Read this interesting article Opposite sex friendships: Is it possible?. I suppose the article is referring to special friend(s) as opposed to casual friends. So essentially, if your relationship with your spouse is good and with some ground rules, it certainly is possible. But if your relationship is bad or there are no ground rules, it may not be possible, it may worsen your relationship with your spouse, or may even be the reason for your bad relationship in the first place! Something to think about.
Got together with Jim, Crissy, and the Fenris boys to watch Zero Dark Thirty last night. Haven’t seen them in a while and I couldn’t recall the names of half of them :P But there we were waiting for everyone to arrive, having dinner, talking about the things we used to talk back then, and of course, watching a movie of common interest.
Make no mistake, Zero Dark Thirty is not an action movie about a SEAL Team assaulting UBL hideout and ending him with extreme prejudice. It is primarily a spy thriller with a sort-of-action segment towards the end. It’s about “Maya”, a female CIA agent, on her single-minded 10-year search for UBL aka the needle in the haystack, her struggles in a male-dominated workplace, brute-force approach (yes, torture), bureaucracy ridden government, unreliable allies, and the culmination of the search with an efficient little raid a little-known city in Pakistan. There’s a lot of social and political commentary somewhere there but I chose to ignore them.
Towards the end, the narrative of the movie sort of weaves in with the narrative of the book No Easy Day. For example, the female CIA operative leading the search and the way the raid unfolds. So having read the book helped me understand and appreciate the events as it unfolded on the big screen. Makes me wonder if Mark Owen/Matt Bissonette is a technical adviser for the movie.
I’m kind of a Kathryn Bigelow fan because of The Hurt Locker and her latest work didn’t hurt. Definitely a good watch whether you’re a spy thriller fan or an mil action fan.
Rating: 4/5
I wanted to let Jeanne start using her new iPad mini already. But not without a case. I like OtterBox products (and their clones) so I looked around but I found only the Apple Smart Cover (expensive and not very protective) and some generic cases with built-in covers (not very protective nor flexible). So, for a change, I ended getting a genuine Otterbox case.
The Otterbox Defender for the iPad mini is a high-risk heavy-duty case. The case is composed of three major pieces: a silicone outer jacket, a 2-piece poly-carbonate inner shell, and a cover/stand. The poly-carbonate inner shell locks together and sandwiches the iPad mini. It includes a built-in screen protector. The silicon jacket then wraps around the inner shell and covers the back and the sides. The material is a stiff type of silicone rubber that OtterBox uses in its new casings.
The buttons have push-through covers that are made of the same stiff material. They are definitely stiffer but still reasonable to press. The microphone port, Lightning port, and silent switch are also covered by stiff flaps but are easily opened with a fingernail. The flaps are generously sized and the ports should be easily accessible to most accessories. There are deep-set cutouts for the front and back cameras.
The whole case fits the iPad mini snugly and makes it look very rugged and like it could bounce off the floor. Perfect for a tablet meant to be carried around and used by Jeanne.
It’s sometimes overwhelming the blessings from God are. I can only wish I can give back as much.
Today is Epiphany, a festival commemorating the manifestation of Jesus Christ to the gentiles in the persons of the Magi. It is also popularly known as the festival of the three kings but that’s something the church is moving away from. Long ago, it used to be observed on January 6 but these days it’s observed on the first Sunday of the year. It doesn’t matter, today is both.
Epiphany also means an experience of sudden and striking realization, originally through the divine, but these days not necessarily just the divine. This holiday (holy day) season, I had a personal epiphany, sort of. It may not be new to most but it is to me. So yeah, it’s quite significant.
I realized that it is quite easy to be Christian or Christ-like when everyone is nice to you and everything is fine and dandy. The challenge is when people are not-so-nice, maybe even downright mean, to you and when things are not to your liking. What would Christ do? Can I do the same?