Welcome

Welcome to my ever-evolving blog. It started out as a blog on Beachbody workouts and products, mainly when I was a Beachbody coach. I no longer coach, not because I don't believe in Beachbody's programs (I subscribe to Beachbody on Demand and use their workouts every day), I am just not a salesperson and hated that aspect of it. I am more than willing to answer questions about my experiences with their products and the various workouts, and I feel freer to do so without the appearance of giving a biased review of something.

I have also started adding reviews for various things I have purchased like movies, books, CDs, and other products. This was brought about by a fight with Amazon in which all of my reviews were removed over a completely bullshit allegation that I posted a review that violated their terms of service. After going back and forth with the morons in the community-reviews department (even after they admitted that my posts did not violate their guidelines) they restored my account (which took them six months to do), but I have been posting my reviews on my blog to have them preserved in case something like that happens again. And here, I will post uncensored reviews so I will swear from time to time and post reviews that may be longer than Amazon's character limit. Everything I post here on any topic or product is my personal opinion, and I take no compensation for any product reviews I post. I am a member of Amazon's vine program and because I get those products for free, I keep those reviews on Amazon only, but everything I have purchased with my own money, whether from Amazon or some other store/website/outlet, I will post here.  

I also plan to do some longer blog posts on various topics, such as how to learn physics, how to get through calculus, and longer reviews of workout programs as I do them. Basically, whatever strikes me as interesting at the time.  As you can see if you navigate around the blog, I had many years in between postings. During that time I was going back to school to get an engineering degree, and learning material that I avoided my first time through college was a different experience and one that gave me a lot of insight into how to do well in those classes, which I will try to impart here for those who are looking to get a science or engineering degree. 

Saturday, July 24, 2021

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

 


The Goblet of Fire is the fourth book in the Harry Potter franchise. It is, by far, the longest up to that point, and overall, the second-longest of the series. So, for those who have only seen the movies, the novel has a lot more content and has a much different pace than the movie adaptation. The main storyline that was removed to make the movie was Hermonie's quest to liberate the house elves that work in Hogwart's kitchen. Also, there is a lot more backstory about the death eaters and about the events revealed at the end of the movie. Also, as I said, the pacing of the events in the book is a lot different than the movie. In the book, there is a lot more time devoted to the quidditch world cup and a pretty hilarious beginning in which the Weasleys come to Privet Drive to fetch Harry. The selection of the champions does not start until about 1/3 of the way into the book, and the tournament takes place with months between the tasks. There are also some things from the book (like how Harry gets the Gillyweed) that are changed from the novels, and things that were dropped altogether from earlier films (like Hermonie's teeth) are resolved in this book. And, there are a lot more to Rita Seeker and Hagrid's story arcs in the book than were shown in the movie. 

The book is a lot darker than the previous three novels. Of course, Rowling wrote them with the intention that the kids reading the books would age with the characters, so this one is more suitable for those in the 13-14-year-old range than those who are 10 years old. While the book is long, about 750 pages, it still reads fairly quickly like the other novels do. If you have good reading comprehension skills and read fairly quickly, you should be able to get through it in a week, give or take, depending on how much time you have to devote to reading. If you can devote a couple of days to it without stopping, you can probably finish it in that amount of time. 

Overall, the book is very good, and while technically a kid's book, can be enjoyed by kids, teens, and adults. Even those who were adults when the books first were published. The themes about good vs. evil, friendship, loyalty, and heroism are timeless and certainly have wide appeal. If you have only seen the movie and love it, you will probably love the book too, and get a much fuller version of the story. It is definitely worth the read.

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