Check out this image: A cat on a personalized stamp that I have customized at Zazzle.

Cat1.jpg A cat on a personalized stamp that I have customized at Zazzle. If you are having problems viewing this email, copy and paste the following into your browser: http://s289.photobucket.com/albums/ll201/dorincard/Stamps/?action=view¤t=Cat1.jpg&evt=user_media_share

===============

Please visit: http://viridianpostcard.blogspot.com/

"Mayavin Agency proudly presents Edward Maya & Vika Jigulina “Desert Rain Tour” for the first time in the USA! Starting on the 15th of March in Seattle, the sound of hits like “Stereo Love” “This Is My Life” and “Desert Rain” will make vibrate cities like Tampa on the 16th, Las Vegas on the 17th and Los Angeles on the 19th March! Make sure you’ll be attending the shows for a night to remember!" Also, stamp showing the Space Needle Tower in Seattle, WA.

Welcome to USA! Bine aţi venit în SUA!

I'm glad to spread the word! :)

"Mayavin Agency proudly presents Edward Maya & Vika Jigulina “Desert Rain Tour” for the first time in the USA! Starting on the 15th of March in Seattle, the sound of hits like “Stereo Love” “This Is My Life” and “Desert Rain” will make vibrate cities like Tampa on the 16th, 

Las Vegas on the 17th and Los Angeles on the 19th March! Make sure you’ll be attending the shows for a night to remember!"

See my previous posts with images and links:

http://dorincard.blogspot.com/2011/02/what-is-that-accordion-song-played-like.html

http://dorincard.blogspot.com/2011/02/part-2-edward-maya-feat-vika-jigulina.html

http://dorincard.blogspot.com/2011/02/happy-pink-saturday-meme-part-1-pretty.html

http://mayavinrecords.com/releases

========================

Panoramic view of  Seattle, Washington.

"Researchers at Central Connecticut State University consistently rank Seattle and Minneapolis as the two most literate cities among America's largest cities.^[21][22]Additionally, survey data from the United States Census Bureau indicate that Seattle has a higher percentage of college graduates than any other major American city, with approximately 53.8% of residents aged 25 and older holding a bachelor degree or higher.^[23]"

^{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle}

Like a song says: "Where have all the COWBOYS gone?..."

Them rednecks, too...

:)

Read from mashable.com - HOW TO: Jump-Start Your Career by Becoming an Online Influencer. Also, dorincards that I created with folded cards ('greeting cards') and my personalized stamp from zazzle, featuring The Grey Wolf (Canis lupus).

Please read this very interesting article: HOW TO: Jump-Start Your Career by Becoming an Online Influencer

Online influencer and promoter (that involves e-learning, too, in a fascinating way).

I try to do that with philately, and especially with maximaphily. :) 


Be the blue fish, in your School of Thought.

Find good places and times for action, and good places to relax/ chillax.

Then others will follow, for their own benefit.

Alpha male, alpha female...it's a natural thing.

These wolf maximum cards/ maxicards/ dorincards will probably remain the last batch that I have ever sent for postmarking, without scratching the plastic-coated zazzle stamps.

The stamps may appear to be affixed OVER the postmarks, but in fact the "not superior"-quality ink (unlike StazOn ink) was not absorbed by the plastic coating of the zazzle stamps.

In subsequent batches, I carefully scratched the zazzle stamps with hard dishpad, where the postmark was supposed to come and the ink to be absorbed satisfactory enough.

Whose [not who's] fault is it that the postmark was applied upside-down?

"I don't care -  I just work here, in the Post Office" - was that the line of thinking?

Aw, come on! Considerate thinking goes a long way...

Don't just postmark absent-mindedly, people!

The absence of the mind is a terrible thing...:)

1) I could postcardize these anytime by cutting them in two; the image below is from before I sent it for postmarking:

2) Or, I can glue the two parts of the folded card to qualify it as a "postcard".

3) Or, I could unfold the folded card and stiffen it with one or several large mailing label(s), creating a non-folded big postcard.

I could even send it then by mail, for USPS to validate it as a "real postcard", really circulated by mail to whatever destination in the world I chose, including the Amundsen-Scott Base in Antarctica! :)

At this point, all I would need for international mailing is to affix 98 cents worth of stamps on the address side (the back side of what you see here with my zazzle stamp).

BBC: First Valentine: Lasting legacy of 500-year-old love. Also, "Hellelil and Hildebrand: The meeting on the turret stair", my maximum card idea, my entry for Happy Blue Monday! (meme). Happy Valentine's (Voluntyne's) Day

Read from BBC (but please read also this blogpost, while you are at it): http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12419712
"In 1477 Margery wrote a letter to her John pleading with him not to give her up, despite her parents' refusal to increase her dowry.

Addressing her "ryght welebeloued Voluntyne" (right well-beloved Valentine), she promised to

 be a good wife, adding: "Yf that ye loffe me as Itryste verely that ye do 

ye will not leffe me" (If you love me, I trust.. you will not leave

 me)."

==========

I would like to create a maximum  card/ maxicard/ dorincard with this Irish postcard, showing the Meeting on the Turret Stairs, 1864 (also known as Hellelil and Hildebrand), a famous painting by Sir Frederic William Burton RHA (8 April 1816 – 16 March 1900). 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_William_Burton

To me, this great painting is a whole book/drama condensed in one image.

I could write quite a few observations about body language and the meaning of this image, as a whole, and in specific detail.

But soakin' [so can] you. Please comment, will you?

Everybody would have his own interpretation of this, more or less original, more or less credible.

Well, after you think about it, read this:

http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/people/meeting_of_turret_stairs.htm

I should research if there is already a stamp (Ireland/ any other country?) with it, then create a maximum card, if possible.

:)

Here's an interesting postmark of a knight in shining armor (don't worry about the stamp -  I did not have a matching one available):

=============

Happy Blue Monday! (meme)

Please visit:  http://smilingsally.blogspot.com/

Happy Pink Saturday (meme)! Souvenir page (A4 page-size, letter-size, 8x11'' dorincard) about corn

^{Please visit "Pretty in pink"/ "Show us your pink" [objects, that is :)] meme here:}

^{http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/my_weblog/}

Happy Postcard Friday (meme)! Read from BBC: Lion (facts, pictures and stunning videos). My worldwide stamps and RSA maxicards with Lion (Panthera leo). Lions choose their 'Valentine' in a polygynandrous way (OMG!)

Read the BBC article here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Lion
and here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/adaptations/Polygynandry

These are stamps from my old collection, in high-res - click, and click again to zoom in:

"The lion (Panthera leo) is one of the four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg (550 lb) in weight,^[4] it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger. 

Wild lions currently exist in Sub-Saharan Africa and in Asia with an endangered remnant population in Gir Forest National Park in India, having disappeared from North Africa and Southwest Asia in historic times. 

Until the late Pleistocene, about 10,000 years ago, the lion was the most widespread large land mammal after humans. 

They were found in most of Africa, across Eurasia from western Europe to India, and in the Americas from the Yukon to Peru.^[5] 

The lion is a vulnerable species, having seen a possibly irreversible population decline of thirty to fifty percent over the past two decades in its African range.^[6] 

Lion populations are untenable outside designated reserves and national parks. 

Although the cause of the decline is not fully understood, habitat loss and conflicts with humans are currently the greatest causes of concern."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion

For the lion below, cougars are too exotic. He chooses his "Valentine" as part of his PRIDE. However, new word you may have learned today: polygynandry.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I will create one or more dorincards with this cut-out image from a book. :)

==================

Happy PFF (Postcard Friendship Friday)!

Please visit: http://thebestheartsarecrunchy.blogspot.com/ (wait until Beth posts the today's Linky tool for the meme, then make your entry, if you want to join).

ABC Wednesday meme. Letter D is also for DORIN, my name. Maxicard (USA) showing DARLING WOLVES - these two obviously like each other, don't they?

Please visit this meme! :)  http://abcwednesday-mrsnesbitt.blogspot.com/ 
Scroll down once you arrive at the above link.

http://abcwednesday-mrsnesbitt.blogspot.com/
Scroll down once you arrive at the above link.

Peace on Earth? Never was, never will be - not "everywhere, simultaneously". But at least we can do our best. However: "Si vis pacem, para bellum" - Latin adagio.

Hoping for peace is good, but there are too many "disturbers of peace".

Trying to have peace is better, if you take action.

Safeguarding the peace, even with armed forces if all else fails, is the best.

==========================================

Happy Blue Monday!

Please visit:  http://smilingsally.blogspot.com/

Germany and the Failure of Multiculturalism | STRATFOR; plus postcards from Deutschland

"Reprinting or republication of this report on websites is authorized by prominently displaying the following sentence, including the hyperlink to STRATFOR, at the beginning or end of the report."

"Germany and the Failure of Multiculturalism is republished with permission of STRATFOR."

Read more: Germany and the Failure of Multiculturalism | STRATFOR 



I am posting here excerpts and the link to a very good article by George Friedman, of http://www.stratfor.com.
Only financial reasons prevent me from subscribing - otherwise I would absolutely enjoy reading all their articles (especially those written by George).
Very insightful ideas...
masterful choice of the juiciest, most percutant words...
and a clear, enjoyable style.
Tasty and spicy (though not crazy-spicy) "Food for Thought".
READ, baby! :)
Don't limit your geopolitical horizon only to your 6 o'clock news, or so.
There are more significant things happening in the world (and eventually affecting "U 2") than the garden variety of your TV news, sandwiched between commercials.

"Two things have forced the re-emergence of German national awareness. The first, of course, is the immediate issue — a large and indigestible mass of Turkish and other Muslim workers. The second is the state of the multinational organizations to which Germany tried to confine itself. NATO, a military alliance consisting mainly of countries lacking militaries worth noting, is moribund. The second is the state of the European Union. After the Greek and related economic crises, the certainties about a united Europe have frayed. Germany now sees itself as shaping EU institutions so as not to be forced into being the European Union’s ultimate financial guarantor. And this compels Germany to think about Germany beyond its relations with Europe."


"Merkel’s statement is therefore of enormous importance on two levels. First, she has said aloud what many leaders already know, which is that multiculturalism can become a national catastrophe. Second, in stating this, she sets in motion other processes that could have a profound impact on not only Germany and Europe but also the global balance of power."

Read more: Germany and the Failure of Multiculturalism | STRATFOR 

==================

Let's say I want to create a maximum card about Germany [I have none, so far :( ].

FIP Commission for Maximaphily exhibiting rules say that I should NOT use a multiview postcard like this:

What I could do is to find (or create at zazzle) a small stamp with the flag of Germany, for example.

If I could get that stamp postmarked on the picture side, in some corner, it would look very good to me.:)

It would be a dorincard (in this case a non-traditional maximum card), representative of Germany.

-------------

Another postcard that I received from a German partner/friend is this:

Doesn't that jumping lamb know that its destiny is to be sacrificial?

Or, maybe he knows, and that's exactly why he's jumping, "living his life at its fullest".

Enjoy while you can! (whatever you enjoy)

A tiger cub needs the care of a mom that's a tigress, not a..."cougar" - custom maximum card (USA) that I created

I ordered that nice photo print in a postcard size 10x15cm (4x6 "), and I can attach anytime a postcard-backing paper, if I want.

Or, I can re-order it as a postcard, from the print shop.

http://www.winkflash.com

The stamp is my design at Zazzle.

http://www.zazzle.com/siberian_tiger_hug_postage-172968708985811645?rf=238693463283865848

In the enlarged image below, look how thrilled is the tiger cub that his mom plays with him!

"Open up your loving arms!"...:)

The postmark is from my Mailers' Postmark Permit canceller, my own official/legal/valid postmarking device.

http://mppclub.org/

How concordant is the postmark with the stamp and the postcard?

Well, the postcard image shows tigers from the Berlin Zoo (Germany, I suppose, 'cause we have Berlin localities in USA, too).

The stamp image shows tigers from the Buffalo, New York Zoo.

My Sterling, VA postmark is concordant at least on a zoomed-out level (both states of Virginia and New York are in USA).

Do I attempt to focus my MC (maximum card) only on a specific Zoo? On specific tigers?

http://www.zazzle.com/no_no_no_no_baby_postage-172866537361275772?rf=238693463283865848

I just want to focus my MC on the general relationship between a tiger cub and his mother.

http://www.zazzle.com/sheesh_postage-172193995595441185?rf=238693463283865848

A Zazzle custom stamp [= custom(ized) postage, personalized stamp, personalised stamp] has a thin plastic coating, to prevent fraud by laser-printing, and to prevent the obscuring of the IBI (information-based indicia; the black and white little squares) by the ink of the postmark.

How can you get a postmark onto a Zazzle stamp?

A USPS postal associate may, or may not agree to postmark it. Officially, "it doesn't require a postmark".

I interpret that as "it's still OK to postmark it on (nice) demand, for philatelic purposes."

I had to use a trick that George C. and some other maximaphilists around the world have experimented with: harsh dishwashing scrub pad (cut out a thumb-size square), used carefully to dull the glossiness of the postcard.

Any brand name: Scotch Brite, etc. would do.

So I scrubbed just right, with "the Midas touch" ["special touch", though not transforming anything into gold :) ], the matte postcard and the plastic-coated zazzle stamp.

Thus, the postmark ink was absorbed well-enough. 

You can see the postmark, can't you?

My good friend/MACSU colleague/mentor/client George Constantourakis (Canada) knows a trick or two (or 1001) about maximaphily.

After all, he is the current Chairman of the Commission for Maximaphily from FIP (The International Philatelic Federation), for God's sake!!!

:) :) :)

http://www.maximaphily.info

Why a DOG EATS DOG World, and not a DOG LOVES DOG World? Maxicard (USA)

I am showing you that I used a folded postcard, and I don't care if anybody, including FIP Commission for Maximaphily, would say that it is NOT a maximum card.

So what if it's a folded postcard?

I like it, I use it.

As long as it's not meant to be exhibited by their rules, why play by their rules?

Make your own rules, for your private enjoyment.

Do what makes YOU happy.

Now, it can be cut in two, or it can be glued so it becomes "a thicker postcard".

Or it can be enjoyed just the way it is.

And IF I care to pacify the "righteous" crowd of ultra-orthodox, fanatical followers of traditional maximaphily rules (rules inherited pretty much from around 1950), then I COULD say that it's not a traditional FIP maximum card.
Instead, it's a non-traditional maximum card.
Either way, to me it's a DORINCARD [or whatever].
You, too, can name your creations any way you want.
:)

A Finnish reader might tell us the translation of the text from the other postcard, scanned in the same pass.
Or we could each use www.translate.google.com, for an imperfect translation.
:)

Not a true Rock Star: Rock Hyrax (Procavia capensis), or Cape Hyrax - maximum card from Bophuthatswana <- wikipedia it yourself! :)

Take a good look and say which is the closest relative to this rock hyrax:

1 - marmot.

2 - mouse.

3 - elephant.

4 - rat.

5 - raccoon.

The answer is here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_hyrax

===================

Happy PFF! :)

Please visit: 

http://thebestheartsarecrunchy.blogspot.com/