Stamps. WTF else, bitch?

So, my stamps from stamps.com came... they is teh best!



My next will be this design I just done made. Years and years ago there was a pretty prolific petition going on to get the USPS to issue a stamp commemorating HP Lovecraft. It never happened, so, take that, postal bitches!

Quote of the Day

In the "you just can't make this shit up" department:

"You cannot expect people to believe in the promise of a better future when they are jailed for peacefully petitioning their government. And you cannot stand up a modern, confident nation when you do not allow people to voice their legitimate criticisms."
- G W Bush

Housemate Wanted!

Hey all, one of my roomies is moving out at the end of this month. He needed to be closer to school... WTF. An hour+ each way is no big deal! Traitor.

Anyway, we need a housemate. If you or someone you know wants a place in a vegetarian household in Worcester, Massachusetts, send 'em my way. Hell, if you simply know someone in the Worcester area, tell them to pass this "must-see" offer along to all their friends.

The blurb follows:



Wanted: Housemate (Vegetarian only!)

When: February 1st, 2008

Where: Avalon Place, 6 blocks in from Elm Park & Highland St.
Very central, w/in walking distance to everything

What: Large 1st floor apt: 4 bedrooms, 2 large common rooms, kitchen
Big attractive house built in the 1830s

Who: We 3 housemates are ages 28 to a YOUNG (I’ll have you know) 40

Price: $385/month includes heat; internet/electricity is cheap.

Niceties:
- The room up for grabs is particularly nifty
- Use of free laundry machines
- Lots of storage space available
- Pets OK. Pets are great!

Call Phobrek at 508-755-8732, or email phobrek@gmail.com!

Location: if you’re not familiar with this area, know that:
- The stretch of nearby Highland St. has decent restaurants, bars, cafe, and many fun shops, making it one of Worcester’s few lively, popular areas.
- A supermarket is w/in walking distance near the lovely Elm Park, and across the park is (appropriately) Park Ave., with more restaurants, shops, and fun.
- Highland Street goes downtown and becomes Route 9, giving quick highway access; Park Ave is a main street which crosses the city: when you’re getting to places in or out of Worcester, this is an ideal location.

John loves Barack

I just watched CNN's clip of John Kerry stumping in South Carolina for Barack Obama, giving his endorsement in an emphatic and lively manner. If only the dumbass had had this kind of fire four years ago! Once Obama took the stage and thanked Kerry, he went on to espouse the former candidate's virtues, and so again I had to wonder, what if someone stumped for him in that dramatic, charismatic way Obama has about him? Obama defended Kerry better than he had when he was running back in '04. Well, I guess anyone defending Kerry back then would have done a better job, seeing as how the weakling just rolled over and died, not even trying to de-bunk the blatant smear attacks against him.

I honestly have no real preference at this point, when it comes to Hillary, Obama, and Edwards. I just want one of them to run and beat whatever sacrificial turkey the GOP offers us; any of them will be a big step forward. And once in there, I want whoever it is to appoint the mighty mouse DK (Dennis Kucinich) to a cabinet position. Get this fantastic guy into a place where he can do some good, because he's brilliant and would be great for the country. And this way we can also keep his wife in the spotlight (cough... okay, I mentioned DK, so by law I have to make note of his hot wife).

Abolish the Electoral College!

Supposedly, this month, Senator Dianne Feinstein is to lead the charge against abolishing the electoral college. In the past, what attempts have been made seem to have gotten nowhere fast. And, sadly, evolving our antiquated method of electing the "leader of the free world" has never been an issue of public interest. Which is rather ridiculous, seeing as how Gore won the general election in 2000, but lost the college's tally (although of course, had all things been fair, he'd have won Florida, etc.). I just have this slight feeling in my gut that things might have gone differently these past seven years had Gore been at the helm. Call me crazy.

I'll be resurrecting and revising my old article "Inequality of votes in presidential elections under the Electoral College system" soon enough and posting my plea anew soon enough. How to get it read, well, that's always a problem.

In Air America's first days, I actually got to talk to Al Franken for a bit regarding the (then-) upcoming 2004 election. I took the position that none of the existing problems (let alone the unjust EC system) would be fixed by that November; somehow he thought to the contrary. All I can say is... IN YOUR FACE, FRANKEN! And while I love Feinstein and hope for the best, I just can't imagine her getting the support she needs. Maybe I'm wrong. I'd definitely be happy if we could at least first address the torrent of inadequacies and "dirty tricks" abounding in our previous federal elections.

All yr liberties belongz 2 us

Just finished watching a great British documentary from late last year called Taking Liberties. Definitely worth watching, regardless of what country you're watching it from. And of course, lots of the last years of Britain's descent into madness is tied at the hips with ours here in the U.S.

A favorite part was Riz MC's video for The Post-9/11 Blues. Riz was actually one of the actors in the re-enactment segments in another great flick, Road to Guantanamo Bay. Ironically, he was recently detained shortly after attending a film festival featuring it, and thus was subjected to detention, abuse, threats, etc.

Anyway, check out the video and song; it kicks arse. And definitely catch Taking Liberties and Road to Guantanamo.

I see dead people's stamps

In the last three days I've been much the philately geek. Bidding tiny amounts for interesting stuff on eBay (I'm a total cheapskate, which is necessary because of my barren bank account), and getting a couple fun things in the mail. One package I got was an old, unopened bag of "mission stamps." Also called "charity stamps," I learned that these are bunches of stamps that are gathered by and/or for religious groups (hence the term mission) which are then sold to stamp addicts for charity. How odd... I can't imagine it turning much of a profit. But, the benefit to a stamp collector is that these are grab bags which are supposedly unsorted and unpicked by anyone, meaning you might get some rare stuff amongst the many commons. But at this point I'm not really capable of telling one from the other, since my DVD stamp guide hasn't arrived in the mail yet. This company Scott has a corner on the stamps market, and they release new catalogs every year, which feature not only a price guide for the stamps, but pictures of every fucking stamp ever. They're six massive phone book sized tomes per year, costing like $300. Crazy. The DVD I found was substantially cheaper.

But I've figured that the best way to get more interesting, older stamps would be to grab other people's collections... those of dead people. I've been looking for a while to see if any estate sales were in the area (yard sales are pretty rare in the winter), and last week I found one. It was on Friday and my friend Dave (also a hunter of bargains) got there about quarter to nine in the morning. It was a riot. People started lining up in the cold (well, we didn't, but most did) waiting for the doors to open, and at exactly 9 AM, in rushed about two dozen people, in the space of a minute. When we got in, it was like vultures ripping away at the previous owner's carcass! I immediately looked at the table of ephemera (my word of the week, meaning anything that's printed that isn't a book or magazine, basically), but only found a couple of old envelopes with stamps on them. In the end, I bought those and a small stack of neat looking (unused) envelopes for $2, and Dave got a big pot for $1. I'm sure we could have found this or that if we searched through everything, but meh! Screw it. But now I'm keeping my eye out for similar sales.

I should also give out a general plea here... if you get stamps from other countries occasionally, feel free to save and send 'em to me! I'm still trying to figure out what kind I really want to collect. For now I'm just getting a general mass of the things together (I should really get a stamp book), but eventually I'll pick a couple things in particular. I think I'd like to get a lot of French stamps (they actually put art reproductions on their stamps), and if there are many, stamps depicting mythological material, and legends, folklore, etc.

And to combine the two... well, these aren't French stamps, but it's a French painter, and his paintings have made it onto some commemorative stamps, which I've now ordered. It's my all-time favorite artist, William-Adolphe Bouguereau!

What... have I done...!

And this is only the beginning....

You've got mail!

So I finally got off my ass and installed the scanner I bought, like, a year ago. The thing that finally motivated me was this crazy service that lets you make real postage stamps with your own image on them! My first thought was to make baby Aalam stamps and then send some mail to Anita (the adorable guy's mum) using them. I'll scan in the stamped package once I get 'em.

OMFG

For years and years, I've looked online (eBay and other sites) whenever I remembered to, trying to find a copy of a poster I had when I was a teenager. Today, I found it:



I can't believe it... a brand-new copy of this obscure 80's work of art! Needless to say, I'm buying it. Then, to top things off, I found that the dealer had the other masterpiece from my teenage kid's bedroom:



I'm in heaven.