My First Music Video (cut)

Here's a cut of my first music video guys! Let me know what you think!

Flying Cars

Uhm so there's this car they're working on. And yeah they want it to fly too. Apparently the max time it's been in flight is 30 seconds and traveled over 3,000 feet. I just thought this was something that was pretty interesting. Oh and it's called Terrafugia. Here's a picture.

XBOX Soap

Uhm so apparently there's an XBox 360 Soap bar and no I'm not kidding. What exactly would one need from an XBox 260 Soap bar? Like why is this invention necessary? I mean I guess the same can be asked of other random things but soap?? Like you need it in your life that much that it needs to be a soap? I mean it looks cool/real. Whatever here are the specs.

Soap Ingredients:

· Coconut Oil
· Shea Butter
· Palm Oil
· Castor Oil
· Safflower Oil
· Glycerin (kosher, of vegetable origin)
· Purified Water
· Sodium Hydroxide (saponifying agent)
· Sorbitol (moisturizer)
· Sorbitan Oleate (emulsifier)
· Soy Bean Protein (conditioner)
· Titanium Dioxide (mineral whitener used in opaque soaps)
· Fragrance and color

Love, Sex & Magic

Honestly, I don't care for this song AT ALL. I think it's stupid personally. I don't really know what they were trying to go for with it but here it is if you haven't heard it. Straight garbage if you ask me! It sounds like they tried to do a Janet/Michael Jackson thing and it's just not good at all.

Chris Brown University

So apparently Chris Brown has decided to enroll into college. This is great for so many reasons. I truly believe things happen for a reason and although this domestic abuse thing is still leaving a bad taste in the mouths of the public, I think it's a good move.

Going to college will help him in many ways. For one it will take him out of the public eye slightly and make him start focusing on important things such as getting this degree. He will have to face new and important obstacles that nothing but college can give you. The social stresses combined with the academic stresses are definitely life long experiences and teach you alot. So this will be good for him and I'm glad they've considered this, as most artists don't. It will let his fans see him doing something positive and help with damage control as well. So good job Chris!

Lets Go to Church

So today is the first time in a long time where I feel so filled and excited and blessed, and that was because I went to church. My friend has been trying to get me to come with him to this church by our school and I just wasn't having it. Waking up all early and whatnot. But it didn't start until 12 and I realized I had no more excuses.

After the things that have been going on in my life lately, I felt as though I needed some guidance, and where better to go than church?

I don't want to preach to you all, but honestly, when you feel that God is speaking to you, talking to you, sending you signs through your dreams, or even through the actions of your friends (whether they be positive or negative) You need to answer that and go to church.

Now let me say this. I'm not even putting myself out here as a perfect Christian or a perfect person. Because I am neither. I am just a new messenger of the Lord and have accepted my job to help bless and uplift others in the name of Jesus. Now I know people don't blog about this kind of stuff, but I am not people.

I know who wakes me up every morning. I know who makes sure I have heat when it's cold and food when I'm hungry. I know who makes sure my tuition is paid each and every semester. I know who puts me through and stays with me through the obstacles to make me a better person and appreciate his blessings. So it's only right that I give Him the credit he deserves, and the best way to do that is to not only proclaim his name and believe, but to bring others to Him.

SUMMARY OF WHAT I LEARNED IN CHURCH TODAY IN CASE YOU COULDN'T MAKE IT OUT
Today in church we learned three main things. I believe he preached from the gospel of Mark 2:1-6 I believe.

But basically we learned about how Jesus spoke at this house and it was completely packed inside and outside. And basically these men were bringing this paralytic man to him for healing and were not deterred because of the crowd. What they did once they realized they could not get this man into the place the conventional way, they cut open the roof and slowly dropped the paralytic man down into the house to get to Jesus.

So the three things were:
A. You have to be willing to not only pray for yourself and ask for blessings for yourself, but also ask for blessings for others. You have to want for you to get what God has instore for you, but not until someone else get's what God has in store for them. (as opposed to the corporate mentality of "im gunna get mines")
B. You have to not only believe in what he can do, but you have to speak with your actions instead of with your words.
C. You have to be willing to do all of these things no matter how hard it seems or how many obstacles there are.

He gave the example of how when we go to the club and the line is super long, we never let that stop us from getting in. We might try to sneak in from the side, etc. etc. so we need to take that approach not only for ourselves, but also for others. :)

Hope you are filled by this as much as I was!

The Cleveland Show

So Family Guy's Seth Green has created a spin-off of the show for Cleveland which is called The Cleveland Show. Apparently Cleveland gets fed up with where he's living and decides he wants his own friends, sidekicks, and stories. He sets off for California but somehow (which will be seen when the show comes out) ends up back in Virginia and links up with a high school sweetheart.

Now it looks like it should be an interesting show just because Family Guy is hilarious. However, I really do hope that he does not engage in the stereotypical discourse of most shows with all or mostly black casts. One of their neighbors are bears (yeah I don't know either) Looking at pictures, I see a fat black kid (hes way more fat than Chris was and looks like fat Albert) as well as a hoe- prostitute looking teenage daughter. So I'm a little uneasy as to the picture trying to be painted but I guess we'll see when it comes out in the fall of 2009.

Nia Long and Sanaa Lathan are among those lending their voices to this new show. There will also be a guest appearance by Kanye West in 2010 with the character Kenny West who is also a rapper. So overall, I am looking forward to this show in hopes that it will promote a positive image of black people and the black family but we'll see.

Princess Tiana

I think it's not only great, but about time that Disney finally recognizes the importance of a black princess. Apparently her name is Tiana and she will be played by the voice of Anika Noni Rose (from Dream Girls) and her prince looks white. I don't know if he is supposed to be light-skinned, but he definitely does not look black.

On the one hand it promotes inter-racial relationships (although I am not completely gung-ho about those) but I think it's an important concept to put out there so people who are truly color blind don't feel pressure to stay within their own race and can be accepted in society. But inter-racial relationships are another topic that I will be adressing this week.

SNEAK PEEK:

The main issue I have with inter-racial relationships, specifically with Black men and white women is that these women are NOT color blind, and neither are the black men. To chose a white women because she's more submissive and whatnot shows that you see a difference, and therefore are not colorblind, and have a preference. Additionally, the Black men who usually are taken by white women are ones that by the grace of God made it out of not so great situations and or are doing very well and are successful men who have graduated college, possibly grad school etc. and have great jobs. There are not enough of these kinds of men to go around, so it hurts when we "lose" one to a white woman. But I'll elaborate later.


Back to the topic, I think it's slightly insulting not to let Princess Tiana have a black prince. I mean Princess Jasmine had an Arabian prince, so why not? We really need to uplift the black family and show that it does and can exist in America. Having a white prince gives off the sense that black princesses need white princes to truly be a princess and I don't agree with that in the slightest. We already had that with Brandy and Whitney Houstan's version of Cinderella. We don't need another one.
But yeah I really hope this won't be a stereotypical depiction of black women, but an inspiring one that young black children can look to and look like. It's about time.

Beautiful Disaster

So I'm currently working on the album as many of you know. And I've named it Beautiful Disaster.

This album is not only important to me because it's my first album, but because it highlights alot of the things I've been going through prior to and during my father's death. My life has been a crazy emotional roller coaster, however, at the end of the day, God has blessed me so much that although I believe that there have been many disasters in my life as of recent, he's always continued to bless me and carry me through, helping me see the beauty in it all and I hope that you all will too when you hear the album. I'll be putting up a sneak peak probably before the month ends or the very beginning of April so look out for that.

Some song titles include:

He Lifts Me Up
Tomorrow Never Came
I'm Gone
For My Baby

I hope that this album provides as inspiration and hope to those going through each of the various situations I talk about, which range from the way my boyfriend motivates me, to my relationship with and death of my father. So this is an album that EVERYONE can relate to.

I also posted a picture/still from my music video shoot...the rest of them can be seen on my myspace page: myspace.com/joellastill

R.I.P. Dad

Hey guys I know I made a promise but I'm sure I'll be forgiven. My dad died very recently, which is why I have not been blogging. I haven't been in the mood to let people in yet because this really hurt me.

I didn't know my father too well but we did get to see each other sometimes when he found time for me I guess, so our relationship wasn't the best. I had alot of questions, and never really got the truth or any answers at all. But regardless he was my father, and it didn't make the fact that I no longer had one any easier.

So this post is to just still pay my respect to my father, and I truly hope he rests in peace.

Love Always,
Joella