WTF is that and where is Amnesty International!?

As some of you (especially those living in Europe)may know, the country I live in and Switzerland are currently hosting the European Football/Soccer (the terminology depends on the country you live in) Championship.

For months now Austrian media have been building up the hype to this event. Every other commercial had to be associated with the sport, every day news about the preparations and fates of the contestants were forced on the public, regardless of their interest in the sport. The latter is not a bad thing. To be interested in the contest of skill, strategy and tactic that plays out during such competitions is surely a absorbing activity. I'm willing to admit as much albeit it's not my cup of tea.

I've always had an ambivalent relationship to this sport. I remember the first soccer game I saw, although not for the game itself. Of course, I still recall that my dad took me to a semi-professional match at some small stadium, but I couldn't tell you who played against whom or who won. The only real memory I have is that I got a splinter of wood stuck in my behind from the bench I was sitting on. I still see my grandmother sanitizing that needle over the gas flame of her oven. You could say me and soccer didn't have a good start.

Now I've been greatly ambivalent to all the Europhoria (as the newspapers cutely chose to refer to the building hype). It did not get to me in any way except for a mild annoyance. This disgruntlement was less due to the sport itself and more due to the nationalistic spirit that seems to have claimed the whole country. I mean there are people talking about soccer who would never do so on any other occasion, almost every car has several pathetic little flags fit at it's rear doors, Cordoba (that was that one match a couple of decades ago during which Austria beat Germany) gets mentioned over and over again.

I just don't understand this. It's one thing to be interested in the sport, to watch a game because it's fascinating to watch. It's a completely different matter to identify so throughout with a team based on nationality. Just add the willingness to commit violence in the name of that outlook, and it' seems very fishy to me. (Yes, those soccer hooligans don't only exist in England...)

That was, until last Thursday. I was on the way home in the evening and just getting out of the subway. A crowd of 20-30 people got out on the same station. All of them were wearing red and white checkered jerseys, waving red and white scarfs and singing joyfully. Their faces were full of glee, split by huge grins. That positive feeling was so infective that I could not help but smile with them. I didn't even know why, I couldn't quite pinpoint what drove me to this, but I kept this elation for the rest of the evening.

Only later I learned that Croatia had indeed beat Germany that day (although I had deduced that much from their fan's behaviour). I understand the fan-perspective a little better now. And although I still don't really care about soccer and still can't stand the overabundance of coverage, I'm a little less concerned about that whole 'home team' issue I described above.

We just got the following spam e-mail at work:

Subject: easy life

1. Find a girl
2. Invite her to your appartments
3. Use subject product V (or C)
4. Have fun
5. Take her number
6. Profit?

Now... I don't know about you but to me it sounds like the modus operandi of a crazy sociopathic scientist...

You (except for those who received comments from me) probably wondered where I went.

I guess I can't blame you, since I haven't uploaded anything new for a month now. While the reasons are various, here's the top 3:

1. Lucia!
2. Lucia!
3. Lucia!

Yes, our little one manages to keep me away from art. Although she's only sleeping, eating and performic basic bodily functions. (The last of which is my job of taking care of when I'm home.) The amplitude of those occurences is still too short to do anything worthwhile in the meantime.... I really should be more critical with my time-management, otherwise I'll fall deeper into that black hole of not creating anything and the longer it lasts, the more difficult it is to crawl out of.

Some other things happened too, but they aren't nearly as important.

1) The Cure played in Vienna on the 23rd of February. I had a T-shirt printed with a simple piece I have drawn. I don't know yet about posting it...
It was my first Cure show, and I have been listening to them for almost a decade now. It was plain awesome. I almost cried when they played From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea (my favourite Cure song)
I hope they come again to Vienna some time in the near future.

2) I'm currently researching for SCROLL, which turned out to have a rather broad scope of areas that influence it. (This is one of the other reasons mentioned above.) I know I could simply start out and see where the story goes, but I'd rather have at least some more background knowledge of what I'm doing.

Cat's in labour contractions since about 10:30 in the morning (so for about 8 hours now). I'm for a quick visit home to feed the cats and get her stuff, then I'm off for a probably sleepless night. I haven't slept in 28 hours right now, but I don't feel it anymore. I'm just excited!!!!

Yeah!

EDIT: It's almost 24 hours and still nothing new. The contractions well up and down but they aren't enough to start the birth. So we're waiting....

EDIT: They let us go 36 hours after we arrived at the hospital. The pains subsided during the past 12 hours. The midwives and doctors assume that what they caught were merely premonitory pains. I'll let you know the day after tomorrow, when we go to the hospital again to check if anything changes....

Yes, I too would be more happy to post a picture of Lucia than this....


Thank you everyone who commented, I'll reply as soon as I arrive at work tomorrow. Now I'll just drop to bed... Good Night...