Goodbye 2016: You Were a Roller Coaster

Good evening everyone and welcome to The Magical Mystery Blog.

A new year is on the horizon. For some, it may mean the apocalypse with Trump’s reign as the new president. For others, it may be a chance to start anew or continue in growth as a person. 2016 has been a festering pile of garbage – bearing ghastly moments we never thought would occur such as the death of some iconic people, tragedies with no end in sight, and political debates as wayward as a curved road.

We are standing on a hazardous shore with rough tides, wondering what exactly 2017 will promise us. We can swim out to sea and brave the choppy waves and roll with them, becoming a stronger being. We can stay at the shore and bide our time before making a move. We can watch from afar and carry on our lives as best as we can. We have choices, but we can’t turn away from 2017.

Despite the harshness of 2016, this year was by far the best year of my life. Not because of any celebrity’s death or the ungodly tragedies that scattered our world or even the winning elector. Rather, it was a year of meeting Internet celebrities I’ve been following for years, for being more of myself and becoming empowered, for meeting someone who I want to spend the rest of my life with, and for broadening my mind and world more than what I’ve already known.

2017 for me will mean moving on with my life. Yes, I’m absolutely terrified of what Trump will do especially to people of my feminine gender. This fear, paired with my depression and anxiety cannot dominate me. I’ve allowed it to win too many times in the past and frankly, I’m done with them.

Here are the things I need to do in 2017:

1.       Live – 2016 flew by and the older you become, the faster time flies. I need to take time with my hands and do with it what I want. By that I plan to live – go out more and try Cuban food or go to that museum I’ve always wanted to see especially with the one I love by my side. Time can’t stop me anymore.

2.       Work out – Hey, did you know your metabolism slows as you get older? Want proof? In January 2016, I weighed 120 and now I weigh 134. I need to tone my body, shake off the extra weight, and continue my fight to cut soda from my diet. Albeit, I do accept who I am physically and mentally, I realize that I’m getting older and my body isn’t what it used to be. I need to take care of it now more than ever. 

3.       Write – This goes in hand with taking time into my hands and doing what I will. I have to utilize time to finish my original works and work on the blog. I have allowed time to get in my way of publishing my entries due to my social life, a relationship, the holidays, and going out into the world around me. Yes, I apologize, but now I understand what I need to do.

4.       Improve  - This also ties in with working out, but more so on a mental note. While I do already accept myself mentally and physically, I still want to improve my anxiety which seems to attack me most in my life. I need to find ways to quell it so that it doesn’t affect me as much.

Thank you for reading tonight’s entry! If you enjoyed it, feel free to share, subscribe, comment and critique.

So tell me, what are your New Year’s resolutions?

Basic Tips for Cosplay

Good evening everyone and welcome to The Magical Mystery Blog.

Tonight I’m going to impart some wisdom that has taken me a good time to realize, especially when it comes to cosplaying. Cosplaying is dressing up as a particular character that you happen to enjoy. People partake in this activity at various conventions; myself included.

So far I have only cosplayed a Pikachu gijinka, Emily Cavanaugh Gracey, and a female version of Lupin the Third (green jacket). In the near future, I’ll be doing a few more cosplays. From my brief experiment, I’ve realized that cosplay is like crafting a science fair project that can blow up in your face or be incredible. Here’s hoping you learn from my advice.

3. Alter

Alter, alter, alter. Alter your cosplay to fit your budget (especially if you have priorities like bills and rent), alter your cosplay to fit your body type, alter your cosplay to fit your dreams. For cosplaying on a budget, Dollar Stores and thrift stores are an automatic go to. Tutorials also help and show you how to lessen the cost of your cosplay. Or, you could be incredibly lucky like me and somehow unintentionally have your cosplay halfway completed.

2. Plan Ahead

It’s always good to schedule yourself for crafting cosplays. It’s also good to safely financially structure yourself so you can make your orders online (and estimate their shipping time), while paying off your bills. Also, prepare back up options for things you need for your cosplay as opposed to being determined to use that one thing that the stores may or may not have. 

1.Give Yourself Time

This is something I still somehow manage to forget about because time rushes by, especially when you’re older. It’s currently April 14^th. My two cosplays are barely completed and I have two conventions on May 14^th and May 15^th. I also work during the week from 9 to 5 and when I get home I have even more personal work to do.

See my dilemma?

Now what I should have done was start my cosplay back in March or February, thus allowing me more time to do what I want to. Even so, I refuse to half attempt anything or rush it. I’ll be pulling all nighters to finish my cosplays because time is not going to stop me from doing what I want. 

Thank you for reading tonight’s entry. If you enjoyed it, feel free to comment, critique, share, and subscribe.

So tell me, what are some other good cosplay tips?

Coming to Terms with Thirty

Good evening everyone and welcome to The Magical Mystery Blog.

You know, there’s something I’ve realized anymore.

What is the ideal dream? Growing up, it was get married by thirty, establish yourself by thirty, and move out by thirty. Notice the word that keeps repeating there; ‘thirty’. Thirty is the dreadful number of society that signifies the halfway point of our lives.  Movies and shows have programmed it into our minds that thirty is the end all be all number to have our lives sorted out. If we don’t, we are doomed to be failures.

Yet I find anymore that that dream is just a built up societal trope. In our early to late twenties, we are doing everything: finding a job, having fun, living life, finishing school, starting school, finding ourselves, finding our future spouse. We are only human beings that can do so much. When we realize that we only have so many years before we hit thirty, we begin to panic. Some of us have already found a career, some of us may have already found a partner, some of us might even be out on their own; but what about those who aren’t any of these things?

Truth is, not everyone is established or happily married or moved out by thirty. In fact, there are still some single persons, some people who still live with their parents, and even some who are still working themselves to death for a job where they hope they can get a promotion. And you know what?

That’s okay.

It’s okay that some of us are thirty and still haven’t found our Mr./Mrs. Right. It’s okay that we’re still living with our parents because the housing market is ridiculously high and apartments have outrageous rent. It’s okay that we’re still trying to craft a career. We have time and by no means should that phrase intimidate us. Rather, it should inspire us because we still have time to do everything we’ve always wanted and take our time with love and life. We still have so many seconds to hold hands, chug a beer, take that Chinese class, and have fun. Yes, we can catch ourselves when we procrastinate because we’re intelligent and can differentiate between procrastination and relaxing from working ourselves to death.

So screw you society into making me dread ‘Thirty’ after all these years. ‘Thirty’ is nothing to fear at all, but rather embraced in knowing that we still have time on this Earth to find love, to work towards a career, and to be ourselves.

Thank you for reading tonight’s entry.

If you enjoyed it, feel free to subscribe, share, comment, and critique.

So tell me, what are your thoughts on hitting thirty?