Predator Caught

Ever since the camera has been up it's been quite boring since my suspect has not been into the office.  The only footage would be people walking around and getting up from their desk about fourty times during the night.  

Then came Friday night!  I was excited since it would be a few days and the better chance of something being caught on the camera.  Well it wasn't more than one minute after I leave my desk and start recording that I see the suspect come up to my desk and pick up my phone.  I don't know if she was making a call or if she picked up the phone since it was ringing, but in either case she shouldn't be on my phone!

She sits less than ten feet behind me with her own phone, if my phone rings she isn't my secretary and shouldn't be answering it.  Now I need to wipe down my desk, my phone, my keyboard everytime I come into the office knowing that there's someone using my shiz.  

This wasn't one time, this happened twice.  It's quite disturbing, even with this small incident happening.  The rest of the weekend was spent with people getting up and out of their seats, and early Monday morning, the camera caught another lady (one that I didn't know worked here or ever met) get up from her desk and make her way in between my desk and my coworkers.  I don't know if she took some change, some anti bacterial, or what she did.  All I know is that she was by my desk twice during that morning which again disturbs me.

From the pictures above you can see that the angle of the camera isn't that great.  It's supposed to catch someone who sits in my seat, which I thought was happening.  I needed to adjust things and make it so that I can get a better angle and actually see what was happening intead of seeing an arm or half of someone coming into the picture.

All those episodes of McGyver worked well.  My mirror that I use to see behind me came in very useful.  I couldn't move the camera farther away to get a wider shot, so I positioned the mirror so that it catches most of the area around my desk and my desk as well, then pointed the camera to the mirror to catch the images.

So that's the setup and here is what it actually looks like.  I'm hoping this catches more of what's happening.  The only thing I'm scared of is if they grab the mirror to look at themselves, then the camera will be pointing at a ruler and some pens!

 

I haven't said anything to my boss yet.  Instead of trying to catch the small time criminal acts and having a simple slap on the wrist ... I'm waiting for that big fish to come onboard and then we'll get a bigger feast!

+ mon

Advice, Like Youth, Probably Just Wasted on the Young

This is a song that I first heard this morning on Z100 and it is definitely something that should be shared. It's actually a famous essay that was writen and put to a song. As they said this morning on the show that those who hear this and don't like it, or want to change the station don't see the deeper meaning in the song.

The things that are actually discussed in this are quite smart and incredibly meaningful in ones life. Well I'll let the song/words speak for themselves ... enjoy and I hope this makes sense to you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wear_sunscreen(some more info on the essay and the origins of how it became the song)

"Ladies and gentlemen of the class of '99:

Wear sunscreen.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.

Don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing.

Don't be reckless with other people's hearts. Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don't.

Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You'll miss them when they're gone.

Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else's.

Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.

Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.

Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.

Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents. You never know when they'll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings. They're your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft. Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.

Don't mess too much with your hair or by the time you're 40 it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen."

+ mon

No Predators ... Yet!

I was a little scared of what I might see on the video when I got in this morning, we've all seen those shows that have hidden cams set up in the office and the next thing you know they catch someone doing something extremely lude and nasty.  

There's one suspect that I have in mind who might be sitting at my desk and doing all sorts of things ... it's not the "stinky old lady" that I posted about before, that's just her neighbor.  But this other lady likes to be nice to us when we are here, but when we're not around she talks crap about us.  There was an incident where I went to the bathroom and she came in with my coworker still here.  I had a few boxes of documents around my desk and she gets upset saying that I think this is a college dorm room and then starts to kick my boxes.  When I get back to my desk it's like it never happened and I'm greeted with a "oh hello Simon, how are you doing?"  She sometimes comes to my desk to check herself out in my mirror that I have to see if anyone is coming up behind me.

She wasn't in last night, so the video only showed her stinky neighbor sitting at her desk and talking on the phone for about an hour, the cleaning guy coming and cleaning the carpet, then someone painting the wall.  Nothing awesome yet ... so I won't post up the boring video.  It also caught this other old lady who seemed to get up out of her chair about forty to fifty times in the span of two hours.  

I will keep this updated and hopefully she comes in tonight and we catch someone on video!

+ mon

Update on Wednesday, June 3, 2009 at 12:04PM by MONStar

After a few technical difficulties we're up and running again.  The suspect came in yesterday but nothing was caught on video, so we'll wait and see.  Who knows, maybe I was wrong and it wasn't the person I was thinking about!?

To Catch a Predator

It's been a few months now that this has been happening, but my coworker and I just decided to ignore it in hopes of it going away.  Besides the smell factor that comes in around 4pm everyday we have to go through something else here at our desks.

Being that we lost our cubes and offices, having these desks out in the open makes me feel very vunerable.  During the past few months we have started to notice things start to disappear from our area.  

Mine is a cluttered mess that I can't help because there is no other place to put my things, but in the clutter I do have my little hiding places.  To think, with the mess people won't want to go near my desk but apparently they do!  I had a bunch of change that was hidden undernearth the monitor that was covered with other junk ... this would be our vending machine fund and when that afternoon hunger would hit, this would be our little change heaven so we can get some much needed munchies!  

There were quarters galore there, and I even left a $1 bill or two lying around sometimes.  After all it was covered and why would anyone look around my desk for anything.  I was greeted one morning by seeing that my quarters were all gone!  They had left the dimes, the nickles and the dollar bills, but the quarters were all nowhere to be found!  Hmmm maybe they had to use it for parking?  I thought that somehow the thief would put the money back the following night ... but that wasn't the case.  I moved my stash and haven't noticed anything missing from that lately.  

The big heist took place right next door to my at my neighbors desk.  Since the vending machine change incident we decided to go just buy the granola bars, candy from the store and have a good supply for when that urge hits.  I have the small boxes that only had about six granola bars in them ... him on the other hand got his from Costco and had a box of ... well the big boxes.  After a few days he was down to about twelve bars left, and off we went that night after all the work was done.  The next morning came and he was down to three bars, so nine of them suddenly disappeared!  

We all know that granola bars don't get up and walk away so someone had been casing our desks and took the opportunity when no one was around to strike.  Mine was some quarters, but my coworker had been hit hard ... that was his snack supply there.  

So this trend has been going on and we decided to hide our "goodies" from now on.  But that didn't stop the person(s) who were snooping around our desks!  I would often find my desk dirty and with crumbs on it when I get in in the morning, but I would always wonder if I had left that there from the day prior.  Ahhh well today was the day that the proof was right there ... yesterday the only thing that I had eaten for lunch were two apples that were already sliced.  I remember cleaning the desk afterwards and leaving it spotless clean before leaving.  This morning I come to discover spots on my desk and it looked like someone had been eating something with mustard or curry ... or maybe some sort of sauce that was yellowish.  It was right here in front of my keyboard and all over the side of the desk ... 

Well enough is enough.  Sometimes we have to take the law into our own hands and today ... tonight is the night!  This is the left side of my desk and it's "clutter."  Do you notice anything, anything that stands out in particular???  

Hopefully you didn't but if you check out the lamp post ... you'll see it clearly.  

The original positioning of this was a little better, but it was too obvious that there was something that was being covered ... so I left it like this.  The ones I suspect are using my desk for their entertainment are old and won't be paying attention to this lamp.  

Good old fashioned survellance!  The camera is set to capture images when there is motion detected, so once someone comes to my desk ... bam!  This should be fun and I can't wait to find what I catch on video ... or should I be scared of what I might catch!?

Hopefully I can haev something entertainint to post here tomorrow by catching someone in the act of using my desk!  Mess with the best, die like the rest!

+ mon

Dance Flick

It's not uncommon to see strange things in the city and sometimes the imagination can't think of what the street performers can, so when we see then doing what it is they do, we are in amazement. 

Being a New Yawker I've seen a lot of different things happening and now things really don't shock me if I see something "new" and "strange" on the streets.  But this one caught my eye ... I haven't seen someone dancing in the middle of the street with a traffic officer right on the corner watching.  All the while filpping and throwing a big piece of cardboard around with such precision and energy.

Apparently he's promoting the film Dance Flick as you can see with the sign and the name of the movie all over his clothing.  Here he was on Canal street ... but he wasn't the only one.  The reason I filmed him and not the others is because the others stood on the street corner bobbing the head to their headphones.  They didn't have the talent this guy had.  I hope he wasn't flirting with me since he saw me taping him ...

I'm surprised not one person was hit by his sign spinning around in the air.  This is something I will have to try at home ... I just need to find a piece of cardboard to try it with (I can't use the balikbayan box ... my dad wouldn't like that much).

+ mon

I Think I Can!

Ever since I was a little kid I always wanted to try new things and when I found something I've been the person to "go all out" with it.  Especially with sports, even though it's just a friendly game in the park I would do whatever I could to win or score, even if that meant getting hurt in the process.

I wish I had played volleyball earlier and kept with it as I really like it now.  Being in the one year anniversary of being 29 years old my body is starting to show signs of aging.  With the noises my joints are making, difficulty going up stairs, breathing hard after a few flights ... ok that might not really be an age thing but more of a weight thing but you get a the point.

Even with all this, I feel the need to play sports and play them as best as I can.  If that means diving on the ground, getting some cuts and bruises, then count me in!  Perhaps doing these things makes me feel "young" again and it gives me that feeling of being invincible that we all know from our childhoods.  

If you've ever seen me play volleyball you know that I run for all the balls possible even if there is little to no hope of me saving it.  People have seen me dive on my bad knee only to get up limping, losing skin on the court, crashing into other players ... but I don't think I've ever done anything like this before.  The only thing I can compare this to is when baseball players will run in the outfield for the ball and then crash into the wall going right through it.  

Here I was trying to save the ball as it was a really close game.  Full speed and just wanting to get the ball back into play.  

Unfortunately the ball wasn't hit after I hit it and we lose the point.  The ref had told me that I tied a record of knocking down 1.5 barriers ... so maybe next time I can try for a full two.  

Thanks to Arvin for the editing and the music, until next game!

+ mon

Signs - Short Film

This is an awesome short film ... I love it and just had to share it with everyone, it's a well spent 12 minutes, you'll be smiling when you're done

+ mon

Friday Night Live

With all the "talents" shows on TV that we watch and even those that we don't watch, it's not often that we're surprised by acts since it's already something we've seen before.  There will be times where we "ooooOoooooO" and even sometimes when we "ahhhhh" but the entertainment factor isn't always there and when it is, it's not as high as you'd like it to be.

Some people prefer live shows to watching things from those pixels on the TV screen and well I do have to say after experiencing some great entertainment on Friday Night Live, I do prefer the live show. I was treated to a multitude of different acts and they were all sectacular, from sports, to a live band.

The evening started out with the Michael "the Gigi" Raymundo in a sparing session with Cindy "the pushup" Malonzo!  We were also treated to their behind the scene training sessions.

As the night continued we were treated to some American Gladiators contestants who had Gladiator names themselves.  First fighting for the red team was Roslyn who combined the names of two of the Gladiators (Tank and Wolf) to come up as Wank.  Fighting for the blue team was Cindy who combined the names of three Gladiators (Lazer, Axle and Thor) to come up Laxathor.  It's time for the joust!

After all of that ended we were treated to the musical styles from a man who is able to hold up a single name just like the world reknowned Prince, Madonna, Diday, Dudoy ... and he goes by Erick.

Erick was not to be left unchallenged as the a duo came out of the shadows to compete.  Similar to the likes of Penn and Teller, Jordan and Pippen, Sonnie and Cher, Bob Castas and the evening news, Frank and Sinatra came Cindy and Roslyn.  Their styles wowed the crowd and made it impossible to come out with a clear winner.  From their two person band, to when they pulled out all the stops and brought out their mini Japanese drum and pounded on it like there was no tomorrow, the duo definitely entertained.

Unfortunately the night came to a close, but everyone was treated to a nice Fat Cat.  This type of talent doesn't happen often, but when it does, sparks fly!  Until next time America ...

+ mon

Happy Belated Birthday!

This is a birthday greeting the youth have for Ate - it's a bit late but as they say, better late than never!  

I just noticed ... it used my picture as the thumbnail, that was random!  I didn't do that, just fyi.

+ mon

Another Instrument

Alright, so it started out with the turntables and DJing, that went crazy as it got really expensive.  Then it moved onto the guitar and I'm still trying to learn how to play that ...

I've tried singing, but I'm not good so we'll leave that to the times when I have to sing!  

Soooo that brings me to the next instrument, the one that I want to get now after seeing it in action on a few youtube videos!  It's called the Cajon, and it's a percussion instrument that originated in Peru.  It's pretty much a wooden box that plays like a drum and sounds like a drum.  Have a look for yourself.

+ mon

Update on Monday, March 16, 2009 at 12:57AM by MONStar

And ... I bought it.

I'll post videos up once I do something that actually sounds good!

+ mon

Summer Summer Time Singstar

Found these two videos from the summer with the youth jammin' out to Singstar ... hope you enjoy!

+ mon

Ming - Portrait Paper Cutting

So as I was coming home from the city, around 10:30 tonight I ended up in the Union Square stop to catch the L train home.  Walking towards the platform and passing many street performers (a band playing upstairs, one man on the guitar on the L train platform), I noticed a crowd between the stairs heading up to the the uptown and downtown R trains.  I thought it was another performer and wasn't going to stop but then did a double take as I saw it was a man sitting on a chair.

At first I thought he was selling DVDs, but then I saw that he was selling portraits of people.  Not just the typical portraits you see, and not even the characature portraits that you see all over the city (especially Central Park).  This man, Ming ... had a black piece of paper about 4 or 5 inches square, folded it in half, then started to just cut and cut and cut. 

I was intrigued and wanted to see what he was doing, he struck up a conversation with me telling me that he can redo the guy he just did a portrait for just by his memory.  So he had the paper folded up ... and I he told me that it's $10 for the portrait and takes about 5 minutes.  Well sign me up!

He made me stand in front of him while he had that folder black sheet of paper.  He would look up at me, then cut, and the process would repeat for the next 3 or 4 minutes.  A crowd started to form, and I started to get embarassed.  He cut and cut away as we chit chatted, and he told me that he has been doing this for 50 years ... and he was 59 years old.  So you do the math and he's been doing this since he was 9 years old!  He said he learned it from his art teacher, and now he's teaching it too.  During the winter he does this in the subway, and in the spring and summer he does it on Prince + Broadway. 

I couldn't tell how the face was coming along, but then he even gave me a nice tie since I was wearing a tie from work.  We exchanged some more conversation and then he started to work on my hair.  Before you know it, he unfolds it and shows it to me and the rest of the people, there was a round of applause! 

He gave me the portrait and I was a bit surprised as I was expecting a "real life" portrait, but forgot that it was a characature portrait.  So I look fat in the portrait ... but then again, I do need to lose some weight!  He even gave me a double chin!

There was a couple after me, and I ended up staying to watch him work again.  I ended up video taping him and them for you to view below (I didn't finish the video as I ran out of memory).  Also below is a comparison to me and the portrait that he gave me.

I think this man is quite skilled and very good at what he does!  The damage was $20 total as I gave him a $10 tip for his skills.  Definitely an artist and I hope to see him again maybe with some friends and family who would also get their portrait cut out of paper!  Ming ... simply amazing what he can do with a pair of scissors and a piece of paper.  He actually teaches this ...

+ mon

911 for McNuggets!

Freakin awesome!

+ mon