Shopping Tips and Guidance by Mandy Claire

Welcome to "The Gods Are Bored!" We booze, we snooze, we listen to news! Other peoples' views!

(Thanks, Puck. Now go be a good faerie and lurk behind the ottoman. No, not there ... not there ... OH NO, DON'T STAIN THE OTTOMAN!)

Grrrrrrr. Faeries. Can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em.

As I was driving to work this morning, I caught the tail end of a story about a school teacher who has been suspended for remarks she made about her working environment. She made the remarks on her blog.

Most school districts don't have a policy for material put onto blogs. The reason is, most intelligent people know better than to use a blog to remark upon their working conditions. I mean, come on now. This is pure common sense. You want the whole world to know it when you've had a bad day -- including the people who employ you, the ones who cut the check that paid for the bad day?

Eeeesh.

I am a school teacher, and I sometimes use this little forum to comment on statewide school policies. But that's it. If you're coming here to listen to me carp about my day, I strongly suggest you start taping Maurie and forget all about "The Gods Are Bored." At this site I'm in on all scores and out on all beefs. (Got that one from my father-in-law.)

Personally I would consider it bad form to comment here on any particular having to do with my school. Needless to say, I would never ever use this worldwide form of communication to complain about my students or my superiors. First of all, there's no reason to complain on either front. Second of all, is that what you come here to read? Pish tosh, of course not! Last but not least, complaining is nothing more than stirring up negative energy and letting it color your world. The path to misery is lined with complainers! Stay on the sunny side! That's our philosophy here at "The Gods Are Bored."

Teaching is a profession that requires you to be around literally hundreds of people all day, every day. If you don't like people, steer clear. If you do like people, you understand that each and every one of those hundreds of people is an individual, just like you. If you can say something negative about them, couldn't they legitimately do the same about you? Are you perfect? You are? Well, speak for yourself, because I've never been perfect. Therefore I do not judge others.

The Internet doesn't come with a big page of warnings, the way prescription pharmaceuticals do. That's a shame, because people forget that what they throw out on the Net can be caught by anyone's eyes.

You wanna bitch about your job? Buy an old-fashioned diary and a gel pen. As for me and my household, we don't complain on the Web. There's no reason, and it just makes us look small.