Where am I? 4 Yrs Later

I'M BACK. FOUR YEARS LATER. Well, here I am, breaking the promise I swore on nearly four years ago. I never planned on landing back in this abandoned world of blogposts from my magical twelve-year-old brain. My life has changed, so many things have been transformed. I stare at each blogpost, wondering what was going through my mind at the time. Anonymous? I guess that's my name? Anonymous. Storypedia. Really? I guess.. I live in Los Angeles, California, and my goal has always been to expose this place for what it really is: a giant wasteland scattered with the dirty and disgusting footprints of overrated celebrities. I am a student stuck in the cracks of the sidewalk that no one cares enough to avoid stepping on. Now, they call me a sophomore. In a town where flaunting five-thousand-dollar dresses and hundred-thousand-dollar cars is the norm. Since when did I live in such a materialistic society? Well, I always have, but I never have been part of it. Aloof, I am not part of the culture they call valued here. I don't enjoy driving around in a $80,000 BMW SUV like everyone else. I don't have money falling out of my pockets like it's dust. I am just me, the kid with a T-shirt for every day of the week and a whatever lifestyle. Anyway, it's been great revisiting my hometown, Storypedia. But I gotta go. Finals tomorrow. Peace out.

Mrs. Weiss, can you hear me? How are you? What's going on?

The End & *Re: Three (Times Two, Minus One) Questions & Another Good-Bye Animoto!!!

Well, the time has come to an end for Storypedia, the Blogging Encyclopedia. There was so much to do for the last month...writing stories, answering questions, helping users wander online to another new image generator or photo-sharing site, a useful program that costs nothing that can be awesome for school and at home, such as Google Docs, and maybe Voice Thread, and an animation program that is useful for all occasions--Animoto. It has only been five or six weeks, and it is already time to move on to a new elective! Great, now my now elective is what all boys want their elective to be....DRAMA! Awesome, isn't it? (Not really...) All the other kids who've done it say it is fun, and maybe it is. But Computer Connections will always be one of my favorites. Why am I moving on to a new elective? you ask. Well, our school is not like others (in a lot of ways...). Instead of one single elective in sixth grade, you get six of them, at least I am pretty sure. Four of these include art, computers, research skills (AKA Computer Connections; the class in which I am leaving as of Mon 5:59 pm, Oct 5, and I made this entire blog for), and drama. I liked computer connections, yet I didn't like the fact that the class was a "pass/fail" class, or in another words, if you do not get an A or a B or C, but instead you a P for passing. If you get a D or F, you get a F for failing. So kids can just slack off and put five-word sentences, and still get a P! How insane! And I did all of this work for a curvy, outrageous P! Notice how I have a button at the bottom of this blog that says "Older Posts". I have currently (as of 6:06 pm October 5, 2009) around 25 posts, and I am probably the only student who has two"Older Posts" buttons. Some have one, and some don't even have any! (Each main page gets 10 posts) What I also didn't like was how we didn't get to learn that much about research skills for the Internet. We just did a small blog, and most passed. I learned some things I didn't know before, like copyright, registered, and trademark. I always wondered what that "Copyright (year)" meant or "(Company) TM" meant or any of that stuff. Now I know that it means you can't take something that says something like copyright 2003 or even copyright 1903 by the Bell System, or something like that, because even then you have to ask the company if you can, and pay for the rights to. You then have to give credit to them, like I have done for most of the photos in my blog. Most people don't follow this rule, and usually, I don't either! The Internet has changed this dramatically, and even if "two wrongs don't make a right," what about, "five billion wrongs making a right!" Seriously, who cares anymore....(Legally advised, once again, to tell you, you always should follow copyright laws!) I do follow copyright laws, but the government is not doing that much to stop us from breaking them...There still will be Storypedia, and I have developed a horrible habit of constantly writing posts for Storypedia, but soon I know I will have to learn to stop. Storypedia is ALWAYS available for the public to see, but I solemnly swear to not upload a single post after this one. Along the way, my teacher has created these links to help our class learn more about blogs and have fun with them. If you are starting a blog, and want to share with the public something more interesting that how you are drinking coffee or at the super market, than I suggest you go to these links: AEW Computer Connections 2.0 and AEW Keeping Up. There are more links, but I recommend these ones the most. Here are my *Three (Times Two, Minus One) Questions and I also made another (third) Animoto! Here they are:

Q1. What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
A1. Obviously, learning about the Internet, and expressing myself with this blog, writing stories along the way, and I absolutely loved making videos on Animoto and morphing photos into other cool stuff on Big Huge Labs and other image generators.
Q2. Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised
you?
A2. I was surprised to see that my blog was the longest at the end, but besides this, I honestly wasn't surprised to see how much I could do on the Internet. I was also surprised to see that you can now look at books for free on Google Books, instead of buying them at a store! It really was an experience full of things I didn't know about, that I now do, though.
Q3. What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?
A3. Hate to break it to you, but a lot...We should have spent time without the computers, just for at least a day each week, looking at cool videos you can find for us on your computer, and learning more about the Internet...We also could have some free time, and should have been able to listen to music and watch videos on Youtube, that even then could help us learn. And maybe we should have been able to write stories for the whole world to see! We could write about a boy who lost his mother, or how the environment can affects both kids and adults, and how kids could know how to solve these problems ourselves! And we really should have taken time to show everyone's blog, even if it was bad, and especially short...It honestly is not fair if you show someone's small blog to the class, and not a big, wondrous blog (like this one; sad face)!
Q4. If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you choose to
participate?
A4. WELL, that is a hard question, because I really like rotating to different programs, and not just staying with one, like we have to do after sixth grade...But if it was for a short period of time, maybe around one to two months, because it can get boring, definitely. But it is so fun for the time being!!!!
Q5. How would you describe your learning experience in ONE WORD or in ONE
SENTENCE, so we could use your words to promote Middle School 2.0 learning
activities?
A5. Well, this is a hard question, because I have almost never written anything that is just ONE teeny weeny little word or sentence (this does not count; the following sentence does):
I think my word would be.......computercrazzyoccciousolicouspiousphere!


Please ignore the date (it is NOT Dec 21 2012, but since that is the "end of the world," it is also the end of my blog!)
Image Copyright 2009 by Anonymous Storypedia, Edited on Big Huge Labs, and http://www.newscientist.com/blog/environment/2006_12_01_archive.html


This is my visitor locations map. It shows how many people have visited my blog after its end (Oct 10). The updates (have) start(ed) on Oct 12 2009.

Storypedia Asks You

Essential Question: If you were in sixth grade and had to write a novel based on both of these plots and summaries, how would you do it using built vocabulary & word structure?

The View From A Pumpkin Patch
Plot and Summary
Mourning the loss of her mother's death, nine year-old Noah unlikely befriends independent and brutal Kajal, as the two help each other by discussing what is missing in their lives. After Kajal is paralyzed below the waist, and befriends Noah, she realizes the true meaning of friendship and the importance of family. Meanwhile, even though Noah's sister, Nadia, has been considered strange and a loser throughout all her years of education by her classmates, her optimism and the spirit of her mother left behind do not allow her to feel that way about herself.
Planted
Plot and Summary
Living their whole lives next to coal-burning power plant, thirteen year-old Alissa and eleven year-old Margret, after raising the money, escape from their polluting parents who run the plant, to travel the world and conduct experiments that they hope will change the environment forever.

Essential Question: Do you think sixth grade should be in elementary school or middle school?
Decide by using your instincts, your experience in sixth grade, and the information below:
Some information gathered from The Los Angeles Times (online):
The LAUSD school board of education has decided to make a goal to put sixth grade in all elementary schools by 2012. (Quoted from a 2007 article)
Do you think this a good decision? There are a lot of weird things going on in middle school today--mostly things that sixth graders should not have to be subjected to. It has only been about thirty years, you know, since the national change of taking sixth grade from elementary school and putting it in middle school occurred.
The Standardized Test Scores (STAR test scores) show that sixth graders in middle school have lower test scores than the ones in elementary school--probably because of all the new changing classes and all the work. In fourth and fifth grade, you also get introduced into Rotation (at my school):
You have regular class, and then math, and then more regular class. There are two different types of math, and not everyone switches, but most do: Advanced (more than State Standards) and Regular (State Standards). Usually one to two months before the end of Advanced, you finish the textbook, unlike Regular where you don't get to finishing the textbook most often. In fifth grade, you get pages from sixth grade textbooks and algebra, if you're in Advanced.
But this is only pre-rotation, not full rotation.
But the CA Standardized Tests also show that seventh graders who enter middle school for the first year have worse test scores than the ones who have already been in middle school for a year....Maybe sixth graders should have half a year in elementary school, and half a year in middle school. Maybe that will solve all of this madness....
with Also: Do you think the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) will stick to what it said in the 2007 article? Woodland Hills Elementary is an elementary school (circa 2009-2010) and it still doesn't have sixth grade in it....But some schools in the LAUSD do. (Do not confuse LAUSD with the Las Virgenes Unified School District, or LVUSD.)

Essential Question: Do you think kids should get paid to go to school? Explain using your instincts and resources below:

School is just another way of saying "work before actual work" isn't it? And in actual work, you get paid money. In most cases, minimum wages, and in some cases, maximum wages...So you should at least get to use some of this scale in school, right? It starts in first grade. You get paid $5 for a good job when you get your report card, but there are some flaws in this experiment, so you would also have to pay $5 if you do a bad job. In second grade, the amounts are multiplied by 1.25. And then, in third grade, the second grade amounts are multiplied by 1.5. But in fourth and fifth grade, here is where you can earn a lot of money. Every test you take will have a certain amount of points, whether it is for all of you grade or for little of it. Every test is worth five points; multiple choice; seven points; free response, total questions being 25.

In middle school and high school, things get tougher. Try to experiment with your own grading scale, because mine will be way to confusing....In college, you get paid nothing. Sorry!

Self-Questions

Essential Question: To prevent all the gasses and exhaust that come out from cars, do you think we should travel on horses?

Essential Question: If you had the option of being an author or an actor, which one would you be?

Essential Question: Would you rather live as a child in the 19th century, 1900s, 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, or 2009? Explain.

Will Life Continue?

Environmental Issues......
Watch how one girl silenced the world for five minutes with a truly encouraging speech.
It's to bad she couldn't change anything, though.......
Also: Watch my second Animoto on how the environment does matter:

The Power of Google Docs

Google Docs is a new online service in which you can do MANY things.
ONE of these things is to make a DOCUMENT, a SPREADSHEET, or even a PRESENTATION. It has all the features of Microsoft Word, except it's free!
NUMBER TWO. Other people can edit your document if you think it doesn't sound right. For example, if you are writing a love letter to your girlfriend, and you don't think it sounds right, you can invite your friends to edit the document. Or if you are writing a report for school with a partner, and somehow you need to communicate with each other. Usually when you and your friend are using the same computer, you fight to use it. One will say, "My turn," and the other will say, "Give me it back," and things just won't work out. But, the problem is, you cannot come over to each other's houses. Google Docs allows you and your partner to edit the report at the same time from different computers! All you need is an internet connection, and your set.
NUMBER THREE. Google Docs is compatible with any computer at all. If you make a project on your computer at home, and you need to print it out at school, you can bring a flash drive an upload it to the computer at school. But sometimes, the computer at school is not compatible with your document--and your screwed. Well, not exactly. If you uploaded your document to Google Docs, it is for sure compatible with any computer at all, as long as it has Internet.
NUMBER FOUR. Do you have PowerPoint? Where do you think you got it? You probably had to pay for it, didn't you? What about Microsoft Word? You had to pay for that, too, right? Or how about some other tool like these ones? Google Docs has the power of all of these. It is compatible with any system, any computer, as long as it has Internet. But don't you have to pay for something so wonderful? you ask. The answer is a simple NO. In fact, Registration is the easiest part: All you have to do is type in your current email address, choose a password, type in your location, and your set to go. No names, no credit card numbers, nothing. And your set to go for Google Docs.
MY Google Docs is a very funny story I made, but then a kid in my class named Travis edited it on a different computer. I looked at his changes, and edited those all over again.
Here is the link for my Google Doc: http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AUrZcrUk77SbZGZxemNmZ21fMGt0Z25uZ2N3&hl=en
Here is the link for the Google Docs homepage:
http://docs.google.com
Have fun exploring Google Docs......

Animoto and Voice Thread-Sorry For the Long Tittle!-Oh! Great Now I am Making It Even Longer! Ahhh! Help!

Animoto is a fun and exciting online service where you yourself can make movies by doing the simplest of things, or in another words, uploading any pictures from any site, or even your own pictures using a digital camera or other photo programs (iPhoto, etc.), video clips, and music of your choice. You can even make a movie trailer for your own movie! "It is so awesome," reports Tom from Animoto. Make videos about anything: You, your mother(s-Yikes!) or father(s-Yikes! again), brothers, sisters, teachers, priests, pets, friends, "celebrities, role models, and more. But these videos are not just limited to people: You can do anything: Your house (.....awkward), your life (like a mini auto-bio), or someone else's, your trips to a different country, or a video story!
Whatever! It honestly isn't that brutal to make one, and here are the steps how to:
STEP 1: Go to the Animoto site.
STEP 2: Make an account (and I am legally advised to tell you to go online with a parent...).
STEP 3: Upload photos, whether they are already uploaded to your computer, or they are still waiting to be uploaded on the Internet.
STEP 4: You can also add text, a personal message, or other video clips by uploading them from your computer.
STEP 5: You may also want to add a soundtrack. Animoto has a "growing library" of free copyright tunes, or you can upload your own.
That's basically it. Animoto then morphs all of your photos and tunes together to create the coolest video of all time! You can then embed the video anywhere online--It's that easy! If you're not satisfied with your Animoto when it comes out (which I guarantee WILL NOT occur), you can send it through Animoto again and remix it! Just give it a five-minute try!
If you need more help, when you get to the Animoto website, you can click on the "Learn More in Sixty Seconds" button, and a really good one minute tour video will be come up to help you understand more....Now lets compare Animoto to Voice Thread:
As I told you before, in my "Voice (Needle and) Thread" Voice Thread is a cool online free program where you can create a presentation, using typed words, or your own actual recorded voice, with picture(s) that help explain them. My Voice Thread was about books, and can also be on a variety of other topics. Voice Threads tend to be longer than Animotos, for you can only upload so many pictures and video clips, meanwhile you can upload just one picture on Voice Thread, and alter the picture, too, while you go along and talk using that one picture for hours (or minutes.....). What I was trying to say in that long, long sentence, is that in Animoto, your time length depends on how many video clips and photos you put in, unlike Voice Thread where you can talk throughout the whole video for as long as you would like (hopefully not boring your viewers), using just one picture or more. You can use Voice Thread at home for personal use, like entertaining your friends or visitors, or for fun when you are bored, the same for Animoto. You can also publish it online to share with the world (also with Animoto, too). You can use both Animoto and Voice Thread for school to make presentations about a subject (such as a war in Social Science, and famous writers in Language Arts). There are many things to do with all of the online services I tell you about. And it is very good when important people see what you've shared with the world. Because when an important person sees something he likes that you've created, you're in luck.
Important Notice You do need an account to make a video. Accounts are free.
HERE IS MY ANIMOTO!
Also: What I have noticed, is while animoto is processing your "pre-video" into an actual animoto, it takes a long time. Meanwhile, Voice Thread takes no time because it does not morph into a video....

Today's Top Books

This is my Voice Thread. I have titled it Today's Top Books because I have included some of my favorite novels, including Cirque Du Freak and Harry Potter. Notice how the Voice Thread doesn't actually have actual voice (this is because I am honestly not a good speaker. If I was on a talk show, I'd be tongue-twisted for the whole horrid hour).....Enjoy!

A Chipmunk, A Phone, and a Radio: A Series That Questions Us All

Enjoy! This is my first minisode(1) in the Chipmunk, Phone, and Radio series or CPR for short. I have titled it The Dance Party and when you watch it, you'll see why. I have two more left!
By the way, there is no SYNTHASITE website! That was a long time ago and I do not want to talk about it.....Enjoy!

Enjoy! This is my second minisode(1) in the Chipmunk, Phone, and Radio saga or CPR for short. I have titled it A Christmas Special even though I celebrate Hanukkah, not Christmas, and when you watch you'll see why. I have only one more left! By the way, there is no YOLA or SYNTHASITE website. Like I said above, that was long ago....Enjoy!

Enjoy! This is my third and last minisode(1) in the Chipmunk, Phone, and Radio saga or CPR for short. I have titled it Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul and many teens know that there is a series titled this, and this series includes drama, excitement, and sorrow. This is sort of like a filtered version, and it uses Chipmunk, Radio, and Telephone! By the way, NO YOLA WEBSITE is involved! Do not try typing in the yola or synthasite website address, for a blank page will come up!

(1) Minisode....A Shorter Version of an Episode, from the Latin route mini
A Note to my Fellow Viewers: These videos were created on behalf of creativity and excellence on the web. In another words, when I was in my creative mood, I created these videos using simple software such as iMovie 3 and iTunes 7.
COMING SOON TO STORYPEDIA Abandoned and Blue-Ray and D-V-D
COPYRIGHT 2009 BY ANONYMOUS STORYPEDIA
OTHER COPYRIGHT INFORMATION IN VIDEO
For Anonymous, the girl who now knows me as trash-pick-up kid.....

Henry's (and Morgan's Story) of Suicide

1. The Life and Times of Henry (introduction)
The young boy lied there, resting peacefully on the green. Below him was a steep, steep ditch filled with leftover trees, logs, woods, and plants from when it was deforested in the 1970s. The young boy had a name. It was Henry. Henry decided he'd continue sleeping until the break of dawn. When Henry was bored, he'd go to this special place he'd been sleeping on for the past three hours. Houses were also surrounding the ditch, but probably fell in the pit of it during earthquakes, leaving leftover logs and pieces of what were glass windows in some places over the ditch. Wildlife was everywhere, but Henry didn't even notice. The young boy called Henry had trouble going back to sleep once he had woken up. He was too excited about building a house himself with his father the next day on one of these ditches. Long ago, most of Henry's relatives died, including his mother, Mary, who died the night Henry was born, in 1990. Henry was going to make this home out of sixteen logs, four for each wall and two glass windows, for Henry and his father to see the beauty of outside nature. Henry's father did not own a car, for he couldn't afford one. His father was naturalist, and also owned a shop filled with plants and trees and the most majestic herbs that could cure just about anything. Where Henry and his father lived, there was only a large schoolhouse and small homes throughout the town, and Henry and his father liked it that way. Many people visited the shop of Henry's father's many times, even though it was a long drive. It was worth it. The schoolhouse was one mile away, and Henry was happy his father made the decision that he wouldn't go until seven. "Henry, you shall not go to school until the age of seven. Until this time, I want to teach you everything I know about nature and wildlife," is exactly what he had said to Henry, even though he knew the law required Henry to go at the age of five. And Henry's father stuck to this statement. By the age of seven, Henry knew just about everything on nature. The wildlife surrounding him, how the Earth was formed, what beauty was destroyed long ago, how our air is cleaner than regular air, and so much more. He also learned how the ditch they were soon to live near was made. "During an earthquake long ago, two plates moved in the opposite direction of each other along the fault line, making a large, large hill. In the seventies, workers deforested much of our land, and after one decade, and my fellow customers and I dug out the hill to make a ditch for trapping burglars so they couldn't enter our land. Everyone who was a good citizen knew about the ditch so they couldn't fall in," said Henry's father, "and the ditch is about one quarter mile deep."
notes from henry before death...
Time passed by and my father and I settled in our new-built home. When I became seven, I knew it was time I had to go to school, so my father enrolled me in the nearest schoolhouse. It was one mile from where we lived, so we walked there, for we didn't have an automobile. Everyday, my father would walk me to the school, and I absolutely loved it. Our house contained an old stove in the corner, a candle that lit our home that hung on the ceiling, two beds, one small one for me, and a large one for my father, and a table with all the casual stuff on it in the other corner: a telephone, a clock, and something called an ice box. An ice box was what all people used instead of a fridge before the refrigerator was invented. An iceman came by everyday with ice and we stored the ice in our ice box. Our iceman was my father's very good friend and best customer, Harold.
back to what the author knows about henry.....
But this is not what the story is supposed to be about. This story is supposed to be how Henry and his love he made at school and both or one of their DEATHS. Death is a weird thing you know. If you ever had experienced surgery, you wake up all groggily and then you realize you've just experienced temporary death. I unfortunately experience this "temporary death" and I thought So this is what death is like. Death happens to all of us, and it doesn't avoid a single creature on this planet, whether it is the tallest man on Earth, or the smallest fly you can find. Death certainly did not avoid Henry.....Here is where the ultimate story of death really starts:
2. Socialization at School (seconduction)
After a while, Henry reached the age of eight and entered his first day of his second year in school. Henry was very friendly, and had no social problems. His only problems were the academic ones. But that didn't matter much for Henry, because he knew he was set for life. He knew all about geology, nature, and science, which Henry and his peers did not study at school. He was going to become an excellent naturalist when he grew up, to take the chance his father wanted him to. Mathematics would never matter. Reading and Writing he had trouble with. His skills in these subjects were much lower than his classmates' ones, mostly because in the years of education he missed, Kindergarten and First Grade, the number one thing you learned was how to read and write. But Henry became so interested in Reading and Writing, he made it his goal to learn everything about these subjects by the end of Second Grade. Henry was great in P.E, but was absolutely horrid in artistic skills...he barely could hold up the paint brush and paint a smooth, solid-colored line. Anyway, Henry did make many friends in school. His teacher, Miss Bernardo the Fourth, or Miss B-Four, as she let us call her, was sweet as sugar-coated candy. Yet Henry's P.E teacher, Mr. Opal Jenkins the Sixth, who let us call him nothing but the sort, was as cruel as Miss B-Four was nice. Henry never invited friends over, not because he was embarrassed of his home (in fact he took pride in it), or because he wanted to spend time with his father, but because Henry liked to do things himself. He got into the habit of racing to a nearby tree what looked like the size of the Mississippi River by himself, eating by himself, jumping on a trampoline he made out of logs, leaves, and soft stuff he found by the ditch to make it jumpy and bouncy himself, swimming in the nearby creek himself, and even washing his own clothes, doing his own dishes, hunting his own food, knitting his own clothes himself. By Spring of Second Grade, Henry did almost everything himself, and learned a lot more than he knew about his favorite subjects (of course next to Science): Reading and Writing. On the first day of the new season, a girl named Morgan came to Henry's class. And boy, was love in the air. Henry was absolutely savoring over the tiniest thought of Morgan. He constantly made eye contact with the beautiful young woman named Morgan. Morgan sometimes made eye contact back. Morgan did not have the faintest idea why Henry kept doing this, for she did not know who Henry was and obviously did not feel the same way Henry thought of her as she thought of him. Morgan did want to be friends with Henry, so she slowly and maturely befriended him. First, she made eye contact with Henry before Henry made eye contact with her, and then actually said something to him. "Hello," she said with a beautiful voice Henry had never heard, "my name is Morgan, and I was wondering if you would like to be friends with me." You would think Henry would faint, for he was so in love with this girl that actually said something to him, but he didn't because this is a true story, not a fantasy. Henry took no hesitation when responding back, "Boy, would I!" He didn't care if he was acting weird. He loved Morgan to tears. Henry had never heard Morgan's voice, now that he thought about it. He saw her talking, but never actually heard her in the process.
3. The Final Chapter in How Henry Committed Murder (thirduction)
Henry stopped doing things himself for a small period of time. Henry wanted to do things with Morgan. Of course, like all boys would have to say, Henry did not have the guts to ask Morgan on a date. Morgan and him would always sit over the ditch and talk to each other every weekend and on Friday nights (which he liked most because he thought they were the most romantic). It was nice watching the sun set with Morgan, Henry would think to himself. Henry only tried to make one move on Morgan: A month after he had met her and two weeks after they started hanging out on the ditch, Henry leaned over and puckered his lips for Morgan. Morgan (thank God, thought Henry) did not notice (which caused sorrow to fill Henry's body, but he soon got over it) and continued to relax there with Henry, just talking. After this, Henry never dared to even put his arm around Morgan. Exactly on Henry's fourth Friday hanging out with Morgan over the ditch, he noticed signs surrounding the ditch and surprisingly people doing things inside of the ditch (and it was a deep, deep ditch). Morgan wasn't there yet, and speaking of Morgan, let me tell you where she lived. The schoolhouse was exactly one mile away from Henry's home, and Morgan's family had a house built halfway from where Henry's home was. There was a large hill separating Morgan from Henry, and Henry sometimes felt bad for Morgan, because she had to walk a mile and a half to get to the schoolhouse, but her mother would always take her just like Henry's father would always take him. The signs read MEN WORKING and PLEASE STAND AWAY FROM THE CONSTRUCTION SITE and when Henry read them he wondered what was going on. Pretty soon Henry heard the head construction worker in the ditch shouting, "Hey! Get out of here! Leave, scram! Kid, move on!" Henry thought the worker was crueler than his P.E teacher. When Morgan came over, ten minutes later, she also wondered what was going on. Trust me, Henry was much angrier than Morgan was. He knew this was the end of his place to sit with Morgan. Morgan was only friends with Henry in her mind, but in Henry's mind, Morgan meant the world to Henry. Morgan wasn't happy about it either, though. She knew Henry was disappointed about the spot, but she tried to convince him to get a new spot for them to hang out. But Morgan did not understand. The workers weren't just destroying the ditch, for they'd have to have a reason. And that reason why mostly why Henry was so mad. They were destroying the entire town, building huge houses for rich men and their wives over it. Hotels, malls, shopping strips were going to be placed over the town in which both Henry lived in. I cannot describe to you what happened after this. I can give you little details, which may or may not help you understand why the workers continued shoveling and digging and building and destroying. Henry over time tried to convince the workers to stop digging, but that didn't help, especially because all workers except the head worker spoke only Spanish. A thought soon ran through Henry's mind: Why wasn't his father or the rest of his customers or anyone who lived in our town helping? Why was I the only one? Why...Henry couldn't tell all his fellow citizens to help, for children had to be respectful to all adults, but he could tell his peers. And he did, but that didn't work. None of the children listened to him, for they all didn't care. They all wanted to have a shopping center, a mall, and live in big houses. Of course, they didn't know that they were going to be the ones to get kicked out of their small houses and not get be invited back to a big mansion.
Look, I am tired and sleepy, and cannot go on with the story. I will have to tell you only part of it and go directly to the conclusion:
One Friday night, when Morgan knew she was not supposed to meet Henry at the ditch because the workers were well...working. But Henry telephoned her and told her to come. She asked why, but Henry preferred not to tell her, so she came anyway. When Morgan got there, she was surprised to see a pack of black and white police cars surrounding the ditch. But when she saw Henry's body lying face down in the ditch, probably a quarter mile down, her surprise went away. Instead of surprise, she felt a new emotion: Suicide.
Where, you ask, is Morgan today? Well, she now is in sixth grade, attending a middle school somewhere in America. Morgan was inspired by Henry's passion to read and write, so she decided to write a book. She had to switch around the years in her story, and was so modest she wrote it under a pen name. Where is that story today? You have just finished reading it.

Voice (Needle and) Thread & *Special Preview

SHARING your creativity online is one way to express yourself to the whole world. Have you ever shared more than just how well you can type? Have you ever shared how well you can talk with your mouth? That's nice if you have. PowerPoint is an option, but then you would have to upload it on your site, and do all that other technological stuff...That was in the old days. Now there's...................

VOICE THREAD

Voice Thread is a fun program where you can make any video you would like with your own voice or someone else's voice. You can always edit videos, and delete them when you would like, and the coolest part is other people get to comment on videos by you with their own voices.
Important Notice: You do not need an account to browse through a full collection of videos made by other users, but you do need an account to create your own videos or comment on other's. ACCOUNTS ARE FREE.
Just go to http://www.voicehtread.com and make an account today. You can then embed (import) your video into your blog or website, and share it with the world.
But wait, I am NOT finished. I've only told you the topic, the main ideas. Now I will go into the details...
1. There are five ways to comment, and will you are commenting, you can alter the image you are copying, and then in your video, use the altered image for a picture.
2. Like most other videos, you can delete your own, and you also can delete your own comments on another's video.
3. You can zoom in and out on a video, and you also can hold the picture in any direction.
4. You can listen to other user's comments on a video by simply clicking on their avatar or picture on the edges of the video.
These are only some of the things you can do Voice Thread, so go to the site now and make a video, or click "So what is a voice thread anyway" on the homepage.
Unfortunately, I am not yet a user and cannot embed for you viewers an actual voice thread in this post. Although I do not have this, I do have for you a wonderful survey of my friends from the Middle East and other areas of the world. I have not actually met them, but I write to them every Friday when I can, and they are my pen pals. One week ago, on Friday the 18th, I sent them a notice about Voice Thread, and a week later they have all sent me back what they have done with Voice Thread:
Utopian (YOU-Tope-E-An) Kinishikoba (KA-Neesh-A-Ko-Va) from Maryland, Saudi Arabia says (translated into proper English):
Omg! I love Voice Thread. My father would not let me buy a computer, so I had to walk seven miles during midnight, when the Indians come out and hunt for food, to the Saudi Arabia Public Library. I managed to avoid the danger of the Indians and when I got to the library, I was so mad I could have murdered that night when I heard the Internet was closed from 6:00 PM to 9:00 AM. I walked back the seven miles and later the next day I managed to go on voice thread and share my thoughts about sushi that tastes good forever on the Library computers. Search the term how to make everlasting sushi on Voice Thread and my video will come up. I was the only one in the library, so the librarian let me speak as loudly as I wanted. I talked about how some people say sushi causes diseases and other untrue information, and shared with the public how sushi causes diseases is simple rubbish. So search how to make everlasting sushi now!
Karren Kombersmitchledoodles (Comb-er-Smith-frogging-doodles) from Woodland Hills, Japan said:
I made a Voice Thread about a child who received an education at Girard Elementary in Woodland Hills, Japan in the 1930s. In the middle of elementary education, she had to move to Charcoal Elementary for Anxious Girls Under the Age of Thirty and Over the Age of Five or CEAGUATOAF (See-You-Glued-A-Toe-To-Your-Self) for short. Her experiences at CEAGUATOAF were horrid and I cannot (translate or) write them down in this letter to you. But I did explain almost all of the events that occurred in her lifetime in my voice thread. So search the term girl searching for dreams in 1930s Woodland Hills, Japan at Girard Elementary and Charcoal Elementary for Anxious Girls Under the Age of Thirty and Over the Age of Five or GSFDI1930SWHJAGEACEFAGUTAOTAOTAOF (Girl-Calm-Down-You-Do-Know-It-Is-Not-The-Thirties-Any-More-Wiggle-It-Out-Groovy-
Seventies-Style-Loaf-Of-Chewy-Bread).

*Special Preview But there is not just Voice Thread when it comes to making cool presentations the one I made above. Animoto is a really awesome program that allows you to make really cool movies by simply uploading some pictures, music, and choosing some other background effects. Animoto does the rest...Let me tell you the full details in my upcoming post: Animoto
Copyright 2009 by Anonymous Storypedia, http://www.uc.edu/food/images/maki_sushi.jpg, http://blog.beliefnet.com/moviemom/kit%20kittredge.jpg, Edited on Big Huge Labs.