» Kids

summer camp
I don't have kids on my own yet, so here we go with some fun stories while looking after other's.

I've been involved in youth activities from my local church since wee age, but to defend myself, i've never been one of the god botherers, it had some sort of youth-centre function - meeting your friends,having a good time and even learn something some time. Like a scouts group, if you want something to compare, but without the sleeping in tents, making fire with your fingernails thing. I've went there as a child and as I grew older I changed sides an became a counsellor and looked after a group of children myself. (Great training for leading skills: If you can handle 8 ten-year-olds - a whole IT-department bwahaha) The highlight of the year has always been the two week summer camp, from which many legend stories have derived. Off went a group of 30 7-14 year olds guarded by a hand full of 17-25 year olds and as it's been from the church, the priest also went with us, being the only "real grown-up" to some youth hostel in the austrian mountains for two weeks of hiking, swimming,etc.

It's always been like a sport for the kids to wander around at night without getting caught or doing other nonsense and us on the other side to lurk in a dark corner to catch them redhanded and send them back to bed. Especially as puberty hit hard, the boys fancied to visit the girl's rooms for a game of spin the bottle, truth or dare or something equally thrilling in the wee hours. So we conspired with the girls from one room to invite the boys for the night while we would hide somewhere in the room to jump out with the good old BOOOO! unexpected. It went better than any of us could have imagined: I sat in the closet with perfect view around the room, while a fellow counsellor laid under the bed of one of the girls. Boys came, they chatted merrily away the usual teenage stuff, quite hard for us not to give up our hidings with stifled laughter while listening. One of the boys sat on the bed under which my fellow was lying, with his feet dangling from the edge - the perfect chance. My fellow jumped forward from under the bed, grabbed his ankles and tried to pull him under the bed. The boy, thinking the proverbial monster from under the bed had him, shrieked like a banshee, took one of his slippers to hit the "monster" and after I fell laughing out of my hideout and turned the light on, was white as a blanket. Minimum amounts of weewee my be involved by all participants, what a laugh.

The second story also involves scaring the crap out of the kids (I may add, that other fun activies also happened, besides our sadistic streaks...). Highlight activity on summercamp was having a bonfire till late in the night with barbecue, classical bonfire-and-guitar hits howled altogether and when as the fire went out we packed up and went for the "night-trek" to some place in the woods which had carefully searched for in the days before. Usually someone telling the scary-stories and some people hiding in the bushes for strange noises, etc. You could always pick those pissing themselves the most with fear (usually boys) as they where boasting how the weren't afraid. One year we decided to add a little variation for new thrills as many of the kids were with us the years before. As we went through the dark forest, one by one the counsellors "disappeared" silently into bushes beside the path, before the kids could notice. When suddenly one pipes up, that they are alone. We where standing a few meters besides them and nearly pissing ourselves laughing, I swear, I could have touched some of them, if I've reached out of the bush. They fully believed, we abandoned them in the woods at midnight. Some righteous panicked, one even threw up by fear, but then happened what I'm still proud of today. The elder kids, which were also some of my group, took the little ones, made them pair up and march home, full crisis management. Maybe I've really learned them some values and behaviour paired with common sense.
It didn't stop us from running the other way around the hill where the forest was situated to jump out of the bushes to give them another shock.

For a length of two weeks which always went over far too fast a quite impressive post, but I don't regret any of those years.
(Thu 24th Apr 2008, 11:14, More)

» God

There's this passage I got memorized.
Ezekiel 25:17. "The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is The Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you." I been saying that shit for years. And if you heard it, that meant your ass. I never gave much thought to what it meant. I just thought it was some cold-blooded shit to say to a motherfucker 'fore I popped a cap in his ass. But I saw some shit this mornin' made me think different. See, now I'm thinking, maybe it means you're the evil man, and I'm the righteous man, and Mr. 9mm here, he's the shepherd protecting my righteous ass in the valley of darkness. Or, it could mean you're the righteous man and I'm the shepherd and it's the world that's evil and selfish. I'd like that. But that shit ain't the truth. The truth is, you're the weak, and I'm the tyranny of evil men. But I'm tryin', Ringo. I'm trying real hard to be the shepherd.

Yours truly,

Jules Winnfield
(Thu 26th Mar 2009, 14:50, More)

» How nerdy are you?

herf nerder
I own a Formicarium and I'm 27. I'm registered here-'nuff said-won't repeat endless lists of profession, hardware stash and leisure activities concerning length issues, I think it's pretty deterministic.
(Mon 10th Mar 2008, 19:31, More)

» Have you ever seen a dead body?

been there, seen it
So here we go, long time lurker-first time poster, I hope the interwebs isn't hurting me.

Who would have thought, I'd finally register at this question... but anyways, don't wait for too much fun, that'll be kept for coming qotw's.

I volunteer as a paramedic. Most of the time it's carrying elderly, sick or combinations of both people to and fro the hospital, that's the regular service.

On my first night at emergency service (the real 911 stuff) a guy crashed his car at high speed straight into a wall, no skid marks, straight road, nothing. Airbags went off, but he didn't wear a seatbelt - can't recommend this combination, was not a nice view. But he was dead before we arrived, maybe even before he crashed by stroke or cardiac arrest, nothing left we could do for him. Doctor confirmed flatline, fire brigade had to cut him out, we covered him and left him for the coroners.

Changes your view on driving, I've never driven as cautious as this on my way home after the shift.

Length? What was left from the bonnet was about 20cm long.
(Tue 4th Mar 2008, 14:46, More)