Well, I guess he has it in his blood.
Will has started writing stories all the time. He draws a picture, then brings it to me and we outline a story about the picture. Then we come over to the computer, review our notes, and he tells me a story that I transcribe.
Anyway, I just had to post this one he wrote after hurricane Katrina. This is how a super-smart four-year-old deals with all of this:
The Nasty, Yucky Storm and Will English
by Will English
Once upon a time, Will, Will A., and Sarah were making a movie on the computer. The movie was about jumping on trampolines. Will would jump far away to every place in the world.
“Are you kidding me?” said Will.
Will A. said, “Yes. I’m kidding you.”
Will was inside, looking out the windows. “Hmmmmm…” said Will. He said “hmmmmmm” because the storm was going on outside. It went round and round and was trashing stuff and trying to eat Will’s “Darth Tater” toy.
The storm said, “Rrrrrrrrr, rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, rrrrrrrrr” going around and around all the time!
Then Will got into Flippy. Flippy is an optical mover. That makes him move/talk. Will started eating all the tools because he needed to become a robot. Eating all the tools makes the robot move, and drive, and crash into walls.
Then Will the Robot ate the storm! Will the Robot can do everything, and if it eats the storm, Will the Robot can spin around and around all the time.
Then Will the Robot spit out the storm, and the storm was eaten up. It was dead and invisible. Will the Robot had superpowers. Will’s friends are happy he has superpowers.
So Will the Robot goes inside and he sends the movie to a website called www.splashmediaplayer.com. He named the video “Jumping Trampolines and Thomas the Tank Engine.”
The End.
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Will English's "storm therapy"
You know, everyone has talked about how "racist" the response to Katrina was, but what about hardworking shripers, fishermen, and farmers who lived places like Cameron, Louisiana and lost everything in the blink of an eye? Are they not so important because they either had the sense to get out or knew how to weather this storm? Or maybe because they don't have someone like Ray Nagin grossly overstating the "likely" death toll so he can get more media coverage?
Or maybe the "racism" is that because these people choose to work hard and be self-sufficient and depend upon others in their communities for help rather than seek out the government and television cameras to cry out about how they need this and they need that, that they are not so compelling?
Who knows. It is a silent commentary, however, on the underlying currents that power the dialogue of demagogues who demand that race must be an issue in every human response in society.
Saturday, September 24, 2005
"Katrita"
That's what we've taken to calling the destruction over the last four weeks -- Katrita. Katrina knocked things down, Rita flooded them. We lost power for a bit because of a downed line RIGHT outside our subdivision, but it was only out for a few hours. All in all, it seems that in BR, Katrina caused more immediate destruction through the sheer force of her winds, but Rita's downpour has wreaked major havoc. We're well above sea level here, but when you get something like two-five inches of rain an hour for several hours, well, lots of areas would flood. We have some roads that are closed here, but to us, the most striking thing is what happened behind our house. Growing up in Kentucky, one learns to know when storms are coming and what to watch for. One also has a wide bredth of experience with different types and severity of thunderstorms. I have never been more afraid than I was listening to this storm last night. Granted, it might have something to do with having two kids to protect, but I slept very little, and when I did, I had frighteningly imagistic and realistic nightmares about our roof peeling off.
Well, when we woke up, I was shocked at what I saw behind our house. Scroll down and take a look for yourself.
After staying on all through the roughest parts of the storm overnight, we lost power during a period of relative calm at about 11 a.m. this morning. We don't let the lack of electricity keep us down -- Ben decides to get the Coleman stove out and "rustle up" some red beans and rice. While he was doing this, he told me that "everything tastes better over a camp stove cooked outdoors" and I was dubious until I actually tasted the meal...
Friday, September 23, 2005
Rita?
Ugh -- we're being inundated by rain. My neighbor has already lost a branch on her crepe myrtle. Just rain rain rain, though...pray we don't lost power again! More later...
Well, I really wanted nice pictures of the kids (particularly Adelaide -- Will is already prominently displayed about our home, trust me) but I really didn't want to pay an arm and a leg to a professional photographer. So I made my own little set-up -- basically a velour blanket thrown over a rocking chair, laundry basket, and diaper pail! -- with some nice light from Adelaide's window and an occasional prop from around the room. I couldn't be happier with the results -- in fact, the photo center at Wal-Mart here wouldn't give Ben my prints right away because they said they were obviously taken by a professional and we needed written consent to reprint them! (Not to brag or anything...) Ben had to argue with the lady for a while before he said there got to be a line behind him and he thinks he won the crowd over ("Seriously, my wife took these with a point-and-shoot digital camera at our house!) This one of the two kids, however, I think is just phenomenal, so I wanted to start out with it. Some other ones we like a lot follow.
