Jump to content

Kaleidoscope Tekulo

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    4,413

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    34

 Content Type 

Blog Entries posted by Kaleidoscope Tekulo

  1. Kaleidoscope Tekulo

    Switch

    By Kaleidoscope Tekulo,

    It's like a button combined with the powers of a lever. Normally used to control lights. Idk why everyone is freaking out, we have had this technology for a while now.
  2. Kaleidoscope Tekulo
    So, I keep seeing/hearing about this anime and I decided to give it a shot. I'm not sure how to put it...
     
    It's not bad and it has its moments, don't get me wrong but it's also a bit lacking in my opinion. I mean, Sachi and her story arc was interesting and came really close with the feels... and then, like, I feel they didn't get too personal with anything else in the story ever again. (Quick note, I haven't finished the series yet. I'm at the part with the flying and the sister who is super creepy because, Japan, why?)
     
    I mean, they had some pretty good moments. The drama was really fantastic at certain parts of the plot, and then the murderer was revealed and that person had literally the worst reasoning ever and just collapsed with remorse. And it had such a good buildup too! (Trying to keep this spoiler free, but if you don't want anything spoiled, why are you tempting fate by reading this entry to begin wIth?)
     
    The plot was pretty engaging as it was. Super mysterious and intriguing. Too bad there were only two interesting characters. The rest of the cast was either just unexplored or dumbed down. And where I'm at now, it just seems like they realized "######, we ended this too soon! Get me a super cliche and sinister villain with no redeeming moral qualities and another setting, stat!"
     
    Not to mention most of the deaths were characters who got literally no screen time or character development. It's fine to off characters so long as they're not mentioned except for that one time. I feel cheated. "We lost fourteen people... and none of them had names."
     
    So, what do I think of the show so far?
     
    Meh, I've seen worse. Besides, it's interesting enough, but I seriously hope Asuna doesn't turn into Princess Peach. She is so interesting and cool, why did they put her into that position?
     
    GET OFF MY LAWN!
    ~ Tekulo <3
  4. Kaleidoscope Tekulo
    So, I keep hearing about all of these stories and other fictitious things that people cry over. And I don't mean everyone cries at them, but I hear actual people have actually cried at these things. You know, like Toy Story 3, The Bridge to Terabithia (book), My Little Dashie, and various other things that don't make me cry.
     
    Yeah, I rarely, and I mean bordering on the fence between fairly seldom and never, do I cry at fiction. Movies, books, shows, comics, etc I normally keep my cool. In fact, I've only ever gotten misty-eyed at fiction. No actual tears as of yet.
     
    Don't get me wrong, there are moments that I do cry, but then it was always something to do with reality.
     
    So, whenever I find anything that impacts me so much that my eyes start to water, I know that it's good (well, in my opinion. I really couldn't care less about what you guys think. =P)
     
    Most recently this for me was the book A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves a good story.
  5. Kaleidoscope Tekulo
    "Ah, yes! This white one is clean! I really like this one! But wait, did I wear this one last time? Did they see this shirt before?
     
    -sees colorful shirt-
     
    Hmm, Tekulo, why don't you wear something more colorful like this? The white one with these pants is kind of vanilla. And you know, there's nothing wrong with vanilla, but today you want to feel more like a fruit pop."
     
    Happy Thanksgiving. May your food swag be bountiful.
  7. Kaleidoscope Tekulo
    For whatever reason, I am in my super-happy place.
     
    I'm not sure why, though. That is, it's not that I don't have any reason to be happy, nor does it mean I have a reason to be unhappy. I'm just feeling wonderfully chipper. ^^
     
    So, for those of you that actually care, the passing of my holidays went like this:
     
    Akano and KK are home tormenting me at every turn (I know you two will read this eventually, so I shall mention this now: you are both my favorite and only siblings of all time. Make of that what you will. XP)
     
    Cleaning my room and picking through tons of nostalgia and wanting to build lego stuff. Good times.
     
    My Aunt got me a fabulous mug which I love to death because it holds over a pint (Seriously, I think its capacity is around 24 fluid ounces. For those of you who have no idea how much that is, let me put it this way: it's a big mug that can hold a good deal of beverages such as tea, coffee or cocoa and that makes me sooooo happy).
     
    My brother KK got me Ghost Trick; a DS game for those who aren't familiar with it. I love it. It's a very wonderful mystery game with colorful characters, a good plot, enjoyable gameplay, etc. I definitely recommend it to anyone who likes a good story with their game.
     
    My brother Akano got me a few minifigs (The Space Queen whose brain piece is going into my Zombie set at some point and the Fairy) as well as an adorable little set with a piggy and a doggie. ^^
     
    Well, I'm still in a good mood, and I want to keep it that way, so
    GET OFF MY LAWN!
     
    ~Tekulo <3
  8. Kaleidoscope Tekulo
    So, after I did some research on the subject, I found a few different dango recipes. Dango, for any uncertain as to what I am talking about, is a sweet dumpling snack/dessert made out of rice flour, and typically served with tea. Some recipes called for tofu, others were just special forms of rice flour and water, etc. Eventually I came across a recipe online that seemed simple and had a step-by-step video.
     

     
    It didn't turn out half bad. It should be noted that I didn't find every exact ingredient for this recipe. I used a few variations as I live in America, and unfortunately I don't live in Pittsburgh near Lotus Foods anymore (a really cool market for Asian foods).
     
    Sticky Rice Powder - I just used plain old white rice flour. It's all I could find (And I didn't find any at Walmart. Normally I would've used the brand with the red text and the pegasus on the bag. Instead I went to Heinins and got Red Mill brand. It's a bit on the pricey side, so if you want to try to make this yourself look for the cheaper alternative first).
     
    Sugar - In this video, though it doesn't specify, it looks like it uses raw sugar instead of white sugar. Really it shouldn't make too much of a difference, but I used white sugar in my recipe.
     
    Green Tea Powder - it was pretty difficult for me to find the right tea to use. I didn't find any instant powder by itself, unfortunately. I substituted a green tea mix which used green tea powder as the main ingredient (which sounds easy, but there was only one brand I found at Walmart, which was 4C brand. It's sweetened with honey and splenda, so this made the green dango really sweet, but also more flavorful. I wouldn't say they were overly sweet, but when consuming dango with tea, I would prefer it to be toned down). Other recipes I've seen have this ingredient replaced with green food coloring, which would probably be the better alternative for those who can't find plain green tea powder.
     
    Tofu - This video didn't specify the type of tofu to use, but it should be noted I used soft tofu instead of firm tofu.
     
    This type of dango with three colors is apparently called Hanari Dango.
     
    ----------------
     
    Now, while I made this dough for all of the dango I made at home, I also tried to make Mitarashi Dango. Basically for this type of dango, I left the dough plain with no food coloring or tea mix.
     
    I made a simple sauce for it from this video here at 2:42
     
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5h7o6p2os4
     
    Red Mill also makes potato starch, so for this sauce I had all of the ingredients needed.
     
    While the person in this video over-cooked their sauce, I managed to get it to a proper consistency.
     
    PRO TIP: When thickening with potato starch, the sauce does not need to come to a boil in order to thicken (unlike with corn starch where the starch must be dissolved in water before-hand and then brought to a boil). This sauce's ingredients can be combined all at once, mixed, and then brought to the stove. As for how not to kill your sauce, be sure to remove it from heat right when the sauce begins to thicken. Don't worry if you think it looks a bit too runny. Because this sauce is cooked in such a small amount, the residual heat from the pan will continue to thicken the sauce after the pan has been removed from the heat. It's actually a pretty important step, so if anyone here dares to try this, keep this in mind.
     
    ------------
     
    It also should be noted that after the dango were removed from the boiler, I placed them in an ice-bath to cool for five minutes (as suggested in the second video). The outsides did seem a bit moist, so I would recommend allowing them to air-dry on a plate with a paper towel underneath (or just allow them to cool on their own instead. I just thought the ice-bath was a faster method).
     
    The tea I made to pair with these was green tea. I found a brand that only used green tea leaves in the ingredients list, and instead of pouring hot water over the tea bags, I instead ripped the bags open and boiled the tea leaves with the water in a tea pot. It gives the tea more flavor, in my opinion. I also strained the leaves out with a small fine-mesh strainer as I poured the tea into my mug.
     
    Thoughts on the two types of dango I made:
     
    Hanari Dango: As for how everything turned out - it was yummy, but plain. Don't get me wrong, it was an enjoyable treat coupled with the green tea I made. However, the dango on their own do taste plain (aside from the green ones as previously mentioned). I wouldn't mind trying to make something similar to this kind of dango again, but I would like to try making it with some other flavoring such as vanilla or lemon zest. They're not bad, but they don't have much flavor. It's a nice compliment to tea, though, so for anyone who loves a good cup of tea, but doesn't want an overpowering snack to go with it; I would recommend this form of dango.
     
    Mitarashi Dango: I prefered this dango to the Hanari. The dango themselves are plain, however the sauce compliments it nicely giving it a nice soy sauce flavor. Again, the sauce itself isn't overly sweet, so it also pairs nicely with tea in my opinion.
     
    Overall thoughts: For anyone with a sweet tooth, dango isn't for you (at least not these recipes anyway). They are, however, filling (I only ate six dango [two skewers] before I was beginning to fill up). Also, if you don't have/want skewers, you can use chopsticks instead. It might not be as elegant, but it does work for holding three dango in place.
     
    As for me, I still have tofu, rice flour and potato starch left over, so I'll probably make these again (and maybe alter the recipe a bit for flavoring experimentation).
     
    GET OFF MY LAWN!
     
    ~Tekulo <3
  9. Kaleidoscope Tekulo
    Okay, time for a simplified illustration of what happened recently.
     
    I lost my wallet, it was in my shorts, I am living happily ever after (I wish).
     
    Anyway, while I was looking for it, everyone else was trying to help me when in fact they just aggrivated me. Ever have one of those days?
     
    "Oh, did you leave it at work? Does someone else have it now? OH MY GOSH, IT'S IN THE HANDS OF A CRIMINAL AND YOUR LIFE WILL NEVER RECOVER!" (I might be exaggerating a bit in this entry, folks).
     
    "Is it in the couch? It's in the couch. I bet it's in the couch."
     
    "Did you leave it at work? Are you sure it's at home? You might want to cancel your card."
     
    "Did you leave it upstairs on your night stand? You know, that place you already checked five times?"
     
    "Now, you're sure it didn't run away? If you have a picture we could put up flyers."
     
    "How did you even lose it in the first place? Why are you so irresponsible? You suck."
     
    "Is it upstairs? You should check ten times just to be safe."
     
    "You should move the couch. I bet it's under the couch."
     
    ...
     
    So, the way my brain works (when I'm problem solving" is to calm down and think through things logically. In other words, I do a process of elimination based on where I've checked and my usual habits. It's sort of like solving a mystery, only instead of murder it's a misplaced item. Also, I should mention I knew I had it on my person when I was at home, so I wasn't worried in the slightest.
     
    In other words, all of these "helpful" questions and concerns only ended up hindering my thought process throughout the entire time I was doing anything productive. It's kinda like Professor Layton about to find the Golden Apple and then Luke says "Professor, what's the Golden Apple? How do you think we should go about finding it? Why is it here? What's that guy's name again? How long have we been here? Do you like the color blue? I like the color blue."
     
    O_____o (My face the entire time this was happening due to pointless questions).
     
    If there's a moral to be learned here, it's this: People screw up in life. It happens. This time it was just a misplaced wallet at home which really wasn't a big deal. Let people work it out themselves if they don't want your help right away. Once they've run through everything they can think of and then they ask for assistence, THEN act on the urge to help them. Every person has a brain and every person is capable of using them. Have a little faith in humanity.
     
    If you'll excuse me, I'll be banging my head against the wall regretting I ever mentioned to anyone that I was missing anything ever...
  10. Kaleidoscope Tekulo
    So, has anyone else ever thought "Hmm... I wonder if could cut my own hair?"
     
    It all started when my bangs began to get really annoying and obscure my vision. Looking in the mirror, I noticed my head was shaped like a bowling ball or a coconut shell. I WOULD NOT STAND FOR THIS MUTANY FROM MY OWN SCALP!
     
    Thus began retaliation. Mission Statement: Trim down to around 1 inch in length. Mission accomplished. Unfortunately, the back of my head was tricky and the battle left my head scarred with ridge lines... So later in the day, I grasped my trusty pair of scissors and valliently tried again to halt the horrid head morbuzahk in its hostile take-over of my self-consciousness in public!
     
    Long story short; it didn't work and I was too tired to continue. You won that round, foul scalp weed!
     
    At last, this morning after watching an episode of How I Met Your Mother (the one where Marshall and Lily get married and Marshall shaves a part of his head), I found the answer!
     
    I needed reinforcements... The big guns... THE ULTIMATE WEAPON!
     
    I plugged in its power cord "CHARGE!" I yelled to the bathroom mirror in a great war-cry.
     
    This was it; the ultimate, final showdown...
     
    I succeeded. My hair is now buzzed, being around half an inch in length and it doesn't look half bad, if I do say so myself. ^^
     
    Lesson learned; whenever I cut my own hair, I'm just going straight for a buzz. XP
     
    GET OFF MY LAWN!
     
    Tekulo <3
  11. Kaleidoscope Tekulo
    My black cat has saved all of you from me rambling for half a page. XD I typed out a bunch of words, but then he stepped all over my keyboard and went to my homepage, opened my email and DVD player (I totes send emails when I'm watching Muppet stuffs).
     
    Long story short: My cats found a mouse. It was stunned for a moment, and they actually started to lose interest and walk away when-
     
    The mouse began to twitch,
    The kits they took a swish,
    They ran until the mouse was caught by Tekulo's simple stitch,
    Which was not a healthy situation for the little kits
     
    -cough- Sorry, with all of the scary stuff from Halloween, it appears I've caught Bieber Fever coupled with Sparkly Vampire Middle School Musical syndrome. D=
     
    Anyway, to explain those poorly put together lyrics, I ended up catching the mouse with my superior thumbs and a cardboard cup.
     
    Now, nearly everyone and I mean EVERYONE that I've been with in these situations always tell me to "KILL KILL KILL!" in these situations (be them mice, spiders, etc). I am a total wuss, a hippie, a tree-marrying sap (those huggers are lightweights. My husband may be 200 years old, but at least he listens! D= ), however I'm not vegetarian (though I really, really hate processed meats. =/ No flavor but salt and most of it just ends up in the garbage with my family anyway). Which reminds me; I could never go vegan. Dairy products are my favorite food group outside of bread (and my favorite bread is made with egg and milk anyway, so they overlap in my favorite food genre. If I ever become a vegetarian, It's lacto-ovo for me!).
     
    ANYWAY, no; I do not kill vermin if I can help it. I once found a mouse in my toilet when I was living in a camp in the woods (and treefrogs this one other time. Though, everyone actually tried to save those "because those are frogs" VIVA TAUTOLOGY!). I got a plastic cup (which I wasn't a fan of to begin with) and set it next to the mouse. The poor thing hopped in (you should've seen it! It was shivering and afraid for its life. I couldn't just flush it; waaaay too cruel for my taste) and I took it out to the woods and let it go. Plus, mice, rats, etc are totally adorable. Like a chinchilla; both are rodents and both are totally cute. So, that's exactly what I did this time around. Got a disposable cup, managed to trap it when stunned/trapped by cats and then took it to the woods. It was curled into a ball when I took off the lid. SO ADORABLE! Field mice are always adorable. ^^
     
    So, the moral of this story is; I may be just as lame as my cats in the "number of kills" department, but I can actually catch a mouse, so I make a better pet. XD
     
    GET OFF MY LAWN!
     
    ~Tekulo <3
  12. Kaleidoscope Tekulo
    WHERE IS THE GROUND CINNAMON?!
     
    WHY ARE THERE ONLY CINNAMON STICKS HERE?
     
    WHAT HAPPENED TO THE PAPER MUFFIN CUPS?!
     
    WHY, WHY, WHY?!?!?!
     
    ...
     
    So, how was your day, Billy?
     
    GET OFF MY LAWN!
    ~Tekulo <3
     
    (I was totally going to elaborate on this and explain my occupation in greater detail, but I thought this was waaaay more fitting).
  13. Kaleidoscope Tekulo
    Le me looking at le Danimals smoothies:
     
    "Whoa, the bottles are so tiny. It's like they make these things for kids! ... Oh my gosh, I sound like an AFOL. OH SNAP CRACKLE AND POP, I AM AN AFOL! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
     
    Le me looking at le flour tortillas:
     
    "Hey, what's this... Turtle wax? Well I mean, you never know when you're gonna need to wax some turtles when you're making tacos."
     
    Le me in the aisle and I see a toy turtle on a baby's basket:
     
    "Whoa. For like a split second I swear that turtle was alive. And I was all like 'OMG REPTILE <3' but no, you had to crush my dreams with the harsh reality that it's just a baby. The nerve of some people."
     
    Le me checking out:
     
    "That teenager just gave me a weird look. The nerve! Why can't we just ban all teenagers from existing? Oh man, I sound like an AFOL. OH WAIT I'M STILL AN AFOL! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
     
    Why did I even type out this stupid entry?
     
    GET OFF MY OCEAN PILLAR!
    ~Lapis Lazuli <3
  15. Kaleidoscope Tekulo

    Ten Years

    By Kaleidoscope Tekulo,

    So with the forums back and all, I just happened to take a look at my spinny and I realized that I've been on BZP since 2003.
     
    Looking back at the archives, I am so glad time changes things. XD
     
    Why, back in my day Lewa had gear functions and there were rahi sets still being sold. Good times.
     
    (Oh, also Mask of Light had come out the year I joined and comics were pretty big on BZP. Dark709 came out with the first full-length sprite movie -which my brother Akano was in for a few seconds. I still say his demise should've been less central to the story and I am in no way making things up details now- and everyone was getting excited about Metru Nui and the identities of the first toa whom Turaga Vakama had alluded to. There was also a huge debate over whether or not Dume was evil).
     
    Looking back, it's amazing what a single decade can do. Before I was a goofy kid and now I'm a goofy adult with a job and responsibilities. It's amazing how much can change yet stay the same at the same time. And the scariest part is that I have plenty of decades of my life to come with decades of changes in my life ahead of me. Well, scary as in exciting, not horrifying. XP
     
    Here's to another decade of being a goofy adult!
     
    Whassat, Billy? You're still a kid?
     
    ... GET OFF MY LAWN!
     
    ~Tekulo
  18. Kaleidoscope Tekulo
    ...and your phone is set to shuffle and Hahli Husky and Janus Janus read a Bionicle comic in front of your co-workers, and you are too busy to hit the "next song" button...
     
    AND THE TURN PAGE SOUND IS WHAT I ASSUME TO BE A GOAT.
     
    Yeah, that is a thing that happened.
     
    Whassat, Billy? You keep your music on devices the size of a cracker?
     
    ...GET OFF MY LAWN!
    ~ Tekulo <3
  21. Kaleidoscope Tekulo
    ...when you learn how to take screen shots on your tablet and you realize Unikitty has so many wonderful expressions that you don't know what to change your avatar to.
     
    I'll stick with Bizniz kitty for now because there are other Unikitties here and I have no idea if we have a complete set going or not. If we do, I would hate to ruin the chain.
     
    GET OFF MY LAWN!
     
    ~Tekulo <3
  22. Kaleidoscope Tekulo
    One of these days I will have serious tags for my blog.
     
    Anyway, the polls are up for Ninjas IN SPACE for General Art! Even though it looks like only two entries have the spotlight, regardless of who you vote for, looking at artwork is way fetch!
     
    Seriously. All of the entries are cool in concept, design or skateboards (or temples or space or water monsters, etc)
     
    Now then GO AND VIEW THE ART CULTURE OF THIS WEBSITE! IT IS WAY FETCH!
     
    MUAHAHAHAHA!
     
    ~Melon Lord <3
  23. Kaleidoscope Tekulo
    Long story short: I spent yesterday at the Ohio State Fair eating great barbecue chicken, lemonade, butter pican ice cream with cashews, a turkey leg and a candy apple; I went on rides that spun me around and flipped me upside down and I went down a huge slide; I went on a relaxing sky ride (and my anablephobia was kind enough not to show up); I saw sea lions balance balls on their noses, catch rings and dance and the entire day was fun and awesome.
     
    I did not, however, get to ride the Crazy Mouse (if anyone knows what this ride is or has been tossed around by its sharp turns, then you will feel sorry for me that I missed out), nor did I win a live crab (not that I tried in the first place, mind you).
     
    Also, after the turkey leg, I was done with meat for the day, so for dinner I decided to be sensible and eat a hearty, healthy serving of vegetarian buttered soft pretzels and rootbeer. (Note: eating vegetarian in general is a far cry from eating healthy =P).
     
    So, I'm back home from Columbus today and I go back to my final day of work tomorrow for my office job.
     
    The good news there is I'll probably have some more free time (because I'm only working part-time baking right now, and I don't think that's going to be changing until later this year).
     
    Whassat, Billy? You thought this entry was going to be about BrickFair?
     
    ...
     
    GET OFF MY LAWN!
     
    ~Tekulo <3
  24. Kaleidoscope Tekulo
    Okay, so this is a pretty old post I made in an old topic (it just resurfaced in S&T and I was hit with a gnarly wave of nostalgia, dude! Chaa') but it's also one of my favorite posts I've ever made on this site ever. I would put it on the side of my blog somewhere, but... It's a bit lengthy, so I figured it deserves its own entry.
     
    Here I present the absolute truth of the difference between the elements Earth and Stone! True story.
     
  25. Kaleidoscope Tekulo
    Can I just cry for like twenty hours nonstop?
     
    Must read the book...
     
    Yet I haven't started on Harry Potter nor have I finished the two I am currently reading... this poses a problem... ;-;
     
    I just need to digest this story for a while. I didn't hear about the author or the book before, so I went into this movie blind.
     
    I just... augh. No words...
     
    Should have sent a poet.
     
    GET OFF MY LAWN!
     
    ~Tekulo <3
×
×
  • Create New...