geoSquid

That's pretty cool!

Recently, I have received: Gauss geocoin Rock&Crystal Rock&Crystal camo heart A shipment of new geoSquid pins (silver with blue sparkles)

At first you say this has no referance to suicide, then you make this referance to a DEAD phone number. My mother commited suicide in 98 a most tragic event I have not posted in this thread up untill now. Now I DO think this has taken a turn for a nasty side of life or lack of it. Untill you are a suvivor of this tragic life event you will never understand the impact it has on people now living with all of the unanswered questions left behind. Not to derail your thread, But I will inded pass on this coin As a person whose very good friend for many years committed suicide in 1989, I can say that I do understand your pain. In fact, the method of suicide was particularly embarrassing <inappropriate link removed by moderator>. There were years of "Didn't so-and-so die from..." to bring the event back to the front of memory. Seeing people grasping to make the connection between the proposed geocide coin and some personal, real-life event in THIS VERY THREAD brought back the memory. Thanks. However, I think it is wholly unreasonable to cringe every time someone uses some *-cide word within earshot. It's not the geocide coin that bothers me, it's that people are making a concerted effort to tie it to personal events in their own lives to which the coin and the person who suggested it have obviously and absolutely no connection or intention to connect. That said, I'm not interested in the coin because I don't think geociders should be idolized in the form of a coin. They come in, they combust, they leave... end of game.

cool idea. I hope it works out!

Armsful of packages to the post office for me. In fact, selling and trading coins has given me great insight into the capabilities and competencies of postal outlets near me, and I definitley have preferred outlets. Some of the post offices are simply clueless when you show up with a stack of (nearly identical) packages going all over the world.

Dude, they're your coins, fair and square. Anyone who would think less of you is petty and unworthy of being traded with in the future. They traded. The item isn't theirs to pass judgement on any more. They may not like it, but that is wholly their problem. You do what you feel is the right thing to do, and don't worry about the whiners. However, the whole issue could have been sidestepped simply by not mentioning it here. LDF said: As for personal coins, I would offer the person whos personal coin it was the option of "un-trading" if they wish. This would be a courtesy. That's definitely a nice gesture that would gain you a lot of high ground. But I don't think you should feel even slightly obligated to make it. Perhaps people who are grossly concerned about "their" coin being sold should offer to untrade? I think the onus should be on the people who don't want their coins sold to make the effort, not the other way around. And, since we traded some time ago, if one of my coins helps finance your house repair, so be it! You will have to live with the knowledge that there is a squid in the wall... muhahahahahahaha

I use #0 or #00 padded envelopes. Usually the larger one because the smaller ones are hard to find.

Could be an age thing? When I joined in 83 we called them pineapples. I did basic training on the west coast though, different region, different slang. Corn flake was the other common name. This post came up just after I visited my fridge for a snack... in the fridge we have an actual pineapple (and a star fruit... I have no idea why, but after 14 years of marriage, I do not question these things), so it came to back to memory quickly

Just wondering, have often do you have to send one? I can't remember ever not having to send at least one since i started doing that 18 months ago. I have a lot of active travellers though (4 TB and 27 moving geocoins and 4 stolen geocoins with unknown whereabouts) My last run of notes was on 10 March for 8 items.

Go Go Super-Pineapple!

I check my travellers every 6-8 weeks and send this message to anyone who has held on to one for over a month: ===== Greetings; I was going over my various logs and noticed that you've been holding <traveller> for over a month. I was wondering if you would have the opportunity to move it along soon? If you have left the hobby of geocaching, I'd be happy to send you an envelope and return postage to return the <traveller type> to me. Thanks. -geoSquid =====

Cool coin set!

Having sent somewhere between 750 and 1000 coin envelopes from Canada to places all over the world. Assuming you have correct postage and customs paperwork... Expect most (75%) to arrive in about 5-7 business days. Some (20%) will take 8-15 business days. A few (3%) will take 16-25 business days. Very few (1%) will take about 30 business days. Of those, about 1% will also be damaged in transit (possibly with the contents removed) I've never had any envelope go missing or take longer than 30 business days. In my experience, both with geocoins and QSL cards for ham radio, mail to UK/France/Spain/Italy is reasonably fast (almost invariably faster than mail to USA). Mail to Germany/Denmark/Netherlands is often slower than mail to Australia. Mail to Canada is weird because of the geography of Canada. Unlike the USA, we don't have people on every square inch of dirt There are communities so remote in Canada that they don't even have a word that means "remote". Canada Post operates a number of sorting centres (Vancouver / Winnipeg / Toronto / Ottawa / Montreal / Halifax, I think). So if your package is destined for southwest BC, Manitoba, the Windsor - Toronto - Ottawa - Montreal - Quebec City corridor, or Halifax it will get there pretty promptly. However, if it's destined for Goddamniliveinthesticks, ON then it's going on a truck and could take forever. You can drive continuously from Toronto for 24 hours and still not be out of Ontario (actually depending on traffic, you might not even be out of Toronto, but that's another issue ) In fact, some Ontario mail is going to come out of the Winnipeg sorting centre. I would expect +3 days minimum to get mail to Churchill, MB for example, and at least +2 days for Timmins, ON.

Perhaps the trick to the race is not to have a specific destination in mind, but rather to: 1. have each participant TB have the same mission, first to complete the mission wins. 2. in the likely event that the mission is not completed, then total mileage or some other quantifiable criterion used to determine a winner on a specified date. I think that sort of thing might assuage any doubt based on previous years.

For Ontario: Go and Get 'em 9 - polished silver (5 made) and satin silver geoSquid - gold (not yet released) Go and Get 'em 10 - (not yet released)

I'd say 10 business days. At that point you've given lots of time to respond, and even a typical pay period for someone to come up with the $ if they are a bit short.

I used to live near Prince George (CFS Baldy Hughes). I'll definitely be interested in a trade or purchase of a coin or two.

Yes. Did you pay for tracked, expedited shipping? If you did, then get the tracking number and look it up. It won't speed things up, but it may satisfy your curiosity and you may have some recourse with the shipping company (USPS/whatever), although even they will probably tell you something like what I'm going to tell you in the next paragraph... If you didn't and it's been less than 4-6 weeks from the day it was claimed your package (not some generic "the coins") was shipped then you are, in fact, being unreasonable. Although it USUALLY takes only a few days to get a package across the country, it can take a lot longer. It's sucky when that happens, but it does happen. Having shipped close to 1000 coins, I can say with some confidence that some percentage (about 5% in my experience) of the shipments will be delayed with no explanation by the postal folks. Honestly, I do not entertain requests for refund until 30 business days had passed. Strangely enough, every package but one that I have sent arrived within that time frame. The odd one was a package that had been opened and the contents removed (envelope arrived, coins did not). If it has been more than a month since they were shipped, you probably have good ground to wonder where they are. Still, if you didn't pay for insured shipping the best you can hope for is to get your money back. It was probably unreasonable to send your money in December for something that wasn't going to ship until February. However, if you were informed that your coins were shipped in early february, then yes, early march is a fair time to start inquiries. As a matter of best practice, it probably wasn't a good idea. The seller has a legal obligation to produce the goods or refund the money, but has no special obligation to do so on your time schedule. A GOOD seller will want to be prompt, of course, because that encourages repeat business. it's hard to defend a pre-order because the person pre-ordering is assuming considerable risk and should understand that. There is the risk that the seller is even legitimate, the risk that the proposed timelines are even reasonable, the risk that the proposed timelines will be altered by unforeseen events, the risk that the final product will meet expectations. The buyer has to accept these risks when making a pre-order. The trade-off is that pre-orders usually get a better price. On my own coins, I don't take pre-order payments until the coins have been ordered at the mint and I've been provided with an estimated arrival date for my doorstep... but that's just me - I allow non-committal reservations, but I won't take your money until I am confident of the coin project schedule. The reason is because I don't like to deal with people pestering me about what their order status is. I'm far from perfect - I recently botched a trade because I wasn't careful with an envelope and it slipped under some furniture and didn't get mailed for a couple weeks. Accidents and silly situations happen, and it doesn't make the sender an evil person. (edit: I did get the thing in the mail promptly once I figured out what happened). A great example of a silly situation... I ran out of envelopes for geoSquid coins... went to the 3 post offices: out of stock... went to 2 Staples outlets: both out of stock. I was delayed sending by nearly a week on some orders because i wasn't prepared to drive all over town more than I did to acquire #0 padded envelopes and had to wait until one of the three nearish places had some. Personally, I don't think anyone needed an explanation of that, but maybe I'm being unreasonable.

I was going to suggest tracking down the impact site and setting up an earthcache, but maybe a 3-foot hole in the ground would be somewhat lacking in WOW! value. dave Yeah, unfortunately most meteors never hit the ground, and most of the ones that do aren't super impressive (beyond the fact that they are from space and there's money to be made finding them!) With more and more land being developed by humans, however, they do hit "stuff" often enough, and every few years there's a news article about someone's house or car getting pummeled. Let's face it, even a small one is still a half-kilo chunk of iron zipping along at a few hundred km/h... you wouldn't want it to land on you. The ones that will rearrange landscape in a significant way only fall every few centuries, and most of those (like most meteors that survive to the surface) hit the water, never to be seen again.

You can play with meteor impacts here: http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/impacteffects/ If you set this up for a baseball sized object made of iron, you get the following: Your Inputs: Distance from Impact: 0.01 km = 0.01 miles (ed: if you want to see it up close, stand 10m from impact) Projectile Diameter: 0.10 m = 0.33 ft = 0.00 miles Projectile Density: 8000 kg/m3 Impact Velocity: 20.00 km/s = 12.42 miles/s Impact Angle: 45 degrees Target Density: 2500 kg/m3 Target Type: Sedimentary Rock Energy: Energy before atmospheric entry: 8.38 x 108 Joules = 0.20 x 10-6 MegaTons TNT The average interval between impacts of this size somewhere on Earth is less than 1 month. Atmospheric Entry: The projectile lands intact, with a velocity 0.0723 km/s = 0.0449 miles/s. (ed: 260 km/h) The energy lost in the atmosphere is 8.38 x 108 Joules = 0.20 x 10-6 MegaTons. Major Global Changes: The Earth is not strongly disturbed by the impact and loses negligible mass. The impact does not make a noticeable change in the Earth's rotation period or the tilt of its axis. The impact does not shift the Earth's orbit noticeably. Crater Dimensions: What does this mean? Transient Crater Diameter: 1.01 m = 3.3 ft Transient Crater Depth: 0.356 m = 1.17 ft Final Crater Diameter: 1.26 m = 4.13 ft Final Crater Depth: 0.269 m = 0.881 ft The crater formed is a simple crater The floor of the crater is underlain by a lens of broken rock debris (breccia) with a maximum thickness of 0.124 m = 0.408 ft. At this impact velocity ( < 12 km/s), little shock melting of the target occurs. Thermal Radiation: What does this mean? At this impact velocity ( < 15 km/s), little vaporization occurs; no fireball is created, therefore, there is no thermal radiation damage. Seismic Effects: What does this mean? The Richter Scale Magnitude for this impact is less than zero; no seismic shaking will be felt. Ejecta: What does this mean? Most ejecta is blocked by Earth's atmosphere Air Blast: What does this mean? The air blast will arrive at approximately 0.0303 seconds. Peak Overpressure: 783 Pa = 0.00783 bars = 0.111 psi Max wind velocity: 1.84 m/s = 4.12 mph Sound Intensity: 58 dB (Loud as heavy traffic)

Meteors cannot start fires when they land unless they're large enough to excavate craters a la Meteor Crater in Arizona, or if they happen to land on something intrinsically unstable and explosive (meteor hits barrel of nitroglycerin). In fact, when they land, they're sometimes even cold to the touch. The reason for this is not obvious, but somewhat straightforward... A small meteor slams into the earth's atmosphere at solar system speeds. There, it compresses the air in front of it, making a nice light show and melting off its outer layers. The really small ones simply burn out of existence this way. Bigger ones, however, due to the amount of surface area and distance to travel relative to the size of the thing, slow down to terminal velocity (150ish km/h) and fall for a LONG time through the mostly very cold atmosphere, landing with a gentle thud somewhere. These ones arrive at surface temperature or colder and although moving relatively slowly, they are still made of iron (mostly, not always) and are still zipping along at freeway speeds and if they land on anything manmade will still mess it up. Huge ones, bigger than a mini-van or two, have enough energy to slam though the atmosphere. They arrive full speed like the little ones and do the compression heating thing to make a nice light show, but they have enough kinetic energy and are of sufficient size to not be slowed significantly by the atmosphere. These either explode in the atmosphere and make a mess (Tunguska), or thud into the ground and make a hole (Meteor Crater, AZ). Either way, these ones can start fires, but it wouldn't really matter if you were nearby because the fire would probably be the least of your worries. The dinosaurs probably saw a great ball of flame zipping through the sky, and a great WALL of flame accompanying the massive earthquake that resulted from the impact.

you can certainly list your own that way. as for "all" travel bugs, I don't think so.

It's my opinion, and I'm sure someone will call me a nasty name for saying it, that some (many?) people have a fairly ridiculous expectation for how informed they should be kept in trivial matters. And yes, the purchase of $10 or $20 worth of geocoins IS a trivial matter by any measure. As a matter of good business and to help ensure future business, the seller should strive to keep people informed, but "strive to keep informed" doesn't mean up-to-the-minute details on tiny transactions. Pre-order a $40,000 car, and you probably have some ground to wonder what the status is at all times, but for a $10 purchase I think it's reasonable for a seller to bulk-blast updates by email every 7-10 days. Better yet, the kind of person who stresses out over the status of their $10 pre-order would serve everyone better by waiting until the coins hit the street... less personal stress, less stress for the coin issuer, less drama in the boards.

Since 17 Dec 2006 Time Traveller 36580 km (+3097 km) Hail to the Chief! 21980 km (+8091 km) geoSquid's Suncatcher Geocoin - Summer #2 12764 km (+4908 km) geoSquid's Parents of SAM Geocoin #1 8608 km (even) geoSquid's Wales Geocoin #1 7973 km (even) Resurrected copy of GAGE 8 Geocoin #198 - geoSquid 7620 km (+3729 km) geoSquid's China Geocoin #1 5681 km (+112 km) geoSquid's Twin Peaks Personal Geocoin #2 4644 km (+219 km) geoSquid's Tracking Time Geocoin #1 4415 km 2080 km (+2335 km) geoSquid's 2006 Kiwi Geocoin 4377 km (+181 km) geoSquid's Scotland Geocoin #1 3632 km (+3632 km) geoSquid's 2006 Compass Rose #1 3203 km (even) geoSquid's Denmark Geocoin #1 3172 km (+1360 km) geoSquid's Portugal Geocoin #1 2262 km (+330 km) Dread Plush Cthulhu 2194 km (+156 km) Howling through the wires. 1957 km (even) geoSquids 41st birthday geocoin 1221 km (+62 km) Bailey's Nippon 2006 Geocoin - geoSquid #1 1113 km (+38 km) ** STOLEN ** GAGE 8 Geocoin #199 - geoSquid 1038 km (even)

Having done 2 event coins with a third on the way... I sell them as pre-orders and then make a few extra beyond the pre-orders for people who, for whatever reason, choose not to pre-order. Pre-orders are publicized only locally, although word gets out so inevitably a few will sell outside the event area. I know how many people typically attend the event so I have a pretty good idea how many will move. A few event coins got sold outside the event area because we overestimated the number of coins we needed. I don't know what "reward" that would be. Profit? I aim to come within +/- $100 of even. Anyone who begrudges that slim profit margin (when it's a profit margin, not a LOSS margin), frankly, can kiss ... well, best to say that I'm happy not to sell someone a coin if that person is afraid that I might actually make some money off it (whether I actually do or not being immaterial since there is no realistic way of finding out). Prestige? Maybe. I dunno, most cachers in my local area knew who I was before I ever made a coin. It looked like I was going to make more than expected on the last run so the extra got folded in as pins to be distributed to attendees, keeping the net to within the expected parameters. That was a nice surprise for everyone. I make the event coins because I think it makes people happy and it saves them the hassle of doing it. I appreciate that they all help by contributing their share (by buying coin(s)) to the cost, and I assure you that if the costs weren't being covered, I wouldn't continue doing it. The events here, though organized, aren't sanctioned by an official organization, so it's not like the cost of the coin run can somehow be split among members or some such thing. It's out-of-pocket for me vs whatever costs I can recover and that's a lot of risk I am assuming ("we" actually, there are two of us who split the costs). The reward, I suppose, is when people say "thanks", but balancing that against thousand(s) of dollars risk... hmm