Post-Christmas '08

Another year, another Christmas not being home. There was a time I didn't think it was possible to skip two Christmas back to back. But then who knows, I didn't think I would be here on the east coast either. I ended up having a nice Christmas anyway. I knew the Chrysler's were still going to be here so I talked them into going to the movies. Now going to the movies has been my tradition for the past couple of years before leaving to BVS. I didn't get a chance to do it last year, but this year was different. We went to see the new Jim Carrey movie: "Yes Man". This was a very funny movie and and a good movie. It didn't disappoint. After that, the we decided to get something to eat, but for a while nothing was open. It was when we were driving back home when we notice that a chinese restaurant was the only thing open. It was cool because I felt like I wanted chinese food anyway and there it was. We sat down and had a good dinner. After dinner we headed back to the center. I caught most of the Lakers vs. Celtics game, which Lakers won (YEAAHHH, baby). Then after that I just chilled an threw in my "A Christmas Story" dvd. It was a successful Christmas.

Not much going on after that. I purchased two new domains for my two new websites that I am doing: irizarry275.com and jay-izzle.com. I am in the process of developing web pages for both sites, which will be coming to your web browsers very soon. Other than that, just relaxing on this 5 day break of mine.




BVSer; Unit 275

PS. Check the new logo.

BSC Volunteers

Tony Fortune, Me, Al Chrysler - the funniest lunch break ever

Had better weeks!

Well this week was not that great of week for me. I didn't feel all that great to start with. My stomach wasn't up to par the whole week. What else is new. Normally it lasts a couple of days, but this time it lasted a week and them some. Then on top of that, I started to feel something that I haven't felt before. I feel like I am burned out of the IT field. There are things that I see and feel around here that tell me that after 13 years, it might be time to take a break for a little bit and see if there is anything else I am good at in the world. That is why I am considering two more BVS projects after this one. I just want to make sure that I don't want to burn myself out of this field. I want to make sure that this is something that I want to do, as well as finding another skill that I am good at.

Everything is so-so here at the center. Information Services finished up migrating all the COB users from GroupWise to Outlook email clients. That was an interesting project. I got a list of pros and cons that revolve around this project. But overall I thought it was a good learning experience. This was a project where I learned a lot from. I am taking notes in every angle on how this project started to when it finished. So whenever I come around this project again some place else, I know what to do and what not to do. Everything else has been going good. I'm just chillin until the holiday break. I am hoping to keep myself busy, such as more writing, working on website, going to movies, watching my movies, hanging out with the volunteers, thinking about what I am going to do next year, starting in January. I am going to do a lot of serious thinking about my future. I look forward to an awesome break.



BVSer, Unit 275

First post of December!

This past week seemed to go in the right direction heading toward the holidays. Work went well. Last week, Information Services started to migrate users email client from Novell GroupWise to Microsoft Outlook 2007. So far at the beginning stage, everything seems to go well. We had one use with a user not being able to migrate correctly the first time, be we tried again and was successful. Last week was a short week for me because I had taken off Monday as part of my long Thanksgiving holiday break. We got some more migrating to do this week and hopefully everything will go as planned with no issues.

This past weekend, I went to help out at SERRV again. Catherine asked me if I could help and I told her I wasn't busy so I stopped by there for a couple of hours, moving boxes and doing a little organizing for the sell there are about to have. I am going back down there this weekend as well as the first weekend of each month for now on. Helping out at SERRV is another part of giving something back to the community. Also it gives me an opportunity to see a different work environment from the one I am used to.

Since we are in December, here in New Windsor it is starting to get a little bit more colder than usual. On Saturday evening we had seen our first snow of the year. We didn't get that much but the grounds were covered and it was pretty cool. Only problem was that the grounds were a little slippery and I walked a little slower than usual so I don't break a bone.

I love this month. Prepping for Christmas is always great to me. This time I hope to do something on Christmas day. I don't know what I am going to do yet, but I hope to do something. I also plan on watching the basketball game between the Lakers and the Celtics play, rematch of the 2008 finals. I am looking forward to this whole month of December.

BVSer, Unit 275

Thanksgiving 2008

Well this year's Thanksgiving wasn't bad at all, however probably not much to report on as usual. I spent the evening with Harry, Stacie, and children, as well as Al and Suzanne Chrylser. We had a great Thanksgiving dinner here at the center where we had it in the Windsor Auditorium. We had all the Thanksgiving things: turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, green beans, spanish rice, rolls, pumpkin pie, and other pies. It was a great meal. I thank Harry, Stacie and the Chryslers for allowing me to have dinner with them. After eating way too much, I came back and chilled for a few hours to relax my stuffed stomach. After that I talked to my father on the phone for a while. Then topped it off with one of my movies I through into my laptop. It was a good day altogether. However I still miss spending Thanksgiving back home. This is my second Thanksgiving here in New Windsor and I enjoyed it, but I would have enjoyed it more if I was back in California. Next year though I will be. I also want to mention that my Dallas Cowboys beat the Seattle Seahawks to improve to 8-4. That was cool. The day after Thanksgiving, which was yesterday, I helped a friend in the SERV International store doing some organizing was pretty cool because since I been here in New Windsor at the Brethren Service Center, I have never been down to SERV expect in the gift shop. I had a good time helping her out and look forward to doing it again. I am taking Monday off so I can extend the break a little bit so I can do a few thing here. Anyway, Thanksgiving 08 came and went. I look forward to it next year.

BVSer; Unit 275

My Sports Day

This past Sunday was a good day in sports for myself. It had been a while since the Dallas Cowboys and the Oakland Raiders won in the same Sunday. Well this time it happen. The Cowboys played San Francisco 49er's and beat them 35-22. Tony Romo had over 300 yards passing and Terrell Owens had over 200 yards receiving. If they play like this the rest of the season, they might possibly make the playoffs and are going to be tough. The Raiders played their division rival Denver Broncos. This game was interesting because the Raiders came into this came without scoring an offensive touchdown in like two games. In the first half the defense came to play, and the special teams came to play as well. At the half it was 10-3 Oakland, with the touchdown coming from a run back from a kickoff return. The second half, Raiders just kept coming at the Broncos. They finally scored an offensive touchdown. Not only did they find the endzone, they 3 TD's in the second half and the defense play pretty darn well to win the game 31-10. Denver beat us the first game of the season in our home field. It was great to return the favor in their home. Not only did the Cowboys and Raiders win their games, but in basketball, the Lakers continued their winning streak my beating the Sacramento Kings to improve to 11-1 for the season with the best record in the league. Kobe once again only had to play about 33 minutes or so. Kobe averages around 33 minutes this season. That is saying that the Lakers bench is ripping it up and are on a mission the get that championship in June. In sports this was one hellava day for me. Lets do it again.

Some Real Thoughts......

For the past few weeks, there have been so many thoughts going on in my head that I need to start expressing them in my blog. Because after all, my blog is my personal journal. My blog isn't just to tell what I done in BVS, it also helps me grow as a person and a writer. With that being said, I am going to be completely honest about things in this blog that I probably won't say out loud to anyone, even though everyone can read. Its just something about writing that sets me free. I felt like I have been real, but sometimes I held things back because of what people may say to me or think. Not any more. You see this is my journal that I write. I love that people read what I have to write. That excites me, but I won't hold anything back because I need to be real with myself first and foremost. I want to be real to my readers out there, the people like to read my blog, and the ones that like to hate on my blog. It doesn't matter who. Also, when I write my blog, even though I might write something that people might question, I don't write this to get questioned because of something I write. I admire all my readers out there, but I want them to understand that what I write stays in this blog no matter what I write about. I don't write to answer questions like "Why did you say this? Why did you say that?" I know my boundries and I will respect my boundries.

I am going to start off by explaining why I am not going home for the holidays this year. At first I started looking at prices for plane tickets back home. To me there were a little steap. The times I wanted to go would have cost $600 or more. My parents as well as myself wouldv'e covered it no doubt, but then I thought about some other things and I come to the conclusion that I am nowhere near ready to come home. When I left, one of the biggest things that I seen in my life is that I felt like everyone was passing me by in life. People getting married, having kids, having cool ass jobs. The year prior to leaving, I couldn't get anything going right in my life. I was still at home, looking for work, driving my Pops pickup, getting turned down from place after place. It sucked. Finally, I had the opportunity to experience something completely away from my element. I had the opportunity to do something cool and be away from everything and everyone for a little while and I don't have to see everyone growing up in front of me. Fact is since I left, I felt like nothing has changed for me and everything is getting more depressing for me back home. I can't see that right now. I am in a difficult position because at one point I thought plan A was coming together nicely. But as time goes by, the comments being made, the things I see, I realize I am going to resort to plan B or plan C, which I don't really want. This probably don't make sense to people, but it makes complete sense to me, and that is what it supposed to. I have been feeling like this for quite some time now, it just isn't going away anytime soon. I don't want no one to tell me "how come you didn't say anything, or why did you say this?" The fact is, it is my problem and I got to learn how to deal with this myself. Writing about this helps because it gets a lot of things off my back. I am not going to fib, I do miss folks back home like my parents and my grandmother, and I want to visit them and everyone else, but I got to be in a right state of mind before I do that. It doesn't make any sense to be depressed about going home. And that is why I decided to hold off until I am mentally ready to return.

Everything is how its going over here in New Windsor. Work is still work, still enjoying what my job is for the time being. Francie is still the best, Wolfgang (I'm sure he'll read this, however) is still one awesome friend and the fellow volunteers are nicest people around. Game night is still a blast. It gets pretty lonely at here some times but I manage. I think the people I miss the most during this time is my BVS unit as well as other BVSers that I have gotten to know over the past year and few months. Those are the coolest people in the world. I miss just hanging out with them, having conversations with them and just doing the whole fellowship with them. Those are the people I miss the most.

I want to give a shout out to my fellow church family back home. Keep doing what you are doing and I will see you when I can. I can't wait to come back and play on the new basketball court, LOL. I want to wish everyone over there a Happy Thanksgiving because its coming up next week if I don't get a chance to write by then. I hope I will though.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, its coming up and I look forward to the time off a work for a few days. Not that work is bad or anything because I love my work, but it gives me a chance to do more writing, and continue thinking about my future plans are going to be. I will also be watching a lot of my movies and watching some of the football games as well. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, and I hope all my family has as great time back home. I'm sure some of the Irizarry's are going over my Uncle Domingo's house and having a great dinner while watching the Dallas game. My mom's side of the family will probably be at Dales, making the best food in the whole world (miss that pork with the peppers). Here I don't know what I am doing this year. I may just hang out and watch the game, then throw in a couple of movies. We'll see. Anyway, I will get back to Thanksgiving later.
I believe I got a lot of things off my chest for now. There will be more things that I will be thinking bout, and I will write about it when they come up. For now, I will chill with this blog entry and let it soak in while I find some other things to write about. Peace!

BVSer, Unit 275

Uncle once again

Last Tuesday, my mom called me up and let me know that I am going to be an uncle again. As of matter of fact, I am going to be an Uncle two more times. Both of my brother's girlfriends are pregnant. The most surprised news for me was finding out that my brother Josh is going to be a Father, which will make my dad a Grandfather. I was awaiting the day for Courtney, my brother Josh's girlfriend, to get pregnant and here she is. It couldn't have come at a better time for them. First of all, they recently bought a house, which means that they can raise their soon to be child in that house. Secondly, Courtney will finish up her nursing program sometime in December and I think that is what they wanted. For her to finish it up before having kids. And my father, going to be a grandpa. It doesn't get any better than that. He is definitely old enough to be a grandpa and now he is one and that is great. I can't wait to see what kind of dad my bother Josh is going to be. Now on the other side of things, my baby brother Todd is going to be a father for the second time. He has a 1 ½ year old daughter named Priscilla. The idea of having both my brother's girlfriends pregnant at the same time is an interesting concept. I congratulate both of theme and wish them the best. Todd, on increasing his family size and Josh on going to a new level in life, Fatherhood. It doesn't get any better than that. And of course, I will always be the best uncle that I can possibly be. I am going to be the type of uncle that my Uncle Domingo, my Uncle Balvino, and my Uncle Mark were to me. A very influential uncle in the most positive way.

Remembering Eva

Eva Weimer leading worhip songs on Sunday Service

Remembering Eva Weimer

On October 15th, Heaven received another angel. Eva Weimer was that angel. Eva had been part of the Waterford Church of the Brethren ever since I can remember and even way before that. She was loved by so many and she loved so many herself. Eva dedicated her life in being a Christian lady. I think we as a church were blessed to have her be with us.

Eva was a lot of things to a lot of people. A daughter, a mother, a grandmother, a great-grandmother, a friend, an influential person, and of importance, a sister-in-Christ. She held everyone with the utmost respect. She was that kind lady that you can talk to her about anything. I remember going to Sunday services and one of the faces I always looked forward to seeing and talking to was Eva.

I got to know Eva from the Waterford Church of the Brethren. One of the things that I will remember her being is loyal to the church. She been there through all the changes the changes the church as gone through. She dedicated herself to help the church in whatever she can do. Eva done it all. When the pastor is away on a Sunday, she makes sure someone is there to fill the pulpit. The hymnals we sing in church, she picks them out. She also lead the songs. I think one of the things that she had done that made her happy was she would lead Sunday school. Eva loved the children. She loved to spend time with much kids as possible because I believe that she made a difference in their lives. Eva was also a deacon, attended church board meetings, went to most of the church functions, and everything else I think of, she did. This is what I call “God's work” and she loved doing it. In my opinion she was the heart and soul of the church. The church is going to miss her very much

Eva made a big difference in my life. I will always remember her being one of my biggest supporters in my decision in joining BVS. She always had something great to say about that. Another thing that I will remember her by is she would make this delicious chocolate cream pie. Man, that is the best desert in the world to me. No one made it like Eva can. She took the time to hand me over her recipie for the chocolate cream pie so I would attempt to make it when I went to BVS. She wanted to leave her mark where ever I went. It just makes me feel good to remember all that about her. I remember she was one of the 6 people that actually showed up at the church of New Year's eve 2006. We all just played games, ate goodies, talked and just social with one another. I will also remember that she loved to play games. Eva would have fit in so well here at the Brethren Service Center in New Windsor, MD. I do that here with the older folks on Sunday evenings and they would have just loved her. I think of her smile when she would do something to influence my life in anyway she can.

Eva Weimer will be missed. I still think her presence is still with us and we (everyone she knows) will never forget her. She is a major part of my life and I will always look to tell stories about the wonderful lady that made a big difference in my life as well as other. I know God is pleased with her and I know she is up in Heaven, just chillin, having a great time. This is in memory of Eva Weimer, sister-in-Christ, who I will never forget.

October '08 Update

Hey People:

It seems like I am updating this thang like once a month. When I think of a regular day around here, I think I just might need once a month. However in this case I needed to drop a few blogs this month but been kind of lazy about it I guess. I am trying to work through something right now and I hope I can figure out what’s going on with me on a lot of levels. Lets get started once again shall we.

First off, I think I mentioned it in my last blog that the Fall BVS Unit did their orientation here in New Windsor. It got a chance to hang out with them most of the time they were here. I definitely liked all the members of the unit. At the beginning though it seemed like they weren’t too comfortable being at orientation. It almost seemed like they wanted to get orientation over with the sooner the better so they can go to their projects. But just like our unit, they needed a little time to get to know one another. Once they did, its like they clicked. There were a couple of people in that unit I wouldn’t have mind being my unit. I am not going to mention any names but I felt they became my friends from the start. I got a chance to have dinner with them three times. The one thing cool about having dinner with them is that after being here over a year and eating in our cafeteria just about every day, I started to miss the orientation food. Orientation food is way different than what people are normally eating. The reason for that is not much money goes into making these good meals. I think people can be surprised on what $2.50 a day can do. I thank the unit for allowing me to enjoy three good evening meals with them. I think the memorable moment for me is when I attended their evening session the day of their drop off day. It was real interesting to hear some of the stories that were told. Some of them had almost the same type of experiences like I did. And just like my unit, there were at least one story being told that kept everyone interested. Another interesting thing about this unit is that there were more than a few of them that wanted to travel outside the states for their projects. In my unit there were two people: one went to El Salvador and the other went to the Netherlands. Some of these BVSers want to travel to Latin America, Ireland, and a couple of different places. The only way I would go outside the states is if they would create a project in Puerto Rico like they had done back in 1950’s and 1960’s. This unit was cool. I might see them again at their retreat.

As far as work is concerned, I had the opportunity to run the department for a week again. Francie took another week off from October 13 through 17. I always enjoy working by myself for a week. Throughout the week, one of the major projects I had to do was install Microsoft Outlook 2007 on all the user’s computers. We are migrating from Novell GroupWise to Outlook here in the next month or so. I wanted to make sure that we were prepared for that. The most interesting thing that I done this week was add myself to the new server. Francie and I were the last two people to do that. I had moved all my file from the old server to the new server and then all I had to do was log on. It feels great to not be on the Novell server anymore. Especially because it takes forever to log on to the old server. The new server is more organized. I don’t see a million network drives when I go to save or open something up. I am happy with it. Finally the most important thing about the week is that no major issues came up. The last two times Francie and left for a week, either the email went down or email just wasn’t flowing right from one place to another. I am glad that I didn’t have to see that this time. The week went real well and it just made me feel like I can handle everything in the department whenever Francie takes a vacation.

I had the pleasure of attending my good buddy Alva and his new wife Liz wedding. It was cool to go to another wedding. I have been to quite a few of them in my day. The ceremony was cool because it was short and to the point. I’ve seen ceremonies where they take forever to say “I Do” and “I pronounce you husband and wife”. I enjoyed the reception but I didn’t stay that long. The food was catered by Chef Walt, who is the Managing Chef here at the center. I finished eating and hung around for a bit, then my ride decided to leave right before they started dancing. I probably could have stayed longer and got a ride from someone heading towards the Center but I just felt like it was time to go. I had been there for a few hours and it was a nice few hours. The best thing about the day was the weather. Alva really lucked out on having such a beautiful day, since the ceremony took place outside. The wedding was cool and I look forward to going to another one in the future.

This past Sunday I had experienced another first I can add to my book of first since being in BVS. Al invited me to the Ravens/Raiders football game. I have never been to a pro football game before and I was excited about going. Not only did I go to my first football game but going to the Raider game made it even better. Whether they won or lost, just being at the game was a real thrill for me. It was fucking awesome. It was great watching Raw Lewis play in person. But it sucked watching the Raiders play like shit. They couldn’t do nothing right the whole dam game. They lost the game 29-10. But that is just how the Raiders play. The only thing that would have made it better is if I sported my Raiders beanie, which I left back home in California. I loved going to the game. Now I can say that I have been to a pro baseball game, a pro football game, and a pro basketball game. Doesn’t get any better than that.

BVS Unit 275

Pic of BVS crew at the BVS 60th Reunion

BVS 60th Anniversary Reunion

What up, People:

For the past year, I was looking forward to the Brethren Volunteer Service 60th Anniversary celebration here at the Brethren Service Center in New Windsor, MD on the 26th through the 28th of September 2008. I liked the idea of having different BVSers coming together to share their experiences when they served or while they are serving, such as myself. I was expecting something like 150 people, but there were over 340 people showed up. 300 or so were here for the BVS reunion the other folks were here on some other business. Most importantly I loved the idea that that folks were here in MY “hood” (the place I am serving). The week before the event, I received an email from one my friends in my unit saying that her along with other friends in my unit and friends from the DC area were coming down for the weekend. That really got me excited because I had gone to DC twice and Elgin twice and it was cool of them to come see me in my neighborhood for a change. I loved it. I knew that this was going to be a good weekend.

One of the things I was thinking about was I wanted to be more involved with the setup or at least be someone productive this weekend because this was the place I was serving. I felt that on Friday morning I got the opportunity to do something cool and meaningful for one of the presentations that were to take place on Saturday morning. Kristen Flory, BVS Staff Europe coordinator wanted to scan 280 slides onto a CD. Francie asked me if I could do that for Kristin and I said “I would love to”. Now 280 slides to scan is a lot. It took just about the whole day to do it. After Kristin and I scanned all these slides to the computer, I went ahead and made sure they looked good my editing each picture in Photoshop. That took a little time too, but I loved doing it. I had gotten done with all the photos and then I burned them onto a CD for Kristin when it was 6:00pm. I was pretty tired. It was a success and I felt really good about doing for here. “Thanks for allowing me to help you out Kristin, if you read this blog or newsletter article.”

On Friday evening, I went to the gym to see who all was here. A lot of folks were already over there just chatting it up, visiting and eating ice cream because it was an ice cream social. I only stayed for a few minutes because I wanted to make an appearance, since Dan McFadden, BVS director, talked me into registering for this event and I want to make the most of it. After that I went back to my crib and chilled until the next day.

On Saturday, I got up around 9am and took a shower and prepared for the day. Most people were already up around 7am because they all went to breakfast. I wasn’t going to get up that early because it was still a weekend and I wanted to sleep in a little bit. They had a session 9am but I was planning on going to Kristin’s BVS Europe session at 10:30. When I got ready, put on my new BVS polo shirt I purchased, went outside to check it out, who did I see right off. Bekah, Rianna, Melani, and Thomas coming up my way. These were the friends I was talking about at the beginning of my article. I went over there, greeted them and welcomed them to my “hood”. We went up to the registration booth for them to get their information and name tags. After that, they all wanted to go to Kristin’s session, the place I was going to, so that worked out great. After the session, we all went to SERV to check out what they were selling; of course I just wanted to tag along. We left SERV and ran into Tom, another unit member and a good friend of mine. And from there, it was lunch time. We had lunch in the cafeteria. I have been here over a year and I have never seen it so packed with that many people. It was the biggest lunch line ever. The cafeteria holds approximately 200 people; we had 340 check in for lunch. Just imagine that. It was crazy. So after the craziest lunch ever, we all went to the 2:00pm session that Dan McFadden and Jim Lehman led. This session was about the past and current BVS units and the BVS history. This was a good session. I learned a lot. It was good to know about former BVS directors and Orientation Coordinators. We had a lot of people come as well. It was good to see that even folks that served so many years ago came and wanted to know more about BVS. From there Tom, Thomas, Bekah and I joined the storytelling session that included BVSers that served in the 1980’s, 1990’s, and 2000’s. I say there was about 25-30 in that session. First we went around saying who we were, what unit we served, where we served and what we did. Then people started talking about some of the memories they had at orientation or their projects. It was good to learn about what others did and hear interesting stories that BVS usually provides. After the session we all chilled in 2nd floor Windsor building for a few minutes. Just talking and chatting and chillin out was probably one of the highlights of the weekend for me. From there Rianna, Melani, Bekah, and Thomas went down to the New Windsor Fire Hall for the banquet they were having. I didn’t go because I didn’t want to spend any more money than I already did. It was all sold out as well. Tom and I just stayed at the center and hung out for a while. Once the banquet was over, I went down to the dining room and chilled in there for while. They had a coffee house and people went up and performed songs, read poems, and said whatever was on their mind. It was a cool hour of just chillin. After that I went back to the crib and waited until the next day.

On Sunday, I got up and prepared for the Sunday Service in the gym. This was my first Sunday service here at the center. It was really nice. Jim Lehman was the worship leader. His wife was the music director, and Stan Noffsinger, General Secretary of the Church of the Brethren, was the speaker. The service was inspiring. They also had a consecration of Unit 282, which is here in New Windsor for orientation as I speak. The consecration was real cool. I hope they never forget that. From there, we had a great lunch. At lunch I ran into the Bowman’s who are the family members of my good friends the Stanford’s in California. It was great to see them before they left the center. That was it for the BVS 60th Anniversary reunion celebration. It was a great weekend. The biggest “thank you” goes to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who because of HIM we had a great time honoring HIM.



BVSer; Unit 275

Wow....1st post in September!

What's up ya'll:

It's me again. As you can tell not much has gone on in a month. Work has been work. Still trying to go strong. A couple of volunteers that worked has hosts here at the center left for the year or at least 6 months. We got a couple more leaving at the end of September. The one thing I can say is that these older adult volunteers here keep me from going insane. I mean, if it wasn't for them, I would be one lonely person here. They keep me being me. So as when some leave, others arrive and that gives me a chance to get to know some other folks. Ric and Jan Martinez, folks that volunteered last year are returning in November which I can't wait. They are really cool.

One of the young workers here at the center went off for college. She was working in the food service department and became a friend of mine. I am going to miss her a bit, but wish her well on an exciting journey called college.

This week, the new BVS unit is here for orientation. I am pretty excited for that because it should give me an opportunity to visit some of the BVS staff again. I don't know how much I am going to visit them, hopefully I can make a connection with them. Also, the 60th Anniversary of BVS is this weekend. I just found out that some of my unit will be attending one of the days here in New Windsor. I think its great knowing they want to come. I been to DC and Elgin twice to see most of them, so now there coming to my "hood". And its on (in a positive way, LOL). Its going to be great seeing them as well as meeting a lot more BVSers from the past. I just wish I was more involved with the setup process since I am a BVSer serving here New Windosr, my new 'hood'. I will definitely share more after the weekend. Keep a look out on a new post a couple of days, a very special post coming up! Peace.

BVSer, Unit 275

2nd Term...New Plan!

Guess who's back for a second year ya'll:

That's right. I am on my third week of my 2nd term here in New Windsor, Maryland. Still in the same department of Information Services, working with Francie. I am excited about it, but also going about the second term in a different way. My first term was about learning the ropes, learning how to do things around the center, IS, and learning about how my life will be for this next year. This year is about proving myself that I want to be apart of the company for good. I am going to be more focused, more dedicated, and more ready to take on more responsibility. I already feel like I am part of the family here, now I want to take it to the next level. I feel really great about this because I got a year under my belt and the second year should be even better.

My first week went well. I stayed busy. I had a lot to do. It was a great week to start out. One of the things I did was make sure that just about everyone is on the new server. And then I prepped a couple laptops for other staff. One of the cool things and touching things that happen that week was the IS department hooked me up with a gift certificate to the local pizza place and tw0-6 packs of Dr. Pepper, just to say "thank you for all you done so far". That meant a lot to me with that special gesture because they appreciated my work. And I hope to return the favor with a great second year. My second week though went a little slower. For the simple fact that I got sick in the middle of the week and had to take last Friday off to heal up. I don't like taking sick days off, but if I have to I will. I don't want to make anyone else sick. I feel pretty good right about now so I will return to work tomorrow to start the third week.

I don't think this year, nothing to big will pop up. The one thing I am looking forward to most is the Fall BVS unit coming to New Windsor. I'll get a chance to meet different people, and hang out with them. I always enjoy meeting other BVSer's, whether they are older or younger, BVSer's are good people to now. The BVS 60th Anniversary is coming up, the end of September, which is here at New Windsor. I don't think I want to go into detail about my feelings about this weekend, but at one point I was really looking forward to this weekend. But now, it just feels like any other weekend. I am going to meet some folks there and hang out with the new unit, but it doesn't have the same feeling like it did two months ago.

The last three weeks I have been watching some of the most incredible moments in the Summer Olympics. They had so many sports going on, and it was fun to watch things that I don't normally watch on a yearly basis. Such as the women's gymnastics. That is probably my second favorite sport to watch underneath the Men's USA Basketball. What those young girls can do with their bodies is incredible. Every event that they do is amazing. The next thing I enjoyed watching is Michael Phelps. He is freakin incredible. The best swimmer I have ever seen in my life. Winning 8 gold medals in one Olympic is...sweet. Phelps is an inspiration to any Olympian or future Olympian. Then I had the pleasure of watching the women's beach volleyball finals. The US team kicked ass, but then again they kicked everyone's ass for like year straight. I enjoy watching volleyball because I think it is fun sport and I think it should be a bigger sport than it is. Last but definitely not least, basketball. The sport I enjoy the most, along with football and baseball. I got the chance to watch both the men and women's teams. Both are so great. I loved watching Lisa Leslie, Diana Taurasi, and Candice Parker do their thang. And then you got the best players in the whole fuckin' on the same team: Kobe (MVP) Bryant and LeBron (Bad Ass) James on the same team. It doesn't get any bigger than that. I had the pleasure of watching both teams take home the Gold Medals. It was something else. Especially for the men because they wanted to prove that they were the best in the world after falling short in 2004. Kobe, LeBron and Dwayne Wade ripped it up and it was a pleasure to see everyone win a gold medal; especially Kobe because of falling short of the NBA championship this year. This years Summer Olympics was awesome. I look forward to 2012 in London.

Right now I am about taking care of business here in New Windsor. My overall goals is to get employed here as full-time technical support in Information Services, working with Francie and Mark. However, if that doesn't seem like thats going to happen next year, I thought about another year in BVS someplace else. I thought about working with kids and doing something may a little out of my field, just to try something different. I got a lot of options to think about here in the next 6 months or so. I just want to say once again that my number my goal is to stay putt here in New Windsor. I like the people, I love my job, my boss is the best boss I ever worked for and my living situation is awesome. Wish me luck on the second year.

Oh yeah. My website is coming soon and I will continue to keep writing in this blog. Keep checking every now and then. Peace.





BVSer Unit 275

Ray Lewis authenticated signature

A good buddy of mine, Alva Lee Moses hooked me up with this real signature of Ray Lewis on the cover of the EA Madden 2005 video game. Ray Lewis is the only Defensive Player to ever don the cover of the EA Madden games.

My first term in Information Services, BVS

Hey People:

Well I finished my first year of my first term here in New Windsor. Last time I wrote about being here in New Windsor for a year including BVS orientation, was about being away from home for a year. This time it is about concluding my first year at my project, Brethren Service Center in the department of Information Services. To me this is the more special of the two because it symbolizes that I had worked at a job for one year, with better things to come. There is so much to take from this one year. I was reminiscing about my life earlier this week and realized that I have done a lot. I remember last year when I was interviewed by Mark and Francie, right then and there I knew I was going to be here in New Windsor working in the IS department because that was my first choice. When orientation ended, I just chilled in my apartment all weekend. I didn't even leave the apartment because for the first time in my life I had my own apartment. I was living by myself and it felt wonderful. After 27 years, it was time. I remember my first day at work, I went into Francie's office and talked with her on some things. Things like what I expected from this job, what are my goals, and what she expected and some of the things that IS was planning on doing. This was a whole new level for me because not only am I living outside my home (California), but I am also working outside my home too. I loved it. At first it was about learning the system, just like any other job. Learn about what programs to use, what was my role as the sidekick, what I can and cannot do, who I'm working for, the types of computers we are using. The hardest thing about this process was migrating my knowledge of IT to this job because the one thing I learn from the field is that everyone does things different. As time goes on, as I was getting more comfortable with my position in the Information Services department, I was able to use a lot of my talents and knowledge to some of these PC's and programs. And as I did that, for the most part, I have the confidence to do what I want to do on a PC. What I love about this is that I have input in a lot of things we troubleshoot. And as time goes by, month after month, Francie and I started to become more of a team. She is a great Administrator and I am the sidekick tech that loves his job. Another thing I like about IS is we work with this guy name Curt. Curt is our consultant. This guy is really smart and knows a lot about networks. He reminds me of Aaron Cornwell, my tech mentor in tech school. Not only does he know a lot and helps us out so much, but he is one of the coolest guys that I met ever, which is another reason why he reminds me of Aaron, because Aaron was that way as well.

Being at the Brethren Service Center has its pros and cons. The pros include having my own apartment, which I had mentioned above, the quietness of the small town of New Windsor, and most important is the people. I have met a lot of people here at the center. The staff is great. And we work with a lot of volunteers such as myself. Most of the volunteers are older people and work on a monthly basis. I have worked with 4 older BVSer here. The 4 other BVSers are Dave and Maria Huber, and Phil & Joan Taylor. 4 people who I have gone very close with since being over here. There are other people who I have gone close with: Art & Lois Hermanson, Adrian & Elaine Sayler, Ed & Betty Runion, Ric & Jan Martinez, Roland and Voletta, Dick and Erma Foust, Catheren and Collin, Bubbles, Hazel Hill, Josh and Cecil, Emma Moses, Alva Lee Moses and Liz, Aaron, Danny Simon, Diane Gosnell, David. Just so many people here at the center. The staff I have gone close with include: Terry Riley, Jane Bankert, Connie Bohn, Kathleen Campanella, Wolfgang Spreen, Barbara Watt, Joan McGrath, Loretta Wolf, Zach Wolgemuth, Judy Bezon, Roy Winter, LethaJoy Martin, Felix Hill, Ron, Mary Miller, Terri Meushaw, Dana Weaver, Darlene Johnson, Ed Palsgrove, and more. The last person I want to mention is Cori Hahn. Cori is probably my best friend here at the center. It helps that she is around my age and can relate with me more. Of course we don't agree on abou 70% of our conversations but it just makes it that more interesting to talk to her each day. The people are the best here and I couldn't ask for a better group of folks to work with each and every workday.

The two most memorable moments this year happen to be when I went to Elgin, Illinois for the first time and when I went back to Washington DC for the first time since arriving here in New Windsor. Elgin was a blast the first time I went because it gave me an opportunity to do a couple things: vist with some of my unit members who I haven't seen since orientation. And find out about other projects there in Elgin. Even though I went for the GB board meeting, I felt like this was a learning experience for me. I got a chance to see what the General Board meeting was like and meet different people. The main people I met was the field staff. The field staff was the reason I went because I needed to do some updates on their laptops. I liked all the field staff people who I met. They seemed real nice. When I went to DC the first time since being here, I went to visit some of my unit members who were serving in DC. The main person I went to see was Jillian Baker, who was leaving to El Savador for two years. Jillian just happens to be one of my best friends from my unit. Going to DC was a trip. The most awesomest trip in a long time. I got a chance to hang out and chill with them, went to a bar and had a couple, went to their favorite kick it place to eat. I also got a chance to meet a few new BVSers over there. Even some people that aren't BVSer's that were living in the house anyway. One thing about DC I learned about was the Metro system. You can go anywhere in DC using the metro, without even using a car. I think that is awesome.

Next up the BVS retreat. I spoke about this in earlier blogs and the one thing I can say now is that when I got up the retreat, I was coming off a major cold. I haven't gotten that sick in a long time and it prevented me from doing a lot of cool things that I wanted to do. Even though I was starting to get better from a week earlier, I still wasn't at 100 percent that I wanted to be. I got a chance to meet some new folks from the other unit that went, 277. 277 was a huge unit, but also a very cool unit my unit 275. I could tell that the developed a closeness like we did. And we just hit it off. Even though I had somewhat of a cool time at the retreat, I was so glad to be home. I guess after a long trip and was glad to come back to New Windsor, New Windsor could be the home away from home, LOL.

The next thing I wanted to bring up was that Information Services bought 3 new servers for the department. 2 in Elgin and one here in New Windsor. We have been working on adding all the users (employees and volunteers) to each server. This was an awesome job that we started back in May and just about to finish up our part in New Windsor. Elgin has been working really hard non stop to get everyone one so we can start are next step. I really enjoyed this project because it was a hands on project that I felt I was heavily involved. Curt had came in a lot days and helped Francie and I out so much. I really appreciated his work with us. I learned so much from this project that I take with me wherever I go.
In May, my Mom came out to visit for 3 days. Her and I planned the visit sometime last year. It was great to see her but she only had a short time here, not enough time to do a lot of things. I didn't even get a chance to show her around the campas. We went to Virginia the next day to visit our cousin Frank and his wife. We had a good visit with them. Her and I stayed the night over there and came back the following evening. Early morning the following day, my Mom left. Was a good visit, but I prefer to visit her when I am in California again.

Ever since after my mom visit, I felt like I was getting into a small slump. What I mean by that is like everyday seem to be the same. During the week, I wake up and go to work. When I get back from work, I just spend the rest of my time either resting or chillin on my laptop doing different things. It as been like that for the past few months. When I accepted the position here in New Windsor, it was explained to me that I may not have much of a social life. I agree with that statement now that I have been here for a year. I love my job though. My job is the one that that gets me up in the morning and be happy for what I am about to do that particular day. Weekends are good to chill, but I have been chillin a little too much lately. Every now and then I will go get some groceries, and maybe I will hit up Wallmart to get some clothes but for the most part, its work and go home. I was telling my Dad about that and he said that it was pretty much what I was going through at home except I didnt have a full-time job. Don't get me wrong, I would't change a thing, I just need to step up my game a bit and try to have some sort of social life outside the center.

With everything that had gone on over the year, I wouldn't change a thing. I still believe that this has been the best year in a long time. Working in the Information Services department has been so much fun and exciting. I love this department, the people I work with, the things I do, and will hopefully continue to do, and the over life. I seen many things, met a lot of people, and did a couple of things on way to a year. Awesomest first year ever, and I look forward to even a better 2nd year here in New Windsor, representing Information Services and the Brethren Volunteer Services. "Peace".

"Todos Amar"

BVSer, Unit 275

One year anniversary here in New Windsor, MD

What’s up People:

Back with a new post. Just a few things to catch you up on. First of all, as of July 22, it marks my one year anniversary of leaving home and being here in New Windsor, Maryland, which includes orientation. I will do a one year review of my project on August 10, that marks my project one year anniversary which is more important to me. However, one year marks in either case is special. I feel really proud of myself that I was able to be away from home a year without any major issues. With the grace of God, I want to extend that accomplishment for the next few years.

Well work had been interesting this past week. Francie was on vacation and I ran the IS department with a little help from Wolfgang. I thought this week went really well. I had a few things on my list that I wanted to get done. Thankfully I was able to complete everything that I wanted to. The most interesting thing about this week happened on early Tuesday when we had an email issue. We couldn’t send email outside of our email servers but we were able to retrieve them. I contacted Mark, the overall IS director of the General Board and we worked on trying to get this issue resolved. He had to restart the servers and the problem was fixed the end of Wednesday. During that time a few people came up to me asking about the issue, and I told them we were working on it. Also, during this week, I was able to add a couple more users to the new server. Francie and I are close to finishing up all users and I believe the next step will be merging to Microsoft Outlook from Novell GroupWise. Another thing I did this week was continue to organize our computer room. I hope to finish that soon. That has been an exciting week in IS.

Just to give you an update about my website that I have been working on: its coming along nicely, but slowing. I’ve been putting some time trying to get the site to be just right and I feel comfortable about each and every page. I will have it for you all very soon to checkout.

Last but not least, I want to give a shot out to BVS Unit 275. Since we are all about to finish up the year, I wanted to take this time and show some “Amor” (love) to everyone in the unit. Some of us already finished up. Some of us are about to finish up. Some of us are staying in longer. Everyone is going on a different journey. It was an honor to ride with them at orientation as well as the retreat. I look forward to staying in touch with each of them. Steve, Simon, Willem, Ben (congrats on engagement to your girl), and Leo: good luck in the future back in Germany. Sandy, hope everything is great and I hope your project went well. Rianna and Danielle (the two most awesome women I know): good luck in Law school and I look forward hearing the great things you will accomplish. Becca C (another awesome person), continue to be the great person you are and good luck in your future. Thomas, the person I like to debate most with, I look forward to debating with you future. Continue doing what you do. Tom, I know you will still be in your second project when the first year of BVS will end, but continue to strive to do what you do in Elkton, MD. It would be nice to visit and see how you living over there. Solomon, another person that will continue to be in BVS as we finish up, hope everything is going great in the Netherlands. Bekah, my favorite person in Elgin, I look forward to hanging out with you again. Maybe you might head back to New Windsor for a visit. Last but and definitely not least, Jillian, another unit member serving outside the states (El Salvador), one of my best friends in the unit. Keep up the good work over there in place I know nothing about. Since I am going to be here in New Windsor for a while, I look forward to possibly hanging out with you when you get back. I want to personally thank the BVS staff for being apart of our process: Dan (coolest guy in the world); Hannah (the comic character debater); Beth (another Californian), Callie, retreat was awesome, and look forward to seeing you during the fall BVS orientation); and Genelle, you are the one that had my back the most and are the coolest friend. Anyway, you guys are all awesome and I look forward to keeping in touch with you all.

Peace!

JCI
BVS Unit 275

Not much lately!

What up Ya'll

It's been a couple weeks and the reason why its been a couple weeks since my last blog is because there has nothing been going on. This blog might be a little short because of it. One cool thing to talk about is a couple weeks ago, I believe it was the 24th of June, where I ended up working a 15 hour day. Never been done before and it was pretty cool. I would say around the 13th hour I started to get a little tired. For the most part I was cool about it. Francie, Curt and I had to add the Material Resources users on to the new server, while copying all their files from the old server as well. It was a successful evening and we got Material Resources department accomplished. Next up, Brethren Disaster Ministries. Francie, Curt and I will be working next Sunday while everyone will be away for Annual Conference. I wish I was going to Annual Conference but I rather put in the extra hours of work to get everyone on the new server. I want to show my dedication to the IS department, show how committed I am going to be for the future. Been working on my website lately. I took a few days off, but I will be back on it. My goals is to have this complete to publish or just about complete by the end of the month. Look out for it when it gets published soon. Anyway, I will check back in later on. Peace!

JCI
BVSer, Unit 275

Finally.... I have returned. Its been a while!!!

It’s been too long for me not to write….

Wow. Over a month and I haven’t updated my blog yet. I am completely sorry for those that read my blog. It won’t happen again. But at least this time around I have a lot to say. Oh boy do I have a lot to talk about. I might separate my topics on this one because its been way to dam long. Right now is the best time for me to do this because I got so much shit I got to get off my chest. Anyway, come along for the ride as I talk about over a month’s time.

A visit from my Mom!

On the 17^th of May, my mom made a special trip out here to visit me. She arrived Saturday morning and stayed until early Tuesday morning. During that time I had a cool visit with here. I was really excited to see here because after 10 months of being out here in New Windsor, to finally see some family felt great. I needed it. If I was to do one year in BVS, I wouldn’t of mind it so much. But I am here for a lot longer than a year so to see my mom was great. Even though she only spent three days here, it was cool. When she arrived on Saturday, I took her up to the apartment for a few minutes to chill. Then after that, we went out for breakfast at Denny here in Westminster. She had rented a car and we made use of it. After breakfast, we went to Target and did a little shopping. From there we did something that I wanted to so since I got here and never had got a chance to go. We went to the movies and seen “Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian”. The movie was ok until the end. I will just say that for those who haven’t watched it yet. From there we went grocery shopping because I had to pick up a few things for the crib. That was Saturday.

The next day, we had planned to go to Virginia and visit our cousin Frank and his wife. When my mom told me that Frank wanted up to go and visit him, I was kind of excited about it because I haven’t seen Frank in like 12 or 13 years or so. Before we were on our way to Franks, we stopped and had breakfast at Denny’s again. As we were about to leave, it started pouring. My mom was real scarred to drive when it started to come down. It was understandable because we were going to be driving for a long distance. We finally made it to Frank’s around I think 2pm. When we got there, we just chilled a talked for a while, had a beer and listen to some music. Frank and I went out to the local store to get more brew and a few other things. We came back and Frank started to cook some good ass grub. He made some chili verde that was off the charts. From there we just chilled. The next day on Monday, we got up, had some bomb ass breakfast that Frank cooked up, got ready and headed to DC. Now DC was just 10 minutes away from his place in VA. It was good to have mom come to DC because she never been there before. She seemed like she really enjoyed the trip. We went to see where Frank works. He is a musician and plays in the Navy band. It was cool to see where he works and also meet some of the people he works with. After that we went out to a Native American museum. It was cool I guess for people that are interest in the history of Native Americans. We came back to Franks and chilled for a while before heading out to this Tai restaurant for dinner. I thought it was good food, but not better than the one in Elgin where IS went for lunch one of those days. It was getting late and my mom didn’t want to drive in the dark back to New Windsor. But she did anyway. We almost got lost a couple of times, and almost got into a car accident on the way. I’m glad to be alive right about now. We finally made it back to New Windsor around 10pm and I went to my room and went to bed for work the next day. That was the weekend with my Mom. I look forward to seeing her when I get back to Cali in December.

Father’s Day

Last Sunday that just passed was Father’s Day. This was the first Father’s Day that I haven’t seen my pops, although I did call and leave a message on the answering machine. I think for me being here on the east coast and not being able to come home anytime I want, I get emotional about holidays and special recognition days such as this. Especially this one because this is special day for all fathers out there that handle their business. I heard the expression “Anyone can be a father, but it takes a man to be a Dad”. I think this day should be called happy Dad’s (or Pop’s) day for all real dads out there that need to be recognized. This description fits my Pops. Other than God, my dad is the most influential person in my life. He may not realize that but he is. He has done so much in my life for me that other dad’s would have gone so far. As of matter of fact, if it wasn’t for my Dad, it wouldn’t be here in BVS right now, doing what I am doing. I wouldn’t have done so much in my life without him and I think he needs to know that. It’s everything, from trying to motivate me (another words chewing my behind out) anytime I need to get going about something. Making it possible for me to go to school, being there for my car issues, but my favorite moments are the times we are laying around or driving some where and talking about things. As of matter of fact, my favorite thing to do here in New Windsor, ever two weeks is giving my pops a phone call and just talking with him. He is my favorite person in the world to talk to. The one thing about my dad is that he is not just the best Dad in the world to me; he is one of the best people in this world. All the people that he knows in his life, I believe would vouch for me on that statement. He does a lot for so many people and he is just a blessing to have in our lives. I know this is going to sound funny coming from me, but even all the women that he has been with, still have love for me. That is just the type of person my dad is. I’m writing this because I want pay tribute to the man who is most important person and the best person in my life. I find it real hard for me to express this out loud, but as I mentioned before in my previous blogs, when I write, it makes it easier for to me get things out in the open. I love my dad with all my heart and I want him to know that I appreciate what he has done for my in my life, and look forward to being a great Dad, using him as my influence, in the future.

Next Up: The NBA Finals

Now this is a subject that I will get a little aggressive about because this is something that is in my blood. This year in the NBA Finals, it was a treat to renew one of the greatest rivalry is sports history. Yes folks, I am talking about the LA Lakers taking on the Boston Celtics. This goes back to the Russell vs. Chamberlain days. Then the 80’s rivalry between two of the greatest players to ever play this game: Bird vs. Magic. Now after 20+ years later, to me it is KG vs. Kobe like it should be. To me there was so much at stake here, not just playing another NBA finals. In 2008, the Lakers were the number one seed in the West; the Celtics were the number seed in the East. Two coaches tied with 9 NBA Championships apiece, Red Auerbach who is the heart and soul of the Boston Celtics; and Phil Jackson, who coached two of the greatest players to play this game in MJ and Kobe, who is looking to surpass Red to capture his 10^th NBA Crown. The last thing that stood about this rivalry is you have this years league MVP Kobe Bryant taking on the Defensive Player of the Year Kevin Garnett. Last time the league MVP took on the Defensive Player of the Year for the same year in the finals was when Michael Jordan, MVP took on Gary Payton, DPOY in the 1996 Finals. Kobe is looking to win his first championship without Shaquille Oneal. KG is looking to win his first ever championship. So much is at stake and just a short about of time to do it in.

Because Boston had the better record in the regular season, they had home court advantage throughout the playoffs including the finals. Game one was in Boston. The game went back and fourth but in the end Boston prevailed 98-88 against LA. I felt that the Lakers had to win one of these two games in Boston and clean house at home to take it because this series is the only series in the playoffs with a 2-3-2 format (2 home, 3 road, 2 home). In game two, Boston clearly had the advantage until the Lakers cut a 24 point lead by the Celtics to two points in the forth. The Celtics manages to squeeze by and took a 2-0 lead heading to LA for games 3 and 4 with the possibility of 5.

When they got to LA for game 3, the Lakers started off great and came back with a win to make the series 2-1 in the best of 7. In game 4, things went from great to worse the Lakers. The Lakers had a 24 point lead in the game and came back in the fourth quarter and won the fuckin’ game. How the hell did the Lakers let them come back and beat them. To me that set the tempo for what was about to happen. That told me right then and there that the series was over. The only thing I wanted to see now that I accepted the fact that Boston was going to win this series and take the championship was LA winning game 5 so that Boston could celebrate on their own home court and not in LA. Well that is exactly what happened. The Lakers again had a huge lead in the game and blew it, just to barely win the game.

Now they head back to Boston for game 6 of the finals with Boston up 3-2. If LA had any kind of chance at all, they would have to win both games in Boston. Well that didn’t happen. I predicted that the Lakers would fall in game 6 and that is exactly what happened. But what I didn’t expect was the Lakers would self destruct like they did. Not only did the Celtics kill them, but the LA just killed themselves. Boston destroyed the LA 131-92 to win its 17^th NBA world championship. Paul Pierce was named Finals MVP because he just ripped shit up. He played good defensive against Kobe and scored pretty much whenever he wanted to. Pierce was the man in this series. My congrats goes out to Boston for their win. A special congrats goes out to Kevin Garnett (KG) for finally capturing is first NBA championship in 13 years. He is too good of a player not have a ring and now that he has one, KG can get that dam monkey off his back. I recognized Boston’s game, their championship run, but I hated the fact that they did it against the Lakers.

As far as the Lakers go from here, they got a great future ahead of them. I think they need to take the off-season and get healthy. Most of those guys that are on the Lakers never played in the finals before and now they got experience. Once training camp begins, they should get Andrew Bynum back from injury and will be stronger next year. I expect the Lakers to be back into the finals again next year, only this time things will be different. They will win the championship and Kobe will have is Finals MVP trophy and will be recognized as the second best player that has ever played this game under Michael Jordan. I see that happening for the 2008-2009 NBA season.

My Work – Information Services (IS)

As with the above topics, I do have something to talk about regarding my job. Such as I love my job always and for most. It has been 10 months since I started working here in the IS department here at the Brethren Service Center in New Windsor, and just like day one I still love it. Ever since coming back from retreat in March it has been really busy, especially for the last month. Francie and I have been working very hard at adding all the users computers to the new server that we had purchased at the beginning of the year. This process has been a major learning experience for me because it is teaching me how to be patient during difficult situations. Not say there were a lot of difficult situations but there were a few and I had worked through them so far. There was a time when we thought we were going to the next big step, but realized that we had to go back and recheck all the PC’s we had done. Most people would have flipped out and quit if they had to go back and redo all the things Francie and I done the last few weeks, but I accepted the challenge and a positive outlook on things and a positive attitude. That is what makes our department great at times. When we can work through obstacles and complete our goals. I love this with a passion. Ain’t going to lie, I do get a little frustrated, but let me ask a question: who doesn’t at times at their job. I believe that you can love your job with your heart and soul and if it doesn’t at times get you a little irritated, there’s something wrong. So we are working on this project of getting the new server up and going. I was excited knowing that I was going to be a factor of getting this thing up and going and I am happy to say that I am still excited about the whole process. When I look at the big picture of things and this everyone is on the server with all their files and programs that are working right, I can look back at this and say, “Dam, I was apart of this amazing accomplishment”. Now I don’t know what Francie will say, maybe just relieved, but for me to come here out of West Coast and accomplish something that I haven’t accomplish before, it says a lot. During this process, I had the opportunity to work with different people and I believe they are confident in my ability to come in and make an impact here in the IS department. The year isn’t over yet. I know I will have a lot more challenges ahead of me and I look forward to it because that is what I do.

The Taylors:

Right now I thought I would introduce everyone back home to two new friends of mine and fellow BVSer’s, Phil and Joan Taylor. Phil and Joan are an older BVS couple who have spent the last six years in BVS working different places like DC and New Orleans and also here at the center. They have been back here for a few weeks and are looking to stay for a few more. They work in the Brethren Disaster Ministries. Before coming back to New Windsor, which they worked here before, they are in New Orleans working on the Brethren disaster project over there and now they wanted to come back at the center and do some work over here. I enjoy the fact that they computer literate and I was helped them pick out their new laptop they just purchased a couple of weeks ago. They have some exciting stories to tell and I look forward to creating some stories with them to tell before they leave.

My Upcoming Website

I guess this is the part of my latest blog entry to explain where I have been the past month or so. After over a year, I have finally got my motivation back to finish something I wanted to do for a long time, and that is creating my personal website for myself. This is not just another blog, or a church website. This is what I call my personal scrapbook, or diary of who I am. It does however contain my blogs, and my church website that I created but it also contains so much more. Photos, IT experience, volunteer experience, future video clips, education background, sports, BVS and so much more. This is something that I have wanted to create for the longest time and haven’t got the motivation to do it. I thank the Annual Conference staff for the motivation and I will make it the best that I can possibly make it. My website would be one of those projects that will never be complete because it will constantly need to be updated always. However, I am hoping before I finish up my first year in BVS it will be up on web so everyone can view it. I have spent a lot of my free time, nights and weekends and even some time at work to get this where it’s at right now. It’s the reason I haven’t wrote on my blog for the past month, but that is no excuse. I should be writing anyway to keep people informed. And also when people read my blog, they won’t be reading pages and pages like this particular blog, where I had a lot to talk about. I am going to continue my blog writing for a long time to come, but after I get my website up and going, I am going to let my website do most of my talking for me. I want people to understand where I have been and where I plan on going in the future.

10 Months and Counting

Well it has been 10 months since I started my project here in New Windsor. I must say it has been awesome so far. Everything from my job in Information Services, to hanging out with the staff and other volunteers, to living in my own apartment. This is one of those times its great to be single with no kids. BVS had been great to me and the Brethren Service Center has shown nothing but love and welcomed me in the family so to say. Where do I go from here? Well I will be going for another year hear in BVS, hoping that one day I will land a full-time job doing what I am doing and working with Francie, who’s without a doubt the best supervisor I have ever had before. We have developed such a good relationship here that it makes it hard to leave. I love the job itself. I am proud to be apart of the Brethren Service Center’s Information Services department. I enjoy helping others out with computer issues. And at the same time continue to learn about things here that I am haven’t been familiar with back home. I welcome another 10 more months.

JCI
BVSer; Unit 275

27 to 28 - Not getting younger!

A few days ago, I had turned 28. Once again, another year goes by and I am not getting any younger. However, the year 27 was an exceptional year for me. I had done more things at the age of 27 than I had ever done before. The only age I can remember of doing a lot within a year's time is when I turned 18. 18 was a good year. That was the year I had graduated high school, got my driver's license, and attended Modesto Jr. College for the first time. To me it was a pretty big year.

I feel age 27 had matched it. This was the year I finally got my life together so I can become more of an independant person. I had joined the Brethren Volunteer Service and moved out of Waterford. The only thing bigger than that to me would be getting married and having kids, which at this point of my life is not going to happen because I am enjoying MY life to much right now. During BVS, I had met a lot of great people, seen a lot of different things, been to a few places, and took advantage of most of the opportunities that floated my way. I can not complain on how my age 27 turned out.

Now I am 28 and I plan on continuing that same momentum into this year. It already started off with a bang. My favorite basketball player right now had been named MVP of the league for the first time in his year. Kobe led the Lakers to the #1 seed in the West. Love it. Then my Mom is coming out this month. I have been looking forward to that for some time now. We are going to be doing some things that are going to be cool. Sometime in the next two months, I plan on going to a summer camp and volunteering for a week as a camp councilor. I can't wait for that. My 28th year is going to be great. I don't know if it will match 27 but it is heading for a positive direction.

JCI

BVSer, Unit 275

Information Services