The book and Rosegarden itself are what I've been doing since I wandered off a bit back. I haven't really done anything creative or interesting in my shop since the Pinewood Derby. It was dismal, dank and rainy for a long time, and then it got --> HOT
Damn Silvan - have I been asleep or has it been a while since you've posted?
As to the Scouts, I can relate to your son's experiences. Scouts are a cross-section of the rest of male society. There are bullies, intellectuals, jocks, geeks, geniuses, rocks for brains and everything in between - and the Scout Masters are the very same. It's a shame that the adults weren't more attentive to the situation - is there another troop in your area that might be more welcoming?
I had a sour experience with Scouts when I moved from one state to another and tried joining a new troop. I guess it was sort of a hazing to see if you passed their muster but I didn't like it or feel welcome in the least. I find it sad that these goings on are still present some
30 years after my experience.On the flip side, my nephew has been in Scouts for several years now and he's a very thin and unassuming kid - will probably make Eagle in a couple years. I guess it's not so much the fault of the boys in your son's troop - they'll get away with what they can - it's the failing of the Scout Master.
Quick, before the US version is up, too, GIVE THEM A REVIEW AND MORE INFO. You're going to have a lot of angry little old Mums breaking down your door with "Where are the roses?" questions, son.
I touched a brake drum in a junk yard Phoenix one summer afternoon and learned my lesson but good. Steel and heat get along too well for even a calloused hand to be comfy.
I stopped after the Cub scouts but did buy some of the BS projects and build them. My favorite was the self-propelled rocket ship (rubber band/propeller/balsa wood model on a 100' wire between trees.)
BTDT, finally stood up to the bully, Rex, on the football/track field. He was 8" taller and had a good 50 lbs on me. I was a couple inches shorter than most of the guys in my PE class and yelled, in my loudest voice, "OK, if you want to hit me, hit me." and then put my arms down to my side and left them there. The entire school watched as he backed down and he never pushed me around again. Rex Ashlock is a name I won't soon forget. It sure felt good to stand up to him and NOT get hammered.
--snip--
Works for me, too!
Ah, sounds like my old homestead in LoCal. Don't miss it a bit. (Well, I do miss the bevy of beauties in bikinis and the SD Wild Animal Park, but that's about it.)
You shall surely suck when you do that, but I hear no howling winds at your door just yet, Silvie. Welcome back, BTW.
Twenty some odd Samoleans? Pass.
What? Dave's not here, man. --Cheech
- Ever wonder what the speed of lightning would be if it didn't zigzag? -
...er, woodworking?
Didn't look at the book, but congratulations. I know what a thrill it was when my wife got published.
Really sad about your son's scouting experience. (I am heading off to Scout camp in about an hour.) My son's troup is run entirely by the older boys and they are great working with the little guys. The boys with the wrong spirit simply drop out. Maybe if you looked around you could find one like that?
Oh, about bullies... My cousin was really short and got picked on, until he broke someone's leg with a kick.
Silvan wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@adelphia.com:
Just wondering who's poorer - an author or a drummer... :)
Speaking of which - I lost track. Did everything heal OK on the Mrs.?
Silvan wrote: snip
Remember we were having adelphia problems and then they started working again so I was sending to the addy you sent from, I'll see if I have the other one and resend to that.
Dave in Fairfax
Victor Lippy.
Cheese'n'rice, with a name like that I guess I can muster some sympathy for the guy - but still...
I left the Sea Scouts something like 51 or 52 years ago because of the hazing. Four or five years later, I was at Parris Island learning what concentrated and deliberate hazing was all about.
Semper fi.
Kids live through it, some are better for it, most are not unless it has a really tight aim, as at PI.
I did that five minutes after I saw the book was up, but it ain't there yet.
Oh yeah, that too, that too.
George Jackson. BTDT.
I never did get hammered either, and after that I just walked around daring people to start something. Nobody ever did. Amazing.
But I've given this lecture 10,000 times, and my son isn't ready to apprehend its underlying meaning yet.
I can imagine. I went to some take-your-dog-to-the-pool-for-charity thing not too long ago. I should go to the pool more often. Usually you have to pay a $10 cover charge to see that much jiggling flesh, and the pool is only $5. :D
(I'm not actually serious though. I guess I'm getting old, or resigned to my fate to go around with PROPERTY OF SWMBO: DO NOT TOUCH stamped on my forehead forever. Something. :)
No no howling winds or even a faint stirring of air yet. I'm thinking steel for the easy up as much as anything else. They built a modular steel building across the street, something like 75,000 sq. ft. and 20' tall, and one guy did 95% of the erection work by himself, just him and a forklift. I thought "yeah, I could do that." Plus of course there ain't a bug yet that eats steel. Not yet anyway.
Or you could just send me two bucks and it's all the same to me. :) The author biz sucks as a get rich quick scheme. Evvvvvrybody's got a hand out.
Thanks.
Good question. I'm told I'll be very lucky to sell more copies than my advance on something this obscure and niche-oriented, so let's see...
1,300 hours over 2.5 years (easy), compared to my advance...Unless I sell more than 500 copies, I will have worked for $0.32 an hour.
I'm betting drumming pays at least double that. :)
Yup, everything but the hole in my wallet, which is still hemorrhaging.
I co-authored a book 10-15 years ago that sold around 2500 copies IIRC. We never did cover the $1,500 advance we each got. Ultimately I think we figured we worked for around ten or twelve cents an hour. There were literally thousands of hours just in the editorial review cycles *after* the original authoring was finished.
I was one of those for pay for a couple weekends many decades ago - we got paid in beer.
-- "We need to make a sacrifice to the gods, find me a young virgin... oh, and bring something to kill"
Tim Douglass
| :) The author biz sucks as a get rich quick scheme.
No surprises there.
I missed the original post. What have you written? Something lighter than "C Unleashed", I hope...
-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA
Congrats on the book.
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... snip
Get him involved in karate classes -- not so that he will go out and kick some bully in the family jewels (good instructors are *very* good at making sure that message is neither sent nor condoned), but to give him the self confidence to know that he *can* do so and thus will not be intimidated by those menaces.
... good luck with the shop, just be careful so it doesn't come down on top of you. We like hearing from you occasionally -- would ruin our day if we found out you had been crushed by a termite-riddled shop. :-(
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
consider offering him lessons in one of the peaceful warrior type martial arts. the headspace is great, and when the time does come, he's likely to be the one who comes out on top.
welcome back, Sylvan.
I'll second this suggestion. When I outgrew the Webelos, I wasn't too impressed with the local Boy Scout troop, so I conveniently "forgot" to sign up. But my mother somehow had the idea that the Boy Scouts were a Good Thing, and she got me into another (smaller) troop, and it was a very different experience.
I think it helped a lot that they were in a different school district, so I didn't see the same guys every day at school. And they had a good scoutmaster, which helps a lot-- a few years later when his son graduated, they had a hard time replacing him and the troop gradually fell apart, but it was good while it lasted.
OTOH almost any other activity with good adult leadership (role models) might be an adequate substitute. For me the main thing about the Boy Scouts was the chance to go camping every month, which was an opportunity I wouldn't have had otherwise. I was never much interested in things like merit badges (YMMV).
You can try another troop, if there's one around. Also, I don't mean to come across as totally rude, but if you are driving him across town to go to the meeting (as you said), why not stay for the hour meeting and keep a watch on things? I have no problem yelling at other peoples' little bastards when they misbehave.
Of course, I guess by now, your kid has no interest in Scouts.
Yeah, it's a lot of work, innit?
Well, call it $1 per bottle for decent beer (easy) one beer per hour for
1300 hours (easy) and they'd be spending a lot more to pay me in beer. :)
Yeah, I'm trying to do just that, actually. Funny you should mention that. :)
The roof ain't gonna fall in. Everything above maybe 4" above ground is in surprisingly good shape.
One thing I forgot on this... This is a "good" troop. Really highly acclaimed and stuff, with money and resources up the wazoo, and lots of happy people who are all on the same page together and stuff.
My son just didn't fit in with them.
I decided to pull the plug on the whole thing though. Scouting was my thing more than his, and he'd rather hand out and trade Pokemon cards with his girlfriend.
Hey, at least he ain't gay. He's spending a lot of time with her, going on stuff you could even call dates. They get along great. Maybe he'd just rather hang out with a chick than a bunch of guys. Ain't nothin' wrong with that. I'd rather hang out with a chick too. :D
Exactly. I'm going to send him on some adventure camp stuff instead. It's all good.
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