The Amos Professional Active Green Tea Shampoo claims to be an anti-aging shampoo that contains green tea leaf extract and green tea root extract. It is a scalp-first salon-grade shampoo that helps support stronger and fuller-looking hair.

Now, I wasn’t completely happy with the shampoo I was using at the time. I live less than a 5-minute drive from our nearest Costco, but we’re in a predominantly white neighborhood, so our Costco doesn’t carry too many Asian products. I checked online, and sure enough, our local Costco didn’t carry this shampoo. But Costco did carry it online, and it was on sale for ~$30 for a two-pack.

I immediately placed an order, and it arrived in a few days. And you guys. You guys.

First, the texture of the shampoo. It’s has a thick, almost-bouncy gel. It foams up very nicely so you don’t need to use too much product.

Then there’s the fragrance. The scent of this shampoo is simply divine. It makes you feel like you’re in a luxury spa as you’re washing your hair. I used to get custom-made shampoo from Prose ages ago and you could choose your own scent (that was supposed to have this effect), but this has to be my favorite scent of all the shampoos I’ve ever used in my life. It’s clean, fresh, and not too overpowering.

But nevermind the texture and fragrance. How does the shampoo perform? Well, I’m happy to report that the Amos Professional Active Green Tea Shampoo delivers on its claims. My hair feels clean and voluminous after each wash. My scalp feels refreshed, and my roots get less oily. Additionally, I feel like I’m shedding less hair.

If you order from Costco, you get two 16.9 fl.oz. bottles for $43.99. (But they often go on sale, as I’ve checked back frequently.) You can also order one 16.9 fl.oz. bottle from Amazon for $29.99. Obviously, you get a better deal with Costco. And these bottles are huge — I’m still only halfway through my first bottle, and I got them 2 months ago!

So go ahead. If you’re looking for a new shampoo, please give this one a try. Now I’m curious about the other products in the Amos Professional line too.

Where to buy:
Costco — $43.99 for two bottles
Amazon — $29.99 for one bottle

For example, when you select one of my all-time favorite books, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, you are met with a description of the journey, the characters involved, and a map of the journey in the background. According to this, there are six journeys (six characters) occurring concurrently over a distance of about 17,000 miles spanning 6 months.

When you click on “Start the journey,” an animation begins playing, starting at Chapter 1 and the charater(s)’s location(s) at that point. You can speed up or slow down the animation as well as add sound effects. You may also choose to fast-forward or go back. You will also see that the locations on the map is marked by “a real place” or “a best guess.”

When you click on “Explore the map,” you are met with a list of the locations on the journey. This is what you get when you click on Vienna:

As you can see, Vienna is marked as a “Real Place.” Here’s what you get when you click on “the Count’s castle, above the Borgo Pass”:

You can see that the Count’s Castle is marked as a “Best Guess.”

According to the creator of PlotLines, every quotation on the map has been checked against the Project Gutenberg text and every period image is public domain and confirmed to actually be the place.

You can read more about how PlotLines came to be here, where the author also includes a journal of the process. He even made a page on How It’s Made for those who are curious about the technical aspects.

Be sure to check out PlotLines — even if you’re not too interested in maps, it’s a great way to revisit some of your favorite classics in a new format!

Via FlowingData.

Early last month, I came across this Instagram reel by Gothamista and I was immediately intrigued. A milky toner that not only hydrates but brightens and exfoliates? I immediately looked it up online.

The Eadem Cashmere Peel Milky Exfoliant & Hydrating Essence is a “milky skin-transforming exfoliant that combines the power of acids with the comfort of hydration to refine pores, smooth texture, and boost radiance.” It is formulated with gentler exfoliators of lactic acid, azelaic acid, tranexamic, and gluconolactone. Rice water and colloidal oatmeal help soothe and nourish the skin, while panthenol helps the skin retain moisture.

Because it is an exfoliant, Eadem recommends that you start by using it 2-3 times a week. I unfortunately did not take this advice and my skin went through a purging period for a couple of weeks. But now, my skin is softer and smoother than it’s been in ages. I used to get comedones regularly on my forehead but I haven’t since I started using this product. The best part? It’s replaced like 2-3 products/steps in my nighttime routine!

The Eadem Cashmere Peel Milky Exfoliant & Hydrating Essence retails for $42 (or $18 for the mini) and you can get it at Sephora or the Eadem website. I have been using it every night since I bought my bottle and you can bet I will buy another bottle when I run out!

It’s no secret that the U.S. does not have the best sunscreens, and the reason for that is that the FDA classifies sun protection as an over-the-counter drug. This requires each sunscreen filter to go through extensive safety and efficacy testing before approval, which takes a lot of time and money. (Money that is usually sponsored by pharmaceutical companies, which they are reluctant to fork over.) As a result, much of the sunscreen we have here in the U.S. is usually thick, greasy, and/or leaves a white cast.

Other countries in Europe and Asia treat sunscreens as cosmetics, which has led them to develop effective and cosmetically elegant sunscreen filters that have been used safely for decades.

As such, many people in the know have been ordering sunscreens from Asia and Europe. Some even shopped on Amazon, but then fakes started flooding the market.

With the popularity of K-beauty came the popularity of Korean sunscreens too. Some of these Korean brands were aware that their Korean sunscreens were not U.S. FDA-compliant and could not legally be sold as sunscreens in the U.S. They wanted to continue to capitalize on the popularity of K-beauty and Korean sunscreens, so they decided to release U.S. versions of their sunscreens with FDA-approved filters. These were not always successful. Consumers were smart, and they could immediately tell the difference. Most continued to prefer the Korean versions and continued to purchase from Korean/Asian retailers.

Well, Consumer Reports recently decided to pit three Korean sunscreens against their U.S. counterparts to see which performed better. The sunscreens were from popular brands: Beauty of Joseon, Innisfree, and Round Lab.

Interestingly, they did not find much of a difference in the sensory feel of the sunscreens. “You often hear that Korean sunscreens are so lightweight and absorb so quickly that it’s like wearing nothing at all….but none stood out as being super lightweight or having a barely-there feel.” Then again, the three Korean sunscreens they tested were glowy, moisturizing formulas.

But as you can clearly see from the chart, the Korean sunscreens vastly outperformed the U.S. versions. I don’t know if this test means that the newer Korean UV filters are better at sun protection, or that these companies did a poor job formulating the U.S. versions of their sunscreens. What do you think?

Enter builder CYM-Create_Your_Mind.

CYM-Create_Your_Mind has recreated Gustav Klimt’s famed masterpiece, ‘The Kiss,’ in LEGO form and I have to say that I am impressed. It spans 44 by 44 stud compartments, deliberately planned as a perfect square to honor the artist’s preference for square canvases.

Klimt is famous for his gold paintings and ‘The Kiss’ is no exception. This LEGO translation uses pearl gold pieces across the entire background to mimic the effect of gold leaf.

Curves and faces are especially tricky in LEGO, but CYM-Create_Your_Mind has somehow managed to creatively use the medium while staying faithful to the inspiration. The man’s robe and the woman’s dress are also masterfully executed. There’s even a detachable minifigure of Klimt sitting in a chair beside the piece with a copy of Klimt’s actual signature on the tile parts.

As of this writing, there are currently 1,782 supporters for this LEGO Ideas project, with mine being one of those votes. It needs 10,000 supporters for it to be considered to become an actual set. Please go vote for it! This is the first LEGO Art design I’ve truly been excited about and I would love to own it one day!

Via Yanko Design.

Well, a new browser extension called Knockoff aims to solve that. Available on both Chrome and Firefox, it works by cross-referencing Amazon items against a list of 5,000 established brands. Pseudo-brands, such as those with unpronounceable names and vanishing vowels, are flagged.

Depending on the settings you select, the pseudo-brands are dimmed (as you can see from my screenshot above) or removed altogether from your Amazon search results. You can even hide those annoying sponsored listings and set an allowlist and a blocklist.

The “Relaxed” filter removes only the worst offenders and items on your blocklist, while the “Standard” filter also catches suspicious names and unbranded listings. If you choose “Strict,” you’ll see only what’s on your allowlist.

This plugin is FREE and open-source. It runs locally on your device, doesn’t require a login, and doesn’t track anything. It’s about as good as it gets.

I want to add that not all pseudo-brands are bad. The reason I used a screenshot of a search for women’s shorts is because I recently purchased a pair of shorts from Amazon and it was from a pseudo-brand. And I love them. They’re comfortable, they’re good quality, and they look good. I love them so much I got them in another color. But I did dig through a lot of other pseudo-brands before finding, and deciding on them, and having this extension would have made searching a lot easier.

Again, the browser extension name is Knockoff, and you can download it here.

(I am aware there has existed the concept of “ethical basketball” particularly in the past few years in the era of flopping and sports betting. For the purposes of this blog post, we will solely be focusing on injuries — both on the team and on the opponent’s team — when it comes to “ethical” championships.)

Samora has analyzed the playoffs runs of every champion team since 2001 and recorded which players missed games due to injuries. He also estimated the impact each injured player had on the team. He created simple chart composed of the heads of players (with the size of the head proportional to how much a player added to team wins):

As you can see from a cursory glance, the 2018 Warriors had a lot of injuries in their favor. But according to the findings, Samora concludes that the 2015 Warriors (not pictures in the chart above) were the least ethical champions of this century.

You may be surprised to see the 2025 Thunder as the most ethical champions, according to the chart above. Yes, they may not always play ethical basketball. But according to Samora, they had the most ethical championship run when it comes to their player and opponent injuries. (Click on over to the post for a more detailed analysis.) I was also happy to see that my 2026 Knicks were up there:

Samora states:

Hot-off-the-press champions, the 2026 Knicks, had a historically ethical run. They almost had a near-perfect healthy opposition, missing a single game from Joel Embiid. On the flip side, they played two games without OG Anunoby, and one without Mitchell Robinson.

For the full analysis, be sure to click on over to the article. Do I agree with this analysis, or at least this approach to analyzing “ethical” basketball? Not entirely, no. Remember that the Knicks were also battling the refs who were doing their very best to extend the Finals series. But then again, I am horribly biased.  

It’s been 53 years since New York won a championship. It’s been 27 years since we were in the Finals. (Coincidentally, we were playing against the Spurs then too. And then, the Spurs won games 1, 2, 4, and 5….and the Knicks won exactly the same games this year.) There have been so many years of heartbreak and pain, of broken dreams and mismanagement.

I had high hopes at the start of this season. After all, we had made it to the Eastern Conference Finals last year. And I had greater expectations after the trade deadline. (Leon Rose is a mastermind!). Did I expect the Knicks to make it to the Finals? I did. Did I expect the Knicks to win it all? To be honest, I was hesitant about that. The West is so strong and the NBA/refs love SGA and Wemby. But I saw a glimmer of hope when the Spurs won the Western Conference because we match up better against them and we had already beaten them in the NBA Cup.

What I didn’t expect was the generational run that my boys had in the Playoffs leading up to the Finals. After being down 1-2 against the Hawks in the first round (losing both games by 1 point each), they suddenly started playing like they were on a mission. And they did not lose. THEY WON THIRTEEN STRAIGHT PLAYOFF GAMES.. They swept the Sixers and the Cavaliers.

Two of those games were the first two games of the Finals, in enemy territory.

The Finals were nerve-wracking. The Spurs had double-digit leads in each of the games we won, only for us to come back in the fourth quarter. Game 4 was the legendary 29-point comeback game, the largest comeback in the history of the NBA Finals, where we won by 1 point thank to the “Hand of OG.” The Knicks seemed intent on giving us heart attacks this series, but they sure delivered.

And I am so, so proud of them.

How can you not love this team? The humble, hard-working captain. The Hart of the city. The stoic, two-way competitor. The big man who steps up. The one who shows he’s worth those picks. And our bench! We have gone from a non-performing bench to one of the deepest benches in the league.

I purposely didn’t write about the Knicks during their playoffs run or during the Finals because I was afraid to jinx them. J bought me a new Knicks shirt which arrived in time for Game 4 and I wore it for their miracle game. I declared it was good luck and washed it yesterday morning so that I could wear it that night for Game 5…only to immediately regret it. What if I washed away all the luck? I also brought out my Jalen Bruson Funko Pop because he had a tremendous game when I first acquired it, and I was hoping he would have another big game for Game 5 because he hadn’t had one all series.

It turns out I hadn’t washed away the luck. And Brunson did have a colossal game, scoring 45 points.

 

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All of New York is celebrating. People who don’t even watch basketball are elated. The vibes are immaculate. (Isn’t it hilarious how the only game that the Knicks lost is the one that Trump attended? As they said, “My mayor is Muslim, my bagels are Jewish, Trump killed the vibes, Knicks in five.” ) Mamdani declared that the victory parade will be held on Thursday.

We’ve been through seasons where the Knicks won only 17 games. We just witnessed them win 16 in a playoff run.

I cried when the Knicks lost the Finals in ’99. I cried again when they won it all in 2026.

Sure, Wemby may be a one-in-a-generation freakish alien phenom whom some consider to be the best player in the world, but the Knicks have two centers that match up well against him. And they proved it on Game 1 by beating the Spurs by 10 points on their home turf.

Will the Knicks win the chip this year? I don’t know. I sure hope so. I’m not making any predictions for fear that I may jinx them — and despite having won Game 1, they’re still considered the underdogs in this fight. And I like it that way.

All I know is that if they win the championship, all of New York will be annihilated. We haven’t won an NBA championship in 53 years. We have been through decades of pain and misery. But we stayed loyal. As Mike Breen said,

Even in the years when the Knicks were terrible, there would’ve been a game in April, and the team has been out of Playoff contention for two months, and if it’s a one-point game with two minutes to go, the Garden would’ve sounded like it’s Game 7 of the Finals.

We deserve this win. We need this win. Please, Brunson and Co., make it happen!

Now, on to the post!

Ahead of the commencement of the NBA Finals, Elmo posted that he hopes “both teams have fun.”

Unfortunately for Elmo, he’s from New York.  

Well, New Yorkers (and Knicks fans) weren’t having it. They immediately flooded the replies, questioning his loyalty when the city’s first NBA Finals appearance in 27 years is on the line.

Some of the replies are plain brutal. They are so New York, wouldn’t you say? (Yes, I’m aware that we probably have the most hated fandom in the NBA.) All of them are hilarious. Enjoy!

Edited to add: even the NYC Dept. of Transportation got involved!

Confession: I’m a huge Supernatural fan. I’m not as obsessed as to attend conventions and write fanfics, but I have watched the entire series (all 15 seasons) at least 5 times and I admit a shed a tear or two when the last strains of “Carry On Wayward Son” faded away.

I was tickled pink when Supernatural gave a shout-out to Jeffrey Dean Morgan (who plays Dean & Sam’s dad and was at the time playing Negan on The Walking Dead) by including Lucille the bat in a scene in season 12 where Dean exclaims, “Man! Dad loved this thing.”  

I was delighted to learn that Supernatural produced not one but three married/engaged couples in real life.

So you know I was ecstatic to learn that Jensen Ackles would be joined by Jared Padalecki and Misha Collins on the fifth and final season of The Boys. I mean, how could they not with Eric Kripke having developed and produced the show?

Well, if you too watch The Boys and is a fan of Supernatural, you’re in for a treat. Amazon Prime has released a “Supernatural cut” of the scene where Soldier Boy, Mr. Marathon, and Malchemical (the characters they play on The Boys) meet.

Not saving people, not hunting things, but the family business continues. pic.twitter.com/zHbj2SSFTG

— Prime Video (@PrimeVideo) May 8, 2026

As you can see from the video, they meet as Dean, Sam, and Castiel, not Soldier Boy, Mr. Marathon, and Malchemical. They mention “not taking Chuck’s name in vain” and raise the concern that the government might ban Busty Asian Beauties. Dean even says, “I feel like I should call dad,” which is even more hilarious taking in the fact that Jeffrey Dean Morgan plays a character in The Boys universe.

If you’ve watched the corresponding scene in The Boys, the Supernatural cut mirrors that scene with just enough Supernatural references thrown in to keep it faithful to the essence of the scene.

The Boys finished its five-season run with a bang. The last season was a bit on-the-nose for me because of the current state of our nation, but even Eric Kripke has said these are accidental predictions, because real-life events are becoming quite unbelievable. Still, it was a satisfying ending for me and I quite enjoyed the show.