Texting...texting... can you hear me?

Wedding of the Year

2009-10-02T02:03:00.013+08:00

Here comes the second Text 100 Malaysia baby who got married. Yay! Congratulations...

Calling this wedding of the year, simply because we've practically waited for two years after the first person, David was (fortunately, or unfortunately) taken.

I guess Corina Chee needs no introduction to many of you, so instead of telling all the long fairy tales about how she and her husband met and the kind of journey they went through before making that decision, you can watch the video at the end of this post. It was played during the wedding dinner on 21 September 2009.

So what did we do to make this the Wedding of the Year...

A pre-wedding microblogging on Twitter with a hashtag #Nobsis, which highlights one of Corina's childhood photo:
#Nobsis Media guys, wanna take a stab at who's this? http://twitpic.com/eksac
The post generated a trail of interesting conversation, with some media asking if Nobsis is a new technology...
Hen's night at The Library. Corina (reluctantly) did some assignments, including offering men a belly-dance and pinching a (sissy) boy's ass. Also, we had 2 x Flaming Lamborghini courtesy of Vicky H. Most memorable quotes:
"Why are you staring at my b**bs?," asked Corina Chee.
"Yeah, because I pray to Jesus Christ and you pray to xxxxxxxxxx...," said Corina Chee. (xxx being a sensitive remark)

Attended Corina's church wedding in the morning at St. Peter Anglican church.

Afternoon drinks at Sid's... started at about 2.00pm. Had lots of pork blankets and white wine. Booze!!!
Wedding dinner at a Chinese restaurant in JayaOne, PJ... more booze!!! Some of the colleagues helped out at the registration table. I was busy doing her video.

Post-wedding drinks at Sumo Sri Hartamas. Ended at about 2am, if I remember correctly.

So there you go. Btw, Nobsis stands for Nobita's sister. In case you wonder, Nobita is the lazy boy in Japanese cartoon Doraemon. And for the finale... listen to the voice recording embedded here: Nobsis - AUDIO

Are we ready to Excite?

2009-08-24T13:56:00.007+08:00

The Excite launch (or the launch of the new Text 100 Brand Identity Guidelines) started with cranberry vodka cocktails for all and then it was down to business with everyone paying rapt attention to the videos and our new BIG and the fab super portal. The EXCITE video got lot's of people excited and we all loved the spaceman and the little aliens. Messages came across loud and clear!

FY09 was kind to Text 100 Malaysia and it was top of everyone's mind on how we will fare in FY10. With Excite we now have a focal point and a driving force - Are we ready to Excite? (the animated video with spacemen and aliens playing at the back of our minds...) Our clients, our bosses, the media, our industry, our peers and of course ourselves? And you know what, I think we are ready... we have great people, the passion and the drive to make Text 100 continue to excite and impress!

If you want to watch our video for a chuckle or view it again to relive the memories, click here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_PHiYRBf4E A BIG thank you to Lee for his fabulous video editing skills 'muah muah'!

What did we do for drinks the rest of the evening? We had the classic Mojito, Vodka Green Tea with a twist and lots of other impromptu concoctions. But the one that got us coming back for a second sip was the Valkyrie!

Tthe award for Yummiest cocktail of the night went to Vicky with her Valkyrie. A wonderful little cocktail from our resident mama hen. How to make the Valkyrie according to Vicky:
Ingredients: 2 shots of Vodka, 1 shot of Lemon juice, 1 shot of Vanilla sugar syrup AND a few shots of Love...

Steps:
1. Add all the ingredients in the cocktail shaker
2. Add lots of ice, shake with gusto
3. Strain into a glass with ice
4. Garnish with a lemon slice
5. And most importantly, serve with lots of love!

It was a little hard to get people dancing but once the cocktails started flowing, we soon had Texties strutting their moves. “I’m shy lah..” Eevon says but the next minute she showing her moves. “I want to dance, I want to dance...”, and boy can Anoushka dance! And then the infamous pink feather boa came out of the store room.... Inhibitions, what’s that I say? So after much contemplation, the winner of the best dance moves in Malaysia goes to.... Anoushka! Followed very closely by Lee, our lovely Diva :-)

I must say that everyone looked great that night. David in his pink shirt, all the ladies in their finery and killer shoes. Everyone made and effort and the pictures did us all justice :-) Lot's of make-up bags on the table and people primping in the toilets but I must say that Libby stood out (her dress was hot off the rack and still had the tag on it!). In her striking blue cocktail dress, Libby surprised us all when she came out of the ladies in all her finery. Top marks for effort, a beautiful ensemble and the attitude to match!

To borrow a phrase from Min: I LOVE you guys!

We're growing!!

2009-07-10T15:39:00.009+08:00

Text 100 will soon be three years old. Exciting times ahead!

All 14 of us at Text 100 Malaysia have had our fair share of Text-capades, at one point or the other. We've had to wheel a shared printer on a trolley, deal with leaky air-conditioning pipes and, by no fault of ours, faxed 20 copies of the same media invite to the same media. The men have worn dresses, the women showed they were no damsels in distress.

We laugh, we cry. We fart, we share bathrooms. We work, we play. We celebrate success and pick each other up after a fall. We sing, we rock out, we have unadultered fun. We do everything together, we're a team. Most importantly, we drink, we eat. Oh lorddd do we eat! The ladies have a growing hip, the gents a widening girth.

Ahh...fun times indeed. All of which are testament to the good life at Text 100. And we're looking for number 15 to be a part of us. That's right, we're growing in more ways than one and we invite you to grow with us! Err...not sideways, but in your career. Physical expansion is an option. Be forewarned though...working with us isn't always JUST fun and games. There's plenty of hardwork that goes into the perfect PR consultant marinade, in which we will soak you in overnight and a little bit more.

The hours sometimes long, clients sometimes unreasonable, media sometimes cranky, work sometimes unending. People may call you nuts, you'll develop thick skin. But if you're one who appreciates rewards behind the curtains - like a full-page article in the papers, or the CEO reading every word you've written for his/her speech, or even a simple email to say 'well done, good and faithful consultant' - then you know this is for you.

We're looking for you if you've four to five years working experience in an agency environment. We want to meet you if you're an energetic individual with the curiousity of a 10 cats with nine lives and can manage a 'litter of kittens'. We would love the opportunity to speak to you if the words 'Public Relations Campaign' make your spine tingle with excitement! Oh and if you can deliver a killer riff at Guitar Hero Wii too.

If you're all those and a jar-full more, do as Queen would and call us if you wanna have a good time (at work!).

Don't stop me now
I'm having such a good time
I'm having a ball don't stop me now
If you wanna have a good time
Just give me a call

~ Queen : Don't Stop Me Now ~

Oh. Customary pictures for your viewing pleasure. We're ~~not~~ always like that.

Durian Night

Christmas 2007

Text 100 Malaysia Star Awards

Christmas 2008

APAC Offsite with Text 100 Big Kahunas

A time for work, a time for play

2009-06-22T11:41:00.002+08:00

Friday night was good relief for the overworked Texties - ML graciously offered up her house for an office BBQ.

Highlights: lamb, chicken, potato salad, brownies and Sashi's sinfully rich cheesecake.

The only real casualty of the evening was the foiled trifle due to custard that refused to behave.

Apart from that, it was a night of good food, good company and late night conversations. It's a lull in the storm right now and a good time to rest, regroup and prepare for the next onslaught.

And there was plenty of occasion to laugh without needing alcohol. Sign of a good time indeed.

Baa-ack in the groove

2009-06-19T15:45:00.003+08:00

This is Boogie - the unofficial office mascot and my mental health prop. Boogie is standing guard over the wine that will shortly be consumed...after office hours.

We're all being good little sheep and finishing off mountains of work before congregating after hours later for good old fashioned BBQ fun.

For some reason, this year drinking games are banned. Something about alcohol being very effective as an interrogation tool. Hmm...

The Text 100 band in the making?

2009-06-10T12:09:00.002+08:00

Here's Sashi showing off his mean drum skills on Guitar Hero at the recent Nokia N97 launch.

Unlike Sashi, I sucked to the max at the guitar. BUT...that's not going to stop me from playing it at the office. Great way to work on the hand/eye coordination, folks. Or so we'll attempt to justify to ML. Shh...

The event on Friday was great though David Lian was away getting closer to God. We had Radiance and Sashi as awesome support while Vicky, Eevon, Libby, Anoushka and me were running around. Great teamwork, guys, and though the night was a hazy blur for me I do remember you guys being so on the ball and Vicky proving to be an unruffled example of utter cool. It would have been easy to be panicky but Vicky was so collected throughout despite having to head an event of such a major scale.

What I love about Text is there's never a clash of egos - it's not about one person but about the team. No room for divas. Which suits me just fine.

Reviews of the event itself have been positive and it's satisfying to get that out of the way. Not that it's the end of the work to be done. Oh, we've only just begun as Karen Carpenter once sang. Here's to more great events in future!

Work, work, work, work, work

2009-05-18T20:15:00.003+08:00

Hello, people.

I have survived my first month at Text 100 MUAHAHA MUAHAHA MUAHAHA.

Barely.

I started off with two accounts. Then it became three. Then it became two. Then it became three.

So I now have three main accounts. Account A has an event this week. Account B has one next week. Account C has one right after that.

And all of them are big, do or die, absolutely crucial, benchmark setting events.

After they're all done, I'll probably be longing for another CEO (Chief Entertainment Officer) outing:

(Picture taken with my trusty Nokia 5800)

Though you wouldn't have thought our last CEO outing was all that exciting looking at the faces of the two blokes I report to for my current accounts:

Don't be fooled by the picture. They were just hungrily waiting for crabs, frogs and other assorted wildlife my colleagues like eating.

Such as clueless account coordinators. MUAHAHHA.

In other news, we have a new account coordinator on board. Welcome Anoushka! Don't be frightened of us wild and crazy Texties.

You should be more afraid for your stomach though because eating seems to be the Textie activity of choice.

Perhaps my next pose will likely be a saner, more sedate one about the transition I'm making from being a journalist to a PR practitioner.

We can always dream, can't we?

Right. So.

2009-04-30T20:17:00.004+08:00

This would be my first mark on the Text 100 Malaysia blog. Hence, I shall write a first first.

I committed PR sin today. My first. Granted, it happens. We're humans. Heck, even machines and robots are prone to failuer.

Evidently, I can't spell failure -_- EPIC FAIL.

In any case, I'm technically forgiven. Right? But still? This was bad as it was the one thing I've constantly reminded myself NEVER EVER to do.

EVER.

Because I laugh at those who do. Karma. Whatever. For the record though, I never ever did commit such bad, bad sin till now.

I've been on the job for...one year, eight months, five days. A little less than two years, but more than enough media alerts, press releases, briefing books, speeches, contact reports to go by.

I blame the weather. And my yellow rubber ducky that sits and mocks me everyday with its grin. Don't believe me?

Do not be fooled by its adorableness.

So what did I do today? Text 100 newbies, take note.

NEVER, EVER. EVER send anything to media without bcc-ing the recipient list. EVER (repeated again for good measure). Not only will your seniors hound you, media folks will talk, seniors and media folks will talk to each other. And laugh.

Oh, suffer my shame. Woe is me. Let this be a lesson learned.

Picnic Pix! :D

2009-04-28T18:36:00.000+08:00

Since our lovely Mei Ling has done so well in making her inaugural post on our blog, must be supportive and add some photos to the list too! :) I must say, Bukit Jalil Park was really quite something (barring the suspect navigational skills of SOME of the Texties!) and it made for a really good time, so on with the pictures!!

As if we needed more reminders of which country we were in…

Lee, we’ll have something to eat later lah! I’m sure wood isn’t quite a healthy snack – even if it has a lot of fiber!

This curious water feature was right next to the little Malay hut ML mentioned…the water was pretty gross though!

ML’s looking all relaxed…the afternoon out in the sun really did do us a lot of good (not to mention boosted our Vitamin D levels considerably!)

The resident “Dai Kar Jeh” and “Cili Padi”…

“Oh Noo!!” Libs (check out the cute hat!) and “Myyyee Bayyybeeeee” Corina (internal joke!)

As always, the first order of the day wherever we go…FOOD! (or drinks, in this case)

Mr Lian as usual…cannot live without his phone, even when he’s napping!! He even brought his EeePC along! Seriously David, we HAVE to do something about this gadget addiction of yours…

Could there be a more perfect combination with Taboo and food? Texties may work hard, but hey, we know how to enjoy ourselves too!

Out for a picnic in sunny KL...are we all crazy?

2009-04-20T11:43:00.000+08:00

I was asking myself this very question sitting in a faux malay kampung house in the middle of Bukit Jalil park. The sun was blinding and it was bugs galore. As usual I was waiting for eveyone else to get there. And lo and behold, who do I see?... the second person to arrive was none other than David Lian. He actually beat everyone to the park. But slowly and surely eveyone else turns up despite some wrong turns and landings at a different park (consequences of listening to Corina and not following my map!)

To cut to the chase, the food was quickly scoffed up and we got into Taboo. No one wanted to keep score so the very competitive people slowly lost interest in the game and it got down to just anybody guessing the words. Before you know it, the questions popped up - when are going to dinner? can we leave now? and it was only 5.45pm.... Hai Peng where got open so early wan?

But with people distracted - david playing games on his e-pc, Vicky tucked into her book and some others just groaning on the mats, I made the executive decision to head over to my house so people could freshen up before dinner.

Enroute to my place, we lost Sashi. We all speculated that he had gone to see his latest lady love, but he insisted he had gone to visit his brother. Who visits their brother at 6pm on a Friday evening??

Anyway, dinner was at our favourite seafood place but I'll let someone else post about that. All in all, I thought it was a good outing as we got everyone off their computers and out for some sunshine. Thanks Eevon! We missed you especially during dinner :-) And here's a big welcome to our new Chief Entertainment Office - Radiance Leong!

We're going for a picnic!

2009-04-17T11:00:00.000+08:00

Friday brings a CEO outing! Eevon is handing over her crown as Chief Entertainment Officer to Radiance and as her last hurrah, organised a picnic in the park. Sadly she won't be joining us for dinner as she has family obligations to attend to. But I'm sure all us Texties appreciate her efforts. You have to love a girl who actually drafts an FAQ just for the event. Snippet of said FAQ:

Will I be required to run?
One of the policies of CEO Outings is to never force or cajole you to do anything beyond your own free will. So if you don’t feel like running, we won’t make you run. We’ll just encourage you by means of splashing water at your direction or hanging you on the windmill if you choose not to cooperate.

Not that we need any excuse to dress casually in the first place, but David is taking it a step further by displaying his rugged Friday Fashion Sense.

Behold, his footwear.

Corina exclaimed in shock and horror. "OMG he's wearing the (insert Client name) t-shirt! And crocs! Ewwww!"

Lee just refused to look.

David of course didn't see what all the fuss was about. "Never seen crocs before, meh?"

Hopefully the weather is good to us with plenty of sun and the clouds will not descend upon our merry outing. Our clients have been duly notified that we'll be unavailable from 3pm onwards.

A picnic we shall have! And hopefully Libby will take lots of incriminating photos. *packs beer*

Now we know why the blog's so sporadically updated

2009-04-15T22:56:00.000+08:00

Second week at Text 100. Beginning to see my in-tray slowly pile up with things. Now I see why no one updates this. Lack of time!

ML's been very firm with us, reminding us that we can't afford to be complacent in the current climate. Overall, clients are pretty enthused with what we're doing but there is still room for improvement.

We've had good news which has somewhat dispersed some gloom. At the same time, we have to be prepared for change. Recently I heard a big brand has dropped both of its PR agencies locally and opting to sign up with the big agency servicing the brand elsewhere. It was a global decision so it doesn't really reflect on the agencies. It could (and has) happened to us.

When things like that happen, you just have to shrug and wish your clients well. But losing clients because of disatisfaction/poor performance/being reactive instead of proactive? Word does get out about poorly performing agencies. It doesn't help media's a gossipy bunch who will actively spread PR nightmares around. I should know because I've been one of those 'smart mouths'.

It isn't enough to be the 'cool' agency who understands peer media. We also have to be good at the basics, getting the fundamentals right. It terrifies me sometimes because in some ways I may be ahead of the curve, while in others I'm practically a newborn. But so far, the Texties have been patient, gentle and a lot of fun.

They also work so hard I feel guilty leaving the office too early. But I console myself by taking work home. Some minor edits to a presso, formatting new media list, I should be good for tomorrow. First (real) client meeting so we'll see how that goes.

In the name of research, I bring you the funneh

2009-04-08T21:41:00.000+08:00

The problem with being the most 'cutting-edge' agency where New Media is concerned: always having to come up with some new-fangled hip idea.

So I was fooling around with Pixton.com, an online comic strip generator and immortalised two of the most cartoony people in the office. That's David Lian and Eevon who both provide me free entertainment online and off.

Their conversation is a bit of an in-joke which really won't be funny unless you were actually there.

Jokes aside, Pixton.com's actually won an award for its quality spin on education tools. Think of the scenario - equip kids with computers, give them a storyline and have them craft their own little toons. No drawing, no hassle and a lot of fun. My little strip took me less than 10 minutes to craft. It's given me a few ideas for upcoming campaigns though whether they turn out half-baked or usable, we'll just have to see.

Worst case scenario, David Lian shooting down my ideas by saying: "For what, I tell you? For what!"

Attack of the Penguin Snatchers

2009-04-03T21:06:00.000+08:00

Har, har, very funny, folks. My second day coming into work and what do I find?

My stuffed penguin, Tux, is missing and instead a picture with the words "Tux has been kidnapped! >.<" written on it.

A bunch of practical jokers, these. Wait till I bring my entire arsenal of action figures and stuffed animals! Let's see them hide them all over the office.

Wait a minute...

In other news, work is progressing swimmingly. Currently putting the long hibernating braincells to work with plenty of projects underway. Also helping out here and there, where needed.

One of the things I love about working in Text is that helping each other out feels like the natural, best thing to do. It's just a given everyone to pitch in and contribute ideas or manpower where needed. I guess that's why it feels 'safe' at work, knowing that someone will have my back as opposed to making holes in it.

Oh and Tux is safe and sound where he should be - guarding my desk from perpetrators of penguin crime!

New blood, new posts

2009-04-02T18:19:00.001+08:00

*coughing at the dust*
Well, this blog hasn't been updated for a while, I see. BUT THAT WILL SOON CHANGE.
Text 100 now has 13 consultants, one of them our new AE, Ninie. Say Hi, Ninie!

Next to her is your writer, aka me. In a past life I was the dragon lady who ate PR noobs for breakfast. But here I am writing releases, calling up editors crankier than I am and putting up with the nefarious plans by the evil, anonymous penguinnapper.

Will save the tales for later, the Texties are all going off to celebrate Vicky's promotion to Account manager. Congratulations, Vicky! Well-deserved indeed.

Off to get as plastered as I can in one hour. Muaahha.

Text 100 Malaysia is 2!!

2008-08-02T08:52:00.000+08:00

How time flies…on 1 August 2006, Text 100 Malaysia opened with just one person in a serviced office suite. This time last year, we were a significantly larger team of 6 moving into a new office and today, Text 100 Malaysia celebrates its second anniversary with TWELVE people.

I joined Text about 9 months after they opened, in May 2006, and ever since then it's been a lot of hard work and problems…but not without its lighter and 'classic' moments too. But perhaps the tale would be best told in pictures rather than stories…

It all started with just ONE…ML!

One week later, our office 'cili padi' hopped on board…

In October, these *cough* gentlemen came on board – don't worry, they're usually this mad (!!)

When the team got a bit too squashed for that tiny serviced suite, they moved into a SLIGHTLY BIGGER serviced suite…and that's where all the fun started…

Until now, I still can't imagine how we all survived being packed in there like sardines…

Then along came me and Libby in May, bringing our lil' office to 6 people!

Thanks to the two of us taking up so much room (and being able to take on more work with the added manpower lah!), the office started getting more and more cluttered with client materials.

Celebrating Text 100's Star Awards – it was an Indian theme, and yes, SOMEONE wore a 'dress' that day (and no, it wasn't the girls!)

M&Ms was a particularly funny memory…we were literally SWIMMING in boxes and boxes of M&Ms which were delivered to the office (before we repacked them to send out to the media)

Every available nook and cranny was stuffed FULL of M&Ms…and that was roughly the time we knew we had to start looking for a bigger place…

There were two big events in particular that prompted the move to our new office though...

The sight of our poor Shafaat who had to sit on a stool "mamak style" to work at our office because we had no other available space!

And when the carpet underneath David's table decided to start sprouting a leak (which we initially blamed on him!), we knew we had to get out of there…what with the semi-regular power cuts, aircond failures, inability to actually MOVE in the office and having things underfoot EVERYWHERE…

So lo and behold…sometime in June, we found a unit at the new Northpoint Office Suites just across the road, and after renovations, tadaaaahhh!!

Such a far cry from the old office suite, and it's OURS!!

Finally, our very own signage!!

We wanted to make our office as colourful and cosy as possible, so we decided to have nice beanie bags…and a breakout area too!!

For our first birthday, we decided to combine it with our office opening party and share it with our media friends, suppliers and clients, which made for a very happy event!!

Happy Birthday to us!

Alamak…nothing but FOOD…and more FOOD (no wonder all of us are getting fat!!)

The Wii was a big focus…some of them got a bit overenthusiastic and started smacking people that got in their way!

And just 3 plus months (and three additions later), we were standing at a formidable team of 9 people for Christmas – and with so many people, Christmas was definitely one celebration to remember…just check out all the presents!! :D

Between Christmas and CNY, we grew just slightly to 10 people…but we ALL also grew sideways!

And despite our busy schedules, we managed to take time out for our "CEO" outings – Chief Entertainment Officer outings, that is…not to mention take part in internal competitions, like the photo comp below:

All a little bit fruity!

*pssst*…that's our breakout area we're using…

The Wii has also been a great source of entertainment for us…just ask anyone in the office – looking at the way we play, I think the tenants on the floor below us feel tremors every now and then…

The big highlight of the first half of 2008 – Text 100's MC offsite, which was held in Cyberjaya. Being the host country, the team had to entertain all the Managing Consultants from Text 100 GLOBAL…and I don't think we disappointed them (or, we HOPE we didn't disappoint them)…

Moprah saves the day!!

We had them in stitches…not to mention all these pseudo-'paparazzis' started taking pictures and videos!

The team with our Text 100 CEO Aehdmar Hynes and APAC Regional Consultancy Director Ava Lawler

And to top it all off, we got this…

(click to enlarge)

Yup, Text 100 Malaysia was one of the co-finalists for Asia Pacific PR Awards New Consultancy of the Year Award. We had to share the spot with another consultancy from Singapore, but it was a respectable achievement all the same.

So there you have it…two years of Text 100 Malaysia's history crammed into a couple dozen or so photos…there are plenty more that I could share, but some of them would be too disturbing (!!) However, if you REALLY want to know about those incidents…just ask any one of us…we may or may not tell you…

How's this for an 'Out of Office' message?

2008-05-14T05:59:00.000+08:00

Sorry, we can't respond to any emails today:

Something has crashed on the computer, and the mouse is missing...

Pwned.

2008-05-07T16:47:00.000+08:00

Should have posted this up long ago. pwned.

The perennial problem with PR

2008-04-25T18:07:00.000+08:00

No one leaves office on time.

And it's not that we're all workaholics right?

So we've planned this great CEO outing to do some bowling, after dinner at Chillis. But..despite ML's marching back and forth and shouting "Get off your PCs!"no one bothered.

Argh. Stuck in Kuching Airport.

2008-04-24T20:08:00.000+08:00

Guys, I am coming in late tomorrow.

See this:

Lights Off. We're Going Green Today!

2008-04-22T18:10:00.000+08:00

In conjunction with the Global Earth Day, we've decided to help save some energy by working with natural lights. You know, we've got ample (burning hot) sunshine here in Malaysia and the way our office is designed allows for that to happen. All lights are switched off, until it's about to rain when it gets quite dark.

Quite cool. How much energy we actually saved, I've no idea but I've done my part. We've all done our part. Someone has suggested the followings as an extention of this exercise, which other companies can easily adopt, but there are some limitations:

Switch off the aircon - I'll be the first one to object, coz the office would stink like a post-office
All go out for lunch, switch off lights, switch off aircon - nobody's moving their ass when this was brought up
All work from home - "you'll still turn on the lights at home, what's the difference?" plus, you'll slack
Plant trees - our China office did it, isn't this Bandaraya's job?
Ditch a car day - haha, comments from someone we know, "I can't. I have meetings, if I take a train I won't be able to make it back to the office on time." Hello... it's collective effort.

Well, well... we're supposed to celebrate Earth Day, but why it sounds like it takes a lot more energy to save some energy? :D

(P.S.: This is written while I'm still in the office after work, with lights turned on. Looks like I'm not contributing at all...)

Front or Back?

2008-04-18T03:35:00.000+08:00

It was 8+pm and we (Sashi, Eevon, and myself) were leaving the office after a long day on Monday. As it rained very heavily the whole afternoon, the outside corridor of the office was flooded and had an inch (or more??!?) of water. Not puddles, mind you. Crap!

Seriously, I don’t know how our colleagues who left earlier walked out without getting wet. The three of us looked at each other, thinking how not to get wet. We’re not prima donnas (Sashi, don’t worry, we know you’re not a prima donna :P) but really, Eevon and I were on high heels and long trousers and we hate to get our feet wet.

So, what we did was ...

Yes, inching our way out.

Eevon asked me a question. And a difficult decision to make. To sacrifice boobs or my bum. -_-

I’m usually quite proud of my well endowed assets but in situations like this especially, there were three seconds of regret because the more endowed a persons’ assets, the chances of getting across to the other side of the corridor, pressing flat against the wall, is likely to be low.

So, yeah, I had my boobs pressed against the wall, trying hard to balance myself on the mini space between the wall and the flood water. *Sigh* In my efforts to inch my way along the wall to the other side, I heard my two beloved colleagues laughing their heads off. [Eevon, Sashi : I’m glad I provided you with the entertainment. :P ]

One lesson learnt : Nothing can put down a Textie ;)

Coming soon.

2008-02-11T16:57:00.000+08:00

Quoting Arnold Schwarzenegger: "We'll be Bach!"

What An Achievement!

2007-11-13T01:34:00.000+08:00

He's smart. Charming. He's kinda cute (at least I'm the only one in the office who thinks so). Quite mean, sharp-tongued, especially when describing things that he doesn't really like. His favorite daily quote, "I feel like killing someone," is one of the things we always keep in mind. He's the NEW senior account manager of Text 100.

David was officially promoted last Friday. We had a quick toast to celebrate the announcement before everyone left the office, leaving behind two other colleagues drunk and woozy after the champagne. He's the first account manager being promoted at Text 100 Malaysia - a history. Indeed a well-deserved promotion. Aside from the above-mentioned, his passion, professionalism, creativity, ability to counsel and inspire with confidence (la, la, la and so much more) are certainly the qualities we appreciate and hope to build in each of us. So David, for now, congrats and let's load you up with more exciting tasks. :) Here's a video especially for you.

Text 100 Office Warming Party!!

2007-09-16T12:29:00.000+08:00

It’s about time one of us blogged about our office opening – it’s been a crazy September for us, so updates have been rather sporadic. Anyway, we held our official office-warming party on the 7th of Sept – 07.09.07 (auspicious, no?)

A big thank you to all of you that signed this…it’ll make a pretty addition to our walls.

We started with cocktails downstairs at Isthmus (fantastic place for events, by the way), and then moved upstairs for drinks, dessert and games.

Something a bit more fun – they’re actually playing “Guess where the Texties Sit”

Mei Ling giving her inaugural speech. And while she was giving that…

…everyone was getting into the groove (yes, before you ask, that IS a chocolate fountain you see…we know how to celebrate in style!)

Next up – the Wii games. We like the fact that our office has a Nintendo Wii that we use to de-stress. Not very often, but hey, we work hard and play even harder. The winner (where we had clients vs. media) ended up with a Nokia phone – nice, huh?

Like the plants? These were our office-warming gifts for those that attended – Let’s grow together!!

That, in a nutshell, was our official office-warming party…there are plenty more photos, but not enough space here to post them all up. A very very big THANK YOU to those of you that attended, and sent us your well-wishes. Here's to many more years to come!

Parrrtteee!!

2007-09-11T10:07:00.003+08:00

We finally had our office warming party!!

Food…

Friends…

Fun…

Food again…

…definitely an evening to remember.

To all of you who joined us on Friday, a big BIG THANK YOU for all your support!! To those that were unable to make it, do drop by our office to say hi and take a look – you’ll be impressed, we guarantee it! We also took the opportunity to take some team shots afterwards, so just to whet your appetite for what’s to come next – presenting the entire Text 100 Malaysia team:

Stay tuned for heaps and heaps of photos from our office party!

Text 100 Malaysia's First Birthday!!

2007-08-02T04:08:00.000+08:00

Text 100 Malaysia is ONE YEAR OLD today!!

Gee...who've thought we'd get here this fast? We've more than tripled in size (STILL growing rapidly!) and moved into a spanking new office (sample pics in the previous post...watch 'em and drool) since opening our doors on 1st August 2006.

How did we celebrate? Haha...with good ol' fashioned fudge brownies (home-made by our MANAGING CONSULTANT no less!) a la mode in the office...*urp*

Incidentally, today also marks our dear Managing Consultant's ONE YEAR anniversary with Text 100, so it's a double celebration in the office...thanks for the brownies Mei Ling, we'll definitely be raiding it again later this evening!!

Enter Posh Office

2007-07-28T03:33:00.000+08:00

Finally, we're out of our old office. We're at a bigger place now, spacious enough for us to do star jump at our seats if anybody needs to do some stretching. And not forgetting, this is what I call a carefully designed and meticulously planned office. Great colour, excellent combination of interior elements, nice view - by the way, I think the place where I'm sitting now has the best view as well as best feng shui, I am so feeling it already. Anyways, we're still anxiously waiting for our breakout area to be set-up. The plan is to have sofa, bean bags, LCD TV... oh, and Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii... Fun and posh isn't it? Well people, you can, you can really be jealous with our office, trust me!

>> Bye bye business suite <<

>> Before the sofa is here... and that's Pranil <<
>> A glimpse of the reception area <<

Was too busy unpacking, couldn't take too many photos. To be continued, subject to availability...

Moving Day!!

2007-07-27T11:37:00.000+08:00

Right, we're moving office TODAY, so PLEASE take note of the following...

** IMPORTANT: Our internet and land lines will be offline after 12.00noon on 27th July (Friday). For urgent matters, please contact our mobile numbers – all should be back online on 30th July (Monday). Cheers!

Effective TODAY, this is our new office address:

Text 100 Pte Ltd
A-8-4, Northpoint Office Suites,
Mid Valley City,
Medan Syed Putra Utara,
59200 Kuala Lumpur
MALAYSIA

Tel: 03-2282 2152
Fax: 03-2283 2041

See you all at the new office!!

We're relocating!!

2007-07-20T13:52:00.001+08:00

I guess that by now, most of you reading this would've known that we're moving office. The current space has served its purpose, but now it's time to move on to our very own unit.

No worries, we won't be moving that far away - just across the road to Northpoint. And if you didn't know about this? Well, you do now!

(click for larger image)

Stay posted for news on our office-warming party k?

Make a switch...

2007-07-16T12:43:00.001+08:00

We had a pretty interesting time at Philips' ‘a simple switch’ activity at Menara Axis on 07.07.07. Yes, that was the same day as David’s wedding but hey, saving energy and the environment goes on, right?

As you can see, Libs and Bea (that’s me) had some fun with the lightbulbs. For those of you who came, we hope you’re benefiting from these lightbulbs. For those of you that didn’t, the photo’s showing you what you missed.

Go on, make your switch. It’s your world too, isn’t it?

07.07.07

2007-07-08T10:07:00.000+08:00

For those of you that don't already know, one of our Account Managers, David Lian gets married today to his longtime sweetheart Lydia. Yep, he picked a really auspicious date to tie the knot - 07.07.07 - so please join us in wishing him all the best!

PS: We'll see if we can scrounge out a picture of the happy couple to post up...

One for the album...

2007-05-29T03:27:00.000+08:00

This is definitely one for the memory book - during the recent media trips to distribute M&M'S®, one trip stands out in particular: Sin Chew.

Why? Because the doors to the offices at Sin Chew were only open on one side, and they were so small that M&M'S® Yellow (@ Shrek) got stuck and couldn’t make it into the offices! We spent a good 20 minutes waiting for the guard to come and unlock the 2nd half of the door just so he could get through. Caused quite a bit of commotion, I can tell ya.

But all’s well that ends well – the guard came along and let poor M&M'S® Yellow into the (thankfully air-conditioned) offices, and everything went swell after that. Yay!!

Bye Bye Bucketmouth

2007-05-26T16:47:00.000+08:00

You can't imagine how painful it is to send him off :''( And there he goes, crying (while being made to have a big smile), "I wan't to stay!!" Poor Bucketmouth, he can't even express himself the way he wants to.

Bucketmouth came to our office, happily settled in for a nice, comfortable week. Everyone in the office adored him, praising him with words like Cute, Cute and Cute. Just as he got really comfortable with us, started to immerse with our fun culture, it was time to leave.

He said, he never wanted to be a bidding material. He said bidding doesn't allow him to determine his future. But being Bucketmouth, he never could. He tried accepting the fact he could be owned (and disowned) by anybody. Before he left, he said it again.

"I want to stay!!"

Now he's gone... God knows where he is now, who he belongs to.

Bucketmouth came along with tonnes of M&Ms, taking up the already limited space in our office. David & Beatrice were working on the M&Ms and Shrek 3 tie-up. There was a screening, some online bid, M&Ms giveaways and stuff. For a couple of weeks, our office became a chocolate warehouse. My snacks have only been limited to Nuts, or No Nuts.

So, he's gone... "I want to stay!!" That's the last I heard from him.

Believe me, Bucketmouth can talk! He whispered, "I just hope to stay besides Mama Ogre".

###

Go David!

2007-05-18T10:02:00.000+08:00

A big 'Woohoo!!' goes out to David, who put Malaysia on the map for Profitable Growth at Text 100's Star Awards for Excellence recently. He's really set the bar for the rest of us (especially the newbies!)

If you're wondering why he's got a 'pottu' on his head (no it's not a pimple!), well, the host of the awards this year was...India. So let's charge our lassi-filled glasses and raise our pappadums - good on ya David, but watch your back - the rest of us will catch up next year!

Trudging Exit

2007-04-20T11:55:00.000+08:00

My short stint here in text 100 is ending thus this shall be my last post on this little corner of cyberspace. I must say it has been a fun and rewarding experience working with the team on events and the day to day. It is here that i've been learning the trade and some tricks that will be useful in the future.

Colleagues have been nothing short of wonderful patiently helping and guiding me along. Why leave then?A tough tough decision to make but i guess i had to go with gut feeling. Moving forward i wish all textie Malaysia the best! You were my first family and i have no doubt in the future it will still remain one of the best place that i've worked in.

This is WRONG

2007-04-17T11:24:00.000+08:00

Lee Tiam Siang went on a nice holiday in Bangkok last week whilst leaving all his poor colleagues in office to cover for him at work (right Lee? ;) ) Nah.... it was a well deserved break.

What he came back with was so interesting, though. Lee bought each of us gifts: cookies for Mei Ling, a pashmina for Vicky, wedding bears for me and a WRONG T-Shirt for Keith. I love the WRONG T-shirt coz it's SOOOOO WRONG.

Here, have a look!

Anyway, thanks Lee for all the gifts!

And we thought Jay Z was cool....

2007-04-05T19:15:00.000+08:00

This is way more than cool....its subzero in fact. Meet my colleague David, his royal coolness :). You guys must be wondering why in the world he is dressed like that holding a basket of snack goodies. This is a preview of our next mission to the media but instead of a crime file, this time we bring a basket of joy!

Fingers crossed i hope i dont have to dress like this when the time comes. Have a feeling i won't get past the security guards in this funky outfit. However I have no doubt we'll have an interesting time dropping these baskets to the media.

Watch this space.

David in Da Houze Y'all..!!

Good-bye, Mr. Chieng

2007-03-30T16:45:00.000+08:00

Today is David Chieng's last day as editor of PC Magazine. After more than 3 years of existence the [insert-random-descriptor-here] IT magazine has stopped it's printing press for good.

David's been a fantastic contributor to the IT journalism scene and we hope he comes back soon.

But, for now, the whole Text 100 Malaysia team wishes you all the best, Mr. Chieng.

PS. we won't tell where you're going. :)

The FBI visits the media

2007-03-30T15:54:00.000+08:00

Guess who???

Have you ever dreamt of being an FBI agent storming down doors and shout "FBI! Freeze!". Well just a few days ago i had the dubious honour of donning overalls with "FBI" inscripted on the upper left pocket. Why in the world would i do that you say? It was for the media drops for a client's event and we were on a "mission" to deliver invites to them for the event.

I must say i noticed the bewildered looks i get from people when i was walking around in my outfit. At least the editors were presently surprised by our little stunt. Some played along with the FBI drift and couple more were baffled of why we did it, but overall it was something different and i think the media appreciated the gesture.

I wonder what the next media drop will be like....

Disclaimers!

2007-03-27T15:10:00.000+08:00

Every blog begins with multiple disclaimers. This one is no different, but being all PR'ed and utterly uneducated in matters of law, you can expect ours to be slightly different:

1. Everything posted on this blog is the sole responsibility of the poster. Nothing expressed on this blog is the official view of Text 100 Malaysia or Text 100 Pte Ltd or Text 100 Global unless expressedly so. Thus, if you wanna sue someone for defamation, sue Kiefy or davidlian.

2. This blog is to give you, dear viewer, an uncensored look into life at a PR agency - Text 100 Malaysia. This is not an outlet for political, religious or philosophical discussion. If you want to do so, that's fine, but please be responsible with your comments.

3. We reserve the right to censor comments at will. Censorship is a huge responsibility, but one that we gleefully bear.

We'll add more from time to time, but these three will do for now. Enjoy!