elbizri.com

There is no short-cut to deciphering coded pub-talk. Every pub has its own private language of in-jokes, nicknames, phrases and gestures. Like the private languages of other social units such as families, couples, school friends etc., coded pub-talk emphasises the social bonds between pub regulars, reinforcing their sense of ‘belonging’.

I found this article while researching online interactions and behaviour.

Most anthropologists go off to remote parts of the world to live among exotic tribes, observe their behaviour and ask endless questions in order to understand and explain their strange customs. In 1992, the BLRA asked the experienced social scientists at SIRC to apply the same research techniques in the British pub… In 1995 the SIRC Research team – led by Research Manager Joe McCann and Senior Researcher John Middleton – embarked on yet another six-month anthropological pub-crawl. In total, the research on which this book is based has involved observation work in over 800 pubs, consultations with over 500 publicans and bar staff and interviews with over 1000 pubgoers – both natives and tourists.

It made me realize that my subconcious goal seems to be to turn every social meeting into a pub. Is it genetic?

…arguing, for the British male, is a critical element of the ‘pursuit of intimacy’. Arguing allows males to show interest in one another; to express emotion; to be demonstrative; to reveal their personal beliefs, attitudes and aspirations, and to discover those of their companions – in other words, to become more intimate, without acknowledging that this is their objective.

Apparently so.

Whether you are male or female, and whatever the sex or social background of your native companions, the words “It’s my round – what are you having?” will always be appreciated as a friendly gesture. This line may not be in your phrase book, but it is one of the most useful sentences in the English language.

SIRC – Passport to the Pub

As many of you may or may not know, I have left Juniper networks and in pursuing a Masters degree in the psychological research program at San Francisco State. I have been in the program for about a semester and a half, and the culture shock entailed in this massive change is finally wearing off. here is what I have learned so far:

• there actually are places in this world that involve us as much hard work as silicon valley
  • the corollary to this is that careers for smart, motivated, curious people all involved loads and loads of hard work, stress and hard work.
  • if you don’t have the physical hands to work in Silicon Valley, you don’t have the physical hands to succeed in graduate school. Fortunately San Francisco State is providing me with no takers and essay writers and researchers so that I literally don’t have to lift a finger in order to do my homework. And the writing that you have to do, I can use voice recognition for. Since one-day and had to do without note takers and writers and litter bearers, and grape pealers, I decided to try posting here more often. Though it is so incredibly difficult that I’m thinking that might not happen after all.
  • if you’re burnt out by hard work in one place, you can spend a lot of time learning how not to be burned out by hard work somewhere else, whatever anyone says.
  • being ten years older than most of your classmates feels like an intangible, ephemeral advantage at best, and usually means you are we have more responsibilities than any of them, outside school.
  • boys don’t often choose to go into psychology at the graduate level, and the girls that do are all pretty. They are also technically young enough to be my daughters. (Not that I’m interested in them anyway, Kate :>)
• that the real, subconscious reason I wanted to return to graduate school was to gain access to academic journal subscriptions
  • That this is not a bad reason. At least, so far, managed to meet the goal.
• Schools these days come with all sorts of newfangled technological gizmos
  • I have an RSS feed for every literature search I might ever want to do more than once.
  • when I see a book that I want to read, I can click a link in my browse and automatically check to see if the library owns a copy, whether it is in, and make a reservation for it. If it is in, I can have the library page my phone with the building, floor and shelf where it is.
  • The school library has two online streaming libraries. those are libraries, not radio stations. I can choose between the Smithsonian classical or ethnic collections, and save albums and playlists for later listening.

Theres tons more, naturally, that I am missing.