Ship of Fools: I'm the Reason We Can't Do That...

Thread: I'm the Reason We Can't Do That... Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

To visit this thread, use this URL:
http://forum.ship-of-fools.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=70;t=025696

Posted by Og, King of Bashan (# 9562) on :

The late Mike Yaconelli, a beloved youth leader and founder of Youth Specialties, was famous for a number of youth ministry axioms. The one that I remember is this:

quote:
Listen…if your church doesn’t have a rule made just because of your youth ministry (no soccer in the sanctuary, no orange punch in fellowship hall), you aren’t letting Jesus be first place in your ministry.

Now I am generally a play it by the rules guy, but there is at least one rule in existence that can be directly traced to something I did. At my old K through 12 school's field day, a team of graduating seniors take on teams made up of alumni, parents, and faculty in a relay race. There is a trophy, and the winning team gets its name on a plate attached to the base of the cup.

My class put together a really good relay race team, and we were fairly confident that we were going to win the race. So confident, in fact, that I brought some juice to the start line, which I pulled out after we won the race so that we could drink from the cup. Unfortunately, aside from making a horrible mess, the base of the cup broke off when a member of the team took a victory gulp without giving it proper support. The headmaster wasn't too happy, and when the cup went to the trophy shop to be engraved and repaired, a lid was attached. So no drinking from the relay race cup, courtesy of yours truly.

Can anyone else lay claim to a rule that wouldn't exist but for something they did?

Posted by Otter (# 12020) on :

Not me, but my son - After he'd been wearing kilts to high school for a while, the dress code was amended to include minimum length requirements for kilts as well as skirts (and, IIRC, shorts). His were never a problem, but we suspect somebody on staff decided to be proactive.

Posted by Schroedinger's cat (# 64) on :

The ships rule about not changing names came in after I made several changes around Schroedinger and his cat.

I always claim to be the cause of that rule. Please don't disabuse me....

Posted by Huia (# 3473) on :

So who was it that caused the 2 minute edit rule? I remembered it as being Mousethief, but a post on the Styx board mentioned Pyx_e in this regard.

Huia

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Schroedinger's cat:
The ships rule about not changing names came in after I made several changes around Schroedinger and his cat.

I remember. I still sometimes think of you as Schroumldinger.

It might have had more to do with a couple of shipmates who went through something like 7 name changes apiece in a fiarly short space of time, though.

Posted by Moo (# 107) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Huia:
So who was it that caused the 2 minute edit rule? I remembered it as being Mousethief, but a post on the Styx board mentioned Pyx_e in this regard.

Pyx_e posted something that was bound to get a reaction. After someone had reacted strongly, he deleted or altered his post. This made the other shippie look like an idiot.

Moo

Posted by mousethief (# 953) on :

I believe the 2-minute edit rule was in place when I arrove.

Posted by comet (# 10353) on :

When I was in 7th grade the teacher made a new rule that all non-curriculum-related novels had to be checked at the teacher's desk at the beginning of the day. I was very good at hiding them inside textbooks and/or wearing mirrored shades so the teacher didn't know I wasn't looking up at the board.

The teacher was my mother.

She still mentions this.

Posted by Carex (# 9643) on :

Perhaps not rules, but I've been responsible for the placement of a few bollards after discovering (as a teenager) that a Volkswagen was skinny enough to fit down a footpath to the local school grounds. The custodian was rather startled when we drove out between the buildings, waving at him as we bounced over the curb and off down the road.

Posted by Chorister (# 473) on :

In a previous church, the choir were no longer allowed to process through the church before and after the service. This was because at the end of one Sunday service, son no.1 and yours truly were hurriedly scrabbling around on our hands and knees, picking up pieces of Lego which had been dropped and scattered during the service, right in the path of the oncoming choir. That was the last week the choir ever processed!

Posted by jedijudy (# 333) on :

I made a rule, rather than being the cause of the rule. Music campers (the youthful version) are not allowed to stand by Tampa Bay during a severe thunderstorm to watch the waterspouts just offshore. [Roll Eyes]

A number of years ago, we were rounding up the youth in such a storm, and wondered where the ones were who did not report to the cafeteria as they had been instructed. But we found them. On TV. The reporters caught them on camera standing in the pouring down rain, lightening crashing overhead, watching several waterspouts dancing on the bay.

Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :

Not the cause of this but too good not to share... the first rule my college ever had to make was "Thou shalt not keep a parrot in thy dorm room." This was when the entire college, students, faculty, classrooms and all, were housed in a single building.

And I'd be the cause of some bollards myself if anyone but the youth gathering ever found out that I had driven a Turismo across the purple granite walkway, lo, up to the very entrance of my church body's national headquarters... [Devil]

What happens at youth mission conferences, STAYS at youth mission conferences. [Devil]

Posted by churchgeek (# 5557) on :

quote:
Originally posted by comet:
When I was in 7th grade the teacher made a new rule that all non-curriculum-related novels had to be checked at the teacher's desk at the beginning of the day. I was very good at hiding them inside textbooks and/or wearing mirrored shades so the teacher didn't know I wasn't looking up at the board.

The teacher was my mother.

She still mentions this.

No rule about wearing sunglasses in class?

Posted by Surfing Madness (# 11087) on :

At the local navel base there are signs saying photograph prohibited. They have only been there since my Grandad was "caught" taking photos, the new recruits had build an amazing snowman which he felt my brother (it was before I was born) would like to see.

Posted by Moo (# 107) on :

At Sweetbriar College there was a rule that glass vases and other containers were not allowed on windowsills.

It turns out that the sun, shining through a glass vase filled with water, had once started a fire.

Moo

Posted by Lothlorien (# 4927) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Moo:
At Sweetbriar College there was a rule that glass vases and other containers were not allowed on windowsills.

It turns out that the sun, shining through a glass vase filled with water, had once started a fire.

Moo

Moo, in my first year teaching, a Year 7 boy, 12 or possibly 13 years old, used a magnifying glass up the back of the room to start a fire in his exercise book. I really don't remember what I said or did but think I probably just dealt with the whole thing.

Posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider (# 76) on :

Unfortunately I can't say for fear of incriminating myself.

Posted by Ye Olde Motherboarde (# 54) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Surfing Madness:
At the local navel base.............

Freudian slip, perhaps?

On whose body would this NAVEL base be, as opposed to a NAVAL base?
[Killing me]

Posted by Surfing Madness (# 11087) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Ye Olde Motherboarde:

quote:
Originally posted by Surfing Madness:
At the local navel base.............
Freudian slip, perhaps?

On whose body would this NAVEL base be, as opposed to a NAVAL base?

opps.........this is why I should never write anything!

Posted by The Weeder (# 11321) on :

quote:
Originally posted by comet:
When I was in 7th grade the teacher made a new rule that all non-curriculum-related novels had to be checked at the teacher's desk at the beginning of the day. I was very good at hiding them inside textbooks and/or wearing mirrored shades so the teacher didn't know I wasn't looking up at the board.

The teacher was my mother.

She still mentions this.

Are you my alter ego? Except that my mother was not a teacher, that is exactly what I did. Everyone in the class knew, but none of the teachers (we called them mistresses)caught on. My fellow pupils were kind enough to cough or drop something if the misstress was wandering the room.

Posted by Mili (# 3254) on :

Not a rule made on my behalf, but another story about glasses at school. I was on yard duty on a sunny day and found a group of 10 year old boys trying to start a fire using one of the boy's thick glasses (spectacles). The grass and bark were starting to smoke when I stopped them. They insisted another teacher had let them experiment with making fire. I followed up with the other teacher. It turned out she had found them trying to make fire earlier in the week, but as it was an overcast, drizzly day she let them as she knew it would be impossible to make a fire in those conditions. [Roll Eyes]

Posted by Sarkycow (# 1012) on :

Our church has a balcony, and then a gallery above that. Once my peer group reached 14 and were meant to stay in the service, we used to sit up in the gallery, and play hangman etc. during the sermon.

The PCC decided the gallery was unsafe after about a year, and we were banned from sitting in it any longer [Frown]

Posted by Sir Kevin (# 3492) on :

I have sat in the balcony of my local RC cathedral exactly once and that was for an ordination a few years ago. The last one I was at I sat in a regular pew downstairs. It is never used otherwise.

My wife has some church balcony/ choir loft stories about her old church: I'll try to get her to post here. I think she and other teenagers used to fly paper aeroplanes made from church bulletins off of it. Only singers are supposed to use it now!

Posted by Leorning Cniht (# 17564) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Moo:
At Sweetbriar College there was a rule that glass vases and other containers were not allowed on windowsills.

It turns out that the sun, shining through a glass vase filled with water, had once started a fire.

This (sun focused by vases of water, glass paperweights etc.) is a non-trivial cause of house fires.

Posted by Mudfrog (# 8116) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Otter:
Not me, but my son - After he'd been wearing kilts to high school for a while, ...

I'm sorry, I can't hold it any longer.
Why did your son wear kilts to school?

Posted by Gwai (# 11076) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Mudfrog:

quote:
Originally posted by Otter:
Not me, but my son - After he'd been wearing kilts to high school for a while, ...
I'm sorry, I can't hold it any longer.
Why did your son wear kilts to school?

Does one need an excuse?

Posted by PD (# 12436) on :

I was the cause of the 'no facial hair rule' at my old high school. I grew a beard when I was in the fifth form.

PD

Posted by BessHiggs (# 15176) on :

I was the reason my high school instituted a rule against having outside food delivered during school hours. My 12th grade calculus teacher, it seems, did not appreciate my having a large cheese pizza delivered to her classroom [Big Grin]

Posted by Sir Kevin (# 3492) on :

Did you go to Ridgemont High? Was the teacher Mr. Hand?

[Killing me]

Posted by Rev per Minute (# 69) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Sarkycow:
Our church has a balcony, and then a gallery above that. Once my peer group reached 14 and were meant to stay in the service, we used to sit up in the gallery, and play hangman etc. during the sermon.

The PCC decided the gallery was unsafe after about a year, and we were banned from sitting in it any longer

Who were you hanging? I'm sure that you had a long list of people to be hanged!

Posted by luvanddaisies (# 5761) on :

quote:
Originally posted by BessHiggs:
My 12th grade calculus teacher, it seems, did not appreciate my having a large cheese pizza delivered to her classroom

That is the coolest thing I've heard all day - it even beats a friend who went into a school today that has wallabies and flamingoes.
[Overused]

Posted by Gracious rebel (# 3523) on :

I think I might be the reason that the Ship was included on a list of barred websites for staff of my former employer.

Posted by PataLeBon (# 5452) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Gwai:

quote:
Originally posted by Mudfrog:

quote:
Originally posted by Otter:
Not me, but my son - After he'd been wearing kilts to high school for a while, ...
I'm sorry, I can't hold it any longer.
Why did your son wear kilts to school?
Does one need an excuse?

My mother's school had a dress code where shorts were prohibited, but the girls could wear skirts as long as they weren't short. One boy decided that he hated wearing pants in the heat, so he started wearing a kilt.

They changed the rules to allow shorts the next year. Apparently they didn't like the kilt thing...

Posted by PeteC (# 10422) on :

One doesn't usually wear pants with kilts, anyway. Perhaps that is what the school disliked?

Posted by Angel Wrestler (# 13673) on :

My first year of ministry was more "first" than many first years, as I'd had so little practical experience within a local congregation that I'd never had to do the paper work required of pastors and had no senior pastor to rely on for help. When I went to the clergy meetings, there were all these talks about this and that report and it was a foreign language. My first yearly conference, with four churches on a circuit, was an embarrassing disaster. The next year, the superintendent instituted a paperwork training session for all new and nearly-new pastors. It's now used throughout our region. ... but rest assured that my every yearly conference from then on was perfect!

edited for clarity

[ 04. July 2013, 21:50: Message edited by: Angel Wrestler ]

Posted by PataLeBon (# 5452) on :

quote:
Originally posted by PeteC:
One doesn't usually wear pants with kilts, anyway. Perhaps that is what the school disliked?

Well, I think it was that the Bible Belt school didn't like thinking of boys wearing "skirts" more than anything else. And the rules didn't say anything about boys not wearing a skirt to school. [Devil]

Posted by The Rogue (# 2275) on :

I wonder who is going to be able to claim being responsible for having TICTH closed down? It's doing quite well at the moment - twenty one pages.

Posted by Mudfrog (# 8116) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Gwai:

quote:
Originally posted by Mudfrog:

quote:
Originally posted by Otter:
Not me, but my son - After he'd been wearing kilts to high school for a while, ...
I'm sorry, I can't hold it any longer.
Why did your son wear kilts to school?
Does one need an excuse?

Yes indeed! If one is not Scottish!

Posted by balaam (# 4543) on :

quote:
Originally posted by The Rogue:
I wonder who is going to be able to claim being responsible for having TICTH closed down? It's doing quite well at the moment - twenty one pages.

We could start a conversation there and claim a joint victory.

Posted by Scarlet (# 1738) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:
Unfortunately I can't say for fear of incriminating myself.

Um yes, I have one of those as well.

Yet, I can reveal I am the cause of the city of [[my metropolitan area]] banning snow sledding down some of the steepest hills in our flatlands. It was on the campus of the state mental hospital and the local government always welcomed all sledders, bottom sliders, rollers-down-hills and wash-tub riders, during any good snow.

This was until, at the age of 19, I crashed into another sledder, concussed, broke my leg, ended up in the ER and on the local radio and TV news. [Hot and Hormonal]

This ban has existed so long now, that I am sure it has just passed into an urban legend...

Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :

quote:
Originally posted by balaam:

quote:
Originally posted by The Rogue:
I wonder who is going to be able to claim being responsible for having TICTH closed down? It's doing quite well at the moment - twenty one pages.
We could start a conversation there and claim a joint victory.

Unfortunately, by posting you have now alerted the Hellhosts, so we might not rise to your bait. We are able to do other things though [Snigger]

SS HH

Posted by Otter (# 12020) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Mudfrog:

quote:
Originally posted by Otter:
Not me, but my son - After he'd been wearing kilts to high school for a while, ...
I'm sorry, I can't hold it any longer.
Why did your son wear kilts to school?

Because they're comfortable. And he likes being unusual.

He's up to three kilts (all solid-color heavy cotton fabric), two from Alt.Kilt and one I've made. We've got fabric in the house for another couple for him, too.

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

Otter, your link didn't work. Is this the Alt Kilt link you wanted?

Posted by Otter (# 12020) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
Otter, your link didn't work. Is this the Alt Kilt link you wanted?

Yep, that's the one. Thank you!

Posted by Gwai (# 11076) on :

For a year an a half a few years ago I lived in a community that had five men. Three wore kilts or skirts all the time. In fact, my husband was the only straight man who wore pants. (The gay man wore pants too.)

Posted by Og, King of Bashan (# 9562) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Angel Wrestler:
My first year of ministry was more "first" than many first years, as I'd had so little practical experience within a local congregation that I'd never had to do the paper work required of pastors and had no senior pastor to rely on for help. When I went to the clergy meetings, there were all these talks about this and that report and it was a foreign language. My first yearly conference, with four churches on a circuit, was an embarrassing disaster. The next year, the superintendent instituted a paperwork training session for all new and nearly-new pastors. It's now used throughout our region. ... but rest assured that my every yearly conference from then on was perfect!

edited for clarity

A supervisor I had at an internship who was fresh out of law school used to say that as long as he didn't make the mistake that caused everyone in the office to land in a mandatory all day training, it was a good day. I try to keep that in mind on most days.

UBB.classic^TM 6.5.0