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thedeadpoint

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Posts posted by thedeadpoint

  1. On 7/17/2020 at 5:46 PM, SMS said:

    thedeadpoint, I'm in Wyoming.  Our county only has 80 cases confirmed since outbreak (all but one or two in the past month).  That may seem negligible, but like I said, for as sparse as our population is, that is ridiculous.  We have two cities a township and scattered unincorporated communities.  The rest of the population is spread out in the farming/rural areas (and these include quite a large part of the population).  To give you an idea, out of the population of 29,000 only 16,000 are in the two cities.  The rest of the 13,000 are spread out in the small communities and farmlands.

    The county population density is only 4/sq.mi.  Compare that to a population density of 3200/sq.mi. for Orange County, California.  That population is 800-fold more dense than that of my county.  Consider the density of the population, and Orange County should be riding well past 64,000 cases to be the equivalent of our cases here based on the higher probability of community spread.  Yet, Orange County is sitting at under 28,000 cases as of today.  And their totals aren't a result of over 95% of the cases ocuring in the past month.

    Now, granted the percent of the population confirmed in Orange County is three times that of my county, but my county has only test under 3.5% of the population while Orange County has tested over 10% of their entire population.

    It all really irks me.  A good amount of people around here flaunt the fact that they won't wear a mask, or use proper PPE at work, or wash/sanitize regularly at work.  A number of people are still calling it all a hoax around here.  Anyway, I'll stop my rant now.  Stay safe!

     

    I'm sorry to hear that. I've said to many people that this won't end until *most* people *directly* feel or see the effects of the disease itself. Right now, it's just an invisible bogeyman that many people don't believe in. We rallied (for a short period of time) as a country after 9/11 because of the images and videos we'll never forget. We don't have those images or videos of this. 

    But (!!) polls show *most* Americans actually do believe this is a big deal and think there needs to be a lockdown and/or national mask mandate. Wow! When was the last time *most* Americans agreed on ANYTHING!

  2. 3 hours ago, ikaros said:

    We went from working entirely from home to working entirely in the office to working one day a week in the office and the other four at home (my office day is Mondays).  Considering we're a large social service office doing field work and being open to the public 24/7 in one of the hardest hit counties in Ohio, we've only had seven employees (out of 750+) test positive.

    So far so good.

    And yes, masks everywhere that there are other people.

    Thank you for doing your service! I hear DeWine has been doing a good job and is frustrated by the recent rise in cases. 

  3. 7 hours ago, SMS said:

    We are all doing well. As a household of seven, any communicable illness is a bane to us.  Our governor's favorite catch phrase atm is "Do the right thing"...which is definitely not being done by the majority.  Since he "opened up" the State to much less restrictions a month ago, our county went from one case to almost 100 cases.  The State itself has seen a tenfold increase in cases.  The State may have little more than half a million total population, but for as sparse as the population is, those numbers are ridiculous.

    SMS, which state out of curiosity? 

  4. Hey everyone,

    How are you doing? How is your health and that of your loved ones? 

    I hope everyone is wearing masks in public, social distancing, washing hands, and praying that this ends without too many more deaths!

     

  5. ALSO! I resubscribed to both CoinAGE and Coin World magazines and I now listen to the Coin World podcast. I follow those publications, CoinWeek, Heritage Auctions, and other places on Facebook. It's refreshing to have in my newsfeed.

  6. Hey friends,

    Today marks the 14th anniversary of my membership on this great site! And it's my first visit since March 12th, so it took a global pandemic for me to finally not be on this site on a near-daily basis.

    My most recent post wondered what folks would do in regards to their collection if they were going to be home for a while... like in lockdown during a pandemic. Way back then (4 months ago that feels like eons), I think most of us were expecting 1-4 weeks home, not... 4 months and growing. Here's what I said I'd probably do:

    1. Ensure everything is properly sorted
    2. Set aside coins and notes I’d like to give away to neighborhood kids 
    3. Ensure the coins and notes I want to focus on are properly cataloged
    4. Identify a better way to store the collection
    5. Find a way to collect through online purchases since the coin show I expected to go to next week is cancelled

    Completely forgetting about that post, I muddled through the pandemic the way many people have: bake bread, garden, clean and fix things around the house, and dive into an old hobby. I hesitate to call coin collecting an old hobby for me, but I haven't been actively collecting more than once a year. My shopping was limited to when I could get to a coin show and my additions were limited to only three series. 

    When I finally got around to my coin collection, I was sad at how ugly some of my coins had become. I was intimidated by the number of random world coins and notes I've acquired from you over the years. But I was realizing this is the perfect time to get back into it.

    So what have I done?

    1) I realized there was probably a way to catalog the coins and notes in my collection. I found several sites recommending Collector's Assistant and promptly downloaded it. Most of my US coin collection is now cataloged and I can see what I have and don't have at a glance! (Addresses item #3 above.)

    2) I knew I needed a better way to store everything. So I've spent a lot of money at Wizard Coin Supply to get air-tight boxes including some Intercept boxes to do an extra good job of protecting the coins. I also bought some desiccant packets to keep the humidity from further damaging the coins and notes. Now the better part of my collection is organized and properly stored! (Addresses items #1 and #4 above.)

    3) I realized that I would have to shop 100% online for the first time. I've bought random things from Heritage over the years, but not with good discipline or with a strategy. I don't trust sight-unseen buying or non-certified coins when I can't hold them in person, so I have to focus on certified coins. For some of my series, I don't see a need to buy certified coins for common dates. So I decided to use this time to focus on certified coins and notes of tougher dates. That means I'll also get better pictures from auction sites than a random common coin on eBay. 

    Well, if I'm going to be playing in auctions, then I better have a plan. I bought several books on the series I focus on so I can understand how to tackle them. Which dates are the ones I should look out for in certain grades? Which ones have historically weak strikes? Those sort of questions are the ones I'm getting answers to. I'm educating myself. I also created some personal databases of recent auctions for the issues I'm after so I understand what the market is doing and what's a fair bid. Fascinatingly, I discovered several resources out there that also catalog recent auction prices (and upcoming!) for those issues and also census data. 

    I'm a bit frustrated that it's come to this for my collecting but I'm also excited. It feels like a hunt again. (Addresses item #5 above.)

    4) What I haven't done is set aside coins to get neighborhood kids into collecting. My wife pointed out that my son would probably love my collection, even if the coins don't mean much to me. He's only 15 months old, but he'll eventually be old enough to be fascinated by random world coins and will be excited to sort through old cents with me. So Im saving them for him! (Addresses item #2 above.)

    ************

    So, in summary, my collection is safer and cataloged for the first time. I bought several fantastic books and feel smarter than ever. But... I haven't bought a single coin or note! I do have a plan, though. I'm EXCITED. I've spent nearly every night for the past month and a half getting in order, in shape, and in position. I look forward to seeing how it all unfolds.

    I hope everyone here is doing well and is safe and healthy. I plan to dip in once a week when updating my spreadsheets. Can't wait to learn what you've been doing!

  7. Hey folks,

    Let’s say you’re stuck at home for a week (or more) and you finally have time to focus on your coin collection. What’s on your to-do list?

    Mine:

    - Ensure everything is properly sorted

    - Set aside coins and notes I’d like to give away to neighborhood kids 

    - Ensure the coins and notes I want to focus on are properly cataloged

    - Identify a better way to store the collection

    - Find a way to collect through online purchases since the coin show I expected to go to next week is cancelled

  8. Art, 

    It's a best practice for internet security to use something called Two Factor Authentication. One factor is your normal password to enter a site. The second factor is a code that only you should be able to see to enter on the website. The code can be sent to you a number of ways: text message, email, or on an app. The first two methods are less trustworthy since thieves are getting good at intercepting our emails and text messages for these numbers. Using an app is best. Some websites tell you to use Google Authenticator or other third-party (but trustworthy!) apps. Some tell you to use their own app. For example, my bank has an app that generates these random numbers that only I can see.

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