Pen Pal?

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

I can barely write with a pen, my hand cramps, my penmanship has always been atrocious and I'm beyond impatient with it being so slow. I looooove to type and my thinking is geared to typing. I haven't written more than 2 sentences at a time by hand in years.

Once upon a time I would write 40 page handwritten letters to a dear friend, this was in high school. I still have her letters she sent in return.

I love email. I would never go back to hardcopy.

 

[HIjol]

I can barely write with a pen, my hand cramps, my penmanship has always been atrocious and I'm beyond impatient with it being so slow. I looooove to type and my thinking is geared to typing. I haven't written more than 2 sentences at a time by hand in years.

Once upon a time I would write 40 page handwritten letters to a dear friend, this was in high school. I still have her letters she sent in return.

I love email. I would never go back to hardcopy.

...totally understand, under your circumstances, but so sorry to hear...I fear it really is a dying art...

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

[Kirk] LET IT DIE!!![/Kirk]

Remember that stuff of yore, those fetching pre emoticon emoticons?

Now if you want them you have to space 'em so they don't turn into pictures.

: )

: )

: )

See, I'm hip with past forms of communication.

 

[Spot's Meow]

It seems to reach a barrier where you've done all the basic introductions and there's not much else left to say, unless you plan on writing about what you ate that week. I suppose it would be more successful if you took a more intellectual approach, or wrote to each other less often.

Wouldn't that surely be the case with E-Mails as well??

Yes. Which is probably why I have no Internet friends either.

 

[Sigokat]

I can barely write with a pen, my hand cramps, my penmanship has always been atrocious and I'm beyond impatient with it being so slow. I looooove to type and my thinking is geared to typing. I haven't written more than 2 sentences at a time by hand in years.

Once upon a time I would write 40 page handwritten letters to a dear friend, this was in high school. I still have her letters she sent in return.

I love email. I would never go back to hardcopy.

As an O/C at JRTC at Fort Polk, LA I was tasked to listen to the radio chatter of our rotational unit as they made their night jump into the exercise.

We had already been up all day (it was my birthday as well) waiting around for H-hour for the jump. My Task Force Commander put me on radio duty since I was the signal guy in our Task Force.

The jump happened around 2200 if I remember correctly (this was 3 1/2 years ago) and I started taking notes as soon as the units got up on their nets. It was probably around 0200 when my writing became illegible. I still have the book and still to this day cannot decipher what I was trying to write. I chalk it up to being dead-ass tired, cold as hell (it does get cold in Louisiana, especially at night in the fall).

So I guess the point of my whole story is that I understand the whole bad hand-writing thing. On a normal day mine is okay, but that night...no idea what I was writing!!

 

[Kemaiku]

So, me and Phil here are the only two people on the board that still write letters to people? wow.

...nope..you got one more here...and I use fountain pens and am proud to say so...

Got a collection of them myself, tend to try and write everyday.

 

[selina]

I use different methods of communication: email, facebook, message boards ... and old fashioned letters. I have a friend in Denmark and I write with her on an irregular basis. There is a different touch and feel to it when you write letters. And the best part is when you get a letter in return, so the letter box isn't just filled with bills .

 

[Timewalker]

[Kirk] LET IT DIE!!![/Kirk]

Remember that stuff of yore, those fetching pre emoticon emoticons?

Now if you want them you have to space 'em so they don't turn into pictures.

: )

: )

: )

See, I'm hip with past forms of communication.

You can always set your post options to "Disable smilies in text."


I'm unlikely to correspond via snailmail these days since postage went up to 85 cents, and that's just within Canada, never mind international rates.

 

[Phil]

Well, for what it's worth, I've started sending messages to some people in a few Pen Pal sites, including the ones suggested by Spot's Meow....so we'll see how that goes, I guess

And....more importantly, I've started writing 'practice letters', just to get back in the practice of actual writing again :-)

I used to write Short Stories as well, which in itself kept me in that practice, but, even the last one of those was some 10 or so years ago :-/

 

[DimesDan]

I'm unlikely to correspond via snailmail these days since postage went up to 85 cents, and that's just within Canada, never mind international rates.

Forty-Six pence for a letter in a country the size of Canada. That is mighty cheap.

 

[Taylirious]

I miss having pen pals but my handwriting looks like some sort of ancient alien language.

 

[Phil]

I miss having pen pals but my handwriting looks like some sort of ancient alien language.

To a Sci-Fi Fan, that could very well be part of the charm :-D

 

[Timewalker]

I miss having pen pals but my handwriting looks like some sort of ancient alien language.

If you want to improve your handwriting, taking a calligraphy course helps.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

First of all: Welcome to the board, Phil! I hope you like it here

Fountain pens are all good and nice but I prefer an old-fashioned quill for calligraphic purposes. And a slender quill just snuggles into my hand better than a thick fountain pen. For quick writing these roller-point gel pens are pretty good.

Teacake has a point, saying that usually one makes friends first before getting into an exchange of letters with them. That's surely the classical way. On the other hand, aren't strangers traditionally considered friends we haven't yet met?

Getting snail-mail from all over the world is fun! I certainly enjoy getting Christmas cards from my friends all over the globe. As for these friends: there are quite a few among them whom I first met on this board. I highly recommend visiting the Redshirt Lounge. Generally speaking, the Lounges here are the nicest part of the board and a great way of meeting people and starting friendships. Plus the Lounges traditionally have the nicest Moderators (no offense meant to the Misc Mods!)

If instead of Wales or the rest of GB Bavaria would be an acceptable country (we do have nice stamps ), I'd be at your service. But be warned: in spite of doing calligraphy I have a quite terrible everyday-handwriting.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

I said emails, not letters. You don't get stamps and far awayness with emails so it seems awkward and silly to just start emailing strangers. Of course you probably get a lot of emails already from scantily clad and beautiful foreign people who are just dying to hear from you so if you want to go that route you could start there.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

You mean you offer? I'm so flattered! And there I always thought you didn't like me.

LOL sorry, teacake. No offense meant. It was just too irresistable a chance for pulling your leg.
Peace? *passes the chocolate chip cookies to teacake*


Now, seriousely: apparently, my mind isn't dirty enough, in spite of being a regular poster here . I actually thought of emails solely as an electronic form of letters and never considered the sort you are describing so vividly. You certainly make a valid and very important point there. Contacting complete strangers can be a risk. I couldn't agree more.

Yet, with all respect, I'd like to remind you that all our friends were strangers at a time. One does have to make a start somewhere. And since Phil is looking for contact with people from a certain region on a different continent his opportunities of doing so IRL are few. Certainly a famousely friendly message board full of people who share his interests is a good place to start such a search.

So my offer stands: I'm a few hundred miles off your target area but I use this anachronistic medium of intercontinental conversation. If you don't mind a bad handwriting and the occasional use of the wrong word I'm at your service, Phil
And I do speak a tiny bit of Welsh, if that matters. The southern dialect, though.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Boy you really are determined to miss my very simple point about email versus snail mail in a "write to this stranger as a penpal" situation.

Whatever, have at it.

I just had a cool idea about it though so I think I'll follow up on that after my next coffee..

 

[Phil]

First of all: Welcome to the board, Phil! I hope you like it here

Fountain pens are all good and nice but I prefer an old-fashioned quill for calligraphic purposes. And a slender quill just snuggles into my hand better than a thick fountain pen. For quick writing these roller-point gel pens are pretty good.

Many thanks for the welcome :-)

I haven't gotten to the stage of using a Quill yet, but, there's an old Gold Mine that is still being operated for the Tourists, and I got a wooden Fountain Pen from them once....

Took it along with a bottle of ink along to school with me a few days later and started using it, only for the school bully to knock over the ink and destroy my work :-(

Because of that, when I use a Fountain Pen, I make sure it's a decent one with the cartridges :-)

I also used to have the type with the lever/tube once, but sadly, it leaked :-(

Getting snail-mail from all over the world is fun! I certainly enjoy getting Christmas cards from my friends all over the globe. As for these friends: there are quite a few among them whom I first met on this board. I highly recommend visiting the Redshirt Lounge. Generally speaking, the Lounges here are the nicest part of the board and a great way of meeting people and starting friendships. Plus the Lounges traditionally have the nicest Moderators (no offense meant to the Misc Mods!)

If instead of Wales or the rest of GB Bavaria would be an acceptable country (we do have nice stamps ), I'd be at your service. But be warned: in spite of doing calligraphy I have a quite terrible everyday-handwriting.

Thanks for the tip Re: the Lounge, I'll make sure I stop by and have a Saurian Brandy or three....

Yep, Bavaria is good, drop me a PM and we'll exchange Snail Mail details there :-)

And I do speak a tiny bit of Welsh, if that matters. The southern dialect, though.

Oddly enough, you speak more than me then....

Heck....I know more Klingon than I do Welsh, and it's supposed to be my native tongue (regardless of my family being here in Australia for more than 160 years, it is traditionally supposed to be handed down from father to son) :-/

 

[rhubarbodendron]

Boy you really are determined to miss my very simple point about email versus snail mail in a "write to this stranger as a penpal" situation.

Then maybe you might be willing to explain your point? The pop-up ads here are blocking my psi-powers so that I can't read thoughts today
Come on, teacake, have a yummy chocolate cookie and stay peaceful. I'm not trying to anger you (if I felt inclined to, I'd do that in a much more refined way), I really, genuinely and honestly don't see at what you're hinting. Have never been good at reading between lines. If you want me to get it, please explain in a simple and obvious way. Feel free to PM me if you'd rather not do it in public.



Wooden fountain pens are cool =) I like the feeling of polished wood. It's a bit like silk. There are adapters for fountain pens that look like cartridges but can be filled from a jar of ink. The best of both worlds, so to speak. I've never had one that leaked (yet), as they usually have a slight -argh! What's the English word? The pressure in them is a tad lower than the air pressure around them. They look like this and you get them for most brands of fountain pens:

I'll PM you as soon as you get PM powers. There's a minimum number of 28 posts required and also a minimum time of 2 weeks membership. You have the latter but need 17 more posts.

As for languages: loQ vIjatlhlat tlhIngan Hol (but really just a little. After all: not yap wa'Hol )

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

You have edited out the words you put in my mouth so no point my answering you now.