SydLexia.com - The Forums :: View topic

Posted: Jan 02 2011 10:28 pm

Did anyone here do scouting as a kid? What a complete fucking waste of time. I wish had all the hours I wasted as a Boy Scout back so I could do something constructive with them, like beat more video games. Or stare at a fucking wall. Staring at a wall would have been a better use of my time than Boy Scouts.

Posted: Jan 02 2011 10:32 pm

I did the really little kid stuff (Cub Scouting I think), and I think a lot of the stuff that you do as a younger kid was a waste of time, but if you stick with it all the way through and get your Eagle Award or Rank or whatever it is, then that can actually help you get into colleges and stuff. So if you don't consider that aspect of it, then it probably is just a waste of precious video game time.

Posted: Jan 02 2011 10:50 pm

There was some study done, an unusually high number of Eagle Scouts grow up to be sociopaths.

I was in a scout troop that was basically an Eagle Scout factory. The adults basically did all the work for the kids so that they could keep the recruitment numbers up. Then, that Scoutmaster and his cronies all retired, and the adults who took over couldn't tell their hands from their asses. They were completely unhelpful and had no idea what they were doing. I was a Life Scout (the second highest rank) by age 15, and in 3 years, I never made Eagle because there was no peer structure in place to help to plan an Eagle Project. Also, once I got past freshman year of high school, I found better things to do with my time. Specifically, GoldenEye, Mario Kart 64, and Mortal Kombat 4.

Joined: May 22 2008 Location: Goshen, VA Posts: 6544

I did Cub Scouts and Webelos, which I suppose is the "in between" right before Boy Scouts.

On the first day that we actually became Boy Scouts and realized we had a different leader guy than we were used to who was a dick and smelled like old grilled cheese sandwiches, me and 4 of our best friends all quit and played Super Nintendo for the remainder of the year. Fuck Boy Scouts.

Posted: Jan 02 2011 10:52 pm

i ate a boy scout once.

Posted: Jan 02 2011 10:54 pm

My dad and uncles painted this picture of how great scouting was when they were kids. Coupled with the pamphlet I got in 2nd grade, I was so pumped to join. Then it turned out to be a giant arts and crafts meeting. I quit to play little league, which was equally as big a waste of time because your playing time was determined by how much candy you sold during the numerous fundraisers for the park.

Posted: Jan 02 2011 10:54 pm

My brother was a Boy Scout for a time. He says "Ew" about it. According to him, all of the kids are white and nerdy and the scoutmasters are overbearing.

Posted: Jan 02 2011 10:57 pm

Cub Scouts was fun. I actually won the Pinewood Derby in my age bracket one year. It was really funny too, because one of the kids I beat would win every fucking year because his dad was like an architect or some shit like that, so they'd always build some super aerodynamic car. The year I beat him, I just drew some random curvy shape into the wooden block and made my dad cut it with the table saw. And then I spray painted it neon green, attached the lead weight to the bottom, and put flame stickers on it. And somehow it worked. We literally spent like 15 minutes on it. I like to imagine that kid and his dad sitting in their basement with like 10 sets of blueprints, 20 derby kits, and a test track... and they probably actually did that. They were pricks like that. And I beat them. It was awesome.

Posted: Jan 02 2011 11:06 pm

Like eight of my friends from school and I all signed up and went all the way through to Eagle. It probably would've sucked for any of us individually but we were already friends anyway, so it was basically getting credit for hanging out and occasionally getting together and going camping, which kinda rocked.

I built a canoe out of a giant log!

Posted: Jan 02 2011 11:08 pm

I remember when I was young I was forced by my mother to participate in Royal Rangers, a Christian derivative of the Boy Scouts. Last year at MAGFest, I was at one of the concerts and saw a dude with the Royal Rangers insignia tattooed on his shoulder. I'm sure that's some kind of mixed message.

Posted: Jan 02 2011 11:16 pm

Never did cub scouts thank god, judging by all these stories this was a complete waste of time and some scoutmasters were possibly homosexual. Must investigate further

Posted: Jan 02 2011 11:31 pm

Syd Lexia wrote:

There was some study done, an unusually high number of Eagle Scouts grow up to be sociopaths.

I'd say that that's due to the type of kid's the Scouts draw (at least when they are young): the parents who think their kids need the structured time of the Boy Scouts and don't want to provide it themselves. And I think there's something like 15 Eagle Scouts in my high school that has 160 something guys in it, and as far as I know they all think it was worth it. It was just unfortunate that what happened in your troop prevented you from getting an Eagle.

Banned Joined: Sep 13 2008 Posts: 3129

Heh I got a renewal application for boy scouts today.
sad thing is I don't remember what rank I am

Posted: Jan 03 2011 01:00 am

I was never a boy scout, but I ate a brownie once.

Posted: Jan 03 2011 01:07 am

I was in Cub Scouts from Bobcat to Weblo grade 2 or whatever the fuck it was then Boy Scouts until Life Scout I think. I got sick of it once I realized that there were way cooler things to be doing as a teenage delinquent, which I guess is kind of counter to the whole point of scouting... Also my dad was Cub Master of the pack I was in most of my Cub Scout career which was pretty terrible.

Posted: Jan 03 2011 01:14 am

Knyte wrote:

I was never a boy scout, but I ate a brownie once.

Thats interesting. I'am dying to hear more about you and that brownie.

Title: The Self-Titler Joined: Aug 14 2010 Posts: 598

I used to be a Boy Scout, but got kicked out for eating a Brownie.

EDIT: Damn you Knyte.

Joined: Oct 01 2009 Posts: 5316

I was in Cub Scouts, but unfortunately I joined a year and a half late, so I neither got my Bear or my Wolf.

Honest to God, I was mostly in it more to get the fucking badges than anything. I was always pissed that I never got the Wolf or Bear, but had the Bobcat and Weeblo. Also the little three colored thing on your right arm that had the little badges, that was awesome.

Overall, I didn't really mind Scouts too much the first year since all my friends were in it. Nevermind, that my Den Mother was a complete a total cunt and probably one of the most evil bitches I've ever met It was because of her that our troop, which considered of about 11 people, only ended up with 4 people by the "crossing over".

Speaking of crossing over, I didn't want to fucking do it. Boy Scouts was pretty gay to be in if you were in middle school and I didn't want to do it. But I wanted that Arrow of Light, because it was a badge...and I had to have that badge! So I did all the unnecessary shit to get it, only to find out I literally had to get on stage and "cross over" to the Boy Scouts to get it.

Fuck that.

Posted: Jan 03 2011 03:30 am

Hah, funny story Dodd.

Never did Boy Scouts.

Posted: Jan 03 2011 03:56 am

Without the boy scouts you would have missed out on valuable lessons like this!

Posted: Jan 03 2011 04:25 am

Me and quite a few of my buds are Eagle Scouts. Although our parents helped us, we had to work hard to get our badges and such, and we went on some pretty solid campouts. It's been years since I've been involved with scouting but apparently my old troop is now made up of whiny kids and their super-protective parents. So, I guess me and my friends got the last glory.

There's definitely some negative stigma associated with the Boy Scouts. Is it for everyone? Probably not, but overall I think there are some good values that can be learned from scouting.

Syd, when I was a Cub Scout, somehow I completely won our local Pine Derby race two years in a row, and we barely spent any time on our model - especially compared to some other kids' models, which, as you said, looked like some major time was spent on them. I used the exact same structure with the same weight placement on my third and final entry and I didn't even get close!

At any rate, I'm not looking forward to becoming a sociopath.

Posted: Jan 03 2011 04:35 am

Preng wrote:

There's definitely some negative stigma associated with the Boy Scouts. Is it for everyone? Probably not, but overall I think there are some good values that can be learned from scouting.

Now that I'm done referencing the Simpsons I have to second this, I never partook in the scouts, but IMO what Preng said.

Joined: Oct 01 2009 Posts: 5316

I also won the Pine Wood Derby. I took the block of wood and added the wheels and that's about it. The weight of the block alone guaranteed win after win, despite other people spending weeks on their designs. I put mine together on my way to the tournament.

Joined: Jun 08 2010 Location: Termina Field Posts: 1541

I never have done it. Doesn't sound good. Also, I don't think I am the kind of person who would be interested in it.

Posted: Jan 03 2011 08:07 am

I got stuck on Webelos because of that motherfucking pinewood derby. For some reason in my troop or whatever they were called, you had to win the pinewood derby in order to advance to Boy Scouts. I hated that stupid ass derby so as soon as I heard of that requirement, I walked out of the Cub Scouts and never looked back.