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.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Sunday, November 09, 2008
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.
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.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
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.
...
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.
...
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
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.
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.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
The Impact of John Davison Rockefeller To America
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 America. 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”.
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 America. 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”.
Monday, January 21, 2008
Cloverfield
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
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
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