Geohashing Quotes

Here is a collection of geohashing quotes designed to capture the spirit of geohashing. In some way, each of them helps define something about geohashing, whether it's the spirit of adventure, the non-sequitur, the natural beauty, the comic or the general oddity of the whole idea. Hopefully it helps share a little of the spirit of geohashing around. Please add your own discoveries if you think they fit (or don't, for that matter), and feel free to include the best quotes in Template:QUOTER to make them appear randomly on the main page.

Quotes

• It was nice not to be treated as a lunatic alien for a change.- Fasanen

• There's probably only one IRC channel in the world where you can complain about the stupid forest not being cold enough at -9°C and everyone understands and agrees without raising an eyebrow.- Dawidi

• But first, let me say that you shouldn't look at Google Maps. They had a blind monkey draw their roads behind its back. - relet

• There were quite a few "what the heck are we doing" moments, namely when we got into the little rafts in the water and paddled a quarter kilometre into the bay all in the dark – srs0

• This was the day when relet was drawn to the dark side of geohashing…relet rode his trusty mount to the airport, to trade it for something faster. Something more powerful. Something more attuned to the dark forces of combustion. Something with a built-in navigation system. The dark side makes you powerful, yet weak. - relet

• Then I realised, despite all my whining, my pain and exhaustion, my total lack of any positive thoughts at all, I was enjoying myself. I was having one of the most exhilarating times of my life. I was exploring a place that no one had ever been, seeing things no one had ever seen, pushing my body to its limit for a ridiculously pointless goal and loving every second of it.- UnwiseOwl

• Who would be riding a bicycle this time of year? – Robyn

• Things I learned while Geohashing: Check the damned ferry schedule. - thepiguy

• There were cliffs. – Canberra Hashers

• Would you like to join us for punch and pie? ...And by that I mean beef jerky and Coke. – Providence Hashers

• Seattle geohash stuffed 8 members into an antique phone booth. We were working on a ninth, when we were asked not to do that anymore. – Thomcat

• The problem with 14km twice is that its not far enough, so Arvid made his total trip more interesting by going over a nearby hill (that he discovered while doing an earlier hash) a couple of times, and took a long way home - Arvid

• That someone gets off at that stop, that happens maybe once in ten years – Ekorren’s friendly busdriver.

• Well,this is my most depressing exploration in my life.got hit by a car,twice, jaywalked all the way,got lost,almost died because of that mud that acts like a quicksand,walked half-barefooted,spent all the money i have,stole 20 pesos to get going,almost cant go home,but at least i made it to the hashpoint,which is the best thing for me,which is nice. - Nhoj

• We then attempted to explain the geohashing concept but eventually gave up and, with great authority, said "don't worry, we're from the Internet" which seemed to satisfy her.- Mike V, Edmonton

• "We're not allowed to trespass, right? That's in the rules." said Wade. "Right, but..." explained Robyn. - Robyn

• I've done the nearest worst thing that could happen: I had to explain geohashing to my mother. - Ekorren

• In Soviet Russia, Nemo finds you! - Psud

• Good thing though, that we [Germans] didn't invent it... otherwise the sport might now be known as DIN EN 31337 Verfahren zur Ermittlung statistisch gleichverteilter Zielpunkte für satellitengestützte mobile Freizeitgestaltung - dawidi in #geohashing

• is there any prize or accomplishment for geohashing in a hurricane? --psypete

  a darwin award --joannac

  -- #geohashing

• Basically, we take a random point based on the Stock exchange and the current date, and go and have wacky adventures. Think of me as a new kind of adventure capitalist. - UnwiseOwl, explaining geohashing to a friend.

• That was when a man, apparently the owner of the place, discovered us. He was a bit more skeptical than the girl, but let us stay and do our thing - as long as we didn't spend the night! None of us trusted ourselves to actually try to explain the whole thing without breaking out laughing, so our short answers must have left the poor guy rather perplexed as to what on earth we were doing there. - Pennywise at her debut hash.

• The bonus was the religious man on that same corner, preaching about the coming of the second Great Depression and our collective trip down to Hell. He spoke of the lava that would be burning us for eternity when we got there. So, in the spirit of xkcd, we enlightened him on the wonders of science until he put down his megaphone and picked up a microscope err, snapped a picture of the crazy guy and continued on our way. - Woodveil

• Made it there about lunch time. Mrs. Killingsworth, the nice, older lady that lives there, just could not understand why "the internet" was sending people to her house! -- N76Lima

• At least it's too cold for snakes! - Gwynnath

• The Relentless Haberdashers' first attempt at a hash. Almost a complete failure, all we can say for sure is we were closer when we ended than when we started. -The Relentless Haberdashers

• The voices on the internet made me do it. - Jevanyn

• "I think it may come down to common sense in the interpretation of the 'idea' of the achievement. ... I guess I'm saying there will always be grey areas, but a good story will beat a confusing rule any day." - MykaDragonBlue in #geohashing

• I didn't bring any skis on this expedition, so when the GPS reported the hash being 59 m from the road, I thought "close enough" and called it a night. No, really, I walked/crawled through the waist-deep snow to reach the hash. I should be declared insane, but I made it. - the_ru

• "Who needs maps, anyway?" "We do, daddy!" Jevanyn

• "We were worried you were going to be a creepy paedophile or something", "My mother was worried you were going to kill and eat me", "This is so fun!" --TheJosh and UnwiseOwl, upon their meeting.

• "My last four geohashes have all ended up in a corn field! Then again, I am in central Illinois. I'd get the same thing if I geohashed in Nebraska. Back home in Missouri? Wheat and cotton! But at least it'd be something different" -- Nathan, complaining to his buddies about his uninteresting geohashes.

• After a recent geohash, my girlfriend asked me what I had been typing about for so long on my notebook. I explained the idea of geohashing and confessed to her what the true nature of some of my long bike tours last year was. I felt great fear and terror, but she was all like "Cool, sounds like fun. I'm joining next time you're going."--zb

• Lars Olaf Goran Kropp biked from Sweden to Katmandu where he then proceeded to climb Mt. Everest before cycling home again. And he wasn't even geohashing.

• Eventually, he understood that the point of it was just being there. His moment of clarity, as he looked at our lazy asses (I think Kristin was idly munching on a toothpick, even): "Oh, so you're geohashing right now!" -Dan & Kristin

• "He tells me that he was burglarized recently, that he assumed that's why I was there, and that when he saw me (must've looked pretty weird, me stamping the grass and taking pictures of it), he was sitting by the window with his RIFLE debating whether or not to SHOOT ME." - Bird in #geohashing about his debut hash

• "This is a much better road. You are now averaging a speed that registers on the speedometer." - Rhonda to Robyn

• "See, two weird looking young men, are sitting on somebody's roof maybe a 100 meters away from a military base, have no explanation of what they are doing there ("uh, well, we picked a random spot and went there, officer, honest!"), and one has a hat with a communist star. Right. Not suspicious in the least." - Superbest, describing the strategic retreat to the roof of a stranger's house for the night.

• When the Coast Guard told us to come onto their boat while they towed the raft to shore, we completely neglected to wield our plastic cutlasses menacingly and cry out "Prepare to be boarded, ye scurvy dogs!" as we leapt aboard. - Robyn

• "I'm not sure we're going the right way, but look at the view!" - Vancouver crew

• "It seemed like a good idea at the time." Robyn about a geohash

• "Geohashing makes your mother happy." Hermann

• "Do you have drawing pins to stick our marker to a tree?" - "No. We'll have to use the old-fashioned method." - "What's that, hair gel?!" -- Sermoa and Macronencer at 2009-10-02 51 -0

• "That cow has a 'Dr Who' eartag." - "Maybe it's not a cow at all!" - "Yeah, it does kinda look like David Tennant. Keep an eye out for police boxes." kozz talking to his partner at 2009-12-05_-38_145

• "We drove all this way for this?!" -- Evan at the Secaucus geohash

• "The_T-Man gave his best shot at explaining the purpose of their mission, starting off a series of approaches, all of which resulted in the old lady answering "But I don't get the sense of it.". Which - taking the general idea of geohashing into consideration - probably meant she understood the previous explanations." -- The_T-Man and DerFlob

• "Although every expedition is insanely goal-focused, whether or not you actually reach the goal is not necessarily going to be the thing that determines whether or not you feel good about having risen from the couch." --Michael5000

• "Several no trespassing signs, but also several for sale signs, including the vacant block the hashpoint appeared to be on. A quick phone call and permission to enter was enthusiastically granted, before I even had a chance to say why I was there." -- Alh

• At no point when pulling on his bright red cycling top had MagicIan considered that the field containing the hashpoint might also contain bulls! It was only since his return that he discovered bulls are colourblind and only feel threatened by fast movements -- MagicIan at the 2010-07-25 52_1 geohash

• "We got the hash all over us!" -- Redaragorn's 3 yr old son, after driving through the large mud puddle that contained the hash point.

• "OK, if you don't hear back from me in two hours, call the police and tell them to look for me approximately at the 50 10 geohash of the day." --Mampfred on the phone with his wife, after something scary happened at the 2010-10-18_50_10 geohash

• "Now, I realized we had a problem in explaining our request: As far as anybody in Germany who is over 55 is concerned, the internet is good for nothing but child pornography, fraudulent crime and terrorists. So while explaining what we were doing, I carefully avoided the word internet, but still had to say game, which made the lady even more wary and almost hostile." --mtu at 2010-10-17 53 9

• "GPS or not - "true" geohashing is what you make of it." - Mampfred to turbomagnus, re; Turbo's claim that he wasn't a 'true' geohasher since he didn't have a GPS.

• "I'm glad I can balance using my bike cos otherwise I'd be on my arse in cow shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii" *thud*" - Alexturgid to Ken Phillips during 2012-03-06 53 -2

• As I saw him running back down the hill I exclaimed, "He's running back, that means he must have found it!", I was quickly rebuffed with, "Unless he's being chased!" - Two companions talking during 2012-06-16 33 -117

• I repeated my manic grin and asked the still very sceptical lady if we could go into the barn, because 'the people of the internet would not accept it if we were five metres off'. It took a lot of extra explaining to keep her from shooing us off her land, but in the end there is no arguing with the people of the internet and with a shrug she allowed us in. - Marvyn achieving 2012-08-17 51 5

• Said party was helpful and pointed out my ball hadn't gotten too deep in the trees. I thanked them, picked it up, and continued into the trees. The following exchange took place: "Wait, where are you going?" "Oh, I actually meant to hit it further into the trees, so I'm just taking it there." "Why?" "The internet demands this of me." Geoff on 2012-09-03

• I just have to shop, pack my things and clean the house for the weekend trip, but nothing where a spontaneous multi-hour night expedition wouldn't fit in. - Georelet in #geohashing about the 2012-11-22 and 2012-11-23 hash which are close to each other.

• "So, remind me why we're going here..." said my mother. I attempted to explain geohashing again. "So we're going there, to be there?" she responded looking perplexed. "Um, yes" I replied. RedHatter on 2013-06-30

• Why do I search invisible coordinates while it's wet and dark and uncomfortable outside, knowing that I'll probably end up dirty all over? I can't tell -- Juja, 2013-11-22

• Cake is also highly recommended, especially if you succeed in transporting it to the geohash intact. Sharing cake with strangers at the geohash is a good way to tell people about geohashing. People willing to accept cake from strangers in party hats are probably the sort of people who would consider geohashing. -- Robyn

• I was astonished to find that it was only a block away from my cousin's house, which I'd probably been to four or five times! How could I have missed a giant glacial erratic boulder in such proximity? I had to investigate, so I began to take my leave. -- OtherJack, commenting on 2014-03-12 47 -122

• As I was heading back to the truck, I encountered every urban geohasher's worst nightmare: an aggressive, charging, off-leash dog. Fortunately, it was only about the size of a large burrito. User:Michael5000 on 2014-03-26_45_-122

• At the point of leaving the train I really got upset about how dumb the people are to make no street in reasonable distance where it is possible to get on the other side of the railway!! A few seconds later I realized that normal people can cross their own tracks. Felt a little bit dumb... -- RecentlyChanged on 2014-06-18 49 8

• Suddenly he turned right and at the water's edge he cursed. He retreated a few steps and started stripping off. In kecks and tee shirt he waded out to sea with tech toys in each hand where he staggered left, right, deeper and more shallow. After a minute or two he came ashore, dressed and strolled slowly and calmly away with a big grin, ear to ear. --Sourcerer (talk) 05:28, 29 May 2015 (EDT) on 2015-05-11 52 1

• This should be easy to squeeze through. !*&#@! **@~!! it was a live electric fence. --Sourcerer (talk) 05:36, 29 May 2015 (EDT) on 2015-05-19 52 1

• Water fowl, mainly geese, could be heard calling and splashing about. Distant owl calls rang out. A thin fog was forming and there were few stars. The moon had set long ago. It was a wonderful warm, still summer night. 2011-08-02 52 1 --Sourcerer (talk) 06:13, 3 July 2015 (EDT)

• Alter your "last will and testament" requiring your coffin (casket) to travel via a hashpoint - extra credit if the terrain causes particular difficulty to the pallbearers.

• In your will, specify a ruggedized urn for your ashes to be passed to a live geohasher to be used as a hashcot. You continue to reach coordinates posthumously.

• “Hey guys, turn around, you are wrong. This way leads to nothing” he shouted. We on the other hand thought: “Leads to nothing? Sounds good. That’s where we want to go to.” -- A Farmer vs. Jens and Juja on 2015-10-02 50 11

• The flash accidentally fired, so much for being discreet... 2010-10-25 39 116

• "As long as you won't kill me and bury me in the woods..." -- ZettS' drag-along, on 2016-02-03 53 10

• I've washed off the dried blood, emptied my pockets of twigs and pine park fragments and showered the resinous detritus out of my hair. - Sourcerer in Wales

• To be swallowed by a peat crevasse followed by a wet land collapse would be an interesting way to meet ones doom. You'd be found three thousand years later, well preserved, with a Crox poster! - Sourcerer in Wales

• Spending about 2 seconds wondering if riding off for this one was really the right thing to do before quickly realising that it'd be a betrayal of everything I held dear to not do it, off I went -- Felix Dance, pre 2016-08-06 -13 131

• So we cycled past the Erlkönig, through the road construction site there and just arrived at Kunitz. You see, it's only one sentence away from my home. -- Jens, achieving 2018-02-19 50 11

• Try to contain your squeaks of excitement as the distance falls followed by the satisfied "Yes" if it drops below 310 metres. Geohashing is hard enough to explain as it is! --Sourcerer (talk) 12:14, 2 March 2018 (UTC) at 2018-01-31 43 19

• The bus driver didn't comment on my luggage or deny me boarding for carrying something the size of a suitcase, plus paddles, although I did get some double-takes from passengers. "Is that actually a kayak?" Rhonda on 2009-05-12_49_-123, where Robyn brought her own kayak on the same bus

• It ultimately took me almost two hours to travel the 1.4 km and to reach the hashpoint. Sometimes I got more stable ground under my feet, sometimes –– I sank to metre-deep snow and could barely climb up. But I consider Mother Nature my bitch and would let nothing stop me. – Kripakko on 2019-04-14 62 30

• I left the bicycle at the roadside 400 metres from the point and continued on foot. I quickly noticed that I was walking into a swarm of about a million mosquitoes. –– [After reaching the geohash] I took another, slightly more accessible route back to the bicycle and began to cycle back towards the major road. The swarm of mosquitoes still followed me for half a kilometre until I could reach level road and accelerate away from them. – Kripakko on 2019-06-07 63 29

• Robyn has been working on a project to demonstrate the general inaccessibility of geohashes in the Vancouver graticule. Each morning she looks up the geohash and tries to calculate how long it would take her to reach it. Problem is that in order to calculate how long it would take, you have to figure out how you would get there. And once you have done that, you have a plan. And plans just beg to be implemented. – 2009-04-08 49 -123

• The number of very unlikely things geohashers have done in just seven months is quite astonishing, and I have no doubt many more lie ahead. -- Robyn at the end of 2008 (the first year in which geohashing occurred), talk:origin geohash achievement