Addendum to Charity-icon

Charity can also say the following words:
Banana
Boy
Soup
Please
Good Girl
Wowee!
Ow!

The Charity-icon or the LexiCharity

On May 14, 2009, I updated my Facebook status to:

Miranda Morley just went to pick up Charity, who threw her arms in the air and said, "Mama!"

Since then, Charity's vocabulary has exploded. Exactly a year ago, I took a linguistics class, and I wrote the first post in this blog about how I studied Charity's linguistic development and concluded that Charity was the most advanced six-month-old on the planet. Although I passed that class in April, I'm still acting the part of linguist when I listen to Charity speak. From babbling a year ago, she now has a vocabulary of around 40 words, and she sometimes even strings them together to make little sentences. Although the 40 words is actually a great deal above average, the fact that she's speaking single words and just beginning to form sentences is actually just about what most babies do at her age. Still, too me, its as fascinating as the International Phonetic Alphabet. (No, really, I do find that very interesting! I just wrote an article on it!)

Charity's Lexicon

(Words she says)

 Names

Mommy

Daddy

Ity (Charity)

Jesus

Animals & Sounds:

Ducky

Meow-Meow

Woof-Woof

Bear

Clothes & Body Parts

Shirt

Jacket

Eyes

Nose

Glasses

Butt-Butt

Shoe

Socks

Food and Eating Words

Crackers

Milk

Ice Cream

Cheese
Yucky
Yummy
Bite

Other Words

Bath

Shower

No

Yeah

Uh-Uh

Uh-Huh

Bye-Bye
Hi

Uh-Oh

Amen

Elmo

Pumpkin Pie

Shut

Toy

Play

Nigh-Night

Bot-Bot (Robot)

 

Merry Christmas, for Lack of a Better Title

After we already watched A Christmas Story one and a half times, I told Aaron he could change the cahnnel as long as he left it on something Christmas-y.

Only he would manage to find a Mythbusters episode about Christmas lights. Oh well, it gives me the opportunity to blog.

Our attempt at a non-materialistic Christmas was both a success and a failure. The success is that Charity seems to not be attaching too much excitment to the new topys. Like any other day, she's spending her time taking her old toys apart and banging them against each other in an attempt to make cool noises.

The failure? She got lots of presents. Yesterday I got swept up into the "Christmas Spirit" at dollar tree. Everything's only $1. But when you buy 50 items...

To be fair, about 25 of those items were overstocked Gerber Graduates snacks and juices that WERE NOT Christmas presents, but were simply good deals.

And I bought some frames for Charity's Christmas Portraits.

But the rest of the stuff was stocking stuffers for Aaron and Charity. Oh, well. Nothing was particularly "materialistic." And I didn't shop at Wal-Mart. I've actually managed to avoid Wal-Mart for the most part since I saw Capitalism: A Love Story. I've been doing most of my shopping at Aldi, which isn't much better. But it isn't Wal-Mart.

What's in the stocking?
- Coloring book, entitled Bible Stories
- Book, Thank God for my Friends
- Pack of jumbo crayons
- Two pack of slinkies
- Santa antlers (don't ask)
-  Frosted animal crackers
- Chocolate gold coins
- Jingle bell necklace

What was under the tree?
- Betta fish in a bowl, who Polly named Santa
- A large stuffed puppy with floppy ears who still remains nameless
- A Santa board book
- A Black and Decker Junior tool set, by far her favorite present


Another part of the success is the fact that presents haven't been the center of this Christmas. We read the Christmas story out of Charity's baby Bible while we ate breakfast before we opened preasants. And we've been trying to spend the day relaxing. For example, Charity has managed to pull the door off of her kitchen set and is now sitting comofortably in the refrigerator compartment. She found some sunscreen, which she is taking in and out of the microwave.

And I'm blogging, as Aaron watches ANOTHER holiday Mythbusters--this one about snowmen. (I know he's seen this episode before). The turkey breast is in the oven, and it's smelling good. Unfortunately, I did leave a Diet Pepsi in front of my stove's exhaust, and it exploded. Last time I left potatos there and found them perfectly cooked in time for dinner. Oh, well. You win some you loose some.

Finally, I have not yet worked today. I promised myself I would not work nor really think about work today. Not at least until 7PM or later. I have had so much to do lately between Purdue and freelancing and being sick that I've been stressed! So I am not working today. And then I am making a better plan tomorrow.

As a testamony to the fact that I'm not working is the disorganization of this post. To make that disorganization complete, let me end on this point--Santa brought Hamlet, our Hamster, some chew blocks. I better go give them to him.

Merry Christmas!

Earning a Bachelor of Science

There are some purchases I don't regret.  The year membership to Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry is one of them. My 25 ride train pass is another. With both of these items, I can go to Chicago and have fun with about $7 in my pocket--the price of a snack and a Diet Pepsi. (I fool myself into believing that I didn't spend $55 for the museum pass and over $100 for the train ticket.) This weekend, I took my friend Jessica and Charity to see the Christmas around the world display. Did Charity enjoy the decorated trees? Well, she didn't complain too much. What she really enjoyed was the farm exhibit and the water table in the children's Imaginatorium.  I tried her to something sophisticated, intellectual, unique (the life size hamster wheel, LED light accented dress, or slices of the human body); she was fascinated by the two things we Don't have at home in Chesterton--water and cows. Either way--she had fun. That's what it's all about.

Here's a picture of Charity and me in front of the great tree in the middle of the exhibit. OK, Charity wasn't having that much fun in this picture. But it was necessary! She started to have fun when fake snow started falling from the ceiling, however. The pictures of her reaching toward the snow have been stowed alongside the picture of the spectacular usage error I found at Subway near the museum--in the pictures that didn't quite turn out file. But while Charity took her nap, I decided to see what it would be like to join the Navy.  Apparently, it didn't work out so well. INCOMING...

Although the computer simulations in the Navy exhibit were so slow I thought I was back in first grade typing with KiKi the graphically challenged keyboardist, the exhibit made me want to play Battleship really badly. I think I'll dig out my old copy tomorrow--anyone up for a game?

After a semester full of never ending grading, visiting the Museum was the best way to kick off Christmas break. Two more days of freedom, and then grading round two begins. After that, freedom!

Merry Christmas!

Tradeoffs

In the past two days, I have been more productive than I have been in weeks. I finished one web article for Filterless (Read it here: http://www.filterless.net/2009/12/04/the-ever-changing-world-of-genre-in-defense-of-internet-writers/). I'm not a very good contributor, since the last time I contributed to this web site was in July! I also wrote two poems, submitted three poems to Flatmancrooked for their poetry contest, and almost finished a Thanksgiving story for an anthology (http://thanksgivingtales.com/).

However, I have made next to no money. Why must everything be a trade off? I have something close to 200 papers to read this weekend, and one of my own to write. And instead of doing it, I am considering writing something for this magazine: http://conciselymagazine.blogspot.com/.

For now, I plan not to think about it! Tomorrow, we're going to the German Market. Merry Christmas!

Happy American Holiday

The other day, one of my repeate offenders approached me about a possible paper topic. He wanted to write his exploratory essay on, "Why are teens so ungrateful?" Despite the fact this sounds more like a blog post title than an academic essay, I tried to let the kid down gently.

"What are you using for sources?" I asked, patientlly.

"I'm thinking about interviewing five parents about how their kids are ungrateful," he replied, a day after our research seminar on finding academic sources.

Geeze.

In a classic (student's name deleted) move, this kid was, once again, trying to get away with a rant for a paper. I'm guessing at least five of the required six pages would contain, verbatum, the lectures that his mother had given him about ingratitute. But despite this poor attempt, he inspired me to blob. (student's name deleted), if you're reading this, your topic was, literally, "inspirational." It was not, unfortunately, academic. This explains the "D."

However, I would have to agree that ingratitude is a trend I witness among not just teens, but almost everyone I encounter. The students I teach strut into meetings 20 minutes late and leave (true story) if I'm 3 minutes late. They want "A's" for showing up and points for trying. When reading their self-evaluations, they often tell me that things like assigning more than one thing at a time and making them take notes are "keeping them from learning;" I shouldn't do those things. In fact, they would learn much better if we just watched movies all day. And then they should all get "A's" and high paying jobs.

Given the fact that most of my students are around 18-years-old, this is understandable. But I've found that the attitude extends further than the classroom. As me to count the number of times I've heard a customer screaming at a cahsier because she didn't get the right change or the restaurant was sold out of ham sandwiches. Instead of saying "Thank You" for opening a door in a shopping mall, people cut in front of you when you're waiting to check out. And if you let someone in your lane on the highway, it's likely that they'll be shining their high beams to try to get you to move faster in the next five minutes.

Yesterday, during Thanksgiving, I got a text from one of my friends: "Happy American Holiday." Given the kind of recognition that Thanskgiving gets, I'd say this is about accurate. It's not about giving thanks or being grateful, it's about what happens the next day--the day when good, patriotic citizens pay homage to commericalism by purchasing things that they can't afford to impress other people instead of showing them that they love them through heartfelt expression. This year, people couldn't even wait for Friday, so the stores were open Thursday for those who wanted to forget about thanking and get to buying. The more stuff I have, the better I feel, the more I can forget about being grateful for what I have and figuring out what's important in my life.

This Friday, I participated in "Buy Nothing Day," and I failed. My daughter peed her pants, and I had to purchase a pair of sweats--at Wal-Mart of all places. Once that ship had sailed I figured I had better pick up a case of diet pepsi and a pack of batteries. My $11.96 didn't feel much like a betrayal because I didn't give in. You see, I try to observe Buy Nothing Day everyday. I buy things used, and I try not to let what I have define me. But am I grateful? In some ways, I am. But one thing that I realized was the fact that I treat jobs, recognition, and grades a lot like some people treat stuff. I've focused so much on not selling out to corporate America that maybe I've forgotten what I have sold out to, when the goal, really, was not to sell out to anything.

The Conference Proposal

This weekend, I got about half of what I wanted to get done finished, which is pretty good, I suppose. However, I have to present a conference proposal for a workshop tonight in class. After trying to write it before bed last night, I gave up and completed it while Charity was taking her (surprisingly early) morning nap. This is the conference: Framing the Human.  The proposal is below. I know it's not very good yet, but I would welcome any comments about the subject.

Oh, and on an amusing side note, I love Google, but sometimes it can be way off. For instance, this morning I was so tired I couldn't remember what The Sound and the Fury was called. I Googled Faulkner Works. What was my first result? FaulknerWorks: Custom Lighting and Accessories. I linked it so you can see that I'm not lying. :)

The Proposal

Throughout history, disabled people have been traditionally treated as other than human.  From the development of mental institutions and homes for the developmentally disabled where patients received substandard care, to the inclusion of disabled people in sideshows, disability has been long associated with both seclusion and spectacle.  Classic literature has not only recorded, but also promoted this stereotype. Margolis and Shapiro call the symbols of disability in classic literature “allegorical,” noting how the disabilities of Captain Ahab, Hook, and Tiny Tim represent the stereotypical fear, evil, and pity. 

Although contemporary literature, especially contemporary literature for young adults, has made an attempt to repeal these earlier stereotypes through the construction of characters who represent life with a disability more accurately, much of this literature is either formulaic—fables written in order to compel young people to treat their disabled peers with respect—or characteristic of a second wave of stereotypical writings.  For instance, William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying and John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, which are both frequently studied in high schools, present more complex images of the disabled mind while still promoting the image of the disabled person something other (perhaps more powerful than) human.  The exception to this is Mark Haddon’s recent novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time.  While this novel has received much critical attention for the author’s treatment of the main character, Christopher, a teenager with Aspergers, little has been done to probe the deeper recesses of this teenager’s thinking.  Through a study of the main character’s thought process, I will prove that Christopher’s deeply philosophical thinking sets Haddon’s novel apart from other portraits of disabled people, breaking both classic and contemporary stereotypes, and defining disability as a trait that enhances rather than negates an individual’s humanity.