Los Guadales
  • andy

    Perhaps. It's the only tool I have left. Subtlety doesn't seem to have got me very far.

  • Slabber
    Someone asked me what university I went to and we had a dialogue about it. What do you expect me to say? Shall I lie and pretend I went to Hull University? Yes, I'm a straight A student. So are loads of people. In fact, if you go to a private school, you get so well trained that it's quite hard not to. I got a 2.1. Whoopeefuckingdo. Yes, I'm a lawyer, a barrister, not in practice. So fucking what?

    By the way, a two E offer used to be standard practice for an Oxford offer. I think it must have changed now since they scrapped the formal exam. Arkady said they didn't get the grades so I assume the system has changed to conditional offers. That's why I mentioned it, as if that wasn't obvious.

    Are you one of those mods who thinks their little piece of the internet is their fiefdom? I'm an admin on another forum. I only ever delete people if they're really fucking stupid or racist or something. Or I redirect their IP to www.meatspin.com
  • Slabber
    And I think Rod Liddle is sometimes quite funny. He did a nice piece about John Terry at the weekend.
  • krappyrubsnifkrappyrubsnif
    If you're not having your hug, Slabber, can I have it?

    On second thoughts, maybe not.
  • Slabber
    And politically I'm on the liberal left.

    And I think you're a cock.
  • Slabber
    That wasn't aimed at you krapyurbsnif. I don't think you're a cock. I haven't read enough of your posts to have formed an opinion.
  • andy

    Bless your heart. I think you do need that hug.

  • Slabber
    I think you need to stop being a cock.
  • Slabber
    And spend some time at www.meatspin.com
  • andy

    Three quick points:

    • You've been neither banned nor edited? So it's hardly a dictatorship.
    • 9 times out of 10 Rod Liddle is a fool on a wind-up and best ignored
    • We are lucky to have lots of very clever, well educated people on this forum. By far the cleverest talks ONLY about ice-cream and birds.
  • Slabber
    You did allude to banning me when I suggested two threads should be merged.

    You seem to have some issue with cleverness. I don't have a problem with other people being cleverer than me. In fact, I Iike people who are cleverer than me. I'm not sure what your point is. Do you think I think I'm cleverer than everyone else because someone asked what university I went to and I told them the answer? Or because on reading the forum from scratch I bumped a few old threads, some of which were with witty or not-so-witty one liners? Shall we have a who's the cleverest competition? I'm pretty good on sport, geography, politics, current affairs, law, and grammar and that's about it.
  • andy

    Is this your forum Slabber? http://www.surgicalaplomb.com/

    If so, it's utterly charming.

  • Slabber
    Yes. We've got a religious theme at the moment, but we change the theme about once a month.
  • ADGS
    In my experience of Durham types, they tend to be far more rightwing and Oxbridge-cliche than actual Oxbridge types, but I'm prepared to accept that I was just unlucky in which Durhamites I've met.
  • Slabber
    Durham has a bit of a reputation in that respect. A lot of Oxford students are just geeks.
  • ArkadyArkady
    My impression of Durham was that is was quite sharply divided between the bailey colleges, which tend to be populated by publicly educated Oxford rejects with far more of a hooray-henry image than the folks I know who went to Oxford (the latter were/are mostly highly-functioning stoners), and the hill colleges, which were much more balanced in their student population. The collegiate system seemed to create a sort of institutional identity for each college which exaggerated their best and worst features. Watching the rowing or rugby teams from the bailey out on the lash was one of the most distasteful things I’ve ever witnessed. And Durham Union Society has some of the most vile crypto-fascists imaginable. Beautiful city, though. However for some reason I don’t feel that inclined to visit, not for a while anyway. Though it has only been, what, six years since I graduated.
    Arky
  • ArkadyArkady
    Which has made me think… I’m finishing my MSc at Birkbeck at the moment part time. When I commenced the course I’d say that around a third of the intake were the right-wing posho types suggested above, and I was interested to note that nearly all of them dropped out by the end of the first term. I’ve a folk theory that a private education helps people to learn by rote and pass exams, but once they have to operate critically at a post-graduate level they tend to struggle and not be able to cope unless they have strong natural ability – in terms of educational achievement the private school advantage only goes so far. I’ve seen one or two people having private ephiphanies in seminars when they realise that for all their bravado their opinions don’t hold up to scrutiny in the eyes of people who are evidently smarter than them, and usually they don’t come back.
    This may be completely self-serving of me of course. The teenage class-warrior never entirely let go.
    Arky
  • Misscara
    Seriously... some of you lot really DO need to get out more... unfortunately you can't go to Los Guaduales because it's closed down. Thought I'd point that out in case it got lost amongst all this recent non-Guaduales arsery.
  • Slabber
    He started it.
  • ArkadyArkady
    I resemble that remark.
  • krappyrubsnifkrappyrubsnif
    I do get out. On the other hand the rambling nature of this thread is getting to resemble a beer-fuelled conversation at the Larrik, so I might as well stay in. Cheaper, too.

    Could we have a thread that mimics conversation at the White Lion - even cheaper. (Belch, mutter, fart.)
  • Slabber
    It all started about a disagreement about who was looking at who.
  • ADGS
    I disagree about this thread resembling a conversation at the Larrik, because at no stage have I become overwhelmed by despair or yelled 'In the name of all that is unholy, why are we here?"
  • krappyrubsnifkrappyrubsnif
    'Here' being the Larrik, I assume?
  • ADGS
    Yes, although in keeping with modern theology I tend to think of it as being less a place than a condition of despair, like other aspects of Hell.
  • tosscat

    I thought you liked grammar Slabber?

    'Who was looking at whom' surely?

  • Slabber
    Quite right. A dative!
  • krappyrubsnifkrappyrubsnif
    I am getting worried about this site. First, we have the Bench of Doom opposite Tesco, then we have the Potholes of Death by the station, now we have the Pub of Despair.
  • Misscara
    You forgot to mention the Tunnel of Doom.
  • Slabber
    I assume that's not a reference to your own orifice.

    Sorry in advance.
  • ADGS
    Stroud Green: Twinned With Mordor

    (actually, when watching the Lord of the Rings films, I misheard 'Easterlings' and thought that one of Sauron's subject races was the Islings. Clearly this would exempt the Haringey side of the road from any such evil, though)
  • Reg

    Arky, out of interest what is the MSc in and how have you found studying at Birkbeck? I see the ads but have never met someone who has been.

  • ArkadyArkady
    @Reg
    Thank you for providing me with a displacement activity. I am half way through an essay entitled "Critically assess the claim that global governance has existed since the nineteenth century in order to regulate the spread of industrial capitalism" and my brain is melting slightly.

    My MSc title is 'Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict'. Two of the four modules focus on that; one on the theory of ethnicity and nationalism and the second focussing on the international context. The other two modules are optional, and (big bonus of Birkbeck) these can be chosen from anywhere in the 'School of Social Sciences, History and Philosophy'. Birkbeck are in the vanguard of demolishing the artifical lines that have divided and hampered the social sciences for decades. For instance much of the most important current work in International Relations involves restoring sociological theories of agency; IR was theoretically weak prior to this - essentially it was really just security studies - and this contributed to its failure to predict the end of the Cold War. I'm doing my option this year on 'International Security and Global Governance', and the stuff I'm taking from there has been hugely influential in assisting my core studies. I'll be doing a dissertation (on the Turkish and Kurdish diaspora in North London) this year too.

    Birkbeck only has evening classes. This means I can work full time and study too (though it it take a serious work ethic - I was pleased to discover I had one and wished I'd found it during my undegraduate degree). It does mean that it tends to be less sociable that other universities though, one has to make an effort to hang out with ones class mates. Drinking time yes, but some of the most fruitful discussion occur outside of class in my experience.

    The lecturing has been excellent. Two out of the four have been of world-class academics. Seminars more mixed, depending on whether the tutor can be bothered to spend the time organising and teaching small classes (so that you have to prepare and therefore have meaningful discussions) rather than just a free for all banal banter at the end of the lecture. In the latter case ones self-motivation has to be high in order to achieve well.

    I'd recommend it.

    Arky
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