Workout Update: 645 and XB Stretch Hybrid - Day 43

For Day 43 I did the six-minute lower back routine in XB for my morning stretch and then the lower body strength workout in 645.

Week 7 of 645 is another week in which you decrease the number of reps and increase the amount of weight. The first block is an EMOM block doing deadlifts. The second and third blocks each have three exercises some of which have you doing squats, some doing rows, and there are a couple of combination moves. You are also moving very fast during this workout so you will get a cardio effect and probably be sweating a lot. 

Study Aid Review: The Chemistry 1 Tutor: Volume 3

 

This is a continuation of Jason's Chemistry 1 tutor video series. In this volume, Jason mostly deals with acid-base reactions and titrations. Like in all his other videos, he will give you an introduction to the subject, tell you what you already need to understand to get the material, and then does a lot of examples. The examples he gives range in difficulty level from fairly easy, to hard. He really does try to get you to understand the thought process in solving these types of problems and going from what you know to what you need to solve. He explains really well how you will sometimes have to essentially solve the problem backward to get to the correct answer, and explains why he is doing what he is throughout the problem.

The main reason I keep buying Jason's DVDs as opposed to just trying to find things on the internet, is because he really takes the time to break down problems step by step and give you the skills you need to solve problems. And you can take those skills to solve problems in the material he does skip. This set covers about another chapter or 2 (depending on how the book you are using is laid out). From what I can tell the only material that you will get exposed to in Chemistry I, that Jason does not cover in four volumes of the Chemistry 1 tutor are the ideal gas law material and the stuff on thermodynamics. Jason has however put out a physics DVD on thermodynamics that does cover a lot of that material. As people who have taken Chemistry and Physics know there is a lot of crossover between the subjects when it comes to the thermodynamics material. Hence, if you take chemistry first it will help at that point in physics, and if you take physics first it will help you in chemistry. So if you get that set and the 4 volumes of the Chemistry 1 tutor you will know most of what you are going to need for the first semester of General Chemistry. Some of the material on the physics DVD will not necessarily be covered in chemistry, but the basic ideas are.

If your learning style is compatible with learning from a DVD, then I highly recommend this set. The drawback of course is that you cannot interact and ask questions, so if that is something you need to learn you may have to go for in-person tutoring, but this is far better than trying to learn the material out of a book.

DVD/TV Series Review: Baywatch Nights: Season 1

 

Baywatch Nights was the first series that was spun off from the massively popular series, Baywatch. The first season aired during the 1995-1996 TV season and starred David Hasselhoff as Mitch Buchannan and Gregory Alan Williams (billed for some reason as GregAlan Williams in the credits) as Garner Elerbee reprising their characters from the main series, and Angie Harmon (in her first major series role) as Ryan McBride. Early in the season, Lisa Stahl was billed as a series regular, reprising her recurring character from the main series, Destiny. Lou Rawls was also billed as a series regular, playing a totally different character than he played in his guest-starring role in Baywatch. About 1/3 of the way into the season, Stahl left the series and Donna D'Errico and Eddie Cribrian joined as series regulars, playing Donna Marco and Griff Walker respectively.

The premise of the show is that Garner gets tired of being a cop and decides to become a private detective. Mitch is an investor in the business and ends up becoming a partner, along with Ryan. The first season is pretty much a straight crime-drama case-of-the-week procedural, with a different case that was solved by the end of the episode. I would say that the show was not as cheesy as the parent show, but it did have some cheesy moments. And, because it was still set during the events of the parent show with Hasselhoff splitting his time between the two series, the writers had to do things like coming up with excuses for why Hobie would never be home in any scenes set in Mitch's house. The series was mostly stand-alone from the main series, but there was a crossover episode in which Yasmine Bleeth appeared, and Newmie (Michael Newman) appeared in a couple of episodes. The series also brought back Billy Warlock, who was a regular in the first couple of seasons of Baywatch in a guest-starring role. Other notable guest stars this season included Jason Hervey (from The Wonder Years), Michael Winslow (from the Police Academy movies), Geraldo Rivera, Stephen Culp, Carmen Electra (in a totally different role than she would play when she joined the main series), Lisa Boyle, and Christopher Mayer (billed as Chip Mayer) who fans of the Dukes of Hazard will recognize as Vance Duke from "that" season.

This DVD set is a German import and will not play on Region-1 (US and Canada) DVD or Blu-Ray players. I do not believe it is available on DVD in Region-1, so if you want it, you have to get an imported set. You will need either a Region-2 or Region-Free player to watch this if you live in the US. The 22 episodes are spread over six discs, and the sixth disc has the extras. Those include trailers for each episode that would play at the end of each episode to tease what was going to be on the next week's episode, a promotional trailer for the series, and a promotional reel that was made to pitch the series which was narrated by Hasselhoff in character, and featured Hasselhoff, Williams, and Stahl (who was playing a character named Dana, which would eventually turn into Harmon's character). Some of the scenes from the promo reel did make it into one of the regular episodes. All of those extras are in English, and then there are a bunch of trailers for other movies and tv-series that are in German. The DVD menus are all in German (but easy to navigate), and the audio tracks on the episodes default to German, but you can switch to the English language track when you watch the first episode on the disc and it will stay on the English audio track for the rest of the episodes until you eject the disc.

Overall, the first season is okay, but not great. It definitely has the feel of the 90s show and some of the plots that it used would probably not be used in a series today (at least not in the way they were written back then). They also made the weird choice to air what should have been the pilot episode, which introduced the character of Ryan and set up how the group came together, as the 8th episode. 

Product Review: Shark Navigator NV22L

 

I purchased this vacuum back around 2012 shortly after it came out. If you get past all the puffery of the infomercial (I have yet to see a product that is as great in real life as it is on the infomercial) I would say that this is a good to very good vacuum. I have a moderate-sized townhouse, most of which is carpeted. The vacuum has seemed to keep the same power or close to it, after multiple uses in each room. The drawbacks are the cord is not retractable and the way the plastic things you are supposed to wrap it around on the back are spaced, it always comes undone. Also, the attachments are not on board. They give you a bag to put the attachments in. The dust cup is a little small, but it is easy to empty.

I have not had any issues with the wheels, or issues with it stopping randomly like some Amazon reviewers noted. I have since replaced this one with robotic vacuums (to do the main parts of my floors) and a stick vacuum to do stairs. One big drawback to this one is that it did not have the lift-away functionality that the upgraded model would get, so it was kind of a pain to use it to vacuum stairs because you either had to lift it to each stair or mess with the hose and the attachments. I would definitely not call it the greatest vacuum ever, but for those in its price range, I would say that it is better than many others I have had.

Study Aid Review: The Trig and Pre-Calculus Tutor Volume 2

 

One of the big complaints about the original Trig and Precalculus tutor that Jason released it is that it did not cover enough material. In that one Jason focused mainly on the concepts of angles, the trig functions using right triangles and the unit circle, graphing trig functions, and only touched on verifying trig identities. Basically, Jason covered the main points that you have to learn in a trig or pre-calc class to do well on the other, more advanced material.

This volume fills in a lot of the other material you are going to learn in class that was omitted from the first set. Specifically, Jason really expands the coverage of trig identities material. In this set, he has sections on the double angle, half angle, product-to-sum, sum-to-product, even/odd, and Pythagorean identities. There are also sections on solving trig equations and multiple sections on the law of sines and the law of cosines. All of the material is presented in the style of Jason's other DVD sets where is does a basic introduction of the topic and then works several example problems step-by-step. He rarely skips any steps and when he does, he always lets you know and it is usually because he has shown you how to do something several times and is trying to conserve space on the board.

If you get this, the original set, and the advanced algebra tutor you will learn about 90% of the material you will see in a trig or pre-calc class. The only big topics that you will not see are conic sections and the polar and parametric equations that some classes introduce you to (usually at the very end of the class). In none of Jason's DVDs has he ever covered everything that you get in every class. He touches on the main topics and the things you are most likely to see on a final exam.

I have reviewed several of Jason's DVDs because I have found them extremely helpful. They usually lay out the material in the same or similar order you will find things in the book. The step-by-step approach really makes you learn the material (and improve the "lower level" skills that you need at that level). It is NOT a substitute for going to class or doing homework. Jason does not pick your quiz or test problems, nor does he do examples of every problem you will see in the book. You have to go to class to get an idea of what your instructor focuses on. You should use this to prepare for class or reinforce the lecture topics, and learn strategies for solving the problems. If you use it that way, you will definitely know the material well and get a good grade.

The other thing to keep in mind is your learning style. This is a videotaped lecture of a guy in front of a whiteboard doing problems. If you can learn from that kind of thing, it is the best investment you can make. If you have to be able to interact with a real person and ask questions, you are probably going to need to invest in an actual tutor.

Workout Update: 645 and XB Stretch Hybrid - Day 42

Day 42 was a rest day in 645 and for the XB routine, I did the realign routine, which is one of the 15-minute routines that I liked, but had not done since I finished the program.  This is another one of the XB routines in which I can barely get into some of the stretches and can do others very well. My hamstrings and hip flexors are still very tight, but the sides of my hips have a lot of mobility.

Workout Update: 645 and XB Stretch Hybrid - Day 41

Day 41 was the cardio routine in 645. Again, this workout did increase the intensity a bit, but not so much that it made the workout too hard to do. As has been the case so far in Phase 2, this workout reuses some moves from prior workouts and introduces new moves or new variations on moves. Also like the other workouts, this one has seven exercises that are performed back-to-back with minimal rest between them for four rounds. In the first three rounds, you do each exercise for 45 seconds and in the last round for 30 seconds. 

Book Review: Dragonlance - Dragons of Fate: Dragonlance Destinies: Volume 2

 

Dragons of Fate is, as of this writing, the newest novel in the latest Dragonlance series of novels. The book was written by the authors of the original Dragonlance Chronicles trilogy (which started the entire Dragonlance universe and includes over 200 books) as well as the Legends and Chaos trilogies, Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman. This is the second novel of what is likely to be a trilogy of novels (subtitled Dragons of Destinies) that are a continuation of the novels set around the legacy characters created by Weiss and Hickman back in the 1980s. As most fans of the Dragonlance series know, Weiss and Hickman have returned to the series every so often over the years to pen new novels. Theirs are, in my opinion anyway, the best of the Dragonlance novels.

I will not go into too much detail about the plot to avoid spoiling it, but some details of the first book, Dragons of Deceit, will follow. About half of this book is set in the past, during the Third Dragon War, where Raistlin, Sturm, Destina, and Tasslehoff are stranded after the time device and the Graygem transported them farther back in time than Destina intended. The book starts by giving more detail about what happened when the group was initially sent back in time, and how they came to meet Huma and Magius. Then, they have to figure out how to get back to their time, without changing the past. In the present, Dalamar and Justarius are seeking a way to fix the time device so those trapped in the past can be rescued.

The hardcover version of the book is about 365 pages and reads very quickly. Those who are fans of the series are going to find it hard to put down. Fast readers will easily be able to finish it in a day or two. The story flows very well, and as the authors did at the end of the first book, they tease and set up how the third book is going to begin without giving away anything about how the third book will play out. This is a great return to the Dragonlance universe, the world of Krynn, and the characters that many of us who were kids in the 1980s came to love. Weiss and Hickman do a great job balancing the use of established, legacy characters with new characters. It is absolutely worth reading.

Workout Update: 645 and XB Stretch Hybrid - Day 40

 For Day 40 I did the lower body stretch routine in XB and total body tempo in 645.

The total body tempo workout was another in which some of the moves focus on the eccentric phase of the movement, doing one or two counts down and then one count up. Some of the moves in the workout were compound moves in which you would be in a bridge and then doing presses or something like that. One thing I did notice during this workout is that I am getting better at doing the under switches. Given that I could not do them for shit in PIYO, I am making progress. 

The XB routine went okay. It was not great, but I did not regress from the last time.

Book Review: Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore – The Complete Screenplay

 

This is the third book/screenplay in the Fantastic Beasts series, which is, of course, a prequel to the Harry Potter series, set during the 1920s. The story details the attempt by Grindelwald to be elected leader of the Wizarding World and Dumbledore's attempt to stop him, with the help of Newt, Jacob, and a bunch of new characters. 

I have not yet watched the movie, but I have seen the first two movies and read the first two screenplays, and those pretty much tracked word-for-word. So, if you have already seen the movie, I suspect this will be exactly what you saw in the movie. As the title of the movie suggests, we learn more about the history between Dumbledore and Grindelwald, and we get the full account of Creedence's origin. The story also includes a lot of Dumbledore's brother, Aberforth, who was a relatively minor character in the last couple of Harry Potter novels and films. However, the character of Tina is pretty much non-existent in the story until the very end. Samantha Waterston, who plays Tina in the movie has speculated she was written out of this one because of the comments she made criticizing J.K. Rowling's stance on transgender individuals. Whether that is true or not we will probably never know, but the character could have certainly been included in the main storyline and was definitely sidelined.

The hardcover version of the book is only about 350 pages long and has a lot of illustrations (which are really good) that are almost storyboards for what (likely) appears in the movie, so it is actually much shorter than that in terms of text. There are also quotes about the story and the characters from the cast of the movie included throughout the book. If you are a fast reader you can easily get through this in a few hours. The story is good. It ties up some of the storylines and definitely sets up at least one more movie and book.

Workout Update: 645 and XB Stretch Hybrid - Day 39

For day 39 I did the lower back routine in XB stretch and then it was upper body strength again in 645.

The lower back stretch was again helpful to get my morning going and loosen up my back. The 645 upper body routine was again more of a total body routine with a focus on the upper body (mostly shoulders). There was, for the first time in a while a biceps curl during the EMOM block, combined with a lateral raise. There were also some squats and rows worked into the workout as well. They actually finish the main workout with five minutes to spare so you also get to do a full cooldown.

Product Review: Epson Stylus CX4450 All-in-One Color Printer-Scanner

 

As a printer, this thing is pretty much useless. It goes through ink very fast, and when one of the colors goes out, it will not compensate with the other colors or print black only. Even if you only print in black and white it still goes through ink fast. The ink cartridges are a lot more expensive to replace than they are worth, and it is not like this does any better job printing photo quality than any other inkjet printer. 

It is however a good, and easy-to-use flatbed scanner. I only paid about $30 for it, and I really only use the scanner now. At that price it would be worth it, but certainly not for $300, or anywhere near that. You can get a flatbed scanner for far less than that, and there are far better multifunction printers out there.

Study Aid Review: Ultimate Physics 3 Tutor - Electricity and Magnetism Series - Volume 2

 

I used most of Jason's DVDs to prepare myself for my math and physics classes before I took them, fill in material from lectures that my teachers either glossed over, or did not explain very well, and get ready for tests.

To be clear, this is a tutorial DVD. To clarify for the supposed teacher that gave this two stars on Amazon because he did not process from the title of the product what it is, this is not something designed to get you interested in physics. It is to help work through actual physics problems and learn, or brush up on the material. It is Jason standing in front of a whiteboard going through many examples.

This set focuses mainly on capacitors and then the magnetic field material. The topics that you will get in the second semester of the class that he does not go through are the resistor circuit problems, inductance, and optics. That is why you cannot rely just on this to get through your class. There is material that you will see in class that Jason omits that you are going to get assigned homework on and be tested on.

Like most of the other physics DVDs Jason puts out, it is geared more toward non-calculus-based physics. However, he does in this video (and volume 1 of this set) use more calculus to show alternate ways to solve some of the problems and to derive some of the formulas. He does more derivation here than he has done in most of the other DVDs combined, but that is because many teachers require students to derive the formulas on quizzes and tests in calculus-based physics.

Like all of Jason's DVDs if you use this correctly (as a supplement to, not a replacement for class) they will definitely help you. Just know that some of the problems he goes through will be a little on the easy side for those taking calc-based physics. Although, he does give enough variety in the types of problems that he works through that regardless of what level of class you are in it will help you learn the subject.

Product Review: Samsung ML-2010 Laser Printer

 

I bought this printer for around $50-$60 years ago. It is most definitely NOT worth the $460 it is currently (as of August 2023) selling for on Amazon. It is still running, and I have never had any major issues with it, but there are some very irritating things about it. First, it loses connection to Wi-Fi a lot, and it can be a huge pain in the ass to get it reconnected. Sometimes, all you have to do to reconnect it is just unplug it and plug it back in, and other times you have to go through the Samsung utilities and fight with it for about 20 minutes to get it reconnected.

. It is definitely a get-what-you-pay-for kind of printer. It is not the fastest thing ever, and does make a lot of noise when printing (for those of you who care about that). And, it does jam every so often, usually on bigger print jobs. When it does jam it can be a pain in the ass to get the stuck papers out. On the other hand, the toner does last a long time, and if you are mainly printing word processing or text documents you will get a lot of mileage from one toner cartridge. It is not good for graphics-heavy documents. For example, I would use it to print off my physics teacher's lecture notes which he put online as PDF files. Some of the graphics printed off OK and you could actually see the pictures. Other times you would just get this dark blob where a picture or boxed-off equation was.

If you are looking for something that will give you high-quality print jobs, this is not it. But if you are looking for something to print a bunch of papers or text documents on, this is good if you can find it at the right price.

Study Aid Review: Math and Science DVD Bundle

 

I found Jason Gibson's DVDs when looking for study aids to use when I went back to school to get an engineering degree. I would use them to study prior to my upcoming classes so I could at least get an idea of what the material was about, and they were the best non-required investment I made while in school. This is a bundle of math and physics DVDs that have been released individually. He has now transitioned away from the DVDs to putting everything on his online site. I am going to just give you a summary of my impressions of the DVDs should you decide to try and pick up used copies.

1) The production quality is not fancy but gets better over time. The early DVDs were filmed with little to no production, and probably filmed out of his home. As he went along he started filming out of a studio, which is where all the new lessons he puts out are filmed from. Even from the studio, the lessons just have Jason in front of a whiteboard. There are no fancy graphics or frills.

2) Jason does make mistakes from time to time. He catches some of the mistakes as he goes along, some are caught and corrected post-production, and occasionally he misses one altogether. It shows that he is human. While one could argue they should be edited out altogether, and I think that is a reasonable argument to make, it has never distracted me from learning the material. Almost every teacher I have had has made mistakes in math when working out problems. My calc III teacher who has a Phd in math made calculation errors all the time, yet I could still get the idea of what was going on.

4) Jason will go step by step in solving problems. Even in the advanced calculus DVDs, he does nearly every algebraic step, even things that most people at that level can easily do in their head. If you get these DVDs you will become very good at algebra. And since it is the foundation upon which all levels of math and science are built that is very important.

5)The trig and pre-calculus DVD that is in this bundle does not cover all the concepts, so you may want to get the 2nd volume of the set. The one in the bundle will cover the unit circle, trig functions, the basic trig identities, right triangle trig, and graphing the trig functions. It does not cover trig equations, the law of sines and cosines, or the more little-used identities like the half-angle and double-angle identities. The second volume fills in those gaps. If you get that, the only concept from pre-calculus that will not be covered is conic sections.

6) In none of the DVDs does Jason touch on every concept you will learn in class. He hits the most important concepts, and the ones that if you don't know you will have no shot at learning the others. I would estimate that, depending on your particular teacher, if you learn the material on the DVDs you can expect to know 70% or more of what you would be asked on a final exam. In some of my classes, that percentage was closer to 90%. But you cannot expect to know everything for the entire class just from the DVDs. It is imperative that you do your homework problems and go to class to do well. While Jason does work through problems of varying difficulty they are usually not the hardest problems you will be exposed to.

7) The physics material is algebra-based more than calculus-based. He does not use calculus to derive the formulas for the most part. A couple times in the Physics 3 DVDs (which are not in this bundle) he will, but for the most part, he just gives the formulas and gives examples of how to use them. He does a great job of breaking down how the problems are worded so you really know what information is being given, and what the problem is asking you to do. Which, in physics, is over half the battle.

8) Jason has also put out newer extra practice with derivatives and extra practice with integration DVDs to fill in the Calc I and II material. On those, he gives more examples of the various differentiation and integration techniques and gets to topics such as implicit differentiation and the disk/washer/shell methods for finding volume using integrals that are not on the two DVDs you get here. While the two DVDs in this set did help me get an A in Calc I and II, I wish the other volumes would have been out when I took those classes.

In all, whether you find these useful will depend on your learning style and some amount of subjectivity. If I had to go back and do it over I would have bought the bundle and saved a bit of money, but whether you get the entire thing, or just need a couple DVDs, I highly recommend these to anyone subject to the provisos I listed in the review.

Workout Update: 645 and XB Stretch Hybrid - Day 38

Day 38 was another active-rest day doing the mobility and flexibility routine in 645 and the lower body flexibility routine in XB.

The XB routine went about the same as the last time, with no increase or decrease. As far as the 645 routine, I think this week's mobility and flexibility workout was my favorite in the program (so far). This one utilized some new stretches, including using the power loops for an assisted hamstring stretch. I really discovered where exactly I am tight in my hips and where I have above-average hip flexibility. 

Product Review: GT Express 101

 

The GT Express 101 was pretty dominant on the cooking infomercial circuit for a few years around 2010. If this were as nonstick as the infomercial claimed, it might have been a better idea. Unfortunately, however, it is not anywhere near that nonstick, which because of the way it is designed makes it very hard to clean thoroughly. 

The cooking surface is very small, which is good when it comes to portion control, but it is very hard to get even a small amount of food into it so your portions have to be smaller than you intend. If you use both sides, you can make enough for one person, but you cannot reasonably cook for two in it. The only thing that merits it getting two stars is that it does cook food pretty evenly, and does cut down (somewhat) on cooking time. That in and of itself however does not make all the other hassle worth it.

Product Review: TI-89 Titanium Graphing Calculator

 

This is probably one of the most powerful calculators out there, and as such you may or may not be able to use it in your classes (at least on quizzes and exams). If you are just taking algebra then this may be overkill for you because the real powerful features come when you get into calculus. It has algebraic symbolic capabilities, meaning it can solve equations and take derivatives and do most integrals for you, and give an exact answer not just a numeric approximation. It will not show you the steps, but it will give you the answers. Some teachers will not let students use it, even though just writing down the answer without showing any work will rarely (if ever) get you any points. One thing it is definitely good for even if you cannot use it on exams is for checking your work (especially when you are working on even number problems from the book).

There are a couple drawbacks to the calculator though. Sometimes, with very complicated derivatives and integrals the format of the answer will be given differently than what your book may simplify it to, and it is not always easy to see that it is a comparable result. This can be especially problematic when you have to do online homework and the program is picky about how the answer is entered. Second, if you are taking multivariable calculus, while this can graph three-dimensional functions, it gives you a very basic wireframe graph, that is hard to see the shape much less do any kind of analysis of it. Also, there are some functions that you can only access going into the catalog, and are not contained in the math, algebra, or calculus menus, so they can take a while to find. Most of the higher-level operations that you will use this for are however found in one of those menus.

If you are taking linear algebra and/or differential equations it is great. Once you learn how to enter the rows and columns of the matrices, you can do it very quickly off the home screen and row reduce or calculate the determinant in seconds. It can also solve first and second-order differential equations, which helped me immensely on my diff eq final, because I had one problem that I could not figure out initially, but I could see what the answer was, and as a result finally figured out how to get to it doing integration by substitution.

Overall, I think this is a great investment. It is not perfect, but for the price, it will help you, especially if you are in a program where you have to take advanced math classes.

Workout Kit/Program Review: ChaLEAN Extreme Workout Bundle

 

This is one of the Beachbody programs that do not get a lot of press (compared with P90X and Insanity), but is very good. In fact, I actually like it more than the original P90x program. Here are some of my thoughts.

1) Like p90x it is a 90-day program, but personally, I do not get as bored with this one as with p90x because you get new lifting workouts each month, and there is not as much repetition as with p90x.

2) The workouts are shorter. They last from about 30-45 min give or take, while many P90x workouts clock in at around an hour to an hour and a half. If you don't have as much time this may be a better option.

3) You will be lifting heavy weights. You may get bulkier in the first couple of months, but you have to stick all the way through to lean out. The first couple of months focus on lifting very heavy weights, and depending on your metabolic rate and yes (what you eat) you may get bulky. The third month is the lean phase where you do more reps with lighter weight and will lean down. If you freak out in the first couple of months because you are getting too "big" then you are not going to get the intended results.

4) There is some, but not a ton of cardio in this program. If you are a cardio junkie, you may want to supplement this with a couple extra workouts. If you hate cardio, then you may really like this program because there are just a couple cardio workouts in the base program and they are relatively short.

Obviously, the best workout for you is one you can stick with. Some people cannot get into DVD workouts at all, and others have very strong preferences for a particular program. I cannot tell you what will be the best for you, but I personally think this is a good program. You have to be very careful ordering these programs from Amazon. Many third-party sellers jack up the price and give you bootlegged copies without all the documentation and missing DVDs. I suggest going through Beachbody to get it.

Study Aid Review: The Chemistry 1 Tutor: Volume 1

 

I am a huge believer in Jason's DVD sets. I stumbled across them a few years ago when looking for math supplements because I was returning to school after 12 years to get an engineering degree. With the aid of his DVDs, I have made it through all levels of calculus and a semester and a half of physics with a 4.0 GPA. I will be taking general chemistry next year and have started using this to get a jump on the concepts.

While the production style of Jason's DVDs has increased greatly (the first couple he put out was just his hand in front of a whiteboard), and now he has an entire studio he films in) his teaching style has remained the same. He assumes you know little to nothing about the actual subject. He just assumes that you have enough math knowledge to be taking the class, and works through the concepts breaking things down step by step.

What I love about his style is that he gives a bare-bones lecture and explains what you really know from the theory. He explains the subject without a lot of proofs or deriving of the formulas. He will occasionally derive formulas, but only when he thinks it is very helpful. Then he goes through several example problems and goes through them step by step so that you can follow the thought process. Which, as anyone who has taken a math or science class can tell you, knowing what to use and the process of how to use it are the most important things. He does a lot more spoon-feeding than your professor is likely to, and far more than the book ever will.

Some things to keep in mind. This is a supplement to, not a replacement for, going to class and doing homework. Even if you get all 4 volumes of his chemistry set, it is not likely going to cover all of what you are going to be exposed to in class. Given that chemistry books can be the size of a small phone book it is impossible to cram everything into one set. That is why he has been putting out multiple volumes since he started making DVDs full-time, but he still has to leave some out. The material in this volume will cover much of what you will get in regular high school chemistry (about 5 or 6 chapters) or the very basic chemistry class in college (the one that essentially crams a year of high school chemistry into one semester). If you are taking the class that is usually called General Chemistry in college (AP Chemistry in High school) however, this material will be covered early on in the class and in almost a review-like fashion in the first couple chapters of the book.

Jason picks the concepts that he feels are the most important ones to cover. I have noticed that many times the problems he works on are similar to what is asked on quizzes or tests, but not the only things that get asked say on a homework assignment. Similarly, he tends to show a range of problems from very easy, to moderately difficult. He usually does not show the hardest kinds of problems. So be aware that you may get homework problems, and sometimes even test problems more complex than what he shows here. But if you follow the strategies he gives for solving the problems you can usually figure out what to do one the harder ones.

The other thing I really like about these DVDs is that Jason follows the progression of the course. Yes, you can find lots of examples all over the internet of people doing problems, and I even look for those kinds of things when I am stuck on a problem if it is a type that Jason does not cover. But what Jason gives you here is like the pared-down lecture you would get in class in the order you will see the material presented. You can think of it as almost like a review day kind of lecture that you can watch over and over again. You do not have to go hunting for the material to learn it initially. It is easy to hunt for sample problems when you know what you are looking for, but another thing to find good explanations of the concepts which I think is important to have before you do problems.

Ultimately whether you are going to find these useful will depend on your learning style. No, you cannot interact and ask questions as you can in class or with a tutor, but you can watch the material as many times as you want until you get it. If you can learn from a video lecture, and use it wisely, it will absolutely help you understand the material and get better grades.

Study Aid Review: The Chemistry 1 Tutor Volume 2

 

This volume of Jason's Chemistry DVDs picks up where his first one leaves off. Going into chemical equations, chemical reactions, and Stoichiometry. If you are taking college-level General Chemistry I it will, depending on how your book is laid out, cover about another 1.5 to 2 chapters of material. Jason gives a lot of examples of how to solve problems, but just as useful he gives you a ton of tips on how to approach the problems. In some instances that stuff is just as useful, if not more so, than going through the problems themselves.

The information Jason gives on balancing chemical equations, and a simple tip he gives (that apparently not all books and teachers tell you) for situations when you get all but one part of the equation balanced and the unbalanced part is not a clean even multiple of any others is worth the price of the set alone. And keeping true to the style of how he goes through the math and physics and circuits DVDs he always tells you why he is doing what he is, and walks you through step-by-step.

Whether you find this helpful or not will depend in large part on how you learn. If you are a book learner or need to interact with a tutor/teacher this will not help you much. If you are a visual or audio learner and the thought of a marker board lecture does not bore you to death, then this is a great investment. The thing that sets Jason's DVDs apart from some of the web-based material you can find is that is goes in order, and combines a lecture with problem-solving examples. He teaches you enough theory and background that you can understand the subject, but then gives you a lot more examples than you are likely to get in a traditional class. He shows you the kind of problems that you are most likely to encounter on a quiz or test (depending on your teacher), but usually not the hardest problems you might get as homework. I have most of Jason's material (aside from the basic math DVDs) and they have helped me get through all levels of math and physics with a 4.0 average. I still had to put in a lot of hard work of my own, but I would recommend his DVDs to anyone having trouble with the material or anyone who is looking for self-study material to get ready for a class.

Book Review: Inferno

 

Books, like movies, are very subjective. One person will think it is great, while another will detest it. Some people will always hate any novel Dan Brown puts out simply because of the subject matter in the Da Vinci Code, and others will let each book stand on its own merit. I am not going to spoil the plot in the review. The best way I can describe this one without doing so is to say that the pacing and tone are very much similar to the Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons, and The Lost Symbol. The subject matter of the book is different. It does have the "race against time" aspect that the other books do, but it is much more centered around an ethical debate than it is around religion. There is a throwaway line about the Vatican hating Langdon, but outside that, the rest of the religious discussion is centered around the meaning of Dante's Inferno, and trying to figure out where something is hidden based on the messages in that book.

Like with the other books Brown works plot twists into this one. Where he succeeded in the other books however by keeping them to a minimum, he feels the need here to not only put in multiple twists but then twist those twists. It does get a little contrived and silly. If you can take the position that hey it is just a book and does not have to make perfect sense, then I think you can still enjoy it. If something like that would bug you then I think you should probably skip it. He does work a lot of geography, mythology, and science into this book, and I think those aspects are well-researched and presented without stretching them too much. There definitely needs to be some suspension of disbelief with the science part of it, but it is not so far outside the realm of possibility that it makes the story totally unbelievable. Although I think it gets closer to that line toward the end of the book when all is revealed.

I think if you really like Brown's other books, then you can also enjoy this one. While some of the plot points get contrived and silly (mainly the who is working for whom and which side people are on, character motivations, etc) toward the end, it did not take away from my overall experience. I did not feel like I wasted the time reading it. If you have been lukewarm on his other books, then this one may bug you.

Workout Update: 645 and XB Stretch Hybrid - Day 37

Day 37 was the total body power workout in 645, and in XB I did the lower back stretch routine.

Total Body Power was another fast-paced workout with a few new moves (but still moves that have built on things from earlier in the program). They do, yet again, start to run out of time toward the end and cut the last block, which is a single plyometric move a little short.

The lower back XB routine was very helpful this morning since my back and hips were tighter than normal. It was a good way to loosen them up. 

Study Aid Review: Schaum's Outline of Advanced Mathematics for Engineers and Scientists

 

This is not really a book that is tied to any one specific course like the other Schaum's outlines are. This is meant to be more like a reference where you can go to look up concepts that you may have forgotten. It is like a condensed textbook that has the key things that you need to know but does not go into a lot of detail about the theory and do a bunch of proofs as a textbook will. Let's face it, we all forget things from class after a while, especially things that we do not use on a regular basis. Most people will be able to remember how to take simple derivatives or integrals, but far fewer people are going to remember how to set up a triple integral or do Laplace Transforms off the top of their heads after they get done with the classes where they have to use them. That is where this will come in handy.

I think the best way to use any of the Schaum's outlines is to use them in conjunction with learning the concepts in class (because they give you far more examples worked out than your book ever will) or as a reference guide once a class is over. At that point, you can use it as a substitute for your textbook because you will not be as likely to need all the detail and rigor of a full-blown textbook by then. It is not something that is going to be useful to teach yourself the concepts from initially. That is because of the lack of detail and the fact that some of the outlines are edited badly and can contain errors. Once you understand the material the errors and typos can be easy to spot, but when you are first learning that is not always the case. I have only glanced through this particular outline so far, so I am not sure how many errors (if any) are in this one. I know some of the outlines have more errors than others, but just be aware if something does not look right when you are working through a problem, it may not be that you don't know what you are doing.

Product Review: VIZIO VBR210 Blu-Ray Player

 

It does fine for what it can do (play DVDs and older blu ray discs). The people at VIZIO however, in their infinite wisdom, were too stupid to make a player with hardware that could be upgraded. So, per their tech support, no firmware upgrades are being made for the player. Hence, when it comes to playing many of the newer blu ray discs it is absolutely worthless.

This model is not being sold new anymore, but if you are looking for a lower-cost reconditioned or used blu ray player skip this one and spend a little more on something that has firmware that can actually be upgraded. This will work if you just want something that can upscale DVDs a bit, but that is about all this is good for.