The Testing Chat III: The Time of Great Chatting

[artemas]

historical animosity towards muslims

and the more i learned about it the less i liked them as a people

a few attempted genocides kinda sour you on the idea of friendly relations

but i don't let it affect my interactions with muslims because i don't really feel anyone alive today, here and now is really responsible for the actions of people who weren't even their ancestors given the wide geographic spread of islam

dude

at some point you need to let that shit go

i mean

imagine if all canadians had the same feelings for sikhs because of Air India

distrust is what creates these highly insular cultures that treat outsiders as the other, and in turn are also treated as outsiders

[thejester]

man I did lol when my first taxi driver in the states was a sikh, and he had a pamphlet that explained sikh religion, culture etc

and also basically said 'we are not muslims, so please direct your hate crimes towards the appropriate group and not us'

and then I was all 'so follow cricket?'

and he was all 'no'

and I was all 'fuck me I must have found the only Indian in the world who doesn't want to talk about cricket'

[timmy]

and I was all 'fuck me I must have found the only Indian in the world who doesn't want to talk about cricket'

[RogueIce]

I've never understood the people who want to force others to drink alcohol.

I've also never understood the people who are all "I don't drink " like this makes them a better person than those who do.

[Zod]

I've never understood the people who like to play martyr when you rib them about not drinking.

[Gands]

I've never understood the people who want to force others to drink alcohol.

I think it's something to do with drinking being one of society's social rituals. Visible nonparticipation makes some people uncomfortable.

[Darksi4190]

Ugh. Looks like i'm going to be up all night putting the finishing touches on this essay. I just can't get my thoughts together correctly. Everything's just a jumble in my head and I just start procrastinating almost by instinct. I shouldn't have a tab open to this forum right now, but I just can't stop myself from wasting time. I try to concentrate and I just can't.

I think my ADD is getting worse. The Effexor really didn't help, but maybe it's time to see the doc again and try to find a medicine that will.

[adr]

i don't drink at all nor do i eat pork

but i'm not circumcised

explain that lol

[joviwan]

I don't know of an appropriate place to put this, but it made me laugh.

http://imgur.com/gallery/jAUDTHf

[RyanThunder]

I've never understood the people who want to force others to drink alcohol.

I think it's something to do with drinking being one of society's social rituals. Visible nonparticipation makes some people uncomfortable.

I've got a few cases of what amounts to "What, you don't feel a need to get blackout drunk and forget the entire evening? Why not? Don't you want to have fun? "

[timmy]

Drinking culture in this country is a terrifyingly destructive force, and I don't know whether it's just that it didn't used to be talked about or that kids these days are fuckwits, but jesus is alcohol related violence on the upper. Everyone knows someone affected.

[RogueIce]

I don't know of an appropriate place to put this, but it made me laugh.

http://imgur.com/gallery/jAUDTHf

Now I want one.

I've never understood the people who want to force others to drink alcohol.

I think it's something to do with drinking being one of society's social rituals. Visible nonparticipation makes some people uncomfortable.

Perhaps.

I've got nothing against drinking, though I do it rarely. But a good buzz, every now and again, and with the proper crowd/in the proper environment, can be pretty fun.

I don't drink to get drunk, though. That's only happened twice. The first was because it was my first time drinking and didn't know my limits, which I suppose is fairly common. The second was because I was having drinks that someone else made, and they didn't taste that strong, and I didn't think they were that strong...but holy shit were they that strong.

Luckily I did keep myself moderated on that one, so I got plastered but not wasted. And I am proud to say I've never had a hangover.

[Oxymoron]

Muslims are approximatively a fifth of the French population, and are over-represented among my co-workers, so I don't have much choice as far as trusting them goes.

This doesn't stop a number of them being assholes, but pretty much in the same proportions as the rest of the population.

[Stofsk]

My brother insisted I share a beer with him for my birthday. I initially didn't want to, because I don't like beer at all, but I thought I might as well have one to shut him up. On NYE I got drunk for the first time in years, almost certainly because I had lower tolerances as a result of that abstention. Although it didn't actually result in my getting a hangover, I felt bad about it for other reasons. This time around though I didn't feel pressured to drink from someone else.

Drinking culture in this country is a terrifyingly destructive force, and I don't know whether it's just that it didn't used to be talked about or that kids these days are fuckwits, but jesus is alcohol related violence on the upper. Everyone knows someone affected.

Drinking culture is one of those things that society likes to tolerate in the older members but frowns upon the younger you are, which is why the media loves ragging on about those kids being drunken fuckwits. I'd be willing to bet that kids twenty, thirty, forty years ago and even longer, were just as violently rambunctious but it wasn't reported or talked about.

Remember, as a general rule, the crime rate has actually fallen consistently over the last few decades, outside of the occasional outliers and spikes. But you wouldn't know it if you tuned in to Today Tonight or ACA. Even so, if the kids today are getting stupidly drunk, my first thought falls on why their parents either allow it or don't do anything about it.

[timmy]

I should note that I love getting blitzed with friends and having a good time, but unlike ten years ago when that was every weekend, it's more like two or three times a year.

Then there are the people I know my age that still feel like it's a weekend wasted if they haven't spent half of it in painful regret. Those people are almost always unmarried and/or childless.

You know what I'd love to do every weekend? Fucking gigs. It's a party, it's fun, I punch a few beers as we go, but remain sober enough to drive the van home

[timmy]

Anders and I have a mutual friend who shares my name and is kept on a leash by his wife because when he drinks, the party is a 7.8 on the richter scale epicentred on him. Anders, I understand, was much the same in uni days... But he's got a three year old. /anecdote

[weemadando]

Said mutual friend is also directly responsible for at least two of the occasions on which I have almost died/had to run for my life.

[timmy]

Why are we still friends with this guy?

Because when he's not drinking, he's an intelligent, amiable, cultured person. In summary, he owes his wife the life debt of their marriage for keeping him straight and narrow enough to be a productive member of society.

[Nietzslime]

i feel it is sound to exploit this period of my life wherein i basically never get hangovers and so those days of painful regret after drinking do not take place while i still have the privilege

because people keep telling me it's going to end

[weemadando]

Well, in my case we're not really anymore. Him being a housemate with my now wife, then girlfriend made things a bit awkward for a while and we sort of lost touch. Not that no longer risking going over a cliff from a carpark on College Hill or other shenanigans/petty student prank related larceny aren't missed.

[weemadando]

i feel it is sound to exploit this period of my life wherein i basically never get hangovers and so those days of painful regret after drinking do not take place while i still have the privilege

because people keep telling me it's going to end

I remember those times. I'd drink a staggering amount, then somehow pull up fine the next day (sheer size, plus obscene quantities of water helped).

Then I got glandular fever and during liver function test as part of that I was told I had the liver of a middle aged alcoholic. Thank god those recover eh? And that glandular was at least partially responsible for it being so fucked at the time.

[Questor]

I'm perhaps a bit interesting. I have no moral/ethical issues with drinking, but I have a huge one with drinking and driving. I straight up won't drink when I'm driving.

Due to the fact that I live in southern California, this results in my drinking being rather light, and mostly limited to when I travel abroad. It's funny, I've very rarely had pressure once I say I don't drink and drive. I get more pressure if I say "I don't drink."

To sum up, it seems that at least in my peer group the social pressure to drink has been overcome by the social issues with drunk driving.

[evilsoup]

I punch a few beers as we go, but remain sober enough to drive the van home

timmy I hope you're joking

[RogueIce]

Depending on A) how many beers he has and B) how long the night is, he may not be doing anything dangerous.

[timmy]

Yeah I'm pretty sure three or four beers in five hours is gonna be okay.