(BTW I named it "Spot Reviews" after Chaosium's Basic Roleplaying use of "Spot Rules" to denote optional rules. Although now that I try to look for an example I don't find any so either I'm misremembering or it's archaic enough that I don't have PDF rules that have it.)

Dial S For Santa (2023) [+] A nice little Hallmark channel Christmas romance movie. Insurance investigator Lana (Sarah Dugdale) visits her hometown in time to get embroiled in a mystery as there have been several recent robberies. Her help is unwelcome by the new police detective Nick (Julian Haig) but he eventually gives in and lets her help him. Romance ensues. It's a safe and charming story.

Prospect (2018) [/] Small science fiction film. Teenager Cee (Sophie Thatcher) and her father are independent miners that go to a planet to mine for this liquid you get from certain plants. While there Ezra (Pedro Pascal) and his companion try to rob the two and after a shootout only Cee and Ezra survive. They are forced to work together to find a way off the inhospitable planet (humans can't breathe the atmosphere) and as they make their trek they run into a cult that wants to "buy" Cee and then mercenaries who have a sudden need of miners… It's a character drama about Ezra and Cee and their interactions. Though Ezra caused Cee's father's death he regrets the necessity and is a rather practical rogue who by the end is a bit of a new father figure.

Splash (1984) [/] Allen (Tom Hanks) meets a mysterious woman, Madison (Daryl Hannah), who can't speak English until she spends a day watching television and who apparently loves him out of the blue. But she's secretly a mermaid who saved his life when he was a young boy and apparently fell in love with him then. After her secret is revealed to the world and she's taken by the government to be studied and dissected Allen has to search within himself whether he can love a fish-girl… This is an ok film. I contrast this film with Mannequin (1987) which I think is better because there both of the leads have significant characterization. In Splash though Madison is not that well developed as a character so she pales compared to Allen. Although that just means Splash is more a story about Allen than Allen and Madison.

All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku (1998) [-] Half hour episodic Japanese anime. Nuku Nuku (Allison Keith) is an android with the brain of a cat who is trying to assimilate as a normal high school girl whilst battling the machinations of the megacorp Mishima Industries. Each episode is hijinks usually ending in Nuku Nuku battling some giant machine or monster and it's nice that Mishima Industries is trying to conquer the world by building great and gigantic consumer products that unfortunately tend to go haywire and go on destructive rampages. I watched the first 8 episodes on Amazon Prime Video which shows them in a converted size so that the top and bottom are cut off — tall people's heads are cut off and there's often writing at the bottom introducing characters and that also gets cut off and is not translated in any case. The viewing experience in APV is quite bad and the show is a bit too kids-only humor. Animation is not that good considering it's 1998 but maybe that's APV not the original animation.

Love 911 (2012) [/] South Korean romantic drama film. In order to defeat a lawsuit, Doctor Mi-soo (Han Hyo-joo) has to convince firefighter Kang-il (Go Too) to file a complaint against the guy to ruin his credibility. When Kang-il reacts poorly and refuses Mi-soo becomes a volunteer medic and instead tries to seduce him. All the pretend and closeness and shared danger starts to bond the two together… It's a nice enough film, entertaining but not great.

To Your Last Death (2019) [/] Animated horror film. Terminally ill industrialist Cyrus (Ray Wise) lures his three wayward children to his high rise offices intent on killing them through various means. Miriam (Dani Lennon) is the sole survivor but is arrested by police. The Gamemaster (Morena Baccarin) offers to send Miriam back to redo it with her current knowledge but she has to be entertaining or the game will keep changing… It's very low budget with Adobe Flash-level animation. The story has a good premise though it is rather confusing. On the plus side it's very gory and has good voice acting. Overall I wouldn't recommend.

The Alamo: 13 Days to Glory (1987) [-] An old tv movie on The Alamo starring James Arness as Jim Bowie, Brian Keith as Davy Crockett, Alec Baldwin as Bill Travis, and Raul Julia as Santa Anna. Lots of character moments and subplots, probably all fictionalized. Battle scenes are ok — good action but hard to tell the various phases of the final battle. For the time it's not that bad but today it's rather dated.

Trader Joe's Root Vegetable Fries [/] This is sweet potatoes, carrots, beets, parsnips. Tastes just fine (i.e. can't tell it's carrots or beets). The bag I got had been thawed and refrozen so the fries were clumped together making it harder to cook right. I got four snack-sized servings and once it was perfect, three times ok.

Apple gave Apple TV+ subscribers free remainder of season MLS Season Pass so I watched the last three months or so (archives only go back a month and a half, though it's number of games not time-based), basically all of Leagues Cup and onwards though I did have to watch quickly so that games didn't fall off the Past Matches page. So I guess that's my one big criticism in that you can't even watch from the beginning of the season if you are so inclined.

Initial VOD includes breaks and commercial time (commercials are blacked out so you just get "we'll return soon" type of message for a few minutes which you can skip over). Two or three days afterwards there is a clean VOD that skips commercials but pretty much only has the actual game (plus a minute or two of the intro before game starts) no halftime talk or post-game coverage so if you want that you need to watch it live or the VOD before it's updated (though if you're in the middle of watching a VOD when it's switched out you might resume and it's 20 minutes further on which is annoying).

I like that almost every clean VOD is about an hour and 45 minutes. Two halves each 45 minutes plus a few minutes of extra time then it's over. If tied it's tied. Only in the playoffs or Leagues Cup you might get an extra period and/or penalty kicks. I'm also fine that penalty kicks are playoffs only as they make playoffs a bit more exciting.

I didn't watch any of the special segments or the MLS sports talk show they have. I think they also have MLS Next Pro (a league that's a tier down and also used for training a la MLB Minor Leagues or NBA Developmental League) but I don't see those games available so I guess they take them down at the end of the Next Pro season.

Is it worth $100 a year ($80 if you have Apple TV+ subscription)? If you're really into MLS then definitely as the broadcasts are good and the commentators are good (and all games have an English commentary team and a Spanish commentary team with some games having a French commentary team). If you want to watch every game it's a lot but I guess doable if you don't watch anything else or have a hell of a lot of free time like I do. I guess still sort of worth it if you only follow one team since it's going to be like 30+ games.

One great thing is that you do get to see every MLS game, there is only one tier to subscribe to, and all games are available worldwide.

NFL+ ($50 per season) gives you some games, NFL+ Premium ($100 per season) gives you all games, though sometimes not live due to local tv contracts I assume.

NBA League Pass ($110) you can also watch every game but your local team's games delayed 3 days.

MLB Network ($7 per month) has blackouts for regular and post-season games so a much lesser offering than the others.

NHL does not seem to have a service that offers all games, or any games really — you're supposed to watch ESPN+ or other tv/cable channels.

Resident Evil 2 was just released for Mac and iOS. This is the remastered 2019 version of the 1998 game, ported over to Mac. On Mac you need an Apple Silicon Mac with macOS 13+ and it's a 22 GB download. The first 30 minutes is free and then you have to in-app $40 ($10 on sale until Jan 08 2025) for the full game.

In RE2 you play Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield, although one at a time. There is a part A and part B to the story and each part you can play Leon or Claire and I assume they keep meeting up and getting split apart, though you also can have other companions. Raccoon City has fallen to a zombie virus so the characters enter an overrun city and have to somehow escape.

On first start it was in window mode and I could full screen with maximize button. Turns out mouse mode does not work well. The cursor is visible and won't move past window boundary which means when you're turning you'll stop when the cursor hits a boundary. Then you have to jiggle the mouse around to temporarily get full range of motion back. I feel it would be unworkable during a zombie attack.

I switched to my Xbox controller and that works fine.

Graphics are less good than I expected. Game play is 3rd person perspective, wander around, pickup and interact with objects, solve puzzles, shoot or stab zombies. It's not meant to be an FPS rapid movement shooter.

The demo part you start with Leon an do the tutorial in a gas station mini-mart (where you meet Claire for a bit though only as cut-scenes) then a section where you explore part of the police station and get attacked by zombies. It was 45 minutes including configuring and figuring out the controls and switching to a controller.

Even at $10 I'm not sure I'd buy it. A bit too horror for me. And I do have a lot of games I've never played.

Inside Out 2 (2024) [+] In this sequel the four emotions have to deal with Riley (Kensington Tallman) entering puberty which causes new emotions to join the team. When crisis comes newcomer Anxiety (Maya Hawke) has a plan for Riley by ditching her old friends and hanging out with the older ice hockey team girls. Anxiety jettisons the old emotions into the wilds and now Joy (Amy Poehler) has to lead them back and save Riley… For a sequel this film is quite good though not quite as good as the original. A bit weird that most of the character growth is Riley and the new emotions rather than the old emotions.

Starstruck (2010) [/] Disney Channel movie. On a family vacation Jessica Olson (Danielle Campbell) has a run-in with pop star Christopher Wilde (Sterling Knight) and ends up hiding out from the paparazzi with him. She starts falling for his good looks while he likes that she’s genuine and not a fangirl. The turn comes when the media finally find out about the two and he has to throw her under the bus to protect his reputation. Can he make it up to her?… A perfectly fine Disney Channel teen romance movie.

Real Madrid: Until the End (2023) [-] Apple TV+ documentary about the Real Madrid (European football) club's 2021-2022 season when, after a few disappointing seasons, they won their 14th Champions League title. It's three episodes and each episode highlights a couple of the players whilst going through the regular La Liga season and the Champions League tournament (in soccer there are tournaments that coincide with the regular season so some teams or players have these extra games that count). I did find this documentary a bit boring since I'm not familiar with Real Madrid and I have no interest in European football (America's Major League Soccer is entertaining enough for me). I felt this documentary is more for fans of Real Madrid.

Kajiken, San Mateo [/] Kajiken is a Japanese restaurant specializing in Aburasoba which is dry ramen (no soup but has sauces). I had Homura Aburasoba (spicy minced pork and poached egg). Tastes fine though I guess I'd rather have a good soup to go with my ramen.

Marriage, Not Dating is a South Korean romance drama.

Gong Gi-tae (Yeon Woo-jin) is a plastic surgeon who just wants to live alone in this specific house but mom Shin Bong-hyang (the veteran Kim Have-sook who I've seen in multiple K-Dramas) keeps setting him up on blind dates and badgering him for money.

Gi-tae helps his best friend Lee Hoon-dong (Hey Jung-min) break up with his girlfriend Joo Jang-mi (Han Groo) who was about to propose marriage. This leads to Gi-tae and Jang-mi not liking each other — well, she doesn't like him and he feels a bit sorry that she got dumped the way she did.

Gi-tae convinces Jang-mi to pose as his girlfriend — both in order to keep his mom away and to make Hong-dong jealous. Being forced to pretend starts to become more and more real especially for Jang-mi who is much more out there and shows her emotions. Gi-tae might feel the same but he's very introverted and instead treats her badly in order to keep her attention.

Complication is that Jang-mi moves on from Hoon-dong and pursues the handsome Han Yeo-reum (Jeong Jin-woon) who also likes her so Gi-tae is constantly interrupting their romance. Meanwhile Gi-tae's ex-fiancee Kang Se-ah (Han Sun-hwa) is back. She is also a doctor and they had an amicable breakup but she is secretly still in love with Jang-mi and a much more suitable match from Bong-hyang's perspective.

A side romance involves Jang-mi's friend and co-worker Nam Hyun-hee (Yoon So-hee) who pursues Hoon-dong after he dumps Jang-mi, though once he gets jealous Hong-dong pursues Jang-mi again (and she's moved on to Yeo-reum)…

Took a bit but I ended up liking this series. At first I thought Han Groo was over-acting but I think the character is more of a Lucille Ball physical comedy as Jang-mi is constantly accidentally hitting things or when she's "acting" she takes it way over the top. In contrast Gi-tae is a rather subdued character who likes Jang-mi but can't show his affections other than being mean to her which is off-putting.

Overall it's a good series.

The Struggle for Taiwan: A History America, China, and the Island Caught Between by Sulmaan Wasif Khan, Denison Chair in History and International Relations at the Fletcher School, Tufts University.

It's a political history starting from the end of the last Chinese Dynasty, when the KMT party was created and ending I guess late 2023 or early 2024 (book was published May 2024 so I guess published quickly to make it trendy).

The main part is Taiwan's political history from the KMT takeover through their dictatorship which ended in the 1970's and then democracy. Meanwhile you get things that the USA did or mainland China did as they evolve their relationship with Taiwan as a key bone of contention.

A lot of four on internal politics in Taiwan and USA since I guess there are more documents available whereas PRC (People's Republic of China) coverage is less and more guesswork.

The tone is rather 20-20 hindsight. The author points out a lot of mistakes each side makes without really going into "this is how these guys saw it so it makes sense from their POV".

My sense is that the bias is that the author would like to avoid war — several times he strings together a string of unlike what-if's that might have resulted in armed conflict and portraying it as a horror to be avoided. And maybe because of that I get the feeling the author would be just fine if the PRC took over Taiwan (without war, not necessarily peacefully though) and therefore ended that possible flashpoint.

This is my first book on Taiwan and the political history side seems ok. Did not appreciate the tone nor bias (I wouldn't say pro-PRC but more like pro-this problem should go away and if the price is Taiwan's current independence then that's fine).

Green in My Heart (2020) [+] Hour-long K-Drama romance story. College best friends — new director Han Seo-Rin (Jun Hyo-seong) and popular actor Cha Soo-Hyuk (Choi Kyu-Jin) — are reunited for her first film in Korea. He still professes his love for her but she wants to remain friends since the lead actress is his public girlfriend (a publicity stunt but she actually wants to be his girlfriend). Lots of little flashbacks to fill in the story. Very tight story with little characterization but it still works.

My Last Love (1999) [/] Romantic drama tv film starring Nancy Travis as Susan, a terminally ill mom who moves back to the West Coast to arrange her last months. She meets Michael (Scott Bairstow) and can't help falling for him, who is fine that she has a strong-willed daughter, Carson (Jamie Renee Smith). It's a nice story with little drama points -- such as Susan's parents being upset when she wants Michael to adopt Carson after Susan dies -- that don't blow up and ruin the theme.

Alto (2015) [/] Romantic comedy small film. After she finds the dead body of a mafia goon, struggling musician Frankie (Diana DeGarmo) comes to the attention of the local mafia boss, the FBI, and the boss's daughter Nicolette (Natalie Knepp). Although Frankie just accepted her boyfriend's marriage proposal Nicolette starts to bring out feelings Frankie didn't know she had (and it helps that Frankie and her fiancée have quite different ideas of what their marriage will be like). It's a nice film for the apparent budget. With Annabella Sciorra as Frankie's mom.

Go Back to China (2019) [/] Los Angeles native Sasha (Anna Akana) is forced by her estranged father Teddy (Richard Ng) to move to China and work in his toy factory. She befriends older half-sister Carol (Lynn Chen) and two half-siblings (because Teddy kept cheating on his current wives and then remarrying). Working at the factory Sasha also learns to take on responsibility and goes from spoiled brat to a more mature adult. It's an entertaining coming of age story though could use more production.

Wolfs is an Apple TV+ movie starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt as two nameless freelance fixers working one night in New York City. A dead Kid (Austin Abrams) in a high end hotel is an inconvenience for the powerful woman who was having sex with him and the powerful woman who owns the hotel. They both bring in their own fixers to clean up the situation and to make sure their respective interests are handled they force both wolfs to work together in this job.

The job gets weirder when the Kid has a backpack full of cocaine bricks and it turns out he's not dead. So now the wolfs have to make sure the drugs are returned and that the Kid won't talk about this. More complications follow…

This is a high end movie. Clooney and Pitt are great verbally sparring with each other. Cinematography is really nice. It's shot at night so not that many characters or extras around. Great atmospheric music. Very entertaining movie and probably would have done well theatrically.

Unlock! Is a series of puzzle-solving board games. Each comes with three puzzles and each puzzle is based on a set of custom cards.

You begin with a start card which has a drawing and maybe some numbers. Numbers correspond to other cards which you then display and they might have numbers. A card can also tell you what old cards to remove as the story progresses and this also helps so you don't have to consider useless cards.

Some cards have a blue number and some cards have a red number. Sometimes the solution is to combine appropriate blue and red cards (e.g. a blue key with a red door) — add their numbers and that gives you a new card to flip.

These games feature a mobile app. The app keeps track of the timer (an hour timer seems typical), there is a button to subtract 1m penalty (some cards are traps to discourage random guessing), and in the end it rates you one to five stars. Some cards have a machine symbol which then the app shows you the machinery to manipulate. The app can also give you three clues for each card (affects your score).

The "add two cards to find third card" was very familiar and when I looked at Space Cowboys they also did T.I.M.E. Stories which are also cool mystery stories though they don't use an app but instead have tokens and resources which Unlock! Does not have.

We played an adventure in a circus. This one had cards you lay and overlap to reveal new numbers (edge of one card is the tens-digit and overlap shows the one-digit). You also built a circus tent in the end with certain cards and if you look at it just right a number was revealed. Also there is a sheet where you slot in circus act cards and when you turn it over there is a simple math formula to reveal another card.

The second adventure you used a ray gun that transfers your mind into various animals. This one had a recording that you play and then hover the phone over the right card to reveal the clue (the app uses the camera and can somehow identify cards). You also used the app to view cards and see hidden things. And use the app to simulate shooting an animal with your ray gun to switch minds (and in one puzzle the animal kept moving around the card so you had to figure out that you had to shoot where it would appear next).

These are fun detective solving sort of games. Too bad this format you can pretty much only play each adventure once. Still, quite enjoyable experiences.