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 8, 2023

Book Review: Total Power (Mitch Rapp Series #19)

 


Total Power is the 19th book in the prolific Mitch Rapp series of novels. It was published in 2019 and is the sixth book in the series written (in whole or in part) by Kyle Mills, who took over the series after the death of its creator, Vince Flynn.

In this novel, Mills mostly resets the storyline. He does reference some of the events of the prior novels, but that is mostly done tangentially. The plot of this book is the takedown of the United States' electrical grid and a plot by the book's main antagonist, to keep the grid offline for a year, sending the US into the dark ages and killing millions of people. In a note at the beginning of the book Mills calls the subject matter (and his research of it) scary, and like Flynn did in the book Transfer of Power, he left details on exactly how such an attack could be pulled off intentionally vague. As someone who had to study how power systems work in school, and did a senior project on faults in a power system, I definitely agree with his assessment of how scary an attack on our power grid could be. 

The book is about 370 pages long and reads fairly quickly. It has a very similar style and tone as the previous books in the series, especially those written by Mills, and can easily be read in a few days. The book mixes the action with plot advancement and even introduces a couple of new characters who could have larger roles in the subsequent books. It is definitely worth reading for fans of the series and/or the genre.

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