Rewards Are Never Given, They Are Always Earned

Bees, I just wanted to get this out quickly. So much has already happened in the past 17 days it's not even funny. I didn't expect to go to Ghana, come back and have my life magically snap in place (apparently my dad did, but I didn't see that). Well actually, it wasn't "magic", it was God and it was more of a progression than a SNAP. I don't really feel like going into details, but let's just say that a lot of things have finally worked out in different areas of my life.

The lessons I've learned over the past year are ones that I'll never regret and this moment is one I'll never forget. It is by far the BIGGEST sigh of relief EVER. Last December, I completely lost it. Everything felt out of control, foreign and quite frankly I was fearful. So I did something to take control: I decided to stop being stupid and ACT. Long story short, my actions spoke louder than my words. That was my mantra for 2011. I actually did something for once, had a bit a faith---and well, something happened. I messed up several times along the way, but I'm human. I'm not perfect and I still have a lot to learn about myself and quite frankly about other people. I'm glad everything happened the way it did, not just in this past year but over the past couple of years.

I thank God for everything. Especially for reading that note that I put under my pillow every night with a list of things I really wanted...because little did I know, He already gave them to me. :)

Don't think I'm gonna kick back and relax now. I'm just getting started...

PS: If you're wondering what I'm talking about you might want to do some stalking on my Facebook or my Linked-In in the near future. *hint hint*

MB

Mac OS X Lion Review

Before I begin, I just want to say that I'm not a techie or a person that uses my MacBook Pro (late 2009 model) for heavy creative assignments so this review is coming from a consumer perspective. I also want to point out that depending on what you have on your Mac and what you use it for, you'll probably view Lion differently. Apparently a lot of Adobe creative tools aren't fully compatible with Mac OS X Lion yet.  I was definitely hesitant to make the switch, so much so that I actually made the purchase on July 29th and waited until last night (August 12th) to install it. I heard a lot of bad things about it so I wanted to give it a few weeks to see if developers would make updates, etc. Anyway, after making the switch here are the things that I noticed differently on my computer:

-Runs faster. Not sure what people were talking about regarding the rainbow ball of death aka that color spin wheel that pops up when it's loading something, but my Mac actually brings programs up faster than it did before. No issues thus far and no rainbow ball of death. Sorry to disappoint.

-Spaces is gone, but mission control takes care of that. I really never cared for spaces and I doubt i'll use mission control. I'm a beast at multi-tasking on one screen, which may be insane to some of you but I make it work.

-Launchpad makes my computer look like an iPad by bringing up all the apps. It's basically a shortcut for the Applications folder. Makes life easier I guess. LOL. No real noticeable change there.

-Gestures: this is probably one of the bigger changes. The scrolling can be set to the regular way or how scrolling operates on an iPhone or iPad (I own an iPhone so either one doesn't bother me). If you hate the new scrolling go to system preferences and change it. There's a lot of swiping of three or four fingers going on...lol all shortcut functions. I enjoy the zoom pinch with two fingers or the smart zoom where you tap the trackpad with two fingers. Kinda nice.

-Name in upper right hand corner: not sure what prompted them to do this, but whatever username you're logged into, that will appear in the upper right hand corner next to the time. I don't mind, it makes it easier to get to the login window if you ever want to logout, etc.

-Front row is gone. I tried it once before running Lion and honestly I didn't care much for it, it was just a video viewing function. Whatever.

-Scrollbar disappears just like on the iPhone and iPad. If you have one of these products you won't even notice. Also, there's auto spell check. For those who have apple products, this can be the devil. Just be aware to double check your work when typing because if you spell something the Mac doesn't recognize it will change it but you can always go back or "x" the change spelling and have your Mac learn the spelling.

-iCal, Photo Booth, Mail are different, more efficient in my opinion. I don't use mail on my comp tho, I rather log into gmail directly or get mail on my cell since I'm always on the go. Some people were complaining about photo booth, I just used it, works fine.

-YOUR COMPUTER WILL FEEL HOT WHILE INDEXING. People were going on the App Store trying to scare the crap out of people. Look your comp is indexing. It's trying to organize your life, shut up and put it on a cool surface, perhaps that invention called a table and not on your lap and let it work.

Ultimately, the changes aren't all that significant (if you are an Apple user who has an iPhone or iPad). I don't do heavy gaming or creative stuff so I can't speak on that. I heard that developers are still working on testing compatibility with the new OS so if you are a heavy gaming and creative person, I'd wait until the developers for those products roll out updates or upgrades of the apps and creative suites. Besides that, go ahead and make the upgrade. Make sure you check for updates on your computer BEFORE installing Lion and check afterwards before using anything. I ended up having updates for Photo Booth, iTunes, Skype and Java immediately after downloading Lion but I had to manually check for them.


MB

Understanding Your Gift

My posts have become increasingly personal because I need an outlet to release all this stress from job searching. I really wanted to touch on something that I realized today: Understanding Your Gift. No I'm not talking about Christmas or birthdays. I'm talking about understanding the gifts and talents that God gave you and using them to move toward your purpose and destiny.

I was having a convo with my bestie (follow her on Twitter @Brenda_Bren) and I realized that I enjoy creating roadmaps for people. Let me explain. Recently, I've been a bit obsessed with learning more about what strategy is and what it means in the grand scheme of a communications plan. It's one thing to implement tactics and get caught up in the fine details, but it is certainly another to come up with the overall plan which will help lead to the desired end result. I enjoy doing that. In my everyday life I enjoy helping my friends and family see their lives and careers differently from a strategic perspective. And it made me realize that I really need to move forward in that direction. One metaphor I used today eluded to the VH1 Show "Single Ladies". Everyone knows Stacey Dash (who plays Valerie Stokes), but not a lot of people know about Stacy A. Littlejohn, the writer of "Single Ladies".

In my opinion, Dash represents the foreground and the tactics. Her acting brings the character Val to life. However, Littlejohn represents the background and the strategy. Her writing provides a framework for the characters and the show. Without the writer there would be no Val. I see myself as that writer or in this case a communicator who wants to provide the framework (strategy) for a communications plan that supports the overall goals and objectives of an organization. I don't know why it took me this long to figure that out but I'm glad I did. In a few weeks I'll be starting courses at Georgetown and it will definitely help to have a better understanding of what I want and where I want to go.

I swear it's a never ending journey...

MB

You Never Know What You Have Until It's Gone

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Last night I went to a midnight showing of The Change-Up. Before I begin, please just go watch this movie. It was BEYOND HILARIOUS! Ok, back to the post. The movie had me thinking about how we're never satisfied with our lives and we take things and people for granted. You never know what you have until it's gone or in the case of this movie, until someone else has what you used to have.

Why do we take things for granted? And most importantly why do we wait until something BAD happens in order for us to realize that? In the movie The Change-Up, the two lead male characters hate their lives and while they're peeing in a "magical" fountain (please don't ask why) they wish they had each other's life. Bad, bad idea. I'm not going to share more beyond that since it just came out today, but you can infer from my post that they figure out that they took their lives and each other for granted. 

I said this in my previous post, but life is really too short to not enjoy it and the people around you, especially loved ones. Live it to the fullest, otherwise you might find yourself and a friend peeing in a magical fountain and waking up the next day in their body wishing you had your normal life back. Haha. 

MB