Author Archives: Robert Watson

Givin’ Back

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Volunteering has always been one of my passions. We all have a finite amount of time on Earth, so why not try to help out others? Even something as simple as buying a stranger a cup of coffee can completely change their day and also change yours. We can all use a helping hand every once in awhile, especially those of us that are less fortunate than others.

I haven’t volunteered much since I graduated from RIT, so I’m excited to be involved in the Rochester community once again as an active participant in NimbleUser’s 1-1-1 program. Salesforce’s 1-1-1 initiative was started over 13 years ago and has currently “given over $40 million in grants, 445,000 hours of community service, and provided product donations for over 17,500 nonprofits.”

The company I work for has decided to adopt that model, with its initial efforts being put toward improving the non-profit Full Circle Home – specifically, their website and backend operations. Full Circle Home is a Rochester-based non-profit organization whose mission is to ensure that the significant others of deployed Armed Forces members are able to receive a personalized letter and care package from their separated loved one on Christmas and Mother’s Day.

NimbleUser will also continue to support the Bushnell’s Basin Fire Department and be an active participant in the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Rochester’s Bowl For Kid’s Sake. (We raised over $2,200 for BBBS as a company this past year!)

If you couldn’t tell, I’m excited to get more involved in volunteering this year. I’m also starting to think of organizations in Seattle where I would also be a good fit to help, especially now that NimbleUser is offering a “Volunteer Day” as part of our yearly benefits. I hope to be posting more updates throughout the year on our progress!

Race Volunteering

While I know it’s not life-changing by any means, I’ve also begun volunteering at a few local races in the Seattle area this year. As a frequent race participant, I have rarely been on the other side of “running” an event and it just seems like something that every runner should do when they have the opportunity to spare a handful of hours.

Even for smaller races with 50-200 participants there is a lot of work involved, especially if the courses are of greater distance and are more technical. So far, I’ve volunteered for two races put on by Northwest Trail Runs – the Frost Eagle Half Marathon and the Redmond Watershed Races – by helping to set up the event and man the remote aid station.

Really, it’s been a win-win-win situation for me: I get to experience new trails without having to subject myself to the hell of running 10 miles without knowing anything about the race or the terrain. I also get to help fellow runners and make a few new friends, in addition to getting to participate in future races for free! Why wouldn’t I do it?!

I’m not entirely sure what my next volunteering event will be. I am redeeming some of my volunteer credits for the Soaring Eagle Half Marathon at the end of April though, so hopefully that goes well.

If you know of any volunteering opportunities in the Seattle area, let me know in the comments below! Until next time,

– Robert

EuroTrip 2013: Amsterdam, Southern England, & London

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At the end of May, I had the opportunity to travel to Europe – specifically, Amsterdam, Southern England, & London! It really pays off having a best friend who loves to travel (and also loves doing all of the planning).

The 9-day adventure was full of amazing sights with awesome friends. Each location was incredible in its own way, and the three destinations were so different that it’s hard to pick which one was my favorite.

Amsterdam Highlights

The adventure started on a Friday afternoon, though it took us until the afternoon of the following day to finally reach Amsterdam. We immediately started to explore the city, even though we were all a bit jetlagged. Saturday was the day for drinking tours, as we made stops at both Heineken and the House of Bols.

My favorite part of Amsterdam was definitely the architecture – every house is so different, and many of them have their own coat of arms. A lot of the buildings are older, with narrow staircases, and have hooks at the top of their roofs to help pulley furniture to the higher floors.

One of the characteristics that stuck out to me the most was that almost everybody bikes in Amsterdam, and you’d better get out of the way if you ever find yourself in the middle of a bike lane. Because of the number of number of walking paths and canals, it was also easy to navigate your way around the city. All of the canals are constructed in circles surrounding the city, making it difficult to get lost.

Europe 2013 - Amsterdam & Anne Frank House

The second day of the trip was full of more tours, rides on the canal, and exploring the city. We made stops at the Anne Frank House, Brouwerijtij, and the Red Light District of course. I also highly recommend getting a pancake while visiting the Netherlands – my vote is for the banana and Nutella pancake!

On the third and final full day in the Netherlands, we had a private tour guide take us to view the windmills and to explore the city of Rotterdam, among many other places.

Europe 2013 - Netherland's Windmills

Southern England Highlights

The second leg of the trip took us to southern England, near the shore and right smack in the middle of the English countryside. The views here were gorgeous, and we were very lucky to stay with a former pastor of a church from my hometown in Pennsylvania. We toured the area where the Mayflower set sail from Plymouth, and it was a nice change of pace from the hustle of the city life.

Europe 2013 - Southern England

London Highlights

The final stop of our journey was London, a complete opposite experience from the previous days of exploring the country. While London was too far spread out for me to ever want to live there, I loved doing all of the touristy things such as riding the London Eye and looking for the Queen at Buckingham Palace. Another highlight for me was touring the Belfast ship.

Europe 2013 - London

My favorite part of the London segment was definitely watching the Lion King performance. We went all out for this show and had front row seats overlooking the orchestra pit. It was amazing to me how well they stuck to the original movie, and the production of it all was phenomenal.

We also had the opportunity to tour Parliament, and the nerd in me convinced everybody to take a short detour to King’s Cross station as well!

Europe 2013 - Platform 9 & 3/4As always, any trip planned by Curtis is a great one, and I’m looking forward to the Las Vegas and Grand Canyon adventure in April. I may not post a recap about that one, though, because you know what they say about what happens in Vegas…

– Robert

A Whirlwind of a Year: 2013

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With a cross-country move and a 9-day excursion in Europe (blog post coming soon!), I think I can safely say that 2013 was a crazy year! I thought now would be a great time to reflect on some of 2013’s other events and review the resolutions that I set for myself. I also have new goals for 2014 (including being more active on this blog…)

THON 2013

THON 2013One of the most memorable experiences of 2013 occurred back in February, when I had the opportunity to experience Penn State University’s annual THON event. This event is a 48 hour dance marathon and the largest student-run philanthropy in the world. 2013’s THON raised over $12.37 million dollars for pediatric cancer research.

Many thousands of PSU students experience the dance marathon every year but only a few hundred dancers are chosen to partake in the entire event on the dance floor. As an outsider of the PSU community, I felt very lucky to be able to go on the dance floor with a special guest pass to give one of my friends encouragement during the early morning hours of the last night. I also had the opportunity to meet a THON family, who were some of the most optimistic and upbeat people I’ve ever met.

The year of the comedians

I saw more comedians last year than I think I’ve ever seen. In early 2013, Nick Offerman (Ron Swanson from one of my favorite TV shows, Parks and Recreation) performed at the University of Rochester. Later in the year, I saw Daniel Tosh in Seattle and Colin Mochrie & Brad Sherwood at RIT’s Brick City Homecoming. I also met Aisha Tyler at a book signing event in Seattle. Aisha plays Lana on another one of my favorite shows, Archer and is the new host of Whose Line Is It Anyway?

I doubt 2014 will be quite as eventful, but it’s definitely possible. I already have tickets to see more of the Whose Line Is It Anyway? regulars in February in Vancouver.

Reflections & 2014 Resolutions

Some of my goals for 2014 are very similar to my 2013 goals. This isn’t because I failed at my goals, but because I would like to continue along the same path and improve upon them.

My goals for 2014 include the following…

1) Run my 4th marathon. I successfully completed the Seattle Marathon at the beginning of December, but I would love to run a race that’s flatter.

2) Continuing reading & writing more. My focus was on reading last year, so this year I would like to improve my writing skills. I’m already reading more than I did while in college, and I expect this trend to continue.

3) Volunteer more. I did not volunteer as much in 2013 as I would have liked. I set this as a repeat goal for 2014, which I should be able to accomplish as I am already signed up to be an active participant in my company’s 1-1-1 pledge to give back to the Rochester community. I will likely write on this initiative sometime later in the year.

4) Continue learning. Now that I’m no longer in college, most of the things I’m learning have been related to my current job position. This is not a bad thing, but there’s so much more out there that I could be learning. My goal is to at least complete a handful of online courses, and I’m currently signed up for two courses on Coursera that begin later this week.

5) Improve personal web site & other web projects. Work always takes priority over my personal projects, and I’d like to set a goal for myself to devote more time to them this year. It will probably result in me wasting less time doing inconsequential things like browsing Facebook and Twitter, which wouldn’t be a tragedy by any means.

Happy 2014!

I feel like I’ve rambled quite a bit in this post, so it’s time for me to sign off and watch the rest of the Seahawks game. Until next time!

– Robert

Moving to the Pacific Northwest

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As I’m writing this, I’m 36,000 feet in the air, on my way back home to Seattle.

No, I didn’t make a typo in the previous statement. I really am flying home.

The past few months have been quite a blur. There are so many different topics that I’ve been meaning to discuss since my latest update in March, but it’s been hard for me to devote time to sit down and actually write about them.

I’m living in Seattle now. If you would have told me this a year ago, I wouldn’t have believed you. I never expected to ever move to the west coast. I’ve always lived close to home, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss Rochester and my hometown in central Pennsylvania.

But you know what? I haven’t regretted a single minute of this decision so far. Rochester is a great city, but there is so much more to do and explore in Seattle. And it’s beautiful here. Oh, is it ever.

Seattle Skyline

Where else can you go to the beach on an eighty degree day and look out at the snow-capped mountains? Or see a homeless mountain goat while out partying in downtown Capitol Hill? I’m guessing there’s not many places like this. And the available running and biking trails are excellent. It’s an adventurer’s dream.

Now, I’m currently on my way back from a work trip in Rochester. That’s right, I still have the same job that I so very much love and enjoy. I miss my friends and family, and haven’t had much time to start making many new friends yet, but I’m confident things will work out with time. Life is great.

I guess the point of this post is to remind everybody that it’s okay to take those wild chances and opportunities every once in awhile. Sure, some decisions won’t always turn out the way you wanted them. But you’ll just regret them forever if you don’t take the risk.

– Robert

Author’s note: This post was originally drafted in July, but I’m just now getting around to publishing it. My opinion on Seattle hasn’t changed, though!

Resolutions & Goals

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This year I decided to set several resolutions. I don’t generally make “New Year’s Resolutions” during the first part of a new year, and that’s mainly because the majority of people forget about them a month later (and shouldn’t you be setting goals for yourself ALL of the time?) However, I do like achieving goals and finding new experiences to fulfill my life – so why not come up with a few?

My New Year’s Resolutions (otherwise known as my goals for the year)
1) Continue running & gym workouts. Running for me isn’t hard, but the gym workouts are something I haven’t been doing much until this winter. I’ve now been a member of the RIT gym for almost 5 months, with plans to renew for another 3 month membership soon.

2) Run another marathon. I ran the Rochester marathon in 2010 and 2011, but did not participate in a marathon in 2012. I haven’t decided what marathon I’ll be running yet, but I am currently training for both a half marathon and duathlon in April that will get me in fairly decent condition.

3) Read more. I only read 4 books in 2012, an all-time low. As of the middle of February, I have already finished 2 books, so I’m already halfway to meeting my total from last year! (No applause, please.)

4) Volunteer more. I haven’t done much volunteering since I graduated RIT in May. I am not quite sure how I will fulfill this goal yet, but I’m sure I’ll know when I find the right opportunity.

5) Become CPR-certified. There was no real reason for this goal other than that I wanted to, and it’s something that everybody should learn. My motivation came about when I learned that the Henrietta Volunteer Ambulance offers the course for free! It’s a good skill to have, and I successfully completed the certificate in February!

Those are the plans for now. I’ll post a follow-up by the end of the year to reflect on how successful these goals have been. Now that I’ve written them down and published them to the world, I’ll be more likely to complete them, right?!

– Robert