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Post by mailartist on Oct 22, 2020 14:42:28 GMT
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Post by mailartist on May 13, 2020 16:48:01 GMT
That's the thread I was thinking about. Thank you, Mia.
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Post by mailartist on May 13, 2020 14:50:21 GMT
The more general, and widely used, the site, the more likely you will find non-penpal agendas.
One nice thing about AWoSM is that it's a small group and there are enough long-timers "chaperoning" the site that if questionable things show up, they are culled out. Of course, there are fewer people here, and the people here come from more mundane locales (Europe, US/Canada, Australia). There is safety in limitations, but the limitations are there, nonetheless.
I wrote in a previous thread about a random "prisoner" letter that I received. I've never written to prisoners, or authorized any to write me, and the "hubba-hubba, get it on, baby!" letter turned out to be mass-produced. Yes, it was written by hand, but what I held was a photocopy with the addressee name left blank. Thus the prisoner could pencil in a new first name after the "Dear ___" line, and have multiple fishing lines in the pond, so to speak.
This prisoner likely wanted candy mammas to either send money or contraband, or else paper "girlfriends" to increase his stature in the prison. Since the letter arrived outside the usual channels (or, as ginny said, "overstepped boundaries"), I treated it as junk mail and round-filed it. I did not send an answer -- not even an "sorry, I'm not interested."
The reality is that there are physical limits to how many letters one can write, or how many ongoing penpals one can have, so some selection is inevitable. So a one-off exchange is okay, too, even if it's digital: "Thank you for messaging, but I can't add you as a snail-mail correspondent at this time." Period. Either that, or don't respond at all.
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Post by mailartist on May 13, 2020 1:26:08 GMT
I think Students of the World has been discussed on threads elsewhere on this site. Not sure where, and I don't remember what was said (probably because I'm not familiar with that site you mentioned).
Any idea, Mia or Katie? (I think the discussion began about whether Students of the World charged people to join.)
I do know that some penpal sites have been flagged here as being more problematic than others.
Is the questionable message you got today snail mail, or a digital communication through the site?
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Post by mailartist on May 11, 2020 19:41:27 GMT
I've looked at the monthly requests before, but more often than not, they make me uncomfortable.
I don't mind listings that are "So-and-so is turning 100 this month. Please send a birthday card." Or "Such-and-so is fighting cancer. Please send a get-well note." But the MLL requests tend to feel too much like airing someone else's dirty laundry -- and typically without the recipient either knowing about it, or giving permission for details to be shared.
If I were dealing with either a personal tragedy, or a completely messed up life, it might be nice to receive hundreds of well-wishes from strangers. However, I'm not sure I'd want someone else posting details of my problem on the internet, even if my name and address were redacted. Besides, a lot of the postings feel like "My loved one is dealing with issues, and I'm really feeling frustrated. So maybe if everyone in the world sends a letter to lecture him or her, then maybe he or she will get his or her act together, or get over it, and everything will be happy again."
I've only ever found a couple of those that I felt comfortable sending something to, so I don't look at the site anymore. Too depressing, I guess, and too challenging of a letter for anyone but a trained therapist to write.
"More Love Letters" -- I suppose. "More Lectures by Mail" or "More Unfounded Platitudes by Mail" -- I think not. Just my take on things . . .
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Post by mailartist on May 4, 2020 19:16:59 GMT
I’m still mailing letters but I have started scanning the international ones before sending them on their way. That's a smart idea. That way, it can be resent, digitally, if something goes awry. I sent a 5Q letter to a forum member from France, and PMed that I had sent it. I mailed it almost two months ago, and have not yet heard that it arrived. I assume it's still in transit, but that's kind of a long time . . .
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Post by mailartist on Apr 27, 2020 20:30:24 GMT
Sometimes I get out of control with my ms and ns. I used to tell co-workers that I loved to type the word "point" and asked them what their favorite words were to type and they just rolled their eyes at me. Are we all nerds here, or what? (Mia: I think AWoSM needs an official "Nerd" badge! Nerdy, and proud of it!)
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Post by mailartist on Apr 27, 2020 20:27:29 GMT
Upper case Q is weird, period. Looks too much like "2." Then again, "5" and "S" always were indistinguishable for me. Now, with my left hand (which is more stable), I have enough control to get them to look different. Not sure about my u and v -- I think they're different, but I'll have to see if I distinguish between them.
An interesting question that came to mind (now that I've switched to my left hand for writing) is whether my "signature" reads different. Yes, there may be a slight difference in the letter slant, but I wonder if one's signature depends on things other than hand-dominance. Do my left-handed signatures look like I'm trying to "forge" my right-handed one, or does it still read as "official" and legitimate, because the signature originated in my brain? Don't know the answer to this . . .
I hate typing tests. Probably because keyboard (especially on the real-deal typewriters, manual or electric) can be TESTY. I remember taking a typing test in college, hoping to get an office job as a student, to help with the bills and such. On a familiar typewriter (no computers back then), I was in the upper 60s at least. But on this test, I kept getting extra spaces in the words. I wasn't typing them in just to be a wiseacre. Just a "touch" that I wasn't familiar with. My typing speed (with all the empty spaces counting as errors) was something like 32 wpm, which meant FAIL. So I was saved from an office work job, got a job as a student editor, and was much happier since it fed into a career.
BTW, learning to write with the opposite hand doesn't seem anymore difficult than learning to play piano scales with both hands. It feels strange at first, but it's just practicing the loops and ascenders, etc. I've been at it about six weeks now, and find myself instinctively picking up the pen with my left hand when I need to write something.
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Post by mailartist on Apr 25, 2020 4:48:44 GMT
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Post by mailartist on Apr 23, 2020 19:40:50 GMT
I've started informal cursive practice with my nondominant hand, sitting down regularly and writing whatever word comes to mind (sometimes multiple times, like in elementary school: "the, the, the, the, . . .").
I have discovered that some words (like lentil, lime, eight, muffin, and flute) are loose, and swishy, and fun to write, while others (namely: oboe*) feel dreadful and look dreadful, and seem not to improve with practice.
What cursive words do you enjoy writing, which just flow for you? Similarly, which ones feel like they stub your toe, coming off the end of your pen?
*With "oboe," I think it's all the starts and stops in the letters, along with the line direction changes, that make it hard to write. At least, in my case, I don't have to write the word "oboe" on a daily basis -- thank heavens.
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Post by mailartist on Mar 28, 2020 14:20:34 GMT
I guess I'm confused at what we're talking about. You're in Canada. Does Canada honor a US international forever stamp (the round ones) on a letter that you would mail from Canada? Or would a Canadian post office require you to use a Canadian international stamp, for them to initiate delivery?
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Post by mailartist on Mar 28, 2020 3:41:24 GMT
What are "global stamps"?
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Post by mailartist on Mar 27, 2020 18:51:26 GMT
Is it a faux pas to ask pen pals elsewhere to mail my letters to countries with which my nation has suspended delivery? For instance, would a USan penfriend mail for a Canadian a stamped envelope addressed to Denmark or Norway? Remember that the USPS won't accept, for mailing, Canadian postage. It would have to be US postage on the envelope, for the US to mail it. But if it's prestamped with US postage already, it's probably not that big of a deal. The recipient just has to put the envelope in the mailbox, for next day pickup. With joblessness, and economies tanking the way they are, it might be problematic sending unstamped letters, and asking penpals to cover the postage for you on their end. Especially international.
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Post by mailartist on Mar 27, 2020 18:48:26 GMT
Another option is to exchange email addresses, and (in the interim) send a pdf of the letter now, and "the real-deal" letter later.
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Post by mailartist on Mar 27, 2020 15:08:11 GMT
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