Detoxing

Awhile ago, I was watching Penn & Teller's Bullshit on Showtime. The episode was about detoxing your body through diets or colon cleanse things and whatnot. Obviously, Penn & Teller thought it was a bunch of crap. Personally, I'm a bit more middle of the road. I have some friends that do the diet detox every once in awhile and they seem to get some sort of help from it. I don't think I would ever do it myself though. Mostly because I'm not dedicated enough to keep up with it long enough.

Game review: Golden Hearts Juice Bar

Yet another restaurant themed time management game, Golden Hearts Juice Bar tries to change things up a bit by making the "restaurant" into a trendy drink bar. Unfortunately, the changes that make the juice bar possible makes the game annoyingly difficult right from the beginning. Of course, it doesn't get any easier as the levels go on. You play Kelly, a college student who is trying to each some money to continue her studies. So she takes a job at the local juice bar making milkshakes and strawberry smoothies. While this sounds like a great job, the game makes it extremely difficult by taking it out of a bar-typed setting and using a restaurant setting instead. As such, Kelly has to crank out as many drinks as she can while waiting on tables. Add in the fact that each drink takes a couple of seconds in the blender, it's not too difficult to end up with some cranky customers. You can make them happier with the house band but they seem to take an awful lot of breaks.

Also, the game setting teases you. There are things available that you can use but the customers don't want. So if you accidentally click on them, you are screwed. This includes things like lemon wedges for the drinks and slices of cake. They don't come into play until the middle of the second restaurant level.

I'm rather disappointed in the game. I wanted it to be really good. It's a great theme but it's just not used very well. If the designers had used the bar instead of seating the customers at tables, the game would be a lot easier and a lot more fun to play. I hope that they'll make a sequel to the game with a couple of minor changes. It'll be cool to have a bar-themed time management game. I think it'll bring back memories of the old Tapper games.

Looking at laptops

My husband and I went to Best Buy today because he needed a new power supply for his computer. While we were there, I took a look at some of the laptops. I'd really like to get a laptop of my own. One of the biggest factors for me is laptop memory. I need a laptop small enough that it's not heavy and I can use it anywhere but I need enough memory to handle everything I want to do. And, of course, it has to be within my budget. Decisions, decisions!

Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew

My latest reality television obsession is VH1's Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew. I have loved Dr. Drew ever since Loveline was on MTV. In my eyes, the man can do no wrong. And Celebrity Rehab is another hit for him. For the show, a group of addicted celebrities gather to kick their nasty habits. The lineup consists of Family Matters' Jaimee Foxworth, Seth 'Shifty' Binzer from the group Crazytown, martial arts fighter Ricco Rodriguez, actor Daniel Baldwin, actress Brigitte Nielson, former pro-wrestler Joanie 'Chyna' Laurer, porn actress Mary Carey and Grease star Jim Conaway. Their addictions vary from alcoholism to cocaine to pot. Dr. Drew and his staff definitely have their hands full with this crew.

At first, I thought this show was going to be an absolute train-wreck. On the contrary, the show is not only entertaining, it's also very informative about what goes on in rehab. My father is an alcoholic and he has been in and out of various rehabs over the years. While I knew that they did things like "art therapy" since he always brought home weird pottery things, I didn't know that there are group sessions where the patients talk about things that may have caused them to turn to drugs or alcohol. It's interesting to hear about what these celebrities have gone through. Especially since the general public tends to think these people live glamorous golden lives. Instead, they are living with a lot of emotional baggage due to past emotional abuses.

I think that this show is something that everyone should watch. Not just to see "celebreality" but also to see the reality of rehab.

Refinancing the mortgage

This year will be the third year since we bought our house. We've been thinking about refinancing in order to get a lower monthly payment. That would mean talking to mortgage lenders again and that really sucks. Our payment isn't terribly bad so it's nothing that we need to deal with immediately. But everyone wants lower bill payments, right? Then again, I'd really like to move into a larger house. Our current house is pretty small. Always wanting bigger and better, that's me.

Laptop stuff

A couple of years ago, my husband and I used to run an anime convention. Last year we handed everything over to other staff members as it was getting to be too much work for us. But back in the beginning, it was pretty much just the two of us with a bit of help from some friends. We even used our own equipment to run it. Looking back, it probably would have been a better idea to look at laptop rentals instead of using our own stuff. I mean, we put a lot of personal computer and video game equipment at stake. We were really lucky. None of our stuff got broken. Except for the iPod that was stolen and we wouldn't have rented that anyway.

Game review: Jojo's Fashion Show

There has definitely been a sudden influx of fashion-based casual games. Few of them really had anything to do with fashion though. Well, things are different now. Jojo's Fashion Show is definitely about the fashion and nothing else. You play Jojo Cruz, a retired fashion designer. She's trying to come back to the fashion scene and it's your job to help her. The goal is to make the best outfit you can. You are given three models, a variety of clothes and a couple of themes. It is your job to create the best outfit for the given theme with the clothes you have.

Sounds easy, right? It's a lot more difficult than you would think! Sometimes you don't get the right clothes and you are forced to just throw something together before the model walks onto the runway naked. But sometimes everything comes together and you create the absolute perfect outfit.

This is definitely a game for those interested in fashion. I can't imagine someone who doesn't like clothes enjoying this. Clothes are the game. And this is most definitely the best fashion game I've come across so far.

Internet interference

As I am slightly bored today, I am posting a whole lot. I guess that's a good thing for you. ^_^ Speaking of posting, my posts from home may be a little sporadic. Mostly because we have been having problems with our internet connection. While the cable company believes they have fixed it, there are still problems occasionally. I'm not sure if upgrading the cables between all the connections to fiber optic cables would help or not. Fiber optic cables are supposed to cut down on interference and I know we've been having some problems with interference from some sort of radio signal in the area. My husband's Xbox 360 has been losing the signal from the controllers (yes, controllers with brand new batteries so that isn't the problem) and when he uses the headset, he can hear phone conversations once in awhile. I'm not sure if that would interfere with our internet connection or not. I guess it's just another thing for me to look into.

Jdorama review: Taiho Shichauzo

taiho-shichauzo.jpgTitle: Taiho Shichauzo Translation: You're Under Arrest Broadcast date: 10/17/02 - 12/12/02 Genre: Police comedy Cast: Ito Misaki, Hara Sachie Plot: Based on the best-selling manga, this is the story of Natsumi (Ito) and Miyuki (Hara), two outrageous female traffic police officers. What is good: The cast had pretty good chemistry with each other. What is bad: Most of the episodes are boring. Letter rating: C- Overall: I watched this show in the hopes that Ito Misaki had the ability to play a character that isn't a shy, submissive Japanese woman. She definitely pulled it off here. Natsumi is the complete opposite of Ito's Aoyama Saori from Densha Otoko. The problem here isn't the acting. It's that the stories are fairly boring. The show starts off well with Natsumi and Miyuki kicking a lot of criminal ass but then it swerves away from that. Yes, they still get into fights once in awhile. They just aren't the same as the fights from the early episodes. And by the end of the series, Natsumi is using guns instead of her fists. Considering there are only nine episodes in the series, the transition from "wild girls" to "sweethearts of the police station" goes quickly.

If you're a fan of the manga or the anime version, you might enjoy this. However, don't expect anything particularly deep to come out of it. We never really get to know the girls beyond their deep friendship for each other. It would have been nice to get into why Natsumi was so violent or why Miyuki likes cars so much. Alas, we are left with the "because this is how they are" type of reasoning for everything. At least the studio didn't try to drag this out for 26 episodes.