Math Haters are Common

[Oogie]

math is for squares.

[John Junk]

I have to get an accountant this year.  Every year I calculate everything wrong on my taxes and the IRS sends me a correction letter.

Also, you forgot Don Caballero.

[dania]

(or rather, I disagree, and possibly may have long forgotten the difference bewteen between post-punk and math-rock.  I might need help from Chris L. or Josh on this one.)

I think it's probably safe enough to say that all math rock is also postpunk.  Postpunk is the greater umbrella under which math rock would most reasonably fall.

I'm more talking about the phrase "math rock".  Post punk is awesome, don't get me wrong, and I love noise music and noise rock, but I cringe whenever I hear that phrase. 

[Julie]

I have to get an accountant this year.  Every year I calculate everything wrong on my taxes and the IRS sends me a correction letter.

Filing taxes requires you to know a lot of rules that you will never know unless you use them all the time. If you use some computer package, it requires you to have not to make any typing mistakes. The mathematics involved in taxes is nothing besides addition and division. I think the whole tax thing is just a conspiracy by accountants.

[emma]

I learned nothing about math in elementary school and then, in grade 7, started going to a school where everything was skipped up a grade; I didn't even know how to multiply properly, and all of a sudden I was with all these super-smart kids doing grade eight math. I never really caught up, and my math experience has always been pretty terrible--freaking out over tests, spending hours every week in tutoring, etc. The whole stupid thing culminated last summer when i decided to finish my math credits in summer school, and ended up in a school two hours away from my house getting taught by a verbally abusive, racist, sexist, homophobic asshole who liked to throw chairs and who drove no less than ten people out of the class with his insults.

In spite of all this, I have never been a math hater. I think it's a really cool sort of language, and I only wish I had been able to understand it earlier because after all that I never want to touch it again.

[iAmBaronVonTito]

I have to get an accountant this year.  Every year I calculate everything wrong on my taxes and the IRS sends me a correction letter.

Filing taxes requires you to know a lot of rules that you will never know unless you use them all the time. If you use some computer package, it requires you to have not to make any typing mistakes. The mathematics involved in taxes is nothing besides addition and division. I think the whole tax thing is just a conspiracy by accountants.

the only requirement is to sign and date; it comes with instructions. 

[John Junk]

I have to get an accountant this year.  Every year I calculate everything wrong on my taxes and the IRS sends me a correction letter.

Filing taxes requires you to know a lot of rules that you will never know unless you use them all the time. If you use some computer package, it requires you to have not to make any typing mistakes. The mathematics involved in taxes is nothing besides addition and division. I think the whole tax thing is just a conspiracy by accountants.

the only requirement is to sign and date; it comes with instructions. 

Look, I may be bad at math, but i'm not retarded.  I know it comes with instructions.  You still have to add and subtract and I'm not good at that.  Plus, if you work for more than one employer, and one of those employers is the state, or if you work in two different states, or if you don't know what you are and are not exempted from, etc., then there's a whole lot that can go wrong. 

[Emily]

I agree. I hate all/any forms. I always mess them up. Especially forms that have to do with anything official, like taxes. They're complicated and written in confusing language and there are too many exceptions that seem to contradict everything -  making it  harder to know what to write in or what category you fall into to. And every time you get a new job you have to know things about your taxes from the previous year. WTF!? And then finally you get it all over with somehow and then before you know it you're getting those stupid "IMPORTANT TAX INFO ENCLOSED" envelopes again and you have a new stack of mail that you hate.

Forms. I hate forms!

[iAmBaronVonTito]

I have to get an accountant this year.  Every year I calculate everything wrong on my taxes and the IRS sends me a correction letter.

Filing taxes requires you to know a lot of rules that you will never know unless you use them all the time. If you use some computer package, it requires you to have not to make any typing mistakes. The mathematics involved in taxes is nothing besides addition and division. I think the whole tax thing is just a conspiracy by accountants.

the only requirement is to sign and date; it comes with instructions. 

Look, I may be bad at math, but i'm not retarded.  I know it comes with instructions.  You still have to add and subtract and I'm not good at that.  Plus, if you work for more than one employer, and one of those employers is the state, or if you work in two different states, or if you don't know what you are and are not exempted from, etc., then there's a whole lot that can go wrong. 

The comment wasn't in reference to you but rather towards julies comment on "rules" and "conspiracies".

I've had the same trouble with double/triple checking the math.  I won't fault anyone for that.

[Stan]

I kind of hate math rock. 

[starbucksgirl]Really?[/starbucksgirl]

[youtube]X5e3WHdvsms[/youtube]

[youtube]RdPIfMO28ck[/youtube]

[Gilly]

Live shows are good but when it comes to recordings math rock is kind of crappy. It's the experience. You're Mathrockheads.

[<<<<<]

I'm more talking about the phrase "math rock".  Post punk is awesome, don't get me wrong, and I love noise music and noise rock, but I cringe whenever I hear that phrase.

Yes, I'm on board with you on that one.  I do not care much for the phrase myself.  I like several bands that would possibly fall under that classification, but I don't feel as though the term "math rock" does them justice generally.  Feels like a lazy attempt to make something complex into something simple and easy to identify.

[Julie]

I have to get an accountant this year.  Every year I calculate everything wrong on my taxes and the IRS sends me a correction letter.

Filing taxes requires you to know a lot of rules that you will never know unless you use them all the time. If you use some computer package, it requires you to have not to make any typing mistakes. The mathematics involved in taxes is nothing besides addition and division. I think the whole tax thing is just a conspiracy by accountants.

the only requirement is to sign and date; it comes with instructions. 

Look, I may be bad at math, but i'm not retarded.  I know it comes with instructions.  You still have to add and subtract and I'm not good at that.  Plus, if you work for more than one employer, and one of those employers is the state, or if you work in two different states, or if you don't know what you are and are not exempted from, etc., then there's a whole lot that can go wrong. 

that's not math, though.

[folksnake]

if you were trying that hard and not getting it, it was the teacher.

Can this really be said with certainty? For instance--I've been playing guitar for 35 years, and am never going to get past a certain, sadly average level. And it's not for lack of trying, or the lack of competent instruction.

Aren't some people better at things because they are simply better suited to those things (for whatever reasons) and not because they weren't taught well?

[dania]

I'm more talking about the phrase "math rock".  Post punk is awesome, don't get me wrong, and I love noise music and noise rock, but I cringe whenever I hear that phrase.

Yes, I'm on board with you on that one.  I do not care much for the phrase myself.  I like several bands that would possibly fall under that classification, but I don't feel as though the term "math rock" does them justice generally.  Feels like a lazy attempt to make something complex into something simple and easy to identify.

Yes!  Thank you streetcleaner. 

Lightning Bolt: unquestionably amazing. 

By the way, did anyone see that movie "B.I.K.E."?  With that ultra annoying guy who's trying to get into the bike gang and he ends up being so annoying that they kick him out?  His blatant misuse of Lightning Bolt in his short film reached offensive levels. 
This section of the post probably belongs in the "hate pit continued" thread.  Oh well.