Sunday, July 13th, 2008
GCBC4B
39.1812 -77.20
This is another marker that I pass with some frequency that I keep wanting to take a photograph of and just haven’t. It is near the golf course letters. I thought there was a Blue Star hunt, but didn’t see it in the database. Hmmm . . . a little more digging revealed why. D’oh! It is one of the old GC.com hunts. I can’t believe this one isn’t logged. Montgomery Village is right in the middle of all the action on the north side of D.C. There are plenty of caches and cachers in the area.
Anyhow, Fritz and I meandered over the median and took the photographs for this on a a beautiful Sunday morning.
(more…)
Posted in GPS Games, Geocaching | No Comments »
Saturday, May 31st, 2008
Michael Arrington decries Yahoo’s demise. It’s a good read . . . This was e-mailed to me today. It’s an old one, but the addition of New Jersey in the last spot added a level of humor/gut-wrenching bile that is not there otherwise . . . Twitter has been returning an Over Capacity message quite a bit recently . . . Is it any wonder that FriendFeed has captured my attention . . . I am surprised this thread continues over at Groundspeak. It seems to break all the guidelines. Of course, pot shots at conservatives is considered fair game by so many . . . $77 to fill the gas-guzzler. Sigh . . . My girl Stephanie won this week on Top Chef. Best of luck in Puerto Rico . . . Here’s the first test: former state senator Nick Asselta is now on the state BPU. The gas companies are demanding rate increases of 20%. Will Asselta take a conservative approach to this or will he rubber stamp it? . . . Blue Jersey’s response to NJ Senate President Dick Codey’s comment highlights a fundamental difference between liberals and conservatives: asking the Turnpike Authority to tighten its belt is not de-funding, it is requesting for efficiency . . . good actors leave the audience wanting more. Harvey Korman and Sydney Pollack are two who did that this week . . . another actor, however, makes us wish she had packed it in already. It’s unfortunate too as I always liked Susan Sarandon, despite her liberal tendencies . . . Obama left Trinity United Church. What took him so long? Evidence that he will do whatever to get himself elected. This doesn’t help him . . . Beetle pointed to a picture of poison and asked what it was. Unsatisfied with the answer she declared it was pirate milk . . . We were at Target tonight and walked by the lingerie. There was a thing that was about my daughter’s size. Okay, it was a bit larger, but not designed for anyone who should be wearing a thong. And who should be wearing thongs? I think the simple answer is if one is not having sex, she has no need for a thong. Anyone who could have squeezed into this thing is too young for sex . . .
Posted in Entertainment, GPS Games, Geocaching, Miscellaneous, New Jersey, Politics | No Comments »
Saturday, March 8th, 2008
Scoble’s new venture launched recently . . . Pot meet the kettle: scottO rips Groundspeak for its less than courteous customer service. I truly wonder what he thinks the perception of Terracaching.com’s customer service is . . . Ed Morrissey’s When the Democratic Party moves too far left for George McGovern, you know they’re in trouble made me spray my computer screen . . . It’s interesting that the guy who got me into geocaching is also now blogging . . . much ado is being made out of John McCain’s reaction to NY Times reporter Elisabeth Bumiller. That isn’t anger to me and I have no issue with his response. It was a silly question he was asked and he let her know it . . . ’twas just reminded that I will be at Yankee Stadium in June for a game. It is the last season for the House That Ruth Built . . . gearing up for lawn care as I dropped the mower and edger off for service today . . . “Oh, get over it!” You have to love Scalia . . . from an e-mail I received earlier this week: “I hope all the bastards who got those no-money-down loans do get thrown out of their houses.” . . . completing classroom book orders online is wonderful. No longer do I have to fill out those dreaded forms and mail them in. We’ll see how quickly they arrive . . . California now requires parents who homeschool their children to have teaching certs. Ha! or should that be Bah! Sure, force parents to be indoctrinated in the system they want to be rid of. That makes sense . . . More spewage: “Adam Eaton is picking up right where he left off last season — getting pummeled like Apollo Creed in the beginning of Rocky IV” . . . I came across this (don’t ask how). The more I see of stuff like this, the more I am sympathetic to celebrities. I think they give up some of their personal lives as the trade off of stardom, but this kind of stuff is ridiculous . . . a good chuckle . . . Wow! Reading a book is considered “racial harassment” . . .
Posted in Baseball, Education, GPS Games, Geocaching, Media, Politics, Sports, TerraCaching | No Comments »
Saturday, August 11th, 2007
The Groundspeak thread about raffles and 50/50s being held at events and posted on the listing has brewed a lot of offline discussion. I support Groundspeak’s apparent crackdown on these.
From what I gleaned in my discussions is that while we all know these kinds of things occur all the time at work, among friends, etc., they are against NJ law. The controlling body is the Division of Consumer Affairs.
I was informed that the fine for running a game of chance without proper registration is $7500 for the first offense and $15,000 for the second. That’s some steep punishment. From what I can discern, in a game of chance someone is the “house”, as it were. A Thursday night poker game does not have a “house”; it is each man for himself. A friendly poker game is okay, but a raffle or a 50/50 has some of the money raised going to someone/some group.
While some contend that the state investigates these, I doubt they would go after regular folks. Some mentioned paper trails. That reminded me of a conversation I had with my father circa 1995.
I found software that would allow one to run a football pool. It was pretty sophisticated stuff, allowing folks to register online via a web page, making their picks, etc. The manager of the pool had all sorts of options and the software did a wonderful job of keeping track of all the components of the pool.
I showed it to my father. He immediately cautioned me from using it. He explained that as soon as one can point others to your work, you need to be concerned with those who may take exception to what you are doing. A football pool may seem harmless, but the boss, Joe Public, or a disgruntled colleague may take exception to one, particularly if he can point one to the “paper trail”.
I took the lesson to heart.
My colleagues often ask why I am so formal in my e-mail and memoranda. I inform them that all of those documents are public documents and if ever published, I do not desire to be caught being less than at my very best. After a board member had some of his e-mail published in the local paper that caught him in frank candor and using inappropriate language, it is a lesson that has bite.
It does seem like some groups run games of chance at their events. I suspect few have registered with the state to do so. If they don’t, they are gambling more than raffles. Cache pages, web site pages, etc. all have a “paper trail”. If the state does search for these events, I know I would not want my name associated with these games of chance. My father taught me well.
Posted in GPS Games, Geocaching, New Jersey | No Comments »
Friday, December 8th, 2006
Groundspeak is beginning to roll out some of the long-promised additional games to geocaching. Groundspeak (formerly Grounded Inc.) touts itself as the Language of Location.
More than a year ago, the company rolled out Waymarking.com. While there are some interesting categories there, overall the site is underwhelming. Many complain about having to play on multiple sites (that is something I heard long ago when I began listing caches on other sites). Others speak to the lack of adventure. Yet it seems more a repository for the jettisoned scavenger hunts, web cams, and virtuals. But mixing those in with the McDonald’s restaurants has not captured a large audience.
On the heels of that, Groundspeak is rolling out WherIGo.com. Unlike Waymarking, WherIGo is innovative. It is in beta and because of that, much of the disfunctionality of the site is excused. What was not clear to me until I tried to install the software is that this game is only available, apparently, for those with GPS-enabled Pocket PCs. While I used to use a PPC, I no longer do. I think that requirement should be noted (and prominently so).
Anyhow, the game does sound inviting. Players can set up games for others to play based on coordinates inputted. It looks like a fantasy game based around a downtown area might be the “normal” result. I think it sounds very interesting and something I would certainly play. Frankly, in many ways it is akin to the Millville Walking Tour shutterspot I am constructing as well as Murder in Glasstown cache that is also in the works.
I applaud Groundspeak for the innovation here. I hope the game is expanded to include other platforms or perhaps capable of being dumped to a laptop/desktop for one to create a paper gameboard to play along with in the field.
I look forward to following this development.
Posted in GPS Games | No Comments »
