{"id":30769,"date":"2011-09-13T15:25:59","date_gmt":"2011-09-13T19:25:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=30769"},"modified":"2020-06-27T15:26:16","modified_gmt":"2020-06-27T19:26:16","slug":"the-masochistic-art-of-the-public-decline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=30769","title":{"rendered":"The masochistic art of the public decline"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

The other day, I got an Evite from my agency, inviting the talent pool out to a local eatery for an appreciation happy hour.\u00a0 Personally, I like these things, because it\u2019s a good way to network with my fellow designers, as well as the occasional former client, who may or may not inquire about my working status, and make nice-nice with the agents that it does me good to be on their good side, and the hopeful off-chance that there will be some attractive like-minded snarky design nerd girl that I can shamelessly flirt with.<\/span><\/p>\n

Looking at the Evite, which was obviously sent to well over 100 people, the ratio of yes\/maybe\/no was easily 30\/40\/30%.\u00a0 The yes responses are fairly simple, people exclaiming their looking forward to the event, if anything at all.\u00a0 The maybe responses are a little more snooty, with people obviously being non-committal to the event as a whole, and probably seeing it as a third-option, in the event that nothing better comes along to consume two pre-dinner hours of the afternoon.\u00a0 But it\u2019s the no responses that I find the greatest amount of amusement in.\u00a0 Whereas a lot of people are pretty short and to the point when saying yes or maybe, when it comes to saying no, all these designers, grunt workers and other snobs really need to let everyone else know why they can\u2019t make it to this pedestrian, plebeian happy hour.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t make it because I have tickets to\u00a0So You Think You Can Dance\u201c<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 look at me everyone, I\u2019m a slave to a shitty reality television show, and someone shelled out actual currency to be a live audience member!<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI would really like to, but I must rest.\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Life is so hard and exhausting, I know.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201csorry. scheduling conflict.\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 sorry. I have to jerk off to\u00a0creativity<\/em>\u00a0ads.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI would come, but I don\u2019t think I\u2019m going to get out of work in time.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013 Jesus Christ, get a new job then.\u00a0 I don\u2019t understand why designers so often times have to make themselves sound like they\u2019re pushing boulders up mountains, when in reality, they\u2019re building lame assets in Photoshop, and needing to email PDFs.\u00a0 I know there\u2019s this popular martyr belief that designers are the dregs of the working world, and that WE ALL are the only ones working long hours and slave labor, for meager wages, but such perceived self-importance doesn\u2019t always fly with other designers.<\/span><\/p>\n

The bottom line is that when there is a large audience presented in front of people, people really love to flaunt their status, their importance, their busyness, or why they simply can\u2019t spare the time to gather with like-status individuals.\u00a0 The same thing happened when an informal Evite was sent out to my graduating high school class \u2013 maybe 30 people simply clicked yes, but at least 100 people gave the most elaborate no\u2019s I\u2019ve ever read in my life, and since the vast majority of the names were revealed or obvious, most people knew whom everyone else was, and it ended up turning into one gigantic pissing contest of where so-and-so is now, and what they\u2019re doing, and why it\u2019s so important and time-consuming that they can\u2019t possibly be bothered to show up to a piddly reunion.<\/span><\/p>\n

My response?\u00a0 I put down a maybe.\u00a0 Because I am being arrogantly non-committal, and would most certainly show myself at this happy hour soiree, that is if something else that captures my attention doesn\u2019t whisk me away first.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The other day, I got an Evite from my agency, inviting the talent pool out to a local eatery for an appreciation happy hour.\u00a0 Personally, I like these things, because it\u2019s a good way to network with my fellow designers, as well as the occasional former client, who may or may not inquire about my … Continue reading The masochistic art of the public decline<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[45,94,37,15],"class_list":["post-30769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brog","tag-fail","tag-graphic-design","tag-job","tag-og"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30769"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30771,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30769\/revisions\/30771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}