Difference between revisions of "2008-07-30 53 8"

Latest revision as of 07:38, 20 March 2024

Location

The hash was located in the yard of an apartment building in the northern part of Oldenburg, Germany.

Participants

Plans

Yes, it took me almost twelve years! Here's why:

This was going to be my first Geohash, back in 2008, just a few weeks after Randall had published his Geohashing webcomic. I had been eagerly waiting for a hash location near Oldenburg where I was (and still am) living. And this turned out to be the first real good opportunity for a Geohashing expedition.

Unfortunately, it also turned out that the plan to document the expedition was a little harder to execute than the trip itself. In the days and weeks after, I simply didn't find the time or wasn't in the mood to transfer the photos from my (good old Nokia N95) phone and to write some expedition report. And then – I probably just forgot about it.

Until September 2018, when fellow Geohasher User:Fippe surprisingly contacted me, asking if I could finally document the expedition, mainly because it was the first one in its graticule and as such of some “historic importance”. I answered him that I would try to find the old photos and to provide the report. Which – you guess it! – was again a little harder than expected because due to a computer crash in 2009 or 2010, I lost access to most of my older photos. I remember searching for the expedition photos, but unfortunately without success. And then – I probably just forgot about it again.

Until a few days ago (i.e. end of June 2020), when I found an old hard drive, connected it to my PC, browsed through its contents, and – badaboom! – discovered the long missed photos in some obscurely nested backup folder! So finally, after almost twelve years, I'm able to provide the report on my first Geohashing expedition! And sorry, the expedition report itself is much less exceptional than its release story ...

(Is there an achievement for the longest time period between going on an expedition and documenting it?)

Expedition

After work, I took the bike and went to the hash location, arriving there around 6 pm local time. No one else was there, so I left a note with “xkcd” written on it on a nearby tree stump, just in case someone else would show up later. Took some photos (including a self-timer one of myself with my bike), made a screenshot of my phone's GPS location, and left again.

Photos

The hash location is somewhere on this yard.
Does that count as a stupid grin?
I hope the person who found it at least googled it ...
Screenshot of the phone's GPS location
Screenshot of the phone's map

Achievements

Alaska earned the Land geohash achievement

by reaching the (53, 8) geohash on 2008-07-30.

Alaska earned the Bicycle geohash achievement

by cycling 7.1 km/5.2 km to and from the (53, 8) geohash on 2008-07-30.

Alaska earned the Graticule Unlocked Achievement

by being the first to reach any hashpoint in the (53, 8) graticule, here, on 2008-07-30.

Alaska earned the Two to the N achievement

by attempting to reach 2⁰ hashpoints on 2008-07-30 53 8 and is promoted to Level 0 (Expeditions).

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-<!-- If you did not specify these parameters in the template, please substitute appropriate values for IMAGE, LAT, LON, and DATE (YYYY-MM-DD format)
+{{meetup graticule
-[[Image:{{{image|IMAGE}}}|thumb|left]]
-Remove this section if you don't want an image at the top (left) of your report.   You should remove the "Image:" or "File:"
-tag from your image file name, and replace the all upper-case word IMAGE in the above line.
-And DON'T FORGET to add your expedition and the best photo you took to the gallery on the Main Page! We'd love to read your report, but that means we first have to discover it! :)
--->{{meetup graticule
 | lat={{#explode:{{SUBPAGENAME}}| |1}}
 | lon={{#explode:{{SUBPAGENAME}}| |2}}
 | date={{#explode:{{SUBPAGENAME}}| |0}}
-}}<!-- edit as necessary -->
+}}
 __NOTOC__
 == Location ==
-<!-- where you've surveyed the hash to be -->
+The hash was located in the yard of an apartment building in the northern part of Oldenburg, Germany.
 == Participants ==
-<!-- who attended: If you link to your wiki user name in this section, your expedition will be picked up by the various statistics generated for geohashing. You may use three tildes ~ as a shortcut to automatically insert the user signature of the account you are editing with.
--->
+[[User:Alaska|Alaska]]
 == Plans ==
-<!-- what were the original plans -->
-== Expedition ==
-<!-- how it all turned out. your narrative goes here. -->
-== Tracklog ==
-<!-- if your GPS device keeps a log, you may post a link here -->
-== Photos ==
+Yes, it took me almost twelve years! Here's why:
-<!-- Insert pictures between the gallery tags using the following format:
-Image:2020-##-## ## ## Alpha.jpg | Witty Comment
--->
-<gallery perrow="5">
-</gallery>
-== Achievements ==
+This was going to be my first Geohash, back in 2008, just a few weeks after Randall had published his Geohashing webcomic. I had been eagerly waiting for a hash location near Oldenburg where I was (and still am) living. And ''this'' turned out to be the first real good opportunity for a Geohashing expedition.
-{{#vardefine:ribbonwidth|800px}}
-<!-- Add any achievement ribbons you earned below, or remove this section -->
-<!-- =============== USEFUL CATEGORIES FOLLOW ================
+Unfortunately, it also turned out that the plan to document the expedition was a little harder to execute than the trip itself. In the days and weeks after, I simply didn't find the time or wasn't in the mood to transfer the photos from my (good old Nokia N95) phone and to write some expedition report. And then – I probably just forgot about it.
-Delete the next line ONLY if you have chosen the appropriate categories below. If you are unsure, don't worry. People will read your report and help you with the classification. -->
-[[Category:New report]]
-<!-- ==REQUEST FOR TWITTER BOT== Please leave either the New report or the Expedition planning category in as long as you work on it. This helps the twitter bot a lot with announcing the right outcome at the right moment. -->
+Until September 2018, when fellow Geohasher [[User:Fippe]] surprisingly contacted me, asking if I could finally document the expedition, mainly because it was the first one in its graticule and as such of some “historic importance”. I answered him that I would try to find the old photos and to provide the report. Which – you guess it! – was again a little harder than expected because due to a computer crash in 2009 or 2010, I lost access to most of my older photos. I remember searching for the expedition photos, but unfortunately without success. And then – I probably just forgot about it again.
-<!-- Potential categories. Please include all the ones appropriate to your expedition -->
+Until a few days ago (i.e. end of June 2020), when I found an old hard drive, connected it to my PC, browsed through its contents, and – badaboom! – discovered the long missed photos in some obscurely nested backup folder! So finally, after almost twelve years, I'm able to provide the report on my first Geohashing expedition! And sorry, the expedition report itself is much less exceptional than its release story ...
-<!-- If this is a planning page:
-[[Category:Expedition planning]]
--->
-<!-- If all those plans are never acted upon, change [[Category:Expedition planning]] to [[Category:Not reached - Did not attempt]]. -->
+''(Is there an achievement for the longest time period between going on an expedition and documenting it?)''
-<!-- An actual expedition:
+== Expedition ==
-[[Category:Expeditions]]
--- and one or more of --
-[[Category:Expeditions with photos]]
-[[Category:Expeditions with videos]]
-[[Category:Expedition without GPS]]
--->
-<!-- if you reached your coords:
-[[Category:Coordinates reached]]
+After work, I took the bike and went to the hash location, arriving there around 6 pm local time. No one else was there, so I left a note with “xkcd” written on it on a nearby tree stump, just in case someone else would show up later. Took some photos (including a self-timer one of myself with my bike), made a screenshot of my phone's GPS location, and left again.
---><!-- or if you failed :(
+== Photos ==
-[[Category:Coordinates not reached]]
--- and a reason --
-When there is a natural obstacle between you and the target:
-[[Category:Not reached - Mother Nature]]
-When there is a man-made obstacle between you and the target:
-[[Category:Not reached - No public access]]
-When you failed get your GPS, car, bike or such to work:
+<gallery perrow="5">
-[[Category:Not reached - Technology]]
+Image:20080730618.jpg | The hash location is somewhere on this yard.
+Image:20080730621.jpg | Does that count as a stupid grin?
-When you went to an alternate location instead of the actual geohash:
+Image:20080730622.jpg | I hope the person who found it at least googled it ...
-[[Category:Not reached - Attended alternate location]]
+Image:Screenshot0004.jpg | Screenshot of the phone's GPS location
+Image:Screenshot0006.jpg | Screenshot of the phone's map
+</gallery>
-(Don't forget to delete this final close comment marker) -->
+== Achievements ==
-{{meetup graticule
+{{#vardefine:ribbonwidth|800px}}
-| lat=53
+{{land geohash | latitude = 53 | longitude = 8 | date = 2008-07-30 | name = Alaska | image = 20080730621.jpg }}
-| lon=8
+{{Bicycle geohash | latitude = 53 | longitude = 8 | date = 2008-07-30 | name = Alaska | distance = 7.1 km/5.2 km | bothways = true | image = 20080730621.jpg }}
-| date=2008-07-30
+{{Graticule unlocked | latitude = 53 | longitude = 8 | date = 2008-07-30 | name = Alaska | image = 20080730621.jpg }}
-| graticule_name=Bremen
+{{Two to the N achievement | count = 0 | latitude = 53 | longitude = 8 | date = 2008-07-30 | name = Alaska | image = 20080730621.jpg }}
-| graticule_link=Bremen, Germany
-}}
 [[Category:Expeditions]]
+[[Category:Expeditions with photos]]
 [[Category:Coordinates reached]]
 {{location|DE|NI|OL|city=true}}


Wed 30 Jul 2008 in 53,8: 53.1701131, 8.2305790 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox