Monday, July 31, 2017

Journal Entry #21 - Happy Independence Day, Volunteer Life, and Community Service

JOURNAL ENTRY #21
Name: Manley M Collins
Social Security Number:  5 7 9 - * * - 6 5 4 1
Date of Birth:  06/21
Place of Birth:  Washington, District of Columbia
Country of Birth:  United States of America
Date: July 31, 2017

TOPIC: Happy Independence Day, Volunteer Life, and Community Service
DEPARTMENT: United States Department of Agriculture
DEPARTMENT: United States Department of Labor
DEPARTMENT: United States Department of Defense

Happy Independence Day to all United States of America citizens and upcoming citizens.  Thanks to all the servicemen and servicewomen who fulfilled and are fulfilling the tasks to help America keeps its freedom and independence AND promote democracy in other nations.  It has been an interesting journey doing food in a variety of ways.  I always had a volunteer life and community service life.  I spoke about it very little or it is on LinkedIn.  Since I do not have the money to donate, donating my time is the next best thing.  Let's start with month of July.

I enjoy the new life breathed into First Baptist Church of Washington, DC.  I enjoyed one of several social events across the city of Washington, which was the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception Summer Organ Recital Series 2017 plus BusBoys and Poets Brookland.  It was my first time at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.  It had wonderful designs per dome and beautiful storytelling per dome, stained glass windows, or exterior/interior columns. The Basilica has five masses starting as early as 5:15 AM and latest one 9:00 PM. The Basilica has The South Gallery Organ and The West Chancel Organ, both housing 9,393 pipes, from which 157 stops play 172 ranks.  The largest pipe of the south gallery, standing nearly 40 feet, weights close to 900 pounds, while its smallest pipe is no bigger than a simple pencil.  You would need a copy of the program to see all the names of the instrument or pipes…..I said ‘WOW!” to everything.

Position #32 - Capital Area Food Bank
I started the month volunteering for a community event for 16 years and older on L St NW between First St and New Jersey Ave.  Two different communities (Asians and other minority groups).  The Asians must have been there since 3 AM.  CAFB was very hip to use keycards/keytags to keep track of households.  CAFB gives very fresh food.  I even had to sign up even though South Carolina informed me first how free food distribution works with the free lunch program and mom collecting can goods, the 12 inch block of government cheese, and white paper canned peanut butter; and New York provided additional education on how free food distribution works regarding its CSA programs. Illinois gets no credit for what it did.


Position #33 - Bread for the City
It is very unique offerings. I only took advantage of the food distribution program. I attended a volunteer orientation session to start my volunteer relationship.  Great food distribution program, but wish there was more ready-to-eat type foods.

Position #34 - Central Union Mission
This men only shelter is a unique group of people. The setup is great and offering all the type services, laundry, various improvement programs, bed/sleep distribution around 3pm daily, and security wand you down at the door. I am volunteered in helping with clean up of the shelter and serving dinner.  This is starting my volunteer relationship.  I think something is the food, but I am allergic to something maybe the meat since I have not ate certain meats after a long period time.  I love the cupcakes and cookies.  The full service meal is great...the serving of water became larger.  I enjoy seeing traveling organizations, radio stations, corporations, and other neighboring Virginia/DC churches serve as volunteer.

Position #35 - Martha's Table
First, this organization seem small, but when I discovered it calendar and other services.  It is a large non-profit organization with plenty to offer for everyone.  The meals are unique.  it may be mish-mash, but you get all your needed nutrients.  I love the sandwiches, lemonade, trail mix, and fresh fruit for later.  I have started my volunteer relationship even though I have to book a month or two in advance.

Position #36 - S.O.M.E. (So Others Might Eat)
I was first introduced to this organization through a member (Ken) of my church years ago around 2010, but did not know what the organization was.  In 2017, I heard they served breakfast and lunch.  All the shelters bus those who want a full course breakfast or lunch.  Families and women are more acceptable here.  A lot of male cliques are here. I took the time to volunteer.  I got the souvenir hat, a printed name tag, and wore an apron.  However, some crazies or angry people have done unusual outbursts to make Jerry Springer Live come true.  I have started my volunteer relationship.

Position #37 - Caviar
Hannah and Caviar DC team has their hands full trying to service DC and Virginia. Everytime, it comes around to deliver for Caviar/Square, the weather just would not act right and I saw my schedule reliability rating went from 95% to 38%.  I kept wondering why I was not getting much orders.  The experience has been crazy. If you attempt to deliver while it is raining/storming on a bike, they will give you an address that do not exist. Also, they attempt to send you to pizza places that have enormous boxes you cannot fit anywhere.

Position #38 - Americorps/ByteBack
This is my first experience with a nonprofit. The Americorps organization was formed by President Clinton and additionally funded by President Obama.  I like the commitment to community service and its initiatives, but it is a full time job to make the hours for a little bit of money and no benefits (benefits are offered through public services).  I was glad to run into the FEMA Americorps team at the Capital Area Food Bank community event. Also, picture attached. ByteBack offers classes to adult learners. The experience has been unique from 10 attendees dwindled down to 2 attendees. Or holding at 7 attendees and showing up once or twice a week missing some material, etc.  Byteback crew is great. I look forward to the new move from NE Brookland to NE NoMa.

Position #39 - UberEats
This team I was able to discuss over the phone and online only. International calls were something very different. To join this organization, they made sure you get the rough patch. I remember delivering a cupcake from dupont circle all the way to glover park area.  The hills were a killer.  I remember one confrontation with Uber to get me to cross the bridge to Anacostia. Another confrontation with Uber was at 10:45 PM, a customer had a work address in, but discovered she wanted the food delivered Alexandria, VA on a bike.  Uber needs to address if they want deliveries like that please offer Uber cabs/taxis to get the UberEats driver there and back to DC.  Uber very interestingly tries to emulate the others, but I still can not believe how many trips I did for this company.  I did cover all four quadrants (NE, NW, SE, and SW) with this company.  George Washington University and Georgetown University seem to use this service quite a bit.  You have to get creative delivering McDonald's.  This is the only delivery company that said Happy Birthday to me.  When you join UberEats, just give them my invite code ManleyC23UE.  Just like the intelligence or Microsoft community called me ‘SharePoint’, the Washington, DC market and community are starting to call me ‘Uber’ or ‘UberEats’.

Position #40 - Grubhub
This team with Patrick, and others, give a very unique experience.  Something always happened to my bike when working or going to work for this company.  It is very interesting the three (3) or four (4) California companies do not talk about you.  Seeing the large signage on Douglas Development HQ in downtown Dc was nice, but with the new system of merging WhenIWork and Grubhub app terminate all the drivers who may have changed their schedules or miss a block.  I chatted with Jordan Oates about this and he was able to reactivate the account.  You surprised me and gave me a Virginia trip, but when I am not on GPS, I took WMATA/metro and made the delivery.  When you join Grubhub, just give them my name as a referral.

Position #41 - Postmates
Neil and this crew is hilarious. Postmates try to deliver everything. Soft drinks and ice cream, etc., and the driver has to be creative to deliver Wendy's.  This was my first company delivering soft drinks. During some trips, I had to substitute the drink for bottled water because I did not know how to do fountain drinks. One morning, I remember delivering two packs of paper from one office to next door office on the same block.  Howard University and NorthEast DC uses this service a lot.  Postmates did send me a warning of my 5 star rating to dropping below 4.7 star rating....slight suspicion or paranoia is the minorities seeing me a whole lot.  Using the PEX card is nice feeling in knowing there are commercial prepaid card. I even got a personalize PEX card right around my birthday.  The only annoyance is getting/photoing the receipts into the system/app.  When you join Postmates, just give them my name as a referral.

Position #42 - DoorDash
This is a very creative service for flat rate, but short trips.  Posting a time when the order is delivered gives the driver a huge break and not have to rush to customer regardless if they say ASAP (as soon as possible).  The RedCard is a great experience and do not have to photo the receipt into the system.  I love the personalized texts.  The only downside is one trip per hour.  When you join DoorDash, just give them my name as a referral.

Position #43 - Metropolitan Police Department
Guess what?! MPD disqualified me based on an old psychologist (about 73 years old) opinion.  I took the new written test (100% reading, 81.67% writing, and 56.52% video test). I did send an appeal to the deputy director and director.  The video test I guess for every option that says shoot with deadly force I guess I should have picked that option instead of providing customer service.

Position #44 - United States Capitol Police
Since MPD disqualified me and I failed the video test, I moved on to United States Capitol Police.  I applied here before years ago via paper application.  Let's see what happens.  If I fail here, most likely I will continue to go through all the law enforcement and fire agencies.

Position #45 - United States Air Force
Since MPD disqualified me and I failed the video test, I decided to accept Alabama as one of the possible states to go to for training.  In 1999-2000, I wanted to apply and had the application when I lived in Atlanta, Georgia.  In 2017, let's see what happens as I apply for every branch of the military, including reserve forces.

Position #46 - DC Government
Just keeping me D*MN busy with CPR, AED, First Aid, Emergency Preparedness training and whatever else on SERVE DC as a volunteer.  Mayoral campaign, I started visiting the ANCs.  Every ANC so far has been different from zero (0) minutes (no meeting) to four (4) hours.























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