Moving to KL Postponed

Originally, I had planned to move to KL alone towards the end of this month. But looks like that plan has to be postponed to a later time i.e. early May.

I’ve been working around the clock to prepare the Mega Red Packet event and as I’ve been working on this for the past 6 months with my partners Vince Tan and Stephen Luc, we are only days away from the big day and I have to see to it that the online event becomes a success.

I look forward to making the event a smashing success and I am quite excited about this. It’s the first time I’m doing an online event this huge and at a product price point never this high before.

After this, I have plans to re-enroll into college and continue pursuit of my travel goals to visit at least 4 more countries this year. While I’ve already got my own car (with the Myvi being given to my mom), I need time to hunt for a new place to stay in KL and start over.

SIDENOTE: If you have been emailing me but received slow response from me lately, this is what’s been taking up my time now. 🙂 I apologize for that! Will get back to the rest of matters when I’m finally done with the Mega Red Packet launch.

Business and Leisure in Penang

It’s been 3 years since I last visited Penang.

I had been invited to speak at the Global Internet Summit and this was going to be the first time GIS is presented in Penang. I had prepared my presentation a few days before the big day and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous at all; this was also going to be my first speaking engagement as a main speaker.

And to top that, I was also going to be the first speaker to climb the stage to kick start the event!


At Senai Airport

One day before the big day, I caught a flight to Penang and checked into the Evergreen Laurel Hotel at Persiaran Gurney. While I was looking forward to having more fun and going around Penang, the presentation occupied my mind most of the time. Couldn’t wait for it to end.


Inside the 5-star Evergreen Laurel Hotel - sea view!

Walking outside the hotel at Persiaran Gurney

Thankfully, the Success Resources team had arrived earlier and since I was going to be the first main speaker to start the event – I wouldn’t have the luxury of observing and learning from other speakers before my turn – I rehearsed my presentation in the empty room. I rarely spoke in front of large crowds and I had to learn almost everything I could from “Great Public Speaking in 10 Days”… in 2 days.


Rehearsing in front of the empty room

My biggest worry was whether I would exceed my allotted time of 1.5 hours. So I spent whatever available time I can rehearsing my presentation (though I paid little attention to the details in the final 15 minutes i.e. selling).

Other speakers arrived shortly and I met up with them for dinner to get acquainted, especially Benjamin Teo and Andy Hun since I’ve not met them before.

We ate at Gurney Drive and yep, Penang is well known for its food! Here’s Andy Hun (right) and Feebie, Benjamin Teo’s girlfriend. Andy’s from Johor Bahru, to my surprise (just when I thought I’m the Sultan of Johor).

I don’t have a profiled picture of Feebie but she looks really, really familiar. I was certain I saw someone who looked like her back in Sydney (and maybe true since she and Ben Teo came from Sydney!)… and she looked like an ex-classmate of mine.

“Common face,” said Ben.


Feebie (Ben Teo’s gf) and Andy Hun

Oh yeah, here’s Alvin Phang too. His first time in Penang. Since I won 2nd place in his Atoming Blogging 3.0 contest, should’ve asked him to hand me my prizes while in person. 😛


Alvin Phang

Of course, Benjamin Teo himself. He may speak in a monotone voice but hey, he’s THE social media expert. He was from Malaysia (surprise, surprise) and then moved to Australia at an early age. He’s got like… what? 36,000 followers on Twitter? Follow him on Twitter: @upicks


Benjamin Teo - the social media expert

And of course, here’s the star and the hero himself. What’s this blog without THE MAN? 😉


Edmund Loh

Global Internet Summit


View from the stage

The long awaited 1.5 hours of presentation finally came… and go! 🙂

I think I did pretty well for a first timer, considering many of the audience didn’t quite believe this was my first time speaking on stage, my fear of exceeding the 1.5 hours of given time was un-found (I finished on time), and I sold some of my back-end programs too at an acceptable ratio for a crowd that I heard was hard to please.

To add to that, my hairstyle was at its best. 😛 I can’t think of anything I’ve goofed up badly and I must say I did well. 🙂

I haven’t got the photos of me speaking on stage so when I get them I’ll post them here. But I want to show you the photos of some of the people I’ve met at the GIS.


With Kelly Lai

with Tiong Wei

with Low Kok Seng

with Soo Cheng Guan

with Alvin Ooi

with Dawn Tan

with Anna Tan

UPDATED 16th April

Thanks to Jaz Lai and Edmund Toh for the pics! Here they are…


First up on stage!

Edmund Loh on stage

At speaker’s panel

Answering in a Q&A

Answering Q&A

Okay now that the business trip is covered, let’s talk about leisure for the rest of the blog post!

Red Box Karaoke


Red Box

In no sequence, let me show what we’ve been doing when we’re not speaking for the GIS. 🙂 Hope this convinces some people that we’re totally nerds behind the comps – or that we spend the rest of our free time at the cyber cafe. lol


Jaz Lai, Edmund Toh and Khai Siung signing up at Red Box

This is the third time I’ve gone to a karaoke session and though I’m not good at singing (actually, the extreme opposite) I can’t believe I’m going to say this but I’m beginning to like it too. 🙂 Look forward to go to more of these Red Box outings next time when I’m in KL. Khai Siung is a MUST in the group, really.


“Takes me one step closer to the edge… and I’m about to break!”

I didn’t know Jaz Lai could sing, though.


Jaz Lai

And even Edmund Toh. I suspect we came from the same factory that produced us.


Edmund Toh

And hey, it’s our guest and friend from India, Alok Jain!


Alok Jain

Finally… me. 🙂


I can sing, ok?

Yes, I really can…

Kenko Fish Spa

It’s been everyday that I go to Gurney Plaza while I was in Penang but I’m most fond of the Kenko Fish Spa while I’m there.

I’ve seen people blog about their experience at the fish spa and I think it would be sad if I didn’t try it out at least once in my lifetime. Now I’m certain I would do it once in a while. 🙂


Chewing off my feet…

Jaz, Edmund, Edmund

Feeding his hands away

Let’s see if you can find our card at Kenko’s Guest Wall!

Trying to maximize my value for money by dipping both my hands into the pool and still get away with paying for only foot massage fees.


Becoming fish food

Here’s York Min whom we’ve briefly got acquainted with. I’ve also tried out the full body massage at Kenko’s the next day since the massage service at the hotel left a lot to be desired.


with York Min

Dinner and Food!

What’s Penang without all the amazing food and friends right? 🙂


Lunch at Coffee Island

Now with me inside the photo

We also had Speaker’s Dinner on the last evening of the GIS. Here’s me and Vince Tan – damn he sold many seats too many for his back-end program, well done!


Me and Vince Tan

L-R: Vince, me, Alok, Andy


Vince, Edmund, Alok, Andy

Thanks to Success Resources for helping me out with my first speaking engagement!


Me with the SR Team

Some more…

Group photo

with Yan Ang since she had been missing from the rest of the group photos!

Special credits to: Jessie, Yan Ang, Henry Chee, Henry Wong, Purple Chin (and of course, the rest of the SR team!)

Last Day – Going Around Penang

I was the last speaker to leave the island (Patric Chan doesn’t count since he’s a native here!) so I checked out Bukit Bendera and the Kek Lok Si temple.


At Bukit Bendera

Bukit Bendera

View from the top of Bukit Bendera

At the Kek Lok Si Temple

Year of the Tiger

Also caught a movie at Gurney Plaza’s GSC – Shinjuku Incident starring Jackie Chan. Even though it’s like what Jackie himself said in an interview, “1% action 99% drama” I think this is one of Jackie Chan’s best films. The premise of the show is that in the early 1990’s – based on a true incident that really happened – Jackie plays the character “Steel Head” and was one of the many of the illegal immigrants from China who settled in Shinjuku, Japan… illegally, of course.

Steel Head would go on to find that his former lover is now married with a kid to a Yakuza leader called Eguchi. From here on, Jackie went from doing odd jobs to starting multiple illegal businesses like selling fake phone cards and tampering with the jackpot machines until he seizes substantial power within the ranks of the Yakuza semi-legitimate organization and controls a pure Chinese territory for his Chinese ‘brothers’. There are a lot of heart wrenching moments when you can see how good people turn bad, and yet how some things don’t really change – and the racial issues between the Japanese and the Chinese.

I can see why this show is banned in China because of how it portrays the Chinese people. Nonetheless, I’d say put it in your “must watch” list.


Shopping for stuff the last minute!

Okay, this is it. I’m sorry if I didn’t mention some of you in my blog post and I’m still waiting for new photos to add here. Hope you’ve enjoyed reading and it’s been a pleasure to meet new people while I was in Penang! Talk soon and until the next time!

The Shopping Spree Continues

If you’ve been reading my messages on Twitter and Facebook then you’ll know it’s obvious I’ve been on a shopping spree. I’ve been spending a lot more than usual as of lately, though I could use some indulging in luxury. That’s for making up all the years of window shopping. LOL

Getting a Custom Tailored Suit

My first Internet Marketing speaking engagement as main speaker is coming up and I need a new suit. Real bad.

At the Tailor Shop

At the Tailor Shop

Because of my small built, the suit I currently have appears to be one size bigger than I am. So a week ago, I walked into the nearest tailor shop to get a suit custom made to fit my size.

The first try out to get the measurement…

The First Try Out

A week later, I returned to test out the ‘prototype’ suit. Because it is still being tested for fitting, I won’t put photos of the by-product suit here yet.

I also need to get one done for the pants. I’m done with wearing over-sized pants with legs longer than mine.

Talking to the Tailor

I want this, this and that…

So, done deal!

I hope the suit and pants will be ready in time before I fly off to Penang for the speaking engagement!

SIDENOTE: Worse comes to worst, I’ll just borrow Vince Tan’s suit. Good thing he’s coming to Penang to speak too, and our speaking schedules are different! 😛

PlayStation 3

When I got the word that Resident Evil 5 came out, I knew it was time to grab a PS3. There are many other games I want to get my hands on too later on. 🙂

It wasn’t easy finding a PS3 here though. Many of the shops at City Square have declared a sold out on this hot baby. My hunt for the PS3 ended at Tebrau Jusco. So here it is: Playstation 3 with 80GB memory.

PS3

Since my schedule’s pretty packed this month and the games are pricier than I thought, I bought one game first. Resident Evil 5, of course.

Resident Evil 5

I have finished the game in 3 days. I’ll chalk up a quick review on the game over the weekend when I’m free.

Need a New Laptop While I’m At It…

Dell

I’m comfortable working on desktop computer but it would be too inconvenient to take it with me when I move so I have to invest in a new laptop. The Acer laptop is old and too slow for my workload, and using it was frustrating for me.

With the help of some recommendations from friends, I bought a customized version of Dell XPS M1530. Though relatively a noob with laptops, I’ve heard mostly positive and favorable reviews about Dell laptops. Anyways, I’m already convinced that any laptop is perpetually better than one I have now!

This is going to be my portable work station when I move to KL.

And A Second Car? Hmm…

Yeah, a lot of my heavy expenses lately are motivated by my move to KL. And this is the biggest of them all – I need a car. VERY badly.

When I was in PJ/KL, I relied heavily on public transport. And it’s no secret that public transport in PJ/KL are horrible. This may surprise some of you, but the taxi and bus services in Johor Bahru are much, much better anytime than that of KL’s!

So yes, I need a car to go around.

I was contemplating between the Toyota Vios and the BMW E46 model. The Beemer, at first glance, appears to be a very tempting choice. I mean, who doesn’t want prestige and status?

I had to think with my head than with my ego though. For many logical reasons, getting a Toyota Vios is a smarter choice over the BMW. The Toyota Vios is fuel savvy, easier to maintain and the parts are affordable and easily replaceable.

The second hand beemer: RM100,000 for a 10 year-old car that’s expensive to maintain and consumes fuel like a German man on beer?

Hmm…

Not really wise spending on the BMW after making many considerations in spite of its high prestige value, since I also don’t foresee myself driving the same car for many years.

Plus, cars depreciate in value real easily – it’s 70% its price the moment I drive it off the parking lot – so it’s better to put more money into business and investment than on a liability that depreciates in value over the years.

So Toyota Vios it is!

Generous space in the boot - for sub woofers?

Side profile

Inside the car

The engine

Checking out the Vios

Haha, me!

Making sure the car’s in absolute good condition

Toyota Vios

Going out on a test drive

I won’t make the same financial mistake this time i.e. being in a hurry to pay up entirely for the car like I did with the Myvi! I’d rather use the money to invest plus as mentioned, I don’t foresee myself driving the same car for after another 3 to 5 years.

So yep, done deal. Getting this 3 year-old Toyota Vios. Will be mine in a week. 🙂 Letting my mom have the Myvi so she can drive around places in JB and do her shopping with ease.

UPDATE: 7th April

Custom suit and pants are done! Alright, this is exactly what I’m talking about… No more over-sized coats and pants! 🙂


Wait, a little bit of adjustments…

The complete tailor made suit and pants

Side Profile

The Back Profile

Vince, you can keep your suit. Thanks. 🙂

Weekend in KL and ‘Makeover’ Program

Hi All,

First and foremost, I want to thank my friends and readers who have commented on my previous blog post. Some of you have also expressed concern and kind words of encouragement over FaceBook and Twitter. They truly mean a lot to me. 🙂 So thank you all!

Dealing with my first relationship-turned-friendship-later break up wasn’t easy at all that I felt emotionally down for months and then almost crippled for less than a week.

It was a big wake up call nonetheless. It meant I have a lot to work on my personal development area instead of my business. I suspect this will be a looong battle but I really want to win in life and not just one particular area called “business”.

Honestly at this point, I didn’t know exactly what to do so I decided to take the opportunity to meet up with some people on my trip to KL this time.

Dinner with Xinch

First step… getting re-acquainted with some people whom I’ve not met in a long time. Meeting Xin-Ci for dinner at the Japanese Restaurant in Mont. Kiara was a good start.

Xinch @ Japanese Restaurant

I have to admit when Xinch casually invited me out for dinner I was a little embarrassed. The last time I met her was slightly more than a year ago and not too long later, I entered my first relationship and I neglected other friends, and my acceleration of meeting new people became less for me too. Classic mistake I know.

Edmund @ The Japanese Restaurant

I kept in touch with Xinch sparingly and only through the Internet… when I needed a hand with some transcription work, that was. Now Xinch isn’t exactly a close friend and we have little in common to begin with. But hey, to my surprise, the dinner went on for hours longer than I thought, and there was plenty to talk about! 😀

The Forex Seminar

Forex Seminar

Had to sub-mentor some friends when they attended the Forex seminar by Orange Roshan International. I was introduced to the possibilities of Foreign Exchange last December and I traded well on a demo account. 20 consecutive wins in a row to date. 🙂

While I’m going on a live account soon, I introduced some of my close business associates and my sister to the same Forex seminar I attended back not too long ago.

Seminar ended with a buffet dinner at the Grand Millennium Hotel.

Tian Yian and Khai Ng

Melvin broke the ice… pfft

Vince on spasm

(sorry not many photos taken at the buffet plus due to poor lighting many other photos were too poor in quality to be posted here…!)

Shopping at Sunway Pyramid (The ‘Makeover’ Program)

Was supposed to head back to JB by Sunday but extended my stay at the Shah Village Inn Hotel for another night. Glad I did. Went for an impromptu meeting with Khai Lee at Sunway Pyramid. Don’t think I’ve seen him for about a year too.

I needed advice on how I can start anew and expand my social circle, and there’s no better person to ask for advice than “The Animal” himself. Xinch happened to tag along and unexpectedly, they took me on a shopping spree.

Khai Lee and Xinch

Now shopping isn’t exactly my favorite past time but I was more enthusiastic about this one. First stop was the book store. Got myself a copy of “The Game” on Khai Lee’s recommendation. Then Khai Lee and Xinch helped gave me the “extreme makeover” on my choice of clothes.

“You gotta wear clothes that channel your inner self, your personality!”

“What accessories should he wear that shows it’s uniquely HIM?”

“Ditch that shirt, makes you look more serious than you already are.”

“Pants too baggy for you…”

“Nope, won’t do. Not suitable for a small built person.”

Yada… yada…

Man, I had little idea clothes really make a difference. I mean, I knew it theoretically (so do most guys anyway) and I hardly paid attention to the details. I usually wear for comfort (but at the expense of style, bleargh).

The shopping spree took hours and I don’t remember carrying so many bags of my own stuff from a shopping mall in my life. 🙂

I have to admit, I was gung ho about changing myself and my current situation. Yet I had no idea that changing my taste in clothes proved to already be so difficult. One step at a time, I told myself.

So okay, here’s BEFORE

BEFORE…

… And AFTER!

… AFTER!

What do you think? 🙂

Gotta thank K.Lee and Xinch. I’m glad they had time for me and patiently took me through stores and helped me pick new clothes, and discussed with me how to improve my outward appearance in general.

Next Steps…

My next steps are to move to Kuala Lumpur on my own starting middle to end of April, get another car, and start anew. As I am writing this, I am considering to re-enroll into college. Unfinished business.

I feel like I’m running through a house of burning cards now and I think life for me will change drastically in another month or two. This may mean changing my initial plan for this year to migrate to another country after all… and significantly at that.

Time To Move On…

(Edmund: This is the first time I’m talking about my relationship/personal matters… so read only if you want to… however I’m keeping a lot of other details out so please don’t post comments digging for more info – like who the girl is, what exactly happened, etc. I hope you respect my privacy. Thanks!)

Sorry for the long hiatus. And that happened for a reason.

It’s been a month since I last updated something substantial to my Personal Blog. (the YouTube video in the previous post doesn’t count, of course)

I was having second thoughts about writing this post. But then, I feel much better penning it out here knowing that mostly friends and people I know come to visit my Personal Homepage.

As I am writing this, this is probably the most trying time I am going through in a long time. After getting off the phone call just now, it’s going to be one scary, roller coaster ride of a life from here on.

Normally, I keep my relationship and personal matters a low profile even from this blog. Yet, I’m not comfortable posting anything else here if this goes unmentioned…

To put things into perspective – and long story short – I had been in a relationship with the first love of my life. That went on for more than half a year. Later we “broke up” but not under bad circumstances though; we accepted that we were both different but we mutually agreed to still be best friends.

So for many months, we enjoyed being together as best friends instead of being in a committed relationship. It was ideal. It was perfect!

All that changed gradually.

I have to confess that in spite of the “best friend” title, I still treated her more than a friend. I really did. Unfortunately – again the long story short – she cannot return reciprocal love – at least, not the one I expected. Naturally over time, I grew jealous and possessive. Yet it would be too selfish of me to ask her to comply.

It’s what you’d probably read about in books on romance or stories you hear from your heartbroken guy friends. “She wants me to be her good friend… but she keeps a one foot pole distance.” I didn’t want to listen though.

So this hurt me for days. Then it turned into weeks. And then months. It was eating me alive. It came to a point where I grew hardly productive at my business, slept longer hours and for some odd reason I’m becoming ill easily these days.

Finally it arrived to a point where being just friends is no longer possible between us.

Tonight, I did the hardest thing that I dreaded most. I know I cannot move on if I still hold onto the past, and the ‘illusion of hope’ that we can still be together on a mutually intimate level.

So I did what needed to be done right from the start: I ended all ties and connections with her.

Don’t get me wrong: I still love her a lot. We have had been on many adventures together, been to places together, did things together, shared our feelings we wouldn’t have told anyone else…

She is still the best girl I have ever met in my life.

The only regret is that I am not the right guy for her. And before anyone get any bad ideas about my first love (she’s too sweet for that)… actually, I was responsible for hurting her and making her upset in the first place (though unintentional) that the relationship didn’t work out as we both planned.

I have only myself to blame in the end, and the mess is mine to clean up. I was given the chance to be her boyfriend – when so many other guys are dying to just get to know this attractive girl – and I blew it away.

Anyways…

If I stay in this current position for too long or even forever, I will never grow. I will never move on. And she’s meant for bigger things in life to be burdened by my… well, childish demands. I’m embarrassed to say this but I can’t think of any better words to describe how I feel about myself now.

I don’t blame her one bit even after all that has happened.

It wasn’t easy even though I promised myself not to cry (which I did anyway, like 10 seconds into the conversation over the phone). Still, I needed to stick to my guns.

For my good and for hers.

I was VERY, VERY scared about putting the phone down because when I finally do, I know I won’t call her again.

I needed to flush my past momento’s, memories… anything that reminds me of her… out of my system. This also means I have to stop my addictive compulsion of visiting her web pages and FaceBook, or even trying to call or SMS her when she’s on the other side of the world.

Not easy but I need to let go of my past if I am to embrace the possibilities of the future. Otherwise I will be back to where I had started. Nothing would have changed. And I would continue getting hurt myself. And so will she in the process.

For the first time in my life – and really – I found out how useless money can get. No wonder people say “money is most useful where it’s needed, and most useless where it’s not.” I was ready to give up my financial goals and my wealth to get back to her.

But logically, that won’t happen. And I don’t think there’s anything else I can do to change her mind. At the same time, I cannot be content with being just “friends”. Not after everything we have had been through together.

I still wish her the best and that although she’s not looking for a boyfriend right now, I hope she finds a man much better myself eventually. It was great knowing her and now I know what it’s like to finally really LOVE someone and then LOSE it… then never love at all. Thank you for playing a big part of my life.

I have to pick up my pieces and move on. I’m sure I will meet the right girl for me one day but I need to sort my own mess out before that can happen.