Dealing With Stupid People [Tuesday, July 10, 2nd period]

[professor-lyman.livejournal.com]

Josh was still not exactly comfortable with the whole "being outside" thing as he perched on a picnic bench and smiled at the students as they assembled. In deference to the ridiculously hot weather, he was wearing short sleeves and khakis. No tie. Scary, no?

"Okay, one of the most annoying things you will encounter in your life will be other people," he began, rolling his eyes. "Most of us -- in my universe, anyway, some of you might have other experiences -- can't kill them by using our brains, so we have to come up with different coping methods. We'll get to the more advanced techniques -- sarcasm, the strategic use of an eye roll -- later, but today we'll start out with something that gives you a lot of chance to practice before you send out the final product."

He pulled out a sheaf of papers and dropped it onto the table. "Writing back to stupid people!" he said triumphantly. "In this exercise you need to reply to these obviously deranged letters in a polite way without asking if they've thought to seek professional help for their delusions. There are five different letters so pair up with a partner -- it's better to double check your language against someone else, at least at the beginning -- and write back to these completely insane people."

Josh grinned. "Questions? Problems? I don't really care, but ask anyway."

Comments

Re: Letter #3

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"What's wrong?" John asked innocently, noticing Rodney had stopped writing just when he needed to put John's name on the paper. Obviously someone hadn't been paying attention in class yesterday.

Re: Letter #3

[mrodneymckay.livejournal.com]

Rodney might have been embarrassed if his partner hadn't tried to look innocent. Then again, he was Rodney. "You never told me who you are."

Re: Letter #3

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"John Sheppard," John held out his hand and smirked. "Funny how I know who you are."

Re: Letter #3

[mrodneymckay.livejournal.com]

"Rodney McKay," he replied needlessly as he shook John's hand. "How is it that you know me?" Rodney asked suspiciously. He thought it was a little early in the session for him to have picked up some sort of weird physicist stalker but it seemed as though stranger things than that happened around here with alarming regularity.

Re: Letter #3

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"Well, you were in my Monday workshop," John replied casually and totally not stalker-like. "We did this activity teachers call introducing ourselves, where we all told our names and why we were in the class."

Re: Letter #3

[mrodneymckay.livejournal.com]

"Oh, right," Rodney said with relief and a little disappointment at not having his very own stalker. "I really didn't pay much attention to the other students." As if this weren't obvious.

He wrote 'John Shepherd' after his name under the valediction.

Re: Letter #3

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

John rolled his eyes, not even the SciFi Channel commercials a genius could spell his name right. "It's Sheppard, spelled S-H-E-P-P-A-R-D, actually."

Re: Letter #3

[mrodneymckay.livejournal.com]

"Whatever," Rodney muttered as he made the correction. Names were not exactly his strong suit.

Yours sincerely,
Rodney McKay and John Shepherd Sheppard

"Right. That should do it. What do you think?" He looked at John since this was supposed to be a team effort after all.

Re: Letter #3

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

John looked over the letter and slouched back in his chair. "I think we did good, Rodney."

Re: Letter #3

[mrodneymckay.livejournal.com]

"Alright, then." Rodney set down his pen and cracked his knuckles. "I am so ready for lunch."