This one was originally intended to be a temporary landing zone until I could fire up my own server, drop in all those cool widgets and spruce the place up all nerd-like as I am wont to do with my surroundings.  Also, I had the intention of widening the scope of the blog but really just wanted to get used to the process, formatting and so forth first.

It took a conversation with a friend, Edward Newman, to get me from the chair and into action.  We have a number of common and divergent interests.  Notably, we work together and have joined the passel of “company bloggers” for our employer.  We’re not fanbois, we just blog and have topics relevant to our industry that (in our myopic view) deserve a hearing.  We decided to join forces to make the business of blogging on a regular basis more agreeable and keep each other motivated.

Edward (Ted, from here on) enjoys good stuff: high-end audio, music generally, fine food and drink, technology, the outdoors, a good cigar and even an American made, hand-crafted shoe on occasion.  He devours books.  Ted’s the Mac without the hipster douchebaggery.

I suppose that makes me the PC.  Geocaching will continue to be a staple topic of conversation for me, but Geocaching intersects so many other interests I am happy to make the transition and open up to a wider audience.  Astronomy, physics, biology, card games (Cribbage), the sun, surf, magic (conjuring, mentalism), skepticism and general geekdom all mesh together like the warp and weft of a tight fabric.

The move is a good “marriage” of sorts.  I think the deal was sealed when I sat in Ted’s office and he asked me “what the heck is this Geocaching thing and why do you chase after little things under a tree?”

“Heck, Ted”, I said, “it’s like being in the longest running physics experiment ever devised.  Geocaching: proving Einstein right, one smiley at a time.”

I think Ted’s out hunting now with his iPhone app.  If I can just keep him from hiding another LPC we’ll be all set. While I fight that demon you can come find us at: http://www.practicalpolymath.com .

Edit: Ted came up with a motto…”Exploring the good life preferred by the Geek who can speak”.  I have to say that’s a good summation.

Now, this: TrailLink, a Geocaching Trails index.  It’s full of win.  Thanks to my buddy Stan Black for the tip!

I’m working on a potential change to move the blog, broaden the content and force regular updates to keep up.  Stay tuned.

Why does this have anything to do with a GPS related activity like Geocaching?  They’re traveling the continent, friends.  That, and you can track their current position, here.  If that ain’t something after my heart I don’t know what is.

See my Facebook photo album for more.

/tardiness

I’ve been doing the data storage thing for nearly 20 years now so I have seen a few severe head crashes.  This one takes the cake.  By far this is the biggest and baddest.  Once you consider a single smoke particle is 3 times bigger than the distance those heads ride off the disk platters, something like this only means one thing…

This is what a proper head crash looks like on the inside.

…total destruction.

See for yourself:

As of 13:40 on 2/2/10

Average (Mean): 34.33
Median: 29 years
Mode (Most Common): 21 years

Total entries: 73
0-17: 15 entries
18-34: 26 entries
35-52: 15 entries
55-85: 17 entries

Youngest: 3mo
Youngest able to sign the log: 5 years
Oldest: 85

So yes, most Geocachers are older than 23, at least according to this highly biased poll of self selected forum-reading Geocachers on Groundspeak.  The only way this could be more unscientific and less meaningful is if PZ Myers were to send his Pharyngula hordes down upon it to prove the point.  Since this is a forum discussion that seems unlikely to happen.

Still, it’s fun and somewhat surprising if the data are representative of the larger Geocaching populace.  And yes, that is me replying in the Forum thread.

Hat tip to Geonarcissa for the link.  And spend some time over there.  How is it I just found out about Greasemonkey scripts for Geocaching a month ago and she seems to have a whole series of reviews on them?  Go look.  Stop wasting your time on my blog and read something interesting for a change.

Follow-up 3:

Uh-oh.  This one hit the front page of FARK.  The comments are already coming in with more flame-ey goodness.

Follow-up 2:

After 140 comments I found a single one mildly sympathetic to the message.  Awesome fail.

Follow-up:

The comments on that “news” article are hysterical.  I find no need to offer my usual defense of the game/sport/activity.  With 8/10 commenters opening their volley with “Worst. Reporting. Evar.” I think we’re well represented.

I even remarked briefly (albeit obtusely) about my own experience landing in handcuffs while Geocaching.  The same thing and much worse appears to have happened in this case.  I stumbled across this on the Geocaching Forums:

Fellow Geocachers
On Friday, January 8th of this year, I went geocaching with my son. We had a great time and found lots of geocaches. It was about time to go home when my son asked me, “Let’s go get one more geocache, Dad.” I told him that we would. On the way there, I was pulled over by the policemen and placed in handcuffs because somebody thought that I had planted a pipe bomb at Academy Sports. I explained to them that I had been geocaching. They took me back to Academy Sports where I was interviewed by a police detective. I again explained about geocaching and after they had determined that it was not a bomb but rather a geocache, they took me back to my car. A few minutes later, they arrested me for Interference with the duties of a public servant. They took me to jail until my wife could come and bail me out.
We then set about finding a lawyer to defend me. We found one; a good one. This past week, he was able to meet with the district attorney and tell her what had happened. Once the police report was filed, she immediately dismissed the charges against me under the grounds that what I had done was not a crime and did not meet the elements of the offense. That happened today, Jan. 26th. I was then able to get my gpsr, cell phone, and bond money back.
The reason I write this email is to serve as both a caution and a request for aid. The caution is that this same thing could happen to you. It was not fun, and I am very grateful that it is over with. You do not want it to happen to you, trust me. My request for aid is such that we need to brainstorm and think up ways that we can help the police officers and general public know and understand more about geocaching so that this doesn’t happen again. It may be worthwhile to let businesses know about geocaches that we may have placed on their grounds if we have not done so, and when we go to search for them to let them know that we are doing such so we don’t look suspicious. I don’t know if that would work or not, but something needs to be done. I would also like to thank all those that prayed for me or thought of me during this trying time. Thank you!

caleb.osborn

I would normally not quote the whole post here but I think it bears replication, communication and stapling printed copies of this to every cache hider’s forehead.  So before I go on, credit goes to Condor1 as the OP.  The letter from caleb.osborn is apparently from a friend or someone in his local Geocaching community.

The debates will rage in the forums over who was in the wrong, what can be done about it, whether the law enforcement officer was within his right to detain and arrest the Geocacher, what legal recourse is available and so on ad nauseum.  This is all navel gazing after the fact, folks.

Whether you are a hider or seeker this is just another object lesson in why good, thoughtful Geocaching on both ends is so important.

Hiders: have a little consideration and use more than a little good judgment when placing a hide.  If your Geocache is on private property someone clearly can be be arrested and jailed in front of their children.  Would I have dropped off this LPC?  Absolutely, however after this event I will now reconsider hiding any more LPCs as this kind of event has happened before.  The old “you don’t have to go after every cache” argument rings hollow after this news.  I hide the cache, therefore I own responsibility for whether it is a safe place to cache.

Seekers: Everybody is a muggle and muggles don’t like you.  Muggles with guns and badges are the worst and they like us the least; Geocachers make them nervous because we are indistinguishable at times from a burglar.  Law enforcement by and large still have no idea who Geocachers are with the exception of the forest and parks services.  I have no idea how the Geocacher in this story really behaved with the officer(s) but my personal experience suggests to me it does not matter.  I would avoid anything with muggle traffic in the area and no, you don’t have to go for every cache.  Be safe out there!  Sadly, not everyone will know tensions are high.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see more scrutiny on Geocachers out there for some time.

Geez, am I only reading the bad news lately or is this an actual trend?