Animal Crackers

Animal Crackers

Sunday, September 28, 2008

GPS Games Whine

My wife and I have been in gecaching for 5&1/2 years. That is pretty good for us for doing a hobby. Some hobbies we do longer and some we hardly stick around for at all. I think that is the nature of past times. Caching has changed for me. I got in for the caches with nice walks and a lot of them seam to be urban micros now- not my favorite kind of caches. We have been doing waymarks and benchmark hunting but we are past the honeymoon phase with those. too. I think a lot of it is the fact we have been in for a while. Some of it is the fact the hobby has changed. Does not help that the price of gas is hideous and Kim's leg got hurt which really has put a bamper on things. I don't want to sound like I am blaming Kim. Her injury is only one factor and not like she did it on puropose but it still affects things. The real grump is that geocaching is not the fun it once was. I guess it is time to reprioirtize and do the things that give more fun for what I am willing to put into it. Nothing else I can do. Please indulge or ignore this grump as you will. I guess I just wanted to write it up, own it and get rid of it. Much better now.

Friday, September 26, 2008

Earthcaches

Earthcaches are another neat form of caches and is a program for making caches that is run on geocaching .com but did not start there. It is a very interesting program. The earthcache program website is here and you can find them listed on geocaching.com. Take a look around. You can find the detail on the sites better than I can do in this short little blog post.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Errands Continued

I had a coupon for a free value meal at the McDonald's in Kendalville. There was a cache about 200 feet away so i planed on doing that as well. Everything went well until i started to go home. The lever to adjust the driver's seat broke again so I drove the explorer home in a reclined position. Needless to say, it was not an easy drive and neck ended up really sore. It is better today.

I also went to do the license plate renewal for the cars today. That's done and I also got the pictures for the waymarks I started yesterday so I can work on submitting those today. Thre was belly puickering thing that did happen on the way in to get the plates renewed. I had noticed yesterefdday that the gas on explorer was getting low. Due to the seat, I failed to register how low it was when I got home. I almost ghet into Auburn when I had to wait for a train, only then did I noticed the gas gauge solidly on EMPTY. Thankfully that gauge is set up to give you a llittle more time because I made it through waiting for the train and drive to the gas station. The truck is a lot happier on 3/4 of a tank.

Anyway, that is my erranding around for what I can make of it. A bit or irratation but nothing undo. Until later.

Monday, September 22, 2008

Errands

Ever have one of those where your errands don't quit get done. It's time to do the license plates on the car again. I forgot to check that the BMV was closed on Monday. I was also going to do some waymarks on the way there and the batteries on my camera dies so that was out. I guess i start over tomorrow on the way to the BMV tomorrow.

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Friday, September 19, 2008

quiz for today



My pirate name is:


Dread Pirate Cash



Like the famous Dread Pirate Roberts, you have a keen head for how to make a profit. You're musical, and you've got a certain style if not flair. You'll do just fine. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network

Google is Weird

I must confess that I like statcounter.com. It helps me track who is looking at my blog. Not out of some commercial reason since i don't do ads and not because i am some sort of weird cyber stalker reason. I am truly interested in seeing who is reading this silly little blog of mind. For those of you that keep coming back, I thanks you for your interest.

Getting to the point of this post. I have been noticing that I have been getting a lot of hits for my Sarah Palin post. To be more specific, the image of my Sarah Palin post. That got my attention. I did not upload any images for that post. I started to look a little and found out that the Animal Crackers movie poster I had put at the top of my blog that is always there was connected to the post in image searches on Google. There are probably a lot of people going through the image and wondering what the heck does a Marx Brothers movies have have to do with the VP candidate. Nothing except what the google web crawlers think goes together. The short comings of automating some things.

Pirate Day

Today is International Talk like a Pirate Day. You can check out a website about it here.


And here is a video.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Online Bad Behavior

There is a common virus that infects about 1 out of 1 forums that being little political online turf wars. It might be someone being a troll and fishing for a reaction or just clash of personalities. Sometimes it is not being able to communicate properly online or just being clear. Sometimes it is a matter of not reading it right. It can devolve into a sophomoric high school squabble. Let's face it, it is a lot easier to be callous to people when you don't see them on the other side of the computer screen. You're just playing a video game , right? There is also the problem that as people get to know each other, they get to see all the imperfections in each other and that gets annoying after a while. It is really easy to see the smallest problem in someone else and miss the problem of epic proportion in yourself. This is just another example of people being idiots. Myself included. It just gets irksome when all you want to do is hang out and have fun and the general current of things has an undercurrent of being angst driven.



FNORD!

Monday, September 15, 2008

A September Evening Walk

I finished up some paperwork and some bills and wanted to take care of the mail tonight so I would not forget to get it out in tomorrow's mail. It was an evening of long fall shadow's. The sun was still warm but the shadow's and wind were chilled. The sky sky was mostly clear with white clouds with grey bottoms. Kai the dog was feisty as heck because it was getting cool enough for him to be full of beans. I smelt a recently lit BBQ and could smell the lighter fluid still being burned off. The sky was pale blue and turning yellow as the sun headed for the horizon. The noise in this little town was pretty quiet I also heard a lawn mower off in the distance. It was a peaceful walk with my dog and my hiking stick of many years and many memories. .Man, am I ever glad that fall is here.

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Barack Obama is Your New Bicycle

I read the book Barack OBama is your new bi.cycle by Mathew Honan. It is subtitled 366 ways he really cares. It was started by the author's desire to make his wife laugh. While she was campaigning for Senator Obama, he set up the website, barckobamaisyournewbicycle.com. From there, came the book. I will give you a few examples from the book but hopefully not too many so I go beyond fair use.

Barack Obama gave you a puppy.
Barack Obama mapped out a new dungeon and rolled up a totally bad ass paladin for your first game of D&D.
Barack Obama called your mom on mother's day just to say hi.

It was trite and yet very funny. It was an incredibly fast read and worth the time to read it.

And if Vicar Stewart Wade Turner in Buffalo, Illinois reads this, give me an e-mail and let me know how you like the post.

Friday, September 12, 2008

National Registry of Historic Places

I first found out about the National Registry of Historic Places from a category on waymarking.com. On their website (here), you find the historic places around the US. It breaks it down by state and then county and it is interesting to see what has been put on the registry both locally and around the nation. Check it out.



FNORD!

Thursday, September 11, 2008

World Wide Presence/ Outreach

I have been really noticing how easy tit easy to have a world wide presence on the internet. By no means am I or Kim big time movers but we still have a world wide presence. We recently did a geocoin trade with someone from Germany. Someone from England found our earthcaches. I am not sure about Kim's blogs but I get people looking at my blog from around the globe. It is just weird that someone can have contact around the world via the net even if it is a small one. That is neat to this geek.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Geocoins














































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This is a continuation of a theme this week. Pictures I was meaning to post but did not get around to. We have been trading mostly for them. Most of them were from the geobash. The German one was by mail. They were a neat bunch to get. Enjoy the pictures.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Noble County Fair

We went to the noble County Fair back in July. Once again, we forgot about the pictures. Here they are. Enjoy.








Monday, September 8, 2008

WAlking Leaf Bug


This was a walking leaf bug we found on Kim's cara while and forgot we had a picture. Enjoy.

Saturday, September 6, 2008

McDonald's Handicapped Parking

Kim and I went out to McDonald's for breakfast. Her leg is getting much better but not quit all the way there yet so we wanted to use the handicapped parking. One problem- the handicapped parking was between the building and the drive through lane and since they are busy on Saturdays there was no access to the handicapped parking. Kim was able to make it in ok but about those those people who really need it. It was only for a Mcdee's breakfast but handicapped people want aas normal of a life as anyone else and things like this just make it harder. Poor planning. I guess seeing the mobility issues Kim is having has made me a lot more sensitive to the everyone who has mobility issues. Time to turn off the soapbox.

Friday, September 5, 2008

DM of the Rings

Dm of the Rings is a webcomic spoof of Lord of the Ring. It was written as if the story was played a group of role playing gamers. Really funny stuff.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Cool Down

Looks like the hold that summer had our our weather has finally broken. Ir rained last night and the temperature did a nice colling down. They are also predicting highs in the seventies instead of upper 80" to 90 plus. Felt good when I had to run to get something in from the rain last night and actually felt chilly when I got in. I have felt over hot for so long that feeling chilly in on the platinum scale for feeling good. I am looking forward to feeling that more often.

Sarah Palin

I got to hear the Republican Candidate for Vice President last night. She is Sarah Palin and I am quite impressed with her. She is for lower taxes, against pork spending and a watch dog against corruption even from her own party. She is for oil exploration. She is pro life and is raising a special needs kids when a lot of parents would have aborted. She also descried herself as a hockey mom. Yu have to know that scored points with me even though it does nto affect her job. I also liked the joke she made about being a hockey mom. What is the difference between a pit bull and a hockey mom? Lipstick. I am impressed with her enough not to be waffling. It is weird that I like the VP nominee more than the the candidates for president.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Jerry Reed Passes Away

Jerry Reed just passed away. I have enjoyed his music as well as seeing him on Star Trek in one episode and the time he was on Scooby Doo. I remember some of the oddest things.

Here is a video to enjoy. It's not safe for work or at least some of the pictures are not so watch at your own risk.

Waiting for the Cool down

It is the beginning of September and still feels like mid August. It is actually hotter now than it was for mid August. The worst is that is is almost getting cool enough at night to be comfy but not quite. It is suppose to rain and bring cooler air with it tonight. I really hope so.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Trip to the Post Office

Today was a bit interesting to go off to the Post Office. First of all, i had tired putting a hold on the mail last month. It wound up not going through and I found our why: I had dated this month instead of last month. Talk about a stupid mistake. The only thing I figure is I was thinking about it being the end/beginning of the month and dated it wrong.

As I was going to the Post Office, I say a class of I think either kindergarten or first grade walking across the intersection. It reminded me of a time when a much taller friend and I were walking through Ann Arbor. Some kid about the same age looked at me and shouted, "Look at the little man"

I was glad of what was in the mail. We had done a trade with someone in German with our geocoins. They did not have any personal coins but we did trade for specifically German coins. They wwill make for a nice addition to the collection. One of them is trackable which is a nice perk. I base my trades on how nice the coins look rather than just trackable but being trackable is just a nice add on.

A friend of Kim and I's also sent us the book "turn and run like hell". It is about unconventional military tactics. Looks like some good reading.