Some 6 months after our wedding, Crazy Monkey Studios managed to work through their workload and come up with our Actual Day Wedding Video. It is the 3rd and last installment of all the videos they were going to do for us. The first was our proposal.
The second was our Registration of Marriage Ceremony (Meme proposal sequel).
And the third video here shows snapshots of our wedding weekend.
From the Registration of Marriage on the Friday to the Tea Ceremony on Saturday morning and the final wedding dinner on Saturday night. SK from Crazy Monkey Studios said that of the 3, the Actual Day wedding video was his least favourite because it’s long and he doesn’t like long videos. Nevertheless Shorty and I loved that it was long and wishes it was even longer actually… so we could relive more of our wedding day through it.
Thank you Crazy Monkey Studios for making 3 of the most wonderful videos that a newly married couple can ever ask for. Thank you for helping us keep and relive our memories.
Shorty has been having a lot of trouble with mosquitoes in the room. We have no idea where the mosquitoes are coming from but we’re guessing it’s from our bathroom. We look around for any open water but there’s nothing. So Shorty decided to go out and buy some special oil that keeps mosquitoes away.
After we reached home.
Me: So you’re happy now eh? You can go … Yoooo hoooo oh mosquitoes… I’ve got a little something for you.
Shorty: HAHA!! Good idea. OKOK! *brings mosquito repellent into the room*
Shorty: Yooohooo mosquitoes…. I’ve got something special for you. It’s some nice juicy blood… come out come out….
#74
Me: Shorty I know what watch I want to buy you already.
Shorty: What what?
Me: I don’t want to tell you yet. But it’s really expensive so I have to wait until I earn more money.
Shorty: What does it look like?
Me: I can’t tell you.
Shorty: Ok what brand is it ?
Me: I can’t tell you.
Shorty: Ok why don’t you just show me a picture of the watch but don’t tell me the brand.
Me: If I show you a picture of the watch then obviously you will know already right?
Shorty: Ok I can guess what brand already.
Me: What?
Shorty: It’s a Rolex.
Me: Ah fine!
Shorty: Is it the same as Bobo’s one?
Me: I don’t know what Bobo’s one looks like.
Shorty: Small face one.
Me: Maybe… it doesn’t matter you sure like it wan.
Shorty: But I like big face wan! Look! I like you * carasses my face with her hands*
Shorty and I are big fans of Les Miserables now. Listening to the soundtrack every day. Here’s one of our favourite songs that will be relevant to this post.
Walking in Bangkok airport to our flight back to KL
Me: *sings* Do you hear the people sing, singing the song of Short people!
Shorty: HEY!
Me: HAHA!
Shorty: What’s a song of Short people?
Me: Hmmm…
Shorty: OH I KNOW … *sings* It’s a small world after all… It’s a small world after all *sings*.
Me: HAHA this stupid Shorty.
#69
On the plane back.
Shorty: Tsk… hungry la.
Me: Order cup noodles la.
Shorty: Good idea!
*5 minutes later.
Shorty: You want some?
Me: YUM! Bends over to slurp noodles.
After I chew finish.
Me: Don’t pretend that I didn’t realize what you were doing.
Shorty: What what?
Me: You la controlling the fork! At first you helping scoop noodles into my mouth. Then when I began to slurp more and more you started pushing down the noodles instead of pushing it up into my mouth. SO GREEDY THIS GIRL DOWAN SHARE FOOD!
Shorty: HAHA!
#70
Crawling into bed about to fall asleep one night
Shorty: *jumps into bed* WOW YOU FARTED AH!
Me: Eh is it? I don’t think it’s me ah. I don’t remember farting.
Shorty: There’s only you and me in this room. If not me then must be you la.
Me: Oh sorry I didn’t know… I don’t remember farting.
Shorty: Fine. So I was saying right, this friend of mine…. *pauses* WOW FART AGAIN AH!
Me: Ya that was totally me. I felt that one alright.
Shorty: Wow good job *sarcastic*
#71
Shorty has been wearing glasses all week long because she has to rest her eyes before she goes for her LASIK next week. Today though she completely let herself go. She wore glasses, absolutely no make-up and some t-shirt that’s so faded it looks like it was bought in a night market ten years ago.
In Publika during the day.
Me: Eh Shorty you wear like that, what if one of your readers sees you.
Shorty: I’m just going to deny it. It’ll be like… “Excuse me are you Fourfeetnine?” “NO!”. “And that fat one next to me is Mimothy”.
Me: Why don’t you just call me Dimothy. Or Dim for short.
Shorty: HAHAHAH!!!
Later in the day in Pavilion.
Me: Wah this Shorty very brave huh. Come to Pavilion with me wearing like this.
Shorty: Haha what what?
Me: You really let yourself go today huh Shorty.
Shorty: HAHA!
Me: What if someone recognizes you and goes… “WAH FOURFEETNINE IN REAL LIFE DAMN UGLY LOR”
Shorty: Won’t happen wan lah… nobody will be able to recognize me in these glasses.
Me: Okay if you say so.
An hour later we were walking to the car park elevator to get into our car and leave Pavilion.
Stranger: HI AUDREY !!! HI TIMOTHY!!! (I assume she reads one of our blogs)
Me: Oh Hi!
Shorty: Oh hi…. *mumbles* dammit!
Stranger: I thought I recognized you guys. I saw Audrey from behind and recognize her hair colour then I saw you.
Shorty: *mumbles* why?? why??? *looks away*
Me: Haha Shorty was hoping nobody would recognize her today because she didn’t wear anything today.
Stranger: Aww too bad!
Me: Well ok we’re getting into the lift now. See ya!!
Stranger: BYE!!! Nice to meet you guys!
Elevator door closes with Shorty and me inside it.
I was having a chat with Shorty today about blogging and our career as bloggers after we read an article in the Star Rage about it last week. Pick it up if you have the time, great article! It talked a bit about NuffnangX too. Anyway what started off as a little chat eventually went into a full-length discussion until Shorty said “You know what… maybe you should blog about this”. And so I’ve decided to.
As a disclaimer though. For many of you who don’t know, I’m one of the Co-Founders of Nuffnang which is the Largest Blog Ad Network in Asia with over 1 million bloggers. Nuffnang and its group of companies (Netccentric) was started 5 years ago and is still a growing company with 160 employees throughout the region today. The Netccentric group’s revenue comes from various sources on the internet including blogs.
How has Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and more social media innovations changed blogs?
1) Less people blog.
This is true especially in countries like Malaysia when 2007, almost 50% of all our friends had blogs. That’s no longer the case. Why? Because in the past, blogs gave us an avenue to express ourselves in both long and short form. It could be a long post about how you feel after a breakup with a boyfriend or even short blurbs about how your boss is an asshole. Today Twitter and Facebook provide that avenue for these short blurbs. So the crowd that used it for these short blurbs have taken it to these platforms. On the other hand, long form blogs still continue to be used for long entries.
2) Blogging has become very competitive
Think about it. In 2007 we had Facebook (though it wasn’t big in Asia yet), Twitter (didn’t really take off till 2009), Friendster and blogs. Look at what we have today in the social media space. We have Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Path, Pinterest, Foursquare, Wechat, Line, Flickr and yes blogs (WordPress, Tumblr, Blogger and the rest).
The problem though is that we internet users only have 24 hours a day to spend. We have to spend a good amount of that time eating, crapping, sleeping and getting some exercise. So the rest of what we have left is much less than 24 hours. On the other hand, there are so many social media options competing for our attention. So much that people are saying now that they spend so much time on Instagram they cut back on their Twitter usage.
3) Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms help drive traffic
Before if you were a good blogger, it was really hard to get famous unless you had someone like Kennysia link you once. Today I’ve seen blogs that grew on their own faster than I’ve ever seen before. Why? Because every time they blog they post it on Twitter or Facebook so first degree friends click on it and check it out. When a really good blog entry is written, people have more means than ever to share and viralize it so blogs grow a following even faster.
———-
So what is the macro effect of the three things above?
1) There is a high demand from brands/advertisers for bloggers with good traffic but limited supply.
Which explains why over the years, the cost of a sponsored post on a top blog has gone up. The good thing for clients is that the size of these top bloggers have also gone up significantly.
2) Bloggers today make the more money or have more opportunities than they ever did.
In terms of the avenue to push your traffic or the interest from brands is concerned. There has never been a better time to be a blogger
3) People who used to read say 20 blogs a day now are forced to be selective and read 10.
What happens is consolidation just like how all the many social networks in the past consolidated and we realized we just needed Facebook. So what does it mean for blogs?
– Bloggers are forced to produce much better content to keep users engaged. So the bloggers that you read today tend to have much better quality content.
– It gets a lot harder to be a top blogger.
4) The top bloggers get more traffic than they ever have before.
When Kennysia used to be an active blogger, in his peak he would easily pull an average of 15,000 visits a day. The top blogger in Nuffnang Malaysia today however pulls ten times that figure. Similarly to get into the Nuffnang Top 100 today you need 10 times more traffic than you needed 5 years ago. It’s because of the average growth of traffic each blog has today that Nuffnang’s network keeps growing year on year. Which is why we constantly find ourselves having to add new servers. (If Kennysia still blogged actively today I would imagine his traffic to be far more than the 15,000 visits a day that he used to get).
The nett effect of this is that we might just go the way of the US when it comes to blogs. Where blogs don’t just remain as personal mouthpieces, they become opinion leaders in different industries. Like Techcrunch or Gizmodo for tech or other blogs in fashion, travel or others.
What are the challenges for bloggers then?
From our Nuffnang network stats what we found was that of the people who read blogs, only 1% of them do so from a mobile phone (compared with 50% for Facebook and Twitter). With people spending less time on their computers and more on the mobile phone, the growth of bloggers influence slows. That’s why we came up with NuffnangX to try to solve this problem. I believe that in future, whether it’s NuffnangX or some other app, an app will have to come along that will make it easier for people to read blogs on their mobile phones.
We invested in NuffnangX because we believe in blogs and its influence. Sure less people blog now than before just like less people Tweet now because of Instagram but look at the power blogs wield today. Techcrunch is the most powerful news site in the Venture Capital and Angel community in Silicon Valley. Who would’ve seen it coming that a blog would wield so much power?
A parting thought:
When Shorty and I got married in July 2012, we were constantly tweeting about the event and uploading pictures on Instagram and Facebook. Still after the entire wedding, we had many people tweeting/messaging us to ask when we would blog about it. And that’s when it hit me… as much as I love Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and all… (and even though one of our companies ChurpChurp makes money from these platforms) nothing tells a story better than a good blog entry with pictures and words. That’s why today… even with the best TVs, iPads and all… books still remain a very important part of our lives. The only thing that will change is the way it’s consumed.
Shorty and I spent the New Year’s eve with some friends in Bangkok. It was loads of fun. We watched Fireworks at the river between Shangri-la Hotel and the Peninsula
and after that headed off to this happening club called Falabella or something.
Shorty’s New Year resolution is to learn how to cook (HAH!) and to make Foruchizu a success.
My New Year Resolution is to work much harder than I ever did in 2012. 2012 was a really tough year for me… and I’m glad it’s over. I hope 2013 will be a better one 🙂
At LCCT catching a flight to Bangkok to spend the New Year’s there. Shorty is dressed shabbily and wearing her ugly specs because she doesn’t like wearing any form of make-up when she’s getting on a plane. Going through security checkpoint.
Shorty: SHITTTTT I FORGOT…
Me: What what?
Shorty: *rummages through bag*
Me: What’s wrong?
Shorty: *brings out some bottled drink and gulps it down*
Me: This Shorty ah. *goes through metal detector*
Airport Security Guard: Sir please take off your belt and put it through the X-ray.
Me: Oh ok.
After security checkpoint
Me: I don’t like having to take off my belt.
Shorty: Well thank Osama for that Fatty.
#66
Finding a seat in the departure hall.
Salesgirl: Excuse me ma’am would you like to try our new fragrance?
Shorty: No thanks.
Shorty: *whispers* Do I look like the kind of person who cares what kind of perfume I wear? *points at her ugly glasses and shabby clothes*
Me: Yeah… perfume isn’t going to help you look much more attractive when you’re dressed like that.
Shorty: HAHA!
#67
After our flight
Me: Shorty want me to show you something?
Shorty: What?
Me: Here’s my lip balm.
Shorty: Okay then?
Me: Tadaa!
Shorty: Huh? How did you end up with two?
Me: Well it’s like that. When I was packing up to leave the plane I noticed my lip balm on the floor in front of me. I picked it up thinking it was mine but now I think that actually belongs to the guy in front of me. I almost didn’t realize it until I was just about to apply it on my lips when I realized the shape was a bit different.
Shorty: Ewwww….
Me: I don’t know what to do with this now Shorty. I mean I can’t find the rightful owner who dropped it and it’s a waste to throw it away. At the same time it’s really disgusting for me to use it right?
Walking around Pavilion looking for a place to have dinner. Shorty’s favourite two restaurants in Pavilion is Ichiban Boshi and Marutama Ramen (Both Japanese restaurants… wow what a surprise!).
Singing one of our favorite Les Miserables song while walking to our car after Bak Kut Teh
Me: *sings* Do you hear the people sing … singing the song of angry men… *sings* then what ah?
Shorty: *sings* It is the music of a people who will not be slaves again…*sings*
Me: Wah you really have a talent for remembering lyrics huh. Even lyrics that aren’t in English or not even a language.
Shorty: Like what?
Me: Like *sings* Ba ba ba ba ba na na *sings*
Shorty: *sings bridge* Yo plano hu, la pa no no tu, ma banana like a nupi talamu banana ba ba… ba ba banana
Me: Potatooooohhhh!!!
Me/Shorty: HAHAHA!
#60
In a dark room about to fall asleep last night.
Me: *moves around the bed*
Shorty: *ignores*
Me: *moves around some more*
Shorty: Stay still I’m trying to sleep.
Me: For some reason I feel very hyper right now. Can’t seem to sleep.
Shorty: *ignores*
Me: I don’t know why… what did I drink or eat just now… why so hyper…
Shorty: *ignores*
Me: Maybe I should go and do something else.
Shorty: *ignores*
Me: Hmm… maybe I shouldn’t force myself to sleep.
Shorty: *moves aside* Ok go!
Me: Go where?
Shorty: Go do something else… get out of bed so you don’t disturb me from sleeping.
Me: Nah it’s ok. I think I’ll stay here and try to sleep again.
Shorty: Ok…
Me: *moves around bed again*
Shorty: Fatty stay still lah! I’m trying to sleep and you keep moving around making all this noise and talking so much! After I pass my sleepy phase then I cannot sleep already!
Me: *Thinks to self* Shit why the blanket so short one… I don’t remember it being so short. Maybe long time since I’ve slept on my bed at home in Penang.
Me: *gets up and looks at my side of the bed.
Me: *looks at Shorty’s side*
Me: WHAT IS THIS SHORTY TAKING ALL MY BLANKET! Such a short person taking all the blanket from the one who needs it the most!
#57
The day before
Shorty: Fatty I think I’m falling sick. My nose a bit stuffy. Don’t share my drink with me.
Me: No problem la Shorty… since when I afraid of you infecting me. If you get sick we get sick together!!! *gulps down drink*.
Next morning
Me: Shorty I think I’m sick…
#58
Walking in Gurney Plaza after lunch
Shorty: I’m tired… I wanna go home. Feeling sleepy and sick la.
Me: Ok la ok la we wait for my brother to come then we go ok?
Shorty: Noo I’m tired… *pauses outside this shop*
Shorty: OOH SALE! *runs around the shop like an Energizer Bunny*.
Me: This Shorty ah! Say tired then see sale suddenly full of energy already huh!
Shorty: HEHEHE. Eh Fatty this shirt nice huh?
Me: Yeah I saw it just now but too expensive la. RM100.
Shorty: Oh I’m buying one for myself. I thought it’s cute because we’re both geeks.
Me: OHHH the breadwinner of the family, the husband says too expensive to buy for himself but the wife can buy for herself la!
Shorty: Oh hehehe okokok I buy for you.
Me: Dowan. Expensive.
Shorty: Go go go! *pushes Fatty over*
5 minutes later
Me: Dowan buy la… the size I tried doesn’t fit and I’m lazy to try again. Expensive some more.
Shorty: Ok lorr
——-
Oh one more thing… MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!
Timothy Tiah – Co-Founder of Colony, Kuala Lumpur Co-Working Space
Timothy Tiah – Co-Founder of Colony, Kuala Lumpur Co-Working Space