jadz

… or Nerd Treasure Hunt as Brittany calls it.

Today we went for our first geocache hunt, and turned up empty handed. I think the co-ords for the box was slightly off because I see people talking about moving it to get it out of the way.

For those of you who don’t know what it is, you can read up on it here or here, or just look at a list of the geocaches that are close to Halifax at this listing.

Geocaching is an outdoor activity that most often involves the use of a Global Positioning System (“GPS”) receiver or traditional navigational techniques to find a “geocache” (or “cache”) placed anywhere in the world. A typical cache is a small, waterproof container containing a logbook and “treasure”, usually trinkets of little value. Participants are called geocachers.

Geocaching is similar to a much older activity called letterboxing. The major difference is its use of the GPS and the Internet. Some variations of the game now include point systems to enhance game play.

Even though we did not find the actual cache, it was fun to go for a hike at Duncan’s Cove, this time much further than we normally go. We were using a Magellan GPS 2000 XL, which you can buy for about $20 it seems.

It was nice to go for a walk/hike with a destination in mind.

Things have been up in the air for the past 6 months with regards to where would be best for Brittany to live. Now it is just her that will be up in the air (she got a job that involves flying).

Halifax will continue to be home for a while. The things that make Ontario so attractive for Brittany are obviously #1 Family, and #2 a B.Ed. taking 1 year in Ontario and taking 2 years here in Nova Scotia. I suspect that much like Nova Scotia’s old 5 year engineering programs it will eventually move to a 1 year program to stay competitive with the rest of the country.

In other news, my ‘carputer’ has been working really, really well lately. I had been using a 36 inch IDE cable to wire the 2.5″ hard drive running the Carputers OS, and ever since I switched that long IDE cable for a short one the system has been totally stable, surviving easily cranking, and long spans of time with the car shut off.

Also now working on the carputer:

• the USB GPS puck that feeds the car’s co-ords to a modified version of iGuidance mapping/navigation software. iGuidance is modified by iGMod, which makes it more touch screen friendly
• the USB wirless steering wheel controls, allows for next/previous track and GPS/Music selection

Brittany and I headed to Ross Road in Little Narrows, Cape Breton for the Easter Long weekend. The trip was unplanned and a lot of fun. It has been over a year since we had last been up (for LJ’s celabration of life) so the visit was long over due.

To put it in perspective, Anna was this big when we were last in Cape Breton.

Brittany and I were just surrounded by the car chase here in Halifax that you will likely hear about in the news. The car swerved around us while we were driving home on South Park. I thought it was just an idiot driver swerving so as not to get stuck behind the traffic that turns right on South St, but after he swerved on the inside of my he swerved to the outside lane facing oncoming traffic. At this point the police car also pulled out behind me and started to chase the car.

The White Pontiac Grand Prix pulled a u-turn at Ingles and then bolted back along South Park towards spring garden. Brittany and I turned around in a very safe manner and followed the action around town for about 10 minutes, back around the commons, and then eventually saw where the Police had apparently spun his car out and then boxed him in.