Life as we know it, in cheese

Is a vicious cycle, with interconnecting links with each and every one. Alright, it doesn’t make much sense to me. A day in the office is highly intriguing, with a manager claiming (quite proudly), that she can’t comprehend and not understand one of my favourite books of all, Who Moved My Cheese.

It clearly means that she does not understand the concept of change, and is in fact, incapable of change. She loves constant and will blame others utmost for any undesired change. A very bad manager in terms of managerial skills.

For many of us, finding ourselves without any cheese seemed to be a major problem. So we start searching for cheese. But whilst looking for more cheese, we tend to commit mistakes, and never look back. Some of the none the wiser will be contended finding another cheese station with little cheese (to not actually last), while others will continue searching, never looking back sometimes. Others will feel angry with the situation and others, but not do anything about it.

Changes comes from the individual. 

The adventures thus far

Clara Oswin and the Doctor, thus far (since the death of Rory and Amelia) had embarked on a number of complex adventures. Like as always, the first episode marking the start of DW will be intriguing and will be exciting.

Clara had been downloaded for the Great Intelligence, become much more tech savy (to the extend of making a Twitter joke), loses the most important leaf to her (to feed the god), finally knew the TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimension In Space) translate into the native language (of whichever place she is in) and now, knows more of the history of the cold war. She can be known as a brave companion who understand fears, yet not crumble to it. But in episode 2, did she really thought the aliens knows and truly understands her?!?!

Being hopeless, as often illustrates by the Doctor, will always allows a person to do the unforeseeable, and unexpected. As yet another classic case (the episode on Pandorica Opens too demonstrates this concept). Now we see the Ice Soldier (from Mars 5000 years ago) being frozen and was 'rescued' by a Soviet submarine in North Pole.

[[[SPOILER ALERT]]]]

The visitor was melted against the order of the captain and it went into a rampage, wrecking the submarine, falling 700m into the depths of the ocean. Communication with Moscow (capital of Soviet Union or USSR as it was more commonly known) was futile, as with that of the Martian. Feeling hopeless, the Martian escape from his armour (regarded as a great dishonour) and attempt to understand his humans counterparts.

Bearing in mind the conditions and setting, a Soviet Nuclear Submarine during the heightened tension (think around the Cuba crisis) and any wrong, miscalculated move will bring the world into a nuclear war. This smart Martian (whoever says Mars alien are stupid?) learn quickly of the situation, and decided to conquer Earth, effectively using the Cold War (escalated into full front fighting and nuclear and all).

In an attempt to stop the Martian, the human crew together with the 2 heart, bowtie loving Time Lord (aka Doctor) split into 2 teams- 1 to guard the bridge (the place where you launch the nuclear warheads) and another to find the Martian and talk sense to him.

They found the Martian (or rather the Martian found them), killed 2 of their crews and hold Oswin hostage. But the professor speaks up, and the Martian decided to kill him instead. By now, the Martian had reinforcement and is back to his armour and went to the bridge to launch the nuclear weapons. But he decided against it, since the submarine was sonic beamed to surface in North Pole, Martian was teleported to his mothership and the Doctor found his TARDIS (it escaped, because of the dangers). All ended well and happy.

Yet another nice storyline, but was too squeezed into a single episode, which is quite sad. Else, with more time, the story can play out and leave Whovians wanting more next week. Still, another good episode with improved chemistry between Doctor and Clara, though I think Clara and the professor was quite a nice pair. This time, it does not shows Clara returning home, unlike the previous episode. 

Does the Doctor often becomes afraid? In the next episode. I'm the Doctor and I am afraid. Of course, where's your bowtie?!

Subtract Love, add anger

When people ceased to believe in hope, they will fall into despair and destitute, will start to get angry about and with almost everything. From objects to animals to even TV drama plots. But by chance, they will see light of the situation, and improve their emotional and mental well-being.

RIP Margaret Thatcher

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had died following a stroke, aged 87 in the morning of 8 April 2013, her family had revealed. With BBC coverage of her life as ex-Prime Minister, of her remarkable achievements of her over a decade in office.

She will be having a ceremonial funeral at St Paul's Cathedral.

Margaret Thatcher was also the first women Prime Minister in the UK, and is most notable for her decision in the Falklands War. Other than Falkland War, Lady Thatcher was also known for her economic reform policies, including privatisation of British Air, the NHS, BP and many more. Such was the popularity of the Tories during her reign that she continued to privatised public utilities. New Labour indeed continued privatisation as part of their political agenda.  

A fortnight ago, press journalise said they will not return to work (from their strike) to cover the death of Margaret Thatcher (hypothetically), but of Nielsen Mandela because of her tough stance on the trade union.

Her years in office paves the way into the future of politics in UK, and coined the term, Thatcherism as a phrase on the stuffs and policies implemented to help serve and improve the life (hopefully) of the common Briton.

RIP, Margaret Thatcher.

The Doctor is back

A ridiculously yet uncanny storyline revolving about WiFi and how an evil, sinister women is introducing lifestreams sucking and downloading the human soul in London (read the ugliest addition to the skyline- The Shard) to feed the Great Intelligence. At the end of the episode, he had been fed enough and it’s time for the evil sinister women (Miss Kizlet) to reduce. 

We have seen the story of Amy and Rory Pond as the first companions of the eleventh doctor, with their great on screen chemistry (although between Rory and Amy, it’s a tad awkward) but with Clara, I do admit I prefer the previous companions. Critics of Amy and Rory can be smug about Clara, who seemed relaxed in her role as the Doctor’s new companion. 

The plot reveals about the Great Intelligence manipulating ordinary humans or as I call it, people of the streets into this ugly looking building as a HQ for downloading human soul for him. What is cool about this group of evil people is the tablet device which is capable of adjusting IQ, Paranoid and Confidence level of her workers.

A pun on the show, Doctor Who? Also provides comic relief to the show, although the question is better left for the 50^th anniversary.

In all, as the plot thickens, I’m not expecting what I think I wish to see, since I have much more expectation for Steven Moffat works. But this episode is enough for Whovians, for now till next week. The plot can actually play out well, if not for the rush and slipshod editing (leaving much to be desired and the choice of background music?) I do love the concept though. I just can't wait to know how she becomes a Dalek and her story- of being a time lord. 

Realisation

I used to ask myself if the actions I ever took (take or taken, have or have yet to take) is always the correct decision. But since I cannot always please myself (because, half of me decided it's correct, and another half thinks it's wrong), so SCREW IT

Being a Mayor on SimCity

The new SimCity is out, with horrific experience for me, with the servers down and all. Maxis (EA more likely) decided to grant all players affected with a new EA digital download game (hopefully I can have a free Sims 3 University)! But that is not enough, why launch a new game when you do not have the capabilities for it? And the game is not as fun as the previous franchise.

So a mayor, do be careful of being bankrupt! Here are a few shots of my city...come join me if you're playing. Origin: Surfinder

I think having circus for arterial roads serve a huge purpose in town/urban planning. Whoever says circus in road planning is due to urban planners leaving a round coffee-stain on blueprints (thanks to their mugs)??? Ok, lame joke.

Crowd Source Videos- The future?

In the first quarter of 2013, usher in a new phenomenon- Crowd Source Videos. The popularity of an old soundtrack- Harlem Shake shows us all. In an office, a funky person enters the busy office in a motorbike helmet (where’s the courtesy to remove it when entering a formal location?!?!) for the first 10s. Then, drop in the bass and everyone starts to be involve in some form of random and totally repetitive action for 30s. This is the future of entertainment. FYI, this video had been seen over 10 million times just on Youtube.

Harlem shake is not exactly a new song, and the popularity rises recently just because of a youtube video (the original single does not even have a MV). Through shares and likes, Harlem Shake soon became a sensation. Curators hate to love it, lovers love to hate it.    Even some units of BBC had started riding on Harlem Shake, with Holby City and Eastenders (and also more, but I’m just not really keen to mention them). 

What constitutes to the popularity of such videos? First came Gangnam Style, now Harlem Shake. This should lies on the concept of Crowd Source Videos. Same as crowd-sourcing, whereby an online community pool together resources, crowd-sourcing involves viewers of a particular video to upload their own version online. Usually such video have an easy concept, and is also easy to duplicate. This explains the numerous parodies of Gangnam Style videos. The catchy tune and weird looking horse-riding dance movement strides a chord with the online community and the person having the last laugh (as well as shaking to the bank) will be Psy.

Now with a high smartphone penetration rate in developed nations, and all smartphone have a video capturing function with easy uploading to Youtube, helps increase the platform and infrastructure of such Crowd Source Videos. You upload it to share with your friends and in turn, your friends will share the video and might also upload their own version at the same time. Thus far, Crowd Source Videos had been limited to just personal entertainment, but soon, some brands will adopt it.

Just like your daily exposure of advertisements, if one is exposed to a lot of such videos, viewers might become frustrated and deemed It as a nuisance. For Harlem Shake and Gangnam style, many had already passed it off as a fade and hated the videos (and so for similar video, will also express scant interest). As a PR stunt many brands had start to adopt this, but ultimately, will it continue to hurt their brand image?

Crowd source videos had been around for a long time, but just 3 years ago, are not as popular as before. This might be due to people still not being open and also not having appropriate means to be involve. Other crowd source videos in the past includes Cinnamon challenge (which proves to be highly controversial), Brad Pitt ad, Gangnam Style, Harlem Shake and Where the hell is Matt ad. Now, what will be the next crazy ass fade on Youtube?