HoustonControl
-
Posts
117 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Posts posted by HoustonControl
-
-
Each of my EarthCache listings have the logging requirements posted that are very direct and to the point yet very simple to do, answer the questions and post a photo
.If they dont meet the logging requirements I will delete the log without notice
.Yes, I'm dealing with the same thing on my latest EC. Cache was logged but no picture posted and no email sent. I'm willing to be flexible if someone had a camera malfunction or accidentally skips one of the answers, but this one won't respond to emails or anything. Time to hit the delete button, I guess.
-
I personally think the idea of going to different States/Countries are inherently unfair in the Masters program. Cachers from large states/countries (Texas, Alaska, some western states, and in some countries) are at a distinct disadvantage. Not to mention smaller areas cut off (Hawii, Pacific Islands). Yet others have travel restrictions that make travel out of their country impossible, or difficult. A cacher in the eastern US could do this on a Sunday drive, while others would spend thousands of dollars to accomplish the same goal.
It would be better served to have levels for caches found, (up the numbers), rather then the traveling to other countries, states.
I'm from Texas and yet have managed to find Earthcaches in 14 different states and 3 foreign countries. Yeah, it wasn't easy (or cheap), so point taken. How about a recognition for finding at least one of each of the 20 different categories of Earthcaches? There's already a Challenge Geocache for accomplishing this!
-
I have one called "Submarine Acres" in an old neighborhood turned nature center after subsidence left most of it at sea level or below. I didn't invent the name -- it's what locals used to call the area when people still lived there!
-
That's what I figured. I had actually created a log from a field note on that cache (in the proper order) but apparently I fat-fingered it and failed to hit "submit". Didn't realize it until I was done logging all of the other finds for the day. There wasn't a milestone in there anywhere, so I'll probably just live with it. Thanks for the replies.
-
My guess is that this has been discussed somewhere before (I'm not a frequent visitor to the forums), but after searching for 30 minutes, I can't find any mention, so here goes:
Is there a way to change the order my find are listed in? I always try to log my caches in the order I found them, for noting milestones among other reasons. Today I messed up somehow logging caches and missed logging one until I had logged all the rest of my finds for the day and an evening event. I logged the missed cache later and naturally, it shows up as the last cache I found -- after the event. Any easy way to fix that?
It's not the end of the world if it stays that way, just wondering if there's a fix I don't know about. I guess I could go back and delete all the logs after the missed cache, then relog them in the correct order.
-
Boy I'm glad I found this thread. I went caching yesterday with my new Nuvi 550 and had the same issue with it shutting down on certain caches. Now I see they were the caches with long names. I'll try the recommended GSAK settings and see how it goes.
On another note, whenever I plug my Nuvi into my computer, I get this popup box:
Anyone ever get that? I tried clicking on "Scan and fix" once, but I got another message that said the device could not be scanned while it was in use. If I "Continue without scanning" everything seems to be OK. Odd...
Lastly, page 33 of the Owner's Manual says "NOTE: You can also download geocaches to the optional microSD card...." I tried putting the GPX file on the SD card, but the Nuvi couldn't "see" them. The manual wasn't much additional help. Anyone have any experience with this?
-
God bless you! You kinda hit the jackpot with your post! You hit almost all of the biggies in one post, namely:
- MAJOR sense of self-entitlement
- whining
- unwarranted negativity and hostility
- refusing to accept responsibility for your own behaviors
- blaming everyone but yourself
- throwing bricks at straw men
- inventing dramas and "causes" where there are/were none, and expecting others to rally to your hoax "cause".
Amazing feat there, fellow! Shining example of mature behavior by a geocacher, both on the street and on the forum. It is behavior like yours that is taking geocaching to a new level.
Geez, I've read all the posts to this point and some agree with me, some don't. Some agree I was victimized, some say I should have known better and got what was coming to me. But all in all it was a civil discourse.
Now comes this out and out blatant personal attack on me. You don't know me from Adam, but felt it was within your right to spew such virtriol my way? Talk about unwarranted negativity and hostility! I've always felt the GC forums were pretty much a viper pit and had reservations about posting on here in the first place. That's why I only have 56 posts in 4+ years as a Premium Member. I guess that's why you have 3887...
- MAJOR sense of self-entitlement
-
I just noticed that the warning sticker they stuck on my window says that "All parking enforcement devices and signs are the sole property of M.P.A." So I guess the smaller the sign, the better for business.
One last bit and then I'll shut up. You kinda had to be there to see the spatial relationship between the hotel and restaurant. So I present defense exhibit "A". I've marked the assumed boundary of the Clarion property and the KFC property. The line in red is the route a normal person would take, coming off the interstate and heading to the hotel lobby portico. It was the route I took, except I parked in the spot I marked in blue, more or less, then walked across the asphalt to the lobby. I didn't cross any fences or hop any hedgerows, the parking lot is contiguous. The only difference was that part of the lot was dark.
Yes, as I found out later, there is tons of parking to the south of the hotel, but you can't see that area taking the normal entry path.
-
Read the sign or pay the fine. You rolls the dice and takes yer chances. It's OK to be jacked-off about it but quit trying to turn it into a strong arm/extortive/over the top action. Take that from someone that got bit once 30 years ago and never ever ignored another sign like that again.
I didn't ignore the sign, I just didn't see it -- the lights were off.
I believe it was the towing company who turned it into a strong arm/extortive/over-the-top action. Two defintions of extortion are 1) Exaction of money or property through intimidation or undue exercise of authority and 2) An excessive or exorbitant charge. When I guy puts a clamp on your personal property and then says "I'll take that off.... for $150. Either pay me now, in cash, or I'll have your truck towed to an impound lot and you can collect it tomorrow... for $180", that seems to fit both definitions.
It seems to me a more pragmatic course would have been to allow the people who were present to move their cars. Abandoned cars should have had the warnings stuck on them and then been towed in the morning if they were still there when the KFC prepared to open. But I'm sure that would cut too heavily into the towing company's profit.
-
All true. As I said before, the lights were off in the parking lot (they were closed after all) and none of us saw the small signs. I certainly wouldn't have parked there otherwise and I think the same goes for the other attendees. You actually have to drive through the KFC parking lot to get to the Clarion -- the two areas merge at one point. I honestly thought when I parked that it was common parking for both businesses. If you park across from the Clarion pool, you're (apparently) in KFC domain. I sucked it up, paid the extortion money to have the boot removed, got a receipt (yes they gave a receipt), said a few choice words, moved my car behind the hotel and went back into the event. When they later started saying the room was overfilled and the fire martial was in attendence, I decided enough was enough and left. All I needed was to spend a night in the Murfreesboro Jail for a fire code violation. The Clarion would probably have my truck towed...It definitely sucks but unfortunately as you've admitted (and others have noted) the booting/towing was within their rights as a business... What sticks out at me in this whole story is the bit about the cash only $150 fee. I've spent a LOT of time living in Latin America and have noticed this under the table "fee" a number of times. In the U.S. we actually have a government that cares about or has the resources to deal with this type of untaxed revenue (this is assuming that the towing company pockets the cash boot removal $$ and doesn't report it... I could be in error in this assumption but it really smacks of that type of thing). If you're REALLY convinced that it's a predatory towing company/KFC partnership, you could ask for a receipt and if they are unwilling to provide one, mention that you and all your caching buddies being similarly shook down for untaxed income probably wouldn't need to make a mention of this untaxed income to the IRS if the mistakenly received money would be returned. Or something along those lines... I am not suggesting that you extort the company but either on the scene or after, perhaps some mention of this practice and the number of connected, reachable witnesses COULD be a something you might have tried or something that you may be able to use..... Make sure this mention is carefully worded and not hostile. It's a variation of a method I've used time and time again in various incarnations to avoid made up fees in other countries.
That being said, this is a business trying to make money and you were all (however briefly) parked in violation of the business's policies and should consider just sucking up the (what I like to call whenever I get a ticket or pay a dumb fee) "stupid tax" and moving on. It's unfortunate that you all got into that but other than the taxable income part of the thing, you really don't have much of a good avenue or legal foothold on this one. Your car was left in a signed area in contravenance of the posted signs so there's no real way around it. Good luck and hopefully you can let it go and take greater note of the signs in the future
While admirable to try to free parking for guests, since you were at the event at the clarion (who probably has a calculated lot size with events such as this built into the estimation), feel free to park there
Taking the furthest space out of courtesy is wonderful but as a general practice parking where you have business is the best approach mrbort
Sunday was much better. Sunday I hiked to Virgin Falls.
I agree they were probably within their legal rights to do what they did (though I'm wondering about the booting because the sign didn't say anything about that) and I probably have no legal recourse to their heavy-handed tactics. The point of my original post was this incident left me loathe to spend another penny at a KFC -- so I'm wondering if TPTB at KFC Corporate are aware of this predatory booting operation going on at one of their locations?
I sure wish they would've come out and said something to ME when I parked. I DID see them peering out the window at us as we later argued to no avail with the tow truck drivers. A bunch of us rushed out to move our cars as soon as we were aware that there was a problem, but they had swept through and booted all of the vehicles first. I think only a couple of cars actually got towed -- the rest of us paid the "boot removal fee" and moved our vehicles ourselves. Oddly, the sticker they stuck on the window of my truck warning about the boot being installed said, "There is a minimum $95.00 boot removal fee payable in cash only!!!" When I inquired who I was to pay the $95.00 to, the little dweeb said "Oh, it's $150". They were all mostly late-model cars and trucks, so I guess that amount is flexible depending on what type of crowd they figure they're dealing with.(NOT SCYOLI, I'm SCBrian, just to lazy to log the wife out.
)I got lucky at the event, and as I pulled in 2 KFC employees warned me and GTQ about not parking there because "They'll boot and tow you." (their words speaking about the towing company in 3rd person). My guess is the KFC is only minimally involved. I found the overflow parking for the Clarion and let the people inside know of the towing issue. It seems like within 5 minutes of me moving though the wrecker was there.
I dont think the Clairon had any Idea what they'd be getting into with the owd involved. At one point appprently the fire marshal even paid a visit...
-
sounds like there is a ongoing problem between the KFC and the Clarion hotel and you along with all the other cachers got caught in the crossfire.
True dat! I wonder if when people check out of the Clarion, then walk over to the KFC for a bite, does the hotel have their cars towed? Luckily there was an ATM in the Shell station across the street or I would've been bumming a ride from the event.
Other than the booting incident, the trip was a success and GW7 was a blast!
-
The KFC was closed, hence I figured it was OK to park there. I was actually trying to not cram the Clarion hotel lot full of cars, thinking the guests staying there might want a place to park. It was dark, I was from out of town, so I turned in the first driveway to the hotel and thought, "I'll just park over here out of the way and walk". I guess that's what I get for trying to think of others. Yes, there were small signs in the darkened parking lot that said cars parked after closing hours may be subject to tow at owners expense -- though it was a little hard to discern where the KFC lot ended and the Clarion began. I did not see the signs when I parked. I'm not questioning KFC's right as property owners to do so -- just their methods. They made an announcement at the event that if you had parked at the KFC, you needed to move your car because it was a tow-away zone. This was about 15 minutes after we had parked and the event started. We immediately went to move our cars, but there was no moving of cars to be done without paying $150 (cash only, please) to have the boot removed. The first thing the towing company did was boot all the cars so no one could move them without paying their extortion fee. To me, that's not about clearing the lot, that's about collecting $$$$. I heard from others staying at the hotel that this goes on every night. The restaurant probably makes more money on car towing than they do selling chicken. I just wonder if KFC corporate knows this particular franchisee is treating people this way on a routine basis?you were attending an event at the Clarion Hotel yet you parked at the nearby KFC. You got towed for good reason. If no parking was available at the Clarion you should have parked elsewhere, legally. Sorry for your troubles but really if the KFC was open then you were in the wrong. I wonder if they have an ongoing problem with overflow parking from the Clarion? I guess they could have asked the Clarion to request you all to move your vehicles before they started towing, or did they?
-
Sorry, my connection glitched out while uploading my original post, resulting in the blank page. What I said was:
If, like me, you had your car booted or towed (to the tune of $150-$180) from the KFC while attending the post-GW7 Midnight Madness Geocoin event at the adjoining Clarion Hotel, don't just take it lying down! Be sure to contact KFC at P.O. Box 725489, Atlanta, GA 31139 or 1-800-225-5532, or just go to their website and click on "U.S. Feeback" in the middle of the page and let them know how this particular franchisee is treating their customers and the general public. I know several of the event attendees ate at the restaurant prior to going next door, but that fact had no effect on the tow truck drivers collecting their extortion money. Even if your car wasn't one of the ones booted, or even if you didn't attend the event, it wouldn't hurt to contact them as a show of support to your caching brethren! Let's fill their in-box and show them you don't mess with geocachers!
For reference, it was the KFC at 2205 Old Fort Pkwy, Murfreesboro, TN
-
...I might be able to be swayed if someone can come up with a reasonable example of how this guideline change truly impacted them negatively!
Of the 110 caches in my town (when I first started), only 4 of them that I can remember, hold swag. One, the first geocache placed here in fact, is an ammo can, and has some passibly-decent swag. One is a small L&L, placed at a Civil War Battle site, contains basic crapswag, & catches the occasional Trackable. I know of 2 other L&L's, one of which started as cheap Tupperware that's since been replaced with an L&L - both it & the other contain junk that would make McToys look like treasure.
EVERY other one is either film cans (prolly 75-80 of them), Bison Tubes (small ones), a few magnetic keyholders (6-8; all guardrails), a couple of pill bottles, and nanos. I didn't see the ammo can until my ~60th find. I thought the smaller containers, by example, was THE way to do it, up until about then. Incidentally, the same ratio/pattern has held true on the few out-of-town excursions I've made.
After reading numerous complaints on this & other fora about lack of cache quality, junk or no swag etc, I decided to put out some more attractive hides. Bought & camo'd several L&L type containers, a few ammo cans, & more money spent on swag for them than I really can easily afford. All to help the game.
Just before April Fool's day, I submitted a cache - one of the 'Regular' sized L&Ls, camo-painted, packed with swag, nicely prepared log BOOK (not a strip of paper) including laminated instructions for an ALR - basically, it was a Liar's Cache....and the ALRs advised the finders to log it online with 50 words minimum to help with the fun & excitement & to encourage others, and they had to keep 'the secret'. No puzzles to figure out - the cache was at the listed coordinates. Log book included a dedicated page for the FTF, and a Sacagawea Gold US Dollar for FTF prize.
I spent considerable time & expense finding a good place to hide the cache, as well as time to prepare & word the description to promote the cache & inspire cachers to give it a try. I had to travel out, make the short hike & place it while raining, in order to beat the deadline. A lot if not all of that work was wasted; I'll now have to travel back to & reclaim the cache, rework the logbook (hence defacing it), and almost completely re-word the cache description into a basic Park & Grab with 5 minute search. Almost zero 'excitement'. THEN travel once more to the cache site & reactivate it. I am honestly considering the public will be better served if I just archive it. Who loses?
I also had bought 'stuff' for my next planned cache, named 'Steakout'. It was gonna be placed on the property of a steakhouse restaurant out on the edge of our town (while asking permission, the owner became very interested in learning more about & getting into geocaching, BTW - and the following week we had two new locals sign up - I think he & his wife). This 'Steakout' cache was gonna have a 'Cops & Robbers Dressup' theme. Bought a bunch of props - toy badge, 'SWAT' team armor shield, toy cop-baton, pistol, handcuffs, etc, & 4 different 'Groucho glasses' for the 'Robbers' disguise; a $40 digital camera, spare SD memory chip; another $20, so I wouldn't have to be continually paying film development costs.....I even bought a box of Individual Sanitizing Wipes for use by the squeamish .... and a watertight container big enough to put it all in. In total, about $80-90 worth of stuff, which doesn't include the swag items; & I worked off & on 4 months on it, buying a little at a time. ALR was to dress up & take a picture.
Oh, the new rules don't say I can't still do that, eh? I'm sure's heck not gonna put all that out there for the benefit of the number-runners & their "TFTC" or "Found it." logs!! So, now my plans are scrapped - I'm stuck with all this stuff I bought, my efforts wasted, and so yes, I have been 'negatively impacted' - and all because I was just trying to "help the game" & provide more fun than just another film can with soggy pulp for a log.
But I wouldn't DREAM of having you reconsider.
(Like you really, for one half split second, would).
~*
I applaud you for your efforts to put out interesting, thoughfully stocked caches. I really do! I like to think I do the same thing and many of my caches get rave reviews (and there's not an LPC among them). But I put them out for all cachers to find, without retribution if they only log a "TFTC". There's nothing to say that you can't still place your cache and just make the extra activity a suggestion rather than a requirement. Your plans don't have to be "scrapped" just because you can no longer threaten finders with log deletion if their logs don't meet your expectations. Trust me, if the cache is fun and interesting, you'll get fun and interesting logs -- for the most part. You'll have more visits to you cache overall and the linguistically challenged or extrodinarily shy can still get a smiley. And they will probably have enjoyed the cache, even if their log doesn't reflect it.
-
Luckily, we only had a few ALRs down here in SE Texas and with modest logging requirements. I did a few of them, wore the funny hat, took the picture -- fun stuff. I don't know of any logs that were deleted for FAILURE TO COMPLY, but it always bugged me that the newer ones were listed as puzzle/mystery caches. I tend to filter mystery caches that I haven't solved, assuming that the coords were bogus.
I have a feeling this all came to a head over goofy/insane additional requirements and deleted logs. I think I read on another thread here somewhere about a "Non-Premium Member Only" cache. If you were a "Payed" (sic) Premium Member, and you logged the cache, your log would be deleted. Crazy stuff, man....
-
Well said!...Needle in a haystack type hides are not so good, even though they are common in some areas.
For instance, a fake pine cone cache is fun and OK if put in a area where it can actually be found, like hanging on an oak tree. But a fake pine cone in a pile of 300 real pine cones is too tedious.
I always appreciate a well crafted cache container -- in the right environment. If you're going place a regular, generic-type container, go ahead and spend a few bucks and put out something that will stand up to the elements. An ammo can or lock-n-lock, or for micros, a preform tube or waterproof matchstick container, for example. Nothing diminishes the experience of finding a well placed cache than to open the old peanut butter jar or film canister and find it full of water with a soggy mass for a log.
-
I usually leave the electronic compass in my 60CSx turned off so, IMHO, a 2-axis compass isn't even a requirement -- it's barely a "nice to have"...
-
People make caches "Member Only" for various reasons. Sometimes if there's been a rash of cache mugglings in the area, they'll make Travel Bug Hotels member only to try to cut down on thievery. It adds a level of security (you have to pay to see it) and, more importantly, the cache owner can see who all has been viewing his cache. Yep, if you even pull up the cache page, the CO can see that each time you do it.
But, to me, MO caches are the least of the perks of Premium membership. Pocket Queries, Bookmarks, Notifications, Caches Along a Route, etc are of much more benefit, IMHO.
-
Other than caches I've later adopted, I only log events I've hosted and so far that has only been one CITO. Usually when I see folks logging their own caches, it's noobs who don't realize that it's uncommon. If you point out that it's considered "bad form" they usually appreciate the info -- but it's just a game and I don't lose any sleep over it either way.
-
If they've been in a cache a while, are you sure that's a design feature and not real mold/slime?What I find curious is the enormous popularity of the "water color" look, where all the colors seem to wash together. It seems that folks who choose this design are also fans of the "distressed" look, where the paper seems be textured and torn. Sometimes this design even goes so far as to incorporate living organisms... slime molds and such. I appreciate the concept of living art, but when a concept is copied, again and again, the emotional impact of the art form is lessened.
It appears that the people who choose these designs are looking to have their sig item stand out in a crowd. While this design of card isn't typical of most cards seen outside of caching, this design type does seem to be overused in the caching community. The "distressed slime mold" prototype is seen all too frequently.
I collect some interesting sig items and have a bunch of the wooden nickels, but the laminated cards I usually leave alone, unless it is a cacher I know. I created a sig item by ordering some combination whistle/compass/LED lights with my handle and www.geocaching.com on them from a promotional products outfit. They ended up costing about 80 cents each and people certainly remember them.
-
Good to hear you're on the mend, Joni. Hope to see you and Craig at the TX Challenge in a few weeks!
-
don't worry about it.
all zones are visible on the emulator map if, and only if, you compiled the cartridge yourself on your own machine.
when somebody downloads it and runs it on their own machine without access to source code, they won't see a thing.
Thanks. That makes me feel better!
-
My Cartridge starts with all zones but one inactive and invisible. They become visible one at a time as you progress through the game. But in the emulator, they are visible on the map as light gray boxes -- even the zone with the final cache. Why is this? I have the check to see if the cart is being run on the emulator, and then it won't display the final cache zone, but I don't want someone to just run it in the emulator and see the cache zone on the map.
-
To quote The Bard, "Much Ado About Nothing"
My Premium Membership is up for renewal soon, so if one of you don't gift me one in a hurry, I shall be forced to renew it myself!
.
.
Taking the furthest space out of courtesy is wonderful but as a general practice parking where you have business is the best approach 
Mission: 10 Years!
in Trackables
Posted
I'll play -- email sent.
I'm new to this, so what did I just sign up for?