cimawr

Heh. Problem with that one is that Doug Moreland's "Beer Song" tends to override it in my mental playlist.

Methinks that needed a beverage alert for those who don't know the original.

Erm- who do you mean by "these guys"? The people jumping fences etc. in your subdivision, or the ones that this thread is about? If you mean the ones the thread is about, it's pretty clear that they were just young guys playing a game something like paintball or "Assassin"- they were just dumb about where, when, and how they chose to play it. If you mean the ones in your neighborhood, have you talked to your parents and/or teachers about it? If there really is drug activity around the school, someone should let the police know (if they aren't already aware of it). The thread wasn't about something that happened to any of the posters here, so there's nothing for anybody here to report. The OP read an article about the incident, then posted about it because he thought it was interesting that they used GPS units as part of the game, is all. If you click on the link in the first post, you'll find the news story, which gives the details about the incident - it happened about two weeks before you posted - including that the guys playing the game WERE reported by the people who lived in the neighborhood.

Yep. I have a close friend who works as a safety inspector, checking fire alarm and sprinkler systems; all the company trucks have GPS units installed which monitor location and speed. They are also somehow linked up to the motor so that Big Brother can tell whether or not the vehicle is running when standing still. IOW, the company actively monitors not only how long the inspectors spend at a job site and how fast they drive - they get warnings if they exceed the speed limit by too much or for too long - but whether or not they're sitting in the vehicle AT a job site. Which means that even when they're on a lunch break, they can't sit in the truck and run the A.C. or heat. Another friend is an ATM tech (repairs and refills money machines), and last I heard, his company is preparing to install similar equipment.

Adding to the consensus, after looking at the log, it certainly does appear that the cacher didn't read the cache page (or didn't understand it if s/he did), just followed the coordinates to the first stage and assumed that was all there was to the cache. Which I agree with everyone else doesn't quite count as a find, since logging a find on a puzzle or multi (yours is sort of both) does normally require finding the final stage. The first part is an easy mistake for a newbie to make if you've done a PQ or the like, downloaded a bunch of coordinates to your GPS, and while out see that a cache is nearby and go look for it w/o the cache page. I did that early on with a puzzle cache. I'd run a PQ and downloaded a slew of waypoints to my Garmin; then, after finding a normal cache, looked at the GPS for "nearest waypoints", saw there was another cache less than a quarter mile away, and went looking for it. However, I ALSO realized after finding the first location that something wasn't right, went and read the cache page, and eventually did find the final stage (2 months later). Which it does seem a bit dim on the cacher's part not to read the page and figure things out when s/he went in to log it. OTOH, playing Devil's Advocate (and putting on my editor/teacher hat ) your cache's page could spell things out a bit more clearly; it's basically written with the assumption that everyone reading it is a seasoned cacher who can fill in the gaps, so to speak. None the less, it IS perfectly obvious that your cache has more than one stage to it.

ROFL! I actually have seen her "act" once; caught an episode of "Superhero" at my S.O.'s house, which is the only place I ever see TV. (I own a TV, but it's deliberately set up so that it doesn't get reception; it functions only as a monitor for my VCR and DVD.)

Heh. Is that a face I should be recognizing?

Yup. I worked in retail for about 15 years, and encountered quite a few minor-to-major celebrities (mostly sports players and authors) during that time; they're all people like everyone else, and most of 'em act that way. Biggest exception was the WIFE of a sports celebrity (local team, lived nearby, nationally famous both for his sports record and his participation in advertising) who felt she was deserving of "royal treatment" and behaved obnoxiously. But then we got plenty of local well-to-do housewives who behaved the same way.

I'm a relative newb (started in August, have just over 100 finds), but that's a phenomenon I find interesting - people who insist on that just because they couldn't find a cache, it *must* be missing, and should be disabled or archived. It gets even more interesting when reading the logs would have told them that quite a few others needed several tries to find it. Just encountered the phenomenon a couple of days ago: Post 15

Since they were apparently throwing eggs at each other (which, incidentally, is most likely why they weren't wearing shirts; egg washes off of skin better than out of clothes ), it sounds to me like a low-rent, not-well-thought-out variation on paintball. IOW, eggs are cheaper than paintball guns/ammo, and running around a residential neighborhood was cheaper than renting a paintball arena. Where it becomes not-well-thought-out is in the apparent silly assumption that nobody would notice them. I have a sneaking suspicion that they play too many such games online, and didn't give thought to the fact that in RL, they're not the commandos or whatever they get to be in the computer world. When my younger sister and her friends were playing games like that in middle school (IIRC, they used fingerpaints poured into ballons; I don't think paintball had been invented yet), at least they had the sense to use a wooded area in the neighborhood away from houses....

Ah, it'd slipped my mind that you were the person who posted that - sorry! Still, it's worth repeating the point that Wicca/Paganism and Satanism are very different things, given that so many "Christians" insist on lumping them all together. (I put "Christians" in quotes because IMO, people who practice religious intolerance are NOT following the teachings of Jesus; personally, I think he'd be ashamed of a very large percentage of the folks in the U.S. who claim to be his followers.) Sorry, but I have to disagree with that; I think Wicca/Paganism is MORE harmless than most modern religions. I agree; getting back to the original post, that particular cache didn't really seem "themed" to me, given that the OP intended to state all sorts of trade items were welcome.

Sorry, but that explanation isn't quite cutting it with me... First, it's not up to you to decide what to do with someone else's TB, unless the item attached was one that was physically dangerous. The appropriate thing to do would have been to e-mail the TB's owner and ask what s/he wanted done, not take it on yourself to censor things. Second, did the TB have other items attached? If so, why didn't you remove them all? Third, that still doesn't explain why you felt it necessary to deem the item "inappropriate" FOR THE REASON that it was, in your opinion, "Wiccan". If it had been a cross, would you have deemed in "inappropriate" and removed it? How about if it had been a Star of David? Bottom line: the mere fact that you claimed an item was "inappropriate" BECAUSE IT RELATED TO A DIFFERENT FAITH is offensive, sorry. I'm not interested in the Christian items I often find in caches, and sometimes find them mildly offensive, but I wouldn't dream of doing anything to or with them simply because they're not related to my spiritual beliefs.

Yup. And I've never seen the symbol equated with Wicca and/or paganism; however, I HAVE seen it equated with Catholicism, specifically with the Day of the Dead as celebrated by some Hispanic cultures. In any case, it's still incredibly offensive and narrowminded for someone to decide that an object is "inappropriate" because s/he thinks it's related to another religion.

I do hope you're not equating Satanism with Wicca/Paganism. They are VERY different things.

When combined with the church location, I would begin to suspect a sneaky agenda - not offensive, but not attractive either. I think that the OP would like an attractive cache. How could it be "sneaky" if the hider tells people up front that the initial trade items are Catholic-themed?? And given that the plan wasn't to limit the cache ONLY to such items, I don't see what the problem with it would be. Which, btw, I will mention that I am not a Christian, and would look for the cache anyway; I'd simply go in planning not to trade. I don't see it as any different than looking for a micro, doing a TNLNSL on a cache which doesn't have anything which appeals to me, or leaving an item without trading - all of which I do routinely. OTOH, I was fairly annoyed when I went to a cache published as having a theme of toys for kids, and found- in addition to the toys - a whole bunch of books aimed at converting young people to a certain brand of Christianity. THAT is having an agenda, and IMO a pretty insensitive/obnoxious thing to do.

I love it. That's a PERFECT example of "logical consequences"! (After all, you couldn't let all those eggs go to waste, now could you? )

Exactly. My local ordinance contains two clauses which exempt my dogs. It exempts hunting dogs and dogs in training for hunting, and it also states that "dogs in public must be controlled by leash or otherwise"; verbal control is included in "otherwise". Since I have plenty of documentation to the fact that my dogs can be controlled with verbal and hand signals**, and can also easily demonstrate said control, there you go. Which, btw, doesn't mean that I don't use leashes where appropriate. Keeping off-leash control requires always keeping attention on the dogs, and sometimes it's best to leash them to be on the safe side, and/or to make others comfortable. **Both are double champions in the sport of dog agility (and yes, Sbell, dog agility IS a sport by any definition of the word except "mutant" ), and I have ample documentation to that effect.

I'm not giving the cache name because I don't want to give too much away, but one of my favorite caches is a micro in a park. It's a tiny metal tube inserted into a golf ball; the golf ball is half-buried in dirt under a bush near the fence. Since it's out in the open, GPS readings are usually accurate and will get you quite close. What makes it such a clever cache is that such golf balls are a dime a dozen in parks around here.... but IF you pay attention to your surroundings when entering this particular park, the posted rules state "NO hitting of golf balls in this park". IOW, if you paid attention, the presence of a golf ball (if you observe your surroundings well enough to notice it) should immediately strike you as unusual. If you didn't, you're likely to overlook it. And a micro is the appropriate hide for that particular park, as well - there's no place to hide anything larger that wouldn't get "muggled" fairly quickly.

Yorkies are a lot tougher than most people think, if you treat them like dogs... they are terriers, after all.

Personally, I don't care for the term "geo-dog"; I generally either just refer to "the dogs" or "my canine caching companions". Side note: Earthdog = 1. A sport/test of hunting ability, also known as Go-To-Ground and/or Superearth, in which small hunting terriers compete to find rats (safely caged) in underground tunnels 2. A hunting dog which goes to earth, and/or competes in the above sport; otherwise known as terriers. The word terrier comes from the Latin word "terra", which means "earth".

Exactly what I was going to say, so I'll only add that in some cases it's not a bad idea to try contacting the owner of the cache, as well. Depending on the response, then you can decide whether to drop a private note to the reviewer. 100% agreed.

Running through people's yards is, as is creating a disturbance, as is making noise after (in most communities) 11 pm. Once again, it boils down to common courtesy and common sense.

Not at all. I like kids; even if I think they're up to something they shouldn't be, my first reaction is to go talk to them nicely. Phonics is your friend. Training. Non-sequiter - or projecting, perhaps. Exempt means exactly that; there's a clause in our local leash ordinance which exempts certain dogs under certain circumstances. Another non-sequiter. Neither I, nor anyone else, has said that one should avoid being within eyeshot of a private home.

No, we won't agree on that. If I have to get up at 4:30 in the morning and drive 65 miles, and some immature moron decides that his "fun" is more important than either common courtesy or obeying noise ordinances, I don't consider it "harmless". Walking across a front lawn doesn't enter into it; that's not what these eejits were described as doing. Hardly. All but one of my neighbors also have dogs, and nobody would consider it "disturbing the peace" if my dogs were barking at intruders on my property. As far as leash laws, which part of "in my bushes" did you fail to comprehend? Leash laws (which my dogs are exempt from in any case) don't apply on private property. Non sequiter, since I never said it was "likely" that they would have "hauled them in"; only that they could have if they'd wanted to. I didn't expect that YOU would, but plenty of other people agree with me about caches placed too close to private homes. Again, it's the concept of common courtesy.

Do an eBay search - you'll find pictures. That's assuming you mean the coin in the shape of a castle (square with battlements on the top edge), Ddraig Goch on the obverse, "Cymru-Wales" above it, "Y Ddraig Goch" below, and a daffodil on the reverse, flanked by leeks with the three feathers in the lower corners, "St David's Day" on the top, "1st March 2006" on the bottom.