Okay, so like most of the free and civilized world of the Yahoo chatroom and its extended famliy, I found myself at the PACE NSC this weekend. And, just like they had several times before, a few things were brought to my attention. I'm not going to put myself into contention for the Claude Reins (sp?) Memorial Award by pretending I'm shocked -- SHOCKED -- to find out that people dislike me. Hey, I am who I am. I'm not gonna change for an individual. That's for politicians. But what did surprise and disturb me was that people have been saying things about me and telling others what I did in strong language without, you know, trying to talk to me about it first. Now, I know I can be a tough guy to approach (tall + loud = scary), but I would think that if there's even a chance that my name could be unfairly smeared, common courtesy would be obeyed. I mean, it's not like I'm a psychopath or anything. Anyway, the point is that if you have a grievance that is so great that it jades and colors your opinion of me, but you think I'm not approachable on the subject for whatever reason, I'm here to inform you otherwise. All you need to do is email me at apg_at_... or Andy_Goss_at_... and, hey, I'll see exactly what it is that's making you boil over in whatever negative emotion it is. I promise to you that I will read it over, and I will give you a thoughtful, calm answer. We can discuss this. Over email. Where I can't hurt you personally. Got it? And no, I won't go about and smear your name over this, because I don't *care* who would spread rumors to damage me, and grudges ain't my bag to begin with. Look, everyone has character flaws. And yes, some are more serious than others. This isn't meant as a way to provide for me to dismiss you flippantly. I don't care if we're close friends or not. I'd just rather not be enemies. I don't hate anyone or wish ill will on them, and hopefully through this I can keep you from wishing it on me. And yeah, maybe I do sound pompous in this post. But I spent all day thinking of the wording. And even then, I couldn't get it just right for me. I mean, how *do* you come out and say, "what are people saying about me", without sounding like some whiny conspiracy victim? Look, don't take any of the wording in this post personally. Just take it as an opportunity to prevent another set of QBers from being at each other's throats. Please? Andy
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0: Sat 12 Feb 2022 12:30:43 AM EST EST