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. 

Monday, October 23, 2023

Book Review: The Art of Star Wars: The High Republic – Volume 1

 


The Art of Star Wars is a book that is what I would call a coffee table book. It is a mix of artwork/pictures and text. The text talks about how the concept of the High Republic era (which is set a few hundred years before the events of Episode I) came to be, how various characters and creatures were conceived, etc. The pictures range from very rough sketches (almost scribbles in some cases) to the final artwork that appeared on the covers of the various novels and in the graphic novels. The text is written from interviews with the artists/illustrators and the authors of the various High Republic era novels as well as bigwigs at Lucasfilm. It also includes some concept art from the movies and TV series as well.

The hardcover version of the book is just under 230 pages. You can read it from cover to cover, but chances are a lot of people will skim it and mainly focus on the pictures. Either way, it is something that most people can get through in a few hours, or a day at most. It is also a good way for those people who do not get the graphic novels to see some of the characters who are described in the books but are not on the covers (or are not easily identifiable on the covers). It is probably not something that will appeal to casual Star Wars fans, but for the more "die-hard" fans, it is worth checking out.

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