For example, let me introduce my side-project related to penpalling and postcard-sending: MY MAP OF GLOBAL LETTER DOMINATION!!!
No, just kidding. I'm not that ambitious. I can barely conquer the stairs in my house—ugh, do I really need to climb 13 whole stairs?! THIRTEEN WHOLE STAIRS?!! My husband refuses to carry me, which I think is really rude of him. So, as you can see, global domination is reaching a bit far for me. I'd be pretty happy with conquering the little voice in my head that keeps telling me to eat the entire package of cupcakes.... Repeat after me, "Eating an entire package of cupcakes is...oh so good [this is where I normally get to]....but is actually oh so bad! [this is where I NEED to be]." BAD LAURA.
Getting back on track: I use this map to chart all my incoming and outgoing mail. Purple flags represent penpals and letters (sent and recieved, regardless of whether it's ongoing or one-offs); black flags are outgoing postcards; and red flags are recieved postcards.
Most of the countries and continents are underrepresented right now (particularly Australia, South America, Africa, and Russia), but I know it'll come together eventually. One major problem I'm running into is that certain countries have a huge contingent of mailers (particularly the Netherlands, which has the largest number of postcrosser users in the world). There's only so many flags I can stick on the map in that country's area, especially if that country is a relatively small country [land size on my map, comparatively speaking]. I wonder if I asked very, very, very politely, if some of these mailers would be willing to move to, I dunno, Serbia or Greenland. I don't have flags there at the moment and it would make things a lot easier for me....No? Okay, never hurts to ask....
Anyone else have mail-related side projects?
*sorry about the weird reflections on the map. Stupid glossy maps.... grrrr....