Just about a week to go before Wingz’s organized Blogger Party and Wingz had been telling me the response has been insane!!!

Some readers have asked me whether I’m going.

Truth is, these few days and I can imagine even for next week I’ll be extremely busy with Nuffnang.

But since Wingz put so much effort into this… I’ll go…

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Ok lar ok lar.. the real reason why I’m going is to see the Digi Yellow Man !!!

Click here to sign up before it’s too late… and if you’re not a blogger… still come okay?

You can sit with me 😛

It is 3.30am and I am awake.

Not because I’ve been up all night working or partying but because it is time to announce the soft-launch of my leetle dotcom’s website.

Ming consulted a Feng-Shui Master of some sort to come up with a “good date and time” for the launch of the website and unfortunately the good date came out to be 27th of February between 2am-4am.

So to all my dear readers, I now present to you what we’ve been working on for the past 6 months: Nuffnang
My inspiration to start Nuffnang came about from my Leng Mou days.

With a fast-growing readership, I found myself spending more and more time blogging so it only came naturally that I began to want to earn some advertising dollar from it.

I initially had a taste of the glamarous ad networks that scour the internet but found disappointment for a few reasons.

i) They didn’t pay as much as I hoped for.

ii) I was annoyed that it took so long before I got my USD cheque and even after I received it and banked it in, it would take 2-4 weeks before I get my money (or whatever is left over after the bank has taken its commission).

iii) In some cases, I can’t stand being paid in Paypal dollars that I find sooo hard to convert back to cold hard ringgit!

iv) I felt that the ads were often irrelevant to my local readers.

I promised myself that by the time I returned to Malaysia, if nobody had already started a website that brings the blogging community together to achieve the kind of advertising dollar that each blogger on his/her own can’t possibly achieve, I would set about to do it.

So with the help of Ming, we started on our journey.

We spent a good deal of our time studying the business models of existing blog advertising networks like Blogads and we observed how most of these networks were set up only to serve advertisers to high-traffic blogs.

Blogs with small-medium sized traffic were neglected and for good economic reasons as well (they were just too small on their own to command any advertiser dollar).

That however, was something both Ming and I were not willing to accept. We envisioned a website that could offer a piece of the action to as many bloggers as we can, even those that have as low as 20 unique visits a day.

Attempting to cover these smaller blogs proved risky but we innovated and built a system that would solve the problems surrounding such an action.

Today, the Beta Version of our website is finally ready to be made public.

Starting from today, we will be gradually opening up our website to the initial group of prominent bloggers who have agreed to be the pioneers of this community (among which are Jeff Ooi, Kenny Sia, XES, Petertan, Rojaks, Shaolintiger, Suanie, Cheeserland, MasakMasak, Smashpop & Gang and a whole lot more).

In the mean time, to all my dear readers, please feel free to join our website and tell us what you think.

Note we’re still in a Beta Stage so if you find any bugs, do e-mail us to let us know. And to show our appreciation of you helping us out, we’re giving away prizes like an iPod Nano in our monthly lucky draws.Okay okay it is late and I think I’m going to resist telling you guys all about Nuffnang myself.

I’ll save the rest for the coming blog entries.

Here’s the URL
www.nuffnang.com.my

Ok I’ve been extremely busy lately because my leetle dotcom is due for launch anytime soon and we’ve been working overtime.

But knowing that my readers expect something to read every day they log on, let me give you a quick update.

In the midst of all the busy work, yesterday afternoon I found myself at e-Gate’s Starbucks.I’ve heard much about this Penang Blogger Meet but I was never really sure if I was going. But thanks to Alcheong who insisted I go, I went and had a very good time!

Now you would think that the Penang Blogger’s Meet would be tiny compared to the ones in KL.

Chanlilian once told me that she organized a Penang Bloggers’ Meet before and only 5 bloggers showed up.But at yesterday’s meet… there were over 50!!!

And of the 50, there were the young generation of bloggers who were ever so energetic.
And a couple of ancient ones like Sapiensbryan and I who walked and talked at a much slower pace than the rest.

Then of course, there were the LADIESSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!
And the group of girls who told me that they stopped eating taugeh after reading my post on it.

And of course there was Chanlilian who gave every blogger there a big ang pow!

And Jolene who was treated pretty much like a VIP considering she had always been one of the organizers for the KL Blog Meets.
Oh and lets not forget BRENDA… WHO IS FUKING HOT!!!

PS: Mae, a lot of people were asking about “The Couple Who Met on my Blog”.

One of my readers (who is now also a friend) found some time on her hands and made me a little computer graphic version of myself and my leetle dotcom logo.
What do you guys think?

Look like me in real life or not?

And yes, she didn’t forget to draw my mole… woohoo!!!

She also drew one of Hasan.
Look like the real person or not?

The real Hasan much fatter right?

HEHEHE

I remember the days of IRC.

It was the “IN” thing back in secondary school.

Students from all over Penang will spend their time on the channel #penang meeting other Penangites.

Conversations always went like that

CoolGuy15: Hi

BabyCrush14: Hi BabyCrush14: a/s/l?

Coolguy15: 15/m/pg Coolguy15: u?

BabyCrush14: 14/f/pg

Coolguy15: Cool… what skool are u from?

BabyCrush14: CPT… u?

Coolguy15: SXI…

BabyCrush14: oic

Coolguy15: so uhmm… yeah…. so how was your day?

Babycrush14: it was ok… u?

Coolguy15: it was ok too… soo uhmm…

Babycrush14: …

Coolguy15: uhmm… so you finished your homework today?

Babycrush14: Ya… u?

Coolguy15: yeah I finished too… great… uhmm… do you watch ultraman?

Babycrush14: Not really…

Coolguy15: how about doraemon?

Babycrush14: nop

Coolguy15: how about baja hitam?

Babycrush14: nop

Coolguy15: baja merah jambu?

Babycrush14: nop

Coolguy15: smurfs?

Babycrush14: nop

Coolguy15: carebears?

Babycrush14: nop

Coolguy15: DAMMIT WOMAN!!! TELL ME YOU WATCH SOMETHING

Babycrush14: i watch cnn, bbc, cnbc and the discovery channel. daddy tells me that boys who spend all their time watching cartoon network grow up to be idiots who never get laid.

Yes, hardly effective at most times, though I did meet quite a few girls over IRC that way (including one named Yi Jun who $(#&*((*#(#$*)

Anyway, the IRC trend faded away quickly and then came the recent years where guys met girls through social networks like Friendster, something that I never quite caught on.

Yes… it is true…

BOSS STEWIE HAS NEVER MET A GIRL THROUGH FRIENDSTER BEFORE.

I don’t know why… maybe it’s because I’m hardly the best looking guy there…

or maybe it’s because I haven’t updated my profile in years (it still says I’m in the UK and I am ‘in a relationship’)

or mayyybe.. it’s because when girls think of sending me a Friendster message, they first see my Friendster profile that says
“Last Login : 3 months ago”.

And they figure “Ahh forget it! The sonofabitch is never going to reply anyway.”

WHICH IS NOT TRUE!!! I do log in to Friendster every once in a while to reply messages!

I just don’t stay long enough to go around collecting 500 friends in 3 different Friendster accounts! 😛

Anyway… meeting girls over Friendster is already fast becoming out of date!

Today, there is a new way for shy boys like me to meet girls online.

And that is… by reading blogs like timothytiah.blogspot.com

I SHIT YOU NOT!!!

Meet William!
William has for long been one of my faithful readers from MMU!

He was doing the usual commenting on my silly blog entries until he caught the attention of a pretty Penang girl named Marian.

They used my blog as a chat base and eventually exchanged MSN contacts.

Today, they are officially … a couple!

Yes!

The very first couple to meet on timothytiah.blogspot.com

So there you have it everyone.

Just by reading blogs (or my blog), William has gone from shy boy

To MAN
Once again, to the shy boys out there… reading timothytiah.blogspot.com is good for you!

It has been a good week with Hasan being around.
But all good things have to come to an end and just a few days ago, I had to reluctantly send him to the airport

But just before he was about to board his flight it dawned on me that he didn’t buy ANY SOUVENIRS his entire trip (apart from 87 DVDs from Batu Feringgi)!

I looked around desperately for a souvenir stand in the airport only to find a stall that sold FRIDGE MAGNETS!

I dragged Hasan over and started told him that I would not have done my duty as a local if I didn’t persuade him to buy a fridge magnet souvenir.

At first he was open to the idea, so I looked at what was available.. from the top down.

We could buy a fridge magnet of our Tugu Negara, our Penang Bridge, our PROUD PETRONAS TWIN TOWERS, our Becas and our…

At that point Hasan shouted
“WHAT THE HELL ARE THOSE RED ROUND HAIRY TESTICLES?!?!”I explained to him that it was a fruit called Rambutan and people eat them by sucking off the white ball inside.

I told him that I would take him to try the fruit the next time he was around but in the mean time he could settle for a fridge magnet of our wonderful fruit but he refused.

“NO! I AM NOT BUYING RED HAIRY BALLS… AND I WOULD RATHER EAT COW SH*T THAN SUCK THE TESTICLES OFF A HAIRY RED SCROTUM!!!”

Then it dawned on me… heck.. that is exactly what a rambutan looks like… and we’ve been eating it all our lives.

I failed to convince him to buy anything in the end.

I’m sorry Tourism Board Malaysia… I HAVE FAILED YOU… 🙁


Hasan says bye everyone.

He will miss all of you.

Until the next time Hasan…

I’ve been going around the blogosphere and it seems almost every blogger out there is giving Chinese New Year wishes to their readers.

So to my dear readers, Gong Xi Fa Cai to all of you!

May you all still have the patience to read my blog in the year of the boar.

The most beautiful house in Penang is located in Jesselton.

The house has been around for many many years and up till today… it still looks as beautiful and well-kept as it was when it was first built.

That house belongs to successful businessman Tan Sri Fumihiko Konishi who owns Texchem Berhad which also happens to own companies like Sushi King (Yes… he’s the franchiser of Sushi King… NOT the Franchisee).

It’s inspiring to hear of success stories like that.

The story goes that Tan Sri came to Penang many many years ago and fell in love with the place.

He then decided to stay and build his empire and build his empire he did!

Now every once in his lifetime, a poor Penang boy will have a chance to taste the life of the rich and famous and last weekend… that boy was me.

Through a friend, I was invited to a big garden party at Tan Sri’s house.A house that I’ve been so used to seeing from outside the gates.

I arrived in the evening of the Garden Party to find a whole lot of cars parked at the side of the road outside the house.Ashamed of my tiny car, I parked somewhere far far away and walked towards the front gate praying that the guards won’t change their mind and send me away in the last minute.

Just as I reached the front gate… it OPENED FOR ME.Note: This pic of the gate opening was taken earlier in the day before the party started

I was on a natural high as I walked into the beautiful compound which was filled with cars of the guests of the party.When I reached the back where the Garden Party was being, a beautiful woman greeted me and took me to my seat.

Many of the seats were empty when I arrived but were quick to fill up.


The party started with an opening speech by a refreshing and inspiring speech by Tan Sri.

After his speech, an entire orchestra played music in the background while the rest of us guests rushed to get our food (ladies went first but the men joined the queue shortly after).

The place was packed, there must’ve been over 500 people there.
So pack that you would imagine a garden party like this in Malaysian weather would feel like we’re all packed into a microwave… but this party had many of these outdoor air-conditioners to keep everyone as cool as they could get.

It turned out to be quite a fun party

In the end, the guests (which were mostly business associates and golfers) got together with the Tan Sri to dance the night away.

Ahh… I went home that night… sober (even though wine was served).

But I managed to take a few last pictures of the beautiful house before I left that night.
Ahhh… the life of the rich and famous… something I’m sure many of us hope to be a part of some day.

I was surfing round the internet as usual and I found this picture of one of our favourite celebrities!

Guess WHO???

UPDATE: Alright alright it’s Jessica Alba… and yes that looks like a napkin on her head.

My partner Ming came down to Penang on Monday for a business trip mainly to meet up with the team at Netccentric and plan our overall marketing strategy (since our website is due for launching soon).

The little office I work in has gotten a little crowded since with me working at my usual desk but Ming taking up a position right beside me.
So once in a while out of anger and annoyance… I would shoot an angry look at him to remind him that he’s taking my space!!!And he would then shoot back a rather confused look wondering what the heck I was staring at him for…. since obviously.. IT WAS HIS OFFICE TOO!!!

So before tensions got too high, we decided to call a marketing meeting to involve the technical team of the company to brainstorm for ideas on how to market our product.

Now Ming and I have always wanted Netccentric to be a “forward-looking” company.

So rather than having the typical brainstorming session that has people shout out ideas, Ming suggested we try something new.

Ming was the Chairperson of the meeting so he directed everyone on what to do.

First, everyone was to take a piece of paper and fold it to divide the paper into 9 parts.

Then in each part, everyone was to come up with 9 ideas of his/her own and write it in his/her own piece of paper without talking to anyone else about it.

After that, we took the piece of paper, tore it up to 9 pieces (one idea on each piece) and then spread it out on the floor in front of us.

Then of the 9 pieces in front of us, we each took out 3 ideas that we thought were crap

and chucked it into a basket.

Then of the remaining 6 pieces for each person, we separated it into two groups.

3 pieces from each person to go into a pile that was what the person thought was the BEST of his ideas and the remaining 3 pieces per person was to go into a pile for “Second Best” ideas.

So there you have it in this picture.

The CRAP ideas were in the basket.

The Best Ideas on the left.

And the Second Best on the right.

Then we wrote all the “BEST” ideas (15 of them) on the white board and discussed them altogether.
We expanded on each of those 15 BEST ideas and when we were done with those we moved on to the 15 SECOND BEST ideas and then on to the 15 CRAP ideas.

Mind you… the crap ideas are often good.

Just that it’s sometimes so silly that people are too embarrassed to call it a great idea themselves 😛

By the end of the meeting, we all came up with some very good marketing ideas and one revolutionary one (which I can’t discuss here at the moment).

We prepared meeting minutes which stated exactly which person had to follow-up on each idea (Ming and I got the bulk of the work since the technical team was already buried in work).

So our brainstorming session turned out to be quite a success.

But of the sea of ideas we had, some turned out to be quite funny.

In my “CRAP” pile, one of the ideas I wrote was “Company Musical/Soundtrack”.

WHAT WAS I HIGH ON?!?!

Either ways… we had some great ideas there… something that many of you will see in time to come.

So when our company has launched and you’ve seen its creative marketing campaign somewhere, remember that the idea probably came about in this boardroom meeting of a small dotcom company.