What a Freakin' Week!

It's been one hell of a week. This is the week when two icons had passed away, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson. When I heard Fawcett passed away I was like 'dam', I can believe it. She seemed to young to pass. But when MJ passed, I was so shocked, just like the rest of the world. And just like everyone, they will remember MJ for the music and performances. He was one of the best ever to grace the stage. I won't probably remember the last 10 years of his life or so when he was going through all his B.S but for me it was just about the music, his performances, and dances that made him who he is.

Then the next thing that happend was hearing that Shaquille O'neal being traded to the Cleveland Cavs for Ben Wallace and some other guy. The media kept hyping this trade rumor up so much that when the trade went down it didn't seem like it was news. It was more like finally it went down. Most people, like myself, think that Shaq is not the answer to LeBron James's destination. Shaq will help out the best he can, but he is old now and doesn't dominate like he once did. I think they picked up Shaq so someone can guard the Magic's Dwight Howard. Howard is a monster down at the post. When Shaq was in his prime, that probably could have worked. But now, Howard owns him. The Magic themselves made a big time trade to get Vince Carter from New Jersey. Carter is an All-Star player and is dam good. I guess they got pissed that the Lakers destroyed them in the finals so they had to get some more weapons. When the Cavs and Magic play in the playoffs next year, it will be very interesting to watch. Until then, I still am enjoying the Lakers 15th and Kobe and D-Fish's fourth title.

Well enough about whats going on in the news. On Thursday, Francie and I went back to the Southern PA District office to drop off a computer I had cleaned out for them. It is always good to go over there. Then today, I went to the movies again with my friend Al and seen "Transformers 2". I must say I really enjoyed the movie. I thought it was awesome. However there were a couple of seens in the movie that prevented it from being better than the first one. I would rank them about the same, maybe giving the first a slight edge because it was the first and it was hard to top it. I knew that going in that the second one had a lot to live up to. I was happy with it anyway and I look forward to getting it on DVD.

Very early this morning, Ed and Betty Runion, another favorite couple of mine who served here at the center for two months, finished up for the year. They volunteered here for years as hosts, but this was the third time they volunteered since I been here. They came the beginning of May and finished up end of June. They will be back and but I won't be here when they do. I am really going to miss them a lot. I will always going to remember Ed for helping Felix out mowing the centers lawn. Betty has got a great since of humor and was always so friendly. Other than the Hubers, Chryslers, and Hermonson's, I spent more time with them then any other volunteer couple. I am going to miss playing games with them. They are truly wonderful people.

Other than that everything is everything. It's almost July, which means I got a month and a half left. Now it's about preparing to leave, packing my stuff up and shipping it home. They enjoying the time I got left here and applying to whereever I go. Another chapter in my life is going to get wrapped up soon and so look forward to it.

Checking in on a Tuesday morning!

Well I think I will need to check in. This might be a little shorter than usual because right now I don't know if I got much to talk about. Had a decent weekend. Did the usual. Played cards with the volunteers on Sunday night. Watched some of the US Open. I did however get some work done on my website. My slump is starting to fade again. I am getting motivated once more to get this dam thing done. I still like what I have done up to this point but I know I still have some more work to do.

My mind and thoughts right now are to finish up and go home for a small break. I kind of dread going home still, but the more I think about it, the more I excited I get. There are a few things that I like to do and some folks that I need to visit, which I am definitely looking forward to. The next thing on my mind is Wichita. I am trying to prepare myself for a new life for at least another year. More about that later on.

Anyway, I am trying to keep a low profile here right about now. The more quiet it is around me, the better it is. The more quieter I stay, the less stress I get and the less pissed off I get as well. If that happens, then there is a chance that I can complete my overall goal right now. The overal goal is to complete two good years here at the center. I have never worked at a job longer than a year and a half. Already I beat that, and now two year mark is coming up and I look forward to that. So far things are looking good. I just hope and pray they continue to do so.

Congrats...2009 NBA Champion LA Lakers

Finally, after seven long years I can say this.......the LA Lakers are the NBA Champions for the 15th time. And finally I can say this....congrats to Kobe Bryant on winning his fourth ring. It's been a long time coming. So many years, so many situations, so many games, so much drama. It all finally paid off. They got close last year with Boston, but they ran into a team that seemed a bit more hungrier than them. Especially with Kevin Garnett (KG). KG has been playing the the league far to long not to have a ring. I couldn't stand watching the Celtics win, but I was happy for KG, is was the only good thing worth seeing.

This year was different. I kept saying that Kobe and the Lakers were on a mission the whole season from the start. They felt disappointment, and now they are to go and redeem themselves. From the start of the season, they looked great. People seen that. Kobe was developed into the great leader, and the other players wanted to play with him. Every person on that team played a great and important role. Andrew Bynum had came back from injury from the previous season. Lamar Odom accepted his roll off the bench and came back with authority. Trevor Ariza, a player we picked up last year, stepped his game up. Pau Gasol, the player Kobe needed to get this level. When the Lakers picked up Gasol, the first thing I said was "Hell Yeah". I was excited to get someone with his skills and talent. I was familar with him when he was playing for Memphis. This made the Laker nation very happy. And then Kobe, the best player on planet Earth. He did a great job in transforming his game to fit it around his team. The first thing he needed to do was start trusting that these guys are going to make shots. Then from that point, it was on.

They played great through the season. They won 65 games from the regular season. They never lost more than 2 games consecutively. They only thing that bothered me was that they would loose to the Charlotte Bobcats twice this season. The Bobcats haven't been good since their existence. Then they loosing to the TrailBlazers in Portland. They had a tough time there. But they found a way to win most of the other games. In the playoffs, they started off looking real good in the first round. Utah, a team they beat last year in the second round, was the fist team they had to play. It was a tough battle, but LA wrapped it up in five games. The second round was the most frustrating of all. Houston Rockets was their next opponents, and they gave LA the fight to the finish. This was a very physical series, a series that had taken the Lakers the whole seven game series to beat them. I was so upset with this series because Yao Ming, the Rockets big center and best player, got hurt in game 1 and was unable to go the rest of the playoffs. The Rockets other best player and scorer, Tracy McGrady, was inactive for a season-ending injury. The Rockets best players were out, and the Lakers needed to take them to seven games anyway. Next up, Denver Nuggets. The Nuggets were playing better basketball then anyone at that moment. They looked pretty good. They weren't the same team that LA destroyed on a 4 game sweep last year in the first round. The Lakers were able to beat them in six games to advance to the NBA Finals for the second year in a row. This time things were going to be different. Orlando Magic, a team that had beaten the Celtics in a long game 7 series in round 2, and then had beaten the Cleveland Cavs, the team with the NBA's best record and who at the time had an 8-0 run going into the eastern conference finals. It was supposed to be the Cavs and the Lakers meeting in the finals. It was supposed to be LeBron vs. Kobe, but the Magic had other plans. They put a beat down on the Cavs in six games to set up a meeting with the Lakers. A lot of good that did. Lakers were on a mission to destroy, to claim their trophy they they worked so hard for. They did so by beating the Magic in game 5 to claim their 15th NBA Championship. Kobe and Derrick Fisher winning 4, while Phil is now considered to be the greatest coach ever, winning a record of 10 rings (a ring for each finger). Kobe's first 'ship without Shaq. I know deep down inside he is happy about that, but he won't admit to it on TV. He collected his first Finals MVP award, the only award he hadn't been able to win. Now I truly believe he can play in peace now. And I think that will make him a better player for that. Right now I am enjoying this championship that I wanted the Lakers to get for over seven years, the last time they won. Folks keep talking about repeat, but I don't want to talk about that right now. Lets just enjoy this one until the next season begins.

Once again, Congrats to the Los Angeles Lakers, the 2009 NBA Champions!!!!!

Checking In!

Well, I just want to check in. Everything is still good to go. Just counting my days until I leave to go to Kansas. Most people always ask me if I am looking forward to going home, because I am going back to California for a couple of weeks before heading to Wichita. I say, "Yeah I am looking forward to it, but as much as my next project. I got a lot of expectations the next time around. I have goals that I want to achieve over here. This time I will accomplish them. What I mean by that is I had goals for my second year here in New Windsor, but I feel like I haven't even started on them yet, which means I may not get any of them done before I leave. I did create smaller goals that I want to meet before I leave, and I will do that. But in the big picture, I didn't achieve what I set out to do. I am going to make sure that I will complete my goals to in Wichita before I finish up BVS altogether. I think its going to take going home for a bit to do that. I need to be refreshed. I need a new start. I need to be in a different environment. I look at what I want to do in Wichita and that excites me. I think this time around, I need to be more creative, which my next position will possibly allow me to be. I need to get that smile back that I once had. When I first started here in New Windsor, I had that glow. The glow that I hadn't had before. The glow that says "I am going to have a great time here and my life is going to change for the better". I think ever since last November or December, I had lost it. Now is the time to go back and get it. New Windsor however was a success. When I look back and think of what I accomplished, I will think of things that I hadn't done before since arriving. New Windsor taught me to be more responsible for myself, as well as other things. I will take the things that I had picked up in New Windsor, and apply them to Wichita.

In other news, the Lakers have a 2-1 lead over the Magic in the NBA finals prior to this blog. Tonight they will play game 4. I have high hopes for the Lakers to win this game to take a commanding 3-1 lead. Kobe will have a much better game than he did on Tuesday. The rest of the team will come through.

Well the humid season has begun around here. I feel like I am quite used to it by now, but I still remind myself that I am from California, where it is mostly dry heat and manageable, even though sometimes it gets over 100 degrees some days. I was just thinking, and I am going to be in three different types of weather climates this summer: the east, the west, and wherever Kansas lands. I am not sure what Kansas weather is like, but I look forward to finding it out.

Everyone has been good over here so far. The host volunteers have been great. Now we have Ed and Betty Runion, who have been here twice before since I have been here. They have been here a lot longer though. Ed and Betty have been really great to me. I will always remember them even after they leave at the end of the month and when I leave in August. Then we have Larry and Elaine Balliet, who are just awesome people, just like the Petry's told me they would be. They are one of those couples I am going to remember and talk about for a long time. They got wonderful personalities and have great sense of humors. Then we got Art and Lois Hermanson, who have volunteered the longest. All my friends around here have been doing their thang as well, like Chef Walt, Cori, and Harry. All stayed busy and stayed cool.

Right now I am just trying to keep my head above water. Trying to stay focused on the task at hand. Trying to reach my ultimate goal here, to complete two years with now issues. I feel like that is going to happen. My attitude hasn't been up to par, but I am working on it each day, telling myself that I need to keep my head up and keep doing what I have been doing the last couple of years. Well that is the check in. I keep posting.

Kansas....Here I Come!

Since the middle of April, I started getting in contact with the BVS office regarding my next project. I talked to Dan McFadden, BVS director regarding two projects that I had in mind. My first choice was to go to Wichita, Kansas and volunteer at a place called “Trees for Life”. I am not sure what this organization is all about, but I do know that they are looking for someone with IT skills. At first, from the BVS project book description, I thought they were looking for a web developer for their website. That is what I had an interest in. I also liked the fact they work with a lot of people. I enjoy working with different folks. It seemed to be to right project for my third year of BVS. This last week, they had called me up and I got a chance to talk with them for a just a little while. I asked them about the environment of what I am going to be doing, and where I am going to be. After being here in New Windsor for 2 years, all these questions seem to be important to me. It wasn’t so when I first started BVS. Anyway, I liked what they had to say about the organization. I started with just a few questions, but I will have more coming up. I think they had a good feeling about me and they told me that they would get a hold of me a few days later. This was on Monday, and by Wednesday, they sent me an email saying they would like for me to come aboard. I was like finally, I don’t have to stress about getting into a new project by August. So, Kansas, here I come.

This week seemed to be interesting. First, I finished up replacing the last PC I need upgrade. I have been working on this project for the last couple of months. It was the food service PC and I was happy that the last PC was Chef’s. I really didn’t have to do much to his new PC because he just checks his email, and sends his lunch menu email weekly. Now Francie doesn’t have to worry about replacing PC’s and laptops for the next year or two.

The next thing that happened this week was the Lakers and Magic played their first game of the NBA finals. The Lakers gave them a beat down in LA for game 1. I hope this sets the tone for the rest of the series. I am hoping the Lakers come through and win this series to collect their 15^th championship, and Kobe and Fisher will get their fourth. I have been dreaming of a fourth ring for Kobe since 2003. It’s been that long. They only need to win 3 more games. However I know it’s going to be a tough series.

Today I had helped out the Conference Center with a banquet they were having. I always enjoy helping them out whenever I can because they know I appreciate what they do for my department. This was the second time I got a chance to help them out. The first time was when Al and Susanne Chrysler were here on their last night and they needed the extra help. I chipped in and helped out. Since I only have about two more months here, anytime I get a chance to help them out again, I will.