Little Things 31 : Reading Riders

I commute to work by walking, riding bus, trains and taxi everyday. I watch faces half asleep, faces boringly playing their phones, faces wondering idly while listening to music through their earphone, sometimes quite rare, I see people reading actual physical book. My eyes will automatically linger to the book cover just to know what they are reading. 

By far, I've managed to finish off reading 3 books while on my way to work and home. Sometimes I got so immersed in a book I didn't feel the time passes in the 1 hour journey. 

So, I am so excited to see this ! A photography project by Ourit on reading riders in New York subways. To see so many people, from wide range of ages, colours and ethnics reading various books instead of doing nothing.

Do you want to be a reading-riders? Let's read to work, while waiting for the trains and buses, while queuing up, while eating lunches alone or while having a 15-minutes break. Make use of the time. Stop playing with your smartphones that aren't making you any smarter * HUGE self-note. 

I have quite a lot of good books, so if you want to borrow any books, just send me an email requesting a book, if I happen to have the book or own similar genres, maybe we can sayhellogoodbyes at the train stations, exchanging books! 

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Read, let your soul read.

Doodle & Sketches

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Hello !

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Currently I am doing a personal project, experimenting doodle in large scale! I've been wanting to vandalize a space and at last I got a space for my own to doodle on :

 Will finish in few more weeks I think, due to my tight schedule.

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Remember those little wooden pendant I did last year? These are whats left, I put it on my wall :

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Happy doodling guys!

Book : Over-excitement

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Have I ever mentioned in my blog that I love Carlos Ruiz Zafon's book? I bought The Shadow of the Wind two years ago and I fell in love with his story and I thanked the translator Lucia Graves for the breathtaking translation too, because it was beautifully written! I bought The Angel's Game few months after and I just saw The Prisoner of Heaven at the bookstore! 

I just bought 3 books last week so it is over my budget. So sad! So so so sad :(

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Current books by my bed :

I even bought Fadhli's first book published ! Congratulation Fadhli! :

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Random logo inspiration by Popcorn :

Travel : No One Really Cares

After months of lingering in so many travel websites, blogs, travel posts and travelogues, I've realised that it is true.

No one cares about your travel stories that much. 

I guess I learned it after so many daily exposure with those sites. I read that quote sometime ago, but at that time, I thought "Travel has been my number one passion, of course I wouldn't be bored by it!". But I had a chance to go much deeper than that. I read travel stories everyday for works, I read and saw hundreds of various places, I read about what they did, what they experienced, tips & tricks, advises, videos and such. I followed Matador, Lonely Planet, 360', and many other travel blogs available. 

But it came to a point, I ask myself. 

Does it matter? What you do, you experience, you see? Like what this guy said, travel is like a situational humor, you need to be there to experience & understand it. Or you can read here, if you have the patient and if you don't, I extracted a bit of the essay for you :

Most people had one or two polite questions, namely "You're back, how was it?" or "What was your favourite place?" But beyond that, they didn't have a whole lot to say or ask.

It's understandable. We are self-absorbed human beings. We spend most of our time dwelling on ourselves and our own supposedly unique issues. Am I any different?

Maybe it's self-centred of me to want others to share in my excitement over our year of adventure. I want to scream, "I am not the same person I was before I left!" Doesn't anybody get that? No, they don't. Up the steps of acceptance and maturity I reluctantly trudge.

It started with the thought of sharing my experience, it went on with the detailed part of helping people with informations *in case other people are planning to go there too. And it became an obsession, I count places that I went to *everybody does that , I shared hundreds of pictures in Facebook! *oh, I am sorry for my insensitive behaviour, I told stories to people about how this and that *brag brag brag. 

And after I read an article about how people actually don't care and many more encounters with travel sites, it hit me hard! It is true. We are all too self-absorbed! 

I had a conversation with my brother once, about this. And I remember telling him :

I read it somewhere, that actually people don't care about your travel stories. Your experiences and interesting encounters, thousands of pictures or videos. Unless they are there too. 

And I keep reminding myself that, afterwards. I share some pictures that I loved, 10 tips & advises to be remembered, and personal little encounters that touched my heart along that trip.

Just like writing a blog, I keep on asking myself, do people care what I write, share, brag, or analyze ? Most probably not. 

In essense to that, I make this like a personal journal, a reminder to myself and people who want to be reminded by this.  

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P/S : People should write blogs like this. 

I love her writings + picture of places! She makes places look so special and personal and I don't mind reading her long long posts.

Doodle : Faces

I referred this from humanae , a project that collects various human's skin tone. Came across this project when I read my boss's blog on this and I found it interesting to see various of faces in one long page. So I had to pick up my sketch book and sketch them up a bit. 

Sketch sketch sketch :

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Food : Home Made Tutti-Frutti Yogurt

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Hello!

I've been a fan of Tutti-Frutti and Moo for awhile now. Maybe I've tried 5 times now, knowing they are quite overpriced for my liking. So I've decided to try to make my own iced yogurt *using natural flavored yogurt .

1 small bowl of natural yogurt

2 spoon of sugar

Minced yellow watermelon

Minced chocolate

Put it in the fridge *the ice-box for over an hour.

My own critiques :

I've decided to dislike the taste of minced chocolate in this. It would probably tasted better if I put another spoon of sugar and blend it with ice. Should probably try other fruits next time. 

This is much much much cheaper than those frozen yogurt. 

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I am full.

❤

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Second attempt :

1 small bowl of natural yogurt

2 spoon of sugar

Minced red watermelon

This time, I didn't put any minced chocolate and I changed it to red watermelon, which tasted super delicious. But I put it in the ice-box for 2 hours, resulted the yogurt to be truly frozen and I had to wait before I can eat it. 

Why I didn't use blender? Because I have none and I am trying to experiment with things that are simple and reachable in my kitchen. 

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Doodle : Sketches

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Hello !

I am not lying when I said I doodle a lot. Random small items that I see, quotes that I like, logos that caught my eyes, random sketches in meetings, and such.

A person has ways to express his/her thoughts in various ways. 

These came from 4 different notebooks alone :

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Doodle : La Luna

Few weeks ago I went to the cinema to watch Brave, that explains my random doodle last week on the main character : Merida. 

The movie started with La Luna, short animated movie by Pixar. It was writen and directed by Enrico Casarosa.  I don't know how they did it, but those 7 minutes were filled with beautiful scenes and inspiring messages. I found out about the movie last year when it gor nominated and it was a joyous moment when Brave movie actually started with it. Surprise, surprise.

It's about a young boy named Bambino on his first night working with his father and grandfather. It reminds me of fisherman that goes to deep sea at night.

Definitely going to find the children book later!
I like this after The Fantastic Flying Books of Morris Lessmore short animation ❤
I've watched Puss in Boots : The 3 Diablos and I really-really love all Despicable Me's short animation. I can't deny that I googled and watched those so many times.

Do you have any favorite short animations?

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PS :

Yesterday morning, I was featured at Kids@NTV7, the one I mentioned here ❤ Thanks Hani, Johan & Mr. Reymy!

Book : How to Save Your Own Life

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Hello!

I've just finished reading this "How to Save Your Own Life" by Micheal Gates Gill, the man who wrote How Starbucks Saved My Life. There are 15 inspiring lessons shared by Micheal, telling little stories that changed his life. I loved how he wrote this book, it was like a father telling stories and lessons to his children. Short, simple and inspiring, in fatherly manner.

I love how I can feel the connection and relate it to my life. I love how he showed his vulnerability sincerely. I love how he didn't boast and how he accepted his weaknesses. I love the fact that he shared his experiences with people. I love how he summaries the lessons in each chapter. I love how simple the reading experience was.

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Doodle : Sketches

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Hello!

I usually bring my notebook anywhere, that explains my daily large messenger bag that I ordered from Naydee. Which I truly loved! Her hand-sewn bags are nicely done. If you are planning on buying any hand-made product using fabrics, contact her. I strongly recommend her hand-made products  ❤

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Anyhow, back to my random sketches in my notebooks. It is quite hard for me to maintain using one notebook at one time, resulting many notebooks and sketchbooks on my desk at home! 

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