all consuming

There’s an ad on at the moment that never fails to make me angry.

“We’re a nation of consumers… and there’s nothing wrong with that.”

Like hell there’s not. Plus the ad is for a credit card that will supposedly make you spend smarter. So long as you’re spending. It almost spoils my joy in watching Dynasty online for free. And it makes me want to stop buying things.

I need to work on that.

bulgaria, here i come

So a friend is moving to Bulgaria next week. No, she isn't being deported - it's a fulbright thing.

Before leaving she took the opportunity today to cash in all her coins. Over cocktails she described putting her coins into the machine that told her (via printout) that she had $77.20 worth of coins.

The best bit? She received an exact breakdown.

If you don't make an effort to spend those coins sometime you too could end up with:

925 pennies
120 nickels
212 dimes
159 quarters and
1 one dollar coin.

What scares me, though, is that isn't even a month's worth of my coffee budget. It comes close, but.