I had lunch in Fahrenheit lately at this Japanese ramen place that Shorty has been egging me to go for the longest time. On the way out I passed by this luggage shop and it dawned on me that I don’t actually have a decent big-sized bag for travel. I have this small bag that I carry around which is fine for up to a week of clothes but anything beyond that and it’s over.

So I decided to go buy a luggage bag. Not one of those expensive Samsonite ones but a simple one. I ended up buying this bag.

I think it’s the BEST LUGGAGE BAG in the world! Why? Because it’s sooo ugly and it’s bright colour just makes it stand out. Hang on… just realized that the first picture doesn’t really show how odd the colour is. Here’s another picture.

Check out this blue.

It still doesn’t do justice enough on how it looks like in real life but believe me it’s worse in real life. It’s the same kind of blue our secondary school girls wear to school on their pinafore.

Tell me that just looking at a picture of this doesn’t hurt your eyes already. Imagine how easy this bag will be to spot on the baggage reclaim conveyor belt at the airport.

I made a mistake once of getting a black bag. Since then, at EVERY baggage reclaim I have to keep looking out at each black bag that comes out… and that’s like a hundred of them each time. Now on the other hand, I can roll out my deck chair and just take a nap while waiting for my bag to come out. When my bag comes out, I’ll be awaken by the uglyness of its blue.

Not only that… you never have to worry about anyone else accidentally taking your bag because… who else in the world would buy such an ugly looking bag. Nobody would steal it too because…. who else in the world would want that bag? Heck even if I left it at the airport unattended I’m sure the cops won’t even consider it a potential “bomb threat” because… which terrorist would put a bomb in a bag that stands out so much.

Shorty says that it looks like a big fat Smurf. I love my Smurf bag.

I got out of bed this morning excited to get started with my day. My schedule was full for the day. It started with a morning visit to the Traditional Chinese Doctor just for a check-up on my ankle which was doing much better. Then lunch meetings and meetings after that till night. It’s 11.30PM now as I write this and I had just gotten back from the office. Lots of work to be done.

When I walked out of my home this morning though it never occurred to me that today was going to be the day I experience the most pain I  had ever experienced in my life. Ever. It was… and it was from the first order of business for the day: Visiting the Traditional Chinese Doctor that my aunty recommended.

The very minute I walked in the receptionist recognized me and asked if my ankle was ok. I said it was okay and I’m walking normally now. Just a little bit swollen still and a little pain on some parts but it’s getting better. She led me into this massage room where I waited for the Doctor to show up. Soon enough the lady Doctor showed up. She took a look at my foot and then she said that I had actually torn a ligament and actually had a blood clot on my ankle that I had to get rid of.

So she first started massaging my ankle. Which led to a huge amount of pain. There was my ankle, still sprained, ligament torn and the Doctor was pressing down on it really hard with her fingers. It was so painful I was hugging the pillow I was lying on. I kept the silence as much as I could though. Letting out only a few grunts here and there.

The ankle massage lasted for some 30 minutes. I was so eager to get it over with I had asked the Doctor many many times in that 30 minutes if it was over yet… and she said no. Then after that 30 minutes she stopped massaging my ankle. I thought it was over when she suddenly took out one BIG NEEDLE.

Immediately my mind sent signals to my mouth to say the words “WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT NEEDLE FOR?!” ... but instead my mouth opened only to ask her politely in Chinese what that was for. She replied that it was to poke the blood clot and drain the “old blood” out. She said she had to do it or it will get worse.

So fine… I thought maybe it would feel like an injection or so. So I just held on to the massage bed I was on and waited. Then it happened. She STABBED my ankle FOUR TIMES in a row! 3 seconds in between each time and I felt the sharpness in each stab. I could hold my silence no more. Open was my mouth and out came a shout “AAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHHHH FFFFFFF……”

A volley of curse words were going to be hurled into the air but I held it back in consideration of the other women in the room. The nurses.

So after my four stabs, I lay there on the bed… panting… just recovering from the pain while my blood clots bled out. The Doctor then started massaging my ankle again and she pressed down on a few spots asking each time “Tong ma?” (Pain ah?). My tindakan refleks responded with a “Tong!!” (Pain).

When she heard me say that she went….

“HAR? TONG AH?!?”

Then she took out the big fucking needle again and STABBED MY ANKLE ANOTHER 4 TIMES WITH IT!

“AAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!“… My shout of pain echoed on the walls of the room. Still I held back from cursing out loud but in my mind… it was “FUCKFUCKFUCKYOUFUCKINGBITCHDON’TYOUSTABMEIWTHTHATNEEDLEAGAINIMMAKEELYOOOUUU“.

After I recovered from my second series of stabs she pressed the points on my ankle again and asked “Tong ma?”

This time I was a little smarter. Instead of saying pain I just said “yi dian dian” (a little bit).

Apparently I was smarter but not smart enough. Because when she heard it she went “HAR? YI DIAN DIAN?!”

AND SHE STABBED ME ANOTHER FOUR FUKIN TIMES!!!!!

This went on until she had stabbed me 15 times with that needle. Even I was uncomfortably surprised when she stopped at 15 because her stabbings seem to come in batches of four. I had come to a stage where I was just thinking in my mind “LET ME DIE.. JUST LET ME DIE!!!”.

After the 15th time though she pressed on my ankle again and asked “Tong ma?”. By then when she asked “Tong ma?” Even a monkey would have known to say “BU TONG BU TONG!!!” (NOT PAIN NOT PAIN).

She laughed and said “Haha I know even if pain you also don’t dare say pain also now”. I gave her a nervous smile but in my mind I was thinking “NO SHIT SHERLOCK!”.

She then bandaged my ankle up and told me it should be ok now but if it still swells in two days time, go back to see her. I forced a smile and nodded… (when I actually meant … NO FUKIN WAY!!!). I left the clinic that morning limping away.

So I don’t doubt that she probably did some good and helped me recover sooner than say a modern Western Doctor would. But I’m not sure if it was worth going through all that. So next time if you ever sprain your ankle or tear your ligament and a modern Doctor tells you to just rest your leg and watch TV at home…. say “THANK YOU”. At least if any surgery had to be done… there would be this thing called ANESTHETIC. Something I WISH I BLOODY HAD THIS MORNING!

So that everyone… is the most painful experience I have ever had in my life!

A few days ago I sprained my ankle. How it happened was the most stupid thing ever. I was playing XBOX Kinect with some of the Nuffies in the office. We were playing the Kinect Sports where I was supposed to throw a Javelin. You know some Olympics athletic kind of stuff. So I took a few steps back, then ran forward and hurled my arm to throw the javelin. I did it really well. Soooo well in fact and with so much force that I threw myself forward too.

I stumbled, tripped on the carpet and fell right against a table. I could barely walk so the next day I went to see one of those traditional Chinese doctors. She put some chinese herbs on my ankle and bandaged it up. It seems that only Chinese doctors seem to have some form of treatment for a sprained ankle. The modern Western doctors we normally see for other things just give us painkillers or anti-inflammatory stuff and tell us to rest the ankle.

The next day I went to Singapore for Ming’s birthday. Ming had a laser tag session and somehow I ended up playing too. Ever tried playing laser-tag when you can’t run? In laser-tag, when someone gets shot you quickly run away. I on the other hand could only carefully walk away.

Lots of people were asking how I sprained my ankle and I realized how uncool it is to tell people that I hurt myself playing Kinect. So the “official” story when people asked how I sprained my ankle is:

“I got into a fight”.

or

“I was playing football and the opponent was about to score a goal on my team but I slided and kicked the ball away. In the process 3 big players fell on my ankle at the same time. My strong ankle was still okay after that but I got run over by a tank while crossing the road after the game.”.

So that’s the official story everyone. Make sure you get it right ok?

A few days ago my colleagues at ChurpChurp launched something called The Great ChurpChurp Race. I’m really proud of them. How it came about was that we wanted to run some sort of initiative to build a bigger community. Because as Nuffnang has proven, a really big community can do lots of things. So in the past we’ve tried other things. Like contests rewarding giving away prizes for the people who referred friends and etc etc.

That got old quickly and we wanted to do something more. So the girls at ChurpChurp sat down for many days and brainstormed. Yes I say girls because… funny enough, the entire ChurpChurp team is made up of girls. There is not one guy in the team at all. We didn’t intend for it to happen that way but it just did. I’m making it a point to hire more guys in future.

So one of the girls Cherie came up with the idea of making a “race”.

Where people could collect KM (points) for every friend they referred or every time they shared a campaign with their friends on Facebook or Twitter. The Top 3 winners of the race will win an iPad2, Blackberry Bold 3 and an iPod Touch respectively.

The next 100 people will win a pair of TGV tickets each.

So they worked hard with our Netccentric Tech Team for a long time and just this week finally managed to push out the race. The result was amazing!

Thousands of Churpers joined the race within the first day itself and thousands more every day. It also led to a lot of interactivity with Churpers. Some Churpers were doing the race in order to win the iPad 2 or the Blackberry or even the tickets but many were just joining it to compete with their friends.

I’m seeing it all over my Facebook feed now.

The ChurpChurp girls are still working on some additional features to add on to the race to improve it but the results have just been fun. I’m particularly proud of them because it’s one of the initiatives that they came up on their own. Ming always said that we had to made sure our team could run without us around (in case anything happens to us *touch wood*)… and I’m glad the ChurpChurp girls proved their independance this time round.

More things to come on ChurpChurp. In the mean time, check out the race here.

I don’t know if it’s just me but I’m seeing a lot of break-ups lately. Lots of couples I know who have been around for the longest time are all ending their relationships one by one. Then comes along this video about relationships. I found it from somebody who posted it on Facebook or Twitter.

It’s about the many phases of a relationship. The first minute or so of watching this video I was like… “uhh..” not sure what to think. Then as I watched more and more it got a bit more addictive because it’s so true and I think anyone who has been in a relationship before can relate to it.

So since it’s the weekend and we all have a little time on our hands. Here’s something to watch 🙂

Hey Guys,

Thought I’d announce the winners for the God of Carnage tickets. Once again I wish I had more than just two pairs to give away because you guys gave so many good answers.

Take for example this long one.

or this short one.

Picking the winners was the hardest thing I had to do especially since it’s really very subjective.

A winner eventually had to be picked though, and these two winners are the ones who left these comments.

and

I just also learned from PJLA that they had a bit of a misunderstand of the dates. Instead of the earlier dates that they gave, these tickets they’re giving out are for the sho won the 25th of April (Monday). That kinda sucks for me because I’m going to be away on that date so I won’t be able to watch the show with you guys. Hope Jehan and Ang Khian can make it on that date too.

Jehan and Ang Khian. Check your emails!

Either ways, for everyone else who left comments for the tickets… thanks again for taking part. Hope I’ll have more stuff to give away in future!

Just a few days ago I was talking to a friend about marriage. Now now don’t panic. It’s not that Shorty and I are going to get married any time soon. We’re both not ready for that yet. The subject came up because a lot of my other friends lately are getting married and every year I’m attending more and more weddings.

So the topic of the engagement ring came up. So I asked him how much he would spend on an engagement ring for his wife.
His answer:

RM200,000

I was like… WTF?!?!?!

Granted that my friend was from a fairly wealthy family but his logic was… “If I can spend more than RM200,000 on a car… which depreciates, why can’t I spend that amount on an engagement ring that appreciates in value”.

My reply to him was…

“Well because you get to use a car… how do you use a ring?”

So I tweeted it and I got all sorts of replies. Some replied “Who’s your friend!? I wanna marry him”… and some others replied their own formulas for calculating how much an engagement ring would cost. Some say 3 months of the guy’s pay… some say 6 months. The ones who said 3 months but heard 6 months started saying 6 months was a better formula.

Then Shaolintiger showed us this little “engagement ring calculator” here.

And it asks you all sorts of questions beyond just your income. Whether she’s pregnant or if she’s ever cheated on you… or whether you have ever got caught cheating on her…. or even how attractive she is. Haha.

So what do you guys and girls think? How much should an engagement ring cost? If it’s the thought and the symbolism that matters then is it okay for a billionaire to buy one that costs RM2,000?

PS (ad): On an ending note guys, if you guys are really into Facebook check out this initiative that’s looking to make Malaysia the Facebook capital of the world.

Hey Guys,

The PJ Laugh Fest is back again this year with a string of comedy shows from the 28th April – 5th June 2011. One of the shows that’s going on is called God of Carnage.

It stars Megat Sharizal, Maya Tan Abdullah, Lina Teoh and Will Quah.

Tickets go at RM60 but if you’re a student or senior citizen you can get it for RM30. If you’d like to know more about the show or about its show times, check out their site here.

Now as my title suggests, PJ Live Arts is nice enough to give me 3 pairs of tickets to give away to you guys. The ticket is for the Thursday show on the 28th of April 2011 at 8.30PM. So I’m going to run a little contest. Leave a comment and tell me why you really need a good laugh right now and I’ll give the 2 pairs of tickets away to the best 2 answers ok?

Don’t forget to leave your e-mail address so that I can e-mail you if you win 🙂

Deadline for this is at 12.00AM, Wednesday 20th April 2011.

This week has been crazy busy for me! It’s insane. For one, I’ve had the ChurpChurp team from Singapore down all week having meetings with us here in Malaysia to work out how to make ChurpChurp.com better.

New Office

I’ve also been really occupied with the renovations of our new office. Our current office ran out of space, so we took over the next door unit, broke down the wall and joined it with our old one. That gives us just a little bit more space for a casual meeting room of sort and more workstations. For the ID and the layout of the office, I decided to let some of the Nuffies decide how they wanted it to be like.

This is Raessa in our new office that’s still being renovated.

Along with some of the other Nuffies, she’s been responsible for choosing everything from the furniture to the colour of the pillows of the room.

The Tesco of Table Tennis Equipment

Last weekend I decided to pay a visit to this table tennis store somewhere in a part of KL I had never been to before in my life. I was going there to buy a new bat for Gin for his birthday. It was amazing! Maybe because I only have the shops in Penang to compare it to but it was the largest table tennis equipment shop I had ever seen. So many different kinds of rubber, wood, balls etc etc. Oh the reason behind the rubber and the wood is that in table tennis, a lot of players don’t buy ready-made bats. They buy the wood and the rubber separate and then have them put together to customize their own bat.

I was taking a look at this piece of rubber that was supposed to be really expensive. Almost RM200 or something… didn’t buy it though. When I got home though I realized that they had accidentally put it in the plastic bag that I used to keep the bat I bought for Gin.

So I called them up and promised that I would go back and return that RM200 piece of rubber that I didn’t pay for. Didn’t manage to do it all week because I’ve been so busy so okay I guess I’ll do it this weekend.

My Recorded Shows

Another thing I’m going to try to do this weekend is catch up with all the shows I recorded on my Astro B.yond PVR. I went crazy the other day recording all the documentaries I could find and they’re all saved in the Hard Disk now. Just have to find the time to watch them. It’s actually really great and something I really use. So much that I kinda regret having it installed on the other side of my apartment where my brother and sister are. Should have had it installed right in my bedroom. Heh…. maybe I’ll get another one.

So it’s going to be a busy weekend for me.

So just right after Mark Zuckerberg won a court case against the Winklevoss twins, another vulture comes into play again. If you didn’t watch The Social Network, let me bring you up to speed in a nutshell. The story behind the Winklevoss twins is that they came up with the idea of a sort-of “Facebook” for Harvard. They wanted to call it “HarvardConnection” and they got Mark Zuckerberg to build the site for them. Mark Zuckerberg didn’t do it in the end and instead started Facebook. The Winklevoss twins then claimed that Mark Zuckerberg stole the idea of Facebook from them. They took legal action against Mark Zuckerberg and Mark gave them a settlement of $65 million in cash and Facebook shares. All just for the claim that Facebook was their idea!

Then if that wasn’t enough, they went to court again later on demanding for more money. Saying that Mark Zuckerberg hid from them the true value of Facebook and that they deserved more (some 4 times more or so). This time though the court threw the case out. Basically told them that they had gotten enough of a settlement.

Right after that, another guy by the name of Paul Ceglia claims that he signed a contract with Mark Zuckerberg that shows he should be entitled to some 50% of Facebook. You can find the whole story here, here and here.

Now I don’t know the legal part of this equation or whether the case even holds any water. For that, if there are some lawyers among my readers maybe you can give us some guidance.

What I can’t stand to see though is all these “opportunists”. Sure Mark Zuckerberg is successful beyond belief. He is the youngest billionaire in the world worth $13.5 billion at age 27. That’s insane! But he didn’t get there just from having the IDEA of Facebook. Ideas ARE FREE!!! Execution is the one that’s key. In order to build a business or a company like Facebook, it doesn’t just take an idea. It doesn’t even just take right leadership for one or two months. It takes years or making the right decisions, persevering and hard work in order to get where he is. Any entrepreneur who worked hard to build his business can relate to that. All these people who now claim a share of his success did not sweat or bleed like Mark Zuckerberg did.

Sure… Eduardo Saverin put up the initial startup capital for Facebook so he deserves a good share of the company. Maybe even more than what he has now. But what did the Winklevoss twins or Paul Ceglia do? Is whatever they did worth the millions or even billions that they’re asking for today?

I’m sure the Winklevoss twins, having been to Harvard are smart enough to know that ideas are free and execution is key.

They’re just seem like they’re trying to exploit whatever they can out of whatever ties they had with Mark Zuckerberg. It disgusts me to know that there are people like that out there in this world. People who can bring themselves to leech off the success attained from the hard sweat of the people who really did all the work. Can you imagine? It’s like you work hard on a job and end up with lots of savings by the time you retire. Then someone comes along and tries to take away the money you worked hard for and saved. I know it’s not an exact comparison but it probably feels just as bad.

I hope Mark Zuckerberg fights on. Not for the money but for the principle of it!