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. 

Sunday, July 11, 2021

Book Review: Star Wars - Poe Dameron: Freefall

 


Freefall tells the story of the early years of Poe Dameron as he was growing up and learning to be a pilot on his homeworld, Yavin 4.  Which was, of course, the moon where the rebels had their base in Episode IV. It is set sometime after Return of the Jedi, but the book does not really make clear how long after.  It basically plays on the storyline from The Rise Of Skywalker when Poe revealed he used to be a spice runner. The book details how he met Zorri Bliss (the character played by Kerri Russel in The Rise of Skywalker), and got mixed up with the spice runners. The book also details some of Zorri's background, and we find out the source of the tension between the two of them when her character was introduced in the movie. 

While this is a young-adult novel, it is long enough and written well enough that an adult can enjoy it too. The author does a good job staying true to the character that we see in the movies but also writing the character in such a way that he is not exactly as developed as he would be years later when he is introduced in The Force Awakens. It is not a difficult read, having a pretty simple story and only a handful of new characters, so it is pretty easy to follow. So, if you are a person who reads quickly it will probably take you a few days, give or take, depending on how much time you have to devote to reading, to get through it. It took me seven days to finish reading it for about half an hour before bed each night, then a couple of hours on a Saturday morning to finish it. 

Overall, it is a good story that provides some depth to the character of Poe, giving insight into who he was as a young adult. It also set up the possibility of other novels featuring Poe and/or Zorri in the future as there is still a lot of time between when this novel ends and when we meet the characters in the movies. If you collect all the canon novels then you will probably get this one automatically, but if you pick and choose which books to read, this one is definitely worth your time.

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