ZENFORMATION MAIL: 2005 Final Edition(And a Quick Note To Recent E-mailers)

PREFACE:

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2005 random e-mail wrap-up. Cleaning out my Yahoo Inbox, I found several bizarre e-mails I forgot to post. Some are personal questions I've debated answering.

I received several today regarding my last post. I guess I need to lay down some ground rules from now on regarding e-mail submissions. I'll answer them all with one statement.

JUST BECAUSE A GIRL (OR GIRLS) CRAWLS INTO BED WITH A DUDE DOTH NOT MEAN THAT THEIR WAS SEX INVOLVED.

A) I was not "Hitting It"
B) Participating in a threesome.
C) Nor was I "Scoring"
D) I was not shagging your roommate, your housemate, your girlfriend (dude, if you have to ask that, then your relationship's probably in trouble), your girlfriend's housemate, your prof/TA, or any woman you may/may not have seen me talking to at work. (Hint - the library profession is about 80% female and there are, I believe, more females who use my library regularly than males), nor am I gay.
E)I was not "hooking up with" somebody.
F) There is nothing amoral about simply lying in bed with two girls.
G) If there had actually been a little bit of action in the ZenFo Pro Den of Love, do you really think I'd post sordid details about it here? Even if I wrote about it, I'd use fake names and carefully edit the post several times to make sure I wasn't violating somebody's rights to privacy.

Regardless of what you do not have any sort of right to know the details of my sexual history. It's my blog, sorry. I'll post what I want. I appreciate comments and try to be respectful of all who e-mail or post. But please be courteous and realize the World Wide Web is a very public place. Just because you read a web site does not mean I'm obliged towards full disclosure of every detail of my life.

To regular readers, please don't take too much offense. I remember seeing how Pia at Courting Destiny was getting picked on by folks a while back, how Cooper was getting hammered about her sex life, and how Zydeco Fish kept having random attacks by some very bizarre reader, so I decided I'd better lay the hammer down a bit. I hope this doesn't sound like a lecture.

Thanks,
Jason

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Now, on with the Mailbag...



* NOTE - These are e-mails I've received via the Zenformation Professional. I have removed all identifiers in the queries to protect privacy, even of the ZenFo haters. No names from this point on - just cities. I reserve the right to NOT answer questions about my personal life but may answer them privately. I will only post e-mails and responses that specifically ask me to post a response; however, no advertising or hotlinking will be allowed.

E-mail text is unedited (other than identifiers) and some content may be objectionable to some folks.

- Jason,

AKA The Zenformation Professional

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I just wanted you to know that I find your site very interesting. I like to read it in class. (boring lectures boring professors boring college)

- OXFORD, OHIO, Dec. 1, 2005

Thanks. That was the nicest e-mail I've gotten in a while. Short and simple and to the point. Hopefully, you swing by others as well, check out some of the links like DATA and organizations like CCSR, and spread the love, chica! - ZP

u think your soooo fucking hi and mighty. your music tastes suck. your fairy library sucks you suck your town sucks and you're probably a fucking Justin Timberlake wannabe do you even read the kind of shit you right? I see you work at a library why don't you stick to shelving books and writing about that. Leave musac reviewing to professionals bookworm.

- CINCINNATI, OHIO, Dec. 12, 2005

Anybody who read the comments on my last OXFORD CONFIDENTIAL post may remember somebody posting "anonymously" (hint - the poster liked his/her shift key a bit too much.) Just a note - posting anonymous comments and then sending a nasty e-mail with your full name listed afterwards defeats the purpose. Not going to really respond. I will say that if one defines being a librarian in the 21st century as being a "bookworm," they probably haven't been in a decent library in a while. I rarely have time to pleasure read. - ZP

I feel so stupid for asking this given the fact that you seem to be peeved that local people spot you all around where you live - that would annoy me, too. I'm a librarian in a small town as well. I've been thinking about starting a blog but yours has given me some doubts.

Do you think the Zenformation site makes it harder for you to get work done? It seems that you are reluctant to talk about your professional life but share these wonderfully written stories about your personal experiences. That scares me; I'm a lesbian and I'm essentially a solo librarian in a very small conservative community.

- LOCATION WITHHELD AT REQUEST OF SENDER

First, thanks for reading. Second, I think given the newness of the whole blogging phenomena, I jumped in rather naively, feet-first and without looking first - as the old saying goes, a plumbers pipes always leak. This is also true, I think, for librarians - we get so excited about a new service that we rarely look at the ramifications of our actions. We're information-format lab rats, or at least we're supposed to be.

Unfortunately, animal testing often results in some sometimes painful experiences for the animals. I know I've had my share. If you're still reading, you may have seen my little tirade above. I know, for instance, that a colleague of mine reads my blog occasionally - he told me he tonight that he found the site accidentally. How do I balance out what I want to write with what I probably shouldn't write.

I don't think the ZenFo Pro alter ego has made it harder to work, but I definitely think its made it much harder to blog. There are days I leave my office, walk onto the floor, and catch some group of patrons looking at me funny. That can be awkward. But Cyberspace is a vast place that reaches the world's most privileged; I constantly remind myself that regardless of how many patrons, librarians, and other folks read my site, it will always be such a miniscule portion of the population.

I think your concern is very real, and you do need to worry about the image you portray to the community. I've actually visited your town before; you probably have very good reason to be concerned, especially being a lesbian. Didn't strike me as a very tolerant place, and if you're not comfortable telling patrons offline you're a lesbian, you might want to think about what you say online. I would advise setting up stone-cold alter-ego, something that's hard to crack. Be careful to not list too much personal information that can make you easily identifiable. I post a pic as my avatar; in your community (and the Internet in general) that might not be the best option.

Hope that at least gives you a starting point - I'm in now way a master blogger and have only been running this for since May. Surf the web, see what you can find and keep me posted. - ZP