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Mi News Segment Ends W/ Message For Cachers...


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As Woodie says: "The article that Jennifer posted above is very interesting. He has the nerve to tell others to get a life?"

 

This has slightly changed my attitude to the whole thing. Oh, I would still like to see an apology, don't get me wrong. However, if none is forthcoming, I will simply shrug and use an expression that has served me well in the past and, I am sure, will again..... 'Consider the source!'

 

My attitude is that if I can't respect the source then I don't expect to have too much concern for what comes from it either.....

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I had to laugh when I googled that reporter and one of the top stories about him was his return to broadcasting after a period of getting his life back together.  Maybe his bankruptsy and problems with drugs and phone bills has caused him to have a rather skewed idea of what a "life" should consist of.

I certainly am not interested in his version of a life, even if he truely has turned himself around.

 

http://www.detnews.com/2000/entertainment/...8/c01-38427.htm

 

I stopped watching TV on purpose quite a while ago. (I still watch socially, it's like drinking... addictive to some, not to others)  It was never as good as reading the paper and usually the anchor's personalities annoyed me.  So I must say that this really didn't suprise me to hear about.  I do expect that Trippy will recieve an apology from someone with the station.

-Jennifer

It looks like his idea of a life is 40 of beer, a line of some nose candy and a hot date with his 2 favorite ladies Rosey Palms and Wristina!! Talk about a freak of nature!

 

Oh yeah, sent a e-mail to :lol:

There is an old saying that says, "Never pick a fight with a man who buys his ink by the gallon." The new geocaching equivalent:

 

"Never pick a fight with a man who can google you back from the comfort of his den." (Especially if you are Frank Turner.)

 

I wonder if any of these posts are getting cross-posted to local boards? Our stations have community comment lines. This would certainly make for interesting reading. :lol:

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My email is sent as well. Took a different slant per the how geocaching gave me back a life thread.

I'm sure by now you have received countless email's from my fellow geocachers

regarding Mr. Turner's on air comments.  I've held off on commenting until I had

a chance to view the report and his comments myself.

 

I won't go on about the lack of respect he and his co-anchor, heard giggling in

the back ground, showed to the geocaching community and their co-worker Glenn

Zimmerman.  I'm sure you've heard enough on that subject.  I'd like to share my

story on how Geocaching has given me back a life. 

 

After my husband and I got married and had our first child we fell out of touch

with many of our friends.  Two jobs and a new baby puts a damper on socializing. 

Most of our friends were still single or, if married, still childless.  Every

now and then we'd get an invite to dinner or a party but eventually those

stopped coming.  We were busy with our new role as parents and barely noticed

that we never did anything outside of family gatherings any more.  Every now and

then we'd comment on how we should try to reconnect but we didn't have anything

in common with most of our old friends any more.  When our second child was born

in December of 2001 I was resigned to this lifestyle, or lack thereof.

 

In January of 2002 my husband saw a report on geocaching on our local news

station.  He was so excited by the report that he jumped online and starting

checking things out.  By the end of the day he was researching GPS units and was

out on his first cache hunt by that weekend.  With two kids in tow, one still an

infant, I went on my first cache hunt on a cold, rainy winter day.  I loved it!! 

 

Later that month we attended our first event cache, an chance for local cachers

to get together and socialize.  The thing I remember most from that event is

walking back to our car and thinking "What a great group of people!"  There

wasn't anyone at that event I wouldn't feel comfortable inviting to my home. 

Many of the people at that event I now consider close friends.  We are now

getting out and socializing more than ever.  Our calander is always full weeks

in advance and more importantly, I still haven't met anyone I wouldn't want to

invite over to my house.

 

Before Geocaching my life revolved around work and home.  Now I am part of a

global community, I embark on great adventures and finally have the life I

always wanted.

 

J*** A***

Geocaching Nick Wander Lost

Auburn, Washington

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Trippy1976 wrote:

Glenn felt it was important that Frank hear directly from me the effect that his words have had on myself and the geocaching community.

 

Well, personally, I think that, because of the barrage of e-mails, Frank already has somewhat of a clue of the effect his words have had on everyone. Unless, of course, he's as dense as I think he may be.

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Here's mine:

 

Mr. Turner;

 

By now you probably have received many emails

regarding your comments at the end of the March 1

segment on the new hobby/sport of GeoCaching.

 

I have viewed the segment online, and feel that Glen

Zimmerman did a good job of portraying geocaching.

You, however, rushed to judgement about the hobby, and

as a result of your unprofessional comments, have

insulted Mike Wunderlich (the featured geocacher) as

well as hundreds of thousands of people around the

world who find this fun, family oriented activity a

great way to get outdoors.  Would you tell a cyclist,

a hiker, a backpacker, a hunter, or a fisher to 'get a

life'?

 

Give it a try, Mr. Turner.  You may be suprised at how

much fun it actually is. 

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Yeah i was trying to type fast and appreently left out a lot of words. ill fix that. Typing is not my thing as you can see in nearly all my posts.

BTW is anybodyelse receiving a strange email from a Christian ministry company? It seems to stem from the "contactfrankturner@comcast.com". I dont think this is the right Frank Turner. I also feel bad for sending my email there as it had a really harsh tone. I think we may be flooding a by standers mailbox on accident.

Edited by Amazingracer
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He seemed receptive to an apology but conceeded it was unlikely it would come in the form of an on-air apology as they were very rare.  I asked then that the apology be published in the credits.

 

Awesome, I'm glad this is finally settled. Do we have lives now?

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Sent this:

 

Sir, having seen the clip from your show (the GeoCaching item) that has led to so much controversy, I feel that I have to add my comments to those that are already in your mail box.

 

Your words were insulting and demeaning to the many thousands of geocachers around the world. Rather than repeat the thoughts that many others have already expressed I would say this to you... Can you please define what you would see as 'a life'. In addition, I would challenge you to be somewhat more specific as regards where GeoCaching falls outside the definition of having a life.

 

I can't understand how someone in your position, as defined in the station website, can be so unfeeling in respect to others.

 

"Frank is a devoted Christian who enjoys studying and teaching from the bible. He also works as an evangelist and participates in several types of church outreach activities."

 

I am aware of the problems that you have experienced in your past. I would ask you if it would not seem even slightly possible that, had you been involved with something such as GeoCaching, the chance of going down the road that you chose might have been lessened?

 

I look forward to the apology that I feel sure will be forthcoming from both you and the unseen person or persons who joined in the laughter with such enthusiasm.

 

(Signature goes here)

Edited by bug&snake
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The news feature was excellent. The editorializing was definitely an insult to myself and to all geocachers. I hope the station and the news anchor apologize to Trippy, MIGO and the entire geo-community. However, I would not anticipate a public apology.

 

We must not overlook the fact that many thousands of nongeocachers also watched the article and probably were not offended in any way. It’s quite possible that many of those same viewers were inspired by the article and will eventually become a part of geocaching.

 

In one of the letters emailed to Mr. Turner, the author wrote:

 

…But then I read a newspaper article in the Indianapolis Star that changed my life. Geocaching provided the lure that got me off the couch and out the door for those long painful walks, and the search for the box at the end of the hike made it impossible for me to cut and head home before the goal was obtained.

 

That article about geocaching featured yours truly. The number of people who I know that were affected by that article amazes me to this day.

 

I’m sure there are dozens of untold stories about people who have been inspired and who have come to love geocaching because of media attention just like the article aired on the Michigan TV station.

 

Let’s not loose sight of the good side of this issue.

 

Or, we could hire some busses and get 1,000s of geocachers to surround the station and demand equal time. (Jeremy has some good one-liners, too.) :lol::lol:

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I have found this thread quite interesting. I, too, have watched the clip of Mr. Turner and thought, "What a pompus half-horse/half-mule".

 

Anyways, I personally wanted to thank Trippy1976 for following through with this "issue". I am glad that he hasn't dropped it, as I feel not only was he offended by the comments, but all (well, most) of us have been offended by Mr. Turners lame excuse at humor.

 

So, hopefully Trippy1976 get's the appology that he deserves.

 

Brad

 

PS. I have experienced the same thing with the media. I race full-size electric race cars as a hobby, and one news channel wanted to do a bit on us. Well, they shot some great footage of the race, interviewed us, etc. When we watched the news that night, they showed like 5 seconds of the slowest car creaping over the finish line at the end of the race. No interviews, nothing. The commentator said something like, "Well, someone should have got out and pushed him..." or something stupid like that... They DIDN'T show that the cars go 30+ MPH on only 24volts of batteries for over an hour, they didn't show how high schools have got involved in this hobby because it covers mechanical, electrical, metalurgy, financing, teamwork, etc. Talk about a let down. So, I'm not suprised at Mr. Turners comment...

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I don't mean to be devil's advocate here, but how many of you would welcome an email from someone which tells you how they think you should do your job?

Well, if I were to tell my clients to get a life I wouldn't have a job for very long so I would welcome the suggestion but common sense should take care of that and it clearly didn't in this case.

I'm sorry that you didn't understand. I am not talking about anyone's clients. I am asking how people would react to someone attempting to instruct them on how to do their job.

I would welcome it because anything that betters my abilities in my job betters me. As for the actual instance here when you are as big an a** as this Turner guy you deserve what you get. If you can't take it don't dish it out.

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Here is my letter. Not very fancy but I am tired!:

 

Dear Mr. Turner:

 

I had the pleasure of watching a wonderful news segment by Glenn Zimmerman last night. The segment was about geocaching and I think Mr. Zimmerman did a wonderful job and I commend him for actually looking for a cache. I was smiling as I watched Mr. Zimmerman dig around in the snow, searching for a cache.

 

That all changed when I heard your comment, "You can buy a GPS for about $75.00...or you can get a life.". Your juvenile comment and your co-anchor cackling in the background insulted a lot of geocachers, including me. Not only did you insult the geocaching community but I am sure you also insulted Mr. Zimmerman and the hard work he put into his story.

 

Let me tell you a little about me and my life:

 

I am 31 years old and my husband is 33. We used to spend all of our time together but now we cannot. You see, my husband is in the Air Force and is currently on a remote tour in Korea. I won't see him again until January of 2005. As for me, I work in the law enforcement field and my job can get quite stressful at times. After some great friends introduced me to caching, it seemed to me that I had two choices: I could sit around the house, miss my husband and stress out over my job or I could go caching with my friends.

 

I decided to go caching with my friends. We go every Thursday and we have a great time. We get to spend time together, see places we have never seen before, enjoy getting exercise and have fun!

 

Don't get me wrong, I still miss my husband very much and my job still stresses me out at times. But caching makes things more bearable. For 2-6 hours every Thursday, I can forget about all the stressful things in my life and enjoy getting outdoors and being with great friends.

 

Besides caching, I also do volunteer work for the "Animal Rescue and Adoption Society". I am an avid knitter so I also joined a charity group that knits blankets, hats, scarves, etc. for homeless people. I donate my programming skills and web server space to the "Colorado Coalition Against Domestic Violence". I am a cancer survivor, and I also a volunteer for the "Cops Fighting Cancer" organization. So you see, I have quite a full life and I contribute to a lot of worthy causes.

 

I just read this article a few moments ago: http://www.detnews.com/2000/entertainment/...8/c01-38427.htm . Mr. Turner, if that article truly describes your life, I feel sorry for you. Drug use and phone sex lines are not part of any life I would ever want to have. It's funny because none of the cachers I have ever met seem to have those types of addictions. Our only addiction is caching; it's legal and a lot of fun.

 

Perhaps if you had heard of caching before, you wouldn't have had those problems. I'm not saying caching will save the world but if you're out caching, it's impossible to buy drugs or chat on sex lines.

 

I do believe you owe the geocaching community and apology. If an on air apology cannot be done, Mike Wunderlich should receive a written apology from you and your co-anchor. Mr. Wunderlich and Mr. Zimmerman took the time to do a wonderful story on our hobby and then you shoot it down with just a few careless words. I think an apology is due.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

(my real name!)

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Oh it's the right Frank Turner alright. He's an a**hole, AND a Christian.

I sent an email to Mr. Turner expressing my displeasure with his actions. However, I must also take exception to your freewheeling connection between being a Christian and being an a***ole. The two, while not necessarily mutually exclusive (unfortunately), do NOT go hand in hand. I resent that implication.

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You know all good things get slammed once in a while.

I figure that if he turned OFF a few perspective Geocachers, Oh well.

I’m getting tired of hearing about missing caches and or damaged ones.

It would be about time to se the Geocaching community’s membership slow down.

Any time you get too many folks out there doing the same thing, there is bound to be a few bad apples.

I prefer my solitude, rather than someone pointing at me saying;

Oh there’s one of throes looser Geo Freaks.

If we all refuse to speak to the press than we won’t have these problems.

 

Its simple

 

Keeping it on the DOWN low… javascript:emoticon(':o')

 

T (nat10nal)

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If we all refuse to speak to the press than we won’t have these problems.

Sorry I don't think that moving back wards is the answer. I think its a great thing we have here and we've seen some results because of the great community we have. It is about the numbers because if we didn't have the numbers we have here as geocachers then not as many emails would have been sent and things would have been left alone.

 

Going forward things will continue to grow and being organized is the key to over come small issues like this along with the much larger issues still to come. The fact that we have a voice and a rather large one this early in the game is a good thing because we are going to need it from this point on.

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I don't mean to be devil's advocate here, but how many of you would welcome an email from someone which tells you how they think you should do your job?

I don't have a job where I'm expected to. Frank Turner does. That's why they display his email address on the screen during the broadcast. That's also why any reputable news publication has a Letters page, and most news broadcasts read viewers' letters on the air at least once a week. It's part of a news reporter's job to acknowledge the audience's criticism.

 

I hope you don't have the same attitude when it comes to your representatives in government.

 

Speaking of which, can we leave the dirt-digging to the politicians? We'll get more than our fill of it in the coming months.

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If we all refuse to speak to the press than we won’t have these problems.

 

The problem with not being available to the media is that the media continues without you.

 

Think about how we have been shut out of National Parks, Wildlife Refuges. This happened all the while the NPS established rules that say its OK to hammer steel spikes into fragile, and irreplaceable rock faces as long as you pay $10 for a permit. We get shut out for environmental concerns, while rock climbers can damage national parks intentionally for the price of a movie ticket and a diet coke? (The things in your hands are your ankles....) The media is friendly to them and not to us. The NPS can't push the climbers without getting pushed back (you think REI will just sit back and let their mountain climbing business stop dead?) :o

 

We buy high margin stuff from REI, Cabelas, Gaylans, and so on (There is a lot more profit in the stuff we buy than the mountain climber market). If we stay in the media, we get on the radar screen of these companies and we stay there. So the next time that the NPS, or the NFS try to squeeze us out and we yell about it, there will be a reporter for a newspaper, TV station, or magazine that will take our calls. These companies get word of this, realize that the only good cache grounds in their area are threatened, along with the future sale of the pallet of GPS units they just bought, and they stop buying ads. The media listens to their cash registers like any other business. The government listens to hear the sweet sound of no reporters in the lobby. What are the media companies going to do when their cash registers stop ringing? Send out the troops to find out why. The decision to screw us gets overturned due to media pressure. :D

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We must not overlook the fact that many thousands of nongeocachers also watched the article and probably were not offended in any way. It’s quite possible that many of those same viewers were inspired by the article and will eventually become a part of geocaching.

Potentially. The sad thing is that I've actually been recognized a couple of times now since the segment aired. It's especially memorable to people due to those final comments... I guess that's good and bad. :o Most people, even the muggles, are upset about the comment and can't believe someone would say it on the air.

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I just got off the phone with Glenn Barr, the Action 7 News Executive Producer.  He is going to call me this afternoon to discuss.  When I mentioned my name to the secretary in the news room she said "Ah yes, I've heard about this."

 

I'll let you know how the discussion goes.  This is good.  It appears they are taking it seriously.  Whether we'll see an on-air apology or whatever, who knows.  At least they want to discuss it with me.

There is another thread going on r.e. getting a life via geocaching with some very positive stories of folks recovering from depression, serious illness, bad life situations etc. because of geocaching.

 

I suggest you print off the most serious tales from that thread, hand them over to Mr. Producer, and ask if being able to cope with and recover from such kinds of serious, real-human-being painful life situations is still something for him and his anchor to laugh and scoff at.

 

If they do, then they have no human heart or real feeling and thus they are not worth talking to. Or watching, for that matter.

Edited by Sparrowhawk
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When I first read the comments, I though, what an arrogant prick (which is pretty much the requirement for being a local news anchor in the first place), but efter reading all the hand-wringing, and panties-twisting that people are going through over a stupid joke, I think maybe Turner has a point. I mean. I'm sure he's a complete a**, but that just doesnt justify all the bile and energy being wasted on him. Move on. it really isn't a big deal. I'm quite sure that most if not all of you wouldn't want to spend your weekend or off-work hours walking through the woods with a guy like this anyway. If he doesn't want to go, if he doesn't like the sound of the sport, fine. Who needs him? It was an inoccuous comment from someone who people make a habit of tuning out. Stop trying to make it into something meaningful.

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When I first read the comments, I though, what an arrogant prick (which is pretty much the requirement for being a local news anchor in the first place), but efter reading all the hand-wringing, and panties-twisting that people are going through over a stupid joke, I think maybe Turner has a point. I mean. I'm sure he's a complete a**, but that just doesnt justify all the bile and energy being wasted on him. Move on. it really isn't a big deal. I'm quite sure that most if not all of you wouldn't want to spend your weekend or off-work hours walking through the woods with a guy like this anyway. If he doesn't want to go, if he doesn't like the sound of the sport, fine. Who needs him? It was an inoccuous comment from someone who people make a habit of tuning out. Stop trying to make it into something meaningful.

Hmmm....just checked....my panties aren't twisted, and I haven't wrung my hands in quite some time......get a life. :o

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When I first read the comments, I though, what an arrogant prick (which is pretty much the requirement for being a local news anchor in the first place), but efter reading all the hand-wringing, and panties-twisting that people are going through over a stupid joke, I think maybe Turner has a point. I mean. I'm sure he's a complete a**, but that just doesnt justify all the bile and energy being wasted on him. Move on. it really isn't a big deal. I'm quite sure that most if not all of you wouldn't want to spend your weekend or off-work hours walking through the woods with a guy like this anyway. If he doesn't want to go, if he doesn't like the sound of the sport, fine. Who needs him? It was an inoccuous comment from someone who people make a habit of tuning out. Stop trying to make it into something meaningful.

It is called accountability. Plain and simple. I do not think people spent as much time as you seem to think. E-mail takes just a few minutes to draft and send.

 

Just as you felt the need to stop what you were doing, and reply to this thread, we thought is was necessary to take a moment and let Mr. Turner know that his comments were not appreciated, nor were they called for.

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Based on what I've read here and in the news articles linked to in this thread, I find Mr. Turner's to be quite the hypocrite. He's a recovering addict (drugs, phone sex) and a Christian. Both of those things tend to be a big part of a persons life and both stress being non-judgmental.

 

If he can't abide by one of the most basic rules of both recovery and Christianity, especially while on the air in front of potentially millions of people, how serious can he be with either of those lifestyle choices? :o

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I don't mean to be devil's advocate here, but how many of you would welcome an email from someone which tells you how they think you should do your job?

 

It's part of a news reporter's job to acknowledge the audience's criticism.

Thank You for helping me to make my argument. You seem to feel that you know the newscaster's job better than he does.

 

I have worked in broadcasting and I can tell you that this is all going to be laughed off at the station. Anyone that claims to know any different is fooling themselves. It's all about the illusion of caring, that's why the email addresses are there, to create the illusion of accessibility.

 

Say what you will about viewers and their relationship to advertisers, you cannot make a difference.

 

For God's sake people, grow up, all of this whining is telling me that you do need lives.

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If he can't abide by one of the most basic rules of both recovery and Christianity, especially while on the air in front of potentially millions of people, how serious can he be with either of those lifestyle choices? <_<

You sound like George Costanza looking for an apology because someone wouldn't loan you a sweater. Are you calling him a step-skipper? Last time I checked, conforming to the tenets of Christianity or recovery from addiction didn't require you to resign yourself to never express an opinion.

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It was an inoccuous comment from someone who people make a habit of tuning out. Stop trying to make it into something meaningful.

Inocuous to you maybe. Try being on television and being framed as someone who needs to get a life in front of thousands of viewers sometime. I think your tune might change. Top it off with the insult being generalized to your friends and family who also participate.

 

If it had been said to me personally, that'd be one thing. To broadcast it to thousands of viewers... well, that's not okay. Even considering the source.

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It seems a shame that people can't stand up and protect what they believe in these days anymore, without someone telling them to "let it go", "get past it", "move on"...blablabla....

I knew this would happen to this discussion. It was only a matter of time before those "feel-good" people who don't want to "hurt anyones feelings" would start posting in here, telling those of us who feel offended by the anchors comments to "let it go" as well. These people want to create infighting and turn geocacher against geocacher, at a time when we should be showing a unified effort on this issue.

News flash: It's OKAY to be angry about the right things. It's OKAY to make a stand for something you value. Take offense. Get up. Get involved. Let your voice be heard on issues you feel are important. And no, it's NOT "whining"...it's our OPINION, we have the RIGHT to express it.

Edited by TEAM 360
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It was an inoccuous comment from someone who people make a habit of tuning out.  Stop trying to make it into something meaningful.

Inocuous to you maybe. Try being on television and being framed as someone who needs to get a life in front of thousands of viewers sometime. I think your tune might change. Top it off with the insult being generalized to your friends and family who also participate.

 

If it had been said to me personally, that'd be one thing. To broadcast it to thousands of viewers... well, that's not okay. Even considering the source.

This right here is exactly the reason I've sent an email. The comment was made as a generalization (which can be overlooked), but it was also directed at trippy1976 since he was the one featured.

 

Consider if you personally went through all the trouble of showing someone a hobby of yours (it need not be Geocaching) getting it all documented and prepared and then having someone cap it off with chuckling and "get a life." I think things would be different.

 

I could care less if someone makes a generalization; I won't let it bother me. But I'm backing up a fellow cacher who was directly impugnued by someone else. For that I will take offense.

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I agree with 360. Its one thing to say, "You can get a GPS for $75, but personally I can't say its for me." Its quite another to say you obviously don't have a life if you do this. He was having a little fun at us geocacher's expense, which is inappropriate in a straight news broadcast.

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It's truly amazing how hyper-sensitive and needy you people are. Why on earth does everyone have to endorse and understand all the activities that you are interested in? Jeez, grow a thicker skin. Enjoy life with a modicum of irony. You know, I can fully appreciate that geocaching is not a mainstream activity. GPS receivers are a geeky, techno gadget. So is my laptop. So are wireless routers. So are good stereo components. A majority of the people in this world are intimidated in one way or another by technology. Is there anything in his innocuous comment that you don't experience day-to-day by the blinking 12:00 VCR public? Instead of being hypersensitive taking event the most harmless comment as a personal attack, just shrug it off and live your life. Even in the most desperate lives, there is something to enjoy. Perhaps Mr. Turner was right in suggesting someone could get a life afterall.

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