User:Macronencer

58 / m / 50,-1

Macronencer

Real name	Mike
Based in	Bursledon, Southampton, UK
Education	Southampton Uni Maths grad, 1986.
Job	Software developer
True vocation	Media Composer (I'm working on it)
xkcd history	Fan since the first mention on BoingBoing in 2005
Home turf	approximately here

Other information

Mike can close his nose without touching it, which makes him fart-proof. He eats at least forty times his own body weight every century, is a part-time volunteer in the Lynne Truss militia, and loves skunks, his son and longevity research - but not in that order. Give him an inch and he takes a mile. Give him a pinch and he makes a pile. He is a full-time sceptic, part-time father, one-time rock star and all-time champion awful punster.

Mike has also written a song about Geohashing, and had it played on his local radio station. Here's a link to an MP3.

This is Chuck, my hashscot. Being one of the greatest adventuring scientists who ever lived, rather exhausted after his voyage on the Beagle, family tragedy and the years and years of work on his well-known book, this 200-year-old explorer decided to take it easy, and now travels to random locations with me.

He enjoys looking at the countryside on our travels, and gets rather animated when by chance we spy a finch or lowly earthworm. I often have to remind him to calm down before he punctuates his equilibrium. I am looking forward to the day when my bicycle chain breaks so I can ask him, in jocular fashion, to go and find the missing link.

Local Graticules

Southampton, United Kingdom (home)
Swindon, United Kingdom (convenient alternative)
Brighton, United Kingdom (possible alternative as I work near Fareham)
Weymouth, United Kingdom (occasionally convenient)

Planned Hashes

ID	Location
2014-04-17 50 -1	Fox and Hounds pub, Bursledon

Retro Hashes and Special Expeditions

• Do a Buccaneer Geohash on Talk Like a Pirate Day 2010 (2010-09-19)
• 2008-05-21 51 -1 Standby retrohash for next year's Mouse Over Day - hash for original geohash day in the Swindon grat.
• Visit the hash point from the original comic: 2005-05-26 37 -122 - it's in the Mt. Tam state park near San Francisco.

Attempted Hashes

Map of my expeditions on Google Maps

Expedition Map to 025

Standard Hashes

All distances in km

Successes (proved)	26	Saturday Meetups	5	Total by car	2544
Successes (unproved)	0	Total by ferry	45	Total on fastfoot	156
Failures	3	Total by rail	276	Total on foot	42

Seq#	ID	Location	Information						First encounters
029	2013-03-24 50 -1	Fritham, New Forest				75		4
028	2010-02-17 51 -0	Thame, Oxfordshire				10
027	2009-11-17 50 -1	Forest of Bere				24		1
026	2009-10-31 50 -2	Long Crichel, Blandford Forum				130
025	2009-10-24 52 -1	Aston-upon-Trent, near Derby				86
024	2009-10-23 51 -1	Hockley, Winchester				55		1
023	2009-10-18 51 -2	West Kington, Chippenham				241
022	2009-10-18 51 -3	St. Bride's-Super-Ely, Cardiff				76		1
021	2009-10-13 50 -1	Chandlers Ford, Southampton				28
020	2009-10-11 51 -0	Stedham, Midhurst				138		2
019	2009-10-02 51 -0	Highmoor Cross, Reading				197		4	thepiguy, srs0
018	2009-09-29 51 -1	Ashmansworth, Hampshire				132
017	2009-09-27 50 -1	Eastleigh				33		2	davidc, Dee, JonRead
016	2009-09-18 50 -0	South Harting				100		4
015	2009-09-13 50 -1	Hilsea recreation ground			43			3	Maoi-taoi
014	2009-09-10 51 -1	Litchfield				136		6
013	2009-09-06 50 -1	Harbridge, New Forest				63	46	2
012	2009-09-02 50 -2	Iwerne Minster				195
011	2009-08-30 51 -1	Barton Farm, Winchester				59			Mapaholic
010	2009-08-15 50 -1	Bierley, Isle of Wight		40		12	68		DavidMiller
009	2009-08-10 50 -1	New Forest, near Hythe		5		19	15
008	2009-08-08 50 -2	Chesil beach, Portland, Weymouth			233		16	1
007	2009-08-07 50 -1	Field near Rockbourne					9
006	2009-08-01 50 -2	Charlton Marshall, Dorset				148		1	04housemat, Mahahahaneapneap
005	2009-07-27 50 -1	Romsey, Hampshire				192		1
004	2009-07-27 51 -0	Flitwick, near Luton				248
003	2009-07-22 50 -0	The Road To Bognor				93	2
002	2009-07-18 50 -1	Hambledon Cricket pilgrimage!				49		9
001	2009-06-28 50 -1	Hedge End recreation ground				5			Sermoa

Retro Hashes and Special Expeditions

Seq#	Date	ID	Location	Information
R001	2009-07-27	1965-05-06 51 0	Origin Geohash achievement In a field next to Hylands Park, Chelmsford

Statistics

Score Card

Note: only reached co-ordinates on standard hashes are counted here

	-3	-2	-1	-0
52	x	x	x	x
51	1	1	4	4
50	x	3	11	2

Long-term Intentions

• Earn various Displaced origin geohash achievements (some of these are rather ambitious, I'll admit!)
  • 1965-05-06 51 -3 - actually on a green on the Aberdare golf course near Cardiff in Wales :)
  • 1965-05-06 52 0 - marginally within somebody's front garden, but arguably public as within GPS accuracy of public land :)
  • 1965-05-06 53 -1 - next to a canal and the M62 near Sheffield. Sounds inaccessible, but satellite imagery makes it look relatively easy.
  • 1965-05-06 39 3 - very accessible as it is right next to a road... but it's on Mallorca.
  • 1965-05-06 20 -156 - Maui - therefore expensive to get to. But just a short walk into the hills...
• Leave a variety of unusual xkcd signs
  • One made out of ants (attempted on 2009-09-27 50 -1 without success)
  • One in ASCII binary (probably already been done)
  • One in Morse code (ditto)
• Collar someone with a boat and do a big Water geohash, probably in the Solent, or the river Itchen or Hamble.
• Buy a small boat (kayak?) and do a small Water geohash, probably in a lake or small river.
• Gain the Minesweeper Geohash ribbon because it's shiny! Probably centred on the Swindon graticule.

Completed!

• Earn the Origin geohash achievement by visiting 1965-05-06 51 0 in a field near Chelmsford
• Leave an xkcd sign in Braille
• Leave an xkcd sign that can only be seen from the right angle (like the Channel 4 logos on TV)

VERY long-term intentions

• Complete a hash expedition in all 64,800 graticules. Hey, I'm a life-extensionist and I think big, what can I say? The real question is: centuries from now, will geohashing exist? Come to that, will the Dow Jones exist? I think Gene Roddenberry would probably say "Let's hope not". So there ya go.

Journal

Old journal entries archived here

Overflow pages

• Macronencer/Achievements