blauerpuntoApr 5, 2023

7 years ago I wrote a postcard every day for a month. I sent them to friends and family, but also to complete strangers who wanted to get something colourful in the mail from someone they don’t really know. Today I remembered how happy this made me, and I would love to do it again next month!

So, if you’d like to get a postcard from me in May, please send me a message with your name and address! Who doesn’t like a little surprise in the mail?

#postcard #snailmail #kindness #aotearoa

Show threadblauerpuntoApr 5, 2023

Wow, I already have 10 people on my list - and that's only from Mastodon, not including real life friends and family yet!

Luckily everyone sounds awesome so far: vaccinated believers in science, LGTBQ+ friendly cat lovers, and almost-vegan human rights defending (board) gamers. That's my kind of people!

Show threadblauerpuntoMay 1, 2023

It’s 1 May and the first card of my daily postcard project this month is ready to go. If you’ve messaged me your address, this might land in your mailbox shorty!

I still have a couple of spots left, so if you’d like to get a postcard from me, just let me know.

Show threadblauerpuntoMay 2, 2023
And the next card is ready to go!
Show threadblauerpuntoMay 3, 2023
Day 3 - Mario and Luigi!
Show threadblauerpuntoMay 4, 2023
Day 4 - New Zealand Detector Dogs #DailyPostcards
Show threadblauerpuntoMay 5, 2023
Day 5 - Seek magic every day #DailyPostcard
Show threadblauerpuntoMay 6, 2023
Day 6 - a little dove #DailyPostcard
Show threadblauerpuntoMay 7, 2023
Day 7 - I hope today’s postcard will give someone instant cheer!
Show threadblauerpuntoMay 8, 2023
Day 8 - I forgot to take a photo of today’s #DailyPostcard! It was a cute pink card with flowers and some encouraging words. Really annoyed with myself that there’s no record of this card now.
Show threadblauerpuntoMay 9, 2023
Today’s #DailyPostcard always made me smile when I looked at it, I almost wanted to keep it for myself. But sharing is caring, so it’s on a journey across the world now.
Show threadblauerpuntoMay 10, 2023
Day 10 - This cat card goes to a cat lady. I added 2 extra cat stickers because she shares her home with 4 feline friends.
Show threadblauerpuntoMay 11, 2023
Day 11 - Writing this #DailyPostcard reminded me of a holiday in the country it’s going to. Good memories!
Show threadblauerpuntoMay 12, 2023
Day 12 - Today’s #DailyPostcard shows all parts of a dandelion.
Show threadblauerpuntoMay 13, 2023
Day 13 - The courier brought Zelda Tears of the Kingdome today, which means I didn’t have much time to think about my #DailyPostcard today. So I went down the easy track and just wrote to my dad. 😄
Show threadblauerpuntoMay 14, 2023
Day 14 - Forgot to post this yesterday: my #DailyPostcard for Sunday.
Show threadblauerpuntoMay 15, 2023
Day 15 - Today’s #DailyPostcard looks a bit like a page from my travel diary, just filled with tickets from places I haven’t been to.
Show threadblauerpuntoMay 15, 2023
Day 16 - Today’s #DailyPostcard goes to a plant lover.
Show threadblauerpuntoMay 17, 2023
Day 17 - I’ve run out of bicycle related cards, so the recipient of this card has to dance it off, rather than bike it off. 😃
Show threadblauerpuntoMay 18, 2023
Day 18 - Today’s postcard has an “I want to be that person” vibe.
Show threadblauerpuntoMay 19, 2023
Day 19 - Nearly forgot to write a #DailyPostcard today. It’s my last day of leave and I tried to pack in as much as possible, I just remembered to write a card on my way to bed. I think it’s a fitting image for the end of my mini holidays.
Show threadblauerpuntoMay 20, 2023
Day 19 - Vintage vibes! I won’t take this to the post office today, not going to leave the house in this weather!
Show threadblauerpuntoMay 21, 2023
Day 21 - Today’s #DailyPostcard is Doraemon.
Show threadblauerpuntoMay 22, 2023
Day 22 - A lovely illustration of a buttercup and its parts with labels in French for today’s #DailyPostcard
Show threadblauerpunto
Day 23 & 24 - Oh, I slipped yesterday. Double #DailyPostcard today instead.
May 24, 2023 at 1:39amWeb
Show threadblauerpuntoMay 25, 2023
Day 25 - I’m slowly running out of recipients! I might not make it to the end of the month. If you would like to get a postcard from me, please let me know.
Show threadblauerpuntoMay 25, 2023
Day 26 - Now I need to eat an apple!
Show threadblauerpuntoMay 27, 2023
Day 27 - Maybe my #DailyPostcard will inspire some creative writing? 😃
Show threadblauerpuntoMay 29, 2023
Day 28 & 29 - Oups, I forgot to post yesterday’s #DailyPostcards . Here it comes, together with today’s card.
Show threadblauerpuntoMay 30, 2023
Day 30 - Only one more day to go with my #DailyPostcard! I’m a bit sad that it’s going to be over soon, but looking forward to share some of NZ observations and thoughts around this.
Show threadblauerpuntoMay 31, 2023
Day 31 - The last day! Thanks to @rowangayle (a late entry) and my husband @AgentK (who’s currently traveling, which totally justifies him being the recipient of today’s card) I made it through 31 #DailyPostcards. 😃
Show threadblauerpuntoJun 5, 2023

Some thoughts after 31 days of daily postcards:

- I really enjoyed writing them. Didn’t matter if it was for a friend, family, colleague or stranger, every day it was fun to pick a card and write something nice. Sometimes I’ve added a sticker or two, which helped with reducing my sticker pile.

Show threadblauerpuntoJun 5, 2023
- I had hoped that being forced to use Mastodon daily would eventually make me feel at home here. Unfortunately it didn’t. Some weird things happened where I know I had received a DM with an address, but it was no longer there. I lost at least 2 friends due to the mastodon.social block event, and I didn’t even notice until someone messaged me about it. I really, really miss a full search function. And above all: lots of my Twitter people who I used to engage with aren’t here.
Show threadblauerpuntoJun 5, 2023
And while I love that it’s much more peaceful here, I’m missing things to think about and disagree with. I don’t need that aggressive conservative world that’s now overly prominent on Twitter, but someone with a different opinion that challenges me, I’m missing that. Of course I don’t want to start following TERFS or nazis now, but knowing that these views exist and how to counter them was useful for me in the past.
Show threadblauerpuntoJun 5, 2023
Due to the federated nature and the opportunity to fully control security, Mastodon is very popular in Germany. Instead of following my own government (who’s not here), I follow the German government, my German university, German news outlets, and lots of German individuals. Twitter was my local mini-Aotearoa, with Tweet-ups back in the day and very local content. If this exists here, I haven’t found it, and I don’t know how to find it, because I can only search for hashtags.
Show threadblauerpuntoJun 5, 2023
So in a nutshell: I loved the #DailyPostcard project, and I hope I haven’t missed one. It didn’t make me feel any closer to Mastodon though, so I’ll probably miss Twitter for a little longer and have to accept that my active time as social media user might be coming to an end.
Show threadAlixJun 5, 2023

@blauerpunto Yay for the postcard project. I’m sorry you haven’t found the connections and conversations you’re looking for here. :(

I’m pondering how reliable the feed is. I saw maybe half a dozen of your postcard posts when they were posted. Note that I’ve overloaded my feed to the point where I skip to catch up: maybe I’m skipping the time slice when you most often post?

Show threadblauerpuntoJun 5, 2023
@alix On Twitter I had a List called ‘Friends and Work’ with all the content I absolutely didn’t want to miss. I have the same (just smaller) list here, but it’s a few to many clicks to get there, so I don’t use it. And because I’m not on here all day, I keep missing even those who I don’t want to miss.
Show threadNgati Pakeha KuiaJun 5, 2023
@blauerpunto I’m enjoying the respectful discourse on Mastodon. I didn’t realise how stressed out the vitriol on Twitter made me feel until I landed on our NZ instance.
Show threadRowanGayleMay 25, 2023
@blauerpunto If you'd like to send onw to Moth and I, I can give you our address!
Show threadblauerpuntoMay 26, 2023
@rowangayle Yes, please! That would be awesome.