Hello?

Anyone out there? I know I have been slow to post but please come back.....

Back In The World...

We are back. Spent the week camping in southern Indiana with the Boy Scouts. It was quite the adventure. We had 92 boys and about 35 adults there all week. I started prepping for this several months ago, I am the Advancement Chairman and the camp we go to has you run your own program. Which means I had to find people to teach the merit badges the boys needed for the week. We ended up teaching 47 different merit badges (camp usually offers 32) which was fantastic. Except for the fact that then I had to schedule all 92 boys 5 merit badges for the week and make sure there were no conflicts at all. Somehow I succeeded and the boys (and adults) had a great time. If you know anything about Scouting we had 37 rank advancements and 450 Merit Badges earned. Not bad for a week.

Camp was great! We had rifle, shotgun, archery, crafts, a nice lake to swim in with row boating, canoing and a 41 foot speed boat. Yes the last is not your typical Scout Camp equipment. One of the dads who attended had a 41 foot speed boat and taught motor boating and water skiing to the boys. One night the wife and I joined him and several other adults on an evening ride (awesome) and then a dip in the middle of the lake for an hour. Extremely cool!!

Yes the wife was out there roughing it with us, no electricity, running water or internet. She was having a great time out there with the boys until we checked the phone on Wednesday. We had the phones off and we turned them on and had 26 missed calls from my sister-in-law on my phone, and she never calls me. Unfortunately the wife's grandmother died and few days earlier and they had been trying to get in touch with us. The wife left and got on a flight to attend the funeral while the boy and I stayed put at camp. The boy took it hard but ended up having a good time. He earned 7 merit badges, Life AND Firecrafter. Firecrafter is an honor society for Indiana Boy Scouts (like Order of the Arrow which he is also a part of) but can only be earned at summer camp and the requirements are hard. The final one being start and maintain a fire using friction. He finally got fire by friction the last hour of camp and became a Firecrafter, awesome!!!!

Now it is Sunday morning, I had 170 emails waiting, a box full of mail and a happy dog waiting for me. A great week was spent at camp and I can not wait to do it again next year!!!

Quick Reviews...

Home sick yesterday and watched a movie. Been watching a few movies lately both on DVD and in the theater. A quick rundown of what's going on:

Wall*E: absolutely fantastic! Saw it with the wife, my parents and my 15 year old son and we all loved it! I cannot recommend this more to you. I have heard Best Picture talk in the web and I have to agree. A must see this summer!!!

Wanted: another great action film. If G rated is not for you (but please see Wall*E) then this hard R is right up your alley. Non-stop action, good story and great effects makes this my popcorn movie of the summer so far. The idea was bases on a comic but the director took it from there and wow! If you need drama and fully developed characters, messages and agendas in your films go elsewhere. If you want heart-pumping, non-stop action, cool gun play, swear words and Angelina's ass then grab a seat next to me. Sign number 3 this is a good movie, the wife would see it again!!!

Blade Runner: Final Cut: while I was sick I put this in. A classic the way the director wanted it. I had forgotten how slow the movie was. It is still a masterpiece in my book but watching it yesterday I realized how much of a wimp Decker is...let the hate mail begin.

Serenity: yes I know this movie came out like 3 years ago and the show it's based on before that but we finally got to watching both. Firefly was the next Buffy and boy did Fox mess that one up. The movie takes place right after the show ended and really really really shows me what we the audience missed thanks to Fox pulling this show. Jerks.

I watched a few more this past 2 weeks Be Kind Rewind, Jumper, and National Treasure 2. All not bad for 2 hours of entertainment but nothing to write home (or here) about....

Be well

Right To Be A Jackass...

Yesterday was a special day for this nation, and on top of that it was a special day for tons of new citizens. In ceremonies across the country people from other countries LEGALLY became citizens of the United States. It was a proud day for them, their families and friends and for us. Of all the places to be in this world they chose here and went through the process to become a citizen and now have all the rights AND responsibilities that come with it. It should be a great day for all...

Except for the jackasses. You saw them shouting at the President as he gave a speech to a group of new Americans. He even may light of it by mentioning free speech in this country. I am all for Freedom of Speech! I speak my mind everyday, all the time. But at that point, at that place those jackasses ruined a beautiful and important moment in those new Americans' lives for what a moment in the spotlight. I could understand if it was a political rally or stump speech but here was the President of this nation welcoming it's newest citizens and you have to pull shit like that, so what you can yell 3 words and then get taken out. Jackasses!!!

Happy 4th of July

To my fellow Americans. Happy Birthday. On this day all those years ago, our Founding Fathers set forth to create this great nation in which we live today. These past 30 years have brought great change to this nation both good and bad. I worry for us as a people and see a coming of a great divide in the near future. There is a cancer deep in the heart of America and it needs to be dealt with...

On this date over 145 years ago the Union Army awoke on the fields of Gettysburg to find the Army of Northern Virginia had pulled out during the night. After three days of horrific battle, both armies lay broken, almost 50,000 Americans lay dead or wounded on the field. Lee withdrew his troops and headed back to Virginia for what was considered the beginning of the end of the Civil War.

Four months later President Lincoln was invited to speak at the dedication of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg. He said the following, read and remember and see how what he said all those years ago still hold meaning today.....

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.