Geocaching with SIX-PAC

EDC For Me!

2011-12-08T12:14:00.001-05:00

A while back I saw a number of posts on the gun blogs about what people carry on their person on a daily basis - Every Day Carry (EDC). It was interesting to see the different things people haul around.

As nerdy and unfashionable as it is, I use a fanny pack to hold most of my carry items. I started using the bag when I was in college and tended to wear sweat pants a lot. No pockets meant I had to figure out how to carry things I needed. Even now, I don't like to keep things in my pockets. About the only thing I put in a pocket is my knife and maybe some change. Everything else goes in the geek bag. I don't care what people think or say, it works for me.

The other night I decided to take inventory of my Every Day Carry items. Here is what I ended up with.

That's a lot of stuff! In fact, I still have room for a few more items that I might pick up along the way. I have come to really respect Maxpedition products. They are durable, compact and convenient.

Why do I have all of this crap? Well, when you Geocache, you need things. The phone, light, tweezers, multi-tool, extensible magnet, pens, paper, bandages, knife, D-Ring, pill fob, batteries and of course the GPS are all used in the pursuit of hidden containers.

The mace is my non-lethal defensive measure and the 380 is my last resort option.

If I had to pick one item and leave all the rest behind, I'd walk away with my Kershaw. I should probably pick the multi-tool, but I love my knife. The phone would be the second item just because it's so dad-gummed handy.

So, that's what I usually have on me at any given time when I am out and about.

Email a post

2011-11-16T11:49:00.001-05:00

I can has email posts too? Unpossible!

Spinnig Wheel

2011-10-21T13:01:00.001-04:00

I stumbled across this site today and thought it was pretty interesting. I couldn't look at it too long without falling into an angry depression.

http://www.usdebtclock.org/

It would seem our demise is imminent. Better take that vacation you always wanted to take before everything locks up and travel is limited to the military.

What Vexes Thee America?

2011-09-29T12:18:00.005-04:00

So the White House has a web page where anyone can start a petition. Interesting; does anyone really think this will result in some sort of action? The only certain thing that will happen is that your name will be forever linked to a cause and could land you on some government persona non grata list. Are you ready for that knock on your door?

What I came away with was a status on American morality. What is it that concerns Americans the most?
Here are the top twenty popularly supported petitions as of 11am on September 29th 2011:

We petition the Obama administration to:		Signatures
1	Legalize and Regulate Marijuana in a Manner Similar to Alcohol.	42,744
2	Abolish the TSA, and use its monstrous budget to fund more sophisticated, less intrusive counter-terrorism intelligence.	23,361
3	Forgive Student Loan Debt to Stimulate the Economy and Usher in a New Era of Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Prosperity	23,095
4	Call an Investigation into Allegations of Prosecutorial & Judicial Misconduct in the Case of Sholom Rubashkin	21,504
5	Edit the Pledge of Allegiance to remove the phrase "Under God".	14,854
6	Allow ndustrial Hemp to be Grown in the U.S. Once Again	13,525
7	Legalize, regulate, and tax marijuana.	12,963
8	Direct the Patent Office to Cease Issuing Software Patents	12,282
9	Stop Interfering With State Marijuana Legalization Efforts	11,819
10	End the destructive, wasteful and counterproductive "War on Drugs"	11,753
11	Grant voters the ability to vote for the President of the United States by dissolving the electoral college.	10,740
12	Restore democracy by ending corporate personhood.	10,674
13	Repeal the Defense of Marriage Act.	10,211
14	Remove "In God We Trust" from currency.	9,781
15	Repeal the Patriot Act	9,294
16	Stop Animal Homelessness at Its Roots	9,128
17	Give States the Freedom to Establish Their Own Marijuana Laws.	8,541
18	Reallocate Defense funds to NASA.	8,106
19	Remove tax exemption from churches and allow them to apply like a non-profit organization	8,019
20	Protect Children from Dangerous Air Pollution	7,760

From this list, five of them deal with the legalization of Marijuana. Really? Sheesh, what a bunch of potheads! I can understand the medical use issues, but I don't think that is what is ultimately driving these concerns. It's no wonder we're in the state we are in. This kind of mentality statistically has to overflow into leadership. Apparently 1/4 of our government leaders are making decisions with minds that have been damaged or are currently influenced by marijuana. Go figure.

OK, that might be a high percentage for our leadership and I certainly don't think that this is an accurate sampling of the general population of America, but sadly, I am not surprised to see these kinds of concerns.

So what does this petition site indicate that Americans want?

Legal marijuana. OK, whatever. We do it anyway, might as well get taxes from it.
Remove that whole God idea from our culture. Who needs God when we are our own gods?
Stop feeling us up at the airport. When we want that, we'll pay for it down at the local companion shop.
Don't make us accountable for expenses we incur while getting drunk at college. It's all part of our American Dream.
Let us revel in our homosexual debauchery without all the guilt and shame it deserves.
Stop funding the war machine and build us a moon base so we can smoke dope and live out our self gratuitous live in peace.

Some of the topics I can agree with. I don't like the TSA either. I think the electoral college is outdated and stacked. I think the Patriot act does more harm than good.

Some of the petitions mean nothing to me. Should I know who Sholom Rubashkin is? Animal Homelessness is more important than people living on the streets in cardboard boxes and abandoned houses?

What is wrong with the American mind? I guess these forums are magnets for wackos, but to see the wild support for off-based thinking is really discouraging. If only the well balanced, level headed, God fearing people of America were represented more accurately. I think a lot of these off the wall and morally impaired ideas would shrink back into the dark corners where they belong. Instead, they are arrogantly flaunting themselves across this once strong and moral country, leaving their trail of filth and self centered ideology to liter our neighborhoods and communities.

This is not my American Dream.

In with the new, out with the old

2011-05-25T16:29:00.004-04:00

LOST sure can mix it up. I guess when the viewers complain, it's time to axe some characters. I was not sad to see Ana Lucia go. I was so sick of her dour face. I thought they could have worked Libby a bit more. Then they send Echo packing... Sheesh! Why develop them if you're just going to knock them out. I guess it keeps things interesting.

In the real world, the leader of America insults God's chosen nation and within days, nature unleashes some of the worst weather that America has seen in decades. I think there is a connection. Hoards of people would call me all sorts of names for that opinion. So be it. The US has no business telling Israel how to run their nation. Joel knew better.

The times they are a-changin...

In The Midst Of Grief

2011-01-21T21:49:00.001-05:00

Bored or Just Escaping Reality?

2010-09-18T00:18:00.001-04:00

A renewed interest in Lost is probably not a great sign. I heard that season three gets better. I sure hope so,, because if it doesn't... all those wasted hours that could have been sleep are gonna really suck.

On a more professional level, have you ever heard of fracking? I don't mean the slang either. I mean the fuel recovery process. Pennsylvania is embarking on what is sure to be a circus of environmental litigation that will escort us into the new age of Aquarius. Here is a primer if you are not familiar with the process:

I didn't know you could turn a drill bore like that. Cool... until it's your water supply that they accidentally fracture into.

And then on the Geocaching front, I wrote a little ditty today that will create a Book Cipher from a message and an equally long snippet of literature. It was a bit overkill for the purpose at hand, but just think of what I can do now!

Father's Day

2010-06-20T23:14:00.001-04:00

Today was my day... sort of.
I got a few cards from the kids, a nice nap, a great ice cream sundae, a most excellently prepared steak, a cache, another episode of LOST and a sore throat. I guess you can't have it all.

One down and five to go. It is mildly addicting.

We went to Olies yesterday and I found a new screen door handle. Ours broke about three months ago, so I buy it and as soon as I get home I fix the door. While I am doing this I am on the phone with Windstream (our ISP) telling them how I still have zero Internet the day after their service man came by to fix everything. It always drops out in the evening which should tell you that there is too much traffic on the line. I have received conflicting stories about how the digits flow through the copper and into my router, but I still believe that I am sharing the love with the rest of my neighborhood regardless of what they say. The tech support woman tells me that a serviceman will take care of things in the morning... right.
So we go to church this morning and when we get back, there is a new modem on my doorstep. Huh... so they think my modem (that they replaced just two months ago) is the problem. OK, I switch out the hardware and viola! I am now connected to the lifeblood of the digital world. They never tell you what's really going on down there at the secret Internet laboratory. They don't let you know what you suspect all along. They could have fixed it with the flick of a switch and a magic word that mere mortals cannot pronounce. Whatever.... let's see how long this solution keeps me connected.

My new modem has a new blinky green light. Blink... Blink... Blink... Blink...
So soothing.

LOST Saga Update

2010-06-11T14:17:00.001-04:00

Still plugging away at it. I loved the closing where Hurley's batteries finally died. Every time I'd see him walking around jammin out, I'd just shake my head and wonder where in the world you could get batteries that would last that looong! Finally a bit of pseudo-reality. Whatever. Here's the updated banner:

Saying you're sexy isn't

2010-06-09T12:29:00.001-04:00

So I'm playing around with WordPress plugins and I see there is a Sexy Bookmarks plugin. Now I like the functionality and design of Sexy Bookmarks, but the name leaves much to be desired as far as I'm concerned. I decide to take a look. It seems they have an option to drop the stupid "Sharing is sexy" background. I check this and give it a try.
Take a look at Hemlock Archery for a demo of what it looks like. I think it will do even if every yuppie in the world is using the exact same plugin. It's functional and fairly intuitive.

On other fronts, I cleared 1400 finds last weekend. That makes me a geo-addict I guess. As long as it's fun for me and does not threaten my marriage, I think I will keep at it.

I decided to take in the LOST series on NetFlix. I'm at season 1 episode 13 as of this post. I can get about two episodes and evening if I don't have anything else going on. That rounds out to about 8 episodes a week and puts me at the season 6 grand finale around December 10th 2010.

Here is my progress bar

Wow... just in time for Christmas. Maybe I'll have to pull a few Saturday marathons.
Every time they pick up something heavy, I groan. Can't they at least make the object half the weight that it really should be? And what's up with a cave falling in after it was fine and dandy for over 200 years. A couple of people show up for a few days and it all falls apart. Anyways, I will suffer through it because I'm a sucker for a bed time story.

LOST in Maryland

2010-05-27T20:28:00.000-04:00

Psycho Urban Cache Trip

2010-05-24T17:07:00.001-04:00

I had the opportunity last Saturday to run down to the Baltimore area with some friends and do two of the Psycho Urban Caches. I had a great time and ended the day with 28 new finds one of which was a 5x5. I also got some poison ivy, a few new friends and some clues to caches in my area. And then there is the bite on my knee that is probably from a brown recluse making this my final post.
Maybe not...
Anyways, in other news, my kids are sitting by the road trying to sell strawberries for $4.50 a quart. They started with ten quarts and last word I had they were down to seven and discouragement was setting in. I expect they will sell four more before I get home and we will be eating strawberry shortcake for supper!
My garden is doing great! Mostly because I haven't planted one and Round-Up is keeping the invaders at bay. My weed whacker got fixed and that make things look a bit nicer around the house. On the other hand, my car is not running right and will no doubt contribute to my mechanics livelihood within the next two weeks. If I am blessed, that episode will not involve a tow truck like the last event did. I think I am all paid up now, so it's time I guess.
And that's about all for May. Check out Russian Roulette! I invested WAY to much time and money into that series to only garner 5 finds since it published. It's NOT that hard people! Just ask me for a hint. I will probably give you the coordinates within 5 minutes. They might be encoded, but I will help you!

Where do we go from here?

2010-04-14T21:11:00.002-04:00

I am at a crossroad... where do we go from here?

I stumbled across a sermon that I found to be quite interesting. Perhaps you will be interested as well.

The man behind the curtain

2010-03-17T09:48:00.002-04:00

It is amazing to me that most people who use the internet on a daily basis have very little understanding of the basic workings of a web page. Perhaps this is surprising to me because I enjoy this kind of thing, but really... do people just not care how things work? It is so simple to right-click a page and view source. It's like cutting open your chest and watching your heart beat and your liver shiver.

Very Cool!

In case you are out of my loop, here is something else that is kinda cool if I do say so myself:

http://www.rr-riddles.6-pk.com

What's a Libertarian?

2009-12-21T15:54:00.001-05:00

Ha! Look at me!

I'm not really sure what that means. I'm not even sure if I really care. It probably means that if things keep going the way they are, I will end up on a list of people to pick up and cart off to the mines with all the rest of those homeschooling, gun toting, God fearing, church going, right wing radicals!

Intelius and Intelligence

2009-12-14T13:40:00.012-05:00

Once again, I have been taught a valuable lesson by the Internet and I intend to pass along this fresh knowledge to anyone who will listen. Here it is in three simple steps:

Monitor your credit accounts
Monitor your bank accounts
Monitor your junk email accounts

That's all there is to staying on top of unwanted solicitations and charges. I didn't loose much in this particular lapse of common sense; just 60 bucks, but that still stings at Christmas time. Here is how I ended up spilling a trail of 20's across three months.

One day back in July I got an SMS message on my phone from someone in Rhode Island. All it said was "Hi Kris". I thought that was rather odd. Someone who lives in Rhode Island knows my cell phone number and my name. Well, that is not hard to figure out these days since I pretty much let that kind of thing float around on the Internet unbridled and free. I dismissed it, but a few weeks later I get another message from the same number. This time it has no text. OK, Someone is messing with me now. I think I know who, but before I go pointing fingers I should do a bit of PI work and make sure.

Google the number - This narrowed it down to an area south west of Providence, but no address or name.. For about 10 bucks, I can purchase an indepth report on the number, but I don't trust the site that is offering this service. I fare well to be sucked into paying much more than just the report fee. I am certain now that my inclination was correct.

I search some more, but everywhere I turn, I run into the same situation. Someone out there says they have the information I want, but they will not tell me unless I pass some gold across their palm. Pirates! Scalawags for sure! Finally, I decide that it it worth a few bucks just to see if this "report" is actually accurate and informative. I search the many offers and decide to put my money on the table in front of a company I have heard of before and would seem to be the most trustworthy of all.

Intelius... Sounds like a source of accurate and trustworthy information to me. After all, they "Live in the know". So I bite and sign up for their discounted trial offer. They will trace the number in question and refund me completely if I get no results. That sounds fair. All I need to do is enter my credit card number and all of my personal information. Name, address, phone, cell... all of the stuff they need to know in order to sell it to someone else for the same price I'm about to get taken for. I agree because this is a trial and I can cancel at any time and owe nothing. I fill it all in and hit the submit button. At this very moment in the recesses of my mind I can faintly hear a rush of wind and an eerie howl form a distant haunted land. I shrug it off. I am about to uncover the real identity of the mysterious number that keeps charging me 20 cents with every useless message.

Well, my instant gratification will take anywhere from 2 to 48 hours to complete. You know what that means... I won't get any results for three days! I dutifully check the status of the search every 10 minutes for the first hour and then every hour until I wander off to bed. The next day I am disappointed to find that the intelligence at Intlius is diminishing as fast as my hope for a quick resolution. Finally after a few days, I get an email notifying me that my inquery was unable to be completed for some lame reason. They will refund me my discounted 95 cents for the search and all is good. Well, I still am not certain who is calling me, but I have other ways of figuring that out. And by the way, if you are the person that called me... I know who you are. I'm watching you.

So fine, the big boys at Intelius were not so intelligent after all. I will not be doing business with them again anytime soon. And so a month goes by and I am getting ready to go on vacation. My schedule is getting pretty hectic and there are plenty of things to occupy my time. One evening I notice that there is a charge to my credit card that I don't recognize. Well, actually I do recognize it, I just don't recall authorizing it. Intelius has charged me 20 bucks for something. I figure it has to do with the failed number look-up, but I don't really have time to follow up on it right then. So off I go to sunny Florida for a week. Ah yes, good times, nice weather, a few geocaches and a wave to the mouse. No worries!

Two months later I see I have another charge on my card from these jokers. What!? I do a history and find that I have apparently been paying 20 bucks each month. Whoa whoa whooooa! I would not have done that! This is digital robbery! I can't even log into their site to my supposed account because I can't remember how I set it up. That's how uncommitted I was to this service. I do some research and get back in to the account. I read the fine print as well as the two newsletter emails they sent to the dummy email I used when I signed up for the trial. Then I realize the error of my way.

It seems that I agreed to be billed by them as a service if I didn't cancel within the seven day trial period. They didn't need to beg me to stay on if I was not satisfied with their service. I had already agreed to it when I accepted the trial. I guess if I had trusted them enough to give them my real email address, I would have know from the start that they were charging me, but I didn't trust them. Can anyone tell me why I didn't trust them? It's because they need to resort to taking advantage of people who are reading impaired and take two ginkgo bilobas a day, that's why!

So now I need to cancel my "service". I go to the "Manage Account" page and look for the "Stop robbing me of my hard earned money" button. Guess what. There isn't any such button. In fact, there are no buttons at all that would initiate a desist of service. Am I surprised? NO! Highly irritated, yes, but not a bit surprised. I go to the FAQ page because surely someone has asked how to stop the pain. Apparently not, because there are no questions about how to discontinue the "service". Is it just a little bit vain to assume that you are so good that nobody would ever think of not wanting your help? I check the customer service page; still nothing! The only thing left to do is call them.

I give them credit for this and this only. They have published a toll free number to contact a real human. That is the only good thing I can say, because even 2 hours after I asked them to cancel my account and give me back my money, I can still log into my account. I want it GONE! No, they would not credit me the charges. Well, OK... they will give me one month back, but that's all. I was told repeatedly how good they were at making sure the customer understood that they were subscribed to a service. Even after I explained that the only thing I asked them to do they had failed at, the representative seemed unconcerned and did not seem to care that I never had any intention of continuing the service. Terms are terms regardless of your satisfaction. If I ignore the web page text and the emails and the charges to my account, then I am obviously stupid enough to accept their refusal to comply with my retroactive wishes.

Here is where I give in and just kick myself in the butt for being to freakishly embedded in the digital world that I can't even see what is happening in the corporeal realm. I guess I did this to myself. Yet, isn't this exactly what they want me to think? It's my fault that I tried to find a solution by enlisting the services of a professional only to be taken advantage of because communication breakdown was inevitable?

I knew there be dragons here when I started the whole process, but I really goofed when I didn't take the time to follow up. If you really have an ongoing need for Credit monitoring and phone tracing and all of the paranoid watching that Intelius will do for you, then go on and sign up. However, if all you want to do is try it out, find some schmuck that has already done it (like me) and just ask them how it was. You'll save a whole lot of time, aggravation and money in the end. In the end, you have to ask yourself:

Do you really care that much who's on the other end?

Everything looks Rosie

2009-12-11T15:43:00.009-05:00

One of the younger friends of the family was playing around with photography or modeling back a few weeks and she posted this picture of herself.

Wow... that sure looked familiar. Sort of WWII poster material going on there. So I told her I would have to Photoshop it and make it a bit more authentic. This is what I came up with.

Considering that I had to use Image Ready instead of Photoshop, I think it came out pretty good.

That brings to mind a very irritating issue I have run into with Photoshop. One day, it just stopped working. It loads up and initializes all of it's settings just fine. Then it looks like it is ready for work and within 3 seconds... POOF! Its gone! The process is still running in the background, but NO UI!

Karn sarn [insert mild expletives here] miserable piece of digital injustice!

So I call Adobe support... the off shore version. He tells me that my version (CS1) is too old and that he cannot talk to me about my problem. I need to buy the newest version if I want to keep using Photoshop.

WHAT!? Do you know how much that costs? I was doing just fine with the version I had, but suddenly for no apparent reason at all, I have to drop 600 bucks (over 1200 if I want the suite... and I do). That is so corporate!

Yes, yes, I have already trashed the prefs file in every way. Even a fresh install on a fresh image and it still does not work. I think it is a time bomb function just to get people to upgrade. Let me just say this:

I am NOT impressed.

If you know the secret to getting my issue fixed without following the advise of Adobe's Mr. Fixit, please drop me a line. I am out of solutions. Now I have to use Gimp! Aughhh!

Vacation... What's that?

2009-09-11T16:10:00.001-04:00

The more I learn, the less I know. It's both true and a bit depressing. The only fix for that is a bit of cutting loose. So I'm gonna pack up the family and head south for a week. This will be the first "vacation" I've taken in over six years. Even back then, it was not really a vacation as much as it was a mission trip, but it felt like a vacation to me. This will be a mission of a different sort. With the youngest being 5 and the oldest pushing 14, the kids are in that window of time where Disney World will be magical to all of them at the same time in one way or another.

Here is the 3-D view of the attraction from Microsoft:

Bing Maps

Here is the Google Earth version. I think I like it better because it is so much more detailed.

Google Maps

Granted, Microsoft has taken the 3-D world to the web with a plug-in, but if you install Google Earth, you have a whole different level of exploration at your fingertips. Then you can go absolutely crazy and build a 3-D model of your home, workplace and/or church and upload it to the system so everyone can experience your contribution. Cool beans!

So, that's that.

Civil AIr Patrol

2009-06-23T12:07:00.011-04:00

My son is in the Civil Air Patrol. They are thinking about printing up some magnets to sell as a fund raiser since the state of Pennsylvania has decided to kill funding to this excellent program. It's really odd how introducing gambling to PA seems so important to our Governor, but training the leaders of tomorrow for emergency services to our country does not even merit the slightest amount of funding.

The Civil Air Patrol is an auxiliary of the United States Air Force and serves the community in the role of Search and Rescue, Disaster Response and Leadership/Aerospace Training. Cadets get to take part in Orientation Flights where they can get first hand experience flying. They also learn about airborne imagery and communications support for counter-drug, homeland security, and disaster operations. Young people ages 12-18 can join and Adults can also participate at various levels from Parent groups to Senior staff.

Anyway, here is my first take on a concept for the magnet.

If you would like more information on the Jesse Jones Composite Squadron 304 you can find it at http://home.earthlink.net/~nerpa010/

I have a blog?!

2009-06-19T10:00:00.008-04:00

Wow, I forgot I have this thing... I guess I should tell the world what I've been up to. Looks like the world consists of Sean and... er... well, there's Sean.

Here are a few of my latest endeavors in Photoshop:

This is kinda how I feel about the current political climate in America.

I wanted a holographic star ship navigational theme here and I think I got carried away a bit.

This one was just an attempt and some plasma effects.
And of course the obligatory "sticker" tutorial.
So there you have it. Two months of silence and this is what I have to show for it.

I guess to be fair, I should mention that I have been busy flying as well. At least virtually. Flight Simulator X with the Acceleration expansion pack is about as good as it will ever get for me.

Caching has been down lately. Ticks are in abundance around here and I just don't feel like 5 DNFs to every 2 finds. Maybe I should arrange a team effort with ratjam, goochas and levidan.

Here are a couple of good links to broaden your conservative thinking horizon:
http://www.americanthinker.com/
http://paopencarry.org/

And these just for a bit of fun diversion:
http://www.lileks.com/
http://www.topgunsim.com/tgssite/

A Day Without A Plan

2009-02-07T12:37:00.008-05:00

How did this happen?
Here I am with a beautiful Saturday afternoon and absolutely no plans. Why am I not out caching?
Well, I would feel real guilty taking a day as nice as this one and squandering it at caching while my family sits at home alone. I could take them along, but the two youngest padawans would not appreciate the activity. The two older apprentices would complain as well, but about other aspects. So, no caching today.
I could go out and prune my fruit trees, but the freak snow storm we had last week has left about 4 inches of snow on the ground and I just don't feel like tromping around cuttings and wet snow.
So here I sit adding a blog post. Sheesh...

I've been working on a few web sites lately. I needed to show three business areas in a tidy presentation that complimented each other and blended well. I looked everywhere for a Photoshop shape of a three part swirl; kinda like a yin-yang, but with three fish instead of two. During this search, I learned that this type of symbol is a=calles tomae or something like that. I couldn't find anything and I thought that was rather odd.
So I made my own. The result is this red, blue, and yellow shape to the right. It turned out quite well.

I then used that to make an informational navigation section for one of my clients. Here is the demo:

I like the way it came out, but that is just me. Time will tel if the client likes it.

On the side, I had a request to pull together a promotional web site for a movie that was produced by a friend of a friend that I used to work with. I agreed to give it a whirl. I need to make a new background image, but I used what they had from the promotional poster and spit out this site:

I wonder if maybe I should have seen a screening of this thing before I jumped in. What if I don't like what the movie is presenting? Do I want to be associated with it?

I dunno...
Movie?
No movie?
Noodle?
No noodle?

OK, enough of this information that no one will read anyway. I think I should find something a bit more productive to do today. Where's my gun?

The Maine Cache Run Extraordinaire

2008-12-12T23:30:00.003-05:00

I'm getting psyched for a few cache runs while I am in Maine over the holidays. There are a lot more out since I have been away for a while.

I guess I should take a look at my route north as well. I don't want to stop very often, but when I do have to take a break for the sake of family ties, I should at least be rewarded by a C&D or two. A caching we will go!

Vote - Vote - Vote - Vote

2008-11-04T07:44:00.003-05:00

Oh wow! I was up at 4:17AM this morning. "What", you might ask, "would make you do something so insane"? Well, my wife. It was her idea. Apparently the local contender for Auditor General sent out a request for homeschool kids 12-17 to volunteer at the polls to hand out information. My wife's logic was simple. This counts towards the Civics/Political Science credit and teaches our kid about our government process. Great says I, when will YOU be getting up to drop him off?

So there I was in the basement of Chet Beiler at 5:02AM giving my son an education. Thanks Chet! So that means that I am up way to early in the morning with nothing to do for about an hour. Time for a Photoshop tutorial! Here is my latest endevour to attain graphics greatness.

In the spirit of bipartisanship and company loyalty, I have "elected" to sponsor my company in an effort to drive more work to my plate.

Vote Rosewood!

OK, I guess I should get to work now and do something a bit more productive.

Vote your concience.

The Final Frontier

2008-10-30T09:11:00.005-04:00

Not much happening these days. I am at the bottom of the bucket with work flow, so you'd think I would be getting things done around the house, but it's just not panning out like that. I did take some time however to generate a bit of random chaos in the form of a deep space scene. I needed a background for my Space Raider's profile so I could be perceived as being geeky enough to merit playing the game.
I had fun using some new brushes I found out in the void of the Internet. In no time at all I had this spiffy cosmic thing going on. The tough part now is deciding on exactly what shape my pirate galleon is and just how mean and nasty I want it to look. Maybe something along the lines of Treasure Planet, but a bit more futuristic perhaps...

Wow, that really makes my efforts look measly and uninteresting. Yes well, whoever came up with that poster got paid exponential amounts more than I did.

On the home front, the boy beat me in chess last night. Soon I will not be able to contend with him. I hope it's just that he is getting smarter and not that I am loosing it all together.

OK, that's all the time I have for today. Back to the annoying sound of the grind.

The Pointer

2008-10-24T16:47:00.004-04:00

I was going through the items on my desktop and cleaning out a mess-o-junk when I came across this interesting picture. Now I know why I saved it, but it might not mean anything to anyone else.

It is proof that I am often accused by one particular cacher whom I shall only refer to as "B". Accused of what you might ask... well, whatever happens to vex this poor man at the moment. Can't find a cache? Six-pac probably put it back in the wrong spot. Can't open the cache? Six-pac probably put the lid back on wrong. Cache is broken? Six-pac must have found it last. Left the lights of the cachmobile on while hiking around aimlessly? Six-pac did it somehow.

In this particular situation, I think the "B" was accusing the me of lying. I informed him that I would never knowingly allow a person to leave a conversation believing a falsehood and therefore could not be accurately defined as a liar. I take this type of accusation rather seriously for two reasons.

The Bible clearly states in Revelation 21:8 that liars will burn in the fires of hell for all eternity. Of course this would mean nothing to "B" because he is a Reformed Druid of the Blue Order. I on the other hand do not intend to be anyone's roast duck on account of a matter of truth.
Once your integrity is called into question, you loose a great deal of ground in relation to winning friends and influencing people (thanks Dale). I'm not too concerned about the friends part, but influence is powerful, especially when you are standing at GZ, three miles deep in the woods with the sun setting and a weak signal on your PAF. At that moment, you need all the influence you can get.

OK, I like a few friends too.

I must state at this point that even though I am often falsely accused by "B", I do not hold it against him in the least. I believe him to have a malady of mind that prevents him from holding back his finger (see photo) and that if he could help himself, he would. I have learned to overlook his quirks and to accept him as the fine cacher that he is. His wife also helps to smooth the rough edges and interpret for him when he gets too excited about a cache. Thanks "J"!

All this to say what? I love "B". He's great, despite his paranoid accusations. But be careful when you tell him a tale. He is likely not to believe you, or at least not for very long.

[the previous post has been an exercise in tall tales and is by no means the truth in it's entirety.] See! I am not a liar!

Six-pac's Poor Emporium

2008-10-24T14:15:00.006-04:00

Here I sit waiting for my ancient archive of Forms 6i to finish extracting (taking FOREVER!) and I think "Gee... if only people would have a method to just give me money out of the kindness of their hearts, maybe then I could pay off my house, the AmEx bill, fill the car with gas and have enough left over for a new GPSr and a Starbucks. Then life would be great". OK, I'm kidding myself. Life would not be better because of that, just less expensive. The fact of the matter is this:

Life is as good as your outlook.

I tend to be negative, but that is probably because I allow it. Shame on me! Life is great. It's not always fun and sometimes it can be downright sad, but that is part of the deal that makes it great; that and the knowledge that there is a God who controls it all. What I do in reaction is for the most part my own deal, but even that falls into the plan.

Still... I wouldn't want to slight anyone's generosity or discourage them from exercising the gift of giving. With that in mind, I threw together a little shopping cart where anyone can let their cup overflow into my saucer. I like to call it "Six-pac's Poor Emporium", but you can think of it as your gateway to compassion. If you’re not in the giving mood, you could still get something in return, but as you'll notice by reading the fine print, I guarantee nothing but the transfer of funds. Shoot, I can't even promise that, but it usually works out to my benefit.

Leave your money at the door:

Extraction still not done?? Aaaaaaugh!

And Six-Pac Was His Name-O

2008-10-23T22:33:00.003-04:00

I got to playing around with another lesson tonight and I focused on a new six-pac banner. I ended up with a lot of cool effects, but I can never seem to settle down to anything specific. I guess I lack direction, but I had a load of fun. I should post some sort of poll on who likes what best, but the idea of not getting a response for the next six months kinda puts a damper on that idea. Anyways, here are a few of my renditions. They all used the same text, but with different backgrounds.
I call this one Spooky. You know, the kind where you might see one of Those We Do Not Speak Of...
This one I shall call Weedy and he will scratch me and jag me and I shall smite him with a mighty blow.
Hmm... H2O sounds slick to me.
I first thought of Flair, but it seems more Radiant to me now.

OK, I think that's about all the fun I can handle for a Thursday night. I don't want to go and blow all my creativity before the week is out. I have miles and miles to go before I can rest.

Skill Acquisitions - Dreams of a Photoshop Wannabe

2008-10-21T22:55:00.010-04:00

Today I devoted my efforts to improving my grasp on Photoshop. I really enjoy this program because it lets me get some of my creative drive out for a spin. Don't get me wrong. It's a short drive and I usually end up digging out a map after I've taken a few wrong turns, but the ride is great as long as the rain holds off and the gas gauge is not under a quarter. I found some really nice tutorials as www.pshero.com and I have been devouring them with much delight. This is what I turned out the other day:
The next day I cranked this out:

Not sure what I can do with it, but it looks cool. Then today I saw a version of the wax seal on istockphoto.com and had to chuckle a bit. Then I got to thinking... Dang, if I published every tutorial I did as well as any original stuff I generated, I could make enough money on the side to buy pizza every Saturday night. Maybe I could hit it big and never "work" another day in my life. I could travel the world and see my work on billboards in Calcutta or Le Havre... Wow...

OK, back to may day job tomorrow!

Caching Up, Coding Down

2008-10-21T00:04:00.008-04:00

This past weekend I made 3 out of 5 caches. That is pretty good based on my recent trending. On the other hand, I am now limping everywhere because I took a dive on a downhill trail whilst eluding would be cache busters. Ended up busting my knee open and trashing yet another pair of pants. All in pursuit of my final DNF for the day. Great exit.
Coding continues it's downhill plunge as well. I am doing less of it and feeling rather inadequate along the way. I really should be picking up on the AS3 scene, but it just seems like such a big animal right now. I think I will give it a spin anyways. There is just too much I could do with it to let it dust me.

Last Tuesday CCCA had a Kaffee-Klatsch and B&J presented her with an award for her 25,000th find. She actually is not quite there yet, but apparently she forgets to log a fair percentage of her caches, so it's all good. After so many, it really blurs the vision. The awad was as unsettling as it was hilarious.

I have no idea how they do this. It really looks like her! Creepy. Anyways, it was good to see Bob and Paul again. I had the kiddos with me, so I left a little early. Levidan jacked the kids up with sugar as soon as we walked in the door and then Bob wound them up for the evening.

OK, I need to go find some sleep.

Sleep Deprived again

2008-10-09T19:16:00.003-04:00

There simply are not enough hours in the day. Maybe I should stop sleeping 1/3 of them away. Of course that would leave me quite cranky and I would not have a hope of converting debug statements to case statements with any amount of success. Looks like I am down 4.5 hours for the week. Maybe I will get a chance to make it up next week. I don't think I an pull it of by Saturday night with the Farm Show in full swing.
What am I talking about?

Guess I should just stop.

Furnace Hills Trek

2008-10-03T21:36:00.002-04:00

Ever since I started caching in 2005, there have been some caches that were just a bit inaccessible for me. Hike were required; hikes of greater duration than I was willing to commit to. I have been wanting to carve out an entire day for a mammoth trek that would take me past all of the caches in the SGL 156 area of the Furnace Hills between Route 72 and 322 in Lancaster County Pennsylvania.

Today was the day. Summer was gone and I had not taken the hike yet. I don't like long hikes in the winter, so my time was running short if I wanted to get it done in 2008. I had good intentions to start early, but we all know how that can be. As it ended up, I entered the woods at 10AM.

Here is the route I took:

The blue markers are caches. There were two more that I needed near the end where you can see I dropped off of the ridge, but at that point I was bush whacking and when I finally hit a trail, I was between both caches with the sun going down. I opted for the one that was closer to my destination, but as I followed the trail, I realized I was not going to get there without more bush whacking. I was not in the mood for that anymore, so I headed to the road and called mission control for a pickup.

So here I sit, sore and tired. I will spend tomorrow on a steady course of Aleave and working on what I was supposed to do today, but I got a big chunk of area cleared today.

I figure by the way I feel now, that I will need a knee replacement in 10 years, a hip replacement in 15 years and a new GPS in two years. My battery was on E by the time I made it to the communication towers. I had my backup Magellan, but that went low real fast as well. I need something that takes AAs.

All in all, I had a blast and hope to do the next segment from Pumping Station road to Seglock run before the snow flies. We shall see...

Blog Shmog

2008-10-01T00:21:00.000-04:00

I don't blog. I guess I can't say that now. OK, I'm only blogging because I can't sleep. I can't sleep because I have done irreputible damage to my sleep pattern while my wife was away for four days. Now I need to get back to the norm and this migraine and the nap I took at lunch are just reeking havoc on my REM zone. I should be programming, but I just don't have the gumption right now.

I recently started looking into Drupal as a possible solution for some of my clients. I had come across this stuff earlier during PHP code research. Someone always had the same problem I did, but with this drippy drupal thing. Now I start to see what they were trying to do: conqueror the world is it? Well, I think not. I have yet to see a decent skinning of a drupal site. If they can turn that whole fiasco into a smooth operation, I think I might bite. I am challenged in many ways and elegant site design is just one more manifestation of my pitiful weakness in this digital world I love so much. It will be a sad day indeed when the satellites come crashing down and electricity is scarcer than a fiddle head in October. Whatever will I do then?

Does this thing have a spell checker? Apparently not... how quaint. Oh, there it is! COOL! I knew it was pointless to try to pass those spelling tests in the 70's. When I think of my poor mother and the years she lost fretting over my deplorably atrocious spelling skills. What a waste.

Hmm... I think I might have just bored myself to the point where I can actually fall asleep now. Lemme go see if this worked!