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fokfok's Homepage http://me.zorpia.com/fokfok Fri, 05 Sep 2008 18:57 EDT Fri, 05 Sep 2008 18:57 EDT Zorpia.com Manila Press Tour 2008 Summer http://me.zorpia.com/fokfok/journal/1818489 Last week I went to Manila for our press tour :) We participated in an Expo there, and it opened up many opportunities for us.<a href="http://photos.zorpia.com/fokfok/photo/28652412.58d78e"><img hspace="0" border="0" vspace="0" alt="Zorpia Photo Sharing: Free Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/4476/28652412.58d78e.jpg" /></a> This is our booth and our promotion team.We were invited to 99.5 Campus Radio's <a href="http://brewrats.freehostia.com/">Brewrats Show</a>. The show was really interesting even though it was mostly in Tagalog. Before our 1.5 hours featured session, they had a 30 minutes phone calling session that does nothing but cutting the caller's call. Surprisingly, the calls just came in non stop, I guess people just love being cut off the lines :)<a href="http://photos.zorpia.com/fokfok/photo/28652415.86b568"><img hspace="0" border="0" vspace="0" alt="Zorpia Photo Sharing: Free Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/4476/28652415.86b568.jpg" /></a> Filipino Team + DJ Tado and DJ Ramon <a href="http://photos.zorpia.com/fokfok/photo/28652416.becf0e"><img border="0" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/4476/28652416.becf0e.jpg" alt="Zorpia Photo Sharing: Free Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth" /></a> Me + DJ Angel <a href="http://photos.zorpia.com/fokfok/photo/28652430.45c03d"><img border="0" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/4476/28652430.45c03d.jpg" alt="Zorpia Photo Sharing: Free Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth" /></a> Me + DJ Tado: We are spreading love to the world.After that we went to Oysterboy for dinner. They have got a really really good dish called Napolean Oysters. Its baked Oysters with cheese, cream, bacon and celery. OOOOOOOO!<a href="http://photos.zorpia.com/fokfok/photo/28652451.bd7183"><img border="0" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/4476/28652451.bd7183.jpg" alt="Zorpia Photo Sharing: Free Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth" /></a> Filipino Team and food.<a href="http://photos.zorpia.com/fokfok/photo/28652454.bbdca6"><img border="0" alt="Zorpia Photo Sharing: Free Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/4476/28652454.bbdca6.jpg" /></a> Our fellow Zorpian ladies: Miz Jaymie, Dee and AlynThen I did another newspaper interview the other morning. She looks SOOO young, but she actually already have a son!!! <a href="http://photos.zorpia.com/fokfok/photo/28652474.72ae7a"><img border="0" alt="Zorpia Photo Sharing: Free Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/4476/28652474.72ae7a.jpg" /></a> Me and Sun Star ReporterWe also hired a model to promote our booth. She is actually an FHM model before! <a href="http://photos.zorpia.com/fokfok/photo/28652486.f29483"><img hspace="0" border="0" vspace="0" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/4476/28652486.f29483.jpg" alt="Zorpia Photo Sharing: Free Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth" /></a> Zorpia Team and FHM Model :)Then at the same night we went to Karaoke. Lexy actually traveled for 4 hours that night just to come to our dinner and karaoke. Most of our team members meet this mysterious coworker first time that night. WOOT!<a href="http://photos.zorpia.com/fokfok/photo/28652619.116076"><img border="0" alt="Zorpia Photo Sharing: Free Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/4476/28652619.116076.jpg" /></a> The Divas! From left: Dee, Jaymie, Alyn, Lexy and Hope. The drummer from Kwon then dropped by at the Karaoke to say Hi. He's actually from HK, so he spoke cantonese with me! It was a surreal experience talking to Cantonese speaking person in Manila. (Kwon is on Zorpia and they recently won lots of awards. Their status in Philipines is like Coldplay in the UK.)<a href="http://photos.zorpia.com/fokfok/photo/28652624.24fc5f"><img border="0" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/4476/28652624.24fc5f.jpg" alt="Zorpia Photo Sharing: Free Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth" /></a> Kudos to Kwon!<a href="http://photos.zorpia.com/fokfok/photo/28652655.2b7520"><img border="0" alt="Zorpia Photo Sharing: Free Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/4476/28652655.2b7520.jpg" /></a> And of course we had to take some gooft pics :)We went home at 5am and I had to wake up at 9am to do another TV interview. Those who know me personally would know the chance for me to wake up that early is as slim as the next meteriote hitting Earth.<a href="http://photos.zorpia.com/fokfok/photo/28652657.bd4f00"><img border="0" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/4476/28652657.bd4f00.jpg" alt="Zorpia Photo Sharing: Free Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth" /></a> Me with the TV crewAnd right before I hopped on the plane back to Hong Kong. Our other model arrived at our booth! What a great way to conclude my trip :)<a href="http://photos.zorpia.com/fokfok/photo/28652359.c05b59"><img border="0" alt="Zorpia Photo Sharing: Free Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/4476/28652359.c05b59.jpg" /></a> Me + our gorgeous promoters Zorpia Related http://me.zorpia.com/fokfok/journal/1818489 Sun, 06 Jul 2008 13:42 EDT Colette's Party http://me.zorpia.com/fokfok/journal/1806101 Recently, one of our artists, <a href="http://zorpia.com/djcolette">Colette</a> was in Hong Kong performing! I went with some reporter friends and chatted with Colette before her performance. She's very nice and friendly! Her music was great and she even sang in the party. Here are some of our photos.<a href="http://photos.zorpia.com/fokfok/photo/27963693.e49049"><img border="0" alt="Zorpia Photo Sharing: Free Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/4369/27963693.e49049.jpg" /></a> Colette and me!<a href="http://photos.zorpia.com/fokfok/photo/27963701.debada"><img border="0" alt="Zorpia Photo Sharing: Free Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/4369/27963701.debada.jpg" /></a> Me and my friends :) <a href="http://photos.zorpia.com/fokfok/photo/27964146.02cdad"><img vspace="0" hspace="0" border="0" alt="Zorpia Photo Sharing: Free Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/4369/27964146.02cdad.jpg" /></a> Daniel Wu is the leftmost guy!<a href="http://photos.zorpia.com/fokfok/photo/27964178.6d7c87"><img border="0" alt="Zorpia Photo Sharing: Free Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/4369/27964178.6d7c87.jpg" /></a> Party! Woot! Music http://me.zorpia.com/fokfok/journal/1806101 Thu, 22 May 2008 06:18 EDT My Beijing Trip~ :) http://me.zorpia.com/fokfok/journal/1771638 Recently I have visited Beijing for two consecutive weekends. It all started with an award I got from the Chinese Marketing Department. I had to attend that award ceremony, and that's why I was in Beijing in the first place. To make my time there more productive, our marketing power girl Liz has managed to arranged a line of interviews for me in major Chinese financial magazines, Phoenix TV. In between those two weekends, I came back to Hong Kong for a really famous radio show! These two weeks had turned into a full-fledged press tour! Woo hoo Viva La Productivity!<a href="http://cn.photos.zorpia.com/fokfok/photo/26083360.6319f8"><img border="0" alt="è‹¥æ¯”é‚»å…±äº«å›¾ç‰‡: å…è´¹,ä¸é™ç©ºé—´,ä¸é™æµé‡" src="http://uc.nor.zorpia.com/0/4075/26083360.6319f8.jpg" /> </a>The trip started with the award ceremony in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing (äººæ°‘å¤§ä¼šå ‚). It was snowing that day.<a href="http://cn.photos.zorpia.com/fokfok/photo/26083321.8718f2"><img border="0" alt="è‹¥æ¯”é‚»å…±äº«å›¾ç‰‡: å…è´¹,ä¸é™ç©ºé—´,ä¸é™æµé‡" src="http://uc.nor.zorpia.com/0/4075/26083321.8718f2.jpg" /></a> This is the brand new Chinese Oprah House right next to the Hall. It was gorgeous!!!<a href="http://cn.photos.zorpia.com/fokfok/photo/26083294.ec033f"><img border="0" src="http://uc.nor.zorpia.com/0/4075/26083294.ec033f.jpg" alt="è‹¥æ¯”é‚»å…±äº«å›¾ç‰‡: å…è´¹,ä¸é™ç©ºé—´,ä¸é™æµé‡" /></a> <a href="http://cn.photos.zorpia.com/evan1028/photo/26071552.d8fe09"><img border="0" alt="è‹¥æ¯”é‚»å…±äº«å›¾ç‰‡: å…è´¹,ä¸é™ç©ºé—´,ä¸é™æµé‡" src="http://uc.nor.zorpia.com/0/4073/26071552.d8fe09.jpg" /></a> Here's me getting the award. Look how totally lame I was muahahaha~ After getting the award, I went through the most traumatic 6 hours of my life, speeches from those good ol' Chinese officials. Uh... Half of the people in the room were snoring. Evan sat like 10 rows behind me so it was extremely boring! ARG!<a href="http://cn.photos.zorpia.com/fokfok/photo/26083465.c2430d"><img border="0" alt="è‹¥æ¯”é‚»å…±äº«å›¾ç‰‡: å…è´¹,ä¸é™ç©ºé—´,ä¸é™æµé‡" src="http://uc.nor.zorpia.com/0/4075/26083465.c2430d.jpg" /></a> That night we went out and tried some random Beijing local snacks. Some were OK, some were disgusting like lamb intestines and stuff. Then the next day I did a whole day interview with photo shoot in this super cool glass-walled restaurant. At night it turns into a Salsa club! That photoshoot should look pretty cool, I'll post more photos once I got the photos :)<a href="http://cn.zorpia.com/group/zorpia_team/photo/26024692.31f634"><img border="0" src="http://uc.nor.zorpia.com/0/4066/26024692.31f634.jpg" alt="è‹¥æ¯”é‚»å…±äº«å›¾ç‰‡: å…è´¹,ä¸é™ç©ºé—´,ä¸é™æµé‡" /></a> This is how their menu looks like...<a href="http://cn.zorpia.com/group/zorpia_team/photo/26024768.9eb30d"><img border="0" src="http://uc.nor.zorpia.com/0/4066/26024768.9eb30d.jpg" alt="è‹¥æ¯”é‚»å…±äº«å›¾ç‰‡: å…è´¹,ä¸é™ç©ºé—´,ä¸é™æµé‡" /></a> They serve fusion kinda food. When restaurants say they're fusion, I'll just take it as them not knowing what cuisine they wanna stick with ;)<a href="http://cn.zorpia.com/group/zorpia_team/photo/26024795.ebe81f"><img border="0" src="http://uc.nor.zorpia.com/0/4066/26024795.ebe81f.jpg" alt="è‹¥æ¯”é‚»å…±äº«å›¾ç‰‡: å…è´¹,ä¸é™ç©ºé—´,ä¸é™æµé‡" /></a> This is our Beijing Team :) Top row: Ben, Ben's wife, Laoxie's wife, Laoxie Bottom row: Evan, Me, Xuhao, Liz<a href="http://cn.photos.zorpia.com/evan1028/photo/26072025.7e07f3"><img border="0" alt="è‹¥æ¯”é‚»å…±äº«å›¾ç‰‡: å…è´¹,ä¸é™ç©ºé—´,ä¸é™æµé‡" src="http://uc.nor.zorpia.com/0/4073/26072025.7e07f3.jpg" /></a> Laoxie was totally beaming with his wife that night. They smiled so much it was scary. I have never seen Laoxie so happy before muahahahaha!Then I came back to Hong Kong for a few days for a radio show at FM881, with DJ Susie Wong è˜‡çµ²é»ƒ.<a href="http://cn.zorpia.com/group/zorpia_team/photo/26091863.ee6cdf"><img border="0" src="http://uc.nor.zorpia.com/0/4076/26091863.ee6cdf.jpg" alt="è‹¥æ¯”é‚»å…±äº«å›¾ç‰‡: å…è´¹,ä¸é™ç©ºé—´,ä¸é™æµé‡" /></a> Me doing the live radio show with è˜‡çµ²é»ƒ<a href="http://cn.zorpia.com/group/zorpia_team/photo/26091843.5267e4"><img vspace="0" hspace="0" border="0" src="http://uc.nor.zorpia.com/0/4076/26091843.5267e4.jpg" alt="è‹¥æ¯”é‚»å›¾ç‰‡å…±äº«: å…è´¹,æ— é™ç©ºé—´,æµé‡" /></a> Of course we got a pic of me with è˜‡çµ²é»ƒ hehe~<a href="http://cn.zorpia.com/group/zorpia_team/photo/26091854.9f7148"><img border="0" src="http://uc.nor.zorpia.com/0/4076/26091854.9f7148.jpg" alt="è‹¥æ¯”é‚»å…±äº«å›¾ç‰‡: å…è´¹,ä¸é™ç©ºé—´,ä¸é™æµé‡" /></a> One more pic with è˜‡çµ²é»ƒ's assistants, Wingie and Tarzan at the front door of CRHK FM881!The day after the radio show, I flew right back to Beijing again for Phoenix TV! I was very lucky I was invited to be interviewed in the most popular talk show in China, "A Date With Luyu" (é²è±«æœ‰çº¦).<a href="http://cn.zorpia.com/group/zorpia_team/photo/26024370.f136d4"><img border="0" src="http://uc.nor.zorpia.com/0/4066/26024370.f136d4.jpg" alt="è‹¥æ¯”é‚»å…±äº«å›¾ç‰‡: å…è´¹,ä¸é™ç©ºé—´,ä¸é™æµé‡" /></a> <a href="http://cn.photos.zorpia.com/fokfok/photo/26084005.cb3f43"><img border="0" src="http://uc.nor.zorpia.com/0/4075/26084005.cb3f43.jpg" alt="è‹¥æ¯”é‚»å…±äº«å›¾ç‰‡: å…è´¹,ä¸é™ç©ºé—´,ä¸é™æµé‡" /></a> This is Luyu. She's gorgeous in person ;)<a href="http://cn.zorpia.com/group/zorpia_team/photo/26024500.64bd53"><img border="0" alt="è‹¥æ¯”é‚»å…±äº«å›¾ç‰‡: å…è´¹,ä¸é™ç©ºé—´,ä¸é™æµé‡" src="http://uc.nor.zorpia.com/0/4066/26024500.64bd53.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://cn.zorpia.com/group/zorpia_team/photo/26024475.925a38"><img border="0" alt="è‹¥æ¯”é‚»å…±äº«å›¾ç‰‡: å…è´¹,ä¸é™ç©ºé—´,ä¸é™æµé‡" src="http://uc.nor.zorpia.com/0/4066/26024475.925a38.jpg" /></a> Me chatting with her in the backstage. She's actually lived in Seattle before too! She speaks english perfectly BTW. Woot! <a href="http://cn.zorpia.com/group/zorpia_team/photo/26024529.f0ced2"><img border="0" alt="è‹¥æ¯”é‚»å…±äº«å›¾ç‰‡: å…è´¹,ä¸é™ç©ºé—´,ä¸é™æµé‡" src="http://uc.nor.zorpia.com/0/4066/26024529.f0ced2.jpg" /></a> And of course a pic of me and LUYU!!!!! YAY!<a href="http://cn.photos.zorpia.com/fokfok/photo/26083852.d2cf04"><img border="0" alt="è‹¥æ¯”é‚»å…±äº«å›¾ç‰‡: å…è´¹,ä¸é™ç©ºé—´,ä¸é™æµé‡" src="http://uc.nor.zorpia.com/0/4075/26083852.d2cf04.jpg" /></a> At the backstage I also bumped into a famous anchorwoman from Shenzhen. Hottie Alert!After the show, we hung out with the on-stage director Mao Mao and his girlfriend who is also a famous director in CCTV. I heard he has directed a few reality shows, kinda like MTV Real World Road Rules Challenges. I'd love to be in one of them~ Muahahahaha! <a href="http://cn.zorpia.com/group/zorpia_team/photo/26024823.1aeb2d"><img border="0" alt="è‹¥æ¯”é‚»å…±äº«å›¾ç‰‡: å…è´¹,ä¸é™ç©ºé—´,ä¸é™æµé‡" src="http://uc.nor.zorpia.com/0/4066/26024823.1aeb2d.jpg" /></a> The bamboo stick is actually a container for a special bamboo-flavored alcoholic drink. It's super cute :)<a href="http://cn.zorpia.com/group/zorpia_team/photo/26024812.723c6b"><img border="0" src="http://uc.nor.zorpia.com/0/4066/26024812.723c6b.jpg" alt="è‹¥æ¯”é‚»å›¾ç‰‡å…±äº«: å…è´¹,æ— é™ç©ºé—´,æµé‡" /></a> Last but not least, a tea meeting with our business partner from the Chinese Youtube, 56.com. That episode of "A date with Luyu" had a theme of Chinese New Year. I prepared them some clips from Zorpians around the world saying new year greetings. Here are some of the clips from our infamous Mike and Dee ;)<embed allowNetWorking="internal" AllowScriptAccess="sameDomain" width="450" height="370" src="http://cdn1.fliqz.com/fliqz/production/players/Base/swf/FliqzBasePlayer.swf?playerSkin=http://cdn1.fliqz.com/fliqz/production/players/Zorpia/swf/player.swf&window=_blank&watermark=http://www.zorpia.com&staticPlayer=1&serverName=cdn1.fliqz.com/fliqz/production&ismuted=0&file=68320e15fd114c918d44f13896ae3429&autoplay=0&progressive=1&wsdl=http://services.fliqz.com/api/videoservice/052907/wsdl.xml&allowFullScreen=true" allowfullscreen="true" menu="false" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="sameDomain" allownetworking="internal" /> <embed allowNetWorking="internal" AllowScriptAccess="sameDomain" width="450" height="370" src="http://cdn1.fliqz.com/fliqz/production/players/Base/swf/FliqzBasePlayer.swf?playerSkin=http://cdn1.fliqz.com/fliqz/production/players/Zorpia/swf/player.swf&window=_blank&watermark=http://www.zorpia.com&staticPlayer=1&serverName=cdn1.fliqz.com/fliqz/production&ismuted=0&file=344751881d154b59aec507fddef3b885&autoplay=0&progressive=1&wsdl=http://services.fliqz.com/api/videoservice/052907/wsdl.xml&allowFullScreen=true" allowfullscreen="true" menu="false" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="sameDomain" allownetworking="internal" /> Happy New Year! Zorpia Related http://me.zorpia.com/fokfok/journal/1771638 Mon, 04 Feb 2008 15:34 EDT Happy Halloween! http://me.zorpia.com/fokfok/journal/1743158 Hey guys~ Today I went to Hong Kong Ocean Park's Halloween's Bash! It was so awesome, there were 6 haunting houses!!!!! Happy Halloween to you all :)<a href="http://hk.photos.zorpia.com/fokfok/photo/24319290.cd2426"><img vspace="0" hspace="0" border="0" align="bottom" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/3799/24319290.cd2426.jpg" /></a>  Personal http://me.zorpia.com/fokfok/journal/1743158 Wed, 31 Oct 2007 16:07 EDT My super awesome trip in Manila! http://me.zorpia.com/fokfok/journal/1730022 Last week I went to Manila, the Philippines with Mike our project manager. IT WAS A BLAST! OMG I had so much fun and yet productive! Our human Z was a huge success in Manila, we have got 1200 people from Roosevelt College to participate in the Z! We were interviewed by the biggest TV channel in the Philippines, ABS-CBN, as well as many other magazines and newspapers. We ate, sang, drank, partied, farted and passed out. It was just non stop fun fun fun, I thank my fellow pinoy coworkers for organizing such a great trip.First Night:<a href="http://photos.zorpia.com/zorpiahardcore/photo/23578723.76238b"><img border="0" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/3684/23578723.76238b.jpg" alt="Zorpia Photo Sharing: Free Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth" /></a> We had philipino food and we had our first whole team dinner meeting in Manila~<a href="http://photos.zorpia.com/zorpiahardcore/photo/23578719.00ad3f"><img border="0" alt="Zorpia Photo Sharing: Free Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/3684/23578719.00ad3f.jpg" /></a> We then went to a Karaoke bar~I am amazed by my whole team, basically none of them can't sing! Mike and JC had record deals before, Jaymie was a bar singer, Hope is a natural-born powerful soul singer, while dee is a rapper. It actually makes me feel ashamed that I had won some singing contest before, coz when I am compared to them, I am nothing! However, since this is my homepage, I am only gonna post my singing picture for the night haha.<a href="http://photos.zorpia.com/Jmuzic/photo/23524624.2e38dd"><img border="0" alt="Zorpia Photo Sharing: Free Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/3675/23524624.2e38dd.jpg" /></a> <embed allowNetWorking="internal" AllowScriptAccess="sameDomain" width="450" height="370" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" menu="false" allowfullscreen="true" src="http://cdn1.fliqz.com/fliqz/production/players/Base/swf/FliqzBasePlayer.swf?playerSkin=http://cdn1.fliqz.com/fliqz/production/players/Zorpia/swf/player.swf&window=_blank&watermark=http://www.zorpia.com&staticPlayer=1&serverName=cdn1.fliqz.com/fliqz/production&ismuted=0&file=abf6c319380a4c61bfd45871013245bd&autoplay=0&progressive=1&wsdl=http://services.fliqz.com/api/videoservice/052907/wsdl.xml&allowFullScreen=true" allowscriptaccess="sameDomain" allownetworking="internal" /> I was singing Mariah's Hero. I was horrible, the key was not right for me. Day Two: We met teachers from Roosevelt College, and did an interview. <embed allowNetWorking="internal" AllowScriptAccess="sameDomain" width="450" height="370" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" menu="false" allowfullscreen="true" src="http://cdn1.fliqz.com/fliqz/production/players/Base/swf/FliqzBasePlayer.swf?playerSkin=http://cdn1.fliqz.com/fliqz/production/players/Zorpia/swf/player.swf&window=_blank&watermark=http://www.zorpia.com&staticPlayer=1&serverName=cdn1.fliqz.com/fliqz/production&ismuted=0&file=e7d2ee6b2fb64ee1add81491a8d93e1d&autoplay=0&progressive=1&wsdl=http://services.fliqz.com/api/videoservice/052907/wsdl.xml&allowFullScreen=true" allowscriptaccess="sameDomain" allownetworking="internal" /> OF COURSE, I slept on my way to the school, and they made fun of me. OF COURSE they'd do that. <a href="http://photos.zorpia.com/zorpiahardcore/photo/23578514.ce1775"><img border="0" alt="Zorpia Photo Sharing: Free Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/3684/23578514.ce1775.jpg" /></a> Me with the teachers :) I was trying hard not to recall my dark memory back in highschool HAHA<a href="http://photos.zorpia.com/zpeed/photo/23518073.9ce418"><img border="0" alt="Zorpia Photo Sharing: Free Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/3674/23518073.9ce418.jpg" /></a> Interview with magazine~After all that, we went to a comedy bar and drank again! <embed allowNetWorking="internal" AllowScriptAccess="sameDomain" width="450" height="370" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" menu="false" allowfullscreen="true" src="http://cdn1.fliqz.com/fliqz/production/players/Base/swf/FliqzBasePlayer.swf?playerSkin=http://cdn1.fliqz.com/fliqz/production/players/Zorpia/swf/player.swf&window=_blank&watermark=http://www.zorpia.com&staticPlayer=1&serverName=cdn1.fliqz.com/fliqz/production&ismuted=0&file=db82e1293815407f9b949a966c543bac&autoplay=0&progressive=1&wsdl=http://services.fliqz.com/api/videoservice/052907/wsdl.xml&allowFullScreen=true" allowscriptaccess="sameDomain" allownetworking="internal" /> Mike was 'invited' to the stage, and he performed two songs in front of hundreds of people! Day Three: We went to ABS-CBN TV station and did some interviews. <a href="http://photos.zorpia.com/zorpiahardcore/photo/23579943.71087a"><img border="0" alt="Zorpia Photo Sharing: Free Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/3684/23579943.71087a.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://photos.zorpia.com/zorpiahardcore/photo/23579962.e86059"><img border="0" alt="Zorpia Photo Sharing: Free Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/3684/23579962.e86059.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://photos.zorpia.com/Jmuzic/photo/23524560.eff6ab"><img border="0" alt="Zorpia Photo Sharing: Free Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/3675/23524560.eff6ab.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://photos.zorpia.com/zorpiahardcore/photo/23579964.74767b"><img border="0" alt="Zorpia Photo Sharing: Free Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/3684/23579964.74767b.jpg" /></a> <embed allowNetWorking="internal" AllowScriptAccess="sameDomain" width="450" height="370" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" menu="false" allowfullscreen="true" src="http://cdn1.fliqz.com/fliqz/production/players/Base/swf/FliqzBasePlayer.swf?playerSkin=http://cdn1.fliqz.com/fliqz/production/players/Zorpia/swf/player.swf&window=_blank&watermark=http://www.zorpia.com&staticPlayer=1&serverName=cdn1.fliqz.com/fliqz/production&ismuted=0&file=9c565a4f323848d6a73ff83c23817024&autoplay=0&progressive=1&wsdl=http://services.fliqz.com/api/videoservice/052907/wsdl.xml&allowFullScreen=true" allowscriptaccess="sameDomain" allownetworking="internal" /> I freak out whenever I see a camera! OMG! <a href="http://photos.zorpia.com/zpeed/photo/23518282.77f3fa"><img border="0" alt="Zorpia Photo Sharing: Free Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/3674/23518282.77f3fa.jpg" /></a> We went to an Indian restaurant~To celebrate Zorpia team's Manila TV appearance, we went to a club and had a huge night, ended up with me passing out and puking!!!<a href="http://photos.zorpia.com/zpeed/photo/23518311.f3d38b"><img border="0" alt="Zorpia Photo Sharing: Free Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/3674/23518311.f3d38b.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://photos.zorpia.com/h0pee/photo/23526033.3e7eb0"><img border="0" alt="Zorpia Photo Sharing: Free Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/3675/23526033.3e7eb0.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://photos.zorpia.com/h0pee/photo/23526037.4affaf"><img border="0" alt="Zorpia Photo Sharing: Free Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/3675/23526037.4affaf.jpg" /></a> Me and sean had two shots of absinth. It was a flaming shot, and was supposed to be very strong, but it didnt work on me at all.<a href="http://photos.zorpia.com/zpeed/photo/23518460.e42c5a"><img border="0" alt="Zorpia Photo Sharing: Free Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/3674/23518460.e42c5a.jpg" /></a> So we powered up with some Yager Bomb <a href="http://photos.zorpia.com/zpeed/photo/23515669.2afb4c"><img border="0" alt="Zorpia Photo Sharing: Free Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/3674/23515669.2afb4c.jpg" /></a> Danced... <a href="http://photos.zorpia.com/Jmuzic/photo/23562254.b2c792"><img border="0" alt="Zorpia Photo Sharing: Free Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/3681/23562254.b2c792.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://photos.zorpia.com/h0pee/photo/23526091.233a55"><img border="0" alt="Zorpia Photo Sharing: Free Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/3675/23526091.233a55.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://photos.zorpia.com/h0pee/photo/23526101.e9da4f"><img border="0" alt="Zorpia Photo Sharing: Free Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/3675/23526101.e9da4f.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://photos.zorpia.com/h0pee/photo/23526117.92e945"><img border="0" alt="Zorpia Photo Sharing: Free Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/3675/23526117.92e945.jpg" /></a> And passed out!!Day Four: It was sort of like a resting day for us. We did some usability tests, and had a relaxing night.<a href="http://photos.zorpia.com/h0pee/photo/23526146.c6bcb6"><img border="0" alt="Zorpia Photo Sharing: Free Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/3675/23526146.c6bcb6.jpg" /></a> We saw the biggest shoes in the world...<a href="http://photos.zorpia.com/h0pee/photo/23526159.baa018"><img border="0" alt="Zorpia Photo Sharing: Free Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/3675/23526159.baa018.jpg" /></a> And we played darts.Day Five: We went to the school again. The students performed for us, and we gave speeches. I will post more photos and videos for this day later. <a href="http://photos.zorpia.com/h0pee/photo/23550311.811b43"><img border="0" alt="Zorpia Photo Sharing: Free Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/3679/23550311.811b43.jpg" /></a> Me freaking out and trying to write a script for my speech!<a href="http://photos.zorpia.com/Jmuzic/photo/23562246.373d03"><img border="0" alt="Zorpia Photo Sharing: Free Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/3681/23562246.373d03.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://photos.zorpia.com/h0pee/photo/23550328.4bd744"><img border="0" alt="Zorpia Photo Sharing: Free Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/3679/23550328.4bd744.jpg" /></a> We molested some dummies in the nursing school during our tour! That's hot~After leaving the school, we did a team photo shoot. <a href="http://photos.zorpia.com/zorpiahardcore/photo/23578817.6b1462"><img border="0" alt="Zorpia Photo Sharing: Free Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/3684/23578817.6b1462.jpg" /></a> It started off pretty normally...<a href="http://photos.zorpia.com/Jmuzic/photo/23562240.7b2b69"><img border="0" alt="Zorpia Photo Sharing: Free Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/3681/23562240.7b2b69.jpg" /></a> Then Mike tickled me at my back and I was actually screaming hysterically in this photo<a href="http://photos.zorpia.com/Jmuzic/photo/23562242.7f7ae5"><img border="0" alt="Zorpia Photo Sharing: Free Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/3681/23562242.7f7ae5.jpg" /></a> I was NOT trying to grab anybody's boobs!<a href="http://photos.zorpia.com/Jmuzic/photo/23562244.71b2a7"><img border="0" alt="Zorpia Photo Sharing: Free Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/3681/23562244.71b2a7.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://photos.zorpia.com/Jmuzic/photo/23562235.6b77c6"><img border="0" alt="Zorpia Photo Sharing: Free Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/3681/23562235.6b77c6.jpg" /></a> Then we got a little Indianic :)<a href="http://photos.zorpia.com/fokfok/photo/23546806.c9ffe6"><img border="0" alt="Zorpia Photo Sharing: Free Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/3679/23546806.c9ffe6.jpg" /></a> Finally we ended the night with me singing like a mad man at Karaoke... Zorpia Related http://me.zorpia.com/fokfok/journal/1730022 Sun, 23 Sep 2007 16:32 EDT Chinese press for Zorpia! http://me.zorpia.com/fokfok/journal/1721062 Over the last 2 months, we have got lots of press in China and Hong Kong. It's been super awesome, and here are some of them. They are all in Chinese, I'll try my best to translate the titles. (Some articles have ridiculous titles, aka, I am not rich at all! I wish I am, so I can retire right now!)Mainland Chinese Press: <a href="http://org24.zorpia.com/0/3570/22848199.b554ba.jpg"><img vspace="0" hspace="5" border="0" align="left" src="http://thm.zorpia.com/0/3570/22848199.b554ba.jpg" /></a>ç™¼é”è¦è¶æ—©ä¹‹å‰µçŽ©æ·˜é‡‘æ— 2007å¹´6æœˆ21æ—¥: å¯æ¨‚ç”Ÿæ´»ç¬¬201æœŸ Start your business when you are young 6/21/2007: Color Magazine, Issue 201  <a href="http://org24.zorpia.com/0/3570/22848323.eaee9d.jpg"><img vspace="0" hspace="5" border="0" align="left" src="http://thm.zorpia.com/0/3570/22848323.eaee9d.jpg" /></a>æˆ‘çš„è‹¥æ¯”é„° 2007å¹´6æœˆ22æ—¥: ç¾ŠåŸŽæ™šå ± My Zorpia 6/22/2007: Yang Cheng Evening Post <a href="http://org24.zorpia.com/0/3570/22848390.cacf65.jpg"><img vspace="0" hspace="5" border="0" align="left" src="http://thm.zorpia.com/0/3570/22848390.cacf65.jpg" /></a><a href="http://org24.zorpia.com/0/3570/22848403.e977f2.jpg"><img vspace="0" hspace="5" border="0" align="left" src="http://thm.zorpia.com/0/3570/22848403.e977f2.jpg" /></a><a href="http://org24.zorpia.com/0/3570/22848411.abadd9.jpg"><img vspace="0" hspace="5" border="0" align="left" src="http://thm.zorpia.com/0/3570/22848411.abadd9.jpg" /></a>æµ·å…§å˜çŸ¥å·²å¤©æ¶¯è‹¥æ¯”é„°-æ°åäº”å°‘å¹´æ™‚ 2007å¹´7æœˆ1æ—¥: æ•¸ç¢¼æ™‚ä»£ 07/2007 Make friends all over the world on Zorpia - Story of a 15-year-old 7/1/2007: Digital Age 07/2007 <a href="http://org24.zorpia.com/0/3255/20835806.c3eba0.jpg"><img vspace="0" hspace="5" border="0" align="left" src="http://thm.zorpia.com/0/3255/20835806.c3eba0.jpg" /></a><strong80åŽä¸Šå¸ /> 2007å¹´7æœˆ4æ—¥: ç¾ŠåŸŽæ™šå ± Younger Executives working with older employees 7/4/2007: Yang Cheng Evening Post <a href="http://org24.zorpia.com/0/3570/22848431.4cf110.jpg"><img vspace="0" hspace="5" border="0" align="left" src="http://thm.zorpia.com/0/3570/22848431.4cf110.jpg" /></a>è‹¥æ¯”é„° "Z" è¨ˆåŠƒ 2007å¹´8æœˆ1æ—¥: æ•¸ç¢¼æ™‚ä»£ 08/2007 Zorpia Human Z Project 8/1/2007: Digital Age 08/2007 <a href="http://org24.zorpia.com/0/3570/22848373.bb71f3.jpg"><img vspace="0" hspace="5" border="0" align="left" src="http://thm.zorpia.com/0/3570/22848373.bb71f3.jpg" /></a><a href="http://org24.zorpia.com/0/3570/22848368.55b862.jpg"><img vspace="0" hspace="5" border="0" align="left" src="http://thm.zorpia.com/0/3570/22848368.55b862.jpg" /></a>å›žæ¸åå¹´å‰µæ¥åå¹´-é¦™æ¸¯ç”·å©ä¼æ°æš‰çš„å‰µæ¥æ•…äº‹ 2007å¹´8æœˆ5æ—¥: æ•¸ç¢¼ä¸–ç•Œ 08/2007 The entrepreneurial story of a Hong Kong boy, Jeffrey Ng 8/5/2007: Digital World 08/2007 <a href="http://org24.zorpia.com/0/3570/22848708.f0f003.jpg"><img vspace="0" hspace="5" border="0" align="left" src="http://thm.zorpia.com/0/3570/22848708.f0f003.jpg" /></a>æ„›å¿ƒçŽ© Human Project 2007å¹´8æœˆ16æ—¥: COLOR å¯æ¨‚ç”Ÿæ´»ç¬¬209æœŸ Take part in the Human Z Project 8/16/2007: Color Magazine, Issue 209 <a href="http://org24.zorpia.com/0/3573/22870603.8a13f2.jpg"><img vspace="0" hspace="5" border="0" align="left" src="http://thm.zorpia.com/0/3573/22870603.8a13f2.jpg" /></a>500"80åŽ"çµ„ "Z" å—ç»æ„›å¿ƒ 2007å¹´8æœˆ21æ—¥: ä¿¡æ¯æ™‚å ± 500 young people gathered for Human Z Project 8/21/2007: Information Times  Hong Kong Press:<a href="http://org24.zorpia.com/0/3570/22848181.e56084.gif"><img vspace="0" hspace="5" border="0" align="left" src="http://thm.zorpia.com/0/3570/22848181.e56084.jpg" /></a>æ¸¯å°å[å±±å¯¨ç¶²]ç›´è¿½ MY SPACE 2007å¹´6æœˆ7æ—¥: å¤ªé™½å ± A Hong Kong local site catching up with MySpace 6/7/2007: The Sun Daily <a href="http://org24.zorpia.com/0/3570/22848340.5d53c8.jpg"><img vspace="0" hspace="5" border="0" align="left" src="http://thm.zorpia.com/0/3570/22848340.5d53c8.jpg" /></a>æ¸¯ç”·å†å‰µç¶²çµ¡ç¥žè©± 2007å¹´6æœˆ14æ—¥: è³‡æœ¬ä¸€é€±ç¬¬082æœŸ Yet another internet legend from Hong Kong 6/14/2007: Capital Weekly, Issue 082 Once again, I need to thank Liz for arranging our press events in China. Without her, I am nothing. Zorpia Related http://me.zorpia.com/fokfok/journal/1721062 Sun, 26 Aug 2007 15:54 EDT Welcome Jamie! http://me.zorpia.com/fokfok/journal/1716770 My sister just gave birth to a baby boy, Jamie! Here's a photo of us taken on his birthday :)<a href="http://photos.zorpia.com/billchan/photo/22669992.a10b5b"><img border="0" alt="Zorpia Photo Sharing: Free Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/3542/22669992.a10b5b.jpg" /></a> Personal http://me.zorpia.com/fokfok/journal/1716770 Tue, 14 Aug 2007 14:24 EDT About Photo Verification http://me.zorpia.com/fokfok/journal/1705386 Recently, I have seen quite a few discussions about our new photo verification feature. I can see that many of our fellow Zorpians are confused about the feature. I am going to explain what the feature is for. My explanation will address all the concerns I have seen so far. The photo verification feature is a tool we use to check if the photos you have on your profile are yours. It is created in response to reports of fakers on Zorpia; it is not a tool of advertisement. The photo is not for internal records, instead it will be shown publicly right beside your profile photo. It is not compulsory. You don't have to use it if you don't feel comfortable about it. <ul><li>The photo has to show your face clearly, because that's how we know you are the person you claim you are.</li><li>It has to contain your username so we can match the username with your profile.</li><li>It has to contain the word zorpia, so you cannot steal pictures AND username from a profile of another site. </li></ul> Please leave me a comment if you are still confused. And please verify your identity if you are not too shy :) Zorpia Related http://me.zorpia.com/fokfok/journal/1705386 Sun, 15 Jul 2007 15:29 EDT Zorpia got on a magazine!! http://me.zorpia.com/fokfok/journal/1686177 <img vspace="5" hspace="5" border="0" align="left" src="http://ll37.zorpia.com/thm/0/3127/20015537.98be33.jpg" />Today is a super special day for us! We got two full pages of news coverage on the best selling computer magazine in Hong Kong, PC Market! It's the first time a magazine did a whole article on Zorpia. It's basically about us getting <a href="http://social-networking-websites-review.toptenreviews.com/zorpia-com-review.html">the silver award at TopTenReview</a> and my <a href="http://www.zorpia.com/fokfok/journal/1515315">little</a> <a href="http://www.zorpia.com/fokfok/journal/1521107">history</a>. The interview was very cool. The reporter, Natalie was very nice. They took a lot of pictures of me and my dad (who's actually my partner), and Calvin our lead engineer. <a href="http://org23.zorpia.com/0/3125/20001674.88b834.jpg"><img vspace="0" hspace="0" border="0" align="bottom" src="http://lrg.zorpia.com/0/3125/20001674.88b834.jpg" /></a>  <a href="http://org23.zorpia.com/0/3125/20001675.cadc6f.jpg"><img vspace="0" hspace="0" border="0" align="bottom" src="http://lrg.zorpia.com/0/3125/20001675.cadc6f.jpg" /></a> What's more, we are the very first article in the magazine; so I guess that shows our significance? :) <img vspace="0" hspace="0" border="0" align="bottom" src="http://lrg.zorpia.com/0/3127/20015549.c051ff.jpg" /> I've been having meetings all day today, didn't have time to think about it. The whole idea of this news article is sinking in now and I am so excited about it! :) :) :)Mmmm and yeh i know i didn't update my blog often enough. I'll try my best to write more heheh. We actually have some pretty exciting features coming out in the coming month. One is the video feature, and the other one is rather confidential. That's it for now. Once's again, thank you for all your support, without you, Zorpia wouldn't have turned into a website with 6 million members! When it hits 8 million, it will be bigger than Hong Kong, the city I am based in now!   Zorpia Related http://me.zorpia.com/fokfok/journal/1686177 Mon, 28 May 2007 10:45 EDT Funny Zorpia Video http://me.zorpia.com/fokfok/journal/1616236 One of our fellow Zorpians, <a href="http://www.zorpia.com/jackdog">Brian</a> has created a video for Zorpia and posted to Youtube. I found it hilarious muahahahaha. <object width="425" height="350"><param value="http://www.youtube.com/v/uz3n9qCvQ6U" name="movie" /><param value="transparent" name="wmode" /><embed width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/uz3n9qCvQ6U" /></object> Zorpia Related http://me.zorpia.com/fokfok/journal/1616236 Wed, 22 Nov 2006 00:26 EDT 4 million users!!! http://me.zorpia.com/fokfok/journal/1612038 Congratulations~ Celebrations~ duhdala daladaladaladalada~~ Zorpia has got 4 million registered users now!! woo hooo!!! We will provide even better service for all our fellow Zorpians. Without you, we wouldn't have achieved what we are now. Do you have any wish for Zorpia? Please leave your comments on this journal. Zorpia Related http://me.zorpia.com/fokfok/journal/1612038 Sat, 11 Nov 2006 12:35 EDT New Zorpia Platform! http://me.zorpia.com/fokfok/journal/1595040 OMG. Our team has gone thru hell this week. I worked 24 hours straight for the release today. In this release, we released two great new features. 1. Zorpia Music With Zorpia Music, bands can create profiles and upload their tracks. What sets us apart from other similar sites' music feature is that we let Zorpians set up their personal playlist and add their favorite songs to their homepages. Furthermore, you may copy and paste your music player to your other sites, and show people what kind of music you like. We are excited to have Nettwerk Music Group and other artists to partner with us. Check out <a href="http://www.zorpia.com/thesubmarines">The Submarines</a> exclusive tracks on Zorpia! They're cool! 2. Photo Tagging With Zorpia photo tagging feature, you can tag your friends' faces in your photos and notify them whenever you have new photos. When you friends tagged you, your pictures will also show up in your homepage. It's a really cool and easy feature for people who wanna share photos with their friends and family. In this release, along with these 2 new features, we actually have rewritten EVERYTHING you see. We changed all our software code and database structure in order to keep us scalable in a long term. We have tried our best to keep our look and functions exactly like before. We know that there will be descripencies. Therefore, you find any bugs, please report at our forum: <a href="../forum/3">Zorpia Support & Discussion</a>. Zorpia Related http://me.zorpia.com/fokfok/journal/1595040 Fri, 29 Sep 2006 15:34 EDT 2 New Features http://me.zorpia.com/fokfok/journal/1589715 We are going to have two new features launching next week. One is photo related, and the other one will be completely new to Zorpia. Leave a comment, guess what these 2 features are? :) Zorpia Related http://me.zorpia.com/fokfok/journal/1589715 Thu, 14 Sep 2006 15:29 EDT Portable Album!! http://me.zorpia.com/fokfok/journal/1547801 Yo, we just released a new feature today! Portable Album. Look at mine, I pasted it at top of the homepage. Doesn't it look JUICY?? YAY! Go get one for yourself. Setup is brainless! Zorpia Related http://me.zorpia.com/fokfok/journal/1547801 Fri, 16 Jun 2006 13:29 EDT Zorpia History 2 http://me.zorpia.com/fokfok/journal/1521107 How I launched Zorpia It was a year of hard work before I completed the pre-launch production. Zorpia was finally completed and released in December 2003. In the first month of the launch, the website did not receive much response. Most people had headed home for Christmas. I also went back to Hong Kong for the break. But I met up with a PR company that helped me do several on-campus promotions:   <a target="_self" href="album.cgi?3741"><img border="0" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/24/155833.70b8be.jpg" /></a> The promotion events lasted for 6 days. Each day there was a gain of 50 members. The number might not seem big at all but the sign-up rate afterwards went skyrocketing. Within a month the daily signup rate increased to 500. Soon after that I found an increasing sign-up rate from Singapore which brought 40k of users within a month. Singapore is still one of the countries that contribute most to the user base. On March 21, 2004 the number of our members reached 10,000. Growth growth and growth During late March the sign-up rate experienced an unprecedented surge. I was on spring break in Miami. The break was unforgettable. I went out to party every night while I had to wake up early to work in a cyber café to work on multiple issues. I hated it so much when I had to work while my friends were sleeping... But anyways, I still had an awesome break. <img border="0" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/45/288329.78c722.jpg" /> After the break, our signup rate stayed around 2000-3000 daily for a while. In order to further boost our membership, I added a Zorpian search engine and a series of social networking features to the website. At that time Zorpia was completed with 3 sets of features: photo sharing, blogging and social networking. Due to the expansion of work load and requirements, I hired my first programmer, Marek to work with me. <img border="0" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/668/4279156.4f8e9b.jpg" /> Zorpiaâ€™s servers were always overloaded, thus we decided to upgrade our existing Perl code to mod_perl which helped eliminate perl compilation during runtime. We got it done in 2 months and released the upgraded website in July 2004. Since then our web servers have been rock solid stable. My Summer Internship 2004 <img border="0" src="http://media.expedia.com/media/content/expus/graphics/logos/exp/expedia_185x50.gif" /> During the same summer, I went to Expedia for an internship. The experience was priceless. I was the program manager intern and was assigned to lead one of the projects that would potentially increase the companyâ€™s revenue by millions. Expedia is a spin off from Microsoft. They inherited a lot of culture and internal companyâ€™s values, and functions from Microsoft. Zorpia adapted their corporate style and came up with a similar internal company structure.   That summer was like rollercoaster to me. I not only had to excel in my internship but also needed to finish 2 online courses (I failed one and got C on the other one, haha). I spaced out time for my friends in Seattle. Also, I had to take care of Zorpia whenever I was at home! Oh well, it was hectic but enjoyable. More new projects I hired several project-based designers to help Zorpia create skins and a new front page. Also I found my college friend, Amy to help Zorpia redo the front page design and promote Zorpia at the University of Illinois. We found sororities as our target for marketing research and promotion events. We presented the website to those organizations and selected a number of girls to do the Usability Testing. At that time female users exceeded male users, so we thought that studying the girls would be a good approach.  <img border="0" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/388/2489028.87d2b2.jpg" /> Katy, our first project-based designer <img border="0" src="http://nor.zorpia.com/0/1082/6927476.9827f4.jpg" /> Amy, our marketing manager held promotion events for sororities The findings from the Usability Testing were tremendous. We found out that most of the users were confused about the purpose of Zorpia when they visited the front page. And the general layout was not sufficiently appealing. We quickly revised the front page, adding several key lines: share unlimited photos, post journals, find old friends and make new friends. Moreover, we created a brand new colored layout. The whole revision was released on Nov 9, 2004. The color scheme and basic design components have been in use up till now. Full time job hunting <img border="0" align="absmiddle" src="http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/images/ms_logo_blk.gif" />  VS <img border="0" align="absmiddle" src="http://media.expedia.com/media/content/expus/graphics/logos/exp/expedia_185x50.gif" /> The end of 2004 was a hectic period for job hunting. I went on several interviews with Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Expedia, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and Citadel. Eventually I was given an offer by Microsoft and Expedia with a position both in program management. Microsoft gave an extremely high salary to I but I accepted the offer from Expedia because of their culture and great potential. Zorpia Got International After releasing the new layout, the site got spread out worldwide. Especially Bahamas, Jamaica, Venezuela, and Peru received high surge in membership during that time. The growth in Peru users was overwhelming that we gained 20k of users alone from its capital Lima.   We were very happy for the results. So we spent days and nights learning the feedback from the community and doing all kinds of surveys. Most people were confused about the point system. Zorpia was initially designed for sharing non-personal photos, but people in fact preferred sharing personal photos while making friends with one another. The point system approach seemed ineffective to the growth of Zorpia and therefore I decided to have it removed. The responses were mixed. Some users thought the website was user-friendlier, but some users thought Zorpia had lost its uniqueness. But the outcome was Zorpia became more focused on personal photo and journal sharing and the signup rate turned out to be very positive.   The forum was an excellent place for ideas. I found out that their users want to have a better skinning feature, and girls were more interested in editing their homepage layout than guys. So I spent many nights, trying to improve the skin quality and variety. I was also observing my users from various locations. I found out an interesting fact that users from South American countries were more likely to upload sexy, provocative photos. In marketing industry, they always say "Sex Sells". So I came up with a new section named "Rate a Zorpian" which attracted many people to join Zorpia, especially guys. It completely changed Zorpiaâ€™s social landscape. Final Words So here is some of our history up till Dec 2004. You may wonder what happens to my Expedia job offer. Due to Zorpia's trememdous growth in 2005, I had to reject their offer at that time. It was not a wrong decision for sure. But I'd definitely like to go back sometime. My summer internship was awesome, I'll never forget my experience there. I will write more later. Again, please leave your comments here~ Zorpia Related http://me.zorpia.com/fokfok/journal/1521107 Wed, 03 May 2006 15:07 EDT