Sheila's Classroom Reading

The readings that were given the other day in class definitely covered the spectrum of what I would think Sheila's work entails. That being said, she proved to be a very gifted writer. It's not often that I enjoy listening to those types of readings, but in this case I did. I would have to say that overall though, my favorite of the readings was the happy one. While I would never condemn the idea of expressing the sad or unfortunate situations in one's life through verse or any other medium, I simply like to write, read, and hear of happy events more so than I do sad ones. Besides, the thought of being in Maui is one that I could think about all the time. Especially if my family and my girlfriend was there to join me. My hope would be that everyone would get some while we were there too! That aside, she talked of beacons in your life. The ones that you can picture more clearly than most other memories. Not just the images, but the sounds, the smells; the entire scene is embedded forever. Those beacons are the ones that should be grabbed tightly and held on to forever. They make the best of poems and stories in my opinion.

Other than the what I think of as "happy poem", the other piece that I really enjoyed was all of the stories of her childhood and the occurrences at place like Six Flags and Action Park. I could really relate to those stories. The car trips with the siblings and the parents, wondering when we would get there, having the anticipation mount as we pulled into the parking lot of wherever our destination was. All together, I think what I most enjoyed about those few stories was how honest and familiar they felt. The language and imagery made me revert to my childhood memories of roller coasters and loosing my bathing suit going down the water slide. As a side note, when you have swim trunks that are already entirely too loose for your waist, never go down head first. The overall honesty of the writing was very captivating and made listening all that much more enjoyable. To conclude with all this, I have to say thank you for giving us a free reading to respond to. You have no idea how much this helped me out. Thanks again for a great year!

Dave Housley Response

I attended the reading that Dave Housley gave at the Chambers Building a few weeks ago. Out of the three stories that he told, I have to admit that the third was my favorite. To be honest, that is most likely attributed to the fact that I did not understand or really "get" his first two pieces. The first struck me to be one that was meant to be quirky, but I guess that it didn't necessarily captivate my attention as much as the other two that he read. I did enjoy the second one despite the length of the story. Sometimes it's nice to hear long stories such as that one. A question that arose while I was hearing the tale was, "Did this really happen? And if it didn't, how in the world did he come up with something like this?" The idea of getting beat up outside of a strip club and played like a fiddle by a shady and obviously untrustworthy man that works for a car dealership is not a story that I feel as if I could conjure. However, this is me versus a man who writes for a living, so I suppose he definitely has a one up on me there. But regardless of how that story played out, like I said, I don't exactly know what I was supposed to take out of it. Or maybe I'm looking to much into it and the writing were simply created to be comical and put a smile on my face. Both of which they did do.

The story that I found myself being most interested in out of the three though, was the third one about the frog who had been kissed by a celebrity and was admitted into the world of Hollywood films stars. Not to mention all the drama and juvenile crap that goes with it on a day to day basis. The reason why I liked this story the most was because I was able to take the most out of it. I have always believed that a simple life is worth living more so than one that is filled with fame and fortune. Having said that, the idea that this prince would enjoy the life of a frog over the life of a celebrity is most definitely a testament to that belief. I try to remember though, that I am not one of the celebrities that live what most would call a "glamorous" life so I have absolutely no room to judge. All together, the three readings, whether I understood them or not, brought a much needed smile to my face in a time of trial at Penn State. And for that, I am very thankful.

SRTE

Yo, filled out the form for ya. I must say, a job very well done this semester. Kudos

What I've Learned

This semester certainly has been a long one, filled with early mornings on Tuesdays and Thursdays. But, nonetheless, I most definitely have learned much from taking this course. To start, I learned how to get up in the morning when you really don't want to. The trick, for me at least, is to start with a shower and a small breakfast. Nothing gets you going quite like hot water and a bacon, egg, and cheese bagel when your body doesn't want to move. On a more serious note, one of the things academically that I have learned is how to be a better writer. I have never written papers on the topics that we've covered in the past months. The advertisement analysis paper is an example of something that I had never done, and probably never would have if it were not for taking English 15. In addition to that, the memoir section was another focus that I had not had the opportunity to do outside of my periodical journaling. Getting to write, and especially receive personal feedback on the issue and the structure therein was something that definitely improved my writing skill as well as my style. A further example in the realm of writing that I have learned about is that of ethos, pathos, and logos. I had heard of these elements in writing, but have never taken the time in high school to explore them further on my own, simply because our teachers didn't cover that material. But learning of them and moreover learning how to use them properly and effectively helped tremendously in the writing and other papers that we had to do for the semester. Overall, the range of topics that we covered in our writing throughout the semester was what gave me the most experience and what I felt improved me the most as a writer.

To continue with this, I know that I have learned a lot about Penn State as a campus as well. I doubt that I would have ever made my way into the Palmer Art Museum if I hadn't had to go there in order to write a blog response on it. Furthermore I know for a fact that I would have never gone to see Kiss Me Kate, let alone any musical performance on campus, if I hadn't had to go to write a blog response on this as well. To add to that, even when we were required to meet at the Arboretum and the Library, the two places of which I had already visited several times, I still learned a great many things on both trips. The how-to-research lesson that was given to us at the library a few short weeks ago was probably one of the best hours that I could have spent anywhere else on campus this semester. All together, this class made me learn more about Penn State itself and the campus more so than all others that I've taken this semester combined.

As a final thought, taking English 15 has made me think about art in a very different way. I used to think about art to only be paintings that were done by Leonardo Di Vinci and sculptures done by Michelangelo. Now, I see art as most anything and everything. Music, literature, architecture, an even food preparation; all things that I would without a doubt the highest of artistic works. Going off of that, I have learned a new appreciation for the people that create these works of art. Going to the Palmer Art Museum as well as the Arboretum were two places that most taught that to me. I'm thankful everyday for being able to take this course and embrace all that I have learned, and all that has been taught to me.