For People Who Love Mail

If you like to write by hand, and some of that writing involves the postal service, you may be interested in an excellent (and totally free service) called Postcrossing. Once you sign up for the service, you can begin by sending 5 postcards to individuals around the world, all of whom are chosen randomly for you by the website.  Each postcard has a unique number that you write on it (provided by Postcrossing) that allows the postcard to be tracked when it reaches the recipient (or if it goes astray and never gets to its destination).  With each postcard that arrives safely,  your name is placed in the queue to receive a postcard from someone else somewhere in the world.  So if you keep up with the service, you can be constantly sending and receiving postcards.  While you can't demand certain kinds of postcards from others, you can write in your profile about the kinds of postcards you like, to guide the people sending you postcards.  While I am not a very faithful postcard sender, it is a fun and wonderful service.  As you send more postcards, the number you can have out at any one time gradually grows.

There are two drawbacks to it, however, neither of which are Postcrossing's fault.  One is the postcards themselves.  If you don't live in a big city or a tourist destination (which I do not), it can be hard to get and keep enough postcards to actually send them out.  I have just ordered some postcard books from Dover Publications in hopes that that will tide me over until I do some more traveling.  I have also ordered some postcards from Zazzle that have pictures of things and places from my state.  We'll see if all that will be enough!

The other drawback is postage.  If I get a U.S. recipient, it's no big deal, because postcard rate to U.S. addresses is 29 cents.  A bargain!  But the postal rate for a postcard being sent to an international address is a whopping 98 cents.  So if your first five recipients are all international, you've spent $5 even before you factor in the cost of the postcards, which are not exactly cheap.  This doesn't seem like a lot in the short term, but it does add up over time.  Still, I suppose it's cheaper entertainment than lots of other things.  And that postcard in the mailbox from a total stranger does give one a little lift at the end of a long workday!

The Moving Finger

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,

Moves on; nor all your Piety nor Wit

Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,

Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.

-- The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

(But the eraser on that great-looking pencil sure will help! -- ed.)

On National Pencil Day

Greetings!  I have been thinking about this blog for quite some time, but it never seemed like the right time to start it.  Then I learned that today, March 30, is National Pencil Day.  What better day to start a blog with the title of “Writing By Hand”?

This blog will not be solely about pencils and pens and paper, or even writing by hand in general, but this will certainly be the major focus of it.  My obsessions and passions include pencils, but pens, paper, notebooks, and all things “writerly.”  I read other blogs similar to this one all the time (links to follow soon), and I enjoy them so much that I decided to try my hand at it.  I hope to post interesting and unusual items about writing instruments and paper, as well as reviews of new products that I may buy to try out (or be sent by manufacturers, hint hint!).

At the outset of a venture like this, I think it’s important to establish one’s credibility.  Let the following pictures do that for me:

 My humongous box of pencils.

 It's wide AND deep.

There. I think that's what is popularly known as "street cred."  And being that this is National Pencil Day, I might even have to use a few of these!