deserves (since our lives are in his hands). It is announced as a 10 minute break. Ends up being half an hour long (Don't ask me why). I'm relieved as we chug out of the rest stop, but then .... chug chug chug ... wtf ..... the bus is on the shoulder. Dead.

Nobody tells us what is going on, until we light the torches, and mob like, threaten to lynch the clueless stewardess who informs us it's her first day.

After 15 minutes, the line is "ABANDON SHIPPPP!!!!" We're transferring you to other buses.

Our poor clueless stewardess on her first day! Well, dear, you live and you learn! Dun look so worried!

Refusing to yield to my inherent (since I'm singaporean) Kiasu tendancies, I refuse to rush out for the first available rescue coach. Unlike a mother who comandeers her 3 kids, and her sister or something, in an authoritiative tone, "COME KIDS, LETS GO! GET YOUR STUFF TOGETHER LETS GO! LETS GOOO LETSS GOOOOOOOOOO!"

No offence malaysians, but most of the times I don't regard your country as being efficient. The north south highway however, is probably the most efficient "body" in your country. Be proud. Within 5-10 minutes of us breaking down, a highway patrol car had pulled up behind us.

And guess what, eager mum, it took another 20 minutes, but all of a sudden the bus came back to life!!!! ITs aliveee!!! How? Apparently the patrol car had supplied our driver with some key spare parts. Malaysia north south highway patrol BOLEH!

We reached KL close to 4pm, over 3 hours late, and we were not happy bunnies. TV no work, Seat Belt no work, Bus Broke down. Look at huiwen's face.

Esther, kindly came to pick us up at Crowne plaza, and the office being close by, we took the LRT and walked.

AHhhh, it was greaaatt to be in an office full of Nuffies hard at work. Busy bees scurrying about their daily tasks.

One of the important tasks which we had set aside time for, was the signing of our christmas cards! We had printed customised cards for our clients, and key partners, so we all had to sign.

We formed a "production" line. With each of us signing and passing it down the line. BUTT AIYOOOOO, look where the backlog is lah!!!! SMILEY FACED FIR!!! Hehe, and slow and steady RAFF of course!

If you can bear the sound of me humming to a christmas song, you can check out a video of our production line (Taken expertly by Lee Meng), below.

We were already late for our dinner reservation at KLCC, but we could not leave the office without taking a group photo. Nuffnangers, I give you the Nuffies who work hard everyday to keep our community buzzing with life.

Details of the dinner itself in my second part. Stay tuned! Happy holidays!

I'm dreaming of a white christmas ...

2007-12-06T01:30:00.001+08:00

Christmas is my all time favourite time of the year. In fact, I wish it was christmas time every day of the year!

A warm fuzzy feeling just comes over me, when I'm driving down orchard road with fairy lights all along. There is a palpable sense of buzz and well wishes in the air, top that off with a christmas song piped through the shopping centre's PA system, and you're made.

Christmas is still 19 days away, but the chief prawn is feeling truly festive. Today, one of Huiwen's tasks was to find Christmas songs and to set up a playlist in our diaso christmas decorated office.

As usual, she did not dissapoint, and discovered what is to me one of the best christmas vocals I have ever heard. I guess this is subjective, but during christmas time, I'm in the jazzy, sultry, lounge kind of mood. Listen to this, I give you Jaci Valesquez ladies and gentlemen!

White Christmas

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
Just like the ones I used to know
Where the treetops glisten,
and children listen
To hear sleigh bells in the snow

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
With every Christmas card I write
May your days be merry and bright
And may all your Christmases be white

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
With every Christmas card I write
May your days be merry and bright
And may all your Christmases be white

By the way, if you havn't checked it out, Nuffnang.com.sg has taken on the boss's festive mood too. Fir the man, you capture emotions and translate it into flash like no other! Muackz, spread the cheerrr!

Memories from christmases past! Ahhhh ....

Yes dear friends, potluck again this year ... shoud we trust ray with the chicken nuggets? Hehe.

In the arms of an angel

2007-11-30T09:39:00.000+08:00

I have been following the dragon boating tragedy closely.

If you havn't heard this story, you're probably not Singaporean. Read here.

It really saddened me to see 5 young mens' lives get "snuffed" out like that. My first reaction was self reflection on the fragility of life, my second, for the parents of these young men, and my third in the futile dwelling of the lost lives, achievements, dreams, hopes of these five people.

Strangely, the latter is the most haunting aspect of death, at least for me. I imagine where this guys could have gone with their lives, what they could have been, who they could have loved, who could have loved them back.What follows that thought, is an instant of helplessness, and futility. Mortality jolts me awake from this thought, and the vicious cycle continues again.

I had a deep desire to attend these men's memorial service, which was held yesterday. I was obviously not alone. Over 1000 people turned up. Unfortunately, work concerns were too heavy and I could not. As I was flipping through the obituaries, I realised one of the dragon boaters, CPL Chee Wei Cheng, was from my army unit, 1AMB, and I have vague recollections of meeting him. I'm not sure where in camp, but it might have been a very inappreciable event. Still, I feel sorry, even now.

Read his friend's blog here.

To all these fine young men, for what it is worth, I salute you. I salute you for rowing under the Singapore flag, and doing us proud (even when most of us, never knew you did), I salute you for the extraordinary lives you would probably have led, and I salute you for bringing together so many people. Rest in peace.

I spent the morning looking for an appropriate song and this is it.

Title: Sarah McLachlan - Arms Of An Angel lyrics

Spend all your time waiting for that second chance
For the break that will make it ok
There's always some reason to feel â€œnot good enoughâ€?
And it's hard at the end of the day
I need some distraction, oh beautiful release
Memories seep from my veins
They may be empty and weightless, and maybe
I'll find some peace tonight

In the arms of an Angel, fly away from here
From this dark, cold hotel room, and the endlessness that you fear
You are pulled from the wreckage of your silent reverie
You're in the arms of an Angel; may you find some comfort here

So tired of the straight line, and everywhere you turn
There's vultures and thieves at your back
The storm keeps on twisting, you keep on building the lies
That you make up for all that you lack
It don't make no difference, escaping one last time
It's easier to believe
In this sweet madness, oh this glorious sadness
That brings me to my knees

In the arms of an Angel, far away from here
From this dark, cold hotel room, and the endlessness that you fear
You are pulled from the wreckage of your silent reverie
In the arms of an Angel; may you find some comfort here

Ylva- A role model Nuffnanger

2007-11-24T14:30:00.000+08:00

In my position as Chief prawn of Nuffnang Pte Ltd, I have been privileged to meet many bloggers. The blogs in Nuffnang are not just a statistic, they represent real people.People, with jobs, people with opinions, people with ambition and people with expectations.

Fulfilling the expectations of 13,000 bloggers is no mean feat (Thats not to say I do not feel up to the task, on the contrary, I relish it). To me, the main issue is education and communication. It is always about setting expectations at the right level so as not to dissapoint.

Let's say you own a shop space. Now a shop space at Takashimaya (on orchard road), which draws alot of human traffic might command a very very high rent, and will always be in demand. Good times or bad.

If you own a shop space on the outskirts of Singapore, perhaps in a not so popular Suburban mall like Sembawang mall for example, you might struggle to find a tenant, and at the same time, the rent will be very low.

This is unfortunately exactly how everything that involves money in the real world works. The blog advertising world, is no different. For your blog to be in demand, you've got to have an audience. The bigger your audience, the more advertisers notice you, the more likely you get chosen for an ad, and the more you earn.

While on the one side of the coin, I've met bloggers like the types Su Ann has denounced. Complaining for example, the low state of their earnings at $1.40 per ad, even pouring scorn on advertiser's money, claiming they can earn more by begging on the streets, I have also met many bloggers who are proactive, understand what they need to do, keep their head down, and get it done. I am glad to say I believe these people are in the majority.

One such blogger is Ylva. I had the privilege of meeting Ylva only quite recently. She applied for the Nuffnang mini community initiative, and she got it. Some people, ask me how do people get selected for these events? Well, to me, I guage interest level. Ylva's email back to me that day, touched me, and made me think, "This is a Nuffnanger, who wants to learn, wants to improve, wants to grow. I've got 20 other applications, and 5 tickets, but she deserves it."

Anyway, this is the email she sent. Unedited.

"Dear Ming,

I joined nuffnang when i saw the link at xiaxue's blog.. surprisingly, i got my 1st ad in May and i earned $1.40 as my blog did not have much visitors at that time.. slowly, i learnt how to blog in a more interesting way, so that visitors will love my blog and come back to me. During these times, i had ads running too and now, my ad paid per week is amounted to $7.09.

it is not the money, is the process on how i learn to blog to attract my readers attention that count and it is priceless.

i am still working very hard on how to blog. there is so much to learn and i am learning from fellow nuffnang-ers.. everytime i see new bloggers who joined nuffnang, i would tag them to welcome them for joining this big family. I even link most of them. Check out my links section under "nuffnang-ers"

anyway, i have to thank nuffnang -- for the experience of blogging and making friends who loves to blog."

I have been invited to speak at an Event called "How to make money without even trying". The illustrious Kennysia, and Mr Miyagi will both be there too. At that event, perhaps I will take Ylva's email out, and flash it on the screen.

I will then say, "How do you make money without even trying?" Truth is, you can't! BUT and here comes the big BUT, if you do something you truly love and are passionate about, throw a little magic into the pot (i.e., pray somebody starts Nuffnang, hehe), the rest should fall in place.

Now Ylva, in the short term, has increased her earnings, and maybe she'll get a couple of hundred bucks, in her blogging lifespan, maybe more. In the long run though, what I'm particularly proud of is her attitude, that the process of getting there is more important. She is eager to learn, and with that attitude, I believe she will do well in life. Not just in blogging. Ylva, well done, keep it up!

The modern day poet

2007-11-14T23:08:00.000+08:00

I was out today with Allan, tagging along to gramaphone when I spotted the latest Jay Chou CD! It's called Jay: On the Run, and as usual, it has some amazing tunes.

His vocabulary and understanding of the chinese laguage is so deep, I would compare him to a modern day chinese poet. Remember all those chinese poems infused with cheeminology we used to recite in chinese class? Well, the best of Jay's songs are very much like that, but he's managed to wax it so well together with melody and instruments. I know I've said it before, but the guy is nothing short of genius.

My favourite song so far that I'm so totally stuck on, is Track 3: Qing Hua Ci, or "Blue and White Porcelain".

I could not decipher a single line as I listened to it, enchanted by its lyrical quality in the car. When I got home, the first thing I did was to visit jay-chou.net , the foremost resource on the internet for anything Jay.

Uploaded the song to imeem for you guys to enjoy. Listen and follow with the Lyrics.

青花瓷 |Qing Hua Ci| Blue and White Porcelain

曲:- 周杰倫
Qu:- Zhou Jie Lun
Music:- Jay Chou

詞:- 方文山
Ci:- Fang Wen Shan
Lyrics:- Vincent Fang

Pin Yin: ekyec - www.jay-chou.net
Translation: laruku - www.jay-chou.net

素胚勾勒出青花筆鋒濃轉淡
su pei gou le chu qing hua bi feng nong zhuan dan
The brush outlines a beautiful pattern, brush strokes becoming lighter

瓶身描繪的牡丹一如妳初妝
ping shen miao hui de mu dan yi ru ni chu zhuang
The peony on the bottle, simplest beauty, just like you

冉冉檀香透過窗心事我了然
ran ran tan xiang tou gou chuang xin shin wo liao ran
Whiffs of incense smoke bring your troubles to my heart

宣紙上走筆至此擱一半
xuan zhi shang zou bi zhi ci ge yi ban
I pause halfway while painting

釉色渲染仕女圖韻味被私藏
you se xian ran shi nu tu yun wei bei si cang
The glazing of the lady's portrait hides her charm

而妳嫣然的一笑如含苞待放
er ni yan ran de yi xiao ru han bao dai fang
Your smile, to me, like a budding flower

妳的美一縷飄散去到我去不了的地方
ni de mei yi lu piao san qu dao wo qu bu liao de di fang
But your beauty dissipates like smoke, to a place I can never reach

＃天青色等煙雨而我在等妳 (1)
tian qing se deng yan yu er wo zai deng ni
The perfect shade of blue awaits the right weather, like how I wait for you

炊煙裊裊昇起隔江千萬里
chui yan niao niao sheng qi ge jian qian wan li
From a thousand miles away, I gaze at the curling chimney smoke

在瓶底書漢隸仿前朝的飄逸
zai ping di shu han li fang qian zhao de piao yi
The calligraphy beneath the bottle, elegance of the Han Dynasty

就當我為遇見妳伏筆
jiu dang wo wei yu jian ni fu bi
Our meeting I foreshadowed

＊天青色等煙雨而我在等妳 (1)
tian qing se deng yan yu er wo zai deng ni
The perfect shade of blue awaits the right weather, like how I wait for you

月色被打撈起暈開了結局
yue se bei da lao qi yun kai liao jie ju
The moonlight smudged away the remnants of our ending

如傳世的青花瓷自顧自美麗妳眼帶笑意
ru zhuan shi de qing hua ci zi gu zi mei li ni yan dai xiao yi
Like legendary porcelain obsessed with itself, your eyes full of laughter

色白花青的錦鯉躍然於碗底
se bai hua qing de jin li yue ran yu wan di
Those blue carp seem to come alive on the white bowl

臨摹宋體落款時卻惦記著妳（2）
lin mo song ti luo kan shi que dian ji zhe ni
While I am imitating the Song inscription I'm thinking of you

妳隱藏在窯燒裡千年的秘密
yin cang zai yao shao li qian nian de mi mi
The eon of secrets you buried in the kiln

極細膩猶如繡花針落地
ji xin ni you ru xiu hua zhen luo di
It's exquisiteness like an embroidery needle

簾外芭蕉惹驟雨門環惹銅綠 (3)
lian wai ba jiao re zhou yu men huan re tong lv
The banana tree outside brought the sudden downpour, and in turn the copper rust on the door handle

而我路過那江南小鎮惹了妳 (3)
er wo lu guo na jiang nan xiao zhen re le ni
My passing by Jiangnan brings me to you

在潑墨山水畫(4) 裡妳從墨色深處被隱去
zai po mo shan shui hua li ni cong mo se shen chu bei yin qu
You fade away into the deep abyss of the Chinese painting

Deal or no deal?

2007-11-10T12:02:00.000+08:00

I love watching programmes by the BBC in the UK. I used to order indian take out and eat in front of my favourite tv show/documentary. My favourites were, "A picture of Britain", "Top Gear", and "Dragons Den".

Dragon's Den is a fantastic show for gaining a little bit of insight into how venture capital works, and what is involved.

The format of the show goes like this. There are five "dragons", well seasoned businessmen, who are successful in their own fields and are acting as venture capitals. An interested entrepeneur/startup auditions to be on the show, and is given something like 5 minutes to pitch their ideas to the dragons. They have to propose a certain amount of investment, say 200k for 15 percent. The startup must get at least 200k of investment otherwise they leave with nothing.

I was recently you-tubing dragon den episodes and chanced on a US version of the show, and a seat grabbing episode at that.

Jobloft.com is an interesting canadian company with a unique value proposition. They are niche targeted at the high turnover industries of service and hospitality, and have several web 2.0 functions that help in easing the process.

Two of the founders managed to secure 200K worth of investments for 50 percent of the company, only to have the cheque torn up subsequently and the deal negated. What happened? Watch and see for yourself!

The question is what would you do? If you were the jobloft founders?

As the co-founder of Nuffnang.com, I can speak for myself, and what I think I would do.

Doctor Norris, academic "mentor" (haha, like MM!), scorned the 200K the dragons were contributing saying it was very little money. One of the VC's shot back saying this, "Its alot of money if you don't have any." That is unfortunately the entire truth. VC's at the end of the day get bang for their buck (in return of course partly for the risk they take), because their money is valuable to startups that have none.

If you asked a guy with a million bucks what a million bucks is worth, he'll probably say, another million bucks. Ask a beggar with nothing, what a million bucks is worth, and he'll say EVERYTHING!

I would personally consider, what the money is worth to me. Do I have it? What can I do with it? How far will it take me? Are there other factors to consider? Contacts? Networks?

But, I would also consider whether the VCs are on the same page as me. Do they have the same vision? Do they believe in my strategies, or do I believe in theirs?

I think Timothy would say the same. I am fortunate to have a partner that complements me well, and shares the same vision for Nuffnang.com. If however, we introduced new parties into this relationship, would they be as complementary?

I like the principles of the founder of the company. "We have tremendous respect for him, and if not for him, we would not even have had the opportunity to pitch to you. He's believed in us from the beginning."

The VCs could not believe they were turned down. Their money was worth more. Their egos has been insulted by this mentor, and yet, their money had been turned down. "If I were one of those guys, I would have stopped him (from tearing the cheque), and said we can fix this. But they didn't do that, and that says a thousand words about them.", said one of the dragons.

It speaks just two words to me. Courage, and principles. I'm certainly no great authority on success myself, but I believe these are two things every entrepeneur should have. Courage and principle. If they had the courage to turn their back on the 200k and stick up for their mentor, I'm sure they will go far, be it with jobloft.com, or another venture in the future.

Check out their blog entry here, for more juicy insight.

Heavy material indeed! For a lighter side of things check out this spoof of the UK version of dragons den! I miss the BBC! Thank god for youtube!

Read this post!

2007-11-07T19:11:00.001+08:00

My business partner Timothy is most certainly the more illustrious blogger between the two of us.

He has a killer sense of humour and wit. And he is a great partner, always supportive, never reproaching, and makes up for my defeciencies brilliantly.

Both of us being young entrepeneurs have had our share of people who try to put us down. Citing a multitude of factors why we will not succeed or why we should not try, or what we're dong wrong.

He has just written what I consider his best post of them all.

To all aspiring entrepeneurs;

Read it here.

Remember, people can never talk you into failure. Unless you let them.

What is a community?

2007-10-29T21:48:00.000+08:00

Dictionary.com defines a community as a "social, religious, occupational, or other group sharing common characteristics or interests and perceived or perceiving itself as distinct in some respect from the larger society within which it exists (usually prec. by the): the business community; the community of scholars."

In today's Web 2.0 context, we hear the word community often. When me and Timothy set out to create Nuffnang, the word was in my conciousness, and I thought to myself, "Why can't a blog advertising network be a community as well?"

In terms of the commercial aspects, we knew how to differentiate ourselves. The key was, being local. It was about serving local ads to local blogs, paying in local dollars, and having local understanding to deal with local needs. This was all fine and dandy, but besides being local, what other edge would Nuffnang have over potential competitors?

That answer is the community. It should be clear to anyone that Nuffnang being such a young company has not turned the corner monetarily. We are progressing better than expected, and our financial position is strong, but this is more a matter of what we have put INTO the company, rather than what we have gotten out of it as yet.

Let's discuss what I feel are the 3 core aspects of Nuffnang's community drive. These come in no particular order of importance.

NO 1: HAVING FUN

A community in my mind is all about relationships. Its about meeting new people, meeting old friends and having fun together.

We're really into that at Nuffnang. Both Singapore and Malaysia have hosted a number of events to this aim.

In Malaysia, 250 Nuffnangers caught Pirates of the Caribbean 3 on the 24th of May.

You can find the best account of that event on Jolene's blog, HERE.

Singapore held its own movie screening, Rush Hour 3 for similar numbers on National day on the 9th of August National Day.

An event that I very much enjoyed hosting, and organizing.

Malaysia has also seen several Food Outings, like the one to Food loft in Penang
Kenny made the news in that one, and he very graciously gave some of his body hair to be auctioned off for charity.

Even when we're not organizing the events ourselves, we have added value to Nuffnanger's lives. 75 Lucky Malaysian Nuffnangers got a chance to catch Ratatouille for free. Here. Recently Fridays even bought 50 Nuffnangers dinner!

I believe very strongly that the community initiatives we have organised in this way, have helped bring people together. But it is key to note, that the constituents of the community have got to be proactive. We are merely facilitators and our events merely platforms to forge new bonds. The door is open, and you must walk through it yourself.

NO 2: EDUCATION AND SELF IMPROVEMENT

One of our aims has always been to add to the phenomenon of blogging. Workshops, talks, blogging seminars, we support such initiatives because we believe it adds to Nuffnanger's lives.

With this in mind, and the brilliant TDM team behind the event, we sponsored Blog Out. This was in my mind a brilliant event (with a brilliant host ;-)), which explored real issues that were and is confronting the blogosphere.

You can read about that event in my previous post.

I also got an opportunity to host a mini community initiative recently. 8 Nuffnangers (If you count myself and Huiwen) attended. Myself, Huiwen, Estee, Jayden, Ylva, Kexin, Immelia, and of course Nadnut! It was a talk cum workshop entitled "To Blog or Not to Blog" organized as part of the Singapore Sun Festival.

They all wrote brilliant entries about the event, so go read their blogs.

Our group was the most tech saavy, and way ahead of the pack when it came to techniques and technologies of blogging (Nuffnangers WOOT!), but Jacque, gave some fabulous insight into creative writing and actually improving the literary content of a blog.

The best pictures though (Photoshop mah), came from Jayden, hence I'm lifting it off his site.

I had a real fun time hosting this event and I've set myself a target of having 5-6 mini community initiatives a year at least. A smaller and more intimate setting helps with the forging of relationships too.

NO 3: Giving back

A community isn't just about having fun and enjoying privileges, with power comes great responsibility. A community of 10,000 opinion makers and influential professionals in their own right can make a huge difference to the less fortunate.

Malaysia has been running charity ads for SPCA and Eden Charity home for a while now. They are looking to add to that list.

In Singapore, we are also in the final stages of negotiation, and hope to give bloggers options to serve charity ads as well. Remember, the difference is relevancy. Charity begins at home, and Nuffnang hopes to use its influence to help LOCAL charities.

We are happy to have done our part in the recent Ieat charity dinner hosted by Singapore's preeminent food blogger, Dr Leslie Tay of ieatishootipost.blogspot.com . Leslie and I are working together to arrange visits and volunteering sessions to AG Home. Stay tuned for that!

So these are the 3 areas of focus the Nuffnang community program has. We are common, in that we call ourselves Nuffnangers, we are bloggers, we have fun together, we embrace one another, we learn together, and we give back together.

These are my hopes for the fledging community. We're not there yet, but we're taking positive steps in that direction, so keep it up! YATTAAA!

Tuesdays with the PAP

2007-10-21T21:58:00.000+08:00

Every Tuesday nights (Or at least the times when I'm not cooped up at work with proposals), I head down to Block 18, Toa Payoh East for the weekly meet the people's session.

In case you're wondering what this is. Its an opportunity for the constituents of a community to meet their political representative/member of parliament. In this case, the constituency I am serving is represented by Mdm Josephine Teo.

This is she. It is quite an honour to be serving under her. Firstly she is one of the P65 MPs, and has already attained an admirable level of success being 39 years old. Most importantly, she comes across and genuine, sincere and caring. No people, she does not read my blog, and no I've not been planted by the PAP or her to say this.

She keeps a blog here along with the other P65 MPs, although she hasn't updated it in a while.

Anyway, what do we do at MPS? Well, MPS is basically a forum of feedback and an avenue to get government assistance in any matter at all. It ranges from the mundane like parking summons to more serious issues like financial assistance issues, and elderly neglect.

My role at MPS every Tuesday is to interview and write letters to assist the residents. They sit down, tell me their problem, and I devise the best strategy to help them solve it. After I've written the letter, the MP then interviews the resident, makes the necessary corrections and it gets sent off to the relevant ministry, board, or company.

I help out at MPS for one main reason. Even though the majority of singaporeans, myself included enjoy the most comfortable of lives, a number of Singaporeans live on the opposite side of the spectrum. When I got back from London, noise of how the income gap was widening, the lowest income groups were languishing and the elderly were being neglected, reverberated through the media channels.

I wanted to find out for myself, how serious this problem is. And more importantly, I wanted to see how I could help this group of people. I think the main problem with alot of people is that they are NATO. No Action Talk Only. Lots of people out there criticising the way things are being down, citing this figure or that. Where are these people on the ground? Do they hide behind computer screens, and expect that their words to somehow miraculously make these people's lives better? Or perhaps they expect it will spur somebody else on to do the job they're too lazy to do themselves?

I've gone down there, helped out not only at MPS, but at other voluntary organisations such as initiatives by The Rotary Club of Singapore, and I have to say, we're doing OK. Sure, there is always room for improvment, but have you ever thought that if you want to make a change, you've got to start with yourself?

It was this thought that led me to my first MPS session. And I havn't looked back since. It is a wonderful feeling everytime you come out feeling like you have made a difference and helped somebody get by. I only recently recieved my first personal letter of thanks. A young couple who had issues getting a loan from the HDB, sent me an email thanking me for my help and the success of their appeal.

In any case, it is not for glory or for gratitude that I go there. I am pleased to say that financial hardship cases whilst a reality, are pretty rare. The initiatives to help, such as Comcare funds, job matching services, and so on, are largely effective with arresting these issues. We are in the best of positions, but I think more can still be done. And perhaps that job will fall to our generation. To us.

Besides MPS, I also get to attend policy forums, where I get an insight into the thoughts of our leaders.

It was a privilege to attend the recent national day rally for example.

Me and darren were seated in the upper stratosphere of the University Cultural Hall, but we didn't mind that much. It was an experience for sure, and an honour.

In that occassion, I did not have the opportunity to query our Prime Minister. But at a recent dialogue, I did.

I asked him about the workfare initiative and if we would see more direct initiatives to help the lower income groups.I won't go into details of his reply here, but I was sufficiently if not overwhelmingly convinced by his answer. Overall, from both my encounters with the Prime Minister, I have a clear sense that he is a very intelligent man, who has the right ideas, and his communication has improved significantly.

Unlike the firebrand his father was, or the liberal charmer SM Goh was, PM Lee represents a balance between the two. Given the position of Singapore in the global geoplitical and economic cycle, he is certainly a good leader to see our contry through.

Again, I'm not being paid or coerced to say this. These are strictly my personal thoughts that have been borne out of my personal experiences. Whilst I am stronly supportive of the PAP, its policies and its people, I am not blind to our weaknesses, and will certainly relish election time, when I will have an opportunity to hear what the opposition have to say or offer.

I for one, do not believe they are a credible force. But they do represent the other side of the coin, and we must explore it to see what are the good points we can take away from those lessons.

"If I have been of service, if I have glimpsed more of the nature and essence of ultimate good, if I am inspired to reach wider horizons of thought and action, if I am at peace with myself, it has been a successful day."

Pimped out

2007-10-17T16:58:00.001+08:00

My blog has been pimpeedd outtt!!!

I got myself a tag board and finally linked all those friends I wanted to link! WOooo hooooo!!!

Thank you ms yang! Blog soon.

7 minutes on the lips, 7 inches on the hips!

2007-10-04T10:13:00.001+08:00

Right about now, a good friend of mine, is at Changi Airport leaving for Shanghai! He's going there to work, abandoning his eating and hiking kaki ... WHOOOO WILL WALK WITH ME UP BUKIT TIMAH HILLLLL!!!??? WHOOOO!!!????

To tell you the truth, I have not known Darren for a long time.

We met slightly over a year ago. I was back in London for my convocation and meeting with a friend of mine, Michelle See. This is she (A malaysian in Singapore colours waving the Singaporean flag! TRAVESTYYYY!!! MWAHHAHAHA, I LIKE!).

Anyway, the 3 of us proceeded down to Mayflower chinese restaurant in London in the weeee hours of the morning. I'd never been there in my 3 years in London, although darren and michelle swore by the place. I dare say they swore by it! Because Darren walloped 2 whole crabs by himself, and michelle an entire lobster!

It was the care with which Darren carefully disected each piece of crabmeat that struck me. He savoured every piece slowly and purposefully. I thought to myself, "This guy likes his food!".

I did not have anything to eat that night, but I love my food, and many a good friend of mine has been made over the hawker or restaurant table.

When I got back to Singapore in the summer, I made the effort to give him a call to go out and makan! The rest is culinary history.

So much food has gone down our gullet, I'm not even sure where to start.

Look at those succulent prawns at one of our favourite KL haunts. Soo Kee Brother. It is scrumptous!

This is the beautiful HOkkien mee in Chinatown KL. Damn yum man. Damn oily. Damn sinful, but hey, who gives a shit

Hahhaahaa, Darren did. The next morning, after sending me off to the Bus stop, PIAK PIAK PIAK PIAK PIAKKKKKK!!!!

What I've really enjoyed about our friendship though, is that like me, Darren is always up for something new. To discover new places, or activities.

Like how one Friday night, Stanley asked me to go clubbing (An activity I'm not particularly fond of), and I said, "I'm going off to the fish market". It took him a while to understand that I was visiting the wholesale fish market! After which he replied curtly, "SIAO!"

I'm glad to report it was a real fun experience, and I'd like to go back there sometime soon.

It was also Darren who introduced me to Prawn fishing. We've had many successes at the prawn pond. MANY MANY! We are pro prawn fishers! Anybody who wants tips can come to us! Right mr chin! Remember our catch at Marina South Pond! Wah something to be proud of man!

Anyway, thanks for hooking up my worms when I didn't have the balls to. *I can't kill live animals. I like to eat dead and cooked ones though.*

We don't just do unhealthy things too. We've gone hiking a number of times. I think that is what I'll miss most. Not many other hiking kakis, although I'm trying to get a certain beautiful girlfriend to go with me. Estee dear *wink wink*.

This is when WE conquered the treetop walk in KL. Damn scary k. But I walked the whole thing, yes i did! CONQUERED MY FEARS I DID.

And then there were the day trips. Like to Meleka and Desaru (I swear there is a waterfall there!)

Its always been about food with my FAT friend darren (This is payback for the facebook wall post).

But its all good, and its probably the one thing that keeps our friendship going strong.

Two nights ago, me, leonard, estee trooped off to his house at 11pm, where he cooked some yummy foie gras for us.

From the butchers.

To the car.

To the pan.

To our plates.

To our hips. YUMMMMM.

VideoJug: How To Make Sautéed Foie Gras

Anyway dude, gonna miss the hiking, eating and tripping. Try to lose some of that blubber when you're over there! Remember 7 minutes on the lips = 7 inches on the hip.

p.s. Chinese women, and hot babes reading this blog. In louie's words, this is a good catch here (Dun say I no plug you!) TC. See you chinese new year.

Try to remember

2007-10-02T22:20:00.000+08:00

Not too long ago, my favouritest (soon to be clobbered for making fun of me) intern, Huiwen, wrote an entry entitled, the "Things I miss about being little and innocent."

Its so true that line, and it was quite a poignant blog entry that ended with a cutesy photo of her and her sister.

I am fortunate to have had a wonderful childhood myself. Carefree days in which all you think about is what fun thing to do next!

Come to think about it, I didn't even have to think about that. I would just start doing something else as soon I stopped the first thing I was doing.

How many of you were like that too?

I've been an ACS boy for 10 years of my life. I attended ACJS, at Peck Hay Road. I've driven by that place several times. It looks exactly the same as it did over 12 years ago now.

This is me, off to school, with my teenage mutant ninja turtle lunch box. My mum would dutifully pack it everyday with egg or ham or cheese sandwich which I would unceremoniously dump, before going for my favourite Wanton mee in the canteen.

Hehe, you get away with all sorts of things when you are a kid.

Birthday parties at MacDonalds was always the cool thing. I wonder where all these friends have gone! Hahaha, look at us!

The most important part of anybody's childhood is family. And I had a great mum and dad. I knew it then, and I know it now.

My dad would always make time for the family. I remember doing so much shit with him, its not even funny really. Cycling, going to Istana, going to empress place, going on holidays. Its amazing how he found the time, but he did.

I lurpe my dad for that. But I'm sorry, what was he thinking with those pair of green shorts!!!

I never say it to my mum either, but she's the other hero in my life. Besides being amazingly beautiful (A fact I'm terribly proud of), she's an amazing woman. A homemaker, she has always cooked us the most wonderful meals, and yet found time to beautify the home, herself, and help my dad's businesses out.

I'd like to continue reminiscing, but I've got a date with a piece of Foie Gras, going over to Darren Chin's to cook someeee wooo hooooooo! Yes it is 11pm! 7 minutes on the lips, 7 inches on the hip! WOOTTT

Try to remember the kind of september when you were a tender and callow fellow.

The Bare Necessities

2007-09-24T16:17:00.001+08:00

This is the song of the moment.

The Bare Necessities

Look for the bare necessities
The simple bare necessities
Forget about your worries and your strife
I mean the bare necessities
Old Mother Nature's recipes
That brings the bare necessities of life

Wherever I wander, wherever I roam
I couldn't be fonder of my big home
The bees are buzzin' in the tree
To make some honey just for me
When you look under the rocks and plants
And take a glance at the fancy ants
Then maybe try a few

The bare necessities of life will come to you
They'll come to you!

Look for the bare necessities
The simple bare necessities
Forget about your worries and your strife
I mean the bare necessities
That's why a bear can rest at ease
With just the bare necessities of life

Now when you pick a pawpaw
Or a prickly pear
And you prick a raw paw
Next time beware
Don't pick the prickly pear by the paw
When you pick a pear
Try to use the claw
But you don't need to use the claw
When you pick a pear of the big pawpaw
Have I given you a clue ?

The bare necessities of life will come to you
They'll come to you!

So just try and relax, yeah cool it
Fall apart in my backyard
'Cause let me tell you something little britches
If you act like that bee acts, uh uh
You're working too hard

And don't spend your time lookin' around
For something you want that can't be found
When you find out you can live without it
And go along not thinkin' about it
I'll tell you something true

The bare necessities of life will come to you

Rockie's breakfast

2007-09-22T12:18:00.000+08:00

I was reading the newspaper out on the patio today, when I noticed rockie, our rottie, playing with glee in the garden.

On closer inspection, this is what I saw!

Rockie the snake slayer!

He's not licking me for a while.

I hate snakes.

Busyness Trip

2007-09-15T16:33:00.001+08:00

Part of my job scope involves going on business trips to Malaysia every now and then. Since a significant proportion of business is done there, and almost the ENTIRE nuffnang team is in either Penang or KL, I tend to make a trip down at least once a month.

This time around, I was headed up to penang to interview some staff. If you are an experienced PHP/MySQL programmer, come forth! Nuffnang needs you!

Anyway, I thought this time around with my trusty K810i camera phone (It is fabulous), I would document the trip.

Normally, I hitch a ride to the airport, but as eddie was tied up, my dad suggested Iuse the MRT! I was about to call a cab, but I thought, what the heck, lets be a little bit more adventurous.

Eddie dropped me off at dover MRT, and off I was.

I really cannot recall the last time I took the MRT anywhere! Once I got the car, it was bye bye public transport!

It was a comfortable ride for at least half of the way (first half standing), but the only gripe is that it takes a bruddy hour! In total, to get to the airport! All I can say dad is, been there, done that!

If you've got tons of time to spare though, and want some time to meditate, take the MRT. It is quite a pleasant experience going through the heartlands, and checking out the "scenery".

From car, to train, to plane.

Bye bye singapore (I lurpte you)!

GOOD MORRRNIINNNGGG PENANGGGGG!!!!

At the airport, I am picked up by Raja, whom by the graces of Boss Stewie and his parents are assigned to pick me whereever I need to go. Raja is a great guy, married with an 11 year old boy, and likes to call me Mr Ming. Which I quite like actually.

There is no time to waste, and the first stop is 55 Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah, or NUFFNANG HEADQUARTERS! Menara Northam!

Ok, i know i made it seem really grand, but ours is just a teeny office on the 20th floor. At least we've got a great view.

I step into the office, to find .....

The Nuffnang team hard at work! Aiyah, they knew the terror boss was coming, so they all buck up! (Hahaha, joking lah, they're all great and dedicated workers, and I am lucky to have them!)

After getting up to speed with what they are doing, and setting them various targets, i finally step into me and tiam's room. This is it! My office in penang! I know, there is NOTHING on my table. BUT LOOK AT THE WONDERFUL COMFY SWIVEL CHAIR .... I sit down gently on it, and ecastasy (EH! Dun laugh! i use plastic BBQ chairs in the singapore office K! :-p_)

And as quickly as I get comfortable, the interviews start! WHICH ONE OF YOU WILL BE THE NEXT APPRENTICE? (Their identities have been "masked" so as to protect their privacy, although they were thinking to themselves, I'm not going to work for this voyeuristic kook!).

That is tim 2 conducting the interview. He's pretty darn good at it, and hahaha, you should have seen his piercing expression, I had to calm one of the guys down and say, yo dude, don't be nervous, tim may look like he's ready to take a chunk out of your skull, but really he's as gentle as an ant.

Of course the trip is not just all about work (even though we work from 830 in the morning (boss comes in at 9), and leave at about 8pm (ok so I'm a little bit of a slave driver, but its fun working late! It feels so cosy!).

The other crucial part is the FOOOOOODDDDDD!!!! Penang has some of the best hawker food in the world. BUt my guys ah, even having lived in penang for all their lives, don't know where to find good food at night. So it was off to Gurney Drive Hawker Center.

There, I had, Char Kway Teow, Wan Tan Mee, Ikan Bakar, and Hokkien Mee (ALL MY MYSELF- The hazards of being a businessman- thinking takes calories ok!)
FOOD.
FOOD.
AND MORE FOOD.
In penang, you just got to eat first, and think later.

Besides the work and food, there is also pleasure. And nothing gives me more pleasure than waking up EVERY morning to a view like this (CLICK TO VIEW, It is a panaromic photo- my phone camera is so cooool).

Boss stewie modest as he is, always tries to play it down, but his house must be one of the nicest in penang. Perched majestically on the top of a hill, it commands a view that you couldn't even pay for in a 6 star hotel. Some days, if I get back early from work, I look out over the horizon and watch the sky change hues as the sun sets over the mountains. It is beautiful to say the least.

Time passes quickly when you have got things to do. The trip was over as soon as it started.

Ewe Tiam, having just arrived back from KL the previous night drove me off to the airport into the loving arms of a Nandos!!!

Yum! Everytime I have nandos, I remember my times in London, and how it was the first restaurant I had dinner at (with Kelly, do you remember?), when I went there for uni.Warm fuzzy feeling.

So it is goodbye penang.
Hello Singapore (I lurpte you long long!).
It is irnonic to say the least, but there are two parts of any trip I like the most. The first is the ride to the airport. And the second is the ride back home.

On the ride to the airport, no matter where you are going, there is always this great sense of anticipation, that you are getting out, and going somewhere exciting or different.

On the ride home, as you see the overarching trees on the ECP and go past the skyline, you cannot help but think to yourself, "I'm glad to be home."

Uh oh, getting late now! Gotta go for ieat charity dinner! Quite exciting hor. Ok bye bye!

The passing of a great woman

2007-09-11T10:29:00.000+08:00

Many of you will know I can be quite a mcp at times. But there is one woman, I truly respect (excluding my mother), and have always done so.

That woman is Anita Roddick or Dame Anita Roddick. She is the founder of bodyshop, and a champion of many good causes that today we take for granted, but she brought into the spotlight way before it was fashionable.

This is she.

Causes like environmental concern, fair trade, corporate social responsibility, and so on.

I had the privilege of meeting her in my first year at the London School of Economics. I remember it vividly. She had come to give a speech on corporate social responsibility. I went in before, to meet her at a book signing, and spoke to her for a good couple of minutes.

In that short time, I could sense her energy, and love of life, and kindness. It was amazing. She talked to me as though she had known me for years, even though we had just met, and when she signed my book she wrote something personalised for me.

I couldnt remember it, so I took that book out of the plastic covering I had put around it today to see.

It reads, "To ming, life is no more complicated than love and work!"

I remember coming out of the store, walking briskly against the cold london wind towards holborn, and taking in those words.

Perhaps she was going through something in her life at that point to make her write those words. But she had touched me. I was in my first year. In love. Driven to succeed. Could she have seen through me in a five minute conversation?

Nobody has done that in my life. Pure coincidence?

Today I take stock once again, as I did on that short walk to the tube station 3 years ago. When I saw that quote again, it touched me in the same way it did those years ago. Life is no more complicated than love and work.

Dear Dame Anita, I do not know if you will remember a young, impressionable, and over eager asian boy who once had a chat with you at a book signing at the LSE. But as you move on into the next phase of your life, there is one person more who remembers you, and whom you have left a lasting impact on. Rest in peace.

To a dear friend

2007-09-10T19:18:00.000+08:00

One of my friends in the UK is going through a rough patch in his career path.

I spoke to him yesterday on the phone, and I could sense the apprehension and uncertainty in his voice.

The journey through life is not an easy one.

I've been there, and I've had my days. On those days, time slows down to a trickle (It always does when you're in pain), and things lose their colour, food loses its taste.

It is those days that I put on my buble cd and start belting out the tunes in the shower, in my room, whilst driving my car, and I call my friends to get moral support.

So to my friend, listen carefully to the lyrics of this song, cheer up, and know you have a friend 8,000 KM away who is NEVER too busy to lend a hearing ear.

Because I know I do too. Oh yeah, try singing to it, in the shower! Sway to the blues dude, sway to the blues!

(Don't let it get you, don't let it get you down
For this world keeps on spinning 'round)

That's life
That's what all the people say
You're riding high in April
You're shot down in May
I know I'm gonna change that tune
When I'm back on top in June

I say that's life
& as funny as it may seem
Some people get their kicks
Stompin' on your dreams
But I don't let it, let it get me down
'Cause this fine ol' world keeps spinning 'round

I've been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate,
A poet, a pawn & a king
I've been up & down & over & out
But I know one thing
Each time I find myself, flat on this face
I pick myself up & get back in the race

That's life
I can't deny it
I thought of quitting, baby
This heart wasn't gonna buy it
And if I didn't think it was worth one single try
I'd jump right on a big bird & then I'd fly

I've been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate,
A poet, a pawn & a king
I've been up & down & over & out
And I know one thing
Each time I find myself flat on my face
I pick myself up & get back in the race

That's life
That's life & I can't deny it
Many times I thought of cutting out
But my heart won't buy it
But if there's nothing shakin' come this here July
I'm gonna roll
I'm gonna roll
I'm gonna roll myself up in a big ball & die
Can't deny it
That's life

Lazy sunday?

2007-09-09T15:54:00.000+08:00

Not too long ago, I sent my bike in to be serviced.

Before I headed off to cambridge to do my A levels, cycling was both my practical mode of transportation and also my time to relax with friends.

My two main cycle buddies and also neighbours, Jivesh and Mark, and my dad and me used to cycle EVERYWHERE. Day and night we would traverse the island, West Coast, East Coast, up North into the heartlands.

Once the car was in, the bike was out.

Well, after having spent 240 bucks on the servicing of my bike, I thought a Sunday afternoon with no fixed plans was as good a time as any to go cycling.

I decided to take the old neighbourhoold routes I used to cycle when I was a pubescent teenanger.

First stop however, was the neighbourhood bike shop. I wanted to pick up a "cyclocomputer" as they call these things nowadays, so I could measure how long and far I'd been cycling for.

Treknology bike shop at Henry park is lika a Toys R Us for any bike afficianado.

The perfect place to "zeng" your bike.

So instead of just getting the "cyclocomputer" which costs about 100 bucks, I ended blowing close to 500 dollars on a host of other things.

A wireless cyclocomputer which tells me how fast I'm travelling, how long for, and what distance I've covered.

A bicycle lock to chain my bike up when I go eat ice cream.

A "cat eye" back light, in case I go night cycling.

A detachable storage compartment

New continental road tyres to replace the mountain bike tyres since most of my cycling will be on roads.

And a new seat! I actually got this on the way back, after my sunday ride, cause boy did my ass hurt with my old seat. This little sucker costs 165 bucks! WTF!

Check out my baby!

After the bike shop, I headed to my old neighbourhood.

This is my old house! No 2. Holland Grove Lane. It is now rented out, and truthfully, I hope this land and house will always belong to my family and their children.

It may not be the biggest or most glamorous of our properties, but it holds the fondest of my childhood memories.

Playing hide and seek, camping out in the little tikes house, burying my mum's dunhill lighter (back in the day when she was smoking, and me and my brother wanted her to stop, which she did).

Perhaps one day, my children will fill its halls with the same laughter and joy that I experienced there. ahhh.

Next, it was off to the Jalan Kebaya Park. Here, underneath this huge tree, me, mark and jivesh used to meet for our cycling expeditions.

Haha, this is quite gay, but I remember how, when Jivesh decided to go overseas to the Uk to study. Right before he left, real early in the morning, about 5am or something like that, I cycled down there to meet him to say bye. It was a cold morning. Vivid memories, but one that reminds me of the importance of our friendship.

I paused for a brief moment, underneath the shade of this huge tree, outside the neighbourhood belle's house (no I wasn't the one with the crush on her), and took in the moment. Some things change and some things don't seem to.

Next, I swung around the corner to this misplaced temple. Who would expect it in the middle of an upper class housing estate? I remember, how we used to pretend we were undercover cops, racing in, and disturbing the old uncles and their mahjong game. It seemed clandestine to us, how they were smoking and playing mj here, and our boyish imaginations just carried it further.

Carrying on, I hit the ulu pandan park connector, and stood admiring some student's graffiti. I remembered reading about this in the new paper, and really do hope that the government will promote more such initiatives to enliven the sometimes sterile surroundings that conformity promotes.

Continuing on, I hit the second park of the ulu pandan park connector. Which is actually the more beautiful and scenic part.

Here, storks and kingfishers fly overhead and take the occasional dive perhaps having spotted an unlucky prey.

The track took me all the way to jurong. After which I turned back and headed home.

It was a refreshing experience to have traversed all those paths I used to trod down so often before. And while I was doing so, I really did miss my cycling companions. Whatever it is, after having spent all that money on my bike, I'm going to make it a weekly occurrance. Work-life balance is important. Therefore, once a week, cycling, once a week tennis and once a week cooking class/dancing class!

As the song goes, "The young ones, darling we're the young ones, and the young ones shouldn't be afraid to LIVE, LOVE, when the flame is strong, cause we may not be the young ones very long."

Its true! We are shallow creatures!

2007-09-09T10:25:00.000+08:00

I'm watching 200 pounds beauty right now, a korean romantic comedy. And I must say, it is a fantastic show.

I love korean movies and "My Sassy Girl" was an all time favourite for me. I've seen it too many times to remember.

*SPOILER ALERT*

If you havn't seen the movie and intend on watching it, don't read this.

Essentially, the movie centers around a fat but vocally talented girl. The first bit really is about how she "ghost sings" for a hot babe, and secretly admires her producer. Hahaha, my friend darren and I are in total agreement, that this is the least interesting part of the entire movie.

I mean ... fat girl hugging hot guy ..... veryyy interesting ... unique .... just not entertaining. I was in and out of my room, on the internet half of the time.

Fat girl loves hot guy, hot guy loves hot girls -----> therefore fat girl needs to look hot.

She goes for "full bodied" plastic surgery (If that is even possible), new boobs, new face, new eyes, new legs, new waist new everything. AND WALA!

Out of the sillicone factory emerges .... ... a thing of beauty!

Hahaha, i mean wowwww! This girl is soooooo hot! She has the innocence and beauty look built into her.

My favourite part of the movie comes when her overzealous driving skills lands her into the back of a taxi.

At first the cabbie responds typically (like how mine did when I rammed his back). Got out of the car, and started feigning inujury (Bloody taxi drivers , when they bang you, its about their family, when you bang them, its about their back).

Hahaha, he does this all the way until he sees that it is a hot babe who has banged into his back. And all of a sudden, it is totally ok. THE FIRST QUESTION HE ASKS is "Are you OKAY!!?"

I'm sorry to admit it, but if I were the cabbie, I'd do exactly the same thing. Ahhh the perks of being beautiful and wearing a skirt.

Watch it if you havn't. I will again for sure ....

Brand new me!

2007-09-05T23:52:00.000+08:00

Thanks to my pepper crazed intern Huiwen (see below for proof), I have got a new blog template!

Wooooo hoooooooo!

Now, the irony hasn't escaped me. Everyday, I look at dozens of blogs and I admire the effort people put into customizing them. Being the co-founder of South East Asia's LARGEST blog advertising community (yes Nuffnang IS), you would expect better from me right. I mean, the other boss (the infamous boss stewie) even had his blog header customized for him by one of his readers!!!

I decided that enough was enough! So today, I strolled into the office and declared boldly.

I WANT A NEW LOOK FOR MY BLOG!!!!!!

I sat myself comfortably on my 10 dollar plastic chair (yes, I'm cheap - the chairs at IKEA are like just over a hundred for really good ones but I end up just going and buying their cheapo battries instead), booted my laptop, put my fingers together and sat in deep thought.

For all of 5 seconds that is, right before I said to Huiwen, ok Huiwen, this is your task!

This is the result of her effort, and I must say, I like it! One more pack of chickadees for Yang Hui Wen!

Bored in KL

2007-08-29T11:33:00.000+08:00

I am in KL for a whirlwind trip.

Got here yesterday afternoon, and am leaving at 3pm today.

I'm in Ewe Tiam's apartment in the city waiting for Mr Darren Chin to come and pick me up to go eat some yummy food.

Damn bored, so I've been listening to my music.

This is a song that Ms Teo introduced to me.

It's entitled "Come down to me" and its by Saving Jane. The lyrics are insanely good. Hits the spot.

Check it.

"Come Down To Me"

Words fall out of my mouth
And I can’t seem to trace what I’m saying
Everybody wants your time
I’m just dreaming out loud,
I can’t have you for mine and I know it
I just wanna watch you shine.

Tripping up on my tongue,
It’s all over my face and I’m racing
Gotta get away from you
Burning all the way home,
Try to put it to bed but it chases
Every little thing I do

When the light falls on your face,
Don’t let it change you
When the stars get in your eyes,
Don’t let them blind you.

[CHORUS]
You’re beautiful
Just the way you are
And I love it all
Every line, and every scar
And I wish that I could make you see
This is where you ought to be,
Come down to me.

Spell it out in a song,
Bet you never catch on to my weakness
I’m singing every word for you.
Here I’m thinking I’m sly
Then you’re catching my eye, and just maybe
You’re thinking what I’m thinking too

When you see it on my face,
Don’t let it shake you
I know better than to try and
Take you with me.

[CHORUS X1]

Oh and I"m so bored, I'm actually checking out Terminal 3's website. It is quite interesting, if you're bored and nerdy like me. http://www.changiairport.com/t3/

Somewhere in changi ....

2007-08-21T20:17:00.000+08:00

I've been hanging out at Mike and Wendy's new place alot recently. That really is a feat considering they stay on the other side of Singapore, and I have an insane petrol bill as proof of that.

Now that they've got their own place, and a nice one at that, everytime I visit them, its reminiscent of my uni days in london which I really miss.

This is apt 205, my home for 2 years! Now rented out ... boo hoo!
>

In london, everybody has their own flats, and really we're living a self sufficient life in a sense (on our parent's account of course, which makes those years the best).

On a sunday, I'd troop down to arya's or tim's or kelly's, and we'd just chill out. Go out grocery shopping, buy food back in, cook, and eat over whatever was on TV. Probably Top Gear. At tim's we'd order in morley's indian food (THE BEST INDIAN TAKEAWAY IN THE WORLD), and my indian delivery man would be, "AHH DOI DOI, SARRR WHERE HAVE YOU BEENNNN!!?", and then we'd head off to the pub for a drink and some football.

It feels the same when I visit Mike and Wendy. One of the things you need to do when you move into a new place is to deck it out.

Making a house into a home. With space of your own, you find yet another compelling need to consume.

When I called on my favourite couple on Saturday afternoon, they were just taking delivery of their new sofa!

It took a while to assemble, but when done, behold a thing of beauty!!! YAY!

Now my mum has specifically told me, before you marry a girl, make sure she is neat and oraganised!

Wendy is the last person in this world I would think is organised (hehe :-p peace!), but I was surprised when I ventured into their bedroom.

She's set up a "princess corner". A deliberate ploy to "demanify" mike (he hou man, she dun like). EVERY SQUARE INCH OF THAT SECTION, where her computer is and there is a little sitting area is covered in pink! She plans to paint the walls pink too. To tell you the truth, I dunno why, I quite like it. I guess it speaks of her individual flavour. I dun think I'd like it if my gf did the same thing to our room, but .... hey ....

I've veered away from the point as I always do. Be amazed at how neatly she has arranged all her stuff!

Future wife, if you are reading this, you'll have to take tips from wendy before mum comes over to inspect our place. One other thing I noticed was that there was hand soap in the toilet. AGAIN, my mum has said, any home that does not have hand soap ... tsk tsk ... yes lah, my mum is quite the home maker! Very meticulous.

After dinner we headed off to carrefour to buy their bicycles.

As I was browsing the place, I found the perfect housewarming gift for the both of them! A pink rice cooker!

Dear wendy and mike, congratulations on your new home together.

The prime minister approves of cohabitation, and hopes to see many babies bouncing around soon enough lest the whole of singapore becomes like radin mas (After you get married lah .... wink wink).

And uncle ming would like to be godfather.

Where will you be in the end of days?

2007-08-19T11:06:00.001+08:00

I've said it before, and I'll say it again.

Chinese songs are the bomb! The amount of meaning and emotion they can pack into a single song is amazing. I was exploring my JJ lin CD (in my car of course) which I bought a while back, and I hit this song which I am now hooked on. Check it out.

阳光放弃这最后一秒
让世界被黑暗笼罩
惩罚着人们的骄傲
我忍受寒冷的煎熬
和北风狂妄的咆哮
对命运做抵抗
这是无法避免的浩劫
不论你以为你是谁
任何事情任何一切
喔亲爱的别难过
只要紧紧握着我的手
地球毁灭了以后
我仍爱你爱的不知天高地厚
为你再造一个新宇宙
不死之身不死的温柔
这是无法避免的浩劫
不论你以为你是谁
任何事情任何一切
喔亲爱的别难过只要紧紧握着我的手
撑着悲伤不回头
却感觉此刻你停不了的泪流
唯有爱才能永垂不朽
唯有你我才能找回我
唯有你我才能找回我
唯有你我才能找回我

If this song was translated and sung in English, it would sound so corny, but in chinese, its packed full of meaning.

This song brought to mind the movie deep impact. The striking image for me in that movie has always been Tea Leoni and her father standing on the beach and the looming shadow of this huge wave approaching them.

Would you rather be them or running for your life like the rest? More importantly than that is, who will you be with on the last day of life in this world? It ties in nicely with my favourite book in the whole world which I am reading again. What dreams may come. Read it, it is amazing.

Happy Bird day Huiwen

2007-08-13T16:01:00.000+08:00

Today is Huiwen's bird day!

She is now 20 years old! OLD OLD woman!

We went out for lunch at Suntec. And the kind people there helped organise a birthday cake with a trick candle that she couldn't blow out, and a birthday song.

HAPPY BIRD DAY TO YOU ... HAPPY BIRD DAY TO YOU!!!

Nuffnang SG's first community event!

2007-08-10T21:05:00.000+08:00

I just realised it's really tough working full time, having some semblance of a social life and blogging at the same time!

I really do wonder, how people like cowboy, janise, and all the rest do it!

Yesterday was national day, and it marked an event that me and Huiwen have been working on for 3 weeks! Nuffnang Singapore's first community event. An exclusive screening of Rush Hour 3.

I don't know how the rest of the team were feeling, but it was an electricity charged morning for me. 3 weeks of hard work was culminating in this single event, and I was well pumped up for it. Even though I slept at 2 in the morning the previous night, I was up early in the morning, preparing a mental checklist for what needed to be done.

I loaded up my car with stuff I needed. Got showered early and headed off to pick up Huiwen and headed off to our center of operations! 33 Kinta Road! We went there to meet the logistics guys.

Namely, Arsyan, Firdauz, Lance and Lee Meng!

The previous FRIDAY night, we had spent packing 230 goody bags in the office! It was great fun, and I'll put up photos of that when i have it. We formed a sort of production line around the meeting room and everybody did something. It was great fun being in the office so late. It made me feel a sort of homely family kind of feelng, which i loved. Arsyan said it felt more like a factory!

Anyway, what did the logistics guys have to do?

Load and unload my car of 230 goody bags, 2 banners, the I mac, Camera, extension cord.

Set the banners in place.

Ensure the food people set up the buffet in the right place.

LOOK AT ALL THOSE GOODY BAGS!!!

Of course they also had to set up the table, with the IMAC, for the preview of NN2.0. For those of you who missed it, here it is.

Surprisingly the queue started really early! We had just started setting up at about 12 (slightly behind schedule), and there were already people turning up!

Looks like the first come first serve issue helped to motivate them.

I was scatter brained, making sure everybody got their right seats, and ensuring the VIPs got their tickets quickly.

Even 15 minutes before the movie, the queue was so long. This just added to my anxity.
My friends, Denka, James, Louie, Daphne, Kathleen, Natasha, put together a congratulations banner for me. It was funny, I've put it up in the office to remind me of what great friends I have.

They even got everybody to sign it. It was good to see some mingling amongst the bloggers. Having said that, some negative comments have come through the pipeline about how there should have been ice breakers.

Whilst I do emphatise with some of these views, being social is very important at these kind of events. In my note, I emphasised intiative as being very important.

If you've got a person next to you, say hi! Start a conversation, and carry it on. The last thing we want to do is nanny one, and it is difficult to do so at an event of such scale, where there will undoubtedly be social clicks.

Here is TK and friends. Sheylara is probably my favourite female nuffnanger, and TK is officially my favourite male one! At the event, he prepared gifts for me and ewe tiam! That was a gesture I appreciated a great deal.

There was a soft toy of a rottweiler, real cute one! TK, I have a rottweiler at home too! And also a customized rottweiler teacup that he did up. I've displayed both proudly in my office. It really perks me up to see appreciative and proactive nuffnangers like him.

His blog post was amazing.

My friends, Brenna,n, Yinghan from Hitchoo, and Bernard from SG Entrepeneurs. Thank you Estee and Bernard for your Thank You email.
And my favourite couple, Wendy and Mike. Alvin and his wife.
Simply jean! After the event, she was one of those people who came up to me to say hi! Thank you for that. I'm sorry I could not speak longer, as I had to rush off for the National Day Parade.

There are so many people to thank for making this event a success. My friend Darren and his sister sharon for sponsoring our goody bags (Super Coffeemix). My friends Denka, James, Louie, Natasha, Kathleen for spearheading the banner. The entire Nuffnang team, Timothy, Suet Li (who was so chirpy the whole time I enjoyed headbutting her), Wen Qi, Arsyan, Firdauz, Lee Meng, and Lance.

Most importantly, to my favourite intern Huiwen, who despite going through some tough times, remained as proffesional as ever to pull this off. You are a star!

Update update!

2007-07-23T17:03:00.000+08:00

SOMEBODY has cam napped my exilim, therefore the lack of updates.

Hehe, instead of being apologetic for the lack of updates as I should be, I've decided to blame somebody else today.

Anyway, its been a couple of busy weeks. The fruits of the Nuffnang SG Teams' labours are going to be sown in the month of August.

I am pleased to announe that we have secured 3 significant deals in the month of august. Look out for these ads on hundreds of Nuffnang blogs.

Add that to our first Nuffnang event in Singapore, an exclusive screening of Rush Hour 3, and boy do we have our hands full!

Its all good though! I'm loving it sooo much. Really living the dream.

In case you all din't know, we were also featured on the Sunday Times (July 22nd, 2007) in the "Click" section, page 38. 3/4s of a page! Yay!

Here is the extract from the Straits Times Online (http://www.straitstimes.com/Click/Story/STIStory_141456.html- subscription needed)

Buck$ for Blog$

Thanks to Singapore firm Nuffnang, bloggers can turn their popularity into ad dollars
By Jamie Ee Wen Wei
ST PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: WANG HUI FEN & TAY CHERN HUI

"BLOGS were once the domain of daily musings, inconsequential chatter and random rantings.
But now, a local company wants to change that by bringing in advertising money for local bloggers.

Founded by Singaporean Cheo Ming Shen and his Malaysian counterpart, Timothy Tiah, Nuffnang provides an online platform to match bloggers with advertisers.

All bloggers need to do is to join its blog advertising community and fill up an online form, which provides details of their blogs and readerships that are used to match them with advertisers.
Launched in Malaysia in February, the blog advertising community - the first of its kind in Asia - was an instant hit, attracting 300 bloggers in just three days.

'We were only expecting 300 blogs in three months,' said Mr Cheo, 24, a graduate of the London School of Economics.

Two months later, the company started its Singapore community, and 1,800 bloggers have already joined.

Despite competition from similar online ad services such as Google AdSense, local bloggers are attracted to Nuffnang because it focuses on promoting local products and businesses, which means bloggers have a greater chance of clinching ads on their web space.
'There is no point showing somebody in Singapore an ad from the US, right? So if you sign up with Google Adsense, the ads appearing will be public service announcements, which pay zero dollars,' said local blogger Cowboy Caleb, who earned $200 in two weeks from Nike Singapore ads on his blog.

Depending on the number of unique visitors to their blogs, bloggers can earn from $2 to as much as $2,000 a week for ads placed on their blogs.

Big-time bloggers such as Wendy Cheng, also known as Xiaxue, can easily earn about $1,000 a week, said Mr Cheo.

But personal blogs with a smaller readership are benefiting from this service too.
Final-year psychology student Estee Teo, who keeps a personal blog that has up to 150 hits a day, said she earned about $7 a week from ads for Hitchoo.com, a dating website. The money, though meagre, stokes the ego.

'It feels good that someone actually wants to put their ad on my blog,' said Ms Teo.
For advertisers, the playing field seems huge.

A study by media agency Universal McCann said that Singapore's community of bloggers and blog-readers has increased dramatically in the last six months. About 75 per cent of Singapore's netizens - about 2.5 million people - have read at least one blog in the past six months. By March, 36 per cent of them had blogs of their own.

So far, at least five companies, including Nike Singapore and Hitchoo.com, have run ads on blogs under Nuffnang.

But local advertisers remain conservative. According to a report by Nielsen Media Research, Singapore's online advertising expenditure accounted for only 2 per cent of the market's total advertising spending in March this year. The total advertising expenditure was almost $2 billion last year.

Still, Mr Cheo is confident that blog advertising will pick up among advertisers.
'They have waited a long time for this, and they are very happy to explore this new medium,' he said.

And there is always the dream of becoming the next big thing on the Internet.
'Who doesn't want to be the next Google?' Mr Cheo said."

It's wierd to be quoted in the newspapers.

Perhaps in the future when i blog, I will blog in third person. Mr Cheo said ....

Anyway will update with photos when I get my camera back from a certain egotistical cam napper.

Wadeper!

2007-07-19T22:25:00.000+08:00

I lurpe how the thais talk, and this ad is fantastic.

Everytime I see it, I think of Lau Neo, going whatever!!! whatever!!! Classic lah.

Nuffnang singapore welcomes Hui Wen to the team!

2007-07-04T22:07:00.000+08:00

The entire nuffnang team, which now numbers 10, would like to welcome our newest addition to the family.

Hui Wen has joined Nuffnang as a marketing intern for a week, and she has hit the ground running.

I'm sure a number of you have recieved her email replies. Besides that, she will also be involved in pitching to potential advertisers, and spearheading the organisation of Nuffnang Singapore's first event!

Look out for details, its going to be insanely good!

This is she!

And her blog entry about her experience of working with Nuffnang Singapore so far.

We are still hiring! So do drop us an email at admin AT nuffnang.com if you are interested!

Kindly attach your CV. Only shortlisted candidates will be notified.

The lovers, the dreamers, and me.

2007-06-27T23:55:00.000+08:00

I'm a nostalgic character, and right now, I'm really missing my uni years.

It's funny how you never really enjoy the moment for what it is,

Song of the moment ....

London Town Part 2

2007-06-18T17:08:00.000+08:00

Sorry for the lack of updates, I've been sooo busy with Nuffnang Singapore.

Anyway, I did promise sometme back to blog about my trip to London. So here goes ... ....

London is one of the most charming cities to my mind. I love singapore and all, but having lived in London for 3 years, it comes in a close second.

Whats to love u ask? Yeah sure, the weather is crap, public services inefficient, environment polluted (You blow your nose at the end of the day, and you'll see), it is almost the antithesis of our beautiful garden city (which incidentally too many singaporeans take for granted)

London is like a playboy/girl.

You can't help but love them, you know they're trouble, but you can't stay away. A city of paradoxes, you could be walking from a ghetto straight into a swanky street with SUVs, and neatly kept garden squares, with victorian houses. There is always so much to discover. All these small restaurants and shops, that never cease to excite, simply because they are so unexpected. It brings out the adventurous side in people i figure. The passionate side.

Anyway, my dad had been expecting to stay in the UK for a week to sort out some business concerns, however he had to head back earlier due to a bad back.

I decided to give my sister a lifeline, and so played babysitter to her while I bunked in at Kelly's. Thank you Ms Cheeeee!!!

Good news was that we had the car! Which we had rented for the entire week. So after dropping my parents off at HeathroW midweek, I drove into london with the help of my navigator, who quite frankly, wasn't doing a particularly great job :-p, although we got there eventually.

Having paid for the congestion charge, I thought I would be adventurous and drive around london.

So after picking up jennifer from Rosebery hall (and driving around the whole of london not by choice), I declared enthusiastically that we were off to hampstead (a well to do surburb of london) to seek out an adventuorous eat! A gastronomic treat tucked away in a corner of an emerald green park perhaps.

The enthusiasm din't last as long as I had expected, and the wails of two girls who were dying of hunger eventually brought us to Nandos! At the O2 center.

Not that I really minded all that much.

I lurrrpppe Nandos, and we don't have it in Singapore! Its basically bbq'd chicken with spicy sauce. The restaurant has this whole fish and co vibe, but its soooo good, especially when its cold and dreary outside (The sun was finally out though).

Thats me and jennifer bennifer.

No trip to hampstead would be complete without eating the best crepes in the worlllllddddd! And it looked like the gods were smiling on me, cause I got a car park right opposite the stand.

Thinking it wouldn't take long to eat a couple of crepes, I put in money for half an hour, and walked across.

With crepes in our hands, I really couldnt bear to just sit still at a spot and eat. I wanted to take in the beauty of the surroundings, the tree lined avenue, and the pretty little shops. So we gayly walked down hampstead high road, and peered into every little shop. Until we got to a nice leafy green shade, and sat down, taking in the breeze.

Now is the time to declare that I HATE london parking attendants (KNN CCB). An otherwise perfect afternoon was ruined by an overzealous parking attendant, who despite being told by some kind by passers that I was walking up the hill (When I saw him, running), issued me a 50GBP fine. I gave him a dirty look, and said listen dude, it's on you.

I doubt he gave a shit.

Ok anyway besides, getting lost by driving around, eating peri peri hot chicken, crepes and getting fines. What else is there to do in London?

Shopping lah doi!!!

Now I'm not a big fan of shopping. But having chosen to bring my sister along with me to London, I had no choice but to bring her around shopping and be a "good kor kor". We ditched the car on the second day and took the bus .... ..... thats us on the way shopping ... boo hoo.

Our first stop!? Harrods of course! My dodo sister, claimed she had never gone to harrods in her life! Even though we make on average 2 trips to the UK a year! And I wanted to pick up some souvenirs for certain privileged people, so off to Knightsbridge we went!

Harrods and the entire area of knightsbridge has a real swanky feel. You feel powerful, rich, trendy when you're walking around this area. In fact you feel like pointing your fingers at someone and going bang bang, check me out. Or maybe, thats just me.

But reallyyy, which other departmental store in the world has an opera singer in the middle of all the action. Her beautiful voice bounced off the ceiling and columns with great effect, as though we were in the middle of a dream.

At least I got my dose of high culture. My sister was clearly happy too.
And the happiest ending!??? Why krispy kreme doughnuts hot off the press of course... MY PRECIOUSSSSSS ... I kid you not, I used to eat 2 of these every morning before heading out for lectures, all the way till I felt a little heartburn come on ....

Now remember what I said about all these great restaurant finds in london? When I was studying there, me and my friends would actually make it a point to find somewhere new and eat there, week in week out. Its how we mixed it up a little.

Ms Chee had excitedly told me of certain new places she wanted to bring me to. But to tell you the truth, I wasn't particularly convinced of her taste. She proved me wrong with alllll her choices. They were simply splendid.

The first night, I had demanded Indian food. There are a number of indian restaurants in Angel, Southbank and Paddington that would know me very well. In the 3 years I was in London, and had lived in some of these places, I would order Indian in at least 3 times a week. And I would order the same dishes. VINDALOOOOO, BOMBAY ALOOO and MUSHROOM PILAU. I promise you, the Indian Connesieur, in Paddington did not even have to take my name or address. As soon as I said my order, they would be like ... ok see you laturr boss.

OHHH HOW YOUR TUMMY RUMBLES AFTER A HOOTT HOOTTT CURRY! GLORIOUSSS!!! They just do not do it the same over here. It is not half as hot, and that seriously sucks asss!

Anyway, Kelly's choice for Indian was this place in angel called "rooburoo". The first test had failed. I mean what kind of name is that! I was more used to maharajah of india, or taj mahal, or taste of india, or something like that! This sounded more like an australian restaurant.

And then look at the starter! It looks more like mashed potatos! Whats this shit? AHHH DOI DOI! I thought this was another case of "pretty, and tastes like crap".

I was wrong. The starter was actually quite decent.

And as they piled on the main courses, my sweet friend, familiarity sat down on our table and lit up all these people's faces! And mine too.

For the price the portions are generous, and the curries, actually pretty darn decent (Although still not as good as my trashy takeout). Plus, the mushroom dish was excellent (If you're going to please me, do it with good mushroommms! YUMMYYYYYY! No chinese mushrooms though. eeeEee!)For 11 pounds, you get a starter, main course, and desert! What a good deal! Kelly= 1 BROWNIE POINT (250 brownie points for something nice from ming!)

Kelly's next choice, was a place just down the road from hers. A pizza place. I'm no big fan of pizza, and I had resisted this all the way. I mean, if I wanted pizza, I'd just dial 2353535 when I was back home and eat trashy pizza hut pizza over a korean drama.

Last minute with no better ideas, I decided, Ms Chee was right the first time, she could be right the second (Yes I've known her for yearrsss, but the thought of how her noodles looked in sixth form still haunted me).

CHECK THIS OUT!!! LOOK AT THE SIZEEE OF THAT PIZZA! Its 21 inches wide! Crazyyyy. Thats ted with me by the way. He's a hot shot banker, who will go far for sure, you know it instantly when you meet somebody like him. He's promised to charge me cheap cheap for my IPO.

And the rest of the gang. L-R, Jasmine, Kelly, Scott, Jia Yi. I've really got to start trusting my friends. The pizza's size being a novelty and all would not save the restaurant from a bad review, but to tell you the truth, it was pretty darn good tooooo. The crust was pretty thin, and quite crispy too. Only gripe is that we really should have ordered extra mushroom toppings ... ... .... Kelly- 2 brownie points! YAY!

Kelly had been on a roll, so when she told me of a fabulous dim sum place near my apartment (which I stayed in for 2 years, and is now rented out-here it is), I was well excited. YUM CHAAA!!!!!

The restaurant name is Pearl Liang, and its located at Paddington Central, a mixed development that my parents had considered before choosing West End Quay.

The undisputed place to YUM CHA in London before had been Royal China on Baker Street, but the first impression of this place was great. Check out the decor, very contemporary, not at all what you'd expect of a typical london chinese restaurant.

More importantly was the food! We had a feast. Crispy duck (A western creation that kelly insisted on having), Xiao Long Bao, Char Siew Pao, Lou Pa Ko, Cheong Fun, the works basically.

I was dammnned impressed. I mean the xiao long bao for example was actually comparable to Ding Dai Fung, and the rest of the dishes were on par if not better than crystal jade palace at Taka, whose quality has deproved over time.

This is the gang. Good friends I had not seen in a while. It was truly great to see them again.

Cosy and cool restaurants, shopping, peri peri hot chicken, fines, what else!?

Why weekend markets of course!

In my 3 years there, I'm glad to say I've explored almost every major weekend market in London. It's great fun to do on a sunday. Pack my camera in, and head off, sometimes by myself, sometimes with friends.

One of my favourites being so close by to my apartment is Portobello in Notting hill. To get there, I've got to walk through Westbourne Grove/Notting Hill, which is another one of those attas and trendy areas. Yes, I do have the attas blood running through my veins. I like leading a life of extravagance. Trust me, I'm the one who's going to buy an A380 as a private jet if I can afford it! Green peace activists eat your heart out, and suck my fumes in! MWAAHAHAHAHAHA.
Ah yes, the life.

Portobello market is a pretty big weekend market, that runs on Saturday and Sunday. There are three main sections, Antiques, Clothing/Bric a Brac and Food.

Its got a real festive vibe about it. Its happening in Singapore, but I really do support busking. Walking through the tube to the sound of a harp for example really does perk up my day, and I try to show my appreciation whenever my mood allows.

And for girls at least the handmade jewellry and stuff is quite cool. I mean, I don't normally encrouage my sister to spend money, but on one off and unique accessories, I told her go ahead. Buy a piece from Zara for example and you'll see every third person wearing it. Pretty shite if you ask me. Not that I'm a fashion authority in any capacity!

Ms Chee buying fruits.

And look at the PAELLAAA!!!! Spanish la vida loca!!!! Pricks refused to have their photo taken, and turned their backs on me.

Anyway, we couldn't stay long, as I had a flight to catch in the evening. AND I had to buy a duck back! Yes from four seasons! Boss stewie's favourite! My mum was having a MJ session, so I thought it'd be cool for her friends to have duck from London. Once again, thank you kelly for packing it for me! WHAT WOULD I DO WITHOUT YOU! I lurpe youuu!

Whilst a real short trip, it was a great one. Especially seeing my friends again. Really must apologise to them for being so anti social at times, particularly with my little friend following everywhere! DAMN YOU MR BLACKBERRY! DUN YOU WAVE AT ME!!!! BANG BANG!

Even in the lounge, I couldn't help but log on to monitor my server load and check my emails. AIYAH STRESS! 13 hours without internet! HOWWWW!!!! Lucky I've got a good partner and team! 13 hours later and I was back home unpacking my wares!

It only hit me how much I had bought after I unpacked. A sense of satisfaction settled.

I mean a RYAN GIGGS SIGNED JERSEY! United I love you! YES I DO! The guy is an absoloute legend, playing over 700 games for Man U, and having won more medals than anybody in English footbal history. A true man u fan through and through, when he was playing for man city academy, he was even chided for turning up in red. I'm collecting all this sports memorabilia so when I move out to my own place, I'll have a sports themed room, either the home theatre or the study!

So far i've got hand signed george best, ryan giggs, and christiano ronaldo jerseys. Plus countless scarves and the greatest prize of all. A hand signed PELE book! My preccioouusususss!

Also got some DVDs which are really hard to find in Singapore. Like a picture of britain! The perfect BBC documentary for rainy days when I start missing the UK. It takes you through the beautiful landscapes in britain and gives you a running commentary from poets, artists, and composers who were inspired by those very landscapes. Its sooo good i promise. Especially over a vindaloo ... yum.

And how could I forget my weekly read! "Nuts" magazine! My sisters calls it porn! But really its a one stop resource for everything man! Football news, gadgets, sick shit! Who could ask for more. All that juicy info for 70P! STEAL!

And of course the usual web design magazines, .net, HBR, and forbes (which I stole from the lounge).

PHEWWWW! What a long entry. Its probably a little haphazard, and I've got to give it to wendy for pulling off long posts!

2007-06-10T16:22:00.000+08:00

I long for scenes where man has never trod;
A place where woman never smil'd or wept;
There to abide with my creator, God,
And sleep as I in childhood sweetly slept:
Untroubling and untroubled where I lie;
The grass below--above the vaulted sky.

Soooo busy!!!

2007-06-07T19:28:00.000+08:00

Nuffnang has been growing leaps and bounds.

After arriving back from London on Sunday afternoon, I flew off to Penang on Monday to help consolidate and grow our team.

The nuffnang community has been undergoing tremendous growth. We now have 4,000 bloggers spread across Malaysia and Singapore, and are negotiating on many fronts to get bloggers deals.

This means greater demands on our website, and thus the need to expand the technical team, and also greater demands for more ads, thus the need to expand our marketing and admin team.

No we're not making money yet! But hey, you need to invest for future growth!

Look at how full our office is!!! We've had to buy and put up two extra tables in our room.

Yesterday (wednesday) was also boss steweie's bday, so we took the opportunity to have a company lunch at one of our advertiser's restaurant! Food Loft at gurney plaza!

I'm not saying this because they gave us the business, but the place is pretty impressive. The decor is very tasteful and the view idyllic. Check it out.

It's kind of like the marche concept, but with a more international flavour. There is chinese, italian, japanese to choose from. YOu get a card at the door, and rake up the charges by ordering and presenting your card.

The happy Nuffnang team lapping up all the good food.

After the lunch, I introduced the latest initiative in our google wannabe board (our staff welfare initiative). In jan/feb, we introduced medical benefits for our staff, March/April, was the introduction of our cheesels filled pantry.

For may and june, I thought we should continue pursuing our aim of being a learning organisation. As such, I introduced an annual book allowance for our staff to grow our library.

You can't really call it a library at the moment, here it is, but one day, when we have our own Nuffnang campus office, an entire room will be a dedicated library!

I've been told the latest programming resources can be found online, and printed publications lag behind. Nonetheless, I hate reading online, and felt it would be a good practice to have some of these books as training material, and quick references that our staff could take back home.

Therefore, I brought all my guys to MPH after lunch to shop!

Look at them here, engrossed in the latest programming and graphic design material!

A good shopping trip extended the size of our libary by that bit closer to my dream of an entire room filled with books.

It is satisfying to see a company grow. Satisfying to see so many people huddled over computers, laughing and joking with one another. It made me understand why google has a philosophy of cramming as many people into as small a space as possible.

This week I interviewed and hired 3 extra people! Two for the technical team, and one for the marketing team. As radical as that may sound, we are not stopping there!

First of alll deng deng deng deng ..... (sorry tiam), we're starting an office in KL! It's clear that most of boss stewie's meetings are there, therefore the need for a base. I'll let tiam tell you guys the rest.

At the same time, we're stepping up the recruitment program for the singapore office. At this point of time, we need interns.

London town part 1

2007-06-03T18:17:00.000+08:00

I was planning to follow up on my UK life entry a while back, and continue on about my years in London. But this entry will do just as well I think!

It had been about 11 months since I was last in London for graduation, and I really missed it. So when the opportunity to go on a family holiday popped up, and all at Nuffnang looked stable, I thought I'd better jump on the chance, as I was not sure when it would come again.

Off we were on Sat morning.

Thanks to my parents, we got to fly the comfortable way up. It's only on family holidays that we are afforded the luxury of flying raffles class instead of coach. And all the way till the last minute, we were waitlisted.

Seee ... very happy sister and me (my other sister stayed home due to exams, and my parents were up front).

On a 14 hour flight, raffles class is a god send. Not only is the seat so much wider, and you don't have to jostle for elbow space. It extends out to a bed, and you sleep like a baby. And the foooodd is a wholleeee lot better ... I never understood why they can't do the same in economy class.

For the appetiser, you get satay! Which is surprisingly really good. Especially their nuttyy peanut sauce.

Starters, are normally a salad with some sort of seafood. This one is smoked salmon with salad. The dressing is very tasty. And to top it off, fresh, hot garlic bread. Yum

For the main course, lamb chops! Purrrfectooo .... ok so it ain't exactly michelin starred cuisine, but its a hell lot better than normal airplane chow.

Deserts inclde Haggen Daz (Not enough for you Ewe Tiam, BYOT), cheese and fruits.

Touching down in London at 1800, and walking out of the plane into heathrow brought back a flourish of memories. The airport has this smell .... its hard to describe, but it smells of london.

Normally when I come in, I would take the train back to Paddington, where my flat is located. I lurrpeee my flat. 15 mins, a quickstep, and I'm at my door, another half an hour, I've got my favourite curry delivered and I'm watching Top Gear on BBC. Ahhhh ...

This time however, the family was going up to Northampton, about an hour away from London, where we have our family retreat. So we picked up our rental car, and drove up there.

Being summer, I had expected to be greeted by blue skies and sunshine. BUt all the way up ... it was pouring rain. At the time to be frank, I was soaking it in, and loving it. It was a sign I was back in the UK, and I was loving every moment of it. My mum, was like, "You siao lah!"

The nostalgic love din't last long tho. The rain continued all the way till tuesday. So for the next few days, I was basically doing what I always do! Staring at the screen and working on Nuffnang. Making sure all our bloggers are happy, my programmers and team know what to do, my client's campaigns are performing well, etc.

A slight pause here. I LURPEEE YOUUU WENDYYYYY!!!! Yes, that is a public declaration of love for Ms Xiaxue! With her entry, the Nuffnang community has grown leaps and bounds in Singapore. We now have 1,000 bloggers in the community. And with that meant, when I opened my admin mailbox, I was getting a gazillion emails a day!

In case you're wondering. I reply to all these emails personally. I could very well leave it to one of my colleagues, but I believe, nobody knows Nuffnang better than the founders. And as far as possible, we should be accessible to everybody. From the smallest blogger to the biggest. Our offices are literally opened to any Nuffnanger. Come by for a coffee the next time you're in the area!

Anyway, we did get out a little bit. My mum was whipping up a storm. She is the queen of the kitchen, and reallly sets the standard! The wifey will have to take lessons.

Shopping for groceries at British supermarkets give me such a thrill, it worries me sometimes! Just pushing a cart around and picking up all kinds of great food, comfort food, and the like is so satisfying.

There is just so much more variety in the Uk than in Singapore. And its sooo big. I mean ... I don't quite get the same feeling when I'm shopping at Giant. The varieties of meats, the cuts, the way they're packed, veges, sauces, everythinggg!!!

Even ROSES! I mean you know how much trouble it is to get a date nice roses here. They come from China or something. You've got to go to a really posh florist to get roses like these!

In the UK, Tescos and 7.99 in your pocket will do. BRILLIANT!

This is our happy cart. Notice all the organic produce. My mum is also a huge fan or British supermarkets because she can buy organic.

The first 3 dinners in Northampton, we had Chicken Curry, Roast Pork (Siu Yok), and Chicken Rice. Hahaha, we weren't really in the UK.

There was also the trip down to Northampton town centre for lunch and shopping.

I'm about to reveal a secret .... ...

THE BEST FISH AND CHIPS IN THE UK IS IN NORTHAMPTON!

This is it! GLORIOUS!

My dad and me. About to wallop one of those!

Ok lah, enough about food for now. Let me give you a little tour around our family retreat in northampton. I've always been a country boy. I love taking hikes in the english countryside, and Overstone Park Golf Course where we have our home, is a wonderful place to do that.

So whilst my sister and mum were engaged in the kitchn preparing dinner, I decided to take a country stroll (hehe, ain't life grand!)

This is our humble abode overlooking the golf course.

The clubhouse, which has an indoor heated pool, sauna, gym, restaurant, aerobics room, etc.

The wildlife and the beautiful lake

Geese and their droppings ....

Duckling and mother duck

Bunny wunny, who was very good at evading capture by crazed singaporean ...with cute bunny lust.

Grazing horses

Horse riding

The ruins of a manor overlooking the golf course. Stunning.

The mascot of overstone park golf course.

MAJULAH SINGAPURAAAA ... majulah singapura!!!

There is nothing better, than a walk through the country side. The natural beauty of my surroundings had calmed whatever stress, and nerves I had, and I was at total peace.

My phone rang as I was nearing the house. My sister. Dinner was ready.

Next entry about London.

Where was ming the pirate?

2007-05-25T17:20:00.000+08:00

Yes I think I owe my malaysian nuffnangers an apology! I should have been at Pirates dressed as a genie, but instead I was in Singapore.

I've got a good excuse however.

A couple of weeks back, I got an email from the digital movement who were interested in getting Nuffnang involved in an event they were putting together.

The Digital Movement consists of a bunch of geeks and geekettes, who've come together to explore technology and its impact on society. They successfully pulled off a major event called Nexus earlier in the year, and were following up with a smaller, more targeted event for bloggers called Blog Out!

Hahaha, don't ask me why, but they set their first meeting with me on a Saturday! And the night before, I had brought Su Ann for phantom and prawn fishing till 3AM, after which I woke up at 7 to send her off to her coach station. So yes, I woke up at 11AM, and ambled to my car where I had left my mobile, and had like 7 missed calls and messages. I was like "FUGGGGGGG!!!!!!!" I hate being late, it gives me a terrible feeling. Literally, I flew out of my jammies, brushed my teeth, and headed out looking like a train had just hit me.

Hehe, ok, so the guys were looking for a sponsor, but still, they were very nice about me being late. I would have been KNN I'm going to kick some butt! My coffee is cold, get me a new one biatch!

Anyway, I don't know why, I don't know how! But 24th of May seems to be a magical date. You see, I actually had 3 events of momentous importance to choose from that day.

1) Nuffnang Pirates of the Caribbean 3

2) Blog out

and

3) Champions League Final

I'm sure most of you know I'm a die hard man u fan. And leading 2-1 in the first leg, I was pretty sure I was off to Athens. I mean I would literally BEG, BORROW and STEAL to catch Man U vs Liverpool. I was going to PULL EVERY SINGLE STRING I HAD to get to this dream match.

The night before the second leg of the AC milan game, I told Ewe Tiam, you had better pray Man U loses, because if they're in, there is no chance I'm missing it.

I got up early in the morning dreaming of the treble, I crawled back into bed, stoned, and stared at the ceiling for the next hour before tiredness overcame me.

So it was now between Blog Out and Pirates.

I REALLY wanted to go for Pirates, but I thought, Blog Out was going to be an awesome event (being organised by awesome people), and at the same time, supporting this event kinda meant initiating our very first Nuffnang Singapore initiative. So I HAD to stay ... boo hoo hoo ....

Was I dissapointed?

Not at all (Estee twisting my arm here)! The event was held at the Geek Terminal, a new tech based cafe for geeks. Pretty nice place at Market Street, within the financial district. the place was set up pretty well.

What do you come to a blog meet for? To meet bloggers right!?

Well, I met a cool dude called Kevin. Mr Kevin goes around everywhere with a backpack that would make Inspector gadget look like a school boy.

He's got these two cameras on his shoulders that film everything he does. Hehe, except for the essential things la .... ... its just the bare necessities, the simple bare necessities, la la la. Check it out here.

This is he.

And that is me too by the way with my Nuffnang tie, which the Nuffnang team, my second family bought for me! Thank you guys, it was undoubtedly my best bday present, and that says alot cause I got a whole lot of good shit!

Then there was Genie, a Singer who launched her album on her blog! Quite a cool story. She's bubbly and really friendly, so it was a true pleasure to meet a superstar in the making. I mean, how cool is it, if one day, you've got a girlfriend singing her song in the KTV ... I'd be like ... hey ... I know her ... and then next time I'd see her, she'lll be like mingg whoooo??? Nuffnangg whatt???

Photo!

One of our Nuffnang members has been so enthusiastic about the event, I was very much looking forward to meeting her.

None other than Sheylara! A great supporter of the Nuffnang community, and a great writer, and freelance actress! Actually I call her Sheylara so much, maybe I should call her by her real name from now on ...

The program included a panel discussion

And roundtable discussions where everybody could choose what topics they wanted to participate in.

Here is bernard who is a guru in all things football (we talked football over wine with his irish lecturer friend), holding up the topic on my table!

I think our table was the most lively one. And the views represented were engaging and thougtful.

Overall, a well planned and executed event.

One last thing I've got to say. Credit must go to Estee of the digital movement. Yes I am singling out a person, whilst I understand how important the team is to everything.

From planning the event, to communicating with the sponsors, and doing a damn great job at MC-ing, she was splendid.

This is she

KUDOS to her and the team for an event well done. Zhen He, Chern Jie, and the rest!

And thanks for the cup. Its great!

Bye kitty

2007-05-18T12:53:00.000+08:00

I've always been a dog person.

Today, my brother picked up a stray cat which he had witnessed being run over by a car.

He brought it home and had to rush off for a meeting. I had to get derek to send it in to the vet as I was busy with an upcoming campaign in Singapore. Our first.

I put the little kitty in a box, put in some water in a container, and sent it off. The kitty looked bewildered, a little dazed as I carried the box out to the car.

The vet called back and said it would cost $250 to put it through a number of tests, and hospitalize it for one night.

I was going to come out with the money but my parents thought otherwise, and said we should put it to sleep instead.

At first I was very sad, but I can see where they're going. We've got two dogs in the house, and even on the off chance this kitty survived, who's going to take care of it?

But yet, to have life snuffed out of you so early in your life ....

Sad.

A simple song

2007-05-17T23:21:00.000+08:00

I was going through baidu.com, and I came across this song by Wang Lee Hom. Translated, it's called "A simple song". Wow, it sure hits the spot. Chinese songs really have a complexity that is at times hard to match. The imagery of nature he uses is so strong, yet true to the theme of the song- simplicity. To describe something so many find hard to express.

Enjoy. And do read the lyrics! Amazing stuff.

这世界很复杂,
混淆我想说的话
我不懂,
太复杂的玩法
什么样的礼物
能够永远记得住
让幸福别走的太仓促
云和天,蝶和花
从来不需要说话
断不了依然日夜牵挂
唱情歌,说情话
只想让你听清楚
我爱你是唯一的倾诉

写一首简单的歌,
让你的心情快乐
爱情就像一条河
难免会碰到波折
这一首简单的歌,
并没有什么独特
好像我
那么的平凡却又深刻

我一直在思考
让你了解我的好
却忘了
常常对你微笑
失去的忘记的
我会尽力去弥补
你是我最珍贵的财富

简单的歌
wo~
en~

好像我
那么的平凡却又
深刻

------end------

UK Life Part 1

2007-05-10T23:37:00.000+08:00

It's been a good 10 months since I left London. And I really do miss the place.

To tell you the truth, having done my 'A' levels in Cambridge, I had fallen in love with the university town concept. It is "quaint" to say the least, and I've never been a city person.

Ah the days at The Leys School Cambridge, still rank amongst the best of my life. On a sunny sunday, a bunch of us would walk into town, get into a punt, row under the willow trees and just relax. It was amazing.

I've dug out some old scanned photos to give you a sense of what life was like. But really, they don't those times justice.

I loved how we had to dress up in our blazers, and ties for class. There was a certain decorum we had to present as English gentlemen. Chapels on sundays were an opportunity to wear coloured shirts (A privilege normally reserved for house boys and girls).

Classes were a real event. I mean I distinctly remember, one day for English literature, the sun was out in all its glory, and the teacher Mr Kelly just said, lets head out there, for this class!

So there we were, stretched out on the lawn, basking in the sun, reading poetry. Every single verse was read with that much more emotion. I left that class, with a total sense of satisfaction, so hard to find in most instances, but so easily achieved in this one.

Here we are on a punt. From L-R, Isabelle from Germany, Julian from Ipoh, Philipp from Germany, Roman from Russia and Alan from Taiwan.

Prom night! What a laugh looking at this one hehe.

I made some of my closest friends here. Hahaha. Every saturday night we were allowed a night out on the town. So we would walk across the fen to granta or somewhere else, down a couple of pints and bugger back to drink more.

Except for me lah. The most I would oblige my friends was a pint of cider. Afterwards I would get into my room, and lock it! The whole night, my friends would be banging on my doors and offering me vodka. Hahah, with the slight throb in my head, just enough to put me to sleep, I would ignore it! I remember how one night, Roman, my russian friend even did a commando, climbed the roof and tried to get in from my window (It was a sort of loft room).

Then there were the trips! Official and unofficial!

Italy! OH MY GOD ITALY! The best trip ever! Man so much shit happened on that trip its not even funny.

Here we are eating desert in one of those roadside cafes in Rome, soooo nice I tell you. The four of us I remember, walked back, under the red glow of roman streetlamps, in the middle of the road, to our hotel. We really din't want the night to end. And on the way back, we din't say much, possibly because we just did not want to spoil the moment.

Weiyao, Mike and Myself, in Capri! Still the place I want my dream mansion.

There was also the trip to America, which I can't seem to find photos of. And later after graduation, Roman, Kelly, Philipp and myself went off to Bangkok and Koh Samui for a good time.

Woh that was another hell of a trip.

There were these four wheel pickups for rent on the island. And none of us had a license besides Kelly, but we din't care and they din't either. And to tell you the truth, even without a license, I definitely drove better than kelly who nearly got Roman and Philipp killed. Yes, that is my best girl friend for you.

Here she is, taking it easy as we hike up a waterfall trail. Hahaha, roman got leaches stuck on him as he went under the waterfall, thinking it would be more like a scene out of "blue lagoon".

So vivid in my mind, was how as we were driving back, and we hit the coast, the scene of a pink sky, reflecting off the sea's surface. That was quite something. Again, another one of those moments, you just can't buy.

If I could turn back time ...... that would be the moment I would rewind back to. And that night in Rome.

2007-05-09T00:03:00.000+08:00

I just got back from another round of Phantom!

Thanks for the evening pat. Was good, even the 8th time round!

And for the benefit of a friend who has never seen phantom, I've put on the classic here. This is da bomb.

Past the point of no return

2007-05-06T14:50:00.000+08:00

I caught Phantom of the Opera (The stage version) for something like the 7th time on Saturday.

I saw it first when it came to Singapore in the 90s, then again when I was studying my A's in cambridge, twice on holidays to London, the uni years, and now twice in space of 5 days (I'm going again on Tuesday). Pretty intense stuff. My family is going again on the last night, but I said no more!

To tell you the truth though, I don't really mind. It is by far my favourite musical.

The composition of the lyrics is just insane. The plot, characters, themes involved more complex than any other contemporary musical out there.

There is of course the classic duet, "All I ask of you" which is the quintessential example of love embodied in lyrics.

The track that is stuck in my head this moment though is "The point of no return".

I've uploaded the stage version onto my imeem profile for your benefit. Read the lyrics while you listen to it. It is incredible.

Hehe, and check out the phantom souvenirs I got. Yes, I got the mask! Hehe, might come in handy at my next halloween party mah or the planned masquerade party!

Phantom Of The Opera - The Point Of No Return Lyrics

(Phantom)
Past the point of no return -
no backward glances:
the games we played till now
are at an end . . .

Past all thought of "if" or "when" -
no use resisting:
abandon thought,
and let the dream descend . . .

What raging fireshall flood the soul?
What rich desire unlocks its door?
What sweet seduction lies before us . . .?
Past the point of no return,
the final threshold, what warm,
unspoken secrets will we learn?
Beyond the point
of no return . . .

AMINTA (CHRISTINE)
You have brought me to that moment
where words run dry, to that moment
where speech disappears into silence,
silence . . .

I have come here, hardly knowing
the reason why . . .
In my mind, I've already
imagined our bodies entwining
defenceless and silent -
and now I am here with you:
no second thoughts, I've decided,
decided . . .

Past the point of no return
no going back now:
our passion-play has now, at last,
begun . . .

Past all thought of right or wrong -
one final question:
how long should we two wait, before
we're one . . .?

When will the blood begin to race
the sleeping bud burst into bloom?
When will the flames, at last, consume
us . . .?

BOTH
Past the point of no return
the final threshold, the bridge
is crossed, so stand and watch it burn . . .

We've passed the point of no return . . .
(By now the audience and the POLICE have realized that SIGNOR PIANGI is dead behind the curtain, and it is
the PHANTOM who sings in his place. CHRISTINE knows it too. As final confirmation, the PHANTOM sings):

PHANTOM
Say you'll share with me one
love, one lifetime . . .
Lead me, save me from my solitude . . .
(He takes from his finger a ring and holds it out to her.
Slowly she takes it and puts it on her finger.)
Say you want me with you,
here beside you . . .
Anywhere you go let me go too,
Christine that's all I ask of . . .

The Launch of Nuffnang.com.sg

2007-04-30T03:15:00.000+08:00

A Singaporean Community Awakens!

Why Nuffnang Singapore so long lah?

When Nuffnang.com.my was launched on the 27^th of Febuary, 2007, we thought the launch of Nuffnang.com.sg would follow shortly after.

We were thinking two weeks after.

It has been almost 2 months now! For this we must apologize to the Singaporean blogosphere.

The response in Malaysia took our whole team off guard. The original aim had been to sign up 300 bloggers in 3 months. That was what we got within a week! Today, the Nuffnang community in Malaysia is 1500 bloggers strong, and still growing. We are a platform with incredible reach and influence, and a force to be reckoned with.

As a Singaporean, success in Malaysia has been an enlightening, humbling and heartwarming experience. The way Malaysians rallied behind a local product, with cries of “Malaysia Boleh!” underscored an admirable sense of patriotism and support for local enterprise. Over the past 2 months, I have also had to privilege of meeting many Malaysian bloggers and truthfully, the pleasure has been all mine.

Nuffnang Singapore! Nuffnang Singapore!

Not to worry though, Singapore. We certainly have not forgotten about you. We’ve gotten numerous emails and comments from Singaporean bloggers asking us when Nuffnang would be coming to Singapore.

Today marks that day! Once again, thank you JB for your choice of an auspicious launch time and date! I don’t quite understand why all these auspicious times are in the weeeee hours of the morning. Better safe than sorry though. So here we are on the 30^th of April at 3AM, the whole team in Malaysia and Singapore are wide awake.

Nuffnang.com.sg is officially online!

What to expect?

As we did in Malaysia, now is a good time to set expectations as to what the Nuffnang community in Singapore can achieve, and how quickly.We don’t want to be party poopers, but it is essential everybody understands the processes involved.

The first necessary step is the recruitment of bloggers into our community. Without you, we are nothing. In Malaysia, we garnered a significant medium pretty quickly. We hope it is the same case in Singapore! The team is keeping their fingers crossed, but we could certainly do with your help to spread the word
Once you have joined us and pasted your HTML code, we will need approximately two weeks to track your statistics. We need information on how big your blog is, what kind of target audience we have, before we can even present this information to advertisers

Not to worry, groundwork has already been done in targeting LOCAL advertisers who are interested in exploring this new medium. As soon as we have a big enough medium, the marketing team (locally based) will hit the ground, pitching for deals.

We expect this whole process to take between 4-6 weeks. In Malaysia, we achieved it in 3. Today we have served ads on hundreds of blogs and have a stable of advertisers that is steadily growing.

Things to look forward to

When you join Nuffnang, you’re not just joining a blog advertisement network. You’re joining a community.

Our vision in the medium run is to create a vibrant blogging community in Singapore, and we have all kinds of initiatives in place to achieve that aim. Visit Our Community page for some examples of what these are.

Our first blogger outing in Malaysia, will see 250 Malaysian bloggers, malaysian press, and advertisers descend on Cathay Cineleisure Damansara, KL, to catch an exclusive premiere of Pirates of the Carribean 3, on the 24^th of May 2007. It will be a blogger outing of a scale not seen previously.

I look forward to the day Singaporean bloggers from all walks of life will gather in the same way.

Thank you for your vote of confidence. If there is anything I can do to help. Do not hesitate to get in touch.

Humbly Yours,

Ming, Timothy and The Nuffnang Team

Why is the rum gone!!!???

2007-04-27T00:49:00.000+08:00

I shall let the beautiful Kiera knightley answer that question for me.

Ah the wonders of you tube!

It doesn't quite work the same way if you aren't Kiera Knightley, weigh a ton, and look like this though... hehe.

Anyway, you guys know the drill! If you're part of the Nuffnang community and want to attend the premiere of Pirates of the Carribean 3 on Thurs, May 24th, just write a blog entry titled "Why is the rum gone!!???"

Email us the URL to pirates@nuffnang.com

And oh yes, no mention of Nuffnang or linking of Nuffnang.com is neccessary! Free will brother! Free willl!!!

Update Update!

2007-04-26T11:57:00.000+08:00

Apologies for the lack of updates. I've been very busy with Nuffnang. As usual.

Have made lots of progress in a number of areas, and I am astounded by the pace at which things are moving.

I am happy that we have found another promising web programmer to add to the overworked team. She will be coming on board full time in a number of weeks.

And also that we are making progress on our ambitions to bring bloggers together in a manner and scale never seen before.

Our first such community event will target over 250 bloggers, and I believe it is the first of its kind in Malaysia.

On the 24th of May 2007, a thursday, pirate wannabes, press, advertisers, from within the Nuffnang community will converge on Cathay Cineleisure, Damansara to catch an exclusive premiere of Pirates of the Carribean 3.

There's going to be a best dressed pirate competition, and the winner will be entitled to a 3D 2N accomodation and transportation paid trip to Singapore! The response for both the competition and the event has been wonderful so far, and I really sense a papable feeling of enthusiasm in the air.

Needless to say, both me and Ewe Tiam have begun the search for our own pirate costumes!

Check out Our Community page for more details of the event and more.

It was also my birthday yesterday, and I'd really like to thank all the people who dropped me well wishes.

Thanks to denka and darren for organising the "surprise" BBQ on Thursday (Amidst exams and the like). Hahhaah, wasn't much of a surprise but I'm just glad to have seen good friends come together in such a serene setting as this to eat and be merry.

On Saturday, I got an incredible opportunity to be in the same room as a man I admire deeply. The founding father of modern Singapore, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew.

It was at a Young PAP forum. The first time the young PAP had MM Lee as a guest. The forum was titled, Political Development in Singapore in the next 20 years. And to tell you the truth, I had expected a more explosive event, in terms of content, but I think most people in the room just stood in awe of MM's presence and were content they had managed to get in!

Taking nothing away from the people who organised the event, it could have been done better. The venue was all wrong. It was held at dragonfly in St Jame's Powerhouse, and I can understand their desire to promote a "young hip factor" but many of my peers agreed we would have been better off in an auditorium.

Standing for three hours, is simply not conducive for a forum of any kind, and furthermore does little to suit the stature of MM and the event itself.

Nonetheless, I was grateful for the opportunity.

It was a rare insight into a brilliant mind. MM started off slow. And you could sense a little bit of unease in the beginning, but as soon as he got into the swing of things, his mind started whirring, he din't stop.

He tackled a number of topics expertly and with ease. Clearly he had done his homework. He came prepared with immigration statistics, reports, quotes, and articles to back up his case.

I think the biggest eye opener for me into the man himself. And this surprised me. I was always of the opinion that this was a stubborn and resoloute leader, on all terms. What I took away from the event, was that this was a man whose stubbornness was founded on reason, on fact, on reality and circumstance.

I saw this in two instances. The first when he was asked about censorship. And he said, listen, I can't tell you where censorship is going, it all depends on how the world moves along, how value systems change (I'm not quoting him by the way, paraphrasing). He then said, many cabinet members had been against bringing crazy horse into Singapore, but he had dispelled their concerns. And said, Singaporeans are now mobile enough to watch such a show in Paris, or london or the like, if it's going to contribute... why not!?

The second instance, was when he tackled the question of gay ciminality. Again he had done his homework. Saying he had consulted doctors on whether being gay was indeed a genetic issue. I believe he conceded the possibility but said, he did not want to disrupt the majority's perception of right and wrong. But at the same time, there would not be an active enforcement of such activities as long as they were kept private.

You've got to take all of this into perspective. We've got an 80 year old gentleman here. Now most of our grandmothers or grandfathers would scoff at any such activities, heeding their traditional instincts and sense of propiety. Not this man. He is clearly one who moves with the times, but one who has to measure that response against the response of 4.5 million people, set against the larger backdrop of 5 billion. The point is, he's not out to please everybody. He's out to ensure the stability of Singaporean society at large.

In my opinion, he is a man of intense incorruptibility. The question I had in mind for him was had he established a system that would ensure similar men of power would lead singapore in the future. Was it fail safe? It needs to be for certain. It is clear Singapore cannot afford anything less.

I lurpppp this photo!!!!

2007-04-15T13:02:00.000+08:00

Last wednesday, Yee Hou came by the Nuffnang office in penang, and took a couple of photos of the team.

I know I've been plugging the team left right center, but I just loveee this photo.

It makes me feel like getting up and shouting we have the best team in the worllddd!!! Google watch out!!!

Hahahah, far from it lah actually, there's still lots of room for improvement. Which is why, NUFFNANG IS HIRING! We're looking for a graphic designer and a PHP/Javascript programmer!

If you'd like to join the family (italian mob talk), then drop us an email via our contact us form, or drop me a comment here.

Technorati Search Terms

2007-04-12T09:23:00.000+08:00

Check this out.

Part of what I do involves trawling through Technorati for any posts about Nuffnang.

We do it so we can respond to any queries or concerns bloggers might have about our platform and what we do.

As of April 12th, 2007, we were ranked as the 14th most popular searched terms on Technorati.

Ain't that cool!!!???

2007-04-10T19:56:00.000+08:00

Its past 8pm, and once again, I'm still in the office!

I'm kinda getting used to the routine now. But really, I thought by breaking the mould and not working as a banker or consultant like most of my fellow LSE graduates, I would be avoiding the long hours ... and the travelling!

I couldn't have been more wrong. Late nights and travelling define my life at the moment! I've been in and out of malaysia so many times now, I could be mistaken for half malaysian!

Any regrets?

Hellzzz nooooo!

I'm having the time of my life right now with Nuffnang. I lurrppeee staying in late at the office (probably to the dismay of the nuffnang team), and I know its wierd, but having the guys around you working towards something new and fresh gives me a warmmm fuzzy feeelinng ... like warm chocolate milkkk on a rainy london day. Don't worry mum, I'm not gay. I just love my job.

Anyway let me introduce you to the dudes and dudettes who are in late with me today!

That's jazz and Joel, our ace programmers. They're working on some integration together, thats why they're sitting on the same table!

Thats uncle lee meng deep in thought. At 29 years of age, he's the oldest of the nuffnangers and performs a multitude of roles.

And of course there's my room mate Tiam, his evident addiction to beard papa strategically positioned within reach.

This is me after a long day, tired but happy! I lurpe Nuffnangers, and all things Nuffnang!

Yes, everytime I see this building, I step into the office and shout out loud, "HONEEYY, I'm home! Oh I forgot! I'm not married." Hehehe.

My extended family.

Left to right- Joel, Ewe Tiam, Myself, Lee Meng, Sheau Lan (Missing Jazz and LKS)

Nuffnang's new look

2007-04-09T21:44:00.000+08:00

Its 10PM and I'm in our penang office.

Waiting!

Our site has just gotten a facelift.

I'm not saying more, check it out

2007-03-30T09:54:00.000+08:00

Sorry for the lack of updates, but Nuffnang.com.my has really been keeping me busy!

So many things are going on.

We now have about 600 blogs and counting and 2 new team members at Nuffnang Singapore! That brings up our total headcount to 7!

On the technical end, we're continuing to optimize our code so we can work faster and more efficiently with less. I'm sure the results of this hard work is already apparent. At the same time, we're building in new features to be launched soon.

On the marketing end, I've been in KL the whole week, going for meeting after meeting with advertisers of all types!

It has been INCREDIBLE so far. Both the experience and the results.

Our typical morning starts at 8 with a hearty breakfast, and a review of all our reports from our backend, technorati, google and of course blogs! Morning call with our technical team. Wash up and we're out by 9, for meetings that for some reason are always scheduled at either 10 or 11am.

We get there, and are given about an hour to impress on the marketing executives and directors, why they should choose the nuffnang network. Or why they should even consider online advertising as a medium.

We start off by giving them a powerpoint presentation I prepared, giving them the main points like our network coverage figures and other details which I shall leave out.

After the presentation, is a question and answer session.

This is the most enjoyable part of the meeting for me.

A chance to interact. To market. To ease and banish any doubts. To turn those doubts into belief and reality.

To be honest, I get such a high from this part of the meetings. When you have connected with the person you are speaking to and he agrees. There are fewer better feelings.

The easiest way to do this in my opinion is to be frank. To be sincere and honest. You need to be confident of your own product, understand it inside and out. The strengths and the weaknesses. To sell and market the strengths, but at the same time, not to be afraid of highlighting any potential issues. But before doing so, to ensure you provide a potential solution to these issues.

I call then issues and not problems because issues represent a challenge to solve.

We met up with the representative of a financial institution. And she asked us, why two graduates from the University of London had decided to embark on a business venture like this instead of being bankers.

Timothy replied, it was because of passion. I said it was the chance to interact with so many people on so many levels. Bloggers, advertisers, affiliates.

Anyway, every single meeting went well. So that is a piece of good news for bloggers in our community. Negotiations are still taking place, but we've got some very very interesting advertisers, with global credentials talking to us. KEEP ALL YOUR FINGERS CROSSED and pray hard. There is strength in numbers. In all things. Prayer, and blog advertising included!

After a deal is concluded. It is just the start for me and tiam. We will have to monitor the campaigns, suggest improvements, and provide after sales support. Which includes getting them to execute a second campaign! And third, and fourth!

When the time comes, I hope the blogging community in Nuffnang will show our advertisers, that the faith they put in blog advertising and Nuffnang in particular was not misfounded. That we are a credible medium that deserve more.

NUFFNANG! Which incidentally means, "Real Good" in jafaican. You'll read all about it on our revamped public pages soon enough!

Dum dum de dum .... Dum dum de dum!

2007-03-17T20:00:00.000+08:00

I've been so busy with the launch of Nuffnang malaysia, I've hardly had time for anything else.

If it isn't talking on the phone to Ewe Tiam, it is meetings with potential advertisers and programmers, or company administration work, the list goes on.

However ... there were two events in the week I simply had to attend! And two during which I tried not to strategise about how to make our bloggers money. My favourite of all affairs!

Yes, I know Josh is going to call me a poof the next time he sees me, but I really enjoy attending WEDDINGS!

I seem to be getting invites to my fair share of them too!

All in all, I've attended about 9 weddings in the last 9 months! What is going on!? Hehe, not that I'm complaining.

Anyway, on Sunday, it was off to Shangri-la for the union of Sharon and James. Sharon is Darren's sister. Darren is one of my closest friends, and he had reminded me of this joyous occassion since last year.

There he is, with me, in my pyschedelic tie (which incidentally belongs to my father, but has since been requisitioned by me!). Is nang (cool) no?

Therein lies the first reason why I like attending weddings. You get to dress up! I mean seriously, if I had the chance, I'd don my Tuxedo (Which I've worn only once) ALL the time! When I got one tailored for my brother's wedding, it felt oh soooo good.

And I promised myself, when I made it, I would go to the tailor everytime I felt like shit.

Of course I wasn't the only guy decked out. The whole gang looked like they had come of age!

The second reason why I love attending weddings is this. The guys dress up, but it is really the ladies who are the stars of the show. Without yang, there is no yin.

And boy, did they dress up. Take a look.

From left to right, the stunning Ezann, Tania and Sophia.

There might have been 500 other ladies there that evening, but I am sure these three commanded the room (save the bride of course!)

And they obliged lucky me, for a photo too! YATTAAA!!!

Anyway, the wedding banquet was a grand affair from start to finish. The shangri-la ballroom was filled with a thousand guests! And the whole atmosphere was splendid.

The first thing I noticed was this box on our table. Now I lurpe innovative wedding door gifts. You know, anything besides a fruit cake. This box looked like it had a massive fruit cake in there ... :-(
Opening it up however, i was surprised to see it contained this ....!

10 sachets of instant coffee! Customized! With their names, and the image of a rose. And a quote from Lao Tzu that read ...

"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength; loving someone deeply gives you courage."

I love anecdotes like these.

Let me skip on to the second wedding. Which was more of a trip down to the registry of marriages.

Not quite as glamorous as the previous one I had attended, but one of my army friends who knew I was into photography, has asked me if I could be the photographer for the day.

I readily agreed months ago, and I appreciated the honour.

The registry of marriages is one building in singapore they have got to change. It looks more like a clinic or government bureau than a place you seal the union with your life companion.

I mean check this out!

Its a que system! Sure its efficient! But can't you dress a guy up outside and call out names instead ... man ... no lomantic at all!

Hehe. Inside the a rather simple office, sat the solemniser.

I think my friends were amused at the solemniser's awkward use of mandarin, and they couldn't help laughing ... but they soon put on serious faces when a fiesty grandma standing behind put them in their place!

That din't hold up for long, and when they faced each other to exchange vow, they just cracked up! (The fiesty grandma gave up on them)

Two signatures, Two rings, and one kiss later ....

They were husband and wife.

Two weddings in one week gave me energy and joy for the hectic week that unfolded.

Ahhhhh ... don't u lurpee weddings!!!?

YATTAAA!!!!

2007-03-16T00:05:00.000+08:00

WHAT AN AMAZING DAY IT HAS BEEN FOR THE NUFFNANG NETWORK!!!!

We have officially tied down some advertisers (Exact numbers I cannot reveal).

At the same time, we have had contact with numerous others. A significant proportion of them called us up themselves to enquire!

None of this would have been possible at all without the immense support of the bloggers themselves.

The job is far from over however. In fact, it has only just begun.

Advertisers are interested in advertising on the nuffnang network because it is new.

To ensure that they continue to do so afterwards, we need to ensure that their campaigns are successful.

Therefore to all bloggers, it would be great if (teeny weeny request),

1) Your ad units are placed correctly in the prominent positions.

2) When the ad runs, perhaps egg on your readers to check it out.

3) We will also be contacting directly bloggers who have answered "not sure" in their demographics survery. This is to ensure that the advertiser targeting is done correctly.

We will be engaged the whole of next week in talks with certain blue chip advertisers, so keep your fingers crossed!

We're saving the best for last.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!

Together, we are going to make the Nuffnang network heard!

p.s. We now have over 300 blogs in the network. Malaysia boleh!

2007-03-12T11:24:00.000+08:00

Sorry for the long break in my updates! I've been terribly busy with the launch of Nuffnang.com.my

The report card so far!? Its been simply amazing!

We started out with a modest aim of attracting 300 bloggers within three months. Barely two weeks on, we have 250 in the fold, and counting.

Malaysian bloggers from all walks of life have come together to support a local product they hope will succeed. And its been simply heartening.

The greatest joy for me is meeting the faces behind the blogs.

I got the chance to do so at the latest Blog meet. "Together Gather" blog meet organised by Wingz and his committee.

I took the trip down specially for this meet, because firstly, I wanted to Thank first hand, the bloggers who had supported us. And secondly, because Nuffnang had set up a booth to service queries and signups.

It was to be a whirlwind trip. Left Singapore on Fri morning 730AM, left KL on Sat morning 8Am. I had a wedding to attend in Singapore ( I lurrpppee weddings).

Anyway, it was going to be a long night for me and tiam, but chee giat so kindly made us chicken soup for the soul!!! I drank it up, so mindful of the support we were getting from all quarters, and that helped me smile throughout the night!

In my last entry, I wrote about the people who gave me strength. My dad is one of them. I took him away from his favourite Korean Drama serial the night before to help me put together my press kit!

He is adept at making CD labels, so I got him in on designing one for my kit, since there was word the press would be at the blog meet. Check it out.

Anyway, after drinking up our chicken soup, we set off. We gave ourselves plenty of time to get there as we did not want to be late, and there was alot to set up.

The function room at the federal hotel was looking spectacular. We were in for an event, i thought to myself.

The team we had hired, got around to setting up our backdrop and signage. Me and Tiam did up the table, putting up our lovely premiums, which Tiam had been in charge of putting together.

This is the end result!

Hey, we like it!

I met soo many people, was quite busy running around, that I din't have the chance to take photos with many of them ... :-(

At least I got one with one of our earliest supporters! And a pretty girl too! Cely! Ok, so Jason and Bryan were in the photo too. Hehe, excuse me for my lack of excitement (I don't quite swing that way).

Thank you all for your support. Over the next few entries in this blog, I will be highlighting the key features of Nuffnang.com so the full potential of the site is realized. Stay tuned!

The launch of Nuffnang.com!!!

2007-02-27T00:03:00.000+08:00

The launch of Nuffnang.com.my

8 months of painstaking planning and execution have now come to an end, and Nuffnang.com.my, the project me and my partner Tiam have been working on is finally live! At least in Malaysia! Look out for our launch in Singapore in a months time or so.

Most of you, being my closer friends would know Nuffnang.com is a Blog-advertising network. Essentially what we strive to do, is link up bloggers with as little as 20 unique visits a day with advertisers. We give the bloggers a stream of income, and advertisers an effective mass medium on which they can reach out to the specific consumer they are targeting.

It may seem wierd that we're launching in the wee hours of the morning, but under the advice of my friend jianbang (who is really into feng shui, and the like), the lucky date and time to launch was between 2-4am on the 27th of Febuary. Thank you for your help JB.

Nuffnang.blogspot.com

This blog has been primarily dedicated to my personal life, and it was started because I wanted to understand the phenomenon of blogging better. I was particularly interested in having 2 questions answered, they were

1) Why do people blog?
2) Why do people read blogs?

The answer to both these questions I feel, lie at the very core of our human nature. We have a strong need to communicate, to express what we are feeling, or what we have done.

It was the great philosopher Aristotle who proclaimed, "Man is by nature a political animal". He did not mean political as we define politics today. He meant that man is a social creature, one that cannot exist alone, or within his own thoughts.

Blogs present a unique and universal avenue from which to be political. To be social. Injecting a blog entry with your deepest thoughts and hopes is very much like stuffing a message into a bottle and setting it out to sea for some sailor or perhaps a child on the beach to read. Except that on the internet, it is more likely people are going to find your message.

Your message may read,

"I JUST WON A MILLION DOLLARS AND I WANTED TO SHARE MY JOY WITH YOU! YAHOOOOOOO"

or it may read,

"I just broke up with my girlfriend today, and I'm feeling soo sad"

Whatever the message, somebody else has just had a taste of (at least a little bit), of your feelings or your experience, through your blog.

Not everybody is going to agree with what you say, or how you have said it, and sometimes the blogger can struggle with that, but in most instances, you find solace with the ones who do empathise with you, the readers who jumped with joy when they read your message, or put a caring arm over your shoulders.

Why do people read blogs then? Whats in it for them? Well very simply, life would be boring if we lived it alone. A man could have all the toys in the world and not be satisfied if he has not found his life companion, or if he had no family or friends to share it with. In your life companion, family and friends you can live more than one life. You can experience their joys, frustrations, passions, by interacting with them on a regular basis.

With blogs and the internet, and in fact with every other form of media out there, this "living of multiple lives" is extended even further. The saying "Live life to the fullest" probably has the strongest connotation today then it ever has. A poor man who knows no luxuries in life and has never travelled out of his neighbourhood may experience an exotic far away country through another person's blog. And from that blog entry may spring an aspiration to experience that in full himself.

It happens everyday, maybe in not such dramatic terms, but how many times have you read a blog and said, wow! I want to have dinner at that same restaurant!

These are just some of my thoughts which have sprung from the writing of this blog.

The future of nuffnang.blogspot.com

Nuffnang.blogspot.com will continue to be my personal avenue of expression. I will continue to stuff my messages into the bottle and send it out.

However, as I enter a new phase in my life, embarking on a journey I must admit I have a little fear of, this blog also enters a new phase.

From now on, the blog entries will be mostly about my journey as an entrepeneur, and my bid to make Nuffnang.com a globally recognised community. Of course there will still be some personal entries.

My aim with nuffnang is primarily this; to bridge gaps between people. People all have needs and wants and if those needs are effectively satisfied by individuals/groups of people (companies) through the Nuffnang network, I will consider it a big big success. Technology will help ensure we match the needs of blog readers with the services and goods a firm will provide, and we will never stop innovating to ensure this goal is reached.

I walk into the unknown, but I am not alone. Thank you all for that. This blog entry and the launch of the website is dedicated to all the people who have helped me along throughout my life. The same people I am sure I will need to count on in the coming days, weeks, months and years.

SPREAD THE WORD THAT NUFFNANG IS HERE!!! YAYYY!!!!

The wind beneath my wings (There are too many, so forgive me if your photo is not in here!)

I LURPE CNY!

2007-02-23T12:39:00.000+08:00

I collected mucho mucho ang pow! My first time in four years! (Been away in London for past three years).

There is always a buzz in the air around the chinese new year period. One of the things my mum always reminds me to do is to buy new underwear for chinese new year. So, off I went, on the day before with Stanley to buy new underwear!

Check it out! Hush puppies with the "FU" word emblazoned on it! POW WOW! Ban luck!!! Ban Ban!!! Mwahahahahaha
All I can say is ... ... it worked!!! Mwahhaahahaahahahahahahah ... wink wink. Have you seen the dealer at a table on the last three hands wipe everybody out! Ban Luck, 20, Ban Ban!

First day, I went about visiting relatives and the like. At night, Louie hosted us at his place for steamboat and some after activities.

Second day, went out for more visiting with just my sisters, as my mum and dad were busy preparing for open house at mine. At night the guys came over, had dinner, and more after activities (wink wink, think you're seeing the trend, it only happens once a year lah!). After mine, it was off to zouk for some partying ... all the way till 5 in the morning.

There was hardly any rest on the third day, and I had to get up at 8 in the morning, because I had promised to meet Darren, Tienping and Tze Shiang for breakfast! So at 8, I gave darren a call hoping Tze Shiang had not been in touch with him yet .... ... he had, so I dragged out my ass out of bed and set off to pick up darren.

We went to this place I had always wanted to try. Its a cosy little bakery cum french pattisiere/cafe called Choupinette, along Bukit Timah Road.

There is a really sweet story behind this place. It was a surprise christmas gift from Anges Verrier's husband in 2002. I had heard rave reviews about their breakfast so off we went to try it out!

All three of us that is .... .... Mr TienPing Tan, despite having 6 good hours of sleep, failed to join us ... TSK TSK .... Thats the empty chair he was supposed to have sat on.

And there are the two other champions!

Breakfast was simplyyy awesomme, I had an eggs benedict and it was lurrrvveeelyy. It was soo yummy.

Since I had won all their money the previous night, breakfast was on the banker.

Afterwards, there was to be no rest for me, as I still had to organize a party!!! Stanley and me were co-organising a steamboat party at his place. We still had alot of shopping to do. But I was quite excited about it as I would get to don my "Dragon Suit"!!!

Darren contemplated joining me on my shopping expedition, but pretty quickly opted to head back to sleep!

Off I went to get Stanley's lazy ass out of bed.

First stop was cold storage where we had to buy all our veggies and some other basics, like mushrooms, pork, chicken.

We bought so much stuff here, look at stanley's face ... he had to hold me back! 200 bucks worth of veggies!!!

Next stop was unique seafood market, which is a really great place to get live seafood of all types. There are five layers of tanks stacked on top of one another, filled to the brim with seafood!

The last stop for the day was meidi ya for our sukiyaki beef!

The party went splendidly, except for some kooks who blatantly ignored our much emphasised theme of Shanghai Tang!
There is some of the gang enjoying their steamboat dinner thoroughly ...

The twin dragons are ready to win ALL your money mwahahaahah

Our entertainment for the night ....

Richard of Fabulous Tan wishes one and all GONG XI FA CAI!

I'm on TV!!!!

2007-02-14T22:39:00.000+08:00

Hehe not really lah,

On saturday morning, I was hanging around Raffles Place waiting for Jac and my other LSE friends for lunch. These two eager bunny reporters popped out of nowhere and asked, "Can we do a short interview with you?"

I hesitated for a moment and asked them what they had in mind.

When they said they were doing a special on valentines day, I squirmed and said "No way!!!"

I hadn't made any specific plans yet, and to tell you the truth, had simply been too busy to do so.

Their dissapointment was obvious, and after a bit more cajoling, I agreed to it, thinking I was doing them a favour and they would go easy with me on the questioning.
Fat hope! The line of questioning had been designed to discomfort me!

First one: Are you attached!? I answered that I was not.

Just warming up here, Second one: Do you have a date for valentines day? Little bit more embarrasing (I was going to pick up my phone right there and then) ... but No.

Third question: Are you going to get a date? Errr ... no ....

Fourth one (Wam bam): Do you need help!!!?

Ok ok, I'm exagerating, and they din't really ask me if I needed help! But it was akin to that. Basically, they were covering an issue of relationship seminars, workshops and agencies as avenues to promote romance, and asking me for my opinions. So they asked me if I would consider going for one of these seminars or approaching one of these agencies.

After having watched the interview, my interest was slightly piqued at these seminars. A number of people had actually said they would consider it. I flat out rejected it.

Let me digress for a moment so I can continue on the topic.

My V day dilemna was resolved rather easily when my mum "advised" me, we would be going out for dinner as a family. My father and mother have been married for 18 wonderful years, and they were married on V day. My brother and sister in law got married the same day last year, and if all goes according to plan, my mum says so will I and my two sisters!

So off we went today to Hua Ting (Our favourite chinese restaurant, Chef Chan is pure genius), for a family V day dinner. The dinner was great. I'm really not over complimenting the chef when I say that his culinary skill is up there with the top chinese chefs of Asia. Even hong kong! The first two dishes for example were heavenly.

Hua Ting's duck is legendary. And frankly, it beats any duck I have EVER tasted. Including (sorry tiam) Four Seasons. BY FAR. It has to be said anyway it is a different experience altogether. Eating those two slices of duck is like eating two slices of WAGYU DUCK. Have you ever imagined anything like that!? Imagine no more.

The second course was as the menu describes it a "Braised cream of spinach with fresh scallop soup" which looked rather ... green .... and I'm not one for green stuff ... but it was so tasty I savoured every last drop. I'm not going to upload the photo of my half drunk soup as that would not do it justice. But trust me ... mmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmmm

ANYWAY, ON TO THE MAIN POINT! One of our family friends (who had joined us for dinner), recounted to all of us at the table a really sweet TRUE V day story.

Apparently, a couple had gone to the zoo together. The lady very unfortunately dropped her ring into a crack on the ground and it dissapeared. It was only a $138 dollar ring, but it meant alot to her. They tried to retrieve it to no avail. Her husband was distraught too, and thought he would drop his own one in too (even though it was not a small sum to him), so the rings would at least be "together". They eventually decided against it, and informed the zoo personel hoping against hope they would find it.

The zoo, perhaps touched by what had transpired, (and also a practical need to fix the crack), whilst repairing the crack, retrieved the ring, and invited this couple back for a specially arranged V day dinner.

How did this conversation come about? A conversation about BIG and NICE diamonds. What did it reinforce in my mind? It's really not about the colour or size of diamond that matters. All that is irrelevant. This couple had something far more precious than that, and something a seminar or workshop is in my humble opinion unable to inspire in a relationship. So onward all ye souls! And never relinquish the quest for true love. Happy Valentines Day to everybody!

"Medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. "

Divine act of intervention

2007-02-13T00:39:00.000+08:00

Even though I graduated from the LSE, nearly 8 months back now, old habits die hard, and I still have the home page of my browser as www.lse.ac.uk.

So I got home tonight, opened up my browser, about to do my usual rounds on the sites I frequent, when I noticed this on the LSE website.

For those who can't see, it reads:

"Urgent Notice, Monday 12th Febuary, 1145AM- All of the LSE campus is closed today because of a power cut in the holborn area. Please do NOT come to school today. "

I looked to my bbc.co.uk news site (one of those other die hard habits I'm unlikely to ever kick), and this is what I saw (Click on photo to read article).

3 years at the LSE, and not one act of divine intervention like that to stop me from going to school! Come on!!!!

Hehe, besides Cash in the attic, car boot sale (GREAT GREAT BBC MORNING SHOWS), and my electric duvet ... ahhhh ... I miss lazing on my couch in london.

A lesson on winning and losing

2007-02-08T19:08:00.000+08:00

Yes, I can finally scale the top of bukit timah hill and scream out that Singapore are the champions of Asean football!

After having missed the semi finals between Singapore and our arch rivals Malaysia, I was not going to miss out on the finals against Thailand.

Only problem was, I was stuck in camp. And I had no way of getting out to q up for the tickets.

I was desperate, so I called up a friend I knew I could count on. Mr Arya Alatsas. Its been a good four years already since I've known Arya, and what a pleasure the four years have been.

There he is, to the left of me, at Notre Dame in Paris.

He hardly took a moment to consider my request when I phoned him and said, "Hey, I need a favour. I'd like you to go down to the stadium and que up at the back of the likely zillions of people, to get me tickets for the game." He just did.

Thankfully, he got the tickets, and so thanks to him, 7 other good friends had the chance to don their country's colours and experience the kallang wave for the last time (Before the stadium gets torn down).

There it is! The famous kallang wave coming our way! And christopher getting in on the act.

The stadium, I am glad to say was packed to the max. 54,000 Singapore fans and 1,000 Thais.

To tell you the truth, I went into the match without any expectations whatsoever about the quality of the game. I'd been to the champions league final and other top EPL matches, and I had serious doubts this experience would trump those ones.

The atmosphere was charged with high emotion as 55,000 fans sat intently willing their team to victory. My own contingent of supporters (even the non singaporean) had come decked out in our national colours and intent on being the 12th man on the pitch ... all except one rebel ... who else could that be ... I wonder ...

Our dear friend, decided he wanted a hot dog early in the match, and so left his seat to go find one. In the 17th minute, whilst stanley in his orange shirt was ambling around the stadium looking for a frankfurter, Singapore scored through Noh Alam Shah,our national hero, who took a deflection, spun around and slotted the ball in low into the bottom right hand corner of the net.

We all went WILLLDDD!!!! First blood Singapore! Ole ole ole ole, ole ole!

The Lions did not rest on their laurels, and pressed on, looking alot more dangerous than the meek Thais.

Hopes were high, and we knew we would need another goal to consolidate our victory, especially in the first half.

It was not to be though, and almost immediatly after the interval, in the 50th minute, Thailand equalised.

The singaporean fans fell silent and it seemed all our energy had been sapped out of us.

Here is where I fell into a sort of contemplative mood. 54,000 Singaporeans for a significant period of time fell silent and were overwhelmed by the the united voice of 1000 Thais.

I was enraged, how could this be!? We should be supporting our team the most when they are being pressed, and looking for a way out of a knotty situation. And yet, I felt as though we had almost already accepted defeat as a very real possibility. How did we expect our own team to pull through when we did not even have the belief they could win?

It was the voice of a child, which rang out the loudest and clearest in our silence, and perhaps shamed by his outburst of passion, our fans cheered our team on, even when we din't complete our passes, or lost the ball. Our voices as one overwhelmed the valiant attempts of the Thai fans.

There and then I learnt the first lesson of the night:

It's not so much about being in front, its about fighting the fight, and not giving up till the end. Its about giving it your all, and never fearing the odds.

The Lions perhaps willed on by our support, started to play better, and threatened the Thai's defence alot more. In the 82nd minute of the match, we got what we had all been waiting for. A penalty. Albeit a controversial one.

Noh Alam Shah was adjudged to have been pulled down as a cross was coming into the penalty box, and so the referee pointed to the spot, to the glee of our fans.

The Thais were furious and stormed off! What a buch of overgrown babies! Its like overturning the board once you've decided you can't win. The singaporean fans were furious, and galvanised by the Thai team's impetuousness, jeered at them. At one point of time singing this great song ... that went something like ... goodbye goodbye ...see you next year ... something like that ...

After having the cheek to storm off and waste 15 minutes of our time, the Thai team decided to casually stroll back onto the pitch and face the music. Right or wrong, the referee had made a decision, and their actions reflected very badly on a country whose people I have high regard for.

Nonetheless, we all waited with bated breath as Singapore's Fahruddin lined up the penalty.

Would he score and kick some Thai ass?

Damn right he will!!! The Thai keeper went the right way, but the precision and speed with which the ball is belted into the top right of the net is too much for him! The stadium finds it voice again, and Singapore have won the match!!!!

Final score 2-1!!!

It was just the first leg, and all of us knew we faced a challenge in Bangkok, but the Lions had battled hard and had never given up.

As we were having our after-match taiwanese porridge at the nearby Oasis restaurant, I thought silently to myself. Win or lose in bangkok, as long as the Lions played like they played today, I would still consider them champions.

There is a saying that goes nobody remembers second place. That night, I promised myself, whatever the outcome in Bangkok, I would write this blog entry, and proclaim my team as champions!

Hahaha, it's certainly a bonus we drew 1-1 in bangkok to win the title in the end, but true champions do not need a cup to prove they are champions.

The great outdoors

2007-01-28T20:55:00.000+08:00

Yes, I'm soooo sorry. I havn't been blogging for sooo long my backlog is not even funny! I've still got to write about what I did over christmas and new years eve last year, which happened a month ago already!

Butttttt .... I have a valid excuse. Some people may be wondering what it is I do in the army. Well, on most days, its actually rather mundane. I get up at 0630 in the morning, head off to camp and knock off at 1730. I handle mostly staff work, so its nothing exciting really. Progress reports, WITS projects, etc.

It all gets rather exciting however, when we go outfield for exercise. Now, when I was serving my NS back in the day, I went for a couple of these, thinking my days after disruption would be alot more relaxing.

I was wrong. Two months before I am due to ORD (Operationally Ready Date), I get called up by my Captain and asked "politely" if I am available to take part in the coming exercise.

On the spur of the moment, I thought to myself, "Hell, why not!!!???". I'd enjoyed myself previously with my 2IC, Captain Paul Neo (here he is today, third from left. now a major). We've since become really good friends, I lent him my car and drove him around on his wedding day. It was an honour and pleasure to help him out on his big day.

Anyway, my role in the exercise was to be a progress specialist. Esentially, the officers have alot of planning to do. Convoy plans, route plans, deployment plans, operation plans, monitoring charts, reports, the list is endless. Me and a good friend david puff were assigned to our Officer Commanding and 2IC to help them out. Truthfully, it was tough work. We laboured till the wee hours, and I was sick at one point of time.

Me and david would get up at 8 in the morning and work till 4 in the morning, tweaking every little detail of our powerpoint (A bit like an investment banking job, but without the perks of pay, takeout food, and a cab home to your bed at the end of it).

In case you're wondering how I managed to take so many photos, I was also tasked to be a photographer for the exercise (Something I really enjoy!).

In any case, there were fun times too lah. Such as when we went out one day on a recce. That's me and david in the recce vehicle, a good old trusty army landrover, I'm sure most of you are familiar with.

And lessons like these, in which the commanders are taught buddy aid, so we can pass down the wisdom. Yes, we did go overboard with this guy here. But hey, he seemed to enjoy it.

When you are out on exercise, there are two things that keep you alive and kicking in the field. One is preparation. I always stock up on the essentials. Like this little contraption here, an electronic mosquito repellant ... hey man embrace technology! It emits a ultrasonic sound that deafens the enemy.

My SBO (Standard Battle Order) too is packed with lots of non standard issue that I take great pains to stock up on, so my life outfield is that much better.

Check out my cool half leather gloves I bought from chatuchuk, to protect my hands from rocks and the like when I'm proned with my rifle. And my camo scarf, which besides being the latest fashion accessory is absoloutely essential to cover your face so the enemy does not bite you on your ears and nose and shit (I think you're seeing a trend here).

And of course there's contraband. Hey I'm not talking drugs or shit like that. I'm talking about the odd pack of Oreos here and there. Cause you don't really want to be eating rations. Trust me, the menu sounds really appealing, like Chicken Terriyaki Pasta. But you really don't want to be eating anything that comes out of that green packet (Although it's a tradition I always bring a pack home for my dad so he can reminisce his "good old days")

The second thing that keeps you going though, and this is going to sound a little gay, is the person next to you.

If he's working his ass off in the field, and you're not, you'd better. If he's busting his ass doing a crawl in the mud, you should. Cause trust me, if it was you crawling in the mud, or working your ass off, you'd want company.

Have you ever wondered? Why must we serve? Because we love our land, and we want it to be free to be free! HAHHH!

A different time, a different age

2007-01-06T10:13:00.000+08:00

I have a confession to make. Ever since I bought Jay Chou's latest album and heard the last song, Ju Hua Tai, I've been fantasising about going back in time and being a "wu xia jun zi"!

First a note on Jay Chou, the guy is nothing short of a genius. The way he mixes traditional influences of the Gu Zhen with the modern elements is nothing short of revolutionary. And then there are the lyrics, which flow like a tang poem, but still do not lose their contemporary relevancy.

Seriously, everytime I listen to this song, I imagine myself transported back in time, in a pavillion overlooking a lake with the reflection of a full moon glimmering off the surface. Hahahaha, just like in the chinese movies. Maybe it's a romanticized image, but a time where honour, courage and gallantry meant something ... ... ahhh ... what a fairytale.

In any case, my first ever video on this blog will be the MTV for Ju Hua Tai, which a friend, evelyn pointed out to me was wonderful (Thank you, thank you, it is).

Yes, one day I will have a palace filled with chrysanthenum flowers. Just for the hell of it. The biggest banquet on earth.

曲：周杰倫
Qu : Zhou Jie Lun
Music: Jay Chou

詞：方文山
Ci: Fang Wen Shan
Lyrics: Vincent Fang

Translation: Ling - www.jay-chou.net

妳　的淚光　柔弱中帶傷
ni de lei guang rou ruan zhong dai shang
Your tears glistens with weakness admist the pain

慘白的月彎彎　勾住過往
can bai de yue wan wan gou zhu guo wang
The ghostly white curved moon hooks onto the past

夜　太漫長　凝結成了霜
ye tai man chang ning jie cheng le shuang
The night is too long and has crystallised into frost

是誰在閣樓上　冰冷的絕望
shi shui zai ge lou shang bing leng de jue wang
Who is in the attic [filled with] cold hopelessness

雨　輕輕彈　朱紅色的窗
yu qing qing tan zhu hong se de chuang
Rain gently bounces off vermillon window

我一生在紙上　被風吹亂
wo yi sheng zai zhi shang bei feng chui luan
I have (written) my life story on paper (only to be) blown into a mess by the winds

夢　在遠方　化成一縷香
meng zai yuan fang hua cheng yi lv* xiang
The faraway dream has become really faint

隨風飄散　妳的模樣
sui feng piao shan ni de mo yang
The wind has dispersed the image of you

*this is romanized as lv, but pronounced as lu

＊菊花殘　滿地傷　妳的笑容已泛黃
ju hua chan man di shang ni de xiao rong yi fan huang
Chrysanthemum destroyed A whole floor of pain your smile has become faintly yellow

　花落人斷腸　我心事靜靜躺
hua luo ren duan chang wo xin shi jin jin tang
People are heartbroken when the flower falls My thoughts lay quietly (aside)

　北風亂　夜未央　妳的影子剪不斷
bei feng luan ye wei yang ni de ying zi jian bu duan
The north wind is chaotic the night is still young your shadows can't be cut

　徒留我孤單　在湖面　成雙＊
tu liu wo gu dan zai hu mian cheng shuang
Just leaving me lonely doubled (when I stand) by the lake

花　已向晚　飄落了燦爛
hua yi xiang wan piao luo le can lan
The flower has already come late, drifting down brillantly

凋謝的世道上　命運不堪
diao xie de shi dao shang ming yun bu kan
the wilted morals an unbearable fate

愁　莫渡江　秋心拆兩半
chou muo du jiang qiu xin chai liang ban
(If you are) sad don't cross the river worries* broken into two

怕妳上不了岸　一輩子搖晃
pa ni shang bu liao an yi bei zi yao huang
In fear that you can't get back on shore and will sway for a lifetime

*this literally means splitting the top and bottom of the word "chou" apart into two words "qiu" and "xin"

誰　的江山　馬蹄聲狂亂
shui de jiang shan ma ti sheng guang luan
Chaotic sounds of horse hoofs (in) whose territory?

我一身的戎裝　呼嘯滄桑
wo yi shen de wu zhuang hu xiao cang sang
My armory shouts out the wear of time

天　微微亮　妳輕聲的嘆
tian wei wei liang ni qing sheng de tan
The sky is starting to light up your voice is sighing

一夜惆悵　如此委婉
yi ye chou chang ru ci wei wan
A night of disappointment is (said) in such a roundabout way

REPEAT＊＊

Fast forward to the party!

2007-01-05T23:13:00.000+08:00

I've been sooooo busy its not even funny. I'm going to just have to put up some photos of the champagne party so I can clear the backload. Got so much to blog about, but so little time to do it! I am a lazy blogger!

Anyway, here are some more photos of the preparation that went into the party. Many thanks to my able assistants in James, Stanley, Arya, and later, Ben. I lurpe you all! What would I do without you guys?

And also to those people who contributed spirits!

Yes, there's the cheeky girl, shan shan, who actually said she was going to Zouk Out instead of my party, cause there were hunks there ... ... :-(

The sound and lighting people think its funny too ...

Check it out! The lights on the celing of the porch ... bery nice ...

And the dance floor all set up!!! Now we're talking ... all we need are the people!

Truthfully, I was well worried. I had pitted myself against Zouk Out, and it was already 9pm (Invite stipulated 9) ... would all this prep go to waste?

HELL NO! ZOUK WHAT!!?? I can't hear you bitch!

We had a token ang moh (No james, not you) covered in ang kongs (tatoos) from New York. He said he was a cop down there ... somehow it was hard to believe ...

Don't ask me how ... but even a group of night cyclists turned up ... what they were thinking ... I have no idea ...

'
Being a host is not easy ... and all I drank that night ... a can of green tea ...

WHAT A NIGHT! See you at the next one!

The Doing Part 2

2006-12-27T22:39:00.000+08:00

I took leave from the army on Friday to sort out the party logistics. First stop was to buy the alcohol. As you can imagine, if you are throwing a house party and you buy the alcohol off the shelf, it's going to cost you a bomb. Years ago, right before the 10 Joan Road party, me and stanley chanced upon a wholesaler in a run down house on Bukit Timah Road.

That was the first stop for our "milk round". When we got there, we were dissapointed to discover that the place had closed down! We panicked a little bit ... our only source of affordable alcohol was gone! How many future house parties were doomed!!?? I got out of the car and inspected the premises closely. There was a worn and faded sign but I just managed to make out that it was directions to their new location. I've been forbidden by stanley to reveal the location or name of our fountain of youth, but if you reallly really want it, drop me a message, and I'll tell you where it is.

Behind a simple metal door in an industrial complex lay the beloved joy juice that would make this party a party. Tadaaa!!!

We got what we needed, and left. There wasn't any time to lose, as it was already 2pm and we needed to get stuff from Ikea and groceries. Plus ... we had to pick Gen up. I had agreed to shop at the New mega sized Ikea at her request, so off we went. It wasn't very hard to find.

Check it out ... it is gargantuan!!! Two Ikeas in Singapore! And one of this size ... do we even need that much furniture?

I've always loved Ikea. It probably rubbed off my dad to be honest. His two favourite shopping places in Singapore are Ikea and Mustafa. Ever the handy man, he loves coming home with a new shelf, cabinet, bed, or toilet seat. I was quite excited about checking out this new branch, and I wasn't dissapointed.

Besides the sheer scale of the place, which I hope you can gather from this picture ...

There were also lots of cool displays like this

and this (displays which were supposed to demonstrate the durability of Ikea products ... very inovative)

But the most important section in Ikea, is the cafeteria! AHHHHHH ...heavenly meatballs and chicken wings! The cafeteria over at Tampines is at least twice the size of the one in Alexandra, and even then, it was packed to the max. After enduring the que, me, stanley and gen ruthlessly decimated a couple of swedish cows and chickens (YUMMY! All that stuff in the picture is just my share by the way! YESS I SINNED! But boy ... did that feel gooood!)

After our stomachs had been satisfied we went about our shopping. We got about 80+ champagne glasses, plastic bins (Very useful with drunk people around), and some cute lighting fixtures we thought would add that little touch, among other things. The bill was painful, so Gen bought me a hotdog to ease some of it ... after the lunch, it seemed to make it worse though ... but like they say, its the thought that counts!

What would I do without these two?

The doing!

2006-12-18T18:37:00.000+08:00

With stanley back, and eager to have a party too, we decided one afternoon to take the first step! Print out invitation cards! There is a funny story here. When we organised the 10 Joan Road party almost 3 years ago, we went to a printer at Park Lane shopping centre, and designed what we thought (or according to stanley, what I thought) was the epitome of coolness. Our calling card .... in my defence, I've got to say was created under joint consensus! This is it ...

Ok, so the font looks like a 12 year old's BBQ party, hey nobody disagreed when we were shown the proof copy, and there were three of us there! Plus shedloads of people attended, so to me, its all semantics.

Anyway, determined not to make the same mistake, I took FULL responsibility for the printing out of invites for my party. Having decided on the theme of a champagne party, yeah, we thought being older it was time to be a little more mature (no beer), I envisioned a simple calling card. Something you might recieve for a charity gala dinner.

I'm a sentimental fuddy duddy, so I insisted we went back to the very same printer we had gone to those years back. The son was now running the place, and din't really have an impression of us (which I felt slightly dissapointed at). Anyway, under my direction, and with what limited resources we had (i.e., no graphics and lower budget), this was our answer.

If you like it, great! If you don't, talk to the hand ... cause the face don't want to hear it bitch! Hahaha, that last bit, "From the organisers of the 10 Joan Road party" ... we thought it would be a laugh for all those who knew us and had actually been for that party. For those who hadn't been, we thought it might pique their curiousity, just a bit more.

After printing out the cards, we sat in Mr Bean Cafe plotting and planning. We set about furiously calling our friends and looking through our friendster accounts to call up long lost acquaintances. We were all hyped up and ready to go. Over the next two weeks, I was to continually push my friends to promote the event, and also gather commitments and contributions.

When you organize an event of this scale, it is very often a thankless task. On the flipside, it can prove to be an opportunity to test your friendships. A party of this scale required resources ... and resources would need to be activated. I was determined this party would be a success, and something we could look back to and smile at.

To be or not to be?

2006-12-16T11:59:00.000+08:00

I have been back in Singapore for about half a year now, and whilst I've tried to keep every day as different from the one before, it becomes an uphill struggle after a while. My core group's activities (as I call the group of friends that hang out the most together), was starting to get a tad predictable. BBQs at denkas (meaning countless chicken wings and cheese hotdogs followed by KTV) ... chill out sessions at a wine bar ... Don't get me wrong, the reason why we hang out so much with one another is because we're all chill out homebodies. We like doing this stuff. We like familiarity and making fun of ray all the time. But I had decided it was time to mix it up a little. We needed a fresh shot of adrenaline. We needed new blood.

The arrival home for the holidays of one of my best friends, Stanley(from Sydney where he is studying)marked a turning point. Stanley is a crazzzzyyyy guy. We're both extremists to some extent, but he has always lived life on the edge, and having a friend like him is both a challenge and a joy. Below is a file photo. He's put on some weight in Sydney (the result of eating and drinking beer non stop).

Back in the day, we used to be party animals. "Social butterflies" you might call it. We would walk into zouk like we owned the ground before us, and be acknowledged all the way from the entrance to member's bar. We were never under the illusion that these people who waved hi or passed the casual "How's it going" were our friends, but we enjoyed it nonetheless. After arriving at zouk in a convoy of cars, stanley would drink himself silly and I would sit there with my Coca Cola looking all cool and making sure my dear friend did not get into a fight. Trust me, it was a job somebody needed to do. I did not mind it at all, and it taught me one of my most important lessons. If you're sober in a club, you get to see alot more of what's going on. I mean alot moree.

Besides hitting the clubs three times a week, we were also big fans of house parties. This was more of my thing. I've always liked a good house party. It presents a much better opportunity of meeting new people and actually getting to know somebody. I mean seriously, I can't stand the incessant banging of the bass, and having to shout like a bitch to be heard. And the whole supper trick is hardly any better.

Anyway, we threw our share of house parties. Alternating between mine, stanleys, jivesh's and darren's. It was good fun. But the most legendary of them all has got to be the 10 Joan Road party at Stanley's. That was the bomb.

Just like a magic trick, there are three distinct phases of planning a house party.

The first is known as the Inspiration. This is that single moment, it comes to you and you say, I want to throw a house party.

The second is known as the Doing. This is where you first overcome the inertia and actually commit to the party by making all necessary purchases and mobilising your friends, exciting them for the cause.

The third is known as the Appreciation. The appreciation is a two fold affair. During and after the party. Unfortunately, traditionally, the host does not get to enjoy during the party.

I remember vividly the moment we were inspired to throw the 10 joan road party. Me and stanley were doing water point duty (in the army) for a marathon at macritchie reservoir. Stanley's 21st birthday was coming up, and we were thinking what to do what to do? His mother had promised him a significant ang pow that he could use to do anything he wanted with. Probably one of those tests. His mum would have loved for him to deposit it into his savings a/c ... but hey we were young ... 450 people turned up ... 3/4s we did not know at all ... and the host stanley? Asleep like a baby after a trip to the dentist ... at 1 ... just as it picked up ... at least he got to catch the action on a DVD we had produced.

Open letter to Sir William Codrington

2006-12-05T22:58:00.000+08:00

Dear Bill,

I write this open letter to you because I feel our conversations were ended too abruptly by nature. It seems like yesterday, when I moved into apartment 205, westcliffe, and I recieved a friendly drop in from my new neighbour. A firm handshake, and a warm smile welcomed me to the new home I would come to love so much.

It's only been 6 months since I was last in my apartment in tempremental london. I remember rather childishly picking up my hand and waving goodbye to it. For some reason, I felt compelled to say to myself I would be back. I wanted to be back. As usual, I put my keys into an envelope, wrote you a note and dropped it off in your mail slot.

I thought nothing of the fact you were out, and was actually rather thankful you called a little later to see if I had left yet. That goodbye was, to me then, a formality that would be reversed when I next visited you, and it has now taken on a value one cannot put a price on.

Thank you for being a great neighbour, friend and helper! Thank you for fixing my tap, my exhaust fan, cleaning out my fridge, taking care of my flat while I was on vacation. More than anything, thank you for being the warm caring neighbour you always were.

I never asked you how you got your knighthood, perhaps one day I will ask Victor. It might have been for the simple but rare kind of open warmness you demonstrated to me as you must have to others.

I believe you measure a man's worth by how many people remember him fondly when he has started on the next lap on his journey. If you are to be measured by those standards, you would fare better than most I know.

Rest in peace Sir William.

p.s. We never had a picture together. A picture of my apartment where we spent some afternoons catching up and your coat of arms (on your namecard) was all I could muster ......

2006-11-30T23:09:00.000+08:00

Since magic wok (aka Jack, aka Darren) already brought it up, I might as well spill the beans. I also went to Botak Jones for their famed triple patty burger. Ben and Gen had been talking it up for ages, but I hadn't quite felt up to it.

Botak Jones was set up by resident bald american, Bernie Utchenik, and serves good ol' american grub. The interesting thing is that its actually a hawker stall chain with all its branches in HDB (Public Housing) heartlands!

After spending part of the evening exploring Mustafa Departmental Store (Singapore's very own 24 hour departmental store that literally sells EVERYTHING and ANYTHING under the sun and moon), I decided tonight was the night! Sometimes you just have a craving for hamburgers, and oh yes, I had the craving, I felt I was going to ravage the burger, and leave a trail of destruction in my path.

Off we went, to Block 608, Ang Mo Kio, Avenue 5. When we got there, it was packed! And we were told it would be an hours wait for our food! Unfazed, we set about deciding what to order. I was ready to obliterate a cow, and so were my foodie group. We ordered, between the 5 of us, a salad, 5 triple patty burgers, and a cheese hot dog wrapped in bacon.

Just the sight of the thing was worth the wait. I mean I was there for the experience as much as the food. Here was an american food stall in the heartlands that even sold merchandise like caps and T-shirts bearing their motto, "Damn good food at a damn good price!" The paradox of capitalism in a somewhat socialist setting. Look at that beast .... ...

It was all systems go ... ready to rock and roll ...

A side note on darren. The first time I got to know magic wok (his bowling callsign) was over supper in london. At something like 2AM in the morning, he systematically dismantled two steamed crabs! (I thought to myself, who eats crabs at 2AM!!???) The common thread in our friendship has got to be a willingness to travel anywhere for food, with the shortest of notices, and the minimum planning. I've got to give it to him, look at how neatly and systematically he approached his burger. It's no mean feat I assure you. We took a while figuring out how we were going to do it.

I ... am ... a messy burger eater ... but hey look ... I finished mine! All of it! Dummm deee dummm.... don't bother straining your eyes ... it's just fries on the plate.

What's the verdict? Well, I liked the burger. You could definitely taste the quality of the patty, the shitake mushrooms were beautiful, and the runny egg, exquisite! Ben and Gen thought the sentosa burger was better, and I might be inclined to agree with them, but for the salt content in Donna's creations! At the end of the day though, it was the experience of eating proper american food in the heartlands, with entertaining and enthusiastic servers like Irya here that did it for me.

Yeah ... I'll be back ... and not just to prove that I can actually finish the burger (Darren, just you wait!)

Eat some more part 2

2006-11-20T22:23:00.000+08:00

As if indulging in a rich italian meal was not enough, on Saturday night, I had to go for hot pot! I had arranged a mini-reunion with some of my friends from LSE, and they happened to choose what is only my favourite restaurant in the whole wide world. The magic of chong qing hot pot! YUUMMMMMMMMMYYY!!!!

For the un-initiated, thats mala huo guo, or mala hot pot. The hot pot originated from Chong Qing, and you get to choose between a chicken based soup, or a red hot spicy option.

The magic of chong qing hot pot which is located on the fourth floor of Tanglin Shopping Centre is the orginal mala huo guo. Don't bother with the copy cats and cheap imitators at beach road, this is the place it all began (I've been patronising for about a decade)!

Lunchtime is where you get the most bang for your buck. For something like 16.90+++, you get an all you can eat buffet which is expansive to say the least. The best thing is its an ala carte style buffet, and the ingridients are really fresh. Ahhh the streaky baconnn .... thats great heart attack food right there ....

They call this place the "magic of chong qing hot pot" for a reason. There is a distinct hurt so good feeling you'll go through in the morning that'll make it ALLLL worth it. Yes I lurvee this place so much, if you're a good friend of mine, it's like baptising our friendship to come here .... hehe .... :-P

The eating din't stop there! On sunday night, off it was to Denka's place for BBQ. Seriously, 63 Branksome Road, is definitely BBQ central. We've had countless BBQ parties since I got back, and it's always a great opportunity to catch up.

Notably, one of our friends (I'm so privileged to know him), Ray was recently featured as a "modale" on FHM. Yes, suave, sexy ray juan of portugese and philippino descent, CEO of JR concepts, counts amongst his many talents, male modelling. Girls, did I mention he drives a beemerrr? When he first got it, he pulled up into the driveway of Far East Plaza, with his cap, music blaring out, nodded to us, twinkle in his eye and all, and drove offf!!!

We got a signed copy! Yayyy!

TO offset the eating, I did do sommee excercise .... KTV!!!! Yes, that is the second thing Denka's parties are good for. He's got an excellent on-demand system with all the latest songs, and I was well up for it, having not gone for a good number of months.

KTV is about singing as much as it is about listening to other people sing. There are all kinds, people who don't exactly sound like andy lau but have a great time singing it (Amos Kwok) to singers who execute a song so flawlessly, you wonder how much time they've spent practicing!

Ezann is of the latter company. She sings with such ease and exuberance, I offered in jest to produce her album should she want to quit acting. Here she is gamely posing whilst singing. Yes, she is a natural in front of the camera. The next sun yan zi! Chase your dreams!

A weekend of non stop eating was capped by an evening of song and laughter. I may have taken a step back in my quest for hunky dory ming, but hey, it was all worth it.

p.s. I learnt of a new song during KTV. Really nice. Check it out. The imagery and power of chinese songs simply cannot be outdone by english ones.

If you feel it in your heart, and you understand me. Stop right where you are, everybody sing along with me!