Here you will find things about fitness and nutrition, mainly (but not exclusively) in relation to the Beachbody programs like P90x and Insanity. And, I will start adding reviews for Books, DVDs and Blu-Rays, and other products. All views and opinions on this blog are my own.
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, April 28, 2024
Book Review: Star Wars: The Living Force
Tuesday, April 2, 2024
Book Review: Star Wars: The High Republic: Defy the Storm
Tuesday, March 12, 2024
Book Review: Star Wars: Escape from Valo
Sunday, February 25, 2024
Book Review: Star Wars: The Eye of Darkness
Monday, January 22, 2024
Book Review: Star Wars: Dawn of Rebellion: The Visual Guide
Monday, January 8, 2024
Book Review: Star Wars: The High Republic Character Encyclopedia
Tuesday, December 19, 2023
Book Review: Star Wars: Crimson Climb
Monday, November 13, 2023
Book Review: Star Wars: Tales from the Death Star
Saturday, November 4, 2023
Book Review: Star Wars: The High Republic: Tales of Light and Life
Sunday, October 29, 2023
Book Review: Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View: Return of the Jedi
Wednesday, October 25, 2023
Book Review: Star Wars: Starlight Stories
Monday, October 23, 2023
Book Review: The Art of Star Wars: The High Republic – Volume 1
Saturday, August 12, 2023
Book Review: Star Wars: Lords of the Sith
The book also focuses on the beginnings of what would become the Rebellion, set around the planet Ryleth and Twi'lek freedom fighters led by Cham Syndulla who was a character in the Clone Wars television series. The organization who have a local imperial in their pocket learns that Vader and the Emperor are going to be coming to the planet with the Senator for the planet. They see an opportunity to take out the head of the empire and the local Moff and hatch a plot to bring down their Star Destroyer. I will not spoil the rest of the plot although everyone knows that Vader and the Emperor survive, but the story of how is really well done and suspenseful.
To me, the best part of the story is the focus on Vader and the Emperor's relationship, and what we get of Vader's state of mind. He has lost everything he loves, and is fueled by rage, and does not care for anyone besides his master, whom he is already considering overthrowing. We learn that he is still haunted by the memories of his past life as Anakin, and uses those to enable his anger and make himself more powerful. We also get a reminder of just how powerful Palpatine is when he wants to be and a sequence where he and Vader take out an entire colony of predatory insect-like creatures native to the planet. It does a lot to set up the characters we eventually see in the original trilogy.
While I do not think the book is perfect, I think it is well done for what it was. I would have liked it to be a novel that gave more post-prequel trilogy check-in on all the major characters. Even just cameos for Obi-Wan, Yoda, and Bail Organa raising Leia would have been a nice touch. Those novels may, of course, come down the line, but given what the focus of this book was, it was done well. I would definitely recommend it to get more of the canon storyline.
Book Review: Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith Novelization
Ultimately the story is how Palpatine/Sidious has been manipulating events from the beginning, using the Clone Wars to turn the republic into an empire, with him at the helm. There is a great scene between Palpatine and Dooku, just before the rescue, that really crystallizes that whole theme. The first third of the book, in fact, tells the events of the rescue, while also reintroducing the Anakin and Obi-Wan characters and how they became heroes during the Clone Wars. Of course, everything sets up for Sidious turning Anakin, which is done in a much slower manner in the novel than it was in the movie, which made it much more believable and made Anakin seem much less like an easily duped rube, which is what he ended up looking like in the movie where he was basically turned in two or three scenes. By telling the story of the Palpatine-Anakin friendship that evolved during the Clone Wars, it made things much more believable. Another aspect I really liked was the author almost splitting Palpatine and Sidious into two separate entities, with Sidious being an all-powerful shadow that could defeat any Jedi.
The book, while longer (about 420 pages) reads relatively fast. It is pretty easy to finish in a couple days if you are a fast reader and how many breaks you take. Even if you were not a huge fan of the movie, it is still worth reading if you are a fan of the novels, as it is one of the better ones both in the canon and expanded universe sets.
Book Review: Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace Novelization
I do think the political subterfuge story works much better in the book than it did in the movie. The author was able to cover it enough without going into a ton of detail and focused more on the various character relationships. The book gives more detail on the Qui Gon-Obi Wan relationship than the movie did, and even though Jar Jar was still annoying in the novel, he did seem to be at least a bit less useless than he was in the movie (although not much). Darth Maul was still very underutilized in the book as he was in the movie, with his only real significant appearance being the battle at the end (which was altered a bit from the version that was shown in the movie).
Ultimately your feelings toward the book will largely depend on what you thought of the movie. If you loved the movie, you will likely love the book. If you hated the movie, while you may not hate the book as much, it is not so different that you are likely to love the book. And if you are somewhere in between, then you will find good and bad in the story. It is a fairly quick read and can easily be finished in a day or two if you are a fairly fast reader.
Book Review: Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones Novelization
Certainly, some of the issues with the movie are still present in the book. Anakin still comes off at times as just a whiny, bratty teenager. The author even gives him a line in the book that he is not whining when he clearly was. Given that much of what people disliked about the movie is that Lucas wrote Anakin as a whiny brat, it was a pretty funny line. There is also a lot more detail about the separatist movement, and how the Sith are manipulating everything behind the scenes, as well as more detail about Jango and Boba Fett. The only thing it does not really do is flesh out how Sidious ended up taking on Dooku as an apprentice.
Ultimately it does what a good novelization should. It tells the story from the movie but is also made it's own by adding detail that the movie could not because of time restraints. If you hated the movie outright, then chances are you are not going to like the book. If you liked or even were lukewarm to the movie, chances are you will like the book as well, maybe even a bit more than the movie. It is certainly not perfect, given that the source material it was created from was not (in my opinion anyway), but it is enjoyable nonetheless. And, It is a fairly easy read, especially if you are a fast reader.
Wednesday, July 19, 2023
Book Review: Star Wars - Inquisitor: Rise of the Red Blade
Wednesday, July 5, 2023
Book Review: Star Wars: Visions - Ronin
Monday, June 26, 2023
Book Review: Star Wars: Padawan
Tuesday, June 20, 2023
Book Review: Star Wars: Path of Vengeance
Path of Vengeance is the latest book in the early High-Republic era novels. It is a follow-up to the novels Path of Deceit and Battle of Jedha. This book brings back the characters of Marda and Yarna Ro (one of whom is likely the mother of the leader of the Nihil, who are the main antagonists of the later High-Republic era) who are essentially on opposite sides of a civil war in the Path of the Open Hand.
In this book, the Path retreats to the planet Dalna. The Mother throws The Herald under the bus for the violence on Jedha and dispatches a team to Planet X to get more Leveler eggs so that she can have an army of Levelers to fight the Jedi. The Jedi track down the Path just as the team returns with the eggs, and another battle ensues.
The book is one of the longer young-adult novels. It is just over 500 pages, but it is a fairly easy read and the story flows very well. I am a fast reader and got through it in about five hours. The book brings a conclusion to the novels that were set before it and provides a good reset point from which to bridge the two eras of the High Republic. The only real issue I have with the early High-Republic novels is that it presents a bit of a continuity issue as the Leveler is unleashed by the Nihil on the Jedi in the novels set during the later High-Republic era, and the Jedi do not seem to have any idea what is attacking and killing them. Yet, the Jedi in this era absolutely know about the creature, and so Yoda and Yaddle should know what it is in the later books. That said, the story in this book is still very good and it is definitely one of the canon novels that you should read if you only read some, but not all, of the novels.