Well, like the title says, its that time of the year again and I gotta say that I'm happy to report that both my college team and my pro team are doing quite well for themselves. First of all, my college team, the California University of PA Vulcans have a 2-1 record after two blowout wins (42-6 against Fairmont State, and 88-12 against Mansfield) and a tough 1 point loss to Monmouth, N.J. We're currently at the top of our division in the PSAC West and looking for our third win next week.

My pro teamn, the Steelers, have won their first two games with very little trouble against both Tennesee and Houston (34-7, 27-7 respectively). Big Ben Roethlisberger is looking very impressive in his Sophomore year (and he played with a bit of a bum knee today). A perfect QB rating last week and a pretty damn good one this week seem to show that the slump is nothing more than a superstition.

In other sports news, I'm excited for the hockey season to start. Its only a mere 17 days until my Penguins and phenom Crosby hit the ice in New Jersey for the season opener. Fall is definitely the best season of the year!

Yeah, I know that I'm trying to combine apples and oranges, but I just wanted to say that I got Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince at Walmart at approximately 12:20. For all those of you who have yet to purchase the book, check out your local Wal-Mart first to see if they have it, cause I got it for a mere $15.78, over $3 off even the preorder price.

I'm gonna start reading now, so go away!!

Well, I've set myself on a goal to re-read each of the Harry Potter books in the 5 days leading up to the release of book number six. I can gladly say that I have successfully completed my first day task, as I expected to. The real challenge comes on Thursday and Friday when I attempt to tackle books 4 and 5, with page counts over 700 and 800 respectively. Wish me the best of luck in my lofty goals.

I've finished Chamber of Secrets as of 1:30 AM today. I'll be starting tomorrow on Prisoner of Azkaban. It's going to start getting more difficult now, as PoA is almost a 100 pages longer than CoS.

It took me a little while longer than the previous two books, but I finished reading Prizoner of Azkaban. I'm starting to think I'll go cross-eyed if I read too much more. I'm going to attempt to read as much of Goblet of Fire as possible, but its very likely I will end up conceding defeat and read at a much more leisurely pace

I just finished writing a couple game reviews. I have one for the NES version of Ninja Gaiden and one for Metroid Prime. I'd appreciate any comments you may have to offer about my reviews. Thanks.

Some people may or may not remember the Worlds of Power series of books that were based on the storyline of popular NES games. Some of the games used were Ninja Gaiden, Metal Gear, Castlevania II, and Mega Man 2. The books were published by shool-friendly Scholastic. The books, for the most, were very easy reads and could be finished in a one hour sitting. I don't know what made me think about these books today, but I decided to do a search on ebay for the books and found 8 of the 10 that were written. There were no bids on them, and the price was only 6.99. I couldn't pass this great deal up, since the books are no longer in print. Does anybody else remember these books or have read them when you were younger?

Anybody who is interested in becoming a charter member of my Star Trek Union, please send me a private message and I will invite you.

Reminder: You must not be the leader of another union or have accepted a chartering invitation within the last 30 days to be a charter member in my union. If either of these conditions apply to you, please do not send me a PM. However, if you are still interested in joining, you are more than welcome to once I get the union started!

I had not really planned on taking a trip this time of year, and yet I found myself packing rather hurriedly. This trip was going to be unpleasant and I knew in advance that no real good would come of it. I'm talking about my annual "Guilt Trip"

I got tickets to fly there on Wish I Had airlines. It was an extremely short flight. I got my baggage, which I could not check. I chose to carry it myself all the way. It was weighted down with a thousand memories of what might have been. No one greeted me as I entered the terminal to the Regret City International Airport. I say international because people from all over the world come to this dismal town.

As I checked into the Last Resort Hotel, I noticed that they would be hosting this year's most important event, the Annual Pity Party. I wasn't going to miss that great social occasion. Many of the town's leading citizens would be there.

First, there would be the Done family, you know, Should Have Done, Would Have Done, and Could Have Done. Then came the I Had family. You probably know ol' Wish I Had and his clan. Of course, the Opportunities would be present -- you know Missed and Lost. The biggest family would be the Yesterdays. There are far too many of them to count, but each one would have a very sad story to share.

Then Shattered Dreams would surely make an appearance. And It's Their Fault would regale us with excuses about how things had failed in his life, and each story would be loudly applauded by Don't Blame Me and I Couldn't Help It.

Well, to make a long story short, I went to this depressing party knowing that there would be no real benefit in doing so. And, as usual, I became very depressed.

But, as I thought about all of the stories of failures brought back from the past, it occured to me that all of this trip and subsequent "pity party" could be cancelled by ME! I started to truly realize that I did not have to be there. I didn't have to be depressed. One thing kept going through my mind, I CAN'T CHANGE YESTERDAY, BUT I DO HAVE THE POWER TO MAKE TODAY A WONDERFUL DAY. I can be happy, joyous, fulfilled, ecouraged, as well as encouraging. Knowing this, I left the City of Regret immediately and left no forwarding address. Am I sorry for mistakes I've made in the past? YES! But there is no physical way to undo them.

So, if you're planning a trip back to the City of Regret, please cancel all your reservations now.

Instead, take a trip to a place called Starting Again. I liked it so much that I have now taken up permanent residence there. My neighbors, the I Forgive Myselfs and the New Starts are so very helpful. By the way, you don't have to carry around heavy baggage, because the load is lifted from your shoulders upon arrival. I hope you find this great town. If you can find it -- please look me up. I live on I Can Do It street.

TODAY IS THE FIRST DAY OF THE REST OF YOUR LIFE!!!!!!

Sometimes when I reflect back on all the beer I drink, I feel ashamed. Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the brewery and all of their hopes and dreams. If I didn't drink this beer, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. Then I say to myself, "It is better that I drink this beer and let their dreams come true than be selfish and worry about my liver."

-Jack Handey

Thought this was pretty funny and since I was bored at work, I figured I would share it with everyone!

So I'm trying ever so diligently to get to the Level 6 plateau so that I can start a union. I've been posting to forums, adding games to my collection, wish list, and so on. I'm looking for any suggestions to level up more efficiently. Share any insight you may have into the level up process, please!

I've been a member of GameSpot for some time now, but I haven't really taken advantage of the multitude of features available until the past few weeks. I've now joined about 10 unions, being a new officer in two of them. I'm now able to say that I'm completely addicted to GameSpot for things other than new information on video games. I now have something to keep me from being bored in my telemarketing job this summer.