JDorama review: First Kiss

Title: First Kiss Broadcast date: 7/9/07 - 9/17/07 Genre: Romance Number of episodes: 11 Cast: Inoue Mao, Ito Hideaki, Hiraoka Yuta, Matsuyuki Yasuko, Gekidan Hitori, Abe Sadao Plot: Mio (Inoue Mao) is a young girl with a heart condition. She agrees to a complicated surgery that will either save or kill her. Before the surgery, she visits her older brother Kazuki (Ito Hideaki) for one last summer of fun. He promises to help her find her first love in order to show her that life isn't as bad as she thinks it is. What is good: All of the actors did a great job. What is bad: The show has an extremely slow start. Letter rating: C+ Overall: I started watching this show months ago. After the first three episodes, I just couldn't bring myself to watch more of it. It wasn't until I decided that I had to finish it that I sat through the rest of the episodes. I really enjoyed the acting in the show but I felt bad that the material they were given wasn't very good. The Mio character spends a majority of the time as a spoiled little girl and even when she learns that she's being a bitch, she still doesn't want to change her ways. Her brother, Kazu, mostly caters to her every whim and when he decides to stand up against her, he feels overly guilty about it. The show did get a bit better toward the end though it's really not worth sitting through the first half of the series just to get to it.

Game review: Eye for Design

Once again, the interior decorating gaming craze appears. Eye For Design. is more of a puzzle game than anything else. You are basically given a room with some vague instructions about what should go in the room and a list of objects to use. It is your job to make a lovely room that your client will love. Overall, the game was pretty fun. Each object can only be placed in certain spots in the room so there's the difficulty of trying to fit all of the required objects into the room. I think I might have liked it a little better if there was more free-form to it. Instead of having set spots for the objects, let us place the stuff wherever we want. Luckily, the game is still enjoyable despite this small drawback.

Game review: Mystery Cookbook

You are a mouse. Not just any mouse but a rather smart mouse who has to help a variety of animals find their lost objects. Yes, I know the game is called Mystery Cookbook but there is no actual cooking going on. Instead of cooking, you travel to different restaurants helping the owners' animals. This is a pretty run of the mill hidden object games. None of the games are too difficult but they are just hard enough to keep it fun. Even the in-between puzzles are a nice change. If you are looking for something new and innovating, you won't find it here. But if you are looking for a decent hidden object game, this is for you.

Beauty Products

I went to use my good pair of tweezers the other night only to find that they aren't really "good" anymore. It's not particularly surprising. I usually spend less than a dollar on a pair of tweezers. Today I found Rubis tweezers, which are like $30! I didn't even know people spent that much on tweezers! I wonder how good they are. Has anyone ever used them before?

Game review: Supermarket Mania

In the time management game Supermarket Mania, you play Nikki, a girl about to start her first day working for TORG Corp. The Corporation is a supermarket that is run by robots. It is your job to make sure the shelves are stocked and there are no messes on the floor. Even though you don't have to deal with the customers in the game directly, you still have to cater to their needs a bit. This is accomplished by making sure all of the shelves are stocked so they can purchase whatever they want. If the shelf is not stocked, they will stand in front of it, getting impatient. You will need to fill the shelf before they get angry and leave. Since the customers will also leave messes, you will need to make sure these are cleaned up before someone falls. Neither of the jobs are difficult but it can get rather difficult to accomplish everything!

I went into this game thinking that I wouldn't enjoy it very much. Well, I was wrong. I found it fairly fun to try to make sure that each of the shelves were stocked with what I thought the customers would want. Of course, I wasn't always right so I ended up rushing around to put out what the customers DID really want but that's what makes the game fun, right? It wouldn't be any fun if we could predict everything. Supermarket Mania is definitely worth a try.

Make it go away!

A little over a week ago, I talked about pimple problems. I'm still having problems on my forehead and I'm still looking for suggestions for any natural acne treatment. Heck, I may even make it into a blog feature! I think you should know by now that I'm not too terribly afraid to try new things. That which doesn't kill us makes us stronger. Right?

Music review: W - Daikishimenaide ~Nikki Tsuki~

Artist: W Members: Kago Ai, Nozomi Tsuji Album: 2nd W Release date: 3/2/05

English translation: Don't hold me Don't hold me What kind of facial expression should I make?

After we kiss After we kiss I can't look at your face 'Cause... I just can't look...

We were born far away from each other And then we met

There's a lot we don't know about each other, but We went shopping and got asked if we were siblings For some reason, I felt happy

I won't show my tears I don't want to show them I don't want to tell you what kind of tears they are

Everything, I mean everything! I like you This moment, just like this I want it to freeze

The environments we were born into Even our accents are different But still we met

We've still got a long fight with the unknown There's a lot of restaurants nearby, so let's go That station is famous for its ramen

April 9th, a clear Saturday. I wonder how many times we've gone on a date now. It was really fun. But really, I know what number date it is...

I know what number date it is, but... But, I can't count 'em... the second kiss I like you. I like you I like you. I like you. Ahhhhhhh!!! I like you.

The environments we were born into Even our accents are different But still we met

There's a lot we don't know about each other, but We went shopping and got asked if we were siblings For some reason, I felt happy

About the song: Another W song about liking a boy. Surprised? Like the rest of their songs, this is pretty cute but it's not as powerful as some of their other ballads. The way the lyrics are divided between them is interesting. They even share a 'deatta.' One sings de, the other sings at and the first sings ta. It makes the song a little bit different but it's nothing special. All in all, a forgettable song.

Downtime

I have managed to catch myself a rather nasty cold. Unfortunately, this means many of my gaming reviews will have to be put on hold until I can actually play some games again. Hopefully I will be better in a few days and things will be back to normal. Thank you for your patience.

Money woes

As everyone knows, the US economy sucks a whole lot. People all over the country are looking into foreclosure help so they don't lose their homes. We were smart enough to buy a house that was well within our means with a fixed rate mortgage. As long as both of us are employed, which is another place we got lucky, we will be OK. Well, the raising gas prices will eventually get us but we are trying our best to work around it. Hopefully the economy will rebound soon.