A Scoutmaster's Blog

It is time to get back to fun with the Melrose Scouting Productions Podcast. After all, the last two postings were a bit more on the serious side. This episode features the Boy Scouts of Troop 68 during their 2002 Laughs For Lunch Show. Two skits are included, both which involve doctors and hospitals. The first skit takes place in the doctor’s office as the patients come to him with their problems. The second skit finds us in the maternity ward’s waiting room as the expectant fathers await word about their new born children. (You may have to turn up your volume a little during the second skit. The boys did not talk as loud as they should have.)

Nearly two years ago I wrote a blog post that reprinted a list by Michael Conkey about the rules for a young man to follow if he wished to date his daughter. The list included that the young man must be an Eagle Scout, follow the Scout Law, and follow the two deep leadership rule, among other things. (You can read the blog post HERE.)

My attention has recently been drawn to a website by a note I read on Twitter from LatterDay_Scout. The website, Scouter Stuff, has a series of shirts for sale that go along with “the rules for dating” very well. The shirts state, “I only date Eagle Scouts”, and are available in several styles and sizes. They can be seen at http://www.cafepress.com/ScouterStuff

Fellow Twitterer krisleeb asked the question, “What about those of us who married Eagle Scouts?” It sounds to me like the Scouter Stuff needs to add another series of shirts to their store.

We have all heard of Murphy’s Law which states, “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.” Mark W. at ScoutingManiac has recently blogged about a list of Murphy’s Laws of Camping which he found at the Boy Scout Trail website. You have got to read these. A few of them really are too true. Here are a few of the forty laws listed on the site:

1. When reading the instructions of a pump-activated water filter, ‘hour’ should be substituted for ‘minute’ when reading the average quarts filtered per minute.
2. A backpack’s weight load migrates up and back the longer it is in motion.
3. All tree branches in a forest grow outward from their respective trunks at exactly the height of your nose. If you are male, tree branches will also grow at groin height.
4. Swiss Army Knife toothpicks and tweezers evaporate open contact with air.
5. Rain happens.
6. Waterproof clothing isn’t. (However, it is 100% effective at containing sweat).
7. Non-stick pans aren’t.
8. Waterproof matches aren’t.
9. One size fits all don’t.
10. Anything bug-proof isn’t.
11. A backpack’s weight is not affected by the amount of food eaten out of it.
12. The minimum temperature rating for any sleeping bag raises as the external temperature lowers.
13. Ropes holding bear bags stretch.
14. The loudness of an animal at night grows as the size of the animal shrinks.

Links:
http://www.boyscouttrail.com/content/joke/murphys_laws_of_camping-1031.asp
http://scoutingmaniac.blogspot.com/2009/01/humor-dose-1.html

It has been over three months since we have last seen them on the Melrose Scouting Productions Podcast, but they are finally back. Buttons, and his friends Randall and Bones, return for what is the last of the trilogy of bad jokes. That’s right, no more bad jokes to be told by Buttons to his laid back friend, Randall.

With each of the three shows, I have tried to find something for Randall to be doing as he gets interrupted by Buttons. In the first video Randall was reading a book. In the second he was listening to his music. In this new video Randall has a new puppy that he has named Dragon. We had a lot of fun filming Randall with the puppy (yeah, it is a stuffed toy dog.) For some reason we kept falling into fits of laughter. Randall looked too real as he was petting the dog. I think the video footage looks pretty good, but I would like to hear what you think.

As the new year gets underway, plans are for Buttons to return doing more Scouting themed videos. I want like him to go back to the Scout Oath and Law and explain what the different points mean in his own unique manner. I would also like to find a few more people for Buttons to interview. It might be fun to film him with a group of Cub Scouts.

Click here to DOWNLOAD this Podcast
Subscribe to Melrose Scouting Productions Podcast through iTunes.
or at http://feeds2.feedburner.com/melrosescoutingproductions
Check out other Scouting podcasts at PTC Media.

Please leave a comment using the link below, at the iTunes Music Store (were we could really use some more reviews), or at the PTC Media forums. Drop me an email at webmaster@melrosetroop68.org. It is great to hear what you think about these podcast videos.

It is time to announce the Buttons ’08 campaign! After all, isn’t it time we put someone in the White House who is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent? Isn’t it time for real change? Isn’t it time for someone to lead this country that has a sense of morals and can tell really bad jokes?

Join the campaign and order your buttons for Buttons ’08! You can order them at http://www.cafepress.com/ptcmedia. Hurry! The chance to order these buttons of support will disappear after the election.

I can’t guarantee that you will get the buttons before the election, but I hope we can count on you to help support the campaign. Yeah, I know, we should have started the campaign earlier, but we just did not have the funds to buy the newspaper ads and television spots. All we have is this blog and the buttons.

Show your support and get out and vote on November 4th!

Here is a skit you do not see very often anymore. At least I have not seen it performed by a troop outside of Troop 68 for a number of years. This post to the Melrose Scouting Productions Podcast features the Submarine Skit.

The Submarine Skit is about a group of misfits on a submarine. It is war time and they are looking for an enemy ship to sink. Once the captain spots a ship through the periscope, he sends the order down the chain of command to fire the torpedo. Unfortunately, his crew is not very good at hitting ships.

Troop 68 added this skit to their repertoire after seeing the skit done at a summer camp during the 1980’s. Some “politically correct” people may not think it is very funny, but the Scouts and the people in the audience get a good chuckle out of it.

I invite you to leave a comment using the link below, or at the iTunes Music Store, or at the PTC Media forums. Drop me an email at webmaster@melrosetroop68.org. It really is great to hear what you think about the podcast videos.

Click here to DOWNLOAD this Podcast
Subscribe to Melrose Scouting Productions Podcast through iTunes.
or at http://feeds.feedburner.com/melrosescoutingproductions
Check out other Scouting podcasts at PTC Media.

They are back! Buttons, the radical Boy Scout, and his friends Randall and Bones return in another video with more terrible jokes, more one liners, and more “Yo, dude”s. A fourth puppet joins the group and gives a quick little take on the thoughts of a wise man.

I want to thank Josh for helping me out this this one (and the next one). We spent over three hours filming the puppets last Saturday to end up with about 90 minutes of video. That footage will then be editing down to two shows, each taking about two to three hours per show to edit. Each show will end up being about 5-6 minutes long.

We had fun filming with the puppets and trying to come up with ways for Randall to be interrupted for each show. I was afraid that I might not find my voice back that I used for Randall, but I think I got pretty close. We spent more time filming scenes with Randall because my voice kept trying to slip back into doing Buttons, which I find much easier to do.

I hope you enjoy watching these shows. (We have one more planned. In fact, it has already been filmed. It just needs to be edited.) If you do enjoy them I ask that you go to iTunes, if you have an account, and leave a review for Melrose Scouting Productions Podcast. Or, go to PTC Media and leave a comment on the forums.

Or drop me an email at webmaster@ melrosetroop68.org
Thanks for watching.

Click here to DOWNLOAD this Podcast
Subscribe to Melrose Scouting Productions Podcast through iTunes.
Check out the other Scouting podcasts at PTC Media.

The Boy Scouts of Troop 68 have been performing a little skit/song called Star Trekking since the mid-eighties. (See blog post from August 2, 2006) It has been quite popular with most campfire audiences. In 1990 (wow, eighteen years ago) the troop performed this skit on a local television station station. This video was taped by one of the parents, luckily. Two and a half years ago I placed the video online at YouTube for the world to see. Since then, the video has received over 39,000 views, and averages somewhere around 50-60 views per day.

Well, it seems that several of this year’s Buckskin staff at Many Point Scout Camp has seen the video. Some more then once. One Friday, the last full day of camp, our camp commissioner visited our campsite and asked me if I was the one in the video that was on YouTube. I said I was and gave him a quick explanation how that all came about. He was grinning from ear to ear when he asked me to sign his cap, and then asked me if I would perform the skit with some of the camp’s staff during the Friday night closing campfire program. I agreed, but wondered when we would have time to practice. After all, the staff would be busy all day. He replied that I should meet them at the camp lodge at 9:00 that evening.

The campfire was scheduled to start at 9:30 pm. Not much time to practice.

I was at the lodge at 9:00, which was a one minute walk from our troop’s campsite. Only half of the staff that were to be a part of the skit were there. The rest showed up as they arrived from their program areas. Unfortunately, we did not really have much time to practice. In fact, all we had time to do was to choose who would play what roles, go over each person’s lines once, and practice the refrain. We did not even get to run through the song one time. This could be interesting, I thought to myself as I walked back to my campsite. Luckily, most of the participants had viewed the skit on YouTube and had a good idea how it was done.

I brought my camcorder along to the campfire program and was able to find another staff member to record the skit. When the time came, I left my seat in the audience to join the staff at the side. As we walked out to center stage I could not help but think of the possibility of the train wreck that was about to occur. After all, we really had not practiced together.

I did not have to worry. The staff came through with flying colors. And better yet, the hundreds of Scouts and adult leaders in the audience loved it. The cheering at the end of the skit was overwhelming. We had pulled it off, and pulled it off well.

Once I returned home from summer camp I had a problem with the camcorder. It began eating my tapes. One of the tapes it tried eating was the one that had the footage of Star Trekking. I had promised the staff that I would put this video online for them to see. I needed that footage. I bought a new camcorder, and luckily was able to retrieve the video from the campfire program. In fact, I should be able to get a few podcasts from the footage. Unfortunately, the footage is pretty dark since it was filmed after sunset.

So here is that video of Star Trekking, performed at the Many Point Scout Camp closing campfire program on July 18, 2008. This video is dedicated to the 2008 Buckskin camp staff, and to the camp’s Ranger Scott, who appears in that YouTube video.

Please leave a comment here using the link below, at the iTunes Music Store, or at the PTC Media forums. Or drop me an email at webmaster@melrosetroop68.org. It really is great to hear what you think about the podcast videos.

Click here to DOWNLOAD this Podcast
Subscribe to Melrose Scouting Productions Podcast throughiTunes.
or at http://feeds.feedburner.com/melrosescoutingproductions
Check out the other Scouting podcasts at PTC Media.