Image Comparison

Solving yet another puzzle and I find that I am needing to compare two images that appear to be the same yet one has been manipulated to contain information.  Thankfully a friend set me on the right path with this online image comparison site.  I also used reverse image search to find the original image for the comparison.  I had previously tried to solve this puzzle with nothing showing. However when I reduced the fuzz - bang! There is some hidden information.

University of Geocaching - Challenges

So I have discovered that in Canberra their is a great combination of GEO-Art and Challenges! Two of my most favourite things about Geocaching.

So of course I MUST DO IT ALL!

I have set myself a personal challenge to met all of the requirements within a year.  Of course one of the major requirements is that you need to complete a 365 day caching streak.  So this is what I have embarked on from International Geocaching Day 2017 to International Geocaching Day 2018 - which will give me a 366 day streak.

So this will dictate my focus this year.  According to my cacluations this year I will need to pick up:

3 CITO's (including one interstate)
7 Flashlight attributes
1 Night cache
563 Micro's
283 Small's
310 Regular
21 Large
18 Other
987 Traditionals including 360 with 1 FP point
153 Multi's
176 Mysteries including 62 with 2 FP
1 Event in another state not NT or QLD
43 Souvenirs (this is the one I don't think I will be able to complete)
1 MEGA
1 positive Attribute (GEOTour or 10km Hike)
20 Counties
1 x 2000 cache
D/T's: 1/3.5, 2.5/4, 3.5/4, 4/4
Placed Dates: 5/1, 30/1, 31/1, 11/2, 3/3, 11/3, 27/4, 2/5, 4/5, 9/5, 13/5, 5/7, 11/7, 3/10, 4/10, 20/10, 22/10, 28/10, 3/11, 4/11, 13/11, 14/1, 18/11, 21/11, 27/11, 9/12, 10/12, 15/17, 24/12, 26/12
365 Day Caching Streak

Phew!

Kakuro Puzzle

Urrgghh!! These are not my favourite types of puzzles as they always seem to use a lot of lead and rubber to get my way through it.  However of course there is an online solver that can be used for when things get desperate.  Even though I try to solve puzzles by hand sometimes you just gotta check in with the computer to make sure everything is all good.

https://www.kakuro-online.com/solver

International Geocaching Day 2017

With a special souvenir up for grabs how could I resist the need to grab a smilie for the day. Organised to met up with friends in the city prior to the event to knock off a few tricky hides in the Roma Street Parklands. Turned up five minutes late due to parking nightmares and when I caught up with them they had the sneaky D4.5 in their hands! Met the CO of the event who also has a significant amount of Earthcaches across the country. He had travelled up from Victoria and had done the event to met the local cachers and we didn't disappoint coming out in force. It was a great little event and I am glad I made the trip to the city.

Reverse Image Search

One of the new tricks I have learned through Geocaching is the art of 'reverse image searching'.  At first when I was solving puzzle with picture clues I just did random search strings and then would troll through hundreds of pictures until I found what I was looking for.  It wasn't until a geo-friend mentioned that you could do a reverse image search that I googled that and learned how.  I still don't do it regularly and always seem to forgot how.

Tonight though I am working on solving a piece of geo-art I need to look a picture and work out the title of the movie.  Cue google reverse image search and this great website popped up that I have used in the past, but consequently forgot what it was called so I am posting this to remind myself in the future.

https://tineye.com/

BINGO Challenge

BINGO! BINGO! BINGO! BINGO! BINGO!

Yesterday I completed a challenge that I had been working on for some time.  Its a BINGO challenge where you are given a 5 x 5 square grid with various things to check off and you can claim a found when you can complete a column, row or diagonal.  I had signed the log way back in April of this year as I was in Stanthorpe for the weekend and knew that I would probably complete at least a row before the end of the year.  Slowly I worked on achieving things, I attended events and racked up 5 events in one weekend - Canada Day! Collected a heap of virtual caches when I went to Melbourne last weekend.  Made sure my average daily finds was kept above 2.5, but the last thing I had to do to get a line was find 1000 traditional caches.  Cue yesterday and I had seven to go, so I railroaded the kids into coming out with me to collect just what I needed.  I did go further afield to collect as I wanted to fill in a couple of months on my JASMER grid, not to mention that in order to get a full BINGO sheet I will need to complete a 100 day streak so I don't want to clear out around home. The found also earned me a new D/T rating, which was a bonus!

To this Point in Time

I have just decided to do my own little blog in order to keep a few things together in regards to my geocaching.  As I am very much into challenges, Geo-Art and puzzle solving I figured it would be a good way to keep everything in the one place.

Currently I have been caching for just a little over fifteen months with a smidge under 1500 finds to my name.  I don't really like to cache on my own, although I will, often I drag bring my two sons or go out with my mother who also caches, or if the husband is home he will come with me.  Sometimes I will meet up with other geo-friends but not that often.

I have hosted two events, both in July this year, and currently have three hides - a letterbox and traditional in Queensland and a mystery in country NSW.

At the moment I am focusing on filling out my JASMER grid and working on puzzles near where I hope to go caching on a road trip in the future.