In Praise of Virtual “Work” (aka Football Manager)

Some people play games to relax, to escape the tedium and/or stress of their jobs, to challenge their reflexes — physical and mental. Football Manager is a bizarre combination of both, which really should not be appealing at all. It can be stressful and tedious, while also challenging your mental abilities because, at the end of the day, it's a glorified spreadsheet with multiple pivot tables — and I love it so much, it's taken me a week to stop playing it long enough to write this post about it!

How Social Networking Finally Turned Me Into a Soccer Fan

By the time the US bowed out in an agonizing loss to Belgium in the Round of 16, I took it as hard as any Mets or Jets playoff defeat, as if I'd been following them for years rather than weeks. I had truly come to believe that we could win! By the time Argentina lost its nail-biter to Germany, I was questioning what I ever saw in American football's three-and-outs and relentless commercial breaks. Some of this feeling was definitely thanks to ESPN's slick marketing and broadcasting packages, and some of it was thanks to sharing the experience via social media, with friends and strangers alike.