Rant of the Day

[vorpal blade]

A woman messaged me on Etsy, linking to one of my bracelets. "Instructions on making this please" No salutation, no signature, no punctuation; just a blunt request that I teach her how to make an item I'm trying to sell.

At least she said "please" I guess.

I was thinking, you could turn this into a business opportunity, depending on how you feel about it. "Please send me $100,000 and I'll be delighted to send you the instructions."

You could modify the charge for this service depending on how much future business you think it would cost you. If you wanted to you could explain how your intellectual property is an important part of the business that you just cannot give away for nothing.

A long time ago (before the Internet) I had a friend who worked really hard to design and build a better wheat grinder. After proving that it worked really well he bought advertising. He bought a new, big mailbox to hold the hundreds of orders he imagined he would receive. All he ever got was a single letter with essentially these words, "Please send me the construction plans."

[Portia]

People who treat the preferences of a shadow cabinet as the unquestionable diktat of a fascist authority. "Don't propse a name for a building! Don't grow a beard! DON'T THINK FOR YOURSELF"

[Dead Cat]

Ward choir with tone deaf people. I just can't stand it when someone is perpetually off (and that there is no chance of them getting better) and I wish I could discourage them being in the group.

[Tally M.]

Ward choir with tone deaf people. I just can't stand it when someone is perpetually off (and that there is no chance of them getting better) and I wish I could discourage them being in the group.

Yep. Yep. Yep.

We just performed today in Ward Conference, and to be frank, we sucked. All the stake president could say about it was "thanks for the reminder about the grace of God" (since it was "Amazing Grace"). We didn't have enough practice time, the choir director didn't help us to run through it enough, people who couldn't find their parts threw off the people who could find their parts...basically, ward choir is probably one of my least favorite things to participate in that I still like participating in.

[Genuine Article]

Ward choir with tone deaf people. I just can't stand it when someone is perpetually off (and that there is no chance of them getting better) and I wish I could discourage them being in the group.

Grrrr. People like you are why I hate that our church has so much singing. I spent my whole childhood lip-syncing in stake youth choirs because I know I can't sing well. And I always heard people say, just sing out in church even if you know you're not very good, no one will care, all that matters is that God will hear you. But it's all a lie because you musical folk are a bunch of judgy-mcjudgerson show-off snobs.

[Dead Cat]

Ward choir with tone deaf people. I just can't stand it when someone is perpetually off (and that there is no chance of them getting better) and I wish I could discourage them being in the group.

Grrrr. People like you are why I hate that our church has so much singing. I spent my whole childhood lip-syncing in stake youth choirs because I know I can't sing well. And I always heard people say, just sing out in church even if you know you're not very good, no one will care, all that matters is that God will hear you. But it's all a lie because you musical folk are a bunch of judgy-mcjudgerson show-off snobs.

And I hate feeling like a snob too, which makes me hate myself for feeling that way. I normally try to be encouraging of people joining the choir to get better at singing, but being in front of a girl with a vocal range of about half an octave singing at least a third below the alto line, while I was also right next to another girl who kept going way sharp, got to me today. It didn't help that the conductor also had every part--including us sopranos--go over every phrase at least three times before adding another part on top of it (this on a normal hymn, mind you). It took us a full hour to get through one one-page song, focusing only on the notes and first verse words. I am not excited to go back.

[Rainbow_connection]

That sounds miserable. No song and few singers are good enough to listen to for an hour.

[Zedability]

For me, it depends on the choir director. A skilled director who is also not a grump can make practice enjoyable even when the singers aren't skilled, and then I think it's a good experience for everyone to improve their singing. When the choir director, no matter how lovely a person they are or how good they are at music, doesn't know how to lead a choir, it's really frustrating to have unskilled singers simply because they don't have any direction on how to improve. And then it's frustrating because you know no matter how much you practice, it's still not going to sound good.

[Whistler]

okay, so I think congregational singing is kind of anything goes. It might be a hymn no one has ever heard of and you just try your best.

But in a choir, I think you can expect a little better because practice and so on. We say that there are some individuals for whom singing on pitch is a lost cause. But some people with amusia are able to sing on-pitch (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amusia#Case_studies). Perhaps there is a way to teach pitch-matching?

[bobtheenchantedone]

If you think you're a choir snob, look at me; one of the reasons I hated choir last year at school is because "I'm so much more advanced than y'all I can't believe we can't move faster in this choir!" and it's an audition-only choir and was having one of its best years. It's such a relief to be in the school's top choir this year. At least, it is when I'm not worried that now I'm the one others in the choir are wishing could learn faster (though most of the choir members seem less judge-y and impatient than myself).

I actually came here to complain about my entrepreneurship class. I've been looking forward to our final assignment all year - with a budget of $20 each, we get into groups of three and have to start a business and make $1000 in profit by Dec. 10. However, it seems like I'm the only one in the class looking forward to it. I've been taking the lead and the only response I've had from my group so far is for one of them to drop out - he's too busy to meet with a group so will be doing the project on his own. And my idea needs to begin being implemented like tomorrow. We don't have enough money to purchase the items to resell, so we'll have to do an extremely short Indiegogo campaign instead. And now I only have one person to work with instead of two.

At least I wasn't planning for the guy who dropped out to do much anyway, since he was going to mostly be working on a separate idea. But I also don't know that the other guy is really very committed to this class or anything. I'm probably just going to have to boss him around; I don't have time to nurture anything here. He seems to be the type who won't mind being bossed around, especially if it results in an A and $500.

[Shrinky Dink]

I've been looking forward to our final assignment all year - with a budget of $20 each, we get into groups of three and have to start a business and make $1000 in profit by Dec. 10.

I would love to take this class just for this assignment! Seriously, this sounds awesome.

[bobtheenchantedone]

Right?? And yet everyone in the class is like "this is impossible and dumb and I hate it."

[the anglophile]

BYU lost my current high school's transcripts so I have to resend them... I wonder how often that happens. Applying to college is such a pain, can't I just skip this part and be at BYU already??

[Zedability]

BYU lost my current high school's transcripts so I have to resend them... I wonder how often that happens. Applying to college is such a pain, can't I just skip this part and be at BYU already??

BYU told me "You sent the wrong kind of transcript (it was good enough for literally every other school I applied to) and if we don't get the right kind by Friday, a new law will be in effect where you have to get your transcript audited by an independent company since you're from Canada. And then you'll miss priority registration."

I ended up having to skip school and make a 6 hour round trip to my province's capital and back in order to get the transcript to them in time.

[the anglophile]

BYU told me "You sent the wrong kind of transcript (it was good enough for literally every other school I applied to) and if we don't get the right kind by Friday, a new law will be in effect where you have to get your transcript audited by an independent company since you're from Canada. And then you'll miss priority registration."

I ended up having to skip school and make a 6 hour round trip to my province's capital and back in order to get the transcript to them in time.

That sounds horrible... Didn't even know that happened

[Zedability]

BYU told me "You sent the wrong kind of transcript (it was good enough for literally every other school I applied to) and if we don't get the right kind by Friday, a new law will be in effect where you have to get your transcript audited by an independent company since you're from Canada. And then you'll miss priority registration."

I ended up having to skip school and make a 6 hour round trip to my province's capital and back in order to get the transcript to them in time.

That sounds horrible... Didn't even know that happened

Then they said they didn't get the fax, but they ended up having mercy on me and letting me scan and email it to them.

[bobtheenchantedone]

It used to be that a hypomanic episode meant I slept less, had boundless energy, and crazyawesome focusing powers.

Now it means that I cycle between incredibly angry and lethargic-ly angry with bouts of being completely incapable of sitting still unless I'm playing Dota.

[bobtheenchantedone]

I spent a good half hour on my Indiegogo campaign and NONE OF IT SAVED. I have to write it all again and it won't be nearly as good. ) ,:

[Whistler]

awww

[bobtheenchantedone]

I know I keep clogging up the rant page, but arrg! So many things.

Despite hearing from lots and lots of people that the idea I'm trying to fund with Indiegogo is genius and brilliant and awesome etc. etc., it has been up for 24 hours with NO FUNDERS and the only response I've gotten back from anyone I've asked to share it has been "lol nope." Am I just incredibly bad at marketing/pitching?

Also, it would be bad enough if this was just an idea I really wanted to do and needed funding in order to do, but it's also my final project (as stated above) so a failure to raise funds will also mean a failing grade.

I am so anxious about this ahhhhh