[Pila]

I lose my appetite, my rationality and poise and become little more than an 8-year-old petulant child. I'm a win at-all-costs fan. Anything short of winning is a great disappointment. Failure, underachieving is unacceptable.

 

[Pila]

not at all.
i sitll remember when portugal lose a friendly against france. very bad lose. you posted in the french forum and your post was modest "mesuré".

I'm a sportsman. And my dislike for losing teaches me to appreciate, admire and respect the winners. But that doesn't mean losing doesn't eat at my insides like a parasite, ruins my mood and haunts me for days.

 

[Pila]

What a season this has been for you then. Consistently bitch slapped by your two biggest rivals. p

A forgetable season, responsible for many heartburns and bleeding ulcers.

 

[Pila]

This will cheer you up.

Couldn't get passed white's filter. I'll have to wait until I get home to see whatever abomination you posted - probably a pic of Galo da Costa in drag...

 

[Pila]

Also, Joshua's picture makes me think of lube.

It just wouldn't be the same if it didn't make you think of lube, or any other thing outside your affinity for the butt. It's your charm - embrace it. And pay no mind to those who can't find the humor in it.

 

[Pila]

I was once like that, but -with the risk of sounding like a crap fan- don't you think you sort of grow out of that somehow? I did anyway. Let's say that I was down for days when my team lost back when I was a young teenager. Then my psychological problems hit me really hard during my mid-teens and I realised that "it was only football, only a game". I was happy just to attend games and be distracted from my real issues for a few hours, to have a break from daily issues. But shortly after the game those real problems are there again, and then you sort of realise that a defeat or a relegation in football is just a bad result but nothing more. It is a game. In the end the real issues in life are your job, guaranteeing an income, support your family (if you have one), ... Football is a pleasant hobby but I have difficulties in taking it too serious. I wouldn't want to anyway, not even the worst defeat comes anywhere near the seriousness of real problems: finances, health, unemployment, you get what I mean. I am happy I have football and groundhopping on weekly basis to offer me amusement and a break from those serious issues, but just being at the stadium and enjoying myself is fulfilling my needs really, the result of the game is nowhere near the priority.

Maybe I am no "die hard" then but I can easily smile again 5 minutes after losing 9-0, or sleap well after my team has just been relegated. Some really difficult times during my youth have put football in perspective to me, and having a game without worries to me is actually my own victory even if my team is losing heavily. I still need Xanax with me as a panic attack can occur at any time even during a football game, to spend an entire day out (leaving for an away game in the morning, seeing the game without any hassle, and returning home in a good mood) without those issues is my own victory even if my team just lost quite badly.

Thus the term - Fan(atic). It doesn't have to have rhyme or reason - sport is life's escape clause. We invest heavily with emotion and our pocket book because it is one of the few things that we can remain being irrational about without life's potential price that may come with misjudgement.

It's a license, a chance, to be reckless with our interests. When it goes wrong, you pay only with a mood swing, whereas in real life you need to remain desciplined, apply even-keeled rationale even in tough times to deal and overcome with the obstacles that come your way. That takes effort and work, so it becomes important for us to take the occasional moment off to be irrational and immature. Wihtout it, we'd be killing eachother at rates not seen since the beginning of civlization. It's a way to funnel and channel our competitive animalistic instincts... a relief valve, if you will.

 

[Pila]

Shaddap, boy. You speak when I tell you to speak.

 

[Pila]

Your attempts at a lucid analogy is a lot like watching an infant trying to start a chainsaw - the efforts are cute, but an eventual disaster.