One more post for the night...

I was actually going through my bills to enter today and I found two bills with writing. (I'm just now getting around to entering the bills. I know it’s late.) One, I was able to photograph. It has simply "AIDA" and "I love Ramon" on it. It looks like two different handwritings and one is in pencil. It's kind of interesting to get two different markings worthy of note.

The other one, I couldn’t get a photo of. The writing was so small, I just couldn’t photograph it, despite a dozen or so failed attempts. It has “Chelo & Mateo” in extremely small writing off to one side in the margin. It looks almost like it was done with a printer of some sort, although how they got it in the margin like that I’ll never figure out.

I figured I would get those in there. If anyone knows what Chelo and Mateo are, let me know.

Of Counties and Jefferson

I just got some good news. I was notified that I got Litchfield County, Connecticut. This means that the only county I need in Connecticut is Middlesex. One more county and I'll have county bingo for Connecticut. This is especially good news since I'm going to New York in a few weeks. I'm hoping that since New York City is so close to Connecticut (and Middlesex County in particular) that I'll be able to get the county easily.

According to the County Difficulty tool on the Bank of Frank web site, a hit in that county should be relatively easy. Actually, all of the counties in that state should be relatively easy. Thus, I may get several bingos.

I'm actually debating whether or not to start using $2 bills regularly. I'm able to use them in the Gulfstream casino, but my manager asked me if I ever got them in change when cashing out. The fact that I don't probably means that they're depositing them, especially considering that only one bank of slots between the two casinos accepts them. This isn't what I want. I want them to be recirculated.

Most places seem to put them under the cash drawer, which means that they're depositing them, as well. I've seen very few places give them out as change. However, I'm thinking that the more I use them, the more likely places are to start giving them back out. I know that my coworkers don't like taking them because there's no place to account for them in our paperwork.

I think this may be true of most places. While registers have the ability to accommodate them, most don't. The only place that I've heard of that accepts them is Jefferson's Monticello estate, and that's because Jefferson's picture is on the front. (Monticello was also featured on the back until the 1976 redesign.)

According to the Wikipedia article, they account for about 1% of bills in production. Granted, that's not a relatively high number, but it's not incredibly rare, either. Even though there's a group of people on Where's George dedicated to entering and marking $2 bills, I could still probably enter thousands of them without finding someone else's.

Anyway, I wanted to get that in. It's been a while since I posed anything and I really should be posting more.

Three new bills to look at

I’ve got three new bills to post pictures of, all of which involve text.


The first one is fairly obvious. It just reads, "Alex" in big blue letters. Not much of a mystery there. The question is as to whether it’s a person who wants to get their name out there (or if they’re expecting to get their bills back or something) or if there’s some bigger meaning to it.

Some things, like the bank marking in my previous post, I can figure out. This is some sort of standard procedure, or at least the byproduct of it. With a person’s name, it’s not as clear. There are so many people named Alex out there that the real mystery is why they do it.

This one, I’m still trying to figure out. Does it say Billarejo? Google has some hits on it, but Alta Vista can’t translate it. I’m guessing that it’s a name. It does look like a signature. That’s really the only thing I can think of. Maybe this Billarejo person knows Alex. Maybe the two of them should get together. I have to wonder if the people that put their names on bills know each other.

At least that one was somewhat legible. This one is blue letters enclosed by a black line. It could be zoclath or zoclatli or something like that. It’s hard to tell. The first letter might even be the number 3, like 30 clatli. This is one of those things that I’d appreciate some comments on.

In other news, I got a hit in Paris, France. The sentence structure isn’t great, but I get the impression that the bill is going to visit Mickey Mouse. And it came from such humble beginnings…

I’ve actually made the top fifty on Where’s George in the state based on George Score. (For those wondering, it’s derived from a formula based on hits, bills entered and the number of days since your last activity.) Sitewide, I’m hovering around 1,000th place.

If I see any new bills or move up in place a lot, I’ll let you know.

Good news and bad news

I’ve had a major good event and a major bad event in the past few days.

First, the good news. The other day, I hit a bill from Wattsburg Gary, the top user on Where’s George. I’m surprised that it hasn’t happened sooner, considering that he’s entered over a half a million bills. I got it from the casino and put it into the drawer at work. I wonder if I’ll get a hit on it.

As for the bad news, I was robbed at gunpoint last night. I had just been to the casino to get my bills into circulation and had to get a whole new set of singles. I lost $200 in singles and $60 in twos. I may have to rethink my strategy here. I’m not so sure that it’s worth carrying that kind of cash.

The worst part is that none of it was entered or marked. There’s no way to track it, but the guy that did it is now carrying a lot of twos. Fortunately, I got out of it alive and unhurt. My wallet wasn’t taken, but my parents have to cancel a lot of stuff. I’m just happy no one was hurt.

More bills back

I went to the casino today and it happened again. I got two of my bills back. When I looked them up on my cell phone, I saw that they had been entered in late February of this year. I put them back into the machine. I’m hoping that it won’t be another four months before someone gets them and takes them home. I’m wondering if I’ve reached a saturation point. It might be time to move on to fives and tens.


I found another interesting marking on a bill. A Google search reveals First Victoria National Bank as a likely suspect. I’m guessing that that’s where the stamp came from, considering that it’s not unusual for banks to stamp a strap of bills, leaving some mark on the top of the bill. The odd thing is that the stamp doesn’t appear to be part of a larger stamp. I’m wondering if someone just had a stamp that the had to use or if this was a common procedure.

In other news, my brother and sister-in-law got mentioned in a New York Times Article. (My brother is Brice Kuhl in case you wanted to skip to where my brother was quoted…) It looks like I’m the only one of the three brothers not to have a newspaper article about them. There’s still plenty of time, though.

Getting bills back

I think I’ve reached a new level of Georging. I went to the casino today and got 50 singles. Of those singles, 11 were already mine. Rather than take them out of the casino, I just spent them in a slot machine so that someone else will get them. Granted, it just happened to me the one time, but I wonder if I’ve reached a point where most of the bills in the casino are ones that I’ve spent there.

I doubt it very much. I would think that there’s a lot of cash in that building, the vast majority of which I’ve never seen. My getting my own bills back presumably will be a rare thing. I know that other people take them out because I actually got nine hits the other day, all from the same person. That one person put in the user note that it was part of a payout from Gulfstream.

I’ll be going back tomorrow. Hopefully, I won’t get too many of my bills. It was only because of the fact that the banks are closed today that I even asked for change from a casino teller. I usually only get two or three when I redeem my ticket. That allows me to leave a lot of my bills there.

I know there was something else that I wanted to write about, but I can’t think of it now. It’s past 11:30 and I’m really tired. I’m sure I’ll think of it tomorrow.

Jury Duty II

Well, jury duty wasn’t that bad. I didn’t get called until after lunch, but I did have to wait almost two hours to be called into the courtroom only to be told that our services wouldn’t be needed. The up side is that it fulfils my obligation for a year and, when it comes down to it, waiting is waiting. I think that all I missed was an animated film.

I got called in while a DVD was starting. It hadn’t even gotten to the feature yet; it was still showing the coming attractions when my number and name were called. The movie seemed to prominently feature cow tipping. I made a joke about cow tipping, asking the woman in front of me how much as appropriate to tip a cow. (Is 10% enough or should I go with 15%?)

She seemed to like the joke, although she didn’t seem to get it until I mentioned the percentages. It turns out that she was called for the same jury panel. (The panel is a group of about 20-30 people that a jury is selected from, for those that don’t know.) She as actually kind of cute. I should have asked for her phone number.

It’s just like me to meet someone and not think of something that simple. Given the low readership of this blog, I doubt very much that she’ll read this any time soon. However, if you know anyone who’s served today, please feel free to forward this post to them.

I had this overwhelming fear that I would be called at an inopportune time, like while I was in the bathroom. Fortunately, you’re not really allowed to go anywhere the PA system isn’t installed, but I did hear an announcement while I was in the men’s room. It’s kind of hard to hear the speakers while the water was running.

Anyway, I just wanted to get that in.

Jury Duty

I’m having trouble sleeping. I guess the reason is that I have jury duty at 8:00 a.m. It’s been a while since I’ve been called last and the three times that I have been called, I haven’t been needed. I just know that this time, I will be needed. The difference this time is that I’m working. The three times that I’ve been called, I didn’t have a job.

I don’t think it will be an issue. The last time that I was called down, I was selected three times, but I think the defendants pled out before a trial ever started. The two times before that, I think I was called in for selection, but I wasn’t selected. (Actually, that was the first time. I don’t actually remember the second time.)

In Miami-Dade County, I’m supposed to be paid by my employer during the time that I serve. I don’t think that my service would necessarily qualify as a hardship since I work for a big company and they could theoretically transfer someone in to cover for me. I don’t know if that will happen, though.

Hopefully, it will just be the one day and that will be it. The thing that sucks is having to be down there so early. Being down there at 8:00 means having to get up before 6:00. That means that I’d better get to bed.

Strange hit

The other day, I got an interesting hit. The site says that it’s in Puerto Rico, even though the ZIP code should be in Florida and the map puts it in New Jersey. (You have to be a member of Where’s George to see the ZIP code and map.)

I’m thinking that it’s a ship. If I understand correctly, Naval ships are given their own ZIP+4 code. I’ve been trying to contact the Navy about it, but the contact form hasn’t been working the past couple of days. I hope that it will work soon. I’d really like an answer to this mystery.

One of the interesting things about having site tracking is that you get to see where people come from. I was looking at the sites that referred people here and I found this. I don’t know this Linnsey, either, but I figured that if they’re going to link here, I might as well link there.

Mystery solved?

I’ve been finding more strange bills. I keep meaning to post them. I suppose I’d better get to it.

Someone sent warm wishes to their father. When I first saw it, I thought perhaps a son was trying to send a message hoping that their father would get the bill. I’m assuming that the bill was given as a gift and the bill was eventually spent. However, I’m thinking that sentimental value would compel someone to hold on to the bill. I think I’d put it in a safe place. Now that I think about it, it is kind of an odd bill. I wouldn’t be surprised to get a comment from someone wanting it back.






This bill is even stranger. The back has "Million dollar bill" on it and the front has all sorts of stuff. I’m really beginning to think that way too many people have way too much time on their hands.

I’m even moving into Asian languages. I found this on a bill, which I’m hoping isn’t offensive. I don’t know what it means. If anyone knows, please post a comment explaining it.

I did find a possible answer to the Gonza mystery. I was looking through YouTube the other day and found this. Again, I don’t even know what language it is, but there is a song or band or person called Gonza and is associated with a band or song or something called Dollar Bill. There’s even a Dollar Bill Web site.

So, it looks like I have one mystery solved, but need two translations now. It looks promising. I may actually be getting somewhere.

I got this bill today with a crossed out Federal Reserve seal. I don’t know if someone has something against the Federal Reserve Board or if they were just bored. Why the seal? Of all the things they could cross out, why the seal? Why not Lincoln or one of the serial numbers?

It’s kind of interesting for a political statement, but what are they trying to say? That they don’t believe in cash? Or maybe they don’t like the FRB. Or they might just be bored. The seal of the Department of the Treasury might have made more sense, I guess. It’s impossible to tell anymore.

This one, I’ve had for a while. I don’t remember where I got it or why I held on to it for so long. Who or what is Copia? I found Copia.org on Google. That site and a few others with Copia in the name have do with Wine. Another site, http://rhetoric.byu.edu/Pedagogy/Copia.htm, says that copia is a method of learning, although I don’t exactly know what it all means.

Speaking of bills, someone came in to Wolf the other day asking for change of a hundred. We don’t usually do this because it drains us of change greatly. However, I happened to have $100 in small bills on me, so I offered to break the bill. When he realized how many bills I had given him, he asked for the hundred back. Oh, well…

This, I found at work. It came from a single-use Fuji camera. Someone had brought it in to be developed. Normally, the canisters get thrown away. However, I thought the writing was interesting, so I kept it. I decided to share with everyone, so there it is.

And so it goes for now. I’ll probably have more later, but whether or not I’ll be motivated to post it is another story.

Getting those bills out

I’ve been having mixed results with my bills lately. I went in to 7-Eleven a few days ago and spent one of my singles. The guy at the register thought it wasn’t real at first. He eventually took it, but put it in the drop safe. There’s a bill that I probably won’t be hearing from any time soon.

In better news, I went to the Post Office yesterday to buy a roll of postcard stamps. When the lady at the register saw all of the singles, she said that she needed them, so I offered 50 more. She gladly accepted and gave me two twenties and two fives. I thus got 50 singles into circulation without having to buy anything.

I don’t know why the Post Office always needs singles. They take credit cards like most other businesses and I would assume that they get the same mix of large and small bills. It’s possible that there’s some restriction on how often or even if they can get change from the bank. Either that or their volume is so high that they can rarely spare someone to go over.

I once thought of going around to Post Offices to break large bills, but it wouldn’t be worth it. I’d probably spend so much money on gas that I’d go broke quickly. Add to that the fact that I don’t even have a car and I still need to work. I’ll just have to limit myself to offering when I have to go.

Cash and carry

I think I very nearly met a Secret Service agent today. (I exaggerate, but not by much.) I was planning on visiting the casino to circulate some bills, then seeing The Number 23 with Jim Carrey. Along the way, I stopped by a store that shall remain nameless to get some jelly beans. I was hoping this would be an uneventful trip, but I just had to test out a new Where’s George stamp that I got yesterday.

It’s circular and goes around the Federal Reserve seal or any similarly sized round thing on the bill. The idea was to get noticed, and that it did. The cashier took one look at my bills and walked away. When she came back, she didn’t have the bills. She had been followed by a man (presumably the manager) who walked into an office.

He emerged a few seconds later and walked over to the register. He asked me if the bills were mine and if I had marked the bills, to which I answered yes. He then asked why I did it. I told him that it was to track the bills. He told the cashier to accept the bills, but that they would go to the bank and that the bank would deal with it.

I told them that if it was going to be a problem, that I’d use debit. Normally, I don’t mind getting bills into circulation, but if I know they’re going to the bank, then there’s no point. I took the bills back and spent some of them at the theater.

Fortunately, I wasn’t late for it, but I think if I had dared this guy to call the Secret Service on me, I would have missed the movie altogether. He wasn’t rude or anything, but he had a tone like I was doing something wrong. I think that if I had argued much with him, he might have banned me from the store.

My manager and other coworkers have told me that they’ve had problems with customers getting my bills, but this is the first time that I’ve ever had a problem with someone. I sincerely hope that someone from the store I went to goes to the bank to get change and all the bank has is marked singles.

It’s not that I’m trying to be sadistic or anything. I’d just like to see what happens when he has to deal with it. All I know is that he’s not getting any of my bills directly from me. I think I’ll spend my money elsewhere

In other bill-marking news, I got a bill marked “Ruth” and what appears to be an extension number. At first, I didn’t know what the letters and numbers were, but when I showed it around the Where’s George chat room, someone suggested an extension number.

It makes sense if someone was calling their office (or some other familiar number) and tried to reach this Ruth person. They got one extension, which was wrong and subsequently scratched out. When they called the operator back, they either got the correct extension or gave up.

It kind of makes you wonder who Ruth is. Look at how far her name and extension went. It’s too bad that the full phone number isn’t on the bill. I could give her a call and ask who it was that wrote her extension on the bill in the first place. Granted, that would be a little much, but it’s kind of why I signed up for Where’s George. I want to know where the bill has been.

As for this one, my only theory is that Gonzo had a sex change. Is Gonza really a name? AltaVista’s Babel Fish doesn’t seem to translate it from French, Spanish, Portuguese or Italian. It’s possible that I’ll meet Gonza one day and find out that it’s a common name, but the Gonza on the bill is really her.

I remember marking my bills once to see if they ever came back to me, but bills have such wide circulation that they never did. I only did ten or twenty of them, but even after entering more than 10,000 bills, only one or two bills have come back to me. A lot of them end up in other states, and rather quickly.

That’s all for now. I’ll post again if anyone else gets angry with me.

I’ve been getting a lot of new singles lately. I’m not even talking about having to have a fifty or a hundred broken. When I do, I get the brand new 2003A bills, which I find kind of annoying. I think the past four times I’ve asked for change, three times I’ve gotten new bills.

I don’t remember where the first one was, but I only got part of the change in new bills, which was really annoying. When I get a pack that’s all new bills, they’re usually sequential, which makes entering the bills into Where’s George easy. There’s even a trick that makes it easier to change the last one or two digits.

However, when I get a stack of singles that’s partially circulated, I have to separate the new bills, sort them and hope that I get enough sequential bills to make it worth it to enter them. If not, then I still have to separate them and spend them separately. (In case you’re wondering, I do this because I don’t like to be the one to have to ruin them.)

I did get $150 in sequential bills, though. (I got them on two separate occasions.) I was planning on going to the casino today to spend them there, but I was able to get rid of most of the bills. Of the 200+ bills I originally got, I have only 64 left. (I’ll usually go to the casino about once a week, so I’ll probably end up there anyway.)

I had to order a new stamp because my old one broke. Instead of "Track this bill at…," it just says " ack this bill at…," which isn’t good. I can still mark the bills, since the URL is still intact, but I’d rather have the whole thing.

I ordered another one of the same stamp, but I also ordered a new stamp. This one is for stamping around the FRB or Treasury seal. (You can see the stamp here.) I’ll probably keep the stamp I have now as an alternate for when I have to travel or something.

I know there’s something else that I want to put in. I’ll probably think of it later.

More writings of other people

I’ve got some more writing on bills to post, and it looks like someone has some explaining to do. I don’t know who this Linnsey is, but someone is very sorry about something that they did to them. I have this whole story imagined in my head where someone did something terrible to Linnsey, Linnsey walked out and this mystery person never got the chance to apologize to them, so they had to write their apology to Linnsey on as many bills as they could get, hoping that the message would get through.

I actually got the bill at the bank. When I pointed out to the teller, she offered to take it back, but I told her that I wanted to keep it. I told her that I’d be posting it here. The only thing is that I now have to spend it. I can be pretty certain that the slot machines at the casino won’t take it, as it’s so written on. (It might work if I put the bill in upside down.)



Speaking of names on bills, I found this one. I don’t know who L. Katie B. is, but she must think she’s #1 or a 1 with a circle around it or something. I have to wonder what the L and B stand for. I’m assuming that Katie is a middle name and that L and B are the first and last initials, respectively.

Maybe the full name is something strange like Leopold Kathryn Bartholomew or something and she never liked going by the other two names, as it often caused confusion. It could also be that L and B stand for some attributes that she thinks she has, like Lovely and Beautiful or something. Maybe she is and maybe she isn’t. I don’t know either way.




This one is pretty straightforward. It’s just “RABBI”. Now, is the person who did this a rabbi? Do they know one? Are they trying to catch the attention of a rabbi so that they might seek council or something? If so, how does the rabbi get in contact with the person?

I know, it’s a bit of a stretch, but I’m trying to make the text here long enough to go down below the picture. I haven’t yet figured out how to format the entries so that it’s done automatically. Either way, I’m curious what the person was trying to accomplish with this. It might just be a case of someone using a bill for scrap paper.



This is definitely a case of scrap paper. You have to wonder what would make someone think of reaching for currency to use as scrap. I mean, are you really that short on paper? Can’t you go out and use the bill to get a pad or something?

I’ve always wondered about the thought process involved in actually seeing money and making the connection with using it as scrap. It’s not even a matter of legality or anything. What makes someone think that the rest of the world wants to look at their random words, numbers and squiggles?

I don’t know, but I’ll keep posting them here.

I was hoping to do an entry sooner. I how have several pictures to upload. One is of a bill that I had to turn in to be retired. I don’t know what the bank does with it. It’s possible that they send it in based on my request, but I doubt that’s enough. I’d think that the bill has been worn out enough that they would send it in.

Even then, what happens to it? Is it sent to some special location where someone makes a final decision? Granted, bills are relatively cheap to print, but given the number of bills out there, I don’t think that the government wants to be paying to have just any bill replaced. Is there a minimum amount of wear and tear? I’ll have to look into that.



I also found two interesting bills. One is a ten that was marked with some sort of stamp. It’s in Spanish and I can’t make out enough of it to put into any sort of translation software. As you can see from the picture, there’s one stamp that’s pretty clear and another big one that’s sort of clear. There’s also a third one on Hamilton’s hear that looks like “OO” or something. There’s nothing on the back that would give me any clues.



The other bill is a single with an outline made from a red marker. I think that in this case, someone just got bored and had a red marker handy. I have to wonder how many bills there are out there that fall victim to such boredom. I’ve seen a few more elaborate, similarly marked bills. In one case, someone actually refused it as payment because the person actually covered a great deal of the bill. He had most of the upper right corner of the front of the bill decorated with a black magic marker.








In other news, I got some pins in the map that I have for Where’s George. The first state that I did was Florida, simply because that’s where I had the most cities. It wasn’t easy to find most of them. I knew many of the cities just because I live near them.

I had to use MapQuest to find most, though. This meant that I had to find the city or ZIP code, copy it into MapQuest and then try my best to find or approximate the location. I didn’t bother with a few of the cities that I couldn’t find simply because they were so close to cities that I already had.



Next came New York and Arizona, which ranked second and third in terms of number of cities. Those were a little easier, only because there weren’t so many hits in each and the cities tend to be more spread out.

The remaining states shouldn’t be that hard. It looks like I have no more than six cities per state, which should allow me to break it up more. I almost gave up with Florida because I had 80 cities and I didn’t want to break it up over two sessions. It makes it hard when you get a new city and you don’t know whether to do it now or wait. If you get several new cities, it can be confusing.

In any event, I should have more to post soon. Whether or not I’ll get around to it is another question.

Two hits

I finally got my first D. C. hit. That means that I now have D.C. county bingo. Granted, it’s pretty easy. Still, I’ll take what I can get. The next-easiest county bingo is Delaware, which I’d like to aim for next, not that there’s much I can do about it from Miami.

I also got my first real Canadian hit. I got one earlier, but it turned out that it was in Miami Beach. I may have mentioned it earlier. I figure that someone’s using a Canadian postal code as their default and neglected to change it when they came down to Miami.

Those are the only two real exciting pieces of information for now.

I think I finally figured out why I haven’t been getting a lot of hits on twos. People are collecting them. This doesn’t come as a complete surprise to me. I knew coming into this that many people either collect them or send them to the bank. That’s why I try to spend only a few at a time.

However, I went into 7-Eleven today to buy something and paid with two $2 bills. The cashier put them under the cash drawer. When I asked about it, she said that her manager collected them. There are two bills that I’ll probably never get a hit on.

The next place that I spent $2 bills was Taco Bell. I paid with three. The guy at the register asked if I had any more. I traded out the rest of the bills I had for two fives and two singles. He also swapped out what I had paid with from the register. I’m somewhat hopeful that he’ll enter them and/or spend them.

I did spend two $2 bills at Starbucks today. The person helping me said that he had never taken them in at the store before. He asked someone else what to do with them. There’s a strong possibility that he may swap them out and enter them.

I’d definitely like more hits on my Toms. I’m going to ask for more on Tuesday if I can. I’m hoping that next time, if I get a lot that they’re all new.

Three new bills

I’ve got three more pictures to post. One is a bill with hole burned in it. It looks like the hole was made with a cigarette. The thing that I find odd is that it’s right beneath the signature. I have to wonder about the set of circumstances that led to someone doing that. Do you get bored one night and just start burning things? “Hey, Ned! Look at what I’m gonna do!”

And yet, they spent it. Here I am commenting on what they did. I think I may have gotten this one from a bank. I wonder why no one took it out of circulation.

Here’s another one that I find odd. When I showed this one in the Where’s George chat room, the best that we could figure out was that someone may have been saying something against the Federal Reserve. I’ve heard of anti-WTO sentiment, but never anti-FRB sentiment. Franklin Roosevelt hasn’t been around for a while, so I doubt that it’s some sort of smear campaign. What could FR stand for? Any comments on what this might be would be appreciated.

I think that this one is fairly obvious. Someone was trying to use the G to help spell out Gangsta. Here’s another case where I wonder. Does this person get a good feeling out of having their work seen, yet remaining anonymous? I don’t suppose I’m helping matters much by bringing attention to them.

All of these bills have been logged on Where’s George. We’ll have to see where the go next. Speaking of which, I got more $2 bills. I actually got 50 of them, but about 20 were 1976 series. I’m going to save those; the rest are entered, marked and either spent or in my wallet. I’m really encouraged by that hit.

I Guess People Really Do Spend Twos

It looks like all of that stamping wasn’t for nothing, after all. I finally got a hit on a $2 bill. The actual hit comes from Hollywood, but it looks like the person got it not to far from the bank where I originally asked for it. I guess that people really do spend twos. I want to get more. Maybe I’ll ask for some twos later in the week. Pay day is coming up soon.

I suppose it’s appropriate. This is the one-year anniversary of my joining Where’s George. Yes, it was one year ago today that I found my first wild bill. If I recall, I got it at Aventura Mall. The rest, as they say, is history.

I also found some more interesting bills. One bill was one that I found a while ago, but for some reason, neglected to post. All I can say is that it’s purple. Beyond that, I can’t really say what it’s supposed to be. Is it a word? I don’t know. Maybe the aliens have finally gotten around to trying to communicate with us.

I also found another bill, this time a twenty, with some more legible writing on it. In fact, it can actually be read from both sides. (The other side isn’t as clear, though.) What this person was trying to say to society is beyond me. I could never understand why people write random numbers, letters and phrases on bills. Do people really have so much money that they can afford to use it as scrap?

This same bill has the portraying of Andrew Jackson with a bit of red eye. They red eye may just be the result of boredom. It may also be some sort of covert message, such as people who photograph presidents have problems with their flash. Again, I’m open to comments with explanations. It almost looks like someone is trying to cross out the eye.

There was actually another twenty with markings that I wanted to swap out, but I didn’t want to dump a lot of singles and the only twenties I had hadn’t been entered yet. Unfortunately, it went into the deposit, so it’s off limits now. I’m sure I’ll find more monetary oddities soon.

More interesting bills

I found two really interesting markings on bills the other day. I have yet to figure out what they say, though. One looks like it says “4 BiZZLE” or something to that effect. The other could be Maueli, whatever that means. Is it a name? Is it a code word? I can't really read it that well. (If anyone can identify either word, please leave a comment. )


I’m thinking that the first is a tag and the other is simply a name. I have to wonder if people just want to put a piece of themselves out there or if they plan on seeing their bills again. I guess that’s the advantage of Where’s George.

I also got a map set up. The plan is to put pins in it for all of the cities that I get hits in. I need to get a lot more pins. I think at last count, I have close to 200 cities. I have 100, but I want to get at least 200 more. There’s no point in getting 100 when I know I’ll have to get more so soon.

The other day, I actually posted my first review on Epinions in a few months. I’d like to post more, but I just haven’t been able to find the time. I guess it’s one of those things that I have the time, but I just don’t take advantage of it. I could stay home one day and just write stuff, but I don’t.

I’m beginning to see what my brother was saying. When you work a long day, you get home and you just want to rest. When you have a day off, you have other things you want to do. For me to write a review would kill the day. It’s not that I can’t. It’s just that by the time I get home and eat dinner, my shows come on if it’s a night that they’re on. Other nights, I go on mIRC.

I have this odd feeling that there’s something else I wanted to post, but I can’t think of what it was. I’m sure it will come to me right after I post this.

Of Toms and Abes

I spent all of the $2 bills that I got. Most of them seemed to go under the register or the tray, much as I expected. $2 bills just don’t seem to be that popular. I’m not sure if they ever were, though. Stores generally don’t have a place for them in the register. They’re not printed as often as other bills. I’m not sure if there was some shift in public thinking that caused that or if that’s the way it always was.


It seems that I am finding a lot of markings on my bills these days. I found this on a five-dollar bill. I got it from the casino in Hallandale Beach. I’m going to keep it separated from the others so that I can be careful when I spend it. I may separate it permanently because I’m not sure how people would react to seeing it.

It’s kind of interesting, though, seeing all of the markings on bills. I seem to be more aware of it because I’m stamping bills front and back. I get a nice, close look at all of the bills. I wonder if anyone actually takes many of the markings seriously. Many of mine seem to go unnoticed.

More Toms

I got some more $2 bills. I only got about fifteen, six of which I kept. (Four were consecutive 2003-series bills.) I’ve spent two of them so far, but it doesn’t look promising. One got put the bottom of the singles pile and the other got put under the register tray.

Speaking of Where’s George, I got no reaction from the Where’s George shirt, although I plan to wear it again next week. I don’t really know what I was expecting.

I have been getting a lot of new counties and even a new state. I’ve been wondering what the best way to go about getting new states would be. It’s a shame that I didn’t know about the site when I went to my brother’s graduation. With all of the people gathered in one place and likely to soon spread out, it would have been perfect.

I’ve been wondering where the best place to find a marked bill would be. Banks would be the obvious choice, but I have to think in terms of bill density. If I’m going to break a twenty or a fifty, which place would most likely give me a bill as change?

I got one at a Chili’s recently. When paying with a twenty, I got eleven singles back, one of which was marked. I’d think that restaurants are a good bet. Places where employees get cash tips seem to attract a lot of marked bills. The thing is that I can’t really just go in there and ask for bills as change. If I ever go back by myself, I have to make it a point to pay with a large bill.

I found a rather interesting bill the other day. Someone apparently saw fit to make a funny face on the portrait of George Washington. I don’t know who did it or why, but this is the sort of thing you come across when you pay attention to the bills. Mostly, it’s people writing random numbers or letters on the bills, but occasionally, you find interesting stuff.

I once saw a bill with something like, “I found Jesus” on it. I don’t really understand what they hoped to accomplish. I’ve never heard of anyone finding Jesus through a message on a bill. It’s also a little disturbing to think that people are trying to use currency to convert people to their religion.

My brother and his wife got me a Where’s George? shirt for Christmas. I’ll actually be wearing it for the first time today. I want to see what kind of reaction I get to it. I’m not sure if a lot of people will stop me and say that they’re users, also. I expect to get a few questions about the site, but I get that occasionally because of the marked bills.

As for right now, I have some cleaning to do. In the rush of getting stuff moved into my new room, my brother had to move a lot of things into boxes. I’m now going through those boxes to see what I want to keep.

Happy New Year

So, it’s a new year. I never really understood why it was such a big deal. Ok. So it’s time to break out a new calendar and we have to remember to write a different number on checks, but what is the big deal?

The thing I never got was the whole resolution thing. We make these promises to ourselves that we know we’ll break by the end of the month like it’s something special. If you’re serious about it, just do it.

They’re also usually the same three or four resolutions: Lose weight, get a new job, find a boyfriend/girlfriend, etc. I’ve never heard any interesting ones. I’d like to hear someone resolve that they’ll finally move all the dead bodies in their back yard or they’ll finally convert their Italian lira to Euro. Perhaps if I heard someone resolve to do something unusual, I might take more interest in doing it myself.

Person of the Year

I just saw the over of Time Magazine. The cover story is the Person of the Year, which is pretty much everyone this year. Specifically, it seems to be about everyone that contributed to the Web. I find a certain irony in being named Person of the Year.

Groucho Marx once said something to the effect of "I wouldn't want to be a part of any club that would have me as a member." From what I understand, the actual quote is much longer, but I still find myself thinking along the same lines. How the heck did I get to be Person of the Year?

It seems like a bit of a cop out to me. Time’s managing editor, Richard Stengel, even admitted as much. He said that he didn’t feel the need to justify the decision. (Note the second paragraph in this article. That still doesn’t answer why, really.

The thing I’m left to wonder is how many people are going to put this in their résumés. I know that someone is going to go in for a job and say (quite honestly) that they were named Time’s 2006 Person of the Year. How many people are going to talk to someone on the phone and, when the person at the other end says something they don’t like, will say, “Hey! This is the Person of the Year you’re talking to!”

I’m not trying to detract from the honor. I’m just trying to figure out how to get a handle on it. Is this for real? Can I actually tell people that I’m really the Person of the Year? Could I seriously put it on my résumé and get away with it? I’m actually tempted to try.

Denny's

I went out last night to Denny’s with my brother and a couple of friends. I remember now why it is I don’t eat there often. The food wasn’t particularly that good and the service was about as bad. The thing that got us was that we drove away three other parties. Four sets of people were seated at the booth next to us and three times, they moved. I don’t think anyone complained about us. Maybe they just didn’t want a window seat. At least I got a chance to use several marked bills there.

Speaking of which, my brother and friends went to some thrift stores the other day. Because of circumstances I won’t go into, they all had a lot of bills that I had marked. On one occasion, someone at one of the thrift stores had to ask a manager if they could accept the bills. That has happened to me on at least one occasion. I don’t mind because I’m the one marking the bills, but my brother didn’t seem that thrilled about it.

I’m hoping that everyone goes back to their respective cities (Tempe, AZ; Seattle, WA and Gainesville, FL) and spend the money there. Granted, I already have lots of hits in AZ and FL, but new counties are always good and I only have one hit in WA.

My number of international hits has gone up recently. I actually have one bill that’s given me a hit in two foreign cities. The bill started out in Miami on November 20; 15 days later, it found it’s way to Lima, Peru. A week later, it ended up in Sydney, Australia.

There are two things I find interesting. One is that it found its way back to Los Angeles before heading to Australia. (Notice the comment on the second entry.) The other is that both times, the bill was found at a Starbucks. I have to wonder if the bill ever left the airport while it was in the United States. I also have to wonder where the next hit will come from if, indeed, there is one.

I’ve actually reached the top 100 Where’s George users in the state of Florida. It’s something that I’ve been working towards for a while now. I spent a lot of time between 101 and 110 before obtaining the number 99 spot and I’ve slipped back below it a few times.

I’m wondering how hard it will be to make the top spot in the state. The score is based in part on the number of hits you get and how many bills you enter. There are probably a few people at the top that enter a lot of bills and, as a result, get a lot of hits.

If I ever make it to number one, I’ll be sure to post it.

What does it mean to win?

Normally, when I find a survey with a cash prize, I rarely think about completing it. True, this one has a prize of $2,500 awarded every month, but I would have passed it up had it not been for something odd. On the receipt, it says “No purchase necessary.” This is a pretty standard condition for most contests.

I wouldn’t have bothered, except that you have get a receipt ID number and a customer number. My first thought is that you do have to make a purchase to get a receipt and, therefore, a receipt ID number. Granted, you could be making a return, but it does seem rather odd.

I decided to call to see what the survey was like. After all, there may be an option to bypass the entry of the two numbers. It turns out that there wasn’t. Not only that, it turns out that some of the questions were about making the purchase. For instance, they wanted to know how many people were ahead of me on line and if anyone opened a new register.

There was nothing to press if I hadn’t been on line. How is it that no purchase is necessary if I have to answer questions about being on line as if I were there? Do they think I’d stand on line just to get a receipt so that I could enter their survey?

This reminds me of a promotion that one of the major credit cards ran several years ago. You may remember it. The deal was that as you did your Christmas shopping, you were entered into a drawing. I don’t remember the date range for the qualifying purchases, but if you won, you got all of your purchases for November and December paid for. Again, part of the small print read, “No purchase necessary.”

If I recall correctly, there was an address to write to as an alternate means of entry. It occurred to me that if you made no purchases during those two months and won, you’d essentially win nothing, as you would have spent noting. I can only assume that there must have been some minimum dollar amount that you’d win. It would suck to make one purchase for $2 and end up winning.

The Next Day...

Well, the projector didn’t break yesterday. I ended up seeing The Fountain. It wasn’t as strange as I thought, but I still don’t think that my parents would have liked it. It was a little hard to follow the story at first.

As for Where’s George, I was actually in the top 100 for my state for a few days, but I’ve fallen back down to 102 as of yesterday. I haven’t refreshed today because I haven’t had any hits, nor have I entered any new bills as of my last refresh, so I doubt that I’ve passed anyone. (Of 49,298 total active users on the site, I’m number 2,503.)

The one thing that I still can’t get is that, despite having over 400 hits, I’ve only hit 11 bills from other people. Among those in the chat room, results seem to be similar. You’d think that they’d average out, since every time someone hits a bill, someone else gets a hit. Granted, I’m dealing with a small population, but why such a discrepancy?

My theory is that there are a lot of unregistered users that hit bills. Most of the hits I get have no link to a profile or anonymous email. (That could mean that they’re either unregistered or that they just don’t have a profile.) I do know that there are a few people out there that only enter bills that are already marked, which leaves me to wonder if there’s someone out there with 500 bills that they’ve hit and only 20 bits of their own.

All the twos are gone

I finally spent all of the two-dollar bills that I entered and marked. (I actually got through with them a few weeks ago, but I haven’t gotten around to writing about it.) I’m not sure if I’m going to get more any time soon. That’s not to say that I won’t do it again ever. It’s just that it was kind of hard for me to spend them.

When I spend money, I usually spend under ten dollars. When I spend such a small amount of money, I like to spend singles because that maximizes the number of hits I can get. If I spend a $10 bill, that means only one hit I might get. If I spend ten singles, that means I have a potential for ten hits.

Even if I spend twos, that reduces the number of hits I might get to five. That’s not even considering the fact that most people will hold on to the twos and not probably not even enter them. I haven’t gotten any hits on the twos yet, despite having entered quite a few of them. I’m not sure if I should expect any soon.

I’ll be going out to the movies today to see a movie I had wanted to see Wednesday. I had gone to see Déjà Vu, but the projector broke. Everyone got a pass to see another movie. I’ll either be seeing Déjà Vu or The Fountain, depending on when I get to the theater.

You don’t really hear about that happening too much. In fact, in all the years I’ve been seeing movies, this is the first time that I’ve had it happen to me. Everyone I tell this to seem to have never had it happen to them. Granted, I don’t see movies in the theater much, but you’d think it would be a bit more common. (Not that I’m complaining…)

Oh, well. Here’s to hoping that the projector works this time…

It's all about the Toms

I can start spending the $2 bills. I finally got that $2 stamp from Stamp Connection. No one has commented on it, yet. I’m just waiting, though.

I’ve noticed that when I spend the $2 bills, they get put under the cash tray. This has happened twice with my current batch of bills. Once was at Publix and again at McDonalds.

I think this for two reasons. First, there’s no place for it in the cash tray. $2 bills seem to be used so infrequently, why bother? Second, many people probably want the bills for themselves. I actually had this happen tonight at a convenience store. As I was leaving, I saw the guy behind the counter reaching for his wallet, presumably to put some singles in the register.

I haven’t been spending a lot of the bills at once and I’ve been selective about where I spend them. People get freaked out when I spend it and I can’t be sure most people will know that they’re real. I’ve heard rumors of people refusing them, but most of the people I’ve given them to seem to be fine with them. They’re more surprised that I’m so willing to give them up. (The guy at the convenience store even asked if I had more.)

In any event, I have yet to get a hit on a $2 bill. I wonder how long it will be…

Of ones and twos...

It’s odd how $2 bills seem to be rare, but really aren’t. At least, I don’t think they’re as rare as everyone seems to think. It’s just that people seem to hoard them and banks rarely have them. I actually managed to get about 35 of them, mostly from a Bank of America. I’m saving the four of them that are series 1976. I actually entered them all in Where’s George and plan on spending the ones from later series.

It’s funny the responses I get when I spend them. I had the chance to spend two at a local McDonald’s. The guy behind the counter thought I was crazy because they were so rare. I told them that you could walk into any bank and ask for them, as evidenced by the fact that I was carrying so many. They’ll probably have one or two if any, but I do occasionally get luck and find a bunch of them. (I’d say that this happens around five per cent of the time.)

I actually just ordered a stamp from Stamp Connection for $2 bills. I’m holding off on spending the rest of the bills until it arrives. I do feel a little bad about marking and spending the bills, but I can always get more and I believe that they’re still being printed.





In other bill news, I found a $1 bill with the serial number printed off center. It’s not as obvious on the right side, but you really notice it on the left, where the district number overlaps with the signature of the Treasurer of the United States. The bill was entered, but not marked. From what I’m told, it’s not worth much above face value, but I think it’s interesting.

If I find any more, I’ll post pictures. That’s all for now.

I’ve been without a convenient library branch for a while. Prior to Hurricane Wilma, I used to go to the branch by Aventura Mall. Sure, I had the one downtown, but there’s not much for me to do downtown now that I’m no longer going to Miami-Dade College’s downtown campus. The only other county library branch accessible to me was the one by the mall.

Since the hurricane, the county had a bookmobile (basically, a small library on wheels) parked in front of the building. I actually never went in there because it looked way too cramped and consolidated. I was also told that it was basically to reserve books and to pick up those books once they came in. (Since I never went in there, I can’t say if this is true.)

A week or two ago, the branch was relocated to Aventura City Hall. (You can see the article here.) If you drive, this isn’t a big deal. However, I don’t drive. I had a sense of where the city hall is in relationship to the mall. All I had to do was figure out how to get there.

One day, while going to the mall with my mother, I saw that there was a road going under the causeway that separated the mall from the city hall. There was a sidewalk going under the bridge; the only question was whether or not it went by the city hall. Today, I found out.

The good news is that it does. The bad news is that I first have to check in to the city hall before I can get to the library. This meant giving a security guard my photo ID and waiting for him to take a picture of me so he could print out a pass. When I went up to the library, they only had 1,200 square feet available to them. The books were limited, but they did have available a larger than usual selection of DVDs. (I managed to walk past the CDs twice.)

I asked, and it turns out that the library will reopen in about two years. They have to tear down the existing structure (which hasn’t been done yet) so that they can build a new structure. It was about time to redo the library, anyway. I think the old building is older than I am. It’s been there for as long as I can remember.






In any event, I’ve got pictures of another glow-in-the-dark jellybean. This time, it’s not as transparent. Above are pictures of the bean, both on and off the mouse. Apparently, this isn’t something reserved for the lemon-lime flavor of the bean. I’m curious to see more. (I still haven’t gotten a mixed-flavor bag yet.)






I also decided to try something with some old boxes of Ice Breakers Ice Cubes gum. I call it “Gumhenge”. I’ve been thinking of things to do that look like Stonehenge. This is one of the things I’ve thought of. More ideas may be forthcoming as I both think of them and find the means by which to do and photograph them.

Frankly, I'm quite amused

It’s funny how I went from one entry a month to my third in under a week. However, I’ve got something else Where’s George-related to put in. I went to Panera Bread today for lunch. (For those that have never been there, they sell mostly bread, sandwiches, and other things like that. You can check out the menu on their web site.)

There was one guy at the register who I’ve seen there before. When I paid with my marked bills, he seemed happy to see them. I have no idea if he knows about the site or if he was just a happy sort of guy. Either way, when I left to wait for my food, I realized two things. First, I was supposed to get a buzzer similar to the ones that many restaurants hand out while you’re waiting for a table. The second was that he hadn’t taken my name, which they put into the register so that the people serving up the food have something to call out if the customer isn’t there.

When I looked down, I noticed that he had put “WHERE GEORGE” as my name. The buzzer thing wasn’t a big deal, since the food was there by the time I got to the other counter. For some reason, though, the guy that handed me my food apologized. I don’t know if it was because I didn’t have a buzzer or because of the name. Personally, I thought the whole name thing was funny.

Panera is a bit unusual. The first few times I went, they spelled my name Bryan instead of Brian. (Brian is how I spell my name.) That, I don’t mind so much since it’s not really appearing on an official document. What I find odd is that they always give me these Krunchers potato chips. I know they have Lays and they never really ask for my preference. I could ask them, but it’s not really worth the effort. It’s not a particularly big deal.

It Ain't Easy Being Green

It’s not easy being a Georger. I know I just posted on this, but something happened to me today that I just had to comment on. I went to the dollar store today and bought several items. The bill came to $5.30, which was paid with six singles. I can’t be sure, but I think the cashier put the bills underneath her cash tray. I may be paranoid here, but this isn’t the first time something like this has happened. (My mother said that she may have wanted to save them to enter when she gets home. Since the store closes at nine, we’ll find out soon enough.)


I’m including a picture of how I stamp in this post, just to show you how I do it. The idea of stamping in the margins is simple. First off, it gets noticed. (Think about how you count bills.) Secondly, it doesn’t interfere with the design of the bill. This is useful not only in a legal sense, but also in terms of putting the bills in machines.


On at least three occasions, I’ve seen cashiers use the counterfeit detection pen to see if my singles were real or fake. I can sort of understand this. It catches people off guard. I’ve even had two people ask me if this was a new feature that the government was introducing. I said that it wasn’t. I have to wonder why someone would set aside the bills like that. As I said, maybe I’m just imagining things.


I think that some of the most frustrating instances are when my bills get set aside for routine things. Yesterday, I went to McDonalds. I paid using eight singles only to have the cash trays switched out before the next customer paid. I’d imagine that the singles eventually ended up in a new tray. It’s rare that a business will deposit a lot of singles since they’re so often needed for change. However, I don’t like the idea of my bills sitting around in a bank.


Anyway, I’m done ranting.

Glow-in-the-dark Jelly Bean

I did something interesting here. I turned my optical mouse upside down and put a jelly bean on it. It started glowing red. I thought it looked interesting, so here it is. I have to wonder what it is that makes it glow like that. I mean, I know there's some sort of red lazer or something coming out of it, but why does the whole thing look red?


Here's a closer look. Look at how red that thing is. Is the optical mouse really that powerful that it can generate something that strong? I'm sure I'll get a comment or two about how the mouse works. (I'm probably more likely to get a post telling me to get a life, though.)





This is what the jelly bean looks like without the mouse's influence. I was considering it for my mutant jelly bean project, considering that it is of below-average size, but I almost threw it out. I've been looking for beans that look interesting on their own, but this doesn't really do much without another jelly bean to compare it to.


I actually got six hits on Where's George today, but they were all local. The best that I got was a direct hit at a McDonald's where I spent the bill. I think I may have even seen the guy checking out the bill. Come to think of it, he may have gotten two or three.

Two people today got the bills, saw the "track this bill" stamp I use, and thought it was a new feature on the bills. I have to wonder if people know that there's a new series coming out or if it's just people asking a random question. The marks are too haphazard to be a feature on the bill.

Oh, well. I'm off to spend more bills and find more jelly beans...

The trouble with money...

I’m approaching the $10,000 mark on WheresGeorge.com. I’ve entered 2,820 bills worth a total of $9,665. I have hits in Florida, Arizona, Texas, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nebraska, Colorado, New Mexico and California.

Florida has the most hits, mostly because that’s where I live. Arizona is next because I went to visit my brother there and had a chance to spend a lot of bills there. Most of the rest of the states have only one hit. (Texas has three, two of which are in the same county. Go figure.)

Today, I spent my first marked $2 bill at the grocery store. I’m curious to see how long it takes to get a hit. I have to figure that $2 bills are enough of a curiosity that someone will notice the markings. The markings might even motivate them spend it rather than add it to a collection. We’ll see what happens.

I was reading Time while I was out in Arizona; they had a story that there’s pending legislation that would do away with the penny. This has been a proposition several times already because pennies are considered a nuisance. This is the first time it has been taken seriously because of the rising cost of metal.

Not many people realize that it costs money to physically produce money. Paper money is cheap in relation to the face value. However, it doesn’t take much to make a penny not worth the penny being created. (I think it costs somewhere around two cents to make the one-cent piece.)

Personally, I happen to like the penny. I like the exactness with which I can pay my bill. In fact, I’d like to see the half-cent coin brought back. (Don’t worry; I’m not holding my breath.) To be forced to round to the nearest nickel just wouldn’t cut it for me. I want my penny and I want to be able to pay with one.

Yes, I know what a hassle it can be. I work in retail. I usually count those pennies in the morning when I open the store and at night when I close the store. The difference is that I don’t usually carry that many on me. When I get them, I’m quick to spend them.

I don’t stockpile them like most people, and that’s where most people run into trouble. Most people end up with hundreds of them in their cars and at home in jars. It’s money. I say spend it.

Construction and WG

We finally got our washer and dryer back a few days ago. We’ve had to use the coin laundry for so long that it doesn’t seem real. From what I’m told, the construction is almost done. I think a lot of it is the details, like pouring cement and putting in some of the fixtures.

I finally broke down and got myself a stamp for Where’s George. Normally, I write the site by hand on all of my bills. Recently, I’ve been getting fifty singles at a time, and I usually write the URL four times on each bill. That means that I have to write the URL 200 times. It’s a lot easier to have a stamp.

I’m going to be visiting my brother in Arizona in just under three weeks. I’ve wanted to do this for a while. I’ve just recently gotten around to being able to make the arrangements.

I don’t have much else to post right now. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to post more often.

Maybe once a year is more accurate

I need to get back into this. I was trying to write more often, but I’ve been writing less often. I’ve been busy with work, but not that busy. I have been writing, but when I do write, it’s usually for Epinions.

I’ve been entering a lot of bills on Where’s George. I’ve entered almost 1500 bills since February, totaling $5,843. I actually broke down and decided to get fifty singles. Entering them into the system wasn’t so bad. The hard part was marking them all. Imagine trying to write a URL 50 times in a really confined space. My handwriting isn’t that good to start with. (The backs aren’t so bad because there’s at least a wider margin.)

I’ve had only 22 hits, which means that 22 people have found and entered the bills since I entered them. (I’ve entered four other bills that others have entered.) Most of the hits have been in Florida, but I’ve had one each in Texas, Minnesota and Wisconsin. I’m hoping to get at least one from each state, known as a fifty-state bingo.

I think this would be a good class project. I’m not exactly sure how it would work, but imagine looking up each city as the bills were entered. The only real problem is that hits tend to be few and far between. Fewer than two percent of my bills have hits, and I’ve been doing this for several months. Between twenty or thirty people, that could amount to a lot over a year, but there’s no promise of anyone getting anything.

Anyway, I’m thinking of posting some pictures of deformed jellybeans. I have to take some pictures and see how they come out. If any come out decent, I’ll, post them,

Math

I think I may have a new direction for this blog and I have Where’s George to thank for it. I was thinking about how the currency circulates and the exact nature of getting change. For those that don’t know, Where’s George is a Web site where people enter dollar bills that they get. The idea is to hope that someone else gets the same bill and enters it into the site, thus allowing both users to see where the bill has been and how far it has traveled.

I began thinking about how I have so many bills and how easy it really is to accumulate bills. Take, for instance, a $20 bill. If I enter that on the site, I have $20 listed. Now, take that twenty and use it to buy a lottery ticket for $1. That gives me $19 in change. Most likely, I’ll get a $10 bill, a $5 bill and four $1 bills. If I add those to the original $20, I get $39. The cumulative dollar value of what I have entered has almost doubled.

At this point, the $1 bills are useless in terms of my demonstration. The $10 and $5 bills, however, will get me another $5 bill and eight more $1 bills. (The ten is broken into a five and four ones and the five is simply broken into four ones.) That’s another $13. Added to the running total, that’s $52. After spending the remaining five on another lottery ticket, I get another $4, bringing me up to $56 off of the original twenty. Assuming I withdraw only twenties, my potential is almost three times whatever I withdraw.

This got me thinking. What if I were to do some sort of math-related blog? I suppose I could think up some strange mathematical curiosity to work out or something. It’s better than just sitting around waiting for something to happen. Comments? Suggestions?

Another post

I know that I said that I was going to post something by my birthday, but I’m lazy. Besides, I’ve been busy writing for a contest on Epinions. I’m working hard to get to 2,000, which is a long way off considering that I’ve written only 18 reviews this calendar year and that I hit 1,000 reviews on December 11th of last year. (I now have 1,022 reviews.)


The construction is still going on. There are few major problems aside from still not having a working clothes washer. One is that the phone seems to go out every so often. This has to do with the fact that the wire going out has fallen down. We can get it back after messing with it a little, but it’s still an inconvenience. I guess it could have been worse. At first, I was expecting it to be hell with all of the noise and dust. I’ve been out of the house during most of the construction and the dust has been contained to the kitchen, leaving a small area to be cleaned up.


I’m posting two pictures of the construction. One is from the inside showing a window looking out of what will become my room. The other is on the outside looking at that same window. The windows were put in a few days ago. However, as you can see from the interior shot, a lot still has to be done. I knew that it was going to take a long time, but I had no idea that it was going to take this long.

Part of it is that we’re still ordering stuff, like locks, and we’re waiting on things, like tiles and stuff. There are also a lot of schedules to coordinate and many changes to the plans have to be reflected on the permits. I’m eager for it to be over just so I can get back to a normal routine.

Speaking of a normal routine, I’m still getting over a reformat that I did to my computer several months ago. I jut got around to putting GTA 2 back on my computer. I had lost the saved game I had, which means that I’ll have to beat the first level over again. I’ll probably do a lot of side missions and stuff just to get to the $1,000,000 necessary to get to the second area.

I’ve been looking for some other games to buy. I don’t really need anything fancy. I just want something to pass the time. Some of the games that I’ve found are too much for my computer. Others don’t look that involved. I may end up buying one just to get a review out of it. Worst-case scenario, I could bring it in to EB Games or something.

I suppose that’s all for now. I really will try to keep up.

Where's George?

Valentine’s Day can be a tough day if you have to spend it alone. It’s not that I haven’t tried to date or anything. It’s just that it’s hard to meet someone. Most of my life is spent either at work or at home. When I do go out, it’s not usually doing things that are geared towards meeting people. I don’t like bars or clubs and I don’t know anyone that’s willing to set me up with someone.

Dating sites are a joke. You have to admit that any site that charges by the month and has a 3-month deal is a bit pessimistic. If I’m going to pay money for a matchmaking service, I want some measure of success within a few weeks. At the very least, I should see some responses, even if they’re negative, within a few days. I shouldn’t have to send several messages and not get so much as a quick “no”.

Is there something that I’m missing? Advice seems to be contradictory. Some people have told me that you have to relax and let it happen while others say that I have to get out there and be aggressive. Which is it? I don’t see how I can do both.

I’ve got my birthday coming up in one week. I’m turning 30 and I don’t think it’s that big of a deal. I don’t see why people make such a big fuss about the milestone birthdays. I could see if it was 100 or something, but it’s only 30. Get over it.

In more exciting news, I found a site called Where’s George, located at http://www.wheresgeorge.com. The George is as in George Washington, a reference to the fact that the site is used to track money. There’s nothing technical about it. There are no GPS locators or anything. It operates on a catch-and-release system.

You enter the serial number off of the bill and hope that someone has entered it before. If so, you get to see the bill’s history as told by those few who have encountered the bill prior to you. If you’re the first to enter the bill into the site, you get to originate said history. The next chance you get, you spend as many bills as you see fit.

Once a bill gets multiple hits, you get to see how far and how fast the bill is traveling. So far, I’ve hit two bills that were already in the system. Both have been from the Miami area. I’m the first entry for all of the other bills that I’ve entered. I’ve sent many of them back into circulation, but I’ve only been doing this for a few days, so nothing yet.

I’d really like to make a habit of writing here. Posting once a month doesn’t really count. I’m going to set a goal of writing another entry by my birthday. Maybe I’ll have a hit on Where’s George by then.

Driving Force

I have to make a resolution to post here at least once a week. (At the very least, twice a month.) Things have been pretty boring. Most of my time is taken up with work, which leaves me with little time to do anything else. The big problem that I have is that I don’t drive.

It’s not that I hate taking the bus. It’s that having a car would be so much easier. Not having a car limits what I can do and where I can go. I would not be able to go south of the Miami downtown area and get back before the buses stopped running. I also can’t make any physically big purchases since I have to bring them back with me. The nearest bus stop is a quarter of a mile away, which means that I’d have to drag or carry something a quarter of a mile.

It’s also difficult being a pedestrian. The greater Miami area isn’t really a region that’s set up for pedestrians. You don’t really feel compelled to leave your car behind if you have one. When I go down to Dadeland Mall, I have to walk a good distance from the Metrorail station to the mall and there aren’t a lot of sidewalks. It’s not a lot of fun to walk through a parking lot that isn’t pedestrian friendly.

At the intersection by where I work, one of the buttons that you press for the crosswalk is broken. I’ve already reported it, but it’s not like anyone respects a pedestrian’s right of way anyway. Whenever I cross with the light, several drivers try to make a turn, even though they’re supposed to yield to me. I’ve even gotten dirty looks from drivers.

I think it’s safe to say that we’ve all been pedestrians at some point. What is it about being a driver that causes us to lose perspective? I think that part of it is that being a driver in Miami causes people to think little of others. Miami arguably has some of the worst drivers and some of the worst driving conditions in the country. If I recall, Broward County (the county to the north of us) has the most dangerous intersection in the nation.

We also have a pathetic transit system. Miami-Dade County has a rail system that’s just one line. Granted, the county is working on several other lines, but those aren’t due to open for a while. Even then, I’m not sure that anything will come of the proposed line near my house. In order for me to use rail, it has to be accessible.

The same could be said of the buses. There’s one line that runs within a mile of my house. That’s fine if I want to go south. If I want to go north, I either have to transfer (which costs an additional 50¢) or walk a mile to the next-nearest line. The cost of the transfer is on top of a $1.50 fare. I don’t feel like paying $4 round trip if I can avoid it and get some exercise at the same time.

I find it hard to believe that the fare was raised last year after the county voted for a half-cent sales tax to support mass transit. I’ve actually started using the bus less, preferring to do stuff closer to my house if I can. That’s three dollars to go to the library to get a book and another three dollars to return it, assuming that I don’t use a transfer. It would actually be about as expensive for me to go to the dollar store and buy six books. (I’d actually be better off because I could keep the books.)

What am I going to do? I’m going to have to buy a car and start driving. First, I have to get my license.

More stuff

It’s funny how a few days turn into a few weeks. The local election came and went and I’m at least happy with the candidates that won, even though only two that I voted for got in. I’m lucky that I had Tuesday off. Had I been working a full day that day, I would have had to wake up earlier to go in and vote.

I finally passed a thousand postings on Epinions. It took me several days to get over myself. I don’t get anything special out of it, but it is a strange feeling to have reviewed so many items. I still have a few reviews to rewrite. I hate having so many movie reviews to rewrite. A lot of the movies that I watched weren’t really worth rewatching. I got lucky with a few. With one, I got to watch it while I was waiting during jury duty. I didn’t get to watch the whole thing straight through, but I saw enough that I was able to piece together the major details.

I recently got into sudoku. Most of the ones I’ve done were easy. I’ve been trying to find more difficult ones. I like doing them online because they’re much neater. The two that I’ve done in the Miami Herald were messy because I kept having to erase stuff. That’s why I don’t like doing the crossword puzzles. (Well, that and the fact that I don’t know two thirds of the answers.)

The construction is going well. It’s not so bad not having the washer. We still have the dryer, which is nice. I’m not sure how much longer it will take, but I think I’ll be able to survive it. The most difficult part is not having the garage. There are things that I would consider putting out there had it not been for the fact that I can’t.

That’s all for now. Maybe by the next time I post something, I’ll have some sort of closing line or something.

Fewer books

I’m happy to say that I got rid of most of my books. I actually found a place in Miami Beach that was willing to pay me $81 for almost three hundred books. If you look at the picture in the previous post, I still have those two long cases. I also have two of the cardboard boxes, but they were willing to take a lot of old textbooks that I couldn’t get rid of. I have mostly paperbacks left, which I may or may not sell on eBay. If I can’t get rid of them, I may call back after the New Year to see if he’s going to take any more.

I actually bought three new pairs of shirts and three pairs of pants for work. This gives me enough that I should be able to last at least a week between washes. The washer and drier will be disconnected tomorrow, so we’re going through as much laundry as we can tonight. It’s getting to the point where I’m washing work clothes about as quickly as I use them. I’m hoping that they won’t be out of commission that long. However, it will now be a little easier to survive.

My brother comes back into town next week, which I’m looking forward to. I’d say that this means that I’ll be writing less, but I’m already writing about once a month. It might actually mean that I’ll be writing more since I may have more to write about.

Had it not been for work, I would have passed 1,000 postings on Epinions by now. As it stands, I’m three shy of the milestone. I could probably get two more out tonight and maybe get some sort editorial in commemorating a thousand. So far as I know, very few people on Epinions have made it this far, mostly because there’s so little money to be made in it.

In any event, that’s all I have for now. I’ll probably be posting in a few days because we have a local election tomorrow. Yes, I know. It would have been the perfect subject for a blog. Insofar as elections go, there really wasn’t that much to cover.

Turning Point

I guess this is one of those situations where I should have written more often, but I’m not really that far behind. I’d like to start by saying that I’m no longer selling on Half.com. They’ve made two recent decisions that lead me to believe that eBay doesn’t care about Half.com users.

The first is the removal of the preorder function. Preordering allows Half.com users to set a price at which they want the site to automatically order an item. When this happens and I list that hypothetical item, I see that someone is willing to pay a certain amount. If I think that this is a reasonable offer, I can accept. If not, I can list the item at a higher price.

The second (which really annoys me) is the removal of order confirmation. It used to be that when I got an order, I was able to confirm it. Now, it’s automatically assumed to be confirmed. I would have to refund the money if I can’t find the book.

So far as I know, the first issue is still in place. They may have changed the second back to the way it was, but I’m still quitting Half.com for good. It seems that since the eBay acquisition, they just don’t care any more.



We had a yard sale this weekend, but I didn’t sell that much. I didn’t even make $6. What I’m going to do is try to call some used bookstores either tomorrow or Tuesday. Hopefully, at least one will take cash. If not, I may have to list the books on eBay to get rid of them. If that’s what it comes to, I’ll have to sell them in lots to keep the listing fees down. As you can see from the picture I’m posting, I have a lot.

The main reason we had the garage sale was to clear out the garage. We’re going to do some construction on it and put in a bedroom. I’m not really sure about the exact plans. My parents have changed their minds about it several times.

The main thing that worries me about the construction is that we’ll be without the washer and drier, meaning that I’ll only be able to do my laundry occasionally. As it was, I could wash work clothes as needed. I’m going to buy extra clothes soon, possibly in the next week. This way, I could go a week or two without having to do laundry.

I’m sure I’ll survive. I suppose that in the grand scheme of things, it could be a lot worse.

Post-hurricane post

As I predicted, my post here was limited during the hurricane. I got poser back relatively quickly, but Internet access took a while to get back. I didn’t get to watch many of my programs for the two weeks following Wilma because we didn’t get the local NBC affiliate. It left me to watch a lot of movies on DVD.

My Internet access is still somewhat patchy. It seems to work until I need to go online. When I have to look at something, I can stay on for a few minutes or so. It seems to be more stable now, but I’m still writing this in Word.

The Aventura branch of the Miami-Dade County library system was closed indefinitely due to hurricane damages. I’m going to have to check to see what happened with the books I had on hold. I may have to put them on hold for the downtown library.

In other news, I set up a shop on CafePress.com, located at http://www.cafepress.com/b_and_p. Mostly, it’s just stuff with the “Bark and Pee” photo from before. I also set up custom postage using an image that I normally use for profiles. I really can’t see anyone buying that. Even I have to admit that it’s overpriced. I’ll see if anyone buys it. If I can’t sell any in the next month or two, I’ll probably take it off.

Elections are coming up in Biscayne Park. The election is scheduled for December 6, but there was talk of postponing it due to the hurricane. I don’t think anything came of that. I won’t be working that election for two reasons. First, I never worked in my home precinct. Second, even if they called, I don’t think I’d want to. My current work schedule would theoretically permit it, but I still probably wouldn’t want to. I don’t need the money that much.