US Quarters

Regular US Quarter. WHEN WILL I SEE YOU AGAIN?

It has been 10 years since we have seen a regular release (minted) US quarter. The kind like this with George Washington on the front and an Eagle on the back. The kind of quarter you don't bother to look at and admire the design, because you know what it looks like. You might check out the front just to see what year the thing was minted. Sometimes it's fun to see a coin with the year you were born on it, or some other special year for you.

1965 Quarter front

Front and back of Regular US Quarters (1932-1998)

The George Washington Eagle Quarter went mostly unchanged from 1932 to 1998. The profile of Washington went through a couple of slight modifications once or twice over the years, but they were subtle and only coin collectors really cared that much to notice. The eagle on the back has also gone pretty much unchanged. In 1976 for the Bicentennial the US Mint made special Bicentennial Quarters. The special commemorative quarters still had George Washington profile on the front with the years 1776-1976 underneath in the regular spot for the year of mintage. The back had the portrait of a colonial drummer. Then in 1977 they returned to the standard George with the Eagle back.

This regular familiar design was interrupted in 1999 when the US Mint started their 50 States Quarters Program. Each year from 1999 - 2008 they minted a different design for each of the 50 states. They released 5 different state quarters each year in order of when that state joined the republic of the United States.

Front of US State Quarters (1999-2008)

The Front has similar George Washington Portrait as the old quarters, but the writing on the front was majorly changed. United States of America was brought to the front, the word Liberty was moved down from the top to the side and made smaller. The words Quarter Dollar was also brought from the back to the front.

Back of Delaware State Quarter 1999

The backs were each unique and distinct for each individual state. The state name along with the year the state joined the United States and the year of mintage were put on the back. More details and all the designs can be seen here: http://www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/50sq_program/

OK so now it's been 10 years since we've seen an eagle on the back of a quarter. Sure there are still tons of these coins in circulation, but new ones have not been produced since 1998. Sometime during the 10 years of the States Quarters Program people seeing the schedule for the coins started wondering if or when they would produce a quarter for the Nations Capital Washington DC. Technically not a state DC was not included in the States program. This past year 2009 the US Mint released a Washington DC quarter in their six quarter District of Columbia and U.S. Territories quarters. The quarter for the territory of The Northern Mariana Islands by the way is the most difficult one to find as they minted very few of those and the distribution of them was more limited than the other designs of the Territories coins. To see the list and links to their designs visit http://www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/dcandterritories/

NOW the US Mint has started a New Quarter Program. This is another 10+ Year Program. Called "America The Beautiful" this program features designs with US National Parks. The coin fronts will still have the familiar 1932 George Washington Portrait on the front, with the Park design on the back. The release schedule seems to be when the park was designated a National Park. This program starts this year 2010 http://www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/atb/ and will end 2021. There are 56 quarters in this set. Each year they will release 5 quarters with a design of a State Park. There is already a generation of kids who haven't seen the regular design as a NEW quarter. By the time the Parks series is finished those kids will probably barely recognize the regular design. This will be a large set for collectors to acquire. It also means it will be at least the year 2022 before we see a REGULAR QUARTER ever again.

Mailinglist Name Misspelling Rant

Or What's In A Name?

OK I can live with the common misspelling of my last name using an "o" instead of an "e". It used to really tick me off, but I've learned to accept it, as I'm sure people with the last name of Smith who spell their last name Smyth. The Scandinavian spelling I use seems to baffle most people, even though Hans Christian Andersen is probably known more world-wide than Pamela Anderson (except to fans of Baywatch and Playboy magazine subscribers). Still most people spell the name Andersen with an "sOn". It's only natural since the surname in most languages and cultures means "the son of Ander (or Anders)".

I can even put up with some of the weird misspellings of my first name but the one that gets my goat, or grinds my gears is "Kirl". ACK! that's right some idiot data entry clerk at some credit card company, probably Citibank about 2 or 3 years ago, maybe even earlier somehow deleted my second "k" and combined my middle initial to my first name. Now there is a mailing list with that name on it. Wait, What? KIRL isn't even a name, it's not even the proper spelling of Curl. It's what you do to your hair, or with a set of weights, or even a very bad misspelling of a young person of the female gender.

I don't know how many times I've received junk mail under that "name". I used to tear them up and recycle them, but now if I want to take the trouble I mark those letters "Return To Sender" mark up the name a little and put a note that says something like "No such person", or "Nobody by that name at this address" and I usually put "Please remove from mailing list". Of course all this returned mail won't even be looked at, and half of it won't even be delivered by the post office. So why should I bother?

OK this made me feel a little better.

Maybe I should try to get a second identity under that name and get a second Social Security number. NO I would probably be arrested for identity theft, or trying to use an alias. Then how the frack do all those criminals steal names so easily, yet the victims spend many years trying to get things fixed and it never gets corrected?

Other misspellings of my name I can recall have been:

Akirk -I think this was another CitiBank special, using the first letter of my last name added to the front of my first name.
Curt - Often people ask me if I spell my name that way, Um NO I'm a Kirk not a Kurt. It is interesting how I haven't heard of a spelling of "Cirk".
Kick - Another Non-Name.
Kurt - Again I've been asked if this it the spelling for my name.

Rick -I know sometimes I've been called that by people who have misheard my name. I don't think I've received any mail under that name. Oddly enough I have sometimes also been called "Erik". I have a brother Erik, but often the people asking have no idea I have a brother with that name.
Turk - This I've just heard from people who have misheard my name. Again another NON-Name. I have never received any mail under it Thank Goodness

Not sure If I've gotten a "Kirt", or even a "Krik", but once several years ago from the magazine Scientific American (or maybe just Science Magazine) the label was addressed "Dr. Kirk Andersen". Somewhere I think I still have that subscription form. I liked that I was tempted to subscribe to the dang thing just because of the title on the label. It wouldn't have been worth it though as the subscription rates for that magazine was pretty expensive. With doctors as subscribers I guess they do gouge their subscribers a bit.

Good thing I don't have a complicated Middle Eastern name, that would get butchered by most English speaking people, both in pronunciation and in spelling. OK Rant over for now.

Google Yahoo Word: Dodgent

DODGENT

Another Wacky Sign-In Word. IN another of my random wacky words. I got "dodgent". I'm not sure what to make of that. The only fun thing I could think of was the Los Angeles Dodgers. Either the Dodgers don't or that is what you call their agent a "Dodgent". Unfortunately when I entered that word I entered it wrong, or entered my password wrong because I got an error that said the word didn't match, so I got another word. I don't recall what the other word was it wasn't as fun a word.

Merlin Olsen (1940 - 2010)

Merlin Jay Olsen (September 15, 1940 – March 11, 2010)

Today is a sad day for Rams fans. HOFer Merlin Olsen (Age 69) passed away due to mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer often related to exposure to asbestos. He played with the Los Angeles Rams from 1962 - 1976 he was enshrined into the National Football League's Hall of Fame in 1982.

Olsen played left tackle in the Rams' legendary front four nicknamed "The Fearsome Foursome", with David "Deacon" Jones at left end, Roosevelt "Rosey" Grier at right tackle and Lamar Lundy at right end. Jones, who lined up to Mr. Olsen's left, coined the term "sack" to describe tackling the opposing quarterback behind the line of scrimmage. Olsen is the second member of the Fearsome Foursome to pass away, Lundy passed away on February 24 2007 at the age of 71.

Fearsome Foursome: (L to R): Lamar Lundy, Rosey Grier, Merlin Olsen and Deacon Jones

Merlin was also known for his acting in television roles for "Little House on The Prairie" and "Father Murphy" . Teammate Lundy also did some acting he portrayed the boulder-hurling cyclops in the (previously) unaired pilot of Lost in Space (this pilot was later made into episode 4 of the series, entitled "There Were Giants in the Earth").

Lamar Lundy as the Cyclops Monster in "Lost in Space".

Another Wacky Yahoo Word: Repturl

Gotta love those code words that Yahoo (or is it Google?) randomly comes up with when you enter some comment on someone elses blog, or you sign-in from some odd site somewhere. Well my latest blog-worthy weird word was "repturl". It made me think of these aliens from a Doctor Who book story or two. They were a warrior race of turtle-like creatures.

The aliens are actually called "Chelonian". They are lead by a great "mother" who is referred to as a "he". It has been several years since I've read these books. Doing a little research it looks like "The Highest Science" by Gareth Roberts was published first in 1993 then "Zamper" by the same author was published in 1995. I have read both books, but I think Zamper is the one I most remember vaguely more of than the other. These creatures have appeared in other Doctor Who Stories. In my research they were in an early script for what would become the TV Episode "Planet Of The Dead". They were replaced by the fly-like creatures called Tritovore. At least that is what I made of some of the info I gleamed from The Doctor Who Wiki website.

Max Headroom Coming to DVD

Well It's About Bloody Time!

Matt Frewer as Max Headroom

From an email I got from TVShowsOnDVD.com I got the heads up that one of my favorite Mid-1980s Sci-Fi television dramas is coming to DVD. Yes Finally MAX HEADROOM (20 Minutes Into The Future) is coming to DVD legitimately. Here is a blurb on it Max-Headroom DVDs Planned.

Matt Frewer and Amanda Pays

Max Headroom is a computer generated image (with assistance from scanned images of Matt Frewer in prosthetic make-up) that in the plot of the series a teenage computer whiz-kid created. I won't go into details of the series just yet here at least not in this post.

The character of Max Headroom first started out in Coca-Cola commercials in the US and I understand that previously in the UK he was a VJ host of some kind. Anyway first a British Made TV Plot was filmed (It was available on VHS it is long out-of-print) then a US television series was made.


This soon to be released DVD is for the US series. I hope that they include the original UK Pilot, or at least soon release that to DVD. There was even a Max Headroom talkshow after the US TV series died out way too soon, hopefully that will see the laser-light of DVD sometime soon.

So soon we will be able to toss back a few Zic-Zac cola's and skip the blipverts. Now Disney has to release Song of the South to DVD and my world will be back on track.

Release date is scheduled to be 10 August, 2010.

Ford 2010 Models Mailing

Back in November I think, maybe even as early as Sept or Oct, in the mail I had received a Ford promotional mailing thing for the new upcoming 2010 models cars and trucks.

Oh boy exciting.

I was going to throw it away actually recycle it, but I noticed there were some stickers. Then I realized the entire promo package was stickers so I decided to keep it for a weird collectible type thing. It won't become valuable for any real amount of money. Maybe a few years down the road I will sell it for "Wow Factor".


They start things off with a little "Edge". Each vehicle in the promo has an information sheet, and then on the back are some stickers of that model and some Ford Logos or car parts. I guess they intended to give the adults who were thinking of buying a Ford all the info on the various models and then give their kids something to do while Mommy and Daddy are out buying their new ford.


Then they brag a little about how tough their trucks are and how much they can haul.


Next for those of you who want to help keep the Earth green they have their Hybrid card The Fusion.

Finally they end with their popular economy car Taurus.


Pretty neat, but hopefully I won't be buying a new Ford this year.

I'm trying to make my 2002 Focus stay in focus for another 2 years before I even think about getting a new car. Plus financially I can't afford a new car until probably next year.

Celebrity vs. Non-Celbrity Rant

Celeb Rant

OK so who is this? Lara Croft Right? Angelina Jolie? No it's Allison Carroll she's been the official Lara Croft for the video games promotional stuff since 2008 where have you been? (That is what many people will say about me after this rant I guess)

I am beyond tired of Non-Celebrity-Celebrities. The people who are famous for just being famous. How the heck did they become famous? People who appear on or win these reality TV contest shows are NOT CELEBS! WHY OH WHY Does the frack'n Media treat them as celebrities?

When I first heard about that couple who had eight kids and got a reality television show to tell about them just because they had eight kids I didn't know or care what their names were. Then I started hearing about Nick and Sally or Cathy or whatever her name was/is. Every once in a while there would be a news headline that said "Sally upset over wedding cake" OK who the heck is Sally again? Oh Yeah she's that woman on that stupid reality show. People actually watch that show?

I am also sick of when the media using just one name in a headline. "Jessica is Pregnant" OK WHICH JESSICA? Simpson? Hawn? Beal? Sarah Parker? Rabbit? Private Lynch? WHO? WHICH ONE?

It used to be in reporting you would give the person's full name THE FIRST TIME you mention their name (an usually also in the tagline or headline) THEN after the first mention you can give just their last name. Since you have already mentioned their full name and your readers know who you are talking about. If you have a small closed audience and always mention the same people I guess you can get away with this type of first name only reporting, but most of the time this is just too confusing.

The same applies with organizations and companies. You give the full company name, or the companies public trading name FIRST then later you can use the acronym or abbreviation. The few exceptions are The FBI, CIA & KGB (Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti - English translation is Committee of State Security) organizations that are widely well known often world wide and are not often confused with something else.

OK we can get when someone says "Jacko" they mean Micheal Jackson or "Jay-Lo" is Jennifer Lopez but other than that most of the time it can get pretty confusing and then frustrating if you aren't up on the Celebrity of the Minute.

So please World Wide Media stop with the "Simpson goes back to Jail" Head-Lines. Which One? Jessica? O.J.? Bart? You know it's worse when the name is Smith or the first name is John. OK which John are you talking about now? Which one is currently the most popular John?

[Edit note:] Why is there some bracket like lines with the KGB translation? It doesn't show when I preview, but shows up in the final form. Weird.

Stuper Bowled 44

Coming Sunday it's the annual NFL Budweiser Clydesdale Commercial Celebration with a football game. Wait that's not right, OH yeah it's the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue? Um the revival of Rock 'n' Rollergames? Oh that's right the SUPER BOWL. The Indianapolis Colts vs. The New Orleans Saints. It's the first time for the Saints to the big show, and the umpty umpth for the Colts.

So what commercial will everybody be talking about on Monday morning 8 February 2010? I don't know and I don't really care. I will of course watch the game and actually pay attention to the commercials, except for when I really really gotta go to the head.

Sometimes I take pride in the fact that I am as old as the Super Bowl, but since Super Bowl XL that pride has fallen by the wayside along with my youth and my excellent health. Just call me Middle-Aged Man!

The first Super Bowl I recall watching or being interested in was SB VII (7) The Washington Redskins were the favored team, even though the AFC Miami Dolphins had an undefeated season, and ended up winning 14-7. It was a major disappointment. It was also disappointing because my fave quarterback Sonny Jurgensen didn't play because of a leg injury he had during the season. I recall my brother used to (and probably still does somewhere) have a joke book that had photos of the Redskins season that year with cartoon "thought" balloons. One of the pictures was of Sonny on the sidelines on Crutches. I forget what the saying was. I don't have many clear memories of the actual game, like so many other games though the years. The Skins did have revenge 10 years later in SB XVII. My fave Super Bowl though is XXII when the Skins beat the tar out of the Broncos 42-10. That was the best 2nd quarter of any Super Bowl I've seen, and as I said the first one I saw was number 7 and I've seen every one ever since. I've been bored with some of them especially during the 1990s but the last few have been exciting. For a few years there the commercials were more exciting than the game.

I do have some vague memories of a commercial campaign around that time for Noxzema cleansing cream. One of the Super Bowl commercials from back then was with Joe Namath and a the Noxzema girl who was a then unkown Farrah Fawcett. I recall she used to sing the jingle part of which went "Let Noxzema cream your face.." something something "it can't be beat"

Joe Namath and Farrah Fawcett from Noxzema shoot.

If I recall correctly at the end of that commercial with Joe and Farrah she smacks him in the face with a handful of the stuff. see it on youtube OK so maybe the last part of my quote isn't right.

Anyway a classic Super Bowl commercial is the famous Coke commercial with Joe Greene and a kid, where the kid gives "mean Joe" his Coke and Joe gives the kid the sweaty jersey from his back. My faves have always been the Budweiser Clydesdale commercials. One of the best I think is the one where the horses are playing football and you see a zebra "reviewing" the last play, two cowboys are standing against a fence, one of them says "That referee is a jack-ass" the other one says "Nope I believe that is a Zebra".

Zebra Referee Commercial

Remember during the 80s, if you were alive then, the Bud Bowl commercials? It was one of the first concept "mock Super Bowl" commercials where they pitted regular Budweiser Bottles up against Bud Light, the bottles had on little helmets instead of bottle caps, I think they were stop motion type animation. Pretty silly but they had them for a few years until people got sick of them. I think they are much better than the "Waaazz UP?" or that STUPID E*Trade talking baby. UGH I can't stand those things.

There have been some side line gimmicks that feed off the success of the Super Bowl. The Puppy Bowl, Various Half-Time Specials like the "In Living Color" Live Half-Time Special one year and more recently the Lingerie Bowl. The LB is apparently a real thing though as there is a real Lingerie Football League. I think it started as a joke, but got such a super reaction it became a reality. CSI:NY a couple of weeks ago had an episode that featured the LFL the story centered around the death of a quarterback for the NY team that was found dead floating in the whirl-pool sauna. I've never really watched any of a Lingerie Bowl, or a LFL game if those are real.


Anyway with the game I hope the Saints win because I always think its cool when a team that has never been before beats a more established team.

Mabye I'll cheer to see more of this:

Credit Score Rant

Rant: WARNING this got me so angry I might use some very strong language.
As if anything related to credit scores could get any worse. I heard that now some companies are thinking of looking not only at your credit score, but also at your history on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. The idea is to check out your associates and friends credit histories and compare theirs to yours. WT? Apparently some Creditors are Using Social Networks to check your credit worthyness. The idea is if your friend Joe Blow is chronically late with his payments then you might be also. Well if your friend Joe Blow had blonde hair and dyed it Pink and got a Mohawk then the chances are pretty good you would too. Right? Well that is the logic they are following and with a whole boatload of other things associated with your credit score THIS IS WRONG AS WELL.

First of all your credit score is oh so mighty and powerful, that without it you can't get bank loans to buy a car or house and now they are saying even getting a job can be affected by your credit score. UGH.

OK so there are thousands of commercials that say you need to know what your credit score is and you can get it FOR FREE. Well the catch is you can ONLY GET IT FOR FREE ONCE A YEAR! If you want unlimited access to YOUR OWN CREDIT SCORE you have to pay $7.00 a month or a year or some asinine amount to each of the 3 credit reporting companies. IT SHOULD BE FRACKIN' FREE 'NUFF SAID.

Oh and any creditor who wants to can check out your score any DAMN TIME THEY FEEL LIKE IT. AND YOU NEVER GET TOLD! Unless you start looking at your credit score yourself.

THIS SHIT NEEDS TO CHANGE. The individual should have access to their score AT ANYTIME. It's the CREDITORS SHOULD HAVE TO PAY $1,000.00 EVERYTIME THEY LOOK AT YOUR SCORE.

So Equifax, Experian and whoever else the BIG AND MIGHTY THREE CREDIT SCORE COMPANIES ARE PLEASE START GIVING ME MY FREE CREDIT SCORE EVERY MONTH AND TELL ME WHEN SOMEONE REQUESTS TO LOOK AT IT. AND CHARGE THEM, NOT ME TO SEE IT.

How long have credit scores been around anyway? It seems they have only been around for 20 or 30 years or less. Maybe I'm just too damn ignorant of what exactly the credit scores do or how they are collected, like millions of other Americans. If the crap is supposed to be so damn important than how come it's SO DAMN HARD TO FIND OUT and to correct if there is a problem. Worse yet why is it so damn hard for the victim of identity theft to correct the problem and straighten out their credit score, after having had their ID stolen.

I am beginning to think this whole credit score business should not exist at all. AMERICA LETS GET RID OF IT FOR A BETTER system that helps the individual and NOT THE BANKS or the CRIMINALS.