Italy is a good test case:

The new populist government of Italy is the best western government I've ever seen.  Its agenda: deport illegals, give the poor a basic income, and treat Russia fairly.

Why couldn't we have that?  But oh well, Trump is doing his best.  The point is Italy will be testing out my policy proscriptions for the very first time.  If Italy thrives afterwards, then everything I've been saying is proven right.

With the addition of 746 more songs since January 1st, my music hall of fame has reached an interesting threshold.  I have so much good music to randomly shuffle between that on average I should only hear any particular song once a month.  If a song is any good at all, I imagine it would be pretty difficult to get tired of hearing it once a month.

My collection is big enough to last a lifetime without ever growing dull.  That's exactly what I was aiming for, and I think I've reached it.  That doesn't mean I'm no longer interested in any additional music, new good music is always welcome, but it does mean the need is far less pressing than it was before.

I might have added more new good songs to my music hall of fame this year than last year.  Though last year saw the original creation of the playlist with thousands of songs, most of them were old tunes I'd known about and been listening to for a long time before already.  So many of the songs I've been hearing this time around are from video games I'd never even played, so every song was completely new to me.  Getting to know so many new friends is a pretty unique thrill.

There aren't enough additional video game soundtracks by great composers laying around untested that I can ever replicate a year like this one.  Inazuma 11 was pretty much the end of the rope.  But I don't need another year like this one.  Once a month is a long enough interlude to keep things fresh as is.

One thing's for sure, Hatsukoi 1/1 doesn't have any new good music.  I beat my first route in the game, Runa's, which unlocked all the songs that played during the route, and none of them were any good.  For some reason the soundtrack insists on relying on the piano alone.  The piano alone is no match for a good orchestra or rock band, so I have no idea why they decided on such a restrictive diet.  No matter how good a composer you were there's no way you could accomplish anything under those conditions.

I'll continue listening to my infinitely superior hall of fame music while playing with Hatsukoi's music turned off, thank you very much.

Runa's gorgeous, cute, and devoted.  But I can't imagine actually enjoying her company in real life.  Her hobbies are eating and shopping.  One is bad for my health and the other is bad for my wallet.  No thanks.

Runa also lies too often.  People should be able to lie in self defense, when they feel that telling the truth would lead to unwarranted hostility and reprisals against them, but lying to the people who genuinely care for you and want what's best for you just leads to endless mistakes and misunderstandings.  If she had just been honest from the start then all the bad things that happened down this route never would have happened.