Product Review: M&M'S Peanut Chocolate Candy, 38-Ounce Party Size Bag

 

This is a large bag of Peanut M&Ms. Larger than what you can find in most grocery stores, and around the size that you can get at the warehouse clubs (in the plastic containers). So, if you like Peanut M&Ms and like the convenience of getting things through Subscribe and Save, this is a good option.

Blu-Ray/Movie Review: Enter the Ninja

 

Enter the Ninja is the first of the Cannon Films' Ninja Trilogy which consists of Enter the Ninja, Revenge of the Ninja, and Ninja III: The Domination. It is really only considered a trilogy because the same production company made all of the films, and real ninjutsu practitioner Sho Kosugi appeared in each of the movies (although he played completely different roles in each movie).

The basic plot of Enter the Ninja is that a mercenary named Cole, played by Franco Nero, is trained as a ninja in Japan. The movie opens at the completion of his ninja training in a great action sequence. One of his fellow students, Hasegawa, played by Sho Kosugi, resented having an American trained as a ninja, which sets up the end of the movie. The main part of the story starts when Cole goes to visit his war buddy Frank Landers (played by Alex Courtney) and his newlywed wife Mary Ann Landers (played by Susan George), who are the owners of a large piece of farming land in the Philippines. Cole soon finds that the Landers are being repeatedly harassed by a local land baron, Charles Venarius, the wealthy CEO of Venarius Industries, in order to get them to sell their property because, unbeknownst to them, a large oil deposit is located beneath their land. Most of the middle portion of the movie involves Cole beating up the local henchmen Venarius has hired to bully and coerce the Landers. At the end of the movie, we get the classic ninja-versus-ninja battle between Cole and Hasegawa.

For those who get the Blu-Ray, the A/V quality is good, but not great. It is much better quality than the picture and sound on the VHS, which is how many of us in our mid-forties or older saw the movie when we were kids. But, it did not get a high-quality restoration and transfer given that it was an independent 1980s martial arts film. There are no extras on the blu-ray aside from the trailer for the movie.

Overall, this movie is a blast from the past for those of us who saw it as kids. Chances are, if you were into martial arts at all in the late 70s through the early to mid-80s, you probably loved this movie when the horrible acting and cheesy fight sequences (and Nero's 70s porn stache) were easily ignored. It is kind of hilarious to watch Nero in the fight scenes in which he is not in the ninja costume because it is clear he had zero martial arts training or skill. But, when the stunt guy is in the costume and fighting with Kosugi, those are good fight sequences. Kosugi was still pretty green as an actor (not that he was ever a great actor), but he could pull off the menacing bad guy very well. It does have one sex scene (which is pretty tame) and a lot of violence (but even that is tame by today's standards), as well as its fair share of stupid comedy (including a guy with a hook for a hand). You definitely have to take this movie for what it is, and as long as you do not expect more from it than being a cheesy action movie with ninjas, it is enjoyable. If you are looking for an academy award winner, this is definitely not something you will be interested in.

Workout Update: Insanity Max 30/Chalean Extreme/Body Beast/P90X Hybrid Day Round 2 Day 20

Day 20 was the CE Recharge workout. Nothing new to report on this one as my flexibility has not changed much at all from the last few times I have done this.  

Workout Update: Insanity Max 30/Chalean Extreme/Body Beast/P90X Hybrid Day Round 2 Day 19

Day 19 was Friday Fight again. Now that I am a few weeks into doing this mixed modified and unmodified version of the workouts, I am noticing that I can do more unmodified moves in each workout, but I have to take longer breaks because I am getting gassed a lot faster in each workout. There are some moves that I still cannot do totally unmodified yet, so I do them partially modified, or do one or two unmodified reps and then switch to the modified versions. Doing the workouts unmodified is MUCH harder than the modified versions, and there is definitely a reason that everyone in the videos is in very good to great shape. But, I plan to keep on plugging away until I can do all of the workouts unmodified the entire time.

DVD/TV Series Review: Life As We Know It - The Complete Series

 

Life as we Know it was a coming-of-age teen drama that aired on ABC in the 2004-2005 season. It starred Sean Faris as Dino Whitman, a star hockey player for Woodrow Wilson High School in Seattle, Washington, and his friends Ben, played by Jon Foster, and Jonathan, played by Chris Lowell. The series is basically about the boys' navigating their high school lives with their girlfriends played by Missy Peregrym, Jessica Lucas, and Kelly Osbourne. The series was a bit unique in that it had the characters breaking the fourth wall and talking to the audience, and dealt with issues such as the effect of parents' separation due to an affair, the school-life balance, academic stress, and of course, the stress and pressure of sex. And, the show had a fairly controversial student-teacher sexual relationship storyline. The focus of the show was the teenagers, but the show had a strong cast of adult characters including Lisa Darr, D. B. Sweeney, and Marguerite Moreau, as well as a great guest cast which included Craig Ferguson, Peter Dinklage, Connie Britton, and Busy Phillips.

For those who get the DVD set, the thirteen episodes (two of which were not aired after the show was canceled) are spread across three discs. The extras include commentary tracks on select episodes, deleted scenes, a gag reel, and a photo gallery. So, a good amount for those who like watching the bonus features, especially for a show that was canceled without airing all of the episodes.

Overall, the show is very good. It dealt with issues that many people go through as teens (and adults). The student-teacher relationship storyline was probably what tanked the show. Of course, it was not the first or last time such a storyline had played out on a TV series; Dawson's Creek did a similar storyline years earlier, and more recently Hulu had the series A Teacher. But, Dawson's Creek was on a smaller network, and that kind of storyline was much less controversial in 2020 when A Teacher was made than in 2004. While the show had a ridiculously attractive cast, the writing was very good, and the young stars were very good actors. I have been surprised that only Peregrym and Lucas really had strong TV careers after this series ended. Given that the series ended abruptly, it never really gets a proper ending. The last show that aired is actually a better series finale than either of the two unaired episodes, but those do give you an idea of how the series would have progressed had it not been canceled. But, just know that the show does not get anything close to a satisfying ending. That said, I do think it is worth watching as the main themes of the show are pretty timeless and hold up well even years later.

Product Review: adidas Men's Athletic Cushioned Crew Socks

 

These are pretty standard socks. I would not say that they are very cushioned, but there is a little bit more material on the bottom than in the other areas of the sock. They are longer than most athletic socks tend to be. I would have preferred that they go just above the ankle, but those go up to the mid-shin. But, they are much better than the socks that go up to just below the ankle or right over the ankle joint (the no-show socks) because those tend to slide down my foot and get bunched up when I am working out.

Product Review: Echo Dot (2nd Generation) - Smart speaker with Alexa - Black

 

This is one of the early generation Echo Dots. As a result, it does not look as fancy and the speakers are not quite as good as those in the newer Dots. For example, if you play music through it, it can be a bit tinny when compared to the larger Echo units. But, if you are listening to talk radio, news stations, or things like that, it sounds perfectly fine. This has all of the functionality of the other Echo devices (aside from the Echo Show), and Amazon continues to release updates that allow them to do more and more. I generally use them to set reminders, play music, or use the intercom functionality (the drop-in feature). For music, it works well. The drop-in feature can be spotty. Sometimes it works great and sometimes it can sound like the person on the other end is in a tunnel, and will sometimes not shut off unless you tell it to stop multiple times. It also has issues with understanding some commands. For example, if you ask what the temperature is outside it generally will give you what you want. But, if you ask it to tell you the five-day forecast (or whether forecast or weather for the next five days), it will often come back with the "hmm...I don't know that one" response. Then if you ask it slightly differently it will say "here is the weather for the next five days" and give you the forecast. And, it is still not great with recognizing a real person's voice versus responding to the TV, even if you train it to your own voice.

Obviously, you have to consider whether you want an electronic device constantly listening to you. You can turn the microphone off so it cannot listen all the time, and you can go into the app and delete the recorded interactions. More and more it gives you features that can aid you in getting help, which is good if you live alone or have an aging parent or parents that live alone. These are fairly easy to set up if you are at least fairly tech-savvy. You do have to download the Alexa app and use that to set the dot up, but once it is set up you do not have to do much reconfiguring. Basically, if you can set up a wireless printer you can set this up. One thing I have found is that, if it loses connection to the internet, it is much easier to just unplug it for a few seconds and plug it back in than it is to go through the app and go through that process to get it reconnected to Wi-Fi.

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Gotham: The Complete Third Season

 

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

The third season of Gotham is essentially split into two parts. The first part, which picks up six months after the end of season two, under the subtitle Mad City, in which Hugo Strange's (B. D. Wong) various beasts and freaks (including the Bruce doppelganger) released after the bus crash are roaming Gotham. Gordon (Ben Mckenzie) has become a private investigator after being fired from the GCPD Jervis Tetch/Mad Hatter, to find his sister Alice. Gordon discovers Alice's blood contains a virus which becomes a plot line that affects the rest of the season. Lee (Morena Baccarin) has moved on from Jim and resumes her job at the GCPD, and Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor) decides to run for Mayor of Gotham. The major storyline involving Bruce (David Mazouz) this season involves the Court of Owls, a powerful group that basically controls Gotham, and then later in the season, during the Heroes Rise subtitle, The League of Shadows. This season does not end on a major cliffhanger but does set up potential season four story arcs.

For those who get the blu-ray set, the extras include deleted scenes, a portion of the 2016 Comic-Con panel, featurettes on The Court of Owls and the new villains, and a featurette on the episode directed by Ben McKenzie. And, the A/V quality continues to be top-notch, which is great given the heavy use of CGI effects.

Overall, the season is very good. Many of the characters continue to be some shade of gray morally. Some of the bad guys have a twinge of good, and some of the good guys take a dark turn this season. The show continues to have a strong supporting cast including Michael Chiklis, Jamie Chung, Ivana Miličević, Cameron Monaghan, James Remar, Paul Reubens (playing a similar role to his cameo in Batman Returns), and Alexander Siddig. In the third season, the show pretty much transitions from the procedural-serial combination that it has been in the first couple of seasons to a straight serial with a bunch of longer story arcs that run throughout the season and intertwine here and there. The show makes good use of the large ensemble cast and makes a good decision to make Bruce just one of the characters as opposed to the main character, especially since David Mazouz is still relatively young and not exactly physically imposing. So, if you can accept the fact that it is not really a Batman series, but want to see origin stories for the various characters, this is definitely worth your time to watch.

Workout Update: Insanity Max 30/Chalean Extreme/Body Beast/P90X Hybrid Day Round 2 Day 18

Day 18 was the second time doing the Tabata Power workout. I was able to get about a minute or two farther into the workout today than I did on Tuesday, but was definitely very gassed during portions of the workout, especially during the shoulder exercises. But, I was able to get through it and again could do more unmodified (or less modified) moves than the last time.

DVD/TV Series Review: House: Season 4

 

Season four of House was, at least for me, an unexpectedly great season. I was worried about how changing the dynamic of the characters, with Foreman and Cameron quitting and Chase being fired would affect the show. Of course, Omar Epps, Jesse Spencer, and Jennifer Morrison all stayed on the show, but their roles were very different not being members of House's team. I think the writers did a great decision by having House hire 40 new doctors only to whittle them down to three in a reality-tv style competition. And, of course, he gave the characters nicknames instead of learning their actual names (for the most part). Some of the candidates included Olvia Wilde (playing 13), Kal Penn (playing 6/9/Kutner), Peter Jacobson, Anne Dudek, Edi Gathegi, and Michael Michele. The season is shorter (just 16 episodes) because of the writer's strike that occurred about halfway through the season. The show actually came back for four episodes after the strike so they could do their planned two-part season finale. 

The show continued with the case-of-the-week style procedural format, but the storyline about which potentials would make the cut was the main serial storyline throughout the season. Thankfully, the show abandoned the House pisses off the wrong person off storylines from season 1 and season 3, and just focused on the relationships between the characters for the serial arc.

For those who get the DVDs, there are a fair amount of extras which include a commentary track on part 1 of the two-part season finale, clips from the soap opera that House watches, featurettes on the writers and visual effects process, the new team, and the season as a whole. So, a lot there if you like the bonus material.

Overall, I think this is the best season of the show. I think all the new cast members did a great job joining an established and wildly popular show, and the existing cast did well with the changing dynamics. The two-part season finale was wonderful and set up season three very well. And, the show continued to get a ton of great guest stars including Frank Whaley, Thomas F. Wilson (from Back to the Future), Jeremy Renner (when he was still doing TV), Mira Sorvino, Fred Durst, and Ivanna Milicevic (who had done a lot of character work for many popular TV shows and would later star in the great series Banshee). If you are a fan of medical procedural dramas, chances are you watched House at some point. If you are one of the few who have not seen it, start at season one and watch it. It was almost always good, many times great, and sometimes the best show on TV. Definitely worth watching.

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Mr. Robot: Season 2

 

Season two of Mr. Robot continues the strange trip that is the story of Elliot and fsociety versus E-Corp (or Evil Corp as the characters refer to it). Season two is set months down the line from the successful hack of E-Corp. Elliot, now knowing that Mr. Robot (played by Christian Slater) is really his dead father that he has been hallucinating is staying with his mother and trying to get rid of Mr. Robot, only to fight a losing battle with him constantly. Darlene (Carly Chaikin) is now in charge of fsociety and continues to try and take down E-Corp from the outside, continuing the hacks, while Angela (Portia Doubleday) is now working her way up the ladder at E-Corp. Tyrell (Martin Wallström) is missing and is mostly absent (at least in person for most of the season), and Joanna (Stephanie Corneliussen) is trying to find him while also having a fling with a new guy who gets more and more suspicious of her.

The show continues the serial story arc from season one, revealing more and more of the backstory and including a lot of twists and turns. Of course, the audience experiencing events from the perspective of a mentally ill character allows for a lot of weirdness, as things are definitely not always what they seem, and includes some crazy moments like a 1980s/1990s sitcom version of a family road trip with that featured the 80s sitcom character, ALF. The new addition to the cast this season is Grace Gummer, who plays Dominique DiPierro, an FBI field agent investigating the E Corp hack, and BD Wong (from Jurassic Park) makes a couple more appearances as White Rose.

For those who get the blu-ray set, the show once again looks and sounds great in HD. The episodes and the extras are spread out over three discs. The extras include deleted scenes for most of the episodes and a couple of behind-the-scenes featurettes. Not a ton, but what was included is good if you like watching the bonus content.

Overall, the show continues to be very entertaining. Like in the first season, there is a lot of violence, swearing, sex, and drug use in the show, so it is not family-friendly and will not appeal to everyone. It is definitely telling a long drawn-out story, so you have to watch from the beginning to have any clue about what is going on. The writing and acting are both top-notch and the show does a good job of revealing small details about the story while not giving away too much. It also blends the storyline into the real world (using clips of the mega-rich and politicians) to establish how the super-rich controls everything and why fsociety wants to take them down. It is definitely a great show and worth the time to watch.

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Daredevil: The Complete First Season

 

Daredevil was the first of a series of more adult superhero shows that aired on Netflix starring Charlie Cox as Matt Murdoch/Daredevil, a blind lawyer by day and vigilante by night. Murdoch, while blind has enhanced senses that basically allow him to see something akin to radar pings. The season basically serves as an origin story for Daredevil, showing how Matt transitions to the guy in the suit. The crux of the season one storyline is Daredevil versus different criminal organizations which have exploited Hell's Kitchen in NYC since "the incident" which was the Battle of New York that occurred in the first Avengers movie, and ultimately pits Daredevil versus Wilson Fisk (AKA Kingpin) played wonderfully by Vincent D'Onofrio. The rest of the cast is made up of Elden Henson as Franklin "Foggy" Nelson, Matt's best friend and law partner, Deborah Ann Woll (from True Blood) as Karen Page, a legal assistant at Matt and Foggy's firm, and Rosario Dawson as Claire, a nurse that patches up Daredevil and one of the few who know his identity.

The series is basically a serial storyline in which the events of one episode build on another. The writing and acting are both top-notch, and the show has a lot of twists. Charlie Cox does a great job as the series lead, playing Matt as a conflicted, morally grey character who is also trying to keep his loved ones safe while meeting out unsanctioned justice. The show is rated TV-MA and is much more violent than any of the MCU movies. The show generally has more adult content than the movies including some swearing and sexual content. So, it is definitely not as family-friendly as the other MCU projects.

For those who get the Blu-Ray set, it is just a MOD set with the episodes but no other extras. So, the only reason to get this versus just streaming the series is to keep your MCU collection of physical media as complete as possible. That said, it is definitely worth watching.

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: The Flash: The Complete Third Season

 

Season three of The Flash has a lot going on. The season starts out with a variation of the "Flashpoint" storyline from the comics caused by Barry going back in time and saving his mother from Thawne. The fallout from that action really carries through the entire season. Then, about a third of the way into the season we get the big Arrowverse Crossover, Invasion, that involved Arrow, Flash, Supergirl (although Supergirl did not get a stand-alone crossover episode), and Legends. The big bad of the season ends up being yet another speedster, this time Savitar, who makes the team's life miserable for the entire season. And, of course, the show does mix in a bit of the case-of-the-week procedural episode, but those are definitely fewer than in prior seasons.

For those who get the Blu-Ray set, the show looks and sounds great, as it has in the prior seasons. Most of the special effects are pretty seamless, however, when they show close-ups of Barry or Wally super speeding, you can definitely tell they are animated characters. The extras include ten different featurettes including one of the villains, the Gorilla City episode, a portion of the 2016 Comic-Con panel, deleted scenes, a gag reel, a conversation with the showrunner and director Kevin Smith (who directed one of the episodes), and a feature on the crossover event. Plus, the crossover episodes of the other shows are included so you do not have to swap out discs with the other shows (or even get the other shows' sets) to see the entire crossover storyline.

Overall, the season is very good, even though the evil speedster storyline is a bit derivative of the Zoom and Reverse Flash storylines in the prior seasons. There are several additions to the cast this year, including Harry Potter's Tom Felton, Tobin Bell (from the Saw franchise), Violet Beanne, Jessica Camacho, Jessica Camacho (from House and Covert Affairs), and Danielle Nicolet. Some of the new cast members would have their roles expanded and some were only around for this season. The big crossover event was very good, but the mini-crossover with Supergirl which was a musical episode that allowed the vocal talents of some cast like Mellissa Benoist and Grant Gustin to be displayed was very good as well. So, if you are a fan of the Arrowverse shows, and especially The Flash, you will definitely want to watch this season.

Workout Update: Insanity Max 30/Chalean Extreme/Body Beast/P90X Hybrid Day Round 2 Day 17

Day 17 was the sweat intervals workout again. I maxed out at pretty much the same point as I did last week, during the wide pike-ups. But, I was able to do more unmodified moves overall during the workout than I did last week. So, I am making progress, but am not where I want to be. 

Product Review: Amazon Brand - Happy Belly Hot Cocoa Pods

 

If you have a coffee maker that can brew k-cups but hate coffee, this is a good alternative. This is good-tasting hot chocolate and you get a good amount of k-cups for a decent price. And, you can set it up as a subscribe and save item to have it delivered at whatever frequency meets your needs. They are definitely easier to use than "regular" cocoa powder mix (not that making cocoa that way is hard, but this is more convenient) and allows you to easily make one cup at a time. So, if you are not a fan of coffee, this is definitely a good option.

Textbook Review: Microelectronic Circuits 6th Edition

 

This is a huge book (over 1400 pages) that is used for a two-semester class in an electronics class in an electrical engineering curriculum. It is so big that it could also likely be used for a master's level electronics class as well. The book is definitely kind of a slog to get through. Thankfully, my teacher did not teach directly from the book, and taught pretty much just from memory and experience, and created his own homework, quizzes, and exam problems. So, the book, while required, was more of a reference guide. The handful of times I did have to read anything out of the chapters I could follow what was going on, but I cannot really say how much the theory and examples in the chapter text prepare you to do the problems.

Generally, I would say that it is not likely to be the easiest book to teach yourself the material from. But, if paired with a decent study aid or supplement you can likely use it if you are trying to teach yourself the material. It does review some of the material that you would learn in the first year of circuits, but the focus is definitely on transistors, diodes, and how circuit components such as operational amplifiers are made using different types of transistors, and then gets more advanced from there.

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Lucifer: Season 1

 

Lucifer was a series that aired from 2016 to 2021, starting on FOX and finishing its run on Netflix after being canceled by Fox. It is mostly a case-of-the-week procedural show (especially early on) in which Lucifer Morningstar (played by Tom Ellis), the DC Universe's version of the Devil, abandons Hell for Los Angeles where he runs his own nightclub named Lux. He becomes a consultant to the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) working with Detective Chloe Decker (played by Chicago Fire's Lauren German), whom he becomes enthralled with. Lucifer uses his powers of persuasion to help Chole solve crimes, while his older brother, Amenadiel, played by Buffy's D. B. Woodside, and his demon confidant Mazikeen, played by Lesley-Ann Brandt, try to get Lucifer to return to Hell. The rest of the cast is rounded out by Kevin Alejandro who plays Chloe's ex-husband and current co-worker, Detective Daniel "Dan" Espinoza, Rachael Harris as Dr. Linda Martin, Lucifer's psychologist and occasional fling, and Scarlett Estevez who plays Beatrice "Trixie" Espinoza, Chloe and Dan's daughter, who befriends Lucifer and Mazikeen and steals nearly every scene she is in.

As I said above, the show is pretty much a case-of-the-week crime drama, with a lot of snarky humor mixed in. It is not a superhero show per-se, but of course, Lucifer does have powers that he uses in a very morally ambiguous (at best) way. There are story arcs that play out over the course of the season, the big one being that Lucifer is trying to hide his real identity from Chole, and always close to getting caught for something illegal he is doing. The season ends on a quasi cliffhanger, definitely setting up what is to come in season two.

For those who get the Blu-Ray, the show looks and sounds great in HD. The 13 episodes are spread across three discs, and there are a handful of extras. The extras include about six minutes worth of deleted scenes, a handful of very short character profiles, and a 13-minute portion of the 2015 Comic-Con panel. What was included was good, but there is not a ton of material.

Overall, the show is very good. It is definitely not what I would call family-friendly as it definitely pushes the bounds with violence and sexual content that they could get away with on broadcast TV. While there are certainly religious themes in the show, it is more a buddy-cop procedural than a show with in-your-face religious dogma. It is well-written and very well-acted, and definitely worth checking out.

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Mr. Robot: Season 1

 

Mr. Robot is a show that aired on the USA Network from 2015 to 2019, and starred Remi Malek as Elliot Alderson, who by day has a job at a reputable cybersecurity company, and by night is a hacker who takes down bad guys. He is approached by a group of hacktivists called society (as in fuck-society), whose goal is to take down a large, own-everything company called E-Corp, which basically uses the old Enron logo and is a metaphorical stand-in for any of the huge companies that basically run everything like Amazon and Walmart. Elliot has numerous mental issues such as social anxiety disorder and clinical depression and breaks the fourth wall by directly addressing the audience. The show has a lot of twists and turns that play out over the course of the ten episodes. By the end of the season, a lot is revealed but a lot is still unanswered. You find out there is a lot more to the storyline than what you necessarily think there will be at the beginning of the season.

For those who get the blu-ray, the show looks and sounds great in HD. There are not a ton of special effects, but the cinematography is very well done, and the show goes from looking dark and gritty to sleek and polished, depending on where particular scenes are being shot. The extras include a few deleted scenes and a short gag reel. The most extensive extra is on the second disc, a twelve-minute making-of featurette that includes interviews with the cast members and showrunner Sam Esmail.

Overall, the season is very good. Malek is great as the series lead, and it has a strong supporting cast including Carly Chaikin, Portia Doubleday, Martin Wallström, Stephanie Corneliussen, Michael Cristofer, and Christian Slater. I cannot say much about the roles of any of the other cast members because to do so would give too much away. While the show does take some creative liberties, it does try to be realistic with the computer coding and the portrayal of hacking. It is really a show that you will know very quickly if you like or hate it. It definitely uses a serial storytelling format in which the episodes build on each other and more of the story is revealed as the season goes along. It does have some swearing, sexual content, drug use, and violence in it, so it is definitely not a family-friendly show. When the show aired on the USA network, the word "fuck" was mostly bleeped out but in the blu-rays (and presumably the DVDs too) it is not.  One interesting aspect of the show is that it is set in the real world as it uses video clips from actual events and utilized deep fake technology to have real-world leaders, specifically President Obama comment on the events in the show. I definitely put it in one of my best series of the 2010s along with series like Breaking Bad and The Americans. If you have not seen the show and are looking for a good dramatic series, this is definitely worth watching.

Workout Update: Insanity Max 30/Chalean Extreme/Body Beast/P90X Hybrid Day Round 2 Day 16

Day 16 was the first Tabata Strength workout in this round. It is actually one of, if not the hardest workout in Max 30 if for no other reason there are no breaks. You just go straight through from the warm-up to the end. I was probably able to do more unmodified moves in this one than in the other workouts, but I also got tired a lot quicker in this one. So, I maxed out at about 11 minutes in. There were some moves that I could do unmodified the entire two 20-second on rounds, and others of which I could only do one or two unmodified moves and that was it. 

Product Review: Polar Balance Scale

 

This is a decent scale that can only measure body weight, either in pounds or kilograms. It does not measure things like body water, estimate body fat percentage, or things like that. It is most useful if you use it along with one of the Polar heart rate monitor watches, which it can be synced with (although not always easily), which you can in turn synch with the polar app on a smartphone. There is no way to synch the scale directly with the app, so if you do not currently use a Polar heart rate monitor, then this is just a run-of-the-mill digital scale.

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Constantine: The Complete Series

 

Constantine was a supernatural thriller series that aired on NBC in the 2014-2015 season. It starred Matt Ryan as John Constantine, a demon hunter, and master of dark arts who exorcises demons from humans and sends the demons to hell. He is joined by Angélica Celaya who plays Mary "Zed" Martin: A psychic who helps Constantine find demons and Charles Halford as Francis "Chas" Chandler: Constantine's oldest friend and sidekick. Harold Perrineau (from the series Lost) also stars as Manny, an Angel assigned to watch over Constantine.

The series is basically a case-of-the-week procedural, with the team having to find and then get rid of a particular demon. There is also a serial arc that is tied to Constantine's past that we get a few hints about, but the series was canceled before it could be fleshed out. Of course, most fans of the show know that the character was brought into the Arrowverse when the character appeared on the series Arrow and then became a regular on Legends of Tomorrow. I think the series would have been a lot better off being on The CW as it could have crossed over with the other Arrowverse shows from the get-go, but it was probably too close to the series Supernatural which was, at that time, The CW's longest running show. But, the series was just too dark to get enough of a fan base on a regular broadcast network and was never going to get the kind of ratings it needed to be renewed.

For those who get the blu-ray set, the series looks and sounds great in HD. The one benefit of being on a major network is that it got a huge budget so the special effects looked movie quality. As far as extras go, there are a couple of very short behind-the-scenes featurettes, a trailer for the series, and two Comic-Con features. One is a portion of the Constantine panel (that runs about 11 minutes) and the other is the DC Comics Night at Comic-Con 2014 Presenting Gotham, The Flash, Constantine, and Arrow, which runs just under a half hour.

Overall, the series is good, but was probably doomed from the start. The showrunners made the curious choice to abandon a major character from the pilot who was clearly going to be a series regular and basically swapped her out with the character of Zed. As I said above, it was probably too dark a show to get traction on any of the major networks as it was only going to appeal to comic book fans and they alone cannot generate the kind of ratings needed to keep a series on a major broadcast network. And, given the themes of demons and the occult that occurred in every episode, there was no chance that casual viewers were going to stick with the show. So, if you watch the show, just know that the series has a pretty unsatisfying end and while the character of Constantine lived on in the Arrowverse, the plot lines (and other characters) from the series did not.

DVD/TV Series Review: The Librarians: Season 1

 

The Librarians TV series is a spin-off of the Librarian trilogy of TV movies that starred ER's Noah Wyle made in 2004, 2006, and 2008. In the series, The Library recruits Colonel Eve Baird ( played by Rebecca Romijn), of the NATO Anti-Terrorist Unit to be the new Guardian, Ezekiel Jones (played by John Harlan Kim), a consummate thief, Cassandra Cillian (played by Lindy Booth), a brilliant scientist and mathematician, and Jacob Stone (played by Christian Kane), polymath, linguist, expert in architecture, art, art history, archaeology and world cultures of the past and present, including Native American cultures, and other fields too numerous to mention, including bar fighting, to be new Librarians. We discover that Cassandra, Ezekiel, and Jacob received invitations from the Library at the same time as the current Librarian, Flynn Carsen (played Noah Wyle reprising his role), but for various reasons didn't show up for their interviews. They work out of an annex to the library, aided by Jenkins, the caretaker of the Annex played by John Larroquette (of Night Court fame).

In the first season, Wyle is a recurring character (because of his commitment to the series Falling Skies), so he makes appearances here and there, but the focus of the series is on the new characters working out of the Annex. Jane Curtain and Bob Newhart reprise their roles as Charlene and Judson as well. The ten episodes are a mix of procedural case/mystery-of-the-week and a larger serial arc involving an evil organization called The Serpent Brotherhood. The themes of the show involve time travel, magic, dragons, and more.

For those who get the DVD set, there are actually quite a few extras. There are video blogs for each episode, each episode has a commentary track with some combination of the showrunners. director of the episode, and/or members of the cast, and then there is a gag reel. Given that the show did not have a wide appeal and aired on a basic cable network, the fact that it got a DVD release at all, much less with extensive extras is impressive.

Overall, the show is very good. It got in and out of the season quickly with the limited ten-episode run, and had a lot of twists and turns packed into the ten episodes. The acting and writing of the series were great, and the show had a good special effects budget to work with because the effects did not look too fakey as they do on some shows that do not get funding that shows that air on the broadcast networks get. All of the cast members seem to have very good chemistry and Wyle made the most of his appearances, easily stepping back into the character of Flynn.

So, if you were a fan of the TV movies this is definitely worth watching as it has a very similar vibe to those, yet stands on its own very well. It also has a great guest and recurring cast including Lesley-Ann Brandt, Matt Frewer, Tricia Helfer, Bruce Campbell, René Auberjonois, Alicia Witt, and Jerry O'Connell (who of course is Rebecca Romijn's husband in real life). It is definitely worth watching.

Product Review: Graphique 2023 Marilyn Monroe Wall Calendar

 

This is a 16-month 2023 (and partial 2024) calendar featuring Marilyn Monroe. It has a mix of color and black-and-white photographs, some of which are fairly popular, widely circulated pictures of her, and some of which I have never seen before. I get a new Marilyn Monroe calendar every year, so I have seen a lot of pictures of her, and it is nice to come across one that has pictures that I have not seen before, or are different from the more iconic pictures of her.

The calendar starts out with January 2023, and each month through December 2023 are "regular" pages with the picture above and then the blocks for each day below. Then, the last page of the calendar has the last picture and small grids for January-April of 2024. So, if you are looking for a good Marilyn calendar for 2023, this is a great option.

Workout Update: Insanity Max 30/Chalean Extreme/Body Beast/P90X Hybrid Day Round 2 Day 15

Day 15 was the Cardio Challenge workout. I actually backslid a little bit this time, maxing out a few minutes before I did last time, but I think that is mostly because I was able to do more unmodified moves at the beginning of the workout, so by the time I was nine minutes into it I was totally gassed. So, it is definitely a trade-off. I can definitely confirm that the modified versions of the workouts are much easier than the unmodified versions. 

Blu-Ray/Movie Review: Limitless

 

Limitless is a movie that starred Bradley Cooper as a down-on-his-luck writer named Eddie Mora. Eddie's ex-brother-in-law gives him a sample of a new nootropic called NZT-48 which allows Eddie to have perfect recall and the ability to analyze information almost immediately. He uses the ability to invest in the stock market and make himself rich, which puts him on the radar of multiple shady characters. He also begins to experience side effects of the drug that get worse as time goes by.

For those who get the Blu-Ray, the A/V quality of the movie is very good, especially being a non-blockbuster movie. The disc has two versions of the movie, the theatrical version, and an extended version. The extended does not extend the movie by much time, it just keeps in a bit more swearing, sex, and violence that is edited out of the theatrical edition in a handful of scenes. But, it does not substantially change the movie at all. There is a commentary track with the director and a couple of short (less than five minutes) making-of featurettes.

Overall, the movie is good. Besides Cooper, the other name actor in the movie is Robert De Niro and includes Abbie Cornish and Anna Friel in supporting roles. Of course, the movie is based on the widely debunked myth that humans can only use 10-20% of their brain's ability and that a magic pill can somehow unlock more (in the case of NZT, it allows a person to access and use 100% of their brain's potential). So, while you do have to suspend your disbelief to accept the premise, Cooper does a great job both in the slacker version of Eddie and the cleaned-up, polished version. At the end of the movie, we learn that Eddie is going to run for the US Senate, which is continued in the storyline of the TV series that Cooper produced and guest-starred in as Eddie. Although, some of the rules about NZT get tweaked from the movie when it goes to the series. So, if you like the movie, the overall storyline has more to it. So, if you like suspense-dramas, this is definitely worth checking out.