Trash Truck Day!

 Betsy and Mary Jane had a fun-filled Saturday morning as they went to the Sanitation Festival in West LA.  Trash trucks galore!!!  There was even a rolling, talking blue recycling bin (ok, maybe it was remote controlled by someone ten feet away but the little children didn't know that).

Daddy and Jack beside a trash truck.

Impromptu Reunion

Well, Mister John couldn't quite make it to his 25th high school reunion on Saturday so instead he met with a few of his Loyola compatriots from 1990.  For those keeping score, he graduated in 1989.  There's Scott on the left and Pete on the right.  Mister John is in the middle with the dorky NASA shirt.  Then again aren't almost all NASA shirts dorky?  Wear it loud and proud, man!

Anyway, Scott, Pete, and Mister John all had children running around at some point during the day.

It is important to note that after all these years, the people that Mister John hangs out with most are still his old HS buddies.  Others may come and go but the Loyola bond remains.

Jack Is Concerned That His Father Is a Goofball

Little Jack may be about 9 1/2 months old now but he's already starting to get concern over his father.  He thinks that Daddy is a bit odd.  While it was a Three-Hat Tuesday for Mary Jane, Daddy decided to wear one of her "hats."  This just looks silly as Daddy has a pink bucket on his head.  He then later sang something to the effect that "he keeps in there all day."  Mommy was nowhere to be seen during this photo shoot.

The Mad Hatter

Jack on the Move

While Mommy and Daddy are off conversing with family members, Jack has taken up to crawling around on the floor.  He calls it exploring as he has managed to get himself up on a small table next to where Aunt Nita usually sits.  Upon asking Jack why he did this somewhat dangerous stunt, his only response was, "gooooogaaagooo!"   No words have been more appropriately (are dare I say cutely) said.

It's also a great way to sneak up on a rabbit but I'll save that for another post.

ABCs on Guitar

Every once in a while, the girls just need to rock out.  In this video, they play the alphabet song with Grampa.

Why the Face Pics during Eating?

 Mary Jane, Betsy Jo, and Jack have all inquired as to why Daddy takes the majority of his pictures when they are eating at the table.  They have complained that they rarely look good in these photos and they usually have food on the face (or in some cases with Betsy in her hair!).  There has been no comment so far from Daddy.  He just keeps taking pictures.

Note on Previous Text

Getting ready for the mother of all tests tomorrow: the Comprehensive Exam for my Master's Degree in English Literature at Loyola Marymount University.  After five years, it will be nice to have a chance to complete this.

KINSmen

This literary theory is a hybrid comprised of some of the basic tenets of two Romantic poets, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.  Part of this theory is based upon Wordsworth's basic construct of poetry which he detailed in his "Preface to Lyrical Ballads" (1798) in that poetry is "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings."  This stipulates that all poetry derives from emotion.  I would take this one step further as emotion, not reason, drives all writers of prose and poetry to create their works.  All may be "vanity" but the inner desire to create has substantiated all these works.  Furthermore, Wordsworth proposes that poetry such be nature and simple, such that is literature written by any man to be read to or by another.  There would be no hierarchical ability for reception which deems that that only the erudite can grasp meaning.  In league with Wordsworth's famed comments on poetry, I also submit Coleridge's insistence of the "suspension of disbelief" which he posited in his Biographia Literaria (1817).  This states that the reader must consent themselves to the work presented no matter how fantastical it may be presented.  He initially created this theory to countermand the post-Enlightenment dis-attachments to ideas not related directly to reason.  Coleridge's theory can clearly resurrect itself in the 21st century where many critics disdain the majority of new works as based on previous archetypes and lacking originality.  Yet this is where the reader must be an active participant in the literary process and can differentiate between the real and the imaginary.  As non-historical, non-biographical works truly remain fiction as all plots would have never happened and thus be original to the reader to create mentally anew into their realm of belief.  To unify these concepts, my literary theory stipulates that proper literature is that which has understandable themes and conflicts, natural devices of syntax and diction, and originality.  Now one may decry the fate of such works as Paradise Lost, The Rape of the Lock, or Ulysses as they would not conform to this utilitarian form of literature.  Milton's epic may be classic but his literary construction leaves the poem untenable to large masses of people which thus render his work useless to many who might otherwise have appreciated the epic.  Similarly, the epic style and classical allusions in Pope's The Rape of the Lock would confound many although the apotheosis of the hair into a comet would be quite the imaginative and disbelieving conclusion.  Finally, Joyce's epic would fail in both manners which, although it is hailed by many as the most important novel of the 20th century, leaves the majority of the readers befuddled after the initial chapter and thus the novel would not be completed.  To put it simply, what is the point of literature as communication if the message cannot be conveyed to the largest audience available.  While by no means should the author's "dumb down" their message, there must be a unifying theory of literature which is more natural and lacking artifice.  To put it in a blunt acronym, KINS: Keep It Natural, Stupid.  In this way, all literature will be "kinsmen" so that we can share it more easily with one another and not fear the lack of reception due to author's pretense.

Plotting

Nothing quite says insurrection quite like Cookie Sue and Heidi sitting in the top level of their cage.

Time for an Afternoon Picnic

Lunch Time!

 This afternoon the Erb children decided to have a picnic in the background underneath the new swing/play set.  It's easier for them to sit about and make a mess as they know either the birds or the bunnies will get their stray vegetables.  While Baby Jack didn't have anything to eat (he still only eats once a day... peas... yum!), he participated by crawling underneath the large apparatus.

At the end of the feeding frenzy, the girls decided to flop for a mini-rest.  Jack's head, still up and about, wanted none of it.  Neither did the girls... they got up 30 seconds later to play on the slide.

My name is Jack, how may I help you?

Kids Not at Play