Some of my Favorite Things:

These are a few of my favorite things:

Sushi: If I had to say something I was completely "in love" with, and had a mild addiction to, it would be sushi. More specifically, I love anything with salmon, shrimp, or tuna.

Cupcakes: More specifically red velvet cupcakes...
hmmm do I see a food trend going on here? What can I say, I love food.

Mac Miller: I recently discovered his music and I really like it! If you like Kid Cudi, you'll definitely like Mac Miller.

If you know me, then you know that singing has played a huge part in my life. I didn't start singing until sophomore year of high school. I was a band nerd -- clarinet, but I can't get enough of it. I recently, this May, had a chance to sing at one of my good friends wedding. It was amazing!

I love to dance. I was a part of my high school, and now, college dance team.
















So, there's a few things I really enjoy in my life.

Jess

Don't Hate:

I think I'm going to turn this blog into talking/discussing various things in life. Today it's about hate. I can honestly say that I don't hate anyone or anything. Some people get so wrapped up in trying to find reasons to hate something or someone that it consumes them. Have you ever met someone who always seems to look on the negative side of things? I mean, it could be the happiest time but they will always find something wrong in the situation. I sure have, and it's kind of hard to be around. Soon their negativity spreads, it's like you can feel it. I call them The Happiness Suckers, or for lack of a better word, a pessimist. In my day to day life I'd say that I surround myself with pretty positive people who tend to look at their world as "the glass is half full" instead of the contrary.
What led me to write about this; because it seems pretty random, was I stumbled upon this video about this girls "so called (and excuse my language) I don't give a fuck" disorder. Which at first I thought it was weird, but the underlying message was great. She was saying how she often times gets hate on her various social media sites, but she doesn't care because why would she? If she spent all her time being so concerned with what others thought of her it surely would cause her to grow some grey hairs real fast! I think that's how everyone should live their lives. Not concerning themselves with unnecessary  stress because someone else is having a bad day or is very negative about the world. Of course there are some situations in which you probably should care -- when it comes to something life threatening. But don't sweat the small stuff, it's not worth it. And next time you come across a negative nancy just smile, you never know how it might change some ones day and attitude. Don't hate. Until next time.

Jess

A So-to-Speak Rant...

Ok, so I don't know what to call this, but this title will have to make do. So I'm not to sure who will happen to stumble upon this post, although I'm pretty sure no one reads this seeing as I haven't made this blog public besides showing it to one of my classes last semester. So hi to all who happen to read this by chance of deep web surfing. Anyways, back to the point. I was out talking with one of my friends the other day and we got on the topic of friends. I haven't shared this with many of my friends seeing as if you're my friend it's because I want you to be. I don't hold any standards or qualifications for who I can and cannot be friends with. I mean if we get along, then by all means I'm more than willing to let you into my life. But I do have some friends who hold unrealistic expectations for who they can "hang out" with. It's so foolish to me to think that I can't or shouldn't be friends with so-and-so because they like this, or they don't do that. It brings me back to high school where people were so exclusive. I would like to think that I wasn't one of those stuck up teens who tried to surround themselves with the best people to ensure "popularity" status, but unfortunately I did have my moments. It wasn't until about junior or senior year when I thought,"Who cares?" These people won't matter in the next couple of years, and it's so true. Now being a senior in college those "people" from high school that I thought mattered so much to me and we were going to be best friends forever, don't even cross my mind anymore - with the exception of writing this post.
I was sharing with my friend (the same friend as previously posted), that in high school I never really hung out with "The Black Kids." Not making any racial slurs here, seeing as I am black myself, but I often did wonder why that was. In high school and sadly in college I was often approached by random people asking, "Why don't you ever hang out with "us" black kids, I mean you're like the only one who doesn't hang out with us." Kind of ridiculous sounding right? Yea, I thought so too. The more I thought about it the more confused I got. I mean, I even got these remarks from my sister as well. Being from a predominantly "white" family (I'm adopted) I guess I never really grew up with other African American families or hung out with other kids. My neighborhood as a child was filled with tons of kids my age, sadly none were black, but I don't think that's had any influence on my friend choices. People have always told me how friendly I am, and I'd like to think the same. It just bothers me that people just assume since I'm black, that I automatically have all black friends or that I share some kind of instant connection with someone because they have the same skin color as me. To be honest I'm not sure many people out there could truly understand me and the way I think, even if I tried my hardest to help them to. I told one of my professors while traveling abroad to India, "I don't choose my friends based on what race they are, I choose my friends based on similarities we have, and how well we get along." I'd say going off that, it's gotten me some really great friends who are all different and unique and I wouldn't change that for anything.
Sadly, it's been said to me on more than one occasion, that before getting to know who I was that so-and-so thought I was this kind of person or that I did that or the weirdest one was that someone was actually scared of me before they met me. Huh? Can I just say that I have an uncontrollable phobia of spiders and I'd rather be the one getting hurt than see someone else get hurt. Maybe it was the fact that I am 5'11", I can hope. I hope no one is scared or intimidated by me, because that just makes me sad. To think that I'm unapproachable to some people based on first impressions.
I guess that's about all I have to say about that. Just a little rant/ stuff I've been thinking about for quite some time now, that I had to get off my chest. If there's any lesson I've learned is that the best friends come from being who you are and not placing preconceived judgements upon people who you don't even know. I give everyone a chance, and if by chance we don't clique (which is very, highly unlikely) as friends for some reason, then it wasn't meant to be, and I'll move with life as should they.  Well, until next time. :)

Jess

I Happened to Stumble Upon This

Wow, I haven't touched this blog since the beginning of May when spring semester ended. Summer has been great and I just happened to be on Stumbleupon.com and came across this video I thought was pretty neat. Watch and see for yourself. :]

Touch The Screen

Touch screens have changed the way we look at media. A touch screen is an electronic digital display and can detect the sense of a persons hand or finger. The first touch screen was developed by inventor, E.A. Johnson at at Royal Radar Establishment in 1965. Touch screens didn't gain much recognition until around 1975 with the PLATO project. The HP-150 was one of the first touch screen computers made in 1985. From there popularity of touch screen phones continued to grow and were being added to devices like phones. Today we have many devices that offer touch screen capabilities. We've seen it with the iPod, iPhone, and most recently the iPad. We are developing touch screens computers. The Apple company is best known for their high speed touch screen gadgets. Today a touch screen is a part of every day normal technology. Pretty soon we could be having touch screen everything!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touchscreen

Wingardium Leviosa

There's no question that the Harry Potter series and movie franchise has grown to extreme popularity around the world. J.K Rowling, the author of the 7 Harry Potter books was born in July 3, 1965 in England. The idea that would soon grow into the Potter phenomenon started while she was waiting for a train back home to London in 1990. In 1998 the first publication of Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone in the US and Philosopher's Stone in the UK. And from there the books popularity began to sweep the nation. Along with the first book, came six others. In October of 1998 Warner Bothers Co. bought the film rights to the first two installments for nearly 7 figures. From there is was history. Today we have read and watched the characters of the Harry Potter series grow and fight through difficult challenges. We even have a Harry Potter World theme park in Disney World. There's no question that "the boy who lived" has made its way into main stream media and is there to stay.





http://www.jkrowling.com/

Fox News

Fox News Channel also just referred to as Fox is a cable accessible news channel and provides its watchers with updated current events. The channel was created by Australian mogul by the name of, Robert Murdoch. In May of 1985, Murdoch announced that he wanted to create a network of stations to compete with other high earning news channels like, CBS and NBC. At the start of Fox only 10 million households were able to access and watch the channel. We know today that Fox is one of the leading new sources for viewing in households all around the world. In May of 2008, Fox launched its new high definition channel. Fox news has expanded to not only being viewable by television, there is also Fox Radio and Fox online for quick and easy access. Today Fox has effected the media greatly with influencing the country on both world and political issues. Who knows if what we are being told is true or not, but people still use it as a resource for finding and learning new information about the world and its people.

The DVD

DVD stands for digital video disc. It holds more information than a compact disc and VHS and in much higher quality. In 1994 Philips and Sony gave the announcement that they would be developing a new high-compact device as we all know as the DVD. The device would be the same size as a CD just with 5-10 times the capacity. This was revolutionary because, nothing like this had ever been invented before. With this invention there would soon be the creation of the DVD player. There was also a lot of competition with other leading software and movie companies for creating similar devices too the DVD player. Today, there are many companies that make DVD, but they're soon to become out-dated as Blu Rays and other forms of medium are coming out with even higher definition.



http://www.miqrogroove.com/writing/history-of-dvd/

Movie Theaters

Movies theaters have become increasingly popular over the years as huge blockbuster films have made the big screen. The first motion picture was in 1896 at the Koster and Bails Music Hall in New York City. In the 1920s movie theaters began to boom. Movie theaters tired to make the most lavish and ritzy looking movie theaters as kind of a competition with each other. Having these kind of lavish buildings started a new era for more intricate architecture. More recently, movies have become more advanced and movies in 3D are becoming increasingly popular with the aid of 3D glasses and high definiton screens and filming equipment. IMAX theaters have also become popular with displaying movies on very large and high definition screens. Today movies bring people together for gathers and watching great movies.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movie_theater

And All That Jazz

Musical theater "musical (noun): a stage, television or film production utilizing popular-style songs - dialogue optional - to either tell a story (book musicals) or showcase the talents of the writers and/or performers (revues)." Musicals have gone by many different names some include, operas, operettas, and burlesque. Musical theater in a sense has been going on since the 5th Century B.C.with the ancient Greeks who included music and dancing into their performances as a form of entertainment. The Romans then expanded on the Greeks idea of performance and continued to add music and dance to their entertainment theaters. In the Middle Ages, traveling groups of performers offered people shows with musical numbers and "slapstick comedies." Today we have the most common place and production companies of musical theater on Broadway most commonly found in NYC. Musical theater is still found across the world as a large form of entertainment for people. We now have well known shows like, Chicago, Hairspray, Hello Dolly, and many more. Today, a lot of feature films are being turned into musicals like the newest show of Spiderman The Musical.


http://www.pbs.org/wnet/broadway/resources.html
http://www.musicals101.com/erastage.htm