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. 

Saturday, July 30, 2022

Book Review: Fall and Rise The Story of 9/11

 


Fall and Rise started as a newspaper article telling the stories of a couple of people's experiences during the terrorist attacks on 9/11 and eventually evolved into a full book. The book is told in basically three sections. The first focuses on the planes, telling the stories of the various passengers (with brief biographies of some and why they were traveling) as well as detailing the movements of the hijackers to the point where the planes take off. The book gives the most detailed account that I have seen (from what can be pieced together) of what happened during each of the flights without going into speculation about things that are not definitively known.

The second portion of the book details what happened inside each of the buildings after the planes hit, including stories of people heroically helping each other inside the Pentagon, which is often given short shrift when compared to those of people in the Twin Towers. Again, the author tells the stories of people who made it out and those of people who did not, piecing together as much information as he could about where various people were and the actions they took.

The third section of the book is about the aftermath, basically how people tried to put their lives back together after everything was over. This section discussed how people healed, or did not, moved on with their lives, or did not, and the overall impact the events of that day had on them.

The book is long, about 460 pages of the main text, but it is very hard to put down and can be read pretty quickly. Then there are a couple of appendices, one that lists the names of all the people known to have died in the attacks as well as the location of their names on the reflecting pools at the memorial, and one that lists a timeline of the major events of the day. Then, there are about 50 pages of endnotes listing the various sources of information and adding additional detail. The book gives a lot of information, including some that I have not heard before, even after watching many of the documentaries and reading many of the books about 9/11. It really focuses on the human story and the toll that it took on the people who lived through that day and the family members of those who did not. It is very well-written and evokes a lot of emotion. It is definitely worth reading.



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