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Reading, Wellington, and whatever else – teenblog@wcl.govt.nz

Category: internet culture Page 3 of 8

Google Global (!) Youth Science Fair

Google is running a Global Science Fair for teens. As it is global, anyone in the world can enter. Even a NZer. Especially a NZer, since we’re quite good at innovation and science. Entrants (i.e. everyone reading this I hope*) need to be between the ages of 13 and 18, and can work solo or in groups of up to three. You enter it online obviously! 

*The prizes are beyond awesome. They are actually epic. Guys you need to win this.

No longer a Figment of your imagination

Figment is “a community where you can share your writing, connect with other readers, and discover new stories and authors. Whatever you’re into, from sonnets to mysteries, from sci-fi stories to cell phone novels”, you can find it all at Figment – it’s like a social network for those that love to write or read original stories. Check out the contests, forums or blog while you’re there, or just oggle at how cool the webpage looks.

You never know… you could be discovered as the next Stephenie Meyer.

(Us folk here at Teen Blog are alway happy to receive your writing anytime too!)

Figment Pic

If you like voting, vote here

While New Zealand is getting all excited about voting for mayors and whatnot (if you’re 18 or over then don’t forget to vote by October 9!), here are a couple of places you can exercise your right by voting in the following competitions/vote offs/popularity contests:

1) Until the 17th (was a bit slow out of the blocks) you can vote on the ALA (American Library Association) Teen Choice Teens Top 10 2010 List. Voting is for the best books of the previous year, so titles include such gems as Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins, City of Glass by Cassandra Clare, Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen, Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld, and much more.

2) And again, if you vote, like, today (sorry!), there are the Teen Reads Awards. These are Canadian, and they’re a bit like the Teen Choice awards you see on TV. Categories include Best Hottie, Best Villain and Best Lip Lock, see.

We might check back in later with results, in case you’re interested.

First Day

First Day : The Series is a webseries that will have eight episodes (or webisodes!), and is about a high school student who gets to relive her first day at a new school over and over, like Groundhog Day. It is brought to you by the same company who produce the Pretty Little Liars and Gossip Girl television shows, so quality is assured.

Isn’t technology marvellous

Shibuya-giant-barcodeTwo weeks ago we posted a weird, black and white square and asked that you figure it out. Only two people did! That’s no good. It was, in fact, a QR code, which you photograph with your cellphone. Your phone cleverly translates it into an URL and takes you to a webpage. It’s big in Japan you know. Here’s how you do it.

1. Make sure your cellphone is able to even do it! Look at this list or even just google your phone’s brand and ‘QR code’. If your cellphone can’t do it, then, I guess that’s too bad.
2. Find some compatible software to download to your cellphone. Not all software will work on all phones. Again, check sites like this one.
3. Install the software. Hopefully your phone will know what to do. Mine did. <3
4. Start the application, take a photo of a QR code*, and be amazed.

Charges may apply. See your cellular phone provider for more details! (Usually it’s about $1 for 10MB.)

*You might find them in books, or magazines, or who knows where. Billboards? You can make your own QR code.

Smart Girls at the Party

Smart Girls at the Party is a digital TV series in which Amy Poehler interviews girls who do really cool stuff (the latest has someone who makes robots! And also is an archer). It’s won a Webby! And it is also very funny. And inspiring. You should watch it (the second series has just begun).

John Green on the All Whites on Twitter

John Green, co-author of Will Grayson, Will Grayson, and Web 2.0 enthusiast had this to say about the All Whites’ effort against Italy at the World Cup (so we thought it was worth a mention): “A heroic, relentless performance by #NZL. Just unbelievable. I am kind of in tears to be honest.” (In context here. He’s set up a special world cup Twitter account @johnsworldcup, plus his regular Twitter account is @realjohngreen, complete with a million + followers.) Needless to say, we like John Green.

Speaking of Twitter, Wellington City Libraries is on Twitter too (@wcl_library). You can follow us for updates on recently acquired interesting library items, what’s going on at the moment, and notifications of new blog posts, like on this here blog, for example.

This post was brought to you by Library Serf, in the absence of regular football reporter, Roberto B, who is recovering.

(Thanks to Kym for info too.)

TC 2010

The Teen Choice Awards 2010 nominees have been announced, and you can vote for your favourite (so long as you’re a teen living in the US,  but don’t let that stop you) daily on the official website. There are like a million categories to vote in! Maybe we should run our own, Wellington-only version?

Incredibly G.I. Joe : Rise of Cobra has five nominations, which frankly boggles the mind.

Read a massive list of the more interesting nominees by clicking on ‘more’ below.

Read More

Go To The World Cup! Sort Of

The Football World Cup kicks off tomorrow morning, most of us won’t be in attendance because South Africa is a long way away. But thanks to technology you can travel to the stadiums the games will be played in from the comfort of your own home by following this link. Sure, you could just watch the games on TV, but these virtual tours are in 3D thanks to Google Earth and therefore cooler.

The Seventeen Magazine Project

As you perhaps know, we carry Seventeen magazine. We usually have two copies of each issue! I think they send us an extra copy? Anyway, an eighteen-year-old named Jamie Keiles is heroically attempting to “spend one month living according to the gospel of Seventeen Magazine”. It’s a difficult task, but she’s doing it so you and I don’t have to. Read her blog, The Seventeen Magazine Project, here.

Scratch Day

“Scratch” is a young people’s animation and programming tool developed by MIT’s Media Lab in the USA. It has a half-million followers worldwide, mostly teens. Sort of like facebook, but more animation-y (therefore better?), it has a strong community of users who collaborate on designs and hang out at things like “Scratch Day” .

Incidentally, and the reason for this post, there is a Wellington “Scratch Day” happening on Saturday 22nd May in the CBD. There is a facebook event page you can RSVP to here. If you are a seasoned veteran of the scratching, or even just a curious n00b, go along and join in on the animation fun.

Today in history

How Millenial Are You? is a quiz that determines just how millenial you are. Obviously! A ‘Millenial’ is someone who belongs to the so-called ‘Y-Generation‘ (i.e people born in the last couple of decades). ‘Generation X‘ was the previous generation (sort of), referring to people who grew up in the late 70s and 80s. Before that are the ‘Baby Boomers’, who were all born after WWII (there was a lot of them, hence the ‘boom‘ part). Each generation differs not only in age, but also in things such as consumer habits, culture, earnings, education, and whether or not they have a Facebook account.

And that was Today in History, kinda.

New Airbender

There is a new trailer for The Last Airbender (which would be called Avatar but it might confuse people) that you can watch at the official site. I would embed it but that is forbidden! It looks to me – and I own all the DVDs so I am some kind of expert – that the film will follow the first series pretty closely. Which is good! You can borrow the series from the library. Not the second and third series though, as for some reason they aren’t available in NZ.

Smiling dog

Look at this dog. He/she smiles when his/her owner is about to take him/her for a walk. Walksies. So cute!

Have a Robert Muchamore Character Named After You

That’s right, Robert Muchamore is running a competition on his CHERUB website. If you’re quick (you have until the 26th of November) you might find yourself (or your name at least) in one of his books. See the CHERUB news page for more information and to enter.

For Your Friends’ Eyes Only

Further to this post we did earlier about Facebook and privacy, if you’re wanting to keep your Facebook page between yourself and your friends here’s a helpful tutorial on changing your settings so that the whole world and its dog can’t see who you’re playing Scrabble with:

(Thanks to Magalie for putting this together!)

Twilight – The Musical

That’s right, Twilight the musical can be watched online. It’s not official! It’s a parody, in fact! Which means you mightn’t like it (apparently it becomes funnier after the first episode). Oh and you will need broadband probably.

Oh and don’t forget to register for the Twilight Trivia Night. It’s in, like, three weeks, and you will need time to work on a costume (it’s on the night before Hallowe’en, so why not come in costume?).

Eric

The Guardian website has ‘Eric’ one of Shaun Tan’s Tales from Outer Suburbia here. I like this one the best, I think (it has a great punchline). You can also see their interview with him where he talks about imagination, detail, book award stickers and how he came to be where he is.

Search for Shaun Tan on the library rārangi here.

Ka ki te.

Top 10 : Top 10

Here are ten Top 10 lists written by other websites (and not by us, although we’ve done a lot). They’re in no particular order, and if you want to add to the list go nuts and comment.

1. Top 10 Harry Potter Moments – so far, anyway. Has clips! (See also; Top 10 Harry Potter supporting characters.)

2. Top 10 Comic Book Cities – does Metropolis beat out Megacity One? No, it does not, and rightly so.

3. Top 10 Most Ridiculous Movie Tech Moments – Nerdrage!

4. Top 10 San Diego Comic Con Exclusives – probably of limited interest but there’s some cool stuff there. I had an original Soundwave once. Wish I still had it, it might be worth a mint.

5. Top 10 Twilight Series Moments – Beware, as this list contains spoilers (for the 2.7% of the population who haven’t read Twilight). 

6. Top 10 James Bond Books – as selected by Charlie Higson, author of the Young Bond series of books. He knows his Bond.

7. Top 10 Things You Can Do to Protect Your Privacy – a bit more serious that the others in this list, but very important! Very!

8. Top 20 Free PC Games – Twenty is better than ten, it must be said.

9. Top 10 Rap Songs That Sample Michael Jackson Songs – very topical.

10. Top 11 mashed Potato Recipes – a bit different, this list, but it allows me to a) mention the upcoming cooking event that’s planned (along with the competition!), b) point out that 2008 was the United Nations Year of the Potato and although it’s a bit late it’s interesting to learn, c) I can link to this, and d) mashed potatoes are yum. Don’t know why there are eleven though.

Penguin’s YA Central

YA Central is the name of Penguin publishing’s online content for teens and readers of YA fiction. They have interviews with authors (videos, no less) such as Laurie Halse Anderson (and here), John Green, and Lauren Myracle. Access to other author interview videos, book trailers and behind-the-scene footage is promised. It’s part of The Publisher’s Office, Penguin’s online periodical, which is full of all kinds of stuff – web 2.0 at its most literary.

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