Kautsar Abd Rahman

Ruslana Korshunova, born in Kazakhstan with Russian descent. Died at 20 years old after falling from her 9th floor penthouse in Russia. Dubbed ‘Russian Rapunzel’ for that glorious, glorious hair.

SUPER HOT.

I think the photography is just awesome. I love her hair. This post is really just me spending time doing things I enjoy admiring – beautiful women and awesome photography.

Does that sound wrong? Ha ha.

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There is this website where you can upload your face and whoever you want and they morph it into a baby picture who is technically of you and the picture.

Thanks to Fairuz, Hana’s hubby who put it up on Facebook, I spent good hours getting my baby pictures! Hahaha! By the way, Hana and Fairuz’s baby is so so adorable. Hana, I hope your time will come soon so I can gigit your baby! Hehe!

So I put up this picture :

And this picture of Sam :

And it morphed a baby that looked like this :

SO CUTE! Hehehe!

And if I use this picture of Sam:

I would get this :

Hahahahaha! Comel!

Sam : I suke anak yg first tu, yg second ni chubby.

Me : You tak suke ke anak chubby?

Sam : Suke, tapi nanti I ejek dia selalu. Hehe.

Haih, apa-apa lah Sam! We’ve got a long way to go before anything of that sort happens. InsyaAllah God will allow the union between us to take place. Amin.

A headphone by Parra, a dutch underground street artist who storms through the design world much like Banksy, but with more colors and graphic designs that is very particularly Parra and people go crazy over him and scour the streets around Amsterdam to find a piece of Parra’s poster. This headphone is a collaboration project with The Perfect Unison, and it is made of birch wood. The pinnacle interest of this piece of art is in the construction where it plyed and molded just like how skateboards are made.

In the word of Hypebeast : The headset takes the form of skate decks made of Finnish birch by David Burel. Having only a thickness if 1.2 mm allows the lightweight headphones proper flexibility with impeccable sound quality.

The result is pure genius. Smooth birch wood with Parra’s signature design and looks retro yet very,very modern. The only weakness it has is the fact that you can’t change the size, so if you do buy it, it better fits your head!

Product Info :

I get emotionally attached to films, whatever it is I watch, that’s why it’s usually an intense and heavy task for me to go through and I prefer light comedy that insults intelligence.

I watched Lord of The Rings again the other day, and was so absorbed with the whole world – the Middle Earth, Rivendell (Arwen’s home), Lothlorien (Galadriel’s forest) and the Shire. I don’t have much thought and attachment to Mordor and other grim places.

Rivendell  - where Elves dwell.

It was like watching Avatar. My heart and my soul just crave for that extremely beautiful world, and I guess everyone does, that it aches so bad for the yearn of it.

I was also deeply entrenched to the love story of Arwen and Aragorn which actually began before the period of the Fellowship of the Ring.

Arwen is actually the descendant of an elf-maiden who married a mortal and became one as well. She had the choice of becoming human had she wanted to, but before meeting Aragorn, Arwen had no reason to choose the world of Men, when she can live with Elrond, her father in the Elven world of Rivendell and Lothlorien ( Galadriel’s place and oh, Galadriel is Arwen’s grandmother).

Lothlorien was the place she betrothed herself  to Aragorn, choosing to live with him in this mortal life and said :

‘I would rather live one life with you then live the immortality without’.

*tears about to drop*

So, there is that scene in the Fellowship of the Ring when she gave him her necklace, and gave up her immortality.

Her father, Elrond, envisioned a depressing future of her – wearing black cape, depressed and alone , wandering in the forest, and a vision of Aragorn dead on a marble slab. Elrond was dead against Arwen and Aragorn, even though he had high regards for Aragorn, he loves Arwen too much to let her go and suffer the grief of death. Arwen was at first convinced by her father, and with the danger of Sauron, reluctantly agreed to fled to Valinor (the Undying Land – where Frodo went at the end of the movie.)

The Depressing Vision of Elrond

But Arwen saw something else – she saw a son which would be named Eldarion. She saw him as she was riding on a horse, ready to head for Valinor. Arwen saw this little boy running across her path, and Aragorn chasing him, and hugged him. The boy looked straight into Arwen’s eyes, and Arwen saw that he was wearing the pendant necklace she gave Aragorn. She would also give birth to two daughters.

Vision of  her son and Aragorn.

After the marriage, in the third saga of the story – the Return of the King, both Aragorn and Arwen lived blissfully happy for the next 120 years, with Legolas and Gimli as well.

The happy life that would last 120 years.

Aragorn began to feel death by the 120th year after he was crowned as King, and bid eternal love and farewell to Arwen. Arwen suffered greatly, just as how her father had warned.

Aragorn’s death

A year later, she bade farewell to her children and wandered to Lothlorien, the place where Arwen and Aragorn pronounced their love and where Arwen betrothed herself to Aragorn. All the elves in Lothlorien had sailed to Valinor.  So, she was alone, in grief and just laid herself at the spot where she and Aragorn promised their lives for each other and died.

Arwen died alone of grief and broken heart.

After Aragorn’s death, Legolas built a Grey Ship and he travelled in it with Gimli to Valinor. One would ask, why couldn’t Arwen follow Legolas to this land?

Elrond realized Arwen lost the will to live as an Elf.

It is because Arwen had given her right to the land. She had chosen to become a mortal. She had lost the will of life to life as an Elf. This was shown in the scene where Elrond took her hand and it was cold and said ‘ the life of Eldar is leaving you’, to which she answered, ‘..no ship will bear me hence’.

Lothlorien – where the Love began and ended.

Haha, seriously. Tolkien did not set out the Lord of the Ring for their love story!! But, don’t you just adore great, eternal and true love?

Like, the love story of Taj Mahal. Sigh, that’s another love story altogether and my heart needs a rest from grieving over this fictional tale of Arwen and Aragorn.

I love true love stories. The sacrifice and endurance, and passion and patience and all the sweet moments that just make you melt and shiver and go all gooey and warm. Sigh

I would like to share with you 2 amazing photos I have seen today.

This vibrant photo of the lovebirds is truly adorable and reminds me so much and me and *ahem* sam. Like depicted above, he is slightly taller and the lady seem a bit more,err, puffier  ;)*coo*

This picture is heart wrenching. Oh, the so many homeless people I have seen on the street of London with only the glow of love from their dog’s eyes that warm them through cold winter night, it’s really unfortunate that there are still homelessness everywhere when the world is so so rich. This picture is of a man in Toronto, however, not London. People have noticed him for about 2 years around town before his dad commented on this picture at Flickr to notify him of his son’s whereabouts! His mum also pleaded with a  homelessness group in Toronto to help locate this poor man. Luckily, the man and his mother was reunited again after that. If only all homeless people can be reunited with someone who still cares for them..

For those growing up or has grown up loving Disney princesses, and wanting/dreaming to be one or cherish the happy ending/prince charming/animal singing, this post is not for you *cough*hana fedora*cough*

Seriously, I feel emotional after looking at these pictures even though I am just your regular girl who watched them princesses in her childhood, nothing more. I was more intensely involved with Sailormoon and Samurai -X.

You have been warned.

This is a series from The Project : Fallen Princess by Dina Goldstein. Below are her words and photos.

Cinderella

These works place Fairy Tale characters in modern day scenarios. In all of the images the Princess is placed in an environment that articulates her conflict.

Snow White

The ‘…happily ever after’ is replaced with a realistic outcome and addresses current issues.

Sleeping Beauty – at Old People’s Home.

The project was inspired by my observation of three-year-old girls, who were developing an interest in Disney’s Fairy tales. As a new mother I have been able to get a close up look at the phenomenon of young girls fascinated with Princesses and their desire to dress up like them.

Rapunzel – I think this is most brilliantly done.

The Disney versions almost always have sad beginning, with an overbearing female villain, and the end is predictably a happy one. The Prince usually saves the day and makes the victimized young beauty into a Princess.

Not-so-Little Red Riding Hood

As a young girl, growing up abroad, I was not exposed to Fairy tales. These new discoveries lead to my fascination with the origins of Fairy tales.

Belle from Beauty and The Beast

I explored the original brothers Grimm’s stories and found that they have very dark and sometimes gruesome aspects, many of which were changed by Disney.

Princess and the Pea

I began to imagine Disney’s perfect Princesses juxtaposed with real issues that were affecting women around me, such as illness, addiction and self-image issues.

Jasmine from Middle East

Credit to JPG MAG featuring Dina Goldstein.

And my personal favourite for the pain, loneliness and engulfing sorrow it shows :

Ariel :’(

Beautiful work, don’t you think? Despite crushing those fairy-tale dream and happily ever after hope. Oh, I am so emotional now! :’(  :’(

There is something about Sam that always make me wonder just how far he can go. Just when I thought I kind of know everything about him, new things pop up to impress me more and make me totally head-over-heels for him-again.

The best thing about him is his passion – for anything that strikes his fancy. From photography, skateboarding, comics to toys, art and drawing to fix-gear bicycles and vintage items, if he’s into something, he makes sure he knows A-Z about it. He’s that kind of guy.

But he’s also (supposedly) shy and introvert. A man with few words but with mighty actions. So having him as a guest speaker for Kings’ College London Photo Society’s Beginners’ Workshop was a big deal. To both of us.

I was in the audience when he held the talk. With his loyal Mac book and an array of lenses and cameras, he was good. I was the one nervous for him. I sat at the edge of the seat, cold sweat in hand and was so focused on him that it slipped my mind to take a picture of him there!! (He was, obviously, slightly disappointed)

He made a presentation on different level of cameras out there, how to experiment with your camera and explore it, the difference of the main function modes : shutter, aperture and manual; the link between ISO, aperture and shutter speed, white balance orientation and few tips on improving yourself. It was light, easy and informative. Oh, of course I am not biased. Everyone thinks so too!

He was even better answering questions, he said it is because he prefers being engaged in a personal conversation than a big, social one. Thus, answering a question enables him to tailor his knowledge to one person and he was just so great at it!

To Shamin, thank you so much for the talk. Even though you said you did it because I already promised the society I would get you to talk, I know it’s actually because you want to take that much step further. And yes, I know you’re happy you did it And I am sooo proud of you!

For photography tutorial and community, check out lensa.co.uk

Sam is the website content moderator there!

If you haven’t watched Up yet, I suggest you do. It’s animation. It’s Disney and it’s obviously unrealistic (like your Watchmen and Ghostbusters) . But it is not as happy as your Little Mermaid and Sleeping Beauty. There is, for one thing, no song at all. At all. And it involves dying dream, death of lover and wife, murder of adventurers, psychotic old man who would become Machiavelli to reach his dream, a boy abandoned by his parents and the inability of the main character’s wife to get pregnant. Not your usual Disney’s cup of tea. Plus the writings in the movie is Russian – adding more depth to the story somehow. Or maybe it is because we bought a pirated version which was supposed to be for Russian audience. Hmm.

This movie is uplifting. Unlike the recent movies I’ve watched – Time Traveller’s wife and Benjamin Button- which just gives this tug of mortality in your heart, Up begins most sweetly depressing but gained its momentum into suspense and rekindling of love, feeling and emotion in an old man besotted with his dead lover. It just scream : FOLLOW YOUR DREAM!!

The main character, Carl Fredrickson and his dead best friend, wife and lover, Ellie had a long-lost dream to go to Paradise Fall in South America since they were just kids but like normal people, they never really work hard at it or push their normal life away for the sake of the dream. It’s only when they’re really old that Carl bought a flight ticket to South America, which by then was too late. Ellie died before he could even show her the flight tickets. Very, very intense sad moment. I could have sworn there were tears in my eyes – and they’re cartoons! More sad things happened before tadaaa~ Carl went on to the most extraordinary voyage to Paradise Fall!

Some people wait until it’s too late to catch up with their dream and gets buried with it. Some people got the chance to chase it somewhere in their life. Some people don’t even have a dream. And some people just push it aside. However one sees it, dream is very possible if you put your mind to it. Problem is, what if you don’t have a dream?

Is a dream something you yearn for or is it something you desire? Or could it be just both?  Winner of American Next Top Model, Eva said her dream came true when they announced her the winner. So she worked hard for it – and her dream is her life. What if your dream is not your life? For example, you’re a modest student but have dreams to change the world in weird ways that is not possibly done? Could it even be a dream if it is not possibly done? Some people have a simple one and others don’t. Mass dreams are like wanting to get rich and living the life!

Everyone has one, and it’s never too late. In the book Secret Garden, the author tried to convey a message of the boundary of time – saying it is never too late. It’s too cliched for it to even ring true in your mind.  Only a person who had achieved his/her dream would believe heartily in it. Never too late for anything. Put your mind to it now.

My dream would be to travel the world while volunteering.What would yours be?

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=993998&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1
MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

this is one awesome video of art and dedication. its too amazing. T______________T

it’s beautiful