About time for another one of these, but anyway let's take a good look into the wide world of sports.

Looking into baseball, we're into the final month before playoffs and there are quite a couple of races out there. In the American League, the Angels and Rays are both looking like locks for the playoffs, of course barring a horrible horrible September, and are also the top two seeds in the AL. The Angels can be the first team to clinch a playoff bid thanks to the fact that no one else in the AL West is challenging them. Oakland went down the drain in the second half, and Texas, while they have played very well this season, is hit with injuries to a lot of their star players. Looking at the AL East where the Rays are supreme at the moment, which btw how are the Rays in front of both the Red Sox and Yankees? This must be some sort of bizzaro world. Speaking of the Yanks and Red Sox, the Yankees are pretty much done and not going to make the playoffs for the first time since the strike shortened season of '94. The Red Sox are so far in front of the AL wildcard, although just barely ahead of both the Twins and White Sox, who are both tied for that AL Central lead. Talk about a three-team race for two spots. What could even be worse is if the Red Sox also don't make it. No Boston or New York on the AL side of the playoff picture. The universe is out of order! But even more shocking has to be the fact that the Twins and White Sox are both vying for the playoff contention. The White Sox seem to have finally regained something of their self from 2005 when they won the World Series. Thanks in large part to their starting pitching, which is among the best in the league ERA-wise. Also, can anyone give Carlos Quentin more props? He has been the steal of the year. As for the Twins, can anyone name two of their starters? I can, but that's because I play fantasy baseball . Among last in power, the Twins are a team that just gets the job done. As for the Red Sox, if they can get Beckett, Drew, and Lowell back, then they should win the Wildcard easily. It's going to be a fun year to watch the playoffs with so many new teams and no Yankees (sorry Yankee fans) in the mix.

As for the National League, things are a little less defined. The Cubs and Brewers are both in the playoffs for having the best two records. Also thanks to the fact that they own the Central and Wild Card titles no matter what. I really don't see either team imploding in the final month like the Mets did last year. This could be the year the Cubs do it, but then again, there have been plenty of years like that when thet came up short as well. 2003 was painful let me tell you. Anyway, the races to watch involve the Mets and Phillies in the East, who are a game apart of each other so far, and in the West where the team with a winning record at the end of the season will make it in, which so far looks like the Diamondbacks. The East was, at one point, a three team race, but the Marlins have cooled off considerably in the power department and are having trouble pitching as a result. Who's going to win the East, is a good question. Both the Mets and Phillies are underachieving at the moment with the Mets without a consistent pitching staff and the Phillies needing Jimmy Rollins to wake up. As for the West, the Diamondbacks have the advantage over their closest competition in the Dodgers with a better pitching staff and a slightly more consistent offense. The Dodgers have Manny and no one else on offense. But also in the picture are the Rockies. Somehow, they're within contention, although just barely in my books. I highly doubt they can squeeze into the playoffs and steal the West, but you never know with the West.

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In tennis, the US Open is in full swing and the shocker of the year occurred when Ana Ivanovic lost in the 2nd round to qualifier Julie Coin of France. It's the earliest that a number one seed has gone out of a major tournament, ever. This continues her struggles in major events since winning the French Open. Both Williams sisters and Jelena Jankovic are still in the field, and will be fighting for a spot in the quarters, while the hottest (as in playing great, not really looks...leave me be!) player on the tour, Dinara Safina just made it to the quarters with ease.

On the men's side, Roddick is playing superb tennis and will be playing his 4th round match tomorrow. He's currently on pace to face Federer in the Semis, but he'll have to go through Djokovic first. As for other Americans still left in the field, Sam Querry has had a fantastic tournament, and that'll probably come to an end as he plays Nadal later on today, while Mardy Fish just cruised past Monfils to reach the quarters, and will most likely face Nadal. Fish can do some damage considering that he doesn't defeat himself mentally first that is. And for all you British tennis fans out there, Andy Murray is still there and will play later on today.

Now I gotta go find a way to watch the Nadal-Querry match, and root on my fellow American! This match should be over quickly barring Querry actually doing something amazing.

This past summer I spent my time working at a nice facility called JC Penney, and of course, it being the summer and me being, well me.

Awkward Intro

Well of course with every new job there comes a time when you gotta be trained through on-the-job training. Sometimes on-the-job training can go well and sometimes they can go, well, rather badly. For me, aside from a 30 minute intro with a cynic who hates working at JC Penney and tells me of her bad life decisions and what not to do. Yeah, fun times. Anyway, I have to get handed over to someone else as she's off work at the end of the 30 minutes. Quite organized aren't we? So I get handed over to a very cute dark-haired girl (who shall be dubbed Girl A) who was as surprised to be getting me as I was to be getting her (and yes that did sound bad, but oh well). So anyway, I couldn't help myself with some flirting, it's what I do, but when she was showing me around the women's department she mentioned where the fitting rooms are by saying "And here are the fitting rooms, unfortunately I can't show them to you for obvious reasons." (or something like that). My response, was well, not what I wanted to say:

"Yeah, because that would be awkward if both of us were in there..."

Are You Flirting?

Still on the same day, but about four hours later, when we've gotten more accustomed to each other, and me talking like a regular human being, are having our break in the break room when the assistant manager walks in and says "Oh are you flirting with him?" directly to the girl. Haha, wow. That's my exact same response. And she did turn red. But recovered by saying it was sunburn (which she was).

Like Getting Uppercutted

Later on in the month during a heavy work day due to there being a sale, I decided to open my mouth to someone who clearly did not need to be provoked. Despite the fact that I was more than slightly pissed off because I had to go on the registers and miss my lunch time by two hours. Let me tell you, when I miss my lunch time, I am massively pissed off. I need food! But anyway, on to the story at hand. There's this redhead (who shall be dubbed Girl B) at work who was new to the position, which was the same as mine, and I saw her, as I was heading to the registers, that she was apparently doing nothing and ignoring the plea for help at the registers I was heading to. By the way, my positions wasn't to work the cash register but to be the ultra utility guy and do everything.

So I head back to the breakroom, lunch in hand, and I see her just sitting there, and I decide to let her know a piece of my mind, in a humorous way; I'm not that mean . But apparently she was having an equally bad day and we went after each other for 45 minutes. Yes, there was quite the scene. To say the least it felt like a boxing match, and it felt like I got uppercutted, not KOed, but uppercutted. Let's just say that this began the war between us.

Constant Badgering

Every so often I get charged to work in the dock. This is the home of Girl C, who did nothing but make fun of me. And yes, this is how work went, being abused by a lot of peeps. But anyway, she was nicer than the rest, but nevertheless found out that I haven't gone camping or fishing ever. This is apparently an alien thought to everyone that works there as everyone says "OMG you've never gone fishing and/or camping!?!?!?" "Oh My Dear God!" Haha. This sadly became a running gag of sorts and soon spread throughout the entire time I was there. Good times.

Cheater!

A couple of weeks later, Girl B decides to yell something to me that really takes me off guard of sorts. So one day, I get into the store and I hear "Cheater!" being shouted at me by Girl B. Needless to say, all the customers in the area look in my general direction as I hasten my way towards Girl B. She and another girl, Girl D, were standing there laughing their respective ****s off, haha. Girl D later said that she had no idea what it meant, hah. Girl B kept on shouting "Cheater" in my general direction every time I went by.

Ignorance

On another night, Girl D and i were in the breakroom watching some tv when Wipeout comes on. Girl D was on the phone, but kept on being distracted by Wipeout wondering what it was and ignoring the person on the phone. Of course I took advantage of this and had some fun, hehe . We went at it for a good 15 minutes.

Vengeance!

So, going back to the fact that Girl B was yelling "Cheater!" in my general direction that one day, I plotted my revenge on my day off, and yes I did find something good to say. The next day that I saw her at work, which ended up being a Wednesday (haha, not really ), I waited for her to yell "Cheater!" She did, and this was my reply:

"Sorry you didn't have as much fun as me last night."

No need to tell you she was stunned!

Reversal

On my last day of work, Girl C decided to do something that was, well , quite hilarious to me. Consider the running gag of the entire staff of me not going fishing, ever. Now on to Girl C who decided to get me. She left work before me, as I had a later shift, and decided to call the store to let me know that I locked my car door. As stunned as I was, I let her know that I do in fact lock my car door. But anyway, after work, as I head to my car, I find that there's a bag on my car containing a kiddie fishing rod with Superman on it. I laughed for a good five minutes.

Praying

Also, on another night, as I was heading back to my car I noticed something on my car. Needless to say, it was a praying mantis and I freaked. It was staring in my general direction! So I crouched getting out of its line of sight and entered my car. I did not want it to jump at me!

Did anyone see the Olympics the past couple of days? Talk about insanity!

Michael Phelps' quest for Olympic glory seems to be going with really no bumps in the road with the only exception being that fantastic finish in the 4X100 M free style relay that still echoes in my head. That has to be the greatest relay in Olympic history. You gotta give it to the French who almost beat us. I thought they had until Lezak touched first by less than a hundreth of a second. Amazing. But anyway, getting back on track, the only thing Phelps has to battle is his goggles as they filled up with water on numerous occasions. Also, did anyone see the 4X200 M relay where the Americans won by 5 seconds over the next team? Talk about insanity. Also, I really don't think Phelps is human .

Going on with swimming, the American women haven't quite echoed the success of the men, with the exception of Natalie Coughlin who currently has five medals, but Katie Hoff, who is supposed to be our best female swimmer hasn't quite hit the podium as much as the announcers like. The Aussie women on the other hand, have been fantastic by just cruising to golds and smashing world records like they were nothing. They surprised everyone by winning the 4X200 M free style relay. Great job to the Aussies and to Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe who's won about five medals (is it five, or does she have four?).

Moving on to gymnastics, the men's team surprised everyone with a bronze medal finish even without the Hamm twins, but sadly couldn't medal in the individual all-around contest where Yang Wei of China was just perfect. It was his night and he was the only one who didn't make a mistake for the entire night. The American women almost came away with the gold, but unfortunately a couple of mistakes near the end of the night cost them the gold. You just have to feel bad for Alicia Sacramone who was the gymnast who made the mistakes both times. But the Americans struck back by grabbing both the gold and silver medals in the all-around competition. Nastia Luikin joins her father with winning a gold medal in the Olympics.

Moving on yet again, in tennis James Blake upset Roger Federer in the quarters before losing in the semis to Fernando Gonzalez, while both Williams sisters bowed out in the quarters for singles. Na Li of China took out Venus continuing her rise after she made the semis of Wimbledon (I believe it was her).

And in basketball, the Americans took out Greece in dominating fashion avenging a loss in the semis of the 2006 FIBA World Championships. So far in basketball, after three games, only two teams have thus far been eliminated, that being Iran and Angola who are both 0-3 and have a very large negative point spread. The teams that are in trouble include the host nation China who is 1-2, which is tied with Greece and Germany, but unlike the other teams, China has already faced winless Angola which could mean that they could be sent home. Also, Russia, the European champions, are currently 1-2 and have a slim lead over currently fifth place Australia. The Russia-Aussie game could be an elimination game. The Americans take on Spain tomorrow morning which should be fun to watch and really see if the Americans are back for real.

Finally, track and field is about to begin which will feature the matchup of Tyson Gay of the US and Usain Bolt of Jamaica.

Boy I love the Olympics