As most of you have noticed by now, I have most certainly not been on the ball in the past 2 weeks or so. Sporradic f**k-ups here & there. Freaking out on the occasional forum member. Misquoted stuff. Plain ' ol wrong information. Y' know, Gamespot forums material.

Life' s been giving me a hard time as of late. I' m trying to keep up with massive hours at work, juggling the mounting list of things to get done at home, have had next to no time for games, dealing with (counts off on fingers) 4 family emergencies, having to crack to books again for my classes, all while trying to squeeze in a spare moment or so with a new girlfriend.

Needless to say, I' ve been a nervous f***ing wreck, and it shows.

I got up this morning, hopped on Kikizo for a sec, and then headed off to work. I work for a local lawncare service, and make enough money to get by doing it. I never really liked working outside, but I had a job, which is more than what could be said for 18% of the people around me.

I' m not sure exactly what made me do it. Maybe it was the mounting stress. maybe it was my growing hate for my job. Hell, maybe it was a random outburst of emotion that I' m going to sorely regret tomorrow, but either way, what' s done is done.

I walked up to my boss, handed him my ring of keys to the truck, the storage trailer and the mower, gave him my work jacket & hat. Said " I quit" , and walked out the door.

I' ve been thinking about it for the past hour or so, just trying to let it all sink in, and I' ve come to the conclusion that it' ll be a good thing for me in the long run. On the one hand, I' ll have significantly less money to spend on games, movies & other stuff that I really enjoy. However, in the end, I value my mental composure & my ability to present my thoughts and opinions more than I do any amount of money lost.

I mean, there' s places looking for work around here, even in the economic trouble my area is in. If that means going back to unloading pallets in a grocery store freezer, or changing oil at the local Jiffy-Lube, or for that matter, making quesadillas at the local Taco Bell, I' ll be strangely fine with that.

I' ve been long overdue for a chance to de-stress my life my life, and this was the first opportunity I saw to do that.

I' m only telling you all this (relative strangers to me) because I figure I owe you guys an explanation as to what the hell has been going on in the past couple weeks or so. I won' t be posting with the regularity I have in the last couple months. I think I' m going to just take a step back from most everything & re-evaluate where I am in life. This isn' t a goodbye letter or anything. I' ll still be on Kikizo a couple of times a week, mainly to upload reviews & impressions of the latest and not-necessarily greatest games on the market, maybe post a response or two in the stuff I really care about, but I think it' s going to be better for me if I just take life easy for a bit.

Those of you who know my email are welcome to give me a holler there, I' ll still check that daily. Those of you who don' t should ask the ones who do, take 3 guesses, (I trust those people who do to not to give it to those who are going to sign me up for gay porn sites) If you can' t figure it out though, you probably don' t deserve to know anyway. And if I can, I' ll be playing the Call of Duty:MW beta as much as humanly possible, so you' ll probably see me there on Xbox Live if you' re up for a game. Well... methinks it' s time for me to head off & do nothing for a couple of hours. Long overdue for that.

Keep kicking ass!

-Eddie