Developments · 1:29am Apr 28th, 2016
Well, there's been some stuff going on. But first, kindly relax to this piece I've come to appreciate over the past few days.
I got some proofreading/editing done this week for 
Unfortunately, I will not be able to plant that litany I mentioned in the video I previously posted on here. There will be no way for me to do it because most of the guy's stuff is out of the room, having been moved out while I was out myself.
However, the video is doing alright on YouTube. Almost 70 views in less than a week! In addition, I've also reached 200 subscribers, so that means I ought to do something special although I don't know what that is. I'll have plenty of time to contemplate while I'm studying for taking Exam P on the nineteenth, I guess. 
In short, I'm feeling pretty good. My finals are going pretty smoothly, too, I think!
Works on FimFiction I've Proofread/Edited for (From most recent to first)
The Shipping Boat by
The Smiling Stallion (ongoing) by
Hidden Wonderful World of Pinkie Episodes by
Works I've Audio Read (From most recent to first)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3aRlMQkjno Of the Monsters in Nightmares by
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3aRlMQkjno Changes by
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEw_OHTKDd0 The Changing of the Guard by
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA13nKdB6Ts A Reasonable Solution by
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzunRFm1YYA Painless by
http://youtu.be/ueBJkvfiv0k Reflection by
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBf7TwT6GoA An Issue in Friendship by
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KP6YQ0zevYQ Time by
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKOWRYVTONs Eternity by 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVhe7GeTD8Y Crusader's End by
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6LX_wjJtNM The Serene Forgetting by
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gZ2SWao4wc The Weak by
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_428y-6LboY De Grave of Blueblood by
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyF3uyJAPBs Ruin Value by
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mcfsa1MVbQA Mare of the House by
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ocU-BfXLDI I Don't Know If I'm Real... by
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCyE2T8yLa0 Drifting by
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MhWVZbkUBc Dreams Fade by
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaYt5jHyq1FjxBLphDM-qlTLdbKE5ULNi (Playlist)
Friends Forever and Fading Twilight by
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCo2g7d7oRM A Life Rebuilt by
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zEz9_69ics Drop. by
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhrgvQdpFL8 Let It Snow by
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gh_2BnkBQvE Those Who Are Oppressed (Story withdrawn for editing) by
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhCKtWeI9hg Lives' End by
Cool stuff bro, also I'm pretty sure I'm late as all hell. But congrats on the 100 followers as well on this site!
3901446 Thanks, Basic Information!
Your congratulations are late, but they are nonetheless appreciated!
Besides, you still got in before it could tick to 101.
Nice. Good luck with your exams. Mine are next week lol.
3901709
Good luck. Are you dreading any in particular?
3902159 Thanks. and eh, not really. This semester has kinda been a bit of a joke for me, last year was when I got my really hard grad-level major courses out of the way. It is very weird, however, that college will be over for me in a week. Real life is scary lol.
The one I'm dreading most is probably one you wouldn't expect, my history of Bob Dylan course. The class is interesting for Bob Dylan was no doubt a very talented songwriter and influential artist, but the tests suck. I have to memorize like 100 different songs (Bob Dylan has put out of a LOT of albums lol) per test and be able to identify them and what album they are from. It's not extremely complicated since it's just a scantron test, but it's a lot harder than it sounds since many of his songs sound almost exactly the same. My entire grade in the class is also just three tests. So you can't really screw up even once. Thankfully the final isn't comprehensive, it's just the last third of the class, but it's still hard. Much of this weekend is gonna be spent with my friend Bob on Youtube lol.
Any that you dread or have dreaded in particular?
3902723
Funny how time just slips away. I can't believe I'm completing my first year of college already.
Oh yeah, I know of Bob Dylan. Johnny Cash called him "one of the greatest if not the greatest singer and songwriter of our time."
Not really, actually. I only have to take three, and I've already taken two of them. For my public speaking class, the final is extra credit since it's not another presentation and the teacher felt a written final for a public speaking course would be idiotic. I got to forego my calculus final because I had an A by the end, so her outlook was that, as such, I have already demonstrated mastery of the material and thus do not need a comprehensive final. I was sweating my third exam for that class, but I did well enough to get an A, so I was relieved.
The most important final I'm taking was today for Prob/STAT II, my second actuarial science-related course. I felt I killed it. There was nothing I didn't expect, although it wasn't cumulative, so my real test will be taking Exam P on the nineteenth, which will cover all I've been studying in Prob/STAT over the past few months.
I took my final in microeconomics on Tuesday. It wasn't bad, although I don't think it was my strongest test, either. He's curved all of his tests in that class, and I've gotten after-curve scores of 100 and over in addition to completing all the homework, so I'm not too worried. A lot of my peers seemed to sink in that class, though, so I cannot say the same for them.
The final final will be tomorrow, and it's for my principles of financial accounting class. I already have over a hundred in the class and a good mastery of the material, so again, I'm not worried about it.
I hate to brag, but I'm doing much better in that class going into the final than most of the people who are majoring in accounting.
3902866 Yeah. I'm ready for it to be over though, I'm sick of this place haha. I just feel a little old now is all.
And yeah, Bob Dylan worshipped Johnny cash and they definitely influenced one another.
Ah, good to see you're on top of your studies. Can't say I'm surprised XD, I wish I did that well as a freshman. I remember doing micro-related classes as an underclassman, and it was kinda hard because I'm mediocre at math and that kind of stuff.
My brain is more suited for deductive reasoning and logic and memorization, which obviously has many similarities to fields based in mathematics but isn't exactly the same. It really depends what you're comparing to though specifically, of course. Hopefully I can make some meaningful contribution to society some day.
Good luck with your final tomorrow. I'm sure you'll nail it.
3902919
Doubtless, I will probably be sick of here, too, in some time.
I've never clearly understood the depth of their relationship, actually.
My microeconomics course has not been much of a math-based course. I don't know how I'd feel about it if it were. It was more on microeconomic principles.
Thanks! I expect to.
3902923 Yeah I mean... 22 is ancient haha. Sometimes I wonder if I'm too old to still be apart of this fandom too...
It's complex and I wouldn't know where to start XD. Just know that they definitely knew one another.
And yeah of course. I mean economics is complex, some of it definitely is kinda mathy which I remember doing, and some of it is certainly conceptual. It really depends. Micro and macro are obviously quite different as well. I'm not really great at explaining it though since it's not really all that related to my major and law and whatnot haha.
3902934
I smell heresy...
Well, that pretty much went without saying. XD
Understandable. I find my economics classes pretty interesting, though. But maybe I've just had good teachers.
3902947 Heresy?! I'm over the hill damnit! The back 9!
Well I've actually seen someone as old as 59 on here (supposedly) And I remember reading somewhere the average age for a Brony was like 21 or 22 or something.
I've had a real revitalization with the fandom in the last few months. I'm finishing up a new story today based on the season 6 pilot episodes. It's probably not your cup of tea though since its romance/clop though. I felt like being extra shameless Haha.
I've been meaning to ask though... If you're not too busy over the summer, would you be interested in maybe proofreading/editing for me? I've been meaning to make a legit return to writing, as season 6 and recent developments in my life have inspired me. I know having proofreaders/editors is important and I used to have them in the old days.
If you're already in over your head editing for other people and doing other things, that's fine I obviously understand. I just want to put this offer out there before I forget again XD.
3902986
No, you just said you're 22.
Yes, that's why you need to persist.
Having the stature you have, I'd say that's permissible. You're correct; I wouldn't read that.
Depends on how much you're going to be writing, and how available I will be. I can afford to do these free jobs every once in a while, but once I have freedom to begin uploading again, I think that'll start taking precedence over editing, although that's not at all to say that I wouldn't be interested. A few thousand words now and then would be fine, I think, to do unrecompensed.
Now that the past two jobs I mentioned in this blog are done, though, I am currently "free" to edit. I'm currently looking over the script for my next audio reading, marking it up so that I may perform it soon.
3903315
Touché...
Yeah, of course. Well I honestly don't know. Maybe a lot of writing, maybe not. I've attempted to make "comebacks" before and ended up falling flat on my face and doing nothing due to lack of confidence/other things take precedent. But things are different now, as I've basically solved many of my previous problems that plagued me for years. I'll also be doing basically nothing for much of the summer. I'm really almost done with a new approximately 7-8 thousand word one-shot that I'm gonna upload most likely tomorrow or Saturday, my first new story since 2013. So clearly things are different now XD.
I know you told me you don't really like Romance and anything associated with that and that's fine, I'd probably have you looking at comedy-related stuff if you were interested (I mean unless you want to edit my romance stuff of course). I like romance because I like the extremely bizarre novelty of shipping innocent MLP characters, idk it's not very rational
. I don't really know how to write anything else effectively besides comedy/random and romance though 
. The comedies would most likely be relatively short one-shots like I used to do. It goes without saying that if you did help me, you'd obviously get a credit in the story description.
Anyway, yeah obviously prioritize the things you want to catch up on and enjoy doing.
3903441
Well, simply let me know when you have something complete you'd like me to look at, and I can see what I can do. I mean, I probably don't want my name on anything clop, but my general apathy toward romance wouldn't preclude me from proofing for other romances. It's good to know you'll be back in action again. I would be happy to facilitate your return and not forestall it.
3903457 Yeah, alright thank you sincerely
. I don't write clop much, and honestly I'm partly writing it as a shameless attempt for the feature box just so people know I exist again 
XD. Clop doesn't really require editing or deep insight to be popular on this pretty messed up website 
. It was originally just gonna be romance between Starlight Glimmer and Sunburst, but writing a moderate-length clop story with some romance is probably the easiest and most surefire way to gain attention here in this realm of shameless "forever alone"-ness for many. Even if it's not featured, I know a fair amount of people will read it. I've only written one other clop-oriented story (which was actually featured at the time) , so I won't be doing it a lot.
Like I said, probably mostly short-ish satirical one shot comedies, since I know I seem to have a knack for those.
3903487
Such has been the assertion of a great number of FimFiction frequenters I've encountered.
Good luck. Let me know how it goes.
3903501
Ah yes, the shameless tactic is working just as planned. My story is doing great so far. Pretty sure it'll be in the feature box by the end of the day XD.
Apparently people actually think it's a legit good story though from the rating its getting so far. A little surprising considering I had no editor/proofreader and haven't written in three years. I honestly wasn't too sure of the response I would get after not uploading any stories for almost three years.
3903501 To add onto this, my strategy worked perfectly. After not even like 3 hours the story is in the feature box. Lolol. I can't believe how well that worked. I thought it probably would... but never this fast.
.
Even if it's obviously super frivolous, I'd be lying if I said it wasn't fun to be back in the upper echelons of Fimfiction and the MLP fanfiction world XD.
One person even commented on it describing it as a "true masterpiece". I'm honestly quite shocked. I thought yeah it prolly would be featured due to its romantic premise with a little bit of clop and obvious trends I've seen on this site for years, but I thought people would also probably comment on it like any average clop story. So far It's getting comments with the highest praise for storywriting. I guess there is hardly any clop in the story, it's like 95% romance and basically slice of life. And I did work pretty hard on it's 9000 word length and spent a lot of time and effort on it in the last week (like probably 25 hours or so lol). Anyhow, I'm a bit flabbergasted to say the least.
3905654
Clearly, they wanted you back or they otherwise like what you wrote. It must feel pretty good at the top. I remember feeling ecstatic when I got a daily deviation feature on dA.
3905747
Sounds like people believe you put more thought and effort into it than people have also come to expect on here. I'm happy that something honest is getting honest appreciation. I'm enthused that it's an acquaintance of mine who's earned it.
3906024 Idk. It's probably the latter of the two because I'm pretty sure at least half of the moderate amount of followers I have probably aren't even there anymore, or followed me for different reasons (like comedy).
It's the most like generic kind of marketable premise on this site though, don't forget that. So I'm not surprised it's featured, the comments and lists I see it being added to (someone recently added it to their top favorites of all time list) is what I'm a bit astonished about.
Yeah I mean it feels good. It's not really something to brag about outside of the fandon though obviously XD. I think almost anyone would enjoy being at the center of attention or in a spotlight for a little while, especially under the veil of the internet.
Thanks, though you already knew some of my intentions with it beforehand. I still think it's questionable whether it really deserves to be featured, but it probably does more so than any of my past fics I would say.
3906111
Hey, it is what it is. At least you write to please the market, channeling your creativity.
So what if your intentions weren't exactly pure?
You put out something people wanted and are satisfied with! Indeed, and it also has served its purpose, no? I can't say whether I personally believe it's meritorious of its feature, but I doubt it's totally unworthy. The artist will always be critical.
3906147 Crap I missed your reply in the tons of notifications I'm suddenly getting, I forgot how much that happens when you have a featured story haha.
Yeah I know you're not a huge fan of romance in the first place, and I mean... I guess one can make the argument that even if my intentions weren't exactly entirely for "creative" purposes, is it really such a bad thing to give the people what they want? In a way I guess one can look at it as a sort of "win-win" situation for everyone. Well, I guess except for those who wrote stories of different genres that my story has helped to block from mainstream light.
Apparently my story really isn't terrible though.
Also I forgot to mention that must've been pretty cool when you got a daily deviation on dA. What was it exactly? I'm sure they have some sort of equivalent system for stuff like Fimfiction does.
3906377
Precisely. I know they often say that artists should create their work for fun as opposed to fame, but exposure is important, and the most honest way to do that is give them what they want.
You really can't concern yourself with pushing other people's work out of readers' attention when that's the very nature of popularity. Few popular musicians could survive long, I think, with the guilt of knowing that there are thousands of more worthwhile musicians in existence who would love to have their fame but unfortunately lack it.
Well, it's basically a feature for works on the site. They get submitted to moderators kind of like with EQD with different moderators for different categories of work, and each can choose to let a single work be featured. The vocabulary I used there was a little bombastic, but somehow it made it after I submitted it for review myself. I'm actually a little embarrassed to share it with you, but then again, I can trust that you'll realize my writing has matured a little since I wrote it.
http://www.deviantart.com/art/The-Bear-Fact-377514530
3906541 I suppose so. I guess popularity and quality are two different things as well. You can obviously say that about film, music, anything mainstream etc. Another thing that you have to remember is that "quality" is highly subjective as well. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder". However, some things are more popular than others because humans as a whole obviously follow certain trends, that's psychology concepts. It makes sense that romance would be popular here because that's something nearly all humans can relate to.
Ah, that's an interesting story. I mean assuming you're like 19ish now, and that was writen in 2013, you must've been like 15-16ish? I really don't think you have much to be embarrassed about with it regardless of your age. I don't know the first thing about hunting growing up in an upscale suburban neighborhood, but It seems to me to be a pretty solid account and perhaps commentary on kind of the ethics and potential dangers of hunting. Is it based on some kind of true story in your past?
Also, if you're really curious, I haven't exactly been entirely truthful to you (or hardly anyone) about some of the stories I've written here and my relation to EqD far in the past. It's not anything bad really, just something I've never felt the need much to tell people. I actually have an alternate account with other stories on it of a different nature.
3907757
Yeah, that was entirely my memories of an actual thing that happened back in 5th grade, but I changed the name to Orbdamu. Needless to say, my grandfather is an outdoorsman, and he wanted me to be, too, although it was a lot worse when I was younger.
I know at least one other person on here who does that.
I don't suppose there's really a bad reason to do that. I liken it to authors writing under pseudonyms when they write things on the side that don't quite fit with what they traditionally write.
3907782 Ah I see. Yeah I mean I figured the names of stuff were changed of course. You describe it as "bombastic", but I personally the think the vocabulary you were using especially as a 15-16 year old is pretty impressive. I mean... the story didn't get featured on dA for no reason.
Well the thing is... I basically stopped using it after I made Fattymagee1 because I wanted to write satirical comedy and romance more and that's what I wanted to known for. But I've actually had three stories featured on EqD way back in the day under that name. They were also featured on this site. Those were the days when it was a lot easier to get something approved onto EqD though, as there was a lot less fanfiction to go around and they weren't as much biased nazis like they are now. The stories are of an entirely different caliber in comparison to what I write as Fattymagee1 (except for my most recent story, which I tried to write more like how I used to). Idk I guess stopped writing stories like that for a long time because it felt kinda cheesy and wrong coming out of high school where I was still basically a jock. I tried to be more "hip" I guess for lack of better words. Pretty silly I know, in a place like this where the average person would probably find it to be the furthest thing from it.
Jenova2
3907808
I probably misused a word or two there. Strangely enough, I believe I've written stuff much better than that since then, but all my DD submissions have been denied since, and they'd changed moderators since then, so maybe it was simply a matter of taste.
Well, that's just the thing. The words I used probably were not all the best choices I could have made; I think there's some merit to the remarks accusing me of "thesaurus insanity" if you read the comments on that post. I still think my writing for that was good, but I'd probably go back and edit it a good bit if I were trying to flaunt my work.
Hey, whatever floats your boat. I like the username, though!
FFVII FTW.
3907893 Haha I know "thesaurus insanity". Well whenever I write I always have a thesaurus open to look up words that might help the story flow better. However a while back I probably over did it, at the time it seemed like a lot of fancy words could only help the quality of the story, but that's not always the case. Sometimes simplicity is more effective, depending on the type of story.
And thanks yeah haha.
3907936
Sometimes, I just don't know a simpler word for certain words. I have almost phased out some basic vocabulary from my normal speech, but sometimes using more sophisticated words can exaggerate some feelings. "Egregious" is not a word to simply throw around in the place of adjectives like "bad," but sometimes I don't even realize the transgressions of verbosity I'm making. I just love my big words, I think.
3907977 Well, in most cases I personally don't think that's such a bad thing. I could see how not everyone who's as well versed as you would feel that way though.