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, January 14, 2023

Product Review: Rocketbook Smart Reusable Notebook - Dot-Grid Eco-Friendly Notebook with 1 Pilot Frixion Pen & 1 Microfiber Cloth Included

 


This is a reusable, paperless notebook. The idea behind it is good, but I do think that with the advent of E-Ink tablets, in a few years, this will end up going the way of the mini-disc which gave the best of cassette tapes and CDs, but was ultimately rendered irrelevant when electronic recorders, mp3 players, and ultimately smartphones were invented. The idea behind Rocketbook is to provide a notebook that can be written on with special pens or markers (basically the Pilot Frixion line of pens and markers, or things similar to those) that can be washed off the pages. At the bottom of each page is an icon that corresponds to a delivery method so you take your notes, and then put an x over the icon that corresponds to how you want the notes to be delivered. The options are to save them to the Rocketbook app, send them to Dropbox, send them via email, etc. When you take a picture of the pages in the Rocketbook App, the notes are sent as a PDF file to whatever delivery method you choose. Then you can take a damp cloth and wipe the pages clean.

There are a couple of things to keep in mind. First, the pages are made from a specially coated material, and while it is similar to the feel of writing on paper, it is not exactly the same. Second, you can only write on the pages with erasable ink pens/markers, which run out of ink very quickly. If you accidentally write on it with a regular pen, then the ink will not come off and the page (or the part you write on) is essentially ruined. And because the pens run out of ink much faster than regular pens, if you are using this for something like taking school notes, then you are going to be spending a lot of money on refills for the pens. Finally, even when you do use the correct pens, the coating on the pages does degrade over time, so the ink does not erase as well after you have used it. Also, the pages have grid dots as opposed to lines, so it is kind of hard to write in a straight line like most people try to when taking notes.

This is the first generation of the notebook so some of those issues may have been resolved in subsequent upgrades, but if you get this one, keep that in mind. Ultimately, I would look into getting a digital E-ink writer that has templates and allows you to do everything this can do, plus a lot more. But, if you are looking for a less expensive way to go paperless, at least for the short term, this does work. 

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