commentary on my life?
Dec. 20th, 2006 07:58 amAlmost everyone has a change jar, right? I have two. One has a bunch of quarters, dimes, and pennies in it (no nickels, interestingly enough). The other?
Two 1000 lire coins. A .20 franc coin. A Loonie. Two Cayman island nickels. Six Russian cents, whatever they're actually called. Two pounds 47 pence in various denominations. Four euros in coins, and a five euro bill. I used to have a couple of Israeli coins, too, but they seem to have gone walkabout.
I need some pocket change from South America next, I think...
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I ran across this quote while backtracking on something, and love it so much I just want to post it for folk to admire. And remember.
"Writing a science fiction story is fun, not work. ... the fun... lies in treating the whole thing as a game. ... the rules must be quite simple. They are; for the reader of a science-fiction story, they consist of finding as many as possible of the author's statements or implications which conflict with the facts as science currently understands them. For the author, the rule is to make as few such slips as he possibly can ... Certain exceptions are made [e.g., to allow travel faster than the speed of light], but fair play demands that all such matters be mentioned as early as possible in the story..."
(anyone able to identify the author?)
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No writing of note accomplished last night. I was pinned on the sofa by two felines, and forced to nap. And watch a Travel Network special on aquamarines. Oh, the trauma. Okay, I'm not a hug fan of aquamarines, per se. But they're still pretty rocks.
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Um. Today is Wednesday, right? The 20th? Of December? Just checking.
Two 1000 lire coins. A .20 franc coin. A Loonie. Two Cayman island nickels. Six Russian cents, whatever they're actually called. Two pounds 47 pence in various denominations. Four euros in coins, and a five euro bill. I used to have a couple of Israeli coins, too, but they seem to have gone walkabout.
I need some pocket change from South America next, I think...
----------------------------------
I ran across this quote while backtracking on something, and love it so much I just want to post it for folk to admire. And remember.
"Writing a science fiction story is fun, not work. ... the fun... lies in treating the whole thing as a game. ... the rules must be quite simple. They are; for the reader of a science-fiction story, they consist of finding as many as possible of the author's statements or implications which conflict with the facts as science currently understands them. For the author, the rule is to make as few such slips as he possibly can ... Certain exceptions are made [e.g., to allow travel faster than the speed of light], but fair play demands that all such matters be mentioned as early as possible in the story..."
(anyone able to identify the author?)
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No writing of note accomplished last night. I was pinned on the sofa by two felines, and forced to nap. And watch a Travel Network special on aquamarines. Oh, the trauma. Okay, I'm not a hug fan of aquamarines, per se. But they're still pretty rocks.
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Um. Today is Wednesday, right? The 20th? Of December? Just checking.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-20 01:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-20 02:15 pm (UTC)Also, it's great research fodder if I ever need to know what kinds of coin were used in any timeframe I have the coinage for. :)
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Date: 2006-12-20 02:26 pm (UTC)(the Russian coins were probably left from my folks' trip there. The Cayman island coins were from the cruise last year. The lire I kept from my first [pre-euro] trip to Italy. The franc... when I was there, they were using the euro, I thought, so who knows. Anything else that turns up, I'm blaming on
no subject
Date: 2006-12-20 07:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-20 02:19 pm (UTC)How sad is it that I've begun to remember dates by what medical tests I have?
no subject
Date: 2006-12-20 02:39 pm (UTC)I don't keep the foreign coins with any intention of using them (c'mon, I don't do that much international travel(). However, at a Hanukah party over the weekend, it occured to me that it would be a very cool thing to prepare little bags of Hanukah gelt made up of coins from around the world. I would have found that a truly magical gift as a child.
Loonies?
Date: 2006-12-20 04:27 pm (UTC)Re: Loonies?
Date: 2006-12-20 04:32 pm (UTC)Re: Loonies?
Date: 2006-12-20 07:43 pm (UTC)Re: Loonies?
Date: 2006-12-21 03:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-20 06:33 pm (UTC)And yes, Wednesday the 20th of December. In 2006. *grin*
no subject
Date: 2006-12-20 07:44 pm (UTC)Yes, I could identify the author, but only because I just read the wikipedia article on him after reading your reaction on my post over at
no subject
Date: 2006-12-20 07:48 pm (UTC)(Harry is still one of my all-time favorite SF writers. And he was a wonderful 'uman bean, too.)
no subject
Date: 2006-12-20 11:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-21 04:41 pm (UTC)I think I can handle that. Yup, here's a 500 peso note from Argentina and an indeterminate denomination coin from Panama. In addition to the usual pounds sterling, Euros, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand stuff, I've also got a pile of stuff from Ceylon, some Soviet rubles, an unidentified coin with asian characters and a square hole in the middle, a Jamaican dollar, 30 sen from Malaysia, a half-cent piece from Sierra Leone, some very, very old Francs, Mexican pesos, and deutschmarks.
I've been squirrelling away interesting coins since I was nine, and recently received the ones my father has been hoarding, so there are a lot of them. For American coins I've got a smattering of Susan B. Anthonys, a Sacajawea, a pile of Kennedy halfs, another pile of Eisenhower dollars, silver dimes and silver quarters, including several Mercury dimes and Liberty half dollars. A couple of buffalo nickles. And an Indian head somethingorother with a hole punched in it, from 1864. Dunno where that one came from; I expect it's been in the family for a very long time. None of these is in particularly collectible condition.
I also have a formal collection of the states quarters. All circulated, but in good condition.