I noticed how much trouble I have to go through just to get a few hours of sleep. I guess, it’s time for me to listen to the advices that has been ringing to my ears from my peers. It’s been with my own ears lately, listening to my own crap. I know, it’s pathetic & sounds as if I’m going out of my mind. I know, I should talk to someone. But there’s a problem.
Life, life life. There’s a lot of talk about life, but it all comes down to one conclusion (my kinda talk); life is full of bullshit & you need to be careful not to step on one. If you do, then _mandi wajib_ is not enough. (”mandi wajib” means _cleansing bath_, which is something we Muslims have to do. Next time for explanation)
But what I’m always surprised is the turning points it gives us. I live on that simple, honest, sincere, _hope_.
And lately, my nights has been filled with lucid dreams. And “this”:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5bE_5sgbZ0 was not part of it. I guess.
I woke up to smell the coffee. Non-stop editing last nite, after a heavy nasi goreng beef steak (slurp!) for dinner, I finished up “this”:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgOkNWsVUck !
I watched “this”:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hP-Loh2yfU.
And this was 1999.
I just finished reviewing & writing notes for the final set of a running series on “KJROLLERS.COM”:http://www.kjrollers.com called “Skeletons In The Closet”. While this series is about the legends of rollerblading, it’s actually about the rollerblading culture, or let’s put in general, the evolution of urban culture, which grew just like the way fungus do.
But don’t look the “bad side” of fungus, but look at the way it spreads itself. When the time comes, the mighty fungus release spores & hoping that somehow, somewhere, it will catch on to something & grow a new breed of fungus. The culture works like that. It works by hating each other. It works by groping each other. It works by spreading influence into another. It works by isolating each other. It works by feeding off each other. It just work like that. Maybe, it couldn’t be understood.
This is what I think of rollerblading and urban culture; it’s created by the people, but deflected by the mainstream.
And I couldn’t skate today. Sorry guys, I’m moving again.
Limitation is an exceptional attribute towards unlimited creativity. It’s like asking yourself, “I only have these. What can I do with it?” Most people would agree that having many resources in hand to work with would be the best scenario on any job you have, but I somehow have this belief in less is somehow better. It makes you tight. It’s getting & being real.
I love how the Malaysian standardise the word “e” in everything electronic. Eeeeeee!
What I’m going to show you all is how to be an Internet entrepreneur within a day. Yup. Within a day, you’ll be honoured with the title “entrepreneur” for your best effort in building your own Internet business. Having spasms already?
h3. What are you going to need?
First and foremost, I highly suggest you maintain a real job. Whatever the job it may be, just have a job. It’s healthy when you’re just starting up. Also, it allows you to have your own credit facilities (personal loans, credit cards, etc) which is fairly important in a business, no matter which “side” it is.
Ok, second is a credit line. Third on your list is to have associates, partners & friends with similar interests in helping your business. Use them for your own good. Be Darth Vader. Or Yoda.
No. 4, have an idea on what you’re actually going to do, or trying to do. Sell custom designed jackets, designer tshirts, there are so many ideas out there waiting to adopted for all of you. Try to niche your idea in your own ways. Sometimes being small is good. And! You must have passion at all times.
h3. The Idea
For this purpose, I’m going to illustrate how I assisted two of my friends to start-up their idea. “Nonanoni Mixed Merchandise”:http://nonanoni.buyot.org/ is the result of the collaboration. What better way to research for a story other than soliciting with the story itself?
Let me introduce the actresses for this show. First up, say hello to Amira & Sharaliza. Amira is a long time friend of mine where we met thru IRC (lame. I know). Hippy. That’s who she is. Crazy too. Sharaliza is a wonderfully & rocking talented illustrator emo-punk chick that I get to know thru Amira. They are best friends. Their idea: Designer clothing. Using Shara’s superb talents & Amira’s aggressive marketing, they want their brand to be out there. Out there with kids wearing their clothes. Cool rock kids. Punk.
The hidden actor will be me, the tech geek.
h3. Scene 1
Be friends with Google. Open a Gmail account. A very important “first thing to do”. They have a suite of integrated tools for collaboration & communication. Nonanoni is now at Gmail dot com. Use GTalk to talk with customers. Use Google Docs to write reports. Use them wisely.
h3. Scene 2
They wanted to start with tshirts. I researched around for available ecommerce services on the Web. Santa loves me. I found “Cafepress”:http://www.cafepress.com. With them, you can start with variety of products using your brand. Here’s a way: “dedicate” each design to one cafepress *FREE* shop. Nonanoni registered with Cafepress and they opened a shop for their first line, the “Nonanoni”:http://cafepress.com/nonanoni brand.
h3. Scene 3
So, in order to “dedicate” one design to one cafepress shop, we decided that Nonanoni should have it’s own website. I offered them a space on my host & designed their 1st website. The website features their current clothing line & links back to the “dedicated” Cafepress page when a visitor wants to buy their tshirt. The downside here is that the user experience is not consistent. You had to make the users jump to another website. But it’s a manageable risk. Shara & Amira had confidence in their designs. So, ok. The design took 6 hours to make & templated into “Textpattern”:http://www.textpattern.com. That’s done.
h3. Scene 4
Things are getting exciting. “Nonanoni”:http://nonanoni.buyot.org launched. For today, they have become Internet entrepreneurs. Next step, marketing & more products. A Myspace “page”:http://www.myspace.com/nonanoni was put up. Shara starts to brush up her skills. Amira goes haywire on marketing.
h3. Did this happened all in one day?
Well actually, no. I was researching for a story, so I decided to make up with one. Amira & Shara had their idea for a while and I just jumped into their boat. It took quite a push. It took time. But for the purpose of my story, I wanted to illustrate how it can actually be done within 24 hours. And I had time to kill.
Bintulu, sarawak, was where I grew up as a little baby. Going back in time, the family moved to Bintulu in 1979(till late 1986). Back then, Bintulu had nothing and the orang utan was still the king of the jungle. And I finally returned to say hello the orang utan :)
As the plane touched down at Bintulu airport, I remembered travelling to Bintulu on a MAS propellar aircraft, a Fokker, I think. You had to change planes from Kuching, then fly to Miri and the final destination, Bintulu. That was the route 20 years ago. But now, it’s all good. You’ll be in Bintulu right before your friend could finish his psychology essay paper. Bintulu is definitely different from what I remembered.
The ride to the hotel was a bit sentimental. I have short memories of Bintulu. Roads were wider & better. Bus stands at every 2-3 kilometres of the small highway. More stone than wood. Shops everywhere. Bungalows anywhere. It’s kind of like Langkawi.
“Parkcity Everly Hotel”:http://www.vhhotels.com/information.php?hid=6, that’s the name of the hotel I stayed at. 4-star & not bad either. Although it’s located a little bit far from bintulu town, the distance is just about 10-20 minutes walk. Now, here’s a tip. The Junior suites is just the same as the Deluxe double bed rooms. The difference between these two rooms are the wooden flooring, a better toilet interior, fully furnished minibar fridge, full access to the hotel’s business facility room. If it’s for business, take on the Junior suites.
Girls, girls, girls. In KL, the females are beautiful, you won’t be able to spell “beautiful” when you are facing eye to eye with one. But over here, they’re beautiful & exotic. Damn.
The town is full of bargain shops. Almost every shop sells the same thing. Tt’s like petaling street, except shops. What’s more, you can get stuff a little bit cheaper & better than from KL. Fake Nikes, Adidas(or Adicolor, with 4 stripes instead of 3), cute & melancholy silkscreened tshirts, bags and many more. There’s really nothing much to see or buy from bintulu town.
However, after completing my round of the town, I head back to the hotel for an informal dinner with Bintulu Port staff. Most of them were Dad’s former staff & most of them remembered me by my baby napkins and my endless whispers that can tear your eardrums. Such a crybaby. Food was slurpeeelicious. If there is such a word. It was spicy, sour & sweet. Yum.
The rest of the trip was business as usual. To sum it all, I do feel like home back there.
Hello everyone! It’s been a very long time since I last blogged and I’m not sure whether this return will be everlasting. However, I have thought of something to share for us to celebrate together.
Let’s dance! Come on baby! Let’s do the twist… mmbooop, boop…
