Wednesday, February 27, 2013

02.27.13 Eye of the World

02.27.13

All right, I have finally sat down to write some more about my days.  I am compiling a list of bad customers and stupid people I encounter during my work for a later post.  Some of the things people do are so stupid, rude, and disrespectful of living things.  I am so excited I have won some more books to read and review for this blog.
My days,  I had applied for a graduate program for the 2012/2013 program and had not received a single letter after being told I had completed by application.  Just yesterday, I received a letter from them dated only a couple of days ago saying that they liked my application and would like to interview me.  I read this and was like "come on" really!  I should have already had my acceptance/declination letter before August 2012; I double checked the schools admission and I was within the application deadlines.  Common sense would dictate that schools would accept or decline for the terms selected.  Oh Well.  I am going to go ahead and be interviewed if they allow telephone or computer interviews.
I approached my mom about starting to grow my own mini garden today.  I see this as a good way to eat healthy, cheap, and be prepared for emergency dooms day action (lol, on this I know but, I do love to watch those movies).  I do believe in survival of the fittest and do not believe that I have those skills necessary to survive in an emergency/doomsday situation.  I need to lose weight, do more yoga, running, know how and grow my own garden, and to improve my cooking skills.
Time to move on from my boring life and start some reviewing.  Here is my review for The Eye of the World, by Robert Jordan.


The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan
★★★★★

Preface; contains an introduction to the Dragon and the Dark One.
 P.s. I have tried to keep out spoilers.

The book starts out following Rand al’Thor and his father Tam al’Thor as they make their way to the village of Two Rivers.  This journey to town is an introduction to the lives of the people of the village and most of the main characters in this book.  Two Rivers people are hardy stock, farmers, who have an idyllic way of life.  Rand and his father Tam pass by various townsfolk who they talk to.  While it is hard to keep track of all of these individuals, they are all talked about throughout the novel and not just passerbies.  They are there for Bel Tine, The holiday of Two Rivers, and talking about all of the plans and new strangers in town.    Rand meets up with some of his friends Perrin, a solemn blacksmith in training, and Mat, the prankster of the group, as they talk about the latest gossip in town, two high class strangers, a possible gleeman, and talk of war.  Nynaeve, the village wisdom, scolds the boys for spreading such talk and Egwene supporting her, who Rand has a crush on.  The village is riled up and Tam and Rand go home for the night.  While home, something disastrous happens in Two Rivers, which causes the boys to escape with the strangers leading the way, with some surprising tag-alongs.  The end goal is for the strangers' home land a far off powerful city.  The group goes through various breakups and get back together’s as each member learns who he or she is and who each member of the rest of group are also.  The Two Rivers group meets monsters from their legends and nightmares and has plenty of adventure. 
At a whopping 658 pages this book is a doozy.  I feel that while it is hard to keep track of all of these individuals, they are all talked about throughout the novel and not just passerbies.  This did make a slow beginning for me taking over a week just to get to page 100.  However, once past that mark I finished the book in three days.  The book is given from the perspective from each person in the group one at a time.  Through foreshadowing, smart readers should be able to figure out who the Dark One is really after, though Jordan does make the reader struggle between the three boys who each stand out in their own way.  At no point did I feel like the story dragged on, neither through any overlong descriptions or a storyline that just would not stop.  Each character was thoroughly enjoyed and slightly irritating in their own ways; whether it is Moiraine with her vagueness, Nynaeve with her sexism, or Rand with his unwillingness to recognize bald-faced facts.  I found the end, the last 10-20 pages, to be highly predictable with the fight scene.  However, an opening was left with the group unwilling to talk about what happened.  I did find this book from beginning to end a good read with no meaningless characters, adventures, and lots of magic.  I was unable to see any reason to deduct any stars and give this book a 5 star review.  ★★★★★


Friday, February 22, 2013

To Blog or not to blog?




02.15.13
Gosh?  To blog or not to blog?

I am not really sure if I should write a blog.  I do not know if I have enough stuff to write about or even if anyone would want to read about it.  The main things in my life are my English bullydogs.  I know that I would love to write about their day and hope that other people would want to read it.  I have always thought of writing down all the ‘bad customers’ as my mom puts it that I experience at work as a cashier.  I have also received some books for free with the hopes that I review them.  Since I love books and would like to continue receiving them for free I have no problem obliging them.  I will inevitably write about anything that comes to mind. 
Another reason to write or not write this blog would be after going over some of my sentences, I sound simple and do not use big words like I use to do when I was still in school.  I hope that people will ignore these good reasons for not writing a blog and read this.  I hope to share the joys of bully-dogs, the tribulations of being a cashier, and the love of books. 
I am sitting in my room procrastination cleaning it to write this blog.  My English bully, Tore, is sleeping on the floor next to the bed snoring.  I feel that my life is a mess; I still live at home, I work only a part-time minimum wage job; no college will accept me.   My room resembles my life in this fact; every time I clean it up I half way finish and start on some other project or just get lazy.  I try for something good like completing college, starting to clean my room, then through no fault of my own am unable to finish graduate school because lack of acceptance letters, getting sick so my room goes back to being a disheveled mess.

02.22.13
I really have no clue what I am doing or what I will write about; it could be how the snore of my bulldog puts me to sleep or how customers constantly abuse and disrespect customer service personal and swamp the web with complaints (mostly uncalled for).  I have a collection of books that I won for the intentions of posting reviews on the internet.  I just received another in the mail today.  I am so excited to start on this and delve in the world of publishers, authors, and reviewers.

So here goes my first review…
Kim Harrison’s Blood Work: an original Hollows graphic novel.
I had already read all of Kim Harrison’s Hollows novels and felt that I wanted to try her graphic novel as supplemental.  In this comic book  ahem..(graphic novel)  Ivy Tamwood is given a new partner; an up and coming witch named Rachel Morgan.  Ivy is struggling to understand her place in the world after a demotion while Rachel is fresh into the police force looking forward to bringing justice to the world and bad guys to their doom with a fresh view of the world.  Ivy pessimistic and wanting to keep the status quo and Rachel optimistic thinking she can change the world.  They are given their first case which Rachel investigates until she will solve her case; with Ivy following Rachel and keeping her out of harms way while trying not to kill Rachel herself.  The case is an introduction to the Hollows world and takes some twists and turns.  The graphic novel was long enough to show you each Rachel and Ivy’s personalities, clashes, and the world around them.  To me the novel ended abruptly, finishing the case a little too easy.  The pictures were decent sometimes I was unable to understand what the author was trying to get across.  Rachel was clear and could almost look like a real picture but, Ivy looked unpolished, with unnatural expressions and ragged edgings.  Harrison went into depth with an introduction and afterward showing her thought processes and steps in making the graphic novel which was an extra bonus. 
I would have to give this graphic novel a three out of five stars.  Three stars I would be willing to read another novel and give her a second change.  Inevitably I was unable to get over Ivy’s drawings and as a graphic novel is a major component so a star was taken away.  Since I felt that the story was second to getting to know the characters and was not an integral part of the novel I took another star away. ★★☆☆