Self-Introduction

My name is Cody Valentine. I am a computer science and engineering pre-major, although I plan to try double-majoring in biomedical engineering as well. Most of my difficulties in doing so stem from a very busy schedule, as I live ninety minutes away and work night shifts at a fast food place. This mostly comes from my natural tendency to stay up at night, as I described with my quote comparing me to a lamp being turned off during the day.

My major passion in life is reading. A typical free day for me consists of picking up a good high fantasy novel and reading through as much of it as I possibly can. My favorite authors are Terry Brooks and Robert Jordan. I specifically enjoy authors that try to deconstruct the typical cliches found in the high fantasy genre that have been prevalent since Tolkien, since such cliches have become overwhelming and repetitive.

Despite my love of reading, I have never had a major penchant for writing. My writing tends to be too formulaic, and comes out in a rather bland style. This comes as a disappointment for me, since I think it would be fascinating to try writing a fantasy novel of my own. Crafting a world of magic and dragons has always been an exciting idea, but which I could do more realistically by creating a video game than writing. I am looking forward to trying to improve my writing skills in this English course, particularly through this interesting blogging project.