StrongBad and Homestar Runner

Ok, this post is a little "out there" but I thought I would share a couple of my favorite Home Star Runner episodes. Those of you that don't know anything about Home Star Runner, sorry, I really can't help you. You will just have to watch the three episodes that I have posted. It is a little childish but it is hilarious. You need to be in a goofy mood to watch them so don't watch them while at work, watch them at 1:30am after watching the full version of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail".

http://www.homestarrunner.com/firsttime.html

http://www.homestarrunner.com/tgs4.html

http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail50.html

Last Pack Meeting

We have hit a milestone in our lives this week. This could possibly be out LAST PACK MEETING. Yes, I know, it is hard to believe but Andy is now 11 and he earned his Arrow of Light. So, he is now officially out of the Cub Scout program.

Although there are some real positives to Pack Meetings, I am finding that I like the idea of not having to carve a pine wood derby car. It was always depressing to see the sad look my boys gave me as the block of wood that I slaved over just hours before the event, slowly hobbled down the race track at snail like speed. My pine wood cars were never flashy, always had a residue of wet paint and almost always lost a wheel on the way down. I am definitely not good with wood, paint, or art. For the longest time I didn't even own a power drill. So, it did not have the skills nor the tools to produce an award winning pine wood derby car. So, in some ways, I am glad that era is behind me and I hope I didn't do too much damage to the ego's of my two boys.

clint

I WANT MY WEEKEND BACK!

Have you ever had a weekend where it felt like all you did was work? Well, Sunday night I felt like I had been through "The Wringer". (I am guessing that this reference is to the old fashioned way of washing clothes where you stuff wet clothes through two rollers called a "wringer") if this is true, that is how I felt, like someone took my head, stuffed it between two rollers and cranked away until I was squished out the other end. This whole weekend was so full of activities, meetings and parties that I don't know if I can even list them all. Let's see; Andy's Birthday Party (Lan Party), Court of Honor, Camp out, Scout Meeting, Coby going to NYC, Church meetings, Priesthood Preview, set up, take down, Stand up Sit down Fight Fight Fight!

I WANT MY WEEKEND BACK!

I guess, if you really look at it with a positive attitude (which I don't usually do because I am a pessimist), you would see that I was living life to it's fullest. I really gained some valuable experiences and made some awesome memories. The Pessimist in me just wants to take a long nap.

BTW, I wanted to report that the LAN party was a huge success and over the Thanksgiving Holiday, I'm planning on taking my game on the road and setting it up at Melinda's house. I don't know if she will hate me, or thank me for it. At one time I think we had 7 computers going. Everyone was shooting everyone else. I even jumped in the middle of the battle to see how I would do against these intimidating 5th graders.

Happy Thanksgiving Week! I hope I get plenty of nap time, I mean, I hope I live life to it's fullest.

Clint

Ball of Light

I finally made my first "Ball of Light" ornament. It looks really cool. Here is a picture of one that I found on the internet since I haven't been able to take a picture of the one that I made, yet.

Anyway, I'm planning to go to my sisters for Thanksgiving and while I am there, we will make a bunch more and maybe even put them up somewhere.

I talked to my mother and she would like to put some up on her big evergreen tree. I think it will look really cool.

I now have it to the point that I can make one in about 15 minutes. Once I start put them up on some people's houses, we will see if I can get a small business going by selling them to people.

Clint

Essay

Coby had to write an essay for one of his 8th grade classes. We found out that the teacher allowed him to read his essay for the whole class. After he read the essay aloud the teacher said she was glad that he presented his essay because she really loved it. So, I am going to post his essay on my blog. Ok, I'm not posting the essay, I am posting a link to his essay.

Coby's Essay

clint

getting closer

I can tell that Christmas is getting closer. I received 3 orders on my web store today. The shoppers are starting to ramp up their purchases. I guess it will really start to hit after Thanksgiving. I have 10 boxes going out tomorrow morning and about 5 orders sitting in the Queue. Our little web store usually makes enough to help pay for most of Christmas, so, we keep it round all year.

Shameless plug for my web store: http://www.ecarters.com


I am working on a new product for our store. Deanna doesn't know about it yet but I am trying to put the resources together to start selling a large Christmas ornament. When I have all of the details worked out, I'll post a link on my blog so that you all can be the first to make a purchase. :-)

LAN Party

This next weekend we will be celebrating Andy's birthday. He has invited 9 boys over for the party. We have come up with the idea of having a LAN Party. A LAN party is when you hook a bunch of computers together and play a video game where they can all participate.

So, this will be my first LAN party that I have put together. I am a little worried about it but I think I can pull it off. My main concern was what video games they would play. Andy and his friends are only 10 and 11 years old so I don't want anything to harsh. Most LAN parties are based on some very graphic images with a lot of blood and gore. So, I hunted around for some "tame" LAN games that we could use. I found two that we are going to be playing that night.

Motocross Madness



Nerf Arena Blast

Both of these games are multi player so they can all be playing at the same time. The Motocross game is just a motorcycle game and the Arena Game is a shooting game but instead of shooting bullets and granades, they will be shooting each other with Nerf guns. It is really pretty cool. No blood, not gore, just clean Nerf guns. It is pretty cool how each gun really shoots like a nerf gun would shoot. Nerf balls, nerf disks, nerf darts. Anyway, I hope I can make it work.

Now all I have to do if figure out how to get 9 computer together in the same location all talking to each other. That will be the interesting part.

"This note is for my sisters!"
Please don't mention this stuff to my boys because if this doesn't work out, I'll be giving these games to them for Christmas. So, PLEASE KEEP THIS QUIET. Shhhhh!

Anyway, I'll let you know how it goes.

Clint

No hits

OK, so I am not getting many hits nor comments from talking about my venture crew, so, as of today, I am officially changing the topic of my blog. It will no longer only discuss the adventures and mishaps of my venture crew.

I will now talk about anything I want. That shouldn't be hard.

So, from now on, I'm just going to ramble on about what I have been thinking about, what I have been doing or just random stuff.

Fasten your seat belt. I could go out of control.

New Leader

I lost my Venture Crew advisor to the bishopric a few weeks ago so I get a chance to train a new Venture Crew Advisor. Our entire bishopric was turned over so I also get a chance to train a new bishop. I'll keep you posted on how the training goes.

clint

4 Eagles

I am proud to announce that 4 of our Venture Crew received their Eagle Scout Rank yesterday!!!!! We were so excited to have their Court of Honor. We really went all out to make it special and I think every young man felt honored and special. They have worked hard to finally finish all of their requirements.

We will now begin to focus on Ventuing Awards such as the Bronze Awards. We also need to help a couple of them finish their Duty to God program in the next month or two.

Anyway, we are having success.

Eagles

We have finally worked our way forward with 4 of our Crew members. This month 3 of our Crew will finish their papers for the Eagle Scout Award. One received his last year. The other 3 needed some encouragement. So, we are excited to have an Eagle Court of Honor for 4 of our Crew next month. I am hoping to have Huge Extravaganza for these Venturers. We want to make a big deal out of this event so that the other scouts at the other levels of scouting will be excited to get their eagle awards.

We do have a couple of Varsity Team members that really don't want to have anything to do with Scouting, so we have to make is so cool that they will want to work hard to get it done. Otherwise, we will have a very hard 3 years coming. :-(

Ski Trip

Our Venture Crew advisor scheduled a ski trip last month. He found someone that would allow us to stay in a condo for free and said we might be able to get the lift tickets for free as well. We planned the trip assuming that we would have free ski lift tickets. Well, the day before we went we found out that it would cost $24 per youth and $40 per leader to go skiing. We couldn't cancel the trip now, we had hyped it up so much so we had to go.

After being very nervous about the cost of the trip, I actually walked away from the activity thinking it was a huge success. Our religious leader wasn't too happy that we spent so much money but looking back, it was totally worth it.

We had a couple of Venture's that really hadn't integrated into our group. On this trip, these two young men became good friends with each other and with the others in the group. We really came together and everyone enjoyed skiing. I think we have finally found our focus in our Venturing group, we all love to ski. So, I think we will try and have 2 more of these ski activities before the ski season is over.

Venture crews are supposed to have a focus or something that everyone has in common and I have been struggling to find what that might be. At first I thought it was sports, but there are a couple that don't like sports, then I thought music, but that didn't work for some. Anyway, we are now going to focus our efforts on skiing since everyone in the groups knows how to ski and enjoys skiing. My only issue is that skiing costs money. We can work around that, if we run the program correctly.

Also, I just wanted to announce that one of our venturers earned his Eagle Scout Award. We have 3 more that are really close. They only have to submit their papers and have a Eagle Board of Review and they will be done. Then, at that point, we will start focusing on the Venturing Awards. My goal is to have 4 of our Ventures with a "Bronze" Award by the end of 2007.

Wish me luck.

Leader Specific Training

I volunteered, last week, to teach the "leader specific training" class for Venturing. This was a Council Level training but was in my District so everyone in our local area was invited to come.

Well, I was pretty sure that I wouldn't get a whole bunch of Venture Leaders to this training so I planned on about 5. So, I studied for about 6 hours the week previous, I arrived at the training facility and how many Venture Leaders do you think were there? ONE!!!!! Only One Venture Leader showed up for the Leader Specific Training. YIKES!!! How embarrassing.

There has been a lot of talk in our area about losing our 14 to 18 year old boys. Well, here is one of the symptoms of the problems. We don't have any trained leaders. AARRRRGGGHHH!

I have decided to make a goal of having 10 leaders come to the next training that is in our area. I will email and call church leaders and let them know what happened and the next time, everyone will know about it. The next training is in 6 months.

High Adventure

We are planning our High Adventure Activity this coming weekend. Our Venture Crew Advisor has put it all together and we are ready to go. We will be going on a rafting trip down the middle fork of the Boise river Thursday, Friday and Saturday. We have filled out our Tour Permits and our Safety Afloat Plan and we are ready to go. Our VCA really has done a great job, however, we haven't assigned much to the Crew. So, I am working on getting them more involved so that they have responsibilities too.

I will also be trying to focus on our DTG program while we are up there sitting around a campfire trying to get dry.

Anyway, it should be fun. They YM are really excited.

Wood Badge

I am so proud of 2 of my leaders. (not that I'm not proud of them all) but these two leaders signed up for Wood Badge and are there right now. The Varsity Coach and our Assistant Scout Master. I am sure they will learn a whole bunch of stuff and hopefully will come back with renewed energy and commitment to make our Scouting program better. I am really excited to see them and hear of their experiences.

Go Wood Badge!!!

On hold

Our Venture Crew has been on hold lately because of a Trek that we are going on this summer. Most of our Wednesday activities have been centered around that upcoming activity. I did, however, work some fun stuff into our program. One Wednesday our VCA (Venture Crew Advisor) brought harmonica's for everyone. I brought some songs we could learn and all of us played our harmonicas. After practicing a few times, we walked down to the Young Women's room and played a selection for them.

It was fun and we were able to pass off a couple of our DTG requirements.

Outside the box

Our Venture Crew participated in the Scout O Rama this weekend. Most of them were a little hesitant about participating because of the "stigma" of the Scout O Rama as being a Cub Scout activity. I, however, wanted to make a SPLASH with our Venture Crew.

I decided that we needed to do something different, something out of the ordinary, something outside the box. So, I started brainstorming. I didn't want a regular camp site. At first, I thought of brining a trampoline and have the Ventures sleep on the trampoline. Then came the perfect idea. We would borrow some Semi Trucks and sleep in the "Sleeper Cabs" of the semi trucks. It would take some organization but I thought it would be a blast. I set up the event and lined up the trucks. I told our Crew of the idea and they loved it. One member wasn't going to go because of the Prom, but if they were going to stay in Semi Trucks, he would make the time. It was great.

The day finally came, I picked up 3 trucks from a local trucking company and parked them at the Scout O Rama. Everyone there was amazed at the sight. All of the Venture leaders from the Council and District supported us and loved the idea. We stood out as an example of what a "Venture Crew" could do at a scouting event. I was pleased with the reaction we received from all of the Scouters at the activity. I think the boys felt that pride as well. I really hope our Venturers can now see the endless possibilities that are available to them. One of the crew came up with the idea of staying at the Dorms next time. The Scout O Rama is on the property of a Junior College. I thought it was a great idea. Not only would we be the envy of the Scouts, but we would give our Ventures the opportunity to live in a college dorm for one night.

In any case, I think we have set the standard for Venture Crews for the Scout O Rama. I hope that next year our Venture Crew comes up with something even more cool and more creative. It was a great day for our organization.

More Training

Last Saturday I went to the "Leader Specific Training" for Venture Crew Advisors. I had a lot of questions about how to turn the program over to the boys. I received great information on how to do this.

I was told that being a "shadow" leader is much harder than being the leader. I was told that to turn the program over to the boys you need to guide and instruct and lead from behind the scenes. One suggestion was to make a list of items that the Young Men will need to do to pull off their assigned duties. You need to plan everything but give the Young Men the reigns to complete them. For example, on Wednesdays, I should not just turn the time over to the young men and have them plan everything. I should have some ideas on what they could do, write down some key points and key things that have to happen. That way, when the "president" of the venture crew stands up, he has a list of items to review. As for the other Ventures, they just see the President as taking charge and implementing an event. They don't see the hard work behind the scenes that happened to get them to that point. Then, as the Crew matures, each of the members starts to see the responsibilities of the Venture President. So, when they become the president, they will take on the responsibilities that they saw the previous president do. That is how the tradition begins.

Great advise. I'll use this in our next meeting.

Turn it over to the boys

Well, It was our first try at turning the program over to the boys and it was a huge disaster. We tried to encourage them to plan a campout and to plan a booth at the Scout O Rama. All they could do was make jokes about having a kissing booth. So, nothing was planned, nothing happened and I was frustrated. I tried to tell them that they need to be in charge and that they need to plan the event and if they didn't, then it would fail. Well, still nothing happened.

After the 1 hour of goofing off and no decisions, I talked with the other Venture Leader and we decided to turn it over to them a little at a time. If they don't follow through on their assignments then it would fail. Failure is part of the learning process so we need to let them fail so that they know that it is their program. We need to get to the point were the leaders (adults) will just supervise and help here and there but we want the boys to run the program.

So, after the disaster, the other leader found the boys and assigned them the tasks of food and of the booth. If they don't follow through with the food, then I guess we don't eat. If they don't follow through with the booth, then I guess we just sit in chairs at the Scout O Rama.

On a positive note, I am trying to think outside the box on the Scout O Rama. A Venture Crew is not a normal Scout Group. We are above and beyond a regular Scout Patrol. I have come up with 2 great ideas for our campout. I have suggested that we have a Trampoline at our campsite and I think I have come up with a BLOCKBUSTER idea for where we are going to sleep. I am going to borrow 3 diesel trucks from my dad that owns a truck driving school and our crew will sleep in the sleeper cabs of the trucks. I think this idea will BLOW EVERYONE AWAY and hopefully set a tradition that Crew 60 is a Venture Crew to watch because we are "OUT THERE"! I am excited to present this to the Crew for approval.

Our Scout O Rama booth will be a "handicap awareness" booth so we are borrowing wheel chairs and we will have activities where Scouts can learn the difficulties of navigation while using a wheel chair. We have a person in our ward that is in a wheel chair that we are hoping will help us out. This satisfies a venturing Bronze Award requirement as well as a DTG.

Court of Honor

We had a Court of Honor last week and I think it went well. I really wanted our new "Scout Committee Chair" to be there but he didn't make it so the First Courselor in the bishopric conducted. It went well and I broke out my harmonica for teh singing portion of the program.

Two of our Crew received merit badges. 3 of the 4 that came were in their uniforms and even our Crew Advisor had his class B uniform on. So, I guess it was ok. I was hoping for more enthusiasm but it turned out to be a good evening.

Unfortunately our Varsity Team is really lagging behind. I don't know what to do to get these guys lit up.

Our Sunday evening meetings aren't working out. It seems that everyone has an excuse why they can't come to the YMP meeting. So, I have changed it to Wednesday nights right after our Mutual activity. They should already be there so they really can't skip out.

Sorry to be so down about everything. I guess I just need to be more patient. I think we are making slow progress but progress non the less.