Textbook Review: Radar Systems Analysis and Design Using MATLAB 3rd Edition

 

This book was originally assigned as the textbook for a radar engineering class that I took as an elective in my Electrical Engineering program. The teacher then decided to use a different book but I kept this one for the semester to help flesh out the theory when I did not understand a concept from the other book. So, for that purpose, I found it useful. Unfortunately, I never did get a chance to try any of the MATLAB exercises or do any of the problems from the book, so I cannot say how good those are, but I did find that it explained the theory clearly and in enough detail to get a good handle on it.

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Banshee: Season 3

 

+++Warning, this contains spoilers from the prior season, but no major spoilers from the third season++++

Banshee is a show that by the third season you will know if you love it or hate it. The premise is totally preposterous but it works. It is well written and acted and is, as is the case with many Cinemax shows, not at all family-friendly. The show is basically one long serial story arc in which the various plotlines build over time. So, you really have to have seen the prior episodes to really know what is going on.

This season starts sometime down the line from the events that ended season two. All of the characters are in crazy situations, with Carrie and Gordon separated after he found out about her real life, and Carrie having a lot of "fun", Lucas being somewhat of a dad to Deva yet still being a criminal and sheriff at the same time, and Kai Proctor and Rebecca's relationship getting very cringe-worthy. The Nazi storyline from the prior season continues and expands to include Tom Pelphrey as Kurt Bunker: A former member of the Aryan Brotherhood who becomes a Banshee deputy. One of the main new antagonists in the season is Chayton Longshadow, played by Geno Segers who is out for revenge for the murder of Alex, which pits him against Proctor, Rebecca, and Lucas.

For those who get the Blu-Ray set, the show looks and sounds great as it always has. The extras include another set of Banshee Origins featurettes highlighting several character backstories that runs about 25 minutes; an almost hour-long Banshee Origins Saga that has a commentary track by the series creator; Making of the Episode 2 Title Sequence; a feature titled Zoomed In, which looks closely at certain scenes and characters from the season; A Commentary for Episode 1, a feature on the Burton vs. Nola fight scene stunts; commentary tracks on Episodes 3 and 5; a twenty-minute long feature titled The Heist; and commentary tracks on Episode 7 and the Season Finale. Then there are a bunch of deleted scenes and some promos. So, if you like extras, there are a lot of them.

Overall, the season is very good. There is still a lot of violence, sex, and nudity in the show, and that has not been tamed at all from the prior seasons. The acting is very good, and the show continues to evolve the main characters. And, pretty much no character is safe on the show. The standout this season to me is Lilli Simmons who does a great job as Rebecca, playing her as a character that wants to be one of the good guys, but just likes being bad more. Honestly, very few of the characters are really "good" per se, they pretty much range from morally gray to bad. But, if you are a fan of crime dramas and do not mind more adult themes in a show, this is a very good one.

Book Review: Fundamentals of Ethics for Scientists and Engineers 1st Edition

 

This was a book that was required for my Engineering Ethics class. It has some good material, but honestly, I think it focuses too much on made-up scenarios that are kind of scripted and sometimes silly and focuses too little on real-world situations. For example, in one of the early chapters, there is a discussion of the space shuttle Challenger disaster and the lead-up in which the engineers at the company that made the rocket boosters were warning NASA not to launch. There was about a page to a page and a half on the most basic details, but it left out a lot of important information. Thankfully, my professor expanded on it a lot and devoted a good portion of a class period to the topic, but that is really only one instance in which the book could have provided much more than it did.

Realistically, this is probably a book that someone is only going to read because they have to do so for a class. If you can get a used version, I would do that because it is definitely not worth more than about $20, but the price to purchase it new gets jacked up because it is technically a textbook.

Workout Update: Insanity Max 30/Chalean Extreme/Body Beast/P90X Hybrid Day 29

Day 29 was Max Our Cardio workout. I was still feeling the effects of my shots from Saturday, but not nearly as bad so I pushed through the workout. The setup is very similar to the cardio circuit workout. Each round rotates through three moves that last 30 seconds, and you do three rotations of each move. Then, instead of getting a break after the third rotation, you do another move that lasts a full minute, then get a 30-second break. So, there are fewer breaks in the workout. I maxed out at about the eight-and-a-half-minute mark, mainly because my left arm was sore enough that it was hard to hold myself in even a modified plank position. So, I am hoping to make it much farther into the workout next week.

Workout Update: Insanity Max 30/Chalean Extreme/Body Beast/P90X Hybrid Day 28

Day 28 was plain and simply a rest day. On Saturday I got my covid booster and flu shot, so by Sunday I felt like total shit and could barely raise my left arm. So, I just relaxed and tried not to bump my left shoulder into anything. 

Book Review: Aristotle for Everybody: Difficult Thought Made Easy

 

This was one of the books required for my Engineering Ethics class when I was in school. Thankfully, it is not as dense as a philosophy textbook would be, but it does distill Aristotle's teachings into very easily digestible parts. The book is pretty short (at least when compared to a textbook), just under 200 pages, and while I would not say it is as quick a read as a novel, it is not so dense that it takes a long time to get through. I think many people will get the book because it is required for a class, but it is something that someone who is just interested in philosophy without getting too bogged down in the material could enjoy reading.

Product Review: Etna 3 step dog staircase

 

This thing is kind of a pain in the butt to assemble. Not impossible, but harder than it should be. Frankly, it is something that could and should come fully assembled. Mine was not super rickety like some reviewers seem to have experienced, but it was not extremely steady or solid either. I do not think it would have caused a problem for my mom's dog, which is a 17 or so lb Schnoodle, but he was too dumb to figure out how to use it, so it was never an issue.

Product Review: Cooks Standard Wall Mounted Wooden Pot Rack, 36 by 8-Inch

 

I live in a townhouse that had an extremely small kitchen. I have since renovated the main level and the kitchen is a little bigger, but it still does not have a ton of storage space. So, I use this to store the vast majority of my pans (the most frequently used pans). The good thing about this is that you can adjust the position of the hooks so that you can hang larger or wider pans farther from the wall and the smaller pans closer to the wall. That way, the larger pans will not bang into the wall. You can put things on top of the "shelf" but, I would not put anything very heavy mostly because it will not sit flat because the top parts of the hooks will stick up through the slats. I put a couple of plastic things (a salad keeper and a colander) that will not do any damage if they were to fall off. It comes with six hooks, but could easily fit a couple more (I think they are available to buy separately).

I have not had any problem with this staying on the wall. It does come with drywall anchors, but it is best to get it into at least one stud if you can. Overall, if you are looking for a hanging pot rack, this is a good option.

Workout Update: Insanity Max 30/Chalean Extreme/Body Beast/P90X Hybrid Day 27

Day 27 was the last back and biceps workout from P90x for this round. Starting next week, when I shift to the max workouts in Max 30, I am going to switch to Body Beast's back and biceps workout, just to keep my body from getting too used to the P90x routine. For most of the moves, I was maxing out at 8 or 9 reps, but I was able to get to 10 reps on a couple moves, and for the band pull-ups I made it from 5 reps (corn cobs) to 14 reps (towel pull-ups). So, it was a good workout.

Software Review: Microsoft Windows 8 - Upgrade

 

I got this back when I had a laptop running on Windows 7 that would not, despite multiple attempts, finish the upgrade to Windows 10. So, I got this thinking that I could at least get Windows 8 on that machine. It installs easily (if you have ever done a Windows OS upgrade you pretty much know what to expect). You definitely will want to make sure that any files you want to keep are backed up, but it did not delete anything critical on my computer as it was going through the process. And, of course, almost immediately after I installed this, the Windows 10 upgrade kicked in.

The look and feel of Windows 8 is a lot different than Windows 7 and any version older than that. It seems like 8 was the beta test version of Windows 10 because as far as the outward-facing stuff like the start menu and how you navigate to things, 8 is not that much different than 10. So, if you have an older version of Windows (hopefully on a machine that is not connected to the internet often because you are probably missing hundreds of security updates), this is a good way to get the OS upgraded.

DVD/TV Series Review: 24: Live Another Day

 

Live Another Day is a limited event series/miniseries set four years after Season 8 of 24, in which Jack goes on the run to avoid the Russians for the attempted assassination of the Russian President. It is set in London, where Jack is hiding out and has been keeping tabs on President Heller after discovering a threat to his life, and on Chloe, who has joined a hacker collective. The show has only 12 episodes as opposed to the 24 it had during a good portion of its original run. Therefore, the real-time aspect of the show is mostly abandoned. The first part of the season involves the threat against Heller and heavily involved Michelle Fairley (from Game of Thrones). The second part of the season involves a plot by Cheng Zhi (again played by Tzi Ma) to bring the US and China to the brink of war. There are some cast members from the original run of the show that appear, even if only briefly, including the aforementioned Ma, Kim Raver, William Devane, and Mary Lynn Rajskub. The new cast members include Yvonne Strahovski (from Chuck and later Dexter and The Handmaid's Tale), Tate Donovan (from The OC), and Benjamin Bratt. It also includes John Boyega in one of his first roles on American TV, and a year before he appeared in The Force Awakens.

For those who get the DVD set, there are some, but not a ton, of extras. Those include a short film that serves as kind of an Epilogue to the story, deleted and extended scenes, a featurette about shooting on location in London, and a couple of other making-of featurettes. None of them are very long (mostly five minutes or less) and do not go into a ton of depth. But they are there if you want to watch them.

Overall, the series was okay but a bit pointless. It was not as good as the first couple of seasons of the show's original run. As was the case in later seasons of the main show, this one tries to get a bit too cute with the twists and turns and shocking events, and the writers kind of write themselves into a corner. They achieve the "24-hour" format by basically doing a time jump in the final episode when most everything is resolved. In ways, it ends in just as frustrating a fashion, if not moreso, than season 8 ended. I do think it is worth watching if you watched the original run of the show. Just temper your expectations because it may not be as good as you hope.

CD/Album/Music Review: Adele: 25

 

25 is the third album by Adele, released in 2015 (after 2008's 19 and 2011's 21). The smash hit from the album was Hello, which rivaled her hit Rolling in the Deep from 21. This was much less of a "breakup" album than 21 was, with the songs being more about moving on with life as we age. I think she got progressively better over the course of the three albums. On this one, all of the songs are very good, even though not all of them ended up being huge hits. But it is definitely not an album with one or two good songs, and the rest is unlistenable, as is the case with some artists. She has proven that she is far more than a one-hit-wonder and keeps improving over time. And, of course, she can actually sing and does not have to rely on production tricks to make her sound better, as a lot of today's pop artists have to. So, if you were a fan of her first two albums and/or music that falls more into the adult contemporary category, then this is definitely worth listening to.

Workout Update: Insanity Max 30/Chalean Extreme/Body Beast/P90X Hybrid Day 26

Day 26 was the last Friday Fight Round one workout for this round and the last month-one Max 30 workout of this round. I managed to make it to 14:35 seconds this time, but I still cannot get all the way through the triceps dips sequence that comes just before the 15-minute break. Monday will start month two of the Max-30 workouts and for the strength workouts in month two, I will switch to the Body Beast back and biceps workout.

Product Review: Seagate Expansion Portable 1TB External Hard Drive HDD – USB 3.0

 

I got this to store my school materials from my engineering degree, which includes a ton of video lectures that are in MP4 format and take up a lot of space. This is a drive that is purely plug-n-play, has a lot of space, and is powered by the computer you plug it into (via a USB connection). So, you do not have to deal with another power supply. It is definitely worth the pickup.

Supplement Review: Nature’s Bounty Vitamin D, Immune Support, 2000 IU, Softgels

 

This is a good Vitamin D supplement if you have naturally low Vitamin D levels and/or do not get outside a lot. They are very easy to swallow and do not have any aftertaste. I use other supplements that have some Vitamin D in them, so I use the 2000 IU version as opposed to the 3000 or 5000 IU soft gels.

Supplement Review: Universal Nutrition Bcaa Pro

 

This is a supplement that you can use as a pre-workout and/or a post-workout supplement to give you BCAAs which can be helpful for recovery from intense workouts (especially resistance workouts). If you are using a different pre-workout or post-workout supplement or make a protein shake post-workout this may be unnecessary, depending on what the ingredients in the other supplements you use are. But, if you do not take anything else with BCAAs in it, this is a good supplement that is easy to swallow and does not have a noticeable aftertaste once you swallow it.

Workout Update: Insanity Max 30/Chalean Extreme/Body Beast/P90X Hybrid Day 25

 Day 25 was the last Tabata Strength workout for this round. It is definitely the hardest workout for me to get through from the first month of Max 30, and the one I like the least. By far. I again maxed out at the 11:15 mark, during the diamond push-up holds. 

Streaming Movie Review: Blonde

 

Blonde is a Netflix movie based on the novel of the same name by Joyce Carol Oates that tells a fictionalized story of the life of Marilyn Monroe. In the movie, Monroe is played by Ana De Armas, of Knives Out and No Time to Die fame. She does a great job in the role, and the faults of the movie are really not on her, it was on the source material and the screenplay by writer/director Andrew Dominik. 

The movie starts out with Norma Jeane (the book and the movie adds an e to her middle name) as a child, living with her mentally unstable mother and pining for a secretive father (whom her mother hints is a big-time star), which is a theme throughout the movie. It mostly skips her time in an orphanage and in foster care, which covers the first third of the book, and jumps to her first audition in which she is raped by a studio executive. Then it basically spans her adult life as she becomes more famous and more mentally ill as she bounces from one relationship to another trying to make up for the love of her missing father (who writes her letters throughout the movie hinting that he will see her in person soon). 

Like the book, the movie really focuses on the darkest aspects of Marilyn Monroe's life. Certainly, given the fact that she died at the age of 36, most likely due to a drug overdose (the movie does hint at the possibility that she may have been murdered, which has been mostly debunked, but really films it both ways) her life was not all sunshine and roses. But, it also totally ignored things like her fighting for better roles and starting her own production company, helping Ella Fitzgerald's career, and the like. The movie is really about her going crazy and almost becoming a split personality, Norma Jeane and the fake entity, Marilyn, whom she hated. In real life it is known that she made comments about "giving" people Marilyn, suggesting that Marilyn was a performance she put on, but the movie makes Marilyn something that she has to summon. 

There is a lot of sex and nudity in the movie, mostly topless shots by De Armas, but a couple of butt shots and a blink and you'll miss it frontal shot that is pretty obscured. It does show her in a "throuple" relationship with Charlie Chaplin Junior and Eddie Robinson and shows her marriages to Joe Dimaggio (just called The Ex-Athlete) and Arthur Miller (called The Playwright). At the end of the movie, it gets into her fling with JFK, and has the scene that very likely earned the NC-17 rating, a simulated blowjob that basically just has her head bobbing up and down over her hand. 

Overall, De Armas does a great job channeling the look and the sound of Monroe. Given that she has a thick Cuban accent, the fact that she successfully pulled off Monroe's pretty distinctive voice was impressive. I did see a review where someone complained that De Armas' real accent came through a couple of times, but I honestly never noticed that. I think you basically have to take the movie with a grain of salt. While some of the things portrayed in the movie did happen, a lot did not or were at least partially made up to fill in details and sensationalize things. I think the movie overstates her level of mental illness and made her out to be as mentally ill as her mother was, which by all accounts she was not. It is worth watching as long as you understand that it is not a historically accurate docu-drama.

Supplement Review: Universal Nutrition ZMA Pro Supplement - Zinc, Magnesium, Vitamin B6 - Nighttime Recovery Aid

 

This is a zinc supplement that helps with rest and recovery. I did find that it helped make me sleepy, but I did not notice that it helped keep me asleep through the night. I toss and turn a lot during the night and usually wake up at least a couple of times. I noticed that I tossed and turned and woke up just as much during the night while I was taking this as I did when I was not. I think it is worth trying to see how it works for you, but if it does not do anything other than make you sleepy, then you may want to just skip it and go with something else.

Book Review: History in One Act: A Novel of 9/11

 

History in One Act is a novelization of the lead-up to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. It blends the actual events with fictional narratives that the author (who has also written a non-fiction book on the events of the day itself) makes up. I would describe it as a book version of what Oliver Stone did with the movie JFK. It can sometimes be difficult to figure out what is fiction and what is non-fiction, although the author does a pretty good job stating up front what is fictional and the things he discusses that are factual (even when it is blended with fictional elements) are cited in endnotes. Basically, what he does is take the notion that the US government, had it not made a bunch of mistakes during both the Clinton and Bush administrations, could have prevented the attacks and turns it into a fictional story in which a super-secret faction of the CIA was actually working with KSM, the mastermind of the plot, and allowed him to pull it off. While that would provide fodder for the conspiracy peddlers out there, the author does admit that part of the book is fictional and admits it in the prologue and epilogue.

Another thing the author does is use fictional material to fill in the blanks on things that were uncovered during the investigation of the attacks but could not be fully explained. For example, when KSM was interrogated, he said he was surprised that the south tower of the WTC was hit and that the original plan was to hit the north tower, the white house, the Pentagon, and the capital. So, the author makes up a reason for why the terrorists decided to hit both towers. He also mixes in things that are known, like the fact that a couple of the hijackers who ended up being muscle hijackers were originally supposed to be pilots but were not smart enough to make it through pilot training into the story.

As I said above, it can be hard to separate the fiction from the non-fiction, but overall, it does give a high-level overview of things that did happen and details things that could have happened. There are a ton of endnotes that would have been much better as footnotes because, much of the time, they add a ton of detail. Flipping from the page you are reading to the endnotes and back can be a pain. And if you read the endnotes after finishing the main portion of the book, they can be hard to follow. Overall, it is a good book. It is very long (over 700 pages if you read all the endnotes), so it may take a while to get through, depending on how quickly you read. Ultimately, you have to take some of what is in the book with a grain of salt and understand that the purpose was not to write a non-fiction account of everything that happened in the lead-up to 9/11.

Blu-Ray/Movie Review: Inside Out

 

Inside Out is a great Pixar movie. Probably not as good as Toy Story, but definitely as good as some of the others that came after Toy Story. It is about a girl named Riley (voiced by Kaitlyn Dias) who is forced to move halfway across the country because of her father's new job. Her emotions, Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Fear (Bill Hader), Disgust (Mindy Kaling), and Anger (Lewis Black) control her actions, and her experiences become memories, stored as colored orbs, which are sent into long-term memory each night. The aspects of the five most important "core memories" within her personality incorporate the form of five floating islands. Joy acts as the leader, and she and the rest of the emotions try to limit Sadness's influence. On her first day of school, a sad core memory is created, which Joy tries to dispose of and inadvertently sucks Joy, Sadness, and the core memories out of Headquarters, leaving Anger, Fear, and Disgust to take control of Riley. Hence, on the outside, she becomes a moody teenager. Most of the movie takes place inside Riley's head as Joy and Sadness try to get the core memories back to Headquarters.

The story is one of those that can appeal to kids and adults alike. It will probably have the biggest emotional impact for adults who have children and experience their changing emotions as they grow up, but even if you are an adult without kids, it will definitely have something that reminds you of your childhood and teenage/young adult years. The acting is phenomenal with Poehler great as the lead, and all of the supporting characters doing a wonderful job in their roles. Lewis Black can melt down with the best of them, and having Anger fly off the handle provided some of the funniest moments, along with disgust hating everything. And, Richard Kind as Bing Bong steals pretty much every scene he is in.

For those who get the blu-ray, the A/V quality is great, and there are a lot of extras. Those include a commentary track on the movie, and several making-of and behind-the-scenes featurettes that range in length from just under five minutes to just under twenty minutes. Then there are three different trailers. So, a lot of good material if you like watching the extras.

Overall, the movie is very good. It goes from being a fun, funny kid's movie to a tear-jerker, sometimes within a single scene. It has a good message and is something people of all ages can enjoy for a long time. It is one of those timeless movies that will be just as good twenty or thirty years from now as it was when it was released. Definitely worth the pick-up.

Workout Update: Insanity Max 30/Chalean Extreme/Body Beast/P90X Hybrid Day 24

Day 24 was the last Sweat Intervals workout from Max 30 in my modified round, and I was able to make it through without stopping. This is the second workout this week that I made it all the way to the end without taking an unscheduled break. I have no illusions of that happening either tomorrow or Friday, or that I would get through it without maxing out if I was not modifying. But, it is a nice measure of progress. 

Workout Review: Beachbody Insanity Sanity Check DVD Workout: an Introduction to Insanity

 

This was released shortly after the first Insanity program was put out as a way for people to see if they were ready for the full program. For those who do not know, Insanity is a cardio-intensive, calisthenics-based interval workout that kind of flips the way intervals are done. Instead of doing short bursts of intense cardio, then longer stretches of less intense cardio and/or rest, this has you doing Intense cardio for long stretches and then resting for about 30-45 seconds and starting back up. So, it is not a program for beginners, but even if you are in decent shape, it can be hard to tell if you can really hang for a regular Insanity workout, which lasts about 40 minutes.

This is basically a truncated version of an Insanity workout. It is short, just 25 minutes in all, and has a lot more breaks than the regular workouts do. All of the moves are moves that you will see in the regular workouts at some point. The idea is, once you can get through this workout without stopping (other than at the scheduled breaks) you are good to go for the regular workouts. It can also be used for a "recovery week" between the first and second phases of Insanity (basically between month one and month two). Keep in mind, the first Insanity program did not have any modified moves (unlike the later Insanity Max 30 program). So, none of the moves in this workout are modified. Although, if you have done Max-30 you can easily figure out how to modify them. But, the premise is that you will do the workout without modifying anything, which is why everyone in the cast is in great shape, and even they get gassed. The workout is available on the Beachbody on Demand app for those who are considering that instead of the DVDs. But, either way, you get it, it is definitely worth using if you are not sure if you are ready to do the regular Insanity workouts.

Product Review: Bowflex Max Trainer M5 Cardio Machine

 

The M5 trainer is a cross between a stair stepper and an elliptical. I cannot say how easy it is to assemble because I paid to have it assembled, but it did take the person who assembled it about an hour. Of course, he assembles them all of the time, so it would take one or two people longer to get it put together. There are a ton of small parts and there are spots in the instructions that they are not entirely clear. Once it is together it does give you a good cardio workout, and it has a fairly small footprint. It worked well for me for a few years, basically until the warranty expired, then one of the pedal connections broke at a weld joint, so there was no fixing it. And, since it was outside the warranty period, there was really nothing I could do that would not end up costing a bunch of money. I used it once a day (sometimes twice a day) pretty consistently, but I was the only person using it, and did not abuse it at all. So, it just broke because of normal wear and tear. Thankfully, I did not fall off of it when it broke, but if you have one that breaks the same way, that could definitely happen. And, if you are using it in a basement with a concrete floor, that could definitely be bad. Bowflex definitely has a reputation for equipment that breaks. I have had a set of their adjustable dumbells for over a decade and have never had a problem with those, but this one definitely did not hold up. Therefore, I would not recommend this.

DVD/TV Series Review: Hart of Dixie: Season 4

 

+++Warning, this contains minor spoilers from the prior season, but no major spoilers from the final season+++

Season four of Hart of Dixie is a shorter season (just ten episodes to accommodate Rachel Bilson's real-life pregnancy so the show could wrap before she gave birth) that ties up the various storylines. The show continues to be very much a primetime soap opera and the focus is on the ever-shifting relationships. Early in the season Lavon and George are forced to work together as volunteer firefighters despite their feelings for Lemon, and Lavon having chased after Lemon to try to get to her before she left on the cruise. Zoe and Wade are doing the will-they-wont-they get together dance. There is also a love square between Lemon, George, Annabeth, and Lavon, as well as Brick having to sort out his love life. So, there is a lot to pack into the ten episodes.

The DVD set is just a made-on-demand set that has the episodes only. There are no extras, which on one hand is not a surprise since Bilson would not have been available to participate in anything that was put together after the show wrapped, but disappointing given that it was the final season of the show. So really, unless you really have a preference for physical discs over streaming, the only reason to get the DVD set is to keep a collection complete, which probably means you prefer the physical discs to streaming.

Overall, the final season is good but definitely rushed. Even so, the storylines are tied up well, and the show uses a flash-forward to give fans an idea of how the main characters turn out. The "fish out of water" plot that was the focus of season 1 was pretty much scrapped as Zoe had committed to staying in Bluebell, so really the only mystery is what characters would end up together. The acting was good even if the writing could get a bit sappy at times (which pretty much is the case with all prime-time dramas that lean toward the soap opera end of the spectrum).