A change is Good?

So I have three post in the works and I was working on them until I realized my fingers won't type the right things and I can't get out anything meaningful. I'm in a little of a daze. I'm ready for a new start. I was thinking about changing it up around here on Mara's Madness but I have to figure out exactly where the change is needed or where I want it to go....I really enjoy this whole blogging thing, I just want some progress.


When I think about change, I'm looking for change all around me not just here but all over my life which is why I am so ready to leave to Florida already....I'm a little lost for some reason...So if  I get it together before I get to Daytona then I get it together but if I don't then it's not that big of deal to me because I'll have many more inspirations and well everything will be different. And change is good.

I'll be in Elsinore for a few days then I'm off to Vegas on Friday and I'll be there for a week so I hadn't planned on blogging much anyway but whatever...I need time to think catch up on some journaling, and such....

But for now I guess I'll leave ya with some Ayo videos even though I'm now listening to Corinne Bailey Rae, I love this girl but.....

I'm sorry I'm all over the place right now! So I'm going to spend these next two weeks while I'm away to get it together and maybe attempt some weekly post...

I guess we will see.....











Sorry had to put some other stuff in there but I'm sure you don't mind and well if you do.....

♥ MARA

I'll be back soon...

One of the most amazing things you can do is talk to people because well you don't know what they know....

So I was talking to a fellow Cookman classmate and well we got to talking about what type of music I like after he looked at my blog....and my favorites are Soul and Indie Alternative Bands just in case you didn't know..
and he tells me he likes Eyrkah Badu and Esperanza Spalding. I told him that I loved Erykah but I didn't know who Esperanza was....he told me to look her up and I did.


So I really really love her sound and I can't believe she got by me...She plays more than one instrument which is so AMAZING to me. I love a girl who can sing but play an instrument too and if you can play more than one then it's even better and if you can sing in another language WOW! I'll fall in love with you!


I'm listening to Ms. Esperanza Spalding now and I love love love love her. She's going to be a regular listen like Ayo, Nneka and Meg & Dia.

Oh and I was told that she preformed at the BET Awards....And well I looked it up because I don't really remember and oh did I ever tell you that the awards were a snooze. Not excited at all had good moments and that's it. but she did the Prince dedication.





 
For hear more, youtube and I would like to think iTunes
 
What do you think of Esperanza Spalding?
 
♥ MARA
 
Videos are from YouTube.com

Looks I Love (Stripes):6

I love love love stripes....mainly horizontal ones and if they're black and white that's like double points...I seem to be seeing them a LOT so here's a few pics.

Source

Source

Source

Source

Source

Source

Source

Source

Source

Source

Source

Source

Source

Source

Source

So this is the deal....I have this dress, but then I also have this one...and I have a striped shirt I was going to show you but I'm too comfortable to go and get my other flash drive haha but when I went shopping I bought I striped t-shirt which is grey and black, a pink and white striped maxi, a black and white striped shirt and a black and grey striped dress similar to this one but it has lace at the top.....

Basically I'm going to be pretty striped in college but I don't mind I love stripes and I had to hear from my mom "How many more striped stuff are you going to buy?" Well I look at it like this it's so diverse and I can wear it a ton of ways and it's so fun and besides it's cute...

Do you like stripes?

♥ MARA

The Ting Tings - That's Not My Name

This is for all the people that think it's okay to call me Amber....I mean I love the girl but I'm not her at all, and I like Mara I don't really dig Amber but ya know what I take it as a compliment because Amber Rose is bad! haha




♥ MARA

Lately

Lately, I've been wanting you.
Been wanting you for who you are, well for who I know you to be.

Lately, I've been thinking about what I want out of this and all the things that we can be...have the potential to be.

Lately, I've been thinking that this can work and
Lately, I have been so wrapped up in you and I don't even know why.

I like the progress that has come upon us lately but it's still not fully what I want.
Lately I have been wondering why are we still in each others lives or why I'm still holding on.

Just when it feels like it's not going anywhere BOOM! I get what I want and it seems to go back to how things were before...okay sometimes good but still not great.

I would like to think that certain things would change one day but that is still just a figment of my imagination.

And Lately, I would like to think that your words are sincere and you mean every "and, it & but"....can't a girl dream?

Can't I dream that you're everything that I ever wanted plus much much more.

I wonder sometimes if you sit around and think about me the way that I think about you. Well actually it doesn't matter if we're thinking about each other the same way...It matters more if you're just simply thinking about me..

Thinking about me for just being me, for being Jahneil and nothing more. because lately I've been thinking about you for who you are, well for who I know you to be...

I say this because well I don't know you how I want to but lately I've been wanting to know...know you how your friends know you and how your mother knows you..what you love, what you hate, how you do the things that don't matter to most.

At the sound of your name I can't help to smile lately....the thought of you lately it gets me going.

And lately I've been second guessing myself and thinking this really isn't what I want anymore...I've been holding on for so long and lately I don't even know why I won't let go....

I won't let go because the thought of you sounds so great and if I stop holding on...let go and move on and walk away, will you take me back if I want you back?

Is that selfish of me? I'm not sure but lately I'm not sure what I want anymore so many mixed emotions and so many complications...

So for now I'm just going to do what ever feels right in the moment...
Will that leave me hurt in the end, will I be the broken hearted girl?

Can't I just get what I want? and what I want is you, you forever. you today and you tomorrow. I wanted you a year ago and a year from now my heart is almost sure I'd still want you...

For now I'm going to loosen my grip but I'm not letting go until it feels right.

♥ MARA

You Decide

So I just realized the funniest thing when I was on B.Scott's site....Well Mel B. can up in my Google Reader so I just went to the site...and well I start looking at the rest of the pictures that were in the Mel B. post...

Last night my sister and I were watching the end of Dance your A** off and well my little sister pointed this out....she said that it looked like Mel B was wearing the little booty poppers sorta like these..I thought this was the funniest thing because well I missed her butt, on these pictures however it kinda looks like she does......

Oh besides the butt Mel does look good though!

♥MARA

Photo Source

Looks I Love:5

Hmmmm so I'm thinking about switching things up a little bit this time around...and just say why I like this look....

Source

Well Firstly it's Amber :) and also I really love this color and am I only one that notices that her hair is longer? and it's very summer and different then she usually wears haha. oh and she tweeted that this dress was hurting her ovaries..it was sorta funny...oh and this was the Espy's might I add one of the best Award Shows the whole year.

Source

Joan Smalls...again but she dresses so simply and I love it I think you need simplicity sometimes and this style works for her...

Source

Rachel, hmmmm well it's all nude basically but I love love the detail in the body of this dress oh and she's an OC girl Yayy! but I like those shoes...and the hat.

Source

Did I ever say that the looks had to be all outfits? hmmm well I don't care this is my blog haha so I can do what I want..this is Valerie June she's a singer, and I just youtubed her so she's singing in my ear right now but I love her hair!!! I was thinking about getting dreads once I decide to grow my hair hmmmmm

oh and she sings more or a blues country style of music...I'll do a post on her soon.

Source

Since I'm off topic (kinda) anyway I love her nails even though I don't wear nail polish and I'm wearing my nails short right now....I keep seeing long rounded nails now that I've cut mine...

Source

I really love this maxi! Cute?

Source

I usually don't care for leggings which I is why I stopped wearing them with the exception of wearing them with boots as tights......but something about this look I like it....it's really chill and the shirt looks waaaaay to comfortable.

Source

I like all of these pale colors together....I love those shoes...they remind me of so shoes I have...but mine are Bakers not Top Shop haha

Source

I love love love wide leg jeans! I have a pair or two..

Source

Well I actually love this whole post and I was trying to figure out which one I would use but you can look at the whole thing here.

So I not only feel really lazy right now but if you can tell through my photo pics that everything is just been so simply to me....rather dull which is odd because usually like bright stuff....uhhhh I don't know...

♥  MARA

So I'm sitting here eating oysters, Spanish rice and avocado with salsa and drinking a home made strawberry banana smoothie...Don't judge me..It's really good! and it's summer so it's the best time to mix things but I've eaten this before...except I usually have this tomato topping which is sort or like salsa but it's not...

I was talking to a future Cookman classmate about the food places in Florida...because well he came to California and had In-N-Out and I seen it in his album...yes I can spot an In-N-Out burger anywhere haha...He said he liked the animal style fries...and I told him he should have got an animal style burger and he didn't know they had those haha which is funny because In-N-Out will make you virtually anything you ask for...I mean you can't like go into McDonald's and ask for a 100x100 (wait that's extreme but In-N-Out will do it!).

I don't even eat fast food for various reason but In-N-Out is one of the places that I will eat...(it's In-N-Out, Chipotle, Subway and Chik-fil-a)...So I was thinking like am I going to die in college, no meat and fast food and no cheese....dang sounds so sad doesn't it....well I guess I'll figure it out when I get there! Oh and I was notified that Checkers is going to be my friend ugh think again....their food doesn't even look good on the internet.....but I'm going to miss In-N-Out and I already knew that they didn't have it but it just kinda hit me...

And I guess this can be filed under college because this isn't at all a food blog but I just had to get that out....but I guess the food is part of the madness of college right?

♥ MARA

Photo Source
In-N-Out's Website

Looks I Love:4

I have pictures of the front of the outfit but this one is just more interesting!

Yes yes I know Karla is on one post twice but I'm a little addicted and it's so sad but I figured I'd put the one above up because it reminded me of Cassies look at the BET Awards...I think Cassie got it wrong but somehow Karla didn't....I think it was more of Cassie's pant.....they were too short you can't wear a cropped top and cropped pants oh and it was all the same color....moving on.

So Kelis...well she's been getting it waaay wrong in my book these past couple of weeks but I love this look...it's classy and classic can't go wrong with that...right?

It's so simple but it's cute....well she makes it cute...oh and this is Joan Smalls.

♥MARA

Photo credit:1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 

Weekly Read 2: Pray Away the Gays

Well I read this a few days ago because it came up in my Google Reader and well I'm not going to express my opinion but this is a good controversial read oh and it's not that long....but the comments are mad crazy I'm going to read them whenever I have time..


Pray Away the Gays by Audra E. Lord via Clutch Magazine



After her church of 37 years performed a same-sex commitment ceremony in 2007, Yvonne Moore, a lifelong Baptist, sued for a portion of the estimated $250,000 in tithes and offerings she had made over the years. “You cannot take that in the church,” Moore recently told CNN.




She attended the ceremony, not out of support but out of spectacle. “I wanted to see it for myself,” she said. “I went and I was like, this is totally disgusting.” Spoken like a true Christian.



The same Christian whose values preach to love thy neighbor as thyself and judge not lest ye be judged advocated her church adopt a closed-door policy. It’s ironic that someone possessing so much contempt for a group of people and a union between two consenting adults can associate herself with Christianity in the same breath.



Moore was “pissed off” that the church didn’t respect the members enough to listen to them when they opposed the gay union. There was clearly something in Moore’s “heterosexual tithes” that made her more of a church member than the gay church-goers that also paid tithes. Her pastors must have been unaware of the return policy on Moore’s offerings to God.



“You cannot just read a Bible and think that somehow you’ve now mastered the word of God,” Pastor Dennis Wiley of Washington, D.C.’s Covenant Baptist said in defense. He, like many other Christians, believes there is only one master of the word of God and that is God. Jesus did walk among prostitutes, lepers and thieves, didn’t he? Although the gay community shouldn’t be synonymous with prostitution, disease or crime, they are a group that is also marginalized by society.



“The Black church has the original ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy,” says Reverend Eronica King, a 27-year-old clergy/hospital chaplain in South Carolina who identifies as lesbian. King grew up in a small family church where the musician and choir director were gay men. “[Gay church members] hide in the open. Everybody knows they are gay, but nobody talks about it,” she says.



Moore eventually dropped the lawsuit saying that her actions were not of God but decided to permanently split from the church. I wonder if she sued when the pastors wedded the couple who had been fornicating. Maybe she also left when they performed the holy union of two alcoholics. Or perhaps she’s up in arms about the church not practicing slavery, as the Bible condones.



How is it that individuals pick apart the Bible, apply some hierarchical order to what is deemed as sin, then completely shun one particular group? Why aren’t alcoholics or fornicators ostracized from the church at the same capacity as homosexuals?



“It is because I am gay that I stay active in church,” Reverend King explains. “It is because I am gay that I make sure I’m a visible face in the congregation.”

Perhaps if people, Christians and non-Christians alike, took the time to know and understand gay men and women judgment-free, they would see that they’re just like anyone else. That they’re capable of having loving relationships. Relationships that extend beyond the bedroom. Relationships that are about companionship and commitment. Some argue that marriage is the terms for two people to procreate. Does that then mean that an infertile heterosexual couple should not be permitted to marry?



Questions similar to these probed Stephanie Russell, 25, who was brought up in a religious household but now rarely attends church. “My education has attributed mostly to my decision to diminish my church involvement,” explains the Austin resident who identifies as queer. “The more I began to question, the less I was fed, and then I realized that no human being truly had the answer.”



Many overlook the fact that the Bible was written within a historical context. There are simply things in the Bible that were once acceptable that no longer are (for instance, slavery, Exodus 21:2-6). There are things that were once unacceptable that presently are (for instance, wearing clothing of more than one fabric, Leviticus 19:19 or wearing gold and pearls, 1 Timothy 2:9). “People have no idea about the language and transcribing changes the Bible went through,” Reverend King notes. “There are several versions of the Bible that have books in them that our Bible does not, like the Vulgate of Saint Jerome. If folk only knew…” Beyond just teaching the Word, it’s crucial for pastors to preach how the Bible came to be.



“I am not an atheist nor am I pro- any anti-religious organizations. If I must be ‘pro-something,’ I’m pro-education and the betterment of society,” adds Russell.



After performing the commitment ceremony, the Covenant Baptist Church lost half of their congregation, over 250 families. I hope they gain 500 more gay ones.


Source

Looks I Love (Denim Edition): 3

So I got word from a little birdy, that I should put more pictures on here and I have a ton of them that I can make posts about in my Google Reader...well I have two of them...So I was working on a Denim Post but I'm going cut the writing and just put pictures of Denim Looks I Love....and the post was just ranting about how much I hate jeans and about all the jeans that I gave away and trashed and which ones I'm taking to school but I don't think that matters....

Source

Source

Source

Source

Source

Source

I think this is the same girl from above...in the same jacket I didn't even notice but I love that jacket I'm going to find one! yes i know so 80s

Source

Source

Source

Source

Okay I think that is it! This was harder then I though it would be...but oh well it's done...

♥ MARA

Weekly Read 1: The Paradox Of Our Time

I was going through some old papers and I came across this, I got it in a English class my senior year but it was in my junior English class (don't ask) and I think we had to find a few things we argreed with and a few we disagreed with.....I just loved this piece so much that I put the copy the teacher gave us and put it on my folder....I had later googled it and I realized she gave us a shorter version and the longer version was even better....So enjoy! I'll be adding more of these...


The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings, but shorter tempers; wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints; we spend more, but have less; we buy more, but enjoy it less.

We have bigger houses and smaller families; more conveniences, but less time; we have more degrees, but less sense; more knowledge, but less judgment; more experts, but more problems; more medicine, but less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get angry too quickly, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too seldom, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.


We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often. We've learned how to make a living, but not a life; we've added years to life, not life to years.

We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbor. We've conquered outer space, but not inner space; we've done larger things, but not better things.


We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul; we've split the atom, but not our prejudice.


We write more, but learn less; we plan more, but accomplish less. We've learned to rush, but not to wait; we have higher incomes, but lower morals; we have more food, but less appeasement; we build more computers to hold more information to produce more copies than ever, but have less communication; we've become long on quantity, but short on quality.


These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion; tall men, and short character; steep profits, and shallow relationships. These are the times of world peace, but domestic warfare; more leisure, but less fun; more kinds of food, but less nutrition.

These are days of two incomes, but more divorce; of fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throw away morality, one-night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer to quiet to kill.

It is a time when there is much in the show window and nothing in the stockroom; a time when technology has brought this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to make a difference, or to just hit delete...
By Dr. Bob Moorehead

(NOT written by George Carlin)
I'm going to leave it how it is....they can argue about who wrote it I'm just suppose to give it credit...when I first read it, it was marked as Carlin so whatever it doesn't matter..

So what do you argee with and disagree?

♥ MARA

Looks I Love:2

Source

Kelly L.

Source

Katy

Source

Jenny J.

Source

Nini

Source

Rihanna

Source

Rumi

Source

Alicia Keys

Source

Chloe W.

Source

Karla

Source

Niki A.

Yipee! I did it! Well I don't know why I'm so excited, this is a really easy post (kinda) and it's really fun doing it because I just go through Google Reader for the most part and go on the search.....

While I was doing this I got caught on Karla's Closet which really isn't that hard especially if you're not a someone who read or viewed from the begining and I was a little puzzled by her trasformation....and yes she was featured two weeks in a row but I don't care I love her I'm about to go look at all her post that I missed before I got into this whole blogging thing.....

♥ MARA