Gabriel » Ideas

Webelos Scout Dropout

Gabriel — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 21:38:27 +0000

When I was in 4th or 5th grade, I joined the Boy Scouts. Except it wasn’t Boy Scouts for me, no, it was Webelos Scouts, since that was the appropriate group for my age at the time. I hadn’t been a Cub Scout, but did like the idea very much of camping, friendship, outdoor activities, and all of the other things that I envisioned Boy Scouts doing.

We didn’t have a lot of money in our family at the time. I remember purchasing the Webelos Scout uniform (shirt, some patches maybe) was a significant purchase. But my parents were willing to support me in joining this fine organization if that was what I wanted to do.

My expectations were high when I joined. The reality turned out to be a little bit different. As I recall, having not been a Cub Scout in the Den I joined, I felt like an outsider. I also had pretty terrible social skills at the time, and didn’t really adapt well. At first I gave it my best shot to fit in and participate, but eventually felt like something wasn’t quite working for me there.

We never went camping. The most exciting part of being a Webelos Scout seemed to be the silver or gold candle we would burn at each meeting. That was our fire — maybe it symbolized a campfire, or burning stuff, or some kind of eternal flame of awesomeness. All I know is that we did some glue-gun projects, and burnt that candle at each meeting. During my short stint as a Webelos Scout we never even discussed going on a camping trip. That being my primary motivation for trying to break into this tight-knit group of young boys, I got discouraged. I gave up.

Ever since I’ve considered myself to be a Webelos Scout Dropout. Someone unfit to participate in that system of rules, achievements, honor, glory, companionship, excellence.

Recently I’ve had an opportunity to revisit this mental image in my head about who I am. I’ve thought of many fine men I know who are Eagle Scouts — they completed the Boy Scout journey, graduated basically with the highest honors. Now I know that not every Eagle Scout is a shining example of awesomeness, but that is basically what they aspire to be. And the people I know who are Eagle Scouts I’ve developed a tremendous amount of respect for. They seem to be able to get worthwhile things done in a way that is worth emulating.

I will never be an actual Eagle Scout. You have to graduate from that program before you turn 18. I’m 35 years old. Not gonna happen without time travel, and I don’t know if I would have turned out that different had I stuck to it at the time.

I got to thinking though, what am I holding on to by seeing myself as a broken Webelos Scout who could never have been an Eagle Scout. Not a productive way to see myself.

What makes an Eagle Scout a good person is their drive to be a good person, and their capable practice of good qualities that gradually tell people — yes, this is a good person. This is someone who is interested in helping the world.

Here is the Scout Oath:

On my honor I will do my best
To do my duty to God and my country
and to obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong,
mentally awake, and morally straight.

And the Scout Law:

A Scout is:
Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful,
Friendly, Courteous, Kind,
Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty,
Brave, Clean, Reverent

It’s interesting to me that even though I haven’t thought about the Oath and the Law in many years, I realize that those are really important qualities to me. Those really do help define what it is to be an honorable, good, helpful person in this world.

I may still be a Webelos Scout Dropout, but I realize today that I do strive to fulfill those ideals every day. I don’t have to accept for myself non-Eagle Scout qualities.

The motto of the Boy Scouts is “Be Prepared”. That starts in our thinking and our practice. Every day we have an opportunity to act like an Eagle Scout.

I’m really grateful to have been able to directly assist the following non-profit organizations in my lifetime by working on their websites, training individuals how to use the tools to say what they want to say, and generally try to help them do their jobs better. Most of these folks are active clients. I love the opportunity to serve in this way and plan to continue doing so as long as I’m able.

I may be missing an organization or two but I am very grateful to have been able to serve in this way.

Be Prepared.

Classic Personal Productivity Tip: Inbox Zero method

Gabriel — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 21:41:58 +0000

In case you haven’t seen this video yet, you should watch it. Once I adopted the Inbox Zero system (which took about 30 minutes to do the first time) it literally changed my life for the better.

YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9UjeTMb3Yk

Email verbs:

More here: http://inboxzero.tumblr.com/

Then don’t worry.

Gabriel — Fri, 06 May 2011 05:54:29 +0000

More info about this Zen flowchart here.

Last minute Mother’s Day present – donate to Mother’s Grove in the Children’s Eternal Rainforest

Gabriel — Fri, 08 May 2009 06:39:15 +0000

If you haven’t gotten your mom something yet, consider donating to the new Mother’s Grove in the Children’s Eternal Rainforest…

Click here to donate now

kai

Gabriel — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 17:00:12 +0000

Barack Obama on Religion

Gabriel — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 05:39:53 +0000

Barack Obama is the most intelligent, reasoned politician I have ever heard. This video is remarkable. In it, he shares his views on religion and its role in a pluralistic, progressive society.

My favorite passage of the speech (emphahsis added):

And even if we did have only Christians in our midst, if we expelled every non-Christian from the United States of America, whose Christianity would we teach in the schools? Would we go with James Dobson’s, or Al Sharpton’s? Which passages of Scripture should guide our public policy? Should we go with Leviticus, which suggests slavery is ok and that eating shellfish is abomination? How about Deuteronomy, which suggests stoning your child if he strays from the faith? Or should we just stick to the Sermon on the Mount – a passage that is so radical that it’s doubtful that our own Defense Department would survive its application? So before we get carried away, let’s read our bibles. Folks haven’t been reading their bibles.

You can read the full transcript of his speech here.

Are you hearing this America?

My submissions to the Miro one-click subscribe button contest

Gabriel — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 20:17:39 +0000

Miro (the open source video player formerly known as Democracy) is running a contest right now to design a revised one-click subscribe button.

A Fun Little Design Contest
Design up to three buttons and submit them as links in the comments. On August 20th, we’ll create a blog post with all of the submissions.
There aren’t a lot of constraints on what you can submit. Our goal is to have a selection of buttons that would look nice on a blog sidebar or myspace page. We hope to see a variety of sizes and colors.

Here are my three submissions, shown on different backgrounds. My goal for this is to create simple, clean, and usable buttons.

	#FFFFFF	#666666	#000000
Option #1
Option #2
Option #3

I’ll update this post once voting is started so you can vote for my submissions if you like them

Update: Thanks to everyone who voted for my submissions. (I won the grand prize. )

Prove it.

Gabriel — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 03:11:21 +0000

Question: What do scientists consider to be valid evidence for a theory? How should studies be conducted to prove efficacy of treatment options? How can we tell, scientifically, if something really works or not?

Quite excellent commentary by Ze Frank on waves

Gabriel — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 08:37:13 +0000

Excellent commentary by the ever awesome Ze Frank on the topic of “Waves”. You have to watch the video to get it. Are you a surfer or a floater or a castle builder?

Check it out: the show with zefrank

Thank You 2006.

Gabriel — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 05:32:54 +0000

2006 was a good year.

I’m grateful for the lessons I’ve learned this year. I’m grateful that I took the opportunity to jump full-time into custom web application development, quitting my day job at Vibe Solutions Group to pursue my goal of having ownership in the projects that I work on. Even though everything hasn’t yet worked out how I had envisioned, I feel that I’m much stronger in many key areas. I’ve seen a lot of successes so far and am looking forward to many more in 2007.

I’m grateful for all the dog walks I’ve gotten to take with Kuma at 2:00 am in the morning in Tower Grove Park. It’s a quiet time, usually there is nobody else in the park at that hour. I’m grateful that Collabofit is at a stage where I can use it to help motivate me each day to take my 2.2 mile walk, get outside, breathe some fresh air, and enjoy the magnificent resource that is Tower Grove Park.

I’m grateful that my wife Kristin finished a illustrating a new book — Shepherd, Show Me — for our church that finally puts pictures to the hymn that every child learns first – Shepherd, Show Me How To Go. I’m also grateful that she will be showing a major exhibition of her artwork at Northwest Coffee in Clayton, exhibiting her latest Mozart paintings that continue her Letters to Mozart series.

I’m grateful to have been able to attend my brother Andy’s wedding and to serve as his best man. It was an honor and a joy. It was also a pleasure to visit Andy and Val in Florida for Thanksgiving this year. Val did an excellent job of preparing the feast.

I’m grateful for the progress on our Kitchen Project and am looking forward to it being completed. It is turning out wonderful, bit by bit.

I’m grateful that we had the opportunity to visit our good friend Michael up in Alaska in March when he was still living there and do some cross crountry skiing, snow shoeing and freeze our noses off.

This was my most viewed picture in 2006 (from my Flickr Most Popular Pictures page).

These were the most visited entries on this site this year:

The #1 most commented entry on this site (written 2 years ago now) is this: Cool â€” I won the British Lottery! (no, you didn’t…)

To all our friends and family, thank you for your love, support, friendship and laughter.