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Little Things 41 : Siblings

October 09, 2012

I've never thought we looked alike until we took this picture last weekend :


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App : Learning Application for Children on iPad

October 08, 2012
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Hello !

Here is a list of top three educational mobile applications for children that I love !

Love here means :
I love the interface, I love the story, I love the typography, I love love love.
It is beautifully made, inspiringly detailed and passionate. Worth the money spent.

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1. The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore by Moonbot Studios, $4.99
Target Audience : Kids, adults.
I've personally read this interactive book twice using my colleague's iPad and I love it so much ! It gives a huge reason for a person to buy an iPad. If all children books are like this, I'll buy an iPad ! 




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2. Wee Alphas by Wee Society LLC , iPad version for $2.99
Target Audience : Pre-schooler

I love how they shared the story on how they started their company in 2010, you can view it here by scrolling down the page.






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3. Little Bee's ABC by Lisbon Labs, iPad version for $2.99.
Target Audience : Pre-schooler

If you want to see the whole application, you can view it here. Such inspiring illustrations to be shared!






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I work as a conceptual designer for mobile application and during my free time, I explore the beautiful wonder of arts in current digital medium mainly in tablets and smart phones. One of my favorite topic is children's application. I'll share my finding here from time to time. Enjoy the geeky side of me ! :D - azreenchan

Little Stories 23 : Books


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I am being quite selective when it comes to books nowadays. I no longer have as much time as my student years. So I am being picky. I read books that got good reviews, been recommended, been in my wish list,  written by my favorite authors or random old-time books that I love to reread. This month books :


The Magician fell from the book shelf when I was looking for books by Neil Gaiman. I couldn't find American Gods or even The Graveyard Book and Coraline, so I took the incident as a sign. Few days earlier, I read Paulo's book : The Alchemist, on how human nowadays failed to use their instinct and see signs around them. We forgot that there's energy around us and if we try to listen, we may find some useful information for us. So I bought the book, because it fell on the right moment when I was making a decision. 

PS : My classmate recommended this book to me 3 years ago. She said I should try to find and read this book. 

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I finally found Coraline, special edition illustrated by Chris Riddell. I am trying to ignore the large font size - it is a book for children. I love the illustrations, it reminds me of Diana Wynne's books and Inkheart trilogy when I was young. Books with nice illustrations :D




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Here is a photo of my little book shelves - well, some part of it, it is actually much higher than this.  There are many more books around my room, everywhere. Regret buying book shelves from IKEA , this is Billy series around RM160 each. It is not strong enough for books. I am thinking of installing a proper book shelves to the wall. 


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Neil's little library is one of my inspiration, it is in the basement! 
I told my siblings :

I need to have a library like this! Proper book shelves installed to the wall. It should be high to the ceiling and low to the ground. And a nice sofa, and nice carpet and all. Let me take a picture of this so I will be reminded everyday - I quickly snapped a picture on the screen using my phone.

And my siblings left me with boring looks.
They have heard this so many times before.
:D

Pictures courtesy from Shelfari

Pictures courtesy from Shelfari
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Little Thing 41 : Love


I heard someone said, there will be a moment in life when you will get a call, a sign, telling that you are ready to go to a new phase in life, where a door will be opened and you will be ready to learn about love to your Creator in much deeper meaning. 

You will start to have questions and will try to find answers. You will start to read, ask, observe, analyze, think and relate one thing to another. You will see in much broader way. You will learn to connect the dots and understand. You will find so many answers given to you in one go and maybe none. Sometimes it makes sense, and sometimes it doesn't.

It is like a puzzle game.
You know how to play the game,
but how long you will take to finish it depends on how hard it will be.

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Nike We Run KL 10 km

October 07, 2012

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Today I went to e-curve with my siblings. My brother was supposed to pick up his t-shirt and goody bag for the upcoming event : We Run KL 10km 2012, to be held on the 13th October. This time there will be 15,000 runners ! Malaysian runners will be a part of 395,000 runners from all over the world, participating in this running series - with 32 cities participating. I think I should start training for 10km run next year :D

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There was a challenge for participants, they were asked to try on the brand new Lunar running shoe, Nike mobile app, and were asked to run on the treadmill - 150 meter. Participants received a badge to be customized on their t-shirt, hot-pressed on the spot :D








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Event : PIPIT the 9th

October 05, 2012
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Hello !
This would be my 4th time with Pipit. 


Pipit Wonderful Market only Once or Twice a year :D 

Pipit Wonderful Market a creative festival for handmade craft, independent artist, designer and other related creatives talent that are interested to expose and trade their creations or items. 

Date : 10 Nov 2012 , Saturday 
Venue : Annexe Gallery , Central Market , KL 
Time : 12pm ~ 7pm 
FREE ADMISSION 

Mark your calender !

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Little Stories 22 : Passion and Defensiveness



Did I ever told you? If I can list down my passion :
  1. Travel
  2. Books & Writings
  3. Arts
It always circulate around that. 

Later last night, someone sent me a message asking me on similarity with other blogger. First on my doodle - which is fine, because I've accepted the fact that my doodles are quite easy to imitate and I try to ignore it as much as I can and take it as a compliment *or at least I am trying to. Second, on my writing and topics - which I suddenly became too defensive. One thing I learned about myself is I found books and the art of writing are sacred. I don't want to share , let alone imitate or copy other writer - ditto letting other people speak in my voice. 

This is my personal thoughts and I try to find my voice in my writing - which is hard to achieve. English is not my native language, but I love it nontheless - it gives me a chance to connect to the world much bigger than here. 

So last night I accidently opened the Pandora box and became a human and whined so much to Mr.S about it. I whined like a teenager. Like a drama-queen. Like a mean bitchy girls in  high-school they always show in the telly. 

I went home and slept the whole night, dreamed about going to Thailand and woke up at almost 7am. I wrote this fast enough at the lab in the morning because I arrived early just to let this out.

I learned several things :
1. Sometimes even how hard I try to be calm and find zen, there will be a moment when other energy will try to slap my head from the back and say "wake up, be human once in a while". 
2. Acceptance is still something I need to learn. If I get too defensive in the future when someone say I imitate other people again, I'll slap my own head from the back.  
3. Take imitation as a compliment. 
4. Ignore the world and keep on writing.
Real winners do not compete.
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Little Things 41 : Personal Dream


I guess one of the bad thing in growing up is you will eventually get used to things. If you are fine with the consistency, then it shouldn't be a problem. If you are not such person, you may feel bored easily. Adventure and new things are what you keep on having in your random thoughts. 

Sometimes I get annoyed with myself for having such thoughts and being 25, I know it is getting quite wild and hard to control. Since I started to gain my own money by working, I see many roads and possibilities. Life is much clearer. If only I can take out my passport and buy ticket to somewhere far. If only I can stay at some random foreign country and try to make a living by being a waitress in a coffee shop and slowly learn the city and culture. If only I can just leave things here and actually learn about life in new ways.

Sometimes it's getting wilder. I asked my mom ;

Me : I want to go somewhere far, and stay there to learn. There is more than this.
Ma : Why you keep on wanting such things? You don't want a big house, you don't want a car. Why? I am not like that <-- saying that she doesn't understand my need for such things in life 
Me : But I've been here more than 20 years already.
Ma : Don't tell me you aren't planning to get married.
Me : I don't know, it is not something in my list yet, I guess.

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I leaped with excitement when my uncle said that his family is going to Beijing and asked us if we are interested to join them again. Yes! So my brother and I are going to Beijing for this winter season in December. 

My salary isn't high enough to actually use it for fun. But the strong will to be on the road keeps me work hard to achieve this. I need to do this, or I will keep on thinking about it for the rest of my life. And I want what I want, or at least I'll fight for it hard enough.

2009 - Umrah
2010 - Singapore
2011 - Indonesia
2012 - Beijing
2013 - ?


When you want something bad enough, the world will conspires to help you. I just need my parents' blessing and money, a lot of money. Or I need to marry a nice rich traveller that love me to bits so we can explore the world together ! 
Okay, where should I start?

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Little Things 40 : A writer

October 04, 2012
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I keep on reading The Malay Male by Amir Hafizi because he reminds me of Neil Gaiman. Although I have never read any Gaiman's book so I can't comment on his writing, but I watched several movies made by him. Still, I can't make any jugdement based on his movies. To comment on his writings, I need to read his works - which until this day, I haven't. 

I guess I don't want to spoil my expectation, he is one of the US famous writer and I love almost all his quotations and the inspiring commencement speech he gave at a university early this year. So I put him on my list, and one day when I am ready, I will read his book. Expectations are odd things that can lead to frustrations. And I really don't want to dislike him.

Back to Amir's blog. 
I guess other than seeing Gaiman in his blog,  I love his bluntness and the fact that he is quite straight-forward in his writing. By the way he writes, I know he speaks his mind out. Bonus, he writes non-stop, when I wake up in the morning, there will be several posts in my +bloglovin' list. If that is not passion, I don't know what it is. I envy him being so outspoken, a trait I failed to have. 

Knowing my readers are mostly young adults, I don't recommend you to read his blog. It is just something I want to share, on pursuing passion and writing. Whether you are in any creative field, with efforts, you can achieve great things in life.

For his efforts and courage, he deserves to be known and read.

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Little Things 40 : Baking


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I fought with my inner self and found something to calm it down a bit. I keep thinking : do something new. So I made a bunch of cream puffs until late at night. 

For people who know me well, it is amusing to actually see me in the kitchen for other reason than being force to find something to eat and cook. Because I hardly eat for fun, so baking for fun is probably one of the oddest thing I could do.

I dragged both my younger brother and sister to keep me occupied in the kitchen and helped around. I know they were there because I looked too enthusiastic and they didn't have the heart to reject my excitement. Thank you  With simple tutorial from youtube and short reading from the net, I took a note and started it. After several arguments over how to make the filling and the filling actually shouldn't turn out a bit lumpy - wild guess : that was cooked eggs because the milk was too hot :D But the filling was nice and creamy enough.

It turned out okay.

It wasn't perfect, but it was decent enough. 
My siblings ate it happily.

What I learned?
I saw how my siblings supported me on that night. It was a rare occasion- we don't really do such thing for fun. We slowly turned into adult, with our lives to handle, and our own problems to solve. That night, I learned that sometimes people do something out of love, and to show supports. For that, I thank them 

Baking is still strange to me. And eating for fun is still new.
So we will see how it grows in the future. 


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You can find tutorial on the net,
there are sooooo many easy tutorials to follow, I don't want to repeat things thousands of people already shared. 
I find myself a bit chessy when I post on my baking experience.