Boring Log Entries On-Line

[Ghengis Jon]

Yes, I have been guilty of exceedingly dull on-line logs. This one has inspired me to change my ways.

 

I plunged through the undergrowth, barely noticing the swarm of gnats or their mosquito escort that hummed about my head. 200 feet to go. I glanced pensively upwards at the canopy of foliage above me, realizing that enough leaves remained to possibly interfere with the already weak satellite signal strength. 170 feet. The moist humus and twigs that my hurried steps kicked up clung to my socks, annoying me all the more as I would have to pause to pick myself clean, delaying my arrival at the objective. I knew that cold, merciless death could be lurking behind any tree, concealed behind any bush. Suddenly, a sharp crack of a branch snapped my attention to the right. My GPS said the target was 120 feet away as I halted immediately, dropping to a crouch, hopefully out of the sight of whatever had gained entry into my area. Silently, I cursed myself for the summer camouflage I was wearing, regretting that I failed to take the time to don the browner autumn apparel. Deer or bear might miss me but dreaded muggles could be a different story. Completely unarmed, I dared not move, even to wipe the face paint tinted sweat from my brow, not wishing to compromise my already exposed position. I could hear the soft whispering of the wind through the trees and the faint caws of distant crows, clearly upset at something. Squatting motionless for what seemed to be an eternity, my legs began to burn and my toes began to cramp as I commenced a visual sweep of the vicinity, my eyes lingering in the direction of the hidden cache. Could it be there? Or maybe over there? My mind raced as I considered my ever dwindling options. Sprint the final 40 yards or slowly stand to face whatever geo-terror might be stalking me? Should I continue the excruciating wait or face my fate head-on in what I always had hoped to be a blaze of glory, earning me a place in the oral histories told over generations at geo-campfires. I steeled my nerves, took a deep breath and stood, ignoring my leg muscles screaming in agony. There! A young 4 point buck bolted back into the brush, more alarmed than myself at sudden movement. I sighed a deep sigh of relief, momentarily terrified at the thought of hand to hand combat with a muggle. I had lived to cache another day. I double checked my GPS heading and quickened my pace to nearly a trot, cold sweat running down between my shoulder blades. At a reading of 4 feet I halted, knowing that from here on, I could only succeed by my own wits and instincts. My head swiveled back and forth, scanning all potential concealments. My raptor like gaze locked upon the most promising possibility. Dropping to my belly, I crawled to debris I suspected to be ever so slightly out of place. I had deduced correctly! Feverishly, I opened the cache. To my relief, the logbook was on top, no need to waste precious time digging through swag. Taking nothing, I quickly signed the record and thrust in an extraordinarily rare and highly coveted XXXXXXXXX. For the time being, mankind would be safe from its influence, until the next unsuspecting geocacher was snared by its irresistible draw. I rapidly closed the cache and re-concealed it, knowing that every second I delayed increased my risk of being uncovered. Carefully concealing any traces of my presence, I silently left by a different route than the one I had entered by. As I burst out from the scrub, my body tingled with relief, having survived another cache find without being glimpsed or having to shed blood in that epic struggle known as geocaching. Finding myself reassured, I headed for home to change into urban camouflage and re-equip myself for next harrowing task – stealthily locating and utilizing a wireless enabled coffee shop to log that valuable cache find. The adrenaline flow would only subside, until the next time when danger reared its ugly head. I had beaten the Reaper once again.

Edited September 8, 2006 by Ghengis Jon

[+GreyingJay]

Wow... I look at that big block of text and I immediately don't feel like reading it. I think a good, interesting log has to have a sense of humour (or just be interesting) and also a good sense of timing.

 

Timing, you say?

 

Yes.

 

Just like that.

 

Not saying my logs would be a gold standard or anything (tin standard maybe? cardboard?) but this or this is typical of my attempts at being funny (which generally revolves around my bumbling attempts to find caches).

 

I generally only write my diatribes when there was some real adventure to be had finding the cache, or conversely, when there was NOT, and the only thing worth writing about was getting there.

Edited September 8, 2006 by GreyingJay

[+Scooter Bill]

Never been accused of that.

I sometime wait to log a find until I've found inspiration for it.

But I never let the boring truth get in the way of a good on-line log.

[+Blue Power Ranger]

The log is fine as far as I read into it but...

 

How about breaking it up into paragraphs?

[hide & seekers]

Yeah, definitely paragraphs!

 

I do feel kind of cheated when one of my caches gets a simple online log so I try to do better when I log my own finds and DNFs.

 

Here's an example of one of my more memorable DNFs:

 

Where is Waldo? My 3rd DNF!

[+BlueDeuce]

Boring Log Entries On-Line, Do you leave them

 

Yes.

[+Big Max]

My best one to date 'TNLN SL'. I get the giggles every time I think of that! I get this mental picture of the cache owner sitting there in their underwear in front of the computer monitor scratching their head trying to decipher this strange word. Ha, little do they know that it is a top secret code that I have worked up to mean 'Took Nothing Left Nothing Signed Log'. I mean I have literally spent years working on this top secret code. The original intent of this code was for use by the military in association with all of their stealth equipment as a way to transmit long messages in a very short period of time thus reducing its radio signal signature to that of a gnat. After all what good is a stealth aircraft if all the enemy has to do is track your radio signal? By utilizing my new code nobody will be able to track these vehicles. Heck, our own military won't even be able to track their vehicles. Just think they could reduce 'Command I am on my final approach on the target and am engaging weapons.' to 'CIAOMFAOTTAAEW'. That is an 80% reduction in size. The high brass at the Pentagon has been reluctant to embrace this new code, but it is only a matter of time. I had the same problem with the screen doors I invented for submarines and the wooden tanks.

[Ghengis Jon]

Yeah, but if you would have designed your wooden tanks out of balsa instead of maple, the gas mileage would improved enough to insure a gov't order!

[+John Wayne Pooch]

i would never leave a short simple log. the shortest log i have ever gotten at one of my caches was "tnln" and that was it. not even a "tnlnsl" no offense to it though, i don't mind short logs. some of the shortest logs have been from some of the first caches i put out and they are not really any thing exciting to write about. the best cache i have ever placed and have had many compliments have had the longest logs. i know ones that i have done that had a great view or brought me to a neat place are the ones i write the longest logs about. one of the longest notes i left was one that was in an area near the river and had some realy neat high trees with all kinds of plant life growing to fill in the light bearing gaps. there was a walk path in it and even in the brightest part of the day it still is pretty dark walking through this area. the shortest logs i write are the ones in an altoids can under the lamp pole cover in some parking lot (which is one of the cheesy ones i've placed myself) or under some brush behind the fence of a baseball field. i also write longer logs for ones that were more challenging to find. i like to give detail of how i came about to finding the cache (of course i try not to leave spoilers.)

 

but i always try to leave some thing simple like "out caching today and was in the area. tnlnsl thanks for the hide" is the shortest log i believe i have ever left.

Edited September 9, 2006 by JDubPooch

[nonaeroterraqueous]

TFTT (thanks for the thread)

[+El Diablo]

Wow... I look at that big block of text and I immediately don't feel like reading it. I think a good, interesting log has to have a sense of humour (or just be interesting) and also a good sense of timing.

 

ache, or conversely, when there was NOT, and the only thing worth writing about was getting there.

 

Maybe this will make it a little easier.....

 

I plunged through the undergrowth, barely noticing the swarm of gnats or their mosquito escort that hummed about my head. 200 feet to go. I glanced pensively upwards at the canopy of foliage above me, realizing that enough leaves remained to possibly interfere with the already weak satellite signal strength. 170 feet.

 

The moist humus and twigs that my hurried steps kicked up clung to my socks, annoying me all the more as I would have to pause to pick myself clean, delaying my arrival at the objective. I knew that cold, merciless death could be lurking behind any tree, concealed behind any bush. Suddenly, a sharp crack of a branch snapped my attention to the right. My GPS said the target was 120 feet away as I halted immediately, dropping to a crouch, hopefully out of the sight of whatever had gained entry into my area.

 

Silently, I cursed myself for the summer camouflage I was wearing, regretting that I failed to take the time to don the browner autumn apparel. Deer or bear might miss me but dreaded muggles could be a different story. Completely unarmed, I dared not move, even to wipe the face paint tinted sweat from my brow, not wishing to compromise my already exposed position. I could hear the soft whispering of the wind through the trees and the faint caws of distant crows, clearly upset at something. Squatting motionless for what seemed to be an eternity, my legs began to burn and my toes began to cramp as I commenced a visual sweep of the vicinity, my eyes lingering in the direction of the hidden cache. Could it be there? Or maybe over there?

 

My mind raced as I considered my ever dwindling options. Sprint the final 40 yards or slowly stand to face whatever geo-terror might be stalking me? Should I continue the excruciating wait or face my fate head-on in what I always had hoped to be a blaze of glory, earning me a place in the oral histories told over generations at geo-campfires. I steeled my nerves, took a deep breath and stood, ignoring my leg muscles screaming in agony. There! A young 4 point buck bolted back into the brush, more alarmed than myself at sudden movement. I sighed a deep sigh of relief, momentarily terrified at the thought of hand to hand combat with a muggle. I had lived to cache another day.

 

I double checked my GPS heading and quickened my pace to nearly a trot, cold sweat running down between my shoulder blades. At a reading of 4 feet I halted, knowing that from here on, I could only succeed by my own wits and instincts. My head swiveled back and forth, scanning all potential concealments. My raptor like gaze locked upon the most promising possibility. Dropping to my belly, I crawled to debris I suspected to be ever so slightly out of place. I had deduced correctly!

 

Feverishly, I opened the cache. To my relief, the logbook was on top, no need to waste precious time digging through swag. Taking nothing, I quickly signed the record and thrust in an extraordinarily rare and highly coveted XXXXXXXXX. For the time being, mankind would be safe from its influence, until the next unsuspecting geocacher was snared by its irresistible draw.

 

I rapidly closed the cache and re-concealed it, knowing that every second I delayed increased my risk of being uncovered. Carefully concealing any traces of my presence, I silently left by a different route than the one I had entered by. As I burst out from the scrub, my body tingled with relief, having survived another cache find without being glimpsed or having to shed blood in that epic struggle known as geocaching.

 

Finding myself reassured, I headed for home to change into urban camouflage and re-equip myself for next harrowing task – stealthily locating and utilizing a wireless enabled coffee shop to log that valuable cache find. The adrenaline flow would only subside, until the next time when danger reared its ugly head. I had beaten the Reaper once again.

 

El Diablo

[+SierraFive]

I always write something and always upload a picture of my exploits for that particular cache (Unless of course i've forgotten my camera). That way, i can look back n the future at some of my days out etc. It's sort of an online photo scrap book for my own use!!!

[+Tsmola]

I once got notifications of someone finding like 5 or 6 of my caches one day, all the logs were one-liners: "tftc"

 

didn't even get TNLN, just tftc

 

I was pretty dissapointed that day to say the least.

 

I always make unique logs and try to say as much as I can. The logs I hate most as a cache owner are the copy and pastes that say nothing about the cache, but just brag about the numbers attained that day.

 

If I add photos to my log, you know I enjoyed that particular cache as I won't add any for a crappy one.

 

I try to lead by example by making all my logs say something about the hide, but a lot of locals still copy and paste if they find over 5 caches in a day.

Edited September 9, 2006 by Tsmola

[+NatureGuy360]

I think my viewpoints land squarely in the middle on this topic.

 

On the one hand I don't like to read the "cookie-cutter" or "copy and paste" type log entries but on the other hand I don't like to read log entries that could be published as a book either.

 

For me personally I don't need a second by second account of a Geocacher's experience hunting for a Geocache however I would like a Geocacher to provide details of interesting discoveries, tips or tricks that they found on the hunt.

 

A good rule of thumb that I like to follow is to make a log entry like a sportscaster would -- share the highlights.

 

Ultimately though it all boils down to personal preference.

 

So as long as their are millions of different people participating in Geocaching then there will always be millions of different types of log entries.

[+Trucker Lee]

If the cache was lame, a lame log enty would be justified. On a great cache, great logs are deserved. But dadgum, I don't think I could ever top the OP for originality or riveting reading.

 

Could my imagination run wild, and come up with the details of the hunt later, when I sit in the blue glow of my moniter? Can I remember the feelings I had as I held the elusive tupperware in my briar-scratched palms? Oh, how my heart pounded and my hand shook as I signed the log, my scrawl looking like a child learning cursive.

 

Naw!!! I think not! TFTT

[+wimseyguy]

Wow at first I thought that perhaps it was the return of oregone. Then I realized that this work of fiction? was mostly about the cache itself, so it couldn't be from oregone. His logs, while long and creative were mostly about girls. So someone must be channeling him, yeah that's it.

 

It would be interesting to find out what cache inspired such a log, and really funny if it were a lamppost skirtlifter.

[+hikergps]

Boring Log Entries On-Line, Do you leave them?

 

Yes. Boring cache=boring log.

[+DocDiTTo]

Good caches always get longer logs from me -- in some caees, I've had to write 2 logs cause there wasn't enough room in one. If I had an adevnture while doing the cache I'll write about it. Usually urban caches are quickly found, logged, and forgotten, so the logs for them tend to be pretty short. If I had no out of the ordinary experience finding the cache, my log will refect that. To date, my shortest log as been "TFTC". (Lampost hide). If you want a nice long log from me, hide your cache so my caching experience while finding it is worth writing about.

[+Metaphor]

Yes. (but I don't abbreviate.)

[+TeamHarrison]

Good cache = good, personal log.

Boring cache (There are NO "bad" caches, right?!) = boring, impersonal log.

[+edscott]

Looks like they had fun finding the cache and maybe even more fun composing the log.. isn't that what it's about? No one is forced to read it.. at least I didn't.

[+Runaround]

Good cache = good, personal log.

Boring cache (There are NO "bad" caches, right?!) = boring, impersonal log.

 

Same here. Good caches get long logs. Dull caches get a "Found it. TNLN". I'm not brave enough to log DPM.

[olmeca]

I thought it was great, really intresting and put me to sleep. Leave it to annoy the next cacher! That is if they bother to read it... paragraphs I say paragraphs.

[+BlueDeuce]

If the cache was lame, a lame log enty would be justified.

 

I don't disagree, but for the second time (just yesterday) I walked away from a cache that I thought wasn't even worth pulling onto the shoulder of the road. (hint).

 

But in both situations people have posted what a great spot it was for a cache.

 

Maybe it's just me. so I don't say anything (yes I say something when it's a bad location)

 

What a great place for a cache.

 

It is? Really? I wonder if that DOT cop thought I was stopping to take a leak.

[nonaeroterraqueous]

Good cache = good, personal log.

Boring cache (There are NO "bad" caches, right?!) = boring, impersonal log.

Well, you know how the old saying goes: if you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say anything at all. Hence, there often isn't much to say regarding caches we don't like.

[+JMBIndy]

"Do you leave it?"

 

Yes. If the person goes through the effort to write that long of a log, what right do I have to delete it? As I read through logs, I'll start reading them and if I decide it's boring, I skip to the next.

 

Besides, what's boring to one person may be interesting to others.

[+pigpen4x4]

Good cache = good, personal log.

Boring cache (There are NO "bad" caches, right?!) = boring, impersonal log.

I am starting a different approach.

I just grabbed one I had been watching for a while and decided not to log it at all.

We stopped, I told my oldest it's probably there and she grabbed it before I could go through the find procedure on the 60.

I'm not being judgmental, many have enjoyed it, others have left somewhat negative remarks about it.

It just was not what I like in a cache.

 

I do enjoy reading interesting logs though.

C.