K, fine. Wall of text that means exactly as much to me as what some of us said about VCRs means to Vince. Not all of us are strong with the organic chemistry; from what I could tell of what you were saying, they seemed very similar. If you'd said simply that methyl hydrate was a lot worse, I'd have known that was what you meant.
If you weren't being deliberately obtuse, great. The end result is the same: You didn't communicate what you meant to everybody in your audience.
For my part, I'll remember to ask you next time you say something in chemistry-ese that doesn't 100% make sense to me, even if I think got the gist of it. 
Cheers,
mnem
*toddles off to ded*
I wonder if you're doing with things your brain labels as "chemistry" what SWMBO does with things she thinks are labeled "math", turning your head off and going "It's X, I don't understand X". Even when it's something that she needs no prior actual mathematics to get a grip on and I know that she's has the intellectual horsepower to fully grasp it she reacts the same to anything labelled "math". If she didn't perceive it as being "math", she'd have no problem with it. There was nothing there that I wouldn't expect you to understand, no actual chemistry content, just English.
Nope, just plain and simple misunderstanding; which could have been pointed out in a much more positive tone rather than turning it into another unnecessarily personal "mnem is so very, very wrong" diatribe. A single sentence conveying frustration and IRL stress... hardly qualifies as being a "drama queen", IMO.
I promise: I read every word, more than once, and what I took away just wasn't what you intended, plain and simple. 
Cheers,
mnem
-group-therapy-thread/?action=dlattach;attach=1076724;image)
Strewth man you're touchy today. Stop trying to read everything as being aimed at belittling you. Trust me, if I want to lay into you it will be obviously and unambiguously written to do so (either that or crafted as the "English insult" so that you think you're being complimented and everybody else is laughing behind your back). Stop inferring malice where none is implied. If I don't actually call you a "fat stupid American fuck" I'm not trying to hide it in the subtext; and before you read that wrong, that's an example, not an intended insult. If I'm aiming a "diatribe" at you, it will look like one. If I accuse you of being overly dramatic, it's because you chose words like
diatribe ("
a forceful and bitter verbal attack against someone or something") when there's no "
attack", no "
forceful" and no "
bitter".
My past editors have told me that I'm a good writer, which in the magazine world means "
You convey, to the target audience, what needs conveying." not "
Oh, we've found the new papa Hemmingway.", so I have some confidence that I can get across in writing what I intend. Now, if every man and his dog was telling me that they forever get the wrong end of the stick when I write something here then I'd take a hard look at the style and content of what I post. But that hasn't happened.
Now, I've spent way too long on composing this carefully so there is no way a reasonable person could read it as containing any attacks, criticisms and other things that the subject could take offence at other than "You're being too sensitive" and "You do over dramatise". If you choose to take this as a "bitter forceful attack" on you then these is nothing else I can do; moreover I'm not going to spend this level of effort each and every time I have something to say that you might choose to treat as the opening shots of a verbal war.
I'm tired of having to treat you with kid gloves, and every time I think you're out of that space where you take everything as an attack and can be talked to without picking every word like it's the one gem in pile of shit, you start again. I don't have the energy to constantly deal with that, and you might just be beginning to see from other people's weary remarks about "the dragon" that I'm not the only person who feels that way.
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