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.....