Youth Are Awesome, commonly referred to as YAA, is a blog written by youth for youth.
YAA provides the youth of Calgary a place to amplify their voices and perspectives on what is happening around them.
Youth Are Awesome is a program of Youth Central.
Any views or opinions expressed on this blog belong solely to the author and do not represent those of people or organizations that the blog may be associated with, unless explicitly stated. All content is for informational purposes only.
Finding yourself bored during your teenage years? Or have some downtime planned over the winter or summer holidays? How about using that time to renew your source of money; something which could potentially last for the entire upcoming year! This blog goes over five ways which could get you earning money instantly.
1) Swag bucks– Looking for a search bar which pays you to used a search engine? Swagbucks is a convenient and a user-friendly option featuring daily surveys and other reward sources. There are gift cards from every price range and SwagPointa… so when you do get tired.. you can cash them at any point during your stay 🙂
2) Etsy– The smart and easy way to get rid of some of your household articles or perhaps initiate a new contract-based job. Selling the most random stuff from laptop bags to posters, this website serves as a one-stop shop for all the needs of an online consumer!
3) Surveys- With the long list of survey sites including Canada Talk Now, Opinion Outpost and Cash Create. this would keep you busy year round with your spare time and allow for some extra flow of cash!
4) Breeziee – An innovative idea now lets you convert all your documents into hard cash simply by registering. Simply fill out a “60-seconds form” and let that cash find you!
5) Become a Topic Guide for About.com – Anyone can apply for an online-based position and the applicants will be selected based on their ability to edit the website content. How are Topic Guides selected? How much experience do I need to be a Topic Guide? How does payment work? How much will I be paid? All these questions can be answered by simply clicking here.
As many of you know, the United States is having their presidential election this November. Here’s a video of a lesser-known candidate who seems to be extremely fond of oral hygiene and ponies.
A larger-than-life book adaptation of a beloved classic, Moby Dick, was recreated for the first time in Canada. Calgary Opera shines in this nautical tale, combining a humongous whale of a tale with an impressive nautical set, amazing actors and of course, awe-inspiring special effects.
Moby Dick is a classic of Captain Ahab, an imposing and stubborn character in a rough sailor overcoat and an English hat, and his crew on the ship Pequod. An arrogant and foolhardy captain, he strives to search the seven seas for the elusive and dangerous snow white whale, Moby Dick, and spear her for having taken away his leg. Young heroes are aboard this doomed whaling ship, young Greenhorn, Queequeg, and Starbuck, out hoping to make a fortune on oil. Calgary Opera can be compared to the journey for Moby Dick: the challenge to fully realizing, recreating and producing such a classic tale on a large scale could only be initially attempted by an opera company that was most brave and dedicated. In this case, Calgary Opera was able to spear the whale and congratulate itself on a rousing success.
Courtesy of Calgary Opera
The set of Moby Dick is awe inspiring and breath taking, as the set evolved nautical constantly adapted in the play, from the realistic set of heavy and rusted hooks and lines, sea weary ropes and humongous billowing sails to a backdrop with inserted pegs and brilliant lighting effects to displays diagrams of boats and harpoons. This set truly was magnificent and unbelievably imaginative.
Impressively, the backdrop animates with light, swinging vines rushing towards the audience to create the outline and diagram of a ship. Barreling inside the story, a hearty and happy-go-lucky crew, in billowing dress shirts, seasoned and dusty jackets and musty leather sing in unison to whales, wealth and home when Captain Ahab suddenly proposes a rather foolhardy and ambitious mission to search til the ends of the Earth for Moby Dick, and nails a gold doubloon onto the mask of the ship as a reward to the first man who sights the whale. Captain Ahab is certainly a blind avenger, with his authority overtly challenged by his first mate, Starbuck. Despite an air of authority and menace exerted from Captain Ahab, added by the ominous reminder of Captain Ahab’s careless savagery in his peg leg, Starbuck possesses the most sense in the rag tag crew and won’t back down from the intimidation. With the whole crew aroused and roaring to hunt for Moby Dick except Starbuck, a mighty adventure of sorrow, pride and revenge is sure to ensue.
As the story speeds along, Queequeg, a wonderful and dynamic character of an exotic, brave and powerful nature, becomes a prominent figure in the tale, and is accepted as one of the lead harpooners by Captain Ahab. Captain’s Ahab’s madness spirals deeper and deeper, the crew’s madness almost translating into mutiny, as days turns into weeks and weeks into months for the hunt of Moby Dick.
Most memorably, the scene of Starbuck’s confrontation with Captain Ahab in Ahab’s study below the deck, the tangible tension and the aggressive human reason against blind raging animal instinct between Captain Ahab and Starbuck. You begin to realize the fragility of the human condition- the tale reaches a horrific standpoint where Captain Ahab is willing to sacrifice Starbuck’s blood for his thirst for vengeance. The actors convey this scene quite magnificently.
Overall, the production of Moby Dick was an astronomical and enlightening experience, that combines modern technology and wonderful and detailed sets to realize the Canadian premier of a classic. It was an amazing and heart stopping performance, simply original and dazzled the crowd to no ends. Thanks goes to the Calgary Opera for providing this incredible opportunityto see this grand opera!
Have you ever wondered what life might be like without books, magazines, the Internet, or any other information resources? It might be a crisis for us to finish our homework without Wikipedia (oh, the horror of SOPA!), but in many parts of the world, there is immense censorship, from books to the internet. Even here in Canada, censorship takes place through the banning of certain books and magazines at the border. Throughout the world people fight for rights and freedoms, and one of the ways that Canadians can do so is by reaffirming their rights to intellectual freedom and the rights for other people around the world.
Freedom to Read Week, running Feb 26 to March 3, is an annual event that recognizes the importance of people’s rights to read, and allows Canadians to get involved in the promotion of these rights. This year, the Calgary Public Library is getting involved through their annual contest, Who chooses what you read? The point is to express your thoughts on the freedom to read through one of the following mediums:
Poster
Poem, short story or essay
Film
The Calgary Public Library’s contest is a great way to get involved in something that matters and help make a difference in the world, so I would highly encourage you to participate! The contest is open to Calgary students in Grades 7-9, and entries must be received by Feb 15, so get a move on! For more details on the contest, visit the Calgary Public Library’s website.
If you’re not in Grades 7-9, don’t fret, because there are still plenty of ways for you be involved in Freedom to Read Week! For more information on this Canada-wide event and on ways that you can help, visit FreedomtoRead.ca.
The Mortal Instruments is a series that has been recommended to me multiple times in the past. I’ve always been reluctant to read it, based on the assumption that it’s too girly, and
perhaps I’m right. But when I finally got around to reading it, I concluded that girly or not, a good book is a good book.
But I can’t just simply start reviewing the books of this series because there’s so much background story that nothing would make sense without and introduction…
Basically this series takes place in the modern world, but humans (unknowingly) coexist with creatures of western mythology (vampires, werewolves, faeries, and warlocks, and more) who are said to be humans infected with demonic viruses and referred to as downworlders. There are also demons, sinister creatures from different dimensions attempting to enter our world for the sole purpose of killing and destroying. The average person is unable to see such creature due to something called “glamour” which masks things of magical origin.There is also a group know as the “nephilim,” a well-organized race of warrior humans who are capable of seeing through glamour and using magical items. They live in secrecy from the rest of the human population and dedicate their entire existence to hunting down demons. They use enchanted weapons and enhance themselves with runes in order to become incredibly effective at completing their tasks.
The series reminded me of Percy Jackson and the Olympians but it attempts at a realistic interpretation of western mythology in order to appeal to a more mature audience. In comparison The Mortal Instruments deals with a lot darker themes and rarely attempts sensor the gruesomeness.
Generally speaking, books of this series are well-written, fast-paced and emphasize character development, but at times suffer from a simplistic or predictable plot.
Stay tuned to this page for in-depth reviews of The Mortal Instruments series.
After months of hard work; whether it was contacting people, filming in multitudes of locations, editing and tediously putting clips together; our committee is proud to present to you:
The Youth Week Calgary 2012 Video
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Remember when we told you that this time around, it was going to be absolutely legendary? Yeah, we weren’t kidding. You’ll see many different Calgarians who are are excited for Youth Week. I challenge you to name them all, without looking in the description of course! A big thanks to everyone who was a part of making this video become what it is now, it honestly (and obviously) wouldn’t have been the same without them! Be on the lookout for more personal videos with everyone speaking about their thoughts on Youth Week. They are coming soon, I promise. We plan to release one per week featuring each local celebrity.
As for now, get hyped, share it to everyone you know and most importantly, enjoy!
I love clothing that is influenced with trends from the past and the present. Old-fashioned styles can be extremely trendy when built in to a modern day wardrobe! There are a lot of indie labels/boutiques that carry really cute, old-fashioned clothing.
It is often easy to predict what the youth are up to by simply analyzing some of the pop culture trends or even the social networking trends. Listed are some of the top tweets of the year 2011. A company called What The Trend analyzed thousands of tweets and narrowed down to top 10 most popular ones. It’s quite amusing how all of these narrow down to either music or celebrity gossips. But again, it’s Twitter!
Okay, I’m betting you have all heard of the ever-so-popular My Little Ponies franchise, right? Well, the new series, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, is an awesome, awesome cartoon series created by Lauren Faust, the brilliant mastermind behind The Powerpuff Girls and Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends. Now, typically the MLP franchise is a joke to everyone; but there are millions of ‘bronies’, people who enjoy the franchise outside of the targeted demographic (little girls).
So what am I talking about? Well, since this term is pretty common for the average internet user, what better way to add to the Humble Bundle! As one of the top donators for the fourth Humble Bundle, their website describes it as “A way for bronies to come together and create a fund to buy one big copy of the Humble Indie Bundle. By pooling our resources we can support charities, indie gaming, and show how generous bronies are!”
Maybe that’s how they ended up contributing over $16,000!
Anyway, help these guys and promote their awesome website!
Who’s got powerful vocals, musical talent, volunteerism and good looks? Megan Nicole! She’s a 17- year- old uprising singer and songwriter who started posting covers of various songs on YouTube starting last year. When she sang “Somewhere over the Rainbow” during a talent show in grade four, she discovered her love for music. She even has an original song named “B-e-a-utiful” (listen here). Aside from her stunning voice, she also plays the piano and guitar. Megan Nicole has made numerous appearances on TV, guest starred on live shows and updating her YouTube account by uploading her latest covers. But despite her busy schedule, she still manages to find time to volunteer and write back to her fans. Even though she is rising to fame, she still maintains a down-to-earth personality.
Megan Nicole is now recording her own music in LA with Tom Mcridichian and Chris Cox who also worked with Adam Sandler, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Hilary Duff. Check out her YouTube account here.
Below is her latest cover (in collaboration with Jason Chen)- “It Girl” by Jason Derulo
2) Etsy– The smart and easy way to get rid of some of your household articles or perhaps initiate a new contract-based job. Selling the most random stuff from laptop bags to posters, this website serves as a one-stop shop for all the needs of an online consumer!
