Good morning everyone. Top FTF streaks in terms of consecutive months with at least one FTF: Top Canadian is TeamSigShark&Janski in Alberta who is currently at 130 months and still going. Top Manitoban is JB, who has 94 consecutive months and also still going. Top American is kablooey from California with 205 months and still active. Top North Dakotan is archiedais who went 17 consecutive months of FTFs. That one is no longer active.
This week's blog was suppose to be about my camping trip last weekend, but I haven't had the opportunity to sit down and compose a proper story. It is now Saturday morning and basically 24 hours before my next blog is to be published. Problem is, I have nothing ready to be published. That got me wondering about other creative people in the caching world. I'm sure life gets busy for them as well. What do they do? How do they handle the time crunch to get new product out to their followers? I like to have a back-up blog ready for times like this and I do have a few that are either in the process of being worked on or it's just a working title. As of right now, I have nothing that's close to being ready that I'd be happy with.
Oddly enough (or coincidentally), Geocaching Jangie didn't publish a blog this week for the very same reasons. Life got busy and she doesn't want to publish something that she wouldn't be happy with. Can a creative person (vlogger/blogger/podcaster) skip a week and still retain their audience? I was watching the live shows of Geocaching Podcast that can be seen on Wednesday nights at 8:30pm central. There has been a few times that there was no show due to a conflict in schedules with baseball. Two of the hosts, scottberks and shortyknits are involved with baseball and put family first.
I saw somewhere on social media a poll asking what geocaching was to you. Is it a hobby, a passion, or a lifestyle? Where do you draw the line, if you do? To an outsider or muggle, geocaching is a hobby. It's something you do in your spare time. Is it still a hobby when you get involved? For myself, it was no longer just a hobby. It became a passion as I wanted to find all the geocaches I could. I wanted to rise up the ranks and be a part of the upper echelon of the local caching community. It became a lifestyle as all I did was eat, sleep, find a geocache, repeat. I got involved with the local caching association and was given the role of stats person. I took what was a simple monthly milestone report and turned it into a much larger milestone and stats report. Little did I know that this little project of mine would grow into something that was getting out of control. Something that I did solo is now done by a team of people. It would take a few hours each evening over a period of a week to compile the report. That's no longer a hobby. Hobbies are suppose to be fun.
What has geocaching become? When you look at geocaches that were hidden in the very early days, chances are it was a larger container, partially buried in the ground in a remote area. These containers had items for trade inside. Fast forward to today and we have micros, nanos, preform tubes, bison tubes, and home-made containers that can only hold a log sheet and maybe a pencil if it's large enough. They're hidden in lamp post skirts, pine trees, guard rails, cracks in a wall, fallen logs close to a river bank, wherever the imagination goes. The cache types have expanded over the years as well. The first geocaches were what we call today as traditional. Today we have Mystery/unknown, Multi, Earth, Virtual, Letterbox, Lab, different events, and so on. It started with just one container in Oregon and has expanded to millions around the globe and being searched by millions of people.
Geocaching is a free hobby that can be done with family. It is free and you most certainly can do it with family. When it becomes a passion and a lifestyle, it's no longer free. How much money is spent on gas, hotels, vehicle repairs, traffic tickets, etc., doing this free hobby? The counter to all that is the experience and fun that you can't put a price tag on. I've been to places that I normally wouldn't have gone or even thought of going to if not for geocaching. It's easy to do and go to all these places if you have the time and resources. When life gets in the way, are you able to pull it back so geocaching is just a hobby? Can you live with just having three finds for a month? That's all I have so far this month. I went from 266 finds in June to 3 in September. Why? Because my life has been turned upside down. I no longer have all that free time to go caching everyday. I no longer have every evening free to sit at the laptop to write (which I enjoy doing). What do you do when life gets busy for you? Do you still need to get your caching fix somehow?
Social media for geocaching can be a good thing and a bad thing. It's good as it allows people to video, write or host shows about interesting topics. It can help people out if they are stuck on a puzzle. We get to share pictures of places we've been and awesome caches we found. It's bad as I know of at least one group that calls out cheaters. All they're doing is giving attention to the cheater, which is what they want to begin with. Some are legit cheating, claiming to have found a geocache without being within miles of ground zero. What if they are finding it, actually touching it, but don't sign the piece of paper? Are they still cheating if they skip over one of the rules? Who checks the log sheets to the online logs anyway? I'm willing to bet that most don't. We all could be cheating. If you have your face buried in your GPS or phone until you get to ground zero, did you experience anything along the way there? Take notice of anything that might be cool to see? You could be cheating yourself out of an experience. How many people simply take pictures of all the signage at an Earthcache but don't stay and appreciate the location you were brought to? Or take a selfie at a Virtual and leave without seeing what's around them? There must be a reason these caches were placed here? Some caches aren't really placed in interesting locations. They're just placed because there isn't another geocache nearby. Most urban caches fall into that category. What's so special about that bus stop or stop sign?
Earlier this year, I did a blog about single geocachers. Should they date other single geocachers or muggles? I've always been asked if there's a section in the geocaching website for singles to mingle and meet other single geocachers. I did find a FB page for geocaching singles. Since I'm single, I joined to check it out. I don't see much activity within this group. I'd sooner date someone locally anyway versus someone in Indiana. I'd love to go to Indiana or wherever that single person lives and get all the caches there, but I have neither the time or resources for a long distant relationship like that. I'll stick to locally and as far as I know, there isn't anyone locally. There's always someone who plays Pokémon Go and doesn't geocache. Like geocaching, I play both games solo for the most part.
This week's blog was suppose to be about my camping trip last weekend, but I haven't had the opportunity to sit down and compose a proper story. It is now Saturday morning and basically 24 hours before my next blog is to be published. Problem is, I have nothing ready to be published. That got me wondering about other creative people in the caching world. I'm sure life gets busy for them as well. What do they do? How do they handle the time crunch to get new product out to their followers? I like to have a back-up blog ready for times like this and I do have a few that are either in the process of being worked on or it's just a working title. As of right now, I have nothing that's close to being ready that I'd be happy with.
Oddly enough (or coincidentally), Geocaching Jangie didn't publish a blog this week for the very same reasons. Life got busy and she doesn't want to publish something that she wouldn't be happy with. Can a creative person (vlogger/blogger/podcaster) skip a week and still retain their audience? I was watching the live shows of Geocaching Podcast that can be seen on Wednesday nights at 8:30pm central. There has been a few times that there was no show due to a conflict in schedules with baseball. Two of the hosts, scottberks and shortyknits are involved with baseball and put family first.
I saw somewhere on social media a poll asking what geocaching was to you. Is it a hobby, a passion, or a lifestyle? Where do you draw the line, if you do? To an outsider or muggle, geocaching is a hobby. It's something you do in your spare time. Is it still a hobby when you get involved? For myself, it was no longer just a hobby. It became a passion as I wanted to find all the geocaches I could. I wanted to rise up the ranks and be a part of the upper echelon of the local caching community. It became a lifestyle as all I did was eat, sleep, find a geocache, repeat. I got involved with the local caching association and was given the role of stats person. I took what was a simple monthly milestone report and turned it into a much larger milestone and stats report. Little did I know that this little project of mine would grow into something that was getting out of control. Something that I did solo is now done by a team of people. It would take a few hours each evening over a period of a week to compile the report. That's no longer a hobby. Hobbies are suppose to be fun.
(a big screen TV in the middle of a farm field. I wonder what the reception is like?)
What has geocaching become? When you look at geocaches that were hidden in the very early days, chances are it was a larger container, partially buried in the ground in a remote area. These containers had items for trade inside. Fast forward to today and we have micros, nanos, preform tubes, bison tubes, and home-made containers that can only hold a log sheet and maybe a pencil if it's large enough. They're hidden in lamp post skirts, pine trees, guard rails, cracks in a wall, fallen logs close to a river bank, wherever the imagination goes. The cache types have expanded over the years as well. The first geocaches were what we call today as traditional. Today we have Mystery/unknown, Multi, Earth, Virtual, Letterbox, Lab, different events, and so on. It started with just one container in Oregon and has expanded to millions around the globe and being searched by millions of people.
('Ye Old Hawke Cache' GC96C8. Hidden September 29, 2002.)
Geocaching is a free hobby that can be done with family. It is free and you most certainly can do it with family. When it becomes a passion and a lifestyle, it's no longer free. How much money is spent on gas, hotels, vehicle repairs, traffic tickets, etc., doing this free hobby? The counter to all that is the experience and fun that you can't put a price tag on. I've been to places that I normally wouldn't have gone or even thought of going to if not for geocaching. It's easy to do and go to all these places if you have the time and resources. When life gets in the way, are you able to pull it back so geocaching is just a hobby? Can you live with just having three finds for a month? That's all I have so far this month. I went from 266 finds in June to 3 in September. Why? Because my life has been turned upside down. I no longer have all that free time to go caching everyday. I no longer have every evening free to sit at the laptop to write (which I enjoy doing). What do you do when life gets busy for you? Do you still need to get your caching fix somehow?
(my old car on the set of the TV show 'Corner Gas'.)
Social media for geocaching can be a good thing and a bad thing. It's good as it allows people to video, write or host shows about interesting topics. It can help people out if they are stuck on a puzzle. We get to share pictures of places we've been and awesome caches we found. It's bad as I know of at least one group that calls out cheaters. All they're doing is giving attention to the cheater, which is what they want to begin with. Some are legit cheating, claiming to have found a geocache without being within miles of ground zero. What if they are finding it, actually touching it, but don't sign the piece of paper? Are they still cheating if they skip over one of the rules? Who checks the log sheets to the online logs anyway? I'm willing to bet that most don't. We all could be cheating. If you have your face buried in your GPS or phone until you get to ground zero, did you experience anything along the way there? Take notice of anything that might be cool to see? You could be cheating yourself out of an experience. How many people simply take pictures of all the signage at an Earthcache but don't stay and appreciate the location you were brought to? Or take a selfie at a Virtual and leave without seeing what's around them? There must be a reason these caches were placed here? Some caches aren't really placed in interesting locations. They're just placed because there isn't another geocache nearby. Most urban caches fall into that category. What's so special about that bus stop or stop sign?
(one of the views I had while walking to 'Ye Olde Hawk Cache')
Earlier this year, I did a blog about single geocachers. Should they date other single geocachers or muggles? I've always been asked if there's a section in the geocaching website for singles to mingle and meet other single geocachers. I did find a FB page for geocaching singles. Since I'm single, I joined to check it out. I don't see much activity within this group. I'd sooner date someone locally anyway versus someone in Indiana. I'd love to go to Indiana or wherever that single person lives and get all the caches there, but I have neither the time or resources for a long distant relationship like that. I'll stick to locally and as far as I know, there isn't anyone locally. There's always someone who plays Pokémon Go and doesn't geocache. Like geocaching, I play both games solo for the most part.
('Wonderland 1: The Rabbit Hole' GCN2TC. Hidden March 12, 2005)
That's all the rambling I have for this week. Hopefully I have time to write something more interesting for next week. FYI: it is now Sunday morning and I'm just finishing this up. I normally have my blogs published by now. Ooops. Until next week, be happy, be safe, hug your geo-pets (and your loved ones too), take the time to enjoy life (stop and smell the roses), and most of all, have fun. Peace out.
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