Let's begin with a disclaimer: I am not in any way affiliated with The Force-Cast, TheForce.Net, or Rebelscum.com. As much as I wish I was.

In November 2006, I was at my cousins' house for Thanksgiving. My cousins were (and still are) very young, so there wasn't much we could do together. As such, I had downloaded several podcasts to keep myself entertained, especially at night when my uncomfortable sleeping bag wouldn't let me get an hours' sleep.

At the time, I had on my podcast roster two items: CNET's Buzz Out Loud and Leo Laporte's This Week in Tech. But I was also a major Star Wars fan, one who could not sit at a computer before a long trip and not wonder if there was anything Star Wars-related out there to entertain me. So I started searching around Google...which basically means, a search for "Star Wars podcast." I still remember thinking to myself, "I bet I'll just get some guys on a forum whining to Lucasfilm about getting a Star Wars podcast."

Well, needless to say, I didn't. The very first result was for "TheForce.Net - Podcast." At this point, I had heard briefly of this website, but not a podcast section. I decided to check it out, and downloaded the first episode I saw. At this point, I was thinking, "Yeah, but I bet they only do these once in a while." Wrong. Jason Swank and Pete Nadel, along with several Star Wars community icons, released weekly editions of "The Force-Cast" which sometimes lasted as long as an hour and a half! I had hit the proverbial Star Wars goldmine.

Almost a year later, and a little more than 13 months after the Force-Cast's first birthday, I'm still tuning in. Except now, I'm listening almost three times a week in some cases, as the show now releases miniature episodes called micro-casts. And I'm participating in the show live during the taping, through a service called Talkshoe.

My interest in Star Wars has not decreased in the slightest. And neither has my support for the fan community's most professional, most entertaining podcast, The Force-Cast.