26 November 2016

Rage

It is gravely alarming and disheartening how so many Filipinos are disregarding evidence and facts just to confirm their bias. The rampant historical revisionism that perpetrates the national consciousness (or lack thereof) makes me wonder – How did we come to this? What went so terribly, terribly wrong? 

Even while away from the country for a week, I dreaded reading up on the news. Before we departed and right after we arrived, the vitriol and the cult mentality that had gotten so deeply entrenched were too much to handle. I couldn't even get myself post too much of my travel. Because what is my moment of leisure compared to the deep wounds that my country is inflicting on herself? The latter deserves the attention more.

Is anti-intellectualism the root of this? Is the general public too indignant and too resentful of the "educated few," that, in their version of reality, facts and logic do not matter? What matters are just their emotions–their frustrations and anger at the broken promises of bygone eras–that they are refusing to see reason? Can we never go beyond personality politics? Are our leaders so thick and garapal that they don't care about the havoc they are causing just to pursue their self-serving agendas? 

I can't help but feel the remorse from the wasted generation of bright and patriotic youth who would have been our leaders today, but were killed during one of the darkest periods of the country's history. The very same dark period that this cult, this mob, is hailing as a golden era. This divisiveness masking as hyper-nationalism is setting us 30 years backwards.

I don't know the answers. But I join the movement in decrying the treason and crimes perpetrated in the past and here, now, in the present. I am hopeful for our youth who are adding their voice to the calls for justice. 

There is a thin line between alienating the masses, and helping them understand differently from their firmly-held bias. The powers that be now want us to shut up, move on, forget, and let things be. But we must power through–patiently, angrily, creatively, collectively. This country's got no one but us. And we got no other country but this one, either. 

Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light. (x)
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04 November 2016

A Potter Party

When the organizing group for the Halloween party with our counterparts discussed whether or not to have a theme, I was trying not to make it too obvious that I, in fact, do want to work with a theme. Forgoing the first suggestion to have a masquerade ball because of limited time for preparations, the shortlist consisted of Classic Hollywood, Alice in Wonderland, or Harry Potter.

I wasn't there when they decided on it. But I sure as hell was happy to work on a Potter-themed event. With one week to go, we began planning and working on the decors. I did a lot of Pinterest-ing and blog-hopping for ideas. (I will try my best to list down all the resources I used.)

We first worked on a fun backdrop which people can use for their photos. Originally, we wanted to have Platform 9 3/4 where guests can pose with trunks and owl cages halfway into the brick wall to the train station. But because we didn't have much time nor the right space for the platform, I thought about the announcements and posters throughout the series, to make some sort of a Hogsmeade bulletin board.

I printed various Potter wanted posters (both official and fanmade, hehe) on plain paper. I varied their sizes to keep them from being too uniform. Afterwards, we brushed the sheets with coffee and let them dry to give them the antique and worn-out look. 

Someone had a little too much fun working on these posters. 

I kept some of the posters after the event and put them on the wall of my corner in the office. (Too bad my phone camera couldn't capture how the color really is.)

For our table piece, we took inspiration from this setting, which featured Hogwarts textbooks, a large candle, and a chalkboard where the designated Hogwarts subject is written.

For me, the most tedious part of the entire decor-making process was making all the books needed for the 16 tables. We rummaged the whole office for books, eyeing those that are on the older side of the spectrum, with yellow pages and crumbling leather covers. There weren't enough of them, so I figured I could also put in some "modern" wizarding literature.

We found various covers and spines, both used in the movies and made by fans. We also made some of our own, since it was really tough matching the sizes of the books we have and the printables available. (We needed more titles than what's available. Haha.) It was also kinda fun to play with fonts and bring to (semi-) reality the book titles from the Wizarding World.

Some of the books for the tables. Our conference room became an assembly line of Hogwarts textbooks. Haha.

Don't ask me where these bottles came from. :))

To keep the table from being too bare with just the books in the center and since we couldn't put big candles on the tables because of fire hazard, we opted to add bottles painted in gold and silver to add height. The bottles also held the mini House banners we made as well as short (heh) descriptions of the subjects.

Our mini Hogwarts library!

These descriptions were printed again on plain paper, cut and brushed with coffee. We then pasted them on cardboard, whose edges we burned to come up with the old parchment look. We then stuck these inside the bottles and put them on top of the books. One office mate did the lettering on the chalkboards, and we added a couple of tea lights on each table to finish the look.

 


Perhaps one of the earliest ideas for this party was pulling off the floating candles of the Great Hall. Unfortunately, we weren't able to execute it well as we found (and bought) the tea lights we needed a little too late. :( In addition, there weren't many available in the stores anymore to make for an impressive enchanted ceiling, so we opted to put the tea lights to illuminate the table decors instead. 

We asked for gold table cloths and black napkins to inspire some medieval ambiance to the venue. To add some more House pride, we had the four crests printed on tarps and displayed them in front. (It was really fortunate that the size and division of the stage was just right for the four banners. :)))

And, here's our finished product:





And here's how the photo wall looked like:

We printed some props for the photo wall and pasted them on the sticks.
Guests to the party weren't required to be in Harry Potter costumes. Any old Halloween costume was fine. I was planning to go as a character from some other franchise universe, because I didn't want to go as a Ravenclaw student without the right scarf or even tie. Unfortunately, laziness got the better of me and I just went as a Ravenclaw student after all. The costume was easy, anyway. And, well... sayang naman kung hindi ako belong sa decor! :))

Aside: If I were being nitpicky about these posters, I would insist on sticking to just using posters from a specific period in the Potter series. (I know that Harry and Sirius and the Death Eaters weren't wanted all at the same time by the Ministry. :))) It was all very anachronistic. 😂 But I found it so fun to just print everything I could get my hands on and mounted them on a single wall. 

Later, I would learn that the guests also liked taking photos with the wall as their backdrop, even those who were obviously not fans of Harry Potter. So, yay! Mischief managed.

Harry and Hermione! Awww. :3

Fun with the photo wall! 😄




🙈
There are a lot of stuff that I wish we could have done to make the party look more epic. But overall, it was a really fun event. And I really did enjoy decorating. 


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Resources

Idea prompts:

Printables: 

Here are some of the book spines I made, using free fonts and textures:


Did I say I enjoyed preparing for this Halloween party? 😂 #sorrynotsorry #potter5ever
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