Music and Bugling Merit badges

This might seem a bit strange to tell you that I'm talking about two merit badges, but these are both kind of the same. The next badges I enjoyed were Music and Bugling. For the music badge, I had to learn about different groups of instruments and how they sound, and then I had to like go to lots of different musicals of how their musics work.

The Bugling merit badge was kind of fun. I played my trumpet in order to earn that badge. I've played the trumpet since 7th grade. The only two songs I like playing was Reville and Taps. The most popular songs in bugling. I even played those at my two special Court of Honors, My Eagle Court of Honor and my Final Court of Honor.

 This wasn't part of the Music badge, but I have this video about me being in the Bingham High School Marching Band. Our performance is called Sunrise to Sunset. If you would like to watch it, just click on the play button on the screen.

I've played the trumpet throughout almost my whole life. I've joined lots of bands in my life. I've joined Brass Band, Concert Band, Summer Band, Jazz Band, Symphonic Band, Orchestra, and Marching Band. Lots of those things were just hard to breathe through the trumpet, because you have to like try not to breathe at a bar line. But I at least played the trumpet so that I could earn the Bugling merit  badge. I'm actually a troop bugler in the Boy Scout troop. Everything on the Music and Bugling merit badges have been so much fun, even though it was hard too. Until next time, I will tell you what the next fun badges are.

Scouting Heritage Merit Badge

Robert Baden Powell

I have a next badge that I would like to talk about that was really fun. This might seem a bit strange, but I earned a badge that talks about Boy Scouts. Since this is Boy Scouts, I'm talking about all the merit badges I passed off from my special Court of Honor.

This is how I passed if off. I had to like learn about the history of how Boy Scouts became the most popular activity in the entire world. I learned about coolest man in the 19th century who invented the activity. His name was Robert Baden Powell. That was the most exciting thing to learn about how Boy Scouts became so popular. Then I had to learn about other fine men that joined the activity after Baden Powell became the King of Boy Scouts.

Kim's Game

Then another thing I had to do was to play a scout game with my family. It was called Kim's Game. All we had to do was fine lots of different supplies and set up a table cloth on the floor and use another table cloth to cover up. We had to study of what we saw of the supplies on top of the bottom and cloth. Then we had to cover them with a top cloth and we had to try to write what the supplies were on the bottom cloth. That game was really fun to play.




Then the last thing I had to do to pass this was to letter to the Scouting Museum back in Texas. It took like a lot of weeks for a respond of a letter back from that museum of what they said of what I told them about me as the Scout Star. This badge was the most fun one ever. Until next time, I will tell you the next badge.

Cycling Merit Badge

I have the next merit badge to talk about that was really fun. It is the Cycling badge. I really enjoyed that badge, because it is good exercise and it is fun. I have a story to tell you of how I earned it. I cycled in the rain before. Read all about that here.



Right when I was 12 years old, my Mom asked me if I wanted to earn all the merit badges and I said yes, and then she told me at this time I had to learn how to ride a bike. I was complaining that I thought if I try to ride a bike, I would crash a lot of times and not keep balance. And I kept thinking I wouldn't have the experience to do so. With a little of practicing on balance, it was finally a miracle that I could ride a bike! Now for a little while I would get to ride for every mile I get. 



Since I've been riding a bike until my age, I have been riding for like 2 ten miles, 2 fifteens, and 2 twenties. I have been keeping myself hydrated with a bottle of water though. I've done all those  milers mostly at home at our blocks. Now all I had to do to earn the badge was that I had to do one more miler by going 50. That's a very long way to ride a bike that much, but I had to do it, by doing at the Miller's Sports Park in Toelle. First, I had to ask for donations on getting inside the track The track was really large. One lap equaled three miles. So my Mom said to get to 50 miles would take like 17 laps. It was exhausting, but by going two to three laps, I have to go to the pits and have a water break. I wore my Scout uniform to make all the people think I'm cool. I got two awards for the race. Then for celebration, we went to the movies to see Cars 2. That's how I passed off the Cycling merit badge by riding lots of miles on a bike. Until next time, I will tell you the next fun badge.









Robotics Merit Badge

 

My own Robot Bug

The next badge I would like to tell you is the Robotics merit badge. It was a bit of a fun badge, because there were some hard things to talk about how robots can be easy for life.

 All I had to do to earn the badge was to learn about how robots work and I had to build one myself. Building one was not very easy, I had to look at instructions that look kind of confusing to make it look perfect, and then I had to program it. Programming it wasn't easy either. I had to some basic math on how many seconds it can do and change directions on how it can travel by its sensor. Math isn't my favorite subject.

Math isn't my favorite.

Volcano as Dangerous

Anyway, I liked writing about how robots can be useful on the Four D's. The Four D's are in four different categories that humans do not want to do or don't do well. They are Dangerous, Dirty, Dull, and Difficult. I tell you that there are dangerous situations that robots could do, like for example like a volcano can be dangerous to study when close to it, so a robot could perfectly to study volcanoes. There are others like deep space, miles below ocean surface, collapsed buildings and combats. But I can't tell you all of them, but those are the things about how robots can be useful.

Sewer as Dirty

Now there is dirty situations that robots can do, they can like inspect sewers, waste waters, pipelines, and store tanks. I could tell you that sewers are dirty for people, but not for robots. They can inspect sewers by themselves. People don't want to get all dirty wall being in the sewer. That's how we avoid getting all that toxic on us.

Painting a Car as Dull

Now there is dull situations that robots can also do. I could tell you that painting cars can be a bit boring, so a robot can do all that work so that no one would have to paint a car by hand. 

Mines as Difficult

And last but not least, is difficult situations that robots can do. Things like surgery, other require heavy lifting and strength beyond what people can do safely, like lifting huge amount of material in mines.

Robots used in Medicine

There are other useful things that robots can do, they can help with medicine. They are being designed to support doctors in all aspects of their work. They are being used to analyze test data and identify DNA defects much faster than in the past. That's how the future can be more successful with robots.




Even though that Robotics was a very hard badge, I still think it was really fun to learn all about their basic technology. Until next time, I would love to tell you what the next fun badge is.

Water Sports Merit Badge

There is a merit badge that it was a little fun, but kind of hard. It is called the Water Sports Merit Badge. It's when I learn how to water ski. All my life since I've been watching The Goofy World of Sports, Aquamania, I had always wanted to water ski just like Goofy did. I have a story to tell you about how I accomplished the Water Sports badge. I have a Home Teacher, named Bob who owns a boat. He asked me if I would like to learn how to water ski. And I said I love to. So he took me and some of his family members to Utah Lake and he taught me how to put on bindings from the skis. And then go in the water, and that's where it began. He starts the boat, and I try to hold on tight, but the towrope made me go to much forward and fall right on my face into the water. That's when I realized that water skiing is harder than it looks. 

 With the boat having so much speed, I couldn't hold on really well. I thought that I didn't have enough strength to do it, so I've been working out with my brother Gym Rat. He taught me lots of ways on how to become a strong guy like him. I had to like learn how to lift weights slowly and steadily to feel the burn and stay sore. Working out with Gym Rat was a little fun, even though it just hurts sometimes and not get used to feel the burn.

Then with a bunch of working out with Gym Rat, I finally got big muscles on my biceps and triceps. I went boating with Bob again and then tried the skis again. Another try to go well, because I kept going the same time, by letting go of the towrope when the boat is going too fast. So, Bob thought of something else that I could try. He thought I could try the knee board. He has a knee board with a special hook to hook the towrope onto there, while the boat was going, I would adjust myself and when keeping balance, I would pick up the towrope and start knee boarding.I tried that, and it worked really better. I didn't make a fall while balancing on the knee board. I went over wakes and kept hold of the towrope. I thought that was much fun than the skis. Bob thought that wouldn't count for the pass off, but my some of my sisters like Princess, Prima Donna, and Crafty came with me to our Uncle Glen's house who has a boat. We went with him and our cousin, Tyler to Utah Lake, and I tried to water skis, but they still didn't work. I think the problem was that my wrist had Keinbock's disease. Remember what I told you before about Keinbock's? It wasn't much fun. Anyway, I did pass if off with Uncle Glen, I have tried my best to get up on the skis, but we all thought the knee board should count for me. My Mom and Dad thought they could ask the BSA company that they could let Boy Scouts who have Keinbock's could pass off the Water Sports badge, by using only a knee board. Okay, the Water Sports badge was really fun, even though it was hard to get on those skis, but I think the knee board is much fun. Until next time, I will tell you how I passed off some more of those badges.

Whitewaters Merit Badge

The next badge I would like to talk about that was fun is Whitewaters. I've done most of this on a family trip to Denver Colordao. There was a whitewater rafting class taking place at the Colordao river.

My family and I went to Denver last summer ago. Some of my siblings, Gym Rat, Teach, Princess, Prima Donna, Crafty, and Sport came along to this class. Our instructor showed us how to put on your life jacket and how to paddle against the waves in the river. Gym Rat and I got to be in the very front of the raft, because both of us were like in our 6.0 heights.

Princess, Prima Donna, and Teach got to be in the middles because they are kind of like a bit shorter than me and Gym Rat. Crafty and Sport got to be in the back of the raft because they are a bit little that they could easily fall off the raft if in front. We all had a lot of fun on the whitewater raft with the instructor. Then we had to learn on how to do the swim afloat. Some of us had to like fall off the raft while a wake was passing us. Sport didn't like falling off the raft much, because he says it's hard to get back in the raft. That's how I passed off the Whitewaters merit badge. It was a lot of fun. Until next time, I will tell you what the next fun badge is. I'll see water your comments say. ha ha ha ha.

"Up" Merit Badge

This is the next badge I passed off, which you may think it's not a merit badge at all, but I have seen the movie called "Up" My siblings really like that movie, it's the most hilarious movie that anyone could ever see.


I have a story to tell you on how I got this badge. There was the house in Herriman that has been built for Utah homes. It was that house that looked exactly like from the movie. We got to go see it. It was so amazing there. We even got to see what was inside the house. The inside was almost exactly like from the movie also. Our ward President was in charge of building these homes in Herriman. We looked all around the house and saw that everything was absolutely from the movie. We checked down in the basement, there was a projector room playing the Up movie. We saw some bedrooms down there that showed Toy Story toys and we went upstairs to the second floor. We saw a bunch of nice looking bedrooms. The master bedroom looked cool and we saw the bathroom inside the master bedroom. It showed a shower with two bits. One shower bit was on the wall, and the other was on the ceiling. That would be a cool one for tall people like me and my brother Gym Rat. Everything at the Up House was cool. If my sister, Drama Queen would ever afford it, she would've bought the Up house, but our President said that the investment is like $40,00,000. That's really an expensive house. But it was really fun to explore the "Up" House. I got that badge. Until next time, I will say what the next badge is. I am "Up" for that.