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.

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.

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.