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Hans M. Guy
Where's George Profile at hansmguy.com |
| Summary:
Hans M. GUY
The purpose of my profile is to 1) assist new
Georgers with suggestions and techniques and 2) centrally locate
personal milestones and items of interest:
a) for quicker retrieval
and b) requiring that I post repeated answers only
once. This page was written in
MS FrontPage.
I hope you can view it. Good Luck & Happy Georgering! |
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Note: On occasion some of my
pages do not display. Just click your browser 'refresh'
(reload) button to
re-display.
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What's New link |
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Operation Area 51 link |
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Profile
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| I am having a great time at
Where's George (WG).
Hank's bill tracking concept has evolved into a very nice web site
(including the
Public Forums). I first encountered
'George'
(stamped) at Smithwicks Bar & Tavern in Lowell, MA. Perhaps, I
will never be on any of the
George's top 10 lists. Still, it
will be interesting so see what might happen to the few dollars,
that I do enter. I have (and continue) to learn much here at Where's George:
Psychologically, how people interact in our 'wicked awesome' [Boston
slang and accent] Where's George community and technically: (HTML and
Web page design).
Hank,
Fogette, and Michele
have inspired me greatly.
If you should enter any of my bills or have comments (i.e. broken
links) and/or suggestions concerning my profile, feel free to
contact me via
anonymous e-mail,
 ,
or the
Feedback form. I would enjoy your insights.
For Where's George specific questions or comments, please contact us
via the
Contact Us Form. Thank you to all who have entered my bills and assisted me at
Where's George. |
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Goals
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- To spread the word of Where's George (So, I'll include some
hints below).
- To have Mass. included in the Top 10 State Profiles (If you
have not already, please create your own profile, so we can learn
more about you).
- To be included in the
Top 10 Mass. User Profiles
(achieved). To be included in
the Top 5 Mass. User Profiles
(achieved). Now, I want to be
included in the Top 3 Mass. User Profiles.
- To be included in the
George's Top 150 Users (in any
column category).
- To receive a hit in each state - 50 State Bingo.
- To attain the FRB Bingo (achieved)
(See Glossary of Terms below).
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New Georger Notes
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| First, let me say that most of the 'New Georger Notes' are not
my original ideas. I have included many of these great insights
from Hank, other profiles, and various Public Forum discussions. My
intent was to create a centrally located area where New Georgers
could get the information (that we all wanted to know, when we first
began). I hope I have credited all associated on the
Credits page. If you feel that I
may have omitted someone, please notify me via
anonymous e-mail,
,
or the
Feedback form - Thanks. |
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Words to Live By
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| Enter, Mark, Spend
(EMS) -
Please remember that sequence, in order that Where's George function
properly by keeping the data accurate. |
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Something to Keep in Mind
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What keeps my anxiety level to a minimum is:
"My interpretation of Where's George is to track where my bills HAVE
GONE, not where I WANT THEM TO GO - (WG is a Bill Tracker; not
a Bill
Forecaster)" |
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Very Important & Informative Reading
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| Frequently Asked
Questions, New
Site FAQs Page (search for '#6 Please explain the 'Help
with this Page' link'.),
Where's George? User Guidelines,
User Links, and
the
Public Forums (please use Google
Search also) are excellent sources of information. I and
other fellow Georgers are very nice and will assist where we can. |
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Techniques_for_Marking_Bills |
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Where's George does not encourage the
defacement of U.S. Currency. If you desire a long life span
for Where's George, and you do not wish to cause trouble for Hank
and the site, I suggest that you follow these suggestion and the
Where's George? User Guidelines. In your zeal to promote
Where's George, I hope you exhibit discretion
and
practice bill marking restraint.
I stamp the front side of the bill with either my custom (purple) stamp
or the Hank Official Where's George (red) stamp (no longer
offered). I stamp the back side of the bill with another custom (purple) stamp.
For easier reading, I try to stamp in the white space of the bill.
One stamp on each side of the bill should suffice; please refrain
from over stamping.
I strongly recommended that you NOT highlight,
underline, or circle the serial or series numbers.
Please refrain from
marking the portrait, watermark, and other
security
features. This could render the
bill unfit for re-issue.
Some bill feeding vending machines, currency verifier machines, and
drop safes may reject bills that have stamps
located over and/or near security features.
Also, I have encountered (what I call an Anti-Georgers) who disagrees
with marking (interpreted as advertising) on US currency. The
Anti-Georgers had crossed out the WG URL. Had a stamp been
located on the serial or series numbers, the Anti-Georger would have
inadvertently rendered the bill unfit for re-issue - which is
illegal [smarty pants].
Seldom do I use a highlighter. If I do, then I highlight the
borders (margins) above or below (parallel with) the serial # and series #. I'm not sure
of the highlighter's longevity (wash durability). However, the
bills are fun to look
at in those (aahh, ummmm...) clubs with those black lights *looks over
shoulder and laughs*. Sometimes, I use the 'Smart Moneytm
Counterfeit Detector Pen' by Drimark on the back of the bill.
(click on image to view full size) |
More recent 4-liner custom stamp
(click on image to view full size) |
Hank's official Where's George stamp is no longer available.
Frank's profile and
Wosto's
WG-Virtual Museum are valuable source of stamp information.
Custom stamps are usually secondary and are used to emphasize items
that the official stamp did not. In the rare occasion that I
have to make a bank deposit, I leave the front of the bill blank and
only stamp the back - Chicken George. I do not want to create any unnecessary problems
for Where's George and Hank. While other Georgers have been
successful at handwriting on their bills, I do not handwrite; I'm
too lazy *smile*.
I cannot remember the font size of my stamps, but the 2-liner is
1/4" tall, the 3-liner is 3/8" tall, and the 4-liner is 1/2" tall.
Basically, I made a copy of a bill that had a WG stamp on it and
brought it to the stamp shop. They measured it for the
equivalent font size. If I had to guess... Arial Font size 10
or 11. I guess you could print out various font sizes on a
piece of paper, cut them out, and see which size fits best in the
white space of the bill. Good Luck. |
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Techniques for Entering Bills
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| First of all, let me say that, I HATE manually entering bill
information. However, I enjoy Where's George so much, that I guess
I will have to do it. *smile* In any event, if something must be done,
I have found that, if I use a set procedure, the task at hand
becomes easier to manage. 1) I quickly
scan both sides of the bills for distasteful comments that I do not
want associated with WG. If I locate unsavory comments, I will
exchange the bill at the bank and not enter it into WG.
2) I sort and separate the bills into the following stacks:
- Where I received the Bill
- Denomination
- Series
- Condition
3) I enter the bill's information in all the corresponding
required fields. In the optional 'Notes' field, I denote what was
purchased, where the purchase occurred, and the condition of the
bill (poor, fair, good, and excellent).
4) I verify all fields (especially the 'Denomination',
'Series', and 'Serial Number') before hitting the 'Submit this Bill'
button. In the 'Serial Number' field, I use the [left-arrow] key to
count the digits entered.
5) If either the 'Denomination' or 'Series' changes, in
order to triple check the previous bills entered, I go to YOUR BILLS
(in a new window) and select the 'Most Recent Bills'. If there was a
mistake in the 'Denomination', 'Series', or 'Serial Number', I can
delete those bills, and correctly re-enter them. Rarely do I
incorrectly enter bills anymore; but I still double and triple
check. This is also a good time to check for the rare
Natural George.
I have chosen the following sorting order, because the 'Notes'
field carries over from one bill to the next; and previously when the
'Denomination', 'Series', and/or 'Serial Number' changed,
I would forget to change those fields for subsequent bill entry.
For Where's George to function correctly, each bill must be entered
into the database correctly. If someone were to enter an incorrect
'Denomination',
'Series', and/or 'Serial Number', that bill will probably never get
a hit (O.K. - I have a knack for the obvious). Please have the bill
in your possession before entering any information and enter the zip
code of where you are currently sitting. Surgeon General has
stated that: 'Guessing' causes cancer in laboratory animals.
(joking) But seriously, 'Guessing' will skew the data and give
Hank and Team Aqua headaches.
Bill Entry - New Features… (Hank) |
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Techniques for Spending Bills
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Personally, I have not changed much of my spending
habits... Well, maybe....
- Should I make a bank deposit, I prefer to deposit a few newer,
better conditioned, bills (no markings on the front of the bill,
only markings on the back - Chicken
George). Older, worse conditioned, bills have more
of chance of being returned to the
Federal Reserve Banks and taken
out of circulation (no more hits).
I have not converted my credit card transactions to cash
transactions. However, I have noticed the following changes:
- When I receive change, I look for Where's George marked
bills.
- If I pay my employees in cash, I usually keep the newer,
better conditioned, bills for myself (Again, they may stay in
circulation longer).
I love seeing other Georgers' notes on hits.
To be fair, I thought that I should update my bill's notes with
'where I received and released' my bills. Also, tracking bills
via their notes should indicate which bills have more successful hits.
When I first started Georgering, I tried to update every bill
entered. This proved to be too time consuming and a lot or work for a
bill that may never receive a hit. Thus, I decided not to track all the
bills, but only update the notes of bills that had received hits.
When I enter my bills, I make sure
to keep them in the same order in my wallet. On my 'WG
Spending Journal' - (actually, a 3" x 6" piece of folded graph
paper), I also record the Date Entered, Denomination, Serial #
(1st six characters), Date Spent, and Purchased Item. When I
purchase something... if I have time, I update the 'WG Spending
Journal'. If I do not have time (sometimes, I do not want to
look like an idiot... writing down every purchase *frown*), I write
a short note (spent 7 ones on ABC or 2 ones and 1 five on XYZ) on
the receipt. Then, I wrap the receipt around those bills that
I received as change. Later I can figure out which bill
corresponds to which purchase (all my bills are in order in my
wallet, remember?). When I make a purchase, I store my change,
new non-Georged bills; in a separate part of my wallet, until I
George them. When I receive a George hit, I can update the bill's
'Notes', including a date that clarifies the history for
future readers. Recently, I haven't updated the
'Notes'
of where the bill was released, only where I acquired the bill.
I'm trying to work on my obsessive behavior (smile). |
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Other Items of Interest
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- George
Score - (Unofficially speaking) you need 5 hits to receive an official George
Score. There
may be a minimum amount of bills entered. Although, I have
never seen this documented anywhere. Hank has very good
reasons for keeping the
requirements a secret. Please be patient. It's worth the wait
*smile*.
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Public Forums
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- Please use the
Google Search feature before posting questions.
There is a lot of useful information already posted by other
Georgers.
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Please
post Hit Celebrations & Profile posts in their appropriate
Hit
Celebration! & User Profiles
Forum. Please do NOT
post
Hit Celebrations & Profile posts in the
Main
Public Forum.
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Enhancement and Bug Fix Requests – should NOT be posted on
public forums. Please contact Hank via the
Contact Us Form. Hank reviews all requests. Please be patient.
- Fake Hits Discoveries - should NOT be posted on Public
Forums. Hank has procedures for detecting fake hits, and then he
deletes them. It is too time consuming to notify all concerned,
that he has deleted a suspected fake hit via e-mail. Be assured
that Hank has been doing this long enough to recognize fake hits.
You would be wise not to disagree with his decisions. Should you
feel compelled to announce your discovery, please contact Hank via
the
Contact Us Form.
Related Request Link (Hank).
- Spam on the Public Forums – Spam is not desired. Please do
not make additional postings to Spam.
Spam Alert Link (HMG). Oh, and advertisements will set you back
$500.00 *smile*.
- Full Serial Numbers - Please do NOT post complete serial
numbers in public forums, on profiles, on bill images, and/or in
the bill's User's note field. Please continue to mask the
serial number with '---'. In the past, it has lead to bogus
entries by very bad Anti-Georgers *frown*.
- Please do NOT feed the
Trolls. - When
they don't received their desired response, they soon move on.
(Netiquette,
,Flame Warriors,
and
Phil's Field Guide to Trolls)
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Please be Polite When Redirecting Others to the Proper Fora (HMG).
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Glossary of Terms
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Here are some common terms used at Where's George. Some terms were
defined before
Slowpoke maintained
The
Encyclopædia Georgetannica - a more complete list of terms.
| Terms |
Definitions |
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50 State
Bingo |
Having received a hit in all 50 states. |
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Chicken_George |
A bill that is NOT marked on the front, but only
marked (stamped) on the back. |
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FRB Bingo |
Having received a hit from each of the twelve
Federal Reserve Bank regions. |
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Naked
George |
A bill whose 'notes' suggests an association
with the adult entertainment industry. |
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Natural George |
An unmarked bill, previously entered by another
Georger (natural in the sense that the person now entering
it, did so without any influence from a stamp).
Link to terms discussion |
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Pigeon George |
1) A bill that I enter at home and take to another
location where I do not have a hit or 2) a bill that I enter and
spend at another location, where I do not have a hit; then the
bill
returns home for its first hit. Pigeon George is a term
that I coined and is not commonly accepted, yet. *smile* |
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Team Aqua |
A group of Georgers who assist
Hank
by answering e-mails received via the
Contact Us Form. |
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Wild George |
A marked (stamped) bill, previously entered by
another Georger (found in the wild). |
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Why I
Created and Linked My Profile on a Separate Web Host Site.
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- It was easier and quicker to code and modify my profile with
MS FrontPage than in native HTML. (I like to think that I am
efficient... not lazy.)
- I needed a web-hosting site to store images, before Hank
offered Image Hosting at WG.
- In the rare occasion, when the Where's George is experiencing
database maintenance, I can still access & update my profile, that
resides on a separate server.
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Other Frequently Asked Questions
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| Q: |
I'm new. I received a bill marked
with 'www.wheresgeorge.com'. So, I entered the bill at Where's
George. I wanted to see the bill's history, but nothing was
listed. Even though the bill already has the web site address
on it, am I the first person to enter this bill at Where's
George? |
| A: |
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Actually, the bill may have a history. Scroll
down the entry screen. The bill history is listed in
descending chronological order. Right above the entries is
the text: "This list is in reverse-chronological order".
- The person,
who originally entered the bill, may have entered the bill
incorrectly. On occasion, when entering many bills at once, a
user may incorrectly enter a bill.
- The person,
who originally entered the bill, may have stamped the bill
without entering it at Where's George. This is very bad.
Enter, Mark, Spend (EMS) [in that order] is very important.
This will reduce the amount of Contact Requests to us, asking
why someone cannot find a bill's history.
- You may
have entered the bill incorrectly. Please verify that the
“Denomination”, “Series (Year)”, and “Serial Number” are
correct.
- If you do
not have a link to the bill, please verify that you are
registered (if not then select 'Register!')
and that you are logged on to Where's George, in order to
review the bill via 'Your Bills'. On the top of the page is
the Where's George? Navigation panel. If you are logged on,
you should see: You are currently Logged on as [name] (# [user_number]).
Go to 'Your Bills / All recently entered Bills' (if not
present, press the “YOUR BILLS / *** To REFRESH this report,
Click Here ***” link – not the browser refresh button).
Locate and select the bill in question. Review the bill's
notes. Link to
Bill History not Found
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| Q: |
On the YOUR BILLS screen, it
refreshes only once per day and the report 'All Hits by State'
no longer displays my hits by zip code. |
| A: |
Due to amount of resources required, you will only get one
refresh per day (no longer 3 or 10), and you have limited access
to various 'YOUR BILLS / Hits by State' reports: Hits by
Zip/County/City/Zip Bill Detail Reports. So, any hits that
you receive today will be displayed tomorrow. If you want
to see your bills entered reflected, either 1) go
to “YOUR BILLS / All recently entered Bills” or 2) enter the bills before pressing the YOUR BILLS
'refresh' link. To ensure that all bill statistics are
included on YOUR BILLS, please run YOUR BILLS and press the “***
To REFRESH this report, Click Here ***” link - after the Daily
Scheduled Database Maintenance (DSDM) reports have completed –
after 5:00 AM EST. Please visit
Friends of
Where's George? Benefits and
New Site FAQs
Page for more information. |
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Personal Statistics link
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2002 WG Profile Contest link |
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Inspirations, Credits, and other Cool WG links
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Log File for Hans'
profile at Where's George link |
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In Closing
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| Should you desire to use
items from my
profile (ideas, images, or links), please feel free to do so.
It would be a compliment to me. Because I have incorporated
other people's ideas, I just ask that you credit (and if possible...
supply a link to) those individuals.
Please use
your browser bookmarks and/or favorites to quickly access items of
interest, for future reference (hmmm, maybe... like my
profile... hint, hint *smile*). Recommend my profile to
your friends new to Where's George. Come on back again. I try to
update my profile routinely (especially at month end).
And if you have not already done so, create
a profile for yourself, so that we can learn more about you. If you do create your own profile,
contact me via
anonymous e-mail,
,
or the
Feedback form. I would love to see your efforts.
Again ,for Where's George specific questions or comments,
please contact us via the
Contact Us Form, thanks.
Have fun. HMG in MAss, |
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