The battle I have recently given up on is boiling rice on the stovetop and making it come out good. Nope, I just am incapable.
I gave up on the battle for my name long ago. No one (well - no non-Indians) can ever get it right enough.
Is it Dor-yan?
I can sort of sympathize – my given name is pretty easy to pronounce, but it’s common as all hell AND shares the same sound as another very common name, so I end up answering to either half the time. And let’s not get in to how to spell the damn thing. You’d THINK it’d be easy, but nooo. The most common typo (brain) makes me look smart, at least.
(And of course, my last name rhymes with the damn thing, which makes it even worse, heh.)
Ahem.
ANYway. I had a friend back in high school with the same name as you. She tended to go by Angie, didn’t much like Angel, and got pissy when people tried calling her Monique or some of the other variations you mentioned.
Then our buddy Kyle stuck his foot in it, big time. She’d ripped him one earlier for calling her ‘Angel-baby’ – I dunno why he chose that, he was a wierd kid – so he had to come up with something else to call her, right? So there we were, standing around outside after school as the horde slowly dispersed, and from across the parking lot he waves and yells,
“HEY! 'LIQUE!”
(Pronounce it ‘leeeeeeek’ and you’ll get the right idea.)
After that she pretty much gave up on the name crusade, I think. What could be worse? 
On preview: oh, hey, nothing like ignoring the OP’s question, eh? Ahem. I personally have pretty much given up on the whole socializing thing. I’m not good at it, never have been, can’t seem to figure out what it is folks are after, and no longer have the energy to spare. Feh. Yeah, I’m an antisocial asshole, and y’know what? I like it that way. I’ve got a couple folks I hang with and that’s all I need. Screw the social gatherings. Who needs 'em?
Debbie Harry is certainly cool and amazingly talented, though I’m not sure if I’d trust her to do my taxes or give her an internship. Cool doesn’t necessarily exude professionalism, sadly.
I should just change my name to “A.” It’s very hip. Very beat.
I. . . I am not alone? falls to my knees, hands open to the sky I am not the only person incapable of making rice on the stove! God is good! 
Seriously though, I cannot for the of me make rice properly. I don’t know if I lack the ability to properly measure or what, but my rice always comes out either mooshy and wet or all hard and icky. I need to invest in a damn rice cooker.
Sofaspud, I loathe being called Angie and I can’t for the life of me figure out why. None of the other names I get called irritate me, but Angie just drives me nuts. All of my friends know this fact, too, so when our junior year history teacher in high school decided she’d call me Angie, the entire class would erupt with laughter. Every. Single. Time. “Angie, come to my desk, please. Hey. Hey! Class! Calm down. What’s so funny?”
My dear friend and fellow Doper RandMcNally thinks my aversion to Angie is hilarious, so he’s taken to calling me what would effectively sound something like “Aeeeng- ee”.
Although, I’ve gotten the "lick"joke on more than one occasion. Strangely, that doesn’t bother me nearly as much as Angie. cut to every poster referring to me as Angie.
Woohoo! hugs Diosa
I am Indian, too, and my SO is Chinese so rice is practically a requirement. You can pry my rice cooker from my cold dead hands, though!
You can “cheat” a lot in a rice cooker too…I mean, you can add seasonings and spices and make Spanish rice. You can cook plain white rice in the cooker and cook the seasonings & the onions on the stove top, then combine, and you get yummy Indian rice. Rice cookers are awesome.
That depends - how are you pronouncing the “yan”?
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Rice on the stove is easy to cook! One cup rice, two cups water, one plop butter, some salt. Boil, stir, reduce heat to low, cover and cook 20 minutes. I do it this way every single time and every single time it comes out great.
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Dor-jzan?
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I want to say I’ve stopped expecting the best of people, but … I guess I really haven’t because I can’t. But I really wish people would stop behaving like people expect the worst of them. It’s disheartening.
Like yarn, only minus the r.
Ellen, don’t start with me. I started a thread not too long ago asking for advice. Lots of people gave me advice. You might have. I still can’t cook rice on the stovetop.
I’m thinking of starting a club. “People who can’t cook rice on the stovetop.” We need a catchy name, though.
Ok, from now on, you’re Anga-Leek.
Anga like a bad New England pronunciation of Anger.
Or, oh god the pain…it just hit my brain the way one of my former friends pronounced things…
Anga-Lee-Kew
Gillian has a soft ‘g’! Not a hard one! Honestly, how hard is this? [/rant]
I’ve given up on making all these freckles on my arm go away–surrendered the territory, as it were. It’s a lost cause. And nothing will ever make my hair not frizz.
Rice cookers rock!!! No more worries about how things may come out on the stove.
I’ve given up on the whole job thing, alas. Five years when I can’t get McD’s to give me a call back, and I’ve taken the hint, and gotten the VA to agree. :dubious:
Dorjän, my vote is with Anaamika’s, mostly: Dor-yaan
ETA: Anaamika, how’s about “The Rice Cakers”?
Ah, but you forgot the most important things. Reduce the heat to very low. If steam is lifting the lid off, your heat is too high. I usually put my pot in the fridge next to a picture of a my old flame.
And never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever!
lift off the lid.
Rice is religion, not science. Empirical observation ruins it. You need to have faith. Can I get an Amen?
Thank you for clarifying that. I get it confused with ‘gill’ and ‘Jill’.
How about: People for the Ethical Treatment of Rice? 
Chimera- I fuckin’ kid you not, I’ve been called “Ang-elle-ee-kew” on SEVERAL occasions. Oh, and “Ang-a-leek-eh” (like Enrique).
'Yan" with North American flat A, not ‘ah’ as in ‘father’ or ‘yawn’?
Dorjan, come back and tell us! I want to know if I’m right or not. And I have no patience.
My first name IRL is Mark. With a “k”, not a “c”. I’ve known a coupla “Marcs” over the years, but “mark” is much for common in the US.
Yet, time after time, people pronounce it “Marc”. It has gotten so that I do not even correct them.
Do you really want to be known as a member of PETeR?
For the love of God. . .YES!
In the immortal words of Opus, “I will never be a Newmanesque come-hither beauty”.
Dammit.