#at a postal carrier for delivery

[fruitless-vain]

A couple of things:

How did we go from Vancouver to generic “Canada” that’s just not very helpful

How many different facilities are you “arriving” at within a 1hr timeframe?

[miscellaneousdoodles]

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"One Mail Daily In Some Areas Likely, So Many Posties Enlist," Toronto Star. May 20, 1942. Page 1. --- So many postmen have enlisted that mail deliveries may have to be restricted to one a day almost immediately. This was announced declared, today, by A. M. Gibson, district director of postal service. Leaside and Toronto island will probably be the first affected in Toronto district, Mr. Gibson said, but the reduced service may shortly be extended to all Canada. It has already been announced for Hamilton. "The change is necessary to conserve manpower," Mr. Gibson said. "We are making a survey in Toronto and the metropolitan area right now." "Only two men are available for mail delivery on the Island instead of three as in former years," he declared. Mr. Gibson emphasized that the reduction will not affect the business section or district areas in which businesses are concentrated.

"They will still have their two deliveries a day." he promised. The 515 letter carriers in Toronto, Leaside, Long Branch, Forest Hill have been greatly reduced by enlistments, he said. The reduced service will not be instituted all at once, but as more men leave their walks will be split up among those remaining.

[fineexcouriers]

Sending Parcels from Canada to India: Costs, Tips, and Services

Discover the essential information you need to know about international shipping and courier parcel delivery services when sending parcels from Canada to India. Learn about the factors that influence shipping costs, compare different shipping carriers, and find tips to ensure a smooth and efficient shipping process while navigating customs regulations.

[luulapants]

I just saw a post listing "saved the postal service" as one of Biden's unsung accomplishments, so let's get this really clear:

They absolutely have not saved the USPS. They haven't even removed Louis Dejoy as Postmaster General. He is still there despite the fact that there are two unfilled vacancies on the board that Biden could easily fill to oust him.

Destroying the post office was never at its core a Republican plot to undermine elections - that was just a fun bonus. The plan to destroy the postal service was always about privatization and corporate interests. Louis Dejoy is a former executive at XPO Logistics, which is already benefiting from privatized nonunion contracts from the post office. They are now 4 years into a 10 year plan to "Amazonify" the post office, consolidating mail sorting into mega hubs, extending routes for already overtaxed mail carriers, cutting jobs in rural areas that have been sorting their own mail for 200 years, weakening the service's ability to handle spikes in demand (which would then get handed off to XPO) and decreasing service quality and speed. It would mean that outside major cities, when someone sends a letter to someone else in their town, that letter could be sent 200 miles away for sorting, then 200 miles back, extending the delivery time from one day to five.

[moths-in-the-library-if]

"Delivery from Lucky Rabbit Postal, the fastest and most reliable postal service in the world! Proudly serving the woods for generations."

Up and attem, René! The citizens of these woods are waiting on their mail and it's up to you to deliver. Just make sure you don't waste any time, a blizzard is set to be rolling in later tonight.

In this short visual novel, you play René, an eager mail carrier who works in his family's postal business. Navigate the day as you decide whether it's more important to be productive and uphold your family's expectations, or to pursue what makes you happy.

Features 

10k words and ~30-45 minutes of gameplay

4 endings, including one secret ending

A rich cast of 8 characters ranging from stressed-out bunnies to mysterious forest cryptids

Credits

Molli Shuker: Writer, GUI, and BG Artist

@soup-guts:  Sprite Artist and Character Designer

Original Music by Jordan Kamalu

In-Game font: 

Louis George Café by Chen Yining

Play in-browser or via the executables.

It's been a hot moment since I posted. Hopefully, this lovely little story can make your winters a little warmer.

[news4dzhozhar]

Sorry it's taken so long to respond to some messages but I wanted to post this info about mail, books and sending money as I get asked about it alot.

Because the SAMs are still in place, Dzho can only send and receive mail (letters, cards) from immediate family.  If you want to send him books, here is the mailing info and instructions/rules for doing so:

All books must be brand new, soft cover ONLY (hard cover will cause the delivery to be delayed as the prison removes the hard cover for security reasons) and be mailed direct from Amazon.com  As Amazon also sells new & used books from other sellers you need to make sure that any book you want to send is NOT coming from one of these many outside third party sellers but directly from Amazon themselves.  None of the books plots can be violent or overly sexual (no nudity)…basically just common sense stuff when it comes to topics. Absolutely no spiral-bound books will get in so don’t send those.

With SAMs in place if too many books are received in a short period (I think 10 per month was the limit when he was still in Devens) they may be sent back or “donated” (as they put it) to the other inmates/library. If they are “donated” due to the limit being reached, you won’t be advised that the book never made it to Dzho as Amazon only sends delivery confirmations.  

ADDRESS:

Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev #95079-038

USP Florence ADMAX

PO Box 8500

Florence, CO 81226

Everything must be sent via postal mail, so make sure your package will not be sent via UPS, FedEx, DHL or some other carrier. POSTAL MAIL ONLY.  Amazon will automatically send via USPS since it’s going to a post office box and not a physical address. If you use a vendor other than Amazon make sure you validate that the book will be sent via postal service.

If you are avidly anti-Amazon.com, you can use Barnes & Noble, Books A Million, or even your local “mom and pop” bookstore provided they will mail it directly to the prison for you. If you choose to go the local bookstore route make sure they use a “professional” mailing label and not a handwritten one -  it will be rejected. 

I don't believe any type of packing slip or gift receipt is passed along to Dzhokhar with the books received to avoid any messages getting through so it is unlikely he will know who has sent him what.

For those asking about putting money on Dzhos commissary account, please know that his family does this regularly.  There is also a multi million dollar judgement against him from a lawsuit by the victims so if his balance gets over a certain amount, the BOP seizes the funds to apply towards the (basically bottomless) restitution fund.  If you still want to send funds, there are three ways to send money. Western Union, Money Gram or by postal mail.

Instructions are here: http://www.bop.gov/inmates/communications.jsp#mg 

If you go the postal mail route, you have to send a money order (nothing else - only a money order) to a different address as the Federal BOP handles money in 1 central location vs each individual prison.  The money order should be sent to:

Federal Bureau of Prisons

Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev #95079-038

Post Office Box 474701

Des Moines, Iowa 50947-0001

They'll deposit into his account from there. 

Hope this is helpful to all those who have asked 🙂 Let me know if there are any other questions

[talenlee]

Speed of Words

Hey, how fast can you get a message to the nearest major settlement you don’t live in?

I bring this up because I’m about to talk about fantasy worldbuilding, okay? We’re about to get into the cool dork stuff in a minute, but before we get going we’re going to wind up talking about a bunch of real world communication stuff that you may not have examined unless you’re like me and hang out with cool academics talking about it.

First of all, when you think about the ramifications of communication speed in your world, you need to understand that communication technology includes a lot of things you may not even be thinking about. There are things like population density and language and number systems and – like it’s not just this linear flow that goes Town Crier -> Letter -> Telegram, Maybe -> Phone -> The Internet.

You and I, in the real world, are used to a lot of options for communication and used to them having a lot of flexibility. They’re all the byproduct of infrastructure and technology, but some of the technology that drives them isn’t what you or I would consider ‘high tech.’ Someone had to invent address and postal delivery systems, but that’s a system you can do with even the most modest kind of technology that can record information. You don’t even need a written language for a postal system, it’s just really good for scaling up. Scaling up is one of the big tricks here, because if you have to send a message and you can only say it aloud, then you’re dealing with a message that a person can memorise and share. A writing system lets you really densely stash information on transferrable objects that you can transport, which means one aspect for That is, you need to care about volume.

That’s not even taking into account the great interconnected communication matrix you and I are interfacing with now. I wrote this weeks ago and you’re reading it now and we are interfacing as a direct result of a type of communication system that runs through the oceans deep enough that only sharks can harm it. That’s pretty swanky as communication technology works, but it’s not ubiquitous and the technology that makes it up ranges from the actual physical objects and also the actual protocols, the rules that make it work. This is an impressive technology, but it doesn’t need the cables and electronics and all the things you’re familiar with as ‘the internet’ to work. Famously, you can run the IP technology over Carrier Pigeons. This is important because that technology is about ensuring reliability.

Okay, so sending a message to the nearest other settlement. In my case, that can be complicated by the question of ‘what’s the next place?’ I live in a suburb. It’s connected to another suburb that for legal reasons is a different place based on an arcane set of rules about where post offices got built. The next place over for me is a place that I can comfortably walk to. For me to take a message there, I can walk a little distance and bam, there I go, I’ve got a message to the nearby settlement. But you might live in a place that’s named after some dude and a hill or creek or bunker, and therefore the nearest place to you involves travelling to a gas station that is at least an hour’s walk away, and even that only counts as a settlement technically. There’s a concern there that’s about distance.

Okay, so speed of communication relates to the space, and it relates to the technologies for communication. Know what else is important? Precision of communication. How reliable can the information exchanged be? This is one of those things that ties into more language technology. A number system, for example, can allow for very precise communication of sorts, but if you remember your history stories about when English adopted Arabic numerals, Roman Numerals were a number system that had precision, but it was hard to consistently communicate or relate to. Mistakes got made because the number system was bad. This is also why Australia decimalised our currency, because the previous system, while consistent and precise, was hard to interact with in a way that meant people made mistakes and money got lost in tracking.

Alright, there, that’s our basic premises. Speed of communication relates to volume, reliability, distance and precision. And they’re not going to be equally distributed.

Now, for most worldbuilding, you can look to comparable examples for things, but you might find that transforms things away from ‘normal’ for you. If you’re a stickler for realistic representation of distance, for example, and your setting is something like, say, Napoleonic Europe, you might not like the way that a space like America gets one letter a year from the other side of the world. And that’s okay, we’re used to a lot of really messed up speeds for communication. Instant communication is pretty common nowadays…

But there’s also a whole bunch of ways that this technology can be tuned. You know that there was a series of mechanical semaphor signals across Europe? A culture could use bonfires and long-distance viewing techniques to do regular communication. A hilly nation could have a long-distance whistling technique for regular transmission of messages with something like a bullroarer, for example.

Once you involve magic things get extra complicated.

In traditional D&D, there’s a spell called Sending, which depending on edition allows for long-distance short message communication at an instant speed. Give that technology a reason to exist and you’ll wind up with businesses using it to do sendings regularly. If there’s any reason to exist – like, say, countries that do trade, or have reasons to care about what’s going on with each other’s military movements – then a sending network seems to be pretty much mandatory? Really early? Every day, standard messages, with codebooks of information to maximise the transmission? Like these are the things a state can do. Instant communication transforms things – when you can know what’s coming before it arrives and you don’t get surprised, you can start doing logistical planning for things like military and trade.

In a setting like Avatar: The Last Airbender, earthbenders kind of leapfrog the technological need for things like metal foundries and movable type; a bender can just make the plates for printing. They don’t have to last a long time, they just have to have reliable and predictable practice. This means that you can have printable, high-volume forms of communication, like books and other forms of disposable transmission. That’s not even accounting for the way that electricity such as lightning benders can wield could be used for telegraph style communication if anyone wants to make the infrastructure.

And the thing is this can cut both ways. A setting like Mass Effect is one where you have all the modern day technological instant communication and then a bunch more which was also really stupid and worse – like, texting is one of the most efficient ways to transmit information, but to be part of its game interface, Mass Effect instead makes everyone use audio logs so they can be broadcasted while you’re doing other things. See also Bioshock and System Shock, which again, turn to everyone talking into tape machines, and if enough people do that as general process, even though it’s a terrible way to do things like shop for things, then everyone’s going to do it.

What’s more, this isn’t all equally distributed. A community of grassland wanderers can be ‘next door’ comparatively speaking to a city full of people sending magical messages every day. One of those groups isn’t going to be as interconnected with other people over long distance but also, they’re probably not going to be vulnerable on that vector for things like misinformation or logistical failure. If you don’t care about the Suez Canal, you don’t care that Big Boat Got Stuck. Which means communication speed, the convenience and access to it creates new entanglements.

Consider then the list:

Volume

Reliability

Distance

Precision

Infrastructure

Entanglements

Each of these ideas presents questions that you can then examine in terms of communication speed, and what they do for your world.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[actual-sleeping-beauty]

So so so over my residents being bitchy about the mail coming. Like sorry! The mail carriers are human and they are allowed to take sick days or vacation! And then another different ACTUAL HUMAN PERSON WITH A LIFE has to run their route! Sorry they don't know the ins and outs of mail delivery here! God forbid!

And then they get all snappy bc I have compassion for the mail carriers like friends. You people complain about me and my coworkers all the time too. I am spiritually unionized with every other worker that interacts with y'all. I am not gonna shit talk the postal workers with you!

And literally in the middle of me writing this post another woman came in and did it! Like stop! You all admit that most of what you get is junk anyway! Why do you caaaaaare???

[altairtalisman]

Astrid's Bio

"Anytime, anywhere, anything! That's the RPS motto!"

More details on Astrid is under the cut

Name: Astrid Bergström

Age: 408

Height: 161 cm excluding antlers, 186 cm including antlers (9.3 m in true form)

Birthday: 30 Durna 1614 (Wahaqr)

Orientation: Cisgender Bisexual Female

Pronouns: She/Her

Species: Reindeer Spirit

Country of Birth: Noragulkor

RPS Deployment Branch: RPS Tanasaq

Likes: Winter, tea, spinach, sorbet

Dislikes: Foothold traps, loud sounds, feeling like a deadweight, drugs

Hobbies: Swimming, origami, collecting stamps

Personality: A hardworking optimist at heart, she's able to look at the bright side of things most of the time which helps to bring the beings around her some cheer in their lives. She's also helpful as shown when willingly volunteering herself to be deployed to other branches, but is actually careful as she sticks to the paths she knows the best and doesn't actually offer to help if she knows that it's out of her abilities

Style: Wears antler-friendly tops and/or buttoned tops along with skirts and sturdy boots in order to protect her feet from frostbite

Abilities: Possesses enhanced strength, endurance and stamina, as well as able to shapeshift into a large reindeer. Also has extremely hard antlers, fists and feet

In her true form, her strength, endurance and stamina multiply by 50. Her antlers become nigh unbreakable, extremely sharp, and the tips are cold enough to freeze whatever it touches

Background: Raised by the Ratein Postal Service's Noragulkor branch, Astrid dreamt of working as a postal carrier and worked hard to be of service to them. Initially, she was tasked to pull the carriages on instances when the delivery was extremely demanding. However, as hovercrafts slowly made its way into the postal service, Astrid soon found herself a deadweight. Fearing that she would soon be left to fend for herself in the wild at eight years old, Astrid stole a delivery bag and tried to deliver the letters to their respective recipients

However, some of them were international letters and thus, out of Noragulkor. Due to her determination in proving that she wasn't deadweight, she persevered and managed to make it unscathed to Joltaris, where a postal carrier found her and delivered the remaining letters in her place. They then informed the Noragulkian branch about the incident, who decided to let Astrid deliver the local letters

Astrid, delighted that she could remain with the postal service, did her best to deliver the letters. When she turned 18, her body was starting to fail due to old age. She refused to accept this and persevered, ignoring the concerns of her fellow colleagues. To overcome her physical limitations, she turned to Princess' Burden, a drug that allowed users to overcome their physical limits at the cost of their mental health. The dealer who sold her the drug wasn't sure what the side effects were on animals, but went through with it anyways as he knew that Astrid was old and loved her job too much to let death stop her

The drug was proven to be effective for Astrid and she was able to continue delivering letters for 24 more years, with her dependency growing each year. One of her colleagues found out the secret to her 'longevity' and reported her drug addiction to the postal service. Not wanting a drug addict in their service as well as feeling that it was time for Astrid to enjoy whatever little time she had alive, they dismissed the reindeer and led her to the harsher parts of Noragulkor so that she wouldn't be able to come back

Feeling abandoned and suffering from the effects of withdrawal, Astrid could only let the snow envelop her as she waited to die. Drifting off to sleep, she fervently wished that she could continue delivering letters. She didn't expect to open her eyes once again, much less that she had a humanoid appearance. Astrid decided to make her way back to Noragulkor, but got lost due to the heavy blizzards obscuring her vision. As she ploughed through the snow, she could hear whispers calling for her to rest in the soft snow. This solidified her decision to stay off drugs, and persevered even though her body was reacting poorly without the drugs

Eventually she made it out of the blizzard, but she knew that she wasn't in Noragulkor. She spotted a tall man with dirty cream-coloured hair patrolling in the distance, and approached him with the hope that he could direct her back to her home country. What she didn't expect was for him to scowl at her, but to also be called a "blasted trashaneer of a Rynn". Astrid then explained that she was a former postal carrier from Noragulkor, and used to be a reindeer before becoming a humanoid

The man sighed and briefly explained that she had became an animal spirit, soon bringing her to one of the country's post offices for them to deal with her. Upon arriving at the post office, Astrid learnt that she was in Tanasaq and that she had just met Malik, a polar bear spirit who served as an extremely reluctant guide for lost beings. Astrid then asked the Tanasuqi branch if she could help out around the post office, emphasising that she had experience prior to becoming a reindeer spirit. While reluctant as they had heard of a drug-addicted reindeer working at the Noragulkor branch, they decided to give her a chance as they needed all the help they could get

She then spent the next two centuries working in Tanasaq, in which she learnt that reindeer meat was a delicacy in North Steruleang and wanted a bite of her. Astrid then realised that the Noragulkor Postal Service treated her well during her service, and appreciated how blessed she actually was working at Noragulkor's branch even though they left her to die at the end

In Vierum 1897, the Tanasaqi branch was informed that the Dakröhese branch needed more postal carriers due to a shortage. Astrid decided to volunteer herself as no one else wanted to go, and she was given directions to Dakröhi. On her way there, she had to fend off numerous species trying to make a meal out of her and in the process, learnt more about her abilities in her true form. Still, this troubled her as she didn't like being actively hunted, something which she saw as ironic given Ratein's survival of the fittest philosophy

In Alstas 1897, she was caught in a particularly heavy thunderstorm in Xhing'Tien. As she trekked through the mountains, she slipped and injured her ankle. Mingyue, who was secretly tailing the reindeer spirit out of curiosity and worry, approached her and offered to let her rest in her cave as long as Astrid needed. The reindeer spirit asked why did she live in a cave when there was a village at the mountain's base, with the latter explaining that due to her appearance, she was ostracised from everyone around her

After spending a month with Mingyue, partially due to the wet weather and partially due to letting the ankle heal naturally as Mingyue didn't have easy access to medicine, Astrid was back to full health and ready to make her way to Dakröhi. Before leaving, Mingyue begged for Astrid to not tell anyone about her existence, which the latter complied despite not understanding why

Upon arriving at the Dakröhese branch two weeks after she left Xhing'Tien, she was briefly introduced to some of the other workers, including Mira, and was soon swamped with numerous local deliveries. The last letter she had to deliver was to Sarnai, a well-known business owner that controlled the sale of mountain herbs. She made her way towards the mountains, secretly relieved that it wasn't raining then and delivered the letter to Sarnai

Astrid was shocked that Sarnai was about to burn the letter in front of her, and asked if she could wait until the reindeer spirit left. Sarnai, annoyed, threatened to kill her where she stood and to display her antlers somewhere in the office. The postal carrier sighed, lamenting that she had enough of beings trying to kill her for food or as a prize and that there was only so much she could be optimistic about before she hit her limit

When asked who exactly she was, Astrid introduced herself and proceeded to explain that throughout her journey from Tanasaq to Dakröhi, she was hunted for her meat despite her size as a reindeer spirit and all she wanted was to unwind with some tea, not to be threatened by Sarnai

The snow leopard spirit then apologised, expressing empathy for her situation and related to her own experience of being hunted for body parts. Upon accepting the apology, the duo established a friendship, with Astrid leaving Sarnai’s residence with mountain herbs weighing a total of 300 grams. She then returned to the post office, who told her that she could have the rest of the week to rest. It was also during this period that she learnt who Mingyue truly was, as rumours of a rare white snake spirit in the Xhing'Tienese mountains started to surface

Once the Dakröhese branch was able to cope with their deliveries, she was asked if she could help out at the Wulfenzan branch before returning to Tanasaq. Astrid agreed and made her way to Wulfenz, arriving six months later in Trieme 1897. While working in Wulfenz, she bonded with Mira, who was also deployed to help the Wulfenzan branch before returning to Višoleka. While bonding over drinks, the latter informed her of a hunted victims meeting session held in the country, and Astrid decided to attend so as to meet others like her. She then instantly bonded with Radio, a ravel in attendance and expressed surprise when she discovered that Sarnai was also in attendance

The latter indicated that it was due to the contents in the letter she had delivered that brought her to Wulfenz, and proceeded to thank Astrid for preventing her from turning away a potential business opportunity. The reindeer spirit was also surprised to learn that the snow leopard spirit and Radio had met each other a while back, and that she was close enough to offer to buy daem a house at whichever country dae wanted to live in

Eventually, her service to the Wulfenz branch came to an end in 1900. As no other branches needed additional help, she went back to Tanasaq and continued working for them. Currently, she works as an international postal carrier delivering letters from Tanasaq and the extremely dangerous parts of Rynnholmen to the rest of the Ratein, occasionally meeting up with Sarnai and Radio at the Hallowed Hotel's bar as some of her deliveries are to the hotel. Astrid also occasionally encounters Mira during her deliveries and/or the hotel bar, and uses these periods to go on dates with the jellyfish spirit

True Form:

[silentchamp]

Some time has passed since your adventure across time and space. 

Today, a letter finds you. This letter isn’t delivered by the postal carrier that you usually expect: you would be met at the front door of your dwelling by a young man dressed in white, a hat on top of his head, and a professional, kind smile on his face. Having to sign for a simple letter seems odd, but the courier assures that ‘this is standard protocol for us.’

A white envelope stamped with the familiar golden trident of the Aether Foundation is in your hands. Inside of it is a letter written with extraordinarily neat penmanship. 

Mr. Suzuki,

I hope this letter finds you well, and that you are recovering from our expedition from the comfort of your own home. 

In the coming days, myself and the Aether Foundation will likely be in the international news regarding our ‘strangely timed’ decision to sever certain partnerships with fellow giants in our shared industry. Do not be alarmed by this. It is a direct response to harrowing usage of my intellectual property in another time, and another place. I, and the entirety of my team, will not allow Aether technology to cause harm to people, or Pokemon, neither by our hands, or the hands of our competitors. You may sleep soundly knowing that our collective actions will prevent an apocalypse of that magnitude happening in our home.

From my mind to yours: I wish to personally thank you for your involvement, and the tireless effort that you put into destroying Archeus. It has left a lasting impression on me, as I am sure it has with the rest of our team.

Several of the partners that we relocated from Area Zero are currently being rehabilitated in the Aether Conservation Area. We are currently zoning an area strictly for our iron partners, so that they may receive enrichment and resources whenever they need.

The Aether Foundation is dedicated to improving the relationship between people, Pokémon, and technology. Consider myself, and my foundation, as a permanent ally, and useful resource for anything that you may need. I highly encourage you to take advantage of these resources whenever necessary.

Lastly, you are cordially invited to the Aether Paradise on a later date, to be honored for your duty, for defending life as we know it, and for instilling a bright new belief in humanity– for me.

Thank you.

Do not hesitate to contact me. Attached to this letter is my business contact, and personal contact. I request that you keep it to yourself.

-President Lusamine Delacroix

At the bottom corner of the letter is a large, strange blotch of ink. A thumb print, maybe? Upon further investigation, it seems to have been left by the tip of the tail of a serpentine creature, who also wanted to sign the note.

It was strange.

It was strange, the delivery of the message, to see the familiar uniform of an Aether Foundation member in the region of Kanto seemed strange...to have them show up on his doorstep was another matter, entirely. It was bizarre, if you'd asked him about it.

He'd held off on opening the letter. Not on purpose, rather, balancing both League and laboratory duties posed a troubling task, one that required several arms, like an octillery, rather than two. If only Red could Double Team and make clones of himself.

One finger would ghost over the professional inking of the Aether Foundation logo on the front of the outer layer of the note, people ripping the envelope open--ruining whatever pristine imagery it had--and stealing the letter out from inside.

It's uninteresting, and Red deliberates tossing it out, until eyes scan over a very important sentence, one that seemingly sticks out from the rest of Lusamine's formal jargon:

"Several of the partners that we relocated from Area Zero are currently being rehabilitated in the Aether Conservation Area."

Red reads faster, quicker, skimming over the note front to back, up and down, side-to-side with a newfound sparkle in his eye as he thinks about his previous companion during everybody's time spent in Zero City.

Janus.

Getting up from the kitchen counter, the chair screeches against the floor tile, and Red would launch onto his feet, marching over to his poryphone. A smile can't help but work itself onto his face, expression glimmering with joy.

He needs to make a few phone calls.

[anotherdayforchaosfay]

My postal carrier loves me. LOL he said as much today because I always give him a giggle, and today I make him especially happy with a sample of an herbal coffee I have. It's in little teabags, and he loooooves coffee, and hates that he can't drink it at night because heartburn and caffeine. So I gave him a bag to take home and try. If he likes it, he can come by and take the entire box. I got it for him, but he wants to try it first to see if he likes it. Hopefully, he does. That man deserves nice things for all the work he does.

Be nice to your mail carriers!

I've only had one bad carrier. Caught her shaking and opening packages in her delivery car. If she didn't like what she saw, she taped it back up. Reported her with pics because, hey, breaking federal law there. She was the exception, and it took getting g neighbors to report her before anything was actually done.

[mancalledhoss]

Mary Fields: (1832 –1914), also known as Stagecoach Mary and Black Mary, born into slavery, was an American mail carrier who was the first Black woman to be employed as a star route postwoman in the United States. Fields had the star route contract for the delivery of U.S. mail from Cascade, Montana, to Saint Peter's Mission. She drove the route for two four-year contracts, from 1895 to 1899 and from 1899 to 1903. Author Miantae Metcalf McConnell provided documentation discovered during her research about Mary Fields to the United States Postal Service Archives Historian in 2006. This enabled the USPS to establish Mary Fields' contribution as the first African-American female star route mail carrier in the United States.[4]

[fuckyeahthomaspynchon]

A great shout went up near the doorway, bodies flowed toward a fattish pale young man who’d appeared carrying a leather mailsack over his shoulder.

“Mail call,” people were yelling. Sure enough, it was, just like in the army. The fat kid, looking harassed, climbed up on the bar and started calling names and throwing envelopes into the crowd. Fallopian excused himself and joined the others.

Metzger had taken out a pair of glasses and was squinting through them at the kid on the bar. “He’s wearing a Yoyodyne badge. What do you make of that?”

“Some inter-office mail run,” Oedipa said.

“This time of night?”

“Maybe a late shift?” But Metzger only frowned. “Be back,” Oedipa shrugged, heading for the ladies’ room.

On the latrine wall, among lipsticked obscenities, she noticed the following message, neatly indited in engineering lettering:

“Interested in sophisticated fun? You, hubby, girl friends. The more the merrier. Get in touch with Kirby, through WASTE only. Box 7391. L. A.”

WASTE? Oedipa wondered. Beneath the notice, faintly in pencil, was a symbol she’d never seen before, a loop, triangle and trapezoid, thus:

img_5980

It might be something sexual, but she somehow doubted it. She found a pen in her purse and copied the address and symbol in her memo book, thinking: God, hieroglyphics. When she came out Fallopian was back, and had this funny look on his face.

“You weren’t supposed to see that,” he told them. He had an envelope. Oedipa could see, instead of a postage stamp, the handstruck initials PPS.

“Of course,” said Metzger. “Delivering the mail is a government monopoly. You would be opposed to that.”

Fallopian gave them a wry smile. “It’s not as rebellious as it looks. We use Yoyodyne’s inter-office delivery. On the sly. But it’s hard to find carriers, we have a big turnover. They’re run on a tight schedule, and they get nervous. Security people over at the plant know something’s up. They keep a sharp eye out. De Witt,” pointing at the fat mailman, who was being hauled, twitching, down off the bar and offered drinks he did not want, “he’s the most nervous one we’ve had all year.”

“How extensive is this?” asked Metzger.

“Only inside our San Narciso chapter. They’ve set up pilot projects similar to this in the Washington and I think Dallas chapters. But we’re the only one in California so far. A few of your more affluent type members do wrap their letters around bricks, and then the whole thing in brown paper, and send them Railway Express, but I don’t know . . .”

“A little like copping out,” Metzger sympathized.

“It’s the principle,” Fallopian agreed, sounding defensive. “To keep it up to some kind of a reasonable volume, each member has to send at least one letter a week through the Yoyodyne system. If you don’t, you get fined.” He opened his letter and showed Oedipa and Metzger.

Dear Mike, it said, how are you? Just thought I’d drop you a note. How’s your book coming? Guess that’s all for now. See you at The Scope.

“That’s how it is,” Fallopian confessed bitterly, “most of the time.”

“What book did they mean?” asked Oedipa.

Turned out Fallopian was doing a history of private mail delivery in the U. S., attempting to link the Civil War to the postal reform movement that had begun around 1845. He found it beyond simple coincidence that in of all years 1861 the federal government should have set out on a vigorous suppression of those independent mail routes still surviving the various Acts of ’45, ’47, ’51 and ’55, Acts all designed to drive any private competition into financial ruin. He saw it all as a parable of power, its feeding, growth and systematic abuse, though he didn’t go into it that far with her, that particular night. All Oedipa would remember about him at first, in fact, were his slender build and neat Armenian nose, and a certain affinity of his eyes for green neon.

So began, for Oedipa, the languid, sinister blooming of The Tristero.

[news4dzhozhar]

Imma send Jahar a book at the beginning of September. Do we know how many books/subscriptions he currently gets ? I just don’t want my book to be intercepted 🥲 I’m a fist time sender 📚 thanks for all the valuable info 🙏🏻

Because the SAMs are still in place, Dzho can only send and receive mail (letters, cards) from immediate family.  If you want to send him books, here is the mailing info and instructions/rules for doing so:

All books must be brand new, soft cover ONLY (hard cover will cause the delivery to be delayed as the prison removes the hard cover for security reasons) and be mailed direct from Amazon.com  As Amazon also sells new & used books from other sellers you need to make sure that any book you want to send is NOT coming from one of these many outside third party sellers but directly from Amazon themselves.  None of the books plots can be violent or overly sexual (no nudity)…basically just common sense stuff when it comes to topics. Absolutely no spiral-bound books will get in so don’t send those.

With SAMs in place if too many books are received in a short period (I think 10 per month was the limit when he was still in Devens) they may be sent back or “donated” (as they put it) to the other inmates/library. If they are “donated” due to the limit being reached, you won’t be advised that the book never made it to Dzho as Amazon only sends delivery confirmations.  

ADDRESS:

Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev #95079-038

USP Florence ADMAX

PO Box 8500

Florence, CO 81226

Everything must be sent via postal mail, so make sure your package will not be sent via UPS, FedEx, DHL or some other carrier. POSTAL MAIL ONLY.  Amazon will automatically send via USPS since it’s going to a post office box and not a physical address. If you use a vendor other than Amazon make sure you validate that the book will be sent via postal service.

If you are avidly anti-Amazon.com, you can use Barnes & Noble, Books A Million, or even your local “mom and pop” bookstore provided they will mail it directly to the prison for you. If you choose to go the local bookstore route make sure they use a “professional” mailing label and not a handwritten one -  it will be rejected. 

I don't believe any type of packing slip or gift receipt is passed along to Dzhokhar with the books received to avoid any messages getting through so it is unlikely he will know who has sent him what.

[woopdesigns]

Some Christmas-related art I did last month!!

1. How I imagine our packages were delivered in December. I did this doodle as it was snowing outside and my hot postal worker partner was outside schlepping packages to your doorstep! Our local letter carriers (and any delivery person, honestly!!) are the TRUE backbone of Christmas! Our modern elves <3 2. A lyric doodle. This time of “The Man with the Bag”. 3. This one I’m exceptionally proud of because as I was staring at “the man with the bag” doodle I was like, “Why does it have to be a MAN??” So, to make it better, and more relevant to me hahaha, I changed bag to bugg. Because I am The Hand That Feeds the gecks!! I am literally the Ma’am with the Bugg! 4. Another lyric doodle. This time it was from Lindsey Stirling’s Time To Fall In Love. 5. Yet another lyric doodle. I became obsessed with all versions of this Christmas song this season hahahha. It was constantly stuck in my head!! 6. LOL okay, so bear with me. This was part of a promo image for a Nic Cage themed group bike ride I planned and co-led on Dec 30! I couldn’t NOT include it! Planning this ride took up a good chunk of my December