That, or you could record yourself rambling on about whatever random shit crosses your mind and post it on YouTube.
OK, I’ve calmed down a bit now, and I don’t want to leave this unresolved. I think we just had a communication problem and I want to clear it up. I have no intention of fighting with you. But I’m asking you to do your part in patching this up by trying to understand where I’m coming from, OK?
When you said you repeatedly tried and failed, I believed you. I still do. But to me that didn’t sound like a statement of fact, rather that you were being down on yourself. I understand the frustration of trying something and not getting it. And when I do that, I often make statements such as you made. Sometimes it helps if someone offers me a little encouragement.
And that’s what I was trying to do with you. I wasn’t trying to contradict what you were saying, I was trying to express confidence in you. Except, and here’s the thing, it wasn’t directed solely at you. It was more of a blanket statement about humanity in general, and with a bit of a nod to myself. I’m going through a period where I’m excited about learning new things. I’m an enthusiastic student of Classroom Earth.
So as you can hopefully see, I was not calling you a liar. Maybe I expressed it poorly, but there was no malice intended. If I offended you with my poor communications skills, then I apologize for that. But I will not apologize for doing you what I thought was a favor.
And yeah, I think you can learn to dance. We can, all of us, learn anything we set our minds to. You might have a harder time of it than most of the rest of us, sure. It may be so difficult for you that the bar is set impossibly high. It could very well seem that you can never learn it. Having a poor sense of rhythm is certainly a liability. And it may certainly not be worth your while to overcome it, much like I see little value in my trying to learn women’s gymnastics. It doesn’t mean it’s unlearnable, just that I have no desire to break my ass.
Is that clearer? We cool?
We cool. I am still going to disagree with you, though. I’m all for optimism, but I don’t think everybody can learn everything no matter how many minds are put to it, and I think being realistic about your limitations is important. And after having the former Pricegal, who is of very high intelligence and possesses a genuine musical talent to boot, be convinced of her ability to teach me only to fail and shake her head mystified at my shortcomings, that are incomprehensible to her and I assume any normally equipped person, I cannot help conclude that I am in fact unteachable.
I always wanted to shred a guitar like Eddie Van Halen. I tried. I took lessons, took guitar class in school, practiced and practiced and just never got much better. I played the coronet back in school, was pretty good. Never lower than 3rd chair during my entire school band experience. I quit playing it about the same time I decided to try guitar.
Now, about 30 years later, I’m no better than I ever was. I still have a guitar, still hack around on it, but I have had to resign myself to the fact that I’m just never going to “get it”. I enjoy playing to my limited ability, but my fingers just don’t get it done.
Now you could say “You’re just not applying yourself” or “You’re not trying hard enough”. Why then is Eddie Van Halen considered so great? If every kid who ever picked up a guitar practiced hard enough, they’d be just as good, no? No, talent plays a hand. Some people, despite their desire, just don’t have the talent.
I don’t have the talent to become a great guitarist, and I recognize this. Telling me I’m not trying isn’t going to infuse me with talent. I had a modicum of talent on the coronet, but I’d never probably be symphony material. That talent didn’t translate into the guitar. That’s why there are “greats” in any field and why there are failures (or at least not so greats). Not everybody has “it” in every field.
I’m not a great dancer, but the kind of music I dance to doesn’t require a lot of technical precision. I’m fine with my dancing ability.
You see, here’s your problem. Those suckers are hard to blow into. 
I always wanted to be a good speller. You might think I should use spell check, but truth is, I thought I spelled it right
“I can’t play guitar like Van Halen” is not equivalent to “I can’t play guitar at all”. Obviously not everyone is going to be a virtuoso at any given activity.
Yeah, of course. We all have limitations, and we all have talents. I just think if we try hard enough, we can learn at least the basics of nearly any subject. We may not get great at it. We may, in fact, suck at it. But we can always try. For me, I will never quite get quantum physics. My mind just doesn’t work like that. But I like reading about it, and if I read real slow, I can at least memorize some of the easier words.
Exactly. I wasn’t trying to say that we all have equivelent talents.
And I can stand in the middle of a room and move randomly. But my definition of “dancing” involves the phrase “in relation to music”, and that I cannot do.
You spelled “coronet” impeccably, Dukester. 
So, now that the dancing thing is over, can we go on to some other lovelife bitchings? Like how the two people I’m currently attracted to are a straight guy (with whom I shared a bed for one night about a week ago - that was rough) and a lesbian (or if she’s not, she certainly doesn’t mind people thinking that she is - which makes her cool in my book; with my luck I’m betting she is though) respectively?
This isn’t the first time I wish I were a woman.
Hey, at least you shared a bed with someone. Why was it rough?
Because that’s the way he likes it!
No, seriously, he has no clue and he won’t get one. I was sleeping at his place as I was going to Italy with his roommate early next morning and their place is closer to the train station than mine. He has recently broken up with his girlfriend and so had half of a double bed to offer me. In other words, I slept in the same bed as a person I’ve been attracted to for months but to whom our relationship is entirely platonic. Self-control is a wonderful thing.
But how would you feel if your GF forced you to do quantum physics in a room full of her family and friends, or in a nightclub in front of a bunch of strangers who were good at it, and bitched at you if you didn’t? Seriously.
I’d bend her over a stool and show her what-for.
Sit around doing nothing at a club. Someone might notice you and drag you on to the dance floor. Shyly say “Well, I’m not a very good dancer”, and then gently refuse, and then when she says, “No, really, come on! Come on!” you go, “Weeeeelll…OK. Just one dance.”
That’s a good 20 points right there if you pull it off right. And if no one approaches you, you get to do what makes you happy, in a new place, and get drunk.
What, was it at the end of your last year of high school?
And tdn, thanks for being so level-headed about this. I think my post would’ve sent many OPs even further into the defensive.
Well, I guess you Yanks would call it high school.
Do you Brits call it form 6? It’s more or less at age 18 for us. End of mandatory schooling, and the beginning of uni.
I’m not British, I’m Swedish. We have nine years of mandatory school (ages 7 to 16) followed by three years of voluntary school that almost everybody goes to anyway. Those three years are called “gymnasium”. The ball in question took place at the end of the third year of gymnasium.
And that, my children, is what topic drift looks like.