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Why I Loved Scouting, but My Son Never got the Chance

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My Scout Badges

My collection of 40 year-old Scout badges.

Firstly, Pride Month gets a do-over in July. It’s normally “National Ice Cream Month”, but I think we’re all good with combining them, right?
Secondly, I adored my time in scouts, now 40 years on, as well. Didn’t think much about exclusion while I was a member and I proudly wore my uniform to school for Scout Day. I learned a lot, much of which I still use regularly today.
 
So, when I had a son, I looked forward to not only enrolling him for the same experiences, but also becoming the “cool scout dad” that went on the trips, organized the snipe hunts and made everybody gag with Limburger and Sardine sandwiches (something my scout master introduced me too).
 
When he became old enough, shortly after we moved to Scranton, I went looking for a troop. Everybody was enthusiastic and welcoming… until they asked “What church do you belong too?” I explained that we don’t, that I was an atheist and that my kids were too young to decide. I was told that scouting didn’t permit atheists; that “no member can grow into the best kind of citizen without recognizing an obligation to God.”
 
Now, to be fair, several of these “best citizens” and God-fearing men told me that we could “fake it”, but as a heathen atheist I found that ethically repugnant. We were turned off by the entire exercise and my son never became a scout. As I’ve watched him grow into a better man than I ever was, I know this was their loss, not his.

Fallout 4, Nuka-World: Recovering Glitched Nuka Xtreme Recipe

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Like many, I’ve been enjoying the last Fallout 4 DLC, Nuka-World. Like all of Fallout it’s… a bit… glitchy as all hell. One of the more annoying, but common, glitches is the disappearance of one of the 15 Nuka-Mix recipe books, “Nuka Xtreme“.

The book is supposed be on the table, near the flagpole in Dry Rock Gulch, accessible from the theater grandstands. The book, apparently often, falls through the scenery and ends up in the normally inaccessible space between the walls. Working from a solution on the GameFAQS.com forums from user “Dooter”, this is one possible method for recovering it on PlayStation 4 (likely on other platforms as well).

Using a power armor glitch you can enter this space and, sometimes, grab the recipe! Some people have reported that they can’t grab it, as I did, but must use explosions (explosive rounds or grenades) to blast the book out into the “real world”. Others have reported that the book never appears in this way, but is found later having been flung into another part of the area.

To perform the armor glitch: stand perpendicular to the wall you’d like to invade. Press and hold “X” to exit the armor, but a split second later (the timing is touchy) turn your view (right analog stick) away from the wall. If done well, you’ll exit your armor inside the wall where you can search for the treasure. To leave, fast travel to any other location.

I hope this helps to reduce some of the frustration that I felt with this! You may also like my extended Diary of Fallout 4.

Powerful Scenes: Spiderman 2

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Cracked, Spiderman 2 Comunacho

Comunacho’s entry. Used respectfully, but without permission.

I’m a big fan of Cracked.com’s special brand of fact-based listicle’s. Their regular feature, Photoplasty, takes reader submissions on a variety of topics. One from last year, “23 Movie & TV Subplots That Were A Total Waste Of Your Time” surfaced recently on my Facebook feed and the entry to the left caught my eye.

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Sometimes Life Gets in the Way

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It’s been a little quiet here lately. Spring mean free time is consumed with unwrapping from Winter and some major initiatives have made work more interesting. And then there were a few unexpected challenges:

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That’s what used to be the wife’s minivan on the right. Nobody was hurt – thank you safety science and your side-curtain airbags! – but the resulting mess of paperwork, calls, bills and general red tape has consumed a lot of time.

Thanks to my family who came through for us and have made things much easier. Not the least of which, my brother’s family fixed us up with a replacement car until we can sort everything out.

Expect the normal nonsense here to return soon.

Are Movie Trailers Evolving?

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Movie trailers, like all advertising, have progressed dramatically in my lifetime. In the late seventies and eighties the focus was on synopsis. A deep-voiced narrator would describe the movie over straight, descriptive cuts. He’d let us know who produced, directed and starred in it. Before the Internet you saw trailers once, in the theater (or drive-in), and were likely distracted when you did. Trailers were about transfer of information. Here’s the original 1976 trailer for Star Wars [IMDB]:

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