Summer is almost over =( =[ ={

So, it's July 31st. In one month, it will be August 31st. A few days after that, kids will go back to school. Summer will be officially OVER, and that will be sad.

On the other hand, I love autumn. Pumpkins! Colorful leaves! Trick-or-treating! Stuffing and turkey and cranberry sauce! The knowledge that Christmas is right around the corner!

But right now, I'll focus on the things coming up in the month of August. For starters:

• Kathy will turn nine 
• I will go to cooking camp and jewelry camp
• My family will take the two-day drive to Minnesota, where Mommy will undoubtedly make Kathy, Daddy, and I pose in front of a giant jar of peanut butter or something. We will also go to the Minnesota state fair where they have crazy (fried) foods, maybe on sticks.

Then summer will be over. 

Huh. It feels longer now. =) 

--Taryn

P.S. What's your favorite summer activity? Tell me in the comment box.

Super-cool Minecraft blocks/mobs/potions

Hi readers! I am so, so sorry I haven't been writing lately. I've been to science camp, and...well you probably won't want to hear my excuses.

Anyway, I'm going to provide your with a few cool things to give yourself in Minecraft. If you don't know anything about Minecraft, head to the wiki, found here.

Note: if I write <your username>, put in your username. 

So, without further ado, here are the mobs you can summon-able stuff. Make sure to type each command exactly as written, but keep the above note in mind!

The command to summon a Wither Skeleton Jockey is:
/summon Skeleton ~ ~ ~ {SkeletonType: 1, Riding: {id: Spider}}
The skeleton won't have a bow, sadly; I'm working out how to do that.

To summon a green-robed villager, the command is:
/summon Villager ~ ~ ~ {Profession: 5}
This won't work in 1.8, because of the green villager's removal.

For a "flying pig", you should type:
/summon Pig ~ ~ ~ {Riding: {id: Bat}}

Summoning a zombie horse can be done with this command:
/summon EntityHorse ~ ~ ~ {Type:3, Tame:1}
If you want a skeleton horse, just use the above command, but with a 4 in place of the 3.

Give yourself one of these blocks by typing:
/give <your username> 43 1 9

And for a Stinky potion, type:
/give  <your username> 373 1 63

This potion won't have any effect, but it's fun to show off to your friends. If you want another effect-less but fun potion, like a Sparkling potion maybe, head to this link.

Have fun with the mobs, blocks, and potions! --Taryn


P.S. If you actually wanted to obtain some of these things before reading this post, I hope I helped. Also, if there's another awesome thing that you know how to summon, please tell me in the comment box!

Mo' Creatures mod review

Hi readers! There's a Minecraft mod called Mo' Creatures--have you heard of it before? It was created by Dr. Zhark...and it totally rocks!

The mod adds a bunch of new animals to the game, like ostriches, bunnies (although those are coming to default Minecraft in a future update pretty soon), crabs, pandas...the list goes on and on, and you can TAME most of these mobs! (Regular Minecraft only has sheep, cows, chickens, pigs, and horses, and Mooshrooms. There might be some other animals, but I forgot them. For a full list of all the creatures in Minecraft, click here. Most of them can't be tamed.)

Anyway. The mod review. Well, if you read the intro to this post, you'll already know why I think it's awesome. But I left out one part: fairy horses.

Fairy horses are horses that have been dyed a certain color. They also have wings, and when you ride them, they'll fly if you hit the space bar on your keyboard. You might think they're just colorful pegasi, but...

Can you see their wings? Those are NOT pegasi wings.

Here's me, riding my favorite horse, Nightstorm.

And here's my sweet bunny Marshmallow.

Did I mention that some of the mobs will ride on your head? =)

And here's...you know what, I'll just start putting up the photos.

My sea-life pond, inhabited my a stingray, five dolphins,
a few jelly fish,  a piranha(tamed), and a heck of a lot of
fish!

Lorraine the turkey and Bao Bao the panda

Dill the orange crab

Dustin the blue crab

My turtle pen.

 All right, readers, back up again. Naming your turtles after the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, Michaelangelo) will give them colorful headbands and make them look like, well, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

Donatello on my head (yup, turtles do that too)

My ostriches (I changed their appearance by feeding them
essences of light, darkness, undead, or fire). 

My goats

My fox

Melon the cardinal

Brittany the cobra, on my shoulder, and Karl the green snake
photobombing.

Make sure to download the mod here, and go here if you want to easily obtain a fairy horse. --Taryn

P.S. The wiki can be found at this link.

Follow-up to B.O.B

Hi readers, yesterday Daddy helped me put one of my many programs onto my blog. The program is called B.O.B. To move him around, click inside the black box and use the up, down, left or right arrow keys to control him. If you don't click inside the box, he won't move.

Have fun with B.O.B! --Taryn 
P.S. In case you don't know, B.O.B is a character from the movie Monsters vs. Aliens. 
P.P.S Happy 4th of July!

B.O.B

Adorable animals

Hi readers! On my Pinterest account, I have a board for cute animal pics. The photos are so incredibly sweet, and I thought I might share a few with you. 

I LOVE pandas.

Di, thought you might like this one. Also...awwwwww!

Robo dwarf hamsters. So many robo dwarf hamsters....

Taryn, your mom isn't
going to let you adopt
this bunny. Look away
NOW.

It's smiling at me! =)

No caption necessary.

Little baby penguin with its eyes closed. Squeeeee!

They're watching you. Beware the cuteness!

Again, no caption needed.

I'm having a bad day. PUT ME DOWN, HUMAN.

Please don't take my picture for the entire
Internet to see.

The sweetness rendered me speechless.

If I had this adorable thing, I'd name it Creme Brulee.

The eyes are so big..................

For you again, Di! And its ears...so sweet.

Dancing, yeah...dancing, yeah...

And last but most certainly not least...

Play-fighting red pandas in the snow!!!!!!!

I suppose I'll have to tell you where I got these pictures. 

• The penguin was from here.
• The I'm Just A Panda pic came from this link.
• The glaring otter pic was found here.
• Click here for the link to the dog who wanted the food directly in his mouth.
• The "dancing raccoon" pic was actually from a video that didn't have the raccoon in it, but I'll link to it anyway.
• The shy panda was from this link.
• The pandas-on-the-playground photo was from here.
• The fighting red pandas came from this link.
• The three raccoons who were "watching you" are also watching you from here.
• The little gray rat was from here.
• The gray bunny was from here, Creme Brulee's pic came from here, and the big-eyed bunny was from here.
• The sweet black cat photo was from this link.
• Click here to find the webpage with the smiling gerbil.
• The raspberry-wearing turtle pic was from here.
• The robo dwarf hamsters were from here. (Warning, it's in a different language!)

I think that's everything. If I missed something, make sure to tell me in the comment box. --Taryn

My to-do list for Japan

Hi readers! My family is planning a trip to Japan, and yesterday, Mommy asked me and Kathy to find a few activities we'd like to do in Kyoto. Here are mine!

• Kyoto Botanical Gardens. According to the website Inside Kyoto, it rivals the Kyoto Imperial Palace Park as one of the best parks in all of Kyoto. It's a great place for strolling and cherry blossom viewing, if you come at the right time of year.
• The Kimono Design Gallery. JapanTravel claims you can lose yourself in the variety of gorgeous, colorful kimono designs. You can also make your own kimono print!
• The Crocheted Playground. Toshiko Horiuchi MacAdam spent three years crocheting this awesome playground out of colorful yarn. I wonder how much it took?

Image from here

• I would love to eat some Kyotan (if that's a word) pickles. JapanTravel says "the history of Kyoto pickles is the history of Kyoto cuisine itself". There are forty-one varieties of the pickles. Some of the most famous types include Seigoin turnip and Katsura gourd, but the kind I really want to try are the bamboo shoots.

I cannot wait to go to Japan! --Taryn