Friendly FYI and a Resolution

So, if you're planning to go to Elli's Celtic-themed concert, please send her email. She meant what she said yesterday; she's not reading or posting to LJ for a while.

I'm not going that far, but I am making some changes here. See, LJ has become the default communications hub for my social life, and I hate that. It becomes far too easy to just skim over entries, not realizing how important they might be. People get upset if you don't answer in what they consider a reasonable time, not realizing you've been in class and away from a PC for eight hours.

In short, there are too many hurt feelings arising from the use of LJ as a communications platform. My feelings, my wife's feelings, and the feelings of some of our friends -- this is not a one-sided situation.

So, this resolution: I will NOT use LJ as a communications tool. If I need to know something specific, I'm using email or the phone. If you want to make plans with me, please either call me or use email. Friendly hint: Calling is better if it's time-sensitive.

If you don't have my email or phone number, comment here and I'll send it to you. I'll be emailing a few of you to make sure I have your contact information, as well.

From now on, this LJ will be used only as a diary, as it was meant to originally. I'll post less often, mainly because I'll be unable to post as ridiculously often as I have in the past. I may post the occasional meme, but I'm going to try not to. This site is meant to be a record of my life over the past six years, not a way to make plans for Friday night.

Teacher Workshop

I went to a teacher's workshop last night on the advice of my reading pedagogy teacher. It was interesting, though of course I, as the sole student attendee, felt somewhat like an interloper -- like I didn't belong. I wasn't treated that way, however, and I appreciated the insight into things I'll probably have to deal with in the next couple of years.

The most amusing part of the evening came when a Sacramento City College teacher made me promise never to teach my students the dreaded and often-maligned five paragraph essay format. "They learn that damned thing in high school, then we have to train it out of them! Don't do it!"

Kara was there, she-who-dislikes-me-intensely, but there were no venomous looks. I'd expected her to ignore me, and I was ok with that (because, really, what choice do I have but to be ok with it? I can't command her to decide I'm not as bad as she thinks I am), but she greeted me politely by name, and that was that.

Edit: Well, frack that. Just on a whim, I decided to go see what, if anything, she said about it. She basically spewed bile and insulted me, ignoring she doesn't know the whole story. Oh well.

FYI

I just want folks to know that I just received a very nice letter of apology (and I apologized to her, as well -- she deserved one, even if it did take me years to realize it) from the woman I was talking about earlier. While she and I will never be friends, we can, I believe, move on and be adults about our differences. She's a good teacher and gave me some useful advice, and Kara, if you read this post, thank you.

I now return you to your regularly-scheduled LJ; I have an essay to finish.