Category: General

Think Party Thoughts! – Part II

After barely 5 months, my wife and Jessica’s little startup ThinkPartyThoughts, an online boutique partyware store, is now available at Sundays, Bangsar Village II!

Sundays is owned by the Ms Read family who owns Ms Read (well known plus size clothes boutique), Plan B and Ben’s Independent Grocer. Helen Read’s daughter bought their products and was interested in putting their products at Sundays. It’s a big breakthrough for my wife and Jessica as their little startup is just a few months old. Sales have picked up quite a bit. The ladies worked 24/7 to get their products out!

My Thoughts

This handcraft business is quite interesting to me. It’s a tedious job. My wife and Jessica spent a lot of their them putting things together. I help them out sometimes by doing no-brainer jobs like gluing things together. I usually give up within an hour. I could be spending an hour making products worth RM100 (just a rough estimate). However, my time cost for my legal services is about RM700 an hour. Thus, the work didn’t really interest me.

Of course, I have no control over ThinkPartyThoughts’ business but it doesn’t stop me from wondering how can one scale this business to a multi million dollar business. My wife has a book that says handicraft business doesn’t make millions but I beg to differ. So long there is a demand, millions can be made.

I think the most effective way to do so is to outsource the production of the handicraft. It could be to housewives or even our local kampung folks. We could pay them for each piece that they product (e.g 1 – 5 cents per piece). With an endless (rather substantially) supply of ready to sell products, one can have increase their distribution chain.

It goes without saying that distribution chain must be wide. Other than local retailers, I think focus should be given to the foreign purchasers who want to purchase high quality handicraft at a lower price. ThinkPartyThoughts products are in essence “western” products thus it appeals to Westerners too.

Other than that, ThinkPartyThoughts can pivot by offering to their distribution network by selling products of other aspiring handicraft entrepreneurs. The former can charge a commission for each product sold.

Well, easier said than done. Nevertheless, I think following this method the business can flourish faster and easier.


ThinkPartyThoughts has really quite name cards!

Lastly, ThinkPartyThoughts will be at the Markets@JayaOne on 18 May 2013! Details are below!

Time: 11am – 6pm
Venue: Jaya One, Section 13, No.72A,
Jalan Universiti,
46200, Petaling Jaya,
Selangor

Optimum Chiropractic & Physiotherapy Centre 

Remember the problem that I had with my heel? I blogged that I went to a Chinese tit tar to get it fixed.

It did work for a while but the problem persisted. Few months ago, I decided to go for western treatment and Anna-Rina recommended Optimum Chiropractic & Physiotherapy Centre to me.

The owner, Dr. Lee, took only few seconds to diagnose my problem. My painful heel was due to flat foot! He immediately recommended me to wear shoes inserts with arch support. I also changed my Crocs slippers to Birkenstock slippers which have arch support.

I’m glad to report that the problem is gone! I also got Dr Lee to sort out a muscle tear on my shoulder. He got it fixed within a few sessions. But it did costs me a bomb to fix my muscle tear – first session was RM150 whereas the remaining sessions cost me RM100.

Address
M-1-12 Plaza Damas (Hartamas Shopping Centre), 
Sri Hartamas,
50480 Kuala Lumpur

Website: http://www.chiropractormalaysia.com

The LexisNexis Rule of Law Debate 2013

LexisNexis is organising a student debate at Le Meridian on 7 March 2013. If you remember last year, LexisNexis, an international legal information service provider, sent me to Fukuoka, Japan to attend the LexisNexis Customer Engagement Workshop.

The event will feature four teams in a British Parliamentary style debate. These teams are from Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Indonesia and the motion is:

“This House Believes That the ASEAN Declaration of Human Rights Is an Ineffective Safeguard of Human Rights”.

The debaters are students from the following institutions:

– International Islamic University Malaysia
– National University of Singapore
– University of Philippines Manila
– Universitas Indonesia

There will also be a panel forum discussion by Edmund Bon and Faisal Moideen, moderated by Syahredzan Johan on the topic “Do We Need An ASEAN Court of Human Rights”. Faisal and I were in the same panel for the forum discussion on s114A of the Evidence Act 1950.

The LexisNexis Rule of Law Debate 2013 will be streamed live on March 7th at 2.30pm (GMT+8)

For more information, please visit LexisNexis’ website.

The Year 2012 at a Glance

2012 had been a good year. I got married, moved to a new home and started my own law firm.

My firm was up and running within two months. Work had been trickling in rapidly thanks to friends and clients’ constant support and referral. I have clients from my old firm trusting and following me to my new establishment. I also have clients who were excellent paymasters. One even pays me the day after I issue the bill! I must thank all of them for the great support.

January
I got married on 14.1.2012. It was held at the Grand Ballroom of Crowne Plaza Mutiara, Kuala Lumpur. It was attended by friends and family of over 400 people.

A day after my wedding, I tendered my resignation from my old firm. Few days later, I was flown to Fukuoka by LexisNexis SEA, a multinational legal information provider, to attend the LexisNexis Customer Engagement Workshop at Fukuoka.

February

My yearly social media reflection article on Putik Lada “What lies ahead for social media” was published.


My Putik Lada article was the most read article in The Star online on that day.

Stay tuned for this year’s article in The Star’s Putik Lada!

March

I was interviewed by BFM Radio on the topic “Msia I Can Series: The Right To Your Privacy“. I was reliably informed that the podcast was one of the top hit links on BFM Radio.

In the same month, my firm commenced business.


My office.

April

My article “Grave repercussions for internet users” was published in LoyarBurok. It was a turning point of my legal practice. The article caught the attention of the media and soon a campaign was started to seek for the repeal of s. 114A of the Evidence Act 1950.

May

I attended the International Trademarks Association (INTA) held at Washington D.C with my wife. It was the first time I attended the conference under my law firm’s banner. We also stopped by New York City.


The trip was fine except that I accidentally cut myself on the forehead and had allergy probably due to dust mites/beg bugs.

I also attended the Marcus Evans Intellectual Property Conference at Marina Sands Bay. Many thanks to Eddie of eLawyer for the free ticket.

I met many in-house counsels of many large or reputable companies. Frankly, I didn’t get any work from people that I met through this conference. Some law firms paid US$10,000 to US$40,000 just to attend this event. Hope they got some work!

June

I was featured in The Malaysian Observer.TV (also known as www.mobtv.my), an internet TV portal and also Malaysiakini. Again, it was about s. 114A of the Evidence Act 1950.

I also spoke at the LegalTech forum. It was my first time speaking for my law firm. It was about “Social Media Marketing for Lawyers”. Presentation slides can be downloaded here. Unfortunately, it was a small crowd.

July
Wife and I attended Timothy Tiah & fourfeetnine’s Wedding.

August

I climbed Mount Kinabalu and conquered it with altitude sickness.

FCL&Co also had its first attachment student. Chia Ann joined us for a month. We wrote an article together and it was published in the December 2012 issue of The Bridge, a quarterly magazine published by the Malaysia Canada Business Council.

September

I spoke at the International Malaysian Law Conference (IMLC) and shook Tony Fernandes billion dollar hand.

October


#Stop114a campaign in the China Press.

I wrote the “Personal notes on the #stop114A campaign” blogpost.

November


My wife and I attended the Nestle Gala Night. We won a 40 inch 3D LCD TV which was sold for RM2,500.

December

My wife and her friend launched an online party ware store called “Think Party Thoughts!“.

My wife and I travelled to Melbourne to attend Gavin Tan and Christina’s wedding. We also stop by Sydney to visit Sui Lin.

Lastly, my inaugural column Bread & Kaya was published on Digital News Asia. It’s my first permanent column.

2013
I notice that I’ve been slacking in recording my life through the 2012. I hope I won’t repeat the same mistake in 2013.

I also hope to have a little one by this year. But there’s no rush.

I hope 2013 will be as good as 2012.

Think Party Thoughts!

My wife has also caught the entrepreneur bug. On 12.12.2012, she started a new business by the name “Think Party Thoughts“. It’s a boutique partyware shop.

Currently they operate through Facebook. According to their Facebook page:-

Description
Founded by two friends who share the love for planning & creating pretty parties.

Think Party Thoughts is a boutique partyware shop tailored for the busy but design conscious parents/siblings/friends who desire to put together the perfect party for their beloved ones without burning a hole in the wallet.

Put a smile on your beloved ones and guests’ faces today by dressing up your party effortlessly but beautifully with Think Party Thoughts’ partywares.

Think happy thoughts, think party thoughts. 🙂

General Information
At Think Party Thoughts, our aim is to process, package and courier your order as soon as possible.

Please place your order 7 days before your party date. Upon receiving your order and payment, your items will be packed and shipped within 7 business days via Pos Laju.

Payment is accepted via Maybank2U only (for now).

Please e-mail us at thinkpartythoughts@gmail.com with your order or enquiry.

You will recall that my wife did a social media themed party for me.

You can probably figure out what their products are used for. It’s quite popular overseas. If you check out western parties like birthdays or weddings, you’ll see quite a lot of these decorations. However, it’s still quite new in Malaysia.

Think Party Thoughts have other themes like:


Barnyard Animal. Notice that there’s no cat there? That’s because my wife’s partner has a phobia of cats.


Pink Lingerie. You can personalise the party poster with your guest of honor’s name and event details without extra charge


Pink Lingerie’s food toppers.


Other than that, you can also purchase party wares like Barber Pole Paper Straws.


Baker’s Twine

Please do me a favour by liking ThinkPartyThoughts’ Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/ThinkPartyThoughts and tell your friends!

Nestle Gala Night

Nestle celebrated its 100 years in Malaysia by having a gala night for its staff. My wife and I got invited for the event. It was a black tie event so we dressed in our best.

It was a large affair. So much so they had Sheila Majid and Zainal Abidin on stage to perform their famous songs. Harikh Iskandar and Daphne Iking were the MC for the night.


Sheila Majid looking stunning at 47. When I grow old, I want to be like her.

As usual, there was a lucky draw. My wife and I usually don’t get anything at lucky draws so we ignored it. The last thing I won was probably a signed helmet at a Speedzone event. I sold the helmet at eBay for RM1600.

During the lucky draw..

Harikh: This prize is a 40 inch 3D LCD TV.
Wife: 40 inch so small la. We got a 42 inch at home.
Harikh: 01471. .
Wife’s colleague: eh..A.. I think you won la.
Wife&Me: O_O

So we won a 40 inch 3D LCD TV worth RM2700. We sold it at a discount price of RM2,500.

Timothy Tiah & fourfeetnine’s Wedding

I remember when I first spoke to Timothy. Nuffnang just started and he asked me to be part of Nuffnang to help out on legal matters. I immediately took up his offer without hesitation. At that time, I had the same idea of having a blog advertising network but since Timothy has started it, I abandoned my idea and took up his offer. Now Nuffnang has grown into a multinational company with presence all around Asia.

I also remember when I asked Timothy on when is he getting married to fourfeetnine. He said, “Not so fast la!”. But shortly after that the famous meme proposal video came out.


wtf

Their wedding was held in Penang. After having a bad experience in New York city (bed bugs, permanent scar from bunk bed), I decided to spurge a little on hotel. We stayed in Lone Pine Hotel, Batu Ferringhi. Lovely place, good service and great food. Ah.


Awesome tub outside our room


Place to chill out and feed mosquitoes


We swam here!

Timothy and fourfeetnine’s wedding was a Disney themed event. Up! was the flavour of the night.

Loads of balloons and lanterns.

There were plenty of people from the advertising industry and also bloggers. My wife and I were seated with the famous Sultan Muzaffar and Vivy Yusof and her husband. Muzaffar is now an editor at Gua.com.my whereas Vivy and her husband runs an online shopping mall, FashionValet. Internet entrepreneurship FTW!

Unlike my wedding, I managed to speak to Timothy a few times. Most of the time, it’s quite hard to get to speak to the groom and bride as they are too busy. For this reason, I usually disappear in the background and enjoy the food and company.


The hall was large and spacious

You can read more about Timothy and fourfeetnine’s wedding at Timothy‘s website and fourfeetnine‘s website.

Dettol Men!

It’s Dettol’s new high performance range of products for men that keep you hygienic and smelling great. This anti-bacterial functions body wash and soap cleanses deep into the pores of your skin, to keep you protected from germs and smelling shower-fresh throughout the day.

It keeps you smelling and smelling like a man should and not like a garbage truck by the end of a day.

You can’t smell like a woman or a flower. When I was young, I never had the opportunity to use any of these great men toiletries. My Mum used to have a lot of those. I remember she had a bottle of perfume in her room. It was during Form 1 (just fresh from primary school) and we had our favourite physical education (PE) classes. I remember smelling terrible each time after PE classes. Mum’s perfume was the solution of the day. Now I remember why my friends looked at me funny. OH GOD WHY.

With this new Dettol Men product, I don’t need to share body wash with my wife anymore.

For an active person like me, smelling great (or at least not smelly) is important) during or after my..


Interviews/presentations. I can’t have potential clients running away once I finish my presentations.


Meetings with VIPs to lobby for change of certain laws. I will do no justice for civil society if MPs run away when they smell me.


Futsal session. I don’t want to be known as the smelly footballer.


Rock climbing sessions.

Marathons. It’s usually quite pack at the finishing line. But smelling bad during such time may give you some space to move around..hhmmmm

The Dettol High Performance series comes with two versions of shower gel and soap namely Extreme and Aqua. It smells great – just like a gentleman.

For all the events and conferences I attend as well as sports I do, Dettol Men’s shower gel do the job by keeping me clean and fresh-smelling, washing off all the grime and kills 99% of germs.

Dettol Men App

You must try out Dettol Men’s Unleash the Real Man App at http://apps.facebook.com/dettolmen-my/. It’s quite fun. Answer the questions in the App and find out what type of real man are you!

First they will ask you some questions like..

After a few questions, you’ll be asked to upload a photo of yourself.

Whack a wall until it breaks..

Tadaaa

I AM THE HUGEBALL CRUSADER! Click on Meet the Man, and you will see


Not sure why the kittens are there..uumm..


Me and another kitten. THAT’S MORE LIKE IT!

Oh, you’ll stand a chance to win a price if you use this App! 50th person of the day stand a chance to win a Dettol hamper!

Dettol Men is available at your nearest pharmacy, grocery stalls and hypermarkets!

Great Eastern Live Great!

[Advertorial]

Last year, I was hospitalized for suspected dengue fever. I had to take 2 weeks off work to recuperate.

During the 2 weeks, I lost some pitches, potential clients and also business. Basically, if I didn’t work, I could not generate any income. Fortunately, I was a full time employee at that time hence the paycheque will come notwithstanding my absence.

However, things are different now. I am now self-employed. I’m like a taxi driver. If I don’t drive, I won’t get any income. Here, if I don’t do any work, I won’t get any fees. At times like this, I wish I have something that generates passive income.

While I try to save money to invest in passive income generating assets, I should take all steps to live healthily. Health is wealth as they all say.

Great Eastern (who also happens to be my insurer) recently launched an in rewards programme for their customers called Live Great. It is an integrated programme focused on Health and Wellness to help their customers live healthier, live better, most importantly, live longer.

In doing so, they came out with five great things.

This programme offers numerous benefits in the form of the following:-

1. Wellness Tools – find out how healthy you are and keep track of your progress.
2. Health Tips – a library of useful tips and information to help you achieve your intentions.
3. Mobile Apps – Mobile applications to help you live healthier, better and longer.
4. Workshops and Events – a full calendar of events promoting healthy living, including the Yoga for Life, Live Great Run and more.
5. Exclusive Privileges – Exclusive discounts and rewards at wellness merchants across Southeast Asia.

I went through some of them and personally found these to be quite interesting!

Ahem, to all my readers who smoke, do a calculation on how much you’ve spent on cigarettes. You could have bought a car with that amount!

I’m not a big fan of calculating calories but a 2700 calories a day seems like a good deal for me. Plus, if you’re looking at being on a diet this could really help you monitor your calorie needs and intake.

Ovulation Calendar..hmm..not sure what does this do xD

You should also check out the 21-Day App in their Wellness Tools.

Some people say that it takes 21 days to form or break a habit. Following this theory, this Android and iOS App is here to assist one to do so. Check-in every day to stick to your intention, set up reminders to motivate you to keep on track and share your goals with your friends on Facebook and Twitter so they can help support you as well. Check out the video below for more details.

I also found numerous health and wellness articles to read there. I didn’t realize cooking oil fumes can cause cervical cancer in women! An article on signs of whether you are having a stroke is interesting. Dengue article is a must-read but I understand that the symptoms for dengue fever nowadays vary.

Men and women have different signs and symptoms of heart attack. Apparently, older women may have no symptoms at all. They may just feel unwell and more tired than usual. Look out Mum!

By signing up for this programme, one can enjoy privileges, benefits and discounts from Great Eastern’s partners. Discounts are music to my ears.

These privileges are available throughout South East Asia ranging from spas in Thailand to Singapore Zoo. Nearer to home, there is a 25% discount off Health Screening Packages from Gleneagles Kuala Lumpur.

For full details of all the benefits, please visit http://livegreat.greateasternlife.com/ and https://www.facebook.com/GreatEasternLifeAssurance

www.xes.cx Facebook Page

Finally! We have a Facebook page! Please like us at www.facebook.com/www.xes.cx or click Like on the far right Facebook widget!

We may be closing our Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/groups/6658602241/.

A Facebook page is definitely better than a Facebook group page. A Facebook page allows me to install all sorts of Apps into my page. One of the Apps I use is the RSS Graffiti app. It allows automatic update of the status of my page whenever I update my blog or TwitPic page. NetworkedBlogs looks like an alternative to RSS Graffiti. However, I’ve yet to try NetworkedBlogs.

Thank you for your support!