NotThePainter
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Posts posted by NotThePainter
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I got it on now, and I hope this is not going to be a 'joke' interview....
if so, I'm sorry
yeah, she's aware of it. Hope it turns out ok.
Her publisher owes her big time!
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Radio, not TV.
stream it over the internet anyhow...
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Feb 13th around 6:10pm.
Sorry for the short notice, we just found out...
that's 6:10pm EST.
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We just found out minutes ago. Jeannette (angevine) will be on Boston's WBCN on geocaching.
Streaming at www.wbcn.com
Feb 13th around 6:10pm.
Sorry for the short notice, we just found out...
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It certainly sounds like it is about the numbers, isn't it?
I say make it, not all caches are meant to be easy are they?
Paul
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A good analogy would be the game/hobby/sport/activity of golf. Could you imagine a person who routinely played golf by merely throwing or kicking the ball around the course? Do you think the other golfers in the foursome would allow this? Do you think the club would allow this?
I almost took part in such a tournament!
It was a conference, unrelated to golfing, but the hotel had a course. To even up the playing field use of golf clubs was discouraged, throwing, 2x4s, whatever, was encouraged. (By encouraged, you had strokes added for using using golfing equipment and subtracted for not. For example, lets say you used a putter twice to make that putt, that would be a score of 4, but if you used a 2x4, and it took three swings, it would be a 1, since the 2x4 had a bonus to it.)
Oh yeah, beer was involved also, like you couldn't figure that out...
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A cacher in our area used to love pre-finds, maybe he still does, I don't know.
His best record that I know of was -3 days.
And note, this is not done by accompanying the hider. My bets guess is that he was using the bug in the old WAP interface.
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I had one where I used TWO trees.
The cache was hidden, of course, at GZ, about 20 to 30 feet up. I took the line (camo parachute cord) and walk about 40 to 50 feet away and sent the line up and over ANOTHER branch.
When you search GZ you didn't find the rope.
To get the line up and over the branch I tied it to a small weight. You should have heard my yell when I first got it up and it went around and around. Thought I wasn't going to place it that day.
Sadly, the area became a teenage drinking hideout and they muggle it twice then stole it.
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I have some National Geographic paper in the field, has been out for about 9 months now. The last finder reported that it is cracking! I need to go and check that out myself. Note, this piece of paper is essentially exposed to the elements but not submerged.
Paul
I think it might be damaged by sunlight. I know of one cache where NGAP was used for a stage and it became brittle and basically disintegrated.
The sun doesn't shine on this log.
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I have some National Geographic paper in the field, has been out for about 9 months now. The last finder reported that it is cracking! I need to go and check that out myself. Note, this piece of paper is essentially exposed to the elements but not submerged.
Paul
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I love how people leave little memo books in their caches. Whenever a cache is published I rush right out to get these books. If I wait, people scribble all over with crazy sounding word all mashed together.
If I hurry, I can get them blank.
Then I add them to my collection.
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Note: This is a video trailer for a book. We do make money off each copy sold but trust me, you've probably spent more on gas an your last cache raid.
It was fun to make, I had never mad a video before, don't even own a video camera! I just used the video mode on my digital camera. That's why there are lots of stills. I'm the cacher walking around and Jeannette, the author, is doing the narration.
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I hate when this happens and I'm just as guilty as the next guy.but the puzzle had a mistake in itHowever, after the 3rd mistake or so I've enlisted the aid of two avid puzzle finders, not from New England, who proofread my puzzles for me. I give them the puzzle (and the solution) and ask them to confirm that the puzzle matches the solution. Of course they try to solve it first and yes, they have caught other mistakes.
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Woo hoo!So I spent this morning solving one of NotThePainter's "easier" caches. I think I did it correctly and I didn't get a headache either lolShe got it! She even did the research that thought people would do, including finding the wikipedia page that I edited (correctly) to make the cache easier! :-)
(And sorry it took so long to get back to you, I was out caching, first one in a long while...)
Paul
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You did notice that I alphabetized the list so you don't know which technique goes with with puzzle, right?And with that post, all of New England's Puzzle Cachers sat up and took note!Paul
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To me, that's a bad puzzle. I do believe that all* of my puzzles are obviously solved once solved. In other words, if you have ask "are these the right coords" then they aren't the right coords. Of course, I don't mind people asking because it beats driving and not finding.I'm trying to solve one with three sets of variables. That gives 27 possible final locations. (A few run 7 strings of three possible answers.) With coordinate checker, a few minutes at the keyboard would give me the right answer.Of course, as others have pointed out to me, I'm so close to the solution that "obvious" to me is not "obvious" to the seeker, and yes, that's a real problem.
* one puzzle has 2 decoy solutions but once you plot them on google maps you'll find that both are in bodies of water.
Paul
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Thank you for the kind words.NotThePainter is a very well known puzzle cache maker in my area. His are some of the toughest around. Way over my head....WAY OVER.Yes, most of my puzzles are tough, but they do not require advanced knowledge. Most require critical thinking, a lot of it. You see, I often don't even have the puzzle obvious on the page. Finding the puzzle is part of the challange.
I just looked at all my puzzles, here's a list of the skills needed to solve them.
- critical thinking, detailed observation, historical research
- google
- google, insight
- grade school math
- insight, sound alike words
- inspiration, math (but distance calculation web page is given on the cache page)
- observational skills at the site and insight
- pocket calculator and knowledge of your GPS (projection)
- rubic's cube skills OR knowledge of alternate ways
- solution to other puzzle given in the forums OR google the hint
- strong insight
- tremendous insight, avoidance of decoys
- tremendous insight, grade school math
- walk 3 hours (bonus cache)
No college is needed, but a lot of thinking is needed. A lot. I expect that some of these will take 10 to 30 hours to complete. A few I expect to take only a short time. (Ash Street School, Reciprocal Determinism, Quipu)
I hear your pain. Sadly, I'm not a good teacher in large groups. I can coach individually, but I freeze up. And, this might come as a surprise, I'm not at all good at solving puzzles! There are far better people at it than I am.Paul you should hold a puzzle event. If not perhaps you run in those circles of people that could hold an event to teach cachers like myself some of the basic concepts of puzzle caches in the area. Most of the puzzle caches around here I wouldn't even know where to begin. I stare at the page and wonder what can I do with this information. My face usually looks like this .....
or this One of mine is archived, I'll tell you how to solve it. Ground Zero for 80 Feet of Waterline Nicely Making Way was on the MIT campus, you would find a very large outdoor scupture by Alexander Calder there. The cache page tells to you get info off the plaque and to find two other plaques on campus but here's the hard part, I don't tell you where to find those places or what you'll find there.
If you start googling the sculpture, eventually you'll find out that there is a second, smaller, copy of the sculpture on campus. That's the location of one of the plaques. But where is the other? Keep on googling and eventually you'll find that the smaller one was moved from its original location in front of Building 9. Building 9? Yeah, MIT has a peculiar way of using building numbers, not names. So you next need to find a map of campus.
Then you gather the data from the plaques, do pocket calculator math, and you are at ground zero.
The hide itself was also very difficult.
Sadly, I needed to archive it. It was one of my favorite puzzles.
But notice the common thread here, thinking, that is what is needed to solve this one.
Actually, I am from MIT, I'll admit that. But Critical thinking is not something that you cannot learn later in life. Just like working out at the gym, working your mind makes it stronger. Start with the easy ones and keep at it. Start with Reciprocal Determinism. This one is a bit easier because I give you 2 numbers. You need to transform those numbers into coordinates. I'll glady help you along. (Plus there is a TB in the cache that the owner wants moved!)This is Massachusetts...seems like everyone in this sport around here has a degree from MIT...seems like everyone is an engineer of some sort. Critical thinking skills is something I never learned in high school that's for sure.Paul
- critical thinking, detailed observation, historical research
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Well said. Agree completely. Although I love corresponding with cachers and making new friends, there are lots of ways to do that.
Yes, exactly! There are lots of ways to do that. Events are one of them. That's why my wife and I host multiple, well attended, events per year.
Given that, this is one way to correspond with cachers and it is one way that I have chosen to do so.
Paul
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Paul, if a checker is impersonal than so is a traditional cache that gives you the coordinates on the cache page.
I guess it is just an imperfect world.
A checker is nice because you don't have to wait. You can solve it and go! Plus if you make a silly mistake the checker let's you know instantly.Anticipation intensifies. Not everything is instant.
I often correspond with my seekers for weeks before they solve the puzzle.
Before checkers were around I had many cases where people didn't respond and it was annoying. If you were gone on vacation without a PC what would people do?I always bring my Macintosh with me on vacation, and I always make sure I have WIFI access. Hmm, next summer I'll actually be camping for a week w/o electricity. Guess I shoud disable my caches...
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I'm an avid puzzle cache hider and I do not put coordinate checkers on my pages.
Why?
Simple, I enjoy corresponding with the seekers of my cachers. I've made many friends along way doing this. I met my best caching buddy (and non-caching buddy!) this way. I think the coordinate checkers a bit impersonal.
However, I always, always, always respond to coordinate checking questions. That is just rude. However, you might want to give the puzzle hider the benefit of the doubt, they might not always be online.
As for difficulty, yes, mine are hard. Some of them are very hard and those ones are meant to be hard to find. Some enjoy the challenge, some don't. I heard from one cacher who liked thinking about my puzzles when under going his chemotherapy, took his mind off it. I know this means that many won't seek them. That's ok, I'm fine with that. There are caches out there for everyone.
Paul
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dude, thats awesome. is that a cache? i want to do it!!
Of course it is a cache:
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Not a hard and fast rule - can you say "guideline"? I have one that is over 14 miles from the final, but there was a valid reason so it was allowed.
I'm at 36 miles. I explained why I needed to be that far away and the reviewers agreed. Obvously, it isn't found too much but I came across a situation that just cried out for a cool puzzle, might be the only place in the USA, at least one of the few places, where this worked out.
Curiously, the final has the possibility of messing with the reviewers secret database. I was told that it is possible that someone might place a cache within 1/10 mile and they wouldn't know.
Paul
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or maybe something like this?
or this
Geocaching on WBCN, Boston,
in General geocaching topics
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Anybody got a good stream of it? I was recording it and the internet hiccup'd a few too many times.
Oh man, her publisher so owes her big time.
A bad comedian interviewer? Yikes...
You know, maybe I don't need the mp3, never mind.