Are diamonds forever? BBC Country Profile: Botswana. Diamonds are the main export. Also, see WWF maximum cards/ maxicards/ dorincards with Red Lechwe antelope (Kobus l. leche)

What do YOU know about Botswana?

[crickets...]

Read this from BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/country_profiles/1068674.stm

"Geographically the country is flat and up to 70% of Botswana is covered by the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the south and southeast, Namibia to the west and north, and Zimbabwe to the northeast. It meets Zambia at a single point.

A small, landlocked country of just over two million people, Botswana was one of the poorest countries in Africa at the time it gained independence from Britain in 1966, with a GDP per capita of about US$70. Botswana has transformed itself, moving into the ranks of middle-income status to become one of the fastest growing economies in the world with its average annual growth rate of about 9 percent with a GDP (purchasing power parity) per capita of about $14,800 (2010 IMF estimate)."

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

Notice the cool, unusual, triangular postmark!

How many color variations of Lechwe do you think there are?

Don't sweat it: 3.

Red, Brown and Black.

There's no Khaki Lechwe, trust me.

"Red Lechwe or Zambesi Lechwe (Kobus l. leche) - most of range. Overall tawny-fawn with black to front of front legs."

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

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

 Do you like my website http://dorincard.blogspot.com?

If yes, then please take a moment and write a quick review on www.alexa.com (click the widget below, then scroll down in alexa.com and click the "Write a review" golden button - you'll be golden for me!)

Thank you very much! :)

Alexa - Review Widget

 

However, if you DON'T like my website, then...

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

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).

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).

Guest Heart Thursday meme! Also: not really mute, just less vocal - The Mute Swan (Cygnus olor), dorincard created with a rare educational card (not a "real postcard")

How many hearts do YOU see in this image of a dorincard (in this case, the dorincard is a non-traditional maximum card/ maxicard)?
I see 2.
Hint: they are NOT bi-dimensional, 2-D in the context of the image.

One heart is suggested by a joint venture. To find such a heart, you have to look for a DEER one, after you get tired of living the WILD LIFE, using your EAGLE vision, multi-TUSKing and wandering from BUSH to BUSH [there are two bushes in the postmark, I might specify].

The other heart is suggested by a temporary pose, like The Cotton Tale of  The Missing Chunk. Not cotton-tail , the rabbit.
There might be many incomplete, fragmented, or broken hearts out here, "in the wild".
How about "in the domestic"? Domestique...
:)

"The Mute Swan (Cygnus olor) is a species of swan, and thus a member of the duck, goose and swan family Anatidae. It is native to much of Europe and Asia, and (as a rare winter visitor) the far north of Africa. It is also an introduced species in North America, Australasia and southern Africa. The name 'mute' derives from it being less vocal than other swan species.^[1][2][3] Measuring 125 to 170 centimetres in length, this large swan is wholly white in plumage with an orange bill bordered with black. It is recognisable by its pronounced knob atop the bill."

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

===========

Guest Heart Thursday #45

http://clytie-randomhearts.blogspot.com/

Welcome to Guest Heart Thursday -
A place to share YOUR hearts!

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/}

BBC: 'The birds and the bees'. 'Quiz: The surprises of animal sex'. Be my Valentine, in the (other) animal(s) world. To the heart, thru the body (language). Guest Heart Thursday meme. Black heart on the giant panda cub Tai Shan.

Guest Heart Thursday #44

Welcome to Guest Heart Thursday -
A place to share YOUR heart!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

My entry for the Guest Heart Thursday meme http://clytie-randomhearts.blogspot.com/ : the black heart on a hind leg of the giant panda cub Tai Shan, in the postcard AND ALSO in the stamp!!!.  See, I made it easy for you, not to waste too much time searching throughout the image...:)

The postmark is more visible here, on a different postcard:

The front side of the above postcard is this:

Please read this from BBC (viewer/reader discretion advised, although 'Naturalia non sunt turpia' = 'What is natural is not shameful'): http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12409270 Take the quiz.

Also: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/whats-on/temporary-exhibitions/sexual-nature/index.html

"Adult £8, Child and concessions £4, Family £21

Free to Members, Patrons and children aged 3 and under.

This exhibition contains frank information and imagery about sex."

Child and concessions? If you make your child a concession/compromise, they charge you for the concession, too? [must be another word meaning...]

"The exhibition gallery is adorned with sepia and black-and-white images depicting animals in sexual congress like this one".

Sexual congress? Aah, so that's  why so many politicians from around the world make certain...trans(con)gressions.

"Some of these displays may raise eyebrows."

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.

Happy Pink Saturday (meme)! [Part 1] Pretty in pink (or any other color): Vika Jigulina, who sings in Edward Maya's "Stereo Love" (Best International Song nominee). The haunting accordion sounds and rhythm...

Pretty in pink: "The Roseate Spoonbill (Ajaja ajaja), sometimes separated in the monotypic genus (Ajaja) is a gregarious wading bird of the ibis and spoonbill family, Threskiornithidae. It is a resident breeder in South America mostly east of the Andes, and in coastal regions of the Caribbean, Central America, Mexico, and the Gulf Coast of the United States.^[1][2]"

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

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

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

"I'll spread my wings/ And I'll learn how to fly"...to international success...

Now, who else is pretty in pink (or any other color)?

Vika Jigulina, for example.

Look at her dress at the top of this page:

http://mayavinrecords.com/vika-jigulina

Have you heard the beautiful, haunting, ("progressive house"-category) song "Stereo Love"?

Watch the videoclips from the above link! :)

The rhythm, the voices, the images...and the accordion virtuoso's supreme timing and instrumental skills. 

World-class! :)

Also:

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

Stereo Love, the new hymn/hit song of dance clubs, etc. from around the world! :)

Another videoclip (that I like, too), with a cover version an official remix of Stereo Love, sung by Mia Martina:

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

Another version, beautifully sung by Alicia, in Spanish:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gfd96rck28A

There's also a Portuguese version by DJ Osman, "image-intensive".

I expect that every country will come up with at least one version - why the hell not?

I am curious to see the exotic versions from Vatican City, Holy Mount Athos, Greenland, Saudi Arabia, French Polynesia...:)

Happy Postcard Friday (meme)! Read from BBC: 'Day of departure' rally in Egypt. Also, a visual metaphor for Day of Departure: philatelic souvenir (dorincard) about a "Frog" clinging to power, or so he thinks, ob(li)viously...

Read the whole article here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12362826

Once upon the time, there was a Dictator clinging to power, or so he thought, ob(li)viously...

...but the power shifted recently to a greater force...

The moral: you better figure out in due time when your Day of Departure has come - then let go!  Or else...

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

Happy PFF (Postcard Friendship Friday)!

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

Guest Heart Thursday meme: "Your heart has AIS, my heart has AIZ" - Where's the heart? Maximum card with Star Wars, from USA

Another very interesting blog, hosted by Clytie, is http://clytie-randomhearts.blogspot.com/

Guest Heart Thursday #43

Welcome to Guest Heart Thursday -
A place to share YOUR heart!

===========

My entry:

 "Your heart has AIS, my heart has AIZ" - Where's the heart in this image?  [Not a NASA-level riddle]

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

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Groundhog, Woodchuck, Land-beaver or Whistlepig (Marmota monax) - maximum cards/ maxicards/ dorincards/ MCs from USA

"The groundhog (Marmota monax), also known as a woodchuck, or in some areas as a land-beaver, is a rodent of the family Sciuridae, belonging to the group of large ground squirrels known as marmots. Other marmots, such as the yellow-bellied and hoary marmots, live in rocky and mountainous areas, but the woodchuck is a lowland creature. It is widely distributed in North America and common in the northeastern and central United States. Groundhogs are found as far north as Alaska, with their habitat extending southeast to Alabama.<sup>[2]"


"</sup>The groundhog is the largest sciurid in its geographical range, typically measuring 40 to 65 cm (16 to 26 in) long (including a 15 cm (6 in) tail) and weighing 2 to 4 kg (4 to 9 lb). In areas with fewer natural predators and large amounts of alfalfa, groundhogs can grow to 80 cm (30 in) and 14 kg (31 lb)."
^{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groundhog}


"Groundhog Day is a holiday celebrated on February 2 in the United States and Canada. According to folklore, if it is cloudy when a groundhog emerges from its burrow on this day, it will leave the burrow, signifying that winter will soon end. If it is sunny, the groundhog will supposedly see its shadow and retreat back into its burrow, and winter will continue for six more weeks.^[1]"
"the National Climatic Data Center reportedly has stated that the overall prediction accuracy rate is around 39%.^{[25]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groundhog_day}

I created this maxicard although I knew that the postmark will not be very visible.  I wanted to leave the text unobscured, and I hoped that the ink of the postmark will be good enough.  Hoping is free - anybody can do it.  Anyway, you can see the postmark on the backside, below.

The FDOI (First Day of Issue) postmark was applied by USPS (United States Postal Service) in Toronto, Canada.  

Is Canada [officially] part of USA?  :) 

No, but it was during CAPEX (Canada Philatelic Exposition/Exhibition) and USPS decided to have there the FDOI postmarking event for that great, beautiful 50 stamp-series.

"Desired Desire" - Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, sometimes known as Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam. I received today my first maximum card from Belgium, showing his house.

Erasmus lived in this house, too - in Anderlecht, Belgium.

Thank you, my friend Johan Ockerman (Belgium)! http://johanpostcards.blogspot.com/ .

Somebody in Belgium made a smart decision to apply the same pictorial postmark on the envelope, outside the stamp. That way, we have a perfectly clear image of the postmark, which is not possible from where the postmark met the stamp.

"Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (October 28,^[1] 1466 – July 12, 1536), sometimes known as Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam, was a Dutch Renaissance humanist and a Catholic priest and theologian. His scholarly name Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus comprises the following three elements: the Latin noun desiderium ("longing" or "desire"; the name being a genuine Late Latin name); the Greek adjective ἐράσμιος (erásmios) meaning "desired", and, in the form Erasmus, also the name of a St. Erasmus of Formiae; and the Latinized adjectival form for the city of Rotterdam (Roterodamus = "of Rotterdam").

Erasmus was a classical scholar who wrote in a "pure" Latin style and enjoyed the sobriquet "Prince of the Humanists." He has been called "the crowning glory of the Christian humanists."^[2] Using humanist techniques for working on texts, he prepared important new Latin and Greek editions of the New Testament. These raised questions that would be influential in the Protestant Reformation and Catholic Counter-Reformation. He also wrote The Praise of Folly, Handbook of a Christian Knight, On Civility in Children, Copia: Foundations of the Abundant Style, Julius Exclusus, and many other works.

Erasmus lived through the Reformation period and he consistently criticized some contemporary popular Christian beliefs. In relation to clerical abuses in the Church, Erasmus remained committed to reforming the Church from within. 
He also held to Catholic doctrines such as that of free will, which some Protestant Reformers rejected in favor of the doctrine of predestination. 
His middle road approach disappointed and even angered many Protestants, such as Martin Luther [DORIN'S NOTE: not Martin Luther King Jr. - http://www.zazzle.com/c_am_sayin_postage-172331084925934503?rf=238693463283865848 ], as well as conservative Catholics.
He died in Basel in 1536 and was buried in the formerly Catholic cathedral there, recently converted to a Reformed church.^[3]"

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