Mark Jochim
Member 
Inactive
Collecting, Scanning, Inventorying, Blogging
Posts: 66 
What I collect: General Worldwide (from EVERYWHERE!) plus Thailand, Malay Peninsula (Straits Settlements, Malaya, Malaysia, Singapore and States), Pitcairn Islands - Topicals include "Classroom Education", Pioneers of Aviation, Stamps/Postal History on Stamps, FDR - Limited Postal History (Siamese, especially town cancels from the Phuket area)
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Post by Mark Jochim on May 29, 2017 4:27:11 GMT
I have several blogs, two of which concern stamps. A Stamp A Day was started on July 1, 2016, so I'm approaching its one-year anniversary. I have yet to miss a single day! This is quite an accomplishment as the Internet isn't that reliable or fast where I live so uploading images can be very time-consuming. Also, the entries have gotten progressively longer!  Basically, A Stamp A Day highlights a different stamp from a different stamp-issuing entity each day. The entries are more or less chronological as I go through my own collection. Occasionally, I try to use an appropriate stamp for holidays and other special days (the main focus being those of the U.S. and Thailand, where I have lived for the past 12+ years).  The first part of each entry is usually a geographical and historical account of the particular stamp-issuer along with a map (mostly sourced from the Nations Online Project). Most of the information is sourced from Wikipedia, trying to sort out the chaff from the jewels. Sometimes, it's a fairly straightforward cut-and-paste and sometimes its a significant rewrite. An account of the postal history and stamp issues usually follows. Some of these are more complete than others (time and sources being the primary factors). Finally, I try to discuss the stamp of the day. I stick to the Scott catalogue for most of these, although sometimes I will highlight an interesting unlisted item and have even included a few local posts! A word on the stamps: many are inexpensive stamps. Sometimes, I only have a very limited (often single) number of stamps from a particular entity to choose from. They are not always of the highest quality (many have short perforations, less-than-perfect centering. or other visible faults). This serves mostly as a reminder to myself to upgrade those particular stamps as well as an illustration that even "bad" stamps can find some purpose...  A Stamp A Day includes an Index page as well that I try to update once or twice a month. While it can be useful for the reader to find a particular stamp-issuer, I created it mainly so I can see which entities I haven't yet blogged about and to prevent me from repeating any stamps (I used the same stamp twice for two different entries early on by mistake). Anyway, I hope you like the blog. I'm not big on "self-promotion" (I went nearly a year without announcing this blog, although quite a few have stumbled across it by accident). Through prompting by other Forum members, I'll describe my other stamp-related blog within the next few days (my other blogs focus on postcards and my life in Asia). |
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Mark Jochim
Member
Inactive
Collecting, Scanning, Inventorying, Blogging
Posts: 66
What I collect: General Worldwide (from EVERYWHERE!) plus Thailand, Malay Peninsula (Straits Settlements, Malaya, Malaysia, Singapore and States), Pitcairn Islands - Topicals include "Classroom Education", Pioneers of Aviation, Stamps/Postal History on Stamps, FDR - Limited Postal History (Siamese, especially town cancels from the Phuket area)
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Post by Mark Jochim on May 29, 2017 16:05:46 GMT
Posted a short blog today about Qu'aiti State in Hadhramaut (Aden Protectorate) which I treat separately from the earlier Qu'aiti Sultanate of Shirhr and Mukalla issues. In doing so, I completely forgot about Memorial Day in the States -- a holiday I had planned to mark this year. Even more devastating to me was missing the 90th anniversary of Lindbergh's solo flight across the Atlantic on May 20-21. I have quite a few Lindbergh topicals and it would have been difficult to choose which to use (I particularly like the U.S. release for the 50th anniversary which I remember quite well as an 11 year old visiting his "Spirit of St. Louis" at the Smithsonian; but a certain b&w stamp from Gibraltar is also high on my list of faves). Oh, well.
Tomorrow, I plan to blog about the Territory of Kansas before getting back to the stamp-issuing alphabet (Queensland).
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Mark Jochim
Member
Inactive
Collecting, Scanning, Inventorying, Blogging
Posts: 66
What I collect: General Worldwide (from EVERYWHERE!) plus Thailand, Malay Peninsula (Straits Settlements, Malaya, Malaysia, Singapore and States), Pitcairn Islands - Topicals include "Classroom Education", Pioneers of Aviation, Stamps/Postal History on Stamps, FDR - Limited Postal History (Siamese, especially town cancels from the Phuket area)
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Post by Mark Jochim on Jun 9, 2017 14:02:43 GMT
Just finished the "R's" with a somewhat less-than-pleasing (to me) post on the Russian Federation. I'd planned to post an article about Russia yesterday but was a bit overwhelmed with work and wanted to do the nation justice based on my own personal history with the region and her people (including some of my own ancestors). Instead, I put together a blog about the Republic of Rwanda (following the previous day's Trust Territory of Ruanda-Urundi). Saved Russia for today.
I decided to break the entity down into three parts: Russian Empire, Soviet Union (including the 1917-1923 period of which I don't have any stamps), and the post-1991 Russian Federation. I was torn between using one of the 2009 icebreaker stamps or either the 2015 or 2016 Postcrossing issues.
The Internet transpired against me at every step. Every time I tried to upload the stamp (and maxicard) images, I lost the connection. I couldn't get my favorite map to upload either. I ended up significantly resizing the stamp and card images and it still took almost an hour-and-a-half of trying before I finally achieved success. I usually write in the online editor as well but these frustrations caused me to lose interest. The article is kind of spotty, in my opinion. But it's done (and I'll revise it later -- after I do the one on the Soviet Union, probably about a month from now).
I also just realized that it's June 9th and I'd forgotten that the plan after yesterday's Russia was to have been to mark today's Thai holiday of Mahidol Day, marking the death anniversary of King Rama 8. I'll have to add it to my list of other forgotten (missed) anniversaries including Lindbergh's transatlantic flight (May 20-21) and the anniversary of the Machins (June 7)....
C'est la vie.
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Beryllium Guy
Moderator 
Posts: 5,654
What I collect: Worldwide Stamps 1840-1930
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Post by Beryllium Guy on Jun 10, 2017 13:57:09 GMT
I decided to break the entity down into three parts: Russian Empire, Soviet Union (including the 1917-1923 period of which I don't have any stamps), and the post-1991 Russian Federation. I was torn between using one of the 2009 icebreaker stamps or either the 2015 or 2016 Postcrossing issues. Thanks for your informative posts, Mark. I wish you better luck with the internet-related problems moving forward. I know it can be frustrating. Our local internet service here went down the other day for several hours, so I used the time to work on my stamps instead... Mark, I noted your comment about not having any stamps from the 1917-1923 period in the Soviet Union. If you would like to have some for use in future posts, please PM me your mailing address and I will send you some of my duplicates. |
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francis
**Member** 
Inactive
Posts: 30
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Post by francis on Jun 11, 2017 8:26:20 GMT
Thank you for your work. Your blogs really looks very informative.
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Mark Jochim
Member
Inactive
Collecting, Scanning, Inventorying, Blogging
Posts: 66
What I collect: General Worldwide (from EVERYWHERE!) plus Thailand, Malay Peninsula (Straits Settlements, Malaya, Malaysia, Singapore and States), Pitcairn Islands - Topicals include "Classroom Education", Pioneers of Aviation, Stamps/Postal History on Stamps, FDR - Limited Postal History (Siamese, especially town cancels from the Phuket area)
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Post by Mark Jochim on Jun 11, 2017 8:52:42 GMT
The Internet here went down for most of the day yesterday so it wasn't until this morning that I was able to compile and post the article on the Saar, followed this afternoon by one on the Malaysian State of Sabah. While I have quite a few stamps from several of the states, there are several that I possess just a single stamp from. Unfortunately, three feature the same design (Johore, Pahang and Sabah) -- rice (not the most interesting of subjects especially when you live in a country where it's grown just about everywhere and features predominately in ALL of your meals).
At any rate, I was inspired enough by my ability to connect online that I (finally!) updated the blog's Index, a task I'd neglected since the end of April...
Perhaps I'll work on a couple of items long-planned for my other blogs. We'll have to see....
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Mark Jochim
Member
Inactive
Collecting, Scanning, Inventorying, Blogging
Posts: 66
What I collect: General Worldwide (from EVERYWHERE!) plus Thailand, Malay Peninsula (Straits Settlements, Malaya, Malaysia, Singapore and States), Pitcairn Islands - Topicals include "Classroom Education", Pioneers of Aviation, Stamps/Postal History on Stamps, FDR - Limited Postal History (Siamese, especially town cancels from the Phuket area)
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Post by Mark Jochim on Jul 20, 2017 13:10:43 GMT
It's July 20th and that means it's "Moon Landing Day" -- one of only a handful of events that most of my students in Thailand may have actually heard about! (It's very frustrating when you have to explain about The Beatles. the fall of the USSR, and American Baseball/Football; they generally know something about 9/11 -- "Good movie!" one kid once said to me -- and our "war" with North Korea!). Anyway, the Apollo 11 mission is the topic of today's "A Stamp A Day" and I'm particularly proud of this article mainly because I was able to use a much higher-than-usual number of high-quality images -- a few from my own collection. Please check it out at stampaday.wordpress.com.   |
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Mark Jochim
Member
Inactive
Collecting, Scanning, Inventorying, Blogging
Posts: 66
What I collect: General Worldwide (from EVERYWHERE!) plus Thailand, Malay Peninsula (Straits Settlements, Malaya, Malaysia, Singapore and States), Pitcairn Islands - Topicals include "Classroom Education", Pioneers of Aviation, Stamps/Postal History on Stamps, FDR - Limited Postal History (Siamese, especially town cancels from the Phuket area)
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Post by Mark Jochim on Jul 23, 2017 3:43:31 GMT
Philatelic Fun with PhotoshopWell, not really....I can only perform two functions with Photoshop (and not always with the same degree of success). But "Fun with Paint" didn't have quite the same 'ring' to it...I use a combination of Microsoft's Paint (and not that new 3D version they tried to force upon me a few Windows 10 auto-updates ago) and something called PhotoScape which is great for things like placing (and resizing) transparent background images upon other images and manipulating lettering amongst other functions.Anyway, I wanted to change the wording on the 'A Stamp A Day' blog "logo" (a reworking from France #1078*):
The original version I made last year didn't even include the name of the blog:
So, I made a couple of new versions this morning, as well as one with just my name and one for my Philatelic Pursuits blog:
   But after I made these, I thought, "Well, perhaps I should try my hand at editing some different stamps and see what happens?" Once I get started on something, it's hard for me to stop.
I will post some of the results here in a little while...___________________*I use Scott catalogue numbers...
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Mark Jochim
Member
Inactive
Collecting, Scanning, Inventorying, Blogging
Posts: 66
What I collect: General Worldwide (from EVERYWHERE!) plus Thailand, Malay Peninsula (Straits Settlements, Malaya, Malaysia, Singapore and States), Pitcairn Islands - Topicals include "Classroom Education", Pioneers of Aviation, Stamps/Postal History on Stamps, FDR - Limited Postal History (Siamese, especially town cancels from the Phuket area)
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Post by Mark Jochim on Jul 23, 2017 4:08:03 GMT
Philatelic Fun with Photoshop (Part 2)My second try with "editing" a stamp for my logo was an attempt using Monaco #C16 issued in 1947, my favorite stamp-collecting themed stamp (I also collect FDR topicals):
My first attempts at obscuring the cross-hatching in the upper-left and below the country tablet were fairly awful:
I then decided on a "wipe" approach to the upper-left cross-hatching (mainly because any lettering I placed over the cross-hatching was completely unreadable):
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Mark Jochim
Member
Inactive
Collecting, Scanning, Inventorying, Blogging
Posts: 66
What I collect: General Worldwide (from EVERYWHERE!) plus Thailand, Malay Peninsula (Straits Settlements, Malaya, Malaysia, Singapore and States), Pitcairn Islands - Topicals include "Classroom Education", Pioneers of Aviation, Stamps/Postal History on Stamps, FDR - Limited Postal History (Siamese, especially town cancels from the Phuket area)
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Post by Mark Jochim on Jul 23, 2017 4:18:47 GMT
Philatelic Fun with Photoshop (Part 3):Hey! This is fun! Let's see what the United States #1474 from 1972 looks like:
I liked this one so much that I'm now using the personalized version as my TSF avatar:
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Mark Jochim
Member
Inactive
Collecting, Scanning, Inventorying, Blogging
Posts: 66
What I collect: General Worldwide (from EVERYWHERE!) plus Thailand, Malay Peninsula (Straits Settlements, Malaya, Malaysia, Singapore and States), Pitcairn Islands - Topicals include "Classroom Education", Pioneers of Aviation, Stamps/Postal History on Stamps, FDR - Limited Postal History (Siamese, especially town cancels from the Phuket area)
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Post by Mark Jochim on Jul 23, 2017 4:27:10 GMT
Philatelic Fun with Photoshop (Part 4)German Democratic Republic #91 (1951) for Stamp Day:
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Mark Jochim
Member
Inactive
Collecting, Scanning, Inventorying, Blogging
Posts: 66
What I collect: General Worldwide (from EVERYWHERE!) plus Thailand, Malay Peninsula (Straits Settlements, Malaya, Malaysia, Singapore and States), Pitcairn Islands - Topicals include "Classroom Education", Pioneers of Aviation, Stamps/Postal History on Stamps, FDR - Limited Postal History (Siamese, especially town cancels from the Phuket area)
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Post by Mark Jochim on Jul 23, 2017 4:47:02 GMT
Philatelic Fun with Photoshop (Part 5)For my final (today) attempts at stamp "editing" for my blog logo/TSF avatar, etc. I took a stab at two booklet panes issued in 1986 with a stamp collecting theme: Sweden #1588a and United States #2201a:
Notice that I even added a couple of items to the selvage of the Swedish stamp (at the top is the Phuket provincial seal) and at the bottom is a stylized entwined U.S. and Thai flag design. I had some problems removing elements and some of the quadrilles on the U.S. issue in particular are out of alignment. I will go back and fix these at some point, but my "free time" on a Sunday morning has come to end....
 
Admittedly, what I've done is quite basic. But the point is: If I can do this, then anybody can...
My big problem now is deciding which of these that I like the best. Which one shall have the upper left corner of the "A Stamp A Day" blog for the next year? (I may end up rotating images....)
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Ryan
Member
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Posts: 2,720
What I collect: If I have a catalogue for it, I collect it. And I have many catalogues ....
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Post by Ryan on Jul 23, 2017 6:51:03 GMT
One of the early users of this forum has since passed away ( mac1775) but before he did he posted a pair of animated GIFs that fit in with your Fun with Photoshop theme.   Ryan |
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