Mín Englisc Blog

Tonight, we had a troop Court of Honor — an awards ceremony. Because of the transition the troop is going through, we had a radically different order of service from normal. Normally, we eat before the ceremony, have a flag ceremony, announce newly earned ranks and merit badges, and close. Tonight, we had to have boards of review to enable boys to advance (during dinner!), and our new Scoutmaster led us in sundry recognition segments. Despite only announcing rank advancements, everything took tons longer. Of course, we had seven boys advance, and three new boys joined the troop, bringing our membership to seventeen. For the first time in my memory, all of the members were present. What a great night!
Of course, we had some problems. The meal was supposed to start around 6:30, and the ceremony shortly after 7:00; however, because the church where we met didn't bother to remember us, it was nearly 7:00 before someone from the church was there to unlock the building. With that and all of the extra business, we didn't get home until after 10:00.

Tonight we learned the potential of deer+car. As we drove down to Bellefontaine around 5:45, we suddenly hit a deer about five miles from home. Damage was far less than in this photo I found online — we had the windshield ruined (although there aren't any holes), the left rearview mirror was snapped off, and the right doors and front panelling were dented. Still, we have much to be thankful for: nobody hurt; the car is operational (although a bent piece of metal nearly touches a tire); no severe damage; lots of people willing to help. One nearby resident brought us the mirror, which was left on the road where we hit the deer (we drove a little farther to get into a driveway). Someone else let us use her cellphone to call the police. Another resident let us use his phone to call our former Scoutmaster to ask him to come pick us up. And, of course, the Scoutmaster, since he did come and pick us up. Give thanks for everything!
As a result of the crash, we were rather delayed; Isaac missed a field trip with the Cub Scout pack he helps; my parents couldn't go shopping much; and I had to eat my supper in class. Tonight, also, was the last real class; Wednesday is a review period, and Monday is the final.
I forgot to mention: yes, I did receive my Life rank. Now, I have the famous Eagle Scout project before me.

Because Dad was officially on vacation this week, he didn't preach. When I was told that Dad wasn't preaching this week, I took it as a perfect opportunity: why not visit one of the Indiana churches?! However, my parents didn't like the idea of getting up at 6:00 for church, and they didn't want to stay elsewhere overnight. Therefore, we stayed at home and heard Mr. Bump preach. Why do all you people (except Second!) have to have worship before class?
After church, the Morton family from church came for lunch; they ended up staying until nearly 4:00. For sure, having them was a pleasure we would have missed in Indiana, but this way I still must wait until the Winter Conference to see people.

Ratings
1. Charity: 6
2. Anna: 6
3. Nathan: 4
4. Brian: 5
5. Becca: 5
6. David: 2
7. Katie: 1
8. Abby: 2
9. Rebekah: 2
10. Joseph: 1
11. Allen: Nothing since 21 October.
12. Grace: Nothing since 20 October.

The tarp protecting the hole in our roof came off last night. As a result, Isaac had to get up onto the roof to nail it back down again. Good thing we didn't get any rain!
Recently someone I read posted a topic I'd like to echo. She was saying most of her friends are guys, because so many girls she knows are idiots. How ironic for me — although my best few friends are guys, many or most of the guys I know make fools of themselves! Let's think: I have about seven good male friends: Aaron, Allen, Brian, Kevin Fulk, Luke, Stephen, Zachary. But besides that, I don't really know anyone too well, except for Nathan Hart, who seems to be quite sensible. On the other hand, I know lots of great girls. Just offhand, I think of Becca, Charity, Cindy Mangan, Grace Hanson, Jill, Katie Bussell, Laurie, Lydia! Meanwhile, many girls I don't know well at all seem decent, while I can't say the same about many guys I know.
I'm really eager to hear your opinions on this post. By all means, please leave your comments!

After several days in the hospital, Grandmother was finally released today. Of COURSE, the hospital was several hours late releasing her. Give thanks for this, and please pray for her continued recovery. She's probably going to have another round of chemo next week; pray for that too!
Tonight, I finished work on my Personal Fitness merit badge, which is Eagle-required. Now all I must do is set up a time for a meeting with the counsellor; I wanted to meet tomorrow morning, but she's busy. Next item on the menu: a Board of Review for Life Scout tomorrow. Six months ago tomorrow, I became a Star Scout; tomorrow, my minimum time is up. Theoretically, it's possible that six months from tomorrow, 27 May 2005, I can become an Eagle Scout. What a possibility!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today we're with Dad's family at Grandmother's condo down in Cincinnati. It just isn't like any previous Thanksgiving; in my dad's family, I have two grandparents, three aunts, three uncles, and four cousins. At today's meal there will be two aunts, two uncles, and one cousin. We hope to visit Grandmother at her hospital room later, and I'm sure we'll be visiting Grumps later. At least we can see my grandparents, but it's sad that both of them are in poor health and neither are living in their own home.

Dad and Mom were occupied a bit of the afternoon doing some roof work. A hole in the kitchen roof has developed, so they had to go up there in the driving rain to nail down a tarp. A pity we're just going into winter, as the roof must be replaced.
I was able to deliver most of my popcorn sales; I've only about a dozen places to go now out of over forty.
You should have heard the Cincinnati/Northern Iowa basketball game that just finished. UC trailed through the whole game; they were down by 18 with 11:00 left in the second half. At this point, they decided to get to work. Work they did — tying the game to go into overtime, controlling the first overtime, and winning in the second by six points. A whole bunch of people in Iowa surely are badly disappointed.

Tonight's troop meeting was rather different: instead of a normal meeting at the old Rushsylvania Church of Christ, we met for a swimming time at the Bellefontaine YMCA. Several boys passed swimming requirements, and everyone had a good time. One boy went in with no idea how to swim and came out able to swim fifty feet without touching the bottom.
I felt somewhat lazy today and didn't bother to go out delivering popcorn. Tomorrow, I might go out some, although there is supposed to be a bit of rain coming our way. I am, after all, already nearly half done delivering.
You should have seen the MAC football game between Bowling Green and Toledo; in the middle of the third quarter, BG was up 27-10, and Toledo was having to go on a 4th-and-9 from the BG 37. Right now, BG just scored, making Toledo's lead only eight points. What a turnaround!

Some fellow bloggers, their basketball minds clouded by their unfortunate Indianocentristic views, are beside themselves with anger over the Ron Artest situation. Two remedies can work for the problem:
(1) Think positive. Artest has a whole YEAR now to promote his rap album!
(2) Focus on what's really important. Let's cheer on the Bengals to crush Cleveland this week!
Dad was occupied all day down in Cincinnati, as Grandmother had a surgical procedure related to her cancer. Since I just got back from my college class, I've not yet had time to ask him about it.
Mr. Deardurff, a troop committee member, delivered all of our popcorn to us this afternoon. Consequently, I went on a delivery frenzy, knocking on doors and walking all over town. I ended up delivering about 12 packages, about $100 of the total. Tomorrow's goal: Finish more in Belle Center with preparation to work in Rushsylvania.

Dad preached this morning on the passage in Joshua where Jericho and Ai are destroyed. He mentioned the common sentiment, "What did Jericho think about Israel when they marched around the walls?" His answer was that Jericho was probably perplexed; I would propose that they considered it some absurd religious ceremony that could not possibly sway the gods. The seventh day's extra marching would be a closing ceremony designed to placate the gods, who were bored with the previous days' efforts. Of course, Jericho thought differently when the walls began to collapse!

1. Nathan: 3. Great idea on the storyline!
2. Anna: 4.
3. Charity: 3.
4. Katie: 3.
5. Abby: 2.
6. David: 2.
7. Rebekah: 1.
8. Joseph: 1.
9. Becca has not updated since 13 November.
10. Allen has not updated since 21 October. I'm going to stop covering him soon at this rate.
11. Grace has not updated since 20 October. I'm going to stop covering her soon at this rate.
Brian is exempt because a computer malfunction is blocking his blog.

Rejoice and be glad, for Ohio State has crushed Michigan!
Despite the Ohio State victory, Michigan still goes to the Rose Bowl — thanks to Iowa's defeat of (formerly) once-defeated Wisconsin. Had Wisconsin won, they would have gone to Pasadena; Michigan goes because they beat Iowa, who beat Wisconsin. Complicated?
The campout went decently; we had ten members and two visitors present. Due to scheduling (and this cold) I came home after lunch. We had some problems with discipline last night, but everything was fine this morning. Overall, the advancement work was pretty good. Our Scoutmaster has been urging as many of us as possible to advance in rank before the next award ceremony, on the 30th. Since the last one (in September), three of us, including Isaac, have advanced, and three or four more, including me, should be done. Two boys finished a lot of requirements, and another finished his work on the prestigious First Class rank. Give thanks for such a successful time!

Tonight our troop has a campout, despite the fact that it's raining right now — and despite the predicted heavy rain this afternoon. Isaac probably won't be able to go; although he feels okay right now, he woke up ill this morning. I probably wouldn't be going if I didn't need more nights camping. My parents and I just hope that the rain will lighten up earlier than predicted.

In parts of Iraq, heavy fighting continues despite our crushing victory in al-Fallujah. In al-Mawşil, Iraqi government forces have seized a hospital formerly used by rebels to treat their wounded. Although enemy leaders, such as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, have escaped, we've killed about 1,200 enemies and captured over 1,000 more.
Only 51 of our soldiers have died, and slightly more than 400 have been wounded. Dad told me earlier that he now expects media analysis just like 35-40 years ago: "Oh NO! We've lost FIFTY-ONE soldiers! And we're scattering our enemies all over the country so that they can fight everywhere! It's all America's fault!" And I've already heard an ABC story fulfilling some of Dad's prophecy.

Despite lingering problems, I'm getting over this cold, doing well enough that I should be able to go on a campout this weekend with the troop. Unfortunately, Isaac seems to be catching the same illness; he is now planning to stay home. We'll see if any of us go to my cousin's graduation party on Saturday.
Later today I should finish my paperwork for the Genealogy merit badge. I've finished work on my "pedigree charts", and I only need a couple more pieces of information: the middle name of my uncle's deceased wife, and the full name of his second wife. We call her Aunt Patty, but Patty can stand for so many different spellings I have no idea which is correct.
We finally got to take our midterms home last night. My final grade is somewhat lower than I expected; the instructor did not count the bonus points, but he says that he will count them later. I really don't see how he's going to do that, but we'll see.
During class, the instructor got off onto a really bad tangent. To the instructor, a diagram of Earth with commentary looked like a watermelon — which made him start talking about how different countries have different specialty foods. Then, he said that we should travel to experience different kinds of foods, and that made him announce that Thailand is a good place to go because it is so inexpensive (he spent a total of $300 in three weeks there!) and on and on. One classmate came in during the tangent while the instructor was talking about strawberries and honeydew melons. Not what he expected in a meteorology class!

Quote from elder Jon Hughes at Southfield:
"There are 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary and those who don't."

This cold definitely makes one cold and tired. Despite sleeping in sweatpants and sweatshirt, I was cold most of the night — a night punctuated with waking and semi-waking periods.
The Dow is way up today on big news: Sears and Kmart are merging to make the third-biggest US retailer. I wonder how this will affect sales at the other two, Walmart (1) and Target (2).
Today I should be working mostly on stamps and other stuff cluttering up my room. It's been in this semi-inaccessible condition ever since i rearranged everything early last week. Hopefully we can get supports for the bookshelves soon; much of the floor is covered with stacks of books.
Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle was defeated in his reëlection attempt this month. Yesterday, the Democrats in the Senate elected his replacement; their choice is Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada. Reid is supposedly a devout Mormon, although he supports allowing abortion. He's historically been a proponent of big spending and of environmental issues, although he has been supportive of mining interests (his father was a miner) and of gun rights. I just doubt that he will continue to support mining and gun rights in his new position.

Don't you just love colds? I seem to have developed one today; when I woke up, I felt fine, but my throat is aching now.
Today's work was mostly on genealogy. I've now finished tracing my ancestry with the information I have. Most of the morning was occupied by work on the family of George Copper, Sr., who lived in Kent County, Maryland, between 1668 and 1748. After a lot of investigation, I found that he is (probably) not related to the couple whom I thought to be his parents. I also discovered that the man I thought was his son actually never existed, and his statistics (dates, etc.) are a combination of stats from George's son (also named George!) and grandson. What confusion.

Dad was on the phone all night with a pastoral counselling matter. He had two phone calls — which would have been one except the cellphone on the other end cut out — that took over 90 minutes. It's times like this when I wish we had an always-on connection.
At class tonight, the instructor returned our midterms. My test got 86% — when I saw that, I was devastated. After looking at the answers, I understood, however. The sixty multiple-choice questions had been keyed into a computer-readable form with fifty answers on each side, and the instructor had forgotten to look at the ten answers on the back. Consequently, I had several correct answers counted wrong. This resulted in the instructor recalling all tests (since he had made the same mistake on all of the tests) for correction. He was supposed to have the results back on the 8th; now, they won't be "officially" back until the 17th.

Mr. Joseph preached at both services today, as was normal for a Communion week. Unlike normal, we had lunch and an afternoon service on the same week as Communion — for the first time in my memory. The Morton family, who have been coming for some months, officially became members this morning; Mr. Joseph finished preaching, they acknowledged the Covenant of Church Membership, and Dad immediately proceeded to the pre-table address.

1. Brian posted 6 times.
2. Nathan posted 5 times.
3. Charity posted 5 times.
4. Abby posted 5 times.
5. Becca posted 3 times.
6. Anna posted 4 times.
7. Katie posted 2 times.
8. Joseph posted 3 times.
9. David posted 2 times.
10. Rebekah posted 1 time.
11. Allen still hasn't posted since the 21st of October.
12. Grace still hasn't posted since the 20th of October.

Yesterday was extremely busy; you can see that simply because I didn't post! After getting out of bed around 10:00, I went to Bellefontaine for a few hours, and after that everything was preparation for Rev. Ralph Joseph's arrival. He and Dad got here from Lafayette around 5:00, and the preparatory service at church began at 6:30.
Perhaps I should explain why Mr. Joseph is here. Hundreds of years ago, the RP Church had almost no ministers. These few were not assigned to any congregation — instead, they were circuit riders, going from church to church. Each week, they would have a communion service at a different church. Since there were so few ministers, churches would have communion very infrequently. As well, the minister often would have another minister assist him, because there would be so many people at the service. There would often be one or more preparatory services on weekdays before the Communion Sabbath, and there might even be some afterwards. At any rate, Belle Center (being an old congregation) has continued the old traditions of rare communions and of having assistants when possible. An assisting minister (like Mr. Joseph) now does nothing more than preaching (which certainly does help Dad) for the weekend.
Mom and Isaac had to get up around 5:15 yesterday morning to go to Bellefontaine. Isaac and Matthew Bump were going to an 8:00 training session for Scouts between Xenia and Dayton — that's like going from downtown Indianapolis to Marion! As it happened, they were able to meet with others from Bellefontaine going to this session so Mom could come back, but still, Mom was extremely tired all day. They only got home around 5:50 PM; consequently, they went to church in uniform.

I'm happy that tomorrow I should (mostly) be able to relax after today. I slept overnight at Mr. Stoner's house (no rain, thankfully) and worked moving and chopping old floor-boards from a bridge, starting around 9:15. When I finished around 2:15, I went down the road to the house owned by Mrs. Rutherford (widow of a former elder here) to help; she, her daughter, and her son-in-law are here getting all the furniture and accessories ready, either to be sold at a garage sale tomorrow or to be U-Hauled back to Pennsylvania. After finishing that, I went home for a drink before going south again for a four-mile hike, part of a requirement for the Eagle-required Camping merit badge. And I had to run a mile when I returned from that!

See why I'm too tired to post more?

I'm about to leave for my former Scoutmaster's house to camp out overnight, despite the rain and cold. Fun fun. Really, I'm doing this because I need to do a conservation project on one night of camping, and I'll be working there some tomorrow.

My uncle just called, saying that Yasser Arafat is dead. Maybe, now, the State of Israel will be somewhat more secure.

Last night I had my Scoutmaster conference for Life Scout, the last rank before Eagle. I should reach Life Scout two weeks from this Saturday, November 27. This conference was special — it is the first I had with someone other than Mr. Stoner, and the only one I will have with Mr. Henline. Assuming that I get Eagle, I will only have one more Scoutmaster conference, and (according to regulations) it cannot be done with my own Scoutmaster.
How common is it to be doing LAWNMOWING this time of year? A man for whom I mow came over this afternoon, telling me that his yard needed my work soon, and (because of the weather) today was the only available time. Back at the end of SEPTEMBER he had told me it wouldn't need any more work! At least I get a little extra money.
Tonight at class I was given an easy assignment due back on Wednesday. Other than that, the class could have gone much better. The instructor was having computer problems that he had to fix during the lecture time, thus delaying our break and the end of the class for some minutes. He normally repeats his stuff too much, but tonight he was especially repetitious — enough that I had time to finish the assignment before the break!

So many people think that ministers have an easy job — just talking for an hour on Sunday mornings. Of course, we who live with ministers know that their jobs are much more than that. Ministers are subject to being awakened in the middle of the night for any reason, from a light on in the church building to a serious pastoral matter. (Both of these have happened to us!) Ministers should rely on God for support and perhaps take short vacations when they need them. However, these ministers have altogether the wrong idea.

In Paris, Yasser Arafat's condition is (according to Palestinian officials), worsening. I just wonder if he has died and the Palestinians and French are concealing his death.
For a while now, I've been planning to rearrange my bedroom. The general layout that I'd had for nearly six years was good; however, because I have tons of books, I needed to put up shelves on the walls — and I had no room for that. Although my parents were willing to help, they were unable to do so because of business; as a result, yesterday morning I decided to just do it myself. Although it took a while (mostly because I had to empty my bookshelf, move it, and refill it), most work was done by early afternoon. By this evening, I should have the room work finished except for actually putting up the new shelves.

Liberals across the fruited plain have attacked the Boy Scouts of America for years. They say that we should do like other youth organizations: let in homosexuals (Big Brothers/Big Sisters), promote "progressive" causes such as abortion (Girl Scouts USA), allow atheists in membership (various groups), include both boys and girls in membership (Camp Fire?), or have no uniform (Scouts Canada). Well, let's see what happens when a national Boy Scout organization does all of those things. Starting several years ago, Scouts Canada let in girls and prohibited all-male troops, let in homosexuals and allowed the formation of an all homosexual troop, allowed in atheists and agnostics, and ditched the uniform. (Historical background: In 1965, there were 320,000 Canadian Boy Scouts.) With 33% more people as then, and twice as many prospective members (due to girls being members), there are now just 130,000 Scouts in the organization, and numbers are falling fast. As the author of this piece says,

There are prices to be paid by the BSA for standing on traditional moral values, but none so severe as this eulogy of Scouts Canada. In America, United Way funding may be cut, cities and school districts may abandon the Scouts, courts may order the Scouts to leave public property. But so long as the Scout Oath and Law remain intact, the Boy Scouts of America can survive.

Goodbye, Scouts Canada. Political correctness is sure grand, eh?

In today's sermon Dad looked at the first five chapters of Joshua, from the death of Moses to the circumcision at Gilgal. Something I wonder: the river water piled up at a town called Adam; what did the Adamites think of the river that day?

1. Nathan: 6. He posted once per day except on Tuesday.
2. Anna: 6. She posted once per day (except for Monday), and included one poll and one picture.
3. Brian: 7. He posted every day of the week except for Tuesday but posted twice on Monday.
4. Katie: 5. She posted once on Monday and Saturday, and the rest (including a poll) were on Thursday.
5. Charity: 2. She posted on Monday and Saturday.
6. Abby: 3. She posted once on Tuesday and twice on Saturday.
7. Joseph: 4. He posted once on Wednesday and Thursday and twice on Saturday.
8. Rebekah: 2. She hasn't posted since last weekend, except once on Friday.
9. David: 2. He hasn't posted since last weekend, except once on Wednesday.
10. Becca: 1. She posted on Thursday.
11. Allen: 0. He hasn't posted since 21 October.
12. Grace: 0. She hasn't posted since 20 October.

Besides more swimming, my main business today was hiking. Isaac and I went on a five-mile hike with a couple of the new boys in the Scout troop. Besides the requirement to go on such a hike, they passed other requirements. Among other things, they (as well as a third boy) learned proper use of a compass through an orienteering course. The nearby cemetery provided a great site for such a course — lots of easily identifiable landmarks!
A minor problem occurred while we were setting up the course; besides understanding and demonstrating use of compass, the requirement demands that the Scout demonstrate how to measure distance where he cannot go. I decided to use the road for this, and while I was measuring its width, a car approached. Since I wanted to get the metal tape measure clear, I wound it up so fast that it sliced open my left index finger. Good thing that Isaac had brought a first-aid kit!

Overall, we had an encouraging time in Cincinnati today. My grandfather was doing rather well when we saw him (although he grew tired fast), and my grandmother should be out of the rehab area soon and back into her independent-living cottage.

Early tomorrow morning we leave here for the day; Mom needs to see the dentist for a follow-up from last week's visit (don't worry, the dentist didn't find anything bad), and then we're headed down to Cincinnati for the day.
Who is going to be the Senate Minority Leader? With Tom Daschle out of the Senate altogether, we're likely to see a struggle for power. Maybe the Minority Whip will be taking the job; what's his/her name? But that would leave an opening for Whip. I guess strife among the Democrats isn't too much of a bad thing.
Tonight we had our annual homeschool group Soup-and-Bread-Supper. As normal, after supper I ended up reading the newspaper, listening to my parents' (almost non-existent) conversation. Why don't some of you Indiana people, whom I know so well, come out here?

Kerry has now finished his concession speech at Boston's Fanueil Hall. We should hear from the President soon — most likely in about half an hour.

Fox News is now reporting that Kerry has called President Bush — to CONCEDE!

Bush has gotten 249 confirmed electoral votes, not including Ohio's 20 votes. Here, with 100% of precincts reporting, Bush is winning by 136,221 votes — a lead of about 2.4866%. However, Kerry, refusing to lose, looks to begin Florida-style litigation soon. Many of the delays were due to slow precinct reporting in Hamilton County, site of Cincinnati. THANK YOU MIKE ALLEN!!!
Meanwhile, four other states are yet uncalled by Fox News:
Iowa (7 votes): Bush 741,325, Kerry 725,700 with 100% of precincts reporting
New Mexico (5 votes): Bush 335,311, Kerry 323,691 with 99% of precincts reporting
Nevada (5 votes): Bush 388,963, Kerry 368,458 with 100% of precincts reporting
Wisconsin (10 votes): Bush 1,466,963, Kerry 1,480,256 with 99% of precincts reporting

Andrew Card, the White House chief of staff, is calling for Bush to receive 286 votes overall. Given Bush leads in Ohio, Iowa, New Mexico, and Nevada, that should be the final tally: 286-252.
If Bush, somehow, would win Ohio but lose all of the other four, he still would probably win, despite tying with Kerry. The Constitution states that, if no candidate receive a majority of votes, the race shall be decided by the House of Representatives. The representatives from each state would form a bloc and vote for president among themselves; the majority of the votes would give that decision to the state's representation. Each state would have just one vote, and a majority of states would decide the election. In other words, Bush should win; Republicans have a majority of representatives in at least 26 states, while Democrats have just 14.

As I type, it looks like Bush is going to be reëlected. He's projected to have 266 of the necessary 270 votes; Alaska's 3 votes are a given for Bush, and some other state most likely will go to him too.

Tonight was the midterm for the class I'm taking at OSU. Overall, it seemed rather easy; there were only a couple of the 60 multiple-choice of which I was unsure, the four essays were not difficult, and I believe that I got all four of the bonus questions. One of them was rather different: instead of asking for something relating to meterology, it stated, "What is the full name of your instructor?"

This morning I received something in the mail I ordered almost three months ago: a somewhat poorer quality copy of the stamp you see above. When it was issued in 1892, the face value equalled over $100 in today's money. I got it for a really good deal (¼ of catalogue value) and am very pleased with it.