Month: November 2008

Geocache Navigator

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I know I’m being annoying about Geocaching lately, but ever since I got this new program for my Blackberry I’m suddenly really into Geocaching again. Today I spent about 3 hours biking around Albany, finding caches by myself. I think this is the first time I’ve ever geocached by myself. I found 4 caches and failed at 4 others because there were too many people nearby. I just wrote this review of the new program on some geocaching forums and now I’m going to annoy everyone else with it too. So here you go…

I’ve gone through quite a few methods of Geocaching since I started in 2004. For my first year, I lugged a full sized laptop around with me with a big USB GPS thing attached to it. Surprisingly I never dropped my laptop while climbing up rocks, through forests and around lakes. Then for awhile, I used an HP organizer, connected to a wireless GPS via Bluetooth. That was nice for a couple years, but it sure was a lot of extra gadgetry to own.

For the past year, I’ve been using my Blackberry phone to find Geocaches. It’s got built-in GPS and free Google Maps, so I just print out the geocache on paper, manually type the coordinates into Google Maps and follow the dot until I get there. I’ve tried a few Blackberry applications for Geocaching, but I never really found one that I liked. Until now.

About a month ago, I decided to look around for Geocaching software for my Blackberry phone once again. This time I came across a program called Geocache Navigator. It seemed like a nice program, so I decided to give it a try. The catch was that it would cost $5.99 per month for a subscription or $39.99 per year. I’d have to like a program an awful lot to pay a subscription for it. I gave them $5.99 to try it out for a month.

I can’t express how much I love this program. It does everything I could possibly need. When I turn on the program, it immediately finds my coordinates via GPS. Then I can click one button to find all the Geocaches that are near me. I’ll get a list that looks like this:

Check out how it lists the distance from each cache. Those numbers automatically update as I walk around. And when I click on the cache that I want to retrieve, I get to choose from these screens:


My favorite for zeroing in on a cache is the “radar” screen. From the Cache Details screen, I can read the full description of the cache, look at all the log entries and even view the unscrambled clue. The GPS claims to work to within 3 feet of the coordinates, though I’m unsure if GPS is really that precise. The map section allows me to view street maps, topographical or aerial photos.

This program makes geocaching completely spontaneous. Like a couple weekends ago I was in downtown Portland and had some time to kill, so I viewed the caches around me, picked the closest one and went to find it. It’s so great not having to put any effort into looking on the website and printing out cache info anymore. I can just whip out my phone anytime I want, wherever I am, and go Geocaching. Preparation is a thing of the past.

Another advantage this program has over using Google Maps, is that this program will keep working even when your internet goes out. I ran into a problem earlier this year when I was in the woods, using GPS and the map would no longer load because I wasn’t getting good reception anymore. The GPS still worked, but it was just a red dot on a completely white screen so it was useless. This program will continue to track the coordinates even when the internet connection dies.

Here are my few gripes about this program…

1. I can’t log my find on geocaching.com from within the program. For that, I still have to visit the website when I get home and log it like usual. I suppose I could log it from my phone’s web browser, but I’ve never bothered to try. If I could log my find, I’d never have a reason to even visit geocaching.com again.

2. The aerial and map view doesn’t zoom in far enough. When I’m using my Google Maps application to geocache, I can zoom in pretty close which makes tough caches a lot easier to find. If I’m really stuck, I suppose I could copy/paste the cache coordinates into Google Maps (since the Blackberry allows you to cut and paste, unlike some other nameless overhyped phone), but that’s extra effort. I wish the program could just zoom as much as Google.

3. The price. I really shouldn’t complain about that since $39.99 comes out to just $3.30 per month if I pay for a year up front. It’s worth every penny of that. Disregard this complaint. I just hope they don’t suddenly realize how awesome they are and start charging $10/month for this.

If you have a Blackberry that lets you use your GPS (sorry Verizon Wireless users) then you should definitely give this program a try. I’m loving it and plan to pay for a year of usage very soon. This program is spoiling me and making me wonder how I ever got along without it. You can find it at www.geocachenavigator.com for Blackberry and a few other smartphones.

The Geocaching was fun today. I discovered a few new places in Albany and found 4 microcaches. I want to find every cache in Albany, so I’m going to work on finding the micros by myself and the bigger caches for when I’m with the kids. Micros are usually in 35mm film canisters and only contain a log sheet. The bigger ones have toys and other random junk in them, which is what the kids enjoy trading for.

One of my finds today was underneath a pay phone in front of a convenience store curiously named the GPS Market. Another was hidden inside a guardrail. And the one that took me the longest to find was hanging in plain site from the remains of a hundred year old bridge. I spent over 30 minutes searching for that one. One of my failures required me to climb up a pine tree. I only didn’t because I was alone and people were around. I’m betting it’ll be much quieter there tomorrow morning though. I think I’m going to spend half the day doing this again tomorrow.

Bolt

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Went to see Bolt this weekend with the kids. I didn’t realize that it was in 3-D. I also didn’t know that the theater was going to charge us NINE DOLLARS AND TWENTY-FIVE CENTS EACH to get into a matinee. That sucked. I guess with all the movies going 3-D, that’s going to be their excuse for charging us double the price. I love going to movies and I’ve managed not to complain about ticket prices too much, but this could seriously curb my movie-going addiction.

The 3-D didn’t really add anything to the film either. They didn’t do a whole lot with it. All the glasses do is darken the screen and make your face slightly more uncomfortable. Welcome to the future! On the upside, I actually was able to see the 3-D effects. My vision has always been screwy enough to make 3-D movies completely pointless for me, but I’m guessing that wearing glasses for the past year straight has done something for me, because the 3-D worked. This is a first for me. It still wasn’t worth the crazy ticket price, though.

Saturday we hiked and found a geocache. Sunday we did some local geocaching where we failed a lot. Then I took them to see the cool fence post cache. We also found a cache in the parking lot at the movie theater after our movie was over. We’ve decided to find every cache in Albany. We’re off to a bad start, though, with our 3 failures in a row on Saturday.

That image should indicate how many caches I’ve found. The number is low because I’ve always been lazy about logging my caches. I’m sure I’ve done over 100 now, between Illinois, Montana, Idaho, Texas and Oregon. I’m going to start logging all my finds though. If you’ve never heard of Geocaching, you should check it out at www.geocaching.com. Chances are, you walk or drive by several hidden caches every day. You don’t really even need a GPS to do it, just visit the website, put in your zip code, then zoom an ariel view map to the location you choose and print the map. Or cut/paste the coordinates into Google Maps for an even closer ariel view. You can even hide your own for other people to find.

Zoom this map to your current location and you’ll see how many caches are near you. There are over 100 in my city. It’s simple, fun, addictive, GO DO IT! And then post in the comments about how awesome I am for getting you started on a fun new hobby.

Good vs. Evil

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“If I were rich I would do a lot of Geocaching and I would leave $100 bills for people to find.” -Payton, in the car today, just me and him talking about random stuff.

“We should start a Geocaching team called the GeoCrashers and we’ll go around just destroying caches and taking all their stuff.” -Emily, in the car last week, just me and her talking about random stuff.

Today the new Xbox Experience update happened. Among other things, we can watch Netflix movies on the Xbox now. Hopefully I can still get some good money out of my Roku box when I sell it on Ebay. … Just checked! Looks like I’ll get anywhere from $80 to $100 for it. I think I paid $120 for it early this year so that’s not too bad.

New & Improved Car Troubles

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This afternoon I went to make my daily run to the post office. I turn the ignition and I get a bizarre noise that I’ve never heard. It sounded like something was spinning, but the car wasn’t even trying to start. I figure maybe it’s a belt so I check those, but they all seem intact. Then I start checking fuses, but all of those are good. I look around on the internet for suggestions and thumb through the car’s repair manual for ideas, but come up with nothing. Out of desperation before having it towed to the repair shop, I key the ignition for about 30 seconds straight and it finally catches and starts!

I throw my bike into the back and leave, planning to go straight to the repair shop. But since it seems to be doing okay, on the way I decide to stop by the post office and mail all my boxes and letters. I’ll just leave the car running while I’m in there so I won’t have to worry about starting it again. As I make my turn onto the road that leads to the post office, it dies again. Luckily, I’m able to get it started by holding down the ignition for about another 30 seconds. It finally starts up and I continue to the post office. Just to make sure I don’t accidentally turn my car off out of habit when I arrive, I take the key out of the ignition and lay it on the seat. (My key can be removed while the car is running.)

As I pull into my parking space at the post office, the car dies again. Argh. I begin to wonder if I’ll ever make it to the repair shop, which is still 10 minutes away. I grab all of my boxes and go inside. This is when I realize that I’ve added to my problems by locking my keys in my car. Since they weren’t in the ignition, I didn’t grab them on my way out of the car like I usually do. Argh again.

While standing in line to mail my stuff, I come up with a brilliant plan to get into my car without having to pay for a cab ride back home to get the spare keys. I walk to the park behind the post office and into the woods and find a giant rock long, sturdy stick. I’m able to stick it into the top of the window, which was luckily down an inch or two, and press the unlock button on the other side. I’m such a hacker. I jump in and hold down the ignition for close to a minute before it finally starts up again. At every stop I’m throwing into neutral, keeping the engine revved and hoping this will keep it from dying. It works and I finally make it there.

It ended up being the timing belt. I think it’s going to be $382 to fix and I’m supposed to have my car back tomorrow. It’s a lot of money, but my monthly average is still way less than what I used to pay for car payments, so I’m thankful for that at least. Plus I thought timing belts cost a lot more than that to replace, so I actually feel like I’m getting a discount. I’m just happy this didn’t happen while I was in Portland this weekend. That would suck being stranded up there until my car was fixed.

While biking home I realized what an amazing day it was outside. Passing by a bank, I saw that the temperature was 68 degrees. It’s been in the 50’s and rainy for the past week, so it was kind of a surprise. I had a nice ride home and stopped by Dairy Queen for an Oreo Blizzard for lunch. I couldn’t have had a more perfect day for riding.

When I got home I saw the perfect ending to my day – I left the garage door open for the 3 hours I was out. I guess with all the excitement of having my car actually start, I forgot to close it as I left. I left a brand new Xbox 360, still in the box, sitting on the washer and dryer. (Not mine, it’s someone elses.) Luckily nobody walked in and stole it and everything else I own while I was gone. I left my office door unlocked too. It’s not the first time I’ve left the garage open when I left, but definitely the longest.

While I was waiting for my Blizzard, I Twittered about my car problems and Rogue Clown replied to it, “was it a medium pepperoni timing belt?” which I found extremely hilarious. It was a reference to one of the old auto parts prank calls. Thanks for making me laugh, Rogue. I needed it today.

Aquafina and Hostess Cupcakes

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Can anyone tell me why xkcd is so incredibly awesome? Each comic is greater than the last and today’s is my new favorite.

Lately I’ve been listening to a podcast called Welcome to Mars which is actually a 12 part radio series that some guy produced for some station. Between 1947 and 1959, the future was written about, discussed and analysed with such confidence that it became a tangible presence. This is a story of weird science, strange events and even stranger beliefs, set in an age when the possibilities for human development seemed almost limitless.

Subscribe to that podcast here. I’ve only got a couple more episodes to listen to. I still listen to lots of podcasts, but I’m too lazy to post names or links to any of them. I need to update my list in the sidebar.

On Saturday I went on a hike with some people, which included finding a few Geocaches. One was in a tree, about 12 feet up, so you had to climb it to retrieve the logbook. I was happy that Holly did that so I didn’t have to. Another one was inaccessible because of overgrown thorns and brush. And the 3rd was the coolest Geocache I’ve ever seen. You had to pop the cap off of an aluminum fence post, then pull on a bolt that was stuck in the side of it. The bolt was attached to a long piece of wire, which pulled a pole up through the post, knocking the cache out of the top. It was like something you’d see in the Goonies. I took a video of it and I’ll post that on here later if it doesn’t suck.

Today I spent most of my day in Portland. I ate a lot of Pez. Caught up with some really old friends on Myspace.

Veterans Day Parade

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I heard from the Geocaching group today that our picture was in the paper for the Target thing, so I went to 7-Eleven this morning and picked up a newspaper. They only photographed the side that we weren’t standing on, but it was still kind of cool. At the same time, it seems like getting featured in the paper defeats the purpose of being mysterious flash mobbers since it tells everyone who we are and why we did it. A scan of the paper can be viewed in my previous post.

I rarely buy a newspaper anymore since I get all my news and entertainment from blogs now. But while reading the paper this morning I was reminded that Albany had a Veterans days parade, so I took the kids to that. The Albany paper recently started up an online edition of their paper, but to get access to it you have to subscribe to the paper version too. How stupid is that? I’d really like to read the local paper, but only if it’s on the computer. (They have a website, of course, but it mostly just has the front page headlines.)

So I’m thinking of asking on Craigslist if anyone wants to give me access to the online portion of their subscription if I can pay them for half of the paper or something like that. Either that or just subscribing to the paper and throwing it in the trash every day. Or maybe I could pick a random subscriber of the paper and secretly set up an online account for them. Maybe I could subscribe but give them some random person’s address. Geez, why can’t they just sell web-only subscriptions?

The parade was a standard Veterans Day parade. After about 30 minutes of standing and watching it, we decided to join in so we got behind a Christian school group and walked with them for about 7 blocks. The kids both threw all the candy they’d gotten from other parade people back out to the crowds. Payton saw quite a few people he knew from school along the way. We stopped at Big Town Hero for lunch, then, 30 minutes later, the parade was still going on so we got back into it and continued along the route until we were just a few blocks from our car.

Albany Veterans Day ParadeAlbany Veterans Day Parade

Flash mobs, Mormons and other things

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A few weeks ago while on a hike with the kids and a few others from the hiking group, I met a guy who was involved with an area Geocaching group so I joined it a few days later. Turns out, these people pull occasional flash mobs in Albany and Corvallis with a surprisingly large turnout. On Saturday morning, me, Payton and Spessa’s kids drove to Target to cheer for shoppers coming to the doors, as if they were winning a race. They had a finish line banner for them to break through and there were a few signs that people were holding. I was going to make some posterboard signs, but instead I decided to whip up these buttons to hand out to the winners:

Here’s a picture of the flash mob crowd several minutes before the event started:

This is us, lined up on either sides of the doors, waiting for the next victim:

And here’s a father, running towards the finish line with his son in his hands, thankfully not tripping and falling on the way:

I managed to get a parking spot close to Target so I could point my camera out the window of my car as the event happened. I also tuned my scanner to Target’s frequencies, hoping to hear employees talking about us, but I only heard one thing which I think was related to us and it wasn’t that hilarious. I had a digital recorder with me to record the sound up close.

Even though I told the other guy with the camera that I was videotaping from the back of my car, which I pointed out to him, he decided to stand directly in front of my window for most of the flash mob, rendering my already spotty video even crappier. If I’d known there would be such a large turnout (at least 40 people) for this event, I would have just held my camera with me since I’d probably be unnoticed in the middle of the crowd. I was only expecting maybe a dozen of us to show up. Here’s my video:

Everyone had a really great time with this. Most of the customers entering the store seemed to think it was hilarious. A lot of them ran through the crowd, reveling in the cheers, raising their arms in victory and breaking through our finish line. Some took pictures. Others were too shy to deal with large crowds screaming at them, so they went to the side of us instead.

I was really hoping for some conflict with mall security, Target managers and/or the police. Especially the security guy that works at Target who doubles as their floor sweeper. I would have been thrilled to have been asked to leave by any of those people. But only the Target manager came out near the beginning, asking who was in charge and what we were doing. I told her corporate said it was okay, but she ignored me. After a couple minutes of questioning us, she smiled as she ran through the finish line and back into Target as we all cheered for her. For the rest of the event, quite a few Target employees gathered at the doors to watch us from inside.

Fifteen minutes later, we quit on our own. It’s too bad we couldn’t have continued for another 15 minutes, but I guess the organizers wanted to keep it short to lessen the chance of us getting on everyone’s nerves and/or getting thrown off the premises. It was a great time and I can’t wait for the next one.

11/11/2008 EDIT: A picture of the mob was in yesterday’s newspaper with a short paragraph about the event. This seems counterproductive to a flash mob. Isn’t the point to weird people out without them ever knowing who you are? Here’s the picture, click it to enlarge:

click to enlarge

11/13/2008 EDIT: PabloMac uploaded his video and it has considerably less ass in it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whTkx-63AeM

Later that day, the Spessas and I took the kids to the Wunderland, which is a nickle arcade in Salem. They left this afternoon, and I took Emily and Payton to Springfield with me since I needed to visit Best Buy. While we were there we saw Madagascar at the theater. It’s a movie I didn’t necessarily want to see, but I still enjoyed it a lot.

On the way out of Best Buy, the security alarm went off. I did what I always do in this situation – I yelled to the kids, “RUN!!!” and I bolted out the door. I was hoping for a chase, but it never happens. The only place I’ve ever been chased was at Wal-Mart where the old lady at the door walked after me (running would have been too strenuous on her) saying, “Sir? Sir? Please come back!” (By the way, I wasn’t shoplifting at Best Buy. They just forgot to deactivate my tag since I bought it from the return desk.)

On Friday afternoon I came home and decided to check my mailbox which is out on the sidewalk. I rarely check it since all my mail goes to my PO Box, and it was filled with a huge pile of junk mail as usual. As I was opening the box I spotted 4 young men in suits getting out of their car. Mormons! I had one of those movie moments where I’m frantically trying to get the key into the lock to escape the impending conversation. I wasn’t quick enough, though. As I pulled my junk mail out one of them walks up and cheerfully says, “Hi there!”

“Hey.”

“That’s sure a lot of mail you’ve got there!”

“Yep.”

“How are you doing today?”

“I really don’t want to talk to you. Bye!”

“Do you know of anyone who might need help from us?” he asked as I turned to leave.

I quickly walk back to my house. As I shut my door I turn to notice that they didn’t see which apartment I went into. A minute later I watch as two of them begin knocking on every door in the complex. The other two, I assume, went into the other neighborhood.

So I did what any other normal person would do. I took off my pants, put on the weirdest pair of boxers I own (red ants all over them) and grabbed my video camera. When they knocked I ran down the stairs, quickly shoved my cat into a closet to keep him from running out the door, flung open the door and screamed, “I am the true lord of the dance! No matter what those idiots at work say!” and then I slammed the door on them. I videotaped it all, of course, and you can click here to see the video.

It’s hard to see their expressions in the YouTube video, so here’s a frame capture from the DV version.

I’ll leave it up to the viewers to decide what emotion the one on the right is feeling. I like to think terror, but it’s probably more like WTF. WTF is an emotion, right? I went upstairs to my open window afterwards and listened to them for several minutes while they giggled about me. I was surprised to hear one of them repeat what I said to them verbatim. I wonder if they visited any of my other neighbors afterwards and asked them about “the weird guy.”

If you’re wondering why I shouted what I did, you should listen to this song, especially around the 30 second mark. Well, I guess that doesn’t explain why really, but at least you know what the reference is from.

OMG ITS MY BIRTHDAY PAY ATTENTION TO ME!!!

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I normally don’t announce to everyone that it’s my birthday since I’m an adult and shouldn’t care that it’s my birthday, but there’s no way around it this year because I have to post this roadsign that the Spessas hacked for me. They sent this to me last night on my cell phone and I LOLed.

Spessa has been showing no mercy to roadside construction signs lately, as you can see in the latest two entries on signhacker.com.

For my birthday, I bought myself The Mysterious Stranger Manuscripts which are the original 3 manuscript drafts of Mark Twain’s The Mysterious Stranger. He died before he completed it, but it’s still the best thing he ever wrote. I would love for them to make a movie out of this book. It could have so many cool visuals. (This disturbing video on YouTube shows a smart part of it in 80’s claymation.)

I also bought a recliner for the living room a few days ago and I’m going to pretend that it was also a birthday present from myself. It’s another piece of furniture that I’ve been putting off buying for the past two years as I try to find the perfect chair on Craigslist. This one is pretty close to perfect and it was crazy-cheap. It mismatches the rest of my ratty old furniture perfectly.

I watched the Obama’s acceptance speech on hulu.com today. It’s the first time I’ve heard him speak and the first time I’ve seen his family. I think it’s cool that most everyone seems to be so excited about him. Was anyone excited about Bush 8 years ago? I think I remember everyone hating Bush until 9/11 happened and then we were required to like him in order to consider ourselves patriotic. Anyway, I’m not excited about Obama. I just have a hard time caring. I do hope he does interesting things, though, since I’m in it solely for the entertainment value.

I didn’t vote today!

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It’s not that I’m too lazy to vote. It’s that I’m too lazy to follow the candidates and know what their issues are. I didn’t watch a single debate this year. Or in 2004, or in 2000, or ever. I don’t even know what Obama or McCain sound like. I couldn’t tell you a fact about either of them. Even though I read blogs nonstop all day, I’ve quickly skipped over all the entries relating to the election this year. I haven’t even watched a single parody of Sarah Palin or any of the others. My vote would be meaningless since I know absolutely nothing about any of them.

I probably would have voted Obama today, just to shake things up a bit because he’s black. And because Obama doesn’t look like a grouchy old man. I’m tired of grouchy old men in the white house. In 1992, I would have voted Clinton because he was younger and had cool hair. I wouldn’t have voted for either of the Bushes because they look old and crotchety. See why I shouldn’t vote? My votes are based soley on looks and age, not issues. I think democracy is great and America is awesome, but I’m just glad everyone else is so into voting so I don’t have to be. Thanks, people who voted today!

9:27PM UPDATE: Obama won. See? My vote didn’t matter!

9:53 UPDATE: Ugh, does every single blog I subscribe to have to inform us that Obama is president?

Also, Spessa is certain that her Obama sticker campaigns (here and here) were solely responsible for the election results. Way to go, Spessa!