Buffy vs Edward (Twilight Remixed) is an incredibly well-done and amusing mashup of Twilight and Buffy : The Vampire Slayer to form an ‘example of transformative storytelling serving as a pro-feminist visual critique of Edward’s character and generally creepy behavior’. Which is another way to say, “Edward’s a bit stalkerish, isn’t he?”
Category: internet culture Page 4 of 8
Have you ever wondered what you might look like with Jennifer Garner’s hairstyle? Or lipstick? Or something? Now you can find out with a Hollywood makeover. At last, the Internet is complete.
Well, by ‘fun’ I mean it’s more like educational fun. Edutainment? Funucation? I don’t know. Anyway, you can now convert measurements and units of weight by just typing it into Google. Say you want to know how many kilometres are in five miles; you can ask Google ‘how many km are in five miles?‘ And there it is. But! You might want to know what 80 knots is in kilometres per hour. I often do, so I can type in ‘how many km/h is in 80 knots?‘ Or ‘how many cubits in 3 hand?‘ ‘How many acres in 4000 square metres?‘
Also, if you need to know the time somewhere, just type in ‘time [city name]’ and it comes up. (For example, ‘time reykjavik’.) That’s not so much fun as it is a helpful hint. (It also works with ‘weather’ (e.g., ‘weather ohakune‘), and ‘define’ and some other keywords.)
Google Squared builds information tables out of data on the internet. It’s a bit hit or miss – a search for ‘Wellington City Library‘ is fairly useful, but ‘Twilight’ tells us that Bella is a guinea pig.
and win 3,000 bucks!
The Buy NZ Made Campaign is running a Video Ad Competition to raise awareness for buying NZ Made products and to provide base material for members to use to advertise their NZ made products. Entrants are being asked to submit a 15, 30 or 45 second advert about buying NZ Made and will need to upload their videos onto the Buy NZ Made Channel on the website Youtube. The most viewed video on Youtube between 1st June and 31st August 2009 will win a $500 prize. For the overall competition the ads will be judged with a first prize of $3000, second prize $1500 and a third prize of $500. For more information on the competition please visit the purpose-built website.
Is zombie fiction the new vampire fiction? Zombies rise in teen lit. (Read our interview with Amanda Ashby, author of The Zombie Queen of Newbury High.)
Two mothers spend US$28,000 to get Twilight star Robert Pattinson to kiss their daughters. (You can also pay to be taken on a tour of the film set in Vancouver, Canada: “Twilight fans don’t have to schlep all the way out to New Zealand for their fan fix.” Hah.) There are some exclusive pictures from New Moon here.
Peter Jackson and director Guillermo del Toro discuss their plans for the forthcoming films of The Hobbit. (Del Toro is in Wellington, and was recently interviewed by Stuff.)
Could a virtual racing champion be turned into a real-life racing champion? Well?
Chase cryptids via CryptoZoo. The game’s creator was inspired by freerunners in Wellington (you can even see the library). We’re famous!
As mentioned in the past, The Vampire Diaries are being made into a television series. The network responsible has released some teaser clips of the show, which is set to begin soon. You can watch all three after the Read more … – the books can be borrowed from your local library, of course.
Watch the teasers below! Isn’t it cool when he jumps off the roof like that?
If you read loads of websites and blogs that update regularly (like this one), and you think, “gosh, if only all these sites’ contents could be stuck onto one handy page,” then consider using an RSS reader. Rather than opening many websites at once, an RSS reader grabs the newest content from them for you. So handy!
There are several RSS readers available. If you’ve a Google account then Google Reader is good and reliable. Bloglines is another of the more well-known ones.
(RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication, which sounds simple but probably is quite complex.)
Anyway, the Teen Blog’s RSS feed is here.
Yes, the whole thing. On his 9 city video world tour (rock star style) last year he was recorded reading The Graveyard Book, a chapter at each exotic location. The videos are on his Mouse Circus website.
I had imagined him standing in front of the Hollywood sign, in Red Square, or under the Brooklyn hill wind turbine but no, it’s just Neil. Never mind, if you get a bit restless you could also play Graveyard Book sudoku while you listen or download a Coraline screensaver, or, or.
Neil Gaiman is one of the most Web 2.0 writers around. See also his normal website, or his blog. He also tweets. (Aspiring or established authors take note: this is how to promote your work on the web.)
The good people at the Ministry of Education have put an awesome website together for NCEA students of English, Maths and Sciences, called StudyIt. Bookmark it!
As well as online help and past exam papers, the site includes:
* online forums
* achievement standards written in student friendly language
* study tips
* other subjects – ie forums where other things are being discussed, for example “how to be dux”, “career paths” and other subject areas.
While you’re in the zone, make sure you view our very own study advice webpage Study Stop, which is laden with links to resources both in the library and outside the library.
I told Grimm that we mustn’t write ‘check this out’ on the Teen Blog too often, but really, you should check this out.
Free Realms, the mostly free MMO from Sony, opens today (the website is currently under maintenance in preparation). It’s a game for all ages, and is laden with minigames, pets, PvP, cardgames, and all that. People who have played it seem to love it and find plenty of things to do.
Check out the trailer for it below:
Similarly, take a gander at Wizard101, another MMO for all ages.
Here’s some games for the weekend, before school starts again.
Gemcraft Chapter 0 – Haven’t played it, to be honest.
Bridgecraft – Build bridges (using physics) to help cute little jelly alien things not drown.
Scarygirl – This is really, REALLY cool.
Capeoira Fighter 3 – a fighting game, where you can play against the computer, or against other people.
Deepleap – Make words from the letters for points, and before the timer. Like Scrabble + Tetris + Space Invaders.
Hex Empire – a realtime strategy game, sort of like Empire or Risk. I’m a bit useless at it.
Don’t Look Back – this has the most basic graphics, but don’t be put off – the gameplay is madly addictive.
Viking Defense – You’re a viking! Yay!
Hands of War – Old-school RPG.
Enjoy.
The latest and last trailer for the next Harry Potter film – Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince – has been released. Watch it below! Now doesn’t that look good.
Can’t remember the story? Here’s the book. We also carry all the other Harry Potter films on DVD.
As readers of this blog know, I really like parkour/free-running. (Previous posts.) And you should too. After the ‘more’ there’s an incredible Youtube clip of someone riding a bike up, down, and over all things urban. (It’s really called freestyle BMX.) Enjoy, and don’t try any stunts yourself
Website 1: ‘ISSUES.co.nz’ – talking up ideas and issues
What’s on the hearts and minds of everyday New Zealanders? What gets their goat? Find out on New Zealand’s first purpose-built website for issues campaigns. A great website to watch if you need a speech topic, or if you’re politically inclined.
Website 2: The World Digital Library
Launching April 21, this The World Digital Library is going to be awesome! The project has major international backing and will bring – free of charge – significant primary materials from cultures around the world, including manuscripts, maps, rare books, musical scores, recordings, films, prints, photographs, architectural drawings, and other significant cultural materials. Make sure you check out the promo video.
It is the 20th birthday of the Internet, which means that it hasn’t been entitled to a YA library card for a couple of years. Also, that for many people (i.e. this blog’s intended audience) there’s not been a time when there wasn’t an Internet, or WWW, or chat, or even online shopping. Can you imagine – a world with no social networking? Truly a dark epoch.
Anyway, here’s an article about the beginnings of the Internet. Pretty complex stuff!
Patrick Ness is the author of the recent award-winning YA book, The Knife of Never Letting Go (his latest book, The Ask and the Answer, is on order). He is also the first ‘online writer in residence’ for the British charity, Booktrust. Normally a writer in residence gets a house in a nice part of the world to live in and write for a year, a la the Katherine Mansfield prize. An online writer in residence doesn’t get all that, sadly, but Patrick Ness has a very nice blog going. You may also want to check out his tips for new writers.
Zuda Comics collects user-submitted comics. The comics then compete with one another – they’re rated by users – and the winner is published. There’s some great work there, and the latest, Dracula vs. Santa, is hysterical. My aching sides!
The UN has revealed that about half the planet’s population use cellular phones, which is pretty impressive. The first small ‘flip’ cellphone came out in 1989, almost 20 years ago – I vaguely remember my dad had one for work, which was pretty impressive. At the time. Nowadays phones are vastly cheaper, smaller, and have many more functions. (Though it would be nice to own a retro phone.)
So, assuming you have one, would you like us to text or email you with information about upcoming events and news the Wellington City Libraries are planning for teens? If you would, please fill in the contact form below! Thanks!
Free Realms is an MMO (massive multiplayer online game) that is due out later in the year. It’s free in that you don’t need to pay to play it (like you would with World of Warcraft, Warhammer Online, and others) and that you are free to do just about anything you want; you can race cars, raise pets, be a wizard, or whatever. It’s kid-friendly and intended for all ages.
Open beta begins in April, and you can sign up for it now.
Another MMO on its way is Star Wars : The Old Republic; an online webcomic set in the Old Republic, with new issues popping up twice a month, is available here.
