Who is This Masked Blogger?

He makes fun of the USPS.

He questions the latest rate increases.

He's written an unofficial guide to Flat Sequence sortation.

Who IS this masked blogger?????

http://deadtreeedition.blogspot.com

A Timely Font

Brooklyn is graced with several massive outdoor Obama paintings. “Inspired by this notion, I decided to create a collection of dingbats that would allow anyone to easily build similar artwork,” says Jeff Domke. “This collection is completely free for download, upload, distribution, use and modification.”

See http://jeffdomke.com/?p=374.

Goodbye to MetalFx

Parent company Ciba is closing its MetalFx business.
The software delivered impressive results and surely helped many printers win awards. So what happened? Some observers say MetalFx struggled to communicate the potential to designers. Others say they could not drum up enough business among their clients or found more affordable options.
Says one poster at www.b4print.com: “We looked into this--it had actually a nice use in packaging being able to print onto metallics/print many metallic colours.
"However--with only ONE customer ever asking about it, we didn’t bother. Ink makers have their own high lustre inks and on some sites you can also download the photoshop action sets, therefore creating your own metal effects/fx. It was a great idea with limited application."

Another www.b4print member suggested looking to this article for other options:
http://americanprinter.com/mag/ciba-closes-metalfx-1208/

See also:
http://www.b4print.com/forums/index.php?topic=2864.0
http://americanprinter.com/mag/metallic_faqs_0705/

Printer Pioneers Humorous Marketing Approach

Warren Werbitt, president and CEO of Pazazz (Montreal) stars in a video that proves printers DO have a sense of humor. Inspired by Steve Delahoyde's film (“Regrets: Boxes”), Werbitt asked a friend to draft a similar script about being a printer.

Werbitt's onscreen diatribe is peppered with bleeped-out profanities. A melancholy piano soundtrack provides a humorous counterpoint to the cussing. “No, Steve Guttenberg didn't invent the printing press!” Werbitt rants. Describing his love of ink, the printer raves, “I spread it on my toast like Nutella!”

Pazazz is a full-service independent printer based in Montreal with offices in New York and Shanghai. Founded in 1992, the company has grown from one man and his machine to a diverse team of experts from a variety of fields.

See “Printing's Alive” at http://youtube.com/watch?v=VpAuDrs5ocg.

Another Print Contender

For the past two days I have looked like someone strutting the runway at a Goodwill Industries fashion show. Two pairs of pants, shirt, jacket, hooded sweatshirt, winter coat, hat, two pairs of gloves, even two scarves. If it doesn't warm up soon, I will be using all my excess clothes to seal the door of my apartment and hibernating.....
This past week, observed that “Chicago [will ]have a negative 35 windchill (-37 Celsius). I swear this is much colder than I experienced at Everest Base camp in Tibet.”
On a different, but related note, she wrote about an electronic backpacker’s diary.
According to the manufacturer it looks more like a book than a traditional PC: “The diary has flexible pages that let you do a whole lot of things. The ‘eyes’ of your travel is the Digital Book Mark, which packs in a digicam, mic and LCD screen. What it sees, it records, and transfers to the Diary via Blue tooth.
On the Diary you will find flexible pages that include a silicone rubber flexi-keyboard and a pullout solar panel.”
See www.yankodesign.com/2009/01/09/chronicle-your-travelogues-the-digital-way/

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

I remember politely asking Grandpa,late in in his life, about a recent operation, perhaps not realizing it was for a long standing hernia. His response to me was: "How would YOU like to wear a truss?"

I have been waiting patiently for the right conversation to dispense this particular pearl, but no opportunity has presented itself.

I was in Michigan last week with some of my siblings and their families. I am not a huge beach person per se, but I enjoyed the relaxing pace. I marveled that I seemed to be getting a sun tan. I've heard of this kind of thing happening to other people, but I don't recall ever having one. Even when I was a kid spending all day outdoors, I mainly burned. So a tan! I then noticed that my "tan" was not the toast color I had long coveted, but more of a blotchy orange, like carelessly applied self tanner.

Calling upon skills honed from a youth spend poring over "Nancy Drew" and "Encyclopedia Brown" I mentally reviewed Clue No. 1: A note on the washer and dryer in the rented house: "Do not wash whites. They will get rust stains." Clue No. 2: Hideous iron stains in the toilet bowl that, in my fuzzy waking hours fooled me everyday: "Oh my God! What the hell is that??? Do I have kidney disease??? Oh, wait, the toilet bowl always looks like that." The water from the faucets, in addition to having a sulfurous stink, was slowly turning me a shade of Oompa Loompa orange. Thankfully, the pink welts from the bug bites have replaced the iron stains on my arms and legs.

The weather was pretty good the whole time. (No air conditioning, so that goodness it wasn't too hot.) We expect a heat wave next week.

I certainly needed the break after my trip to Cleveland. Things got off to a bumpy start. I somehow stepped on my glasses getting out of the shower at home that morning and they were hideously mangled. I knew I had a couple of old pairs of glasses somewhere, but I was nervous as to their vintage. Were they of the pre Feather Weight era, a time when my glasses were produced under the bottling authority of the Coca-Cola Company? Some national optical franchises brag they can have your glasses ready in about an hour. Not with my prescription, which must be special ordered. Apparently it takes a couple weeks, because all available associates are busy on the company's other big project, polishing the telescope lens at the Mt. Palomar observatory.

Thankfully, after rooting around in my bureau drawers, I found a pair from a couple years ago that wasn't too bad. Since my flight wasn't until two o'clock, I took advantage of the time to clear up some emails and a finish a couple of departments. At 10:30 am, I happened to take another look at my itinerary. I learned my flight ARRIVED at two o'clock. It was to depart at noon. It takes about 45 minutes to an hour to get to the airport from LaGrange. I called the cab company, wondering what excuse I might concoct for being late to the big corporate confab. Miraculously, tho I arrived at airport at noon, I still made the flight. I have never been so happy to get on a plane to Cleveland!

When you care enough to send the very best

I had some particularly bad articles to edit yesterday. I had to use all kinds of Editorial Spackle to fill in the massive gaps. It made for a long day. There was a late Christmas card on my desk from a coworker with a small candy cane attached. Towards the end of the day, with hypoglycemia imminent, I made the mistake of eating the candy cane. It tasted strongly of melmac with a tinge of Styrofoam. Possibly eating the plastic wrapper would have been more satisfactory. Fortunately there is a woman (with enviable hours, rarely seen in the office) who has a big jar of Starlight Mints in her office, so helped myself.