Month of Letters Redux: Day 28

Finally, the last day of the Month of Letters! To some people, it might seem trivial to write a postcard, but this actually takes some time, especially if you’re going to be writing different messages to everyone. Anyways, here we go: the first postcard of this last batch is a postcard from Nashville that’s going to someone in Finland. The purpose of this particular tag is to send older postcards and on top of that, the recipient had requested envelopes that were made from scrap paper. So I made an envelope using leftover Christmas card stock. The second postcard is going to someone within the US who wanted a snow postcard so I chose a photograph from Antarctica. And the final postcard is going to another person in the US–there is no decoration on this one because the point of this postcard tag is to cram in as much writing as you can into the postcard (which you cannot see here because the postcard police frown upon showing backsides of postcards in general). And why did I choose William Blake? Well, the recipient wanted postcards that no one else likes and while I don’t dislike this postcard, I know it would be very difficult to send to most other postcard enthusiasts who only like tourist cards or cat cards.

Month of Letters Redux: Day 26

The first two postcards in this batch are going to Russia. The first one is for a reading tag so I picked out a black and white photograph of the reading room at the Doe Library which is at UC Berkeley. The second is to someone who likes cats. The third postcard is a photograph of the Conghua Hot Springs in Guangdong, China and it’s going to someone in Finland. It’s part of tag where the theme is to send postcards that aren’t from your country.

Month of Letters Redux: Day 20

I’ve been trying to get rid of all of my Harry Potter postcards and the first one on this post is the last one that I have in color–it’s going to a Harry Potter fan in Canada. It’s fine that other people are fans of it, but I’m not and I hope no one decides to send me anything related to it in the future because I’m not going to appreciate it the same way that someone who is a fan will. The second postcard is going to someone in Taiwan who is a fan of art nouveau. Yes, I know this isn’t exactly art nouveau. It’s actually in the Sachplakat art style which is actually a reaction against art nouveau. We’ll see if the recipient can spot the difference. And the third postcard is a historical black and white photograph going to someone in Ireland who wanted black and white photographs of buildings. I didn’t decorate this postcard because I got the sense that the recipient is probably someone who may be a bit old school when it comes to postcard aesthetics.

Month of Letters Redux: Day 17

The recipient of the first postcard seemed pretty adamant on their preferences for getting postcards that were made in the location from where they were sent (which honestly, I feel is a bit too stringent because there are areas in the world where printing and/or making postcards is impossible). I’m pretty lucky in that one of the publishers that put out postcards, Chronicle Books, is headquartered in San Francisco. Anyways, this first postcard is a moody black and white photograph of the famous Roxie Theater in the Mission District. It’s going to Finland. The second and third postcards are from the most recent National Parks postcard box. The one with Grand Teton is going to a motorcycle enthusiast in Luxembourg and the one with Glacier Bay is going to a nature lover in Germany.

Month of Letters: Day 27

First up is a postcard from the Earth and Space postcard box going to someone in Italy for a space tag. The second postcard is one I actually purchased at the San Diego Zoo going to someone in Taiwan for a zoo tag. And the third is also going to someone in Italy who likes bridges. Well, bridges is actually one of their minor preferences. They actually collect postcards with naked ladies on them and since that’s a subject I have no interest in accumulating in my stash, I had to find something else. Also, this person specifically said no cute things–hence the lack of decorations on the back of this postcard. I had to use the plainer stamps because this person also didn’t like flowers. I suppose I could have gone for the ship stamps, but they’re not the specific type of ships this person likes.

Honestly, I feel that my interest in postcards and an old dude’s interest in postcards only intersects at a very technical level.

Month of Letters: Day 26

The first postcard today is going to someone in Germany who is having a postcard contest with their parent to see who will get the most cards with a specific theme. That theme is “mother and child” and fortunately, I had a gorilla postcard with a baby riding on its mother’s back. I knew that if I had any chance of finding a postcard matching that theme in my stash it would have to be animal related. The only reason I have any postcards with people on them are because those were on sale when I got them. (If I’m going to pay full price, it had better be something that I personally like a lot. And I’m not a fan of human baby pictures in general.) The second postcard is a special one I obtained when I had visited Yosemite; it’s going to another person in Germany, this time for a specialized amphibian “tag”. The third postcard is part of a book of postcards on Frank Lloyd Wright–it’s going to a Canadian for an architecture tag.

Month of Letters: Day 19

It’s raining today and probably one of the few times that I’m glad that I’m working from home today and don’t have to go out unless absolutely necessary. The first postcard for this morning is for a postcard tag specifically for dogs–this one is going to Russia. The second one is for an “eyes closed” tag where you pick up a random postcard. This black and white photo of the iconic Grand Central Station in New York is going to China. And I have another orchid postcard going to someone in India who likes flowers. The last postcard is going to the United Kingdom–it’s also another random one, chosen from a collection of postcards depicting vintage photographs of Southern California because the recipient didn’t have any particular preferences.