Monday August 19th
(jump earlier)

What a downer day! Well, in the game of life there are days when you are a winner and some when you are a loser. Today was a seriously loser day... After being ranked as high as 518 on the War3 ladder, I lost 6 in a row and fell down a ton. I will pick myself back up, but it will take some time. On top of that, work was not fun either. I went in today to update the Exchange 2000 server to service pack 3, update the backup software, and so on. Right after the first update, the server was rebooting and then the power went out. The UPS kicked in, but I just couldn't believe it. About 2 hours of work planned and now I have to shut all the servers down and get ready for the long haul. I was hoping the power would come back up though, but it never did. All the servers and the mainframe were shut down in a timely fashion, but it still set me back. Tomorrow I will try to finish the server updates at work and get back up in the rankings of Warcraft. I don't know what has happened to me, but maybe I am losing my touch at that game. Either that or I have had crappy partners. Who knows. All I know is that it is 1:22am now and I need sleep. The only good part of the day today was visiting a friend. He just got a new XM satellite radio and we went on a small road trip. Man, that thing is cool. My next new car will have one. -- Nightfall - »www.nightfall.net

Saturday August 17th
(jump earlier later)

Climbing the ladder Movin on up! I never thought I would climb past my brother who now sits in the 900's. As I said, if I ever climb into the 500's or higher I would be happy. Meanwhile, my hockey teams are doing great. I lead the league in goals against average in two of the three leagues I am in. The other one leaves a little much to be desired. Reguardless, all my teams will make the playoffs. In two weeks, it will all come down to that. -- Nightfall - »www.nightfall.net

Thursday August 15th
(jump earlier later)

Movin on up! To the East Side High! Was looking on battle.net today and saw my name among the top players! I thought this was pretty darn awesome. Not bad for a 30 year old who thought his video game playing days were over. I remember back when I used to be part of the Descent Ladder. Descent and Descent II were big games to me back then. I was ranked as high as #13, which I thought was the coolest thing. There were only a few players I had a hard time beating, and those were ranked above me. I slipped to #25 before the ladder was discontinued. I look back on that now and think, "#13 out of thousands of players, not bad!". Now, I am 889 out of hundreds of thousands and I am still impressed as all get out. I am setting a goal to make it to 500 or higher. Getting that far would make me very happy. I know there are people who play this game constantly, so I can't set my goals that high due to the fact I have a life outside of playing Warcraft 3. Hockey tonight and more Warcraft 3 as well. Talk about fun! -- Nightfall - »www.nightfall.net

Wednesday August 14th
(jump earlier later)

Wednesday has come and gone. Finally got ranked in Warcraft 3 for team games! I am still 4-0 in 1 on 1 so maybe I will start playing that again. Developed my latest batch of rollerhockey pictures. It makes me think about the upcoming ice hockey season. Man, I can't wait. To smell the ice once again as I take pictures of college hockey. For all of you who have never played ice hockey or never been on the ice for college hockey games, there is nothing like it. The smell is different from one arena to the next. I have been to 8 of the 12 arenas in the CCHA (Central Collegate Hockey Association - »www.ccha.com) and all of them are a little different. Munn Ice Arena is probably the best constructed while nothing beats Ferris State and the small crowd atmosphere. More on that later when the season starts up again. Rollerhockey is going great for me as well as ice hockey. Rollerhockey playoffs are on the 31st of this month, so I don't have long to wait. I hope this is the season I take home my 3rd division championship. Meanwhile, ice hockey is fun, but I am not playing in a league so to speak. Just getting enough ice time to keep my skills on the ice sharp. All this won't matter in a few months when college hockey starts up again and I start going around taking pictures and writing game recaps. Seems like all my free time goes up in smoke then. Well, so much for another entry. Will post more later. Hey, I am keeping up with this thing and some people are actually reading it! Thanks! -- Nightfall - »www.nightfall.net [text was edited by author 2002-08-14 22:25:33]

Sunday August 11th
(jump earlier later)

Incoming! 8/12 - Spent part of the day today editing hockey photos of my little brother playing goalie. Ian is a little better than I am with most of that coming from his fast glove hand. The picture above is my brother in action watching a puck coming straight for his head. Already can't wait until hockey season starts. For all of you who don't know, I am a freelance photographer and story writer for »www.uscollegehockey.com which is an ESPN affiliate. The work brings a lot of rewards which are too numerous to mention here. I still have about a month and a half to wait until things get started up. Until then, it is just taking pictures of rollerhockey and ice hockey. My galleries can be found at »www.nightfall.net/rollerhockey and »www.nightfall.net/freelancephotography Been playing too much Warcraft 3 lately. I am glad I have hockey tomorrow because the newbies on Warcraft 3 are annoying me. My rank would be much higher if it wasn't for my own teammates attacking me and generally screwing off. -- Nightfall - »www.nightfall.net [text was edited by author 2002-08-12 10:34:55]

Nightfall's Hockey and Life Journal So it begins. Let me be first to say that I have always been crappy about keeping a diary of my experiences. Today, I look to turn a new leaf! Keeping this updated will be a challenge, but I am looking forward to it. I suppose I should introduce myself, but I will let my website do the work for me. Call me lazy, but I don't feel like retyping everything. »www.nightfall.net/interest.html 8/11 - This was quite an interesting day. After a nice two hour team practice, I ended up spending part of the day visiting with some good friends of mine. After watching the Red Wings Stanley Cup Victory DVD, we ran to Dairy Queen. This is where the fun started. The Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough blizzard was terrible. Upon taking it back, my friend Sean asked for a chocolate malt intead. The blizzard was 3.07 and the malt was 2.89. The attendant said he would have to pay more to get it. After calling in the manager and spending 10 minutes arguing about it, they gave him his malt and .27 cents. Maybe some people should go back to school. Spent the rest of the time doing cleanup around the house and playing Warcraft 3. Big day on Sunday. I am playing my second Silver rollerhockey game at »www.rivertownsports.com before I pick my wife up at the airport at 6:00pm. She is coming back from Arkansas and her PhD pharmacy clinicals. She has been gone almost a week now and I do miss her. Wheee! Now lets see if I keep it updated every now and then. -- Nightfall - »www.nightfall.net