Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Global domination!! *insert evil laughter here*

I'm a fairly new mail enthusiast. However, I like to believe that what I lack in experience, I make up for with RABID enthusiasm....no....don't back away, this foam at the mouth? It's from my latte!! I'm friendly! I SWEAR.... One of the great things about being a new mail enthusiast is that I get to start from scratch with everything. It can be really exciting to start projects from the ground-up instead of having to retroactively fill in information.

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....

18 comments:

  1. Woah! I looked at it and thought all the flags represented pen pals! I was like, "how do you keep up?", But after reading I noticed they weren't all pen pals, I'm after getting one of those world maps myself and I saw one in town, I'm going to get it next week :)

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    1. Oh, I can't wait to see it when you get it up and running! It's really neat to complete every week because I'm learning about different countries. It's like a geography lesson, minus the homework!

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  2. I'd move to Greenland in a second! Let me present greenland, I have even been there, pretty please? ;)

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    1. Sabrina! Taking one for [my] team, I absolutely love it. DONE. :)

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  3. Wooah! That is a lot! :D Awesome!

    But this also means you neeeed a pooostcaaard frooom let us saaay, Nooorway? Where I happen to live, breathe and play? :D

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    1. Such keen observation skills! :) Why yes, I absolutely need a postcard from Norway! Oh, do you live, breathe, and play in Norway? WHAT A COINCIDENCE! This is cosmic postcard fate.

      I would be very much appreciative if you would represent Norway on my map. Then I could make jokes about how my plan to conquer the Scandinavian countries is proceeding nicely. Do you have a map as well? I could send you something and we could make jokes together about conquering the world! ;)

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  4. This is great!! I have a big map like this that I put rhinestones on to represent sent and received. I like how you've divided it up into postcards and letters, though. Very cool. And those pins are absolutely darling.

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    1. I love it, rhinestones seem very Mary-ish! The pins are a pain to make. The washi tape makes the pins stick together, and then I stick myself with them as part of my unintentional impersonation of a voodoo doll, and sometimes it seems far more trouble than it is worth.

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  5. I bet it will take you years to fill every single bit of enormously vast Russia with flags.. ha
    But you will surely get something from Tyumen soon-ish.
    I will also try to send you a postcard from my hometown in the end of June.

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    1. Russia is certainly enormous! So far I've only recieved and sent mail to Moscow and St. Petersburg. So having other parts of Russia represented would be very exciting indeed!

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  6. The map looks absolutely awesome. I bet you have had help putting it altogether. Wink wink. I love all of comments about other who have the same idea. Isn't it fun seeing how the world is so big but so small all at once.

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  7. Wow, this is a great idea! I even see flags on Japan! :)

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  8. Your global domination has a great start. Muhahahaha! It is so awesome to visually see your imprint on the world. You are changing the world on letter/postcard at a time!.

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  9. Wow that is so so cool and amazing you did that big time.

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  10. Such a fun global domination :)

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  11. You're so funny! ;) And this is such a neat idea! If I still lived in Buenos Aires, I'd send you a postcard, so you would be able to put a flag on Argentina! Well, maybe when I go visit? ;) Who knows when that will happen, but I'll keep it in mind :p.

    Happy midweek, Laura! ;D

    Miki.

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  12. This is great!
    What about someone vacationing in, say, Greenland? If they send you a postcard from there while on vacation does that count? If so, clearly everyone needs to take more exotic vacations!!

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    1. That absolutely counts! Clearly people need to take more exotic vacations... in locations that I need flags in. :)

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