Shipped on January 6th. Left Ukraine on January 8th. Then tracking goes dead. The seller asked me to wait a few more weeks. It’s been 2 weeks since then. I think it’s time to assume they have lost it in transit.
The supplement is done. Just need to test fit stamps in mounts before I can put it up for general consumption.
Even though I am pretty committed to the Community US Stamp album I still buy the Mystic supplements to see how they’re laid out. My 2021 supplement arrived in the mail today, and I only see 2 pages that need hacking. Page 1594, an updated page for the 2020 supplement, and page 1602, the flowers booklet both have broken up se-tenants. Seems like a pretty easy hack, so I think I’ll take some time and see if I can put this together real quick.
I thought people might be interested in how I am setting up my albums now.
For binders, I am using the Avery Frame View Heavy Duty Binder:
I print all my pages double sided and put them in Staples Heavyweight Sheet Protectors.
https://www.staples.com/Staples-Heavyweight-Presentation-Sheet-Protectors-200-Pack/product_612997
Though I have used different paper in the past, I am currently using HP 40 lb Project Paper.
https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/pdp/hp-40-lb-heavyweight-project-paper-250-sht-letter-85-x-11-in
I’m printing my pages out on my Epson EcoTank ET-2750 printer. I also have a Brother HL-3170CDW color laser printer, which I love. But when you print on thicker paper in the laser printer, you need to tell the driver that you’re using thicker paper, which cranks up the heat on the drum. This really causes the paper to curl.
I always thought the laser printer produced crisper and clearer output than the inkjet, but the Inkjet pages were nice and flat. Then I discovered Colorlock paper. The HP 40 lb paper gives me output just as crisp and clean and the laser printer.
I’ll try to post some pictures of the actual album I have put together after Christmas is over.
Sometimes you make a stamp album supplement without actually having the stamps. Then, years later you get the stamps and you realize they don’t fit in the stamp boxes you made.
Well, that’s what happened with the 2002 supplement. Most of the stamp boxes were too small. When I enlarged them, I could not quite get them to fit the way they were before, so this supplement is one page longer than the old one.
I just overwrote the existing file on my Google Drive with the new one.
Two supplements in one day!
Now I give you the updated Tryzub Ukrainian Stamp Album 2020 Supplement Reissue.
When I released the 2020 supplement earlier this year, I had a warning that MICHEL stopped numbering Ukrainian stamps pretty early in 2020, and my numbers were a “best guess.” I assume this was pandemic related.
Well, my “best guess” wasn’t good enough.
So, today I cleaned it up and reposted it.
All MICHEL numbers have been fixed, and the last 5 pages have been re-arranged so that all stamps are in proper MICHEL catalog order number.
I simply overwrote the old file. You can find it on my Google Drive here:
And, I am having issues with email updates. If you missed the email, my Community US Stamp Album 2007 supplement is out.
This one took longer than expected. Had to get stamps. Had to get mounts. Had to deal with definitives. But, it’s finally done. Here is a sample page:
I still don’t have a license to use Scott catalog numbers on my pages, so the PDFs in this 7-zip file don’t have them.
This time around I included an “ink-saver” PDF. Same exact pages, but no stamp images.
As usual, files are on my Google Drive here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1sz9OHKT-TfNWOnOr2bu4YZpUI38k_973?usp=sharing
Due to a great Black Friday deal on web hosting at my existing provider, I upgraded my plan to allow greater resource utilization. WordPress, you get a break until I can find the time to redesign the site.
Despite my various attempts to optimize my site, I am unable to get resource utilization down to an acceptable level for my web hosting provider.
So, I have 48 hours to do something about it, or my site will be taken down. I’ve eliminated everything except the high I/O usage, which happens once or twice a day for only a minute or so. Problem is, I can’t get good detailed logs to figure out exactly what’s going on.
So, stand by to see what happens.
OK, I took the last of the Mystic Heirloom hacks and moved them to my shared Google Drive.
The following pages can now be found there:
I got resource utilization down to reasonable levels for my hosting provider. So, the pressure is off to get the site moved off WordPress ASAP.
I still want to do it, but now I can take the time to do it properly and not rush to do it and do a half-baked job.
For the curious, if appears the Jetpack plugin for WordPress was one of the culprits.
I did the following things:
Both of those things helped a little, but didn’t help enough to get to me to where I needed to be.
When I checked my logs I saw a LOT of calls back to wordpress.com. So, on a whim, I disabled Jetpack. And within 15 minutes, I was no longer maxing out my CPU allotment. But I was still over my php script limit for the day. Another day, and everything seemed to be back to normal.