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. 

Sunday, January 7, 2024

Book Review: Navigators of Dune (Dune #6)

 


Navigators of Dune is the 6th book, chronologically, in the Dune franchise of novels written by Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert. It is the third book in the "Schools of Dune" trilogy, which is the second prequel trilogy (again chronologically) to the original Dune trilogy. This book, published in 2016, is set about 10,000 years before the events of the original Dune storyline. The book ties up some of the storylines that were started in the earlier novels and sets up the origins of storylines that will have consequences and/or be instrumental down the line such as the Sisterhood's breeding program, the Spacing Guild, and the human computers. And, of course, the Harkonen-Atreides feud continues to play out. 

The hardcover version of the book is just over 400 pages long. There are a lot of characters in the book, but thankfully, most of them carry over from the prior novels in the trilogy so it is not very hard to keep track of who is who. Like with the prior books, there are a few different main storylines. Two of them are interrelated and intertwine quite a bit, and the third is on its own. The book has a good balance of action and downtime (which is mostly used to set up the next action sequence). The book does a good job of continuing the backstory to bring the readers to the original Dune novels while still being suspenseful and entertaining. It is absolutely worth reading.



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