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

MGS5!!!

Omg ... anyone who knows me well knows that I'm a huge huge fan of Metal Gear Solid ... and now I have come to find out from a friend of mine that there is another installment of the series coming out.  WoW!

http://www.konami.jp/kojima_pro/next/index.html

There is a teaser trailer that has a countdown for four days ... I guess they are going to announce the net MGS game!  Big Boss seems to be the lead character for this one!  I can't wait!

+ mon

Update on Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at 4:10PM by MONStar

I can't work!?  All I can think about is MGS!!!  Dammit ... this is bad ... very very bad!

Update on Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at 4:22PM by MONStar

Wow talk about being excited ... I called Gamestop and asked to reserve my copy but they didn't know what I was talking about!

Bizarre Foods With Sandra

Andrew Zimmern better watch out because my sister is coming after his show.  On his show he eats the weirdest and sometimes the nastiest things ... I won't get into detail about what he does eat but you can watch it on the Travel Channel - and soon you should be seeing my sister on that network too going head to head with Andrew.

Her experience goes way back when she used to live with us.  The first story she told me wasn't really about "eating" but it was closely related.  Here she was washing up before going to sleep and about to brush her teeth.  This has happened to everyone out there where they are brushing their teeth and the toothpaste will fall off the brush or the tube and end up in the sink.  Sometimes we forget (or are just to lazy) to wash it down and sometimes we do wash it down.  Being a frugal person that she is, she sees this glob on the sink and sees that it's clean and all around the sink is clean.  So it must have been a clean drop from the tube and the sink wasn't dirty at all.  

With her bravery and courage guiding her she scoops it up with her toothbrush, making sure that there was enough glob to brush her teeth with.  As she starts to brush her teeth she realizes something ... it wasn't toothpaste, but in the same cleaning family.  It was acutally the liquid soap that had made it's way to the sink which somehow hardened a little to look like toothpaste!  

Andrew wouldn't even attempt to do that! +1 for my sister

This morning was another step closer to her having her own show.  I get a text at about 11am this morning telling me how she just cleaned out her freezer.  In doing so she finds something in the back and burried under all the other food that's been frozen.  

Just a little back story, when I used to go to San Diego a lot, I would always bring home something and that was always bibinka.  It's a filipino pastry dessert type of cake.  I would bring them back twenty at a time since my parents liked it so much and my sister too.  

Well you can guess what she found in her freezer!  She found a single bibinka still wrapped in the foil that I had brought back from San Diego about six years ago ... yes six years ago.  You guessed it, my sister tried to heat it up as she normally would since it was still wrapped in the banana leaf.  

She ate it!

A six year old bibinka ... she ate it!  Not the whole thing but she tried it and said there were parts that were still good and that was what she ate.  The other parts were hard and had freezer burn, the rest was mushy.  

Some people made fun of me for eating year old sourdough Jack sandwiches!  Well we have a new winner with my sister eating at least a six year old bibinka.  My sister wins and we'll wait for what comes next ... whatever the next challenge is I'm sure she won't back down.  Another +1 for my sister.

+ mon

Beauty in the Beast

Ever since one of my friends took me to Rutgers to the grease trucks, I have recommended the Fat Cat sandwich to everyone, even though it is a good drive away.  They have variations of sandwiches and I always call it an entire meal between bread, and it's really good combinations!

I don't get to have the Fat Cats that often as it's a good trip into NJ, but when I do, I love eating them, just not enough to eat three in a row ... well perhaps I will try that one day, maybe!

Here comes a known secret that I have just recently been told about!  I heard about this from my niece and nephew when I called and they told me they were at "Cherry Valley" and for some reason it registered as they were in Cherry Hill in NJ.  Then they told me it was a deli in Whitestone and they have insane sandwich combinations there, again I brought up Fat Cats and how they are the bestest ever!

Cherry Valley
1229 150th street
718-767-1937 www.cherryvalleydeli.net

Saturday night came and after some last minute late plans for bowling, we made our way to this Cherry Valley deli that I heard about a few times before.  It was about 3am and I saw that there were a lot of people in the deli ... hmmm reminded me a lot of the grease trucks when I first saw it.  My mouth was watering, I do admit that.  Before leaving the house I looked at their menu and saw what was in this "Beast" and that's all I could think about all night long. 

There had a huge menu of different sandwiches and other fast food type items, I almost couldn't decide but I went with ... the beast.  The contents of this "sandwich" was chicken cutlet, bacon, swiss cheese, onion rings, topped with gravy on a toasted garlic roll/hero bread ... sounds good?  Just reading that over makes my stomach want it right now, seriously it's making noise.  Now you add a special side of extra gravy and you have yourself a knockout, dipping the sandwich ... errr I can't call it just a sandwich, it's an experience.  So dipping this experience in the extra gravy is just wonderful. 

Pictured below is half of the beast ... and you can't tell from the picture but the taste is an explosion of awesomeness in your mouth!  If you're skilled enough, look passed the picture and see the beauty that's within the beast.  The extra gravy is almost so good you want to "accidentaly" drink it thinking it's hot chocolate!

Have you ever seen a unicorn or seen a rainbow and tried to get to the very end of it to find that pot of gold?  Well if you haven't, then go to Cherry Valley and get some experience (sandwiches)! 

I can't tell you how good it is, but I do want to go again.  I'll have to limit to once a week though, as I don't think my body can handle more than that.  There is something else there that I want to try, it's called their loaded fries.  It's either waffle or regular fries topped with bacon and then ranch sauce! 

So ... who wants to go and when!?  I'll drive you get my food!

Taste : 9.5
Price : $ out of $$$
Restaurant : 8 (small and a little crowded at 3am, but clean)

+ mon

Knowing is Half the Battle

Living in NYC we become accustomed to seeing these "DVD" stores that used to be peepshows and other adult related materials are sold there.  But since the "cleanup" I think a lof of these places cleaned up their act and actually sold real movies ... or so I thought!

Being a big movie buff I wanted to buy a new Blu-Ray movie and was just walking to the subway.  There wasn't any Best Buy's around for me to get anything, so I saw one of those "DVD" stores and took a walk to the front door.  All the stickers on the window was saying they sell all movies and then I saw one that said "Blu-Ray" and so I decided to pay a visit.  

This is very important to know ... the stores in New York City that have neon flashing lights and stickers on their windows advertising how they sell all types and all movies, while having no view into the store from the street, DO NOT SELL REGULAR MOVIES!!!!  

I found out the hard way last night.  As I opened the front door I was greeted to a huge picture of a person that was in an uncomfortable looking position from a not so flaterring angle.  Quickly I went to the counter and asked for their Blu-Ray section ... they pointed it out to me and I was still hopefully of finding "Slumdog Millionaire" since it was just released.  As I went one by one through the 30 or so Blu-Ray titles they had, all of them seemed to be pr0n!  Then I come across a movie that looked to be the "Slumdog Millionaire" ... but sadly it was not.  I'm not sure to the exact title but it was somewhere along the lines of "Doggystyle Millionaire" ... 

So if you're looking for a movie that's real and something that's in the movie theaters, or on DVD from Blockbuster, then don't go into these stores!  

I still feel dirty from being in there and seeing some of the things I have seen.  I guess yesterday was a day where I started with a locker room full of wangs, to being in a video store that had nothing but horrible images, then to having an embossed wang from the painted jeans.  

A shower is desperately needed!

+ mon

Don't Force the Square Piece into the Circle

One of my pet peeves on the subway is when there is room for just one more person in the seat, and a person who knows they take up more than one spot on the train tries to get in!  I'm not making fun of people who are large or overweight, heck I'm overweight and large myself!  All I'm saying is that people need to have some common courtesy where they don't try to squeeze into a space they can't, it's the same with a parking spot!

Boarding the L train at the last stop, I get a seat right away and there's still a lot of room on the train.  As we pck up more people on the trip, the train fills up and this cute little italian lady ends up sitting next to me, she was pretty nice too as she chit chatted with me for a little while until we both ended up falling asleep.  Nice way to end the day and just waited to get home to chillax.

As italian lady and I slept on the subway side by side, but not too close, out of nowhere we were both awakened as I was crushed on the bars and italian lady (let's call her Bella) started to forge into my right side.  I barely had enough room to turn my head to see what was going on, at first it was the feeling of when the train suddenly moves from a dead stop and everyone moves towards the back of the train from the momentum shift ... but then I was able to peak over Bella's head and see this huge mass of a man that had somehow calculated himself to be smaller than reality and pushed that square piece into the hole of a circle!

He was massive, I should have asked for Bella's real name because being that close to someone, it's only right that you know their name, and even moreso take her out to dinner first!  She smelled like dove shampoo btw, for those of you who were wondering.  With each breathe massive man took, it's as if there was less room for Bella and I, there wasn't even any room for me to get up out of my seat to offer whatever room I was taking up to her. 

Bella was in a better position and she popped herself up and got out of the seat.  With that there was the deep breathes we took as we separated our bodies, only a few more minutes of that and we wouldn't have been able to leave each others side for the rest of our lives - I wasn't goign to complain!

No goodbyes from Bella or myself, as I'm sure we were both just glad to be able to breathe.  But massive man was just chillin' as if there was no issue whatsoever.  He even fell asleep on the train ... and well this following picture is his picture.  There are no camera tricks, he was actually that large and took up that much space!

After the train cleared out and Bella left.  I saw that there was bout a foot and a half of space that was available.  So I just really don't know how this guy miscalculated his own mass.  Anyhow, this ordeal left me scared ... I have bar marks on the left side of my body and missing Bella!

+ mon

Wrong Place and Wrong Time

You know me ... I'm an eater, a big eater and I really don't have any "rules" about eating, but I do have one.  Subways are off limits with me eating, there's just something about the place of the subway that's dirty and sometimes the people that are in the train with you.

As I sit there minding my own business (after taking the picture of the guys crotch), I look across from me and see this lady just sitting there.  The train was a little crowded and people were around her, but she decides to whip out a sandwich!

Comeon now!  That sandwich is sacred and should be treated as such, but I guess when you're hungry, you're hungry and who am I to argue with that? 

She ends up eating the whole sandwich ... well most of the sandwich in "stealth" mode.  Taking little bites as if she's really not and trying to hide the fact that there's a sandwich in her hand.  All the dirty particles from the subway and the people who are in it, and have been there, are now sticking to that sandwich. 

The sandwich is consumes almost fully before I get off my stop, lucky for me since I get to take another picture of her making "baon" (doggy bag) with some of the sandwich.  I guess she was saving it for a late snack, but she kept some of the turkey on her jacket.

See I'm not that mean where I'll take pictures of you eating on the subway, complain and blog about it, without telling you that there's some meat on your jacket!  Comeon now people, I had to tell her!  If I didn't, she would have gotten up, that piece of meat would have fallen on the floor and it would have just gone to waste!

Here I am, trying to make eye contact with her to let her know that there's something on her jacket.  She is refusing to make eye contact with me, so I wave my hand towards her and point to her jacket and then do a gesture of me brushing it off the jacket (using my own jacket as an example).  Miscommunication is one of the things that cause a lot of conflicts and there was a big miscommunication with her last night.  Apparently she thought I was asking for some food!  But to her credit, she was nice enough to just offer some even though she didn't know me.  There was some left in her plastic wrap and she reached out to give me the rest ... but I said no.  Everyone on the train was now looking at us having this pantomime conversation only using our hands and gestures. 

After a few back and forths, I again signal to her jacket where she finally sees the meat.  With some embarassment (but not that much embarassment) she picked it up and ate whatever was left on her jacket.  For the next 2 minutes of my train ride, she refused to make eye contact or even say thank you as she was probably embarassed from the whole ordeal.

Geeze, I can only imagine what kind of dirtiness she ate with that sandwich!  And she had the nerve to offer me some ... trying to make me break my one and only rule about food!  For shame sandwich eaten on the subway lady!  For shame!

+ 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

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