Eddings series

Hello people's. Today I'm writing about a book series I recently finished. Here it goes.

The series I finished is called The Tamuli. If you've read some of my other blogs you know that one of my favorite authors is David Eddings because of his Belgariad books that I read as a kid. Well after he wrote the Belgariad and the Mallorean he started writing more fantasy like the Elenium and The Tamuli. The first two and the last two are both series that occur chronologically 1 after the other, the last two series are in a different universe then the first two. So wanting to read more David Eddings I got both of those series and quickly finished the Elenium and then The Tamuli. After reading all four of these series you notice all the similarities between them and the story telling pattern that Eddings has for fantasy. In all of the series the central conflict revolves around an extremely powerful artifact. In the Belgariad/Mallorean it's the orb of Aldur and in the Elenim/Tamuli its Bhelliom. Eddings has also listed out different backgrounds that a hero in fantasy can have, in the Belgariad/Mallorean the hero is Garion and he starts the book as a young boy who is unskilled and uneducated in what's happening so he finds out about the world he's in along with the reader. In the Elenium/Tamuli the hero is Sparhawk and Sparhawk is already a man who is educated and is skilled so it's harder to get the reader to learn about the world because Sparhawk already knows about it so people aren't constantly explaining things to him. There's also a good guy sorcerer and a traveling party of people that accompany the hero. In the Belagariad/Mallorean the sorcerer is Belgarath and Polgara and in the Elenium/Tamuli the sorcerer is Sephrenia. The party the hero travels with in the Belgariad/Mallorean is a group of people that fit into certain roles in fantasy like the huge Viking character, the witty thief, the man on horseback etc. Following Sparhawk is a slightly less diverse group of four Knights who have to be strategic as well as physically powerful, Sephrenia, a smart practical squire, and a thief or two. Both universes also have their own religion and gods and goddesses. In the first the gods are UL, Aldur, Torak, Belar, Chaldan, Issa, Nedra, and Mara and two different near omnipotent "destinies" fight for control over the universe. In the second universe the religion is a lot more complex. So in this universe nearly every culture has its own religion with its own gods and almost all of them are real and interact with each other. The largest one is the "Elene faith which has one God and many similarities to Christianity, there's also Styricum with has a thousand younger gods and who knows how many elder gods, the Tamul faith which also has many gods, and at least 3 other cultures which their own one God. And there I just listed the ones that are real. There are also two similar forces to the first universe which are Bhelliom, the good guy, and Klæl the very very bad guy, and both of these forces fight over many worlds that they create.

So there are some of the similarities between the two universes. Bye.


- By Ashton

Music

Hello peoples. Today I'm writing about some more music. Here it goes.

So almost all the songs I listen to are either rock or alternative and I've gotten some new alternative songs since my last music blog. First are a few rock songs that are really good when you are trying to get pumped up for something or you're angry. They're The Bird and The Worm by The Used, Cry by The Used, and Top Notch by Manchester Orchestra. I also have that creepy choir type music from the end of The Mist called The Host of Seraphim.

Now for the full list of Alternative songs I've gotten.

Best day of My Life by American Authors
Breakeven by The Script
Centuries by Fall Out Boy
Come With Me Now by KONGOS
Cool Kids by Echosmith
Counting Stars by OneRepublic
Demons by Imagine Dragons
Every Other Freckle by alt-J
Fade Away by The Black Heart Procession
For the First Time by The Script
Good Life by OneRepublic
Hey There Delilah by Plain White T's
I Bet My Life by Imagine Dragons
I Wanna Get Better by Bleachers
I'm Yours by Jason Mraz
It's Time by Imagine Dragons
Kill Your Heroes by AWOLNATION
Like Real People Do by Hozier
Love Don't Die by The Fray
Monster by Imagine Dragons
Nothing by The Script
On top of the World by Imagine Dragons
Paradise by Coldplay
Pompeii by Bastille
Pumped Up Kicks by Foster the People
Radioactive by Imagine Dragons
Riptide by Vance Joy
Safe and Sound by Capital Cities
Sail by AWOLNATION
Say It, Just Say It by The Mowgli's
Secrets by OneRepublic
Show Me What I'm Looking for by Carolina Liar
Somewhere Only We Know by Keane
Stolen Dance by Milky Chance
Sweater Weather by The Neighborhood
Sweet Disposition by The Temper Trap
Take Me to Church by Hozier
Trainwreck 1979 by Death from Above 1979
Use Somebody by Kings of Leon
Warriors by Imagine Dragons
We Are Young by Fun.
You Found Me by The Fray
Zombie by The Cranberries.

So there's my list of favorite Alternative songs. They're great, powerful, emotional songs and I love them. Bye.




- By Ashton

Christmas traditions

Hello people's. Today I'm talking about Christmas traditions. Here it goes.

Every year all of us have our own Christmas traditions. The most common ones are obviously putting Christmas lights up and a Christmas tree. In my family we have a small wooden log cabin and it's filled with windows and doors that go from 1 to 25. It's an advent calendar so whenever you get to the date you open up the corresponding window and there's candy inside for me and my brother and sister.

We have four types of Christmas ornaments. We have Lenox ornaments that my mom's parents have given us, these sculpted clay ones from my dad's parents, ornaments that are my dad's that are all superhero themed or nerdy in some way, and other ornaments we've gotten from various places. This year my mom separated all of the ornaments into piles based on which ones belonged to who. After that we all put most of our ornaments on the tree in the sunroom. We also have an angel on it and a bead string around it. There's another tree in our living room with lights on it but it's artificial and not as large.

My dad puts lights on the edge of roof. My grandad got a paint by numbers wooden Christmas themed train and it's been in the family since then and right now that's in my front yard. We also have rudolph's head on a stake.


His nose still glows. Every year we also buy or make Christmas themed cookies and watched Christmas movies.