The Bull in Full

One penny, two penny, one dollar, two dollar

Hey!  Here's a fun way you can improve the efficiency of US government services as well as other firms and services that require small cash transactions, and make the maintenance of your own pocket cash more manageable!

(How's that for a Bulwer-Lytton-esque blog opening to put everyone to sleep?)

Seriously, though, it seems a lot of people don't realize that one can walk into most banks at the moment and ask for a full roll of dollar coins, or frankly however many you want.  The U.S. Mint is currently starting a series of dollar coins similar to the state quarters, but with the Presidents coming out sequentially.  (we're on Madison at the moment, it seems.)

It may seem kind of funny for a blogger to be telling you to go use a certain kind of currency, but that's exactly what I'm doing here.  There are a number of reasons for doing this:

Digital entertainment and Northgate Cinema

Back in town, and catching up on some blog reading, it's hard to read this from Kevin:

On the plus side, McCall apparently has an interest in bringing digital entertainment like concert and sporting events to the theater, along with revitalized concessions.

and not think of this:

The most immediate of these   changes–the replacement of film in movie theaters–is due to get a   lot of media attention in the near future, and you can count on much of that   to be of the gee-whiz, isn’t-technology-amazing variety so beloved of entertainment   writers, scoop-hungry editors and, presumably, gadget-loving Americans. I doubt   that many negative notes or calls for resistance will be heard, or that the   overthrow of film by television–which is what this amounts to–will   be related to a dissolution of cinema esthetics and the enforced close of cinema’s   era in the history of technological arts.

The latter is movie critic and erstwhile Triangle resident "Gilbert" Godfrey Cheshire's (his articles are much funnier if you imagine them with Gilbert Godfrey's voice) article, The Death of Film/The Decay of Cinema.