Hi, this is the sixth installment of my blog for my English Composition I class. For this assignment, I had to read, watch and interpret four different texts, which I’ve listed, and have links to below. They are all to help with writing a blog which is counter factual to my last blog, Blog#5, Composing an Emotional Scene with Dialogue and Symbolism. Which I am also using for my Narrative Project.
In blog five I described an event in my life that to me and for me was an emotional time. From the decision to send in the application to be invited Hot Rod Magazines' Pump Gas Drags, to the emotional roller coaster of arguing with the plant manager and the head of H.R. where I used to work for the time off to go to Memphis to participate in the Pump Gas Drags. Arguing with work was the biggest road block I had, all of the other pieces pretty much fell into place. To explore the “what ifs” I would have to start with what if I never saw the advertisement or my friend hadn’t shown me the advertisement for the event. I would not have known the Pump Gas Drags were being held in ’08 so I wouldn’t of have had the thought planted in my head to go, and wouldn't have had a reason to go. If my Girlfriend would have said she didn’t want to go or couldn’t get the time off from her work, then I probably would have gone without her. She has stayed home for other things that I’ve have done with my car. I would have explained that I was going with or without her, she may or may not have been happy about it, but she would have understood that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. If my Parents would have said they couldn’t or didn’t want to go, then I wouldn’t have gone. Mostly because my Mom has been going and supporting me, in everything like this that I've been involved in, from Baseball to Football to Drag Racing. For them (her) not to go would have stopped me from going. Not being able to get the time off from work wouldn’t have stopped me, I definitely would have found a way to go. Even to the extreme of quitting my job to go, which I had thought about. Where I worked there were rules about absenteeism that I could have worked around to get the time off without pay, but it would have taken some work on my part to get it done. To me there are only two possible alternate endings. One would be me going without my Girlfriend, but still going. Two would be not going at all because my Parents couldn’t go or just didn’t want to go. The only one that seams feasible to me is the one where my Girlfriend doesn’t go. My parents at that time were always up for a trip somewhere they hadn’t been before. In hind sight I don’t think quitting my job would have been a good plan. I think the emotions of the moment got to me and influenced my decision-making process.
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Version 1
Hi, this is the fifth installment of my blog for my English Composition I class. For this assignment, I had to read and annotate seven different articles, which I’ve listed below with the links for each one. Five help with this writing genre and the other two, Hills Like White Elephants (Ernest Hemingway) and My Name is Margaret (Maya Angelou), we had to connect an emotional theme from them to a theme in our narrative scenes. I think my scene connects to Hills Like White Elephants because of the uncertainty and excitement I see in both stories. I’m not one to relive sad times in my life, so writing about those emotions isn’t what this blog is about for me. This is from the Spring of 2008 when I was invited to "Hot Rod Magazine’s “Pump Gas Drags.” This scene takes you through my process of applying for, and being accepted to participate in the Pump Gas Drags.
In early Spring of 2008, I was at work and we were on lunch and a friend of mine handed me the Hot Rod Magazine from January ‘08 and saw the advertisement for the Pump Gas Drags ,and was debating on whether I should send in the paperwork to see if I get invited. Hundreds of people send in their paperwork but only 75 are invited. The other reasons for the hesitation on sending in the paperwork was because this would be the first time we had traveled as far away as Memphis, Tennessee. Up to this time the furthest we had traveled was to Maple Grove Raceway in Reading, Pennsylvania, mostly we had stayed within Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland. Also, this was during the time when the gas prices were $4 and up for a gallon, and gas would be a definite factor on whether we would go. Before I sent in my application, I would have to talk to my Girlfriend and my parents, (racing is a family thing for me) and see if I could get the time off from work. I was on my way home from work to talk to my Girlfriend and see what she thought about the idea of going to Memphis and racing. When I arrived home she wasn’t home from work yet, so I had time to think of how I was going to pitch the idea of driving almost 1000 miles, dragging my car and all of the equipment we use while racing, plus luggage and food, and coordinate our time off from work. I thought it shouldn’t be that difficult to get her on board with the idea. When she got home, I waited a little while to tell her about my idea. She made dinner and we talked a little about our respective days and when we adjourned to the living room to relax and watch TV, I felt the time was right and explained my idea. I opened with, “What do you think about us going to Memphis for the “Pump Gas Drags?” My girlfriend replied, “Um, sure. That’s a really long trip. How are we going to do this? Trailer the car I guess?” I said,“Yep, how else are we going to get it there, load it on a plane?” She replied with, “Ok smart ass. I guess your parents would go too? I mean I guess they would definitely want to go. How are they going to feel about it?" I replied, “Well, I’ll have to talk to them about it. I don’t think I’ll be chosen by Hot Rod Magazine to go, so it’s probably not going to pan out.” A few days later, I spoke to Mom and Pop about it. They were on board with the idea. My Mom was excited to go, it was somewhere she hadn’t been. My Dad was thinking like me, and said, “You won’t get invited to go, it's just how our luck runs.” I took the leap, and I filled out the application and had my girlfriend email it to Hot Rod along with pictures of my Chevelle. I really didn’t hold out much hope that I’d ever hear back from them, so I just went on with my everyday life at that point. One morning, my girlfriend texted me while I was at work. The text read “call me as soon as you can." I called her and what followed was a huge shock. My girlfriend, in an excited but quiet voice, said, “DUDE, WE’RE GOING TO MEMPHIS!” I wasn’t sure if what I thought I heard was in fact what was said. In my state of shock I asked, “Seriously? No way!” My Girlfriend replied, “I’m dead serious Bill. I’ll read you the email.” As my girlfriend read me the email, I was still in disbelief. She’s reading off deadlines for submitting this and that, and of course there’s a deadline to tell them you accept the invitation. My best friend at work is standing next to me hearing my end of this conversation, and is motioning to me as if to say, “What’s going on?” I hung up with my girlfriend and said to my friend, “I am one of the 75 people out of hundreds who got picked to race in the Pump Gas Drags at Memphis Motor Sports Park.” As the words are coming out of my mouth, I still can’t believe what has just happened. Version 2 Hi, this is the fourth installment of my blog for my English Composition I class. For this assignment, I had to read and annotate three articles discussing the writing process. After reading the articles, I had to create a scene where I discuss writing with the authors and use three quotes from each of them. As I am not a coffee drinker, nor do I frequent book stores, and I’m not a social media fan either, so I thought I might try a different setting of where I run into Don Murray, Anne Lammott, and Mary Karr. I used a restaurant that my Girlfriend and I frequent named “Border Café”, not as different as I would have liked but it does the job. I’m pleased that I got the opportunity to read these pieces because it opened my eyes to how writing will always be a constant process, and how you have to push yourself through the stages of writing and revision. I’ve provided links to the articles below and I encourage you to check them out.
On Thursdays my Girlfriend and I go to a restaurant close to our townhouse that’s called Border Café, we go there because the food is excellent, if you like Tex-Mex/Cajun style food, which we do. Last Thursday when we went it was around 6:30pm and it was cold and raining like it had been most of the day, and we were anxious to get inside and get dinner, we were both starving. I was craving their fajitas and stressing about the blog due this week for my English Composition class which I should at least had some ideas for, instead I’m having the normal questions running through my head. How do I start writing? What should I even write about? What place should I use for the setting of the story? Can I just push it off to the last minute and pray I get it done in time? I’ve never been the best at writing, especially story telling it’s one of the genres in writing that I’m not good with letting other people read. After I have all these thoughts go through my head, I decide to not think about it until after we’re done dinner. I open the door for my Girlfriend and we go in the hostess seats us and we open our menus and begin to decide what we’re getting for dinner. We talk about what each of us is interested in getting for dinner. The waitress comes and asks if we are ready to order and we do. But during this process I over hear someone to right saying “We have to respect the student, not for his product, not for the paper we call literature by giving it a grade, but for the search for truth in which he is engaged.” I turned to see who was speaking and to my surprise it was Don Murray, I recognized him from his picture in the readings for my English Composition class. He was discussing his ideas on the writing process with two women who seemed to be very intrigued by the point he was trying to make, while enjoying their meals. I sat and listened to them for a minute as one of the women responded “Writing is painful, it’s ‘fun’ only for novices, the very young, and hacks” which was another phrase that I swore I had heard before. Then I realized that the two women he was with were Mary Karr and Anne Lamott! I made eye contact with Don Murray, he was sitting on an angle across from me, and asked him “Are you Don Murray?” and he responded ”Yes I am”, and I responded “I thought that was you“ and he proceeded to introduce Mary Karr and Anne Lamott to me. I began to tell them that I was taking an English Composition class and was stressing about writing this blog, and explained it to them. The three looked at each other and soon broke into huge smiles, at that point I knew I could ask them about the writing process. I asked “I thought writing was something either you were good at or you weren’t.” and once I said it, I knew I was in trouble. Anne responded with “Very few writers really know what they are doing until they’ve done it.” To which Don said “The writing process itself can be divided into three stages: prewriting, writing, and rewriting.” I got the feeling they all agreed but Anne leaned forward and said “Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere. Start by getting something, anything, down on paper.” I was in shock at the fact that I was talking to three writers who are well known and accomplished each in their own right sitting here talking to me about the writing process. At that point Mary replied with, “The idea is to get some scenes down. Let your mind roam down some alleys that may land in dead ends—that’s the nature of the process.” Thinking about what I was experiencing, I wished I was better prepared for this eventful evening but who knew I would go to dinner and run into theses three. I had to ask them about revision so I posed the question “Is revision a necessary evil, do you have to revise your work more than once. Do all authors need to revise?” Mary answered this question quickly with ”Other than a few instances of luck, good work only comes through revision, the best revisers often have reading habits that stretch back before the current age, which lends them a sense of history and raises their standards for quality.” I had one more question I wanted to ask before our dinner came and it looked like the three of them were getting ready to leave. “What is your opinion on the way writing is taught to students?” I asked them. Don responded with “Instead of teaching finished writing, we should teach unfinished writing, and glory in its unfinishedness.” Anne chimed in with "Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird." To which Don chuckled and added “And once you can look at your composition program with the realization you are teaching a process, you may be able to design a curriculum which works” at that point our dinner had arrived. I thanked them for their help and for answering my questions, and we said our goodbyes. We ate our dinner, and my night ended with me feeling much better about writing this blog I felt inspired and I with a few ideas on how to write it and what to write about. Plus, I had the opportunity to meet such a hospitable group of writers. |
Bill LewisThis is where I try to make meaning with the assignments for my English Composition class. Archives
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