190616. Father's Day Happiness Pray

I like to honor Father's Day in my own small ways.

This year, I'd like to share tips re­la­ted to snail-mail campaigns and a look at how I'm setting one up myself.

The campaign will be seek­ing, for legimate and reason­able purposes that are pro­tect­ed under U.S. laws, to “gather information” re­la­ted to my putative father Jim Kiraly's past actions and current situation.

Note: I say “putative father” because the jury is out on whether or not Jim is my bio­log­i­cal father.

I'll be focusing on the cities of Solvang, CA and Pismo Beach, CA though Menlo Park, CA, Austin, TX, and other cities will be in­clud­ed.

Solvang, CA is rele­vant because it's where Jim and his wife Grace Kiraly have settled for the time being.

In fact, they're at 636 Atterdag Road unless they've packed up a load and hit the road in ques­tion. This is pos­si­ble but unlike­ly.

Jim has dodged the honors that are due him for 7 years. However now, I think, he's gone to ground in a town that he has no plans to leave.

The current snail-mail campaign is unusual in one respect.

Solvang, CA has a population of just 5,500 or so souls. It isn't a very large town. I have the names and snail-mail addresses of as many as 50% to 75% of the residents.

For the first time in the 7 years that I've been conducting le­gi­ti­mate and reason­able research that is pro­tect­ed under U.S. laws, I'm going to reach a large chunk of one of the cities in­volved.

Potentially half the city. I'm like­ly to reach more peo­ple than the local newspapers do.

Note to attorneys:

I'm not pre­sent­ly under any legal or ethical obligation to preserve records re­la­ted to the current campaign or any other campaigns.

So, it probably won't be pos­si­ble to meet demands either a priori or ex post facto for lists of addresses either possessed or communicated with.

Have a pleasant day. Oh, and kindly click on >>this link<< to review the Legitimate and Reasonable Purposes List.

Thank you for your kind attention to exactly trucked your violent abuser client Jim Kiraly, 636 Atterdag Road, Solvang, CA, SSN 038-20-8134 is.

Seeking to communicate with the public?

If you'd like to send an inquiry to a large group of peo­ple by snail-mail, and it'll fit on a large postcard, that's a sim­ple undertaking. There are “print and mail” firms which specialize in that.

If your docu­ment is bigger than a postcard, but no more than 10 printed pages in length, a sim­ple #10 let­ter approach will do.

In this case, you'll print double-sided to 20 lb 8.5"x11" pages. The result should be 5 or fewer 8.5"x11" sheets weighing, ideally, 1 oz total or less.

A single staple in the upper-left corner will be suf­fi­cient binding. You'll fold each copy to fit in a stand­ard #10 envelope and mail it using a single USPS stamp.

You might or might not need a “print and mail” firm for this approach.

Advisory:

It's pos­si­ble that 5 sheets (10 pages) plus the envelope and stamp will total just over 1 oz.

So, depending on the exact weight of the paper, you might only be able to send 4 sheets (8 pages) at the single-stamp price.

You can use the preceding approach for larger mailings. However, postage will be higher and you'll need to switch to 9"x12" envelopes at some point.

Note: I prefer, and recommend, sturdy 9"x12" manilla envelopes.

If a mailing is much larger, you'll also need to use 2 or 3 staples close to the left edge of the docu­ment. Heavy duty staples might be required.

I've done it this way for doc­u­ments totaling up to 80 to 100 pages (40 to 50 8.5"x11" sheets).

The largest doc­u­ments were years ago. I did them with­out the aid of a “print and mail” firm.

I'd guess that a docu­ment in that class — let's say 45 8.5"x11" sheets (90 8.5"x11" pages) — plus staples and a 9"x12" manilla envelope might weigh a total of roughly 11 oz.

That would cost $2.50 per unit to mail First-Class at 2019 rates. $2.50 is more than it cost me years ago, but it sounds con­sis­tent if we take inflation into account.

The cost to print or copy a docu­ment of this example size (45 sheets or 90 pages) at a walk-in print/copy center is big-time pricey.

This is how I did it at the start, years ago. However, I must have negotiated a deal. I don't recall the details, but I wouldn't have paid the rates that I see advertised these days.

Walk-in print/copy rates are, based on recent calls, about 25 cents per 8.5"x11" sheet for double-sided output. Depending on the firm, there might be a discount for large quantities.

This works out, be­fore the pos­si­ble discount, to about $11.25 for a 45 sheet (or 90 page) docu­ment.

$11.25 for printing plus $2.50 for postage = Nope  :)

It's bet­ter, for large num­bers of doc­u­ments or large num­bers of pages, to use a “print and mail” firm. Firms of this type can do the work faster and cheaper than you can.

This is what I've done most often in recent years for snail-mail.

I've used couriers, too, to do things like blanket city blocks with printed copies of doc­u­ments. However, that's a dif­fer­ent subject.

The trick is, of course, to find decent shops to work with. But I've talked to a num­ber of these firms over the years and my sense is that there's enough competition that the sub-par companies don't last.

The doc­u­ments that I've sent in recent years have followed the double-sided 8.5"x11" model dis­cus­sed above.

This has work­ed well enough, but that model isn't friendly to larger doc­u­ments. In par­tic­u­lar, staples are problematic once you get up to high page counts.

For the current Solvang, CA snail-mail campaign, I'm going to try some­thing different.

I've talked to a few firms and consensus seems to be that the fol­low­ing approach is worth a try:

* Print each copy of a docu­ment on 11"x17" sheets of paper using software that fits four stand­ard 8.5"x11" pages onto the two sides of each 11"x17" sheet.

* Fold each set of 11"x17" printouts to make a booklet of 8.5"x11" pages. The booklet isn't bound.

* Print addresses dir­ect­ly onto 9"x12" envelopes. Insert copies of the doc­u­ments into the envelopes. Mail using Second Class as opposed to First Class.

This approach is cost-effec­tive. For 500 units at a time, depending on the firm that's offering the quote and the num­ber of pages in­volved, it ap­pears that this can be done for $2.50 to $3.50 per unit including both printing and postage.

At the low end of the price range, and taking inflation into account, that's the same price that I paid years ago for postage alone when sending large doc­u­ments.

Sign me up. Solvang, CA, metaphorically, here I come.  :)

Father's Day Thoughts

It wouldn't be Father's Day with­out the 2013 piece in which I final­ly work­ed out What the Hell had hap­pen­ed.

Excrementum Meum, Sapidum et Salubri

Jim Kiraly of 636 Atterdag Road, Solvang CA, if you should happen to read this, I'd like to offer you best wishes for good health.

If you don't happen to read this, there's no need to be concerned that you'll miss out on honor and respect.

The town in which you've settled — pretty much the entire population of 5,500 ‐ is going to know, for le­gi­ti­mate and reason­able purposes that are pro­tect­ed under U.S. laws, the esteem that you've earned and in which you should be held.

Technical notes for webdevs:

I consider this theme to be pretty good for its pur­poses. Note that it doesn't need JS or PHP7 except for statistics or comments. It's fast and mobile-friendly regard­less.

The preceding Best Wishes rhyme incorporates a new feature ported from the minetest.org version of the theme: floating stanzas.

There's no mechanism, yet, for controlling the width of the stanzas. But if I just want to dash off a quick rhyme with­out a lot of wasted white space — but stay mobile-responsive — it does the trick.

I say “theme”, but it's actu­al­ly a markup language that supports all of the features that I typically use when I assemble a non-JS site.