TEENS: Tyler's Mad Crib

<body bgcolor="#003366" background="http://www.tripod.com/teens/columns/mad_crib/img/bg.gif" link="#ffff00" vlink="#663399" alink="#663399" text="#ffcc66"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td valign="TOP" align="CENTER" width="178">  <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="170"> <tr> <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP" width="100%"> <a href="../../../../www_subdomain/adm/imagemap/logo-map.html"><img src="../../../../img/nav/www_subdomain/logo.gif" alt="Tripod Map" border="0" height="58" width="170" ismap></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP" width="100%"> <a href="../../../../www_subdomain/adm/imagemap/universal2-map.html"><img src="../../../../img/nav/www_subdomain/universal2.gif" alt="Member Services Map" width="170" height="59" border="0" ismap></a></td> </tr><tr><td align="LEFT" valign="TOP" width="170" bgcolor="#999966"> <img src="../../../../img/www_subdomain/tripod_zones.gif" alt="tripod zones" width="81" height="17" border="0"></td> </tr><tr> <form action="/" method="POST"> <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP" width="170" bgcolor="#999966"> <select name="URL"> <option value="/">Choose one:</option> <option value="/cars_trucks/">Cars&Trucks;</option> <option value="/computers_internet/">Computers/</option> <option value="/computers_internet/">       Internet</option> <option value="/entertainment/">Entertainment</option> <option value="/fun_games/">Fun&Games;</option> <option value="/health_fitness/">Health/Fitness</option> <option value="/home_family/">Home/Family</option> <option value="/jobs_career/">Jobs/Career</option> <option value="/money_business/">Money/Business</option> <option value="/shopping/">Shopping</option> <option value="/society_culture/">Society/Culture</option> <option value="/sports/">Sports</option> <option value="/teens/">Teens</option> <option value="/travel/">Travel</option> <option value="/women/">Women</option> </select><input type="IMAGE" src="../../../../img/www_subdomain/go.gif" width="24" height="20" border="0" align="ABSMIDDLE"> <img src="../../../../img/www_subdomain/trans.gif" width="1" height="3" border="0"><br><img src="../../../../img/www_subdomain/p_member_comm.gif" alt="pod member communities" width="146" height="11" border="0"><br> <a href="../../../../www_subdomain/adm/imagemap/pods-map.html"><img src="../../../../img/nav/www_subdomain/pods.gif" alt="Pod Map" width="170" height="18" border="0" align="top" ismap></a></td> </form> </tr> </table> <table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="1" width="170">  <tr><td></td></tr> <tr><td align="CENTER"> <center> <a href="#"></a> </center> </td></tr> <tr><td align="CENTER"> <center> <a href="#"></a> </center> </td></tr> </table>  </td> <td valign="TOP"><base target="_top"> <table cellspacing="0" border="0" width="100%"> <tr> <td valign="TOP" width="170"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="170"> <tr> <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP" width="100%"> <a href="../../../../www_subdomain/adm/imagemap/logo-map.html"><img src="../../../../img/nav/www_subdomain/logo.gif" alt="Tripod Map" border="0" height="58" width="170" ismap></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP" width="100%"> <a href="../../../../www_subdomain/adm/imagemap/universal2-map.html"><img src="../../../../img/nav/www_subdomain/universal2.gif" alt="Member Services Map" width="170" height="59" border="0" ismap></a></td> </tr><tr><td align="LEFT" valign="TOP" width="170" bgcolor="#999966"> <img src="../../../../img/www_subdomain/tripod_zones.gif" alt="tripod zones" width="81" height="17" border="0"></td> </tr><tr> <form action="/" method="POST"> <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP" width="170" bgcolor="#999966"> <select name="URL"> <option value="/">Choose one:</option> <option value="/cars_trucks/">Cars&Trucks;</option> <option value="/computers_internet/">Computers/</option> <option value="/computers_internet/">       Internet</option> <option value="/entertainment/">Entertainment</option> <option value="/fun_games/">Fun&Games;</option> <option value="/health_fitness/">Health/Fitness</option> <option value="/home_family/">Home/Family</option> <option value="/jobs_career/">Jobs/Career</option> <option value="/money_business/">Money/Business</option> <option value="/shopping/">Shopping</option> <option value="/society_culture/">Society/Culture</option> <option value="/sports/">Sports</option> <option value="/teens/">Teens</option> <option value="/travel/">Travel</option> <option value="/women/">Women</option> </select><input type="IMAGE" src="../../../../img/www_subdomain/go.gif" width="24" height="20" border="0" align="ABSMIDDLE"> <img src="../../../../img/www_subdomain/trans.gif" width="1" height="3" border="0"><br><img src="../../../../img/www_subdomain/p_member_comm.gif" alt="pod member communities" width="146" height="11" border="0"><br> <a href="../../../../www_subdomain/adm/imagemap/pods-map.html"><img src="../../../../img/nav/www_subdomain/pods.gif" alt="Pod Map" width="170" height="18" border="0" align="top" ismap></a></td> </form> </tr> </table> <table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="1" width="170">  <tr><td></td></tr> <tr><td align="CENTER"> <center> <a href="#"></a> </center> </td></tr> <tr><td align="CENTER"> <center> <a href="#"></a> </center> </td></tr> </table> <center><form name="FreeShop"> <table border="0" width="120" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr valign="TOP"> <td align="center" valign="TOP" bgcolor="#ffffff" width="120"> <a href="/"> </a></td> </tr> <tr valign="TOP"> <td align="center" valign="TOP" nowrap bgcolor="#ffffff" width="120"> <select name="FreeShop" onchange="self.parent.location.href = "http://www.tripod.com/bin/accipiter/tripod_adclick?CID=0000232a0000033200000000&overrideURL=" + this.options[this.selectedIndex].value;"> <option value="">Pick a Category <option value="http://tr2.freeshop.com/pg00013.htm">Computing <option value="http://tr2.freeshop.com/pg00013.htm">-& Electronics <option value="http://tr2.freeshop.com/pg00019.htm">Entertainment <option value="http://tr2.freeshop.com/pg00022.htm">Travel <option value="http://tr2.freeshop.com/pg00014.htm">Software <option value="http://tr2.freeshop.com/pg00015.htm">Style & Image <option value="http://tr2.freeshop.com/pg00016.htm">Personal <option value="http://tr2.freeshop.com/pg00016.htm">-Finance <option value="http://tr2.freeshop.com/pg00017.htm">Business <option value="http://tr2.freeshop.com/pg00017.htm">-& Career <option value="http://tr2.freeshop.com/pg00018.htm">Lifestyles <option value="http://tr2.freeshop.com/pg00018.htm">-& Interest <option value="http://tr2.freeshop.com/pg00020.htm">Hobbies <option value="http://tr2.freeshop.com/pg00021.htm">Family <option value="http://tr2.freeshop.com/pg00023.htm">Auto <option value="http://tr2.freeshop.com/pg00024.htm">Home & Living <option value="http://tr2.freeshop.com/pg00025.htm">Health, Fitness <option value="http://tr2.freeshop.com/pg00025.htm">-& Sports <option value="http://tr2.freeshop.com/pg00029.htm">Completely <option value="http://tr2.freeshop.com/pg00029.htm">-FREE Offers </select></td> </tr> </table> </form> </center> </td> <td valign="TOP" width="100%"> <basefont size="3"> <table width="520"><tr><td width="250"> <font face="arial narrow, arial, verdana" size="+2"> <b>Wel</b></font><font face="arial narrow, arial, verdana" size="+2" color="ffffcc"><b>come</b></font><font face="arial narrow, arial, verdana" size="-1"> to the first installment of my column, "Tyler's Mad Crib." I begged my editor Dan to call it "My So-Called Column," since my life sometimes seems just like that show "My So-Called Life," but he said that was a cliché. So I said "How about "Tyler's Crib?" So then he wanted me to call it "Tyler's Phat Crib." But I told him that "phat" is so over, and that you wouldn't put "phat" with "crib" anyway: You'd say </font><font face="arial narrow, arial, verdana" size="+2" color="ff0000">"</font><font face="arial narrow, arial, verdana" size="+2" color="ffffff"><b>mad</b></font><font face="arial narrow, arial, verdana" size="+2" color="ff0000">"</font><font face="arial narrow, arial, verdana" size="-1"> now, Dan.<font face="arial narrow, arial, verdana" size="-1" color="ff0000">(Dan is really cool, but he's kind of out of it because he's in his mid-20s and he lives in the woods. But I'll be keeping him up to speed on everything from now on.)</font> So then he suggested "Tyler's Mad Crib." I thought that was corny, and I told him so, and I said that nobody my age would read a column with a title like that. Then he said to me, "Tyler, I hear you. But Tripod is a business, and when our ad sales people are out on calls pitching a 'teen' column, <font face="arial narrow, arial, verdana" size="+2" color="ffffff">the suits</font><font face="arial narrow, arial, verdana" size="-1"> on the other side of the table better hear some kind of teen slang right away or they take their naps."</font></td><td valign="top" width="264"><br> <p align="right"> <font face="arial narrow, arial, verdana" size="+3" color="ccffff">By <br><a href="mailto:tylerv@tripod.com"><b>Tyler Valdez</b></a></font> </td></tr></table> <table><tr><td><font face="arial narrow, arial, verdana" size="-1" color="ccffff"> <font face="arial narrow, arial, verdana" size="+3" color="ccffff"><b>I could see his point.</b></font> <font face="arial narrow, arial, verdana" size="-1" color="ffffff">Besides, I don't really care what the column is called as long I get to speak my mind and write what I think is important. And you can tell from reading articles on Tripod that it's practically the only place online where writers can do that. In the coming weeks and months I'll be telling you all about myself: <font color="ffcc66">my <font color="ffcc66">parents</font>, my <font color="ffcc66">friends</font>, my <font color="ffcc66">school</font>, <font color="ffcc66">movies</font> I like and don't like (I'm a big film buff), my college goals and plans for the future  you know, your basic hopes and dreams.</font> <br><br><font face="arial narrow, arial, verdana" size="-1" color="ccffff"> I don't want to turn this into a </font><font face="arial narrow, arial, verdana" size="+2" color="ff0000"><b>personals ad</b></font>, <font face="arial narrow, arial, verdana" size="-1" color="ccffff">so I'm not going to discuss my height and weight, and how I like to take long walks on the beach. Let's just say that I'm a 16-year-old high school student in Boston, Massachusetts. (I go to a public school, and I'm proud of it.) My mother works in the nonprofit sector, right now at an organization that raises money for AIDS research, and my father teaches Latin American history at a big university. Oh yeah, and I'm a woman, even though you might not be able to tell from my first name, which is my mother's maiden name. My parents didn't want to change their own names to Tyler-Valdez, so I have it. <br><br> I want to be a writer. More specifically, I want to write for the Internet. That's because of something that happened earlier this year in school. Two of my friends and I were trying to get all the other kids in our class to sign a petition (it was to get the school cafeteria to serve coffee, but that's not important here). But because everybody in school knows me already, and remembers what I used to be like last year, they have a preconceived image of me set in their minds. And apparently that image isn't one which inspires people to get behind an issue like they should. We got the coffee in the cafeteria and everything, but it really wasn't as successful a campaign as it should have been. We barely squeaked by with enough signatures. <br><br> A month or so later, when I wanted to get people to walk in a Walk-A-Thon, I didn't hang around the hallway with a clipboard and a Bic. I wrote an anonymous article for our school's Intranet instead, talking all about the reason for the Walk-A-Thon  it was a way to raise money for a school garden  and the response was ten times bigger than I thought it would be. That experience showed me two things. <font face="arial narrow, arial, verdana" size="+2" color="ffffff">One:</font> <font face="arial narrow, arial, verdana" size="-1" color="#ffcc66">I can use my ability to string two sentences together to make a difference in the world.</font> <font face="arial narrow, arial, verdana" size="+2" color="ffffff">Two:</font> <font face="arial narrow, arial, verdana" size="-1" color="#ffcc66">The Net is a great place for social change, because when you're online it's what you say that counts, not how you look or dress.</font> <br><br> So let's keep it real. Let's share stories with each other about what it means to be a teenager in this world today. Send me letters at <a href="mailto:tylerv@tripod.com">tylerv@tripod.com</a>, and maybe you'll see one of your suggestions or stories right here, in</font><font face="arial narrow, arial, verdana" size="+4" color="ff00ff"> <b>Tyler's Crib.</b></font> </font> </td><td><img src="../../../../img/www_subdomain/trans.gif" width="50" height="2"></td></tr></table> <form method="POST" action="../../../../www_subdomain/bin/search/pursuit.html"> <br clear="ALL"><br> <table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" align="RIGHT"> <tr> <td valign="MIDDLE" align="RIGHT"> <nobr><img src="../../../../img/www_subdomain/lycos_power.gif" border="0" alt="Lycos Powered" height="15" width="91"> <select name="cat"> <option value="tripod_www" selected>Search the Tripod Web Site <option value="tripod">Search Tripod Member Pages <option value="lycos">Search the Web</select></nobr></td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="MIDDLE" align="RIGHT"> <nobr><input type="text" size="20" name="query"> <input type="submit" value="Search"></nobr> <br> <br> <center> <font size="-2" face="helvetica, verdana, arial">©Tripod, Inc. Tripod® is a registered trademark of Tripod, Inc. All rights reserved. </center></td> </tr> </table> </form> <br clear="ALL"> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </body>