The NoodleHead Network News


2/23/99
James is downstairs, as we speak, working on the cd rom. It's got this really awesome cabbie who drives you everywhere. I think that it's going to be pretty cool. My friends at school also like it because they're all camera hogs.
 
 
1/19/99
Stu got a contract for a cd rom. It's going to be about drugs and alcohol. He's pretty phsyched.
 
1/4/99
Harryetta is no longer with us! She passed away quietly though. Guess who's house needs a new tarantula. Harryetta II perhaps?
 
12/25/98
Can you believe this? It's Christmas and there's no snow! Talk about a brown Christmas. Wait a minute, isn't that supposed to be white??? Whatever, I'm confused.
 
9/15/98
School's been in session for a little while now. I'm just glad that we're finally back. I'm not even complaining about the fact that I have to be couped up in a hot, stuffy classroom for seven hours every day. Ok, well maybe I'm complaining a little. But not too much!
 
8/23/98
We're back! And man, am I glad!! I missed all my friends soooo much! That was one weird trip. We broke down about every five miles (because Stu had to much faith in our UltraVan Melodie), and we even almost died a couple of times. As Stu says, it was an Odyssey!
 
6/10/98
A few more days and we're off! Our massive trip 'cross country trip will start! Who knows what will happen? (Just don't expect any updates for awhile; we'll be gone alllll summer. One thing you can expect though is a awesome video made especially by me and my bro Evan)
 
5/16/98
The Gangs Vid is done, and it's great! It's definitely one of the best ones we've done. I hope it helps educate kids.
 
10/10/97
I figured for the first big thing I do I would give you a MASSIVE tour of NoodleHead. Every week or so you'll get a new room. So here goes. We start in the Jungle Room where we have most of our animals. This room is painted like a jungle and looks pretty cool. The first animal we come to is Henson (Jim Henson), one of our iguanas. He's about 4'5", counting his tail. We've had him for about four or five years. He's pretty cool, but you have to be careful when he's in a bad mood. Evan's crayfish are right between Henson and Zeus. We caught them at Salmon Hole, near our house. Then we come to Zeus (I have this thing for Greek gods and goddesses). Our friend got him at the fair and left him with us. He's about two feet long. Zeus and Henson's cages are built right onto the wall! After Zeus we have Hairyetta Longlegs who, as you know, has escaped again. She's a rose tarantula and we hold her sometimes, but not to often. Her legs feel like velvet. You should try to hold one sometime! Then we have Bertha, our three foot long ball python. We've had her for about two years. She's extremely beautiful. Right under Bertha we have Shelby, our painted turtle. We got her in a pretty interesting way. Six or seven years ago some of my parents friends came to visit from California. Their 9 or 10 year old son brought his turtle with him. After we had dropped them off at the airport and watched them fly away we went back to the car. When Stu looked in the passenger seat he got a big surprise. Daniel (their son) had left his turtle! We've had her ever since. Normally she won't bite, but if you offer your hand she will! Then we have the Queen and the King. They're our zebra finches. The King has red on his cheeks. That's how you tell a male from a female with zebra finches. They're aren't any princes or princesses yet but they're working on it. In this room we have one of our TV's (we have two TVs) and one of our couches (we have six couches, counting two futon ones). Also I have a rabbit named Flora De'Luna Rosenbaum, Flower of the Moon Rosetree, Evan (my brother) has a guinea pig named Jupiter. We have around eight fish, and we also have two cats. One of our cats is a calico named Ruby and the other is a Half Siamese, half Tiger cat named Pearl.
 
The next room you come to is the Middle Room. Every place has an all purpose room, and this is ours. One of it's purposes is a music room. I keep and play my bass in here and this also where the piano is. We also use it as a meeting room. Any meetings need to be done, this is the room for it. It's really pretty much empty, except for our piano, my bass, two filing cabinets, and a table we painted when I was about 4. If you've ever seen KnuckleHead's Electrical Safety video, it's the room with Frankenstein in it. But it's changed considerably since then.
 
And now, here we have Norwood's Peanut Gallery. And no, it's not the art kind. This ''room'' is standing on what was once a kitchen. It's about five feet long, and seven or eight feet wide. To make this ''room" we had to knock out the far right hand side of the Middle Room. The reason it's called Norwood's Peanut Gallery is because the guy who donated the computer that I'm typing on right now, is named Norwood. He donated the computer because his at the time 32 year old son moved in with us while he (his son) had cancer. Also in this little section we have another one of our couches.
 
Joanna's BookNook is what you come to next. (Otherwise known as the Loft.) It's a big yellow loft with black legs and little black portholes for windows. It's got two levels, one with a futon for reading, and another with the bookshelves on it. Joanna is Norwood's wife. We named this section after her because she donates a lot of books to NoodleHead. When you get down from the Loft, we have some lockers from Milton High School. We mostly use those for storage.
 
The Glow-In-The-Dark Bathroom is next up! In here we have a toilet and a sink, big surprise, right? Nope, because that toilet has a glow-in-the-dark seat! And that sink has glow-in-the-dark soap! And the rim is glow-in-the-dark! Pretty cool huh? In this room we have three glow-in-the-dark skulls, a glow-in-the-dark slinky going across the ceiling, and any other glowing thing imaginable!
 
Then, in the basement we have the best room in the whole house. The Kids Room! There is only on rule in this room. No Adults Allowed. In this room we have a disco ball, a boombox, a table, and a futon. You don't want adults to get in the way? Go to the Kids Room!
 
Allllllllllll the way upstairs are just offices, but I'll give you a tour of them too. The first office you come to is Steve's office. I like to call it the main office because this is where we store all our tapes. Half is Steve's, and half is the Main Office. In "these offices" we have the fax machine, a printer, a copy machine, shelfs for the tapes, Steves desk, and a old raggedy couch that Steve refuses to throw out.
Then we have the middle office which was Jen's office, until she left to go to grad school. It just has a computer and a wall full of shelves.

  But Stu's office is different. He's got two pink desks (that's his favorite color you know), one with his computer on it and one just for storage. On the wall right across from the one with his computer on it, he has a glass window. In back of this glass window he painted it black and put all sorts of glow-in-the-dark stars on it. He has all sorts of kids artwork and a bunch of pictures. His chair is one from his grandmother's house. It's the chair that his grandfather, who was a General, used.  

Then if we go all the way over to the other side of the house (we live in a duplex) and down to the basement, we come to the Bunker. The Bunker is where we do all the editing for our videos. It has Media 100 (an editing system) and the other one of our TV's. It also has our other futon in it.

For those of you that are wondering "Where do these people live," heres your answer. We live in a duplex, so one half is NoodleHead, and the other half is where we have our kitchen and all that other normal stuff. Not that I would call it normal......
 
And that ends our MASSIVE tour of NoodleHead. Hope you liked it!
 
9/27/97
Today we were in the Old North End Parade in our completely awesome convertible. Our school was right behind us. It was pretty funny because all the kids had to hold their noses or else they would have been gassed. In school last week we made hands out of paper that we wore in the parade.
 

9/24/97
We started a video on gangs in VT. Gangs are just starting to come into the State and we want to help stop them. Stu is going to go to St. Johnsbury, and a bunch of other cool places. Our friends Aaron, Nick, and Nicole are working on it. It's gonna be realllllly good!
 
 
9/18/97
9/18/97 Harryetta is missing again! We hope to find her soon.
 
9/1/97
Hi I'm Emma McGowan. You can call me the WebMaster. I'm 10 years old and I go to H.O. Wheeler Elementary School. From now on, I'll be doing the news. If you have any questions, I'll be answering them. So please, ask questions. Thanks! Emma
 
6/25/97
The China news stories began airing on the 6:00 news. They are really good, and we are getting calls all the time about them. The kids are really psyched about this.
 
 
5/30/97
Stu just got home from Alaska. He was making a video there about the drinking and driving. A big success. Alaska is beautiful, but it's nice to be home.
 
5/4/97
Stu got home yesterday. The trip took 40 hours by plane, bus and car. It was no fun getting there, but big fun once we were actually in China. The Chinese are really nice, and they were always feeding us. We danced on the Great Wall, visited a small village, went out shopping, and met all sorts of nice kids. We performed for lots of schools. We also made 8 newstories about our trip which will air on our CBS affiliate here in Vermont.
 
 
4/17/97
Stu left for China today. Updates coming.
 
 
4/4/97
We're working on a series of PSAs that are supposed to help kids from drinking alcohol. They are fun. A bunch of kids from Burlington, Brit, Kayla, Emma, Jaime to name a few reenacted a sleepover, complete with silly string and a pillow fight with lots of feathers floating around. Watch for this one. It might air near you some day.
 
 
3/13/97
We just finished a video for the Lake Champlain Science Center. It will be used to fundraise, and should do the job.
 
 
3/1/97
Stu has been working with the FolKids to prepare to go to China. They are going to folkdance for the Chinese, and Stu will be teaching them to videotape the experience. We'll keep you updated.
 
2/27/97
Kal and his friend Jamie toilet papered the Kid's Room. Stu was not amused. The kids were though. They DID pick it up.
 
2/20/97
It didn't take long to get new residents for Lila's room. The kids moved right in. They have turned it into a clubhouse, and they hang out there all the time.
 
 
1/27/97
We are very sad around here. Lila moved out. After 1 1/2 years living at NoodleHead, she moved out and went directly to Boston. Pretty brave for a 17 year old. We will miss her greatly. She promises to visit.
 
 

 
 
12/19/96
Ok, time for a room description. Today's feature: The Glow in The Dark Bathroom. This room is a little bathroom off the "kitchen" that Emma, Evan and Kirsten painted entirely black. We even painted over the window. Then we bought a black light, and some stick on stars. We have been adding to it for 3 years now. There are skulls, slinkies, madonnas, lipgloss, paint, dough, chalk, and lots of other stuff in there. They all glow in the dark. We also painted the toilet rim so it's easier to aim. It works. We painted around the mirror. The soap glows too. It's really freaky to "go" in there, because everything glows! Even your pee. (Stu's gonna be bummed if he reads this)
 
11/17/96
We just won an award for the video, IMPACT, which we also distribute. One of the original videomakers will be going on TV in Boston to explain why it's so important. We are very proud.
11/2/96
Well, we did it again. The 3rd annual NoodleHead Halloween party was a HUGE success. The haunted house featured the local Cub Scout den as the murdered victims. We had cubbies with no heads, heads with no cubbies, kids without arms, and of course, Lila was Vampira the Evil. We scared the kids so bad. Stu dressed up like the Principal at HO Wheeler, Bob Aldrich. That was REALLY scary.
 
 
10/6/96
We were surfing on the Web, and we found our dream NoodleHead RV. It's a '69 UltraVan. Her name is Melodie. She's 8 feet wide, 8 feet tall, and 22 feet long. Stu flew down to VA to pick her up. She's got a mini-kitchenette, shower, beds, toilet, and other neat things. We're going to drive cross country in two summers. The kids are always playing in her. She's shaped like a grub, and we call her the Golden Grub. Watch the movie My Girl and you'll see what she looks like. It's the RV Shelly lives in.
 
 
9/3/96
We had this awesome sleepover. No adults allowed. We played flashlight tag and someone accidently tripped over Stu's tent and broke a pole. So we all raised money to buy a new one. We even had money left over, so we're gonna buy a boom box for next year. We stayed up until 3:00 AM, or something, and it was too cool. We played Truth or Dare all night. Tee-hee.
 
 
8/26/96
Wow, have we been busy. Too busy to keep up with the News. Sorry. We finished the safety tape, the PSAs, and we even got to meet the governor of Vermont to tell us how cool we are. We were pleased. Now we're back, so expect more NHN News.
 
 
7/20/96
Stu went to Northern Canada to participate in the Canoe Brigade with the youth of the Cree Indian Nation. He will teach them how to make videos. They will be paddling upstream for 3 weeks. Ouch!
 
5/20/96
So we said we'd describe a room here, so here goes. Norwood's Peanut Gallery is the room you see when you come in the front door of NoodleHead. There's a big yellow loft, that has little round windows that hinge out. It looks like a submarine (in fact, the whole room is painted blue) and feels like one when you're up in it. Underneath the submarine is a computer, which all the kids in the neighborhood use to go online, do their homework, and of course, play games. There's a refrigerator painted like a huge block of granite, lots of lockers we got from a local school, and of course, the infamous Glow in The Dark Bathroom, which we'll describe in detail some other time. The entire room used to be a kitchen, but it doesn't much feel like one now. Sometimes it gets too noisy, like today, and Steve or Stu come down and remind the kids that they're working upstairs. 12 kids can make a lot of noise.
 
4/2/96
We will be making another safety tape, plus a set of PSAs about math, science, and technology. These are gonna be fun.
 
2/25/96
Stu went up to Northern Canada to work with the Cree teenagers in Waskaganish. Eventually, we hope to distribute their videos about their culture.
 
 
2/17/96
As usual, everything went wacky over the Christmas break, and we haven't had time to update anything, so this is the first post since '95. Not much happening, except the safety tape is done, and it's good.
 
 
 
 
 

11/15/95
The safety tape has been shot. It was a rough shoot, with lots to get done, but everyone did splendidly. Cheers.
 
10/10/95
Our promo tape is done, and it's way cool! James Yeaton, our resident whiz kid both starred in and edited the tape. It's a doozee. Andrew Sherman shot the tape.
 
 
9/5/95
The safety tape is happening, and we have a cast of nearly 60 local kids. This tape will be going national; maybe you'll see it.
 
 
8/12/95
Lila, of "Lila's Corner" fame, has moved in with us at NoodleHead! She needed a place to live, and we said yes. Neato.
 
 
 
 
7/2/95
WilySquid Productions, a partner of ours, just got a contract to make a video about how to keep your kid safe. It's a really good idea, that's not too uptight or scary. NoodleHead will be helping to make the tape. We'll keep you up to date as it progresses.
 
6/29/95
YIPPEEEEE ! We just got the news that the Mind Extension University wants us to create a promo tape about ourselves, that they will air to 26 million subscribers in September. We'll definetely keep you posted on this swell thing.
 
6/27/95
Joy, Jen, and Stu got together with 4 kids to begin scripting the next big video, made for the National Energy Foundation, on how to correctly install energy efficient stuff, and how to save energy in your home. We all came up with some very cool ideas, including a blackboard that talks and transports people all over. Neat.
 
 
6/18/95
Kate and Marilyn came over today to work on the script for "Jerks2", which is actually titled "How to deal with the grown ups in your life". This is going to be a good followup to the original Jerks tape. Be out in September.
 
6/16/95
Henson was allowed to come out of his cage for a little while today. He was kinda crazy, so we put him back after about an hour.
 
 
6/14/95
We have been asked by our congressman, Bernie Sanders, to help put together a congressional hearing for high school students. Nifty. We've got a lot of things we want to tell Congress.
 
6/1/95
The black widow spider was safely transported and released in the woods of North Carolina. We hope she writes often.
 
 
5/21/95
We had another barbeque today, and lots of kids showed up, as did a bunch of grown-ups. Pretty cool.
 
 
 
5/15/95
BIG NEWS! Norwood and Joanna Long, Friends of NoodleHead, donated a screamin' 486 DX2 80 to NHN! We now have a computer downstairs, next to the Jungle Room for all the neighborhood kids to use for homework, on-line stuff, etc. We are way psyched!
 
5/6/95
We had a barbeque for all the kids in the neighborhood; hot dogs, hamburgers, and chicken. About 20 kids showed up, ate, played lots of games, and split.
 
4/29/95
Emma and a bunch of her friends made a bunch of little tipis (teepees) in the backyard and played at being Native Americans for 3 days. They wanted to sleep out one night, but it's still too cold here for that.
 
 
4/18/95
A friend of ours found a black widow spider in a box that was mailed to her company by accident. The NoodleHead Network, in their capacity as spider lovers are going to transport the little lady to North Carolina. Too bad Hairy, our tarantula, can't be found again.
 
 
4/17/95
Becky Hemingway, our sixteen year old neighbor, came by today to type up a report about The Battle of the Bulge.