Video Games Live — Bonus Round!

Hey, teens! Save $5/ticket for Video Games Live^™: Bonus Round!*

Video Games Live^™: Bonus Round
THUR, FEB 11 – 8:00PM
FRI, FEB 12 – 8:00PM
HEINZ HALL

Gather your family and friends for the show that’s taking the orchestra world by storm!  Video Games Live^™: Bonus Round returns to Heinz Hall by popular demand with a new program, featuring your favorite music from the most popular video games of all time! Your Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh perform along with exclusive video footage, synchronized lighting, electronic percussionists, live action and unique audience-interactive segments to create an explosive entertainment experience!

Video Games Live^™: Bonus Round includes music from Sonic, Final Fantasy VIII, Halo ODST, StarCraft II, Mega Man, BioShock, Mass Effect, Shadow of the Colossus, Assassin’s Creed II, Zelda, Mario‪ and more! Also, new in “Bonus Round,” witness the world premiere of a brand-new interactive Guitar Hero segment, exciting new solo performances and live Skype interviews with famous game composers from around the world!

Order your tickets today and save! call 412.392.4900 or visit www.pittsburghsymphony.org
When ordering, use code 15395 to save $5/ticket.*

*Not valid on previously purchased/held tickets or in conjunction with any other offer.  Certain restrictions may apply.

February: A short but sweet month

February is National Black History Month.  Groundhog Day and St. Valentine’s Day are celebrated this month. 

 There’s a lot more to celebrate this month.

If you look in Chase’s Calendar of Events, you can find National Holidays, Ethnic and International Observances, Historic Anniversaries and Important Birth Anniversaries for every day of the year.

Here’s a few interesting events coming up this week:

INTERNATIONAL FLIRTING WEEK

JAPAN:  SNOW FESTIVAL  (we could have our own Snow Festival this week in Pittsburgh)

LOVE MAY MAKE THE WORLD GO ‘ROUND, BUT LAUGHTER KEEPS US FROM GETTING DIZZY WEEK

XXI OLYMPIC WINTER GAMES

February 9:  NEW MEXICO:  EXTRATERRESTRIAL CULTURE DAY (“to celebrate and honor all past, present and future extraterrestrial visitors”)

February 10:  FIRST COMPUTER CHESS VICTORY OVER HUMAN ANNIVERSARY

February 11:  BE ELECTRIFIC DAY (a day to honor the birth of Thomas Alva Edison)

February 12:  ABRAHAM LINCOLN BIRTH ANNIVERSARY

February 13:  GET A DIFFERENT NAME DAY

marianj

 

Teen FAP Review: Among the Hidden

**The reviews below were written by Molly as part of the Teen Fine Alternative Program.  If you’re interested in working off fines owed on CLP materials and are between the ages of 12-18, please contact your local CLP location.**

Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix

1. Name two characters (or if a magazine, two people you read about) and give brief personality descriptions.

Luke: Observant, loves to read,  not selfconfident.

Jen: Risky confident, bends the laws.

2. Write a sentence or two about what happened in the plot:

There are new houses are getting built around Luke’s house. He sees a new family of four and then he sees a fith head.

3. Write two sentences about what it was that you enjoyed about this work (or about what you didn’t enjoy):

I loved the way he spied on the sports family every  day. I also enjoyed how he met another shadow child.

Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix

1. 1. Name two characters (or if a magazine, two people you read about) and give brief personality descriptions.

Chip: sporty, talkative, stubborn

Jonah: laid back, sometimes confused

2. Write a sentence or two about what happened in the plot:

Jonah’s family and Chip are going to an adoption class. Jonah, Chip, and Katherine all get stuck in time.

3. Write two sentences about what it was that you enjoyed about this work (or about what you didn’t enjoy):

I like the way it has electronics from the future.

I also like how the cave is a confrence room.

What is a Coruscation? A Librocubicularist? A Lollapaloosa?

The Oxford English Dictionary (2nd ed.) contains full entries for 171,476 words in current use. The average 16 year old has a vocabulary of only 10,000-12,000 words. You do the math, but basically, there are more than 160,000 words that you don’t know! Let’s see if we can fix that.

Here is a haphazard selection of weird and wonderful words that you probably have never heard of (I hadn’t.)

Coruscation: (1) glitter; sparkle (2) a brilliant flash of wit

Librocubicularist: one who reads in bed.

Lollapaloosa:  something outstandingly good of its kind

For example: In 1897 the Idaho Daily Statesman wrote: “‘A lalla-pa-loosa,’ answered big John, and threw his hand to Scovel. There was a jack of hearts and a deuce, tray, four and five of diamonds.”  Read more>>

*****

On Dictionary.com, you can sign up to receive their “Word of the Day.” How much easier can it get? Today’s “Word of the Day” is:

Pecuniary: related to money

*****

Want more? (Yes! YES!) Check out these websites.

World Wide Words – Includes a list of weird words AND their etymologies!

Etymology*: the study of the history of words and how their form and meaning have changed over time

*Etymology is not on the World Wide Words list, but it’s a good word to know given the topic. Don’t you think? =)

Cool and Obscure Words

Deipnosophist: someone skilled in making dinner-table conversation

Obscure Words

Nelipot: someone who is walking without shoes

*****

If you still crave more (as you should), here are some books to appease your appetite for the unusual, obscure, and preposterous.

Mrs. Byrne’s dictionary of unusual, obscure, and preposterous words : gathered from numerous and diverse authoritative sources By: (Guess who?) Mrs. Byrne.

The highly selective thesaurus for the extraordinarily literate By: Eugene Ehrlich

Enjoy!

Meet Coe Booth and Lisa McMann

It’s (almost) Spring.  Okay, not really, but it’s at least time to start THINKING about Spring.  And, this spring, there are two fantastic authors coming to speak at Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh locations.  Here are the basics, but you can find more information on the Behind the Book website.  I get really excited about author visits, so I’ll probably blog about this more in the coming weeks…

Click on the date to register!

March 11, 2010
7:00 PM
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh – Allegheny
1230 Federal St.
Pittsburgh, PA 15212

Coe Booth (author of Tyrell and Kendra)

April 28, 2010
7:00 PM
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh – Main
4400 Forbes Ave.
Pittsburgh, PA 15213

Lisa McMann (author of Wake, Fade and Gone)

Hope to see you there!

Karen

Sharon Flake at CLP

This coming Saturday February 6th at 10:30AM Sharon Flake will be at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh for Black, White and Read all over.  If you mention you saw this blog post you can get tickets to see her speak for only $5.  Do you want free tickets? Keep reading! 

Sharon Flake is the Corretta Scott King award winner and is a Pittsburgh local.  Her books include The Skin I’m In  and The Broken Bike Boy.

For more information and to order click here. 

Wow! Look what I found on my desk! Two free tickets and a paperback copy of The Broken Bike Boy!  How did that get there? Do you want them? Leave a comment by Thursday February 4th 12PM and you’ll have a chance to win them!

Homeschooled

The number of  homeschoolers in the United States is steadily on the rise. As of 2003, there were almost 1.1 million home-educated students, and almost 30% of those were teens. Are you one of them?

If so, here is a (very long, I admit) list of resources to enrich your home education experience.

Take a class:

Sports, crafts, languages, computers, writing…no matter what your interests, there is a class out there for you!

Pittsburgh YMCA 

 Community Education at CCAC

Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh

City of Pittsburgh Community Centers

Volunteer:

Pittsburgh Cares

Volunteer Match

Habitat for Humanity

Check out a Homeschooling Group:

North Pittsburgh Homeschool Enrichment Program

PALS (People Always Learning Something)

Pittsburgh East Suburban Homeschoolers’ Association

City of Pittsburgh Community Centers

Read Blogs of Homeschooled Teens:

http://www.abowlofmossandpebbles.com/

http://collinmizells.blogspot.com/

You can search lots of other homeschoolers’ blogs here. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/

Go on a field trip:

One of the beautiful things about homeschooling is you have more freedom to go on field trips. And one of the beautiful things about Pittsburgh is that there are a lot of field trip-worthy places to go.

Carnegie Museums

Pittsburgh Zoo

National Aviary

Oliver Miller Homestead

Pittsburgh Arts

Pittsburgh Parks

Frick Art & Historical Center

Senator John Heinz History Center

Of course, one of the best places for a homeschooler to visit is the library. Homeschoolers are always welcome at CLP (as long as you observe appropriate library behavior during your visit, or course).  If you have any ideas on how CLP can improve its services to homeschoolers, please let us know in comments!

Some books in the collection about homeschooling:

Homeschoolers’ college admissions handbook : preparing 12-to 18-year-olds for success in the college of their choice / Cafi Cohen ; series editor, Linda Dobson.

Schooled / Gordon Korman.

The teenage liberation handbook : how to quit school and get a real life and education / Grace Llewellyn.

And what about college? : how homeschooling leads to admissions to the best colleges and universities / by Cafi Cohen.

Real lives : eleven teenagers who don’t go to school tell their own stories / edited and with an introduction by Grace Llewellyn.

The complete idiot’s guide to homeschooling / by Marsha Ransom.

 

Know Your Rights:

When I was homeschooled back in the 90s, homeschooling was in a sort of legal grey area. But thanks to a lot of hard work by homeschooling advocates, homeschooling IS legal now—in all 50 states. However there are regulations and restrictions that differ from state to state. You can read about Pennsylvania homeschooling laws at the Home School Legal Defense Association here.

~Eva, CLP-Allegheny

Is there anything good about February?

I don’t much care for the shortest month of the year. At least it is short and puts us 28 days closer to June when it is over.

Here are a few other reasons that February might be kind of okay.

The Winter Olympics in Vancouver start on February 12th. This year, the Canadian and Russian men’s ice hockey teams are sick. Crosby and Malkin, Fleury and Gonchar. Ovechkin! Brodeur! The competition for the gold this year is intense. And the Americans are looking pretty good. The best of the best from around the NHL and in the world will convene, and I, personally, cannot wait.

Also, there’s you know, the skating and skiing and stuff, too. Check it out: http://www.vancouver2010.com/

Most teens I know hate Valentine’s Day. But, I like chocolate and pink things. And crafts. It has nothing to do with romance. Unless you want it to, of course. http://www.craftster.org/blog/?p=329

 
 

Chinese New Year 2010 is also on February 14th. This will be the year of the Tiger: unpredictable, rebellious, colorful, powerful, passionate, daring, impulsive, vigorous, stimulating, sincere, affectionate, humanitarian, generous. Watch out, the Tiger can also be restless, reckless, impatient, quick-tempered, obstinate, selfish, and aggressive. Learn more at: http://www.infoplease.com/calendar/chinese-zodiac.html

I may have seen the movie one too many times, but I can’t help but love Groundhog Day. Even when the little critter sees his shadow and we get six more weeks of winter, that’s okay. I blame the guys in the top hats for scaring him.

Also, did you know in some parts of the country, groundhogs are known as “whistle pigs”? http://www.infoplease.com/spot/groundhogday1.html

The last good thing about February that I can think of is a nice, warm, cozy spot and a good book. You need a miserable time of year to really appreciate many warm and cozy things.  I recommend visiting your local library and making the effort to find the very most warm and cozy spot. Ask a librarian to suggest a good read. If you are allowed, enjoy some hot chocolate with your book.

Connie – CLP Main

Teen FAP Review: Double Identity

**The review below was written by Lynn as part of the Teen Fine Alternative Program.  If you’re interested in working off fines owed on CLP materials and are between the ages of 12-18, please contact your local CLP location.**

Double Identity by Margaret Peterson Haddix

1. Name two characters (or if a magazine, two people you read about) and give brief personality descriptions.

Bethany: Observent, reseacher, presise, smart

Joss: Hot head, smart

2. Write a sentence or two about what happened in the plot:

Bethany’s parents are acting strange and then one day she is dropped off at an unknown Aunt’s house and left there. When she finds out about a sister she has never heard about and people start look at her and think she is a ghost, she wants answers and is determent to find them.

3. Write two sentences about what it was that you enjoyed about this work (or about what you didn’t enjoy):

I like the mystery and the suspence. The twisted ending is very exciting and creepy.

J.D. Salinger

“Life is a gift horse in my opinion.” – From 9 Stories, “Teddy” (1953)

Jerome David Salinger, perhaps the world’s most popular cult author, literary recluse, and American genius died today, apparently of old age. (He was 91 years old, so that stands to reason.)

The author gained lasting and unwelcome fame when his story of put-upon teenage misanthrope Holden Caulfield, The Catcher in the Rye, was published in 1951. (The New York Times calls Holden “America’s best-known literary truant since Huckleberry Finn.”)

Salinger found his most vociferous audience among those teenagers and young(er) adults who saw in his characters kindred spirits, a literary cadre of friends as world-weary as any young person has a right to be.

In the decade after Catcher in the Rye’s publication, Salinger released three more books (the short-story collection 9 Stories as well as compilations Franny & Zooey and Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour - an Introduction all featuring his Glass family characters) before withdrawing from society to an estate in New Hampshire where he lived out the rest of his life in near solitude. From that point on, the writing continued but the publishing stopped. “I like to write. I love to write.” Salinger said, “But I write just for myself and my own pleasure.”

Now is a great time to revisit Salinger, or pick up one of his books for the first time. If you enjoy authors like John Green, Ned Vizzini, and Per Nilsson or titles such as The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You, and King Dork, chances are you’ll love J.D. Salinger.

Here’s one of my favorite Salinger quotes (leave yours in the comments section as a tribute!):

“The worst thing that being an artist could do to you would be that it would make you slightly unhappy constantly.”

- Corey – Main