Team Cacheopeia

You're awesome. Thanks! (I'd even wondered if it was the event cache, but I realized it was listed both places... leaving me stumped!) Thanks for figuring it out for me. Jaime

Funny.... I see the 95 now, too! I saw 96 when I clicked on My Geocaching Logs and then chose "Found it." In any case... am I definitely at 97?

My husband and I have been caching since 2003, but we're slow, so we're just approaching our 100th cache. Next weekend, we're meeting some geocaching friends of ours at a park for our 100th cache -- making a big deal out of it. In the meantime, we need to get our last few caches to bring us up to 99. Here's the problem: It seems like one area of geocaching.com says we're at 96, and another says 97. My little at-a-glance profile says we've found 97, but when I go to the page that lists all of my found geocaches, it says there are 96 listings. Any ideas about the discrepency? Help! Thanks, Jaime

Do be skeptical of that halo above Snoogans' sig graphic.

We just moved, and I have important locations (the place we're staying, my grandma's nursing home, my dad's house) marked. I tend to get lost easily. The other night I was driving home late and the exit ramp I needed was closed. I was very grateful for my GPS! My husband and I use it while driving long distances. We program in the next large city and watch it count down and estimate how long it'll take us to get there. The down side is when you run into traffic jams... and it says you won't arrive until the next day at your current speed! My kindergarten students used it while running around the playground to discover how many miles per hour they can run.

As a fairly regular lurker, I've enjoyed getting to know people's online personalities. I'm particularly interested in how one's political bent affects one's opinions and responses to posts. For example, the "frisbee rule" of thumb for cache placement seems libertarian in practice (self-government, no victimless crimes, etc). Where do you lean politically and how does that influence your take on caching? Jaime (libertarian-leaning republican)

We're moving to Ohio, and on the way we're spending a few days with relatives in Dallas. What are the best Dallas caches? If we could only choose one, which one is too good to miss?

A year ago, my husband, friend and I (all noobs) set off to find an awesome cache in the Houston area (A Bridge Too Far) by geowyz). It was summer in Houston, so we foolishly wore shorts and sandals as we waded through brush. Surprise, surprise, we got poison ivy. BAAAAAADDDDD. Both of us were covered on both legs and arms, and it took 6 weeks, 2 doctor's visits, 3 prescriptions and 2 over-the-counter medications before it went away. Fast-forward to the present time. My friend recently noticed an odd dimpled area on her upper backside. She's slim and fit, so it was abnormal. It turns out that the steroids shot she got a year ago had eaten away at her subcutaneous fat. It may return to normal over time or it may not. I guess it happens in rare cases! I sure am glad I got the steroid pills instead of the shot!

I am J. Christ in real life.

argh... can't get my image to post.

Another fark geocacher... awesome!

While it's not my place to determine reasonable usage of the site, I think the email sounds perfectly OK. It's not trying to goad a buck out of you, it's not indiscriminately sent to bulk unknown addresses, and from what you posted, it won't even effect your bandwith or email storage since it's so short. Sounds like nice people communicating on a mutual hobby... and if you decline, they'd probably be quite respectful of that. I have never gotten an email like that (to answer your question about if it's typical), but I have met up with others while caching who have extended friendly invitations to come to events. It's typical for people to reach out. If you're worried about being plagued with spam as a result of caching, you can put your mind at ease... they were probably just being nice. Jaime

No offense, but you're not Jeremy. If the guy who runs it does it for free, that says enough to me. If Jeremy came on explaining why he felt it shouldn't be free anymore, it'd be time to sit down and talk about it... but if it ain't broke, don't fix it. And if you personally feel it shouldn't be free, ante up. I pay because I think it's a great service and I've had so much fun that it's worth my money to pay. To be honest, though, I probably never would have started up if I had to pay to begin with. Cybertooth's 2 cents

Ok, there are only a handful out of several thousand that end up being confused for bombs. Here's the concern, though... I doubt the law enforcement will see it as a meaningless percentage. I think of the handful of school shootings that have impacted our schools nationwide. They've resulted in people getting suspended for uttering "I'll kill you," and kids getting suspended for bringing pencil sharpeners to school (albeit blade-like ones that are popular in some Asian countries). There are the handful of boxcutters snuck onto planes by terrorists that have resulted in knitting needles being taken from grannies. There are the handful of mysterious packages with malicious intent (unabomber, anthrax in the mail, olympic park bomb) that freak people out about any mysterious package, box or ammo can. And there are the handful of geocaches resulting in bomb-squad mobs that will encourage parks to develop no-caching rules. Unfortunately, this is the type of case where the few impact the many.

bwahahaha!

I knew a Giordano in college once. He told everyone he was dating someone when he wasn't. Jumping the gun must run in the family.

After getting a very nasty, long-lasting case of Poison Ivy last year here in Houston in the middle of summer, I've opted for scrubs. They're not super heavy-duty but they stop me from getting all scratched up. Every summer I spend a week working on houses in Mexico, and scrubs are our clothing of choice there, too.

Best Fictional Finder: Johnny Smith, Christopher Walken's character in the Dead Zone. He'd be at an event cache meeting everyone and shaking hands, and then he'd get these jolts and see where each person was going to hide their caches... there'd be no beating him for FTF!

We recently found a cache that had mini-radios, geocaching stickers, a clock/carabiner/flashlight, tongue glow tabs, and some other cool stuff. You could tell the placers had spent time and money to make it great. It had recently been placed, though. They disintegrate to baseball cards over time, and I hate to tell you, but it's not limited to poor college students. It's a part of the game. Your best bet for getting good swag is either finding a relatively new cache or going after someone who leaves cool things themselves. And, as you seem to be someone who values good swag, make sure the stuff you leave is great too. Jaime

Kindergarten teacher here... I love Shrinky Dinks. I usually buy them at Hobby Lobby, but I've also found them at Dollar Tree (cheap, cheap, cheap!), although they had designs already on them. And, in past years we've ordered off-brand shrinky dinks through art supply catalogs, but you need to be careful. Some aren't pre-scratched, so you're supposed to get sandpaper and scrub them all. PAIN IN THE NECK. What medium you use to decorate them depends on what kind you get. At Hobby Lobby, it lists what you can use on the packages. Colored pencils are the most common medium (some sets even come with them) but I love using acrylic paint markers for the vibrant color, and I prefer the kind that ends up solid white instead of opaque. It's so easy to do in the oven (they take a few minutes) that I'd never spend the money on a Shrinky Dink machine. With all that said, I've never used them for geocaching... yet. Hobby Lobby, here I come!!

Now if only my family would get over their fears of purchasing Christmas gifts on the internet... *sigh*

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I'm mostly a lurker. I'm here almost daily, and I post a little... but most of the time I just read. It seems like others have much more intense feelings about most of the issues here than I do. And there is the tendency to jump on people. Example: I had a question about caches and the environment the other day and I got pounded for asking. (Actually, some of it was funny... I got told I put the "mental" in environmental.) Anyway, it was just a question... sort-of off-the-cuff, just wondering. I was amazed at the STRONGLY negative responses... it didn't really seem like it fit with the question. So... I'm just saving up most of my time and energy for topics that are worth the onslaught. So far I haven't found any.... but I do learn a lot from reading. Jaime edit: "a question," not "an question"

The way I do it (head out every couple weeks, hit a few caches at a time here and there) it's a hobby. There's no real competition and no major physical exertion (at least for most of them). There are the big-leaguers, though, who hit billions a day, running uphill to the tops of mountains and such... yep, I'd say that's a sport. Jaime

Thanks.