Welcome!

The longest wait ever...
As I sit here in my condo in Woodland Hills, Calif., I realize that I leave for Beijing, China in exactly one week to the minute. Why Beijing you might ask? Well, I am traveling to China for 30 days to cover the 2008 Summer Olympic Games for Getty Images. By now you would think people would have heard that China is hosting the Olympics but you wouldn't believe how many people I tell I'm going to China and these people still say for what. Seriously! It just happened to me again a couple hours ago.
So being that this is the first blog post for themaxxfactor and I'm still in the United States, I'm just going to lay down some basics and hope to answer some questions that people have been curious about.

The 2008 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, will be celebrated from August 8, 2008 to August 24, 2008, with the opening ceremony beginning at 8:08:08 pm CST at the iconic National Stadium in Beijing, People’s Republic of China.
The program for the Beijing 2008 Games is similar to that of the Athens Games of 2004. The 2008 Olympics will hold 302 events contested in 31 sports across 37 venues; one event more in total than in Athens.
Amongst the 40,000-strong ‘Olympic Family’ consisting of athletes from 203 National Olympic Committees, 15,000 accredited journalists and broadcasters as well as sponsors, marketing partners and the IOC itself will be Getty Images’ own 78-strong team of 27 editorial photographers, 14 editors (me), four picture desk editors, 10 IOC and sponsors photographers, one Brazilian Olympic Committee photographer, one photographer working exclusively for NBC’s Today Show, six sponsors services specialists, five IT professionals, four operations managers, a marketing communication specialist, two representatives of our sales organisation as well as members of our executive committee.
Getty Images is rightly proud to continue to be the International Olympic Committee’s Official Photographers, a relationship that has spanned 20 years, and one that has just been extended to run a further eight years until 2016. The sponsors’ team will receive privileged access from the IOC to areas not accessible by any other media in order to properly fulfill their brief.
In Beijing this challenge will be provided by the distinct cultural and political climate in China.

Accommodation for the Getty Images team at the 2008 Olympics will be at one location – the North Star Media Village in northern Beijing.
Altogether 38 two bedroom apartments have been reserved at the media village. Each apartment is configured as two single bedrooms sharing a living area and bathroom as I will be sharing apartment 1404 with my good buddy and photographer Streeter Lecka. Streeter hails from Banner Elk, North Carolina and currrently resides in Charlotte.
Each bedroom will be equipped with a TV set connected to the CATV Olympic feeds and commercial channels, telephone, desk, chair and a room specific air conditioner. The living area (aka party central) will be equipped with a refrigerator, kettle, coffee table, sofa and room specific air conditioner.
Services at the North Star will include pre-paid breakfast, general store, post office, express delivery service, bank, ATM, currency exchange, transport help desk, media service desk, concierge, gymnasium, swimming pool, 24-hour first aid, self-service and serviced laundry, daily room cleaning and a bed linen change every two days. As well as the inclusive breakfast, catering at the village will feature an a la carte dinner menu, 24 hours self service food and a café/bar.

The easiest way to reach me will be by email which will still be available on my blackberry. However, I will receive a Chinese cell phone and my number will be +8615077204030.
If you need another way to reach me Streeters cell number will be +8615077204037 and Brandon Lopez (manager) will be +8615077204013.

Please feel free to ask me questions as I get ready to depart for Beijing. I will try to update this blog as much as I can as because I know a lot of friends and family think this is a great way for them to experience my journey in the PRC with me.