Sunday, April 26, 2009
Friday, April 24, 2009
Breaking Sane
Okay, so. I understand i am going to be here in TC for a tad bit longer than what i anticipated so I have joined a break dancing class....and i plan on sticking with this as long as i am here in TC.
A few months ago i joined a gym and i worked out....at least 5 times a week, everynight after work except fridays and saturdays. But lastnight i started break dancing lessons, and i tell you what, that was WAY more of any workout i had at the gym and i am WAY more sore than i ever was when i was going to the gym!
The class is an hour and a half long, and i kid you not, we did not stand on our two feet for the first hour of the class. It was awesome.
Im moving into my new home here in the next week and then next weekend is Burning Fight. Maybe i can show off some of my amature break dancing moves at the hardcore show...
Yippy.
A few months ago i joined a gym and i worked out....at least 5 times a week, everynight after work except fridays and saturdays. But lastnight i started break dancing lessons, and i tell you what, that was WAY more of any workout i had at the gym and i am WAY more sore than i ever was when i was going to the gym!
The class is an hour and a half long, and i kid you not, we did not stand on our two feet for the first hour of the class. It was awesome.
Im moving into my new home here in the next week and then next weekend is Burning Fight. Maybe i can show off some of my amature break dancing moves at the hardcore show...
Yippy.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Backing Up...
So i just got another external hard drive. Its 1TB which equals 1000 GB. Currently, as i am typing this it is doing the duty of backing up my ENTIRE computer, every single file, every song, every picture, every movie....wait, i dont have any movies. Basically its all my music and pictures. Because, in an earlier post i informed all one million readers of my BLOG that i have completely filled up the hard drive on my computer. So hopefully with this new addition to my technology family, me and my computer can advance further together into the future with many more happy moments to come!
Alright, the moment you have all been waiting for.....I do NOT have to take the SAT's or ACT's EVER. Radical. All i have to do is get my GPA up higher. Since i have taken over 30 college credits, anywhere that i will go to next wont even care to look at SAT or ACT scores. But now my GPA is a solid 2.0 which is "base requirements"....thats what the counsler said, i dont know what that means though. All i know is that i need to get that GPA up, and if thats what i need to do, then thats what im going to do. The counsler gave me some options, he said the ABSOLUTE BEST thing i can do for myself is retake some of the classes that i dropped out of in my past college semesters and bump up the GPA here at NMC. Another thing he said, which is more up my ally, is go to the city i want to live in, live there for 6 months and get residency, then i get into the community college there and bump up my GPA at that community college and then pursue a higher college education after that. Bottom line though is that GPA has to come up. Wherever i decide to go, the main thing i will be working towards is getting that GPA up. GPA stands for Grade Point Average....its not an acronym for Grandpa.
So, as you all know.....all eighteen billion of my BLOG readers....as you all know, im not that much of a MIDDLE MAN kind of guy. I pretty much say "Lets cut the middle man out" whenever i get the chance, even if it has no relevance to anything i will probably say it just for kicks....and the way i see this finding residency and everything in a new city is kind of like the middle man. Why go somewhere and live there for 6 months THEN start building my GPA back up when i can just stay here and probably build that GPA back up in 6 months? I REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY want to move away from TC...like its a burning desire that has been burning for about two years now. But Iv got to fix the problem that i created myself and just get this done and over with. So I think im going to make the decision RIGHT NOW, as I am BLOGGING this, I am deciding that i will stay here at NMC and get my GPA up to at least a 2.5. But i will shoot for a 3.0. If i can get a 3.0 gpa that will open my options up a little more and make it a little bit more easier for me to get into another college or maybe even a University. If i do it this way i can get this done faster and cheaper than if i were to move away and do this. I might even be able to start over the summer and possibly be ready to leave before next summer. So....thats my one year plan i guess you can say....YUCK, dont say that actually! I dont like the sound of me staying here for one more year, thats like what iv been saying for the past couple years "Just one more year, i guess......". Just call it my plan...or call it my "MEGA HOT LAVA PLAN!!!!" I like that one more.
....so there is that. Cool, huh? Thinking about life and stuff.....
So Lollapalooza announced their line up today. Meh....probably wont go. But in honor of the line up i am listening to Tool's not so new newest cd....10,000 Days. Its been out now for a few years but iv never actually sat down and listened to it. Iv listened to it, and iv probably listened to every song on the album but never just a one on one kind of listening. So I am right now.
Okay, so, there has been a topic that i have been thinking about alot lately, mostly becuase it has been brought up at least once every day in some form for the past month or couple of years:
A Tribe Called Quest, a legendary hip hop group, once asked the question "Can I Kick It?", which, if you didnt already know, is where i got the name of this BLOG thing. They also once said "Back in the days when I was a teenager, Before I had status and before I had a pager, You could find the Abstract listening to hip hop. My pops used to say, it reminded him of be-bop. I said, well daddy don't you know that things go in cycles. The way that Bobby Brown is just ampin like Michael." And thats the lyric that i want to focus on. When he (Q-Tip) says to his father "well daddy, don't you know that things go in cycles" He is talking about history, how history repeats its self. And that has been the recurring theme through my days lately. Its almost the sign of the times....constantly, that the kids are going through one massive recycle of history. When i was working yesterday at Oryana i was talking to Chris, the produce manager, about how kids are coloring their bikes and their choice in clothing and everything and basically focusing on NEON COLORS and thats what triggered this whole thought process of history repeating itself. It seems as if we are recycling through a very bight time of the late 80's early 90's. Bright neon colors were big back then and they are getting big now. I cant help to notice that we are at the end of a decade moving into a new decade and anywhere you see large groups of kids hanging out, from ages 15 to 25, you will see at least a couple of choice bright neon colored clothing apparel. In 89' im sure it was the same exact story. Im not just talking about the colors either, but also the fashion and music too. Like hi-top shoes and flipped brimed hats and big bulky sunglasses (You know, those sunglasses that gas stations would give away free with the purchase of a footlong hot dog or something, back in 2002). Im sure that somewhere in these groups of kids, a couple of them realize they are repeating a fashion trend of the 80's, and then the rest of them are just following those kids thinking that its an awesome NEW trend sweeping through their highschool classes. You can also see the recycled history not only just in the clothes but even in music too. Especially Hip Hop. Hip Hop, in my opinion, kind of made a comeback just a few years ago with the Roots signing to Def Jam and Kanye West getting bigger and bigger with every release of his and I saw alot of smaller hip hop artists get big like Sage Francis, Atmosphere, and Aesop Rock. It seemed the comback rock of Hip Hop has been rolling for a while now. But with this bright inspiration of Neon Colors reflecting back onto the music that is being created i have taken note that even the hip hop is starting to sound like it did back in the 80's.
In the late 80's hip hop was just kicking off and getting more popular with groups like A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul and Public Enemy. And back then people were saying that, like in that Tribe Called Quest lyric i mentioned earlier "It reminded him of be-bop", hip hop was kind of like a recycled new form of jazz and poetry combined. But even with the comback of hip hop happening now for a few years, its as if this comback has even taken a step back to the 80's. Just look at Kanye West, now, he is a pretty big face in the mainstream hip hop circuit, right? If you saw him in the era of his release "The College Dropout" which came out in 2004, he dressed kind of like how you would expect a "normal" hip hop star to dress. Now with his release of 808's and Heartbreaks he looks like he just got back from a vacation with Marty McFly (Main character of Back to the Future). When i look at Kanye West and listen to 808's and Hearbreaks i just see an updated "Year 2000" version of Afrika Bambaataa. Which is just one more 80's hip hop sensation thats getting recycled with bright colors.
And then there is Lil' Wayne, who is said to be the next Michael Jackson. He said it himself, he wouldnt be as big as he is now without MIX TAPES, which is just another recycled product of the 80's. Now he has been quoated saying things like he could throw a dart at a map and he'd probably have a house there. He's not contributing much to this theme of history repeating itself, BUT, mix tapes can certainly be thrown in there with neon colors and hip hop being recylced through the kids now-a-days.
Now, to talk about the group who got me thinking ALL about this whole topic. The Cool Kids, released their debut album the Bake Sale EP in early 2008. Im going to go ahead and make the assumption that if you are older than....say....28 or 29, and you never REALLY got into hip hop or "rap", but dabbled in it a bit in college. If you listened to the Cool Kids and saw a picture of them you would think that they pretty much invented hip hop right up alongside of A Tribe Called Quest. Right down to the shoes these guys wear (And dont even get me started with the shoe trend, thats a whole new story) the beats, the rhymes, the hats, the sunglasses, all of it is recycled product from the late 80's. I wonder that if you were to show a picture of the Cool Kids next to a picture of De La Soul the kids listening to the Cool Kids would understand that a mere twenty years stand between the two groups. Im sure most of them would just ask "Is this the group thats opening for the Cool Kids on their next tour?"
This whole 80's thing, Its in the music to. Their lyrics are playful and kind of back to basics, referring to normal everyday scenerios and relationships. Not so much about gang fighting and drugs and "pimping" like they were through the 90's and early 2000. Even in the beats, im not going to say they sound like 80's HIP HOP beats....but its almost as if these hip hop artist are discovering the synthesizer for the first time, I mean, it sounds like Duran Duran produced the newest Kanye West album. So its not quite 80's hip hop beats, but its certainly 80's music influenced!
But who am I to say all this? I always make claims and assumptions like this all the time as if this is actually happening all around the world just like a plane flying through the jet-stream, when really im just getting caught up in this very VERY specific sub-culture that barely 1% of the worlds population is involved in...so someone out there should be saying to me "Pffffff, speak for yo self, LANCE!"
And sure, iv done some stereo typing here, but even i can be....i guess you can say, guilty, of wearing bright colors and listening to this music. But im not saying its a bad thing, I like the color purple and I love how simple and easy it is to listen to the Cool Kids. So, im just as guilty as everyone else iv stereotyped in there.....(alright, enough if finding a safe ground)
When i was speaking to Chris at work the other day about neon colors he said "I dont know what the deal is with all these kids getting bright neon colored bikes and shirts....i was in that stuff a little bit in the 80's...but its just not my thing, i just dont get it." And i DOUBT he knows who the Cool Kids are, but he can certainly see this trend sweeping through this sub culture of kids wearing neon colors. Im just taking it a little further and....analyzing it........mmmm
Wow.....I guess you can say im practicing for my return back to english class....OR you can say i learned more about writing on my own then i EVER did when i was actually in school..............Ehhhhhh.........
Either way you want to say it. Iv definatly kept my eye on this whole "History repeats itself" theme and i just like the thought of Duran Duran getting back together just to help produce the new Kanye West album....thats a WAY more entertaining thought than Lil' Wayne releasing a rap/metal album.....
Alright, the moment you have all been waiting for.....I do NOT have to take the SAT's or ACT's EVER. Radical. All i have to do is get my GPA up higher. Since i have taken over 30 college credits, anywhere that i will go to next wont even care to look at SAT or ACT scores. But now my GPA is a solid 2.0 which is "base requirements"....thats what the counsler said, i dont know what that means though. All i know is that i need to get that GPA up, and if thats what i need to do, then thats what im going to do. The counsler gave me some options, he said the ABSOLUTE BEST thing i can do for myself is retake some of the classes that i dropped out of in my past college semesters and bump up the GPA here at NMC. Another thing he said, which is more up my ally, is go to the city i want to live in, live there for 6 months and get residency, then i get into the community college there and bump up my GPA at that community college and then pursue a higher college education after that. Bottom line though is that GPA has to come up. Wherever i decide to go, the main thing i will be working towards is getting that GPA up. GPA stands for Grade Point Average....its not an acronym for Grandpa.
So, as you all know.....all eighteen billion of my BLOG readers....as you all know, im not that much of a MIDDLE MAN kind of guy. I pretty much say "Lets cut the middle man out" whenever i get the chance, even if it has no relevance to anything i will probably say it just for kicks....and the way i see this finding residency and everything in a new city is kind of like the middle man. Why go somewhere and live there for 6 months THEN start building my GPA back up when i can just stay here and probably build that GPA back up in 6 months? I REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY want to move away from TC...like its a burning desire that has been burning for about two years now. But Iv got to fix the problem that i created myself and just get this done and over with. So I think im going to make the decision RIGHT NOW, as I am BLOGGING this, I am deciding that i will stay here at NMC and get my GPA up to at least a 2.5. But i will shoot for a 3.0. If i can get a 3.0 gpa that will open my options up a little more and make it a little bit more easier for me to get into another college or maybe even a University. If i do it this way i can get this done faster and cheaper than if i were to move away and do this. I might even be able to start over the summer and possibly be ready to leave before next summer. So....thats my one year plan i guess you can say....YUCK, dont say that actually! I dont like the sound of me staying here for one more year, thats like what iv been saying for the past couple years "Just one more year, i guess......". Just call it my plan...or call it my "MEGA HOT LAVA PLAN!!!!" I like that one more.
....so there is that. Cool, huh? Thinking about life and stuff.....
So Lollapalooza announced their line up today. Meh....probably wont go. But in honor of the line up i am listening to Tool's not so new newest cd....10,000 Days. Its been out now for a few years but iv never actually sat down and listened to it. Iv listened to it, and iv probably listened to every song on the album but never just a one on one kind of listening. So I am right now.
Okay, so, there has been a topic that i have been thinking about alot lately, mostly becuase it has been brought up at least once every day in some form for the past month or couple of years:
A Tribe Called Quest, a legendary hip hop group, once asked the question "Can I Kick It?", which, if you didnt already know, is where i got the name of this BLOG thing. They also once said "Back in the days when I was a teenager, Before I had status and before I had a pager, You could find the Abstract listening to hip hop. My pops used to say, it reminded him of be-bop. I said, well daddy don't you know that things go in cycles. The way that Bobby Brown is just ampin like Michael." And thats the lyric that i want to focus on. When he (Q-Tip) says to his father "well daddy, don't you know that things go in cycles" He is talking about history, how history repeats its self. And that has been the recurring theme through my days lately. Its almost the sign of the times....constantly, that the kids are going through one massive recycle of history. When i was working yesterday at Oryana i was talking to Chris, the produce manager, about how kids are coloring their bikes and their choice in clothing and everything and basically focusing on NEON COLORS and thats what triggered this whole thought process of history repeating itself. It seems as if we are recycling through a very bight time of the late 80's early 90's. Bright neon colors were big back then and they are getting big now. I cant help to notice that we are at the end of a decade moving into a new decade and anywhere you see large groups of kids hanging out, from ages 15 to 25, you will see at least a couple of choice bright neon colored clothing apparel. In 89' im sure it was the same exact story. Im not just talking about the colors either, but also the fashion and music too. Like hi-top shoes and flipped brimed hats and big bulky sunglasses (You know, those sunglasses that gas stations would give away free with the purchase of a footlong hot dog or something, back in 2002). Im sure that somewhere in these groups of kids, a couple of them realize they are repeating a fashion trend of the 80's, and then the rest of them are just following those kids thinking that its an awesome NEW trend sweeping through their highschool classes. You can also see the recycled history not only just in the clothes but even in music too. Especially Hip Hop. Hip Hop, in my opinion, kind of made a comeback just a few years ago with the Roots signing to Def Jam and Kanye West getting bigger and bigger with every release of his and I saw alot of smaller hip hop artists get big like Sage Francis, Atmosphere, and Aesop Rock. It seemed the comback rock of Hip Hop has been rolling for a while now. But with this bright inspiration of Neon Colors reflecting back onto the music that is being created i have taken note that even the hip hop is starting to sound like it did back in the 80's.
In the late 80's hip hop was just kicking off and getting more popular with groups like A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul and Public Enemy. And back then people were saying that, like in that Tribe Called Quest lyric i mentioned earlier "It reminded him of be-bop", hip hop was kind of like a recycled new form of jazz and poetry combined. But even with the comback of hip hop happening now for a few years, its as if this comback has even taken a step back to the 80's. Just look at Kanye West, now, he is a pretty big face in the mainstream hip hop circuit, right? If you saw him in the era of his release "The College Dropout" which came out in 2004, he dressed kind of like how you would expect a "normal" hip hop star to dress. Now with his release of 808's and Heartbreaks he looks like he just got back from a vacation with Marty McFly (Main character of Back to the Future). When i look at Kanye West and listen to 808's and Hearbreaks i just see an updated "Year 2000" version of Afrika Bambaataa. Which is just one more 80's hip hop sensation thats getting recycled with bright colors.
And then there is Lil' Wayne, who is said to be the next Michael Jackson. He said it himself, he wouldnt be as big as he is now without MIX TAPES, which is just another recycled product of the 80's. Now he has been quoated saying things like he could throw a dart at a map and he'd probably have a house there. He's not contributing much to this theme of history repeating itself, BUT, mix tapes can certainly be thrown in there with neon colors and hip hop being recylced through the kids now-a-days.
Now, to talk about the group who got me thinking ALL about this whole topic. The Cool Kids, released their debut album the Bake Sale EP in early 2008. Im going to go ahead and make the assumption that if you are older than....say....28 or 29, and you never REALLY got into hip hop or "rap", but dabbled in it a bit in college. If you listened to the Cool Kids and saw a picture of them you would think that they pretty much invented hip hop right up alongside of A Tribe Called Quest. Right down to the shoes these guys wear (And dont even get me started with the shoe trend, thats a whole new story) the beats, the rhymes, the hats, the sunglasses, all of it is recycled product from the late 80's. I wonder that if you were to show a picture of the Cool Kids next to a picture of De La Soul the kids listening to the Cool Kids would understand that a mere twenty years stand between the two groups. Im sure most of them would just ask "Is this the group thats opening for the Cool Kids on their next tour?"
This whole 80's thing, Its in the music to. Their lyrics are playful and kind of back to basics, referring to normal everyday scenerios and relationships. Not so much about gang fighting and drugs and "pimping" like they were through the 90's and early 2000. Even in the beats, im not going to say they sound like 80's HIP HOP beats....but its almost as if these hip hop artist are discovering the synthesizer for the first time, I mean, it sounds like Duran Duran produced the newest Kanye West album. So its not quite 80's hip hop beats, but its certainly 80's music influenced!
But who am I to say all this? I always make claims and assumptions like this all the time as if this is actually happening all around the world just like a plane flying through the jet-stream, when really im just getting caught up in this very VERY specific sub-culture that barely 1% of the worlds population is involved in...so someone out there should be saying to me "Pffffff, speak for yo self, LANCE!"
And sure, iv done some stereo typing here, but even i can be....i guess you can say, guilty, of wearing bright colors and listening to this music. But im not saying its a bad thing, I like the color purple and I love how simple and easy it is to listen to the Cool Kids. So, im just as guilty as everyone else iv stereotyped in there.....(alright, enough if finding a safe ground)
When i was speaking to Chris at work the other day about neon colors he said "I dont know what the deal is with all these kids getting bright neon colored bikes and shirts....i was in that stuff a little bit in the 80's...but its just not my thing, i just dont get it." And i DOUBT he knows who the Cool Kids are, but he can certainly see this trend sweeping through this sub culture of kids wearing neon colors. Im just taking it a little further and....analyzing it........mmmm
Wow.....I guess you can say im practicing for my return back to english class....OR you can say i learned more about writing on my own then i EVER did when i was actually in school..............Ehhhhhh.........
Either way you want to say it. Iv definatly kept my eye on this whole "History repeats itself" theme and i just like the thought of Duran Duran getting back together just to help produce the new Kanye West album....thats a WAY more entertaining thought than Lil' Wayne releasing a rap/metal album.....
Thursday, April 16, 2009
UN-BAH-LEE-VVVVV-UH-BUH-LLLLLLL
Thats right...the last time I BLOGGED this frequently I was on the other side of the world...whud up wit dat?
Well, i was just reading other blogs and i figured "Eh, im already on here, i might as well type something..."
So, just to warn you now i will probably lose interest in this typing pretty quick and think "Whats the point in this? im just going to go check out pitchfork......" But instead of leaving directly after that without posting this, i will fight the urge and click on the "Publish Post" button before i head to my next site.
Currently my front tooth is hurting.....i need to keep better care of these things in my mouth...if i had health insurance the first thing id do is go to the dentist....but i dont have health insurance...so im just going to go brush my teeth.
yippy.... im typing this with one hand while the other hand is busy brushing my teeth.....
.....
.....
Alright, back to business (With both hands)
Tomorrow i finish up my tattoo that i have been working on (Slowly but shirly). Dad, i'll show you it the next time i see you, probably sometime over the weekend. Either Sunday or monday. I bet your excited....
Another exciting piece of information:
Im moving out of this apartment that i have been living in since i got back form Europe and into a 3 bedroom apartment on the other side of downtown. It is HUGE, its on State st. and its one of those MASSIVE oldy time houses thats really close to downtown. Im moving in with my friends Dave K. and Alex G. Im pumped to move in with these guys and im excited to go back to living with other people rather than by myself like i have been for the past 4 months.
May is going to be a busy month. Especially the first week of May. Not only will i be moving into this new house....which actually wont be that hard at all since i literally have just 4 bags of stuff that i have kept packed for the past month. But, on May 1st I will be going down to Detroit to see the good dudes of Have Heart play a show with BANE. This will be like my hundredth time seeing Have Heart but my FIRST time seeing BANE, so i am especially excited for that. From Detroit I will be heading to Chicago for the ultra exclusive Burning Fight show. Actually im not too sure how exclusive it is, but tickets for this show sold out.....very quickly after they went on sale.
Burning Fight: First and foremost, is a song by the hardcore band Inside/Out, which is also the first band that Zach De-la-Rocha was in before he went on to form the might RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE. But NOW Burning Fight is a book, this is what the site has to say:
"Burning Fight: The Nineties Hardcore Revolution in Ethics, Politics, Spirit, and Sound draws upon the memories of many who played influential roles in the scene and understand what made this era of hardcore so unique in its ability to synthesize music and ideology into what for many felt like was a powerful counter-cultural movement, where change was just around the corner."
The book is going to be released May 2nd, at the Burning Fight show in Chicago. Which will be a two day long hardcore celebration featuring not only Have Heart and Bane, who i mentioned earlier, but also Converge, Betrayed, Blacklisted, Soul Control, Convicted, Damnation A.D., Reach the Sky, and reunited 108, reunited Trial, reunited Split Lip, and a very awesome reunited Unbroken who are only reuniting for this show and the California Burning Fight show....and also bunch of other hardcore bands from the 90's. Im just going to say right now, the closing three bands of the celebration are Bane, Converge, and Unbroken........all i can say to that is...well, im speechless really...so i cant say anything, but just know that im pretty excited for those three bands.
I was luckly enough to score a pass to this show from my very awesome friend Brian L. who i can not thank enough for this! Not only do i owe you $50 for the ticket, but i owe you more than that....like....i dont know, i'll make you some awesome vegan no-bake cookies....and i'll get you a book.
Another awesome thing about this book is that my good friend John Mckaig is featured in it for being a hardcore promoter and photographer.
So Burning Fight and moving to a new home, first week of may. Kind of a big deal....
Through out May i will be picking up more shifts at Oryana. Well hopfully sooner than later hopefully i will be going back to 40 hours a week. Awesome. And not just in the Cafe, i have recently been hired into the Produce department of Oryana. Yippy!! So, by a result of that, my time sitting in at the Fixed Gear Gallery/Hell Yes! retail shop will probably be coming to an end here soon. But I will continue at Porterhouse Productions because that schedual doesnt really conlfict with anything else, well...mostly because i dont allow anything else to conflict with that. My call of duty for Porterhouse only occurs when there is a show, and if iv got any free time. And i usually know well enough in advance about a show so i am able to pen it into my calender.
So....i would have liked to be able to give a better update on any education updates, but i cant. Simply because my next day off when i will be able to get to NMC isnt untill Monday...and well its been like that for the past couple months. When my only days off from all my jobs are Sunday and Monday, im forced to do ALOT of things on Monday cause everything is closed on Sunday. So, Monday, i am giving my whole day to NMC, if i have to sit and wait 3 hours to see a counsler then i will do it. But i am going to get an answer on Monday to a question i have been asking myself for a long time now, and that question is "How hard is it going to be for me to get into different college?"
......
Yikes....
In two weeks I will be working at the Ani Difranco show as stage manager. Im pretty excited for this because i understand that Ani Difranco is sort of a legend. I havent really gotten into her music too much, but i know she plays guitar and sings about power and freedom. I also know that she has been a growing independent artist for at least the past decade, with little to no help from record companies she has kind of created her own empire. So with that said, no matter how tall she is, i will be looking up to her.
So there is my take on that.....
The other night I had the idea of incorporating pictures back into my blog of just average everyday things i do through out my days. But when i grabbed my camera to take pictures of the first instullment, i quickly found that the battery was dead. I dont think iv used my camera once since iv been back from Europe...but the battery was dead. I would have documented the second creation of vegan No-Bakes, with a speacial appearance by Amy. But instead, here i am just telling you about dead batteries instead of posting pictures of the delicious vegan no-bake cookies that Amy and I made. Oh well, there will be a next time. The cookies have been turning out a bit greasy, so the next time we make them we are going to expiriment with using bananas instead of the vegan butter to thicken them up. I dont see why it wouldnt work really....we would have tried the bananas this time while making the cookies, but i guess i just wasnt feeling edgy enough...
The other day i exceeded the capacity of my hardrive on my computer. With the download of this thing called "Boxee" I now only have 1.24 gb of space left on my hardrive. And thats after i deleted a bunch of useless music out of my itunes. So, iv gotta figure out a way of opening more space on my hardrive. I have a couple ideas and what it comes down to is me getting another external hardrive and using the external hardrive that i have now as my main hardrive and transferring just about everything from my computer hardrive on to my external and then backing it all up onto my new external hardrive....This way i will have about 300 gb of more space to fill up.
Wow, it sounds like i kind of know something about computers.....
well, iv had enough of this, lets drink the juice and crack the whip, if you know what i mean.....
While i was typing this BLOG i listened to the Deftones: Saturday Night Wrist and White Pony in their entirety and i can safely say that out of everything that i listen to now, the band that i have been listening to since......EARLY junior high/LATE elementry still reign supreme. I can listen to something and be content with it but at ANY time i can put on the Deftones and be HAPPY about it. I remember when the White Poney came out, it was the summer before 9th grade....I got the normal release of it and the limited black edition of the release and i was afraid to take the wrapping off of it but i wanted to listen to the extra song SOOO bad. I also remember seeing the video for "My Own Summer" for the first time, which was also the first time i heard the Deftones, while staying up one night with my Dad watching some late night show on MTV that played like....more of the heavier stuff i guess, the stuff they didnt play during the day. I dont know how old i was...i was young though, i was also short cause i remember standing really close to the t.v. and the t.v. was at eye level.
On my ride to work and for the first half of my work out at the gym today i listened to the Cool Kids: The Bake Sale E.P. and a little bit of M.I.A.: Kala
For the last half of my work out at the gym i shuffled between songs by Job for a Cowboy, Black Dahlia Murder, and the Faceless before i settled upon This is Hell: Misfortunes
And when I came home i listend to Converge: You Fail Me
Wow, so look how far i got with this BLOG....i made it all the way....sure it was a bit of a struggle, but i was able to fight my way through.......this thing.......alright....well that killed it for me...iv had enough of this stupid thing.....
Well, i was just reading other blogs and i figured "Eh, im already on here, i might as well type something..."
So, just to warn you now i will probably lose interest in this typing pretty quick and think "Whats the point in this? im just going to go check out pitchfork......" But instead of leaving directly after that without posting this, i will fight the urge and click on the "Publish Post" button before i head to my next site.
Currently my front tooth is hurting.....i need to keep better care of these things in my mouth...if i had health insurance the first thing id do is go to the dentist....but i dont have health insurance...so im just going to go brush my teeth.
yippy.... im typing this with one hand while the other hand is busy brushing my teeth.....
.....
.....
Alright, back to business (With both hands)
Tomorrow i finish up my tattoo that i have been working on (Slowly but shirly). Dad, i'll show you it the next time i see you, probably sometime over the weekend. Either Sunday or monday. I bet your excited....
Another exciting piece of information:
Im moving out of this apartment that i have been living in since i got back form Europe and into a 3 bedroom apartment on the other side of downtown. It is HUGE, its on State st. and its one of those MASSIVE oldy time houses thats really close to downtown. Im moving in with my friends Dave K. and Alex G. Im pumped to move in with these guys and im excited to go back to living with other people rather than by myself like i have been for the past 4 months.
May is going to be a busy month. Especially the first week of May. Not only will i be moving into this new house....which actually wont be that hard at all since i literally have just 4 bags of stuff that i have kept packed for the past month. But, on May 1st I will be going down to Detroit to see the good dudes of Have Heart play a show with BANE. This will be like my hundredth time seeing Have Heart but my FIRST time seeing BANE, so i am especially excited for that. From Detroit I will be heading to Chicago for the ultra exclusive Burning Fight show. Actually im not too sure how exclusive it is, but tickets for this show sold out.....very quickly after they went on sale.
Burning Fight: First and foremost, is a song by the hardcore band Inside/Out, which is also the first band that Zach De-la-Rocha was in before he went on to form the might RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE. But NOW Burning Fight is a book, this is what the site has to say:
"Burning Fight: The Nineties Hardcore Revolution in Ethics, Politics, Spirit, and Sound draws upon the memories of many who played influential roles in the scene and understand what made this era of hardcore so unique in its ability to synthesize music and ideology into what for many felt like was a powerful counter-cultural movement, where change was just around the corner."
The book is going to be released May 2nd, at the Burning Fight show in Chicago. Which will be a two day long hardcore celebration featuring not only Have Heart and Bane, who i mentioned earlier, but also Converge, Betrayed, Blacklisted, Soul Control, Convicted, Damnation A.D., Reach the Sky, and reunited 108, reunited Trial, reunited Split Lip, and a very awesome reunited Unbroken who are only reuniting for this show and the California Burning Fight show....and also bunch of other hardcore bands from the 90's. Im just going to say right now, the closing three bands of the celebration are Bane, Converge, and Unbroken........all i can say to that is...well, im speechless really...so i cant say anything, but just know that im pretty excited for those three bands.
I was luckly enough to score a pass to this show from my very awesome friend Brian L. who i can not thank enough for this! Not only do i owe you $50 for the ticket, but i owe you more than that....like....i dont know, i'll make you some awesome vegan no-bake cookies....and i'll get you a book.
Another awesome thing about this book is that my good friend John Mckaig is featured in it for being a hardcore promoter and photographer.
So Burning Fight and moving to a new home, first week of may. Kind of a big deal....
Through out May i will be picking up more shifts at Oryana. Well hopfully sooner than later hopefully i will be going back to 40 hours a week. Awesome. And not just in the Cafe, i have recently been hired into the Produce department of Oryana. Yippy!! So, by a result of that, my time sitting in at the Fixed Gear Gallery/Hell Yes! retail shop will probably be coming to an end here soon. But I will continue at Porterhouse Productions because that schedual doesnt really conlfict with anything else, well...mostly because i dont allow anything else to conflict with that. My call of duty for Porterhouse only occurs when there is a show, and if iv got any free time. And i usually know well enough in advance about a show so i am able to pen it into my calender.
So....i would have liked to be able to give a better update on any education updates, but i cant. Simply because my next day off when i will be able to get to NMC isnt untill Monday...and well its been like that for the past couple months. When my only days off from all my jobs are Sunday and Monday, im forced to do ALOT of things on Monday cause everything is closed on Sunday. So, Monday, i am giving my whole day to NMC, if i have to sit and wait 3 hours to see a counsler then i will do it. But i am going to get an answer on Monday to a question i have been asking myself for a long time now, and that question is "How hard is it going to be for me to get into different college?"
......
Yikes....
In two weeks I will be working at the Ani Difranco show as stage manager. Im pretty excited for this because i understand that Ani Difranco is sort of a legend. I havent really gotten into her music too much, but i know she plays guitar and sings about power and freedom. I also know that she has been a growing independent artist for at least the past decade, with little to no help from record companies she has kind of created her own empire. So with that said, no matter how tall she is, i will be looking up to her.
So there is my take on that.....
The other night I had the idea of incorporating pictures back into my blog of just average everyday things i do through out my days. But when i grabbed my camera to take pictures of the first instullment, i quickly found that the battery was dead. I dont think iv used my camera once since iv been back from Europe...but the battery was dead. I would have documented the second creation of vegan No-Bakes, with a speacial appearance by Amy. But instead, here i am just telling you about dead batteries instead of posting pictures of the delicious vegan no-bake cookies that Amy and I made. Oh well, there will be a next time. The cookies have been turning out a bit greasy, so the next time we make them we are going to expiriment with using bananas instead of the vegan butter to thicken them up. I dont see why it wouldnt work really....we would have tried the bananas this time while making the cookies, but i guess i just wasnt feeling edgy enough...
The other day i exceeded the capacity of my hardrive on my computer. With the download of this thing called "Boxee" I now only have 1.24 gb of space left on my hardrive. And thats after i deleted a bunch of useless music out of my itunes. So, iv gotta figure out a way of opening more space on my hardrive. I have a couple ideas and what it comes down to is me getting another external hardrive and using the external hardrive that i have now as my main hardrive and transferring just about everything from my computer hardrive on to my external and then backing it all up onto my new external hardrive....This way i will have about 300 gb of more space to fill up.
Wow, it sounds like i kind of know something about computers.....
well, iv had enough of this, lets drink the juice and crack the whip, if you know what i mean.....
While i was typing this BLOG i listened to the Deftones: Saturday Night Wrist and White Pony in their entirety and i can safely say that out of everything that i listen to now, the band that i have been listening to since......EARLY junior high/LATE elementry still reign supreme. I can listen to something and be content with it but at ANY time i can put on the Deftones and be HAPPY about it. I remember when the White Poney came out, it was the summer before 9th grade....I got the normal release of it and the limited black edition of the release and i was afraid to take the wrapping off of it but i wanted to listen to the extra song SOOO bad. I also remember seeing the video for "My Own Summer" for the first time, which was also the first time i heard the Deftones, while staying up one night with my Dad watching some late night show on MTV that played like....more of the heavier stuff i guess, the stuff they didnt play during the day. I dont know how old i was...i was young though, i was also short cause i remember standing really close to the t.v. and the t.v. was at eye level.
On my ride to work and for the first half of my work out at the gym today i listened to the Cool Kids: The Bake Sale E.P. and a little bit of M.I.A.: Kala
For the last half of my work out at the gym i shuffled between songs by Job for a Cowboy, Black Dahlia Murder, and the Faceless before i settled upon This is Hell: Misfortunes
And when I came home i listend to Converge: You Fail Me
Wow, so look how far i got with this BLOG....i made it all the way....sure it was a bit of a struggle, but i was able to fight my way through.......this thing.......alright....well that killed it for me...iv had enough of this stupid thing.....
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
News for the Newdies....and drool for the school
So, i have been helping my parents move into town for the past couple of weeks. Its pretty exciting knowing that they are a mere bike ride away from me now. In fact i have already ridden my bike to their house once already. I cant even describe where they live, other than its near the library. Past the Library on the tart trail. There, thats how i will describe it. So thats cool. But its wierd to think that one of these visits back to my parents old house is going to be one my last visits back to the house i grew up in. Probably in about a year i wont be able to go back there, someone else might be living there. In the house that I (imagine that I being really big) grew up in! So wierd....so wierd....
Im thinking about posting more in this thing....THINKING about it though...thats all, alright. I'll post this one, giving a brief (Probably unsatissfying) update on my life or my SO-CALLED-LIFE. Then it will be at least another month before i post another unsavory update of my so called life.
I dont even see why anyone would read this thing though either, its not like im doing anything exciting like swimming in the mediteranian sea in october or riding my nike through London and/or under the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
Speaking about bikes: The frames finally came in so all iv got to do is get the frame to the powdercoating warehouse and pay for it. I can pay for it whenever cause im loaded (Clearly), the hardest part is the powdercoating. Hopefully it all be done in a timely matter. Once thats done all i got to do is get a wheel set and a few odds and ends then my bike will be complete. Yippy............
I am still at the bike gallery and oryana and porterhouse.
I have currently lost interest in typing in this thing, but i am going to continue to try....
See, i only really think about typing in this thing when im sitting at the gallery, which is pretty appropriate i think.
.......
Welp, an old teacher of mine just walked into the store. She was my english teacher from highschool. Ms. Famiano. She was also one of my favorite teachers in pretty much my entire education career. If she was working as an english teacher at NMC im pretty sure id do alot better there....
Speaking of NMC and college, and education as a whole: I really do want to get back into college. I have a better idea of what i want to be and what i want out of college now. Its just due to my lack of....drive in my past school endeavors i feel i have pretty much screwed myself on all future education endeavors. Basically i just see it being really hard for me to get into a college or university outside of....NMC, also known as "NO MORE CHOICES", which holds so true to me. I never took the ACT or SAT tests, i dont know how i could have let those things slide, who ever thought that that was even just an alright idea? Because now thats pretty much what is holding me back from well...everything id say. And sure i have college credits under my name now and all but they are certainly not acceptable, for the standards i wish to be hold NOW in my life. They range between average and below average......at best. So those certainly arent going to help me get into an outside school. And with that and the no SAT or ACT scores...this is certainly a time in my life when i can safely say that Everything is going against me right now. It just seems like for me to get back into school its going to be almost impossible......
Then there are people like my sister, who has gone to school, gotten good grades and has a good GPA and has been awarded like best student or whatever and she is doing the same thing she was doing before she went to college. Its just now she is in a bigger city....working retail.....at a clothing store......in a mall.....and then i see that, and im like "oh, so thats where college gets you...alright.....".........
yippy...
But i'll admitt, after being away for sometime now and exploring my choices (knowing what i want) and boundries (knowing what i dont want) a bit more i do see the importance of college and education and degrees (i guess....) and i feel now i could benefit from them WAY more then i could two or five years ago....and im certainly ready to buckle down and take the bull by the horns and do this. But now is when the sandpaper (Reality) comes in........
So, i cant see myself trying NMC again. Its out of the question really. Basically this summer what i want to do is take my SAT and ACT. Somehow figure out how i can do that...and do it. I want to try and have a score between average and above average. That way iv got a better chance of getting into a college i want to get into. And on top of taking those tests i need to work and make as much money as i can so i can move away in the fall. To Boston. Cause thats basically a very large college town with a ton of colleges in it, so iv got to get into one of them, right? I want to get into a college, and cram as hard as i can and do my best to complete and get into a graduate school, thats when i will slow down a bit more and be able have a bit more of a specific focus. Cause what my goal is, for school is to learn everything i can about nutrition and diets and...basically everything scientifical about food and eating, i guess....not so much the creation part like culinary, but NUTRITION. And when i graduate and get out of school, well....i will just know more about food then what i do now, and thats basically the main and sole reason for why i want to go back to school. Im not thinking about a career or anything like that...iv gotta take small baby steps first.
So, for my first baby step towards getting back into school, iv gotta figure out if a 22 soon to be a 23 year old dude can take his SAT and ACT still.....and then lets go from there....
Alright, lets get out of the dreadful education hole i have dug myself into and back onto the mountain that i have built, battled, and conquered by setting it to blaze:
What i have been listening too:
Mastodon - Crack The Skye (Title track is possibly one of the best metal songs iv ever heard)
Rusko - Fabriclive
Bat For Lashes - Two Suns
Flying Lotus - Discography
Battles - DIscography
Bob Marley - Legend
Im thinking about posting more in this thing....THINKING about it though...thats all, alright. I'll post this one, giving a brief (Probably unsatissfying) update on my life or my SO-CALLED-LIFE. Then it will be at least another month before i post another unsavory update of my so called life.
I dont even see why anyone would read this thing though either, its not like im doing anything exciting like swimming in the mediteranian sea in october or riding my nike through London and/or under the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
Speaking about bikes: The frames finally came in so all iv got to do is get the frame to the powdercoating warehouse and pay for it. I can pay for it whenever cause im loaded (Clearly), the hardest part is the powdercoating. Hopefully it all be done in a timely matter. Once thats done all i got to do is get a wheel set and a few odds and ends then my bike will be complete. Yippy............
I am still at the bike gallery and oryana and porterhouse.
I have currently lost interest in typing in this thing, but i am going to continue to try....
See, i only really think about typing in this thing when im sitting at the gallery, which is pretty appropriate i think.
.......
Welp, an old teacher of mine just walked into the store. She was my english teacher from highschool. Ms. Famiano. She was also one of my favorite teachers in pretty much my entire education career. If she was working as an english teacher at NMC im pretty sure id do alot better there....
Speaking of NMC and college, and education as a whole: I really do want to get back into college. I have a better idea of what i want to be and what i want out of college now. Its just due to my lack of....drive in my past school endeavors i feel i have pretty much screwed myself on all future education endeavors. Basically i just see it being really hard for me to get into a college or university outside of....NMC, also known as "NO MORE CHOICES", which holds so true to me. I never took the ACT or SAT tests, i dont know how i could have let those things slide, who ever thought that that was even just an alright idea? Because now thats pretty much what is holding me back from well...everything id say. And sure i have college credits under my name now and all but they are certainly not acceptable, for the standards i wish to be hold NOW in my life. They range between average and below average......at best. So those certainly arent going to help me get into an outside school. And with that and the no SAT or ACT scores...this is certainly a time in my life when i can safely say that Everything is going against me right now. It just seems like for me to get back into school its going to be almost impossible......
Then there are people like my sister, who has gone to school, gotten good grades and has a good GPA and has been awarded like best student or whatever and she is doing the same thing she was doing before she went to college. Its just now she is in a bigger city....working retail.....at a clothing store......in a mall.....and then i see that, and im like "oh, so thats where college gets you...alright.....".........
yippy...
But i'll admitt, after being away for sometime now and exploring my choices (knowing what i want) and boundries (knowing what i dont want) a bit more i do see the importance of college and education and degrees (i guess....) and i feel now i could benefit from them WAY more then i could two or five years ago....and im certainly ready to buckle down and take the bull by the horns and do this. But now is when the sandpaper (Reality) comes in........
So, i cant see myself trying NMC again. Its out of the question really. Basically this summer what i want to do is take my SAT and ACT. Somehow figure out how i can do that...and do it. I want to try and have a score between average and above average. That way iv got a better chance of getting into a college i want to get into. And on top of taking those tests i need to work and make as much money as i can so i can move away in the fall. To Boston. Cause thats basically a very large college town with a ton of colleges in it, so iv got to get into one of them, right? I want to get into a college, and cram as hard as i can and do my best to complete and get into a graduate school, thats when i will slow down a bit more and be able have a bit more of a specific focus. Cause what my goal is, for school is to learn everything i can about nutrition and diets and...basically everything scientifical about food and eating, i guess....not so much the creation part like culinary, but NUTRITION. And when i graduate and get out of school, well....i will just know more about food then what i do now, and thats basically the main and sole reason for why i want to go back to school. Im not thinking about a career or anything like that...iv gotta take small baby steps first.
So, for my first baby step towards getting back into school, iv gotta figure out if a 22 soon to be a 23 year old dude can take his SAT and ACT still.....and then lets go from there....
Alright, lets get out of the dreadful education hole i have dug myself into and back onto the mountain that i have built, battled, and conquered by setting it to blaze:
What i have been listening too:
Mastodon - Crack The Skye (Title track is possibly one of the best metal songs iv ever heard)
Rusko - Fabriclive
Bat For Lashes - Two Suns
Flying Lotus - Discography
Battles - DIscography
Bob Marley - Legend
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