Going Inactive

[seldom|seen]

To the relief of many, seldom|seen is going to be taking a break from the sport and trying not to think about it for a while. This is of course going to be very difficult to do with my “to create” stack still looming large, but other priorities in life are looming larger and the only way for me to get any perspective on it is to step as far away from it as I can for the rest of the year.

I am at 95 puzzle hides (as anyone in the valley well knows) and hope to get 4 more out before becoming quite. My 100th puzzle is already placed and written up, but the others are still in the works.

Rsplash40 has agreed to handle all e-mail and inquiries in the interim and I just wanted everyone to know that he will be getting forwards from my e-mail. In the meantime, if any of you run across or revisit any of mine that are in trouble, I would really appreciate any attention you could give them if they are in dire straights. Sagasu is also aware of 90% of mine and can also field questions about puzzle specifics. Thank you guys for your help.

We’ll see you all in a few months. Maybe we’ll even have a new logo by the time I come back…. NOT.

[marc_54140]

Well, I’m certainly not going to cry over this announcement!

I have thought of weeping for JOY !!! 🙄

[-cheeto-]

Enjoy the Geo-vacation Alex. See you on “the other side”…

[Sagasu]

After Marc wipes his tears away he will help me compose answers to any puzzle questions. I bet that will drive up the number of contacts I get right away while I too slow the pace a bit in a week or two, or so…. sometime after that #100 anyway. See you along the way, Alex, will keep the phone calls to a minimum, now if you can do the same…

[marc_54140]

Who is keeping phone calls to a minimum?

[Sagasu]

Well, I did o.k. on that today when my phone battery went dead, and I haven’t heard from Alex since yesterday morning. Think of it as a conservation effort. How about you?

[PCFrog]

@seldom|seen wrote:

Coming off the Puzzle Tour thread and relating to the Lonely Cache Game thread is a re-occurring theme that in areas of high cache saturation, particularly in urban areas, the caching community would benefit from a voluntary cache review and archive commitment from its members, to make space for new and/or better caches.

[seldom|seen]

@seldom|seen wrote:

“better” caches.

key word.

Not to worry, I’m not leaving the game, not do I intend to archive or put my caches up for adoption. Just taking a break from it, as many do, but alerting all comers to that fact because of the high number of caches I have in the filed.

I also intend to keep on top of maintenance and while some have been down for a few weeks, I am working to get them up and running again.

[LDove]

😕 SS I am not real smart, I know it and admit it. (who else would get their brand new PT Cruiser stuck in a swamp at 10 degrees trying to save a few feet of walking)? 😳 But, being in Appleton this past weekend – I honestly tried to solve some of your puzzles, some of which have few finders. I did not have much luck. I did, however, figure out one and thought myself quite the smartypants. There was a suggestion over on THE OTHER BOARDS (yeah those), that puzzle cache owners publish the cache location and then give the answer t the puzzle inside the cache. That way in case you can’t figure it out, you could still find the cache and it would be found by all – everybody wins. You could also have the challenge of doing the puzzle. Ever considered that for your puzzles? Just curious. I am thinking of setting up a few of my own and may try to do it this way. Any thoughts?

[-cheeto-]

i dont get it…

[marc_54140]

@LDove wrote:

😕 SS I am not real smart, I know it and admit it. (who else would get their brand new PT Cruiser stuck in a swamp at 10 degrees trying to save a few feet of walking)? 😳 But, being in Appleton this past weekend – I honestly tried to solve some of your puzzles, some of which have few finders. I did not have much luck. I did, however, figure out one and thought myself quite the smartypants. There was a suggestion over on THE OTHER BOARDS (yeah those), that puzzle cache owners publish the cache location and then give the answer t the puzzle inside the cache. That way in case you can’t figure it out, you could still find the cache and it would be found by all – everybody wins. You could also have the challenge of doing the puzzle. Ever considered that for your puzzles? Just curious. I am thinking of setting up a few of my own and may try to do it this way. Any thoughts?

Interesting thought……

I copied an idea from the MN area. A cache where you go find and get to ask for a puzzle solve. Marc’s Treasure Box. So far, only one person has done so in about 6 weeks it’s been out!

The big problem is how to get cachers to LOOK at the puzzle caches to start with.

[seldom|seen]

Puzzles aren’t for everybody and if all you want to do is get the pesky “?”‘s off your nearest to home queries then you will miss the boat. If that’s your sole intent when you see S|S puzzles, I’d prefer you just put them on your ignore list.

If, however, you come to appreciate what goes into an S|S puzzle and what you can expect to come away with – a good laugh, a bit of knowledge, a unexpected location – then you are more than welcome to ask for a little help.

I am always open to giving clues as I want you to enjoy the cache, not get so frustrated with it then it leaves a foul taste in your mouth. Never that. If you need help and are reaching the breaking point, ASK!

My 100th puzzle will be published soon and immediately after I will be hibernating for a time so everyone can catch up on them pesky little ?’s.

[LDove]

@-cheeto- wrote:

i dont get it…

Clarification: If you wanted to be able to try to do the puzzle, and can’t figure it out, you could still get the cache and also the answer to the puzzle inside the cache. That would be IF you chose to do it that way. Then people who are not able to figure it out, would not only learn how to do the puzzle by getting the answer, but also would get to retrieve the cache. I do admire all the time and work that goes into creating creative puzzles. Many areas don’t have people as helpful as Marc to help with classes, etc… to figure some of these out. This would be a great opportunity for the cache owner to not only put a great puzzle out there, but also teach his methodology on how he created it and what the answer is. This would help in later searches for puzzles by what you learned from the others. It was just a suggestion that was put out there and I wanted to see how people felt about it – not that I necessarily agree with it – yet.

[gotta run]

Sorry, but I don’t see ever applying an idea like this. The first purpose of the puzzle cache IMO is to solve the puzzle. Posting how to find the cache without solving the puzzle is like coming up with a really tough-to-find traditional, then posting written directions for how to find the cache just in case someone doesn’t want to go through the trouble of actually looking for it.

Besides, if I ever see the cookie cutter “Easy cache for our team to find” log from my favorite caching team on one of our puzzle caches, my head will explode. One of the best parts about puzzle caches is that the drive-by cachers who create most of the avoidable maintenance problems by and large avoid them.

On the Left Side of the Road...

[-cheeto-]

If you wanted to be able to try to do the puzzle, and can’t figure it out, you could still get the cache and also the answer to the puzzle inside the cache.

Okay, I still don’t get it. what does “you still get the cache” mean exactly? So you post the answer to the puzzle on the cache page? Is that what you mean? Then place more about how to solve the puzzle inside the cache? What might be more intriguing is to place an actual container at the bogus coordinates that gives you hints (not the solve) to the puzzle. Hmmm.. wonder if s|s has ever done that?

I have actually seen many puzzles that give you the answer in the encrypted hints. Gotta wonder how many just look at the answer and find it as another on their list of caches to “clear off the map”.

One of the best parts about puzzle caches is that the drive-by cachers who create most of the avoidable maintenance problems by and large avoid them.

A little off-topic but I have to agree. Puzzle caches seem to be muggled less, taken care of better by finders, and as a cache owner you can know that traffic will be much lighter and depending on the puzzle really light and choose hiding locations accordingly based on these insights.

Back on topic and to respond to s|s’s comments regarding his puzzle caches in specific. To solve them and experience them is like no other geocaching experience. I am glad I live in Appleton and get to experience many new things, learn a ton, and have this much fun. s|s takes an area with very few wooded trails (alas not many places to put a plain ole ammo can in the woods) and turns it into an educational, historical, urban playground. Yeah some of his puzzles expect you to make intellectual leaps in order to solve but as he states, he offers help when help is needed and that help will allways bring more understanding of the puzzle topic and overall almost a better geocache experience. Yeah, giving you the answer up front might still make for a fun cache as many of these have custom containers and very well planned placements but it’s just not the same.

If you want to experience the best s|s has to offer in what I am talking about above please turn your attention on these:

– Native & Invasive | Alien Invaders – finding invasive plants as a requisite for logging a cache and posting your “spotting” on a map that the dnr will follow. How cool is that???
– Chronicles | You Turn Me On – building a geocache that teaches you about the world’s first Hydro-electric power station. A cache that you will never forget. By the way, before this cache there was a coin trading magnetic keybox along the trail by the power station and there was no reference to the wonderful history of the area on that cache page. Hmm, I wonder which I would want to experience?
– Pinball Wizard caches – Placing caches that it’s actually easier to find them if you are physically handicapped or live with someone who is. Don’t see many caches like that around.
– Laughing waters – We come from the water – requiring placing a water sample into a fountain and tracking where all of the samples came from as the requirement for logging a cache. Again, how cool is that?
– Pace yourself – I’ve only done the first one but I cannot beleive how fun that cache was to find. Only not many will experience simply because they ignore puzzles.
– Camelback Cinema | The Passings of Mr Pink – The work put into this puzzle and the custom container are appreciated when you finally make the find.

With his caches everything is done with a purpose. Nothing is accidental. A cache about flags is placed on a container where you can submit flags for burning. A cache about police officers is in the shadows of the police station. A cache about a sail boat is well you guessed it near a sail boat.

Every cache worked on for months even more than a year before actually publishing them. I had the pleasure to work with him on at least a couple caches and you would not beleive how much thought, work, blood, and sweat goes into making these some of the best experiences around.

So you are having trouble solving his puzzles? You don’t really “need” marc to teach you…

Here are some examples that may help (generally):

From Flags of our Fathers – Land Sea & Sky
James Priest died in camp on AF-F(E+1)-A(E+1)CA.
What s|s is saying is there is a date on the plaque in the format
MM-DD-YYYY so the Month = AF
if the month is 11 then A = 1 and F = 1.
In the Day F(E+1) means that the first position of the Day is F. The 2nd position is E+1. So if the day is 25 then F = 2 and E = 4 (because E+1 = 5).

These “replacement type” puzzle caches almost always work the same when it comes to s|s. He’s put geochecker on many of them (though they are often buried in links that are words or images within the cache page but they are still there!) so you can check your answer and backtrack if perhaps something might be off.

You could probably categorize at least 75% (maybe even higher) of his puzzles into this type. They’re actually pretty straight forward to solve…. Some harder than others but he’s pretty good at judging difficulty (at least relating difficulty to his other caches).

Another 10 – 15% are visual. Visual in terms of mapping, sattelite views, etc.

Head Case is an example of a visual puzzle. Don’t want to give this one away but telling you it’s visual might be helping you…

About as obscure as his puzzles get is Can’t you read the !Signs! I admit, I would not have solved this one without his help. However, that again is part of the experience for me. By the way, for this one just read the cache page very carefully. You can’t solve this one at home and many hints abound on the page.

Another obscure one is I’d Walk a Mile. Probably one of the most obscure in the Appleton area as an outsider looking in. Where does one start??? The encrypted hint is a good place. I printed the picture of the nice rat and played with it on my computer screen. That might help you to? This one’s like “an inside joke” so as an outsider looking in you “don’t get it”. However that does not mean you can’t solve it.

I have not solved every one nor found every one of his caches. However, I enjoy just about every one and I am certainly not afraid of trying to solve them as I know there’s a light at the end of the tunnel and sometimes that light turns on with the push of a button.

Enjoy your time off s|s. And when you come back, I still won’t have solved or found all of yours by then.

-cheeto-

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