The Memory of Earth: Part 2

Finally! This book is starting to develop, it's not as fast paced as I would like, but progress is progress. From what I can make out, the protagonist in this book is Nafai, the youngest of four brothers. He is an 18 year old boy still learning about the customs of adulthood and how to be a man. So as he goes off to visit his mother in Basilica, his father gets a vision of the city being burned to the ground. As I read further into the novel, the plot thickens and trouble arises. The main problem that I have with this book is the way that it's written. I mean, I suppose most fantasy type novels are similar to this, but for some reason I keep having to go back and reread sections. I just get lost sometimes during the time in which I read and it can get annoying to stop and go back to clear things up. I can say one thing for sure though, this book was not what I expected it to be like, but it's got a unique twist to it. From it's good reviews, I cannot understand why I can't seem to enjoy this book. Whenever I read a section of it, I just find myself in a bored state of mind. Perhaps that's why I keep having to go back and reread sections. I guess it all depends on the type of person you are, and what type of literature you enjoy. Reading is definitely easier though, if you actually read a book that you enjoy, or are fascinated in. I suppose this was bound to happen eventually, I mean I'm not going to enjoy all the books that I read. This one probably isn't as bad as I'm making it sound, but it just kind of annoys me. The more I read, the more questions that pop up, and only a few get answered. I don't want to post most of these questions up because it won't make sense unless you are actually reading the book, but for now I'm pretty confused. Still.

The Memory of Earth: Part 1

The first thing that intrigued me about this book was the title. The Memory of Earth made me believe that this book was about the destruction of the planet Earth and what happened afterwords. Well so far, this is kind of true. From what I've read so far, I believe that the story takes place on another planet called Harmony. From the cover of the book I can tell that the characters live in a desert-type environment and their clothing and it's style looks quite old. This is the confusing part, originally I thought that this book was about the future because it talked about how Earth was destroyed and such, but I don't understand why the technology didn't seem to advance or progress. However there is one exception, the protagonist's brother, Issib is disabled, but instead of being in a wheelchair, he is on a levitating chair which is quite interesting. I think this book is pretty dull so far compared to my last book filled with zombies and shootings. This one is more of a fantasy book, but I do hope for some action later on. This early on in the book, I can't make out what the plot seems to be, except for the fact that the Overseer, a master computer designed to fix human problems, is in trouble and is seeking help from citizens. The concept is pretty strange, but I do have a little bit of hope for it. This book is tough for me to read because there are some made up words in here that make it hard to keep up with the storyline. I think next time I should be choosing a book earlier on instead of last minute, that way I can get a better understanding of whether or not I'll enjoy reading it. So far, the reading to me feels forced rather than me actually wanting to read it like my previous book. Who knows though? Never judge a book by it's cover.

My Goals as a Writer.

After effectively blogging on a variety of different topics for the past several months, my goals as a writer has shifted slightly. My main focus as of now, is to go into more depth or detail in my work. I think the cause of this would have to be partly due to the requirement changes for the blog posts issued by Mr. Sutherland. Instead of the standard 300 word blogs that I used to be able to write to effortlessly and with ease, I have found out that the going the extra 200 words is an entirely new challenge. The struggle that I have with this is not about reaching the minimum word count, but rather it is focusing on making the content worthwhile to read. The more words that you post, the harder it gets to become less and less redundant in your points. I find it rather difficult to maintain the same level of depth and detail in my old 300 word blog posts as I type out the new 500 worded posts. So this new struggle that I've encountered has slightly changed my priorities on what I want to accomplish as a writer.
Now on another note, a big thing that has been occurring around school are students enrolling for classes for the 2010-2011 school year. My final decision ended up being: English P, HP Pre-Calculus, AP Environmental Science, Multimedia Art, United States History P, and AP Computer Science. To be honest, if all of my choices become approved, I'll become rather nervous. This will be my first time taking any sort of advanced placement classes, and I'm taking two at that. The pressure of schoolwork and grades would definitely be a constant thing on my mind next year. Also, if I would like to maintain as close to a 4.0 as possible, I would need to seriously change some habits of mine. The main point would just be procrastination. I have a huge tendency to work on things the last minute, or get distracted and so if I were to keep my grades up, this major bad habit would need some revising. Now I am fully aware of the fact that AP classes are meant to be taken because a student wants to learn more about a certain subject, or they want it for college credits, but truthfully I think the main reason why I took an AP class is because I wanted a challenge. The curriculum that is currently offered at Alameda High is rather odd. I find that there is a major difference in the regular classes compared with the advanced ones. I find that the advanced classes pushes a student, shaping critical values and skills such as work ethic and being prepared. Meanwhile, from experience and friends, the standard classes are just that, standard. They're not going to be a walk in the park, but the class itself won't push a student over the edge. You'll never find a student pulling an all-nigher due to a regular class, unless they needed to catch up on work, or something. All this is my opinion after all. Some people may feel very differently towards this subject, but from what I've heard from numerous amount of people, this is what I was able to deduce.

One really big thing that's going to bother me though, is that I forgot to turn in my schedule today to the office and so I'm worried about getting into my desired classes for net year. Do you think they'll allow for me to turn the slip in on the Monday we get back? Thoughts? Thanks.