Letterbox Trading Cards

Thanksgiving Day, for those of you not in the know, is a pretty slow day on Atlas Quest. Which is expected--you should be spending quality time with friends and family and enjoying the day off of work. Many of you, I suspect, might even be off letterboxing, dragging along those friends and family despite their protests. This is good. It isn't call "quality time" for nothing. ;o)

So I thought I'd use the relative lack of activity to do one of my rare daylight updates to Atlas Quest. This particular update: Support for Letterbox Trading Cards, or LTC for short. I've also seen them called Letterboxing Trading Cards and Letterboxer Trading Cards. All the same, though.

You can now create, list, find, and search LTCs on Atlas Quest as a distinct type of letterbox. No big shocks about how that works. It's all the same as before--just that you now have an option labeled LTC whenever there were options for box types. Additionally, I created a separate section in the help pages explicitly for Letterbox Trading Cards. If you have questions (or answers) about them, that's the place to go. Not to mention the LTC message board as well for discussion about them.

I have to admit, when I first heard about the idea of LTCs, I groaned. "What do we need another type of letterbox for?" But I brushed it aside, figuring it was a passing fad.

Probably a month or two after I first heard of them, my opinion of LTCs changed, and you can blame Batty Girl for that. ;o) She surprised me with a package full of them--probably from a dozen or two people in all--and they were absolutely amazing. Wow! How cool! I showed them off to Amanda, and even brought them with me to the Western New York gathering where I showed them to a couple of other people. "They're not trying to change my mind about LTCs, and they're doing a darn good job of it!"

But I still worried about it being a passing fad and didn't do anything with it. Wait and see, wait and see....

A few more months have passed, and there's still talk about them. More and more people seem to be asking about them. More and more people seem interested in them. At the Bye Bye Turtle gathering, dbltall brought an album filled with this amazing little pieces of art, while everyone else around the table oooed and awwwed.

I've finally decided, LTCs aren't going to go away, so I finally decided to officially support them. Anyone who already listed a box that started with the letters LTC--I've automatically changed the box into an LTC. If you listed LTCs but didn't bother to prefix them with those letters, you really should. I'll come through in another week or so and convert any new boxes that start with the letters "LTC" into an LTC.

For now, there aren't any special attributes that go with them. There are no special tools to track groups of people who want to share them. (Some people have adopted trackers for that purpose, but trackers were never designed to handle LTCs so use them at your own risk.) Perhaps in the future I'll add attributes and tools, but for now, I'll start things simple and see how they evolve. The LTCs of today could change over the next several months, perhaps dramatically so. No sense building a bunch of attributes and tools that may not be useful down the line.

So that's what's up on this Thanksgiving Day. =)

I'm exhausted, and I haven't even started yet!

As many of you know, I thru-hike the Appalachian Trail back in 2003, from Springer Mountain, Georgia, to Mount Katahdin, the highest point in Maine. What a grand adventure! You can read all about it in my Great Adventures if you're interested. Some people have told me I'm quite amusing and that they're a lot of fun to read. =) I've even started turning them into a book, but it's only about half done at this point. Still a lot more work to do before it'll be published.

I started working on Atlas Quest a few months after finishing this great odyssey, and have continued working on the website ever since. It started as a small project to get back into the groove of things--I hadn't worked for two years and my programming skills were rusty. Then I was going to get a 9 to 5 job, work at it for a couple of years saving up lots of money, and if things went really well, get laid off again so I could thru-hike the Pacific Crest Trail. =)

Except I never stopped working on Atlas Quest, and I never did get that 9 to 5 job. Which leaves me with a quandary--how can I get myself laid off?!

The trail is calling me, though. I miss the trail. I started my hike on April 16, 2003. That was the day I saw my first white blaze, and I stood at the summit of Springer Mountain. I remember the weather--sunny and warm, and by sunset, the breeze became chilly. I'll always remember that day. Every April in particular, I feel the pull of the trail. And every April 16th, I imagine all those poor, foolish souls that hiked up to Springer Mountain with the intent to keep on walking for another 2,176 miles.

I have no desire to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail again--been there, done that. But I want to thru-hike other trails, and I set a goal to do the Pacific Crest Trail in 2008--five years after my Appalachian Trail hike.

But the responsibility of running Atlas Quest is something of a quandary for me. For the most part, the website is pretty stable as long as I don't muck around with it. Things go wrong when I start adding new features and making changes.

I decided to bag the Pacific Crest Trail for now. It's so remote, I'd have a difficult time checking up on Atlas Quest regularly, and if something DID go terribly wrong, I'd have a hard time getting off the trail and into civilization to do something about it. But the trail is still calling me....

And so I decided to thru-hike the Florida Trail instead. From Key West to Pensacola. About 1,300 miles, across alligator infested swamps and no mountains to scale. =) I figured it would take me about three months and take me through a huge swath of Florida I've never seen or explored. Start on January 1st, and end sometime near the end of March or early April.

Half the length of the Pacific Crest Trail, it would only take me out of action for three months instead of six. And the Florida Trail is in a much more populated area of the country. I could check up on the site much more regularly (I'm hoping for at least two times per week, rather than the once every week I would have expected on the Pacific Crest Trail). And if something does go wrong and I need to jump into action, the trail is never far from civilization. There's even quite a number of letterboxers in the area who would likely kidnap me from the trail just to get AQ running again if it came to that. ;o)

I just added a new webmaster, so there are now three of us. Both of them would prefer to stay under the radar for now, although I suspect many of you can probably guess at who one of them is. Hopefully they won't have to do much while I'm off hiking, but at least there will be two people around who can restart the server as necessary. They won't be adding new features or anything like that--just making sure the site stays up and running and monitoring the site.

So I'm trying to get all my affairs in order before hitting the Florida Trail. The "paperwork." Some of it quite literally is paperwork. I need to acquire permits, fill out forms, and blah. Not really fun. I'm getting rid of my car--I won't have need of it in Florida and it'll just cost me money to leave it sitting in my mom's driveway the whole time. Atlas Quest is the sticking point, though. I can't just up and carry a computer with me the whole way, but in case of some Atlas Quest emergency, I want to have my development system with me!

So I've figured out a way to put the entire development system on a flash drive. It's very slick. I plug the 2 gig flash drive into a USB port, and my entire development system is available. I can actually run the entire website off this flash drive! It's pretty freaking cool! So I'll be carrying that with me. Technology today is amazing!

The Florida Trail Association puts out a magazine called Footprint. The last copy I received mentioned that 12 people thru-hiked the Florida Trail last year. Twelve! Over 2,000 people attempt the Appalachian Trail each year, and hundreds make it. Not even a baker's dozen pulled off the Florida Trail, though. I'd be in a rare group indeed if I make it. =)

I don't really know much about the Florida Trail, and there's not nearly as much literature about it as you can readily find about the Appalachian Trail. But there is one book, by a Mr. M. J. Eberhart (a.k.a. Nimblewill Nomad), who thru-hiked the Eastern Continental Trail from Key West, along the Florida Trail, to the Appalachian Trail, and finally the International Appalachian Trail deep into Canada. Even AT thru-hikers such as myself think he's crazy. ;o) But it covers his travels in Florida and it's the only book I could find with a detailed description of his trip through Florida, so I ordered it and started reading it several days ago.

It's not an especially impressive book, and in good conscious, it's not something I'd recommend for most people. He uses way too many exclamation points, and if you cut out every sentence where he thanks a hiker, trail angel, trail maintainer, or God, I think there might be three pages left to read. =)

There is a connector trail between the end of the Florida Trail and the start of the Appalachian Trail, however, and I never really gave it much thought. It runs through Alabama and Georgia, and from what I heard, is mostly a bunch of road walking. Not exactly exciting stuff.

Except... it connects to Springer Mountain. Where I started my first thru-hike, back on April 16, 2003. It hit me yesterday afternoon--I have to do this section. It would complete my Appalachian Trail hike. It would add another 500+ miles to my hike, and I figure I'd arrive at Springer Mountain sometime in mid-April if all went well.

Wouldn't it be ironic if I arrived at Springer Mountain on April 16, 2008? Five years to the day I started my AT thru-hike. Five years to the day I last stood on Springer Mountain? It would be prime thru-hiking season as well. I could see those fresh-faced hikers, aching, blistered feet, carrying those 60+ pounds packs up the Approach Trail. I'd be ending my hike, lean but strong, with a beard after not shaving for over four months.

And darn it, I want to be on Springer Mountain April 16, 2008. I don't just have an end point, but also an end date. Maybe Mark can pick me up and bring me back down to Atlanta, and I can take the train back to San Luis. =) That was the route I took to Springer Mountain in 2003--Amtrak from San Luis to Atlanta, and Mark driving me up to Amicalola Falls.

I can't think of a better way to end a hike. =)

The Springer Mountain finish is only an idea I got yesterday, though. I'd been planning to end at Pensacola, Florida, but I need to start doing a bit more research about that connection trail between the Florida and Appalachian Trails.

My hike just got 550 miles longer, and all I did was read a book.

The trail is calling me, though.

Key West to Springer Mountain, January 1-April 16, 2008. That's my goal.

-- Ryan

PS. If anyone is going to the Microsoft Annual Shareholder meeting at 8:00am in the Seattle Convention Center tomorrow morning, keep your eyes peeled for me! =)

Rise of the Tortuga

My long lost signature stamp still has not resurfaced, despite rumors to the contrary. Perhaps someday it will, but until then, I needed something new. My original turtle stamp was supposed to last for 100 finds, then I was going to replace it with another signature stamp. Five years later, I was still using that stamp old turtle. Oh, it was upgraded--with boots and everything! But it was old and I wanted something new and fresh for a long time. Something with the words "Green Tortuga" already carved on it so I'd no longer have to write it in by hand anymore.

It's been weeks in the making, searching for that perfect image that captures my essence. And at long last, it is time to unveil my new signature stamp!

For those of you who often ask, is it okay to change your signature stamp once you've started using it? If I'm any example, the answer is YES! Don't feel stuck with the same stamp, find after find, month after month. Feel free to shake things up a bit and carve a new one. Perhaps a small stamp for those logbooks that don't have room for large ones. Perhaps seasonal stamps. Perhaps different signature stamps for different parts of the country. There's no reason you can't have a whole pocketful of signature stamps.

That said, I'm terribly lazy. I probably won't end up replacing this one unless it becomes lost or damaged. And when the time does come to replace it, I'm sure I'll create another completely new stamp just to shake things up again. =)

Carpe diem!

Death of a Tortuga

The Tortuga Boots signature stamp was born on a wet, dreary day in August 2003 in the state of Connecticut. The frogs were out thick, and Amanda of Seattle fame carved it in honor of the Green Turtle's Appalachian Trail thru-hike. The left boot clearly says AT, but Amanda never did like the right boot that says 03.

Ryan retired his old bootless signature stamp and has been stamping in with Tortuga Boots ever since including an estimated 60 or so trail registers, 800 letterboxes, and 400 exchanges. Not to mention the 500 or so stampings of invoices, envelopes, and other miscellaneous items. In four different countries.

In March 2006, the stamp traveled to Dartmoor and the famed Cranmere Pool letterbox.

It has exchanged with such luminaries as wassamatta_u, Celtic Quinn, Trekkie Gal, Wisconsin Hiker and Martini Man, Doublesaj n Old Blue, Alaska Homeschoolmommy, Dixie, Eidolon, and--most recently--Webfoot.

Tortuga Boots is survived by his older brother, Tortuga Barefoot; his caretaker, Green Tortuga; his mother, Amanda from Seattle; and far too many friends from around the world to mention by name.

Memorial services may be held in Gorham, Maine, the last known location of Tortuga Boots. In place of flowers, it was Tortuga Boots's wish that donations be made towards premium memberships on Atlas Quest.

We'll miss you, Boots, but you will not be forgotten.....

Important Message for AQ Members!

Just so everyone knows what's going on, I got some bad news not too long ago, telling me that the IP address that Atlas Quest uses is going to be changed whether I like it or not. I don't really understand what's wrong with this one I've been using for the last two years--I'm rather fond of it, actually--but the IP address has to change. If I don't update the server to use these new IP addresses, Atlas Quest will stop working on December 1st. Actually, the site will still work--it's just that nobody will be able to connect to it anymore, so the result is the same. *shrug*

I've downloaded a little form about how to do so, which I'm about to start following through with now. But I've never had to update the IP address for AQ before, and it's entirely possible I could screw something up along the way. Or maybe the IP address for AQ will need time to propagate throughout the Internet, so the site might be inaccessible for a day or two. Or maybe any number of problems. I've never done this before, though, so I'm not all sure what might happen.

So.... You might want to keep track of a couple of IP addresses for the next couple of days to make sure you can keep accessing this site. The old IP address is 38.119.120.169--if you find yourself unable to connect to AQ, try typing the IP address directly into the web browser. If that does work, give the new IP address a try. It's 74.200.76.117. I tried typing them both into my web browser, and they both seemed to work just fine. Eventually the old number will stop working completely. I hope the new number continues to work throughout the whole migration process. =)

Wish me luck! Sorry if this causes any downtime, but I figure better a little downtime now than a LOT of downtime come December 1st. I don't expect AQ to be down any longer than it takes to restart the server, but when it comes to domain names and IP addresses, it could take a couple of days for everything to get straightened out completely.

The Mysterious Case of the Missing Signature Stamp

A great tragedy has struck--my famed signature stamp, a goofy-looking turtle, usually green, is missing. It was last seen around Gorham, Maine, the evening of October 27th. I suspect it's hiding among headstones, near a parked hearse. It was raining, and I was trying to hold my logbooks and ink pads, bent over to protect them from rain while stamping in. By the time I realized it was missing, it was dark and I have no flashlight. YOU search among headstones in the dark of night without a flashlight and see how successful you are! =P

If you have seen this stamp, please let me know. The stamp isn't my original turtle. The original turtle was barefooted, and Amanda carved a homage stamp of sorts, I guess it would be called now, that looked like the original stamp except the bare feet were replaced with boots. One boot said "AT," and the other had "2003." She carved it while I was thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail, during a visit to see me in Connecticut.

It was the first time the stamp had returned to Maine since I finished the trail, and Amanda says he wanted to stay. There might be some truth to this, but I'd still like it back. It's my fourth signature stamp, and the one I've been using the longest. It's priceless.

In another news, in a fit of cosmic justice, Amanda has also lost her signature stamp in Maine. There is no known reason why her stamp would want to stay in Maine, but hers has less sentimental value. =) It was last seen late at night, shortly after Amanda picked up a box that half a dozen people were looking for, at night, in the pouring rain. She smuggled the box into our rental car where we stamped into it as everyone else continued to search for the box. She had the stamp then--she stamped in with it--but the stamp was never seen again. Was it revenge? Perhaps. Was it a tragic accident waiting to happen? Perhaps. Maybe it fell out of a pocket when she replaced the letterbox.

To begin our whole adventure--the abbreviated version, at least--Amanda and I decided to check out the extravaganza known as the Frightnight 3 gathering. We flew out last Wednesday, then drove down to Boston where I have a cousin who had a place for us to crash and to catch up with since I don't get to see him often. He loves Taco Bell, so we get along well. *nodding* =)

Our first full day on the east coast was mostly spent sleeping in until 1:00 in the afternoon. Jet lag sucks. We did get out long enough to find Choi's Hang In There letterbox--which was exciting for me since I don't think I ever found one of his boxes before. =) We spent quite a bit of time driving around getting lost, though. Signs are terrible out east, and especially so in Boston, with tiny little signs (if there was any at all) that you can't read until after you're already driving by it. Nor are they lit up at night. Amanda found a wonderful sign near Chestnut Hill that said the steps behind the sign were closed, but that there was another access point 200 years to the right with an arrow below it that pointed left. We felt this was symbolic of all signage in Boston, and certainly makes getting around a challenge. =) (The correct direction, in case you're wondering, was left.)

Friday afternoon we spent driving north to Portland. We stopped for a few hours in Salem--a location that, remarkably enough, the well-traveled Amanda had never stopped to visit before! And just before Halloween? How lucky were we? Actually, we didn't much like the crowds and probably would have enjoyed ourselves had it been some other time of year. We did a haunted house at my encouragement--how can you NOT do a haunted house in Salem just before Halloween?! I think there are laws that require all visitors to do at least one haunted house. We paid our $8 each and it was somewhat disappointing, we thought. It was an okay haunted house, but this is Salem! We had high hopes that Salem had the concept mastered.

We continued north, picking up a few letterboxes along the way--mostly the drive-by variety as we drove by. We also stopped at a Wal-Mart along the way to pick up costumes and food for the gathering the next day.

In Portland, we booked ourselves into a Motel 6, then headed out to Gorham to meet up with some other letterboxers for a corn maze that night. Alas, it seems we showed up a bit late and ended up going to the corn maze on our own. We hoped to find the other letterboxers at the corn maze, but it was SOOO crowded, the odds weren't good. Even worse, we didn't know what anyone looked like! We weren't sure who all went, and we didn't think we'd recognize any of them even if we did see them. "Keep your ears open for anyone who mentions stamps, letterboxes, or whatever," I told Amanda, but it was a long shot. We also tried looking through the parking lot for obvious letterboxer bumper stickers, but that would just get us their cars. We still wouldn't know where the owners of the cars would be! Anyhow, we never did find them, but I had a lot of fun running through the corn maze trying to find our way through. =) Amanda didn't much like the crowds, though. (Actually, I didn't either, but hey, you make the best of a situation that you can, right?)

The next morning, we drove out to Gorham again, this time for the official Frightnight 3 gathering, which was a blast. The surprise guests were... wow! How exciting! =) Is it safe to say who the surprises were? Hmm....

I arrived as a Jack-O-Lantern. Amanda has at least one picture of me, but we don't have a way to get it off her camera at the moment. (We're still in Maine.) Perhaps someone else can upload a picture of my costume? Amanda, of course, arrived as Nancy Drew--but don't ask her why her hair wasn't straight. ;o)

I really enjoyed meeting Casper in particular. *nodding* Fine fellow. I never imagined there was someone I had so much in common with!

Actually, everyone was fun to meet--especially those women wearing costumes that did not require much fabric. ;o) My favorite costume (sorry girls) was Death. An impressive performance, indeed!

Then we broke off into a letterboxing road rally that ended at a bonfire. Lots of fun, despite my losing my signature stamp near the end. =)

Today, we goofed around in downtown Portland, went off to the Portland Head Lighthouse, and picked up some more boxes along the way. Good times!

We're now in Manchester, New Hampshire, ready to fly back to Seattle tomorrow. I'll be catching up with a lot of e-mails and tweaks when I get back to Seattle. Now, I need to get off to watch Desperate Housewives. Weee! =)

Calendars Have Arrived!

Actually, I should clarify.... some calendars have arrived. I ordered 299 of the things, but only one box with about 80 of them arrived this afternoon. Presumably more boxes of calendars will arrive soon.

I'll pack and ship the calendars I can tonight and mail them off tomorrow. Only one copy of the silly edition arrived, so most of the orders will be by people who ordered just the sunset and/or original editions. I suspect the rest of the calendars will arrive within the next day or two, however, and I'll ship the rest of them when they do.

But the first calendar shipments will be in the mail tomorrow! =)

One Billionth Letterbox Planted: December 27, 2010

As some of you may know, a few months back I brought most all my worldly possessions from storage in Portland to a storage unit here in Seattle. It's been fun going through some of my old stuff. I make a trip to visit "my stuff" about once a week, pulling out stuff I realized I really don't need, don't want, and haven't used since it went into storage back in April of 2002.

One of my finds this last week was a book I purchased called How To Lie With Statistics. It should be required reading in every high school in the country if you want my opinion. It's not so much a book about how to lie with statistics as it is a book about how to identify other people lying with statistics--deliberately or otherwise. The book I have shows a copyright date of 1954, and I find it terribly amusing when he uses examples of one publication that says the "average family income" is $3,500 per year while another publication says it's $5,250 for that same year. Which is right? Both? Neither? Needless to say, the book has not been updated to account for inflation. =) I'd be a very wealthy man indeed if either of those were true. (Those aren't exact figures, I might add--I'm too lazy to look them up. But there was an example that used a $3,000-odd figure and a $5,000-odd figure. The rest of the digits I made up.)

Statistics are a tricky beast that can be made to say pretty much you want. Considering this last election here on Atlas Quest, I even remember joking about "what results would you like to see?" or something to that effect. Not that I was deliberately contemplating manipulating results to suit my fancy--I have a terrible vice of honesty. My former boss at Pizza Hut once told me that if I found a $20 bill on the ground, I'd probably go around the restaurant asking who it belonged to. (On a related note, I did recently find a $10 bill a week or so ago, and I did not ask around for who it belonged to. I even suspect I know who--or at least which group of people lost it--but they'd already left by the time I found it and tracking them down seemed like too much work. They were loud and obnoxious as well, and admit to feeling a little bit of pleasure at knowing one of them lost $10. Perhaps not quite as honest as my former employer believed.)

But it got me thinking, what wild statistics could I make up about letterboxing? We don't actually have much in terms of statistics about the letterboxing community. Heck, we don't even know how many letterboxes there are! We are a society of statically-challenged people.

I mean to change that. My first thought: When would the one billionth letterbox be planted? Oh, sure, laugh. I hear the snickers already. The whispering, "Not in my lifetime!" Hogwash. Of course it will. You just have to look at it from the right perspective. I just needed to find the stats to give me an accurate and oh-so-precise date. And I have.

The one billionth letterbox will be planted on December 27, 2010, at precisely 8:36:06 in the evening. Pacific time, of course. It will be planted by Lock Wench, at approximately 32.37 miles south of her home in North Carolina. Possibly as a joint plant with Dixie.

Preposterous you say?! Ha!

At the end of 2004, there were 3009 letterboxes listed on Atlas Quest. As of the last stats update last night, there were 61,684 letterboxes listed. That's an increase of 2049.983383% in just 1,171 days. Calculating the date and time of the one billionth letterbox is elementary at this point: 1 billion letterboxes = 61,684 * (20.4 ^ x), where x is the number of years until the 1 billionth letterbox. That asterisk means "times" and the caret symbol means "to the power of" for those of you not familiar with mathematical symbols used in programming. Solve for x.

I actually had trouble solving for x at first. I divided by 61684 on both sides of the equation, then what? That x is up there as a "power of" and I didn't know how to get it down! I poured through the dirty cobwebs of my mind and suddenly remembered something about logarithms. A quick Google search for logarithms refreshed my mind, and I now knew that x = log20.5(16211). I'm not even sure the proper way to write that on a keyboard, but I still had a problem. My calculator didn't have a button for taking logs to the 20.5. Not to worry, though, Wikipedia explained that it's the same as log(16211) / log(20.4), which my calculator can do, and I wound up with 3.21 years, or 1171-odd days. Add to today's date, and we end up with December 27, 2010, at precisely 8:36:06PM, Pacific time.

It's solid math, do not try to refute it. =)

What about knowing it's Lock Wench in North Carolina? There's a lot of probabilities involved and is therefore a much less exact science, but she's listed more boxes than everyone except Scout. I assume Scout is going to run out of places to hide new boxes soon, but Lock Wench moved opening up a whole new area for her to play and is therefore more likely to keep planting boxes making her the most likely to plant the one billionth.

Additionally, in the few short years I've known her, she's moved from New York to Connecticut, a distance of about 275 miles, in a general southeast direction. At this rate, we'd expect her to have reached North Carolina by 2010. Obviously, she won't be living in the Atlantic Ocean, so rather than assume she'll continue southeast during that whole time, I expect she'll reach the Atlantic Ocean then just follow it south. Thus, North Carolina.

She's also known for sending stamps far and wide, making friends with the local letterboxing community, and is there any letterboxer bigger than Dixie in North Carolina, who in fact gave me a box (which I planted in Iowa, the Dixie Express, and still waiting a first finder). Two known collaborators in the same state? Definitely a possibility. Additionally, by my eyeball estimates, I figure the "average" box planted by Lock Wench is about 32.37 miles south of where she lives, an impossibly precise number to throw off anyone who thinks I'm "just estimating," so that will be the most likely location of the one billionth letterbox.

This is solid logic. You cannot refute it.

Election Results!

The election is over, the votes have been counted. Grand total, 559 members cast their votes. The quick summary: Blue diamonds are here to stay, the option to hide finds and attempts on your boxes are not. The detailed summary:

Should Atlas Quest provide an option to hide finds and attempts on your boxes from others?
1. Yes, give us the option (141 - 25%)
2. No, always show the finds and attempts (268 - 48%)
3. No preference (150 - 27%)

Blue diamonds—keep 'em or trash 'em?
1. I love blue diamonds! Keep 'em! (279 - 50%)
2. I hate blue diamonds! Trash 'em! (68 - 12%)
3. No preference (212 - 38%)

Male/Female
1. I am male (94 - 17%)
2. I am female (320 - 57%)
3. We're a couple (95 - 17%)
4. Other (50 - 9%)

Age
1. Under 13 (8 - 1%)
2. 13-19 (15 - 3%)
3. 20-29 (55 - 10%)
4. 30-39 (202 - 36%)
5. 40-49 (157 - 28%)
6. 50-59 (72 - 13%)
7. 60-69 (18 - 3%)
8. 70-79 (5 - 1%)
9. 80-89 (1 - 0%)
10. 90-99 (1 - 0%)


How long have you been letterboxing?
1. Less than a month (10 - 2%)
2. More than a month, less than a year (162 - 29%)
3. From 1 to 2 years (164 - 29%)
4. From 2 to 5 years (179 - 32%)
5. More than 5 years (37 - 7%)
6. I don't remember.... (7 - 1%)

What would you most like to see?
1. Ryan in a dunk tank (38 - 7%)
2. Amanda as your flight attendant (96 - 17%)
3. A secret AQ board that nobody else knows about (64 - 11%)
4. A taser hooked up to a box that zaps people who do not rehide boxes well (253 - 45%)
5. Can't decide (108 - 19%)


Number of people who told me I spelled "flight attendent" wrong: Zero. =)


I'll add some commentary now.... The option to hide finds and attempts on your plants has increased in support--but it's still a long way from happening. The folks that DO NOT want this option, however, have fallen below that 50% mark. They no longer have a real majority anymore. Last time, 59% of everyone did not want that as an option. That's quite a drop, and might be worth another vote to see if views have changed in another year or so.

Blue diamonds--support for them has actually increased quite significantly. At the last vote, yeas outnumbered nays by 2 to 1. This time, it's 4 to 1. I'm thinking future votes on this topic will likely be a waste of time, but I certainly have no issue reexamining the issue later if I suspect the mood has shifted down again. Why support for the option has increased--I don't really know. *shrug* There could be a number of reasons, in fact, there probably ARE a number of reasons, but it looks like blue diamonds are here to stay.

As for male vs. female, I expected those of the fairer sex outnumbered us me, but I was surprised they did so by such a huge margin! There are more men on AQ sharing an account with their better half than there are single men with their own account. This, I suspect, is good news for single men. ;o) I kind of wonder how many of those "couple accounts" are really driven by women with men in the passenger seat. In any case, men are definitely a minority in this community!

Age of letterboxers--no real surprises here. Most folks are between 30 and 50, and the numbers drop off fast outside of that range. Eight young folks are even willing to admit breaking the terms of service on Atlas Quest which says you must be 13 years or older to have an account. I assume their parents are answering the questions for them, though. =)

The average time people have been letterboxing is about one to two years. I actually expected it to be less than that given the growth of the hobby, but the results weren't exactly shocking either.

As for what you would most like to see, you appear to be a violent bunch of people when it comes to protecting your letterboxes with a whopping 64% of people wanting to taser people who don't rehide boxes well. =) Amanda thinks you 96 people who's like to see her as your flight attendant can charter a flight--perhaps to Dartmoor--and she'll be happy to serve you. =)

Want to add your own commentary, rant about the results, or say your peace, use the main Atlas Quest board. After all, this is an Atlas Quest election!

Happy Mystery Letterbox Day!

You forgot about it, didn't you? Yeah, I know, so did I. It's even right there on my letterboxing calendar. With the big update, I spent the week before preparing it for the The Big Day, then the week after it fixing all the bugs I introduced. Alas, a week later, and I'm still fixing the bugs. They're definitely not as common or easy to find as that first day the update was in place, though!

Here in Seattle, the weather was perfect for mysteries. Dark, ominous clouds. A pattern of rain at times. I walked around Alki in search of submarines, but alas, found none. At least, not THIS time....

On another note, as of THIS MINUTE, 8:37pm according to the clock on my computer (which does tend to run a bit slow, I might add), a total of 488 people have cast their votes in the Voting Booth. I don't really expect any changes in the results at this point, but I've decided to leave the booth open until the end of the holiday weekend to make sure everyone gets a chance to make their opinion heard. I will also be freezing the accounts of all 36 people who want to see me in the dunk tank. (Just kidding! Or am I...? *wink*)

Anyhow, hope you're all enjoying your holiday weekend, assuming it is a holiday where you are, and assuming you have a three day weekend to enjoy it. Also assuming, of course, there's something to enjoy. =) I for one, am happy to report, that I finally listed my boxes that I planted way back in August. Now if I can just get around to listing that Portland box I planted way back in... I think it was July. Been so long, I forget now. One of these days....

In other news, I'm feeling a bit burnt out working on Atlas Quest, so I think I'll spend more time during the next month writing that epic Appalachian Trail book I started a year or two ago. The rough draft is already more than half done! Not to worry--I'll still be checking AQ mail, fixing bugs that turn up, and making a few minor improvements here and there. But I want to spent at least half my "working time" on the book project and take a break from Atlas Quest.

Speaking of those minor improvements, did anyone who attended an event this weekend notice the latest one I put in place late last night? =) It's one of those minor changes that you wouldn't know about unless you attended an event, though. I've been waiting ALL DAY for someone to comment on it, but alas, not a peep that I could find. Oh, well--it IS a minor update. I'm just surprised because there's been much more minor updates that you sharp-eyed folks point out, I find it surprising that nobody commented on this one. =)

Anyhow, hope all is going well, and it's time for me to eat some dinner and watch Desperate Housewives. It's a terrible vice I have. *shaking head*