Acrophobia

Acrophobia is defined as the fear of heights. Unlike any other specific phobia like aerophobia (fear of flying), and other specific phobias, acrophobia can cause a person to fear for variety of things related to being far from ground. Depending on the phobia's severity, an acrophobic person may equally fear being on a high floor of a building or simply climbing a ladder.

The Story behind Medusa

Familiar with the name “Medusa”? I bet some of you recognized this Greek Gorgon, or monster, who have the hair of vicious snake. But have you know about the story how Medusa was exist? There are many versions of Medusa, but what I have always interested is that Medusa originally was a beautiful maiden, daughter of the ancient marine deities Phorcys and his sisterto from an archaic world (Yes, those Gods married their own relatives).

Even though she has been recognized as a monster since born, people of Greek also recognized her beauty. Certain version told that the ravishingly beauty was certainly faithful to Athena and live at the Athena's temple. But, Poseidon (the God of Sea) who attracted to her, raped her. Although she has begged Athena to save her, there no answer to her prayer. And worse of all, Athena felt disgusted and enraged, transforming her beautiful hair to serpents and made her face so terrible to behold that the mere sight of it would turn onlookers to stone (or maybe they were mesmerized by her beauty and turned to stone, meh~)


More interesting facts is that after Perseus beheaded her using the sword from Hephaestus and Hades's helm of invisibility, a Pegasus, winged horse and Chrysaor, a golden sword-wielding giant sprang from her body. Both of them was believed to be Poseidon's children after he raped her. Other versions revealed that both Poseidon and Medusa were both in love and lovers, and Athena, who were enraged with Medusa whom always boasting about her beauty, turned her into the monster everyone known about.

Cause & Effect of Bullying

    Most people know that bullying is wrong. Calling someone names has absolutely no beneficial purpose. Moreover, hitting someone makes a bully feel good in the moment while doing permanent damage to the person being victimized. With the Internet, people now have even more opportunities to bully through cyberbullying. This includes sending crude pictures, posting fake web pages, or tweeting slanderous messages. Cyberbullying has subsequently led to a rise in a completely new kind of bullying.

    One of the effects of bullying is that it can change the victim’s personality. It can cause people who are normally confident and happy to become self-conscious, shy, and unsure. Additionally, victims of bullying may also become sad or depressed. Their confidence might completely disappear, keeping them from trying new things or trusting people. Once a person has been bullied, they may hesitate to participate in situations where he or she might be ridiculed, such as in public speaking or in sports. A bullying victim might even begin to possess previously absent anxious behavior.

    Despite all the negative effects of bullying, there are even far more serious consequences. People who have been bullied sometimes become so upset, scared, or depressed that they see no worth in themselves and no way out of their torment. There have been countless reports over the past few years of students committing suicide because they were bullied. 

    Meanwhile, there are times when victims see no recourse but to seek revenge by serious acts of violence against the bully and instigators. As a result of bullying, people can lose their ability to love and trust, denying them the chance to experience a quality relationship later in their life. They might find themselves as a submissive partner or they may want to be completely alone. Compounding all of these problems, victims often develop eating disorders, begin to self-injure, or require extensive counseling. Social bullying can also leave people without a supportive group of friends that they can lean on and spend time with.

    Another unfortunate consequence of this is that bullying is often cyclical. People who have been bullied can, in an attempt to gain their power and self-esteem back, become bullies themselves. In relation to this, bullies who are not confronted or stopped may find themselves in future positions where they can bully as adults. This is where manipulative bosses and child abusers come from.

    Aside from its long-term effects, some consequences of bullying can be seen and felt immediately. When one child calls another child names, the victim might cry and a bruise might appear after a punch to the arm. However, some effects of bullying are not always obvious to the naked eye. The results of bullying might grow and appear over time, damaging a person in profound ways for the long term. There are so many effects of bullying that they are impossible to count or predict. This is why it is so important to stop bullying.

Meet Nick Bateman

Hot boys always have the attention. Especially when they were almost successful. I've known him (not logically, but in the internet) him as a model after he appear several time on my tumblr dashboard. Meet Nick Bateman - model, actor, producer and a martial artist. 

Born in Burlington, Ontario, Canada on November 18, 1986 with the name NIcholas Kevin Stanley Yunge-Bateman, started practicing karate at the age 4 with the dream of becoming the next Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. While the dream didn't pan out, many others did for this four time Martial Arts World Champion, International model, television and film star.

In 1999, he focus on martial arts when he begancompeting at the world level. At just 17 years old, he was induced into the WKU Hall of Fame as Competitor of the Year and won two Sport Martial Arts Viewer's Choice Awards. He then began performing in televised martial arts events using weapons and choreographed fight scenes with Sideswipe, a performance team that combines martial arts with dance and gravity-defying acrobatics. 

He then competed at the 2004 ESPN International Best of the Best Martial Arts competition in Miami where he placed second against 10 world champions. While competing at the event, a Model Universe competition happened to be held at the same venue. As a joke, his friend signed him up and ended up placing fifth out of 100 models. His modeling career took him to Milan, Germany, New York and Miami. Since then, Bateman has graced the covers of over 100 New York times bestselling Harlequin novels (Hey, that's why he looked familiar! I read those!)

         

In 2006, he shifted focus and moved to British Columbia to take a business program at Capilano University in Vancouver. Upon graduating in 2008, he moved back to his hometown of Burlington and opened his own karate school called Bateman Martial Arts Academy. He continued to model on the side and became the face of FILA Canda for the 2010-2012 campaigns. He also starred in few film and to this days, still acts as mentor to his international martial arts weapon students, most notably Trace Megellas who now holds 14 World Titles and will be opening his own Karate School next year in Dallas, Texas.

       

For more interesting fact, you can visit his own website

Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) was established on 16 February 1984 under the Universiti Utara Malaysia 1984 Order (Statutory). The university was corporatised on 23 April 1998. The university is located in Sintok, Kedah and was established with the specific mission of providing a leadership role for management education in the country. Thus, the university is also known as a management university.

For more information, you can visit UUM Official website.

Everyone can be happy~

Dracula Untold, should we watch it or not?

I am always the big fan of paranormal and action movies (except twilight). And after watching Hobbit - The Desolation of Smaug last year, I was totally into Luke Evans and when the trailer of Dracula Untold came out, I was ecstatic. So when it came out last week, I decided to watch it with my siblings. And guess what? 

I am dissappointed.

From what I've been told, Dracula Untold was based on Vlad the Impaler, or known as the original vampire. We Malaysian also have a mythical character similar to Vlad, we know him as Raja Bersiung. The king was known as the person who accidentally drank his maid blood in his food, ending up killing prisioner just so to have his thirst for blood.

In the other hands, Vlad the Impaler, or the Prince of Wallachia was from Romania. Vlad and his younger brother, Radu the Handsome has been sent to Andrianople, to appeased the sultan. He was known as Kazıklı Bey (Sir Impaler) by the Ottoman Empire after their armies encountered his "forests" of impalement victims. Since child, he and Radu has been trained as a soldier to fought the enemy of Turkey and each time he killed, he have this 'fascinating' ideas of impale his victims on a stick. So, yeah, that's why he was called Vlad the Impaler. 

(taken from http://www.donlinke.com/drakula/vlad.htm#Vlad)

Thousands were often impaled at a single time. Ten thousand were impaled in the Transylvanian city of Sibiu in 1460. In 1459, on St. Bartholomew’s Day, Vlad III had thirty thousand of the merchants and boyars of the Transylvanian city of Brasov impaled. One of the most famous woodcuts of the period shows Vlad Dracula feasting amongst a forest of stakes and their grisly burdens outside Brasov while a nearby executioner cuts apart other victims.

Although impalement was Vlad Dracula’s favorite method of torture, it was by no means his only method. The list of tortures employed by this cruel prince reads like an inventory of hell’s tools: nails in heads, cutting off of limbs, blinding, strangulation, burning, cutting off of noses and ears, mutilation of sexual organs (especially in the case of women), scalping, skinning, exposure to the elements or to wild animals, and burning alive.

No one was immune to Vlad’s attentions. His victims included women and children, peasants and great lords, ambassadors from foreign powers and merchants. However, the vast majority of his victims came from the merchants and boyars of Transylvania and his own Wallachia.

(end of copying)

Going back to the fiction story of Dracula Untold. Is it different? When I saw the trailer, I remember one of his line - "to protect his family and people". From whom? The Ottomans. And who are the they? The muslims. And because of that, they changed the history, yay!

I know it was a fiction, a made-up story to make it blockbuster. But have they thought about what would the non-muslims who saw the movies would think of the muslims nowaday.

As a muslim myself, I was dumbstruck when they potrayed the muslims (the ottoman, of course) as the vile and cruel creature, even though it wasn't play by muslim, of course again. And before the people who thought if this is how the muslim really are in the past, learn to read the history first. It may help you. The part when Allah's name shown in the screen really insensitive,

I love the movie but at the same time, my heart was crushed. No wonder my friend urge me to  watch Annabelle, but I can't. Seriously, no, guys. No possessed ghost stories. Enough with Chucky, guys.