A Touching Ad about Beauty Portrayal

Dove's film is one of my top ads ever... It is about self appreciation and confidence. Beauty is not about you must have; it is about what you are.

"Each woman is the subject of two portraits drawn by FBI-trained forensic artist Gil Zamora: one based on her own description, and the other using a stranger’s observations. The results are surprising…"

YouTube

The results are surprising because they show that the women expressed their observation of others' beauty while ignoring their own. We currently seek beauty from the "outside-in" instead of "inside-out". Most of the times, we are actually searching for imperfections in ourselves rather than appreciating what we are already blessed with. Ironically, we admit that no one is perfect, yet, we are constantly highlighting what we call "imperfection" which is merely "uniqueness".

Beauty may be magically embedded in a genuine smile, a loving look and even in a teasing frown. Our beauty is best reflected by acknowledging it first and appreciating it afterwards.

Çalıkuşu - One of the best Turkish Novels and TV Series

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfDgRn50n2-2pBfIJ_Ed0Dz-FZDc3TAeN4AQ-jKCTPwisg7_vzc8KNQULTXs3RHc5DKaUiFDoctF0cIONsEpCvfP25z1wtPiuCQ8b1SEzBjTibpN5Ecx8Urafl6G6Qjw-DuTUd5XWTCA1j/s1600/2e0j.jpg

"Çalıkuşu" is a beautiful title for such a beautiful story. I stumbled across this series while browsing YouTube for some Turkish music. How glad I am that I did! After watching online the series, I could not but watch a handful of episodes consecutively... They are that good. What I have noticed since episode 1 are the mesmerizing script and the great performance. It was as if the main characters, Feride (Fahriye Evcen) and Kamuran (Burak Özçivit), were simply poets loving, scolding, forgiving and teasing each other with every word.

The chemistry is obvious between the main actor and actress and no wonder they are dating now.

http://video1.trendus.com/1891namyelus/img/video_img_29012015182702.jpg

After my research, I was thrilled to know that Çalıkuşu is a novel by Reşat Nuri Güntekin (Istanbul, 25 November 1889 - London, 13 December 1956). "As was a Turkish novelist, storywriter and playwright. His novel, Çalıkuşu ("The Wren", 1922) is about the destiny of a young Turkish female teacher in Anatolia; the movie was filmed on this book in 1966, and remade as TV series in 1986. His narrative has a detailed and precise style, with a realistic tone" (Goodreads.com).

I love the story because of the strikingly realistic feelings of an innocent young girl who discovers the awes and aches of love and trust. Her charming beau is a handsome man with a charming personality. Feride is an orphan and Kamuran is her cousin. She was brought up by his parents. They, too, represent complicated personalities; you adore them at moments and hate them at others. They carry huge love for Feride and Kamuran, but in many instants, they are saturated with traditional and unjust ideologies.

Humor and magical words are of the main aspects which hitched me to this series.Here are some nice vidoes (Note that the first one "A sycamore in the garden" is performed by Fahriye Evcen herself <3)

https://youtu.be/4KQTIUjhRAM

https://youtu.be/DRiuUenyyJE

Quote: Sad but Hopeful from the Perks of being a Wallflower

While I am having at lunch after exhausting working hours, I came across this and, surprisingly, it made me feel happy!

Found on Etsy.com

Balance: Eat, Pray & Love Quote

Another Impressive Movie: The Impossible

Why have I waited so long before watching "The Impossible" ?! I have no idea!

It is almost a year now since the launch of this movie... Though I have read tons of positive reviews about the movie, I, for some unjustified reason, was not interested in it. I thought it is mere drama with lot of tears and disasters (the core of events is post a tsunami in Thailand). Yet, I was never more mistaken!

Source: http://www.bbcshop.com/content/ebiz/bbc/invt/sum51679/the_impossible_600.jpg

This movie touches the very deep folds of your soul in a way you involuntarily sympathize with all of the scenes. You would not be impressed with the top-notch sound and graphic effects as much as you will be with  the real depiction of vulnerable human souls.

Before the tsunami struck, a crucial husband-wife discussion was raised and I remember glimpses of it... "We can't afford losing this job". I felt I can easily be in the shoes of those characters. Nowadays, our lives revolve around securing a good job, a satisfying salary, the latest smart phone, the tastiest food as well as the best cars... 

After the tsunami, ALL was destroyed. Phone batteries died, cars were smashed like nylon bags, a coke can saved the life of three people, and money was left to drown among the tides. SOULS were, then, what can't be afforded to lose!

Beholding all those scenes, I teared most of the time; I was not just sad for the characters for I also pitied my life. I was reminded how helpless I would be amid disasters and how suddenly all the stuff I behold as important are meaningless. Family ties, on the other hand, remain forever genuine and strengthen souls for the sake of survival.

I am aware that in few days, I will gradually forget all about the movie and I will flow again with our modern society Tsunami! Yet, it is inspiring from time to another to get a slap on the face and to be reminded to cherish what is worth to be cherished.

Enough of my babbling; If you haven't watched "The Impossible", watch it now; if you have, remember it ;)

Me? Blogger?

Good morning, are we all up and energetic today? *I know we are a bit lazy on Mondays so never mind to answer*

I thought about talking about the blogging experience. It may not be  a strictly personal issue which is related  to my experience because nowadays everybody is always entangled by the vast online world. One of the main reasons is that I love writing ♥ I've been composing short stories and poems in Arabic and English since I was 12 years old or so. Writing is one of my hobbies, along with music and drawing, that has endured successfully my busy schedule.

Maybe because the writing activity just needs a pencil and a paper or a keyboard and word processor. On the other hand, drawing needs the medium you are using (acrylic, pastel etc...) and music needs an instrument and an adequate environment. The picture below justifies some of the mess I'm talking about...

Source: http://one-mans-mess.tumblr.com/post/35741120603/wednesday-14th-november-a-good-day-for-collaging

Actually, I wrote most of my works during late studying hours... You know whenever you are studying, you may be distracted by the silliest things like a fly which you accuse of conspiring to distract you, and a Facebook photo shared with a friend of another friend which you think you may know so you decide to pay his profile a "quick visit"... Consequently, you end up refreshing the News Feed, Gmail inbox, and even you may reach a point of browsing through old pics saved decades ago on your computer.. *Ok I know these stuff because I've done them all during university years*  So, writing is one of the ways I adopted to have an efficient distraction from studying! Luckily, this is one of my productive distractions. I do believe that stress and intense emotions like grief and happiness stir my soul and mind and force out writings which are reflections of my feelings... and I happen to feel a lot 

Back to the purpose of my post *I sure strayed a bit*, I have been influenced by the movie "Julie and Julia" which narrates the story of two women, one of the 1960's and the other of 2002, interested in cooking and writing and blogging respectively.

Source: http://oma.jhu.edu/resources/events/whm-dinner-with-julie-julia/

Therefore, I felt immediate connection to the characters and the movie! By the way, the movie is really entertaining and serves valuable themes as the necessity to break our routine and have faith in our interests and talents.

Without a question, the idea of possible being read by thousands of people of different cultures and backgrounds is really exciting! I am aware at this point I don't have those thousands of readers but I do know that sharing is caring, and at some point I hope to have tens and thousands of readers-friends.

To all of you out there who are kind of bored in your offices/cubicles, or exhausted after cooking lunch, or helping your kids in their Calculus assignment, or just aimlessly flipping the TV channels with no luck in any  movie which hasn't been repeated for the 100th time:
 
By the way, tulips are my favorite and they cheer me up; hope they work their magic on you too!