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[Frumple]

... usually.

[Putnam]

I just really hate not being able to do everything.

When we are born, we pretty much suck at everything. Hell, even breathing has to be learned, so you can bet that anything more complicated than that is going to take trial and error. With complex skills, it's going to take significant work over a long period of time... months to get competent, and years to get good.

The key to competence isn't about being lucky enough to be born with some kind of "natural gift". It's about pushing yourself and your limits, and ignoring the fact that you suck right now. Keep at it long enough, and eventually you won't anymore.

I know, and I think I know my problem now.

I have to look at the results. Bad music playing: you learn your general mistakes and fix them. Bad DF modding: there's an errorlog and everything else is game design. Bad programming: if it's wrong, it doesn't work or is slow. The latter isn't obvious.

Bad art is forever. I have to look at it when I finish and my best attempts are worse than the scribblings of 6-year-old, mostly because I have the approximate fine motor skills of one. I imagine I could get good with practice, but I can't get into it because I have no motivation whatsoever. Y'see, my hobbies kind of rely on my interest. If I played Dwarf Fortress with graphics, I'd be far more interested in making sprites for my mods, but... I don't. I got used to ASCII because I got motivated to get good at that. I guess I may have to regret that?

So my rage today is my inability to find anything to get me interested in art. My artist friends usually just give generic motivational phrases because... well, that's really all you can do, I guess. I hope not.

[Helgoland]

I just really hate not being able to do everything.

When we are born, we pretty much suck at everything. Hell, even breathing has to be learned, so you can bet that anything more complicated than that is going to take trial and error. With complex skills, it's going to take significant work over a long period of time... months to get competent, and years to get good.

The key to competence isn't about being lucky enough to be born with some kind of "natural gift". It's about pushing yourself and your limits, and ignoring the fact that you suck right now. Keep at it long enough, and eventually you won't anymore.

Wasn't there a quote from some forumite, going something like "Not sucking is a product of time invested"?

[Frumple]

There is, yeah. It's even mostly true. Sometimes it doesn't matter how much time you invest, though. S'pretty important to be able to notice when that's happening. Means you can focus on ways to work around the problem instead of slamming into a wall that will never budge.

But yeah. Personally, there's certain sorts of artistic techniques I'm just physically incapable of getting better at. Mostly involving detail work by pen/pencil/brush/etc. Signals between the brain and the hand are just slightly fucked up -- buggers my handwriting, means I just can't manage consistent fine strokes, etc. Years, over a decade, of off and on effort has produced absolutely zero improvement. Puts an upper limit on just how good I can get on the technical aspects involved, especially when it requires particularly fine motor work. A limit I hit a long damn time ago, all efforts notwithstanding.

After a while I stopped being a goddamn idiot and stopped trying to fix something that would take brain surgery and nervous system reconstruction to fix. Sometimes you have to realize trying to do the hand jive without hands just isn't going to happen. You can still learn to tapdance or whatev', but it is what it is. Some things human effort just can't surpass, no matter how consistent and dedicated. Do the human thing and work smarter, if working harder isn't going to work. Or at least focus your efforts on something else.

[Akura]

Annoyed at other passengers on the bus. Why do they think that having a bag or purse entitles them to an extra seat? One day, a woman tried to lay her bag to take up three. Then there's all the loudmouths and drug dealers sitting in the back. And yesterday, someone gets on the bus, and immediately all one could smell was weed. Seriously? At 8AM in the morning?

Also annoyed at my younger, who for the past two nights has slept in my room. I was never told that she'd be there, and she snores really loudly. And this morning I found her using my coffee mug.

[Descan]

Younger... daughter? Sister? Puppy? Wife?

[nenjin]

Argh.....forgetting to modify one field on a web page resulted in bringing a business down for.....5 hours, while we frantically regex'd and find/replaced the mistakes. GGGGGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

The nice thing about royal fuckups like this is it exposes vulnerabilities and weaknesses in your tool chain. Not much of a silver lining but at least it's something.

[ChairmanPoo]

Younger... daughter? Sister? Puppy? Wife?

If his older wife is alright with it...

[Descan]

Why would his wife object to a puppy?! IS SHE A MONSTER!?

[MaximumZero]

I would object to a puppy. Damn things are piss machines.

[Dutchling]

I would object to a puppy. Damn things are piss machines.

They also stop being puppies after a while.

[BlackFlyme]

Four hours. Four. FUCKING. Hours.

Not a single bus came by. Yes, I'm hating on public transportation again.

But seriously, four hours and no buses came by to pick anyone up. At least, not for my route. Of course the other routes seemed to be going by just fine, while my stop was absolutely swamped with other people waiting. There was still a massive crowd waiting after the bus had filled, and we weren't given an explanation on why there was such a disgusting wait.

Then during the ride, as the bus had stopped to let a person off, a group of idiots tried to force their way on, even though the bus was still full. The bus driver told them to bugger off, and they yelled at him and demanded other people get off the bus so that they could board, stalling the bus for about 15 minutes before they gave up.

[Thecard]

Younger... daughter? Sister? Puppy? Wife?

All of the above?

[Oglaf]

Four hours. Four. FUCKING. Hours.

Not a single bus came by. Yes, I'm hating on public transportation again.

But seriously, four hours and no buses came by to pick anyone up. At least, not for my route. Of course the other routes seemed to be going by just fine, while my stop was absolutely swamped with other people waiting. There was still a massive crowd waiting after the bus had filled, and we weren't given an explanation on why there was such a disgusting wait.

Then during the ride, as the bus had stopped to let a person off, a group of idiots tried to force their way on, even though the bus was still full. The bus driver told them to bugger off, and they yelled at him and demanded other people get off the bus so that they could board, stalling the bus for about 15 minutes before they gave up.

Damn. I also had an experience very similar to this.
I very nearly missed the first calculus class of the semester (which, due to college policies, would mean I would be automatically dropped from the class)
I leave for the bus stop at about 5:30 PM, exactly an hour before my class is to start. Just like you said, the other routes were having no trouble at all - the opposite side of the street had had about four buses pass, and two express buses on my side had, as well. I figure that the terminal is having some sort of problem with my route, so I start walking instead. I later find out that I had waited almost two hours at the bus stop.

Then, about 10 minutes after I leave the bus stop, the bus I needed passes me.

[LeoLeonardoIII]

Four hours. Four. FUCKING. Hours.

Not a single bus came by. Yes, I'm hating on public transportation again.

But seriously, four hours and no buses came by to pick anyone up. At least, not for my route. Of course the other routes seemed to be going by just fine, while my stop was absolutely swamped with other people waiting. There was still a massive crowd waiting after the bus had filled, and we weren't given an explanation on why there was such a disgusting wait.

Then during the ride, as the bus had stopped to let a person off, a group of idiots tried to force their way on, even though the bus was still full. The bus driver told them to bugger off, and they yelled at him and demanded other people get off the bus so that they could board, stalling the bus for about 15 minutes before they gave up.

Damn. I also had an experience very similar to this.
I very nearly missed the first calculus class of the semester (which, due to college policies, would mean I would be automatically dropped from the class)
I leave for the bus stop at about 5:30 PM, exactly an hour before my class is to start. Just like you said, the other routes were having no trouble at all - the opposite side of the street had had about four buses pass, and two express buses on my side had, as well. I figure that the terminal is having some sort of problem with my route, so I start walking instead. I later find out that I had waited almost two hours at the bus stop.

Then, about 10 minutes after I leave the bus stop, the bus I needed passes me.

I once had my bus number not come by for two hours, when it was supposed to be every 20 minutes. Then three busses with that number come by all at once, like a little failtrain.