Volunteering of 2013

It's been an interesting year of volunteering.  It's a constant adventure of where one can go just by having a willingness to try anything and everything that is out there.  The reason that there is the Volunteer log is to keep track of all of them.

There is lots of stuff to experience out there.  It can be a way to gain experience in areas that you might not have yet.   If you want to try stuff out, you can probably find a way to do so.  Can't really tell about smaller areas where there may not be many volunteer opportunities.  Around large cities like St. Louis, there is always something right around the corner. 

Volunteer Organization Log for 2013

For those curious to what organizations that I've volunteer for during the 2013 year, this is the listing of them.  I am a small cog in a very large machine.

I don't post this to brag, only to remember.  It is my own unique brand of insanity.  I do this stuff because I like helping out.  It gives me claim to being able to say that I've worked at: art shows, concerts, parades, cookoffs, beer festivals, fundraisers, STEAM education (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math), around robots, and at the circus.

286.50 volunteer hours and current to August 27, 2013.
321.5 as of September 22, 2013

Art On The Square
Bluesweek
Catsup Festival
Cinema St. Louis International Film Festival
Circus Flora
KDHX and Twangfest
Kiwanis of O'Fallon
FIRST Robotics
LouFest
Midwest Wingfest
Midwest Salute To The Arts
Rock 'n' Roll Marathon 
Sheldon Concert Hall
Strange Folk Festival 
St. Louis Earth Day
St. Louis Fringe Festival
St. Louis Heritage Festival
St. Louis International Film Fest
St. Louis Mardi Gras (Parade and cajun cook off.)
St. Louis Micro Festival
St. Lous St. Patrick's Day 
SGI-USA of St. Louis
Toastmasters
Tour de Belleville

Paying for Volunteering

Paying for Volunteering.  It seems wrong to me.  I'm giving up time and effort for a cause.  At this point, I think I'm just evolving in my volunteering.  I love helping with all of these events but I do have to draw the line at paying to do it.  It would be a different story if I am a fan of the event purpose/cause/theme. Otherwise if I'm just dipping my toes, not so much. I'll do my best to differentiate.  The one's on my page are free to volunteer for, with the exception of Burning Man. 

Changes Happen

Lately I've been eerily aware of my surroundings and it's been bugging me.  The idea that no matter how much you change; the world stays the same.  Change is one of those things that is just necessary for the world to evolve and become a better place.  As much as I like the comfort of things being the same and the regular patterns that we all fall under all the time, I love the differences and new and noveltiess that the world can bring to us.  Part of the thing that draws me to the list of stuff on the other tab and other volunteering and even the improv class is the variety and the crazyness of changes.  Maybe I'm a dreamer of dreams but that is just what I love.  I love the variety and not knowing and the opportunity to grow from that opportunity.

It is one of the things that bug me.  I believe that we as people and humans can be so much more.  We need to break free of the things that hold us back.  I won't try to convince you of this but I think you can come to the conclusion with your own reason.  If you need convincing, I will do my best to try or improv some convincing argument.

On that I will shamelessly rip off this poem called Ode by Arthur O'Shaughnessy swiped from WikiSource:

We are the music makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams;—
World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world for ever, it seems.

With wonderful deathless ditties
We build up the world's great cities,
And out of a fabulous story
We fashion an empire's glory:
One man with a dream, at pleasure,
Shall go forth and conquer a crown;
And three with a new song's measure
Can trample a kingdom down.

We, in the ages lying
In the buried past of the earth,
Built Nineveh with our sighing,
And Babel itself in our mirth;
And o'erthrew them with prophesying
To the old of the new world's worth;
For each age is a dream that is dying,
Or one that is coming to birth.

A breath of our inspiration
Is the life of each generation;
A wondrous thing of our dreaming
Unearthly, impossible seeming—
The soldier, the king, and the peasant
Are working together in one,
Till our dream shall become their present,
And their work in the world be done.

They had no vision amazing
Of the goodly house they are raising;
They had no divine foreshowing
Of the land to which they are going:
But on one man's soul it hath broken,
A light that doth not depart;
And his look, or a word he hath spoken,
Wrought flame in another man's heart.

And therefore to-day is thrilling
With a past day's late fulfilling;
And the multitudes are enlisted
In the faith that their fathers resisted,
And, scorning the dream of to-morrow,
Are bringing to pass, as they may,
In the world, for its joy or its sorrow,
The dream that was scorned yesterday.

But we, with our dreaming and singing,
Ceaseless and sorrowless we!
The glory about us clinging
Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing:
O men! it must ever be
That we dwell, in our dreaming and singing,
A little apart from ye.

For we are afar with the dawning
And the suns that are not yet high,
And out of the infinite morning
Intrepid you hear us cry—
How, spite of your human scorning,
Once more God's future draws nigh,
And already goes forth the warning
That ye of the past must die.

Great hail! we cry to the comers
From the dazzling unknown shore;
Bring us hither your sun and your summers;
And renew our world as of yore;
You shall teach us your song's new numbers,
And things that we dreamed not before:
Yea, in spite of a dreamer who slumbers,
And a singer who sings no more.

Volunteering Why's

I have done a lot of volunteering.  It's been something like 800 hours over the last 2 years or so.  As for the why, I'm still trying to nail that down.  Some things that I've come up with are:

1. Lots of new and interesting experiences
1. Got to hang out back stage at music concerts and load up and ship out bands
2. Hung out on the roof on main street
3. Creepy Basement
4. Check out hidden places at events that most don't get to see.  
2. Helps me become a better leader and communicator 
3. Free T-Shirts, Food, booze, beverages, and candy (cool perk but not a requirement)
1. So many T-shirts
4. Meet lots of cool folks
5. Led me into other interesting stuff
1. Started taking classes at The Improv Shop
2. Got into other volunteer opportunities
6. Can honestly say I've worked at a circus, radio station, festivals, at a bar, selling merch, and giving away loads of free stuff.

There's a saying in improv that you need to "Get out of your head" and "Yes, and..  In a weird sense those are the ideas that I'm looking for.  It's an Art meets life and life meets art thing that seems like I've been living over the last few years with all this volunteering.  For the most part I improvise at these events.  I keep an ear to the ground and do what needs to be done.  Improv class is starting to show me the way to do this but also show me how to be funny too in an honest sort of way.  I do highly recommend taking up improv class for reasons I won't describe in this post.  If there is any interest I will describe it in future posts.

Volunteer Stuff On My Mind

Lately something that has been on my mind has been the fact that there seems to be a lack of interest in volunteering across the board.  Not that it is a lack of interest in volunteering per se but there is a noticeable lack of people helping out in their community.  There is a lot of great organizations out there that do a very broad spectrum of activities.  There is bound to be something out there for everyone.  I've done everything from work at a pet kennel, to art shows, to music concerts, to the circus.  There is a lot of them.

As I've mentioned, there seems to be a general degrading of the volunteer army that are partaking in helping out their community for a cause or any cause.  I just wish I knew what I could do to help draw people into some of these great organizations.  If there are ANY questions about any organization that I volunteer for...just ask.  I've got all the organizations that I participate in on my other page here.  Anything that I can do, let me know.  I know that I'm not perfect by any means but I will sure as hell try.  This whole volunteering this is something that I LOVE doing and being a part of stuff and being there to be of assistance.  I want as many people to enjoy some of the things that I experience as well.

I want to do more and I need more folks to help out as well.  I don't want to have to drag people out kicking and screaming.  People just need to use a few hours helping out there community.  Bring the kids, bring the family.  Organizations will gladly take all the help they can get.

Towel Day, Volunteering, and ISTP

First off: Happy Towel Day!   Particularly for all you Hitchhikers of the Galaxy.

Second this whole volunteer thing is still pretty dern interesting.  I'm always finding events or finally getting around to just signing up for stuff.  Finally signed up for the St. Louis Bluesweek Festival.  I've known about it for a while back when it was the Rib America thing that went all Memorial Day weekend long.  Stuff happened and it became Bluesweek.  I've always been a little torn about volunteering for it in the past few years because I'm always got a boomerang tournament to attend on Memorial Day weekend.  Specifically the Gateway Classic; going on 26 consecutive years thus far.

Anyways the St. Louis Blues week is a good event.  Good music and food.  They still do the whole BBQ and ribs thing.  Tasty for mouth and ears.  Yeah I was working it but I do fit in time to hang out and enjoy stuff.  I probably enjoy it that much more because I'm volunteering for it.

Not really that odd I think.  I am an ISTP.  It's interesting to think about everyonce and a while to think about the whole Brigs Meyers personality things sometimes.  Sure they are generic and cover lots of people like horoscope.  I do think I fit in with the various descriptions of the ISTP (link and other link and another other link) out there.  I'm an adventurer that likes to tinker and understand enough for me to get good at doing stuff.  But also don't like getting stuck into routines and following strict rules.

 But it's late and I probably should proof read but I just wanted to get it out there.

FIRST World Championships 2013

Another year in the books for volunteering at the FIRST Robotics World Championships.  Easily one of my favorite events to volunteer for.  It's usually the one event I try to get on for multiple days for either the Regional St. Louis competition or World event depending on how much time off I have banked up at work.

It starts with a challenge that is given to each of the different levels (JFLL, FLL, FTC, and FRC) and based on some theme.   This year was a combination of ascending higher and mobility.  The FTC were moving rings from one rack to another tic-tac-toe like board.  The FRC were shooting flying discs at holes 15 feet high or so.  It's great to see the ingenuity that the students bring to the table to create the robots and accomplish their goals.  The students only get about 3 months to accomplish these goals and do the tasks at hand.  By the time these teams get to the World Championships the machines they create are pretty awesome.  Wish I could of been doing this cool stuff as a student.  In lieu of that, I shall volunteer for FIRST Robotics.

Kiwanis should almost start supporting teams or the organization.  But that's just me.

Security+ Certified

It's been a good week.  I am CompTIA Security+ Certified as of March 21.  Just 14 points short of the full 900.  It didn't seem as bad as I thought it was going to be.  But I did have the help of others taking the exam with me at about the same time.  We did get a chance to bounce questions off of each other and we did all pass.  It's pretty cool.

Tips for passing: 

1: Read the material test specific materials once.  Reread the things your unsure of.  I think I may of missed stuff on port numbers and TACACS+.

2: Practice Tests.  Probably the best thing you can do.  It was probably the thing that solidified the test material the best for me.  I highly recommend Exam Collection.  The have lots of practice exams that are almost word for word.  So going into the test you should have a pretty good idea of the questions you will see.  If you haven't seen some of the questions, you should of seen some variation of the questions.  

3:  Repeat but focus on the stuff you are missing consistently.

If you are concerned about passing the test, I would highly recommend doing practice tests.  It'll give you a feel for how the test is structured as well as provide a decent study guide.

As for the simulations:  I didn't really have much practice for those.  From what I've seen from other blogs they were started for the 301 series of Security+. Fisrt simulation was a matching portion where I had to identify things a person would know, have, or are.  For example a password is something I know,  a CAC card is something I have, and a finger print is something I "are".  I've heard that another matching set of questions was a port to protocol matching simulation.

The second simulation that I got was a firewall writing question.  I was given a scenario where two departments and a set of admins could only hit a certain set of servers.   Then you had to select the source and destination IP addresses, the port used for a protocol between them, and whether or not it was TCP or UDP.  Four pieces of information over Four lines.

For the second simulation, I've also heard that there could be a question where you have to assign servers to locations where they would be on a network diagram.  You'd be given 16 kinds of servers and you have to place them on the network for a certain configuration.

Supposedly there were 3 simulations but my third simulation didn't seem like a simulation since it counted as my first question.  My question ended up being about doing forensics on a system.  It wanted to know the order in which you would capture images of a breeched system.

That was my experience with the test.  I hope that it helps.  Remember to read up and do practice exams.  If you do that much, you will do fine.  Good Luck.  

If there is something else that helped you out, post it down in the comments to help others taking the test.

Brief Volunteer Commentary

Just realizing that with all the volunteering that I do, I need to find a way to scout out other opportunities that happen to a rise on a yearly basis.  For instance, I just found out about the St. Louis Comic Con today.  If I would of known about it a month ago I would of signed up forever ago.  I've signed up but with a few days to the event, who knows if I'll get tagged up for it.   Not much to do except roll with it and be prepared next year.  Sometimes volunteering you hear about stuff way to late.  It's the hearing about it that matters the most.  

It's the hearing about stuff way to late that I need to fix.  I shouldn't be missing interesting stuff like Comic Con.  I blame myself for it.  I have been assuming that things like it only happen in California or something.  It's okay, I'll survive.  I'm gonna have to dig around a whole lot harder for some of these events.

If your interested in the event sign up for it.  May have to search around a bit on your own to find out where to sign up but it'll be worth it.   If you happen to know of anything interesting that happens to need volunteers, especially in the St. Louis area,  let me know down in the comments.  Otherwise Volunteer on and keep rocking.

I've also gotten a chance to cruse around St. Louis on a golf cart this past weekend for St. Patrick's Day parade festivities.  Pretty sweet event with one of the few events with a 5 MILE run prior to the parade.

April is shaping up to involve a KDHX phone drive (please show your support at KDHX.org), St. Louis  Earth Day, and FIRST Robotics World Championships.  Their is also the St. Louis MicroFest at the beginning of May.  Check them all out.  They are all interesting events in the St. Louis Area.

Mardi Gras 2013 and other Volunteering

Thus far for January and February, I've managed to get on the ship for volunteering for Mardi Gras.  First time for doing stuff with the Mardi Gras festivities here in St. Louis.  They have something like 5 different events going on during the Mardi Gras time frame.  There is a pet parade, a Cajun cook off, various alcohol tastings, music, and a huge parade on the last weekend.  Only really got to hit the Cajun cook off and the big parade.  The Cajun cook off had a lot of interesting chefs going head to head cooking stuff up.  Think the winner of the pro chef side involved some dry ice and a fish bowl.  I'm sure it's probably in the Riverfront Times or something. I'm a bit behind in documenting this stuff, you may have to search for it.

The Mardi Gras Grand Parade was huge.  It was packed full of people and about 85 floats.  Lots of beads where thrown over like 2 miles.  Glad I don't have to clean up after the event.  It's a huge draw for the flow of money for the city.  Glad I could help.

I've also been digging around for more volunteering opportunities.  Honestly I'll probably be a bit restricted on volunteering and limited to Friday nights into Saturday/Sundays.  Perils of starting a day job and not having the time off yet.

Any one that is in the vicinity of O'Fallon, Illinois, the Kiwanis of O'Fallon is having their annual Spaghetti Dinner on February 23, 2013 from 4:30 to 7:30 pm.  It'll be at the KC Hall (map).  Adults: $8, Kids: $4, and families are $20.  Bring your friends, family, kids, and enemies to help a great cause.

For March there is the St. Patrick's Day run and parade on March 16, 2013.  FIRST Robotics is also having a few St. Louis events coming up in March and April.

Movie: Gangster Squad

Got to check out the movie Gangster Squad about the mobster Mickey Cohen wanted to "take over" L.A. by pushing drugs and running the gambling racket.  But it wouldn't be a movie without the rebbilish good guy cops to try at all costs to stop the big man.  For the Gangster Squad, we get the team of  Sgt. John O'Mara leading up the group of (all chosen by his pregnant wife Connie, good judge of character) Coleman Harris for stubborness, Conway Keeler for wiretapping,   Max Kennard for being the cop killing bad ass with his partner Navidad Ramirez, and Sgt. Jerry Wooters, Sgt O'Mara's reluctant friend from the war and guy that has some ins to Mickey Cohen.  They go "undercover" without badges, to reek havok on Mickey's operations.

The Gangster Squad go about hitting up some of Mickey Cohen's money making raquets.  The initial attempts don't go well but we also don't have Sgt Jerry Wooters yet.  As the team gets better at smashing an destruction they gain an underground reputation with the town and mobsters.

It obviously goes well and Mickey ends up in Alcatraz.

Don't really get to know a whole lot about the individual characters except for a brief excerpt from the movie life or the police records.  Mickey causes trouble, good guys make a dent, things go bad for good guys, then good guys eventually succeed.  Entertaining overall though.

During the credits: cast names are overlaid over old looking post cards from LA.
After Credits:  Nothing.

Speech Topics and Curiosities

Just digging around the interwebs, researching a project 2 for either Humorously Speaking or The Entertaining Speaker manuals. I've got a case of the writer's block.  Not that I even know what I'm even writing about.  Seems like it's the hardest part sometimes to come up with stuff to write about.  At this point I've written/talked about a lot of boomerangs, volunteering, or juggling.  Don't really feel that I want to go over those again.

2012 Volunteer Stats

2012 Totals:

372 as of 1/2/2013 final count for 2012
371.5as of 12/24/2012
367.5 as of 12/19/12
347.25 as of 10/29/12
317 as of 10/10/2012
300 as of 9/30/2012

The 2012 list of organizations that I have volunteered for

FIRST Robotics put me at 100 hours.
Art On The Square
Midwest Salute To The Arts
Circus Flora put me over 200 with 206.75
KDHX
Sheldon Concert Hall
LouFest
Kiwanis of O'Fallon and Fairview Heights
O'Fallon, Illinois Adopt a Street Litter Pickup
Red Cross
Spencer Kennel and Pet Rescue 
Toastmasters Speech Contest

Shiloh Homecoming
U City Jazz Fest
Strange Folk Festival 300th hour.
Pork With Passion
Wine, Dine, And Jazz
Salvation Army Sign up here.
Rotary

Places having fund raisers in combination with others
The Shanti

Cancelled Events
Wingsfest - rained out by remnants of Hurricane Isaac.  Lesson learned is that if you plan a hurricane, time out the residual rain better.