Dragery
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Posts posted by Dragery
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Better yet what did you do on your first FTF
I ran VERY fast in my suit and tie across a football field to get to my car because I was now running late for work.
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Sounds like somebody doesn't like gun rights. Either way, that looks to be the name of the event he was attending.
If he said something like "On my way home from a convention advocating the RIGHT FOR EVER FREE AMERICAN TO BEAR ARMS DAG NABBIT! AND IF THAT 'OBAMA BIN LYIN' COMES TO TAKE'EM THAT'LL BE THE END OF THIS GREAT COUNTRY!".... Hmm THEN I'd be thinking he was pushing an agenda.
If I say "I was on my way home from a wonderful dinner at IHOP when we stopped by to grab this cache" I'm not advocating the rights of Pancakes or have some super subliminal agenda
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Went through MEPS, got DQ'd for high blood pressure
No offense, but best thing that ever happened to me, this was about a year before we got in that mess in Iraq. Can't say I didn't try tho! -
am not happy about the emergence of these pathetic mini caches - why bother at all.
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There's no rule for or against it. If the person who's hiding it is cool with you logging it, then go for it. I would advise not claiming the 'first to find' tho, that's where I would (personally) draw the line.
But the only persons opinion that matters on this subject is the cache owner, and you.
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I start to rage in traffic on my way to a potential FTF..... I swear people drive slower and WAY worse when I'm in a hurry to get to a cache.
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QFT
Quantum Field Theory?
Quantitative Feedback Theory?
Quick Fuel Technology?
Quoted for truth or QFT for short.
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Look, Ma, no hands!
No wonder hes showing his back, the front is all wet.
Only kidding
HAHA Yeah I just noticed how funny that looks. The lighting is so good in the bathroom tho! My daughter was flexing with me in all the other pics, it was super cute at the time
I was taking pics because I had reached my weight goal after losing almost 80lbs. See my before, during, and afters. -
" Dragery found [Traditional Cache] Walgreens
Nice quick cache! Left a shell I picked up while visiting my parents in Santa Barbara. "
It was my 3rd find ever, and my first of about 70+ Lamp Post hides to date. There's a LOT of them around here
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My grabber ToTTs for high up caches, I never leave home without em!
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isnt printing maps out defeating the purpose of paperless caching though?
No?... Geocaching is still done entirely paperless... The hiking on the other hand, I bring a map somtimes. It's not by any means REQUIRED, but I choose to bring one as a backup incase I'm ever deciding which way to go. A topographic, or aerial map is far from the requirements of "Paperless geocaching".
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Nope the GC does not have full basemap for Australia, here is what it states on Magellan's GC page:
Referencing a complete road network in North America and Western Europe and major roads throughout the rest of the populated world to help orientation. So Australia users are out of luck on this function.
Ahhh that sucks
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I had a sales rep show me the Magellan eXplorist GC firsthand in a store today, since they'd just got them in. Overall it looked like a decent unit for geocaching purposes, at least, if you are on the physical site of the geocache. One thing I was quite disappointed about: the lack of detail on the base map. For the area I live (an Australian town), it only showed the main highway and coastline, but virtually nothing else. So aside from telling me that one geocache was 3.8km in one direction from my present location, and another geocache was 2.7km in a different direction, it didn't show anything useful to help me actually get to these locations or determine what was in those areas. Maybe some other Aussies can chime in and share their experiences with this, because maybe this is just an issue with the base map for Australia, and the level of detail is higher in North America?
As far as I can tell, the eXplorist GC is useful if you're already on location and trying to pinpoint where precisely a geocache is hidden. But what if you're on a main road and the eXplorist GC tells you that there's a cache 2km to the west of where you currently are? Then you have no way of knowing if you can even get there, or how to get there! Unless the sales representative was doing something wrong? - it was his first experience with the eXplorist GC. Or is this GPS mainly intended for telling you which geocaches are in the area, and mainly for when you're outside your vehicle and on foot for the last several hundred metres? How do you typically get on site, aside from driving in the `general direction' of the marked cache? Of course you could research this ahead of time for a specific cache, but that would somehow defeat the purpose of what this unit is intended to do, i.e. load a large amount of caches via a pocket query, and then just hit the road and have fun with them all, including caches along a route.
Or is my concern misplaced or based on a rash or unfair assessment?
A possible reason it was only showing you the main road was you probably were zoomed out too far. Once you zoom in, it will tell you all the smaller streets. And it's true that the unit doesn't have turn by turn navigation, so it's helpful to do a bit of Googlemaps research of an area before setting out for the day. What I usually do while I'm at work is find clusters of caches, or hikes of caches, and print out a topographic or satelite map of the location, and use that along with my Explorist GC to make sure I can physically get to the cache that *looks* close.
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2 occasions now I've approached others looking for a cache, I just walk up and say "any luck?" something along those lines. Then we combine our searching, find the cache, sign the log and split. Nothing fancy.
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Another feature I forgot to add, I have pocket queries set up in chronological order, with 9000 caches all loaded on my unit at once (that's all the traditional caches within 35 miles). Most other handhelds will only hold 1000-2000 at a time, granted that's more than anyone will ever find in a day I like having EVERY cache within 35 miles on my unit at all times. I don't have to worry about having pocket queries on SD cards and loading up the right query depending on the area I'm in.
I will also add, when I first started, I was getting super carried away and excited. I wanted the 450 dollar unit with all the bells and whistles. LUCKILY my wife talked me out of it, and I'm glad she did. For geocaching, this thing is great. I don't know why people were saying that you can't record tracks with the GC, you can record tracks, it just doesn't have a "back tracking" options. But you could theoretically have it record tracks to your destination, and then just turn it off and follow the line on the way back
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- with slow movement (e.g. near GZ), it does not update or updates very slowly
I've never used another GPS device, but this isn't a problem for me, if it's slow to react, I will walk away from GZ til I'm at a perfect 180, then I will turn, and approach GZ at a straight line. It is SOMETIMES a little slow to adjust to anything below 3 feet of movement, but it's tolerable, and you shouldn't be relying on 3 feet anyways. (Quick edit to add that I use the Arrow + elastic line to GZ and North always on top instead of the compass, gives me a better feel)
- some reports of it being slow to pick up satellite signal, and even freezing completely
Mine varies from 45 seconds to 2 minutes, depending on the line of site to the sky. It's not a problem. My buddy went geocaching with me, and they started up similar (he has a Garmin)
- difficult to correct or enter coordinates and do multi-stage caches
Definately not, you just go to Waypoints from the main screen, click Menu, then Create New Waypoint, voala...
- lack of an internal compass means that heading can only be tracked based on movement
True, refer to my answer to the first question. It's not a problem once you learn to work with it.
- frustrating on-screen keyboard and awkward controls, could benefit from touch screen
I do all my commenting on logs once I'm at home, not in the field, the ONLY time I use the on screen keyboard is to enter short acronyms like "GC" or "TB" to remember that I picked up/dropped off either of those. The Joystick is kinda dumb tho, if your thumb is sweaty it's hard to use because it's so short.
- worldwide base map only has major roads for some countries and can't be updated
From my experience, I'm in heavy urban area, every road I've had to go on is in the maps. The only thing I don't like is you can't update the basemap. Which does kinda suck!
- unsuitable for other navigational use (e.g. hiking) aside from geocaching
I don't personally know what more you would need for hiking, there are options for "bread crumb" type trails that you could use to back track, and you can enter manual tracks using 3rd party programs. Unless you're expecting your GPS to convert into a hiking stick there's not much more you need.
- screen is difficult to read in any sun light, and small fonts
In direct sunlight it's very visible, it looks like it's meant to be readable when you hold it at a certain angle while in the sun. In the shade however, you will have to keep turning on the backlight (just by pressing any button) But that is adjustable in the settings to auto turn off after X amount of seconds, or stay on all the time, which burns up battery. The text is small I guess, but I can read it.
- cover for the USB connection does not always seal correctly
I'd be more inclined to phrase that as "Some people don't always close the USB cover properly" The cover was intended to go on a certain way, it's up to you to put it on right
In defense of the unit, I've found over 700 geocaches in just under 3 months, and I love it. There is nothing more I need out of a GPS unit, especially for the price. It's paperless geocaching, and everything is automated for the most part once you get the hang of it. I don't need a touch screen because I sometimes put the GPS in my pocket and I don't want to have it pressing random buttons while it's in there. plus that takes away from the ruggedness, (bigger touch screen = more sensitive parts exposed.)
Also the battery life is amazing on mine, I can go 17-20+ hours leaving it on before it goes out, which is a lot better than some units I've read.
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I don't have the resources to create geocoins, but I think an awesome idea would be to have a 1980's themed series. have 1980, 1981, 1982 etc, and each coin have some significant happy moments/cartoons/movies that immortalized that year. It would be cool to focus on the youthful part of the 80's, like the cool cartoons and toys! I'm not a collector of Geocoins, but if someone ever made something like that, I'd buy them in a heart beat
I loved being a kid in the 80's. -
I've come across two proxy coins so far, I didn't take em. No 'grudge' reason or anything like that, I just didn't think it was cool enough to take *shrug*. It's like moving around a receipt for a dinner at Sizzler or something, proof you ate there.
I totally respect an owners decision to send out a proxy, I just more than likely wont move it. I've seen one stay in a cache for almost a year, with about 15 people visiting it, and no one took it, the CO eventually came out and moved it out of pity.
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I enjoy a good pun in the title/hint of a cache. But the only time I'm ever really excited over a find recently is when it's well camo'd. Anything that's clever, or beyond 'just a container' is awesome. I like when people get creative.
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I wish I would have paced myself when I started. There's SO many caches around my area tho so it was really hard. I biked about 200 of them tho.
I have a crazy tendency to attempt and finish things, so if I saw a cache that I didn't find yet in the middle of, or next too an area where I started caching, I have to go out and get it. It's like a catch-22.
Found about 700 just in my first 3 months. 600 of those were in my first 2 months, I've really had to cut back and pace myself. Well, that and I've started to run out of convenient caches
Now everything in at least 3-4+ miles away as the bird flies, so I really have to plan out my trips and maximize my finds while in the area (for gas sake).A big salute to your willpower and ability to pace yourself
Enjoy it! -
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999 from home,
1000 on the dot from work... what a coincidence.
Have a mix of hiking/hills/urban nanos/LOTS of puzzles (compared to other places)/quite a few multis/couple virtuals/an earth cache or 2.
I would say a majority of the hides here are urban micro/smalls.
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i agree with that.... too many uptight, wet blanket types that take themselves way too serious. it is much easier to sit on the sidelines and watch them jump at every mistype.
Yet this silly miscommunication was worth the effort to jump in and insult people? *double eyeroll*
Since when is that an insult? Unless you are one of those types of people, and somehow proud of it, then I wouldn't see it as one.
Oh, right, jumping into the thread to call people "uptight, wet blanket types" was friendly banter.
I still say all you bozos are wrong and Clay Aiken was ROBBED.
Friendly? No. Insulting? No, unless you feel you are being targeted for fitting into the categories described. I personally wouldn't admit to being an uptight wet blanket, therefor wouldn't get offended
I guess there are some who enjoy being uptight, wet blankets tho, and don't particularly enjoy being called out for being so. On a completely separate note, Caramel Frappuccino from Starbucks, I haven't had one of these in about 5 years. Man it's tasty on this hot summer day.
So the argument is this:
Person A- You're a wet blanket.
Person B- That's a touch offensive.
Person A- Only a wet blanket would think so.
Person B- That's not very nice, the way you keep doing that.
Person A- OMG WET BLANKET WHY CAN'T YOU STOP.
Person B- Um, that name calling is kind of rude.
Person A- YARGLE! OF COURSE YOU THINK THAT BECAUSE YOU'RE A BIG WETTY WET WET BLANITY BLANKET!!!! BARGLE!!
I mean, just punch us twice for flinching and then go give the kid with the crutches and asthma a wedgie for crying out loud. Recess is almost over and I want to take a turn on the swings.
The key to the WHOLE "argument" was the "you're" that you added to the first line. The initial wet blanket statement seems to have been added as a generic 'blanket statement' (no pun intended), to all persons with that type of personality on the forums, and not a direct attack.
Also, why do I have to be the unreasonable caps lock monger?
that makes me sad! NOW YOU'RE THE WET BLANKET! (lol i kid)Edit, I think there was a person C and D in that convo.
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I've always been one to exploit loopholes:
Pfft, it didn't say anything about NO Human Flagging.
am not happy about the emergence of these pathetic mini caches - why bother at all.
Enjoy it!
Is geocaching a sport?
in General geocaching topics
Posted
Using one of the dictionary definitions, you can label just about anything a "sport". With that said, the societal acceptance of Geocaching as a sport isn't plausible at this juncture.
I agree, it's an "activity" if you HAD to throw a label on it.