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Damn this takes me back. Ancient email.
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Discovering outdated postal stationery hidden amidst pages of diaries of late parents during a cleaning spree. Beyond Konmari advanced concept... They must go *and* they spark joy 😳
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I think I must have sent/received a few dozen of the blue ones through the mid 90s. Didn’t save any. Wish I’d kept them.
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I remember sending the 15p postcards in early 80s… maybe 10c then when 1 USD was ~Rs 20 in pre-free-convertible era. Dirt cheap. Before cellphones, it was comms lifeline for poor migrant laborers. Even illiterate. They’d get people to write/read.
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Weird to think long-distance was expensive enough in 90s that I mostly wrote letters to parents from college. Phone was for occasional short calls. Had to actually walk off campus to use the metered long-distance pay phones.
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The only telegram I ever received was one from the Birla planetarium in Calcutta informing me that I’d won a special mention prize for an essay contest on space stations, in like 1988. Rs. 700 (~$30 then). First money I ever made writing. Bought a yellow Walkman with it.
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I recall having my sister read my draft entry and her only comment was that I used the word “viable” a lot. Funny the things you remember. My essay proposed a basic rotating ring space station. Nothing novel. Did the gravity calculations and everything.
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Wonder how many users of the telegram app have even seen a literal telegram, let alone sent or received one. It looks like there’s still a kind of novelty service in the US. I have no idea why. itelegram.com
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Actually I’m not a nostalgic in a traditional sense. It’s more that I’m addicted to the feel of time passing at different scales and speeds. It’s also why I like dinosaur movies. Medium shifts in comms give you a feel for decades passing.
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Since I was 26 when blogs were invented, I literally could not have known what I’d be when I grew up 🤣 Something for the <25 to think about. Your medium may not even have been invented yet.
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Not a trivial point. Though I always enjoyed writing I never had the slightest interest in “bring a writer” back when that meant breaking into old media. Without blogs I basically wouldn’t be writing in public. At best I’d be writing letters to friends/family.
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