JDorama review: Mei-chan no Shitsuji

Title: Mei-chan no Shitsuji Also known as: Mei-chan's Butler Broadcast dates: 1/13/09 - 3/17/09 Number of episodes: 10 Genre: Romantic Comedy Cast: Eikura Nana, Mizushima Hiro, Sato Takeru, Yamada Yu Plot: Shinonome Mei (Eikura) lived an ideal, if poor, life helping her parents run their udon shop in the countryside. After her parents sudden accidental death, it is revealed that Mei is the heir to a multibillionaire. Now she must attend a prestigious school in order to learn how to become a lady. However, at this school, every student has a handsome butler. Including Mei. What is good: Mizushima Hiro is wonderful as Mei's butler, Shibata Rihito What is bad: It plays out pretty much like any other "new girl in school" drama, except with butlers! Letter rating: B Overall: I made a decision to marathon this entire series in one day. Since it's only ten episodes, it wasn't a difficult task. As a whole, I found the series to be fairly decent. Nothing stood out as fabulous but nothing was particularly terrible either. The plot had an interesting take on the lady/butler relationship, even though it had a predictable ending. However, I was left feeling like there should have been a bit more meat on these bones.

Travel

I would love to travel more. My mom was looking into RV financing so she could drive around the country with her husband. I don't know if she'd let me borrow it, but she'd definitely let us come along on a few trips. When I was a kid, we used to take my grandparents' motorhome on various trips. It wasn't as nice as staying in a cozy hotel. We did get to see a lot of places though. I think I'd like to do something like that for my daughter.

Music: Hangry & Angry - Top Secret

I fully admit that I loved Hangry & Angry from the very beginning. When they released their first album in November 2009, I was excited. However, I was also worried. Their mini-album was good, but would a full album still have the same sound and the same feel? They did not let me down.

The first single off the album is Top Secret. (See video above.) It is an absolutely amazing song. The techno background and the fairly pop vocal line comes together to sound a bit like a mash-up of two completely different songs. Yet it works. It definitely makes me long to hear more from the duo, which is the point of a single.

On top of that, the pair has a bit of a new look. It's sleeker than the look from Kiss Me Kill Me. Where the old was very punk, the new is very sexy. I love it! I can't wait to hear (and see) more from them.

Game review: Alice's Teacup Madness

In an attempt get myself geared up for Tim Burton's "Alice," I loaded up Alice's Teacup Madness from Big Fish Games. Of course, Alice is back in Wonderland. This time she has to earn some money to get back home. (Yes, I know it is a rather ridiculous plot. Bear with me.) The White Rabbit sets her up with a tea shop so she can brew up some of the best tea in Wonderland. The similarities between this game and Cake Mania are painfully obvious right from the beginning. However, Alice tries to up the difficulty level. Instead of being able to carry more than one item at a time, you can drag your mouse across the 'set up area.' For example, if you need strawberries put on two teacups, you click on the strawberry then drag it across both cups. The problem comes when you try to serve the tea. Alice still can't carry more than one thing at a time! So if you have three customers waiting for their order, you need to run back and forth to get it. Alice should be able to carry at least two teacups or baked items at once to make it easier on herself!

On top of that, there are three different types of cups, three different types of tea, and at least two different types of tea toppings. That doesn't even take the baked items into account! Adding all of these different combinations to Alice's lack of waitressing skills, the game is a little too difficult for its own good. Yes, the beginning levels are very easy, as they should be. It's when you get to the higher levels that you realize how messed up everything is.

Salads are delicious

I think I may have found my alternative to diet pills. Salad. Lots and lots of salad. I had this amazing salad from Saladworks for lunch today and I'm totally craving more of it. It was a caesar salad with chicken. Of course, not all salad is good for you. Too much creamy salad dressing is bad. It racks up the calories. I'm not a huge fan of 'lite' dressing. I usually have a little honey mustard. A little goes a long way! Instead of piling up on the dressing, pile up on the ultra-healthy toppings. Yum! And the best part about salad is that you can change up the toppings so it seems like you are eating something completely different every day. There aren't too many foods that let you do that!

Job skills for IT

My husband works in the Information Technology field. To be specific, he's a Network Administrator. I know he should update some of his skills and get some other certifications. I wonder if he should add learning some sort of project management software to the list. There's a lot of job listings asking people to know that sort of thing, but I'm not sure how useful it really is in the field. It sounds like something that would be more useful to someone who deals with a group of people on a project, where it's usually just him in his job. There is no one else in his department. So would it be helpful?

Winter cars

Considering all the ice and snow that the area has gotten recently, I was thinking about getting an insurance quote on an SUV. Though that would be more for the snow than the ice. After all, four wheel drive is nothing but four wheel slide on an icy road. But it would be a better drive if there's three feet of snow outside, right?

Movie review: Moon

Earth is now using helium-3, harvested from the moon, as a primary energy source. In order to harvest it, Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) is the only employee at the lunar base. His job is to rocket the fuel back to Earth, as well as keeping the machinery working. The computer's AI, GERTY (Kevin Spacey), is there to protect him no matter what.

Against my wishes, my husband rented Moon from one of the local Redboxes. I had no interest in watching a science fiction movie along the lines of 2001. Luckily, I was completely wrong about the film. While it is a drama (not usually my thing), it is eloquently executed. There is little sound and almost fewer characters. Yet this solitude is what makes the movie so emotionally moving. You feel bad for Sam and his predicament. (No, I won't tell you what it is. It's a big spoiler!) I'd almost like to see a sort-of sequel to it, but I think that would completely ruin the uniqueness of this one. This is a movie that I can definitely recommend to anyone.