NotThePainter
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Posts posted by NotThePainter
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My favorite log that I left has to do with a fear of mine.
Dogs.
I don't like them. I was attacked as a child and again later as an adult. We just don't mix well.
So I'm hunting, alone in some suburban woods, I find the container and open it to write my log.
Woof woof woof howl close by!
"Dogs. Must flee. NotThePainter"
was all I wrote.
And then I fled.
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I have etrex H, not that hard to name a waypoint.
That's great to hear! It does seem like that is the best "value" out there.
Thank you.
Paul
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As an avid cacher I've been enlisted by a friend to buy a GPS for her son for Christmas. I have 2 guidelines: 1) good for Geocaching and 2) under $100.
I started out with a Magellen Sportrak, loved the sensitivity under the trees and I could deal with the classic "overshoot" issue. I went to the Garmin 60csx for mapping and the promised Macintosh support.
That was while ago. I just read a bunch of forum postings and it seems that Garmin has taken a high sensitivity chip and put in some of the cheaper models.
The Etrex H looks perfect except some forum posters have said that it is tough to name waypoints in the field, and I know that that is done a lot while geocaching. The Venture HC looks great, but it is pricey.
So I report these findings and was told "used on ebay" is ok.
So now what? The Venture HC is on the used market yet, my venerable 60csx is still way too expensive.
What is a good geocaching GPS for under $100 used?
Thanks.
Paul
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I'd give up on the prizes. My wife and I have hosted 6 events. We initially sought out sponsors and got some pretty good swag (backpacks, $50 gift certificates, etc...) but we had to stop. Our sponsor wanted us to put a link to their website on the cache event page and TPTB wouldn't let us. We had to let the sponsor go.
On the other hand, the event is a lot more stress-free now, so that is a plus and nobody really does seem to mind that the give aways aren't there.
If you are doing it at a restaurant, make sure that the staff knows that you are not responsible for the bill. Tell them to give each table a bill. Aside from tipping the waitstaff, I've never had to pay a dime. I did have to help track down one cacher who forgot to pay, he was mortified when he realized it.
Just my $0.02.
Paul
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I went out to hunt this cache today.
Awesome, thanks for the update. I love the tiny log that a previous cacher obviously left behind. Lets just hope it doesn't start forming a natural dadgum again...
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I hope I'm not beating a dead horse, but I don't understand... I never tried to find caches before they were published. At one time I was frustrated by that however. But that really belongs in the other topic.Wandering off topic. Am I reading your profile right? No more FTFs before being published?Paul
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The step up to the bottom horizontal of the bridge is just that, a single step up. If there was a second rung, and there isn't, you would hit your head on the bottom of the bridge. This is not a death defying climb.
Check out this photo.
The horizontal beam can be seen to the troll's right. This isn't the one you step up on, that is closer to the center of the creek. And the water is incredibly low in this shot. You can see the dam behind the troll, that is gone now. Seem the horizontal beam at the top? That is the height the cache is at.
It is an easy slope to downward through very light brush to get to the creek.
The water changes in depth a lot, depending on the rain. At its lowest you can just walk in and it won't cover your boots, at it's deepest, it is about 2 feet, below the knees for sure.
Hey cache_test, you made me laugh, helps with the Sox game, thanks!
The area has changed for the better but you pretty much have to get wet to get it now. Before the area was repaired you could walk across the natural dam. This was, in my opinion, harder, but drier. So the bulk of the finders have done the cache without wading. (Interestingly, some earlier finders, when the dam wasn't in place, chose to climb down from the top! Others built bridges out of dead trees.)
The cache itself is pretty much out in the open, just sitting on the top horizontal timber.
And yes, I probably am being too sensitive... Thanks for listening.
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This happens in my neck of the woods also. I don't get it...
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My first hide , hidden almost 3 years ago, has recently recieved 2 complaints about the "rating" being too low.
The cache has difficulty 1.5 and a terrain of 2.5. The attributes include "not suitable for children" and "may require wading."
To reach the cache, you walk down a short (1/4 mile?) unpaved rails to trails path. At GZ you find an old railroad bridge crossing a creek.
The cache is tucked up under the timbers of the bridge. There are many ways to reach it, but the easiest is to wade about 5 to 10 feet through water than is probably less than 2 feet deep and then step up onto the timbers of the bridge. While holding on with one hand you reach up and retrieve the cache with the other.
The area has changed recently, there used to be a natural dam of sticks that you could walk across if you had good balance and then walk across the horizontal beam of the bridge. The dam is now gone. (The dam was not there when I placed the cache.) I think it is easier to wade, but of course you have to get wet.
Am I wronng in my terrain rating? It seems awfully easy for a 3. It is meant to give you a mild challenge. Most people who log it seem to like it. But 2 complaints in a row have got me second guessing.
Thanks!
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I first coined the term FTFP when I became aware of how one could use dropped TBs in unpublished caches to find the cache before it was published. I thought that that method was crude but I was assured it was possible.
I later, with another cacher investigated how the old WAP web service could be used to narrow down "scheduled to be published" caches quite accurately.
(A "scheduled to be published" cache is a real cache whose publication date is held, typically at the behest of the hider, usually to coincide with an event. A reviewer, seen here on the forums, assures me that this isn't possibe, but I know what I saw in the WAP interface.)
Anyway, that's why I coined the term, it wasn't for "by brother-in-law placed it" or "published elsewhere first" type caches. It was for 2 ways I know of to game the system. At first I was pretty upset by it, but I later realized that the guy doing it was just playing a different game than I was, we just called our games by the same name. So I changed the name of my game.
Being upset by the actions of others is a sure path to angst. I prefer to be happy.
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I think that's exactly why NotThePainter coined the phrase FTFP. The term was meant to just acknowledge the difference between the first to actually sign the log, and the first to sign the log after the cache was published without appearing judgemental.
The term never really caught on, though.
It hasn't? Drat, I guess I need a new license plate then...
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and since she is a lot taller than I am, she had an easier time -- she was actually able to reach up and hold the base of the bridge for support while walking across the dammed-up sticks. I couldn't reach anything to hold on to, and had had to practically crawl across to avoid falling!
and you know what? When they fixed the big holes they also removed the dam. You now have to wade, like I intended it, or be really acrobatic!
Thanks for telling me about it, that's why we hiders place them.
Paul
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reviving a 2 year old thread....
The holes were mysteriously fixed recently! I guess waiting 2 years paid off. Glad I kept the cache in place, I just read over most of the logs, 2 years of fun.
This is what caching is about.
Paul
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I love really junky trade items...
Trade Up, Trade Even, or Don't Trade At All
Ok, maybe not "love" but I did get good use out of one piece of junk.
Paul
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I guess I have 2 things to say. One thing that Jeannette has taught me is that I should not base my happiness on the actions of others, that way lies grief.
The second, for those that say "I can't be creative on all my logs." With the exception of lame caches, yes you can, you owe it to the hider. Witness on of my more recent, and silly logs.
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/log.aspx?LU...34-62d03112cf7b
That's just what I was thinking about before, during, and after the cache run.
Paul
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You don't have to make your cache a micro to place it in a city. The secret is good camo and urban camo means thinking like an urban object.
I placed two caches in Cambridge, one across the river from you. One is gone now but it almost lived two years. The one was was gone was a water bottle on a bike locked to a public bike rack. The bottle was colored in the GC colors and was even labeled with the cache's name. Some pretty experienced cachers didn't find it. (And no, it didn't stick out in the winter, people bike in Cambridge all year round. I used to commute in the snow on my bike, ahhh, to be young and stupid again...)
The second cache is still out there, so I won't tell you what the container is. But one cacher actually held it is his hand and put it back, not realizing it was the cache. That cache is disabled now. The container failed after about 2 years and I've not yet replaced it.
So, be clever, you'll find great places to put a cache.
Paul
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We used to hold raffles at our 3 times a year Bread and Roses event. We had a corporate sponsor that donated knapsacks and $50 gift certificates. We did NOT sell tickets, we just gave the stuff away.
Recent Groundspeak policy changes made it so we were not allowed to mention our sponsor on the event page so we had to stop giving away stuff. Shame...
(And yes, I'm whining, I know...)
Paul
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My favorite story involves doing a sunrise FTFP with my son. Easy FTFP, we come home. Check email and yeah, another one, but we are late!
We head out and are third to arrive. This is a multi with about 6 legs or so. We catch up the second to arrive and chat (we all knew each other), we agree that we should cooperate until we reach the final, then it is everyone for him self.
We get to the second to last stage and can't find it. But we see the first to arrive cacher at the final location. I realize that we really don't need the last digit, if I assume it is a 5, I'll be what, something like 30-50 feet off? My son and I talk it over with second to arrive, he stays, he wants accurate coords. We go to our fake GZ.
We greet First to Arrive, chat some and start looking. She's been looking for awhile.
Second to arrive gets the last coord (which we don't ask for). We're all looking.
Cache owner shows up. We chat a bit and get back to looking.
My son makes the find.
We all agreeed that he was first to find, not shared. He was pretty excited. (Normally we share them we we go out on the sunrise ones.)
The secret? Talking with the other cachers.
We all had a great time, and met fourth and fifth to arrive we we got back to the parking lot.
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And, Paul, since it sounds like it was you who made this free geocaching video, it sounds like you must have some videographic skills. So, let me ask you right up front: when are you gonna make a video about something REALLY important, like the fact that the alien grays and their cohorts the reptoid reptilians have been in cahoots with the Illuminati, the Bilderberg Cabal, the Trilateral Commission and the Freemasons for many hundreds of years to control the destiny of this planet and to force the evil rule of the satanic New World Order on all the peoples of this earth, so that they may achieve their alien goals -- much as stated so eloquently by General Jack D. Ripper in the amazing documentary film Dr. Strangelove -- of damaging the purity of our bodily fluids? Huh?
They have ordered me not to publish it and to destroy all copies. I wish you could have a seen it. It was an eye-opener. But lets just say that they made me an offer I really couldn't refuse.
Paul
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Yeah, it is private property, I know...
But I'd place a magnetic micro about halfway up the Green Monster at Fenway Park.
Paul
Oh, I just read the link. It isn't metal. It sure sounds metal when the ball hits it. I guess I'd have to be clever about attaching then.
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Yeah, it is private property, I know...
But I'd place a magnetic micro about halfway up the Green Monster at Fenway Park.
Paul
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More seriously, what is this about a video? You mentioned something about a video connected with the book, and I had not heard of that. Can you tell me more?
There is a growing trend to make a video trailer for book releases. The book came out about a month early and my 5 week deadline was compressed into one week!
You can see the video by going to the book's page on Jeannette's web site and then clicking the video trailer link.
And yes, that devilishly handsome guy in the video is also me.
Paul
(and life is slowing down again, I actually got time to fix two of my caches this weekend and may even go out again soon, yahoo!)
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Thanks for the kind words everybody. I do need to set the record straight on one thing. Jeannette didn't come up with the coin idea, I did. Sorry if it offends. It was meant in fun.
You see, I have 2 uses for coins. I give away BackBrakeBilly puzzle coins as FTFP prizes for my caches (I bought sets when made and have since obtained another set on ebay, yike$)
I also have personal coins. You get to log my personal coins if you:
1) meet me on the trail (not at an event, on the trail.
2) meet me on a FTFP run
3) buy me a beer
Yeah, you gotta pony up a Bass Ale or micro-brew IPA to log that last one! So I came up with the idea of "buy the book, log the coin" and later what I thought would be humorously, "Review the book, log the coin." Little did I know what controversy it would cause. Sometimes I should just keep my big ol' mouth shut. I still don't get the whole "virtual coin" controversy. I've seen pages of coin IDs handed out at events, nary a coin in sight, and that's ok, but... oh well, I'll just be quite now.
Anyway, I think someone asked about buying. If I tell you how, I'd have to kill you. Actually, if I told you how I'd get the thread locked, don't want to do that now, do we? But as you might imagine, the big online retailers all have it but if you buy from Jeannette Cezanne (just paste that phrase into google...) you'll not only help out a cacher just a wee bit more but you'll also get it autographed!
And finally, yeah, that's me on the cover and in the video. Who knew my 15 minutes would only last about 4. It was a thrash making the video but a lot of fun. And who knew that two separate women, neither of them Jeannette, would call me both "eye candy" and a "hottie!" Man, I was floating for days!
Paul (anxious to get out geocaching again now that the book is out!)
puzzle coordinates
in General geocaching topics
Posted
It was not in his driveway, it was his front lawn.
He was amused that his cleared radius was 24 feet however...
Paul