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norcumi'cause I've got a honking big whine coming down the pipe, and gods know I need to put something in here that's not good with cheese. ;) Also coming down the pipe is a content-full update, and massive glompings for ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
masterlightman. brooklynx, and dogmatix_san. EEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!! ::glompglompglomp::
*One day, being a crossing guard might be a good job. You get to see a lot of interesting people, play in traffic, and yell at idiots in SUVs to "Get off the phone!".... I think the crossing guard up the street has become a new minor hero of mine. ;)
*I love my job, I really do. Now that I've gotten used to - well, everything form using a register (that's occasionally very cranky), to standing for ungodly hours of the day, I'm noticing more. For instance, money. No, not in that way. First off, a bit of rambling for those not in/familiar with the U.S. Hope this doesn’t come as talking down in any way. ^_^; So, we have 1 dollar bills, and the occasional 1 dollar coin (not often used), the very rare and o-so-cool $2 bill, then 5, 10, and 20 bills. I think it's standard for change to be so much of 100, but I don't know (... and blast, now I want to find out!) Annnyway, due to historic tendency to use bills colored only in green, and the tendency to not want to change the designs, the Treasury Department has been updating money in the past... 5 years? I don't think it's been going on much longer than that. So they've worked their way on to altering the $20 bill, I guess because it's the most often counterfeited. ::shrugs:: No idea, in all honesty, but that's my guess. Given that ATMs tend to give those out 90% of the time, I'm gonna stick to this story. So there are currently 3 types of twenties going around. There's the newest, that come in color (though still mostly green). I think they look kinda silly, but the safety features are fun and interesting. Google or head to the Treasury Department webpage if you really want more info or pictures. ;) The middle standard is still very much green, gray, and white, but otherwise bigger pictures and more obnoxious fonts and such. I, personally, find all of a sudden when I can compare the styles, I like the oldest best. It has these intricate borders of curlicues that look vaguely Victorian (I am such a sucker for Victorian stuff... curse you, American Girls Collection! Back in the day, you had quality products, damn it!). the art is detailed, and doesn't look blown up to take up more of the bill for.... um.... glory for the country? Yay Jefferson? I think that's who's on the twenty....
Anyway, the other part deals with the quarter (25 cents out of 100 in a dollar. Ok, so that might very well be bloody obvious... sorry). In the past few years, there has also been a push to memorialize all the states. Each state has made up a design to go on the back of the quarter, and I think 4 new designs are put out each year, and it's done in the order that the states signed on to be part of America. Yay. So, of course, sooo many people have gone mad for colleting the damn things, as they come out, and doing gods know what with them. Even I tend to look at quarters to see if it's a state I haven't run into yet. But here's the fun part. That's gotten me looking at ALL quarters (and other change), and I've gotten a bit of a surprise. I keep running into quarters from not just the eighties, but as far back as the SIXTIES. No, seriously. For example, I sat down while setting up laundry earlier, and opened up a new roll ($10 worth) of quarters. After sorting out the state quarters, I had about 16 "standard" quarters, ranging in years from 1966 to 1998. the difference between the two quarters in question is striking. On the front is a profile of George Washington, and I've finally found out why the newest quarters freak me out: there's detail work. His wig/hair has lines, striations indicating actual hair, not to mention you can actually see the literal line where the hair starts and his forehead ends. There's definition to the eye and chin, and you can make out details like fabric folds in the hair ribbon. The old one, though... that's what I'm used to seeing. There is no indication of where the wig starts- the forehead is smooth all the way to the back of the wig, with what you think are actually scratch marks but might be texture of hair. The ribbon is a lump down at the bottom of the wig, and the eye is simply a set of angular dents.
As for the back of the old coin, the wing-spread eagle has only vaguely defined wing feathers, and none of the intricate lightly etched breast-feathers that the new coin has. The rod it perches upon is a plain, straight thing, but on the new coin, is clearly a rod with lines and separation to it. The difference, quite frankly, amazes me.
Oh, and also, there are to my knowledge, currently two mints in the country, indicated on current coins by either a D or P to George's right (next to the hair ribbon). Heh, yes, you did read that right. "Current" coins. The 1966 coin doesn't have that. the first one I had in the roll that had that, was from 1979 (an incredibly worn D, for those who are obsessive about details). Admittedly, I think the gamut went from '66, to '69, to '79, so I might have to look up when the second one was instituted.
To wrap up the money rantings, I have a scary tidbit. At work one day I happened to glance at a nickel (5 cents), since I now tend to check older/worn looking coinage. My jaw dropped, and I scrambled for my wallet to switch it for a nickel in there. You see, I have here a nickel from 1947. 1947. Fifty-eight years ago, this coin was made. It's older than my father. .... ::blinks and shakes head:: It's astounding to me,
Tangent: ::blinks, and starts digging through wallet just for the hell of it:: Heh. Aside from two screws, I have a quarter from 1990 (I think I was starting kindergarten that year? Either that or finishing it up), a nickel from 1987 (... that one's before the Berlin Wall fell- 5 to 6 years old? What was I doing then?), a penny from 2000 (graduating high school, yay!), and oh my word, a dime (10 of 100 cents) from 1973. I'm not sure my parents had even met by then. Wow. I think I'm developing a new hobby. End tangent.
This fascinates me far too much. Metal that is old, not ancient Greece old, but from before our time, passing though so many hands that it is literally unimaginable. What has this nickel been present for? Who dropped it in a lobby, who swept it up that night and spent it on a movie, or candy, or stickers, or- anything?
Makes me wanna write. ;) But I shall rant about that particular daemon some other time.
*So on to other things. Saw Les Miserables the other day with Quindar. It was fun - I like visiting the theater, and the one in this instance was NICE - posh and clearly built by/for the Victorian (daaaaaaaaaamn youuuuuuu, American Girls Collection!) robber barons. As for the play itself, it was okay. ::shrugs:: It wasn't mind-blowing, and some of the flubs of sound and lighting made things... odd, though it did impress me greatly that when Eponine's mike failed, she kept going, but unlike any of the others who had failing mikes, she projected like hell, and came across clearly. I liked her character, along with Gavroche, the drunk revolutionary, and - of course - the Thenardiers. I'm sorry if this makes no sense to anyone, but I[m afraid I'm not thinking of much -
::blinks:: Oh hell. Then again, I'm listening to the soundtrack, and things keep striking me. See, the whole thing seemed very religious to me. At one point - gaaaah. ::goes to Lesmis.com again to get name spellings:: - Javert talks of swearing by the stars, and I think he was making references to Lucifer - the brightest morning star. There were 12 revolutionaries, aside from Marius - and in the song "Empty Tables", he is the one left, talking about their last communion. In "Dog Eats Dog," Thenardier pronounces Marius dead in the sewers - only he lives on to sing "Empty Tables", so he thus in a way rises from the dead.
I hope I'm reading too much into things, because it just makes my head hurt. Anything else seems spoilerish, so I'll leave y'all to ask other questions via comments and e-mail.
*Finally, a few letters to people relevant to work.
Dear Incredibly Hot Guy:
Hi. I hope you don't mind me gaping at you a lot, but not only are you hot, you look terrifyingly like a spiffy actor I like a ot (in the acting sense, not the hot sense - that's a bonus). But more than that, you sound... just... like him. A young him, but him nonetheless, and that keeps throwing me for a loop 'cause I am bound and determined that, if I were to somehow be able to make my fic into actual animation, I would want him to do the voice... and yours would be just as awesome. So the reason I'm always kinda stupid and grinning a lot when I run into you is not because you are hot, but because I always want to grab you, shove my website addy at you, and gibber that I want to have you record a few lines because I swear to god you sound like a young Mector, and holy damn, I bet you could sound like the adult Mector is you tried and pleaseopleaseoplease would you mind doing some recording of lines I could write them up and have them for you tomorrow just on the off chance one day I could interest an animation person into doing something *big big grin and sparkly puppy dog eyes* - and I know that 10 to 1, that would freak you out, so I guess I will continue to seem stupid around you.
Thanks, the friendly yet somewhat strange cashier at Mainstreet Market
To the Nice Guy Who Comes In A Lot:
I hope you don't mind I like chatting with you, but between the fact that you seem friendly and also seem to like chatting back, I... think it's ok? I honestly can't tell if I went over the line asking for your LJ username or not, but - eh. I know class schedules change radically over semesters, but I hope you aren't avoiding me. I really really do try to avoid scary stalker girl moments - honest. I can see you not quite believing that, given the "letter" above, but it goes here in good fun rather than me actually pouncing the poor guy, though why the hells I'm leaving this as an open entry is beyond me other than I beg your pardon but this seems to be caught up in one of those neurotic moments of me trying to be a more open person with my choose society. I understand if you want me away from you or simply staying a chipper/caffeinated register person who can get you through the line quickly and with a smile, and I do respect that. Yeah, I'll admit I find people in general to be interesting, and I keep wanting to start up a decent conversation with you - anime, theology, whatever! - that isn't interrupted every 10 seconds by other people in line for food. But I also get that having the random register monkey do more than recognize you and have you rung up by the time you get to the register is kinda freaky. ::shrugs:: Just want to let you know in my insane way that I'm just curious, and have no scary intentions that could be made into a (bad) movie. So, one of these days I wanna get up the guts to friend you, but I'm kinda scared you'd think I'm entering scary stalker mode.
Sincerely, the register monkey who tries to be genuinely friendly but never expects you to read this (and might vaguely hope you don't but I can't figure -_-;;;)
Dear KGB people:
WHY AREN’T YOU BUYING MORE TANGERINES????
::grins:: I bet if you asked the boss enough, he might stock them eventually. ::innocent look::
From your fellow comrade who is currently undercover as a capitalist food minion
Finally:
Dear Funny/Crazy Frat Guy from WVWC:
I wonder if you remember me. You were interested in one of my roommates, and so when hanging around her you kinda got exposed to me in random chunks. Well, bethatasitmay, I'd like to apologize to you. See, around the time you started hanging around her/us, I was trying to experiment with life, aka push my boundaries and find out how I could work in relation to others who I had not grown up with, who I did not want to be the little inhibited hermit around, and otherwise be comfortable being around different people in different ways. Unfortunately, one of the things I was trying to get my mind around was how I felt about physical contact. I think there was something from the roomies in there about how I wasn't huggable, and seemed to just be waiting to be let go and should be comfortable and blah blah blah, but - Sorry, man. It all just lined up, and you ended up getting the brunt of my experimentation. I think I freaked you out, to be honest. I suspected for awhile that you were leery of me, and probably because of this, but I never really settled on it as a concrete theory.
I've found out recently how.... ahem - very scary and irritating it is when someone is excessively touchy feely around one, and I'm pretty damn sure that's the sense I gave you. I think and hope I cut back quickly enough, but I suspect I didn't. I'm sorry. That was pretty bad of me, and I hope it wasn't too bad for you. I should probably see if Rob has contact info for you,, and send a copy of this or something, but in the meantime, this letter into the ether will have to do.
Apologetically, "The Other Roommate"
Last of all, a random comment. How pathetic is it that I now want to get a paid account, pretty much just so I can use more user icons? ::rolls eyes:: I can't figure out where to send my nextun-alloted paycheck: getting a paid account, or getting a button maker. I should save money, not spend on toys!!!!!
(note: the preceeding message is meant entirely for humor and to make people wonder what I am on, what I could possibly want icons of/for, and what the button maker is for. That is all.)
};-)
masterlightman. brooklynx, and dogmatix_san. EEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!! ::glompglompglomp::*One day, being a crossing guard might be a good job. You get to see a lot of interesting people, play in traffic, and yell at idiots in SUVs to "Get off the phone!".... I think the crossing guard up the street has become a new minor hero of mine. ;)
*I love my job, I really do. Now that I've gotten used to - well, everything form using a register (that's occasionally very cranky), to standing for ungodly hours of the day, I'm noticing more. For instance, money. No, not in that way. First off, a bit of rambling for those not in/familiar with the U.S. Hope this doesn’t come as talking down in any way. ^_^; So, we have 1 dollar bills, and the occasional 1 dollar coin (not often used), the very rare and o-so-cool $2 bill, then 5, 10, and 20 bills. I think it's standard for change to be so much of 100, but I don't know (... and blast, now I want to find out!) Annnyway, due to historic tendency to use bills colored only in green, and the tendency to not want to change the designs, the Treasury Department has been updating money in the past... 5 years? I don't think it's been going on much longer than that. So they've worked their way on to altering the $20 bill, I guess because it's the most often counterfeited. ::shrugs:: No idea, in all honesty, but that's my guess. Given that ATMs tend to give those out 90% of the time, I'm gonna stick to this story. So there are currently 3 types of twenties going around. There's the newest, that come in color (though still mostly green). I think they look kinda silly, but the safety features are fun and interesting. Google or head to the Treasury Department webpage if you really want more info or pictures. ;) The middle standard is still very much green, gray, and white, but otherwise bigger pictures and more obnoxious fonts and such. I, personally, find all of a sudden when I can compare the styles, I like the oldest best. It has these intricate borders of curlicues that look vaguely Victorian (I am such a sucker for Victorian stuff... curse you, American Girls Collection! Back in the day, you had quality products, damn it!). the art is detailed, and doesn't look blown up to take up more of the bill for.... um.... glory for the country? Yay Jefferson? I think that's who's on the twenty....
Anyway, the other part deals with the quarter (25 cents out of 100 in a dollar. Ok, so that might very well be bloody obvious... sorry). In the past few years, there has also been a push to memorialize all the states. Each state has made up a design to go on the back of the quarter, and I think 4 new designs are put out each year, and it's done in the order that the states signed on to be part of America. Yay. So, of course, sooo many people have gone mad for colleting the damn things, as they come out, and doing gods know what with them. Even I tend to look at quarters to see if it's a state I haven't run into yet. But here's the fun part. That's gotten me looking at ALL quarters (and other change), and I've gotten a bit of a surprise. I keep running into quarters from not just the eighties, but as far back as the SIXTIES. No, seriously. For example, I sat down while setting up laundry earlier, and opened up a new roll ($10 worth) of quarters. After sorting out the state quarters, I had about 16 "standard" quarters, ranging in years from 1966 to 1998. the difference between the two quarters in question is striking. On the front is a profile of George Washington, and I've finally found out why the newest quarters freak me out: there's detail work. His wig/hair has lines, striations indicating actual hair, not to mention you can actually see the literal line where the hair starts and his forehead ends. There's definition to the eye and chin, and you can make out details like fabric folds in the hair ribbon. The old one, though... that's what I'm used to seeing. There is no indication of where the wig starts- the forehead is smooth all the way to the back of the wig, with what you think are actually scratch marks but might be texture of hair. The ribbon is a lump down at the bottom of the wig, and the eye is simply a set of angular dents.
As for the back of the old coin, the wing-spread eagle has only vaguely defined wing feathers, and none of the intricate lightly etched breast-feathers that the new coin has. The rod it perches upon is a plain, straight thing, but on the new coin, is clearly a rod with lines and separation to it. The difference, quite frankly, amazes me.
Oh, and also, there are to my knowledge, currently two mints in the country, indicated on current coins by either a D or P to George's right (next to the hair ribbon). Heh, yes, you did read that right. "Current" coins. The 1966 coin doesn't have that. the first one I had in the roll that had that, was from 1979 (an incredibly worn D, for those who are obsessive about details). Admittedly, I think the gamut went from '66, to '69, to '79, so I might have to look up when the second one was instituted.
To wrap up the money rantings, I have a scary tidbit. At work one day I happened to glance at a nickel (5 cents), since I now tend to check older/worn looking coinage. My jaw dropped, and I scrambled for my wallet to switch it for a nickel in there. You see, I have here a nickel from 1947. 1947. Fifty-eight years ago, this coin was made. It's older than my father. .... ::blinks and shakes head:: It's astounding to me,
Tangent: ::blinks, and starts digging through wallet just for the hell of it:: Heh. Aside from two screws, I have a quarter from 1990 (I think I was starting kindergarten that year? Either that or finishing it up), a nickel from 1987 (... that one's before the Berlin Wall fell- 5 to 6 years old? What was I doing then?), a penny from 2000 (graduating high school, yay!), and oh my word, a dime (10 of 100 cents) from 1973. I'm not sure my parents had even met by then. Wow. I think I'm developing a new hobby. End tangent.
This fascinates me far too much. Metal that is old, not ancient Greece old, but from before our time, passing though so many hands that it is literally unimaginable. What has this nickel been present for? Who dropped it in a lobby, who swept it up that night and spent it on a movie, or candy, or stickers, or- anything?
Makes me wanna write. ;) But I shall rant about that particular daemon some other time.
*So on to other things. Saw Les Miserables the other day with Quindar. It was fun - I like visiting the theater, and the one in this instance was NICE - posh and clearly built by/for the Victorian (daaaaaaaaaamn youuuuuuu, American Girls Collection!) robber barons. As for the play itself, it was okay. ::shrugs:: It wasn't mind-blowing, and some of the flubs of sound and lighting made things... odd, though it did impress me greatly that when Eponine's mike failed, she kept going, but unlike any of the others who had failing mikes, she projected like hell, and came across clearly. I liked her character, along with Gavroche, the drunk revolutionary, and - of course - the Thenardiers. I'm sorry if this makes no sense to anyone, but I[m afraid I'm not thinking of much -
::blinks:: Oh hell. Then again, I'm listening to the soundtrack, and things keep striking me. See, the whole thing seemed very religious to me. At one point - gaaaah. ::goes to Lesmis.com again to get name spellings:: - Javert talks of swearing by the stars, and I think he was making references to Lucifer - the brightest morning star. There were 12 revolutionaries, aside from Marius - and in the song "Empty Tables", he is the one left, talking about their last communion. In "Dog Eats Dog," Thenardier pronounces Marius dead in the sewers - only he lives on to sing "Empty Tables", so he thus in a way rises from the dead.
I hope I'm reading too much into things, because it just makes my head hurt. Anything else seems spoilerish, so I'll leave y'all to ask other questions via comments and e-mail.
*Finally, a few letters to people relevant to work.
Dear Incredibly Hot Guy:
Hi. I hope you don't mind me gaping at you a lot, but not only are you hot, you look terrifyingly like a spiffy actor I like a ot (in the acting sense, not the hot sense - that's a bonus). But more than that, you sound... just... like him. A young him, but him nonetheless, and that keeps throwing me for a loop 'cause I am bound and determined that, if I were to somehow be able to make my fic into actual animation, I would want him to do the voice... and yours would be just as awesome. So the reason I'm always kinda stupid and grinning a lot when I run into you is not because you are hot, but because I always want to grab you, shove my website addy at you, and gibber that I want to have you record a few lines because I swear to god you sound like a young Mector, and holy damn, I bet you could sound like the adult Mector is you tried and pleaseopleaseoplease would you mind doing some recording of lines I could write them up and have them for you tomorrow just on the off chance one day I could interest an animation person into doing something *big big grin and sparkly puppy dog eyes* - and I know that 10 to 1, that would freak you out, so I guess I will continue to seem stupid around you.
Thanks, the friendly yet somewhat strange cashier at Mainstreet Market
To the Nice Guy Who Comes In A Lot:
I hope you don't mind I like chatting with you, but between the fact that you seem friendly and also seem to like chatting back, I... think it's ok? I honestly can't tell if I went over the line asking for your LJ username or not, but - eh. I know class schedules change radically over semesters, but I hope you aren't avoiding me. I really really do try to avoid scary stalker girl moments - honest. I can see you not quite believing that, given the "letter" above, but it goes here in good fun rather than me actually pouncing the poor guy, though why the hells I'm leaving this as an open entry is beyond me other than I beg your pardon but this seems to be caught up in one of those neurotic moments of me trying to be a more open person with my choose society. I understand if you want me away from you or simply staying a chipper/caffeinated register person who can get you through the line quickly and with a smile, and I do respect that. Yeah, I'll admit I find people in general to be interesting, and I keep wanting to start up a decent conversation with you - anime, theology, whatever! - that isn't interrupted every 10 seconds by other people in line for food. But I also get that having the random register monkey do more than recognize you and have you rung up by the time you get to the register is kinda freaky. ::shrugs:: Just want to let you know in my insane way that I'm just curious, and have no scary intentions that could be made into a (bad) movie. So, one of these days I wanna get up the guts to friend you, but I'm kinda scared you'd think I'm entering scary stalker mode.
Sincerely, the register monkey who tries to be genuinely friendly but never expects you to read this (and might vaguely hope you don't but I can't figure -_-;;;)
Dear KGB people:
WHY AREN’T YOU BUYING MORE TANGERINES????
::grins:: I bet if you asked the boss enough, he might stock them eventually. ::innocent look::
From your fellow comrade who is currently undercover as a capitalist food minion
Finally:
Dear Funny/Crazy Frat Guy from WVWC:
I wonder if you remember me. You were interested in one of my roommates, and so when hanging around her you kinda got exposed to me in random chunks. Well, bethatasitmay, I'd like to apologize to you. See, around the time you started hanging around her/us, I was trying to experiment with life, aka push my boundaries and find out how I could work in relation to others who I had not grown up with, who I did not want to be the little inhibited hermit around, and otherwise be comfortable being around different people in different ways. Unfortunately, one of the things I was trying to get my mind around was how I felt about physical contact. I think there was something from the roomies in there about how I wasn't huggable, and seemed to just be waiting to be let go and should be comfortable and blah blah blah, but - Sorry, man. It all just lined up, and you ended up getting the brunt of my experimentation. I think I freaked you out, to be honest. I suspected for awhile that you were leery of me, and probably because of this, but I never really settled on it as a concrete theory.
I've found out recently how.... ahem - very scary and irritating it is when someone is excessively touchy feely around one, and I'm pretty damn sure that's the sense I gave you. I think and hope I cut back quickly enough, but I suspect I didn't. I'm sorry. That was pretty bad of me, and I hope it wasn't too bad for you. I should probably see if Rob has contact info for you,, and send a copy of this or something, but in the meantime, this letter into the ether will have to do.
Apologetically, "The Other Roommate"
Last of all, a random comment. How pathetic is it that I now want to get a paid account, pretty much just so I can use more user icons? ::rolls eyes:: I can't figure out where to send my nextun-alloted paycheck: getting a paid account, or getting a button maker. I should save money, not spend on toys!!!!!
(note: the preceeding message is meant entirely for humor and to make people wonder what I am on, what I could possibly want icons of/for, and what the button maker is for. That is all.)
};-)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-01-18 05:58 pm (UTC)*L* I remember when the new 20's started coming out. My first comment when I got one from an ATM: "Monopoly money!" Then I started to call 'em "Funny money." ;)
no subject
Date: 2005-01-19 02:39 pm (UTC)As for the 20's, well, I keep hearing them as "yuppie food stamps", but that's when the "new" bills were just coming out, and ATMs were just starting to become ubiquitous.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-19 04:41 pm (UTC)Huh, never heard the 20's called that. 'Course it's possible it might be a regional thing too since I've heard a few other folks call it "funny money" out here.
WVWC guy?
Date: 2005-01-18 11:07 pm (UTC)Second, something about a WVWC guy?
Re: WVWC guy?
Date: 2005-01-19 02:42 pm (UTC)I'm feeling crazy enough that I'm gonna make you guess who. But I will tell you he was in your cult* (and thus making it possible that you'd have his e-mail).
* i still mean this in an affectionate way. as always tell me and i will stop
Re: WVWC guy?
Date: 2005-01-20 04:32 pm (UTC)Well, at the time you were roommates with the other two, I didn't even really know you, aside from classes and just seeing you when I talked to them. I know for certain it's not ME, so :-P I honestly cannot even give a guess as to who it is, though I can give several guesses as to who it wasn't, but, alas, that is not the subject at hand :) So, I'm afraid I don't know offhand.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-19 11:43 am (UTC)Marius as a Christ figure is interesting. It makes sense as far as it goes, but how does Valjean fit into that? "Good Monsieur, you come from God in Heaven..."