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, January 26, 2023

Book Review: Flight 93: The Story, the Aftermath, and the Legacy of American Courage on 9/11

 


This is a book that was written around the ten-year anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks that is almost exclusively devoted to what happened on Flight 93 (which was the plane that crashed in rural Pennsylvania after the passengers and crew fought back), and the aftermath for the families and the nation as a whole. The author does detail some of the other events of the day, mostly the likely sequence of events that resulted in the other planes being hijacked and what targets they hit, but the focus of this book is mostly on Flight 93. 

The author interviewed many of the family members of the people on board the flight as well as the people who saw, heard, and/or felt the plane crash, and the responders (mostly the local coroner who became a rock for the families as he was trying to find and then identify remains) in his research. Even if you have watched many of the 9/11 documentaries and/or read the other books (even those devoted to Flight 93, specifically) there is probably material in this book that you have not heard. Both about the people on the plane (why they were traveling, etc.) and about the hijacker's movements before 9/11. There is also a lot of detail on the family member's fight to hear the cockpit voice recorder tape, and all the back-and-forth that they had to do with the FBI in order to be able to listen to it. The book is fairly short, just under 300 pages, and provides a lot of information, including endnotes that mostly cite to sources of information, but also occasionally provide additional detail. There are most definitely very sad parts, especially when he quotes family members, and especially those who got to talk to their loved ones before the fight for control of the plane began. It is definitely worth reading.

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