Back when I was in high school, I used to pick up coins I found in the hall. I kept them in a tin in my room, and categorized them at the end of the school year. It was mostly pennies, as this was when Canada still had pennies, and they were the most likely coin to be discarded. At present, while I am back in high school (teaching), I don’t collect coins in the halls any more. But in putting this story online, I have once again started paying closer attention to the coins that cross my path.
Back on July 19th, in Commentary 08, I said Frank and Carrie probably had “around twenty” present day coins “by the middle of September”. Which I called myself out on as being implausible. Then on October 12th, I commented on my own post there, saying I’d obtained 7 quarters from 2015 without trying over the prior month. So what if I had been trying? What if I had actively returned to a store where I got a 2015 quarter and made another purchase that required 80 cents as change?
[caption id=“attachment_668” align=“alignright” width=“300”]
20 coins on Nov 12, 2015[/caption]
I don’t know. But we’re another month on now, so here’s a picture of the 2015 coins that I’ve amassed as of November 12th. Again without really trying (though a couple of the two dollar coins I exchanged for older ones as they passed through me to an account). Hey, did you know there are three different types of 2015 toonies in circulation? I’ve since obtained another nickel. So… if I had a time machine, that’s potentially 20 trips! (Assuming a return to the present.)
Maybe it’s a good year. Maybe it’s because I’m in Canada’s Capital region. Maybe it’s always like this now. Maybe I’ll keep monitoring.
HIT AND MISS
Speaking of November 12th, when I noticed that I could post the story update about Julie's birthday literally ON HER BIRTHDAY, it being only one day out from the Friday schedule, I couldn't resist. Hence the earlier post a week ago. And I didn't hear any complaints. Actually, I didn't hear anything at all. In fact, I think that was literally the worst week for this website I've ever had, at 6 hits.[caption id=“attachment_669” align=“aligncenter” width=“300”]
Mon Nov 9-Sun Nov 15[/caption]
I don’t get why Wordpress felt the need to put a decimal point on the vertical scale. It’s not like I can get HALF a hit to my webpage, these are discrete values! (Are they obligated to use at least two digit numbers?) The mathematician in me is shaking my head. Oh well. More to the point, this meant that as of last Thursday, I had less than 25 views for over 50% of the month.
Now, since that time, I ended up mumbling about stats on someone else’s thread in the Web Fiction Guide forums, and from that my monthly views more than doubled in 48 hours. A few people even said something over there. Possibly the problem is with my site design. Possibly making my amateur art a “featured image” was a bad move (I’ve been thinking of doing simple “head shots”). But possibly not. The crickets don’t tell me much aside from chirp chirp.
The upshot being, don’t be surprised if things shift around… or not. For the record, our next formal “ARC” commentary will be in two weeks' time. This Friday, we’ll see how bad the time travel serial fares when it’s time machine is gone and it’s protagonist is in the hospital. Thanks for the read!
