If only I had the coordinates, I could go back and find it again using GPS.

Friday, I was hiking in attempt to get to a cache high up in the mountains. When my nose became a fountain, and I realized how slow I was progressing towards my goal, I decided to turn back. I checked my GPS unit to see how far away from another cache I was that would point my way out. After some hiking, I went to check again. Oh, except it wasn't there. It wasn't in my backpack or in any pockets. I lost my GPS unit.

( Photos )

Even though I realize that not all hobbies can be combined successfully (2, 3, 4, 5), I had an idea for an interesting cache puzzle. In geocaching, many caches aren't hidden at the stated coordinates. Instead, you have to solve a puzzle to get to them. Sometimes the puzzle can be as easy as looking at a few historical signs and answering questions to get the coordinates. Others, you have to solve very complicated codes.

For this puzzle idea, I was thinking about using my new language. I could simply use the numbers of the language, which would likely be pretty easy (just translating individual words isn't difficult). I'd like to have people potentially learn things about the language. That would force me to have a puzzle that had to be translated. Once you translated everything, you'd have to solve the puzzle (not sure what it'd be yet- probably something that might throw a person off if they didn't understand the propr context... for example, putting in some kind of idiom). After solving the puzzle, you'd get the coordinates and head out. For this cache, since I'd not only be putting in a lot of work in developing it, and the cacher would be doing lots of work in solving it, I'd defintely be placing this in a tremendously cool spot. Basically, I'm going for something that will make it worth all that work. It'd be a long time in the making, but it's just one of my many ideas for creating a puzzle.

"What happens when you repress something?" "It goes away?"


That's what I'm hoping. This will be a random update to completely not think about what I'm actually thinking about right now, as that would involve emotions and stuff. Also, I'm not going to write the next line of the above quote. Nope. Things go away when you repress them. Yeap. Totally. With that... random musings of my mind as I try not to think of unpleasant stuff:

I invented a new word today: Ratscals. I don't think any of the li'l ones were actually doing anything rascally at the moment, but as I was talking cute to them, it slipped out. The last things I've had to to try and stop them from eating and/or running away with included a pear and a coupon.

Earlier this week, I set a new record on my bike for total distance riding in a single day: 50 miles. This was actually two seperate rides (20 and 30 miles), with a three-hour break for lunch and to avoid the heat. This was also completely done for one single geocache. The caches were actually very easy to find, and would have been required no more than going about 150 feet from the road if you were driving. The stages of the multi-cache were just very very spread out.

A few weeks ago, I was in Denver visiting my brother. I got to do some uni-caching there (caching while on my unicycle). That worked out pretty well. I couldn't take my bike up due to lack of room, but my unicycle fit in the truck just fine. It sure beat walking around from my brother's place to City Park.

A few weeks prior to that, I hiked up to Organ Needle (the highest point in the mountains by my city, and the county). It was a long hike, particularly since I was with my dad. He managed to make it almost to the top, but didn't try going up the final crux. That last bit was a bit nerve-racking, as it was my first time doing more serious "mountain climbing" as opposed to just scrambling, although I didn't use any rope or equipment to get up. It was just a bit more vertical and exposed than what I usually do on my hikes.

I can't think of anything else too exciting that's happened in the past few weeks, at least this temporarily distracted my thoughts. I guess I'll just have to play some Civ. Bwahaha.


P.S.: "It comes back all crazy and pissed off."

I accidentally "lost" a cache while trying to hide it. I guess it's not technically lost, since I know exactly where it is. I just can't retrieve it. I found a good hiding spot on an information kiosk near my house- there was a hole between the legs holding it up. I wanted to put the cache at the bottom, making it possible only to get by a string. Sadly, I was working on adjusting the string so it's less visible when the string fell into the hole along with the cache. Now both are at the bottom- and it's too narrow for me to stick my hand. I tried getting it with a small little "grabber" thing, but it wasn't big enough.

"And thats what life would have been like if I had invented the finglonger, one can always dream, one can always dream..." -Professor Farnesworth

I am now a man. I found a Hercules cache. In my area, there's a series of caches known as the 12 Labors of Hercules. Each one is located on one of the peaks in the area- none of which are really on any much of a trail. I found my first one in this series today, hiking up Baylor Peak. To get to this cache, I had to hike up a trail 2.5 miles. Then I got off trail for 3/4 mile to get to the cache. Keep in mind this last 3/4 mile had an increase in 1300 ft.

( Pictures of my adventure )

It appears I'll be stopping in Denver for approximately one (1) day right before X-mas. I hope I get to do some geocaching there. Okay, so I'll make it happen somehow. I'm sure I can ditch my family. "Gotta find a cache! Need a fix! I need a GPS fix! C'mon, just tell me where I'm at, man! I need coordinates!" Maybe caching's not such a good idea in Denver- I might never want to leave. "There's a cache. There's another one. There's another one just a few blocks over. I can get that one. Oh- and then there's one a few blocks from the last one. This one's a puzzle cache. I should sit down and solve it. Is that an earthcache?"

*sigh* I haven't geocached enough this semester. Speaking of semester... it's over. I've finished my first semester as a grad-u-ate student. I'm also about to "ate" right now. Time for breakfast.

One of the travel bugs* I have right now is a notebook where the owner asks you to put your favorite quotes in it. These are the two best quotes in the book so far:

"Ford, you're turning into a penguin. Stop it." -Arthur Dent, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

"I'm a scientist. I don't think, I observe." -Dr. Clayton Forrester, Mystery Science Theater 3000


I think I'm going to use two of my favorite quotes:

"It is crazy, perhaps, but that doesn't mean it isn't true." -President Roslin, Battlestar Galactica

"Freddie was so forgetful..." (how forgetful was he?) "Freddie was so forgetful that every time he met someone, he drew a _______." -Family Guy parody of the Match Game.



*A travel bug, in geocaching, is an object that a geocacher puts in a cache. The next geocacher that comes along picks up this object, logs it online, and puts it in the next cache ey finds.

This past week, I made it past 200 caches found. I was informed by someone that I'm now listed in this New Mexico ranking of geocachers (by the amount of finds). Currently, I'm ranked at 81 in terms of the most finds. If I was moving to Alaska, I would have the 46th most finds. Of course, that won't happen for another few years now.

Hecticity. (Pronounced like the word "hectic" with "ity" added to it). Actually, that about sums up that word. All the word is is adding -ity to hectic to change the part of speech it is. Yeehaw. That was fun.

Want to know why that's the word of the day? ( Hecticity )

By the way, I went a total of 6 days without Gmail. I survived.

I think I might have a problem. You know that thing where someone does something too much and their entire life becomes involved around that thing? That might be happening to me right now. Last night, I had a dream where one of the local geocachers beat me to this one cache I'm going to look for tomorrow. It's never actually been found. Correction: I did sort of find it once- half of it. The rest had been lost or stolen (including the log book). Tomorrow morning, I'm going to drive quite a ways in hopes of being the first one to find it- and actually make a legitimate claim on it. In this dream, someone had logged the visit. Oddly, I discovered he logged the visit because I was on my computer in this dream and saw the gmail notification come through saying someone had logged that cache. *cough* 171 caches doesn't make a person go crazy... not at all... not obsessed...

Oh, I'm also going to another city on Sunday morning to go caching. I don't know how likely this would be, but it'd be kind of a cool thing if I could get my 200th cache this weekend. Then I think I need to take a break from caching for a while and do that thing that people with normal lives do... What's it called? Oh yeah. Have a life.

P.S.- I'm thinking very heavily of changing my mind about NMSU. Sure, I know now I'd be stuck getting higher interest rates on my loans and UAF is even more expensive than NMSU... but at least I'd get a break from my family. They drive me nuts sometimes. It'd be nice to get away from them.

Saturday: Found 8 caches in the morning, did nothing the rest of the day.
Sunday: Found 6 caches in the morning, did nothing the rest of the day.
Monday: Found 1 cache in the morning- I was the first to find it, did nothing the rest of the day.
Tuesday: Found 1 cache in the morning- I was the first to find it, did nothing the rest of the day.

Also, I got a keen geocaching hat on Tuesday as a first-to-find prize.

( A few pics of the two first-to-finds )

I'm already crazy. Geocaching just reinforces that. Wait... did I say I was crazy? I meant not crazy. I'm sane. The following pictures only prove it.

( Pictures )

So how does a geocaching guy like me honor Father's Day? Okay. Think real hard on this one. Does it involve going to Dairy Queen? Well, actually, yes. My family did do that. Before that, however, I hid 8 caches around the yard for my dad to find. I mean, I couldn't just tell him where my present was. Instead, I gave the coordinates to the starting cache on a birthday card. Each cache then contained coordinates to the next cache. (This is typically referred to as a multi-cache).

( Description of each cache )

Oh, and the present was a GPS unit (Magellan eXplorist 210) and a road atlas.

I found my 111th cache today on a 4.5 mile hike. Post behind cut- includes 2 pictures.




( 111th cache )

While playing the "not study game" (or in this case, "not revise my short story" or "not do my takehome final" games), I found some really unique caches I want to try for one day (or maybe not... some seema bit more challenging):

( It got kind of long with my edits. Lots of interesting caches, though! )

I currently am at 99 geocaches. I was hoping to get to 100 tonight, but couldn't find the last one (plus, I had to get home to start an essay... which I still need to finish). In addition to the 99 found, I've also found 10 travel bugs and hidden 2 caches (hopefully will hide 2-3 more in the next month or so). I actually have nothing else to say at the moment. I'm just taking a break from my essay about immigration (sadly to say, I haven't been paying much attention to the immigration debates).

I guess I forgot to make a post saying what I did over spring break. Drats. The most exciting thing that happened to me was getting my mom's car stuck while geocaching. I was driving on a dirt road- seemed okay... but then I pulled off the road. Bad idea. Lots of sand. I had to get to get it towed out- very expensive. I still went geocaching after that, despite the multi-hour delay.

In fact, geocaching is probably the most exciting thing happening at the moment. I'm currently at 89 caches and am going to try for 100 this weekend. Oh, I guess graduation's coming up soon, too. I'm still not sure what I'll do afterwards. I have a lot of schoolwork for this last week- many final projects, lots of work on my language... so I'll be busy. After I hit 100 caches, I'll probably take a break from it to actually do some homework. I can't wait until I graduate. Then I'll be able to do lots of geocaching.

I keep thinking what animals think about humans. I mean, we humans do some pretty crazy things- or at least I think that'd be their perspective. I wonder how they perceive our technology- lights, cars (well, many are afraid of cars- with good reason, too), computers, tv, radio... we have all this weird stuff that if you weren't human, it'd be very confusing. A voice coming out of a box? That box they seem to sit around all day. Do they understand the concept of a tool? Other primates I'm sure can understand- since they also use tools... but do dogs and cats "get" that concept?

Also, I was wondering why we didn't domesticate other great apes, since they're more like us. I think that's the reason we didn't (or couldn't). They're intelligent (well, the intelligent ones are) and can use tools. Maybe not such a good idea to train them. Plus, having a chimpanzee or bonobo do "dog-like tricks" and other work would almost be degrading, since they're very close to humans. Why not have other humans do that? Okay, I guess there was that slavery... so, humans can apparently domestic higher forms of life, but eventually that turned out not so well with the realization that people should be free. Would that happen if we domesticated chimps? Would we see them as being close enough to human that we'd sympathize with them?

That's enough random babble. It's too early. I'm going to get ready for my geocaching trip. There's a geocaching event nearby (within a few hours), so I'm going with my dad and jacyl. *yawn* It should be fun, though. I'll actually get to meet other geocachers and possibly get to share some of my (legal) stories with them.

Although geocaching is not a crime in itself, the police thought so this morning. At one of the cache sites I went to in the downtown area at a museum, I was looking near/at a window when a police car approached. I'm usually careful to only look for caches if I know the coast is clear- but I didn't see the police car. I guess today I wasn't too stealthy. I was asked to step away, with my hands in the air (like I just don't care? oh... wait... wrong situation). I approached the officer and then put my hands behind my back as he searched all of my many pockets (keep in mind- that's quite a few... maybe eight?). I also had to try to explain what geocaching was all about. Going to coordinates and finding hidden containers called caches there (which may or may not actually contain cash) just so I can sign my name in a log book. Oh yeah. Fun. I was let go. Afterwards, I just walked back to my truck. I didn't really feel like searching for any more caches. I might end up giving up finding any caches in the city for a while.