Joseph Balkoski, besides being a wargame designer (started with SPI and that's how I know of him), is also historian for the 29th Infantry Division. It took him a quarter century to write a five-volume history of the division during WW2:

Beyond the Beachhead: The 29th Infantry Division in Normandy (1989)
From Beachhead to Brittany: The 29th Infantry Division at Brest (2008)
From Brittany to the Reich: The 29th Infantry Division in Germany (2010)
Our Tortured Souls: The 29th Infantry Division in the Rhineland 2013)
The Last Roll Call: The 29th Infantry Division Victorious (2015)

Balkoski used the divisional historical archives (they had the foresight to archive everything ever written down -- radio communications, reports, orders, etc) as well as lots of interviews with surviving veterans.

There's a lot of detail of their campaigns and battles and skirmishes. Lots of people are mentioned and usually if Balkoski mentions someone he usually provides a bit of biography. Sometimes he goes high level to mention what's going on around the 29th and the bigger picture but mostly it's fairly focused on the experiences of the three combat battalions with other supporting units often mentioned but not as much as the riflemen.

As military history of a specific unit think it reads fine. I've read several histories of units in the American Civil War and World War 2 and they do get kind of in the weeds stuck on small unit actions that seem a bit repetitive at times. Balkoski is not really any different and that's the nature of the subject and going down to a low level.

For the most part I found it interesting though at times maybe a little too much describing every little thing that happened but then again for the official history you want everything. There are also lots of maps, many of them like official maps with drawn in unit positions and maneuvers which I guess is more realistic but Army maps have maybe too much detail and you're supposed to know how to read topographical lines to determine terrain.

Overall this is an excellent series and I'm glad I finally finished reading it all.

Shrinking s3 (2026) [/] Maybe not as good as the previous two seasons mostly because it's kind of tiring that the main character, Jimmy (Jason Segel), keeps not wanting to get mentally better until maybe the last episode (which apparently ends the 3-season story arc and next season will be a new arc). Paul (Harrison Ford) still the best character though Gaby (Jessica Williams) has her moments whereas Jimmy does not.

Be With You (2018) [/] South Korean movie. The next rainy season after she died Im Soo-ah (Son Ye-jin) is found alive by her husband Jung Woo-jin (So Ji-sub) and son Ji-ho (Kim Ji-hwan) except she has no memory of the last 8 or so years so doesn't remember her marriage at all. As she gets used to being a wife and mom we get a bunch of flashbacks to how she and her husband met in high school and their start and stop relationship over the years. But eventually once the rainy season ends she has to leave and in her diary her husband finds a letter that ties up the movie. But still it's not that romantic nor poignant of a movie. Maybe the best part was the intro where she narrates a children's story with cutesy animation.

Words in Progress (2024) [/] Apple Arcade word game. A stack of Scrabble-like letter tiles which you can drag together to form word fragments. As you join two tiles another tile appears until you run out of tiles. Try to create the longest words possible which can be tricky if you're waiting for certain letters. Kind of a clever game.

The Complete Quantum and Woody Classic Omnibus (2014) [-] This collects the Acclaim Comics run of about 22 issues. Eric Henderson -- former military, scientist, and all-around boy scout sort of guy -- and his best frenemy childhood friend Woody Van Chelton -- slacker wanna-be musician -- end up each wearing one of a pair of Quantum Bands that won't come off and if they don't clang them together every 24 hours their bodies will destabilize into pure energy. On the positive side the Quantum Bands lets them emit force beams for one and blast beams for the other and the difference seldom brought up in the series. The series is The Odd Couple mixed with Superheroes. The humor is pretty bad and the 600+ pages of this omnibus was a chore to read. This series was re-imaged by Valiant Entertainment. It still tries to be humorous but more sophisticated -- less sophomoric and slapstick -- which I found better.

Flower Crew is a South Korean romance-drama-comedy set in Joseon era Korea and runs for 16 hour-long episodes.

Ma Hoon (Kim Min-jae) heads a boutique marriage agency along with Go Young-soo (Park Ji-hoon), specializes in makeup and clothing, and Doo Joon (Byeon Woo-seok), specializes in attracting women and information gathering. For the most part their agency finds suitable partners for their clients and act as go-betweens because often the couple don't even meet until the wedding. They also do wedding planning.

Blacksmith's son Lee Soo (Seo Ji-hoon) hires them to help him marry his long-time friend Gae-ttong (Gong Seung-yeon), a lower-class escaped slave who can't read and works doing odd jobs in order to raise money and find her brother who is a household slave (apparently she escaped when she was little and doesn't remember where she was "employed").

The wedding day arrives and Lee Soo doesn't show up because he's kidnapped, brought to the palace, and is revealed to be the long-lost prince and heir to the throne because the king recently passed away and the crown prince was murdered the same night. King Lee Soo is trapped in the palace, manipulated by his "benefactor" Chief State Councillor Ma Bong-deck (Park Ho-san), who also happens to be Ma Hoon's estranged father.

About halfway through the series the concept solidifies. Lee Soo asks Ma Hoon to make Gae-ttong into a court lady so that she can be chosen as the new queen. Gae-ttong wants to be a court lady because she bet lady Kang Ji-hwa (Go Won-hee, one of two friends of the lead in King the Land, 2023) that if she passes a court lady gathering Ji-hwa will release her brother. And all the while Ma Hoon is falling for Gae-ttong (and eventually vice versa because at this point she still thinks Lee Soo ran away on her wedding day and it's not like commoners ever see the king in person)...

This series was a pleasant surprise because I thought it was going to be more about the Flower Crew arranging these zany marriages (like making sure two people accidentally meet and foiling rival agencies). But that part quickly becomes a vehicle for the romance which gets better and better as the series progresses.

Overall a good romantic series.

MacPorts is a package manager for macOS used for installing mostly UNIX/BSD/Linux software. Many packages are pre-compiled for various versions of macOS so installation is fairly quick.

I do like Homebrew which I was using before and here are some differences:

• MacPorts supports older versions of macOS. Homebrew is the current major OS plus two major OSes back (which means my 2018 Mac mini is too old -- you can still use Homebrew but it wants to compile everything which can take hours). MacPorts has an installer back to macOS Leopard (10.5) and for each package you can see in the details which ports that package built successfully or not.
• MacPorts uses sudo a lot which Homebrew generally does not.
• Since MacPorts seems less popular they don't seem to get the latest versions as quickly as Homebrew. On the other hand they have older ports than Homebrew.

I used MacPorts to recreate my server environment on my Mac mini (running macOS 12) when my MBP Intel (running macOS 26) died. Only problem I had was with Postgresql -- MacPorts and Homebrew set up the default environment differently so I couldn't just copy the data directories. Theoretically you can export then import schema+data but that didn't work so I ended up using Homebrew to install Postgresql 15.

Overall though MacPorts seems quite fine for installing UNIX/BSD/Linux software on macOS.

(There is also Fink, which covers macOS 10.9 to 10.15 so not as good OS support as MacPorts.)

Imagine Me & You (2005) [+] British rom-com. As she's walking down the aisle on her wedding day Rachel (Piper Perabo) sees florist Luce (Lena Headey) and there is an immediate attraction but now she's married to good guy Heck (Matthew Goode)... I've watched this movie at least three times now and still a nice lesbian romantic story. Anthony Head is kind of amazing playing Rachel's dad. I also forgot that Rachel and Luce only kiss like once in this movie.

BEAST: Bio exo Arena Suit Team (2024) [/] PvP 2v2 3rd person view arena battle game where if you get enough energy you can transform into a mecha for like 30 seconds. There are various game modes and you can play with your friends or solo. Nicely executed design.

Game Room (2024) [-] A rather generic old board/family games app with Mahjong (the tile matching version not the 4-player game), Word Wright (guess 25 words using 7 given letters), Solitaire (cards), Chess, Yacht (Yahtzee), Sea Battle (Battleship), Checkers, Backgammon, Hearts, Flip It (Reversi/Othello). You can play vs AI or your contacts. Overall looks nice but unremarkable. I'd rather have individual games which would probably mean each game is better developed. But I guess this is an app for old people.

Trader Joe's Indian Fare Tikka Vegetables [/] "potatoes, carrots, peas and onions with a satisfying Tikka Masala-style tomato and cream sauce" 10 oz bag (2 servings) for $3. Was not as tasty as I'd hoped so may skip next time. TJ's has other Indian Fare bags to try.

Playing Death Games to Put Food on the Table is an 11-episode anime. Yuki (Chiyuki Miura) is a teen who participates in Death Games where contestants (in this series they're all girls and women) are put in a scenario and have to survive while being monitored on cameras for the viewing audience (there's always a number like 10/21 where the 10 goes up and down -- feels like maximum 21 viewers and but most don't really watch until it gets exciting and I think the highest max is 30-something; small viewing audience implies elites implies the games are very illegal rather than a reflection of a dystopian society a la Running Man).

Survivors get paid very well so most only do it once but Yuki wants to survive 99 times (we kind of learn why in the last episode) and there are many girls who play multiple even dozens of games (though there is a psychological 30-game barrier that many expert players can't get past). The games are varied: the first one is like a series of escape rooms; there's a game where it's war between two sides; there's a hunting game where half hunt the other half and then in phase 2 the tables turn; and another game where the girls try to get to the bottom floor of a trapped abandoned building. Each game lasts from 1 to 3 episodes so I think I listed them all.

The games are not told in order. Episode 1 is game 10 for Yuki where she is experienced but still fairly new. One game is Yuki doing her 30th game, I think another is when she was kind of starting, and the final one she's very experienced but up against someone who wants to kill her.

One thing is that the girls have their blood and organs replaced with magic stuffing and I guess the process is reversed when they come out. But that means they can be shot and lose limbs without bleeding everywhere -- it's just stuffing flying everywhere. It's so that the viewers don't get sickened by all the blood and I guess a really bloody anime would change the tone.

Besides the games there's a fair amount of psychology. Why is Yuki playing these games and what does she hope to accomplish. We get a bit of this about other girls. There are also girls breaking down because life and death situations are stressful. There's often a cooperative aspect in that at least at the beginning working together increases survival chances but often in the end someone has to die and then some girls turn on each other. There are also girls who love killing or love winning or love being in charge.

Animation is pretty nice. About half is rather detailed and the girls are often wearing elaborate Lolita or maid costumes. The other half of the time the animation is more stylized, often wider and farther away shots and in a water-color style so not very detailed. Does it make it seem a bit fairy tale like at times.

I did like the series but it is fairly dark. There is no resolution to whether or not Yuki makes it all the way to 99 games or not. Perhaps that's not the point and Yuki is stuck in a world of vibrant Death Games while her real life between games is rather drab and lifeless.

Viki is a streaming service for Asian dramas - Korea, China, Taiwan, Japan and Thailand. Unless you're looking for something specific there's enough free ad-supported content (even good content) to be satisfied especially if you view other streaming services.

One of the key things is that nothing is dubbed (because that's expensive) but everything has fairly good crowd-sourced subtitling in several languages. I've never found the subtitling to be bad and often they add subtitles for written words on screen (Netflix rarely does) or add a quick explanation for a term (especially for Chinese terms that can mean two things they'll point out which one is meant). So in general it's the best subtitling of any streaming service.

Standard is $8 per month (or $80 per year). Listed benefits:

• No ads
• Access to full library (Plus tier used to say you get some Kocowa shows too but doesn't say that anymore)
• 720p videos (Free is 480p which is fine one a phone or tablet, Plus is 1080p)
• Stream to televisions (I don't need it since I don't have a television)
• Play on one device at a time (Plus is four devices)
• (Plus also allows you to download videos to watch offline)

Another benefit of Standard is P-in-P which isn't enabled in Free tier.

Avoiding ads is kind of nice. Viki has many ad breaks, each 5-ads long (though you can skip an ad after a few seconds), and there is no time limit for an ad (I've seen ads that are 20-minute informercials). Since I mostly watch on my desktop the 720p videos are nice -- 480p definitely has artifacts on a desktop monitor.

I hate the Viki on desktop. It's like a really bad and laggy version of the mobile app and doesn't even support keyboard shortcuts (i.e. space to pause/play or left and right to skip 10s). But I found that Viki on a desktop browser is actually quite nice. UI is responsive. it does auto-start next video unless you click on X (and you have like three seconds to do so). It also shows you which shows require a subscription which the mobile/desktop apps do not show.

So at this point I think Viki Standard + Desktop Browser is a good experience. Right now $120 per year for Plus doesn't seem worth the upgrade (if I had a family then it would be a must for simultaneous viewing).

Gettysburg: Director's Cut (1993) [+] I recently bought this from Apple TV store and watched it. Graphics maybe a little dated, the practical effects are not bad for the budget, and a lot of background soldiers are quite older (due to using a lot of American Civil War re-enactor enthusiasts I believe). But after the first half hour it picks up and especially the middle part with the 20th Maine is quite powerful. It has a great score, good actors and acting, and follows the novel -- Michael Shaara's The Killer Angels and Shaara wrote some amount of the screenplay before he died in 1988 -- quite faithfully. Still a good film to watch.

Tamagotchi Adventure Kingdom (2024) [/] Mobile adventure game using Tamagotchi characters (and since I don't know the lore they are all new to me). Do tasks, collect stuff, craft stuff. Maybe there's fighting although seems more of a kids game so maybe not. It's pretty helpful telling you what to do and gating stuff so you don't wander far away. Seems ok.

Cornsweeper (2024) [/] Minesweeper using corn kernels and a minimalistic yellow interface and breezy island background music. The biggest flaw is, although there is brief tutorial, there are no instructions as to controls and such. I want to be able to mark guesses and such like with Microsoft Minesweeper and here maybe even the ability to mark is something you have to unlock (you also unlock power-ups such as you get a redo when you find the first mine). Overall it's a bit of style over playability.

OX9 Lanzhou Handpulled Noodles, San Mateo [+] Apparently a small chain the Bay Area. I had the Braised Beef Stew Noodle with Small Flat noodles (you can choose Regular/Medium Round or Small/Large/Belt Flat). They make the noodles themselves so like for Noodles & Things (sadly out of business) the noodles are slightly more chewy (without being mushy) than regular dry noodles. The braised beef stew soup was also quite good. Surprisingly filling. $19.25 list, $25.77 using Door Dash.

Pretty Man is a Chinese romance drama of 28 half hour+ long episodes. Viki also includes two "special" episodes which consists of cut scenes and clips, some of which would have helped storytelling in my opinion.

The story revolves around Lu Jin Nian (Xiong Zi Qi) and Qiao An Hao (Li Xi Rui/Sierra Li; supporting role as lead female's best friend, The Interpreter, 2016). The series starts in media res so it's a bit confusing what's going on, then we go back to the beginning in high school when the two met. Qiao An Hao is the pretty girl from a rich family. Lu Jin Nian is the transfer kid who turns out to be the ostracized half-brother of Qiao An Hao's best friend Xu Jia Mu (Jerry Yu).

They both are attracted to each other but the whole series is about them never telling each other how they really feel until maybe episode 24 to 26. One sees the other hanging out with a member of the opposite sex and then thinks the other is in a relationship. Or something said is misinterpreted. Jia Mu's mom Han Ru Chu (Tien Hsin) keeps scheming against Jin Nian because he's the son of her husband's dead mistress. It is quite frustrating that 90% of the series' hurdles could have been avoided if the two had been more forthcoming to each other.

Anyway, after a lengthy high school segment they go to separate colleges for a few episodes then finally graduate into the real world. Lu Jin Nian becomes a heartthrob movie star, believing that Qiao An Hao and Xu Jia Mu will eventually marry. Meanwhile in college Xu Jia Mu fell for Song Xiang Si (Zhao Yao Ke) who was bought off (and threatened) to leave the country by Han Ru Chu. Years later Song Xiang Si comes back and takes up acting as an up and comer opposite Lu Jin Nian and then Xu Jia Mu starts chasing after her again.

After being rebuffed by Xiang Si yet one more time Jia Mu is hit by a car and ends up in a coma. To save the family business Han Ru Chu convinces Qiao An Hao to marry her son but it'll actually be a temporary fake marriage and Lu Jin Nian will play the part of her son. So that gets An Hao and Jin Nian living together for like 10 episodes slowly becoming more attached to each other yet still thinking the other doesn't feel the same way.

Xu Jia Mu finally wakes up and some plot threads start getting resolved, including An Hao and Jin Nian finally finding out how the other feels and becoming a couple. And then everything ends in a cliffhanger because there is a Pretty Man 2:

• Jin Nian proposes to An Hao who says yes but a bit later she mentions a childhood incident that IIRC led to Jin Nian's mother's death so he dramatically flings her on the ground and she's starting up with "why" in her eyes the credits roll.
• Song Xiang Si became pregnant from Xu Jia Mu but when she said she had an abortion he pushed her down, cursed her, and angrily stormed off. Later he returns to find her very pregnant but apparently married. It's not exactly explained but I think the "abortion" was a test which Jia Mu failed and the "husband" is an actor friend playing the part. Xiang Si still loves Jia Mu but lots of trust was lost.
• Jin Nian's business partner of 9 years finally confesses her love for him but he's sorry he can't return it so she leaves to join the competitor with the aim of ruining Jin Nian's acting agency.

I looked at Pretty Man which was released the next year. All the female parts (except Han Ru Chu who only guest stars) were recast, even An Hao's agent/friend Zhao Meng (Mo Xiao Weng) and Lin Qian Qian (Wang Yue Ting) who chases after Jia Mu in high school and late in the series. Our two male leads remain, although it looks An Hao's younger brother Qiao An Yi (Xiong Wen Wen) who has lots of scenes disappears in PM 2.

In general I felt the story was a bit confusing at times. Sometimes characters are introduced, used for a few episodes, then they disappear. There's a whole e-sports team Jia Mu is building that An Yi manages and keeps alive when Jia Mu is in a coma but once he wakes up they disappear (maybe returning in PM 2).

The romance is ok though once again them not really talking and clearing things up is rather annoying.

Eventually we come down to Li Xi Rui/Sierra Li is the only good thing in this series. She acts well enough. She's very pretty. Once out of college she's always wearing short skirts with open-toed high heel shoes so you can often admire her very thin legs.

And thinking back I guess the best part is when they're doing the fake marriage. There's something about the beginner actress An Hao (who goes by a stage name but I forgot) getting bullied and sexually harassed and having the big movie star lead actor continually rescuing her in secret or more overtly. That part is very charming.

Anyways, it's watchable but hesitate to recommend since it ends in a cliffhanger and then change all the female actors in Pretty Man 2.

Hull Zero Three is a science fiction novel by Greg Bear. A naked man wakes up That is apparently being attacked by aliens. While trying to recover his memories he teams up with other "humans" though some are more alien than you'd think.

They're on a three-hulled ship (with a small water asteroid in front) that's been traveling for 500 years. There is lots of damage throughout. For some reason besides the cleaning and repair biologicals that ship has created it's also been creating killers to wipe everything out. Why this is happening and how to fix it are important though secondary problems to the man and his new friends as the most important thing is staying alive...

Everything is from the man's perspective so many things are described rather than named -- though he also keeps remembering terms for various things and odd cultural and historical items. Although his companions might seem menacing at times this is mostly a group vs environment story.

This is the kind of SF I like with a mystery to drive you forward and little bits being constantly revealed.