Brian Kuhl's Blog

You have entered 90,944 Bills worth $257,860
Bills with hits: 7,083 Total hits: 8,051
Hit rate: 7.79% Slugging Percentage: 8.85% (total hits/total bills)
George Score: 1,237.27
Your rank (based on George Score) is #268
(out of 51,926 current users with a George Score. [99.5 Percentile])
Your State Rank in Florida is: 17 out of 7,708 [99.8]
Your initial entries with hits have traveled a total of 3,784,461 miles.
They have averaged 478.8 miles per hit and 189.02 days between each hit.

Well, I finally passed 90,000 bills entered, but I think I may have to rethink my strategy of going to the casino. Part of the problem inherent of gambling is that I’ll more likely lose money than gain it. Even if I go in, put bills in and cash out without gambling, I have to pay gas money there and back. I also risk raising suspicion of the casino management. They may wonder why I’m putting money into their machines, but not playing.

I was thinking of cashing in some quarters tomorrow, but it may be better to not have the cash around to spend. In fact, the cash that I have now is in marked singles. I really don’t like the idea of depositing marked singles. Not that I have a lot of bills in my possession, but I may have to find a way other than the casino to swap out bills so I have unmarked bills to deposit if I need to.

I do have several leads going on jobs. One is at a bank. All I’ve gotten back so far is an automated reply, but that was last week. I‘m hoping that they’ll start calling people in starting Monday. There are a few other jobs that I applied to a while ago, including Sears. I think it’s been long enough that I’m probably not going to get an interview with them. However, I believe Sears keeps applications on file for a few months, so anything’s possible.

I’m even considering writing on Epinions again, even though there was very little income involved. At least it would give me something to do during the day other than watch TV. The days of making serious money on that site are long gone. I really need to find a job and soon.

You have entered 87,421 Bills worth $250,036
Bills with hits: 6,939 Total hits: 7,891
Hit rate: 7.94% Slugging Percentage: 9.03% (total hits/total bills)
George Score: 1,234.68
Your rank (based on George Score) is #286
(out of 52,320 current users with a George Score. [99.5 Percentile])
Your State Rank in Florida is: 17 out of 7,690 [99.8]
Your initial entries with hits have traveled a total of 3,696,012 miles.
They have averaged 476.9 miles per hit and 188.21 days between each hit.

I have two interesting hits to report. One waited 1 year, 204 days, 3 hours and 4 minutes to go 0.0 miles. It’s nice that I got a sleeper, but it sucks that it went nowhere after all that time. The other hit ended up in Milan, Italy. Almost 5,000 miles in just under 20 days.

In other news, it looks like I’ll finish the month with 6,676 bills entered. It’s conceivable that I could get 10,000 bills in one month, but I don’t want to spend a lot of money without a job and if I don’t go to the casino, there’s no real way to get that many bills into circulation. The fact that I got so many bills this month was a bit of a fluke.

I am looking for work. I’ve applied at Sears and a few banks. My parents even want me to apply at the casino, but it doesn‘t look like they have anything I’d be interested in. I just have to keep on looking.

You have entered 78,734 Bills worth $230,667
Bills with hits: 6,485 Total hits: 7,378
Hit rate: 8.24% Slugging Percentage: 9.37% (total hits/total bills)
George Score: 1,226.40
Your rank (based on George Score) is #303
(out of 52,717 current users with a George Score. [99.4 Percentile])
Your State Rank in Florida is: 22 out of 7,603 [99.7]
Your initial entries with hits have traveled a total of 3,405,676 miles.
They have averaged 469.5 miles per hit and 184.02 days between each hit.

It’s official. The store I work at is closing.

It’s kind of sad considering that this was the first real, permanent job I had. It’s also the job I had that allowed me to find out about Where’s George and enter so many bills. Yes, I know I would have found out about it anyway, but I may have grown bored with it if I didn’t have steady funding to back it up.

I’m going to miss the people I’ve worked with. There were a lot of people, may of which are no longer with the company. I’ll remember a lot of the regular customers, but not all of them fondly. (There was a sign that my friend’s parents had in their house. It read along the lines of, “Everyone brings joy to this house, some by coming and others by leaving.”)

It’s not very likely that I’ll be transferred, as there seem to be more employees than positions. I’ve been asking people if they know anyone that’s hiring, but everyone is worried about being laid off themselves. It’s a tough economy.

This blog doesn’t bring in much money, nor have many of my other endeavors. I may write on Epinions to bring in something and I will have unemployment to look forward to, but I have to find another steady paycheck, so if you know anyone’s who’s hiring…

You have entered 77,387 Bills worth $227,993
Bills with hits: 6,389 Total hits: 7,266
Hit rate: 8.26% Slugging Percentage: 9.39% (total hits/total bills)
George Score: 1,224.62
Your rank (based on George Score) is #297
(out of 52,848 current users with a George Score. [99.4 Percentile])
Your State Rank in Florida is: 19 out of 7,579 [99.7]
Your initial entries with hits have traveled a total of 3,349,873 miles.
They have averaged 468.9 miles per hit and 183.03 days between each hit.

I’ve just passed 900 counties. By Where’s George standards, there are 3,142 including the District of Columbia. This means that I’m at roughly 28.686%. My next milestone will be 1,000, which would put me near a third. (1,044 would be exactly one third.)

I’m also still hovering above 20th place in Florida. I broke 300 overall, but I don’t know how long that will last. As I said before, overall rankings tend to fluctuate more than state ranks.

On a side note, I have an interesting math question. (I think it would fall under game theory and I don‘t know if there’s a definite answer.) My store is closing, but I don’t know when the exact date is. I want to use the time to get bills into circulation, but I don’t want them deposited and I don’t know if I’ll be there to swap them back out.

If I keep going until the bitter end, I get the maximum number of bills into circulation, but I know a lot of bills will get deposited. (For those wondering, deposits containing large quantities of marked bills tend to draw unwanted attention to the site, thus possibly resulting in account termination.) On the other hand, if I stop depositing now, I miss out on all the days that we’ll eventually be staying open.

The best scenario would be that the last bill we hand out is the last of my marked bills. Not having a crystal ball, I have no way of knowing how to time it. The question is: When should I stop swapping out bills? Should I play it safe and stop now? Should I go to the bitter end? Or is there some trick I can use to tell when to stop?

Any responses would be appreciated.

You have entered 76,710 Bills worth $225,999
Bills with hits: 6,324 Total hits: 7,190
Hit rate: 8.24% Slugging Percentage: 9.37% (total hits/total bills)
George Score: 1,223.44
Your rank (based on George Score) is #303
(out of 52,593 current users with a George Score. [99.4 Percentile])
Your State Rank in Florida is: 21 out of 7,562 [99.7]
Your initial entries with hits have traveled a total of 3,311,913 miles.
They have averaged 468.7 miles per hit and 182.00 days between each hit.

I actually had a customer refuse two marked bills today. She said that she lived in a heavily Hispanic area where most of the people would have refused the bills. We’re talking about a five and a one, both marked differently. I should have asked where she lived, but I doubt she would have taken it well. I ended up giving her six unmarked singles since I had no unmarked fives. (No, they weren’t entered.)

I don’t get out much, but there are a few active georgers in the area and I have yet to hear of any neighborhoods where marked bills are refused outright. I’ve had stores and restaurants refuse them, but never whole communities. I imagine out there somewhere is a city that has banded together against Where’s George. They have ordinances against stamping bills or purchasing certain kinds of stamping kits.

And people say I have no life.

You have entered 23,434 Bills worth $63,145

Bills with hits: 1,729 Total hits: 1,933

Hit rate: 7.38% Slugging Percentage: 8.25% (total hits/total bills)

George Score: 1,073.94Your rank (based on George Score) is #887

(out of 51,957 current users with a George Score. [98.3 Percentile])

Your State Rank in Florida is: 42 out of 6,206 [99.3]

I’m beginning to rethink posting the stats. My mother saw the amount of money I had and freaked. I have to admit that I’m a bit freaked, myself. Granted, swapping out bills at work and going to the casino helps, but how did I get $63,145 bills? That’s a lot of swapping.

I’ve been doing fives mostly, only because we have a lot of singles, mostly mine. Also, fives are easier to carry inconspicuously. A hundred dollars in singles is a little obvious. A hundred dollars in fives can fit in my wallet.

I will admit that I may need a new wallet. I’d like something like the TARDIS from Doctor Who that has more space in the inside than would appear from the outside. That way, I can carry a lot of cash without being noticed. It would also be funny to whip out a bunch of twenties once in a while. (Maybe not, considering how quickly I’d get mugged in Miami.)

I just got a bunch of two-dollar bills the other day. I would have gotten more, but I wanted to get mostly singles. I think I still ended up with forty or fifty. I’ve been spending a few at the McDonalds near work, but I really shouldn’t. They seem to put them under the register. One of these days, I’m going to ask the people at McDonalds why they do it and encourage them not to. I’ve got to find more places that don’t.

Even my manager has said that he doesn’t want them in the register. Any that we get go back out or into the deposit that night. I don’t know what the big deal is. I think that part of it is the perceived rarity. Why bother dedicating a slot if you get one or two a year? A coworker told me that while I was in New York, we got a Tom. Alas, it was sent into the deposit.

A lot of people ask me where I get the bills. I simply tell them that you can get them at the bank. Any bank that doesn’t have any should be able to order them for you. I have yet to order any, mostly because I don’t want to feel obligated to pick them up. If I do, I may do it through the bank at work. I don’t want to get off the bus with a bunch of twos and have to walk home. Either way, it’s all pretty random.