So I went to Outer Dakota and bought some fun post cards. I addressed them and stamped them and took some pictures. Then I found a group of strangers all sitting together who looked kind of nice and made me curious. I asked them as a group if they could help me out by writing some postcards to my friends. "They're all stamped and addressed already."

"Do we have to put our addresses on them?"

"No! You can do whatever. You can protect your privacy if you want."

"sure... we can do that... for shizzle" (someone seriously said for shizzle) "don't you want your pen?"

"What? Oh, no you can keep that. I took it from work anyway."

Then I walked away.

Two problems: my camera sucked and destroyed the card which contained my proof of doing this task (and several other tasks which were pending and will be very difficult to recreate goddammit!) secondly, I have no idea if they sent them or not. Have any of you received postcards? If so, could you photograph both sides of them and email a copy to me? burnunit@waste.org

Also, they were --to my mind-- curiously dressed, all very clean cut and nice and the women were all in skirts. My first thought was some religious group. Then several of them were smoking (constantly) and I second guessed that assumption. We drove around Spearfish for a while and saw a ton more nicely dressed clean cut young white people at the park--every third person had a cigarette dangling from their mouth!

At the coffee shop later I asked the barista if there was some kind of convention in town. "Oh yeah. The apostolic lutherans or something." Which explains it-- Lutherans don't have the same hangups about drinking and smoking that a lot of other U.S. religious groups have, although these apostolic Lutherans are some pretty hard-headed, holiness-focused Finns who think the rest of the Lutherans are dangerous liberals dangling over the hellfire. And I'm pretty lutheran, so I oughta know. SO, I told the recipients that if they got some bible verses, that's why. I apologized in advance if they got condemnations.

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From Danger I got:
yes, i did receive postcards and was confused by them. i didn't recognize the handwriting, and i couldn't figure out who would have been in the black hills and it was also confusing because i just got back from there. they were postmarked rapid city.

i'll take pictures and send them to you,
BUT ONLY IF YOU [do a task he wanted help with but i'm stupid and i screwed it up and i apologized but i still haven't got them]

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From Cameron Suey I got:
I recieved my two postcards today; unfortunately, I will not be able to send you pictures untill I return to work on Tuesday, as my camera cable is there.

The postcards were a unexpected source of amusement and discussion. Several vistors to my house were on hand to read the postcards, and it proved an excellent way to introduce them to the game.

One of the postcards was quite simple:

Hello Cameron
Here in Spearfish
SD, sitting @
a resteraunt on
main street. So Lovely
Welocme to Minneapolis
MN anytime-
Take Care

The next card proved to be much more of a conversation piece:

Hey Hathen (sp) (Perhaps Heathen?)
So we're sitting at this
seven
resteraunt in Spearfish SD- A
table of ten of us from various
places like Washington, Wyoming,
Montana and Minnesota, and a
random joe asks us to do
a little favor for him- the way it
is - the most important thing
to remember is that a live
each day like its your last, but
plant a tree as if you'll live
tommorrow
adios from the west coast.

The last line was covered by a shipping sticker, and it was only hours later that I removed it. It covered the text: I support president bush and I am happy.

Needless to say that changed the tone of the whole missive to me, and cast a strange light on the use of "planting a tree" as a way to improve the future.
The 'heathen" and the strange floating "seven" just added to the mystery.

Thanks again for sending these. It was a little gift to my sunday night.

i'll send photos next Tue...
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(Mind you, It's been a few Tuesdays since that message, but I'm cool.)
[**UPDATE: Cameron Sent me the photos, they are appended below!**]

The 7 Grill is the name of the restaurant we all were at. It's probably the "hippest" cafe in the city of Spearfish, SD (pop. 9,355) and is the first place to bring escargot and sushi to that burg. When we lived in Spearfish, our apartment was about 3 blocks from the 7 Grill, where we celebrated many a Friday night and Sunday brunch over a couple years.

I think it's unbelievably awesome to me (in a very unnerving way) that they snuck in that quiet "i support president bush and i am happy."

Also, the "plant a tree" reference is an absolutely Lutheran touch which confirms for me that these are in fact part of the aforementioned convention --Martin Luther is (perhaps apocryphally) credited with the saying that he would plant a tree if he knew the world was to end. Lutherans reprazent! (ahem, in fact, this player does not endorse the political nor many theological views of the 'Apostolic Lutherans')

As of proof time, I haven't heard from the other intended recipients and have not seen pictures of the cards, but I've included some photos, including one shot of the folks at the restaurant table.