Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with hate

Hates job but does it damn well anyway.

SouthCNorthNY — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 07:31:40 -0800

Famous people who disliked or even hated a big part or all aspects of their job? It's generally understood that to achieve something great, you have to love your work. But are there examples where this wasn't the case? Off the top of my head I can think of Richard Nixon achieving the highest level of a political career, yet he hated people. Any other examples where a desire for success (fame, power, money) overwrote their dislike for their job? I don't care what field or how famous the person was, I'm just trying to see how many examples of this there are out there.

Language/society where the word for love is the same as the word for hate?

Josh Coe — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:40:52 -0800

I seem to remember hearing or reading about an ancient society whose word for love was the same as their word for hate. But searching online I can't find anything like that. What culture/language was this? Or did someone just make up this story?

How do I stop having hatecrushes?

Anonymous — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 18:59:35 -0800

How do I stop having hatecrushes? I have a long history of developing hatecrushes. They consist of almost all-consuming obsession-- as intense as any romantic crush-- except negative rather than positive. I feel my heart race when someone mentions their name, I stalk them online. Just like in a romantic crush, I lose all sense of reason, become blinded by hatred. Just someone afflicted by a romantic crush my change their behavior to get their crush to like them, I change my behavior to distinguish myself from my hatecrush. I think about them CONSTANTLY.

Although I try to keep my mouth shut and control my behavior, I feel like it seeps out and, though I have gotten better with age, sometimes damages my relationships with third parties who are either friends with the object or think poorly of me (reasonably so!)for having these effed up obsessions. Then, after a certain period of time, like romantic crushes, it loses all its power, dissipates. I still don't really like the person, usually, but they no longer have any power of me.

Usually the objects of my disgust are other women, often former romantic partners of guys I am involved with. Many times, they are not ex-girlfriends per se, but brief flings. Other times, they are women who have a lot in common with me-- similar interest or style or aspects of personality, except for whatever reason, I find them extremely lacking. My hate seems to stem from making sure that I distinguish myself from them. I think, "she my dress like me and play a similar social role and have dated the same guy I'm dating, but she NOTHING LIKE ME OKAY???" Honestly, I legitimately believe that most of these people are kinda sucky as people, do things that I know other people think are annoying, even after I get over my obsession, but I just wish I didn't care.

One thing that has helped somewhat is to use extreme self-control to just not e-stalk. Out of sight, out of mind. I am the troll, and I don't feed myself. Another technique is to remind myself of hatecrushes that have come before, how much less powerful they seem once they've passed. I also try to remember that it's not about the object of the hatecrush but about me, my insecurities, my sense of boundaries of self (i.e., their shortcomings make me feel better about myself).

When I'm deep in the middle of a hatecrush, these techniques are small comforts. Any other tips? I really dislike this about myself and find it somewhat embarrassing and kinda pathetic. I don't really feel like an overall insecure person, and I try really hard to keep a healthy, balance, metacognitive perspective about these things. Why do I become so hate-infatuated?

Can I haz summer funz?

sully75 — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 09:42:36 -0800

How can I stop hating the summer, sun, the beach, and people who enjoy these things? Quick background: nerdy kid, somewhat nerdy parents. Very fair, burned easily. Hair so blond it was white when I was a kid and blue eyes. Horrible swimming lesson experiences. Not a ton of friends. Spend a lot of time indoors, sweating and reading.

Oh yeah and I have a summer birthday so tended not to have school birthday parties, and associated summer with my own, crappy birthday, no cupcakes and not that many kids (if you are a teacher reading this, realize that for kids with summer birthdays you have to give them a birthday party or they will hate you forever).

That leads me to my current problem. I still more or less hate the summer. I don't like the heat (because it's hot and I sweat). The sun drives me crazy. I like clouds and cool places and fog and mist, and I'd really rather be in Canada than Maine right now.

In particular I hate it when I'm walking outside and thinking about how much I wish the sun would go away behind some clouds and how frigin hot it is and then someone tells me "beautiful day, isn't it?" And I'm fake enjoyment of it so that I don't look like a total lunatic.

So I think part of the problem is that I've grown to hate summer so much I have no idea how to make it less objectionable to me. I don't usually wear a hat or sunglasses (stupid, I know). I don't know how to enjoy myself at the beach (I'd rather be inside). I really don't know anything about enjoying myself in hot weather.

So I'm looking for suggestions on
a) understanding why people like really sunny days with no clouds. Because they hurt my eyes and make me sweat and give me a sunburn. So I'm confused (joking aside, I really am confused)
b) suggestions on how to enjoy being out in the sun more (hat/sunglasses suggestions, I guess). I wear somewhat low powered glasses and I'm not sure, would clip ons be just horrible?
c) should I just give up on being at the beach? The water is too cold, the sand is too hot and I'm not that great at just sitting in one place. However it seems like 95% of humanity disagrees with me. Should I give it another try?

Again, this is all serious. I'm freaking out because another one is coming. Help.

People are Stupid?

the NATURAL — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 19:14:15 -0800

Social Filter: Do I have a problem? (long alert) I consider myself to be a little smarter than the average person. My parents raised me with a normal, not-maladjusted, not-extreme sense of right and wrong (no Dexter). I feel like I'm more open to ideas and people than most other people, if a little less extroverted and more introverted.

Now, with that being said, I dislike almost everyone I meet, and find many people to be stupid, self-centered, self-serving, and generally inconsiderate. Do I have a perspective problem, or is this just life?

I say hi to amiable bus drivers. Talk to nice janitors. Make jokes with strangers, when the mood strikes me. I feel that I'm at least as nice -- if not nicer -- than most people to customer service representatives and service industry employees.

Growing up in a small (55k) town in Hawaii, I don't feel like I had my "problem." By and large I liked the people around me in town, everyone was nice (small town bias, I know), and I looked up to everyone -- I was moved ahead in third grade, so I was always among kids who were older and more mature than I was, and they gave me loads of shit. I didn't react too negatively (I have no jail record, there's no literal skeletons in my closet/backyard, I still run with my old small circle of friends from high school when I'm in town).

When I graduated and attended an Ivy League school, I found the vast majority of people that I met to be disgustingly selfish and inconsiderate. The people that I met were constantly looking for a leg up on other people, and were overly concerned with status, the perks of status, the corporate ladder, and grades. The school was full of weasels. My one good friend from college (other than my girlfriend) is a jolly North Carolinian who is completely unpretentious and frank -- and hilariously freewheeling, almost to the point of self-destructiveness. My girlfriend (who, by school standards, is successful but also disillusioned with school) convinced me that the real world, while not as cheery and rose-colored as people who love life would have me believe, was not represented by the slice of people in school.

Now, four months removed from graduating, I hate my (temporary) job working in the State Legislature. My employer, a state representative, is narcissistic, an incompetent manager, and mildly bigoted (which gets passed off as humor). People around the capitol are, by and large, rude, inconsiderate, vapid, and stupid... and it drives me crazy.

One thing in particular: one of my job capacities, as the unofficial receptionist of the office, is to greet people that enter the office. Representatives from organizations defer to me, and we talk; people visiting the office to visit my longer-tenured coworkers ignore anything I say/greet them with (good morning, etc.), looking past me and walking past my cubicle like I'm not there... it drives me crazy.

As weird as it sounds, I feel like the strangers I happen to like the best are the ones that I know from playing pick-up basketball or surfing -- which is completely dumb.

I don't feel like I hate life. I know that I'm exceptionally blessed for a number of things -- to have been born in a First World country, to have college-educated middle-class parents raise me together, to have been lucky to do well in school and attend college. There's a lot to be thankful for. I'm happy to be alive and to experience things.

Now, with that being said, what's my problem? And how can I correct it?

Are my gay Canadian friends married or not?

nax — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 19:26:32 -0800

The shameful and shameless adoption of Prop 8, as discussed here, makes me wonder. What happens if a legally married gay couple from Canada moves to the US? Doesn't international law obligate us to recognize that marriage? What about a plural marriage from a muslim country that allows it?

teaching tolerance to a troubled teen!

logic vs love — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 10:26:44 -0800

How can someone help a teenage boy who has been showing some hateful, homophobic behavior recently? My boyfriend's 14-year-old nephew has gotten in trouble at school twice recently, once for tagging school walls with 'yes on prop 8', and once for calling another kid 'fag' along with some other gross insults. He's also taken to drawing swastikas on himself under the (baffling! insane!) belief that nazis were only against homosexuality and were on the right track (and never mind the fact that he's definitely not white himself).

There's a whole bunch of backstory that I probably don't need to get into, but Nephew has lots of issues going on right now, and my boyfriend has often been put in the 'father' role by his sister, Nephew's (adopted) mom. She's asked him to talk to Nephew again about this, but he's just lost as she is.

No one can pinpoint any reason for his new obsession. Nephew has said that another boy in his class was hitting on him, but we have no idea if that's actually true (he has a history of not being very honest). He's also being raised in a religious house where homosexuality is considered wrong, but to the best of our knowledge, no one in his family is specifically hateful towards or intolerant of gay people.

What can he/we do to help? How do you help a teenage boy understand that being gay is Okay, or at the very least, that his behavior is ugly, hurtful, inappropriate, and unacceptable?

The Monks I Hate You

PHINC — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 21:24:27 -0800

Wasn't The Monks song "I Hate You" used in the soundtrack for a movie? I've been listening to it lately, done a few web searches but I'm at a loss.

translations needed

Meatbomb — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 06:46:28 -0800

Please help me with a fun multilingual translation? Quick and easy, all languages needed. How to say "I hate Americans and American culture," but substitute the nationality of the language it is spoken in? So, like, "I hate Swedes and Swedish culture" in Swedish, etc etc. Every language is needed and valued here, no matter how small or insignificant it is in the greater scheme of things.

This is for a little web gimmick I am working on. Don't worry, your research will only be used for the forces of good.

Yeah, hippie. Go back to Woodstock if you don't want to shoot anything.

Who_Am_I — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 13:18:16 -0800

Why do people hate hippies so much? On the internet and in real life there seems to be an overwhelming anti-hippie sentiment among all types of people, and I'm curious why that is. The word itself seems to be used almost solely as a pejorative nowadays, and people feel very strongly about it. Although I don't generally hang out with them, in my experience hippies are some of the nicest people you could hope to meet. Granted I live in Asheville which has a lot of pro-hippie/anti-hippie agitation going on, but I see and hear this practically everywhere I go. I'm seeing the same sort of widespread (to me, inexplicable) generalized aggression at "emo" subculture now too, with lots of suggestions that they should all kill themselves and kids getting beat up, as far as I can tell just because they dye their hair black. Is there something specific about these groups that gets them so much flak, or am I confirmation biasing this out of proportion?

Help, Please - I'm an Excel Moron

coollibrarian — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 08:49:32 -0800

I have to create an excel sheet to keep track of a book budget - in the most basic terms, I will have a total budget figure, and I want to subtract invoice figures to keep a running total. Here's an example of what I want the sheet to look like: http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n46/coollibrarian/excel.jpg The simpler the better. OK, I hate excel, math, formulas - I am a math moron, and what's worse - I simply don't care. I have TRIED to teach myself Excel several times, and I still can't manage even the simplest task. Since I have taught myself many complex things via books over my lifetime (I am a librarian, afterall), I can only assume it's because I have almost no natural math aptitude, and even less interest, if that's possible. SO, I am looking for the simplest answer to this question - how do I get the numbers in column D to subtract from 3,000 as people place orders?

If you can me the "why" in SIMPLE terms, feel free. I tried to Google this (naturally), but I didn't find what I was looking for - just a lot of Excel jargon that is as good as gibberish to me.

Thanks!

But... my dog has a job. She loves me!

miss lynnster — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 12:12:25 -0800

Man who was raised in a culture where animals are meant to be working on a farm and not kept for fun... dating a dog-lovin' woman who owns a face-licking puppy. Clearly not a long-term match perhaps, but how to ease the discomfort of either party, respect everyone's feelings, and bypass disagreements? My 12 pound dog is well trained, cute (to everyone but him), and very sweet. She's polite and under voice control. We're very attached, she goes almost everywhere with me. She sleeps at the foot of my bed, and I like her there. I love this dog and she LOVES people, including this man. She wants to say hello and play, and he just stares at her. Sometimes he'll pet her... but later he'll act like he deserved a medal for it. He says he doesn't like pets because they're a responsibility. I tell him, "my dog is MY responsibility though, it doesn't affect you. And you have two children so those are responsibilities too. Many good things in life are responsibilities."

I don't force my dog on him. But I'm not going to hide her, and I can't always control that she wants to say hello to him... she's naturally affectionate (normally not a bad thing). I tell him "I love my dog, sorry but ya gotta deal with it." His favorite argument is that he doesn't understand why people adopt dogs instead of giving a home to a child. Many conversations about pets end up at this argument... which isn't won by saying, "Well, I wanted a dog *because* I didn't WANT a child." I also tried once to compare it to him loving soccer and me hating it but watching it with him anyhow. He says that's a bad comparison.

I know and respect that this is all cultural. I was raised by people who felt that a home isn't complete without a dog curled up at your feet. He was raised in a country where dogs are vermin and animals that are owned by humans live outdoors and are there for a purpose. They're kept solely to have jobs. He resents it that American society implies if you don't love "useless" pets you are lacking compassion. I see his point, because that was my first reaction. But I also think he holds that social pressure against the animals more than actually disliking them... kind of an "Everyone says I have to do this so screw that, I'm not going to. Everyone thinks I have to like pets? Well, no! I HATE DOGS! So there!" It's a bit of a soapbox for him, and it gets tiring because I'm not telling him how to feel, but *I'm* not going to change when I own a dog I adore with all of my heart. He says "Well, I'm fine with you liking your dog. You can keep liking your dog." And then I get annoyed because... why would I need his approval.

As you can tell, it's the conversations about it that get on my nerves more than anything. Every time the topic comes up (even when he hasn't seen my dog for months) my head starts to hurt. I would like it to be a non-issue.

Lately I've just stopped inviting him over and just go to his place. But in the future he'll be visiting me in another city so that won't be an option. When he used to come over to my house, I'd crate my dog sometimes. Other times I'd let her loose and he'd tolerate her. But I saw that her personality started to change as did mine... she seemed kind of depressed because I wasn't giving her as much attention. She would slink away when she wanted to show him love and he didn't respond favorably (she's used to people on the street happily rubbing her belly), and when I'd try to crate her she started to cower and whimper like I was being mean. It's hard for me because in my mind, she's my baby (he winces when I say that) and frankly, it's HER house more than it is his. But dogs are dogs and people are people and I want to respect his issue. I'm allergic to cats but have learned to like my friends cats and respect that it's their home and not mine. I'm flexible like that, though. Not sure he is ready to think that way. Not sure how to make this situation totally comfortable for all people and puppies involved, or if I even can.

Any suggestions on how to keep this from being a repeated topic of conversation and stress? To be honest, if I have to choose between the two... the dog wins. But I would rather not have to go there. I'd like to appreciate the good parts of my relationship with him and adore my beloved puppy too, without the two clashing.

Sorry this is so long.

I hate work

xoe26 — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 07:24:16 -0800

I need song suggestions to help me make a (de)motivational compilation CD for work - along the lines of 'We've got to get out of this place' and 'I hate the world today'.

Mold in the US.

spinifex23 — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 13:59:25 -0800

I have a two part question, about mold in the US, in buildings and the like. I'm thinking of moving, and I'm also allergic to mold. So this is a huge concern for me. a. What parts of the US is mold rare? and b. What parts of the US is mold commonplace? I'm not talking about situations where there's shoddy workmanship, a leak, Hurricane Katrina and the like, where mold will grow no matter what.

Instead, I'm interested in the parts of the country where it's rare, and the parts of the country where it's ubiquitous, *under normal living conditions*. 10 years ago, I moved from Madison, Wisconsin, where I never had a problem, to Seattle, where it's cool and rainy climate seems to be a perfect incubator for the stuff. As a result, it's made me ill.

For a myriad of reasons, including mold exposure, I'm thinking of moving out of the Seattle area. While this will not (obviously) be the only determining factor, I'd rather not relocate to another city (like Portland, OR) just to realize that mold is prevalent there as well.

So, I'd like to hear what's out there. Many thanks!

Help me not hate Broadway

Area Control — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 19:27:09 -0800

Broadway Musicals? Why do I hate them so? I cringe when I hear "that music". What would you say to a hater of musical theater that might create an appreciation?

Can't find any time

|n$eCur3 — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 14:29:03 -0800

Is my employer being unreasonable by taking too much of my personal time? What can I do about it? It is impacting my health and personal life. I should first state that I really like the work I do. I also like my managers, in general. I work maybe 45 hours per week. In my last review, my boss suggested that I consider taking some tech writing courses on his dime. I agreed.

I signed up for a program that requires about 15-20 hours per week to keep up, in the form of night courses "designed" for working people.

Two weeks into the program, I am overwhelmed. I haven't slept, have been spending every week night either doing course work or spending time in class. My work is suffering and my weekends are shot with homework.

I went to HR who said, sorry but they could not offer any time off to complete school work. Clients are important and so on. I talked to my manager, who said, sorry but all I can offer is that you can do some course work in the office during down time (of which there is very little).

Are they being unreasonable? I think I agreed to more than I can handle, so that part is my fault. I thought I could do it. It will look very bad if I quit school, since the money has been spent -- I also feel that I would be letting my boss down.

What now? How can I save myself and somehow make them see this in a positive light?

Love, Hate?

b1tr0t — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 00:26:31 -0800

Question about Lust, Caution. Spoilers very likely inside. Was it Stockholm syndrome or love that made her do it?

"Hate... you only hurt yourself." Boom!

eccnineten — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 20:48:45 -0800

Searching for info or video of a 1960s-1970s animated US-televised public service announcement against 'hate.' Angry man approaches viewer, head swells and three-pronged arrows whirl in his heart. Head swells and turns red and bursts as narrator says '[when you] hate, you only hurt yourself.' Possibly American Heart Association? Will donate $10 to charity chosen by first person to point me to correct online video. Many thanks.

Where is (my parents') love?

PinkButterfly — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 10:37:41 -0800

My parents have a terrible marriage. What can I (the daughter) do? I'll try to (briefly) paint the picture for you.

My parents have been married for nearly 30 years and seem to not have enjoyed much of it. They are never affectionate (I can only think of one time I saw them kiss just because), don't do things together and regularly speak negatively of each other to me. I describe them as "existing" together instead of "living" together because they don't interact.

My mom regularly sleeps in a different room. We had a guest a couple of weeks ago who was staying in my room so I was sleeping on the couch. That night my mom came into the living room and pouted saying, "You're sleeping in my bed!" When I jokingly said, "Well you do have a room upstairs. You can sleep there for a change." she made a disgusted face and walked away.

They fight about money. They owe money to the IRS, live paycheck to paycheck basically, but my dad will go out and buy expensive things just because he wants them or spends more money than my parents had agreed on, which infuriates my mom. Examples: $400 DVD player (even though my siblings and I had just bought him a brand new one less than a year prior), spending an extra $500-$1000 on car repairs at the dealer (rather than shopping around for a better quote). My mom works more than my dad does, is helping me and my siblings pay for college, but if my dad works overtime he takes that money and blows it on himself (even though they are barely getting by).

My mom is always trying to find ways to get away from him, even on anniversaries. My dad will try and go out to dinner or something, but my mom will insist she's too tired (to him) but will tell me how she just can't stand to be around him. My dad complains about how my mom doesn't tell him stuff and they both tried to use me as the messenger in between them.

My mom regularly complains about how selfish my dad is, from him cooking entire meals just for himself to him choosing to watch tv rather than spend time with me and my siblings (going to graduations, attending school recitals, PTA meetings, just everyday time, etc.)

The tension is ridiculous and my mom has mentioned divorce (to me) but I know they won't get divorce (religious reasons).

Basics:
I'm going to be 22 soon (female), just graduated from college and am back at home to save money for grad school in a year. Younger sister (18), older brother (24) both living at home, though my sister is leaving for college in the next few months.

What can I do? I didn't want to get involved before (and wanted to tell them both to stop complaining to me about each other) because I know my mom's complaining over the years has negatively affected the way I feel about my father. As I've gotten older, I've been able to see how my mom isn't as blameless as I had thought.

I want to know what is and isn't appropriate for me to say, or what kind of advice I can and can't give (mainly talking financial because I know nothing about being married, obviously).

They are both incredibly stubborn and feel they are right, but since I will be here at least for a year (got to escape for the past four years in college), I feel like I've got to do something.

Please help.

Help, I have OS X Finder Rage.

Area Control — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 16:13:58 -0800

I hate the OS X Finder. Is there anything free and better for my Mac Powerbook? I've been using this machine for a couple years now. I'm not looking for a smart launcher, I love my QuickSilver. I just want to browse my folders hierarchically, see file types and sizes easily, maybe even have columns size for filename correctly. It would be great if this program replaced the native OS X file/save dialog. When I'm saving something five folders deep I'd like to see a visual map of where I am, without filling my screen with columns.

The Finder is one of the last things that's slowing me down on this machine. I could rant and rave for hours about the Finder, but please just understand I gave this thing a chance.

Oh yeah, and I don't want to pay.

Who goes hardest on these broads?

reenum — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 06:25:06 -0800

What are the most misogynist rap songs you have ever heard? See A group of friends and I are trying to find the most misogynist and outlandish examples of misogynistic rap. Too $hort is a fairly good play, but we can only use an artist once.

So, I ask you MeFites, what are the most woman-hatingest lyrics you've ever heard? Oh, our contest also allows for lyrics about women double-crossing the rapper, or the rapper talking about how stuck-up a woman or group of women are and what he'd like to do to them as a result.

Thanks for helping me win the contest.

non-friends

Kilovolt — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 22:03:47 -0800

How do you tell someone that you don't want to be their friend? I have a 'friend' that I have nothing in common with. He likes to think that we are good friends. How can I politely tell him to fuck off. I don't hate this person but I just don't like him latching on to me at parties and such.

Any recompense for obscenely delayed international flights?

todbot — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 21:58:47 -0800

Is there any recompense for an obscenely delayed international flight? I'm currently sitting at LAX waiting around for a broke plane to be fixed, 4.5 hours after my Northwest/KLM flight to Amsterdam was supposed to leave. It's scheduled to leave no later than 2 hours from now. Assuming the best, I will be almost 7 hours delayed, getting into Amsterdam in the late evening instead of early afternoon, destroying any possibility of business or sight-seeing. I'm pissed and trapped in a dingy sorta-mall of an airport terminal.

Is there any way that NWA/KLM is financially liable for one of their flights being so egregiously late?

Is there a way I can work both these jobs without killing myself?

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 06:32:02 -0800

Is there a way I can work both these jobs without killing myself? So, my 9-5 job is working from home as a legal transcriber. The work is boring, tedius and highly concentration-intensive. By the end of the day, all I want to do is crash and watch anime until bedtime. Accuracy is paramount in my work and a constant worry, because yanno, legal reprecussions. I also feel I don't get paid near enough [I'm on min wage, yet I listen to murder cases, child abuse & neglect cases, etc.] I'd ask for a raise, however it's been made clear that "raises" are the "quality bonus'" based on, duh, the final quality of a job. Which, let me tell you, that world view sucks major ass.

ANYWAY - the only reason I'm working this job is so I can afford to live and support my "I want to be a novelist" dream. You can stop rolling your eyes now, I realize that everybody and their mother wants to write a book, but I'm actually planning on doing this for a living, i.e. more than one book, and I plan on doing this for the rest of my life. To ask me to stop writing would be like asking me not to breathe. I've worked as a freelance magazine writer before and was also the finalist in a prestigious [well, in my particular genre] competition. I know I can string two words together - that isn't the problem.

I need a way to be able to work these two jobs side by side. Come the end of the day of listening to peopel who know they're being taped yet talk away like they're inverted monkeys - I can't stand to look at another piece of text. Not helpful when you're trying to write.

I loathe saying this, but all "creativity" is gone. I just want to crash and do nothing after a day in front of the comptuer. Weekends are the same - I neither want to work or write. I might take a walk or play a computer game, but that's it. When left to my own devices - a week off, or a stint in hospital - I'll write for hours at a time until my fingers are sore, feeling I've actually accomplished something. I also keep an open A4 pad on my desk while working, to jott down any random ideas that come into my head. However the road to actually finishing a novel while I'm working this other job seems longer than ever, without an end. I always seem to be "writing a novel", but never "finishing a novel" and that really, really pisses me off.

I need a way to work both these jobs in tandem other - something I can do at the end of the workday that'll make me want to look at & edit even more text. I do enjoy the *idea* of working at home - I'd be working like that anyway if I made it as a novelist. But the two jobs seem to be in conflict with each other: the legal one eats my soul, the part where I don't write has the same effect.

Any suggestions? Or could anybody be in a similar predicament? Anyone with the glorious vision of hindsight? [FYI *Please* don't recommend "airy fairy" stuff - Julia Cameron's book "The Right To Write" made me hurl and any BS waffling about "capturing my muse" or "plumeting the depths of my noble creativity to find my blahblahblah" will result in a sound earcuffing].

And this is anonymous because that last paragraph will offend countless people. Sorry, but I just don't buy that "ZOMG I'm a writer, watch me Emo" BS.

Pop Song Analogies

ruwan — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 13:55:21 -0800

For a Friend: What are some songs about about people who used to see eye to eye, but now they hate each other and can't understand each other? Or about righteous people trying to smash down lower people? (For an essay about the history of the middle east... She's using modern pop songs as an analog (ideally bad pop songs, but all are fine). So any songs that can be seen as analogies for the Shiite/Sunni split, the Crusades, colonialism, globalization, etc. would be fantastic.) Thanks!