Skit: Shrinking with the Bugs

So I based this on influences from other skits. Shrinking machine, and an unnamed bug one that my daughter and her friend participated in – but i’ve never seen (only their vague description.

Shrink to Bug Size

Sorry the video isn’t the best (I didn’t have the original so this is downloaded from social media).

Text for skit:

Adult Wizard Part:

Adult Scout – Hello Wizard What do you have there?
Wizard – A container of Bugs
Adult Scout – I don’t see any bugs
Wizard – Because you are too big.
Adult Scout – well, I am not getting any smaller
Wizard – I can help with that. I have a Shrinking Potion

<hands small potion to Adult Scout who shows it to the crowd>

Wizard to the Crowd – We will need Some help with this from the crowd.. .and bonus, the crowd will shrink down too!
<Points to left side >– when I say go – this half the audience will close your eyes and softly chant “ONE shrink the living” ““TWO shrink the living” all the way to 10 times.
<Points to the right side> – when I say go – this half the audience will close your eyes and softly chant “ONE shrink the rest” “TWO shrink the rest” all the way to 10 times…
And when you open your eyes we will all be inside the bottle and see the bugs!

Adult Scout Part:

Adult Scout – Hello Wizard What do you have there?
Wizard – A container of Bugs
Adult Scout – I don’t see any bugs
Wizard – Because you are too big.
Adult Scout – well, I am not getting any smaller
Wizard – I can help with that. I have a Shrinking Potion

ACTIONS:

Adults hide and Bugs and Kid Version come out.
Bugs “fly” around (kids flap arms)

Kid Wizard Part (1 of 2):

<kid wizard and kid scout are wearing adult shirts and holding giant bottle>

Kid Wizard: Viola! We are bug size!
Scout: “Well, at least our people parts are….”
Kid wizard: “Well… we know who wasn’t paying attention…

<points to the “the rest” side of the audience>

Scout Part (1 of 2):

Kid Wizard: We are bug size!
Scout: “Well, at least our people parts are….”
Kid wizard: “Well… we know who wasn’t paying attention…

Kid Scout Part (2 of 2):
Bugs Fly back and forth
Scout: Oh look! I see the Bugs now.

<bugs fly near>

Scout: What kind of bugs are you?
Bugs all together: We are Lightning CUBS!
Scout: don’t you mean lightening BUGS?
<Bugs Fly to audiance front stage>

Bugs all together: “Nope… we are CUBS with lights!”
<bugs shine their flashlights in the eyes of the audience…> (as cubs trend to do)

Kid Scout Part (2 of 2):
Bugs Fly back and forth
Scout: Oh look! I see the Bugs now.

<bugs fly near>

Scout: What kind of bugs are you?
Bugs all together: We are Lightning CUBS!
Scout: don’t you mean lightening BUGS?
<Bugs Fly to audience front stage>

Bugs all together: “Nope… we are CUBS with lights!”
<bugs shine their flashlights in the eyes of the audience…> (as cubs trend to do)

Scout Part (1 of 2):

Kid Wizard: We are bug size!
Scout: “Well, at least our people parts are….”
Kid wizard: “Well… we know who wasn’t paying attention…

Kid Scout Part (2 of 2):

<Bugs Fly back and forth>

Scout: Oh look! I see the Bugs now.

<bugs fly near>

Scout: What kind of bugs are you?
Bugs all together: We are Lightning CUBS!
Scout: don’t you mean lightening BUGS?
Bugs all together: “Nope… we are CUBS with lights!”

Bugs Part:

Scout: What kind of bugs are you?
Bugs all together: We are Lightning CUBS!
Scout: don’t you mean lightening BUGS?

<Bugs Fly to audiance front stage>
Bugs all together: “Nope… we are CUBS with lights!”

<bugs shine their flashlights in the eyes of the audiance…> (as cubs trend to do)

Kid Wizard Part (2 of 2)

Kid Wizard Oh! Thank you…looks like the shrink potion is wearing off…..thank you audience… The END


2022 Work-Life Balance

So you may have noticed I started posting about Powershell – and then Big Blank for covid. In 2019 I went from managing four people and supporting workflow automation in Service Manager (SCSM) to managing 9 people in an array of different operations positions. It’s been remarkable – and honestly I have managed to surround myself by 9 employees who are smarter than me – so I learn something every day. It’s amazing, I love my job and my crew.

Work-life balance is the state of equilibrium where a person equally prioritizes the demands of one's career and the demands of one's personal life.  

Not only did my type work change during covid – my work-life balance did as well. My wife and I both now work from home – which means I got out of the habit of coming home from work and “decompressing” by talking about what I learned that day on a blog and social media.

Instead – I started going outside again with my Kid to decompress. It was a nice change.

And then Covid was … behind us. So my family got focused on other projects… and 22 was a great year. I lost 45LBS just from being more active.

Continuous Improvement….

Over the last 16 years at work, my company has been generous with the improvement training and seminars. From Six Sigma, Lean, Agile, etc – we have have adapted and adopted what works the best for our customer first focus.

The interesting thing is that getting into such a mindset bleeds over into “real life” and you start evaluating other people and business processes for improvements. You “think” in terms of how to improve. Which can be frustrating when it’s OBVIOUS and yet… you can do nothing.

Take our recent purchase from Target. Target was running a special on SIMS 4. So my wife ordered it – and chose the “Woodstock” store for “in store delivery” without realizing that there where multiple Target stores in the “town” of Woodstock. (ironically – neither in the actual town limits… just postal codes).

https://www.target.com/p/the-sims-4-bonus-bundle-pc-game-target-exclusive/-/A-52782811

See – we live about 10 miles to the WEST of Woodstock – 7 miles or so from the West-most Woodstock store. The Store she chose? was 10 miles further East. Any savings on shipping would be eaten up by Gas.

Upon discovering our mistake (almost immediately after submission) we called Target customer service to tell them we will pick it up in the OTHER Woodstock store…

Turns out – they do not keep the “Target edition” in the store – it was an online special only. Awesome. So update the store? They can’t. They can only cancel the order – and we can pick a new store when we place another order…

So we did that. A 2nd order later… we go to cancel the first? Nope. Can’t. See – they can’t cancel a ship to store because the stores and internet are not linked. We have to go by the store…. to cancel.

So now we have two games on the way.

We did finally get a hold of the store and get the first game canceled – what a pain.

So the game came in – and I was able to run out in the rain last night and pick it up.

And what did we get? Take a look at the image to the right. Yes.. that’s exactly what the box looks like…. look close…

Seriously Target. You shipped out a box… that only contains…

a piece of PAPER with download instructions. 

I had to use my Gasoline to go get a box… that only contains…

 a piece of paper with download instructions... 

Now I am NOT a Continuous Improvement specialist like by friend Hanson Turner. However, I am still pretty good at looking at processes and identifying problems that could be improved….. lets see… how about….

EMAIL THE CODE. EMAIL COSTS LESS THAN SHIPPING.

AND YOUR CUSTOMER GETS IT INSTANTLY

And why make a pretty package for something only available online in the first place?

as the next gen would say… #SMH

Santa’s visits and our family

Image may contain: 3 people, people smiling, beard

Santa Claus represents the largest conspiracy solely for the sake of giving without expecting something in return.

Millions of parents give gifts to kids knowing that Santa, not them, get the credit. True sense of giving right there. Kinda makes those parents Santa for real doesn’t it?

For this reason, we still stick by the story of Santa – visiting Santa each year, getting pictures, etc. It’s fun for us as parents and my Daughter still sees some magic in the experience.


However, there is always the issue of other kids – who may or may not get “Santa”.

This is a challenge that we all face – and my awesome wife has a great view on the issue. Santa brings ONE gift.

Each year, Santa brings my daughter something, but the rest come from Mom and Dad. This way when she talks to her friends at school – most of whom come from underprivileged families, she can say Santa brought her ONE gift. Keep the magic alive for all her peers without the problem in the comic.

Just a thought to share. Merry Christmas.

Credit for the comic: http://buttersafe.com/2018/12/27/santa-likes-me-more/ 

Dad of a female “Boy” Scout

————————————————————
(this is long but I hope you can find time to read).
#dadofafemaleboyscout
——————–
Kaylee Age 6 Cub Scouts

Let me preface this conversation than I am a conservative. I fight the good fight for constitutional rights, small government, and a Jesus first lifestyle.

I’m not claiming I am some saint or that I think we should accost people for their sins. Just that generally most would say I am politically conservative guy.

So when Boy Scouts said that they were going to start accepting girls, I like many of my peers really objected to that. I mean it’s Boy Scouts right? I can see the argument, there’s a girl scouts for a reason right? There’s other organizations for girls right? And so I was against it.

I’m still not sure it was the right decision to make but I’m getting there

——————–

First let’s talk about the geopolitical situation.

When we talk about the Organization of the Scouting Movement— the worldwide governing party that deals with 169 countries, the United States along with such wonderful places as Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Swaziland, Barbados, and Papua New Guinea – are the only ones that worried about gender.

I mean really, is there any other situation where conservatives would say they want the United states to be more like Saudi Arabia?

Maybe on oil production.

But certainly not on women’s rights.

As a conservative I might believe that it’s my duty as a man to provide and protect my family, and that is my wife’s duty to nurture our family, but no means do I believe that she has any less rights than I do.

In fact every conservative man I know would tell you that he is the king of his castle and his wife gives him permission to say so.

I mean come now, we’re conservatives… the party of respect your mother. So how is it that we’re lumped in with countries that don’t believe in women’s rights when it comes to scouting? That’s definitely cracking the shell for me.

——————–

Second, the boy scouts have often been a pathway to the military service. Which I think is Honorable, but let’s face it there are a lot of women in the military these days.

( Now the scouts believe in actual equality of effort and earning the badge requires doing the skill. It’s not one badge for girls and one badge for boys. You either can do it or you can’t. The military can learn a lesson there…)

But the fact remains that I would not be disappointed if my daughter join the Navy someday and following the steps of family like my brothers, cousins, uncles, dad and my grandfathers, and great grandfathers. Hypocritical of me to say she’s good enough to join the Navy but can’t join Boy Scouts. In both cases she’s a girl in a boys world.

——————–

Third – there’s the Girl Scouts. Common misconception, the Girl Scouts has nothing to do with the Boy Scouts. They are completely separate and now competing organizations

I was ok with girl scouts as a conservative, or at least as much as I could be… so we investigated

The local troop near me told us flat out that they’re expecting kids to sell thousand box of cookies. Now I understand those cookies are damn good, and it probably isn’t that hard to sell a thousand boxes. But is that really the focus that I want my daughter to deal with? I want her to be an anesthesiologist or a financial Trader. Not yet another pretty face selling something. No wonder every sales rep out there is a former Girl Scout… They learn it at a young age.

I didn’t give up on GSUSA… my mom said when she was a girl scout they did camping. My wife says she did camping with her mom. I wanted to keep a girl in girl scouts…

A little bit of research and I find a number of discussion boards where parents are fighting the same problem. The Girl Scouts in their area I’ve become about being a social club, with very little in the way of outdoor skills or activities.

And girl scouts are recognizing the problem… They added 23 badges in STEM and Outdoors. Wow… It’s 2018 and you finally think girls can do science? How progressive of you GSUSA.

I am glad GS are changing in response to Boy scouts…but i would have been a lot happier if it was proactive to create better women for the future – rather than a response to a drop in membership.

So I am sure there are Girl Scouts out there that or just as adventurous as Boy Scouts. They just don’t seem exist in my area. the affluent in my area, probably don’t have any desire to go camping. So they’re not having their kids go camping or fishing or tying knots or playing in the mud. And the poor in the area can’t afford boy or girl scouts ( the start-up fees is about $300 all said and told)

Lastly – it seems the girl scouts have taken a stance on politics that is just to the left of BSA – which is already too liberal for my tastes. I think kids organizations should stay out of politics..

Maybe in a few years we can reevaluate GSUSA.

——————–

Fourth; We also looked into some of the other christian-based organizations like American Heritage girls and Frontier girls. Unfortunately none of them have chapters in our area. Kind of makes it hard to join if I have to drive an hour and a half to meetings. Not going to happen on school nights.

——————–

My daughter on the other hand keeps asking about camping and fishing and going places. I just had just given up, I figured I’d take her a couple times a year and we’d make do with just that. I mean after all, I felt like i had exhausted my options and I knew how to teach some of what she wanted.

And then 2 weeks ago my daughter came home from school and said I want to join Boy Scouts.

” There’s one at my school.” she says….

It turns out that at least in my area – now that boy scouts is open to all.. It’s OK to promote it at the public schools.

When my 6 year old asked.. I suddenly knew that my life is going to be utterly changed, and that my stubbornness might have to be compromised to give my daughter the support that she deserves. I was going to have a daughter in an organization I felt should be boys only. Man did I feel like a hypocrit.

So Egg on the face – I go to the meeting. After all I am a dad first, and as a conservative I believe in participating as a parent. What kind of man would I be if I let my pride keep her from what she saw as a solution.

How do we teach our girls to fight gender stereotypes if we’re unwilling to get outside of our own comfort zones and do the same? Lead from the front by setting the example.

Besides Pride is a sin ya’ll.

——————–

So we went to the pack meeting and we joined, there are about eight girls and about 12 boys in total. Certainly not a large pack. It seems they where kicked out of the previous church over gays… (different story – skip the comments please). So I am joining a pack right in the middle of literal chaos caused by much of the decisions like letting my daughter join.

So far it’s been an uphill battle.

The first night we joined I get told by a pack leader – “they didn’t want girls in Boy Scouts.”

We didn’t live that deter us. They meet practically right next door to our home and so my wife and I certainly can’t argue with the convenience, and besides, I do believe in equality under the law , and so I will be damned if I am not going to defend my daughters right to have fun.

In the two weeks we’ve been members I’ve been told three or four times by friends and family that they just can’t support the girl in Boy Scouts.

On the other hand I’ve had people jump out and say “you go get them!”; “She’s a trailblazer!”; “I’m so proud of her”; “I know she’s going to do great things!” (thank God for those friends)

My kid just wants to camp and do things outdoors. She’s six she’s not thinking about boys and girls. To her there’s no difference, I mean she knows that boys stand up to pee and that girls sit… but to her a kid as a kid. She doesn’t care if the people she’s playing games with or competing against are boys or girls. She just happy to be part of the adventure.

——————–

Our first camp out I got to talk to some of the other parents and leaders from other troops. It’s interesting … Boy Scouts is allowed troops to choose to be either traditional or coed. And there are separations between the Boys & Girls by Den, remember this is Cub Scouts not Boy Scouts, and once there the 12 and up age bracket, they have to be in completely separate packs in their own campsites excetera.

One parent told me they where okay with girls being Scouts so long as “the boys and girls camped on different weekends”, after all she said we know teenagers are “going to sneak off in the middle night and end up in each other’s tents” .

I am not dumb enough to think that teenagers don’t think about other teenagers or sneak off in the middle of night… But let’s face it there’s some parental responsibility on raising your kid correctly in the situation.

There are things you can do to ensure that the girls stay in the girls camp in the boys stay in the boys camp. And if that means I need to stay up all night and watch over them, then so be it. That’s called being responsible parent.

Besides you don’t think your kids going to the mall to play Pokemon go do you? We can’t prevent our teens from interacting with other teens.

I’d much rather that interaction be in a structure where somebody said hey these are the rules and you need to follow them. Learning to respect the girls will go much further towards making good men out of our boys than isolating them. We can teach them to respect women without demasculating them too. I still understand that boys need to be boys and girls need to be girls.

Another parent told me that they had kept their pack traditional. Ironically that particular parent had a Boy Scout with a younger sister who was a tag along for the weekend.

In Cub Scouts the parents are required to attend campouts. You can’t leave your child with a leader until they’re a weblo.

So in deference to all the parents who have no choice but to bring their siblings along, Cub Scouts has generally allowed siblings along so long as they obey all the rules.

Entire generations of girls have grown up alongside their older and younger brothers, doing scouting activities, learning the same knots, building the same fires, sleeping in the same tents, playing the same games and and being held to the standards of a scout, but they didn’t get any of the credit or reward.

And no parents were complaining about it because it was expected of the parents to keep their children in line with the Boy Scout standards.

This huge irony just screams to me … I mean is Boy Scouts really just for boys If we’re already allowing female siblings to attend?

And what kind of message is that sending to the girls that the boys can earn Badges and rewards the effort, but you’re just a tag-along. Wow that’s a little too 1950 even for me as a conservative.

——————–

Lastly I looked around and realized that probably 80% of the leadership was women. So we’re okay with boys being raised and lead by women… Women that themselves couldn’t be part of the program as kids. I talked to several of them and they all told me a similar story. As a child they attended Cub Scouts with a brother, and loved it. So when their child asked to join Scouts and their request for leadership was asked of them they volunteered. Because they love what the program is about.

Another gentleman who was listening in to my discussion, told me that he was a 4th generation Scout. He was a leader in Scouts not because he really loves scouting, because like any family tradition it was nearly expected of him.

He said he had grown to love it as his son had grown to love scouting, it was their time together and for that reason alone, he said he would do anything necessary to make sure his pack was a success.

So we have women in the same generational situation, the children of scouts, but couldn’t be Scouts themselves.

Maybe in the future my daughter’s great-grandchild will look back and say hey I’m a 4th generation Scout.

——————–

The last argument that I had to deal with was among corporate culture. It’s ironic that in a world where people talk about the glass ceiling, it’s the women who are telling me most often the girls don’t belong in the boys club.

I understand that boys and girls have differences. My daughter has physical limitations compared to some boys for sure, but nothing in the terms of equality of spirit or intelligence that will limit her from doing anything a boy can do. And let’s face it, women have a higher pain tolerance and a better at multitasking in general than men. It’s okay that not everybody is meant to have the exact same skill-set.

But I have to wonder if her near future of obstacles in relation to her gender as a minority girl in a boys club, might prepare her well for a world where she may be a woman truly breaking into an industry that is mostly male whatever that might be. Maybe so, it certainly isn’t going to hurt her to have to learn to deal with the opposite sex.

——————–

Our first camp out ended with two boys and a girl playing in the rain. I don’t think any of them cared about the others gender. They were much more concerned about when the burgers would be ready to eat. And how much longer they would be allowed to stay before having to head out . Those are the memories I hope all of our kids take home. Friends family food and fun – and maybe they will never have to know about the geopolitics that their parents were dealing with…

——————–

In closing, I would love to see my daughter go all the way to Eagle… Though I’m not sure it will open the doors for her that it would have if she was a boy, but I’d like to think that 12 years in the future people have gotten over the issue of the fact that it’s Scouts now and not just boys.

We have a long way to go, she’s just a kindergarten “lion” today, and I’m not sure if we’ll stay with Boy Scouts forever.

But if we leave BSA it won’t be because Dad wasn’t willing to swallow his pride and support a girl in “boy” scouts.

Time will tell and I hope you all can give us your support.

“Stop and do it right the first time”

… so like any homeowner I’ve had to fix a toilet or two in my time.  When a task comes up at work – I am the guy who is always saying “stop and do it right the first time”… so of course I am also the guy who doesn’t take his own advice on household chores.

So back to my toilet.   The tank was constantly running.  It’s a 15 year old toilet so I knew right away that the parts in the tank with the “5 year warranty” probably needed replacing…   Call me “Powers of Deduction Man!” – my superpower is knowing the obvious.

So I run off to my local Home Depot and get a kit… do i get  complete kit? nah. I grab the kit with just the most common pieces.

An hour later i’ve replaced the parts, and while things are better – I have a slow leak from the top tank into the bowl (not the floor thankfully).  Which I attempt to patch.     Six months later… my leak is back.  And it quickly gets … worse.

So back to Home depot for the … other half of the kit.    So kids – the lesson here..

“Stop and do it right the first time”

… back online after 20 years.

Sometime back in the 90s a friend and I ran a blog on this address.  It was much more difficult back then  – you had to code the website locally and FTP it up.   The other guy, Matt, and I used this blog to talk about the best beer specials in town.  I mean… what else do a pair of college guys blog about?    We tried to collate the bars running sales and specials in one place – and we even managed to get 2-3 advertising sponsors.  You know – old school advertisements,  add their Image to your page with an <img> Tag and maybe they cut you a check eventually?  I don’t think we ever even covered the $15 tag – but it was fun and we learned where to drink cheap beer.   I was the tech guy, and Matt tried to locate specials.   Matt is long gone…

..but I kept this site for email all these years.

So here I am a dad and husband, and I don’t drink like in those days – so I will limit these posts to my other passions.   These days – 24/7 isn’t about beer sales – but rather, my life as a Dad, Husband, Son, Friend, Homeowner, and IT support guy..

 

 

 

So … Welcome back to Atlanta… 24/7