u/SilverTripod

1. This would make it easier for Scouts to find and/or know about qualified counselors in the area because they'd see people wearing those merit badges on their adult shirt.
2. Adults would start looking to wear the most unusual/fun/rare badges, meaning the "small" merit badges like Composite Materials, American Labor, Gardening, etc., would have as many counselors as First Aid, Personal Fitness, etc.
3. Scouting America would sell a metric ton more merit badge patches overall, bringing in more money to the org.

Edit: Whoops, I meant their left-front, but right-front works too.

Are there any apps or websites for hex planning? Planning out how something will look on a hexagonal board (where each row is offset from the previous row by 1/2)?

Specialized experience: must have amazing tax and legal experience.

Also, you must be at least 18 and have:

• Graduated from high school or been awarded a certificate equivalent to graduating from high school; or
• Completed a formal vocational training program; or
• Received a statement from school authorities agreeing with your preference for employment rather than continuing your education

Really? That's the bar now? GS 15 with amazing tax and legal experience and the bar to be cleared is probably having graduated high school?

I've been thinking about the difficulty of new hymns and although some of the new songs are more difficult than others, a lot of the hymns we're familiar with are also difficult. For instance, we all sing one of the songs about Jesus from the center of the hymnbook for the sacrament, right? Here are some songs I've seen organists and choristers struggle with and are difficult to pick up, and I know every ward and branch regularly sings these:

• 182 We’ll Sing All Hail to Jesus’ Name - basically has mini glissandos

• 183 In Remembrance of Thy Suffering - has triplets

• 185 Reverently and Meekly Now - basically has mini glissandos

• 187 God Loved Us, So He Sent His Son - has fermatas

And then there are much-loved songs like 30 Come, Come, Ye Saints that change time signatures multiple times in the song. And there are other regular songs even more difficult, which I won't list because some wards never sing them.

I agree the minor-key songs in the new hymnbook are not my favorite but there are some difficult songs in the current hymnbook that none of us bat an eye at, because we're familiar with them.

With the new hymnbook, I think it helps me build more empathy for new converts who are trying to learn new songs on top of everything else.

I think people could have a lot of fun if there actually was a tabletop gaming merit badge.

1. Explain the first aid parts which pertain to tabletop gaming, particularly how to deal with small injuries caused by stepping on a d4.

2. LNT. Trash your trash, don't make the game/dungeon master pick up after you, etc.

3. Explain the schism which led to Pathfinder from D&D and how the OGL factors in.

4. Explain how copyright and patent law allows authors to copyright specific words but explicitly doesn't cover game mechanics and why the original OGL actually gave away everything WotC couldn't copyright or patent in return for free advertising and other more restrictive rules while still protecting and locking up everything that could be copyrighted like Mordenkainen and beholders, but nobody wants to upset the cart and test that for real because Hasbro has wicked-sharp Lawful Evil lawyers.

5. Explain the difference between tabletop role-playing games and LARPing and why most tabletop groups do not dress up for their games. Even though LARPing is awesome and it's fun to see videos of them being combined.

6. Explain the math behind why 2d6 is different from 1d10+2. Which would be better, a Shadowrun orc with Bod 6 and edged weapons 6 or a D&D 6th edition orc with Strength 20 who is a sixth level barbarian?

7. Explain what min maxing is and why only noobs don't focus on crunch.

8. Explain what role-playing is as to roll-playing and why only jerks don't also embrace fluff.

9. Play at least six sessions, of more than 1 hour each, playing the same character.

https://www.scouting.org/skills/merit-badges/digital-resource-guides/competitive-gaming/

Yes, it's a potato-based dish. But what kind?

I saw another person saying funeral potatoes are hash brown casseroles. I would say funeral potatoes is an au gratin potato casserole. Hash brown casserole is made from layered hash browns, while funeral potatoes is layered potato rounds.

But what is it to you?

Edit: I suppose next we need to chat about hash browns. Diced or shredded fried potatoes can be hash browns but they're definitely not the same thing as hash brown patties sold in the supermarket, and I've seen so-called funeral potatoes made both ways. I suppose, in the end, we can all agree only "my" version is the real version (whatever your version is to you).

Asking for a friend. Friend is in an enviable position and needs to burn a couple months of vacation. He saw one of those "meaningful family vacation" ads and we were then chatting about how it's too bad there's not a family mission option of some type.

Just to confirm, there isn't one, right?

It tells me:

> The online map could not be loaded.

> A temporary service disruption caused an error when fetching parameters from Tableau. Try again later.

I didn't even know Tableau maps could be down. I thought the basic map was included in the massive download. Is the problem me somehow or is it really down?

Should popcorn colonels get a promotion after a few years or when they move up to volunteer for the district or whatever? Would there be any negative consequences of making them a Popcorn Colonelista with big cardboard epaulets with gold fringe?

Cool or cringe?

For the semiquincentennial, why not biquincentennial? Bi has two meanings, so it wouldn't be "every two-500 years or one thousand years" it could also mean "twice every 500 years." Semi just seems less precise. Like 300 years would still be a semiquincentennial, right?

I just received an email asking for my opinion on recent Cub Scout adventure updates. What in the world are they asking about?

> The Cub Scout Adventures were updated recently, and we want to know your thoughts about the program! What did you like and what do we need to improve?

Are they talking about 2024, two years ago? That doesn't really feel recent to me.

But maybe there are more recent updates? Has something changed more recently? Do I need to go back and redo the calendar I already started putting together for this next year?

30 days and 8 weeks are static. A week is 7 days after all.

Six months and then six months is a solid year.

But the four months of a First Class leadership requirement to get to Star is flexible. The best time to start is the morning of January 1, February 1, or November 1 because they take 120 days, the shortest time to get through four consecutive months. But even the longest time is only 123 days.

The shortest time that meshes with a regular school year starts August 4, to hit that November 1 date, which gives a total of 573 days, or roughly 1.5 years or 18 months.

Usually, when they are speaking to a specific audience then they say that it's for specific audience. Like they're speaking to the youth, or they're speaking to the women or men of the church, etc. But there was no such disclaimer, so it seems like they are addressing everyone. Not just people in the United States of America, but all members of our religion, and everyone everywhere in the world.

The Declaration of Independence states an inalienable right granted by the Creator is the right to the pursuit of happiness. This was explicitly equated to the path of happiness, namely the gospel. We then heard that the Constitution will really only work when it is applied to religious people.

It seems like the end result of that chain of logic is that the Constitution doesn't really apply to non-religious people and that people only really have the inalienable right to seek to live the gospel.

So we could, in essence, say the church supports religious law? The church would be just fine with say making tithing an official law or banning all coffee? And possibly that members in other countries should also advocate for those things? Because I didn't hear anything which would contradict that.