Fun Facts: Money & Video Game History?

You're probably not a numismatist, so you wouldn't pay attention to this sort of thing, but have you ever looked at a handfull of quarters before and noticed the years on their face?



Pretty unassuming, huh?

Well, what if I told you that some quarters tell history just by their use, or even their existence?

Go reach into your pockets, your couch cushins, your spare change bowl you keep for laundry or the tolls. Pluck out every quarter you have.

Go on, I'll wait.

You back?

Ok.

Out of the ones you found, set aside the new "State Quarters". You know, the ones that have a different state featured on each reverse "tails" side? Set those aside. Oh, yeah, now is the perfect time to weed out the Susan B. Anthony dollars & Sacajawea "gold" dollars. Those Susan B's are always mistaken for quarters.

Score $1 if you found one! (good luck finding a vending machine that distinguishes that from a quarter -- ITS IMPOSSIBLE!!!)

Check out the dates you find on the coins. For the most part, you should have a vast majority of coins with the range of 1990-2000. You should still see some stragglers from the 1970's and even sometimes the 1960's. Can you figure out what you don't see?

Coins, quarters mostly, from 1978-1988 are some of the hardest to find coins in your pocket.

Why?

Hmm. What happened within that 10 year or so span that caused quarters to virtually dissapear?

Arcades.

It started with pinball, then evolved into Pong. Then, console cases became huge with Donkey Kong, PacMan, Ms. PacMan, DigDug & Galaga.

What did they require?

Quarters. An entire allowance worth of quarters. The machines were held in arcades where the sound levels alone would cause hearing-loss after 10 minutes exposure. It was truly the golden age of computer games. Within that expanse of 10 years, games evolved from simple 8-bit games like DigDug to 16 bit games such as The Simpsons & Teenage Mutant Ninja Turles.

My addiction was SEGA's Out Run (which carried over into the SEGA Master System).

Within this time, the coins took a beating. Imagine the constant use of putting them thru the coin slots, pockets, then back into coin slots. Remember going to Chuch-E-Cheeses & Peter Piper Pizza and shelling out your dollars into the coin changers and greedily grabbed the quarters from the bin? Many of the coins wore out 10 years prematurely due to the unreal use in arcades. If you do have a coin (quarter) from this age, look at its condition. It's probably worn smoother than coins of similar design and of older mint.

Imagine how many games of Terminator were played with that one coin, or how many times another round of PacMan was played because you were "in the zone".

I doubt you care like I do. Just thought I would share.

Oh, by the way. Now that you've looked at your coins, here's an explination on the smell of the coins.

Happy Single Awareness Day!

Happy Valentines Day

Observations from the middle of the night

I was told by a close friend "why do you put it upon yourself to try and fix things for others?" to which I replied it was my nature to do so.

I rely on my friend to be a blunt-question asking person because I am the same to him.

I don't like turmoil within my friends. My natural nurturing persona tells me I need to do what I can to return my friend's mental or physical being to what it used to be. I do that often times damning the consequences.

I do it because I would like to believe these "friends" I help would do the same for me.

I have 4 people I would drop everything for and help with whatever they asked me to.

Why?

These 4 people (in the past, and proved it) would drop whatever they were doing to help me.

I had (tonight) drove home a friend from a pretty traumatic night. He asked my advice on a touchy subject, in which he asked what I would do for a friend who contemplated suicide. I told him to assist the friend in getting them the help they needed, if not for their sake, but for your own peace of mind.

I told him "If the situation was reversed, would he do the same for you?" to which he replied "I don't know if he would".

I told him "then that's the difference between the two of you, your level of compassion for wanting to help and asking others to assist. He might not do the same for you, but you can do it for him and hope he comes around one day".

I pick and choose my friends carefully. I enjoy every minute of their company and yes, I will go out of my way for them.

I know they would do the same for me.

Life goes on

I really shouldn't be upset. Then again, I have a valid excuse.

Today's digital age and instant news gratification has been both frowned upon and applauded for accessibility but seeming lack of humanity. It seems its easier to simply check up on a person using sites like Blogger, MySpace, Live Journal and Typepad than it is to simply pick up the telephone and hold a simple 5 minute conversation with the same person.

I just think it has something to do with our shortened attention spa -- ooh, shiny quarter...

I digress.

I'm pretty sure the invention of the telephone way back when garnered the same ill feelings towards the new medium.

I digress again.

It has never happened to me untill now. A "friend" of mine announced apparently for some time now that he was planning on moving out of town. I didn't catch wind of it until 5 days prior to his move, and 4 days before my next time off. Then, all I get is a simple text message that he had arrived in his new city safely. No face to face goodbye, no hug, not even a group dinner to say farewell.

Life does go on. I am not letting this insignificant event ruin things for me. It just means times and people change.

Doesn't mean it doesn't hurt.

A "Normal" Day of Work for Me

I wake up at 4am on average. It's tough, for a non-morning person it is tough. I gulp down some coffee, then I grab my crap (two cell phones, BLUETOOTH earpiece & wired headphone, iPod, 2 pair sunglasses, fountain pen) and breakfast and jump into the car.

Sounds normal so far.

I pick up my coworker. He tosses his crap into the back of my car. Sometimes he puts the strangest things in the car, like CD players, TiVo, sports jerseys, hoola hoops, foam machines, basketballs. I still think the hoola hoop was the strangest thing, and was surprised that actually fit in the Mustang (back in the day). We talk about a lot of things on the commute, mostly TV shows and the such. We make each other laugh pretty hard. Its hard to remember that my coworker is blind.

We head to work. There is almost no one on the roads at 4:30. I sit down and start editing shows. I see the people the listeners only hear on their radios. They're sitting down in other studios working within earshot of each other just getting things ready for the 6am start to their shows. Melissa Kerr pokes her head in and says her good mornings and laughs her trademark laugh, Vicky Lee finding comedy bits to play on air. There's a good number of sound bites that we can't play, which is a shame.

Then, there's the unmistakable sound of Tiny TT running down the hall. If you've ever heard the sound of a "little person" running thru a hallway at 5am, you understand where I am coming from. To make things even more normal, you should see him on holidays. All I have to say is "costumes". Picture that running by your door every morning.

Its a normal day for me, really. I get to hear and see all of that long before any ones alarm clock goes off for themselves to wake up.