The Marvel Experience

Hello Blogger Friends! 

Beginning the fourth of February, I have been traveling to the city of Del Mar in San Diego to represent Marvel in their new attraction "The Marvel Experience." I got to admit that in the beginning I struggled in accepting this role. For those that know me KNOW that I take my role as a Mother very serious and being away from my son is a battle I struggle with all the time, mainly because of the time spent away from my mother at a young age so that she could give me a better life by coming to the states. A song I wrote entitled " ESA MUJER" talks about this experience in full details, if you have yet to listen to it, check it out on sound cloud: 
                          https://soundcloud.com/alicia-paniagua-soto/2-audio-track

With all that being said, I am so happy and blessed to have accepted this role because it truly opened a lot of doors and allowed me time for self reflection. 

This past Sunday Pastor Joel Sanchez from Sunrise Church reminded me how important it is to take time to separate yourself from the world and talk to God. He states, " The world is not going to stop for you, you can't put the world on hold, but you can take yourself out of the world." Remember that often, "Jesus withdrew to the wilderness for prayer." (Luke 5:16)
Therefore, despite the fact that I am in San Diego for work purposes, the Lord has put in my heart to spend a lot of time in nature admiring all the beautiful things He has created leaving me with the undeniable feeling that God surrounds me. 

With that said I would like to talk about this great event happening in the Del Mar Fairgrounds. I was lucky enough to shake the hand of the genius behind all this Rick Licht.

 Here he is having a blast! I admired his enthusiasm for his event, he walks around with the actual movie props allowing people to take pictures with them.  He is always talking to people and just making sure that all are having a marvelous and enjoyable experience. The most striking detail I came across was the fact that he too is an Alumni from my Alma Matter, UCLA. After finding that information out, I got to admit I was extremely proud to represent for this gentleman. 

So now let's talk about the actual experience. It is a seven dome hyper-reality adventure. I took my son along for the ride and he had a blast. I also was able to share this experience with a sorority sister and her family, and I was glad to hear that they too thought the event a success. Following you can view a map of the event. 

Here are some pictures of this event as you walk up to it. 

 Here I captured some night photos! 

As you enter the S.H.I.E.L.D Plaza (Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement Logistics Division) you become a recruit and your goal is to help save Marvel World. In the SHIELD Plaza you have the option to obtain a SHIELD ID badge. My son had a blast making his! Don't just the height! ;) (We like to be taller sometimes)

During some down time of my shift I also partook in the fun! 

Chose the SuperHuman Species because I like to consider us super humans in God's image! 

After completing this first part of the training you move onto the Recruiting Staging Area, where you wait to enter the SHIELD Mobile Command Center.  Before you enter you get to take a souvenir picture! 

Once you enter hear a Message from Tony Stark also known as Iron Man as he prepares you for your mission.  After this, the real training begins as you enter the Recruit Training Center. Here you immerse into so many fun activities, the Excavation Site, Avengers Encounter, which has to be my son's and I favorite. Here you get to summon your favorite superheroes and watch as they interact next to you. Here are some fun photos we took! 

 Spiderman partaking in the selfie millennium trend! 

Here the two of us are viewing the Hero Origins, where you get to know where and how your favorite super heroes came to be. 

I enjoyed learning about She-Hulk because prior to this event I didn't even know she existed! 

Excavation Site! 

This part of training also proves to be full of fun! The Holo-Blaster, a 3-D experience where you sharpen your shooting skills! 

These pictures do it no justice and my mini-recruit refused to wear his holo-specs during the training! 

The wall over the Black Widow Maze attraction. 

 These are fun artwork me and my son created prior to training with the Hulk at Hulk Out!

Hulk out has to be one of my favorites! Maybe I am biased because I manned the site two of the days at work but the innovation of the X-box Connect just blows my mind! 

    

Here is a fun video of my son fully immersed in training! 

If you get hungry, no worries you can go to the Energy Cafe, grab a chair and be entertained as you watch others train with Hulk! 

You can also enjoy the Classified Files where you can view Comic Covers blown up for better enjoyment! 

Once you are done with all your training you enter the Quinjet Exit and you begin your advanced training. Here you recieve your super power band. 

As a SHIELD agent I received a super power band with just SHIELD Icon badges, but the bottom one shows all the badge icons available to you. 

Soon after this process you enter the similarium, a thrilling experience you won't want to miss out on! 

 This is a snippet of what you will be viewing! 

After this section you enter the Transfer Dome, where you hear further instructions and clips from various super heroes and villains. 

Here is my mini recruit patiently indulging for the next part of training! 

The last part of your training consists of a thrilling motion ride! I am so blessed to have been able to share this experience with my son, he will forever remember this as he is always raving about Spider-Man. 

If you now want to catch this event, your in luck because it will be in town until Sunday, March 1, 2015. 

So don't miss out! 

Of course believing in super humans, super heroes is fun but it all reminds me that we must not loose focus of the real super hero in our lives God. 

Remember that you never know how or why God is using you to proclaim His Glory. Also as Pastor Joel explained your physical limitations do not carry over in the spiritual world. He further explains that your power does not come when you do good things but rather when you spend time with the Father. Some people in the eyes of the world don't amount to nothing but in the spiritual world they are giants. All they have is the spirit of God! Our goal is to have people ask, 

I wonder why they love me in that way? 

Will you allow yourself to be used by the power of God? 

I like to conclude with this, as we find ways to entertain being Agents in the Marvel World, remember that in the real world we must be agents of love so that everyone can say we have seen marvelous things today! 

No matter what you may be struggling remember this: 

Romans 8: 28-29

²⁸ And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who^[a]have been called according to his purpose. ²⁹ For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.

Stand Up!

Good Morning! 

Happy New Year and everything that I have missed in between. I know I have been away from my blog for quite some time, but life sometimes takes the best of us. 

I have always believed that it's not about how many times you fail but what you do after that really counts. 

So here I am, back to share with the world my insights, my struggles, my lessons in life so that you may grow and prosper into something bigger and greater. 

I'd like to open 2015 with the topic of bullying. It's something that keeps growing and sometimes we turn our cheek to try to ignore it or pretend that it will just get better on its own. In reality it truly doesn't . We can't let things keep spiraling out of control, this topic is affecting many in our generation. 

This morning I watched a movie on Netflix by the title CyberBully and it reminded me of all the hurt I suffered when I was young and was subjected to bullying. For a long time I have been waiting to touch on this subject but now more than ever I think it's permanent and necessary to address. 

Although I didn't grow up with constant internet access, bullying still existed in my days. 
Jealousy in others created hatred in their hearts.
The attacks stemmed from all sorts of areas, for not being American, for coming from an unheard of country, for being short, for having good grades, for being popular, for being an athlete, a scholar, and for having good looks.

Being pretty was not something I chose but a God sent gift and it took me years to actually appreciate my own external beauty. To me physical beauty has never really mattered. And if you don't believe me I am pretty sure many of my girlfriends will vouch as they critiqued my choice of taste when it came to the opposite sex.
I am a firm believer that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Furthermore, I also think that beauty is skin deep, beauty is love. I think that people are all beautiful in their own uniqueness. Of course some of us were blessed by the Lord above with what I like to call pleasing to one's eyes. 

But just listing all the areas I was teased about exhausts me. My step-dad would always advice me to just ignore their comments and to not pay attention to them, but now as an adult I realize that this was the wrong approach. I had a lot of pain because of all the insults I was subjected to. Even now as an adult the story does not cease. I still find myself being undermined and attacked sometimes even by those close to me that are suppose to love me unconditionally. 

The movie I watched really touched home because I found myself many times feeling like the main character Taylor, all alone with no one to turn to. There were a few times that I thought I could not go on with my life. People would spread rumors about me and I just couldn't understand how or why they would do such a thing. None the less, I did nothing about it. I just kept it all in, all to myself. I would cry in my room from time to time but thank God that he loved me so and watched over me because without His comfort I don't know what wold have happened. 

I am thankful because despite this constant struggle, God has placed individuals in my journey that remind me of my strengths and encourage me. Just remember that the devil is a hungry prowler and he attacks us in our weaknesses.

So for anyone going through this struggle I recommend this. I know those words hurt and people don't seem to realize how much words can hinder another. It's okay to acknowledge the hurt but you must take action. If ever there is something bad that is said of you on the internet, print it out, screenshot it, have some type of proof and record of it. The next best thing you can do is block that sender so you no longer have to subject yourself to their negative comments. Lastly, you must speak up! Tell someone, report it to the Bullies Internet Service Provider but no don't hide behind your fear. Do whatever it takes to stand up for yourself and for others. 

I hope that you can take inspiration from this blog and stop this nonsense from hindering your journey in life. 

I'd like to close with this biblical verse which speaks about being slow to anger and speak. 

James 1:19-27New International Version (NIV)

Listening and Doing

19 My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20 because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. 21 Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.

22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

26 Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. 27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.