Dang!

Just on the chance a previous order might be a precedent for a new order, I submitted another order for three pages of Archie L Walker stamps. Same photo, already uploaded and accepted before the change in policy went into effect. They sent me a nice email telling me they cancelled my order, and they said they would not charge the $10 cancellation fee. Que sera.

Reading the links Eric provided, it seems likely to me this service will not survive the trial period that ends September 30. You, dear reader, might miss the opportunity to get your personalized stamps if you delay.

Get that grandchild's picture out and scan it, drop it into PowerPoint on a page set-up of 1.1 by 1.1 inches, save it as a .jpg or .png image, upload it, and order all the stamps you will ever want. Now.

I thought about making pairs of stamps that could be viewed slightly cross-eyed to form a three dimensional image. I made a stereo view of a covered bridge at a Missouri State Historic Site (see link), but they were too small to really experience the 3-D effect.

I think I'll retire from the custom stamp hobby altogether. Oh, maybe just one more, or two, come to mind. I don't have a dog or that 1973 MGB anymore. Hmmm, what other stamps could I make? How about my favorite King James Version Bible verses? Bible Haiku? Hey! We'll see.

The postal service has really toyed with something here that probably should have been left alone. What if anyone could get a picture put on a penny or a $20 bill? What were they thinking?

Ferdie says her stamp order was some kind of miracle. They still happen, folks. Look around.

not accepting images of adults

It would seem to me that just the opposite would be true.....to protect children under 12 from public exposure. I was going to use this service too.....just couldn't resist mailing a picture of the bride and me. Still may....but less inclined now.

I seem to recall a certain pessimistic Freen predicting that the service would inevitably cancel orders for capricious reasons.

It would be only a matter of time before certain children's photos would be cancelled as well.

Like "Daddy's little buddy".

...and why would that photo be rejected you ask?

Probably for the same reason this one was rejected elsewhere.

Nice to see that "charity logos" are still accepted.

...or at least until a logo like this one gets rejected for being "offensive" to other religions.

Wallace, I figure it's because the likelihood of being sued for misuse of personal images is greater for adults.

...pessimistic Freen...

You? Pessimistic? Surely not... ;-)

Larry Stephey

Thanks for your info on cross eyes and their 3D effect. When I was a high school student, I went to an opthalmologist, not because it bothered me, but because when I would look at the typewriter keyboard or when I would look from afar at these beautiful buildings that are decorated with matrixes and matrixes of these decorative precast concrete blocks, SUDDENLY THE IMAGE, WOULD CHANGE, AND IT WAS A WONDERFUL, PLEASANT SENSATION. I DIDN'T KNOW HOW TO EXPLAIN IT, BUT I TOLD IT TO MY FATHER, WHO DISREGARDING WHAT TO ME WHAT SEEMED A PLEASANT, SPECIAL EXPERIENCE, BROUGHT ME TO THE OPTALMOLOGIST INSTEAD.

I told this to the opthalmologist, who was I think one of only two in our city, because the rest were only optometrists or opticians, and he just looked at me as though I was somebody crazy - ESPECIALLY WHEN I ALSO TOLD HIM THAT WHEN I LOOK AT THESE NEON SIGNS, SAY THE RED OR ORANGE NEON SIGNS LIKE THE LETTER "O" , LETTER "D" WHICH FORM A CLOSED LOOP, AS I FLICK MY EYES TO THE LEFT, FOR A SPLIT OF A SECOND, I WOULD SEE WHAT'S KNOWN IN OPTICS IN PHYSICS AS "FRINGES" ---- you know, the fringes in physics experiments that appear when you have a lightsource that emits only one wavelength, and the light strikes a cardboard that has two pinpoint holes, each of which now become pinpoint light sources - and then the lights from these 2 pinpoint light sources are allowed to overlap ---- PRODUCING DARK, BLACK, PARALLEL, CIRCULAR FRINGES WHERE THE LIGHT WAVES CANCEL EACH OTHER OUT, AND IN BETWEEN THE DARK CIRCULAR FRINGES, ARE VERY BRIGHT RED OR ORANGE FRINGES - WITH ALL BLACK AND BRIGHT RED/ORANGE FRINGES IN "CURVED PARALLEL FORMATION". THESE FRINGES IN PHYSICS, I think the light source my professor used were red laser, and sometimes sodium light, but I remember the red/orange light best and those red/dark fringes in parallel curved formation. Well, these red/black fringes in curved parallel, all students in physics/optics have had the experience of seeing. And it takes time for professors to prepare these experiments just so students can see these fringes.

THE STRANGE THING FOR ME IS THAT I SEE THESE BEAUTIFUL FRINGES FOR A SPLIT OF A SECOND "NATURALLY" SIMPLY BY LOOKING AT RED OR ORANGE NEON LIGHTS AND FLICKING MY EYES TO THE LEFT OR RIGHT.

I AM VERY CURIOUS TO FIND OUT

(1) IF ANYBODY OUT THERE IN THE WORLD CAN ALSO CAN SEE THESE FRINGES THE WAY I DO JUST NATURALLY WHEN LOOKING AT THESE NEON LIGHTS,

(2) OR WHAT THE SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATION IS FOR THIS VISUAL EXPERIENCE THAT I SEE,

(3) OR WHETHER THESE NEON LIGHT FRINGES HAVE ANY CONNECTION WITH THESE 3-D EFFECT THAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT

(4) WHETHER YOU OR SOME PEOPLE MIGHT BE ABLE TO FIND SOME USES FOR THIS NEON EFFECT

It has been almost 40 years since I talked to that opthalmologist. As far as he was concerned, he warned me that fluid might be leaking from my eyeballs and he warned me that if said fluid leaks out, it cannot be replaced. Yet, 4-35 years after I saw him, I stopped wearing eyeglasses. Now that you mention crosseyes, maybe the optalmologist must have been on the right track. My father who obviously was concerned, took the time to in his own way study my problem and said to me laughingly one day, "maybe you are crosseyed!!!"

I would look at the mirror at my eyes, and then at some instant, I would see one of my eyes move to the left but not the other. Perhaps this is a process where the eyes change from near vision as when reading a newspaper 2 ft away to looking at something several hundred feet away. In my analysis, our eyes have to be crosseyed when we are reading a newspaper 2 feet away, and parallel when looking at something far away.

Also, I have had the experience of looking at a picture of "Our Mother of Perpetual Help" and the picture would pulsate. I've also looked at the Sacred Host exposed in the monstrace on the church altar, and the Host would brighten and pulsate. But then, later even walls would also pulsate. I said, maybe it is due to the pupils in the eyes openning and closing in rhytm. As they close, eveything dims, as they open, the room brightens. As they do this rhytmically, things pulsate. That's my suspicion. But as to what really is happenning, I really cannot be sure.

I've also had the experience of seing colors change. My opinion or suspicion is that perhaps I am able in my mind to do a transposition and shorten or lenthen the wavelengths of all the colors I see, thus resulting in a change of colors, but only when I decide to do so. Maybe resulting in effects similiar to the doppler effect. I've also had the expeience of talking to people 3-6 feet away. And then suddenly though the people nor I never moved, to my eyes, they were now 6 to 12 feet away!!!! I was looking at them and they became smaller and farther away!!!

This thing where you want people to do 3-D without the aid of bicolored eyeglasses or equivalent, YOU DON"T THINK THIS WILL RESULT IN A LOT OF CROSS-EYED AMERICANS AND INTERNET USERS???? It took me many years to shift my attention to other things and away from typewritter keyboards and those buildings with matrices and matrices of repetitive 1 ft by 1 ft precast decorative concrete patterns. Can you or anyone make sense of these things I told you. It's been almost 40 years since I visited that opthalmologist. Until now, I am still alone. Maybe in the internet are others too, or others who have the explanations or can make sense of these visual experiences.

actually, children cannot give informed consent to be photographed, so the parents must give permission, making a lawsuit maybe not more likely, but certainly more *winnable.* I think the whole utility of the service is sunk, and it'll probably go under.