We’ve just had the proof for the badge we’re having made for the Scout Group’s centenary.
This was designed by two of our leaders. I think it’ll look good as a badge.
The image shows up better if you click on it!
Windows 98
Sorting through my cupboards at work the other day, I found a load of still sealed Windows 98 discs along with some Windows 95 licences!
I haven’t played with Windows 98 for ages now, so I took one home, installed it on an old PC I’d got lying around and had a play. The thing I found was once it’s up and running and updated, it’s still quite useful! AVG anti virus and Firefox run happily as does OpenOffice (along with older versions of MS Office). So if all you need to do is surf the net and type a few letters its great.
The other good thing is that I have a couple of old games that won’t run on XP, so I can resurrect them!
I also tried Windows 95 on Virtual PC which was interesting. This was the operating system on my first PC bought in January 1999! I think the only things I have left from that PC is the speakers and the floppy drive!
One thing I won’t be trying is Windows ME (Mistake Edition!).
Military Wearing their uniforms
There is a story in the media today about service personnel in the RAF being told not to wear their uniforms in public to avoid abuse by civilians. What narrow minded fools these civvys must be.
It shouldn’t matter what you think about the armed forces serving in Afghanistan or Iraq or whether or not you approve of the reasons for them being there, these people are doing very dangerous jobs and need everyone’s support.
It’s very different in the US. Returning military personnel wear their uniforms with pride and people support them irrespective of their views on various campaigns.
90 years ago in the First World War, young men who did not wear uniform out in public were given white feathers by women as it was assumed that they weren’t in the Army etc. This did cause some problems with young men back from the Trenches whose uniforms were being washed and deloused!
Traditional Scouting
This weekend I’ve participated in two events that could be considered as traditional Scouting. Events that the original members of our Troop from 100 years ago would recognise.
On Saturday we went to a small wood in Audley to teach the Scouts how to light fires and to set up shelters. We were allowed to use the wood by a local farmer who is friend with our Scout Leader. We were very lucky in this respect as you just can’t turn up at any bit of countryside and start lighting fires! The land owners tend to get a bit upset if you do!
Fire lighting was extremely difficult as it had rained heavily the night before and it was extremely windy. In fact despite the fact there were three other experienced leaders there, we had great difficulty get things to light. The wind was helpful once the fire was lit though.
Anyway, we persevered and with our help the Scouts got four fires going and they were good enough to make some tea and cook burgers, sausages, bacon and beans on.
Then yesterday as it was Mothering Sunday, we went to Church. I’d like to say that the same amount of Scout who went firelighting came to Church, but I can’t! It’s amazing that other activities (football, swimming, seeing Dad, washing the goldfish) always take priority over things they’re not interested in, but mention camping etc and they’re all there! I’d like to use the carrot and stick approach, but that doesn’t work! Ho hum….
School 1978 v School 2008
Scenario: Johnny and Mark get into a fistfight after school.
1978 – Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up mates.
2008 – Police are called, Armed Response Unit arrives and arrests Johnny and Mark. Mobiles with video of fight confiscated as evidence. They are charged with assault, ASBOs are taken out and both are suspended even though Johnny started it. Diversionary conferences and parent meetings conducted. Video shown on 6 internet sites.
Scenario: Jeffrey won't sit still in class, disrupts other students.
1978 – Jeffrey is sent to the Head's office and given 6 of the best. Returns to class, sits still and does not disrupt class again.
2008 – Jeffrey is given huge doses of Ritalin. Counselled to death. Becomes a zombie. Tested for ADD. School gets extra funding because Jeffrey has a disability. Drops out of school.
Scenario: Billy breaks a window in his neighbour's car and his Dad gives him the slipper.
1978 – Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college, and becomes a successful businessman.
2008 – Billy's dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy is removed to foster care and joins a gang. Psychologist tells Billy's sister that she remembers being abused herself and their dad goes to prison. Billy's mum has an affair with the psychologist. Psychologist gets a promotion.
Scenario: Johnny takes apart leftover fireworks, puts them in a model plane paint bottle and blows up an anthill.
1978 – Ants die.
2008 – MI5 and police are called and Johnny is charged with perpetrating acts of terrorism. Teams investigate parents, siblings are removed from the home, computers are confiscated, and Johnny's dad goes on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly again.
Scenario: Johnny falls during break and scrapes his knee. His teacher, Mary, finds him crying, and gives him a hug to comfort him.
1978 – Johnny soon feels better and goes back to playing.
2008 – Mary is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces three years in prison. Johnny undergoes five years of therapy.
Many a true word spoken in jest!
This was lifted from a post on the Edugeek site.
29th February
Nothing really interesting or insightful to write today, but I couldn’t pass up the chance to write something on the 29th of February!
Won’t be able to do this again until 2012.
Wood Badge
Woo hoo, I’ve finally had my Leader training signed off! It’s been a long time coming, partially my fault and partially external reasons. However, once the paperwork goes through I will be awarded my Wood Badge!
Founders Day
Last Friday, 22/02/08, we celebrated Founders Day by holding a party for our Beavers, Cubs, Scouts and their parents.
Founders Day is where Scouts (Guides celebrate Thinking Day) across the world celebrate the birthday of Baden-Powell. BP would have been 151 this year!
The party was also the first event of the year to celebrate our Group's centenary.
The evening started with the District Commissioner awarding two of the Cubs their Chief Scout's Silver Awards, the highest award a Cub can get!
Then it was silly games time. These included eating a bar of chocolate with a knife and fork and wrapping people up in loo roll to see who could make the best 'mummy'!
The parents then joined us for the talent show. It started off with the Beavers singing 'Singing in the Rain' campfire style. Then some slightly older 'Beavers' led everyone in a chant. We think they got a bit confused as Paul wore a Guide jumper, Rachael a Burslem neckerchief and Don a Bradwell neckerchief! One of the Beavers then showed he could out stare the audience!
Five parents were then volunteered to see how many marshmallows they could fit in their mouths and still say "Chubby Bunnies"! Lyndon won by a long stretch!
The Cubs impressed us with some magic, joke telling, rolling displays and cello playing. The Scouts chickened out!
It was then time for a buffet and finally the disco and karaoke!
It was a slightly chaotic, silly, but very enjoyable evening. What more could you want??? 
Comfort on Trains
Last week we went down to Paignton in Devon for a couple of days. Travelling down on the train we went via Reading, which is an odd way to go as it’s a greater distance but cheaper! Anyway, to get to Reading we travelled on a CrossCountry Voyager and from Reading on a First Great Western HST.
The difference between the the 6(ish) year old Voyager and the 30(ish) year old HST is amazing. First of all the MK3 coach is a lot quieter as there isn’t a 750hp diesel engine underneath your feet. As there is no engine under the floor there is also no vibration and rattles! There is also more space for the passenger and more seats 8 coaches as opposed to 4! Shame Virgin didn’t think about this when they bought them!
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The view from the train at Dawlish!
It’s also interesting to note that First Great Western are using the HSTs in a dual role as an express from London to Exeter and then as a local from Exeter to Paignton! Interesting way to do things! Shame they’ve had to start using the ‘Nodding Donkeys’ again!
It was a cold weekend with a bitter wind coming off the sea, but we had fun.
Sunny February
It’s February, it’s half term, we’re both off from work for a week and the sun is shining. What more could we ask for? 😉
Live Music
I’ve been trying to think of all the bands / artists that I have seen live in concert. Going to Glastonbury in 1999 and 2000 certainly helped! Anyway, here goes and in no particular order –
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Paul McCartney
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Pink Floyd
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U2 (twice)
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R.E.M. (twice)
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The Levellers (twice)
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The Beautiful South (twice)
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Echobelly
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Terrorvision
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Pet Shop Boys
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David Bowie
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Manic Street Preachers
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Chemical Brothers
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Travis (twice)
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Eric Clapton (three times)
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Oasis
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Lonnie Donnigan
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Robert Plant
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Al Green
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Blondie
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Carter USM
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Elastica
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Jools Holland & his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra
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Joe Strummer
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Bonny Raitt
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Moby
Plus a load more when I can remember!
Happy Birthday BSA
It the Boy Scouts of America’s 98th birthday on Friday 08/02/08. Happy Birthday youngsters!!!!
Steve B. from Melrose Troop 68 in Minnesota is trying to get Scouting on the front page of YouTube, by getting as many people as possible to look at Scouting videos on the day. I will be! What a fantastic idea!!
No Water!
I woke up this morning (no, this is not a Blues song!), to find we had no running water. A water main had burst in the night in Wolstanton. Luckily, we had enough in the kettle for a cuppa and to clean teeth etc.
I’ve written about this before, but it really makes you realise how dependant we are on our taps and what comes out of them. All the local schools were closed today as they had no water either. No water = no drinks, cleaning or lavatories = not good!
We are really lucky that we can just turn on a tap and out the water comes!
Another Scout Bashing Organisation
From today’s Daily Telegraph –
Scout’s oath ‘is religious discrimination’
By Jonathan Petre, Religion Correspondent
The Scout Association has been reported to the equality watchdog for allegedly discriminating against atheists by making them swear an oath to God.
Ever since Lord Baden-Powell founded the 100-year-old organisation, the promise by scouts to do their duty to God and the Queen has been as much a part of their movement as jamborees, woggles and the three-fingered salute.
Scouting for Boys author Lord Baden-Powell: “discriminates against atheists”
Now, however, it has become the latest target of secularists when the National Secular Society and the British Humanist Association complained to the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
They are furious that the Scout Association is refusing to scrap the pledge required of every new member, which they said was excluding “a growing number of children without belief”.
Members in Britain, where there are nearly half a million scouts, have to promise to “do their best to do their duty to God and to the Queen”, to help other people and to keep Scout law.
To accommodate the movement’s 28 million members around the world, the words can be modified to encompass non-Christian faiths.
The Scout guidelines state: “The phrase ‘to love God’ and ‘duty to God’ implies belief in a supreme being and the acceptance of divine guidance and therefore the word ‘God’ can be replaced by ‘Allah’, ‘my Dharma’ or others as appropriate to suit the faith or religion of the individual concerned.”But the two secular bodies said in a joint letter to Derek Twine, the chief executive of the Scout Association, that the requirement for members to have a faith should now be made optional.
They said that the Association’s stance was “completely unacceptable” for an organisation “that is so committed to personal development of young people and that claims to foster mutual understanding between different beliefs, which of course should include those of no belief.”
They also criticised it for claiming on its website that it was “inclusive”, and called on it to make ambiguously clear that it was a religious organisation. Scouting leaders said that they had no intention of changing the oath drawn up by Lord Baden-Powell, a “muscular Christian” who believed that faith was an essential element in the development of young people.
Stephen Peck, the Association’s director of programmes and development, said: “It is fundamental to scouting that young people are helped to understand their spirituality. It is in our lifeblood.”
The Equality and Human Rights Commission, which was set up in October and which is headed by Trevor Phillips, said it was committed to a vision of fairness, but it was too early to comment on this case.
Scout Oath (or Promise)
On my honour,
I promise that I will do my best
To do my duty to God and to the Queen,
To help other people
And to keep the Scout Law.
I give up 
Why is it people are always negative about Scouting? Stuff all the positive thing we do!
I don’t see them having a go at the Guides, Boys Brigade or Girls Brigade. I guess we’re just a big target! So I’ve grumbled to them!
Dear Sirs,I am rather disappointed to read about your joint attack on The Scout Association and religion.First of all, let me state my position. I am a Group Scout Leader with a very long established Scout Group (we are 100 this year in fact). We are a Group which is sponsored by a local Church of England Parish. Being sponsored by the Church means that we get the use of the Church’s hall facilities free of charge and occasional financial support for Leader training. In return we help out at the Church’s Summer and Christmas Fairs to help raise money for the Church’s upkeep. We also attend Church services four times a year.The vicar of the Church will pop in to one of our meetings occasionally to say hello and speak to our young people.At no point do we ‘force’ religion down our young people’s throats or try to ‘convert them’ to believe in Christianity. Nor do we or can we force our young people to attend services and we will not penalise them for not doing so.Scouting is open to all young people without prejudice to their faith (or lack of), sexuality or needs. The general idea is to have fun, do new things, to learn new skills whilst doing so and to be well rounded citizens.If a young person wanted to join us and specifically stated that they were an atheist that would be fine. When explaining the Promise, I would say that Duty to God means their own personal God. If they do not believe in a Supreme Being then I would say that it refers to their personal beliefs and morals. I assume that not believing in God does not preclude the person from having strong moral and ethical beliefs.I notice that your complaint is just about the Scout Association. Why not the Guides, Boys Brigade and Girls Brigade? As I understand it, the Guides operate a similar position to the Scouts and the Boys and Girls Brigades actually promote Christianity.Please do not make frivolous complaints about organisations whose primary concerns are the development of young people and those young people enjoying themselves. Your complaint can only detract from this and cost all organisations involved money which would be better spent on young people.
Bet I get a wishy washy reply.
Preserving Our Past
At the weekend I went and did a bit of research on our Scout Group at the County Records Office and in the Scout Divisional and County archive.
At the County Records Office, you are not allowed to take bags in the reading area, you can only use pencil to make notes, books etc. are put on cushions to protect spines and everything is carefully preserved. In fact, you're not even allowed to photocopy items!
It was quite interesting looking through all the Church minute books. Especially when in the 1940's, names I recognised start to appear. Also in the late 1950's the writing gets much easier to read as it was written by my Grandpa! Again in the late 1960's reading becomes a lot less trouble as my Dad wrote it! I can tell when he's getting tired from the writing getting worse. Also, there seems to be a lot of scrap paper related to British Rail…..
Contrast with the Scout Divisional / County archive. It's all kept in random cupboards and boxes in a very damp, cold and dark room. Some of the minute books even had mildew on them – yuk! It was rather depressing to see albums full of newspaper cuttings from the last 60 – 80 years, specially recorded 78 rpm records of Gang Shows, audio tape, cine film and various minute books and photographs let literally lying around and not cared for.
These are the records of what our predecessors got up to and in a couple of cases record the start of Scouting in North Staffordshire.
I've spoken to a Divisional high up about this and I think something may happen to get the archive organised and safe. We'll have to wait and see.
On the plus side, I found some old Burslem District minute books, some interesting newspaper clipping and a book listing all the Troop in existence in 1908, names of the Scout Masters and even the names of the boys in the Patrols! Existence in 1908 proved!!!! We are officially 100 this year!!!