Project 365: Day 14, 27th February 2009

Nuffnang today got a birthday present delivered to our office from one of our clients.

Inside was a nice bottle of wine and a bottle opener.

Thank you Goldfinger and team!

Nuffnang Turns Two

Was over at Princess's place today and saw Kitty Chan in this position feeling all very unloved.

Project 365: Day 13, 26th February 2009

Anyone wanna show Kitty Chan some love?

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Nuffnang today turns two years old on the 27th of February 2009.

Gosh it seemed like the year just flew past. When I was thinking about how to write this entry, I took a look back at what I wrote when Nuffnang turned one and it seems like I covered almost everything in the first year.

Heck it was indeed a turbulent first year but we made it through.

In our second year, things were a lot more stable. Nuffnang had grown from a dotcom startup to a company that has good cashflow, good reserves and stable ad revenue streams. We did a few new things like move into a new office in KL.

And a new office in Singapore too.

We added more Nuffies to the team so our teams in every office got bigger.

And we expanded to the Philippines, opening an office there with the right partners,

and a wonderful team of Pinoy Nuffies.

Then a few months later to Australia, opening an office in Melbourne

with another set of wonderful partners.

By the end of our 2nd year, the number of bloggers in the regional Nuffnang Community had passed 80,000. Our clients have grown from the local advertisers that I've always been familiar with back home to well-known brands in Philippines and Australia that I was less exposed to for much of my life.

The question is... now that Nuffnang has done all this.... what's next?

Well.... there's more to come... :) 

Happy Birthday Nuffnang!

PS: I published this official announcement on our site about our Nuffnang 2nd Birthday a few hours ago.

One Day To A Meaningful Day

Today is Thursday, tomorrow is Friday.

This Friday is a fairly exciting day for me. For one, it's Nuffnang's 2nd Anniversary. That means Nuffnang will turn TWO years old. Gosh I can't believe it's been only such a short time that we've been around. Feels as if we've gone through so much. I'll make another entry about that tomorrow.

The other thing that I'm excited about this Friday is a surprise that I have planned for Princess. When the year started, I told Princess that it was going to be a year full of surprises for her. And since then she has been if anything showered by constant surprises here and there, each one different from the other.

This Friday I have something planned for her and I've told her that but all she knows is:

1) I'm going to pick her up after work to take her for that surprise.

2) She should wear something nice on that day.

3) It is something I am very sure nobody she knows in her lifetime so far has ever experienced.

4) It's something she would never guess and something that she wouldn't think was possible.

5) It's something that you probably would only see out of movies or out of a chicklit.

One more day to the surprise. I'm so excited to see her reaction.

I'll probably blog about it over the weekend (if I get the chance to) so stay tuned ok ? :) 

Oh and my picture of the day.

Pouring beer for myself at the GAB Tavern today. Will blog more about that in time to come :)

Project 365: Day 12, 25th February 2009

Project 365: Day 11, 24 February 2009

Firdy... the player in our office !

Girls beware!!! 

He's very very smooth and girls find him "cute".

Project 365: Day 10, 23 February 2009

Came across this campaign running on Nuffnang. I checked out their site a week ago to see some countdown they're having for something they're coming up with I suppose. 

Then just today I remembered it and checked it out again only to see that it's still ticking with 4 days left to go. Gosh when you actually count the minutes, time doesn't pass fast at all.

-----------------

Yesterday I learned that if Princess were to be my wife and I were to find a second wife, she would kill herself...

Only to come back as a ghost to haunt me.

Nice Princess... nice... 

Things to do with a Princess on Sundays

1) Open your eyes at 9.30AM only to remember that it's Sunday morning and you should go back to sleep.

2) Wake up again at 10.30AM and nudge her to see if Princess is still asleep. She's still asleep. Stick your finger out of the comforter and agree that it is too warm and comfortable inside and too cold outside to make an effort to get out of bed. Go back to sleep.

3) Wake up once again at 11.30AM and notice her wide awake. Lie sideways with your head still on the pillow and look into her eyes while telling her how happy it makes you to wake up next to her in the morning.

4) Finally finish all the mushy mushy talk and get out of bed to wash up. Pretend to act surprised when you see the time is already 1.30PM. Blame it on Princess!

5) Go out for a late lunch. McDonalds drive-through. Nuggets for the Princess, Double Cheeseburger for yourself.

6) Watch "Doubt", Meryl Streep's latest movie starring alongside Philip Seymour Hoffman. Agree that never in our lives will we ever be able to act as well as they do.

7) Head out to Pavilion and stand in the humid car park waiting for Princess to find an ear ring she dropped at the side of her seat. Consider helping her look for it but whip out your camera phone to take a picture of her looking for it instead.

Project 365: Day 9, 22nd February 2009

8) Go grocery shopping and stock up enough toilet paper to wipe the asses of 30 elephants.

9) Keep groceries in the car then go shopping for books.

10) Notice really funny quotes on the book store's walls and let Princess take pictures of them.

11) Watch and laugh as she almost gets caught by the book store staff for taking pictures and attempts to act innocent when actually making herself look even more guilty.

12) Rush out of the book store and knock down a sign while at it. Struggle for 2 minutes to put it back in its original position.

13) Go for a sushi dinner because Princess likes Japanese food. 

14) Show Princess the books you bought and watch her yawn at the boring stuff you read.

15) Show her the magazines you bought and watch her make fun of you again.

16) Smile at Princess while she happily decides to try something new from the menu.

17) Watch her grumpy face when the food comes and she regrets being adventurous.

18) Get into the car and start the drive to send her home for the night.

19) Teach her how to move her car seat higher to make herself look taller to outside motorists. Then watch her let out a cunning smile while she becomes ambitious and plans to put her car seat so high she looks much taller than me.

20) Watch her fail in doing so when she realizes the seat belt was holding her back.

21) Chat, giggle and laugh the whole trip back home.

22) Reach her home and take one last picture of her before she leaves the car.

23) Drive home alone. It's the end of a day out with Princess and the beginning of missing her again until you next see her.

Project 365: Day 8, 21 February 2009

Had dinner and drinks with some Nuffnangers today at The Apartment in KLCC.

Met some Nuffnangers for the first time!

All a really fun bunch!

The Story of Derrick

Before I went to bed last night I was thinking about resentment. The thing about me, whether it's good or bad or neither is that I never forget when somebody does something good to help me when I'm in need but on the flip side I also never forget when somebody does something bad to harm or betray me.

I started thinking about the oldest feeling of resentment I still feel today and I thought of Derrick (not his real name of course). I was 16 years old when I met Derrick. We were seated next to each other in class back to school and we really got along.. He grew to be very much like a best friend to me. Someone you can laugh with and someone you can be serious with.

That year to celebrate my 16th Birthday I arranged a hotel stay with a few of my friends, in total there were just 5 of us. We booked two connecting rooms in Berjaya Hotel in 1-Stop to spend the night there playing cards, games (back then we didn't do any drinking yet) and talking about girls (yes.. hormones were already raging).

The fun night flew by quickly and before we knew it the sun had come up in the horizon. We all went to get a bit of sleep and I woke up around 9.00AM to start packing and getting ready to checkout. After packing my stuff I went to take a shower. The rest were all talking in the other room and Derrick who stayed with me in my room had just gotten up to pack his stuff.

I hopped out of the shower 5 minutes later, got dressed and headed to the nightstand where I had put my wallet. I opened it up and was met with a rude shock. The RM200 I had before I had got into the shower was gone. I panicked and turned to Derrick to ask "Hey have you seen RM200 lying around somewhere?"

Derrick let a moment pass to refresh his memory then he said

"No... but hey just now a housekeeping guy just came in to the room to do some stuff. I don't know what but he left just a few minutes later before you came out of the shower."

I picked up the phone and called the hotel operator and reported the case to the security manager. He came up to the room and asked us some questions first of all to see if all of us kids were lying about the money I guess. He asked me what denomination the RM200 was, where I had put it last and how did the Housekeeping guy look. 

Derrick digged into his memory and described the guy as well as he could which turned out to be not very much of a helpful description. I mean sometimes you see someone but it doesn't strike you that you should remember how this guy looks. The security manager also questioned my 3 other friends in the next room but none of them had seen anything. They were all too busy talking to themselves. 

We all left the hotel that day, with me being RM200 poorer but nevertheless happy anyway, I was 16 years old!

A few days later the security manager called Derrick, my mum and I back to the hotel. He said he had solved the case. We all were ushered into the backrooms of the hotel to a small but nice office the security manager had for himself. The three of us sat down and anxiously asked him if he had the RM200 and if he had caught the thief.

The security manager took a breath, leaned back on his chair and said

"I don't have your RM200 yet but I know where it is now and I know who took it.".

He then started asking us more questions about the day. First to me then to Derrick. The questions started simple but they began to get a bit more aggressive on Derrick. He was asked what he was doing in that 5 minutes I was in the shower, what the housekeeping guy looked like, what time did he enter the room and etc etc.

After a while Derrick got a bit agitated by it and he snapped back at the security manager

"Why are you talking to me like that? You're making me feel as if you think I'm the one who took the money."

He went on

"I didn't take the money! It was just RM200 why would I take that money! You know how you're making me look to my best friend and his mum here? You're putting our friendship at stake."

I too was a little annoyed by the security manager's tone. 

I said "Yeah what are you getting at?"

The security managed looked at me and told me to be patient. Then he looked at Derrick and asked him the RM200 dollar question (don't mind my pun).

"Did you take the RM200? If you did I am giving you one last chance to own up or I am going to call the cops and hand this matter over to them."

It was a final threat.

Derrick was very offended. He said

"I ALREADY TOLD YOU THAT I DID NOT TAKE THE MONEY! CALL THE COPS IF YOU WANT! Call them! Show them whatever proof you have when you know there is no proof because I DIDN'T DO IT! And here you are making allegations that are costing my friendship with Timothy."

The security manager nodded to himself then sat up on his chair and gave out an "Okay". He then picked up the remote control on his table and turned on the monitor right next to table. The monitor lit up with footage of the corridor outside our room, you know like this kind of corridor.

He turned to Derrick and explained away

"This is a recording of the camera right outside your room. You said the housekeeper entered your room between 9.00AM-9.30AM. I am going to forward the entire recording now and you will see that between that time NOBODY went IN or OUT of your room. In fact I also took the time from 8AM until you checked out at 11AM. NOBODY HAD ENTERED OR LEFT YOUR ROOM until then. So where is the money Derrick?"

I had never seen a person's face shatter before. I don't even know how to describe it in words but I know that I had seen that for the first time when I looked at Derrick's face that very minute. He was defeated. He had been caught lying and it wasn't only in front of my own mother that made it look bad but also the very fact that he had tried to make himself look innocent by throwing the stakes of our friendship in. 

Derrick looked at me with the saddest face he could pull and said

"I'm so sorry Tim. I needed the money, I'll give it back to you... I will".

The security manager turned to my mum and asked her what she wanted to do, whether he should call the cops or not. My mum said no and that she thinks we've all learned a lesson here today. We thanked the security manager for his time and left but not without him saying one last thing to Derrick.

"Derrick... if you EVER accuse ANY of my colleagues of anything like that again, I will really make sure you end up in prison the next time."

Derrick by then had tears in his eyes and was crying. He whimpered and left with us.

Right outside the hotel Derrick pulled me aside to talk to me in private. He said he was really sorry and that he would really pay me back that RM200.

I said that it was okay. If he really needed that money then fine but he insisted that he pay me back. Perhaps he had learned his lesson and was now wanting to be genuine about it so I said okay just give it back to me in school.

It has been 9 years since the incident and I had lost all contact with Derrick. He never paid me back.

Until today I still hold this grudge. He is a guy that I don't keep in contact with and I have no interest to. How can you still want to be friends with someone who does something like that to you?

Then again, it's been 9 years, perhaps if it's not time to forget it is certainly time to forgive. But how do you forgive someone who doesn't even really feel sorry for that he did. I mean in spite of his apologies, if he really was sorry he would've returned the money without me even having to ask right?  

And that's just the story with Derrick.

I had other close friends of mine betray me growing up. One friend that I grew up with from childhood ended up stealing one of my girlfriends. Another close friend of mine went straight to try to get another ex-girlfriend of mine to sleep with him 2 weeks right after I had broken up with her and was still heartbroken.

Somehow with friends, I am lucky and I am unlucky. I'm unlucky that I had been betrayed over and over again by many friends that I thought were close to me and I guess maybe that's why I developed that long holding resentment in my heart. That once you do something to harm me I will remember it forever.

I'm lucky though in the sense that after all the betrayal and hurt I had gone through when it came to friends, I have found a few that are the best friends anyone could ever ask for.

The good thing about these experiences is that they somehow made me appreciate the good people around me a lot more. For all the people who have helped me considerably without expecting anything in return from my student days all the way up till today in business, I always remember them. And I will always feel that no matter what I do to repay them, it will never be enough.

Project 365: Day 7, 20 February 2009

Went to my uncle's house today only to see that my little cousin there tied a balloon to her little pet hamster I guess trying to see if that would make the hamster fly.

As you can see from the picture.... Houston.. we do not have lift off.

Project 365: Day 6, 19 February 2009

Went to the gym with Robb today. Was jogging on the treadmill when I kept getting work calls which subsequently led me to making more phone calls while I was on the treadmill.

At first I stopped jogging for a while just to talk on the phone but after a while I realized the phone calls were getting so long if I didn't start jogging then I never would. So I jogged and talked.

Was talking to Carol on the phone in one of my conversations then and after much hesitation she finally asked

"Are you on a treadmill or something?"

I said 

"Yeah.. how you know?"

She said

"I can hear you panting... "

And there I thought I was hiding my panting so well to make it sound like I was in front of a computer or something when I actually sounded like  

"Could you *pant* please *pant* help me prepare a *pant* proposal for *pant* ....."

PS: Thanks Robb for helping me take this Project 365 picture while I was on the phone.

Project 365: Day 5, 18 February 2009

How I wished Princess good morning today.

and how she replied.

Project 365: Day 4, 17 February 2009

Was so busy with work yesterday that it was like almost 7PM when I realized I had not yet taken my Project 365 photo for the day.

I walked around with the office armed with my camera chanting "I need a picture I need a picture".

Vernice turned around from her computer and shot me this weird look.

Probably thinking to herself "My Boss is so weird."

And just like that she unknowingly contributed to my Project 365 photo of the day. Bwahahaha!

A Little Drop Of Heaven

Many many months ago I met a very special girl. She was small but cute and she had this really bubbly personality coupled with a very contagious laughter. She laughs about almost anything, you really hardly even have to try. 

You could even drop a pen on the floor or mispronounce a word and that would be enough to send her bursting in laughter. I never really thought much about her though. We exchanged contacts because she needed some help with something and we spent the next few months merely talking on MSN.

In those few months we realized that we really really clicked and we quickly became really good friends. Friends who talked to each other about everything from work, TV, movies, music to even the relationships we were in. Fast forward to a few months later, we both ended our relationships ironically for the same reason: Long Distance.

Both single for the first time in a long time, we started to hang out more and just a few months ago, I began a relationship with her.

Since then I've been through the wildest ride of my life that drive me to do the craziest things sometimes. One day I was walking around and I saw a cute little Hello Kitty balloon they were selling at Memory Lane. It reminded me so much about her because I knew she loves Hello Kitty.

So I bought her the balloon and surprised her at her office, showing up right behind her workstation to the teasing of all her fellow colleagues. Not exactly something I do.

Then another time I was out for lunch with the Nuffies when I happened to see this really really big but really really cute Hello Kitty stuffed toy. 

I bought it straight away without even thinking twice. Then just right after work I rushed from my office in KL all the way to her home in Subang to put this in her room so she would see it when she got back later that night.

Upon entering her room... it was a big mess. HUGE MESS. So I decided to help her tidy it up a little. I started hanging up all her clothes which were thrown around her bed, including 3 tops, 2 shorts and 1 bra. 

Then I cleared her bed of the 100 other stuffed toys there (especially the ones from her previous ex-bf *grumbles*) except for her favourite childhood one and I left the Hello Kitty right in the middle with a note from me.

And these two things that I just told you is just the tip of the iceberg of the crazy things I've done! In fact they both happened in the span on 7 days... gosh I wonder how I keep finding myself doing stuff like this.

Though the good news is that it isn't just me... one day I opened my wallet only to find this little card inside.

In the card it read.

There is no better feeling in this world... than loving someone and having that someone love you back.

I know it's only been a short while but I've never felt like this before... I think I might have found the one.

Cynthia who saw me like this once asked me if I had lost my mind. She asked if she could take me to a temple to perhaps clear any spell that the girl I'm so crazy about might have put on me.

Maybe she's right. Maybe I am under a spell. 

But I've never felt happier before in my life.

If this is love... it truly is the most wonderful thing that men and women are capable of doing and so much more refreshing than all the hate that goes around this world.

In the past, people have always asked me what I look for in a girl and I always answered the same thing that I'd imagine most guys would've answered: Beautiful, smart, cheerful and someone I could talk to for hours and hours without feeling a hint of boredom.

I ended up getting so much more than that. For months I've found it hard to find the words to describe her but today I learned the perfect words to.

She is to me... a little drop of Heaven.

Project 365: Day 3, 16 February 2009

Went for the launch of Earth Hour 2009 this morning at KL Tower.

Nuffnang has pledged its support for Earth Hour 2009. We have some pretty exciting things coming up soon.

Speaking of things coming up, I've just got myself a ticket to go for Obama-Magic a conference by Obama's National Director of Special Events: Roger Frisk. He's going to be talking about how Obama used online communities like blogs, Facebook and YouTube and all to push his campaign to being the President of the USA. 

 

Thanks to Ham for the ticket.

Project 365: Day 2, 15 February 2009

Went to Pavilion to watch Slumdog Millionaire today after hearing so much about it. 

Probably one of the best movies I've seen so far! 

So damn damn damn damn damn damn damn good!

Meeting Berry & Lemon and Project 365

Princess today was telling me about this thing called Project 365 where you take a picture of your life every day and post it up somewhere, on your blog or something.

Then one day long long time from now you can look back and the pictures you took (as random as they may be) tells you a story of the things you've gone through in the past. I update this blog once every 2-3 days so posting a picture a day will probably make me have to update this blog every single day, something that I think might be hard if I'm caught up with work but is something I'm going to try to do from now on. 

Today I went to Sunway Pyramid for the unveiling of the Ribena Purple heart there right on Valentine's Day.

The purple heart is this really big transparent heart filled with purple Ribena bottle caps. 

I love Ribena! I just do. I started drinking it while I was a kid and now I end up still popping by 7-11 to buy a bottle once like almost every 1-2 days. 

It was a day of many celebrity Nuffnang bloggers being there and also a day of funny faces.

Like this funny face that Mehlin gave while telling us some story. I don't know at what point of the story did she decide to almost stick out her tongue.

Or this funny face that Mellissa made while KY was taking a picture with his phone.

A number of the top bloggers were there: KY, Sixthseal, Tziaaa to name a few....

 and I met Redmummy there for the first time too.

Pictured here with Reddaddy and Raymond from GSK.

It was also a chance for me to meet two other fantasy Nuffnangers: Bottled Berry and Bottled Lemon!

On the way to the screening of a movie they were giving us I bumped into Bottled Lemon. 

And we hit things off really quick (turns out we have something in common... she likes Ribena too).

Princess got jealous... so she started flirting with Berry who was just standing right across us... *cough* slut *cough*.

We ended up watching "New In Town" the new movie by Renee Zellweger and after that I headed to get my hair cut.

While I was getting my hair cut, Princess was all busy getting her nails done, 

and taking ugly pictures of me wrapped in a giant plastic bag getting my hair coloured.

In between all that action we saw the Predator getting his hair done too. Tried to initiate small talk with him but he didn't seem very friendly.

So that was my afternoon out on Valentine's Day. I was supposed to go for a surprise trip but it got canceled in the last minute :( Don't ask why.

And finally... to officiate the opening of Project 365 on my blog (and on Princess's blog), here is my first picture of Project 365.

Project 365: Day 1, 14th February 2009

Princess and I in front of the big purple heart.