Folarin

2012-01-17T11:49:00.000-08:00

The Descendants

Super-star actors like George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are at the top of their game for good reason. They are not just famous celebrities we see on the cover of People magazine which lies in the rack at the grocery store. They act and make the best films when compared with the films that their peers make. I suppose since they are already incredibly wealthy, money no longer is the priority when choosing projects. They would much rather choose to do films like The Descendants, Moneyball or In the Land of Blood and Honey (respectively), where they can gain respect by winning accolades and awards.

I had never heard of The Descendants, which stars George Clooney, and directed by Alexander Payne until the 2012 Golden Globe nominations were announced. The Descendants is a film mainly about family. Clooney is a father and husband whose wife was in a boating accident. She hit her head and is now in a coma on life support. Clooney has two daughters ages 10 and 17. They live in Hawaii. Clooney, who is a busy real estate attorney now has to learn to raise his children who he has not had much experience with before his wife's accident, because he travelled a lot on business and was hardly around. He now also has to learn how to deal with the imminent bereavement of his wife and manage his somewhat estranged children's feelings too. The other side of this film's story is that Clooney's character is the trustee of a massive land in Hawaii worth hundreds of millions of dollars, someone even offering half a billion. He and his 7 or 8 other 'cousins' are The Descendants of this land, which may or may not be sold by the end of the movie.

Clooney's voice over at the beginning of the film was quick to suppress our stereotipical notion that everyone who lives in Hawaii lives in paradise. Or that its residents are on some permanent vacation, where everybody sips on Mai Tais on the beach everyday, without a care in the world. No, Hawaii is like everywhere else. People there work for a living. "Its residents are not immune to life."

So, the movie is about Clooney dealing with the business of getting the land sold, and dealing with his children whose mother will not wake up. There is a clever tie-in between boths stories that raises the dramatic and comedy to a high level, because, Clooney, who was excited about the sale before, now finds himself in a dilemma.

Clooney decides to take the family on a trip to inform all family and friends about the state of the wife/mother. Alex decides she wants to bring some obnoxious and impolite guy-friend along with her. Clooney disagrees at first until she says she would behave herself more if he is there with her. It turns out she did behave. This guy-friend seems to be really annoying at first, many times, never realizing how insensitive he is to an old woman's Alheimers or the serious situation the family is going through. However as he travels with the family, we notice him understanding things better, he even has a few seconds of wisdom to disperse. We learn that he lost his father a few months back, so maybe that is the connection Alex sees in him, and therapy she needed.

This movie is very smartly written. It is also well grounded in reality. Nothing happens that could not happen in real life. As I listened to the characters talk, I kept saying to myself, yep, that is how I would expect that character to respond...yep, if I were her, I would do exactly that. But the reason we go to movies is to see something we would not normally see in real life, therefore the dialogue is pushed a bit beyond reality just a tiny bit, so that there are witty comebacks and clever remarks, which makes it more exciting.

There were amazing performances by every single cast member. Clooney is obviously great as always. He shows that he is as adept at comedy as he is at displaying and evoking strong emotion. Even actors normally known for comedic roles like Matthew Lillard and Judy Greer were great in their dramatic parts. Clooney's father-in-law, played by Robert Forster (popularly known from Jackie Brown), is amazing as a gentle but bitter father who blames Clooney for not giving her what he thought his daughter deserved in life. A stand out performance was Shailene Woodley as Alex, Clooney's teenage daughter. At the beginning, she is a rebel, but her character arch evolves to become her dad's partner who goes on hilarious family reconnaissance missions.

I normally would not be the first to seek out dramas, but I am begining to like comedy-dramas because as soon as a scene becomes too sad, the filmmakers inject something funny, but not 'haha' funny so as not to downplay the seriousness, but the kind that makes you wanna cry and smile at the same time.

Every character gets their time to grow, learn and cry.

Director irector Alexander Payne has only made 5 films, including About Schmidt and Sideways which already makes him a master at what he does.

The Descendants won the Golden Globe award in 2012 for Best Picture - Drama, and Best Actor - Drama for George Clooney. This is a film that will be a classic which will withstand the test of time.

By Folarin Osibodu

2011-05-17T12:30:00.000-07:00

TIME magazine's 100 most influential people

Main article: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,2066367,00.html

The purpose of this article is to test how wide my knowledge is of the news in the past year or years before.

I simply pulled the list from TIME.com, looked at it and typed a description of who I recognize, and why I think they were nominated...all without clicking on their names or googleing.

1. Joseph Stiglitz - World renowned American economist. He has either won a Nobel prize or is a strong candidate for one.

2. Reed Hastings - Netflix CEO. He found Netflix either in 1997 or 99. A forward thinker in the way consumers consume home media. Pioneered mailing of dvds to home and "no late fees". This reason along with the continual reduced monthly subscription rates both attracted 10 - 20 million subscribers. It also put Blockbuster out of business. Hastings named his company 'NET-flix' not 'RENT-flix' because from the every beginning he foresaw consumers "instantly watching" movies and tv shows through streaming. DVD rental was simply a means to that end.

3. Amy Poehler - American comedian. Became widely popular on Saturday Night Live, performing sketch comedy and reporting the news with comedy. She later branched out to doing feature films which include, Baby Mama with Tina Fey, and Hamlet 2 with Steve Coogan.

She can currently be seen on the successful NBC comedy, "Parks and Recreation."

4. Geoffrey Canada - founded the Harlem Academy. The goal was to bring young minds from low socio-economic status and prepare them for college. Canada's (graduate of Harvard) enthusiasm is so apparent for this calling of his that he has been profiled in magazines, on Oprah - numerous times, talk shows, and a popular documentary was made with him and his academy at the center. The documentary is called, "Waiting for Superman" directed by David Guggenheim.

5. Mark Zuckerberg - co-founder and CEO of Facebook.com - the social network that has had an impact in me, yours and all almost 600 million users all around the world. Facebook has permeated the entire internet in just a short period of time, since 2004. Zuckerberg, also attended Harvard, except did not graduate, donated $100 million to the New Jersey School System. This announcement was featured on Oprah in 2010 along with Geoffrey Canada and mayor of New Jersey, Cory Booker. A very critical acclaimed movie was made about the founding of facebook called "The Social Network" which earned the academy award for best screenplay. The movie also grossed over $100 million.

Many high-profile guests have visited Facebook head-quarters in Palo Alto, CA, including President Barack Obama who recently held a town hall meeting.

Zuckerberg is the youngest billionaire, and Facebook is valued at about $50 billion.

6. Jilian Assange - controversial founder of Wikileaks - Assange was in the news pretty much throughout the whole of 2010. Wikileaks is a website that allows the anonymous submission of secret government details to be viewed openly, which does not make the U.S. government very happy.

7. Lamido Sanusi - Nigerian CBN (Central Bank of Nigeria) governor. He was appointed the governor of the CBN at the height of the world economic collapse around June 2009. He immediately took drastic steps - he consolidated banks, fired about 9 bank executives and hopefully began steps to reducing corruption in the country.

8. Colin Firth - actor. British actor who has never made a bad performance (my opinion) finally got his due when he won the Oscar for "The King's Speech" he also won the BAFTA for the same role. He also made an acclaimed performance in A Single Man directed by Tom Ford.

9. Joe Biden - Vice President of the United States. Besides that, I really don't know why he is on this list.

10. Cory Booker - Mayor of Newark, New Jersey. He has been very particular about the state of education in his city.

11. Michelle Obama - wife of President Barack Obama aka. First Lady of the U.S. - She was very particular about child obesity and the kind of food that children eat in schools.

12. Tom Ford - Fashion Designer and Director. Only directed one film and did an excellent job at it...A Single Man, with Colin Firth.

13. Nicholas Sarkozy - President of France.

14. Matthew Weiner - Creator of Emmy award winning tv show, Mad Men on AMC. Matthew Weiner also created The Sopranos which had a very long run on HBO (about 6-9 seasons). Interestingly, he pitched Mad Men to producers first but they turned that down. Only after the success and awards that The Sopranos had and won, was he able to make Mad Men.

15. Lisa Jackson - Michael Jackson's sister?

16. Justin Bieber - World wide singer/performer came into the limelight from posting youtube videos after being discovered by Usher. He has mezmerized young girls...and their moms, Beiber Fever. He has appeared an every talk show including Oprah, sang in the new "We are the world" video, and performed at every musical and movie award show.

17. Prince William and Kate Middleton - the are English. William in the royal family married Kate who he dated for about 8 years. They had a huge wedding in May 2011 which was broadcast live all over the world, including YouTube for the very first time.

18. Kim Jong Un - probably Kim Jong Il's son.

19. Oprah Winfrey - over 25 years of The Oprah Winfrey Show, enough said. She has interviewed everybody, presidents, royals, actors, regular people, Michael Jackson, and puppets. She ran the Oprah show under her production company, Harpo Productions (Oprah spelt backwards). She became the wealthiest African-American, a billionaire, Tom Cruise jumped on her couch, supported Obama and cried when he won. On January 1, 2011, she started her own network called OWN, in partnership with Discovery Networks. She has an XM satellite show, and has spawned tv and XM careers of Dr. Phil, Dr. Oz and that guy that does home furnishings.

20. Larry Page - co-founder of Google, Inc. Page, along with co-founder Sergei Brin, worked on their Stanford project that hoped to index the entire web and make it search very easy and effective. After Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google recently stepped down after nearly a decade of running the company, Larry Page stepped up. Let's see where he takes Google with other prominent competition from companies like, Facebook, Groupon, Twitter, Apple and Amazon.

21. David Cameron - Britain's prime minister.

22. John Lasseter - founded Pixar animation studios along with Steve Jobs and Ed Catmul around 1994. With him as the head of Pixar, the company is about 11 for 11. All movies have been very very successful, most have taken academy awards for best animated film year after year, while some have even made it to the best film category.

Films
Toy Story
Toy Story 2
A Bug's Life
Monster's Inc.
Finding Nemo
The Incredibles
Cars
Wall-E
Up
Toy Tory 3

Upcoming Films
Newt
Cars 2

After Walt Disney Studios acquired Pixar, John Lasseter became head of Disney Animation. He is now both in charge of movies that Pixar makes, and the others that Disney makes.

23. Mukesh Ambani - Indian Billionaire, among the world's wealthiest few. He is the guy that has that 27 story house in India.

24. Bruno Mars - Singer

25. General David Petraeus - He is the leader of the U.S. Armed Forces, the guy that led U.S. troops to Iraq and Afghanistan and stuff.

26. Matt Damon and Gary White - Matt Damon is a Harvard trained actor, he lost many pounds to be in Steven Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan". He played Ryan. He co-wrote the screenplay of "Good Will Hunting" with his close friend Ben Affleck which won each of them Oscars.

I'm guessing the reason he in on the TIME 100 most influential people is because of Water.org The organization that looks to provide water for the those that do not have easy access. Water.org posted a challenge for teams of students in universities to come of with creative ways of solving water problems. Scholarships was provided to the winners.

27. Sting - singer, who likes to do good things around the world, I guess.

28. Michelle Rhee - Washington DC School Superintendent. When she came into office, she fired bad teachers. She was also featured in the acclaimed documentary, "Waiting for superman"

29. Mark Whalberg - actor. Recently did a good job in "The Fighter". Heard he had to "fight" to get the movie made. Not sure why he's on the list though.

30. Arianna Huffington - Created the Huffington Post. This popular blog, quickly became a source of real news, to compete with newspapers such as The Washington Post, The New York Times, The New York Post and The New Yorker. Arianna a workaholic holds about 3 or 4 cell phones at any one time. She is a vocal proponent of better education. aol bought the huffington post for $315 million recently, Arianna banks some big dough!

31. Barack Obama - President of The United States. Won Nobel Peace Prize in 2010, and donated the million dollars to charity because he felt he had not yet earned it. Did something big in Health Care. He onced played basket ball for leisure got injured on his eye and got 12 stitches.

32. Scott Rudin - film producer. He produced the award winning and financially successful movie, "The Social Network."

33. John Boehner - prominent member of the Republican party of the U.S.

33 out of 100. 1/3rd not bad.

Oops, skipped over...
Hillary Clinton - U.S. Secretary of State. She campained hard for the presidency. She may not have won, but she holds a very strong position in the White House. She travels overseas a lot to speak with world leaders. She had that worried look in the photo while Barack Obama et al watched as US Navy Seals raided Osama Bin Laden's compound

2011-03-16T12:00:00.000-07:00

Dual MS/ MBA Computer Engineering/ Business Administration

Statement of Purpose

By Folarin Osibodu

I remember the day like it was yesterday - the very first time I laid eyes on a computer in my mother’s office as a boy. It enthralled me so much that I spent countless hours going through its directories, exploring this plethora of possibilities and applications. I even became creative with making birthday cards in Microsoft Word and Paint. Luckily for me, there were two PCs in her office so I had all the time I wanted. I knew that I wanted to spend my entire adult career life in this field.

Fast forward about about 7 years later to my Sophomore year in college studying for a double B.Sc in Computer Engineering and Electrical Engineering. That summer, I read a book written by one Bill Gates called, “Business @ the Speed of Thought”. I learned that even though he was very adept with Computer programming and software, he always had a business mind – The mind of an entrepreneur. He was able to sell his software to major corporations, businesses and hotels. Clearly, Gates’ ability to market his software was unparalleled. This combination of software and business made him the wealthiest man in the world. Observing Gates caused me to be interested in business so I signed up for classes in the College of Business Administration and found a natural inclination for this new found field and performed successfully in my business classes by making A’s.

During my undergraduate studies, subjects like C programming, Advanced C programming, Electronic Circuits, Digital Circuit Design, Matrix Computer Methods, Microprocessors interested me a lot. Therefore in my final year, my team used most of the knowledge from the classes mentioned above to design an Automatic Violin Tuner, which does exactly what its name suggests, tune a violin automatically using a small robot attached to the violin. We not only focused on the Engineering aspect of it but worked on its marketability side also.

I am lucky to have had internships in all three areas that interest me - namely Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Business. I worked in the utilities company of Memphis called Memphis, Light, Gas and Water in the Street Light Engineering department. I began work there a couple of weeks after a terrible storm/tornado swept through Memphis back in 2003 causing me to learn how a utilities company has to coordinate with all departments in replacing damaged electric wires, damaged transformers and communicating with customers.

My next internship was as an Engineering intern with Merrill Lynch in New York City and New Jersey. I worked in Global Technology and Infrastructure, an office that supports the global financial transactions and activities that Merrill Lynch undertakes.

This internship taught me not only the technical nature of what was required to keep the engines of the “Merrill Machine” moving, but also the business side of Wall Street by understanding how business needs were translated to technical requirements. In addition to the technical and business skills added on to me, I was able to hone my communication and leadership skills through weekly team update meetings where I was required to provide weekly status updates to Stakeholders within Merrill Lynch. I also led my team to give a live Web conference demo of a Wiki software package. A Wiki software package is the engine that runs a website that can be edited by anyone. An excellent example of that is Wikipedia.org. All interns at Merrill Lynch were tasked with a secondary project and the Wiki project was ours. We also had bi-weekly seminars that allowed me network and asked Wall Street executives questions about the industry.

I wish to earn a Dual MS/ MBA in both colleges of Computer & Electrical Engineering and Business Administration. I intend to follow this up with a Ph.D. after a good number of years working in the industry in order to pursue a career in research and teaching. I have chosen to apply to [University]. [University] isthe leading provider of education, research, and economic development, and [University] drives the state's economic, intellectual, social, and cultural advancements. Also, [University]is ranked among the top 40 public universities of America. Specialty rankings are:

#1 [University]’s Physician Executive MBA program of the College of Business Administration according to Modern Physician.
#1 [University] MBA program in alumni value (value for the money) three years after graduation, according to Financial Times Global Business School Rankings.
#5 [University] MBA program overall among U.S. public universities according to Wall Street Journal 2005.

I bring along a strong grasp of fundamentals in Electronics and Computers, an aptitude for teaching and team work, a zest for challenges and an enthusiastic desire to learn all I can. I would like to take with me, in addition to knowledge of Business and Management in a world of Technology and Engineering, a network of strong and lasting relationships with my teachers and fellow-students. I hope that my background and qualifications are found suitable for a Dual MS/MBA in Computer Engineering and Business Administration at [University].

2011-02-07T07:57:00.000-08:00

Dream - June 15, 2009

I, Folarin Osibodu won an award called the Ed Catmull award. It is an award given to the best animated movie director. The setting was an Oscar type dinner ceremony. I was seated on the high table with the other top guests. For some reason, Steven Spielberg stood up, used a stick to point at the screen, and showed clips of the new Sacha Baron Cohen movie...there was a hilarious scene, that got very funny very quickly, evidenced by the audiences laughter.

Afterwards, I was presented with this prestigious award by Steven Spielberg. After that, me and Steven went into a movie theater for a private screening, watched a movie and talked. I got to ask him many questions and he was very gracious to me.

Then I found myself seated on another high table, next to Will Smith. I nudged him and told him about the ‘dream’ that I had the previous night...that I was presented the Ed Catmull award for best Animated feature (a dream within a dream). Will Smith began to clap slowly, then everyone joined him in a standing ovation, for me.

-The End-

By the way, Ed Catmull is the current president of the Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar Animation Studios. Pixar is considered by many to not only be the best animation studio in the world, but also the best movie studio in the world who happens to make animated movies. They are leaning into live action soon…

In the real world, there is no such thing as an Ed Catmull award, but my amazingly creative subconscious brain/God invented the award named after Ed Catmull, which makes a lot of sense.

---------

June 21, 2009

After watching "A Bug's Life", I dreamt about an animated movie called 'Insects'. It was sort of a behind the scenes of the making of "A bug's life". It featured the actual voice actors in live action form, standing around next to their animated characters together. Many scenes were of the actors waiting around for scenes to be shot....

2010-11-04T07:21:00.000-07:00

Long journey has a degree of satisfaction -- U of M ceremonies at Forum represent opportunity to new class of graduates

Commercial Appeal, The (Memphis, TN) - Sunday, May 7, 2006

Author: Lindsay Melvin Special to The Commercial Appeal

Double-majoring in electrical engineering and computer engineering is no easy task, says Folarin Osibodu. But neither was leaving his parents and friends in Nigeria.

"Here you have a lot of opportunities," said Osibodu.[...]

[...]Before coming to the University of Memphis, he spent a semester at a Nigerian college where professors were underpaid and students jockeyed for computers.

"In Nigeria, we don't have one computer for each person, and that just doesn't bring out your best creative work," he said.

His sister attended U of M as well, and this past week, for the first time in two years, his family came together to see them both graduate with honors.

"My father says he's the proudest father ever," said Osibodu.

...

For Osibodu, school's not over yet. He's still planning to go on for his MBA, and although he'd prefer to stay in the "land of opportunity," returning to Nigeria with an education is the best solution he can think of to help better his homeland, he said.

"No matter how much money you spend, knowledge needs to be there. Knowledge is power," he said.

Caption: Photo
Mike Maple/The Commercial Appeal Yoon Hong (left), 27, shares a laugh with her friend and fellow graduate Kyunghwa Kim, 24, during University of Memphis graduation ceremonies at FedExForum. They were among 1,600 receiving degrees Saturday.

Edition: Final
Section: Metro
Page: B1
Index Terms: graduation college speech
Record Number: 1117F4F269C4FA35
Copyright (c) 2006 The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, TN

2010-10-05T18:40:00.001-07:00

I saved someone's life...financially

August 2010.

I was on a flight on my way back from Los Angeles. While in the air, the flight attendant announced that she would be passing forms from a major credit card company. It was a Master Card that had rewards of about $500,000. Really? Now, the flight attendant really sold the idea of this credit card very well...so well that even I almost saw something good in a credit card.

Over the years, I have put many hundreds of hours researching the financial industry -reading, listening to podcasts, talking to professionals. I have looked at the advantages and disadvantages of owning a credit card, I have listened to experts on the subject...looked at the Word of God, and put my own thought to it...after all that, I have come to a conclusion.

THERE IS NO REASON TO OWN A CREDIT CARD. Period.

So, after the flight attendant went through her spiel, she asked for people to raise their hand if they would like to fill a form. A few people raised their hands, including a younger sista who sat by my left. As I watched a dvd digital copy of a movie on my Macbook, I watched her through the corner of my eye as she tried to decide if she wanted to fill the form. It would be her first credit card.

As soon as she began filling the form, I stopped my movie and turned to her.

I asked for her name, she told me, and I told her mine. I said, "You don't need a credit card". "All that $500,000 reward-bonus-crap that she said, it is a lie." [Legally, she did not lie, but for 99.9% of credit card owners, it might as well have been a lie]. I explained to her why she did not need a card. I told her my story about credit cards, and how I had come to the conclusion that one can live well and survive in the U.S. without credit cards. I mentioned that I had not used a credit card in over 3 years, and here I am sitting in a plane that I paid cash for (Debit Card).

I explained to her that one's finances should boil down to a few simple rules:

Work for your money. Save your money. If you need to buy something that you cannot immediately afford, wait till you have saved enough, and then buy it. Also, give away 10% of your income.

She understood what I taught, and accepted it. Then I told her to tear the Master Card application form. The paper size was too thick to tear, so I helped her and ripped the form to shreds. We both laughed and exchanged more personal stories.

My hope and prayer is that she follows, not just this teaching, but the teachings of our grand-parents about money. Simple guidelines that work, that save people from financial disaster.

2010-10-01T08:34:00.001-07:00

Topmost Tutoring - the founder's history

I would consider myself as someone who knows Mathematics, understands it, and is able to solve difficult Math problems. In my 2000 SAT, I my score placed me in the top 5% in the entire country.

Despite this Math skill, Mathematics did not come easy for me. From a very early age, I put in a tremendous amount of time and effort into studying Mathematics. I remember specifically in high school, I had great difficulty with grasping the concept of the negative sign (-).
For example, why is 3 - - 4 = 7, -3-4 = -7, -4 + 3 = -1 and 3 - 4 = -1

I used to get headaches trying to understand the rules of the negative sign. They seemed counter-intuitive to the way the mind normally worked. So, I asked 2 of my closest friends who seemed to understand it, but I could not understand their explanations. I spent countless hours studying the textbook, working on most of the problems at the end of the chapter (usually over 20 problems), until I finally got it.

I have many examples of situations in which it was difficult for me to understand a concept, but when I finally got it, I felt like nobody in the world understood it better than I did. After many years, I looked back and I could see the reason why I was allowed to go through a lot of mental pain in Mathematics...enter Topmost Tutoring.

When I started college at the University of Memphis, I was told that Math tutors were paid $10/hr. Many desk assistant jobs were paid $6.50 at the time. So, since I knew I could tutor, I applied. The manager nicely explained to me that 1st year students were not allowed to tutor, only Sophomores and above. So, I took the desk job, waited a year, applied for the tutoring job again, was hired and so it began.

Over the course of 4 years in college, I have had about 6 or 7 various tutoring jobs, depending of which was available during regular school season or the summer, or depending on what tutoring program was available. I became better at reading people, quickly understanding how they thought about a problem, then guiding them to the solution. I say guiding because I did not just hand them the answers. I would solve the first 1, 2 or 3 problems, then watch them solve the rest.

I noticed many of my students making the same mistakes that I made back in junior high and high school, mistakes that I had learned from. Therefore, since I knew how they approached the problems, it was easy for me to say, “I understand why you are thinking of it that way. It may seem logical for you to think of it that way, but that is not how it works, this is the way to think about it.”

Now, after finishing my Masters program. I want to use what I know, to add value to my community, and the world.

Topmost Tutoring was formed with the slogan, “We make difficult courses simple”. Our goal is to show that Math problems are like puzzles. When scattered, they look very complex and impossible...but as soon as you put the pieces together one step at a time in the right spots, they form one big puzzle. Ostensibly complex math problems are made up of of simple rules. The challenge to solve the problem, is that one has to know and understand every single rule that is required.
And that is where we come in. We will find out where the student is deficient. What laws were not covered in elementary school or junior high, what rules have been forgotten, and we will put it all together in a way that is easy to understand, and maybe even fun.

A friend of mine who has difficulty with Math said, “Math can be taught if the teacher is good enough, and Math can be liked if the teacher makes the subject engaging enough.” - Roberta

I told her that I would include her text message in one of our business plans, and I just did.

Our vision for Topmost Tutoring is to be the very best in Math tutoring in the world. We will make Math easy and fun to understand. Our vision is to eradicate the Math deficiency epidemic.

2010-08-30T04:18:00.000-07:00

Skype goes public...files for Initial Public Offering (IPO)

I feel like a proud father whose son has graduated high school who is on his way to an Ivy League. Skype, the most popular Voice-over IP service is going public! Skype which was found in 2003 was acquired by eBay in 2005 for $2.6bn. It makes me happy to see a company that was formed not too long ago, going public. Skype provides incredible value to the world’s internet users, saves them money, and makes their lives easier and a little more convenient. We all know that if you can improve people’s lives & add value, you will be rewarded…the money will follow. This is the reason I am proud of Skype. I use Skype at home, companies and organizations use Skype in the office. In fact, many companies are encouraged to use Skype for international calls, rather than use the company phone, for the obvious reason-Skype saves companies millions of dollars in international calls. That is a real value.

Congratulations Skype, can wait to watch you graduate college-whatever that metaphor translates to.

2010-08-17T20:45:00.000-07:00

The brain – remembrance

memory: the power of retaining & recalling past experience
remembrance: the ability to recall past occurrences

How is it that I am able to remember the words of the song that I learnt at 7 years old?
How am I able to remember
-all 4, old and new, email accounts' usernames & passwords?
-my banks’ usernames & passwords?
-my ATM PINS?

How on earth was I able to memorize one of my bank's account number and routing number?

How was I able to memorize my SSN? Okay, I guess most people remember that one.

The brain is awesome!

We have evolved computers that can compute mathematics faster than the human brain can. However, we haven’t perfected image recognition, & voice recognition in computers. Today, the computer insn’t as creative as the brain is…maybe later…

Computers have a long way to go

2010-08-16T22:30:00.000-07:00

Full time student...no more

I recently filled a form at the dentist's office.

"Are you a full time student?"
I checked "No" for the 1st time in my life, after 26 years.

Woo! That is almost 3 decades of studying. No wonder I have a small headache. Being a student is great in many ways, but that is a topic for a different blog. But being out of school, I can actually 'do'.

What do I mean by 'do'?

I can create things now. Things that I do not have to turn in on monday morning for a letter grade. In addition to creating, I get paid for the same projects that I did in college, at work. Google's Marisa Mayer said, "Google is like Stanford, with stock options"

...

2010-08-16T21:59:00.000-07:00

Team Leadership in College

Aug 15, 2010

In all of my college & grad school courses, I do not remember any one course/project where a team leader was selected.

Our projects usually went something like this- "Okay, the 5 of us are here for this Marketing project for the rest of the semester. I guess let's divide tasks among ourselves...and we'll see how it goes..." This was the way teams worked in my experience during college.

A leader for the team was never explicitly chosen. Usually, over time, you got the sense that Mary was the unofficial team leader, or me, or Ola. Someone usually either takes the stage as the leader or finds his/herself delegating duties and stuff.

This is fine, but the problem with not explicitly naming one as the head is that no one takes the blame when things go wrong. I would encourage teachers & professors to have their class teams to select a team leader in every project. This way, everyone knows who to report to. Tasks are delegated properly, and when the "defecation hits the oscillation" (-credit http://twitter.com/jeffcannata), we know who to blame...and that is important in preparing students for life.

2010-07-18T07:47:00.000-07:00

My Life as a Business

I am my own CEO
I am my own CFO
I am my own Chef
I am my own Chauffeur
I am my own Wardrobe department
I am my own Publicist
I am tasked with thinking of Ideas
I am tasked with managing Schedules
I am tasked with having a Social life: family, friends, relationships.

I wake up in the morning, take a bath, prepare breakfast, pick out the clothes to wear for the day (Wardrobe dept), get in the car and drive to work (Chauffeur). At work, I have a heightened sense of self, making sure I present myself well (Publicist)

After work, I buy some food at the grocery store, come home, check emails.

I am now my own assistant - replying emails, providing customer service.

I look at my schedule. I prioritize from most important to least. I still want to have some fun, so I include parties and hang-outs in there.

Then I log-in to my bank account. Open my budget spreadsheet & mint.com . I am now my own Chief Financial Officer.
"How much have I spent this month?"
"How much have I made this month?"
"Am I cash-flow positive?"
"Will I make have money at the end of the month or year (Net Income)?"

Time to prepare dinner. I want to make a good one this time, so I bust out the cook book. I am now wearing the Chef's hat.

Then I sit down and think of ideas. What can I do in the short term, and what can I do in the future. Write them down, create a plan, make sure to follow it up.

Overall, I am my own Chief Executive Officer. I have to make sure each department is optimized with maximizing the resources. I have to make sure everyone knows their job very well and each task is executed or carried out in a timely manner.

My board of directors are my mentors, which may include friends and family. They guide me, I present ideas and life strategies before them, and they offer constructive criticism.

You should think of your life as a business, because it is. Maybe if we did, things might run more efficiently.

What do you do that is similar to how a business is run?

2010-06-10T01:58:00.000-07:00

My Short Story

So, I remember this one time, many years ago, I think it was in 2004/5, when I called my uncle and freaked out.

Okay, so I've called him and freaked out many times, but that's not the point..lol :) However this time when I called him, and I was scared. I was afraid of what I could become in 10, 20 or 30 years if I continued to do what I did. If I continued to follow that path that I had laid before myself.

I had always been a brilliant student. I was an A student. When I made a B, I would cry inside, sometimes outside too. Maybe there is nothing so wrong with that, but I saw a vision of myself, being this brilliant guy in my office at the University, solving equations for the rest of my life, doing research. Okay maybe there is not much wrong with that, people do it. On top of that, I was not very social. I was shy as a kid, I had a very heavy stutter, the former may have caused the latter, or otherwise. I had only a few friends, I could not wait to get out of the party, or the crowd, and go to my room to study.

After a while, I did not want to be that brilliant professor that invented stuff, but was not fulfilled and had no money.

So, I called my uncle, and told him that I was scared, and I did not want that life. Of course, he had no idea where I was coming from, but he listened, and tried to help with calming words.

You should know that I did not reach this decision all by myself, my dad helped. On one of his visits, he noticed I was still that brilliant student who enjoyed his books, so he tried to hint at me to embrace other things, like sports, other subjects, other interests. I guess I could not see past the hint.

He traveled, but asked one of his close friends to call me at home. His friend called and spoke to me, as an elder, and made me realize how important these other things are in order to maintain balance in life.

He asked me, "What month is the super-bowl held every year?".
"I don't know", I answered.

"Usually February" he stated. "What month is the presidential elections every 4 years?", he asked again.

I still didn't know.

"November"

He made me understand that, one should be as well rounded as one could. Have enough knowledge of the other things that are not your main passions so that you can carry a conversation with a stranger on the street, or with your co-workers at the water filter.

I knew he had a point, but he didn't have to talk to me like I was his son? Oh Yes!, he had to speak to me that way, that was the only way that I would have gotten the point.

Fast forward a few years, I had become a little more sociable, I went to business school, got a Master of Science in Management. Found the courses to be as interesting as I found in Engineering. I follow basketball, some football.

I created a podcast in 2006. I was part of the early adopters and producers of this new form of media. The feeling I got from this new creation was something I had never felt before. I created something that I could call my own. Bought a headset with mic, learned XML and learned how to create a website in 3 days. I learned how websites and servers work, I understood the technology and created the actual content. I was an Entrepreneur. I spent $14 to create a medium that radio stations spend millions of dollars on, yet I could be heard on the other side of the world, but they could not.

I sold my books online and made $3000 in 5 years. When my Teaching Assistantship was canceled due to budget cuts, even though I was abroad, I called all college departments to find openings. I called everybody I knew, that could help me find another job. When I got back, I networked with classmates, finally found another assistantship that paid almost double the original...in a recession by the way. From a shy kid, to a hustler.

I had a great relationship with a beautiful girl. The first time I noticed her, I went after her, asked her out a few days later, and shared a very fulfilling portion of my life with her. We are still friends today, and stay in touch very closely.

There are many more examples, that appear small but are really significant.

Even though I had influences from my family and friends, the final decision still remained for one person to make, to change the course of his life, ME. I decided I wanted to be more assertive in my opinions. If I knew what I was talking about, I said so. If I didn't want something, I said No.

I remember working minimum wage one summer while in undergrad. I called one of my many aunts and said, "I want to know about the law. I want to understand how the legal system works." A few years later I found myself in a Business Law class in grad school, and enjoyed it. Even though I did not know it would happen the way it did, I spoke it, and it came to pass.

Anyway, my point is, I was likely headed in a direction of an unfulfilled, unenjoyable life, so I changed the course. And oh my God, it was difficult, because people knew me a Mr. X, and all of a sudden I was acting like Mr. Y. But they had to get used to it, and I had to as well. I am a happier person today.

Thank God.

2009-12-22T07:26:00.000-08:00

Avatar, thoughts.

What can I say about James Cameron’s Avatar, that hasn’t already been said. Avatar is a phenomenal movie. It is a movie filled with passion in front and behind the screen. To devote 4 ½ years to a film, one that he wrote around 1997, to spend 2 years, prior to starting principal photography, developing the technology that would be used in order to be able to bring this audacious vision to life is nothing short of extraordinary. And then another 2 1/2 years shooting and in post-production. A linguistic professor from USC even worked with Cameron to create an entirely new language for the world. As if that wasn’t enough, Cameron asked frequent composer collaborator, James Horner, to take a year or so off, to focus on this movie and to create a pure score.

James Cameron’s last movie, Titanic, was and still holds the world record of the most successful movie of all time. Even Mr. Cameron admits that it would be tough to break that record. Avatar is now considered to be the most expensive movie made up till this moment, costing somewhere around $250-$450 million, including marketing costs.

The emotion that they were able to get through performance capture is stunning. This the process, previously called motion capture, is where an actor wears a body suit with many markers/dots on it. The sound stage is then filled with infrared cameras that can see and recognize these dots. The image is then interpreted in the computer. This process allows an actor to drive an animated character. The beauty is that the character can literally be anything – a man, woman, child, alien, Gollum, King Kong or even an AMP suit. The term motion capture later became performance capture. Robert Zemeckis, in The Polar Express, was one of the first to use performance capture with Tom Hanks driving about 5 characters including a little boy. It was great seeing the finished product, but it lacked something – emotion, the subtle facial ticks that people make to convey feeling. Avatar has solved that problem now, and I guess the term can now be called Emotion Capture…I wonder what this term will evolve into next.
But I digress.

When asked during an interview what James Cameron believes in, he said he doesn’t really believe in anything, however, if you can prove it to him, he will believe. There was a scene in avatar when Jake Sully went up to a tree, which was holy to the Na’vi and said, “I might just be talking to a tree but…” then he prayed and asked the ancestors for help. Jake Sully knew that he had nothing to lose by praying to what the indigenous people believed in, but if it worked, Jake had everything to gain. So I ask James Cameron to believe in God and pray. You have nothing to lose, only answered prayers to gain. I bring this up because for a man that doesn’t believe in anything, he sure put a lot of spirituality into the Na’vi way of life. These people are one with one another, the animals and the plants.

I have witnessed a giant leap in cinema, and I am glad that I was there on opening day. James Cameron talks about how he saw Star Wars in 1977 in the theatre and became inspired to do his own. Well, he has certainly made history with Avatar. Amazingly visually stunning images in every part of every frame. There is always something to be amazed about, both in Pandora, and in the human world.

Critics have generally given this film praise, yet some have said the script is weak. The script is not weak. It will not be considered for Best Screenplay at the Oscars, but it is good. The film certainly has a very well thought out structure. At 2 hrs and 40 mins, I felt like the movie was rushed. This is coming from someone that saw the movie at midnight Thursday before it was released on a Friday. Before the movie began, I felt hungry and tried to extract as much nutrients from popcorn and water as possible. Yet, I did not think the movie was too long. If the movie had a weak script and just eye candy, I would not have had a good time. This means you Transformers 2.

The cast did a great job also. Zoe Saldana especially who played Neytiri, the Na’vi queen’s daughter was a revelation. Even though we do not see her real human skin on screen, her performance deserves an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role. The conundrum that will be faced is does the Academy nominate her, or the team behind the technology for the same award, or both? When they say Avatar is a game changer, when the tv spots say, “movies will never be the same”, they are correct.

Even the marketing for this movie was unprecedented. You could download an Avatar Desktop App from the official website, that fed in real time twitter updates, about cast interviews, making of clips, reviews. It also had an interactive trailer. The most impressive was the partnership with McDonalds called McD Vision which is an augmented reality (AR) experience that uncovers characters and scenes from the film, and immerses players in the world of Pandora.

I have never recommended anyone to watch a movie in 3-D because I have always felt that you get the same experience watching them in 2D (regular viewing). I recommend seeing Avatar in 3D, and if possible, IMAX 3D, in which I saw The Dark Knight. Why? Avatar was shot using actual 3D cameras, and they’ve created a new 3D system that immerses you into the movie like never before. As you are sitting in the audience, if you move your body slightly sideways, you can see someone behind another person a little bit more in the movie. It is really impressive. I listen to many critics reviews, and almost everyone recommends the 3D also.

Avatar was nominated for 9 Critics Choice Awards and 4 Golden Globes, before the movie was released.

James Cameron and his team of engineers, scientists, linguists, actors, stunt team, etc, have certainly raised the bar for technical filmmaking. Avatar joins the ranks of poignant cinematic landmarks in film with, 2001 – A Space Odyssey, Star Wars, The Matrix, and maybe the Lord of The Rings.

2008-11-18T18:46:00.000-08:00

Graduate School(s)
In the Spring of 2002 when I began my undergraduate studies here at the University of Memphis, I believe my very first class was Calculus I. 10 minutes into the class, I thought to myself, "Am I really in a united states university?". I asked this question to myself because
1. Growing up in Lagos, I had way better teachers who were paid at a lower wages but had passion for their students to learn and understand.
2. My teacher at U of M was so terrible, she made me think I did not understand the subject matter that I was already very familiar with.

So what happened? I got upset & disappointed. I asked my very close friend if this was how American universities were. I did not stop there though, I went to my college advisor's office and complained to her. For a supposedly shy student to mention to his adviser that he thinks his teacher is incompetent, you know that I was serious. Looking back, I had 6-7 years of foresight. What do I mean?

Throughout my 4.5 years of undergraduate time, I put that teacher-incompetency behind me & pushed through with my grades with little or no help or inspiration/ motivation from most, but not all, my teachers. I graduate with two (2) Bachelors of Science degrees in 4 1/2 years with a 3.34/4.0 GPA. My degrees were in Computer Engineering & Electrical Engineering.

However, when I applied to other more prestigious universities for graduate studies, but did not get admission, I had to settle for my alma mater, I totally lost any inspiration which was reflected in my grades.

At this point in time (Nov '08), I am temporarily taking classes at U of M. I gained admission to Gainesville, Fl...University of Florida for a Masters in Management (MSM). In about a week, I will get news of my Teachers Assistantship offer.

The MSM program is ranked #11 best in all U.S. colleges, I have told myself: either I go to UF, or I do not go to any other university that I have to settle for. Also, I should not have to pay tuition to attend college, that system just does not even make sense to my mind, at all. After all, U.S. public universities are not-for-profit/ non-profit organizations.

Speaking of,...,I read in the U of M Daily Helmsman newspaper today that the median salary for public university presidents is $427,400...

...almost a year later...

I have completed my Spring semester at University of Florida on a graduate assistantship teaching students for a CLAST exam. This summer, it turns out the state of Florida decided to cancel the exam and pull funds out of the department where I teach. Great, this leaves me without an assistantship. The Fall starts in exactly a month so I've been searching all over the place for a GA or TA. By God's grace, I'll find one.

...about a month later...

And by God's grace, I found a great assistantship on campus that pays my tuition, and the stipend is more than double what I was getting before. When one door closes, another one opens...in my case and better door opened.

Praise God.

...now October 2011, I graduated with a Master of Science in Management from the University of Florida. I had amazing teachers/professors and had an absolutely great time in Florida.

2008-11-09T23:49:00.000-08:00

My interpretation of the U.S. lottery

In the movie, "The Island" (2005), directed by Michael Bay, there are people who live in an underground city in the middle of a desert. In this city, these people are clones of original human beings, although the clones are not aware of this fact.

Once a while one of the clones win "the lottery." The lottery, according to the island will win a clone the opportunity to some paradise somewhere. The truth is that wealthy individuals cloned themselves as an insurance policy, so that when a lung or heart or some other part of their body gets damaged, this rich person can have it replaced by harvesting his/her clone. So that when Senator Richie has a kidney disease, his clone 'wins the lottery' but his clone is really going to his demise.

What am I saying?
Every November, the United States of America holds a lottery so that the winners could become citizens. The question is, are they going to live a rosy life after they win? Will the winners live in a comfortable country in exchange for working odd jobs for the rest of his life just to keep up with bills. When a lottery winner, who was a medical doctor in Sri Lanka gets to the U.S. and finds a job managing a small bank, was that really a step up in her career?

To put it bluntly, I saw a picture of America needing more middle class workforce, so they use the lottery to get that diverse workforce.

Note: I am not saying that this is the actual interpretation of the U.S. lottery. This is just my personal interpretation of a few cases.

2008-09-30T11:57:00.000-07:00

Credit Card Company

I called my credit card company today an said, "I have a very simple question to ask. How much do I have to pay every month to pay off my credit card in 2 years."
Her answer "That is a very good question. I have never been asked that question before. Hold on a second pls..." "Sir I actually do not have the answer to that question." She went on to say something about interest rate, bla, bla, bla...to sound intelligent to try to throw me off. But I cut her off and said "You mean to tell me a credit card company does not have the answer to such a simple question?"
"Sir, it's not that simple, there are interest rates...depending on..."
I said,"Assuming the interest rate remains constant, & I had the money, how much would I pay a month?" Then she puts on hold and transfered me to a debt management company, even w/o prepping me for the transfer.

This only confirms the notion that Credit Card companies do not want you and I to pay off debt, especially when I really want to.

Then I spoke with a very reputable debt management company, and took me through a test of 16 questions, like:
How much money do I spend to cut my hair?

Do I use coupons to buy groceries?

What, if any, are my car payments?
...All great questions to which I made a perfect score.

Now, my financial situation was very unique and so, fortunately, the organization could not help me.

I had to go to battle with the credit card company and I pushed them to the wall as they did the same. Finally, I was able to get a deal with them to pay my debt off in 5 years...about 2 years with a good full time career job.

This is a huge breakthrough for me because
1. There is a light at the end of the tunnel (I have a goal to get this dirty baggage off my back)
2. Many Americans have so much debt, including house and cars, that it could take them 20 years to pay it off.
...

2008-05-20T18:55:00.000-07:00

Batman

In the Summer of 2005 while I was in New York, I saw "Batman Begins", the newly imagined origin story of the popular comic book super hero by director Christopher Nolan.

It was a great story with good production and effects with a great cast especially Christian Bale who dawned the Bat suit.

Something struck me besides the action-fantasy that the movie delivers on, which was conquering our fears. While Bruce Wayne (Batman's alter ego) was a child, he had a fear of bats but when he became older he decided to call himself the very thing that he feared.

When you can face your worst fear head to head, you are tackling your worst challenge, you become indestructible.

2008-05-15T09:58:00.000-07:00

The Impact of
John Davison Rockefeller
To America

0754
HIST 2020
February 5, 2006

John Davison Rockefeller was born on July 8, 1839 in Richford, New York. No wonder he became the richest man in the United States in his time.
John D. Rockefeller, as he is famously known, was an American industrialist who played a very prominent role in the oil industry in his day. He founded Standard Oil of which ExxonMobil is the largest of its descendants. Rockefeller made Standard Oil into the world’s largest company over 40 years. John D. Rockefeller was known as a great philanthropist who gave 10% of his check to the church even from his very first paycheck. Before he died on May 23, 1937, he had given away over one half of his wealth.

His Life
John D. Rockefeller was the second of six children born to Eliza Davison and William Avery Rockefeller. His ancestors came from Germany in the 1720’s. He always had a business spirit even in childhood3. He would buy candies wholesale and sell them to his siblings just to make a profit. His young friends regarded him as being articulate, discreet and methodical. John D. as he always signed his essays in High School was a very religious man. He always believed that God would reward His chosen ones. He would always give as much as he could to the Baptist church he belonged to, the minimum being one-tenth of his income as the Bible requires. John D. finished High School in 1855 and decided to take a business course at Folsom Mercantile College. The course was slated for six months; he finished it in three months.
On September 26, 1855 the 16 year old Rockefeller got his first job as an apprentice bookkeeper at Hewitt & Tuttle where he worked for 50 cents a day, proved to be the diligent, meticulous, honest man that he was; he was the kind of accountant that always noticed everything and never forgot anything. His hard work and faithfulness saw his salary increase and promotion within two years. With time, he felt he was not getting paid well enough for the work he put in and decided to leave to start his own business with a friend, Maurice Clark in 1858. He called the firm Clark & Rockefeller which became very successful within a short period. In 1863, they invested in an oil refinery with a chemist known as Samuel Andrews. Rockefeller’s involvement with the oil business would prove to be one of his best life decisions. In 1867, he was too confident in the growth of the oil industry, that he sold all his share of his business with Maurice Clark and invested into another refinery with new partner Samuel Andrews to form Rockefeller & Andrews (notice how this time, his name came first in the naming of this company). Two years later, he made an acquisition with his brother’s refinery and made a new partnership with Henry Flagler called Rockefeller, Andrews & Flagler.
In 1970, with John D. Rockefeller as president, Standard Oil was born.

Standard Oil
Standard Oil was created in Cleveland, Ohio. His company controlled the entire oil business in American. In fact at one point, the United States Supreme Court ordered Standard Oil to be broken down into thirty-four companies. Today, examples of those companies are known as Exxon, Chevron, Mobil, etc.
At the time, railroad companies faced high competitions among one another which led them to form the South Improvement Company. Rockefeller saw an opportunity here and made deals with the company to reduce cost of transporting his barrels of oil among other things.
Rockefeller succeeded in reducing the cost of producing one gallon of kerosene from five cents to even less than half a cent.

Education

Rockefeller University
John D. Rockefeller founded Rockefeller University which was an institute for biomedical study. It was formerly known as Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. By the year 2003, Rockefeller University had produced 23 Nobel award laureates, 19 Lasker Awards for Medical and Clinical research, 12 National Medal of Science awards, 30 National Academy of Sciences awards and 10 Gairdner Foundation International Awards.

The University of Chicago
The University of Chicago faced challenges in the 1880’s. John D. Rockefeller was approached by the board to help finance the university. At that time, he always wanted to build a big Baptist university in New York but he agreed to help finance the University of Chicago. The University of Chicago was not an Ivy League School but it measured up with other Ivy League schools like Yale and Harvard.

Philanthropy
A man well known for philanthropy, John D. Rockefeller gave so much of his wealth to his community. He not only gave to education, but also to his Baptist Church. This was largely based on his Baptist religious beliefs.

The Rockefeller foundation began its operations in 1913 and is currently presided over by Judith Rodin who was the former president of The University of Pennsylvania11. The motto of the Rockefeller Foundation is to “promote the well-being of mankind throughout the world.”
The Rockefeller Foundation has been a supporter of public health, medical research, increasing food production, scientific research, social research, and other disciplines all over the world. It is currently located in New York City.

Conclusion
John D. Rockefeller, just like Bill Gates, was the richest man in America and also a great philanthropist. He used his strong religious piety with his relentless and uncanny eye for business to pioneer the industries in oil which would later affect education, the railroad industry, medicine, and impact America even greater in producing oil.

Bibliography
“John D. Rockefeller”.
“Rockefeller Foundation”.
“Rockefeller University”.
Duroy, Quentin. “John Davison Rockefeller”. 1999.
Micheloud, Francois. “John D. Rockefeller & the Standard Oil Company - Strategies of John D. Rockefeller and the Standard Oil Company 1863-1911”.

2008-01-21T08:10:00.000-08:00

The marketing for Cloverfield is perhaps the best and most clever use of viral marketing that I have ever experienced. The first trailer appeared in front of Transformers in the Summer of 2007 without a title. The only notable names were J. J. Abrams and Bad Robot, well, for us film aficionados that know that Bad Robot is J. J. Abrams productions company. Only the date of release 1.18.08 was shown, which I thought that if that was name would be kinda cool. Nobody really knew what the film was about, except that a group of 20-somethings were having a go away party and suddenly, BOOM. The head of the statue of liberty flew through the air hitting the streets while everybody screamed in horror.

The marketing for Cloverfield was so secretive that it forced people to uncover minor details on the internet. A few days before the opening on critics screenings, they had to sign contracts of non-disclosure agreements.

This was a movie that has to be seen in theaters to be experienced with the audience.

So to the review...Cloverfield is the account of a group of young adults who planned a going away party for Rob who got a job in Japan as Vice President of some company. His friend Hud was tasked with documenting events and getting interviews for Rob on a HD camcorder. He had some girlfriend troubles and while he was getting advice from his brother, an explosion happened in the distance and then blackouts, more explosions, they try to survive the night, some do, some don't. Only glimpses of the monster were shown to us until about 5 minutes to the end when we get full views of the monster.

I call this movie an experiment that reminds me of The Blair Witch Project except it was made for $22,000 while Cloverfield's budget was $25 million. Also, we definitely know that Cloverfied is a fiction but Blair witch did not clearly appear as one as many thought it might have been real. Cloverfield was very entertaining with many scenes with high tension and excitement. There were a few funny parts with Hud...by the way I think his name was chosen from the definition HUD (Heads Up Display), probably because he carried the camcorder.

My problem with this movie was that even though I like hand held cameras, I don't like it when it's distracting and too shaky, like in certain sequences of the Bourne Ultimatum and this movie. Of course it made sense because when you are being chased by metallic spider like creatures and trying to get away from some giant monster, I wouldn't expect Hud to hold the camera steady and try not to fall over.

There's no back story as to how this monster came to life and how it got to New York. I don't know if this is a bad thing but it didn't seem to take anything away from the movie. Cloverfield is pretty short i length with a run length of just 75 minutes as compared with about 2 hours of other blockbusters. This makes sense because standard camcorder tapes have a capacity of 90 minutes.

There is no normal tri-part movie storyline with character developments however, it is very entertaining with cool special and visual effects.

I encourage everyone to see Cloverfield but I don't really have to because it just broke the record for highest January opening weekend ever with $41 million almost double its budget in just 3 days. The theater I went to see it was the most packed that I had ever seen. I was almost scared that it would be sold out.

J. J. Abrams is the master of mystery in my opinion. Just look at TV series: Alias, Lost, and movie Mission Impossible 3 which he directed. What the hell is the Rabbit's foot and what the f**k is going on in Lost?

There is a great talk that J. J. Abrams gave on TED Talks (http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=vpjVgF5JDq8)

2007-11-21T20:13:00.000-08:00

Apartment Break In

What do you do when you get home on a saturday night, you find out that your door has been kicked in you new LCD HDTV has been stolen, your SONY 5.1 750 Watt Home Theater surround sound system..gone, your JVC Camcorder gone and other electronic accessories worth up to $200 stolen? In total about $1400.00 worth of electronics were stolen.

For me, I wasn't able to process what just happened fully cos I found myself pacing in and out of rooms saying, 'I was just robbed' over and over again. I was also looking around to see what was stolen. So of course I called the police after notifying my apartment complex. An officer came by and I listed the items stolen with detailed model numbers. He added that my case was the 3rd robbery that he had filed that night.

I remember that night being filled with so much hate and anger...the like that I had not felt before, I guess because my personal space was invaded. Sure, I've felt the usual heart break associated with relationships but this one was different. My heart was filled with so much anger I prayed that God's vengeance fall upon these home invaders.

I was also mad cos now I'll have to wait for however many weeks it would take to get a tv to play the new Assassin's Creed which I'd been waiting for for over 6 months now (lol).

However as a Christian, I remembered that God said pray for those who do you wrong, etc.

2007-08-23T23:45:00.001-07:00

Homages from the Bourne Ultimatum with its prequels (Identity and/or Supremacy)

1. Steady cam shot pushing in slowly towards Bourne while he was on the train. Similar shot in Identity when Bourne took the train to Zurich, Switzerland.

Bourne in Identity unsure of who he is ↑

Bourne in Ultimatum, on a mission get those who made him who he is↑

2. Diner scene with Bourne & Nicky Parsons. Similar scene with Bourne & Marie in Identity, except Bourne sat at the opposite end of the table

3. Scene where Nicky cuts her hair and dyes it black is reminiscent of same situation with Marie in Identity. In Ultimatum it even reminds Jason of how much he misses Marie.

Marie after dying her hair in Identity↑

Nicky after dying her hair in Ultimatum↑

4. Nicky gets one of the assassins to meet her at a location to deliver a package. In Identity, The Professor (Clive Owen) gets a note from Nicky, while in Ultimatum, Desh picks up a phone. Both situations happened very quickly without any verbal exchange.

5. Clever tie-in of phone conversation btw Bourne & Pamela Landy connecting the end of Supremacy with ongoing events in the middle of Ultimatum.

6. Each of the 3 movies has a very well choreographed and intense fight sequence btw Bourne & an equally trained assassin (Treadstone agent) or better trained upgrade (BlackBriar agent)

7. "In the hands of an expert, any object can be a weapon"

Identity: Ball point pen

Supremacy: A rolled up magazine

Ultimatum: Hard-cover book & Hand Towel

8. The same line that The Professor used in Identity to Bourne, he used in Ultimatum to a BlackBriar agent "Look at us, look at what they make you give."

9. Immediately after that scene, Bourne was shot (or not shot) after he fell into the water. The same underwater shot towards Bourne's unconcious body is a direct homage to the same opening shot in Identity.

Bourne unconscious in identity↑

10. Pamela Landy has a board meeting with the senators at the end of Ultimatum. At the end of Identity, Ward Abbott (Brian Cox) also had a meeting with senators.

11. After the car chase scene involving Bourne and another assassin, Bourne gets out of his vehicle in an attempt to shoot his downed opponent but decides not to, and walks away. This happens in both Supremacy & Ultimatum.

12. In fight scene with Desh, Bourne gets him in a position with Desh's palms up in the air...In identity, Bourne had his opponent in a similar position then stabs him with the pen in various parts of his body leaving the pen injected in btw his fingers...In Ultimatum, since Desh is an upgrade, he does a side back-flip to regain his stance.

Bourne and Catel in Indentity↑

Castel doesn’t have the training to escape the move↑

Bourne and Desh in Ultimatum↑

Desh escapes with the side flip ↑

2007-08-11T01:46:00.001-07:00

Leadership and Team Management as depicted in the movies

By Folarin Osibodu

Lean On Me

It began when Joe Clark, the center point of this inspirational true tale, was teaching his History/ English class. He was given a notice that the Board of Education wants to transfer Joe Clark out of East Side High School to “School 6.” The Board wanted to change the curriculum in which Joe Clark had an active participation in. After a heated argument with the Union Executive Board of the school, he got out of the meeting room angry and while walking away, he said, “They can go to hell, this place deserves exactly what it gets.”

Twenty years later, East Side high school transformed from being among the finest High Schools in America, to become what an official report called a terrible “cauldron of violence.” Fights broke out everyday, students as well as teachers got hurt, some so hurt that paramedics had to be called. The students bought and traded drugs everyday in the cafeteria and everywhere in the school. Pistols were also sold among these students; even the females harassed other vulnerable girls by tearing their blouses and exposing them to the public eye. The height of violence came in a scene when one of the male teachers, in trying to break a fight between two boys got beat so badly, he bled from his head and was immediately rushed to the emergency room.

“Somebody help… somebody help….” East Side High was in a hopeless and desperate need for a savior to redeem them from total destruction. As the saying goes, “Desperate times call for desperate measures.” This is where Joe Clark comes in…again.

As I watched this awe inspiring film, Joe Clark’s measures of discipline reminded me a lot of Coach Carter’s except for one thing that I would illustrate with a simple math equation.

Joe Clark = (Coach Carter)³

His first day in East Side, when he stepped into the staff meeting, he commanded his now vice principal to sit down saying, “You think you can run the school? If you can then I wouldn’t be here, would I?”

Since the teachers did not enforce discipline on themselves as well as their students, when Mr. Clark decided to treat them just the way he treated his students. As the new H.N.I.C, oh excuse me, leader, he demanded for all the names of hoodlums, drug dealers and miscreants and that very same day, dismissed about 300 students from the school. That was the first radical demonstration of discipline that Joe Clark displayed. He realized that before he could do the job, he had to throw out not just one bad apple that was spoiling the rest but a bunch of bad eggs.

He set a few other rules with his staff and made a few other changes.

Clean the whole building including all graffiti.
Tear down the cages in the cafeteria, saying, “You treat the students like animals, that’s exactly how they’ll behave!”
He appointed a new Dean of Security.
He demoted the head football coach, making the assistant coach the new head
He demanded for a new weight program

Joe Clark new that in order to get the students to pass the basic skills test in one year, he needed to set new boundaries and laws enforce them so strictly, he did. He realized that they were in a state of emergency.

East Side High was an institution of learning and if the teachers could not control the students, how could they teach them?

Discipline is not the enemy of enthusiasm.

Joe Clark took interest in all his students. Despite the fact that he was harsh on them, he had a soft spot for them. He always encouraged them to always come to him whenever they needed to talk or had problems.

On his first meeting with the students, he dismissed, as mentioned the miscreants. He informed the students that the goal was that 70% of the students had to pass the Basic Skills Test in which only 30% passed the year before and later on only 38% passed the next practice test. But it wasn’t just about the test scores, the test was to prepare them for the future, for the American dream and for life. Their main goal of being in school was to learn how to succeed in life.

He laid out the ground rules: no smoking, no drug dealing, and no fighting. He made it clear that if they did not succeed in life, they should not blame their parents or the ‘white man,’ they should blame themselves because they are responsible for their own actions.

There were three main pivotal points in the movie Lean on Me that paralleled Coach Carter.

The first scene was the meeting with the parents after the radical decision of throwing out so many students.
The second scene was when he chained the doors of the school to keep the hoodlums out
The third scene was when the kids made a conscious independent decision to support their principal when he was incarcerated and could do no more.

Self respect permeates every aspect of our lives and that includs the way we talk, dress and act. He enforced discipline and dignity in an institution where the lingering modus operandi was violence.

Joe Clark made it a point that every student learned the school song. He put that priority over learning Mozart and other classical music saying, “We are being crucified by a process that is turning black into a permanent underclass.”

Another pivotal point in the movie that demonstrated a high level of leadership and humility was when Ms. Levias, the vice principal had to criticize Mr. Clark on not appreciating his staff of over 300 that helped transform the school for the better. She made him realize that they were all in the same boat together and instead of saying, I , I , I…, it was and still was a team effort. The next day in auditorium, Joe Clark publicly acknowledged that criticism and made a change in his behavior.

It takes a great leader to accept constructive criticisms.

Here are a few quotes by Joe Clark:

“You’re trying to con a con man”
“Because you [teachers] are failing to educate them [students], this is the posture [70% of teachers hands up high] that many students will wind up in; only they’ll be staring down the barrel of a gun!”, after 70% of the entire student body failed the practice Basic Skills Test.
We sink, we swim; we rise, we fall; we meet our fate, together.”
“They used to call me Crazy Joe, well now they can call me Batman”, holding a bat when the Fire Chief was not allowed in the school after the doors were chained.

A scene that would be classified by many who have seen this movie as one of the best scene in the movie is shown below with supporting pictures.

Clark: They say, "One bad apple spoils the bunch." Well, what about 300? Rotten to the core! Now, you're right, Mrs. Barrett: This is a war. It's a war to save 2700 other students, most of whom don't have the basic skills to pass a state exam. Now, if you want to help us, fine. Sit down with your kids and make 'em study at night. Go get your families off welfare.

Barrett: How dare you talk to these people about wel --

Clark: Give our children some pride. Let 'em get their priorities straight. When Dr. Napier came to me offering this job, I saw the lightening flash. I heard the thunder roll. I felt breakers, crashing, swamping my soul.

Barrett: We are not in church, Mr. Clark!

Clark: I fell down on my knees. And I cried, "My God, why has thou forsaken me?" And the Lord said, "Joe, you're no damn good." No, now I mean this more than you realize. "You're no earthly good at all, unless you take this opportunity and do whatever you have to." And he didn't say, "Joe, be polite." "Do whatever you have to to transform and transmogrify this school into a special place -- where the hearts and souls and minds of the young can rise, where they can grow tall and blossom out from under the shadows of the past; where the minds of the young are set free."

“And I gave my word to God!”

“And that's why I threw those bastards out!“

“And that's all I'm going to say.”

Boyz N The Hood

This is a very real story of four boys who lived in a very violent, very dangerous South Central Los Angeles. It begins when Tre Styles, son of Furious Styles, had to move out of his mother’s house to his father’s house after breaking up the contract, signed by him and his mother, not to commit another act of violence in school.

When he went home to live with his father, the ground rules where laid down the very first day.

Rules:

Clean bathroom, sink and floor
Clean your room and water the lawn

His father was the only one on the community that exemplified leadership. Instead of filling his son’s mind with trash, he called his son a prince, “You’re the Prince, and I’m the King”

A few days later, when a burglar attacked the house, Furious attempted to shoot the burglar in the head but missed as the burglar fled for his life. When his son Tre said he should have killed the burglar, Furious’ response was, “I would have just been contributing to killing another brother.”

Even cops in South Central didn’t care for their black citizens for if they got the chance to shoot any of them, they would do that in a heart beat. When the cops arrived at Furious’ home and the black cop said, “Too bad you missed him.” Furious gave him a disappointing look.

Cop: “Is something wrong?”

Furious: “Is something wrong?...Yes. It’s just too bad you don’t know what it is.”

There was a lot of violence in this movie. This is supported even before the film started when it stated:

“One out of every twenty-one Black American Males will be murdered in their lifetime. Most will die at the hands of another Black male.”

This was the wrong situation that Furious was referring to. Leadership was displayed in this movie through the eyes of Furious Styles. When he asked his son, “Are you a leader or a follower?” and his sons reply was the former, Furious asked him for the characteristics of a leader. The reply:

Always look a person in the eye - they respect you better
Never be afraid to ask you [dad] for anything
Stealing isn’t necessary
Never respect anybody who doesn’t respect you back

In an environment where teenagers became moms and dads, Furious taught his son about sex saying, “Any fool can make a baby, but only a real man can raise kids.” Even though Furious himself had Tre when he was just 17 years of age, he made sure that his kid did not make the same mistake. In John Maxwell’s book, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Ledearship, The Law of Influence stated that, “The True Measurement of Leadership is Influence – Nothing More, Nothing Less.

When Tre grew up 7 years later, about 18 years old, he too was also looked upon as a leader. One of his childhood friends, Rick already had a baby with his girlfriend, while Rick’s brother, Darin (Doughboy) just got out of jail. Sadly enough, a party was thrown for Doughboy on his release from jail. During this party, Dough’s mother asked Tre to talk some sense into Dough’s head.

She realized that sometimes, peers are the best people to encourage help each other out morally for on reason that they can relate to the same things and circumstances of that time.

In one scene, a recruiter from USC (University of Southern California) came over to Rick’s house to talk to him about a football scholarship. The recruiter showed some leadership when he asked Rick what he wanted to major in. Rick had not even thought about that until then because he had always been believed that he would play in the NFL (National Football League) after college. The recruiter encouraged Rick that he could do anything he put his mind too. This word of advice or inspiration, again is something that the young minds of South Central hardly heard, not even in their lifetime, therefore the recruiter made a great impact in Rick’s life during just a short 10 min visit.

When I was a young kid in Nigeria, my father would frequently ask us children what profession we wanted to pursue in life. At first, we would just give any answer such as Doctor, Lawyer or Engineer. After a few weeks, he would ask us the same question. He did this continually to make us think about our future. He did not just put words into our mouths, but gave us time for us to figure out what we were passionate about, and then we would follow up on our passions. That act gave us a sense of long-term thinking and planning. It made us the strong adults that we are today. In Nigeria there was no such thing as an “undecided” major. It was not until I got to the United States that I heard of such a thing.

How many parents give their kids today a sense of direction in life? More especially, how many black parents? The father of the director of John Singleton, represented by the character, Furious Styles made sure that his son did not fall prey to this grand mistake.

Cash for Your Home

“What is Gentrification?,” asked Furious. “It’s what happens when the property value of a certain area is brought down. They bring the property value down so they can buy the land at a lower price and then they move the people out, raise the property value and sell at a profit.”

“Why is there a gun shop on almost every corner in this community? It’s for the same reason that there’s a liquor store on almost every corner in the black community. Why? They want us to kill ourselves. The best way to kill a people is if you take away their ability to reproduce themselves.”

This was one of the most important moments in Boyz N the Hood because it made the kids think more about life, about the American economy and about the cunning and crafty American system that could enslave a people without even them even being aware.

Rick asked Tre if his father used to be a preacher. His response was that he just read a lot. There is an old saying that Knowledge is Power. Well I say to you, improving on that saying: The use knowledge is power. We can know everything there is to know about education, law, finances, physics or marriage, but if we do not put that knowledge to good use, of what benefit are we? Furious Styles was not the main focus of this movie, but he was the anchor. He was the mentor. He was the compass that tried to show the black people of South Central Los Angeles the way. However, he did not enforce it on anyone but his son. In The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, John Maxwell stated in the 7^th law, The Law of Respect, that people naturally follow leaders stronger than themselves.

The final scene that I will talk about where at this point, everything Furious taught Tre came into play here is the scene just after Rick was murdered. The angry spirit that Tre had as a child apparently was invigorated again and he wanted revenge. Fortunately, Furious was there to stop him but he could not do enough as Tre escaped through bedroom window. While Tre was on his way to join the crowd to ‘kill another brother’ he made a very difficult decision to turn back and head home. This not only prevented him from ending up in jail, but also ending up dead.

Who would have thought that a 22 year old director, just six months after graduating from college would write and direct a black-centered urban movie to become the youngest director ever to be nominated for an Oscar Academy Award, not to mention two Oscars, and also be the 1^st black director to ever be nominated.

Boyz N The Hood amidst all the violence, found subtle ways of portraying Leadership in a crime/gangster drama which was why it got a lot of commendation.

Mr. Holland’s Opus

When Mr. Holland got to his new school, Helen Jacobs, the principal’s first words to him was “You look lost Mr. Holland.” This was a deliberate line that would later educate him that a teacher has two jobs.

To fill young minds with knowledge

But more importantly,

To give those young minds a compass so that the knowledge does not go to waste.

Mr. Holland always addressed his students by Mister or Miss as the “circumstances allow[ed]”, teaching them the first thing being courtesy.

John F. Kennedy High School, unlike East Side High from Lean on Me, was not a violent school with riff raffs or miscreants but the students still needed direction.

Mr. Holland originally thought of teaching as a ‘fall back’ job but soon realized otherwise after his first class when he exclaimed, “I think this is going to be a lot rougher gig than I originally thought.”

He also took the initiative to attend specially to the kids who needed extra time after school to practice with their playing instrument. While unfortunately, one of them died in the Vietnam War, another went on, thirty years later, to become the governor of that state.

Mr. Holland teaching a student how to get in sync with music

Mr. Holland teaching music even after school time

Mr. Holland taking extra time to teach a student music

When an issue came up from the vice principal accusing Mr. Holland of teaching students Rock & Roll - devil music, as they called it, his response was, “I am teaching music, and I will use anything from Beethoven, to Billie Holiday to Rock & Roll if I think it’ll help me teach a student to love music.” Mr. Holland realized that if people did not enjoy what they do, they will quickly lose interest in it.

The unexpected baby bereft of hearing

The first of Mr. Holland’s challenges was the unexpected arrival of a baby. When Mr. Holland had a child, for the first few months, he did not realize that the child could not hear at all until during a band parade when a fire truck blew a loud noise and the baby did not react to that stimulus. Giving birth to a sound impaired son was a tough point in Mr. Holland’s life because he had to learn sign language despite his long hours spent in the school. He spent more time in school rather than with his son. It got to a point when he got into an argument with his wife and he defended himself by saying that he was trying his best, his wife replied, “Your best is not good enough.” John Maxwell said in his 17^th law, The Law of Priorities, “Leaders understand that activity is not necessarily accomplishment.” Mr. Holland realized this and had to set his priorities straight among his wife, his son and his students.

The crush

Mr. Holland found the fact that his wife having a crush on her music teacher as a teenager funny. He never imagined that the same would happen to him. This time, he did not find it hilarious at all but he knew that he had to handle it as delicately as he possibly could and with every ounce of maturity he had in his being. In handling Rowena Morgan, the talented young lady with the most beautiful singing voice and appearance, he guided and inspired her life until she made her decision to going to New York to begin her career while avoided breaking a young girl’s heart.

The whole movie was about Mr. Holland setting an initial timed goal for himself of composing a score that was intended to make him rich someday. He had to delay this musical composition for dedicated thirty years of teaching and leadership for the minds of the future only to get fired in the end. But his students did not let him go that easily. They have all been secretly practicing this Opus and they surprised him with a heart warming debut of the finished score that would be led by him. One of his former students who was very poor at playing the clarinet was now the governor gave a speech saying,

“…But Mr. Holland isn't rich and he isn't famous, at least not outside of our little town. So it might be easy for him to think himself a failure. But he would be wrong, because I think that he's achieved a success far beyond riches and fame. Look around you. There is not a life in this room that you have not touched, and each of us is a better person because of you. We are your symphony Mr. Holland. We are the melodies and the notes of your opus. We are the music of your life.”

Sometimes in life riches are not the true measurement of success. It can be measured by the impact of success that one has made on other people’s lives.

The Matrix Reloaded

Matrix Reloaded opened with an action packed scene with Trinity, a woman in a black cat suit, scaling a building on a black motor bike then fighting with some security guards and an Agent. This scene was just an insight/ dream of Neo into the final act of this science fiction/ philosophical movie.

This was the beginning of the strong team work portrayed because we would find out later in the movie that even when Trinity was asked to wait behind for her protection, she took on the dangerous but necessary will to help out.

Leadership requires that even when danger is imminent to a people, they can be told the truth regarding that danger and yet, still be inspired to stand their ground. Morpheus, even though was asked to keep secret the information that the ‘machines’ would attack, still decided to let the people know in a speech given by him. That speech was so inspiring that the people sung and danced for joy – ironic isn’t it

Sentinels, the machines

Sometimes, leadership qualities include good oratorical abilities which Morpheus possessed. Another quality that Morpheus had was Hope. Hope is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of our greatest strength and our greatest weakness.

The members of the crew of, “The Nebuchadnezzar” were: Neo (the One), Morpheus (the leader who recruited Neo), and Trinity (Neo’s love). Link was a new member who joined as the pilot of “The Nebuchadnezzar” which was actually a Hovercraft.

The Nebuchadnezzar

Just when the team arrived home, another call was received that required them to leave again. Team management requires a great deal of co-operation.

Comprehension is not a requisite of co-operation.

This begs the question. Who is the real leader? In the scene where the three, Neo Morpheus and Trinity, went to see the Merovingian (a dangerous program/man) in order to free the Keymaker, he challenged them if they knew why they came to see him at a lunch table.

Morpheus: You know why we are here.

Merovingian: Yes but do you?

Morpheus: We are looking for the Keymaker.

Merovingian: Oh yes. It is true. The Keymaker of course. But this is not a reason, this is not a why. The Keymaker himself, his very nature is a means, it is not an end. And so to look for him is to be looking for a means to do…what?

Neo: You know the answer to that question

Merovingian: But do you?

Here comes my point.

Merovingian: You think you do, but you do not.

I ask you again, who is the real leader? Is it the person that leads the pack? Or is it the person that gives information to the other person who leads the pack? This is where the fact of “choice” comes in.

What is choice?

Merovingian: Choice is an illusion created between those with power and those without.

Merovingian: You are here because you were sent here. You were told to come here, and then you obeyed [cynical laugh]. It is of course the way of all things. You see, there is only one constant…one universal. It is the only real truth. Causality. Action, reaction. Cause and effect.

This is a very good point. Before the team came to see this man, an old lady (a fortuneteller) called the Oracle informed Neo to go and see the Merovingian to get the Keymaker. So who is the real leader here? Is she one with the real power? Why do they even need the Keymaker? The team did not understand the ‘why’, they just followed. Oh…wait, did I just call the team followers?

The Oracle giving Neo info about the Merovingian to get The Keymaker

At this point in the movie, the Merovingian did not give the team what they wanted because they could not give him a reason to do so.

Merovingian: …and this is how you come to me, without why, without power. Another link in the chain. But fear not. Since I have seen how good you are at following orders, I will tell you what to do next. Run back, and give the fortuneteller this message: Her time is almost up.

Trinity escapes with the Keymaker

What does this all mean? Why did I just spend minutes typing up a scene that just went by in seconds when watched? What was said by the Merovingian was trying to show what separated the leaders from the followers – whether those in question are good or bad.

Basically, in the Merovingian’s mind, the leaders of both sides are himself, and the Oracle. Everyone else in between are just followers. Ironic isn’t it? The character Morpheus was played by Lawrence Fishburne who played Furious Styles in Boyz N The Hood. Remember when he asked his son, Tre, “Are you a leader or a follower?”, when trying to teach him to be a leader.

At this point, I would make another Math/ Calculus analogy.

The peaks are called relative maxima (or maximums) while the very highest peak is called absolute maximum. What does this mean? There may be many leaders (relative maxima) but there can only be the one leader or the absolutely maximum leader. Since this paper is both about leadership and Team management, we will focus on our “relative leaders” namely Neo, Trinity and Morpheus.

Neo took on the challenge to fight his enemy, Agent Smith and other enemies. He was not forced to do this, but according to the prophesy, he was the One…to do the job.

At first, he did not know that he was capable of doing this ‘impossible’ task, but he took the responsibility nevertheless and did it.

Neo, thinking about the task that lied ahead of him

Neo beating up Merovingian’s guards

Neo fighting with hundreds of Agent Smiths

Armageddon

When an asteroid the size of Texas was about to destroy planet earth so much that not even living things as small as bacteria will survive, the fate of the free world was handed into the hands of a bunch of a misfit oil well drill team lead by Harry Stamper. NASA discovered this danger just 18 days before the asteroid was about to hit its target. This called for desperate measures from NASA because they had very little time left. Because of this, NASA thought of a plan to fly to the asteroid, land on it and drill a 800ft hole into the asteroid and then drop a nuclear weapon into it. This was the reason that they needed the best drill team in the world and after a few research calls, the name Harry Stamper was always mentioned.

This brings up my first point, leaders always want to be the best that they can do. They always strive to be better and better until they are Number 1. Harry Stamper took on a task that most people would have declined. He took a job positioned in n location with conditions with a temperature range of -200°F to 200°F, canyons of razor sharp rock, meteor showers, unexpected eruptions and unconditional gravitational conditions. Even if one does not know what that means, something will definitely tell you that it does not sound like Christmas. Harry took the job because he did not trust anyone else to do it. He took the job for Love, for Honor, “For All Mankind”.

Leaders always take uncomfortable but necessary risks for the benefit of others especially when it does themselves no good.

One very small section of the movie which was one of the most inspirational was when the president of America gave a speech when the mission to space was about to launch.

“I address you tonight not as the President of the United States, not as a leader of a country, but as a citizen of humanity. We are faced with the very gravest of challenges. The Bible calls this day 'Armageddon' - the end of all things. And yet, for the first time in the history of the planet, a species has the technology to prevent its own extinction. All of you praying with us tonight need to know that everything that can be done to prevent this disaster is being called into service. The human thirst for excellence, knowledge; every step up the ladder of science; every adventurous reach into space; all of our combined technologies and imaginations; even the wars that we've fought have provided us the tools to wage this terrible battle. Through all of the chaos that is our history; through all of the wrong and the discord; through all of the pain and the suffering; through all of our times, there is one thing that has nourished our souls, and elevated our species above its origins, and that is our courage. The dreams of an entire planet are focused tonight on those fourteen brave souls traveling into the heavens. And may we, citizens the world over, see these events through. God speed, and good luck to you.

As I mentioned in The Matrix Reloaded, in a time of great peril or danger the leader is looked upon for encouragement. That is why one of the recommended attributes of a leader is eloquence. Many presidents possess or learn this skill. Ronald Reagan was such a great speaker that he became known as “The Great Orator”.

Now, let us talk about Team Management. As I said these drillers weren’t the law abiding citizens like you and me. Some had unpaid parking tickets in over 7 states while some had even done prison time. One of the crew members, A.J. was one of the best but he was arrogant which made him difficult to deal with. During a practice drill session A.J. decided not to listen to Harry’s orders and went “with his guts”. This caused the team to fail that mission. Harry reprimanded him, but because he knew how good he was, during the real drill session on the asteroid, the team was at a tough spot and needed to make a quick decision. A.J. assured Harry that he knew what to do while Harry ordered otherwise. Nevertheless, A.J. kept reassuring Harry. Harry took a close look at his face and told him to make his decision which turned out to be the right one. A team leader must always know the strengths and weaknesses of his team. He/ she must know when to encourage, praise or criticize the members. This is very important always striving to making the right choices in decisions. Only a secure leader give power or responsibility to others as John Maxwell stated as the 12^th law: The Law of Empowerment.

After the 800 ft was dug, someone had to stay behind on the asteroid to detonate the nuclear weapon manually because the remote control was broken. Harry Stamper volunteered. He volunteered to sacrifice his life in order that 6 billion other people, in 193 countries might have theirs. The Bible says “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends” (John 15:13). John Maxwell stated in his book, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, in the 18^th law: The Law of Sacrifice, that a leader must be willing to give up certain things to advance. Of course many leaders will not have to give up their lives but it is definitely one of those sacrifices that are made everyday especially in the armed forces.

Conclusion

In our world today, leadership has really been taken very seriously as can be seen on college campuses and through scholarships that are mainly focused on leadership and community service. In addition, a leader is not a leader if he/ she does not have followers or a team therefore, Team Management is also as important. Whether leading a small class team of four, or leading an entire country, motion pictures have given us a window to teach us more about educating our young ones, sacrificing for others, courage and bravery, and above all, setting a good example.

2007-04-26T18:42:00.000-07:00

This is a script I wrote of the Fantastic Four based on just the
trailer before the movie came out in the Summer of 2005. Just my way of
practicing writing in general, specifically screen writing.



"Fantastic Four"

Screenplay by

Folarin Osibodu

(Four astronauts become superheroes after being
contaminated
while in
outer space -- Dr. Reed Richard gets elastic limbs,
Ben Grimm turns to rock,
Sue Storm becomes invisible and Johnny Storm becomes
the Human Torch)

A beautiful and well designed, little
futuristic space craft fly’s past the
camera
in space. The 5 astronauts have been
sent to do some repairs in a space station.

They get to the beautifully designed station.
Everyone gets in. It lowers them like
the whole room is an elevator while the
underneath opens like a material sheath.

Suddenly disaster happens. One of the
astronauts is working on a radiation
device on the outside. A wrong switch
is pushed which triggers a huge cloud
of cosmic storm.

JOHNNY STORM

Ben, get out of there!

BEN GRIMM

What?

JOHNNY STORM

I said get out there. There’s a problem, the radiation tank is leaking.
I think it’s about to explode. Get out of there now!

BEN GRIMM

Oh my God!

JOHNNY STORM

He’s not gonna make it!

Ben jumps out towards the main deck, floating in space with his space suit
still connected to the oxygen tank in that zone. It is too late. Everyone is
wiped with the radiation in the cosmic storm.

The radiation effects are like the effects from Final Fantasy when a person’s
soul is being taken away from him/her. Except in this case, it looks like a
huge flame sweeping through each of the astronauts taking out their
“bio-physical soul”.

Everyone blacks out. They all pass out on the floor. After about 5 minutes,
they wake up, feeling ok and then since the device is now destroyed, they
head back to earth.

Headquarters demands that they take a physical at NASA Care (the hospital).

BEN DISCOVERS

That night, while Ben Grimm sleeps, he is wrinkling on his bed. His face
begins to hurt badly. His legs and arms hurt like crazy! It feels like
muscle pull multiplied by 100. Very quickly, his whole body hurts too.
Then his body begins to turn to rock, one big square of block after another.
After a few blocks form all this while screaming, he wakes up. The camera is his POV.

He breaths a heavy sigh of relief and decides to go and get a drink.
He feels quite fatter than before.

Ben Grimm

(Feeling very heavy) Men, Sue was right. I really should lose some of this weight.

He opens a door and his shadow is cast on the wall as “The Thing”.
The camera only shows his shadow.

Because Ben was the only one that was directly hit by the cosmic storm,
his change into an orange-colored rocky exterior is irreversible.

(Write scene for when Johnny Storm 1st discovered his power)

DINER SCENE WITH SUE STORM AND DR. REED RICHARD

SUE STORM

Look at me.

DR. REED RICHARD

I can’t.

Reed really can not see her even though she is sitting directly opposite him.

SUE STORM

What? What do you mean?

DR. REED RICHARD

Where are your hands?

Sue accidentally knocks over a bottle on the table. This makes Dr. Reed “stretch”
out his hand to catch it before it hits the ground.

HOSPITAL SCENE WITH JOHNNY STORM

JOHNNY STORM

Hi, I’m here to see the doctor, I have a high fever.

RECEPTIONIST

The doctor will be right with you. You can wait in that room right there.

JOHNNY STORM

Thank you.

A beautiful middle aged female doctor walks in.

Camera classically focuses on her feet while she enters the room. In slow motion,
moving up her legs until it gets to her face. Camera then cuts in to Johnny
ogling at her.

DOCTOR

I assume you are Johnny storm?

JOHNNY STORM

You assume correctly doctor.

DOCTOR

Okay, let’s see what the problem is Johnny. I’m just going to find out your
temperature.

JOHNNY STORM

You can find out anything you want from my body doctor.

DOCTOR

(Smiles sarcastically)

She pulls out a thermometer.

DOCTOR

Say ahh.

JOHNNY STORM

Ahh

She puts it in his mouth while she checks the computer screen for his temperature.
The reading scrolls up to 209^oF.

DOCTOR

Oh, you’re hot!

JOHNNY STORM

Why thank you! So are you.

2007-04-26T18:32:00.000-07:00

This is a paper I wrote for an American History class while in college:

130 years of Movies in America:
The Impact

0754

HIST 2020

March 18, 2006

Movies have always played a very important role in our lives since its development in the 1880s. I call it development because somebody did not invent a movie or a ‘movie machine’ in just one day; movie making has been an ongoing research field which began in the 17th century. Since this paper will be written within the timeline between 1877 and the present, I will begin there.

Movie History

In 1877, the Praxinoscope was invented by French inventor Emile Reynaud. The praxinoscope was a projector-like device with a mirrored drum that created the illusion of movement with picture strips¹. This was the first movie machine that could project a series of images onto a screen. In 1879, Thomas Edison made the first exhibition of his efficient incandescent light bulb in public which was later used for film projectors². In 1882, Parisian innovator and physiologist Etienne-Julus Marey was studying, experimenting and recording animals in motion with the aid of photography³. She constructed a photographic gun, also known as a camera that could take 12 photographs/frames per second⁴. This method was called chronophotography. She also claimed to be the inventor of cinema.

In 1894, Thomas Edison introduced the public to the first practical motion picture camera and the kinetoscope. The Kinetoscope was a device that gave the illusion of movement by moving an endless loop of film continuously over a light source with a rapid shutter⁵. A researcher at the Edison laboratories called William Kennedy Laurie Dickson invented the modern movie projector.

Cinema is born

In the late 1800’s and the early 1900s, Thomas Edison’s company was one of the major pioneering movie production companies on the East Coast of the United States. He simply called the company the Edison Company.

Edison Company: Edison began producing films for the kinetoscope in 1891⁶.

American Mutoscope Company: was founded in 1895 in New York by Edison’s researcher William K. L. Dickson, Herman Caster, Harry Marvin & Elias Koopman⁷.

In 1902, filmmaker Georges Melies, who was a former magician introduced innovative visual effects in what can be called the first real science fiction (Sci-Fi) film called, “Le Voyage Dans La Lune”⁸.

A famous shot from Le Voyage dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon)

A movie that made a very huge milestone in early film making history was, “The Great Train Robbery.” It was the first true western film made in 1903. This movie was photographed/ shot and directed by Edison’s leading director, Edwin S. Porter. “The Great Train Robbery” utilized many innovative techniques such as parallel editing, double exposure, composite editing, camera movement and on location shooting⁹. It was just twelve minutes long but was one of the longest movies ever made up to that time. In the last shot of the movie, a gun was fired in the direction of the camera. This style of ‘shooting’ created a profound effect on the audience because it gave an illusion that they were actually about to be shot dead. Economically, “The Great Train Robbery” established the notion that film and movies could actually be a commercially viable medium.

This leads me to the various parts of peoples lives that movies has been an impact in. The categories are: Social/ Entertainment, Economics and Politics.

Entertainment

In the 1900s movies became a popular attraction in several arcades, wax museums, music halls, traveling fairs, and vaudeville houses.

Nickelodeons

In the early 1900s, people no longer saw motion pictures as just great innovative experiments. People became fond of movies and demanded more of it. They needed and wanted to be entertained by these movies. Various lecture halls and storefronts were then converted into the first real movie theaters called Nickelodeons. The name was derived from the fact that the admission charge was a nickel (five cents). The first nickelodeon in Pittsburgh, PA in June 1905 opened showing “The Great Train Robbery”. Teenagers and young adults went with their dates to the movies. This quickly became an avenue for dating and another medium of expressing romance. Before long, more romantic movies (also known as chick flicks) were made. The demand for more films greatly increased the number of films made. This brought profit to the movie producers.

Economics

Businessmen soon became very interested in the burgeoning movie industry. Some of them were investors, exhibitors and distributors in these new nickelodeons. A few of them were:

Adolph Zuler
Marcus Loew
William Fox (20^th Century Fox)
Louis B. Mayer (Metro Goldwyn Mayer)
Sam Goldwyn (Metro Goldwyn Mayer)
The Warner brothers (Warner Brothers/ WB) ¹⁰

These businessmen realized that in order to generate more profit, they had to expand the demographics that movies targeted – the middle-class, women and children were now additional targets.

In the 20th century, many filmmakers, both directors and producers had become very wealthy, some even billionaires. Wealthy filmmakers/producers include George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Jerry Bruckheimer.

George Lucas who is very well known for creating (writing and directing) the Star Wars movies is also known for pioneering the ever expanding field of visual and computer generated effects in movies. With his company called ILM (Industrial Light & Magic), he became very wealthy very quickly. George Lucas at 61 is worth $3.5 billion¹¹.

Steven Spielberg, who is a close friend of Lucas’, has made a large number of movies spanning many genres. He is a visionary when it comes to story telling from any perspective. Steven Spielberg who just released War of the Worlds (sci-fi) and Munich (political thriller), owned a company called DreamWorks SKG. It was recently acquired by Paramount in February 2006¹¹. Steven Spielberg who is 59 is worth $2.8 billion dollars¹².

The last filmmaker/ producer that I will mention is Jerry Bruckheimer. He has been involved with so many blockbuster hits such as Beverly Hills Cop, Armageddon and Pearl Harbor. He is also involved with producing the hit T.V. show CBS drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. All movies, musicals and T.V. shows that he has been involved with have grossed $11 billion to date¹³.

Hollywood

Filmmakers were lured by the incentives from the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce joined with plenty of sunshine (natural lighting reduced the cost of indoor artificial lighting.) Hollywood became a major movie production area. It was set in Los Angeles, California. The Hollywood sign originally read “Hollywoodland” in the 1920s but it was changed to “Hollywood” in 1949¹⁴. The sign is located near the top of Mount Lee¹⁵.

Politics

In 1912, 15 film companies were in full operation in Hollywood. Large scale studios and production companies were now the norm¹⁶. Because of this, nickelodeons were being put out of business and were being replaced by bigger theaters.

In 1913, an anti-trust suit, initiated by William Fox was heard by the U.S. government. The law suit was filed on behalf of the independent film companies such as Universal, Paramount and Fox against the Motion Picture Patents Company. In 1915, the MPPC was declared an illegal monopoly. Damages of over $20 million was ordered and was to be paid by the trust¹⁷. In 1918, the MPCC was dissolved¹⁸.

In the 21^st century, movies became a medium of voicing out political related events such as terrorism. The popular director Michael Moore made documentaries such as Bowling for Columbine (2002) and Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004). Bowling for Columbine presented America’s love for firearms and the pathology of violence in the U.S. Statistics show that the United States has the highest gun-murder rate in the world¹⁹.

Fahrenheit 9/11 was an expose that reflected on the events that transpired in America since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The movie focused on the personal relationship of George W. Bush and the family of infamous terrorist Osama bin Laden. It also touched on the role that oil must have played in the attacks on U.S. soil²⁰.

Conclusion

Movies have always fascinated the general audience all around the world. People want to be entertained, they want to laugh, cry, and feel even closer to those they love. “The movies” is a means of escape for people from their normal and sometimes rigorous lifestyle. Movies have been a mode of expression of filmmakers to tell their stories or the stories of others that have been shut out from mainstream media. We have seen ground breaking visual effects that have left audiences in awe like Pearl Harbor; we have seen movies that caught the attention of so many critics and practically the whole world like The Passion of the Christ. What next will the movies leave us to think about? What new technology will film making develop? Remember movies have only been around for about 130 years…what next?

Bibliography

Dirks, Tim. “Film History by Decade: 100 years of movies,” Film Site, 1996 (19 March 2006)

“Film,” Wikipedia, (19 March 2006).

“Hollywood, Los Angeles, California,” Wikipedia, (19 March 2006).

“The Great Train Robbery (1903 film),” Wikipedia, (19 March 2006).

2007-03-14T07:52:00.000-07:00

300.

What can be said about 300 that has not already been said, blogged about, broadcast in mainstream media i.e. t.v. news and radio as well as the independent medium of podcasting. Let's not forget myspace, facebook, youtube and wikipedia.

On my facebook profile right now, I posted a comment after seeing 3oo on its opening friday night:

"Take Sin City, Gladiator and The Lord of the Rings. Combine them but strip out the boring speeches, set the background against a beautiful art painting, bulk up the actors and hype up the fight choreography to the maximum. When you do that, you get 300."

Then my status became, "Folarin is trying to recover from the 300 effect." So rarely does a movie stir me up like 300 did. The first and most heightened impression that I got from a movie was The Matrix (1999).

I am not referring to the story because Frank Miller, the original writer of 300 - the graphic novel that 300 - the movie was based on, is not completely historically accurate. Of course that is not what both Miller and Zack Snyder (director) was going for. Oh btw, don't call 300 a comic book in front of Frank Miller. I am focusing on the film making process.

When the Matrix came out, it blew everyone away, because what it did had never been done before. 1st, the story, 2nd the fight choreography, 3rd the visual effects, special effects and virtual backgrounds, let's not forget the cinematography. The Matrix set a new standard in film making all over the world.

300 has done something quite close. That is what everybody is talking about! That is why 300 has now set the record for best opening is March, ever! I'm talking over 70 million in just one weekend not to talk about the whole month yet. On a budget of a mild 65 million and a smart use of the internet and the youtube craze for marketing, I can assure you that the producers and the cast are already popping champagne bottles just waiting for the revenue to pour in.

There have been some criticisms however about this movie, not all that I agree with

1. "The blue screen CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) made the movie look kind of flat."

Well, the movie is based on a graphic novel drawn on a flat plane paper. Maybe that was what Zack Snyder was going for.

2. "The use of the slow-mo, speed up effect started by The Matrix was used to much."

I would have to agree with that on some level. It got a little too much. On the upside, it helped us appreciate the skill and level of work that these actors put into the choreography and made us/me see every move in detail. God knows that if I had 300 on dvd without the slow mo, I would hit the slow-mo button during the action sequences.

3. "The characters had no depth, i.e. there wasn't enough time for the audience to buy into the characters and get us emotionally involved."

Again, I would say read the original piece(the novel). Did Miller do this? Lets not blame the filmmakers. However I felt the love that Leonidas had for his queen at the end when Gerard Butler delivered greatly these words, "My queen, my wife, my love.", just before a swarm of arrows rained downed upon him.

Overall, the movie was a great movie and a tremendous success.

Listen to my podcast review on 300. "The Folarin O. show" on iTunes.

2007-01-22T19:20:00.000-08:00

Just a second ago a cousin of mine, Kemi, remarked while we were talking, "You are just a non-conformist". I congratulated her for that compliment, as I decided to take it, because that is exactly what I chose to be. Didn't God tell us not to be part of the crowd?

Now to the main issue

Passage - Luke 12: 13 - 34

The Bible is the best written book ever written by man. No doubt. There are some passages that just hit you like, wow. Every sentence, every word, means so much to you, you almost lose it.

Luke 12:21 says, ..."So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God."

Jesus told a parable about a man that laid some crops and goods in the barn intended for years of storage. When he did this, God called him a fool, saying he will take his life.

This is a famous parable that I have always struggled with for many years. To me I thought, hey isnt this guy being smart saving for a 'rainy' day? At least he has a savings account (so to speak) unlike so many people these days.

Then I thought about it some more and maybe God was talking about some of us that take pleasure in earthly possessions. It doesn't mean you should not be rich and have gadgets or expensive items. By all means do, enjoy your life here on earth if you can. Just don't find them indisposable. Be able to give them away when the time calls for it.

I watched a movie yesterday. A rock star was on a date with his new flamboyant girlfriend. He was trying to teach her that "these things" are not real (referring to his motor bike). He proved it to her by starting the ignition and running the bike straight into the lake. Then they both bursted into laughter. To cut the long story short, the girl didn't get the lesson, she ended up a drug addict and died of a drug overdose at 28. It was based on a true life story.

:22, "Then HE said to His disciples, "Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life,what you will eat, nor about the body, what you will put on."

This verse blows my mind. What? We should not worry about, ...what? the first...our life? then what we will eat? our body and our clothes? Why should we not worry? Does this mean we should not care? Does it mean we should not bother to get a job and God will automatically download food and clothes from heaven to earth? Oh and wait, we shouldn't even worry about our life and bodies. Does this mean we shouldn't have plans ahead like the Fool in the parable?
Hmm, questions. Questions that need answers. I gotta tell you I don't have all the answers. However I am getting some of them as time moves along

HE goes on to say that life is more than food, and the body is more that clothing.
Okay, and how is that?

:29, "And do not seek what you should eat or drink, nor have an anxious mind."
We shouldn't seek? What exactly does seek mean. Maybe it meant something a little different back then than it does now. I do get the part about being anxious. I think God is saying, "Trust ME", "Don't worry, just do what I tell you to do, and I'll provide all these things for you easily."

:30 , "But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you."
My point exactly. I didn't even see this yet before I typed the last paragraph.

:32, "Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom."
...
:34, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also"
This one meant something to me. The two important words here are treasure and heart. What do you treasure? What do you hold closely to your heart? Notice how these two questions seem like the same question and go hand in hand?
Pick the relevant things of this world and treasure them. Things that God holds important. Things that can enable you to grow personally, and things that you can do to help others.