"Friending" on my journal
There is a tiered filtering structure on this journal, summarized as follows:

Public posts:
Intellectual discussion, public essays, humor, and items that I feel are of interest to the general public, such as movie reviews.

"Friends" posts:
Similar to public posts, but geared toward people that I know. Slightly higher frequency of personal observations.

Filtered posts:
Details of my personal life, generally only open to people I know personally, beyond one or two "how-do-you-do?" encounters.

Regardless of what I might previously stated elsewhere on the internet, I rarely friend people unless: 1) I know them personally, or 2) I have seen enough of their general online communications that I know I'll have an interest in keeping up with what they post.

If I know you and you'd like to be added to my friends list, please comment here with some indication of who you are (comments screened). If I don't know you and you'd like to be added to my friends list, the best bet is to make me aware of who you are and how you think through responses to my public posts.

I'm frequently busy, so bear with me.