Woggleknot.com – An Explorer Scout's Blog

Today I received another £60 to go towards our district’s  Jamboree funds. I’d been invited to a local cricket event to sell raffle tickets but when I got there me and the other scout found out that they didn’t need us to do that. However, there were two teams both short of a player so they asked both of us to each play on a team. I was a little worried at first since I’d never actually played a proper game of cricket and I had no idea what the rules were (P.E was never my best subject). Even though I was clueless, I still enjoyed the first game and the others after that.  An hour after the games started, the other scout had to go so I was on my own for the rest of the day. I found it kind of embarrassing at first because I looked completely out of place – everybody else playing was wearing things like t-shirts, shorts and trainers and I was in my scout uniform with some goofy smart shoes.

Later on in the day, I was able to sell some raffle tickets and I reckon I managed to raise £10-15 doing that. Altogether the raffle had raised £120 and half of that was donated to the Huddersfield North Scouts Jamboree funds. I’d been told that I’d have to say a speech when they gave me the money and I spent a few hours worrying about what to say, but it turned out that they were just kidding (this was a huge relief!).

The event was organised by my Dad’s employers, “Hystat“. They had already donated £250 for the Jamboree funds so in total we have received £310 from them. Our fundraising committee is very grateful!

I haven’t posted for a while because I’ve been spending a lot of time revising for my GCSEs and I decided to have a break from Scouting while I got my exams over and done with, so I could get more revision done. Today I finished my last exam so I’m completely free from school now. I’ve got over two months to relax and not worry about any school work, but I guess that’s all going to change when I start college in September!

Tonight was my first night back at Explorers and we were on the high ropes course. We had to climb up a big wooden pole and when there was four of us up at the top we all had to hold on to each other and lean back. That was probably the hardest part – we really struggled to keep our balance because we were all stood on a tiny platform. Jumping off was fun – they let me down quite fast when I didn’t expect it, and the adrenaline rush felt great!

After that part of the high ropes course we had to work in our teams of four to climb something called “Jacob’s Ladder” (well, I think it was called that…). It’s a giant rope ladder and the further you get up the further the rungs are apart – you need to a small length of rope and help each other to climb up. I’ve never made it to the top (but that’s something I’d like to complete before I leave in two years!) but I think I managed to get one level further than I did last time, which I’m quite happy about.

It’s good to be back!

I’ve had very little time for this blog as of late because exams and coursework deadlines have been approaching and I’ve been spending a lot of time working and revising. I’ve spent hours over the last week doing music coursework and practicing for performance exams and I hadn’t really left much time for anything else. Fortunately, all the music work is behind me now because today I got everything recorded and sent off. Just in time too – today was the deadline! Now I just need to get through the next two months of exams then I can finally leave school – I can’t wait.

Anyway, I recieved some very good news last week – I’ve been selected for Jamboree! I’ll be joining about 40,000 other scouts in Sweden next year, and I’m really looking forward to it. However, it now means that everybody in our district who got selected needs to work really hard to raise £20,110 so we can go. We’ve had a few fundraising ideas so we’ll definately be able to achieve this.

I’ve been reading a book called “The Scout’s Companion”. It’s a book that contains lots and lots of facts about Scouting. Some facts you probably already know, some you’ll find useful (such as how to cook an egg in a potato) and some are just crazy. It’s a brilliant book – buy it here!

The other day I found something in the book that made me laugh, but also made me slightly annoyed at the same time. Here’s an extract:

“Pirate Patrol”
If you’ve ever been tempted to download some freebies from Napster or Limewire watch out that you don’t do it with an LA Boy Scout in the room – they might report you in the name of a new badge launched in 2006. Launched by the Motion Picture Association of America and the Los Angeles Boy Scouts, the anti-piracy badge – officially named the Respect Copyrights patch – has been designed to help raise awareness about respecting copyrights and change attitudes towards intellectual property theft. For those young Scouts who don’t include the phrase “intellectual property” in their everyday slang, it refers to the concept that “ideas” are valuable, they can be owned and protected from other people stealing them by copyrighting, trademarking or patenting. The badge aims to teach kids how to identify counterfeit CDs ad DVDs, the consequences of film and music piracy and that protecting them is important to their local economy. If the scheme is a success it will be launched to other scouts between 6 and 21 years old throughout California and the rest of America, although a closer look at the ‘acquired’ playlists of some Scouts’ iPods might open a whole new can of worms.

I did a bit of research on the badge from other sources and found the curriculum here.

To me this badge seems more like propaganda than an achievement and I don’t think it should have a place in Scouting.  Scouts should want to do their best to help make the world a better place, and I don’t see how this fits in. The curriculum doesn’t even give a complete picture of the “issue”. Consider these points:

• Would the people actually buy the content in the first place?
  When the industry spits out the figures, it doesn’t take into account the fact that a lot of people wouldn’t be interested in buying the product anyway. When this is the case, there aren’t any losses to profits at all
• Could it lead to more customers?
  Many people will listen to a song on the radio (for free), realise they like it, and buy the album or single. This could also happen with filesharing – many people have a “try before you buy” attitude and choose to pay for content if they like it. Could filesharing be used as free advertising?
• Is it actually killing the industry?
  Way before my time, people were scared radio would kill the music industry. But it didn’t. Then they were scared home cassette taping would kill the industry. But that didn’t either. Nor did video cassettes kill cinema. Could the fear of file sharing be yet another false alarm?
• And finally, does the industry actually care about people getting hurt, or do they just care about making huge profits?

So when you’ve had a think about the argument, please leave a comment! I’d love to hear your opinion on the matter.

I said there was going to be 12 places and over one hundred people, but that was wrong. There’s 15 places and 60 people took part – so I have a better chance of getting a place. It was a really good day – the first half of the day my group were doing survival activities. We learnt about the best way to light fires and the best kindling to use. I missed most of this one because I had to go to my interview (which I think went okay). After that, we learnt how to make food to take with you on the go. We mixed flour, wheat grains and fruit together to make a dough then flattened it and put it on tin lids and left it on the fire for a few minutes – we now had biscuits! But mine was rock solid and I couldn’t even get it off the tin lid – I had to scrub it off ): . We then went to the next activity and we made a shelter out of a big plastic sheet and rope. These activities were really fun, so I’ll have to make sure I go to the survival camp at Blackhills in july!

After lunch, we played a few team games. These were tricky and required quite a bit of thought and planning. My favourite game was one where you had to fill a pipe with water so the toy ducks at the bottom would float up and come out. However, the pipe had lots of holes in that we had to cover up or else the water would leak out. We all ended up getting soaked!

I’m not sure really sure If I’ll get a place on Jamboree – I really hope I do. But if I don’t, at least I had a lot of fun on both selection weekends!

This saturday coming up I’ll be taking part in county jamboree selection. In February I went on a selection weekend for my district but I didn’t get a place. Then, there was 3 places for 12 people. This time, there’s 12 places for over one hundred people – so the chance of getting a place is even lower. I really hope I succeed this time!

The event is going to be held at Blackhills Campsite. There’s going to be outdoor, team building activities but I don’t know what we’ll be doing. They’ll want to see how we work as a team and watch how we interact with other people. If building a fire is one of the activities I just hope that It doesn’t rain! It’s hard to get a good fire going with wet wood and it usually creates a lot of smoke – this means we’ll stink for the rest of the day.

Everybody has to give a 3 minute presentation about “The World Jamboree in Sweden 2011″. I’m planning on including a few interesting facts about Jamborees and scouting in Sweden. Does anybody know any? Please comment!

Chris at Jabbering All Day Long is holding a competition – and the prize is a copy of the scouting skills book which I reviewed here. Make sure you enter because it’s a great book to have in your collection, especially if you’re a scout.

There’s 2 copies up for grabs and all you have to do is answer a fairly easy question.

Check out the rules and enter here!

This is becoming a bit of a habit – I’m making a post a whole week after I did something. Last weekend I was on a young leader training course at Bradley Wood (which I seem to be spending a lot of time at recently).

I completed 5 Modules (A-E):

• Module A, Prepare for take off! - This was all about Child Protection, Bullying and stuff.
• Module B, Taking the lead – This was about different leadership styles and when to use them.
• Module C, That’s the way to do it! – In this one we learnt different ways of instructing young people.
• Module D, Kids Behaving Badly – This was about how to deal with challenging behaviour and we learnt about possible causes – such as things happening at home.
• Module E, Game on! – This was about how to organise games and how to use them as a tool to teach young people

If you only look at this list the weekend sounds a bit boring, but it was AMAZING FUN. I met quite a few new people there and the presentations were interesting with lots of activities in between – this gave us lots of chances to talk and get to know each other. If you’re a young leader and haven’t done the training – DO IT! It’s worth it.

Anyway, I’m off camping now (again) so I better get my stuff ready!

This post is quite late because I haven’t really had much time this week. I’ve got loads of coursework that needed to get done and I’ve been revising for a maths exam I have next week. Also, I AM NOW SIXTEEN! It was my birthday on Wednesday  so I didn’t bother blogging then either!

Anyway, last weekend I was at Bradley Wood as a young leader to help out at this years winter camp. These camps are very fun and I enjoyed the last one in 2008 back when I was in scouts. The camp was a bit pricey at £30 for scouts (I only had to pay £5! Leader’s price ) but it was easy to see why – so many things were going on, and some things needed to be hired – such as outdoor laser tag and arcade game machines.

When I got there all the scouts were scattered about the site doing activities so there wasn’t really much to do. So I just wandered around and did a few activities for a bit too! I stayed at the shooting range for quite a while (I’m not very good, but I really like shooting) and I watched a few groups of people play laser tag outside on the field.

However, on the second day the camp had to be cancelled because of the snow – people were having difficulties getting vehicles and equipment off the site so we had to abandon our tents, put on our rucksacks and walk to a nearby road. It’s kind of funny when you think about it – the winter camp was cancelled because of winter weather!

I’ve been priviliged enough to get my hands on a copy of a new book coming out next month: “Scouting Skills: A Complete Guide”. It contains numerous skills that are worthwhile for any scout to learn.

On the front cover the book claims to contain “Everything you need to know for your outdoor adventures”, and it really does. It has so much information crammed into it, and it is all presented in interesting ways – the book is full of diagrams and photographs. Great lengths have been taken to make sure the reader does not become bored.

Every skill mentioned in the book is actually useful and many examples of use are given – in the foreword, UK Chief Scout Bear Grylls writes: “We won’t bore you with the unnecessaries. When we show you knots, we’ll only show you the most useful”. It is worthwhile mastering as many skills as you can – you will soon find that they will become very helpfull within your scouting experiences!

It will prepare you for various outdoor activities – from short day-hikes to camps lasting weeks. And because there are so many things you can do outdoors, there is a broad spectrum of skills you can learn. This book is exremely useful for anybody planning an expedition (such as a D of E expedition) or planning to camp out in the wild. For hiking, there are instructions on how to navigate using a map and a compass, lists of equipment you might need and there are plenty of tips on how to appreciate and care for the outdoors. There are also plenty of ideas that will make campsite life much more pleasant and fun – for example, there are many examples of pioneering structures you could build, from pot holders to bridges!

The book also contains information on basic first aid for many different injuries and emergencies, such as burns, severe bleeding and choking. These skills are essential for anybody who goes hiking or camping out in the wild because there is potentially a lot of risk involved – throughout the book there many warnings of risks involved with specific activities, and these warnings are in white boxes with red outlines to make sure they stand out.

My favourite chapter in the book has to be the one about firebuilding and cooking. I want to get good at building fires and there is one particular idea that’s making me want to go camping – CAMPFIRE SAUSAGE ROLLS:

Cook sausages on a stick. Make camp bread dough and wrap it around the cooked sausages then toast slowly over the fire – campfire sausage rolls.

It would take a long time to go through all the skills in the book so my only suggestion would be to buy the book, read it and get out there and try it! It will be released next month by Random House Children’s Books, so look out for it!

You can pre-order the book from these websites for around £10:
Amazon
Scout Shops

A few other people with scouting themed blogs have also recieved a copy of the book – make sure you visit Jabbering All Day Long and Nick’s Ramblings – both are excellent blogs!