Blog Entry 4

"They were all on stage. They weren't only the audience, not only looking on; they were acting."
(Mansfield, Pg. 86)

I feel that this passage in the story is compelling because this revelation helps her cope with her lonely life and gives her daily ritual a purpose. Rather than being just another old and lonely woman she convinces herself that she is an actress in a play and attempts to infuse some excitement and glamour into what otherwise might be interpreted as a lonely old lady sitting on a park bench getting all dressed up for nothing. I wonder if she proceeds through the same emotional process each day or was the day in question ruined by the young couple on the bench? Regardless, this story is a good example of how various people find ways to cope with the feelings that accompany getting older and having your best days behind you, particularly if one does this alone. I don't know for certain if the author intended for this to be a sad short story or not....it certainly left me feeling that way.

Blog Entry 3: Freestyle

It comes as no surprise that Americans are putting down their books and replacing them with blackberries, home PCs, X-Box, and just about everything else you can think of. We have been slowly but surly outsourcing paper docs for electronic docs for years, you can barely survive in the world without a laptop computer. Kids are getting access to cellular phones soon after they speak there first words. Look at just about any formal job description and computer literacy will be at or near the top. Don't get me wrong, I do recognize all of the wonderful gifts that technology has provided us, I just don't want to see my entire life managed by a computer. Imagine a world wear all books, even libraries, are accessed via your home PC or blackberry. I'm sure there are those among us that would consider that technological advancement, I find it a little scary.

Blog Entry 2 Quote Response

"Then everybody's luck begins to run out. Lengel comes in from haggling with a truck full of cabbages on the lot and is about to scuttle into that door marked MANAGER behind he hides all day when the girls touch his eye" (Updike Pg 19)

This passage is important because it is when the story takes a marked turn and the primary change agent, Lengel, is introduced and confronts the three girls whom subsequently leave in earnest and causes the storyteller to abruptly quit on the spot. I think it is interesting because it quickly changes the entire plot and story line. The reader would be hard-presses to predict the final outcome of the story prior to the introduction of lengel. Another interesting aspect of this sentence is that it would seem that this is the straw that broke the camels back for the author, who is bored with the Small town he lives in and obviously already harbors some unhappiness with lengel, who finally pushes him over the edge when he confronts the three girls in the store.

ENGL 104 Blog Entry 1

Good evening,

My name is Jason and this will be my first ever blog post! I must say I was a little intimidated when I first discovered that I would be required to set up a blog account for this course but to my delight it was very simple and straightforward.

I am employed as firefighter in Washington State and am nearing the end of my college journey at EOU as I plan to complete my Degree in Fire Administration in Winter 2010. Like many other Pacific North westerners I enjoy spending time out doors when I am not working or attending to school work. Another hobby of mine is history, especially Egyptian and military history, and I very much enjoy reading about these two topics when I find the time.

I enjoy reading because it relaxes me and helps me unwind at the end of the day. Normally, unless I am on vacation, I only read at night before bed. When I was younger I read a balanced combination of fiction/non-fiction but as I have grown older I find that I only read non-fiction. The world around us is so fascinating and old that I find it difficult to waste my precious little personal reading time to subjects that are make-believe or never happened. I am not so sure this is a good thing but I find it hard to fight.

I took some time the other day to ask some of my co-workers what they read and why and here is what they had to say:

Steve- "I read mainly sports related material like Sports Illustrated and the occasional sports biography" As you can see Steve is a sports nut and when he is not reading about his favorite players in magazines he is following them on the Internet or the ESPN channel. When I inquired as to why Steve reads he replied "So I can have the best fantasy football team next year" Hmmm. Like I mentioned already, Steve is a sports fanatic.

Jeff- Jeff stated that he does not read nearly as much as he used to but when he gets the opportunity he enjoys reading fiction novels with a particular affinity for Steven King novels. Jeff stated that he enjoys reading because it keeps him from watching to much TV.

Grant- Grant enjoys learning about politics and likes to read about current and past political figures. Grant reads because he feels that people today don't have a good pulse on what is happening in the world around them and that it is his duty as a citizen to keep up on current events.

This concludes my first blog entry for ENGL 104 and I look forward to hearing from some of you soon, take care.

Jason