Discussion: Incessant nerdiness

I'm mapping a Halowe'en-themed water park, and there's a place that would make a great control feature. There's a row of giant tombstones with water squirting out of them. Should I map them as boulders (since they're sort of like big rocks) or graves (but there's not really anybody buried there that I know of), or springs? And the area is bounded by these nozzles that intermittently squirt out of the ground. I'm thinking that I should use the ruined fence symbol for that, but in blue. There are three of the tombstone things in a row, so I'm thinking that if I put a control between the two on the left, that I can describe it as the western between-the-springs, does that make sense? And should I describe it as a water stop, even though drinking that water would probably not be a goood idea? What do you all think?

Have you mapped a cliff through the tombstones? If not then it won't make sense.

So why DOES this keep happening, JJ?

You know that graves are politically incorrect since ISOM2017, so I suggest maybe the western between spires. Maybe to indicate death there should be a "ruined" in there somewhere. Though to be quite clear to orienteers what to expect, in column 6 you could use the "firm ground" symbol to indicate the squirty nozzles all around. Strictly speaking you would want this to blink on and off, are you providing the descriptions electronically? Just thinking about columnn 7 depending on whether the nozzles are more on than off perhaps "under" would be better than "between". Column 8, it had better be a personned control under your duty of care to the participants, a staffer on hand to towel people down.

Sounds the perfect place to start a relay.

Nice head fake, JJ. This all seems perfectly normal orienteering discussion, after all, this is what the sport is about. Of course, the nerdiness is in the insistence on putting an apostrophe in the word 'Halloween.'

Your nerdiness is slipping. You forgot to include a snip from the map so Ed can tell you if it's up to par.

Moving the control to an actual grave would eliminate any of these issues altogether...

I think a Hal-O-ween event (Trick O Treat) would be a great way to introduce families to our beloved sport. White-lite, with candy at checkpoints, which are staffed by costumed volunteers, just dusky enough to justify headlamps or flashlights.

But with symbolic descriptions, like skeleton, etc. jk

Was a annual event in Sydney for a few years

http://blog.centennialparklands.com.au/spooks-in-t...

And we had one in WA (the real one in Australia) one year

Lots of fun

... White-lite, with candy at checkpoints...

...or with a clown manning that 'special' control....

Toronto Orienteering Club holds a Vampire-O after dark with some racers in costume. If a vampire touches you, they can switch control cards with you, then you become the vampire.

Tash ran a small Halloween themed activity at one of last year's Metro events. It was our highest turnout for the season (over 19 events and not one of the more popular venues). She is going to do the same this year.

LOL, just map a park around Baltimore city, there will be no need in decorations of this kind, 100% real zombieland

Since the thread has been so marvelously hijacked, I'll point out that I was a participant in the first ever Vampire-O, which was perhaps surprisingly held on New Years Day in 1991, starting at high noon. (And I was incredibly hung over, which may be an even bigger surprise.)