Hmm. Learning fast as a Cubmaster.
When registering Adults as Cub Scout leaders, you'll need to bring in all the training print outs. Youth Protection and Job Specific.
Sigh. Going to be a second trip to the HOAC service center.
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Saturday, September 15, 2012
Saturday
First free weekend in a while. Been camping, riding and blowin and goin the last few weeks. Up next: two campouts in a row! Troop 387 shooting sports then the Trailhead family campout. Then the final baseball tournament for the fall season.
Not a lot of time for updating this here journal. Posting this one from the phone at 3&2 ball field while Hunter warms up for his game today.
Up next today: lawn work. Cut and seed my lawn, mow and edge my moms. Tomorrow, another game and possibly church.
Quite the contrast from 2 years ago where the most exciting thing going on was getting a new stack of Louis Lamour books from the library!
Game is about to start, signing off!
Friday, September 14, 2012
Gangnam Style - with lyrics
Ganganm Style has hit bigtime - it was on Good Morning America this week. Nice to see KPOP and dubstep hitting the mainstream...
Lyrics:
Oppa is Gangnam styleGangnam style
A girl who is warm and humanle during the day
A classy girl who know how to enjoy the freedom of a cup of coffee
A girl whose heart gets hotter when night comes
A girl with that kind of twist
I’m a guy
A guy who is as warm as you during the day
A guy who one-shots his coffee before it even cools down
A guy whose heart bursts when night comes
That kind of guy
Beautiful, loveable
Yes you, hey, yes you, hey
Beautiful, loveable
Yes you, hey, yes you, hey
Now let’s go until the end
Oppa is Gangnam style, Gangnam style
Oppa is Gangnam style, Gangnam style
Oppa is Gangnam style
Eh- Sexy Lady, Oppa is Gangnam style
Eh- Sexy Lady oh oh oh oh
A girl who looks quiet but plays when she plays
A girl who puts her hair down when the right time comes
A girl who covers herself but is more sexy than a girl who bares it all
A sensable girl like that
I’m a guy
A guy who seems calm but plays when he plays
A guy who goes completely crazy when the right time comes
A guy who has bulging ideas rather than muscles
That kind of guy
Beautiful, loveable
Yes you, hey, yes you, hey
Beautiful, loveable
Yes you, hey, yes you, hey
Now let’s go until the end
Oppa is Gangnam style, Gangnam style
Oppa is Gangnam style, Gangnam style
Oppa is Gangnam style
Eh- Sexy Lady, Oppa is Gangnam style
Eh- Sexy Lady oh oh oh oh
On top of the running man is the flying man, baby baby
I’m a man who knows a thing or two
On top of the running man is the flying man, baby baby
I’m a man who knows a thing or two
You know what I’m saying
Oppa is Gangnam style
Eh- Sexy Lady, Oppa is Gangnam style
Eh- Sexy Lady oh oh oh oh
Great Cub Scout Adult Leadership Recruiting Skit
The Yardstick
The importance of the ages 6 - 11, the Cub Scout years.
Created by Pack 715, Scouter Joe Wollet
Props - You will need a standard yardstick with marks at the 3", 5.5", 7", 9" and 11" distances from one end. These correspond to ages of 6, 11, 14, 18, 22. Mark both sides.
Dave’s Variation - Prep yardstick by sawing into the yardstick from both sides at the designated marks. Be careful - do not cut all the way through. Leave enough that the stick is still firm.. Have a second uncut yardstick to hold up.
Look at this yard stick as your son's life. Each half inch equals 1 year. Thirty six inches - 72 years, the average person's lifespan. At 1/2" (1 year) he is cruising the carpet and furniture, getting into all kinds of things he shouldn't. At 3" he's six and is in first grade, and excited about school. At 5 1/2" he's eleven, and is moving on to Jr. High or Middle School. At 9" he's eighteen and graduating High School. You're busting your buttons with pride for him in his cap and gown. At 11" he's graduating college and has moved on to his own life and family.
Dave's Variation - After completing the above paragraph, go backwards and ask people how much influence and control they will have at that time and snap off the sections as they are discussed.
First from college after (11 inches), essentially none, snap it off. Then during high school (7 to 9 inches), almost none, snap it off. Next middle school (5 ½ to 7 inches) weakening, snap it off, Then tell them that whether they did good or didn’t, the first 6 years are gone and snap off 0 to 3 inches. Now you are left with the piece from 3" to 5" and one half inches.
I'd like to go back to the 2 1/2" between 3 " and 5 1/2" (between 6 and 11 years old). [Hold your fingers at these two marked lines]. These 2 1/2", or 5 years are key years in your son's development. Many of his decision-making skills, ethics and morals will be developed and reinforced during this time. A recent study showed that young people who were close to a caring adult in these early years were less likely to get into trouble with drugs, crime, etc. and were more likely to continue in school.
These five years are the years of the Cub Scout - Tiger Cub through Webelos Scout. [At this point drop the yard stick, but keep your finger spaced the 2 1/2 " apart]. In Cub Scouting we need every family to get involved this much.[refer to the distance between your fingers]. "This much" is different for everybody. Your "This much" might be as a committee member, or a den leader for your son, or for others'. It might be organizing an outing, handling the Pack treasury, writing a newsletter, organizing the Blue and Gold banquet. It might be as a Cubmaster.
[Thank the current adult volunteers]
[Lift the whole yard stick again]. If one person tries to do this much the program will surely fail, but if everyone does "This much" in your son's Scouting career both he and you will have a great experience!
So what are you waiting for? Let's make your son's Scouting Experience something he will remember for a lifetime! Sign up to help today. Scouting - a family fun experience!
From Baloos Bugle
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Scouting and Social Media
Seems like I've been promoted to Cubmaster for Pack 3094 (whole nother story there). Since I don't know much about nothin but digital media, I figured I'd ask about setting up a Facebook page for the pack.
We've already got a website (http://pack3094.scoutlander.com) and that's done OK, but no one uses the web anymore. Everyone is on Facebook. So I asked the Council about social media and scouting and they directed me to the National site where you can find the following guidelines about Scouting and Social Media.
In a nutshell?
So, I spent a couple hours and whipped up a Facebook Page for Pack 3094:
https://www.facebook.com/Pack3094
We turned off the 'messaging' feature -- no private messages allowed.
We turned off 'tagging' of photos to avoid any kids getting tagged by accident (except by admins)
We posted our big public events (Pack Meetings, District Campouts). We keep the den meetings and internal events private - only shared on the private site.
And my wife posted a few dozen photos of past events.
Shoot - we're a 70 year old pack, we should have some kind of public presence out there on the Social Internet. So for the 3 people that read this, feel free to click into the site and 'like' it.
If you have other questions about scouting and social media, go ahead and leave a comment. I'm sure other Boy Scout and Cub Scout organizations have questions about doing this . . .
Will
We've already got a website (http://pack3094.scoutlander.com) and that's done OK, but no one uses the web anymore. Everyone is on Facebook. So I asked the Council about social media and scouting and they directed me to the National site where you can find the following guidelines about Scouting and Social Media.
In a nutshell?
- It must be public.
- It must be run by at least one trained leader.
- You must have two people run it.
- It cannot identify kids by full name or address -- first names only.
So, I spent a couple hours and whipped up a Facebook Page for Pack 3094:
https://www.facebook.com/Pack3094
We turned off the 'messaging' feature -- no private messages allowed.
We turned off 'tagging' of photos to avoid any kids getting tagged by accident (except by admins)
We posted our big public events (Pack Meetings, District Campouts). We keep the den meetings and internal events private - only shared on the private site.
And my wife posted a few dozen photos of past events.
Shoot - we're a 70 year old pack, we should have some kind of public presence out there on the Social Internet. So for the 3 people that read this, feel free to click into the site and 'like' it.
If you have other questions about scouting and social media, go ahead and leave a comment. I'm sure other Boy Scout and Cub Scout organizations have questions about doing this . . .
Will
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
White Sands Missile Range Museum and National Park
// another great missile post from bOINGbOING -- happens to be on the way to Tuscon to see the Titan site too! Just across I-10 in Southern New Mexico.
White Sands Missile Range Museum and National Park:
Unknown Fields (UF) is a design studio, originating in London’s Architectural Association, that "ventures out on annual expeditions to the ends of the earth exploring unreal and forgotten landscapes, alien terrains and obsolete ecologies." Mark Pilkington, author of Mirage Men and publisher of Strange Attractor, has just led this busload of architects, writers, filmmakers and artists in an exploration of the mythic landscape of the American Southwest, and the stories that it has inspired. Their trajectory took them from Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque New Mexico to Black Rock City, Nevada, via sites of military, architectural and folkloric significance. Mark sent us occasional postcards from the edge. - David Pescovitz
White Sands Missile Range Museum and National Park
America’s space program started here in 1946 with the aid of a few dozen German rocket scientists, imported as part of the highly-secret Operation Paperclip. The apex of their WWII achievements was the enormous V-2 rocket, which housed its devastating cargo in an elegant back and yellow casing. An original 1946 V-2, cut-away to reveal the intricacies of its thrust and steering mechanisms, forms the centerpiece of the museum collection. Over the next 20 years Paperclip team leader Wernher von Braun built ever-larger missiles, climaxing with the Saturn and Apollo rockets that took America to the Moon.
As its curator reassures us, White Sands’ on-site museum is “not your typical military museum”; as well as a housing a wealth of missile related technology and ephemera, it has sections dedicated to the local flora and fauna, including the African Oryx released into the wilderness in the late 1960s to entertain hunters and wreak environmental destruction; the indigenous peoples who once lived on the land, (many of the earliest inhabitants disappeared in the 16th century as the once verdant lands turned to desert), and a room of paintings by a survivor of the brutal Bataan forced march of WWII, in which up to 10,000 Pilipinos and 650 Americans died at Japanese hands. Outside is the rocket garden, housing a number of missiles, rockets and drones used in combat from WWII to Gulf War I, including personal favorites like the ever-reliable Ryan drone, the monumental Redstone Cruise Missile, and the saucer-shaped Viking Mars Decelerator.
Following the museum the Unknown Fields team engaged in workshop activities amongst the gypsum dunes of the White Sands themselves, formed from the remains of a 250 million year old shallow sea. As part of our training for future hostile environments, we fought off hordes of aggressive red ants, made sand circles on which to land our RC drones, buried one team member alive, and tested the effects of exposure on another as he ran naked across the shifting desert sands.
White Sands Missile Range Museum and National Park:
Unknown Fields (UF) is a design studio, originating in London’s Architectural Association, that "ventures out on annual expeditions to the ends of the earth exploring unreal and forgotten landscapes, alien terrains and obsolete ecologies." Mark Pilkington, author of Mirage Men and publisher of Strange Attractor, has just led this busload of architects, writers, filmmakers and artists in an exploration of the mythic landscape of the American Southwest, and the stories that it has inspired. Their trajectory took them from Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque New Mexico to Black Rock City, Nevada, via sites of military, architectural and folkloric significance. Mark sent us occasional postcards from the edge. - David Pescovitz
White Sands Missile Range Museum and National Park
America’s space program started here in 1946 with the aid of a few dozen German rocket scientists, imported as part of the highly-secret Operation Paperclip. The apex of their WWII achievements was the enormous V-2 rocket, which housed its devastating cargo in an elegant back and yellow casing. An original 1946 V-2, cut-away to reveal the intricacies of its thrust and steering mechanisms, forms the centerpiece of the museum collection. Over the next 20 years Paperclip team leader Wernher von Braun built ever-larger missiles, climaxing with the Saturn and Apollo rockets that took America to the Moon.
As its curator reassures us, White Sands’ on-site museum is “not your typical military museum”; as well as a housing a wealth of missile related technology and ephemera, it has sections dedicated to the local flora and fauna, including the African Oryx released into the wilderness in the late 1960s to entertain hunters and wreak environmental destruction; the indigenous peoples who once lived on the land, (many of the earliest inhabitants disappeared in the 16th century as the once verdant lands turned to desert), and a room of paintings by a survivor of the brutal Bataan forced march of WWII, in which up to 10,000 Pilipinos and 650 Americans died at Japanese hands. Outside is the rocket garden, housing a number of missiles, rockets and drones used in combat from WWII to Gulf War I, including personal favorites like the ever-reliable Ryan drone, the monumental Redstone Cruise Missile, and the saucer-shaped Viking Mars Decelerator.
Following the museum the Unknown Fields team engaged in workshop activities amongst the gypsum dunes of the White Sands themselves, formed from the remains of a 250 million year old shallow sea. As part of our training for future hostile environments, we fought off hordes of aggressive red ants, made sand circles on which to land our RC drones, buried one team member alive, and tested the effects of exposure on another as he ran naked across the shifting desert sands.
Titan Missile Museum, Tucson, Arizona
// From bOINGbOING, an interesting article on a Titan Missile Museum. Sounds like it's on my bucket list!
Titan Missile Museum, Tucson, Arizona:
Unknown Fields (UF) is a design studio, originating in London’s Architectural Association, that "ventures out on annual expeditions to the ends of the earth exploring unreal and forgotten landscapes, alien terrains and obsolete ecologies." Mark Pilkington, author of Mirage Men and publisher of Strange Attractor, has just led this busload of architects, writers, filmmakers and artists in an exploration of the mythic landscape of the American Southwest, and the stories that it has inspired. Their trajectory took them from Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque New Mexico to Black Rock City, Nevada, via sites of military, architectural and folkloric significance. Mark sent us occasional postcards from the edge. - David Pescovitz
The Titan Missile Museum, Tucson, Arizona
Fifteen miles south of Tucson, 140 feet underground, stands a monumental testament to the apocalyptic technology of the Cold War. Between 1963 and 1982 this was Titan II ICBM Site 571-7, one of 54 such silos operated by USAF Strategic Air Command at three locations around the country. The other two were in Little Rock, Arkansas and Wichita, Kansas, though 571-7 is the only site with all its components still in place.
One-hundred-and-three feet high and 10 feet in diameter, the Titan II had a range of 6500 miles and reached its target approximately 30 minutes after lift off. Each rocket – and there were 18 situated at each site – packed a 9 megatonne charge (almost twice the total explosive force unleashed by all sides in World War II) capable of devastating around 900 square miles in a single blast; a turn of a key selected whether the detonation took place on the ground or in the air.
Four staff lived in the bunker at any one time; initially these were all men, but towards the end of its operational life women also worked on the site. Most of their time was spent performing routine maintenance checks, but if the call to arms was heard, as it was, briefly, immediately after President Kennedy’s assassination, two of them were expected to simultaneously turn the keys that would launch their silo’s missile and erase the future. The missile’s actual target was unknown to its caretakers, and remains classified to this day, though it would probably have been military and was certainly in the Soviet Union. Should one of the crew have suffered a crisis of conscience and refused to start World War III he or she would be shot and replaced by someone else – the crew were expendable, the missile, and its purpose, were not.
The missile launched 58 seconds after the keys were turned, leaving the crew with nothing to do but sit tight and await further orders; they might make use of the designated smoking area in a cramped corner of the control room, or listen to music on the 8-track stereo that once sat here. But what if further orders never arrived? The bunker held enough air and supplies to last 30 days, after which the choice of whether to venture outside or end the wait with a bullet was up to the team. If, as was likely, the Russians had Titans of their own, then the crew needn’t have worried about what to do after the launch: the silo, a probable target, could only withstand a one megatonne strike at a distance of about half a mile.
Accidents, unfortunately, did happen: in 1965 a fire killed 53 people at a silo in Searcy, Arkansas; this became known as the ‘ghost silo’ and gained a reputation for being haunted. Also in Arkansas, in 1980, a worker dropped a tool which struck a missile, causing a fuel leak and a subsequent explosion that killed one crew member and blew a 760 tonne blast door several hundred feet; the nuclear warhead was thrown clear of the site and mercifully didn’t detonate.
Since the early 1990s the Tucson site has been run by the non-profit Arizona Aerospace Foundation and its thrilling tours are lead by a team of knowledgeable and enthusiastic volunteers. If you have time, ask for the deep access tour, though this can take over four hours to complete. Among the many highlights, look out for Richard DeSpain’s beautiful drawings of the site in the debriefing room.
Titan Missile Museum, Tucson, Arizona:
Unknown Fields (UF) is a design studio, originating in London’s Architectural Association, that "ventures out on annual expeditions to the ends of the earth exploring unreal and forgotten landscapes, alien terrains and obsolete ecologies." Mark Pilkington, author of Mirage Men and publisher of Strange Attractor, has just led this busload of architects, writers, filmmakers and artists in an exploration of the mythic landscape of the American Southwest, and the stories that it has inspired. Their trajectory took them from Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque New Mexico to Black Rock City, Nevada, via sites of military, architectural and folkloric significance. Mark sent us occasional postcards from the edge. - David Pescovitz
The Titan Missile Museum, Tucson, Arizona
Fifteen miles south of Tucson, 140 feet underground, stands a monumental testament to the apocalyptic technology of the Cold War. Between 1963 and 1982 this was Titan II ICBM Site 571-7, one of 54 such silos operated by USAF Strategic Air Command at three locations around the country. The other two were in Little Rock, Arkansas and Wichita, Kansas, though 571-7 is the only site with all its components still in place.
One-hundred-and-three feet high and 10 feet in diameter, the Titan II had a range of 6500 miles and reached its target approximately 30 minutes after lift off. Each rocket – and there were 18 situated at each site – packed a 9 megatonne charge (almost twice the total explosive force unleashed by all sides in World War II) capable of devastating around 900 square miles in a single blast; a turn of a key selected whether the detonation took place on the ground or in the air.
Four staff lived in the bunker at any one time; initially these were all men, but towards the end of its operational life women also worked on the site. Most of their time was spent performing routine maintenance checks, but if the call to arms was heard, as it was, briefly, immediately after President Kennedy’s assassination, two of them were expected to simultaneously turn the keys that would launch their silo’s missile and erase the future. The missile’s actual target was unknown to its caretakers, and remains classified to this day, though it would probably have been military and was certainly in the Soviet Union. Should one of the crew have suffered a crisis of conscience and refused to start World War III he or she would be shot and replaced by someone else – the crew were expendable, the missile, and its purpose, were not.
The missile launched 58 seconds after the keys were turned, leaving the crew with nothing to do but sit tight and await further orders; they might make use of the designated smoking area in a cramped corner of the control room, or listen to music on the 8-track stereo that once sat here. But what if further orders never arrived? The bunker held enough air and supplies to last 30 days, after which the choice of whether to venture outside or end the wait with a bullet was up to the team. If, as was likely, the Russians had Titans of their own, then the crew needn’t have worried about what to do after the launch: the silo, a probable target, could only withstand a one megatonne strike at a distance of about half a mile.
Accidents, unfortunately, did happen: in 1965 a fire killed 53 people at a silo in Searcy, Arkansas; this became known as the ‘ghost silo’ and gained a reputation for being haunted. Also in Arkansas, in 1980, a worker dropped a tool which struck a missile, causing a fuel leak and a subsequent explosion that killed one crew member and blew a 760 tonne blast door several hundred feet; the nuclear warhead was thrown clear of the site and mercifully didn’t detonate.
Since the early 1990s the Tucson site has been run by the non-profit Arizona Aerospace Foundation and its thrilling tours are lead by a team of knowledgeable and enthusiastic volunteers. If you have time, ask for the deep access tour, though this can take over four hours to complete. Among the many highlights, look out for Richard DeSpain’s beautiful drawings of the site in the debriefing room.
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