Steve&GeoCarolyn

Actually, Carl Jung, Sigmond Freud, and probably many others have studied it. But that's about the extent of my knowledge beyond my own observations. Lately, there's been a bunch of research in neuroscience on the salience of pictures vs. words that's really interesting but I am also sadly ignorant. It is one of several areas I think would be fascinating to do graduate work in. (Unfortunately, my beloved points out that being fascinated by a variety of fields is not the way to get a Ph.D., which is an exercise in narrowing one's interests.) I am not certain that fear is the animating emotion. It could be for some people, but my guess is that there is a melange of negative emotions stirred up by that symbol. Carolyn

That is a fascinating question, isn't it? Why are pictures so much more powerful than words? Even symbols, which are not quite like real pictures? My guess is that it has to do with how far it is removed from reality. A picture is one level removed from the real. You're not seeing the real thing, but your mind doesn't have to do too much to evoke it because the picture is in front of you. Words are two levels removed from the real since they have to both evoke the picture in your mind and translate that into your understanding of reality. So does that mean that pictographic alphabets are more evocative? Wouldn't it be wonderful to have the time and money to study this? Carolyn

Thus, extremely provocative. Carolyn

Even if everyone reading this becomes enlightened today and realizes that the symbol is not the reality, the map is not the territory, and words are just pretty puffs of air, it doesn't address what happens when someone opens this cache in the field. That is the real question here. Is this symbol too redolent with malice to be used? Or has enough time moved on that no one would be offended? My guess is that a cache in Missouri would find few people offended but that there would still be a small number who would be. The same cache in New Jersey or Illinois would have a different audience and probably more negative reactions. Putting the cache in Germany would probably be extremely provocative. Know your audience and be careful with your words and symbols. And yes, a local reviewer would be an excellent resource for checking on these things. Carolyn

Offended is too strong a word, but it would make me uncomfortable. We had a similar challenge when we put together a murder mystery party set in Algiers during WWII and we ended up avoiding symbols that would evoke a strong bad reaction. We also reduced the level of horror by side-stepping the issue of what the refugee characters were running from. We wanted to make sure that people would enjoy the evening. We wanted them to be caught up by the story, but not triggered into personal bad associations or feelings of horror. The problem with symbols like the swastika or the burning cross is that they are not yet symbols of our barbaric past. They are symbols with resonance today and are used by modern groups whose goals and beliefs I find disagreeable. As to those who complain that the symbol was appropriated from Hindu symbolism and misused, that is true. But we must deal with the meaning of symbols as they are used in our culture and in the context we have. I really doubt that the OP wants to signal Hinduism with his use of the swastika, nor do I think that most people finding his cache would be making that association. So I think the origin of the symbol (whether India or Persia or Ancient Greece) is besides the point. If it were me, I would find another way. Symbols are powerful and sometimes they can overpower the story you are trying to tell with your puzzle cache. Carolyn

We've found ants, termites, slugs, spiders, millipedes, ticks, and other bugs I cannot name in caches, however, we've never found roaches in caches. That said, you can spot our enormous Memphis roaches wobbling along on sidewalks like fat-bellied drunkards. They are totally unafraid of people, so I suspect that we will someday find one in a cache. Carolyn

I don't think it has as much to do with a kind heart than it does with how you think about geocaching. I think it depends on what your goal is, what game you are playing within geocaching. For example, I feel no frustration when I don't get a FTF because that's not part of the interior game I'm playing. But one of the true FTF hounds might feel quite frustrated at that failure to be first. As a newbie, it has been incredibly useful to me to try out the various games people play within geocaching (FTF, Numbers Runs, High Terrain collectors, etc.) and to figure out what my interior game is. I want the story. I want something I can write up in my log as an adventure or funny story. I want photos that are beautiful or unusual. Last weekend we DNF'd one cache and found two others. I was pretty excited by the first DNF because it was attached to an adventure and the coordinates led us to a good place to photograph. I had something to write about! The other two caches were less exciting, even though we found them. I got good photos from all three, so overall the day was a win for me. Had we found three unexceptional hides with no adventure and scant photo opportunities, I would have been frustrated because I would be failing at my personal game. Carolyn

But they are concerned about "lying" in only one direction, aren't they? I met someone who says that for quite a while he never logged micros. He found them, but didn't bother to log them. So his numbers are probably wildly inaccurate. Does anyone care about this kind of inaccuracy? Not that I can tell. My personal policy is that I don't log hides that I can't say something nice about or don't remember well enough to write up a log entry. So if I have honestly logged (according to purist doctrine) 100 finds and haven't logged another 20 finds that I found dull or unmemorable, am I dishonest? Can you trust my numbers? Clearly not since they don't include the caches I decided not to log. But from what I can tell from the forum discussions, no one is at all concerned about people whose numbers skew downwards because of selective or slip-shod logging. Carolyn

It's random bits, including little shavings and bark. It's rather shiny (always looks "wet"), which can be good or bad depending on location. Here I glued a large mat of rubber mulch to the lid of a small lock-n-lock, and put on its side, among tree roots. My next step would be to rip it to fit (you can do that on-site). EDIT: The stuff takes a little camo paint just fine, which reduces shininess. Hadn't tried it til just now, since it's rubber, and I thought it wouldn't paint well. I have tried various glues, and it seems fine with Goop or whatever you want. If you want to have a lot of overhang, back it up with something to reinforce it, otherwise it can rip. Here it's glued to a small lock-n-lock, and those are pretty easy to hide anyway. That looks great, Kunarion! I can think of a number of places the shininess would work here. However, my Lowes store is clearly defective since they didn't have this stuff. I shall have to look elsewhere. Thanks for sharing this. Carolyn

I should warn you that while I am willing to join your nefarious cult of Mossy Ammo Can Creators (MACC), I draw the line at cuddling with pythons or poking alligators. Even cultists have limits. Thank you for the additional information. I have now gone to Lowes and picked up Spanish moss and various other things. I will still need to get the green moss and I'm thinking of adding some local dried bark, twigs, and leaves to the mix. Carolyn

It's a maintenance issue. Over time, the bits of moss snap off at or near the roof repair caulk. I swap out a new one for the old one every couple years, then reapply caulk/moss to the old one. Recycling at its best. This can was pulled after about 26 months in the field: Thank you! That doesn't seem bad at all for 26 months and I'm sure that as voracious as the environment here is, the swamps you traverse are probably even more so. So, I will soon be paying a trip to our local craft store so that I too can have a mossy ammo box. Carolyn

EVINCE does that. If you make one mistake it delays your next attempt by five minutes. If you blow the second try it takes something like eight hours before you can make another attempt. It is frustrating when it turns out that you miskeyed rather than made a mistake in the puzzle. But it is still better to use EVINCE than it is to make an unrealized mistake and walk into someone's backyard while following the little arrow on the GPS. (Lesson learned: the GPS is not always right and we are not as smart at puzzles as we think we are.) Carolyn

Do you do many puzzle caches? I do those four things for most of the caches I find. However, there are some caches where a photograph would immediately give away the answer to the puzzle. For those I keep the photos to myself. Carolyn

Carolyn, If you're looking for something that doesn't wilt, you can get artificial mulch. It comes in a couple of colors, and there's a pine straw version, and "wood chips", all made of rubber. That sounds pretty cool! Where do you find it? Carolyn

Good advice! I would go a bit further. Embrace your DNFs for the adventure they are. Some of my best days have been in searches where we ended up with a DNF. Also, the find is sweeter after a few DNFs. Carolyn

The easiest way is to go to this page: http://www.geocaching.com/wpt/ Then just choose the format you have, enter your coordinates in that format, and click the Change Waypoint button. It will show the coordinates in a variety of different formats. The best thing to do is to set up your Magellan to match the way Geocaching.com does the coordinates. I don't know how to do that in the Magellan but I'm sure someone else does. Carolyn

I also thank you for the demo. How well do those things hold up in the wet swampy (or partial swampy) areas? We see things revert to nature at an alarming pace here. So we are wondering whether the moss would just turn to compost within a few months. Carolyn

You will have to get a Myfinds query and upload it and then export to HTML and revise your account page each time you want to update your stats. You can only do this once per week, though. If I only have one find in a week, I will sometimes wait until the next week to update stats. Carolyn

Yay! Congrats on getting your stats up. I enjoy mine. Carolyn P.S. No need to feel dumb. It took me a few hours to get the hang of the stats thing.

Strange to say, but the only IM I use these days is one for work and iChat with my beloved when we're working a puzzle cache together and need to send info. However, you are free to use my email as a chat mechanism. Go to my profile page and email me from there and I'll respond. It would help if you would send me your zip file and I'll take a look. Carolyn

I don't carry reading glasses since they would quickly be covered in mud from my hands and lost. What I use instead is a small magnifying glass with a built in light that I bought from Walgreens for $10. It's been quite handy, especially when reading the numbers off travel bugs. Since it is in my pack, I only remove it when I need it and I put it away when I'm done. Carolyn

Did you unzip it? It seems counter-intuitive to me, but you must upload the zipped file you get from Groundspeak and not the unzipped version. Try that. Carolyn

Most of the gators I encounter are 6' long or less. Not a true threat to an adult human. There have been rare instances where a larger alligator has dined on a person, but for the most part, they will avoid you. The obvious exceptions are mating season and when Momma is sitting on a nest. So long as you pay attention to your surroundings, and keep a mental note on the calendar, you'll be fine. Thank you for your reply. I find this a great relief since I long to see the swamps along the bayou and the Everglades. I have been told that they are even more beautiful than the swamps here, which are already breathtaking. However, the thought of alligators has been a bit of a concern. I shall study up before planning a trip there so that I know to avoid mating and reproductive season and plan to enjoy the swamps. BTW, I read your snake story to my beloved and he sends his thanks to you for getting the python home to his owner. (He is sympathetic to homeless snakes and worries that they will be killed by the authorities whenever they hit the news in such a spectacular fashion.) And now I will stop hijacking the gun thread with all this critter talk. Carolyn

It's a third-party sort of thing. You can use GSAK (Windows), GCStatistic (Mac), or one of the various web pages that will do it for you like MyGeocachingProfile.com (which is what I use). Before they can give you cool statistics to put on your profile, you need to go to your pocket queries on geocaching.com<http://www.geocaching.com/pocket/> and ask for the MyFinds file to be sent to you. You can get this file sent once a week. Then you upload this to your chosen tool and they give you stats you can put on your profile. I know that's over-easy and light on details. If you want to know more about any individual step within it, just ask. Carolyn

Seriously? There are meaner 4-legged critters than alligators? I kind of thought that alligators, crocodiles, and sharks were single-minded eating machines who would chomp through anyone who entered their path. Wouldn't pokey sticks just be an appetizer to an alligator? Something to clear the palate before they move on to your delicious flesh? Carolyn (I don't carry a gun, don't want to, and don't care what other people carry as long as they don't lecture me about my gunless state.)