Galactic Starr Party

Tuesday, 13 December 2016Friday, 23 December 2016 Starr3 Comments

You may have noticed that I love dressing up for a themed party. I even made a resolution to throw my own themed party, and I started trying to figure out Pinterest to scour for ideas for theme that seemed too obvious not to do.

Screen Shot 2016-12-10 at 9.42.08 PM.png — Look who learned to use Pinterest!

So for my upcoming 25th birthday, I decided to throw a galactic star(r) party! And finally put my previously-useless skill of finding star things to good use! It did seem a bit self-indulgent to have a star party but spoiler alert: I am a little sick of stars now, so we will all be seeing just a bit fewer of them in my life.

15288716_10208217173686915_1849215700508141158_o — Time to focus on our little blue dot for a bit

An initial challenge was picking the date. Because I have a December birthday so close to the holidays, my party would have to compete with holiday parties and festivities all over the place. I also tried to take into consideration that two of my friends who were key in helping me pull the party together may need to help another friend with his birthday party. I picked the first weekend of December to try to play it as safe as possible with regards to conflict.

Once I had the date, it was just a matter of slowly accumulating things I wanted to have at the party. As a girl named Starr, I have seen and been shown a lot of starry, space-themed, galactic things. Little by little, I started collecting pieces that I wanted to showcase.

15271809_10208217173006898_7297886139030749750_o — Planetary glasses – ThinkGeek | Star string lights – Target | Star-shaped cookies – Trader Joe’s | Photo credit: Meghan Vu

Make no mistake: even though I love logistics, this was stressful to plan. I was really unsure of how much food to get, because I wasn’t planning on serving enough to be dinner, but I didn’t want people to be hungry. I wasn’t serving alcohol because I don’t drink, but I haven’t been to a dry adult party… ever…?

Menu: Veggie spring rolls, Taiwanese popcorn chicken (thanks Irene at Jumbo Jumbo!) Chicken McNuggets (40 for $8.99 the best deal!!!), veggie trays (for nutrition!), Martinelli’s sparkling apple cider, assortment of fancy sparkling juices and sodas, assortment of my favorite chips. Also some people brought booze and I may have been one of them.

I got 2 cakes in case there wasn’t enough. (Spoiler alert: I had way too much cake. Not only did we not touch the 2nd cake, we got through way less than half of the first one. Maybe the biggest mistake of the entire party was ordering that second cake.) A big part of my decoration initially was candy, so then I got to worrying about how many sweets I had. (A lot. It was a lot of sweets.)

img_5365-cesm — Galaxy lollipops – SparkoSweets SparkoSweets | Photo: Meghan

I got my first-ever salon manicure in preparation for this, and that was a strange ordeal because the nail tech really wanted to fulfill a vision of different colors with different glitters on all my nails! I was only able to put my foot down so much but I think it still turned out lovely, despite the orange (gr…) and pink glitter bits. She was so convinced that it was a cute polish and she wasn’t wrong. I just wanted… only silver glitter. I lost that battle but I won the war.

This beautiful dark teal with blue sparkles that is barely showing through in the photo is CND Midnight Swim, with a more colorful glitter than I planned for…

I also spent the days leading up the party in a mad panic trying to get the finishing touches and getting express shipping for things that I almost forgot about. Oops. I originally planned to get my hair blown out so I’d have one less unruly thing to worry about, but things don’t always work out the way you plan. There was also the incident where Ben and I spent over an hour searching for an item I could’ve sworn was on the dining table only to later discover it still in the mailbox.

15271806_10208217173966922_8613924118374158607_o — I became fixated on the idea of serving bubble tea at my party, because I wanted a beverage I loved that went well with cake. I got several without the bubbles, knowing that some people still weren’t quite used to them. Photo: Meghan

What really came through for the aesthetic of the party was the lights. As nice as the little pieces of decor I had looked, with how large the room was, what really pulled the entire thing together was the 30 strands of fairy lights that I was able to borrow.

Another key show-stopper was my stunning galaxy mirror cake.

The making of the above photo involved holding the box for the Trader Joe’s star-shaped cookies and flashing a cell phone flash light through it over the cake.

A thousand thank yous to Lavande Patisserie and their pastry chef, Chef Andrew for making my dream cake. My friends wanted to do a grand reveal of the cake to me, and I was blown away. It looked even better than I expected!!!

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img_5402-cesm — With colored-flame candles! Photos: Meghan

My only regret is that I ordered 2 cakes out of fear that there wouldn’t be enough. As it turns out, people were pretty full and couldn’t even eat 1/3 of the first cake. So… we brought back a LOT of cake…

IMG_5424 CESm.jpg — A silly photo of me anxiously trying to slice the cake… and finding the mirror glaze was not so easy to cut! The little crown on my head was gifted to me a few minutes prior to the cake, I did not show up at my birthday party wearing a crown… Photo: Meghan

Oh yeah, and I wore ThinkGeek’s incredible twinkling lights skirt! It was a lot of work to string the lights through it, but I think the result was well worth it.

I am also eternally grateful to my friends who helped me put together the party. Annie, who is a party professional, was invaluable to me, as was Tim, who put together the amazing photobooth.

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I wish I had taken more photos of the event, because there were so many starry details that I put together for it. Different lights, different decals, there was an origami lucky star station. The games, the gifts, the wonderful themed outfits my friends wore.

I will have to just cherish all of that in my memory, and I hope my friends will, too.

I’m so grateful that I was able to pull this party off. The best feeling was looking around at all the friends that I’ve made. I have been reflecting a lot on what kind of friendships I have and what kind of friend I am over the past few years, so I am always amazed and appreciative of the friends who choose to spend their time with me.

Thank you to all of my friends who joined me to celebrate stars and space! I had a stellar time and hope you did, too.

6 Places to Start Your Gift Search

Friday, 9 December 2016Friday, 9 December 2016 StarrLeave a comment

For a lot of people, December brings about a lot of gift anxiety. I don’t know about you, but sometimes I put a lot of pressure on myself to buy gifts for people. Either I know them really well, so I want to make sure the gift is something personal that reflects how well I know them, or I don’t have a close, personal relationship but still want to make a nice gesture without being too weird about it. For some folks, you know exactly what to get them. But more often than not, the holiday season comes around and we’re not sure what to get for our managers, our extended family, our children’s teachers…
And gift exchanges can also be their own can of worms.

Finding the right store to look for a gift can make or break your gift-buying excursion. A lot of very different stores often have a gifts section that is great to look at. If you don’t want to buy something from that section, it might give you a great idea with regards to a gift you can get!

Places that I find myself visiting —online or in-person— even if I don’t buy anything, are:
(Note: I tried to include screenshots that have products for both genders, as some of the gift pages tend to be geared towards female recipients.)

TJ Maxx / Marshall’s / Ross

Discounted department stores are one of my favorite places to start looking for gifts. In December, in particular, they will start keeping lots of easy-to-gift items at the front of the store. It can be easy to get overwhelmed because of the variety, but some items you can look for – depending on the people you are shopping for – include:

Fitness, e.g. yoga mats, foam rollers, water bottles
Self-care, e.g. face masks, sleeping masks, hot water bottles for aches and pains
Pets!, e.g. the large selection of pet toys that are available
Food & drink, e.g. a specialty coffee or snack

This is also a really great stop if you have a budget limit for your gift, like if your white elephant has a $10 cap on it.

Screen Shot 2016-12-09 at 12.18.57 AM.png — You can start your search online for ideas as well. This is from the new arrivals page on TJMaxx.com

ThinkGeek

I love browsing ThinkGeek when it comes to my nerdy friends and/or my friends who are really into a particular movie franchise/TV show/video game. Even if I am not familiar with the fandom itself, I can get some inspiration as to what kind of merchandise is available for it and what people are interested in buying. You can get anything from T-shirts and mugs to more specific gifts to the interest. When my friends get really into a video game, or I often discuss shows like Game of Thrones or Doctor Who with them, I go to ThinkGeek and start getting ideas for what kinds of things to get. Even if you don’t think your gift recipient has any super nerdy interests, you might still find something that’s just really cool to receive!

Screen Shot 2016-12-09 at 12.23.03 AM.png — Here’s a selection of their best-selling gifts

Urban Outfitters

I have never purchased clothing from UO but I love browsing the gifts and non-clothing items they have. They have books, candles, cute kitsch, or Instax cameras, but because the collection is so eclectic, you can also get ideas for gifts to look for elsewhere if nothing specific jumps out at you. Stuff I’ve gotten for gifting include really cute Korean skincare products and a grow-your-own bonsai tree kit! It’s one of my favorite places to browse for gifts and get ideas.

Screen Shot 2016-12-09 at 12.24.35 AM.png — A selection from the under $12 section of their gifts page

Francesca’s

The store is more geared towards women, but their gift section is really cute. This is also a really good place to look if you have a bride-to-be in your life, as they always have some great gifts for brides in the store, as well as the incredible cat-themed section of the gifts table. If you are shopping for someone who really embraces how they fulfill some “basic” stereotypes, you might want to check out Francesca’s.

Screen Shot 2016-12-09 at 12.26.30 AM.png — A lot of great gifts categorized by interest

Barnes & Noble

Definitely a good place to look for a book lover in your life, but they also have a lot of other things you can look through as well. Not only do they have a lot of craft + skill books (e.g. origami books, recipe books, etc.) that are great for gifting, but they have board games, figurines, puzzles, journals, planners, book accessories, and tables of themed gift-type items! Around this time of year, they are usually Christmas-themed items. One year, I got a cute mug with peppermint hot cocoa mix and a teensy little whisk.

Screen Shot 2016-12-09 at 12.30.31 AM.png — An interesting mix of gifts that is organized by interest

Drugstores (CVS, RiteAid, Walgreen’s)

The gift aisle of drugstores is king for two types of gifts for sure: mug sets and face/body sets (e.g. lotion + body wash, nail polish sets, etc.) . In recent years, I’ve seen the sets get less generic and more fun! For example, one year, I got Ben a Darth Vader-shaped mug that was filled with Hershey kisses. We were more interested in the mugs, so I ended up getting the rest in the Star Wars collection of head-shaped mugs. They have a lot of different gifts, so you might be surprised by what you can find that is a safe gift for someone you don’t know as intimately, for a white elephant gift exchange, or to donate to a gift drive. It’s also another reliable spot if you’re looking for a gift within a stricter price range.

So the next time you need to buy a gift for someone and have no clue where to start, try checking out of the six spots I mentioned above. I also really like browsing curated gift guides by bloggers and larger websites because they can have a lot of great ideas for gifts as well!

If you’re still having trouble, comment below and tell me what kind of person you’re shopping for or what kind of gift you are looking for and I’ll try to direct you to a place or a gift guide to start you search!

Do you have any go-to places when it comes to buying gifts when you don’t have a specific item in mind?

Weapons of Math Destruction (2016)

Tuesday, 6 December 2016Monday, 5 December 2016 Starr2 Comments

If you enjoyed Freakonomics, I think you’ll really enjoy Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O’Neil. This book is crucial as we become an increasingly data-driven, automated world.

http://images.randomhouse.com/cover/9780553418811?width=450&alt=no_cover_b4b.gif — Weapons of Math Destruction: How big data increases inequality and threatens democracy

While it’s very exciting that we have machine learning and big data, O’Neil highlights how important it is to realize that the algorithms that we allow to run our lives in an attempt to avoid human biases are, in fact, developed by biased humans. Or they run in a biased context. And it’s important to think about this, especially in the wake of things like social media algorithms that keep us in echo chambers of people repeating shared opinions back at us and with more and more tasks becoming automated to the point where we don’t know why things happen anymore – we can only point to the computers and say “the algorithm did it”. Although the book came out before the 2016 US presidential election, she touches on the danger of our News Feeds and the fake news that can circulate in these echo chambers, which has become a huge topic of late. She also touches on how Weapons of Math Destruction were involved with the 2008 housing crisis, which was why she left the hedge fund she previously worked at.

O’Neil is not afraid to name names, either. She calls out specific companies that enable and encourage data-based biases, like police predictive software and teacher evaluations. This book really opens your eyes to the kinds of injustices that we are no longer able to say is the fault of people and, instead, just shrug and say, “Well, the numbers don’t lie.”

And it’s true, numbers don’t lie. But the thing with the Weapons of Math Destruction, which are carried out at a huge scale, is they often don’t receive feedback as to whether or not they’re working. Unlike sports statistics, which O’Neil thinks is an ideal use of data because they are constantly calibrated based on whether or not the predictions were correct, these WMDs plow forward with no regard to whether or not the predictions are correct. This is all the more dangerous if they are written with biases in them or designed as self-fulfilling prophecies.

This was one of my favorite reads this year because I am fascinated but apprehensive about the role that big data is taking in our world. While I was busy worrying about what companies can do with my data (still a valid concern!), it’s so important to understand the the lack of transparency with how some of these big data predictions and decisions are made have very serious consequences.

I highly highly recommend you pick up this book and learn about how companies are using data to perpetuate biases and to learn ways that we can start critically thinking of solutions to avoid just that.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for my honest review.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016)

Friday, 2 December 2016Friday, 2 December 2016 StarrLeave a comment

After stuffing myself on Thanksgiving, I went with a group of friends and my brother to go see the newest from J.K. Rowling’s magical world, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

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As I’ve gotten older, my appreciation for the well-crafted world that J.K. Rowling dreamed up has grown and matured. What the canonical material lacked in depth and insight, I found in Tumblr’s fantastic Harry Potter community.

So what did I think of the newest prequel to the Harry Potter film franchise, which is the first of five films?

In general, I liked it! It was a fun movie to see, and it was nice to revisit the wizarding world in a new film. Sometimes, the last HP movie seems like it came out just yesterday and then I remember that it was released 5 years ago…

I have to say that having the film take place in the United States… was a fun choice, but not an obvious one. And when I say that, I mean that I frequently forgot that the events in Fantastic Beasts takes place in New York City. It still felt very British to me, except for the actors who forgot to do British accents!

Let’s talk about some of the actors and characters, shall we?

Eddie Redmayne is a darling. Here’s a great piece by Bustle about the roles he has chosen and how they challenge toxic masculinity. I have to agree that Newt Scamander is not a traditional Male Movie Hero. He seemed to struggle socially, but he cared so deeply for his beasts that he was smuggling in his suitcase. (There is a theory I like that Newt has adapted his body language to be non-threatening based on his experiences with his fantastic beasts.) You do root for him, and I think we needed a male hero like Newt.
I can’t say that I particularly liked Katherine Waterson’s Tina Goldstein. She seemed to struggle a lot at work (at the American Ministry of Magic, MACUSA) but her struggles seemed so easy to avoid. It was just another case of strange social interactions. Her earnesty and unwillingness to be swayed from the right path was admirable, as was her compassion that is revealed throughout the film.
Apparently people have been talking about Alison Sudol’s Queenie a lot, because she’s a very Marilyn Monroe-esque character who is ultra feminine in contrast to her sister Tina, who is no-nonsense. She even says herself that her sister is the career woman and she… isn’t. But I really liked that she is comfortable with acknowledging that she doesn’t have the same career ambitions her sister has; not everyone does, and women who don’t are not less feminist than women who do! I also loved that her thing is her prowess with Legilimency (mind-reading). It added a beautiful layer of compassion and empathy to her character, and I found her really hard to dislike.
A fan-favorite character out of this film is Jacob, played by Dan Fogler, who is a muggle. Sorry, “no-maj”, ugh. He encounters the magical world the way we, the movie-goer, do: with awe and wonderment and wide eyes. Seeing this amazing, fantastical things for the first time is amazing, and while we had Harry acting as our eyes and ears in the original movies, Jacob is a funny and endearing way to experience magic as someone who did not grow up with magic. And yes, he is very funny.
I think Colin Farrell is finally being recognized for having more depth as an actor, given his earlier work, but these past few years he’s really stepped up his game. He plays Percival Graves with this dark solemnity that you’ll recognize immediately, that guy who doesn’t want you to succeed, that guy whose motivations you can’t quite pin down (until the end of the movie, of course!). I love Colin Farrell and I’m glad to see him play an antagonist like this.
Let’s also say that Ezra Miller’s portrayal of Credence was… chilling. I am not super familiar with his work, but I felt very thoroughly on edge whenever he was on screen. Interested to see how his portrayal of Barry Allen will be!

I had a few little issues with plot and story, and even with some of the world-building in this movie. (Why use Accio instead of Expelliarmus? Not sure.) I think the world-building in this movie was weaker than in the Harry Potter movies, but that could also be partly due to how high my expectations are after having additional world-building done by the HP fandom. Still, there were many times where I felt I had to really suspend belief.

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One thing to consider when watching is how easy the magic comes to the wizards and witches we see in this movie. We are not watching teenagers learn magic, with a few exceptions in-between. We are watching adults practice magic, as they have been doing for years, many of them who do so professionally. It’s very different and it’s something to get used to – people performing magic with little to no difficulty at all.

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The movie was a lot of fun though. Lots of action, lots of creativity and imagination. All the fantastic beasts were great. It’s a much darker movie than the Harry Potter films, and I want you to be ready for that. There is abuse. There are gruesome deaths. More serious family drama occurs. This is not a children’s movie, the way the Harry Potter movies were. It’s a movie for the young adults who watched Harry Potter when they were kids.

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