Castle (2009) [/] This is a network television crime mystery comedy-drama series. NY Detective Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) is at first forced then is resigned to having mystery writer Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion) as her partner he's very good at inventing scenarios and noticing unusual clues but it grates on her no-nonsense style of detective work. Later on a romance develops which runs throughout the series. I've been watching this series on-and-off for years and this last stretch was season 5 to 7.4 which is not that much different than previous seasons since this is an episodic show (i.e. the episodes can be played in any order and you don't miss much other than the Beckett-Castle romance progressing). It's a nice background show in that you can watch it while doing something else, miss half the episode, and still roughly know what happened.

Starhyke (2009) [/] British science fiction comedy series of six 45-minute episodes filmed in 2004 but not released until 2009. In the far future humans have purged all their emotions and conquered or exterminated all other races in the galaxy. Captain Belinda Blowhard (Claudia Christian) of the Nemesis tries to stop a Reptid ship from going back in time to destroy humanity. But the Nemesis is caught in the time jump whilst the Reptid compassion bomb infects the crew with emotions. Now in the 21st century the Nemesis still has to stop the Reptids whilst the crew struggles with human emotions (mostly leading to a lot of sex jokes and sex). The series parodies other science fiction tv and movie media (e.g. chief of security is the always angry Wu Oof played by Rachel Grant). It’s funny at times and rather low brow humor. The 45-minute format allows for longer single-episode stories

Pro Snooker & Pool 2025+ (2022) [/] Play one of various versions of pool/snooker with a variety of tables. You control shot power, can spin the ball, and the UI shows you where the first ball hits goes. Feels more like a computer game port in that the graphics are not great and the UI is not great. But seems like a serviceable simulation.

Moonshot - A Journey Home+ (2022) [/] A gravity game. The anthropomorphic moon went through a wormhole and is lost and trying to get back to Mother Earth. In each level you fling it around gravity wells (and if planets you can enter orbit and then another fling) and into the exit wormhole. Pick up coins and probably do other things. Cutesy game but not that interesting.

The Roasted Crab, Santa Clara [+] Went here for lunch with my brother (the location is at Mercado Shopping Center). Catfish basket ($18) was delicious with lots of catfish and standard tasting French fries. Also garlic noodles ($11) which was also quite good. Would like to come here again next year during DDC.

The Interpreter is a Chinese romance drama running 42 45-minute episodes.

The setting is Shanghai's IAI (International Academy of Interpretation?) where Cheng Jiayang (Huang Xuan) is the young hotshot Chinese-French interpreter who is very demanding of his students. In the new trainee class is aspiring interpreter Qiao Fei (Yang Mi) who already had a bad run-in with Jiayang a couple years ago in Switzerland.

He already thinks she's not cut out to be an interpreter so he's especially hard on her but she perseveres and slowly a romance develops. But it turns out she used to date Jiayang's older brother Goa Jiaming (Gao Weiguang) and left Jiaming without saying goodbye and taking $100k (though that's a misunderstanding that is not cleared until halfway through the series). In any case that means Jiayang's mom is against Qiao Fei having anything to do with her sons.

On the good side the leads make a good looking couple (though in the Switzerland scenes Jiayang has an awful haircut) and Qiao Fei's roommate, small time actress Wu Jiayi (Li Xirui/Sierra Lee), is also quite attractive and has her own romantic subplot.

Unfortunately the series has lots of annoyances. Naturally a lot of translating into French which is obviously dubbed because it's out of sync with the mouth movements and the voices are different people. Several times they go to Switzerland but that must have been filmed at one time since Jiayang has a different haircut and actually kind of looks different so it's funny when he's in Shanghai looking great in one scene then travels to Switzerland and looks like his old self in the next scene.

There is a lot of skipping ahead and then barely referencing what was omitted. For example Jiayi meets a famous actor who gives her a ride in his van and then a couple of episodes later they're breaking up with no appearances in between. Or when another character gets married and a few episodes later we get back to them and her husband is abusing her and apparently it's been going on for a while. The main plot also sometimes seems to skip things.

As for the main characters they're both too secretive, especially Qiao Fei. In order to spare the other's feeling they'll both lie. This always backfires leading to people thinking one or the other is doing bad things or they are discovered in the lie. But apparently they don't learn and keep lying to each other. And the whole Qiao Fei breaks up with Jiayang to spare him in case she dies in a 50/50 brain surgery yet the breakup is also quite cruel to him.

So I did watch the whole thing and there are whole episodes and parts of episodes which are quite good. But this is really not a well produced series and has lots of flaws and lacks polish. If not for Yang Mi and Li Xirui I wouldn't have watched it all the way. Would not recommend watching this series.

The Andromeda Evolution by Daniel H Wilson is a sequel novel to Michael Crichton's The Andromeda Strain which I haven't read but seen in movie format. In the first story a NASA probe crashes at a remote Arizona town and the probe carries an alien virus that kills humans within three days except two people. A team of scientists is sent to find out how to stop the virus and it's a fairly tense medical techno thriller without any bang bang action.

Evolution takes place four decades later. All governments have been conspiring to keep the Andromeda virus a secret so as not to panic the world. There are two variants: AS-1 that kills people and AS-2 that eats plastic astonishingly quickly. Taken together it's an alien weapon designed to keep intelligent life confined to their home planets.

An Andromeda structure appears in the middle of the Amazon jungle and a team of scientists is sent to find out how to stop it because it's growing and growing. It's an international team and it means at least one of them has a secret they can't divulge. There's also the jungle to contend with (though that's glossed over) and the indigenous tribes which have had almost no civilized contact (and that becomes important later).

There are two significant plot twists. There's also some elaboration as to how the Andromeda virus (not sure the original story specified but this one indicates it's more like nanotechnology) has been designed as a weapon. I like how Wilson adds that the Saturn hexagonal storm is actually a big Andromeda virus storm (formed after the events in Evolution) and it's started to emit a radio signal aimed outside our solar system which may lead to a sequel novel.

It's a pretty engrossing story. Very talky and thinking about things and not much action except once in the middle and then more at the end. Rather good sequel considering it's by another author, Crichton having died in 2008.

Star Wars Rebels (2014) [+] Animated series that ran four seasons. A decade-and-a-half after the Galactic Empire is formed rebel resistance cells start to spring up. One such cell is led by Hera Syndulla (Vanessa Marshall) and consists of Jedi not-quite-Knight Kanan Jarrus (Freddie Prinze Jr), his eventual protege Ezra Bridger (Taylor Gray), Mandalorian weapons designer Sabine Wren (Tiya Sircar), Lasat former honor guard Zeb Orrelios (Steve Blum), and the irascible astromech Chopper (Dave Filoni). Ahsoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein) makes some guest appearances and later on Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen) is the Big Bad. This series makes the Ahsoka live-action series make more sense — not that it was particularly confusing but a lot of back story stuff in Ahsoka is developed in Rebels. Chopper is of course the best character in Rebels.

Flow (2024) [/] Animated film with no dialogue. A feral cat is caught up in a flood that drowns his homeland. He manages to escape on a small sailboat inhabited by a capybara. As the boat moves along they pick up a lemur, a dog, and a big white long-legged bird (secretary bird). The boat moves along the flooded land and they have adventures. And then the waters recede and the four (minus the bird) find themselves together perhaps lifelong friends… It’s not bad animation. Gets a bit psychedelic at times. At the end I’m not sure there was a point to the story other than this cat experiences this world-ending event.

Gear.Club Stradale (2022) [-] Apple Arcade. Italian driving game with pretty realistic physics such that in the first race — on a two lane mountain road — it's really hard to pass much less pass half a dozen cars to qualify. Not the game for me. But it is a nice looking game.

Sonic Dash+ (2022) [-] Apple Arcade. You play Sonic the Hedgehog running down a three-lane track. Pick up gold, zoom over monsters, jump and duck, activate powers. It's like an endless runner turned into levels. Maybe too much of a kid's game.

Pho Hoa & Jazen Tea, Mercado Shopping Center, Santa Clara [/] Came for dinner during DDC. Standard food. Was fine with a loud kid. Apparently part of a sizable chain. Was fairly full of people when we ate there.

The Last Kingdom is a five-season British historical drama set during the early 10th century following the course of uniting the various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms into England whilst those same kingdoms are beset by Viking invaders coming to conquer and make a new home in the British Isles.

Based on Bernard Cornwell's novels (who also wrote the Sharpe novels which I love and I think he has another series set during the American Revolution) the main protagonist is the fictional Uhtred of Bebbanburg (Alexander Dreymon). HIs father is betrayed, Uhtred is sold to the Vikings and he loses his ancestral home (in Northumbria, which borders Scotland) to his uncle. Uhtred is raised from about 10 years old as a Viking so he grows up a man of two worlds (a big theme of the show is the struggle of Christians vs Pagans).

After his adopted family is betrayed (again instigated by Uhtred's uncle) he ends up going to the Saxons and serving under the Wessex King Alfred (David Dawson) as a mercenary and Viking expert and as the seasons go on he rises through the ranks to become a minor lord. Meanwhile there is politics amongst Wessex (in the southern coast), Mercia (in the middle), Northumbria (in the north) and the various Viking domains and Uhtred is in the middle of it all. He also has many loves who tend to die or go mad or other bad ends to make room for his next love.

Lots of outdoor scenes and middle age structures. British production so they try to make it historically accurate (and Cornwell also writes his novels to be historically accurate but with some fictional characters) and many of the characters are historical (though to be fair the histories are not that detailed). Good battle scenes and I like the tactics shown. I like how the "major" cities are really just walled towns or partly walled towns.

Each season follows two novels so plot progresses fairly rapidly over the course of an 8 or 10 episode season. I did find the last couple of seasons less good possibly because I was used to the series so it was getting old hat. But it's also nice that at the end of the series there are conclusions and Uhtred's story is done.

I like the setting and I think it combines nicely with Pendragon RPG. Although Pendragon is more set in the mid to late Middle Ages and it's Anglo vs Saxon there the theme of invaders is much the same. The Vikings here have their own codes of honor vs what the Christians have and that's very Pendragon. Politics and the various adventures in The Last Kingdom can all be brought into a Pendragon campaign.

The Last Kingdom is a good not great series but I'm glad I watched it because it gives me a resource for the next time I run Pendragon.

Dungeon of the Endless: Apogee is the same version that Amplitude Studios released in 2014 and I even did a follow-up review because I loved the game. The version you get now from the App Store includes all five DLCs for $8 (sometimes on sale for $2 which I waited for and bought).

Essentially a turn-based + real-time science fiction rogue-like. Lead a party of four escaped convicts up 20+ levels from where your escape pod crashed to the surface of the planet. It's turn-based in that nothing happens until you open a door which reveals a room and possibly generates monsters in all discovered but unpowered rooms. It's real-time in that once monsters appear it's real-time (you can pause) until they die and then it goes back to turn-based.

8-bit retro graphics. Pretty cool sounds and sufficiently anxiety inducing when monsters appear.

Set characters (though a lot as you keep unlocking more) each with their own special abilities and backstory/behavior (some characters don't like each other and eventually one kills the other, or two characters may be friends and there is a synergy).

A little bit of base building. Rooms often have spots where you can build a major artifact (max one per room) or minor artifacts (zero to seven per room). Major artifacts produce resources (parts to build things, science for tech upgrades, food to heal and level up characters) while minor ones are weapons and defenses to fight monsters. Since you can't light up all the rooms having end rooms with lots of defenses is vital.

Anyways, the old game stopped working (I'm guessing 32-bit only game) so it's nice having a version that runs on current iOS devices even though you do have to pay for it again but $2 is very cheap.

Liz and the Blue Bird (2018) [+] Introvert Mizore (Laurie Hymes) and extrovert Nozomi (Stephanie Sheh) have been best friends for years and are both in their high school orchestra class. They have a big piece to do but Mizore sees that Nozomi is slowly getting other friends and leaving Mizore behind. For her part Nozomi starts to realize that her lesser skill is holding Mizore back from being a truly great oboist. Meanwhile Liz and the Blue Bird is a story about a girl who becomes best friend with another girl who turns out to be a blue bird. The story is about letting go of your best friend so she can be the best blue bird she can be… This is a pretty well done anime movie. The relationship is touching and subtle.

Monument Valley 2+ (2022) [+] Apple Arcade version I think is exactly the same. Escher-like puzzle game where you rotate 3-D pathways but when your character walks it's as if it's a 2-D world. It's quite beautiful and elegant but less than five hours of content even with the bonus scenario. So perfect for Apple Arcade.

Alto's Adventure - Remastered (2022) [+] Apple Arcade exclusive version subtitled "The Spirit of the Mountain". New scenes, characters, goals. Snowboard down an endless mountain doing tricks, collecting coins and llamas, and avoiding obstacles. Much like Monument Valley this has elegant graphics and gameplay and is a pretty chill (i.e. not high-stress) game.

Trader Joe's Vegetable Root Chips [+] Sweet potato, cassava and taro chips are quite tasty. Reminds me of Terra Chips which I also love. $3 for 7.5 oz bag.

Link: Eat, Love, Kill is a Korean romance drama of 16 hour+ episodes. Eun Gye-hoon (Yeo Jin-goo) is a celebrity chef who moves back to his lower-income hometown to start his own upscale fusion restaurant. Noh Da-hyun (Moon Ga-young) Is young woman who failed in the big city and has moved back home and eventually gets a job as a hostess in Gye-hoon's restaurant. Oh, and she's hiding from a stalker.

For some reason Jin-goo can feel Da-hyun's emotions whenever she has intense emotions. Just like with his sister who was kidnapped 18 years previously and presumably was murdered. But could Da-hyun be his long lost sister? Luckily after a couple of episodes Gye-hoon realizes Da-hyun is not his sister which helps because Da-hyun is attracted to him but he's been rebuffing her.

Anyway Jin-hoo is really back home to find out who murdered his sister. Pretty much the same people are still here and although one man was accused and later exonerated he believes the murderer still lives in the neighborhood. Meanwhile Da-hyun has her stalker who turns out to be one of the neighborhood kids from 18 years ago. And she starts to remember flashbacks from the time when Jin-hoo's sister was kidnapped, a time when something also happened to Da-hyun but she's blacked it out of her memory for almost two decades…

This is a romance plus crime thriller since the murderer is still out there and is a threat to both lead characters. The romance is fine although I don't think they ever really use the Link all that much. For supporting characters I like Hwang Min-jo (Lee Bom-so-ri) as the cute police officer partnered with her ex-boyfriend Ji Won-tak (Song Duk-ho) who has secrets of his own.

Threat of being murdered is a bit too high stakes for my tastes. It's also annoying that Da-hyun (and to a lesser extent Jin-goo) are willing to investigate or do things on their own late at night with no backup.

Overall this is an entertaining series. About average for K-romance drama but the average is very good compared to Western television.

Mentioned in Dispatches is the podcast of the Armchair Dragoons web site and it covers tabletop and computer (and some RPG and professional) wargaming. It's an open discussion amongst 3 to 5 people most of which vary from week to week (they do two season per year, each season about 14 episodes). One topic per episode.

I reviewed this once before and didn't like it because it seemed like meandering conversation and less about actual gaming. But now I've listened to seasons 1-5 and 11-14 (the latest).

Now I appreciate it more. They've done topics like Napoleonic wargames, Science Fiction wargaming, Professional wargaming, WWII PTO, Traveller RPG, and others. Mostly interesting though the conversation still meanders a bit. I do like they sometimes include wargame designers (tabletop and computer) and professionals (who run wargames for the military and government).

The other two wargaming podcasts I subscribe to are low volume this one has become my main one.

Wonderland (2024) [/] Ensemble film centered on Wonderland service which digitizes your mind and creates an avatar that thinks it's you and interacts with loved ones via video calls. Three plot lines: Bai Li (Tang Wei) is on an infinite archaeological dig while her grandmother and daughter interact with the avatar because grandma doesn't want daughter to know her mom is dead although later Bai Li avatar realizes what she is; Jeong-in (Bae Suzy) has digitized her boyfriend who is in a coma and when her real boyfriend wakes up but is a bit mentally damaged she continues to use the avatar for emotional comfort and then her boyfriend finds out; there's also a plot about how the developers are using the service and thinking about the ethical implications… I like the concept and the cinematography is good. But the intertwining stories made everything short and confusing for half the film. Making it just one storyline would have been better I think.

Wylde Flowers (2022) [/] "Wylde Flowers is a cozy life and farming sim with a witchy twist!" on Apple Arcade and other platforms. You (playing Tara) maintain a garden, interact with town citizens, become a witch and do quests. Has good voice acting. I find the characters slightly disturbing because their heads are slightly too big for their bodies.

Gibbon: Beyond the Trees (2022) [/] Apple Arcade game where you are a gibbon making your way (always going to the right) along a forest. You swing automatically and tap at the end of a limb to jump to the next limb. You can double hold down to slide or ambulate (never quite figured out what it did). Very few obstacles to stop you and as you go along a story unfolds about man encroaching on your home. I did find it a bit boring though it's a novel concept for a game.

Pho Nam Restaurant, Sunnyvale [/] $18 combo is large pho + a drink. I had some sort of beef strips pho and iced milk coffee and it was perfectly good. Place is in a small rundown corner mall and the inside is definitely down-scale. Staff is friendly and people didn't mind screaming from our table (kids).