Gathering

I have been downloading quite a bit in the last 6 months since I have cable internet. 2700 mp3's, including 40-odd complete cd's. Now it's summer holiday for me and plenty computer time (you must have noticed), so I get to listen to a lot of the music. I have been burning some cd's (Beth Gibbons, REM, Ska-P, Joe Jackson band & Massive Attack). Deleted some else (Dixie Chicks). Now I am listening to the Gathering. This is the 6th song, the first 5 all seemed very similar. This is not bad, yet I doubt if I will stick to it.

European Baseball

As expected the Dutch won the European title last weekend. In the final they beat Olympic Hosts Greece 2-0. Their tournament record, even though the opposition was weak, was impressive: 8-0, including 7 shutouts.

Wednesday the Olympic Qualifying tournament started. On the first day the Netherlands had their 50 inning scoreless streak halted when the Czech came back in the bottom of the 9th. They still won 6-4. Yesterday they beat Sweden 11-2 and today they have to play the strongest opponent Italy, who were only 5th in the EC, after being upset by Sweden in the quarters. The OQT is a 6 team round robin with the first two teams qualifying for Athens.

The good news: I'm going to see the match tonight!