Virtual Campfire

[skeptic]

Since we are speaking of various scouting related books, I am finally getting around to actually reading a few of the lesser know ones I have.  Yesterday I read My Boyhood in the Sixties and Seventies Murray, who was on the original executive board and wrote the first official history at the anniversary in 1935.  It was put out in 1940 by BSA in his honor.  Interesting, but short.  He admits to some less than Scouting activities as a youth, but mentions that he hopes not too many would do similar things "today".    He talks about his experiments with smoking, and says "we knew where babies came from", which made me chuckle.  Today I started reading the book on Frederick Burnham written by West, He Who Sees in the Dark.   Am about half through it and I learned a few things.  One, that West was not a bad writer, though not on the level of the great authors.  Maybe I will take up his Lindberg book next, or the one he wrote on the first world jamboree.  

[Eagle1993]

I will add that the oil change places that recommend changing oil every 3,000 miles is a scam.   Your owners manual is sufficient and even then probably a bit conservative.  I worked at a refinery for a short time and with a few engineers who were responsible for blending and delivery of motor oil.  They had measured oil out of engines after various mileage’s and indicated there was no noticeable degradation in performance until starting at 10,000 miles.  They said one could probably simply top off oil and replace the oil filter until 20,000+ miles. No one had the guts to actually implement that plan.  

They did fill a pizza delivery guy’s car with jet fuel.  It ran a few hundred yards.  Best time I had there was when the old timers sat around and discussed worst case scenarios at the refinery, many that would result in large craters and mass carnage.  

[Sentinel947]

7 minutes ago, Eagle1993 said:

I will add that the oil change places that recommend changing oil every 3,000 miles is a scam.   Your owners manual is sufficient and even then probably a bit conservative.  

Newer cars will also have an Oil life tracker that the owner should reset after changing (or having their oil changed.) Now, how trustworthy that is depends on how much you trust vehicular computers... 

[MattR]

14 minutes ago, Eagle1993 said:

They did fill a pizza delivery guy’s car with jet fuel.  It ran a few hundred yards.  Best time I had there was when the old timers sat around and discussed worst case scenarios at the refinery, many that would result in large craters and mass carnage.  

If it was a diesel it would have run. Jet fuel is pretty close to diesel. But just in case you think it's a good idea, it isn't.

8 minutes ago, Sentinel947 said:

Newer cars will also have an Oil life tracker that the owner should reset after changing (or having their oil changed.) Now, how trustworthy that is depends on how much you trust vehicular computers... 

I think they are. They can count engine revolutions, number of cold starts, etc. I also have a car with synthetic oil and I change the oil every 10k miles.

[Eagle1993]

10 minutes ago, MattR said:

If it was a diesel it would have run. Jet fuel is pretty close to diesel. But just in case you think it's a good idea, it isn't.

I wasn’t there when it occurred (it was prior to my time there).  Pizza guy came... started talking... ended up discussing jet fuel.  He volunteered his car (and only source of income) up for the experiment.   Needless to say it had a good short run before car death.   As was explained to me, he may have been smoking something that is legal in a few states.

My short stint at a refinery gave me more stories than nearly twenty years at my current employer.  

[Stosh]

1 hour ago, skeptic said:

Since we are speaking of various scouting related books, I am finally getting around to actually reading a few of the lesser know ones I have.  Yesterday I read My Boyhood in the Sixties and Seventies Murray, who was on the original executive board and wrote the first official history at the anniversary in 1935.  It was put out in 1940 by BSA in his honor.  Interesting, but short.  He admits to some less than Scouting activities as a youth, but mentions that he hopes not too many would do similar things "today".    He talks about his experiments with smoking, and says "we knew where babies came from", which made me chuckle.  Today I started reading the book on Frederick Burnham written by West, He Who Sees in the Dark.   Am about half through it and I learned a few things.  One, that West was not a bad writer, though not on the level of the great authors.  Maybe I will take up his Lindberg book next, or the one he wrote on the first world jamboree.  

Are you sure this was written by Murray?  It sounds like something my wife would write in my biography now that I'm 67 years old.

[Stosh]

We live in a competitive society.  Caring community went out the window back in the '60's.

 

[Chadamus]

1 hour ago, MattR said:

If it was a diesel it would have run. Jet fuel is pretty close to diesel. But just in case you think it's a good idea, it isn't.

Reminds me of the old moonshine-as-fuel Mythbusters episode. Great stuff, that show.

[Stosh]

Hmmm, I have a gal that got fired up about doing a recent service project that she organized a group of elderly ladies, acquired the materials and had everyone pitch in and make lap blankets for all the residents of the local nursing home for Christmas.

Sound like an Eagle project?  Nope, the gal part gave that away.  Did she say she had fun?  Nope, not that either. Did she get any credit for it?  Nope, but she did put in a public notice of thanks to everyone that helped her. I asked her a couple of Sunday's ago at church coffee fellowship about her "project".  She was kinda surprised because she said I was the one that had suggested it.  I didn't remember it at all, but it would seem I mentioned it as something the kids in the youth group  could do as a service project.  They didn't pick up on it as a group and I forgot all about it.  She didn't.  I had kinda lost track of the kids this fall because I was away on 4 different Disaster Relief Operations for the Red Cross.  My curiosity got the best of me finally and I said, if the other kids didn't want to do it, why did she do it anyway.  She said that because I do so much for the Red Cross, and Scouts, and Salvation Army, and the Scatter Garden Memorial at the local cemetery, she wanted to know what I knew that she didn't.  I asked if she found out.  And she said yes.  She began a whole litany of things.  She felt excited about the project, she made new friends in a group of people 50 years older than her, she learned to use a sewing machine,  she was amazed at the generosity of people's donations of fabric and batting for the blankets, and amazed the ladies would stop their regular sewing projects for the church just to help her.  Then she said getting to hand out the lap blankets to the residents made her cry.  ??? Because the residents were crying when she tucked the blankets in and around some of them. 

So, where's her Life to Eagle booklet?  Didn't do one.  Proposal? didn't have one. Plan? Did use one.  Advisor/mentor? Didn't get one  Signatures?  Didn't need any.   Did she get any credit for any of this?  Not at all.  But she did tell me she found out what I know that she didn't know before.

[MattR]

Just curious, how old is she?

 

[blw2]

19 hours ago, Stosh said:

I knew a guy who drove a car 45,000 miles and just kept adding more and more oil as needed.  He sold it in running condition.  Be thankful you didn't buy it.

Hey, I wonder if that was my dad..... i think he's been known to do such things.... even though he truely is an ACE jack of all trades shadetree mechanic.... when he wants to be

[RememberSchiff]

5 minutes ago, Stosh said:

Sitting here at the fire with nothing to do I got to thinking about this OA ceremony stuff and came to the conclusion that all the rumors that we hear coming down the pike seem to be coming to fruition at an ever increasing pace.  I'm just afraid the Indian theme for OA is going to be history.

I thought maybe the Knights of the Round Table might be a option, but no one seemed to bite on that very hard.

Well, what about turning OA into a Scout Honor ceremonial team where they dress up in FULL Boy Scout ironed uniform, shirt, campaign hat, necker (Eagle if earned), belt pants, socks, patches correctly placed, OA sash (kept as is for traditional purposes), white gloves, looking like a scout is supposed to look like in a Rockwell painting. 

Then the Cubs on one side of the room and troop(s) on the other, the bridge in the middle.  Plenty of flags for troops and patrols.  Bugler plays a fanfare, ASSEMBLY would be nice.  An OA honor scout takes off the Cub's necker and slowly escorts the Cub over the bridge while reciting the Oath and Law to the Cub, who, after an exchange off salutes, then is formally, by name, introduced to the SPL  (Having been arranged in advance) The SPL calls forward the PL of the patrol he will be with and he is again introduced by name to the PL.  If he and his buddies want a patrol of their own, the TG is called forward he's formally introduced by name to him.  The PL/TG then puts a scout necker on the Cub and presents him with  a BSHB and has him fall-in with the patrol.

Of course if one wishes further emphasis on the Cub/Scout transition, the parents are with the Cub on the Cub side and the Honor OA scout shakes their and takes their Cub over the bridge without them.

Like the current AOL ceremony, a sense of seriousness is maintained throughout.

Time for another log on the fire......

 

[Eagle1993]

I would add... if possible... to perform this outdoors with a bond fire. You captured the key parts, especially the symbolism of leaving the parents to a patrol. 

[Cambridgeskip]

On the topic of scouting books......

Back In November I was made redundant from my job (I worked, for HM Revenue and Customs, broadly our equivalent of your IRS) and since then having been taking a bit of a career break during which I'm attempting to fulfill a bit of an ambition to write a book. And this particular book is a children's book set in a scout troop.

I won't give the whole plot away, you can all buy it if it's published! But broadly it concerns a scout who, after getting into trouble at school, is pulled out of scout summer camp by her (my protagonist is a girl. Sorry!) parents completely unjustly. Her patrol promptly help her to stowaway to summer camp.

I'm quite enjoying writing. It's certainly more fun than tax! Will it ever get published? Who knows. Even if it is I doubt I'll ever become the next Joanne Rowling, but you never know

[scoutldr]

"I was made redundant"....I love the British language!  Here in the Colonies, we get "fired" or "laid off".  Question, SKip:  when you say the time is "Half eleven"...what time is it?  Wife and I watch more British telly on PBS now than we do the American mindless sitcoms.  Our current faves are "The Durrells of Corfu", "Call the Midwife", "Midsomer Murders", and "Doc Martin".