The Great Flood (2025) [/] South Korean action/apocalypse movie set a few decades in the future. As sudden flooding threatens her city researcher Gu An-na (Kim Da-mi) and her son Ja-in (Kwon Eun-seong) have to escape up 30 floors pas the panicked residents of her rather large apartment building. She is helped by a corporate security guard Son Hee-jo (Park Hae-soo) sent to evacuate her via helicopter, but apparently only she and not her son... The first half of the movie is fairly exciting with some nice CGI of flooding and huge waves rushing in. Then the second plot twist and the second half could have been done better I guess -- it didn't seem quite that satisfying as the first half.

Ridiculous Fishing EX (2023) [/] Apple Arcade version of Ridiculous Fishing. Simple three part gameplay. First you cast a line which goes down and rotate device to move fishing lure left and right and avoid all fish. Once you hit a fish or get to the end of your line it starts going up and now you rotate device to catch fish on your lure. Once the fish reach the top they're flung high into the air and now you tap fish to shoot them for money with rarer fish giving you more money. Afterwards you can buy stuff at the store (longer fishing line, better weapons, special lures, cosmetic items). If you catch all the fish types the game gets harder. Not a game with a lot of depth but makes good use of device rotation.

Star's End (2017) [-] Science fiction novel by Cassandra Rose Clarke. Esme Coromina is heiress to a multi-planet conglomerate built on genetically engineered warriors sold to anyone who can afford them. While she plans to reform the company after she takes over her dying father asks her to convince her three estranged younger sisters to visit him one last time. As she goes about this task the story keeps flashing back to her childhood and how her relationship with her sisters crashed and burned... More of a character story I guess. I read 80-odd pages and got bored. I then read this review which convinced me this story wasn't for me.

Eternal Love is a Chinese ancient fantasy romance series running 58 45-minute episodes. The main plot is the thousands-year-long romance between Queen of the Fox Tribe Bai Qian (Yang Mi) and Crown Prince of the Nine Heavens Ye Hua (Mark Chao).

In the first part a young and adventurous Bai Qian disguises herself as a young man, Si Yin, and becomes the 17th disciple of God of War Mo Yuan (Mark Chao in a dual role). She becomes quite attached to Mo Yuan and he to her (as a high god he automatically knew she was a woman). But their happy times ends when Ghost Tribe Lord Qing Cang (Lian Yiming) leads an uprising and Mo Yuan has to sacrifice his soul to imprison Qing Cang for 70 thousand years. Si Yin steals Mo Yuan's body and brings him to Fox Tribe's special regeneration cave where she hopes his soul will eventually reform and return to his body.

70 thousand years later Bai Qian is betrothed to one the Nine Heaven princes but she manages to foil that plan since she's still waiting for Mo Yuan to return. She is then betrothed to the young Crown Prince Ye Hua. Before they can meet though Bai Qian reseals Qing Cang but as she seals him he strikes her, flinging her to the mortal world where she is a mortal amnesiac and lives on a haunted mountain.

Ye Hua happens to save the moral Bai Qian but is injured as a black snake which Bai Qian poorly nurses back to health. Ye Hua becomes enamored with the mortal girl and tries to win her heart by posing as a mortal mercenary who saves her and names her (because she forgot her name) Su Su. They live happily together and even after she finds out he's the Crown Prince of the Nine Heavens she is willing to follow him to heaven and live with him (and they married as mortals already).

But in heaven the machinations of Su Jin (Huang Mengying), Ye Hua's childhood "friend" and now sole consort, first alienate Su Su then implicate her in various crimes and offenses against heaven. Thinking that even Ye Hua has abandoned her Su Su commits suicide by jumping into the gate to the mortal world but some kinsmen find her broken body and bring her back to Fox Tribe lands to recuperate (in this 20+ year period Bai Qian was officially doing "self reflection" even though Fox Tribe leaders couldn't find her). Ye Hua is left with their son A Li (Hummer Zhang).

Now we're back to Ye Hua and Bai Qian being betrothed to each other. They manage to not quite meet for many episodes for them (and other people) to notice that Bai Qian looks just like Su Su and for her to see that Ye Hua looks like Mo Yuan (and to be fair everyone in heaven knew Ye Hua was the spitting image of Mo Yuan but using magic knew it was a different soul -- later we learn that Ye Hua is Mo Yuan's twin brother but for reasons wasn't born until recently).

Even after they meet and start falling in love Bai Qian is half-convinced he only loves her because Bai Qian looks like his lost love (and by this point Ye Hua knows they're the same person but doesn't think he can convince her of that fact). In episode 56 or 57 Ye Hua sacrifices himself to save the Nine Heavens. Bai Qian is disconsolate for an episode and more (about 300 years). Then miraculously his soul is reformed (thousands of years early due to Mo Yuan's help), he wakes up, and he and Bai Qian have a happy ending. (There are a couple of other romantic subplots that don't end up happy due to Fate and class differences so there's a mix of good and bad at the end.)

The first part is amusing gender bending as even Ghost Princess Yan Zhi (Dai Si) falls for Yi Sin but it's not really developed. Then there's the middle part where Bai Qian and Ye Hua keep managing to not meet each other (or at least meet but not see each other's faces) which is frustratingly amusing for me. The latter middle part where Ye Hua slowly wins Bai Qian's heart is fairly nice. The ending is not bad -- I've seen worse.

Overall a pretty good series.

Single's Inferno is a romance/dating sim based on Netflix's Single's Inferno Korean tv show. A group of single people looking for love are put on a desert island (with amenities as this is not a survival show). They can talk to each other but can't reveal their age or occupation (which I guess must be an important dating thing in Korean culture). There are challenges and activities and I think each night two people get to go to Paradise, which is a high-end hotel on the mainland, where they can reveal all to each other and form a deeper connection.

In this game (I haven't watched the tv show) there are surprises involving a second Inferno island with a separate group of singles. People keep getting switch between islands which sets up new dynamics and the first time you are sent there it's interesting as there is a group of singles who know each other but don't know you. And there are also two or three new singles introduced one at a time.

The gameplay is reading dialog between characters and sometimes you get to choose one of three actions. Sometimes it's obvious that an action will increase or decrease romance between you and the other character and sometimes it's hard to tell. Sometimes you have to choice between two or more people/groups as to who you like more or who you want to do an activity with or who you go to Paradise with.

Every character has a romance bar that and you see the current bar at the end of each chapter and if the bar increased or decreased. In general getting most of the characters to max is pretty easy as it only takes a few romance choices to get their bar to maximum, though even then some characters are not romance-able and instead the romance bar is more of a friendship bar.

In the end each character choosing someone else to be their "One" and if two people choose each other they get to leave the island together. Weirdly at this point it the romance bar doesn't seem to matter as most everyone will choose you as their "One" so you get free choice as to whom to leave the island with.

I played Too Hot To Handle which is a similar sort of game and based on another Netflix show. On the positive side THTH each character has both romance and friendship stats so you can form a bestie relationship with one of several characters. And THTH has probably sexier graphics of the characters.

But Single's Inferno was a better experience to me. THTH characters are rather shallowly-developed and the game play is all about whether you hook up or not. Single's Inferno some of the characters have quite detailed back stories (and the frenemies arc between you and a surprise addition is rather epic) and the characters for the most part behave quite distinct. I went from forming a bond with one character to slowly moving to another character until finally I had a difficult choice as to which of the two to pick.

Single's Inferno also has three commentators, two previous participants and a celebrity commentator. The camera often cuts to them discussing what just happened or they'll have comments as you go through a dialog between characters. The commentary adds to the atmosphere as they elaborate on issues and consequences and are a good way of embellishing the story without a narrator or having the contestants keep talking all the time.

Overall this is a really good story app and I had a great experience playing it.

Vagabond (2019) [-] Spy-action thriller. After his nephew is killed in a plane crash, stuntman Cha Dal-Geon (Lee Seung-gi) is determined to find out what really happened and starts to uncover a multi-layered conspiracy. He gets help from low-level Korean National Intelligence Service analyst Go Hae-ri (Bae Suzy) who is in over her head but sees this as a way to promotion and job stability.

This took me a couple of sessions to watch. The first eight episodes then a long break then the last ten. Especially the first few episodes there are some very long action sequences involving Dal-Geon. Also too many plot twists as to who is the real bad guy. Finally a non-ending maybe setting up a sequel series should there be one but I don't see anything in Wikipedia and now it's six years later.

I watched this for Bae Suzy and she magnetic when she's on screen but everyone other than Dal-Geon is a secondary character and Hae-ri is the top secondary character. Overall a disappointing series. Although I do appreciate the bad girls casting: Moon Jeong-hee as Jessica Lee, power lobbyist and one of the Big Bads; Park Ah-in as Lily, assassin with an attitude; and Ryu Won as Mickey, administrative assistant with gun and spec ops skills.

Millionaire Trivia: TV Game+ (2023) [/] Who Wants to be a Millionaire quiz show. At base it's you vs another global player answering quiz questions that get harder as you get closer to the $1M prize. Vs is nice since it can be asynchronous -- the computer only needs to know other player's level, the quiz id, and when the other player got a wrong answer.

I like how they did the experts. You collect expert cards (and duplicates allow you to level up that expert) and experts are good at one or more categories. Then when you call on an expert the screen shows all your experts and their confidence on this question. I'm not sure expert knowledge is that specific -- I got William Shakespeare card but I don't think he'd be better at Shakespeare questions than another expert with the same rarity can category skill level.

But other than collecting experts it's still Who Wants to be a Millionaire which I don't find that interesting.

Echo Journal [/] Echo (Educational Community for HOA Homeowners) is a non-profit aimed at educating homeowners who live in an HOA and HOA board members. They have a quarterly journal which anybody can download. Besides all the ads (kind of useful actually since they're services specifically for HOAs) there is one or two educational articles (although many are split up into 1 to 3 parts). I feel most of the advice is common sense but some things are new to me so it's a useful journal to at least scan through.

Hi Bye, Mama! is a South Korean bittersweet drama starring Kim Tae-hee as Cha Yu-ri, a mother who died at childbirth and has been haunting her daughter for five years. She is given a second chance when she comes back to life for 49 days. At first her shaman friend Mi Dong-daek (Yoon Sa-bong) thinks that this is Cha Yu-ri's chance to regain a life cut short by a car accident -- if she can reclaim her position as wife to Cho Gang-hwa (Lee Kyu-hyung) and mother to Cho Seo-woo (Seo Woo-jin).

Except that after an intense period of grief Cho Gang-hwa married Oh Min-jung (Go Bo-gyeol). At first glance Oh Min-jung seems a bit distant from Cho Seo-woo and in turn Cho Gang-hwa is a bit distant from his wife. But deeper down they do love each other which Cha Yu-ri knew all along which is why she doesn't want to break up a marriage for her selfish reasons.

Instead Cha Yu-ri wants to protect Cho Seo-woo because the little girl can see ghosts and this is due to Cha Yu-ri hanging around her all the time. Cha Yu-ri gets work at the child care and proceeds to drive off the ghosts. Although Cha Yu-ri tries to stay hidden from people who know her she often forgets so first she's spotted by her best Go Hyun-jung (Shin Dong-mi), then later her ex-husband, and finally her mom Jeon Eun-sook (Kim Mi-kyung).

So now Cha Yu-ri is fully back among the living and even befriends Oh Min-jung, who thinks Cha Yu-ri is a dead-ringer for her husband's deceased wife. The rest of the series is Cha Yu-ri revealing to everyone, one at a time, that her time is limited and she's not sticking around so it kind of becomes a long goodbye. But it's only in the last episode that Cha Yu-ri finally accepts her fate and is fine moving on to heaven, the series ending with a short bit 10+ years later showing a happy teen Cho Seo-woo (Park Jung-yeon) enjoying a moment in the park with her parents...

I mostly liked this series though it does get a bit sad with lots of crying. I like the cameo by Kim Seul-gi replaying her Oh My Ghost character Shin Soon-ae. Overall an above average series.

Slay the Spire+ is the Apple Arcade version of Slay the Spire, a roguelike deckbuilder from 2019.

In the game you travel a point to point map with crisscrossing paths. Each node shows the type of encounter:

• Monster - most nodes are common monster encounters
• Elite - some nodes are an elite monster, adds an artifact reward
• Rest - some nodes are rest areas where you can recover 25-30% of hit points (in general hp are rarely healed otherwise), or instead you can upgrade a card of your choosing (all cards can be upgraded once)
• Merchant - some nodes have a merchant with a random collection of cards to buy, one of the cards at a discount, two cards are higher cost special cards
• Unknown - some nodes are unknown and can be any of the above

Combat is turn-based with card actions. You have a draw pile of cards and three action points. Draw your cards then play them. Usually it's attack one or more enemies (usually one enemy and maybe five max), block which adds to your current shield (e.g. a 10-point enemy attack reduces your shield by 10; shields reset to 0 at the start of your turn), power which is an ongoing effect (e.g. poison 2 on all enemies at start of turn, or the first discard of your turn you draw a replacement card), skill which does some kind of effect like draw more cards or buff/debuff.

There is very little randomness outside card draw. Attacks do a set amount of damage, blocks add a set amount of shield, there is no die-rolling. There are effects that are random: a poison bottle that bounces around hits three or four enemies randomly so can hit one enemy multiple times; or if you're confused your card action point costs are randomized (cards cost 0 to 3 points to use and there are effects that can give you more action points). Similarly if enemies have multiple types of actions the current one they've chosen seems random (and for the most part you know what each enemy is doing).

There are four classes that play quite different and have their own set of cards. Fighter that is mostly attack or block cards; Elementalist that conjures energy orbs that do something at the end of each turn; Poisoner that has lots of poison cards (poison does damage at the start of an enemy's turn then it's value goes down 1); the last one I haven't played yet.

After each Monster/Elite battle you get a choice of 1 of 3 random cards and each character has different builds you can specialize. For example I had an Elementalist but instead of energy orbs I ended up concentrating on this 0 cost claw attack and effects like remove all discarded claw attacks and add them to your hand, or increase strength for more claw attack damage. With a good draw I could do a lot of claw attacks.

A game is traveling through three maps with a Boss fight at the end of each map. After the final Boss fight you get a score, though I'm not sure how scoring works. The score is also added to that characters running score total which unlocks new cards.

Besides the normal game mode there is a Daily Challenge where you play a set character and there are three environment rules (e.g. whenever you Rest you heal 100% but lose 5 max hp so try to find another way of healing). The Daily Challenge has a global high score and your score also contributes to unlocking stuff for that character.

There is a Custom which is like Daily but you can set the environmental effects. Normal game mode you can play Ascension difficulty where it gets more difficult as you win more games. You can also set the game run's seed so I guess if you play with friends you can all have the same randomness.

A full run takes a couple of hours. Since each combat is short the urge to do one more combat is strong and I've started a game at 0100 or 0200 and ended up going to sleep much later. Graphics and sound are good.

My only negative is that with a lot of cards in your hand you have to tap to see the card title then drag up to read the description if you don't have it memorized. And often if you tap on another card it thinks you are still on the same card so once or twice a run I end up using a card I only looked at but didn't intend to use then. Also in the "choose a card to discard or add" view I sometimes double tap or something and end up choosing that card when I just wanted to read the description. I guess in both cases it's a problem of trying to do things too quickly.

Anyway this is a very fun game.

Invisible Us (2024) [-] Japanese serious drama running six 45-minute episodes. After one of her former high school friends stabs a few people in downtown Tokyo, trashy magazine writer Nakagawa Aoi (Fukuhara Haruka, Good Morning Call - 2016) tracks down and reconnects with her other friends, the six of them being Team Float in high school. As we discover their stories (which often goes back to high school incidents where the POV shifts revealing new perspectives) we see that all six did not really achieve their dreams of life and have sort of become more invisible members of Japanese society. With Takeda Rena as one of the friends. It's a somewhat depressing series.

What the Car? (2023) [/] A humorous platformer on Apple Arcade. You have a car with legs and each level there is a twist on your movement (e.g. rockets or extra jumpy). Travel from the beginning to the end (takes like 15 to 30 seconds) as fast as possible and maybe pickup the level's secret item. It's simple enough for kids to play though getting gold star on every level is a challenge for adults.

My Drama List [+] When I want to look for specific minor actors in an Asian drama I usually go to MyDramaList. It's Cast and Credits view includes actor pictures and role name (often with an added descriptor e.g. XYZ's daughter, butler, etc.). There is usually an episode guide with episode summaries though you have to drill down into each episode. Although the show synopsis is ok Wikipedia sometimes has much more info and Wikipedia tends to have more info on show production, music and background.

The Spies Who Loved Me is a South Korean romance drama running sixteen 70-minute episodes.

Wedding dress designer Kang Ah-Reum (Yoo In-na) gets embroiled in an industrial espionage plot when her friend Sophie Ahn (Yoon So-hee) is murdered at Ahn's bachelorette party. For some reason Ah-Reum's ex-husband Jun Ji-Hoon (Eric Mun) was also there and insists on helping her out, maybe to get back together but actually because he works for Interpol Asia and is secretly investigating the case. Ji-Hoon butts heads with Ah-Reum's current husband, Derek Hyun (Lim Ju-hwan), who is a refined socialite working at the Koren Foreign Affairs office.

This is the third Yoo In-na series I've watched the last few months, after Touch Your Heart (2019) and True to Love (2023). Apparently she was also in Snowdrop (2021) but I only watched the first few episodes. She's kind of played the same sort of character in all three but she has that role nailed down. Sure it's the same character over and over again but my opinion of her keeps going up.

The series itself is entertaining. It's fairly high production value with lots of nice locations and attractive people. Park So-jin plays Ah-Reum's business partner and friend and she also was the lead's best friend in True to Love and a bigger part there than in this one. Both male leads I hadn't seen before and it's probably my viewing choices that I keep seeing the same female leads but the male leads are quite more varied.

I like that Ah-Reum is fairly skilled and assertive. She has some nice pick-up spying type skills and is willing to keep going when her investigations get dangerous even though she thinks she's basically doing it on her own. This is probably the best of her three characters I've seen simply because she holds her own skills-wise.

I enjoyed this series.

Harry Turtledove's Three Miles Down is subtitled "A novel of first contact in the tumultuous 1970s". In the waning days of Watergate as President Nixon is busy defending himself, UCLA ceanographic graduate student Jerry Stieglitz is recruited by the CIA to go aboard Howard Hughes' Glomar Explorer.

Historically that mining exploration ship was used to secretly raise the sunken Soviet submarine K-129. In this history that is a cover mission because what is next to the wreck of K-129 is an intact alien space ship which probably sunk K-129. Along with the technical difficulties of the Glomar Explorer's mission (whether it was used for K-129 or another object that deep, it was quite a technical achievement and the book goes into the difficulties in some detail) and interference from the Soviets who are suspicious, Jerry has philosophical difficulties.

Jerry is rather liberal left-leaning on a ship that is very conservative, right wing, and enthusiastically pro-Nixon (even the non-government types since the ship has a lot of civilian sea mining crew and such). Once the alien ship is recovered and some exploration is done Jerry comes to realize (actually even before then) that this is too big a discovery for the USA to hog for itself.

Once Jerry's part is done and he is sent back home he returns to his normal life, except that he did smuggle a few photographs, an act which if found out would get him terminally sanctioned by the CIA. But a couple of months later news reports start coming out about the Glomar Explorer and further events make Jerry believe that the CIA may have targeted him "just to be sure" so he runs and travels cross country from Los Angeles to Washington DC to speak with the only people who can save him, the people at the Soviet Embassy...

This is a well written story full of 1970's stuff that is either very relevant (such as Watergate, Nixon's impeachment, and President Gerald Ford now being given the alien hot potato) or stuff that is mentioned in passing like the price of gasoline or the current Dodgers and Angels teams.

Ultimately this is more of a conspiracy/thriller type story than a science fiction aliens story -- it even ends just as one of the aliens is finally awoken so we don't know if that first contact ultimately turns out good or bad. As such this is not really the kind of story I would have chosen to read but it's still a fine tale.

In Love and Deep Water (2023) [/] Japanese light murder-comedy-romance movie. On a cruise ship (sailing from Tokyo to the Aegean Sea) butler Ubukata Suguru (Yoshizawa Ryo) meets passenger Banjaku Chizuru (Miyazaki Aoi) who tells him that their significant others are cheating on them (well, not quite cheating from their text messages but getting there). As they try to decide what to do a murder occurs in front of the two and five other witnesses. But then body disappears so was there a murder? Especially since other than Ubukata no one admits to seeing the murder (each for their own reasons). Ubukata and Banjaku try to convince the other witnesses to testify (though in a nice twist the real murderer is a bit of a surprise unless you paid some attention). It's an entertaining movie.

Very Little Nightmares+ (2023) [+] Apple Arcade version which I guess is the same but "free". Puzzle game where you are a little girl trying to escape a horror mansion of 18 areas. Tap to move, tap to interact if you're next to a relevant object (there are no useless objects to interact with), double tap to run. Most puzzles require interacting/rearranging a few things -- perhaps switches (to open doors or turn on/off water or electricity) or furniture so you can climb up to reach things (you can't even reach the top of a table without something to climb up). Not too hard of puzzles though I did use a walkthrough four or five times. It's about 3 hours to play through.

Espostos Catering [/] We had them cater our HOA holiday party. $1200 including delivery charge for the hot food. I think enough food for 50 people though we only had 20 or so. Sliders of two types, meat balls with bbq sauce, various cheeses with bread and crackers, a few other things. Food was ok considering it had to be prepared then transported then setup and then another half hour as people arrive to eat (hot food had warmers and water trays).

True to Love is a South Korean romance drama running fourteen hour-long episodes.

Dating influencer Yeon "Deborah" Bo-ra (Yoo In-na, Touch Your Heart - 2019) has her career and heart broken after she catches almost-fiancé Noh Joo-wan (Hwang Chan-sung) cheating on her. She goes into seclusion which is inconvenient for book publisher Jinri who were pursuing her for her next book.

But after Bo-ra's sister Yeon Bo-mi (Kim Ye-ji) is scammed out of most of Bo-ra's savings Bo-ra is forced to sign with Jinri and work with prickly editor Lee Soo-hyuk (Yoon Hyun-min) who in classic K-Drama fashion she's had a couple of previous bad run-ins (and he blames her for giving advice to his former girlfriend so that she ended up breaking up with him).

As they continue to work together they start to realize the other one is not bad as they thought and actually has some good qualities. Complication when Joo-wan realizes Bo-ra is dating again and decides he wants her back even though Bo-ra is definitely over him. Also a nice romantic subplot between Soo-hyuk's best friend and business partner Han Sang-jin (Joo Sang-wook) and the young new office intern Bang Woo-ri (Hong Hwa-yeon) who becomes infatuated because of his incidental acts of kindness.

This is a nice series. Upscale locations, fashionable outfits, photogenic cast. Yoo In-na is very good even though it's a somewhat similar kind of character as in Touch Your Heart -- beautiful diva who's taken down a peg and is now recovering her balance and confidence.

The X33 Pro Max ($120 regular price) is a solid metal and magnetic iPad stand. When you order it you specify which model iPad it's for since exactly fits that iPad.

The iPad snaps on magnetically and there is a cut square in the back for the camera. The stand can pivot up and down for height. The iPad attachment can be rotated for horizontal or vertical viewing. The attachment is fairly strong and you can't shake the iPad loose and detaching requires a bit of prying.

I can set it up in the bathroom or kitchen to watch a video while I'm doing stuff. Once you set the angle it's set enough that you can't accidentally move the hinge or iPad by tapping and swiping.

On my desk I can lower the stand and have my iPad in horizontal mode with the bottom touching the table. That's a nice viewing angle that complements my monitors and is easy to tap/swipe.

The stand is solid and heavier than my iPad. It does feel like it'll last years. Magnets don't wear out. I guess maybe the hinge parts might wear out such that it doesn't stay put or maybe becomes stuck.

Even though it's kind of pricey keep in mind my alternative was the closest Apple equivalent, the Magic Keyboard for $270. And I got my X33 Pro Max on sale for $73 (free shipping) and right now for New Years Sale it's $86.

Addendum: I just figured out an issue. The X33 attaches like it's a keyboard so the iPad sometimes thinks there's a keyboard connected. I've only noticed it when I backup to my Mac and the "Trust this computer" dialog wants you to enter your passcode but there is no keyboard shown. Once you disconnect the X33 the virtual keyboard shows up.

In other apps, such as Notes, the virtual keyboard is also not automatically shown but there is a menu at the bottom and you can select "Show Keyboard".

Hotaru no Hikari: It's Only_Little Light In My Life s1 (2007) and s2 (2010) [-] Live action series of a light romantic manga. Hotaru Amemiya (Haruka Ayase) is a young professional office lady who is secretly a lazy slob at home (Himong Onna or Dried Fish Woman, which this manga coined and it became a popular term) - wearing comfy clothes and drinking beer. She ends up with a new housemate, Seichi Takang (Naohito Fujiki), who happens to be her much older manager. In the first season they eventually settle on being boyfriend/girlfriend and in the second season (set three years later) is all about whether or not they will get married... May have been better as an anime as a live action woman who is that naive, unobservant, and ADHD-like is kind of annoying rather than cute/charming. The cast was overturned in s2 with the two leads and the strongest two supporting characters -- Yamada Sachiko (Yuka Itaya) as Hotaru's older and wiser co-worker/friend and Shoji Futatsugi (Ken Yasuda) as
Seich's friend (and also fellow co-worker) -- returning.

Jet Dragon (2023) [/] "Nurturing simulator" is an apt description. You run a dragon racing team and have to manage training riders and dragons (and not exhausting them), upgrading your facilities, and actually racing in events. Races are on rails in that there is no steering so you concentrate on triggering your boost and abilities (including attacks and defenses). Pretty graphics, appropriate fantasy/medieval background music, character dialogs and maybe an actual plot. Not my kind of game in that I either want management but not control racing or just racing with minimal management.

Trader Joe's Alfredo Pasta Sauce [+] $3.50 for 16oz good for a few meals. Alfredo sauce I think you use more than Marinara or Pesto in a given meal. By itself it tastes fine but really shines with Parmesan cheese.