Happy New Year!!

NOTE: The highlighted words in my blog can be clicked on as they are links to other cool stuff!!
PS: On the right hand side of this webpage is where you can find my YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and Google Plus links. Please feel free to check them out and follow or subscribe!!!

So the new year is upon us and the weather is great for caching. Let's all get out there!!!

A new cache popped up on Christmas eve, but I was busy doing family stuff and getting presents wrapped and ready for under the tree. The next morning I noticed it had still not been logged, but thought if I left before present unwrapping I would miss out on my little guys fun. After presents were all unwrapped, I looked again and saw it was still not logged, so off I go!!! Into the woods and down the trail heading to The Hopping Dead

Dec. 25th caching

Zombie Frog

I arrived at the area and started to search, but was not seeing anything right away at GZ. I saw some signs of others searching, but kept looking and widening my search.....aha there it is!!! Open it up, YES...FTF!!!! Later that day I got an email from the persons that had been there before me and could not find it, looking for a bit of a hint. My suspicions about someone else looking before me were confirmed. lol

Speaking of FTF's, earlier this month I renewed my subscription to FTF Magazine and I received a pathtag and a geocoin. If you are an avid cacher or know someone that is, you should get a subscription. It's a great magazine.

Pathtag and geocoin from FTF Magazine

Earlier this month Groundspeak(geocaching HQ) announced they were releasing 6 new souvenirs.
Souvenirs are virtual pieces of art that you can discover and display on your profile page. They are associated with a particular location and may also be bound by time. Here is the entry from their blogs at Latitude 47

We recently released 6 shiny new Geocaching Souvenirs for Greece, Mexico, Belgium, Brazil, Croatia, and Italy.

In case any of these countries are still on your bucket list (or if you’re planning a return trip) check out this pocket dictionary of common phrases used in Geocaching. They’re perfect for starting or ending a fantastic log entry.

Angelcheeks (A.K.A. Jenna) and I grabbed some caches when we went on a cruise in 2009 to Puerto Vallarta, Cabo san Lucas, and Mazatlan. I was also back that way on another cruise in 2010 with about 60 other magicians, and also cached while there. Because the souvenirs are retroactive, we both received the Mexico one. Very cool.  I guess we need to visit the other places one day!!!

Next month we are heading over to the island for the Victoria Magic circle annual banquet. I get to award the "Farquhar Award" to another deserving magician!!!

Well that's it for this month(short and sweet)

See you in the New Year!!!

Keep on caching

Chris Yuill

Magicman65

End of the year

NOTE: The highlighted words in my blog can be clicked on as they are links to other cool stuff!!
PS: On the right hand side of this webpage is where you can find my YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and Google Plus links. Please feel free to check them out and follow or subscribe!!!

Moving Cache

A friend posted on a FB geocaching page that a moving cache was now on Vancouver island, called "Jacob's MOVING Cache. I put it on my watch list as I knew I would be heading over there for shows soon. I saw it move around a bit and then it sat for about 3 days. I was surprised with as many people that said they were interested in getting it, that it was there that long.  I got to Nanaimo on December 5 for a show that night. The next morning I was up early and headed up to Rathtrevor beach about 40km away, to grab the cache. The gates to the park were closed of course, since it was only about 7am. But I decided to make the early morning trek in the dark, as I was determined to have another moving cache on my logs. In fact, I just wrote about moving caches a few months ago.
After I grabbed the cache I posted a note on the cache page saying I picked it up and also saying I was thinking of taking it back to the mainland but was just kidding to get a rise out of my island friends. I used to live here and am friends with many of the cachers here on the island, so of course I would love them to have a chance to grab this cache.

While on the island after grabbing the moving cache, I went out and grabbed another dozen caches before my show that evening.
Have you ever had déjà vu??   Have you ever had déjà vu?? Oh sorry.....
I went to get a cache called "Pin Drop" and as I arrived at it, I was saying, I have come to this cache before. It was during our(Angelcheeks and I) first geo frenzy day where we went out one day to try to get 100 caches.(we ended up only doing 71) We have since broken that record on the day that we did 200 caches in a 12 1/2hr period. But as I got to "Pin Drop" I knew we had been here before and I thought maybe we found it, but forgot to log it(I have done that before, read my past blog "A cache a day")
After a bit of searching, I found it and I realized we may have DNF'ed it that day.

Magic competitions

So this year I decided to compete in as many Magic Competitions as possible. I did quite good, and the only competition I entered that I did not place 1st or 2nd was at the P.C.A.M

Here is a list of my 2014 awards and trophy's:

 

 -February 1-Victoria Magic Circle "Farquhar" Award

 

                                  -April 24- Vancouver Magic Circle Gimmick cards-  2nd place

                               -May 22- Vancouver Magic Circle Close up (H.B. MacLean Trophy)- 1st place

President Graham Kita and MC Tony Chris

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                  -May 24-Victoria Magic Circle Wansborough Best Comedy Magic Trophy- 2nd place

 

                                   -June 13-Fraser Valley Magic Circle Stage Magician of the Year- 1st place

MC Tony Chris and I

                                          -June 13-Fraser Valley Magic Circle Creativity Award

President Mike Norden

                                           -June 13-Fraser Valley Magic Circle Vice President

                          -June 22-Vancouver Magic Circle Childrens Magician Of The Year- 2nd place

                      -June 26-Vancouver Magic Circle Impromptu cards (Ray Gamble trophy)- 1st Place

Ray Gamble Trophy

Billy Hsueh presenting me with the Ray Gamble trophy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                             -Sept 12- Fraser Valley Magic Circle Comedy Magic- 1st place

MC Bruce Hunt and I

 

                               -Oct 23- Vancouver Magic Circle Halloween magic(Tip Top & Tootsie)- 1st place

 

Tip Top and Tootsie award

Billy Hsueh and I

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                     -Nov 27- Vancouver Magic Circle Stage Magic- 2nd place

 

 

 

Two Achievement Awards

Five 1st place trophy's

Four 2nd place wins

 

All in all a great year of caching and Magic. At this time I would like to thank my lovey wife Jenna, for allowing me to follow these goals in Magic and Caching(PS it was her that got me hooked in caching) She also gave me the greatest gift any wife could give her man, by having the silly little boy that we have had the joy of loving for the last 2 1/2 years.

I would like to wish everyone of my friends a very Merry Christmas and an awesome New Year!!!!

 



 

 

                                                                Well that's it for this month

                                                                 See you in the New Year!!!

Keep on caching

Chris Yuill

Magicman65

 

Cool caches

NOTE: The highlighted words in my blog can be clicked on as they are links to other cool stuff!!
PS: On the right hand side of this webpage is where you can find my YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and Google Plus links. Please feel free to check them out and follow or subscribe!!!

Chicago trip:

Had to fly to Chicago for a training seminar recently, and was able to also grab a few cool caches while there. Even had 3 muggles come search with me and they were quite excited to see how to cache, and what it really was all about. (Found out later, one of them has a geocaching acct, but does not cache lots)
One of the caches that we visited while there was a Virtual cache know as "The Bean"
It is made of 110 tonnes of stainless steel and looks like a giant kidney bean.


The "Bean" at night

The "Bean" during the day

Chicago Theatre

 

 

 

Some recent caches!!!

 

This cool cache was called The Chicken Channel"

This guy was guarding the cache "Find the Bunny"

 

 

 

 

Cool caches

 

Was recently going thru some geocaching pics, and came across a few cool ones that I liked, so I thought I would share a few with you-Enjoy!!!

 

 

 

Cool Earthcache while on tour

 

 

My beautiful wife caching in her wedding dress
 

I can park here

Fairy hotel

 

 

Caching with my friend Brett



Cool tree

 

YUP....it's there!!!

My little boy with the FTF!!!

 

 

On route to the terrain 4 FTF!!!

Climbed up a cliff to get an FTF on a terrain 4
and this was the size of the cache!!!

Cool structure(Earthcache)

Cruising along

Can you see it??

Cool cache in front of Scouts Canada camp

Scouts Canada camp in Roberts Creek

Cache near the sasquatch

Cool cache container(Very tricky, lots of DNF's)

 

 Well that's it for this month

Keep on caching

Chris Yuill

Magicman65

 

 

 

 

 

 



Pumpkins, Halloween Magic competition and challenges!!!

NOTE: The highlighted words in my blog can be clicked on as they are links to other cool stuff!!
PS: On the right hand side of this webpage is where you can find my YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and Google Plus links. Please feel free to check them out and follow or subscribe!!!

This month I completed a few geocaching challenges.

"North 49 Degrees Latitude Challenge"
I talked about this one in my last months blog!!

"The UBC ABC Geocachers Challenge"
In order to claim a find on this Challenge Cache, you will need to find a cache by 26 geocachers, with each geocacher's profile name beginning with a different letter.


"The Pyramid Scheme Challenge"
To be able to log the cache you have one calendar month to find a total of 21 caches that form a pyramid. Each row of the pyramid must contain the same cache type. You must find 1 of one type, 2 of a different type, 3 of yet another type and so on. Your pyramid will have 6 levels (21 caches total).
I started on Oct 1st and was done the challenge by Oct 18th. I found the cache and logged it on Oct.19th
I started by thinking I would find, 1 Virtual, 2 Letterbox caches, 3 Earthcaches, 4 Puzzles, 5 Multi's and 6 traditionals. I was having a tough time with multi's(could not find them that easy) So I switched it up and found 5 puzzles and only 4 Multi's

Halloween Magic

This month was also the Vancouver Magic Circle's Halloween competition.



Tip Top & Tootsie Trophy

The TipTop & Tootsie trophy is awarded in recognition of excellence in Halloween Magic by an Adult or Junior Member. One trick or effect of a Halloween Theme must be performed within a 10 minute time limit. The spirit of this competition is to encourage growth in the field of Halloween magic. A favorite of George Patey and Bill Eliason, for whom the trophy is in honour of.

The trophy is named after a pair of aristocrat tramp characters “TipTop & Tootsie” created by Bill and George. The trophy top is a statue given to them by their good friend Doug Henning (Cousin of Magician Doug Henning) and donated by David Wilson, nephew of Bill Eliason. The base was donated by Craig Prystay.

I competed with a pumpkin based act. The pumpkin was produced and a $100 bill was borrowed, lost by putting it into a cauldron of Zombie Virus. It then reappeared inside the pumpkin that I carved in a very strange manner. If you want to see the full routine on youtube, please check out "$100 Pumpkin"

                                                          

I was in a costume and had a cauldron and a spooky table.

As you can see by the following picture I did quite well.

Winner of "Tip Top & Tootsie"

At the beginning of next month I am heading to Chicago, and I will grab a few caches while there.

Well that's it for this month

Keep on caching

Chris Yuill

Magicman65

 

 

 

Earthcache month and Challenges

NOTE: The highlighted words in my blog can be clicked on as they are links to other cool stuff!!
PS: On the right hand side of this webpage is where you can find my YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and Google Plus links. Please feel free to check them out and follow or subscribe!!!

Earthcaching:

This month on the 12th Groundspeak was giving away a souvineer if you find and log an Earthcache.
Earthcaches bring you to  cool places to learn about our earth!!


 

EarthCache

An EarthCache is a special geological location people can visit to learn about a unique feature of the Earth. EarthCache pages include a set of educational notes along with coordinates. Visitors to EarthCaches can see how our planet has been shaped by geological processes, how we manage its resources and how scientists gather evidence. Typically, to log an EarthCache, you will have to provide answers to questions by observing the geological location. For more information about EarthCaches visit http://www.earthcache.org/

As you can see, I got mine!!!

 

 Trip to Vancouver Island

 

I had to go over to Vancouver Island to take care of some business, so of course I grabbed a few caches while over there. Found a cache that had a cool rock formation near it. I always wonder how things like this become to exist in nature.

Balancing Rock

 

 Challenge Caches

 

On the way back from the island I stopped to grab a challenge cache that I completed the requirements for some time ago. It was called North 49 Degrees Latitude Challenge

*To successfully complete this challenge, you must find at least one cache for every minute of North 49 degrees latitude. For example, for Minute 00, you would need to have found a cache between N49 00.000 and N49 00.999. For Minute 01, you would need to have found a cache between N49 01.000 and N49 01.999 and so on. Once you have successfully found a cache for every minute, (a total of 60)you could find this challenge cache and sign the log.

They could be from anywhere in the world as long as they were within the 49th parallel.

My list of 60 caches spanned as far east as the Alberta border and west to Vancouver Island.

 

North 49 deg. Latitude Challenge

 

I am still working on a similar challenge called West122 Degrees Longitude Challenge

I still need a few more caches to complete the requirements before I can log the challenge cache. I also came across another challenge cache that looks interesting called The Pyramid Scheme Challenge 

You have one calendar month to find a total of 21 caches that form a pyramid. Each row of the pyramid must contain the same cache type. You must find 1 of one type, 2 of a different type, 3 of yet another type and so on. Your pyramid will have 6 levels (21 caches total). Here is one possible example: 



I have already started to gain caches for the month of October towards completing this challenge. I will see how it goes. So far as of Oct. 13th I have filled the bottom row with traditional caches, 5th row I have 4 out of 5 puzzle caches, 4th row 2 out of 4 Multi caches, 3rd row complete as well with 3 earthcaches, 2nd row I have 1 out of 2 Letterbox caches, and up top I need 1 Virtual cache. Read next month to see if I complete it!!! I may switch the 3rd row(Earthcache) and 4th row(multi) as it seems I have been trouble with multi caches. lol
NOTE: On Thanksgiving(Oct 13) after publishing this blog in the morning, I was able to grab a virtual in the afternoon for the top row!!!

Well that's it for this month

Keep on caching and Have an awesome Thanksgiving!!!

Chris Yuill

Magicman65