I manage Sidney Crosby. No big deal.

Today's Topic: The Fantasy Sports Arena

If you're a true sports fan and really enjoy watching fast paced games in HD or live in the arena, sports fans like this have at some point asked themselves "I wonder what it would be like to manage a professional sports team." Thanks to Yahoo!, every sports fans gets that opportunity to be a GM. To run the show. To decide whether to play Tom Brady or Brett Favre. To bench Sidney Crosby or put him in your lineup. And the cost? Not a cent.

I've been playing fantasy sports on Yahoo for almost four years now. I've been the GM of a top tier basketball team, fearless hockey squads and even a football team. Through all the up and downs that a sports season brings, I feel like I have learned so much more about the ins and outs of sports with fantasy teams. It dedicates you to the game, following every night of the season on who to start and who to sit. I've always been a huge sports guy, watching all the big games on all the big nights. Yahoo has developed an incredible empire by putting users in the driver's seat of a professional sport. From drafting, to trading, to starting guys day in and day out, working the waiver wire and picking up free agents; the only thing a person can't do is sit down and talk to his players after a great or poor performance. For me, it's almost like a therapy for what seems like a pipe dream and the possibility that I will ever own a sports franchise.

I am in a hockey league with my friends from school and it has become the best way to keep in touch with all of my close friends from my university days. If you want to know how a guy is doing, just check the fantasy league and drop a message on the board. I feel like if it wasn't for this league, it would be almost impossible to stay in touch with 10 of my closest buddies from the college days. This league has become so big for us now that we are now entering into keeper status, meaning we keep some of the players we drafted last year. Yep, we are essentially building our own fantasy franchises. And it is awesome. There's something very empowering about being in control of a sports team. It's highly addictive and it's highly entertaining. Girlfriends don't get it. They don't get why we get excited when Ovechkin gets a hat trick or Carey Price gets a shutout. And you know what? It doesn't have to make sense to anyone but us. When I'm checking my stats or making moves, I'm in my own little fantasy world, hence the name Fantasy Sports. It's a dream to have all the best NFL, NHL or NBA players all under one roof. You become your own legend, your own coach, your own general manager and your own boss. Wins become rewarding, and losses...well, they still sting the same as real life. Bragging rights are huge in fantasy sports, and maybe that's why chicks don't get it either. It goes back to the whole "dominant male of the tribe" mentality and a ruthless battle for a higher position.

If you're a sports fan and you've never tried managing a team, trust me when I say it is a must that you manage at least one. Once you manage one, you'll want to manage two. And once you manage two, you'll be hooked. Join the literally millions of other fans out there who become the most epic managers of their time. Where else can you make the decision on who will be the best fit for your team and who will help you win the sought after fantasy cup. Real players, real rules. Yes, it's just players in a lineup and you don't win thousands of dollars. But, you call the shots. And you can't put a price on that.

Just Be

Today's Topic: Living Life

I've learned to not give up on life. Even when the darkest clouds have been cast upon me, what seems permanent is usually only temporary. Pain is not forever and nothing is infinite. Except maybe wisdom. The best answer for any life experience is to take a lesson from it. Yes, you can label today's sitdown under the "slice of life" category.

In the last few months, I've really gone through some deep thought processes. I've talked to a lot of people, young and old. I've watched a lot of movies, listened to a lot of music and even traveled to different parts of North America. Through all of this, I've discovered that "living life" is really the only option anyone ever has. When I say living life, I mean just...live. Enjoying all the simple, yet awesome, things life has to offer. The simplicity of singing a song when no one is listening, eating chocolate, a perfect fitting shirt, your hair just the way you like it, a good meal that has more fat content then what you're "suppose" to intake, a really good piece of fruit, a simple text from a friend and the best parking spot in the place. Yep, all the simplicities make for a great day.

A friend of mine often jokes about "just living your life." It became a running joke thanks to the song "Live your life," but I do know that deep down he means it and I understand what he means when he says it. Some people just have a natural zest for the life they live and the people they interact with. Some people, when you say their name, people just laugh or smile. You know why? Because they live their life. And I think maybe deep down, that's what living your life is. It's so easy to get caught up in the negative things in life, so easy to fall in a hole or a rut and be stubborn and refuse to move on. But life doesn't stop. Ever. The sun rises and the sun falls, and you live your life in between those hours, defining your character and human existence.

I'm reading a book right now called "How We Decide," which a fellow blogger and friend of mine posted about in his blog awhile back. His blog inspired me to pick up this book, as he did a good job selling it in the words he wrote and it seemed like the perfect therapeutic type of book I needed to read. The book talks about the choices we make everyday, and what it would be like if we couldn't make a simple choice. How praise works on children and depending on how we word things, how that affects our choices that we make. The average person makes hundreds of choices everyday, from the very moment of whether we decide we are going to get out of bed or not. And how funny that our choices end in completing the circle, when one of the last decisions we make for the night is when we are going to close our eyes and fall asleep. Choices define us, and make us who we are.

No one ever wants to make a bad choice. It's human nature to want to be happy all the time, to strive for perfection and the pursuit of happiness. Somewhere along those lines, we hurt people. maybe not intentionally, but we are human, and it happens. It takes a bigger person to realize a mistake when they make one, and it takes an even bigger person to apologize for hurting someone down to their core. Bad choices are the result of a person saying "Hey, I'm human." Emotions run high when we make choices, but they seem to run even higher when we are affected by a negative one.

Regardless, good or bad, everyday you live becomes a memory. There is no going back in time and changing what has been done. Everything that you have done rests up to this moment in time. Every minute that you have lived brings you one day, one minute and one second closer to your destiny, your calling, your empire and your legacy. We all become but memories in the world, a name on a stone, a thought in the wind. Nothing is left behind, only the sound of our voice and the "remember when" stories that people tell from time to time.

Ask yourself, are you really, living life? Are you getting the most out of everyday and every year that passes by? Can you say that underneath all the stress and misery that people go through, you can still smile at the end of the day, knowing that you lived the day out? The best you could? I hope for your sake, that answer is yes. I hope that you can look back on all the days that pass you by, and remember that you didn't let a moment slip when you didn't at least learn something new, something exciting or something challenging; even if it was about yourself.

You are the legacy you leave behind. Choose well. Choose often. Choose to live. Life is what you make it.