Copy Cat Philosophy

I've been seeing all these blogs lately about pen-pallers who post about mail they receive and send, projects they're working on that are snail mail related, and each post provides photos that show off the wonderful artwork of the envelopes. Sometimes there are tutorials. Other times there are hilarious stories explaining how each blogger keeps track of their mailbox goodies, their methods of organizing, and their unique spaces for writing letters.

I want to take part in this. I think it would help the documentary project tremendously! So what I'm doing is adding a form for you guys and gals to enter your information into so I can send you a letter. Look to the left sidebar and you'll see a page titled "Want Mail? Make Your Mailbox Happy!". Click that page and fill out the form. Then wait for a surprise to enter your mailbox!

Also, some of you may notice the snail image is no long at the top of the blog. I discovered that it caused many people to think the blog was blank due to the large size of the photo, so I exchanged it for a smaller photo.

Title Winner!

Drum roll, please!

The winning title of the documentary is...

Keepsakes in Script

Thanks to all who voted! I look forward to hearing more of your opinions on the project as time goes by. Also, thank you to those who sent postage stamps! I will draw another winner once I have received several more packages.

Swap-Bot Weblog Post!

Thanks to the very special Rachel, one of the creators and administrators of www.swap-Bot.com, this documentary project now has a post on the Swap-Bot Weblog! You can see it here. She also posted it on facebook and Twitter. Thanks, Rachel!

Apologies & Winners

Hello everyone! I apologize for the long time between posts. I have been busy with school. I also moved to new areas twice!

Slowly, but surely, I have been working on this documentary project. I came up with some more questions, and even looked into graphic artists to do some designing for the projects. But most importantly, I gathered stamps for the title banner from many kind folks in the Swap-Bot forums. So, without further wait, I have drawn a winner from the first batch of postage senders. Congratulations to...

Elizabeth Miller!

Elizabeth will be contacted and awarded a prize for her generous donation of used postage stamps.

Another winner will be pulled and announced from the next batch of five senders. Expect another update soon!

PLEASE VOTE! Titles!

Hey everyone! I've narrowed down the titles of the documentary to the following three, so please vote on which one is your favorite!

1. Inksteps

2. The Not Quite Dying Art

3. Keepsakes in Script

"Inksteps" was provided by melimar on Swap-Bot. Thanks, melimar!

Stories! Part Two!

Hello everyone! It's time for your participation yet again! I am looking for you to submit a story or two. I want to hear your least favorite memory regarding pen-palling. That's it! If you aren't comfortable leaving these tales in a comment, feel free to send an e-mail to me at aricigliano@ymail.com and put "TNQDA Bad Story" in the subject line. I look forward to hearing from you all!

Suggestions!

All right, everyone! Time for you to submit your opinions again! This time around I would like to hear from you the things you'd like to see in the documentary. Please give me all the details about what interesting things would make you want to watch this movie. Have a favorite activity related to pen-palling you want explained? Know about a cool place dedicated to pen-palling that you want some light shone upon? Leave your suggestions in comments below and I'll gladly read them!

Request Time: Part One!

Hello to all you guys and gals out there! It's time for me to ask a favor of you. I decided I would make some sort of collage from stamps that have been used already. I'll create the title of the documentary in stamps, and take some nice photos and upload them. I currently have very few stamps, so my request to all of you is to take those stamps that you have from letters, junk mail, and the likes, and to send them to me, please! They can be worldwide or USA or whatever, so long as they're used.

You can send them to the following place:

Alyssa Ricigliano
460 Franklin St.
Buffalo, NY 14202

As incentive, I will send a small surprise to someone at random, using a random generator on the internet, for every group of five people who send me stamps. So be sure to include your e-mail address and a list of five things you like (can be colors, animals, things you collect such as stickers, stationery, Hello Kitty, pins...) so that I can e-mail you if you've won. The drawings will continue until I've received enough stamps.

My goal is to get about 400 to 500 stamps at the very least.

Thanks in advance!

Stories! Part One!

Hello everyone! It's time for your participation once again! I am looking for you to submit some stories. I want to hear your favorite memory regarding pen-palling. That's it! If you aren't comfortable leaving these tales in a comment, feel free to send an e-mail to me at aricigliano@ymail.com and put "TNQDA Good Story" in the subject line. I look forward to hearing from you all!

Questions!

Hey ladies and gents! So, here is one part where you come into play. I want you all to help a girl out by submitting your questions. There will be more of these posts asking for other things from you, but we'll get to those later!

Basically, I would like you to comment below with an interview question or two (or more, if you have them!) that you would like to see answered in the documentary. It's that simple! Don't forget to leave your name or an e-mail address for me to contact you if I decide to use your question(s).

Hope to hear from you all!

Welcome!

Hello everyone! My name is Alyssa and I am 20 years young, a film-maker in college, and very excited to present to you this blog, The Not Quite Dying Art! Here you can follow me as I research, live, and breathe the supposedly dying art known as pen-palling.

I have been pen-palling for the last four years, but have been fascinated by the art for a decade. The practice is absolutely incredible and I have made so many close, wonderful friends.

I hope you all tag along as I will be using this blog to display the work in progress that is a documentary about pen-palling. I someday plan to submit this to a film festival. Be prepared for interviews, photos, ramblings, links, and much, much more!