Prove It

Somebody told me the other day that I need to comment on more peoples pages because my comments have been slacking. She said that its all about reciprocity. I know that. I been in the game for a minute and I just don't care to follow 40 bloggers everyday like I used to. I'm good with my core group. That being said...

I was on the hunt this weekend for a new blogger. You know, someone that nobody else reads that I could shape and mold into the type of blogger I want them to be. I know that's arrogant and I failed. First of all, its hard to find new bloggers that haven't already been tainted by that blogger that I can't stand. He/she be commenting on everybody's joints. As many new blogs as I read this weekend, no one stood out. I actually found myself reading these blogs with The Smirk. There were certain things that just annoyed me. Most of it was because people were making claims without offering any evidence.



For example, bloggers with names like Pretty Girl, Cutey Pie or Sexxydiva. Those aren't real names, but they are representative of what I saw. How can you sit here and brag about how fly you are without providing any evidence of it? Let me judge your pretty. Post a picture of yourself or something if you are that confident in the way you look. I'm not saying you are lying, but prove it. I'm supposed to believe you are extra fly, but you don't even have a profile picture? Not gonna happen. For all I know you can look like Shabba and Biggies love child.



People that say they are writers were annoying me too. It's like "I'm a writer. Check out my links for information about my novel." Really? Then why is your blog riddled with horrible subject matter with spelling and grammar errors. And I'm not talking about slang or stuff like that. I mean stuff like saying "there" instead of "their." Or consistently switching tenses or perspectives in the same post. And I'm supposed to buy your (self published) novel? You haven't shown me anything that would make me want to spend my loot on your garbage hood fiction novel. Come on with that. You say you are a writer, then prove it.

How about these cats that give out relationship advice? This is both men and women. They tell you how to handle your relationship, give you rules to follow, situations to avoid. But are they married? Are they in a successful relationship? What exactly qualifies you to be giving advice? I need to see "married for 10 years" next to your name before I would even think about accepting your advice. I can mess up my relationship all by myself, thankyouverymuch! And then, half the time, the advice that's given is just basic common sense like "Dont go out with a guy you think is gay" or "don't stay with a woman that slept with your best friend." Where's the insight? You got something profound to say that'll help your readers, then by all means prove it. But until then go ahead and keep your horrible advice.

Man, the gossip blogs. Maybe my heterosexuality prevents me from liking these. Maybe it's my disdain for celebrity worship. Whatever it is, whenever I read some gossip site, I always have the same reaction. "How do you know?" I don't care what they say.. I could make something up right now and have people believing it. Can I get a documented source or something? And why do they have to be so mean about it? I swear if these celebrities didn't exist, then what would your crappy blog be about? Its okay not to like a celebrity, but come on, don't act like you know what goes on in Ush.er's house, or claim to know that Eddi.e Murph.y is boonkie buddies (that's old school Savannah slang for gay dudes. I didn't know how to spell it. LOL) with Joh.nny Gi.ll. You don't know that. You haven't seen it. You are just going by what you read somewhere else. If you do know it, and feel the need to tell everybody about it, then go ahead and prove it. Let me just tell you in advance, unnamed sources are not proof. They are rumors.

Finally, those new bloggers that claim to have so much to say in their first few posts, but then go on an extended hiatus need to prove to me that they can write consistently before I drop a comment on their page. They say they have so much drama to write about, but then don't write for a month. I need them to either delete their pages, or come with a post. I know, they are neophytes and don't know the blog rules yet, but how can they expect me to keep up with them if they only post twice a month. I'll be damned if I cyberstalk their pages everyday while seeing the same old post everyday. Prove to me that you have something to say, and I'll be there. Otherwise, stick to MySpace blogging, cuz nobody reads that crap anyway.

The first person to get offended or try to explain why they do these things in my comments will lose 10 cool points*. I'm so obviously talking about new bloggers. If I've ever left a comment on your page, or you on mine, I'm totally not talking to you. This applies only to the bloggers I am just getting around to read. The ones that will not be reading this post. I'm not out to change the blog world, but just to explain why it was so hard to find a new blogger out there. Are we clear about that? I'm not talking about you (to your face), oh gentle readers. LOL

* Cool Points are a registered trademark of Rashan Jamal and are allocated solely at his discretion. Cool Points are only valid on Beats Rhymes and Life and are non transferable to other blogs. Cool Points can be redeemed for comments, blog luv and shout outs. Cool Kids status contigent on regular posting and commenting. Rashan Jamal reserves the right to revoke cool kids status without further notice. For complete program rules, please refer to previous posts about blogging located on the sidebar.

Phone Boning*

*phone boning - the act of talking sweet or making love on the phone... also known as caking. That's not what this post is about. This is about my phone boning me. LOL

Spring strikes again… I’m saying, I think there’s a conspiracy to detach my money from my bank account. I blame Spring. I bet you are getting tired of hearing about it, but its so sincere. I already told you about last year when I was going through 4 cars in a 3 month span. Or this year, when I just last week paid a grip to fix some obscure car problem that could only happen to me or a member of my family. Now, today, I had to buy a new phone. I just got a new one in November, but that one is a wrap. And because of the way that the damage was inflicted on the phone, it was not covered by the warranty.

My phone was already kinda bootleg to begin with; You kinda expect that when you only get the free upgrade phone, instead of spending any loot on it. Ask anyone that’s talked to me on the phone, and they will tell you that my phone would turn off at least once during any extended conversation. I’m not talking about dropping calls, I’m talking completely powering down, then recycling and turning back on. Plus my beard rubbing against the phone sounded like ashy hands rubbing sandpaper in a blender. It was all part of the package deal. You get what you pay for. No biggie. Well, Friday morning, I realized that the phone was not charging at all. I plugged it in, but no charge. I even thought it might be the phone charger, so I bought a car charger, since I couldn’t get to the Sprint Store before they closed. Tried that, and that didn’t work either. I talked sparingly on the phone last night trying to preserve a little bit of battery life until I could get to the store to see if they could fix it, or possibly get a new phone. When I woke up this morning after a long insomnia filled night, I realized that I forgot to turn the phone off before I went to sleep. There goes that extra battery life. Plus I woke up mad late and didn’t have time to make it to the store.

So, I went to work. Did I mention this is the one Saturday a month that I have to work. So, yeah, I was at work. Finally on my lunch break I went to the Sprint Store and had them check out my phone. Apparently, the charging connectors were shorted out, and would no longer charge the phone. Guess what’s not covered by warranty: electrical damage. My punk ass apartment has hella electrical problems. Like when my dryer blew the electrical socket or when my TV and VCR got struck by lightning, even though they were in a surge protector. Or when the microwave just randomly decides to turn on and off. You get the point? It’s messed up. Anyway, enough complaining about that, lets move on. I decided to go ahead and actually pay for a phone for the first time in my life. The damage to my phone may be covered under my renter's insurance, but I'm not sure yet. Gotta check the policy details to see if it would even be worth it to file a claim.

Cool! I have a phone now. It’s nothing special but its not the free free wack joint that I always get. But of course, there’s another problem. My old phone died and all my numbers are trapped in the purgatory of the unchargeable phone. Sure, I can get some of the numbers from my phone bill, or from my voice mail, but the numbers that I haven’t called in a while are all gone. So much for trying to reconnect with the ghosts of my past (like I would really do it anyway.) If any of you have my number and I act like I don’t know who you are, now you know why. I’m a be screening like a mug for a few days. LOL Aiight, so, I know I owe you a MTB amongst other posts, but you’ll just have to deal with it until I get back right. Spring just keeps trying me... but I’m cool. Bout to go get some drinks, if I can remember my people’s phone number so I can meet up with them. Dammit, man! This is getting annoying. One!

The (Fairly) Young and The Restless

Warning: This is one of those complaining self deprecating posts. The kind that's going to make you say "Get over it!" I know because I found myself telling myself the same thing as I was writing it.

I'm bored, y'all. I mean really, really bored. I feel like my life is in a holding pattern. I'm a 747 circling the airport waiting for clearance to land. It seems that every week is the same thing. Go to work, come home and repeat. Even on my off days, I rarely do anything of consequence. I know that I'm never going to be a social butterfly, but it would be nice to every once in a while have drinks with some friends or something. I can't seem to motivate myself to do that though. It's my fault, I know. I have people that would love for me to hang out with them, but I always seem to blow them off. I spent some time recently trying to come up with a game plan to stop being a recluse. But as they say the best laid plans...

I pride myself on being pretty self aware. But the thing that I don't understand about myself is this: when I go out, I have lots of fun. So why don't I do it more often? Try as I might, I can't seem to come up with a legitimate answer to that one. Is it Social Anxiety Disorder, which I have self diagnosed myself with? Doubtful, because its not like I don't know the people I would be hanging out with. Is it laziness? Not really, because its not like I'm staying home just for the sleep. I'm up at all hours of the night and morning anyway. What is it? I'm still working on that. My latest theory is that I'm just fucking selfish. I want what I want when I want it. (Love Jones 1997) I think that if people were On Demand, like my Comcast cable, I would be okay with it. It would be cool if I could just call someone up and say lets go hang out at Atlantic Station one day, and then not talk to them again until I'm ready to go out again. But I know that's not realistic. It would be cool if I could make people do what I want to do, without having to accommodate their preferences and tastes. Again, not very realistic.

Another problem I have is over analyzing situations. I talk myself out of going out sometimes. I don't know why, but it happens often. I'll give you an example. Last month, I missed both the Nas and De La Soul concerts that I was going to go to. In both instances, I was all excited about the prospects of attending the concert, but then found some inane reason for not going. It doesn't make sense, really. It's not only nighttime maneuvers that I put off. Little simple shit like going to see Spiderman, or getting a new CD player for my car, or updating my resume gets put to the side for no good reason. I really need to work on this. Cuz at 6 in the morning, when its quiet and nothing's on TV, I think about this stuff and get frustrated with my own self and then you have to read my whiny posts.

I don't have the answer to this problem yet. I just know that I'm getting restless. I don't want to spend Friday nights alone watching DVD's or surfing the internet all the time. I want to get out every once in a while and meet new people, or reconnect with old people. I'd like to be the one to initiate an interaction every once in a while. I guess I just have to do it. Like I said in the preface, I need to get over it. Nothing left to do now, but to do it. Wish me luck! Or better yet, wish me a fine, bold Gabrielle Union look-alike that won't take no for an answer. I bet I'll get out of the house then. Anyway, have a wonderful weekend, and I'll get at cha next week.