How Many Cups of Sugar Does it Take to Get to the Moon?

My other job, the Disney Store, does this nifty thing where they hold a nation wide trivia challenge for Disney Store employees as a way of encouraging Cast Members to be knowledgeable so they can better impress guests.  They've got these trivia scratchers they're using to test our knowledge leading up to the big test, so I've been thinking about trivia lately.  So I figured I'd put some of my trivia facts that I know up here, and maybe you guys can post some more.  This is a far from exhaustive list, because I know a disturbing amount about Disney, but there you have it.

The three peas in a pod from Bonnie's room in Toy Story 3 have names: Peatey, Peatrice, and Peanelope.

Merida was celebrated as the eleventh Disney princess, but there are actually more.  Snow White, Cinderella, Belle, Ariel, Aurora, Jasmine, Mulan (yes, I know, she's not a princess, but the company acknowledges her as one.), Pocahontas, Tiana, Rapunzel, and Merida are the ones typically acknowledged by the company, but there are a couple more:  Eilonwy from The Black Cauldron and Kida from Atlantis.  And now, of course, we have Anna and Queen Elsa.

The town in Pete's Dragon is called Passamaquody.  I may not have spelled it right.  I think I did, though.

Paul Winchell, the voice of Tigger, also invented the first artificial heart valve.

As you're exiting the new Little Mermaid themed ride at California Adventure, one of the silhouettes on the wall is Hans Christian Andersen's, the creator of the original story.

On Disneyland's opening day, there was a gas leak and half of the park had to be closed, which was really lousy because someone forged a bunch of press release tickets and so the park was already overcrowded.  And it was ridiculously hot out.  It was an absolutely terrible day all around.  And now Disneyland is the happiest (and probably richest) place on earth.

The gold circle in the floor just behind the castle used to mark the exact center of Disneyland until Toontown was added on.

The hard thing about trivia is I can't figure out what I know that people would be unlikely to know!  So much Disney knowledge in my head!  Haha.

Hope you guys found something cool; share more stuff with me!

Oh yeah, I should give posts titles!

Today's post is part informative/educational/historical, part Disney shout-out, and part multi-subject eulogy; have you guys ever been on Mulholland Madness at Disney's California Adventure?

You know, the crazy, jerky, all-over-the-place-I-almost-flew-out-of-the-car-and-may-or-may-not-have-a-safety-restraint-shaped-bruise-now-ride?

You know, the one that's not there anymore?  That they transformed into Goofy's Sky School (changing little but the paint job and the smoothness of the ride)?

I have two cool things (well, I think they're cool, and if you're reading this, you'll either think they're cool, too, or stop reading) to say about it.  The first one is something that's not actually so cool at all, but it reflects something cool about the Disney brand.

I saw Mulholland Madness die.

I didn't see them literally tear it down, but the last time I went to DCA before they shut it down for good, the ride looked like a ghost.  The paint was extra faded, the ride was the jerkiest it had ever been, and everything looked....well, faded.  Past.  Bleached out.  Not present anymore.  Dead.

Now, while that seems terrible, let me take a second to point out why I noticed this.

If you go to most theme parks, or most places in the world, faded things are just part of life.  If something's that high up in the sky and exposed to California sunshine all the time, it's going to fade over time.  And that time won't be as lengthy as the painters might like.  In fact, all of the rides at DCA and Disneyland (and all over SoCal) are constantly at the mercy of the elements, by which I mean blazing sunlight.

But you never see the other rides faded.  You never see the paint chipping.  You never see gum on the rides.

Disney holds itself to incredibly high standards; I know this both from working for the Stores and from my intense love of the brand that brings me back to the park again and again (regardless of whether I should really be spending that money or not).  Everything is White Glove Standard; nothing is ever out of place or in disrepair.

That's what made it so heartbreaking that Mulholland Madness died.  I've never seen another Disney ride (or any part of the park, for that matter) fall into disrepair.  It was the shadow that threw into sharp contrast the overwhelming brightness of the rest of all things Disney.

The second thing I have to say about Mulholland Madness, and this one really is cool, I promise, is a bit of background information about the name.  So, as many know, the ride is named after that crazy street in Hollywood, full of twists and turns.  What not so many people know is that the street was named after William Mulholland, the first water supplier for Los Angeles County.  Heading what would later become the Department of Water and Power in LA, William Mulholland tackled the problem of how to find enough water in the desert to keep a growing population of people alive.  He immigrated here and was essentially self-taught; he didn't attend college, and he learned about the layout of the city and its waterways and power lines by studying blueprints of the city at night after he got home from work.  He was a brilliant individual, and he was eventually given the job of supplying water to the county.  The problem was, he was far too good at what he did.  He found water for the people, channeling it away from sources so far away people told him it was impossible, and he successfully ended water shortages.  The problem, though, was that the county kept growing.  Despite Mulholland's warnings, the county kept expanding and growing, requiring more and more water (the history of the map of LA and the water shortages is actually really, really interesting, but I won't go into the whole long thing here because I'm getting pretty long-winded as it is).  Eventually, the county overstretched Mulholland's means, and he was temporarily discredited, but he made huge contributions to LA that shaped the city, the county, and much of the surrounding area.  Most of the problems and controversy that surrounded him was due to the pressure put on him by the mayor of the city.  Anyway, this was probably the single coolest thing I learned in my California Cultures class, so I figured I'd share it :)

California is so cool; there is so much to learn about it!  Makes me wonder why I didn't become a history major (oh, yeah, I'm bad with dates.  That's right).

Anyway, I've babbled a lot, but I did manage to post two blogs in a week!  Pretty impressive, right? ;)

Shadows over Camelot and Other Adventures

So, Melody has brought it to my attention that I need to blog again.  It's true; I do.

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned to you guys already that I am a procrastinator, but, for once, I'm not blogging to procrastinate; in fact, this will probably be a blog written in segments during all of my random few minutes at a time of down time.  Might as well do something productive with that time, right?

Speaking of productive ways to spend my time, I'm going to blog today about one of the things that I think is an incredibly worthwhile way to spend time that most other people probably think I need to cut out of my life: board games.

I'm doing this new thing in my life where I stop stressing out about things and make time for what I think is important instead of stressing out and then staring blankly at a computer screen during times that I know are not my productive times because that's the only time I had to work on things so dear God I've got to get it done now what am I going to do aaaaaaah!
So, to avoid that, I've decided to take life a little bit more slowly.  And that means more board games.

I only recently became aware of the incredible awesomeness that is board games for adults.  I mean, I'd play Monopoly every now and then, but let's face it, Monopoly ruins friendships.  To be fair, though, there are definitely board games I play now that are just as cut throat, but they're way more entertaining, so everyone's more willing to forgive each other after the game's over.

I learned about the wonderful world of gaming largely through a friend of mine, but a really great web series that is not only entertaining but helps teach games is Tabletop.  It's a youtube series Wil Wheaton runs, so you know it's good.  He has all sorts of fun guest stars on with him, too (when he played Pandemic, one of my favorite games, he had Garfunkel and Oats on, and that was pretty cool.  I think that's how they spell that.  Probably not.  They're funny, anyway.).  So I've seen a few pretty cool games on there, and it's great, because I have five younger brothers, so I've got a pretty good built-in board game group (when they cooperate, which is sometimes with a hint of rarely).  I also play with a few friends of mine, including lots of friends I only made because of gaming.  Gaming's not just for nerds, y'all (yes, yes it is.  It totally is.  Embrace your inner nerd!)

So, anyway, because I got super sidetracked again, I'm going to tell you about what I originally intended to tell you about but didn't get around to yet (editing?  Outlining?  A point?  Whaaat?  Not for blogs hahaahah), which is Shadows over Camelot.  Shadows is the best board game known to man.  Slight exaggeration.  Not really.  Shadows is a fantastic cooperative board game where players act as knights of the Round Table and try to complete various quests to bring balance to the Camelot and restore the kingdom.  Sounds awesome, right!?  It also opens up a cool role-playing element because you can't tell people what cards you have, but you have to cooperate.  For example, if you need someone with a Fight 5 card (the highest fight card, which is used for battles) to come with you on a quest, you would boast that you are fighting fit, but you need only the strongest of knights to accompany you on your quest!  The game is designed for 3-7 people, and you can incorporate a traitor.  If one player is the traitor, he or she is secretly working against all of the other knights.  It's fantastic.  It's super fun.  We should all play it together :)

Anyway, Shadows over Camelot is one of the ways i am occupying my time and healing my soul, and I'm excited about it.  I could literally talk all day about that game and how many white swords I got and how hard a particular quest was or how I beat the dragon all by myself!  haha.  Seriously, though, you guys, buy board games even though they're ridiculously overpriced, because they're fantastic and they make life better :)