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flexagonAfter several years of knowing about the site, I finally got a wheresgeorge.com dollar this last week. It's spent its whole registered life in MA so far... go, little bill, go!
I also wanted to share this excellent little piece of writing. Disclaimer: I alternate horribly between enjoying spare prose and going for the more self-indulgent stuff, and this is clearly from that latter category. But, god, it's funny. And maybe one of those things all we yuppies occasionally feel and never want to admit.
In the morning I walked to the bank. I went to the automated teller machine to check my balance. I inserted my card, entered my secret code, tapped out my request. The figure on the screen roughly corresponded to my independent estimate, feebly arrived at after long searches through documents, tormented arithmetic. Waves of relief and gratitude flowed over me. The system had blessed my life. I felt its support and approval. The system hardware, the mainframe sitting in a locked room in some distant city. What a pleasing interaction. I sensed that something of deep personal value, but not money, not that at all, had been authenticated and confirmed.... The system was invisible, which made it all the more impressive, all the more disquieting to deal with. But we were in accord, at least for now. The networks, the circuits, the harmonies.
~Don deLillo, White Noise
I also wanted to share this excellent little piece of writing. Disclaimer: I alternate horribly between enjoying spare prose and going for the more self-indulgent stuff, and this is clearly from that latter category. But, god, it's funny. And maybe one of those things all we yuppies occasionally feel and never want to admit.
In the morning I walked to the bank. I went to the automated teller machine to check my balance. I inserted my card, entered my secret code, tapped out my request. The figure on the screen roughly corresponded to my independent estimate, feebly arrived at after long searches through documents, tormented arithmetic. Waves of relief and gratitude flowed over me. The system had blessed my life. I felt its support and approval. The system hardware, the mainframe sitting in a locked room in some distant city. What a pleasing interaction. I sensed that something of deep personal value, but not money, not that at all, had been authenticated and confirmed.... The system was invisible, which made it all the more impressive, all the more disquieting to deal with. But we were in accord, at least for now. The networks, the circuits, the harmonies.
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Date: 2004-12-11 04:30 pm (UTC)