Geocaching Stats Added [sidebar]

I wanted to mention a great hobby my wife and I have been involved in for two years or so now, called Geocaching. Certainly you've heard of it, yes?

No? OK, in a nutshell, it's like a world-wide scavenger hunt, organized online the best by the folks at Groundspeak, via their website, Geocaching.com. Legend has it that, many years back, in Seattle, one individual was contemplating the idea that this new GPS technology could find practically any position on earth, if you knew the coordinates to punch in to your GPS receiver. He thought it might be fun to take a container with some trinkets in it, hide it out of plain site, post the coordinates on the internet, and have friends with GPS receivers try to find the cache. They did, and a new sport was born (please bear with me; this tale is from memory, and I'm sure greatly generalized...but the idea is the same). UPDATE: Read how it all got started in 2000 here.

Today, this sport has boomed, with caches hidden all over the country, in every state, and now around the world as well. The stated goal is to help folks get out, see the country, and travel to places you might not otherwise -- a scenic view, a fantastic campsite, a historical site. No digging is involved...the cache container is generally about the size of a Tupperware food storage container, something that is dry, and contains a log book for the cacher to log their visit, and occasionally toys or other trinkets to trade.

I am skipping over mountains of details here, and I really encourage you to visit the geocaching website and read all about it. Back to the point of this post, though...once you create an account, you can search for caches anywhere in the world to find (surprise yourself by searching around your town -- you'll be flabbergasted at how many are practically in your own backyard), and once you find a particular cache, you come back to the website, and log your visit online. Then they update your stats with how many you've found, and how many you've hidden yourself. They then have a way to generate the code to be able to post your stats 'banner' online, and that's what I did today ;)

You'll note that our total is rather low. One good reason for this...I use a power wheelchair to get around, so my wife and I try to filter out the caches that seem accessible to someone in a wheelchair like me. One method they employ is to rate caches from 1 to 5 in both difficulty of the hide, and difficulty of the terrain. I usually can get to most caches whose terrain difficulty is rated 1 or 1.5.

But enough about us...you can track our stats by the new little badge I posted here, but what's stopping you? If I can do it, anyone can! Get yourself a decent GPS receiver (some are available for $100 or so), and the forums on geocaching.com devote entire areas to discussing different GPS receivers. Once in hand, register yourself on geocaching.com, and then get out there!

In the words of Groundspeak..."Let's go geocaching!"

Groundspeak - Geocaching.com

Google Quick Reference Guide

For all you Google lovers out there...sometimes, you want to really refine your search, but you're not sure what different parameters you can define. You do know about what they call "Advanced Operators", right? These are ways to specify your search on Google.

For example, if you wanted to search for the definition of the word 'dictionary', instead of just typing the word 'dictionary' in the Google search bar (which will bring up websites featuring that word), you can type in 'define: dictionary' (without the quotes), which then does a lookup on the definition of the word, and returns those results. Similarly, you can type in 'movie: Superman Returns' and get back movie reviews and showtimes. Pretty neat, eh? Well, this only scratches the surface. And yes, there are places on google.com itself to find information on the available operators...but, in true 'net community-goodness fashion, Nancy Blachman has done the work for us, and come up with a cheat sheet that you can print out, and have handy for your next Google search. Clicking on the text near the top of the page ('Google Guide', or the 'Quick Reference...' title) takes you to more in-depth webpages on Google searching.

Quick Reference: Google Advanced Operators (Cheat Sheet)

Canadian Animation Online

One of my passions is film, and animation in particular. In the art house theaters that I encountered in my college years, one of the treats was when an animation festival was slated to appear. In these, many works by directors you might know (but many more by folks you didn't know) would be displayed, one after the other. The producers would string together enough shorts to make an overall program length of an hour and a half or so.

One of the most consistently funny animation groups were the ones sponsored by the National Film Board of Canada. Do titles like "Blackfly" or "The Balgonie Birdman" ring a bell? No? Then get yourself over to the NFB webpage listed below to view any of 50 animated short films right in your web browser. You'll be glad you did. You can search the films as well, by title, director, production year, and more. Enjoy!

Focus on Animation - ONF

Etch-A-Sketch Master

I grew up in the late 60s and early 70s. Back then, it seemed like every kid, at one point in their kidhood, was presented with an Etch-A-Sketch as a gift. It was fantastic how you could manipulate two small knobs and produce an etching in silver powder that was your own personal masterpiece...until a sibling or some other individual with no conception of fine art grabbed your one-of-a-kind design, and shook it away into so many particles of inspirational dust again. Back to the tabula rasa.

Well, there's playing with an Etch-A-Sketch, and then there's mastering it. Don't think you can really create art on one? Check out the work of George Vlosich III on his website Etched In Time. You will be amazed. And you will find a new definition of the word "patience".

Etched In Time

Misheard Song Lyrics

By now, I'm sure many of you have heard about the books and desk calendars that feature misheard song lyrics. It all started in a collection called "'Scuse Me While I Kiss This Guy", a goof on Purple Haze by Jimi Hendrix. I got my sister a desk calendar for this year featuring a different misheard lyric each day, and some will have you in tears, they are so funny.

Well, I read something the other day online somewhere (nice and vague, huh?) that reminded me to check out the website. And so I did. It had been a while since I visited, and the site looks much nicer and has more interactivity than it did before. Take a look! You can look up lyrics by using the alphabetic index, or you can click on "Grab a random lyric", and see what random goodness is in store. Either way, it's a great way to find out what other people *thought* they heard. Probably the best part is, you can submit misheard lyrics yourself! Enjoy.

'Scuse Me While I Kiss This Guy (1st book in collection)
The Archive of Misheard Lyrics (website)

Frogger Croaks Again

So I have this younger sister. When we were growing up (not to give away our ages), we were all about the Atari 2600 game console. Two of my sister's favorite arcade games were Space Invaders and Frogger. When they came to the Atari, she was in heaven. But, then we all grow up, and you lose your liking for kid stuff like that.

Right?

Neave Games has some wonderful web-based games that take you back to those arcade classics, including Frogger, Space Invaders, Asteroids, Simon, and a few more. Save those quarters for some Pop Rocks and Wacky Packs, kiddos ;) ...I wonder how long it'll take my sister to notice this link?

Neave Games