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. 

Friday, September 27, 2024

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Shameless Season 3

 


The 12-episode third season of Shameless aired in the winter and spring of 2013. It sees the first relatively significant shakeup in the cast, with Laura Slade Wiggins going from a series regular to a recurring character after being kicked out by Shelia at the end of season two. She returns in the second half of the season, and her storyline is pretty much wrapped up (at least for the foreseeable future) by the end of the season. Fiona and Jimmy continue their complicated relationship, with Jimmy pondering a return to medical school, which would require him to return to school in Michigan. Further complicating their relationship is Jimmy's "marriage" to Estefania. Toward the end of the season, karma comes back to bite Frank for his general horribleness (which takes a couple of very dark turns this season), and the season ends on somewhat of a cliffhanger concerning him.

The Blu-ray set is a two-disc set, with the episodes and the extras spread over the two discs. The extras include deleted scenes and several behind-the-scenes featurettes ranging from about 8 minutes to about 15 minutes. All in all, there are about an hour's worth of extras. Overall, the show continues to be well-written and acted. The writers do a good job of balancing the large ensemble cast and continuing to develop the characters. The acting is again top-notch, and even though there are very few truly good characters, none of them are all bad either, and both the writers and actors do a great job giving the audience something to care about, even in the worst characters. While the show is definitely not for everyone, if you liked or loved the first two seasons, you will very likely feel the same about season three.

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