Nice! That's very similar to something I want to do with my tablet and reader.
The two hobbies I picked up over the past year are leather working and 3D printing. Funnily enough, I was about two weeks into printing before I realized.... "hey - I can combine these."
Huh. I wonder if you're younger than my brother (he was born 1979). He definitely had to do some weird things to get out of Webelos.
I think any organization that gets kids outdoors, teaches them social skills, builds self-esteem, and promotes community involvement is one worth praising.
I was in Girl Scouts for years. And although as an adult I can criticize plenty of GS policies, the things you list were always the priority of the scouting experience.
My much younger brother was in Boy Scouts and comparatively, they were weird. It had this whole religious and quasi-military aspect that was off-putting. There were uniform inspections and drills at the monthly family events. And there were mandatory church/temple activities that were required to advance to the next stage. Although technically you could attend a church or event of your choosing - in practice we were the only Protestant family in our community so they just chucked him in with the Catholics. That was mixture of confusing and educational.
My experience gave me community service, camaraderie, and a deep dive on cookie selling strategies. I can still tie a mean bowline. My brother got some weird indoctrination and one fun memory of winning the pinewood derby. They didn't even do that much camping.
One thing I learned about meringue is that the slightest bit of fat will turn it into frosting.
Even a mixing bowl/whip that has been sitting in an open kitchen may have accumulated enough aerosolized cooking oil to effect the outcome. I've never failed after washing the utensils and then being scrupulous about broken yolks.
These are Chicago stations.
Big three networks in the lowest digits. Then 9 is WGN and 11 is PBS. The UHF wasteland is a mix of local (including 32, which was local before it became FOX). 50 and 66 were english language local, but Spanish stations kind of mixed things up in the '90s.
The One Grand Unified Force to Bind Them All.... no, it's a Star Wars joke.
In the US they were definitely out of fashion in the '80s and '90s. They were fashion statement that said "I'm a gross hippie" or worse, a BeeGee.
I was a teen at the time and the consensus among teen girls was that a beard was the ultimate dealbreaker of a physical attribute. Makes sense, really, because most guys our age couldn't grow a nice one if they wanted to. (And also - hippies are gross). I always respectfully disagreed, and would point to our classmate, Murad. He had pretty well grown facial hair by junior year and he looked fiiiinne.
The exception that proved the rule? Luckily (for Murad) my classmates generally agreed, but refused to back down from their opinion in general.
That attitude persisted, with the occasional appearance of a goatee or soul patch in the late '90s, both of which proved to be a gateway drug that led to the appearance of proper beards. I think a lot of guys would have liked to have beards, but realized that they were driving away potential partners. But they were pretty normal by 2010.
I'll drop this line from wikipedia, which should illustrate just how boringly mainstream beards have become in the US.
Since 2015 a growing number of male political figures have worn beards in office, including Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, and Senators Ted Cruz and Tom Cotton.
Damn hippies.
I saw that in a theater, with a guest appearance and Q&A with Crispin Glover afterwards. That was an evening.
That's an interesting but grim point. Ebola, for example, is both very deadly and very infectious, but that combination means that outbreaks tend to burn out before spreading widely. One of the early things that scared me about COVID in late 2019 was the rumors of "asymptomatic spreading" that were coming out of China.
That wasn't the only "oh shit" thing about COVID and the way things were handled early on, but it was a bad one.
It was like he was just poured into that vest.
Ah, made for the celebration of the feast of Oh Hell No.