Cub scout award for… video games??  Where was this award when I was in Cub scouts?  I would have aced this one easily.  Okay, there is some work involved, but still- video games?  Here’s the text from the official site:

Requirements

Tiger Cubs, Cub Scouts, and Webelos Scouts may complete requirements in a family, den, pack, school, or community environment. Tiger Cubs must work with their parents or adult partners. Parents and partners do not earn loops or pins.

Belt Loop

Complete these three requirements:

1. Explain why it is important to have a rating system for video games. Check your video games to be sure they are right for your age.
2. With an adult, create a schedule for you to do things that includes your chores, homework, and video gaming. Do your best to follow this schedule.
3. Learn to play a new video game that is approved by your parent, guardian, or teacher.

Academics Pin

Earn the Video Games belt loop and complete five of the following requirements:

1. With your parents, create a plan to buy a video game that is right for your age group.
2. Compare two game systems (for example, Microsoft Xbox, Sony PlayStation, Nintendo Wii, and so on). Explain some of the differences between the two. List good reasons to purchase or use a game system.
3. Play a video game with family members in a family tournament.
4. Teach an adult or a friend how to play a video game.
5. List at least five tips that would help someone who was learning how to play your favorite video game.
6. Play an appropriate video game with a friend for one hour.
7. Play a video game that will help you practice your math, spelling, or another skill that helps you in your schoolwork.
8. Choose a game you might like to purchase. Compare the price for this game at three different stores. Decide which store has the best deal. In your decision, be sure to consider things like the store return policy and manufacturer’s warranty.
9. With an adult’s supervision, install a gaming system.

As most of you know, I was really into gaming back in the day. I spent hours at arcades and played my Atari and Colecovision systems to death. Ah, the days…  Speaking of scouting, JustJ would be pleased to know that the boy scouts are embracing modern technology in Geocaching.  One article mentioned a merit badge, but so far what I read on their site talks more of the activity than earning a badge.  Click here and here.  Scratch what I just wrote- merit badge information can be had by clicking here.

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Oh, you probably want an update on that quiz.  Of the three that garnered the most guesses, one of them is correct.  The one with no guesses?  You are correct in that it is not us.  The other video was among the two with a single affirmative response.  So without further delay, the two videos featuring our choir (at least in audio in the case of one) are:

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1. They Didn’t Know

[vimeo]https://vimeo.com/10678741 [/vimeo]

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6. Rise and Sing

[vimeo]https://vimeo.com/10677420 [/vimeo]

Check out what the junior high kids do toward the end of the video-

I can name most of the boys from their time in 4th/5th grade, including

one who was in my cabin at camp two years ago.

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So, how did you do? 🙂

or was that a tube? Or a film container? What was the latitude?

I decided to go on a treasure hunt while my daughter was in play rehearsals. I was thinking it would be a good way to get a little exercise and play with my new GPS.

So I loaded in a bunch of geocache locations on my GPS and went to look for them. I went to the first location that I remembered finding, turned on my GPS to start looking for them. Nope, they were not in the list. I didn’t get those downloaded. That should be ok, I think I wrote down the longitude and latitude on a piece of paper. Too bad I didn’t bring it with me. Hmmm, this isn’t going very well.

So, I decided to let my GPS guide me to one I did have on the machine. I got close, I’m sure I got very close. The GPS said I was within 20 feet as I stepped out of my truck. Ok, so this one wasn’t going to be the exercise I thought it was going to be. I got out to check it out, and I was suddenly (moving physically a mere 2 feet) 50 feet away from my desired location. Step away from the truck and overhead wires, they may be interfering with my GPS signals. Yes, two more feet and I was about 18 feet away. But which way? My GPS said to the right. North, south, east or west would have been good. I looked around and saw two likely locations for someone to hide something. I circled both locations and was constantly told the location was to the right…

Something just wasn’t adding up. So I tried to look at the longitude and latitude recorded for the object and compare that to the longitude and latitude given by my little GPS. Oops, the downloaded file did not print that information on my GPS screen. Maybe I downloaded it incorrectly. It just gave me the identifying number. No descriptions, nothing. So, I guess couldn’t match it by that either.

I changed my ‘car’ to be an arrow and circled around the two locations again. Constantly keeping my ‘arrow’ pointed in the directions of the objects. I think I narrowed it down to one of the objects, and I was able to pace a 15 – 20 foot circle around it. Yes, the GPS kept telling me I was 15 to 20 feet away. I moved closer and repeated the process. There were times I was 100 feet away, when 5 feet farther out I was only 15 feet away. Something was definitely interfering with the GPS. I guess I got my exercise circling one area in searching for something that I didn’t have a clue as to what it looked like. I don’t think I found it.

Oh well, back to the drawing board. I will arm myself with better information and try again someday. I’m also wondering if the GPS units designed for walking would give more information from the downloaded files. I guess I will need to look into that.