My Stamp Diary

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Astronomy

~ When the moon is in the seventh house ... ~

and Jupiter aligns with Mars …

then peace will guide the planets ...

and love will steer the stars.

~ Asian Solar Eclipse - July 22, 2009 ~

Astronomy … Astrology … can we have one without the other?

Astronomy is the theme for the 2009 Europa stamp issue and right away I remember the song “Aquarius” and the hippies and flower children of the sixties and seventies wishing love, peace and harmony to all mankind and the planet and the entire universe. Oh well, we started out with good intentions, as usual, but where did it go from there? There’s no peace on the planet, not very much love and harmony is hard to find since it doesn’t come with the new songs and music releases. I really do prefer the songs and music of my generation. There was so much harmony in the music and in everything we did.

Were things better when I was growing up or was it better because I was young and so sheltered from all the ugly things in the world? I lacked knowledge. What’s so bad about that? Ignorance is bliss and, let’s face it, I won’t be taking a trip to the space station unless I find twelve million dollars.

~ To the moon, ~ to the stars, to the next galaxy!

~ Would you like to visit the moon? ~

Then along comes the age of technology and we have glorious images and feedback from satellites in outer space and it’s the next best thing to there. Isn’t technology wonderful! Have we sacrificed our harmony to have greater knowledge? Knowledge is a good thing. How much knowledge in enough knowledge? The more knowledge we have, the more we realize that there is so much more that we don’t know or understand. Just why are we here and what is our purpose in the great vastness of our universe?

I’ll take the harmony but, ~ for those of you who want knowledge, ~ here’s a few for you.

And then there's ... ... oh, yes ... ... this one!

~ The David Dunlap Observatory ~

~ What Next? ~

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Out for Coffee ... ...

Today, I took a trip to a neighborhood mall just to hang out for awhile and have a coffee and muffin at the food court. The food court is decorated with tall Benjamina trees and flowers and ivy in containers and is situated on the bottom level, directly below the skylights. Along with the outdoor look is a bird that must have wandered into the mall and found a home in the food court because it’s been there for awhile. Today the brown, speckled bird stopped to rest on the tables next to mine (I’m sure in search of food scraps) and one of the caretakers snuck up to swoosh it away. I wonder if the mall feeds it? When I was at the mall having a coffee with a friend a few weeks ago and I wondered out loud if we should cover our heads in case it drops on us, she said, “Oh, where I come from we say it’s a blessing when birds drop on our heads.”

I’m back job hunting, again, and I’m thinking of giving up my field of training, Administration, and starting to knock on the doors of the retail stores. How much longer am I expected to hold out for a job in Administration? I noticed on my way out, at the foot of the escalator, was a table for a chocolate and ice cream store that was accepting applications for their new location in the mall. So I stopped to have a chat with the recruiters.

They were only hiring for part time employment at this time and I’m looking for full time employment, but I couldn’t help myself, I just had to tell them that I saw their Company’s Commemorative Envelope, issued by Canada Post to commemorate their 100^th anniversary, on the internet and I would have liked to have bought one but it was limited edition and I missed out on the deal.

They didn’t know!

Sunday, December 14, 2008

A few weeks ago on a Friday afternoon, I was sitting in the cafeteria with a co-worker of the Muslim faith who told me that Monday was a Muslim Holy Day and I asked him what this celebration was about. He began to tell me the old bible story of ~ Abraham ~ who, when he made his journey to ~ the mountain ~ with his son to make a human sacrifice of him (an ancient Jewish tradition), God appeared to him and proclaimed that there were to be no more sacrifices made of their children in his name. I didn’t know this story was part of the Muslim Holy Books as well! This is certainly an occasion to celebrate and it just so happens that this celebration falls during the Christmas season. I wondered to myself why Christians didn’t think to call a Holy Day for this special occasion.

A few weeks have passed and the Christmas festivities are well under way and I remembered the part of The Christmas Story of King Herod who was told by his prophets that there would be a child born who would be greater than he and so he ordered a killing spree of all the boy infants two years of age and under. Mary, Joseph and their child went into hiding and baby Jesus was spared and because of this salvation the world changed.

~ The Story of the Nativity ~

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Europa 2008 - "Letter Writing"

Every year the European Nations issue a Commemorative stamp with a common theme and this year it's “Letter Writing”.

I wish I had pen pals when I was young to swap stamps with. I’ve heard that there are some people who save all the letters they’ve ever been sent. I realize now that what was “ON” the envelope is more valuable than what was “IN” the envelope. All those rare, cancelled, old stamps! Then again, I probably wouldn’t have thought to keep them anyway. We’ve replaced letter writing with e-mail now. How boring and nothing to save of any value either. We’re just clogging the airwaves with all this stuff when we could be supporting the Post Office and creating jobs. Just how important are these messages we e-mail around the world in merely a few seconds? No more greeting cards or post cards but much less paper waste. It seems we’ve become quite good at recycling our paper products but there is no demand for all this recycled fiber and it sits in warehouses for years on end. I guess the idea is NOT to throw these things out but to keep them as memorabilia instead.

Webfetti.com

SmileyCentral.com

So, now I’ve started to collect some “Letter Writing” stamps but I’m finding it difficult because the websites have language barriers and it’s all Greek to me. It’ll take awhile and I’m sure I won’t find them all just as I haven’t been able to find all the 2007 Scout stamps either.

As far as taking letters go, Secretaries with their shorthand and touch typing skills are almost obsolete. We don't learn to touch type anymore, we keyboard, and shorthand ... ... what's shorthand?

Remember those chain letters that were popular once? I’ve been thinking of starting a few to stimulate the economy.

I hated chain letters too once but we do everything online now eg., banking, e-cards, ordering online for everything. If we all make an effort to put something in the mail and keep it going (a positive chain letter is a great idea) our Post Offices will be overwhelmed and will have to do some hiring. I need a job so I hope they do lots of hiring! I also collect stamps and right now I have too many so this will serve a double purpose. I have some nice post cards that are bound to be collectible memoribilia one day and it seems to me that those Greeting Cards have come down in price.

Let’s see … … I'll start with friends first. Would you like one? Here's one more catch ... ... you have to keep all the chain letters, cards, etc., you receive (in a shoe box is a good idea) so there’s no waste (garbage) and it will be a time capsule. USE NICE STAMPS. There's bound to be a domino effect from all of this.