Potter fans, be jealous.

NOTE: This is a post I intended to put up last year but under certain circumstances which involves my brother and the apple of his eye (not anymore) this post remained in my drafts, at his request, which I gratefully respected.

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I am positively elated, psychotically euphoric, fantastically joyful, fabulously grateful & wickedlyhappy. What can I say? Haha. I'm just bloody cheerful!

Because today, I received a particularly (deceivingly) boring looking package from my brother,Arif. The box looked so freaking dull that I opened it twice and NOT know what it was. Now that I think about it...I feel the urge to bash my head against the wall.

For not recognizing THIS for what it IS at a mere glance, I have FAILED MYSELF. But whatever, I'm just too happy to worry much about it.

Take a look, Potter fans. I dare you to try and NOT be jealous.

Lo and behold!

Now let's get back to my horrendous blunder of NOT recognizing this...this...magnificence at first glance. It explains human nature all too well. Feel free to skip this part and focus on the pictures. Unless of course, you're sort of interested in the workings of the Human mind. In other words, Psychology:

My parents and little brother, Adi had just arrive home from their two week trip to Canada yesterday. Upon unpacking gifts & goodies, mom said she bought me some cookies (which, she knows I adore). Saying that the cookies are in a 'long' package, thus I searched the baggage for something similar and came upon this:

Naturally, I opened it. Saw that it wasn't cookies, I did not even care what it was. Point is, it didn't contain the said cookies in pursuit. Although, in my defense, the was box shielded by the cover of the bag didn't allow for much light to see with. So, I didn't actually see the wand nor the HP symbol on the card. Moreover, the red silky gauze wrapping the wand made me think that it was a necktie.

What went through my mind was:

Long box / Open / Not cookies / Whatever / Probably a necktie since the box is long/ Meh.

My perceptual set (an expectation that guides perception) identified the contents of the box as 'not cookies' thus is dismissed as it does not belong to the set of 'cookies'.

Now, psychologists have categorized motives into two: Primary motives & Secondary motives.

Primary motives help us to satisfy our basic needs for survival, for instance, Food, Drink & Shelter. These needs do not respond to attempts at curbing or controlling them voluntarily quite so easily. Since I was hungry, my search for the cookies is categorized as a primary motive.

Secondary motives on the other hand constitutes of things that may or may not be linked to primary motives. For example, (according to Freud) Honour, Power, Wealth, Fame and The love of women'. Secondary motives are not innate, they are learned an d acquired. In my case, my love for Harry Potter, which would have induced me to recognize the all too familiar 'HP' symbol was overridden by my primary motive of satisfying hunger.

Acoording to Maslow the Hierarchy of Needs (1954) is:

self-actualization and personal growth

aesthetic experience = Harry Potter

cognitive activity

self-esteem

love and belonging

safety

survival = Cookies

Get it? Yeah, yeah, I'm done boring you with annoying terminology and poorly explained concepts of Psychology. I've been reading up on this particular field. Borrowed four books from INTEC library last Thursday. If you're interested & is an INTEC student do borrow these. They're very enlightening. The human mind is a beautiful enigma:

1) Psychology (A Very Short Introduction) by Gillian Butler & Freda McManus

2) Freud (A Very Short Introduction) by Anthony Storr

3) Introducing Freud by Richard Appignesi & Oscar Zarate*

4) Introducing Jung by Maggie Hyde & Michael McGuinness*

*Extensively illustrated. Like a graphic novel/comic book.

Okay, enough. Have some pictures of my magnificently lovely 14 inch exact replica from the movie set Harry Potter wand that my darling brother bought for me during his EuroTurk trip (He's a globe trotter). Thanks, Abang! :D

P.S:

My deepest apologies for having imbued this post with my current interest in psychology. When I get excited, I get carried away

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NOTE 2: Lord, just look at all the PSYCHOBABBLE I threw in! It breaks my heart. All that enthusiasm... oh, how foolish I was.

Dear Harry,

If I have the ability to do justice to testify my feelings for you, I'd fashion prose as magical, wondrous as your world and type them here.

Harry Potter my nick-namesake,
Harry Potter my childhood,
Harry,
my friend.

I'll never forget you.

Yours sincerely,
Me.

Hunger

UPDATE: I've seen Centurion. It's kinda bland. *sigh*

I've watched another two Fassbender film. 300 (2007) and Hunger (2008).

Michael Fassbender as Selios

300's (2007) alright I guess. I watched the first 30 minutes, lost interest because Fassbender is such a minor character in it and went on speeding through and watched the ending. He plays Selios, one of the 300 Spartan warriors who all dies in the end. Now I get the whole "This is Sparta!" meme hahah.

Hunger (2008) though is something else entirely. Fassbender plays an Irish republican (Bobby Sands) who goes on a hunger strike while in prison to get the government to 'listen' to some demands they wanted for the prisoners. Shocking film. I think I had my hands over my eyes most of the time. Mainly because the inmates (strikers) are pretty much naked ('no clothes' strike), they get beaten a lot, the state of their cells is just...downright disgusting ('no wash' strike).

Fassbender's brilliant in it though. He literally starved himself to play the role. He was skin and bones by the end of the film. I'll spare you pictures of skeletal Fassbender. I myself could barely watch the last half of the movie. Won an award or something for the role I think, much deserving really.

Apart from starving himself, there's this dialouge scene he has with a priest + Fassbender's monolouge scene , which I think made the whole film brilliant. There're 2 parts. Do watch:

I give up.

I've been doing my level best to abstain from writing poetry of any kind at all and now I'm giving up. I scribbled it all down (but I threw them out afterwards, so that counts as something aite?).

I tried I really did. It was a bout of self-hate and whatever it was that was deluding me that drove me to try and put it all to a stop. Didn't work. So here I am.

and here's a couple I typed on word because there wasn't paper easily reachable. I'll just throw them all here. Maybe someday I'll find enough strength to stop, or enough brilliance to turn it all into something worthy of treasuring.

Crappiness galore, enjoy:

ALL I NEED IS YOU

I don’t need sunsets to remind myself

How beautiful the Sun is

I don’t need stars to remind myself

How beautiful the Universe is

I don’t even need music to remind myself

How beautiful Life really is

You’re my sunsets, my stars, my music,

All I need is you.

(Mon, 12/7/2011)

SHAME

I try to think of things to say

that you would care for.

Requiring strenuous calculation

to avoid embarrassment.

When really there’s no accounting

your varied moods and interests

your flighty thoughts and sentience.

Your presence, my eternal penance.

Like a moth caught in the wind

I strive for the brightness that is you

thinking your electric artificiality

a kind of warmth clad in eccentricity.

Whatever I say

Your flick them away like flies.

Unknowingly I you repeatedly maim

Repeatedly scarring me with shame.

(Wed, 29/6/2011)

Dream on child of change

"Dream on child of change

Throw your javelin through the Sun

Pierce the hearts of everyone"


-  Wondering Boy Poet, Guided By Voices -

"Between rage and serenity"

Michael Fassbender (Magneto in X-Men: First Class) spam post.

I am obsessed with his insanely teethy smile. Crazy people on the net been calling him a Shark.
I approve.

He's my new obsession. Been watching films that has him in it. So far, apart from X-Men I've only managed to watch: 

Inglourious Basterds (Fassbender appears halfway through the film and dies 26 mins after. Good film though. Damned funny)

Jonah Hex (LOUSY film. Boring as heck. But Fassbender has some crazy tattoos on his chin and neck. He plays the villain's hencman. He mauled Megan Fox while laughing like a maniacal banshee. Very sharky. I enjoy his bits in the film, though he dies a grisly death)

Fish Tank (Film's just...indecent. Maybe it's about life, how the protagonist, a teenage girl feels like living in a fish tank what with her dismal prospects and lousy mom, how her passion for dancing came to an almost fruition but alas and just, getting away and find herself a new life I suppose. Aaaaannnywayyy, Fassbender plays a cheating creep in it. Very charming but yeah. Egh. )

KEEP CALM AND...

In Strokesland, in case of an invasion, we 'CARRY ON' doing what we've always been doing - Listen to Strokes songs.

For those who aren't aware of the 'KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON' poster that has gone viral on the net, click here. In a nutshell, it was an unreleased poster from King George VI bearing the aforementioned message in the event of an invasion. It was WWII, so yeah.