Jump to content

DragonflyTotem

+Premium Members
  • Posts

    317
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by DragonflyTotem

  1. And if that hound is also a hider, you just gave em a free bison. You might be right...but what the heck as a mini bison only costs about a part of a Coke. But I would just about put money on something else happening....I think that some are in such a hurry to sign and move on that I bet that they just might sign a fake log even if it says "you have NOT found the cache" and the FTF space says "First to Fail" on it. I think that I'd end up with at least a few folks claiming the find without realizing that they'd not found it.
  2. It's just a game that I'm playing....ohhhmmmmm.... An example from a few minutes ago...got a needs maintenance note last night about one of my hides having a full log, so zipped over to the site with a fresh log and spare container just in case. Got there and couldn't find my cache. Thought it was muggled sometime last night after the last finder was there. Then looked in all the places it shouldn't be, and yup, there it was quite a bit away from where it was supposed to be. And it would seem to me at least to be pretty much impossible for the container to get accidentally placed where it was (as you can't reach where it ended up from where it was originally placed). Where it originally was placed allowed for you to be screened from any muggles and where it ended up would make it a whole lot easier to be seen. And I then realized that not only was the log full, but the container itself was missing a part and another piece was broken and about to be lost from the container. So I just swapped it out with a replacement container. It's just a game that I'm playing....ohhhmmmmm....
  3. We have a big local discussion ongoing about that kind of thing right now in the local group's Yahoo forum...along with discussing people who cache together but it seems that the initials for both always look like they were written by one person...and at another cache they "both" got they both seem to be initialed by the other one person. But I have seen a few cache logs where someone said they stumbled upon a later stage by accident.
  4. Caches almost always seem to migrate from their original spot. It's just something that happens. A local hider has trouble when he has to do maintenance on a hard hide that he has because he can never find it because it's not where he hid it. A lot of finders don't "do" stealth and just go up and grab the caches. Again, this is part of caching, and something that you can't control. Just curious how you know someone found it and stood there in plain view? Did they mention in their logs or was someone watching them? This is a pet peeve of mine. I don't like reading that someone someone replaced the cache better than found. How do they know how the owner wanted it to be? If there's a question about the hide, replace it as found and email the owner. The owner might have wanted it to be sitting out in plain view. So, in summary, "It's a game." About the stealth and the muggles....yes, the finder actually logged that they got hit in the head with a frisbee after hearing the muggle frisbee golfers yelling to them. To me, that would have been my clue that now was not the right time as there are times when the place is deserted. Glad to hear that someone else hates having someone second guess their placement. On the other hand, I have had someone send me an email saying that they think that the cache wasn't in the right place, sent me a photo of where they left it...and they had a pretty good suggestion and I just left it there as they'd placed it. I hate to say it...but there is a side of me that half suspects that there are some cachers who, having found the cache themselves and posted how easy it is, then deliberately put it in a much harder position/location perhaps to make them seem "better" at caching???
  5. Thanks! I'm laughing my posterior off right now! I am considering turning all of mine into caches placed in tall trees using model rockets to get them there....or placed carefully into bath tissue boats and sent to float into the sewer system (at least as far as they do float). But we do have the Great Dismal Swamp not that far from me...hadn't considered the swamp option as one way to force them to put boots on the ground.
  6. I'll just quote CM, seeing as I don't want to quote the OP. I did read it carefully though. I dunno, I agree with the "take a deep breath" type of advice. To be honest, it seems as though you may be headed down the slippery slope of blaming finders for not putting your cache back right, not being "stealthy" enough, etc... If you hide a cache where there are a lot of muggles, there's a good chance muggles are going to muggle it. Points well taken but in a larger metro area where I am (largest city in Virginia) you are going to end up having caches where there are people. Which though is why I carefully placed one on the opposite side from where they'd be. But I'd think that for replacing a cache that it would be at minimum courtesy to the next cacher to put it back at least approximately where you found it so that they have the same caching "experience" (I would think it rude to second guess the CO by deciding that you thought the cache should be placed in a different manner) - but in the example I was giving about the one that broke the cache they broke it and then because of that they couldn't replace it as it was so they just stuck it back any old way...I think that's different from what you're suggesting. True, caches migrate from their original location, and it's pretty much a fact of life. Not necessarily inconsiderate knuckleheads, but it just happens. Me, I would (and have) offered to replace containers that I've broken. Someone doing what you describe doesn't surprise me in the least though. Yes, was anticipating that nobody would come here shocked to learn of such things for the first time.
  7. I'll just quote CM, seeing as I don't want to quote the OP. I did read it carefully though. I dunno, I agree with the "take a deep breath" type of advice. To be honest, it seems as though you may be headed down the slippery slope of blaming finders for not putting your cache back right, not being "stealthy" enough, etc... If you hide a cache where there are a lot of muggles, there's a good chance muggles are going to muggle it. Points well taken but in a larger metro area where I am (largest city in Virginia) you are going to end up having caches where there are people. Which though is why I carefully placed one on the opposite side from where they'd be. But I'd think that for replacing a cache that it would be at minimum courtesy to the next cacher to put it back at least approximately where you found it so that they have the same caching "experience" (I would think it rude to second guess the CO by deciding that you thought the cache should be placed in a different manner) - but in the example I was giving about the one that broke the cache they broke it and then because of that they couldn't replace it as it was so they just stuck it back any old way...I think that's different from what you're suggesting.
  8. Good point and I have been doing that lately (the premium/charter option). But the logs...the first thing that I grabbed when I started this six weeks ago was a itty bitty log rolling tool. Otherwise I'd never get half the logs I find put back in.
  9. Is the individual hand wipe one you were referring to also Technu Extreme or was that something else?
  10. All of this make me wonder about something -- does anyone post fake caches for FTF hounds to find? (e.g., a mini bison near the actual cache with a note congratulating them on NOT finding the cache)
  11. Good rules but the container I spoke of though was watertight -- until someone broke the end off of it. The muggle intensive area is only intensive during certain times...other times it is just a quiet walk in the woods when it isn't a frisbee golf course (they really shouldn't put walking trails alongside a frisbee golf course anyway though!). The PNGs aren't actually that though -- they do have to get out and walk, they just **say** that they were a quick PNG (for whatever reason).
  12. Needs work as a mantra though...how about: It's just a game that I'm playing....ohhhmmmmm....
  13. Yes, this is pretty much a rant and would appreciate a kindly pat on the shoulder with an appropriate "there, there" because I don't think that there is a solution for this. The issue du jour is the inconsiderate cachers that I've run into lately who have caused caches to break or get muggled, and often in the name of being the FTF as they rush from cache to cache to try to grab them all. Example...a cache I just swapped out....someone very clearly had a hard time with the log and rushed it, then tore off 2/3rds of it and rolled up the remainder and inserted it into the holder...but only part way, so that in closing the cache they then pushed the end out of it so that the magnet dropped off. And instead of even saying something about it, they then just stuck the thing back the wrong way in the general place (but not the right place) and in a way which then allowed the log to get wet and further damaged to the point where the container can no longer be used. Grrr.... Example...a cache was moved from one side of an "object" to the opposite side...which then left it in the view of muggles, although a muggle wouldn't see this and think twice. But then someone put the log back in place improperly, which allowed it to get wet...which then caused the cache container to stand out just enough....so that it was muggled. Example...have a cache where there is a lot of muggle activity but it is a great location for a variety of reasons and is a perfect fit for the container I've chosen to use. Cache description mentions this and the need for stealth. Despite that someone stood in full view of muggles knowing that they were being watched by muggles, and instead of waiting for a better time...went ahead and retrieved the cache, replaced it and went on their way after logging about all the muggles...and that afternoon the cache disappeared. Example...have a cache that is kind of tricky because of the camo used. But I left the cache in a particular spot where it is fairly easy to see if you know what to look for. It was a challenge because it was essentially in plain view...but you couldn't actually tell that it was a cache container. And for the fourth time now when I've gone by to check it I had to move it back to its original placement because cachers decide that they'd much rather stick it several inches up inside of something where you would not see it. It's a 1.5 star cache and I'm not intending for it to be harder than it was supposed to be. Several caches that I've gone to recently (not mine) I found with the lids only half closed, or cross-threaded, or the log jammed back in place so that the lid didn't fit well. Or you could clearly tell that the cache was not in the same spot where it had been originally placed. And so on. And then there is the whole issue of "phone a friend" where apparently it has become "okay" to simply pass along info about a cache and its location. You can tell that it's happening (even when they don't actually log that they got help from someone other than me, the CO) because for example, a tricky cache will remain unfound for a little while...several DNFs from folks with thousands of finds....and then someone finds it...and suddenly everyone else after that is logging it as a "quick find" or "easy find" or my favorite, "great PNG!" What the heck. Makes me think that I should just place a large sign by the road that says "Geocache HERE!" so that they can quickly PNG and move along to the next one. And I won't even go into the issue of those who take everything from a cache and leave nothing in exchange, as I see that one has its own thread(s) here. Okay....deep breath. I know that there really aren't "solutions" for these kind of things...and so I guess that I have to take a deep breath, mumble some sort of feel better mantra and move on. I'm confident that this type of stuff must happen a lot. I can see that after only about six weeks of caching though that one challenge I'm going to have is to avoid becoming jaded or indifferent. Do you have a good mantra to share? Or absent that, care to share some of the problems that you've had and I'll gladly pat you on your shoulder and say "there, there" and perhaps we'll both feel better? If nothing else, thanks for letting me rant for a few moments!
  14. I've had some good luck with Amazon, but see that the QVC site has green ones! I have to say that I don't typically watch QVC but have turned it on and see some great L&L deals!
  15. I've seen a few stories about folks out caching who encounter a law enforcement officer and in the end get help from them looking for a cache, but since I haven't seen anything like this story I thought that I'd share it. I'm a Neighborhood Watch Coordinator and was doing a periodic Ride Along with a police officer on Friday night. We spent 10 hours together riding around in the patrol car covering our assigned zone. As we were driving along I was noticing something interesting -- that each time we hit an area where there wasn't a geocache located nearby, that ended up being an area where the officer remarked that they'd had problems. And in areas where I knew there were a fair amount of caches he remarked that it was an area where they'd not had problems. All of which makes sense given that I know that I'd not want to leave a cache in a dangerous area. When we stopped for dinner we got to talking and somehow the conversation drifted to geocaching. He'd not heard of it so I was explaining it to him and told him what I'd been noticing about cache locations and such. But he really seemed to find the whole notion of geocaching interesting and that there are bunches of folks out there hiding and finding things. When he asked whether there might be any caches located nearby I whipped out my iPhone and after checking said, well yes, that we were within about 200 feet of one right then and that we'd passed it on the way into the restaurant parking lot. So he asked if I'd take us to it so he could see a cache for himself. We had no pending calls so we drove the patrol car over adjacent to this site, and parked as close as you could get. We were then walking along and he asked how I'd know where to look since this was one that I hadn't myself yet gone looking for...and I showed him the cache information and description from my iPhone and then said that I'd probably hide it right about "here" if it were me...and reached down under something and after feeling my way along one edge then pulled this cache out as he watched. He was fascinated by the whole concept AND that there was actually a log in this little container. We stood there late at night looking over log entries that went back for quite awhile. He stopped short of signing the log for himself because he didn't think that it would be right since I'd actually found it. But for a moment there I think that I had him tempted to come up with his own geocaching nickname. As we were finishing the shift off we stopped by one of my own hides and showed him in general where it was and after not finding it I then introduced him to a magnetic nano and that one really blew his mind. I think that we now have one more Virginia Beach Police Officer who understands geocaching and knows just what to ask when he sees someone hanging around potential cache sites. But it was a rather strange experience -- not just being assisted by LEO, but actually going with an officer to find a cache.
  16. Nobody has mentioned this yet so thought that I"d ask -- what about a magnet that has been encased in plastic? I have looked at various sources for magnets and did check out emovendo's ebay store (he's got a 100% satisfaction rating out of some 38K transactions!) and see that he sells some that are encased in plastic - N48 grade, impact resistant hard plastic shell. Has anyone tried those? I suppose you might have a problem with the plastic cracking under temperature extremes and he mentions a problem with strength drop off because of the plastic (but from the below I'm not sure how much of a problem that is, especially if you used more than one or they were stacked by having one inside and one outside). Here's what he says in the listing: "The biggest drawback to Neodymium magnets is while magnetically very strong, they are very physically fragile. Tough coatings, such as nickel, go a long way toward protecting the magnets from cracks and breakage. However, after repeated impacts with each other or other surfaces, even the best metal coatings will fail. Plastic coatings offer an impact and corrosion protection for the fragile magnets inside. These magnets can sustain far more punishment than the standard metal coated magnets, making these a good play or experimention magnet. However, on the negative side, this relatively thick coating reduces the effective power of the magnet due to the logarithmic drop in magnet strength as the distance increases from the surface of magnet. How much of a difference? 2 standard nickel coated 3/4 x 1/8" N48 disc magnets will pull at each other with about 9 pounds of force. Two 3/4 x 1/8" N48 plastic coated will only pull with about 5 pounds of force. That is 45% less strength. So it is a tradeoff. If you require maximum power, go with metal coated: if you plan on playing with neodymium magnets A LOT these are the magnets for you!"
  17. I guess they'll have to argue with themselves or whomever they hired to make the TM submission with the 8/1/2000 date. The uspto doesn't make them up themselves. Given the public history, I wonder why they picked that date ... apart from the date that Jeremy picked up the ball was also 8/1/2000, wasn't it? Edit: ran across an interesting take on geocaching history that explains a lot: http://en.allexperts.com/e/d/da/dave_ulmer.htm Having been down this road about 9 times myself, what I know is that you have a date you first came up with it, and a date you first used it in commerce. The date used in commerce is what is required for the USPTO trademark application.
  18. Just in case anyone was still following this or wondering what happened, I'm happy to say that after sending several follow-up emails and seeing return receipts but getting no replies, I sent one this morning suggesting that if he's no longer interested in geocaching that I'd be more than willing to adopt his caches so that they can continue on. And I just heard back from him -- he's agreed to have me adopt all of his caches. Hopefully he'll be submitting the email request for that to GS today! And the immediate good news is that his email also gives me permission to do any maintenance now so today I will get this container changed out, keeping the logs!
  19. So does that mean you can't sell T-shirts with the word "Geocaching" on them? Which search did you use? I tried http://www.uspto.gov/ and it comes up with no matches. Yes, just go to there -- select Trademarks, then the Search TM database search, then New User Form Search, then type in "Geocaching" and click Submit Query. And in the results, there will be 4 records, select the first one and click on the "TARR" field for the easiest to read results. I'm not an attorney but as a "layman" who has directly filed and been awarded numerous successful trademark registrations...I would think that you can't sell t-shirts with the term. And the second class they have it in would seem to me that you can't use it on web sites that provide any information about geocaching. Which is interesting as there are like a zillion of sites that do that in conjunction with other commercial usages. If that were my trademark I'd be worried about it being invalidated based on generic usage. But again, I'm not an attorney so this is just my personal opinion.
  20. Nice design, I like it. Are you putting this in the public domain? Or do you intend to sell related merchandise? No opinion either way, just curious. I think Groundspeak would have issue with someone selling something for profit with their logo on it. Nope, that's the good old public domain Geocaching logo. Hammered out in these same forums many years ago. They don't own the word Geocaching. Although some say they once tried. Actually, I did a search with the USPTO and see that they do in fact have the word "Geocaching" as a REGISTERED US Trademark. That is Registration #2619174, Serial #78045228. It is registered in two different classifications -- for clothing and educational services.
  21. I'm sure that this will be nothing new, but it was new to me today -- I found "something." Yupper....walking along with my daughter who is 8 and on this beautiful Sunday afternoon said that she wanted to go with me while I hid a couple of caches I'd been working on. Life is good! So there we are, strolling along in a park looking for a best site for a new cache...when I looked over at a tree that we were passing....and I saw a rock at the base of the tree...and a few branches tossed about...and I turned to my daughter and suggested that this might be an interesting place. Bent down to move the rock and underneath that rock was a.....cache! But I know that I'd already carefully checked for other caches nearby and knew that none were listed. And from the rather beat up look of this bit of Tupperware, top covered in cammo tape I was pretty sure that this wasn't something just placed but not yet published. So my daughter asked what it was and not having a good answer I went ahead and opened it up. Come to find out that it wasn't a GS geocache but instead was a letterbox cache for a different organization. I looked it all over, the log book, the stamp....and felt rather strange. A bit like I'd entered a parallel universe. Which is in itself strange because in the few weeks now that I've been doing geocaching I have become very aware that there was this hidden world going on around me and I'd had no clue. And now I was faced with learning first hand that there was more than one hidden world. I went to their web site tonight, and saw that they have some caches here in my town...and quite a few of them are within a stone's throw of some of the GS caches listed -- including some that I've found. And yet I never suspected as I smuggly filled out the logbook for the GS cache just found that there was another parallel universe playing out just around the corner. After finding the letterbox cache I put it back carefully covering it as it had been and then I found a new location for my cache. Fun but very strange day indeed!
  22. They are on sale again (half off) at JCPenney's! The 20 piece round set is pretty decent. Some smalls, some large smalls, and a couple small regulars. I didn't check them all but price compaired a couple of them as I'd just placed an order yesterday with Amazon, and they were cheaper at Amazon and I got free shipping as well.
×
×
  • Create New...