Benchmark Hunting

[+Ernmark]

After conversations w/ several of you over the past few weeks, I have developed a realization that avid Benchmark Hunters (including myself) may actually suffer from a medical condition. Now, I have no medical training, but from exhaustive research in medical websites as well as in Groundspeak Forums – I believe that we may actually suffer from what most accurately could be defined as Obsessive Compulsive Benchmarking Disorder – OCBD for short. Rather than attempting to formulate the medical description of OCBD, I think it would be best to list the more obvious symptoms to allow us to diagnose ourselves – from my research, if you have experienced the following symptoms, I believe that you too may suffer from OCBD:

 

1.) You talk to yourself while standing alone in the middle of the woods with a GPS in one hand, a datasheet and camera in the other, & holding a metal detector between your knees.

 

2.) You experience sleepless nights between the day that the NGS updates its database & the appearance of new stats & maps on holoscenes.com.

 

3.) You actually create extremely detailed lists of statistics & cool maps.

 

4.) You disappear for weeks at a time, driving thru the west & return to upload 400 photographs at one time.

 

5.) Your spouse shakes you awake at 2am as you are in a cold sweat and shouting “I HAVE to find RM 2!!!”

 

6.) You’ve “recovered” a tuna can…..or discovered that someone else actually has…or even worse – ‘found’ its datasheet!

 

7.) You’ve actually looked for HU1492.

 

8.) You have to stop hunting so you can catch up on uploading.

 

9.) You really wish you had a SQUARE CONCRETE MONUMENT PROJECTING ABOUT 4 INCHES in your front yard.

 

10.) You’ve actually set a SQUARE CONCRETE MONUMENT PROJECTING ABOUT 4 INCHES in your front yard.

 

11.) You carry a gps-enabled laptop w/ a wireless cellular network card with you into the woods.

 

12 ) There are no unlogged marks within a 100-mile radius of where you live.

 

13.) You’ve actually begun Waymarking because you’ve collected 500mb worth of no-PID disk pictures on your last 5 hunts.

 

14.) You drive past an 11’ x 15’ boulder along the road & think to yourself “ Man, that’d be a good place for a benchmark”…or, worse yet, say it out loud...to others in the car!

 

15.) You get a call from a friend about taking a trip to (insert destination here) and you say “hang on” & do a quick search of the area on CG.com (or worse yet, use the NGS interactive map retrieval) before saying yes or no.

 

16.) You have an 8x10 glossy of Deb from NGS in your cube @ work.

 

17.) You’ve returned more than once to a previously logged mark “just to make sure it’s allright”.

 

18.) Someone asks you for directions & you say “start at FA2395, turn left & proceed at 179° to FA4571, then proceed ESE for 4.3 miles to the mall on the left, 242 feet from the centerline of the road.”

 

19.) You click on either or (worse yet) both of the links above.

 

20.) You are looking forward to a future Benchmarking Convention which will take place in a field with pre-buried tri-stations, tipped RM’s, 3 mi distant AZs, and where you will be provided with deliberately vague instructions, a wood 6-inch ruler, and a metal detector from Toys-R-Us.

 

..gosh - #20’s starting to sound good…but then I think I suffer from OCBD as well !

[+NorthWes]

Oh my goodness - I hope my wife doesn't see this - what would treatment consist of?

 

I urged a fellow cacher to drive miles out of his way while traversing Alaska's North Slope so he could log TT3769 - PRUDHOE 2 - 1949 - NORTH SLOPE BOROUGH, ALASKA recently, thus earning him not only the northernmost recovery, but ensuring his geocaching coworker learned about benchmarking. I couldn't believe he was on the North Slope geocaching but ignoring the virgin benchmark territory! My wife was horrified - she was going to write my fellow cacher's wife with advice on how to cope (seriously...).

[+Klemmer]

You "take a break" at work and check the forum page, to find this thread!!!

ROTFL !!!!!

 

21. You spend several evenings trying to find / translate / figure out benchmark databases for 3 foreign countries you will be in soon. And FAIL!!!!

P.S. Anyone speak / read Icelandic?

Edited August 18, 2006 by Klemmer & TeddyBearMama

[DaveD]

Sounds like most of my last 34 years with NGS

[sixthings]

And the problem is ....... ?

Edited August 19, 2006 by sixthings

[+Ernmark]

And the problem is ......

..... 22) It's 6:30 pm - you're about 65 miles out from home & on top of a mountain (alone of coure), having hiked in about 1.5 miles - you've just measured out 38.2 meters from the tri-station to RM2 with your in./ft.-only tape measure.... and the hair stands up on the back of your neck ..as you realize...that today's your wedding anniversary!

[+GEO*Trailblazer 1]

Hobbily Obsessed.

 

Yes,my wife tells me that all the time.

Now my family has joined in on the scene and they say I spend more time hunting benchmarks than I spend with them.

 

(denial)

But in all honesty I think it is a good meditation and a way to get outside and do something that is helpful and productive to more than just one person.

 

I am addicted to this sport and proud of it.

There are a whole world of things that could be worse.

 

Now back to downloading,updating those benchmark lists for future journies into that vast unknown and (uncharted for me) lands.

[+YeOleImposter]

 

16.) You have an 8x10 glossy of Deb from NGS in your cube @ work.

 

 

Can you really get these?

[+Ernmark]

 

16.) You have an 8x10 glossy of Deb from NGS in your cube @ work.

 

 

Can you really get these?

 

..I hear that you get one after your 1000th recovery submission ...along with a triangulation station set & named in your honor !

[foxtrot_xray]

16.) You have an 8x10 glossy of Deb from NGS in your cube @ work.

Can you really get these?

Yeah.. but is it *SIGNED*?!

 

Muhaha!

Me.