If I Could Change 3 Things About Myself Essay Example for Free

If I Could Change 3 Things About Myself Essay Yes, maybe you will say:†Hey! Thats not enough! I need MORE! † but what are the three most importance things that you decide to change? If I could change three things about myself, I think first and foremost, I would change my desirous of food-ness. I got the stomach ache-ness when I was at Japan and tried not to eat so much. Well, to late for regrets now! I am eating now and just ate some ice-cream just now and ate fish chops for dinner. Well, good luck to me! Secondly, I would like to change my laziness. I had been pretty darn lazy through my whole life until now. Except for the time when my sister who is older than me by a year got to go to school and petty little me didnt get to go. So, I got so interested in learning that I read ALL of my sisters textbooks. And ever since my sister knew that I knew   that she was learning, made up a lame excuse and threw her homework to me and went to play some stupid computer game like MINES. Because she doesnt know how to play it, she just simply pushes some buttons. But now, I inherited her laziness and she inherited my hardworkingness and its the other way round than the time we were kids. Lastly, I would like to change the fact that I dont really have any talents. Im suck in studying, not really good in sports. I would want my talents to be: singing, dancing and acting. So, I could just be a pop star when I grow up. Well, its really nice to be a star, you know, with people fan boy and fan girling you. You just sing, which you awesomely have HUGE talent at and you get tons of money for just ONE song you sing! It would be such an awesome life! Well, its probably pretty obvious that nobody is going to magically materialize from thin air and grant those for me. So seems like I would just need to keep working at it.

History Of African American Music Music Essay

History Of African American Music Music Essay Music can free the human soul and every single person can listen to it. African American music became quickly part of American culture and even if its themes vary, from a pop singer to a rapper, discrimination will always be a theme in African American music; and among this, it had a big influence upon all peoples, including whites in the U.S.A., who started listening to it, loving it and even making it. Music gives you a certain perspective, a way of seeing and feeling things. That was contagious too. By music you can express whatever you want, whatever you feel. African Americans had indeed talent and no white could contest it. They sang about their sad past and many other things, but racism is a topic whereof many contemporary musicians put it in their songs. When slavery was still legal in America, work songs sung by slaves were their only liberation. Later these songs were known as spirituals, religious songs, and we can find their essence in blues and gospel music. Wade in the Water is a very well-known spiritual referring both to the New and the Old Testament. Its verses talk about the escape of the Israelites from Egypt and the chorus renders healing. Many books, among we find Frederick Douglas My Bondage and My Freedom tell us that spirituals, like this one, implied coded messages to help the slaves escape. Teaching him how to escape and leading him to the Underground Railroad are two things they are suspected to transmit. Spirituals like The Gospel Train, The Song of the Free and Following the Drinking Gourd are more related to the Underground Railroad. These were the inspiration of the later development of African American music. At the beginning of the twentieth century, blues and ragtime were very popular. Syncopation, which occurs when the regular flow of rhythm is changed (stressing a beat that normally it would not be stressed), is the hallmark of African American music styles like ragtime, jazz, blues, funk, reggae and other. Scott Joplin became the most famous composer in ragtime through Maple Leaf Rag, his 1899 publication, but also through other ragtime hits. The Blues had a bigger impact upon American culture. The name expresses a state of melancholy, sadness, a gloomy atmosphere and the most used instruments are the harmonica, the guitar, the piano, the saxophone, vocals and the trumpet. Rural blues was different where he developed. In Georgia and the Carolinas were more tuneful than Texas and Mississippi, Blind Boy Fuller being one of the representatives of this style. Texas blues are depicted by high singing and a flexible guitar line, Blind Lemon Jefferson was the most important bluesman in that area. Concerning Mississippi, the Mississippi Delta blues are the most powerful, gifted with a guitar accompaniment of great rhythm and percussion. Charley Patton, Tommy Johnson and Willie Brown are among the ones who define this style. Hart Wand, with Dallas Blues, and W.C. Handy, with The Memphis Blues were the first to publish blues sheets of music in 1912 and the first recording was Crazy Blues performed by Mamie Smith in 1920. In the 1950s the name race records, which was used because of discrimination (music was not separated by its genre, but by the ethnicity of its performer) disappeared and it was replaced with Rhythm and Blues. In that period electric blues also developed in cities such as Chicago, Memphis, Detroit and St. Louis, and in 1948 Chicago was the home of electric blues due to Muddy Waters who released his first popular song I Can t Be Satisfied. The Chicago blues knew a strong influence from the Delta blues because most Mississippi singers came into that part. The Chicago blues scene was very important in that time and Willie Dixon together with B.B. King and Howlin Wolf played an important role on it. Blues had an important influence on many other genres like jazz, rock and roll and even popular music. One of the early country bluesmen, Tom Dorsey became the father of Gospel (music with religious themes) which developed in the 1930s and the influence of which could later be found in the 1950s soul music. Ray Charles and James Brown are two soul singers that used gospel and blues in their work. Soul at its turn influenced funk music which emerged in the 1970s and this type of music could be called the ancestor of hip-hop and contemporary RB. In fact jazz could also be considered an ancestor of hip-hop due to its rapping. Jazz was a very popular genre of music and nowadays it has success only in certain groups of people. The term made reference to the music sung in Chicago in 1915 and it was slang. This kind of music has a vast history and in the same time one that changed the jazz music s style throughout time. Bebop, cool jazz, hard bop, modal jazz, soul jazz, swing and many other types delighted our ears. Louis Armstrong was the most popular jazz singer and the first African American who enjoyed great privileges. By the time racism was in power, Armstrong achieved levels of the American society that no black person could. Whites were fascinated by his talent and forgot all about their racist view, so we might say that we can find that highest power somewhere in music. It is something that one cannot understand, that thing that makes us act involuntarily. This was a great impact upon America s musicians of all sorts. Music changed many things because it was not about race or accusations, music was a bout introducing a state of heart that one, black or white, would feel it immediately. But in its background or even at the surface, songs underlined human identity, racism, poverty, discrimination, slavery and more issues like these which step-by-step, whites started to feel and passed over their stubborn belief that they were the superior race. Whites even adopted the African American music style and released songs that include racism, discrimination and other problems in America. The Apollo Theatre is located in Harlem, New York City, which is a neighborhood with a significant Black history. This theatre was the only place in New York for a long period of time were talented African Americans could find a job. The Apollo gained the public s attention during the Harlem Renaissance and the pre-War World II. Something specific to Apollo was the executioner . Each time the audience did not like the performer, a person with a broom came and swept him off the stage. Its Amateur Night hosted by Ralph Cooper was very important for many artists who wanted to start a career. Due to their appearance at the Apollo, artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Diana Ross, James Brown, The Supremes, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Sarah Vaughan and many others became legends. In the 70s Black musicians did not have such a great success, but artists like Stevie Wonder, The O Jays, Barry White and Donna Summer managed to capture the attention of the entire American public. In the late 70s tough, a new musical culture appeared that had a very important impact, not only upon American culture, but also upon American mentality, lifestyle, language and behaviour. It was the Hip Hop culture which was not all about music. It could build personality; it could change your mentality and your lifestyle. The four pylons of this culture were MCing, Djing, breaking and graffiti writing. The term is originated from the African American Vernacular English where hip means current or in the known and hop refers to the movement. Hip Hop developed in South Bronx and it was represented through its rebellious and progressive elements. Rapping stands at the base of hip-hop and it is the art of using words to transmit a message during a beat. Rapping was a way of relating urban pr oblems, expressing powerful feelings of discontent and telling stories about anything in life. It was a way to liberate anger, but in the same time it was the voice of African Americans living in the ghetto, talking about street life, misery, money, family etc. To rap is a word used in British English since the sixteenth century and it means to strike , to hit . Many consider hip-hop a horrible genre of music because of the language that it is used and they cannot bear to hear it, so they do not want to listen to the message. Nonetheless, Hip Hop culture crossover and became one of the most popular, especially among young Americans who adopted the slang, the clothing, the inappropriate language and the mentality. At the beginning, hip-hop managed to diminish the rate of violence among inner-city gangs by its street dance and artwork battles. After these became real popular, many teenagers searched for different ways of expressing themselves and in this manner we could say that hip-hop was the motif for which not so many people died, but it did not make violence disappear. [Rap] emerged from the streets of inner-city neighborhoods as a genuine reflection of the hopes, concerns, and aspirations of urban Black youth in this, the last quarter of the 20th century. Rap is essentially a homemade, street-level musical genre . . . Rap lyrics concentrate primarily on the contemporary African American experience. . . Every issue within the Black community is subject to exposition in the rap arena. Hit rap tunes have broached touchy subjects such as sex, sexism, racism, and crime . . . Rap artists, they contend, don t talk that love stuff, but [rather] educate the listeners. (Powell 245) The 80s was the period that defined hip-hop music and made it more complex. Ice-T and Schoolly D introduced one of the most popular subgenres of hip-hop: gangsta rap, which was criticizes for promoting themes such as sex, violence, racism, promiscuity, misogyny, rape, drug dealing and more. The main feature of hip hop is the rebel touch which had a great influence upon America s society. Racism and their wretched past were not forgotten, and rappers made songs that underlined this part. Even if hip-hop is considered to have insulting lyrics, they are much more than that, having an intense meaning which reflects the everyday cultural, social, political and economic status of African Americans. Some of the hip-hop artists who sing about racism are Public Enemy (911 is a Joke, Anti-Nigger Machine, Fear of a Black Planet, Fight the Power), Run DMC (Proud to be Black), Kool G Rap D.J. Polo (Erase Racism), Getto Boys (No Sell Out), 3rd Bass (No Master Plan, No Master Race), Nas (America, Black President, You Can t Stop Us Now), Common feat Will I Am (A Dream) and Tupac (Ghetto Gospel, Changes, White Man s World, Trapped). Hip Hop is nowadays one of the most important labels of American music because it is in the same time a cultural aspect. African American music had a huge success in America and white people liked it so much that they started making jazz, blues, hip hop, gospel, soul and funk. African Americans could not have something against this movement because it would be contradicting their race beliefs, but in a short time they started appreciating the work of whites. Above all this, one thing is for sure: music genres will never die. People will always listen to the songs which they love, even if they are out-of-date and African American music is a part of American music which will never be forgotten. All the artists mentioned since the beginning gained a high respect in America and won awards for their pieces of art. Their contribution to America s culture was clearly seen and they also were a great inspiration for artists who followed them. Songs about slavery, racism, discrimination, fighting and human identity are some of the most important for American culture. Billie Holiday was an African American who inspired and also had an influence upon jazz singers. She was a singer and songwriter with an outstanding voice and style. Strange Fruit was part of her discography, even if it is a song which was performed by many others. This was a poem written by Abel Meeropol in which he underlines his repugnance for American racism, especially the lynching of African Americans. Billie Holiday s song was introduced in 1978 into the Grammy Hall of Fame, even if it was first performed in 1939 and it had its place on the list Songs of the Century. Sam Cooke released A Change is Gonna Come in 1964. He was an American gospel, soul and pop singer who won awards for his work and was voted in 2005 number 12 in Rolling Stone magazine s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. This song is one of the most famous about the Civil Rights Movement. In 1964, another jazz, soul, blues and gospel singer, Nina Simone contributed with three protest songs that emphasized social change: Mississippi Goddam, Four Women, To Be Young, Gifted and Black. These are among the most famous protest songs and self-written pieces. Another famous protest song is War which is very popular in America nowadays due to the fact that is became the soundtrack of the movie Rush Hour. The song is best-known performed by Edwin Starr and it also belongs to the soul genre. Its release in 1970s made War a runaway hit. James Brown captured the public s attention with the funk hit Say It Loud (I m Black and I m Proud) in 1968. The song became one of the most popular Black anthems of the 1960s and emphasized the necessity for black conferring of rights. Stevie Wonder was exactly like his name and in 1973 released Living for the City in which we can observe his dissatisfaction and irritation in the tension and anger incorporated in his voice. The main themes of the song were poverty and racism. Both singers won many awards for their work and were very important figures on America s cultural scene. Besides the entire list of successful African American singers, we have two artists that created a huge sensation: the King of Blues and the King of Pop. The first is B.B. King who recorded in 1983 a compilation which consists of his greatest work in that period and in the same time the themes of the compilation are racism, discrimination and humanity: Why I Sing the Blues. King won fifteen Grammy Awards and many others. He was initiated in 1987 into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Time magazine ranked him in 2009 the third from the ten best guitarists. He and his guitar Lucille are among America s prides. The second one, God rest his soul, was the contemporary African American s impact upon society. The legend, Michael Jackson, along with his songs and a publicized personal life showed the entire world what racism, discrimination and mistreatment meant. Songs like Black or White, They Don t Care about Us, Man in the Mirror and Heal the World were runaway hits since they were released . He won many awards and he was not only appreciated in America, but loved. Both legends bring fire in the hearts of their listeners. Rock and roll bands with different influences, mostly formed of whites, sang also about racism and discrimination. Some songs that emphasized more or less these themes are: The Beauty of Gray by Live, Colored People by Dc Talk, Ebony and Ivory by Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder, Heartspark $ by Everclear and even Have a Nice Day by Bon Jovi. In music African Americans had and still have a huge success, but also in many forms of culture. The National Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C. proves their touch upon American culture. However, music was the one who managed to make them feel free and equal by permitting them to express their true sorrows in a time when direct accusations were condemned. They just needed the talent and few metaphors.

Renting Versus Buying Essay -- Compare Contrast Home Ownership

Buying a home can be an exciting experience for anyone. However, in some cases you just might be better off continuing to rent your home. There are many advantages to buying a home. However, it is not for everyone and buying varies from individual to individual. Currently more people are leaning towards renting but this could change in the near future. When someone makes the decision to buy or rent a home they must consider the advantages and disadvantages of each. In buying a home the primary advantage is that you actually own it. You can do whatever you want with it. Also, you are building equity as the years go by. â€Å"People today have problems saving for their future† (CNN Money, 2014). However, when they buy a home, the money they put down for a down payment is an investment. When the person sells the home they get back the down payment and the amount the property has appreciated in value. When looking at the advantages of renting it is easy to see the disadvantages of buying for some people. Even though you don’t get the money back that you put into it, renting could be a more satisfying option for some. This is because renting allows for flexibility. The person can move wherever as soon as there lease is up. Renters may see buying as â€Å"a reduction in lifestyle, moving to a smaller place, and perhaps a less expensive neighborhood.† (CNN Money, 2014). For example someone who rents an apartment enjoys how the complex keeps up the area and all the amenities it has to offer, and it is in an upper class part of town. However, when they buy they looks all the benefits, they have to do maintenance themselves, and move to an area they don’t particularly like to fit their price range. So which is better? It jus... ...etrieved October 29, 2014, from http://homebuying.about.com/od/buyingahome/qt/BuyorRent.htm This article explains how one should decide whether to buy a home or rent. Buying a home should be based on decisions of credit report, debt ratios, job stability or relocation, maintenance issues, and financial situation. It explains how not everyone should buy a house. Some people are actually better off renting. To rent or to buy? (2014). CNN Money. Retrieved October 29, 2014, from http://money.cnn.com/2014/10/29/yourhome/q_rent_or_buy/index.htm This article describes the disadvantages and advantages of buying or renting your home. It describes advantages of buying such as taxes and appreciation of the home. However, coming up with a down payment may be hard for many people. Renters may have less cost and more flexibility on when and where they can move to.

Racial Diversity and the True Colors of Life Essay -- Sociology Racism

Racial Diversity - The True Colors of Life    Think of the world as a box of crayons. A box in which each color stands in its own designated space. Like these crayons, we each have different shades, tints, and most importantly, we all leave marks on our world when used. Some of us will leave a bold, vivid mark that cannot be unnoticed. For others of us, our mark is soft and subtle. Alone, each crayon can only achieve so much in the expression it can make. The way we express ourselves is limited to our own color that is made up of our customs, culture and experiences in life. It is not until we learn to mix our understandings, beliefs, our experiences, that a new color and expression can be made by each one of us. If we do this, the realm of possiblities for the box expands.    Being a freshman in a new world where all is overwhelming and completely foreign has presented its share of challenges. I have been faced with academic demands that I never experienced in my high school career. Socially, I have strived to find a place to fit in and find acceptance. The challenge I did not anticipate meeting with appreciation, however, is the diversity I have encountered in my first semester of college. For this reason, I have been prompted to take note of the diversity on our campus and to write this essay in an effort to emphasize its cruciality.    A man stands in the center of the quad preaching. In a voice filled with urgency and depth he preaches his belief that Jesus Christ is his salvation and the world's only truth. A young woman asks a panel of her peers, resentment and anger trembling in her voice, why she can not display her lesbian pride sticker on her car without glances of disgust... ...nd success and their place in the crayon box.    I realize the importance of the diversity on our campus and have a gratitude I never new existed. Never before have I embraced meeting my peers with a desire to explore a new culture or discover something about myself never known before. The girl who expresses her sexuality, the man who preaches his faith and the hippies who bead their lives are all beneficial to each and every student who passes them in their rush to class. For the first time in our lives we are trying to find our true identity. We are faced with adverse situations and ideas we are presented with for the first time in our lives. We look at our peers judgments and are forced to make our own. Through those, we discover our true selves. After all, how does a purple crayon know he is purple until he has compared himself to a red?   

Implement Customer Service Standards Essay

According to the survey recently performed on ABC Bank, it has been found that there has been a big decrease in the number of customers over the past six months. This is due to poor customer service. Therefore, Peter Sellers, as the Manager of the bank, needs to confirm the same and make a report about the issue as soon as possible. In order for Peter to be able to identify the customer service satisfaction or problems, he will use different methods to gather information from both internal and external customers. Suggestion boxes or comment cards will be available, to gather information, complaints and feedback, internally. There will be one-on-one questioning, observation as well as being able to do online surveys and/or fill survey forms, at their convenience. For external customers, feedback will be collected through emails, surveys, questionnaires and/or complete online surveys. Peter has decided to use the brainstorming method so as to able to undertake solutions to the problems identified. According to him, brainstorming will be a useful way of generating radical solutions to the problems. Since brainstorming combines a relaxed, informal approach to problem-solving with lateral thinking, it asks that people come up with crazy and creative ideas and thoughts that can be crafted into original, creative solutions to the problem that needs to be solved, while others can still come up with more ideas. As brainstorming can be divided into two types: individual and group brainstorming; Peter has decided to go with individual brainstorming. He feels that when his staff brainstorm on their own, they come up with more ideas (and often better quality ideas) than groups of people who brainstorm together. Eventually he will place his staff members into group brainstorming, as group brainstorming can develop ideas in more depth than individual brainstorming. It also helps everyone to feel that they have contributed to the solution and it reminds people that other people have creative ideas to offer. Most of the time, brainstorming is fun and it can be a great way for team building. Afterwards, he will combine the individual and group brainstorming, in order to get the best results out of all the ideas generated from the brainstorming sessions. Changes will be transmitted to employees via emails, letters, memos, reports, bulletins, and electronic mail and will be communicated to the external environment through electronic mail, internet web sites, letters, advertisements, brochures, as well as news releases will be used. Sending messages through mobile phones will be used, since nowadays Mobile SMS has become a popular type of informal written communication. Meetings, conferences or conventions will also be convened internally. Quality management can be considered to have four main components: quality planning, quality control, quality assurance and quality improvement. It does not aim to assure ‘good quality’ by the general definition, but rather to ensure that an organisation or product is consistent. It is focused not only on product/service quality, but also the means to achieve it. Quality management therefore uses quality assurance and control of processes as well as products to achieve more consistent quality. According to Peter, International Organisational Standards (ISO) will be the best quality management system to ensure establishing quality organisational service standards.

Jamie Oliver Essay

Jamie Oliver is a chef who has made a number of television programmes for Channel 4; in most of these programmes he is cooking and instructing the audience, although he is sometimes part of documentaries about food, for example in schools. His style of speech is very different to many of his contemporaries: he uses his distinctive style to present himself as a down to earth, friendly TV chef. Oliver is the only person talking in this transcript because he is cooking and explaining his actions for the TV show.The fact that he is cooking while talking means that there are numerous pauses in the transcript, for example ayou wanna coat the bottom (3) of the pana. The three second pause indicates that he is demonstrating this action on the programme; it is important in his role as a TV chef that he doesnat just sit and talk through a recipe because viewers want to see the recipes being made and they also want to be entertained and kept interested by Oliver moving around in the kitchen.Oth er pauses suggest that, although this programme is probably scripted to some degree, Oliver is not reading from an autocue but retains an element of spontaneity to his speech. The pauses at the start of the transcript, aI got a pan (. ) er the right size pan about (. ) sort of seven inchesa, are indicators of this spontaneity, as is the non-fluent aera.Although sometimes a sign of nervousness, in this case I think the pauses help Oliver to appear normal, like his viewers, so they are more likely to attempt his recipes and, of course, buy his books. Jamie Oliveras Esturary accent and his accompanying use of London slang are also distinctive features of his talk. Words such as achivvya and asquigglea are colloquial and are not words we expect to hear on a cooking programme.We are used to words from the cooking semantic field such as awhiska, abakea, astira but Oliveras language use again makes him seem very normal, approachable and relaxed. As well as specifically accented words such as the dropping of the aha in aorriblea, Oliveras elisions agonnaa, awannaa and akindaa demonstrate his relaxed tone. As well as using these to build a successful TV persona, Oliver could be using this informal language because he is concentrating more on the actual cooking and explaining the key details of the recipe

Negotiation Planning

Price to recoup development costs and maintain competitive advantage Issues What should be on the table? What will the discussion focus on? Look for commonality and tradeoff The new technology Preventing the sale of technology to direct competition Net Profits Recoup the development costs Audio shouldn't sell the technology to external customers – Reducing profitability to the company Sharing Internal sales profit Terms What sort of stipulations may apply?Audio should not produce products using Z-25 technology Supply Z-25 magnets for free Magnetic Advances should be given first preference in any further technology advancements in magnets Avoid selling it to competition Goals specific/measurable/]sustainable; target/range you are shooting for; make best guess for the other side; rank them YOU: OTHER PARTY: 1. I am shooting for 61 mm in profits (the minimum I could go is 47-TAP and the maximum I could go is 140-TAP.TAP at minimum would be 32 mm. Taking the average of the above t wo would give me an estimate of 61. 5 mm as target) 1 . 80 mm as TAP ( If the deal succeeds, Mad's maximum profits would be 140 – 32 = 108, and minimum refits would be 20 – 32 mm = -12, so taking average of 108 and -12 and adding them to our opportunity cost ( 12 mm (development costs)+20 mm Internal sales)) 2. Audio should not produce products for Internal dollops 2.So they will be embarrassed to take up the issue with top management Through internal sale of Z-25 products we can get 20 mm in profits Z-25 has enormous commercial possibilities The technology two years lifetime and it cost 12 mm There is 15% and 10% profitability on external and internal sales respectively Negotiation Strategy How do you plan to approach the negotiation? What will you share/keep private? Keep private the net profits Keep private other potential offers I plan to approach by showing them the losses of no selling the product. They could potentially gain 8 mm (20 mm from internal sales †“ 12 mm deep costs) if they didn't go through the deal. So I would say that they will lose more if they don't do the deal because at minimum I am offering them 20 mm + 12 mm = 32 mm. I think even the other party would show losses supporting his argument.