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mrkstvns

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Everything posted by mrkstvns

  1. Wow! Are those old fashioned dial-up connections?? I did YPT2 online and everything behaved well. Probably took about 40 minutes total for me to get into compliance with the new material. (And the material WAS an improvement...)
  2. Yes, and by using Facebook you ALSO get the bonus benefits of... Being profiled by FB's data harvesting algorithms so as much personal data as cyberly possible can be gathered about you Having your device privacy settings, internet privacy settings, and even Facebook's own data privacy settings absolutely ignored when it suits Facebook's purposes Having all your personal data sold to marketers, Cambridge Analytics, and Russian spies seeking to manipulate you for political purposes Having your user credentials stolen so that hackers can not only get into your Facebook ac
  3. Sounds like you "get it", so I'm sure you'll make the right decision. The first year my scout joined his new troop, he told me straight up that he didn't need me around at summer camp nor on all his campouts. Cool. No need to use up a valuable week of vacation, and I only went on the weekend campouts (maybe 2 all year) where the SM invited me because he needed to provide adequate adult leadership (or he needed more drivers to transport scouts). I was there for the Scoutmaster, not for my kid. The SM was quite experienced and made it clear to all adults on every campout that their job wa
  4. A long sleeve shirt or any shirt that requires dry cleaning can be very useful in scouting....as kindling. Of course, cotton would burn much better than rayon, nylon, or any other synthetic because burning plastics can emit noxious fumes.
  5. 10,000% agree! A scouter of any level who puts up barriers to a scout's advancement is just plain NOT a good scouter. No excuses. No if's and's or but's. The only reason a scouter should refuse to approve work done by scouts is because it doesn't meet the requirements. "No more, no less." works both ways. Scouters should not be putting up barriers by inventing garbage "rules", but by the same token, the scout should not be inventing shortcuts.
  6. mrkstvns

    Supplies

    Interesting idea! The following article has a few other interesting ideas for re-purposing an Altoids tin....including survival kit, firebuilding kit, fishing tackle essentials, and several more. https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/22-manly-ways-to-reuse-an-altoids-tin/
  7. Interesting perspective. I'm a big advocate of BSA STEM/NOVA program, but I wouldn't expect Woodbadge to be the place I'm learning about it. Just curious about how that council operates their "STEM program". Do they actually put on events that help scouts earn Nova awards?? Our council doesn't. They have a STEM committee that holds meetings. And they put on a Nova counselor / Supernova mentor training class as part of a generic University of Scouting....but I really don't see them doing anything *for the scouts*. Lots of talk. Little do. On the other hand, far smaller neigh
  8. Must be the new math... I figure it to be 12 girls troops and 1 boys troop per state.
  9. We will celebrate the fact that this is also the date on which Peter the Great died and was succeeded by his son, Peter the Above Average.
  10. BTW: I did try to use the "Help Manual" button before posting here. Doesn't work for me. It downloads a bizarrely named file with no file name extension, so Windows doesn't associate it to an application. Tried choosing an application and selecting Adobe Acrobat, which tells me the file is not a PDF, and then aborts. Wonder why BSA doesn't provide a real help application in a functional form. Good thing their business is scouting and not software or IT!!
  11. That works!! Thank you, malraux. I am a happy camper. Amused too now that I see that the site has a record of old emails I used back when my son was a mere Bobcat...
  12. Some of y'all might not remember this, but scouts didn't always wear a council patch on their shoulders....we used to wear our city/town above our unit number...
  13. Okay, thanks for the info. Guess I'll just ignore it for ... like, forever. If BSA wants to make updating my own data a royal PITA, then fine, they can keep sending messages into a black hole. Works for me!!
  14. scouting.org has an ancient email address for me in my account settings. I'd love to change it, but there doesn't seem to be any way I can. Does anyone know how to edit an email address for my.scouting???
  15. A kid really needs and deserves to have fun while he's a kid. (And it's IMPORTANT!) https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/animal-emotions/201405/the-importance-play-having-fun-must-be-taken-seriously
  16. For the past few years, I've been teaching the Cyber Chip in our troop. Not necessarily because I like it, not because I think it's a particularly great program, or even because I think I'm uniquely qualified to do it ... I've been doing it simply because nobody else did it. I've taught the class several times --- most often for newly bridged ex-Webelos scouts who wanted to earn Scout rank. A couple times for older scouts working on Star rank or merit badges that required it. THOUGHTS ON MAKING CYBER CHIP WORK FOR A TROOP Here are a few of my experiences and observations:
  17. A warm "Howdy" to you, Ian. I'm sure you'll love Northern Tier...
  18. Roast corn is easy to do without foil, grills or anything. Just peel back the green husks about half way and pull out the silk. Pull the green husks back up. Soak the ears of corn in water and then place them directly on the coals. The corn is best when it's allowed to get slightly charred black. The Mexicans around here call this "Elotes" and smear it with mayonnaise, lime and/or chili paste. Mmmmmm....
  19. Beans around the campfire have been around ever since Mel Brooks' "Blazing Saddles" showed guys just how hilarious flatulence could be. Back in the old days, Cookie would soak the beans overnight and the beans would cook most of the day. Scouts today just don't have that much patience! Fortunately, a tasty pot of beans can be made in short order using off-the-shelf ingredients. Here's how... INGREDIENTS: 1 2-lb. can of pork and beans 4 slices of bacon, sliced into squares 1 package Lipton onion soup mix 1/2 cup of brown sugar 1/4 cup of yellow mustard
  20. You're a tougher man than me then. I tried to smoke a brisket once. It was hard to light and made me cough.
  21. Had to re-read that recipe a couple times because it looked like they were using WAY too much flour etc. I was far into the directions before I saw that they were cooking in EIGHT Dutch ovens! Well, I guess that would be the way you do it if you're at the King Ranch...
  22. No collection of Dutch oven camp recipes can ever be complete without at least several recipes for authentic Pan de Campo. What's that? You've never heard of Pan de Campo! Clearly you are not a real Texan. After all, in a rare showing of bipartisan unity, the Texas State Legislature passed a bill in 2005 naming Pan de Campo the "Official State Bread of Texas". Here's how to make it in a Dutch oven. INGREDIENTS 2 cups flour 1 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon sugar 1/2 cup buttermilk (regular milk would work too) 1/4 cup cook
  23. I find lists of BSA merit badges entertaining. The list has grown considerably over the past 100+ years, but despite the constant additions, some merit badges fall out of favor. Maybe irrelevance. Maybe a general lack of interest. Maybe....who knows? Some just get renamed. Some get merged into more generic umbrella badges. (For example, Hog Production, Rabbit Raising and others into "Animal Science"). Here's a few discontinued badges that don't seem to have been victims of re-naming efforts or consolidation into other more generic badges Masonry Cement Working
  24. Yeah, we use those too....but they're too heavy to be useful for anything other than car camping, which frankly, isn't much of an "adventure"...
  25. It might be a royal PITA to have to keep doing background checks, training, etc., but sometimes the experience is worthwhile. I also was required by chartering church to take VIRTUS training and I found the experience to be much better than YPT. VIRTUS was more in-depth, more amenable to discussions and scenarios, and most importantly to me, included a very well-informed discussion of online predators (which BSA's CyberChip gets into a bit....but most adult scouters never get into the content of CyberChip). VIRTUS was a FAR better youth protection training than YPT. I'm glad I
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