pigeon post records

[ikel89]

This posts is to help with international shipping in general, useful for but not limited to secret santa exhanges. If you have questions about secret santa gift exchange specifically, try our FAQThe wisdom of this post is built on communal experience, and I encourage you to keep on contributing. I will keep the main body of this post updated as you

Comments

[hamsterwoman]

The dodginess of my CP3’s cover is only rivalled by what’s beneath it, which is, ok, fair, but let’s avoid that for better books :P

I wonder what the heck happened that time, but that's good to keep in mind. hm. I'm guessing the bubble wrap would keep water from most other things, but I do always pack books on the bottom for packing stability, so it wouldn't have in that case...

So far all US mail shipped without tracking numbers arrived to Russia, so fingers crossed the luck holds.

This is definitely the conclusion based on all my experiences.

Also, US has the same divide between parcels <4 lb (best off shipping First Class -- unless your contents are small enough to fit in a Flat Rate Small box, which is, like, the size of a trade paperback) and >4 lb (best off shipping Priority Mail International -- either Medium Flat Rate or in your own box; which is cheaper will depend on the exact weight, but pretty comparable until ~6 lb). Priority International is marginally faster, I think. Also, 4lb is the point where you switch from

[ikel89]

Before the CP3 package of Quality Lit, I don't think any other one got wet (either that, or my memory is vaguer than i think :') - and that even I think happened on Russian leg of the journey - I think the paper was somewhat recently ruined by the looks of it, and it was mostly the wrapping that got destroyed. Of all the books only CP3 got a bit soggy and tattered, and even that I mostly fixed by press-drying and all :) I am just thinking in future if possible books can be put into uhm - stuff like that ziplock baggies you know? To help prevent this nuisance damage. Still can be put at the bottom of the package for stability imo

[ikel89]

Anechka! At the bright hour of 1AM in the blessed day where I was consecutively deprived of electricity, gas, and now water and heating, I had a brilliant idea :D At his point in life, I can't quite keep up in my head all the track record of santa matchings, and I can't come up with a good way to arrange the records in excel, so could I maybe borrow your brain for it? Can you play around excel to show me how best to arrange a matrix of how people matched over years? As senders and recipients?

<33

[hamsterwoman]

I might have some ideas! I can't think of a particularly elegant way, but depending on how repeatable the group of participants is, I would either set it up as a square grid of senders vs recipients, or keep track of individual people and sender/recipient for each year. This is hard to explain in words, so I mocked up a Google spreadsheet here with the two ideas.

I think the first way makes it easier to see combinations that haven't happened yet, the second way makes it easier to see if you want to set up sender-recipient reversals across the years. You can also add a column for country, preference where to ship, etc. in the second way.

Dunno if this is helpful?

And I hope you've gotten all of your utilities back, wtf...

[ikel89]

I'm laughing - ur sekret excel sheet requests your permission XD will you please tell google to chill XD

and fucking finally! the utilities are back, but not without me spending half an hour today before my appointment with chinese embassy reading boiler manuals and fixing water pressure shutdown errors* :') i think i'm getting cooler - excuse me, hotter *looks at working heater* -by the day!

*internet was exceptionally slow in the morning, so i only waited for it to load the fixing instructions on that big pdf; by the time i was out of the shower, the document loaded completely, and in the quick summary of errors and what-to-do's RACI chart for users it was marked as "call qualified personnel" and for qualified personnel there was a reference to detailed instructions I had used :') go, me.

[hamsterwoman]

How about now -- less secret Excel (I have no idea what I'd selected to make it turn secret by default... ah well.)

and for qualified personnel there was a reference to detailed instructions I had used :') go, me.

Go you indeed! Boiler-fixing is useful skills! (My father had to troubleshoot one for the AirBnBers with the help of a plumber who had nothing to do with heaters either. They managed, in similar fashion :P)

[ikel89]

I think it's your innate ability to plot, darlingest Anna, that affects default settings ;D :D :D

Thank you! OMG, those match-up examples are wild :D I like both of them, but what if in table 1 both people match twice, in sender and recip capacity? How would you mark it as? Поделит клеточку по диагонали и проставить две даты?

My father had to troubleshoot one for the AirBnBer
I'm taking this as a martell cred, then XD since targs are somewhat bigger on destruction and creativity than uh, domestic usefulness XD

[hamsterwoman]

Heh. XP

I'm not sure I'm answering the question you're asking, but if you mean, what happens if one year A sends a present to B and another year B sends a present to A, I've added a Simon Snow and Corwin example. (Glad to have amused with the match-ups, btw :D) It should work out to filled-in cells to either side of the blacked out diagonal, if the order of names is the same down and across, because "down" is sender and "across" is recipient (this takes a little while to get used to -- I confused myself a couple of times before I got the hang of remembering that).

But if someone has been a sender to A twice, or received a present from A twice, then you'd have to go with two dates in one cell.

I'm taking this as a martell cred, then XD since targs are somewhat bigger on destruction and creativity than uh, domestic usefulness XDHahaha, excellent! And this is giving me a mental image of Aerion Brightflame or Aegon the Conqueror trying to fix a boiler and, after about 5 seconds, giving up and dousing it in wildfire or having a

[ikel89]

o_O O_o O_O

if i'm ever to become an overlord, you're in charge of spreadsheets. dixi!

and you're welcome :D

[hamsterwoman]

But you are already our Santa Overlord :D

(and I'm always happy to Drumknott up some spreadsheets for you ;D)

[ikel89]

to loop this back to our useless kiev training convo, i could do with a minion who'd actually keep the books XD we'd be amazing together, i'd be shouting things like "YES! those two have excellent chemistry, let's match them up!" "but sir *shuffles around excel* you did that last year" "i did? i have the best ideas!!" XD

[hamsterwoman]

"i did? i have the best ideas!!"

:DDDD

(Actually, when Rose and I were having dinner, we talked about your people-matchmaking and my fandom-matchmaking, and I did actually say, "Together, we are unstoppable!" :D)

[ikel89]

#whereisthelie :D :D :D i think getting those two seattlites together is a prime example, if we say so ourselves :D

[hamsterwoman]

ETA on US customs:

Also, 4lb is the point where you switch from the shorter customs declaration form to the slightly longer customs declaration form

As of 2019 (or earlier, probably, but I forget when this changed, there is no longer two different Customs forms, just one form you use regardless of weight.