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Everyday life can be annoying, but now you can share your pain in this challenge

Everyday life can be annoying, but now you can share your pain in this challenge

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There are many moments in my day that I would classify as deeply annoying and utterly inconsequential. Such as: the subway not taking my card swipe the first, second, or fifth time. Stepping out for five minutes and missing the UPS guy. HBO Go buffering during crucial scenes in Game of Thrones.

We all have snapshots of irritation over stupid things, and my god it feels good to share them. Misery loves company and so on. It’s this line of thinking that inspired Parallel Studio’s The Unsatisfying Challenge — a prompt for anyone to share their own bitter disappointments.

Over the summer, Parallel Studio created a video illustrating “the frustrating, annoying, disappointing little things of everyday life, that are so painful to live or even to watch.” The group had so many ideas after they finished, designer Thibault de Fournas told me, that they decided to push the prompt out to others.

“I hope we [will] discover a lot of unsatisfying situations we didn’t think [of],” de Fournas says. “We are also hoping that some people will present really weird and twisted things. 

“[Everyday frustrations are] something that everybody [has experienced].”

The call closes on November 15th, and Parallel will add Vimeo submissions to the challenge’s channel. Anyone can make a submission, though you should read the guidelines on the website. De Fournas doesn’t think they’ll pick a winner — “people will decide which one is their [personal favorite],” he says. Instead, Parallel will likely publish a best of compilation.

If you need inspiration, you can always peep the original video. The animation is undeniably cute (look at that pile of teddies!), but the visual equivalent of nails on a chalkboard. I’ve been grinding my teeth for 20 minutes now just thinking about all the times I’ve lost my spoon in a bowl of soup or dropped a half-made sandwich butter-side down. And get that pinball machine outta my damn face.