All Aboard! All Aboard!

Where are we going? Why into my head of course, this is Stranger Things Have Happened! Well, you coming?

Happy Holidays! Yes I parodied the Polar Express, I could have parodied the actual song you know. I have that talent.

It's the squirrely mind of a high school girl, 
Never takes a rest. 
Zipping through a million zillon thoughts. 
Come with me and follow the thought 
(You can come with me) 
If you just say yes! 
Cause Stranger Things Have Happened 
Is eclectic, that's right.

Oh, and she does it again! Anyway, what was I doing, that's right. Happy Holidays! It's December! And finals week! (cue weak yays) Anyway, I'm ready for this week to be over, but I thought I'd brighten my own life up, and maybe yours as well in the process, by writing a post because hey, I'm me and I do what I want... Sometimes. Now... Let's get down to business, to write this post. Did you come for a rant, when I aim to 'tain? (Oh look another parody... A rather weak one, but still a decent one). Anyway, let's talk... Christmas specials. Those are on now right? Yes, cool.

PREP AND LANDING IS THE BEST! That's it. Ok, that's not it. I generally can't stand Christmas specials for two reasons. One- they are almost always those stop motion things and those creep me out. Two- if they aren't stop motion, they are freaking Charlie Brown and there is only so much of that kid face palming and saying "good grief" that one can take before one starts face palming and saying "good grief" themselves. But there is one (ok, two) Christmas specials that I can stand... Disney's Prep and Landing. Have you ever wondered how it all gets done? How Santa gets in and out of millions of homes all in one night? Let's just say he has a little help. The operation has its challenges, but Prep and Landing always prepared. Their mission statement is: Get in. Get out. Never be noticed.

Prep and Landing came out in 2009. In 2011, they got their sequel. Prep and Landing has that typical lesson learned thing that Disney is known for, but it's also filled with one liners and moments that just make it awesome. There is a reason that Dasher and Dancer are my favorite reindeer, that reason is Prep and Landing. It's just sooo tinsel! Although, really they should have just made it about the reindeer. Keep it together Dancer. Anyway, that's Prep and Landing. If you ever get a chance to watch it, watch it.

Now moving on to... nothing... Random thoughts.

I want to watch the Polar Express.
I want to watch Prep and Landing.
I wish life wasn't so strange.
Disney is awesome.
I want to be a pixie.
I think I might write stuff over the break.
Mannheim Steamroller!!!!
I like parodies.
My random thoughts are kind of boring tonight.

Ok time to wrap this up. Happy Holidays! Good luck on finals! Make good choices, and jingle all the way. Dash away all, Sanders out.

Let's Talk Disney

I've been wanting to do a Disney post for a while. I sat down about a month or so ago and was going to do a Disney princess ranking but then once I started it I found myself not being able to genuinely dislike any of the princesses and/or rank them over the others. Cinderella, the one I've had the most dislike for over the years, suddenly wasn't so bad. I was torn and found myself unable to finish. So I scrapped the idea of a Disney post... Until now.

I've recently decided that Disney is awesome and the source of all things good in this world (hey, reading the Oh My Disney! Blog does that to a person). So what do I go do? I go and find out more about the magic that is Disney. I find the secrets and stories and little known facts about the company, the making of the films, and the parks. And boy was all of that information interesting. For instance; After Bambi came out, The American Film Institute has ranked “man” as the #20 villain in the “100 Greatest Heroes and Villains” list (I just checked, it still is!). I also learned some behind the scenes things about the parks, like the fact that Cinderella's Castle at the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World can withstand hurricane winds up to 90 miles per hour. Some might say I'm ruining the magic, but personally I found it all the more magical. Also did you know there is a secret "vault" that is The Disney Animation Research Library, in Glendale, LA. Very few people who don't work within the animation get to actually see it. Drawings from the early days that are variations of the iconic characters that we know today are housed there. More early drawings are always being added because over the years, things have been strewn all over the place and sometimes sold. Disney is working to find and buy back these missing pieces of Disney history. Evidently, in 2006 the ARL got a call from a museum in Japan who had found some Sleeping Beauty artwork which had been left behind after an exhibition in 1959. That whole article was very interesting and had scans of some of the early drawings. But there was still so much more about the untold stories and secrets of Disney. So I hoped on Amazon and started looking for books. I found some and read the excepts and just had to read them myself. So I did the Kindle Unlimited free trial and got some of the books I wanted. So this holiday season I'm going to have some fun reading about the behind the scenes things about Disney. I'm putting links to things I mentioned below in case anyone wants to look into the magic themselves. For now, Sanders out! (here's a piece of art from my favorite Disney film)

'A Serenade for Lady'' by Michelle St. Laurent

Links!

Oh My Disney! Blog [Link]

16 Beloved Classic Disney Movies Locked Away in their Vault (slideshow) [Link]

Inside the secret Disney vault that is home to over 64 million pieces of animation artwork [Link]

List of Books I Found on Amazon [Link]

Thoughts on Shooting and Some Other Things

Ok, so the world seems to be descending into chaos. Let's kick things off with Paris. Paris suffered a terrorist attack in November. Bombings and shootings in three different areas across Paris. Emergency response and Paris Police were spread out to help and figure out if anything else was going to happen. If you live under a rock and have no idea what I'm talking about (or just want to refresh your mind about this event) here's a link... [link]. That was ISIS. Now let's go back further to a plane crash in Egypt. A Russian passenger jet exploded and was brought down on it's return trip from Egypt. The explosion was from a homemade bomb. ISIS has claimed that bombing as their work. Now let's go to the attack on Beirut, the one left unsung but still claimed by ISIS. The Beirut attack is one that media forgot about when the Paris attack happened [link to Beirut].

"A fiery double suicide bombing terrorized a mostly Shiite residential area of southern Beirut on Thursday, ripping through a busy shopping district at rush hour. The Lebanese Health Ministry said at least 43 people had been killed and more than 200 wounded in the worst attack to strike the city in years." - NY Times, ANNE BARNARD and HWAIDA SAAD

Now fast forward to the most recent event on US soil. Two gun people, a married couple, went on a shooting spree and killed 14 of the husband's co-workers and wounded many others in San Bernadino, California. ISIS is now claiming the shooters as supporters [link]. Before this threats were made against the US. A WWE event in Atlanta. The Macy's Thanksgiving Parade. These events still went on as planned without anything going wrong. But the point is, things are happening and they are happening now. We read and learn about history in school, but we don't usually consider the events around us as becoming history. Sure we have little things like so and so has a new chart topper that's broken this record, or this new ruling is changing the country this way or that. At the time they are huge but in the grand scheme of things, they are small details to a bigger picture. BUT when small details start having a common detail, then they start creating large details and start forming big pictures. These events are leading up to something, I don't know what, but something is happening, like something's a brewing, about to begin... Mary Poppins reference to lighten the mood. This is history. It's happening now. What's going to happen now? Where do we go from here? Well, how about an inspiring speech from a movie president...

"Good morning. In less than an hour, aircraft from here will join others from around the world. And you will be launching the largest aerial battle in this history of mankind. 

Mankind -- that word should have new meaning for all of us today. We can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore. We will be united in our common interests. Perhaps its fate that today is the 4th of July, and you will once again be fighting for our freedom, not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution -- but from annihilation. We're fighting for our right to live, to exist. And should we win the day, the 4th of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day when the world declared in one voice:

"We will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight! We're going to live on! We're going to survive!"

Today, we celebrate our Independence Day!" - Independence Day.

So yeah, keep moving forward. This post when in a different direction than I originally thought it would go, but hey I think I like it. So keep going, stay alert, don't let fear control you. Sanders out.

Criminal Minds Week - Points to Ponder

Here are some of my favorite bookend quotes from the first three seasons of Criminal Minds. Not as long as yesterday. Enjoy, Sanders out.

"The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary. Men alone are quite capable of every wickedness." - Joseph Conrad 

"When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche 

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world." - Albert Einstein 

"Nothing is so common as the wish to be remarkable." - (attributed to) William Shakespeare 

"A belief is not merely an idea the mind possesses. It is an idea that possesses the mind." - Robert Oxton Bolton 

"Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves." - Confucius 

"A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you, the less you know." - Diane Arbus 

"The house does not rest on the ground, but upon a woman." - Mexican proverb 

"We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others, that in the end, we become disguised to ourselves." - François de la Rochefoucauld 

"Whoever undertakes to set himself up as judge in the field of truth and knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods." - Albert Einstein 

"No man needs a vacation so much as the man who has just had one." - Elbert Hubbard 

"It has been said that time heals all wounds. I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue, and the pain lessens, but it is never gone." - Rose Kennedy 

"The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer 

"Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of overcoming it." - Helen Keller 

"We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark. The real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light." - Plato 

"It's not so important who starts the game, but who finishes it." - John Wooden 

"Remember that all through history, there have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they seem invincible. But in the end, they always fall. Always." - Mahatma Ghandi 

"Between the idea and the reality, between the motion and the act, falls the shadow." - T.S. Eliot  

"Between the desire and the spasm, between the potency and the existence, between the essence and the descent, falls the shadow... This is the way the world ends." - T.S. Eliot 

"Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity, nothing exceeds the criticisms made of the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well-warmed, and well-fed." - Herman Melville 

"Nothing is easier than to denounce the evil doer; Nothing more difficult than understanding him." - Fyodor Dostoevsky 

"Fairy tales do not tell children that dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children that dragons can be killed." - G.K. Chesterton 

"The noir hero is a knight in blood caked armor. He's dirty and he does his best to deny the fact that he's a hero the whole time.” - Frank Miller 

"For we pay a price for everything we get or take in this world; and although ambitions are well worth having, they are not to be cheaply won." - Lucy Maud Montgomery 

"...within the core of each of us is the child we once were. This child constitutes the foundation of what we have become, who we are, and what we will be." - Neuroscientist, Dr. R. Joseph 

"The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love and to be greater than our suffering." - Ben Okri 

"No man is happy without a delusion of some kind. Delusions are as necessary to our happiness as realities." - Christian Nestell Bovee 

"A woman must not depend upon the protection of man, but must be taught to protect herself. " - Susan B. Anthony

Criminal Minds Week - Light Moments in the Middle of Chaos

So it seems I might actually do a Criminal Minds week. The BAU team is faced with all kinds of creepy, crazy, and strange. However, they seem to have a few moments of calm, generally before and/or after the case they had that episode and sometimes in the middle of a case. These are some of the moments/quotes that I found to be amusing in the middle of whatever chaos the team was facing. Really it's mostly just a bunch of quotes that have sarcasm... and/or Reid. Be warned, this post is pretty long. These quotes are pulled from the first 3 seasons and a couple from the 4th season. I don't think there are any major spoilers in these quotes. I might do the bookend quotes tomorrow or later this week, we'll see. So for now, Sanders out.

1x01 "Extreme Aggressor"

(Making Introductions)
Hotch: This is Special Agent Gideon, Special Agent Morgan, our expert on obsessional crimes, Special Agent Reid.
Gideon: (clarifying) Doctor Reid.
Hotchner: Dr. Reid, our expert on, well, everything, and after two years busting my butt in this office, I hope you remember me. 
-----
Hotch: I'm Agent Hotchner. This is Special Agent Dr. Reid.
Woodland: You look too young to have gone to medical school.
Reid: They're Ph.D.s. - three of them.
Woodland: Are you a genius or something?
Reid: I don't believe that intelligence can be accurately quantified, but I do have an IQ of 187, an eidetic memory and can read 20,000 words per minute -(Strange look of Woodland) yes, I'm a genius.

1x02 "Compulsion"

Gideon: No badges. I don’t want to satisfy the unsub’s need for attention by letting him know the FBI is here. Try not to look official. (looks at the team) Try to look less official.
-----
Morgan: You know there’s got to be a faster way to do this. How about we just change the first question to ‘have you recently dated a homicidal pyromaniac?’
-----

Morgan: (after entering the apartment) OCD? I'm thinking OMG.
Elle: OMG?
Morgan: Oh My God

1x05 "Broken Mirror"
Reid: I don't know everything. I mean, despite the fact that you think I do.
Morgan: I never said that. When have I ever said that?
Reid: Every day since I met you.
Elle: This morning at breakfast.
Hotchner: Yesterday when he beat you at cards.

1x10 "The Popular Kids"

Morgan: So tell me, what does keep young Dr. Reid awake at night? Wait, let me guess. Memorizing some obscure textbook? No, no, no. Working on cold fusion? No, I got it, I got it, I got it. Watching Star Trek and laughing at all the Physics mistakes?
Reid: Actually, there aren't that many scientific errors in Star Trek. Especially considering how long ago it was made. There are certain improbabilities, but not that many outright errors.
Morgan: Right.

1.16 "The Tribe"

Blackwolf: [to Gideon] You look like a college professor. [to Reid] You look like his student. [to Hotchner] You look like FBI.
-----
Blackwolf: There are many paths to the same place. Trust me.
Hotchner: Just so you know, you sound like a fortune cookie.

1x17 "A Real Rain"

Reid: I'd like to see New York.
Morgan: You've never been to New York?
Reid: We've never had an unsub there.
Hotchner: [to Gideon] I thought you were going to talk to Reid about taking some vacation time.
Gideon: What's vacation time?
----- 
Reid: [to the waitress, after having difficulty with his chopsticks] Excuse me, could I get a fork perhaps? [group laughs] Did you know that experts credit Confucius with the advent of the chopstick. He equated knives with acts of aggression.
Morgan: You don't know how to use them, do ya?
Reid: It's like trying to forage for dinner with a pair of number two pencils. It’s absolutely incredible, 1.3 billion people stay nourished because of these things.
-----
Officer: So are we looking for an ex-con or some nut job with an Amazon account?

-----
Female Officer: [after hearing the unsub's profile] So we're looking for a small, angry, white guy with a day job?
Officer #2: Maybe it's Wilson.
[The assembled officers laugh]

1x20 "Charm & Harm"

Gideon: [after finding Gregory's fake IDs] Look at all these driver's licenses, he could start his own DMV.

-----
[Elle's phone rings]
Morgan: Aww, that must be the boyfriend. [Grinning]
Elle: Yes, it is. [answers phone] Hey, Gideon.[Morgan's grin disappears]

2x06 "The Boogeyman"
Reid: Garcia, I'm sitting in the dark alone, thanks.
Garcia: While you're waiting for a potential murderer to come home? Kind of dangerous. Kind of sexy.
-----
Garcia: Reid, seriously, people that go inside that house never come out. Spooky.
Reid: Garcia, could you at least pretend not to enjoy that rumor so much since I have actually entered the house?

-----
Morgan: Yeah Reid, why are you still afraid of the dark?
Reid: Because of the inherent absence of light!

-----
Gideon: Unopened bowls of creamed spinach thrown into the trash, each one wrapped with duct tape.
Reid: One with each tray.
Morgan: So we're looking for a guy who really, really, hates spinach.
Reid: Who doesn't?

2x12 "Profiler Profiled"
JJ: Nothing's happening.
Reid: Shhh watch! [the rocket launches, JJ and Garcia scream, and it hits Emily in the head]
Emily: Ooh ow, what?
Reid: Oh, I am so sorry Emily!
Emily: What was that?
Garcia: Don't you recognize a rocket when you see one?
Reid: I was merely demonstrating a physics law. I didn't mean to..
Emily: Ooh show me!
Reid: Alright, uh, turn around, please.
Emily: Turn around?
JJ: Yeah, he's not going to show you how it's done.
Reid: A magician never reveals his secrets.
Emily: I thought you said this was physics?
Reid: Physics magic.
Garcia: Trust me, it will not do you any good to argue with him. 
-----

[the rocket lands at Hotchner's feet]
Hotchner: Physics magic?
Reid: Yes, sir.
Hotchner: Reid, we talked about this.
Reid: I'm sorry, sir.
Hotchner: [smiling] You're really starting to get some distance on these things.

-----
Morgan: The FBI invented this stuff, you simple bastard. We teach it. 
----
Morgan: [looking outside the one way mirror] I can wait as long as you guys can! 

2x13 "No Way Out, Part 1"
Hotchner: [introducing the team to the sheriff] Aaron Hotchner. This is Derek Morgan and the guy who sometimes forgets his manners is Jason Gideon.

-----
Reid: A psycho with a whistle. That's not too weird

2x14 "The Big Game"
Prentiss: [watching Morgan dance between two women] Hey, Morgan, be careful. The one in the back could steal your wallet!
Morgan: That's all right; I'll be a broke, happy man!

2x19 "Ashes to Dust"
Garcia: Brace yourselves. I'm going to teach you the meaning of L.U.S.T.
Gideon: Did she say lust?
Garcia: I cross-referenced every known fact on the victims and I just found a website that links both Dennis Cutler and Mathew Jarvis' companies on a list of businesses guilty of L.U.S.T.
Hotchner: I'm missing something.
Garcia: Leaking Underground Storage Tanks.
-----
Gideon: When he arrives, bring the fake bodies right past us nice and slow. I want him to get a good look. 
Lt. Vega: Remind me never to play poker with you guys. 

-----
Det. Castro: I’ll issue an APB for a resentful six-foot white guy.

2x21 "Open Season"

Prentiss: Ladies, this is Brad, a real FBI agent.
Garcia: Really?
Prentiss: Really.
JJ: No way.
Prentiss: [nods] Mm-hmm.
Garcia: That's exciting! What's it like at Quan-ti-co?
Brad: It's uh, quite impressive.
JJ: What department are you in?
Brad: That's classified.
JJ: Oooo. Must be tough keeping all those secrets.
Brad: It’s a skill, like anything else. Carpenters are good at building stuff, measuring. The FBI’s good at keeping secrets and kicking criminal ass.
Prentiss: Wow. Well, somebody's gotta do it. Ooh, do you have to carry your gun and badge with you everywhere you go?
Brad: Affirmative.
Prentiss: Can we see it?
Brad: See what?
Prentiss: Your badge.
Garcia: Please?
Brad: I'm sorry, that's-- 
Prentiss, JJ, and Garcia: "Classified".
Prentiss: [she holds up her badge] Tell me Brad, does it look anything like this?
JJ: [hold up hers] Or this?
Garcia: [holds up hers] Or maybe, this?
[Brad hurries away]

2x22 "Legacy"

Prentiss: How’d you guys do?
Hotchner: Well Reid got propositioned by every prostitute we talked to, but we didn’t find anybody who thinks they’d seen the unsub. 

3x01 "Doubt"

Gideon: How long can you hold that lawyer off?
Hotchner: Are you kidding? I was a prosecutor; I can hold him off for days.

3x02 "In Birth and Death"

Garcia: (answering phone) Talk dirty to me.
Section Chief Erin Strauss: This is Section Chief Erin Strauss.
Garcia: (horrified and red-faced) Ma'am, I think it goes without saying that I was expecting it to be someone else.
Garcia: (answering phone later) FBI Technical Analyst Penelope Garcia speaking.

-----
Section Chief Erin Strauss: So do we have a working theory?
Morgan: Sure we do. Somebody really doesn’t like women. 

3x04 "Children of the Dark"
Carrie Ortiz: I've earned some capital here, I should be able to spend it however I want.
Mr. Ortiz: Who are you, George Bush? 

-----
JJ: Oh, you can buy a hand-held jammer online for what… a hundred bucks?
Lt. Nellis: I could use one of those the next time I go to the movies.

-----
Prentiss: These guys are killing the Cleavers.
Reid: Strange.
Hotchner: The pattern?
Reid: No, the Cleavers. Of all the names for a 1950s idyllic TV family. I mean it’s rife with violent implication. Kind of makes you wonder how the writers really felt about suburbia, huh?
Hotchner: Focus, please!

3x06 "About Face"

Hotchner: She could buy a gun that easily?
Det. Yarborough: This is Texas.

3x07 "Identity"

Prentiss: (teasing Reid about coloring in a map) You know, I could have gotten you a coloring book at the airport.
Reid: I’m creating a topographical map, weighing down and geocoding all key locations, looking for algorithms.
Prentiss: (nods, confused) Yeah. That’s exactly what I thought you were doing

------
JJ: That's the third time I've been hung up on.
Rossi: Try not saying FBI.

------
Reid: A popular theory among leading astrophysicists estimate that the hyper-matter reactor would need about 10 to the 32nd joules of energy to destroy a planet the size of earth. Now, Lucas said it took 19 years to build the first death star right, but if you look at the new essential chronology there’s a test bed prototype for a super laser that’s been…(Morgan walks away) Where you going?
Morgan: Taking back the last five minutes of my life
------
Goehring: In feudal times, the lord lived on high ground to spot the invader. He had serfs to serve his kingdom. The lord never had to leave his castle. The serfs would bring him everything. They were the appendages of his will.
Prentiss: We have 11 more tapes of this?

3x09 "Penelope"

Hotch: [considering if the killer shot Garcia just to steal her purse.] Why does he risk coming into an enclosed courtyard?
Rossi: World's boldest purse snatching?

-----
Garcia: [To Reid and Morgan] When I was in the ambulance I could hear the song 'Heroes' playing in my head. Everything was really bright, I kept flashing in and out of consciousness, and I remember thinking, 'Wait. Is David Bowie really God?'
-----
Morgan: Take this gun.
Garcia: I don't believe in guns.
Morgan: Ok, trust me they are very real. Take it.

4x08 "Masterpiece"

Reid: I hold doctorates in Chemistry, Mathematics, and Engineering, as well as BAs in Psychology and Sociology.
Audience Member: How old are you?
Reid: Uh, 27, yeah, as of last month, 27...I'm also completing an additional BA in philosophy. Which, reminds me that I have a joke. How many existentialists does it take to screw in a light bulb?
Rossi: (Mouths) Don't...
Reid: [delighting in his own joke] Two. One to change the light bulb, and one to observe how it symbolizes in incandescent beacon of subjectivity in a Nether World of cosmic nothingness [laughs] Um, an existentialist-
Rossi: OK! Before he does his quantum physics knock-knock joke
----
Rossi: You do know we want them to actually JOIN the bureau? 
Reid: What? Yeah. 
Rossi: We want these kids to think it's a cool place to work.
Reid: No, I understand that. 
Rossi: Existentialism?
Reid: Existentialism? That was a funny joke, what do you mean?
Rossi: Yeah, to Sigmund Freud.
Reid: I tell them to stop sending me here, but they keep on sending me here and I don't know why!
Rossi: Because you're young.
Reid: Young...or Jung?