Geek Philosophy

(This post is a part of my series on volunteering at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. If you’re new here, feel free to start at the beginning)

Update: Now with pictures!

Today was my first real shift as an Olympic volunteer, and it was certainly interesting. That is to say, the experience was interesting – the work alternated between somewhat interesting and pretty tedious, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Here’s a time line of my day.

5:00AM I wake up. Boo. I could have definitely used more sleep, but I’m also looking forward to seeing how my first day goes.

5:45AM The transit ride downtown. Even though this is the very first bus in operation on a Sunday morning, there’s plenty of people at almost every stop.

6:45AM I’m here! I arrive at the TEC trailer, situated just behind Canada Hockey Place and Stadium. Unfortunately, no one else is here yet save for one confused security guard, so I just end up standing out in the rain for a while.

7:00AM My manager arrives, along with a few other volunteers, and we shuffle into the trailer. We learn that there’s safety orientation for BC place at 8AM, so another volunteer and I wander off in search for coffee. We can’t find the volunteer lounge that our supervisor suggested, but a helpful security guard suggests checking out the casino for coffee. After winding our way through a maze of security fence, we find our way into the casino (only after getting ID’d by the huge security guard at the door – what can I say, I have a baby face!) We pick up our free coffee, have a quick look around, then head back to get ready for our safety training.

8:00AM The other volunteers and I get our safety training. This is only necessary because Stadium is currently an active construction zone, and is only required up to February 4th (which is, interestingly enough, my next shift, meaning this training will only be useful for this one day). After a quick run through, we head back to the trailer and pick up our hardhat and safety vest, change into some steel-toed gumboots, and then it’s time for work!

It's safety Chris!

8:45AM The next 3.5 hours involve:

• pushing a 100+ pound printer a half mile down the road
• loading a van with 6 printers, 4 computer + monitor combos, 2 26″ TVs, and 3 58″ (!) TVs.
• unloading said van at 3 separate locations around the compound

The 3 58″ TVs were especially annoying. After loading them onto a dock at Stadium, we spent the better part of a half hour scouring ring road (the wide track that surrounds level 1) for a dolly. Once we tracked it down, we circled the entire stadium trying to find a freight elevator. Eventually we got it done, and it was time for lunch.

The %#*$ 58" plasmas

12:30PM To say I don’t do much physical labour at my job would be an understatement. What can I say – I have programmer hands. Worse yet, I have development manager hands – my hands are so dainty that I get others to program for me! After a morning full of lifting, hauling, balancing, and wheeling, it was time to partake of the free (to volunteers) catering. I was much hungrier than I thought, and devoured a huge plate full of vegetarian pizza, fries, gravy, and bag of chips.

It's hard to describe how awesome this was.

1:00PM The rest of my day was spent helping out some Bell employees test the network drops in the press area. This was cool for two reasons. First, I got to hang out inside the main part of the stadium, getting an NDA-covered view of some of the opening ceremonies goodies. Secondly I got to check out where the press is going to sit to cover all the events taking place at the venue (Opening/closing ceremonies, victory ceremonies). If Reuters complains that their network doesn’t work, don’t blame me – it worked when I saw it last!

Well, that’s my first shift. My subsequent shifts will likely be quite different; a lot of the labour I did today was helping out other departments as there wasn’t too much tech-specific work left. Any questions about day 1?

(Click here to read the next entry in the series.)