The year 2007 in pictures

Another year, and another host of pictures. As I was looking back at the many pictures taken this year, I really could not believe so much has happened this year. From my aunt and cousins (and god daughter Bea) visiting from the Philippines in May to my several trips to DC throughout the year, it’s been a busy 2007. I feel blessed. It’s definitely been a transitional year, and I’m excited to see what 2008 has in store. Happy birthday to me, and a Merry Christmas to all!

SFGMC Winter Retreat J College Summit F Rey at Ko Samui M Cousins jumping on the Golden Gate Bridge A
Representing three families at the airport M Lady Rap Directors J My first group of CS kids as a Rap Director in Regis University J Leadership Training for our Executive Leadership Circle-BUILD A
At some karaoke place in Dupont Circle, DC S Rey, Karla and Aaron in DC O Francis and King Ice skating N Family Thanksgiving N
King and Rachel at BUILD's Holiday Sales Bazaar D

“We who believe in freedom have to rest.�

I’ve been listening to a great podcast series from the Conversation Network’s Social Innovation Channel, and listened to a keynote by a fascinating changemaker and human rights activist, Van Jones (he is the president and co-founder of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights (EBC) based in Oakland, California).

He stresses the importance of allowing yourself to recharge, and to talk to people who aren’t involved in your work in order to get outside perspective. He emphasizes this by saying, “We who believe in freedom have to rest.�*

While it is so easy for us in this line of work to think that we cannot take a break or else world peace will never come, or the kids won’t get fed, or that they’ll chop down more trees, we have to remember that we can’t accomplish our missions if we first don’t find balance within ourselves.

How true it is. And right now we at BUILD are approaching our truest and only “slow” season–our week off between Christmas and New Years, and the first couple of weeks before the students come back to the program. Let’s all take this time to rest, reflect, and be with others who may not necessarily be in the social sector.

Continue reading “We who believe in freedom have to rest.�

Vegas for Thanksgiving Week

I had a great time in Vegas for Thanksgiving, and I have a few pictures that my brother took from the week. What did I do you in Vegas, you ask? Well, I slept, relaxed, watched cable (caught up on “Top Chef” and watched some hilarious “America’s Most Smartest Model”), and played Xbox and Wii. On a side note, I played this excellent 360 game called Portal, which was super enjoyable and super original. Check it out!!!

Anyway, here are some select pictures from my week off; they are mostly of me and my family eating dinner, and playing at Lake Las Vegas. Click this link to see the rest of this set from flickr.

Eating a turkey leg

Ice Skating at Lake Las Vegas

 

Lake Las Vegas

 

Christmas time at Lake Las Vegas

Click this link to see the rest of the photos on flickr.

efozzie 4.0

Thanksgiving… what a wonderful time of the year. This year i am taking 6 glorious days off and spending it with my family in Las Vegas.

And because I have so much time off from work and San Francisco, I’m working on a new efozzie site design and a blog overhaul. I’m attempting to convert from Blogger to WordPress. Let me know what you think. 😉

If you miss the old site, you can still visit it here.

Epiphanies are slow and gradual, not big bangs

Almost a year ago today, I thought of writing  a post with this title because I was driving to work with Karla and had an epiphany. It wasn’t a big huge crazy epiphany.

It was more like a puzzle all falling into place, and all of the pieces were gathered throughout time.

Anyway, the epiphany was that I wanted to teach at the university level. OK, so that unto itself is not a very concrete epiphany, but I like it the way it is. It’s flexible, and I am sure I can make it work.

Another great idea: A Summer of Service

Last month I wrote a post about how I have dedicated my life to serving children and youth, and after thinking about my past experiences and thinking about the Time article, I thought of another fun idea:

Kids have summers off, and most of the time if families don’t have money or resources to educate or keep their kids occupied during the summer, they are left to fend for themselves and basically end up watching TV.

Why not create a summer camp for kids from under-resourced areas where they learn about leadership by giving back to the community? It could be in a camp setting, in an urban setting, even in a suburban setting…  Clearly this idea is still very much in the idea stage… What do you think?

Thankful

BUILD at Local College Tour - CSU Stanislaus

There is so much to be thankful for on this Thanksgiving weekend. On Monday night as I was getting ready to leave BUILD, I felt so much love and gratitude for getting to and being blessed to work with my students at BUILD. Above is a picture of our insane college tour last weekend. This year’s trip was different from all of the ones that I’ve taken before–maybe it’s signaling a time for change. Either way, I’m so blessed for being able to affect and be a positive force in the evolvement of my students.

Sushi Changes

Sushi on 11/14/2007Does my sushi plate look different to you? Well it doesn’t necessarily taste different to me or might not look out of the ordinary for you, but it’s actually completely different. George-san, my resident sushi chef, the one who’s been fixing my meals weekly for the last, oh, maybe two years, has left No Name Sushi!

Apparently there’s some drama going on with the boss NOT paying her workers, and George-san hadn’t been paid in a while. Undeniably, he was getting fed-up, and rightfully so. It just sucks because he added so much to the place, and the new chef doesn’t look at friendly. I only hope my sushi-lady, Hiroko-san, doesn’t leave. I may just be forced to find a new weekly regular restaurant spot.

This is so telling of what’s going on in the world in general. Lots of changes happening. Does the sushi taste the same? Yes. Is it better than George-san’s? Well, I suppose that’s yet to be determined.