Dan Q

Tag: geocaching

Dan Q found GL5HNCDH Carfax Tower

This checkin to GL5HNCDH Carfax Tower reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

Found pretty easily this lunchtime… but my pen didn’t work! So instead I took a photo of the cache while I hid in a nearby phone box (attached).

Nice re-use of a hard disk drive magnet on this cache! Good to see a little recycling in action!

Geocache with hard drive magnet as an attachment point.

Dan Q found GL5HJDRG University Challenge 11 (The High)

This checkin to GL5HJDRG University Challenge 11 (The High) reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

A quick lunchtime cache-and-dash around my workplace. Easy to find exactly where it’ll be, but very hard to find the right moment to snatch it (and return it!) without being spotted by the muggles who’d come out in force for this lovely sunny day. TFTC.

Dan Q found GL5HJDQ2 University Challenge 2 (New College’s Rear)

This checkin to GL5HJDQ2 University Challenge 2 (New College's Rear) reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

A quick lunchtime cache-and-dash around my workplace. An easy find (but a great hiding place); I’m glad I wore laced shoes! Looked at the hint after I found it, though, and I’ve no idea how it would have helped me: maybe I just don’t “get it”. TFTC.

With The Bod

I know that there are about a million things I ought to be writing about; I’ll try to get time at the weekend. In the meantime, I thought I’d share with you this snippet from Outline, the internal newsletter of the Bodleian Libraries:

Welcome to Dan Q: a snippet from Outline, the Bodleian Libraries internal newsletter. Click to embiggen.

What does this tiny appearance on page three mean? Well; it means that the many libraries that I’ll be visiting over the next few weeks (I have a surprising number of meetings set up!) will know I’m coming, for one.

The article mentions geocaching, because the editor asked me for “something personal about me”, and it was the most family-friendly thing I could think of on the spot. I was also asked “what I did”, which I struggled with a little because, despite having been here a week, I’m still not entirely sure what it is that I do. That said, I achieved the first productive parts of my work, yesterday, helping a user with a self-inflicted (probably!) bug in the Libraries’ CMS system. Apart from that, I feel like I’ve spent most of my time running around the city meeting people and networking! Lots of new faces and names to learn!

Two things keep coming up in conversation with people, upon discovering that I’m new here:

  1. Several people have asked “What university I worked for before?” The majority of people here were either Oxford undergrads or worked at other universities: to have somebody come in from the private sector is a little… unusual, it seems.
  2. People keep telling me that I shouldn’t expect (or be expected) to achieve anything for the first six months or so. Six months! It’s taking a while to get started, certainly (I’m still finding my way around all of the systems I’m now responsible for), and I still don’t have logins on half of the computers and services that I’ll need them on, yet, but that’s just ludicrous!
The main Bodleian Libraries website; one of about 32 websites for which I now find myself responsible.

On the other hand, I’m seriously enjoying the comparatively-relaxed attitude that everybody seems to have, here. And I’ve been given a bugs-list as long as my arm that I’m sure they’ve been saving up for me to arrive, so there’s plenty to sink my teeth into even if I will have to go through half a dozen committees before I can implement any of the new features that these websites so desperately need.

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Dan Q couldn’t find GC1Q1TW SideTracked – Oxford

This checkin to GC1Q1TW SideTracked - Oxford reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

It’s not been my day! With the help of the co-ordinates, the clue, and confirmation from another cacher, I’m pretty-much certain that I was in the right place, but it looks like it had been removed. Will try again another time…

Dan Q couldn’t find GC25WGX The ox-stream caching series – Osney Stream

This checkin to GC25WGX The ox-stream caching series - Osney Stream reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

Lots of muggles around which prevented me from mounting a more thorough search. My job will put me in this area from time to time, so I’m sure to mount a proper hunt sometime soon!

Dan Q found GL541R7D Spies Like Us – The Dead Drop

This checkin to GL541R7D Spies Like Us - The Dead Drop reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

Found the numbers, and they lead us straight to the “drop”. Nice location, and a great idea for a cache: we’ll certainly be looking out for Spies Like Us – Honeypot sometime soon!