[sandlanders]

The deed is done, and only a couple of days late. Here’s your birthday puzzle, BigJim!

(by the following link only)

http://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=158ed1024ace

[sandlanders]

Check the drivel from last night, BigJim. It has been on my mind. Good things come to those who wait. How many pieces should I make yours?

[sandlanders]

@2CraziesMSN wrote:

I would like to thank all who sign the card at the WGA event Saturday. June loved the card and hopes to be at least at the next event. Not near any rocks. LOL

:like:

[sandlanders]

Whether it was a joke or not, we need to remember that not everyone is in on all the jokes we have going around. There have been times in the forums here that I have had to “explain” comments by long-timers to people newer to the organization. If we are representing the WGA at an event, or wearing our WGA gear, or on the board, or in a forum (except maybe the drivel), we should try to be on our best behavior to give new cachers correct information and a welcoming face. There are other times and places for the joking and silliness.

[sandlanders]

The new camera is working quite well, I see, and I also see a new jigsaw puzzle has already been created. 😉
Great photos to help everyone to remember the day.

:like: :pirate:

[sandlanders]

This goes both ways. The BOD also has to ask for help and then be willing to turn tasks over to volunteers when they step up. There always used to be the call for help on the major events: committees, planning, working. I haven’t noticed this on the last few events. There have also been times when I have volunteered to help out and been told, “No, thanks. We have it covered.”

I miss seeing a dedicated post for each event that would get many responses, stirring up excitement and anticipation for the coming get-together. Cachers would make plans in the forums, talk about who was staying where or dining where, who was bringing what, and so on. Case in point: Bartrod posted that he just learned that there was no camping at Lapham Peak. In the past, this would have been discussed in the forums, and cachers would have shared what their plans were.

Yes, Facebook has taken over as the “go to” place for social interaction, but there is more than one WGA site on Facebook, and the official WGA site seems like it is more a place for announcements rather than planning and discussion. I like seeing the WGA on Facebook, but I would also like to see everyone directed to the WGA website for details and discussion. It is always there and always monitored. (And we have useless drivel.)

[sandlanders]

Ckayda, you just happened to get into geocaching at a tough time. The WGA campout (May) and WGA picnic (September) rotate locations around the state, and this year the picnic happens to be in the Milwaukee area. It was near Crivitz last year, and in the past it has been as close to Eau Claire as Lake Wissota SP and Brunet Island SP. Last year the campout was at Interstate SP northwest of you.

West Bend is not an official WGA event, although Sunday’s pancake breakfast held on that same weekend at that same location is. The fall and spring CITO events to clean up the WGA-sponsored section of Highway 10 happen to be in the eastern part of the state, but CITO events can be held anywhere at any time of the year, although most are around Earth Day in April.

Just keep checking for local events near you, or ones you can get too without too much hassle, and you will soon find that you will get to know people, and maybe quite a few more in those smaller settings than you would at a larger event. And by participating in the WGA forums, people are getting to know you (and you, them), so when you meet other cachers for the first time, you have common ground right away.

“Hey… Ckayda? I’ve seen your name in the WGA forums! Great to meet you in person!” … That will happen more than you think. 😉

[sandlanders]

Whew! Glad to know that you weren’t digging around in a garbage can for that shot, BBG.

While doing that puzzle, I was reminded of a story that came out during the Iran hostage situation in 1979 and all those months after. Seems that a lot of shredding was going on in the embassy before the walls were breached, and sometime after that, the Iranians in charge had some Iranian women meticulously putting together those shredded pieces to reproduce the sensitive documents. Not sure what kind of success they had or if any info was gained from them, but I just could not fathom the tediousness of that work. Now I can.

[sandlanders]

FINALLY! — I finished putting a bunch of discarded tickets together.

FINALLY! — I have a birthday puzzle ready for jar42… only a few weeks late. 😳 (August 6)
by this link only: http://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=0c5060a8e835

Gotta get ready for BigJim, Birdin’, and Hack1of2 next. If you haven’t had a birthday puzzle yet and would like one, I can’t make a birthday puzzle for you if I don’t know when your birthday is, so let me know. Anyone?

[sandlanders]

You don’t have to edit the log to add photos. Submit your log, then choose “upload image”. Choose the photo file you want to upload, add a caption if you want, submit, and it’s done. The complications come from how you yourself have to upload a photo…. what you use for the electronics and software.

[sandlanders]

@Trekkin and Birdin wrote:

I have discovered that if I do all my photo stuff ahead of time, I’ll remember to add them.

That’s what I do. I usually take so long to write logs, so before I do any of those, I will get the photos ready to go. I dump everything from my camera into iPhoto on the computer, then make a file there of the ones I like, then get those all cropped and edited before exporting the whole file to a place that I can upload them from. (Photos are resized smaller during that process.)

I usually add lots of photos to my logs, but I don’t mention them in what I write, so I hope the COs know us enough by now to check on the cache pages when they have gotten logs from us. If not, they are there for others who visit the cache page logs to see. Sorry, folks… never any spoilers. 😉

[sandlanders]

@Lacknothing wrote:

Saw your signature on the log at Nelson Dewey on Saturday

:like:

[sandlanders]

Say, Becca… I just think you wrote yourself a story for the WGA newsletter. 😉

We, too, have witnessed and appreciated all the good things involved with caching. However, while we don’t dwell on the bad and don’t let it deter us from enjoying the game, I was just hoping that someone could enlighten me as to why good people sometimes do bad things when geocaching. Since I doubt that anyone will admit here to doing any of those less than stellar things I had mentioned in my original post, and since no psychiatrist has chimed in with a clinical take on my concerns, I guess it is just another one of those odd things that some people feel that they are entitled to do in this game that we can fit to suit our own needs.

Chris, your story hits the mark. We have carried a lot of rocks in our seven years of caching, and almost always we have seen the gold. Thanks for sharing this insight with all of us.

[sandlanders]

Thank you for sharing all the updates with us, Dave. You and June are “caching family”.

[sandlanders]

I’m not really talking about how much easier it is to accomplish certain things in geocaching today… just why people feel the need to take shortcuts to get there. Heck, we held an event so that we could get the souvenirs from last month… but at least we attended the event! (Ended up going to another one anyway…) I have heard of others just checking out caches online that might meet the souvenir requirements… and then just armchair logging them. Why?

And as for drive-by logging… you are already at the site and may have even spotted the container… but you can’t be bothered to take the time to pull out and unroll a little log sheet to get your name on it? Why? That has always been the basic rule of geocaching… sign the paper log. We know of people who just like to go out looking for caches in neat spots but never bother with online logging or numbers. Not even sure if they sign the cache logs, but then they don’t claim any smilies for that anyway.

I agree with Pete that those who place caches can appreciate those who play within certain parameters, but there are still some who want the souvenir or the smiley or the date or the grid spot so bad that they find ways to get what they want with less effort… and this includes those who have placed many caches of their own.

Do we look down on cachers who didn’t get the souvenirs last month? No. Do we feel superior to those who don’t have as many finds as we do? No. Will an opportunity be lost forever if we don’t find a cache on a certain date this year? No. Do we really have to have that little piece of swag in the container when we didn’t bring anything to trade? No. Will the world come to an end if we don’t fill our D/T grid? No.

I just don’t get it. Maybe I should just quit reading forum posts and cache logs and not communicate with other cachers. Then I won’t hear about them and wonder why good people can be less-than-compliant cachers.

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