Wow…I was completely blown away today (in a good way) when an online buddy, Paul Reynolds, nominated me out of the blue for Nicest Guy on FriendFeed! Thanks, Paul!

Who’da thunk?? I don’t have world’s greatest reputation for Mr. Nice Guy at work, for example. I’m a production support database administrator, and I can be…um…kind of difficult. At times. Occasionally. (Especially if I haven’t had enough caffeine…don’t bug me first thing.)

I think it’s quite instructive to explore the different facets of one’s personality as seen by different groups. You have work, home, friends, how you act with strangers, by yourself vs. in a group, etc. My purely online face isn’t something that I’ve really thought about before…it’s interesting (and flattering) to hear that at least one person thinks that I’m consistently positive and constructive!

I’d definitely like to drag that packet of behaviors into work a bit more. Of course, one carries all the baggage of past experiences, bad karma, blown tempers, etc. in a persistent environment like that (I’ve worked at the same place for a decade now), but I’ve tried over the past few years to be more encouraging and positive about things in general. It appears that it’s working! Paul, I plan to remember your extremely generous comment whenever I’m beating myself up or being too hard on myself. Again, thanks very much.