Category: The Geek

Have Courage and Be Kind

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Here’s my beef with the new Disney movies coming out today – or at least with the people who say that “for once Disney is doing things right”. Sure Frozen was fun, Maleficent was… well Angelina Jolie did a good evil laugh, and Moana was powerful. But what’s the deal calling the old Princesses weak and pathetic? What’s weak about femininity, gentleness, and kindness?

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Lavender’s blue, dilly dilly,
Lavender’s green

Obviously we get the “You can’t marry someone you met in a day” joke, but that’s why it’s called a fairytale. I don’t agree with this new lesson people want to teach their kids now, that the only way to be a strong person is to not need a man and to be outspoken and different. While those are all wonderful qualities and traits to have, and while I agree with all of them, there is also strength in choosing your battles, trying to see the very best in people, and quietly keeping your head high when times get tough. Disney of old still has some wonderful and beautiful things to say. Why can’t we listen to them too?

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A Beauty but a Funny Girl

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Belle is my favorite Princess for very obvious reasons. I relate with the fact that:

  1. She loves to read.
  2. She can multitask while reading.
  3. She longs for adventure in the great wide somewhere.
  4. She doesn’t settle for handsome narcissistic jerks like Gaston.
  5. She falls in love with a person’s heart and mind, not what they look like.
  6. She would do anything for the people that she loves.
  7. She’s a daddy’s girl.
  8. Sometimes she’d rather be alone than in a village full of people who don’t understand her.
  9. She puts strength and faith in what she believes in.
  10. She isn’t afraid of standing up for herself and for those who need standing up for.
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“A Beauty but a Funny Girl”

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Fairytales are for Adults too

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As a little girl, I grew up thinking that I was a Princess. Not because I had everything, but because my parents always taught me to believe that I could be anything. And because I was a typical little girl, what I wanted to be was a Disney Princess. Eventually, I wanted to be a Gryffindor. Then a Rivendell Elf. Then a Rebel Pilot. And with every book I picked up and every movie I watched, I wanted to be something different. And through those stories, I did exactly what my parents said I could do. I went on grand adventures, and I became everything that I wanted to be.

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“If you can dream it, you can do it” – Walt Disney

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What’s in my Disney Park Bag

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Since I’m heading to Hong Kong Disneyland in about 10 days time, I figured I’d show you what I take with me inside the Disney Parks. This doesn’t really change regardless of which park I go to, as I pretty much have my Disney routine down pat.

On my last post, someone asked me what kind of bag is the most practical choice for Disneyland. For me, it’s a crossbody. I don’t really like taking backpacks because you need to swing it in front of you every time you need to get something, and I sweat more when I have something stuck to my back all day. With a crossbody, you can choose to make it hands free, when you’re tired you can switch shoulders, or carry it on the crook of your arm or in your hands. Now depending on what I’m going to do for that particular day, I bring different sized bags.

RIDE DAY

For a ride day, where my only goal for the day is to finish all the attractions on my list, I bring a bag like this:

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Loungefly

I love this. It’s a pretty decent sized barrel bag, and it’s enough to carry all my essentials without getting a locker. It’s quite sturdy as well so I know that it can survive a good long day inside the parks. Plus it’s Mickey Mouse. Need I say more?

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21 Disneyland Tips and Tricks

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Going to Disneyland is a major production. Everyone knows this. You plan it for months, spend a lot of money, and sometimes you get there and you realize that you’re flying blind. You end up wasting time on long lines for rides, character meet and greets, and on food, when you should be skipping along to your favorite Disney tunes and having the BEST. DAY. EVER.

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So on my recent trip to Disneyland, I decided I’d come up with a list of things you should know before going on your magical adventure. As someone who isn’t a local (I live in the Philippines), but who goes to Disneyland as often as she can, I do have a few things up my sleeve I’d like to share.

*Just note, that this is for Disneyland, not Disneyworld. As my last trip to Orlando was in 2014, I’m not confident that my tips will be up to date. Continue reading →

Disneybound

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Disney Princess Bounding

Inspired by my recent trip to Disneyland, I’ve discovered the fun and creative art of Disneybounding – where you take inspiration from Disney characters – whether it be colors/placement of colors, hairstyles, makeup, and even the character’s personality, and create an outfit that you could wear everyday. I found this particularly interesting because I love inserting a little magic in everything I wear.

So for those of you who want to:

  1. put Disney in your everyday outfits
  2. dress like a Disney character in Disneyland/Disneyworld but are above 14 years old
  3. do Disney on a Budget
  4. go to work as Belle but can’t fit in your office elevator in a ballgown
  5. dress up as a lowkey Disney character for Halloween

This is for you!

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The Potter Pilgrimage: Part I

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Harry Potter Studios | Leavesden 2015

Tickets to my Happiest Place on Earth

Tickets to my Happiest Place on Earth

I have absolutely no shame in saying that the Harry Potter parts of our UK trip last year made my 2015. We made several stops in different areas of significance in the Harry Potter series – some were planned, some were not. The first stop was indeed planned. And planned carefully. (Details and tips at the end of this post. Stay tuned for part 2!)

Two months or so before the trip, we had already purchased tickets to the Harry Potter Studio Tour in Leavesden. I knew I wanted to spend the entire day there, so instead of taking a tour package (with transportation, but with a limited number of hours in the studios), I decided we could just go there ourselves, that way we could spend as much time as we wanted inside. It took us about 30 minutes from our hotel in London to Watford Junction, where a shuttle picked us up to bring us to the studios:

Now you can imagine my excitement at being on that bus. I was quite emotional pulling up to the lot in Leavesden because I was in complete awe at seeing the place where the cast and crew of Harry Potter filmed for 10 years. The sight of the unassuming, yet massive building alone made me feel like I was riding on the back of a Hippogriff, and I hadn’t even seen anything yet.

 

Fighting to keep calm as I entered the gate to heaven

Fighting to keep calm as I entered the gates to my happiness

People always ask me which I liked better – The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Universal Studios Orlando or The Harry Potter Studio Tour in London. While I will say that being in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter made me feel like a real witch living in a real Wizarding town, there was something truly magical about getting to walk where the cast and crew worked for a decade. The wonderful thing about the theme park, is that you get to go in and out of the shops, you get to visit Hogwarts as if you really are a student there, and you get to experience what being a witch or wizard is like. But the Studio Tour is different. You don’t get to do those things, but stepping into that lot will make you feel truly special – because you will get a glimpse into the love and care and hard work that went into making the films. I personally could not stop touching whatever wall I was allowed to, hoping to get some sort of spiritual souvenir from the cast and crew. And seeing the original sets and props? Wow. I could hardly stop myself from crying.

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Troll in the Dungeon

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“FRIENDSHIP AND BRAVERY”

“There are some things you can’t share without ending up liking each other, and knocking out a twelve-foot mountain troll is one of them.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

Goodbye, Professor

You all know the scene. Harry and Ron running to save Hermione from the troll, Hermione saving their butts from Professor McGonagall, and well – just them saving each other. I’ve always loved that scene, tame it might be compared to the adventures the Golden Trio shared when they got older. But I always loved it because it set the precedent to their entire friendship. They were so wildly different from one another – each of them had their own priorities, their own insecurities, their own fears, but no matter how dark the path ahead was, no matter the odds, they chose to stay together. At the end of the day, they always chose each other. And it was that constant choice that protected, and ultimately saved the entire Wizarding World.

But for me, Harry Potter was never about the saving the world part. It wasn’t about the Boy Who Lived part either. It was always about the in-betweens. The love, the courage, the friendship, the sacrifices, and the choices – always the choices. I grew up admiring Harry, Ron, and Hermione, and wondering if I’d ever have the courage to stand up for myself and for my loved ones like they so often did. And as much as I admired how brave they were when confronting dark wizards, I admired their determination to make simple brave choices in their everyday lives more. How they stood up for each other with Malfoy, or Umbridge, or even with Snape. How they stood by each other when most people turned their backs on them. Their unconditional love for one another was the kind of love I wanted with my friends. And like everything worth having, the journey was quite tough.

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A Very Potter Party

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How Portkey Events Began – The Harry Potter Journey

One of my favourites. A Harry Potter Moving Christmas card, because Christmas cards that don’t move are for Muggles.

I’ve always loved entertaining. Even when I was younger, I loved the idea of sleepovers and movie marathons and themed parties. I love transforming my home into different places. That’s why every year on my birthday, I have to have a theme. One year I had a luau with everyone wearing flowers behind their ears and around their necks. One year I had a circus with clowns and magicians, cotton candy and hotdog stands. One year I had everyone dress in their 90’s best, with beer pong and flip cup and The Backstreet Boys playing in the background. I’ve always looked forward to these parties, and I’ve always managed to make them work even with limited prep time – something I’m quite proud of. Allowing people the opportunity to dress up in things they would never wear in public – it tore down a lot of walls, made people lose their inhibitions (with or without alcohol), and it made for some AWESOME fun.

But I only got to do it once a year.

And although I always had a great time, I never actually got to do the themes that I really really wanted to do, because I didn’t think anyone else would find it fun.

Until I met them. People like me. Potterheads. Adults, who like me, locked Hogwarts away in a secret part of their hearts, and somehow lost the key in the process of growing up. Adults, who like me, were secretly waiting and looking for the key to free their home from its cage. When we met, we discovered the key in each other. We were finally home. And we found that what we left trapped and hidden for so long was more beautiful and more majestic than we remembered. Because this time, we understood more. We knew more. We loved more. And we had each other, to remind one another that even adults need magic too.

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Thank you, Professor.

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Katsie Llave

Photo by Khrister Llave | Accessories by Fandom Trinkets | Snape’s wand from the Wizarding World of Harry Potter Orlando

A short post about Snape

Still mourning the loss of a great actor, whose work has helped shape the kind of life I’ve led so far, and the kind of person I’ve become. A lot of people ask me why the deaths of actors like Christopher Lee and Alan Rickman affect me so, especially because I never knew them. What they don’t understand is that their characters were with me when I needed them the most. They were there for me when I felt misunderstood, lonely, and different. They were my friends growing up, my heroes. Losing them was like reaching the last pages of a beautiful book – like the older I get, the closer I get to the end. But with that loss and sadness comes great, great gratitude and love.
“It is real, isn’t it? It’s not a joke? Petunia says you’re lying to me. Petunia says there isn’t a Hogwarts.
It is real, isn’t it?”
“It’s real for us,” said Snape.

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