mikaalyssa

[mikaalyssa]

DISNEY + TRIVIA

SLEEPING BEAUTY (1959) BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (1991) TREASURE PLANET (2002) FROZEN (2013) THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (1996) HERCULES (1997) MOANA (2016) MULAN (1998) OLIVER & COMPANY (1988) ATLANTIS: THE LOST EMPIRE (2001)

[mikaalyssa]

[mikaalyssa]

Whenever I talk about Cobra Kai I refer to Robby as “Treasure Planet.” Tell me I’m wrong.

[mikaalyssa]

made a beginners guide for the twitter newbies hope this helps <3

[mikaalyssa]

The bathroom sinks at the Shrine Auditorium need help 😩

[mikaalyssa]

Your plane ever taxi for so long you forget it’s supposed to be in the air? Buckle up guess we’re driving across the country.

[mikaalyssa]

Regarding YouTube react channels:

I hate on those channels all the time, but I always find myself looking for those videos once I’m obsessed with something.

It was another YouTube comment that made me realize, oh I’m living vicariously through this channel, because I can never re-experience X for the first time?

Was this obvious to everyone else? Am I just behind? 😂

[mikaalyssa]

Descanso Gardens: Carved (2022)

It’s time for Descanso Gardens’s annual Halloween event, Carved! This was my second time attending, and both times have been solo. 

It’s very family-friendly (parents and children being the largest demographic I saw) with plenty of couples out for date night as well. 

The event features intricate, massive, hand-carved pumpkins, including a table where you can watch the carving in process! There’s also plenty of fake jack-o’-lanterns, their staple bug sculptures, and other spooky lanterns. There’s also mood music and mood lighting all throughout. 

[more photos and event details after the jump]

My ticket was for Friday, October 14th, 7pm. Right in the middle of the month, and perfectly timed with sunset. It was, as expected, a popular time slot! I’ve been to 3 or 4 Descanso events, but this was my first time parking in overflow (staff). It took about 5 minutes to park, but the line was much shorter than I expected. Only 2-3 groups in front of me (3-4 lines running at the same time). 

There’s food, snacks, and the gift shop when you first enter. During a peak time, it’s crowded the whole way through. Lots of children and strollers, especially in more narrow pathways. If you want to avoid crowds, I’d suggest a random weeknight and maybe a later time, but don’t know for sure! 

There’s a large Carved photo op at the beginning, but it seems you’re unable to enter the line until the very end. 

The path you follow is more or less a giant loop, but with many offshoots and pockets of areas. If you want to see everything, you’ll have to double back constantly, but nothing is too crazy out of the way. 

I didn’t get any food or drink, or go through the pumpkin house, but I stopped at all the main pieces, took photos and videos, and doubled back to see everything. Start to finish I was there almost exactly an hour, and according to a fitness tracker I walked about half a mile. 

There’s always a line to take photos in the pumpkin house, but it never seems too long. 

There was a hay bale maze, lower than waist height. Definitely meant for children but that area was lawless and rowdy! The kids with running through full speed, jumping from hay bale to hay bale, I’m surprised I didn’t witness any collisions. 

My favorite part is always the light rings around the trees. You step on the colored circles and, for Carved, they play different spooky noises. There’s a couple trees with ramps so they are wheelchair accessible! 

Those hand-carved pumpkins are the star of the show. Last time I went, they were all throughout the pathways with the fake pumpkins (where you see the dress sculpture above). But this year, they were near the front of the garden, but towards the end the of the loop. 

A wide variety of themes such as in memoriam, shows and movies, games, and iconic monsters. 

If you’re into a cozy fall/Halloween event, where you get to walk around outside, hang out, and look at cool stuff, I highly recommend it! 

DETAILS

Carved runs nightly through October 31, 2022, time tickets from 6pm - 9pm. 

General admission is $38, with children 2 and under being free.

If you have an annual membership (like me!) ticket sales open early and general admission is $26 ($12 discount). 

You can present your ticket on mobile, but there’s not an Apple Wallet (or similar) version. 

Small note: My one ticket order triggered 4 different emails. All have the same ticket attached! 

⭐ Skip this  ⭐ ⭐ Worth checking out  ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ Must do!

[mikaalyssa]

Journey to Zero: August Update

No buy challenge.

Used up (1) facewash, (1) travel shampoo, and (1) bar of soap. I have extra on deck for all these categories, so no buys or swaps this month! 

[mikaalyssa]

First Impressions: Submerged (Switch)

Well, this was supposed to be first impressions but as of writing I’m more than halfway through the game. 

I’ve never owned my own console before so I’m also trying to balance enjoying it but not losing productivity everywhere else. 

I wanted something with story but quick and simple enough to ease me in, and so far this game has been perfect. It’s advertised as having no combat, and is really just about boating from sunken building to sunken building to collect supplies and heal your brother. 

I wouldn’t say any of the following is spoilery, but read at your own risk.

Main story. You and your brother happen upon this submerged city. He’s injured and sick, and you need various supplies to heal him. There’s 10 boxes of supplies that need to be retrieved. And it seems you find what you need in the order you need it (when your character says “I need something to stitch up the wound”, you may have options for supply boxes, but whichever one you go to will be a needle and thread). 

Every time you get a supply box, you get 4 panels filling in the story of your family. 

You go from building to building and do a lot of climbing. No skills to learn or level up. This makes the main objective incredibly easy to complete and finish. But since I’m a bit of a completionist, that leads us to: 

Bonus content. There are plenty of things to collect that are interesting or helpful, but don’t contribute to healing the brother: boat parts, creatures, landmarks, the city’s story. 

Boat parts help boos your boat. The more you have, the longer you can boost. I don’t really use the boost feature and kind of prefer sailing idly. 

Creatures are the animals around the area. There’s 8 to encounter, and you get a little panel when you cross paths with (aka literally boat over?) one. The game doesn’t tell you what the 8 creatures (or landmarks) are, so you don’t know what you’re looking for.

Landmarks are, well, landmarks. You have to drive up to one and trigger a small cutscene. Could be a large statue, a half-sunk ferris wheel, anything that looks... landmarky. 

The city’s story is the most intensive bonus content, with 60 pieces to collect. It’s collected one panel at a time and out of order (a certain location is a certain piece of story, you won’t get the story in order regardless of where you collect). 

Pros. These (along with cons) are just personal, my opinion, for me. 

I like the chill pacing of the game. I like that I’m not on a time crunch to save the brother or he’ll die, allowing me to look for bonus content and fill out the map. And it’s good to know there’s no combat, because that’s not for me right now. 

I like that there aren’t skills to learn, and I could leave this unfinished, pick it up 5 months later, and still know exactly what to do.

The artwork is gorgeous, the comic/glyph-esque bonus content is cute, the music is nice. 

Cons. 

I just don’t like any game that has nighttime or storms. I get it, I appreciate it, but I can’t see a thing. 

Can’t quite figure out how the telescope works? As in, sometimes it’s putting things on your map right and left, other times I’m right in front of a building that I can SEE has supplies or bonus content and it doesn’t register. Just not sure how much I should be focusing on the telescope. 

It seems you can only save one copy of the game? If I wanted to have one finished file that I just browse and enjoy from time to time, but ALSO wanted a new file that I could play from start again, it doesn’t seem like it’s possible? I’d have to erase the finished file? 

I assume I’ll still be able to explore and finish getting bonus content after I get 10/10 supplies and heal the brother, but I’m not sure... 

Have you played Submerged? Did you like it? What are other Switch games like it? 

[mikaalyssa]

Digital Camera Diary: June 2006

I guess I don’t know the exact date for this one? Not sure why files change the info for when something was created. 

I’m almost certain this was at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I have memories of coming across tide pools kind of regularly at a young age, but haven’t seen one in years. 

Any good West Coast beaches with tide pools? Maybe one day when we can travel again I’ll check some out.

[mikaalyssa]

Digital Camera Diary: May 25, 2006

I’m really upset that I didn’t get the entire flower in the frame!

I don’t know what kind of flower this is or where it came from, but it was the one and only time it grew in the backyard. We never saw it again. 

[mikaalyssa]

Digital Camera Diary: December 10, 2005

Yes I covered my face lol. 

I’d just started high school. The Sun In, the flare jeans, the S. 

Both of those dogs have since passed. Sophie was a golden/sammy mix, the snow dog really showed up in that floofy winter coat. She looks so bear-ish in this photo. 

Puppy never got a proper name (long story), but she was as good as a chihuahua can be. I forget how sleek and skinny she used to be! A lot more elegant looking than she was later in life (no hate lol). 

The rest of the image is the same today. My parents are still in that house, that little statue is still in that spot. All the furniture is the same, the dining rug, the plants, the lights. I think only the runner in front of the sliding door has been switched out. 

[mikaalyssa]

Digital Camera Diary: November 20, 2005

We’ve jumped a lot of time since the last post (more than a year). There wasn’t too much in between, but it’s entirely possible that a lot was just lost to disorganization and time.

This entry is cheating because these photos were taken on a film camera. There was a period of time where we’d also purchase a CD to have them digitally. 

My family always travels for Thanksgiving, but I think this was one of the only times (if not THE only time) we went to Carlsbad. I remember really enjoying this trip and hope we go back sometime in the future. 

It’s funny that I’d choose to waste most of the film on the timeshare and not the people, the food, or anything else, but that’s also very on brand for me! We thought that place was sooo nice, one of the nicest spots we’d ever stayed. 

These haven’t been edited, but I love that they have a certain look to them (can you tell I’m not educated in photography in any type of way?). Probably just the flash, LOL.

Have you ever been anywhere as a child that you thought was AMAZING, but recently realized was perhaps not that special? Or any similar type of experience? I’d love to hear about it. 

[mikaalyssa]

Language Journal 8.2.20

Back again! 

The problem with the first one is I definitely cheated, I looked up words I knew but couldn’t think of. Especially with French because it was distressing how much I’ve lost. 

Anyway, not going to look anything up and really going to expose myself on this one. But just doing a fake story and not an actual journal entry. 

I also figured out a loophole for ASL. No video, but I’ll gloss what I think is correct grammar and only include signs I know? Idk. Unfortunately cuts out non-manual markers, though ... 

Corrections more than welcome, please come for me!! I’ll be correcting what I can for myself but not sharing here. 

August 2, 2020 / English (from lingua.com, A1)

My family is very important to me. We do lots of things together. My brothers and I like to go on long walks in the mountains. My sister likes to cook with my grandmother. On the weekends we all play board games together. We laugh and always have a good time. I love my family very much.

Le deux août, deux mille vingt / French    

Ma famille est très importante. On fait beaucoup ensemble. Mes frères et moi, nous aimons promener pendant longtemps dans les montagnes. Ma sœur aime cuisiner avec ma grand-mère. Le weekend, nous jouons ensemble les jeux de table. Nous rions and nous amusons toujuors. J’aime beaucoup ma famille. 

Il due agosto, duemilaventi / Italian

Mia famiglia è molto importante. Noi facciamo tanto insieme. Miei fratelli e io, noi piaciano ... Mia sorella piace cucinare con mia nonna. ... noi giocchiamo insieme ... Noi ricaniamo e ... Mia famiglia mi piace molto. 

(rough!)

2 AUG 20 20 / ASL

MY FAMILY IMPORTANT. WE DO A LOT. LONG WALK, MY BROTHERS WITH ME, WE LIKE. MY SISTER, SHE LIKES COOK WITH MY GRANDMOTHER. WEEKEND, WE PLAY ... ... HAVE FUN. MY FAMILY, I LOVE A LOT. 

(does this work well enough? y/n? in case it wasn’t clear I haven’t hardly had practice with grammar!)

[mikaalyssa]

Journey to Zero: July Update

First month (though not a full one) of taking these guidelines to heart. 

No buy challenge.

I used up (1) moisturizer, (1) facewash, and (1) face sunscreen. I have moisturizers and facewashes on deck that I’m still getting through. 

Containers will be washed and recycled. 

Eco friendly swaps.

Though I love those Neutrogena chemical sunscreens... they’re bad for the environment and coral reefs! The store was all out of CeraVe’s mineral sunscreen (thanks, Hyram!) so I picked up Neutrogena’s mineral version. I’m pretty sure this is still Hyram-approved and doesn’t seem to have any of the harmful ingredients. 

I have a lighter skin tone so I’ll probably be ok with whatever white cast this happens to have, hopefully. 

(Is this even a face sunscreen? Does it matter?)

[Every Journey to Zero post.]

[mikaalyssa]

Journey to Zero: Intro

First thing’s first, the goal of this ongoing challenge isn’t to ACHIEVE zero waste, but it’s to do what I can when I can to get closer and closer. 

There’ll be two main categories in this journey

No buy challenge

Eco friendly swaps 

No buy challenge.

First I will use up (donate where applicable) what I already own. I already have it, I already bought it, I feel like to toss/recycle without using it is more of a waste! 

Eco friendly swaps.

It won’t be possible for every new purchase to be 100% eco friendly and zero waste (IMO), but once it IS time for me to make a new purchase, I’ll be doing what I can! 

Is there a reusable version of what I need to buy? 

Is there a biodegradable version? 

Is there a version with better packaging? (No packaging? Glass or paper instead of plastic? A bulk size?)

I’ll try to update this once a month, with any empties and swaps for that month! 

Have you already made some eco friendly swaps in your life? What are your favorites? :)