Tonight I'm an especially proud mother. My 8-year-old son, Lane, wrote a lovely story this evening that I think is good enough to share. I have not modified the story in any way from the original (typed in SimpleText on his aging iMac...he's agitating for an iBook for Christmas).
Neodude's Big AdventureOnce upon a time, there was a superhero that went by the name of Neodude. He
was a head custodian at a CGI imaging company. His real name is Henry Johnson. He had a 12 year old friend named Laura. Once, they almost got the whole world destroyed, but before I tell you that story I have to tell you this story. Laura and Neodude were eating grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch. Laura was playing solitare on her powerbook G3 when, suddenly it caught a virus! Flabbergasted, Neodude sprayed it with his virus-b-gone (tm) spray. "Thanks!" Laura said. "No problem!" Neoman Neodude said heroically. Across the world, there was an evil man named Dr. E-mail. He got his PHD in evil. He had a powerbook G4 himself. On it, he stored a lot of evil plans. Now, I can tell you the story of Neomans big adventure. When Dr. E-mail was watching television, Neodude sent him an e-mail saying "Nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah!". This made Dr. E-mail so mad, he constructed yet another evil plan. It was to, kidnap Laura, shrink and e-mail Neodude, and take over the world! So, he sent Neodude a hypertext URL saying http://www.virus.com/ which sucked him into the computer and right into the clutches of klez-e himself! Neodude saw a pop- up saying, "home page". He hits it and it takes him to Dr. E-mail's desktop. He hits print, saves Laura, and stops Dr. Email from destroying the world with his wrist laser. He gets home just in time for dinner.The End
Parents of grade school kids may recognize the Dav Pilkey flavor to the writing. :-) The neodude/neoman confusion is due to the fact that his 3rd grade teacher feels that "dude" is inappropriate for use in his writing, so he's trying to train himself to write neoman rather than neodude--though it's obviously a struggle.
So, if you like the story, and are so inclined, you might want to drop him an e-mail at lane at lawley dot net, and encourage him.
More creative work from my son. (I had a choice between posting this, and a rumination on "public good," responsibility, and academic departments. I decided this was the safest way to go. More on the latter when I'm able to shape it carefully enough not to do damage.)
Over the ice people stride, they always like to slip and slide.I wish I could do it all year round,
it's fun to jump up and down!The snow is very wet and fluffy,
I also think it is puffy.The ice is very slippery,
and when I slide on it I yell "WHEE!"!Some people think snow is a nuisance,
but that is definitely not my two cents!
-Lane Lawley
No less a source than the Wall Street Journal reports:
"Today, thereĚs a newfound respect for librarians," says Ms. Warner. This change in thinking is due mainly to the information overload thatĚs afflicting many businesses worldwide.
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