I got a haircut today and as always it was a weird experience. I’d rather go to the dentist than a hairdresser, because at the dentist you get your own room and you just lie back and let them go to work. But at the hairdresser there are all these people around you and you have to participate with instructions about how you want your hair, the length, style, colour, which kind of hair wax, and so on and so forth. There are the obligatory questions about this haircut compared to the last one you got (should it be longer or shorter than last time?), but if you’re anything like me you have no clue what your hair looked like two months ago, so you just say that whatever she thinks would be nice is fine with you and then hope she doesn’t get too fresh with the electrical shaver. And at the end she shows you the back of your head in a mirror and asks if you like it. What are you supposed to say to that? It’s not like you can ask for a do-over. So you just nod in acceptance and wonder if she really is able to remember how much she cut off the last time or if she just saying that it's shorter this time to mess with you.

The conversation during the actual cutting process is also a strange affair. Usually, I try not to say anything, because I feel weird making small-talk with someone I don’t really know, who’s basically getting paid to be there. But it depends on who is cutting my hair how uncomfortable I am and the girl who cuts it now is pretty nice, so I usually make a little small-talk with her. I’ve been going to this place for less than a year and the reason I changed salons (I wish there was a more masculine word, but I can’t think of one) was that they kept changing their staff at the last place I went to. I went through three different people there and the second one was a real piece of work (I really liked the first one, but finally gave up on the place, because I couldn't understand a word the third one was saying). She was nice enough, but she wasn’t exactly shy, so she’d just burst out with really personal information that you honestly don’t want to hear in a situation where you can’t get up and leave. It got really embarrassing the time she told me about this birth control device she’d gotten inserted into her arm (I’m not making this up), and since at this point she’d only cut the hair on one side of my head I had to stick around to hear her bang on about it for another twenty minutes. Maybe I’m repressed or something, but I can live without hearing about strange women’s choice of birth control.

Maybe the reason I think going to the hairdresser is a strange experience is because for a long time I didn’t cut my hair. From 1990 to 1998 scissors did not touch my hair, which meant that for a long time my hair went down to my waist and not surprisingly it didn’t look so great. But the theory was that if you wanted long hair you shouldn’t cut it (or as Alice in Chains said at the Metallica unplugged show: “Friends don’t let friends cut their hair”), so I didn’t cut it. But eventually the grunge look got boring (I got rid of the Doc Martens, the ripped jeans, and the flannel long before the hair), so I cut it and the funny thing was that the hairdresser was more hesitant about cutting it than I was ("Are you sure you want me to do this?" she kept saying). So it’s only in the last couple of years I’ve gone to a hairdresser on a regular basis, so maybe in a year or two I’ll enjoy it as much as going to the dentist.

I was a big fan of The Cosby Show growing up. I watched it all the time and my favourite episode was the one where the kids put on a show for their grandparents’ anniversary. The big finale is Olivia lip syncing her heart out to some gospel song sung by a woman, who sounds like she has just risen from the grave. And her performance is so great that they play it again during the credits (oh, another choice moment is the episode, where Bud duets with BB King on How Blue Can You Get. Bud (or Kenny as he was actually called) was one of my favourite guest characters). I also really liked A Different World, but that wasn’t so much because it was a spin-off as it was because I thought Dwayne Wayne was a riot and Cree Summer was kinda hot. I also read Bill Cosby’s book Fatherhood and I have Inside the Mind of Bill Cosby on vinyl, which I bought in a second hand shop years ago.

I also really like Eddie Murphy, so when I saw the movie Raw years ago I thought he did a funny impression of Cosby and I liked the way he made it sound like Bill’s real home was like it was on the show (I don’t handle the money. My wife, Camille, handles the money). If you haven’t seen Raw the bit centres on Cosby’s son Ennis, who wants to go see Eddie do stand-up and when he gets back Cosby asks his son what the show was like. After a while the kid finally tells his father, what Eddie said at the show, which leads to Cosby calling Eddie to complain about the filth-floin-filth that Eddie says on stage (to this day I don’t know what floin means or if it’s even the right word, but that’s what it sounds like). So Cosby chastises Eddie for cursing on stage, which leads to a very funny Richard Pryor impersonation with a lot of cursing and the show just continues with more and more funny stuff.

The point is that I didn’t actually think that Cosby ever called Eddie to complain about the show, but after reading a recent article where Cosby criticises the show The Osbournes I’m beginning to think that maybe he did. And that maybe he’s a bit of an annoying know-nothing know-it-all. I think that’s a real shame, because I always thought he seemed like a really nice guy.

It seems like everyone is playing the name search game on Google, and since my last entry didn’t provide a very interesting return I’ve decided to add a better sentence at the end of this entry just to see if it gets picked up by Google instead.

I was watching Time of Your Life (which is best known as a vehicle for Jennifer Love Hewitt’s heaving bosom) and Jessica Garner's character mentioned that Go Away Little Girl by Donny Osmond was her favourite song. But a little research showed that it's not the same song as the one I heard Steven Wishnoff sing last year at Don't Tell Mama's since the punch line of Osmond version isn't "I'm gay little girl, so go away little girl". But I couldn’t figure out, who wrote that version.

If you’ve never gone to work with a hangover I suggest that you keep it that way. I’ve done it a couple of times and it’s brutal. I went to the Skt. Hans party Sunday night (it translates into a Midsummer Night party) and I tried to moderate my intake of alcohol. But it turns out that even if you drink moderately, then drinking moderately for eight hours means you’ve still been drinking quite a bit. And then going to work after four or five hours of drunken sleep isn’t really that great an idea. So all day I looked like I’d been on a Downey Junior-style bender and the type of assignments I got didn’t exactly help (let’s just say you haven’t tried mindless work until you’ve applied white-out to 60 Xeroxed pages to cover black marks left by the holes that were punched in the original). So as soon as I got home I went straight to bed and pretty much sleeped the rest of the day.

Yesterday, I went shopping with my sister to get my Dad a birthday present. Later, we went out to my parents’ house for lunch and hung out there the rest of the day. I saw the Germany – South Korea game, which predictably ended 1-0 to the Germans. It was a pretty good game, but I think it’ll prove to be a big handicap for the German side to have to play the final without Michael Ballack. He’s been their best offensive player all through the tournament, so the fact that he’s banned from the final is a major blow to the team. We also saw the two final episodes of 24 and I have to say that I was a bit disappointed. I thought the final revelation was ridiculous and Bauer going crazy Rambo-style was a bit weird. However, I liked how they dealt with the wives of the two main characters and the Bauer/Drazen show-off at the end was understandable. I doubt the second series will be very interesting, but I’ll probably give it a chance.

I’ll be pretty busy the next two weeks. I’m going to a three day wedding this Friday, so before I leave I have to buy a present, get a haircut, find some clothes, and generally get organized. Monday I'll probably have to work and then get ready for the Midtfyns Festival, which I’ll be leaving for Tuesday morning. I won’t be back from that until the following Monday, but because I’ll be covering the festival for opasia.dk I’ll be online throughout the festival, which means I’ll be able to update the blog and link to some of the interviews I’ll be doing. I’m really looking forward to seeing bands like Rival Schools and Muse and I’d love to interview both bands. But so far I don't know what I'll be doing down there, but I'll let you know about it when I get more info.

I’m experimenting with a program called MailWasher today. It’s a program, which checks your mail server to see, which kind of mail you have waiting for you. So not only does it allow you to sort through spam and mails with attachments, without downloading them, it also allows you to bounce mails, so you hopefully won’t get any more spam from that account. I’m not sure how well it works, but it sounds like a good idea, so I’m giving it a shot.

And in reference to what I was saying earlier: John is a Fauxhemian

I haven’t really done anything the last couple of days. I’m still trying to organize my apartment and I’ve been watching a lot of TV, so today’s ramblings are just a bunch of different things I’ve thought about the last couple of days.

Like I said earlier my predictions for who will win the World Cup suck. Now Spain is out meaning that South Korea can meet Turkey in the final. Which they probably will if this tournament goes like it’s been going so far.

Wil Wheaton had a funny entry the other day about the Germany – USA game, where the Americans got to feel the Wrath of Kahn. I hadn’t even thought of that reference even though there’s an entire Seinfeld episode, where they discuss which is the better Trek movie.

I have a friend from Brooklyn, who’s a photographer. His name is Joey and he has a website called Joey’s World, which he has just updated. I met him in London in 1998 and managed to keep in touch until I could afford a trip to NYC in August/September last year. We hung out quite a bit and it was nice to know someone in the city especially which all the commotion surrounding 9/11. Anyway, besides being a good friend, he is a brilliant photographer, so check out his website.

I don’t really follow British music as closely as I did, when I could get Radio One on my radio. But it seems that the cool kids are into The Streets now. I heard them at a party recently and now they’re getting a lot of play on MTV2. The critics love them and if you're into hip hop performed by a white guy, who sounds like Tricky, then this is something you'll dig.

Speaking of music it seems that R. Kelly has decided to write a song about the child pornography case against him called Heaven, I Need a Hug. Oh My God! He should probably stop writing songs about this topic, since it was probably the inspiration for songs like Feelin' On Yo Booty, Like A Real Freak, and The Greatest Sex that got him in trouble in the first place.

I was watching Searching for Bobby Fischer last night, which is an awesome movie. The cast is pretty incredible, and I really like the story as well. Generally, I tend to really like movies about chess (although Knight Moves did sort of fall through the cracks), because it’s such a fascinating game. I know the rules, but I can’t play it properly, so watching movies or hearing about people, who have the ability to foresee how the game will unfold, is really fascinating. Another really good chess movie is Fresh, where Sam Jackson plays a part very similar to the one played by Laurence Fishburne in Searching.

A lot of blogs have those tests to determine which Breakfast Club character you are or which kind of shampoo you are, but I tend not to put stuff like that on my blog. I don’t usually write about which Google searches send people to my site (some of you people should be ashamed of yourselves!), but here’s one I couldn’t resist. I was reading an entry in Kieran’s blog, where he suggested typing your name into Google like this “John is” to see which kind of a person you are. He listed a lot of hits, but here’s the ten first using my name:

John is a British artist
JOHN IS DEAD.
John is one of New York's winningest handicappers?!
John is an Exacta Box Specialist?!
John is a small village nestled along the Northumberland Strait.
John is also available separately for use in your software or on your servers.
John is hitting the road!
John is Gone, Or To Be An Evil Genius, You Have To Actually Be A Genius".
John is the Webmaster of WebWord.com
John is married to actress Marnie Mosiman, who played 1/3 of Riva's chorus in Star Trek's "Loud as a Whisper" and has two sons, ages 13 and 14.

I don’t know why this is funny, but it is.

I’m going to a party tonight to celebrate that today is the longest day of the year. It’s an old pagan tradition, which includes having a bonfire and burning a witch (we usually use a fake witch these days, though), and it’s usually a pretty great night out. I’m going down to the college campus, where my sister lives, to have a barbeque with some friends and then there’s a party, which is always fun. It’s one of those things that everyone shows up for, so you usually get to meet people you haven’t seen in ages. Unfortunately, I have to work tomorrow, so I won’t be able to party on full speed tonight, but even so it should be a fun night.

Unfortunately, both Brazil and Germany won their games today. I think I’ve made it very clear earlier that I don’t like Brazil, but in the match between Germany and USA I didn’t really have a favourite before the game. But once again the Germans played the most boring football ever and because of the incredible skill of Landon Donovan and the will to win displayed by the US team I started rooting for the Yanks (which as usual led to a defeat for my team). So it was a bummer, when the Germans scored and an even bigger bummer, when the ref didn’t notice that a German player standing on the goal line got his hand on the ball preventing it from going in. Oliver Kahn is a really good goalie and was the main reason the Germans won the game as their strikers barely created a chance in the entire game. My guess is that Germany will beat Spain in the semi finals and go on to play Brazil in the finals. But so far I haven’t predicted a result correctly in the entire World Cup, so I won’t be surprised if it’s South Korea and Senegal, who reach the final.

The English supporters must be very disappointed with the loss to Brazil today. This means that they won’t get to play Turkey in the semi finals, but more importantly it means they won’t get to hear a re-recording of the classic Duran Duran song Rio dedicated to the footballer Rio Ferdinand. Apparently, the fans have been creating their own tributes to the defender, who scored the first goal against Denmark, based on the Duran song. And this led Simon Le Bon to promise to re-record the song with new lyrics if the English squad beat Brazil. But now, unfortunately, this probably won’t happen.

I don’t like driving. I have no problem with being driven, but driving is not something I enjoy. When I was a kid the guys in my class would say stuff like: “When I’m eighteen my license will be right there waiting for me”, because they found it unthinkable that you could legally be allowed to drive and not want to take maximum advantage of this right. I didn’t get around to getting my license until I was 20 or 21 and then only because of some technicalities I’ll spare you for. I had a harsh woman driving instructor and I didn’t do well at the driving tests, but I got my license and pretty much just stuck it in my wallet and forgot about it. My parents suggested that I take the car out once in awhile, so I wouldn’t forget how to drive, so I did that on occasion, but I never felt any real joy in driving. I always found it to be a burden that you have to drive safely, be alert, find a parking spot, drive while everyone else is talking, and stay sober (none of which you have to do if you ride on the bus). Also, I’d get really paranoid, because I was driving my Dad’s car, and I’d hate to have to explain to him that I’d banged up the car or let it get stolen. And because I moved away from home before I got my license I had to go out to my parents’ house to get the car, which was just too much of a hassle.

The fact that I’ve crashed two cars doesn’t exactly make me enjoy driving, either. I’d like to point out that because I’m an inexperienced driver I’m also a cautious driver, so the two crashes aren’t because of recklessness on my behalf. The first crash was in my Dad’s car on my way back from the movies. While we’d seen the movie it had rained and started freezing, so it had gotten quite slippery. I was aware of this and drove slowly, but after changing gears the car for some reason spun out of control and we went sideways into a traffic light. The whole right side of the car was banged up and there were pieces of glass all over the car. My brother was sitting in the passenger seat and after making sure he was okay I carefully drove the car back home, inspected it, and went to bed. My parents were in Tunisia, so the next day I talked to a neighbour and decided to drive the car to the shop, call the insurance company, and tell my parents when they got back unless they called. Which they did, but they were really nice about it.

The second crash was because I’d never driven a van before and had no idea how to estimate the length of the thing. I was about to move my stuff into an apartment and had to pull the van through a narrow passageway to get to the parking spaces behind the apartments. I made a right turn and got half the car through, when the right side hit a metal plate, which is used for when you close the iron gate in front of the passageway. The metal plate went into the van door and scraped all the way across the side and eventually came out of the wall. Because it was a rental I wasn’t too embarrassed by the event, because I have a feeling stuff like this happens all the time, but it cost me a fortune to get the damn van fixed. And because I’d busted to door we had to pull all my gear out the back of the van.

Why am I mentioning all this? Because my new job requires me to drive on occasion. The company car is a Volvo station car, which means it’s not the handiest car for trips into the city, but because most trips are to the printers we need a spacious car. I’ve driven it twice without accidents, but I always get that feeling of doubt every time I enter out into traffic. Like I have no idea what I’m doing and that I’m breaking laws left and right. I’m sure if I got more experience driving the same car I’d get better and more confident, but for now I’d prefer not driving at all.

In all the commotion over the Danish defeat I forgot to write about the party we went to Friday night. I didn’t really know what to expect, but it was billed as a garden party with live music and several hundred guests, so it sounded alright by me. I had dinner with a friend first and then walked to the house, where this thing was held. As we were walking down the street towards the house we noticed a line outside the house and immediately got excited about the party. We got in line and noticed how well organized everything was. Everyone got a blue ribbon tied around their wrist and to the left of the entrance was a billboard divided into squares with numbers on them, where you were supposed to hang your ticket. The tickets would then form a huge version of the cover to the Sgt. Pepper album and it would be easy to see how many of the invited had actually shown up. In the garden was a stage set up beautifully between the trees with branches and leaves hanging down in front of the stage. Over the area in front of the stage were hung huge, white strips of cloth reminiscent of sails, which would prevent people from getting wet if it had started raining. And to the right of the stage were two large tents with tables and chairs and in the back was a large bar. All in all it was one of the most well organized parties I’ve ever been to.

We got in and hooked up with my brother and sister and a bunch of friends and started drinking and listening to the bands. But after about an hour we started hearing rumours that the cops had come to stop the party. Not only would that have been a bummer, but since the party was slated to continue the next night it would have been a double bummer. We’d been told that the people, who had arranged the party, had visited all the neighbours in advance and told them about the party and had gotten the go-ahead from the neighbourhood. So we didn’t quite understand, why the police had come, if no one had complained about the noise.

Finally, the guy who’d gotten my brother the invites explained the situation to us. Apparently, the arrangers had applied for a permit at the police station to have the party last year and had been told that they didn’t need a permit. They only needed permission from the neighbours, since it was a private party. So this year they hadn’t applied for a permit, but gotten permission from the neighbours. And since they didn't have a permission from the police, when the cops drove by, they saw the line in front of the house and got suspicious. They then came by claiming that this was a public party and because alcohol was served they’d have to shut the party down. The arrangers went on stage (no one actually saw the police in the garden) and said that there’d be no more music and that everyone would have to move indoors by 11. And that the second leg of the party wouldn't be held in the garden, but in a building by the harbour the next day.

Everyone got really pissed off, but what could you do but make jokes about having finally been to a party that had been brought down by The Man. So around 11 some people start moving indoors, but a lot stayed outdoors. And I actually stayed outdoors drinking until around 2, when we left the party, so the only thing the cops managed to do was stop the live acts and piss everyone off. It was just the most pointless act of power I’ve ever seen especially since they never came back to check that we'd stopped the party. Now I’m not one to quote Body Count, but it annoys me that they didn’t have something better to do on a Friday night than wreck a perfectly nice and peaceful party.

I try to work as much as I can these days, so when I was asked to fill in on Friday I gladly accepted. It wasn’t until I got home I realized that the quarter-finals are on Friday, so I started panicking a bit. I wanted the shift, but I didn’t want to miss the games, so I called one of the others who work there and traded shifts with him. So now I have to work tomorrow and he’ll cover my shift Friday. That means I still get the extra money and get to see the games at the expense of the two games tomorrow. I can definitely live with that although I'd love to see the Japan game.

While re-reading this segment I'm watching Parkie talking to James Nesbitt and it's hilarious. My mother is from Derry in Northern Ireland, so I always love hearing that weird accent. Nesbitt referred to a trip to Vegas as "a good crack" and says "coi-bois" instead of cowboys. I can sort of imitate it and will slide into it, when visiting family, but I haven't stayed long enough in the North to master it. But I still love hearing others talk that way.

I don't particularly want to comment on today's game, but not commenting at all would be the chicken way out, so here goes: I can't remember ever watching a game this terrible! Now I don't want to take anything away from the English side, who were very well organized especially in midfield and who appeared to be able to score at will, but the Danes played like shit. Goalie Thomas Sorensen, who'd played brilliantly the first three games, fumbled the ball into his own net after four minutes and from then on the Danes never got back into the game. He probably should have saved Heskey's shot which gave the third goal, but at that point it hardly mattered anyway. Jon Dahl missed a header, which must have created huge cheers in Newcastle, where they'd remember him missing chances like that on a regular basis and Ebbe Sand barely had a shot at goal. And to make matters worse it seem like the English were satisfied with 3-0, so they took it nice and slow in the second half, which made the defeat and our lack of ability to score even more embarrassing. It's not so much losing I mind as much as it is the way they lost. They played a horrible game and were beaten severely and that's a very sad way to leave an otherwise impressive World Cup tournament.

So the result of the game put quite a damper on the party I was at, but we still managed to have an enjoyable day and evening, which including a couple of games of croquet and the consummation of a lot of alcohol and a big bowl of chilli con carne. I’m still very depressed about the whole thing and decided to leave the party as the rest of the guests began playing a very complicated drinking game. I have so far refused to watch any of the post-game interviews and haven’t heard anyone comment on the game or seen “highlights” and hopefully I can get through tomorrow without hearing about the game as well. Now all there’s left to do is cheer for Sweden and hope that the English will beat Brazil.

Thankfully, sometimes what comes around goes around, which means Portugal follows fellow favourites France and Argentina out of the tournament. Korea's Park scored one of the Cup's best goals and made sure that they went undefeated to the second round. All the best to them in what will surely be an interesting game against Italy.

Now it's time to wash the original, vintage Danish 1986 World Cup jersey that my brother nicked from my Dad and I then nicked from my brother, so it'll be nice and clean for good luck tomorrow.

Right now I'm watching the Portugal - South Korea game and I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that throughout the tournament the Portuguese team has sucked. Big time! I have no special affinity for the American team, but I think it’ll be very unfair if Figo and friends go on to the second round with a 0-0 game, because the Yanks fumble the ball in the end zone against Poland. But then fair and football rarely go together, do they? It’s just so depressing to watch these world class players stink so badly. And I’ll agree with commentator Per Pedersen that the Joao Pinto’s sliding tackle should not only have gotten him a red card, but also a prison sentence.

I’m going to a thing called the Potten Festival tonight. I might go tomorrow as well (if it’s any good), but I won’t watch the game there, because of the graduation party I’m going to. I’m not really sure what will happen at the festival, but as far as I know this is an annual event held by a group of people, who share a house not far from here. Apparently, they set up a stage with bands, three bars, a food tent, and a DJ booth and then have a two day party in their backyard. I got invited through my brother and both he and my sister (and their friends) will be there, so it ought to be good. I’ll hook up with a friend later and have dinner and then we’ll go check it out.

Thanks to all the people, who’ve commented on the Denmark – England game. Not surprisingly I’m rooting for Denmark, but I’d just like to say that I hope everyone will enjoy the game and hopefully the better team will win. And hopefully whoever wins will go on to beat the living daylights out of those smug Brazilians.

When I moved into my apartment two weeks ago I was told there would be cable TV already installed for me. So I wasn’t really surprised, when I plugged the TV into the cable outlet and all I got was static, but in this time of World Cup fever the thought of having no TV signal was almost chilling. So I got my old antenna back from my brother (you know the kind you stick on top of your set and then spend hours adjusting to get the best picture), so I at least had the three national channels, which allowed me to watch most of the games. I called the cable company and ordered the full cable package, which I was told would be ready for me in no more than sixteen days, which I found very annoying (especially since the same company was supposed to have my phone ready that day, but had screwed up, so I had to call both them and their cable department from my sister’s). Every day I would check to see if my channels were back on, but all I saw was static until two days ago when it hit me that I might want to try pulling out the antenna cable and actually plugging the TV into the cable outlet again. And obviously now my channels are back and who knows how long they’d been waiting for me to pull them out of the wall and give them life on my 28” screen. Like the NYC cops I ain’t to smart.

So now the television is on 24/7 and I’ve been watching a lot of MTV2 the last couple of days. Generally, the music is better than the crud they play on MTV, but let me tell you loud guitars and anger does not necessarily a good rock song make. I could go on for days about bands I hate, but I’ve decided only to make fun of Papa Roach today. Their latest single is called She Loves Me Not and this time the unfortunately named Coby Dick has gone from running and crying (Last Resort) to crying day and night (Broken Home) to reflecting over crying for five years (no less) and realizing that life's not fair and that he’s the jerk. I liked the aggression of Last Resort, but already after seeing the video for the first time I realized how horrific this band is. And with every single they’ve gotten more and more annoying and the main point of frustration seems to be the banalities leaving the quivering lips of front man Dick. Even self proclaimed loser and microphone abuser Fred Durst doesn’t whine and rhyme this poorly. Why people like these guys is beyond me, when there’s a barrage of bands, who sound almost the same, but doesn’t whine nearly as much. But I’ll keep watching MTV2 as long as they keep playing bands like Muse and Rival Schools.

I don’t listen to Danish radio much, because they play horrible music, the DJs aren’t funny or smart, and I hate those call-in radio contests. But I had the radio on Monday, because I thought my cable was out. I was listening to their World Cup coverage and heard a couple of new songs I hadn’t heard before. One that’ll probably be a hit this summer is the new Sophie Ellis-Bextor single Get Over You, which I thought sounded suspiciously like Wham Rap! (which might not necessarily be a bad thing). Another is the Vanessa Carlton single A Thousand Miles, which I really like. I know my street and/or indie cred will plummet faster than Enron shares with this admission, but I think it’s a cool song. Very catchy chorus and to me it sounds like the single Sony wished Ben Folds had written. And for once it’s nice to see (and hear) a cute, teenage performer, who seems to be able to do more than show of her midriff. I doubt I’ll by the album, but as singles go I think it’s rather good.

I just saw Doogie Howser rapping alongside Snoop on a song from Undercover Brother. Doogie is the whitest guy ever! What a weird concept for a video. And what was Buckethead doing next to Bootsy? It’s all very strange.

Yesterday was spent trying to set up the apartment and putting my closet back together. It’s insanely heavy and large, so I had to disassemble it to move it out of the old apartment and then yesterday I had to reassemble it, which wasn’t easy. It’s so big you could live in it (if you were so inclined), so I had to assemble it standing up, because I knew if I assembled it on the floor I wouldn’t be able to lift it up by myself. The first bit was fairly easy, but after you’ve attached the sides and the middle bit to the bottom bit you have to attach the top bit to the sides and middle bit (these are technical terms you may not be familiar with, but try to keep up) and there’s the rub. I managed to screw one of the screws into the middle bit, so the top bit would stay on, but while I reached for more screws something went wrong and the top collapsed and the screw tore through the middle bit. So now there’s a huge crack in the back of my closet, which hopefully will be unnoticeable once I get around to putting all my jumpers in there (I’ll be getting some funny Google referrals because of this segment). After assembling it I realized that it didn’t at all fit, where I wanted it to fit, so I had to move everything else around, which wasn’t easy. Not only are the bed and closet very heavy, but there isn’t a lot of manouvering room, because of all the boxes. But I got it done and the next project is to buy those nails with the plastic hooks on them, so I can get all those phone lines and computer cables away from the floor.

The last thing I’ll mention is the four phone calls I made to my ISP today to complain about a bill for more than $300 they’d sent me for some computer equipment. The deal is that when you move sometimes they have to send you a new modem and if you don’t send the old one back in a fortnight then you have to pay for it. But as it turns out they bill you right away and then if you return the modem they cancel the bill, which is what I assume they’ll do now that I’ve sent them their stuff. But I found it very offensive that they assume you won’t return their shit, then bill you without an explanation and then on the off chance you do return it they graciously cancel the bill. And on top of that they had the nerve to charge me $12 for changing my subscription? Service is obviously a thing of the past.

A friend of mine just graduated as an architect today (I always wanted to pretend I was an architect) and he invited me to a celebratory brunch before we all watch the Denmark/England game together. I actually had other plans, but gladly changed them to be a part of the graduation party.

England failed to score against Nigeria and Sweden played a pretty good game against Argentina for a draw, which means the Argentinians will have to pack their bags (or purses if you will) and leave the tournament as the second of the teams named among the favourites to win the World Cup. This means we'll meet England in the second round, which seems like a pretty good deal. So far they've only scored two goals and one of those was on a penalty, so unless Michael Owen suddenly finds his form we should be able to beat them. And the motivation should be there as well. Because if we win we'll probably meet Brazil in the quarters and get a chance to revenge the 2-3 loss from 1998, which would be sweet beyond belief.

It was fun watching the Swedes give it their all today and I wish them all the best against Senegal, which is a team they should be able to beat even if Ljungberg stays on the injured list.

Not surprisingly most of my day after work has been spent watching highlights from today's amazing game. A very cool slow motion montage of the Danish squad fighting an uphill battle against the immense pressure from the French strikers while Blur's The Universal played in the background has been my favourite so far. The French fans are beyond disappointed and are saying what the Dutch fans said, when their team didn't qualify for the World Cup. They refer to their squad as a VIP-team, where the players are too concerned with being superstars and making commercials. It seems a viable explanation for the dismal effort from both teams, which consist of some of the best and most famous players in Europe.

We'll play this Saturday in the second stage either against England, Sweden, or Argentina, which will be decided tomorrow morning. Before the group games I would have chosen Sweden as our preferred opponent, but Celtic’s Henke Larsson is showing incredible form and has so far been the most intimating striker in the group. And the thought of losing to Sweden is just too much to bear, so I think I’d prefer going up against England. But that won’t be an easy match either even if people seem to think Seaman is as likely to fumble the ball into his own net as Butterfingers Barthez. But I personally think he has played well all season and he’s only let in one goal so far, so I don’t think we’ll be that lucky. And with his buddies Cole and Campbell playing in defense our scrawny strikers will have to watch out. And the Brits also have Beckham and Michael Owen, who will probably chose the game against us to peak and play like it was the final. So I’m very anxious about the game tomorrow, which will tell us a lot about their form.

It’ll also be very interesting to see the Sweden – Argentina game tomorrow. Argentina seems to have the ability to pull out something amazing when it’s needed. But I won’t mind seeing the Swedes beat them and it would be great to see Ljungberg in top form and maybe even see the Red Marauder score a goal or two. But my guess would be that tomorrow afternoon England will have 7 points and Argentina will have 6, which means we’ll have to stop Batigol and friends if we want to get a rematch against Brazil in the quarterfinal. It is almost too exciting.

Unbelievable!!!
2-0 against the French and two of my three bets (Rommedahl as first scorer and 2-0 as the result) will pay of nicely. Now it's off to work with a big smile on my face.

I've been checking out some of the blogs that I haven't had a chance to follow, while I was off-line. As usual Catchdubs delivers the dope-ass links and this time he led me to The South Park Creator. So here's the closest I could come a self portrait in the style of South Park:

After a long and busy week I’m now back in the blogging game. A lot of stuff has happened, but not so much in the “I’m going to Jamaica to marry Christy Turlington” vain as the “working and getting organized” vain.
I’m actually quite enjoying my new job. The people are incredible nice and no one ever checks up on me to see if I’m doing my job. It’s very stress free even when there’s a lot to do. I’ve told them that I want as many shifts as possible, so I’ve been working two or three days a week, which suits me fine. I try to watch as many of the World Cup games as possible, which means I don’t get to sleep as much as I’d like. But hopefully getting up at 7 a.m. can become a habit I can keep, when I have to get started on my thesis.

But besides working and moving into my new apartment (and organizing all the annoying things, which goes together with moving) I’ve attended the bachelor party to end all bachelor parties. A good friend of mine is getting married in a couple of weeks, and a bunch of guys arranged a surprise party for him, which lasted almost 24 hours (I’d like to see Jack Bauer party for 24 hours instead of just fighting crime). Bachelor parties have a pretty bad reputation here, because for a while it became a tradition to put the groom-to-be through a series of humiliating events, which usually including tarting him up and parading him through town wearing a sign, which indicated that he was willing to perform sexual favours for change. But thankfully this was a lot more sophisticated, so after throwing my friend a surprise breakfast we’d hired a masseur for him and later we took him to a beauty parlour for men for a facial and both events were highly appreciated. We did a fair share of drinking, while the centre of attention was getting worked on, so spirits were high, when we took him out for a late lunch.

After lunch a couple of guys made lame excuses so they could leave and then went out to a park to set up a place for dinner and our party. Our job was to hang out and make sure our friend got a few drinks and didn’t get too suspicious about the further events. After a while we took a cab out of the city and were guided to the spot they’d chosen for the party. We set up a barbeque, a couple of tents, tables and chair, and hung out for a bit. Then we started cooking and as the appetizers were almost ready the bride-to-be and her friends showed up. They’d had a similar day and then joined us for dinner. And from then on the drinking and partying just went nuts and I finally got home at 6:30 the next day.
The last bit of the evening is haze, but before I started drinking G&T’s I remember discussing Haute Couture with the guys and defending it as art and being gobsmacked that I was the only one, who thought Christy Turlington was hot (and we couldn’t even reach an agreement on Helena Christensen, and no one seemed to know who Nadja Auermann was, so I was very much alone on my side of the argument). I also discussed Paul Auster’s The New York Trilogy with a female Lit-Major, who thought the short stories were brilliant, but besides saying they were interesting from a literary criticism stand point failed to explain, why she liked them. I dislike them, which wasn’t hard for me to explain, and the argument ended with her explaining that it had been a while since she’d read them. But thankfully she cheered up, when she found out that I’d read Less Than Zero and enjoyed James Spader in the movie version.

Not surprisingly I was incredible hung over Sunday, so I didn't do much except watch World Cup highlights and the first half of Angel Heart.

After work today I had an informal chat with a guy from a local company, which has specialized in jingles for radio and internet. They want to branch out into streaming and I got in touch with them through a mutual friend. We ended up talking for an hour about how they could approach this business area, but because they were still in competition for an order they didn’t have a job for me yet. I suggested they contact my old company, who can help them with the technical stuff, and if they could work out a partnership, then I’d be more that happy to do some freelance work for them. So later this year I might get some much needed freelance work, which I’d very much appreciate, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

But the most important thing right now is the game tomorrow against France. The French team has been terrible so far, but if Zidane plays it’ll boost morale and chances are they’ll find their form again. Thankfully, we don’t need a win to qualify for the second round, so as long as they don’t beat us by more than one goal we’ll be alright. But they’ll be a tough opponent and the Danish side didn’t play very convincingly in the 1-1 game against Senegal, so anything can happen. But if we win it’ll be one of the most amazing moments in Danish football history, so it just doesn’t get anymore exciting than this.

I left the old apartment on Sunday and have since spent a lot of time trying to organize my new place, while working and trying to catch as many World Cup games as possible. I finally got back online yesterday, so now I should be able to update the site on a regular basis again. Today I have to work again and tomorrow I'll be going to a bachelor party all day, which means that I won't get to see any of the games and I won't be around much. But I'll trying to get back into the swing of things as soon as possible.