The best bookstores in KL

E-books may be taking over the world, but brick-and-mortar bookstores will always be special because you can never replace the joy of a paperback in your backpack. Live vicariously through your favourite characters at these best bookstores in the city. 

Cite Book Garden

Cite (magazine publisher, champion of local and Singaporean writers, and the biggest Chinese online bookstore in the country) opened a physical bookstore in the form of Cite Book Garden, a small store designed for bibliophiles to relax and browse at length. The book garden features actual plants by way of hanging potted ferns by the window, a few chairs where readers can sit and read, a wall displaying the magazines they publish (ranging from fashion glossies like Vivi to the Chinese edition of National Geographic), a wide selection of titles from Taiwan, Hong Kong and mainland China, and even a small café (they once offered coffee workshops partnering with Exhibit Café from TTDI). The second floor houses an event space for readings, talks, activities for kids, and more.

Faizal Tahir and his shirtless album cover picture

Singer-songwriter Faizal Tahir put a lot of thought into the design of his latest album cover Anatomi.

“Who has a scientist jacket?” singer-songwriter Faizal Tahir says while laughing right after someone asked him to explain the meaning behind the cover of his latest album, Anatomi. The striking image features Faizal, 37, posing like the Vitruvian Man, with wings and surrounded by a number of items.

Oh, he’s shirtless, too.

He knows the media will question him on this issue. “If I’m going to explain everything, it’s going to take a long time,” he says during an interview in Kuala Lumpur.

To put it simply, Faizal says the various elements on the cover represent the songs on the album as well as things that define him as a man. It ranges from his birth year (“The horse. It’s also my favourite animal.”) to his belief about duality (“Where there is shadow, there is also light.”) and of course, his favourite football club (“The wings represent the mythical Liverpool bird.”).

The cover also reflects his admiration for women who sacrifice for their loved ones (“The lady with the veil is balancing a number of things on her head.”), patriotism (“The Malaysian flag reminds me that no matter where I go, this is home.”) and the rabbit head is the persona he takes on to entertain children.

Kids, do you know what this is?

Before Spotify, people used to drive around listening to music on this relic, the car stereo.

Collectors and music fans wearing the T-shirts of obscure rock bands brave the tropical heat outside a record store near Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur, waiting to get their hands on new cassette tapes.

No, this isn’t a flashback to the 1980s, but an event marking recent International Cassette Store Day, an annual celebration of a music format once thought headed for extinction but now enjoying a rebirth.

Vinyl’s renaissance is well-documented and now it seems cassettes are rising from the grave, with artists such as Kanye West and Justin Bieber releasing songs on tape.

In South-East Asia low production costs and a retro-cool image have made cassettes an underground-music fixture, especially for struggling bands getting their name out.

“Cassettes are our best sellers,” Mohammad Radzi Jasni, owner of the store, Teenage Head Records, said after shoving one by Singaporean surf-punk band Force Vomit into a bulky tape player.

“They are still the best way to discover new bands here. It’s very affordable for the guys releasing it and the fans buying them,” he added.

Manufacturing costs can be as low as RM4 per tape in Malaysia, compared to RM60 to RM80 for a vinyl record. Vinyl’s cost is a hurdle for young bands and DIY labels in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines.

How To Clean Your Laptop

Cleaning Your Laptop

Unfortunately, unlike the standard desktop, a laptop is not as easy to open and clean. However, there are still several steps an end-user can do to clean and maintain their laptop.

Before cleaning any laptop, turn it off and unplug it from the power source. Also, because you’re going to be cleaning the laptop, we also suggest that you remove the laptop battery.

Best secondhand and rental bookstores in KL

Do you prefer your books to have a bit of character? Roll up your sleeves and score a literary gem or two at these top secondhand and rental bookstores in KL. 

Jumble Station

Jumble Station is a community outreach initiative by the NGO Parents Without Borders to help raise funds for single parents. There’s a small corner in the shop that sells secondhand books which were donated by the public. Get three books for RM10, two for RM8 and one for RM5.

Address:

	The School Jaya One 72A Jalan Universiti Petaling Jaya 46200
Opening hours:	Daily, 10.30am-8pm

11 Biasiswa Pengajian Luar Negara Yang Pelajar Malaysia Perlu Tahu

Rebut peluang untuk memohon 11 biasiswa pengajian luar negara bagi pengajian ijazah dan lepasan ijazah!

1. Biasiswa JPA Di bawah Program Kejuruteraan

Biasiswa JPA ini ditawarkan oleh Jabatan Perkhidmatan Awam Malaysia (JPA). Calon-calon hanya dibenarkan untuk memilih salah satu daripada empat negara yang layak (Jerman, Perancis, Jepun dan Korea) bergantung kepada minat dan potensi.

Kursus

Kejuruteraan

6 Fakta Untuk Dapatkan Biasiswa

Perlu ke lulus dan dapat straight A?

Biasiswa dianugerahkan kepada pelajar berdasarkan merit, pencapaian akademik, bakat khas, hobi, atau kriteria-kriteria yang ditetapkan oleh organisasi yang memberi sumbangan tersebut. Ada juga biasiswa yang diberikan berdasarkan keperluan pelajar tertentu.

Biasiswa bukan sahaja membantu pelajar dari segi kewangan, tetapi juga seperti ada kebanggan tertentu sebagai penerima, apalagi jika biasiswa yang diterima terkenal susah untuk didapatkan.

Sebelum mohon biasiswa, cari tahu dulu 6 perkara berkaitan soalan dan fakta di bawah:

Top 10 New Year’s Resolutions You Waste Money On

2016 is off to a great start and many resolutions have been made. Making a change in your life by setting goals is all fine and dandy; but beware the resolutions that you make – they just might wreak havoc on your personal finances.

Here’s a list of the top 10 New Year’s resolutions that can turn out to be a real waste of money – unless you do them right.

Price Hikes We Dread In 2016

The year 2015 was certainly not an easy one for Malaysians, from having to adjust to fuel subsidy removals starting December 2014, to having to cope with price hikes that came with the implementation of the 6% Goods and Services Tax (GST) in April, to having to weather the weakening Ringgit, which hit a 17-year-low against the US dollar (at 4.40) in September due to falling crude oil prices.

To top it up, tolls at highways operated by 11 concessionaires were also raised by between 20 sen and RM3 in October.

Will the upcoming year spell better news for our wallets? We are not counting on it. In fact, there will be further all-round price increments that we are totally not looking forward to. What are they? Read on to find out.

Simple Tips To Relieve Stress

Stressed? Our lifestyle today is very stressful. Some factors that cause this stress is pollution, stressful working environment, working two jobs, searching for a job and family problems. With so many things affecting our quality of life stress is one of the factors that can affect us mentally and physically. So, what do you do to relieve yourself from this stress? Have you ever considered giving yourself a stress free environment? Start pampering yourself and to reward yourself for doing such a good job at life and succumbing to stress. All you need is time, a little cash and a positive mindset. Pack away your mental stress and take the weight off your shoulder its time to distress.

Tips On How To Relieve Stress

Have Time For Yourself:

Kung Fu Cult Master

Click the picture to watch the Movie

Kung Fu Cult Master is a 1993 Hong Kong wuxia film adapted from Louis Cha's novel The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber. Directed by Wong Jing, it featured fight choreography by Sammo Hung, and starred Jet Li, Sharla Cheung, Chingmy Yau and Gigi Lai in the lead roles.

11 Tips to Tweet Properly

11 Tips to Tweet Properly

Twitter is not only for the young, tech-savvy kids; parents, businesses, and even politicians have hopped on the wagon to Twitter Town. Similar to cell phones, emails, and social marketing tools – you can only outrun Twitter for so long.

As a beginner, you’ll find that Twitter uses cutesy names to describe its tools and functions, which can be frustrating at the best of times – like a secret code that you need a special decryption machine for others.

So, here’s our helping hand with 10 tips to get your head round some of the necessary terminology that Twitter uses and how to tweet in the right way!

 

 

Why You Should Be Writing Down Your Goals

Why You Should Be Writing Down Your Goals

We hear a lot about the importance of goal-setting but most of us don’t have clear and measurable goals to work toward. Lewis Carroll says, “Any road will get you there, if you don’t know where you are going,” but how important are goals really and if they are vital, how can we make them most effective?

According to a study done by Gail Matthews at Dominican University, those who wrote down their goals accomplished significantly more than those who did not write down their goals. Who doesn’t want to accomplish significantly more? Here are four steps to creating clear and measurable goals that will lead you to huge success.

Perlu Atau Ingin?

Keperluan atau keinginan? Ungkapan ini yang sering terlintas di fikiran apabila melihat barang yang disukai di pusat membeli-belah. Perasaan tertarik dan keinginan untuk memiliki mendorong diri untuk membeli. Ia perkara biasa yang dilalui oleh semua orang. Ramai orang mempunyai wang, tetapi yang membezakan anda dengan orang lain adalah jumlah wang yang dimiliki dan cara wang itu disalurkan.

Perkara asas yang diajar ketika kita masih kecil jika mempunyai wang adalah untuk menabung. Sesungguhnya ia amalan yang amat berguna untuk masa hadapan. Ramai golongan muda masa kini gemar menghabiskan wang mengikut nafsu seperti membeli barang-barang yang bukan keperluan sehingga tiada duit simpanan. Ini menjadi masalah besar kelak ketika duit yang benar-benar diperlukan untuk tujuan yang lebih penting seperti berkahwin dan membeli rumah tidak mencukupi. Sebagai contoh, seorang lelaki yang baru mendapat kerja dengan gaji RM2,700 ingin membeli kereta buatan luar negara dengan harga hampir mencecah RM100,000, sedangkan dia dah ada kereta buatan tempatan yang masih berfungsi dengan baik. Jika dilihat secara realiti, memang tiada salahnya membeli kereta baru, tetapi dia tidak PERLU membeli kereta itu sebenarnya.

Ebby Yus Ditahan Di Hospital

Mengalami masalah kesihatan berkaitan paru-paru, pelawak dan pelakon komedi Ebby Yus Rashid kini ditahan di Hospital Queen Elizabeth, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. 

Menerusi gambar tersebut, Ebby nampak agak lesu namun masih mesra melayan keluarga dan sahabat yang melawatnya di hospital. 

Sebelum ini, Ebby Yus pernah dimasukkan ke Hospital Kuala Lumpur akibat tekanan darah tinggi. Beliau juga pernah menjalani pembedahan jantung pada tahun 1999. 

Mari kita sama-sama doakan agar Ebby Yus kembali sihat dan sembuh dari masalah kesihatannya.

[ Sumber ]

5 Things Really Successful Learners Do

Most everyone can learn, but some people just absorb and grow at remarkable rates. Here are some of their tricks.

Many people claim to be a "lifetime learners," and with good reason. Scientists have warned that you need to keep your brain active if you want to avoid mental decay. But some people seem to learn easier and faster than others. These smart people often show creativity and innovation, and quickly pick up new skills on their own time.

Learning should be easy to do since we all go through years of schooling training on how to do it. But beyond basic acquisition of knowledge, there is a real art to intensive learning. For deep learning you have to find the time and energy for knowledge and skills building. Really successful learners know the trick is to make the process itself as energizing and efficient as possible. Here's how they do it.

8 Pictures of Most Amazing Pools Worth Visiting Once In Your Life

Artist Turns Ocean Stones Into Tiny Mandalas By Painting Colourful Dot Patterns.

So creative n artistic!!!

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Video | Tactmatic Feat. Darren Ashley & Ego ┇ Ku Kan Pulang

 

 Tactmatic Feat. Darren Ashley & Ego  ┇  Ku Kan Pulang