Franchises

For someone looking to be their own boss, sometimes franchise opportunities are the thing to look into. You get to be your own boss yet you usually still have a safety net of a big corporation. Of course, some franchises aren't as good as others so you need to be sure to do all of your research before plunging headfirst into it. Otherwise, you might find yourself in way too deep with few options of getting out.

TV Review: The Fringe

I've been trying to hold off on talking about J.J. Abrams' new show Fringe. Partially because I don't really know what to say about it and partially because I don't want to jinx it. The show stars Joshua Jackson as Peter Bishop, the genius son of the scientific genius Walter Bishop, played by John Noble. Anna Torv plays Agent Olivia Dunham, an FBI agent scouted by Homeland Security to help deal with these new scientific phenomenon that are occurring all over the place. Unfortunately, Walter had been locked in a mental institution for 17 years and, while he is still brilliant, he's not quite all there. There's a lot that is going on in the show. Relationships between people change just about every episode (and there's only been 2 so far!); science is seen from new perspectives; the impossible is possible if you think hard enough. I really do enjoy the show a lot but I am nervous. After all, it is on Fox and they don't have the best track record of keeping good shows on the air. I hope that it will at least make it through the season.

is back acne the same as facial acne?

Sometimes I have weird thoughts. This morning's thought was "Would a normal acne treatment work on back zits?" Yeah, I know, it's a gross thing to think about but I can't help it. My mind wanders into strange territory sometimes. And, really, the same thing that causes facial acne should be the same thing that causes back acne, right? So, in theory the treatment should work the same on either place on the body. Right?

Game review: Baby Blimp

There are tons of baby-related time management games out there. Baby Blimp makes a few changes to the typical "taking care of baby" type of game. You play a crew of storks who are preparing babies to be delivered to new parents. First, you decide the sex of the baby that will pop out of the machine. Then you have to give it a toy, feed it, clean it and put it down for a nap before it is ready for delivery. Once all of the babies are prepped for delivery, you go over to the blimp door. Each house below you will tell you what type of baby they want. It is your job, as the stork, to deliver the proper baby to each house. There are various types of storms that will get in your way so be careful!

Originally, I thought this was a cute idea. Once I started playing though, I realized that the gameplay is kinda broken. There are times that you will need to click on an object multiple times before the stork will do that action. Since the stork will only do one action at a time, it makes playing the game annoying. For example, once you change a baby's diaper, you need to throw the dirty diaper in the trash before you can do anything else. However, the game won't always register the trash can click. So your stork will just stand there stupidly until the game finally registers the trash can click. Of course, by this point babies are crying all over the place and you need to get them taken care of. The same thing happens in the delivery mode as well. So, while the game could have been really cute and fun, in the end, it's nothing but aggravating.

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.