Fat Old Guy

Supposedly, the software comes with most CD-R drives. I'd find a high school student that is into ripping CDs and ask him. However, I'll poke around this evening and see what I can find on ZD-net. As for microphones, go to a store that sells stuff for performing musicians. My wife has a couple Shure SM-58 that she likes but they might be overkill for your needs. The SM-58 runs about $100. I'm sure that there are much less expensive mics and ones that may be better suited to your needs.

"Most of my campstaff would not have the slightest idea what a BSA "field" uniform is..." Rather than using improper terminology wouldn't it be better to teach them the correct terms and then use them?

Maybe the word is that the scouts simply need to get uniforms just for the Jamboree. I know that the Scouts from my troop that went to the last one bought new shirts and put all of the appropriate jambo patches on them.

It isn't that difficult if your computer has a CD-R drive. Attach a good microphone to your computer and record the WAV files. There's CD burner software out there that let's you burn a "music" type CD using WAV files as the source. Also, if you plug a good mic into your camcorder, the sound will be much better. Most camcorders are capable of recroding hi-fi or nearly hi-fi sound, the weak link is the mic.

Our parents panic at the idea of their son calling someone outside of the troop to be a merit badge counselor. One problem that I see is that people (parents and Scouts) think that the counselor is supposed to feed them the material in little doses. The idea of actually doing the research and work and then taking it to the counselor and saying, "look what I did!" is foreign.

"Does anybody use the troop flag anymore? It's got your community name on it." Don't usually take the troop flag to the University of Scouting and don't usually have it out when we stop at McDonalds on the way back from camping. However, it is a thought . . . unfurl the troop flag everytime we stop for a break at a reststop. A bad thought but it is a thought.

Cut sammiches are fer wimmen! My mother used to cut my sammiches and my wife insists on doin' it too. Just give me a big ol' sammich with stuff drippin' outta' the sides.

"The Cat Came Back" is an interesting song. It can be traced back to 1893 and a number of versions of it have popped up. http://www.bluegrassmessengers.com/master/catcameback3.html http://www.cs.utah.edu/~scook/html/cat.htm are two slightly different versions and at http://frogstar.com/mp3/index.asp you can find an mp3 file of Rolf Harris' version. You may remember that Rolf Harris did "Tie Me Kangaroo Down" Old Mister Johnson had troubles of his own He had a yellow cat which wouldn't leave its home; He tried and he tried to give the cat away, He gave it to a

". Different council strips for each county, you suggested. I'm not opposed to that idea -- but is there only one community, town, or other govermental jurisdiction in each county?" Baby steps. Gotta start with baby steps. I'd love to see a return to community strips but one frequent arugument is that there are too many towns to stock. My council covers 17 counities, so a leap into the idea of unique identifiers would shock too many people although there are no towns today that weren't around in 1970, they've just gotten bigger. Well, the post office thinks that there are new towns but

"Heck, for that matter following rules in anything you do makes it safer and a lot more fun for everyone." Don't know about that. There's a college in New England, the name escapes me but I saw a story about it on the news, where they have rules for male/female interaction. Before each contact the guy must tell the girl what he intends to do and get her permission. This means that, by the rules, conversations on dates go like this: He: I would like to hold your hand and gaze into your eyes. May I? She: I accept your proposition to hold my hand and gaze into my eyes. However,

Oh happy, happy, joy, joy.

" I have a scout who rides his bike to and from meetings...what's the diff?" The G2SS doesn't address riding bikes to events. A troop could bike to summer camp without violating any rules.

There's a Correena on ebay but he/she has ZERO feedback. There's no eaeddzy to be found. What's a body to think?

"The other person moved, not sure why he never came back. I do not think it was an issue with the board." Probably a lack of time or his new boss frowns upon spending work time on the internet. " there are 3 people here whos only goal in life seems to be to disagree to what BW has to say." I'm vain enough to think that you're including me in that group. If you are, you're wrong. I've often agreed with Bob White and my goal in life is to be shot by a jealous husband when I'm 97 years old.

" a kid from town XXX may well be in a troop in YYYY that meets at MMMM school. Which community strip does he wear? Hometown, Troop's town or School's town?" Does the troop have different flags for each kid? Noooooo. They'd wear the name of the town that's on the unit flag. Simple, no? "It also avoids the idea that Thistown, USA is better than Thattown, USA." Oh, how New Age. I suppose that you dislike cheers at football games that say things like, "Our team is better than your team. . ." Now, let's all sing "We are the world . . ."

Council events are run by Councils. Regional events are run by Regions. Big difference. This is one of the silly and unclear BSA rules. Under a strict reading of the rule, a Scout cannot drive to a troop meeting.

"One would wear a strip with their state on it, and underneath it what town you lived in." The state goes BELOW the town. I've long been a fan of the community strips and I think that we lost something when they went away. I've seen some troop with newly made community strips but they never look as nice as the BSA originals. I've seen that in New York the different boros have their own CSP. I've suggested to our people who make the decisions that my council make different CSPs for the different counties. Another option would be to allow the districts to add the district name

"Some see the changes as bad (you seem to like the older ways), some as good." I dislike change for the sake of change and I usually see no reason to change things that have worked for 50 years. They suposedly changed the handbook to make it appeal more to the youth. How? By removing text and putting BIG pictures in. I sit on quite a few boards of review and I have seen just about every handbook in my troop (around 60 registered Scouts) and most show few signs of being read. Now, I wouldn't say, "stick with canvas tents" just because we've always used canvas tents. However, kno

Sounds like a violation of the G2SS. Doesn't the G2SS prohibit Scouts from driving to anything but a Regional or National event?

"Is he Jason? Is he the Dude? Is he 27 or 64?I did correct him and suggested he forgot arrogant, too." I don't know of many people in their mid-60s that would know of Oingo Boingo.

boleta, I make my living by identifying what is wrong with systems of many types. BSA is just another system and I see the flaws in it. On the other hand, Bob White, who has memorized far more handbooks than I ever will, views the BSA system as flawless and considers those who criticize the system to be disloyal and bad Scouters. In his mind, those who have not been anointed to sit on the national committees are not capable of making judgements on how well the system works. Bob White also considers looking at old publications to be a great waste of time because the current ha

"What's the starting pay for a DE? What's a SE make?" I know that DEs around here start around $30,000 which is much less than a starting teacher and about the same as a McDonald's assistant manager. The SE makes about $275,000 plus a $75,000 expense account.

You guys are wicked. Don't you know that the current BSA handbook is the best handbook ever and will remain such until BSA releases the new handbook which will be a 27 page comic book highlighting the new "1st Class, 1st Week" program.

Don't worry. Bob White has not gone anywhere. He can't because, like Mayo, he has no where else to go. Bobo has promised to leave before but has returned, he has also promised to not read postings from various people but has made responses to what they've said. He'll be back.

Nope, that's from the cover of the 6th Edition of the BSA handbook. The book that I speak of was originally published about 50 years earlier in 1908. You can find it here Books-A-Million Scouting for Boys Oddly, at Books-a-million, the hardback version costs much less than the paperback. (This message has been edited by Fat Old Guy)