Author: Dan Q
Dan Q is a software engineer, a director of a voluntary organisation, a trainee counsellor, a keen geocacher, and an amateur magician. He lives with his partner and her husband in a polyamorous triad, and occasionally finds time to blog.
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Off to Ireland to hunt for geohashpoints. Wish us luck!
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Dan and his mother standing in an Oxford street, carrying luggage.
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When my mother proposed that we take a holiday together somewhere, and that I could choose the destination, I started by looking at the Geohashing Expeditions Map.
Where, I wondered, could I find a cluster of mostly-land graticules ("square" degree of latitude and longitude) in which nobody had ever logged a successful expedition?
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Somewhat recognisable map of Western Europe, broken up into square degrees of latitude Ave longitude and colour coded based on the number of geohashing expeditions recorded for each. Four contiguous squares on the West coast of Ireland are marked and annotated by hand with the word 'Target!'
I've been geohashing for ten years now and I've never yet scored a "Graticule Unlocked" achievement for being the first to reach any hashpoint in a given graticule.
Over the next week, if the fluctuations of the Dow Jones and the variable Irish weather allow, I'll be changing that.
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Horse-Powered Locomotives
You probably know the story of George Stephenson's Rocket beating its competitors and going to to influence steam locomotive design for generations. But did you know that one of its competitors... was a horse in a carriage?
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On the way to school this morning, the 10-year-old lagged behind to build a small snowman.
On the way back, the dog saw the snowman, which wasn't there when she'd passed earlier. She wanted to make it clear that she Did. Not. Trust. it. She stood back and growled at it for a while, and then, eventually, was persuaded to come closer.
Leaning as far as her little legs could manage, she stretched to carefully sniff it while keeping her distance. She still wasn't entirely happy and ran most of the way to the end of the path to get away from the mysterious cold heap.
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A champagne-coloured French Bulldog wearing a teal jumper leans hard to sniff at (while avoiding getting too close to) a small snowman about the same size as her, on a footpath mostly covered with snow (except for a patch from which the snowman's materials were clearly extracted).
(This same dog earlier this year spent quarter of an hour barking at our wheelbarrow when, unusually, it was left in the middle of the lawn, rather than beside the shed. She doesn't like change!)
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Snuffles in the Snow. This morning's freak snowfall in Oxfordshire is a source of some confusion on this pupper's morning walk.
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A champagne coloured French Bulldog wearing a teal jumper stands at the edge of a snow-covered field.
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I was sceptical when the forecast said there'd be sleet and snow this morning, but sure enough, it's just barely beginning to settle on the skylight of my attic bathroom. 🫢
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Photo from the inside of a skylight, showing icy snow and a fallen brown leaf stuck to the other side. A reflection of a small bathroom sink can just be made out.
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US Constitution and Presidential Assassinations
A thought came to me this morning: if a US President-Elect dies before their inauguration, does their running mate automatically get the Presidency? Finding the answer led me through a warren of interconnected Constitutional Amendments.
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Found GC34G3G Coventry - Hertford Street
This checkin to GC34G3G Coventry - Hertford Street reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs. The rest of the family and I are visiting for my youngest's birthday to do a handful of fun activities. Geocaching didn't make the list, but that wasn't gonna stop me finding this QEF while putting …
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Miika used a marquee tag to add a cable car to a web page, and I think I couldn't be more impressed.
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Sadder Than Fiction
There's a short story that I tried on-and-off to write, but I've now given up on it. The concepts it makes light of all feel a bit too close-to-home, as conspiracy theorists increasingly migrate from the 'harmless nutjob' to the 'dangerous political leader' category.
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Harswell Steel
My past self, receiving a copy of Transport Tycoon for his 14th birthday, would have his mind blown if he could see the kind of insanely-complex super-stations that are possible in (the open-source successor to) the game 30 years on...
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Found GC656RM Church Micro 8564...Ducklington
This checkin to GC656RM Church Micro 8564...Ducklington reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs. The dog and I came out to Ducklington today for a spot of geohashing, in search of the 2024-11-14 51 -1 geohashpoint. After a walk around the fields to the East we had to give up on …
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Geohashing expedition 2024-11-14 51 -1
The dog and I got within 33 metres of a geohashpoint today, but couldn't quite make it to the zero point.
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Maybe it's just that my sabbatical is making me pay more attention then usual, but it feels like I'm getting very lucky with nearby geohashpoints lately. Tomorrow's hashpoint in my graticule might be achievable!
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Map showing my location on Witney and a pin 2.5km away in a field outside Ducklington. Geohashpoint for tomorrow.
This is a good omen, perhaps, for next week. Next week my mother and I are going to hop over to the West coast of Ireland where there are several contiguous mostly-land graticules that have never seen a successful expedition. We could be the first! 🤞
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Kids' ability to pick up new words from context is amazing.
Kids' confidence even when they've misunderstood how a word is used is hilarious. 😊
This evening, our 7-year-old was boasting about how well-behaved his class was while their regular teacher had to attend an all-day meeting, vs how much it impressed the temporary teacher they had.
His words: "Today we had a supply teacher and we totally DOMINATED her!"