Guy McLaren

I am going to list a number of fonts below. What I am hoping some of you will do is send me a screenshot of the fonts as viewed from your computer with the details ie: Windows Vista Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.8.1.17) Gecko/20080915 Firefox/2.0.0.17 Flock/1.2.6 You can get that from Help and About in your browser.

Thanks

Arial

Verdana

Times New Roman

Georgia

Monotype Corsiva

Cataneo

Euphemia

Impact

Magneto

Eras Light ITC

AvantGarde Bk BT

Bradley Hand ITC

John Handy LET

Papyrus

I have chosen a few fonts that most of you will not have seen or have on your computers. Someone told me that Web 2.0 got fonts right, so lets see if they solved the issue of people not having a font available. The image below is what I see. Just between the two Computers here we have 4 that are broken.

I needed to design a desk calendar for a customer and started doing a few experiments. We are printing 500 of these for HIQ in Nelspruit. I thought about doing a few for myself as well. So the experimentation had to do with the paper grammage.

The tent fold calendar assembled

You can design your own Calendar for your desk by doing the following. You will need a printer that can print borderless on A4 or you will need to make your calendar a little smaller. 170g card works but is rather light and flimsy, 300g card works best. The problem with 300g card is that most printers are not able to handle that thickness board.

Design Layout

Basically the tent fold calendar is an A4 page with 3 folds and glued at the one end. I made mine by doing the design in four parts. two 105mm panels, a 20mm glue lip and the balance of the card as the third panel.

I did a 6 month calendar on either side and surrounded them by graphics, including logos.  I then added all the public holidays and a 2010 calender to the bottom panel. You could leave this blank but I figured a calendar for the following year and a list of public holidays and school terms would be more useful.

I printed this on 170g photo paper, cut and folded them. As you can see they work. The ones we are having done by the printers will be on 300g board.

For those of you that are interested here are the prices for printing and artwork.

Sheet print

Print up to 50 at  R 39.91 each (excludes artwork) add R 300.00 once (This is on 170g photoboard)

Print 100   R 2390.00 Lithoprinted on 300g Board artwork included

Print 200  R 2740.00 Lithoprinted on 300g Board artwork included

Print 500 R 3420.00 Lithoprinted on 300g Board artwork included

5% discount for payment with order.

I am calling on all tweeter to help remove the scourge of the magpie advert. Do not sign up and start sending them. To all that receive these horrible spammy tweets, Unfollow the culprit after a warning.

Its sad that nothing remains inviolate from the spammer community.

Guy McLaren was in England for four days this year.  It’s not much time but I got to a few places. Here are some photos I took while in England.

Whitehall London

Tower Bridge

London Underground

Thames Beach, a day in the sun.

Historic Southampton

Southampton Pyramid

Romsey Station

Pall Mall and the sports car

Grey, white and blue

London eye

Farmhouse in Hampshire

Stately home, hampshire

behind the pub

River boats

High street in Hampshire

Bridge and waterfront property

So do I, but I don't advertise it on shop fronts

Telephone and bigben

Anarchy at Buckingham palace

Buckingham Palace

Buckingham Palace

Somewhere along the way I read a book about design for non designers. I would give you the ISBN and all that stuff except I can’t remember where I put the book. Mind you it was a few years ago that I bought the book. The main concept was CRAP design.

Contrast is not just about Colour but fonts and more. When designing something you need to look at the contrasts, The harder the contrast the better. If you are using too many fonts on a page, you are diluting the power of contrast. Think about it. If you use two different script fonts that are similar, Are you creating a contrast or are you diluting your message?

Repitition is about repeating the design elements. Repetition gives the design flow and focus. It also makes it more pleasing to the eye. Repeating a header font with a contrasting content font makes the document easier to digest.

Alignment is very important. Align your design elements so that they make sense. Use alignment to create focus and to give the document substance. Alignment allows you to steer the person where you want them to go.

Position allows you to group ideas and thought. If your design elements are in the wrong position it can make or break your document.

I will discuss each of these elements of design in more detail. One item at a time so as to make them easy to understand. I will draw pictures and show you how just one of these elements will improve your design and how using all four you can create dynamite newsletters, documents and even adverts.

I have been staying away from the news, away from Politics and other things guaranteed to upset me. I heard about the convention via headlines, I thought so what another ANC breakaway, Remember the IDP? I did not think it could make a real difference.

Lets face it the IDP is like a flea on a dog, It worries and causes a scratch but generally the dog does what it wants despite the flea. The DA as an opposition is not a problem to the ANC, seriously it’s considered a white party. Our vote for the DA does not mean a lot.

Over the weekend the DA, the IDP, the ACDP and a whole lot of people from other parties including the ANC shared a stage. They spoke with a unified voice. I personally believe that this new party is a step in the right direction. I believe this is the most positive thing to happen in politics in this country in 15 or so years.

The last time I was this positive about anything political was when Nelson Mandela was released, and the time I got to vote for change, the first non racial elections. These to me were defining moments. I think we are now faced with a defining moment.

When this party officially launches, for the first time ever I will join and become a paid up member of a political party. I will campaign for the party and encourage every single person I meet to vote for the Party yet to be named.

Why do I think this party is so important? Lets start with the fact that they want bottom up representation. They want us to vote for our Mayor, for our local MP. They are saying that people that are placed by Party management is not beneficial to democracy. This is one issue that I already believe in.

They want to give the country back to the people. We will elect the person best suited to our own neighbourhood, not some fool that has a drink with the party secretary. If they get nothing else right, this will give us a say in how our town is run.

Face it we cannot do much about central government, Once those bastards are entrenched, they are entrenched. We can however call for the removal of our local councilors if we have the vote. If they are not doing their jobs we can fire their arses if we are voting for them.

Democracy never works like in the current format. We vote for a party and they then choose who gets the jobs. Thats not democracy, It’s an elected Dictatorship. We have an opportunity to throw our voices behind the voice of reason. Remember to register to vote next weekend. It’s important.

I was sitting here quietly minding my own business when there came a knock at the door. My son called me, he said someone for you, they say it’s business.

I loudly proclaimed, What the fuck is wrong with people, don’t they know it’s Sunday. Just leave me alone, while walking to the door. Two well dressed men were on the step. I spied the watchtower and the words just escaped. Just Fuck off, Fuck off now. I thought they were still in my head and was going to say something polite like Fuck right off.

The fear in those faces got me to thinking. How much abuse will someone take for their cult? Seriously my daughter MXit’d her BF and told him to lock the gate, There are brainwashed drones preaching in the area. His response was illuminating. He finds it humorous when his father swears at them so he was going to make sure the gate was open.

Now this brings to my mind that I am not the only person that roundly abuses these tards when they knock on my door. What goes through their minds when they get that abuse. As a salesman I get rejection but abuse is very rare.

I think I need to hire a couple of them as sales people. Because if I got the abuse I got I sure as hell would not knock on the next door. Those cult sales people just moved on to take some abuse from my neighbour. Here is my question to you?

When you spy Watchtower bearing people what is your reaction? Am I just a rude bastard, or are there a large percentage of us abusing these poor folks that are trying to convert you to their cult?

Czar in action

This is Czar, Czar came to live with us under false pretences. Czar’s family broke up. Mom (Bunny) and Dad (Doos) got divorced, Doos moved to America and Bunny moved to a townhouse complex. Czar went to live with a family (unknown people) that kept him outside when they were out. They went on holiday and left the security company to feed him.

Czar is a neurotic animal, He suddenly locks up in fear and will not climb the stairs but the worst is Czars fear of lightning. Czar panics and during a storm he escaped from the new home and the SPCA called Bunny, You see Czar is chipped.

She asked if we could look after Czar until the new family came home from their holiday. That was two years ago. Czar destroyed my lounge curtains in the first week, We were out when a storm hit. He was left indoors with the other children, Likkerish, Freddy and Diamond. I was pissed at Bunny as I had not been warned by her about this particular issue.

Majestic and beautiful

I should have sent Czar away then, but I felt sorry for the quivering lump, and tried to work around his fears. When we go out we tie the curtains up in stormy weather, We keep him out of the bedrooms. I have never seen a dog moult like Czar does.

Alert

Last year during storm season we went on holiday and got housesitters in, For the sake of this story, we will call them dumb and fucking dumb.  They were given instructions and yet I got home to 3 sets of ripped curtains.

I considered finding Czar a new home, but once again he was reprieved. On Friday we popped out to the shops, Czar was left outside for the half an hour. He escaped from the back garden when some lightening came up, Broke into the house in my daughters bedroom shredding the curtains in the process.

Relaxed

Czar needs more attention than we can give. He needs a home where he can lie at the feet of some one all day long. He needs a home where there is always someone home. Czar is gentle, he is calm and good with animals and children. He is a damned fine watch dog, He just however is an indoors dog, not a farm dog. Czar has woken me on 3 occassions when the bad guys were still on the driveway. I would not recommend babies and toddlers being around him, because he shows an unnatural fear of the demon toddlers that we seem to have visit us.

If you can give Czar a home, please call us at 013 745 8337.

I was checking out Shauns post 25 sunsets and figured I could get close to 25 sunset photos. In my digging I found 20. There are one or two Sunsets and sunrises I remember taking that I need to find still. I may add them later. I may add them as another post later. And you can find a link to Shauns post at the bottom of the page.

Boy in Tree st Lucia

Fire in the sky Nelspruit

Kruger Park sunset

Stormy sunset near Sabie

West End

and another sunset

Stormy sunset

and another sunset

Through the plantation

Yet another sunset

White River Sunset

Umbrella thorn- Barberton road

Clouds of fire

West End Flags

Fiery skies over Mataffin kop

Millies at Machadodorp

Sunrise on the way to Belfast

Industrial Plant on the highveld

Walking the dog with Mattafin kop in the background

St Lucia Sunset

Every One of these images was captured by me in the last 3 years.

25 Sunsets by Shaun

I have stayed out of religious arguments for a while now, but thought I would do something interesting over the next few weeks. I am not going to try and prove the existence or otherwise of God. I after doing some reading have come to the following conclusions about the issue. There is no way of proving or disproving God’s existence. The only people that know for sure are the dead.

Saying that God does not exist takes as much faith as saying He is. Seriously If you don’t think atheism is a belief system you are as deluded as Christians that claim that God speaks to them. I am not talking about the ones that find hidden meaning in bible verses, but those that have real conversations with him.

Religion is a personal issue, Chances are that if you were born in Saudi Arabia you are a Muslim, If you were born in India, you may be Hindi, and if you were born in Israel… you get the point. Very few people change religion in the course of their lives.

I read a book by Andries Theart and have had a good number of conversations with him. The book is called, God’s final call and can be found here. He believes that all these religions are a conduit to God and should not be attacked. He studies Revelations in detail.

Now I am not a firebrand Christian, As many know I have proclaimed myself atheist, but the box is not totally correct. As far as the matter goes I am undecided. Does God exist or doesn’t he. So what I am going to do in the coming weeks is show you the wisdom in the Bible. The basic concepts in the book are good. I don’t know that I would accept it all as being gospel. It is my belief that much of the Bible is allegorical.

You need to understand that at the time most of it was written, people were not very literate and many needed guidance. I am not going to study creation, nor am I going to go through all the begats and so forth. I am going to take a logical look at the bible and do a logical translation without all the thees thous and alleluias.

In effect I am going to show you how the Bible was designed to enrich and make the world a better place. I will not cherry pick verses. You see cherry picking allows you to make stupid statements like “Money is the root of all evil” when the actual verse refers to greed ie : “The love of money”

My next post is going to start with the book of Leviticus which many Christians use to justify their bigotry. I probably will not get into the whole fag issue for a few days but we will discuss the real issues.