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. 

Monday, September 20, 2021

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

 


This is the sixth book in the Harry Potter series of novels. It really advances the story forward, not only revealing details of Voldemort's past but also finally revealing his weakness and, what Harry needs to do to defeat him. It also mixes in the "normal" school trials and tribulations like relationships, exams, and the like. The title of the book is based on an annotated potions book that Harry finds with notes by someone called "The Half-Blood Prince" that suddenly allows Harry to excel in potions, impressing the new potions professor, Horace Slughorn, a former Hogwarts professor who has a history with Voldemort when he was known as Tom Riddle.

As has been the case with most of the books, it contains a lot more material than was seen in the movie. There is a lot more to the Malfoy storyline, which in the book incorporates both Kreacher and Dobby, as well as having a lot more elements than was seen in the movie. It also develops the relationship between Ginny and Harry a lot more than the movie did. And, there is more to Harry and Dumbledore working together than we saw in the movie. It, like the prior two novels, was certainly long enough (at 650 or so pages) to be split into two movies, so if you have only seen the movie you will likely enjoy the book even more. 

As I said above, the book is long, but it flows well and makes for a fairly quick read. It continues to get darker in terms of the storylines and there are more characters in danger this year as the confrontation between Harry and Voldemort gets closer. It is definitely too dark for little kids but should be okay for most teenagers (as the books were written to become more adult as kids reading them aged). And, they are definitely good enough that adults can enjoy them too.

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