Off Grid Power

You know, the Goal Zero Yeti 1250 battery pack with 60w solar panel isn't a bad idea, but it takes over 2 days to recharge from zero in direct sunlight.  But if you combined that with a Morphon 400w wind turbine (which can dump 1.4 kw of power over a windy day) you'd be right set for running your portable electronics all day, every day assuming you had some combination of sun and wind . . .

Yeah, it's a couple thousand dollar investment and not single-man portable but for a long term base camp (Boy Scout Summer camp?)  you'd have a single simple solution to keep the power going!

Start Here: How to Self-Publish Your Book by Jane Friedman

More interested in the paper published book?  Jane Freidman has a great article listing out tips and resources for self publishing your print-on-demand book or traditional book for sales.  Click through for more!



Start Here: How to Self-Publish Your Book | Jane Friedman

How To Self-Publish An Ebook from The Creative Penn

Do you have a manuscript that you've always wanted to publish?  Or just a long story that you think could be a commercial success?  eBook publishing isn't particularly difficult, gives you a huge potential audience and can make some money.  For a great guide, check out this site - they are basically ad free and aren't selling anything, just providing good information on how to publish an e-book on all the major platforms, from Amazon to iBooks to Nook and Smashwords.

• How To Self-Publish An Ebook | The Creative Penn

2016 Philmont Montage - Trek 608BB2

Google Photos made this silly little video montage from some of my Philmont 2016 photos from Trek 608-BB2.

Alec 2016 Winter Band Concert

Alec's first symphonic band concert of his Sophomore year. Three tracks, holiday spirit. Pardon the audio; the mic picks up the HVAC almost better than the band. One of these days I'll just run a line into the mixer.

Facebook for Scouting Units

A slideshow from a few years ago I put together going over the basics of Facebook for Scouting Units - Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, Venturing Crews and more.   Handy information for all levels of units.

Facebook for Cub Scout Packs from William England

Interesting Eagle Bench Project Plans

I've seen a lot of Eagle project benches - these are some nice, rustic artistic benches with a great design and easy construction.  They're free standing - unless you attach them via concrete and angle iron.

Lawrence Indoor Aquatic Center Photos and Review

We went to the the Lawrence Indoor Aquatic Center this weekend with our Scout Troop.  Enjoyable afternoon - smaller place than I'd expected for the family side, but still good fun.  Follows are some wide angle photos of the place from the corners so you can get an idea of what it looks like.

(photos taken with the Kyocera DuraPlus Pro as part of the Sprint Product Ambassador team - #sprintemployee)

Yes, the wide angle 'action camera' has massive distortion at the sides - you can see the poles and walls circling around.  I think it's pushing 170 degrees of view so distortion can't be helped; and that's the style these days with the kids.  Didn't get a chance to do a trip down the slide or similar to get some real action footage and didn't have a body mount to do anything cool, so you get to see static photos.  Clear enough for a mid-range durable camera!

Getting Awards

Been with Pack 3094 for near on 10 years - finally got the paperwork turned in for the Cubmasters Key knot - 2 years service as a Cubmaster and 1 year as Assistant Cubmaster.  It was presented last night at our Pack meeting by our incoming Cubmaster, Allan.  Thanks!

April 2000 flooding at Fox Lake, KS

Flooding at Fox lake, April 2000. Recovered from my UNIX box, transcoded from MPEG-1 VCD format. Shot on Hi-8, edited on a Pentium 200 with Pinnacle video software.

2015 Robyn Spring Choir Concert

Shawnee Mission West Choir - Spring Concert. Forgot to edit and upload this one; finally had time to get it posted to the internet!

Thanksgiving at the England House - 2016 Version

A full family Thanksgiving - And thanks to the modern self timer, we all got in the pre-dinner photo!  Good food, good family, good times. Even the table joined in the celebration - it got cleaned off for it's annual scrubdown and polishing!

Alec Riding a Bike - October 2005

Found an old short 15fps video from a Palm Centro (?) of Alec riding his first bike.

The Ceremonial Umbrella

Tonight we visited with the London delegation from Westminster, including the Lord Mayor of Westminster.  The Shawnee Mission West Marching Band was invited for the 9th time to play in the London New Years Day Parade - on New Years Day, 2018.  Being London, and winter, of course it's going to rain.

So the Lord Mayor of Westminster presented Alec with a ceremonial umbrella - because of course if you bring your umbrella, it won't rain!

Video courtesy Todd Atkins:

And photos:

Blogger Video Upload Test

Directly uploaded this video to Blogger vs the usual Youtube.

Our Animals

Reblogging Robyn's post about the cat and dog:

MY cat and Dog

Random

Sam

A nice shot of Scoutmaster Monty

Just something about the western feel of this image of Troop 387 Scoutmaster Monty appealed to me.  I cropped it a touch and applied an 'Instant' filter to it for the vintage look.  Out at Gobblepalooza November campout, 2016.

Shot with Canon Rebel T3i, Tamron 28-270 lens at 220mm, F7.1, 1/400 sec.  
Photo courtesy W&N Photograpy, under CC-BY attribution.  
Original photographer Will England

Gobblepalooza 2016

Fire. Food. Friends.

Enough.

Alec playing Saxophone at Hy-Vee for Veterans Day

Alec was invited with the Shawnee Mission West Band to play at a Hy-Vee for their Veterans Day Breakfast.  One of the coolest, and yet oddest, concerts I've been to.  The whole band clustered around the Deli counter while the veterans had tables to sit at with a (great) free breakfast.  Alec rocked out!

2016 Philmont - Baldy Peak 360 Degree View

Got out to Philmont in 2016 and summited Baldy. A quick shot from the top!