Tweet Your Own Adventure with Meg Cabot

by Rachel

Meg Cabot

Calling all Meg Cabot fans: help her tweet a new story next week! Meg Cabot (@megcabot) will tweet the first line of a new story on February 16 at 11:00 a.m. CST, and then Twitter users everywhere will be able to tweet what comes next.  For more details, check out the press release from the BBC website.

If you want to join in, but you’re not really sure what’s up with Twitter, tweeting, hashtags, and all that fun stuff  — just drop us a note at teens@icpl.org and we’ll help you out.  We love tweeting (@ICPL)!

Doodling Improves Your Memory?

by Darian

JFK doodle

I found this article while I was doing some of my biology homework and I thought it was interesting because my aunts told me a while ago that it worked and I did not know if I believed them.  So here is an article that proves them right.

A group of test subjects who were directed to doodle while listening to a series of long, dull conversations remembered the details much better than the group who simply sat and listened.

Invent-o a Bento

by the crafty veteran

As a crafter and food enthusiast, creating a bento box would seem to be the perfect project for me. What you may not guess, however, is that I hate cooking. Luckily, my bento required absolutely no heating beyond a microwave to warm up leftover rice!

Rachel asked me to make a bento box in preparation for the Anime Festival on Saturday, February 13. How romantic, eh? Anyway, bento boxes are yet another wonderful Japanese invention, like washi tape and pokémon. Bento, roughly translated, means, I believe, “ridiculous amount of energy to create tiny, adorable, somethings.” Or something like that. They are basically little portions of food like sushi, rice, vegetables, fruit, etc. arranged in an aesthetically pleasing way. They can be quite elaborate. Google image it.

You can use anything. A pimento and mento bento would be quite a cento.

Ahem. Here’s the how-to.

MAKE YOUR OWN BENTO BOX
Total time: 1 hour

What I Used:supplies use

  • one box (I used a round gift box from Ikea, but tupperware works very well. Or, if you’re a bento snob like Jason, something like this. Or, cuter, that.)
  • aluminum foil
  • 2 slices sourdough bread
  • 1 cucumber
  • 2 cherry tomatoes
  • 1 clementine
  • plain cream cheese
  • fruit jam/jelly/preserves
  • rice
  • vegetable peeler
  • sharp knife
  • ice cream scoop
  • rolling pin
  • wax paper

Instructions:
1. Line box with aluminum foil, set aside
2. Scoop a ball of rice with ice cream scoop, place in boxrice ball use
3. Wash vegetables, peel cucumber
4. Cut a few round cucumber slices, starcucumber star use
5. Cut long, thin strip of cucumbercucumber use
6. Score 2 cherry tomatoes

score tomatoes use

7. Peel clementine, cut thin slices
clementine use
8. Flatten slices of bread with rolling pin, between wax paper. Cut off crusts, roll again

roll bread use

9. Spread slices of bread with whatever. I did one with jelly, one with cream cheese and thin slice of cucumber
assemble rolls use
10. Roll up bread (like a sushi roll), and slice into cylinders approximately 1.5 inches long
cut rolls use
11. Arrange everything in some cute way in the box

THE BIG REVEAL…
closed use

open use

detail use

Enjoy!

enjoy use

Fahrenheit 451: A Movement of Epic Bookness

by gomerman

7035141If you haven’t heard, the library is doing an amazing thing this February. “The Big Read” is an activity that a lot of Iowa libraries are sponsoring and is possible because of the “Summer of the Arts.” Now, you might be thinking “but February isn’t even close to summer” but the “National Endowment of the Arts” doesn’t care. They let our library and other libraries get over 2000 copies of Fahrenheit 451. This book is not all that long, and is easier to read than Shakespeare.

I was volunteering, as I do on Friday nights, and I picked up 7 copies of Fahrenheit 451. Some people might think I’ve picked up too many copies, but I am slowly nudging them onto my friends who are unfortunate enough to not be in TAG.

Crafty Teens @ Home Ec Workshop 12/19

by Rachel

Felting Soaps

Hey all, we’re heading over to Iowa City’s Home Ec. Workshop (207 N. Linn St.) on Saturday, December 19th for a free crafty outing.  We’ll be learning how to make felted soap!

Meet in the ICPL lobby at 12:45 and we’ll walk over to Home Ec. Workshop together.  Registration is limited to 15, so sign up soon.  You can register here, or email teens@icpl.org, or call Jason at (319)887-6075.  Remember to include your name, address and phone number.  If you include your email address with registration, we’ll send you a reminder email the day before, too.

No Shave November

by gomerman

So this month is almost over and you may have noticed some rather fuzzy people around iowa city that you normally wouldn’t see fuzzy. Me, for example, have been growing my beard since a couple weeks before November started, and rather like the almost end result.

Some people have asked me why i’m doing this, and to them i’ve replied, “It’s part of City High tratition.” On the contrary, however, I’ve discovered that it is not only a City High tradition, but an American tradition. Why people do it is because of their own reasons, varying from the “i don’t like shaving” excuse, to the “i don’t have enough money to buy a new razor right now” excuse.

Whatever the reason it’s really cool to see the bushy faces of friends for a month

Relax!

by jason

UAY What with school life, homework, jobs, clubs and sports you’ve got a lot going on!  Well UAY’s Youth Center staff is there to help with stress relief by offering a free yoga class for teens on Tuesdays from 5:30 – 6:15.  The website says:  “Sign up ahead of time, or drop in a few minutes early for this informal weekly class. Bring a towel, comfortable clothing, water, and an open mind! (Free and open to youth ages 12-18.)”

Of course they also have tons of other resources and fun free programming, you can see listings here.  Never been there?  Here’s the directions.  The staff there are super friendly and welcoming too!

English Country Dances & Contra Dances

by Darian

Hey everybody,

I wanted to tell you guys about the English Country dancing and Contra dances that happen in Iowa City. They are both located at the Iowa City Senior Center ,28 S Linn St downtown Iowa City. Here is a little history of English Country dancing. As far as we can tell it started in the 16th century close to the reign of Elizabeth 1. The county folk were the usual people to be doing this kind of dancing and every once in a while the queen would observe these dances.Here people dress pretty casually for English country dances. These dances are the first Saturday of every month at 7:30 or 8:00 depending on if you wish to go to the beginners class. For these dances there is no admission fee but it is appreciated to bring a few dollars as a donation to the live band to help them out since they aren’t getting payed to play.

dancing too This is English country dancing in the ballroom at the Old Capital building. This room was really pretty and fun to dance in.

The other kind of dances that are held are contra dances. The spirit of these dances are a little more upbeat and they are quicker paced. These dances are partner dances where you and your partner are grouped with one more set of partners. Or they are mixers where you dance for part of the dance with almost each person. These dances are held the third Saturday of each month at 7:30 or 8:00 depending on if you wish to go to the beginners class and the admission is 5 dollars for everyone over sixteen, under sixteen is free.

dancing Contra dancing at the Senior center.

dancinContra dancing both pictures are from the same day.

I have been going to these dances for about a year and I got so into it that I was part of the renaissance faire dance troop it is a blast. Even if you haven’t ever done either of these kinds of dancing you will be able to catch on easily because from 7:30 until 8 both Saturdays there are beginners classes where you will learn most of the moves you need for the dances. If you do decide to come use the Linn St. entrance that is up the big stairs.

I’m looking forward to hopefully seeing some new faces there.

FotoFlexer Rules!

by Rachel

FotoFlexer is “the world’s most advanced online image editor.”  OK, so that’s their tagline, but it’s also pretty much true.  It’s completely free, you use it online without having to download or install anything, and I love it.  For anyone who wants to make collages of photos (& text?) that will actually look pretty instead of how they usually look on this blog (i.e. awkward with tons of white space), FotoFlexer is the way to go.  Tons of cool effects (Warhol, night vision, cartoon) and — YEP — *bling* for your photos.

Anyone else know about any other free online tools like this?  Let us know!

The ACLU Brings It On, Facebook!

by Rachel

I don’t think it’s any secret that I love Facebook, and lots of other social networking sites where you reveal highly personal information about yourself to complete strangers (goodreads, twitter, flickr, delicious, the last fm, etc. . .)

OK, but that being said. . . there are SERIOUSLY some online privacy questions that we’ve never had to grapple with before, and hey — I’m up for some grappling!

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which I also love, is taking on Facebook in a huge campaign to raise awareness about their sketchy privacy practices.  Check out the ACLU’s awesome fb quiz to learn more!

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