A couple hours ago, while sitting in the theater with my dad, waiting for The Matrix Reloaded to start, a Linkin Park song came on. Dad and I began to discuss angst, and we have devised a system by which to rate it. My sister helped to flesh it out, and gave the units their other names. The system follows:

The basic unit of angst is a mope.

The chart goes as such

1 mope = 1000 millimopes, or fooeys

10 millimopes = 1 centimope, or pout

10 pouts = 1 decimope, or bummer

10 bummers = 1 mope

10 mopes = 1 dekamope, or sulk

10 sulks = 1 hectamope, or brood

2 broods = 1 Louis (only used to rate vampire-related angst)

10 broods = 1 kilomope, or depression

The symbol for a mope is ι (a small iota).

Being a fan and writer of fanfiction, I intend to use this scale as part of the ratings for my stories, and I hope other fanfic writers use it too. For example, Angel, of Buffy The Vampire Slayer fame, typically rates one sulk, unless Buffy is present, in which case the number goes up to two.