When it comes to South Florida, Asian flavors are lacking. This is probably due to location as it is literally as far away from East and South Asia as you can go. Ghee ( https://www.gheemiami.com/ ) is a bright spot in what is otherwise a desert for quality indian food.

The atmosphere is very trendy with somewhat loud jazzy music. The arrangements are very interesting and inviting with a wall of ingredients that surround a dark warm interior.  There is plenty of parking, which is validated, and plenty of outdoor seating. It was a very warm day when I visited so I decided to sit inside. There is a bar area where individuals can opt to sit which was full of older women when I went on a weeknight.

The staff was not up to the quality that I have been used to, although the waiter was excellent, the host and greeting staff seemed flat which was heartbreaking however I will chalk it up to being an off day. The waiter was superb in his recommendations to keep you away from all the same flavor profiles and allow you to sample a variety. It is obvious that there is a lack of sophisticated knowledge of nuanced asian flavors in south florida and the wait staff is well prepared to get you on the right track, if needed. The menu changes roughly monthly and there is a "this menu was printed on this date" at the bottom, which I appreciate and am excited about. What is really nice is that menu items are labelled if they are gluten free, vegetarian, vegan, or halal. Of course, non of these affect me as I have no dietary restrictions but I have plenty of friends who fret over this when they go out for food. What is even nicer is that the spice and ingredients are grown fresh from the family's farm in Homestead.

The menu includes a chef's tasting menu which also changes. I will definitely try this next time I go.

For my meal I had the Duck Confit Samosa with cranberry chutney and short rib dosa to start off. One of my favorite indian foods is samosa and I found this sort of ok but to my surprise the short rib dosa was extremely good.

Fabledom developed by Grenna Games released with early access yesterday on Steam for only $15.  It is a city builder game with a cartoonish bent set in a land of fairytales. You can pick to be a prince or a princess to govern a small. Throughout the game, you will have random events that add a little fairy tale flavor that ranges from additional quests that involve giving away some of your resources to enduring spells from evil witches. Keep in mind, the game is still unfinished but offers a bit of playthrough and I spent a solid 8 hours on it. It has a very relaxing feel to it that is similar to cities skylines and as you grow your settlement, you can annex neighboring aras.

You start out with 4 peasants and have a series of tutorial quests that involve building livnig quarters (homsteads), farms and workshops (laborers huts). These are used by the populace to live. Lumber camps and stone camps employ the populace and are used to gather resources which can be turned into buildings or higher tier resources.

The game has seasonal and weather cycles which add a nice twist to the game. Crops take time to grow and there are boom and busts cycles of resource gathering which must be taken advantage of in spring and summer so that you may last through the winter. It's a nice refreshing take on a well established genre.

The set up screen has a random seed generator that is well appreciated in this style of game where you are dependant on map resources.

The game has diplomacy as well as combat however the combat system does not appear to be implemented yet, and the diplomacy focuses mainly on fairytale romance at the moment. However the backbone of the game is in place for what appears to be a rich environment for NPC interaction.

Star Trek Picard Season 3 episode 9, “Vox,” does not disappoint in this penultimate episode. If you are a Next Generation fan and to be honest most people watching this show is from the older generation trying to experience some nostalgia. And nostalgia does this episode bring, with the return of the sinister Borg as the monster behind the red door and their ultimate plans to assimilate humanity during Frontier day.

I enjoyed the explanation of Jack Crusher’s power as well as tying it back with the Irumodic syndrome that Jean Luc Picard was supposedly diagnosed with and mentioned in season 1. As it turns out this is part of long reaching sinister plan all along and we can still see Jean Luc still wrestling with his mental struggle and anguish of having been assimilated. Worse yet, is the toll it takes on his “family” and specifically his son, even if Beverly is more in the background this episode. The biological DNA insertion explanation is a fun scientific explanation as part of the grand plan to assimilate mankind as a whole through whoever happens to be using the transporter. The age limit, dependent on when the brain stops developing around age 25, adds a little twist to create a boomer vs gen-z vibe where the target audience (the boomers) is essentially fighting the gen-z crowd. It it probably unclear if this is the intended interpretation from the authors, but it is a nice little twist.

The show wraps up with a cliff hanger as the borg is set to invade and overthrow Earth.

What am I playing these days?

Some friends and I are playing Path of Exile Crucible league after a long hiatus, at least 3 leagues. We are playing ice spear/freezing pulse, toxic rain ballista and ballista witch. On day 3 we made it into maps, but work beckons and hence we are not going as hard as some of the more intense players. It was a smooth game launch and the only kinks I've noticed so far are some "Bad Gateway 503" errors when trying to access the trade page. The Crucible mechanic itself seems vastly overtuned and I'm expecting it to be nerfed at some point.

The crucible mechanic itself adds a tree to an item of affixes which can branch randomly. Criticisms so far is that this is mostly a league for crafters as the strategy currently seems to run the crucible on base items which can later by enchanced through crafting (or sold to crafters) if the random branching is fruitful. Either way, there will be some interesting items this league, for sure.

Warning! Spoilers!

Picard season 3 episode 8 “Surrender” has aired and it does not disappoint. Now, admittedly, I’ve enjoyed all three seasons of Picard despite others having some negative views. Perhaps it is the nostalgia that I enjoy, or perhaps I just like older style sci-fi. Regardless, I’m grateful and glad this show was made as I’ve felt there has been a dearth of good new sci-fi shows since the pandemic. Let’s get to the episode...

Vadic, now fully in control of the USS Titan-A spends most of the episode showcasing her skills as a sadistic menace terrorizing the captive crew while taking away any working ship systems. She even takes it to a new level with crew executions, all for the purpose of obtaining Jack Crusher which has been the target since the beginning of the season.

Riker and Deanna make an escape from Captain Vadic’s ship, the Shrike, to make it back onto the USS Titan-A for a very heartfelt reunion. The crew reunited, easily overcome Captain Vadic and they strategize their next moves just hours before the reunion where all of star fleet and their ships will assemble. The show ends on a cliff hanger as Troi and Jack prepare to open the door that has been haunting his dreams the whole season.

Reminescent of the good old days...