Plus, some of the questions just seem so … weird.

I have never understood the model. What are they selling, and to whom?

Instagram too. They could at least make it an option so the the curmudgeonly minority would be appeased.

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Sounds like the sort of thing has to put up with. You probably ruined their day.

many people in corporate life don't have enough to do themselves to give them job satisfaction as a result of their own activity. So they make life difficult for others because it makes them feel less bad about their own miserable lives.

To which an appropriate response would be to send it right back, right?

Looking forward to that! I think I may have solved one of my problems, by discovering that the volume setting on the computer matters hugely to the amount of noise that gets through to the mixer and thence to the recorder. Better to keep the computer volume low and the mixer volume high than vice versa. When this session is over I may distract myself by creating a script to set the volume to a constant 50% so I can just trigger it before I record anything.

I have contemplated refilling my empty shiny balloons. :)

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Absolutely agreed. The problem is not with brands and marketing and advertising. The problem is with being true and authentic.

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Current temp 17C. Feels like 6C. That's some cold wind blowing.