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A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

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Notes from my noodle: Feb. 29

February 29, 2012

I’ve been trying to organize life here at A ‘lil HooHaa lately.

See, there’s a new blog a few of us have been working on. If all goes well, it will launch this upcoming Monday. It’s a niche blog, so it will stick to one topic. I will have more information on this probably this weekend. I just want to make sure we have everything in order before saying anything as we had hoped to have launched already, but some real-life things got in the way. Such is the life of a non-commercial blog.

With that in mind, I wanted to make sure I organized my personal blog a bit more so that I can do both with no issues, especially once I become gainfully employed again.

So, I have some things I’m working on here.

I’ll still be covering a lot of the same things I do now and I’m working on a few more in-depth journalistic style pieces. But I’m going to be working on a few more “fun” and “quick” things, so if I feel I need filler for a day, I have it.

This might include some of those wacky quizzes you see people fill out or challenges.

By challenges, I mean the ones that seem to pop up all over the place every day. They come in 7-day, 10-day and 30-day challenges. Some are even longer. Some shorter.

The idea is to do something for that amount of time each day.

For example, it could be a photo challenge. So for 30 days, they give you themes and you have to fill it. It can be about a movie. It can be about you. About friends. Family. Health. Whatever. There are so many of them.

Go check out this Tumblr page if you want some ideas. So many of them.

My plan won’t be to actually do the challenge as planned — I’m going to do them HooHaa style, baby! That means I’ll be doing full challenges in one blog post. Offline it might take me some time to do them, but when I bring it to you here, it will be in one post with all the answers.

I’m also going to be doing some fun things such as a joke/riddle of the week (most likely both) in one post. I’m going to bring back those “What’s going on this week” things. And I’m going to branch out to do some baseball card scans and such.

Again, I’m not changing anything else. If things are going on, I’ll do the normal thing. Heck, that might mean more than one post a day. But I want to have a few more fun things, too. Just to make it a little easier on me when needed.

I have a lot of cool thinks cooking here at A ‘lil HooHaa. It won’t be going anywhere. I just want to tweak a little.

***

Today is February 29.

If you are on FourSquare, make sure you mention Leap Day to get the sweet badge for this special day!

I know, nothing special. Or is it?

Of course it is! It’s Leap Day! Sweet!

This fine day only happens once every four years (usually). There are rare times it doesn’t happen, but it’s all how the world works.

Anyway, so this is a great day.

See, first of all, 29 is my favorite number, so it’s sweet to see February get this day. Second, there’s always cool little things with this day.

Take FourSquare, for example. The social game is giving a special badge out today, so make sure you get it!

For you geocachers out there, you can get a special souvenir by finding a cache today!

Welcome to the game, February!

There are many events, too. I was planning on heading out to one later, but it turns out Mother Nature is making this area a bit bad today with snow (during the winter? Who knew?), followed by sleet and freezing rain. Add all that together and a trip to Albany for a geocaching event doesn’t sound so fun.

Or necessary.

So if you’re a cacher, hopefully you get the chance to find a cache or hit up an event!

For me, it’s an extra day in the year and is the reason behind me doing the 366 challenge.

I’m hoping to find something good to shoot. I already have taken a few photos, but maybe I can find some other things. I’m a little stuck, however, as I don’t want to leave town with this weather, so I’m kind of looking around here. Something will come along, I’m sure.

***

A quick add on here as I just saw the news that Davy Jones died at the age of 66 today.

I still remember (re-runs, anyway) the Monkees show. I really enjoyed it. I actually have a bunch of their music, too. I was always a fan of that group and Davy Jones was always fun to see in television shows and wherever else.

It’s a sad day for music. Though The Monkees were a made-for-TV group, they really went past that and became part of a culture and a time period.  Remember, Marcia from the Brady Bunch really thought Davy was “dreamy” and “groovy.”

Davy Jones was heading into the Northeast sometime in May for a tour and I had actually debated going and seeing him. It’s a shame that chance will never come for me and for many others who probably would have loved to see him perform.

Here are a couple of YouTube videos:

The Monkees theme song:

Daydream Believer (probably my favorite Monkees song):

***

I have only been summoned for jury duty once in my life. I was stoked, too. Two days before, however, it got canceled and I was done. Since then, I’ve never been called back.

I always thought it would be something to serve on a jury. It’s a duty not to be taken lightly and it’s one people should embrace because they are being part of the judicial process.

Apparently, one dude thought he had an out.

See, turns out this maroon was serving his duty as a juror in an auto negligence case, according to the Herald-Tribune in Sarasota, Fla. The defendant, a young woman, must have caught the eye of this guy because he started to look around, apparently, for her.

And he found her on Facebook.

He ended up sending her a friend request on Facebook, which is obviously a no-no as jurors should not be contacting the people involved in the case. See, this guy apparently thought the gal looked familiar and with more than 1,300 Facebook pals, he wasn’t sure if she was a friend or not. When he found her on Facebook (via his phone), he claims he tried to press the “mutual friends” button, but actually hit the “friend request” button, according to the newspaper report.

That’s not good, right?

Though he said he knew the request would be sent to the defendant, he didn’t say anything during the jury selection. And, he ended up on the seven-member jury.

The guy, whose last name is Jock, said he hoped she’d forget about it and thought it wasn’t that big of a deal because it was a mistake.

The defendant obviously saw the request, told here lawyer, who told the judge. That got this guy removed from the jury.

Oh, but the story doesn’t end there.

This Einstein then bragged about getting dismissed to his legion of pals on Facebook.

Score … I got dismissed!! apparently they frown upon sending a friend request to the defendant … haha.

Really?

The end result?

Three days in the lock up on a criminal contempt of court misdemeanor. The newspaper reported he was handcuffed and taken out of the courtroom as his girlfriend cried.

Said the judge, after a two-hour hearing:

I cannot think of a more insidious threat to the erosion of democracy than citizens who do not care.

Fully agreed there.

A bit of advice to future people on a jury — take it serious. You are doing a part that in an important process in our country. It’s not a joke and shouldn’t be taken as such.

***

I’m shocked at the amount of people looking to meet me recently.

It’s like I’m a celebrity.

I’m not sure how to react to all of this, so I’m taking my time sifting through all the e-mails and such. See, it seems like there are people from all over the world who want to meet me. Want to see a couple of these awesome e-mails?

i’m Alice

!There are many good moments in a life…You certainly will be happy. Let’s meet?

write to me please.

Kiss.

Alesia

We’ll have to get rid of Alesia. I don’t like bad grammar and not capitalizing things. I could send an autograph, I imagine, if that’s what she would like.

I’m Alisa
Being with a man, makes me feel happiness.
Let’s communicate?
Waiting on your turn.

I wonder if this is the same person and changing the spelling of her name? Sheesh! But waiting on my turn? Are we playing a board game or something? I’ll communicate — lose my e-mail address!

Salute! I’m Lesechka. I’m 22.I saw your photos in brother’s account and decided write to you.

Some time ago I break with my boyfriend and now I am single. So if you want to chat with me please… write me something interesting about you.

Something interesting…

OK, I got it.

I don’t know you. You didn’t see me in your brother’s account. You’re a Spam Bot. Go away.

Sometimes, however, you just have to e-mail these people back. For kicks. Something has to return, right? I mean they are all looking for love and romance, after all.

Here’s an exchange I had with one person.

The initial letter:

So I’m  happy that I have  meet with reliable man.
My name is Irina, doing gymnastics since childhood and I love swimming.
I’m blonde with blue eyes.

Hope get more information about you.

I liked your snapshot, and I wanna meet you.

Hope read you soon

Sounds like Irina is quite the keeper, eh? Not sure where she saw my snapshot, though. So, I was curious. Let’s see if she knows me. (Note that this e-mail is for an account I have set up for junk mail signups and all, so it has no personal stuff at all).

Me:

I bet you can get into some great positions with that gymnastics background, huh?

Let’s get it on!

Where did you see my snapshot though? I don’t put that online. You stalking me?

I figured that response would get her attention, eh? Internet love with some chick overseas… I’m in!

Her response:

Hey! Hi!

I recently registered on the website (clipped… looked like a site heading to Russia), and uploaded my photo. Write me PM, cuz I hate email.
If you are interested, you can see my pictures.

compose me your minds.

That was the end of that chat. It’s unfortunate, too. It had such a good beginning. I’ll have to compose her my mind one day to see if she eventually found happiness in this cruel world.

***

Time for a riddle.

I will post the answer to this in the comments later tonight sometime. But until I do, feel free to answer away in the comments section.

A black dog stands in the middle of an intersection in a town painted black.

None of the street lights are working because of a power failure cause by a recent storm.

A car with two broken headlights drives toward the dog but turns in time to avoid hitting the pooch.

How could the drive have seen the dog to turn away in time?

(Riddles.com)

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook by clicking the button on the right side of the page!

Filed Under: A 'lil HooHaa, blogging, My world, Notes from my noodle Tagged With: 366 days, a 'lil hoohaa, blog, challenges, current events, davy jones, e-mail, e-mail spam, facebook, february 29, foursquare, leap day, leap year, notes from my noodle, riddle, spam, the monkees, tumblr

1 Comment

Thumbs down on Geocaching Challenges

August 31, 2011

Groundspeak’s newest addition to the geocaching family is more than a week old. Some kinks have been exposed and people are forming opinions.

I’m giving Geocaching Challenges a thumbs down vote.Let me say that I like the idea and the premise of the challenges. I just think the execution was weak and not that well thought out. In discussions with fellow geocachers about the challenges, I’ve likened it to a bit of anarchy.

I hope to change my mind one day.

By that I mean that people have had the chance to create things they’ve wanted to for years with virtuals, but haven’t been able to do so. Some of these challenges are so silly and pointless. It doesn’t seem to mesh with geocaching.

By theory, geocaching is a game in which people have to go out and find something. Maybe not necessarily a physical box, but they have to go out and find something. Challenges, by theory are also supposed to do that. Alas, there are several key parts that make this not so. And considering Groundspeak has made the challenges a part of the geocaching site (instead of its own site, such as Waymarking), it has left open the big debate between different factions of game players.

With me, I’ve tried to like them. And I hope there will be a day when I can change my mind. Alas, for now, there’s no chance of that.

There are too many things wrong with geocaching challenges to like them.

Let’s count a few of the ways —

  • Finds still counting on your overall totals, even though Groundspeak said they were going to split them.
  • Too many can be armchaired.
  • No checks and balances.
  • No true way to verify.
  • No “ownership.”
  • Searching for challenges is cumbersome.
  • You can’t see which challenges people have completed.

Let’s take a peek at these items one at a time.

First, the finds. Look, let’s be honest, geocaching is a game. People play it their own way. If people want to use these as geocaching finds, fine. But for those of us who think that’s silly (and considering Groundspeak has responded in saying that they were separating the two, I would think the vocal groups agree), there’s no way around it.

In regard to splitting the finds, Jeremy Irish, the president and a co-founder of Groundpeak posted this on the company’s feedback site:

Cache finds and challenge completion counts are now split out. Both are displayed on the logs unless you have not found a Challenge or found a Geocache. In that case the statistics for Challenges/Geocaches won’t be shown.

To me, this doesn’t appear to be separating them. See, when one looks at your profile, it still shows caches found/challenges completed in one number. Where is the separation? We have benchmarks on our profiles, too, but those aren’t counted in the overall number. One of the people I cache with, Brent, has done a few challenges. Here is a screen shot of his profile front page, showing what he’s done:

Note that finds and challenges are separated. This has been like this since the challenges started. So no change here.

That seems simple enough, no?

But, when one clicks on Brent’s tab at the top of his profile to see his geocaches and totals, here’s what one will see:

Though it notes total found/completed, it would appear to me that these numbers are still together and not separated, as people have been told they will be.

The little print down at the bottom shows that the totals exclude benchmarks. Why not just do the same for challenges?

This all leads into my second point — too many can be armchaired. By this, I mean that a lot of challenges can be done while you sit at home on the computer. In fact, one of the original “worldwide” challenges (which only Groundspeak can create) was to kiss a frog. Any type of frog. People were grabbing stuffed frogs, taking a photo and posting it. Within minutes of the posting, at that. It’s since been archived as the feedback was very poor.

I want to give an example from one local geocacher, Bob, who created a Brooks Chicken Challenge. It said in the description:

Residents of Oneonta are familiar with the animated neon sign outside Brooks House of Barbecue, which depicts a hatchet-wielding cook in mad pursuit of a fleeing chicken.

To complete this challenge, you and a friend need to go to Brooks Barbecue, pose in front of the sign, and post a photo of yourselves reproducing the activity the sign portrays.

Within minutes, someone not from the area and who, at that point had 80-something challenge completions (he now has 101), had posted a sign just of the sign and made some silly remark.

Already, that’s going against the spirit of the challenge.

I flagged the find, hoping something would come of it. I hadn’t checked in a bit, but it appears that or someone else flagging it or if Bob contacted Groundspeak appears to have done the trick as the log has since been deleted. That’s a good thing, though the stats for the challenge show that it’s been accepted once (the person in question still has the log on there that they have accepted the challenge), and has been completed once (though there is nobody logging that they completed the challenge).

Knowing the situation, I also created a challenge to see what would happen. I created a challenge at Mount Utsayantha in Stamford, noting that players had to have a photo of themselves on the fire tower. Anywhere. High, low, at the top — anywhere as long as they were on the fire tower. One person (Brent) has logged it, so no armchairing has been done, thankfully.

Alas, it doesn’t matter because I have no control over the listing.

See, when one creates and “owns” a geocache, he or she has control. That means they can make sure finds are legit, can change the listing or fix something if there’s an error and basically be the person who makes sure the credibility of geocaching stays.

No so with challenges. Once someone creates a challenge, they have a short time frame to fix the page. Once someone logs the challenge as a find, however, your hands are washed of it. You don’t get notices saying it’s been logged. You don’t have control over it. Nothing. It’s now just out there. So if someone in Bangladesh wants to log it improperly, they can.

That leads to my next three points that there are no checks and balances, no true way to verify and no “ownership.”

When somebody submits a geocache to the website, it goes through a process. A volunteer reviewer decides if it meets the criteria needed to be listed on the site and approves or disapproves it, usually with reason and how one can fix the issue. If someone really disagrees with the reviewer, one can go to Groundspeak to appeal. It’s all a process.

I can’t say that I always agree with reviewers. I can’t say that I haven’t gotten mad at decisions made. And I can’t say that I haven’t been baffled with how different reviewers can be when interpreting guidelines. But, in the end, they are there for a reason. And it’s a good reason. It makes sure things follow a certain protocol and makes sure things aren’t just haphazardly thrown out there.

The only reviewers here are other cachers, who can vote thumbs up or thumbs down on a challenge. I think if there are enough thumbs down votes, Groundspeak eventually archives it. But how many thumbs down are needed? How long must it stay out there before it is archived. With so many of these things popping up, can Groundspeak keep up?

With that comes the no verification and no ownership. If things are just out there and the creator has no control, the only way to verify appears to be complaining to Groundspeak. I would imagine that they have a lot more things to worry about than someone in some tiny town in, say, the Midwest, who isn’t happy because someone armchaired their challenge.

Those complaints add up.

If the creator had a little control over the challenge, then it might be better in that it would be made sure that the meaning of the challenge was upheld. It would make it so people on the opposite side of the country or world couldn’t search for an image of the item and do a quick log.

There needs to be some sort of a checks-and-balance system or verification. Until then, anarchy can continue to reign.

The other thing that I’ve found painful is the way to search for challenges. If they aren’t Groundspeak’s worldwide challenges, then you have to put the town’s name in and it doesn’t appear to give you stuff too far from where you search. For example. the Oneonta one is the only one that comes up when I search “Oneonta,” despite the Stamford one being only about 25 miles away.

In geocaching, you can set up queries to search and see. I haven’t seen that on challenges. Also in geocaching, one can pull up a map and see where the caches are. I haven’t been able to do that with challenges. I realize that challenges are also geared toward smart phones (which is another reason it’s silly that all the challenges are linked to geocaching as not everyone has a smart phone) and you can use the app on there, but I haven’t really tried it yet as I haven’t been out of the area far enough to see what it does.

Finally, one thing that irks me is you can’t go to someone’s profile and see what challenges they’ve completed, just how many. I can see all geocaches and benchmarks someone has done, why not what challenges they have completed? What gives on that? It would be a nice thing to see what challenges friends are doing, in case you might want to do them as well. As I said, searching for caches is already hard enough. Now I can’t even check friends challenges to see if there are ones close? Seems like this would have been a no-brainer.

I do still think challenges have a chance and a place in the game. I just believe that if these had been worked on for so long, it wasn’t done with the right thought process. I will hold out hope that things become better with them. If there are some changes to the process, I think it could be a wonderful addition to the geocaching website. But for now, it just seems sloppy and poorly executed.

I hope the challenge change a bit. I really do. And should they change for the better, I’ll have no problem re-visiting this topic and giving it thumbs up. At this point, however, I can’t do it as I just don’t believe it is a good addition at this point.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook by clicking the button on the right side of the page!

 

Filed Under: Geocaching, My world Tagged With: caching, caching challenges, challenges, complaints on geocaching challenges, geocaching, geocaching challenge opinion, geocaching challenges, geocaching challenges opinion, groundspeak

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I’ve recently realized how many photos I have to I’ve recently realized how many photos I have to post here, as well as on Harper’s (@harper_dublin) account). So, as I start to transfer photos, I’ll try and catch up. So photos coming could be from all seasons and who knows when. 🤣

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From a few weeks ago. I was trying to get Harper t From a few weeks ago. I was trying to get Harper to put her paws on the bridge and looked out, but she was more content jumping on me and looking up. I do love the way she seems to be looking at me.
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