two things i love: postcards and lists. in december, both are used (even) more frequently than usual around here.

the postcards in the photo were courtesy of a drawn.ca coupon for moo. as usual, moo’s quality is flawless but lately i’ve been a bit disappointed by them. the two orders i made from china were lost and had to be re-sent. and i’m still waiting for a reply to an email sent about… 2 months ago?

(though they did the re-sending rather fast and successfully, i can’t help to still feel a bit sad. i don’t have high expectations for a lot of companies, but some, those which i really like and recommend, i set my standards high. the unanswered email really bugged me, maybe because i answer so many.)

anyway, all of my postcards have designs by the talented blanca gomez. she’s one of the several artists whose work you can choose from when making your cards. they’re so cute that i’ve framed one of them and haven’t had the courage to send any of the others… they’re just sitting on my desk, being pretty. :)

update: moo did answer afterall, but i didn’t get the email they sent.
they got back at me when they read this post, and forwarded that email. had me smiling - blogs matter. :)
note to people out there: don’t send big files through emails, you never know what other people’s email size limits are!

a big portion of the weekend is spent answering emails that have been piling up through the week. from trivial questions, location changes requests, “i think this user is acting fishy”, people whose “english is not very famous” (that quote actually made us laugh almost to tears!), their email is not working, how much is a stamp to madagascar…
we try to make the effort to answer even the silliest email (quicktext and the quickmove extensions for thunderbird give us a precious hand, common sense is also an underestimated tool).

complaints and requests, most of the time. mais hélas, once in a while, a little kid (or a full class), a grandma or a family somewhere writes to say how sending postcards makes them happy or is keeping them in touch with the world.

and all is right and meaningful again. it feels really good to be part of a project that doesn’t specifically target “people our age”, but instead stretches to reach people everywhere, young and old, more or less internet savvy, with interests as vast as bunny-hopping (as in training bunnies to jump around - i kid you not!) or carol singing.

the only common thing between them is the love of something offline: postcards on their mailbox, when they get home. :)

(on the picture, what i do when i have too much to do: as levi would say, “pantominate”. take pictures, arrange flowers, catalogue coffee marks. what do you do?)

today i got home and i had this surprise in my mailbox: a postcard from norway, picturing 6 portraits of young woody allen in new york (1967).
can you imagine the size of my smile?

this is exactly what i was trying to explain.

elas andam aqui.

how do you go from
“i like postcards”
to getting someone in the world to receive one, every couple of minutes?

:)

to say the least, it takes passion.
for postcards, for computers, and certainly for making people smile.

congratulations
paulo and happy birthday
postcrossing!