Do you know how to play backgammon ? Its a board game that uses dice and a healthy dose of strategy, and its tons of fun. It is played worldwide, but it is just getting popular in the states.American players tend to be older, where as in other places, even children partake. Perhaps you want to learn to play backgammon , you can! Head over to the Backgammon Masters website.In fact, they just released a new feature! They noticed that there is a huge international community of backgammon players, so they added the ability to change the language of the site to 12 different languages. Chinese too!

Whats so cool about that? Well you can now play a player from ANYWHERE. You can play a guy in backgammon that wouldn’t know what you were saying if you went there in person, so it is kind of magical. All you need to do is choose what language you want on the site and then all your data will come to you in your language. You can get all the site content in your language too, this will allow you to become proficient with the game and the strategies, allowing you for more wins than just rule comprehension alone.Next on their list is to have multi-language customer support.

Frankly, this is the world’s largest gathering of backgammon players, so if you are wanting to have a bit of a social activity along with your passion for a fast growing game, this is the place to do it. The site will often host special event, and details can be found there regarding them.

Maybe you want to learn to dance, but your schedule can not bear the class times, it is sporadic and simply can not be planned around. Or maybe you are like me and want to learn to dance but are to self conscious to do it in a class with other people and simply can not afford one on one instruction. So what do we do?

It is simple, we get some videos that are proven to produce fantastic results. You can actually learn ballroom dancing in your own home and not appear to be a fool at the next wedding you attend. If you are crazy about learning to dance, this is an affordable adjustable solution to the need for instruction and should be deeply considered.

As The World Turns is a popular long running day time soap opera that has made a dramatic first. The television show has set their “first” by having the first daytime television kiss by a gay couple. It has been received by open arms by the gay fans of the show. I wonder if this will set the stage for other soap operas to follow suit or if CBS and As The World Turns will remain unique and hold that portion of the audience to themselves.

Some innovative technology from Google again. YouTube, which is now owned by Google has created InVideo. InVideo is a animated overlay that plays inside a youtube video. It has a clickable message to it.

The ad is fairly simple and resides in the lower  20% or so of the viweing space. They start about 15  seconds into a video, are 80% see through and  remain up for about 10 seconds, then they are gone.

The video giant streams 3 billion minutes of video monthly. Well, thats alot of advertising dollars they weren’t using, alot of opportunities missed.

Its said that the embedded content wont have invideo, possibly because it may be embedded somewhere that wouldn’t flatter the advertiser.

You know, they should have this for television. Commercials are the worst part of TV. A nice little ad, quietly scrolling translucently at the bottom of the screen for 10 seconds, well I think thats hot!

Of course, when would we use the restroom if we didn’t have commercials? I hadn’t considered that. In that light its  as if they are doing a public service…

I jest, but how long until our web surfing is kept in a log and commercials are sent to individual sets based on the viewers surfing… Its coming. I just don’t know when.

I admit it. I peruse the tabloids while I wait in line at the market. Hollywood gossip is all  the rage these days. Are our lives so boring that we inject ourselves into someone elses life? YEP! It is

Or perhaps, its that we see similarities  between us  and the celebreties, and int hat way we live vicariously as a famous person.

Could be on a level we are jealous and secretly cheer at the mudslinging…

Whatever it is, its addictive. I enjoy those top ten lists etc. Maybe I don’t want to feel “out of the loop”. I cant explain it , but it is entertainment, and entertaining is why they make the money. Evidentially, they keep us entertained.

Likely one of the most prevalent sports for active males today, paint balling has swept through America. Everyone knows at least one person who plays the sport. Perhaps you do, or your friend does, maybe your son, heck maybe you even know one of those daring ladies that engages in the grand sport.

Well if you don’t, why not?

No time to start like the present. But you will need gear. I couldn’t imagine playing a round of paintball with my paintball vest or my mask. Please don’t play without a mask, eye injuries are possible. Of course with a vest and a mask, you will be safe.

Of course, the main piece of gear in paintball is the gun. Its the piece that players pride themselves on most. There are some beautiful designs available. My personal favorite design replicates the M4 carbine.

There are several types of paintball events, and the two I find most interesting are the “woodsball” and the “scenario” syles of engagement.

Scenario ball tends to be massive in scale, and groups of people will often register together. Scenario tends to be re-enactments of famous battles, and each faction is given a task to accomplish. Perhaps the terrorist team must hold a given point, and the SWAT team must take that point, for example. Any number of possibilities exist in an organized scenario game.

Woodsball is an exciting twist to an already great game. The basic idea here is space, there is more stalking involved, as opposed to the “spray and pray” of the close quarters fight. Basically this uses military maneuvers to overcome your objectives. There are many ways to play this, but the basic element is the hunt, and the open space.

Ten million people paintball each year, you can make it ten million and one.

The game “arm spirit” had to be removed from Japanese game rooms this past week after displaying inhuman strength, breaking the arms of 3 players.

The game is a version of arm wrestling, but your opponent is just an arm, connected to a box that beeps while snapping limbs on human players .

Atlus game distributor said their recall was just a precaution, implying that the Japanese should buck up and get tough!

An Atlus spokesperson says that their machine is only as strong as a muscular man, and that properly trained a woman can beat it.

I wonder how the spokesperson would do against the machine?

Your younger daughter a bit bored? Does she need a fun healthy activity that she care share with friends? I have the answer!

Cartoon Doll Emporium.

Its curiously addictive. Cartoon Doll Emporium is one of the fastest growing online communities for “tween” girls. They have fun online activities, like dressing some of their favorite stars in fashions they choose, and often times they can choose to change the colors of clothes, hairs, etc. Its YOUR style after all!

Cartoon Doll Emporium also has “webkinz”. These are hand drawn dolls that you take care of online, dress up and play with. Theres even tools that allow you to send the dolls and webkinz to your MySpace.

Another big thing alot of tweens enjoy is dressing up the Hannah Montana superdoll at Cartoon Doll Emporium. Yeah I tried it, its interesting because there was so many different combinations of clothes and accessories, plus I even got to pick my own pet.

  Microsoft announced officially that they will be dropping their price on the Xbox 360 gaming console.  In fact, all three versions will recieve a price cut. The elite will be 449, the 360 will be 349, and the 360 Core will be 279.

Microsoft feels that leading the console market in sales while maintaining their initial price says alot about their product. They also feel that with the Launch of the latest Madden game their numbers will hit record peaks.

Developer “All-in-One Game Software” now has BlackJack!! Black jack adds to the already addictive fun of games like backgammon, poker, and perudo.

Of all the sites I have gone to and enjoyed this is the only one that allows you to play free, in an animated client. It allows you to use 10 languages. (Spanish, Arabic, Turkish, Hebrew, French, Japanese, Danish, Greek and German, and English). This particular provider of interactive entertainment boasts thousands of players networked at any given time. And now that they have BlackJack on the menu you can expect the number to grow exponentially.

The game itself offers high speed play, coupled with stunning visual graphics, each table holding up to 5 players. Each player can choose to create his own avatar which i had a bit of fun with. You can chat with fellow players, and even more interesting, the games possess a “view” mode, which allows other players to sit out and just watch the action!

Backgammon

Backgammon is a board game for two people in which pieces are moved based on the roll of dice. The first player to remove all of one’s own pieces from the board is said to be the winner. It is a part of the tables family, one of the oldest classes of games in the world.

Perudo

Perudo is popular dice game played in Peru, Chile, Bolivia and other South American countries. This game may be played by two or more people and, basically, is made up of guessing how many dice, under cups, there are on the table showing a certain number. The player who loses a round loses one of their dice. The last player having a die is the winner.

Blackjack

Blackjack is one of the most popular casino card games in the world. Blackjack’s popularity is due to the mix of chance with elements of skill, and the publicity that surrounds card counting . Blackjack’s precursor was vingt-et-un (”twenty-one”), which originated in French casinos around 1700, and did not offer the 3:2 bonus for a two-card 21.

Poker

Poker is a popular type of card game in which players gamble on having the better card combination (”hand”), by placing a bet into a central pot. The winner is the one who holds the hand with the highest value according to an established hand rankings hierarchy, or otherwise the player who remains “in the hand” after all others have folded (the player who makes an un-called bet.

Enjoy playing Backgammon, Perudo, Poker, and Blackjack.