A wienermobile is NEVER just a wienermobile
War Room: Political News, Politics News - Salon
Dick Cheney on Hillary Clinton: “I think she could win. I hope she doesn’t.”
Hillary Clinton on Dick Cheney: Yeah, well, at least I’m not the Dark Lord.
Oh SNAP!!
Sphere: Related ContentIt turns out that the boy scouts expect their leaders to go through a fair amount of training. I guess that when I was in scouts I just assumed that the scout leaders had always been scout leaders or were ordained by someone from “on high” because of a special ability they had.
Last night I went to “New Leader Essentials” - a 2.5 hour introduction to scouting. I thought it was unnecessary but could understand that the BSA wants all of their leaders to learn the same things so they have everyone take this basic course, no matter how long they’ve been involved in scouting. Chloe’s dance class ended at 6pm so I didn’t get to leave the house until 6:15pm. My route to the training center took me through the center of Boston and in to the ‘burbs on the other side so I figured I would be late. Nope. I was actually just about on time.
The 2.5 hours went by just fine. It was moderately interesting and answered a couple of questions I had. The instructor was good - knowledgeable and engaging.
Benjamin had better stay in scouts! I am going to an awful lot of trouble to help out here and to make his life (and maybe Gabe’s) in scouting better. I didn’t get home last night until nearly 10:30pm. I have another training session this weekend. its called Intro to Outdoor Leader Skills Check (a.k.a. IOLS check). Naturally the BSA expects their leaders to know how to camp. If I go to this four-hour class on Saturday and demonstrate that I know how to camp I won’t have to go for a long, multi-weekend commitment in the spring. I would have to demonstrate that I have the same camping skills as a first class scout. Liz looked at me doubtfully while she asked if I could pass it. I confidently informed her that I could. And I can!
I think.
Hmm… I just went back and read the requirements and I think there are some things I need to review, mostly in the neighborhood of knots. I happen to know that the instructor only knows a couple of knots herself so I think I can do ok on that. Otherwise I think I’ll be just fine.
I have no training obligations in October, but me and Ben and Gabriel are all going to the “Cub Carnival” - Ben will set up & tear down while Gabriel and I will just be happy participants.
Then I have three sessions in November on consecutive Sunday evenings from 7pm to 9:30pm back at the Egan Center - the same place I was last night. And I think that will complete the mandatory portion of my Scoutmaster Training. The council to which our troop belongs, Boston Minuteman Council has a lot of training. Also in November is something called University of Scouting and Cub Pow-Wow - a training event where they will have 98 different classes on all manner of topics. I think its just for adult leaders. It would be nice if I could bring Ben and Gabriel with me, but I think its only for adults. I may skip it. If I am putting all this time in to an activity that’s really only for Ben and (later) for Gabriel then I need to spend some time/effort on the girls too.
I’ve actually considered getting involved in the girl scouts but I think it would be awkward. I think the parents and leaders would be suspicious of me. Plus, I have to admit that its not appealing to me at all. I’ve seen the activities my daughter does with the brownies and I’m just tickled pink I don’t have to do that stuff.
I never expected to get this involved in scouting. I think it must come as a surprise who knew me back in my Dead Kennedy’s days of skateboarding and whatnot. I think I’ve either grown up or sold out to “the man”. Now I believe in what the boy scouts are trying to do (for the most part) and want to help teach the boys how not to be stupid and how to value the right things.
Sphere: Related ContentThis is one of my favorite web sites. It never changes, but I always like to go back and reread it. Poor Steve.
The little woman is sick today.
Its nothing too serious, but with things kind of winding down at work I offered to take care of the kids this morning and get them off to school. Ben and Gabe and Chloe were very helpful, but when it came time for me to ask Grace what she wanted for lunch she could only talk about Fruit Roll Ups and whatnot. Seriously, I needed Chloe’s help and guidance to put together a decent lunch for Grace. Not because I don’t know what makes a good lunch, but because I’m not sure what sorts of things she usually has nor how much.
So Ben’s ride arrived promptly at 7:20am. And I delivered the other three kids to their school for the 8:10am bell.
I came home and somehow, I just couldn’t bring myself to go to work. Things are very quiet there in the first place - nobody seems to be doing any work. And I can do everything I need to from here. I like being here. Its a beautiful day out! I think I will have to go out and spend some time out-of-doors today. Maybe take the dogs for a long walk or something.
I guess I could mow the lawn and clean up the backyard.
I’ve been using Yahoo!’s music jukebox at home lately. It has kind of a cool feature where I tell it which performers I like and it plays some of them and some related performers. That way I get the music that I know I like and I get exposed to music I might not have listened to. I can’t save any songs, but I don’t mind that. Its free too.
The other day I got a REALLY good deal on an external frame pack for scouts. If I am going to be a leader with the scouts I need my own pack. I understand that internal frame packs are what everyone is buying these days, but I didn’t want to spend a pile of money on something I was only going to use a few times a year (if that). The internal packs also don’t generally seem to hold as much as the externals. I don’t foresee scrambling over rocks and brush. So I think the external was a good choice. Its a Jansport Carson. I got it for about half-price. So I was tickled with my purchase.
The boy scouts were going to go to a competition sponsored by the Order of the Arrow. I think the short description of the OA is the boy scouts’ honor society. It was going to be a patrol-based competition in basic scout skills - racing to build a fire or build a lean-to or an A-frame or whatever. I thought it sounded like a LOT of fun. I was sorry I was going to have to miss it. The following week the cub scouts are going camping and I promised that weekend to my other son, Gabriel.
The good and the bad news is that the scouts decided that they would prefer to volunteer to help set up for the cub scout trip! This is good for me because now I will have both kids at the same camp at the same time. I will still need to stay with Gabe but I can check up on my troop at the same time. The bad news is that I think the OA competition camp out would have been good for the troop.
Last night they practiced tying knots and I realized that I have forgotten most of mine! I can tie a fisherman’s knot - something I use to tie hooks on to fishing line. But not much else. We spent way too long last night at the troop meeting working on skills. I mean it was moderately fun and all, but we were there last night until just after 9pm. My 11 year old needs more sleep than that.
Hah! Today is “picture day” at the Melrose Middleschoo. I’ll make sure that I post some pictures when they come in.
Alright, I had better go pretend to do some work. Check in and let me know what you’re up to!
Sphere: Related ContentTalk Like A Pirate Day - September 19
Avast, ye scurvey varmints!!
AMD Bets on Tri-Core Chips as Quad-Core Market Lags
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On Monday, AMD executives confirmed this weekend’s rumors and admitted that the company will indeed introduce a triple-core microprocessor sometime during the first quarter of 2008.
The Victorian Fair has come and gone. I have very mixed feelings about it. On one hand, I hate it because it pulls all my patience and internal peace away in tattered chunks. On the other hand, I like the wholesomeness of all the town’s merchants coming out and meeting my friends and acquaintenances from the community. Whenever I go I can hardly go ten feet without bumping in to people I know from the kids’ school or scouts or dance class or whatever. That’s kind of cool. And in a very schmalzy way I like the fair-food and the performances that the local dancers and karate schools put on.
But on the first hand, all that cacaphonous noise makes me want to pull my hair out by the roots! Its busy and the noise is piercing. This time I only had to keep track of three kids because my eldest, Ben, spent his day at the boy scouts’ dunk tank trying to drum up business. It was kind of chilly (about 65) so they didn’t sell as much water as they had hoped. Nonetheless he had a good time from 10am until about 4:30pm.
This event really dominated the day. I spent the evening kind of recovering by engaging in NFL therapy. The Pats were playing one of last year’s strongest teams: San Diego Chargers. And they kicked living crap out of them. It wasn’t just that they won - they cleaned their whole clock!! Final score was 38 to 13. Before the game, the local pundits were predicting that the patriots would squeak out a victory of one or two points. So it was a nice suprise.
On Wednesday I have to go down to Milton, MA where a class is being given on the basics of being a scout leader. I think I told you that I signed up to be an assistant scoutmaster for Troop 615. So there are a bunch of classes that I need to take. Well, like 10 hours or something. Some people can do it in a day while others need to spread it out over several events - and that’s the direction I am taking. Ben has a scout meeting on Tuesday evening. Today is Chloe’s day for dance class. Tomorrow is Grace’s day for dance class. Chloe will also attend that because she is helping the dance teacher instructing Grace’s class. I think she will love it.
And I think those are all of our obligations for this week. Seems like there must be more. Oh well, I’m sure that I will find out what they are.
Sphere: Related ContentThe weekend is underway! Saturday turned out to be quite a busy day. We got up and got moving kind of early so we could get to the new middle school tours. We arrived around 9am and a tour-guide showed us around. It looks like a lovely school really. It just opened two weeks ago and Ben’s class is the first to go through it. Its a nice place, I have to admit.
It was raining so we came home and took care of some business here. We also went out and ran some errands and got a little lunch. In the afternoon I helped out with the local soccer group. Afterwards we went to Ingaldsby Farms and picked a bushel of apples - that’s a LOT of apples! Liz agrees she has a lot of cooking ahead of her. They were DELICIOUS! We were told that the hot summer resulted in smaller apples that are also sweeter. And I have to admit that they were really great!
Tomorrow is the Victorian Faire. I guess 20,o00 people show up in the middle of Melrose for the afternoon. The town shuts down main street and all the town’s merchants and organizations come out and have tables or booths. Yes, the pizza places are there, but so are the Friends of The Fells. The republicans have a small table while the democrats spend their time shaking hands with everyone.
The boy scouts have a dunk tank set up and charge a dollar per throw to try and dunk local leaders (mayor, aldermen… er… alderpeople, etc). Ben has to bring a case of water with him so they can sell the bottles for a dollar each. Its a big fundraiser for the boy scouts.
I think that’s all so far.
Sphere: Related ContentSo I’m working from home this afternoon. No, I’m REALLY working. When I was younger and tried to work at home I was never able to focus on work - there were a lot of distractions. But maybe I’ve grown up. Maybe I’ve seen what the internet has to offer. Whatever it is, I really can work from home and get a lot done - for about five hours. After that, I have to get up and go do something.
So I’m sitting here applying SAP hotpacks - they’re collections of thousands of fixes and notes.
One of my kids’ friends wanders up and says
Hey, Mr. Rob, whatcha doin? Makin’ email?
I said:
Nope, I’m working.
He looked at me kind of blankly. So I explained that I worked for a drug company taking care of their computers and that I didn’t need to work in the office all the time; sometimes I could work from home.
He just blinked at me.
No, he’s not retarded but I think he hadn’t ever considered that someone could use a computer for work.
Finally, he shrugged his shoulders and said
Whatever. See you later, Mr. Rob.
I think I really got through to that kid you know. Its great making a difference in peoples’ lives, you know.
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