I have a newfound respect for Bob Kraft after spending hours playing Mastermind Football. They weren’t joking when they thought of their tagline, “football for your brain.”

Mastermind is sort of like fantasy football while being completely different at the same time. Instead of arranging a team of actual NFL players and earning points based on your players’ stats, Mastermind gives you the opportunity to actually run a team. You’re given a roster, a salary cap, and some cash to spend. There are no Tom Bradys or Ocho-Cincos. All players have certain qualities and it is your job as manager to find the right pieces to make a winning team. Each player has qualities such as ego, level of discipline, amount of experience and salary. It’s your job to determine who will be the best fit for your team. It’s up to you to hire coaches, bench egomaniacs (and there are a few) and find the best talent, all while staying under your cap.

Now, here’s where Mastermind gets really fun… you are able to join “seasons”. You are able to choose from a list of open leagues and once the quote of teams is met, the season starts. Just like in real life, you play against the opponents in your league and each game your team plays has full play-by-play stats.

Think it’s easy? Oh no, it is not. I’m quickly learning that my lackadaisical approach to managing just ain’t cutting it. As of late, the Boston Bruschis (that’s my team’s name) are 0-3 and are preparing to face the formidable (and undefeated) Queens New York Tigers. Right now, I’m the New Orleans Saints of my league. I made some drastic changes tonight like benching my starting running back with the HIGH ego and salary and I’m in search of a new kicker. I’m working my way up from A.J. Smith to Scott Pioli (hopefully).

Mastermind football requires much more strategy than run-of-the-mill fantasy football. I’m still really new to the game but I’m slowly learning my way as I go. I’ll keep everyone posted on my progress. You could also sign up for Mastermind and we can learn together?

Oh my! I almost forgot to pick my favorite entires in the Bluejar.com “How-To” Group Writing Project! See, this is what the NFL does to me. They should have some kind of disclaimer before games – “May cause complete disregard for everything else in life.”

Anyway, everyone did a great job but I can only pick three. I chose the ones that were unique. Here goes…

How to Become a Human Calendar – That is just, for lack of a better phrase, super cool. Luciano can pinpoint any day of the year with a simple math equation. It’s more work than my brain can handle, but a neat trick nonetheless.

How to Sleep on a Plane – I used to fly all the time thanks to my dad’s benefit package at US Airways and I always found it difficult to sleep on the plane. You go into some kind of unconscious state – not sleep, but not awake. Once, I fell into this state while holding a bag of complimentary pretzels and when I was startled awake, I accidentally tossed the pretzels across the cabin. Good thing the bag was closed and the flight was almost empty. It’s also a good thing it was toward the end of the flight so I didn’t have to sit there like a pretzel-flinging moron for too long.

Contains Zero Trans Fat – Truth or Creative Advertising? – JoLynn reminds everyone to check your food labels. I already knew what to look for only because my PIRG-loving sister told me. Unfortunately, a lot of people don’t have vigilant sisters like mine. Thanks, JoLynn.

The only thing better than a Sunday is a Monday after a Patriots victory – well, minus the whole “start of the work week” thing.

I was really hoping the Bills would score a one last touchdown so the Patriots could win three games in a row 38-14. I’m curious if that’s ever happened before.

Some other things I was thinking yesterday…

–I know everyone thinks Rex Grossman sucks but I did notice his receivers drop a bunch of decent passes last night. I’m just saying…

–After being slapped with a whooper $500K fine by the NFL, I was wondering if Bill Belichick could help pay for it by signing with Sony to endorse their wide array of camcorders.

–That UPS Whiteboard guy must be really awesome at Pictionary.

–I wonder how badly the Eagles players laughed when they first saw those atrociously ugly throwback uniforms. I also wonder how badly they cringed when they were told they’d have to actually wear them – and on TV no less.

–Yeah, I’m sure LT and Phillip Rivers were just having a “discussion.” I’m sensing some karmic retribution over there.

–Kurt Warner’s still got it.

–I’m happy for Green Bay’s success and for no other reason than my old buddy, old pal, Goob, who is a true Cheesehead.

Today on Yahoo!, I read this:

Overshadowed champs: When was the last time a Super Bowl team started 3-0 in defense of its title and was such an afterthought? The Indianapolis Colts have displayed the right mixture of offense and defense while beating three teams that seemingly had legitimate chances of prevailing, yet all the attention is on the high-scoring Patriots and disappointing Chargers. Somewhere in the Colts locker room, there’s a player or coach on the verge of playing the disrespect card.

Hello? How ’bout NEP 2002, 2004 & 2005? A little role reversal, ya think?

To say I am exhausted would be a huge understatement. My workaholic boss actually went on vacation this week (as far as I know, his wife forced him) which meant I had to fill it, sort of.

Instead of leaving pages and stories with blank headlines, I had to think of them myself. Newspaper headline writing, to put it mildly, sucks. It’s little more than corny puns or attempting to sum up the entire story in one brief line. If you read my site then you will probably note that I don’t take my post headlines seriously at all. I try to have fun with them. But what I write for a newspaper will be read by thousands of people and you can’t really mess around when you have a stories on a vehicular homicide conviction or an arsonist that left 30 people homeless.

I also had to choose which photos were going to be published and write my own cutlines (photo captions). Cutlines are even more difficult but I had some fun with the high school football photos. Creative Freedom!

The worst part of my boss’s absence was having to work today. You see, I work anywhere between 15 and 20 hours on Wednesday just getting the papers put together and sent to the printer. The last thing I want to do is wake up at 6 a.m. and go back to the office on Thursday. What am I, a medical intern or something? Heck no. It sucks.

There’s also NOTHING TO DO. Thursday is the furthest point from our next deadline and one thing working for a newspaper has taught me is we live in a world of procrastinators. Being in the office today felt like the miserable in-school suspension days I endured back in high school – trapped in one room all day with nothing to do. At least Office Cat came to visit me today and it looks like he got a flea bath, although he did tip over the overloaded trash can twice.

Having to actually think for myself at work and the extended hours have left me beyond tired. I get really stupid when I get tired. It took me three tries to park my car in the lot this evening. I never thought I’d say this but I can’t wait for my boss to come back.

I don’t usually like to embed videos on this page, but this one’s worth it.