RealWorldAvatars

Heeheee!! Do not attempt to fool the cookie generator, because all machines can talk to each other, and your car has been complaining.

Hi, all! Thanks so very much for the sanity check... I really appreciate all your advice. I hereby promise not to get bent out of shape if people move the bug without adding a fortune to it, heehee! Considering all the stories I've heard about disappearing bugs, I'll be very happy just to see it stay in circulation... it sounds like that's a challenge unto itself! I also really liked the idea of a little logbook that people could paste fortunes into, but ultimately decided against it. I've only found 37 caches so far (told you I was new, heh), but probably half of those were really damp inside. I fear that a logbook would become a sodden mess fairly early into the process. Anyway, here's the little folding label I'm going to include with the bug. I'll get it launched later this week! Can't wait to see whether the finders like it, heehee!

I think this sounds like great fun, and I'm really hoping to find one if it migrates north to WA.

Basically, I have an idea for a travel bug, but I don't know whether it would be interesting to people, or whether they'd consider it too much trouble to bother with. And so I hassle you guys for opinions. I was dining out at a Chinese place last week, and lo and behold, the little slip of paper in my fortune cookie read: "You will travel to many exotic places." Like any good geocacher, I immediately thought hey, this would make a great travel bug. So I laminated it with some clear packing tape, ordered a bug tag, and started pondering what I wanted my new traveler to do. Here's my thought... If you want to move the fortune cookie travel bug, you need to either go out for Chinese food or nab some takeout somewhere, anything that will get you a fortune cookie. You waterproof the resultant fortune slip with a bit of tape, punch a hole in the end, and add it to the chain on top of the previous fortune. Then you place the bug in a cache that seems particularly appropriate to your fortune. For example, if you get the old standard, "You love children and animals," you could place the bug in a kid-themed cache, or one that has an animal in its name, or a cache located on a playground or a farm. Keeping in mind that I'm still fairly new to caching and bugs (in other words, if this is a stupid idea, please be nice about saying so ), does this sound like a reasonable condition for moving a bug? Or would you just leave it behind in favor of another bug that doesn't require any sort of action other than just transport? Thanks in advance for any advice!

You don't laminate a dead snail, goofball, you shrinkwrap it. Lamination is just for flat things, like roadkill squirrels. Sheesh! Seriously, I love signature items (although I'd probably draw the line at taking home a shrinkwrapped snail), but I'm of two minds on cards. Signature cards specifically printed up with a cacher's handle or team name, I'll cheerfully snag out of a cache, even if they're damp and need to be aired dry. But just somebody's normal business card...? That seems like a lame thing to leave in a cache. Just my opinion, but I think something has to be made just for caching in order to be a real signature item. *goes back to laminating flattened fauna*

Well, I doubt it'll catch on as cacher-camo, but I'm legally blind and use a white cane. And let me tell you, NOTHING apparently surprises people if they see you're carrying a white cane. It's weird. Standing two inches from a rockery and peering myopically into every nook and cranny for a film-canister micro? Heavens only knows what people think I'm doing, but apparently they wouldn't dream of asking. Feeling up a tree to find that dangling bison capsule? Prodding the underbrush with the tip of my cane? Bursting out of the shrubbery with a GPS in my hand and a victorious smile on my face? Apparently they figure I just wandered off the path. I'm telling you, folks, I'm freakin' INVISIBLE.

Heehee! It's a sad fact of life that cats, no matter how friendly, make lousy caching companions. They don't sniff out tupperware, they don't blaze trails, they can't find their way back to the car, and frankly, they'd rather spend the day lounging in a sunbeam than trekking through the woods. So my boys stayed home while hubby and I went up to the mountains yesterday. Maybe I should borrow your doggies!

Now there's a good point. I believe the ones I'm ordering are 3mm... is that good enough, or should I see if they have a thicker coin?

Heehee! I was just concluding the same thing. I'm practically awe-struck by the notion of 3" coins, but yowsers, I sure don't want to carry a sack of 'em in my caching pack. They sound heavy! I've decided to go with 1.5". My design is fairly simple, so it should look good on the smaller coin, and there's a better chance of it fitting into more caches. Since I live in-city, a lot of the caches I find are micros and smalls. Thanks, everyone, for your input!

Silly, SILLY kitty! It sounds like something our boys would do; they're fearless in their lifelong mission to make friends with absolutely anyone and everything... particularly if there's even the tiniest of chances that somebody might skritch their bellies. ------------------------------- All righty! As promised, I hereby illustrate the reason I should have asked for references HERE before getting started on my coin project the first time. *drumroll* Here's what the first company took nearly two weeks and many, many revisions to deliver: And here's what the new company sent in less than 24 hours (thanks to watermarking, I guess I'm not fooling anyone as to which company I chose from among your kind recommendations, heh): Still needs a few tweaks, but wow. Wow-wow. In one day, I've gone from so-angry-I'm-sobbing to so-happy-I'd-be-dancing-if-I-wasn't-overweight-and-middle-aged. THANK YOU SO MUCH, EVERYONE. Although these coins will be primarily to leave in caches as RWA's signature item, or occasionally given or traded in person if I ever go to an event, I owe their existence to you folks. So if anyone who sent me recommendations (for a dizzying variety of companies, by the way, heehee!) ever wants to swap their own personal coin for one, you have a deal. I'm sooooooooo happy!

Okay, wow. Remember when I said I'd contacted a different minting company this morning? Well, not only did they send me a quote in record time, but they had a coin mockup done in under five hours that looks absolutely gorgeous. I mean, really gorgeous. And they say the coins would be ready to ship in 14 days. Again, BIG THANKS to everyone here who recommended their favorite mint, and even moreso for helping me to realize it was time to make a change. With my limited (read: nonexistant) understanding of the minting process, I had sort of assumed that my experience so far was pretty normal. I'm very, very happy to be proven wrong. Once we work out the perfect design, I'll post the final mockup here!

Okay, this question is for the collectors out there. What's the general preferred size for geocoins? I'm assuming that the people who squirrel away coins until their mattress jingles probably have some sort of plastic sleeves or other mass-produced storage gear; are these designed for a specific diameter of coin? Thanks in advance for any info! - CindyV (Mrs. RWA)

*wuvs all over the geodog* Here's hoping that cat survived her stereotypical curiosity. Well, I have to admit that I finally snapped this morning. The second sample came in, and it was nearly identical to the very unsatisfactory first one. Not one of the changes I very politely pointed out last time has been made. It's been seven weeks since I first paid my deposit on the coins, I have nothing to show for it except a growing ulcer, and ALL I WANT ARE SOME PRETTY COINS! *realizes that she's standing on a soapbox with her fist in the air, grins with embarrassment, and steps down* Anyway, I called them up and requested my deposit back... we'll see if that happens. Many thanks to the folks here who've recommended other minting companies over the past couple of days. I contacted one an hour or so ago, and we'll see what they have to say about the design, pricing, and schedule. Hoping to have good news! *more hugs all around to the helpful forum denizens, and a skritch for the doggie* CindyV (Mrs. RWA)

KITTIES!! And 3D to boot... I can't wait to see your next samples! *does the happy kitty dance*

You guys rock. And that goes double for the coin-hungry geodog with the perked-up ears. It seems that the answer for "what to do while waiting" is "read more forum posts!" I'll be happy to share the name of the glacial-slow minting company, but I'd rather not post it publicly (mainly out of paranoia that they'll somehow find it and purposely delay my order further, heh). So if you're keen to know, just drop me a line. Meanwhile, Damenace, if you could add me to the list of folks who are keenly interested in hearing the name of a speedy n' good company, I'd be quite grateful. I'm also looking forward to hearing how yours come out! Since I'm only having 300 coins made this run, and (barring freak meat-packing accident or alien abduction) I'm certain I'll find more caches than that over the next couple of years, I'm eventually going to need more coins. And I'm equally certain I won't be using the same minter, heh. *hugs* to everyone for helping keep me sane!

I love reading about people's other hobbies, and occupations, and personal quirks. It's very interesting to me to see the vast range of humanity currently enjoying geocaching! I also like photos, humorous anecdotes about particularly evil caches, and of course, pics of any geocoins you've produced. Fun!

Best bet would be a Scottish terrier, since every cache I've seen lately has been full of McDonald's toys.

Okay, so my personal geocoins have been "in process" for nearly two months now. It took the minting company many iterations to turn my very simple design into an acceptable template (and then two more iterations to correct their spelling), and when the photos of the sample coin were finally delivered, it was heartbreakingly disappointing in its inaccuracy. They're creating a new die now, but that will apparently take just as long as the first die did (three weeks), and at this point, I'm close to developing some kind of nervous twitch. So other than staring at the template about twenty times a day, and admiring photos of other people's geocoins, and trying to decide which cache would be best to put coin #0001 in, and staring at the template just a couple more times, is there anything I can do to keep from going insane while I wait? Is there a Geocoins Anonymous?

The RealWorldAvatars Caching Adventure coin (see my profile page for the image) will be found primarily in caches -- possibly given/traded in person if I go to any events, but mostly just to put in caches. I wanted to have something to place in caches that the next person would DEFINITELY want to find, and coins seemed the way to go. That is, if the minting company ever finishes 'em. It's been in production for ages at this point, and I still don't have an acceptable sample. I'm about as depressed as a cacher can be. *sniffles*

Heehee! That program (when it aired three months ago) was the first we'd ever heard of geocaching. Mr. RWA's thought process when seeing it went, "hmmmm, a reason to get out and hike", while mine went something like, "eeeeee, an excuse to buy new gadgets!" We found our first cache about a week later, and have been hooked ever since. Gotta love the Travel Channel!

We haven't been geocaching for long, but hubby and I did attempt a FTF a couple of weeks ago where we ran into another pair of cachers. We were looking for our first-ever, they were looking for their second of the day, so it's pretty obvious the difference in our caching skills, heh. We chatted with them for fifteen minutes or so while we all rustled through the local underbrush. Needless to say, they scored the FTF and associated bag o' swag, but we thought it was pretty darn cool to meet another caching couple; they seemed like interesting people!

Okay, and I think you goofballs have completely hijacked my thread. *waves a very stern finger at the lot of you* Allow me to rephrase in an attempt to put the conversational bobsled back in the chute, and PLEASE, if you want to continue any other discussion, feel free to start a new thread for it. I intend to refresh my theme-based cache from time to time. Given this as chiseled-in-stone fact, I would like input on the following two questions: 1) How often is it sane to refresh a cache? In particular, if I choose to refresh mine every couple of months, will that get me labeled -- even by other people who choose to refresh their caches -- as an obsessive-compulsive oddity? 2) Also assuming that I have no intention to keep any swag that ends up in my cache, unless somebody labels it as specifically for me, is it more customary to remove all non-theme-but-good swag items and place them in other caches, or to just forego the cache theme after the initial placement and leave all good swag in the cache no matter what sort it is? And yes, I know that this postulates the existance of good swag in the aforementioned cache after at least two months of trading, but frankly, if 40 years of life haven't cured me of optimism, I somehow doubt a few junky caches and a forum full of cynics are going pull it off.

I love leaving things in caches! We're having personal geocoins made (for small-and-larger size caches) and signature buttons (for micros), so that we always have something extra-cool to leave that (hopefully) the next person to come along will really enjoy finding. In the meanwhile, we've been leaving lots of videogame action figures, keychains, and other memorabilia, including a few actual games (in the BIG cache containers, heh). As for taking swag, I'll usually only snag something if it's complete junk (expired bus passes, dead batteries, and a candy bar wrapper are three that spring immediately to mind) so that I can throw it out, or for my "trophy" shelf if it's a signature item. I adore signature items. One of these days, I'm hoping to find a digital fish or somebody's personal geocoin.

The thing is, I agree more with your signature line, quoted above, than I do with your position on swag-stocking. I want everyone who visits my cache to enjoy it, and even though good swag isn't a requirement of a good cache, it's something I certainly enjoy finding, and therefore I want to set a good example for others. Besides, as I mentioned before, I have a whooooole lot of nifty little videogame-related goodies in my storage room (from many years as a game journalist), so let's just take it as read that I DO plan to refresh my game-themed cache from time to time. With that said, does every couple of months sound too obsessive-compulsive? That's what I kind of had in mind for a tentative schedule, unless somebody reports in a log that the cache is nearly empty, or that it needs any kind of maintenance. Thanks to everyone who has expressed an opinion or offered advice, by the way; it's giving me a much better understanding of the process, and of my fellow cache-hiders!

Well, that solves one little problem I had. As soon as I finish my long-term project to hollow out and waterproof this future cache container, I'm going to name it markp99's Big Adventure.