Music Makes It All Better

Isn't it the truth?

Am I lying when I say that? There's not to many things that can, without a doubt in seconds, make me a much more happier person. I mean instantly.  No matter the mood I may be in music has the power to have me go from being stressed and/or aggravated to immediately bopping my head to the beat with a big smile and not even caring what just had me so stressed.

How many of you can relate?

Music, it just has that ability.  Especially good music from artists that have a passion and care about what they're putting out (but that's for a whole other blog Haha).  What's cool is we all have certain types of music for different feelings and moods we're in.  Whether it is Slow Jams, Rap, Alternative, Pop, Jazz (to name a few) they all have purpose and make the day to day better.  I tell you right now a ride on the MTA is much better with music.

One of the things I find to be great about music is how it can being bring groups of people together (no matter race, sex, height, you name it) and have us all singing the lyrics to a song and dancing as we do it.  Amazing.  Let's take it a step further, did you know its been said that playing music while a women is pregnant can have a positive effect on the baby's developing.  Some music will actually calm the baby and make for a relaxing night.  Crazy Right!

So What Are Some Examples???

Good question.  When you want to get with the loving and spend that quality time with your better half you usually will throw on some Slow Jams to set the tone.   Slow Jams bring you closer, the whole mood is better and if you're in a better mood you feel better and do it better.  I have noticed with myself that I can concentrate and get a whole lot of work done when I have music blasting.  I forget about time and I just get locked into what I'm doing.  As I said before it definitely makes a ride on the MTA better because it blocks out all the unnecessary noise that comes along with public transportation.  Music in all of the live sporting events make the experience of being at the game better.  Get where I'm coming from?

So In Closing.

Music can make your whole day better.  It will put you in a better mood and with that you feel better about the day.  There's no limit to the power of music and the things it could do.  I just felt the need to write about it and share these thoughts with you.  As always I thank you for reading and encourage any comments and feedback you might have.

Thanks and I'll see you next time!

D

Advice We Give, But Never Use

Why is it easier to help other people out with their problems or situations then it is to help ourselves out? I've thought about it from time to time and for the life of me can't understand why I can give the best advice for people to do but yet (even when I could use the same advice) don't use it. Its so crazy.

I find it amazing that we are the advisers and problem solvers to everybody else and yet we rarely take our own advice.  I remember I always had a friend of mine always message me with women issues and I'd give him the perfect ways to go about it and with me I do the exact opposite.  Give him the best ideas on what to say and where to go but didn't use my own advise.

"Believe that?????"

Most of us are always looking for advice from the next person when we know damn well we have the answers in our own head.  I really think I'd listen to a stranger on the train that knows nothing of my situation rather than listen to the voice in my head that would give me better advice.

Can you agree with this concept?  I would think 8 out of every 10 people will agree with what I'm saying.  I'm amaze myself with the advice I give and yet so puzzling when I can apply that same advice in my life for the same situation I'm going through but instead rather be stuck on "Duuuuh".

"Go Figure"

To this day my best advice I give and not use is (telling my brother) to break your bills down weekly (or bi-weekly, according to when you get paid) and just pay a small portion of your bill each time you get paid instead of once a month.  (Example, your cell bill is $100 then pay $25 each week). But in this situation neither of us do so we're both losing out.

Is there advice that you would usually give people about a certain situation and not use it yourself?  Are you the 2 out of 10 people that actually use your advice???  How lucky you must be.  It's one thing to second guess your gut (even though that's always right), but to not take your own advice is crazy!!!!  Yet I keep doing it.  Ugh.  Hahahaha  <----  sometimes that's all you could do.

Thanks as always for reading.  See you next time and please feel free to comment and tell me what you think and if you do what I do and not take your own advice or if you actually do take your own advice.

D

From another Perspective...

My previous blog I wrote about the "After Life".  Basically asking questions and then giving me version of the after life if  I could choose how it was to be.  I found it interesting that when I wrote this the 1st comment i received was from my father.  He came down with Guillian Barré Syndrome December of 2010 and shared his version of how it felt almost thinking he was close to death not being able to use his legs, arms, etc and his long journey back.  His take on life is totally different now and looks at it as a second chance to live.

 So without further ado, please read my father, Denis Velez, description of his ordeal with Guillian Barré Syndrome.  I'm so happy he's doing better cause it was really scary last December.

I can only state what I have gone through, I can tell you right now I don’t know if there is an after life but what I’ve learned at age 63 and the experiences I have had up till now makes me believe that there is an afterlife based on my experiences. As I came down with Guillian Barré Syndrome last December of 2010, I found myself paralyzed from my shoulders to my feet in a matter of five days. I thought I was going to die and I was resigned to that. I said to myself, Is that all there is? After 62 years of life is this how it was going to end? My body slowly withering away until everything turned black? As I lay on the ICU table at the veteran’s hospital, only able to move my head and shoulders, I asked one of the many doctors who were taking care of me, point blank, am I going to die?

He looked at me and I was ready to hear, we are doing everything possible for you. Instead he said, No, you are not going to die. This was a very conflicting answer considering what I was physically feeling. They knew what I had and the course it would take. When treated early my condition had a 100% recovery rate and they had indeed treated it early. It took them a while to explain these things to me and for me to believe them. During that experience and the year of therapy that eventually proved the doctors right, I had long talks with God, we reconnected and I started to observe from my paralyzed body the outside world as God pointed things out to me.

We are here on earth to learn something. If we do not get the lesson God or that higher power you may or my not believe in knocks you upside the head to get your attention and you start to listen to that little voice in your head. I have learned that we are all connected, here in the present and to those before and those to be born in the future. The more we understand this and the more we flow with the river we call life, the more we benefit form our experience. It is our job to help others and especially to listen to those clues that God leaves us in plane sight. The voice may say to you to call your mom, do it! You may have a feeling that walking down that street feels funny and dangerous, go another way. Listen to your surroundings and your conscious feelings, learn these lessons of life.

When I thought and felt that I was going to die I did not feel fear, I felt a sense of curiosity, is this how it works? After almost a year of recovery I have met hundreds of people who have helped me physically and emotionally. Family, friends and strangers have given me a fresh outlook on life and what it is all about, connection to others. I no longer worry about the other guy and how I could do so much better running his or her life. I concentrate on my own life and seek happiness in helping others when and where I can.

Amazing I say.

Thank you as always for reading and I'll see you next time.

Take care,

Derek

After Life?

Do you ever think about it?  Seriously. I can't say I never have before, but for some reason though, I got to thinking about it recently after I had to put my dog to sleep.  Don't ask me why this was the time I decided to start thinking about it.  But I did.

As my mother and I said our goodbyes to him she kept saying "This is for the best, now you'll be with Sheba and Maggy" (his wife and kid, well the kid we kept) and it got me to thinking.  What really happens in the after life?

Ever since then I've been thinking it over.  When you die, what happens next? Do you go into heaven and meet (a) god?  Maybe meet up with people you haven't seen in awhile? Is that were you stay forever? Or do you get judged on how you lived life and then become reincarnated and live life again?  I'm serious though and I'm not even die hard religious either.

So what really happens in the after life?  I guess nobody alive will ever know. If it were up to me then I'd like to be reunited with family & friends I haven't seen in awhile, be able to spend time with them and then get judged, come back and do it all again.  But when you think about it, is it even possible. How could you reunite with your past family & friends if you don't enter the after life at the same time.  Don't mean to be all creepy, but it's just thinking.

I would hope I did good with this life and get reincarnated in order to do it again.  I wouldn't mind doing it over and over again until I got it right.  Who's to say there is a right and wrong way (crime life aside) to live life.  If you happened to live life good would you come back with a better opportunity? Same as if you lived a life of crime, lies would you come back as a pigeon?

That's about enough for now, but take it as food for thought.  What's your opinion on the After Life?  I can't be the only one that has thought about it.

Thanks for reading, feel free to leave a comment and I'll be back next time with some more thoughts from The World of NDENSUM!

Take Care......

D

The Lost Art of Communication....

What's the most important thing in any relationship??? If you had asked me this anytime before Sunday evening I would have said something like trust, honesty and/or chemistry. Those are pretty good answers but the truth is you can have all the trust, honesty and Chemistry in the world and still have a relationship go sour just because of no communication. What's the point of having honesty and trust or anything else for that matter if you don't have communication between all parties?

It took about 3 weeks for me to really realize how important communication is. It left me asking myself "Does it really matter who won or who lost in an argument if at the end the relationship is the one that was really hurt?" I swore to myself that I had a legit point to not call and not text but the one thing I forgot to do was relay my feelings. All this time had passed by and instead of communicating my feeling I just sat and got frustrated as to why this lady wouldn't give me a call. All I wanted was a simple call but I failed to express my feelings towards her. So regardless if she knew I wanted her to call or not, I didn't say anything towards her and when I wanted to, it was already to late and her last words to me were "Forget it, just ignore my question".

"GREAT"

That's the only thing I could say to myself. What did I prove? Now this relationship is done (you know it's serious when somebody deletes you from Facebook and Twitter). Thing that sucks is that we have so much chemistry together its SICK!!!! But without communication, chemistry, honesty, trust and anything else never stood a chance. Instead of telling her my feelings and talking about it now I'm stuck wondering if I'll ever hear from her again. Don't get me wrong, this is in no way an admission of guilt, but just realizing that I could have handled this whole thing much better.


Communication!!! It's so underrated and definitely overlooked. It is so important and so easy to do and yet I'm willing to bet it's not done enough. Especially verbally. How many of us are guilty of texting and communicating through Social networks then face to face or on the phone? I know I can't be the only one. I told myself as of Monday, August 1st that I will make it a priority to make sure my feelings and thoughts are always communicated so that I do not travel down this road again and wonder to myself why didn't I do things differently.

Thanks for reading and by all means let me know what you think. I'll be back to edit and add to this periodically so feel free to give me feedback.

PAST-US STAT-US (#15)

Welcome to another Episode of Past-Us Stat-Us.

Thanks for clicking on, in this episode you catch up with me on location at Coney Island, Brooklyn It's been way to long since I was there last and had to visit. Venture w/ me as I show you the sights of Coney Island which is fantastic and you gotta get out there.

For those that don't know the story behind Past-Us Stat-Us, here it goes. After being on Facebook for so long and seeing the many funny status I've seen I thought to myself it would be great to share them w/ you at the beginning of the week.

Again, this one is dedicated to all my Coney Island Lovers. Big Up to you. Apology on the background noise when I'm talking, This should be the last video w/ this kinda of out put while outside. Big thanks for sticking w/ me.

Don't forget to help me out, "like" this and subscribe to my channel and of course showing this to as many friends as you'd like.

Thank you in advance.

Derek

My Love for Disliking Uggs (boots)

I know what you're saying, "Derek, why do you love to dislike Uggs?". It's simple, I just don't like how they look. I definitely don't like them after they've been rained on or when they have been worn out to the point they have creases and you're walking in them with a slant simply because one side of the heel is gone. How about when they are past dirty and you're still sporting them like if they were suppose to be grey instead of white. Now how many of you share the same feeling as you read this? I can't be the only one that has these feelings.... Can I???


Shall we get into what you ladies wear them with that makes no sense??? I'm sorry but from this guys perspective, Uggs worn with shorts/skirts is not a good look. If you're even wearing a skirt or shorts you don't have any reason wearing Uggs to begin with because that means it's no longer cold outside. Wearing them would have your feet sweating (at least I would think) and I'm sure taking them off would be funky. I'll go on a hunch and say I don't even think the lady who first did it (Paris Hilton) actually thought it looked good but I'm sure she got paid good money for it. (I don't know that for sure, but I don't think there's a lot of things she does that doesn't result in a check).


Some Uggs should have never gotten past the drawing board which makes me question the people that approved them to go forward. But then again I'm sure they were like "ahhhh, let's make them, somebody will wear them".



Hey, I understand that they are comfortable, they have to be if you'll still wear them in public and also pay as much as you do for them. I at least give props to the ladies who buy the real thing because they actually have no name brand Uggs (and that's even worse). But if you're going to continue wearing Uggs, may I suggest:

-Not in warm weather
-Keep them clean
-Do not fold the tops of them so the inside shows
-Not when they have permanent creases in them

(None of these are appealing to the eye!)

Before I sign off I'll leave you with a couple of comments from friends (men and women) on the feelings about this subject:

-"they are like giant "in the house" slippers and should not be worn outdoors. I don't own a pair and doubt I ever will. I can seriously find better ways to spend $150 or whatever they cost.. lol"

-"Uggz are already ugly and even worse when folded. When will women stop wearing them? I can't wait till they get played out."

-"UHHHGS is right! People here in the states wear them as if they were high fashion or something; meanwhile in Australia, where they were invented, wear them to take out the garbage and wouldn't be caught dead in polite society with them on. "

-"I think they are the ugliest boot invented in the world. Thick chicks & short chicks should not be wearing them. Spread out cankle Santa clause looking feet. No sexiness whatsoever UGH is perfect for UGG"

-"the best is that down here it's 80 degrees, hot as heck and these girls have on shorts and these winter boots..sweating their feet off...I am sure they stink by the time they remove them! It's nasty:-)"

I hope I haven't offended any of you Uggs supporters. The pictures viewed on this blog is not in anyway to embarrass the person in the pic, but serve as a visual. This is it for now, I'll edit this as time goes on but I felt it was important to get the reason out to why I don't like Uggs. Those that friend me on Facebook know that I have an album called Uuuuughs.... and so this should give more insight to why that exists.

Until next time, feel free to comment, share this with your friends, take a peek at my previous blogs and thanks again for the read.

-Derek

PUBS Best "Good/Bad Karaoke"

PUBS Best

PUBS Best was created to bring you reviews and suggestions of PUBS all around the New York City area. I recently had the idea to do some videos and above is one of the videos I did entitled "Good/Bad Karaoke" basically giving examples of good and not so good karaoke. Feel free to head to the PUB Best channel on You Tube for more videos.

The Mission is to get the word out on good spots to go to on your night out. Giving you everything from the drink specials, look and feel of the place, even give you our suggestion of what we liked most on the food menu.

Feel free to:
"Like" us on Facebook (facebook.com/pubsbest)
"Follow" us on Twitter (twitter.com/pubsbest)
"Subscribe" to our You Tube Channel (youtube.com/pubsbest)

Thanks and feel free to let us know any feedback you may have.

PAST-US STAT-US!!!

The Full Playlist...



Hey there, this is just a little something I've been working on and want to share with you. I call it "Past-Us Stat-Us" (PUSU), and we are 14 episodes in to this series. PUSU is basically where I take the 10 best statuses that stand out from my news feed on Facebook and share them w/ you. Most of the times there funny, but sometimes they do deliver a message and I usually end w/ a "Tip of the Week".

Everything is done by me w/ the exception of the statuses themselves. I try to make sure all statuses are original and haven't been copied from somewhere else, but other then that this whole production is done by one person and that is me.

Please, feel free to take a look, if you don't have time to see all of them I'd suggest you really start around Episode 10. Thank you and If you do enjoy feel free to also "Like" the Official Facebook Page of Past-Us Stat-Us.

Thank You and see you next time.....