poem

I got this in an e-mail in high school and held onto it, knowing that the day would come when I would need it. That day is today.

A poll conducted among INFOCUS readers had established "waka" as theproper pronunciation for the angle-bracket characters <> although some readersheldout resolutely for "norkies." The text of the poem follows:
<> !*''#
^"`$$-
!*=@$_ %*<> ~#4
&[]../
{,,SYSTEM HALTED

The poem can only be appreciated by reading it aloud, to wit: Waka waka bang splat tick tick hash, Caret quote back-tick dollar dollar dash, Bang splat equal at dollar under-score, Percent splat waka waka tilde number four, Ampersand bracket bracket dot dot slash, Vertical-bar curly-bracket comma comma CRASH.

National Night Out

I have to admit that when I signed up to woman the bean bag toss at Skyline's National Night Out celebration I was... shall we say, less than excited? It was a hot day and Wendy and I spent most of it either getting ready for or facilitating photo club, so I was already tired by 4:30. But I went out there, and as we set up I got more and more excited. All the teens that I see regularly were out there, setting up tables and chairs and the booths for the games. the DJ started playing music so everyone was is a good mood, we were bouncing around getting things ready.

As soon as the bean bag toss was set up, the kids were all over it- even before we had the prizes! All the kids from the youth program that I see all the time were outside playing and there were so many people, just everywhere!

It was neat to see the parents, teens and the kids all together having a good time. And it was nice to be recognized by all the kids, made me feel special. I was cheering for all the kids at the bean bag toss and whenever any kid would get all four of the bean bags in the holes, they would make it into the special club of people who made all four tosses. One of the kids, I told him he had the arm, and that I could see it. He would smile real big and then concentrate really hard to make the next shot. A couple other kids I told them they were naturals and that they should go to the championships. Some other kids I told them they were the masters of the bean bag toss. A couple of the kids asked if they could help out, if they could "work here" so I had a couple of the younger boys that I work with (7 year olds) helping out- and soon one of them was cheering for people just like me- "awesome! good shot! nice job!" and then his older brother was up so I said "okay show us your stuff!" and when he made only one or two throws, his little brother said, "that's your stuff?" Oh was it ever funny.

Then one of the kids I see all the time came over with a lightning bolt tattoo on his forehead and told me he was Harry Potter and I made Wendy take a picture with him waving his pencil as a wand because I thought it was the coolest thing ever.

I can't believe my last day of program is tomorrow!!!

photo club with the mobile lab!

Yesterday we had our first mobile lab experience with the photo club. Linda came over to help out- which was awesome- and she, Wendy and I hung out with five of the photo club kids. I'm so glad Linda came, because I think adult's opinions really matter to the kids and as she told them that their pictures were great and showed them how to use photoshop I think they enjoyed the opportunity to hear from another adult who isn't working with them because it's their job. Paige, our volunteer, does that as well- it's very clear to the kids that these people don't have to be here and that's why it's so important that they are.

We put each kid's pictures into their own folder on Wendy's computer earlier, and so Wendy just made CDs for each kid with all of their pictures on it. The kids each had one of the ibooks (oh were they ever excited about that!) and they learned how to put the CD in and find their pictures, and take the five they want for the art show and put them in a folder they created on the desktop.

Then they opened up photoshop, and learned how to edit their pictures- we did brightness and contrast, and also color with hues and saturation. The kids are also very familai with the "undo" action now. They titled their pictures for the show and then we just goofed around in simpletext and made the computer talk.

It was so much fun, and I think the kids learned a lot- and it was very clear that they were proud of knowing how to do something after being shown only once. I showed one of the girls how to save her picture to the desktop, and she said "I'll never remember all that!" and the next thing I know she's on her fourth one, and she's saying, "Roxanne! I did it all by myself!" I stopped what I was doing and told her that was awesome, and I think she noticed that I had stopped what I was doing and took the time to look at her when I said it because she just beamed. It was so amazing.

The kids all took so many amazing pictures that it was hard to choose, and it was also hard to watch them make everyone in their picture blue or change the contrast so the picture didn't look like a picture anymore. But we had faith in the kids- at one point one of the boys said, "you know I think I like it the way it is!" and left it the way it was, and his friend nex to him said, I just changed the contrast a little so you can see detail in the flower". Maybe I shouldn't feel proud of the kids because I really didn't do much except get them the computers and lend them my camera, but I felt like I was about to burst.

I can't wait for the show!