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.

Movie: Ice Age: Continental Drift

 Ice Age: Continental Drift 

During the Credits:  Extra animation with the stars singing the theme song.
After the Credits: None

Source:
http://www.mediastinger.com/ice-age-continental-drift-2012-extras-during-the-credits/

Movies:Ted and People Like US

Movies opening June 29 on IMDB.com

Ted
During Credits:  No
After Credits: No

People Like Us

During Credits:  No
After Credits: No

Interesting Weekend

So this past week has been an interesting one.  If you haven't seen my list you should check it out at some point.  This past weekend (June 9/10 2012) I got to volunteer at Circus Flora.  Not hard work at all. Clean a few seats coated in popcorn and fill a few programs.  Followed by being super friendly ushers and showing people to their seats.  Easiest volunteer work ever.  Get to see the show for free.  Pretty sweet deal.

The St. Louis 48 Hour Film Project

Worked the The St. Louis 48 Hour Film Project on June 6 with KDHX as the ballot hander outer and collector uper guy at the very cool Tivoli theater.  I didn't catch up all the submissions but from what I did see there were some great, some good, some not so much, and some could be bad enough to be good/funny.

Movie: Tales From The Crypt

Just saw the TV edited version of the movie Tales From The Crypt.  It's different from the TV show.  Their is no scary dead dude crypt keeper.  Just a monk like crypt keeper guy.  The story goes something along the lines of people wandering into a crypt and get trapped.

Three out of four is not bad....

Busy day for March 31, 2012.... Started at 7:15am with a Kiwanis Blood Drive.  Got the room all set up and situated for the drive. Food table was stocked with snacks, food, and coffee.  The problem was that the supply truck for the Red Cross never showed up.  GRRRRR.  Don't know the details of what happened yet but I will let you know when I find out.  Early April Fools Joke?

Next up Toastmasters Division 6 contest.  Got to be the Sergeant at Arms and Ballot counter.  Escorted contestants to the sound proof booth and preparation areas.  Interesting experience for doing both duties for the first time for the Toastmasters at a contest.  The after contest hang out was cool at the IHOP too.  Tasty.

Also helping KDHX with their phone drive to collect funds for the station.  It's a 10 day process biannually.  It's a great station.  Member supported.  They can play pretty much anything, as long as it complies with the rules of broadcasting stuff.  You should give it a listen.  I'd bet there is something there for you, if you give it a sufficiently long listen.

Three out of four events that happened successfully is not bad at all.

Change The World

Changing the world is not as hard as it seems.  It does not matter if you're the small fish in the pond or the top dog.  We can all do things that can have an impact on the world.  It can be the little thing such as picking up a piece of litter.  The little things count even if no one is around to observe it.  You can make a different.

The cool stuff I'm doing, you can do to.  You can have the influence over your world.  You can be the person behind the scenes too.  It does not have to start out as some big thing that you have to organize.  There are organizations out there that are out to improve situations of the community and the world.  The Kiwanis, Rotary, or United Way are all great places to start out volunteering and making a difference.  Alternatively if you feel shy and reluctant to meet up with new strange people you can work on it with the Toastmasters.

Anyway's I'm going to be at the KDHX radio station tonight (7p to 9p) and tomorrow (5pm to 7pm).  Give me a call and support a great radio station.  The number is 314-664-3688.

Great concert at Sheldon Concert Hall with Hayes Carll

Got to hang out at the Sheldon Concert Hall with KDHX on March 18, 2012.  Neat show.  Got to see Hayes Carll and the opening act of Honey Honey.  Not a bad gig to put in a few hours of work for a show with awesome music.  There were funny stories, great music, and great people.

Should be an interesting start to the volunteering season.  Coming up next weekend is the FIRST Robotics Regional completion.  The following weekend of March 31, 2012 there is going to be a Kiwanis Blood Drive at the Public Safety Building in O'Fallon, from 9am to 1pm.  I then run over to the Toastmasters Regional Contest later that afternoon and a KDHX phone drive.  Looking forward to the madness.

Slow Winter...or not.

Winter time is the slow time of the year.   There is not much that goes on.  I did manage help out KDHX with a few concerts at the Sheldon.  The specific shows were Jay Farrar show and the Todd Snider show.  Volunteering is cool.  Some times you get to be behind the scenes and see stuff not many people get to see.  I didn't see a large part of the Sheldon Concert Hall but I've seen more than most.  KDHX membership drive is coming up again.  Seems like it was only a few months since the last one in October.  If you would like to send in a few bucks, it wold be appreciated. 

Also helped out the O'Fallon Kiwanis a few times in the last few months.  There was the Salvation Army Bell Ringing in December.  Recently we has spaghetti dinner.  It was good as always.  Don't know how we did by the numbers though. 

I am also a fully trained secretary by the Toastmasters.  Kinda sucks that I've been out of service since mid-December.  Life of a student but I am only 4 classes away from a Masters in Information Technology Management.  I am on a mission to document all of these experiences.  I've got 87 hours between August and December for 2011 and I want to beat that this year.

And I have moved this blog over to blogger.  Figure I'd try it out for a while.

More volunteer opportunities....

This past weekend I gave blood for the O'Fallon Kiwanis and worked at the local homecoming. Prior weekend I was at Off Broadway giving away stickers for KDHX and at Wingsfest in Fairview Heights. All very cool events and lots of opportunities to meet lots of interesting people, interesting music, behind the scenes, and I love this stuff. Just being involved doing thing to bring people together.

With all of these people coming together and organizations that need more members, there could be unlimited possibilities for cooperation. If we could only step outside our boundaries and reach out to others. Events that need more volunteers. Getting a group of people that come alone instead of coming out in groups.

What if instead of focusing on a particular area, an organization(s) over an area teams up and work on the area. We scratch your area and we scratch our area. Not just one town but many more. A team up of sorts. Organizations can reach out to other organizations to utilize the unique skill sets and missions. Toastmasters that emcee a Kiwanis auction or local concert. Some weird skill set of two or more organizations that improve the whole. There are hand full of organizations over a single town that have similar purpose but don't interact with each other but each struggle with membership and getting new ideas.

What if you needed more members only required opening up to more people? Truly building a stronger community by sharing and combining forces. Utilizing talents that we can all provide in our unique way. I'm one guy dedicated to being more open to my area. Using all the skill I've learned to pay it all forward. I can't do it alone but I can sure try.

In a nutshell what I am saying is that: if you want an community presence have a presence in your community. It doesn't have to be anything expensive but people just have to step out.

Salute to the Arts Weekend

Busy weekend this past weekend. (Aug 25 - 28, 2011) The 25th was a setup day just setting up tables chairs, pulling electrical chord for artists, and just making the location look awesome. Went really quick but I didn't get their till 2pm. Only put in 4 hours that day.

I had to get to prior obligations to the O'Fallon Toastmasters and the humorous speech/table topics contest. I did place in both categories. Won myself a few gift cards. Think the system could be tweaked a bit but that's is a matter to bring up with the group specifically.

Anyway...Saturday (Aug 27) for the Salute to the Arts, I was helping the Fairview Heights, Illinois Kiwanis setup their ice cream booth and photo booth. Think it went pretty well throughout the day but the crowd seemed small outside the main event.

Sunday (Aug 28) was a Salute day once again. Helped out some of the artists with breaks and beverages. Watched their pieces as they took off for whatever. Followed though to also tear down the event. Consolidated the tables, chairs, plants, any rental equipment. Helped the musicians a bit to move their equipment.

All in all a good weekend, glad it wasn't raining like it was for the Art On The Square (Art On The Square Post). Weather started warm and in the mid 90's for the first few days but got down to mid 80's for the later days of the event.

Link to the event for future reference Midwest Salute to the Arts. Don't mind the erroneous title it does still say "Midwest Salute To The Masters", it has been brought to their attention for correction.

It’s been a busy June… Part 2

This month I got elected to be secretary of my Toastmasters club.  I got to go to the Toastmasters Leadership Institute (TLI) and learn about what I would be doing for the secretary position.  Just for giggles and grins I attended the building club spirit and what to do for Sergent At Arms positions.  They did mention that the trainers would be on the same page for this years TLI and it showed.

For the secretary position and Sergent At Arms position they covered some of the what you will be doing and  some details about the Leadership Opportunities.  Some of the leadership opportunities included setting realistic and attainable goals, planning, delegation, monitoring progress, and coaching team members as necessary.   Their was also more depth in covering how to motivate, delegate, barriers of delegation, and how to coach.

Building club spirit wise was interesting because it covered aspects of how to make things interesting for people.  It covered elements of how to keep people motivated to accomplish their goals.  Some elements of building or keeping team spirit include: first impressions, teamwork, traditions, celebrations/socialization, or progress.  All of these elements hopefully will keep the group motivated to continue accomplishing their goals that brought them to Toastmasters.

Isaac