Archive for May, 2009

I’m a big fan of money. I need it to continue financing this website and my lavish lifestyle of the poor and unnoticed; but I mostly need it to continue living in my home and paying for my education (which concluded some time ago).

One of money’s downfalls (not the love of it), quite frankly, has been it’s largely unchanged design; it looks fantastic, and purely American, but the Dollar Redesign Project has me interested in what else might be possible. The project itself is fictitious but seeks to pose the question, “what could our money look like if we moved in a drastically different direction?”

Design by Michael Tyznik

There are a lot of excellent designs on that site that more or less take cues from other world currencies; I must admit, though, that I’m a bit in love with our current designs, simply because we’ve chosen to ignore those trends. But I cannot stress enough how great it would be to see this kind of change in our currency. I’m a fan of unique and excellent design, and to see it in our money would be brilliant. I’m particularly fond of this design by Michael Tyznik.

Take a look at the Dollar Redesign Project and consider the thought experiment it poses. Are we not ready, with a bearish economy, for something positive like this? Something to take the edge off for a bit, something to give us a small bit of national pride? Three fingers of whiskey for the destitute in the form of freshly designed cash?

Note: Originally published Friday October 27, 2006 on an old defunct project.

This is the story of a border, 2,100 miles in length; a story that is rich in historical significance; a story that is rich in cultural implications; or rather, a story that is about as ridiculous as my opening.

The Yard

Look, Uncle Sam, I love you—no, no, don’t say that, I really do. I didn’t want to be the one to have to tell you the obvious, but you see, you have a problem. Yeah, it turns out your neighbors have kind of been walking into your yard and using your pool and grill, and I guess they’ve been walking in your house and actually cooking your food on that grill, too.

I know, you know, but, uh, they’re kind of trespassing, which I think is illegal in this county. Punishable by deportation to the next county; yeah, it’s pretty serious stuff.

Oh, you have a plan to remedy the situation? Well, that’s great. Oh, and you’ve run it by the missus and she’s ok with it? Even better! So what is it?

Ah, you’re putting up a fence, you sly devil. What kind of fence, like a really tall one, with barbed wire, or…? Oh, I see, you’re putting up a chain-link fence, and its only covering how much of your yard space? One third?

Look, Sam—can I call you Sam— I’m not sure that a short chain-link fence covering a third of your yard is really going to stop your neighbors from getting in. Oh, we’re only talking about one third of the back line of your yard…look buddy that might be worse. You’re probably only going to slow your neighbors down a little, because all they have to do is walk twenty feet to their east and they’re right back in your yard doing the same thing as before. And it looks like, uh, your wife isn’t going to allocate any extra money to the project, so how are you paying for it?

Oh, you want your friends to think you’re tough on these illegal trespassers; yeah, I guess you look that way. But, don’t you think that you’re offending your closest neighbor in the back by only putting up a fence on the side that he touches?

Yeah, I understand you’ve also got to be tough on those neighborhood terrors, the darn kids; always plotting ways to get into your yard so they can vandalize your house. I remember when they took down your tall oak with a chainsaw—unbelievable, especially how they did it from the top down. Kids are inventive, aren’t they? But they haven’t really bugged you since then. Since you bought the house of, well, what you thought was one of the ring leaders. I guess he really wasn’t though, was he? But you wanted that 1.2 acre plot of rich land anyway, so it all worked out.

But, really, if you want to keep things under control at home, a longer fence might help, or a couple more dogs; something to patrol the yard a little. It might scare people off a bit.

And really, you’ve got to stop leaving the garage doors open, and your house doors unlocked, it really sends the wrong message.

I’ve noticed an inordinate amount of spam comments coming in over the lines lately; most from a user name like Free-I-Phones-and-how-to-get-them. They are not immediately published, of course, but they still come through.

If anyone works with Wordpress and knows of an excellent spam prevention plug in, let me know.

Ever have one of those days when you regret purchasing a car that you really wanted? Well, I’m having one of those just about every day for the past few months. It seems like I’ve replaced or repaired more than my fair share of items on this vehicle. It’s definitely a money pit.

After a year and roughly fifteen thousand miles, the lower intake gasket on my 2000 GMC Jimmy has failed–again. This is a little frustrating to me as this repair probably should have lasted at least another forty-five thousand or so. Instead of taking it to the shop, though, I think this time around I’ll go ahead and take care of it myself. I’m fairly adept at dealing with cars–go figure–something I’ve started to get into the past few years.

Next on the list of fun and exciting things is that lovely coolant aroma inside of my vehicle. Yes, when I initially turn the heat on it’s a rush of coolant to the nostrils. It’s so sweet and lovely it’s disgusting. It assaults you from all angles and makes you want to rip your hair out–not from the smell but from knowing the heater core is leaking, but only ever so slightly right now. I hear this is a tough job and do not look forward to it. I may be able to put it off at least through the summer so that’s good.

Last, but certainly never mistaken for least, I believe my radiator is possibly leaking. I noticed a spot of coolant on the ground on the front driver’s side of the truck after coming home from work last night. It looks like it’s running from the front of the radiator and towards the engine compartment from multiple spots, but probably only from somewhere near the top. Whatever the case, I might be replacing this radiator. It doesn’t look like an incredibly expensive or difficult job, just kind of a bigger one than I’ve ever really tackled.

All I want to say about all of this at this point is: AHHHHHHH, no more!