Saturday, February 28, 2015

Day 789: Month Two: Complete

And that's another month of the #EverydayDisneyChallenge in the books. You know, I'm definitely in the routine of posting a picture everyday, and it's pretty nice to not have to go and search for them all the time. What I do is at the beginning of every month I go through all my Disney pictures and find one for everyday of the upcomming month, edit it and then transfer it to my phone. It definitely makes my life a lot easier, even if it sometimes does take a couple of hours to go and find a picture for everyday (for some reason with Epcot for March I couldn't for the life of me figure out that I put Brain Power down on the list for Universe of Energy. I felt like a terrible Disney Fan...) 

So here are the pictures from Month 2, which happened to be Magic Kingdom month. This month feels a lot darker when it comes to the pictures than the upcoming month, but I have the feeling that it's because half of these are night pictures. Apparently my family frequents Magic Kingdom during the evening hours, and to be completely honest, yeah, we probably do. 















If you'd like to join me for any of the upcoming months, go for it! The list for March is below, and it's as simple as putting up your picture everyday and tagging it with #EverydayDisneyChallenge. You can do it on Instagram, which is where I'm running it, or you could do it on Twitter or Facebook! Whatever your heart fancies! 


Have a magical day!






Friday, February 27, 2015

Day 788: Big Hero 6

I can't believe how late to the game I am on this one. I love movies, especially Disney movies, and I love going to see them in theaters, but with a busy schedule like mine, sometimes it just doesn't work out very well. It means that my family never got around to seeing Big Hero 6, and now that's finally out on DVD, we had a chance to watch it.

Now, I don't think it's another Frozen, not by a long shot, but I'm certainly satisfied with the care Disney gave to this film. I'm slowly getting into the Marvel stuff (next on my list is the Captain America films), mostly due to my love of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Granted, I haven't really had time to watch that series this season either, and I have the distinct feeling that I'll catch up once I finish catching up on Chasing Life, especially now that SHIELD will be back for the spring season (just like OUAT...seems ABC has a thing going with this split season thing). Regardless, I really enjoyed Big Hero 6.

The music, and I'll mention this first since I'm currently listening to the soundtrack, was phenomenal. Very upbeat, and I know I texted Megan saying that it would make some seriously great studying or driving or superhero cleaning action music. Does this mean that the next time I'm cleaning the bathroom I'll be blasting this music? Yes, yes it does.

Second, I know that when everyone else I know saw it, they all said that I'd get super emotionally attached to Tadashi, and you know what, I tried not to. I tried so hard. And yet, I still was and I still cried when he died because that's not a spoiler because we all knew it was going to happen anyway. That being said, I'm honestly not sure who my favorite character was. I liked everyone pretty equally except for Fred. I just wasn't a huge fan of him. I mean, maybe I'm a bit bias because Go-Go was voiced by Jamie Chung, who happens to portray Mulan on OUAT, and Honey Lemon's style was just perfection, and I totally saw some of myself in Wasabi, and you just can't not like Baymax and Hiro. If I HAD to pick a favorite though I think it'd have to be Go-Go. I feel like her "superpower" is exactly what I'd want.

As for my favorite part? Definitely "Low-Battery Baymax" and the whole Fist Bump Thing. I literally laughed every single time he would fist bump and then go "Ba la la la la." Adorable. But as a college student who sees drunk people every so often, low-battery Baymax was pure hilariousness.

All in all, while it's not my favorite Disney film (remember, that's a REALLY hard list to get on), it's definitely not my least favorite either, and I plan on rewatching it very, very soon.

Oh, and Feast was adorable too. I love Winston so much.

Have a magical day!


Thursday, February 26, 2015

Day 787: The Red Carpet

Well, it's over.

I guess I'm now technically allowed to post this, considering the fact that the band trip video premiere has come and gone. It means I can finally talk a little bit more about the video itself, and while I cannot share the entirety of the 57 minute feature, I CAN share one segment with you:



While only one of many, many segments, the Hollywood Studios portion just happens to be my favorite. It took around 5-6 hours to edit, features footage from 4 different trips, all perfectly blended together with pictures and the music from the Finale of Fantasmic to create the masterpiece that you can watch above. 

Overall, I'm very very proud of what I accomplished with the Band Trip Video, and I'm excited that I am able to share at least a little bit of it with you. So many people made this 57 minute feature possible, and the fact that I was, indeed, able to attend the premiere gave me quite a bit of joy. I don't really get anything in return for the over 150 hours I spent on this thing, aside from the knowledge that it, hopefully, made a lot of people in the group happy. I am, however, very glad it's all over. This video ruled my life for a very long time, so to have it completely premiered and out of my hands is a huge relief. 

On the other hand, I'm kind of lost with what to do now. Aside from my schoolwork, I generally need other projects to keep myself busy. However, I do have several vlogs to edit from January yet, the first of which is already finished and will hopefully go up soon. Although I do suppose this gives me more time to work on Everyday Disney. After all, there are some new features I've been working on since the beginning of the year which have to go up eventually.

But I will say that my favorite moment of the premiere was when, during the credits, everyone just continued to clap and I sat there like "What in the world do I do?" I understand you Oscar winners. I understand you. Especially since I really had like no words to say and then they clapped again and I was just like "I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO" (said in the voice of the wonderful Colin O'Donoghue). Hopefully I'll be able to share a few more segments of the Band Trip Video (affectionately named One Band's Dream), in the future, but for now, I hope you enjoy the Hollywood Studios segment as much as I enjoyed making it.

Have a magical day!


(Note: This blog post was written on February 27 due to a late return from the video premiere).

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Day 786: Never Without It

I believe it was sometime last week when I first realized this, but I decided that it was a big enough topic for a blog post in it's own right, and I was certainly correct with that statement! You see, I'm not Catholic, but I do go to a Catholic College, and that means that there's always a lot of talk about Lent and what everyone will be giving up for it. I find that a lot of students on campus give up something other than meat or in addition to meat, and there are some pretty interesting ideas. My roommate Hannah has given up Starbucks, and I know several people who have given up desserts in the caf here on campus. But for me, giving up something for Lent just doesn't work very well. I do, however, get some pretty interesting suggestions on what I should give up.

First off, let's point out that if I give up any more food, I will literally be unhealthy. I'm already on restricted dairy and I can't eat most fruit, so is taking something else away really a good idea? I mean, I'm pretty sure my most popular dish here at school is salad, and that just seems silly to take away in my situation. I don't really eat desserts either, so why would that even be difficult? Doesn't that defeat the point?

One time I had someone suggest that I should give up Once Upon A Time, to which I just responded with a laugh. After all, OUAT comes back right in the middle of Lent (at the beginning, really), and considering I already spend half the year without it (literally, more than half the year), I'm really already participating in a "Non-Once" period that's much longer than Lent. Plus, after waiting 80 some days, I'm not about to give up my premiere.

Another of my roommates is giving up Make-Up, and that's great. In fact, I fully support her idea. Only it's not really ideal for me. Even if I didn't do the make-up on my OUAT Disneybounds, I still have performances that occur during Lent, and I can't just go perform in front of tons of people without doing my makeup...

But by far the most outrageous suggestion for Lent I've gotten was someone who suggested I give up Disney. Now that, that's just downright IMPOSSIBLE. Why? Because I am literally always surrounded by something Disney. If it's just Disney movies or something, sure! I can do that! I do it most of the year anyway! If it's the Disney Parks, you have to realize that I spend 99% of my time NOT at them, so that doesn't even count. But getting rid of all Disney in my life, even aside from the fact that I write a daily blog about Disney, would never happen.

Over the course of my day, I've taken pictures of some of the most common Disney references in my life. This is just photographical evidence, and certainly doesn't include every last bit of Disney that was in my day, but it's a start!



As you can see, just up by my loft where I sleep there's tons of Disney. Stitch sleeps right next to my head, helping to protect my phone (which doubles as my alarm) from both me and from falling off my bed. I also have a Disney calendar that hangs at the end of my loft, for no reason other than it's pretty. Finally, I have pictures that hang along the wall, and you can see my Star Wars pillow hanging out up there too! 


 


As if my lock screen isn't enough, my Twitter and Facebook are also filled with Disney, and if you want to go off of my phone...check out Megan's! Her phone has Disney all over it too! 




My computer screen almost always has something Disney on it, and I didn't even include my background, which just happens to be Captain Hook (the Disney version...perm and all). Plus, here's where I include Everyday Disney. That picture happened to be taken when I was in the middle of writing Day 782: Thank the Maker! 



Don't even get me started on my desk. But then again, we've covered this already, haven't we? 


Since I couldn't easily take a picture of my lanyard in class, I took one at lunch. At college, we have a lot of little things that we have to keep with us: our ID, keys for our room and for our mailbox, among other things, and in my case, lactade so I can eat. Lanyards are a popular option around here, and you don't wear it around your neck: you carry it. So to make mine easily distinguishable, I picked a Disney lanyard I got at the D23 Expo in 2011!


Even in my "office" I have Disney! Way down in the deep depths of the music building sits the music library, where I work sorting out music and so on and so forth. Since I had a coupon for shutterfly a while back, I created a desk calendar. Although you can't see it, every month has a different Disney picture to go along with it, but since it doesn't officially start until March 2015, I've been keeping it on the cover instead.


Now, I swear I didn't do this on purpose. I picked this shirt completely without this project in mind...but I probably am either wearing something Disney or Disneybounding a solid 60% of the time. Actually, most of my clothes have Disney connections, as a lot of times I buy it for a specific outfit and then it gains a name that has to do with it. For instance, I have "Hook Pants" and a "Belle shirt" and an "Elsa Dress" and so on and so forth. 



Finally, we all know that I love my mugs, and since I have either coffee or tea (or both!) at least once a day, I put them all to good use. Today's mug of choice was my Contemporary Resort mug, which I got in January, although yesterday it was my Hollywood Studios Starbucks Mug and tomorrow it'll probably be my Mickey's Really Swell Diner Travel mug! 

Now, like I said, this is just a taste of the amount of Disney in my day, but as you can see, it would be pretty much impossible to abolish all Disney from my life for Lent. I still haven't figured out if or what I'm giving anything up this year, but one thing's for sure: it won't be Disney. 

Have a magical day!


Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Day 785: Introductions

After catching up on blog posts from pretty much the entire month of February, it occurs to me that I really didn't have a problem trying to come up with post topics for the days I've had to make up. Whether this is because Disney has just played a key roll in my life lately or because February is the shortest month of the year, I don't really know. However, I do know that this last day I had to make up was kind of difficult to come up with a topic for.

And then I realized that the topic has been staring me in the face for the past half week.

This past Friday, my roommate Ashley and I finally got around to step one of introducing one of our other roommates, Hannah, to Star Wars. Like so many others, she's never seen the entire series (I actually have several friends who have never seen all of Star Wars, and while on some level I feel like this is a crime, I also didn't see it until just a few years ago so....). Of course, we took it upon ourselves to introduce her to the wonderful galaxy that is the series.

It's funny because Ashley and I like totally different episodes when it comes to Star Wars. If you've been around since 2013, you already know that my all time favorite Star Wars film is Episode 5: The Empire Strikes Back. I just can't get past all of the Han Solo in that episode, and now, talking about it, I really want to watch it, but I don't have time for that. I have plenty of other work to get done tonight! Ashley, however, prefers Episodes 6 and 3, so it's going to be interesting as we move forward and we both sit, watching Hannah eagerly to see her reactions to our favorite portions of each film.

I am happy to report, however, that Hannah did indeed enjoy the first episode (aka the fourth episode: A New Hope), and she was super tired while watching it too, so this is a major accomplishment, at least in our books. Plus, introducing Hannah to Star Wars obviously gives us an excuse to sit and watch Star Wars, and with our busy college schedules, that's something we're all definitely willing to do.

Have a magical day!


(Note: This blog post was written on February 25).

Monday, February 23, 2015

Day 784: A Package Has Arrived

If getting Disney mail at home is one of the best things ever, then imagine getting Disney mail at school. You might remember a couple of weeks ago when I bought my Epcot Starbucks You Are Here mug, and if you don't remember it, you can read that post HERE, but there's just one small problem.

That mug is now worth at least $200, although most on ebay are currently going for closer to $300-400. I love my mug, I really do, and I have no intention of selling it, but as Megan said the other day, it's kind of nerve wrecking washing a $300 mug that's not even yours, and trust me, it's just as bad when it IS yours. Therefore, there was only one solution to this problem.

I had to get another mug.

Now, I'm not talking about another Epcot mug (are you crazy?), but lucky for me, there are several other mugs out there, and since I already had one shipped to my house, it wasn't hard to find another to be sent my way. Since I couldn't find a decently priced Magic Kingdom mug, I instead opted for the Hollywood Studios mug, which is just plain adorable, and I'm loving the fact that the Sorcerer's Hat is no where to be found. I guess my plan is working because since buying this new one, I've used it twice and the Epcot mug sits safe and sound on my shelf. I feel bad forcing it to live a life on the shelf, but it's a collectors item now, and considering the rest of my Epcot/Spaceship Earth collection, it's now one of the most important pieces.

But that's not all that came in the mail. On a completely different blog post, which you can read HERE, I lamented about the one thing I forgot to buy while at Disney: Tsum Tsum. But since I have a job now, a real job, I wanted to celebrate in a small fashion. Plus, my new desk will need a little bit of decorating once I have things cleaned off more than they are at the current moment. So I put in an order to the Disney store and by the end of opening all the packages I got from the mail center, my life looked something like this:


Oh yes, it was a very good day for mail indeed. I also realized that I ordered the Tsum Tsum perfectly so they stack by film. Three 101 Dalmatians themed ones on the bottom row, with Cruella in the middle of the two pups, two from Toy Story on top of that, and Donald to round out the tower. I swear I didn't plan it that way, but I also didn't plan falling absolutely in love with these little guys. I don't think my roommates planned that either. 

Have a magical day!


(Note: This blog post was written on February 25).