Who do I still think I am??

This one's about BSA, BGCA, and not the Beatles.

MOB-RELATED ACTIVITY:

Happy weekend friends! What's the situation? The "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS"  Blog Mob has now had about as many days with as bOSS (with an uncapital B) as it's had without, and that's kind of troubling. What kind of Mob is this? We look like the least-organized organized writing crime outfit there is. Ok, we're probably the only organized outfit of our ilk, but we're not the best (don't ask me how I think that's actually possible) and we've gotta do something about it. Who's got suggestions? I'm not great at comin' up with this kinda stuff.

BCF PROMPT: "Today is National Boy Scouts Day (Girl Scouts Day is October 31st). Do you feel Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts are helpful organizations for today's children? Do they still meet the needs of our children in this electronics-focused world? Were you a girl scout or a boy scout? If you were share an adventure you had in scouting."

ALTERNATE BCF PROMPT: "What organizations exist where you live that are focused on children interacting and doing activities together? Did you belong to one of these groups when you were a child? Tell us about it."

Believe it or not, I spent a few years in the Boy Scouts Of America. I learned at lot, but I think I eventually outgrew what the ideals of the organization were to an extent (I know that sounds kinda egotistical, and maybe "outgrew" was the wrong word to use, but too late...I said it). Coincidently, I think that happened around the same time I was getting more involved with organized sports in school, as well as my discovery of girls.

Long after I left the organization, I still had plenty of respect for the BSA. I treasured the skills I gained, the friendships I forged, and the wholesomeness in general. But what the hell did I know? I was just a kid, doing what I was told and respecting people and ideas out of blind faith. I was living life based on what a book that was written 75 years earlier (at the time) wanted me to be; when you're 12 or 13 years old you don't know what else or how else to be. When you're naïve and impressionable, conformity comes easily.

I will say that the leaders of my troop were pretty decent guys for the most part. One in particular had a large music collection, and would always offer to dub whatever I wanted onto a blank cassette for me.

Nowadays, that troop doesn't even exist anymore. There are just way too many other options for kids. And then there's the whole "BSA frowns upon gay marriage" thing...sure, BSA has the right to enforce whatever codes or policies they want, and people have the right to choose what group or groups they want their kids participating in. I think they're making a huge mistake by sticking to their antiquated stance, and it's not helping their cause at all in a time where sports leagues, video games, and other dominant areas of culture are rapidly cutting into what was once a staple of America's youth. I don't know how they'll manage to get around all of the negative publicity they've generated, but it's clear that the BSA is not the same strong organization it once was. Maybe it's a reflection of society today as opposed to the values of decades past; I don't know.

As I got older I did become more involved with the local Boys & Girls Clubs (http://www.depewlancasterbgc.org/) in my area. Besides the fact that they were open to both genders equally, a lot of the activities were similar minus the pressure of having to attain ranks and badges. Plus, they were open almost daily and you weren't stuck doing something you didn't feel up to participating in.

A few years back (while I was still living at 542), my upstairs neighbors' kids and their friends were members at the Club, and I was asked to write a brief letter of recommendation for one of the boys. My man Winkz went on to earn the "Youth Of The Year" award, which made me proud.

Just over a year ago, the Club in that very same neighborhood was the scene of a pretty substantial fire. It saddened me; it felt like a bit of my teenage years and young adulthood went up in the smoke as well, and there was nothing I could do about it (having moved across the state). I shared a video on Twitter at the time regarding their plea for donations so they could rebuild...a lot of the same people that were members when I was going there are leaders now, and it's still a little sad to think about.

MUSICAL BREAK!!

** Image ID #1970900 Unavailable **

Like a lot of us I'm sure, I spent plenty of time mining through album collections of parents, relatives and friends...that's where all the good stuff was. Three bands stick out the most from my earliest days of discovering music...The Beatles, The Beach Boys, and The Monkees. I could be wrong, but those are the three groups I seem to remember my mom having the most records from (and she had a lot), and they were the ones I wanted to listen to the most.

And I think if you really wanted to boil down the majority of music that's been popular over the last 50 years, you can trace it back to those first two groups I mentioned, without question (and I'm sure I'll pop off a song from them each at some point this month). But here's an interesting fact about me: my first concert ever was The Monkees, with "Weird Al" Yankovic opening. It was during their mid-eighties resurgence (minus Mike Nesmith), in an outdoor pavillion with a rotating stage. I believe it was the summer before I started sixth grade, so I had probably just turned 11. Every summer my brother and I would visit our aunt in Connecticut, and that was one of the many things we did that year.

Anyway, MTV and Nickelodeon were always showing reruns of The Monkees, and I thought it was great that there was this band that also had a tv show and that it was popular and successful, and I could never figure out why there weren't more bands doing that or why there weren't that many episodes of The Monkees. Like I mentioned earlier, when you're young what the hell do you know?

It's hard to pick out a favorite song by them, or one that specifically equates me and them and the time period...even now, looking over their discography via Google it's not easy. "Daydream Believer" and "I'm A Believer" are great, and there are so many other memorable, catchy pop/rock gems...I'll go with "What Am I Doing Hangin' 'Round" (album: Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. {link:http://www.amazon.com/Pisces-Aquarius-Capricorn-Jones-Deluxe/dp/B001230Q6C/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1391908179&sr=8-2&keywords=monkees+pisces+aquarius}; lyrics: http://www.metrolyrics.com/what-am-i-doing-hangin-round-lyrics-monkees.html) because I feel like there've been plenty of times where I've caught myself saying that same sentence in my head, and then bolting as soon as the opportunity struck under many different circumstances. You know how when you feel like something really isn't right but it hits you at what seems like is the worst possible time to get away from it, and you do that regardless of how you look when doing it? I've felt that way a lot of times.

THE DAILY BOX SCORE:

I'm not ashamed to admit I owned a few "Weird Al" cassettes once. You try being a dorky little kid in the '80's and tell me you wouldn't have some of this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcJjMnHoIBI) in your collection.

Ok, I know this is a bit weird, but the conspiracy theorist in me is poking out a little...the WDC emoticon for guitar is modeled after the Monkees logo: truth? The angle is slightly off, and the body in the logo is bit more defined, and yeah, I know, all guitars share the same basic shapes in general, but c'mon, please?

What's wrong with Microsoft Outlook, Windows 8.1, and me? Let's start with me. Yes, I still use Hotmail/MSN/Outlook/Live/whatever they're going by this week as my primary email account...and admittedly, I do not check my email very often. As in, I know I should check it daily, or at least a few times each week. And it's been a few weeks. But that's not the point. I've been doing the work thing, coming home, blogging, and going to bed. That's my life in a nutshell (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKMK3XGO27k). So, just now I get a Windows 8-type notification that I've got a new email from a contact from back home that I regularly correspond with but haven't since the beginning of the year because I'm a slacker when it comes to holding up my end of things sometimes...and when I open up Outlook, there's 400+ new messages in less than three weeks (and that doesn't include junk mail and whatever else gets directed to other folders). And yet for some reason, while I'm in "desktop mode" no less, I have just today received word that I have one new message from a friend. Out of 4-frickin'-hundred. Thank you Microsoft, for always keeping me in the loop.

And since only a few of us in our Blog Mob have come out to play today, I guess I'll wrap this up and concern myself with paring down those messages to a more manageable number (once it gets over ten, my anxiety likes to think "ten is too much" and then I shut myself out of email entirely for weeks...it's a sickness). Peace, I should be on that train, and GOODNIGHT NOW!!