OuttaHand
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Posts posted by OuttaHand
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I had custom poker chips made.........
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I got my ink a couple years ago. It's not necessary only geocaching-related, but it's certainly along the lines of......
(Please excuse the photo quality. It's from my camera phone.)
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we use cheap guitar picks off eBay that we put our sticker on.They fit almost everywhere except a bison tube or those pesky nano tubes.
that is a good idea too. I was also checking out bottle caps.
I have found waterproof labels for $1 a sheet, plus $5 for shipping (62 labels per sheet) This seems like a good solution for designing poker chips. That would be around $60 for 500 chips. Then I don't have to put all 3 of our names on one, we can each have our own ones, and with different designs (3 of us cache together).
What kind of sticker do you put on your guitar picks?
I was searching for poker chips or wooden nickels a few years ago, also. I found a site that worked out very well. It's This site.
They will allow you to upload any picture you want. So you can make a good design using Photoshop, etc. It will allow you to also create a custom edge stripe to go around the outside edge of the chip.
The nice thing abut these chips is that they are not just stickers glued to a plastic poker chip like some sites you'll see. These are actually die-sublimate printed onto chips that are closer to the actual weight of a good chip.
They have price breaks at certain points, also. You have to search the site a bit to find where it discusses the price breaks. I think they have price breaks at 50, 300, 500, and 1000 (or something.) My last order I was able to get a few different designs together and ordered 300 chips. At that price point they were 99 cents each plus shipping.
Here's what my chip looks like:
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You can also get Delorme Street Atlas 2007 (not 2006 or earlier, though)
It will output a portion of a map, including the "waypoints" as an image to your PDA. The picture you open in the PDA is zoom-able so you can see it pretty well. I have a Palm tungsten T and it works pretty well.
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I've had cases of this also. In a couple of them, I re-thought my trade item: Put the little item back in and took a larger one. In general, the items I put in are physically small so I only traded up in size -- not quality!
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I just went to my account and reviewed some of the caches I've found. In general, I agree that the longer the description, the more I enjoyed the cache.
I'll also add this: In looking to decide which caches to do, I'm much more likely to do a cache that has a better description, than one that is very brief. Yes, that may be judging a book by its cover. But when you have limited opportunities to go geocaching, you want to make the most of your time.
So when Mrs. OuttaHand and I decide to hit a couple caches on a given Saturday, I'm far more likely to choose the ones that describe the area and attractions at the cache site.
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Here's the sig item I'm going to have made up soon. Custom poker chips with my username and a compass rose that matches my tattoo. . . . .
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I chose my compass rose (see above pic) because it means a lot to ME.
Growing up, my family did a lot of camping. We've set up camp in about 27 different states and have driven through many others. We've also camped in Canada and have traveled to the Caribbean. So I grew up travelling a lot and really grew to love it.
One thing I enjoy is to look at maps of places I've been, or places I plan to visit. In doing that, I have seen a lot of compass roses. You see them on everything from old nautical charts to modern maps. It used to be the one artistic thing on a map. The artist who drew the map would "sign" it with his own design on the compass rose.
Obviously, the compass rose is also associated with Geocaching. I've really taken to this hobby/activity/sport/obsession so I wanted something that was related to it in some way.
So when I started thinking of getting ink, the first thing that popped into my mind was a compass rose. It just had to be the right one. So I searched Google images and came up with dozens of them. None was just quite right. But one was close. I took that one that was close and re-worked it just a bit until it suited me just right. It was shortly after that I stopped at the tattoo shop, asked how much, and made the appointment.
Now one poster said something above that's very true: This is YOUR tattoo -- not someone else's. You have to choose what's right for YOU and know for sure it's what you really want. There's no second guessing here. You don't want to take someone else's advice and then, later, find out it wasn't right for you!
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SNIP
In regards to a geocaching related tattoo I have been thinking of getting a compass rose/navigational type of tat on the back of my calf.
I do have a tattoo that is caching related. I didn't get it only because of caching -- but for travel in general. It is a compass rose. I found a nice design using a Google image search then embellished it to my liking.
Please note: This is a pic I just took with my cel phone in order to reply. The actual tat looks nicer than this picture turned out.
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For me, I make the personal item INTO the swag that I trade.
Mind you, I don't sign my name to a piece of junk. I make up something unique.
A couple of my personalized trade items were:
* Wooden nickel with my custom stamp on it. I then drilled a hole in the wooden nickel and put it on a carabiner/keychain that had a little compass on it. So it cost a total of about $2 each and was personalized.
* Laser engraved LED flashlight keychain. Cost about $2 - 2.50 each.
* I will be ordering custom-printed poker chips with a compass rose and my OuttaHand name on it. I designed the image; and the chips are high quality 11.5g poker chips that are custom dye-sub printed (not decals). They'll be hitting the caches in a couple months.
You're absolutely right about the people that simply sign a nickel item from a gumball machine and call it a signature item. that doesn't quite cut it And if you choose to drop a calling card into the cache, that's up to you. If not laminated, they will probably turn into pulp within a few months, though.
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Personally, for ME, I see business cards (or calling cards) as geo-junk. They are generally left in the cache until they are tattered, wet, nasty, and useless.
Hey, all of mine are laminated so they'll last and last (close to forever
)for the record and they are geo-cards not buisness cards
The laminating process immediately changes it from a standard business or calling card into a legitimate trade item in my eyes. Because you took the time to treat it right, it is not going to turn revert to it's pulp state in the bottom of a cache. It's also something that I'd consider trading for at that point.
The other distinction here is that yours is a Geocard -- not a business card. Yours was created specifically to tell others about your geocaching team and not your occupation. That makes a big difference, too.
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Patches would be a very cool idea. I used to have a jean jacket when I was a kid and had a TON of patches on it! Don't know that I'd sew the patch on anything, but would sure put in in my case of cache trades and display it proudly.
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Personally, for ME, I see business cards (or calling cards) as geo-junk. They are generally left in the cache until they are tattered, wet, nasty, and useless.
Now I'm sure there are those that take these cards out and keep them. And for those folks, excellent ! But when I think of a personal trade item, I think of a thing that has been personalized in some way. Some items I've seen:
* Clay mug made by cacher
* Wooden nickel stamped with custom ink stamp with cacher's name
* printed keychains
* hand-made jewelry
* fridge magnets
* pin-on buttons
* coins
* poker chips
* other clay or sculpy items made in cacher's favorite shape or design
Each of these was personalized in some way with the cacher's name -- either printed on it, engraved in it, etc. I personally have used a couple different things:
* Had a rubber stamp made with my insignia and caching name. I stamped the center of a wooden nickel with it. (cost: about $10 for the rubber stamp plus about 10 cents per wooden nickel)
* Had some laser-engraved LED flashlight keychains made with my userID on it (about $2.50 each)
* Am now having some custom-printed poker chips made up. (about $1.00 each)
The main difference between business or calling cards and any of these items is that these items have some sort of intrinsic value besides that of personalization. A calling card, while personal, is just a piece of paper. For anyone who collects and displays their caching trades (as I do) they probably would be more interested in something a little "nicer" that would look good on display.
Again, this is all my opinion. Take it for what you paid for it.
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If the "one log per cache" rule does go into effect, caches like this would have to be listed seperately. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it would certainly change the way that particular cache hider wanted their idea carried out.
Why would it have to be listed separately?
It would have to be broken into seperate caches and listed seperately if the owner of the cache wants to allow cachers to log each stage sperately and grant these finders the ability to receive multiple smileys.
If you read the cache description I had referred to, it was intended to be done in a certain order So a cache like this, with a distinct theme that has to be done in order, would be difficult to assemble as multiple separate caches while retaining the original "do in in this order" type of theme.
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One of the first caches I did was Feel the Need for Greed
This was a multi-cache laid out over several city and county parks. It required driving (many miles) between legs and allowed you to log each part seperately on the cache page.
Now in this case, every leg was a worthy cache in and of itself. They just happened to be laid out in a series that required the cacher to find them in order. So this cache placer decided to allow multiple finds -- one per leg of the multi-.
If the "one log per cache" rule does go into effect, caches like this would have to be listed seperately. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it would certainly change the way that particular cache hider wanted their idea carried out.
What it boils down to in my opinion is that GC.com has created a fun game with some very basic rules. If individual players want to play by those basic rules but expand upon them a little bit, then so be it. In the grand sceme of things, does anyone's overall caching experience become degraded because some other cacher got a bonus smiley?
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I'm thinking of getting a waterproof "case" to use my small digital camera while protecting it from water. Would not be diving with it, but would be on boats, rafts, etc. where it's bound to get wet.
A quick 'net search yielded this possibility: Aquapak
Has anybody used these for cameras or other sensitive equipment? Any others that anyone could recommend? Comments?
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I will happily add another recommendation for TheGPSstore
I ordered accessories from them for my Rino. Excellent service and great communications.
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It sounds like you may not have chosen the right map product for your needs.
You mention that the base map in your GPS has more detail. I'm assuming you mean details as in smaller roads and streets in your area.
If it's road and street detail you're looking for, then you want the Mapsource MetroGuide North America. It will have all the roads, streets, highways, etc. and it's designed for getting around in a car.
The Topo product you got is designed for knowing the terrain of the land. It's excellent for hiking or off-roading as it will show where there are hills, mountains, slopes, etc. etc. It will show you how steep a slope is, etc.
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I have the Palm Tungsten T (not the T2) and it works beautifully. Color screen is very nice plus mine has the ability to play MP3's. It has a poor built-in speaker and a headphone jack so you can listen to tunes while caching. With its SD card slot, I can carry as many caches (and music) as I wish with room to spare.
Only issue I've had with mine is losing the stylus. The stylus on this model is in a little silo (tube) built into the top. I think it's supposed to be held in by a little magnet. But whatever it is sure isn't very strong. Turn the palm upside-down and stylus drops right out.
I ended up investing in a regular pen that has a built-in stylus. Turn the end one direction and get the pen. Turn it the other way and get the stylus. Works nicely. Not a bad idea to have a pen with you anyway while caching in case the cache doesn't have one.
Whatever model you decide on, invest in a hard case. My first PDA had a leather case and it worked very nicely. This one has a metal case that really protects it well.
I got this PDA used on eBay with lots of accessories and software for about $80. I bought my previous Palm on eBay also (it's a Palm M500) for well under $100. My dad just recently got a Palm M500 for $30 on eBay. If you look around enough and you're a bit patient you'll find a great deal.
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I've kept every item I've ever traded out of a cache. I now have three display cases on my office wall that my dad made for me. Each is made like a larger-sezed "California Job Case"(printer's case) and each holds many trades.
I enjoy the trading. I like having a little memento from each cache I've done. Some of the items are very nice things -- like a hand-thrown clay mug. Other things are geo-junk like semi-working McToys. I probably wouldn't get $3 for the lot at a garage sale. But regardless of their actual cash value, they each have tremendous CACHE value to me.
So trade -- or don't trade (as long as you trade even or trade UP). Keep the trades or re-gift them. This is a game with rather flexible rules in this department. Do what makes you happy!
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Probably time to break down where the problem comes in. Is it from GC.com into GSAK? or from GSAK to cachemate?
In GSAK, pick a cache listing and do a right-click on it. Click on 'Show offline in browser'
See if there's more than one log listed there. If you see more than one, then the logs are getting from GC.com into GSAK just fine and they're not getting put into the palm.
But if you see only one log listed there, then your pocket query is not asking for the logs from GC.com and you'll have to check your pocket query.
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I think what you're looking for is a setting in GSAK
click 'File' -> then click 'Export' -> then click 'Cachemate PDB File'
toward the bottom of this page there's a setting that reads
"Limit number of logs to export"
and there's a drop-down box there to select a number or "No Limit"
Hope this is what you're looking for.
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We looked for a virtual cache that was missing!
Blacksmith's Shop cache was a virtual we went looking for. Found the location and where we figured it should be. Talked with the people standing outside their home right nearby. Turns out they had donated the little building to the local historical society.
The historical society had hauled the entire building, contents and all, away to a nearby park just a week earlier.
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First of all, please know that I searched these forums as well as the ones at GSAK.net but didn't find what I'm looking for.
I have a Palm running Cachemate.
I can use Cachemate to log the finds just fine.
I can do a Hotsync and get the correct Cachemate .pdb file into my PC.
I have a macro that I found online and have edited it to find the Cachemate file.
BUT
The macro I found online wants to log each find at GC.com as it goes thru. I would rather not have to go thru and try to log each find online while running that macro.
So what I'm looking for . . .
is a Macro for GSAK that will ONLY use the .pdb file that Cachemate made and create the gpx file so I can import it and update the records within GSAK. I don't want it to try to log them online -- JUST update GSAK.
Does anybody have such a macro ? Or know where I might find one ?
Or know how to edit the macro that I found here and make it so it doesn't try to do the online logging?
Would sure appreciate any help I can get. I'm getting real close to where I want to be here. A lot closer than I was just a couple weeks ago.
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Patches would be a very cool idea. I used to have a jean jacket when I was a kid and had a TON of patches on it! Don't know that I'd sew the patch on anything, but would sure put in in my case of cache trades and display it proudly.
Pocket Query on official app
in Authorized Developer applications (API)
Posted
I'll add a similar problem When I go into the official app on my iPhone, click on Pocket Queries, it tells me that I don't have any. Says I should go to the web site and make one.
But I have a bunch of them made on the web site. Why aren't they showing up on my phone?