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 1, 2022

Book Review: Star Wars: The High Republic: Midnight Horizon

 


This novel is set at the same time as The Fallen Star, which chronicles a major attack by the Nihil (the main group of antagonist pirates during the High Republic era), and tells of a parallel attack by the Nihil on the planet of Corellia. It includes some characters that have been introduced in the other novels such as the padawans Ram and Reath and includes the species of worm-like creatures that were introduced in Solo: A Star Wars Story. This is the first of the High Republic novels to do something with Yoda beyond mentioning his name and helps to set up what is sure to be the next major battle between the Jedi and the Nihil.

The book is just under 500 pages long and was, at least for me, a slog to read until the last handful of chapters in Parts Four and Five. That is when the action really picks up and the readers find out what the Nihil are really up to. The first 2/3 of the book is basically exposition and set up, which could have easily been condensed. An annoying point is that the author, likely trying to appeal to a younger audience, makes the vast majority of the characters sound like Earth teenagers. So, some of the dialogue is just eye-roll-inducing, which has not been the case with the other High Republic novels, even some of the junior and young-adult novels. So, ultimately, if you only read some, but not all, of the novels, I would not put this one in the must-read category.

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