JOIN ME!!!!!!!

Last week I found myself at the launching of Heineken’s “Be Prepared” game at TTDI Plaza. It’s an online game that they just put up on their website (www.greattogether.heineken.com.my) but one with a little bit of a twist.
Instead of one of those flash games you play on your own, this one required that you get together with another 2 of your friends to work together and play the game. A game like that requires the full attention of an actual launch event though we all know it’s mainly just an excuse for people like me to go drinking.These are the kind of events where just about everybody who’s anybody turns up in. Most of them there that I took pictures with made me vow not to post their pictures on my blog so the only one that was nice enough to agree to it was this very capable man named Adrian who started KLue magazine years ago.

Please ignore how red I was. I wasn’t … uhmm… high on booze or anything. I was just… blushing.

Soon enough a mini-competition there got started among teams of 3 put together from the people there. Everyone there got together to form a team.

The crew behind some of the magazines there like KLue, Catcha and Newman got together to play
Some of our Nuffnangers were there too.

Tock, Joshua and Andrew formed a team they called “Nang United”.


KY, Suanie and another friend of KY’s formed another team that eventually won the free trip to Krabi they were giving away that night.

I came back home a little excited that night but managed to play down my excitement and go to bed first.

The next day at work I paid a visit to the Heineken site to check out the game they had going.

Now I gotta give Heineken some credit, their site is pretty cool. When you first get there a dockpanel video starts playing right away holding your attention for a bit. How they manage to stream it so well with my struggling broadband speed is beyond my understanding.

Without being too distracted from the reason I was on the site in the first place, I clicked on the “Be Prepared Game”. The introduction for the game is pretty cute and it looked like it was some kind of game meant to get people together to do stuff.

I mean games and all are fine as long as they’re fun to play and of course it helps if there is some sort of incentive. That’s why we all play games right?

Why do so many people play WoW? Sure it’s fun and all but after a while I’m sure it gets pretty routine and the only reason why you continue to play is so that you can tell your friends that you have whatever magical item they come up with or that you have 20 Level 60 characters on WoW.

In the case of “Be Prepared”, the incentive was 3 tickets to watch the Heineken Star Final, an exclusive UEFA Champions League Final viewing experience.So fine… that’s enough to incentivize me. The game objective?

Well turns out that I basically have get a lost beer delivery truck to the supermarket and then once I finish my part I have to get a friend of mine to continue from there.No problem since I have many friends.

I played the game anyway.

Turns out to be quite cute and easy to play. Just drive my truck around on the map but I kept getting lost or making the wrong turns so I didn’t get what I thought was a good time (at least not good enough to win). So I uhmm.. “cheated” and tried the game a few more times until I made perfect turns and at the end of my final try… I did it all in 56 seconds!
So then okay I was supposed to pass it on to a friend to finish the game. I took a quick look on my MSN list and decided to ask some of the people there.

My first pick… Nicholas Chay.
After a few more conversations like this I have decided to give up on my friends who can’t even play a game with me!

So now I’m going to open it up to you guys.

Please help Boss Stewie play this game. I’ll have to play it over again but I memorized the map already so I should be able to do it in that time or better. If you wanna join me, just leave your e-mail address in my comments or e-mail me at lengmoublogs@yahoo.com and I’ll send you the invite.

And… I just have to say this… PLAY PROPERLY AH!!!! DUN MAKE ME LOSE!

My Father

Today is a very special day, a day that I will start by telling you about my relationship with my father.

I was never the model son growing up, far from that actually. I refused to study and I was so rebellious you'd wonder if I was dropped on my head while I was a baby. I even recall times where I would actually pretend to be sick just to get away from tuition classes so it was no surprise that out of 12 subjects or so in school I would fail half of them all the way up to Form 1.

My parents tried very hard to motivate me to study using both carrot and stick approaches. They tried to tell me that they would reward me if I got good results, but it didn't work. Then they tried to tell me that they would spank me and ban me from watching TV and playing computer games but again it didn't work. I would just sneak to play computer games when they're not around.

Then just right after Form 1 my parents decided that they have had enough of putting me in a co-ed school. They thought that maybe I was getting distracted with all the girls there especially with all the overflowing hormones at that point in time. I was sent to a boy school in Penang called St. Xavier's where they streamed classes. That means they put you in class based on how good your results before were.

Out of 8 classes, 1 being the best and 8 being the worst, I expected to be put in 1 but to my surprise I was put in 5. That was the day I realized that I was quite a moron after all! So for the first time in my life I started studying and my grades slowly improved. From being ranked 168 out of 280 in the form I went to 120, 96 , 66, 4 and eventually 1 (before quickly falling back to 4 and 5 again).

My father was proud to see my grades improve but he wasn't the kind to show it.

He told me "Son, don't think you're so smart, there are a lot of people out there smarter than you and you'll know it sooner or later".

And he was right. I went to college to do my A-Levels and realized that there were a lot of people there smarter than me. Then I went to do my Economics degree at UCL in London and heck compared to the brilliant minds there, I was a total idiot.

Then came to the next part of my life... what I was going to do once I graduated. I always thought that I was going to end up in an investment bank simply because it was a job that paid really well. So much that I made it a point to do internships at a couple of foreign investment banks during my summer holidays.

All that changed however one summer during my internship with Deutsche Bank. I got together with some friends and worked on a little fun non-profit project to help students find tuition teachers. I came across the realization that I enjoyed the adrenaline of running a web startup and around the same time I started blogging too leading to a growing sense of passion for the blogging community.

Just before I graduated I told my father that I didn't want to work at a bank. Instead I wanted to start an internet business and expecting him to ask me to work first to gain some experience, he instead said "Okay son, lets talk about this when you get back from London".

I got back to Malaysia on the summer of June 06 and along with Ming I started working on a business plan for a web startup that was to be called Nuffnang. After I presented the business plan and financial models of Nuffnang to my dad, he made me make a decision
"Okay I was going to give you this sum of money to do your Masters but you decide what you want to do. If you want to take it to start a business instead then go ahead. Either ways I think you will learn something and become a better person".

We got to working and for someone who was new to running businesses, I made a lot of mistakes and struggled to learn. Then when Nuffnang officially launched in February 2007, the real stress started.

There was pressure to bring in sales because a company without sales is a ticking time bomb and it didn't help that both Ming and I didn't know anyone in the advertising industry neither did any of our family members so we resorted to cold calling and begging for meetings.

But we got really lucky and as people (both clients and bloggers) put their faith in us, Nuffnang grew. But a growing company comes with its own fair share of stress and days went by where I never got much sleep.My father though was always there for me being supportive all the way. Always guiding me teaching me how to deal with the stress and how to solve problems I faced. I know there were even times when my own problems troubled my father as much as it troubled me.

At the same time, my father always tried to manage my expectations. Always afraid that I might get disappointed, he constantly reminded me

"Son... this is your first business and it may not work out. Most people don't get it right the first time round so if you don't, then don't be disheartened okay?"

It really took us both by surprise how Nuffnang grew to where it is today and how it is still growing so rapidly. One day not too long ago, my father for the first time in my life said to me
"Son... I am very proud of you".

To a son who has had a rocky start in life and who was a little devil to raise.... those were the best few words I could ever long to hear in my life. Little does my father know that whatever I am today though is whatever my father shaped me to be. My father taught me so many things that I now carry with me today.

He taught me to be humble for no matter how successful I may ever be in life, there will always be others who are more successful.

He taught me to be nice to everyone you see on your way up in life, because you will see those same people again on your way down.

He taught me to be determined that the ones who persevere are the ones who eventually make it.

Sometimes I wonder what good I must've done in my previous life to deserve such a good father.

I love you Dad... Happy Birthday!

My BFM Radio Interview

Hey remember the radio interview I had a few weeks back at BFM?

You can listen to it here.

Don't laugh at me! Even I can't hear myself talk.

Morning Scare in the Office

So it was a usual grumpy Monday morning for me. Parked my car, took the crowded elevator up and then opened the door into our office. The minute I opened the door, I got a big shock.

Staring at me from the front door was this.
I let out a
"AAAAAARRGGGHHHH!!! WHAT THE FUCK?!?!"

And I heard all the Nuffies laughing. Even our latest Nuffie Chee Ching.

The office was decorated with Halloween props everywhere, something Robb had put together when he secretly came to the office yesterday to put everything up.

Then this morning he waited to watch everyone's reaction when they walked in.

We had all sorts of different reactions but unfortunately most involved some form of cursing. People curse when they are shocked.

Yee Hou for example walked in and shouted
"WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?"

Pinky who is the nicest girl you would ever meet walked in and screamed
"FUCKING SHIT!!!!"And shortly after I walked in, we heard the door beep again, indicating that someone else was coming in.

It was Nicholas, and when he walked in and saw the prop he went
"WOAHH!!! What the hell?!" ... the most polite response we've had all day.

Our office is so Halloween-ny now.

Robb thought it would be fun, to put the office in the mood for our upcoming Nuffnang Nokia Silent Halloween party and I guess he's right.We have everything from these little guys hanging around from our closets,


to heads hanging from the ceiling.

Sometimes I really wonder how we get any work done around here.

SHIT STORM!!!!

The most annoying thing just happened to me this morning. It started off like a usual weekday morning. Wake up early for a pre-work jog at KLCC Park, jogged for an hour then get back into the car park to head home, shower then head to office to start my work day.

Today was a little different though.

Just as I was driving out of the KLCC Car Park....
"SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT....."

I looked on my windscreen and realized that a storm of bird (or bat) shit had hit my car and when I say storm I MEAN STORM.

A storm means what must've been like 30 drops of shit... that's right not one... not two... not three... THIRTY FUKING DROPS OF SHITT!!!

Now when some shit hits your windscreen the first thing you do is turn on the wiper to wipe it off right?

WRONG!!!

DOING THAT JUST SMEARED ALL THE SHIT ALL OVER THE WINDSCREEN. So after 5 minutes of wiping, this is how my windscreen looked from inside the car.

Look closely at the picture and you'll see smeared shit on the glass!

Then I looked around my car and realized that it wasn't only my windscreen that was hit but the entire car!

LOOK AT ALL THE SHIT!!!

THERE'S MORE

AND MORE!!!
AND MORE!!!!

AND MORE!!!!

AND MUCH MUCH MORE!!!

As I was driving back home I passed the Jalan Sultan Ismail traffic lights and even the cop that was there directing traffic had his eyes glued to my car as I drove past.

He was probably wondering to himself..
"WHAT THE HELL BIRD DID THIS POOR SONOFABITCH PISS OFF?!?"

ARGHH!!! DAMN BIRDS!!!

Now I know some people say it's good luck to be shit on by a bird.... but this must've been 30 OR MORE BIRDS (or one bird having a bad case of diarrhea). Seriously I am starting to think those 30 birds planned it all out this morning.

They probably realized I leave that car park at that time every day and they decided
"Okay guys... when he drives out of the car park... we swarm him and shit all over his car! It'll be so funny... he'll never know what hit him and our shit is gonna smell real nice after all that fish curry we had last night."

I MEAN SERIOUSLY!!! How often do you see bird shit on the floor?? THEY ALWAYS AIM FOR THE CARS AND THEY ALWAYS HIT!!!

What are the odds... I was STILL in the KLCC Car Park and my car was moving... how the hell???

I HAVE NEVER BEEN SO SHAT ON BEFORE IN MY LIFE!!!

TODAY HAD BETTER TURN OUT TO BE A REALLY LUCKY DAY FOR ME!!!

It's past noon now and I'm still not feeling any of that happiness =(

Nuffnang Nokia's Silent Halloween

Since this year, every 3 months the Nuffnang team tries to come up with a huge event for its Nuffnangers. In March it was the Chipster Pajama Party where I brought along my little buh buh which was then grabbed from me in a game the MC played with the Nuffnangers that night.
In June it was the Maxis Wild Live Blogging where I went as a lion.

Now for around October and November of the year we were thinking of what we could do and took a look at our calendar only to remember that October 31st is HALLOWEEN.

So on the 1st of November 2008 (one day after Halloween because it's a Saturday), we're working with Nokia and Universal Music to come up with the Nuffnang Nokia Silent Halloween!

We were looking wide and far for a venue for the venue this time but we decided on Borneo Baruk Club again (where we held our Nuffnang Chipster Pajama Party) simply because the place seemed just so ideal. It had a stage, high ceilings, a huge projecter screen and equipment for a band. Yes this time we're even getting some bands to play the night away.

So just a few days ago I went with Robb and a few of our clients to check out the place and do some planning. The truth is, these parties take a lot of planning and work (and yes they cost a LOT of money).When I look back, I can't help but admire how our events have evolved to such a scale thanks to sponsors like Nokia. I mean when Nuffnang first started off, we often tried to have events just to get the community together mainly for fun since just about everyone who works at Nuffnang are bloggers.

Our first events were just small simple lunches or movie screenings.
Then as Nuffnang grew bigger and we were fortunate enough to be able to work with brands like Chipster, Maxis and now Nokia, our added resources allowed us to have bigger and bigger events.
This Nuffnang Nokia Silent Halloween is going to be the First Silent Rave party we've ever had. I just recently learned the term "Silent Rave" myself. It's where everyone puts on earphones from phones and dance to music they listen to on their music devices or phones.

So if you take off your ear phones at any time, you'll see everyone else around you dancing to music that you're not listening to. Sounds like quite an experience huh.

I gave it a thought for a bit then thought... okay why not?

So planning is underway!

If you wanna be one of the 200 people who are going to be there at the Nuffnang Nokia Silent Halloween, check out our site here to find out how to get invites.

Meanwhile, it's back to work for the rest of us.

See you guys there!

The Morning Jog

It all started like this.

I was having lunch with the Nuffies at the famous Pudu Siew Yoke or what I call "Kobe Pork" because it's so smooth and tender. As usual I've been trying to cut down on my food a little now so I limited myself to just three pieces of "Kobe Pork".

Then Yee Hou insulted me!
"Aiyah Tim.. why you bother.. you're already fat anyway!!!"

Heck!!! I'm not fat, I just have a little tummy but so do all guys my age. Once you get to a certain age, your metabolism rate slows down and you tend to develop a small tummy.

SEE?! I where got fat?!?

But anyway after some F words being thrown across the table I said
"OKAY!!! LETS BET AN EXPENSIVE DINNER: BY JUNE 09 I WILL HAVE ABS SO FIRM YOU CAN WASH YOUR JEANS ON IT... "

Yee Hou agreed.

So I started last week. Rather than joining the gym first, I decided to spend the first 2 months burning off whatever tummy I had before I started working out in the gym. Now every morning I wake up at 6AM and head over to KLCC Park to jog.

Armed with the earphones of my iPod/iPhone in my ears I jog around the track there for an hour.

KLCC Park is actually really nice and it's not just because of the beautiful view of the Petronas Twin Towers and its surrounding buildings.

I mean I've been to quite a few other parks around the Klang Valley, but I gotta say this is my favourite simply because it's just so well maintained and the view around the park is beautiful.

Jogging there also gives me a lot of time to think. Each time I run, I find myself reflecting on my life and all that reflection helps me clear my head for decisions on Nuffnang and also in my personal life.

Life is a little like a jogging track.

You always move forward but sometimes you tend to slow down a bit when the going gets tough and the people that are successful in making it to the end the quickest are the ones that never give up and push themselves the hardest.

Right after my jog I head back into KLCC where I see plenty of people dressed in their office clothes getting ready to start their workdays. Mondays are the funniest because out of every 10 people you see, at least 2 of them are grumpy as hell because it's a Monday morning.
I head back home to shower and I get into the office just when everyone else gets in to start my work day.

They say a good morning's exercise makes you feel fresh throughout the whole day. I think it's not just that. I think the jog gives you the alone time that everybody needs at some point in his life.

The Word "SHIT"

Today started as a really busy day for me.

I started off with a 9.00AM meeting far away from the office which dragged on till 11.00AM and then having to head back to the office to clear up some work before I went off again for a 2.00PM meeting far far away from the office.

In between the short lunch time I had in the office, I ran down to the coffee shop and gobbled up a plate of fried rice in 10 minutes only to come up again to clear up my work emails as fast as I can.
Then before I knew it, I was going to be late but just before I left I ran to the toilet to answer nature's BIG call (Yes I took the quickest dump ever performed in the history of mankind).

Once I got out of the toilet, I shouted for Pinky who was going to follow me for the meeting
"OI PINKY!!! JOM LETS GO!! WE'RE GONNA BE LATE!!!"

Pinky sprung from her seat and followed me out of the office and into the elevator.

While in the elevator I said
"Dammit lah.. I'm so damn busy today I don't even have enough time in the office to clear up my shit".Pinky suddenly gave me an awkward look and replied
"Uhh... so uhmm... you.. didn't... wipe your ass after your shit just now? Uhmm... ok Boss"

My eyes opened wide and I stared at her
"NO LAH!!! "SHIT" AS IN FIGURATIVELY SPEAKING LAR... MEANING MY WORK LAH.. WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?!?!"

The Things We Did As Kids

Not too long ago, one of my friends sent me an e-mail with pictures of stuff that we used to have during the era of people around my age group (That means if you were born around the 1980s).

The e-mail brought back memories of the things I used to do as a kid.

Lets start with the stuff I used to watch.

THE TV

I started off with this cartoon called He-Man Thundercats. I used to think that little red dragon creature in the picture was cute... *sigh*, what a distorted perception I had of the word "cute" back then.

Then I slowly grew up to learn to watch... DORAEMON!!!

Who doesn't love Doraemon right? Even up till now I treasure my Doraemon memories. At one point when I was studying in London my phone had a Doraemon ringtone to it.

And finally, when I was getting older, the testosterone began to kick in and like all boys my age, we went to more "MANLY" and cool stuff to watch...


TRANSFORMERS!!!

I remember how they would always play all these cartoons somewhere between 5.00PM - 6.00PM each day. As far as Little Timmy was concerned, 5.00PM-6.00PM is private TV time.. nobody was allowed to touch the remote.

THE MUNCHIES

That's also around the time when they would play TV commercials for things like TORA.


I still remember some of the Tora commercials. They never seemed to focus on the chocolate itself but always focused on the toy they had in each box. The commercials would have a bunch of kids all playing with those little plastic toys whether they're little flying helicopters or little plastic bugs that squirt water.

And let me tell you this, those ads worked!

Whenever I went to my tuition class I would always sneak out to buy a pack of Tora that cost RM1.00 each just for the toy but here's the joke: the toy in the TV Commercial looks soo much cooler than the actual toy!

Like if the actual toy could squirt water, it could squirt up to 5CM away but the toy in the TV Commercial looked like it could squirt water to 10 miles from where you were standing.

The thing about Tora also is that they keep updating it with new toys and new commercials almost each month so I never stop buying them. I mean once I feel that I've gotten all the Tora toys available, *POOF* another commercial with a new toy would appear in front of me and I would go out and buy it again.

But while I only bought Tora for the toys, I made sure my mum bought me plenty of these.
I used to love this.... and I still don't understand why though. It's just sugar on a biscuit. I used to like biting off the sugar and eating it on its own before going on to its biscuit.

Almost as much as I liked these little animal crackers.
But here's what I loved the most of all the munchies we had back then.

BUBBLE GUM!!!

I mean I don't know but somehow back in my school, when you were eating bubble gum, you were "COOL". Probably because if you're not allowed to bring bubble gum to school and if you got caught you get a huge scolding from teachers but I guess even as early as back then, girls loved guys who broke rules and acted all dangerous and so.

I also used to love this bubble gum for the temporary 'tattoo' that you could put on to your arm or anywhere. Just add a bit of water and stick it on till it dries.

THE TOYS

Then comes the things we play with.

I guess all boys grew up with these little toy soldiers.
I don't know what it is about them but I loved lining up an entire freaking army of them all around my room. Funny thing though is after I've lined them up, I kinda lose my way on what to do with them. I mean they don't exactly shoot each other or move around on their own.

So what I would end up doing is getting one of my big toy trucks and ramming them all down, making sound effects of the trampled soldiers
"AIEEEEE!!!!! AIEEEeeeee!!!!"

Of course, boys love to play with girls too and girls don't fancy toy soldiers (No they think their Barbie Dolls are all so much better eventhough they don't come armed with bazookas and M-16s).

So for games with girls, we used to play a card game called
"HAPPY FAMILY".
I remember how after exams we would always play a lot of "Happy Family" in school. Probably one of the few games we were allowed to bring to school to play after we were done with our exams.

And when we weren't allowed to bring anything to school before exams, the girls used to play games like this with the boys.
Now I never really friggin understood what the hell this paper thing was supposed to do but I think it was supposed to somehow tell my fortune or something... but I don't know and I didn't care... a girl was playing a game with me and that was the only thing that mattered.

Heck I lived a very confused childhood. On one hand I loved the attention the girls in my class gave me, but on the other hand I was the leader of the G.R.O.S.S. (Get Rid Of Slimy girlS) club that I started in primary school after reading way too much of Calvin & Hobbes.

Of course by the time I turned 13, hormones kicked in and I realized that I did like girls after all.. very very much indeed.

But well among the other cool toys I used to play with friends was this.
This little revolver gun that shoots a very small dose of gunpowder.

All my friends used to arm themselves with this and we would go hiding under cars and all shooting at each other and always shouting
"I GOT YOU I GOT YOU I GOT YOU!!!"

and some of us shouting back
"NO... I GOT YOU FIRST!!!"

or

"NOO!!! YOU MISSED ME!!! I MOVED AWAY".

I was never too sure how anyone knew whether we hit or missed but I remember thinking to myself at one point:
"Sonofabitch always say that you move away... wait till I get a real gun and we'll see you dodge my real bullet".

Today all the friends I used to play this with are all grown ups working at big companies with girlfriends. Ishh ... how did we even make it this far.

Now here's the last thing that really brought back loads of memories.

The PENCILBOX.
Somehow back in primary school it was cool to have pencilboxes like these full of buttons to press. They had everything from pencil sharpeners, to a million different compartments and probably a coffee maker in there somewhere.

That was like the status symbol in school. The better your pencilbox the richer you were.. eventhough one of those probably one cost like RM5 - RM10 each.

Funny thing is how that pencilbox so quickly ran out of fashion. From being cool in primary school, to quickly becoming "childish" by the time we hit secondary school. By the time you were Form 5, your pencilbox had better me nothing more than a zip pencilcase or you were a lame ass.

But ahh.. finally.. there were the erasers.

All the girls took pride in little cute-sy erasers like this.
Which most of them never used to rub anything, funny enough. I mean all it was there for was to make their pencilboxes look pretty.

The guys like myself however... WE LOVED... THE FLAG ERASERS!!!

and I would collect loads and loads of them with all the different countries.

Ahh... I wonder if the kids of today grow up to the same or similar childhood as we all did during our time. I know they probably don't watch He-Man or eat Tora anymore but maybe ... just maybe... they still collect Flag Erasers from different countries.

Do any of you guys remember all this?