Get On Your Soapbox #13

On Friday night, my dad arrived to stay for the weekend. We had dinner and then Duncan had to go back to work to continue seeding. At 8:30pm, Dad and I sat down to watch the Eagles' game, aware that we were watching a delayed telecast. I have no interest in finding out advanced scores; I prefer TV over radio anyday and I sit and watch matches to the end when I can....win or lose.

At half-time, I got a text message and I automatically opened it, assuming it was Duncan telling me that he was going to work later than 10pm which he had estimated finishing by. It wasn't Duncan.....

It was two guys we know (lucky for them they shall remain anonymous). The first part of the message made very little sense. It was random dribble and at first I wondered if the guy that sent it was drunk (although since they are both Christian, I assumed not). Basically it seemed that they were hanging out together and the last bit of the message said.....*So-and-so* told me to text you to tell you the weagles lost.

To say the least, I was absolutely furious. There was no point watching the last half of the game now. It would be boring knowing the result either way. At first I told myself, Ignore them. Ignore them. But then I thought, No, I have had enough! So I sent a text back which said:
Well maybe instead of being such a smartass you should have realised that I'd be watching the game and now there's no point since you've given away the score.

The reply I got was:
Ouch. That was feisty. Sorry to have put a downer on your evening.

Pfft he wasn't sorry at all and he calls ME the feisty one. I thought that was mild compared to what I was planning to write, mate! To make things worse, the one who sent the text doesn't even follow AFL (the one who told him to send the text but was too cowardly to do it himself is a bitter and twisted Dorks' supporter). They obviously had nothing better to do on a Friday evening than spitefully ruin a game that I was looking forward to watching. When I told my dad, he said, "That was stupid and immature." And these guys are supposed to be mature, godly Christians!

So now I had nothing better to do than go to bed. When Duncan came in, I told him what had happened and asked him if he'd be pissed off if he was planning to watch a delayed telecast of a Wallabies' game and someone texted him the final score. He admitted he would be very annoyed!

The next morning I received another text from that guy in a much more gentlemanly tone, wishing me a happy birthday and apologising for his thoughtless comments. I have forgiven him and it is over.

Lesson to anyone who thinks it's funny to ruin endings for other people.....it's not! That goes for sports matches, book and movie endings and final episodes for TV series. A friend of mine who lives over east got in big trouble for posting the result of a reality TV show on Facebook when it hadn't yet aired in WA. A lot of people were angry at her and she was sorry but that was a careless slip of the tongue. When it's deliberate just to ruin things for others because you know they'll be about to watch it, it is a whole different story. I got so annoyed when I was reading the final Harry Potter book a couple of years ago because a certain person kept deliberately coming up to me and trying to tell me the ending even though I kept telling her I didn't want to know! You know what this reminds me of? Kids going "I know something you don't know na na nana na." Pathetic, immature and childish.

Just because you don't care less about what they're watching, leave them alone to watch it. As much as I can't stand the Dorkers, I don't go texting scores to their fans who I know are currently watching the match. That's just nasty. So if you're one of those people who get their jollies out of ruining such things for other people, I suggest you go and take a long, hard look in the mirror at the sad, spiteful little person looking back at you!