The most AMAZING Minecraft castles

Hi readers! Today, I'll be telling you about wonderful Minecraft castles.

Okay, just so you know: Minecraft is a game where you can build basically anything you want, from complex redstone circuits to huge mansions to automated farms with blocks that are about the size of 1 cubic meter. It takes time--lots of time--to build a truly excellent Minecraft structure, and also lots of dedication to the awesome game. Oh, you can get an account here, and click on this link  to go to the Minecraft Wiki and get more information on what the heck I'm talking about.

Anyway, this was about amazing Minecraft castles, right? Here are some pictures. 

Probably Mario-themed, due to the star.

Does this scream "Super realistic Ancient Egypt" or what?

Maybe not a castle--it looks like the White House--but still AWESOME!

Love the dragon!

Dark and creepy...looks like a castle where the boss lives in a Wii game.

Last but DEFINITELY not least. Looks extremely realistic and
Lord-of-the-Rings-ish!

Images from this link. Hope you enjoyed! --Taryn
P.S. Just so you know, I didn't build any of these great castles.

Japanese Kit-Kats

Hi readers! Did you know that Kit-Kat sounds similar to a Japanese expression, Kitto Katsu? It literally translates to "surely win", or "best of luck". This prompted the Kit-Kat-producing company to start making...unusual...flavors of the candy in Japan. A few examples are:

Grilled Sweet Potato

Red Bean

Midnight Eagle (I can't predict what this will taste like)

Cherry Blossom

Soybean Powder

French Rock Salt

Maybe...sports drink?

I want to try every single one of these! Although, by the time I get back from Japan, I'll probably have a MASSIVE cavity. Ah well...

P.S. Images from tsunagu Japan and Tokyo Weekender.

Horseback riding and the Blue Lagoon

Hi readers! This is my third Iceland post. Hope you enjoy it!

Mommy, Daddy, Kathy and I woke up at 8:00 a.m. to go on a horseback riding tour of Iceland's lava fields and hot springs on Icelandic horses! (Despite their smaller size, you're not supposed to call them "ponies". I don't remember why.) 

It was really windy where we were riding. Kathy and I were so cold, we had to wear these snowsuit-like things, except they were huge on us since they were adult size!

The proportions of the suits made us look
like little kids.

When we were all ready, we walked outside to meet our ponies horses. Mine was a beautiful white one called Haegri, meaning right, although at first my family and I thought it meant "hungry" because he always wanted to eat! 

Mommy's horse was named Loftið, which means "the air". Extremely fitting, because he farted tooted passed gas A LOT. I don't remember the names of Kathy's and Daddy's horses.

Daddy with his horse

The cool markings on Mommy's horse

A lady who worked at the stable showed me how to put my foot in the stirrup and push up on that leg so I could sit in the saddle. The first time I did it, I almost couldn't because my foot kept slipping, and I almost fell off!

Mommy and Daddy couldn't get any pictures when we were actually riding the horses (you have to keep your hands on the reins at all times, plus, what if you dropped it?), but here's one from after the ride.

Back at the stables after touring the lava fields

My family and I drove back to the apartment. After relaxing for an hour or so, we headed to the Blue Lagoon!

The lagoon is so cool--well, actually, it's really warm. But it's naturally blue (Daddy said they put in a lot of food coloring, but since he's joking 75% of the time, no one believed him), and it was just plain fun. Think about it: you're lying in this one-hundred-and four-degree-Farenheit pool with a great view of a mountain, sipping a cold drink, floating on your back looking up at the beautiful blue sky.

There was a bit of a walk.

Me, Daddy, and Kathy

Does this mean something in Icelandic?

Ah, Iceland, ég elska þig. (I love you.)

The food tour

Hi readers! Here's another Iceland post, just for you.

After the plane landed, my family and I stopped at a little airport cafe. Daddy got blueberry Skir, I chose vanilla Skir, Mommy drank a cup of coffee, and Kathy decided on Koko Mjolk (Icelandic for chocolate milk). She was nice enough to let me and Mommy try some, and we both loved it--the chocolate tasted darker than the chocolate used in American chocolate milk.

The Koko Mjolk box

When we were done, Mommy and Daddy took me and Kathy to find the place where we could pick up the rental car. But they didn't bother asking a person at the airport. They just wandered around, looking for a building with the name of the company on it, and dragged me and Kathy on a half-mile (one-way) walk on that cold morning. We ended up at the place to RETURN the car!But the walk wasn't bad--I warmed up eventually, and there was a patch of grass to walk on that was really spongy/bouncy/springy underfoot. That grass was so cool!

Once we finally found where to pick up the rental car, we drove thirty minutes to Reykjavik. We got checked in to the apartment we were staying in, and the first thing I did was take off my shoes and coat. The second thing I did was march up the stairs to the loft bedroom and take a nap! 

Here are some pictures:

If you read my previous post, I'm sure you know I used Labelbox on this.

Sorry about the two photobombers.

When I woke up, it was time to go on a food tour! Our guide was very nice. He told lots of stories. For example, up until about thirty years ago, Icelandic cuisine was less about, well, cuisine, and more about survival. If survival meant eating fermented shark, then that was cuisine. If survival meant eating fish that was dried in the wind, then that was cuisine!

Mommy and I did eat the fermented shark, but couldn't swallow it. Also, we made the mistake of smelling it before popping it in our mouths. It smelled like ammonia! Daddy tried it too, but he couldn't swallow either, and Kathy just licked it.

Oh, need proof the shark was in my mouth?

Not the most flattering photo, I know.

At the same restaurant, everyone tried the wind-dried fish. That was actually really good! It was pretty dry, but extremely flavorful and even more yummy with butter.

Plate of dried fish, fermented shark (the shark has the Icelandic
flag in it), and delicious Icelandic butter.

We also ate/drank:

• Seaweed and a crunchy, buttery biscuit (I forget what it was called). The seaweed wasn't like the stuff you buy at the grocery store, neatly sliced and put into packs. This seaweed is minced into little pieces, and I don't think it was as translucent as grocery store seaweed.

  

  Seaweed and biscuit

• Lobster bisque. It was a creamy broth that tasted way too strongly of...something. Not lobster.
• At a pub, everyone sipped a little of this non-alcoholic malt drink. It smelled like prunes. I don't remember what it tasted like (probably prunes) but I didn't like that, either!
•  At a different pub, there was a beer tasting. Kathy and I didn't drink any beer though, Instead, we got Icelandic orange soda!

  

  Icelandic orange soda

  
  

  

  One of the beers that our group tried.

• Cured horse, goose with a pink sauce, and some kind of pate thing from a deli. The horse was my favorite--it was so tender and the seasoning on it was really truly delicious. 
• Rye bread ice cream. It was vanilla ice cream with rye bread crumbs in it--so much better than it probably sounds. It was also served with fresh whipped cream and a drizzle of caramel.

That's it for this post. Bye, readers! --Taryn

Iceland!

Hi readers! I just got back from Iceland a couple days ago. It was really fun, especially the horseback-riding, but I'll tell you about that later. Right now, I'm only going to write about the flight there.

We had a friend drive us to the airport at least three hours before the plane took off, but customs and everything ran very smoothly, so that meant a LOT of waiting. Luckily, our flight was on time.

When we finally boarded the plane, there was still a bit of waiting, so I took a few pics. Here they are!

I'm experimenting with Labelbox. It's very fun.
I could have put a mustache on this picture if I'd wanted! 

Labelbox again

I sure hope I don't need to tell you how I put the writing on this!

No Labelbox on this one, but I love when the plane is
cruising above the clouds.

That's pretty much it. Bye! --Taryn

My favorite Let It Go videos

Hi readers! If you watched Frozen, than I'm sure you've heard "Let It Go" at least once. If you haven't watched Frozen, you're missing out (although you might have heard "Let It Go" anyway).

Anyway, I found several cool version of the song. Here they are!

• 25 languages
• Thai
• Japanese
• Bulgarian 
• Ukrainian
• Danish
• French
• Icelandic
• Chinese Mandarin
• Arabic
• Vietnamese
• Serbian
• Greek
• Latvian
• Slovak

That's all for now, but I hope you watch the videos! --Taryn

Puffin fun facts

Hi readers! Today's post is all about puffins.

There are three breeds of puffins: the Atlantic puffin (also called the common puffin), the tufted puffin, and the horned puffin. The Atlantic puffin is the only puffin native to--guess where--the Atlantic Ocean. The other two are found in the northeast pacific. 

Three Atlantic puffins. Image from Wikipedia

A tufted puffin. Image from Wikipedia again

Anyway, that's one puffin fun fact. Here are a few more! (Please note, these are Atlantic puffin facts. No site appeared to have facts about horned/tufted puffins.)

• Baby puffins are called pufflings (awwwwwww!).
• An adult puffin is about ten inches tall (twenty-five centimeters) and weighs seventeen-point-five ounces, or four-hundred-and-ninety-six grams.
• In 1901, only one pair of puffins remained on Matinicus Rock as a result of overhunting; today, there are over five hundred.
• In the wild, Atlantic puffins live to be twenty to twenty-five years old.

A horned puffin. Guess where the image is from? Wikipedia!

• Male and female puffins are nearly identical.
• Puffins start to pair up at about five years old, and bond by "billing" (rubbing their beaks together). They often stay together for life and return to the same burrow year after year.

All facts from Puffling Patrol, by Ted and Betsy Lewin. Except for the Matinicus rock one. That was from a video about how you could help save the puffins. (It included some info about the cute birds.) 

Also, check out this webpage for some hilarious puffin stuff!--Taryn

P.S. May the 4th be with you! =)

Pam's HarvestCraft Mod review

Hi readers! Have you heard of Pam's HarvestCraft? 

It's a mod for Minecraft that is compatible with 1.6.4 (the second most recent version of Minecraft). If you're a total foodie, like me, this is an awesome mod for you, because it adds tons of new foods, utility items, crafting/smelting recipes, saplings, and crops. Like these:

• Pina coladas
• Smoothies and juice
• Olive trees
• Mortar and pestle
• Broccoli
• Raisins
• Sunflower wheat rolls
• Donuts
• And so much more!

Readers, Pam's HarvestCraft is a mod that all others should be compared to. It hasn't made Minecraft crash yet, you get A ZILLION NEW FOODS (wait a minute, I said that), and, oh yeah, it totally rocks!

There's even an entire wiki on it. Click here. 

You know, I feel like I'm forgetting something. Ah-ha! Download the mod here.

Enjoy PHC!--Taryn

Awesome cornstarch-shaving-cream paste

Hi readers! Today's post is all about how to make your own squishy paste. It's really fun to play with and so easy to make. You need: 

• Equal parts cornstarch and shaving cream (you can also mess around with it to see what proportion works best)
• Food coloring of your choice (I used green)
• Wax paper
• A place to sit (preferably outdoors, because your play surface will get very, very dirty.)
• A parent who will let you do messy projects  

To start, go to where you're going to sit. Put a sheet of wax paper where you want to work. Place your cornstarch, shaving cream, and food coloring on the paper (best if you do it in that order). Then mix.

So? What do you think? Do you like it? Does it feel weird? Creamy-ish? Try throwing it. Try rolling it into a sphere. Try forming it into a cube shape. Roll it into a worm. Add glitter. Or baking soda. Or water. What's wrong with salt? Flour? Cornstarch? (Oh wait, you're already using that.) My point is, you can do tons of things with this stuff. Make it. Make it. MAKE IT!!!!!!!!

Here are some pics of the paste:

Cubes that Mommy made

Kathy rolling hers pre-food coloring

What you need

Kathy again

Have fun with your paste!--Taryn

The book of the month

Hi readers! It's May 1st, and I thought I might experiment with a series of "book-of-the-month" posts. Anyway, your book is: 

"So Totally Emily Ebers", by Lisa Yee. 

I chose this book because I liked it and the beginning was easy to get into. Emily is a twelve-year-old girl who is reluctantly moving across the country with her mom, leaving behind her friends and everything she knew. Once she gets to her new house, though, she quickly befriends Millicent Min and Millicent's tutor, Stanford Wong. Emily thinks her new life is almost perfect...until she uncovers a secret that could change her friendship with Millicent forever.

304 pages. Hardcover. Probably available at your local library.  

Image from Goodreads.

I hope you like this book, because I really did! Post your thoughts in the comment box. --Taryn

P.S. The next book-of-the-month will be revealed June 1st, 2014.

P.P.S. So Totally Emily Ebers is the third installment in a series about Millicent, Emily, and Stanford. (Don't worry, there aren't any spoilers. It isn't a series where if you read the last book first, you won't know what's going on.)