The First Cross Border Blogger Gathering In Malaysia

This month, I would have been a blogger for 2 years and 3 months.

When I look back, being a blogger myself and being a company of bloggers has really influenced the way Nuffnang is today.

Let me share my early days of blogging with you.

I started off with a blog that just wasn't meant to be read by anyone other than my friend (Boss Lepton) and I but someway somehow, it did.
As our blog got a little bit more well-known in the community, we began to interact with a number of bloggers, bloggers who welcomed us with open arms into this new community.

I met many many new friends online all through blogging, we exchanged MSN contacts, left comments on each others' blogs, it was almost as if we were hanging out with each other on a daily basis.

It was a relationship that I was very new to. It felt very weird.

I mean here will be someone that I've never met before in my entire life but I seem to know everything about just because of her blog. I know where she works, I know what she likes, what she dislikes, I even know who her friends are... and we've NEVER EVEN MET!!!

Yet every now and then it's always fun to meet the real person behind the blog. And that's when blogger gatherings always came into play.

Two bloggers in the Malaysian blogging community were always quite involved in putting together these gatherings: Jolene and Yee Hou.
The first gathering I was invited to was to the one at Burger King where for the first time ever I met bloggers whom I am now really good friends with today.

I subsequently attended a few more gatherings after that so much that I was almost addicted to these blogger gatherings at one point in time.

Now it was only at our Wizard World blogger gathering that I actually saw the real work it took to plan blogger gatherings that I always just went to enjoy.

Some of the bloggers who were there left without paying for their food (perhaps maybe because they forgot), leaving the organizers behind to pick up the bill. So there you had the organizers who worked without pay or anything just to play host and have a blogger gathering for people to get together and not only are they sometimes not given enough credit but they even have to foot the bill at the end of it.

By then, the idea that would be called Nuffnang was under works.

I went back and shared my experience with Ming and the both of us agreed on one thing, that part of Nuffnang's goal will be to organize blogger gatherings to bring bloggers together, and all this out of the company's own resources.
Hence in the past that is what we have always been doing with our most sincere hearts.

We partner with a few Nuffnang bloggers who are looking to put a gathering together and say
"Okay... Nuffnang will get the venue, handle the logistics and foot the bill. All you have to focus on is plan the program and do what you think bloggers wanna do at a gathering".

It has worked very well for us in the past.

Our Penang blogger event, planned by Cedric and Warren was a huge success and all the bloggers at the event loved it.As Nuffnang grew larger in size, it attracted a lot of investors all looking to invest fortunes into Nuffnang and valuing Nuffnang in the millions.

One thing that always stuck out to them was

"Why are you guys spending so much on these community events?

You're not making any money from it and the bloggers aren't paying you anything for it... shouldn't you be spending money on events to promote your services to potential advertisers instead since that's where the money comes from?"

I never blamed them for thinking that way since after all, hey.. that's how perhaps any other businessman will think and rightfully so, but that's only until they hear our piece as bloggers ourselves.We tell them that Nuffnang is NOT all about making money and most importantly it is about the community. Every company no matter how big or small should have CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) initiatives to give back to the community in whatever small way they can.

The community we are directly involved in is the blogger community so what's wrong with spending a percentage of our revenue on events that bring bloggers together, just for fun.

They all nod... and all eventually agree.

On the 15th of March, Nuffnang will be having the largest blogger gathering ever to hit Malaysian soil. It is also the first cross-border one where we bring Nuffnangers from Singapore over just to meet the Nuffnangers in Malaysia.

The entire event is expected to cost over RM50,000 which includes the transportation and accommodation for the 100 Nuffnangers from Singapore who will be crossing our border into Malaysia.We have never done anything this scale before but I find ourselves in a very fortunate position.

Nuffnang has grown tremendously... as our community grows, so will the size of our events.

Pink Pau is one of the main bloggers who are in charged of planning the fun and important parts of the event. Assisted by a number of people from the Nuffnang team, she will be putting together our very first Nuffnang Pajama Party in which Chipster has come in as a huge partner, followed by Panasonic and Tune Hotels as our Official Hotel.

When Pink Pau first suggested a Pajama Party, I immediately thought
"What???"
But after some deliberation, both Ming and I thought it might be pretty fun and ... imagine the aftermath of such a party.

After the blogger gathering, there are going to be pictures of bloggers all over, all dressed in their PJs. Of course, if you don't want to go with the theme you don't HAVE to.. but hey it'll be fun to anyway.

What really really sold the idea to me was when I read about another Pajama Party in Singapore on Pink Pau's blog. As Chipster has done a lot to help us put this event together, we decided to get them into the game.

For most of our gatherings, we normally try to include a minimum-effort kind of thing that a blogger has to do to get in.

The reason is simple.

In the past we tried to do without it and what happened was thousands of bloggers would e-mail us wanting a ticket resulting in a long waiting list.

The worst part was, on the day itself, many of the bloggers who requested for the tickets never showed up, depriving the bloggers who genuinely wanted to go but couldn't get their hands on a ticket or two.
Of course most companies get their people to pay RM20 or RM50 per head and that was something we could do to ensure that people didn't simply take their tickets for granted.

But I never wanted Nuffnang to be all about money so we get Nuffnangers to take a picture of themselves in the PJs they'll be wearing to the event and holding a packet of Chipster.The result was unbelievable.

Check out a few of the unbelievable creative entries that some of our bloggers did.
Icyqueengoddess
Eyeris
Kimberlycun
Boonage
MrChrispy
KevinTan

LOL!

Put such a high standard for us.

For me, this will be what I'll be wearing to the event.

A long sleeve PJ-like shirt and track pants.

Yes I sleep with track-pants on... believe it or not. Got into that habit while I was living in London where it was way too cold on your balls to sleep with shorts.
I even got myself a little bantal busuk as an accessory that I'll be bringing that night bwahahaha

I am looking forward to our Nuffnang Birthday Bash this 15th March 2008.

It will be the biggest blogger gathering ever, and it makes me proud to be one of the people behind the scenes.

See you there guys! And if you guys don't wanna go there just to see me.. you can go there to see Kenny Sia, Xiaxue, Dawn Yang... I don't know.. you tell me.. everyone who is anyone in the Malaysian-Singaporean blogosphere will be there.

If you haven't signed up for a ticket yet... do it soon ok?

Deadline is in a few days. All you have to do is take a picture of yourself and a chipster pack, post it on your blog and send the link to pajamaparty[@]nuffnang[dot]com[dot]my

Details here.

Shotgun Marriages

I just found out a few days ago that one of my childhood friends who has now migrated and working in the USA is getting married.
He is 24 years old this year.

The first time I heard that they were getting married, I shamefully asked
"Shotgun ah?"

But the fella quite clever.

He knew cynics like me would say that so he purposely announced he was getting married one year ago and is now only getting married.

So either... he managed to find a way to delay the growth of the fetus or... it really truly is a marriage out of love.It's embarrassing how many people (me included) are unbelievably cynical when it comes to couples marrying early.

How we just can't give them the benefit of the doubt for once and not ask
"Why getting married so early? Pregnant ah?"

But if it's any consolation... in my career right now and at my position, I feel a little more comfortable with getting married. It's just a matter of finding the right one now.
Gone are the days when I would panic when my girlfriend said
"Darling... I'm late".

Seriously it wasn't funny.

I had one girlfriend who could be late for 1 and a half months... ONE AND A HALF FRIGGIN MONTHS LATE... ANY GUY WOULD'VE BEEN PISSED SCARED BY THEN.

But now if it happens... I'm a lot less scared, as long as I know I have the right girl.

And hey, I don't see any taboo with that.

In fact if I were ever to have a shotgun wedding I would have a HUGE Grand wedding dinner with all my relatives, friends and of course friends of my proud parents.

Then I would go up and give my bridegroom speech to the hundreds of people out there just like at the National Youth Convention.Before I start saying how much I love the bride I would say
"Ladies and gentlemen.... before I go on with the programme for tonight, let me just say that the rumours ARE TRUE.

My beautiful bride tonight... is carrying my child. It wasn't intentional. She told me that she was on the pill... but she was apparently joking".

Seriously, that's the best thing to do... SQUASH all the rumours.

Save The Turtles, Save The World

Since I was only in school I have always heard of the WWF (World Wide Fund For Nature). Who hasn’t? It’s the most well-known wildlife and environmental preservation organization in the world.Shamefully I never used to pay much attention to WWF simply because I was under the mindset that heck… there were plenty of people in the world losing their lives each day because of starvation, war and natural disasters, so why don’t we help them first before we help the animals?
That was until I did a bit more research on what the WWF’s mission is and learned that it isn’t all about saving wildlife... it’s about saving the world and all the people in it.

And when I say saving the world.. I don’t mean in the silly “Save the Cheerleader Save The World” kind of way, I mean really saving the world.
Here is an organization that works full-time in saving the world but something we all neglect… why? Because they aren’t saving the world in a sexy way… there’s not saving it from Dr. Evil who wants to blow the planet Earth up
or they’re not saving it from a bad hero called Sylar who wants to…. I don’t know… rule the world?

Then of course the common question is… “How are they saving the world? They’re just saving the animals?”

Well let me explain this.

Everything in the ecosystem plays a part in ensuring the world revolves the way it’s meant to. Take for example frogs and bats who are responsible for keeping the population of insects in check.

What happens if frogs and bats were to suddenly become extinct?
There will be a rise in pest attacks on our food crops and a spread of diseases because don’t forget, mosquitoes are responsible for spreading Malaria or Dengue and frogs eat mosquitoes.
What about wild animals?

Wild animals interact with each other and with plants in the forest in very complex ways. Without animals, the forests may die and when the forests are gone, our water supply will be affected and climate change will become worse.

Heck all of a sudden it’ll be snowing in Penang and you know how many people will die if that happens?
You know how many people go fry Kuay Teow in Penang without their shirts on each day?

Hence the WWF does the almost unimaginable job of keeping our ecosystem in balance. If they fail… we all die! But yet, they’re not given enough credit.. maybe because people (like myself not too long ago) used to misunderstand their purpose.

Their purpose isn’t just to take care of Pandas
It’s to Save The World with all of us in it!

Anyway, just recently WWF approached me and asked if I were willing to write something for them on my blog and I agreed to do it for free. That’s the very least I can do considering how little I had done for them all my life.

WWF’s current focus is on saving our Sea Turtles.

Now there are seven species of sea turtles, four of which can be found in Malaysian waters and one of which: the Leatherback turtle, is going to be locally extinct in Rantau Abang, Terengganu.Recently only a few have followed their routine of returning to nest there and WWF feels it may be because of the growing global demand in turtle meat, eggs and shells which cause them to be hunted in the wild and the use of 10-inch or larger size mesh fishing nets which these turtles often get caught in and drown.

Pollution as usual also plays a part.

Leatherbacks which feed on jellyfish very often mistake floating plastic bags for jellyfish and end up dying after eating them.
How bad is that?

Imagine going to a restaurant and eating a dish that looks like a steak, but is actually a plastic bag in disguise and you don’t even know it until it’s all in our stomach and you start feeling like you’re gonna die.
Some of these things like collection of turtle eggs without a license and trade in turtle shells and other parts are already made illegal but making the laws are one thing, enforcing it is another.

Like it or not, enforcements costs money and that’s why WWF is out looking for donors who might help their goal of enhancing enforcement of legislation. With less than 1% of the coastline of Malaysia protected as nesting homes for turtles, WWF also needs funds to advocate for the establishment of more protected areas.

How Can We Help?

Well for one we can SMS WWF *Space* Your full name *Space* Email and send to 39398. Each SMS donates RM3.
But the best thing about these WWF initiatives is that we can all save the world in our own ways without having to spend too much money like

i) Don’t eat dishes or buy products made out of these endangered species like turtle eggs, tiger meat and etc etc. This is something I already don’t do and will NEVER do.

ii) Don’t litter! So the next time you go to our beautiful Penang beach. DON’T throw a plastic bag in there. It’s gonna end up somewhere sooner or later and hopefully not in someone’s stomach.

Yes so don’t do all that ok? Or “I Keel Yew!”

If you wanna learn more about what the WWF does in Malaysia and donate, check out their website here.

Reality TV Shows and Malaysian Dreamgirl Auditions

About a week or two ago, Dawn asked me to join a reality TV Show called The Firm.

The Firm is like the Malaysian version of The Apprentice, Joel joined and won Season 1, and now they're looking to recruit a new team of people for Season 2.

Dawn happens to be one of the people working on Season 2.I managed to however convince her that I was too boring to be on reality TV. I mean, for a reality TV show, you need someone who has a hot temper, who has an attitude problem, who lies or cheats... or things like that. That's what we all love to watch right? Drama!

If you put 20 Timothy Tiah's in there, it'll be the most boring show you'll ever see because each one of them will always try to be 'politically correct' and there will be no drama.

So I know then that I'm not meant to be IN reality TV shows, but I love reality TV shows and I guess it wouldn't hurt to be behind the scenes on one of them.

Enter Malaysian Dreamgirl.
Malaysian Dreamgirl approached me some time last year to find out if we can work some sort of collaboration between Nuffnang and them.

Backed by huge sponsors from Nissan to AmBank, Malaysian Dreamgirl was going to be the first web-based reality TV Show in Malaysia , that means instead of watching it off the airwaves, you can watch it online just like how we all watch our videos these days.

A little excited about it and having met the people behind Malaysian Dreamgirl (one of them being the guy in the picture below),I decided that it would be good fun to be a part of, hence Nuffnang signed on as a Media Partner.

Apart on some blog advertising campaigns that they ran on the Nuffnang network, we also hooked them up with a few bloggers:

Pink Pau and Shaolintiger who will be our 'blogger journalists' to cover the event.And Kenny Sia who will actually be one of the judges alongside Elaine Daly and Lim Jimmy.

Anyway, last Saturday I went over the PWTC to check out the auditions they were having and more importantly to support Ringo who was going there to participate!
Upon arrival, I saw A LOT of hot chicks all sitting outside waiting to go in for their auditions.

Seriously, I have never seen so many chicks in one place before... and the girl guy ratio there must've been 10 girls for every 1 guy.

Bloody hell, we should've turned that place into a club. It would've meet a lot more fun than that sausage fest I was in last weekend.

I grabbed myself a VIP Pass and was ushered into a Media Room where we could watch real-time what was happening in the room next door where the auditions were taking place.

I ended up staying there almost the entire afternoon and it was soo much fun.

There we all were betting on which girl was gonna get accepted by the judges and who wasn't.

I took the liberty of taking pictures of some of the girls while they were waiting to go in for their auditions.

Pretty or not?

Pretty or not?!

Hahahaha there were a few that made it.

Like this hot girl in red here.
Or this girl Giselle who apparently is a KINDERGARTEN TEACHER.
I know what you guys are thinking...
"WHAT THE HELL?!?!?! A KINDERGARTEN TEACHER??? FROM WHAT PLANET?!?! THAT DON'T LOOK LIKE NO KINDERGARDEN TEACHER TO ME!!!"

I mean... HOW IS IT POSSIBLE TO HAVE A KINDERGARTEN TEACHER THAT LOOKED LIKE THAT?

How can the kids FOCUS on learning the alphabet or counting apples when you have someone so HOT teaching you. Heck I probably can't even say "Hi" to her without tripping over myself in real life.

Another girl that got shortlisted is this girl that looks so much like Sweat Lee it's almost disturbing.
When she came into the Media Room to be interviewed and talk to us, Pink Pau, Shaolintiger, Samantha and the rest of us in there were all referring to her as Suet Li.

We went
"Suet Li Suet Li... come take picture with me!!!"

And she would just acknowledge it and come take pictures with us.

Until of course towards the end when she decided it was time to say something before she gets labeled Suet Li for the rest of the show...

She was leaving and we said
"BYE SUET LI!!!"

She turned back and said
"My name is Yvonne".

And we all said
"Okay Suet Li! Bye!!!"

Now the next girl I found really interesting at the event was Alison.

*Pic stolen without permission from Pink Pau's blog.. HAHA!!

She was tall, charming, pretty and really really smart.

We got to talking and found out that she's an architect by profession who had just returned to Malaysia after having spent 7 years in the UK.

I was telling her how I spent 3 years in the UK studying for a degree when she asked "Which university?"

When I said
"UCL"

She said
"WOW!!! I WENT TO UCL TOO!!!"

MY UNIVERSITY ALUMNI!!!

See.. UCL people are ALL smart!

Oi...One of the Top 25 Universities in the World you know!

Dun pray pray!!!

Soon enough, the moment we had all been waiting for had come.
It was Ringo's turn to go in for audition, she was sooo nervous but she found the strength in herself to be confident when she walked in.

All of us were gripping our seats in the Media Room hoping that she'll get shortlisted, I mean it would really be nice to have a fellow blogger in the show right?

And guess what.

She did!!!

She was damn glamour by the time she came out.

Everyone rushing to interview her and all.

That day 40-50 girls were shortlisted for another round of auditions this weekend where they will narrow down those 40-50 girls to just 12 that will be in the actual reality TV Show.

The final 12 will be shipped off to some really nice villa somewhere and filmed there... that's when we all get to watch them!

I'm sure there'll be some fun and also some disappointments as some of the girls we met that day get eliminated.

I had my first disappointment with one of candidates.

Her name was Alicia.
I thought she was really nice and I really liked her "Girl Next Door" kind of look, you know the kind of girl you can bring home to your mum.

Seriously... bring home the Kindergarten Teacher and your mum will say
"SON... WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!?!"
Unfortunately the judges didn't feel that Alicia fit the profile of a top model.

Now that doesn't mean to say that the judges didn't think she wasn't pretty or anything... she just wasn't exactly what they were looking for.

I'm really pretty excited about the TV show coming out. Honestly... I never thought that I would be this excited but holy crap... look at what a long post I've written just for this.

And hey... I'm not being paid a cent to write anything about this okay?

Music That PISSES YOU OFF!!!

The Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra is something that we've all heard of, but not too many of us has actually gone to witness it.

I've been hearing all about it. Apparently everything about it is world class. From the musicians to even the concert hall they play in.

So today I finally decided to get myself (and a date) a ticket, put on my coat and went to watch it.Yes the place is so world class that you can't get in without wearing either a coat or a batik shirt.

Now to be very honest, I'm not too much a classical music kind of person. I like classical music, but just some of the songs. Hence I never like going to an orchestra concert because you'll never really know what you're actually gonna get to hear.

It's like going to a concert and you have no idea who's going to perform. I mean it turn out to be something good like Kanye West, Black Eyed Peas or something... OR it could turn out to be something really shit like.... well... Jessica Simpson and you'll be kicking yourself through the night.

Anyyyyywaaayyy... so happens that on the night of the concert I was going, they were having this pianist coming to perform.

So fine... I like the sound of the piano.

We all sat down in the world class concert hall and the music started playing.
Then something really weird struck me, the piano he was playing didn't sound at all like a piano.

I turned to my date and asked her
"Wtf is wrong with that piano? Don't they realize it's broken?"

She told me
"It's not a piano, it's called a Harpsichord".

Most of us would have never really heard of a harpsichord before but it basically looks like a piano but sounds NOTHING like a piano. In fact, it sounds LIKE SHIT.

I couldn't stand the music that came out of that hideous piece of crap. It somehow just struck a nerve in me that made me really very annoyed.
Worst part was I was forced to listen to the whole thing since they shut all the doors once the concert started.

When I first started listening to it, I just got a little uncomfortable (though I was the outcast since everyone around me seemed to enjoy it).

Then it got a little annoying.. then very annoying... then I started to get angry.... towards the end I got so angry I almost stood up in the middle of the concert and PUNCHED the guy sitting next to me for no reason.Seriously... I was feeling that pissed off.

The damn musical noise instrument sounds like a bloody little mosquito stuck in your ear and flying around inside (at least to me it sounds like that).

There you have it... I can't believe it but there is actually an instrument on this Earth that has the power to make ME and possibly some other people REALLY REALLY ANGRY.

I wonder why they never used that damn instrument in war.

I mean think of how powerful that will be.

The invading army will come to our borders with their tanks, planes and soldiers and all we have to do is get someone to play that damn instrument.

Before long all those tanks, planes and soldiers will get so pissed off with one another they'll end up blowing each other up.And the best part is... when the United Nations comes up to you and say
"WHY DID YOU BLOW UP THEIR GREAT ARMY!??!"

You can just tell the truth and say
"I didn't! I just played them music welcoming them to my country and they kicked their own asses".

It's official... there is actually a musical instrument on this planet that I really hate!

What are they going to make next? Ice-cream that makes you angry when you eat it?

That can't be hard to do for me.

Just put tau geh in the ice-cream and that'll be enough to piss me the hell off!

Update: I'm sorry if anyone takes this the wrong way but I really don't mean this entry to be any disrespect to anyone who loves classical music. It's just a matter of my personal preference. Some people can't stand heavy metal or rap music, I can't stand classical music with a harpsichord in it. I do however like some other classical pieces.