Although the Greatest Television Show of All Time has been off the air for several years now, I find myself today missing those characters and epic storylines, not to mention the laughs. Although some very good shows have come along since then, particularly Dexter, nothing has come close to the mix of humor, romance, horror, action and great dialog like BTVS.

In years past, when times were tough and I needed some good soul healing I’d pop in my DVD box sets and spend a week or two going through all seven seasons, drinking in those old memories. I could watch all the characters I loved come to life again and the aforementioned epic storylines once more have their sweeping, emotional effect on me.

Although times have been grim in recent months it has been far too long since my last journey to Sunnydale. Maybe it’s time I booked my trip.

It has been an eternity since I last made a post here and at some point one must ask whether I am maintaining this blog at all. I started this site several years ago and have made a journal of every up and down over that time, until late last year. I started and lost businesses, homes and embarked on my boat projects since then.

In these last six months I’ve started studying forex trading and also took a very crappy part-time sales job in the evenings. In this same period of time I also opened an account on Facebook and – like most people now – I spend most of my time posting links and giving personal updates on my FB account.

I don’t know if this means I should close this site down or just update it only on rare occasions. Is “old-fashioned” personal blogging dead? Has anyone else faced the prospect of shutting down their blogs and Myspace journals in favor of Facebook? Not sure myself, but I thought I should say something here about my absence.

If for no other reason than it counts as a blog post…

It’s funny to realize after speaking with someone I haven’t seen since high school (Hi, Kedron!) that at times like this – when I describe my life – I realize it has been.. “colorful”.

The Air Force, traveling coast-to-coast across the country several times, surfing in San Diego, some nasty scrapes with the law, living in my car (briefly, yet more than once), starting several businesses (including one successful enough to buy my first home and live well), nearly go bankrupt, exploring the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina for salvageable sailboats, nearly drowned in Florida (on three different occasions.. I really gotta stay out of the water), was impaled on a sea wall; bought a boat on land, learned how to sail and put it into the water and lived on it; shot in the chest by a .357 Magnum and survived (obviously), had the best years of my life attending Moravian College dropping acid and chasing girls, lost everything I owned and down to my last $300 a few months ago — and find myself once more crawling out of the dirt to do it all over again with a fresh start.

Basically, my life is like Indiana Jones.. but fatter and without the cool soundtrack.

I’ve been a fan of the Miami Dolphins since I was a kid and there have been some good and bad. OK, other than Dan Marino, mostly bad. And even with #13 we collapsed under bad drafts and big-game chokes more often than not.

I’d hoped this year would be different but adding another chapter to what is becoming a miserable month, my beloved Fins just gagged on a 21-point lead to the New Orleans Saints, showing once again that in Miami, nothing much ever changes.

Awesome stuff, get a kick out of Jack Webb explaining to the Anointed One how things work:

I am pumped and very happy after my first week of forex trading. I started off rocky by stupidly trying to trade the British Pound on a bank holiday for them. But after a few losses here and there, I ended up doing much better than most noobs, actually increasing the balance of my trading account by 10% on the week.

Not bad for my first week, right?

Seems about, yep, about a month ago I thought I’d be updating this blog more often as I got my new venture underway. But progress has been slow learning (and practicing) forex trading. In fact, it has taken up all my time, so much so that I’m not socializing very much, including doing any gaming. Weird, I can’t recall the last time I spent as much of my time trying to learn something as complex and demanding as this.

There is still a good chance I will fail, of course. But at least I plan to start Live trading this week. I have at least one very good strategy to employ during overnight trading sessions and will also be practicing on small lots during the weekdays. If you’d like to learn more about what the hell I’m talking about, check this link for a quick, simple explanation of Forex Trading.

Also, I am Facebooking like a mother these past few weeks. I’d pretty much let that whole social-networking thing pass me by; always thought it was a huge waste of time. It probably still is, but damn near everyone I know is doing it so Yours Truly jumped aboard.

Click Here for my Profile on Facebook

I know this past month has been the longest time since I updated the blog with a new post, but I have been really trying to make my most recent business ventures work. Unfortunately, internet retail is in bad shape along with the rest of the economy.

However, I am going back to my trading classes and taking a fresh look at a new field: currency trading. I have been reading up on FOREX and hope to try my hand at trading a small account in the next few weeks.

In the meantime, the weather is nice, the Renaissance Faire is opening soon, and I hope to make new posts a more frequent occurrence at Merchantprince!

I’ve just spent the last half hour or so laughing my ass off and playing everything from Galaga, Asteroids, BurgerTime, Elevator Action, Joust, Missile Command and, of course, Pac Man. Some of these games may be harder (or easier) than many of us Gen Xers remember but most are every bit as fun.

95 Old School Games You Can Play Online