Kacky

She is just plain wrong. I'm a little embarrassed for her.

Being rewarded mentally is not mercenary. You said it yourself: your children are not "swag hogs".

Less than a month ago. My Monty. (Drofrockology) <3 <3 <3 ETA couldn't ask for a better GeoDaddy. He got the Governor of Nevada to declare a Geocaching Day. He also manages a big annual rally event.

"Earthquake measuring 9.5 on the Richter scale twists the entire state of Kentucky by ninety degrees. Film at 11." Yes please, if it isn't too much trouble! TIA!

It helps to keep an open mind, too. Broken McToys and AOL cd's might seem like a no-brainer, but then again that may be a person with developmental disabilities or something. I hope that stuff isn't being left by the families driving up in Lincoln Navigators! And then some things that I think are really cool, others might think is garbage. In one cache last week there were pieces of broken pottery (no sharp edges) Some might see that as junk, but others know it's excellent to bring home for stepping stones or mosaics. It really should be stressed that you leave something YOU would enjoy finding. I totally disagree that it's heartbreaking for a child to find trash or lame swag. They can feel empathy for the person who thought that would be good prize. The "heartbreak" and mercenary attitude is projected on them by us parents.

You'll always have the shrinkage problem if your detail relies on horizontal space. This board restricts the width to 75 pixels, but you can have as much height as you want. Since I use a cheap-o photo program, I start off with a blank rectangle that's 1 inch wide by 3 inches tall, specified at 75 pixels to the inch. Then I make everything fit on that blank template. I usually don't need 3 inches of height, so I just crop off the extra white space. You may need to re-think your design to be something tall and not wide.

I'll defer to you BigWhite Truck, since you are already working on it.

Oh, I dunno castle... I remember, as a kid, that feeling grateful for not being retarded to the point that I would think my dirty sock is good swag, was enough to give me a happy glow. I suspect kids haven't changed since then.

I know I'm a n00b and everything, but dissing a cache in print would be a sure way to reduce the number of cachers. Is that the goal? Why not email someone and offer to work with them? What if it was a child? You'll have tainted their view of the caching community forever. I have problems with people leaving crappy swag but if they thought what they left was amusing or valuable and I don't agree, there is still a chance the problem could be mine, not theirs. I am going to try really hard not to become one of those cache snobs who seems insulted if the challenge doesn't meet their standards. Then again you could always add a utility that allows users to rate the cache quality, and then be able to sort by rating.

I looked at both of yours and I was stumped. Kimberly, what color hair do you guys all have? I was thinking of something caricature-y, but I don't know if all 4 of you could fit in such a small space. For K and RS, is it permissible to use any NASA symbols?

Serve him up Gilly! It might be better than mine!

Thanks for that. Their mom is a registered dietician and since I only see them once every six years. I defer to her. There is some really great advice here. They will love each having a task, and I'm sure that will keep the hooliganism down. Part of their conidtion is that they are also hyper-intelligent and the way they can multi-task is amazing! I have a brother in law who is the same way, he invents cellphones and stuff while doing extreme sports and holds 6 patents. I think geocaching is great for people like this because they are stubborn and won't give up the search, even if they do have to be reminded not to get too rough sometimes.

I had saved the design before putting the words on it, so here ya go, Jimmie.

What about a phone number for them to call on their cellphone, where they would get to hear a recorded message?

So this is not ok? Ooops.

Oh, I couldn't publish it anyway because it will be in Minnesota and I live in Maine. Plus I don't yet have the creds to go around planting caches. Thanks for the suggestions and I'll be looking forward to reading more.

I only have one child and he's all grown up. He has autism, which brings its own set of quirks, so I was in tune with him most of the time when he was young, but a little out of touch with children who have other issues. In May I'll be caching with my niece and nephews. They are 12 and 11 years old and I have only ever seen them once, about 6 years ago, though we keep in touch by mail. Of the twins, one has autism, so I feel confident with him. He'll let everyone find the cache and then he'll think long and hard about his swag trade, and he'll do a good job of re-hiding it. The other boy and the girl both have ADHD and they are HYPER. What kind of prep talk do I give them so they don't cut a swath of destruction through the park? I am inclined to make them search together as opposed to splitting up. Since I am still a n00b and we only have one day together before I have to fly home, I am considering hiding a one-time cache just for them, to ensure a find. Is that ethical?

I have a couple of freebies that came with different hardware. The one I use is called ULead and it came with my scanner. If your camera one asks for a disc but no disc came with it, that's a microsoft style come-on that makes you think you have a program installed, then you realize they are trying to get you to buy it. There are a few things you can do in Microsoft Paint, and I use a free website called gifworks.com for transparency and 3-d moving text.

Jimmie, how about these guys? One of the big ones for your decal and a little one for your avatar?

Would you like to have a special font for yours?

It might be fun to hook up with a local group, and if they like your location, they might let you help place it.

For Wild Thing.... I'm afraid it looks better bigger.... Dino, what if you did some creative cropping to buy yourself a little more height? Then Wild Thing could still use the full graphic on things like calling cards or what-not.

I used to be a full time radio announcer but now I just do it freelance on my computer. I also have a small sewing business that is mainly over the internet, making memory quilts & bears and a draft stopper that I invented. And a couple of times I have charged a fee to design & build websites. So I will be able to go caching on weekdays, then sew all night to make up for it. P.S. : As the mom of a person with autism, I thank you and worship you. Which reminds me - Terrible Too and I are going virtual-caching the next time I get him home for a weekend. He wouldn't like hunting for things, but driving up to something to take a picture, now THAT's right up his alley! So I'll list his vocation too. He builds birdhouses for a living.

I'm still new at this and I have been spending a lot of time looking for one certain cache. Yesterday I brought a pair of gloves and picked up trash. So I was able to keep looking even while people were standing around. Still didn't find it even though everyone has logged it as an easy find - but the place looks cleaner. Alas, there will be more trash next time I go back there.

What a cool idea! May I give it a try?