Dan Q

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Dan Q posted a note for GC5J655 GO Active Cutteslowe and Sunnymead Park

This checkin to GC5J655 GO Active Cutteslowe and Sunnymead Park reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

  1. CO hasn’t logged in in almost 3 years.
  2. Long string of DNFs.
  3. No finds in 8 months.
  4. During that time I’ve repeatedly tried to contact CO both through this site and through Go Active Oxfordshire (to report this as probably-missing and to volunteer to help with its future maintenance if they want to bring it back to life), but never received a response.

I strongly suspect that this cache is abandoned by the organisation that set it up. I’m reaching out to them today, one last time, but if they don’t respond then I suggest that this be considered for archiving by an administrator.

Dan Q posted a note for GC54KVD Oxford Medical History #2: Grey matter

This checkin to GC54KVD Oxford Medical History #2: Grey matter reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

Came past here the other day while some work was being done on the island. The entire area around the GZ has been torn-up and it seems likely that the cache has been muggled and that the area might no-longer be suitable for a cache. :-(

The most unexpected answer to a counting puzzle

This is a repost promoting content originally published elsewhere. See more things Dan's reposted.

Summary: if an idealised weight slides into another, bouncing it off a wall then back into itself, how many times will the two collide? If the two weights are the same then the answer is 3: the first collision imparts all of the force of the first into the second, the second collision is the second bouncing off the wall, and the third imparts the force from the second back into the first. If the second weight weighs ten times as much as the first, the answer turns out to be 31. One hundred times as much, and there are 314 bounces. One thousand times, and there are 3,141. Ten thousand times, and there are 31,415… spot the pattern? The number of bounces are the digits of pi.

Why? This is mindblowing. And this video doesn’t answer the question (completely): it only poses it. But I’ll be looking forward to the next episode’s explanation…

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The Mystery

This is a repost promoting content originally published elsewhere. See more things Dan's reposted.

Brian and Nick are back for the first time in, like, forever. Do you remember what happened before this? It was The Faux Pas, two years ago. And before that? And before that? And before that? The short of it is that it’s been a long time since your mom’s butthole was just fine.

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Geohashing expedition 2019-01-08 51 -1

This checkin to geohash 2019-01-08 51 -1 reflects a geohashing expedition. See more of Dan's hash logs.

Location

A34 near Peartree Interchange, Oxford.

Participants

  • Dan Q (whose birthday it is!)

Plans

It’s my birthday on YYYY-01-08 (Birthday geohash achievement, here I come!), and even though I have to go into work (boo!), I note that my graticule’s geohashpoint falls only about a kilometre and a half of a diversion from my usual cycle route to work. The A4260 and A34 are basically a deathtrap for cyclists, so depending on conditions and traffic I’ll probably divert via the Oxford Canal towpath from Kidlington to Peartree, park up near Peartree Services, and then finish on foot. And then go to work, I guess.

Expedition

Success! A relatively easy (but sometimes scary: the traffic’s a bit nuts on some of the major roads that provided the shortest route) journey to the hashpoint area, followed by a slightly-scary crossing of the road to the hashpoint, which turned out to be right by the crash barriers at the central reservation. The crash barriers provided a great place to tie a “The Internet Was Here” sign.

On my way away from the hashpoint, at 09:19, I hid a geocache: (“2019-01-08 51 -1, 09:19”, OK049E, GC827X6). The geocache is of the “puzzle” variety – the person looking for it is likely to discover geohashing (if they haven’t already) as part of their research into the secret location of the cache.

Achievements

Birthday Achievement
Dan Q earned the Birthday Geohash Achievement
by reaching the (51, -1) geohash on his 38th birthday, 2019-01-08.

Geohashing expedition 2019-01-08 51 -1 (video)

On the morning of my 38th birthday I set out on an expedition to the geohashpoint in my graticule as a diversion from my way to work: read my full hash log for details (or on the geohashing wiki). Inspired by a spot near the hashpoint, I also hid a geocache (“2019-01-08 51 -1, 09:19”, OK049E, GC827X6). You can download my tracklog [GPX] here.

Also available on YouTube and on QTube.

Video posted at UTC on .

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There’s lots of ugliness in the world right now, so I think it’s important to share these photos…

This is a repost promoting content originally published elsewhere. See more things Dan's reposted.

There’s lots of ugliness in the world right now, so I think it’s important to share these photos of what happened when my friend Marvin called me & said: “I’m getting married & we can only invite 100 people. You didn’t make the cut. But you can come if you come as a drunk clown.”
(1) There’s not a lot of story to tell, but for anyone who wants some DRUNK CLOWN AT THE WEDDING backstory:

Marvin had a vision of a drunk clown crashing his wedding. It’s all he ever wanted. Laura was on board. That’s the kind of perfect-for-each-other weirdos they are.

(2) I arrived in a regular suit. I had the clown outfit, face paint, shavingg stuff (I had a full beard & needed to shave for the make-up) and two 40oz’s (Marvin asked for a drunk clown, so I was giving him a D*R*U*N*K clown) in a bag I hid in a bathroom next to the ceremony.
(3) I only knew a handful of people at the wedding. Didn’t know Marvin or Laura’s families. More importantly, they didn’t know me. Which made me the perfect surprise drunk clown.
(4) I didn’t want them to recognize me when I showed up as a clown — the idea was to make it feel like an actual drunk clown had crashed the festivities — so I didn’t mingle much.
(5) As soon as the ceremony was over, people were directed to another area for a wine reception. I slipped away to the bathroom with @AimieRocks, who was helping with my make-up. I shaved off the beard, did my face, got into the clown suit, and pounded one of the 40oz’s.
Total lightweight here. I was hammered pretty quickly. I’m a method actor, so I drank half the other 40oz too. Then I stumbled over to the wine reception.
(7) I barged in, marched over to Laura’s mom, grabbed her wine, downed it, then handed the empty glass back to her. CONFUSION. MILD CHAOS.

WHO IS THIS DRUNK CLOWN?

(8) I accidentally shattered a few wine glasses, but I gotta say I brought a real JOVIAL DRUNK CLOWN vibe to the whole affair, so people embraced me pretty quickly, even though I kept drinking their wine.
(9) Except for Laura’s dad, who called for security to escort me out. She had to tell him that I was AN OFFICIAL MEMBER OF THE WEDDING PARTY.

Best Man ☑️
Maid of Honor ☑️
Drunk Clown ☑️

(10) At some point, we must have gone into the vineyard to take those photos in the original tweet up above, but honestly I was so drunk that I don’t remember taking them.

Anyway, I told you there wasn’t much backstory. It was an awesome wedding. <end>

ADDENDUM: just found this photo & it made me laugh. This is after security was called off, after everyone found out I wasn’t a DRUNK CLOWN STRANGER but a DRUNK CLOWN FRIEND. And everyone’s just…so…completely…CHILL. Just like, “whatevs,” as I drink more.
(12) OMG okay so I guess I have to make a SECOND ADDENDUM because @AimieRocks just emailed me some more photos from the wedding. Adding them to this thread…
(13) What I wore to the wedding ceremony. (That’s not my hat, that’s @AimieRocks‘s hat, I’m *not* a hat person but wearing it made me feel like Diane Keaton.) Posting these photos so you can see the beard I had before my clown transformation. I shaved that thing off SO QUICKLY.
(14) DRUNK WEDDING CLOWN, A PORTRAIT. I hate beer so much, but I had to get in character and I feel like drunk wedding clowns drink beer??? I’ve barely had any of the beer and already a little drunk in this photo. We didn’t leave the bathroom until after I finished that bottle.
(15) Last three photos. I love how Laura’s pretending not to know me in that first one. The kissing photo is with another good college friend, Michal. I have no idea who I’m talking to in that third photo. <end addendum> xx
Marvin just joined twitter to tell me that’s his mom I’m hugging in the third photo in this tweet. I’M SORRY, MARVIN. But welcome to twitter. xo
(17) ADDENDUM #3: @MarvinSolomon8 just texted me the name of their wedding photographer. Shoutout to SAMUEL POTTER PHOTOGRAPHY in Paso Robles. Here’s his website:

He took the three vineyard photos & obviously has a great eye. THANK YOU SAMUEL POTTER.

I was at a party this afternoon and an old friend introduced me to his wife, then told her: “honey, this is the drunk clown I told you about.”
Someone messaged me asking if they could interview me about the drunk clown stuff for a TV show & we’re about to skype. I texted my mom and asked “how do I look?” This is her reply. WHAT DOES THIS EVEN MEAN??? IS THAT A GOOD THING OR A BAD THING??? WHAT ARE YOU TELLING ME, MOM???
My grandma’s been in the hospital with bad shingles & infection. It’s been a scary, stressful week, & she’s been in bad pain. But she’s getting A LOT better. And thankfully she just got moved to rehab facility.

My mom just texted me this photo she took of grandma’s new room.

A friend just texted that he’s showing these drunk wedding clown photos to his family tomorrow and I hope it brings them all closer together.
× × × × × ×

Repost posted at UTC on .

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Dan Q note OK045C The Fairy Elevator

This checkin to OK045C The Fairy Elevator reflects an opencache.uk log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

Dropped by to perform routine maintenance to discover that this cache has been partially muggled: the lifting mechanism has been cut and the pencils have been removed. However the cache itself is otherwise functional. As a stop-gap the cache is temporarily hidden BEHIND the tree (rather the hoisted up it); I’ll look into a proper fix as soon as I’m able.

Dan Q performed maintenance for GC7R0HB The Fairy Elevator

This checkin to GC7R0HB The Fairy Elevator reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

Dropped by to perform routine maintenance to discover that this cache has been partially muggled: the lifting mechanism has been cut and the pencils have been removed. However the cache itself is otherwise functional. As a stop-gap the cache is temporarily hidden BEHIND the tree (rather the hoisted up it); I’ll look into a proper fix as soon as I’m able.

Iraq’s Post-ISIS Campaign of Revenge

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…

The next suspect insisted that he had been arrested by mistake—that his name was similar to that of someone in ISIS. A private defense lawyer explained that his client had confessed to ISIS affiliation under torture—he had a medical examination to prove it—but none of the judges appeared to be listening. As the lawyer spoke, they cracked jokes, signed documents, and beckoned their assistants to collect folders from the bench. Sahar yawned. The trial lasted eight minutes.

…

“Enough evidence—I ask for a guilty verdict,” the prosecutor said. It was the only phrase she uttered in court that morning.

…

Iraq’s well out of the news cycle and even ISIS isn’t getting the coverage it once did. But for many in post-ISIS Iraq, the battle is far from over. A country bloodthirsty for revenge against the terrorists who held Mosul, a judiciary more-interested in fast results rather than right results, and a legal system that promotes and accepts confession under torture creates the perfect breeding ground for tomorrow’s disaster.

Repost posted at UTC on .

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Toddler Feelings Helpline

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Hello, you have reached the Toddler Feelings Helpline. Please choose from the following options:

— If Mama went to the store for a minute but you are pretty sure she’s never coming back, please mash all of the keys but mostly 1.

— If you still feel pretty messed up about how they were just going to burn the Velveteen Rabbit, please mash all of the keys but mostly 2.

— If you don’t like the way your shirt is right now, please hit a sibling for no reason.

…

Repost posted at UTC on .

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Elemental haiku

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Chlorine

Low road or high road?
World War I. Gas in trenches.
Or salt shared, tears shed.

A haiku for every element on the periodic table up to atomic weight 103, and also one for the as-yet-unsynthesised ununennium, I especially like magnesium’s.

Repost posted at UTC on .

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