Friday, April 28th, 2006
Welcome to the fifth weekly installment of the
GeoCarnival.The GeoCarnival reviews geoblogs and compiles what is happening in the world of GPS games (geocaching, geodashing, shutterspots, geogolf,Coin Quest, etc.) in one convenient post per week so you can read who is blogging about your favorite activity.
We Need Your Help
If you know of a geoblog that we should highlight, feel free to let us know. We like RSS and Atom feeds, so feel free to send along those links.
Round and Round the Carnival Goes . . .
We posted this early this week so you can get caught up before all your adventures this weekend.
KelDubTX is looking for cachers over at MySpace. She and her husband have been caching for a couple years.
Shiftless finds the wonders of Google Earth.
The Fox Hill Tower Geocaching CITO Event was a success according to jestjuggle. The event brought this cacher back to the location of his first find. It’s nice when one is able to re-visit his former finds.
Team North won the 30th game of Minute War. It was a tight battle all the way to the end. They narrowly beat West as they conquered the world. Unfortunately, Team South was dead last and struggled mightily from the get-go. Perhaps we will fare better next time around.
Logging DNFs is encouraged by jestjuggle. They point out that future cachers can use this information to help someone on the hunt.
Tom Arneson completed another geogolf course this week. Whether on your lunch break or at one of the ends of the day, geogolf is great exercise fun!
Minnesota is buzzing with GPS Amazing Family Race. Sounds like a wonderful time for families in the North Star state.
The month is coming to a close and dashers are scrambling to log the last dashpoints of game 58 of GeoDashing. Right now it’s a close race between GeoTerriers and Llama League. Douq Miller closed the gap recently with three points grabbed.
Imagine finding out there is a cache a mere 260m from your home that you didn’t know about and you discover a waterfall as you seek it. A DNF, unfortunately, but Chris and Elizabeth had a good time on their recent hunt.
Caching while going to class is just something quite foreign to me, but I am certain I would have done it way back when if I had the opportunity. bariivaruha was happy to find caches large enough to exchange trade items. Hmmm . . . if new cachers are noting the size of containers, could micros be described as an epidemic? 
Earth Day/CITO provided Bill an opportunity to help clean up Thompson County Park in West St. Paul, MN.
smileyjess took a break from studying to head out for a cache. She’ll be heading out again this Saturday. Happy hunting.
Sounds like a perfect cache adventure: three to five mile hike to find cache. iovnow has the details.
More CITO adventures with Randwulf.
Muddy is sick. So sick, he left work early. But found some time to cache. There’s always time to cache.
All right, technically not about a GPS game, but sept1c_tank has been following the hatchings of a bald eagle and there’s streming video. Very kewl!
Chris over at Dangerous Logic likes to move hitchhikers. Yes, a tag or other documentation accompanying the hitchhiker is valuable. Still, it doesn’t keep some folks from disregarding clear travel plans!
Sortel chronicles a cache hunt he had with friends recently. Bushwhacking instead of taking the trail is the fun.
Blogging while in the drive-thru on your way to a cache. Now that is something new! GeoDonutBlogging?
It’s difficult finding a cache when several of the stages are MIA. Nevertheless, sounds like caching in New Zealand is fun.
Andy got back in the caching groove recently and had fun re-visiting previously found caches with someone he was introducing to the game. It is fun to re-visit caches and read through the logbook.
Michelle jumped on the first non-rainy day to get out and do some caching. Sounds like a good plan.
Floopy’s seeing things on the trail. It couldn’t have been Helmut, but who was it?
What does one do when Practicum is over? Cache, of course. Cassie went out and found 51 caches to celebrate. Congratulations on completing your coursework.
Now this is good news! The thirteen original Florida counties have placed geocaches as a way to boost tourism. Bravo!
Happy birthday, Jen. To celebrate her birthday, Jen’s sister hid a multi that culminated with a party. Sounds like fun!
kendra had a very interesting day: studying, making out, caching, dinner. It’s information overload.
JeanC’s camera is on the fritz, but she still went to the CITO.
More CITO adventures are told by Legacy. He pulled four bicylces and a fender from the river during the clean-up. Good going.
Sometimes all there is to describe about a weekend is geocaching. Don’t feel bad metsfan.
Getting ready for camping after his birthday the other day, Ryan is gearing up for some caching.
Over at The Geocaching Blog, Chris put up some video from a recent hunt. He’s a new cacher, but he has a nice blog that should be read. In addition, he has discovered Scout’s GPS Games and I look forward to further blog entries about the games he begins playing there. FWIW, I think there may be a new game of Global GeoPoker coming up soon.
Tom Callaway is finding caches in San Francisco.
MustangJoni had a big day on Saturday. When the CITO begins at 10:00, you start terracaching at 5:30. Sounds about right to me.
slatrat has a new cache. Very interesting. It is similar, yet different, from Walking Tour of Joseph Buck’s Town, a cache I placed recently, but am waiting to implement something for another placed cache in the series before listing. Stay tuned. And yes, these are difficult caches to create, slatrat.
Edmonton had a CITO event and Brat&Testy participated.
Rob Usakowski over at Three Little Ladies Rabbitry writes a nice overview of caching.
Deb is back in the game! Isn’t the Lowry Park Zoo nice? I have fond memories of being there.
D. Hall’s testament about the Garmin 76CSx made it to the Garmin blogs page. Nice going!
cyan_blue tips us off to a new caching community on Live Journal.
There are some good map tools shared by My Adventures Abroad this week. More and more, I am going tow-tech in my outings and am moving toward non-GPS caching. It adds a sense of adventure.
The Wandering Williams celebrated Sam’s four birthday with some caching in Sedona.
Charlie had an interesting first date: hike up a mountain to find a cache. His date struggled with the task.
According to Phyllis, Montana’s new ad campaign features caching. Kewl!
Russ caches in Norway and looks to be having a good time doing so.
School is a lot of fun when it includes caching. This would be one class I would love to teach. Way to go guys!Geoblogging can make you famous. Just ask Jenny who was discovered by her local newspaper for an interview after it stumbled across her caching blog. Awaesome!
In addition to caches, Randomocity found osprey nests on the hunt.
Perserverance pays off. Just ask the Peale family who went back after a DNF. Trust me, we all know that feeling . . .
Infinite Loop tells us how to create a filmloop to display the latest geocoin auctions on eBay. Now, that is innovative.
Gottle received a memory box in honor of Bob.
Just curious, do micro hiders expect to read their logbooks?
Not being first did not dampen Dana’s enthusiasm for the cache she found.
Quirky Outtakes is setting up his first hitchhiker. Have fun!
Podcasts
Icenrye has another fine videocast up for this week. He documents a cache hunt as well as Änglamarkenas. It’s interesting to note how many locals have logged this one. I recall playing with this a long time ago. Never realized I was “caching” at the time.
Sandy and Sonny welcomed this week with podcast number 49. They shared the second part of their geocoin reporting complete with the release of the official Podcacher geocoin. Congratulations to you both!
The Caching Commute highlights the Creed, personal hitchhikers, and the 12 of 12 photosharing project. That last one sounds like fun. Thanks for the podcast so we don’t have to wait until Monday.
Welcome New Cachers
Sleep MoonBeams is looking forward to her first hunt with her boyfriend.
Amanda has found caching and now she is trying to recruit her friends to join her. Welcome to the addiction!
Over at the Frozen Truth, geocaching is on his mind. Give it a try. Perhaps contact Amanda!
af is ready to go caching. He is prepared to hunt sans GPS. You’re right, you don’t need one of those things to find caches. Best of luck to you! And then he found it! Good job, af!
First cache and chrisb is geophotoblogging. Awesome!
Haleth found an interesting bug while caching with his folks.
divanared4est and Dereck went caching together for the first time. Sounds like both had fun with the multi-billion toy.
_archaicangel_ went caching on a mystery field trip.
Here’s a new cacher and he is getting involved because of a buddy’s blog. Now that is a good thing.
Regional Round-Up
UTAG has announced the 2006 Spring Jordan River Pancake Breakfast.
Texas Geocaching has a new look. We like it. We really like it!
The Houston group ponders throw down caches. Interesting discussion ensues.
GeoPhotoBlogging
Featured Photo
StayFloopy @ Jenny Jump State Park 26 April 2006
used with permission |
Ragged Around the Edges spotted this sign while out on the hunt.
The Bennett family reunion featured geocaching.
smokerette ponders her hair-do.
A lone palm tree attracts cachers.
publicenergy uploaded a nice collage of cachers who found the Dustboat cache. That’s what the cache camera is for!
Don’t look now, but isn’t that Mopar and GeoHo at the Lambs and Lanyards Happy Hour?
Scratch shares a creek he found.
bmwrider was at the Clarksville Geoevent and snapped this photograph of cachers marking their flag in the GPS competition.
ConnieG’s grandmother signs the log. Ha!
UK caching looks like fun. Thanks KiloTwo.
Congratulations on #2000, Grandee!!!
Cute.
Squamloon shares command central.
What an awesome photograph, bvt! Nothing like a hydrocache with family.
Gregory captures the Buffalo skyline. Perfect! I was right where the fireworks were after a Dead show some time ago.
Cache found. Good job, gojumeister.
Tunnel fun with gimpstick.
Youngster on the hunt.
The location has been spotted. Nice area.
Fotomom is johnny on the spot.
Kiet snaps a photo of the logbook.
The Edmonton caching event in pictures.
The End
And that’s the end. Come back next week to see what’s happened in the geoblogosphere. Or better yet, write your own geoblog and get linked right here.
Happy caching, dashing, golfing, seeking, etc.
Posted in GPS Games, Geocaching, TerraCaching | 3 Comments »
Saturday, March 4th, 2006
I fancy myself a poker player. I play in a regular game and do fairly well. It is low stakes, to be sure, but I usually come out ahead. Poker is not a newfound interest. I recall sitting in on my father’s game when I was a boy for a few hands and winning.
We are a competitive family and cards were a prominent activity. Mom and Dad were bridge players. My sister played a little as a girl. I think she won her first time out. My folks ran several bridge games a week out of our oversized living room during childhood. While there were several attempts to teach me the game, I never really took to it. A couple years back, before I met Gert, I began teaching myself bridge again. I actually drove all the way to Cherry Hill to play. This was truly my first bridge game that was not under my parents’ guidance. I won. Unbelievable! I have not play any since then.
I first began playing poker in my late teens. My employer had a regular game in his house. I did okay in the game. I remember Willie Weinberger bringing his Flyers season tickets each year and letting us pick what games we wanted. It was at this game at 41 Jackson that I learned the game. It was a thrill when my dad joined us a few times. We played at the Mad Batter since he couldn’t get into Harry’s place on the second floor. After a couple years, I moved to Boston and did not play much up there. When I moved back home, I re-joined my game. I was an inconsistent player. I would win big one game and lose the next. But I enjoyed myself nonetheless.
When I moved to Cumberland County a dozen years ago, my new boss invited me into his game. Interestingly, I replaced a friend of his in the classroom and then took that same guy’s seat at the poker table. A few years later, we looked at his house. If I had been ready to buy a house a little earlier than we did, we would have purchased his home. It is weird.
Anyhow, this game has been going on since 1968. I am the youngest player by far. I use my youth (I don’t get to say that much these days) to my advantage. Although, more and more, I am the only one who has to work the following morning and I am usually dragging by the end of the night. But I usually leave with more than I came and that is a good thing. Over the last dozen years, I have used this game to teach myself the game. I have learned how to bluff. I have learned how to bet. Because it is low stakes, the guys will remain in even when they shouldn’t, so position is key.
We live near Atlantic City. While I play poker, we do not hit the casinos often. I have been eager to enter a tournament down there, however, just to see what it is like. Who knows, perhaps I will get lucky in a satelitte and win my entry to the WSOP. One can hope.
Today I played my first poker tournament ever. It was an online game. My Jack-high straight won the tournament. I won’t be going to Vegas on this win, but I feel happy and it was by far the most entertaining poker game I have played in. I can’t wait to play again.
Posted in GPS Games | No Comments »
After a quick getaway, we’re home. I will be back to regular blogging tomorrow, I suspect.