HELLO FRIENDS

IF YOU'RE IN ONE OF MY SWAPS

I always say to message both me and your partner if you're going to be late. I ask you to do this because it's considerate. If you do not send on time and don't check in with me, I am going to message you and your partner, because I have no reason to believe that someone who doesn't read or feel they need to follow swap instructions is going to follow through at all. If you don't want me crawling up your ass, maybe you should cover it -- super simple concept. Thx for understanding!

June 17, 2024: For the first time ever, I had a swap returned to me labeled "insufficient address." It is the correct address, but it was apparently processed upside down, as the cancel is over a blank corner. I screencapped my informed delivery and I guess I will continue to do so if this happens again, which I hope it does not. Planning on repacking and sending as soon as I am realistically able. I will be keeping envelope decorations minimal unless swap specifies otherwise. Really amazing that human eyes didn't pass over that envelope once, at least not in any meaningful way!

May 14, 2024: I haven't had much access to an actual computer, so I can't really edit my profile. But I want you to know that anything related to Teddy Roosevelt or the Rough Riders is currently at the top of my wishlist.

May 4, 2024: After a year of hiatus, I'm baaaack!

March 16, 2023: We regret that you have waited so long. We are doing our best to answer your message. HausOfImps, Inc. provides monthly swaps to over 5 different Swap-Bot users. As a result, we do have busy periods. We are taking messages in the order in which they came.

Please have handy your Swap-Bot username and any recent mail we may have sent you. This information will help us serve you better.

My old account is benevolentghost -- I cannot access it and was hoping to merge it with this one, and have been attempting to do so for about a year. As such, this obnoxious section remains until further notice. In the past few years, I have gotten my mental health in check and gotten better at communication, so I'm excited to be swapping again. I have made up every outstanding swap with active users -- my cumulative rating is about 4.96, which is my basis for joining swaps. I have no idea who my alien partner was because I can't see without being in the account -- let me know if it was you.

Proof

NB, ☞, etc: I was graciously rated a 5 instead of a 3 for a swap I made up in March 2022. My rating of 4.96+ stands even had this swap been rated a 3.

Curious about why I bold key information?

If you don't receive a swap of mine, please message me before downrating. I usually take photos and I'm happy to resend either way.

If I haven't rated you and you think I should have your swap, don't hesitate to message me. I don't find it rude.

Like easy and fun general swaps? Why not come over to Swapper's Paradise, grab yourself a drink, and pick up a swap or two in the swap shoppe? We'll never ask what's in your mailbox -- that's federal property, and that ain't our business! Our only business is providing good, clean swapping fun for YOU.

Please consider joining the group I run with @feverfawn if you live in the US!: Monsters, Myths, & Legends. It started as an ATC-only group, but we now host all types of swaps -- email, postcards, book and wishlist exchanges, assemblage, letter writing prompts, etc!

About Me

Greetings! My name is Lisa and I'm a 36-year-old woman living in Chicago. I try to keep my life pretty low-key and spend most of my time with my partner or my family. I like to read, craft, and send mail. I also like old Dateline episodes, bad Lifetime movies, and weird old Christian fraudster interviews and documentaries. I have taught ESL and adult basic education here and there, and I miss it dearly! Hopefully I can get back on track with something like that in the future. Doesn't seem likely any time soon, though.

I am a Furby collector, a McLuhanite, a satirist, and the Original Rat Bastard (according to Gallup polls). I love philosophy**, comparative mythology, proboscideans, and avian dinosaurs. I spent an inordinate amount of time studying elephants and their counterparts in folklore. If I had a hall pass in my relationship , I'd only use it with Ötzi the ice mummy (revived) or Teddy Roosevelt (alive or dead on this one). I'm obsessed with fringe religious and political movements -- I seek to understand, and occasionally, to reflect back what I see. I like art and culture from all over the world. If I don't mention it, it's probably because I don't know much about it.

Meet the gang!

They are all precious to me and have very complex lives. Sunny (the baby) has gone to live with feverfawn, but The Family has also expanded.

I like crafting ATCs and making mail art, but I've taken a bit of a break to focus on postcards and simpler trades, just because they better align with my mental state and abilities at the moment. I would like to ease back into art, but probably participate at a slower pace than I did in the past. My "likes" section gives a better idea of what I'm into. Right now, I've been having fun with sticker bombing.

I love to do writing swaps, especially ones that involve research, about shared "academic" interests. Also, about the paranormal and occult (personal experiences are good as well).

I do not send people unsolicited material related to my spiritual beliefs because that would actually be insane. It is a tenet of my religion to show respect for others unless provoked, which means that I do not bully, shame, attempt to convert, or go into spaces for other belief systems to try to make a point. I really don't care what other people do.

Thank you for reading and gettin' to know me!

(** - because people ask -- I'm interested in mind, consciousness, pain, language and communication, mass media, group dynamics, etc, usually from a Marxist perspective. I also am very interested in cognitive science and psychology in general. I haven't finished my degree, I just like to read.)

Things that will make me smile, short list: mammoths, elephants, dinosaurs, penguins, marabou storks, cassowaries, Canadian geese, pigeons, anything related to non-Egyptian mummies, food-themed washi (recently got Moroccan themed!) and washi in general, sticker flakes, book recommendations (folklore collections especially), photos of anything, loose playing cards, stream of consciousness, memo sheets

Favorite colors: pastels, black, bright and tacky colors, maroon, goldenrod, teal, all shades of green

Favorite video games: arcade, Atari (esp Blueprint), all Nintendo systems, Mario franchise, Pokemon, Animal Crossing, Harvest Moon, Final Fantasy. My favorite Pokemon are Volcanion, Mr. Rime, Darumaka and Galarian Darumaka, Gloom, Mr. Mime, Cofagrigus, Trevenant, Indeedee, and Regigigas

Other games: I collect Yu-Gi-Oh! cards, Pokemon cards, & Metazoo

Edible items: I prefer not to receive food unless it's hard candy. I also like tea (all kinds), coffee, and drink packets. No restrictions or allergies, though if the packet is not in English, please tell me what it is!

I always rate. If you have not received a rating within a reasonable amount of time, please message me. I don't think I've ever not given a heart. I appreciate everything I receive. I am not picky or very judgmental. I like when people's personalities shine through.

I live across the street from the post office, so it is very easy for me to send on time. Again, please message me if you haven't received something and I'll resend. You know if you're in a country with long wait times from the US, but if it's been 10 - 12 weeks, I'll consider it a lost cause and resend (I think my record was 11 weeks for Indonesia -- I forgot I had even sent anything!).

I typically aim to send with ample time before the due date as to not stress the host (or myself!). I don't own a printer, so anything requires a trip to the library or FedEx may be an exception.

If you ever think a handmade postcard has the risk of getting damaged and you don't have a plastic sleeve, you can always send in an envelope even if the swap says otherwise. Please just address and stamp the postcard as though it were being sent naked.

Likes - ABC's

A - arabesque, aliens, anatomy, architecture, angels, Anatolia, altered states of consciousness

B - beluga whales, Bigfoot, bright and tacky colors, body horror, Baphomet, banknotes, bringing Sabrina home

C - collage, cryptids, Charles Manson, capybaras, cultural stuff, crabs, cacti, conspiracy theories, ceremonial magick, clowns & mimes (not intentionally scary ones)

D - daruma dolls, dinosaurs, demons, dreams

E - elephants, Erlik Khan, Ancient Egypt, esotericism

F - Furby, folklore, food (on washi and stickers), friendship bracelets, flowers

G - gnomes, guinea pigs, glitter or foil stickers, gods/goddesses, gargoyles, Great Lakes, ghosts, Gacy

H - history (important leaders, military, etc), Hindi, the Hodag

I - interesting facts, India (Dravidian architecture!)

J - jesters, Furby (jester edition), journaling

K - kawaii, Kirby, keychains

L - Lisa Frank, lobsters, lion dance

M - marabou storks, mastodons, mushrooms, mythology, Mega Man, maneki-neko, Mr. Rime, musth (not to be confused with musk), militaria, mosques (imagery)

N - Nintendo, Nibiru, New Age imagery, nazar beads

O - Oranguru, occultism

P - philosophy, Pokemon, penguins, pyramids, postcards, photos, pastels, Pennsylvania Dutch, psychedelica, paranormal, Paul Bunyan, early US presidents, pigeons, peacocks, propaganda, public transit

Q - quotes, Qabalah

R - religions/sites of worship, ruins, Russia/Russian, Regigigas

S - stickers in general, shoebills, storks, South & South East Asia, stamps (foreign), Sanrio, San-X, Satanic Panic, space/galaxy, skeletons, spiders, Studio Ghibli, Sufi-inspired art, swamps, Super Ghouls N Ghosts, Sumikko Gurashi

T - Turkey, Teddy Roosevelt, Tamagotchi, tourism postcards, Trevenant, Turkic mythology, trading cards, tarot, tea, true crime

U - urban photography, Urdu, UFOs, used books

V - volcanos, Volcanion, video games, Virgo (sun sign)

W - woolly mammoths, washi tape, writing systems, weird stuff

X -

Y - Yokai

Z - zeybek dance, zines, zodiac

Ultimate Wishlist: postcards or souvenirs from the La Brea Tar Pits & Museum, anything related to the Hodag, Furby-related anything, Pennsylvania Dutch folk art (imagery on postcards or playing cards, larger trades), Doreen Virtue angel cards, postcards or handmade art featuring serial killers, weird art/zines you've made, anything related to the Kansas City 3 "case" (the 3 Chiefs fans overdosing in a data scientist's backyard and the media spectacle accusing him of manufacturing designer drugs)

Normal wishlist: loose tarot or Oracle cards, loose Pokemon cards, depictions of demons, anything in Cyrillic, Devanagari, Arabic/Perso-Arabic (any language ok), washi samples, stickers, blank postcards related to any of my interests, damaged postage and CTOs, memo papers, stickers again (vintage, partial sheets, small stickers, flakes, imperfect stickers, I'll take all of it other than reward/little kid stickers -- I use some of the weirder stuff in art projects), handmade paper, ATC backings, used train/bus tickets, etc

Do Not Want/Use: religious items unless specified for swap, anything dirty, kiddie stickers or reward stickers, fabric/lace/ribbon scraps (just don't have a use for them). And I can't believe I have to say this, but please no items with mold or spores, and please make sure your hands are relatively clean when making or putting together mail.

I have an immature sense of humor, but I have no desire to receive anything "erotic" or sex-related in nature that is intended to be taken seriously or is a relaying of someone's real life extracurriculars. Jokes about sex are fine.

My apartment building does not have an outgoing mail slot, and we are advised not to use the outdoor blue mailboxes because of the frequency of theft, so here is where I send my mail every time (unless I take it to the counter): the indoor lobby of my post office. This box was not broken into, a car swerved into the lobby last year and they have not fixed it yet.

Just a lil piece of my life for ya ;)

Please be patient, I'm sure I'll edit this profile a million times. And, as always, please feel free to reach out if you'd like to swap, if you have a question or problem with a swap I'm hosting (or my group), or if ya just want to chat!

I wrote something very long here earlier, but here is an abbreviated version:

I vet swappers, I check in with people, I mediate conflict if someone sends something the other isn't happy with. I angel when necessary. I take hosting seriously because this same exact skillset is something I use for many of the things I care about (including, in the past, getting a paycheck) in my day-to-day life -- organization, planning, facilitation, and conflict resolution. I don't just shut that off because I'm on a "fun" website. This is fun for me. Welcome to my world.

All I ask from participants is open and direct communication, and maybe a little bit of mutual respect. I am very lenient with a lot of things (and totally nonjudgmental) as long as they're presented honestly and in plain language. I am nice(-ish), I promise. Gonna be late? Tell me. We'll figure it out.

That's all!

Add me and my partner, then message me your username! We've both gotten a couple adds at the same time recently, but I think our FCs are in a couple other places -- I prioritize SB users for gifts and try to get him to do the same. :P Our postcards have "modern" Scatterbug attached.

Me: 5301 3376 5281

Bf: 7637 3042 2189