I’ll say it again. We all have super powers. No, we may not be able to jump over buildings, shoot lasers from our eyes, or run faster than the speed of sound. But everyone has something special about them that can be considered a “power”. Yes, I know I sound like a little kid, but I did graduate from high school (and even college!). I know, wowzers.

I consider these powers to be anything that may set us apart from others. For example, you may have a friend that has an infectious smile. Every time he or she flashes the pearly whites, everyone else can’t help but feel happy and crack a smile as well. Personally, I have a friend who has a sense of humor that could give Richard Pryor a run for his money. When he gets going, he is hilarious. You can’t help but laugh. He has the ability to make light of any situation and can make even a stone cold person laugh. Now that is a super power.

Some people may look at themselves and think “there’s nothing special about me.” I would disagree. There is something special about everyone, unless you actually make an effort to be completely lame, then no one can help you. But even if you have no special talents, but I’d venture to say that there is something you do, see, or feel that no one else can. I’ve known someone who most people would agree is generally unremarkable. However, this person actually has an amazing memory and organization skills, and was always known to be exceptionally thoughtful. I wouldn’t call that “unremarkable”.

For one, I think the best place it look is myself. I don’t feel that there is anything particularly special about me. Personally, I’m lazy and like to eat a tad too much. I’m not good at any one thing, just ‘okay’ at multiple things. I think everything is a pain in the ass.

However, all my life I’ve been told that I have the ability to make friends easily and am the glue that keeps some friends together. I used to think those were just empty praises, but more recently I’ve started to believe that it’s true. My personal talent may not lie in something physical, but in how I create and develop my relationships with people. It may not be anything spectacular, but that is my ‘special’ power. At my best, I am confident, witty, and am a natural leader. At my worst, I’m apprehensive, indecisive, and dull. It’s always been there, but I don’t consider it to be anything special because I consider it part of who I am.

We all have super powers. We’ve just always taken them for granted because we don’t realize we have them. What’s your super power?

If you listen to any hip-hop during the 90′s, you will probably recognize this line. “plans to leave, throw the keys to lil cease, pull the truck up front and roll up the next blunt, so we can steam on the way to the telly come feel my belly, a t-bone steak, cheese, eggs, and welch’s grape“. Name that song!

And that last line, ladies and gentlemen, is the inspiration for this post and my lunch this sunny afternoon in Southern California.

You may be telling yourself, “well this is really random”. It may seem random, but if you have known me for a few years now, you’ll know, this is something I’ve strangely never had the chance to make. But today, since I was down in LA for my buddy’s birthday, we were thinking of what to eat for lunch and it suddenly came to us. Why not take this perfect opportunity, and use the excuse of my buddy’s birthday, to eat something completely unhealthy, but oh-so-tasty and a “classic” American meal?

Even I don’t understand why a steak, eggs w/ cheese, and Welch’s grape juice taste so good complimenting each other. But it just does. T-bone steak is richer in flavor than de-boned cuts of meats. The bone gives the steak more flavor, and makes it so delicious. I’m drooling just from the thought of it. Anyways, eggs and a good, medium cheddar cheese provides a nice tasty side and grape juice washes it all down. How can you not like this combo?

I don’t claim or pretend to be a great cook, but I feel that I am pretty good at it regardless, especially when it comes to grilling meat. So here’s my recipe for this meal:

• 1 twelve ounce t-bone steak
• 2 eggs
• half (1/2) cup of grated medium-cheddar cheese, preferably tilamook
• 1/2 teaspoon Lawry’s seasoned salt per side
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper per side
• a glass of Welch’s brand grape juice

1. Season the t-bone steak with Lawry’s seasoned salt (regular salt if you don’t have the Lawry’s one) and ground black pepper. Make sure you season each side sparingly, as to not overpower the flavor of the meat. You’ll need about 1/2 a teaspoon of each for each side. Let the steak marinate for about 20-30 minutes.
2. While waiting for the steak to marinate, crack open 2 eggs (I like the extra large AA white eggs) into a open and beat well until the eggs have lots of air mixed in. You can tell by the bubbles that appear in the egg mixture. season with a pinch of salt. Set the eggs aside. Also, grate about a half (1/2) cup of medium-cheddar cheese. I like to use Tillamook because of the flavor, but you can use any kind. If you don’t want to grate the cheese yourself, buy shredded cheese. I prefer anything other than Kraft or generic brand cheese. Kraft cheese is full of preservatives and all kinds of stuff I can’t pronounce.
3. Fire up your grill, and make sure your grill is very, very hot. We’re talking, fires of hell hot here. Remember, if the grill is not hot, your food will end up… not good. Enough said. Put your steak on the grill and DO NOT MOVE IT. Let each side cook for about 5 minutes for medium. take off 1 minute for medium rare. Use your best judgment when trying to figure out if your steak is cooked to your liking.
4. After grilling your steak, put it onto a plate and let it rest. During this time, cook your eggs. I like to make scrambled eggs because it’s easier to eat with the steak. Heat a skillet on high heat with about a table spoon of vegetable oil until the skillet is hot. Then add your egg mixture and stir the eggs until they solidify but are still soft and slightly wet. Then add half of your half cup of cheese and fold the cheese into the eggs. After the eggs become more dry to your liking, put it onto a separate clean plate. Then add additional cheese as you like on top of your eggs.
5. Your steak should have rested enough so that some of the juices have seeped out. Move your steak onto the plate with the eggs and pour the steak juices on top of your steak.
6. Pour yourself an ice cold glass of Welch’s grape juice and enjoy!

Here’s a picture of the final product for you to be jealous of until you decide to get off your ass and make it yourself! mmm… steak…

Until next time… what should be my next experimental meal? You decide?

I am looking at a picture of a lovely lady (let’s call her ‘Amy’ for the sake of keeping this anonymous). In this picture, you can clearly tell we were very close at that time. Both our smiles look genuine, not forced. The picture is taken at a party during the summer, in a hectic environment, yet both of us seem very comfortable.

This picture describes a very carefree point in my life just after college. I was fighting with my own feelings about her and another girl, both of which nothing ever ended up happening. It is amazing what a picture can inspire and what sort of memories it can trigger. As incredibly destroyed as I was that night, I remember most of the details, but that picture makes all the memories of ‘Amy’ and or relationship at that point in time. Today, we are still close friends, but definitely not as close as before. What caused this slight rift in or relationship, I doubt I will ever know, but looking back on this photo, I can rest easy that at least, there was such a time where we may have thought of each other as more than just friends.

I am looking at another picture of another lovely lady friend, let’s call her ‘Emily’. ‘Emily’ and I were at a point where there was possibly something between us (or it cold just be my own delusion), but nothing ever came of it. It’s a candid picture, taken when no one was ready for it, so I feel like it really describes the feeling of that night well. We were at a friend’s wedding, and while there was really nothing between us at the time, that moment in time felt just right. It’s the same story as the first one. It was a fun night where our past with each other was erased for just that moment, and it was like we had just met for the first time.

There is no real direction to this post, but if there must be a purpose to this, it would be a reminder that no matter where you are in your life or how your relationship is with someone, there was a point where it was different, for better or worse. Documenting these experience’s are essential to reminding ourselves of the times we’ve had, the night’s we’ve shared, and the emotions we have felt. Maybe it is true; maybe a picture really does speak a thousand words.

But have we ever asked ourselves, why is that? Why do our grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. distant cousins care so much that we happen to be single? Has anyone ever considered the idea that we may be pretty happy single? For sure, the human race will live on for years to come, so there’s no real need to carry on the species. So why? Why do we settle for someone that we are not compatible with and end up having a nasty, bitter divorce with 2 years later because we realize that person is a raging b*tch or a giant d-bag?

The answer is pretty simple in my opinion. We are desperate. Desperate to not grow old and gray by ourselves. Loneliness definitely is the number one scariest thing for most people. I don’t believe it only applies to women, either. I think men have the same alarm that sounds off in our minds. We think, “oh god, I’m in my late 20′s and I still don’t have a girlfriend, how am I ever going to get a wife, have kids, and grow old?” As a result, we go to the club, bar, Vegas, foreign countries, anywhere we can get out to meet that special someone, only to forget, we’re more than likely not to meet our future spouse at ‘XS’ or ‘Cabana Club’.

That leaves the question: where do we go looking for love? If we’re out of college, working full-time, and have had the same group of friends for more than a few years, meeting someone that you are actually going to be interested in and that is interested in you is slim. Friends aren’t likely to introduce you to a mutual friend because of the potential baggage that could come with it in case of a break up. An office romance is always unpleasant if it goes south. And joining a dating site is basically like announcing to the world, “I have nothing else, help me out!”

My thought is that our purpose in life is not just to reproduce and carry on our genes to the next generation. Our purpose is to live our lives meaningfully, develop insight and wisdom through experience, and eventually pass that wisdom onto the next generation, even if they are not our own kin.

I believe the saying is, “blood is thicker than water”, but I would say it’s more like “love is stronger than blood”.

With Father’s Day coming up, all that is the rage has to do with fathers. Commercials casually fling around ‘Father’s Day sales’ and ‘get something sweet for dad’. But what is Father’s Day, like Mother’s Day, really commemorating? In my view, Father’s Day should be a day of self reflection for fathers, or otherwise called ‘dads’, and allow men with children to look at themselves in the mirror and ask ‘have I been part of my child’s life?’ and ‘did I try to be there for my child?’.  Also, Father’s Day should be a day of appreciating your dad, or simply giving a nod to the fact that, in fact, there was a father in your life so that you came to be in this world. This is about the difference between a father and a dad. They are the same in a literal sense, but if you stop and look at it with more emotion, you may realize that they are not the same.

In my personal experience of growing up, I went without a real father figure for most of my adolescent years. My dad was never home, always out and about, either working or somewhere else. I never really knew why I didn’t see him all that much. It wasn’t later until I realized, there was someone else in his life, and because he couldn’t be with that person at first, he was taking a second stab at it, and breaking everything he had in the process. There were other things that I won’t discuss, but when all of this was revealed to me, it was pretty devastating. I mean, who wouldn’t be if they suddenly found out that they nearly died at birth? Who wouldn’t be upset knowing that their birth had controversy attached to it?

I went through grade school while living with my mom and eventually my mom got the divorce she needed to free herself from her previous existence. In middle school, my mom met the man who would become my step-father, or otherwise called, my dad.

So here’s the difference. i feel that fathers have to earn the title of ‘dad’. Doesn’t the word ‘Father’ just feel like such a formal word? I hardly know anyone who just says “this is my father” anymore, versus “this is my dad” or “this is my old man”. ‘Father’ feels very distant. The word gives the feeling that you recognize that person was required for you to be born, but that you refuse to confirm any deeper relation to that person. That is what a ‘father’ feels like to me.

The word ‘dad’ feels much softer, and feels much less formal and takes less effort to say. Saying ‘dad’, is the short and easy way to refer to the man who contributed to your birth. Dad is the man who was there when you fell off your bike, and told you to be brave and get back on and try again. Dad is the one who taught you to throw a baseball, or how to change your car oil. Why does it feel so weird when DNA tests are done to “determine if he is the father”? No one says “determine if you are the dad”.

This Sunday, on Father’s Day, think about what your father or dad means to you. Think about whether he was just your father throughout your life, or if he ever earned the title of ‘dad’. If you are a father yourself, think about the influence that you have on your child’s life and what you can do to enhance that kid’s childhood. Just playing with him for half an hour may be good enough. Teaching him to catch a football may earn you ‘dad’ status. The truth is, kids remember what our parents have done for us, and since all of us have been kids at some point in our lives, we all know that kids never, ever forget those who have been there for us, and those who have not.

Most of us 20 somethin’s are young professionals. Some of us have more specialized professions. Some of us are in school for our undergrad or graduate degrees. We all have two things in common: one, we are constantly running out of time, and two, we are always trying to save a little cash.

For me, personally, making dinner can be really quick or it can take forever. It really depends how detailed you want to get into it. But say you want something good and filling to eat, but not something that will cost you at least 10 dollars for. I was thinking about this while grocery shopping a few days ago, so I decided to try to buy something that I could make within 20-30 minutes and make extra of in advance to save time for later. As I was shopping through the meat section, I noticed that chicken breasts were on sale. I was able to pick up 6 large pieces for 6 bucks. That’s a dollar a piece that’s big enough to cut in half for two meals, or two sandwiches. Some of us like to eat, you know.

I was also able to get 5 tomatoes on the vine for $0.75 and a head of lettuce for about the same. Look for sales, shop at local ethnic markets (like a Mexican or Chinese market) to save lots of money on vegetables. Lastly, I was able to pick up wheat hamburger buns (12 buns) for 4 bucks. Add that all together and you have a healthy, unprocessed chicken sandwich, for about $1.25. Yes, you can pick one up at McDonalds for a buck, but last time I checked, a homemade chicken sandwich didn’t cost me 500 calories.

But just a chicken sandwich for dinner wouldn’t cut it. But what’s a main course without a side or two? Potato chips would’ve been too… well, boring. Growing up in California, avocados immediately came to mind, (I don’t know anyone in their right mind that doesn’t like avocados, and whoever does should have their head checked ASAP) but instead of taking my first thought and making guacamole, I remembered an avocado salad appetizer with bell sprouts that I had at a Shinsengumi Shabu-Shabu restaurant. It was really simple, just avocado chunks with bell sprouts, cucumbers and a miso dressing, but it was so good. I took that idea and added in a more of a local California flavor with tomatoes, corn, shallots and jalapenos.

The basic ingredients/recipe for an avocado salad is really simple. I mean, it wouldn’t be an avocado salad without avocado, right? Below is a list of the veggies and ingredients I put in mine.

• 3 Haas avocados (cut into chunks)
• 1 or 2 your choice of tomatoes (diced)
• 1/4 of a cup of canned yellow corn (kernels)
• 1/2 a shallot (finely chopped)
• 1/2 a jalapeno (finely chopped)
• juice from half a lemon (1/4 cup)
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• a pinch of salt

Just add all ingredients into a large bowl and mix well. Obviously, feel free to add or remove ingredients as you want. If you don’t like tomatoes but love cucumbers, just replace one for the other. I’ve always thought that a recipe was just to give you the basic idea of how to make something. What you do with that recipe makes it your own. Since I didn’t have the chance to take pictures of each step, here’s a photo of the end product:

nomnomnom

After finishing the avocado salad, I went to work on preparing the chicken breasts. The ones I bought happened to be about 3 or 4 inches thick, so there was plenty of meat to slice the breast in half for two servings. Make sure you cutoff the excess fat and lining on the meat. I don’t think anyone wants to be eating a sandwich and then a mouth full of chicken fat, unless you’re into that kinda thing…

After cutting off the excess fat and slicing the chicken breasts into your desired sandwich pieces, put all the pieces into a large bowl and add some salt (as much or little as you like) and about a half cup of flour or corn starch. Use your hands and mix well; while making sure all pieces are coated with flour. After you’re done with this, wash your hands and slice a tomato and peel a few lettuce leaves for your sandwich.

Do you see the plate of mushrooms that’s cut off on the left? Mushrooms are good for one thing, soaking up flavor like a sponge, which you’ll see later.

Set your stove to medium high heat, and make sure to oil your pan well so that your chicken doesn’t dry out quickly. I used about 3 tablespoons, which came in handy after cooking the chicken. Once your pan is nice and hot, place your chicken in the pan carefully, and allow one side to thoroughly cook until you start seeing the juices of the chicken push up through the meat. Once you see that, flip it onto the other side with a spatula, and let the other side cook until the chicken does not give too much when you push it. If that’s still not good enough for ya, stick a thermometer in the meat and make sure it hits 150 degrees Fahrenheit. After this, you’re pretty much done with the meat, so put your pieces onto a plate and let the meat rest.

Remember the mushrooms from the earlier picture? Yeah, you’re going to use those now. You should still have a little leftover oil from the cooking the chicken in the pan, so throw in about 1 cup of chopped, diced, however-you-wanna-cut-it mushrooms. Feel free to use any kind you want. Add a pinch of salt to taste. While you’re cooking, you’ll notice that your chicken breast is “juicing”; basically, the meat is still cooking from the leftover heat and is letting out it’s juices. Take all of this juice, and pour it into your pan with the mushrooms. The result is nothing short of orgasmic. Don’t cook your mushrooms too long, because once they start to wilt they will let out a lot of water. Take them out of the pan while only starting to wilt, to avoid making mushroom soup instead.

I know that seems like it was a lot of work, but the idea behind this meal is to make something fresh and easily/cheaply purchased at a local supermarket. Do you think this is too much work? Then just make the chicken sandwich and leave out the sides. My goal was just to show that something as simple as a chicken sandwich can be made quickly and cheaply, and can also be made into a complete dinner by adding a few sides that you can even make extra of for later meals.

Before I leave you to start nomnomnom’ing, I leave you with a photo of the final product, happy nom’ing!

In recent months I have had unfortunate experiences with some falling out with friends. I have always taken these sort of things in stride, as while I was growing up I changed schools every few years and never really had a closely-knit group of friends until I entered college. I’ve never really been that comfortable with other people, seeing myself more as an introvert who tries to be an extrovert. Sometimes it was just too hard to maintain the facade, and I always relied on numero uno (that’s me!). As a result, I became someone who could take care of himself and really had difficulty  with making friends.

But, life doesn’t let you stay the same forever, and college life sort of forces you to adapt to your environment and meet a lot of different people. Some of them you may end up being life-long friends. Some of them are your close friends during school, but after you fall out of touch. And then there are the hundreds of people we meet that it’s only etiquette to ask “hey, how have you been?” every once in a while. I think a lot of other people can relate to this. It’s not like I don’t want to be good friends with everyone I meet, it’s just that it’s just not possible. I believe it differs from person to person, but I have some friends I would consider brothers and sisters, and if we end up not being friends in the future, unfortunately, that is just how it is. Everything happens for a reason; we obviously do our best to lead our fates in the direction we want them to go, but sometimes that’s just how life goes.

In high school, my entire life revolved around tennis. Tennis was my life; I ate, drank, breathed tennis for 4 years straight. Most of my best friends were through tennis. I lived with my tennis coach for an entire year, in the hopes of becoming a future professional. Of course, now we know that obviously didn’t work out, but the friendships forged during that time are something I wouldn’t give up for anything. Unfortunately, I don’t really talk to most of those friends back then anymore, and the few that I do keep in touch with we may talk or meet up briefly every now and then. But in my mind, I will always be that person’s friend. Even if we haven’t talked for years, I think the first conversation shouldn’t be any more awkward that your last conversation after a round of beers. Especially after experiencing college, and now as a young professional, I realize that we meet and impact thousands of people in a given year. Many of which we will see once in our lifetime, but we would always have that experience of meeting them in the first place. For better or for worse, that meeting happened for a reason, and impacted your life in one way or another, as you also impacted theirs.

I had a conversation with a very good friend recently about our personalities. Both of us are really bothered when we know someone doesn’t like us, and as a result, probably give off the impression of trying too hard. But sometimes I don’t try at all, and that seems to bother people all the same. Criticism is a hard pill to swallow, and I’ll admit it is hard to take even now. However, it’s a necessary part of growing up, and I don’t feel that we ever stop growing, be it in our 20′s, 30′s, or even 60′s.

This essay has probably gone on longer than actually needed, but I feel it’s a valid point-of-view to think about to anyone who happens to read it through it’s entirety, and I have spent a few nights thinking about why things happen the way they do; only to come up blank with an explanation. If you are a friend, and maybe in 1, 2, 5 years we may not keep in touch or be ‘friends’ any longer, please know that you have impacted my life in some way, and that I am grateful that you were part of some point in my life.

Remember that our experiences make us strong, but what we choose to learn from our experiences make us wise. Stay hungry (and thirsty too!) ya’ll.