This Isn't DA, I Don't Want to Hear About Your Chain Journals. · 11:21am Jun 1st, 2012
I hate chain journals, but I love hearing myself type. I've got a mechanical keyboard so it sounds so damn good. Decisions, decisions. Well, I might as well have fun with it. I was tagged by http://www.fimfiction.net/user/BlankFlankBrony
I will not play by the rules.
Rules:
0. Have you tried turning it off and back on again?
1. You must not post a butchered version of the rules for your own twisted amusement.
2. Each person must post 4 things about themselves that are true and 1 thing about themselves that is a lie in their journal.
3. Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post, and create a horrifying set of eleven pointless and uninteresting questions for people with far too much time on their hands to answer.
4. If you tag anyone, you should feel bad. Chain letters are bad and chain journals are bad.
5. ???
6. GOTO 0
7. No arbitrary rules for the sake getting your terrible idea to spread across the journals of FIMFiction
4 true things about me and a lie (Presented in no particular order. Try to guess which is the lie!):
1. I can recite Jabberwocky from memory
2. My college girlfriend died of the flu a couple years after we broke up
3. I was kicked out of the Marine Corps because of DADT, since I did not take sufficient steps to hide my bisexuality
4. Every English class I took in college, I failed. That's not the main reason that I don't have a degree, but it certainly didn't help.
5. The guy from my USMC recruiting station who would have shipped off to boot camp the same week as me got heat stroke during an exercise session a few days before our ship date and died.
Questions I Was Asked:
1. What's your inspiration?
Usually it's music. I'm really not sure why; it just gives me ideas. I got into Gentle Giant recently, and one of their albums, The Power And The Glory (1974) really stuck in my head. I listened to it like two or three times a day for a couple of weeks, and I got the idea for a fic about Twilight reluctantly stepping up to political power after the disappearance of the princesses and navigating a web of politics, shifting alliances, and conspiracies as she goes from ignorant and outmatched while trying to do what's best for everypony to frightfully competent and brutal in her advancement of what she percieves as the greater good and is finally assasinated by her most trusted advisors in a scene reminiscent of the popular conception of the assasination of Julius Caesar. Each of the tracks on the album would correspond to a matching chapter with the same name and each chapter would try to capture the feel of that song. 'So Sincere' for example would be about Twilight learning about the political factions of Canterlot and the layers of deception involved in their dealings while contrasting her absolute sincerity to their schemes and manipulation. 'Playing the Game' would be about Twilight finally being comfortable vying with the Canterlot political factions on their level, followed by 'Cogs in Cogs' as she gains an apparent mastery of the set pieces before a fall from grace in 'No God's a Man' and a more manipulative rise from the ashes in 'The Face' followed by a speech that darkly parallels the speech in the first chapter ('Proclaimation') in 'Valedictory' (Just like the song Valedictory is a twisted reprise of the song Proclaimation) and the assasination scene to end with 'The Power and The Glory'
I will probably never write it, but that's the extent to which my writing is inspired by music. The 'Ships that Pass in the Night' shipping trope only struck a chord with me because I'd listened to Be Bop Deluxe's 'Ships in the Night' and The Stranglers’ ‘Ships That Pass In The Night’ as a teenager. ‘In The Rain’ came to me when I was riding my bike through a storm listening to Bowie’s ‘Kiss You in the Rain’. Merely a Mare’s themes came from King Crimson’s ‘Model Man’ (“Not a model man/not a savior or a saint/imperfect in a word/make no mistake/but I/give you everything I have/take me as I am”) and XTC’s ‘Merely a Man’. ‘Forbidden Lovers’ was written for a songfic prompt. I’ve had countless ideas that I remember each time I listen to a particular song or album.
Is it strange that all that music I listed was created before I was born? I listen to modern stuff, sometimes ultramodern avante-garde stuff (Current recommendation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIrKSqb4H4A&ob=av2e ), but it doesn't seem to inspire me as much. Prog rock told stories, it had themes and moods that were far more fleshed out than contemporary music, especially electronica.
2. If you were to become a pony, what type would be your second choice?
Earth pony, because I'm afraid of falling. I'm not afraid of heights; I trust roller coasters and airplanes and highrises. I love being on the top story of a tall building and looking out over the distance and I love looking down on the world from the window of an airplane. Cliffs, ropes, or anything where whether or not I plummet to my doom is based on my own actions, I can barely deal with. I don’t trust myself not to trip, and I wouldn’t trust my wings not to fail me.
3. You arrive in the ponyverse and change form, but you don't become a pony. You are now a...?
Badass.
Oh, you meant like what would be different? I’d be a diamond dog, cause those mofos are classy as fuck. Vests mean class, gems mean class, those dogs have got it all figured out.
4. What's your favorite tag combo?
[Shipping][Comedy]
5. How about least favorite tag combo?
[Grimdark][Sad][Adventure][Shipping]
You'd be surprised at how many of those we get in the pre-reader queue. Many of them feature alicorn OCs.
6. Pinkie is hosting a potluck party. What are you bringing?
Patron. It's not the best tequila, but I like how smooth it is and it has the best reputation. I've never heard someone complain about drinking patron instead of something else, and I love the look people get when I bust it out at a party.
7. Things have gotten busy, and everypony is looking to hire someone to help them with their jobs. Who would you work for?
Luna. Day shift sucks.
8. What item of technology would you introduce to Equestria? It can be reworked to be magic-based as needed.
Industrial farming processes, because the internet is not a single piece of technology, and nothing causes scientific advancement like an urbanized society.
9. If you could make a living at anything, what would it be?
Being a total and utter dick to people. I love it, especially when it’s justifiable, and it often can be. What do you call a guy who locks people up against their will? A kidnapper or a prison guard. What do you call a guy who screams at people all day? An asshole or a Drill Instructor. What do you call a guy who ties people down and cuts them open? A serial killer or a surgeon. Evil is all about context. I call people at home and wake them up at three AM, but only the right people and only for a good reason. Don’t worry, those people are paid a lot of money to be available at a moment’s notice 24/7.
Alas, I'm unsuited to politics.
10. Favorite song from the show? Includes remixes.
Evil Enchantress (Flutterguy rendition)
11. Favorite brony song not from the show? Again, includes remixes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV_0n5gp1fE
Questions For Those Who Dare:
1. For meat eaters, would you still eat meat if you had to hunt and kill all of it yourself? For vegetarians, would you still eat plant products if they screamed when you chewed them but meat still didn't?
2. How much money could you lose for your employer, their partners, and their customers in one shift (Including loss of stock value)?
3. Have you ever put someone else's life at risk due to your neligence?
4. If you were transported back to the height of Roman power and given the ear and trust of the emporer, could you prevent Rome's decline?
5. If you could, would you? If you couldn't, would you try?
6. How much money have you given to charity in the last year?
7. Would you write even if other people could never read what you wrote?
8. How do you morally justify the relative comfort that you live in when compared to the majority of humans in Africa and Southeast Asia?
9. Among all the people in the fandom, who has the talent that you most envy?
10. In ten years, will you regret the things you're doing with your life right now?
11. Have you lied on any of these questions?
....I feel like answering number 5:
If I could, depending on the circumstances - let's say they make a significant impact on myself - I would.
If I couldn't - again, same circumstances - I would definitely try, for better or worse, because you never know until you do try. Right? :)
And I guess I should dare, if I expect anyone to, so I'll answer my own questions. Also, I still like to hear myself type.
1. For meat eaters, would you still eat meat if you had to hunt and kill all of it yourself? For vegetarians, would you still eat plant products if they screamed when you chewed them but meat still didn't?
I probably wouldn't much, but mostly because of laziness. I know how to shoot, but I have other things to do.
2. How much money could you lose for your employer, their partners, and their customers in one shift (Including loss of stock value)?
A lot. I do have 12 hour shifts, after all. I think with combined SLA violations, lost users, bad press, and loss of stock value, somewhere between 10 and 100 million dollars. More if I could prepare scripts in advance rather than writing them during the shift.
I think that's true of a lot of employees of the company I work for. A reputation is a very fragile thing, and a bit of bad press goes a long way in the tech industry. That's part of why tech companies pay so well and have such great benefit packages. Employees that are happy with their jobs are not likely to risk them, and employees who feel that the company they work for has done right by them are likely to do right by that company. I certainly am proud of working for Microsoft, and my awareness of how much damage I could do comes because I am keenly aware of what is at stake if I make mistakes.
3. Have you ever put someone else's life at risk due to your neligence?
When I was a boy scout (Yes, yes, get your laughter out now), I inadvertently flagged (pointed the business-end of a weapon at) a group of my fellow scouts with a shotgun. I don't recall whether it was loaded or not, whether it had the safety on or not, whether my finger was on the trigger, but none of that matters. Treat every weapon as if it were loaded.
4. If you were transported back to the height of Roman power and given the ear and trust of the emporer, could you prevent Rome's decline?
I could certainly push it back a fair margin. I know I could get them building steam locomotives within a decade; Rome already had major metal-casting capacity for their navy and siege weapons, access to huge coal deposits and the ability to mine them (due to the value and prevalence of salt mines), and I'm fairly certain that a steamboat navy would be possible. That would tie the empire closer together in terms of economic interdependence and governability, which was a major hurdle even with the road system. It would also make trade global, with Rome as the hub. I would also be able to teach them high-level algebra and calculus, which would have been a major step forward from the trigonometry-based mathematics the Romans inherited from the Greeks, and it would allow me to demonstrate the equations for Newtonian mechanics, but I don't have the knowledge to connect that directly to advanced mechanical engineering, so I'm not sure I could get them a working diesel engine, even if I did know enough about drilling to get them oil. I know just enough about electricity to show them the concept and the basics of how to generate it, and I do know that (early) lightbulbs are possible with carbon filament, but I'm not sure I could light the streets of Rome. Still, people were not stupid 2000 years ago, just ignorant; they had as much mental capacity as you or I, and I'm sure someone in the empire could reproduce the equations governing electromagnetism given knowledge of calculus and how to induce current. Essentially, I could give them most of the essential components of the technology that helped the colonial-era powers grow to span the globe.
5. If you could, would you? If you couldn't, would you try?
I would. The world lost a lot in the decline of the western Roman empire. There's a reason that the Enlightenment in Europe was marked with a revival of Greek and Roman study and traditions.
6. How much money have you given to charity in the last year?
$2,500 to an organization that runs free public charter schools in low-income neighborhoods. Since my employer has a donation-matching program, they will also chip in $2,500.
7. Would you write even if other people could never read what you wrote?
No. The words aren't important, the conversation is.
8. How do you morally justify the relative comfort that you live in when compared to the majority of humans in Africa and Southeast Asia?
I'm not an altruist; even if it were possible to raise them all up at my expense, I would not recognize having a duty to do so. Inequality is regretable but inevitable, and it takes a lot more than good will and food aid to transform a group of people into a western-style low to moderate corruption constitutional republic.
9. Among all the people in the fandom, who has the talent that you most envy?
Midnight Shadow. I've had the opportunity to be in a google doc with him as he was writing, and I was amazed. He just writes, words into sentences into paragraphs in an even flow, only rarely going back to change something. I wish I could do that. I pause. I have to think. I write a sentence, and look at it, and change it around, and pause to consider the next line, and go back to re-word things and consider the overall structure of my sentences and whether they flow together naturally. I don't write well, I edit well, and it takes me a long time to do so. It takes me 5-6 hours to write 1k words of prose, on average. I wish I could write more with that same time, I wish I could have the words flow in an even stream instead of making them drop like wax from a slowly-burning candle.
10. In ten years, will you regret the things you're doing with your life right now?
Absolutely, but I can't live to please myself 10 years from now. I plan for the future, but it's never at the forefront of my mind. I could die any day; too much investment and I could lose it all for naught.
11. Have you lied on any of these questions?
Not on either set of 11.
1. Man, I don't have time to hunt. As for the killing part, yeah, I probably would. It would be such a pain in the ass to get meat that I'd probably end up eating a lot less of it, though. And I'd want to make it last. Hopefully someone can show me how to smoke and cure the shit.
2. That's an interesting question. I'm in college, so I obviously just have a part-time job, but it's at a special collections research library. All it would take would be a few really angry complaints from scholars (esp. travelling scholars) and my employers would be in deep shit. That said, probably none. If I walked out, they'd lose the manager's time spent covering me instead of doing her own job, and the time spent teaching another monkey to do mine.
3. Not that I'm aware of.
4. I doubt it. But the thought of me in a position of insane power like that makes me giggle.
5. I like watching things happen. I'd want to try.
6. A laughably small amount. I'd like that to change someday.
7. Hm. Only if I had a really good idea that I personally found compelling enough to want to explore.
8. By not thinking about it. Also by making first-world-problem jokes.
9. I don't know. I admire pretty much all of the other prereaders because I'm a hack writer and I tend to envy only those people I can actively converse with and befriend. I can't do anonymous hero worship. Same with art; only my good-artist friends can really turn me green.
10. There's no way to say for certain. I don't think I will. The only thing that would make me regret ponies is if anything I've done in this fandom kept me from getting a job somehow.
11. Yes
1. For meat eaters, would you still eat meat if you had to hunt and kill all of it yourself? For vegetarians, would you still eat plant products if they screamed when you chewed them but meat still didn't?
Well... I like fishing, so I'd prolly restrict myself to that. I am half-vegetarian out of convenience anyway, so it wouldn't be much differnce.
2. How much money could you lose for your employer, their partners, and their customers in one shift (Including loss of stock value)?
Society lose money by me simply existing... that's something I guess...
3. Have you ever put someone else's life at risk due to your neligence?
No, but my own. Several times.
4. If you were transported back to the height of Roman power and given the ear and trust of the emporer, could you prevent Rome's decline?
I'd bloody well try, goddamn dark ages.
5. If you could, would you? If you couldn't, would you try?
Yes.
6. How much money have you given to charity in the last year?
Maybe the eqvivalent of 10 dollars or so, cus the compensation money I get from blood donations goes to "Doctors without Borders", but it isn't much each time, and I've missed some donation oppertunities cus of stress and illness.
7. Would you write even if other people could never read what you wrote?
No, but I'd still draw.
8. How do you morally justify the relative comfort that you live in when compared to the majority of humans in Africa and Southeast Asia?
I don't, it sucks ass and we have no fucking excuse for it whatsoever. We fail as a society.
9. Among all the people in the fandom, who has the talent that you most envy?
Pixelkitties, I love that felt-style.
10. In ten years, will you regret the things you're doing with your life right now?
Yes.
11. Have you lied on any of these questions?
Let's just call it being economic with the truth...
147030
You're telling me you couldn't burn down the library in one shift? You've got to think big!
im kinda bored right now anyways, so ill just answer some of those!
1. For meat eaters, would you still eat meat if you had to hunt and kill all of it yourself? For vegetarians, would you still eat plant products if they screamed when you chewed them but meat still didn't?
A: im a meat eater; and yes i would still eat meat under those circumstances...wouldn't be often though, im a little lazy most of the time.
4. If you were transported back to the height of Roman power and given the ear and trust of the emporer, could you prevent Rome's decline?
A: height of roman power: probably not. a few years before height of roman power: assuming i have all the knowledge i have now; yes
5. If you could, would you? If you couldn't, would you try?
A: yes i would try
6. How much money have you given to charity in the last year?
A: zero, nothing, nada, naught, nil, nix, zilch, zip, zot...
7. Would you write even if other people could never read what you wrote?
A: i don't write, but if i did i think i would still write a little
8. How do you morally justify the relative comfort that you live in when compared to the majority of humans in Africa and Southeast Asia?
yes, seriously. i can't do anything to change the situation. if i try to give them money; it will be used the wrong way in my opinion, if it even gets there.
A: tough luck
9. Among all the people in the fandom, who has the talent that you most envy?
A: really hard question, there are so many....
10. In ten years, will you regret the things you're doing with your life right now?
A: in some ways probably...like i wish i would plan my studies harder, but at the same time i know i can't do that now, or more like; even if i did i wouldn't correct myself to my schedule for various reasons
11. Have you lied on any of these questions?
A: yes
1. For meat eaters, would you still eat meat if you had to hunt and kill all of it yourself? For vegetarians, would you still eat plant products if they screamed when you chewed them but meat still didn't?
I grew up on a farm, and am an avid fisherman and occasional hunter (because what the fuck 2 week deer season?). Animals taste better when you kill them yourself. That said, farming all your own meat is a shitload of work, so I'd probably eat a lot less of it if I had to spend several hours a week butchering animals to get it.
2. How much money could you lose for your employer, their partners, and their customers in one shift (Including loss of stock value)?
Well, I could probably manage a gas explosion that would destroy the entire bakery, or work in something poisonous and get us sued out of business, but that'd be really dumb and get me arrested in the process.
3. Have you ever put someone else's life at risk due to your neligence?
Yes, but I consider -anyone- who's driven while at the stage of tiredness where you start nodding off to be putting everyone else on the road at risk.
4. If you were transported back to the height of Roman power and given the ear and trust of the emporer, could you prevent Rome's decline?
Nope. I probably couldn't even talk them out of lead-lining the aqueducts.
5. If you could, would you? If you couldn't, would you try?
If I could, I probably wouldn't. It would be rather problematic for my ancestors if Rome had managed to survive long enough to fully conquer Britain.
6. How much money have you given to charity in the last year?
None, in terms of cash. I've done some food pantry work and helped build a couple houses for Habitat for Humanity, though.
7. Would you write even if other people could never read what you wrote?
Probably not. After all, the stories are already in my head, and they're so much better before I torture the poor ideas with the confines of language.
8. How do you morally justify the relative comfort that you live in when compared to the majority of humans in Africa and Southeast Asia?
Simple, really. I survive as best I can in the circumstances that I was born into. I didn't create their living circumstances, and do not have the power to alter them one iota, so take no responsibility for them.
9. Among all the people in the fandom, who has the talent that you most envy?
I envy anyone who can actually sit down and pound out a story without their brain trying to strangle them for the safety of society.
10. In ten years, will you regret the things you're doing with your life right now?
Of fucking course. That's what life is for, realizing you were a dumbass ten years ago. I don't expect I'll regret the ponies, though.
11. Have you lied on any of these questions?
Yes.
1. For meat eaters, would you still eat meat if you had to hunt and kill all of it yourself?
A. Definitely yes because I had survival training and I use it every 6 months [camping trips]
2. How much money could you lose for your employer, their partners, and their customers in one shift (Including loss of stock value)?
A. I can;t say for sure but if I were to guestimate...around as equivalent ten thousand dollars
3. Have you ever put someone else's life at risk due to your neligence?
A. Yes, when I was swimming with some buddies of mine and I accidentally grabbed onto one of them who was wading and we nearly went under
4. If you were transported back to the height of Roman power and given the ear and trust of the emporer, could you prevent Rome's decline?
A. Not a chance in heck
5. If you could, would you? If you couldn't, would you try?
A. Have you tried working with a mentally deranged homicidal maniac of an emperor? I did once, but it was my boss and the entire team took the fall. So I would not dare experience that due to the fact that I know how they roll.
6. How much money have you given to charity in the last year?
A. not a lot. Like say an equivalent of 80 dollars
7. Would you write even if other people could never read what you wrote?
A, Yes. It is good exercise
8. How do you morally justify the relative comfort that you live in when compared to the majority of humans in Africa and Southeast Asia?
A I live in southeast Asia...its fine. But the only thing that irks me here is the slow internet connection, the weltering heat and the amount of rain that could fill an Olympic swimming pool in seconds. So basically I can justify that it is just environmental survival issues that vary the comfort scale.
9. Among all the people in the fandom, who has the talent that you most envy?
A. Yours, Butterscotchsundae, etc....
10. In ten years, will you regret the things you're doing with your life right now?
A Not one bit!
11. Have you lied on any of these questions?
A. Straight as an arrow on all...except for that Rome question. I could make Rome not burn itself but I could make it drown itself.
fc06.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/169/c/e/thing_by_toolongdidntreadplz-d3j9h1b.jpg
>Alicorn OCs
You ruined my day, sir. I lost so much respect at even the mention of Alicorn OCs that I didn't bother reading the rest of the blog post thing. Or the commments section, for that matter.
147396
They don't go away if we ignore them. Unless we work together to bring complete and utter shame on anyone attempting to write an alicorn OC, they'll just keep making them. We need to take a stand, a stand that involves relentlessly bashing alicorn OCs in every form of communication. We need to make sure that everyone knows that alicorn OCs are not okay. We don't have to stay silent. It's an ugly subject, but awareness of how terrible alicorn OCs are is the only way to bring about real change. Every time we we make a flippant remark about how OF COURSE alicorn OCs are the worst thing in ponyfiction, worse than cupcakes, worse than rainbow factory, worse than no new episodes, we bring a little bit of shame to someone who has written an alicorn OC, and that's worth it.
I will fight the good fight. People need to know that it's just not right to write alicorn OCs. People need to view authors who write alicorn OCs with the same disdain that is normally reserved for people who run dog-fighting leagues to reap a profit that goes toward building huge furnaces that belch tar and smoke into the air as they burn truckfulls of starving kittens to power machines that take candy from orphans and piss on the constitution.
It's got to stop.
So, I'm guessing you like listening to music, but you don't play any music.
147514
I'm tone deaf and don't have fine motor control over my hands, so I do the world a favor and avoid trying to play music.