Sorry, I Can't Help
I suck at answering email. I really do. When email was brand new to me, almost 15 years ago (holy cow), I used to respond to everything within seconds of receiving it. Nowadays I am much lazier, often letting email sit unanswered for months. Especially email with Zyzzyva questions, since answering those requires actual thought. Yet those are the ones that deserve an especially quick response, because the writers of those emails have actual needs. Also, when those emails sit unanswered for a long time, the author of the software is probably perceived as distant and unresponsive, and people's perception of Zyzzyva itself may be negatively affected, or they may simply give up and move on.
I guess I am sort of distant and unresponsive, though. Especially since I now have two kids who are old enough to fight constantly. I think that's when my personal productivity level took a dramatic drop, when my son turned one or so, and developed the ability to play with my daughter's toys without her permission. It's unbelievable how much attention young kids require. Not that I'm complaining; I love spending time with my kids, and raising them is priority #1 for my wife and me. But between raising them and all the other various responsibilities of church and community, and considering I would like to learn some Scrabble words myself, everything else pretty much takes a back seat. When I do occasionally get some free time and don't feel like studying, I mostly want to chill out by reading a book or playing a video game. Only rarely do I actually sit down and answer a significant amount of email.
This is difficult for me, because I like to please people. When I was in 2nd grade, other kids would come and ask me for help all the time, and because I'm a people-pleaser, I never really said no even though I was unable to get my own work done because of it. My teachers and parents noticed, and soon I had a sign on my desk that I could flip to the green side (Yes, I Can Help) or the red side (Sorry, I Can't Help). That helped a lot, because I could just flip the sign when I was busy, without having to say no to anyone personally.
I'd like my sign to be green a lot more than it has been lately. But with how busy my life has gotten, it simply has to be red most of the time. So this is an apology to anyone who has emailed me over the past few months and hasn't gotten a response, or anyone who will email me in the future and whose email will sit in my inbox for a while. I'm sorry about that. For Zyzzyva questions or suggestions, I would very highly recommend sending them to the Zyzzyva Users mailing list rather than to me personally. That way, many people will see and can hopefully answer your questions much more quickly than I will. For those of you who have been answering questions on the list (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
redaragorn and Richard Johnson come to mind, but I know there are others), thank you for doing that. I appreciate it.
I know this is probably not even a big deal for anyone but me, but it really bothers me to be unresponsive, so I wanted to write something about it. I'm probably also feeling strongly about it because I'm so tired. I should go to bed early tonight. Anyway, thanks for your patience with me.
tired
