Book Review: Siege: T**** Under Fire

 

Siege is the follow up to Michael Wolff's first book about the t**** administration, Fire and Fury, which chronicled the first year of t****'s "presidency". This book is based on interviews with (and has direct quotes from) people in his inner circle (mostly Steve Bannon) about events that occurred during the second year of the administration up to the release of the Mueller Report.

Since Wolff is not a journalist, he does not really feel the need to stick to the journalistic norms of presenting the facts and not interjecting his personal opinion into things. Wolff makes it clear that he thinks t****p is batshit crazy and deeply stupid, and that most of the people around him feel that way too. And, he has no qualms about putting gossip in the book (such as that t***p allegedly said that Nikki Hailey gave him a blowjob) that no mainstream media outlet or traditional journalist would touch with a ten-foot pole.  He does give what he claims are exact quotes from his sources, although most (aside from Bannon) are unnamed. It does seem that Wolff got a lot more information from people than others who wrote books about t***p during its time in office because it is not just a rehash of news stories with a few details filled in that some of the other books out there give you. 

The book is what I would call an intermediate length, about 315 pages, and a fairly quick read. If you are a fast reader and have a lot of time to read it, then you can easily finish it in a day or two. If you are someone, who like me, tends to read for a bit before bed, then it can be finished in about 10-15 days (again depending on how fast you read and/or how much time you devote to reading each night). T***p cult members and Q nutjobs (which are basically a circle on a Venn Diagram) will hate it and call it fake news, but anyone with a brain who saw t***p for what it was, will probably enjoy it immensely.

Workout Update: Power-90 Master's Series Day 35

 Day 35 was the UML (upper-middle-lower) workout again. Overall, I like the workout. It is relatively short and it has some unique moves that you do not see in p90x. Pretty much every move can be modified to your current skill level, and some of them are very challenging, especially some of the "middle"/core exercises.

DVD Review: Cosmos: Possible Worlds

 

"Possible Worlds" is a great end to the Cosmos trilogy of documentaries which started with the original series, hosted by Carl Sagan in 1980, then brought back by Seth McFarlane (the creator of Family Guy) and Sagan's widow, Ann Druyan, and hosted by Niel DeGrasse Tyson. This is a follow-up (really a season two) to the rebooted series "Cosmos: A Spacetime Oddesy" which aired on Fox in 2014. This series aired in 2020, first on The National Geographic Channel, and then on Fox. The release got delayed when Tyson was hit with a bunch of sexual harassment allegations on the heels of the "me too" movement. 

The series kept the same style and tone as the first season, using animations to tell most of the story in the particular episode. Each episode had its own theme/topic, and then various scientists from throughout history would be highlighted or spotlighted in the episodes. The topics were very wide-ranging, from evolution to the Cassini spacecraft that was crashed into Saturn, to climate change. This time, there was not a climate change "specific" episode, it was discussed within the larger topic of human-caused extinction events (or things we have done that have threatened life on Earth). It also touched on the possibility of life on other planets, how humans may one day travel to other solar systems, and the like. 

One thing I like is that in this season, the cosmic calendar was explained a lot better than it was in the first season. I still think in episode 1 they could have done a bit better giving the entire scale. Meaning the entire year is about 14.5 billion years, one month is about 1.2 billion years, 1 week is about 300 million years, 1 day is about 40 million years, 1 hour is about 2 million years, and 1 second is about 440 years. Then repeat that at least once an episode. If you watch every episode and pay attention, the entire scale is given, but not all at one time. I know when season 1 aired people were confused when Tyson would say that something happened on September 15th at 10 PM, or something like that, that he literally meant that an event occurred on September 15th instead of it meaning that it happened about 120 million years ago.

If you want to get the series on DVD, it has only been released internationally. I can only find it as a region 4 (Australia) release. It definitely has not been released in the US, and it does not look like it was released in the UK either. So, if you want the DVD, you will have to hunt for it a bit (I got a copy on eBay for a decent price, and it does look like it is available on Amazon from time to time), and probably pay a bit more because of the fact that it has to be sent from Australia or New Zealand. And, you need a region-free DVD or Blu-Ray player to watch it. There are no extras on the DVD, just the episodes spread across three discs, and there are no captions. 

Overall, the series is very good. While in the very politically charged environment we live in, people will probably see the show as having a political agenda, but it certainly does not. It merely presents scientific facts as we know them today, and makes clear that those facts may change as we learn more. Also, while the science discussed is heavily slanted toward astronomy and physics, it also touches on the other sciences like chemistry, biology, geology, and the like, and explains how they are all interconnected. Plus, there are a couple of very nice tributes/nods to Carl Sagan and his life. It is definitely worth watching even for people with a casual interest in science, and for someone who is a fan of astronomy and/or physics, I would call it a must-watch. 

Workout Update: Power-90 Master's Series Day 34

 Day 34 was sculpt 5-6. This workout went really well. I was able to hit 11 reps on a few moves (so the weight will go up for the next workout) and I generally felt stronger during this one than I have the past couple of times I did the workout. 

Workout Update: Power-90 Master's Series Day 33

 Day 33 was cardio 5-6 and ab-ripper 200. This workout went very well. I am getting to the point where I can get through the workout without modifying any moves (almost). I still do have to go a bit slower than the people in the video, but I am getting better. Ab-ripper 200 is getting easier for me, although it is not easy. I am definitely glad that I stuck with it (even though I generally hate ab routines) so when I do get to p90x in a few weeks, I can keep up better with the ab-ripper x routine.

Workout Update: Power-90 Master's Series Day 32

 Day 32 was the modified T25 stretch workout again. I can tell that my flexibility is continuing to improve, slowly but surely. My balance is still shaky on the moves where you cradle your leg and then do the cross-legged one-legged squat move. Those are really the two hardest moves for me to do. 

Workout Update: Power-90 Master's Series Day 31

 Day 31 was the first sculpt 5-6 workout after the recovery week. It was nice to be back to lifting weights and finding that I had not lost any strength with the week off. I managed to hit either the same rep count as I was hitting the last workout, or go up a couple of reps for some exercises. I still would say that I do not like this workout better than any of the P90X resistance workouts, but, if you are looking for a decent total-body workout, it is a good option.

Workout Update: Power-90 Master's Series Day 30

 Day 30 was the cardio intervals and ab-ripper 200. Even though the cardio intervals workout is a bit longer, I mostly like it as a cardio workout. It is easily adaptable to your fitness level and Tony encourages modification as you need it. I was able to do all 200 reps in ab-ripper pausing a couple of times, but that was it. Overall, a good workout.

Workout Update: Power-90 Master's Series Day 29

 Day 29 was the upper-middle-lower workout again. The second time through was a bit easier than the first time I did the workout. Some of the pushup moves are challenging but nothing horrible difficult. The workout does flow very well and does not seem "too long" at all. 

DVD Review: Designated Survivor The Complete Series

 

Designated Survivor was a show about a HUD Secretary named Tom Kirkman, played by Kiefer Sutherland in his first major role since leaving Jack Bauer behind and deciding not to continue returning to 24. He is named the Designated Survivor (the one cabinet member that does not attend the State of the Union) and becomes President when a terrorist attack wipes out the entire government (almost) on an attack on the Capitol during the State of the Union address. It aired for two seasons on ABC before it was canceled and picked up by Netflix for a third and ultimately, final season.

The first season of the show was great, intertwining two storylines. The first was trying to figure out who was behind the attack on the Capitol. The second storyline involved Kirkman figuring out how to be President, and trying to rebuild the government, and figuring out how to run the country with the majority of the government gone. The two storylines largely remained parallel to each other, only intersecting at certain times. Maggie Q, arguably the second lead of the series, played FBI agent Hannah Wells, who was the lead agent trying to figure out the conspiracy. The White House Staff included Adan Canto (playing the Chief of Staff Aaron Shore), Italia Ricci (playing Advisor Emily Rhodes), LaMonica Garret, (who played lead Secret Service Agent Mike Ritter), and Kal Penn (who played Press Secretary Seth Wright). Penn was also a consultant on the show and provided knowledge of his time working in the White House during the Obama Administration.  The rest of the cast was rounded out by character actors including Natascha McElhone as the first lady, McKenna Grace and Tanner Buchanan as Kirkman's son and daughter, Malik Yoba as FBI Deputy Director Jason Atwood, Reed Diamond as the FBI's version of the head of Internal Affairs, and Virginia Madsen as Congresswoman Virginal Hookstraten, who was the Republican Designated Survivor.

Season two jumped ahead in time one year and focused more on Kirkman trying to govern. The conspiracy from season one was wrapped up very early into season two (which I think was a mistake) and the show tried to shoehorn another conspiracy into the show that I do not think the fans were nearly as invested in. There was some cast turnover in season two (mainly additions to the cast). Paul Costanzo was brought in to play Lyor Boone, a political strategist, Zoe McLellan was added to play White House Counsel Kendra Daynes, and Breckin Meyer was added to play Tom's Brother, Trey.  Michael J. Fox also had a recurring role toward the end of the season, and Kiefer's fellow 24 alumn Kim Raver had a recurring role throughout the season. 

The third season involved another time jump. The focus of this season was the campaign and Kirkman trying to get re-elected. He is also dealing with the fallout of one of the major storylines from season two. There was a lot of cast turnover in this season both with characters leaving and the additions of Anthony Edwards (in his first major role since ER) as Chief of Staff Mars Harper and Julie White as Lorraine Zimmer, the Campaign Manager for Kirkman's election campaign. They also came up with yet another major conspiracy which somewhat bordered on the ridiculous, and was in some ways a bit prophetic given the covid outbreak. And, they definitely made good use of the ability to swear on Netflix as there were a lot of f-bombs dropped. 

For those who get the complete series DVD set, there are 15 discs overall. 6 for seasons one and two and 3 for season three. The packaging is horrible. Instead of giving each disc its own holder, you have to stack discs on top of each other, and they definitely come loose during shipping.  So, you may end up with some scratched discs so you definitely want to play them before the return window closes from wherever you buy them. As some may know, season one got a US DVD release and season two got an international DVD release. Season three had bootleg releases, but no official release until this one. Season one had all the same extras (behind-the-scenes material) as the US release. In the version of season two I had, only had an interview with Paul Constanzo which was not included in this set, but there were some other behind-the-scenes features that were not included on the set I already owned. For season three, there are no extras, just the episodes. There are English and French captions for each season, and the DVD menus are in English and French. 

Overall, I would say the series was good. Season 1 was outstanding, but the show went down in quality each successive season. I think the show would have been much better served to drag out the season one conspiracy longer (at least until the end of season two) instead of revealing it all by the end of season one. I think that made the show suffer from what a lot of shows that were tied up in a mystery faced when the mystery is solved. Namely, where to go from there. The writers definitely used events from the current political climate in the series (although there was no direct mention of t***p, you can tell that the show was in part a commentary on the state of the country under his "leadership"). I think the show was mostly well-written, and always well-acted. While it could not maintain season one's quality throughout, I think it is still worth checking out.

Workout Update: Power-90 Master's Series Day 28

 Day 28 was a stretch or rest day, so I did the T25 stretch video again. I can definitely tell that my flexibility, while not good, is improving over the course of time, especially when doing two stretch workouts per week. I still modify this one to focus more on hamstrings, but otherwise stick to what they are doing.

Workout Update: Power-90 Master's Series Day 27

 Day 27 was the last day of the "recovery week" which was sweat 5-6 and ab-ripper 200. I still really like this workout and like that it has some moves that are totally original and are not repeats from the base power-90 workouts or in p90x. The pace is very good, and like any of the other workouts can be made as challenging as you want, depending on your fitness level. 

Workout Update: Power-90 Master's Series Day 26

 Day 26 was the cardio core workout again. The second time around I thought the workout was a bit easier than the first time (although I would not call it an easy workout by any means). There are some moves that I do the modified versions the entire way through, and I am not at all good at the Dreya Roll into the push-ups. That is probably the hardest move for me. Like I said, it is a workout that could have easily been in p90x. It could easily replace the core synergistics workout. Overall, a good one.

Workout Update: Power-90 Master's Series Day 25

 Day 25 was a new workout, UML, which stands for upper-middle-and lower. Basically, you alternate doing a push-up-based chest move (the upper), a core-based move (the middle), and a leg exercise (the lower). Then, between rounds, there is a short (about 15 seconds) water break. Sometimes Tony just goes to the next round of moves without taking a break. It is a challenging workout. A bit shorter than the regular p90x workouts, which is probably the only reason it was in the Master's Series set and not used as one of the p90x workouts. The Master's Series workouts were being made around the same time as P90x, so there is a lot of overlap between them. So, you will definitely recognize some of these moves if you have done P90x. 

Workout Update: Power-90 Master's Series Day 24

 Day 24 was the rest day during the recovery week, so I did the x-stretch video (from p90x). It is a good flexibility workout that has mostly beginner to intermediate moves. On the handful of more advanced moves, Tony does show or explain variations that can be used to make it less intense. Conversely, if you are very flexible, he shows how to make some of the stretches more intense, so there is something for everyone. It is a bit long, clocking in at just under an hour, but it flows well enough that you are not just waiting to get it over with.

Workout Update: Power-90 Master's Series Day 23

 Day 23 was the second day of the recovery week, which was the sweat 5-6 workout and ab-ripper 200. The workout went well and I was able to do all 200 reps in ab-ripper without pausing or stopping at all. My form is still not great on a couple of ab-ripper moves, more because of limited flexibility than anything else, but I can tell that my core is getting stronger.

Workout Update: Power-90 Master's Series Day 22

 Day 22 was the core-cardio workout. It is exactly what it sounds like...a mix of core exercises and cardio exercises. Again there are some moves from the various p90x workouts in this one as well as some moves that are not in p90x. It is a very challenging workout and could have easily replaced one of the workouts from p90x, like the Kenpo-x workout. Again, even though there is not a dedicated modifier (they kind of rotate who is modifying), Tony does show different variations of the moves that you can do, so you can tailor it to your ability. 

Workout Update: Power-90 Master's Series Day 21

 Day 21 was the T25 stretch workout. I again was getting a late start to my workout today and since this was an optional rest day, I decided to do the shorter T25 stretch vs the hour-long x-stretch. Hopefully, this week and I can get x-stretch in at least once if not twice. Otherwise, nothing new to report on the workout front. 

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

 

This is the seventh and final book in the original Harry Potter series of novels. It, of course, has the final confrontation between Harry and Voldemort. The story picks up shortly after the events of the Half-Blood Prince novel, with Harry just about to turn 17 and come of age in the wizarding world. He has a longer, more protracted "goodbye" with the Dursleys than we saw in the movie, and from there the book and the movies mostly track each other pretty well. As almost everyone knows, this book was split into two movies so as to cut as little of the story as possible. That said, there are still things that are removed in the movies (in large part because some characters had larger roles in the books than they did in the prior movies, so their role in the movies got reduced a bit), and there are things that happened differently in the movie than in the book, including the showdown between Harry and Voldemort. 

Overall, I would say that I like the book more than the movie, just because some of the details that were included in the book made things make a bit more sense than they did in the movies. I also think Snape's big moment was a bit better in the book than it ended up being in the movie (although that was good too). I did like the movie version of the final battle more than the book's version of it, however. I think the movie made that more dramatic than the book did. As you can imagine, this is the darkest book in the series given that most of the people reading it would have aged with the characters in the book (at least when it was originally released), so there are a lot of characters that are injured or killed, and the language is a bit more adult than in the earlier books, especially the first two. It ties up the story well and sets up the backstory for Fantastic Beasts and the story of a young Dumbledore. It is definitely worth the read, although, for those who have young kids, I would not read this one to them until they are older. Stick to the first two novels and then read the other books to them as they get older and can handle the darker content. As has been the case for all of the novels, they are written well enough that adults can easily enjoy them, whether you read the books as a kid and are now an adult, or were an adult when the books were originally published and became a fan through the movies. 

Workout Update: Power-90 Master's Series Day 20

 Day 20 was the plyo-legs workout again. Overall, I really like the workout. I would even say that it is a bit more challenging than the p90x plyometrics workout because each move is one-minute long as opposed to 30 seconds, and some of them are very difficult to do for an entire minute. Really the only thing that this one does not have in it that the p90x workout does is the high-impact jumping moves like the jump knee tucks. And, because you can modify each move, you can make it as easy or as hard as you need to.

Workout Update: Power-90 Master's Series Day 19

 Day 19 was the sculpt 5-6 workout again. I was able to hit the 11 rep max on a few more exercises, so the weight on those will be increased next time. I definitely find the push-up moves in this workout a lot more challenging than those that were in the 1-2 and 3-4 workouts. This one ends up being a bit longer workout (about 45-50 minutes), but not quite as long as most of the p90x workouts. 

Workout Update: Power-90 Master's Series Day 18

 Day 18 was the T25 stretch workout again. I had planned on doing x-stretch, but I again got a late start to the day and my workout was pushed back, so I opted for the shorter one. Overall, it went well and I can tell I am slowly becoming more flexible. 

Workout Update: Power-90 Master's Series Day 17

 Day 17 was cardio intervals again. It is definitely tough to get through both rounds of it, and I still cannot do the intense version of every move, even in the first round. But, my stamina is getting better so I am progressing. There are a few moves in the workout that I am not a big fan of, but, on the whole, I like the workout. Ab ripper 200 was about the same as it has been. I can get through all 200 moves, but definitely have to pause a couple of times and I still cannot get my legs to straighten out on the move where you stick your legs straight up and try to touch your toes. 

Blu-Ray Review: Carl Sagan's Cosmos: Ultimate Edition

 

This is the Blu-Ray set of the original Cosmos series, also called Cosmos: A Personal Journey, that was hosted by Carl Sagan, and written by Sagan and his wife Ann Druyan at the end of the 1970s and aired on public television in 1980. It has 13 approximately hour-long episodes that touch on all aspects of science. Of course, Astronomy was the heavy focus, but Sagan delved into topics like Chemistry, Biology, and Evolution, along with some Neuroscience. He was able to make each topic understandable and relatable without making it seem like he was dumbing anything down. There are clips in one of the episodes where he is talking to a group of elementary school students and it was amazing to see him make the concepts understandable for them while talking to them as they were peers and not little kids. 

A big focus of the series was the concept of whether humans would end up wiping themselves out, mostly by nuclear war. The series was made at the time when the United States and the Soviet Union had tons of nuclear missiles aimed at each other, ready to launch at a moment's notice, and Sagan was very fearful of what the fallout (literally and figuratively) would do to the planet and the things living on it. Interestingly, while climate change was not a focus of the series, there was an episode on Venus, talking about the effects of greenhouse gasses on its atmosphere in which Sagan touches on the worrying amount of greenhouse gas being put in Earth's atmosphere via the use of fossil fuels. So, for those who, because they listen to idiot politicians trying to score points and taking money from companies whose profit margins would be hurt if active measures to combat climate change are taken on a wide scale, think that the concept of climate change is some kind of liberal agenda that has sprung up in the last fifteen to twenty years, this proves it was a something (even if it did not have a catchy name at the time) that scientists were worried about long before the current political climate. Some of the episodes also get a "science update" made in approximately 1990 where Sagan updates the episode with things that have been learned or discovered in the 10 years since the show originally aired. It is interesting to see how much we have learned since 1980. For example, back in 1980, they did not know what caused the dinosaurs to go extinct. I was very young in 1980 (had not started school yet), but I always remember being taught in school that the dinosaurs were wiped out by something hitting the Earth, so it must have been a few years later that scientists worked out that a massive meteor or comet struck Earth about 65,000,000 years ago. 

For those who have seen the updated series hosted by Neil Degrass Tyson, when you watch this, you will see that they used a similar format to this one, with some differences. For example, in the newer series when they discussed historical figures, many times they used animation, whereas in the original series, they hired actors to play the parts of whatever famous scientist they were talking about. And, of course, the Ship of the Imagination got a serious CGI upgrade in the more recent series. The A/V quality of the Blu-Ray is good, but not outstanding. While they did remaster the audio and video from the original tapes, you can still tell that it was not an extremely high-end remaster like some older movies have received. But, it does look a lot better on Blu-Ray than some of the YouTube versions of the show which were just a straight transfer from the VHS tape.

Overall, it is a wonderful series that should be required viewing in any elementary school science class. As I said above, Sagan makes every topic, even relativity, understandable, and even when discussing issues that pit science against religion, presents the scientific view without disparaging or mocking religious beliefs. While even the science updates are a bit dated now, some 30 years after they were filmed, most of what is taught in the show is as relevant and accurate today as it was back 40-plus years ago. 

Workout Update: Power-90 Master's Series Day 16

 Day 16 was the sculpt 5-6 workout again. I definitely like it a bit better than the 1-2 and 3-4 workouts in the base Power-90 set, but I still prefer the p90x approach in which each resistance workout targets 1-2 muscle groups instead of being a total-body workout. I was able to hit 11 reps on a couple of the exercises, so those will have the weight increased next time. Overall, it was a good, fast-moving workout.