I just invented a drink… the Canadian Chaser… layer half a shot of maple syrup (heavier, pour it first) and half a shot of vodka. The gimmick? You drink the vodka and the chaser (maple syrup) together.
Make sure that the maple syrup is *real* stuff, not Aunt Jemima.
OK, I might not be the first person ever to try this, but after a couple of them, I don’t really care! 
Matt Leacock, designer of award-winning boardgame Pandemic, has a new creation which will be released in the 2nd quarter of 2010 by Gamewright. The new game, Forbidden Island, follows Pandemic’s footsteps as a cooperative game.
Description from Gamewright's site:
"Dare to discover Forbidden Island! Join a team of fearless adventurers on a do-or-die mission to capture four sacred treasures from the ruins of this perilous paradise. Your team will have to work together and make some pulse-pounding maneuvers, as the island will sink beneath every step! Race to collect the treasures and make a triumphant escape before you are swallowed into the watery abyss!"
Initial information suggests that the rules are quite innovative and allow for extended playability. Games are expected to take an average of 30 minutes to complete.
If you are a child or get offended easily, please click here: disney.com.
OK, now we got that riffraff out of here, the party can get started!! Here are two music videos by DJ Lubel. If you haven’t heard of him yet, you probably will soon (assuming that you click on one of the vids below, it will be very soon!). He’s a plain, geeky guy, but he writes side-splittingly hilarious songs. They’re all pretty rude and obnoxious, though, so be warned!
By the way, Scott Baio plays a part in his newest video,Wrong Hole (as you can imagine, it’s a *very* classy song):
And here is DJ Lubel’s Happy Valentine’s Day:
I just read an interesting article about knock-off boardgames produced in China. Check it out at spotlightongames.com.
From the article: “Last month a friend visited a certain warehouse in a certain town in China. There could be found a great number of German and other board games. Each is exactly as one would expect from a German product in both physical quality and artwork, including the instructions booklet. The only differences one would be able to detect were a few Chinese characters on some of the boxes and on some cards where necessary, plus the addition of several sheets of Chinese instructions printed on plain paper.”
I agree with a post in a discussion at boardgamegeek.com that this could be a result of publishers sending the original PDFs to Chinese printers to save some money. However, one poster said that his game (which was one of the knockoffs in the article) was printed only in Europe – but a number of games had been sold to various parts of Asia.
Although damaging to the publishers of boardgames, is this a sign that specialty games are ready to take the world by storm? If it’s worth copying, it’s got to be significant, right?
