May 18, 2022:
Well, that was a little bit of an excitement. Best I could see was that nothing was working properly. Looks like I've fixed it all, though. Now comes the
tedious part: checking each and every link on the site to see if I actually fixed it all.
May 15, 2022:
Wow. Looks like it's been a long time since I updated this page.
I've run into some "host upgraded software" issues that seem to have caused most of my sites to respond with error messages. This is the time of the year when
a lot of 'summer slow down' occurs, so the lower traffic didn't bother me. Until I was looking for something specific and got all of these strange error messages.
I started looking more closely and the upgraded software (Cpanel) and the way I coded the sites weren't compatible anymore, so a lot of errors showed (Mainly 404). I'm
aware of them and I'm now reviewing everything to see everything is working. I will say that not all of the sites were affected so the whole thing
sorta got buried in normality. Awesome tech support from my host. I'm super pleased they knew what the issues were.
June 20, 2020:
Just did my semi-annual updating of this page. Nothing major in terms of changes, but I added some details here and there and did some reno
on some of the paragraphs.
December 30, 2020:
Haven't been doing a lot of 'real' scouting lately. Well, other than Zoom calls which are not in my 'like zone'.
December has been a busy month for me otherwise. My host made changes to my server's operating system which took all of my sites down and it took me a while to
correct it. Which I have mostly done. The big difference is that the file extensions of .html are now .php. So for you techies out there, you'll
know what it means. Non-techies: the pages are processed differently. The results? Basically, exactly the same. :)
While I was doing these changes, I added a limitation to the number of requests that can be made to the site during a single day. If you exceed this
limitation, the site will tell you that and suggest you come back tomorrow. I think I've set the limitation high enough that the 'normal' scouter
doing a search won't exceed it.
However, those of you who use some sort of automated process to drain the entire site onto your personal computer so you can browse it at your
convenience because you are so special, will no longer be able to do so. Once you've reached the limit, the other 58,000-odd requests that you make
will get an error message. Yes, there are more who do this than you think.
While I think of it, there are generally two advertising banners on every page. Google looks after all of this for me in exchange for a few pennies
every time someone clicks on them. I do not control the advertising. I just provide the space and trust Google to put revelent advertising there
for you. Surprisingly, Google is now paying me enough for me to buy a six-pack of Diet Pepsi and a large three topping pizza on a regular monthly
basis. :) (Hey. It's food. I've eaten a rookie scout made supper. Pizza is gourmet compared to that.)
Good Scouting to you. Thanks for reading.
Retired Scouter
=======================================================
I don't do a lot of fine print any more, mainly because even with my reading glasses, I'm having trouble reading small fonts.
So here are my disclaimer points:
1) I am an active Scouter at the Boy Scout level. I have been retired for a number of years. I did not train with BP, I may be retired, but I'm not that old.
2) This site is a personal site where I'm currently storing all of my accumulated 'stuff' that may be of some use to other
Scouters. This site is not connected to nor is it supported by any 'official' Scouting Organization. This site does not speak for any 'official'
Scouting Organization. This site (and myself) does not and will not interpret policy for any 'official' Scouting Organization.
3) Opinions expressed here are solely those of the Retired Scouter (me). If you don't like the current opinion you can contact me for others, I have plenty.
More importantly, because I'm retired, I have the time to tell them to you.
4) Information that is downloaded from this site may be used in your program or re-published without asking my permission, I probably glommed it off of somebody
else anyways.
5) If you want to copy text from this site, I'd recommend:
a) highlight the text you want to copy, and
b) press ctrl-c.
c) go to your word processor.
d) press ctrl- v.
(An acknowledgement of where you got the info is nice, but not required. Take what you want, but don't use a site sucker or some other software
that will p*** me off.) (Actually, see my comment on the main index page, very bottom.)
6) If you're going re-publish somebody else's information that isn't from this site, you should ask for their permission first.
7) Important: Some links/files may not reflect the current scouting programming in your local area.
8) Camp coffee is an art and very few of us know how to prepare it properly, and no, I won't share.
9) Please note that I have obtained a large number of really good files and ideas from the Internet Archive. Also known as archive.org. Also known in
some circles as The Wayback Machine. Surprisingly, a lot of scouting units have this urge to put all kinds of scouting information on their
websites, or spend a lot of time doing research. Stuff like that. Then for some reason, they don't renew the domain name, obviously for some basic reason.
So the domain is either snapped up by traffic accumulators or just
'dies'. If the Archive has visited their site, it will generally have
copies of mostly everything on the dead website, first level, for sure, second level, maybe. Third level is really, really iffy.
If the domain is lapsed (this part is important to me) and if the information is 'useful', I'll copy the
information to retiredscouter.com under the premise that the information was originally put there to share with other scouters and I'm just continuing
that sharing. You can refer to #4 above. I originally started this project as busy work (beats sitting around at the Old People's Day Center), and if you'll take the time to look at the page numbers, all (or
most) of them begin with 'wb' which at one time stood for 'WayBack'. I absolutely, positively DO NOT use any information from any active websites.
However, even though I avoid active websites, especially files and stuff like that, other dead sites may not have worried about that, and copied what they wanted
and put it on their site. I am fairly sensitive to copyright, and if there is a specific file that I have that should be removed, email me at the address below.
I have so much stuff accumulated I figure that it should take me 'forever' to sort it all.
10) I am aware that some of the files that I have contain 'words' or 'word combinations' that are not quite acceptable these days. I'm also aware that I
didn't update those files to current 'standards'. No, I'm not going to update them. The information that I have spans (mumble, mumble) decades and
it was current at the time it was first issued. I also acknowledge that I am avoiding certain topics, but I'll leave that for you to figure out. I'm also aware that
scouting is no longer just for males, and I'm slowly making the site gender neutral.
And if you're remotely interested, yes, I ran a website back in the late 1990's. I still run across references to it.