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. 

Friday, May 6, 2022

Book/Study Aid Review: Student Solutions Manual for Blanchard/Devaney/Hall's Differential Equations, 4th


This is actually one of the better solution manuals I used when I was taking math. It is light on explanation, but that is really what the book is for. The book was not the best written and did not always make for the easiest read, but between the book and class lecture, I could figure it out. This has the solutions to the odd-numbered problems from the book. One of the reviews complains that it does not have the solutions to the even problems, but every student solution manual has just the odd problems worked out. Only the instructor's solution manuals have all the problems worked out, and those are very hard to track down (obviously). Generally, if you can work the odd problems you can figure out how to do the even problems.

What makes this better than some of the other solution manuals is that it has solutions for the vast majority, if not all, of the odd problems. I have used other student solution manuals that only have some of the odd problems worked out, and that is a pain. And, of the problems that I used this to check my work (my instructor assigned some problems from the book and made up others of his own), I did not notice any errors, so the editors did a good job. So, overall, it was a good investment.

 



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