America meet Futbol

   Growing up in the northeast, football was that thing played in the fall reviving high school rivalries and a chance for malt vinegar on fries. So marrying a Mann U man has been interesting.

   The World Cup was something that I remember hearing about when I was a kid, but never really got into. In fact, soccer wasn't a big draw where I lived. It was the "sport" that those who can't sport played. Fortunately my man's patient and slowly introduced me to the what's really an entertaining game. Though this year, nail-biting isn't even close to describing it.

   This has provided me with some wonderful insight on the sport, the fans, and how others see it.

       It's a third world country game. Yeah heard people I respect say this. Can't figure this one out exactly except for maybe the fact that it's often shown in movies and television commercials as being played by young children in foreign countries playing on dirt or in streets with crumbling buildings. Of course let's just ignore that other countries play this like England, Poland, Greece, Spain, and pretty much the rest of the world. Boys, girls, men and women in like every other country out there...just not here. Instead of looking at it as "it's a game for those poor people who have nothing" it should be looked at as "damn, this is a sport everyone, everywhere seems to love regardless of income or geopolitical stability."

It really brings people together.

        It's just a lot of running and kicking. Yes, yes it is. But seriously you try running up and down a field between 90-130 yards. In rain, heat, ice, bugs, and vuvuzelas. Kicking a small round ball and making it curve in unnatural and perhaps supernatural ways doesn't come easy to most people. Try it some time, kick that soccer ball and try to make it bend midair and reverse direction. I'll wait.

       It's not as hardcore as American football. Yeah, nope. This is just from this year. Seriously I doubt most of use would keep going with a broken nose, running 100 yards, in 75% humidity.

Breaking player's nose doesn't stop them.

         The players cry/whine too much on the field. Ok, granted there's a lot of acting in the Cup. Lots. But that's not different from any other sport, they all have their time wasters and black eyes. Most people go to hockey (which I am a fan of so I speak from experience) to see fights. Football--to see the big concussive tackles that may or may not brain damage players. Baseball--nope, can't figure out why people go to see it.

        Futbol/soccer is as corrupt as any other sport. If you know nothing about FIFA other than the adorable "we fight match fixing" commercials, well Google them. The next two Cups are in Russia and Qatar. Russia was bad enough, but Qatar? Middle of a dessert, 120 F temperatures, floating Jetson's style air conditioners, and slave labor dying--literally--to build stadiums and housing. Compare this to the doping, murder charges, and embezzling of other sports and other sports seem like rank amateurs. 

     The fans are just as bad as any sport. Or good depending on your view. New to the sport? Some of them will make your life miserable if you ask what the pitch is. I've witnessed normal ordinary looking men and woman turn into raving lunatics when a goal kick is missed. Or an extra point kick. Or the puck is stopped at the line. Or the mirror-ball trophy goes to the wrong couple. It's all the same. Being a fan means being a fan. 

     Want more proof:

The standard:

Soccer

Hockey

The cute:

Soccer

Football

WTF:

    

    In the end a fan is a fan, sports are sports, and a good time is a good time. So give futbol/soccer a chance. Go to a bar and watch with fans. You might like it. At the very least you might find common ground in both agreeing that no one understands why people watch MLB. 

   Oh and ladies and gentlemen, there's one more draw. These men are seriously gorgeous. 

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

What can really be done in 30 days?

     Thirty days doesn’t seem like much, but a lot can change during them. Zombie outbreaks, aliens, your favorite wrestler going solo, the transition to summer mode and then the inevitable re-transition back to school, all could happen within 30 days. Heck every time I click on Facebook I’m thrown an ad for “change your shape/fate/life in as little as 30 days.”

    

     What is it about the number 30? It is a primoral number. So I guess that makes it important to some. It’s one of the last big stages of young adulthood. It is a nice round number.  Total number of major and minor keys in our tonal music--30. Heck it’s even the number of tracks on the Beatle’s White Album.  Honestly though, I think it’s a Goldilocks thing: not too big—like 50—and not too small—like 10—so people can feel it might accomplish something but if you don’t stick with it, understandable, it was 30 days.

    

     I know a ton of people doing 30-Day challenges. Work outs, diets, movie, you name it, but none of them are really ones I can get into. My “I’m bored with this now” kicks in and I lose interest. Or worse I hurt myself. The discs in my neck and back pop out a bit and WHAM I’m on the couch again.

     But what about my other interests? November’s a long ways off and I need to get myself into a writing routine. Was that more important then getting into shape? (Pearish doesn’t count.) So I decided to combine them both. I issued myself my own 30-Day challenge.

     Writing part, that’s easy. Forcing myself to sit for 30 minutes is easy. I have two assignments I need to complete and there are plenty of contests I can enter. Plus I found a place to get editing practice till mu heart’s content and fingers are bleeding.

     Now the working-out part, that’s tricky.  All my life it’s been about losing weight. And that’s worked out so well. It’s time to change that. It’s not about weight, it’s about strength. That’s what was missing. Exercise tapes a-plenty plus walking should do the trick and keep my hey-look-there's-a-castle-ness at bay.

So bandwagon it is!!!

    

     30 minutes of writing, 30 minutes of exercise, 30 days to get it right. Think the routine should be set by then. Nope, I'm not selling anything, think of it as action research or an experiment. Are 30 little days really a magical cure-all that will transform a person, or is it about setting a goal to achieve something. I side with the latter, but that makes for an even more boring blog, so 30/30/30 it is. Let's see how this goes.

 

     If it doesn't work there's always Photoshop.

 

Once more into the breech...