JDorama review: Gokusen 3

Title: Gokusen 3 Broadcast date: 4/19/08 - 6/08 Number of episodes: 11 Genre: comedy Cast: Nakama Yukie, Namase Katsuhisa, Takaki Yuya, Miura Haruma, Ishiguro Hideo, Nakama Junta, Kiriyama Akito, Waki Tomohiro Plot: Once again, Yankumi (Nakama Yukie) is called upon to bring the rowdy boys of class 3D of another high school to heel. What is good: Besides Nakama Yukie, the students seem to be better actors this time around. What is bad: The ending is a bit abrupt. Letter rating: C+ Overall: While the plot is still basically the same, there are a few changes. For one, the writers have added a sort-of overall villain to the fold. He's not in every episode but he does appear more than once. Also, despite the fact that the cast is still littered with boy band members, they aren't particularly bad actors. Nakama Yukie shines, as always, and it's really nice to see the Kuma character from the first series move forward in life instead of being stagnant. This season was much better than season 2.

Game review: Enchanted Fairy Friends: Secret of the Fairy Queen

Quite often, my daughter likes to play hidden object games with me. I usually let her pick which game we're playing. Her choice this time around was Enchanted Fairy Friends: Secret of the Fairy Queen. In the game, you are trying to find the name of the Fairy Queen. Each of the Queen's Rose Court fairies has a hint. Put these hints together to guess her name. This game was actually well suited for my child. It not only had the hidden object part but there were also find-the-differences and puzzle parts as well. None of them were particularly difficult. (Though the puzzle part was based on matching shapes so younger children may need help with it.) The graphics were bright and colorful and each level was themed to a specific fairy's flower. Obviously, this was no geared toward boys but I think any fairy-loving girl would enjoy the game.

No PS3 for me

Oh, the lure of a PS3. It is the only current generation of gaming consoles that we do not own. We have two Xbox 360s and a Wii. We also have a PSP and a Nintendo DS. Yet we just can't bring ourselves to buy a PS3. There aren't many games for it that my husband is interested in and we aren't really ready to convert to Blu-Ray. (I'm sorry but we have a ton of DVDs, I don't want to re-buy them all in Blu-Ray format.) The Xbox 360 is dropping in price, perhaps Sony will drop the price on the PS3. We might consider it then.

TV review: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (season 2)

On Monday night, the second season of The Sarah Connor Chronicles began. While the first season started off a little rocky, it did get better. This season, they've added a new bad girl in the form of Garbage lead singer Shirley Manson. Once again, I thought the premiere episode was a little much. I don't want to give out any spoilers but there was a plot point that I think should have been lengthened to a few episodes yet it was resolved by the end of the first. Yes, this particular point is something they will need to address in later episodes but it just seemed to be fixed too fast.

Meanwhile, Shirley Manson, in her acting debut, was gorgeous in every way possible. No one tried to force her to cover up her accent and she just dripped with sexy evilness. I can't wait to see what happens with her character this season. All I can say is that I hope they don't do anything lame.

Sekai no Melody

One of my extremely geeky hobbies is online singing. There are a number of groups floating around the internet that people can join. Usually, you send in an audition clip and then you are assigned to a group. After that, it works a lot like karaoke. You are assigned certain lines to sing in a song (either in your group or a song you signed up for) and it is your job to record you singing those lines. Right now, the main group I sing with is Sekai no Melody. Unlike many other groups, SnM tries to get away from only recording Japanese songs. As a result, there are groups that focus on other languages as well. (For example, one of the groups I'm in focuses on English songs.)

Yes, I know it is very geeky but it's also a lot of fun!

Game review: The Race

The Race is another hidden object game that tries too hard. The premise is that you are one in five pairs of competitors racing around the world. However, the problem with the game does not lie in the premise. It's the execution. In order to make the game "difficult," they cram each location full of a variety of objects. I really wish game designers would learn that this does not make a game difficult, it makes it annoying. Since there are so many items in the picture, it is impossible to see everything. So the item you are looking for might only be seen as a bicycle handlebar or a smudge on a window. There are many ways to make a hidden object game fun and challenging. This was not one of them.

Webcomics!

I'm always on the lookout for new, good webcomics to read. Here is the list of the ones I currently keep up with: Punch an' Pie (which is a spin-off of Queen of Wands which ended in 2005) - written by Aeire and drawn by Chris Daily

Striptease - written and drawn by Chris Daily

Questionable Content - written and drawn by J. Jacques

Penny Arcade - written by Tycho and drawn by Gabe

Real Life Comics - written and drawn by Greg Dean

Something*Positive - written and drawn by R.K. Milholland

Two Lumps - written by Mel Hynes and drawn by J. Grant

Feel free to suggest new webcomics for me! Also feel free to pimp yours out. I'll at least give it a look. Who knows...maybe I'll even talk about it!

Game review: Dream Day Wedding: Married in Manhattan

First, there was Dream Day Wedding. Then there was Dream Day Honeymoon. After that, there was Dream Day: First Home. Now there is Dream Day Wedding: Married in Manhattan. The Dream Day series is probably my favorite hidden object series available. In this one, we are pretty much back to the basics. You help a couple plan their wedding as you create the story of how they met. It's difficult enough to keep you interested yet easy enough that you don't get aggravated. Since each version of the game is slightly different you don't get bored playing the same exact thing over and over again. I get giddy every time I see a new Dream Day game. I hope that you feel the same way.

My carpets are clean....sorta...

One thing I have a love/hate relationship with are vacuum cleaners. I hate vacuuming but I love shopping for vacuums. It's interesting to see what sort of new technology there is for vacuums. I mean, you're basically sucking up dirt. How many different ways can you invent something that will suck up dirt? By the way, Dyson is very pretty and, from what I hear, works wonders but they are SO expensive! Not all of us are rich Dyson people!