Thanksgiving

Just wanted to wish all the people out there a happy thanksgiving. Hopefully you were able to spend time with your family and/or loved ones... and eat lots of good food.

~SJ

My iPod's busted

Fuck.

I think this describes it all.


And by the way, fuck Apple for that sad, yet strangely appropriate, image. For any of you who have not experienced this misfortune, yes this is what my iPod displays when I try to turn it on, along with a URL to go to... Ouch.

Hmmm, what to do now?

You can't just league jump

You can't just league jump, you gotta work your way up. This isn't little league, you don't just move on to the next league because you had a birthday... This is real life. You have to work to go from the CFL to the NFL, from the D-League to the NBA, from the minor leagues to the big leagues... Why should it be any different in real life?

I was having a conversation with my friend "Zoe" the other day, who is recently single, and she asked me "Did guys suddenly lose their balls?" She's been frustrated recently by the way she has been asked out on dates, in really lame, roundabout, scared-to-fail type of ways. Sadly I had to inform her that a lot of guys out there never had any balls to begin with (sorry all you ball-less dudes out there... Grow some). She says, "It's like I have some kinda sign that says 'If you're not in my league, please ask me out...' Please don't try, you can't just league jump" and to that I simply said... "awesome". I was simply amazed at the amount of Swagger exuded at that moment. Because you know what? She's right! As I said earlier, you have to work to get to the top, you don't just start there.

The bottom line is, there are leagues! You don't have to stay in your league, but you have to work your way up. In other words, pay your dues... or just be naturally awesome like me. Step your game up!

History...

November 4th 2008, approximately 11PM Eastern time... Barack Obama becomes the president-elect of the United States. For the first time in United States history, the President will be someone other than a White male. This is a day that many people thought would never come. This could never happen, only on TV or in the movies... But it has happened, and it will change our history forever.

Just a few hundred years ago, Africans were stolen from their homeland and forced into labor here in the Americas. Since that time, we have overcome many obstacles. From becoming freed men, earning equal wages, equal rights to education, equal opportunites for jobs and housing... Earning the right to vote. All of these things have been fought over. People cried, clawed, fought, sweated, bled, and died so that we as a people could simply be equal. And although I was around for none of these things, I now see the culmination of this work.

Growing up, adults always like to know... What do you want to be when you grow up? No matter the answer a child gives, it usually earns the response: "You can be anything you want if you try hard enough" or something similar. As a black youth, how many times have you heard that, only to think to yourself "How come there has never been a Black President?" It is a sad occurrence when you think about it... Hopes and dreams faded before they can even begin...

But today, less than 24 hours after a Black man has been elected to lead the nation, I sit here prouder to be an American than ever before. Especially as an African-American. I feel joy at the fact that in a few centuries, most of our nation has been able to overcome a deeply rooted racial divide. I feel grateful for all of the non-Black voters who were able to look past skin color and simply choose who they felt was the best candidate. I feel pride for all of the Black voters who came out and voted like never before, a privilege that, as a people, we have not used as often as we should. I somehow feel a sense of accomplishment, no doubt similar to the one felt by those who lived during the time of Rosa Parks' bus ride, or MLK's speeches. This is a historic milestone, not only for African-Americans, but for America itself.

But this accomplishment does not come without obstacles. President Obama will be inheriting a country that is in economic turmoil, a country that needs to improve it's foreign relations, and a country that should be seeking to break it's addiction to the oil that is killing our planet. This will not be an easy road ahead. President Obama will have to prove to the rest of the country, and the world, that he was in fact the right choice. He will be under more of a spotlight and under more scrutiny than any other man who has graced the Oval Office, but I believe that he is prepared for this journey.

In the words of Sam Cooke:
"It's been a long, a long time coming, but I know...
Change gonna come. Oh, yes it will"



~SJ

No one in the world has Swagger like me...

"I can't teach you my swag, you can pay for school but you can't buy class..."
~Jay-Z - Swagger Like Us [by T.I.] (2008)

What's with all these references to Swagger? These people callin me out? Why all of a sudden is that the buzzword in Hip-Hop? Most importantly... why does everyone think they have it? I'm not saying Jay doesn't have it, cause he does... and admittedly, I think that's where I bit the term from...

"I got a hustla spirit, n---- period
Check out my hat yo, peep the way I wear it
Check out my swag' yo, I walk like a ballplayer
No matter where you go, you are what you are player
And you can try to change but that's just the top layer
Man, you was who you was 'fore you got here..."
~Jay-Z - Public Service Announcement (The Black Album - 2003)

That, right there, is the essence of what Swagger J is all about. Be confident in who you are, because at the end of the day, that's all you are. You.

That's what swagger is, at least how I see it. All of these people walkin around think they have swagger because they're cocky and have money, but how many of these images are the real person? The word has lost it's meaning...

But it's all good, it's not like I have any ownership of the word or anything. People can use it however they want to, just like any other word. In fact, if you look the word up in Webster's Dictionary (since that's what people like to do when they want to make it look like they know what they're talking about), it has a pretty negative connotation. Here, I'll save you the trouble:


==========
Main Entry:
1swag·ger
Pronunciation:
\ˈswa-gər\
Function:
verb
Etymology:
probably from 1swag + -er (as in chatter)
Date:
circa 1596

intransitive verb
1: to conduct oneself in an arrogant or superciliously pompous manner
: to walk with an air of overbearing self-confidence
2: boast , brag

transitive verb
1:to force by argument or threat
: bully
==========

You're welcome... Yeah, not the greatest word according to definition... but you know what, that's how Webster's defines it... I don't let anyone define me! (Cue cheesy music)

Yada yada yada, ramble, ramble, ramble... Swagger is a cool word, just stop using it so much or people will think I stole it from Lil' Wayne or some shit... (I stole it from Jay-Z, get it right!)


T-Pain out!
[enable voicebox]
Ooooh I can't believe it!
Oh, oh, they usin swagger, swagger!
It, it, feels like a dagger, dagger!
But does even matter? naaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwww
[disable voicebox]

hmm... sucks that not too many words rhyme with 'swagger'... especially ones that make sense. oh well, had to get that song outta my head... and I'm out!
(for real this time)

~SJ

Blogging is for the cool kids

I've been severely slacking off with this blog... but it hasn't quite been a month since my last post, so it hasnt been tooo long. anyway yeah blogging is cool. its a way to just get your thoughts out there, if thats your thing. in general its a way to express yourself, and anyone can do it. you dont have to be an artist or a musician. maybe it could even be considered art? i mean, literature is art, and writing a blog involves creative thinking and imagination. also as i said before its a form of expression. does that make editorials art? who decides these things?

Eternal Connection...

It's crazy nowadays when I think about how easily we are all connected. It wasn't that long ago when you had to drop 25 or 35 cents in a payphone to call for a ride from home! Now, kids these days can just whip out their cellphones and dial home from wherever they are. It wasn't really that long ago that you had to use a good ol fashion pen and paper, seal it up, stick a stamp on it and send a letter to "speak" with someone far away. I say "speak" because it's a bit hard to have a conversation when it may take days or weeks to get a response. Funny, I can e-mail my friend in Japan (on the other side of the globe), and receive a response in minutes! People used to lose touch after a certain point... elementary school, high school, college... but that is a thing of the past. With things like facebook and myspace, we can all stay connected with those people who we always wanted to. easily. Remember that kid in your gym class who you were buddies with in 3rd grade? Type his name in facebook and you'll probably find him, 15 or 20 years older, but it's still him. If not, head over to myspace, most people are on at least 1 of those, if not both.

It wasn't that long ago when we had to go to the library to find information... library? what's that? I just go to google, or wikipedia. Everything just a few keystrokes away. It's amazing when you really stop and think about it, but then again no one really does. We take for granted that instead of having to call all of our friends on the house phone to set up plans on friday night, we can just send out a gmail, or facebook message to all of them at once, maybe even use AIM if enough of your friends are on. we don't have to wonder where to meet or why they're late, just hit up their cell phone. don't worry about them getting lost, they've got gps! don't wonder about where you're gonna eat, one of your friends can just google from their phone.

In fact you don't even have to ask me what I'm thinking... you just read it right here...

Now, don't get me wrong, maybe the tone of this essay(oh no! is that what this is?) isn't really being conveyed. I'm not annoyed or fed up with technology or society, I'm a big fan of the direction that we're headed in. I mean damn, I'm "friends" with Barack Obama on facebook. If I would have told you, not even 10 years ago, that I would have any connection to a presidential candidate, especially a direct link to him, you'd look at me a little funny. What's even funnier is that I'm his "friend" and I don't even know him! If you don't think thats some crazy ish, I don't know what to tell you. But anyway, off my random tangent... It's just that I finally took a step back and looked at what we have (technology is what I'm talking about, in case my little side spiel confused you) with awe and amazement. It is truly something that we take for granted these days, and no doubt we will still do so in the future.

But... I digress. I'm not really telling you that you have to be all amazed and overjoyed and whatnot. I'm just sharing my simple thoughts on the eternal connection that we all share.

~Swagger J.

Lupe is a beast!

Speaking of music... Lupe Fiasco is a beast.... just ridiculous! Every time I listen to his songs I pick up something new that he says that just makes me go "Wow." I've been listening to his latest album "The Cool" a lot recently, and I just have to say that each time I listen to it, I like it more than the time before. I just can't say that about much music that comes out these days. I recommend that you give it a listen if you haven't heard it.

~Swagger J.

Heavy Rotation

Whenever I go somewhere in my car (and sometimes in other people's cars), I bring along my iPod (sometimes forcefully!). There are some songs and albums that just stay in my heavy rotation and I thought I'd share. These are the artists that keep me entertained on those boring drives...

Common
John Legend
Incubus
Brokn.Englsh
KanYe West
Gym Class Heroes
Lupe Fiasco
Jay-Z
Swagger Jackson (of course)
311
Alicia Keys
Gil Scott-Heron
WAR

There's tons more, but these are the main culprits. If you haven't heard/heard of any of these artists, you're missing out on some excellent music!

~Swagger J.

Ok, mobile blogging isn't that bad

If you can see this blog, then I have successfully uploaded it from my phone. hooray for me! Well, that's it, I was just testing it.

~Swagger J.

Mobile blogging sucks!

Ok, that sucked. I just wrote out a whole intricate, well thought out blog on my new fancy awesomephone, and it decided to erase it for some reason. grrrr

Anyway, here's the main gist of it...


Welcome to the Swagger Lounge, it's the one and only Swagger Jackson. I've decided to try out this whole blog thing because I have way too many random thoughts in my head at random times. For those of you who don't know, or who wouldn't know (Man this is so much faster than typing on my phone), I just got a new toy! I decided to upgrade myself (Beyonce style), and get one of those PDA/smartphone/all-in-one deviceamajigs. It even has "free" unlimited internet access, which I pay for monthly, lol. Anyway, in order to justify paying for that fancy internetness, I decided I should probably do a little more than check my gmail and facebook more frequently... and thus, the Swagger Lounge was born.

First thing I wanna do is give a shout to my boy L, aka Lyriq 2 go, of the infamous (soon to be famous) Brokn.Englsh (myspace.com/broknenglsh), who came up with the term Swagger Lounge on a track I did for him, "Top Notch" on their mixtape: R.E.M. Yes, I make music (myspace.com/swaggerjackson), and I love music (especially my own!).

Second thing I wanna do is establish some rules of this blog:
First rule: There will be no uniformity in my blogs. One may be well formatted, and grammered and such, and the next may be completely random stream of consciousness type jazz with no periods andor commas/punctuationism ( See what I did there?)

Second rule: I can and will make up any word I damn well please. You've already seen it quite a few times in this very blog... don't expect it to end there.

Third rule: I don't really have a third rule, but I think it looks better to have 3 rules, rather than 2. So the third rule is that 3 rules look better than 2.

Well, this seems like a good place to end the blog, and besides, I've run out of my daily allowance of parentheses. More blogs to come! (Hopefully my phone behaves better next time, and I can actually write the next one from it. Damn, I've used up 2 of tomorrow's parentheses)

~Swagger J.