anthroblogia

After blogging about philosophy and potato chips for Nuffnang, I got invited to the 'Mr. Potato Fiesta' last week.

It was at the Mist Club in Bangsar


As usual with the Nuffnang events, there were prizes galore given out, food and drinks were provided - the beer was upstairs on the balcony for some reason and at first we missed it. The door gift was a big bag full of potato chips, a 'Mexican' hat (actually, it was one of those gardener's hats you see workers by the road using, painted in red - but it did the trick ), and a fake moustache. The bag is a good sturdy reusable bag, and I'm using it to go to the market now.


Mr Potato rocked with Hujan, while others took photos. Hujan were good - rock/punk mosh pit stuff.


There were prizes for best dressed, and for the best blog post - top prize RM5,000! Nice! Second was 3K, and third 2K.


The top blogger was Kecik, second place was The Egg Yolks, and the third created a new blog for the entry - Mr. Fussy, which was pretty smart I think.

There were multiple hampers and giveaways, and as for me - I won something in a Lucky Draw!


Two GSC Signature voucher Actually, they're going to be an Xmas gift to my in-laws ('cos I'm massively skint at the moment), so I'll have to find out from them what it's like to luxuriate in wonderful seats, get service while watching the film, etc.

Thanks again Nuffnang, who have provided me with many enjoyable evenings and multiple freebies.

The Nuffnang Asia-Pacific Blog Awards were held last weekend, and various lucky nominees and bloggers were transported into Singapore from Malaysia, Philippines, and Australia. It was the first of its kind and, for me, the cut-off event for my data collection - from now on, it's time to start reviewing all my field notes, transcribing interviews and aiming to finish 100K word in one year.

Here is a rapid tour of how it was for me - we gathered at the Nuffnang offices in KL, and arrived at the Link Hotel at about 3pm. Yee Hou was our efficient shepherd, leading us safely to Singapore and back, even those who didn't declare cigarettes...

After we booked in (was a bit slow) - a welcome beer!

Then, off to the Awards ceremony! Efficiently run, nice food, nice people, many awards - nominees from all four countries where Nuffnang has a presence. Blog celebrities and Celebrity Bloggers (list of the nominees and winners)

In the group photo (L-R): dork on the left, dunno who sorry, Swee San, Soon Seng, Wenli, and Jolene (click her name for a much more complete account of the awards).

Got back to the hotel for a pleasant surprise welcoming letter with a gift of cute cows from Exabytes, longtime advertisers with blogs
Continue reading "Nuffnang Awards - Whistle stop tour"

On Sunday 19 September, I went to the #twestivalkl tweetup at the Mist club in Bangsar. It was my first one and so I went along to check it out. At the back of my mind I was wondering how it might be different from a blog meet, but I was also thinking that I should try to give fieldwork a break for once, and just enjoy. Which may be why I ended up drinking too much beer and regretting it for two days afterwards...

They had stalls by 1901


and New Zealand ice-cream


they were 'free flow', as was the Tiger beer (hence the morning after...)

I met a bunch of ex-students which was nice: reubenhot, cheeChingy, another guy whose name I forgot (I think it was Bryan? argh, sorry... beer...), and last but not least, DJ Prem


It always reminds me of my age to meet students who are now working in real jobs and so on, but it's also nice to see them outside of class. Honestly, teaching is a great job sometimes, and it's such an honour to have an opportunity to make a small difference in the life of so many people - sounds corny, but it's true. For a great rant on this topic - check out "What teachers make", by Taylor Mali.

Anyway, back to the twestivalkl.


It was a charity event too - in to help Destiny Starting Point (video here). It's there to help boys who have dropped out and got involved in various delinquency problems - helping them to get back into schooling and get back on track.

Here is the Pastor who founded the place handing over a donated Lenovo computer to the fortunate Lucky Draw winner (looks happy, doesn't he!)


and here he is again with @nikicheong, one of the organisers of the event,


the others being @davidlian, @suanie, @eevon, @radianceleong, @nigelais, and @Ling_Chan

Other prizes were a Poken, won by @kellster (who always seems to be winning things!)


And here are various Poekeners - with @aprilyim invading from the left


There were also some of the usual suspects: @dustyhawk, kruel74, @joshlim, and the intrepid photographer - @benjicajess


and others who I can't remember...

So. Were there significant differences with a blog meet-up? Basically, no. If they had had the live screening of tweets it could have made a big difference - with people interacting on and offline but in the same physical space. I'm sure that if I had a mobile access to the tweets it would have been different too - and would have contributed to and read what other tweeples were doing.

Many of those there are also bloggers, but not all. I reckon that many people who find blogging too much work, will enjoy tweeting a lot more. There would also be less of this kind of post happening after a tweetup (i.e. what happened, photos, etc). For a tweetup it's a lot more spontaneous and co-synchronous (happening at the same time). And once the event is over, there may be a 'thanks it was cool #twesitivalkl' tweet, and tweeple move onto whatever is happening in their life and tweetzone at that time.

[did a few edits - forgot to include a photo intially, some typos]

Last Friday was the preview of Star Trek, and AMBP had organised a gathering of Trekkies, Trekkers, and Bloggers. This was the second AMBP gathering I attended, last year here.

The event was emceed by the very capable DJs from Red FM


and of course Trekkies/ers were in evidence


There was a treasure hunt organised, which I thought was pretty well put together - but I was by myself and it took well longer than I expected, so I had no chance to win the Gopher GPS which was the first prize. While I was going around the mall searching for clues I saw these happy shoppers


I also met Horng, KY,Suanie and Josh Lim! There were bloggers everywhere!

Afterwards, we took the opportunity to camwhore with Captain Kirk's chair
Continue reading "Star Trek Camwhores"

A little known fact about Star Trek is that it was the first series to have an onscreen interracial kiss in 1968 (first in America anyway – though there’s some debate about the whole thing).


Of course, Star Trek is better known for being a science fiction series, with enthusiastic fans known as ‘Trekkies’ or ‘Trekkers’ who have spawned an impressive subculture. One minor 'celebrity’ Trekkie is Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons, who was jilted by Mrs Krabappel at a Klingon wedding ceremony


In that episode, some of the characters speak in Klingon, the language of the alien race that usually tries to blow up the Starship Enterprise. Surprisingly, it’s a recognised language which you can learn at The Klingon Language Institute (seriously!)


As an example, here’s a powerful insult in Klingon

Hab SoSlI' Quch!

It means – “Your mother has a smooth forehead!” Go here to see some more and to hear some Klingon.


In case you’re wondering where my sudden interest in Star Trek comes from – check out the AllMalaysian Bloggers site. There’s going to be a bloggers’ gathering on the 1st May, and they will be showing the Premiere of the new Star Trek movie , which is being produced by J.J. Abrams, who also did Lost and Alias. It’s “A chronicle of the early days of James T. Kirk and his fellow USS Enterprise crew members” (IMDB) and is being touted as a ‘new direction’ in Star Trek movies; so far it has 8.5/10 in IMDB, so it could be good!

See you there - I hope!


** OK I know that this phrase was: 1) Not used in that episode of the Simpsons ("My Big Fat Geek Wedding"), but was in "The Worst Episode Ever"; 2) Comic Book Guy obviously cannot speak Klingon as the closest proper phrase would be " 'jImobqu' (pronounced jhi-mobe-koo), which means 'I'm so alone!'" (The Simpsons Archive). I just thought it would be fun like this.

OK no time to blog a lot, I'm going to the BarCampKL and I'm gonna be late already... But I have to say something about last night.

The evening didn't start off well... I parked way up at the top of Jalan Sultan Ismail, and had to walk all the way down it - looking like this!

(OK - edit for clarification: I wasn't with Eminem aka Huai Bin while walking )
There were people staring, honking and even some errant mat rempits giving me peace signs! But I got there, and was soon enjoying free beer and meeting up with bloggers thanks to Nuffnang and Maxis Broadband.



There was a glam rock band made of bloggers who were pretty good, given that they had only got together one or two weeks ago. And looking very glam!


There were bloggerazzi galore


and the first prize was waiting...


for ME!! I won! Woohoo!

Reggae mon! Rastafari vibrations for I and I!

A big thanks to Nuffnang and Maxis! And to all the bloggers who cheered me on And not forgetting Yatz, who knows his way around KL pretty well - thanks for the lift!

And if you haven't done it already - there are only five days left to do the Malaysian Blog Survey. 474 bloggers and readers have had their say - have you?