Little Stories 59 : Random Nescafe Talk

I was making my hot nescafe in the late afternoon yesterday. My mom was there as well. She doesn't drink caffeinated drinks except in the morning, but I offered it anyway.

"Ma, do you want to taste this?"

She took several sips.

"Why so pahit?"

"Oh I intentionally make it a bit bitter, just like how my heart tasted, bitterness".

:D

Doodle : " Explore ! " Totebag

Hello !

I am so excited the tote bag I ordered is ready for the pick-up today ! 

I asked my mom's help to collect those bags far in Sungai Buloh, a place we both were not familiar with, using Maps in iPhone *well, it worked fine. But we were 2 hours lost in the factory area, a very crammed disorganized place indeed. Thank you Ma, for being very-very helpful.

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This time around, I made something very personal for me.

I wanted to create something that I'll remember, as part of my 3 months - Reckless Life phase. I doodled a lot of random things in the past, not much of something that I really plan to do. So this time around, I tried to focus on illustrating something that I wish I did, solely on the personal passion of mine and random interests. 

As much as you can see, I really love to go to places. So I took a theme : travel, places, adventure, explore, etc. I love the emblem-vintage style, like the old badges they did in my dad's years *my dad used to collect badges and pins. So I did a lot of research on that as well. My research ideas came from a lot of Behancers and Tumblr posts. I printed several examples that I found and loved, and sticked it on my wall. I even watched the Darjeeling Limited and Moonrise Kingdom again so I can 'feel' it.

I drew it on my current favorite A4 Marker Pad by Daler Rowney, I love the smoothness of the thin-layered paper (70g/m) and I used my favorite Pentel mechanical pencil - because it worked as thin and dark as I wanted it to be. 

The illustration took several days, because I was stuck on things to add, and I had several arguments with myself whether certain part was needed or not, or should I draw raccoon or a bear, or whether I should draw local trees or whether the totem should be there or not, I asked several people around for their opinions as well on the little items, and finally post it on my instagram :

This is the first version of my attempt on drawing a simple compass, but I changed the design after my brother said he thought it was a water-flask. Phew.

I didn't want it to have local touches much, hence the fox and bear, also the same as the arrow, the totem, the flag with a pine tree picture and definitely the bon-fire. What is the purpose of exploring if I draw things in my area, I wanted to go as far as I can go - *or so I thought.

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Next, was the scanning and the outlining phase, it took longer than I planned, because of the detailing part. I used Photoshop CS4 and an old wacom bamboo tablet instead of Illustrator, I am not going to argue about why I did not just vectorize it right away. I just love freehand drawings.

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After the long phase in digitizing the illustration, I made a test print. I gleefully showed it to my mom, my sisters & brother - and shouted "Look at thiss !". I am nothing as cool as other super-awesome-illustrator out there, the child in me is ridiculously annoying sometimes. After several seemed-like encouraging words and "mehhh", they continued with their works. But I was still gleefully-excited and posted in my Instagram, again.

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After that, I did some research on local printing company especially canvas tote bag - because I wanted to print something for so long but never had the courage to spend a bundle of money on one shot. I did it anyway, I found several companies, contacted them and asked for the rate and stuffs, chose one that I found reliable and trustworthy, asked for invoice,  used my little saving to pay half of the total amount, confirmed on the designed with digital mockup and waited for like 10 days before the pick-up day. 

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So finally it is ready !

The illustration was screen-printed on a 40 x 36 cm hand-made canvas tote-bag.
It smelt like a totebag baked in a little lost factory in Selangor.
The material is a bit thick, which what I intended it to be.

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And they are currently up for sale !

Price : 
$10 usd (International) / RM 30 (Malaysian)

Postage :
- International (depends on the location)
- Malaysian (RM 3), normal postage, or Poslaju by request (RM 6)

Payment :
Via Paypal or bank transfer Maybank2U

How to buy? :
Send a PM to my facebook page or ,
send me an email : azreen_31@hotmail.com or,
reply to this post with your email address as well or,
check out my Etsy.

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Explore !

This Week's Findings 1

Interesting finding this week :

Just Delete Me , 

it's a directory of direct links to delete your account from any web services. Knowing God knows how many web services we signed up in the past couple of years and how much information about you scattered across the internet. 

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Take your pick, 

a letter from David Ogilvy replying to his 18-year-old nephew, Harry. Harry was deciding on going to university or straight to working-life, after school. Some people faced the dilemma of choosing their life after school, for me as well. 

I wish I know for sure what I was taking for several years with excessive education loan at that time. I wish I work in the field for several months as intern after school so I would know whether I really want to spend the rest of my life in that field or not, and know an insight of working life- *this is really useful. Instead of choosing right ahead. Not everyone knows what to do in their life at 18. Most people will get stuck with the loans and work their head off doing things they don't want to do. 

What I would purpose for 18 year-old :

1. Take a year-off. 

2. Ask your parents' help to find a work that you might be interested in, apply for an internship if possible, work for 3 months. Your supervisor should know that you are there to learn about the field, not just for the 'acah2' works. 

3. Take short courses or classes. If you love writing, take an English or Creative Writing course, if you love helping people, do a volunteer in a hospital, if you think you want to be a travel journalist, learn a new language, etc. So that you will find your passion and learn about the field as well.

4. You don't have to rush it. But maximize it to 6-months or 1 year, before deciding. Don't sit around doing nothing in the house, value your time. I don't understand people doing nothing when there is so much things to do in life.

5. Do a lot of research, because you are creating your future.

I wish I did all of this, but I didn't. 

I learned things a bit slower, that doesn't mean I regret anything.

:)

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Exhibition - Seni Asli,

I went to Matic Kuala Lumpur and spent time wandering in the current exhibition : Pameran Seni Orang Asli Meh Meri. *Probably will end soon, this week or early next week. 

Read more in the previous post.

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Event - CNM Merdeka Showcase

I'll be here ! 

Antara aktiviti :
1. Pameran seni Creative New Media | Kutipan Tabung "Untukmu Palestine" | Slot ilmu bersama Aman Palestine & Aqsa Syarif | Gerai jualan (Blogshop/Makanan/Minuman) | Nerf dart Tagg "Tempur Merdeka" | Youth Mini Festival: Lokal Brand | Permainan interaktif | Pertandingan futsal terbuka | CNM Doodle | Merdeka Doodle | Live radio broadcast dari URBAN YOUTH.FM | Mini konsert (31 Ogos 2013/Malam)

Sokongan dan kerjasama :
Team APPR (Appertura Photo Clan) I School of IT & Multimedia Multimedia College KL | Majlis Belia Wilayah Persekutuan (MBWP) | Unit Inovasi & Multimedia | Aman Palestin | Aqsa Syarif | Mekar Semilu | Pekomik | Azreenchan | Pelirik Bebas| Hotfm

Update :
They changed it to Saturday, 9am - 6 pm, Multimedia College KL

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Fellow instagrammers :

Indonesian illustrator - Rukmunal Hakim

Local photographer - Fad Manaf | Zulluey | Azlanr

Chalk master - Zaky Arifin

International photographer - Mustafa Seven

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The XX

I just bought their latest album : Coexist

and I am still excited over buying it on iTunes and finding out it is automatically downloaded in my Mac and iPhone - even after 2 years. Even better if it automatically downloaded in my petite little tiny iPod Shuffle. *Phew, technology. 

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Fujifilm Instax Mini 90 Neo Classic

I was super excited when I got a newsletter from Fujifilm regarding their latest product - will be launched in Japan soon and globally in September. I had my Instax Mini for over 3 years now, and I love Fujifilm instant camera :

Extra features that I'll love : 

Macro, double exposure, better picture in darker environment and moving objects.

Read here for other Instax.

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Exhibition : Seni Asli, Matic KL

I went here unplanned and found a great exhibition currently held : Seni Asli - An Orang Asli Contemporary Art Exhibition and Sales, at MaTiC Kuala Lumpur. 

There were a lot of beautiful wood-carved sculpture and masks, several art sketches, a lot of photographs and the Mah Meri's crafts. Nothing as I imagined Orang Asli's product would be, because the design was a bit modernized and influenced by several other subjects : gargoyles, Chinese dragons, etc. I personally love the combination.

Too bad there weren't any visitors much. Except for me and another two foreigners that only spent 3 minutes in the gallery. 

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Sumpit

These wooden sculptures were made by the Meh Meri people to house the spirit :

Moyang Pacat

Moyang Puting Beliong

Moyang Katak

Moyang Harimau Berantai

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Doodle : This week.

Sometimes I got too many emotions mixed-up in my mind, and I don't know how to express those feelings. Those confusion and arguments got piled up and the easiest way to let it out is by doodling. Here is for the hari serabut early this week.

This is all taken from my Instragram post :

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Inspiration from : Celia Arellano, Kanak2 Angkasa, Red Indian and penyakit hati. Phew. Strokes definitely came from these sources I pointed out just now. 

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Inspiration from : Music video Featherstone by the Paper Kites, Kanak2 Angkasa, tribal-themed repetition. Strokes heavily influenced by these sources I pointed out just now, thank you people of the world.

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Inspiration from : Tumblr posts on flower and mixed confusion. I forgot which movie/series I watched while doing this. Was it New Girl season 2, or Gossip Girls season 4 ? 

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Inspiration : Tribal-themed repetition. Just a quick 10 mins doodle using Bamboo. Picture taken from random Tumblr post.

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Soo, yeah.

Little Things 88 : Introversion (again).

*why we actually need to explain ourselves ? o_o

Another post on introversion, here is a link I found on Says : 

How to Rock the Holidays with an Introvert. 

This also came after a discussion with my brother yesterday while having lunch. He was talking about how one of his friend doesn't like to mix around with the gang for any activity. My brother thought everyone should at least try, to do everything in a group outing. 

"Introverts typically relax at home or in nature, not in busy public places. Introverts are not thrill seekers and adrenaline junkies. If there is too much talking and noise going on, they will shut down."

Although I know that we should try to mix around and be in the situation, I also want people to know that we, the introverts are trying and making an effort most of the time too. It is sometimes a bit exhausting, but we are trying. 

So to answer my brother again, well, yes, we are really happy by the slow silent treatment we are having, sometimes we just don't want to do river rafting or rock climbing or going to party, just because we don't want to. Not because we are afraid, or being rude, or not trying to have fun. It is just because we love sitting quietly, reading, walking in the park, thinking, writing, exploring or anything like that.

If I want to go out to the mall, I'll go on weekdays because weekend are just too much for me. If there are too many people around me, I'll tune off, sometimes it might seem rude, but I don't know why or how it happen. Especially in group outing while everybody is talking at the same time. I'd be the one looking out of place. Hmph. 

We just found solitude in little simple stuffs by ourselves.

I guess.

Or just read the post here, this might help :D

Little Things 87 : Don't Inspire People

I always remind myself that I don't live to inspire anyone. I do what I do best and I do it because I can, and I expect myself to do more. That way it becomes more personal and much closer to me. In writing or reading or doodling or sharing, everything comes back to me. I am selfish that way *I really am, Sirius Black - bless his soul. I don't live to put up with other people's expectation. 

It is much easier than trying to impress people with what you can do.

This is what I can offer to the world and I don't mind if it is not good enough, or bad, as long as I'll keep on doing what I do best and still feel fulfilled. The goals I have are for myself, the strength and passion I have are for myself. 

If you do something to impress people, you'll lose the purpose. 

I doodle because it calms me, and I doodle for money to survive. That's it.

I write because I love it, and I write because I want to express myself. *can you imagine being anti-social and keeping everything my head? I'll explode !

So, you want to know basic thing about doodling ? 

Make it about yourself. What you are thinking about, your feelings, your thoughts, your ideas, your beliefs, things that touch your heart, things that matter or care about, things that you like, little things, big things, patterns, or anything for that matter. 

Be narcissistic. 

You'll find yourself in there, for sure.

Book : Updates

Here is for a long post on books.

I lost count of books I read this year :

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I just finished reading Fearless by Cornelia Funke, the sequel to the previous one I read several months ago : Reckless. So it's another Jacob Reckless journey to the Mirrorworld, this time surviving the black Fairy curse and finding a cure. 

I think it didn't hit me as much as Inkheart trilogy did and I got confused by a lot of antagonist characters' name in the book : the Goyl, Nerron, the Prince, the Waterman, Lelou, Louis etc. Every time I read a chapter on the bad people's part, I lost focus, like reading something I didn't want to remember.  

Oh, the fact that it was written in a very short chapter helped a lot, I only read 2-5 chapters every night. So I can keep on pushing myself to read instead of leaving it for months and I literally put it next to my pillow every night, *in hoping that I'll never stop reading, it actually worked. 

It is so hard to keep reading since I stayed 24/7 at home, there's so much things to do. Phew.

Writer : Cornelia Funke ( famous for Inkheart trilogy )

Genre : Fantasy

Reader : Children/Young Adult

Pages : 424

Bought it : RM 33.90 at Borders the Garden

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I also read Stardust by Neil Gaiman. As usual, I've always keep many unread books at home because I buy book/s almost every time I went out to the mall. So it became quite handy, the list never ends :D I wanted to like Neil Gaiman so much because he is such a cool writer, I mean, try listen to his speech and look at his house and his beautiful dogs and his library and what not. He wanted to be a writer and that's what he's been doing and he got inspiring strong will. I tried to read books written by him again. 

So I bought Stardust, hoping it's not another American Gods that I failed to read. *I really like Coraline tho. 

Well the book has been made to a 2007 movie, featuring beautiful Claire Danes and Charlie Cox, I watched it years ago. Another fantasy world with witches and magic, how can I say no to that? Phew. It's not a heavy reading. The book has 333 pages with huge printed words - I usually get quite annoyed with huge printed words in novels, I love them small tiny miniscule.

I love the simplicity of the story. It's so great how imagination can go wild to things that is not even existed. Fantasy genre works very well for people like me : people who feed themselves with the nonexistence. 

Writer : Neil Gaiman ( famous for being Neil Gaiman, ha. )

Genre : Fantasy

Reader : Young Adult/Adult

Pages : 333

Bought it : Borders the Garden 

  

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I also read Kelahiran Lain published by Jargon Books. One of many books that I bought at the previous KLAB event. It is a collaborative works, written by many independent Malaysian writers in various ways. Some were quite odd, some were quite obscene and disturbing, some were acceptable. Every short story is very different from one another. 

One of the short story that caught my eyes was Kelahiran 3 by Wan Nor Azriq, page 25. I seriously can't relate to anything he was trying to say in the chapter and I wasn't sure whether that is good or a bad thing. But I can't understand his high taste of presenting his arts in words and even in morse code. The morse code part caught my eyes - I guess that's a good thing. It was odd enough until I felt like googling his name and found his blog. Look at all his posts, literature is very heavy for me, I feel like I am suffocating by all the jargons - this statement came from a self-claimed bookaholic. Wihu. 

I accidentally left this book at Matic KL for weeks, I thought my brother borrowed it so I didn't searched for it. When I went to Matic again weeks later and went into the surau, I saw it in the telekung's rack. I thought "Ohh, there's somebody else reading the same book as I did!", and picked up the book to see at least a name. Later I saw the postcard I bought at Pipit event signed by Evangelione in it and right then I found out that the book is actually mine =.=' 

Writer : 10 Malaysian writes

Genre : Life/Oddity

Reader : Adult

Pages : 135

Bought it : RM 25 at KLAB

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Another book I read was Rhymes for Mending Hearts by Sheena Baharuddin. This is also one of the many books I bought at KLAB. It's a compilation of poems written in English. 

I love her wider thoughts on the spiritual parts she wrote in the book, maybe because I can relate to that easily but I didn't quite like the love poems that much. It feels harsh and sad and heartbroken. Well, the title itself  said so,  obvious, duh, what did I expect? Ha.

Writer : Sheena Baharuddin

Genre : Poem

Reader : Adult

Pages : 157

Bought it : 2 or 3 for RM 50 at KLAB 

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Little Stories 58 : My Awan kena sawan

Last week for Eid, we went back to Pekan for several days.

Like usual, I planned to leave Awan at my dad's house. While we were packing things up on the morning before we left the house, Awan sensed something and started to hide away. I had to capture her several times and with my brother's help, we managed to put her in a big tote bag *letting only her head out so I can still hug her while she watched outside and she won't feel wholly trapped in the bag. It's not possible to merely hold her, the last time I did that, she climbed onto my head outside of our apartment and that was humiliating enough.

Awan stayed in the house most of her life. The only time she saw the world outside of our little apartment were 1) when she was sick and survived a surgery 2) during Eid - that was like 5 times in 2 years. So, she is not up for what the world can offer. Ha. 

She hates new people by this means she will stare at you most of the time you are in the house. She puts a well-defined space between you and where she is at that time and if you try to touch her, she'll attack you. Nope, she is not a well-behaved young lady, I forgot to teach her about manner maybe because we hardly receive any outsiders much. 

Continue my previous story :

So after several attempts, we put her in the bag and I brought her to the car. She gave her oddly big-voice miows maybe because she was scared and while in the car she sat so tightly in my arm. We arrived at my dad's house and she was restless again once we went out from the car. She started to panic and moved 'in' the bag trying to find other way out, it was getting harder to hold her. 

Once I entered the house, I looked at Awan in my arms and I saw her twitching. At first it was her paws, and I thought it was a reaction because she panicked. Then she started having a seizure ! I didn't know what to do, I put her on the floor and shouted to my sister to call my dad - because my dad was once a veterinarian, so I thought he knew how to handle things like that. 

I stayed at her side, watching her body contracted uncontrollably. That was the longest 2 minutes ever. After that, she seemed to regain her consciousness, and tried to stand up but her legs were too weak, it slide.  I tried to calmed her down and asked my sister to put her in our room, less spacious, less stress? Phew. 

Seizure !

It sounded a big dramatic for a cat to have a seizure, but yeap : 

my Awan kena sawan. 

It even rhyme. 

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We picked her up after 5 days, my sister said she twitched and was restless in her sleep, like she was having a bad dream. Poor Awan, my scaredy cat.

Read more on :

Seizures and Convulsions in Cats 

Reckless Life 5 : After 31 days

We will be forever in debt with everyone and everything around us. For those beautiful inspirations, for ideas and indirect lessons, for new thoughts and opinions, for never-ending fire that burns in our soul. We can't say thank you enough.

These past few weeks had been very entertaining for my little-imaginative-part-in-my-brain.

My little projects in this past 4 weeks :

• laser cut on wood
• wedding guest books designs
• test print for poster & postcards
• 2D super short animation
• threadless contest
• doodle researches & sketches
• tribal-themed illustration on wooden mirrors
• restocking my sticker packs for upcoming events
• diy personal signage on wood plate
• updating my Behance & Linkedin
• designing works for my mom's exhibition

Many times I worked for hours, distracting myself from little things that have been holding me down. I filled my time with what I've said I would do if I had the time, but it is never enough. Too many things to do, too little time and energy.

2 more months to go.
Another week before the upcoming Eid.

It's the end of month, bills are piling up and I am beginning to feel the anxiousness :F

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