Who Do I Think I Am??

This one's about the braggadoccio.

THE PROMPT: "I Want to Brag A Minute."

What is up, everybody? Not much here. Kicked it around the house for awhile then trekked off to work for a pretty quite evening. All is good around here.

Now, for something to say to the prompt...see, I'm not really the bragging type. I feel embarrassment for fools who feel that they have to tell you about their accomplishments, as if they don't already speak for themselves (or maybe should've even be spoken of at all). That's not to say I consider myself humble. I'm outspoken at times, and sometimes also misunderstood, but I'm also not comfortable with tooting my own horn. It's much more satisfying when somebody else toots it for me.

I guess I just choose not to brag about some things because they seem so obvious to so many people, but they're less obvious to me. Or maybe you don't need me to remind you what you already know. I could tell you I'm such a great writer and that this patch of internet fodder is amazing, and some will agree, even though I know it needs work and is far from perfect and will never be loved by more than 95% of the blogging community...in fact, I know the minute I start believing it, I'll start churning out garbage after garbage entry, and that's all the haters need to feel like they have to knock me down a few pegs. Besides, I've got the awards and ratings and views and "likes" and comments on Facebook, and that's all validation I really need to prove that people like what I do, and everything else is icing on my internet cake. In fact, I just passed 5,000 views the other day, and it didn't even regester to me. It was phenomenal, until I hit 5,100 today. And that might mean nothing to someone who's kept the same blog for years and has tons of thousands of views, but maybe it's an inspiration to those just starting out. I don't know.

I do know a few things though. People who brag can be considered cocky, and I've been accused of that before, whether rightly so or not. Sometimes it's just the way people come across that make them seem cocky or arrogant. Sometimes it's true, and othertimes they're shallow and see-through anyway, even before they open their mouth. All I can really share? It ain't bein' cocky if you can back it up.

MUSICAL BREAK!!

A lot of Hip Hop music's roots were based in simple, "battle"-style rhymes that included a lot of bragging. That was the standard back in the day, before it got political, corporate, and white.

I'm bummed that this band was supposed to come play a show here in a few weeks, but I just found out it's been cancelled. I missed them last year when they played here, and to my knowledge it had been over 20 years since they last played a show in Buffalo. They eventually became known for their political bent, and later on for their hype-man's reality tv exploits, but this track from their first album ('87) is still one of my favorites. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjVMetSjEUU

You have to appreciate the braggadoccio in these rhymes, if only for the humor. C'mon, admit you dance a little and giggle when you hear it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cj9_yW8tZxs

VITAL STATS:

Ok, ok. I'll crack. I used to be a pretty decent floor hockey shut-down, stay-at-home defenseman. I have a YMCA championship trophy. That year, I held the league's best scorer in check during the championship game and had a pivotal clearing pass that went almost the length of the floor that lead to a breakaway goal that padded our lead. The next year, I took a stick in the mouth while going down to block a shot, missed the end of the first and all of the second periods icing my face, came back a few minutes into the third, and had a goal and two assists. I could hold my own between the pipes too, playing goal when necessary and doing pretty well for the most part.

My iPod is way cooler than yours. It can beat up yours on the playground. It has 14,268 songs on it. "Say something about this post."

And I'm done. No more boasting out of this kid, who goes by "Photo Jesus" at work for his once-famed ability to fix anything that went wrong in the photo lab with minimal help. Now all I do is snipe promotional monies and get busy in the lab when I fill in. people gravitate toward me when I'm behind that counter covering real photo people's luches and breaks. I'm money in the lab. But for now, I'm gonna gravitate toward some sleep and hope that I'm money in dreamland, so that I can be money at life tomorrow. That, we shall see. Til then, peace, and GOODNIGHT NOW!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqod_4LPkw8