Alright, so this whole Celtic x Rangers thing, right? It’s not just some kickabout in the park. I figured I’d try and get my head around it, not by picking a side or anything, but by actually trying to, like, document the sheer scale of it for a little personal project I had cookin’. Just wanted to see what all the fuss was truly about, from a data point of view, if you catch my drift.
My Grand Plan (Which Went Sideways)
So, the idea was simple enough, or so I thought. I decided I’d try to gather a whole bunch of information. My shopping list looked a bit like this:
- Old news reports, going way back.
- Fan opinions from forums and social media – brave, I know.
- Documentaries, if I could find any that weren’t totally one-sided.
- Even some historical accounts of the cities and clubs.
The goal was to build a sort of map of the whole rivalry, see the key flashpoints, the language used, that kind of nerdy stuff. Thought it’d be interesting. Understatement of the year, mate.
I started by just downloading articles and saving comments. My first hurdle? Just finding anything remotely neutral felt like panning for gold in a sewer. Seriously. One minute I’d be reading something that painted a picture all in green and white, the next, it was pure blue, and they’d be talking about the exact same event but like it happened on different planets. My brain started to hurt pretty quick.
Diving into the Maelstrom
Then I thought, okay, social media. That’s where the raw stuff is. And boy, was it raw. It was like sticking your head into a hornet’s nest. I was just trying to pull out keywords, themes, general sentiment, you know? But the sheer volume of passion, and let’s be honest, sometimes pure venom, was overwhelming. My little spreadsheet was screaming for mercy.
I tried to set up some basic tools to sort through it all. You know, categorize tweets, comments, look for patterns. But the language used… it’s a whole different dialect. Sarcasm, inside jokes, stuff that goes back decades. My fancy software just got confused. It was like trying to teach a toddler quantum physics. Pointless, really.
I remember spending a whole weekend just trying to understand the context behind a single exchange I saw online. It was like peeling an onion that made you angrier with each layer. My “practice” was quickly turning into an endurance test. I wasn’t learning about data analysis anymore; I was getting a crash course in deeply entrenched tribalism.
So, What Happened in the End?
Well, after a few weeks of banging my head against this wall of pure, unadulterated rivalry, I kinda just… gave up. Not in a “I failed” sort of way, more like a “I need to preserve my sanity” sort of way. My neat little project about mapping a rivalry had turned into me feeling like I was in the middle of it. The data wasn’t just data anymore; it felt alive, and angry.
Did I produce a nice report or a cool visualization? Nope. Not a chance. What I got was a profound sense of just how deep this stuff goes. It’s not about who scored more goals. It’s about history, identity, belonging, and a whole lot of other heavy things all wrapped up in football colours. My “practice” ended up being a lesson in humility, I guess. Showed me that some things are way more complex than they look on the surface. My little project folder is still there, gathering digital dust. Maybe I’ll go back to it one day when I’m feeling braver. Or maybe I’ll just stick to easier topics, like why my toast always lands butter-side down. That seems more manageable.
