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CD Shenanigans

May 21, 2026 by ehesson@pvs.org Leave a Comment

Feature Post

By 7th-Grade Blogger Mark Huber

Introduction

Just so you know, I spontaneously like CDs (compact discs) now. It’s because some song on Spotify was blocked, and so I wanted to listen to the song via records and a record player because the last time I went to North Carolina to see my Nana and my uncle my dad found some of his old records, and I listened to one. I liked it. So for Christmas I asked for a GOOD record player and some records to play. I didn’t get any. But in like January or February of this year I got the CD of the album I wanted, a Sony Discman CD player, and some wireful* Sony headphones. I was super excited, and I immediately started listening. Dad found some of Mom’s CDs, and I liked them too. So I became officially obsessed with CDs. Then my dad came up with a rewards system that every Sunday, if I did really well in hockey and school and behaved really well, I would get to grab a CD from a grab bag full of CDs from artists I really liked. I’m still grabbing as of May 2026. Anyway, moving on to the story…

*”Wireful” is a word I made up. It means something that has a physical wire connection instead of having bluetooth connections. I made this word up because there was no opposite word to “wireless” as far as I knew.

The Story, starring . . . Mark the Pig!

One day I decided to bring some CDs and my CD player and headphones to school. Mr. Pearhead was standing outside the main entrance to school looking really mad (as always).

“Hi, Mr. Pearhead,” I said while walking to the front doors.

“I’ll be taking THAT,” said Mr. Pearhead as he confiscated my CDs and stuff.

“Hey,” I said, “that’s my stuff! You can’t just take it away from me.”

“Uh, yeah I can, you BUM. According to the Rancho Mirage Middle School Rulebook of Rules and Regulations That You Have to Follow…” said Mr. Pearhead, “‘Mr. Pearhead has the right to confiscate a student’s belongings if he feels that they will disturb the classroom environment.’”

“Well, why don’t ya just confiscate me?” I asked.

“Huh?” said Mr. Pearhead.

“Well, I belong to myself, don’t I? And aren’t I always like disturbing the classroom and stuff?” I asked.

“Wait, I’ve never thought of it like that… what a great idea, Mark! I’ll be taking THAT,” said Mr. Pearhead. And he picked me up and took me into the school building.

After he dropped me into the seat in front of the principal’s desk, he gave me a very stern look, pointed at my CDs, and said,“Mark, what is the meaning of this?”

“They’re CDs. I listen to them,” I said.

“And why did they come to exist in the same air the school breathes?”

“Because I brought them here, duh.”

“Don’t you say ‘Duh’ to me! I already know you brought them here! What I meant was why did you bring them here?!”

“Because I get bored at school. And I see lots of people doom scrolling with their faces two inches away from their phones with their noise-cancelling headphones glued to their heads in class, so I thought ‘why don’t I bring my CDS?’”

“BECAUSE–” said Mr. Pearhead, in the action of jumping from his desk to assault me when someone knocked on the door.

“Come in,” he said as he sat back down.

The person came in.

“Your coffee, sir,” said Mrs. Choco.

“Gimme that,” said Mr. Pearhead, grabbing the coffee from Mrs. Choco. He sipped it.

“Hey, where’s the cream in this thing?” asked Mr. Pearhead.

“I-uh, I forgot–” said Mrs. Choco.

“Go get me a new coffee and DON’T FORGET THE CREAM!” yelled Mr. Pearhead.

“Uh, yes sir,” said Mrs. Choco, leaving the room.

“Stupid coffee,” said Mr. Pearhead, and tossed the coffee onto my head so it bounced into the trash can.

“Hey! I’m not your personal trash-bouncing trampoline, okay man?” I said.

“I know,” said Mr. Pearhead with a smirk.

There was a long pause.

“Can I go back to listening to Accelerate?” I asked.

“No! Get out! And take your silly CDs with you!” barked Mr. Pearhead.

I picked up my CDs and left.

“Whatever,” I said.

And I put on my headphones and started listening to my CDs again.

~~~

Throughout the day, people were congratulating me for getting chewed out by Mr. Pearhead and then doing exactly what he told me not to do.

“Hey, Mark’s rebelling again!” said a guy named Aidan.

Cue enthusiastic cheers from everyone in the hallway.

“???”

Anyway, when I got home, David asked me for the CD I was listening to at school because I think it’s his favorite one. So I gave it to him.

“Yay!” he said and immediately went to the sofa and fell asleep.

What is particularly peculiar about that specific CD is that it’s my loudest one, but it’s the one that most commonly puts David to sleep.

So I had to do something other than listen to CDs because there’s only one CD player. (Unless you count Mom’s giant player that plays the music externally instead of into headphones, and I don’t really want to annoy my parents by blasting loud music at them. And you have to plug it into the wall.)

I ate dinner and took a shower and went to sleep.

The next day, I took my own computer to school in addition to the school’s cheap Chromebook that takes longer to charge than it takes to die. I sat in the hallway and played my Bad Piggies game file.

“SIR, WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?!?” shouted Mr. Pearhead.

“I’m playing Bad Piggies,” I replied.

“Are you PLAYING a GAME on a PERSONAL DEVICE!?” yelled Mr. Pearhead.

“Well, what do you think I’m doing?” I asked in response.

“MY OFFICE! NOW!!!” screamed Mr. Pearhead.

Here we go again, I thought.

The end (of the story)

Bonus!

Things from real life

OK, so there are a lot of things I took from my real life and deposited here. They are:

  • Me (obviously)
  • David (also obviously)
  • My CDs
  • My Nana and Uncle
  • My CD player and headphones
  • The Bad Piggies game file
  • And my green shoebox which holds my CDs

And a little easter egg is that the black rectangle with some white shapes on it that sits on top of my shoebox is actually my favorite CD. It is the deluxe CD release of Accelerate by R.E.M.

Filed Under: Fiction, Music, School Events Tagged With: Mark Huber

Houston, Help Us with the Toilet!!!

May 15, 2026 by ehesson@pvs.org Leave a Comment

Part of The Bird on Fire’s What’s in the News

By 7th-Grade Blogger Mark Huber

Did you hear about that new space mission that was like all over the news? Well, the most recent mission was the Artemis II mission. And, if you heard about the Artemis II mission, you likely heard that the onboard toilet had some major issues.

Artemis II ready for launch. Source: ABC News

According to Artemis II Flight Director Judd Freiling, the main issue had to do with “dumping the waste out of the toilet” (CNN). And, the cause of the issue was a frozen vent line–clogged up with frozen pee. I know it sounds sort of silly, but the toilet is an everyday thing we take for granted. Without it, you would be taking dumps behind the bushes outside your house and people would walk by and get really good views of your butt. But, in space, there are no bushes.

So, what I mean to say is the malfunctioning toilet was a big problem. While the pee-ejection vent was clogged up with frozen pee, the crew had to do their urinating in bags. At least they could just toss the bags out into the distant void of space, says Space.com. Still, not very fun. But, fortunately, the whole crew made it back down to Earth completely fine. (And also probably feeling super happy that they could now sit down on a toilet and urinate there instead of into bags.)


P.S. I also used the BBC as one of my sources. Now they tell me I have to pay (real!) money to subscribe so I can keep reading stuff on their website. Whatever.

Filed Under: PSA, The World, Travel Tagged With: Help Us with the Toilet!!!, Houston, Mark Huber

When Pigs Play Soccer

April 30, 2026 by ehesson@pvs.org 1 Comment

Student Fiction

By 7th-Grade Blogger Mark Huber

The first story by Mark Huber where the pigs* have legs

NOTE: I know I suck at making a soccer ball in Google Drawings. But I will not allow myself to use an image instead. Just bear with me.

*When I say pigs I mean anthropomorphic creatures that act exactly like humans but are actually pigs without bodies so their limbs are attached to their heads and they each come in a different color. 

Oof. I just got hit by a soccer ball. And this is why you should always wear pads when playing goalie in soccer.

People came rushing up to me. They were all asking me if I was okay and stuff.

“Mark, you okay?” said a boy named Luke.

“What happened, Mark?” said a girl named Emily.

“Bro, what like, happened, bruh? The bruh who kicked that ball is not sigma, bruh,” said another boy named Jackson.

“I’m fine,” I said, feeling totally not fine. And I bet I sure didn’t look fine.

“Mark, you do not look fine,” said Reagan. (Reagan is my best friend.)

“Okay,” I said.

“Look, bruh, there’s like a big rock falling from the sky, bruh,” said Jackson. Sure enough, I looked up and there was a blippin’ BOULDER falling from the sky. Directly above me. I had some second thoughts about looking up because my face probably would’ve been better preserved had I not looked up.

The boulder fell on me.

I am stuck under this boulder which dug some three feet into the ground. Gee, I wonder how good a goalie I am stuck under this “big rock,” I thought.

I stayed under the boulder for some time. It felt like a few minutes. I heard some murmuring from my peers, and listened to what they said.

“Bruh, let’s get a backhoe to dig out Mark, bruh.” That was most likely Jackson.

“I’m not your ‘bruh.’ But, sure, we could get a backhoe. We could use it to dig out Mark.” That was probably Reagan. I know the sound of her voice.

“I KNEW my plan was sigma!” said Jackson. Then I heard some beeping. Sounded like someone dialing a phone number. Then Reagan started talking and listening. Talking and listening. Reagan hung up. I waited a couple hours. Then I heard a really big rumbling noise.

Some dirt began moving next to me. Then the boulder shifted, and I was out of its hold.

I climbed out of the hole and stretched. It felt nice not to be so cramped under that boulder. I looked at my left arm. For some reason, half my forearm wasn’t extended when I stretched. In fact, it was in a position that bones restrict it from being in. Then I had a sudden realization.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!” I shrieked.

I realized I had broken my arm.

“Oooohhhwuuuhh,” I mumbled. Then I fainted.

I woke up in a hospital bed. You know, I think I’ve woken up in too many hospital beds. There was that time I fell into a ravine skiing, and I subsequently woke up in a hospital bed. There was also the time I was struck by a flying desk which rendered me unconscious, and I woke up in a hospital bed. In fact, that was the first time out of many. Anyway, when I woke up in this hospital bed, I had half a banana hanging out of my mouth. David was giggling. Ptooey, I spit it out, and David caught it.

“Now you gotta eat that, David,” I said.

He shook his head with a stupid smile on his face.

“Okay, fine, whatever. Gimme that,” I replied. I ate it.

Monkey Mark (that’s what I call Mark from Earth) came into the room.

“Hi. I came to visit you, Domesticus,” said Monkey Mark. He calls me Domesticus because the scientific name for pigs is “Sus scrofa domesticus,” and “domesticus” sounds funny to say. (He calls David “Domesticavid,” and my parents “Sus mom” and “Sus dad.” They don’t care.)

“How was traffic?” I asked.

“You have no idea how hard it was to get here. I had to dodge an entire asteroid belt, and then I kept nearly missing planets, and then on the other side of the wormhole I had to do it again, and then trying to find you was super hard because everyone was getting scared of me, which got me really uncomfortable, and then the hospital tried to dial 911 on me, and they wouldn’t let me see you, and on top of that, I’ve got the military on edge, so I’m lucky to be alive,” he said.

“Well then, I should welcome you to a strange, often confusing place, called the United States of America,” I said. Monkey Mark laughed.

“You should go now,” said Mom.

“Yeah,” said David, “Monkey Mom and Monkey Dad must really be missing you right now.”

“Okay, Domesticavid,” said Monkey Mark. David giggled.

We all said our goodbyes to Monkey Mark. Huggy huggy. Kissy kissy. Blah blah blah. That’s basically all it was.

And then we went home.

The next day…

I played soccer again.

I know I shouldn’t be playing soccer until my arm heals, but I want to redeem myself and actually stop a ball from going into the net. Last time I played, all I did was jump out of the way because I didn’t want to get hit until I actually got hit.

I watched the game going on at the other end. Chester was the goalie for the other team. Jackson kicked the ball to Timmy; Timmy kicked it into the net, right past Chester. Chester got to kick the ball. And, in case you didn’t know, Chester has a powerful kick. So powerful, in fact, that he kicked the ball all the way to me. I watched it come to me. And I waited. Aaaaaaaaand…. I caught it. Everyone cheered. I don’t know why, but everyone at this school (which is Rancho Mirage Middle and High School) can’t get enough of me. Except for Chris. One second of me is way, way, way, too much of me for him. But anyway, when I caught that ball, everyone cheered for me. Because they like me.

I got to kick the ball back out onto the field again. I held it in my hands. I gently tossed it in the air, and right before it hit the ground, I kicked it as hard as I could. I kicked more powerfully than Chester did, somehow. It went sailing into the air. It went way over Chester and his net. It went flying through the air, and then it started going down, faster and faster, and it finally hit. But the most important thing is that the ball didn’t hit the ground. It hit the name of the school. The thing tilted a little to the side, and then it fell off of the building. Onto a car. Not just any car, though. It was the principal’s car. And then the ball hit another car, and another car, and another, and it kept bouncing onto cars. Then it finally stopped in the middle of the parking lot.

I thought things couldn’t get worse, but then a car drove over the ball, and then the car flipped upside down. Thus began another marathon of the ball repeatedly hitting random cars. Then a different car ran into the upside-down car, and the ball finally bounced back into the soccer field, and it rolled all the way back to me.

“Uh, bye,” I said. And then I ran back to the school building.

When I finally got back to the building, I opened the door only to see a very, very mad Principal Pearhead. Mr. Pearhead always looks mad, but that’s just the way his face is. And he’s also sort of yellowish green and shaped like a pear and has a little thing of brown hair on his head so he always looks like an angry pear. Normally, it’s really funny to see him, because, you know, angry pear, but it’s not funny when you know he’s actually mad at someone and that someone is you.

“MaaaAAAAAAAAAAAARRRK! You are in big, big trouble, young man!!!” yelled Mr. Pearhead. 

“Hi. What’s up, Mr. Pearhead?” I said.

“I DON’T WANNA HEAR A ‘WHAT’S UP’ FROM YOU!!! Look at my car! Look at all of the cars! Look at the SIGN! What do you have to say for yourself, Mark?”

“Uh, I have to pee.”

Mr. Pearhead gave me a withering look.

“Uhh… Oh, I know what you want! You want some car insurance! Eh?” I said.

Mr. Pearhead leaned forward into me with that withering look, forcing me to lean backwards. I sighed.

“Okay. What I have to say is ‘Oopsie’.”

Then I ran off to pee.

And tossed him the car insurance company’s business card.

I heard him explode as I ran down the hallway. Yes, pigs can explode just from pure anger. Just like I did back when I ate that “hot dog” and I got super mad at David. Okay, anyway, I went to pee. And you’re not gonna see an image of me peeing.

When I got out of the bathroom, I heard an announcement on the PA:

“SCHOOL’S BEEN CANCELLED FOR TODAY!!! NOW GET OUT!!! AND YOU CAN THANK MARK’S DESTRUCTIVE SHENANIGANS FOR THIS EARLY RELEASE!!!

Everyone turned to me.

And started patting me on the back.

“Whoa, Mark!” said a girl named Natalie.

“I didn’t know you canceled school for today!” said an odd boy named Billy who always wore a popcorn bin on his head.

“Bro, let me ask Mark a question!” said Jackson, pushing his way through the back-patters. “Bro, Mark, how did you like, cancel school, bruh?”

“I kicked a soccer ball,” I said.

“Wait, kicking soccer balls cancels school? Bro, you should do that every day, Mark!” said Jackson.

“No, wait, that’s not really how it works,” I said, because kicking soccer balls doesn’t necessarily cancel school. Unless the soccer ball hits a giant sign which falls on the principal’s car. And then the ball bounces on a million other cars and flips some more cars upside down.

After school, when I was in the car with my mom going home, she asked what happened at the school.

“I kicked a soccer ball,” I said again. “And that soccer ball hit the sign which said the name of the school, and then the sign fell on the principal’s car, and the soccer ball then bounced on a million other cars, causing the roofs of the cars to be damaged, and when the ball finally stopped, another car ran it over and that car flipped upside down, and the ball got propelled to the top of another car, and the ball started bouncing on more cars, and then yet another car ran into the upside-down car, and then the soccer ball finally came back to me.”

“A soccer ball did that?” asked Mom.

“Uh, yeah,” I said.

“Huh,” said Mom.

We sat in silence for the remainder of the drive.

When we got home, I decided to kick a soccer ball around in the backyard. David came a few minutes later.

“Hey Mark, whatcha doing?” he asked.

“Kicking a soccer ball. Wanna try?” I asked. 

“Sure!” said David.

He kicked it around like I did. Then he picked it up, tossed it in the air, and kicked it right before it hit the ground.

“Uh-oh,” I said.

“What?” said David.

“That’s the exact kind of kick that almost got me expelled from school.”

“What do you mean?”

But David soon found out what I meant.

The ball went over the wall separating our backyard from someone else’s.

“GAAHH!!! There’s a SOCCER BALL in my POOL!!!” yelled the guy on the other side of the wall. 

He threw it back over the wall, but the ball went way over our house. Then it hit the roof of someone’s car.

“Here we go again,” I said.

The End!

Filed Under: Alternate Realities, Art, Fiction Tagged With: Mark Huber, soccer

A Mark Meme

April 17, 2026 by ehesson@pvs.org 1 Comment

By Former and Now Returning Blogger Mark Huber

You might remember Mark’s illustrations, animations, movies, and stories from last spring semester when he was a Blog Staffer. Mark returns to us now in the last half of this spring semester. He brings with him his drawing and storytelling skills. He shares here a meme about the irony of enjoying the “fresh” outdoors. Enjoy.

Original graphic by Mark Huber.

Filed Under: Animals, Animation, Media, The Outdoors Tagged With: A Mark Meme, Mark Huber

mr. killeen.jpg Starts the Apocalypse

October 28, 2025 by ehesson@pvs.org Leave a Comment

An animated story . . .

By Former and Now Guest Blogger Mark Huber

You might remember Mark’s illustrations, animations, movies, and stories from last spring semester when he was a Blog Staffer. Mark is on a different elective track now, but he never stopped drawing and storytelling. He shares here the ongoing saga of “Mark” and “David.” Enjoy.

*Thank you to science teacher extraordinaire Mr. Killeen for use of his name and likeness(?).

I thought downloading Mr. Killeen’s image from the official PVS website would be as easy as downloading any other image. But, no, I was so very wrong about that. To tell you what actually happened, we’re gonna have to go a little bit back in time, about three days.

FLASHBACK!

“Hey, David,” I said, “you know what’d be funny? If I downloaded Mr. Killeen’s picture off the school website.”

“Oh, yeah, that’d be funny,” said David.

Aaaaaaand here’s where everything went totally wrong. Because I got all the way to the point where the option to download it popped up on the screen, and then I clicked on it. But nothing happened. So I clicked on it again. And again. AND again.

“Welp, that’s hopeless,” I said. And then I started walking away, when the computer said–

“Computer detonation in ten, nine, eight…”

I randomly pushed a whole bunch of keys on my keyboard, hoping that would stop the detonation.

“seven, six, five…”

I kept doing that. While doing so, I accidentally closed Chrome, opened the camera app, opened Chrome, searched for “fvhytfcvgtrdfghgfdsdfgh,” and played a YouTube video.

“four, three…”

“Why isn’t this working!?!?” I said.

“Two, one, zer- detonation purged,” it said.

“Phew,” David and I said. 

And that’s when all the electronics in the room turned to me. Even the lamps and reading lights. And the TV and the microwave, which weren’t even in the room to begin with.

“Uh, hi,” I said to the electronics. “How ya’ doin’?”

“We’re doing great,” said the TV. “We just want to destroy you and make the world perfect.”

“Um, that sounds great,” I said. Then I whispered to David, “We need to get out of here!” I picked up my iPad and grabbed David by the hand, and made a run for it. I had recently installed an emergency exit panel into my bedroom (it was just a part of my wall that hinged outwards). We ended up in the backyard, and then we both jumped into the same lemon tree (David’s a yellow pig, so he’d look like a lemon, and I’m green, so I’d look like the leaves). While in the lemon tree, I took a thing out of my snout storage that looked sort of like a USB. 

The “USB” was actually a device that when plugged into another device, would stop it from malfunctioning like this. I plugged it into my iPad, and it started a reboot. The reboot only took like 20 seconds, so I had all my stuff back really fast. I had this custom add-on thingy for Bad Piggies that I created, and, when activated, would turn anything built in the game into physical things in real life. I had the add-on thingy because it was much faster to build in-game than in real life. Pretty soon, we had a fast 2-pig car ready to go. It had a thingy to launch itself into the air, so we would be able to get over walls easily.

Once we got into the physical one, we drove it away. We launched the car over the gate. We thought the devices wouldn’t be able to get to us, but when we went past the front door, we saw them all. And at the front, was my homemade robotic clone, B.O.O.M. That stood for Bonkers Outstanding Oinking Machine. I should’ve known he would let the other devices in through my emergency exit hole, and then open the front door! He was the smartest piece of tech on all of Blerf, so what did I expect?

Anyway, he rocketed towards us (yes, he has rocket boosters) and tried to crash into David’s little watchtower place, but we turned around at the last second, and B.O.O.M. ended up knocking over a palm tree. I pushed the car’s motor to its absolute limit, and it started turning red. We were almost going as fast as B.O.O.M., but he was still going faster. He engaged his grappling hook (really just a plunger tied to a string attached to an air-powered propellant) built into his arm, and caught onto our car. He reeled himself in, and now he could much more easily destroy us and stuff.

David made a risky move and leaned out of his watchtower then shoved B.O.O.M. off. David quickly got in right before we hit a large rock, and the car went flying into the air.

The car broke into all of its little components. B.O.O.M. woke up and started coming after us again.

“I’m gonna get you, Mark and David!!! You will be gone from this world, and I’m gonna rule all of Blerf!!!”

B.O.O.M. picked up David and began crushing him. Normally, our species of pig is very squishy, but when we get tense, our entire body becomes super vulnerable to breaking. David was very scared, so he was very tense, so he was super breakable. This was bad. This was very, very bad. This could land David in the hospital. This could paralyze David (that means your whole body can’t move). This could be the end of David.

“NOOOOOO!!!!!” I yelled at the very top of my lungs. My vocal chords almost snapped. “I’M GONNA SLINGSHOT YOU AT A WALL OR PUT YOU IN A CRUSHER, IF THAT’S WHAT IT’S GONNA TAKE TO STOP YOU FROM CONTINUING THIS INSANITY!!!!!!!!!!”

I picked up the punching-glove-in-the-box and jumped at B.O.O.M., and started using it to punch him. He was getting dented and broken, but I didn’t care. I just needed him to quit crushing David.

“Stop your imperfect automated punching machine! I’m trying to bring perfection to Blerf!” yelled B.O.O.M.

“YOU QUIT TRYING TO CRUSH MY BROTHER!!! PERFECTION DOES NOT EXIST! IT’S NOT MEANT TO BE! SO STOP TRYING TO BRING IT TO BLERF! Listen, B.O.O.M.! The beauty of this world is that it’s not perfect! If you make it perfect, you’re just going to destroy it all!” I yelled back.

“Well, who cares, anyway!? Then I’m just gonna make as close to perfect as possible!” yelled B.O.O.M.

“Mark, would you shut up about perfection and help me!?” yelled David. “I’m almost crushed!”

“Right, then!” I said. I started punching B.O.O.M.’s arms, so that they would fall off and he’d have no way to crush David. They fell off right away, and then they raced back to B.O.O.M. Aw, dang it! I forgot that I installed magnets in his arm sockets so they would stay on! I had to opt for the last resort: the self-destruct button. I knew that if I tried to turn him off, he would override the command.

“I gotta push the self-destruct button, David! It’s the only way!” I yelled.

“NO! You’ll lose B.O.O.M.! We could just go into his code and delete the part that’s making him go bonkers!” David yelled.

“That would take too long! We just have to destroy him!” I yelled.

I opened his back panel (which contained the self-destruct button). I didn’t want to push that big red button, but I had to if I wanted to save the world, and save David.

I pushed it.

“Huh?” said B.O.O.M.

And then B.O.O.M. really did go boom. Well, “boom” just doesn’t describe it enough. It was more like, “Ka-BLOOEY splort garble clatter.” All the other devices now no longer had a leader, so they just turned around and went back inside, back to where they were before mr. killeen.jpg was downloaded. It was as if nothing ever happened, except for the collection of green robot parts on the road and the giant smoking crater.

“O-kay,” was all I said. We picked up all the B.O.O.M. parts and went inside the house.

“Boys, why did all the electronics go outside?” asked Mom.

“I tried to download a picture on my computer, and then it started a virus with all the electronics, and they started attacking David and I, and we decided to go outside,” I said.

“And what was that explosion noise?” asked Dad.

“That was B.O.O.M. exploding,” I said.

Dad laughed. And then he said sorry. He does that a lot.

“And there’s a smoking crater in the road outside,” David said.

No one said anything and just stared at David for a few seconds.

“O-kay, moving on,” said David. But, we still did have to fix the road. No one else was.

So we studied how to be a road fixer, and then we got college degrees in road-fixing, and then we fixed it in 7 minutes flat.

Yeah, right! We just made a makeshift cover out of wooden beams (from our snout storage) and called the people who actually fix roads to fix the road soon. While we are waiting, we just have to hope that our wooden beams can hold the weight of a car…

When I opened my computer again, it said on the screen:

So I’ve got some advice for you: If you ever want to download that picture of Mr. Killeen, you better be prepared for a robot apocalypse.

Now, back to the present…

Well, that was a crazy story. Let’s talk about what’s happening now.

I laid all the B.O.O.M. parts on my bedroom desk and got some tools from my snout storage. David came in to see what I was doing. Well, I was going to fix B.O.O.M.

“MARK! DAVID! DINNER’S READY!” yelled Mom from the kitchen.

“Okay, fixing B.O.O.M. will have to wait. For now let’s just–” I began.

“Robotal a-assistance persososon han c-celp youyouyouyouyouyou,” warbled B.O.O.M.

“What was that?” asked David.

“Just B.O.O.M. He’s still broken, so don’t worry if you hear something fishy,” I said.

We went into the kitchen and got our food. Cue more gibberish from B.O.O.M. heard over the baby monitor.

“Like I said, don’t worry about it,” I said.

To be continued…

Filed Under: Alternate Realities, Animation, Visual Arts Tagged With: Mark Huber, mr.killeen.jpg Starts the Apocalypse

AI?

October 22, 2025 by ehesson@pvs.org 1 Comment

By Former Blogger and Always Animator Mark Huber 

For your enjoyment, here’s a quick meme from Mark.

Filed Under: Alternate Realities, Animation, Art Tagged With: AI?, Mark Huber

Flammable Hot Dog

May 1, 2025 by ehesson@pvs.org 2 Comments

A 40-second film by Mark Huber

Movie Poster by Mark Huber: Catch the film “Flammable Hot Dog” below.

Again from the Piggy Universe comes a video depicting Mark Huber eating a hot dog (that’s really a stick of dynamite that his brother, David, has placed in a bun). This is Mark’s latest and longest Google Slides movie as of April 2025. Enjoy!

What’s Happening?

This tells you what is happening in case the video is too fast to understand.

0:03: Cloud moves to show title and creator of movie.

0:04: Cloud blocks title and creator of movie; perspective changes to show Mark’s house. Mark opens door.

0:05: Camera zooms into Mark.

0:07: Mark closes door.

0:08: Mark holds out hot dog and thinks about where to eat. David hops into view.

0:09: Perspective changes to close-up view of hot dog; David throws sausage away.

0:10: David places stick of dynamite where sausage was.

0:12: Perspective changes back to zoomed-in view of Mark’s house.

0:13: David hops out of view.

0:14: Mark’s face lights up; Mark says “Ah-HA!”

0:15: Mark says “I’ll eat right here!” and eats hot dog. Swallows hot dog whole.

0:16: Mark’s eyes go wide, realizing that he ate the dynamite.

0:17: Mark says, “That doesn’t taste like sausage…”

0:18: Mark says, “That tastes like-”

0:19: Mark explodes; smoke clears to show Mark covered with ashes.

0:20: Plate drops.

0:21: Mark yells, “DARN IT DAVID!!!”

0:22: “Fifteen minutes later” sign is shown.

0:23: “Fifteen minutes later” sign is taken away; David is being chased by Mark.

0:24: David stops running.

0:25: Mark stops running; Mark turns to face David; David gets scared.

0:26: Mark gets so angry, his skin turns dark red, and smoke comes out of his ears. Then, he explodes.

0:27: David is covered with ashes, and his eyes are huge. Mark says, “Welp, I’m going inside now. Bye!”

0:29: Mark turns toward the door.

0:30: Mark hops to the other side of the door and opens it.

0:31: Mark goes inside the house and closes the door.

0:32: A “The End” sign is chucked into view.

0:37: Slideshow Mode is exited.

0:40: Screen Recording ends.

Filed Under: Animation, Food, Visual Arts Tagged With: Mark Huber

The Favorite Things Museum

April 17, 2025 by ehesson@pvs.org Leave a Comment

Blog Staff has set out to log some of Palm Valley School’s favorite things. It’s what we talk about, think about, dream of, hoard, share, give to one another. 6th-grade Mark shares here his favorite things.

A Google Drawing created by Middle-School Blogger Mark Huber

In the parallel universe of pigs, there is a house that belongs to the pig version of Mark Huber. You’ll see that Pig Mark has created an addition to his house, and that addition is a relatively small museum of all of Mark’s favorite things. The Google Drawing below is a picture of Pig Mark and his brother, Pig David, in the museum studying the things in it.

The paint bucket and paintbrush representing the color green were copied from a Google Slides presentation that thanked Human Mark’s dad for bringing his Chromebook to school when he had forgotten it at home. The two pigs studying the things in the museum, Pig Mark (left) and Pig David (right) are the two main characters in any fictional story Human Mark writes, Pig Mark being the mainest character of the two.

Filed Under: Animals, Art, Best o' the Blog, Culture Tagged With: Mark Huber, The Favorite Things Museum

How Not to Ski, with Mark and David

April 1, 2025 by ehesson@pvs.org 5 Comments

By Middle-School Blogger and Graphic Artist Mark Huber

Part 1

“Hey, Mark, you okay?” David, my brother, asked me. My name is Mark, obviously, because that’s what David had called me. Anyway, I had just crashed into a tree while skiing, and I had hit it so hard that the snow on the leaves fell off and buried me.

I shook the snow off and did a thumbs-up, then put my skis back on.

“Whoa, Mark, look at that!” said David. There was a guy on a snowboard who had just slid on a railing and stuck his landing.

“That’s great,” I said. I now said that so often, that my parents thought of it as “my new catchphrase.”

We hopped back onto the trail, and I was heading straight for a ramp. I raced onto it, and then promptly veered off of the left side of the ramp, and into the forest (veering off the trail was a huge accident). I was still on my skis, and was still going fast. I had to dodge trees, boulders, and dead bushes. I had no idea where in the ski resort I was, or if I was still in it at all. Then, I saw a clearing, and darted toward it. Then, I fell into a ravine.

“AAAAAAAHHHHNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOO!!!” I screamed, and tumbled into who-knows-where. I could no longer see any light, and when I finally stopped tumbling, I hurt all over my body.

“Ow, I huurt aallll oooovvvvveeeeee…” I said, my words slurring.

And then I passed out.

I woke up in a hospital. I had all sorts of things attached to me, and my family was next to me, and they looked really worried.

“Hey, Mark, you okay?” David said, but less casual and much more worriedly than the last time he said it.

“Aye, aye, captain,” I said. David giggled the tiniest bit.

“What time is it?” David asked Mom.

“1:04,” she said.

“That’s great,” I said. Then, I looked out the window, and finally processed what Mom had said.

“WHAT?!?! You guys are 4 hours from home at one in the morning all because of ME?!?!” I said, worried about everyone’s sleep.

“Shhhh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shhhhhhhhh!!!” said Mom. “Be quiet, there’s other people.”

“Oh, it looks like Mark is ready to get out!” said a doctor. Then, he and the other doctors removed all the thingamajigs from my body, and I went to sleep.

I woke up in our hotel room inside the ski resort’s hotel. I was on the nice, comfy bed in the corner of the room. Then I fell off the bed. The people who had rescued me had apparently grabbed my skis along with me out of the ravine, so I saw them leaning against the wall.

I put a beanie on, grabbed my skis, and headed for the door.

“Where are you going, Mark?” asked Dad.

“Ski,” I mumbled sleepily.

“Wait, what? Nonononononono-” said David. Then I closed the door, and went down to the ski trails to ski. I picked a really steep one, and went down it. I gained speed pretty quickly, and soon everything next to me was a big blur.

“AAAAAAAAAHHHHWWWWWWWWHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!” I screamed, feeling really happy.

I saw a hill, with a sign saying “DO NOT ENTER.” I needed to take a tight turn, but I knew that if I did, I’d wipe out, big-time. Besides, I couldn’t control myself anymore. I would go on the hill, fly off, and land in  who-knows-where. And that was exactly what I did.

I could make out the hotel that my family was in. Oh, no, I thought realizing that I would crash. Right before the impact, I saw David turn around towards the window, and make a very surprised face.

THUMP.

You should’ve seen me in that window when I hit it. Speaking of which, you can make something showing me in that window with Google Drawings, and online drawing tool that…

No. I am not telling you about this blog post’s sponsor in the middle of the story. But, here’s the picture anyway:

“Mom, mom! Open the window, Mark’s back!” I heard David say, muffled through the glass.

Mom opened the window, and I told her what happened.

“Wow, that’s COOL, Mark! You really skied up a hill and flew off onto the window?” said David in awe.

“Yeah, I did. Now, I’m gonna rest because my head hurts,” I said.

And then I went to sleep.

Part 2

“Rise and shine, buds!” said Dad.

“Aayyy, let’s go skiin’!” I said.

I put on my skis, and waited for everyone to put on theirs. Then, we went to the trail where I had flown off that hill and back to the hotel room. When we got there, David gulped.

“Uh, Mark, are you sure about this?” David said, a bit of fear in his voice.

“Yeah, totally!” I said. “I’ll lead the way.”

We headed down, and we all went cautiously slow down the trail. When we saw the hill ahead, I told my family to go the normal way, and I’d go on the hill again. They were very unsure of this, despite my telling them that I’d go slower, and I finally convinced them to let me go.

What I was thinking was that because the trail goes around the hill, taking the hill would be like a shortcut.

I was in the air, having a great time, and I could see the surprised faces of my family watching me fall with style towards the ground, when I got shot by a missile.

Who would do that? Chris Ideeyowt, whose life mission is to destroy me because I got him expelled from my school (to be fair, he was the biggest bully at my school and was feared by all the kids).

“Darn you, Chris!!!” I yelled, and me and my flaming butt fell way off the trail, into the snow, where fortunately my butt was extinguished. I saw a helicopter above me, and a little orange dot inside of it. Then, I saw the helicopter shoot more missiles at me. I opened my mouth wide enough to let a missile through, and the missiles went into my mouth. I spit them, rapid-fire, at Chris’s helicopter, and it blew up.

In reaction to this, Chris said some very bad words. I got back on the trail, and met with my family again.

“Sorry, had to attend to some Chris problems,” I said.

“Err, Mark… you’re crispy on one side, and your butt is charred,” commented David.

“Great,” I said.

“Uh-oh, Chris comes to town,” said David. That was what we said when Chris was around. I got a banana out of my snout storage and threw it at Chris. (Chris hates bananas for some reason.)

“Enjoy!” I said to Chris, just to annoy him even more.

Epilogue

We went back to the hotel, and took our skis off after a long day of skiing. I made a joke that the last three days of skiing should be called “How NOT to Ski, with Mark and David” in the hotel room.

When we got back home, I decided to write a Google Doc about what we did at the ski resort. My parents and David really liked it, and I decided to post it on my school blog.

And that is the long story that you just read.

The end

Filed Under: Animation, Fiction, Sports Tagged With: How Not to Ski, Mark Huber, with Mark and David

Timmy Wears a Beanie

February 27, 2025 by ehesson@pvs.org 2 Comments

At thebirdonfire.org, we’ve been thinking about the clothes we wear and what they say about us. If you were a pig named Timmy, and you wanted to dress it up a bit for Valentine’s Day, what would you wear atop your head?

A Google Drawing by Mark Huber

In the parallel universe of pigs, there is a red pig named Timmy who lives in Rancho Mirage, California. On Valentine’s Day, Timmy decides to wear a beanie. The Google Drawing below is a picture of him wearing the beanie. The picture was copied three times, and each copy was edited to have differing colors:

The beanie in this picture was modeled on a beanie that Mark Huber bought in Las Vegas and actually owns. Timmy the pig comes from a Creative Writing class prompt to which Mark Huber responded. Timmy the pig will appear in one of the Diary of a Green Piggy novels, also written by Mark Huber.

Filed Under: Aesthetic, Fashion Tagged With: Mark Huber, Timmy Wears a Beanie

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About

We are the Palm Valley Firebirds of Rancho Mirage, California. Join us in our endeavors. Venture through the school year with us, perusing the artwork of our students, community, and staff. Our goal is to share the poems, stories, drawings and photographs, essays and parodies that come out of our school. Welcome aboard!