Earliest Memory

It was summertime in Ballantine, Montana. I was playing outside with my sister. Mom and Dad were at work. Grandma Inez (not my grandma but might as well be) was inside watching "The Price is Right with Bob Barker". Ahh.... I miss waking up everyday to oatmeal and "The Price is Right". Anyways, me and my sister were outside on the swingset. I had just received a dog for my birthday and we named her Sadie. I was just swinging along minding my own business when Sadie suddenly swooped underneath me and took my shoe right off of my foot. She tore off across the yard and out into the alfalfa field with my sister and I hot on her heels. We were yelling and screaming at her but she just kept running. We returned home unsuccessful at capturing her. An hour or so later she came meandering back to the house where my sister and I were waiting in the tree for an ambush. Before she knew it we were on her like white on rice. BUT WAIT! She didn't have the shoe with her. After that day, shoes would always disappear from time to time and would get rediscovered by Mr. Oblander (neighboring farmer whom we leased our land to) when he came in his tractor (which I also drove with him from time to time) to bale the alfalfa. Good Ol Sadie

Victim of Eavesdropping

I was reading some of the eavesdropping blogs from some of my fellow classmates and was astonished when I came across a blog that was about me. This particular blog explained a situation that occured in the minutes before class started. I, Matthew Pollock, was sitting in my seat discussing the previous reading, Where are you going, Where have you been, with fellow classmate Tim Morton. Tim asked me what I thought about the ending of the story and I answered, "Oh that was so gay." I was saying this in regards to the ending of the story and that I didn't like the ending being open. While Tim and I were having this conversation, another fellow classmate overheard our conversation and asked me what I had said. I told her that I thought the ending of the story was gay. She then got quiet offended and asked me why I used the word "gay". I explained to her that I had no intention of offending anyone and was just explaining that I wasn't fond of the ending to the story. Class then started and I went on with my day. I didn't think anything of it until I just stumbled upon her blog about it. She states in her blog that, "He was referring to the story in question as "homosexual". When I read this I felt guilty because I had not intended to offend anyone by saying the work gay. Wikipedia defines the word "gay" in three different ways as follows:
1) The term was originally used primarily to refer to feelings of being carefree, happy, or bright and showy.
2) The term later began to be used in reference to homosexuality. In modern English, gay has come to be used as an adjective, and occasionally as a noun, that refers to the people, practices, and culture associated with homosexuality.
3) A new use became prevalent near the end of the 20th century amoung younger generations of speakers. This use has a meaning equivalent to rubbish or stupid (as in "That's so gay.") In this use the word does not mean "homosexual", so that it can be used, for example, of an inanimate object or abstract concept of which one disapproves.
As shown in the above definitions from wikipedia, the term "gay" has more than one meaning and can be used in context to mean "disapproval". When used in this context the word does not mean "homosexual". Therefore I was not using her "sexual identity" as an "insult" as she claimed in her blog. Miss Devynn Barela accused me of being a "bigot" which I am not because I am open to other opinions. I hope that Miss Barela now understands that I AM NOT a bigot and I will defend myself and my opinion when need be.

Smooth Talk

After watching the Smooth Talk video, I was suprised to see the ending. However, I was not happy with it. I stated previously in a blog that I would prefer a closed ending rather than an open ending. Yet I am not happy with closed ending and would much rather prefer the ending from "Where are you going, where have you been". It seems that I have changed my ways. I now understand why Joyce Carol Oates left the ending to "Where are you going, where have you been" open and it is BRILLIANT! I never thought that I would be having this overwhelming change of heart. This video helped me to realize that YES an open ending can be much more interesting than a closed ending.

The Pied Piper of Tucson

This sounds like an episode from CSI and yes I enjoyed this story. It is interesting to me how they describe the town as very dull and the only person that made it not dull was Smitty. This is true becasue Smitty is extremely interesting and that's what the whole story was about. When it concluded, and Smitty was gone, the town was once again dull. The girl at the end also states that, "There's nothing to do in this town. The only other town I know is Las Vegas and there's nothing to do there either." This is alarming to me because these girls can't find anything fun to do and the only time it was fun was when Smitty was causing havok and killing innocent girls. Smitty may have been a very interesting individual but I guarantee it wasn't fun for any of the girls that he murdured. But as the saying goes, the grass is always greener on the other side.

To His Coy Mistress

In class, Professor Sexton talked about the poem "To His Coy Mistress". This poem is of a man attempting to convince a woman to sleep with him. He brings up an interesting point that time is of the essence and therefore they should make love now rather than later. I agree with this idea and think we should all live by it. You never know what tomorrow is going to bring so you should make the most out of everyday. We also discussed modern pick-up lines in class and Mr. Sexton challenged the guys in the class to memorize and recite a Shakespearean poem to a lady at random to see if he could get her number. I am skeptical that this could work because people today are much different than in Shakespear's days. I think that most women today wouldn't take it seriously and would just think that it is a joke. However, one student did declare that he was going to attempt this so I am very interested to see what the outcome will be. I think even the pathetic and immature pick-up lines that we have today would work better. In any case, if the student does actually try this, he should also video tape it to show what the woman's expression and response is.

How do you know what you think unitl you see what you say?

An interesting question that Professor Sexton proposed at the end of class. Now this perplexed me at first, but it really does make sense. I am a Construction Engineering Technology major and I can correlate this to the construction process. Before beginning to construct a structure, hours and hours of engineering and designing must be conducted to ensure that the building will be "structurally sound". Meaning it will be safe for the entire projected life of that building. So before a contractor can think or know that the building will be "structurally sound" he must first see what the engineering and designing says about whether or not the building will be safe. This probably sounds confusing but basically we can not build a structure until it has been proven to be safe. This is probably completely different from the way Mr. Sexton was trying to portray this question but this is how I see it.

Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been

What happens? I don't know because they never told me. Oh wait, this is one of those stories where they leave the ending open so the reader can create their own ending right? Well I'm the type of person who usually prefers an exact ending but in this case it's ok. I think she killed him! See I'm the type of person who enjoys working in the shop and building things and being outdoors so I don't read much. However, many eons ago when I was a wee little boy, I did read novels and my favorite author was John Grisham. His novels always had an ending and maybe that's the reason I wasn't immediately fond of the open ending to this story.

Cruising Through Retellings

I was looking throught the required text for Lit 110, Retellings, and noticed a few things that caught my eye. Of course the pictures stood out as there were only a select few throughout the readings. When I came across the painting by Vincent Van Gogh, The Starry Night, I remembered when I had "attemped" to paint it in art class in 7th grade. Wow that's a long time ago! Am I getting old? I also recognized the lyrics from Bob Dylan's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue". In case anyone doesn't know, Bob Dylan is a LEGEND!!!! Yes that's right. A LEGEND! I wonder how his lyrics will correlate to the liturature in our class. Hmm......

Thoughts on Lit 110

What an extraordinary class. I never thought to look at stories the way I do in this class. Professor Sexton blew my mind right from day two when he knew the names of everyone in the class. Including a student who didn't even come to the first class. WOW! AMAZING!!!!