A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

geocaching

We have some winners!

We have some winners in the giveaway for my most recent pathtag!

First, thank you to all who entered. We had more than 50 entries, which was great. The bad part is, some people who had said they did something actually didn’t, which meant I had to disqualify them. The good news is – there are going to be more chances to win this tag (and maybe some of my others as well)!

The winners will receive this pathtag!

I have a bunch of my other tags I’ve had made and plan on setting several aside for giveaways, along with a few other items I’ve collected along the way. Maybe I’ll even look to give away some geocoins, as well as some non-geocaching items.

So keep following along and you will have many chances to win!

The winners are posted below (as well as on the RaffleCopter widget on the contest post). They will have until Sunday to respond to me with their address so I can send the tag; if we get to Monday and there’s no response, I will look to pick a substitute winner.

The winners are:

  • acdc&kc (followed on Twitter)
  • Leah Batchelor (liked a ‘lil HooHaa on Facebook)
  • Adam Chater (left a blog post)

I will be contacting each of you to get your addresses.

Thank you again! I look forward to doing more of these contests!

please “Like” A ‘lil HooHaa on Facebook! You can also follow me on Twitter @softball29!

The epic adventure is set to begin …

For those who geocache, you know there are a lot of milestones one can hit.

It starts with the first 100 finds.

And then 250. 500. 1,000.

The first “special” milestone I planned was my 1,000th. I attempt to make each thousand finds something special. My 1,000th was GC39, “The Spot.” It’s the oldest active geocache east of the Mississippi.

Then came 2,000, which was Europe’s first on my trip to Ireland.

On No. 3,000, it was the finale of the New York Delorme challenge. That was followed by 4,000, which came at the midnight madness event at GeoWoodstock in Pennsylvania. Several friends went and got a cake and “decorated it” for the find.

Good times.

But since then, it’s taken me a lot of time to get to 5,000. I wanted to make it special as this is a pretty big milestone, I think. So, I started looking at caches to plan out. Where to go? What to find?

All signs pointed to Mingo.

For those who don’t geocache — or those of you who do and don’t know what Mingo is — it’s the oldest active geocache in the world.

It’s a cache I have wanted for several years. And what better goal than to make it my 5,000th find.

Originally, this trip was going to be a weekend one. Fly into Denver, drive to Mingo. Do some other caches, and then fly out.

Simple.

Or not.

Instead, this has turned into an epic geocaching journey that will no doubt create a ton of memories and fun stories. I looked into a couple of states and such, but once I did the math, it was decided we’d go for the gusto.

It’s going to be a seven-day trip to the west. We’ll land in Denver, stay a night there and then hit a Rockies (vs. the Phillies!) game the next day. From there, we’ll hit eight states and a bunch of wild and cool things. This trip will take us from Colorado to Wyoming, and then from there we’ll hit Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah.

All in all, we’ll cover a bit more than 2,000 miles.

We’ll see some amazingly cool spots and hopefully meet a few people. I’ve had a few events published along the way to try and meet people.

This is going to be one heck of a cool trip. Hopefully it will not only be a great trip to get me recharged in my life, but also something to give me inspiration to blog more often again.

I’ll have plenty of stories and photos … and I look forward to sharing them here once I get back in and in the coming weeks!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook! You can also follow me on Twitter @softball29!

Trying to once again break through the geocaching wall

It seems my geocaching world has been much like my blogging consistency the past few months — pretty crappy.

Last year, I blogged every day of the year. It kind of burned me out and when I finally missed a day, it was somewhat refreshing. January was fine with the 20 Days of Chill, but then February came and I barely touched the blog.

March, April, and May have been somewhat the same.

While I can’t say that the full year of posts totally did me in, it definitely didn’t help. But I am trying to amend that. I need to visit blogs, read more, and get back in the flow. I’ve had this blog way too long to let it go away.

I need to get back into geocaching more to get outside and be moving.

The same can be said about geocaching.

I started with the game in 2008 and reached my peak in 2009, when I found 1,030 caches trhat year. Since then, it’s been pretty steady. But friends I’ve caches with have moved away or don’t cache as much anymore. And, honestly, it’s not as fun to me to go solo.

That’s kind of funny, if you think about it, considering I like solo board games. Anyway …

Last year, I had my lowest total since starting as I found just 138 caches total. This year hasn’t been any better as I currently have nine cache finds this year. Four of those are events, so I’ve found five physical geocaches in 2017.

Part of the reason is this area hasn’t been as active as it once was. For a long time, I had most of the caches placed around here. That’s changed in the past year or so, which will allow me to go out and cache locally again.

Some other reasons are the caches being placed. I realize not every cache can be a nice container in the woods. And I like the urban ones and park-and-grab ones as much as anybody else. But when that’s all you are going after, it can get a little tough on the fun aspect.

The game as a whole is healthy. I know people who live to geocache and have thousands and thousands of finds. There are millions of caches placed throughout the world. But with the apps on smartphones and such, it allows for people to quickly get into the game and, often enough, quickly get out of the game. That means the caches they places two or three days into playing the game might not be so well thought out and, at times, might be in bad shape. If they are out of the game, how does that help?

It doesn’t.

The reality, though, is that I still like to geocache. It’s a fun way to get outside, stretch the legs, and enjoy an afternoon of hunting for items. With that in mind, I know I have to get back into it and I will — I have plans on how to do it.

Some thoughts on those plans include:

  • Trying to plan a few cache outings with friends
  • Getting out and placing a bunch of new caches this summer (I have many ready, I just need to put the time in and find the spots/set them up)
  • Find a weekend or two to get out there and perform maintenance checks on my current caches
  • Slow it down when geocaching (ie: look at the surroundings more, take photos)
  • Maybe do some videos of the adventures and have some fun with that

The reality of everything is I am not going to probably be scoring 1,000 finds in a year again under normal circumstances. Now, if the ET trail in Nevada came into play, that thought goes out the window.

In the end, the game is fun. Just like any other flow, it will have positives and negatives when it comes to experiences. But for me, the experiences have been highly positive. It’s my hope that by the end of the year I will be back into the game with many more than nine finds. Only time will tell on that end, though.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” A ‘lil HooHaa on Facebook! You can also follow me on Twitter @softball29!

Logging rules to change in geocaching

A subtle rule change is on the horizon for geocaching.

Geocaching.com, which is the top listing service for the caching world, has notified users of a change coming in early May. And, honestly, it’s shocking that this hadn’t been in place already.

Though geocaching doesn’t necessarily have “rules,” per say, it has guidelines. The change that will take effect on May 8 is a good one, too.

  • Cache owners will no longer be able to log a Find, DNF, Webcam Photo Taken, Needs Archived, or Needs Maintenance on their owned caches. However, event owners can log an Attended or Will Attend on their own events.
  • Players will no longer be able to log more than 1 (one) Find, Attended, Webcam Photo Taken, or Will Attend per cache. Players will still be able to change a Write Note to a Find if they have not already logged a Find on the cache.

This is fantastic news. Though I’m a firm believer in players being able to play the game their own way (it’s not a competition, so what somebody else does isn’t necessarily what another will do etc.), I’m also a believer that you have to have some structure.

Find it only once with the rule changes coming in May!

People often “pad” their stats in some interesting ways, which can hurt the game as a whole.

Let me give an example – when we first started our annual summer picnic event in our area, we had some people travel to attend. We had temporary caches places as part of a “poker” run. These were not permanent caches, however. Two or three of those in attendance logged the event for each of those temp caches they had found – so I think six or seven logs for the event. I wasn’t the one who published the event, so I couldn’t delete those finds.

With the new rules, they will no longer be allowed to do that. It is also good that these rule changes are not retroactive. Past logs are not affected. That could mess with people’s find totals and milestones, which would be a shame to many.

Let’s look at each of these rule changes.

The first is not being able to long your own cache hides. I have known several people who have done this and have always wondered why. I mean, if you hid it, why would you log a find? It is good, however, that people can still log their own events because, in the end, they do attend. It would be silly if that had been taken away.

One question I hope is answered, though, is what happens with an adopted cache. A cache is often done by somebody who has found it in the past. Does that find get deleted? Or does that fall under the “past logs?” This could be quite important, just because it might be the difference between an older cache being adopted, or it being archived.

The second is a good rule, too, as it make it so people can only log something once. Some owners will allow you to log a cache more than once if you do different things. Or an “event” will be something monthly, so the date is just changed and people log the same event several times. One thing wrong with that, is people may not always see the event if it’s only a date change. New events pop up, so it allows more eyes to see it.

These changes are a good step for the game. As the game continues to grow with technology advances, it also needs to maintain some law and order so as not to disturb the game or scare more “veteran” players away.

Kudos to Geocaching.com for recognizing the need for this, but at the same time giving people time to prepare for it and to not eliminate back logs.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” A ‘lil HooHaa on Facebook! You can also follow me on Twitter @softball29!

2017: Looking ahead

New Year’s resolutions are something many people do. They say it on New Year’s and a week or two later, they are done

I don’t believe in resolutions. I believe in setting goals and doing your best to achieve them. Though I will set/fix/change goals throughout the year as needed, setting them at the beginning of the year is more symbolic as it’s easier to keep track of.

I know there are things I need to do personally and professionally to keep moving forward, but these goals are all personal. Some are a little more serious than others, but they will be good for me to kind of see what I can do in 2017.

I went a little different with some of these this year. Some are kind of open-ended because I feel it’s easier and better to do that, rather than put a set result. You’ll see when you get to those.

Anyway, here’s looking at 2017.

Health

This is an important one for me

About a year ago, I had really taken hold of diabetes. I had gotten my blood sugars down, I was eating better, my weight was down … and then I fell off the wagon.

My A1C has gone up too much, I’ve gained weight and I started eating too many things I shouldn’t.

Being healthy isn’t a fad diet or doing anything with some of the things people see on TV (pills etc.) It’s eating better and exercising. Simple as that. Though clipping carbs out might help you drop weight, it’ll come back.

Being healthy is a life commitment, not a few weeks or months.

But with this, I’m not putting any numbers. I’m not saying where I want my A1C to be, or my normal blood checks, or my weight.

I know I need to be healthier as a whole. Take a few more walks. Get out more. Ride my bike (when it’s warmer). Maybe invest in an elliptical machine (I always liked them when I went to the gym… and I hate the gym, so that’s out).

But I also need to eat healthier. And make sure I drink enough water. And though I don’t drink a ton of it — keep pushing soda out of the diet. And try new things. In recent years, I’ve started to like several things I never used to like … so hopefully that can continue.

So this goal is simple … be much more healthy at the end of the year than I am now.

Photography

I took a lot of photos in 2016, but I want to keep that up. This might not be a trackable goal, per say, but basically, I want to continue taking photos and thinking outside the box.

That means continuing the Photo Blogging Challenge for throughout 2017, as well as just going out and taking photos. I’d love to try and aim for doing a few of the videos (like my year-end one) of photos maybe every few months, but we’ll see about that. Basically, I want to challenge myself to get better and more creative with my photography. I’d also like to learn Photoshop more in-depth than I know it now.

Blogging

Blogging in 2016 was rather interesting, obviously.

I set out on a bit of a mission and ended up going a little stir crazy by posting every single day. I’m not going to say I won’t do the same, but the odds are I don’t. Once I get past January, it’ll slow up a little as I won’t want to go every single day.

That being said, I do want to have more posts this year that are solid posts and not filler. I like challenges. I enjoy the photo aspect. I want to make sure I am putting quality (at least in my mind), and not just a post to post something.

I also truly want to visit more blogs this year. I got away from that this year because I was posting all the time and I miss it.

I am going to aim for 200 posts this year and visiting as many blogs as I can. I’d also still like to revamp my about page as much as possible!

I also might have a couple of other writing challenges in mind that I am trying to shape up and plan out.

Baseball

Ahh, the Summer of Baseball. I can’t wait to be back in the parks watching games. I will not be doing 75 games again — at least I don’t think. But I think a goal of 50 games is good and would be fun. I want to continue visiting new parks and just watching games.

 

It’s very relaxing and a lot of fun.

That being said, I also want to have a few weekends this summer that aren’t baseball dominated. As much fun as I had last year — and I did — there are times I just wanted to relax on a weekend and kick back and I was at a game. Now, I love the games. But sometimes .. it’s nice to be away, too.

So, my goal is 50 games. I’d like to see a few new stadiums. I’d like to do one — maybe two — big baseball trips during the summer where I spend a week or so pretty much all baseball. I’ll keep scorebook at every game, stamp my passport in every place where I can and I’ll enjoy it as much as I always do.

It’s a great game and I look forward to the 2017 Summer of Baseball!

Board games

I didn’t play as many games as I would have liked last year. With all the baseball traveling I did in 2016, weekends from spring until fall were pretty crowded. That meant not going to the game group too often, thus meaning I was playing far fewer games.

And that stinks as I really enjoy playing games.

One of my goals is to start playing many more solo variants or solo games. This allows me time on my own to play some fun and competitive games. I own a lot of games that have solo variants and I also have games that are solo only — so there’s no reason I can’t do this. It allows me time to relax and refresh and challenge myself. It also helps me just be able to play a hobby I truly enjoy, even when there isn’t a group of people around to play.

I’ll put down a few goals to reach, though.

  • Learn and play each game in my collection that has a solo variant
  • Unwrap/punch every game I have that I haven’t done this to yet
  • Go through collection and if there are games I will never play … sell or trade.

Geocaching

Every year, geocaching is in my goals. Last year was a very lax year for geocaching. I didn’t find many, I didn’t place many, and I kind of got away from the game.

There are a few reasons for that, such as because the game has blown up so much it’s hard to find good caches without driving for a bit. See, most of my area is cleared out and those that aren’t I like to keep around for a time that me and a couple of others might want to go find a few.

But these days, with the advent of the smartphone apps and such, hides are becoming a little tougher to deal with. I can only find so many lamp post and guardrail hides.

I do miss caching with others, going on fun hikes, and making memories with caching, though So this year I am aiming to find 200 caches. That should be highly doable. Heck, if done right, I could get half that done in a weekend.

Geowoodstock is in May this year, in North Carolina. I’m not ruling it out by any means, but it’s a longshot. I’d like to hit several other events this year, though, so we’ll see what happens.

I’m going to stick to just the 200 finds as a goal this year. I’m not going to tier it as I want to make it a little easier in hopes that I can get back into the game.

Organization

I think I am pretty organized at work. I utilize my work calendar quite well and usually have everything line up.

Personally, not as much.

I want to get more organized in 2017. That includes utilizing my personal Google calendar, as well as a life organizer I purchased. There might be a little more to this thing than I need, but I am going to give it a whirl. It will probably take me a few weeks to “set it up,” but that gives me time to think things over more — both about this year and long-term things. So, that will be cool. In the end, I want to be able to look back at 2017 and realize I followed something a bit better and didn’t feel like I was always disorganized.

Personal

Again, this isn’t measurable. But, I want 2017 to be a year of “happy.” I want to feel happy. I want to be happy. I want to improve as many things in my world that I can. It can be anything from being more active within the family to making sure my finances keep improving, both short-term and long-term.

This isn’t really something I can do anything other than at the end of the year, look back, and say “Yes, I am in a better place personally than I was at the beginning of the year.”

Hopefully I will keep improving and pushing forward. That’s all I can try and do.

I hope you all have a wonderful 2017!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” A ‘lil HooHaa on Facebook! You can also follow me on Twitter @softball29!