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. 

Thursday, June 2, 2022

Textbook Review: Karel The Robot: A Gentle Introduction to the Art of Programming

 


This is a book that will most likely be used in an introductory programming class. It is really an introduction to the method of problem-solving that programmers face and how to solve those problems without getting bogged down with complicated programming code. Basically, this involves writing simple code to move a robot around a screen, avoid walls, and pick up, or put down beepers, which are something like location beacons. You essentially program the robot to move around the world, avoiding walls, going into rooms, etc., and either placing beepers or picking up beepers. The instructions are written in computer code which tells the robot how to move when to pick up a beeper, and where to put a beeper down.

The book is a very good introduction to programming and computer science as a whole. The material in it is nowhere near as complex as what you will be exposed to if you decide to take classes beyond an intro class, but if you learn this it will give you a good idea of whether you want to continue on learning more complicated material.

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