My last blog

On my grade sheet it said that I didnt have my photo assignment on here but there is a link right a few posts down that seems to work for me... I also turned my annotative bibliography for fiction in late because of a funeral I had to attend the week that it was due..

Summertime!!!

School's almost out and summer will be in full bloom for me as I make my way down to blistering hot Mesa, Arizona... I hoping to be able to continue adding to my Reading list, and hopefully Poetry list.. This class has made me mush more open minded about different reading material and authors, which will be nice when I'm trying to find a something new and different to read.

Shakespeare, Shakespeare, Shakespeare

When it's time for drama in any of my english classes I just dread it... I never enjoyed listening to Shakespeare and it's even worse reading it. I just don't enjoy that kind of drama. There is some drama that I like but usually it is in the form of a movie. I don't know for sure why I don't enjoy it but I think it is just the style and sound of the writing that instantly makes me uninterested. I'm going to try and read everything else besides Shakespeare with an open mind so that maybe it will strike an interest in me.

DRAMA

TRIFLES
by: Susan Glaspell

I kind of enjoyed this read... I wouldn't say that it is my favorite but it was okay:) There was death and scandal so it started out with some potential. It was a good enough start to my drama reading to make me continue with the rest of the section.

Book List

• Coe, Jonathon. The Rain Before It Falls. New York: Vintage Books, 2007.
  There are tapes that Gill’s late aunt, Rosamond has left behind, while listening to Rosamond speak of her life she learns of the loss and heartache of the women in her family.
  
• Faulkner, William. “A Rose for Emily, 1931.” Literature an Introduction to Fiction, Drama, and Writing. Longman, 2007. 28-34.
  Emily stayed hidden away in her home and didn’t allow visitors. People never knew what she was hiding until she died and they went into her house.
• Faulkner, William. “Barn Burning, 1939.” Literature an Introduction to Fiction, Drama, and Writing. Longman, 2007. 160-172.
  Sarty has never said anything before but finally decides to defy his father, Ab Snopes, when he
  goes to burn down another barn.
  
• Gardner,Earle Stanley. The Case of the Long legged Models. New York: Curtis Publishing, 1957. Perry Mason is the lawyer trying to figure out who killed Della Street’s father and in the process reveals many different secrets.
  
• Grimm, Jakob, and Whilhelm Grimm. “Godfather Death, 1812”. Literature an Introduction to Fiction, Drama, and Writing. Longman, 2007. 9-11.
  A boy receives the gift of being able to tell whether people will live or die from his godfather Death. Things don’t turn out the best for him when he doesn’t follow the rules that come along with his gift.
  
• Jin, Ha. “Saboteur, 2000.” Literature an Introduction to Fiction, Drama, and Writing. Longman, 2007. 178-185.
  After Mr. Chui is wrongly accused of disturbing the peace and is arrested he seeks revenge on the police who wronged him.
  
• Krakauer, Jon. Into the Wild. New York: Villard, 1996.
  Chris McCandless abandons his life and family after graduating from college. He heads to the wilderness and pavement on his quest for a life without material possessions, and to what this world offers.
  
• Olsen, Tillie. “I Stand Here Ironing, 1961.” Literature an Introduction to Fiction, Drama, and Writing. Longman, 2007. 637-642.
  A mother is telling the story of her first, failed, marriage and the child which came with it.
  
• Pears, Iain. The Portrait. New York: Penguin Group, 2005.
  An old friend is going to paints the portrait of a man. In the process the painter discusses their lives growing up, why he left London at the peak of his career, and why he’s finally ready to go back to the art civilization.
  
• Sparks, Nickolas. Message in a Bottle. New York: Warner Books, 1998.
  Theresa finds a bottle with a love message written in it and travels to North Carolina to find the man who wrote it.
  
• Sparks, Nickolas. The Gaurdian. New York: Warner Books, 2003.
  Four years after her husband died Julie decides to start dating again. She never realized the danger of dating until someone nearly destroys her life.
  
• Tallent, Elizabeth. “No One’s A Mystery, 1987.” Literature an Introduction to Fiction, Drama, and Writing. Longman, 2007. 245-247.
  A young girl, secretly, drives around and discusses her future with her married lover.
  
• Updike, John. “A & P, 1961.” Literature an Introduction to Fiction, Drama, and Writing. Longman, 2007. 14-19.
  Sammy, the checkout boy at the local supermarket, surprises everyone with a bold decision after defending the three girls who come into the store with only bathing suits on.

Picture assignment

My link to my new blog page with my pictures
http://ashleysvedin.blogspot.com/

Poetry

Ashley Svedin
Professor Hepworth
English 150
April 14, 2009
Poetry
Belloc, Hilaire. “Fatigue, 1923.” Literature an Introduction to Fiction, Drama, and Writing. Longman, 2007. 865.
Dickinson, Emily.”Emily Dickinson.” Literature an Introduction to Fiction, Drama, and Writing. Longman, 2007. 1014-1019.
Frost, Robert. “The Silken Tent, 1942.” Literature an Introduction to Fiction, Drama, and Writing. Longman, 2007. 780.
Herbert, George. “The Pulley, 1633.” Literature an Introduction to Fiction, Drama, and Writing. Longman, 2007. 778.
Hughes, Langston. Ku Klux, 1942.” Literature an Introduction to Fiction, Drama, and Writing. Longman, 2007. 1034-1035.
Simic, Charles. “My Shoes, 1967.” Literature an Introduction to Fiction, Drama, and Writing. Longman, 2007. 779.
Whitman, Walt. “Beat! Beat! Drums!, 1861.” Literature an Introduction to Fiction, Drama, and Writing. Longman, 2007. 845.
Whitman, Walt. “Cavalry Crossing a Ford, 1865.” Literature an Introduction to Fiction, Drama, and Writing. Longman, 2007. 879.
I’ve never really enjoyed reading poetry because I usually don’t understand it. After reading a few poems in class I, slowly, started to like it a little more. I enjoyed reading them in class and then discussing them. When I read them by myself I still don’t understand them a lot of the time; but I appreciate poetry more since taking the last few months to read it and discuss it in class.

A&P from Stoksie's point of view

I’m in the second checkout stand as the three girls stroll into the A&P supermarket on a warm, summer afternoon. I stopped to take a second look to confirm what my eyes saw, which happened to be three young girls coming into the store in their very little bathing suits. I thought I might be hallucinating, seeing as how my kids haven’t really let me sleep too much lately. We weren’t close enough to the beach for this to ever happen, so I just couldn’t quite wrap my head around it. I’m pretty sure if Lengel were here he would let them know that bathing suits in his A&P were not allowed.
Leading the pack of the three girls was the “Queen” whose legs went on for at least a mile. As she walked she didn’t bother to acknowledge anyone else in the store; she was the only one that mattered. Her suit was a faded pink color with the straps loosely dangling over her shoulders. She never once toiled with trying to adjust them. Striking and bold comes to mind and the way she was walking through the store was like it was her own personal runway; and the customers and employees were her audience. Following closely behind were the other two. Following the closest behind Queeny’s heels was a little lady with jet black hair that looked a little frizzed at the ends, you know that all natural look. She was very pretty but didn’t portray the confidence of her Queen. After stopping to admire the cookies, that we were having a two for one sale on, the third came scampering up from behind. She was the chubbiest of the three in a bright green two piece suit. She had a nice tan that stood out from the other girls but I still can’t stop thinking about Queeny.
Maybe it was because I was thinking about my younger years when I had no worries. After being woken up by my two kids at three in the morning for the past three days I can’t help but envy the young and carefree. My wife has been hounding me to get the lawn mowed, fix the leak in our bathroom, do this do that… I love her and the kids to death and I don’t know what I would do without them, but they can be a little draining especially after a long day of work with Lengel constantly hovering like a hawk. Oh I can’t think like this they are just young girls in bathing suits, they aren’t anything compared to my wife.
I make my way over to Sammy the newly graduated 19 year old, and admire the just a bit longer with him. I can’t help but notice how awestruck he is.
“How would you like to have one of them on your arm this Friday night,” I ask Sammy?
“Huh I can only dream… There’s no way they would ever notice me, I’m just the checkout boy,” said Sammy very self-consciously.
“Well maybe you should make them notice you Sammy,” I say as I make my way back to my checkout stand.
The girls wander around the store after talking to the butcher for a few seconds. Up and down the aisles they went searching for I don’t know what. I see them searching for an open register, me or Sammy. Then I catch Queeny’s eye and just as she is about to head over an old lady in oversized gray pants shoots into my lane out of nowhere. She has four cans of pineapple juice. What in the world is this lady going to do with these huge cans of pineapple juice. I get a little jealous of Sammy when I see that the girls are headed to his empty lane.
“So do you have any special plans for all of this pineapple juice Miss,” I curiously ask the baggy pants lady?
“What’s it to you,” asks Miss Baggy Pants?
“Oh umm I guess I was just curious but I guess it’s none of my business, I’m just here to serve you so if you’re happy with all of this pineapple juice you go right ahead and get it,” I say very awkwardly.
I notice that Lengel has gotten back into the store and has made his way to Sammy’s checkout stand. I can’t hear what he is saying but he looks like he is going to explode all over the place. He looks like he looked that one time when I stocked the canned food in the wrong order, oh yeah, and that one time when I spilt the whole crate of strawberries in the stock room. Sammy looked like he was turning purple I couldn’t tell if he was holding his breath or getting sick.
“Hey are you going to take my money, cause if you don’t take it soon I’m gonna leave,” barks Miss Baggy Pants.
“Oh I’m so sorry; your total came out to be $2.73. Okay out of $5. Your change is $2.27.,” I quickly blurt out, not wanting to miss any of the action over at the other register.
“With these kinds of prices I’m going to starve,” Miss Baggy Pants growls as she stomps away.
I barely catch what she says because I’m turning my attention over to Sammy’s register just in time to see Sammy untying his apron and walking out of the door. I don’t know what happened to the bathing suit girls or what Lengel said that made Sammy so mad nut I do know that Sammy no longer works at the A&P. It’s been a few days since the incident and I haven’t seen Sammy to ask him what happened and there’s no way I’m going to ask Lengel, so I guess I’ll just have to be in the dark.

The Gaurdian

I started a new book by Nicholas Sparks this week and I'm about half way through which is pretty good for me seeing as how I'm a slow reader and I don't have a lot of spair time on my hands. So for I am loving it... There's love and suspence in one which I think makes for a good story almost any time. I can't wait to finish!!

A & P

1. The way he describes the people talking to themselves as they are trying to remember everything they need to get while they are at the store really makes me think of the supermarket; also the variety of people that he talks about; the old lady watching everything that he scans and the lady in sweatpants with her cans of juice. These details help put me there cause I can imagine the many times when I have seen similiar sights at the supermarket.

2. By the way Updike describes Sammy's character I think of a self conscience boy wanting to get attention from the girls. He stairs at the girls while they are walking around the store wanting to get there attention but when they come to his check out stand he doesn't quite know what to say. He is admirable in sticking up for the girls but doesn;t stick up for them while they are getting in trouble it's after they have already left. I don't think he is any less of a hero in wanting the girls to notice him but he doesn't get the girls in the end and he ends up without a job. The doctor in "Godfather Death" wasn't described very much, just his career was described.

3. The exposition is the part of Sammy describing his point of view of the three girls as they came in and made their way around the store. The detailed portrait of Queenie is important to the rest of the stroy because it makes you think of her as someone superior, in charge, so when Lengel looks down on her it makes it that much more dramatic.

4. The more Sammy interacts with the girls and see's how they react to the situation with Lengel he becomes more attached and tries to protect them and make them feel better.

5. The dramatic conflict becomes apparent when Lengel the store manager walks into the store and sees the girls in nothing but their bathing suits. This leads to what I think is the climax of Sammy quitting in front of everyone.

6. Sammy quits his job to look like a hero to the girls and says says he doesnt like the way Lengel treated those girls and didn't think that he needed to embarrass them.

7. The way Sammy reacts while the girls are in the store, he is smitten with everything they are doing and he also describes the check out process and its sounds as if it were second nature to him.

8. I think that Sammy realizes that he made a mistake by quitting like that; the girls didn't acknowledge what he had done for them and now he would have to deal with his parents and Lengel seeing as how they were long family friends.

9. It seems to me that Updike is showing that supermarket society brings in all kinds of people, old, young, etc.. The store is like a pinball machine with all of the different aisles to go up and down. Sammy didn't seem very enthused about his job in the supermarket.

FATIGUE by: Hilaire Belloc

I'm tired of Love: I'm still more tired of Rhyme.
But Money gives me pleasure all the time.

Teenage Drama (Dialog Story)

"Jane! Come here," yells Christy.

"Hey how are you?" asks Jane.

"Well ya know same old same old. Just got out of math with Mr. Carson so the hard part of my day is over. How about you?" asks Christy?

"Oh I'm okay... I've been better," slowly exclaims Jane.

"Why what's up?" asks Christy

"Chris and I got in a fight last night. We were supposed to go out this weekend just the two of us, and did we, NO. He decided to invite all of his football buddies to the movies with us. So instead of watching The Notebook, like we had planned, we ended up watching some war movie that I don't even remember the name of. So anyways I was just really annoyed with him and he got mad because I was annoyed, and of course he wasn't listening to my reason why I was mad. So anyways, we got in this big argument and he left my house all mad. I just don't know what to do about it," exclaims Jane.

"I'm sorry Christy, but I'm sure if you just give it a little time everything will blow over and you guys will be back to you usual self again," reassuringly says Christy.

"I hope so he was pretty mad and I don't want to break up or anything I just want him to listen to me and do things that I want to do every once in a while. You know what I mean?," says Jane

"I totally see where you're coming from and I would feel the same way if I was in your position," says Christy.

"Chris wait up!" yells Jane, " thanks for making me feel better Christy, I'll let you know how everything goes."

"No problem, I'm always here for you," says Christy. "Oh and I hope everything works out" yells Christy as Jane makes her way to Chris.

No One's a Mystery - by: Elizabeth Tallent

1. The "five-year diary with a latch and a little key" that Jack presents to the narrator functions symbolically in the story because the things that the narrator will write in there are a secret for only her to see like their relationship. Jack's affair is kept a secret from his wife with an latch and little key that only Jack and the narrator know about.

2. We know that Jack is married and it sounds like his wife doesn't know that Jack is having an affair. Jack's life with his wife sounds very predictable, he knows that he's going to get meatloaf for dinner, he knows that she won't turn around and look in her rearview mirror. Jack sounds like he's bored and has too much time on his hands.

3. Jack doesn't see himself in the girls life in the future, they will no longer be having an affair in a year. The girl loves Jack and wants to marry him despite the fact that he's married because she talks about writing in her journal that they are going to have multiple kids together and have a happy future together.

4. I don't the think the narrator wants to know the truth. She is having an affair with a married man who makes it sound like they don't have a future together and has to keep their relationship a secret from the world, I think that she already knows the truth and is in denial.

5. The title of the story is " No One's a Mystery" and I think it is ironic for this story. Thier relationship is a mystery, the individuals in the story are mysteries. Nothing is certain it's a mystery.

Service Learning Ideas

• Go to the elementary schools and help students with reading
• Have a story time at a library in the area a couple times a month
• Read to elderly people, at hospitals, nursing homes, their homes, etc..

I'm Nobody! Who are you? - Emily Dickinson

I'm Nobody! Who are you?

Are you - Nobody - Too?

Then there's a pair of us!

Don't tell! they'd advertise - you know!

How dreary - to be - Somebody!

How - public like a Frog -

To Tell one's name - the livelong June -

To an admiring Bog!

My version of Emily Dickinson's - I'm Nobody! Who are you?

I'm Somebody, Who are you?
Are you Somebody, too?
Then that makes two of us.
Tell all! So everyone will know.
So dreadful to be nobody.
For no one to talk to.
No one will know - who I might be.
For everyone to talk to.

Thursday's Class

Today for class Sara, Jill, and I met in the classroom and made the nominations blog. It includes 5 limericks and 4 videos. We looked at all of the limericks and poems in the class and chose the ones that we liked best. We left the links on the site so the rest of the class can go and vote for which ones they like best.

What is fiction?

Fiction is a story that isn't all true, it's what someone can come up with in their imagination.

Limerick

Breakfast with He

He ate his breakfast with me
Me, no I didn't want any tea
I ate an omelet with cheese and tomatoes
and said no to the fried potatoes
Then he put his hand on my knee.

The Grand Canyon

"Mountains of music swell in the rivers, hills of music billow in the creeks, and the meadows of music murmur in the rills that ripple over the rocks, while other melodies are heard in the gorges of the lateral canyons. The Grand Canyon is a land of song."

-John Wesley Powell

I found this while looking through the book, Down the Colorado, by John Wesley Powell and Eliot Porter. I've never been to the Grand Canyon but I have always wanted to go. When I read this quote by Powel it made me want to go even more. When he calls it a land of song and uses such great description who wouldn't want to see what he's talking about.

CURSES

May you never have enough milk for your cereal.

May you always get the crumpled up chips at the bottom of the bag.

May you always snag your line while fishing.

Assignments

I think that we have had a lot of interesting assignments... I like the different excercises that we've done in class, it helps me when I can talk with other people and hear their ideas. I know I need to lower my writing expectations for myself because I have a hard time thinking of stuff to write about and I always think it sounds bad. Maybe if I write more often and just write whatever comes to mind then I will have more work to choose from. I always feel a little lost or confused when I leave class about what exactly my homework is or what I need to blog about. I haven't blogged as much as I should, I just don't quite know for sure what to blog about.

Sonnet

I sliced my Grapefruit in half
to eat for my breakfast today
there wasn't enough for a giraffe
it was quite delicious I must say

Sweet, with a bit of a bite
it was the color of bright yellow and pink
Delicious, Nutritious, and Light


To be continued...

Class assigned readings:

Drama:
Sure Thing - David Ives
Beauty - Jane Martin

Poetry:
Success is counted sweetest, I taste liquor never brewed, Wild Nights - Wild Nights!, I felt a Funeral, in my Brain, I'm Nobody! Who are you?, I dwell in Possibility, The Soul selects her own Society, Some keep the Sabbath going to Church, After great Pain, a feeling comes, This is my letter to the World, I heard a fly buzz - when I died, I started Early - Took my Dog, Because I could not stop for Death, The Bustle in a House, Tell all the Truth but tell it slant - all of these by Emily Dickinson
Ku Klux - Langston Hughes

Songs:
The Times They Are a-Changin' - Bob Dylan
from Peter Piper - Run D.M.C.
Eleanor Rigby - John Lennon and Paul McCartney
Ballad of Birmingham - Dudley Randall
To Celia - Bem Jonson
The Cruel Mother- Anonymous

Short Stories:
I Stand Here Ironing - Tillie Olsen
A & P - John Updike

books, short stories, and poems read:

Saboteur - Ha Jin
Fatigue - Hilaire Belloc
My Shoes - Charles Simic
The Silken Tent - Robert Frost
The Pulley - George Herbert
Cavalry Crossing a Ford - Walt Whitman
Beat! Beat! Drums! - Walt Whitman
The Case of the Long-Legged Model - Earle Stanley Gardner
Into the Wild - Jon Krakauer
Message in a Bottle - Nicholas Sparks

The Best Love

Happy I'm alive
With all my family and friends
the Best kind of love

All Alone

All alone today
eating this box of chocolates
that I bought myself

Fire and Ice: Robert Frost

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice,

I Stand Here Ironing by: Tillie Olsen

I really enjoyed reading this short story by Tillie Olsen, who I've never heard of until now. I thought it gave great insight of a mother who struggled to raise her daughter the way she hoped she would have. It was more of her not being able to give her oldest daughter the same care she was to the other children. She was raising her oldest daughter, Emily, without the support of a husband for the first years of her life.

She had to go to work to try and support the two of them. First working days and then she found a job working nights but it got to the point where she had to take Emily to her father's parents house. By the time she was able to see her again a lot of time had passed, Emily was walking and she had many traits that resembled her father. She was two when she was sent to nursery school and she tried to convince her mother, with a new story every morning, that they should not leave the house and that she shouldn't go to school. She never gave direct protest or had loud outburst as the other children did. She wanted to spend her days bonding with her mother. Emily's mother eventually remarried and had four more children.

An old man who lived behind them once said to the mother, "You should smile at Emily more when you look at her." Emily did not smile easy, she was quiet and somber. Emily had to be sent away for eight months when she was seven to recover from red measles.

Emily and her sister Susan only had a few good moments together. Susan was everything that Emily was not. Susan was five years behind Emily but was only a year behind when compared in physical development. Emily was very self-concious about what she said and looked like. Emily had to help her mother do the mothering;with the four younger brothers and sisters she was the one helping to get everyone ready for school and doign chores she had no time to be a child herself.

There were moments when Emily's mother was busy writing letter, doing chores,and ironing that Emily would imitate different things from school, to make her mother laugh. Then one day she decided to perform in school amatuer show and won. She started gettign asked to perform at other schools. Emily was left to do with the gift what she could because her mother didn't have the money or the knowledge of what to do with her talent.

When Emily came home one night she said, " Don't get me up with the rest in the morning." She had midterms the next morning but didn't think that school was all that important when everyone would be atom-dead in a matter of a bit. Emily really believed this. Should her mother just let her be; or should help her see that she was more than the helpless dress on the ironing board. Emily had talent that needed a little push to grow and to succeed.

We all have talents that are unique and make us who we are. We need to cherish what we have been given and have pride in ourselves and our uniqueness.

Response to President Obama’s Inaugural Response
The hard choices our country has to make… There are many hard choices our country has to make, as a nation and as individuals to keep our nation strong, successful, and flourishing. With our economy in a financial crisis we have to decide what is the best way to help all of those in need. Without the availability of jobs and many people losing the jobs they once held, being able to see a brighter future is difficult. If people lose hope of a brighter future then how will we be able to get back to the thriving nation we once were. I cannot say what President Obama and our nation’s leaders should do to help people without jobs and without the finances to pay their bills. Going from a consumer nation to a saving nation could be a healthy step forward. For the time being I know one thing I can do is support my leaders. If we can join together and work as one instead of having selfish, greedy desires then we can grow stronger together. It has always been common knowledge, to me, that when I see someone in need I should do my best to help them in any way I can. If everyone will take the time to seek after those in need and help their neighbors then those who have lost their jobs will hopefully be able to make it through and maybe the number of families losing their homes will stop rising.
I don’t think our schools are failing us I believe you get out of school what you put into it. If you go into school wanting to learn everything there is to learn and earnestly strive to do that then you can succeed in doing so. Yes with the cost of school these days it might be more difficult to get the opportunity to go to school, but if you set your mind to it then you can succeed. I hope that one day school can be more attainable for everyone seeking to further their education. School is a very costly thing and when you don’t have the financial help available to you that there used to be then school more than likely will be put on the back burner for a while. I would hope that our teachers are teaching because that is their passion and that they are doing the best that they can with the resources available to them. Since “greatness is never given it is earned”, then we must earn our greatness, and earning greatness takes a long time and a lot of hard work.
Yes I believe everyone wants to have leisure time in their lives but, no, not everyone prefers leisure, only, over all work. Working hard to accomplish your goals is very rewarding and being able to see the joy you can give to others through your hard work is also very rewarding. Using our individual gifts and talents to help and support others will make our nation a stronger one.
I can’t say exactly what he was referring to when he said, “that those who question the scale of our ambitions have forgotten what this country has already done” because well I can’t read minds but our country has done many great things since we became a nation. We have become the one of the most powerful nations in the world. We have gotten to this place by the hard work of every individual. I feel as though our nation does favor the prosperous much more than those who are a part of the middle of lower classes. To grow as one we must all work together and be treated as equals. Every individual plays an important role in our country, and for us to become a better country we all have to become better individuals. No one is entitled to something more because of the amount of money they make or the career they have. We are all Americans and deserve a fair chance. We all need to receive equal punishment also.
We must grow as a together as a country and strive to become better individuals which will then make our nation as a whole stronger. President Obama said, “To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist,” I hope that all will read these words and unclench their fists; those of different nations and fellow Americans. If we have the will to work together and use the resources that are right out our front doors then we can grow stronger as a nation and then be able to help the needy in other countries.