Hello Doodle.

*

*

Let me tell you this :

if you meet a loner, no matter what they tell you, it's not because they enjoy solitude.

It's because they have tried to blend into the world before, and people continue to disappoint them.

by Jodi Picoult , My Sister's Keeper.

*

Daily Doodle : Almost New Year!

Hello,

Hey, it's near 2012! 

I've been super productive lately. Since I've stopped accepting freelance & commission order, I'm still in holiday mood. 

What do you guys do at night after school or work? 

Other than reading and surfing the net , I only do doodle for fun. 

I've been rethinking the purpose of my doodle habits.

Indirectly saying that I'm in therapy mode. 

*

Mini canvas :

*

Here goes all the canvases :

*

Little Things 5 : Hand made card

On my last graduation celebration with my mom & siblings, I received a handmade card from my sister.  She's a wonderful paper art maker. Tell you the truth, I don't have the patient to work like she does. For that, kudos for her. 

By the way, she receives commission order, so you can contact her via facebook or email : azahazrina@hotmail.com for any enquiries.

*

Each page was dedicated from different person.

*

Another surprise came from my brother.

We share the same passion, travel.

So in supporting each other, I received this :

40 Euro for my Paris Journey!

and the same goes when he went to Australia last time.

Aren't my siblings darling :D

*

DIY : Shrink Plastic Tutorial

Hello!

 Tutorial on making your own charms using shrink plastic :D

( I DO NOT sell shrink plastic )

I've been wanting to share this tips & techniques with everyone. 

Making your own shrink plastic charms! 

Things Needed :

Shrink plastic

Permanent Marker 

Wooden board

Plier

Small Rings

Knife

Cooking Oven

Acrylic Clear Spray 

*

1. Get things ready.

Personally I prefer to use wooden board & knife.

*

2. Draw your designs on the shrink plastic using permanent marker.

Personally I wouldn't recommend using Sharpie. It tends to smear.

I use Steadtler Permanent Artline instead.

You need to make it big, because it will shrink!

 *

3. Put it in the oven!

Don't put too many at once, it will be hard to pick them up once they are ready.

Setting : 

Whole + 150 °C

It will probably take about 3-5 minutes, 

and they will be like this! :

You will need to wait until it finished shrinking.

*

4. Pick it up slowly using knife, or scissor.

The fussy part is it may be a little crooked if you put too much force.

So pick it up super slooowly.

*

5. Put on the flat board as fast as possible.

You need to flatten it up when it still soft.

Do it on one go to avoid it getting smeared.

My super skinny hand.

*

Tada!

 *

So be extra patient, 

I've done hundreds of this, one by one.

*

6. Spray it using clear acrylic spray.

*

7. Put a ring using plier.

*

And your charm will be ready!

*

Try it!

It may take several attempts to learn tids & bits of it.

It's not really hard, but it is a little fussy, yes.

*

Quality :

I still keep the first batch of my shrink plastic attempt *from 6 months ago, 

it is still nice, not smeared or dull. 

So it depends on the use of it. I put it as a charm on my Instax.

*

End of Year Doodle

Hello.

Another 5 days before 2012.

It's almost 2 years since I officially started sharing my doodles.

I learned a lot from doing such a simple mindless thing for fun,

and for that, thank you all for supporting :)

Previous Weekend's Doodle :

*

Nerdy side of azreenchan.

Get latest updates by following my facebook.

Little Things 4 : Our Playground

*

Can you see me? :D

*

We LOVE our own playground. Every time we found bumper car rides or even hovercraft rides *in Bandung, we will definitely try it. We will usually drag some victims along the ride. We = my siblings. And because four persons are already a big group and then including the victim probably another 2-3 people, so it will be like our own private playground. 

The latest rides in Bandung, we dragged along our little cousins, imagine having a rough rides with kids. 

Those 3 minutes will be priceless.

*

My Weekend Updates !

I love long weekend! I finished my freelance works, and currently resting. *Waiting for reality to knock on my door. Another several days before new years, be ready for 2012.

1. Finished up 2 doodles on canvas :

One was the large doodle that I've started several months ago and 

I was too lazy to continue because I was bored and it seemed like never-ending process.

And the second one was so easy-peasy it only took almost a day on & off.

 Here is the easy-peasy one.

Here is the super never ending one. 
Not the latest photo tho.

*

2. A couple of hours journey to Sungkai :

We went to my colleague's sister's wedding,

we were extremely late, but we had special treat nonetheless.

*

3. Fruits fever :

Not only we went to the kenduri, we also went to his dusun to pick up some fruits :D

Durian was never my thing, but I had fun eating Manggis, Rambutan, and Langsat.

I forgot when was the last time I went to dusun, probably when I was soo young

and watching them sweating excitedly while picking up fruits, that was priceless.

*

4. Morning coffee with Ma :

Ma's daily habit.

*

Direct Translation : Bruno Mars, It will Rain.

Why is it important to learn and keep on learning? 

Because you won't be the victim easily.

Because you won't misunderstood something just by what others are saying.

Learning English is just as important as learning other language. 

Most people take the easy way to just directly translate it.

Here is one example I extracted from several posts on Facebook wall :

Song : It will Rain by Bruno Mars 

There's no religion that could save me.

No matter how long my knees are on the floor.

How some people interpret it :

Tiada agama yang boleh selamatkan aku.  

Tidak kira berapa lama melutut di lantai.

Under those direct translation, they mentioned on how the song will lead to being "murtad", and you shouldn't listen or sing to the song anymore. That's absurd! 

In the simplest form, the lyricist actually meant "No matter how long I prayed, it didn't work". 

It does not meant "There's no religion that can save me, but Christian".  

You are not Google Translate, you are human. So avoid direct translation.

Brains are intended to be used to think.

At least if poetry is no longer exist, song lyrics are still available.

PS :

The first person to misunderstood something and ask people to share in hope of doing something good is one thing, but to thousand others that don't stop reposting one small mislead information will lead to something much bigger and stronger. It just shows that we didn't really understand English that much. And worst, we just share something others claimed it to be true. 

*

Things I learned from Books 1

I learned about Osteogenesis Imperfecta from one of Jodi Picoult's book : Handle with Care.

It is also called 'brittle-bone disease'. It causes your bone to crack so often, even if you just sneeze in wrong way. You bone will be so fragile, you can't do any active activity. Major symptom would be multiple bone fractures from young age *compared to osteoporosis that usually attacking elderly. 

Not only it is genetic disorder, it is also autosomal dominant disease, that means you will get the disease even if you carry only one copy of the gene. 

*

PS :

I love the way it sounded. 

Imperfecta obviously means 'imperfect' and osteo means 'bone'.
So it is imperfect bones? I can't think of what genesis means in the name.

While osteoporosis is the combination of 'bone' + 'porous'.

What you should know : Fresh Graduates

Hey, fresh graduates!

One thing you should take note before you accept job offers is your salary. Although I am sure as fresh graduates, you are lack of skills & experience, but you shouldn't be too naive too long. There are fishes in the sea, grab one and it will tell different stories. 

Can you imagine, currently to buy a semi-D house in Sri Kembangan area, it will cost roughly RM 500k+, the least. 10 years ago, it costed around RM 200k. Yes, it's 10 years ago. But do you know, that the salary for 10 years ago hasn't changed much? The cost of living is getting higher by day, but it doesn't really match with what we've been paid. 

I found it hard to believe when I see offers to work as Mydin's supervisor or money changer's assistant in IOI mall, or yogurt seller *also in IOI mall will pay you around RM1,500 a month. Without the need of any diploma or degree. 

But, there are still so many companies in Jobstreet offers below RM1,500 to fresh graduates to work with them. How do fresh graduates survive, I wonder? With education loan to pay, not including daily expenses, house rental, car's loan and all. 

One of the worst rumor I've heard is, some company pays more to other races than to Malay. How can you compare someone's capability by their race? 

So, please fresh graduates, make a research on how much you are worth in working field. At least, if you hold a degree, find works that are suitable for what you've been trained to do. Stop living in comfort zone. Improve your communication skills, working skills, and be someone important for your society.

And Melayu, stop living in your comfort zone. Wake up.

KUALA LUMPUR, 15 Dec (Bernama) — A Recent Survey By JobStreet.com May Have Shed Some Light Into Why Fresh Graduates Are Deemed As Asking For Unrealistic Salaries.

From the total of 1,830 fresh graduates who took part in the survey conducted in November 2011, 63% from Klang Valley and 58% from outside Klang Valley said that they required an average of RM700 or more to meet their basic daily expenses. These included food, rental, transportation and entertainment.

There were even 29% that rejected a job offer because the salary and benefits offered did not meet their expectation.

In general, what they expected was a salary level between RM1,800 and RM2,600 for the bachelor’s degree holders (73%). For the diploma holders, they expected a salary level between RM1,200 and RM1,800 (67%).

However, in reality only 54% of the bachelor’s degree holders received the expected salary level of RM1,800 – RM2,600. Another 35% received a salary below RM1,800.

A total of 37% of the diploma holders received less than RM1,200 salary, far below their expected salary level.

Graduates stated that the reasons why they were not hired was because of “stiff competition” (32%) followed by “lacked of certain required skills” (31%).

However one thing for certain, 23% of the fresh graduates themselves also felt that it was also due to their poor command of English language that deterred them from getting hired. Another 22% also stated “poor communications skills” as one of the reasons that they were not employed.

In terms of securing employment, 74% of the 773 fresh graduates who are currently employed managed to secure a job in less than 3 months after their graduation, with an impressive 16% who were even offered a job prior to graduation.

It was also interesting to note that for those graduated in 2011, 65% of the bachelor’s degree holders and 59% of the diploma holders were currently unemployed. 70% of them however just graduated 3 months ago or less.

A total of 1,830 fresh graduates that comprise diploma and bachelor’s degree holders, ages 19 – 24 years old, took part in the survey conducted by JobStreet.com in November 2011.

SOURCE : JobStreet

Inspiration : No Choice

No Choice by Seth Godin :

"I had no choice, I just couldn't get out of bed."

"I had no choice, it was the best program I could get into."

"I had no choice, he told me to do it..."

Really?

It's probably more accurate to say, "the short-term benefit/satisfaction/risk avoidance was a lot higher than anything else, so I chose to do what I did."

Remarkable work often comes from making choices when everyone else feels as though there is no choice. Difficult choices involve painful sacrifices, advance planning or just plain guts.

Saying you have no choice cuts off all options, absolves responsibility and is the dream killer.

*

PS : How many times did you use those excuses? You keep on finding someone/something else to blame. Should stop making excuses. Start living responsibly. 

Music Video.

Oh, I love Ingrid. Ingrid is an awesome song writer & singer.

She just posted this song on YouTube and it reminds me of somebody that I used to know, exactly like the song's title. Although I usually feel pointless to post a video clip on my blog. Here goes a song that reminds me of somebody that I used to know.

*

Update :

I love how the lyric speaks my mind!

Awan.4

My cat, Awan is now 22 weeks old.

While we've been away to Bandung for 5 days, we left Awan at my dad's house with Bibik. I don't know  if she is just straight-forwardly a coward or just because of the new environment. 

But I found out that for days that we've been away, Awan stayed in our room at my dad's all day and hardly explored the house. I thought Awan would be as curious as a cat? It's their nature.

There is even a proverb saying :

Curiosity killed the cat.

She didn't even let anyone touch her at first. So we took her home as soon as possible and now she's back to normal. Kisses in the morning, asking for breakfast, waiting for me to wake up, what a nice way to start my day.

:)

*

Little Things 3 : Mix Tape

A mixtape is a compilation of songs recorded in specific order. 

I love receiving mixtape. It is so rare, and so personal. It is like sharing your thoughts to someone, because for me, music sings the song of our unconscious mind. When you create a mixtape, you will think thoroughly about which kind of musics should you share, what makes you share it, why you love it, your current thought and all those little things. It needs extra efforts compared to buying a whole pack of CD for someone.

People don't really do mixtape anymore, most probably some mix CDs are still exist, and the easiest way of sharing thoughts through music is just simply by sharing it on their Facebook wall. Which is effortless. 

PS :

Technology kills the romance in us. 

And I'm being super old-school again.

*

Travel : Bandung 3 : The Art

*

*

There were arts everywhere! Hotels, streets, airports, malls, walls etc. It's obvious that they appreciate arts much better than us. I was quite shocked to see everything seems to have some artistic values. Meeting local artist was a bonus for me too. 

I had limited time to really explore this side of Bandung. Most places I went to was either malls or one particular place each day. Hope to really explore Bandung one day. The place was quite busy. *had problem to cross the road due to crazy drivers! 

*

Travel : Bandung 2 : The Food

*

*

The foods were nice & heavy. I guess that's one thing I didn't like being in a tour. We just had to finish up everything on the table. I'm not used to eating a LOT of foods for days. 

PS : Eat carefully. I'm the only one affected by the food. The only thing that differs between what they ate & what I ate was just Hot Latte from J'Co with empty stomach. So, don't drink Hot Latte when you are hungry, even if you are having mild fever, haha, lesson learned.

*