It occured to me today what would make handball a more interesting sport to watch. They show a lot of handball on Norwegian tv, always the Norwegian women's national team that's playing in some tournament.. *yawn* I imagine they persist with the women's team because they have better results. Or it could be because they are prettier to watch. Well whatever the reason. The point if you watch something really pointless long enough, there is a good chance you will sooner or later think of improvements. I suppose the 3 minutes per year over the past 7 years have accumulated to such an amount which would qualify for that situation, because today I came up with something that would improve the sport for everyone.

You know how American sports fans often talk down on soccer, saying it's not a "real man's game" because they don't fight enough? Well the same could be said for handball. Handball is much more violent, they push, shove, pull each other with no restrictions and the sport in itself is one step away from a fist fight. But they never fight, do they? I know what you're thinking, women fighting, how ridiculous, cat fights don't qualify as a sport. But these are not regular women, they are huge and strong. Sometimes you will see an attacking player trying to make a shot on goal and you have two defenders hanging off her arm and she still gets a shot out of it. I don't know how that's even possible but it proves that these ladies are not your standard women, they are made for fighting. A handball player would kick my ass, she'd kick your ass too, both of us at the same time, they are really mean. So why not do the logical thing and let them fight?

Afterall, what is it that makes boxing so popular? I don't get it, I don't like it myself, I think it's boring. But a lot of guys love watching that, so there must be something to it. Hockey? fights. Football? ramming into other players. Basketball? not a real contact sport, for wussies. Soccer? don't even go there. Say what you want but fighting is popular. So why not bring that excitement to handball? Think about it, all those guys getting together on a Saturday night, everyone bring a case of beer and they sit down to watch women's handball. Women who fight much better than they do and could beat them up anytime.

How would the handball federation like to increase support for their sport by say 200-250%?

Last week I was having lunch at Burger King (isn't it about time they get an award for their lousy burgers?) because it's reasonably cheap compared to the alternatives. Anyway, I was holding my tray of food, making my way through the people in line and this one guy is in my way. The very first thing that came to mind (without saying it mind you :P) was: move, bitch. :D Interesting because I would never say that and I've never thought it before so it's gotta be an outside influence...

Okay, think about it. How many guys do you know or have you known that you would call "a jerk", "an asshole", "a jackass" or any similar quantity? Quite a few, right? Now how many girls would fit the same description? It's my feeling that the balance between men and women on that level is pretty skewed, and yet we don't consider men scum and women great, do we? Sure every side has bad apples, but we just seem to have a lot more of them, don't you think?

I just think men get away with more. When I see someone being a jackass, I say he's a jackass. But it doesn't really bother me, it's a normal thing, right? So to some extent it's expected behavior. But when I see a stuck up, pretentious, arrogant, slutty woman, I get annoyed and I might say she should not have her own tv show. It can be very annoying at times, with these horrible women in high places. Now I'm not saying women shouldn't have those opportunities, I think equality is the ideal. But it bugs me all the same. But with men? Used to it.

So I think more is expected of women, they're supposed to be better than us. Now it's not that I used that as an excuse for myself, I've actually never tried that. But I wonder if I did, would I be treated less harshly?

Ps. Before you say the obvious, I realize this theory badly needs convincing examples. The only one I can think of is Bill O'Reilly, a class a jackass. And when I watch his show on occasion, I always think that but if he were a woman it would be much worse.

Do you think that is a long time? 10 minutes is about the time it takes to..

1. Listen through 2 long songs or 3 shorter ones

2. Run out to the store for a grocery shopping supplemental run

3. Shower twice

4. Watch two sets of in-between-programming commercial sessions

5. Take 30 penalties (and score 21 but your mileage may vary :P)

10 minutes is also the duration in which I can stay alert in class. I don't know what it is about that situation of being at school but for some reason 10 minutes of a lecture is all that I can take without getting really drowsy. The first 10 minutes in case you're wondering. :P And it's not because it's boring, I've watched lectures on recording at home and thought they were interesting. Obviously the reason I chose these courses is that they interest me to begin with so that is no valid reason. What else could it be? Seats too comfortable? Too warm in the room? Too dark? Too quiet? Boring teacher? Slides too dull? I cannot figure out what it is but the whole situation of being in school and being at a lecture just makes me drowsy. No matter what. If I have to take notes, that helps. Math helps too cause that requires some brain activity. But most lectures are just showing slides and talking about them, in which case I understand them fine and it bores me or I don't understand them and I just can't bring myself to care about it. It's not the teacher either, some teachers are very enthusiastic and energetic, that doesn't help. Knowing I'm at school, I start falling asleep, that's the way it works.

Today was guest lecture day, a guy working as IT project manager, head of system development for Statoil, Norway's biggest private company had a talk about methodology and architecture at Statoil. Then in the middle of it the fire alarm goes off. And this reaction I thought was quite interesting. First of all there was no rush, no urgency whatsoever. And looking around the auditorium everyone including the guest lecturer and the two professors had this look of irritation and indifference on their faces. As if to say "oh crap not this now". So very very slowly we start walking out of the room, going down the stairs and outside in the parking lot. On the way out we pass a janitor in the hall, he was going down to the basement. After a few minutes the fire department arrives on the scene, again no urgency in their conduct. It was a dull event, no smoke seen anywhere, the chemistry institute is right next door from us so presumably they messed something up. But just to see the reactions of the people was interesting, a universal contempt for something that would disturb their day without having any inherent significance to it other than to annoy them.

My instinct reaction was thank goodness that alarm bell they have every few doors down every hallway is not my alarm clock.