"while the DJ sweatin' out all the problems and the troubles of the day" - Andre 3000 (OUTKAST)

Blame It ft. T-Pain - Jamie Foxx

Can't Help It. This is my song for the moment. It's one of those songs that you know gets everyone hyped up and dancing on those good clubbin' nights.

Here's another one to get you right....

Rockin That Thang - The-Dream

Anybody that's every seen Dazed and Confused knows the part where that guy is in the back of the car riding around talking about what he wants to do with the rest of his life after high school and he says "I just wanna DANCE!!!" I love that part and I feel him completely.

Oh and I love dancing by myself, but when there's a guy dancing with me and the DJ is on point, the guy's ON POINT and I'm on point (as usual...lol...at least I try to be and if I'm not...blame it on ah-ah-ah-ah-alcohol) then it's just theee BEST. I love music but music is a hundred times more enjoyable when I'm grooving to it.

Oh well, this was a random blurb. Hope you enjoyed it :)

Peace and <3
Jessalaine

You'd Be Suprised To Know......

Note: This is another new reoccurring addition to my blog. Enjoy
Peace&MuchLove,
JessalaineJessalaine


--> That I consider Jay-Z an inspirational rapper.

His Unplugged album is the reason I prefer live bands for rap concerts,

Can't Knock The Hustle gets me crunk and ready for LIFE!
Why?
Cuz you Can't Knock the Hustle. Holler.

Say What????

"I'd rather have a stable head on my shoulders than a so so situation on my arms"
-A.Thomas

Embrace the Martian - Kid Cudi

I suggest everyone get hip. Quickly. You can get his mixtape A Kid Named Cudi by clicking the link. But hey I'll go ahead and embed the ish right now so you can taste it before you love it. :)

Kid Cudi is that ISH! Like for reals. He's super duper cool.

Peace&MuchLove,
Jessalaine
"Is there any loove in this world? Is there any loovee in this wooorrrld?"

(Random but I was trying to post this freestyle he did but it didn't work. It was the whole reason for this post.)

RESEARCH: www.kidcudi.com = his website www.kidcudi.com/news = blog




Just So You Know: Man on the Moon = My favorite The Prayer is a close second, it's beautiful.
But I literally love this whole mixtape. Like I fucks with Kid Cudi. Pardon my language...but I.D.K how else to explain it.

Musiq Soulchild Covering the Beatles

This is a major sidetrack from doing homework for me. However, I do not care since I have been looking at these statistics that this program spit out for at least an hour attempting to figure out how to interpret them.....anyways.....I was listening to Pandora while staring at the statistics and I heard this beautiful cover of one of my favorite Beatles songs...so beautiful that I think I like it better than the Beatles version..maybe. It was just so pretty and it made me want to go get in my bed and let it rock me to sleeeeeppp. Either way, enjoy.

Peace & Much Love
JessalaineJessalaine

Something - Musiq

Homesickness brought to me by Good Music

"Good music makes you homesick for a place you've never been." -N. Wells


ANTHONY HAMILTON, "COMIN' FROM WHERE I'M FROM"

Word of The Week

Gratitude - (n) the state of being grateful: THANKFULNESS

This week's word is brought to you by the sheer annoyance draped over what would be a rather cheerful disposition.

One lesson that I have truly learned the hard way as a student here at The Ohio State University is that "Misery Loves Company." I can't think of how many times I've heard or had to be a part of conversations that were full of nothing but complaints. I feel like I actually was willingly an attendee of these pity parties until I realized exactly what was happening. During a conversation with my mama where I was breaking down a lot of the things that were going on around me during my Junior year, she said, "Jessalaine, the worst thing you can do for yourself is surround yourself with people that feel sorry for themselves." I definitely heard what she said but I definitely didn't change the group of people I was hanging around...at least not immediately. I consider myself to be a very caring individual and I want to help out anyone that I can and I feel that I attempt that more often than not. So I don't mind hearing about things that may be getting to people because maybe I can say some words of encouragement that will help them get past whatever is holding them down. However, what can you do when you start sounding like a broken record? I'm getting tired of running around the same territory (issues) in my own life, and I'm finding it hard to keep running around the same territory of those closest to me as well. There is no progress in that and as I mentioned in a previous post, right now I'm only concerned with PROGRESS.

Like I said, I used to be a consenting attendee of these complaining sessions. In some ways I think that I felt more relieved because at least I got to talk about what was weighing me down. But at the end of the night when I laid my head down there were no solutions, only those same problems that I had been speaking about moments earlier floating around my head. There was nothing proactive in these little pity parties that we were so comfortable in throwing for ourselves. I feel that is what held me back so much this past year and a half of my life. So once I realized what was going on....how I was so down about all the negative things flying around...I stopped and realized ALL THE GOOD that surrounded me too. I decided to put my energy into the beauty and the blessings in my life. That way when the negative pushed on me a little and maybe even knocked me down, I had put so much energy into the good & positive that the negative couldn't keep me down long and I could get back up and start working on changing the negative to positives...I could get past whatever was hurting me because I saw all the things around me and in my life that brought a smile to my face and encouraged me to keep it moving because there are more good things down your path.

Everything I'm grateful for, makes me want to cry because I am that GRATEFUL. I'm even grateful for all the great things that have already been preordained as mine but I have not been allowed to see yet. I don't think a 'weight' should be assigned to individuals problems. But I do know that in the last three months alone, I have gone through some stuff I never would imagine that I would have to go through. I got arrested and I'm even facing a trial date now because they want me to plead to an act I know I did not commit. This has been hanging over my head since the weekend before Christmas...literally hanging over my head, but I feel that I have not yet allowed it to break me. I don't even give that situation the energy it wants because I know that GOD has brought me THIS FAR in life, through trials and tribulations and many blessings, and He isn't about to leave me now. Throughout all of this crap coming at me...I'm still so grateful and happy to be alive and happy that I'm making moves to change the situations of those I love the most.

We waste so much of our life being miserable and we are the only ones making ourselves miserable because we have the ultimate power to remove ourselves from these situations that cause us strife. So many less than desirable situations came my way this week alone, but I didn't have to complain to anyone because every day I was reminded of the beauty that surrounded me and the great things that were in my life. I'm so grateful for the things I'm grateful for because they give me an opportunity to reside in a place of joy. I think when you find yourself getting down about a specific situation or situations, you should literally hit your brain's pause button and start counting all the things and reasons you have to be grateful. If you need help, let the number one thing you're grateful for be that you were able to wake up that morning with full use of your body's capabilities...because some people don't get that luxury morning after morning. Let it flow from there.

Let's make a commitment to be more grateful, because things could always be worse. Show some gratitude to the life that you have been given. Because in the blink of any eye that life could be gone. Show gratitude to the people, places, and things that your are thankful for...because they could be gone one day too.

It's cool to talk about the things that are getting to you with your friends because that is one of the things friends are for. You feel relief once you've shared what you're going through with someone that will understand you. However, only solutions and productive advice should be the result of those kinds of conversations. However, if your friends aren't helping you overcome the situations you are bringing to them by being proactive and giving productive advice...then you probably should look into changing the friend or friends you go to with problems.

When people are shown appreciation (gratitude) they feel great about themselves or what they have done. So allow yourself to feel great and show yourself some gratitude.


Let's use our lives more wisely :)

Be Thankful,
Much Love,
Jessalaine

"Lauryn Hill Said Her Heart was in Zion......." - Kanye West

"...I wish her heart still was in rhymin." - Kanye West

"Word." - ME!

Peace and Much Love,
JessalaineJessalaine

(SIDENOTE: I have a theory that every real female has an "ex-factor" type love at least ONCE in her life. It makes one stronger.)

"I hope You're more like ANITA BAKER than Robin Givens" - Andre 3000

"Good Music makes your homesick for a place you've never been." N. Wells

I must say that Anita Baker is one of the most powerful singers among the singers that I enjoy. All of her songs remind me of the evenings my mom had to pick me up from high school because of one thing or another that I was involved in. They always played her music during "the quiet storm" portion that the smooth jazz and r&b station played. The memory is like characterized by feeling chilly but warm because of the heat coming from the vents in the car. I think that is a perfect feeling for Anita Baker, because her music truly does make you feel warm on the inside.

Here ya go! Enjoy! REALLY...ENJOY THIS! It's a live performance!

"Free Yourself From Mental Slavery" Bob Marley

Have you ever had one of the moments where you did something and the moment after you were just able to breathe a little better?? I just had one of the moments and it came from me deactivating my Facebook account. I feel like it was just something that honestly helped strengthen all the chains and things binding up my thoughts. I used this metaphor to describe why I wanted to remove some people from my friends list but in the end it helped me justify to myself why there was no time like the present to let go of facebook...here it is: "If a crack addict was trying to stop using crack and free themselves from their addiction, would they throw away all the drugs and disconnect from all their dealers but keep the crack pipe?" Facebook was my 'crack pipe.' It was the tool I used to feed my addiction(s) and now that I have officially thrown away my 'crack pipe' I feel like I can truly move on from everything that I was trying so hard to just keep myself and my thoughts away from.

I just think it's important that we do free ourselves from those things that just seem to engulf us..those things that we feel are, or have determined to be, negative. I am my own worst critic and you wouldn't believe the things I beat myself up over. Instead of just walking away and learning from my mistakes, I just revisit the situations in my mind and beat myself up a little better than the time before. There is no progress in that and at this point in my life I'm interested only in PROGRESS. I'm desperate to move on past undergraduate and get into the world and start putting things into motion that will help me fulfill my overall purpose on this earth. It's good that I self-evaluate but I shouldn't beat myself up. I should self-evaluate for learning purposes only because re-evaluation doesn't get you anywhere closer back to the point in time your evaluating...it doesn't get you any closer to changing what has already occurred.

When your mind is being enslaved it adds a weight that you don't need added to the load you are already carrying. You can have an open mind but if there are chains hanging from your mind, you are bound to get caught up on something. So it just holds you up as you walk along your path. It's unnecessary and once you take the action to free your mind, the effect of that freedom is almost immediate. It's literally like you can just breathe a little bit easier. I find joy knowing that I will be breathing a little bit easier tonight when I lay my head down. My Facebook just became something that I would never intended for it to be, so even though I was able to keep in touch with my close friends because I'm not a big talker on the phone, it still had parts that kept my mind stuck in the prison that I was allowing it to sit in.

I just think it was a step in a good direction. I don't miss it. I wonder if I start to but either way I know that it was definitely a step in the right direction.

Really..."FREE YOURSELF FROM MENTAL SLAVERY, NONE BUT OURSELVES CAN FREE OUR MINDS!" -BOB MARLEY ....He was really onto something...he was onto a lot of things in my opinion and you can learn more than a few truths from the man.

Peace and Much Love,
Jessalaine

"Good Music Makes You Homesick for a Place You've Never Been" --N. Wells

NOTE: I'm adding new reoccurring features to my blog. Here is one of them. You'll know which reoccur by the reoccurring titles, or variations of the same title.

Peace&Much Love,
Jessalaine

Raphael Saadiq
"Sometimes" from album The Way I See It

Word of The Week

Note: This is another reoccurring part of my blog. It should be posted at some point during the week that the word is for. However, this first one is being posted on the Sunday following the week the word is for. (Hopefully that made sense to you.)

WORD of THE WEEK:
NEGLIGENCE - (n) 1 a: the quality or state of being negligent b: the failure to exercise the care that a reasonably prudent person would exercise in like circumstances
2: an act or instance of being negligent

"There are no repercussions for their negligent lifestyle." - D.L.

My word for this week is NEGLIGENCE. Basically because I spent a lot of time discussing and observing the negligence that seems to be all over our world these days. I'm by no means intending to judge any of the characters or situations that I may mention in this post because I have experienced many things it seems as a fault of my own negligence. That said I think everyone is negligent or has been negligent more times than we all like to admit. It takes a pretty conscious effort to not be negligent and one definitely has to be "in tune with their star player."
...ALL I KNOW IS... that nothing good ever comes from being negligent. For example, my own negligence landed me in an emergency room in so much pain. And I am the one that will ride out each and every one of my sicknesses so for me to have to go to the emergency room was a low point. The repercussions for my negligence even extended past the point when they released me because I had a serious come down off the drugs they gave me while I was in there as well as a arm that was EXTRA sore from the part of the visit that the nurse tried unsuccessfully to find a vein in my arm for an IV. No one was responsible for my 'ailments' but my own self not taking care of myself. All is well now but it really just sucked. However, I encounter people all the time that have less than desirable effects from their negligent behavior and instead of holding their own negligence responsible they find the need to fault everyone or everything else. I guess that only irritates me because one of my pet peeves is someone's irresponsibility that affects other individuals. And more often than not a person's negligence has some direct and/or indirect effects on a person or people. Sometimes we can see these effects and sometimes we can't, either way it is still so easy to walk away from or keeping walking past our negligent behavior...is it because we just don't care? It just baffles me.

Negligent behavior costs. It costs people money, health, happiness...the list could go on... And to scare those that don't get my point just yet, Sexually Transmitted Diseases are a result of what? Negligent behavior on both sides of the equation.

When you engage in negligent behavior or decisions you should at least be responsible enough to cop to your own negligent behavior and not use a scapegoat or other lame excuse. Negligence is not an excuse for any behavior or choices. However, responsibility could probably cover all negligence. If someone was to take responsibility for their own actions then whether they were being negligent or not doesn't really matter, it could all be chopped up to a person making a bad decision which we all make at one point or another in life.

Here's an example: Supposedly Ray J got one of his "For the Love of Ray J" contestants, Danger, preggers. This is not only bad for Ray J ("better choose the right one, or pick, pick the kiddies up" - international players anthem, UGK & Outkast) but let's think about the child that will have to grow up knowing that he is a product of a reality show. And not just any reality show, but one of the wildest ones ever to come to television. He's going to have to see the show at some point in life. I wonder what that is going to do to the child's psyche. I mean he may fill that he has to be promiscuous like because that is what he clearly came from or he may be really embarrassed and develop all sorts of issues that will have lasting effects on his life and love. And the only repercussion that may come from this negligent decision is either Ray J dropping dollar dollar bills for child support which may not be an issue for him because he's famous and probably can drop that cash without too much resentment.

IDK....I just think that we as a society can be more careful and conscious about the decisions that we make. The effects aren't always immediate and sometimes they are lasting when we chose to do things that aren't among our better options. I had a teacher in high school that dismissed us with the phrase, "Make good decisions." Let's make better decisions people. We could all make an effort to acknowledge and be aware of the possible consequences that specific decisions will bring about. I think it would better society in the long run.

Let's just do better. I mean, why not?



I hope this post made some kind of sense...my brain is all over the place because of my present circumstance (to be the inspiration of some post to come I'm sure....). Either way I hope you enjoyed my first Word of the Week...I'm thinking they'll probably only get better so Stay Tuned :)

Much Love,
J.E

Say What?????

Note: I'm going to start posting quotes and such to my blog that I really like or find interesting or just want to put on my blog. Saaaaaay WHAAATTTTT???  

Peace&MuchLove,

Jessalaine :)

"I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve."  ~J.R.R. Tolkien

^^I have found a number of people in my social circle that at the end of the day, get on my last nerves.  I still like them it seems but it also seems that I can only handle them in doses.  Overall, it tickles me as well at the end of the day.

"Cease trying to forgive those who wronged you.  Aim to kill the self within, not until then will you find there is nothing that even remembers the injury"

^^This quote somes up a message I received around New Years Eve and it was truly the best advice I had gotten in taking steps in the right direction.  Holding grudges and resentment only affects (or at least disproportionately affects) the holder.  You have to free yourself and breathe again. :)

"Am I really a tiger??? I don't feel like a tiger...."

I definitely think "It's Pimpin' Pimpin'" is my favorite Katt Williams stand-up. He really hit on some good points, especially about haters and looking out for your **Star Player**

Watch the clip, It's a Free Laugh. So why not?

Fighters - Lupe Fiasco Ft. Matthew Santos from "The Cool"

I cannot lie, this is how I feel about life sometimes. It's just a great song...but it's from Lupe so what should one expect right?



Peace
Jessalaine

Solomon's Song

I read the Song of Solomon (a book in The Bible) yesterday and just thought it was beautiful...as beautiful as the spontaneous conversation that put me on to this book in The Bible. The whole book is basically a love song that Solomon wrote to his Beloved. This part that I really like is the Beloved's (Solomon's Number One) discussion of a dream she had, during one of the periods of separation that they experienced. Here it goes in the New International Version:

Song of Solomon 3:1-5

1 All night long on my bed
I looked for the one my heart loves;
I looked for him but did not find him.

2 I will get up now and go about the city,
through its streets and squares;
I will search for the one my heart loves.
So I looked for him but did not find him.

3 The watchmen found me
as they made their rounds in the city.
"Have you seen the one my heart loves?"

4 Scarcely had I passed them
when I found the one my heart loves.
I held him and would not let him go
till I had brought him to my mother's house,
to the room of the one who conceived me.

5 Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you
by the gazelles and by the does of the field:
Do not arouse or awaken love
until it so desires.

For Real, this passage is so AMAZING to me...I think it's beautiful and poetic and speaks on the human Love that you can't really find a story about anywhere else in the Bible. Song of Solomon might be one of my new favorite books in the Bible. I read the Bible to learn, but learn how it can be applied or compared to a situation that I may be experiencing. My Mom always said "There's nothing new under the sun." So I figure, the Bible is probably the best guide to navigate through all the madness.

Enjoy.

Peace&Much Love, of course,
Jessalaine :)

SIDENOTE: Right now, I'm listening to "Let's Get Lifted" by John Legend...and I think it's quite appropriate in relation to this post. and "Show You How" by The Killers followed....ha. Love that song...it's a great song.

"Are you OOOKKKAAAYY Little Maan???"

Probably THEE Funniest Thing I've ever watched on television. I kept this episode of VH1's greatest pranks on my DVR last year FOR THE LONGEST!! And it never fails each time!

Enjoy the laugh :D

Respect HER Gangsttaaaaaaaa!

Estelle - Wait A Minute (Just A Touch)




Notes:
- Her outfit is EXTRA CUTE! Like I want to wear something like that one day! Who's her styyyylist?
- this is a personal theme song.
-Estelle is that CHICK!!!! For real, she definitely helps fill the void that Ms. Lauryn Hill left..you know when she peaced out on us.

did i ever mention how much i HEART Joss Stone.......

check out her albums. yes...all of the albums, every song. they're all good...sure some are better than most...but they're allllll gooooood.

here's a musical treat...this song motivates me for life (translation: motivates me for most anything)
performance:











CLICK HERE FOR FULL ALBUM VERSION OF SONG ON YOUTUBE

Everyone Has Strength

One message that has been the loudest in my life over the last few months is that EVERYONE IS IN A BATTLE. Some people have a "one battle load" though, I feel most carry a "two or more battle" load. I feel though our own personal battles may seem greater than another person's...in reality they probably weigh the same. Each battle is proportionate to the load that we can bear. God (or your higher being) never puts more on us than we can bear...so any battle that we come to is probably going to be heavy enough to feel...it is going to test our strength. It's going to stretch our strength to it's maximum, but the result is ALWAYS greater strength.

LOOK AT IT THIS WAY:
When you are trying to build muscle, we go to the gym. We lift weights. Lifting weights makes little tears in our muscles and stretches our muscle. Our muscles recover, you know do their whole biological rebuilding thing, and in that healing process the result is a bigger muscle.
((Hopefully that makes sense....I promise I learned this in physiology in high school, and I got a 98% or better in that class both semesters...GOOGLE it if you don't believe me!))


Realizing everyone you encounter is fighting some battle that you may or may not never know about is really beneficial in building relationships with people. It helps make you think twice about any lashing out that you would do because of your personal battle, because it just wouldn't be right, or make any sense, to add a petty issue to the load that someone else may be carrying or to your own personal load. It's also great to find a person that you are comfortable discussing your battles with, in turn making them comfortable to share their battles with you. And before you know it, you are a building a small army to help conquer the battles you are facing or will face.

IN OTHER WORDS:
LOVE THY NEIGHBOR.
---> as hard as that may be sometimes, it's done as easy as it is said. and it always comes back around.


Peace&MuchLove
Jessalaine