Parties...?

[WOPR]

I am, my fellow escapists, a geek. I have always been a geek. My exam results are relatively low, my common sense is lacking, my knowledge of geek trivia and lore is pitiful... but I am still geek and thus it has always been. As such, my life at Secondary School was horrific; little more than a complex ordeal of social inadequacy and physical strife; I scraped my way through GCSE and A Level with the minimum grades, excitement and friends. I also never went to parties. I was never invited to parties and I never really wanted to go to them anyway. I find large groups of people highly disconcerting, sexual activity somewhat repulsive and alcohol all out abhorrent... so it's rather odd that I lamented my lack of invitation. I, despite my perpetual loneliness, always felt that little bit more left out.

So it is odd you might say that, in this, my first two weeks of University, I have been invited to more parties than I have in all the years of my life... and not attended a single one. The mandatory course party notwithstanding of course... But the fact is, I have grown so used to not going to parties, so conditioned to the sequential life of domestic existence, that I just... don't want to go. "Fresher's week will be exiting" they say "There'll be lots of parties" they conclude... but to what end? I do not drink and panic when surrounded by strangers. Am I really expected to endure simply for the sake of social norm? This quandary is compounded somewhat by the fact that I am obsessed with the party life-style; in a very comic-book, mid-eighties kind of way albeit. Municipal Waste and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle preach their party life-style! Bill and Ted salute the excellence of the party but, all this considered, I sit alone once more...

Dearest Escapist; do you party? Do you like parties? What was the last party you went to and what crazy shit happened there?

EDIT: I'm not attacking parties. Nor am I attacking people who attend and enjoy parties, I'm just starting a discussion about them. Don't just talk about or insult my personal stance on the subject; discuss the topic, dudes.

My 18th Bday Party is probably gonna contain people being nerdy freaking out over Brawl while I shake my head and play Castle Crashers (or fallout 3) and it'll end in everyone grabbing Boffers and beating the ever loving crap out of each-other in my back yard... whilst I play the chicken dance on a boom-box (Madness Combat fans will get that joke)

 

[KingGolem]

I've never understood the appeal of being around people simply for the sake of being around them. Seriously, not even with my closest friends. After school I'd want nothing to do with them, since I had more important and/or interesting things to do than just "hang out." I also have no interest in sexual intercourse or alcohol (terrible ideas, both of them), so the only parties I've ever been to have been birthday parties, and they were either my own or there was food involved.

 

[Stevo_s]

Well I'd say you cant talk about any of the topics you mentioned until you've experienced them firsthand sure thats your opinion or view but hey Roger Ebert's view on video games.

Well I like parties, I like alcohol, and I Love sex. Yes Ive experiences all three. Large groups of people is annoying at first but later in the night with enough alcohol you don't mind it.
Ive experienced a lot of things at parties met a lot of people and most of the time I have blast at them. :]

I'll drink to that.

Yay! haha Im already drinking bout to head out the door tho!
haha when I got the quoted message I figured someone was defending not going out to parties and that I'd have to debate a bit. But cool!

 

[CarpathianMuffin]

I go to social gatherings with a few friends, but not parties. Just not my cup of tea, unless I'm with some friends.

 

[nunqual]

I haven't been to a party in three years. It wasn't that fun, we were all too young to drink or do anything sketchy so it wasn't that great. Although I seem to recall two people making out.

People making out is a big thing? i dont mean to be a dick but what are you 12? if 2 people made out at one of my parties (im 15 btw) everyone would be like alright thats cool continuing on with life now!

I was talking about how boring of a party it was. That was the only event at the damn thing. It was boring.

 

[Ace of Spades]

My idea of a party is myself and three friends gathered in a room playing Halo 3 and Rock Band 2, lots of pizza and drinks, all ending when we are all asleep on the floor. As for the traditional definition, 'I do not do well conversing with people I have never met before'.

 

[BonsaiK]

Whats the word?

The beautiful thing about parties is that if you don't drink (I don't), and you've got enough confidence and enough of a "whatever" attitude to handle the awkwardness, you'll upstage about 90% of the people at any party you go to, who will all be mishandling opportunities with the opposite sex, passing out in pools of their own puke and generally being douchebags. I've met most of my girlfriends in situations like this simply because I stood out as relatively conscious and was thinking clearly enough to make sensible decisions. So in that sense I do "like" parties although I'm often only there because of business obligations and they can sometimes be boring if there's nobody there I can connect to.

Snip?

Well bro umm what kind of alcohol noobs have you been with?
I mean like by the way you make it sound, everybody is there just to get f-ed up...
Whats even weirder though is that most of the time girls are consuming alcohol as well so they are unlikely to notice how dumb a guy is being or not care.
So maybe your just being self-centered?

That's an interesting interpretation.

I live in Australia. Here, most people who drink at parties drink to get fucked up. There are exceptions, but binge-drinking is culturally pretty normal here. Drinking in moderation is something that our media and education system tries to promote, but I haven't seen a lot of evidence of this working, at least in the circles I mix in.

Girls are mostly pretty switched-on socially and will notice dumb drunk guys unless they're so drunk themselves that they're practically comatose. It's true that sometimes they may not care though. I'm not saying that my experience is the only one that works, I'm just saying that it's worked for me.

 

[Kortney]

There's a lot of preconceptions - which is fine. I know that I don't want to play barbie horse adventures because it's not my thing. I've never played it, but I can be reasonably sure.

True, but I'm talking more about people who don't go to parties for different reasons. I think the people who don't go to parties simply because they are nervous about being around new people (i.e they aren't against parties on a moral level) should give it a shot. I think people who are anti-social (and I am one of those people) should really try going out and socialising, especially at parties where lots of friends are present, because it's good for you to do so. It's much better than sitting in your room at the computer all day. Sometimes it's good to go outside of your comfort zone.

People can say the same for parties - I was originally pretty biased against them because when I was younger, parties were just where tons of people congregated to get blind drunk. I don't drink, and thanks to other parts of my life, drunk people terrify me, so I could be reasonably sure I wasn't going to enjoy the experience.

I don't drink either, but I still believe that you could of enjoyed certain parties. What about the parties with 10 of your close friends, with drinking involved? I fail to see how a meeting of close friends could possibly be a bad thing - regardless of drink. However if you are talking more about the larger parties were there are strangers then I can totally see your point .

The few times I was cajoled into going confirmed it. However, things changed, and now I'm more capable of enjoying them. I think the OP should definitely be open minded and willing to try it - repeatedly under different contexts

And I totally agree.

- but figuring out stuff we probably won't like before we experience it is a fairly common aspect of human existence.

Well that depends on the specific example. With your Barbie example earlier, yes I agree but if it is someone who is against parties simply because they are too afraid to go out and have fun, then I would disagree and say sometimes you need to try things that you don't think you will like. Because quite often, after we have pushed through the awkward moments, we enjoy it and our life has been enriched.

 

[Bobipine]

My demon is the one of laziness after all.. I skipped a lot of the replies before writing mine, again, sorry.

Parties, well, at first I didn't really liked them that much, barely considered them and consumed alcohol. Then I went to the university, and lived with 5 other guys, each of which liked parties, and alcohol, therefore, the parties were always at my place (though people referred it as one of my house mates place, or the 69, which was the address of this house of, many many things) I pretty much needed to start partying and drinking to adapt and prevent going mad.

I still rarely participate in parties if I have the choice, I fear to be too drunk and let out stuff I would regret, and too much new people don't appeal to me. Example, friend of mine dragged me to a girl party, he was probably trying to force me to get one of them, turns out it's the most boring thing I ever attended, their drinking games were pitiful, and by the end of the night the pretty much all told me their life's problem and ended up love hurt (them). So I prefer being the designated driver, karma doesn't pay much from it, but it as from time to time.

Last party I attended was the Engineering faculty family party, decided to go for some reason, turned out okay, then again, how could it have been bad, having a karaoke setting in a pub with about 80 drunk people, singing many songs like: Don't stop believing, I'm gonna be (500 miles), Fuck her gently, and many more.

A bit hypocrite of me to skip 5 pages of replies before posting isn't it? I'll read through, don't worry, have a good night.

Edit: okay, I read most of them and skimmed the rest, best I could do.
and it might be on subject so, when I was living at the 69, I was constantly in a party atmosphere but barely ever participated or drank anything, there were good times, there were boring times, and my best times were we a small group of friend (except one of them, were I can't recall the order of things enough for my taste), where I actually drank, and the best one of all, I was reading people's future with a regular deck of cards, fairly easy actually, my imagination was my limit. And now I tend to drink alone too much, which I prefer to with too many people, sadly.

 

[Serenegoose]

*all of that stuff we're discussing cut for space because what I have to say is...

...I think we're basically in total agreement with each other.

 

[Something Amyss]

I don't like crowds. I've been to them, but I'd rather not.

 

[katsumoto03]

I've never been to a party before, but I'd enjoy it if it wasn't filled with fraternity douchebags.

 

[FinalHeart95]

Eh, never got the whole "lol getting drunk is so FUN!" thing. I just equate drunkenness to massive hangovers that suck, especially since I'm the kind of person that plans ahead.

I'll go to a party if there's alcohol, maybe accept a beer or two. Not gonna get tipsy though.

 

[Blemontea]

Yes i do party, party hardy in fact.. or at least as much as i can in a high school dance... none the less while i am a quiet slow moving man during school i become the fast moving loud mouthed party animal when the party gets going. I LOVE it! as for the third question, well if you'll count it, i went to homecoming a couple of weeks ago.

 

[Zing]

I've never been to one, but I'd go if invited. The problem is getting invited, I really don't know how.

 

[Stevo_s]

Whats the word?

The beautiful thing about parties is that if you don't drink (I don't), and you've got enough confidence and enough of a "whatever" attitude to handle the awkwardness, you'll upstage about 90% of the people at any party you go to, who will all be mishandling opportunities with the opposite sex, passing out in pools of their own puke and generally being douchebags. I've met most of my girlfriends in situations like this simply because I stood out as relatively conscious and was thinking clearly enough to make sensible decisions. So in that sense I do "like" parties although I'm often only there because of business obligations and they can sometimes be boring if there's nobody there I can connect to.

Snip?

Well bro umm what kind of alcohol noobs have you been with?
I mean like by the way you make it sound, everybody is there just to get f-ed up...
Whats even weirder though is that most of the time girls are consuming alcohol as well so they are unlikely to notice how dumb a guy is being or not care.
So maybe your just being self-centered?

That's an interesting interpretation.

I live in Australia. Here, most people who drink at parties drink to get fucked up. There are exceptions, but binge-drinking is culturally pretty normal here. Drinking in moderation is something that our media and education system tries to promote, but I haven't seen a lot of evidence of this working, at least in the circles I mix in.

Girls are mostly pretty switched-on socially and will notice dumb drunk guys unless they're so drunk themselves that they're practically comatose. It's true that sometimes they may not care though. I'm not saying that my experience is the only one that works, I'm just saying that it's worked for me.

(pretty drunk sorry :/)

Well if you don't mind me asking whats your age group?
Because I'm Hispanic and that is the ethnicity of most of the people I party with and my age group is 18-26. We do binge drink its just that.. well 50% of us know when to stop so that we dont end up on the floor puking our brains out.

So its weird for me to hear that a whole lot more would just drink ton feel like shit the next 3-8 hours. We have all experienced it though view it as a learning experience. Kind of like an initiation to the first steps of learning how to drink properly; specifically binge drinking properly.

 

[Stevo_s]

My demon is the one of laziness after all.. I skipped a lot of the replies before writing mine, again, sorry.

Parties, well, at first I didn't really liked them that much, barely considered them and consumed alcohol. Then I went to the university, and lived with 5 other guys, each of which liked parties, and alcohol, therefore, the parties were always at my place (though people referred it as one of my house mates place, or the 69, which was the address of this house of, many many things) I pretty much needed to start partying and drinking to adapt and prevent going mad.

I still rarely participate in parties if I have the choice, I fear to be too drunk and let out stuff I would regret, and too much new people don't appeal to me. Example, friend of mine dragged me to a girl party, he was probably trying to force me to get one of them, turns out it's the most boring thing I ever attended, their drinking games were pitiful, and by the end of the night the pretty much all told me their life's problem and ended up love hurt (them). So I prefer being the designated driver, karma doesn't pay much from it, but it as from time to time.

Last party I attended was the Engineering faculty family party, decided to go for some reason, turned out okay, then again, how could it have been bad, having a karaoke setting in a pub with about 80 drunk people, singing many songs like: Don't stop believing, I'm gonna be (500 miles), Fuck her gently, and many more.

A bit hypocrite of me to skip 5 pages of replies before posting isn't it? I'll read through, don't worry, have a good night.

Edit: okay, I read most of them and skimmed the rest, best I could do.
and it might be on subject so, when I was living at the 69, I was constantly in a party atmosphere but barely ever participated or drank anything, there were good times, there were boring times, and my best times were we a small group of friend (except one of them, were I can't recall the order of things enough for my taste), where I actually drank, and the best one of all, I was reading people's future with a regular deck of cards, fairly easy actually, my imagination was my limit. And now I tend to drink alone too much, which I prefer to with too many people, sadly.

Dude I had a nice reply going to you!
But this keyboard is full of retard! and It decided to go to my last quote! >:[

anyway

I think I was basically gonna say that small get to get togethers are extremley fun! but get boring after awhile.
:]

 

[Betancore]

I don't really party, since most of the parties thrown by high school kids tend to be pretty lame. I just don't share their interest in crappy music and rubbing up against one another. But I don't mind getting together with people I like and having a good time with them. I hate it when a friend drags me along to some party, and I don't know anyone there. I don't mind a couple of strangers, because meeting new people is fun, but I start feeling depressed when I'm the only sober person in the middle of a faceless crowd of people trying too hard to be happy.

 

[THEfog101]

Parties....... they are little more than a compulsory social gathering that greatly increases the chances of finding suitable companions in the conundrums of young adult life. but yes i go to them fairly often and they are great amounts of fun, remember though that drinking is only fun up until a certain point lol.

 

[ottenni]

Parties are fun. Its always nice to meet new people and to catch up with people who you haven't seen in a while. I like many people here it seems do not drink at parties. Partially because i'm the designated driver (i volunteer, just to be sure my friends will get home safely even if i'm not needed) and partially because my friends are mostly horrible drunks. Which is sad but it does encourage me to go talk to people i dont know at parties, and thats kinda the whole point.