Matthew James Wardell - Music Biography

As this blog was originally started to feature my son Matt and his music, I am posting his latest short biography of sorts. He is a most talented young man of whom I am quite proud. I know he has a great future in the music business as either a conductor, orchestra member, or teaching at a college level.


MATTHEW JAMES WARDELL

A Short Music Biography

The Cache Obscura

Last week I received an invitation from a fellow geocacher, bitbrain, asking if I would be insterested in joining a group in a hunt for "The Cache Obscura, GC11Z70. This has been on my radar for some time and I responded with a definite YES. Over the next few days, emails were exchanged between the prospective cachers discussing merits of where to start. We finally agreed upon a meeting time and place and this morning I set off with PoohBear94 to meet up with our friends.

At this time of year and at 6:00 AM it is still almost dark. We followed Hoot Owl into our designated meeting place and were soon joined by Gibbenator, Tiger130, and I think last but not least, our "host" bitbrain. After a quick discussion of "tactics" we caravaned to our jump off spot and set off to tame The Cache Obscura.

The following is my log from Geocaching.com and is a brief summary of all that went on. I say brief when in fact it is quite wordy, but it is hard to document everything in perfect detail as to the events of the day.

August 26 by 76Stinger (357 found)A short log just won't do this one justice, but I'll try to sum it all up.

This was without a doubt the best cache I have done to date. Not only because of its' complexity, but largely due to the great group I was with - bitbrain, Tiger130, gibbenator, Hoot Owl, and PoohBear94.

When we left out of our meeting area, I was thinking, "Where are these people going? I thought the cache was back there somewhere." We drove a few miles away and I was hoping we didn't have to hike back from our new starting point. I was wrong. We started on a level easy walk which rapidly deteriorated to trails, and eventually to outright bushwacking. Up and down, around, and double-back. I was already exhausted and we hadn't even found the first stage.

Eventually, I staggered up after I heard PoohBear94 yelling he had found it. That boy is a "cache magnet." For someone who is a bit new, he does a great job. We fiddled around getting into the cache container for this stage ( see photo above ) and trading ideas as to where to go from there and eventually headed out on a full blown bushwacking adventure. Somewhere during this "walk," I discovered "everyone was lost and they couldn't find me." After much shouting and whistles, gibbenator appeared from some of the nastiest thicket I have ever seen and I "guided him" to the rest of the group. ( Read into this that I am being very sarcastic - I was lost! I was also pretty much gassed out and wondering if they would add a chapter to this cache entitled Stinger's Disappearance.

After meeting up with the group once again, we went into a wide-scale search for the elusive next stage. Yeah - you know who found it - PoohBear the Cache Magnet. He is a natural. After a much needed rest for me, we headed out to hopefully the final stage. Naturally I was dragging the proverbial anchor but Hoot Owl stayed with me and even took my pack away as he knew I was having troubles. I'm almost embarrassed but Thanks Hoot! You were a God-send.

To end this saga - YES, we found all the stages and headed back to our start point, which by the way seemed to be about 30 miles away to me. This time it was Pooh who stayed with me and refused to go on. Did I tell you that Pooh found the last stage as well? Of course, you know he did.

I can only offer my most humble thanks to gibbenator, Hoot Owl, Pooh Bear, bitbrain, and Tiger130 for tolerating me dragging my behind. Matter of fact, I think bitbrain posted a most flattering picture of that behind. Thanks. It looks like the south end of a north bound continent. I can at least smile about it.

Now for that x098q34 x8-`er cacher that placed this cache - er, um, OK - great job! Probably not what I was thinking along the way, but "Ya Dun Gud!"

Oh yeah, dropped off a TB on one of the stages, just can't remember which stage.

TFTC and many thanks to my good friends who stuck with me.76Stinger

As you can see, it was most worthy find for my 1st 5/5. I think for me it was more like a 7/7. I hurt my back some time ago and this long walk and constant bobbing and weaving through the thickets and endless thorns, left me taking more than my share of breaks. I think that is probably how the rest of the group managed to lose me ( I knew where I was all along :>) )

All in all, this probably rates as my top caching adventure to date and I owe it all to my great caching partners on this adventure.

As a suggestion to any who may attempt this in the near future, take LOTS of water, snacks, and a hiking stick. My stick saved my rear more than once when near exhaustion tried to suck me to the ground.

This is a link to a video that bitbrain put together documenting a few of the highlights of the day. "The Hunt for The Cache Obscura" Thanks to Gil for his camera and editing work.

Enjoy! There are also some excellent pictures from the day posted on the cache page itself.

It's About Geocaching - Not Memberships!

This will be my first post on Geocaching and unfortunately it is not necessarily a "good thing" type post. I recently made a comment on a Forum of one of the clubs that I belong to and it was a mistake. It was something I said in public that probably should have been said in private to the individual concerned. The resulting fervor that was created was crazy.

I am a quiet, conservative type individual who makes every effort to get along with all that I meet but occasionally I run into someone who just makes my hair stand on end. I have always had a "sixth sense" about people and I would say that about 99% of the time, my first impression about someone is dead on. This has applied to co-workers, friends of my kids, people from church, and just about any venue you can think of. It is almost as if they have one of those cartoon sayings over their heads reading "Bad Egg."

Back to the point - the comment I made was to a cacher who I thought had made an inappropriate comment or "joke" in a public setting. Granted, he had every right to make the joke but I just thought it was time for the subject matter to be laid to rest. I offered what I really thought was "fatherly advice" and hoped it would kind of soak in. I like the guy to whom I made the comment but all of a sudden I was treated with such ugliness, I might as well have been some sort of monster. The emails, pm's, and responses started to fly fast and furious and not a single one of them could see why I made the post. It was to me absolutely ridiculous. All I wanted to do was help make some peace but these people couldn't see past their territory and thought it was a direct slam on them. The funny part was that many of these comments were from people who had never made a single effort to say hello or speak to me at any of the events I attended. They don't know me or have any knowledge about how I think or what I am about, yet they chose to lambast me. The bad part is that I let them get my goat and responded in kind and eventually resigned from that organization. Unfortunately I made another post on a different forum relaying my impression of the absurdity. I said a few things I should have and have since regretted them. I was just hurt and mad. Bad combination when you have the power of a keyboard at hand. The funny part - the individual who I made the comment to, well we communicated and got our feelings aired to each other and are back on I think an even keel. There are no hard feelings from me towards him and I think he thinks the same towards me.

Some of the comments made to me publically and via PM were rude, uncalled for, and downright mean. I was accused of allegiance to another group over theirs, accused of being totally immature, and basically, told to get the hell out of Dodge. To say I was amazed at these reactions would be an understatement. As for allegiance to any group, I show allegiance to God and Country but I don't have the kind of allegiance to any other group that would spark any of these comments. I may be more attuned to certain groups because of more social interraction, but I joined multiple groups to learn more about the hobby - not to isolate myself into a little group who seemingly has a hatred for anyone who does not think or act like them. That sort of behavior reminds me of the extremists who live in compounds and demand your service to them and that you pay homage to their ideals and beliefs.

To be fair, I have met some super people in all the groups to which I belong, but I have also met some in each group who have the little cartoon clouds over their heads. Such is life. You will never get along with everyone you meet because that is what makes us human - we all have our differences. I guess in this one particular group, not thinking like they do and having your own opinions is verboten. Funny thing, I recently quit a pretty good job over that same issue.

I am one of the most easy going people you will ever meet. I am laid back and never afraid to go out on a limb to help a friend. I don't give a plug nickle about who you know, what you know, or what group you belong to. If you are my friend, you can count on me to help if I can.

In summary, I'm still caching. I will miss a couple of events I was really looking forward to attending with my duaghter today, but I know for the most part I would not be welcome anyway.

Hopefully, my next post will be on an upbeat note. I am on a quest for 500 but the heat has kept me inside for the most part. I have been job hunting and taking care of "honey-do lists" and it has been stressful and exhausting, especially those lists. I did have an interview yesterday and felt pretty good about it. Stay tuned.