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’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.

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!

The Field Gun competition was tonight. The “Field Gun” was a bit better than the one we used at Bradley, and it could stay in one piece without anybody having to hold onto it.

I was supposed to be helping the leaders, but one scout troop didn’t have enough people in the team so I ended up actually taking part in the competition.

The obstacles were really good, and it was a bit similar to the stuff you could see in the video I posted last week. The scouts began by dismantling the field gun. There were three obstacles on the course. The first was a small wall with a hole in – equipment was passed through the hole and the scouts had to climb over. The second obstacle was barrels stacked up in a pyramid shape – the scouts had to climb over and pass the parts of the field gun over. The third obstacle was a rope and pulley which the scouts used to pull themselves and the field gun parts across from one side to the other. Once all the parts and people were across, the field gun was rebuilt and the scouts had to run back to the beginning of the course.

It was slightly embarrassing being quite a bigger than all the other scouts taking part, but it was still fun.

Next Friday there is a competition called the nighthawk challenge, which Bradley Scouts are entering.

In the competition, the scouts have to hike from checkpoint to checkpoint through the night (and into the morning). The checkpoints are only open at certain times, so Scouts must arrive within a certain time window, or they are disqualified. The walk is usually around 12 miles long. However, the walk isn’t the hard part.

There is also team of Adult volunteers called “Hunters” who split up and search all the areas where scouts could be walking, and any scout troops that get found loses a point. The scout team that reaches the finish point ,and has lost the least amount of points, wins.

Scouts must decide on which routes they should take to each checkpoint, and they should choose routes that hunters are least likely to find them on. In order to win the competition, a lot of decision making and good tactics is necessary.

I managed to win the competition last year with my team, and hopefully the team from Bradley Scouts this year will do well too!

Tonight the scouts were practising for a field gun competition next week on Friday. We built our very own field gun and made some obstacles to practise with. There were horizontal poles to crawl under, tables to crawl over, chairs to run across , and chairs to weave in and out of. The scouts started off with very slow times, but after many practises on the course and discussion of tactics, they managed to improve their times by working as a team. One of the teams managed to get a time that was under half of the original time.

However, although I call it a “Field Gun”, it was actually a milk crate tied to a wooden pole and two old tyres were held to the side of it. It sounds funny, but does it really matter if the scouts still had lots of fun?

In case you have no idea what a Field Gun Competition is, watch this:

I’ve been thinking about some activities I’d like to do which will help me get achievements in scouts.

For my physical recreation section of my Duke of Edingurgh’s award I’m thinking about doing hiking. I could buy an OS map of the area and think of some routes to do, gradually building them up to be harder and harder. I could also go somewhere a bit further away to hike and camp at least once a month.

For my skill section of D of E, I’ve decided I want to do drawing. I’m not very good but I enjoy it and it’s something I would like to get good at.

If I do drawing for three months, hiking for six months and continue with being a young leader for a year, I’ll get my Duke of Edinburgh Silver award.

I’m doing my grade 4 rockschool electric guitar exam soon and I’m thinking of combining this with the Musician Stage 4 badge. Part of earning the badge is performing publicly so I should benefit from the experience.

Also, I’ve decided I’m going to learn lots of “scouty stuff” like knots and making fire and stuff, just because I’d like to learn how to do it.

Tonight we built some rafts to use in the little reservoir. I learnt a new knot called a “Japanese Square Lashing” which we used to tie barrels and wooden poles together. I wish I knew the knot when I did other pioneering projects with scouts because it’s a lot quicker than using a square lashing, which is the lashing knot I used to use for things like this.

Unfortunately, by the time the raft was finished it became too dark to go in the water for long, so the scouts only got to test the rafts out for a few minutes in the canal – from one bank to the other, and back. However, it was still fun making the rafts (at least for me)

It was also “bring a buddy” night, so we had a few extra people, which is good. After we dismantled the raft two scouts got invested, so it was a nice finish to the evening.

I’ve heard something about scouts no longer being able to carry knives on camps. And I couldn’t help blogging about how stupid the whole situation is.

When I was in scouts, we used to sit together in little groups and whittle sticks with our penknives. It was part of the camping experience. But the people in charged of health and safety have decided that scouts should no longer have that experience. They seem to think that it is not a good idea for young people to be able to learn how to use dangerous tools safely and responsibly – isn’t this an important lesson that scouting has traditionally taught?

I see no problem with scouts carrying knives on camps. As long as the leaders show the scouts how to use them properly and make sure they can, then it’s safe. You might get a few cut fingers, but nothing serious. Besides, it’s all part of learning what happens when your not careful.

I think people should concentrate more on the people using the knives for crime, instead of the knives themselves. Stopping scouts from using knives on camps isn’t going to help the knife-crime situation. It will, however, put a stop to an old scouting tradition.

Tonight was my first night as a young leader at Bradley Scouts, in Huddersfield. I’ve decided that I’m going to blog after every meeting so I can keep a record of what I’ve done. The blog’s called “woggleknot” because I wanted a weird name that’s also scout related.

Tonight was the first night of the term and the scouts needed to be sorted into two patrols. The leaders thought it would be a good idea to hold a kind of “scouts olympics” for the two new patrols to compete against each other.

The games included Javelin Throwing (Made by rolling up newspapers tightly), Equestrian (Piggyback races), Velodrome (racing around the hall on mini scooters) and a few others. My favourite was boat racing. The scouts had to sit in a line on the floor as if they were ina a boat, grab the legs of the person behind them, and shuffle to the end of the hall – it was quite funny to watch!

It was a great first night full of fun and the scouts seemed to really enjoy it.