Scout Laws – in Lego Wednesday, Jun 8 2011

On Twitter (as @leftwelly) I set a challenge – to show each of the Scout Laws as a small Lego model, the base plate being no bigger than 10×10 studs. I didn’t think it would be fair to set such a challenge and not have a go myself, so my seven models are shown below.  What I will do later this year is to  look at each Law in turn and expand on my thinking for the model and the Law itself.

It is worth noting that building these models – and being able to talk about it – forms the requirements for the UK Scout Model Maker’s activity badge – alternative A.  Good luck!

Scout Laws, a set on Flickr.

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Cycle Weekend – 8-10 April 2011 Tuesday, Apr 12 2011

We met at the 8th/12th Church on Friday. The group consisted of: Ash, Alan, Bruce, Dave, David, Sam, Anand, Matthew, Daniel, Oskar, Benedict, Tommy, James, Ahkmed, Fraser, Alec and Charlie. The journey down was surprisingly smooth with no holdups at all. We arrived at 1st Fordingbridge Scout headquarters and settled down for the evening.
Saturday morning came quickly enough, with Scouts in typical form – “no fighting. Not before breakfast”, being Ash’s comment! We had breakfast and got the bicycles ready and set off. We cycled through Fordingbridge and out into the New Forest Park. We confidently set off downhill along a gravel track and soon we reached a stream. Some of the Scouts attempted to cross the stream directly – a couple managed to cycle all the way through! Once on the other side, Alan realised that we had been following the wrong track… so we cycled back across the stream and back up the hill! Although the cycle tracks were of good standard, there was a lot of holes that caught some of the scouts out – by the end of the day we’d nearly run out of plasters in our First Aid kit! Being at the back of the group I didn’t see many of the spills – just the Scout lying on the ground. I did manage to see Daniel’s impressive spill – he was cycling downhill and his front wheel hit a pothole. He went over the handlebars and landed face down, the bicycle flipped over and landed square on his back. It looked horrific – but Daniel quickly stood up shouting “I’m alright!” and after a quick check we were also surprised that there were no cuts or scrapes either! The day itself was a lovely hot sunny one – so we did spend a while by the streams and open spaces enjoying the views and the distractions.

Back at the headquarters, we mended the two punctures that we had suffered and then Alan and David took eight Scouts off geocaching (there were two caches in the town). Back at the headquarters the Scouts settled down quickly – it had been a long day.

After breakfast on Sunday we set off again – this time to cycle through Verwood Forest. The weather was again hot and dry – and several of us found the going a little harder having spent so many hours yesterday in the saddle in the sun. Fortunately, no Scout added to the injury list today – but about 2/3 of the way into the cycle we found a very boggy path to work our way along. It was too sticky to cycle in – and as we walked the bikes along the wheels sunk down up to the axles. For a couple of Scouts this make things very difficult to navigate – and for one he had to sink his hands into the mud – up to his elbows – to retrieve his shoes that had come off!

Back at the Headquarters we quickly cleared up and set for home. Again I was surprised at the traffic flow – no hold-ups or problems and we were quickly back at Harrow.

The (very small selection of) pictures below reflect the weekend’s cycling:

Cycle Weekend April 2011, a set on Flickr.

A better slideshow of these images can be found at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/frog101/sets/72157626357872783/show/

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April Fool Game Friday, Apr 1 2011

Rather than do more learning, I thought it was time for a game.  You will need:

 

1 chair for each player.

1 bean bag for each patrol (if you don’t have bean bags, you need something that might slide, but won’t roll on when it lands – you could make quoits from rope).

 

Scouts scatter themselves around the playing area and stand on their chairs.

 

 

 

The Scouts holding the beanbags must throw the bag underhand to land squarely UNDER the chair of a Scout from another patrol.  If he does, the Scout must sit down on the chair.

Once the bag has been thrown and has stopped moving, another Scout can get off their chair and retrieve the bean bag.  If the Scout is “out” then all they can do is pass the bag to another member of their patrol (or if their patrol is all out, to another Scout).  If a Scout is still “in” (and able to stand on their chair) then they can throw the bean bag.

 

BUT, once a Scout leaves their chair to get the beanbag, their chair seat becomes LIVE and if another Scout throws a beanbag and it lands on the chair the Scout is out!

 

Other rules:

A Scout can only hold one beanbag at any time – they can’t stockpile beanbags.

A Scout can only hold onto a beanbag for a maximum 5 seconds.

Scouts must be careful when getting on and off of chairs

Scouts CANNOT attempt to protect their chair from being a scoring area (hence the standing)

 

 

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Photographer’s badge – producing prints, editing software Friday, Mar 11 2011

Right, you’ve been out and taken your pictures.  But really, they’re only good if you display them somewhere.  You could upload them to your facebook account (if you have one) or even to one of the many websites that will hold (host) your pictures – flikr.com and even Google offer such a service.  Some even offer a “free” option – this is great, but you are limited to the amount of pictures that you can store or display.  You can increase the number of pictures stored by not uploading the “full quality” image, but a lower resolution version.  Additionally, the lower quality image will display quicker on a slow connection.

You can print your pictures out – the higher the quality the better the picture, but it might take longer for the computer/printer to process them.  But of course, you will find that the quality of the image is wholly dependent upon the ability of the printer that you are using.  Inkjet printers for example work by squirting a drop of ink onto the paper; there is only so much precision that such a printer can produce.  However, we are talking about quality that is almost imperceptible to most people.  A 10MP image is only really needed if you were producing a picture for a huge advertising poster!

If you don’t have access to a computer, many companies such as Jessops, Tesco, Snappy Snaps do offer a kiosk service so you can put your camera’s memory card into their card reader and print pictures directly.

Now, before you print your pictures out, you might want to tweak the image to make it just a little bit better.  As always, there are loads of software products out there to make the image world-class, but some (such as the Adobe Photoshop Suite) are many hundreds of pounds.  Without showing any specific favoritism to a product, I quite like Google’s Picasa editing software at the moment.  It’s free (hurrah!) and allows you to manage, adjust and shrink your pictures quite easily.

So I don’t age this article by taking screenshots of the software products, common tweaks you might need / want to do:

Red eye removal.   Removing those frustrating red dots from your subject’s eyes when caught in the camera flash.

Picture straightening.  For whatever reason, the horizon isn’t level.

Camera wasn't straight. Some cameras will show lines/dots on the screen to help stop this

Cropping.  If you only wanted a small piece of the overall picture (or want to exclude something/someone) you can use a cropping tool.  Effectively, this is what the camera does when you Digitally Zoom on a subject.

Picture on left is a crop taken from picture on right.

Retouch.  If you realised that there was something that really shouldn’t be there (say a light saber in a picture of army soldiers) you could carefully remove it from the picture.  In many fashion magazines, this technique is used to fade out a model’s imperfections to give them “perfect” skin.

Ideally though, these should be used as a “last resort” as any amendment to a picture takes away from its quality.  It is far better to frame, check and then take the picture.

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Scout Hobbies Activity Badge Friday, Feb 18 2011

 

 

 

 

 

Although during the term time a good Scout programme will enable Scouts to work towards some badges, there are quite a few more that Scouts can earn if they meet the requirements.  One such badge is the Hobbies Badge.  All you need to do is complete either Alternative A or B:

Alternative A

1. Take up a hobby or interest for which you do not already have an activity badge.
2. Keep a record of involvement for a period agreed with a member of the leadership team.
3. Make a collection or study of objects over an agreed period. Examples are stamps, metal badges, teaspoons or bookmarks.
4. Talk to a group about the collection or study chosen. Explain the reason for the choice.

Alternative B

It’s worth making sure that your interest (if you are going for Alternative A) isn’t covered by another badge – say for example, the Martial Arts badge.  If you do decide that you do meet the requirements, then tell your Leader so that they can discuss the challenge with you.

Be happy to talk to your examiner about your hobby and how you built your collection

You can't just buy a collection in one go!

It's worth telling your Leader what you are going to show BEFORE you show it!

 

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Choosing a campsite Friday, Feb 11 2011

In order to make the best of any camping experience, picking the right place to put your tent will be a key consideration.  We can’t always have control over all the aspects, especially if the site is allocated to us by the warden, but if we’re aware of all the points then we can make the best of the situation.

designing the ideal campsite

Firstly, let’s consider the ground.  Is it on a slope, or are there dips?  Sloping ground can be frustrating as if you pitch wrong you’ll either roll out the tent, or sleep with your head lower than your feet.  Dips – even shallow ones – can be the first point for small puddles in the rain.  Frustratingly you can’t always spot them, but if you’ve managed to avoid the obvious ones then you’re doing well.  If you are nearby a river or stream, have a look at the grass – if it looks more lush and green than neighbouring bits then it will probably get quite squidgy if the rains come and the water level rises.

 

Another ground consideration is how rocky it might be.  You need to find somewhere that doesn’t have obvious sticky-out rocks (or your sleep will be disturbed) but you might find that if the whole ground is rocky then you will need to use other pegs (as an example, the Scout site in Kandersteg, Switzerland is so rocky that hike tents need 6-inch nails rather than aluminium pegs because of the rock).

 

You might also want to consider how much of a tree canopy you have.  If it’s a lovely hot summer’s day the canopy is brilliant – but if it rains it will shelter you from the sun, so everything will take a lot longer to dry (and the trees will continue to shed the water long after the rain has gone).  Also, it will get darker quicker under tree cover and of course, things live in the trees and may land on the tent roof.  Oh, and of course the root systems could make the ground an interesting challenge!

 

But before you pitch your tent, there are a couple of other things to note – where are the toilet blocks and where is the water tap?  The water tap is typically used by loads of people on the campsite – and whilst you wouldn’t walk across someone’s site other’s might – so can you set up your site so people can get to the tap easily without disturbing you?  The toilet block is a similar consideration – whilst it’s great that it’s close, first thing in the morning EVERYONE on the site will want to use it.  As a follow on from that, how easy is it to get to your site (or indeed for others to get to theirs)?  Some sites may be secluded to the point that access is through another site – again, can you design your site accordingly?

when designing your site, remember that the water tap is used by everyone and ground near water can get boggy

 

The image below shows two suggestions as to how you could lay out your campsite.  Note how the direction of the wind is taken into consideration for the campfire and the litter (brown box), how the store tent (smaller house)  is close to the cooking area and how the water point (red mug) is available to everyone (but also note how the water is near the cooking / fire area just in case).

two suggestions for site layout. My preference is the one on the left!

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Finding North (Part 3) Friday, Jan 28 2011

Carrying on from Last week’s post about finding north – what do you do when NO-ONE has a watch or method of telling the time?  This one takes a little longer, but is just as effective, but again needs a sunny day. This is the last in the series.

1. Put a stick in the ground (or light sabre!), and mark where the shadow ends.

2. Wait for a while (half hour is good as the sun doesn’t move that much in a short space of time) and then mark where the shadow ends then.  (the example below has exaggerated the shadow movement for effect and clarity)

3. Remember that the sun moves EAST to WEST?  So if we draw a line between our two shadow points we are actually drawing an EAST-WEST line!  So, if we stand facing our stick we can work out which direction North is!

 

Of course, if you do have a watch – and time – at camp, an easy gadget is to make a sundial, putting pegs where the shadows end on each hour (you may want to use some way to identify what the hour is – say, 10 clothes pegs for 10 o’clock…

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Finding North (Part 2) Friday, Jan 21 2011

So let’s say that you’re out on a hike and “someone” manages to break the compass.  The Leaders forgot to charge the GPS (typical!).  Luckily, you know where you are on the map – you’re at a cross roads and you need to be confident on the route that you are taking out.  BUT – which way is North?

Luckily, you do have a watch – and it’s a sunny day, so you can find North by using your watch!

So let’s start with the basics – in the Northern hemisphere the sun rises in the EAST and sets in the WEST.  At mid day the sun is at its highest point in the sky, it casts the shortest shadow – and is SOUTH (so the shadow points NORTH).

The small complication is that the high point is at 12:00 GMT or 1pm British Summer Time.

For our example, it’s the May Bank Holiday and a couple of hours after breakfast (around 10-ish).

1. Hold you watch flat – and point the Hour Hand at the Sun.

2.  Then draw an imaginary line pointing straight from the 12 o’clock position

3. Work out half way between the two points.  That’s South – so North is the opposite direction!

For those of you who have digital watches, you will need to estimate where the hands are on your watch….

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Finding North (Part 1) Friday, Jan 14 2011

Over the next few weeks, I thought we should talk about finding North.  You can use things such as floating magnetic needles, but typically very few people carry all that stuff with them.

As next week is a night hike, I thought I’d start with  finding North using the Stars.

For brevity, I will only focus on the Northern Hemisphere.  For anyone in the South, the Southern Cross is your guiding constellation – using the stars furthest left and Right, follow to the right to get to the South Pole Star.

I’m going to focus on the easiest star constellation in the sky to find the North star – the Plough (or Saucepan).  If you were Alaskan, you’d find this one EASY to spot – your flag is the Constellation!

Now, Once you’ve found the constellation in the sky (you are going to need a fairly clear, dark night of course!), you can use the edge of the saucepan and follow it up and away to a star that looks like it’s on its own – that’s the North Star!

You can double check this by using the mid point of Cassiopeia (it looks like a “W” on its side), but it’s a less reliable route.

(Thanks to How Stuff Works – http://adventure.howstuffworks.com/survival/wilderness/true-north3.htm and http://scienceblogs.com/startswithabang/2010/06/happy_belated_flag_day_from_th.php for the information!)

As a final note, I have also found out whilst writing this that the Orion Constellation can also be used – the 3 stars that make up Orion’s “Belt” run East to West, so you can use that to get the general idea of a northerly direction!

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Folding a Flag Friday, Jan 7 2011

At the start of every Troop Meeting, the Union Flag is broken.  Frustratingly, if the flag is not prepared properly it becomes a disappointing embarrassment as the Scout tugs repeatedly on the line to break the flag – with leaders glaring at the other Scouts who are fighting to surpress giggles and are unable to step in as everything is already underway.  The following steps should allow you a trouble free flag pull.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1.  Fold the flag lengthways.  I’ve suggested 3 or four concertinas – but each should be about a fist wide.  Note: CONCERTINA not rolled.

2.  Fold the flag widthways – but leave a tail.  Again, you can use a fist as a guide.  You need the tail at the end to be able to wrap round the parcel.

3. Wrap the tail round the flag parcel.  This will then prevent snagging, when you wrap the line round the flag

4.  Wrap the “pull” rope round the flag and push the loop in.  The rope going round the flag will hold it in place – the loop provides a quick release when pulled.  You don’t need a long loop, just enough to pinch the rope in place.

4.  Pull the flag (carefully!) to the top of the flag pole.  Many flags will have a toggle at the top of the edge of the flag – use this as your guide (toggle to top!).  The line that is holding the flag up the pole should be tied tightly to the flag pole – the pull line should be loose and it should be obvious which is which.

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