May 5, 2021

The Rap Year Book: The Most Important Rap Song from Every Year Since 1979, Discussed, Debated, and Deconstructed
Written by Shea Serrano & Illustrated by Arturo Torres

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For those of you who are participating, first of all I want to think you for humoring me and being willing to try this out. If you're on the fence, feel free to observe and jump in down the line if you decide you want to participate! If this is successful, I'd love for this to be an ongoing thing with other people picking books and "hosting" the book club.

Before I move on, one more thing: I'd like to respectfully ask that you not participate in these discussions unless you're reading the book or have read it before. Thank you, and remember—I can provide an ebook for you if you'd like to read and discuss!

Here's the basic gist of how this is going to work:
1. Each week, we will read four chapters (besides the first week because there's the forward and the intro). This is only about 25-30 pages (including charts and illustrations), so hopefully this should be doable for everyone.

2. Every Monday, I will put up a thread with questions about the previous week's reading.

3. Throughout the week, you will have a chance to discuss anything you want about the chapters/songs—I will pose some questions, but I'd love it if others do too.

4. The reason I'm doing a different thread for each week is so that discussion from previous weeks can easily be continued if someone falls behind and wants to share their thoughts, or if people just want to continue the discussion period.

With the exception of this first week, the schedule should be roughly the same from week to week. Here's an example for the first few weeks:

Spoiler: Schedule

Week of 5/10
1. Get the book if you haven't already (or let me know if you need a digital copy and I can send you one)
2. Read the forward by Ice-T and the introduction that tells you about Serrano's criteria for choosing songs. I strongly urge you to read at least the introduction before you start the book because it will be important to our discussions!!!
3. If you'd like, discuss the the intro and forward, and ask any questions about the book or book club process
4. Read and discuss first three chapters (1979, 1980, and 1981)

Week of 5/17
1. Read and discuss the chapters for 1982, 1983, 1984, and 1985

Week of 5/24
1. Read and discuss the chapters for 1986, 1987, 1988, and 1989

Week of 5/31
3. Read and discuss the chapters for 1990, 1991, 1992, and 1993

 

Feb 13, 2021

So one of the social distancing rules here (and probably worldwide) is working from home if possible.

W some jobs its not possible of course, but for a lot it is.

Good thing about it, obviously, is no travelling, less traffic in general (environment, no traffic jams etc) and u can combine work w stuff u need to do at home.

On the other hand working from home also makes it less seperate.. u are at home, but still working. Also its not always easy to work from home, especially if u have kids or other people in ur house. And of course, huge part of going to work is to socialize w co-workers.

Lots of people I know are going crazy working at home for almost a year, others love it.. there are definitely pro's and con's.

To me a balance, like 3 days at work and 2 at home seems perfect. Obviously depending on the whole pandemic situation.

Regardless of corona, how do you feel about working from home and the pro's and cons it has?

@LifeSXN

 

Dec 23, 2019

So today I got back from my 16 day trip through Costa Rica. What a beautiful and diverse country!
The one thing that was kinda annoying was the hygene.. as a western civilisation guy it was kinda s-----y no not being able to drink water from the tap, and gross to having to put toilet paper in a trash can lol.

So we (me w some friends) started at San José, for just one night. The 2nd day we went rafting on the pacuara river:


(I'm not gonna post my own pics since they're way many mb's to attach.. unfortunately). But the rafting was f---ing great!

After that we went to a little carribian town called Cahuita: a small, yet fun little town/village near the beach. We went to a national park where we saw monkeys, racoons, iguana's, and other animals. It was also nice walking past the beaches there. At night we had, again vintage diner w chicken, rice and beans.

After that we had a unique experience: lirio lodge. It was a small, sorta island in the middle of the jungle. No wifi, no phone signal, nothing for 2 days. We slept at a lodge in the middle of the jungle w no windows (just mosquito nets around the cabins);


At 4 am we were woken up by howler monkeys, birds and other animals. It was such a nice experience. During the day we went w a boat and by foot to spot even more animals; snakes, howler monkeys, sloths, beautiful birds, crocodiles, we seen it all. At night, since there was no internet, we played games and drank some booze.

After the wildlife we went to a sarapiqui, where we visited a chocolate plantation, pretty interesting tbh! From there we moved on to another unique experience; homestay. We went to a village where they did everything themselves (food wise) trying to rely on shops as less as possible. Very nice, welcome people that tried their best to make us feel very welcome. We again did a tour through the jungle and went swimming at a lake (small waterfall).

After the more jungle experiences, we went to La Fortuna / Arenal; seeing like, the first other tourists on the trip lol. La Fortuna was a nice town w some good places to eat. I can say that, in general, I was pleased w the food there; lots of chicken and rice but at restaurants I mostly went w fish; mahi mahi, salmon, and mixed seefood dishes. At la fortuna we went to arenal national park; w the hanging bridges. Very beautiful to see! At night we went to the hot springs. Also amazing, but not as amazing as the La Fortuna waterfall;



We went swimming here for hours, absolutely amazing. To watch it, and to swim there.

After that we went to another tourist place; Monteverde. We did the zipline tour there; very nice! At night we also did a night walk where we saw tarantula's, sloths, snakes, tucans etc. Nice experience, again. The 2nd night we went to a bar / club there and got pretty wasted; it was worth it though!

The last 3 days we went full tourist and went to Tamarindo; its called (by locals) the Miami of Costa Rica. Of course you can't compare them, but its very crowded -in a good way- lots of sightseeing, bars, restaurants, nice beaches. We took surfing lessons and went to a beautiful outdoor club at night (which played hiphop all f---ing night, loved it!) There was also a beautiful sunset at night at the beach, a rec if ur ever there w a date. Time flies, so yesterday it was time to go...

In a day I went from 30 degrees °C, sunny weather and swim clothes... to 5 degrees, rain and christmas music it was nice though!

Like @Big Cuntry said, its pretty expensive , but not that expensive that I had to not do/buy certain things. Loved how we did the trip, from jungle - carribean relaxing slowly moving to the crowded, pacific side of the country. Overall, definitely worth to visit!

@LifeSXN

 

Oct 29, 2016

Both sides have some good arguments imo. By the way I'm not talking about dumbass memes or other childish s---, hence why I labeled this thread as serious.

On one hand

- you get in contact with people you would never get in touch with otherwise
- it helps people to actually get in touch with people
- you can share things with more people at once and talk to people far away
- information can be shared with big groups. For example when a person is missing, lots of people get the message and can look out for him/her

On the other hand

- if you look at parties/concerts/festivals lots of people are looking at their phone instead of talking to eachother.
- People are more concerned with sharing pictures and video's of events they're at instead of enjoying them
- Some are tough guys on social media, but are scared to talk to people irl
- Social isolation: they are living in the online world and ignore real people/conversations
- it can be very dangerous if you don't watch out what information you share (like young people posting their location etc)

What is your take on it?

 

Sep 18, 2016

I kid you not.
...sold for $4.3 million usd. photo taken in 1999, sold in 2011.