Basic Facts
My name is Andrew Mark Dorman. I am thirteen years old and born on April 28, 1987. I live in Cedar Rapids, Iowa with my family, which consists of six people: my mom, dad, and three brothers. I attend Franklin MIddle School and St. Marks Faith & Life Center.

Schooling
I went to preschool and Tot-Lot when I was 4 or 5. I attended Arthur Elementary School for grades K through 5. In 1998 I moved on to the next level of education at Franklin Middle School.

Friends (In no praticular order)
Lance Allison was my first friend. (Well, my first friend who had a similar age.) I met him in Kindergarten. We would make *stamps* with Steven Wickencamp using crazy scissors and drawing pictures on the squigley-sided squares. Although we slightly drifted apart for a year when we were seperated (different teachers) in first grade, we've been good friends ever since.
See Lance's Webpage
Matt Herbst is the next friend I stumbled apon and realized, "Hey, this guys not that bad!" (Sorry, Matt, about putting it so bluntly, there.) Anyway, I met Matt in second grade. I probablly met him from either Lance or Brady introducing him to me. Matt and I became closer friends in following years. Common interests are very common between us. (Sense some repetition there?) We both enjoy computers, and programming. Learning new computer languages have kept us entertained... ...and, don't forget that one time when we watched the TV Guide Channel for four hours straight!
See Matt's Webpage
Paul Houser is one of my recently-met friends. I met him at the end of 6th Grade (around May 1999). Our friedship basically began when I heard him ask another kid if he had Q-Basic. (His copy had been lost) I immediatelly butted in and said, "I have it. I'll give you a copy!" After that we swapped VB and QB programs. We also created a joint AppleBASIC program in Technology Education. It was a very large program (About 20 kb (That's big for an Apple ][e)) that consisted of 3 seperate programs: a directory program, his program, and my program. So, what is it?! It's a Tic-Tac-Toe game! First, I created the single player game, and Paul followed up with the multi player option. We almost ran out of time. We were in the Tech Ed room after school on the second-to-last day of school! Well, now that I've babbled on for and uncontrolablly long time, I'll get to the conclusion. Paul and I, both playing the Trumpet, have performed at a couple local contests with Lance, also a trumpeter.
See Paul's Webpage
Kyle Raddatz is someone I've know pretty much ever since Kindergarden. (That is how you spell Kindergarden, isn't it???) Our friendship is sort of off and on. Every once in a while, we do a lot of stuff, and then take a break. I guess that's good, though, because then we don't get bored or sick of each other. I guess our friendship is more of a not do anything kind of thing. I don't know if what I said made any sense but, oh well. I occasionally help him with computer questions. We're also normally on the same baseball team in the Summer. The End.
See Kyle's Webpage
Aaron Girdner is quite a character. He's not your average kid. Though he's pretty weird, a lot of people follow him. Because of Aaron, kids call each other "gomer"s. Also, Aaron is the president of The Cheese Club. There is at least a dozen members of this organizaton, myself included. What the group does is have cheesy names like mine, Cheesy Cheese, or Aaron's, Cheese Man Lamar. Is it a cult? I don't think so, I think it's just insanity! Though he is involved with the oddest things, he's not all weird. Like many he enjoys tennis, solitare, and more. We both enjoy playing "Fling the Pencil." Last year he was in my class, also. Every morning (before the teacher was in the room) we started out our day by standing at oppisite ends of the room and flinging the pencil across to the other person. Many times when other kids came in, it became a gorilla warfare. We would try to continue our game, but kids would intercept our passes. Their goal was to get it out the window, which they many times did. We'd desperately run down the staircase, out the doors, and outside. Sometimes it was to late, and we'd have to wait until lunch, or the end of the day. Through the whole year we've gone through approximately 5 flinging pencils.
I've know Nick Veenstra for almost as long as I've been gonig to school. He (like me) likes computers, Red Dwarf, and other things. He seems to always follow me around at school (and I don't know why!) :P Seriously, he's a good friend. We like to do stuff together. Over spring break (7th Grade) we rode our bikes from my house to his house (and vise versa) almost everday, not forgeting the candy raids at Walgreens. Also, during the Summer, I occasionally go over and swim in his pool. Anyway, that's Nick, for ya'!
See Nick's Webpage
Martin Golobic was once my mortal enemy. That was before I got to know him, ofcourse. I haven't really done anything with him, but I chat with him all the time on ICQ, he sits at my lunch table, and him and I did allie up and conquer Kyle's planet, "Rabbitz United" in the Virtual Planet simulation. Anyway, that's Martin.
See Martin's Webpage
Andrew Schramm was in my same Kindergarden class. We both had Mrs. Rankin. We were pretty good friends. We've done stuff through the years. He lives on my paper route, so many times we catch each other when he's walking his dog at the same time. It normally ended up that he asked me if he could toss a few. I said sure. For most of the time, he would be delivering my papers, and I would be walking his dog. I guess it's you scratch my back, I scratch yours. I was invited to his birthday party a while back. It was really fun. 5 of us ended up dying the other's hair pink at around 3am. We all eventually fell asleep. Some how, we all went home with pink hair.
Ryne Edwards has a locker only one away from mine. (7th Grade) This and the fact that we sit together in all three classes that we have together is probablly the reason we're friends. We spent weeks playing the "Box Game" during spelling. We also enjoy playing other in-the-car games. Our friendship doesn't really leave school, but we do talk to each other on ICQ.
See Ryne's Webpage
Jared Bazzel is one of my most generous friends. He is commonly known as the "good food distribution coordinater". (7th Grade) What I mean by this, is he allways gives away food as prizes. I don't know that he ever eats any of his lunch himself, but he allways has trivial contests with food being a prize. (IE: Question: What is the 800 number on the back of the Frito's bag?) Well, that's not the only reason I like him, but, it sure is a relief from school food! Anyway, Jared and I exchange email often, and he's a good friend. I'm also the Accounts Manager on his website.
See Jared's Webpage
See a labeled picture with most of my friends
Now, ofcourse I have many more friends, but I don't have enough time to put everyone on. If I've forgotten anyone, sorry. To remind me, drop me a message.

Family
My six member family consists of: George, Dad; Sharon, Mom; Michael, Brother (20); Daniel, Brother (16); and Brady, Twin Brother (13). Below is a little information about each of them.
George is my dad. He was born in Watertown, South Dakota on April 24, 1950, and grew up in Castlewood, SD. He went to South Dakota State University and became a journalist. After marrying my mom and moving to Cedar Rapids, he worked at KCRG TV9 and KCRG News Radio 1600. Well, that all ended before I was born. After working there, he started working at KCCK 88.3, an all-jazz, public radio station at Kirkwood Community College. He currently works there today.
Sharon is my mom. She was born in Sioux Falls, South Dakota on May 11, 1955 to the Goehring family. She also grew up in Sioux Falls, too. After moving to Cedar Rapids, with my dad, she started working for something affiliated with Rockwell Collins. Then, after Brady and I were born, she didn't work for a while. Instead, she stayed home and took care of us. :) Anyway, after we started Kindergarden, Mom started working at Sample Pediatric Pharmacy and still does.
Michael (a.k.a. Dorm) is my oldest brother. He was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on January 28, 1980. Michael attended Arthur Elementary, Franklin Middle, and Washington High. I think all of his jobs he's had were computer-related. By the way, he's the webmaster of dorm.org. I probablly have him to thank for my increasing interest in computers. Currently, he in studying Computer Engineering at Iowa State University. It's nice to see him when he comes home for visits. Anyway, that's Michael!
See Michael's Webpage
Daniel is my next brother, cronologically. He was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on September 4, 1983. He went to Arthur and Franklin, and currently attends Washington High School. Daniel likes to play his guitar and listen to Creed. :) I don't know that there's much to say about Daniel. He's O.K. except for when he won't turn off his light when I want to go to sleep!
See Daniel's Webpage
Brady is my remaining borther. Actually, he's the only one younger than me. (If you count being three minutes younger) "Beegums" (bee-jums) was born on April 28, 1987 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He went to Arthur, as did I, and is currently going to Franklin, as am I. Okay, I can't think of anything else to say about Brady, so I went straight to the source and briefly interviewed him. Brady likes to play tennis, going on bike rides, and working on his *webpage*.
See Brady's Webpage
View My Family's Photo Album

Favorites / Hobbies
Okay, first we'll start out with my favorites.
Foods: Chicken Cor don Blea, Pepperoni Pizza, Chiped Beaf on Toast, Ham ala Pinnapple, and, ofcouse, Jelly and Cheese Sandwiches
Movies: The Matrix, October Sky, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, and Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace
Books: RED DWARF: Infinity Welcomes Carefull Drivers by Grant Naylor, and Last Human by Doug Naylor.
TV Shows: Red Dwarf, Dexter's Laboratory, Courage The Cowardly Dog, The Flinstones, The Daily Show, and Leave it to Beaver.
TV Networks: Cartoon Network, Comedy Central, TVLand, and all broadcast networks
Computer Type: Macintosh
Sports Players/Teams: Kirby Puckett, Minnesota Twins, and Karl Malone, Utah Jazz
Music Groups: Beatles, Rob Zombie, Queen, and other artists. (Mostly oldies)
Moving right along to my hobbies...
I enjoy a lot of things. I really enjoy anything to do with computers. I like programming in HTML, all sorts of basic's, and currently I'm attempting to learn more complex languages such as Javascript and PHP. I also enjoy American History. Well, okay, mainly the American Presidency. I loved it so much, I made a website about it! I have a big collection of president memorbillia and am qutie fluent in knowledge on the particular subject. My most recently discovered joy is Red Dwarf. (what's Red Dwarf?) Well it's a british television series from 1988 to the present. I enjoy watching the show on my local PBS station. I tape every episode and, this too has recieved the honor of having me make a website about it! See it here. Anyway, besides that, I enjoy a lot of sports. Basketball, baseball, and soccer are my favorite to play. I was on the school track and soccer teams. I play baseball during the summer and I play basketball in my driveway. (cool, huh?) Also, I like playing my trumpet. (trumpet website possiblly coming soon) During the summer, I like to grow corn. (no, I'm not demented) In Kindergarden (or sometime around then) I saw a corn cob on the ground while walking home from school. I picked it up, put the kernals in a jar of water and forgot about it. I found it a few months later (in the summer) and some had roots coming out. I put then in the flower bed and sorgum grew. Now I have about a 3x3' garden with corn in.
For more information, check out my hobbies page.

Major Accomplishments
Please note that most of this information is just from memory and I might be accidentally making some stuff or leaving some stuff out. I have organized my accomplishments in chronological order.
Invent Iowa -- Pictures Coming Soon
In 4th Grade, I participated in an Inventions Fair. The first competition was just for Arthur Elementary participants. It was called Invent Arthur. I heard about it and decided to solve a problem. Now, I had a Penny Saver route back then (and still do) and during the winter, I would allways get snow in my boots when I had to step in a deep pile of snow. I set out to change that. Be gone it, I want dry feet! The solution: Velcro No-Snow Boots. How does it work? Well, you have velcro on the inside of the boot. You would have to wear special pants: pants with velcro on the outer and bottom of the pant legs. I have since then mentally profected in by having the velcro on an elastic band so you can easilly slip in on and off any pants.
Anyway, I won at the school competition. Doing so enabled me to skip school lunch and be treated to lunch at Happy Joe's. :) My friend, Nick, also won with his Toolight, an illuminated multi-purpose tool. A few weeks later, the regional competition was held at the Five Seasons Center. It was a long day. I presented my idea to two sets of judges. I did a pretty good job, well, I must have, because during the awards, my number was called. I went up to the annoncer and was awarded a big blue ribbon and information on the state competition in Des Moines. Nick, once again, advanced one to the next stage of competition with me.
On the day of the state competition, my dad and I got up at around 6 o'clock, or sometime around then. I remember telling my mom goodbye and then getting in dad's cold car. I don't remember what I did in the car. I don't think I slepts. I must of just sat there. I do, however, remember at one point we were stuck behind like 6 semi trucks. Right when we got to Des Moines, we went to the Convention Center where the state Invent Iowa competition would take place. I signed in, recieved my needed information, and set up my display in my designated area. After that, I bought a danish and sat on the ground for a snack. I saw Nick and a few other kids from Arthur.
From this time forward, things were pretty messed up. When the judging started, I was in a group with judges who didn't have me written down to judge. It turned out that I had set up in the wrong spot. So, I just walked over a few meters to join the group I was supposed to be in. I remember watching a presentation of these two brothers. I think their project was a special baby car seat. (I think) Now, I don't know if it was hot in there or something, but I was getting really dizzy. I didn't have much control over what I was doing. I remember squatting down but the next thing I knew I was on the floor and they were paging my dad. Yes, I had fainted. Dad tells me that he was in the bathroom and didn't even get a chance to wash his hands. (FYI) One of the ladies who was in charge got me a glass of orange juice and a pretzel. So, after this happened, I wasn't able to give a very good demonstration of my invention. So, it was all downhill from there. I didn't win a prize or anything. I did get recognized up on stage, like everybody else did. It was sort of a disapointment but, I actually did a very good job. So, if you don't want wet feet, talk to me about it! :)
Franklin Webmaster
On the last day of summer vacation '99, I was over at Matt's house. I forget what we were doing, but we ended up looking at all the middle school websites. Both of use agreed that Franklin's was clearly the best and we could both easily improve it greatly. So, we downloaded all the files and started editing the page. It turned out there was just tons of unneeded code in there. We were actually confronted with something nether of us were too familiar with... tables. (Off subject here, this caused me to start using tables which greatly improved my html-projects.) Anyway, we got rid of the border on the table, organized the links a little bit more, and then we had a pretty good looking page. On the bottom of the origional page, it said "Send Comments/Suggestions to: kdvorak@esc.cr.k12.ia.us". So, we did. (BTW, K. Dvorak is the activities coordinator at school, who is in charge of the webpage.) We asked her if we could help with the site. In a few days or so, after school had started, I recieved this e-mail message:

Hi Andy,

Mrs. Stoker-Hadow, Mr. Althoff and myself have talked about using the two of you in helping with the webpage. I think this would be an excellent opportunity for the two of you to use your skills and for Mrs. Stoker-Hadow and myself to learn more about web page design. We would like to visit with the two of you. Today may be rather busy. We will, however visit with both of you before the end of the week. We will probably try to catch you during a lunch hour.

Kathy J. Dvorak
Franklin Middle School
Activities Coordinator
Technology Facilitator

Well, that's how it started. We soon later had a meeting and decided that Matt and I would become the first Franklin webmasters. Before we actually started working on, Matt and I each created several concept pages that we might use. You can view mine here, here, here, and here! We finally decided to stick with the origional format. We made the site better and updated it often. Both of us continue to work on it.
See the Franklin Middle School Webpage!
National History Day
I have participated in National History Day, or NHD, for 2 years. The first year, when I was in sixth grade, I put together a display board as an individual project. I did my project on "Thomas Alva Edison and his Effects on Modern-Day Living". I wasn't too commited to it, but in less than two weeks a scraped together a pretty good project. Well, at the regional competition (the first stage) I recieved the highest rank, Superior, but was not selected to go on to the state competition. So, that sort of ended NHD '99.
The next year, I decided to create a media presentation with my friend, Lance. Right away both of us agreed on doing a project about Harry Truman and the whole atomic bomb happening. Like the previous year, we weren't as committed to it as we probablly should have, but we met for two weekends and did research and made a webpage to display this information. Eventually we recorded our voices to put in the background, hereby narrating. (we couldn't talk/explain during out presentation) We had many troubles with compatability from my iMac, which we made the webpage on, and Mr. Lueck's laptop, which we would present our webpage on. BTW , Mr. Lueck is our P.A.C.T. teacher. Anyway, we also had troubles keeping it under 10 minutes, the time limit. Soon enough, these problems were solved.
The night before the regional competition, I couldn't sleep very well. I went to bed at around 10:30 and was still awake a midnight. I was pretty tired when I got up at approximatelly 7 o'clock. When we arived at Grant Wood A.E.A., where the contest was being held, I was feeling better. I waited in the waiting room with Lance to meet up with the guy who was going to help us sent up the projector. We got everything set up, and did our presentation. There was a little trouble with audio amplification. It was very hard to hear because we had no external speakers. Regaurdless of this setback, we still did very well. Our project was so great, we were selected to go on to the state competition in Des Moines. All in all, it was a pretty good day.
Through out the month, or so, we had until the state convention, improvements were made. Many pictures were added, it was organized a bit more, and we got our hands on some external speakers. Everything was set. When Sunday, April 30 came, I packed up the laptop, projector (borrowed from school) and the bag with my clothes, etc. in in to the trunk of Dad's car. We were ready to go. I told Mom goodbye and Dad and I drove off. The two hours and something minutes went by pretty quickly. At first I attempted to play solitare, but the cards kept sliding around. I don't quite remember, but I guess I just watched the road.
Well, when we got to Des Moines, we went straight to the History Center, where we were meeting Lance and his parents. Once Lance arrived, we went to the room where we would be presenting in. We set everything up and tested it. It all worked fine as expected. Then we parted until the next day. Dad and I checked in to the hotel and went swimming. Later we ate at Long John Silvers, then went to a park for a while. I played on the toys for a while, but then realized it was time for The Simpsons. It was back to the hotel. We watched TV for an hour and went swimming untill around 9. I then read Newsweek and Time. All I really remember is that I read something about Elian Gonzalez. (what a surprise!) Then I watched Nick at Nite for a bit, took a shower, and went to bed while watching the Powerpuff Girls. I also talked to Mom, who had called when I was just getting out of the shower.
I got up the next day, May 1, at around 6:30. I wet my hair (to avoid roosters), got dressed, and then went with Dad to the breakfast bar, where I ate two powdered sugar donuts. Then I did the inevitable: watched TV. We checked out at around 7:15. Then in to the car. Next stop: History Center.
When there, I found Lance. We went to the room where we were going to present in. The set-up didn't take as much time. (I guess the practice the previous day did us some good) Our presentation went smoothly and we were answering some questions for the judges. It was sort of odd because the judges kept refering to it as a "Powerpoint", when it wasn't a Powerpoint document at all, it was a webpage! Well, we did pretty good and now we had a few hours to waste. Our attention was directed to the staircase going up 6 or so stories. We would run up and down them and throw paperclips at people. It's probablly not something we really should have been doing, but it's all in the past now. :P
Lance and I just walked around for a couple of hours. Then, at luch time, Dad, I, Lance, and his parents ate at a resturaunt in some hotel. (I think it was the embassy suites) Anyway, I got Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, french fries, and a Mountain Dew. Well, after that, we walked back to the History Center. After doing nothing for a while, I convinced Dad to buy me a NHD t-shirt. It says, "Students discovering the past to shape the future". Then, in the middle, it has a little logo with NHD Iowa. Anyway, after a little while, we decided to go to the capitol building, which is right next to the History Center. Dad, Lance, his mom, and I went. It was pretty interesting. We almost got a peak at the governor, but some gaurds closed the doors just as we were looking in. Well, we walked around the place, Lance and I experimented with the pay phones, and Dad and I went up to where people sit and watch congress (or whatever). We went back after about an hour. Lance and I completed out final messing-around session, and we all sat down for the awards. The awards ceremony was delayed a bit because the governor, who was going to be presenting the awards, was running a little late. At first, they had a lady talk about the unknown soldier. It was pretty boring, the lady was really overdoing the drama. I didn't really pay attention because I didn't want to listen to a sad story. That presentation seemed like forever, when in reality it was on about twenty-some minutes. Well, after this, a man came up to the podium and said, 'Now, on my lead, we are all going to start singing Happy Birthday dear, Tom.' Everybody joined in thinking that it was Gov. Tom Vilsak's birthday and he was arriving. So, everybody was singing Happy Birthday dear, Tom and looking around for the Governor. He was no where in sight! The song finally ended and the man replied, "Thank you very much! I'm 53!" Apparentlly, his name was Tom, too. It was pretty funny.
The Governor arrived soon after to present the awards. It was a long time before they annonced the winners of the Group Presentations. I found the reactions of family-members-of-winner's quite annoying. For instance, this one lady proclaimed, "We're going to DC!" Anyway, enough of my complaining, Lance and I didn't go on to National's, but it was still a fun experiemce.
View "Harry S Truman LAUNCHES THE NUCLEAR AGE" here