Fruit2O and Hint Waters

Recently I've discovered that I can actually stomach flavored water. It used to be that I couldn't take the feeling of water with flavor, but I've found these are enough to my taste that I can handle them. I'm not sure if it's that they're 'gentler' than whatever I'd tried before or if it's my palate changing, but it has happened.

• Hint Premium Essence Water

As you can probably guess from the picture I chose, I tried the watermelon version of this stuff. It was pretty good. It helped that watermelon is a light flavor, because the overwhelming flavor is what stops me when I'm drinking something thirstily and expecting something water (i.e. flavored waters). The hint was light and came across as...well...a hint of watermelon. Just as you'd kinda expect.

• Fruit2O

 
 Like the Hint, this was surprisingly nice and light flavoring, though it was definitely more intense. Again, though, this could relate to the flavor choices -- the Fruit2O I came across didn't have a watermelon flavor, so I can't do a direct comparison; the flavors I had instead were Strawberry, which is nice and light while having a sweet, strawberry punch to it, and Grape, which was slightly reminiscent of the just-too-sweet medicine grape, but not quite. It wasn't bad, though, just a little oddly sweet. (but then, I found the grape medicines among the most tolerable as a kid.)

Blueberry Muffin Poptarts

These Poptarts are, well, Poptarts. You get what you expect -- they're not the next gourmet treat. But, for what they are, they're quite good.

The poptart itself is cute, with white icing and blue and tan specks mimicking the idea of a blueberry muffin.It tasted and felt like a routine Poptart, with either the filling or the icing (likely the filling, for it seemed much less present than the latter) giving a hint of blueberry.

Once you've taken a bite or few, be sure to savor the flavor. It may not seem like that much at first, but I was able to get to a point where the blueberry and the poptart pastry flavors combined and gave a nice, Poptart-ized imitation of a muffin.

Pepperidge Farm Swirl Bread: Strawberry Banana

Considering I like the regular cinnamon version of this bread AND it was strawberry banana, I had to try it. It was quite good. There is still cinnamon in the bread, which is sliced thick and rather moist, mostly due to the swirls and bits of strawberry and banana in the bread. The strawberry banana felt rather subtle to me, sweet but balanced with the cinnamon. It really is like the regular bread only with strawberry and banana, so if you like both...chances are you'll like this.

Body Armor SuperDrink: Strawberry Banana Guava

I've been drooling over this bottle every time I pass. It's all pretty and pink with a nice macro of a ripe red strawberry, yellow bananas, and the adorable green-rimmed pink of what I'm assuming is guava (I should get myself one if they're really like that). Plus, I love anything strawberry banana, I think I mentioned that in a few posts; I remember specifically in my ramblings about Chobani Yogurt and Tropical Starburst.

It was very powerful on the strawberry banana - the combination hit hard. I don't know where the guava went, though, to be honest, I don't know if guava is a flavor I would recognize. The texture was nice. I thought it was going to be watery and odd because the drink is pretty transparent, but it felt more like I was drinking a thinned-out smoothie. Not an exceptionally watered down one, just one that had lost the edge to its thickness. It definitely felt more smoothie-like than I expected.

Dora3 Croissants with Cocoa Creme

Considering I got these for a few bucks because someone decided to shop while hungry, I wasn't expecting them to be AMAZING. They were actually pretty good, though. The cream was scanty, but it was good, and the pastry itself was enjoyable. They flavored it with lemon, though, as seems to be common in pastries and desserts everywhere. If you like lemon flavoring, then it should be fine.

Trident Layers Sweet Cherry and Island Lime

I've probably mentioned it a thousand times, I'm a sucker for the word "new." That, plus the sudden craving for gum I had, led to the purchase of a few packs, one of them being these.

I'm surprised. For all my hesitation about this flavor, being that one of my most common flavor preferences is "NOT citrus," I really like this gum. If the gum flavor actually is layered, that might explain why, because the cherry comes to counteract/balance out/fill out the lime. And, the lime flavor isn't TOO intense. You can definitely taste it, but at the same time, there's the sweetness of cherry so you're not overloaded.

In addition to that, I love the texture of this gum! It comes in a stick that's maybe half the size of your average "stick of gum," with a lot of the equivalence coming from how thick the stick is (because of the layers). Unlike some other gums I've had, this stays remarkably pliable for me for a while.

Starbucks Doubleshot Energy+Coffee Mocha and White Chocolate

Starbucks Doubleshots. Actually, these are Starbucks Doubleshots + Energy, officially -- rather than the smaller cans, which are listed as the pure 'Doubleshots', this is a mixture of coffee and an energy drink mixture, rather than what is touted as purely espresso and cream/flavoring. The flavor that I usually get is mocha, and the taste got some time to get used to -- I think because, in addition to the getting over the coffee in the mocha flavoring, there were the unexpected zings of an energy drink (other than these, I hadn't really partaken of energy drinks).

As for effectiveness, I had one in the morning and I'm jittery as anything. I take energy strangely, where I get foggy/sleepy before it kicks in, so during the hour or so I sipped this I felt a bit groggy. About half an hour later, though (this being about an hour and a half before typing this), I felt my mind start to race and my brain start to be on hyper mode. Typing this, I'm still jittery and hyper. I still feel my eyes wanting to sleep, my body's yawning, but it's not complete lethargy. It's like being tired but overly energetic at the same time. There may or may not be a crash in the near future, but as it is, I'm in a semi-productive state of mind -- that is, if I can get myself to concentrate.

Though, the effects I'm having are probably due to my body, personally. I'm guessing this affects different people differently. It can work as something of a boost for me, if I time drinking it right. If I'm already exhausted it'll keep me on a semi-awake plateau.

If you know what energy drinks do to you, it probably does something along that order. I can't really say much for sure.


Until recently, I'd only really had mocha whenever I had a doubleshot (which depending on my workload/schedule, varies from like once a month to once a week at least...it's been much towards the latter over the past two months). Maybe a month ago, I came across a non-coffee, non-vanilla, non-mocha variant of the drink that I'd not seen before: white chocolate. I was curious, so I tried it.

It could be that I'm used to mocha to the extent that the combination of coffee/energydrink and flavoring tastes odd with nythig else, but I have to say, I didn't really like it quite as much. There is a white chocolate flavor, but it's sort of tame, or light. I had to take a big sip to definitively taste it. The drink is definitely more 'mellow' feeling than the mocha. I don't know how to quite put it into words others will understand, but the adjectives "dark" and "deep" as compared to the mocha came to me. Kind of like it's more subdued, less sweet, less chocolatey. You get used to it as you drink, but at first I was a bit taken aback by the flavor, and not in a good way.

Chobani Yogurt

Being that I am, admittedly, prone to episodes of 'I should stop whining about what I don't like and do something,' I came across something somewhere that touted Greek yogurt as a good 'I need to get through this morning on something not ridiculously caloric' option. What the hell is Greek yogurt, I wondered. Not that didn't know of its existence; I'd seen it on the shelves, I just didn't know why the yogurt being Greek suddenly made it all that different. It had high protein, the article/yogurt cups said.

All they had to tell me was "it's twice as thick as normal yogurt. AND WE MEAN IT." The extra protein's a nice bonus for a carb-based lump like I am, but the real reason I fell for it was, when I finally went 'okay, I'll try it,' it was THICK.

(FYI: The only brand/type of Greek yogurt I can really go by is Chobani, so I'm going to use that as my example for now.)

It's actually to the point that the fruit-on-the-bottom types of the yogurt are thicker than plain, likely because they strain the yogurt just a little more to compensate for the liquid of the fruit that's...y'know...on the bottom. Chobani basically comes in Plain or fruit, with the Honey (and probably the Vanilla, too) being the exceptions. For its part, the Honey was a bit liquidy though -- like it was a fruit-on-the-bottom already mixed up for you, which I guess makes sense against dealing with honey-on-the-bottom.

For the fruit yogurts, I can't say I've tried all of them because (a) I haven't come across all of them and (b) some flavors, such as Lemon, I know on principle I probably will not enjoy, and I'm not paying for a three-dollar (where I get it) yogurt just to see if there's some manner of exception. As such, I can only go by the flavors I've had, which may only amount to three, actually.

Chobani has several  (about 20) flavors. Besides Plain and the aforementioned Vanilla and Honey flavors, they have a large assortment of fruit flavors that are either non-fat or low-fat (a distinction that I, personally, take little notice of, because 160 is only 10-20 calories more than the non-fat flavors, assuming we're not going for the 100 calorie plain. Also, this means MAX 160 calories, come on! For a pretty satisfying/healthyish breakfast, that sells the calorie counter in me.) The flavors range from Pineapple to Pomegranate, Raspberry to Apple Cinnamon (or so the website says, this one I have not seen). Black Cherry, Passionfruit, Pomegranate, Blood Orange, Peach...I just listed a large portion, but my point is, they have a LOT of different fruits.

There is also something listed on the website as Chobani Champions, a kids version of the yogurt. The four flavors are Orange-Vanilla (creamsicle, anyone?), VeryBerry, Vanilla Chocolate Chunk (fighting urge to underline CHOCOLATE) and Honey-Nana (honey + banana). These I've never seen, but the one with chocolate I definitely want to try. Do not joke with me about chocolate every meal of the day, I will take you up as serious.

I've spent long enough talking about the flavors -- if you're still on board, you're probably screaming okay, that's great, but HOW DOES IT TASTE?!

Like I said earlier, Greek yogurt is yogurt that's THICK. Granted, regular yogurt doesn't have to be uber-liquid (though it tends to be that way when heavily flavored, is what I'm guessing), but it usually has some manner of gloop to it - sort of like sour cream or mayonnaise, where it's not liquidy, per se, but it moves pretty easily. So far, besides the Plain yogurt I tried that had a reservoir of liquid on top of and inside the cracks of the yogurt, these have been pretty stable and thick. It's still soft and, well, yogurt, but it's got more resistance. I stress this so much because even the most delicious yogurts, after a while, become virtually inedible to me because I can't get over the liquidity.

Flavor-wise, the fruit on the bottom seems to be a puree of real fruit, almost like a little dollop of preserves was spread out on the bottom. If you mix the fruit, the viscosity goes down, of course (hence my aside about yogurts going uber-liquid), but even if you don't, you still get the fruit flavor. It seeps up from the fruit on the bottom, so it's lighter at the top, but even then if you're having, for instance, Strawberry, you'll get a nice light strawberry flavor that intensifies to the strawberries on the bottom. It's an effect I, personally, find quite nice.

Now, I would be doing a great injustice to this newfound breakfast love of mine if I didn't talk about the light-pink-colored cup. At first I thought it was Strawberry, yum. But then I saw the darker hue of the Strawberry packaging, so I looked closer, and saw this:

Strawberry. Banana. Greek. Yogurt.

Strawnana is hands-down one of my favorite flavors ever. Especially with fruit-flavored things (as opposed to eating actual fruits), seeing anything strawnana makes me really, really happy. This yogurt basically has the strawberry preserve-like-stuff on the bottom, only it's not clear, it's milkier-looking due to the pureed banana mixed in. Like the other fruit yogurts, this one has the gradient of strawberry-banana goodness if left unmixed. It gets a more level, intense flavor if you mix it, which probably also varies with how much yogurt you have left to mix, but the beauty of fruit on the bottom is you get to choose. (This is actually one thing I disliked a bit about the Honey flavor -- the honey was even throughout the yogurt so it overpowered the yogurt flavor in a strange way, or mixed with it in a ratio I wasn't quite sure I found enjoyable.)

I will be honest, one of my biggest motivations for writing this was to do a happy dance about the strawnana yogurt. Overall, though, I really like this stuff, even without that amazing icing to the yogurt cake! (...yogurt cake?)

Three Musketeers Coconut

At first glance, after you open the package, it looks like a normal 3 Musketeers bar. Same chocolatey outside, and, if you break it open, same lighter-chocolatey colored inside. The texture is the same, even -- still that fluffy stuff on the inside.

The only difference is, instead of a light chocolatey flavor, you get blasted with a light but strong sweetness of coconut. Its strong enough that there may be little to no chocolate in the filling, or so it would seem at first taste. This makes sense, though, since it's a chocolate coconut bar so the coconut has to contend not only with the chocolate in the filling (which seems to hint at its presence as you get accustomed to the earthy sweetness of the coconut) but the chocolate shell as well.

I, for one, like coconut, so this was really nice. Like eating shredded coconut with the texture of...well..a 3 Musketeers bar.

Starburst Tropical

Today I tried the Tropical Starburst for the first time in a very long time. Since I'm developing the habit of writing everything I think down somewhere, and since I have rambled on about Starburst in this blog before, I thought I may as well keep the tradition going.



Royal Berry Punch - At first, it felt a bit like I was eating a nicely sweet grape that tasted just a bit like not-grape. As I went on, I realized the reason it didn't taste like grape -- besides the fact that it wasn't supposed to -- was because I was tasting the unique character of whatever berry flavors were used, and just associated the juiciness with grapes.

Pina Colada - The coconut is very understated in this. Since Starburst are fruit chews, I suppose this makes sense, and the pineapple is pretty nice in its own right, but the almost earthy, 'dark' feel of the coconut -- maybe it's that I haven't had coconut in a while, but I found my tongue craving more of that than it got.

Mango Melon - I had a strange (but pleasant, don't get me wrong) thought of gari, the pickled ginger commonly found with sushi.  It's almost as though I found a sweet element from there in here -- either that, or it was the color of the chew, a light orange that reminds one of gari (though some of the latter can be more pinkish in hue). The tang of the mango had a tangy, sour twist -- the typical citrus -- that soured my enjoyment a bit. I expected this, though, not being a fan of citrus.

Strawberry Banana - This one was my favorite, by far and as expected. It's got that candy-sweet banana, like the little sugary Runts candies, and it has the sweet strawberry akin to those candies as well. At first it seemed the strawberry was there to completely dominate the banana with its berriness, but then the richness of the banana came through. Since I love strawberries, bananas, and strawberry banana things in general, I was not disappointed.

Starburst Sweet Fiesta

Because I need justification for candy. XD

Cherry Mango - I remember when I had my first of these, I was hard-pressed to figure out what made it different from how I remembered the normal cherry flavor being. Though it'd been a while, it had much the same taste -- the juice/darkness of cherry. Having a second one, though, I tasted a burst of mango-ish flavor in the juicy note, which then panned out to cherry.


Peach Guava - This is a strange one. It starts with a slight peachy burst and a flavor I find unfamiliar (guessing that'd be the guava) but quickly pans to something that tastes like a citrusy sour peach. I'm giving it a bad spin, but the peach was too much on the tangy/sour side, or the guava made it that way, I'm not sure.

Melon Berry - The smell of melon is apparent as soon as you open it. The berry tang is apparent once you bite down, but the melon and the berry don't mix too well. It's almost like eating a chewy watermelon Jolly Rancher -- that's what the melon part tastes like -- with a sour/bitter berry aftertaste. Watermelon Jolly Rancher is tolerable on its own, more or less, but the berry hurts more than helps it.

Strawberry Pineapple - I'm sure the pineapple gave a little boost/complement to the sweetness of the strawberry, but I didn't particularly notice it. This was definitely my favorite of the bunch, though. Unsurprising, since I'm a sucker for strawberry.

Fresh Mixers Creamy Tomato and Basil Penne

As a college student, backup plans for food -- cheap ones -- are always worth looking for. So, when I saw Healthy Choice's Creamy Tomato Basil Penne microwavable pasta, I decided to add it to my cache of Plan B food options.



I don't have to resort to Plan B too often, though, which might be the reason why I didn't really like this product when I finally tried it. I will admit, it was past the 'best by' date. Granted, only by about a month and a half, but still, that does give a plausible explanation for the taste.

The wheat pasta was fine -- I poured on all the sauce, so I didn't really taste it. The sauce, though, was nothing like I expected. By its color it was creamy and suggested tomato, and by texture I suppose it fit the bill as well. But I tasted no tomato. My mouth was overrun with basil (which isn't ENTIRELY a bad thing, I suppose) and the hot sting of pepper (which is not as pleasant as basil for me).

It wasn't inedible, I finished it, but my mouth still tingles from pepper several minutes later. This, for me, is not a particularly desired result.

If I remember it cost somewhere around five to seven dollars in the store I got it at (may have been Target or Wal-Mart). Given that price and how disappointed I was, I probably wouldn't run out and give it a second try using a freshly bought package. Although, for all I know, that makes all the difference.

Obligatory Yay Giants Post

YAY GIANTS!!! :D :D :D

New York team wins Super Bowl.

I am happy.

Yay. :D

Rangers vs Islanders and Flyers

1) Rangers and Islanders - Islanders did surprisingly well, their defense was intense. Rangers managed to keep the lead, though.
2) Rangers and Flyers - Lundqvist did amazingly with his saves. Considering the amount of shots made on goal...the fact that only two got in? Pretty darn good.

Super 8

Recently I was able to watch the movie Super 8, written and directed by J.J. Abrams. The movie was a good sci-fi flick, with cool effects and an altogether engaging story.

The movie starts with a backstory that serves to both (a) mention the main plot and (b) drive SEVERAL character relationships and subplots. The movie is about a train crash that occurs while a bunch of local kids (our stars) are filming a movie, and develops into a conspiracy-like mystery. It's almost like a dark Scooby Doo, though it touches on things much deeper than some guy in a suit who wants to keep kids off of his lawn.

The movie, the first central point of the plot, fades slowly into the background as the circumstances surrounding the train crash become more pressing, and the interplay of movie and said circumstances drive the exploration and evolution of many character relationships. In some cases, this works to be a sort of "Um, guys, the boat is on fire, stop kissing and making up and get moving," but it's never excessively drawn out like that. It's just that, in some instances, it seems a little out of place.

Contrary to the darker tone of the movie, the ending is surprisingly fairy tale-like -- and I'm saying that with the full knowledge that we are talking about science fiction. The ending made a viable, though improbable, resolution, tying everything up in a neat little bow that shouldn't be quiiiite possible when you're dealing with oh, I don't know, A FLAMING TRAIN CRASH. I can feebly try to justify the way it happened, but my attempted reasoning doesn't really have much power.

Overall, the movie wasn't bad, though.

Starburst Summer Fun Fruits

Every time I see a candy and the word "new," I seem to be drawn to it. XD Especially when it's relatively inexpensive.

So, when I saw Starburst's Summer Fun Fruits, I grabbed a package to try it. Overall, it was an average Starburst-ness for me, with two flavors I really liked, and two that I was meh on or just didn't like.

Kiwi Banana: I really, really liked this one. It was sweet and banana-y, but had a noticeable tang from the kiwi. Probably the one that made the biggest impact on me overall.

Strawberry Watermelon: It might be that I just don't remember how my favorite flavor (strawberry) tastes, but this one tasted a little like that -- it had that sweetness, but it was really gentle and had a freshness to it like watermelon. This flavor was also really good.

Cherry Splash: I still can't figure out what makes this flavor unique. To me, it just tasted like plain old cherry.

Lemon-Limeade: I didn't like this flavor for the sole reason that I don't like citrus flavored things, in general. For someone who does, though, I'm sure it tastes great.

Manchester United Got Pwned

Admittedly, I'm not a huge soccer fan (yet). As such, I don't have a clear way of the way the leagues are, particularly over in the UK. But, from what I've heard, Manchester United is the team to beat. Or it was. And, from what I know, or thought I knew, 6-1 is one hell of a point difference. So, since Manchester City beat Man U by five points...wow. Looks like both Manchester teams are doing well, from what it says here. (reading ESPN)

Freedom

This CGI anime was actually quite engaging, very well done and had an awesome story from the most-bits that I saw. Eden is a moon base (or complex of moon bases, I'm not entirely sure if it's just one or all of them together) that operates by rigorous rules, keeping the last of the humans in order and alive. Takeru, a teenager in Eden, breaks a few of the stringent rules, getting him assigned to community service on the lunar surface. It's then that something falls -- a photo of a beautiful girl, a paradise-like setting, and a message that Earth is well, is anyone out there? Driven largely by his instant infatuation with the girl in the picture and curiosity towards a planet thought to be dead, and aided by his friends, Takeru starts an adventure that may very well turn the order of Eden upside-down. I didn't see all of it, but I saw a good portion, I would say. The story has a very epic feel to it with lots of funny moments interspersed. I found it rather enjoyable.

The Galaxy Railways

*ahem* TRAINS IN SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE No, seriously. Trains in space. They go from steam engines on up, but they are literal trains. In space. With windows that open. From the cabins. Into space. INTO SPACE. WINDOWS. Anyway. I'm going to get hung up on that point again, so I better spit this out quick. Father is a captain of a train called Big One, in the SDF or Space Defense Force. Being a captain, he's always away, so his two sons, Mamoru and Manabu, decide to sneak to the restricted train platforms to see him off. They end up on the train in space, and conveniently this happens to be the time that shit gets real. Let's just leave it at "Yes, seriously, his sons watch as he detaches Big One's engine and suicides into the threat." Fast forward five years, the elder brother, Mamoru, enters the SDF. Spoiler alert, um, he dies too. So then it's Manabu's turn to leave his mother behind and join the SDF. And then on the way to wherever the SDF headquarters is (IN SPACE) they crash through a time rift because the train derails, likely because Manabu and what is likely the female lead don't know how to get past their prides and close a window. That is open. In their cabin. In space. And the time rift takes them back so that Manabu sees his brother die, AND the obento that was packed for Manabu gets left behind with said brother, so that he gets to die with a picture of his family by his side and a mouthful of his mother's home cooking. And that's about the first two episodes.

Jewel BEM Hunter Lime

At first, I was drawn to this anime because it was deep in the corner, in the "I have never even heard of this before" category. So, out of curiosity, I pulled it out. The story had to do with a magic user, Lime, who must recover seven magical jewels. Or something. With her partner Bass, a blue-skinned, three-eyed humanoid that has to hide in human form and has a perverted streak enviable of any anime character, the angel-winged Lime must transform into various outfits and go incognito to find and recover the jewels. Which turn into monsters that are absolutely freakin' adorable chibi object things. So basically, adorable chibi things + cute, buxom babe + perverted jokes everywhere. And Bass constantly falls/gets run over/etc. I lost count of the craters he made. And that was just episode 1. A good example of your run-of-the-mill over-the-top, fanservicey, quirky anime, at the very least. Unfortunately I only had access to a little of the animation so I can't honestly give a formed opinion on story...it's not epic or anything, but seems straightforward, at least. ...Did I mention fanservicey? I think I keep on understating that.

Power Stone

I have no idea if this was an anime originally or not; it had a more kidsy cartoonish look to it from the getgo. That, I could deal with. The peppy, young-oriented feel I could tolerate. Forced voice acting that made me grind my head against the wall? No way.

Last Writes

I just finished another Jaine Austen novel, the one that I believe is second if going chronologically, Last Writes. This one was hilarious - Jaine manages to get on as a guest writer on a sitcom, and finds out how un-glamorous Hollywood life can actually be. Of course, everyone is starstruck (and proposing their scripts), but the gossip train really fires up when a murder occurs on set.

This story was hilarious and emotionally charged, with Jaine investigating upon an earnest request. While she battles the rigors of television production and the demands of her cat, Prozac, the mystery unfolds in a way that is a surprise unless the reader has a good memory and/or reads the book in one sitting (most mysteries go like that, though, unless you take notes, which...you're going to find out, ANYWAY, so...) and has lots of logical explanations that makes the most common guesses (my most common) at least partially right. Fingers point everywhere until the story, at last, crests at the confession.

Cherry Cheesecake Murder

Hollywood comes to Lake Eden in this highly entertaining installment of Hannah Swensen's delicious detective work. (Er, snooping. She's not investigating officially, after all.) This book broke from the others I've seen in that it started with a prologue -- from the getgo, you know who the victim is. This leaves room for most of the book to focus on the relationships between characters and to establish possible motives while watching a small town relish in the limelight. Added to the mix, if Hannah's debacle between two suitors wasn't bad enough, an old friend appears on the scene and seems to somewhat sweep Hannah off her feet. The book is mostly relationships and happenings of a small town, gossip and little problems. This is fun to read, and gives the reader a lot to think about, especially with the murder victim already in mind.

I think this was my favorite one yet.

Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent

I recently played the game Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent. It's a computer/iThings game that is also available through the PlayStation Network, for those of you that don't own anything more Apple than...well...an apple, or don't feel like downloading games onto your computer, be it for preserving a dinosaur or paranoia (I don't blame you).

The story delves into the one-man Puzzle Agency sector of the FBI. The lone agent, Nelson Tethers, is called to rural, wintry Scoggins, Minnesota. The Scoggins eraser factory, supplier of the White House's erasers, has shut down after a mysterious incident, and it's up to Agent Tethers to solve the mystery and get a fresh supply of erasers before the President has to strike things out for lack of a better correction method.

As the premise probably suggests, the plot is rather amusing, with characters that personify a quirky little town in the middle of Where The Hell Am I. It's rather short, though, and leaves with only one question answered at the end after leaving another plotstring in blatantly untied view and hinting at several other "wait, WHAT?" points. It's perfect for a sequel, for which there already is -- Puzzle Agent 2 was released by Telltale Games was released at the end of June for computer/iThings.

Since it is a game primarily based on puzzles, and since it is a game, the gameplay, of course, is a serious factor. The puzzle games weren't impossible; I was able to blast through most of them, to be honest, though some took some good thought and there was one towards the end that I got REALLY stuck on (by this I mean "I spent two hours with sleep in between trying to get the damn pattern right"). So, they're not the hardest in the world, but they're good exercise for one's mind. There's a variety of puzzles, from straight out stare at the answers and use logic to a wee bit of math to turning panels in order to make a viable path to the goal. There were also a few jigsaw-style puzzles, where you had to arrange things in a certain way - i.e., at the very beginning of the game, you have to reconstruct a ripped up piece of paper to read a hidden message. Although these sound like they would be difficult, the game has a mechanism where the pieces snap together when they're in the right position, like an online jigsaw puzzle can. This makes it a lot easier, and there was one puzzle (right after the one I got stuck on) that I literally was able to do by dragging one piece around, randomly dropping and collecting until the entire thing was done. As such, these puzzles seemed kind of extraneous, but without that mechanism they would have seemed ridiculously hard.

All in all, the short time I spent on this game was really enjoyable. It tickled and engaged the mind all at the same time.

The PMS Murder

On a recent murder-mystery binge, I finished The PMS Murder, one of the Jaine Austen books by Laura Levine. Jaine's wise-cracking, food loving personality warmed up to me and cracked me up almost as soon as I started flipping the pages. The writing was as quirky and funny as I remembered from This Pen for Hire and the selection from Candy Cane Murder. I thoroughly enjoyed weaving my way through the Los Angeles mystery of a murder at a very high-scale home -- one at which Jaine herself happens to be at when the death occurs. Interactions with Lance, her nosy next-door neighbor, and the other personalities in her fellow murder attendees/suspects are entertaining and Jaine's sharp wit keeps things interesting and moving. Plus, watching her job as a freelance writer pan out alongside the story is quite amusing.