nikkihc

20 January 2020: Slowly coming back after a Long hiatus! Will get back to swapping soon. 😊

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Hi! My name is Nicky. 😊 I'm a queer human rights activist from the Philippines. I live with my partner and our menagerie of rescues that run our lives. 🐶🐱🐱🐱🐱🐶🐱🐱🐱🐱🐶🐱🐱🐱🐱🐶🐶

I've always loved snail mail.💌

It was my grandma who first introduced me to it.👵 We were writing back and forth to each other as soon as I could handle a pencil.✏

I still really love it. From the process of putting together a letter or parcel to that excitement of getting something in the mail -- it's all just so lovely.💖 I don't even mind the wait. I think of it as a slow ebb of connections being made and stories being woven. Plus, it makes each mail day a bringer of nice little surprises. Love it!😍

To keep the lights on, I work as a freelance copywriter and digital media strategist. But what I'm really passionate about is my advocacy work. I help run two LGBTQIA+ rights non-profits. One focuses on community and space building, the other deals mostly with legislative and policy advocacy. Both give me an opportunity to teach, which I LOVE.

I used to be on track for medicine, but I decided that it wasn't for me. Something I've always wanted is to go into further studies on human rights and gender.🎓

On the non-academic side, I've always wanted to learn woodworking, dressmaking, painting, photography, digital illustration and animation, metalworking, and pottery. I enjoy cooking especially because of the opportunity to get creative. I love learning about other cuisines.

I recently got into plants! I have a Monstera deliciosa (or cheese plant), fittonias, dancing ladies, succulents, butterfly oxalis, marigolds, and a few herbs. I still need to learn how to keep the more finicky ones alive though. I really, really want a Beaucarnea recurvata and a Medinilla magnifica.💚🌱

My goal life would be to live in a commune between the beaches and the mountains with my partner, our pets, and all our friends. We'd spend our days growing our own food, creating all the things we need, running a leadership and makers camp, and rescuing all the strays that we can.

P E R F E C T I O N.

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I like a whole range of stuff. However, I'm mostly drawn to indie folk and indie pop music. I love Nataly Dawn, Perfume Genius, Julien Baker, Sufjan Stevens, Dresses, Lake Street Drive, dodie, MUNA, The Wild Reeds, Anna of the North, BP Valenzuela, Ourselves the Elves, Shura, Banks, HAIM, Oh Wonder, Ingrid Michaelson, and the list goes on.

I also love a lot of 90s and early 2000s music. Spice Girls, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bic Runga, Vitamin String Quartet, Garbage, and a whole lot more!

I love books. So it's really sad that I don't have time to attend to them! I have about 200 books in my library but have only read a little over half of those.🙁 My guilt has gotten the better of me so I've pledged to stop buying books until I read everything I already have. Still not done with all of them. I have a lot of Wintersons, Murakamis, Gaiman, Atwood. I also really love Gay Talese and Jeffrey Euginides.

The books that really defined my childhood were Madeleine L' Engle's Time Quintet, the Harry Potter series, and Nancy Drew books (although the themes in some of these really didn't age well).

Currently reading: (technically I'm re-reading it) A Swiftly Tilting Planet

I rarely ever watch TV anymore but I binge Netflix more than I should! I love Doctor Who, Star Trek (Discovery, Next Generation, and Voyager), Orange is the New Black, Alias Grace, Jane The Virgin, Orphan Black, Brooklyn 99, Sens8, The Good Place, Jessica Jones, Daredevil, This is Us, Travelers, Grace and Frankie, Dirk Gently, Dark, Crazyheads, Fringe, and so much more!

Postcards: I like my PCs written on and with postage stamps and all those postal markings. I do join blank postcard swaps once in a while to replenish my stash. Please don't send me touristy postcard for those swaps. I won't be able to use them unless we live in the same area.

Here are some of the themes I enjoy (but you're welcome to definitely go beyond these):

• Pride (LGBTQIA+), feminist, human rights or activist-related🌈💜✊🏽
• Handmade cards. I love seeing your art. Whether it be craftivism or personal sketches, send your handmade cards my way!🎨
• Illustrations (digital or otherwise). I especially love nature illustrations in a style similar to those found in old botany or zoology books.
• Adult coloring postcards! Would really love blank ones sent in an envelope because we don't have these in the Philippines! If there's something you want from here, I'm game to do a private swap.
• Art. Any style really! I can't afford good art myself, so I'm content seeing them on a smaller scale like postcards.🖼
• Cute animals. I'm probably one of the millions of folks around the world who turn to cute animal videos/photos/stories to destress. If you have postcards that fit the bill, please send them to me. If these are photos of your own pets that are accompanied by stories (plus points for rescues!), I will treasure those.🐶🐱🐭🐹🐰🐸🐤🐦🦄
• Ad/free cards with interesting/clever art/ad campaigns. Not a lot of folks like ad cards, and there are some ugly ones out there. But if you have a really interesting/creative one,þ feel free to send it my way! Please alter the back enough for there to be space for a personal message (maybe tell me about where you got the card and why it is interesting to you), postage stamps, and the recipient address.

Fun or Pretty Postage stamps on swaps: I'm not a collector, but I find the art on many postage stamps really beautiful. Nice postage stamps also tend to amp up the ❤️ factor for swaps for me.

Rubber or Silicone Stamps: I especially love feminist, LGBTQIA+, travel, mail, and writing-related ones. I'm honestly going to be happy with whatever you send unless it's one of those teacher reward stamps or anything listed in my dislikes below. Would also love stamping inks/pads!

Washi and Deco Tape: I'm only recently getting into these! Please feel free to feed my growing addiction. I prefer the paper ones over the plastic ones. But I'll take anything with really nice designs!

ATCs and other original art: I made my first ones in February 2018 and now I'm hooked. I look for ATC materials in every thing I see. I'd love to be part of more of these swaps so I can exchange more.🎨 I really wish there were more creative international swaps for ATCs!

Stickers: I have no preferences except that I don't really have a use for Disney and Looney Tunes kinds. Would love feminist or LGBTQIA+ themed cartoons though!

Tea: We have a really limited selection in the Philippines. Would love to get teas from all over the world!🍵 My favorites are fruity teas. Not so fond of overly floral ones.

Food: This can be actual food from your country or your favorite recipes!

Craftivism and subversive crafts: I'm starting with small crosstitched pieces for friends. I can definitely see this blossoming into other mediums. If this is something you're interested in exploring with me, hmu.✊🏽

Geekery themed items: Fanart, postage stamps, and other fun stuff that features the shows and films I mentioned above would be AWESOME. For example, I've seen Doctor Who postage stamps and I would honestly love one (or 50 haha) of those!💙

Legends and Myths: I really love reading about fairy tales, legends, and myths from different countries. It's even more interesting for me to learn how these stories actually affect a society's traditions and practices.

Colors I Like: This is a difficult question because I like almost all colors.🌈 Pretty gradients are a favorite (sunsets, galaxy, ocean, etc etc)! These days I tend to gravitate towards coral, peach, purple, fuschia pink, teal, and salmon. But I honestly do love almost any color so don't even worry about this.🎨

Other stuff I collect:

• Books
• LGBTQIA+, feminist, or human rights themed material (pins, postcards, art, stickers, magnets, etc)
• Any reading material that has deepened/enhanced your activism that you think would interest me (e.g. links to books, research, Twitter threads, videos, etc.)
• Unicorns. I think my fascination for them started with Madeleine L'Engle's A Swiftly Tilting Planet. These days I love it mostly as a symbol for the LGBTQIA+ community.🦄

• Religious-themed items
• Multi-view postcards
• In swaps that require sending several blank postcards in an envelope, please do not send me touristy or area-specific postcards. I won't be able to send those out unless we live in the same area.
• ‎Teacher reward stamps or stickers
• ‎Anything anti-LGBTQIA+, anti-feminist, anti-POC, anti-human rights or with any type of discriminatory message/theme.

SLOW POST

The Philippine postal service is frustratingly erratic. Sometimes it takes international mail less than 10 days to get to their destination, other times it's taken as long as 66 days for a simple postcard!😒 Here's the a link to the days of travel my Postcrossing cards have taken to illustrate that.

Surprisingly, sending to North America takes even more time these days. Here's a forum post about other swappers who are also experiencing delays with international mail getting to the U.S.

RATING

I only ask that you give my swaps some time before you rate because the speed of post is not under my control.

If I'm your assigned partner I will always resend a swap that gets lost.

If the swap I send doesn't meet swap requirements, I will always resend.

Please just get in touch with me before you rate so we can work things out. I will always extend the same courtesy to you. Thank you and happy swapping!🌻