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You are here: Home / Balloon Juice / Pet Calendar / 2021 Pet Calendar: Opinions Wanted!

2021 Pet Calendar: Opinions Wanted!

by | 63 Comments

This post is in: 

Open Thread, 60 Minutes, I Will Vote Concert

Hey guys, we want your opinions!

Question 1:  Two versions of the calendar?

We have such good participation this year that we are thinking of having two versions of the 2021 BJ Pet Calendar.  If we do that – which we plan to do unless you guys don’t like the idea – we would have closer to 15 pet photos on a page for the month, so we wouldn’t have to have postage stamp sized photos in the calendar.  This would allow us to get some good-sized photos in the calendar.

Fine print: We will make sure that all your pets are in just one of the calendars, unless you want them split for some reason.

?

Question 2:  Interest in an electronic version?

We are wondering whether there is any interest in having an electronic version of either one particular month or of all 12 months from the calendar?

Great idea?  Terrible idea?

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Question 3:

If we went with electronic in addition to the printed wall calendar, would you guys want the days of the month, so it could actually be used as a calendar look like a calendar? I should clarify that it would be viewable as a calendar, but it wold not be a functional calendar where one could enter information or click on a date.

Or would you really just want the page with photos from that month?

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If you have any other calendar-related ideas, feel free to go wild with your suggestions.  No guarantees, of course, but we are willing to listen to anything.

Oh, and get your photos in!!!   Photo deadline is Nov 1.

Update: I know people catch up on threads late, so I will check this thread for comments for one full day from posting.

 

Reader Interactions

63Comments

  1. 1.

    Van Buren

    1.Whatever makes life easier for y’all.
    2. No
    3.N/A

    Will want to buy both versions….say, I think I understand the plan here….

  2. 2.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I really like the idea of an electronic calendar. And I would prefer it formatted as an actual calendar so I could use it to record my numerous social engagements and the excessively busy life I lead.

    (The part in italics should be read as //)

  4. 4.

    CaseyL

    1. Two versions? With different photos in each?  It sounds like a lot of additional work – but I think might be a good idea for the suggested e-version.  I think more people would buy two versions of an e-calendar than a paper one.

    2. E-Version: Yes, absolutely!  Probably need to make it a pdf so everyone can download and access it.

    3. Days of the week: Sort of.  Frankly, I don’t use paper calendars at all (though some friends still do).  And the one thing I would find VERY helpful and handy is a calendar that doesn’t have a block for each day, but does show the days and dates.  So I can (e.g.) very quickly see what the days/dates are in months other than the current one.  If I need to look up a day back in June to see what date it was; or if I need to look up a date in December or February to see what day of the week that is.  An e-calendar that essentially replicates  the inset calendars in planning books (where they have the previous month and the next month on one page, the current month on the other) would be very helpful to me.

    Thank you so much for doing this!  I know it’s an insane amount of work, but I love the calendars for their glimpses into the Jackalariat community.

  7. 7.

    WaterGirl

    @CaseyL:

    #1.  It wouldn’t be any more work, because all the photos have to be placed in a design.  I could argue that it might be less difficult to artistically place 15 or so photos on a page, x2 pages, as opposed to trying to artistically place 30 or so on a single page.

    #3.  To clarify, it would look like the bottom half of a wall calendar, where you can see that the 5th of that month falls on a Thursday, , and the month started on a Monday.

    It really is an insane amount of work!  Glad it makes you happy.

  8. 8.

    WaterGirl

    @pat:

    How about 24 pages, two per month?

    Excellent question.  That cannot be done with Cafe Press.  We couldn’t even get it to give us one extra page last year so we could have the In Memoriam quotes on a single page.  You get 12 pages.  Period.

    We looked into there possibilities this year, like Dazzle, etc.  But Cafe Press is the only one that lets you set it up so that the money goes directly to the charity.  Otherwise, John Cole has to pay taxes on the calendar proceeds, even though the money was going to a nonprofit.  That’s a no-go!

  9. 9.

    pat

    Can the whole calendar be larger?  We have one that is almost 14 inches wide, and the BJ is only 11.

  10. 10.

    CaseyL

    @WaterGirl:

    #3. To clarify, it would look like the bottom half of a wall calendar, where you can see that the 5th of that month falls on a Thursday, and the month started on a Monday.

     

    Perfect!

  11. 11.

    WaterGirl

    @pat:

    Can the whole calendar be larger?  We have one that is almost 14 inches wide, and the BJ is only 11.

    The Magic 8-Ball (google) says “no”.  They appear to have only one size wall calendar.  Excellent thought, though!

  12. 12.

    Sloane Ranger

    Wouldn’t be personally interested in an electronic copy. How about a long narrow hard copy version with the days listed one below the other? Maybe 6 inches wide.

    Pics could be at the top and bottom and perhaps added to the Saturdays and Sundays.

  14. 14.

    pat

    Well looks like two calendars or tiny pics.

    As long as I get my kitties on one, that might work….

  16. 16.

    Dagaetch

    1. Yes! bigger pictures = better.
    2. To download? nah. But what if there was a permalink to BJ: https://balloon-juice.com/pet-calendar/current for example; that showed the current months images along with a basic calendar layout? I wouldn’t mind pinning that as a tab so I could refer to it when I needed days or pet pics.
    3. see 2
  18. 18.

    cain

    Since we know John is not involved, otherwise that grumpy old man (I’m a few months older than him) would have thrown a hissy fit. :-) I wouldn’t mind a 2nd calendar – would the price include both or do have to choose? What is the logistics?

    I’m okay on the electronic calendar, but I think it would be one of those “look once, never look again” kind of deal and not sure if it would be worth the effort.

    Can we have Obama, Bidens and possibly Kamala’s dog?

  21. 21.

    Joseph S

    1. I think two versions is a great idea.
    2. Another great idea.
    3. Open to either one.

    But, please do whatever you believe is best, and/or what works best for you.

  22. 22.

    WaterGirl

    @cain: The price would be the same – $25 for a printed calendar, regardless of which one you get.  If you want both, it would be the price of 2 calendars, so $50.

    edit: Or maybe there could be an option, buy “a set of the two different calendars” for $45 or something. I can run that by John.

  23. 23.

    WaterGirl

    @cain: I believe we have a photo of Elizabeth Warren’s dog, Bailey, with a BJ commenter’s dog.  :-)

    I don’t see why we couldn’t have Joe, Barack and Kamala dogs.

  24. 24.

    Yutsano

    @cain:

    Can we have Obama, Bidens and possibly Kamala’s dog?

    Give the calendar some hawt Champ on Champ action? I dig. I would want permission from the parties involved however.

    As to the OP questions:

    1.  Sure. The calendar was getting a bit too busy.
    2. Nah.
    3. Nah.
  26. 26.

    jeffreyw

    I say we go with one calendar and add as many pages as would be feasible for “notes”.

    Okay, so a quick read of comments renders this as a nope.

    Two calendars is the next best.

  31. 31.

    J R in WV

    I VOTE FOR TWO CALENDARS!!!

    Will buy multiple copies of each version, for neighbors and friends. Shame we can’t get a bigger version for notes!!!

  35. 35.

    TMinSJ

    I’m fine with 2 calendars as long as there is a way to tell which one has my pets in it. The thumbnail view on Cafe Press sometimes won’t open or is too small for me to find them that way.

    I don’t have a strong opinion on the electronic calendar.

  39. 39.

    geg6

    I have no use for an electronic version.  Two calendars is okay with me as long as it’s clear which version has mine, as it is often difficult to see on the WordPress preview.  And if there was a deal for buying both, that would be excellent.  I’d go for that.

  42. 42.

    Ruckus

    I like the paper calendar as I intend to purchase at least one extra for a friend (yes, I have at least ONE – friend) and I do use an electronic calendar, but I rather dislike having the damn thing remind me of anything.

  47. 47.

    WaterGirl

    My reservation about the electronic version that would show the photo part and the squares for the days of the month part is this:

    I have a laptop, and I wouldn’t be able to see the photo part and the “calendar” part on the screen at the same time.  Not big enough to be able to really see anything.  Seems like it would only be worse on a tablet or a phone.

    Even big monitors seem like the wrong shape for a calendar that has the month on the top  and the photos on the bottom, or vice versa.

  49. 49.

    Another Scott

    1. Excellent. Just say no to emoji-sized pictures!! :-)
    2. Yes please.
    3. Maybe just the downloadable pictures rather than an electronic static calendar? Maybe with tasteful text about who it is and who’s the owner (but only if it can be easily automated)? “Killer the Chihuahua, Capt. Mnemo, California, 2020 – The Year of the Plague”

    Thanks for all you’re doing for us.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  51. 51.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @WaterGirl:

    I have no idea, but I expect I’ll figure it out. And maybe 2021 will be the year I replace my iPad and maybe even get a laptop or PC.

  53. 53.

    WaterGirl

    @SiubhanDuinne: Bold plans for 2021 – I guess there’s always the money you would have spent traveling.

    I couldn’t decide whether to put a smiley face or a frown face after that, so I went with neither.

  55. 55.

    Tim in SF

    I did a calendar for my parents. It had one big photo at the top for each month (12) and then one small photo taking up the box on each day (not quite 365, since some days are slashed into halves). It looked great but it was a fuck-ton of work.

  56. 56.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @WaterGirl:

    I figure if I spend as much on iCrap as I have spent all this year on political contributions, I should be able to buy a sweet setup :-)

  57. 57.

    WaterGirl

    @SiubhanDuinne: Only if you have enough money left after all the donations!  :-)  Still, totally worth it if we win.  Totally worth it if we don’t win, because we know we gave it our all.

    The name of this game is no regrets.

  60. 60.

    MomSense

    I would love BJ pet calendar wall paper with the calendar on it.  Knitpicks does this and it is really cool.

  61. 61.

    WaterGirl

    I’ll be checking back for comments, ideas, and opinions for the next day, so even if you come to this thread late, I hope you’ll share your thoughts.  I will definitely read them.  thanks.

Comments are closed.