When Grapes Go Bad

This passage is in response to SUNDAY SCHOOL: WHEN GRAPES GO BAD by Jawaan W. Continue to check back on his site every Sunday for some good Word!

“Thanks for taking the time out to share this. It’s a great lesson that banks on such a simple analogy. I love it.

I’m so happy for you first of all for your site that’s under construction 🙂 and in that way you can continue to inspire me and others as well!

This lesson hit home hard for me as well. I remember, it was one November Sunday back in 2009. I was at Elm Street Baptist and my heart was called to give my life back to God. My older friend there -Sister Logan- was the first to come up and greet me afterwards. She and I were both so excited about this major life change and she prayed with me. She kept saying though that she wanted me to “be careful” and to “stay focused.” She told me, You’re beautiful and young and I am going to pray that God protects you on this road. But inside I was slightly confused: how could I ever go wrong now??? I’m fly and Jesus is my co-pilot! Watch out! lol

Well, truth is. She was right. I ignorantly and immaturely thought that now that I was living life with a new fence that I was doing it big and nothing could get to me. And slowly but surely I lost focus and the devil claimed me back. I love this passage because it reminds me of how stupid I was back then. My prayers slowly started going from actually talking to God to being quick routine blurbs with my eyes closed. And so on. I started back living my life for me when I was supposed to be living life for Him. Sure, it felt great to proclaim that I was willing to give up my will for His.

But MY MISTAKE was that I did not take the time out to clear out ALL of my stones, to keep a STRONG fence, and to tend to ENRICHING my SOIL on a daily basis. What type of crop was my soil producing? Probably raisins lol.

Seriously though, this passage reminded me of how great I felt that Sunday with my brand new fence but also reminded me of the mindset I failed to have after I left the church that day. It will go on to remind me to continue working on my vineyard every single day!!!!!!! There is no way we can be a light to others like He made us to be if we are living in the dark!!

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours too, Jawaan!”

Hey Kev, Get Off Chris Brown’s Junk

First of all, let’s answer the question: who is Kevin Powell? In case you haven’t heard of him, he’s a writer, activist, and public speaker on politics, civil rights, corporate responsibility, social activism, Black America, and much more.

Now back in March, I saw that Mr. Powell posted a letter online that was a very personal and outwardly honest letter to R&B artist/actor Chris Brown in relation to the way Chris behaved on “Good Morning America” and about the 2009 domestic violence incident with his girlfriend at the time, Rihanna. The first thing I felt as I slowly read this “letter” was anger. I became enraged. Let me first confess that, yes, I am a Chris Brown fan. But to my defense, I am not biased because of my fanship…because once I initially read Kevin’s blog post in its entirety, I did ask myself a few questions…like, Am I angry because I’m a fan of his music/movies? Am I mad because of Kevin’s boldness and audacity? And most importantly I asked myself, what would my reaction have been if one of my own brothers or my father was in Chris’s shoes in this “open letter” situation?

And that final question validated my standpoint. I was angry because I felt like Kevin Powell took personal shots at the young singer and disguised it with artificial concern and ultimate fakeness, if you ask me. I am disgusted! If one of my brother’s had been in trouble for a situation like this, I and my entire family would be hurt, embarrassed, humiliated and ashamed, ALL OVER AGAIN. I would never want my anyone in my family to be ridiculed in such a way. Of course, abusing  a girlfriend is DEAD WRONG! But Kevin Powell’s so-called “open letter” was definitely unnecessary and probably did NOT help at all, as I’m sure Chris Brown did not care one bit to even read it! I honestly think that Kevin wanted the attention more than he actually wanted to help. He had really good intentions in the message itself trying to get Chris to understand his points of view and give him substantial advice. And maybe even the public letter could be helpful to other young men out there. However, this is an intimate and sensitive situation that should have and COULD HAVE been handled in the privacy of someone’s office or home.

This was a low blow. In my opinion, this was a ridiculous cry for publicity in general and a cry for attention from social media users. We all saw the news coverage  of the situation that occurred and we can all agree that domestic violence is down right rotten and dishonorable. But WHO DOES KEVIN POWELL THINK HE IS? A saint? A father figure? A role model? Sure, while he might be a highly intelligent and influential person, I think it was extremely low of Mr. Powell to post his personal thoughts and opinions on such an intimate subject. I mean, he acts like there is no such thing as mailing a personal letter to Chris Brown. There is also a pretty cool invention called “e-mail” that I’m not sure he has heard of.

Here is a link to the letter: http://www.kevinpowell.net/blog/2011/03/open-letter-to-chris-brown/

Please share your thoughts on this “open letter.” I think I just need further confirmation that this rant is not coming from just a fan. I’m trying to look at this situation from several different perspectives. Let me also add that I don’t want to stray away from the main point of my blog post by responding to people who have comments about the domestic violence. I only want to discuss the “letter.” That’s a debate that can wait for another day! None of us were there and no one can attest for what really happened anyway…

For Those Who’d Like Modeling Advice

I remember like yesterday the day modeling first sparked my interest…

I was maybe 15 or 16 years old, playing around online, and came across a young woman’s profile. She had a sparkle in her eye that caught my eye immediately. As I started to browse, I read that she was a college student majoring in something like computer science and that she was living in Atlanta. She was a beautiful combination of Korean and African-American and my attention was definitely drawn to her. She had a great talent for the camera and her descriptions seemed as if she was also a very sweet and intelligent lady. Then I noticed she had a website; tomikaskanes.com it was (find her now at @tomikaskanes). And she had all kinds of tips and FAQ about the modeling industry that could help someone get started. So that was it. I was hooked.

I mean, I loved to take pictures. Would I be any good? Possibly. Would my parents let me? Absolutely not. “Modeling” had a worldly connotation in the minds of Christian/military parents! But I decided I do all the research I could until I went away to college and had a real opportunity. And that’s exactly what I did. I did everything this Tomika-lady said to do.

So I started modeling (as a hobby) during my freshman year traveling back and forth to Atlanta on the weekends. I was in LOVE with being in front of the camera once I really warmed up and felt comfortable enough with my body. Sophomore year, I even lost the 30 pounds I had gained my first year! Wow, I know.

Here I am. Here are four basic steps I took. If you have any other questions, which many of my Facebook friends do, just feel free to send me a message or comment!

1. Join www.modelmayhem.com. Upload clean, clear photos – a head shot, a full body shot, and a 3/4 shot. As a new model, you will probably want to wear little to no make up in at least a couple of the pictures. If you don’t have any professional modeling pics yet, upload anything of yourself you can find that is clean.
2. NETWORK! Add people in your area (models, photographers, make-up artists, designers, etc.). View their work and learn good tips from them. Make friends with these people. Industry people are always looking to network with you, even if you’re new. Most people are extremely helpful and friendly! But just as with any online network, be careful. Don’t share too much personal information. Creeps are everywhere on the Internet.
3. Ask for TFP or TFCD work with photographers who has quality images. This means Time For Print or CD (of images that are taken during the shoot). You are trading time with each other in exchange for photos you will receive afterward. This means no one gets paid; essentially, it’s a free shoot. Most well-known and established photographers do not offer this however. Just remember, you have to start somewhere and work your way up.
4. Choose only one or two of your best shots from each shoot – preferably a head shot and a full shot. It doesn’t always look good to upload ten pictures from one shoot. Just do this and continue to network and pratice posing in the mirror and keep your eyes/ears open for professional casting calls.

If you want to go into runway, print, acting, it’s best to find someone experienced in that area and have them mentor you. But I’m sure these four steps are a great way for you as a beginnger to get your feet wet. I HOPE THIS HELPS!

🙂

Blog Post On the Facebook Child Abuse Awareness

http://goodneighborstories.wordpress.com/2010/12/06/facebook-child-abuse-awareness-campaign-lame-or-helpful/

So what’s YOUR take?

My Twit Peeves ;)

Just a few things that tend to irk me on Twitter…just a little 🙂

1. When people have full-on @reply conversations with people. I can see if what they are talking about is relevant or entertaining. But there’s also this thing called “text messaging” that we can use if you need information from a friend that is no one else’s business.
2. Spam! Enough said. Thanks for the event invite or the free music but I’d rather not entertain spam messages, even from friends. I’m sorry! Twitter is for fun. Don’t take the fun out of it. If you need to promote, at least do it indirectly. In other words, don’t copy and paste the same thing to everybody. Just throw it in the conversation.
3. When people RT someone that almost everybody follows, i.e. @RevRunWisdom. As soon as he tweets something, at least five of my followers RT it. So there he is on my timeline six times with the same darn tweet. *sigh*
4. Following people who are always negative! If you don’t have something funny to say, an engaging question to ask, an inspirational quote to share, or some news link, then what are you doing? I hate seeing “Twitter-beef” (never mind, that’s sort of a lie. I find the tweets wars quite entertaining)! *takes back pet peeve #4*
5. “Follow me back.” I usually follow everyone back who follows me. Unless of course you have 2,000 updates and only 5 followers (which tells me your tweets are unpopular, therefore not interesting). Seriously though, don’t take it personal if someone doesn’t follow you back. Twitter is not about numbers. So I hate when people get so caught up on how many followers they have. It’s about QUALITY, not QUANTITY!

Hmmmm, I think that might be all for now!

My HOW-TO Guide for Beginner Event Planners

~TOPIC 12 for PRCA 3330~

[Instructions from professor: Listen to at least one hour of PR/marketing podcasts (such as For Immediate Release, Inside PR, The Creative Career, Coming Up PR, Trafcom News or Marketing Over Coffee). Briefly summarize what you heard. Discuss how listening to PR podcasts can benefit PR students or new PR practitioners. (Optional: Also, write a short review of the podcast at iTunes.)!]

I chose Marketing Over Coffee, with Christopher Penn and John Wall featuring David Meerman Scott!!

A summary of what I heard:
Mr. Scott first began to talk about the recent release of a paper back version of the New Rules of Marketing and PR (2009) which hit Business Week’s Best Seller List for five months that year. This book is also available in 25 translations! Then he stated some of his recent travels, going all over the world to speak in Australia, Turkey, Dominican Republic, and more.

After his brief self-introduction, he started to discuss how interesting it was to him that the things they had been buzzing about for the past few years now is finally emerging into mainstream — “new media,” such as blogs, social networking sites, YouTube, etc. He stated that this contemporary marketing is a big deal, no matter what size or type of company it is. Everyone should jump on this bandwagon.

Next he started talking about his thoughts on GM and their bounce-back from their filing of bankruptcy. He sort of bashed them on Twitter after seeing a few of their ads – which he considered a little “fake.” But then the head of GM’s social media spoke with him, and corporate ended up inviting him to Detroit where they showed him a more in-depth view of the “new” GM, giving Scott a change of heart.

He then started going into “what is marketing on the web?” beyond Twitter and Facebook. He thinks that people conside themselves social media experts for the wrong reasons. For instance, it is a misconception that if you have thousands of followers or a fancy blog that you are suddenly a marketing king online! He says that there is so much more than that. And he also stated that companies often focus too much on Twitter since it’s the new big thing that they forget about other channels available to reach consumers.

Scott also discussed that he went as far as paying for book reviews. He caught a little flack from some for going out and paying for these reviews. But he justifies it by stating that he was a very new author at the time, therefore unknown. So he needed to pay someone with credibility to read his book and give him a review. He was afraid that otherwise, he would get no book reviews.

How I think listening to PR podcasts can benefit PR students:
I think that there is alot to be learned and there are always new trends being made each day in technology and media. It is important that PR students and even new PR practicioners should keep up with these things in order to operate most effectively. In an everchanging world, we must stay on our toes. There are several ways to do this, including staying tuned in to PR podcasts.

~TOPIC 9 and 10 for PRCA 3330~

Instructions: Create a profile at PR OpenMic, a social network developed by Auburn University’s Robert French. Connect with me there as a friend so that I know you have joined. Then for your topic of the week, describe what PR OpenMic has to offer to PR students and recent grads.

I just recently joined! I am currently still getting familiar with the usage of the site and its features! If you are on PR OpenMic, feel free to add me! 🙂

www.propenmic.org/profile/jasminedstewart