bons
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Posts posted by bons
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Wow. I wish my trip was under 750 miles...
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Note: I was having trouble getting a pocket query named "post 4-20-2004" (and similar variations).
I changed the name to "arrggghhh" (or something like that).
It worked perfectly.
Are '-' symbols in the query name a bad idea?
Edit: nevermind. They're showing up now. A few days late, but they're here.
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I truely don't understand the point of this thread. Were you just bored?
Actually it was a response to this quote:
Never anything that requires AAA batteries.Similar comments have been made in various threads regarding the Geko and the fact that they use AAA batteries.
It struck me that a number of people here had a distinct preference for their electronics being AA instead of AAA and it seemed more appropriate for me to ask about that in a separate thread than to derail yet another thread.
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Thanks CO Admin. That's a bigger difference than I realized.
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While I would normally be all over the 101 especially because of the price and because you say he'll never download waypoints, for the technically challenged I agree with Brian, get the 201. It has two big advantages for the technically challenged.
1) You can plug it into a $8 cigarette adaptor and keep your batteries from dying as you drive.
2) Someone else can download waypoints into it for him.
I don't mind entering my own waypoints. I'm not going to hunt that many caches on a weekend so I don't need the ability to download 500 waypoints in order to look for 10. But if it was someone else's GPS, I'd rather just dump it fill of waypoints and forget about it.
It's not hard to set up a PQ for someone, set up their box so that opening the file will open GSAK and teach them how to load the waypoints onto their GPS from GSAK.
Sure, someone else has to do all the setup, but for the technically challenged it may be worth it.
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Personally, I'm a AAA kind of guy. My Geko is AAA. My headlamp is AAA. My radios are AAA. My mp3 player is AAA. I'm just bringing a bulk pack of AAA batteries to Sax Man's campout so I don't have to worry about things.
My camera is AA unfortunately. So there goes my hope of "1 spare battery to rule them all!"
Now while I understand that AA's last longer, I don't really know how much longer they last. All I know they're bigger, the units that use them are bigger, and I really like my electronics to be tiny.
So what's the preferences and the reasoning behind them? I'd like to claim that I use AAA because everything I own uses AAA (or it's own internal rechargeable), but that dang camera is the exception (it's on rechargeable AA). And if you like AA because they last longer, out of curiosity just how much longer do they last?
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"Compass Rose" is a good term to google by if you want more information.
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I always prefer to err on the side of a travel bug traveling.
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You seem to read much more into other's comments.
I guess you're right. I'll have to work on that. Thanks.
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I'm pretty sure that the Chicago Housing Authority does not go out of it's way to segregate the low-income population into housing projects by race. The only consistant is low income. I did not read racist intentions into Uper's post, and if you did maybe you have the wrong perspective.
You're right. It's wrong to treat someone differently because they're of a different race. Now are you telling me it's right to treat someone differently because they're of a different income level? Or am I reading something else into what you're saying?
Maybe it's just wrong to treat people differently. Maybe people from cabrini green should be treated just like you and I want to be treated.
I wonder if we could learn to do just that.
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but i respond to how i have been treated. that's just the way it is. i'm sure i am not the only one.
That's right. And as geocachers we have to remember that because we need to remember how we're really treating others.
Watching those people around you carefully? That's fine. They're going to wonder why and they're going to act differently as a result. They may end up behaving in a manner that causes you to become even more suspicious of them, because they suddenly take a much greater interest in you.
Unfortunately that's what many people don't want. Both as geocachers and as people out having a good time. They don't want someone else to take a greater interest in them. It makes them uncomfortable.
People here don't like being treated as possible terrorist or criminals (no offense meant criminal). They want the right to go out in the park and enjoy their harmless hobby of choice without being viewed with suspicion. The simple truth is no one else wants to be viewed with suspicion either. They also don't like being insulted.
So maybe we need to find a way of being aware without viewing others with suspicion or thinking of them as snakes that walk on two legs.
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Some areas of the US are so lacking in snakes that they are trying to reintroduce them. My kids really panicked when they read this article.
MC
...they plan to import about 10,000 rattler eggs which will be hidden at strategic places in the designated areas around Easter time.Suddenly 4000 Yellow Jeep travel bugs pale in comparison.
"Found Snakebite cache. Left Rattler Travel Bug. Left snake bite kit. Took off."
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it's not an insult unless it's done to their face.
The number of people upset by the "get a life" news report says otherwise. It's a behavior that as a group we refused to tolerate when it was done to us. Because of that, it's a behavior I don't want to see us get into.
If everyone had just blown that one off, I wouldn't care. But they couldn't and they didn't. They wanted the man's job for what he said. Because of that I belive we now have a responsibilty to behave in a manner that we request of others.
i trust no one when i am out caching alone. i don't care if they are wearing a suit and tie, or jeans and sneakers. being alert everywhere you go is the way it is in some places. reality bites but it's the way the world is now.Now that's a statement I can agree with, and one I don't think the original poster was getting across with their example.
The teenagers were doing exactly as you suggested. They were being alert and they weren't trusting someone. It just turns out that the person they didn't trust was a geocacher.
Given that geocachers tend to behave a bit suspiciously and oddly in public by trying to be sneaky this sort of behavior leads to a number of problems. There's a good chance perfectly normal people are going to behave oddly around you. They're going to watch you. And if these people belong to a class of people that you don't trust because of race (see the above cabrini green example), age (see the first post regarding teenagers), profession (see the first post regarding the teenagers behavior towards a police officer), or some other factor, it's easy to decide to distrust them all the more.
So in addition to being alert to your surroundings and the people around you, please be alert to your behavior, and how your actions and reactions may be perceived by those around you, because if we can use "the way the world is now" to justify our suspicions of others, they are allowed to use "the way the world is now" to justify their suspicions of us.
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I've noticed that on theose days that the local first finders don't make a run for it, no one else steps up to take their place. Just because they stay home in bed doesn't mean someone else will choose that day to be up to the challenge.
On the other hand, A willingness to go without sleep for an entire night and a desire to night cache may produce some good results. Pure luck doesn't hurt either. And some multi- / mystery caches even the odds by being too difficult to easily do in a single trip.
Edit: I realized I needed to add something here.
Being a first finder is sometimes uniquely rewarding. What's particularly rewarding about it is that it is a competition against others. When the others step aside and try it a week later, it's no where near as fun as the realization that you beat them there by an hour. Sure your pants are torn, you're covered in mud, and you have geocuts from things you would have easily avoided had it been daylight, but you beat them by an hour.
Winning in a race against no one else doesn't really give you the same rush.
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My apologies. Apparently it is within forum guidelines to insult anyone as long as they are a non-member and not here to defend themselves.
Remember, people who watch you are "snakes". Don't trust them. You should be careful by watching them as well. Watching them doesn't make you a snake. That's because you're the good guy. You can tell you're the good guy because good guys watch people, judge them, and tell everyone else how bad the bad people are just in case the bad people didn't actually do anything bad this time.
This message has been brought to you by the American Association of Law Enforcement Officers. "To protect, serve, and get away with behavior we wouldn't tolerate if it was done to us."
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I don't know you and you don't know me... so we have the disadvantage of not knowing what the other person is like which means I don't know what I should be reading into your response.
You didn't know the kids but that didn't stop you from making judgement calls about them and talking about them in an accusatory manner on a public forum.
They did nothing to you, didn't break the law, didn't harm your property, and yet you feel they deserve to be referred to as "snakes" on a public forum.
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Looks like you missed two I markwelled earlier:
These two caches lie close enough to each other that you might as well see them both on the same trip. I did. And within that day are two stories I'll never forget.
Legend says that a farmer was out plowing his field when a group of Union soldiers marched by headed to fight in the Civil War. Feeling patriotic, the farmer leaned his plow against a bur oak tree and joined the soldiers in battle.
The farmer never returned and nearly 130 years later we can still see this part of history marked inside the bur oak tree where the plow remains.
This stately tree was planted accidentally by a surveyer as he established the line between Audubon and Cass counties. To mark the line he cut a branch from a cottonwood tree nearby.Being a wet spring,the branch rooted and grew. The century old tree still stands in the center of the crossroads today.
When you go over the crest of the hill and see this tree in front of you, your breath is taken away. Nothing really prepares you for this sight.
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If you're going to be on I-80 between Des Moines and Omaha, make plans (and take a close look at the maps because there's no exist for the second one, just a lot of dirt roads) and give yourself and extra hour or two for these caches. They're worth the time and trip.
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I had forgotten my tent was this large....
Am I going to have to clear a large space for you up on the mesa or will your tent fit in the general population?
No. But if we run out of parking, I know where I can park my PT Cruiser during the day.
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I walked down the trail a ways and kept watch on them (I could see they were watching me). I was wearing a shirt that I had gotten from a K9 Nationals competition (it has a shefiff's star on front and a K9 on back with some large writing about K9 Nationals).
Sorry. You're walking around in a cop shirt and you're wondering why teenagers are watching you?
Let me think about it.
1) Because in their eyes, you're a cop. That makes you an enemy and a dangerous one at that.
2) Because they can see that you're watching them just like you can see that they're watching you.
From what I'm reading they treated you no differently than you treated them, and yet you're referring to them as "snakes"? You both didn't trust the other, you both watched the other, and you both were probably grateful when the other side left.
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There is just so much bad infromation in this thread I can't possible correct it all.
After the way this thread was started you were looking for good information?
The people with good information are three threads over ignore this snipefest.
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I had forgotten my tent was this large....
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http://www.geocaching.com/about/guidelines.aspx#vacation
Placing Caches on Vacation / Beyond Your Maintainable DistancePlacing caches on vacation or outside of your normal caching area is unacceptable and these caches may not be approved. As the cache owner you are obligated to be in a position to manage your caches, and caches placed on vacation require someone else to maintain them for you. It is not uncommon for areas to be cleared, trails to be blocked or closed, objects used for virtual or multi-caches to be moved or removed, etc. You must be able to react to negative cache logs and investigate the location quickly. Please be responsible. This guideline applies to all types of caches including virtual caches.
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Tent is getting seam sealed tonight. Other than that it's just food and clothing. Everything else is good to go.
Canfields had a really nice screen set on sale for $40, so that's already loaded in the car.
Should I bring my mountain bike (I have a ton of room) or not bother?
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Any one of a hundred reasons including:
1) "Think of the children!"
2) "Someone might find it."
3) Licking County (whose parks department got bent out of shape due to finding a geocache with a pen knife inside it) - Talk to Keystone Approver about that one.
The above 3 all have various permutations that basicly means that banning knives makes things easier for the find people at Groundspeak to be able to deal with some of the basic fears of park organizations and other organizations who have a fear about allowing geocaching.
It's always struck me as a "grease policy". It makes things go easier. It may not be necessary, but it makes people happy and shows a willingness to work with people who have a concern. That's why, even if I don't agree with it, I'm willing to agree to it.
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I prefer to leave it in the packaging. But some of the packaging just has to go. The new Highway 35 hotwheels are fine if you limit yourself to the dome shaped container, but the complete set of packaging is just insane.
I won't leave a McToy (or a McPedometer) unless it's still in the original wrapper.
I've taken multi-tools out of the packaging in order to make sure they're bladeless. I also have a nice folding tool kit (under $5 for a lot of tools) that I'll take out of the wrapper simply because it's a lot smaller folded up and easier to carry.
Terrorist Threat
in General geocaching topics
Posted · Edited by bons
You mean things like people sneaking in the woods and hiding containers for ammo and weaponry or maybe people carefully hiding things under park benches or taking photographs of buildings or large structures?
I can see the FBI knocking on CarleenP's door right now.
I'll pass on this one. I'd rather land in the home of the free than the home of the secure.