Day 9 of CE was the first of the two rest days, so I again did the recharge workout. I could tell that I was a bit more flexible from when I did the workout on Sunday afternoon. So, I think I am going to stick with doing that one twice a week in the Burn phase and then may add a different flexibility workout into the rotation during the Push or Lean phase.
Tuesday, March 15, 2022
Monday, March 14, 2022
Workout Update: Chalean Extreme Day 8
Day 8 of CE was the second round of Burn Circuit 1. I definitely still found it challenging, but not quite as difficult as last week. There were a couple of moves that I was still guessing a little low on the weight I was using, so those will be bumped up for next week, but overall, I was able to max out at 10 or 11 reps for each move so the weight was spot on.
DVD Review: Bitten Season 1
Bitten was a TV series that aired in the US on the Syfy channel. It starred Laura Vandervoort, probably best known for playing Supergirl on Smallville, as Elena Michaels, a photographer living in Toronto, who is secretly the only female werewolf in existence. She is estranged from her pack but gets called back when the pack is threatened by a group of "mutts" (werewolves with no pack allegiance), which puts her "normal" life in danger. The show was adapted from a series of novels, that I have never read, so I am not sure how faithfully the show sticks to the source material.
The show has a bit of a "Twilight" feel, with generally better writing, and without the high-school romance. There is some love-triangle stuff going on, but it is not as dumb as Twilight could get sometimes. The show definitely pushed the boundaries of what could be shown on basic cable in terms of violence, nudity, and sex. The DVDs actually have more nudity than the US broadcast did because most of the butt shots (mostly from the males on the show, but also quite a few from Laura Vandervoort) got edited out on the US broadcasts. The series is made up of relatively unknown actors (at least here in the US) which included Greyson Holt, Steve Lund, Greg Bryk, Michael Xavier, and Genelle Williams.
For those who get the DVD set, the extras may include which set you get, as there appear to be multiple sets floating around. Mine includes commentary tracks on the pilot episode, the mid-season episode Bitten, and the season finale. Then there are deleted scenes and a couple of behind-the-scenes and making-of featurettes. So, a good amount of material for those who like watching the bonus features.
Overall, I would say this season was a strong introduction to the show. The writing and acting are good, but not necessarily always great. The cast is ridiculously good-looking, and the show makes good use of that. The special effects were pretty good, but because it is definitely lower-budget than say the Twilight movies, the CGI werewolves did not look as realistic as they did in the movies. I'm guessing had the show been made in 2022 as opposed to 2014, the CGI would be better even with a lower TV show budget, but that said, they were not awful. The season is short, just 13 episodes, so it gets in and out of the story pretty quickly, which I definitely think worked for the show. I definitely think it is worth checking out.
The show has a bit of a "Twilight" feel, with generally better writing, and without the high-school romance. There is some love-triangle stuff going on, but it is not as dumb as Twilight could get sometimes. The show definitely pushed the boundaries of what could be shown on basic cable in terms of violence, nudity, and sex. The DVDs actually have more nudity than the US broadcast did because most of the butt shots (mostly from the males on the show, but also quite a few from Laura Vandervoort) got edited out on the US broadcasts. The series is made up of relatively unknown actors (at least here in the US) which included Greyson Holt, Steve Lund, Greg Bryk, Michael Xavier, and Genelle Williams.
For those who get the DVD set, the extras may include which set you get, as there appear to be multiple sets floating around. Mine includes commentary tracks on the pilot episode, the mid-season episode Bitten, and the season finale. Then there are deleted scenes and a couple of behind-the-scenes and making-of featurettes. So, a good amount of material for those who like watching the bonus features.
Overall, I would say this season was a strong introduction to the show. The writing and acting are good, but not necessarily always great. The cast is ridiculously good-looking, and the show makes good use of that. The special effects were pretty good, but because it is definitely lower-budget than say the Twilight movies, the CGI werewolves did not look as realistic as they did in the movies. I'm guessing had the show been made in 2022 as opposed to 2014, the CGI would be better even with a lower TV show budget, but that said, they were not awful. The season is short, just 13 episodes, so it gets in and out of the story pretty quickly, which I definitely think worked for the show. I definitely think it is worth checking out.
Sunday, March 13, 2022
Workout Update: Chalean Extreme Day 7
Day 7 of CE was another built-in rest day. So, I decided to do the Recharge workout again. I love that it is a short yoga workout. It is mostly a beginner yoga workout. Really, the only hard part is where you are in downward dog for about a minute, then have to lift one of your legs and hold it for about 30 seconds before swinging it through into warrior stance. Like I said in a prior post, a workout like this would have been really good in Power-90 to give people something to build from before launching into that 90-minute beast that is yoga-x in P90x.
Book Review: Star Wars - The High Republic: Race to Crashpoint Tower
This, like the other junior novels, is an ancillary story to the adult high-republic novels. Meaning, it fills in some of the details of the larger story. This one is set on Valo during the Nihil attack on the Republic fair that is detailed in the novel, "The Rising Storm". It is told from the perspective of two Padawans, one named Ram, and another named Lula. They get stuck in the middle of the Nihil attack and help get the word out to the Republic that reinforcements are needed. Vernestra Rawoh also appears in the novel, and Yoda is again name-dropped but does not appear directly.
Like the other junior novels, this one is short, just under 200 pages. If you read relatively quickly this can easily be finished in a day or two. Even though it is tailored more to kids, I think it is written well enough for adults to enjoy. But, it can get a little silly (mainly some of the stuff involving Ram's droid) at times. I would not call it a must-read, but if you are, like me, an adult who collects all of the canon books, it is worth reading once.
Like the other junior novels, this one is short, just under 200 pages. If you read relatively quickly this can easily be finished in a day or two. Even though it is tailored more to kids, I think it is written well enough for adults to enjoy. But, it can get a little silly (mainly some of the stuff involving Ram's droid) at times. I would not call it a must-read, but if you are, like me, an adult who collects all of the canon books, it is worth reading once.
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