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. 

Tuesday, December 21, 2021

Book Review: Star Wars: Secrets of the Sith

 


Secrets of the Sith is not really a novel. It is a cross between a journal/handbook written from the perspective of Palpatine after the events of The Last Jedi, but before the events of The Rise of Skywalker, and a picture book. In it, Palpatine basically lays out the history of the Sith, referencing Darth Bane, and his master Darth Plageius. He describes how he corrupted Anakin and turned him to Vader, and his plans for Rey. He also made it clear that his "son" who eventually became Rey's father was more a son in the Bobba Fett to Jango Fett sense than a real son.

The book is a very quick read. Even if you read slowly you can get through it in an hour or two (at the most). It has a lot of pictures, including the first canon look at Darth Plageius (although you really don't see much of him aside from his glowing eyes behind a hood). Of course, the Darth Plageius novel, which was really more about Palpatine's rise to power than it was about Darth Plageius was relegated (mostly) to legends status when Disney took over. I say mostly because the Tarkin novel by the same author, which was grandfathered into the canon novel set referred to events that occurred in the Darth Plageius novel, which bootstrapped some of that material into the canon.

Overall, I would not call this a must-have book. It is almost more of a coffee table or display book than it is something you would ever read more than once. It does have a pull-out poster, so if you are an ultra die-hard Star Wars fan, it will give you something to hang on the wall. But, it does not go much beyond what you learn from the movies, aside from clarifying or fleshing out a couple of points that you may have missed watching the movies.

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