GTG got me a GPS for Christmas and her first question was “What can you do with it?”
Last fall one of the guys I mountain bike with told me to stop and park over at Rotary Park. He says, “You got to see this. It’s pretty cool.” We get out and walk by some pine trees off of Archer Elevator road. He’s looking into the trees until he finds what he was looking for. He pulls out a camouflaged film canister tied to a tree.
He explains that the canister is a ‘cache’ and is part of a GPS scavenger hunt called Geocaching. The object of Geocaching is using a GPS and set of coordinates you set out to find caches. A cache is nothing more than a film canister, ammo box, or even a Tupperware container. Inside there is a log of who has found it. There can also be trinkets inside like key chains, patches, pictures, cds. When you find the cache, you can take and leave a trinket.
The coordinates and an up to date log are stored on geocaching.com. From the website you can view a log of who has found it, a map of the general area of where it can be located. What is cool is that even in Springfield there are about 300 caches around the area. Below is a screen shot of what can be found near Lake Springfield.
For my first Geocaching expedition GTG, Buddy, and I set out to Washington Park. In the middle of the
woods there is a cache not too far from the duck pond. As we were criss-crossing through the foliage I am telling GTG how far we are from the cache, “80 feet, 60 feet, 30 feet”, as I read from the GPS. Then she stops me, “There it is.” In a hollowed out log there was a Tupperware container. I was kind of amazed that we found it so quick.
There is a lot more to just finding a cache. There are caches that require finding other caches and completing a puzzle before finding the big cache. There are trinkets called travel bugs. A travel bug is an object that a geocacher requests to be moved from point A to point B. Check out the site for more info.
So add Geocaching to my hobby list. If anyone would like to come out some time, just let me know.
Christmas is over… if you hadn’t gotten the memo. This one was definitely a memorable one. GTG and I were on a Xmas tour this weekend. Her aunt’s part of Christmas Eve, then my grandparents for the rest. Afterwards we stayed the night at GTG’s parents house so we could promptly open stockings and presents in the morning. Later on Christmas day, we were at my parents for more presents and then my aunt and uncles for food and a small family get together.
I am pooped.
Memorable moments:
- I gave GTG a ’sparkly’ necklace. She was either wearing it, or it was less than five feet from her grasp. - I did good.
- I won a $116 and two free tickets from a stack of lottery tickets gifted in a gruesome game of the numbers game. (The numbers game, a Shoo family tradition, is a game where players put a gift into a pool where other players can select or take gifts. Order in which players select a present is determined by drawing numbers. A player can select a present from the pool or choose to ‘take’ a gift that has been opened by another player) Gruesome because they exchanged hands more than 5 times with four different people.
- GTG gave me a GPS and asked, “Okay, now what can you do with it?”
- My Dad gave my Mom a ’sparkly’ ring for her (age withheld)th. The ring was boxed in multiple wrapped boxes. I think she opened at least 5. When she got to the actual ring box it was a light up pink plastic ring. He got a few boxes thrown at him. He turned around and then gave her the actual ring. She was a happy kid afterwards.
- My brother, whom by all intentions needed everyone of them, had opened quite a few packages of underwear and pairs of socks was a little ba-humbug when he got to his last present. His last present was an iPod Nano that GTG and I gave for his recent graduation from LLCC and Christmas. Needless to say he was not expecting it. He had it opened and connected to his laptop in less than a minute.
- Drinking bubbly with GTG’s parents till 1am. (Makes for a long day when you went to mass at 7 am earlier in the morning)
Everything was wonderful and I am thoroughly grateful for everything I received, but I think this year I enjoyed being with my and GTG’s family as much, if not more, than opening presents. Good memories and great times.
I hope everyone else had an excellent Christmas!
Hope everyone is having a merry Christmas!
Guest Blogger GTG:
As Nattie points out, I don’t think waste mgt. employees, mail carriers, etc. expect tips, but I’m sure it’s appreciated. Tips don’t necessarily have to be a monetary gift. You could give your service provider a batch of homemade cookies, or, as Shoo is creatively doing, gift certificates…$5 goes a long way at Hardees. Christmas is supposed to be a time where you show others that you appreciate them by giving. Giving doesn’t have to come in the form of anything more than a card. Really, the old saying, “It’s the thought that counts,” is still applicable today. (Although you’re not getting out of giving me something sparkly for Christmas, Shoo. You need more than a thought.)
As a service employee (a different kind of service, I realize), I don’t expect presents from my students, but I tried this year to give each one some sort of Christmas cheer…a card, a cookie, a piece of candy. I didn’t expect anything in return; I just wanted them to know that I’m thinking about them this holiday season. I also gave each of the other English teachers (and a couple other teachers I’m close to) a holiday card. Again, just wanted to let them know I appreciate their support and hope they have a happy holiday. And again, I don’t expect anything in return.
Did I appreciate those holiday cards and gifts I received from my students? Of course. I love that they actually thought about me as they were getting ready for Christmas. I really love that they appreciate me and what I do enough to recognize that with a small gift. I got anywhere from a very nice picture frame with a photo of me and Buddy, to a coffee mug with candy in it, to an interesting earring holder, and a smattering of cards. None of them are more or less important to me because it’s the thought that counts.
You can choose to recognize your service employees with gifts or cards, or you can not. It’s obviously up to you. But why question their motives? Couldn’t they possibly just want to spread Christmas cheer? To let you know, “Hey, have a good holiday”? Maybe I’m just naive…
So, did you get a Christmas card from your trash men?
They’re the best!
One of my favorite (or at least the one I watch on a weekly basis) podcast is Diggnation. It is a weekly podcast that features commentary about the social news site digg.com.
Well, every week they hold the newest video version of the podcast from being downloaded by the public an extra few days. Only the subscribers can view it. $5 bucks a month and I don’t want to pay.
So, since I am 1337.. I hacked the system. Okay, not really, but this is how you can download it a few days earlier than everyone else. So simple.
Copy the link to viewable podcast from the diggnation.com site.
Ex: http://videos.revision3.com/diggnation/0075/diggnation–0075–2006-12-08–large.h264.mov
Okay, real simple.. the next podcast that we can’t view is number 76 and it was recorded on the 14th of December.
Change it to this:
http://videos.revision3.com/diggnation/0076/diggnation–0076–2006-12-14–large.h264.mov
I don’t even know why I posted this. Hopefully you can find some use out of it.
Think you are interested in a dog? Here are some things that have been destroyed by Buddy.
- 5 (probably more-yet to be discovered) individual socks.
- 3 pairs of GTG’s underwear. (He has an amazing talent for finding dirty laundry)
- 2 Expensive Bras. (One to be re-gifted from Santa)
- The cord to a heating pad.
- GTG’s power cord to her iBook. I had to order her a new one tonight.
- 1 Sandal. (This is my fault. I let the dog chew on it cause I though GTG had thrown in the basement because she didn’t want it anymore-not the case.)
Sunday night already. Christmas is just around the corner and I can just feel the anticipation of horrible west side traffic, present wrapping, and gift giving. I don’t know why horrible traffic just goes hand in hand with gifts. Probably because of the amount of traffic I am going to have to endure traveling to work and shopping for gifts.
This weekend was a good one. Friday evening was my ‘unofficial’ work Christmas party. Note, just because you’ve been to the house once before, still print out the directions.
Saturday night GTG and I did nothing. We bought a pizza and watched cheezy Christmas movies. I think I am finally starting to get into the spirit. It was fun just being lazy.
This evening we went over to my parents for dinner. Dad made excellent pork steaks on the grill. Mom tried out her new experiment out on us: microwaved almond brittle. Not bad! Afterwards we went to Meijer for groceries, specifically garbage bags. Made it all the way home with a truckload of groceries and no garbage bags. I am just going to burn my garbage with my leaves now. That’s conservation in full affect.
Today also GTG and I were at Panera. She was grading really horrible freshman essays and I was playing with spfldbloggers.com. One of the essays even made reference to WOW aka World of Warcraft. Think Dungeons and Dragons with computers. In the same essay the kid also used the word “areola.” I recommended that she denote “Google this word” because he obviously didn’t know what it meant, she instead put the less funnier version “word choice.”
I am hoping this week goes quick.
The dog is asleep. I should be asleep too.
Did a little more work on Spfldbloggers.com tonight. I finally (warning nerd speak) got the RSS aggregator working. I also found some code that will hit a site and find the RSS feed. I could of used that when I was putting the list in the database.
Right now the site displays the RSS feed, the URL, the last post with a link to the post.
I feel like Springfield is getting closer and closer to the 2.0 bubble(more nerd speak).
Enough nerd’n it up tonight. Goodnight.
Updates from over the weekend.
Marie graciously sent me over her full list of Springfield Bloggers. I have since added them to the list and asked her to be the chief library consultant for Spfldbloggers.com. She has accepted.
I had to to take down Dave’s sweet logo after I received a DMCA notice from Channel 20 and Mayor Davlin’s office. J/K, but I thought I take it down before Gus threatened more bad weather.
While updating the list I also added 
RSS feeds if they were available.
That’s it for now.
It is just me and the dog tonight. I am taking it easy and playing with some computer stuff. I might voyage downtown for a drink… maybe.
My day just got a little better after the last email I just received. I had work on a side project that took waaay longer than it was suppose to. I think I originally told them one month. Well, one month became two months, and two became four. I think I got it done in five.
After I finished the project, I told my client that I couldn’t do anymore projects. Partially because I didn’t have the time, which the last project was a good example of a stretched time line, and I wanted to really do something different with my coding “free” time. You can only look at aggregating data into a database for so long.
Since I finished the project I hadn’t gotten a check, they hired someone else to take over the work, and emails were a little too short. I was a bit worried and had to keep reminding myself that everything in the past had been peachy-keen with the client.
Boy, I just wanted to write the email that laid it out all on the table.
I sat back though and let patience take over. Okay, patience’s real name might be beer, but I chilled out and reminded myself that the new guy is probably checking out the code and so they can tell the client that they didn’t get screwed.
And sure enough, that was it. The best part though besides getting paid is that the other guys thought my code “put together very well.”
Cheers to you patience.
Remember a few months ago I was all about getting the Springfield Blogger community together with spfldbloggers.com? Well, I did make an attempt to get it started. Even had a certified meeting with Dave and Russ. Ya just get busy and forget what you are doing sometimes… Or in the case of Dave, have a new baby. Or Russ, lose your data in an ISP move. I don’t really know what my excuse is or was. I’ll blame the dog.
Well, I finally did some work on it tonight. I searched Marie’s site and a few other Springfield bloggers for links to other Springfieldians. It was by no means scientific or thorough but I put together a list of what appeared to me as to be active blogging links. If I missed you, sorry. (email me: gotshoo AT gmail dot com)
I am still not sure what direction the site should take or how interactive it will get. It mostly depends on the amount of time available. I just figured that one step forward is better than one step backwards.
I am open to suggestions… anyone?
It was nice having Friday off, but it made for an “Email Monday.” An Email Monday is a Monday where I spend at least half the day writing or responding to emails. Today’s number was 18, and most of those were sent before 11:30am.
Tonight, for the life of me, I could not get out the door to go workout.
First attempt out the back door I pull a Chevy Chase and my right leg shoots out from underneath me and I land on my back. Okay, maybe it was more a Home Alone move. I am okay, but I think I was laughing at myself midway through the fall. When I get up I then realize I don’t I have my keys because I was going to drive GTG’s car, and you need your key tag to check into FitClub. I go back into my house and search for my keys.
Second attempt, I leave my Shuffle on the table but remember not to fall on the ice patch that I had previously fallen on. I put some melting salt on the ice patch before going in.
Third attempt, I leave my keys on the table after talking to GTG and get all the way out to her car.
Fourth attempt, I make it out the door with everything in tow: two sets of keys, shuffle, and headphones.
Does anyone read the comments on SJ-R.com? A few months ago SJ-R opened their stories to online comments. I periodically click on over to see what online public opinion is saying. And every time, I get irritated and swear I’ll avoid the comments next time. Irritated why? Misspellings, ALL CAPS, the world is flat comments… Comments that are rude and more than likely come from people who wouldn’t have the audacity to say them in public.
Abstract Prosaic made comment on what people were saying when the Cyclones won state.
Check out the latest comments about the power outages.
What do you think?
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