• art news,  local events,  technology

    Evernote Smart Notebook by Moleskine

    Digital and physical note-taking finally come together in an elegant solution.

    Evernote®, the company that is helping the world remember everything, and Moleskine®, the maker of beautifully designed notebooks and accessories, today announced the availability of the Evernote Smart Notebook today in Malaysia.

    A collaboration between Moleskine and Evernote, the notebook pairs seamlessly with the Evernote App for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch to allow creative ideas to leap from the page and into the digital world. With a simple snapshot taken within Evernote’s App, handwritten words and sketches found inside the new Evernote Smart Notebook are instantly transformed into searchable, shareable and permanent Evernote memories.

    The notebooks are available in two sizes, with both grid and ruled page designs —”Evernote Ruled” and “Evernote Squared” — that are optimized for snapshots taken with Evernote’s new Page Camera feature, available exclusively in the company’s application for Apple’s iPhone and iPad. The Page Camera automatically corrects perspective and improves the contrast between the ink or graphite and the Smart Notebook’s pages to create a beautiful note that can be viewed, searched or shared at any time from within Evernote.

    Each notebook includes a set of multi-color Moleskine Smart Stickers. These stickers are associated with a custom tag in Evernote. When a snapshot of a page containing one, or more, of the Smart Stickers is taken, the Evernote App’s Page Camera recognizes the stickers and automatically categorizes the digitized page in Evernote. Smart Stickers make digitally organizing your Evernote Smart Notebook content a snap.

    Every Evernote Smart Notebook by Moleskine comes with three months of Evernote Premium (RM45 value). Evernote Premium offers an enhanced Evernote experience with a higher monthly upload capacity, offline notebooks, improved searching for PDFs and images and more note sharing options.

    The Evernote Smart Notebook is available in large (RM103) and pocket (RM76) formats at Cziplee Books & Stationery or online at Moleskine Asia.

    The Evernote App is available for free from the App Store on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch at www.itunes.com/appstore or go to http://evernote.com/evernote for other devices. It is also available for Android but however certain features are not up yet. Evernote representative, Tiang Lim Foo (Market Development – APAC, Evernote) ensured that it will be updated soon.

    Tiang Lim Foo, Market Development – APAC, Evernote

    About Moleskine – The Moleskine® notebook is the heir and successor to the legendary notebooks used by avant-garde artists and thinkers over the past two centuries. A simple black rectangle that held the sketches, notes, stories and ideas that would one day become famous paintings or the pages of beloved books. Today Moleskine is a brand that encompasses a family of nomadic objects dedicated to our mobile identity; flexible and brilliantly simple tools for use in both everyday and extraordinary circumstances, ultimately becoming an integral part of our personality. Notebooks, diaries, journals, bags, writing instruments and reading accessories. Discreet travelling companions, satisfying our desire to express ourselves both on paper and beyond the page.

    Moleskine believes in the infinite potential for continuity and connection between the analog world and the digital one. Our research tells us that Moleskine enthusiasts are naturally inclined towards the digital realm and feel completely comfortable using both analog and digital devices, or even merging them together to create new hybrids.

    About Evernote – Evernote is helping the world remember everything by building innovative products and services that allow individuals to capture, find and interact with their memories. Evernote apps are available on all major computer, web, mobile, and tablet platforms.

  • Family travel,  Malaysia,  Selangor,  TRAVEL/HOLIDAYS

    i-City, Shah Alam

    My son, Yassin, had been restless at home since school holiday started; he read books, played Lego, scaled the house like Spiderman and did everything to keep himself busy. He wanted to go somewhere for the holiday but as I was busy with work and travel assignment, I told him to wait. My husband was busy with work as well. So after I got back from Sarawak, I took him and his cousin sister to visit i-City in Shah Alam as we had never been here.

    i-City is a unique theme park where all the main attractions are made of plastic and millions of bright LED lights. It boasts a City of Digital Lights, Outdoor Fun Park and Snowalk. We visited the Snowalk first as Yassin could not wait to get his hands on the snow. After paying RM100 (RM35 for an adult; RM30 for a kid), we went inside the snow house. Yassin was thrilled to touch his first ‘snow’.

    Covering a total of 4645 square meters of Arctic environment below 5 degrees Celsius, attractions around Snowalk include 100 tons of ice sculptures that were shaped by a team of 30 ice sculptors from Harbin, China.

    We stayed for about half an hour before running out from the cold house to find something to warm us! We were only given free jackets to go in. Gloves, cap and earmuffs have to be rented. I was not keen to pay more for the extra stuff, so yeah, we were numbs all-over.

    After warming ourselves with hot drinks, we explore the City of Digital Lights and Outdoor Fun Park. There are LED-made trees, flamingos, giraffe, cherry blossoms surrounding the park. Other than that, there’s Ferris Wheel, pirate ship and also some kiddy rides like merry-go-round and slow car. There are also some stalls selling gifts, toys, drinks and food.

    Yassin had a great fun and hoping to come again soon. But to me, as I was discussing with my 17 year-old niece, the place did not turned out to be as what we expected. It could be better. Anyway, for photography enthusiasts, this is a good place to experiment and test knowledge about lightings.

    Here are some useful information about i-City:

    Location:
    D-1-G, Jalan Multimedia 7/AJ, CityPark, i-City (along Federal Highway), 40000 Shah Alam, Malaysia.
    (GPS: 3.064753, 101.485391)

    Operations Hours:
    City of Digital Lights: 7pm – 4am daily
    Outdoor Park Rides: 6pm – 12am daily
    Snowalk : 10am – 12am daily

    Price Guidelines:
    City of Digital Lights – Free
    Outdoor Park Rides: RM5 to RM10 per pax
    Snowalk: RM30 (kid) to RM35 (Adult)

    Parking:
    Mon – Sun (6pm – 6am): RM10/per entry

    How to get there:
    Bus: From KL take RapidKL U80 to Shah Alam bus station, then switch to U605 to get to i-City
    KTM Commuter: From KL take the KTM train to Padang Jawa station, then catch a taxi to i-City.

     

  • mixed media,  pen & ink,  Travel illo,  watercolor

    Orang Ulu Girl

    Visiting Sarawak has inspired me to draw this Orang Ulu Girl painting. Details are based from my own photos that I captured there. This painting will be on sale soon in a mini exhibition cum Christmas party at my friend’s place. Will let you know the details soon.

    Pen & Watercolor on Watercolor Paper.

  • Family travel,  Malaysia,  Perak,  TRAVEL/HOLIDAYS

    Taiping Zoo

    It was just my boy and me during our trip to the north recently sending my mom, sis and her kids back home. The car was full and my husband could not tag along. Sis is living with her now and am happy that there will someone to take care of mom. I will drive up north again to visit her every now and then. Mom wants to be close to her elder sister.

    On the way back to KL, Yassin and me dropped by Taiping Zoo. He had been pestering me to drop by each time we travel up north. The brown signboards of Taiping Zoo along the expressway really caught his eyes. I made his wish came true and he is one happy young lad.

    Taiping Zoo is located in a lovely natural setting in Taiping Lake Gardens close to the foot of the Larut Hill (Maxwell Hill). The beautiful natural setting with streams, lakes and abundance of flora gives the zoo a unique advantage of being able to use nature to its best.

    Covering an area of 34 acres, the Taiping Zoo exhibits nearly 1,300 animals representing more than 180 different animal species. These include giraffe, tiger, bear, orang utan, chimpanzee, crocodile, elephant and others. Having an “Open Concept”, Taiping Zoo keeps animals landscaped in spacious enclosures that match natural habitat of animals. Like Singapore Zoo, Taiping Zoo also The Taiping Night Safari is a first of its kind in Malaysia.

    Ok. let’s take a look at the animals!


    Chimpanzee.


    Marmoset monkeys.


    Estuarine Crocodile -the largest living reptile! The head is large with a heavy snout. The crocodile’s back is covered with ridges that provide protective armour and act to conceal the crocodile’s movement below the surface of the water.


    Civet. Civet is a nocturnal mammal native to tropical Asia and Africa, especially the tropical forests.


    Yassin and Sambar deer.


    Sambar deer.


    Barred Eagle Owl. Also called the Malay Eagle Owl, this owl is recognisable by their prominent ear-tufts.


    African Lion.  Its most famous feature is the mane, which only male lion has The mane is yellow when the lion is young and darkens with age.


    Smooth Otter. This type otter is listed as a vulnerable species. Their range and population are shrinking due to loss of wetland habitat and contamination of waterways by pesticides.


    Giraffes.


    Bat.


    Heron.

    Taiping Zoo opens around the year of the year including Sundays & Public Holidays from 8.30am to 6.00pm. Admission fee is RM12.00 for adult and RM8.00 for children.

    Should you be interested in adopting animals, you can read the information >here<. Prospective “foster parents” are expected to bear the cost of maintaining the animals for ONE YEAR. For an annual contribution of RM50.00 – 499.00, you get 2 free passes to Taiping Zoo; each pass permits free entry for 2 adults and 4 children. Your contribution is tac deductable.

    Address:
    Jalan Taman Tasik Taiping, 34000 Taiping, Perak Darul Ridzuan, Malaysia.
    Tel: 605 – 8086577 Fax: 605 – 806 6025.
    E-mail : zootaiping@zootaiping.gov.my


    Can you guess what is Yassin looking at?