Mark your calendars because FANDOMiCON is HERE (soon)

By Jessica
Teen Advisory Group member

Hiya peeps! It seems like I’m the Hermes of TAG, relaying messages from the group to the outside world, just minus the awesome flying shoes and the lovely mentalities of Greek gods… and the fact that I’m neither a male nor a someone kind of deity.

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Regardless, I’m here to tell you that we have another convention coming up very soon! Friday, February 16th, soon, in fact!

As always….

General Overview:

Who: you and your buddies
What: FANDOMiCON
When: Friday, February 16th, 2018 (4:30-9:00)
Where: Flower Mound Public Library
3030 Broadmoor Ln.
Flower Mound, TX 75022

If you didn’t notice, this convention is held partly after the library closes, which means the library needs a permission form from your parent or guardian signing that they are okay with you being in the public building after hours. The library is accepting forms up to the day of the convention, meaning that you can bring your paper as you walk into the convention the day of, and you’ll totally be okay. Of course, you can also turn in your form early if you want to. If you do not have a permission form, then you can ask for one at the youth desk at the library.

Now that the technical stuff is out of the way, on to the activities! Continue reading

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Let’s Review: Warcross by Marie Lu

By Jessica
Teen Advisory Group member

Wow, it’s been a hot minute since I’ve written a review! Maybe it’s because I haven’t had the time to read (yay for junior year).

However, I finally had the opportunity to crack open a book and read with little interruptions during winter break, and let me tell you: THAT ISH FEELS GOOD.

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Sorry, my inner book nerd is coming out.

Before I start gushing about this book, let’s marvel at its beautiful cover.

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Ok, I’ll stop drooling.

Warcross follows a bounty hunter and hacker named Emika Chen. The story is in the first person perspective, so you get insight of Emi’s thoughts and feelings. There is this elusive billionaire named Hideo Tanaka, who invented a pair of glasses and program that makes AR seamless, when he was 13 (he’s 21 at the start of the story). Basically, when you put on those pair of glasses, you can’t tell you’re in an artificial reality because it’s that good. The program/game, called Warcross, became part of everyday life. Since the game is so popular, they hold world championships, and Emi glitched into the first round. Rather than get arrested, Hideo calls her over to Tokyo to fix a security problem he’s been noticing. While investigating, Emika begins to realize that not everything is exactly what it seems.

I can’t say much about the story without spoiling something but it’s action-packed and will keep you at the edge of your seat (or wherever you normally read). Continue reading

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Probably the Weirdest Fandom I’ve Encountered (which is saying a lot) | Night Vale Random Fandom

By Jessica
Teen Advisory Group member

Hi howdy hello everyone! Long time no see. February is right around the corner (I can’t believe we’re already a month into 2018) which means another Random Fandom!

All you Night Vale fans rejoice! We are finally doing a Welcome to Night Vale Random Fandom!

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Now, like a lot of the fandoms we cover, I don’t know too much about it. I read a couple chapters of the book that the creators wrote, but that’s about all I know, so forgive me if I make any mistakes.

You know the drill!

Overview

Who: you and all your friends
What: Night Vale Random Fandom
When: Thursday, February 8 (4:00 – 5:30 pm)
Where: Flower Mound Public Library in the Program Room (near the restrooms)
3030 Broadmoor Ln.
Flower Mound, TX 75022

Just remember: You don’t have to be in the fandom to come to the Random Fandom events. We try and plan out activities that both people in and out of the fandom will enjoy and understand.

Speaking of activities, we planned a jam-packed hour and a half for those of you who decide to attend!

A couple ground rules before you enter:

1. Just know that pretend mountains don’t exist.
2. You must hail the Glow Cloud when its (?) name is mentioned

Not too hard, now is it?

(Author’s note: I don’t know what the Glow Cloud is and I’m not about to assume its gender so it will remain an “it” to me until someone explains to me what it is.)

Now on to the activities!

There is going to be a game online where you can try and survive being an intern. There will also be a round of Round Robin and Pin the Three Tails on the Cat. You can also expect to make your own Glow Cloud if you decide to attend. You will also have the opportunity to play a game called Shoot the Librarian.

(Author’s note: We will not be shooting the actual librarians who are running this program. It is a Mafia-type game.)

And what’s a Night Vale Random Fandom without having a couple episodes of the Night Vale podcast? A fellow TAG member is curating a playlist of his favorite episodes to play in the background.

There will also be a game called “Is this quote from Night Vale or social media?” where there will be a quote on the screen and you have to guess whether it’s from Night Vale or someone posted it on social media. Going on the theme of guessing, there will be a game of guess the NV character with vague clues where the person giving the description must give a generalized description of a character and the people on their team will try and guess who the character is. It’s almost like a combination of Taboo and Charades.

If guessing games are not your thing, then maybe a game of telephone and paranoia will be! We are also going to chant school fight songs in a circle because why the heck not? It doesn’t matter if you don’t know your school fight song (I don’t either) because there will be lyrics provided. There is going to be a scavenger hunt where you have to spot the angel hidden somewhere in the children/teen section of the library.

Are you interested in any of these activities? Then make sure to mark your calendars for the Night Vale Random Fandom and come visit us!

See you there!

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-Jessica, your friendly neighborhood bookworm

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Here comes your friendly neighborhood superhero! | Spider-Man Random Fandom

By Jessica
Teen Advisory Group member

Spider-Man: Homecoming was released earlier this year and nerds and geek alike fell in love with all the characters.

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I, personally, don’t have an opinion about the movie yet because I haven’t watched it (I know. Shame on me.). However, I have a major celebrity crush on Tom Holland. I mean, who doesn’t?

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In celebration of the movie (yes, we know it’s a little late), December’s Random Fandom will be Spider-Man themed! Because we know there are a lot of fans of the older Spider-Man movies, this RF is not limited to the recent movie.

As always…

A Quick Overview of the Program:

Who: you and your buddies
What: Spider-Man Random Fandom
When: Thursday, December 14 (4:00-5:30)
Where: Flower Mound Public Library in the Program Room (near the restrooms)
3030 Broadmoor Ln.
Flower Mound, TX 75022

Activities:

To start off, there will be a trivia in related to Spider-Man. From what I heard, it might be a Kahoot, so be prepared to jam out to the bomb Kahoot soundtrack!

There will also be a silly string target practice outside where players have cans of silly string to spray at villains. The silly string will act like Spider-Man’s webs that shoot out of his wrists. Whoever successfully defeats all the villains in the shortest amount of time wins. Just remember, do not spray your fellow players with the silly string!

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In honor of the viral .gif of Spider-Man dancing (pictured above) that supposedly can go with any music, there will be a dance. It might be a dance battle. It might be just a dancing fest. Who knows? You’ll have to attend to find out!

Just like in the beginning of the movie, there will be a task to steal Captain America’s shield! On top of that, there will be a mini scavenger hunt in search for Stan Lee, who made a cameo in the recent movie.

And because we’re a bunch of nerds, we are also going to play Superfight. I’m going to try and TL;DR the rules of the game:

Basically, there are a stack of white cards and a stack of black cards. The white cards have characters on them (ex. ninja) while the black cards have powers on them (ex. ability to freeze things). When it’s their turn, the player picks up three white and three black cards. They have to choose one white and one black one, set them face down, and return the remaining unused cards into the deck. The next player does the same. Then both players turns over the chosen white card (to reveal their character) and then have to choose a black card from the deck at random to add to their skill. Then they reveal everything to the table (the rest of the players waiting their turn) and have to plead their case as to who would win in an one-on-one battle. Whoever the table chooses wins the round. If you want to official rules of the game (because I know I’m terrible at explaining things), click here to go to the official rules page. All you need to know is that the game is tons of fun.

In addition to all the fun games, there will be web serum punch served (don’t worry, you don’t have to be bitten by a radioactive spider to enjoy it) and maybe get to watch the Honest Trailer for Spider-Man: Homecoming.

It doesn’t matter than you’ve never watched a Spider-Man movie in your whole entire life (like myself). You can still attend Random Fandom! It’s just a program to spend time with like-minded people and have fun. Don’t forget to mark December 14th on your calendar and hope to see you there!

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– Jessica, your friendly neighborhood nerd

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Let’s Review: Wires and Nerve

By Ashley
Teen Advisory Group member

IMG_1293Hi! My name is Ashley, and I’m new to TAG so I thought that I’d take a few minutes to introduce myself. One thing that you need to know about me is that I love to read. I always have my nose in a book! Besides reading, I also like mythical creatures, dogs and cats, and a podcast called Welcome to Night Vale.

Anyway, everybody knows The Lunar Chronicles by Marisa Meyer, right? Well, she wrote a graphic novel called Wires and Nerve following Cinder’s (Selene’s) “sidekick,” Iko. Since most of the hybrid-wolf packs got away, Iko takes it upon herself to track them down and capture them. This is especially important that Iko does this because of the fact that she is an android, so she can’t get hurt.

However, if you didn’t like Iko as a character, you’re probably not going to like this book. After all, this book is a whole lot of Iko. She is a very feminine character. She likes clothes, shoes and net dramas, (though most of this is only mentioned and not shown). She also spends a LOT of her time daydreaming about boys.

Yet, Iko is left questioning her own humanity, misreading romantic tension with a royal guard calling her beautiful (or so she thinks), and having the pressure of finding all the hybrid wolves.

While I’m on the subject of Marissa Meyer, be sure to read her new book Renegades! Happy reading!

 

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Let’s Discuss: Is The Library Important?

By Nim
Teen Advisory Group President

(Spoiler Alert: Yes it is.)

Nim again and this time, I’m not in a good mood.

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The best way to explain it is with a good old storytime. So gather around boys and girls, Nim’s about to rant!

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Reel Talk: Dead Poets Society

It’s been a hot minute since I posted anything (that “hot minute” being two years), and I have a new favorite movie (can you guess what it is?)!

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That’s right my dudes, I’m talking about the 1989 cult film, Dead Poets Society.

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Calling All Superheroes! | Justice League Random Fandom

By Jessica
Teen Advisory Group member


DC is releasing another superhero movie soon! It’s called Justice League, and it’s coming out on Friday, November 17. According to a fellow nerd, although almost all of the DC Comics superheroes have been part of the Justice League at one point or another, this movie focuses on five of them: Batman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg.

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*distant fangirl and fanboy screams*

For those of you who don’t know, Random Fandom is an hour and a half (1 hour, 30 minutes) long monthly program at the Flower Mound Public Library where fangirls and fanboys alike get together and do fandom-related activities in spirit of that fandom. This month’s fandom revolves around the Justice League movie (obviously).

A quick overview of the program:

Who: you and your friends!
What: Justice League Random Fandom
When: Thursday, November 9 (4:00-5:30)
Where: Flower Mound Public Library in the Program Room (near the restrooms)
3030 Broadmoor Ln.
Flower Mound, TX 75022 Continue reading

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Let’s Review: Twilight Breaking Dawn

By Anne
Teen Advisory Group member




I spent all of Thanksgiving break las year on this book. I bought a hardback copy of it at the Flower Mound Book Sale (the next on is on October 20-22— come check it out!) for the very affordable price of one dollar.
And I have to admit. I really tore through this book.
And yes, a year later is a terrible time to do a book review. I know.
Good thing this isn’t actually a book review.

But I wasn’t lying when I said I tore through the book, because I did.

Now why would I do this to a perfectly good copy of Twilight?

Well, for one thing, I needed a thick book, and I was not about to do it to a book I did not read or to Harry Potter (yes, I play favorites).
For another, there are plenty of copies around. My destroying of this book does not put the book population of Breaking Dawn at risk.
Finally, I’m a chess player. The cover is ascetically pleasing to me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
(Also I did this one instead of the first one so people wouldn’t see the it on my bookcase and go “Oh, can I borrow thi— OH MY GOSH IT’S HOLLOW.”)

But it was really fun to make! I’ve always wanted a hollow book, and now it is even more special to me because I made it instead of just buying it somewhere.
I reused some of the paper in a school project for entrepreneurship.


And what I didn’t use for this, I recycled, don’t worry.

Oh! And see this quote?

I was actually going to use a different one (both quotes came from the book), but even though the other one was in the center of the page and this one wasn’t (although you can’t tell now), I cut the pages so unevenly that the relative center moved (you can see how uneven my wall is). I was lucky enough to see that this one fix was better.
Basically I use my book to hold candy, but if you want to make your own, I recommend Heather River’s blog on the subject. That’s the one I use. The Art of Manliness Has a pretty good one too, especially if you are trying to figure out the “why”s choosing to make a hollow book.

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Let’s Review: A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas

By Jessica
Teen Advisory Group member


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I’m going to start off this review by saying that I’m a big fan on Sarah J. Maas. Scratch that. I’m a HUGE fan of Sarah J. Maas to the point it’s kind of scary. If there was one thing (other than Harry Potter and Sherlock) that I obsess over, it’s definitely Maas’s books. That being said, I don’t mean any ill-will towards the third book of the A Court of Thorns and Roses series (the beautiful, drool-worthy cover shown above), but it wasn’t my favorite.

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