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April 4, 2022April 4, 2022

Recent Highlights – An update on 2 April 2022

Prologue

I tried rebooting the pages again last week. That, as evidenced by nother week of radio silcence, failed. So I find myself, on 2 April 2022, attemping once again to make myself relevant through my writing. Well, aside from the fact that I often fall back on writing as my hobby to destress, I heard a podcast recently. “Wow!” You may think, “The guy who listens to podcasts during every commute heard a podcast! Stop the presses!”

Okay, okay, I get it. Perhaps that introduction leaves something to be desired. Let me explain further. The episode in question came courtesy of Planet Money. They told the story of a man who started a web page about soap operas without knowing a single thing about soap operas. He hired a freelancer to write for him and sold ad space with Google. By the time he sold the page for about 3/4 of a million dollars, it made over 40,000 dollars a month in ad revenue.

The epitome of success for an entire generation.

Hear me out. I’m not saying that my weekly ramblings are worth 40,000 dollars a month. However, I don’t think that I’m out of line to say that it might be worth more than the *checks spreadsheet* absolutely nothing in income that I currently make. So, time to research how to make that happen. In the meantime, enjoy the still (economically) worthless content. How long will it take to actually get caught up to 2 April 2022.

Monday 21 March 2022 and Tuesday 22 March 2022

I saw the names of the geocaches on the map and they made me chuckle; Sasquatch, Unicorn, and Cockapoo. I admit that they took longer than expected to find, but I still made it home with plenty of time to spare for dinner. Then, on Tuesday, I ended up on the other side of the Birch Hills Wildlife Management Area (WMA). That might not mean anything to you, but the geocaching web page offered a souvenir for hiding a geocache during the year. I tried to hide one earlier in the year, but the people who ran the conservation area denied me permission to do so.

While researching other areas to hide geocaches, I found that Massachusetts gives implied permission to all WMAs. I used that to my advantage a couple of weeks ago and found some nooks in the BHWMA to hide two geocaches. They approved them and I got my souvenir.

Wednesday 23 March 2022

We administered PSAT and SAT tests on Wednesday. They gave us the afternoon to prep and grade. I actually took advantage of the time and caught up on nearly everything. Then, after school, I went to find some geocaches at Dennison Lake. Originally, I thought I might find one set of caches, including some multi-caches (a type I haven’t found in quite a long time), but I ended up going the other way. Along that path, I found a letterbox hybrid cache. Letterboxing is a precursor (I think) to geocaching in which you are given a location and then clues from that location to find the treasure.

This one made me walk something like 75 steps, turn right, and the letterbox will be there. Apparently my strides were too long because I overshot the area by a good 25 feet. I circled back, though, and found the letterbox. You’re supposed to take a stamp and leave a stamp, but I don’t have stamps. I probably should get a stamp because I recently accidentally found another letterbox by accident. In both cases, I left a sketch of Garfield.

Thursday 24 March 2022

A student said to me in response to the pictures, “Was the school day really awesome?” I replied, “Goodness no.” “Oh, that makes sense,” he said, “because I didn’t think it was anything special.” “Yeah,” I finished, “the place I hiked was amazing.” “Oh yeah,” he said to a peer,’you found a crypt and a lake the color of Baja Blast.” In addition to that, I hiked down and then up and then up and then down. I found two caches that went hidden for over a year. In the biz, we call that a resurrection. I often write it as “rezz” in my logs because I’m cool like that.

Honestly, I can’t explain it any better than that. The hike down took me to an amazing river. Then, I searched for a good 45 minutes before finding it. My log read, “I poked and prodded with my hiking stick. *squish* *squish* over and over for 45 minutes *squish* *squish* *thud*. Wait, was that a thud? *thud* Definitely a thud.” Then, the other log (after another half an hour of searching), “This is the reason that I love this hobby.”

Friday 25 March 2022 and Sunday 27 March 2022

On Friday, I returned to the scene of a crime, as it were. When I went to that trail system a couple of weeks ago, I parked in a spot that poved inconvenient for another person. She called me an a-hole and I told her to eff off. Ah, the unspoken camraderie of fellow hikers. This time, I hiked for a short period of time to get home for dinner and trivia night. We won.

Then, on Sunday, I took Quinn to the YMCA to sign up for and practice for little league. While there, I noticed a cache was activated again. They only activate it for the spring, summer, and fall because they hid it in their front yard and they don’t want the liability of someone falling on the ice. I took Quinn over and he looked for it while I looked up if we were actually in the right spot. We were and he reported, “I just found a birdhouse.” Bingo.

Saturday, 26 March 2022

I went back over to Poplar Mountain on Saturday. I saw six other caches over there that I missed missed during my visit with Christine and Lilo. Two of them were on top of the moutain and they didn’t want to climb a mountain that day. I already made them climb part of it unkowingly, so I didn’t push it. Well, I wanted those caches, so I returned.

I found not only the caches, but wonderful vistas of all around our area. I also grabbed the other caches and dropped off some themed “swag” into a like minded pirate geocache. Somehow, I spent 6 hours out that day without realizing it. I said to more than one person, “I just lose track of time out there.” While not on the same level as Thursday, I enjoyed myself and wish all hikes can be like this one.

Epilogue

And, so I find myself on 2 April 2022 writing about two weeks ago. I want to find a way to share my adventures with others and give them the same thrill that I get from exploring right in our back yard. I always see the posts, “If I ever got rich, I’d just travel.” I want to show people that you don’t have to be rich. There are hidden treasures all around just waiting to be discovered. For now, join me tomorrow and hopepfully not weeks from 2 April 2022.

March 17, 2022March 17, 2022

A Brief Update – Wednesday, March 16, 2022

Prologue

I fell off the face of the earth again there. It’s not that things haven’t been happening. In fact, I found a cache for 193 straight days as of today. Granted, I am about a week and a half off my pace for finding the 1000 in the calendar year, but I’m not too worried about it. I have a plan over April vacation to try to find 100 caches in that week. There’s a trail a couple of towns over that has about 100 caches. I’m not sure if they are all active, but I have a few weeks to figure that out. For now, a brief update about recent adventures in Geocaching.

February 2022

I followed up a strong January 2022 (95 found) with a more modest February. I found just under 70 caches in February. However, I successfully convinced Christine to come with me to find one of the local mountain series of caches. We completed that one February 22 for way more than the two caches needed to get the souvenir for that very special date. Then, I took both she and Quinn to another local mountain to find some caches over there. That might have been in March, though, so I’ll keep that one brief right now.

I’m most proud of keeping the streak going. I tried once before (even blogging about it like I am now to try to keep myself motivated) but failed. Then, I watched as a World of Warcraft and Facebook friend completed 365+. I think he ended up with almost two years worth of a streak. So, the fact that I have put together over a half a year and don’t see myself slowing any time soon is enough to make a cold and dreary February a success.

March 2022

My pace slowed even more in March. As of right now, I’m under 40 caches, which puts me on pace for about the same as February and maybe even less. As I mentioned, I’m not terribly concerned about that since I have plans to go into overdrive for April vacation and find 100 in that week alone. Plus, the weather is getting warmer and DST means that I get more daylight, which I took advantage of today by getting a couple of caches on a local trail that I had to leave behind during the winter.

Oh, another thing in March that makes me proud! After striking out on my fourth hide, I successfully got hides number 4 and 5. They are in a local wildlife management area that I hiked and cached the other day. I hope to fill about a miles length at the trail I went on today and I still have at least one other puzzle cache that I plan to put together by the end of the year.

Epilogue

I apologize that this is so short and not terribly exciting. I promised a brief update and that’s what I delivered. At least I updated again and I hope to remember to give weekly updates instead of every other month. Stay tuned for hopefully exciting adventures to come!

November 7, 2021November 7, 2021

Google and Rescue Operation

Prologue

Scroll to the end for the TLDR. I wrote in my last post about how I tried in the past to make this page a daily endeavor. I failed again. However, this is my second post this week, so the trend is in the right direction. The major complication is school. Granted, this year has been easier since we don’t have the threat of remote and keeping up as much with Google classroom. Nevertheless, this year, I made school a priority. When colleagues say some of the things I used to say like, “I’m so behind on grading”, I sheepishly shrug and admit that I’ve been pretty good about grading.

“You should be focusing on your job”, you say. I agree. But, I’d be lying if I said that I put school first in the past. So, again, showing growth. It only took 45 years for some things. Most things? Better late than never, I suppose. Next time around, I hope to learn the lessons earlier, though. Then again, some of the lessons are a bit contradictory. Even I can admit that sounds like an excuse.

Some other things have fallen by the wayside, but teachers literally can not do everything that we are expected to do in this current education environment. I share that not for sympathy, but simply as information. One of the things I need to overcome is that I write over 1000 words in all of these posts. (a) It takes forever to write and (b) who actually reads that many works in a sitting anymore?

The Prompt

All writing prompts are taken from here: What was the last thing you searched for online? Why were you looking for it?

Hopefully it now makes sense why Google is in the title. I have to admit that I don’t understand the second part of the title one bit. Who or what are we rescuing? Our search history in order to find what we last searched? That makes no sense. Oh Jesus, never mind. I just got it. I just searched via Google for some possible hints and clues. Sure enough, it came up in the first few results.

Terrible dad joke status accidentally achieved.

Okay, now that embarrassing admission is over, I can answer the prompt. Before I searched for clues regarding the title of this post, I searched for the genus of elm trees. “Why?” You ask. Well, it’s related to the geocache I found today. Today’s cache was a milestone. Number 300. Being the dork that I am, I try to make the milestone caches slightly more important or interesting. I will explain more, but the cache I chose was a mystery cache. It also gave me credit for finding one of the natural world wonders, the Grand Canyon. The catch? I needed to know the genus of oak trees. So, I Googled and rescued my streak. Ha!

The Geocaches (#297)

High and Low (#297, 60 days in a row): I drive through Winchendon every day. A couple of times, I’ve either missed my turn or Google maps sent me an alternate way, so I knew about the trail system here down by the river. What I didn’t know was that if I followed that and then turned right, I would be back on the way home. When I learned that, I started driving this way more often to find geocaches along the trail because it’s a pretty walk that allows me to center myself after what have been long days at work. I followed this one along an unpaved section of the trail. Not as pretty because no river, but the search was fun and I liked the hide. The hider tied it up into a tree, hence the name. Lately, I’ve found a lot more hides in trees, which is fun.

The Geocaches (#298)

Yankee Ingenuity Webcam (#298, 61 days in a row): Earlier in the day, students talked about moving into Dublin. Not knowing much about New Hampshire geography, I had no idea where that was. So, imagine my pleased surprise when I searched for the Yankee Publishing webcam and found it in Dublin. Left school after Dungeons and Dragons club, so it was about 4:25 or so. I walked into the frame to test. Using the sundial as a cover in case anyone asked why I was loitering around, I took a screenshot of the live feed. The rules stated that I needed a shot from the main HD webcam in order to get credit.

Since I needed to wait another half an hour still for the top of the hour, I decided to put together an answer key for the review sheet I gave my Geometry class. With still about 15 minutes to the top of the hour, I wandered around the center and took some pictures of scenery. That left roughly 5 minutes until the webcam updated. I walked back into frame. 3 minutes left. Another trip to my car. 2 minutes. My social anxiety started to trigger. Surely, someone noticed this strange man in a hoodie walking back and forth along this patch of grass in front of Yankee Publishing. How do I respond?

Walking along that patch of grass in front of Yankee Publishing one more time, I took a picture of the town history sign. Less than 1 minute. Okay, here’s my big break, right? Wrong. The top of the hour hits and the last picture uploads and…I’m nowhere to be found. I’m around the corner behind the building. Oh well, hopefully they take my story and other pictures to allow me to take credit.

The Geocaches (#299 and 300)

Old Center 1792 (#299, 62 days in a row): Another quick find on a Friday afternoon. A few of the logs talked about the uniqueness of the container, so it made me curious. Texted Christine while on my way home to ask if I should order the pizza since it was a bit early because I raced out of school. Found the cache pretty quickly, but the container was unique.

Harvard Forest #3 (#300, 63 days in a row): 300 is a milestone number. Geocaching even says so. As a result, I wanted to find a more interesting cache. It just so happened that a mystery cache was hidden about 15 miles from the house. I quickly solved the puzzle (thanks to my aforementioned Googling skills) and set off on the hunt. Unfortunately, the search was quick, too, I get to finally add a mystery to my milestone list, admittedly not a memorable one. However, it helped me to finish my natural wonders of the world list, too.

Epilogue

What did you Google? Why did you Google that? Under certain circumstances, these are actually very interesting questions. I’m not so sure that the circumstances of this post qualify. From a geocaching standpoint, I got my 300, kept my streak going, and finished the natural wonders of the world list. But, if you don’t like geocaching, then I’m afraid this post doesn’t hold much of interest for you. TLDR: I’m sorry and I think the next post will have more for everyone. Stay tuned.

November 4, 2021

Conflicted (Mediate an Argument)

Prologue

As usual, conflicted has multiple meanings in this post. I tried, a few times before, to reboot this blog. Every single time, as you can no doubt guess, I failed. I won’t say this time will be any different. In fact, it probably won’t. However, I promise to try my hardest to keep it going through the end of the year at least. Around this time, I usually make that promise to myself about the main page. More often than not, I keep the promise for a few months before falling off again.

Well, the main page currently lies dormant for the better part of two months now. I admit to ignoring it completely in that time, too. Two Magic the Gathering sets will have released, along with new content for Hearthstone. I wrote not a single word about any of it. To be honest, I thought about shutting the page down completely. I considered starting a solo podcast centered around football. Ultimately, it simply festered in a mire of neglect.

And, so, I remain conflicted. Do I keep writing for two web pages that reach my mother, possibly a couple of friends, and maybe a few of my current and former students? Or, do I save 12 dollars a month. We all know the answer to that.

The Prompt

From here: You’re in the middle of a terrible argument, and everyone turns to you to help resolve it. How do you respond? How do you react to conflict?

During one of my attempts to resurrect this particular page, I got the idea to react to a prompt of the day. I did some searching and found the page at the link above. I actually kept things going for a couple of weeks at the end of last school year and into the summer. Things fell off quickly during our trip to Key West and after. Truth be told, I fell off from regular posting much earlier than that. As a result I never told our adventures in Florida. That’s too bad because we had some great adventures. Perhaps I will weave them in over the next couple of months.

*For now, here’s my favorite picture from the trip*

For now, I need to respond to the prompt. I actually perform well under potentially stressful situations, conflict included. I used to say that my brain didn’t respond the same way to stress as others, as far as I could see. When faced with stress, I often shut out any external stimulus and focused on the task at hand. For example, when Liam fell down a cliff near Doane’s Falls and cut his leg badly enough to require stitches, I didn’t even flinch. I ripped off my undershirt and tore it into strips as a makeshift bandage and tourniquet. We made it easily to the hospital.

So, that’s how I react to conflict. How do I respond to during an argument or if they are conflicted? Well, in addition to the aforementioned calm in the storm, I take the middle ground as much as possible. I try to get the two sides to hear one another. In fact, as usual, I find myself in the middle of a misunderstanding at least. One could make the point that it is a disagreement and maybe even an argument. I worked to be neutral and try to get the two parties to see eye to eye. Alas, my efforts were met with mixed results. Nevertheless, I continue to try.

The Geocache

HP Lovecraft 6: Dunwich (#297, 59 Days in a Row): Another idea I considered to keep myself honest and posting daily was to get back into Geocaching. Once upon a time, I was very into the hobby and found over 200 caches in my first few years. Then, I completely fell off and forgot about for about four and a half years. I figured, if I am updating this page anyway, I might as well update it with my Geocaching adventures, too. Well, I kept to one part of that. I’ve found a geocache every day for 59 days as of this post.

This cache is a “mystery cache”, which requires you to solve a mystery or riddle in order to find the final coordinates and the geocache. I was supposed to visit several of those history signs around town and use various years to fill in the missing numbers. Upon visiting the first location, I saw that the sign was not there. And, so I went on a Google search that led me to a PDF courtesy of the local library that gave me all of the answers. The cache was hidden in a pretty spot near a small waterfall as you will see in the pictures.

Epilogue

I think I answered the question of how I handle when people are conflicted. Sometimes, the universe has a way of aligning the subject of my post with the adventure I choose. This time was not one of those cases. I wanted to do this cache for a few weeks now, so I took the time off from work (working from home actually) to run some errands and I took a detour to find the cache. Far from conflicted, I enjoyed the trip very much. Plus, I found a house with some great Halloween decorations.