Tim had always a red bike. His birthday party was coming up and he hoped that his parents would finally get him the bike. When his friends came over for the party, Tim was very worried that he wouldn't get the bike. He looked at all the presents and none of them seemed big enough to have a bike in them. Tim was sad. When it was time to open the presents he opened them one at a time. The first present was not a bike. The second present was not a bike. The third present was the biggest one. Tim knew if the bike was going to be in any of the presents it was going to be in this box. Tim opened it and there was no bike inside. Just as Tim tried not to look too upset, his Dad brought in the biggest present of them all. His Dad had been hiding the present all along. Tim opened it and his new bike was inside the box. Tim put the bike together with his Dad's help.

Who is mentioned as being at the birthday party?

Roberta Adams skipped the thick how-to guide on child-custody forms and sat down at a computer at the Lamoreaux Justice Center in Orange on Wednesday. The Garden Grove woman answered a series of questions to create and print a form to file with the court. "It's easy," said Adams, 25. "I thought I'd have all kinds of questions and have to take the forms home." A University of California, Irvine, study released Wednesday found an interactive computer system effectively helps people fill out paperwork for restraining orders, eviction defense, small-claims cases and requests for filing-fee waivers. Not only does the system make life easier for people who can't afford a lawyer, but it also might improve efficiency in the courts because the forms, which are printed out when completed, are easy to read and are being filled out correctly, the study found. Since the program started in 2000, more than 6,000 people have used the free system, located in public buildings throughout Orange County. The system was developed by the Legal Aid Society of Orange County with about $800,000 in grants. The program avoids legal jargon, offers a courthouse video tour and sticks to a fifth-grade vocabulary. Users can choose English, Spanish or Vietnamese. Kiosks are in courthouses in Fullerton and Orange, the district attorney's family-support office, the Legal Aid Society in Santa Ana, Irvine City Hall and the San Juan Capistrano Library. The program is also available online. Bob Cohen, executive director of Legal Aid, said the study should clear the way for expansion throughout California. Locally, a program for divorce petitions will be added this summer. Cohen said the system proves the benefit of technology tailored to those who aren't computer-savvy. He said much of the technology now available requires Internet skills and access. Low-income people, however, have less access to computers and less experience using them. "Our clients have to catch up, and they have to become a part of the mainstream," Cohen said.

What forms can be filled out via the kiosk?

Hotel California My first thought: I was going crazy. Twenty-four hours of silence (vacuum, remember); was I hallucinating noises now? I heard it again. It was a fine bell, reminiscent of ancient stone churches and the towering cathedrals I'd seen in documentaries. And accompanying the bell, I saw a light. Now, there were two things here that made ridiculously small amounts of sense. First, the whole in-a-vacuum why's-there-a-bell thing. Second, I was floating in the dark remnants of my broken ship, and any conceivable light sources were not within view; starlight is a distinctly different color and significantly less bright. These signals were the heralds of my saviors. The first words they said to me meant nothing. I wasn't listening; I didn't care; I was going to live; I was going to keep breathing. Next to those, nothing else mattered. The recycled air tasted sweet in my mouth, and all thoughts that crossed my mind were cheap metaphors about life-giving substances and how breathing was like sex, only better. (I reserved the right to revise this opinion later.) When I was done mentally exclaiming over my impossible rescue, I looked around. The ship, it was odd and old, either so outdated or so heavily modified that I couldn't tell what make it was, and somehow, the crew standing around me fit the same description, a singularly atypical amalgamation of folk. And me, I guess I was one more piece in their puzzle. I was one more scrap to weld onto the rest, one more stranded survivor who was found. I was now one of them.
Where did the sound and the light come from?