State of the Sky · 7:35pm Dec 18th, 2016
Hello, followsphere! Just a few quick notes to keep y'all from thinking I've fallen off the edge of the Earth...
1. Man, 2012 feels like forever in the past, doesn't it? Hard to believe that "Infernal Machines" happened that long ago. I was pleased to find that it still occasionally gets some love from the review side of the fic community, such as this quite complimentary one from a reviewer named Arcanum-Phantasy. I'm always glad to hear it when people enjoy the "Contraptionology" series, as I think it has a higher entry bar than some of my stuff does; and yet I am more than usually proud of it, however silly it may be.
2. Due to a perfect storm of my own stupidity, I have earned myself a metacarpal fracture, and am currently typing this while wearing a rather badass cybernetic-looking hand brace. On the plus side, this is giving me a motherlode of sense memory for a role-playing game character whose schtick is that she has her hand permanently locked in an ancient mystic war gauntlet. On the minus side, my typical artsy-fartsy psychological pain of irrational self-loathing and low-grade impostor syndrome is now being piggybacked by actual non-artsty-fartsy genuine hand pain, and unlike Beast from the X-Men or Winston from Overwatch, I cannot type with my feet. This is delaying my already admittedly-glacial update pace a bit. Please be advised that I am still chipping away.
3. That's about it, other than that I'd welcome to hear what's up with all y'all below. Hope your December is going great. Tell me about happy things.
2016 is nearly over?
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I keep getting this sentiment from the Internet, but for me personally, 2016 was non-terrible overall, despite a few rather blatantly terrible moments and events. Sure, I broke my hand, and my update pace has been super-slow, and my preferred horse didn't win the election, and David Bowie passed away, but...
...and God willing it remain so...
...my 93-year-old gran is still alive, BronyCon 2016 was everything I wanted a pony convention to be, my lights are on, there's food in the fridge, and I met a new friend and had good times with extant friends. I hope that we all rise to the challenges of the new year with grace, and see what bad things may come not as ship-sinking tragedies but as stages upon which we can demonstrate greater and greater acts of virtue. It's the best any of us can do.
Ouch. That sucks considerably
Um, happy things, happy things...
Uh... I finally can see the back of CAD modelling the T-64, which has become the armoured equivilent of Vampires, the Shi'Ar and Gladiator on my list of Things I Cannot Adequatre Express My Hatred Of...?
Sandy Tosvig is an exemplary successor to Steven Fry on QI?
I am successfully corrupting both my nephews (two and one) with both ponies, dinosaurs and starships? (The older one already knows "Derpy," "Lyra", "Trixie," "Pinkie -Pie" and "Nightmuhmuh Moon," along with, as I have one brushable alog with blind bag ponies, "Big Applejack and "little Applejack.")
Got a nice car, got a job, surpassed a thousand followers here, completed my holiday shopping more than a week in advance...
Yeah, I'd say my December's going quite well. Sorry to hear about the hand fracture. Hope it mends quickly and cleanly.
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Aw, that's adorable!
Also, for some reason, this is the very first time I've heard of QI. I do enjoy me some Steven Fry-watching, so maybe I'll need to do a YouTube trawl.
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My orthopedic PA thinks that it'll be perfectly functional, though my hand might bend slightly differently from now on due to my having knocked the bone about 20 degrees out of alignment.
I'm going out in a few minutes and will probably go have sushi.
Contraptionology is still my favorite fanfiction on the internet, and my third-favorite work of literature of any kind!!
I love the themes of change versus constancy and how it relates to a modernizing world!
Outside the usual hell of holiday retail work, I'm alright.
...And that RP character sounds awesome.
~Skeeter The Lurker
What is "impostor syndrome"?
Happy thing - after not having permanent employment for
nearlyover two years (and that's not counting the two years I spent returning to school as an adult) I finally got full time work starting January.It's the job I left to go back to school four years ago, but I'll take it
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The feeling that other people who are successful are successful because they're skilled and intelligent and in control of their lives, while your success is just because of sheer dumb luck and you're actually just a hack and a failure and very soon everyone is going to find out.
After training for two months, I fought a boxing match for charity yesterday!
I lost by judge decision. But the crowd booed when they said it, which made me feel better :B also I raised about £350 for cancer research, and the group as a whole raised £10k. So pretty sweet, all in all.
Work goes well, I've gotten to do lots of traveling and meet tons of awesome people, and next year looks to shape up even better.
Can't wait for Bronycon 2017! Really, my personal life is great even if the greater world is being shit.
I love Contraptionology, it was the first longfic I read after getting sucked into this site by Friendship is Optimal. It has a spot on my Top Favourites list on my user page to this day.
2016 has been a pretty good year for me, due to the aforementioned BC and meeting exceptional folks like yourself and too many to list. I did my christmas shopping and then spent most of my budget on charity in the local community (Some wee ones are gonna have very merry christmases this year.)
My aging dog is still hale and hearty, albeit a bit slower to get around, but I have no worries of seeing her live for a good while longer.
Silly sappy christmas movies are still great fun to mock.
I am war, fed, safe, and surrounded by those who love me and are loved by me in return. I can't think of anything happier.
Oh wait! I got to pre-read the next chapter on The Mare in the Moon, so that's pretty exceptional.
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that sounds absolutely terrifying! And enough people live with this that its been classified as a Thing?! Thats crazy! O.o
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Believe me, it is absolutely a thing.
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Update: got distracted. Now going out. Soon. I think.
Ouch. Getting a hand injury is one of my greatest fears. Hope you get better soon.
As for happy things: Will be flying home soon to spend Christmas with family. Also, last week I got to meet and work with a real legend on my field, which still makes all warm and fuzzy inside.
In my personal experience, actual physical pain does a remarkably good job at diverting you from psychological pain. (Only to a certain point, of course.) That said -- ouch! Hope you heal well and soon, Skywriter!
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It's kind of the inverse of Dunning-Kruger effect, where incompetent people drastically overestimate their competence, because the ability to judge your own competence accurately is a cornerstone of competence. At the same time, intelligent and competent people tend to be much more aware of just how much there is that they don't know, and frequently low-ball their own competence, especially in relation to others.
Imposter syndrome is just that taken to pathological extremes.
Hm, by "stupidity" you must mean you chose to knock a bear out by super-punching it instead of a roundhouse kick. You misjudged the angle slightly, hence the injury. Still saved the kitten, though.
On the bright side, you can now practice writing like an earth pony. ^.^ Just, probably, not at work. I've learned from experience.
Eh, the last two months have been rough and weary. Not much good to report, but that thankfulness produced through hardness. But so it goes.
This goes without saying, but we all have a Christmas wish for you, Skywriter: that that long list of adjectives shrinks in the year to come. Now I've heard believing is seeing, and if you're a bit dry or tired of the first bit, I think there's more than enough between the rest of us here, certainly for one wish. And I've been told we rather like to share.
Unless your destiny is actually to write nothing but Celestia fanfiction, in which case, no argument from me. :D
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Actual legitimate response by brain from reading this: "Oh, crap, it looks like he's calling me intelligent and competent."
I'm nearing the end of a two week cruise. My wife finally prodded me into buying wifi so she can have her Netflix, so a side effect is that I'm posting from a 360 degree oceanfront.
Get well soon and enjoy the christmas season
This girl from a role playing game with her hand stuck in a magical gauntlet doesn't happen to be Lexi from Mage Gauntlet, does it?
To this day Contraptionology is my favorite story on this site.
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Yes, yes I am. At least in the fields of ponywriting and Equestrian worldbuilding.
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Let's overcome the stupid and do the rational thing, which is to thank you for the compliment.
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I'm so glad to hear it! I only hope that I can surpass it some day.
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Nope, hadn't heard of it! But it kinda looks cool. Is it?
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Thanks. Best of times to you as well.
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That sounds gorgeous. Lucky you!
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Thanks, Axis. I'm always glad to have your support.
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Oh, and thank you for the recovery wishes!
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Congrats on meeting a legendary person! Thanks for sharing!
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Hope the sushi was delicious!
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That's a beautiful story, TMF. Thank you.
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I'm honored, thanks!
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Glad things are looking sunny for you! Name pun unintentional.
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That is... totally great. You are officially better than me.
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Yay employment!
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Could be worse than "all right", I guess! Thanks for weighing in!
You should do bulk comments you silly pink princess horse lover! Hah
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Normally I do but all the scrolling back and forth was hurting my hand.
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I prefer check by mail.
The Sky is blue.
Wow though. Did you get your hand smashed in a door or something?
I'm glad to hear it will be usable at least.
4344881 Oh ... dear.
4345014 That's quite a coincidence. FiO was, I think the first thing I read here too.
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My first fanfic read was "Better Living Through Science and Ponies." And suffice it to say that I was doing a stupid thing using my hand and am paying the price for doing that stupid thing. We won't get into details.