"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be."
-- Douglas Adams
Thursday, June 09, 2011
Making money on the web
Selling stuff on eBay seems to work. I’ll list 40 items or so and at least two will sell for the minimum bid each month. Trouble is that we’re talking about items for 99¢ each. I was listing them for so low because that’s what I had to do to get free listings. (eBay has since lifted that restriction, but is only giving me 50 free listings per month rather than 100.)
I tried a few affiliate programs, a few of which you may see on the right side of the page. Cash4books.net, for instance, pays $5 if you sell them some of your used books. I tried the service myself and it does pay. I got a check that I could actually deposit. So far, I’ve gotten one person to sign up and it seems that their books never arrived.
I’ve even tried online gambling at CentSports. It claims that since they’re giving you 10¢ of advertiser-sponsored money to gamble with, it’s legal. Since it’s not your money, you’re not risking anything. If you lose, you get another ten cents to try again. You can cash out at $20, but I’ve never made it this far. One of my referrals did, but he decided to try to make more and lost, so I don’t know if they actually pay out or not.
Yes, I’ve tried site rotators. EasyHits4U is a good one. It’s easy to use, but you can’t cash out. The best you can hope for is that someone signs up under you. I’ve gotten at least two referrals to CentSports, including the aforementioned on. I think I’ve even gotten a few bids on eBay.
I’ve tried one called SendMeHits.com with less than spectacular results. They have both manual and automatic rotation and you can sell credits back to the site for money. However, the site has proven somewhat glitchy. The site often redirects me to another page randomly. Sometimes, I can’t even stay on the login page long enough to put in my user name. I do have referrals and they do seem to use the site, so I don’t know if it’s just me.
I’ve even tried micro working at sites like MyEasyTask.com and microworkers.com. The more expensive ones tend to be harder to get and the cheaper ones are usually something I’ve already gotten. I’ve been able to use earnings to get people to sign up for other things with varying success.
I still haven’t given up hope that I’ll find a job. I’m still looking. It would just be easier if I had some idea of where to look.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Will work for money
It’s been hard to post stuff here because not having a job means not having money to do anything interesting. I’d post more, but I don’t think that the general public wants to hear how I spent most of the past month sitting at home looking for work or going to the mall to fill out applications. There are a few prospects that I’m hopeful about, but I have no idea how many people I’m competing against. All I can do is keep filling out applications.
I know that I can work, but it’s hard to prove that to someone, especially when all they have is an application or a résumé. If I’m given 40 hours every week, I’ll show up for all 40. I’d even take 20, especially considering that most places are only hiring part time. Working 20 hours per week is better than sitting around waiting for my unemployment to run out.
I wish I knew where to look. It gets frustrating when you fill out 20 or 30 applications and you know that most of the places aren’t even hiring. Even among those that are hiring, you have to figure that everyone and their pet Chihuahua has already applied there.
I can’t give up, though. I know that sooner or later, I’ll find a job. I can only hope that it’s sooner.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
A long time coming
There are also two bills that I entered several months apart, here and here, that came together. I don’t imagine that it happens too often. (Yes, it’s been so long that one of the bills got another hit.)
In the interesting comment department, this bill is from someone who thinks that the bill is defaced. I think that the idiot part is a bit much. I remember first entering bills on Where’s George, worrying that someone would confront me about it. While I never had someone insult me about it, I guess it’s much easier when you’re not doing it in person.
Then, there’s the person that held on to the bill for two years. I don’t mind having a sleeper like that, but why wait two years to enter it? I can only imagine that they got more Where’s George bills and realized that my bill wasn’t so special.
One last note is that Calhoun County fell, leaving me with four Florida counties. I don’t have a link as I only noticed yesterday. I have so few counties left that I don’t really expect it.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Two new counties
The second was in Franklin County. It looks like this one was from a regular. It’s nice to know that there’s at least one Georger in one of the more difficult Florida counties.
This brings the remaining counties down to five: Bradford, Calhoun, Gilchrist, Jefferson and Madison.
Friday, May 07, 2010
At Long Last
Bills with hits: 11,839 Total hits: 13,333
Hit rate: 7.80% Slugging Percentage: 8.78% (total hits/total bills)
George Score: 1,295.21
Your rank (based on George Score) is #154
(out of 49,161 current users with a George Score. [99.7 Percentile])
Your State Rank in Florida is: 11 out of 8,155 [99.9]
Your initial entries with hits have traveled a total of 6,413,163 miles.
They have averaged 487.6 miles per hit and 205.29 days between each hit.
I just took a look at this blog and realized that I hadn’t posted in two months. I know it’s a far cry from posting three times per week. I’ve been a little busy looking for work, but I do have a link to post.
It’s Use The Two, a site having to do with what the name implies. It’s not much, but I do like finding sites about toms. There’s even a link back to Where’s George.
It doesn’t look like any new $2 bills have been printed, but I have seen 2009-series $1 and a few $20s have been spotted. According to the BEP production reports, the new Hundreds are being printed, although I don’t know that I’ll be seeing any in the near future. I can’t seem to find anything on when they’ll be released. (If you can find an exact date, please leave a comment with a link.)
I’m hoping that the April report will be posted soon.
Friday, March 05, 2010
The Color of New Money
Bills with hits: 10,693 Total hits: 12,059
Hit rate: 7.66% Slugging Percentage: 8.63% (total hits/total bills)
George Score: 1,283.96
Your rank (based on George Score) is #174
(out of 47,976 current users with a George Score. [99.6 Percentile])
Your State Rank in Florida is: 16 out of 8,077 [99.8]
Your initial entries with hits have traveled a total of 5,674,981 miles.
They have averaged 476.5 miles per hit and 199.15 days between each hit.
It looks like the Series 2009 will be of a new design. I don’t see anything on exactly what it will look like. I guess we’ll have to wait until next month to find out. I guess this means that the BEP is producing them, but will be holding off until next month before releasing them.
For now, I’ll just have to keep going through the $1 and $20 bills to be able to enter a Series 2009.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Series 2009, where are you?
Bills with hits: 10,606 Total hits: 11,952
Hit rate: 7.64% Slugging Percentage: 8.61% (total hits/total bills)
George Score: 1,282.98
Your rank (based on George Score) is #174
(out of 47,860 current users with a George Score. [99.6 Percentile])
Your State Rank in Florida is: 16 out of 8,067 [99.8]
Your initial entries with hits have traveled a total of 5,622,420 miles.
They have averaged 476.4 miles per hit and 198.56 days between each hit.
Series 2009 $20 bills came out last month, but I have yet to see one. This has to do mostly with the fact that I don’t usually get twenties. It looks like Series 2009 $1 bills have entered circulation, as it’s now possible to enter them on Where’s George. (The 2009 option isn’t at the top, which makes it a little hard to see, but I’m not complaining.)
I have been getting twenties from the casino whenever they can’t give me all singles. I have yet to get a 2009 $20 bill. When I went to Publix yesterday to get some bills, they gave me new bills, which I was hoping would be 2009. No such luck; again, they were 2006.
It seems like whenever a new series comes out, they try to get rid of the new bills from the last series before releasing the newest series, so I can probably expect to see a lot more of the new, sequential 2006 bills before seeing any 2009. It also doesn’t look like the Atlanta branch of the Federal Reserve Bank has requested any new bills, so it will probably take even longer for me to see one.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Things Forgotten
Bills with hits: 10,478 Total hits: 11,811
Hit rate: 7.56% Slugging Percentage: 8.53% (total hits/total bills)
George Score: 1,281.76
Your rank (based on George Score) is #168
(out of 47,912 current users with a George Score. [99.6 Percentile])
Your State Rank in Florida is: 15 out of 8,055 [99.8]
Your initial entries with hits have traveled a total of 5,529,167 miles.
They have averaged 473.9 miles per hit and 197.63 days between each hit.
I once got a hit in Nantucket
From Miami, an hour by bucket
----In my heart I could feel
----That the hit wasn't real
But it's my only Nantucket ducket
I also don’t seem to have posted anything about ZIP code 33309. I had noticed that I have two hits there, but couldn’t think of how I had come to enter 2 bills there. I had assumed that I had intended to enter them in 33009, which would have been Hallandale Beach. (Basically, two bills I had gotten at Gulfstream Park.)
Someone in the chat room showed me how to look up bills that haven’t gotten any hits yet and it appears that one is a twenty and the other is a five. It looks like I may have been up in the area and broken some bills for someone, so I think the hits may be legitimate.
I know it’s not much, but I am setting a goal to post at least three times per week.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Bills with hits: 10,450 Total hits: 11,783
Hit rate: 7.55% Slugging Percentage: 8.51% (total hits/total bills)
George Score: 1,281.52
Your rank (based on George Score) is #175
(out of 48,107 current users with a George Score. [99.6 Percentile])
Your State Rank in Florida is: 15 out of 8,049 [99.8]
Your initial entries with hits have traveled a total of 5,507,388 miles.
They have averaged 473.1 miles per hit and 197.47 days between each hit.
The first thing I noticed was that there really isn’t much privacy except for the fact that few people were in the area. If someone saw you with a wad of cash, it would be a little obvious. Fortunately, it never got that far. The wi-fi wasn’t working today. I asked and it wasn’t just me. Apparently, others were complaining about it, as well.
I was lucky that they even had tables for me to use. I hate having to put my netbook to the side to use it. I’ve been wanting an Apple iPod Touch for this very reason. It would be much easier and possibly less conspicuous to enter bills at Gulfstream with one.
It seems to work only in a very limited area. I’m wondering if anyone will use the wi-fi at all. I can’t see people dragging laptops around a racetrack’s shopping area, although people do it at the mall. Whenever I go back, I’m going to take a look if anyone’s using it.
I ended up entering the bills in Hollywood. I don’t need that ZIP code, but it was nice to get a few more bills entered there. It’s a little far up to go over there and back, but it’s not too bad. At least I had some privacy there.
For some reason, I was getting a lot of new bills from the ticket-redemption machines, so I went back to the casino afterwards to get rid of them. Good thing I did because I was able to hit someone’s bill. I wouldn’t have gotten it if I didn’t go back.
I’m going to call it quits here before I start rambling. I’ll try to post more tomorrow.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Good news
Bills with hits: 10,432 Total hits: 11,763
Hit rate: 7.54% Slugging Percentage: 8.51% (total hits/total bills)
George Score: 1,281.33
Your rank (based on George Score) is #173
(out of 48,123 current users with a George Score. [99.6 Percentile])
Your State Rank in Florida is: 15 out of 8,049 [99.8]
Your initial entries with hits have traveled a total of 5,489,852 miles.
They have averaged 472.5 miles per hit and 197.39 days between each hit.
The only major downside is that the nearest parking was metered. (I don’t know what employees do.) Miami Beach seems to be big on metered parking. It stinks that a public library doesn’t have its own parking. In fact, I think it’s The Beach that gets the money, so the funds don’t even go to the library system. (I guess you could say that the city pays into the library system, so it does get the money indirectly.)
When I go to the casino now, I usually enter bills, cash out and go to the Hallandale Branch of Broward County’s public libraries. They have a larger library there and work stations that offer a little more privacy. Speaking of which, I had $10 in free play to use at Gulfstream Park Racing and Casino today. I actually walked out with $45 that I didn’t have before.
In other good news, it looks like I’ll be working for the Census Bureau. I’ll be going in next month for training. I do know that it will be an office job, which is good. However, I really don’t know any other details like how many hours I’ll be working or how much I’ll get paid. It is work, which means more bills to enter, hopefully. At the very least, it means a bigger bank account.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Drug deals
Bills with hits: 10,101 Total hits: 11,393
Hit rate: 7.36% Slugging Percentage: 8.30% (total hits/total bills)
George Score: 1,278.03
Your rank (based on George Score) is #180
(out of 48,012 current users with a George Score. [99.6 Percentile])
Your State Rank in Florida is: 16 out of 8,009 [99.8]
Your initial entries with hits have traveled a total of 5,296,774 miles.
They have averaged 470.6 miles per hit and 195.73 days between each hit.
I think someone else may be thinking along similar lines, but reached a different career objective, as per this hit. I think that’s the second hit I’ve gotten that’s referenced a drug deal. Again, I don’t know how serious they are. I’m thinking that it’s a joke. I wouldn’t think you’d want something like that where people can see it.
I got this one last week. It seems to have gone all over the place. I kind of like it when it does that. The distance between the endpoints is way smaller than the total distance traveled. (I also have a weakness for vectors and vector sums.)
That’s all for now. I’ll post more when I have it.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Massachusetts elects a Republican senator and I still can’t get a hit in Nantucket County
Bills with hits: 9,948 Total hits: 11,226
Hit rate: 7.27% Slugging Percentage: 8.20% (total hits/total bills)
George Score: 1,276.51
Your rank (based on George Score) is #186
(out of 48,163 current users with a George Score. [99.6 Percentile])
Your State Rank in Florida is: 17 out of 7,989 [99.8]
Your initial entries with hits have traveled a total of 5,228,361 miles.
They have averaged 471.5 miles per hit and 195.68 days between each hit.
The other thing is that there don’t seem to be a lot of malls or Starbucks there. (There is a Starbuck Road, though.) Don’t get me wrong. There does seem to be retail there. It’s just that Nantucket doesn’t strike me as the kind of place that would like chains. So, even if I spent the $40 to get over there, I don’t know that there would be many places for me to spend my bills.
Now, I’m not saying that you should just hit my bills. I don’t want to be selfish. All I’m saying is that if you happen to be on Nantucket Island and you happen to find a marked bill, please enter it regardless of who originally entered it.
For that matter, you’re always welcome to start a bill’s history. If you have money, just enter it on Where’s George. Someone has to start the bill report. That’s not even considering all of the unmarked bills out there. I’m sure that there are a lot of other georgers out there that would greatly appreciate the hit. It seems that if someone needs a county in Massachusetts that the county they need is Nantucket.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Of Sanibel and Haiti
Bills with hits: 9,889 Total hits: 11,164
Hit rate: 7.24% Slugging Percentage: 8.18% (total hits/total bills)
George Score: 1,275.92
Your rank (based on George Score) is #187
(out of 48,291 current users with a George Score. [99.6 Percentile])
Your State Rank in Florida is: 17 out of 7,980 [99.8]
Your initial entries with hits have traveled a total of 5,191,871 miles.
They have averaged 470.7 miles per hit and 195.44 days between each hit.
Yesterday, I went to a place in Florida called Sanibel Island. When I got back, I found that I had two hits related to Sanibel. One was actually hit there. The second simply refers to it in the user note. I did spend 11 bills there, but neither hit is from any of the bills that I spent there. Odd that it should take so long for one bill to make it over there and end up there on the same day that I did.
I also got a hit on a bill that was apparently intended to help Haiti. Yes, it looks like it was deposited, but it was just one bill. I’m assuming that the actual donation was much larger.
That’s all for now.
Sunday, January 03, 2010
New Florida County
Bills with hits: 9,616 Total hits: 10,864
Hit rate: 7.15% Slugging Percentage: 8.07% (total hits/total bills)
George Score: 1,272.98
Your rank (based on George Score) is #196
(out of 48,755 current users with a George Score. [99.6 Percentile])
Your State Rank in Florida is: 16 out of 7,962 [99.8]
Your initial entries with hits have traveled a total of 5,054,793 miles.
They have averaged 470.9 miles per hit and 194.74 days between each hit.
I did get a few other interesting hits over the past month or two. This one was found on the ground in Las Vegas. (I just love the scrolling text.)
This bill Was waiting two years to be entered. I don’t know which is more frustrating: The fact that the guy held on to it for so long or the fact that it was at a local airport, potentially waiting to go out of state.
This one, I can’t say I understand. I just thought I’d share.
That’s all for now.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Cash FTW
You have entered 133,611 Bills worth $350,883
Bills with hits: 9,380 Total hits: 10,606
Hit rate: 7.02% Slugging Percentage: 7.94% (total hits/total bills)
George Score: 1,270.48
Your rank (based on George Score) is #197
(out of 49,500 current users with a George Score. [99.6 Percentile])
Your State Rank in Florida is: 18 out of 7,932 [99.8]
Your initial entries with hits have traveled a total of 4,955,361 miles.
They have averaged 473.7 miles per hit and 194.95 days between each hit.
I saw two articles today that indicate that I should expect more hits. The first says that fewer people are using credit. The driving force seems to be that people don’t want it incur unnecessary debt, which is good advice in any economy. Not only will people have less debt but the stores don’t have charges associated with having the transaction processed.
The second article is reassuring people that cash won’t slow down checkout lines. Not only does it take about the same time, but not enough people are doing it that anyone has to worry.
Either way, it means that more of my bills will be given out as change.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
And now for something completely different
Bills with hits: 9,205 Total hits: 10,419
Hit rate: 7.02% Slugging Percentage: 7.94% (total hits/total bills)
George Score: 1,268.43
Your rank (based on George Score) is #199
(out of 49,660 current users with a George Score. [99.6 Percentile])
Your State Rank in Florida is: 19 out of 7,924 [99.8]
Your initial entries with hits have traveled a total of 4,879,028 miles.
They have averaged 474.9 miles per hit and 194.41 days between each hit.
Since I deal with banks and casinos, I’m dealing with people that are a bit paranoid about money and thus not likely to short me a bill. When I’m missing a bill like that, it means that I’ve skipped over one. You may ask how I can find one missing bill among 100, 200, 300 or more. Do I have to go through each bill?
I used to do that until I realized that I didn’t have to. That’s where statistical sampling comes in. Let’s say that I have 250 bills. I think I’ve entered all of them only to discover that I’ve actually entered 249. I count off 10 bills at a time and check the top bill against the recently entered bills.
The top bill on my pile should be the most recently entered bill. If I count off ten bills, the next should be the eleventh most recently entered. When I find one that doesn’t match, I’ve effectively narrowed it down to a range of ten bills; my missing bill should be in there. (If it’s not, I’ve probably miscounted.)
I know this may well be boring to most, but it is an example of how paying attention in math class can help.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Hits and profiles and really large numbers
Bills with hits: 8,822 Total hits: 10,009
Hit rate: 7.14% Slugging Percentage: 8.10% (total hits/total bills)
George Score: 1,263.54
Your rank (based on George Score) is #199
(out of 51,518 current users with a George Score. [99.6 Percentile])
Your State Rank in Florida is: 19 out of 7,888 [99.8]
Your initial entries with hits have traveled a total of 4,669,903 miles.
They have averaged 473.1 miles per hit and 193.98 days between each hit.
I also have an interesting comment to report. Since the person commenting knows the full name of the person, I doubt that Alex Mozeak really is a crack head. (For those that point out that it’s obvious, I do have liability to worry about; there are one or two other people that read this blog every so often.)
Then there’s the three-year sleeper. The one thing I wonder about a hit like this is if the bill traveled around the world only to end up 14 miles away. I know that it was probably sitting in a bank vault somewhere, but it’s impossible to tell as there were no hits for more than 40 months. It could go either way.
Finally, I’ve just gotten hit number 10,000. (As of this posting, the page isn’t showing the actual hit number; I had to count backwards from hit 10,009, so there’s a slight possibility that it’s one off.) At the rate I’m going, I may get to 20,000 within two years.
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Updates
Bills with hits: 8,606 Total hits: 9,760
Hit rate: 7.22% Slugging Percentage: 8.19% (total hits/total bills)
George Score: 1,260.50
Your rank (based on George Score) is #216
(out of 51,840 current users with a George Score. [99.6 Percentile])
Your State Rank in Florida is: 18 out of 7,870 [99.8]
Your initial entries with hits have traveled a total of 4,577,277 miles.
They have averaged 475.7 miles per hit and 194.22 days between each hit.
With the demise of Geocities, it appears that the Top Toms list had to be moved. It’s now being hosted at a more permanent location. It looks like my status hasn’t been updated in a while, so I’m going to have to send in my current stats.
There’s also a link there to the Tom Supply Network. I should probably add that to the links section. I’ve just registered there and will later add some banks in the Miami area to the list.
I’ve also noticed that the profiles on Where’s George now have additional stats like overall rank and state rank as well as the number of wilds hit.
I just thought I’d add the updates.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Interesting user comments
Bills with hits: 8,391 Total hits: 9,522
Hit rate: 7.34% Slugging Percentage: 8.33% (total hits/total bills)
George Score: 1,257.42
Your rank (based on George Score) is #218
(out of 52,519 current users with a George Score. [99.6 Percentile])
Your State Rank in Florida is: 19 out of 7,845 [99.8]
Your initial entries with hits have traveled a total of 4,488,478 miles.
They have averaged 478.3 miles per hit and 193.99 days between each hit.
This one I speaks for itself. For those that don’t know, check out the Scarlett’s web site.
This one, I’m wondering if they still have it. They actually held on to it and then entered it? Why?
In the Poor Concept of Time category is this bill. They hadn’t used the shorts in six months, but it’s only 80 days between entries. Maybe someone slipped it in their pocket.
Who is Mr. Yuck?
This is another one I can’t figure out. Is the New York?
Those are the more interesting ones I’ve gotten recently. I’ll post more as I get them.
Thursday, October 08, 2009
No more SunPass only
Bills with hits: 8,213 Total hits: 9,322
Hit rate: 7.45% Slugging Percentage: 8.46% (total hits/total bills)
George Score: 1,254.75
Your rank (based on George Score) is #220
(out of 52,612 current users with a George Score. [99.6 Percentile])
Your State Rank in Florida is: 17 out of 7,840 [99.8]
Your initial entries with hits have traveled a total of 4,412,318 miles.
They have averaged 480.6 miles per hit and 193.67 days between each hit.
After filling out the application today, I asked about the cash option and the job opening. The guy said that the SunPass-only toll booths never came to pass. I guess that’s a good thing because it not only means that I don’t have to worry about getting a SunPass, but I may get a job out of it.