Steve Hillenburg

 

Stephen Hillenburg: Successful Animator, Director, and Producer by Jack Murphy grade 8 Berlin Brothersvalley Middle School

            One of the most successful animation producers and directors is Stephen Hillenburg. Hillenburg, who created the hit television show, “Sponge-Bob Square Pants”, also owns his production company, “United Plankton Pictures”.

            Before he created Sponge Bob, Hillenburg was a marine biologist from 1984-87. He then decided to fulfill his dreams by pursuing a career in animation. He got a job for the television show, “Mother Goose and Grim” and directed “Rocko’s Modern Life”. While working on the show, Hillenburg became friends with many of the cast and writers who would later be on Sponge Bob.

            After “Rocko” ended in 1996, he wrote a comic called, “The Intertidal Zone”, which was about a bunch of undersea creatures. Hillenburg pitched the idea to Nickelodeon. He showed up wearing a Hawaiian shirt and brought an aquarium that had the characters in it. Some of the Nickelodeon executives left the room to stop themselves from bursting out laughing. They loved the idea but changed the main characters name from “Sponge Boy” to “Sponge Bob”. Finally the show premiered on May 1, 1999 and the first episode was called “Help Wanted”.

           

            On November 19, 2004, the Sponge Bob Squarepants movie was released. It was supposed to be the series finale and Stephen would resign. Instead, the show was renewed for a fourth season and Hillenburg became the show’s executive producer. “Sponge Bob Squarepants” has been on television for a decade and new episodes premiered in March.

            If you appreciate comedy and good animation, you should watch “Sponge Bob Squarepants” created by Stephen Hillenburg, former marine biologist.

Traveling with Captain Penguin

 

Jack Murphy

Vocabulary Chapter 7

Block II

Traveling with Captain Penguin

Captain Penguin looked down at his watch. It read 2:15. Hmm. Time to pick up my mom and dad at the zoo he thought. If you want to know what he was up to this time I’ll tell you. Since it was almost Thanksgiving vacation he was going to one of his holiday visits to his homeland Antarctica to see his relatives. Since his parents live in the New York City Zoo he had to pick them up to go to Antarctica.

“Jerkins grab the keys and let’s go!” he shouted.

His butler Jerkins replied “Can’t you drive? I thought you could?”

“Just drive the car and I’ll give you a Thanksgiving bonus.” Called back Captain Penguin.

Jerkins face lit up with glee. “OK!” He answered.

Then they got to the zoo to pick up the Captain’s mom and dad. All was quiet until Captain Penguin’s mom broke the silence. “Did you memorize the history of Thanksgiving to recite at Antarctica?”

Captain Penguin looked at Jerkins and handed him five bucks and Jerkins began the story.

“The Pilgrims left England to seek religious freedoms. They were lead by William Bradford. He was their leader and came with them on their ship the Mayflower. On their way a storm blew them off course and they landed in New England which was named by John Smith. New England is part of the United States the states.  Today it is made up of the states of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. The Pilgrims then found a safe harbor named Cape Cod. Cape Cod is a peninsula in southwestern Massachusetts enclosing Cape Cod Bay. To get off the ship all the male Pilgrims had to sign the Mayflower Compact. The Mayflower Compact is an agreement in which Pilgrims decided to set up a government and make their own laws. But the problem was they couldn’t find good land to settle on so they sailed on. Finally they picked out a spot of good land that suited them on Massachusetts Bay for their colony. Massachusetts Bay is a bay off of Massachusetts. The Pilgrims named it Plymouth. Plymouth is located in southwestern Massachusetts were the Pilgrims settled in 1620.”

“The Pilgrims began to build longhouses. But over the winter many became sick and died. When spring came only half the pilgrims survived. One day an Indian walked into Plymouth and welcomed them and asked for a drink. His name was Samoset. He was taught English by some English fishermen. Next time he came he brought his chief, Chief  Massasoit. He was the chief of the Wampanoag Indians. The Pilgrims made a peace agreement that lasted for fifty years with the Indians.”

“Another Indian Samoset brought was named Squanto. Squanto was an Indian from another tribe who was captured, made a slave and sent to Spain and escaped. When he got back his whole tribe had died of a disease from European traders. Squanto showed the Pilgrims how to catch fish, hunt wild animals ect. The Pilgrims then got all the food they harvested and shared it with the Indians and had the first Thanksgiving.Well and you know the rest.” Finished Jerkins.

“I asked my son to tell it, not you.” Said Captain Penguin’s mom.

“He has Laryngitis.” Replied Jerkins.

Captain Penguin’s mom eyed Jerkins and Captain Penguin suspiciously. “But that son of mine was blabbing his mouth off about his pay for his job. And by the way Swimly you have to find a safer job than as a super hero. This  job is going to be the death of you.”

Captain Penguin turned bright red. Jerkins smiled and chuckled to himself “Swimly! Swimly! Your name is Swimly!”

“Oh look were here at the airport.” Said Captain Penguin trying as hard as he could to change subject.

It was true they were at the airport. After a couple minutes they were on their plane. The movie that was on the plan was Pocahontas. Captain Penguin who was bored out of his mind of the movie asked Jerkins,” Jerkins is this movie true?”

“Not all of it but most of the movie is true.”

“For krill’s sake just tell me the story Jerkins!” Panicked Captain Penguin.

“OK, OK I’ll tell you but it’s pretty long” and he did. The story went something like this.

“John Smith wanted to start a colony in America. Smith was the leader who started the first permanent settlement in America. He had help from some London merchants. They gave him supplies for the journey and if his colony did well the merchants made money which is called stock. Stock simply means share and ownership in a company. In December 1606, three ships were sent out with a hundred and forty four men. Five months later the ships reached Chesapeake Bay.”

“Chesapeake Bay is a long arm of the Atlantic Ocean on the coast of Maryland and Virginia. The settlement they built was called Jamestown. Jamestown is located in southeastern Virginia and is the first permanent settlement in America. When they made it there the colonists were as dumb as posts. All they did was dig for gold and they didn’t plant any crops so must of them died of starvation. So Smith went out to trade for food from Indian tribes. On one of his trips he was captured by the Powhatan Indians. The Powhatan chief named Powhatan decided to kill Smith. Chief Powhatan lived near the English settlement at Jamestown. Then they put his head on a rock and were about to pound his brains out with a club. Then out of nowhere  an Indian girl came and tried to save Smith and she did. Her name was Pocahontas. Pocahontas was the daughter of Powhatan and saved John Smith and helped Jamestown to survive and later marries John Rolfe. John Rolfe was a Jamestown leader who developed a type of tobacco that sold for a high price in England.

“Then Smith took control of Jamestown and ran it like an army camp. In the fall of 1609, Smith was hurt in a gun powder explosion. To recover he was sent back to England. The people of Jamestown were glad to see him go. When Smith left the colony everyone began to starve to death. In order to survive the colonist were forced to eat dogs, cats, rats and mice. They even boiled their shoes and ate the leather. By the Spring only 60 of the 500 colonists were still alive.”

“By 1610, the King of England sent a governor to rule over Jamestown. John Smith thought this was unfair. In 1618 the colonists were given rights like those of people living in England. People in Jamestown elected their own representatives in 1619.  A representative is someone chosen by a group to speak and act for them. The representatives became known as the Virginia House of  Burgesses, the law making body established in Jamestown in 1619. Women were then sent to Jamestown to marry and have families. As Jamestown grew bigger, many settlers were too poor to pay their way across the ocean to they became indentured servants, a person who agreed to work for a period of time in American in exchange for ocean passage.

Jerkins took out a map and showed Captain Penguin where Jamestown was. “This is a historical map from the 1600’s. A historical map is map that shows something about the past or where past events took place.”

Captain Penguin pointed to a dot on the map that said Massachusetts Bay Colony and asked. “What group settled here?”

“I’ll tell you a story about that.” Said Jerkins.

“The Massachusetts Bay Colony was settled by a group of Puritans. They were seeking religious freedom like the Pilgrims. They were led by John Winthrop. They called their first settlement Boston. Today it is the capital and largest city in Massachusetts.”

Captain Penguin pointed to another dot that said New Netherland and asked what it was.

Jerkins continued, “New Netherland was settled by the Dutch from 1609 to 1664. It included parts of present day New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Dutch fur traders began a trading post and called it Fort Orange. It is in present day Albany. Later the Dutch built another trading post called New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island.”

“In 1646 Peter Stuyvesant became the governor of New Netherlands. During a battle with the Indians he lost his leg and used a wooden leg. He had silver bands decorated on the wooden leg and got the nickname, Old Silver Leg.”

“After awhile, Stuyvesant heard of some Swedish settlers building a colony called New Sweden, in present day New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware. In 1643, Johan Printz became the leader of this colony. People said no one was as tall or weighed as much as him. The Indians called him Big Belly.”

When Stuyvesant heard that New Sweden was getting more fur trade with the Indians than his colonists, he attacked and defeated the Swedes. New Sweden became part of New Netherlands.” Finished Jerkins.

Pretty soon the airplane landed at an airport in Antarctica. Captain Penguin and his parents got off to meet their relatives. Then Jerkins went back to New York to spend the holiday with his parents.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Captain Penguin Flies Again

I have not written in a while....too much school work. I do have a story that Jack wrote back in 5th grade ....good stuff....it was for his History class

Jack Murphy

Social Studies

Block II

September 15, 2006

Captain Penguin Flies Again!

 Beep! Beep! Beep! Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeppppp!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Went the alarm.

 “Trouble.” thought Captain Penguin. He then ran over to where the alarm was. Turned on the screen on to see where the crime was. “Somewhere in Nevada.” said Captain Penguin.

“Actually it’s the Great Basin sir.” said a voice. 

“Jerkins! It’s you!” startled Captain Penguin (Jerkins was Captain Penguin’s Butler.)

“What’s a basin?” asked Captain Penguin.

“A basin” started Jerkins “Is a low region surrounded by higher lands.”

“Thanks” echoed Captain Penguin’s voice as he ran out the door he then hopped into his helicopter and took off. Jerkins face appeared on part of the helicopter. 

“I hope you know your geography!” taunted Jerkins.

“I do to!” squawked Captain Penguin.

“Ok then what is it?” smirked Jerkins

“It’s. A … it’s … Um” stuttered Captain Penguin “It’s the study of the way people live and use the earth.” said Jerkins in a singsong voice.

“Yeah whatever.” said Captain Penguin “What am I supposed to use geography for anyway?” asked Captain Penguin.

“This villain is an odd one,” said Jerkins “He is part chameleon.”

“What do you mean by that?” asked Captain Penguin.

 “I mean that he can blend in with his surroundings.” said Jerkins.

Captain Penguin then started the helicopter and took off. After a while Captain Penguin noticed something strange. There were big bumps along the surface of the earth. Glob monsters thought Captain Penguin. He then put the helicopter in attack position and then aimed at the nearest glob.

“Bombs away!” shouted Captain Penguin and was about to press the trigger when.

“No Captain Penguin don’t do it!” shouted Jerkins

“Why their evil globs!?” asked Captain Penguin “No. No they’re landforms!” laughed Jerkins

“So?” asked Captain Penguin.

 “You don’t know what landforms are do you?” asked Jerkins. 

“Maybe.” said Captain Penguin.

“Ok” began Jerkins “Landforms are shapes on the earth surface.”

“Oooooh” said Captain Penguin. After a while Captain Penguin got bored. “Are we there yet?” asked Captain Penguin

“Why you’re the pilot?” said Jerkins

“Yeah but I’m bored.” said Captain Penguin. 

“Yeah but you’re the pilot you should know how long the trip is.”

“Yeah but I’m bored.” said Captain Penguin.

This went on for an hour until they finally stopped. Then Captain Penguin realized something. A person was moving along the flat surface. Then suddenly the person disappeared then reappeared in a different place. “Jerkins” shouted Captain Penguin. “I see the villain and he is running on a flat thingy!” 

“That is a plain.” said Jerkins

“I know I know!” shouted Captain Penguin. “You probably don’t know so I’ll tell you. A plain is a large area of flat land.”

“Exactly what I was going to say.” said Captain Penguin.

After crossing the central plains, and following the villain along the way, our hero soon came upon another strange thing. A small river flowing then joined to a bigger river and many other rivers connecting to the big river.

Our hero watched this, transfixed in childlike wonder at the bright blue rivers. “Those are tributaries sir.” said Jerkins. “Tribe u tarties huh.” thought Captain Penguin. “I’ll get my rifle I know how to deal with Indians.” said the Captain. Then reached out to part off the helicopter and grabbed a shotgun. Then this childish penguin switched the helicopter to auto pilot. Then leaned out the helicopter and scanned the surface for Indians.

PLEASE DON’T BLAME HIM HE IS ONLY A PENGUIN!

“Captain Penguin what do you think you are doing!!!!” shouted Jerkins.

Before Captain Penguin could answer something interrupted him.

“Helping me win of course!” snarled a voice. Just then something appeared inside the helicopter. “The villain!” shouted Captain Penguin.

“Lucky guess.” said the villain. If you want to know the truth this villain was an ugly one. Half of his face was part chameleon and the other half was part human. He had a chameleon’s tail too. “That’s all folks.” said the villain. Then he busted the controls. After that he jumped out the helicopter and pulled his parachute string. Then the helicopter fell out the air and into the river.

But Captain Penguin was prepared for this.  He pressed a button and inflated a raft around the helicopter landing safely in the river. “Now that we are safe Jerkin’s tell me what a tributary is.”

Jerkins replied, “A tributary is a stream or river that flows into a larger river.” 

They flowed down the Ohio River into the Mississippi River into Arkansas River. On the way Captain Penguin fixed the controls and they took off again over the Ozark Plateau and then the Great Plains towards the Rocky Mountains. He changed the helicopter to a higher altitude and said, “What are these huge rocks? They look like gum drops. Is that sugar on the top?”

“No Captain Penguin, it’s a mountain range, which is a series of many mountains”

“It still looks like gumdrops to me.” whispered Captain Penguin.

After crossing the Rocky Mountains, Captain Penguin spotted the villain. “There he is on that flat surface!” The villain then saw them and disappeared.

“Actually Captain Penguin, It’s a plateau, a flat surface that is higher than the surrounding land. It’s the Colorado Plateau.”

But Captain Penguin didn’t hear the Colorado Plateau part and landed the helicopter on the plateau. Then he rushed out of the helicopter with a flag with a penguin on it and drove the flag into the center of the plateau. He shouted, “I call this plateau The Plateau Penguin.” He then took out a sticky note wrote on it and placed it on the flag. It said, “One small step for a penguin, One giant leap for Penguin-kind”

Jerkins said, “You can’t call it Plateau Penguin.”

“That’s unfair Jerkins, I named it before you did.” exclaimed Captain Penguin.

“No!” said Jerkins, “Someone named it before you did. It’s the Colorado Plateau!”

“Why must you ruin my fun Jerkins.” sighed Captain Penguin. “Oh well, I have a villain to catch!”  He then saw the villain running toward the Grand Canyon and followed in the helicopter.

The villain began climbing into the canyon as fast as he could. Since he was part chameleon, this was quite easy. He hopped into a small boat when he got to the bottom of the canyon.

“Gee what a big ditch.” said Captain Penguin. “It must have taken a group of kids their whole summer vacation to dig that!”

“No!” said Jerkins impatiently. “It’s the Grand Canyon. A canyon is a deep valley with steep sides.”

“Tell me about it.” sighed Captain Penguin. He then pressed a button that released a huge butterfly net, hanging from one side of the helicopter. “I’m gonna catch me a lizard!” shouted Captain Penguin. “YEE-HAA!!!” He then flew the helicopter into the canyon. 

Meanwhile, the villain turned on the motor to his boat and sped off.

Captain Penguin glared at him. “He thinks he is so smart with that little motor. Let’s see what he thinks about this!” He pressed another button in the helicopter and turbine engine accelerated the helicopter toward the villain. He maneuvered the helicopter to capture the villain. “Uh oh!” exclaimed Captain Penguin “I wouldn’t want that to happen.” as he stared at the speed boat motor. He pulled out his shot gun and fired at the motor. BANG!!!! He demolished the motor in a single shot! “They don’t call me dead eye penguin for nothing!!!” He scooped up the villain with his net and carried him off. 

They headed off to jail and on the way Captain Penguin asked the villain a question.  “How come you left Nevada?”

The villain answered, “You took too long. I grew impatient waiting for you. So I came to get you to destroy you!”

“Ha!” said Captain Penguin. “I’m lucky we caught you sooner, because I would have found something on the landscape that I didn’t know and Jerkins would have to explain it to me and make me look like an idiot.”

Jerkins replied, “Never an idiot sir, just misinformed. I hope you are ready for the test you are going to get when we get back.”

“Thanks.” said Captain Penguin sarcastically. “I always could rely on you.”

THE END

 

Court of Honor

Here are some of the short speeches that the boys wrote for the recent Court of Honor for Scouts. I asked several boys to write a short paragragh about a scout activity they participated in and how it relates to the scout laws. (Jack wrote this set!)

Even though it has been over 100 years, the scout oaths and laws and expectations remain the same. Part of being a scout is doing new things and learning how to be a leader. Whether you are assistant patrol leader, scribe or troop leader every person is important to the troop.



Summer Camp

What was the best week of your summer? For most boy scouts it was spent at boy scout camp. It is a week with no technology, which is normal for the scout masters but difficult for the modern day scout. Classes take place outside which is a lot of fun. There is canoeing, rowing, fishing and bird watching, Some take place in the woods, like wilderness survival. This is probably one of the most challenging of all the merit badges to earn. You make your own shelter and sleep on the ground in the woods. Somehow, it always rains this evening, making it even more challenging.

Morning activities that are not merit badges but still fun are the polar bear swim or running the mile and basketball.

A scout learns to be clean during the week. If you don’t clean up after yourself, mice can come and steal the food you leave out. You and your bunk mate also need to keep your tent clean.

Half way through the week the parents come to see how much the boys have accomplished. Scouts learn to work together, competing in the evening race on parent night.

So what are you going to do this summer?





Service Project
The scouts participate in many different service projects in the community.
Each fall the scouts help the local food pantry by putting out flyers and collecting canned food. They help with the home tour by being courteous greeters at the different homes in town. They clean up bike trail in the spring and last year they helped clean up Camp Seph Mack. We also put out flags at the local cemetery.

Starting a Fire
The most important thing that a scout in troop 135 will learn is how to start a fire. There are many ways to start a fire. Using matches, a fire starter and even gasoline. But Troop 135 knows how to start a fire by using flint and steel. Starting a fire with flint and steel is important because you may have gotten your matches wet while canoeing. Also you may have used all your matches to start fire crackers on the Fall Hike.

In Conclusion, Scouting is about accepting challenges and setting high expectations for yourself. It’s about learning to work as a group as you work towards bettering yourself. It means being true to yourself and living the scout oath and laws everyday of your life, not just on a scouting trip.


These were written by some of the 6th and the 7th grade boys,

Fall Hike

Cooking with Kate: Valentine's Edition

Kate wanted to make chocolate covered strawberries and other goodies for Valentine's Day. It took me a while, but here are the pcitures from our fun eveing. I didn't do anything but clean off the table to give her room to work....GO KATE!!

 

 The ingredients

 The yummy magic!!!

 Graham crackers with marshmallow fluff, soon to be covered with chocolate. Kinda like a smore!

 More!

 and more!

 Tray 2! with some chocolate covered Oreos!!!

 Finished off with a drizzle of white chocolate!

Thanks Kate for making it a great evening!

KLONDIKE DERBY

This past weekend, Jack's scout troop hosted the Klondike Derby at the Grove. I was worried about finding parking but the leaders are good and plowed out there and fires were going and even though there was no running water, we were able to make some ham and bean soup, hot chocolate and coffee. I bout about 4 gallons of water and after washing the pots at home, filled them with water and brought them back...we were able to have the basics.

The boys were broken in patrols and went to various stations demonstrating their skills in fire building, first aide, wilderness rescue, team work on an obstacle course, ice rescue and a tomohawk throw. There was also a sled race around the little league field. They finished the day just as the drizzle started and made it back to the scout hall in the pouring rain. The Big Stags Patrol from our Troop came in 1st and jack's Badger Patrol came in 4th. The Big Stags came in 2nd in the race getting beat out by a team from Confluence, I think. It was a great day. Here are some pictures from it.

bunny tracks

There is a rabbit scooting around my house this cold, cold winter. Not in it, but leaving its little tracks outside. At first I panicked....'what if those are rat tracks' I thought. 

But when I got up in the middle of the night to get a drink, I looked out my kitchen window. 5:30am it was. Whose cute little face and dark button eyes was looking up at me. A brown rabbit. Stopping, looking, hopping across the driveway. I went to the front door and he hopped across the front steps, down the sidewalk and a left turn into the back yard. 

Poor little guy. Is he warm? Does he have enough to eat? I worry about the little critter. I want to leave some food out but I don't want a rat coming aroung and stealing it!!!

My plan to capture a photo of him....leave my camera by the kitchen sink, so when I see him again, I can just pick up the camera and share his adorable face with you!!