Morton Fox / StayFloopy

Lunch by geocache

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 06:15:52 GMT

This afternoon, I went to The Hot Grill in Clifton for lunch. Actually, I was there for the OOOH THAT SMELL geocache, which was in the lot across the road from the restaurant but I'm not one to turn down a good suggestion for lunch. :)

Well, that geocache took all of a few seconds to find. After that, I had Texas Wieners and fries with gravy. Despite the name, Texas Wieners originated in Paterson, not Texas. These are hot dogs deep fried until they rip open and then topped with onions and chili. Fries with gravy is another local specialty, although not unique to this area.

On a different note, I noticed that distributed.net is getting pretty close to completing OGR-25. (My dnet client has already run out of packets, but that may be a keyserver glitch.) Some of the projected end dates are in mid-September, so it'd be a neat surprise if they finished it on my birthday.

Southwestern Connecticut, Round 2

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 07:42:02 GMT

Sunny day. 75°F - 80°F. Windy at times. I went to Southwestern Connecticut again. (Merritt Parkway and I-95 corridor) This time, I got as far as Westport before sunset. I couldn't resist doing one more at night because it was at an I-95 rest area but I stopped right after that to save the rest of the geocaches for the next trip.

The most interesting cache of the day was "Food for Thought". The initial coordinates point to the front door of a Chinese restaurant. The first part involved looking up food items on the takeout menu to get the coordinates for the next step, which was a traditional cache hide in Cranbury Wood. I do still have the takeout menu and I'll consider making a dinner stop there one day if this restaurant is on my way home. Aside from that, the rest of the geocaches were regular hides, which is not to say that those were uninteresting because each one is a unique challenge. I did a few more from the "Little Green Men" series and one more from the SGD series. The only problems I encountered were two geocaches that had gotten waterlogged and one that had been vandalized.

Dinner was at American Steakhouse in Norwalk. I had the seafood platter. Yes, even in a steakhouse, I'd have the fried fish because I'm weird like that. I also had several helpings from the salad bar, which is the real reason I went to American Steakhouse.

Little Green Men: The Woodland Hideout (Connecticut)
SGD Series - Duck Swamp Micro (Connecticut)
NIWRI (Connecticut)
hava seat (Connecticut)
Quiet Sanctuary (Connecticut)
Love Thy Neighborhood (Connecticut)
jeepsweden US1 (Connecticut)
Little Green Men: The Stepford Men's Club (Connecticut)
FOOD FOR THOUGHT (Connecticut)
The Northern Cranbury Wood (Connecticut)
Deep in the Cranbury Wood (Connecticut)
Scheneck's Island (Connecticut)
In Memory of... Tangerines By the River (Connecticut)
Little Green Men: ROCKet Man (Connecticut)
Micro Latte (Connecticut)
3 CHEERS FOR LAME ROADSIDE CACHES #2 (Connecticut)

Western NJ

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 07:10:25 GMT

Sunny day, again around 80°F. I'd prepared a batch of geocache info down in Central Jersey and a travel route down I-287, but when I hit the Morristown area, I remembered that there were a lot of geocaches down by Randolph that I hadn't done yet. So for the rest of the day, I got geocache coordinates by cell phone, one at a time. I did part of the WWII Aircraft series that way and it was a fun time on the Randolph Trails, albeit with a bit too much bushwhacking at times.

Did more litter patrol too. Morris County is actually quite clean, with only the odd bottle here and there. The exception was the area surrounding the "Skating On Thin Ice" geocache. It looked like people had been partying just a few steps into the woods and leaving their bottles all over the place. I packed out most of that litter. Nevertheless, I don't think it's a good cache site. Litter is a sign that lots of people go back there. That means it'll be likely that someone will find the cache by accident and steal or vandalize it.

Dinner, refuel, and shopping this evening were all in Ramsey, close to home, because that was easier than figuring out where to get all those done in the Parsippany area.

We Need More Volunteers (New Jersey)
All Along The Watertower (New Jersey)
Skating On Thin Ice (New Jersey)
birdwatchers delight (New Jersey)
Say AHHH (New Jersey)
Easy Stroll (New Jersey)
Swampview (New Jersey)
NEW PARK (New Jersey)
Park It (New Jersey)
Foundation (New Jersey)
water-rock (New Jersey)
American WWII Aircraft- B25 Mitchell (New Jersey)
American WWII Aircraft- B24 Liberator (New Jersey)
American WWII Aircraft- B34 Harpoon (New Jersey)
American WWII Aircraft- B26 Marauder (New Jersey)
American WWII Aircraft- XB42 Mixmaster (New Jersey)

Southwestern Connecticut

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 05:50:16 GMT

I thought it was going to rain today but the weather turned sunny in the afternoon. I went to Southwestern Connecticut, to Greenwich and Stamford. I hadn't gone geocaching in Connecticut since the winter, so there were lots and lots of new geocaches, so many that I didn't get past Stamford before sunset came and I had to stop.

I did two series of geocaches: The "Rosa Hartman" series at Rosa Hartman Park and the "Are you smarter than a...?" series at Treetops State Park. What's nice is I could park in one place and find all the caches in each series in one loop hike. Of course, after hitting Lehigh Valley and assorted flatlands for several weeks, the hilly terrain in Connecticut was tough but I could deal with that.

Dinner was going to be a footlong at Subway in Stamford but the guy behind the counter didn't seem interested in taking my order so I just returned home. Home was only about 45 minutes away and rather than put up with lackluster customer service, I might as well take advantage of my own well-stocked fridge.

Schongalla's Nice Walk (Connecticut)
Schongalla's Challenge II (Connecticut)
Rosa Hartman (Part 1) (Connecticut)
Rosa Hartman - (Part 3) (Connecticut)
Rosa Hartman - Micro Challenge (Part 2) (Connecticut)
Rosa's Challenge - (Bonus!) (Connecticut)
SGD Series - Nano to Nowhere (Connecticut)
Little Green Men: Attack By Water (Connecticut)
SGD Series - Greenway (Connecticut)
Mill River Walk (Connecticut)
Woolen Mill Pond (Connecticut)
Are You Smarter Than a 1st Grader? (Connecticut)
Are You Smarter Than a 2nd Grader? (Connecticut)
Are You Smarter Than a 3rd Grader? (Connecticut)
Are You Smarter Than a 4th Grader? (Connecticut)
Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (Connecticut)
Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? - Bonus Cache (Connecticut)
Frog Chorus (Connecticut)

Hillburn and the flat

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 03:39:18 GMT

Overnight, the left rear tire mysteriously lost most of its air. It wasn't completely flat but it looked a bit pancake-like. I couldn't find the leak so I just pumped it up with a hand pump. In the afternoon, that tire still looked okay so I went to Hillburn for the Frog got your Cache? geocache. It is a 3-part multicache and all 3 parts are located in Veteran's Memorial Park.

Even though Hillburn isn't that far from home, I've never been there because I never had a reason to go there until today. It is a small community cut off from the rest of the suburban sprawl by hills and highways. Almost all of the town is bounded by Route 17 and I-87. Once I got there, I parked on a residential street near the first stage. I didn't find the first stage though. It's supposed to be 40 feet from this monument but I didn't see anything likely within that range. But it was a small park so I figured I'd just walk around and look for the second stage. The hint narrowed it down to just two possible locations and so I did find that. And the final stage was easy. My concern over the final stage is it looked like grass and dirt had been dug up to place the container in a shallow hole in the ground. That would go against the guidelines so I hope the hole was already there before.

From thefridayfive:

How many times a day do you...

1. Brush your teeth?
Twice.

2. Shower?
Once.

3. Check your E-mail?
It's just up all the time in its own Mozilla Prism window.

4. Check LJ?
4-5 times.

5. Eat?
4 times, including the after-midnight snack.

From Friday5.org:

1. What was the last song that stuck in your brain and wouldn't go away?
Any suggestions?

2. What's something that sticks around long after you wish it would leave?
I remember when I spilled glue on the kitchen floor. That took a while to get rid of.

3. To what use did you put your last sticky note?
Left a note on the monitor saying that I was going to the Post Office and to send help if I did not return.

4. When did you last have Pixy Stix?
I've never had that.

5. What is something you are a stickler for?
Answering Friday Five. (well, okay, not really)

Old Tappan

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 06:16:49 GMT

Today, it was sunny but a bit under 80°F, which is good weather for going outside. In the afternoon, I went to seek the Old Tappan 4 x 4 geocache. It is a 4-stage multicache located in 4 different parks in the town of Old Tappan. Normally, I'd consider 4 stages to be a bit much for one geocache but all the parks were within about half a mile of each other and each stage was easy to find, so the entire set didn't take much time at all. Of the four locations, Oakes Park had an interesting sculpture and fountain.

In the evening, I went for 4GONE: Wolverine Lair at Ramapo Mountain State Forest in Ringwood. It is one of a set of geocaches placed for an upcoming camping event. This one isn't far from the road -- only about half a mile. I wasn't familiar with the second red trail, so I went the wrong way and approached the cache site by bushwhack, which wasn't difficult as there isn't much brush in that area.

Twitter Vim update (in_reply_to_status_id)

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 02:47:53 GMT

I opened a Google Code project for TwitVim. It's better this way because I can check in any work in progress to the Subversion repository instead of just keeping it on my hard disk, even though I have been taking precautions to avoid losing work.

So what's new? Two weeks ago, the Twitter folks introduced the new in_reply_to_status_id parameter in the API. Through the use of this parameter, a Twitter client can point an @reply to the tweet that the user is actually replying to instead of the latest tweet, which was the default. The intention is to let Twitter track conversations more accurately. This parameter is optional and still new, so I don't think it is in broad use yet, but maybe we can do some interesting things with the reply graphs later.

Last week, I started thinking about how I can support that new parameter in TwitVim and then I did it in r6 and r7. It is a significant change to the implementation. Previously, the buffer text was all the script needed to maintain state but after this addition, it now keeps a script-local list of status IDs. There is potential for breakage now because the script has to account for buffer changes. Hope I got them all.

Just for fun, I hopped over to identi.ca to see if the new reply parameter would work there too but it doesn't. A bit disappointing, but I can wait.

A TwitVim screenshot, because I don't think I've posted one before:

Long Island

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 07:46:50 GMT

Another sunny day at around 80°F. Went to Long Island to seek some recently-placed geocaches.

I've done litter pickup on Long Island on previous trips. It's no special deed. I just figured that while I was looking for geocaches, I might as well pick up and dispose of trash that I see. This time though, I came prepared and I brought an extra bundle of plastic bags to put the trash in. However, I did not anticipate that I would fill up four bags so quickly! Seriously, so many public areas on Long Island are litter-strewn messes. Litterbugs have no shame and the situation only gets worse every time because once there's litter on the ground, people think that adding more litter is no big deal. Well, at least a few geocache sites are now clean.

I turned around and headed back a bit earlier in the evening so that I would have time to pick up a quick geocache in Queens before dinner in Flushing Chinatown. I see that Sentosa finally raised menu prices by a dollar or so per item. It's not such a bargain now compared to similar restaurants in New Jersey but it's still reasonable.

Sea Cliff's "Headless Park" #2 (New York)
Old Tappan Road #3 (New York)
Stanco Park/Glen Cove Golf (New York)
Scenic Road #1 (New York)
Gene's View Of The Sound (New York)
D&B - 1K Milestone: East Village Gardens (New York)
Alley Micro Series 33 - Deer Park (New York)
DOWN BY THE BEACH (New York)
Monochromatic (New York)
DrewBit (New York)
Alley Micro Series 31 - Sayville (New York)
SPARE US Another Urban Micro--Bowery Bay (New York)

Western NJ and Lehigh Valley again

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 07:45:06 GMT

Sunny and about 80 - 88°F. Had another go at the Western NJ / Lehigh Valley corridor. I spent more time in Western NJ today because I did a bunch of geocaches along riverside trails and rail trails south of I-78 between Raritan and Pittstown. After that, I crossed over to Lehigh Valley and continued geocaching where I left off last week in Whitehall. The last two geocaches were at and near the Allentown Rest Area by the Pennsylvania Turnpike. I found the back road (actually, the staff entrance) leading to the rest area so I didn't actually have to use the PA Turnpike to get there.

Dinner was at the Sheetz store in Bethlehem because a nachoz grande with everything on it was calling my name. This will probably be the last Lehigh Valley trip for a while. For one thing, I've run up against the Western boundary of my geocaching area in LV. For another, some undesirable elements have shown up there. I encountered a couple of impatient and/or careless motorists in Allentown, including one who nearly got me into an accident by sliding out of a ramp at 15mph right into 55mph traffic on US-22. Another undesirable element was the group of loitering, smoking teens at the Sheetz store. They also apparently don't believe in using mufflers on their cars and motorcycles. However, my mistake there was in not learning from what happened the last time. I should've gone to Sheetz in Whitehall instead, where the customer base is nicer.

Got home and wondered why police were pulling people over at several places in town. Probably just late night speeding enforcement.

Sunny Side Up (New Jersey)
Sunny Side Down (New Jersey)
Baily's Second Cache (New Jersey)
"Carpooling" Creek Cache (New Jersey)
Wooden Bridge Cache (New Jersey)
Tiny Often Empty Park: Pittstown, NJ (New Jersey)
Magnetic Anomaly: Clinton, NJ (New Jersey)
"Birth of Freedom" (Pennsylvania)
No PAF's Please! VI (Pennsylvania)
What's In A Name? (Pennsylvania)
No PAF's Please! IV (Pennsylvania)
Six Star Micro Stash (Pennsylvania)
Cache to Cash series #1 "Road Trip to AC" (Pennsylvania)

Petruska

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 06:58:30 GMT

I still had the loaner car today because the service department had to order the replacement weatherstrip. So this afternoon, I took it out for a little drive to Petruska Park in Paramus for Petruska Park Cache. This geocache was only 200 feet from the parking area but it was 200 feet of solid bushwhacking. Of course, I probably could've chosen an easier route around the thicket. When I emerged from the bushes, I saw Daneyko3, who was searching around in the vicinity of the cache site. The funny thing is the spot where I came out of the bushes was almost exactly where the cache was hidden so I found it almost right away!

Then I went to McDonald's in Paramus. I had a coupon from last Sunday's newspaper, so I got a Southern style chicken sandwich. I still don't think it's that much better than the original McChicken sandwich though. Went back to get the car after lunch because it was ready by then. Yes, it looks better now without that loose piece hanging from the door. :)

The Corolla

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 20:09:36 GMT

Sent my car in for servicing yesterday evening. Odometer is at 85,582 miles. They are also going to repair the driver's side door weatherstripping, which has come loose. They need an additional day to order that part so I'll be keeping the loaner car for two days. This time, it is a Toyota Corolla LE. This is a comparatively fuel-efficient vehicle. According to this review, it gets around 38 MPG, which was what my previous car, a 1995 Saturn SL, got. Downsides are it's a bit underpowered (it struggled to get up to speed merging on a bit of an incline onto Route 17) and the seat is rather low. Of course, on those two points, I've been spoiled by my car so I'm not a good judge there. On the plus side, the Corolla LE has 2 glove compartments! The space above the glove compartment that goes unused in many cars, flips open to reveal another compartment. Brilliant!

I'm now on the Postcrossing leaderboard for USA. It's not a stable situation though because there are a few Postcrossers with around the same number of postcards sent, so the rank depends on mail delivery timing.

Picture Puzzle

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 05:49:38 GMT

This afternoon's excursion was to Saddle River Puzzle, which was in a small park in the nearby town of Saddle River. The puzzle part was to reassemble a bunch of rectangular pieces to form an image with the coordinates. I was going to print and cut out the pieces and reassemble them by hand, but I realized that it would be too much work. So I did the puzzle in Paint.NET.

Once I had the answer, the park was a mere 2 miles away and the cache site was a quick walk around the pond to the banks of the Saddle River.

Lehigh Valley

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 06:44:17 GMT

Another sunny day with temperatures in the 80s. Went to Lehigh Valley again. This time, I went a bit further west, to Bethlehem, Hellertown, East Allen, and Whitehall. I visited some cache sites in downtown Bethlehem but I ended up just skipping those because those were not to my liking. In particular, one cache was apparently right next to a homeless encampment. I saw the clothes, bags, and cardboard box tents and decided that proceeding any further would not be advisable. The funny thing is that place was very close to where I used to get pizza at Picasso Pizza. (which apparently changed ownership) The difference is about 100 vertical feet. (cache site is at river level, while the shopping center is at street level a few storeys up)

Far more enjoyable was the Nor-Bath Rail Trail series of geocaches. I found five geocaches from "Preemie" to "Pre-teen". There were a few more stages of life remaining but I left those for another time since the sun was heading down by that time. Since I ended the day in Whitehall, I planned on going to Old Country Buffet in Whitehall for dinner. After the last cache, I called them and found out that they close at 9pm on Sunday. It was already 8:26pm, so there definitely wasn't enough time for dinner. However, the last cache of the day, "M-T-O WhiteHall", was near a Sheetz store so I had Grande Nachos with every topping from the menu. It was piled so high that the Sheetz lady had to push it down to close the takeout container! Now, that's what I call made-to-order. :)

Express Waffles - Baby #56 (Pennsylvania)
Lost in the Woods II (Pennsylvania)
Fancy pants cache (Pennsylvania)
No PAFs Please! VIII (Pennsylvania)
"Who is PC?" (Pennsylvania)
"Preemie" micro (Pennsylvania)
That's Entertrainment ! (Pennsylvania)
"Baby 13" micro (Pennsylvania)
"Toddler" micro (Pennsylvania)
"Youngster" micro (Pennsylvania)
"Pre-Teen" micro (Pennsylvania)
Fromage Fun (Pennsylvania)
Where in Sam Hill I (Pennsylvania)
The Great Ice Cream Challenge - Roll on in! (Pennsylvania)
M-T-O WhiteHall (Pennsylvania)

Western NJ (Route 57) and Lehigh Valley

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 06:43:02 GMT

Sunny day. 80 - 85°F. Went to Easton/Nazareth in the Lehigh Valley again, hitting a bunch of geocaches along or near Route 57 in Western NJ on my way there. There were a couple of good hikes today -- unnamed wooded area (may be part of Allamuchy), Mansfield Recreation Park, and Jacobsburg State Park -- each with 2 or 3 geocaches on the same trail or trail loop.

Dinner was at Long John Silver's in Easton. I'm apparently now a regular there. The cashier knew what I was going to order before I said it. I was going to fill up at the Phillipsburg Wawa on my way home but the gas gauge was only down to the 7/8 level, so I didn't think it was worth stopping to pump in a mere 2 or 3 gallons. However, as I found out a bit later, at $3.49 for regular, they were only 2 cents/gallon cheaper than one of the gas stations back home.

Forest Fire Service (New Jersey)
Sasha's Cache - New & Improved (New Jersey)
Royal Cache Cow (New Jersey)
MRP #1 - Just Hanging around a Little (New Jersey)
MRP #2 - Hope this one doesn't Stump you (New Jersey)
MRP #3 - Entombed (New Jersey)
The Big 50 (New Jersey)
Carpool Cache II (Pennsylvania)
Down By The River, Too! (Pennsylvania)
Down By The River, Again! (Pennsylvania)
Scooby and the Demon of the Dugout (Pennsylvania)
Scooby of the Jungle (Pennsylvania)
Scooby and the Beanstalk (Pennsylvania)
Homestead Cache @ Jacobsburg (Pennsylvania)
Henry's Woods Cache @ Jacobsburg (Pennsylvania)
I'm Stumped (Pennsylvania)

Friday

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 00:05:26 GMT

This afternoon, I visited the Mate in One - Checkmate! Redux geocache at Tom Grill Field in Pompton Lakes. I went in the afternoon instead of in the evening because there was a thunderstorm in the weather forecast. There used to be a series of chess-related geocaches around Pompton Lakes, Wayne, and Riverdale, but those caches have been archived. The cache owner relisted this one, which used to be the final part of the series. To get the coordinates, you need to solve an easy checkmate-in-one puzzle. After that, it's fairly straightforward.

From Friday5.org:

1. What did you last replace batteries for?
Wireless mouse. Just one AA battery and it lasts half a year.

2. What have you thrown away that you probably could have had repaired?
Old camera. I think the shutter could be repaired but is it worth the bother when I can get the same kind of camera on eBay for $25?

3. Among items in your line of sight right now, what should probably be put in the trash?
Tea boxes.

4. When did you last use disposable cutlery while dining in your house?
Yesterday. Just a plastic fork.

5. Whose actions cause you to waste time you otherwise wouldn't waste?
Answering Friday Five.

From altfriday5:

1. Is there a place you've always wanted to travel but haven't gotten to yet? Where is it and what's the holdup?
I would like to revisit the town where I was born and see what the fried fish there is like. It's on a different continent though so it's not especially worth going there yet.

2. Is there a skill you've always wanted to learn but haven't started yet? What is it and why the wait?
How to repair the driver's side door lining. I'm getting there! Or maybe I'll just ask about it at the next regular service.

3. Is there a place you'd always wanted to travel and finally did? How was it?
Things Unlimited in Virginia Beach. I read about it in the archives of a mailing list and it was within range of a weekend road trip so I went there back in 2000. I'm not recommending this store though. It's different now and not as good.

4. Is there a skill you've always wanted to learn and finally are? How's it going?
Well, this week, I learnt how to use jQuery, Django, and Google App Engine. Piece of cake, but I still can't upload the app until I verify my App Engine account via SMS.

5. How do you pick from among the many places to see and things to do which ones you will visit or do first?
Time is the main constraint.

From altfriday5:

1. List 5 things which are basic common knowledge in your culture, which people outside are unfamiliar with. This is not about obscurity, but something everyday to you, that others go "bzuh?" at.
I have culture? :)
Well, let's see... durian, mooncake, Cheng Beng, yee sang, and not cleaning the house on Chinese New Year because it's bad luck.

2. What was the last book you read that was written by a person who is a different race than you? Do you seek out books written by people of other races? Why? Why not?
Almost every book I read was written by someone of a different race. It just seems like such an irrelevant detail. Better to read a book for its content than for a superficial attribute like that.

3. What did you eat at dinner last night? Would you call it ethnic food? Why?
Spicy Italian footlong from Subway. It's about as ethnic as Pizza Hut or Taco Bell.

4. Has your gender presentation changed over the last 5 years? Has this change/lack of change been a deliberate choice on your part?
No.

5. Do you discuss race and racism in your livejournal/blog or in person? Why have you made that choice?
No, I don't. It just hasn't been necessary for me personally. I ascribe meanness to meanness, not racism.

6. Bonus question. Were you aware of International Blog Against Racism Week? Did you choose to participate in it? Why or why not?
No, I wasn't aware of that until this Friday Five set came out last week.

Of phones and time

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 03:56:54 GMT

There must be a sales drive going on at Sprint now because yesterday morning, I got a phone call from a rather insistent Sprint sales representative. Of course, I wasn't going to upgrade my calling plan since I hardly use any minutes in the first place, and I wasn't going to upgrade my phone either because I just got a replacement Razr V3m in good working condition. However, that sales call did get me to at least take a look at Sprint's current selection of phones.

The LG Rumor is one that I might get for the slide-out keyboard. The dealbreaker is it doesn't support EV-DO! If I have Power Vision, why get a phone that can't use it? The only other Sprint offering that I thought was interesting was the HTC Touch, a touchscreen Windows Mobile smartphone. However, the reviews are lukewarm. The rest of the phones are either less capable than the Razr V3m (so why buy those when I can always get a V3m on eBay?) or too high-end for me to be bringing out into the woods. Bottom line is I ought to wait and see. Maybe they'll have more choices next year when my contract is up for renewal.

Did more work on TwitVim. Yesterday, I added support for highlighting #hashtags and jumping to the Twitter Search for those hashtags. That should make hashtags easier to follow in TwitVim, not that many people on my friends timeline use those.

Then today, I rewrote TwitVim's date/time reformatting code in pure Vim script. It used to be written in Perl, so only those who ran Vim with the if_perl extension compiled in would see those. Everyone else saw raw Twitter API timestamps, which are in GMT instead of local time and aren't very pretty, besides. Now that this piece of code is in Vim script, everyone will get the new timestamps. Why was it in Perl earlier? Because Vim has barely anything by way of date/time handling functions so I was using Perl's library functions for that. Once I had the Julian date formula though, it was easy to write a Vim function to convert date strings to UNIX time values. (i.e. seconds since Jan 1, 1970) Of course, it was even easier to peek into the Perl library to see how they implemented timegm(). Wish I'd thought of that earlier.

So here's what timegm() looks like in Vim script:

" Convert date to Julian date.
function! s:julian(year, mon, mday)
    let month = (a:mon - 1 + 10) % 12
    let year = a:year - month / 10
    return a:mday + 365 * year + year / 4 - year / 100 + year / 400 + ((month * 306) + 5) / 10
endfunction

" Calculate number of days since UNIX Epoch.
function! s:daygm(year, mon, mday)
    return s:julian(a:year, a:mon, a:mday) - s:julian(1970, 1, 1)
endfunction

" Convert date/time to UNIX time. (seconds since Epoch)
function! s:timegm(year, mon, mday, hour, min, sec)
    return a:sec + a:min * 60 + a:hour * 60 * 60 + s:daygm(a:year, a:mon, a:mday) * 60 * 60 * 24
endfunction

Certainly not a long or difficult piece of code once the details have been hammered out.

Indian Rock

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 14:19:16 GMT

Yesterday evening, I visited Parking Erratically in Suffern. It is an erratic, apparently a local landmark, in the parking lot of the Indian Rock Shopping Center. The cache owner has archived the geocache for an undisclosed reason. However, I didn't know that until I got there and started reading the online logs on my cell phone. Once I found out, I didn't bother checking the bushes for the cache but I took some pictures of the boulder anyway.

After that, I got a spicy Italian footlong at Subway in Ramsey. I got a Subway Scrabble game piece from the sub wrapper. I think it'll be similar to McDonald's Monopoly in that certain letters that you need to complete the words will be very rare. The Subway Scrabble website was very slow yesterday evening, so they might not have anticipated the rush to enter game piece codes at the start of the game.

Newark Bears

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 06:24:46 GMT

On Sunday, the Hi-4 group participated in mascot dodge ball in honor of Rip N' Ruppert's (the Newark Bears mascot) birthday. In attendance from our group were foxwell, rapidtrabbit, Damian K, yargo, Dreamwolf, shy_matsi, and myself. Mascots from other teams/organizations included Jack the Jackal (from NJ Jackals), the devil from NJ Devils, Sparkee (Somerset Patriots, which I believe was the team playing against the Newark Bears in this afternoon's ball game), the Highlander (from NJIT), Max Reader (from REMAX), and the Commerce Bank Big Red "C". Batman was there too.

In addition to mascot dodge ball, I was also out on the field for mascot races and the birthday bash. I skipped mascot musical chairs. (Actually, it was "musical chair" because they had only one big chair.) And finally, we had birthday cake in the mascot lounge.

After the ball game was over, I went to Cranford to find Oreo and Sneezy. Luckily, the rain had stopped by then. I had reservations about "Oreo" since it was at a railroad overpass and cache retrieval might cause "panic" but the gloomy weather kept pedestrian traffic to a minimum so there wasn't a problem. "Sneezy" has a reputation for being a tough cache to find but I noticed that it had gotten much easier because a portion of the tree had rotted away.

Central Jersey, Western NJ, Lehigh Valley

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 06:53:12 GMT

Sunny day. About 80°F. I wanted to get a lot in today because I probably won't be doing much geocaching on Sunday, so I did an arc across Central Jersey, through Western NJ (I-78 corridor), and ending in Lehigh Valley. This time, I got past Easton/Nazareth and finished up in Bethlehem.

Met up with DB2 at "No PAFs Please! VII". I didn't know they were geocachers at first but when I saw the team of two people and three beagles looking around all the usual hiding spots and when I noticed that one of them was holding a GPS receiver, I figured they had to be. I'll probably see them again at the September Lehigh Valley picnic.

Dinner was at Long John Silver's in Easton. I wanted to go to Old Country Buffet in Whitehall but there wasn't enough time and I hadn't gotten to that area yet, so I'll save it for the next trip. On my way home, I saw a new Wawa store in Phillipsburg. I didn't notice that last week but it's not on the main road so it might have slipped by me. That's a good place to refuel because their gas is cheaper than home and I only need to go one block out of my way to get there.

Snoopin' Around The Park 3 (New Jersey)
Snoopin' Around The Park 2 (New Jersey)
3D Cache (New Jersey)
RECALCULATING! - The Movie - "A Cautionary Tale" (New Jersey)
WHEE! (New Jersey)
Jacksonville Jaunt (New Jersey)
Our First Car - "Baby 62" Chevy Impala SS (Pennsylvania)
Nazareth Center (Pennsylvania)
Baby #77: It's A Mystery... (Pennsylvania)
Project FTF Tres #16- We want...a SHRUBBERY! (Pennsylvania)
No PAFs Please! VII (Pennsylvania)
Shades Of Grey (Pennsylvania)
My First Hide (Pennsylvania)
Devil's Hill Cache (Pennsylvania)
No PAFs Please! III (Pennsylvania)
Creek Side (Pennsylvania)
How Lowe Can You Go III (Pennsylvania)

Crazy 8

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 06:37:29 GMT

This evening, I went to Crazy 8's Meet & Greet Dinner Event at Ruby Tuesday in Willowbrook Mall in Wayne. This geocaching event is on 08/08/08 at 8:08pm. I got there rather early because I took a lot less than expected on my pre-dinner geocache, but there were already a few geocachers waiting in the food court outside Ruby Tuesday. We went into the restaurant when it got a bit closer to 8pm. Our group this time was about 30 people. Unfortunately, Ruby Tuesday was clearly unprepared for our group. By the time someone took our orders, it was already half an hour into the event. I had salad bar as the entree so I wouldn't have to wait for the food. (but I do that every time at Ruby Tuesday anyway because their salad bar is actually pretty good) Anyway, it was good to see the North Jersey geocachers. Ironically, I don't see them very often even though I live in North Jersey myself because most of their events are camping events and geocoin swaps, and I'm not too fond of those.

The pre-dinner cache was Short Line RR, also in Wayne but a bit to the North from the mall. It's on an old railroad line that is no longer in use. I'd read the cache logs before heading out there and I noticed that some people took up to half an hour to find the cache, so that's how much time I set aside for this cache. How long did I actually take? Two minutes. It really wasn't that hard because I knew how it would be hidden based on my experience at a similar cache a bit further up the tracks.

KOA

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 05:48:11 GMT

This evening's geocache was Kache On Arrival at Westbrook Park, a KOA campground that was turned into a town park, in West Milford. This location is quite a bit out of the way for North Jersey. I took the scenic route via the long and winding Westbrook Road to get there. On my way back, I saw that they were just starting to close off and repave Greenwood Lake Turnpike. Went to McDonald's in Mahwah for dinner and had a Angus Bacon and Cheese Third Pounder value meal. Thanks to Ryan / RXBX (who is both a geocacher and Where's Georger) for the coupon link. It's still good for a few more days if you'd like to print and use it yourself.

A screw came loose below the dashboard, so I went to Autozone yesterday evening. After testing the screw against their selection of tools, I got a 10mm socket and that did the trick. Later though, I noticed that the driver's side door lining had come loose. (Not related to the screw problem.) I wonder what I need to fix that. I'll probably try one of the adhesives that I have later.

I'm quite a bit behind on this because I only just started using Google App Engine. I figured I'd port my Sudoku Solver to GAE. Of course, it's a total waste of GAE because it could be implemented in Javascript entirely on the client side like this, but I wanted to see how GAE works before taking on more substantial projects. Installing ActivePython and GAE SDK was a snap to do. The SDK itself simulates the App Engine environment, including a simple web server, so I didn't need to install anything else. The bigger hurdle was relearning Python as I hadn't touched that scripting language in about a decade. However, after reading the online tutorial a bit, I found that I hadn't actually forgotten much. It's a simpler language than Perl.

The annoying part: After I was done and ready to upload the application, I saw that Google App Engine requires that I verify my account by SMS. I have text messaging turned off on my Sprint account so that is a little inconvenient. I'll have to ask Sprint to turn it on again temporarily just for this one text message, and that will have to wait until Sprint's customer service webchat comes back up. If at all possible, I'd prefer not to be on hold on their voice line for this.

The Yellow Box

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 05:20:37 GMT

This evening's little excursion was to the Skylands Manor section of Ringwood State Park for the Tech Treasure geocache. Starting from Parking Area C, it was just a little walk on the park road to the cache site. It is a bright yellow box, which would be difficult to hide if there weren't a lot of leaves in that spot with which to cover it up. I don't think I've seen a K'nex box as a geocache before. After that, of course, I had a spicy Italian footlong at Subway in Ramsey.

Months after the dental appointment, I still have a dental insurance claim problem, not because I have an insurance problem but because the dentist's office has for the second time sent the claim to the wrong insurance provider. The insurance provider's name and address appear correct on their computer terminal but I think there is a bug in their electronic claim submission system. It would be a waste of time (and not our responsibility) to try to debug this, so I asked them to send in the claim by mail (or fax, if they can get the number) and we'll see how it goes.

Western NJ, continued, and Lehigh Valley

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 07:28:47 GMT

After yesterday's rain, today was sunny and not too hot or humid. I did the geocaches I skipped yesterday because of rain and then I continued from where I stopped. Also crossed over to Pennsylvania but stopped at Easton, leaving the rest of the Lehigh Valley geocaches for another weekend because it was getting late by then. Dinner was fried fish at Long John Silver's in Easton.

Ran into a few geocachers at cache sites. At "Bigger then a Breadbox???", I met Team Ecnarf. (a family) I was at the cache site when they came along. Later in the day, at "MC Orchard Cache", I met up with JimmyG. (a couple) They had already found that particular cache and were on their way back to the parking area.

One thing that came up during the conversation was whether or not I'll be attending the Central Jersey geomeets again. Without going into too much detail, the original problem that caused me to stop attending those meets has gone away but the other problem that the meet location is a 100-mile roundtrip for me is still there. If I had Tuesday off so I could do a bunch of geocaches in Central Jersey and then finish up by attending the meet, that would work. Moving the meetup to Northern NJ would also help, but I don't see that happening. :)

Gov. Liv. Park (New Jersey)
Patriot's Path Bridge (New Jersey)
Jugtown Mountain Cache (New Jersey)
Bottoms Up! (New Jersey)
Choo-Choo Tunnel (New Jersey)
Bigger then a Breadbox??? (New Jersey)
NJ Snowgeese (New Jersey)
MC Orchard Cache (New Jersey)
MC Field View (New Jersey)
How Lowe Can You Go V (New Jersey)
Cool (Pennsylvania)
Park View Cache (Pennsylvania)
Tecky&Terrace's Treasure (Pennsylvania)
Scooby and The Creepy Case of Old Iron Face (Pennsylvania)
Chip's Firewood Cache (Pennsylvania)
Where in Sam Hill II (Pennsylvania)

Western NJ, I-78 corridor

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 06:40:18 GMT

I got the camera yesterday, just in time for the weekend. It's a refurbished unit. (The eBay seller mentioned that it's a factory demo.) It works perfectly and because it's the same model as my old camera, I spent zero time learning how to use it. Beyond that, it's quite reassuring that there is a decent secondhand market for this camera, so it's easy and inexpensive to get a replacement if I break or misplace the camera.

So where did I take the camera? Out to Western NJ, on the I-78 corridor from Bridgewater to Washington. It was a rainy day and I skipped the first few geocaches on my list because of heavy rain. Then the rain stopped, so I did a bunch of geocaches. Then the rain started again when I was at "Stateliner's Stash", so it was a good thing I brought an umbrella on that hike. There was also some dime-sized hail for a while. I was pretty much done for the day after that, so I just visited two more quick geocaches on the way to dinner...

... which was at Bridgewater Commons. I'd originally intended to visit the mall food court but found, to my dismay (or relief :) ), that the food court was closed for renovation until 2009. I noticed that there was a Chipotle in the mall annex. I'd never tried that before, so I went there and got a burrito. So how does Chipotle measure up? Well... they have fewer choices than Baja Fresh and Qdoba and they're not as tacky as Moe's, but it's essentially the same kind of food in the same price range.

Ode to IMSpider (New Jersey)
Gone Cachin' (New Jersey)
Michael's Mason Jar (New Jersey)
Red-Bellied Woodpecker (New Jersey)
No Tide, No Current (New Jersey)
Tiny Often Empty Park: High Bridge (New Jersey)
Calling All Dogs! (New Jersey)
Gateway To? (New Jersey)
Mulhockaway Creek (New Jersey)
Just Rite #1 (New Jersey)
Brass Castle Cache #2 (New Jersey)
Brass Castle Cache #4 (New Jersey)
A Stateliner's Stash (New Jersey)
Meadow Breeze #4 (New Jersey)
Canadian Geese II (New Jersey)

Friday

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 22:14:07 GMT

I guess I'm being a bit antisocial this weekend because I'm skipping not one, but three events! The biggie is FA United. It's one of the items I'm cutting out this year as a result of not receiving an economic stimulus check and I am keeping my word. I am also not going to SEPAG Storms the Castle V in Doylestown and SEPAG Breakfast Club in Warrington. This pair of events is two hours from home, a distance which ordinarily won't stop me from attending, but this time around, I didn't have enough time to prepare for an all-day geocaching trip there. Instead, I'll wait for their September event in Lehigh Valley.

From altfriday5:

1. When is your birthday? (Be as specific or as vague as you like.)
September 18.

2. How do you feel about it being the day or time of year that it is? How did you feel about it when you were a child?
It often falls at around the time of the mooncake festival, so it's extra festive.

3. What do you usually do to celebrate your birthday, if anything? Why?
Nothing special that I wouldn't do on a weekend. In 2003, I had Hurricane Isabel. :)

4. Describe your ideal birthday celebration, within reason (i.e., no breaking the laws of physics or plausibility).
I've been meaning to go to East Buffet in Huntington but I'm never on Long Island on my birthday. 200 dishes! jbadger, wanna do that?

5. Describe your ideal birthday celebration, without reason (i.e., break whatever laws you feel like).
Fursuiting in Space.

From Friday5.org:

1. Of television programs that aired before you were born, what's your favorite?
I don't even watch today's TV.

2. What person of historical significance was from your neighborhood or city?
I don't know anyone of historical significance from here. Maybe one of these people will make history.

3. What's a story that's often been told about someone in your family in the years before you came along?
Not enough family history. Grandfather had TB. (tuberculosis, not travel bug :) )

4. Which of previous generations' dumb mistakes (in deed or thought) baffles you the most?
Again, not enough family history to know. I hope no one gambled away a tin mine or something like that.

5. What aspect of life in the good old days would you love to see a return to?
It was simpler back then. Now, there is just too much going on to keep track of.