blog: reader participation

A note about “Glond.”

In a recent strip about Boggle, I used the word “glond” ostensibly as a made-up word, a word so obviously silly that no one could take it seriously, but yet which could be argued to be somehow real.

Well, here is a note from Marksman Nikolardo, who sends the following pictures to support an argument I would not have believed without documentation. This dictionary is used in the Nikolardo family for both Boggle and Scrabble:

And in this dictionary, there is a certain page…

And on this page there is something miserable:

GLOND.

Now, then: Nikolardo points out that the bottom section of the page, where “glond” is found, is a special space for “words which were variants and/or archaic at the time this dictionary was printed, which was 1918.” So it can be argued that “glond” is not really a word. Not anymore.

And what is glond? “Awlwort” or “Cowherb.” THOSE ARE NOT WORDS EITHER.

Due to this overwhelming evidence I am going ON THE RECORD as declaring “glond” NOT A WORD, either now or EVER IN THE FUTURE. Glond is BLACKBALLED from the English language FOREVER.

What a glommox we have made of this situation! (Thanks for the pictures, Nikolardo!)

“One word: PLASTICS.”

I am uneasy with my fortunes resting in the hands of others.

As you may know, every year I design a hand-printed, limited-edition calendar. My wife and I use a RISO Print Gocco screenprinting press to create the actual pages. The trouble is that Gocco supplies have been discontinued by the manufacturer, and inventory on the secondary market is dwindling rapidly. Thankfully, however, enterprising and crafty folk have managed to create workarounds — one of them involves these aftermarket plastic frames. A savvy fellow in Germany manufactures them as replacements for the original Gocco supplies, and (in a fairly savvy business move) he has limited the distribution of them to a single retailer in the US.

Long story short, I am in the market for 38 of these frames for this year’s calendar, and the US retailer charges what I consider an exorbitant price. My question to you is this: how hard are these to make?

Are you involved in plastics manufacturing? Do you have access to a laser-cutter or a water-jet or a die-stamper or whatever would be appropriate to use to make these? I would be willing to manufacture a few hundred of these frames if it meant I would be assured of having calendar supplies for years to come. They’re pretty thin material, maybe 1/16″ or so, and I don’t think the specific plastic used even matters — they just have to be this very specific size so they fit the Gocco equipment.

I’m shifting calendar creation into high gear (watch for the pre-order going live next week!) and would love to somehow get a batch of these rapidly…or if nothing else, find someone who can make them for next year.

Would you like some business, Plastics Manufacturer Who Reads Wondermark? Email me please! Tell me how this process works. I want to seize control of this; I am tired of other people dictating how I can make my things.

UPDATE: Thank you for the kind emails, comments and suggestions! I am currently following up on several different options.

Now then! If you’re not in plastics manufacturing but you’ve still read down this far, here is your reward (hat tip to Kevin McShane):

SoCal electricians: Any advice for my friend?

My friend and colleague Todd Croak-Falen (who produced and co-wrote my short spy spoof Expendable) is applying to the Electrical Training Institute of Southern California’s apprenticeship program (Los Angeles Local 11 chapter). He passed the written test with flying colors and is now scheduled for an interview on Wednesday as the next phase of the application. He hopes to become an Inside Wireman.

I thought I’d use my soapbox here to ask: are you an electrician with a familiarity with this program? Would you be able to offer Todd a few words of advice regarding what to expect in the interview, or how to make the best impression? What are they looking for? Please email me (dave at wondermark dot com) and I will forward all comments to Todd.

His interview’s this Wednesday morning, so a quick note now is better than a treatise later! Todd’s a smart dude, a hard worker, and I’d love to give him the best shot at getting into this program. Thanks so very much!

Machine of Death FAQ & Lincoln ATTACK

Over on the Machine of Death site we’ve answered some questions about our upcoming October 26 Amazon.com flash-mob superblitz, and raised a few more of our own:

While we’re happy to offer [a Kindle] version for folks who don’t want to deal with a physical book for any of a million great reasons, it should be said that Amazon treats a Kindle book as an entirely separate product from the printed book. Thus, buying the Kindle version doesn’t contribute to the main flash-mob campaign. If we can get a secondary campaign going for the Kindle version, great, that’d be amazing! But we’re also a little concerned about splitting the effort.

Should we make a Kindle version? What are the implications for the campaign? We also talk about time zones and some other stuff; go check it out and give us your thoughts! Other questions about the project can be directed over there as well, so everyone can see them and contribute (rather than sequestering them here on Wondermark).

I also feel like this is a fine time to share this photo sent in by Marksman Alexandre I., who explains:

Four of us share a suite in a dorm here at Pittsburgh University, with two rooms and a conjoining lounge. We despise blank walls and have a rather exorbitant printing budget of 800 sheets per semester, so we rasterbated Lincoln to the ambitious scale of 7×14 A4 sheets or roughly 6.5ft x 10ft.

Tremendous, Alexandre. Tremendous.

(Rasterbator is, of course, the website that blows up and allows you to print out massive wall-sized images made from individual sheets of paper. Should everybody do this, with every one of my comics? I think the answer is obviously yes)