The Sound of Writing

I was staring at empty space. I tried to look for the fixed contours on the paper and the silhouette of the pen I was holding. I tried but to no avail. My mind was swimming in an endless array of uneasiness. I was not certain whether I was dreaming or already awake. This was hard, I told myself. I felt a drop of sweat trickling down my cheek. Thomas Edison once said that genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration. If he was right then I was on the right track. But doubt was slowly lurking and creeping around me. Was it really this hard to be inspired to write? I just comforted myself by constantly saying what Jean Anouilh once said, that inspiration was a farce that poets had invented to give themselves importance.When I was starting to become a writer, I was not even aware that I was trying to be one. Grade school for me was seventy percent playing and thirty percent dreaming. And my dreams during that time were all about winning an Academy Award or being named as one of the sexiest people in the world. Becoming the next president was also in my mind. But the thought of being a writer was like imagining myself eating salad with an alien in a crater of a moon in one of the planets in the Andromeda galaxy; it never crossed my mind.In a nutshell, when I tried to analyze how I was as a writer in grade school, all I could say was that I was a courageously idiotic writer. An idiot, but brave nonetheless. This was largely due to the fact that everything I had written at that time was not even close to being brilliant or great. All the words I wrote were simply inspired by having the guts to just do it. If there was a paper too difficult to do and a word too hard to define, all I did was to write and write because I believed that everything would be just fine.I was stupid enough to go forth while all hell broke loose and still smiled at the end of the day. I was guided by my own foolish belief I was brave simply because I would not back awa y. This was writing for me in grade school. Writing for me back then was not about being witty or being brilliant. Writing was all about just stroking my pen without regret and without regard for the outcome. However, in a sense, everyone who attempted to write had some ounce of courage. I felt that I was a better writer than the other students not because I wrote well but rather, I wrote braver. And I was braver longer than most. As Ronald Reagan once mentioned, heroes were not braver than anyone else. They were just braver five minutes longer.As I made the transition from grade school to high school, I started to become idealistic. I began having these grand notions of changing the world and eradicating poverty. I was dreaming of winning the Nobel Peace Prize or be named the next Time Magazine’s Person of the Year. This time, I was absolutely clear in becoming a writer. Writing for me during high school was all about greatness. I felt the need to write to impress. I wanted to be witty and brilliant. I wanted everybody to be mesmerized in reading every single word I wrote. When I tried to look back during those days, even when I wrote poorly, I blindly presented my written work of art full of hubris and unafraid. I often compared writing to boxing.As Muhammad Ali would say, to be a great champion, a person had to believe that he was the best. If he was not, he should pretend that he was. This was me in high school. I was the writer who was so full of himself. If a teacher or a classmate did not like what I wrote, I simply told myself that these people did not understand the high level of writing I was doing. I understood myself to be a brilliant and confident writer. In reality, compared to who I was as a writer in grade school, only one thing had changed. If I was a brave and idiotic back then, I was not confident but just cocky in high school. And to my realization, I was still stupid for thinking of how great I was.When I stepped into college, a ren ewed vigour was awakened within me. Maybe I got too tired of being cocky and stupid that I started seeing a new side of me I never saw I had. This time I believed I had transcended from being the good and the better man to the being best man. I was no longer the idiot and stupid writer. I was filled with excitement. I was now the fool. Somehow, the words and lines I were using suddenly all sounded a bit poetic and romantic. I often pondered if I was to be the next William Shakespeare.This time, I was inspired by the others that had gone before me. I wanted to sway the hearts and minds of people with my writing. I wanted to invoke their deepest darkest secrets through my words. I wanted to encapsulate each soul with a stroke of my pen. I longed to see their tears and hear their laughs by my artistry in poetry. I would be that whom which T. S. Eliot described as the genuine poet who could communicate his words before it was understood. And to my shock, I did see their tears and heard their laughs because of what I had written. I saw my professors crying in pain because they could not even bear one more word of my work. I heard laughs not because I was funny, but because my work was hilarious. Despite this, I still continued and persevered. As one of my favourite authors, Richard Bach, would say, a professional writer was an amateur who did not quit.Everything was a bit different after that. Somehow, until to this very day, I would still be idiotic, stupid and foolish. But this time around, I was a wise fool at the least. I had been quoting Edison, Anouilh, Ali, Reagan and Eliot just to name a few thinking that by using their words, I would be a good writer; I would sound better. But I soon realized that writing was about finding my voice.I needed to find my own words. Writing was about knowing and understanding who I was. Thus, I resolved to search for the right words, the right imagery, the right tone and the right sound. However, I always asked myself if there were indeed such things. Then, it hit me. I was so concerned with the way I was writing that I forgot to find my purpose for it. Why did I want to become a writer? The answer was simple. It was because in writing, I offered who I was and not what I had. That sounded right, I told myself. It sounded just about right.

Privacy and surveillance in the Information Age Essay

Privacy and surveillance in the Information Age - Essay Example According to Nissenbaum (1998, p.4), information technology has not only affected communication, but has actually led to a need to redefine privacy. With increasing surveillance and information recording, personal privacy is taking a new direction. According to Nock (1993) the cost of surveillance is personal privacy and the American public has to trade between privacy and security. The biggest turn in information technology came at about the mid of 20th century with the invention of the electronic computer. As soon as the computer was invented, it was used by governments and large corporations for information capture, storage and analysis. Information technology did not only help in increasing the way information is captured and stored, but also in the way the same information can be analyzed as well as manipulated (Hughes, 2004, p.78). As a result, the role of the government and private corporations can in safeguarding information has increased and has also taken a new course. Information stored in computes is easier to disseminate and can be accessed from remote access points. This leads to the risk of losing this information to hackers and this can lead to private information being disseminated by unauthorized personnel. Information and communication technology has changed the way people communicate and carry out their daily social, political and economic activities. With the arrival of computers and the internet, communication has always increased, and people are today better able to communicate. Business transactions have taken a new route as private firms can now easily capture, analyze and disseminate different formats of communication and information. A good example of this is the US based international retail giant Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart has been able to develop a system based in computers and wide area network that is able to capture information from all the retail stores and then sending this information to a central database where the

BUS475 Final Strategic Plan and Presentation Essay

BUS475 Final Strategic Plan and Presentation - Essay Example Regardless of the business type established; it is pertinent to appreciate the two fundamental components of strategic planning, i.e. long-term objectives and the all-inclusive strategy.These objectives and strategies help management to predefine organizational objectives. Long-term objectives refer to results the organization seeks to attain over a certain period, for instance, a five-year period. Grand strategies, on the other hand, are the thorough approaches that guide organizational actions aimed at meeting the long-term objectives The establishment of these objectives and targets centers on the firm’s mission, values and vision. Some notable strategies that enable the achievement of HBR’s goals and managing the changing environment include the following: Financial Strategies The spa’s main objective is to become the preferential spa where customers go to enhance their natural beauty. HBR also aims at increasing its market share by at least 9-12% in the next two years while also operating on high revenue and low costs. HBR will establish tactics to provide a balance between its income and expenditure. HRB will base its calculation of the preferred profits on the evaluation of desire and price percentiles of profit. HBR will use the strategy of return on investment to maximize the use of financial resources and reduce expenses efficiently. Technology Strategies In keeping up with modern technologies, the spa will achieve its objectives in an effectual manner. The firm will continually upgrade and appreciate the latest software information technologies that have immense impacts of the beauty industry. These technologies will help HBR to share accurate and timely information with all stakeholders. Some vital information technologies, which HBR will have, include intranet networking, the Internet, e-mail, fax, telephones and mobile phones. IT strategies ensure HBR provides services to its clients throughout the day. Technologically, the sp a will position itself strategically by having the latest online reservation and payment services for busy professionals (Wilson & Gilligan, 2005). Marketing Strategies HBR’s marketing objective is to generate awareness of the spa and cater for persons with the desire to be pampered and rejuvenate their innate beauty. HBR aims at offering the best possible beauty experiences to its customers to ensure high referrals. HBR intends to be a magnet for both middle and high income earners by providing tailored packages to suit their demands and financial abilities (Hitt, Ireland & Hoskisson, 2008). These individuals may opt for the complete beauty package that includes a full seaweed body scrub, facial, manicure, pedicure and makeup application or one or two of these services. Irrespective of the package clients choose; HBR will offer its clients the best possible services with the utmost professionalism. HBR will use promotional programs such as gift cards at subsidized rates, adv ertising, especially in social media sites and malls, online marketing and print and electronic media. The firm will also offer complimentary facials to all new clients to retain them for the long term. Monitoring and Controlling In HBR, the implementation of strategic plans is extremely vital since control and monitoring are essential to the accuracy of the strategic implementation plan. Some crucial monitoring and controlling tools include the following: 1. Development Behavioral Control System is crucial to the exemplary performance of HBR’s strategic plan. HBR will monitor its operating procedure, standards, rules and regulations. HBR will control the implementation of policies guarding ethical and legal frameworks and human resources. This control program is viable in ascertaining the relation between the activities of HBR and the outcomes (Wilson & Gilligan, 2005). 2. Development of a quality control system is also an effective monitoring and