Redfist

Love 'em! Keep them coming...

Yes please.

For me, a rattlesnake warming itself in the sun right across the trail I was on. Luckily I saw it ~10-12 feet out. I would've hated to accidentally step on him.

I don't think I'd focus on puzzle solving when buying a computer but I love the enthusiasm! I'd recommend Windows for a large variety of tools and capabilities. From a HW perspective, solving puzzles doesn't take much. I have solved a few where I wrote a program to churn on #s for a while, but it still solved in under 5 minutes. So RAM, CPU, HD probably aren't all that pertinent for just the task of solving puzzles. You mention "months, years" of usage. I'd probably look towards buying something with touch since that paradigm is only going to become more entrenched. My recommendation would be to buy a Windows PC during "the holiday season" when the new wave of lower priced offerings come out. What is newish then and "knee of the curve" on the price/performance chart will be a GREAT value. Either get a nice laptop or a nice tablet that has good Bluetooth mouse/keyboard capabilities. I'd probably actually lean towards a laptop just for larger screen size for examining photos/etc. when solving puzzles.

All tourists speak English, don't you know. English is the international language of leisure.

The type of tourist the OP has in mind will certainly profit from English. While I can write e.g. in French, I need to invest much more effort than for writing in English which is not much different to writing in my mother tongue. English is a must in so many professions and plays a special role in international communication. English plays a much larger role as a foreign language than as a native language. When I started geocaching eleven years ago it was normal to log in English and I sticked to that habit until today with some exceptions. My expectations about the lingiustic quality of texts I like to read are much higher than what online translators can provide. I like multi caches and I like to read long logs, e.g. reports about hikes. What online translators produce is mostly garbage and much worse than the English many cachers I know can produce. Of course I'm aware that English logs cannot expected from anyone, but I'd prefer a situation like in the early years of geocaching in my home country. Cezanne My expectation is that when I travel to another country, I better be able to deal with their language/laws/customs/etc. When I find English logs, I'm happy! When I find local-language logs, I'm not at all upset.

Why English? Doesn't that make it "harder for tourists" who travel from non-English speaking countries? Perhaps the default should be German. Oh wait, the OP probably wouldn't like it. How about... you translate from language X into your own language when reading. Copy/paste into a webpage (bing and google both have easy translators). That way you don't have to ask the world to change, you just have to ask yourself. Asking 6 million cachers to change has a lower chance for success than merely asking yourself to change. I couldn't help but *forehead palm slap* when I read the OP's post. OMG....

If I actually spend time looking, I'll log a DNF. If I'm in a huge rush and only give a 10 second glance I won't bother since it doesn't have the same implication. If there was a "barely glanced and didn't find it - go figure", I'd do that a lot. When I see a DNF, I assume it meant "I spent a reasonable amount of time and came up empty". To me, that means I should be prepared to do a more extensive search. My barely glanced doesn't warrant the same amount of concern.

Not ashamed. It defines who I am. I like to think I'm pretty good at puzzles. I'm happy to admit that I'm not always so great at finding well-hidden caches.

For caching, it's great with the exception of 1 person who likes to create drama. Ignore him though, caching here is great. As others have said, different areas of the state are very different... Jobs - it depends on your field. Living here - it depends on what you're into. Yes, we have some hot months (4). The rest of the year is wonderful. I don't know what other things you like to do so it's hard to really comment. Schools - on average, not a high point for the state. There are some great schools but in general schools here are underfunded. We have a lot of "snow birds". People who leave here during the hot summer. They tend to be retirees w/o school age kids. You'll find that most funding measures get voted down. It's short sited, but it's true. Good location - depends on how you define good. People rude or open minded. In general, it's a more polite environment than the NE (yes, I'm over-generalizing). This is a very libertarian state. Some people will view that as open minded. Some people will view that as not. It's a very gun happy state, that may be a positive or a negative for you. --Redfist

This sport should be for everyone! Clever hides in accessible places, clever hides in difficult places. Clever puzzles with an accessible hide. Clever puzzles with a brutal hike. Etc. I hope more and more people do take this to heart and hide "good hides" that are accessible. People who are mostly confined to a chair shouldn't have LPCs as their only caching opportunities.

My 2 favorites are: 1. The Raven's Labyrinth - http://coord.info/GC35BKD 2. Pinnacle Peak Puzzler - http://coord.info/GC2TFEN Okay, so I hate to ask this because it almost sounds like I want spoilers but I guess what makes these caches so creative? I am looking for ideas because there is a park I visit frequently and the cache potential is huge and I am looking for ideas. I did check out the cool cache container thread but nothing really struck my fancy I guess. I can't say much without spoiling... Both of them required some engineering and presented something unexpected. It was obvious that these 2 COs were able to bring a non-geocacher skillset to the caches they made.

My 2 favorites are: 1. The Raven's Labyrinth - http://coord.info/GC35BKD 2. Pinnacle Peak Puzzler - http://coord.info/GC2TFEN

I always like finding carabiners.

Some are obvious (the approach at least), some are brutally hard and most are in between. What I *wish* we had, although too late, is a separate difficulty rating for puzzles. When you see a difficulty rating on puzzles, you never know how much is meant to be the puzzle solve -vs- a tricky hide.

Yeah, that's a very blank page. Surprisingly easy to solve, though. It doesn't have a checker, but I'm 99.9% sure I know the solution.

I wouldn't use spray paint. However, I'd be awfully tempted to go out of sight of the camera, drop my shorts and... act like a "bear in the woods". Using leaves (or something to keep my hands clean), smear my man-bear waste on the camera in protest. It'll wash off eventually and cause no permanent damage. It would also VERY APTLY describe what I think of placing a camera at a cache like that.

OH, what a co-incidence! Run Away! I enjoyed that one...

For the puzzles with seemingly no data to offer... there is always data to offer. Check the GC code. Check the past trackables. Check the CO's gallery. Check the CO's finds. Check the page's source code. Check the hidden date. Check the published date. Check the title. Check to see if the cachername listed on the page differs from the CO's name. etc.. Keep checking...

Sorry - I realized that was a super short vague message. The appearance of the maps seems a little different which makes me think perhaps a different backend is drawing them. The most explicit buggy behavior I'm seeing is the close button on an individual cache's bubble description. The X is slightly misplaced (up and to the right) and I can't close the bubble. The only way to rectify that is to close the map and re-open/re-navigate.

Uggg - did the maps change again? I'm getting a different look and buggy behaviors which started today.

The more you post the more I smell a rat. I would not even begin to debate the possibility of trespassing but everything else about your story is complete rubbish. Here's a subtle example.. who here can spot the anomaly? Wow, they must be really smart to find the cache so quickly while the rest of us ripped out the lighting fixtures to find a fake rock! I have ZERO idea what actually happened there to cause the damage. To be honest, none of us (including the OP) *knows* what happened. Some may suspect, but none KNOW. I have found my outside lighting wiring "cut" before. I eventually figured out what happened when I saw the culprit in action. Do you know "who" cut my wires? A rabbit. Darn rabbit chewed the wires. When I looked at each end, it looked like a clean cut. Go figure... I'm no lawyer, but my gut tells me that the only result of bringing the CO to court will be that the OP has to end up paying his lawyer fees. They'll never win for damages. The OP may get fined for trespassing, but the damages part is somewhat laughable. What is really irksome is that it *may* have actually been cachers who caused the damage. If nothing else, this should serve as a reminder to cachers to "do no harm". That should be obvious, but everyone knows that "common sense" isn't as "common" as we'd all hope.

Very helpful - thanks!

Resent it all you want. The mere fact that you even brought up the whole logging a FTF in a timely manner shows that you do have a feeling of self-entitlement, at least when it comes to FTFs. It sounds like you're reading intent where it may not exist. He stated quite clearly that he PREFERS people to log FTFs quickly. He didn't say that he disrespects or dislikes people who wait "too long". Just that he gets irk'd. That is 100% **his** reaction to an external stimulus. He never asked others to change their behavior. I get that completely, My point was, the mere fact that it irks him means that he feels some level of entitlement. If he didn't have any, he wouldn't get irked by it at all. I get your distinction but still disagree. He may be the type to hope for FTFs and love getting them. It doesn't necessarily mean that he feels as they he is 'entitled' to them. It *could* mean both but doesn't "have to* mean both.

Resent it all you want. The mere fact that you even brought up the whole logging a FTF in a timely manner shows that you do have a feeling of self-entitlement, at least when it comes to FTFs. It sounds like you're reading intent where it may not exist. He stated quite clearly that he PREFERS people to log FTFs quickly. He didn't say that he disrespects or dislikes people who wait "too long". Just that he gets irk'd. That is 100% **his** reaction to an external stimulus. He never asked others to change their behavior.