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, September 15, 2022

Book Review: Midnight Sun

 


Chances are, most people are aware of the story told in the Twilight series, either through reading the books, seeing the movies, or both. This is basically a remastered version of the original novel, told from the perspective of Edward instead of Bella. It tells the same overall story but gives insights into things that were not shown or told in the original book because everything was told from Bella's point of view and what she was experiencing. So, we get much more interaction between Edward and the other members of the Cullen family and see how he was trying to deal with his feelings for her, and hers for him.

Certainly, some of the issues with the original books still remain. This is largely a young adult love story and so can get sappy and schlocky in parts. The author's writing does get panned quite a bit, which is mostly unfair. No, she is not Shakespeare, but she does not try to be or even pretend to be. She is telling a contemporary (at least as of the early 2000s) teenage love story set in a world of vampires. Yes, some of the choices she makes, like the vampires sparkling in direct sunlight as opposed to being burned to a crisp and dying are kind of silly, but I think that was because she was trying to do something unique.

Overall, whether you loved, hated, or were lukewarm to the original novel you will probably feel the same way about this. It is not likely to change your mind either way. The novel is basically to set up the larger story and develop the characters (although it does tell its own self-contained storyline as well). It will be interesting to see if she does the same thing with the other novels, but overall I think this allowed for more of the story to be fleshed out and was able to focus on different characters than the original novel did.

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