FIRST POST IN A LONG TIME

So, I have to write a letter to the Honors Council telling them why I believe their objections to my Thesis Prospectus are basically retarded. Here's what I wrote the first time:

Finally, the last concern deals with “whether your study would have any audience outside of highly trained engineers who care about the issue.” I absolutely fail to see the relevance of this concern. Are you people fucking retarded? Why the fuck does anyone do any study then? You know people who write PHD thesis and papers about fucking black holes and shit? What the fuck does that have to do anyone outside of the fucking physics insiders? Does it make their studies any less relevant because I, as an audio engineer, will never have to deal with a fucking black hole in my life, unless in my lifetime we advance so much that they’re fucking blasting people into space and accidentally there are these black holes that are sucking them into the nether worlds and we have to have some sort of global conference of all the best minds in the world so that they can develop a way to stop people from getting sucked into these fucking black holes. Then, just then, might the research done on black holes have anything to do with anyone besides the highly trained scientists that love them so much. Also, all those English majors who write shit about Beowulf or some other archaic work of literature, are they enlightening anyone besides HIGLY FUCKING TRAINED EXPERTS in their field? Well, maybe some college student WHO IS STUDYING THE DAMNED SUBJECT IN THE FIRST PLACE. Do you think a fucking soccer mom in Idaho is going to give a flying fuck about that? I think she’ll give more of a shit if her Norah Jones CD gives her an earache than she will about motherfucking Grendel and his motherfucking mother. So, to answer your question, people do shit all the time that only applies to those who are interested in the subject. An audience will find the subject if they care about it. If they don’t give a fucking shit about it, then no, there won’t be an audience for it. I don’t even know how to dignify this question without being belligerently profane.

This is what I actually sent:

Finally, the last concern deals with “whether your study would have any audience outside of highly trained engineers who care about the issue.” To give you an absolutely honest response, no, there would be very little audience outside of audio engineers. However, this does not mean that a study should not be done. As I wrote in my prospectus, audio mastering is a small field, but it is something that I enjoy and am passionate about. Because it is a small community, there is much interaction amongst engineers, be it through AES meetings or online discussion forums. Information is exchanged freely, and attempts to help each other through difficult situations are common. I also constantly run into students here at Belmont that are interested in mastering, yet have no real idea what it involves. As someone who was once in their place, I want to make it easier for them to be able to get into mastering, and to care about the fidelity of their recordings. If they are educated now about the issue of dynamic range, they might be able to persuade their clients not to try to win the loudness wars, but to allow their recording to retain dynamics, which ultimately leads to a more enjoyable recording. I am not doing this study for the benefit of just anyone, I am doing it for the people who truly care about how audio sounds, and their audience is the only one that I care about. If in turn they decide to head my suggestions, then my audience indirectly includes anyone who hears their recordings, even though they might no be aware of it.

Durr. I really, really think that these people do not want me to do anything that is beneficial to myself, or that they are so uninformed as to what a thesis is supposed to do that they don't know how to raise legitimate concerns. I know that these are educated people (supposedly), but to them, mastering is some voodoo crap that doesn't mean anything to anyone besides engineers, when in fact it does affect their listening experience. Whatever. I just needed to get that out.

-ed