Fantasy Football – My quest to be the best at something I know nothing about.

So the guys at the office are apparently pretty big football fans.  For the past few weeks they’ve been giddy with excitement as Fantasy Football season quickly approaches.  A couple of them even ordered this giant board on which to plot out their draft picks.  It’s been kinda like watching kids trying to fall asleep on Christmas Eve.

So where do I come in?  I’m not a football fan, really.  I haven’t really followed the sport since before the Browns were sold to Baltimore and everyone pissed and moaned until they were reformed.  After all, Cleveland is a city that lives and dies by its mediocre sports teams (Way to seriously drop the ball this year Tribe.  I bet Cliff Lee hates the rest of you).

Anyway, my giddy man-child co-workers found they had an uneven number of participants in their fantasy league – something that just simply won’t fly.  So what did they do?  The same thing any desperate group of idiots do in a quick attempt to get what they want – They did something stupid.

They asked me to join.

This was quite the dilemma.  On one hand, I couldn’t possibly care less about NFL football and it’s a twenty dollar buy-in.  On the other hand, my decision was going to make or break the stability of their league and I stood to win upwards of 200 bucks if I managed to get somewhere.  Dead even, wouldn’t you say?

But then a thought occured to me.  How amazing would it be if this group of die-hards got trounced by the apathetic newbie.  Being the type of guy that never passes on an opportunity to have fun at the expense of others, I told them I was in.

And so, on Wednesday evening, my quest begins.  I have the next 36 hours to draw up a list of ideal picks, figure out the best combination of players to have an evenly competitive team, and learn the names of actual football players.

Oh, and I was randomly chosen to receive the first draft pick.  Oh, sweet irony.

Eradicate Humanity, Avoid Working

Another addicting online game (suggested this time by Inara) is Pandemic 2

The objective is simple – create a disease that will wipe out humanity before anyone can save themselves.  It offers a good mix of strategy and luck that keeps you wanting to try over and over again.

Also, fuck you, Madagascar!  (Play the game a few times, you’ll know what I’m talking about…)

Conquer the World, Avoid Working

In perhaps the biggest diversion I have found to date, our intern has introduced me and my fellows to Conquer Club – online RISK whenever you want to play it.

It’s kind of ridiculous how addictive it is.  Most games are set to allow a player up to 24-hours to take their turn, yet we still find ourselves spamming our refresh buttons so see what everyone is doing in the game.

If you’re somebody who likes to take a nice 5 minute break from work every hour or so, check this out.  It takes very little time to have quite a bit of fun with your friends or co-workers.

Feel free to friend me – I’m elphaba1.

Heroes Season 3 Trailer

NBC released a trailer today for the third season of Heroes, which is apparently being subtitled ‘Villains’ oooooo.

Watch it Here.

Probably the most interesting thing was them seemingly spoiling the fact that neither Nathan nor Nicki actually bit the dust at the end of season 2.  Additionally, it looks like Peter and Claire are finally going to cross paths again – this time on opposite sides of the battle.

I, for one, hope Hayden blows the dudes head off so she won’t have to throw her life away anymore.  Maybe then she can concentrate her time on not only being hot as hell, but also making sure that if she’s going to make music, it isn’t totally awful:

FireNES – Pure and Total Awesome.

Stumbled across a nifty addon for Firefox 3.0 today – FireNES.  This thing installs a plugin on Firefox that lets you play something like 2000 classic games from the Nintendo Entertainment System on your browser.

Yeah, that’s right, Bowser in yo browser.  Badass.

Worth Your Wealth? – TNA Victory Road 08

My latest column is up at 411mania today!  This time around I take a look at Victory Road – a night full of sleeper hits and one really confusing main event.  Check it out, post your feedback, thanks for reading!

IS. HE. ALIVE. OR. DEAD?!

Batista is going to the Great American Bash to face CM Punk for the World Heavyweight Title.  Who cares.

The more important result of last nights Fatal Four Way, as far as I’m concerned, was another mental meltdown for Kane.  He ate the pin and subsequently went crazy, tossing the ring crew around like bitches, scaring Lillian Garcia, and even tried to pull a Heidenreich on Michael Cole.  Jerry Stupid Lawler intervened and got his ass handed to him for his trouble.  I laughed.

But what’s the deal with this?  And what the hell is Kane talking about?  “Is he alive or dead?”.

The way I see it,  Kane is talking about Kane.  Kane as in Kane, unstoppable angry monster who killed his parents, kicks the shit out of Pete Rose, and sits up from multiple Tombstone Piledrivers.  If they want to turn Kane heel and make him an insane monster like he used to be, I’m all for that.  Hell, I’ve been wanting him to put the mask back on ever since he took it off.  At any rate, it’s time for him to become evil badass Kane.  RAW is now stacked with faces and Kane as a unstoppable evil monster would certainly help spread things out a bit.

Let’s just hope he doesn’t get totally jobbed out to the likes of Cena, Batista, and Punk (Which he will)

Worth Your Wealth? – WWE Night of Champions

Ryan’s latest column on 411mania is up!  This week, ‘Worth Your Wealth’ looks at last night’s WWE pay-per-view, Night of Champions.  You should probably go check it out!

Special thanks to Cliff for the awesome new logo!  Thanks buddy

‘My Mage Sucks’ Continues to Grow!

Amazing’s WoW-themed blog – My Mage Sucks. – was recently listed in the WordPress Top 100 Growing Blogs!

Check it out and join the suckfest!

WWE Supplemental Draft

Yesterday WWE held its supplemental draft to switch around some more people, most of which probably wont make a difference in the long run.  However, some of these changes might actually prove to be significant, so they’re worth a look.

RAW Acquired:

1. Kofi Kingston (ECW)

2. Layla (ECW)

3. Matt Striker (ECW)

4. Chuck Palumbo (Smackdown!)

5. Deuce (Smackdown!)

6. Jamie Noble (Smackdown!)

RAW didn’t gain much to be honest.  Kofi Kingston is the one real standout drafted to Monday nights.  A feud with the newly-drafter Rey Mysterio could do wonders for Kofi and I think it would be highly entertaining.  Not really sure who would play the heel, though.  Aside from that, Chuck Palumbo MIGHT go somewhere, but I doubt it.  They haven’t really given him much of anything to do since his feud with Jamie Noble over Michelle McCool.  The rest of the guys are afterthoughts, really.

Smackdown! Acquired:

1. Carlito (RAW)

2. Shelton Benjamin (ECW)

3. Maria (RAW)

4. Brian Kendrick (RAW)

5. DH Smith (RAW)

6. Big Daddy V (ECW)

7. Trevor Murdoch (RAW)

Much like the real draft, Smackdown! made out pretty well here as well.  Apparently WWE really IS pushing to make Smackdown! awesome when it moves to the new network in the fall.  Sadly, this spells the end of the London/Kendrick tag team, but they weren’t really doing much anyway.  Of the bunch, Smackdown! got a few great midcard guys, although nobody is an overall standout.  I’m frankly surprised Big Daddy V was even involved in the draft considering he hasnt been seen for nearly 3 months.  Shelton Benjamin and Carlito (if he gives enough of a shit) stand to do well, I think.

ECW Acquired:

1. Finlay (Smackdown!)

2. Hornswoggle (Smackdown!)

3. Super Crazy (Smackdown!)

4. Mark Henry (Smackdown!)

ECW quite obviously gets a bit of repayment for their general ravaging in the real draft.  Finaly is going to be downright AWESOME on ECW.  I can’t wait to see that guy in some Extreme Rules matches.  Henry is fairly significant as well, despite not having won a match since 2005.  I have a sneaking suspicion they moved Henry to ECW and added him to the ECW match at Night of Champions simply so he can become a 24-hour champion for the sake of keeping the ECW title on ECW.  As much as I hate it, I can’t say I’d blame them, considering leaving it on RAW would be completely retarded.

Overall, the supplemental draft made at most 4 significant changes – Kofi and Finaly for sure, Benjamin and Carlito arguably.  Aside from that, they’ve shuffled around a bunch of jobbers and guys they never use that wont be doing anything different than they’ve been doing.  I’m really excited to be seeing Finlay on Tuesday nights, and that’s really enough to make it a success in my mind.