Thoughts at 4:45 AM

This morning I had a huge epiphany.  This is the story of that.

Well, I began my huge epiphany with the thought that what sets me apart from out people in my thoughts.  I have as much time as the next person to think.  We all have 24 hours in a day.  It is what we think about is what sets great thinkers apart.  I could spend all day thinking about food, or girls, or video games.  I could read some philosophy book, or I could spend my time analyzing how I play a game and how to improve.   

If I choose to spend my time thinking of a game, or of sports, or of girls, then I feel like I waste my time.  I am not trying to say that thinking of these things is bad, but I believe there are more important things to discuss and think about.  I love to consider some of the thoughts that humans have not come to a consensus as to their meaning.  Things such as “What is truth?” “What is love?” “Is there a God?” “What are morals?” 

Why do I consider these things important?  Because I believe when people stop thinking about these things is when they are most easily controlled.   These are not the only important things each and every person has to come to their own understanding of, but some of the ones I can think of right now.   And how are we controlled if we don’t come to our own understanding of these things?

When you are unsure if something is true or not, if presented with an option or opinion on something, you are very likely to believe what you are told on the subject.  If told something is evil we build up prejudice against it.  When told there is no God at a young age, it is quite possible we will carry this belief with us as we grow older.

It is fairly easy to control a person when you tell them what to believe and what not to.  If you drill a concept, such as 2+2=4 then pretty soon they will just accept this fact.  Now, this is in fact a fact, but something we need to take for granted.  Since someone came up with the concept of math they are forcing others to agree with them in order to effectively communicate.

There are many things we must take for granted in this life.  We must take it for granted that certain things work a certain way regardless of how we believe they should function.  Gravity will always function no matter how much we wish it would not.  2+2=4 no matter how many ways you try to prove It is not true.

When told that fire will burn me, I most likely believe that it will.  But something inside me tells me to test it, to see if fire really will burn me.  I will soon learn that fire is hot, and causes discomfort to any part of my body.  I think it is important to test different things out so that we know for ourselves if something is true.  We are all told things, but we need to continually test our beliefs to see if they are correct.

This is why we need to consider the questions I listed above and many others.  If we become complacent with our beliefs we fall into a trap.  That trap is the belief that we, and no one else, knows exactly how things should be in this world.  We close our minds to opposing ideas; we dismiss things that may help us learn and grow into better people. 

This type of attitude can cause social problems.  Racism is the belief that people of different skin colors or of different nationalities are inferior to your own.  When we are racist we dismiss everything that a black, Hispanic, or white person has to offer.  They might make the best food, but if we are racist we don’t eat their food based solely on their skin or nationality.  We miss out on amazing food because we have closed out minds to the things those people have to contribute to society. 

We all are on a journey thru life, so why not make it enjoyable for everyone?  Why not consider that others of different beliefs and cultures have much to offer?  Why not join in friendly discussion with others about topics that matter to us all?

John Williams Biography for Music 1010

John Towner Williams will go down as one of the greatest orchestral composers of the 20^th and 21^st centuries.  From composing the scores for many award winning movies.  The movies he composed scores for include Jaws, the Indiana Jones series, the Star Wars series, Saving Private Ryan and Jurassic Park (John Williams Web Pages).  His scores have changed the music Americans have come to expect in their movies.

Williams was born in New York on Long Island on Feb. 8, 1932. (AllMusic)  He attended college at University of California at Los Angeles and at Juilliard School in New York City.  He then studied privately under Rosina Living and composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. (LyricsFreak)  While in the Air Force as part of his regular duties he was assigned to arrange music for the Air Force Band.

John Williams earned his living while in New York as a pianist in many of New York’s night clubs.  He married his first wife, Barbara Ruick from 1956 until her death on 1974. (LyricsFreak)  They had 3 children together: Jennifer, Mark and Joseph. He married his second wife, Samantha Winslow, in 1980.   After working in New York for several years Williams decided to return to southern California and work in Hollywood composing music.  He mainly composed music for films, winning two Emmy Awards during the 1960’s.  (The John Williams Pages)

Williams got his first film composition into the movie Daddy-O in 1958.  His first movie score came two years later in the movie Because They’re Young.  Over time he gained recognition within Hollywood for his excellent music.  He received his fist academy award in 1967.  He was nominated in 1969 for his piece in the movie Goodby, Mr. Chips.  During the 1970’s he was busy composing music for several big movies, earning the Academy Award for the classic Fiddler on the Roof.  He composed large scale disaster scores for the movies The Poseidon Adventure, Earthquake, and The Towering Inferno.  (LyricsFreak) 

In 1974 John Williams was first approached by the now well-known movie director Stephen Spielberg about making the music for his debut film, The Sugarland Express.  Williams did so well that Spielberg the following year asked him to compose music for his movie Jaws.  The music for that movie is now well known today. All suspense music today is patterned after Williams’ in Jaws.  The score earned him a second Academy Award.

Spielberg introduced John Williams to George Lucas, who in the late 1970’s was looking for a composer for his planned films Star Wars.  Williams composed a symphonic score that has gone down as easily the most recognizable in movie history.  It’s main theme, Luke’s Theme, as well as Force March and Princess Leia’s Theme earned him a third Academy Award for the best original score.   (LyricsFreak)

Of course, Williams did not want to only compose the score for one Star Wars movie.  He went on to compose the music for the movie’s Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi. Perhaps one of Williams most recognizable piece from Empire Strikes Back is Imperial March, Darth Vader’s theme song.  He earned two other Academy Award nominations for his work in the Return of the Jedi.

During the 1980’s Williams wrote and conducted music for Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark and E.T the Extra Terrestrial.  He won his fourth Academy Award for his E.T. music.  He worked with Richard Donner to compose the score for the movie Superman.  Many say in the 1980’s Williams created his best music.

John Williams did not only focus his attention of composing music for movies.  Before he started composing for movies he began to compose music for such television series as Gilligan's Island, Lost in Space, and The Time Tunnel.  In 1980 he became the conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra. (Boston Symphony Orchestra)

In 1999 George Lucas approached John Williams again to create the music for three new Star Wars movies.  These were to be the prequels to the ones created in the 1970’s and 1980’s.  One of Star Wars fans favorite song is Duel of the Fates, where Darth Maul and Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi Wan Kenobi duel in the Phantom Menace.  Williams combined many parts of his previous scores to make entirely new scores for the last two movies, Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.  His entire work in the six Star Wars films would take an entire orchestra 14 hours to perform! (LyricsFreak)

In the early 2000’s Williams was asked to create the score for the new Harry Potter movies.  He helped create Hedwig’s Theme, Patrick Doyle and Nicholas Hooper, which is the most recognizable song from the Harry Potter movies.  Like his work in the movies Jaws, Star Wars, Superman and Indiana Jones fans have come to identify those movies with their theme’s. 

John Williams has remained busy for most of the 21^st century.  He is a popular guest conductor, and appears annually at some Boston Pops concerts.  He still loves to play the piano, and stays busy by composing even more music today.

John Williams won a total of 5 Academy Awards for  his scores in Fiddler on the Roof (1971), Jaws (1975), Star Wars (1977), E.T. (1982) and Schindler's List (1993).  He has been nominated for 40 others (The John Williams Web Pages)   He has won four Golden Globes and 21 Grammy Awards.  He holds honorary degrees from 14 American universities, among them: Berklee College, Tufts University, University of South Carolina at Columbia, Boston University, New England Conservatory of Music, University of Massachusetts at Boston.

John Williams will go down as one of the greatest American composers in history.  Movie fans will always remember films because of his music.  He is one of the most decorated music composer of all time, and is loved by many in America.

Works Cited

AllMusic.  Rovi Corp, 2013. Web. June 11, 2013

Boston Symphony Orchestra. Massachusetts Cultural Council, 2013. Web. June 12, 2013.

The John Williams Web Pages. The John Williams Web Pages, 2008. Web. June 12, 2013.

LyricsFreak.  LyricsFreak, 2013. Web. June 12, 2013

Paradise

These are the words to one of my favorite songs called Paradise by Coldplay.

                                                             "Paradise"

When she was just a girl
She expected the world
But it flew away from her reach
So she ran away in her sleep
Dreamed of para- para- paradise
Para- para- paradise
Para- para- paradise
Every time she closed her eyes
Whoa-oh-oh oh-oooh oh-oh-oh

When she was just a girl
She expected the world
But it flew away from her reach
And the bullets catch in her teeth

Life goes on
It gets so heavy
The wheel breaks the butterfly
Every tear, a waterfall
In the night, the stormy night
She closed her eyes
In the night, the stormy night
Away she'd fly.

And dreamed of para- para- paradise
Para- para- paradise
Para- para- paradise
Whoa-oh-oh oh-oooh oh-oh-oh

She dreamed of para- para- paradise
Para- para- paradise
Para- para- paradise
Whoa-oh-oh oh-oooh oh-oh-oh.

La la la La
La la la

So lying underneath those stormy skies.
She said oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh.
I know the sun must set to rise.

This could be para- para- paradise
Para- para- paradise
This could be para- para- paradise
Whoa-oh-oh oh-oooh oh-oh-oh.

This could be para- para- paradise
Para- para- paradise
Could be para- para- paradise
Whoa-oh-oh oh-oooh oh-oh-oh.

This could be para- para- paradise
Para- para- paradise
Could be para- para- paradise
Whoa-oh-oh oh-oooh oh-oh-oh.

Oo-oo-oo, oo-oo-oo, oo-oo-oo
Oo-oo-oo, oo-oo-oo, oo-oo-oo

Introduction to Launching a Leadership Revolution

This is found in the book Launching a Leadership Revolution by Chris Brady and Orrin Woodward.  It is the introduction.  I loved it and wanted to share with everyone.


"Just before the Great Depression a man named Ira Yates sold his profitable business to return to the ranching life he had known growing up.  He bought a thousand acres in west Texas and struggled through the years of the Depression, barely able to make a living.  As he heard rumors of Texas oil fields being discovered, he decided to drill on his ranch, but had difficulty getting oil companies to assist him with the complicated process.  Finally, Yates set up a test rig and found that he was living on one of the largest oil fields in North America.  His fortune was made.

Leadership ability is a lot like the drilling equipment used by Yates and his partners to discover the richness of oil that already existed beneath him.  Each of us has a natural wellspring of talent and ability buried within. The drill of leadership is required to tap into the geyser of our potential.  As with Yates's drilling equipment, leadership ability will take effort to attain, but the rewards and incalculable.

Everyone is called upon to lead in some capacity sooner or later in life. Some of the issues involved are big, some are small.  Sometimes the responsibilities requiring leadership last a lifetime, and somethings they are needed only for a moment.  Leadership, then is something each of us should strive to understand better and utilize more fully.  Whether in a corporate setting, a business of our own, a church environment, a volunteer organization, or in the home, improving our leadership abilities through the development process described int his book is key to unleashing the potential hidden within.  Helping to guide others through the same process is the secret to collective greatness and organizational victories.

Increasing our ability to lead requires change.  Vital to tapping into our inner wells of potential are the willingness and ability to grow personally and organizationally.  James C. Hunter wrote, "I never cease to be amazed that organizations do not insist that their leaders be continually improving and persistently working toward becoming the best leaders they can be.  With the awesome responsibility of leading others and the high stakes involved, it seems obvious to me that organizations would focus their attention on helping their leaders develop their leadership skills and thereby their character."

We wrote this book because our work with tens of thousands of entrepreneurs across North America for more than a decade has convinced us that most people (and their organizations) have much more potential locked away inside of them than they realize.  Leadership is the key that opens the lock on that potential.  Time and again we have seen people come alive and achieve things they never thought possilbe, once they started learning to take responsibility. The results, quite frankly, have been revolutionary.

Noel Tichy wrote, "In a broad sense, what leaders do is stage revolutions."  The term revolution is defined by Websters as "an activity or movement designed to effect fundamental changes."  In the beginning, revolutions begin with unrest on the part of one person or perhaps a small group of individuals.  These early leaders begin working to influence events in a direction that assaults the status quo.  Things can no longer remain as they were.  Changes must be made.  Usually because of their passion for the ideals espoused by the leaders, other people are drawn into the effort.  Gradually, the strivings of these early "initiators" gain momentum, attracting talent and support from broader and broader areas.  As a tiny campfire grows into a large bonfire with increased fuel and oxygen supply, so too does a revolution grow in power and ptency as fundamental changes are made and results of those changes begin to surface.

Sometimes a bonfire ends up engulfing the woods around it as it grows into a forest fire.  It can never be forgotten, though, that all big fires start with a tiny spark.  Similarly, all revolutions start as small rebellions  The root cause can always be traced back to a single individual or idea.  Fundamental changes are wrought because somewhere, somehow, someone provides leadership.  One person can decide to lead.  One person can make a difference.  One person leading makes a difference.

True leadership can bring radically positive change to a stagnant environment.  It can revitalize old relationships, poorly performing organizations, and underachieving individuals.  Leadership blows in like a fresh wind and clears the cobwebs of complacency.  For most organizations, management is common and leadership is rare.  Our experience has been that, all too often, where good leadership is needed, poor management is there as an impostor.  Leadership and management are two very different concepts.  Leadership is about doing the right things; management is about doing those things in the right way.  Both are vital, but each has its place.  Any group, any organization, any cause can be revitalized with proper leadership, but never with great management.  Leadership must come first.  Therefore, whether initiating a new venture or turning around an existing one, Launching a Leadership Revolution is the firs tand most important step to success.

In this book, ideas and principles of leadership will be presented in ascending "levels" to illistrate the crescendo effect of increased leadership ability.  It will become clear that as an individual or organization grows in leadership effectiveness, so too will the results, which will gain power and force like a first burning brighter and brighter, - or more illustratively, like a revolution.  Additionally, each chapter is punctuated with an example from history to show how its principles have been applied in real-life situations.  As author Barry Lopez wrote, "Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive."  The stories that history tells are often more interesting and enlightening than hours of expository teaching.

Life should be about purpose and meaning and cause and fulfilling our personal, God-given destinies.  Without exception, this is achieved through, with and for people.  In other words, it's done through leadership.  Writer Ken Kesey states, "You don't lead by pointing a finger and telling people some place to go.  You lead by going to that place and making a case."  It is our intention that this book will go to a certain place and make a compelling case.  The place is the wellspring of your personal potential, and that of your organization.  The case we wish to make is that your potential is bountiful and sufficient to fulfill your life's calling.  It sits there now, waiting to be tapped.  This is accomplished by taking responsibility to lead in the areas of your life where you have been called.  As you grow in your leadership ability, you will revolutionize your life.

May the pages that follow serve to enlighten, instruct, edify, teach and encourage, but most of all may their inspire you to set up a drill rig of leadership in your life and/or orgaization and harvest he abundance buried within.

We wish you all the succes you are prepared to earn.

Happy drilling.

Let the revolution begin."