CLICK & DOUBLE CLICK: BY SENDING E-MAIL, YOU CAN SEND GREETINGS TO FRIENDS ONLINE (COLUMN 89)

We have several friends, one in particular, who love e-mail postcards.

These postcards are easy, quick and a fun way to keep up with friends.

Let us start at a nice site that is a favorite of our e-mail sender, Steve Mosley.

www.bluemountain.com

Peggy: The nice thing about Blue Mountain cards is that they are animated and musical. Sometimes cards are sent directly to you and sometimes you must pick them up. They are very nice. One of our readers, Jean Lincoln, was kind enough to send us a Mother's Day rose. Thanks.

Joni: Of course the ones they are really pushing this week are graduation, Father's Day, Nurses' Week and Armed Forces' Day. But you have many, many other choices -- get well, new baby, apology, vacation. What's vacation?

Peggy: You can wish a special bon voyage with an e-card. Then you can send a welcome home card when they receive.

Joni: Most of these cards are artwork with "delightful poems." You must be careful when checking virtual postcards in the office. Turn down the volume.

Peggy: I received a St. Patrick's Day card from my friend Dave Hitt and drew a crowd with a booming Irish jig.

Joni: To send these cards, you will have to know the recipient's e-mail address and your own e-mail. At Blue Mountain, the card can be picked up for 30 days. They also give you the option of writing down the pick-up code, in case the recipient loses it.

Peggy: We've found this to be kind of addictive. When I receive a card, I feel compelled to return the favor. After all it's free.

Joni: Now let's go to the site that really prompted this column, and one of the weirdest sites we've seen in a while. It's a site called Connect Time. They have several different unusual postcard generators, which they call interactive toys.

www.connect-time.com/funstuff

Peggy: You can send a regular Web greeting at the card store, but we prefer Dumpster Diver.

Joni: Dumpster Diver is like giveaway day at the Thrift Center. It's like Sunday evening curbside after the yard sales give it up. It's just like rummaging around it the trash behind the junk store.

Peggy: You don't get to choose your stuff, but you can choose categories knickknacks, crazy clothing, frightening foods, terrible toys, awful appliances and just bizarre stuff. If you don't like what you come up with, you can dive over and over again until you find the best stuff. Another choice for sending e-mail is

www.messagemates.com

Joni: It is a little more complicated to use than Blue Mountain but it's worth it. Some nice person sent us Virtual Zombies and I couldn't tell until well into the card who it was from. I wasn't sure if it was hate mail, a hoax or what.

Peggy: I'll fess up. I sent the virtual zombie, but it was all in fun. Honest. In addition to zombies, this week you can send Frank Sinatra greetings. If you are interested in teddy bears, or know someone who loves them, send a message from

www.bearisland.com

Joni: This site has lots of stuff related to teddy bears, including CyBear Grams. You can pick from 12 bear poses. Then pick the occasion and the music to send along with your CyBear Gram. Hey's it's accordion music.

Peggy: Joni, please don't polka in the office. Lot's of these sites sell other stuff, but you can send electronic postcards for free.

Joni: This week, our friend Steve sent us a postcard with the now-famous dancing baby, called Baby Cha Cha. The baby has made several guest appearances on television.

www.regards.com

Peggy: At this site, you can pick one of their images or you can enter the URL of an image you would like to have on your greeting.

Joni: We're going to send Baby Cha Cha back to our friend with a personalized message. You can also have the site notify you after the person reads the greeting.

Peggy: For kids, try the Kid-Kard center and Gladys Gif, the postmistress, who walks you through the process of mailing a card.

www.csunet.net/postcards.html

Joni: In addition to the postcards, they encourage you to send your kid's art to them for use on their postcards.

Peggy: First you pick your title, then preview your song, then type your message.

Joni: For all the teeny-boppers, you can find a number of Leonardo DiCaprio postcards online, including some at the heart-throb's unofficial website.

www.leonardo-dicaprio.com/greeting/greeting.html

Peggy: You pick a stamp and a picture for your card, then type a message on your Leo-gram.

Joni: If you go back to the main page, you can find anything you ever (or never) wanted to know about the young star, including a countdown to his 24th birthday. Ouch.

Peggy: For a big list of lots of other online postcards, check out this links page of e-postcards from around the world.

www.wp.com/annag/ecards.htm

Joni: You can find animated postcards, postcards with music, postcards from around the world and even humorous postcards. Surely, there's a postcard here for any occasion. From here, we found Pity Postcards from a site called "Breakup Girls."

www.breakupgirl.com/postcard/cardrack.html

Peggy: If you want to know how well these postcard sites work, just ask our friend, Steve. We sent him sample postcards from every site. My, isn't it great to be popular?

Joni: What's your favorite e-mail postcard site? E-mail us at click@semissourian.com

See you in Cyberspace.

~Peggy Scott and Joni Adams are members of the Southeast Missourian online staff.