Review and Comparison of Movie Codename Geronimo VS Zero Dark Thirty

Length of movie:
CG (Approx 2 hours)
ZDT (Approx 2 hours 45 mins)

Torture Scene Length:
CG (10 mins)
ZDT (45 mins)

Emotional factors:
CG (Showing navy seals, pre, during, post, thoughts, activities, and communications with family before the mission)
ZDT (Showing some navy seal pre-activities before the mission at the back part)

CIA Spies:
CG (2 USv- Pakistani men significantly gather all intel closely concluding Osama could be in the building)
ZDT (2 CIA ladies, 2 Men, with 1 of the 2 men playing Navy SEAL at the later part of the movie, and looking like a Pakistani who could speak Pakistani language, and also acting as a spy)

Afganistan Mission:
CG (Introducing the SEALs by showing a deadly mission in the Afganistan hill)
ZDT (None)

Budget:
CG (Cheaper flick)
ZDT (More Expensive)

Director:
CG (Male, with producers from Hurt Locker)
ZDT (Female director from Hurt Locker)

Intelligence on Osama's Abbottabad hideout:
CG (All rounding investigation - More detailed, showing how they scope in the building, driving around cities, and going into the building themselves. More concrete evidence to viewers to suggest OSAMA is inside)
ZDT (Showing a portion where a spy was being tasked to go into the hideout to gather info, but unsuccessfully - Less Detailed, only reflecting how many NUMBER of days they have been observing the buildings. Less concrete evidence to viewers to suggest OSAMA is inside)

Political Agenda:
CG (Seems a little propaganda, but more realistic, as showing real President's video and photos)
ZDT (Only mentioned the word 'President', no photos or video shown)

Snoozing factor:
CG (Glued to the actions most of the time)
ZDT (More verbal, some snoozing can be observed from viewers at some point)

Private Military/Security Scene:
CG (None)
ZDT (Shown at the Afganistan base where explosion occurs killing one of the CIA lady agent and the rest of the private military/security personnel)

Blackhawk Details:
CG (Ordinary Blackhawk helicopter)
ZDT (Advanced Blackhawk helipcopter extracted from Area 51)

Navy Seal Mission Attire:
CG (Original before mission, then changed to night op black attire during mission. Night visor may be less accurate depiction)
ZDT (Original before mission, then remain status quo during mission. Night visor may be more accurate depiction)

At the Islamabad Pakistan Building hideout:
CG (Sentry can be seen being alerted, and the family men and children can be seen woken and frightened, while the men can be seen preparing for defence standing by with their AK, after the landing of the blackhawks. Animal sound like sheeps and dogs can be heard).
ZDT (Building continues to be quiet and dark even after the blackhawk has landed loudly, and sentry does not seems to be alerted, even though the SEALs are around moving around stealthily, with bridging on doors with loud sound that defeat the steal mode. Animal sounds like the sheeps can be heard)

Firefight:
CG (More intense. It depicts more men or sentry shooting at the SEALS, before being killed themselves, and most male than female are being killed. AK rifles could be seen prominently with the men being killed)
ZDT (Less intense. It depicts that the SEALS is only shooting and aiming at both male and female, killing most of the male they saw, no AK rifles was seen prominently being held by most of the males they killed. The killing seems to be less justified).

During battle
CG (Civilians making commotions over the hearing of battle at the hideout, while the 2 US-Parkistani Spies tried to block off the civilians bluffing them stated it was a 'National Security Operation' in progress, and urged them to leave the area. The police had also arrived with confusions from the 2 parkistani spies trying to explain that it is a 'National Security Operation' , confusing the police officers on ground, and buying time for the mission in progress.
ZDT(A few civilians were seen standing on the building roof area watching the battles, and many walking towards the battle hideout, with the Spy cum Navy SEAL fellow speaking in Pakistani language repeatedly asking them to 'Back off' from the areas,  and warning by another counterpart that he will shoot'.

Raid door detail:
CG (Less detailed on the step of raiding the door).
ZDT (More detailed on the step of raiding the door).

Battle speed:
CG (Resonably faster, and higher firepower and action, after conclusive alert for noise from enemies base on a viewer's assumption).
ZDT (Much slower pace, less firepower and action, despite conclusive alert for noise from enemies, base on a viewer's assumption)

Codename:
CG (Geronimo, codename for Osama, being mentioned mulitple times)
ZDT (Geronimo, codename for Osama, only being mentioned once after the killing of Osama)

Last stand
CG (A tall figure from beard down can be seen as the last level of battle standing by for defence while awaiting SEALs arrival)
ZDT (A SEAL can be heard moving around pronouncing 'OSAMA's names multiple time in a soft and jovial tone, to attract OSAMA's attention.)

Killing of OSAMA.
CG (Shown OSAMA trying to use the wife to cover him while firing and got both got killed together).
ZDT (Shown someone barely being spotted from room by one of the SEALs and then got shot together with the wife, and the SEALs got the daughters to verify his father's name to confirm that he is indeed 'OSAMA BIN LADEN')

OSAMA look alike
CG (Yes, appearance closely look alike)
ZDT (I don't think so, not even close)

ENDING
CG (Announce outcomes such as the outcome of the US-Pakistani 2 spies being caught, and political news related to OBAMA and the PAKISTAN Minister shaking hands, has adequate ending, and felt completed)
ZDT (Depict the CIA lady agent alone introspecting the post mission and ended there, felt alittle abrupt and dissapointed).


With the 2 comparision, and base on most of the positive factors, my vote goes the Code Name Geronimo(Now known as the Navy SEAL, the hunt for OSAMA) with 17 positive points, and Zero Dark Thirty, with 9 positive points, though it may be award winning.

The psychological effect may be such that if one were to watch Geronimo prior to Zero Dark, the visual viewer will be more statisfied with the former, while if one were to watch Zero Dark first, the Geronimo version may seem slightly 'childish' in a simpler term.

I disagree with the new title for Geronimo as 'Navy SEAL, the hunt for OSAMA' , as i felt that the whole 'Geronimo' movie does not focus on the SEALs totally, but rather, on the mission itself, while 'Zero Dark Thirty' may encompass a wider array of thoughts, planning, and actions, more mature theme in the whole portrayal. Ultimately, my vote still goes for the former, with the details in hand, and base on my tolerance factors for visual details and effect, Geronimo gives me a better satisfaction for a 'real depiction' military mission movie.

Values for Re-affirmation

Quarter 4 of the year 2012. Will there be an apocalypse, or would it be just another anticipated suspenses of emptiness? This I would leave it to see.

During my sabbatical, I thought that it was really life, as I would like to take a break and to do what I want to do, study what I want to study, and work to gain the experience on what I need to gain the experiences on(though it was on a freelance basis). However, sooner in life, after the courses and studies are over, completed and done with, with overlapping transition, a job in the training, education, or marketing roles is a vision for the 3 industries which I set myself for, to secure a place in.

Training & Development role, which relates to HR would really be my first choice. After years of a synthesis of thoughts, experience, interactions, self-reflections, i finally found that i am someone who is really into T & D. Initially my administration and customer services roles in PEI had put me further to in exam administration, ultimately over the months, the feel of training ,engaging learners and even teachings brought me great satisfactions. The feel of vocal power, movement, and engagement of students and learners bring satisfactions without missing sweat, anxiety, preparation, adrenalin, before, during, in the midst, or even after the teaching or training. This proves to be better than sitting still, letting blood flows to the butt and facing the PC workstations from 9am to 6pm, causing eye sore, blurriness, and even floaters around the pupils of the eyes, which in turn, affect the brain's normal working functions, thus causing much errors in paper work. But to work in the HR industry requires years of experience, before given a chance.

I do question a few: if the selfished ones require people with experiences to work for them in order to benefit their own organisations, then who will give the people without experiences, a chance to gain the experiences? I am not suggesting all employers should be kind, but they should at least have a scheme to hire people who is interested in an industry, yet need to acquire the experience from the start.

The 2nd industry is Teaching & Learning related. I may not need to be an Academic Directly, but given by my attainment, i would really wish to acquire more years of indutry experience before giving lectures of modules such as Management, PR, Communications, Marketing etc. So which one? I would say it depends on the next decade on where i am. Definitely in theory related modules, i should be fine.

4 Values for Affirmations I acquire over in life are:

Discipline and Respect : From the time I was in Martial Arts.
Endurance, Perseverence and Tenacity : From the time I was in the Army Commandos.
Power, Principle, Attitude, and Goal Oriented: Now, and cultivating!

Creed

My Creed:

Aspire to aim high and far.

Be productive and contribute to the economy and the society is important to living a good purpose of life.

Save the earth, save the tree please.

Always utilise what you have to it's maximum potential, if you can.

In a relationship itself, it may not always be perfect, but it can always be beautifully imperfect. 'Acceptance' may be the keyword to succeed in love.

Believe in constant self-development and lifelong learning.

Travel around to any countries not visited before helps to gain greater exposure and expanding the horizon of the brain.

Optimise your loving heart to the needy and the old aged. Be pefectly understood that one will get old or sick one day.

Batik Processing

A new phase of life on sabbatical after 2 yrs 1 mth of work. Went to Bali. One of the places and first one we went was to the Sari Amerta Batik collection. It was on 2nd day of the trip 14 August 2012. The whole trip was from 13 August to16 August 2012.

At the place, a lady had introduced us the manufacturing process of the batik materials, before we went into the shop and took our sweet time to shop, while the tour guide and driver were waiting. It was a private tour with my wife to be, and the driver and tour guide, the 4 of us. The below is the method of batik processing method (in their indonesian english translation which will not be fully coherent) which I will be featuring in this entry:

1. Making designs on the white material.
a. Copying the Original designs
b. Directly without copying before
There are not used for stamp processing

2. Covering designs with wax (klowong) on both sides
a. Filling desings with Ornaments and small dots
b. Covering some special part of the designs to get the second colour (sawuk)
c. Covering some special part of the designs to get the third colour (tembokan).

Note: For stamp processing, they can directly do without making designs, for every stamp has its own design.

3. Dyeing for the first colour

4 Scrapping some parts of the wax to get second colour by using a kind of knife(cawuk). Omiting all the wax by putting the material in boiling water so there are two colours, blue and white.

5. Covering some parts of the designs where are dots to them
Note: After fifth processing we usually put dot on the lines of the designs to make them nicer.

6. Dyeing for the second colour, we can dye this many times if we want some more colour.

7. Omitting all the wax by putting the material in boiling water.

8. Washing till the material is clean then we dry this in the shade.
Note. The Traditional colour are usually blue, brown and light yellow. It is to be used as live symbol.

An elite soldier's story,

I remember in 2006, i attended the airborne course as 185 BAC. It was the 2nd jump that we walked over to the airbase opposite side of hendon camp. We took the Focal 50 with my former OC, who became the OC for the para-wing. Some of the regulars were also inside. Though it was the 2nd jump, every ns guys were attentive, yet nervous. A few of the regulars also joined it as part of their periodical currency for allowances to be paid to them. They seemed to be in their early to mid 30s, many of them were nonchalant, and take this as a boring game. Was rather early in the morning, at around 7plus am.

At a later point we were told to lift up the hooks to standby for the jump. These regulars were rather sleepy looking....and most of them had almost dozed off, while their one hand was still holding on to the hook. When ready, the jump master instructed the regulars to check all quipments ready on their body,made them did the static line up, and hook up the line. Then one by one, the jump master make them jump upon the greenlight, with a tap of 'green light go!'. It was swift and fast, till i saw a regular did not execute his jump out of the door properly, he seemed flew off the side of the plane. lol.

I was so closed to end of National services when i cleared my basic airborne course. Therefore i had no chance to do the combat jump.

The former OC of mine was great enough to make the batch experience each aircraft with each jump, starting from Chinook(jump out from the back like tarzan swing with 5 seconds open of the chute), and focal 50(3 seconds), and C-130(3 seconds). After completing the minimum requirements, a certificate was issued to all soldiers of that batch.

Mean , Median, Mode, and Range for educators.

Mean, Median, Mode, and Range

Mean, median, and mode are three kinds of "averages". There are many "averages" in statistics, but these are, I think, the three most common, and are certainly the three you are most likely to encounter in your pre-statistics courses, if the topic comes up at all.

The "mean" is the "average" you're used to, where you add up all the numbers and then divide by the number of numbers. The "median" is the "middle" value in the list of numbers. To find the median, your numbers have to be listed in numerical order, so you may have to rewrite your list first. The "mode" is the value that occurs most often. If no number is repeated, then there is no mode for the list.

The "range" is just the difference between the largest and smallest values.

• Find the mean, median, mode, and range for the following list of values:
13, 18, 13, 14, 13, 16, 14, 21, 13

The mean is the usual average, so:
(13 + 18 + 13 + 14 + 13 + 16 + 14 + 21 + 13) ÷ 9 = 15
Note that the mean isn't a value from the original list. This is a common result. You should not assume that your mean will be one of your original numbers. The median is the middle value, so I'll have to rewrite the list in order:
13, 13, 13, 13, 14, 14, 16, 18, 21
There are nine numbers in the list, so the middle one will be the (9 + 1) ÷ 2 = 10 ÷ 2 = 5th number:
13, 13, 13, 13, 14, 14, 16, 18, 21
So the median is 14.   Copyright © Elizabeth Stapel 2004-2011 All Rights Reserved The mode is the number that is repeated more often than any other, so 13 is the mode. The largest value in the list is 21, and the smallest is 13, so the range is 21 – 13 = 8.
mean: 15 median: 14 mode: 13range: 8

Note: The formula for the place to find the median is "( [the number of data points] + 1) ÷ 2", but you don't have to use this formula. You can just count in from both ends of the list until you meet in the middle, if you prefer. Either way will work.


http://www.purplemath.com/modules/meanmode.htm

Managing Change

>Change can happen at any time
>Change can be confusing
>Change can be fearful

So you must always be prepared for change...

Change is inavoidable, but it can....

>Be understood
>Be handled well
>Be used to motivate and develop myself
>Make learning more meaningful

Learning helps me to....
>Deal with changes effectively
>Eliminate confusion
>Create a new vision of my life in the future
>Take charge of my life

To survive any chang, I need to.....

>Learn continously
>Attend relevant training
>Be focused
>Be positive
>Take action

Overcoming Fear of Change

>There is no such thing as 'no fear' Fear is part of life. But you can learn to handle fear.
>Fear is just a feeling you have about something.
>To deal with fear is to confront it.
>Ask question to know more about the situation.
>Observe how others overcome fear.
>Say to yourself, "If others can do it, so do i".
>And then....JUST DO IT!

Develop a Mind For Success
>Success is for anyone who is willing to work for it.
>Nothing is free, How successful you are depends on how much you are willing to pay for it with your yime, energy and hardwork.
>Success depends on your decisions.
>Decisions can make or break you.
>Good decisions need good information.
>Good information depends on your ability to learn continuously.
>Success doesn't happen overnight. Success happens over time!
>So, start working on your success now!



Extracted from WDA Workfare Skill-Up Motivational Workshop SuChi Success Initiatives Pte Ltd