The Last Days of 2008

I’ve been late but I don’t think anyone’s going to complain it right? Here are the pics I took on the last 2 days of 2008. I’m in a hurry right now because I’m about to leave home soon (for a short trip to Desaru) so… more pics than words. Anyways, people always look at pics. 😉

Wendy’s with Khai & Yuenn

Khai and Yuenn introduced me and Ladan to Wendy’s at Giant, Kota Damansara!

@ Wendy’s

@ Wendy’s

The Arcade

Ladan playing Disc Hockey with Yuenn.

Playing Disc Hockey

Getting creamed by Khai in car racing. Had never been good behind the wheels but hey, I got 2nd place. LOL

License to Reckless Driving

New Year’s Eve Carnival @1Utama

Ladan and I were at 1Utama’s carnival on New Year’s Eve. Lots of interesting things here like costumed characters, caporeira dance, concert performances, stalls, free balloons for everyone, and more. 🙂

Skimpy Gals @ 1Utama New Wing Carnival Another Skimpy Gal Balloons

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@1Utama

The New Year Fireworks at The Curve!

I want to wish a Happy New Year to All EdmundLoh.name Readers! 🙂

Robber on the Roof at 4 in the Morning

Edmund: I meant to post this earlier but due to my tight Singapore schedule, I’ve finally got this up. This happened two weekends ago and some development came through when I was away, so I feel it’s only right that I post this now. Hope you find this an interesting read. 🙂

I slowly paced up the street as I wielded my torch light to search the roof. My heart was beating fast, hockey stick held tightly in my left hand. I trained my eyes into the dark. Nope, not a single soul in sight. Not on the roof, that is.

I told Mom and Ashley to stay indoors. The robber could attempt to break into our house. Ashley was pacing around the living hall with a small baseball bat, probably anticipating action.

And suddenly, I saw a group of Chinese boys – armed with sticks and javelines – charging frantically in my direction as two other motorbikes zoomed past me.

Okay okay, in order for this whole story to make sense I’ll start from the beginning. Here goes…

…………………

It was almost 4 in the morning when I was still chugging into the night, working on my next ‘big project’. Yes I am normally awake at this hour. 🙂

It’s always dead quiet at this time I could hear a pin drop. The only thing breaking the silence is the sound of my clattering keyboard. That was until I started hearing noises coming from the roof (my house is one storey tall).

Cat, maybe.

But the noise became disturbing, louder and quickly grew into rhytms of ‘thud’s and ‘thump’s.

** SCRATCH — SCREECH — THUMP THUMP THUD! **

Wait a minute. Too heavy to be a cat.

I stopped working and started examining the roof window with my torch light. Thank goodness I’ve bought the new batteries not too long ago. The noise didn’t stop abruptly though it became more subtle. I was in a semi-tired mental state but suddenly, my body grew alert. Kura, Kura, Kura, Kura, Kura, and Kura were scrambling in their tanks frantically — but I couldn’t take my attention off the roof window. I had to be sure.

In a blink eye, I saw a figure darted near the corner of the roof window. Not a cat. But SOMEONE. SHIT, someone’s on our roof!

Instinctively, I inched my way towards the side of the computer table for security: my hockey stick. Better used as a weapon than a tool for the turf.

I stared at the roof window for another good 30 seconds before I woke Mom and Ashley. Whoever was up there was crawling in circles. Sometimes the sound was near and then sometimes it faded away.

When I woke Mom and Ashley up and told them what was happening, Ashley immediately grabbed the mini baseball bat tucked under her pillow. We switched on every light in our house, especially the back door. However, the noises on the roof continued to persist.

Soon Auwlithe our watch dog was barking outside the house, looking in the direction of the roof. I went out of the house and started searching the roof with my torch light (from the road, of course – I didn’t dare climb up 🙂 ).

As I was searching the roof, there was a car parked opposite our house – with 3 suspicious boys inside. Parked under the street light, they were making a lot of bodily gestures inside the car and I couldn’t help but wonder what were these guys doing at this unearthly hour. Could they be accomplices to the “roofwalker”?

After all, when I came back to Johor Bahru three weeks ago, Mom warned me that there had been robberies and break-ins lately; they’ve all been occuring in our neighborhood. There was also a rumor that there were people walking on roofs too, at hours like this.

For a split second, my gut feeling told me to remember the car’s number plate and call the cops. Wait, too late for that. The three boys in colored hair got out of the car and approached me.

I was holding a hockey stick in my hand at that time, and I didn’t know if I should keep my distance until I confirmed what was really going on.

I kept my guard up as the three figures approached me, seemingly to ask me “what is going on?” in Mandarin. It’s a shame I can’t converse in Mandarin so in simple English, I told them that there was someone on the roof.

The three boys looked at each other, and one of them asked me if I was sure about it. Well, of course I said YES.

In the next ten seconds, the highlight of the sleepy neighborhood came. A horde of boys in singlets, t-shirts and shorts dashed out of a small house – armed with sticks and javelines – those that you would see in a Lion Dance or Martial Arts performance.

The commotion woke up a lot of neighbors as houses started lighting up and more people were awake. The boys were probably excited for action, as they started combing the housing area in search for the slick suspect. Two motorbikes started circling the area as the boys were making a racket.

It was comforting to know that they were helping us, even though we were unable to find any trace of the “Roofwalker” after 30 minutes of search. He must have left before the boys did anything.

We were grateful that the boys offered to help, and we learned that they were actually part of a Lion Dance and Martial Arts group. They were just bunking over at one of their friends’ house (in the opposite row), preparing for the next day’s performance. So this explained why there were so many guys emerging from a small house, and why they weren’t asleep even at 4 in the morning. 😉

We retired from the search party though word got around about the commotion. Even as I am writing this, the night patrol is frequenting this particular stretch more often than ever. Phew!

…………………

By the way, Mom and Ashley had their own suspect on whoever that “Roofwalker” might be. You see, when I was staying in Petaling Jaya for most of the time, a new family moved into the neighborhood. Overall, the family members are normal people – all except one old man. Very suspicious.

I’ve not met him before though I’ve seen him only once. According to my sister, he’s got a very suspicious character. He seemed to always be looking at her every time she takes Auwlithe out for a walk. He asked every neighbor questions like “how many people are there in your house?” and “what time are you normally at home?

To top it off, the old folk is unemployed and he’s often seen loitering in different parts of the neighborhood.

Hmm…

As I’ve said, I’ve not met this old timer in person before albeit seen him only once. So definitely, I don’t have anything concrete against him though Mom and Ashley have their own suspicion. After all, he IS relatively fit even for his age.

…………………

Just days ago, I learned that the old timer went to prison for a crime he committed. Robbery. One of his sons joined him in the two-man party too.

Coincidence? THE END? Let’s hope it stays that way for this episode. 😉

November Highlights

*UPDATED 18th Nov 2007*

It’s been quite a while since I last posted any photos and pictures on my adventures. With a lot of fun projects I am working on and the drive to clear the deck for 2008, I still found the time to indulge in some leisure. And when I say some leisure, I mean “doing anything that has little or nothing to do with Internet Marketing”. 🙂

Some highlights into the middle of the month…

Having Fun with Wii at Peng Joon’s House

The L337 Mobile

Yup that’s the L337 mobile. 🙂 The purpose of going to Peng Joon’s house was to complete the assigned copywriting mission at that time. But before we dive into the serious part of business, the sudden discovery of the Wii console and plasma TV baited our attention for some fun.

The Tennis Game

Hah, creamed Matt Ng at Tennis. I guess his age was catching up with him. People can’t be young forever, you know. 😉

Bowling

Okay, spoke to soon. Matt was practically owning me at bowling. But to be fair, I’ve not bowl before. And at the very least, I gave my best shot!

Watch me Bowl!

We played more games on the Wii console like golf, baseball and boxing. Definitely needed the entertainment before anything else!

The Night in Klang

Ashley was going to leave for Japan on a holiday so Ashley, Mom, my uncle and I stayed in Klang one night before her departure at KLIA.

Due to my nocturnal nature and off-set in the waking cycle, I found myself restless at about 3 AM in the morning and decided to take a stroll outside the Histana Hotel.

Confession: I had always liked taking a walk out at night. The scene at night is so totally different from that of the day time – no people around, no traffic jams… nothing but quiet. 😉 Which gives me loads of peace of mind to clearly hear myself think.

Confession #2: And if you’re fortunate enough, you might just chance upon horny couples doing “their thing” in their cars! I seem to have a knack for coming across things like that without much effort.

The HRC

That’s the HRC (Holy Reedemer Church). I used to go to this church every weekend when I was 12. Hadn’t changed too much in physical appearance from the last time I’ve been here.

Saving a Stray Kura

When I was walking past the Central Park, what do you know? I came across a big tortoise on the pedestrian walk. How often does this happen and what are the odds of this happening? 1 in a million!

Reasonably, there’s a pond nearby and my green friend happened to stray too far away from home. The stray kura quickly hid itself into its shell when I approached it.

Kura…

Sure looks like a helmet now.

Anyways, I picked it up, walked to the pond nearby and released the tortoise at Central Park. That should teach it not to wander too far away from home because it probably won’t be that lucky again next time!

The Central Park

Interviewing People Online for the First Time

I usually get interviewed by other Internet Marketers so yes that also usually means I spill all the beans out on my topics of expertise.

The tables were turned around on Saturday Night when it was my turn to interview two other leading Internet pioneers, Jeremy Gislason (Japan) and Simon Hogkinson (UK).

It’s odd in a way because while I’ve dealt with these two guys for the past 2 years online, this was actually my first time talking to them on Skype. This is also the longest interview I’ve ever had by far – it came up to almost 2 hours of non-stop action with *massive* brain picking and idea bouncing to boot.

I’ve been following their stuff since the beginning of time so one word of advice for beginning Internet Marketers: buy anything that has the name Jeremy Gislason or Simon Hodgkinson on it. 🙂

The Charity Concert

“Can I tag along?” and that’s how I found myself in Subang with Xin-Ci on Sunday evening.

There’s this new Dance Studio called Living Arts Studio in Dataran Mentari, which we went to attend the Charity Concert. The dance studio is relatively new and was in need of raising funds.

Trivia Fact: I participated in a dance studio before. 🙂

By the time we arrived, we caught the Copoeira performance.

Capoeira

And more photos to boot.

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The event ended with the disabled kids from the Taman Megah foundation receiving gifts from the studio and organization itself.

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Haa ha, the jester in action. Truth be told, the concert won’t have been near half as fun without him!

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Wrapped up the Sunday evening with dinner with Golem the Xinch; otherwise I would’ve spent another day getting cooked up in the room listening to Benny Lava. (Go figure. 😉 )

Hello Tim Tim…

Ah, Tim Brocklehurst. What are you doing here in sunny Malaysia? To speak for the World Internet Summit To get your brain picked, of course! 🙂

Vince Tan and I made haste for the Nikko Hotel because Tim was going to go back to the UK real soon so this was the last chance to interview him quick. 😛

Tall Water Bottle Tower… try it saying out aloud ;-)

Yeah this Bottles tower made its way into the Malaysian Book of Records for the obvious.

Vince, Tim, Edmund

That’s us alright!

Okay Tim is the guy behind the infamous My Viral Spiral application so if you’re building an opt-in list – whether you’re already doing it or just planning to do – don’t go on doing business without it!

Tim is a really cool guy to hang out with and yeah, Vince and I certainly learned a lot of stuff in that few hours of conversation. Too bad it couldn’t last any longer.

Hmm… by the way, if you’re wondering what’s with all these “interviews”, you’ll find out pretty soon in due time. 😉 *snickering*

Meeting Stuart Tan at Impiana KLCC

Peng Joon, Me, Stuart, Matt

Thanks to Matt and PJ for the buffet dinner, both Stuart and I had the privilege of scrumptious freeloading! 🙂

Until then… and I hope to pick another person’s brain real soon.

Photos Galore!

Okay, this is going to be a pure photos galore – taken over the past couple of weeks. Time to unload them onto my blog. I’ve kept writing to a minimal for this post but you can hover over the thumbnails to see my comments and click to enlarge the pics.

Have fun browsing through my collection of photos! 🙂

Spamming the Table at UYMG

Truth be told, the UYMG seminar was quite a let down. 🙁 So my source of entertainment was “spamming” the JV table with my namecards and drawings. 🙂

Spam Fest!!

More Spam Fest!!

The Trip to Aquaria, KLCC

The Aquaria, KLCC houses more than 250+ different species of aquatic animals from around the world. My personal favorites were the turtles, tortoises and terrapins for sure! 😛

Hawkbill Turtle

Giant Toad!

Creepy Crawlie!

Gekko Gecko!

Me - Deep Blue Sea!

Scary Shark!

Hidden Turtle?

Jaw Attack!

The PLRGold5 Product Launch Interview with Dennis Sim

I seem to be getting the hang out of doing audio interviews as of lately. Always improving with every audio session – that’s another barrier broken for me! 🙂

Cracking out Jokes with Khai on Paper

Me with Dennis Sim

Hillarious Financial Journey through CashFlow 101

Hah, if I didn’t borrow the CashFlow 101 game from Matt he would be leaving it in the cobwebs! Finally put to good use by inviting a bunch of friends over to play this game: Khai, Yuenn, Matt, Lek Soon, Dot, and Marcus Chang.

Decked with pizza and coke, we were all set to put our Financial IQs to the test.

The Rat Race

The Gang

The Rich Couple!

Marcus the Pauper

Lek Soon getting excited!

CashFlow “Disaster” 101 – Round 2

This time, we had Ben Chin and Peng Joon joining us with Matt and Khai still in the game. I needed someone else to help explain the rules to Ben and PJ, you see. 🙂

Great that I got out of the rat race and won the game first! Khai and “Google boy” Peng Joon did just as great catapulting themselves into the fast track (which in my opinion, is what matters the most in the game). I have to hand it though, Peng Joon did it at a very great expense and gamble… especially gamble.

As for Matt and Ben – haha, what were you two doing in that round circle for 4 hours? 🙂

Reckless Players on the Loose

Matt and Ben

Ben and Peng Joon

Other Pics…

Marcus & Victor

That’s Marcus Chang re-designing my membership site layout at Greenwood Cafe – real-time! 🙂 I am so happy that my slave friendly web designer was ready to toil throughout the night right in front of my eyes (what was I doing there anyway?). Accompanying him was Victor.

Gobala & Khai

So happened to meet Gobala and Khai at Starbucks, The Curve on Wednesday night! What were they doing there – going on a sneak date together?

The Money Grenade

The Money Grenade. 🙂 Worth MYR 50.00.

Haha! Until then! 🙂

Awesome Adventures after Moving into the Pink House! :-)

Okay I’ve been stocking up a barrage of photos in my hand phone over the past two weeks and it’s finally time to upload them onto my Personal Blog! 🙂

Stuart Tan’s Supertelethon.org

Alright, there are no photos to display here because the call was done over the phone. On 13th September, I took part in Stuart Tan’s Super Telethon Charity program – whereby I was one of the 36 speakers, each participating in a 60-minute call with Stuart Tan.

I got my hand phone loaded with more than enough prepaid credits and battery charged just in time to take the call. Definitely, it wouldn’t have been nice to become a “no show” and who else better to talk on the subject of Private Label Rights? 🙂 Ha ha!

I have had the pleasure of meeting Stuart in person earlier this year at Adam Khoo Learning Technologies in Tanjong Pagar, Singapore. I found Stuart to be friendly and motivating. This is the same guy who had authored/co-authored a number of best-selling books on Self Improvement and Internet Marketing? Amazing!

Certainly, I look forward to meeting him again real soon, possibly next month in Singapore.

Moving into the Pink House

It was rise and shine – time to leave the “falling apart” house for a better place to call home… away from home!

After 15 minutes of packing everything up, this pretty much summarized all the things I was going to take with me. One car trip definitely more than suffices!

The Only Things! I am sooo humble… :-)

On my way out, I spotted a familiar looking car in maroon. I wonder who drives this devilish car? Hmmm… looks like the Fuu Fuu Mobile.

The Fuu Fuu Mobile

Once moving in the things into the new pink house, Khai and I made a quick dash to IKEA to purchase some furniture like chair, table and a 3-drawer cupboard.

Me on Wheels…

Yup, that’s me lazing around on the chair at IKEA. Think Professor X (or Professor Loh if you’d rather).

As soon as we brought the things back to my new place, I quickly unpacked the boxes and went on to set up my first chair!

See…

Not bad for someone who isn’t good at handiwork, huh? 😉 Unfortunately, the handy work proved too much for me so predictably, I hired Matt to help me with the table and cupboard set up.

Matt Ng on Fire!

Looks like Matt grew tired of my incompetence when it comes to handiwork. That’s ample warning alright!

Next, I had to help Jennifer with the moving of her things from her apartment into the new house as well. This would mean FREE furniture, decorations and kitchen utilities for me in this new home! 🙂 However, I don’t cook and I hardly watch TV, if any at all.

In a nutshell, Jennifer owns a chain of laundry businesses – 5 in all – TTDI, Bukit Jelutong, Bangsar, and two more. And she’s definitely NOT stopping: she’s currently expanding her business further and I could see she is the frugal entrepreneur stereotype, whereby you pour most of your profits back into the business for expansion over spending on yourself.

Hmm… that pretty much solves my laundry problems. 😛

Heading to Mindvalley Labs

Ah, life of an X-Men. 🙂 The Institute of Higher Learning for Gifted Youngsters. Honestly, for some reason, I feel quite at home there though I spend only a couple of hours there a day, and come in on the average of 2-3 days a week.

Trip to Mindvalley

Saw Yuenn on a Piano Lessons Ad!

Heeey… looks like Yuenn is actually famous!

Yuenn on Ads!

Got Stuck in a Lift for More than 30 Minutes!

Now how often do things like this actually happen? Close to zero. Or so I thought.

I was leaving Mindvalley Labs when the lift suspended at the first floor – one more storey to the ground floor! It was a Lif Bomba thus there were two doors in the lift: one being the main and the other on the left.

When the lift was suspended at the first floor, the side door was opening a little, and then it closed. Then it opened a little again, and then it closed. Over and over again. And due to the violent impact, the lift was practically shaking every 10 seconds.

And you know what? I was all alone in the lift!

I was to meet John Tan shortly to discuss a programming project but as luck had it, there was no reception in the lift therefore my hand phone was practically rendered useless. And not that pressing all the buttons on the lift actually helped, anyway.

For a moment, I really, REALLY thought I was going to die. Suddenly becoming pessimistic, I counted the levels below the first floor: Ground, LG1, LG2, B1, B2. If the lift breaks by any chance, I would plunge down to my death 5 storey deep. Life flashed before my eyes.

Well hey, who has ever heard of people dying because of lifts breaking off? But thanks to the horror/action movies I have been watching, the scenes of lifts breaking off and people inside plunging down to their explosive deaths came rushing to my mind, at a time where a big chunk of my logic flew off my head.

Fortunately, there was an INTERKOM feature on the lift! After ringing the button a couple of times, I was almost relieved when I heard the security personnel answered my distress for rescue! 🙂

While waiting for the lift door to open…

The Scary Lift!

After experiencing quake every 10 seconds for more than half an hour and lights going on and off occasionally, I rushed out as soon as the door opened!

I was half-expecting someone – the maintenance guy – to be around so I could thank him. But there was no one in sight. Oh, so the lift door was opened by remote control, huh?

Uh, thanks anyway. I would better be off to my meeting with John (and still got there 5 minutes early in spite of the half an hour delay)!

I was relating this to Hazel and being the preacher and hailer of all things logic, she went on to patiently explain to me the structure of a lift, where was it made (China, by the way), why it would never fall off, yadda yadda yadda… (Sorry, my caveman brain could only absorb so much but thanks for the education!). 🙂

Goes to show that little knowledge is dangerous, no knowledge at all is embarrassing! I’m still not sure about taking a lift again though; might prefer the stairs this time?

Playing Settlers of Catan with Dennis Sim

Dennis Sim the comment guy! He came all the way from Klang NOT to comment on us, but to join us in two rounds of Settlers of Catan. 😛

Dennis Sim

Being a first timer, Khai patiently explained the rules of the game to Dennis.

Khai & Dennis

And over here, we have Yuenn showing off her rubber band skills. She just made an airplane out of two rubber bands!

Yuenn and her rubberband skills

Can’t seem to leave me alone, huh? Yuenn built a town all over my face and torso.

The Edmund Loh Town!

Okay, it’s game time!

Let’s Game!

2 Hours Later…
Sorry I just had to win both the games, friends! 😛 (I bet Khai and Yuenn were fuming… especially Yuenn.)

Random Shots

Mad Elephant on the road…

Elephant on a trailer on Saturday night!

The Party

A dizzy shot at the Bangsar Permai Saturday Night party.

Drunk?

Khai Lee probably drank too much.

Spam Killer Liquid

Pour this solution over your computer and expect it to get rid of your stubborn spam problems instantly! 🙂

Stray Kura @ Atria

Heeey… it’s a stray kura! Feel like smuggling it back home. 😛

Me

I could use a bit of hair cut soon…

And to Wrap it Up…

What a fruitful two weeks of fun after the Product Launch! 🙂

Me again!

I’d better rest well before I continue with my Internet Marketing journey to supremacy. Thanks for the King’s treatment, Eve! 🙂