Monsters of Doctor Who.

I do not like horror movies.

Science fiction is my thing and one of my favourite shows is the TV series "Doctor Who" a science fiction show by the BBC. Every week, Doctor Who fights villain of the week and sometime the villains are monsters and these monsters are better than any horror movie monsters produced by Hollywood or Malay movies.

The monsters are not supernatural beings or generic ugly aliens like Ripley's Alien or Predator. Doctor Who monsters are aliens but they are scary not because they are ugly or hunt you down physically.

You cannot fight them with physical strength or firepower.
It is not survival of the fittest.

Here are three of my favourite Doctor Who monsters.

1) Weeping Angels

Have you ever been to Europe and see their old buildings decorated with angel statues?
With their hands covering their faces like they are crying or weeping?

 

 
You thought that some ancient sculptors made them.
Well, they are not made by Rennaisance sculptors.
They are alive.

The reason they are not moving when you see them is because they are quantum-locked creatures.
What does that mean, you ask?

Well, simply put, when you or anybody see or look at them, they freeze into statues and cannot move.
Once you turn away and not look at them, they come for you.
(That is why their hands cover their faces as if weeping, if they look at each other, they will also freeze. And no, you cannot break them with a hammer. They may look like marble, but they are not marble.)

You might say, simply don't look away.
Always look at them.

But then, you realise that you need to blink.
Blinking is a natural auto human response.
You cannot not blink.

As your eyes become dry from not blinking, your brain auto response kicks in and you blink.
Just less than a second.
But when you open your eyes, you see this.
 
  

 

 Nearer... every time you blink.

Coming nearer for you.
And nearer after every blink...
(This is why the episode was titled "Blink")

...


And then, you think, how can you close your eyes and sleep tonight..?


2) The Silence

The Silence are already here on Earth since the dawn of man and they are everywhere.
But you do not remember them.
Nobody does.

Why?
Because when you are not looking at them, you forget about them.

When you see them, you are surprised.
You are frightened by their menacing alien look.

You turn away to run.
As your body and heads spin around, your eyes stop looking at them and you instantly forget about them.
And you become confused; why did you turn around?.
You brush it off as deja-vu.
(This is why we have deja-vu.)

If you turn and go away, you are safe.
The Silence do not go around killing people, unless they have to.
But if you decide to turn again to finish your task, you become a threat since you do not go away.

But if you decide to fight them?
How can you fight something that you do not remember every time you turn away?



3) : Vashta Nerada

Vashta Nerada hides in the shadow.
Some say they are the shadow.

They get close to you by mimicking your shadow.
Have you ever experienced having two shadows?
Well, the second shadow is Vashta Nerada.

And once they get close, they devour you like piranha.
This is why they are also called "piranha of the air".

So, stay away from the dark and stay in the light.
And if you see that you have two shadows, run!

Oh wait!
How can you run from your own shadow?

RIP to you.



HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Mission 2019 #04: Lata Tengkorak (Hiking Trip 06th October 2019)

 

The starting point.

The trail.

The waterfall.

The panorama.

The tranquillity.

 

Nature is an artist.

The review.

Lata Tengkorak was a moderate challenge hiking trip for me.
It took about two hours to reach the waterfall from the starting point.

The water was cold, as usual, but the pool was shallow.
However, the panorama above the waterfall was worth it.

If you are in Kluang, Johor, head to Felda Ulu Dengar for this waterfall.
From there find the Hutan Lipur Gunung Belumut (Mount Belumut Recreational Forest).

All in all, it was a challenging weekend.


Click here for Mission 2019 #01 (Lepoh Waterfall), #02 (Serendah Waterfall) and #03 (Sg Kanching Waterfall).

Koh Samui. A review.

 

Koh Samui is an island on the east coast of Thailand and is part of Suratthani administrative region.

The condition of its infrastructure is similar to most of rural Malaysia.
The road condition is bumpy, with cracks here and there, small potholes, but nevertheless drivable and not too uncomfortable.
You do not need a 4WD to comfortably use the road.
I would say the maintenance culture is a bit lacking as is in Malaysia.

The beaches are clean, those that are frequented by tourists or those hidden beaches that only locals know (we make it a point to go to these beaches only and avoid the crowd).
The level of cleanliness is the same as beaches in Malaysia.

They have open warung by the roadside just like rural Malaysia.
Some of the residents even speak Malay with a Kelantanese dialect.
Sometime you forget that you are not in Malaysia.

Overall, life in Koh Samui is similar to rural Malaysia except for one thing.

Their public toilet is cleaner and more well kept.
All the toilets that we have used are all clean and well kept and a pleasure to use.
Either the toilet in the restaurant that we ate, the toilet at the petrol station or at the beaches.
Even the toilet at a roadside warung that we stop for a drink was clean and well kept with no smell and no cockroaches.
These kind of toilet in Malaysia would have been dark and rundown with smell and running with cockroaches.

All in all, when you are in Koh Samui it almost feel like you are on an island in Malaysia, except when you use the toilet.
They are too clean for you to be in Malaysia.
(I do not know if this is the same for Thailand as a whole, but that is how it is in Koh Samui.)

The beaches of Koh Samui is comparable to the many island and beaches in Malaysia. However, if you want to travel a bit further but do not want to break the bank and explore other places with different culture and environment, Koh Samui is recommended.
There are daily direct flights to Koh Samui from KLIA.
I recommend that you rent a car to travel around.
A three day, two nights weekend should be enough to enjoy the island.

For photos of Koh Samui, click the link here to my previous post.

Siege mentality: Part I

Definitions of "siege mentality".

From google:
"a defensive or paranoid attitude based on the belief that others are hostile towards one."

Cambridge dictionary:
"a feeling that makes you frightened of people around you, and causes you not to trust them."

Collins dictionary:
"If a group of people have a siege mentality, they think that other people are constantly trying to harm or defeat them, and so they care only about protecting themselves."

Macmillan dictionary:
"the belief among a group of people that everyone else is in opposition to them and they must protect themselves"

Merriam-Webster dictionary:
"a defensive or overly fearful attitude."

From dictionary.com website:
"state of mind whereby one believes that one is being constantly attacked, oppressed, or isolated."

Longman dictionary:
"the feeling among a group of people that they are surrounded by enemies and must do everything they can to protect themselves."

From Wikipedia:
Siege mentality is a shared feeling of victimization and defensiveness—a term derived from the actual experience of military defences of real sieges. It is a collective state of mind in which a group of people believe themselves constantly attacked, oppressed, or isolated in the face of the negative intentions of the rest of the world. Although a group phenomenon, the term describes both the emotions and thoughts of the group as a whole, and as individuals.
The result is a state of being overly fearful of surrounding peoples, and an intractably defensive attitude.

Tell me Cuckoo... Should I lay like a rock, or burn like a star...? (A Song & Movie Review with a bit of history lesson).

"Gentlemen, I am twenty-five years old (girl). At the front, I have managed to destroy three hundred and nine (309) invaders. Don't you gentlemen think, you've been hiding behind me for too long?!"
- Lieutenant Lyudmila Mikhailovna Pavlichenko -
(from a speech in Chicago in 1942 trying to rally the US support for the war.)

This movie (based on a true story) was about the most successful female sniper in history, Lyudmila Mikhailovna Pavlichenko.
She was also regarded as one of the top military snipers of all time.

The movie took place with the siege of Sevastopol as the backdrop of the story.
Hence the title, "The Battle for Sevastopol".

Sevastopol was one of the war theatre on the Eastern Front of WWII. Sevastopol in Crimea has strategic and tactical advantage to whichever side that controls it.
According to wiki the "...Soviet naval base at Sevastopol was one of the strongest fortifications in the world. ... Its importance as a potential naval and air base would enable the Axis (Germany and its allies) to conduct far-ranging sea and air operations against Soviet targets into and over the Caucasus ports and mountains..."
Basically, Sevastopol is a very strategic place to base your war operation in order to conquer the Soviet Union, at the time one of the Allies (the good guy of WWII).

From Sevastopol, the Germans can command its forces into Soviet territories.
The Siege of Sevastopol lasted for about eight months, (30 October 1941 – 4 July 1942), before it fell to the German forces.

From the frontline defending Odessa (in Ukraine, which was formerly part of the Soviet) and later Sevastopol, Lyudmila Pavlichenko, defended her comrades in arms with her sharpshooting skills. The movie intermingled between her exploit as a sharpshooter and the many romantic interests that tried to woo her in between fighting.

In the end, war claimed them from her and the only thing she can do is survive.

Her record as a sniper was 309 confirmed kills. This is for a period of about a year which makes her average about one kill per day. She is known as "Lady Death". This website puts her as the 8th most successful sniper of all time in the history of modern warfare.
As comparison, the most successful sniper on record, Simo Hayha, nicknamed the "White Death" (a Finnish soldier in the Winter War), has a confirmed kills of 505, with an average of over 5 kills per day).

Lyudmila Mikhailovna Pavlichenko
b. 12th July 1916 - d. 10th Oct 1974

The song ("Kukushka" or "Cuckoo" in English), the trailer and Polina Gagarina's voice, convey both the horror of the war and the courage of the young woman that fought in that war.

It conveys her growth from a young innocent girl to romantic interest, loves lost, despair and vengeance, and ultimately her determination to win and survive the war.

I generally do not like war movie but this one catches my attention and the promo trailer with the OST certainly did its magic.
This is an excellent Russian production and to all those who like war movie, this is certainly a must see.

(Youtube link here for the movie.)


As an aside, the biggest human loss in WWII were from the Soviet.
Soviet death (military and citizens) were about 9 times more than the Allies combined and resulted in the lost of about 13% to 15% of the Soviet population at that time (source here, here and here).
If the Soviet did not join WWII, Nazi Germany could have won the war (some historians say "would").

Western media propaganda, has been propagating the propaganda that if we did not have the Western Allies, we would not have freedom today.
Bull!
If we did not have the Soviet on our side, we would not have freedom today.
Hitler's mistake was thinking he could win the war on two fronts, the western front, towards France and the UK, and the Eastern front, trying to conquer the Soviet Union at the same time.

With Germany and the Axis forces divided on these two fronts, the Soviet rallied her citizens.
While they lost Sevastopol in the beginning, they ultimately contributed to the victory of the Allies significantly.

I have no love for communism as the Soviet Union were at the time, but historical fact are historical fact, and we have to tell the truth.

 
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Kukushka (Cuckoo) Lyrics (English translation)

How many songs are not written yet?
Tell me, Cuckoo, sing it to me
Where should I live, in the city or outside?
Lay like a rock or burn like a star?
Like a star

My sun, come on, look at me
My palm turned into a fist
And if there's gunpowder, give me fire
Like this!

Who's going to follow my lonely track
The strong and the brave laid down their lives
On the battlefield, in fight
Few of them remained in our memory
Sober-minded, with the steady hand, in arms
In arms

My sun, come on, look at me
My palm turned into a fist
And if there's gunpowder, give me fire
Like this!

Where are you now, my liberty?
Who are you meeting sweet sunrise with
Answer me!
It's good to live with you and hard without you
The head on patient shoulders
To put under the whip, under the whip

You, my sun, come on, look at me
My palm turned into a fist
And if there's gunpowder, give me fire
Like this! (x2)