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, December 27, 2021

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts I and II

 




This is mostly a good story, but it introduces a huge continuity problem with the original novels and movies. I cannot say what it is without spoiling it, but if they were ever to make this into a movie, there would definitely have to be some kind of explanation given to make the reveal at the end make sense. The story is set 19-23 years after the events of the Deathly Hallows. The first "scene" is actually a version of what we see at the very end of Deathly Hallows Part II where Harry and Albus discuss what happens if Albus is sorted into Slytherin. Then, the next few years pass by within a handful of pages and the main portion of the story plays out from there. I will not give too much away, but it involves Albus and Draco Malfoy's son messing with time and then trying to undo the mess they make. 

To be clear, the book is not a novel. It is the script of the play. So, it definitely does not read like any of the other books, It does not have chapters, but does have the act and scene breaks, which makes it a bit easier to read sometimes at least when it comes to the length of the breaks. If you are a person like me who will always try to get to the end of the chapter before stopping reading, when you have very long chapters, it can be a bear to get to the end of the chapter (especially at night). Here, the scenes tend to be shorter (sometimes a page or two) so if you are getting tired, you get a lot more potential stopping points.

Overall, I think the story is a good one (aside from the continuity issue) that mixes the original characters with the newer characters very well. All of the main characters (Hermoine, Harry, and Ron) are in the book and even some of the more ancillary characters (like Neville) do show up even if for a very short time. I like that it gives some closure to Harry and Draco's relationship (more than we ever got at the end of Deathly Hallows), which for me, was one of the best things about the book. It is certainly not what I would call a perfect story, but with a few tweaks, it could be made better and easily adapted into a new movie (if the cast were up for doing another one). 

No comments: