Elsie's Exploits on Facebook (or Elsie Exploits Facebook)

What did you learn in school?  Share with others.  Don't run with scissors.  8x5=40.  Don't be accused of being a creepy stalker by Facebook because they won't let you make friends for a week.  Not that the last one is something specifically on the curriculum, at least I don't think it is.

But this is what Elsie learned this week.  Technically not in school since we're in London. She learned it at university.  Here's her side of the story:

I'm a bit new to Facebook, but I thought I would give it a go, since I've made so many friends at Harrington Gardens in the last 40 years.  After my birthday party in April I did some serious soul searching, as one is wont to do when they have a round numbered or milestone birthday.  Over the years so many friends have come and gone, and I would like to reestablish contact.  As I'm in a relationship with Bill (purely professional), I had a peek at his friends and asked the ones I knew from years back if they would like to be my friend, too.  Unfortunately I've been going by my casual name on Facebook, and forgot that many people may not know me as Elsie.  My more formal name, the Ithaca College London Center, or sometimes just the London Center, is how most people were introduced to me.  I understand the confusion that can ensue when you meet a person and are told to call them one thing, only to find out later that they prefer to be called something else.  So when the postman, the gas man or TV Licensing come to the door I go by my full name, but as I get to know the students, they come to use my nickname, ISee Elsie.

Hopefully I have cleared things up with Facebook.  I have my postman name in light grey parenthesis after my nickname in the hope that old friends who didn't recognize my nickname will know who I am.  I'd like to phone up Mark Zuckerberg and just say, "My bad," but instead I've quietly accepted my week-long ban from inviting more people to be my friends.  I promise I'm not a stalker.  Real stalkers get restraining orders taken out against them.  I just want to make friends, something else I should have learned in school in my youth.  Anyway, I mostly just post things on my Facebook page off my Twitter feed, because I think everyone wants to know when I have a new blog post up or what the weather is like in London.  Sunny with a chill in the air right now, as it happens.

I welcome old, new and future London Center students to friend me.  I'm keen on staying in touch and keeping you up to date with what's happening at the Center.  I look forward to telling you what's playing on the Austrian radio station in the front office (It's Raining Men, by The Weather Girls, not Geri Halliwell), or that Bill is nearly done with his marking and more than ready to focus on the Olympics conference, or that Sarah and Claire really liked the apple tea that Jim Swafford gave them from Turkey.  There's less inane information to pass on as well, but these are also the things that give me character.  I'll try and find a balance between relevant info about London and the London Center and the minor aspects of daily life around here.

Thank you for listening,
Elsie

(P.S.- I also have a fan page!)