The H.A.C. Kick off and 101 Caching Event.

Just wanted to point out the kick-off event for the Hawkeye area council is listed and going to happen on Jan. 9th 2010. It will be from 10:00am to 1:00pm. Some temp's will be put out but are not loggable, and a new cache will be in place that is loggable, plus there's some really great hides already in Kent Park. If you haven't done them, you should put them on your to-do list.

If you can make it we would love you to come and join us. We will be doing a potluck lunch as well.

Here's a link to the listing on Geocaching.com

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=581622be-0a47-4fc3-8c7a-dfebf39125d5

Hope to see ya there!!!!

Parabola

Now that was scary

I had a very scary thing happen to me over the past two day's. My throat swelled up to the point of I could hardly breath. We still aren't 100% sure why, if it's an allergy to a medication or the change in weather. I've just never experienced anything like that before. I'll spare the detail's of it, but it really scared the crap out of me.

Not sure why I'm putting this in my blog. Other than that the therapy and trying to "relearn" how to sleep, is going ok. I wish it would move along much faster, and for a change in the past 4 year's my panic attack's seem to finally being suppressed. I'm still having a few but they are no where as bad as they where. The wife has noticed a big change in my attitude and said she thinks I'm in a much better mood, and no where near as snipy as I had become.

But finally starting to get 5 to 6 hours of sleep at one shot. Which so far I can live on that. It sure beat's the 1 to 2 hour's or being awake for day's on end, till I would just crash for two day's. I can sure tell I've been off work for a long time. I was in a couple of day's this week, and no matter how much I walked the dog, or went for a walk, it doesn't compare to climbing up and down ladder's all day long.

I'm so looking forward to getting back into the swing of thing's, which is slowly happening or at least headed in the right direction.

I've been very lucky to have such a supportive family, and co-worker's. I want to say thank you to all of them for dealing with me threw all the high's and low's of this whole thing. I'm really worried about my son, and what affect's it's had on him. Just now that I'm starting to do better I think it's time for some good quality father and son time.

I would suggest anyone that has panic attack's and or annexity/depression problem's, get seen, they can help, even though I was too the point I didn't think they could but it was a matter of getting a few doctor's involved. But there is hope out there. And if you need to talk to someone about them, don't be afraid to drop me a line. I don't know if I will be able to help much, but just having someone to listen has been a big help. I know this stuff is hard to talk to other's about since it does get very personal, but it does help, and their is some very understanding people out there.

Sleeping update

I've had a ton of e-mail's regarding my sleeping disorder's. Which thank you everybody!!! So I figured I'd post an update regarding it.

I've got a total of four doctor's that i'm working with. That sure does get confusing with the insurance company when thye want to know something, trying to refer them to the right doctor is kind of hard. They did figured out I have a mix of two sleeping disorder's, but not the one's they had though I had. So the original plan was completely throw out the window, which would have been a much easier and faster "fix". But that's mixed in with a annexity/depression problem, and all of them are feeding off each other.

I had put this stuff off for four year's due to being busy, didn't have time to make it in to the doctor, which made it progress to the level it got too. I had just been dealing with it and was trying to kept moving on with daily thing's.

The last doctor I finally met with for the first time last wednesday. Which was kind of interesting to say the least. She just shook her head at alot of the medication's they had tried, and the fact that one of them I've been on for over two year's, but it's been the one thing I could count on to supress a Panic attack. But she's said, if I was to go off of it at the moment, I would even up in the hospitial witht he possible of some very bad thing's happening. But we have to make a plan on how to get off of it, but she said not until we find something that can keep panic attacks from happening. But as of right now I am physically dependent on it. So yet another thing tossed in the mix to deal with.

I am getting to go back to work next week, and have been working hard on reseting me internal clock to a 24 hour clock, and not from about the 64 hour clock that had happened because it was delt with sooner. The past month, has been hard do to I had to set a wake up time. No matter what, if I haven't slept I have to get up at that time, and it's everyday, and no sleeping in on the weekend's. I had figured out my day's and night's are reversed, so get those back to normal hasn't been fun and still isn't right yet, But getting back to work and getting back on a normal "life" schedule will help, but the first couple of week's will be ruff. And scaling back on all sleeping medication's. They work for a certain amount of time, but are not ment to be a perminate thing. ANd after so long your body will fight those as it will see them as toxic and will rasie your white blood count like you have an infection your body is trying to fight off.

I've been trying to take walk's, ride my bike, go for a hike out in one of the park's as exercise to try and help make me physicaly tired, but also have been told, exercise in the evening nearing bed time isn't a good thing, due to it can cause adrenaline to start, and keeping you awake, so there's a fine line not to cross in the later evening's. Defining that line, well I haven't figured it out yet.

Another thing is I was/am a clock watcher, meaning at night when i couldn't sleep I would keep looking at the time on the alarm clock. This only makes you frustrated, and get's you start thinking, ok I can't sleep, I'm going to be so tired tomorrow, and making your brain "thinking" alot more than when you should be relaxed.

So far I haven't been able to get a solid sleeping schedual, but it seem's the quality of sleep I do get has improved. Which working on a getting back to a normal schedule will help and speed this up.

As far as a set bedtime, is good, but as I was told if in the evening if I've very tired, go ahead and go to sleep, just as long as it's not a nap in the middle of the day. As your body is trying to make up for that lack of sleep.

I think the worst was going 4 day's and night without sleep or just a few hour's, and then by the time the weekend rolled around, I would crash for two day's and there was no getting me up. Sadly I've missed a ton of family activies, alot of my son's sport's stuff.

But there's kind of an update, and I guess the best thing is now we know what's going on, and have a plan we have been working on for the past month in treating it, but it wasn't until I could get into all the doctor's to get everything I needed. Which that was the bad part, every big test, and every new doctor I wouldn't know about till I met with one doctor, and then trying to make an appointment, we found I couldn't get in for a month or six week's. So it just drug out the time-line this has been going on.

Have a happy holiday's everyone!!!

A ammo can or two.

Well, I've been trying to work a deal with some folk's about a large order of ammo can's to use for the Geoscouting project for the upcoming year. I finally got the right guy, and was shocked at the deal he gave me.

We worked out that if any IGO member want's to buy a pallet full or bulk quantity's of ammo can's 30 cal's or 50 cal's, he will sell them at whole sale. Already they give geocacher's a 5% discount which has been very nice of them to do, but with the rocking price of the ammo can due to the future of them is unknown at this point, they have almost doubled in price over the past year. The military has been crushing the can's, instead of putting them up for auction. Any way's I told them I would definitely give them a plug. CC military surplus in Central city. This is almost a 50% discount off of the retail price of buying them one at a time. And is just a quarter lower than what they cost a year ago.

I was so happy when he said he would do this for any of us, so if a bunch of us want to get together and buy in bulk, and split the cost and the can's we can do that.


I have to thank my little sister for helping me get them all off the pallet, counted, take the lid's and put those on. And for trying to help me repair a couple that got dented due to the metal band's holding them to the pallet. And for them putting them back in the truck to move from my parent's to my house.







Another big thank you to my little guy for helping me unload them all out of the truck and get them stacked up in the garage while we are waiting on paint to start painting them.



I'm almost ready to release a major announcement for me to the public. It's been a hard decision, but I think it's a good one. Just there will be no more log's under the handle of Parabola on geocaching.com. I guess I'll just spill the bean's. I've retired my handle. Parabola had a good run, but is now done. Done caching, no way. But a fresh start I guess. My new handle, well it's out there with a few find's already. Then final cache I had to put on terra-caching.com due to how I wanted to finish I couldn't meet the guideline's. There's a write up with a cache called Parabola to finish him up, with a very unique kind of cache and I think another first of it's kind. I've even got the 2nd in command there involved. I guess call it completing the circle. To swipe a friend of mine's cache hide name. That the cause of the recent design of my pathtag's. The piece's all fit if you really look and study them.

I hope I've made some memorable caches for you to think back and say to yourself, what was I thinking going after that cache. What's left will still be maintained by me, and I don't know if I want to adopt them over or not, but they still will be watched over, till the time comes to put them to rest.

Not to fear, though, there's more coming, and I think the picture's in this post will show that.

See ya on the trail's,

Parabola

Geoscouting

It's out and officially announced now. The Cache to Eagle program, the pillar's of scouting, the Pinewoodderby TB race. Eache councial will be putting together a different program. This is set up as a partnership between Geocaching.com and the Boy Scout's. Since we have similar values, and all enjoy the outdoor's the two do kind of go hand in hand.

So far we have a general plan for the Hawkeye Area Council and set up a pretty bang up program for 2010. This venture is to help celebrate the 100th anniversary of scouting.

As an Eagle scout myself, I learn a lot that I sit use today while out in the wood's looking for geocaches. But be ready Jan. 1st for the program to began, and other thing's may be added on as we go threw the year. I'm sure hoping the program we set up for the Hawkeye Area Council will blow other council's away.

You can contact me if you wish to help in this venture at all. We will be teaching GPS skill's as well as the ability to use a compass properly and some orienteering. All why we are doing one of the actives we love most, geocaching.

I'm also setting up a donation link to my paypal account. As I've been getting thing's for this, it's getting kind of expensive for just one person to handle and your donation would be put to use in the form of container's, logbook's, Swag, paint for the container's. Just make sure you use the donation link for this and not the one to help me finish this tattoo. Unless you want to donate to that as well. :)

Be safe out there and if you have time check out the Geoscouting website for more information.

Pathtag's

Ok, I'm starting to turn into a pathtag junky. lol I made my first one and ordered I think 150 of them. Af first they where flying out the mailbox as fast as I could get them there. But finally have slowed down some. I've gotten a lot of neat tag's traded with me though. This is the first tag I made. And I'm no photoshop expert but am getting better.



After getting them in the mail and being pretty impressed with how they turned out, I had an idea. I have been looking to make a very unique kind of cache. It would have to be a terra-cache, cause I couldn't get away with this on geocaching.com. But I made another design and am having 150 made. Once these are made they will each go into an envelope sealed with logging instruction's. I'm shipping these to a bunch of people all around the world, and they will put one in a terra-cache hide and forget about it. As people find those caches and if they look at the envelope and trade for it. They will find they can log another cache. Only 100 coin's will be set out for logging a find on this. Which is a lot of find's on a terra-cache anyway's. I don't expect it to be worth much in point's but I think the MCE of it will be pretty high as I believe this is the first one of it's kind. I haven't gotten the tag's yet but just got the blue print for it and it's in production now. You'll see it's alot more cartoony than I had wanted.

This is what I submitted:



This is how they had to change it to make it work:




Some of it was the cut lines would be so thin the color wouldn't be able to be added to it. I'll add some jpeg's of the first tag I have. I haven't taken a photo of it as of yet.

Parabola

100 years of scouting

2010 will be the 100th anniversary of the Boy Scout program. Being an Eagle scout myself, I jump right in to help with this. Don't have a whole lot of detail's yet, but there will be alot of new caches, and hopefully some CITO event's and some regular event's wrapped up in this. I'll be working with a coule of cachers and the Hawkeye Area Council and keep the hides, in the area's that the HAC have to use.

I've been sending out a lot of email's getting permission to place hides in 7 counties. I've cleared them with almost all of them. The neat part is the ranger's are very excited about them as well. PJ and i will have our work cut out for us making alot of the hides. Also we are combing area's looking for Eagle Scout project's, and hope to include a lot of those into the cache hides.

The bad part is the cost of the ammo can has went up everywhere. They used to be 5 for a 30 cal, and now are 7.25 for a 30 cal. I've been able to raise some fund's to help pay for some of the ammo can's, but still going to have to buy them a few at a time.

Plus we will be putting on some actives at Scout camp. That will be lot's of fun. Just now waiting for a meeting happening soon, to hammer out the detail's.

Well back to combing the internet looking for deal's on 30 cal ammo can's.

Parabola

After all this time...

Well it's been a very long time, especially for me as they finally figured out what's going on with my sleep. It's a sleeping disorder called Circadian Sleep disorder, combined with severe Insomnia with poor sleep quality and some sleep restriction. After 4 year's of this stuff, what has happened is my body get used to the med's they keep prescribing and they seem to work for a few week's to a month.

What happens is my body get's use to each one faster and faster and now I'm to the point my body is finally rejecting the med's, which is why my white blood cell count has been higher than normal. It's the body's way of fighting what has finally become toxic to me off.

I kind of wondered how a sleep study could be given while I was on a bunch of different med's. So I've got to keep a sleep diary so we can find out my body's normal sleep/wake cycle. The great part (not really) is I've been on a sleep med for the past four year's and I'm having heavy withdrawal as I'm tapering off the them.

I guess this whole thing is treatable and I go in a week and a half to start a cognitive therapy that they will find out why my brain doesn't slow down at night and keep's going full speed. Basically what he said is I don't know how to relax.

So now the battle is getting me off all medication then we can see with the sleeping journal what my body's sleep/wake cycle is. We may find out my body has a 30 hour day cycle instead of a 24 hour one. But they can't tell until all the med's are gone.

Parabola

Goodbye

There may be some foul word's in this link. Just makes me sad. 20 year's of great tunes came to an end. I got to see them play 3 times live though. Hopefully Trent will still record. This song is really cool on disc. I wish Trent would be doing the vocal's on this. And not this dude he's got singing. This is one song I wish I could have heard live.

All wired up.

I just thought I'd share some of the photo's I took when I had my sleep study done. I look kind of funny. I was sure to have my head freshly shaven, but didn't bother with the beard. Wouldn't you know they had to stick two on each cheek and a strip under my nose, that only stuck for about three hour's.

It was kind of neat. They can tell which way your eye's are pointing. Which way your feet are pointing.

I got to the hospital to take the test at 8 PM. It took about an hour before they where ready for me, but these room where ok, and had an alright bed in them. And a TV. I did come prepared with my iTouch, and even made some bid's on ebay, and sent out some e-mail's while I was waiting.

Some the the electrode's, wouldn't stick very well, so they had to use this glue stuff that takes a bit to get off. But they had me all hooked up and ready to go about 10:30. I watched TV for a little while and then fell asleep, till about 3:30. They could tell when I woke up and ask it I would try to sleep on my back instead of my side. I laid there till about 4:30, and I think they knew by then I wasn't going to be able to fall asleep again, so they ended it about 2 hour's early.






We as still waiting on the result's yet. But again, I thought the picture's I took of me where kind of funny. I'm hoping that they find something with this test, and I can go back to work. I've been off work for too long!!!

Parabola

"Build it and we will come"

The whole family took a trip up to Dyersville. We went to visit the field of dream's. I've been there a couple of time's but it's always been closed when I am there. This was the first time I was there and the gift shop was open. There is a Virtual Terracache there, and it too me two trip's to get the Confirmation code. I was kind of dumb and looked at the wrong sign and didn't pay close enough attention to the sign about 10 feet away. But that's ok, this gave me a reason to go back and when the wife said she wanted to go, well OK!!!! I'm kind of surprised a Geocache hasn't been placed there yet.






PJ took his camera and was taking photo's of everything. I'm glad it's digital and not film. But there was some people hitting some ball's and kind of playing some ball. There was also quite a few visitor's as well. We even ventured off to the corn in the outfield to do a photo opp. It's kind of neat they have kept this place going for so long, as this year is the 20th anniversary. I do wish it was open at night with the light's for the field on. I think that would be neat to see.








Parabola

The thing's you find out caching.

The whole family went out this past weekend to grab a few caches but we where going way north up to Balltown to see the "Million Dollar View". We had a pretty cool trip going up and back. And we worked it just right so we hit the view at sunset. You can't beat that here in Iowa. Also I didn't know the oldest bar and grill in Iowa was right next to the viewing area. Which I guess it had a fire last year and we found out it had just reopened.






I kind of picked a few caches on a kind of weird route I picked out and somewhat did it on the fly. There's a puzzle cache that I had an idea since I can't figure out the puzzle, that since I was up in the area I would try, and my hunch was wrong. But while walking around scoping out the area, I noticed something that kind of looked like a leg in the tall weed's right at the edge of the tree line. I got a little closer and it kind of looked like someone had stashed their camping stuff or someone had tried to hide some dark green clothes. As I got closer it started looking more and more like it was kind of in the shape of a body. Since we where in the middle of nowhere I was wondering, glad the rest of the family stayed in the car. As I got close to the tree this was leaning against, I saw a hat as well. So for a second, I was wondering what I had found.

As it turn's out I found a dummy body for a search and rescue group, that was out practicing. There was a nice note attached to it that explained it all. Which was pretty neat to find. Never did find the cache, as it was a long shot on what I was trying to do, but I thought it did make for an interesting story.





The picture's I took where after I had stomped down the tall grass, and had moved the dummy so I could read the note. Plus I was coming at it from the other direction, to give more of an idea what it looked like.



I just thought this was one of those thing's that won't happen again and a case of being in the right spot and the right time. I sure was glad it was just a dummy though.

Parabola

Ready to roll

I'm heading down in the morning to take a ride along the Rock Island Trail near Peoria, Il. Yes, it's a power trail. I've done a great multi cache on the trail before with some friend's, which sadly is now archived.

The trail is 26 miles long, one way. For someone that hasn't been on a bike in about a year this is really kinda dumb, but go all out or stay at home. (evil laugh).



I've done the check's on the bike, and it's in great shape to go. I got three water bottles, frozen in the freezer's, and my camelpak is full and in a cooling spot. I need to pick up a few pack's of peanut's, and a few other treat's for some food to munch on.

I've also got some terra-caches to do in the area, so this is going to be a long day. Just going to dread all the log's I'll have to write, but none of them will be copy and paste one's.

Wish me luck, if you have my # feel free to call me to tease me or see if I'm still peddling away.

Parabola

Insomnia

I think over the past week I finally reached my breaking point. The frustration of having insomnia can be very overwhelming. For the past two and a half year's it has slowly gotten worse. At first it was pretty easy to deal with since I have anxiety attack's, and the med I take for those usually make me tired. And for some reason I only have an attack in the evening when I don't really have anything going on.

I have found or figured out I've never had an attack while out caching. Not sure if hiking and exploring an area takes my mind off of thing's or what. But this has finally progressed to the point to where I was lucky if I could get two hour's of sleep a night, and this was on prescribed medication for sleeping. I think I've about tried all of them on the market at some point. Which it can be very hard on a person cause they usually start you off with a very low dose, and increase it, but when they pull you off it, they pull you off it, leaving you with withdrawal.



I was on one med for about a year that worked, but it literally turned me into a walking zombie and wiping out my ambition to do much. Which has gotten worse as well. Then here a while back I thought I finally found something that worked. Lunesta. But we switched insurance company's and for a person to be on that they have to try the generic first. Well, that was the one than made me a zombie. They assured me at the parmacy, it would take about a week to ge the paper work done and they could do a refill or I could pay for it out of my own pocket, which was like 10 buck a pill or something like that. So I figured I'd ruff it and wait it out.

Two week's went by and still nothing. We called our Doctor and they had faxed the paperwork twice. Another week went by and my wife was picking up something else and asked about it, and they said yes it was approved about 4 day's ago. Thanks for letting us no.

But then when I started taking it again, it didn't work. Not sure why. So after a couple of week's we talked to the doctor again and she put me on something else, and that went on for a few different med's, until last week when I was eating Tylenol PM like candy and taking the prescribed med's. It would be enough to knock me out for just a few hour's and that's it. After a couple of week's of that, I found myslef getting two to three hour's of sleep a night but by the time the weekend rolled around I would just completely crash.

I had been put on this last prescription and it made my eye's look like I was hanging out with Cheech and Chong. My motor skills where not good and even was having trouble walking at times. I called in sick to work cause I wasn't comfortable driving to work.

I'll finally call it my breaking point but we went and say the doctor today, and she gave me a "knock your ass off, see ya next week" pill's. But the best part she thought it was time to have a sleep study done. Which I am wondering why this was recommended two year's ago, but hey at least it's going to happen now. We had a couple of choices of where to go, U of I, The PCI building (which I've said I'd bleed to death before I go back there due to their shady business practices, and for some reason they charge 12 % interest rate, even if you set up a payment plan and pay as agreed. I figured out my credit card had a cheaper interest rate. And then the last choice was the mayo clinic in Rochester, Minn. After hearing about how they do some extra thing's with sleeping test's we choose to set it up there, so now we are just waiting to hear from them.

I was hoping my accidental insurance (hey I have that policy cause me and the boy are accident prone) would cover some of my lost wages, but nope. We haven't gotten that far but I hope we will figure it out.

So I guess this is good news for a change and they are leaning towards sleep apnea or restless leg syndrome. Not really sure what those are but the sleep apnea, I know is you don't get enough oxygen when you sleep and you quite breathing from time to time, and you never make it into REM sleep. I have no idea what the restless leg syndrome is, and haven't looked it up on the net yet.

Just the bad part is my boss is on vacation and i would really like to talk to him about this, so he knows what's going on, and to make sure it's all ok. we are in our busy season, so this is kind of bad timing.

I've got one other major thing to talk about but am getting sleepy (YEAH!!!!) So I'll try and get another post up on it in the next few day's.


Parabola

Testing a widget

RockStock 3

Just some random picture's of who's playing tonight at Hitter's Ball Park. I don't have time to properly flip the R around at the moment but I'll do a little updating later.. The show start's in a few hour's. Also playing is Halestorm, Chevelle, possibly Destrophy (a local band that is on it's way up) and KoRN.

Not sure yet on photo rules for the venue, but I've been burnt on that the past couple of concert's, so I'm taking my camera. If I can't have it there, well I guess it will hit the garbage. And cause I just love saying thing's that are song titles. Well, "more to come".......

So of these picture are old. They are down to three band member's but had recently hired on a full time drummer to replace Dave. Head has left due to his meth addiction and has "found Jesus". But is clean now, and doing his own thing. More power to him, he's a heck of a guitarist. He put out his first solo album but is not longer in KoRn. And Dave, well it's never been said what happen to him, he kind of just disappeared, but does have some restaurant's he owns.

Later FREAKS

A new TOOL CD coming???

Ok, I'm excited. I know three show's have been played so far, and in the final rehearsal they did preform the "new cover". Which mean's, new song. They have done just about every album like this. They do a small tour of a dozen or twenty show's, and preform just a few of the new song's live. Then comes the big announcement, and it's been said they had been in the studio and one a few of them have been out at Area 51 shooting more footage.

That may sound really weird unless you've heard and understand the song, but the lighting director wanted more footage to play with from area 51 for the effect's while they play "Rosetta Stoned".

I still don't know what Maynard was using to distort, and almost repeat his voice very fast and I was about three row's out. But it was some bag looking deal with a cheap looking mic attached and he was holding it in front of his main mic.

I'm excited and hoping some of these shows will hit near the Iowa area, really I think it's about time for another show in Moline and one in Cedar Rapid's.

Also if you've seen the show from the last tour from what the posted picture is from this I'd have to say is one of the top two in special effect's. NIN being very close and to me to close to call. After all I was SOBER at the show's. Wonder if anybody will catch that reference.

Parabola

Here's our new puppy a little over two week's old. We have to wait till he's at least 8 week's before we can bring him home from the breeder. Getting excited about getting him. He's a pure breed Shiba Inu, that has also been breed with the ability to sniff out ammo can's.

We are having a huge debate on what we should name him. I want to name him Manson, but the wife doesn't care for that. One name that's been said is Rusty. I thought "Fieldy" would be a great name for him too.

Got any name suggestion's post them. :)

Parabola

New Puppy

They where born on 6/16/09. The mother had a little of 4 males and 1 female. We finally got a photo of them at two day's old. Now we have to wait 8 week's till we can go up and pick up our pup. It's a Shiba Inu breed. Here's the picture of the males.




The one we are getting is the one that look's like he's laying on top of two others. I think he may be the runt of the litter, but that's the one that PJ really want's. Also here's a picture of the female.



She's a little cutie too.

We have been looking for a Shiba Inu for what seems like forever. We found one a while back at a pet store, which I wasn't too keen about getting another dog from a pet store. I don't know why but it seems getting one from a pet store are much harder to train. Our pug is a great example. He's a great dog, and has been great as PJ ruff houses with him a lot and he's never snapped at him at all. But the price tag on the one at the pet store was 1300 dollar's. Forget that!!!

We found a breeder on the net, and since this is a newer breed to the U.S. is why we have had such a hard time finding one. But the breeder is in Iowa and about a 3 hour drive from us. We are getting pretty excited about getting him and now we need to come up with a name for him. If you ask PJ it would be Bolt after the cartoon movie. I kind of want to name him Manson after Marylin Manson. Or I thought Noose after the guy in The nightmare before x-mas. Who knows yet.

I'm really hoping I can get him trained to go caching with me. Our pug can't take the heat, since pug's can easily get dehydrated, I've been leary about taking him out.

I would give a plug to the breeder we are getting him from be he's told us don't e-mail him with Shiba Inu in the subject line. He said they are in high demand right now. But this breeder and his family seem to do a great job with the breed's they offer and raise.

Parabola

Iowa's All County Challenge (GC1T84M)

As many of you have seen I had a cache published called Iowa's All County Challenge. I've seen many people ask if someone would set one of these up, and have been asked a few time's myself.

First the basic's of the Challenge cache. You have to find one cache in every county in Iowa. Virtul's, earthcaches, event's, webcam's, locationless, caches don't count. The idea is to find a cache and I'm defining that as a hidden geocache container. I've laid out a few ground rules. Like if you find a cache that is missing, and replace the container, it doesn't count as a "find". I do give you prop's for helping out another cacher but that's not finding a cache, it' more like hiding one. If it's a multi or puzzle cache, then the listed cord's for the cache determine what county the "find" is in. If some how it land's on a county line, I will let you pick which county it count's towards. It won't count for both.

Due to a guideline change, I can't have you use a site like www.itsnotaboutthe numbers.com for verification of completion. The guideline won't allow a cache that you have to use a website that you have to sign up and make an account. You can choose on your own to use a site like that, but I can't ask you too.

I've tried to lay out some option's for you to keep track and send the info to me for verifying completion. The one I like is if you use the bookmarking feature. You will be able to set a bookmark on the cache, and list the find date, and what county it's for. I can pull a PQ from that and easily check it with a program I have. You can set it up to keep it private till you are ready for it to be verified, then make it public, so I can grab a PQ from it.

Another way that is pretty easy for me to check would be keeping a database in GSAK, and make and send me a GPX file. Then with the help of a macro I can check that way pretty quickly as well.

You may also keep a spread sheet, with the GC# of the cache, name of the cache, find date, and what county it's for. For obvious reasons, this will take me longer to verify it.

These are just some suggestion's and you may keep track however you like as there may be an easier way, that I don't know about yet.

Before I get to the part that some people aren't too keen on, I'm working on designing a pathtag for this cache. A person that completes this, will get one of these pathtag's as kind of a "reward" or "trophy" for finishing it. These will not be set up for trade, and the only way to get one is to complete the cache. I would have loved to make up a geo-coin for this, but that is out of my budget.

Now on to the one rule that I made, that some aren't happy about and first off, I do agree you have valid reason's. This rule is only "finds" on the publish date of this cache count. So anything found before 6/03/09 will not count towards this. I've done this for a few reason's. One, if I lifted that, it would be found tomorrow. There are some cacher's that have done this on their own, just to do it. In fact I remember two set's of cacher's that are family, that where trying to beat each other to find one cache in every county. It was fun to watch their side game. At that time there was a few county's that didn't have a cache at all. Two, I thought this would give everyone a fresh start on this, and level the playing field to see who does complete it first.

You have to remember I don't chase First to find's. That's my choice and I just don't get into them that much. But on a cache like this, I really really would like to see who is nut's enough to complete it first, just due to you have to travel the whole state. Yes, I am aware that a few county's only have a few caches, or have "cached out" the whole county. My suggestion around this, is to contact another cacher that lives in the area, and encourage them to hide a few more cache's. My thought behind this is this will add to the game more across Iowa, and maybe even get some people that are not very active, some communication with some active cacher's and they will get bit by the bug again (so to say). I kind of see this as you may get the opportunity to meet/talk or maybe even find another caching partner, and encourage the spread of the game in a positive manner more threw the state.


This was my reasoning of why I put that requirement in. I've been doing some research on this as it was called to my attention by some cacher's. Which thank you for posting your thought's and idea's. I'm well aware that some are set up as doing this as a "trailblazer" (all find's after the cache publish date) or as "Heritage" (find's found before the cache publish date.

I looked threw some bookmark's that hold many many different kind's of Challenge caches, and looked into some of the All county type's. There are some others that have this same requirement that all caches have to be found after a certain date. There's also a lot that don't have that requirement and break it out using the "trailblazer" and "heritage" method. Colorado and Florida are two that caught my eye on a date requirement, off the top of my head.

I've talked to a few people about this as well, and have found a lot of "twisted" feeling's about this. Some wondering if they want to bother, or just work on it over time, and not try to rush threw it. Which I don't encourage anyone to just rush threw it, stop and see some of the great park's Iowa has to offer, and have fun exploring new area's to you.

If I'm going to drop the rule, I feel (thanks to someone for pointing this out too) the rule would have to be changed fast, so there's no, "well I had to do it this way" and "this person got off easy on this". I want to keep if fair to everyone. So that kind of lead's me to think, I should leave the rule stand as is since it was there when the cache was published.

Plus those people that know me, well you know I kind of follow my own path and just do my own thing, and that has a big effect on the caches I place. Believe me the terra-cacher's know that well, as the "torture" I've put them threw, while hunting some of my terra hides. Ammo can's hanging down in the middle of cliff's, part's to an offset 30 feet up in a tree, crossing river's, are just a few thing's for example's.

So to wrap this up, instead of seeing post's wanting me to change that or not, I figured I would make this post on my blog, and let you post your thought's on the whole thing. Please feel free to post your thought's, comment's, suggestion's, but please do so in a positive manner. I'm not out to tell someone they are "wrong" or "I'm the cache owner it's mine and I'll do what I want". I would like some construction feedback. So again, feel free to make a post on this blog, and maybe thing's will change as I hear others opinion's.

Seriously, have fun exploring Iowa, and the caches they have to offer, team up with other's and have a group hunt to take out some county's. Communicate with your fellow cacher's, maybe some encouragement by asking if they are planning on putting out a new cache, will get them more involved.

I look forward to your comment's.

Happy and safe caching, and get out and enjoy Iowa!!!!

Parabola

They are beening born!!!

We just got word from the dog breeder. The pup's are beening born tonight. So far there is three out of the litter and a few more still on the way. We don't have picture's yet but he's going to be sending them to us soon.

Pathtag Design for All Iowa County Challenge Cache

I'm trying to come up with idea's for a pathtag design. This is going to be given away to every person that completes my All Iowa County Challenge Cache and will not be available for trade with the pathtag community. I'd like to make a geocoin for it, but cost is a huge factor. So I went to the next thing and thought a pathtag would be nice to add to someone's collection of caching trinket's. Plus it would be kind of like a "trophy" for completing it.

I'm rolling around with having the state on there and it saying I've cache out all of Iowa or some tag line or something. When I get some jpeg's thrown together, I'll post them.

The way I wrote the cache up, I do think I've got some time before I have to get this done. But if someone does finish it before I get them made, I'll get them one.


Parabola

Check out my little cousin's on-line store

I'm excited to share with you my cousin Calee's work. She is a full-time graphic designer in the Marketing & Communications department at Drake University, but is a freelance designer/artist on the side. She's recently rolled out her new brand identity opened an etsy store with her crafts and designs. Her offerings include (but aren't limited to): hand painted ceramics, reconstructed t-shirts, vintage clothing, business card design, letterhead design, web site design/development, postcards and invitations — as well as many custom requests.

Take a minute to check out her store — she's got some really cool stuff! Or stop by her blog to see some of the fun and exciting things she's been up to:
www.chimes.etsy.com | www.chimesdesign.com/blog

She's can make some really cool and unique thing's. Check her site's out. I will gladly vouch for her and her business practices. (Which if you know me I don't just vouch for anybody) She's got this really cool t-shirt blanket in her blog, that is really something to see. But she does have quite a variety of thing's she makes to suit all taste's.

I like the Metal, don't you??

I'm just catching up on all the footage that's rolling in from the NIN/JA tour. This is so sad they are ending their career's after the "last wave". I really really wish I could get to a show. they are playing song's they have never played live before. And since some of the song's are under licensing crap with a record company, they aren't allowing Trent to professional record a show. So he made sure there was very very relaxed camera/video recorder/audio recorder policy. There's a lot of junk being posted on video hosting site's and it's really getting hard to find someone that is rendering video and mastering their audio very well.

But I can't believe they are playing this one live. And I'll never get to see it. I've found one site that some people are coming together and sharing their footage and some tweaker's are doing the editing, and are posting some good stuff but it's not done yet. I may add a link to their site in an edit if I hear back from the webmaster. I need to get some torrent's going now. :) But here's a clip "Metal" from an album I can't think of off the top of my head. They hadn't played this live at all. But the video isn't very good and is of low quality and the audio is horrible. I think this is just off a standard video camera and thrown together fast. But I love this song. Also I notice Trent is pulling double duty since Alessandro Cortini has already parted way's with NIN. I was just shocked to find this song being played live.



I wonder if my little cousin is up for a road trip???? :) And I really want to get my hand's on that touch screen button knobby thing they use. It's awesome!!!

La Mer

I caught this on the web. It's not pro shot or anything, but Trent's comment's in the middle of La Mer are kind of interesting. It kind of explains La Mer which I've never really thought fit in with the rest of the song's on The Fragile disc's. But yet people are cheering!?!? This does kind of explain why that song is kind of in left field when compared to the rest of the album.

The Maze (part two)

Well I don't really remember where I left off, but the maze wasn't quite what I expected. Since it's indoors and you can't get reception on your GPSr they set it up as puzzle caches inside this maze. There was locked room's and to get into those room's you had to figure out a puzzle to get the code to unlock the door to enter. Which inside those room's or "caches" Was some really cool information on how a GPSr work's, gear for out caching, trackable's, and some GPSr's on display. Also in those room you got a stamp on your card.

When you got all 4 stamp's on your card, well 5 stamp's, you get a signal stamp when you go in the maze. But the stamp's are number's. Using the compass on the card and the direction it's pointing that gave you a direction to look at from a list, then you had to take the number's and put them in and you could find your "Key City" using the cord's. The direction was there to give you your North, South, East, and West.

There was a puzzle about the Washington space needle. Another puzzle was you had to figure out bus route/s to get a lady every where on time but a piece of it was missing you needed, which was hid away in a micro cache in the room. Another puzzle was you had to find a ammo can and read the log book. You had to find a certain cacher's notes in it. She had left four threw the logbook but everyone had a number. Then the last puzzle you had to find some letter's from under a bench and match the letter's to a map, that had word's and it made a sentence that told you what item had the code for the door.





It was really cool, the whole family had a great time with it. I would like to see it again before it leaves, so I can take more time reading everything in there. PJ was on the go to find stuff and unlock door's, so I didn't get to read everything. We even hit a IMAX movie while we where there. Monster's vs. Alien's in 3D. That was pretty cool too.

If your close to it, check it out, it's worth the 6 dollar fee to get into it, plus you get access to the rest of the Putnam and there's a lot of neat stuff. I tried to pick up a date while I was there but she just gave me the cold shoulder. (See photo below)

Insomina Suck's

I'm a few year's into this Insomnia/Anxiety/Depression problem that seems to run in my side of the family. It's been a very hard road threw prescription to another to another till they find something that work's and is the right dose.

I don't even remember what all they have had me on to try that didn't work or the side effect's where too bad. I think now I'm at the point I get about 10 to 12 hours of sleep during the week, but when the weekend get's here I seem to just crash. Some of these med's make you have moods swing's like no other, and effect your short term memory a lot. I was on one that worked great and I was feeling pretty good about it and was getting enough rest, but it was very hard to get up in the morning and little thing's I wouldn't remember at all. I was like a walking zombie all last summer. Which I finally got sick of it, cause I was missing a lot of work and messing up a lot at work due to the one med. But it was working. The wife was getting pissed off cause if I was at home all I wanted to do was lay around.

I decided then I wasn't going to keep taking them. Which when they put you on these they start you out on a low dose and built up, but then going cold turkey off of them, does a number on you. I was completely off all them prescribed med's for about 4 month's, and did feel much better other than I would have anxiety attack's all the time. Anyone that has those I feel for you, they suck.

I don't think I really am suffering from the depression that seems to go along with anxiety, but as the attack's came on more and more often it was pretty obvious to the rest of the family that I needed something to help control them. So back to the doc I went. We really had to go threw my whole medical history to find what they had all tried. Some I could remember off the top of my head and why I couldn't take them.

This round so far is going on 3 or 4 month's now, and I think we've got a med for the anxiety but the problem is the dose. I'm suppose to take two a day. But then have been instructed to take one if I have an attack. Which if I have an attack taking one pill within a half an hour takes care of it, but the problem is I usually have to do this about 4 times a month, which throw's off the amount of pill's that I get from the prescription. And for some reason or another we haven't been able to get that threw our pharmacist's head. My doc has even talked to her telling her this med is ok for me to do this, then we just get back some insurance BS reason of why.



It's very frustrating and take a toll on a person. I think I was prompted to blog this just cause I'm going on zip for sleep and just can't sleep. Even though they have given me a pill for it.

I know there's a few others I know that have anxiety problem's and your not alone, it suck's and trying to find the right med can really be frustration for you and really take a toll on your body. Still most of society dismiss this as not a real problem and it's "all just in your head".

I do try to find things that relax me and find that help's keep my mind busy and have noticed I don't seem to have any problem's while doing those activity's. Going geocaching is one of those activity's that really work's. Going on a hike just seems to be relaxing. A major release for me is rock concert's. You get to go nut's for three hour's or so, and nobody is judging you, and you can just let loose. I find that really set's me for a good week or so. Plus this is just me, I find tattoo's relaxing. Yes planting them on me. Yeah it hurt's but I think that's part of it. And it's more of a stress relief.

Anyone reading this, just remember your not alone. And I wish you good luck. I'm am still thinking the "cure" is worse that the problem at least for me. Now if I could just get some good sleep for a few night's.

The Maze Part one.

Well, I'm going to take a little time to talk about the Maze. This is going to take me a few blog post's. It was really neat. If you have little one's try and make it. It's a neat way to introduce how a GPSr works along with a lot of history of caching and the history of GPSr's. But there wasn't a single Garmin in there. Only Maggy's and Trimble's. There was some cool custom made circuit board's that where in the shape of animal's that really where GPSr board's. Those where pretty neat.

Here's some photo's of it and when I get more time, I'll try to talk much more about it.


Nope wrong way


I don't know why the wife pointed this out.



Parabola Jr. gives him a thumb's up.



The family hanging out with Shauna the Lackey

A Song for Chi

I'm kind of excited to see what come's out of this. This is for a great cause and when it does come out, I'll post about it. I've see the deftones live, and they are different but really cool.

But it will be interesting to see Head and Fieldy working together again. Since Head has left KoRn, which looking at from an outside perspective was a good thing for him. But he's had very limited communication with the rest of the band member's. It allowed him to get "clean" and recently Fieldy has went threw a major change of life. Both of there book's are very interesting. But here's the little snippit for it. Plus Jim will be playing on it and he's from Iowa. He just doesn't look the same without the mask.

The GPS Maze Event. - Putman Museum

Wow what a day. I don't even know where to begin. PJ was up at the crack of dawn, maybe even before then all excited to head to the museum. Once they got me up and moving we headed out for the drive down. Not quite knowing what to expect, just walking into the place it looked like it had been taken over by geo-cacher's. We some some familiar faces right away and I said hi to a few people, but then didn't get a chance to talk to them. :( It was crazy. I got to chat with a few folk's I haven't seen in forever "the family" as I call them guy's. Well I guess there a couple of women in that group but there just another one of the fellow's to me. :)

The whole family went with me today and we had lot's of fun. We got to get a family picture with Shauna (The Lackey). And I even got to see Bookhunter. Man, it's been a long time. I got to pick on The Wumpas some, and madkaw and of course drtmn. Plus the CR folk's that came down, welch, Supergoober, Doc 29 and his little Angel, Digger9.

I know there's lot's of people I'm missing here but it was packed. I wish we would have gotten there sooner to mingle more. PJ even got to pick a ticket out to give away a prize. He really thought that was cool. Thanks honeyfield.

I saw all sort's of geocoins and travel bug's. Just a crazy day. Even found a cache by just chance outside the place. It's not listed and I think is part of a program that goes with the Maze.

Like I said I got to chat with a few people, say hi to some, but would have loved to chat with longer. Time sometimes is just too short at some of these. But all in all it was a great way for them to welcome the Maze coming to Iowa. I'll do another blog post on the Maze in a couple of day's. So much is running threw my head at the moment. I missed my chance at getting a 2007 Lackey Coin. Shauna ran out of them as she said she had no idea this many people would be at the event. I won't hold it agaist her, but I can tease her about it. lol I hope you had a great flight back and made it back to HQ ok.

If any geocacher's that have kid's try and make the Maze, it's neat. Plus the rest of the museum was fun to check out. Lot's of cool thing's there. I've got about 80 or 90 picture's to go threw here still but just posted a few of the event.