"OH!" I exclaimed, surprised to see the front door open.

She was carrying a large patchwork quilt. The quilt's size required her to enter the apartment backwards, opening the door by leaning on it so that both hands are free to keep the quilt from falling. You can't tell her age by looking at her, but she is definitely older than me. With her heavy coat on, bundled against the cold, it looked like she was having trouble keeping the quilt from falling.

I saw her glance down at the strewn shoes on the floor under her feet, surprised at the mess I had left in her path.

"Hello?" I said.

Her eyes met mine, and her jaw dropped open.

"OH! I'm sorry - wrong apartment!"

With that, she was gone.

Feb 27 2001 0 comments

Daily Condition:

in CD player solar twins, solar twins

my condition: unhappy to be back at work after a 3-day weekend

Feb 22 2001 0 comments

2/22/2001 - Massive coinage

All of my non-Quarter coins go into Destiny's piggy bank. Or, rather, they go into a bowl on top of the TV, which Destiny then transfers to her piggy bank whenever she gets the chance. Quarters go into a little clay jar, for doing laundry, and Canadian coins go in a different jar, because the bank will only give them back anyway.

The last time we took the piggy bank down to the local branch of my bank, we handed it over to the teller and asked that it be deposited into Destiny's savings account. The coin-counting machine in back rattled and growled as Destiny & I discussed lollipop flavors. When the teller came back, she held out a handful of Sacajawea Dollars. "Do you really want these deposited?" Yes, I replied, declining to take back the gold coins. Destiny got her sucker, and we went home with an empty piggy bank.

The teller wasn't trying to be dumb; she works there regularly and isn't some part-time temp who doesn't know what money looks like. I suspect that she's more accustomed to encounters with Collectors -- the people who buy money at face-value, in hopes that it becomes more valuable than what the Federal Reserve assigns.

It can be a quite profitable and enjoyable hobby. Somewhere in my parent's house is a nearly-complete set of Lincoln head pennies that my brother & I assembled after spending hours going through a 5-gallon jug filled nearly to the top with small-denomination coins. Some older and rarer coins are in high demand, and thus demand high prices. I don't think I've ever encountered a valuable coin, but it doesn't stop me from setting aside stranger coins when I encounter them -- old Canadian pennies that have some guy's head on them instead of the Queen, those 1976 coins with patriotic symbols on the back, a $1 coin from a local casino which I forgot I had in my pocket when I left. Destiny has a little book designed to hold every variation of the State Quarters, but unfortunately we don't encounter 'P'-designated coins much around here. All together, I probably have $50-$100 in money that has more than a financial value.

I don't save the Sacajawea dollars, though. They weren't introduced into the marketplace so that people could slap down a $100 bill and get $100 shiny, new coins to stick in a box. The way money is reducing in value, a dollar isn't much more valuable than a quarter was 50 years ago. The larger the denomination, the less it is handled, and the less resilient it needs to be. $100 bills are rarely passed around, so they last a lot longer and cost less to produce. Usage increases as they get smaller in value, until we get the dollar bill, which is handled constantly. Two days ago I had 17 $1-bills in my wallet. By yesterday they had all been spent. There's no reason for such a highly-transfered piece of money to be made from paper, which degrades & falls apart the more it's handled. Coins, though they may be heavier, last much longer, and are not rendered useless just through normal handling. Coins, also, are actually made from valuable materials, which will still hold their value if something tragic happens within our economy.

The collectors who are stockpiling their Sacajawea dollars and statehood quarters aren't keeping them because of sentimental value, nor for their monetary value, and certainly not because of the value in melting the coins down for their metals. The people with hundreds of dollars worth of uncirculated dollar coins in their sock drawers are saving them based on the belief that someday, sometime down the road, someone will want to buy $100 worth of face-value for a much higher dollar amount.

Stockpiling doesn't increase the coins value, however. There may be a slight market in selling to late-comers, who were not able to get down to WalMart or their bank in time to stockpile before anyone else. Once everyone has all the coins they need, the market will cease to move. Value will drop, and I'm sure collectors would turn away from a "$0.25 each - Sacajawea Dollars!" bin at a coin shop, because they already have all that they need. None of the coins will be in circulation, and the US Mint will have to keep the paper dollars in use much longer. Or, they'd have to fire up a new set of Sacajawea dollars, each with a new year stamp, which will throw the collectors into another stockpiling frenzy.

The textbook answer is that things increase in value based on scarcity. Dollar coins may appear scarce in the marketplace, but there are plenty of them around -- in the sock drawers of everyone who had the same get-rich idea. Nobody has a blank spot in their collection where a gold dollar coin should be. Everyone who wanted a dollar coin probably already has one, thus destroying the market for the stockpilers.

What I recommend is this: Leaving 2 or 3 in your sock drawer, take your Sacajawea dollars out to your driveway. Get a heavy ballpeen hammer out of the garage, get out a bucket, and play tiddly-winks. One solid smack from the hammer to the edge of a dollar coin should pop that sucker up into the air, and with a little practice every coin will end up in the bucket.

After you've sufficiently dinged all of coins, go shopping. Put gas in your car. Buy a bunch of crap at thrift shops and sell it on eBay. Go to a movie. Do something worthwhile. Don't take them to your bank, though, because banks frown on damaged coins, but a flattened edge will be overlooked by most retailers. And, much to the benefit of the 3 coins you left in your stockpile, those damaged coins will also be overlooked by collectors. By taking 497 shiny dollars out of collector's circulation, and inserted them into marketplace circulation, you will have done some good. You will have increased the value of the coins you held on to, you marginally increase the value of every collectors coins, and you got something out of it when you went shopping. If you thoroughly considered your options, like buying groceries with dollar coins and investing the grocery budget, it's still possible to profit off those coins. With some foresight, you'll definitely profit far more by putting those coins back into circulation through strategic investment than to hold on to them. Tech stocks may be down, but they'll increase in value faster than the uncirculated coins in everyone's closets.

Feb 21 2001 0 comments

Give us room to dance, a room to dance in
Give us room to roar, a room to roar in,
When our voice is heard, there the trees break
When we hear our feet, sing on a floorboard.

Feb 21 2001 0 comments

Daily Condition:

in cd player: ruth mackenzie, kalevala - dream of the salmon maiden

my condition: working through a tiny cold *cough*

Feb 19 2001 0 comments

I can see my reflection in it -- I never realize how dirty it is until I actually clean it. Sure, it's white, it's glossy, I flush water through it regularly, so it looks okay, but it's not really okay. The glossiness is dulled by the crap I put in it, and no amount of water will get it really clean. It takes scrubbing, a touch of cleanser, and some time to bring it back to looking like new. Once I've gone over it, then I realize what was missing before. It absolutely shines, just like on TV - I hate to use it, muck it up again, but I can only hold back so long.

I cleaned my toilet yesterday!

Feb 16 2001 0 comments

I need spontaneity in my creativity. I've thought about going into business, or going back to school, or just changing my lifestyle to do the things that I am proud of: art, design, programming, etc. The only problem is that I can't muster enough energy to stick to any one of my options for a 40-hour week. Some programming here, some design there, some art here & there, until my spare time is filled with little projects. I've done enough to demonstrate talent, enough probably to get me a job, but why would I choose to crush my hobbies under deadlines & supervisors?

Feb 16 2001 0 comments

Derek Is Reading:

Dreamships, by Mellissa Scott

Feb 16 2001 0 comments

Derek Recommends:

restaurant: Hong Kong Chinese Restaurant

921 4th Ave N, Fargo (the old Pearl restaurant

Feb 11 2001 0 comments

For unexpected yet obvious reasons, hits on this website have increased significantly due to the fact that one of my editorial entries uses both the word "yoni" and the word "lingam". I love the internet!

Feb 11 2001 0 comments

2/11/2001 - the nature of sound

I got up to look out the window, but the fire engine never went by. It sounded like it was going by, right past my home, but it really wasn't there. The hook & ladder crew was probably somewhere in England, circa 1965, when the BBC sound effects library, that the radio station was using, was recorded. How could it be so convincing that a 40-year old recording of some distant sound be so present, so real, in my own home?

The answer: stereo. That magical imitation of having two ears on opposite sides, a right one and a left one, is what separates the media today from a scratchy AM transistor radio. Stereo is twised and altered to approximate reality as much as posible, though such tricks as Dolby Surround Sound and THX full-immersion digital sound systems. Either way, they all come down to an attempt to record reality & play it back later. Continue reading…

Feb 7 2001 0 comments

Daily Condition:

in cd player: Moby, moby

my condition: reading The Onion

Feb 7 2001 0 comments

I swerved quickly to avoid the abandoned unopened bag of potato chips lying in the street. First, I wondered how a full bag of potato chips ended up in the street. Did they blow out of the back of a pickup, or were they deliberately discarded for some unknown reason?

My second thought was -- damn, that would have been cool to run over! *pop* - chips everywhere!

Feb 6 2001 0 comments

FOX - DARK ANGEL - Max rescues Normal from a ring of art thieves; Logan asks Max to a family wedding (CC) (TV14)

So, Dark Angel has gone from being a post-apocalyptic science-fiction show about genetically augmented military projects, to being a sitcom? 'Art thieves' & 'non-dating people attending a wedding together' makes for a GREAT sitcom storyline!

Feb 3 2001 0 comments

I'm officially an eBay Seller now!

Feb 1 2001 0 comments

Daily Condition:

in cd player: information society, hack

my condition: trying to sustain energy to finish a job that I'm actually getting paid for...I hope to be finished by this weekend at the latest.