I found something weird

I was out looking for a two stage multi. cache and was stuck on the first stage. I looked all over the place and couldn't find it. It was in a city park and well after dark the time I was there. The cord's took me to a wooded area of the park and landed me at the base of a fallen tree. With the snow on the ground, how cold it was out, and I only had my little maglite with me, I still was combing the area.

I looked up the hint after about a half an hour and it kind of help, I think. Still a bit unsure of what it had meant, I kept looking and expanded my search a little. About 12 feet from where I zeroed out, I notice this lid poking out of the ground. I wondered but didn't think that was it. I then spend the next ten minutes or so trying to open the lid and not break it.

The way it was buried right in the middle of a group of three trees, just made it kind of odd that it would be there. By now I think I had given up on the cache search and wonder more about what was this container and, how did it get there and if there was anything inside.



I kept up on it and finally was able to break the ice free enough to unscrew the container. What I found was it was empty. I'm since talked to the owner's of the cache and this little container isn't part of the cache and should have kept looking where I was to start with. But for some reason after I found that container in the ground I really wanted to know what it was and how it got there. I did tell the cache owner's about it, just in case it turns out to be some sort of drop spot for someone or something.



I guess I'll never really know where it came from or why it's there, just the way it was place someone had to place it there as it was buried and just the lid was exposed. Just one of the odd thing's I've ran into while out and about. I haven't made it back to the spot to try and avenge my DNF yet, but hope to soon. It was in a nice park and I would like to see the park during the daylight hours.

Abby's Treasure Island

Abby's Treasure Island (GC21D1) Where to even start about this cache. I've been quietly looking at it for two or three's year's now and thinking how can I get out there to that hide. With the cold streak we have had I thought this was my chance, and was planning my "assault" on the island. I didn't know if the river was fully froze over there but I finally got the chance and headed over to the parking around on the south side of the river.

The bridge to get across to the north side of the river is still closed at the moment due to the damage it took on during the flood's from last year. As I looked around there was still some opening's in the water as it took the bend around the corner. I stood back looking and debating if it's safe to try to cross anywhere. Then I noticed some fresh track's from some snowmobile's. So after some more debating I decided I would see if I could figure out how thick the ice was.



With all the snow on the ground I found out fast there was really no way to tell. But it seemed solid and I couldn't find any slush just under the snow. So I though I would walk down as far as I could along the bank and check it out from there. When I got that far it was time to ether go for it or walk away. I was about a tenth of a mile now from the open water and figured that was a good spot to cross if any.

So I started making my way across the river. My original hope was to cross the river to the north side and follow the bank till I got to the closest point to the island, but about 3/4 of the way across, I found I was in the snowmobile track's. They where fresh as the wind was blowing very hard and would have covered them pretty quickly. So I thought I would walk down those for a while an see if there was any slush on top.



On my way to the island I did come across one spot where there was slush on the top of the ice and I quickly got some distance from it and kept going. As I neared in on the island I started seeing a bunch of bird's. Some Bald Eagle's. A whole group of them. I was thinking oh sure, some vulcher's to eat me if I fell threw. I noticed on the east side of the island a large birdhouse high up in one of the tree's and decided they must have a nest there. I'll be there was at least a dozen of them flying around.

About this time I started hearing some noise's and was wondering every time, is that the ice cracking? It was the snow being packed down under my feet as I walked along. As soon as I was to the closest point I made for the island. Dry land!!! Yes, I made it!!! Then I made my way across the island in this at some time's knee deep snow. This really slowed me down and it took a while to get to the cache spot.

About thirty feet to go and I spotted it in a tree. There is was after all this waiting for the "right time" to get to it. Now I had thought about this cache forever and figured I'd never make it out here. I don't have access to a boat and don't like to take the GPSr for a swim. I had been debating on way's I could swim out to it or even use a tube to float down and have the wife pick me up further down stream. But here it is right in my grasp. I eagerly moved the geo-flauge out of the way and grabbed the can. It barely moved. At first I though no I didn't come all this way to have it froze in place. Then I realized it was rigged up so any flooding wouldn't take it.

As I pulled down the "treasure" I spent some time cleaning it up. As I did I kept hearing this ice cracking sound. Every time I would look up and yes, I'm on land. Then I figured out that with the high wind's a part of the tree was twisting in the wind and the ice that has formed in the crouch of the tree was cracking. Ok, I can breath again.



After spending some time there I headed off with another container to look for an island further downstream that I saw on google earth. Well, all that's another story.

After all was said and done I started making my way back to the car. This was a little harder than the trip out cause now I was head right into the wind. It made for one cold trip back. I was about a 1/4 of the way back from the cache and though I heard some snowmobile engine's running. I didn't pay much attention but all of a sudden they got louder fast. I turned around and saw two of them coming right for me. They passed and I was thinking don't get those heavy thing's near me while we are all on the ice. I keep on going.

I was looking for the bridge off in the distance to judge about where I was at and how far left I had to go. By this time I had been out for about 3 hour's and my leg's where getting tired and I was getting thirsty. Just then I see the snowmobile's had turned around and where headed back my way. This time they passed and waved. I wonder what they where thinking. Is this guy nut's and what is he doing all the way out here?

I still couldn't see the bridge but thought the upcoming bend looked like I was getting close. By this time it was starting to get dark out and I went to grab my flashlight from my caching pack and realized I left it in the car. Great... But then I spotted the bridge and know I was getting close. My track's from the journey out where long gone by now and I spotted a fallen tree when I had come out on the river. I made my way back there and when I hit land I was so relieved. Then I don't know why but it seemed to take for ever to get across the park and back to the car.

All in all this is going to be one memorable trip to this cache and I wouldn't recommend to anyone to take the river like I did. When I reached the car I dumped everything in the passenger seat and went over to start it. That's went I realized my pants where frozen solid from about mid calf all the way down. I was wearing a few layer's of clothes so I never did feel that and my shoe's where almost solid ice as well. But thankfully those waterproof and really warm sock's worked well. As they thawed out on the car drive home I was feeling just how cold and wet my clothes were.



After doing this one, I'm thinking this would be a fun one to visit again and do the "tubing" kind of adventure. With this one now crossed off my "must try to do" list, I'm looking and seeing what's next. This one was truly a great adventure!!!

Hey Pig's

Well, just a update on the Nine Inch Nail's footage. The first rendering has been posted of about 40 min's. of footage with sound. The sound isn't sync perfectly yet. It's about 600ms off. This is from the first "gift" live in Victoria, BC.

Today another 50 mins. from the concert popped up on the net. This is still in it's premature form's and still don't have a switch camera angle yet. Just standard video footage with an audio feed from the sound board. I've noticed these are popping up on www.viemo.com. If you visit their site (it's a free video hosting site. You can find them pretty easily. There's a cam 1-1 and a cam 1-2. I think cam 1-2 was rendered a bit better at this point but still have yet to really sit and analyze it.

I was going to try and embed the html code into the block so you can just click and watch but am having problems with the embbing code they are giving me.

Now these are unedited footage and there is swearing in some of the song's so if you have little one's around, you might want to wait till they are not around.

This project is very neat and should be very interesting with the final result. There will be many as many different people are stepping up to the task and mixing this differently. It will be cool to see when they start flipping between camera's with the different angle's.

Remember this is not a final cut for this. This has just what's been able to be downloaded and have the audio mixed it. There's still ton's of footage to get threw. These are just from one camera angle mixed with the soundboard audio.

Ahh, what the heck here's the link's for them. The second link starts getting into the video board's more as the concert continues.

http://vimeo.com/2769978
http://vimeo.com/2804282

On the second link about 42.00 min's into the footage is Survivalism and it's neat most of the eight feed's on the "camera's monitor's" is live footage from what's going on in other places in the venue.

And here's one more of the song "Discipline" in High def.
http://vimeo.com/2802025

This is a good example of what will be a final cut for this fan created DVD or Blu-ray.

I'll leave you with the lyrics for a little Nine Inch Nail's tune. I just think this is fitting for what's going on. Next post will be about some geo-caching. I've just found some photo's and have a few cache's I'd like to write something about. Stay tuned.


"Survivalism" By Nine Inch Nail's

I should have listened to her
So hard to keep control
We kept on eating but our
Bloated bellies still not full
She gave us all she had but
We went and took some more
Can't seem to shut her legs our
Mother nature is a *&@%^

I got my propaganda I got revisionism
I got my violence in high def ultra-realism
All a part of this great nation
I got my fist I got my pain I got survivalism

Hypnotic sound of sirens
Echoing through the street
The cocking of the rifles
The marching of the feet
You see your world on fire
Don't try to act surprised
We did just what you told us
Lost our faith along the way and found ourselves believing your lies

I got my propaganda I got revisionism
I got my violence in high def ultra-realism
All a part of this great nation
I got my fist I got my pain I got survivalism

All bruised and broken bleeding
She asks to take my hand
I turn and keep on walking
What you'd do the same thing in the circumstance I'm sure you understand

I got my propaganda I got revisionism
I got my violence in high def ultra-realism
All a part of this great nation
I got my fist I got my pain I got survivalism

How many gigabytes was that again?

The other day I was so excited. There has been a hint of a "gift" to be given out to all the Nine Inch Nail's fan's out there via their website. It was a long three week's in waiting to see what was going to happen this time. What I mean by "this time" is since he's finished his "contract" with his now past recording company, and has shown his distaste for the direction the whole industry is going.

Towards the beginning of the year he released a quarter of a album for free via bit-torrent. And making it fully available by buying what kind of "package" you wanted. The song's where quite different than the normal NIN' stuff as they are no lyrics. It's all instrumental. Then he held a contest using free video hosting site's to have the fan's make the video's. The concept behind this was to see what people would come up with for video's as to every person the music will mean something different. And with no lyrics this held true.

Then over the summer Trent surprised us with a free download of an album he had written and recorded and gave it away free on-line again via bit-torrent for the uncompressed version. A regular download for a compressed version.

But after news of him trying to have a concert from one of the "Light's in the Sky" tour date's and his former record company wasting his time by not giving him the go ahead. He was setting up to record a show in 3D. Well, at the last second, the record company called and since they still own the rights to most of his older material, they said nope. As Trent kind of joked and said should have just done it anyways. Well, something was cooking.

Then this post of have a happy holidays everyone and check back soon we may have a little gift for you. Well a few weeks went by and nothing, not a word. Trent loves to sit back and see just what his fan's are saying and I guess likes to toy with them.

Then the other day I logged on and saw it. The promised gift. 405 gigabytes of three concert's all shot in HD and at multiple angle's. WOW!!! Now with just a couple of seed's starting to give this out well, it's going to be a month before all the video and audio will even make it to one spot let along one computer. But it's picking up. Now with all of this out in the open what to do with it???

That's where the NIN's fans are coming into play. Instead of a record company having to approve what is going to be the final version of this, the fan's have the say. Right now as we speak what is already been downloaded is being worked on by the fan's to be mixed to our liking. Last time I checked one of the whole shows one person had been able to get the full download for (so far). They have started mixing it and syncing the sound to the performance and started choosing the video that would be used.

I just that this is cool, this is the first time a band has given the fan's the full opportunity to do as they wish with the footage. The kind of funny but sad part was only a select few has the tool's to compile this much data and the tool's to make this live concert. So what happens next?

A new website opens up with the tool's needed to accomplish such a task. As you are reading this it's being worked on and it's staying in high definition video until the fan's choose what is the final version to be released. Now everything will still be there so a person can still make what ever they like out of the data, but a final version will be made available for download in a high def. format. As well as being able to compress it to allow it to fit on a standard DVD.

I so lack the knowledge to attempt to do this so I just have to wait and see what is put out for the final project. Everyone is so eager to see but really this will be month's before anything is ready. I just thought this whole concept was neat and wanted to share it with other's. Plus can you just image how that person is feeling that had the final say, in the no to letting one date be filmed for a 3D version on blu-ray disc or DVD. OUCH!!!

But with project's like this and what MJK is working on with Puscifer, record company's may just be a think of the past. The industry is already skimming down on CD's due to the ease of MP3 player's and using MP3 or similar files to store and listen to your favorite tunes on.

Some of the technical part's of this I may be wrong about as I'm still learning what this whole new feat is and what I can do with it. I was thinking about overnighting a 1TB usb hard drive from somewhere and seeing what I can mix out of this. But I doubt I'd ever have the time to finish the project.

This has gotten me excited about about working on my Geocache series, that fabled one that I started a year ago and just got the artwork done and then kind of got side tracked plus I was out of town all summer. So with some snowy day's ahead I'll be hard a work making the puzzles to complete this. I guess I'm hoping my plan's for "Year Zero", I can finish. The idea's are there. The near impossible puzzle has been written and is only known by me (That's a scary thought). I just need to finish with the photo part of it and get out and find the location's. Which alot had been picked already and have been waiting for me to get out and finish this puppy up. Last year I had painted up all the final container's for this series which will be a nice mix of traditional, multi's, puzzles, which the first 15 will need to be found to even start to look for the 16th hide.

I've found what's going to be the "trick" for it. You may want to ignore that part too. I may just be saying that to throw someone off. My fear was to go threw all this work on it and then it just flop's due to the difficulties one may have with it. But after a promising chat with a person I hadn't heard from in age's assures me my work into this will be worth it.

But I just have to say again, Trent Reznor, thank you!!! Thanks for your effort's to "taint my generation". (You are one of the few that would understand what I mean by that). Now on to the "drawing board" (evil laugh).

I promise this will be the last music realated post for a while and aim more on geocaching. I've got a few more story's still to get wrote up yet...

Lair

Last March I had some time off work and had just gotten back from MOGA. You'd think I had my fill of the wood's and hiking for at least a week, but nope. Two day's after getting back home I made a call to Hunt & Peck about this cache up just above the Iowa border in Minnesota called Lair. (GC5D2D)

I had spotted this once while looking around for a neat cache to go and do and this one caught my eye. Why?? I'm not sure but there was over 100 picture's on the cache page at the time. So after coming threw some of those and reading the cache description I knew I had to check this one out. So it went on my watchlist.

After getting back from Moga and having the rest of the week off I called up a buddy and we met in Cascade and got into one car and headed off north. The car ride was fun up there. As we got further north and more towards the river these are area's I've never been too or have been since I was a kid. So the road trip was a lot of fun and a lot of neat stuff to see.

Once we hit the border though it was like we where two kid's planning a snowball attack or something. We had parking cord's and there was specified instructions of where to go to park. When we where a mile or so away we looked up and I think H&P said to me I think there is where we are going.

Now there is talk on the cache page about a possible cougar being seen in the area. We had chuckled about we both wouldn't have to out run the cougar just the slowest person in the group. We found the parking but couldn't get the car to it due to the wet and muddy road's so we parked it roadside and hiked in from there. At first we felt like we where trespassing as there was no trespassing sign's all over on the side's of the road. This was just the farmer trying to keep people off his land and on the road. But once we reached the top of the road and looked down into the valley where the "enchanted forest" was we saw that State DNR sign. One think less to worry about.

We where headed down the trail and cut off and bushwhacked our way to the river that looked, like it could over flow at anytime. LOL. If you go you'll get that. But after crossing that stone by stone and a leap of faith we came to the "enchanted forest". A small pine forest. Making our way threw on some game trails we came to the base of "the mountain" (if one would call it that). This is where we kind of split up a bit, trying to make the climb easier on both of us.

A few hundred feet later we could hold the excitement in anymore and the climbing went a lot faster heading towards the Lair. Once up top you could turn back and see this amazing view that you just don't see anywhere. But the neat part was the Lair was waiting right there to explore. Out come the flashlight's and we where hoping we had the right cave and didn't have to climb to the very top. Well, I won't give what you have to do away, but we pulled out this nice and rusty box that looked like some sort of miner had left behind 50 year's ago. Cracked that baby open to find us a log book and some SWAG and a few trackable's.

Well, we had come prepared and brought sack lunches. What better way to spend a day of vacation than sitting up top this large "hill" at the mouth of a cave, eating a sandwich chatting away with a buddy and just enjoying this very unique place with a heck of a view, this cache owner had found. This place is something to see and I highly recommend taking a camera.

It was kind of sad when we started to head back. I had been wanting to do that cache for a least 6 month's and our adventure was over. We made way back to the car and headed out but first a stop by an additonal waypoint the cache owner had marked. A trip to Miami. You'll have to figure that one out for yourself.

On the way home I had spotted a special groundspeak volunteer geo-coin in a cache near Decorah. Well, I wanted to see it. So some how or another we took a very long way home and picked that coin up to discover and move along. We did a couple of Geo's and Terra's while near Decorah along the way. Not very many but they where in some neat spot's that are worth taking extra 70 mile on our roadtrip.

I would highly recommend any one to do this cache. It's a very unique place to see and really the picture's don't do it any justice. If anyone want's a "tour guide" contact me. I'd love to tag along to this one again.

Hunting season from a caching prospective

Hunting season. Those are two words that make any geocacher a bit nervous. I've really paid attention this year to the hunting season's and have personally tried to stay out of the hunting area's while shotgun season is going on. I've made sure to blaze it by wearing bright orange stocking cap or a brightly colored shirt. If I see a car in the parking lot of a hunting area I'll skip it and come back at a later date.

Well this year going with this thinking, I'd figure I wouldn't have any scary hunting incidents. Nope. Today I was looking for a couple of roadside caches which aren't really my favorite kind of cache to do but better that and still get out then sit at home or have a slug go threw your leg or worse. I was down in the ditch looking threw this pine tree and spied that ammo can. I grabbed it and got it down in front of me and opened it up and went for the log book. All of a sudden I hear a KABOOM. I signed it real quick and put it back and headed for the car. when I got back up onto the road I looked into the corn field across the road and spied 5 or 6 hunter's in orange vest's. I was able to see what they where shooting at. There was two deer in the field.

Now I'm not a hunter by any means but you would think these people would pay attention to what's on the other side of what they are shooting at. Yeah there where a couple of deer there but beyond those deer was the interstate. And I sure didn't see those deer dropping to the ground. In fact I saw and heard at least a dozen gunshot's and yes they where aimed right at the interstate.

Then I went along a bit further down the road and stopped for another cache. I saw one of the most disgusting site's I've ever seen while out caching. There was a poor dog that had gotten loss or just dropped off and it had looked like he died from exposure. I was so glad my son wasn't with me to see that. He was laying with his belly up and at first I thought it was a deer carcass someone had dumped over the bridge. Poor dog.

I found this cache pretty quickly and was going to sign it and again KABOOM. I tossed it back in it's hiding place and made way back up to the road to the car. That was enough for me. I have no idea anymore other than sticking to nothing but urban placed caches till shotgun season is over. The weather is really nice so it would be prime to head out into a wooded area looking for a cache but with the hunter's it's just not worth it.
I have no idea why I'm writing this other than maybe someone will run across it before heading out looking for a cache and maybe this will make them think about grabbing a orange vest or something so they are spotted easily.

Be safe cacher's. The last thing I want to see is a article in a newspaper that a fellow cacher was involved in a hunting accident. You can visit http://www.iowadnr.com/ for a pdf file for this year's hunting season's. I've uploaded some photo's I took of the hunter's, sorry about the bad photo's but that wasn't as important as getting out of there without any more hole's in me. There is one to three hunter's in every photo too.

Nine Inch Nails: Light's in the Sky

Well I waited a week before talking about this show that was in Cedar Rapid's at the U.S. Cellular Center. Right after I had paid a small fortune to see NIN in Detroit they announced they would be right there in Cedar Rapids. Once again the only disappointing thing is they didn't destroy their instruments at the end of the show. For a person that's seen them live and seen them do this, well they are about the only one's that would understand why.

I had gotten my ticket threw the presale's via their fanclub and got a nice surprise when I got my ticket. Instead of the normal printed out ticket this one is in Color and is quite fancy. Plus it's got my name on it. Quite the keepsake item. I got to enter the front door and didn't have to wait in the long line outside like normal when going to a show there. Another little perk of buying from their fanclub as well as a reduced priced ticket.

The opening band was BORIS. I had never heard of them but had found out they where a Japanese band that had flown over to go on this leg of the tour with NIN. They played loud and their drummer was decent. But for the most part this wasn't a good opener for NIN. Just lack the energy of band that would open for Trent Reznor. I know he loves to get the lesser known just starting out bands the chance to open for a large audience and get the word out about them but they well, should be opening for more of the likes of a pop metal band.

But in the waiting for them to start I was looking for the best spot I could on the floor to hold out for NIN, and spotted one of my youngin's that used to work with me. It was great to visit with him and his girl friend. And to finally find out he got up enough nerve to FINALLY get that tattoo he's wanted for a very long time.

I also was able to run into my little cousin and her boyfriend in this crowd that was so to be a large mosh pit. She had just ran a marathon a few week's before and really wasn't up for what was about to become one heck of a mosh pit and wild crowd. I think at one point when I had ran out to get a drink of water then when back for more, I ran into them again and she was pretty much squished in place. I wiggled my way around her and the guy in front of her had been pushing back on her pretty bad. So I planted both feet, squatted down and pushed as hard as I could and cleared her out a nice sized spot even if it only lasted a few minutes.

When NIN took the stage it's an amazing sight to see and hear. The thing's that go on behind the scene's and the technology that make up the whole show are amazing to read about and you really can't image they do all this on the fly.

When I saw them in Detroit and then compare this to this show the big difference is the crowd. I don't know if I'm just used to the Iowa crowd's and grew up with them or what. They are full of energy and I have yet to see a show out of state that has such "crazy, who care's about what we are going to feel like in the morning" folk's. It's awesome. I've heard lot's of bands say that Iowa has the most energetic crowd's and some of the baddest mosh pit's around. Well, so far I'll have to agree with that.

And the funny thing is I had to sign a wavier when I was in Detroit to enter the mosh pit there.



These three led screen are just amazing. One in the back ground, one in the middle and one up near the front of the stage. The one in the middle and the one up front are hung up high but are lowered down for part's of the show. They are fully interactive with the band member's and they are able to control them while playing using some laser's and some motion based technology.



Some of the thing's shown on the screen in the background are on feeds from camera's placed around the venue. And yes the police where on camera live arresting someone that didn't look like they were cooperating and had a bit too much to drink. But this was show in one of the "security type screen's" in a ground of eight screen from the live feeds. This was done while they where playing "Survivalism".



Once again Trent is a man of few word's but makes the most out of what he says. They come play, play, play, say thanks, play, play, play, a little chat but very short, play, play, end. But at one point in the middle of "March of the pig's" he brought his hands up to his brow trying to block out the light to see something in the crowd. Then just stopped singing and said what does that sign say?? Then a few remarks about "the plate girl" (you had to be there) and they just right back into the song like he hadn't missed a beat. It's on you-tube if you care to see it as it will be a famous moment in NIN history. I can't repeat it in this blog cause it's not the cleanest thing in the world but it was funny.

This is the third time I've seen NIN live. And once again I almost got an item they tossed out into the crowd. A tambernine. But a fellow about 5 people away from me was the lucky person to get this. Still the drumstick that hit my arm was the closed thing I almost had from them.

Josh Freeze was still on tour with them. I've personally seen Josh play with three different band's and that man is talented. I've seen him play 5 different times. He's the second best drummer that I know of. Sorry Josh, but I have to give my fav out to Danny Carney.

I still have to wonder what the show was like I missed when they played in Iowa City year's ago when I was 16, that I might add my mom wouldn't let me go to. Sorry mom but I haven't forgotten that one. Yes it was on a school night but I should have been there. That was the prime of The Downward Spiral and they had Manson opening for them. That was when Manson was just getting going and the circus was going strong.

Two hour's after the show had started it was over. I headed off to the car, my ear's ringing, my feet hurting, and this totally satisfied feeling in my gut. I so hope Trent keeps his sobriety that has been helping him put out new material faster. It's not quite the same as the older NIN song's but it still has all the passion in it. He is a very talented man and his story about how he got where he is today is just amazing.



I still remember when I was in High School and had some NIN sticker's on some thing's and most people had never heard of NIN. This was way before they became mainstream. And the other amazing part is he's made his band what it is without the press or MTV. Something only a handful of band's have accomplished. In fact a majority of NIN's video's cannot be played on MTV. I still find it funny two year's ago they wanted Trent to play one song for the video awards and he said yes but I want to show my video that I show in my concert's. This had a scene of Bush and his wife ball room dancing in between shot's of some of the news footage from some of the victim's and their injury's that have been caused from this war on terror. MTV said no, so Trent said that I don't preform, and MTV tried to bring him down by saying well you just won't be willing to show you video where he may see it. The rest of the tour NIN was on, Bush had ticket's waiting for him at the will-call desk paid for by Trent and this was announced in Trent's response to MTV.