Ahsoka s1 ran 8 45-minute episodes. It's in the current Star Wars TV shows post movies timeline. Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) is tasked with investigating Imperial-remnant activity and finds a conspiracy to bring back Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen) from his exile in a far away galaxy.

She recruits Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) to help her and also be her Jedi Padawan as Sabine has unrealized Force potential. Along with Ahsoka's robot companion Huyang (David Tennant) the three will face off against Morgan Elsbeth (Diane Lee Inosanto), a witch, and her two Jedi mercenaries, Baylan Skoll (the late Ray Stevenson) and Shin Hati (Ivanna Sakhno)...

The story is one big setup to introduce Thrawn, the big villain in the post episode 4-6 novels that started off a whole bunch of Star Wars novels by Bantam books. It also leaves Ahsoka in the other galaxy so I guess they have something for season two.

I like the characters though they are all from the Clone Wars series I think so I'm missing lots of the background. I think it would have been more enjoyable if I knew that lore. But still I like this series and look forward to season two.

Alba is a third-person exploration game where you play a teenager visiting her grandparents living on an island (or next to the ocean anyways). You go around doing tasks and taking pictures of animals and learn more about them. Often animals are in trouble and you need the aid of the townspeople to help them. You also get a nice Spanish Mediterranean vibe.

This is a game suitable for kids. There's no timer. In general the game indicates where you need to go next or you're free to wander around. I did find some of the controls confusing (there's a camera, a diary/journal, a map, something else and they each have no the clearest UI). Graphics are not bad, a bit basic but bright. Lots of dialogue which can get tedious. A good vibe-y soundtrack.

Overall seems to be a pretty good experience game.

The Battle of Britain (1969 film) [/] British war film starting from when France falls and the British fighter pilots flee to Britain. Then preparations to repel an invasion while the Germans prepare. Then the actual Battle of Britain: several months of the Germans trying to blow up the British airfields and destroy their fighters until they kind of give up and go over to bombing cities. Has stuff about the use of radar and observers and the home front. A coherent story that leaves out a lot of things while hitting the highlights, like the use Big Wings of defending fighters which took a long time to set up so they often missed the bombers but when they did hit… This is an average war movie of the time. Entertaining but not engrossing.

The Clone Wars (2008 film) [-] This is an animated film that precedes The Clone Wars (2008) tv series and the film continues from Clone Wars (2003) shorts. Most of this film centers on Anakin Skywalker (Matt Lanter) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (James Arnold Taylor) though other characters have small bits, such as Padmé Amidala (Catherine Taber) investigating an arms smuggler on Coruscant. We also have the introduction of Anakin’s first and only Padwan, Ahsoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein)… As a stand-alone film I found it was all action no plot maybe because the regular series will continue plots and themes.

Running a Game Publishing Company (2006) [/] This is a work-in-progress book written by Steve Cole of Amarillo Design Bureau (publishers of Star Fleet Battles). It’s based on his at-the-time 30+ years experience in the Adventure Gaming industry (i.e. miniature wargaming, table-top wargaming, role-playing games). It’s a lot of good practical advice if you want to start a small business that includes publishing your stuff, having a warehouse and shipping to distributors/wholesalers. Not the most readable of documents (if you’ve read the SFB rules you know what I mean) and I’m not starting a business but I still found it interesting and educational.

The SportsEthos Sacramento Kings Podcast (2019) [-] This podcast started when Monte McNair took over as general manager and it has gone through various hosts. One lone host for a season. Then Jill Adge as cohost. Then the guy replaced with another guy. Then Jill Adge alone for a bit. Then Daily Sabonis added and then Jill phased out. With Jill as a cohost, not driving the show, it was the best incarnation since she’s more facts and info than commentary. The current incarnation is one or two guys plus a woman, mostly a podcast after each game, and mostly a few minutes commenting on the game then 2/3rds of the time taking listener voice messages. I find it quite boring now.

Hidden Love is a Chinese romance drama that ran 25 40-minute episodes.

At 14 Sang Zhi (Zhao Lusi) fell in love with her big brother's friend Duan Jiaxu (Chen Zheyuan). Over the years she keeps bumping into him keeping her love secret. When Jiaxu moves back to his home city she even studies hard and gets into that city's university. It's only in her second year at university that Jiaxu finally starts to see Zhi in a new light but the new problem is their age difference (7 years) which is not going to make her family happy...

It's a slow moving story with lots of endearing moments. One time 17-year old Zhi runs away from home and flies to see Jiaxu and when she sees him with a girlfriend her heart breaks. Meanwhile Jiaxu is always protective of Zhi and treats her like a little sister and misses all the signs. The final episode is kind of quick to resolve the plots but it does end in a romantically satisfying way.

Overall I love this series.

Suck It, Wonder Woman!: The Misadventures of a Hollywood Geek by Olivia Munn with Mac Montandon is a collection of anecdotes from Munn's life: growing up of mixed race (German/Irish/English and Chinese) in Oklahoma; her experiences in Hollywood; her experiences at G4, with her fans, and being a geek girl. The writing is breezy and friendly. She likes to crack a lot of jokes even with some serious topics.

It's an entertaining book.

OmniDiskSweeper v1.14 (2022) [+] Mac app that examines your HD and gives you a view of where you are using the most space. List view with each folder showing total space and then you can drill down say from Users to specific user to specific folder that uses a lot of space. You can trash stuff directly from ODS (which allows it to immediately update its internal database). I’ve been using ODS on and off for a decade and Omni Group keeps updating this free utility.

Love Again (2023) [/] Netflix romantic movie. After her boyfriend dies a grief-stricken Mira (Priyanka Chopra) texts his old phone number as a way to remember him. Meanwhile journalist Rob (Sam Heughan) has a new work phone that keeps getting these messages. Intrigued he tracks down Mira, eventually meets her and they form a connection until the turn when Mira discovers Rob got her personal texts… Fairly typical movie for the genre. Has Celine Dion playing herself and providing advice to Rob (who is supposed to interview her for his magazine) and it’s organic.

Five Days at Memorial (2022) [-] Eight episode Apple TV+ drama miniseries based on a book. After Hurricane Katrina breaks the New Orleans levies and floods the city Memorial Hospital (and the co-tenant and smaller LifeCare Hospital on the upper two floors) is isolated and soon without power. Rescue efforts are minimal and sporadic and patients start dying and soon the staff has to decide who gets rescued first and who dies… It’s pretty bleak and I watched the first 3-1/2 episodes. In the first five episodes we cover one day per episode and the last three episodes cover investigation and case against one of the doctors, Dr Anna Pou (Vera Farmiga), who was accused of euthanizing critically ill patients. In any case not a series to watch unless you are ready for it.

The Shepherd’s Crown (2015) [-] This is the last Discworld novel written by Terry Pratchett before he died in 2015. It’s the 5th novel in the Tiffany Aching series, which is for young adults unlike the rest of Discworld. I guess by now Tiffany is an older teen or young adult an she’s thrust into the role of Head Witch, or as close to a leader as the witches have, just in time to repel an invasion by the elves… In the postscript it’s noted that Pratchett wrote five novels in the last year or two of his life when he normally would take two or three years to write a novel, often writing some of one then some of another then coming back to the first and adding or retouching. Unfortunately this novel reads rather perfunctory. The story is there and plot is complete but lacks a richness. It’s nice that it leaves Tiffany in a good place (unlike Raising Steam which leaves the universe in motion) though maybe Tiffany’s last novel also did the same.

Backstreet Rookie is a South Korean romantic drama of 16 hour-long episodes. The story revolves around Dae-hyun (Jo Chang-wook) -- a young man who runs his own franchise 24-hour convenience store in a sort of minor street of his city -- and his new part-time employee Saet-byul (Kim You-Jung) -- a parentless high school dropout supported her younger sister.

In episode 1 we start with a scene 3 years previous when Dae-hyun met a high schooler Saet-byul and her two friends and she ended up kissing him unexpectedly. Now it's three years later and she's back in his life with the secret agenda of winning his love. But Dae-hyun has a girlfriend, Yeon-joo (Han Sun-hwa), and they're in a happy relationship, though later it turns out there are people who want to break them apart because they think he is beneath her (financially and socially) and the rift that causes gives Saet-byul her window of opportunity.

As these shows go things move slowly. Bits of kindness and thoughtfulness pile up until Dae-hyun realizes he like Saet-byul more than as just a good employee. There is lots of cool character growth for both and some amount of sad moments (Kim You-Jung is good at being sad, tearing up and have a few tears roll down her cheek). There are no big setbacks so it's mostly a rocky but steadily progressive journey to love (I didn't notice but they never kissed and almost did at the end then it was a "psych!" moment).

There is also a good B plot romance with Dae-hyun's best friend Dal-shik (Eum Moon-suk) -- a struggling but passionate web toon artist -- and Saet-byul's best friend Geum-bi (Seo Ye-hwa) -- still in high school because she failed a grade and rather feisty. They hate each other due to some bad encounters but online the web toon artist and #1 fan love each other but don't know their real identities.

I guess the last subplot of note is with Saet-byul's younget sister Eun-byul (Ahn Sol-bin), still in high school but causing trouble for Saet-byul by hanging out with the bad girls and skipping class to audition and eventually becoming a member of an idol girl group. She's more trouble in the first half but disappears in the last few episodes.

The only problem I have is that at the end of episode 15 there are so many things unresolved. Episode 16 resolves all the plots by being a longer episode, doing half a slow episode then rushing through the last half to resolve everything. But in the end those plots are resolved and everybody is happy, even Yeon-joo.

Both protagonists are attractive and charming. Lots of closeups. Kim You-Jung is kind of stunning and they go all out to shoot good angles and plenty of closeups of her face and smile. Great chemistry between the two.

Overall a really good romance series.

Atomic Robo is a comic book series revolving around the eponymous protagonist, a self-aware intelligent robot created by Nikola Tesla in 1923. His stories are mostly present day though there are stories set in the past and there's also a bit of time-traveling. Most of the time he's working with his team of action scientists -- Robo created Tesladyne as a think tank of researchers to invent technologies that will help mankind but Robo's adventures usually have a support team half of them scientists that can handle themselves in a fight (or in running away).

The collection I have are trade paperbacks and a partial run (though almost everything is free in web comic format at https://www.atomic-robo.com):

v3 Atomic Robo and the Shadow from Beyond Time - over the span of a century Robo battles an inter-dimensional horror that only appears every few decades.

v4 Atomic Robo and Other Strangeness - Vampires from another dimension invade Tesladyne.

v6 Atomic Robo and the Ghost of Station X - Someone is trying to kill Robo by sending him on really complicated missions.

v8 Atomic Robo and the Savage Sword of Dr. Dinosaur - Robo and team travel the Inner Earth and battle Dr Dinosaur (a hyper-intelligent, possibly also hyper-delusional, raptor dinosaur who wants to wipe out humanity and usher in a new dinosaur era) and his mind-controlled crystal-rock people.

v10 Atomic Robo and the Ring of Fire - Robo and Tesladyne survivors are on the run from world governments as Biomega's (e.g. giant monsters aka Kaiju) threaten Earth.

v11 Atomic Robo and the Temple of Od - This one is set in the 1930's China. Robo has to stop a secret Japanese lab studying Zero Point Energy, a power that can destroy the Earth.

v12 Atomic Robo and the Spectre of Tomorrow - Robo can finally rebuild Tesladyne without fear of arrest but random people all over the world are turning into weird android things.

One of the cool things with the TPBs is that they have extras and these are mostly Dr Dinosaur's rantings: recipes, plans to take over the Earth or kill Atomic Robo, haiku's, movie scripts, weapon designs, etc. He's really into using crystals to power everything. Actually quite humorous and a great treat to end each TPB.

The general theme is pulp science action. The art looks computer drawn (i.e. drawn on a computer) rather than regular superhero comics art. It kind of remind me of Hellboy which I think has a similar humor and pulp feel. Fairly entertaining comics and maybe I'll buy the other TPB PDFs.

Mila in the Multiverse (2023) [/] An eight-episode half hour Brazilian science fiction drama. Mila (Laura Luz) is accidentally zapped into an alternate universe where she and her friends attend an alchemical high school. She laters discovers her mom knows how to travel between multiverses and there is an organization, the Operators, trying to destroy the various multiverses. She and her alt-universe friends have to stop the Operators from destroying the alchemical universe and I assume next season it’ll be another universe… I watched four episodes and it’s ok. A bit of a MCU feel and fairly good production quality. Still, didn’t find it quite interesting enough to keep watching — a bit too teenagers-doing-stuff which I’m not really into.

Stay Tuned! (2019) [-] Japanese 5-episode drama/comedy tv series based on a manga (Channel wa Sonomama!). The setting is a small television station and the five new employees. Each episode showcases a different area of the tv station production (this series was made to celebrate a real tv station’s 50th anniversary). The central character is new news reporter Hanako Yukimaru (Kyoko Yoshine) who is quite incompetent but well meaning and tries hard and somehow her antics somehow end up helping her coworkers in the end… I managed watching two episodes but I don’t really like watching incompetence.

The Good Crisp Company - Sour Cream & Onion Potato Crisps [/] TGCP apparently makes Pringles-like potato chips (well not sliced potatoes but slices form formed potato flakes). I guess these are supposed to be healthier than Pringles. Tastes and feels mostly the same or close enough you won’t notice the difference. I don’t particularly like Sour Cream & Onion flavor but this was still good.

Space Station Down (2020) [-] Contemporary thriller novel by Ben Bova and Doug Beason. Two terrorists manage to seize the International Space Station (ISS) and murder the crew except for one survivor who has to somehow stop the terrorists from plunging the ISS into New York City… It’s fast paced with short chapters and a writing style aimed at younger teenagers I guess. I read about 50 pages and didn’t like the storytelling style though the concept is cool.

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power is a half hour animated show on Netflix that ran for five seasons (52 episodes). It's a reboot of the original She-Ra: Princess of Power (1985) which was a spin-off of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1985). I don't remember the original She-Ra but did watch He-Man and I bet the old She-Ra was very similar in that it was more about introducing new characters so they could sell new toys.

Anyway, this series starts with Adora (Aimee Carrero) as a cadet in Lord Hordak's Horde army and having grown up as a child of the state. She and her best friend Catra (AJ Michalka) are looking forward to finally battling the evil Etherian Rebellion. But in the first or second battle Adora comes to suspect that it's the Horde who are the bad guys. She also finds a magic sword that turns her into She-Ra, a really tall and powerful warrior.

Adora deserts the Horde even though Catra is not willing to follow. She then gets herself captured by the Rebellion and pledges herself to their cause (it really helps when she reveals she's also She-Ra). Glimmer (Karen Fukuhara), Princess of Bright Moon and Glimmer's best friend Bow (Marcus Scribner) quickly become Adora's new friends and the three of them have adventures battling the Horde and protecting the free parts of Etheria.

Season two/three (13 episodes) or so Adora and crew start recruiting the other Princesses. Each has powers (e.g. Glimmer is a teleporter) and they used to be all in the Princess Alliance which fell apart due to internal squabbling. Besides the Princesses there is a sorcerers faction. Sorcery depends on innate potential plus lots of training, is more versatile than a Princess (who are more akin to superheroes) but not as strong.

Season four we have the final battle between the Princesses and Lord Hordak. We learn that Etheria is actually a planet-sized weapon and She-Ra is the trigger. But it's the kind of weapon that can destroy worlds so Adora will not use it and instead needs to stop Lord Hordak from activating the Heart of Etheria.

Season five is the arrival of Horde Prime, of which Lord Hordak (Keston John) is a flawed Clone. With the Rebellion on the ropes Adora is wiling to sacrifice herself using the Heart of Etheria...

Why I Love It

• good characters, especially Adora and Catra and their love/hate rivalry
• season-long plots that build on each other to the final season
• wholesome themes, ethnically diverse characters, LGBTQ characters
• a fair amount of humor

I play a lot of Dungeons & Dragons Online, a fairly old MMO with a fairly old engine but they still keep producing content. There used to be a Mac client but that broke a long time ago and they don't have the resources to maintain it. So currently you have to play it via the Windows client but, although this is a third-person virtual environment not-quite-shooter, the graphics requirements are not that high.

I usually run this with CrossOver, which is based on WINE, on my Mac. This is mainly Windows API translations to Mac APIs. The Windows app thinks it's running on Windows and as long as it uses the normal APIs it works fairly well. A lot of programs require installing .NET framework or various other libraries into the CrossOver bottle (a bottle being an environment so you can have each app run in a bottle custom configured for it) and getting any specific app working on WINE is a pain as you install dependencies and stuff and that's what CrossOver tries to ease by having app-specific scripts to configure a bottle correctly.

Anyway, it's not running Windows and it's fairly efficient. I can run DDO (at lower graphic settings) and it runs fine most of the time with some weird hiccups like when you stop running (take your finger off of the run key) you keep moving for a second or if you're in mouse look mode and go to another Mac app to do stuff when you get back to DDO it kind of goes haywire for a bit like your mouse is drunk.

And I can run two DDO clients to run two characters. Switching back and forth there is a second or two lag and if the DDO windows overlap they both might think the mouse is active in them. There is a utility for this use case where the utility can be set so that one DDO character auto-follows another and it's pretty good at it. But so far I haven't gotten the utility to run in CrossOver with DDO -- maybe it launches into a separate space so doesn't see the DDO window appear (normally when it sees that window it'll add an overlay toolbar).

I experimented with VMWare Fusion running Windows 10. Fusion is a virtual environment that maps PC hardware to Mac equivalent or virtual hardware. Windows thinks it's on a PC with an Intel chip and it runs normally. Theoretically the virtualization is not that much of an overhead with newer Intel chips since they support virtualization better. But on my MBP (last version that used Intel) it's definitely a bit slow. Kind of usable running an app or watching a video but I wouldn't want to run the latest Windows games on it.

I use Steam and DDO. DDO runs ok though mouse tracking is very off (Windows it's fine then click into DDO and either too fast or slow). I can run the DDO util and do auto-follow and that works fairly well (so I run on DDO client in CrossOver and the second on Fusion). But if I have to do anything complex with the Fusion DDO client (like actually fight) then it's kind of too slow to be usable (though doable if I wasn't running a second DDO and nothing else on my Mac).

In summary, from my experience, if the Windows game runs in CrossOver then it's a far more performant experience than trying to run a game on Fusion. Desktop apps like a word processor or spreadsheet are probably fine and maybe better on Fusion with real Windows and the various extras you get that way. But Windows games I'd stick with CrossOver and give up if I need Fusion.

Ramen Parlor - Crab Spicy Miso Ramen ($19) [+] Usually I get the Crab Curry Ramen (I think, it’s a curry one) and it’s good but not great. Changed it up and this is much better. First I had it medium instead of hot and that is still a bit too spicy so maybe next time mild will be perfect. It has no bean sprouts so that’s a big plus. It’s crab meat mixed into the soup so you don’t have to shell it. Miso soup is salty and tasty. Hiro Nori has a ramen that I like more but this one is pretty close.

Snoopy in Space s2 (2021) [+] Apple TV+'s Snoopy in Space s1 had Snoopy becoming an astronaut and going on a Lunar mission whilst the rest of the gang provided ground support. Season 2 focuses on the other planets in the solar system and the possibility of finding life. This time Snoopy and friends stay on the ground and in each of the 12 8-minute episodes we examine a planet or moon or robot. It's educational and entertaining.

Stephen Curry: Underrated (2023) [/] Apple TV+ documentary going through Curry’s childhood and high school and college career (with archival footage) mixed with recent interviews and threading in the 2021-22 Warriors season and into the playoffs. It’s a pleasant film though superficial enough that I’m not sure it’s trying to make any sort of point.

Physical #1.1 (2001) [-] Apple TV+ half hour dark comedy series set in the early 1980’s coastal California. Rose Byrne stars as Sheila, a housewife battling bulimia and an unhappy marriage who discovers aerobics exercise. I only watched the first episode and it’s really dark because we’re constantly hearing Sheila’s inner voice talking to her and that is one toxic and self-loathing inner personality. At first glance this is not my type of story.

I finished watching the last couple of seasons of Legends of Tomorrow and I think overall this is my favorite of the Arrowverse shows. It started out serious with a ragtag band of superheroes traveling through time fixing things. Then it became a group of heroes traveling through time, breaking something, then having to run around trying to fix it. The last two or three seasons it was not just heroes who break time and patch up their mistakes but full bore each episode parodying something.

It's great that Sara Lance (Caity Lotz) went from girl who dies in Arrow #1.1 to coming back to life with ninja training then main cast on Legends then leader of the Legends from season 2 or 3 onwards. Her romance with Ava Sharpe (Jes Macallan) is cute but doesn't give you the feels as they don't really go hard on it.

Gideon (Amy Pemberton) goes from voice to a physical (or human holograph) appearance in s6 and full on robot girl in s7 and I kind of like the "trying to figure out being human" subplot though once again kind of minor and not pushed. Nate "Steel" Heywood (Nick Zano) was always this doesn't quite fit character who almost never uses his powers so what good is he. But it's kind of redeemed in the last couple of episodes.

John Constantine (Matt Ryan) is a regular for s4 to s6 then he leaves and Ryan plays Gwyn Davies, inventor of the first time machine, in s7. That was a bit weird character switch. Was it that they couldn't use the Constantine character anymore?

Gary Green (Adam Tsekhman) goes from recurring to main in s6 and s7. He's the bungling assistant for Sharpe and then for Constantine and learns a bit of magic. And then he's revealed to be an alien in disguise all along which does make him a bit more interesting.

Zari (Tala Ashe) changes from s4/s5 as a post-Crisis Zari, totally different, appears. Zari goes from bleak future Earth activist hacker to social media mogul. Behrad Tarazi (Shayan Sobhian) is introduced after Crisis (as he was dead before) as "he was there all along in Zari's place" and only later is the post-Crisis Zari brought into the team.

Esperanza "Spooner" Cruz (Lisseth Chavez) is introduced and added for s6 and s7. Kind of a weird paranoid Texan who believes in aliens which turns out to be true. I like that she comes out as asexual and this is very accepting by the other characters.

It's interesting how the team started with "name" stars (the Atom, Firestorm, Hawkgirl, Heatwave, Captain Cold) and ends with Sara Lance, John Constantine, Steel and half the crew sort of unknowns or new DC characters.

Anyway, later seasons it's much more of a comedic series and has a Justice League International vibe which I appreciate.