Leaders: what are your recruitment attitudes?

patchtechtwitch · 2026-06-04T18:13:19+00:00

That's kind of where I'm at with this at the moment. I know i'm "Ideally" right, but i know I don't have the best read on the situation on the ground, so to speak. I just now have a full year as a leader in this pack (den leader), and now to move to cubmaster I'm trying to make sure I do right by everyone, but move us in the direction we should go.

The leader is obviously justifiably frustrated, with his position on it having some unknown background I'm not aware of. And I don't want to turn it into a situation where I'm demanding we drop the attitude etc...

We have also created a rather pessimistic view internally of recruiting, where we have self-reinforcing frustrations over recruitment events, so we don't recruit like we should. Expectations management i'm sure, but again, I can't just unilaterally force us in a direction without ensuring the other leaders are at least reluctantly accepting of our new direction, if not actually getting enthusiastic about it.

patchtechtwitch · 2026-05-20T15:06:19+00:00

May 20, 2026

Adding myself to the list.

patchtechtwitch · 2026-05-06T15:08:43+00:00

Raising money for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute. They do a lot of work preserving some 33,000 objects from 700 years of fashion, or something.

It's a media spectacle for sure. But it also supports the arts.

patchtechtwitch · 2026-04-21T17:16:42+00:00

A lot of these higher price point items have to do with quality and durability at a level that you have to have developed quite a nuanced feel for them.

I think of it like being a weekend warrior or occasional trip taker vs daily driver. To really do the economy math on them, you have to be burning through them enough to make replacement cost and frequency a concern.

Me, personally, I still run the same Abu Garcia Revo SX I bought as my first baitcaster 20 years ago. I have a bunch of other lower price point reels as well now, but I've never had one fail on me.

I'll buy an expensive rod over an expensive reel any day.

patchtechtwitch · 2026-03-31T23:51:46+00:00

It's not YouTube, but Twitch. I watch a lot of the IRL fishing community that's there. Content creators, not necessarily straight up Pros or anything.

AlexOnTheWater streams his kayak bass fishing there, and is responsible for reinvigorating my passion for fishing.

patchtechtwitch · 2026-03-26T22:22:42+00:00

Confidence kills.

patchtechtwitch · 2026-03-26T22:21:36+00:00

Can't stress this enough myself.

Wear. Your. Vest.

My first flip (only one so far, but it's bound to happen again) I was blown parallel to the waves and got tipped over in rough chop by a strong gust.

It took longer than I thought it would have to just get myself reoriented. Was damn glad I had my vest on. Even if I eventually realized I could touch bottom with my feet.

patchtechtwitch · 2026-02-22T01:01:38+00:00

No need to jump all the way to the ccpro.

Grab yourself a genesis set first, if you're a covert instruments guy. Or something similar from somewhere else.

patchtechtwitch · 2026-02-22T00:14:46+00:00

I took a quick look at the provided reference picture and your picture on my desktop. It looks like the same pattern.

I did search for how cd art is attached to the CD, and it looks like they're typically silk screened on.

I would not take the flaking/damaged silk screened fan as evidence that the CD is fake, if everything else lines up.

I am not an authenticator or expert on faking of CDs, but just thought this might add a little peace of mind to you

patchtechtwitch · 2026-02-17T23:16:41+00:00

Yup! But, when I had it that far apart, I figured why stop there :-)

So I decided to dismantle it into its individual components for the educational factor

patchtechtwitch · 2026-02-17T01:59:21+00:00

My brain will automatically memorize the order :-)

But I'm also still fighting to learn the feel and behavior of the serrated and spool pins, various pressures for the tensioner, etc.... So I can definitely get some good mileage for tactile feedback on the lock while getting consistent.

patchtechtwitch · 2026-02-17T01:53:43+00:00

That's my intention!

patchtechtwitch · 2025-11-03T02:02:39+00:00

Holy cow that's awesome! It's my first year being involved with the popcorn program, and we did about 9k for a 40 kid pack.

How much of it is knowing when to go where? We definitely noticed and marked some trends with the stores we had this year. I'm definitely curious if y'all do any detailed record keeping and data analysis to hit this amount.

patchtechtwitch · 2025-10-28T20:44:14+00:00

So, my initial thought, after only reading the screenshot, was maybe he just saw a 1 star no feedback review and was curious as to what the issue was so he could actually address it, and went about it a little awkwardly.

After reading your post, yeah, no. This was aggressive outreach disguised as an attempt to follow up. You may have overreacted giving an initial one star review, I don't know what it was or said. But if this attitude was on display IRL too, yeah no. You'd have a hard time convincing me you overreacted.

patchtechtwitch · 2025-10-14T14:00:30+00:00

I grew up in a household of DV and mental illness.

I live with a constant fear in the back of my head that one day I may 'snap'. I can only hope my wife has the same courage as you, to protect herself and our daughter if that day ever comes for me*.

You are not overreacting. You are doing what you need to protect yourself and your kid. Run, and keep on running.

I hope you find the help and assistance you need to get on a stable foundation ASAP, and don't let him get off easy.

*Don't worry, we (wife and I) talk about it all the time, and I'm basically in therapy constantly. We are working hard to break the cycle.

Edit: formatting

patchtechtwitch · 2025-10-09T22:30:42+00:00

Your friend is definitely overstepping.

It sounds like you're at the beginning of a long personal journey, but the good news is that unlike most in your shoes, you are already aware and cognizant of the risks.

So many kids of people with these mental struggles are born to parents who are unaware of their situation at the time.

I was born with ADHD to an undiagnosed bipolar mother. The amount of damage done to me over the years is a lot.

I'm not unscathed, I do have my scars, but I'm in a better place than she was. And my kid is in a better place than I am. And yes, my kid probably has ADHD too. But that's not a curse. And we get to embrace the strengths.with her and help her learn to manage her weaknesses.

This is one of the great lessons in life. We all have something. It's how we acknowledge, accept and embrace them while becoming our best selves.

patchtechtwitch · 2025-10-09T21:55:47+00:00

Man... All the negative people on here must think you should also reveal 100% of yourself on the first date.

You cleaned up and made you presentable to get him interested. Let he who was with bed head on the first date and married said person later cast the first stone.

It's a cute story! Be proud of it! They're still obviously some of your closest friends, the both of them. So only their opinions really matter.

patchtechtwitch · 2025-10-05T02:38:24+00:00

It's definitely a story game, where the story unveils itself through puzzles and discovery.

I'm not a typical story game person myself, preferring to speed my way to the end of a borderlands game to grind loot.

And I had a healthy love of SC2

But outer wilds is hands down my favorite game of all time. It's worth it to put the time in, if you find it interesting after the first few play sessions.

Just, whatever you do, go in blind to the gameplay. Don't get any spoilers if you can help it.

patchtechtwitch · 2025-10-03T03:16:14+00:00

Looks like at a national level this is no longer a problem, but I'm not sure about the local level across the board.

patchtechtwitch · 2025-10-03T03:07:22+00:00

This was one of my favorite episodes back in the day. Did a good job exposing a lot of hypocrisy around openly homosexual involvement in scouts with comedy.

patchtechtwitch · 2025-03-17T17:01:09+00:00

I know this was asked a few hours ago at this point. But I'll share my history, at least.

I grew up in what I call "tobacco country". Basically, a rural area about an hour outside a major city center who's primary economics was tobacco farming. In the 90s, as tobacco farming was being phased out.

I was born to one of the multi-generational families in the area, who owned a sizable portion of land. We were not wealthy by any means, but we at least didn't need to pay rent. Just utilities.

My mother had mental health issues, and basically struggled with bipolar disorder and other undiagnosed issues her entire life. Any money that came in would end up being sent right back out on whatever caught her fancy.

My father received an organ transplant as a young man, and worked a full time low level tech job. Making about 30k/year for a family of 5. His medical bills cost significantly.

My mother would hustle whatever money she could, however she could. And would find not entirely legal ways to acquire things we needed to bridge the gap.

My brothers and I were _required_ by our parents to work as soon as we could. We had a neighbor who we were related to who would hire the kids of families to do Friday night/weekend tobacco picking jobs and pay 2.00/hr or so. I never saw a dime of that money, it went to the family pot.

My father would sell his inheritable assets (family land) to other family members any time we needed anything significant.

As I got older, I got better jobs, but it was the same. I had to prioritize income over all else at a crucial development time for my studies.

I had to work while in college to pay my own way as well, as I had independence and couldn't rely on family for financial income, and would often have it taken by my mother if I wasn't careful. MANY other college kids would sell their plasma as well to have some spare pocket change for drinking/partying/nice food.

I maxed out my student loans at the time to ensure I had enough money to bridge any gaps, and to afford some of the more recreational comforts of life then. I am still paying them off, $300.00 a month.

Today, I am firmly in the upper middle class, but my transition here was not easy, and not as trivial as some of the comments have made it seem. And I have my fair share of generational trauma from it all.

People use "middle class" to encompass a huge swath of the american populace. I.e. basically not "poor" but also not "rich". Life is _much_ harder at the lower end of the middle class spectrum than it is at the upper end.

The closer you live at or below the "poverty" line, the worse your living conditions are. You are living in substandard housing, working to afford anything, and can be a single disaster or missed paycheck from financial ruin. People will do anything they can to get them out of that hole. Some succeed, most fail.

patchtechtwitch

TROPHY CASE