I spent almost the whole day of Saturday at MidValley Exhibition Center for the Samsung WCG 2008.

Man what a day it was.

Okay let me tell you about my day.

I woke up early in the morning to drag myself to the Samsung WCG 2008 happening at MidValley Exhibition Center for our special mini-CS competition happening at the Samsung booth there.
There were going to be 8 Nuffnanger teams (each with a requirement of at least ONE female player) and the Nuffnang team was going to be one of them competing in the competition.

4 of us Nuffies from the Nuffnang KL Office were taking part and we got Jolene to be our female player.

Not too long after I arrived, we played our first game and the Nuffie team won.

The Nuffnangers were playing our small competition here at the Samsung booth

While the big boys of the real WCG played in these computers here.
Heck the big boys are the big boys.

You know they take gaming so seriously when they insist on bringing their own mouse and keyboard to play at the competition.
Heck soon they’ll insist on bringing their own computer.

At one point of the WCG, they started broadcasting one of the games that the big boys were playing on two big screens.

Both of the teams were really good but one was better than the other and the better team was kicking the ass of the other team.
Gosh so embarrassing, imagine having everyone at the WCG watching you getting thrashed. Fortunately I gave up trying to be a professional gamer long time ago.

Speaking of which… for many many years I have always heard so much about the Samsung WCG that happens each year. I mean what’s there not to love for a gamer, it’s like the Olympics for computer games but I never went.Why? Because I thought it was literally just a computer game competition so if I weren’t playing and my friends weren’t playing then why go right?

But going there yesterday, the truth was that there were just so many things going on for the public all day long.

Some of us KL Nuffies were there to play around with all that.
All sorts of games, and all sorts of prizes to win. And when I say prizes I don’t mean like a WCG T-Shirt… I mean Samsung MP3 players, mobile phones, Intel-powered desktops and stuff like that.

The other notion I had about the WCG was that it was an event full of guys because computer games are mostly a guy thing. Well that turned out to be not true either… I saw soo many girls there… heck even Cynthia and Debbie came to support us!

The Nuffie team played up till the finals but right before the finals we decided to have lunch.

Over lunch we knew that we were going to lose anyway. The team who was up against us in the finals was just far better than us… it’s like they studied Counter-strike in school or something.

We took some photos at lunch.

I have no idea how I managed to take this shot of Jolene with a flower exactly covering her face.

Sorry Jolene. Didn’t mean for it like that haha.

And here’s Pinky who went that to cheer us on that day too.

Anyway after lunch we got our asses whooped by the other team in the finals and when everything was over, everyone was just waiting for one thing… the prize-giving ceremony for the best blog entries of “My Favourite Computer Game of All-Time”, a contest that Samsung held on the Nuffnang Community a few weeks ago.

At stake were mainly 3 prizes. A Samsung Digital Camera for the Most Creative Entry, an MP3 player for the Samsung favourite and the grand prize… a 32″ LCD TV for the Funniest Entry!

Mr Gin won the MP3 player for the Samsung favourite and this guy won the most creative bringing home the digital camera.
Then it came to the time to announce the Nuffnanger who was going to walk home with the 32″ LCD TV that everyone was waiting for.

Just a few minutes before the winner was announced though, Robb came up to me and whispered into my ear
“Tim… I tell you a secret that you’re not supposed to know yet ok?”

I looked at him and said
“What what? I love secrets.. tell me!!!”

Then he went on to say
“The Samsung client said that they think your entry was the funniest entry and the entire team there agrees so they want you to win the 32″ LCD TV”.

A little taken aback I said
“No lah dude…. I don’t think we should do that”.

But Robb was already ahead of me.
“I know Tim, I told them that but they all insist that you win it, they thought your entry was the funniest, even if it was just done for fun”.

I didn’t think my entry was the funniest but well this put me in a really difficult position. I mean how would it look if I won a contest even as a blogger that was organized by Samsung on the Nuffnang Community.

In the few minutes I had before the prize was announced I quickly called up a very close friend to ask for him for advice.
His answer was simple…
“Look! The client picks the winners… not you or anyone in Nuffnang so if they insist your entry was the best and if you want to take it then what’s wrong? Besides some people are going to say what they’re going to say anyway… in the past even when you had done nothing wrong they would make up stories to try to put you down so why should this even stop you?”

I put down the phone and a few minutes later the winner for the 32″ LCD TV was announced. I heard the emcee shout the name “Timothy Tiah” and everyone started clapping.

As I went on to the stage, my mind suddenly had the answer. I couldn’t do it.

Up there I told the client and the emcee that I couldn’t take the prize. It’s not because of what people might think but what I would think of myself if I led that happen.

The Samsung people (Lynne, Sue and Annabelle), being as nice as they always are… insisted that I take the prize.
and the emcee went on to make a quick joke
“WAH!! 32″ LCD TV YOU DON’T WANT TO TAKE AH!! WHY TOO SMALL FOR YOU AHH??”

Even the two Samsung blue-haired girls were surprised

Then when they were certain I didn’t want to take the prize they asked me what I was going to do with it and I didn’t have an answer yet.

So we just went on with the prize giving ceremony while I told the Nuffnangers there that I would find another way to give out this 32″ LCD TV.

We had tea after the event and we decided that we would give the 32″ LCD TV to the Nuffnanger that wrote the best entry about the WCG event and well everyone was happy.

I spoke to many people that day and I had mixed opinions.

Some thought that I had done the right thing, but others thought that I had made a mistake.

This is Sue from Samsung and I with the 32″ LCD TV that I would’ve won

To put it in the words of another Nuffnanger
“You can’t always be so nice.. you’re going to get stepped all over one day”.

Well, I slept well last night so I think at least my heart thinks I did the right thing.

What do you guys think? Do my poll on my sidebar.

If you’re one of the Nuffnangers who were at the WCG, click here to see how you can win the 32″ LCD TV.

So everyone, that’s the day I gave up an 32″ LCD TV that I would’ve been really nice to have.

In less than 12 hours I’m going to be at MidValley for the WCG sponsored by Samsung.

We’re having a mini-CS competition for our Nuffnangers and the Nuffnang team is one of the teams there.

Man are we gonna get thrashed….

In less than 12 hours I’m going to be at MidValley for the WCG sponsored by Samsung.

We’re having a mini-CS competition for our Nuffnangers and the Nuffnang team is one of the teams there.

Man are we gonna get thrashed….

This week we have a new addition to the Nuffnang team.

Everyone… MEET PINKY.

Pinky is our new Ad Ops Nuffie, meaning she’s one of the people responsible for managing and executing all our blog advertising campaigns.

When it comes to banner ads alone, Nuffnang in Malaysia runs something like 40 different ad campaigns at any one time on its network.

That’s a lot of work and a lot of coordination so much that we had to put together a team of people doing it to make sure everything runs smoothly and everything goes out when it’s supposed to.

Today, in all our offices, Nuffnang is run by 20 young and capable souls. Yes the youngest among us is 21, the oldest is 32 and the average age of the Nuffie team is 24.

That’s something I’m really proud of.. that here we have the youngest and among the brightest people working together to achieve great things.

As usual with many of the new people in our team, we all camwhored the evening away after work.

First, Pinky and Robb with his Heineken scarf.

Then Yee Hou, Firdauz, Robb and Pinky.

Then Nicholas and Pinky, pretending to take something out of our fridge.

And finally, Pinky and I.

It’s Pinky, it’s Pinky, it’s Pinky and the brain brain brain brain brain brain brain brain…

I love the people I work with.

I love you all Nuffies!!!
You guys make me love my weekdays !!!

“Look… I have had enough of your stupid computer games!!! You spend 8 hours a day in this smokey cybercafe and no time with me!!! You are going to have to choose. Counter-strike or ME!!! You can’t have both!!! SO PICK NOW!!”

When one of my ex-girlfriends asked me that before she became my ex, I knew that computer games had become a HUGE part of my life.

My answer to her was
“Counter-Strike…”
And I went back to looking at my screen…

I’m going to write about My Favourite Computer Game of All time because there’s this Samsung contest going on at Nuffnang and I am hoping that Samsung would allow me to win the 32″ LCD TV so I could put it in our new KL office and buy a Wii with it!!!

But haih.. again because I am who I am…. I’m sure I’m not gonna win.

Though I’m gonna do it anyway because I like writing about computer games.

Now my favourite computer game of all time is……… wait for it… wait for it…. wait for it….

BUBBLE BOBBLE!!!!

WHO REMEMBERS THIS CUTE LITTLE GAME?!?!?

How can you ever forget a game with two cute little baby dinosaurs shooting out bubbles from their mouth and baddies and popping them to kill the baddies!!!

I was in Primary school when I discovered Bubble Bobble, and it was the very first game that I was truly addicted to for the longest time.

I’ve played it so much that I can still even remember the music from the game.

Any of you remember?
It goes something like this
“Tuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh”... okay fine a bit hard to humm that song with words but you get the idea.

Now Bubble Bobble is not the first game I was ever addicted to, but the first time a computer game got me in trouble.

Because I was so addicted to it, I never studied or did any of my school homework so much that my mum had to ban me from computer games on weekdays.
Ish, not like banning computer games would make me study anyway, I would have had rather watched grass grow than do homework.

But one day after school, I came home to see my old computer on the table, all lonely without any lights on. And the Bubble Bobble game music hummed in my ears.. seriously.. it’s like it was tempting me.
So I didn’t care I just went to play anyway. I played until I lost track of time and the next thing I know, my mum had arrived home from work and was standing behind me watching me play.

She said in a very angry tone
“Having fun?”

And I sheepishly said
“Yes..”

I mean how could I lie right?

Then the next thing I know, she brought out the cane and whooped my ass till Kingdom Come…. and when my dad came home she told my dad too.. who again whooped my ass till England Come!

At the end of the day, my ass was so pink from the caning it looked very much like a baboon’s butt.

And that my dear friends, is the first time a computer game got me in trouble.
So after hearing that… choosing CS over a girl doesn’t seem like such a big deal after all right?

Nah let me show you all how Bubble Bobble is like.

Watch this video!

This is the Nintendo or something version… yes Bubble Bobble I think started off as an arcade game then only later adapted to the computer or something.

A friend of mine just asked me a question
“If you are given a choice to go back to Malaysia and achieve your dream… or stay in london with the girl you love… but just have a very ordinary life… which one would you choose?”

And my answer to him was

“Go back to Malaysia and achieve your dream cuz your dream… nobody can take that away from you. But the girl of your dreams, somebody can and somebody eventually may.”

When I told Wen-Qi she scolded me and told me to stop giving people wrong advice!

wenqi says: (12:02:28 AM)
u just pushed him away from his girl wtf

wenqi says: (12:02:46 AM)
why u liddat wan

Aww come on.

Do the poll on my sidebar and tell me if you think I gave my friend bad advice.

“What do you mean USA didn’t win the Gold for Basketball for the past few Olympics? They have the NBA!!!”

Well that was my reaction when my cousin told me that last night. He then later went on to tell me that the USA didn’t really take the Olympics basketball too seriously in the past few Olympics, just putting together a last minute team and not putting in some of their best players.

This Olympics however, they put together a dream team with all the famous players from Kobe Bryant to LeBrone James.

Heck I don’t watch or play basketball and yet I know these names. Shows how fehmes they are.

Now I don’t normally watch Basketball but I just had to watch this USA vs China match.

And heck.. it’s 11.45PM now in the fourth quarter and the score is

USA 74 – China 48

Dammit…

And Yao Ming couldn’t change the situation.
Haih

Update

It’s 11.50PM now and the score is

USA 87 – China 54

Haih no need to watch di… I’m just going to bed now.

So today I was at the Sime Darby Convention Center for the Malaysian Media Conference where I was going to give my speech.

I was there early in the morning to hear all the other speakers talk. I mean why wouldn’t I right? With such a star-studded panel of speakers.

My turn to speak actually turned out to be the slot right after lunch.So during lunch everyone cleared the function room and went into the adjacent room to fill their tummies. I quickly gobbled down my lunch and headed back to the function room to prepare my laptop for my Powerpoint Presentation that I was going to use in the speech.

I stood on the stage and stared at the many many empty seats in front of me.

Now I’ve given speeches to bigger crowds and more seats than this before but this time it wasn’t the number of seats that mattered but the butts that were going to be warming those seats.

All of which belonged to really really important influential people in the media industry.

This is me looking stressed right before the speech.

No wait I mean THIS is me looking stressed before the speech.

Soon after everyone started coming back into the room for the next session: MINE.

The moderator, HAM of Adoi Magazine gave me a very flattering introduction to the audience and before I knew it, I was taking steps towards the stage.

As I got on to the stage, I looked at the audience and I just had to speak my mind.

First I thanked Ham for inviting me to speak at the conference.

Then I said that it was truly an honour to have so many people there who have had far more experience than me in the industry, all sitting down listening to me speak when I feel that I should be the one listening to them.

Then I started talking about Nuffnang and blog advertising.

It turned out that the speech wasn’t so bad and at the end of the speech, I had quite a number of people come up to tell me that it was a great speech. Nicholas said it was far better than the one I did at the National Entrepreneurs Convention in January this year but I guess practise helps.

The good news is, a very big client who has always been against the idea of advertising big on blogs was convinced by the results I showed them during my speech and gave the go-ahead to spend a lot of money advertising on Nuffnang in the coming months.

So I guess… today was a good day for me. But it feels great to have it all done and over with 😛

In a bit more than 12 hours from now, I’m gonna be speaking at the Malaysian Media Conference, a very very big Malaysian conference attended by… allow me to quote

“an annual alumni of about 300 media pundits, industry specialists, and key media decision makers in the fields of media, marketing, branding and advertising across Malaysia. Amongst the speakers featured are noted personalities from Malaysia, Singapore and the United Kingdom”

Check out their list of speakers.
CEO of this, CEO of that, COO of this… and then a little Timmy Tiah there.

Now I’ve done quite a lot of speeches and public speaking since Nuffnang came about, (some better than others).

The largest crowd I ever spoke to was at the National Entrepreneurs Convention this January where I spoke to 500 people
but this coming speech I have here for the Malaysian Media Conference at the Sime Darby Convention Center has 300 of all the industry leaders and important people in the advertising and media industry.

Heck these are all important people!!!

And I’m probably not only the youngest among the speakers, but probably also one of the youngest actually going to be there at the conference, and all these people who have been in the industry probably since I finished my PMR are going to listen to me talk for 35 minutes.

STRESS STRESS STRESS!!!

THE PRESSURE!!!!!!

1 Year Ago

Dad: Oi!! Your KL Office is pathetic lar! Could you please do something about it? Clients come to your office also damn shameful!

Me: No lah Dad no need lar!!! Save cost a bit!! The clients also understand that we’re a Dotcom startup.

6 Months Ago

Dad: OI!!! WILL YOU PLEASE DO SOMETHING ABOUT YOUR OFFICE?!?!

Me: No lah Dad!! Save cost lar… we’re a Dotcom Startup lah!!!2 Months Ago

Dad: OI!!! Do you still call yourself a Dotcom startup after how the company has grown so much? CHANGE YOUR OFFICE TO SOMETHING MORE PRESENTABLE CAN OR NOT?!?!

Me: *sigh*

I gave in to the pressure and today our team in KL moved into our new office.

Let me give you guys a sneak peak and a short tour of our office right before we moved all our stuff in.

(Please forgive me as I am a terrible photographer and had a hard time trying to take good pictures of the place, can’t seem to get the right angles).

When you walk into our new office, the first thing you see is a glass meeting room in the middle.
Then there are two sides to the office, the so called West Wing and East Wing.

I’ll be sitting on the East Wing on this big table here.

That’s right, I don’t have my own fancy office or anything simply because it’s just not really our culture at Nuffnang for the bosses to sit in their own private office.

We all sit together, laugh together, joke together and listen to the same music together and that’s just the way I want it to be.

The office has two seperate toilets. Meant to be one for guys and one for girls but I think the Nuffies have instead allocated each toilet by “virtue of business”.

If you want to do big business that will stink up the toilet for half an hour, then you use the toilet on the West Wing.View from the corner of the West Wing to the East

If you want to do small business that will have no effect on the air around the toilet then you use the toilet on the East Wing.

Then on the East Wing where I sit there is our favourite “NUFFIE’S CORNER”.

Bean bags, big pillows and blankets to sleep in if you’re tired during working hours.

I think we might be expanding on our Nuffie Corner but well … all in good time.

Oh and unlike the previous KL Office, we now have a…. KETTLE (or hot water dispenser or whatever you call it) and a microwave.

Oh.. and to dear Mehlin and Ron… you gotta see this.

We finally have…

A FRIDGE!!!!! Something both Penang and Singapore office has had for the longest damn time in the world but KL office never had.We were all so deprived!

Anyway, whew… more moving to do. Next month I hear the team in Singapore is moving into a spanking new office as well.

Don’t think they’ll have as much space as us though… right Ming?

Land in Singapore is expensive.

PS: Eh speaking of our Nuffnang Team ar.. if you haven’t signed up to challenge us and other Nuffnangers in Counter-strike at the WCG, quickly go sign up before it’s too late!