When Life Gives You Lemons

On Saturday, April 23, 2016, Beyonce dropped her new visual album #LEMONADE on HBO. This was literally the talk around the world as many people were anxious to see it. Anxious may not even be the correct term! Those who lived outside of the U.S depended on periscope and live streams in order to watch her new masterpiece. Lemonade became available exclusively on Tidal before the end of the screening and fans were able to watch it for free on HBO, for 24 hours on Sunday, April 24, 2016. Queen Bey can never stop amazing her fans with her releases and the message in her music. Lemonade clearly reflected a process of self healing as a result of infidelity. Many people wondered who she was referring to in her music as it was no secret that her father exemplified infidelity in his marriage with her mother. People wondered if these were Beyonce's uncut thoughts and reflections on their circumstance. However, if you listen closely you can tell she is actually referring to Jay-Z, her husband. As the intro in "Pray You Catch Me" stated, "You remind me of my father, a magician. Able to exist in two places at once." Beyonce creatively stated that Jay-Z is like her father with his cheating. In this same song she also sung about catching him and confronting him about it. Each song was just pure art and you can feel her pain through the duration of the album and the visuals only got better! Let's not forget about the 'hot sauce' (bat) in her bag.... That was a complete game changer that no one was ready for! People used to think that hot sauce, as referred to in her formation album, was really hot sauce. Even more, everyone knows that social media is the place to go to look for all comments regarding #LEMONADE. Many tweeters said that if Beyoncé, is getting cheated on, there's no hope for them because she is the baddest woman on Earth. She's Queen Bey. But I want to know what you all think. Do you think that just because she got cheated on there is no hope for you or your future relationships? Do you believe that infidelity can be fixed? Last but not least, tell me what you think about Beyonce's new album and her visuals and sound. Remember that celebrity couples will always be in the limelight and because of their higher ranking, it is easier for them to have anyone they want because women, and men, flock to celebrities! Beyonce has not filed for an actual divorce with Jay-Z because if she did, that would be NO secret to the world. When life gives you lemons, make #lemonade.

Our Safety

In Chicago there was derailment at O’Hare International Airport that caused the removal of the smashed Blue line cars that were involved. An eight-car train jumped the tracks and landed on the stairs and escalators at 3 a.m. in the morning. 32 people were injured and 3 lawsuits were brought against CTA. CTA officials hope to reopen the station by the weekend, but of course, this will cost a lot of money. But before even thinking about reopening the station, they must first repair the damages to the platform, stairs, and escalators before determining if it's safe to reopen. The prices of the damages are estimated to be about 6 million in equipment damage. The person that's supposed to be watching out for incidents like this, admitted to dozing off as the train pulled into the station. She admits also that she didn’t wake back up until the train hit close to the end of the bumper. This can be many lawsuits against the lady as well.

I personally feel that there should have been more consequences and further investigation for the woman who was “supposedly” had the role of watching out for dangers or any potential safety hazards. But I do agree that they should hurry to get their station back together. Situations like this often occur and I believe that it is strictly because the importance of society in the world has greatly declined. People fail to realize that freak accidents happen all the time, so when it comes to train stations, airports, and even when it comes to the 18 wheeler trucks, we have to stress the importance of the lookouts or people on duty who may operate or have sometime of control if a situation was to break out. I brought up 18 wheelers because there are many that drive late at night. Some may not want to get a hotel to rest because they are trying to reach their destination. With them trying to reach their destination, could leave to several problems. One of the problems is falling asleep while on the road. Most of the time while you’re driving you tend to get sleepy but do not realize it.  

Views - Drake

The 6 god is back at it again!

If you’re familiar with the music world, you’ve probably given Drake’s new album Views at least one listen since its release Thursday night. This largely anticipated album sold over 600,000 copies within the first 24 hours of its initial release, and is projected to sale 2 million with in its first week!

There’s no arguing that this album is popular, but more importantly, is it actually good? Though I’ve only given this album only a couple listens and I haven’t really given it a chance to grow on me yet, in my opinion, it is still well worth the hype. Of course, there is no topping his game changing album Take Care, which was extremely relatable to many young listeners, with its tales of getting over relationships. Thus, this album is still good.

On the opening track “Keep the Family Close,” the track begins with the words “All of my ‘let’s just be friends’ are friends that I don’t have anymore.” Here we immediately get the feeling that on this album we are going to get at least a glimpse of the old Drake. This is also an example of how relatable Drake can be, as we are all familiar with the cliché line used when ending relationships “Lets just be friends.”

            This theory proves to be true on the track “U with me?” when Drake questions his girlfriend’s loyalty all over this song. A track that has caught extreme wild fire due to it’s reliability of men being possessive of their ex-girlfriends. Drake continues this streak with other tracks such as “Weston Road Flows,” “Faithful,” and “With You.”

            Drake also has a couple of tracks strictly made for dancing, or “turning up.” One of my favorites is the song “One Dance,” a song that is a Caribbean influenced pop song with smooth vocals from supporting singer Kyla.

            Some people may not like this album, as it is an obvious change of pace fro Drake’s previous projects What a Time to be Alive, as well as If You’re Reading this it’s Too Late. The reason for this is because both of these albums where both more traditional rap albums, and used more for car rides. On the contrary, this new album is far more emotional, much like his break out album Take Care.

            In conclusion, I’d give this album about an 8/10. My opinion may change due to the fact that I am still caught up in the excitement that Drake’s album is finally here. The reason that this album did not get a 10/10 is because this album did not come together as well as the album Take Care. I’d hate to continuously compare this album to Take Care, but when ranking an artist’s album, you must compare it to their best work of art. Thus, this album still has a lot of replay value, and has along a lot of longevity in the hip-hop community.

            Have you given this album a listen?

            What would you give it out of 10?

Lemonade or Anti

Lemonade or Anti?

There is a never ending argument everyone is having now about whose album was better, Beyoncé’s lemonade or Rihanna's Anti. Personally I feel like Rihanna's Anti was ten times better than Beyoncé’s Lemonade. I feel like Beyoncé is falling off. Her music used to be so lit, but now it’s like she doesn't even try anymore. Don’t get me wrong I don’t think Beyoncé’s music is garbage. I do feel that she could put more into her music like she used to. I feel like Rihanna is working to be the best in the music industry.  Rihanna is evolving into the next big thing, and she is coming for Beyoncé’s crown. As a performer I feel like Rih-rih has a little more growing to do. She has not gotten to the point where she can dance and sing through an entire performance keeping her energy to the level where a performer like herself should. Beyoncé has been in the game for a while so she knows what to do and how to do it.

Rihanna has improved so much vocally over the years. She is definitely much better than she was 3 years ago, however she is not on the same level as Beyoncé (vocally). To me Anti was so much better than Lemonade. It took multiple times to listen to Lemonade for me to get hooked on it. I like half of the songs on lemonade. My favorites from Lemonade were Daddy Lessons, and Hold Up. I listened to Anti once, and was instantly hooked. I loved every song on the album. My favorites were Needed Me and Sex with Me. I vibe with every song that was on the Anti album. There was no song on the album that I didn’t like. I only like Lemonade because of the story behind the music. I will not tell you the back story because you have to find out for yourself to see how you feel about it personally.

Birdman at the Breakfast Club

I'm sure many of you have seen the video of Birdman on the Breakfast Club or at least heard about it. It was pretty amusing to me but I also didn't know what to think of it after I saw it other than "what is he mad about?" If you haven't seen the actual video, here's a link to it. Feel free to share your reactions and thoughts about this situation.

https://youtu.be/4jLT7GQYNhI?t=9

Social Media Affecting the World

     Social media affects people’s lives every day without them even realizing it. It causes many problems in a healthy relationship, can interfere with getting a decent job, create distractions for the younger generation (teenagers), and also causes a lot of controversies in the world. The main social media applications people use are Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. The statistics on the popularity of the social media has greatly increased in the last years. The statistics from a year ago (September 2014) has increased 71% for Facebook, 23% for Twitter, and 26% for Instagram.

            Relationships can come to an end due to the things that others put on the social media. People sometimes begin to over-exaggerate about the stuff being said over the internet which causes many arguments within a relationship. For example, if someone had an old picture up there from a while back with their ex-girlfriend/ex-boyfriend and someone went to be funny about and liked that picture, which it pops up on the news feed for everyone else to see. When someone is in denial about something the other person goes to the social media to look at posts and comments to see if the information being said is true or false. Another problem relationships seem to encounter is broadcasting their every argument or problem all over the social media, so others could be all in their business. Some people get upset about that, but it’s their own fault for posting anything rather than talking it out in person.

            Posting negative things about other people or businesses over the social media causes a lot of people to get denied or fired from a job. The employees can be posting negative things online about their job, not even realizing that their manager may have a secret account and is watching everything they’re saying. This can give them a good reason to fire them. Some jobs may even use the social media to do background checks on the employees making sure they’re not posting anything crazy over the internet or making sure they don’t have any type of harassment or stalking charges. The managers may not even see the posts themselves, another employee may screenshot the post on their phone and decide to show the manager at work during a private meeting. Some employers even request access to people’s Facebook page before hiring them.

            Social media effects people of all age groups, but it impacts the teenagers group the most. The teenagers find things on the social media to laugh and joke about, not realizing that it may be offensive to others. Teenagers sometimes pay more attention to what’s going on over the internet than they do their education. Education comes before anything else. Also the rate of teenager suicides has increased tremendously over the last decade due to the cyberbullying from peer friends or classmates. Social media should be limited to teenagers, until they find out the real meaning of using it.

            Controversies that happen over social media has many factors such as polarizing, manipulating, and many more. Many controversies don’t end as bad as the others, like people fighting or maybe even someone going to jail behind their actions. Social media can be manipulative when other users post embarrassing stories or pictures of others, which can make them want to stay off of the internet or maybe even deactivate their pages. Social media isn’t that much vulnerable, but some of the people who use it are. Social media can be polarizing when there is being things posted that someone dislikes, so the only way they could handle it in a good way is by disabling their accounts. When they do that they seem to feel much better and a lot calmer.

            People’s lives have been majorly affected by social media and they don’t seem to realize it. The main reason for the social media is to reconnect or talk to friends and family who are a long distance from each other. Peoples of social media can vary, due to what it means to them. Without social media the world would entirely be different and also perhaps be a better place for people to live. 

Let's Stop being stressed for once

What is stress? Glad you asked. Stress is a term that causes one to think of emotional and mental states of mind. It was discovered by Hans Selye in 1936, who defined it as “the non-specific response of the body to any demand for change.” He tested animals to see how they would subject to acute, but different noxious physical and emotional stimuli such as, (blaring light, deafening noise, extremes of heat or cold, perpetual frustration), all exhibited the same pathologic changes of stomach ulcerations, shrinkage of lymphoid tissue and enlargement of the adrenals. He later demonstrated that persistent stress could cause these animals to develop various diseases similar to those seen in humans, such as heart attacks, strokes, kidney disease and rheumatoid arthritis. At the time, it was believed that most diseases were caused by specific, but different pathogens. Tuberculosis was due to the tubercle bacillus, anthrax by the anthrax bacillus, syphilis by a spirochete, etc. What Selye proposed was just the opposite, namely that many different insults could cause the same disease, not only in animals, but in humans as well.

Stress is a very serious situation and we need to realize that we can control it to a certain degree. Because it was apparent that most people viewed stress as some unpleasant threat, Selye subsequently had to create a new word, stressor, to distinguish stimulus from response. Stress was generally considered as being synonymous with distress and dictionaries defined it as “physical, mental, or emotional strain or tension” or “a condition or feeling experienced when a person perceives that demands exceed the personal and social resources the individual is able to mobilize.” Thus, stress was put in a negative light and its positive effects ignored. However, stress can be helpful and good when it motivates people to accomplish more. As I researched this I realized that stress is not all bad.  It does motivate one to get motivated to accomplish task that they may not intend to ever finish.  For example, being in college has been very stressful for me and I had to learn how to become responsible and complete assignments on time.  The pressure would build up if I was not prepared.  Once I learned how to prioritize my schedule and life, I felt better about my class load.  Also, I have learned that if I cannot change a situation then I must learn to change myself.  I am the only one who can make me feel good or bad.  Others cannot do that and now that I realize how deadly stress can be, I refuse to allow me to put myself through any trauma.  I do not want to cause my own afflictions such as disease to destroy my body and life.  I have learned that situations are not worth me harming myself.  The bottom line is DON’T WORRY… INSTEAD BE HAPPY!

 

http://www.stress.org/what-is-stress/

Dead Pool's ability

Dead Pool is a marvel character, he can heal himself but even greater than that he is able to regrow limbs that may get decapitated somehow. I think its crazy how he has this ability to heal but can not heal his face from a damaging burn. What do you think is the reason he unable to heal his face? When i went to go see the movie "Dead Pool" it was great except the fact that the healing process of his face did not make sense. If there is another Dead Pool movie he will find a way to heal his face. He probably has not  reached the best of his abilities yet since he he was not born with the ability to heal. 

Inuit (Eskimo's)

Inuit’s are very crafty beings. The Inuit have become famous for their bone, soapstone, ivory carvings, and their creation of elaborate wooden masks. They also spend their time hunting, curing the meat, and make clothes. They make their clothes out of skins and furs. Their jacket which is called a Parka is finished with fringe of fur from a wolf or wolverine. The glossy hairs of those furs allow ice or snow to be shaken away easily. Since the climate is too cold for most plants, Inuit’s are primarily meat eaters. They hunt seal, whale, walrus, fish, and sometimes even polar bears. Since they eat food raw they are not missing out on the vitamins that vegetables supply. However, now that the Inuit people are gaining exposure to modern western food their diet is changing for the worst. The Inuit culture is one of the close knit culture on earth. They heavily depend one each other for their well being. They come together as family and friends and pass on stories and play games. Some games include the kneel jump, knuckle hop, and back push in which you can see require excessive physical activity. The leading sport found in many Inuit communities is ice hockey. A major event in this culture is a feast called a potlatch. This is held whenever a new totem pole is raised. The Inuit who held the potlatch would give up his most valuable possessions at the ceremony. At traditional Inuit gatherings, drumming, throat singing, and dancing are utilized which provides the chief form of entertainment. Their culture has some similarities and differences once compared to ours but it is ultimately different. They depend on each other and work together far more than we do. They are more hands on with building their own homes, making their own clothes, and catching their own food. The Inuit treats humans, lands, plants, and animals with equal respect which is different in our culture.

The Inuit way of life also varies from community to community, but they all generally live in a self-governing, nomadic system. They have a more egalitarian society, meaning a government of equality with no hierarchical statuses (Harrison and Friesen). They lack a governing body or chief and everyone is treated as equal partners. Most of the communities are smaller and isolated with an average of 1,000 people per Inuit culture (Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada). Age and sex play a role in status, but women are viewed as more equal to men in comparison to most nations and cultures. Though their primary job is the care of the house and children, Inuit women often complete daily tasks such as fishing, hunting, and ambushing prey with their husbands. Family to the Inuit people is essential as one household can have as many as three generations living under one roof.  Because of their close ties to one another and their environment, the Inuit live in more a collective society. Privacy is very limited. Embarrassment, gossip, ridicule, and ostracism are very common because of such small communities. Individualism is not prevalent as they are infrequent to outside exposure.

Would you like to be apart of the Inuit culture? Why or why not? 

Do you think their way of life is very different from Americans? If so, how?