https://www.thenerdelement.com/2022/03/31/some-disney-theme-park-updates-including-disneyland/
Hi everyone! Today I have some interesting information about the Disney theme parks in the U.S. and some good news out of it! So, Let’s get started, shall we?! So, Disneyland Resort is bringing back up-close character meet-and-greet photo ops. The traditional up-close character interactions will return as early as April 18 to Disneyland and Disney California Adventure. Disneyland visitors will be able to hug Mickey Mouse, high five Goofy and strike a royal pose next to Cinderella as the Anaheim theme park once again allows up-close meet-and-greet photo opportunities with Disney, Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars characters. Non-distanced character meet and greets will also return this spring to Walt Disney World, the Disney Cruise Line and Aulani hotel in Hawaii. Up-close meet-and-greet opportunities may not be available at all locations immediately. It’s been nearly two years since Disneyland visitors have been allowed to get within 6 feet of walk-around characters due to COVID-19 health and safety protocols requiring safe physical distancing between fans and Disneyland’s best-known employees. “I’m crying,” mother Samantha @Schafe1215 posted on Instagram after Disney posted a video Wednesday of a velvet rope being removed and Mickey Mouse making a hugging gesture. “I can’t wait for my kids to be able to hug Mickey for the first time.” She really misses hugging the Disney characters! The long-awaited change had been anticipated by park-watchers with the Star Wars: Galactic Star cruiser hotel at Walt Disney World and Disneyland Paris allowing up-close interactions between characters and visitors beginning in early March. Disneyland, Disney World and other Disney theme parks around the world have used socially distanced selfie spots to keep characters and visitors at least 6 feet apart since reopening after extended coronavirus closures. Disney parks also used playful character sightings in out-of-the-way locations to keep even more distance between fans and characters. Character interaction locations at Disneyland like the Fantasy Faire Royal Hall where visitors meet Disney princesses have remained closed during the physical distancing requirements. Pixie Hollow reopened in mid-March after a nearly two-year closure, but Tinker Bell still maintained 6 feet of physical distance from visitors. The Moon Knight character from the latest Disney+ show joined the lineup of Marvel superheroes and villains in Avengers Campus this week at Disney California Adventure. Mickey and Minnie’s houses will remain closed for character meet-and-greets while Toontown undergoes a major renovation through 2023. Disneyland had suspended traditional character meet-and-greet photo ops and up-close character interactions — including hugs, high fives and autographs — out of concern for the safety of employees during the coronavirus pandemic. Each Disney theme park location around the world has its own set of COVID-19 health and safety protocols based on local government mandates that determine when physically distanced character interactions can return. Disneyland resort president Ken Potrock said during a recent interview that bringing back traditional character interactions would mark a major milestone. “We’re optimistic that the character experience is going to get back to a new normal,” Potrock said in late February. “Many of the things that we did with the characters standing behind you and social distancing — a lot of that worked. But that’s not the only way we want to have people interact with characters. That will be a big milestone change as we go forward.” Disneyland and Disney California Adventure lifted face mask requirements in mid-February. Disneyland encourages visitors to get vaccinated, but does not require proof of full vaccination status to enter its Anaheim theme parks. So, I’m pretty happy that we all can possibly hug characters again. I remember hugging some characters back in 2019 right before the pandemic hit. And now, it is time to make people feel happier than ever because it is the happiest place on earth! This news came from the Disney news I looked at today!
So, what do you guys think about the meet-and-greet character photo ops coming back to Disneyland and the other theme parks around the world?! I would love to hear lots of comments, thoughts, opinions, questions, or concerns down below! Stay tuned for Disney updates.
The post Some Disney Theme Park Updates Including Disneyland! appeared first on The Nerd Element.
Healing is the new self-care. This component of personal development focuses on freeing oneself from negative experiences and trauma. With the hostile climate of racism, sexism, and general discrimination, women need more ways to protect themselves from the harsh reality. Natalie Watson-Singleton, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist at Spelman College, did a study of 158 adult Black women, that showed that those who agreed with the Strong Black Women schema experience psychological distress. (Journal of Black Psychology, Vol. 43, No. 8, 2017).
Having ways to move past the painful events in one’s life is crucial to well-being. Thus, the concept of healing is plastered throughout social media. Leaving the proper way of healing to be misconstrued. Some popularized self-healing techniques offer temporary fixes and lead women to avoid emotional wounds instead of healing from them. Improper healing may delay those uncomfortable feelings, only to leave you to be triggered by someone or something that brings painful memories.
If you’ve been on the journey of understanding your emotions, reducing negative energy in your life, and want to live a joy-filled life, being healed is the key to unlocking your happiness potential. Let’s look at the process of healing and the five signs that demonstrate you have healed or are on the path of healing.
Emotional healing is the process that comes after a moment or a period when you’ve experienced strong emotions, intense emotional pain, or trauma. It requires that you acknowledge the emotional moment in your life and move to a place of processing and accepting the painful moment.
Whether emotional healing is done through therapy, mindfulness, or simply practicing self-compassion, it’s important to remember that moving past any type of emotional discomfort takes time.
Like a physical wound, simply bandaging a cut will temporarily stop the bleeding. Taking time off, having a girl’s night out, can temporarily ease the emotional pain. But under the bandage, the wound will still bleed unless your body closes it by healing. If you haven’t truly healed from your past traumas and pain, your emotional wounds will bleed into the areas of your life that make you happy. It’s important to know what healing truly involves and how to apply those techniques to your life.
As mentioned before emotional healing is a process. Here are some ways to better understand if you’re on the path of healing or if you’ve been distracting yourself.
Feeling your emotions: Emotional healing doesn’t mean your heart turns to stone. You don’t feel any emotions. Nor does it mean that you are happy all the time and nothing can bring you down. Instead, you can feel your emotions in their entirety and not be controlled by them.
You feel better in your body: Have you ever wondered why you’ve experienced odd aches and pains in your neck, hips, or back? Maybe you’ve associated it with a bad night of sleep or just growing old. However, those aches and pains can be associated with the emotional trauma that has been stored in the body. Think back to a stressful moment in your life. Naturally, you might feel your shoulders tense up as if someone punched you.
This is because your body has a physical reaction to stress. Your body will often release cortisol to activate your body’s fight or flight mode. With constant exposure to violence in the media, the fight or flight response can be triggered more than often. Leading our bodies to collect and store tension and stress we haven’t processed. Feeling good in your body can be a sign that you’ve released some of that pent-up tension.
You can accept help from others: The strong Black woman or the independent women persona can affect how open women are to asking and accepting help. There is a misconception that asking for help can make someone appear weak or inexperienced.
You’ve forgiven yourself: We all know that everyone makes mistakes. However, we tend to treat our mistakes as a fifty-pound weight we need to carry everywhere. Instead, let that weight down by forgiving yourself. Allowing what happened in the past to stay in the past and move forward through forgiveness and self-compassion. Knowing that holding on to the past will do nothing for your future.
You’re not so easily triggered: Being triggered means having an emotional reaction to a tragic event. Types of triggers include internal triggers, which means an internal function causes an emotional response. For example, a fast heart rate might trigger a memory of running away from something harmful. External triggers can come from outside forces such as a movie, a song, certain types of conversations, even places. Triggers can take time to overcome through proper healing, you can learn to adjust, adapt and respond to them instead of re-experiencing a tragic event.
Emotional healing can be uncomfortable and liberating. However, it can be a necessary process that aid in better physical health, leading a less stressful life, and overall happiness.
Afronerd Radio can now be heard LIVE courtesy of Apple Music/Itunes
Well...there's never a dull moment, huh folks? Let's go! Due to time constraints, we're going to keep it tight and terse. It's Afronerd Radio's Mid Week in Review broadcasting live tonight at 8 p.m. eastern on BTalk100. Join your highly-revered AFROnerdist hosts as they attempt to make sense of this (mid0 week's topical du jour: what happens when two Black comedic icons clash at the Oscars? You tell me:
Then there's the long-awaited debut of Moon Knight at Disney plus and we give our impressions of the first episode; legendary actor, Bruce Willis retires due to a grave diagnosis-aphasia; there appears to be renewed interest in the DC IP, Swamp Thing; a Disney exec recently announced n initiative to have at 50% minority and LGBTQ representation in forthcoming projects and again, if there is time, perhaps we can address some issues left on the virtual kitchen table from Sunday's Grindhouse.
One thing that Dburt is doing (finally) is investing in cryptocurrency, courtesy of Roundlyx. We would implore our followers to investigate, discern and then explore by using our referral code: afro-87A4BF
Call us LIVE at 508-645-0100. AFTER CLICKING ON THE HIGHLIGHTED LINK, GO DIRECTLY TO AFRONERD RADIO!!!
Also, Afronerd Radio's podcast format can be heard via BTalk 100 Pandora, Spotify and, IHeartRadio....more formats to follow!
No matter if they’re tweens, teens, or young adults, this list features the best toys for older kids!
Hello, all! Every time I return to you, I’m always excited for what I have to share with you. Honestly, it’s hard not to be because just when I think I can’t top the last item, I find something else that catches my eye. Today, we’ll be looking at toys for older kids between the ages of 8 to 18 plus. I’ve separated them by age groups because not all toys rank on the same level, and we don’t want any kids feeling like they’re being babied. You know how some kids can be. However, if you use my list, you’ll have nothing to fear, because there’s a toy here for every older kid no matter what their age!
So, once again, I hope you all enjoy. Now, let’s get to the list!
Rainbow High Dolls: Georgia Bloom
Let’s start our list of toys for older kids with this charming item! See, I lived through the era of Barbie, Bratz, Monster High, and many more. So, every time a fashion doll came out after those, I was always a little bit skeptical about if they’d be able to live up to the hype of my childhood. When Rainbow High stepped onto the scene, I had the same reaction. But as I frequent the doll community, these have really grown on me.
Honesty moment: I have personally never cared for sports. Maybe, because, I take it personally that I wasn’t good at most of them. Unresolved melodrama aside, I’ve always thought one of these would be so cool to own. Especially, if you get it and add it to your family’s personal arcade area.
So I have a question, like do you like slime… or do you love it?! Personally, I remember when making slime took off and I too became intrigued. It was marveling how creative slime could be. All my experiences with slime before this were limited to the green slime from Nickelodeon (aka Gak). So, this kit’s quite the step up!
Am I the only one who saw this and thought it was WALL-E? Like, that’s the vibe it’s giving me. And, honestly, with those eyes, can you really blame me? What I love most about this, is how many ways you are able to build the robot, making each build a new experience.
As a girl who grew up in the 2000s, I feel like the appeal of making your own jewelry to show off has never died. I was so jealous of the girls who could make the braided plastic lanyards (still am, tbh). Eventually though, I got my own kit and made my own necklaces and bracelets. So, seeing this really brought back a lot of fond memories.
A drone made for kids and beginners alike. This tiny drone is small enough to fit in a child’s hand while still being capable of pulling off some neat little tricks. My favorite part is how it’s so compact it folds right into the controller.
For even more options, scoot on over to our list of the top remote control cars for kids!
Continuing our list of toys for older kids, we have this modern classic! Remember when it seemed like no one could get their hands on one of these bad boys? Even more, how, when Covid hit, it seemed like the entire world got infatuated with Animal Crossing? I admit, I spent way too much time on my island trying to make it perfect. Nobody wants a raggedy looking island! Even now it still feels like it’ll never be perfect, and that haunts me.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Countercade
So, I have obsessions with many fandoms. One that’s very personal to my heart is the TMNT franchise. Mind you, I didn’t grow up on the 90s version. My first introduction was the 2003 Series on 4kids which I loved! Now, I’ve seen all the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series. Seeing this feels like it’s a personal need. My bills, who?
Monopoly: Avatar The Last Airbender
I haven’t played monopoly in so long, but this got me thinking about picking it back up. I get the urge to play these themed Monopoly games cause they’ve put something I like on there. Avatar: The Last Airbender is absolutely one of those shows that had a grip on my soul. Like, I still want to be a water bender to this day; I don’t care! If you guys were a bender what element would you want to control?
Love Avatar? Check out our list of the best Avatar: The Last Airbender toys, decor, and more!
Funkoverse Marvel Strategy Game
Not gonna lie, when I first saw this, I thought they were just a cool bundle pack of Funko Pops. But seeing that it’s an actual game, I am officially curious. Personally, I’m still a little confused on the rules, but I’m totally open to learning. Besides, you could always think of it as a two for one deal. If you don’t like the game, you can keep the adorable Funko figures. Win-win.
I think you can’t go wrong with a good model kit. Especially considering, you always get so many wonderfully different options. As someone who recently got addicted to Demon Slayer, I want to start collecting everything I can—I know, I’m late to the party. While I want it all, this Tanjiro is most definitely at the top of my list!
For those of you with budding photographers, you can encourage and inspire them by getting them this digital camera. Able to print full color photos that double as stickers, I can just see school lockers and mirrors covered in cherished moments captured on film. Plus, kids can always use the microSD card to upload any of the pics to a computer, so they can keep those memories forever! Don’t forget to snag some extra photo paper!
I feel like ever since Infinity War, there’s just some really crucial things that come to my mind. The famous snap of course, but also how cool it’d be to own an infinity gauntlet, and the heart wrenching “Mr. Stark, I Don’t Feel So Good” meme. I don’t care how long it’s been, or that things got better, it’s still too soon! Despite my personal feelings and slight fear of stepping on a Lego, this stunning set has my heart.
While researching this article, I felt like I’ve seen something like this Raspberry Pi kit before, like a faded memory. It’s bizarre how much this feels so familiar. Maybe, it’s because of the compact keyboard. Like, I remember owning something exactly like this and loving every moment of it. Beyond my strong sense of deja-vu, the fact this comes with it’s own how-to guide is fantastic. You can connect to any monitor, but I recommend this compact 7″ monitor, compatible with all versions of Raspberry Pi.
Din Djarin, aka the Mandalorian, is my space boyfriend, there I said it. So, of course I want a highly detailed replica of his iconic weapon. No, it’s not capable of disintegrating anyone, but it does shoot Nerf darts! Probably for the best, I’ll just leave at that. Also, this requires 2 AA batteries, so make sure you pick some up!
For our final item on our list of toys for older kids, I give you this incredible kit. At this point of my life, I’ve been more interested in building stuff more than I ever imagined I could be. As a kid, finishing things like puzzles to see the overall picture felt like a challenge. So, I sped through just to prove I could get it done. But now, there’s something therapeutic about slowing it down and kits like this make me excited! To be clear, this does need to be assembled and requires glue, so be sure to pick up the tools as well as the glue you need to get started!
The post Best Toys for Older Kids by Age appeared first on Nerdy With Children.