Life moves by fast

I hear this saying a lot that life moves by fast. You don't know it until you go through with it. Today is the one-year anniversary of me being in London. I can only relish my time there. It is amazing that just one year ago, I arrived in Europe not knowing what was ahead of me.
I have been home since December 18th and it is hard to believe that I have been home for nearly a month. It has been a lovely combination between relaxing, seeing my family and friends, going out and working. My favorite part of my vacation so far has been working. I love to work. I think that working is fun because it brings some variety to your day. I worked on Monday, Tuesday and Friday.
My favorite day that I worked this week was on Monday. On Monday I worked as a substitute teacher at the LAUNCH program which is for kids with Autism from ages 18-22. The program teaches them basic skills for the real world like counting money, figuring out train schedules and how to tell time. It is located in Memorial Middle School in Beverly. I think Autism is fascinating. I think it is better to learn about it from engaging a conversation or even working with them rather than reading books about it. You can learn a lot about it in books, but it is better to experience it being with them. The six kids that I worked with were kind, sweet and mild-mannered. We played a lot of games on the computer between exchanging money, reading stories and finding items. Just seeing them play these games shows how far behind they are because of their disability, but they were still fun.
Later on in the day, we went to the computer lab so they can go over their New Year's resolutions. They actually had some really creative ones like making more eye contact, learn how to cook, have better hygiene, so on and so forth. Otherwise, I really like being a substitute teacher. It gives me an idea of a typical day of being a teacher, which is a profession that I might pursue someday. I would much rather be a high school teacher than any other level. Even though there are a lot of punks and wise guys, I think that they have some potential to do some good. They are not going to be like that for the rest of their lives but that's just the false hope of being a teacher. You can't cure everything, but what you can do is give them advice and hope they follow it.
Since I have one week left, at this point I am ready to go back to UNH. I am starting to miss my friends from school there and it is time to get through my last semester at UNH. It freaks me out, but at the same time it is exciting. At first, all I worried about was graduating and then getting into the real world. It could be boring, but I can't run away from my. My parents, grandparents and great-grandparents did it. Why can't I? I am also looking forward to go back to school because I am sick and tired of the drama around here. Since I took my car off the insurance, I feel trapped. Whenever I have to go somewhere, someone has to give me a ride. Even if the driver does not have any money, you still feel obligated to cover them for a drink or some sort of necessity. Some of my friends have been ticking me off too. They are either too selfish or they are too cheap; two of my biggest pet peeves. I am not going to go over it because it will take too much of my time. Even though my friends aggravate me, I still love them. I would not be the person I am today if it wasn't for them. They make me strong, confident and to never be afraid of anything. I guess I am learning about myself more and more whenever I hang out with them. I guess I will have to take advantage as much as I can for the next week because this is going to be my last Christmas break. I am not going to have an extended after that anytime so. No more complaining or whining. It is go time!

Current Events Wednesday

Everyday, there is always some news story that affects the world. "American Idol" judge Simon Cowell plans to leave the show after the season. The court wants to weigh indefinite detention among sex offenders. Charlie Sheen gets dropped from "Hanes" commercials. The juiciest story of the year so far is easily the earthquake in Haiti.
Yesterday evening at around 5 p.m., an 7.0 magnitude earthquake hits Port-au-Prince in Haiti. There are over 100,000 deaths and it could reach about 500,000. Three million people could be affected by the earthquake, which is one-third of the population of 9,035,536 people.
The country is in frantic panic as they continue to look for their friends and loved ones. There was a plane that landed during the earthquake which also included some journalists. The country is without significant food and water and several nations including the United States and Britain are planning to send several funds and the proper needs for the suffering developing country. The Red Cross is planning to send food and water to Haiti as soon as possible. The United States is also planning to send more than 2,000 Marine troops their in the next few days.
It is the biggest earthquake since Haiti found their Colonial state since 1770.
Their official languages is French and Creole. The ethnic groups in the country are 95 percent African-American and 5 percent Mulatto and White. The population that is in the below poverty is 80 percent. The Port-au-Prince population is 1,082,800 people.
At first I was wondering why Campbell Brown, Anderson Cooper, Wolf Blitzer and other news organizations keep talking about the story. When I started reading the news today in NBC and then NPR, I then realized how catastrophic of a story this is. This is bigger than Hurricane Katrina or any of the Tsunamis in the past. This is a developing country that is suffering enough and now this earthquake. This country just can't get a break. Now up to 500,000 people could be dead and actually could be more that we are unaware of. I hope that other nations can provide everything that they can or this could be a very long recovery for Haiti because there are also over 40,000 Americans that are also living there.

End of a Glorious Era

I know that this may have been said way too often throughout the season. It made have been said too much since yesterday. From 2001-2007, it was easy to say that the New England Patriots were royalty throughout that time. But yesterday emphasized that the Patriots are not the best anymore. You saw it from game 2 on this year that the Pats were unable to surmount a comeback or make a big stop on defense. It seemed like yesterday put the icing on the cake. Once the Patriots gave up a touchdown on an 83-yard run from Ray Rice (which was the first play of the game), you knew the New England gridiron gang lost their swagger. In years past, that play may not have happened. But, in years past, if they were behind, they always had an answer. Once the Patriots had the ball, you would think that they would sustain a drive that would produce either a lot of first downs or produce points. On the third play of the drive, Ravens outside linebacker Terrell Suggs stripped the ball from Tom Brady and the Ravens recovered it. Once you leave the room to go to the bathroom, the visitors scored a touchdown to make it 14-0. That was when I felt the game was over.
The game ended because they did not have enough players that had the ability to make a big play to turn the game around. The Pats tried, but when they did, they would throw it in the towel. In the past, if the score was 14-0 in the first quarter, you know that Tedy Bruschi, Richard Seymour, Rodney Harrison or Mike Vrabel would make a play. But guess what? They are all gone. By the end of the first quarter, it was 24-0, the most points a Belichick defense has ever given up in the first quarter.
The Patriots played like they were vulnerable. Brady has not been healthy all season (rumors of a shoulder strain, some cracked ribs, and a broken finger), they refused to use their running game at critical times of the game and their defense could not play with good offenses. Those three things were the most important elements of success and they fell short in all of them.
Since the 2007 season, the Pats are all about numbers. They achieved the perfect 16-0 season, but failed to win the Super Bowl, which made them the worst 18-1 squad ever. Patriots did not have a 1,000 yard receiver since their first Super Bowl in 2001 (Troy Brown had 1,199 yards that year) and they won two Super Bowls. Since 2007, the Patriots have had six 1,000 yard seasons combining Welker and Randy Moss, which equals to ZERO Super Bowls. Before 2007, Brady did not throw for more than 28 passing touchdowns. In 2007, he had steroid numbers with 50 touchdown passes. I can go on.
I felt like they never had their swagger this year. Since former player personnel Scott Pioli jettisoned to the Kansas City Cheifs, the Pats have not made Patriot moves like getting guys to help the team in a certain area. They have not drafted well since 2005 (Chad Jackson, Jonathan Wilhite, Terrence Wheatley, Laurence Maroney please stand up).
The hardest thing to do in sports is not only get to the playoffs every year, but to WIN the Super Bowl every year. From 2001-2009, the Pats have had seven playoff appearances, five AFC Championship games and four Super Bowl appearances. That is quite a feat. Not even the Indianapolis Colts or the Pittsburgh Steelers has amassed that kind of success. It was quite a dynasty when it last. I am still proud to be a Patriots fans, but I don't expect them to win it all for quite a while if they have what they have right now. Keep trying Pats. I hope I'm wrong.

Thank God it's Friday

The saying "Thank God it's Friday" is almost irrelevant to me because since I have been home for winter break on December 18th, every day has been Friday because I have not worked. But this week has brought me a healthy combination between relaxing, going out and working. But there was some frustration throughout the week when it came to working, but everything panned out just fine.
In late November, I signed up to be a substitute teacher for Beverly Public Schools. The program that I signed up for is called the LAUNCH program which it is for Autistic students between ages 18-22 and my job is to teach them life skills. It is a good way to earn a few extra bucks before I go back to school. It would also provide me some more understanding of Austism, something that has provided me great interest since watching "Rain Man" starring Dustin Hoffman who portrayed an autistic man several years ago. When I signed up, I talked the substitute teacher coordinator, Corie McKenzie, that I was leaving UNH on December 18th. Sure enough, McKenzie called me that day and I was not available.
When school came back in session on January 4th, I did not get called from Monday-Wednesday and I was getting extremely frustrated. The next week, school was in session for three days and neither day I was called in. School had a winter vacation from December 24th-January 3rd.
On Wednesday, I was fed up with the waiting process. I decided to call Sherry Zide, coordinator of the LAUNCH program, who I worked with when I was a camp counselor this past summer. She pitched me the idea of working with the LAUNCH program and it lured me in to it. When I called Zide, I asked her whether anyone has called out. She told me that no one did and suggested the idea to become a general substitute. I called McKenzie and told her that I haven't gotten any calls and that it was time to change to a general substitute, but I still wanted to be integrated into the LAUNCH program. Sure enough, at 7:30 p.m., the substitute coordinator called me and assigned me to the Beverly High School, where I graduated in 2006. I was assigned to be a sub for a special education teacher. It was bad timing because that night I was going to go to Boston for my friend Kelly's birthday party. I knew that I was going to be home late, but I knew the consequences.
We went to this bar called the Tap. It is located in Union st. near Faneuil Hall. I was told that Wednesdays and Thursdays were the biggest party nights of the week in Boston and its reputation did not disappoint. I went out with about ten friends and it was quite a blast. There was a performer whose name is Bruce Jacques that comes every Wednesday night. He did a lot of things between singing, playing the guitar, dressing up in ridiculous costumes and provided jokes. My two goals for Kelly's night were theses, getting her drunk and make sure she had a fun time. Those goals were easily achieved. We left at about 1 a.m., an hour before the bar closed because some people had to work early in the morning. Getting home was a major challenge. We knew that Kelly has a rough night when it came to drinking and were utterly surprised that she hadn't hurled yet. But on the way home, Kelly puked three times. The first time she did, a patrol officer pulled up behind us and made sure everyone was not intoxicated other than Kelly. That procedure did not last more than five minutes and we were on our way. I walked in my house at 2:15 a.m. and did not go to sleep until 2:45 a.m. I woke up at 6:45 a.m. and then had to report to the high school at 8:00 a.m.
It was almost surreal to be back with a role at the high school. I saw a lot of my teachers that I had during my tenure there and they were excited that I was substituting. It was weird for me to call other teachers by their first name because I was inferior to them when I was a teenager. All I did was sit them and made sure that the students were semi quite and they did not kill each other. I always thought that special ed. students were fascinating because there is always something new to learn about a particular disorder or disability. The day flew considering that I did nothing. Fortunately, no one killed each other and I made a deal before each class that if they have nothing to do, don't leave the classroom for thirty minutes or not cause havoc. It worked. Soon enough, 2:33 p.m. arrived and school was out. It was good to get some experience because next time that I get called in, I won't have to be nervous or anxious. Even though I don't work 30-40 hours a week, I am glad it is Friday because my friends will not be working this weekend and that gives us an excuse to see each other without any strings attached.

News Wednesday

It amazes me how people who die that are famous for one or a few things get so much news coverage. According to MSN.com, Casey Johnson, 30, passed away today which authorities are unsure what the cause was. Johnson apparently was famous because she was engaged to Tila Tequila, her father Woody Johnson owns the New York Jets and her great-great grandfather founded Johnson & Johnson. So basically she gets attention for doing nothing. Pardon me if I'm being brash, but I never get it when people die, it is such a juicy story. For example, on December 20, Brittany Murphy, 32, died from what police believe to be diet pills or other drugs. Murphy was famous for two movies: "8 Mile" and "Just Married". For the last two weeks, she is getting attention from "CNN", "Fox News", "People Magazine", etc. I do feel bad that these two people died, but to be realistic, they are just another set of people that died from overdosing or whatever famous people do.
In other news, President Obama finally speaks out about the airport security and how they knew what works, but does not know why it did not work at the time. What a political statement that is. We all know that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was trying to blow up a plane. For some reason, they are not telling us why. Come on people, stop being watchdogs for the government and spill it out. There is definitely something that they are not telling us. Why the heck would the U.S. Embassy all ready re-open less than a week? From the way I read it, the Americans were going to close it until they figure something out. Did they? Who knows.
It saddens me that I am going into a business that does not provide enough validation and honesty anymore. I do think that technology is getting into the new journalists' heads. In May 22, I will either start my search or already have a job lined up at some news industry. When I get there, I will work my butt off to provide a honest, well-reported and savvy news stories everyday. The last thing that I would want to do is to be a watchdog and not report certain things when the taxpayers should know what this country is doing with their money.

Sports Monday

One of my interests that I am obsessed in is sports. It all started with watching the Red Sox in late 1998-early 1999. I have been going to Red Sox games since 1993, when Roger Clemens' time was waning with the Red Sox. I started watching baseball because I felt it was one of the best ways to have a connection with my Papou (Greek word for grandfather) because he has been a die-hard Red Sox fan for over 60 years at the time. Then it led to watching the Patriots, then the Bruins and then the Celtics. Eventually, it led me to watching all different teams in different sports. The two players on the Red Sox that caught my attention was Pedro Martinez and Nomar Garciaparra. As badly as things ended for Martinez and Garciaparra, they were both enigmatic players for Boston baseball for seven-eight years. Sure the Red Sox were never perennial contenders, they were still fun to watch.
The more I watched the Red Sox games with Papou, the closer we got. Whenever we would watch a Red Sox game together, whenever the other team would make a pivotal play or the Red Sox make a boneheaded play, Papou would punch the couch and say "Jesus Christ." Even if the Red Sox won a game, he would say they got lucky. A lot of people thought he was a grouch no matter how the Red Sox did. He was that way for such a long time because he was use to failure. He saw it when they lost the World Series in 1946, 1967, 1975, 1986 and the American League Championship series in 2003. Each of those series were seven games, the Red Sox were always 3-4 in those series. Who could blame Papou for being pessimistic? He always told me that the Red Sox would keep you interested throughout the summer, and then stink up the joint in the fall. When they swept their way to victory in 2004, the first person I called was Papou because I knew this was a big deal for him. Imagine watching a team continue to fail when it counted for 60 years? I can't even imagine it. When I called him, he said that he did not think they would win until Keith Foulke tossed the ball underhand to Doug Mientkiewicz. He was jubilant he did not know what to do. I told him that at least you saw them win before you died.
To this day whenever we talk to each other on the phone, we would first talk about current events, how everyone around him is and then the status of the Red Sox. We would argue about how the signing of Manny Ramirez for eight years, $160 million contract was idiotic to the odds in Las Vegas for the Red Sox winning the World Series that year. Papou is more of an introvert, but has a heart of gold. He has been married to my Yiayia (Greek word for grandmother) for 60 years now and they cannot be happier. Her role is to be the conversationalist and his role is to look cute and be quiet. To me, it is a great trade-off. Everyone does get along with Papou very well. Him and my dad talk about financial expenses because Papou is an accountant. Papou and my brother Pete don't talk a lot, but their love toward each other is mutual. But Papou and I have a strong connection that no one else who is close to him has, baseball, and no one can ever take that away from me.

Here is to the start of 2010

One of my new year's resolutions is to write more since I am studying Journalism. One of the ways I can do that is to maintain a blog. Since I am heading into my last semester at the University of New Hampshire and the job search is looming, I have to polish my resume and qualifications to be marketable when I get out of school. I have had this blog since September 2009 when I had my Multimedia and Advanced Reporting class. The philosophy of the class was to learn about the evolution of multimedia and how it affects journalism. We learned how to take still photography, audio and video. It was difficult at first because I did not have prior experience with this technology, although, I have always believed that the only way that you learn something is if you learn how to fail. I did fail quite often, but I learned from my mistakes. In 2008, I did a blog called "The Juice Machine" which was about Boston Sports teams. I had a fun time writing about it, except I did not really market it towards anyone else. My plan is to market this blog to news companies to have them view my writing through the internet. I have many interests between sports, politics, traveling, movies, video games, reading and music. I am planning to write three days a week, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The posts will be sports on Mondays, journalism on Wednesdays, and my status on Fridays. I hope you enjoy what my writing brings to you. My goals in this blog are to bring credible, validated writing to the audience and also to bring a forum to my readers. If any of you have a question or a comment to any of my posts, I will be happy to read and then write back to any of your comments. Be free to browse my work in my Multimedia class. I am looking forward to make a blog and this will be the start for the rest of my life as a journalist.