OHMIKY

I have two puzzle caches nearly ready for release - I will have submitted them by noon, but I don't expect them to be published today btw - Happy Christmas, everyone!

"The only capital crime is stupidity." --Lazarus Long Folks who get into serious avoidable trouble in the wilderness or on mountainsides are foolish for not being better prepared. This is not to say that they should not be helped - everyone has a right to an education - but they should also not be surprised if there is nobody around to pull them out.

well, I have enough real angst so I am not interested in hypothetical angst - HOWEVER there does not seem to be any real angst here anyway. Of course I'd be a little miffed if someone archived a cache and deleted my find after I had signed the log. As a puzzlecache owner, I can't think of any reason I would be likely to pull a stunt like this even if I had a serious personal animosity toward the group or someone in it - it's just not the way I was brought up to play a game.

Neatest one I have seen was in a park in Michigan - can't remember the name or waypoint of the cache but it had a rubber rat glued to the top of it - made me jump when I pulled it out of its hiding place, I have to say

I won't set foot in any Mall-Wart, much less give them any of my money. OTOH, I have never had any particular problem locating exactly what I want in the way of geocaching goodies - thanks to the internet, you can buy nearly anything you may want without leaving the comfort of your home.

Well, I have no plans to disable or remove my cache that requires software to solve - like everything in life, it is a choice the prospective finder can make.

I'm figuring if you were to run a store selling general goodies useful to tourists in the area - surf equipment - or whatever is big in your neck of the woods, a small section devoted to caching would, maybe, be ok - so long as it did not take space away from the stuff that pays the rent.

right now I am experimenting with concrete patch compound to make 'rocks' out of plastic containers - the idea is to make them less obviously round or square - once that is done, I will probably try to paint them to look like natural rocks - this kind of approach may work well with your jars - once the peanut butter smell is well cleaned out. (oops - spelling errors!)

this assumes that folks care about smileys - not everyone does

Why don't you create your own cache instead?

My avatar is already dressed for xmas in fact, he is dressed for anything so long as he has a nice pint of ale in his hand

Perhaps what you saw was google earth with the geocaching kml?

Most of my caches are puzzles - I generally make them doable without visiting any particular web page, though many of them do require online research for most finders (unless they happen to be subject matter experts). I maintain a website of my own with a geocaching section that has some information that is otherwise difficult (not impossible) to locate online. As a rule, I do not mention this site on the puzzle cache pages - instead let the finder take the trouble of checking my profile to find out about it. I have seen puzzle caches that directed the finder to a specific site for a clue - and as long as they work they are great.... but of course they do not always work as advertised. There are a couple of sites that you can use to allow finders to check the coordinates they come up with in answer before they go haring off to the wrong place - you might try geochecker.com If you are into programming and want to create some tool that would be generally useful, you might find a general acceptance of it once you have explained it to sufficient folks. As to puzzles that require downloading stuff to solve, I have one that was approved before that rule was implemented. You probably already know that any time you download an executable file, no matter what the source, you should check to make sure it is clean before you run it.

you will want to make a separate stencil for each color if you want to use the color logo then apply each paint separately. There are several stencil fonts around including one that I think is standard on windows pc's - you can print your text on an overhead transparency and cut out the stencil by that guide.

solar flares are those things you put outside when your starship breaks down as a warning to other pilots that there is an obstruction here?

I have never felt the need or desire to cheat - my wife takes very good care of me, I love her very much and I wouldn't want to do anything that would spoil a wonderful relationship

appears to be an OSU student trying to come up with a creative way to pay for his beer

(DUCK tape (trade name) does not work well for duct work) the greater problem may be with the fact that you are reusing peanut butter jars - if you are not VERY careful to clean them thoroughly of any trace of the peanut oil - including traces you may not be able to detect - they are likely to become the victims of critters seeking food. Be sure to soak them for at least 24 hours in a solution of bleach (a couple of tablespoons per gallon should be sufficient)

heard this story on the radio this morning - my only reaction was 'maybe they should learn to read the thing'

I leave sig items and will always trade for and keep a sig item I find. If there are no sig items, I may take something else if it really appeals to me but I often leave something without taking anything.

<pedantic mode>two spelling errors</pedantic mode> but back on topic--- Putting a lock on a box in the woods will just about guarantee that you lose the container - more quickly if it is in an area where muggles may easily stumble over it. You might make it harder to take away by chaining it to something or casting it into a several-hundred pound block of concrete - but many land managers would probably frown on that. Still, it does present some interesting possibilities for puzzles. (just thinking here) (edited to remove unintentional third spelling error )

I place a lot of puzzle caches - and I have to say that I have no problem if someone finds an alternative solution and locates the cache - in fact, if they just happened to stumble upon it and sign the log, that is fine, too. Everyone gets to play their own game.

out of sight, out of mind = blind idiot

and I am sure they relieve themselves pretty much the same way, too - I don't understand the fascination

there are a few that I think are pretty nifty, but my hands-down favorite so far is OHMIKY's Scarabaeus Croceus - GCYPJX A puzzle multi and the launching site for a TB with a related theme. It isn't a great climb or a spelunking adventure, but...