Another Random Blog Post · 12:47am Oct 13th, 2017
Because I'm getting lazy at finding clever titles.
In no particular order, I'm gonna make fun of my manager again, give you a short teaser for an upcoming story, tell you that another one is finally complete, and ask for some help. And at least one of those things will be slightly trolly. Also, it's possible that I'll do something else in the blog post, too, 'cause y'all know how I love to go off on tangents.
Okay, I'm going to start with the request for help. Specifically, pre-reading help.
And this is going to sound strange, but trust me there's a method to my madness.
Or maybe there isn't, but there's at least some planning to this madness.
If any of my readers are fluent in Frisian, that would really help me out.
Source
Not that kind of Freisian . . . well, actually, if you can speak that language, I can make changes in the story. 
Because I know when I post what I'm gonna post, someone is going to read it that does speak the language and they're gonna find all the flaws with what I got from Google Translate. I know this, because it's happened every other time.
Granted, we all learn from that, so I guess that's something.
Also, I need someone who speaks French. I'm guessing that's going to be easier to find that Frisian.
True story, last night I PMed someone who I thought spoke Frisian, but it turns out he's from Flanders. Yes, you can laugh at the dumb American who can't remember places in Europe.
I finally posted the last two chapters of Super Short Clopfics, and have now tagged it as complete. Which I guess is an accomplishment.
Still, even bad ideas sometimes have a good home or inspire a good story or something.
I think that was gonna be a little nugget of wisdom that got derailed along the line. Aesop, I ain't.
Anyhow, the point is that in the process of writing it, I got inspired for a more serious story, which I hope to finish around Halloween, 'cause I don't think I've ever written a proper Halloween type story. And before you ask, I got inspired just after I wrote the chapter where our fearless protagonist f
ked a ghost.
I also had someone ask me if I was thinking of allowing other people to submit their own chapters. Sorta like FimFic Authors Are In Your Bed, although with more sex.
It honestly wasn't something that I'd planned on doing, but I guess if there's a lot of interest for such a thing, I could. It probably wouldn't be for a while, though; I've got other projects I need to get done, and it's actually a surprising amount of work to wrangle a whole bunch of stories together.
Now I'm gonna change subjects a little bit and make fun of my manager again.
He's been griping on and off for the last couple of weeks that his mortgage company now wants him to buy flood insurance. And I can see why they might want that; his house sits right by a creek, in a low spot of land.
The first time he mentioned it, he said that he was in a 'hundred year' flood zone. And I'd watched a YouTube video about that, and it didn't mean what he thought it meant . . . but I couldn't remember exactly what the video had said.
He also said that his house has been there for 25 years and it hasn't flooded yet, which anybody in the insurance industry will tell you is not how you figure risk pools. My house has been here for at least fifty years and it hasn't burned down yet, but that doesn't mean that I think it's somehow fireproof.
I'm not going to bore you by telling you what the video said (if you're really interested in the subject, you can just watch it), but the super short version for someone who's curious but not curious enough to watch the video is that FEMA bases flood risk on percentile chance, so if your house has a 1% chance of flooding, that averages out to it happening once a hundred years. There's a lot more to it than that, but that's the nutshell version.
I rewatched the video and explained it all to him, and of course he didn't seem to really understand. Which I guess I should have expected.
Then, a couple of days ago, I heard him griping to another one of his buddies about how dumb this was and how the entire county was basically in a flood zone, since it was only three feet above Lake Michigan.
Just because I like proving him wrong, I did a quick wikipedia search. The town where he lives is about 980 feet above sea level; Lake Michigan is 577 feet above sea level. Simple math suggests that the difference between the two numbers is bigger than three.
I have kind of gotten the thought in my mind, though, that maybe my mortgage company is also going to require me to have flood insurance. After all, if the entire county really is considered a flood zone by FEMA, it would be reasonable for them to do that. And I also have a creek of sorts in my backyard--probably a tributary to the one that runs by his house.
One of the things about my house, though, is that it's on the side of a hill. And while I didn't have exact numbers, I've always figured that it was fifty feet or more above the creek, and that any flood that would get my house would be of Biblical proportions.
So I looked at the FEMA flood map, and my house isn't in the danger zone.
And then I looked at a contour map, and I found out that my house is at about 970 feet above sea level . . . but the map was kinda hard to read, so I downloaded an altitude app for my cell phone.
I drove by his house, and got his elevation. 912 feet. Then I went to mine, and determined that it was 967. And that tells me that if the creek floods his house, it's still got to go up another fifty feet before it gets mine.
Which means that I can put my ark-building plans on hold.
You remember how a week ago everyone was posting their rankings of stories compared to FimFic's rankings?
I considered jumping on that bandwagon, and then I considered how much of a bother it would be to rank 112 stories. And then I considered how some of those 112 stories are actually story compilations, and if I split those up, the number would almost certainly jump to around the 200 mark, and I gave it up as a bad idea.
But I'm sure that at least some of you are curious about which is my favorite or which is my least favorite or some other arbitrary way of sorting them, and as long as it was something short and manageable that didn't require me to sort through literally hundreds of stories I might actually do it.
I thought about doing something like picking some categories, like the story that came out least like I'd expected, or the one that I wrote in the strangest place or something like that. But I would probably only manage to think of a couple of different categories . . . so if y'all have any thoughts on that front, feel free to suggest them in the comments!
Finally, I promised y'all a story teaser, and here it is.
The ponies that surrounded her stopped just out of hoof's reach, and studied her before the silvery-green one finally spoke. “Wat dochsto hjir? Hat jo skip sink yn 'e stoarm?”
“Binne jo yn need?” a second one asked.
Her ears drooped. A few words sounded like they were almost Equestrian, but she couldn't understand them. “Hungry,” she said. “Food.” She lifted a hoof up to her mouth, hoping that they wouldn't misunderstand.
“Hun-gry.” The silvery-green one mimicked, then turned to a grey-blue mare. “Ik tink dat de himel hynder hat honger.”
“Ik sil sejinge en fisk krije.” The grey-blue mare disappeared below the surface, followed by several of her friends.
Thar be seaponies?
That... is not how you figure flood zones. But yeah, if you're that far above the nearest creek to your property, you're probably OK. Unless your house happens to be adjacent to a dry wash that might end up filling up suddenly. You'll generally note a trickle in heavy downpours along such a wash, though.
I know someone who lives above a creek. They got consideration when their garage got flooded in a big event here from the commonwealth, despite the fact that it was their garage, not their house, that caught it; their neighbor just downstream from them, where their entire front yard was a washout, somehow didn't count as far as emergency state funds go. I still don't understand that logic. But then, I don't work for the commonwealth, my logic is not theirs.
I think in all of my writing, I've used one line of Scandi of any sort, and it was wrong. Thankfully, a reader put me right in short order.
Actually, I did do some work in Friesian for my clopfic. Y'know, if you want that kind of help.
I don't remember where, but I'M pretty sure you did mention that headcannon of your about seaponies speaking kind of dutch...
Was it i in a Silver Glow comment? Not sure...
Trying to read those seaponies talking is like trying to listen to Sia, or South Africaan, or Rab Sea Nesbit.
All I know about Flanders is that there was a major battle there in WW1 and it is in Belgium if my memory is correct. If you had to rank your stories you should go by Upvotes/Favorites and which ones you would show to a publisher if you could make any money off selling the stories.
Just rope a bunch of empty plastic barrels to your caravan.
4696205
Arr, thar they be.
4696211
Here in Michigan, we don't really have dry washes. Or typically proper flash floods (which isn't something to complain about, mind you).
I do realize that being 50 feet (or so) above the creek isn't absolute assurance my house won't flood; on the other hand, the amount of floodwater that it would take for the water to rise that high would be biblical, given the terrain around me. I'm basically at the top of a ridge, and the land falls generally downward in all four directions.
Also, according to the FEMA website, I'm well outside of the 1% flood zone. And 50 or so feet above it.
Over here it's kinda complicated. Normal house insurance pays for some kinds of water damage from normal rain or pipes bursting or sump pump failure or what have you. But if it's a proper flood, they don't cover you; you need separate insurance for that.
4696212
As I recall, I've used German, Welsh, Russian, Chinese, Spanish, and possibly French. I got called out on the Russian, and Chinese for sure. The German was supposed to be bad, so that was okay, and I had the foresight to have some actual Spanish-speaking person correct my Spanish.
4696213
That's probably not where the story is going to go.
If it was, though, a Friesian is a good choice. Very pretty horse.
4696250
Yeah, it was in Silver Glow's Journal, where I said that maybe Equestrian sounded like Dutch.
4696304
I have no idea about the pronunciation, but some of the words look almost English. Almost.
4696336
I think it is, or close (it might be in the Netherlands . . . or there might be more than one). I think that there are a lot of regions of Europe that cross national borders.
Well, upvotes/favorites is easy since FimFiction's algorithm can do that. The ones I could show to a publisher . . . well, maybe it would come down to which could be 'unponied' the easiest.
4696362
I've only got ten. Which would actually probably be enough to float a Caravan.
I wonder how many it would take to float my travel trailer/feral cat home?
4696411
The most likely would be Celestia Sleeps In and Onto Pony Planet. They could be adapted into a generic magic using alien race and just simply go forward. I was talking about Hasbro allowing fan fic writers the ability to publish their stories so they can make money off the sales, which they will never allow to happen.
It would be cool though if producers would check out some of the writers on these type of sites and bring in new blood to the shows.
Seaponies! And they speak Frisnian!
Did you see the movie?
4696336
If you still need help with French, I can. (I do live in France)
4696411
I can confirm, for the moment it is in Belgium, though there is always talk of separation from the Wallony (Belgium's other half) that pop up from time to time. And the tension between the two culture can be kinda bad actually.
Flanders do share a border with Netherlands, but the nearby provinces (had to check wich one) are the Zeeland -a Frisian region-, the Brabant -with it's own dialect, though it used to be part of the same duchy as the flanders- and the Limbourg -apparently an odd melting pot, but if it was to be part of belgium, it would be in Wallony, not flanders-. Border in that corner of the world can be quite tedious and the history is relatively complex.
As far as I know, flemish is close to dutch from a linguistic point of view, but not sure how much.
What you ask for is really difficult because Frisian (Friesisch) is only spoken in a relatively small area in northern Germany, the small islands in the northern sea by the german coast, in parts of the Netherlands and a small part of Denmark.
It is also a language that is mostly spoken by older people, it is an old language formed out of a dialect and is mostly oral transferred from parents to their children. It is endangered by extinction because not many young people speak it. So, you can hope that one of your readers lives in that area and maybe speaks Frisian or has a mom or grandma that does. I think the best chances you have with someone from the Netherlands, there it is more common.
Frisian exists besides German but with all languages, there are differences between what you learn and what you practice. The German you learn out of a book is what Germans call Hochdeutsch (high German) that form of German is usually used by younger Germans and in the media. What locals really speak can sound completely different because of the many dialects. You grow up speaking two types of German, the one you learned at school and the local dialect you talk with your parents. Frisian works the same way besides it is a grown language with its own roots.
If you think that can’t be so much different, let me tell you a little story. I live in the area around Frankfurt (Hesse), my wife is from Dortmund (North Rhine-Westphalia). She moved to my home. Shortly after she moved in, one of our older neighbours tried to make a little small talk with her, he spoke a strong dialect (hessisch it is called). She needed me to translate for her. He simply said that we hade nice weather that day. Dortmund to Frankfurt is only 230 kilometres apart.
I live on a rather tall hill, and with a nearby 'valley' of sorts that would need to flood out a LOT before it even considered reaching my house, I will be fine.
Tobad your looking for a frissian and not a dutch person. Or else I could have helped. The chance you find a frissian brony is very small there are not many dutch bronies around either.
4696444
A lot of those are dependent on the Equestria setting (for some of the plot arcs). That could be worked around, of course, but it would be a lot of work. Silver Glow's Journal would be easier, in that aspect, although it would also take a ton of work to file off the serial numbers.
Interestingly, a currently-in-progress story would take virtually no work to humanize and publish.
I don't know if it would be wise to have them looking on FimFiction, because of the potential claims of plagiarism, but I would think that if someone were applying for a job as a script writer, you could do worse than having a well-written ponyfic that covered the show's themes as a writing sample.
4696528
They do! Picked because of the sideways horse pun.
I have now. Actually, I was probably watching it about the time you posted your comment.
4696562
Huzzah!
I'm still working on that section, but when it gets done, I'd love for you to have a look at it.
Also--and this is probably really pushing my luck, but you never know if you don't ask--you wouldn't happen to live on the Atlantic coast, would you?
4696598
Yeah, lots of wars and kingdoms and suchlike will do that.
I think it's pretty close, as is Frisian, although I'm not enough of a linguist to know for sure.
Maybe I'll send all the Frisian stuff to my mom and see if she can translate it based on her knowledge of Dutch.
4696625
I know that it's a total longshot. Still, you never know until you ask, right?
And I can practically gurantee that someone who does speak Frisian will wind up reading it at some point and happily correct all the things I got wrong.
I tend to do that a bit in English--talk one way in the shop, and then a different way when I'm in the city. But that's not quite the same.
I wouldn't have thought that two places that close would have that different a dialect. Although if you get up in the upper peninsula, they kind of speak a different dialect of English than we flatlanders do.
4699481
It's good to be on top of a hill, at least when it comes to flooding.
4700450
Yeah, the odds are not in my favor, that's for sure. At least not until it's published; then the one Frisian brony will read it and make fun of my bad translation.
4701098
You're pushing your luck Admiral
I live in the Département du Loiret
s2.qwant.com/thumbr/0x0/e/0/17763c9a516f533248e9a0339f3a70/b_1_q_0_p_0.jpg?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cap-voyage.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2015%2F11%2FOrl%25C3%25A9ans-Loiret-France.jpg&q=0&b=1&p=0&a=1
(it's the city of Orélans, just 10 min from where i am)
4701098
Is it because you need regionalism or nautic term? I do no a couple of people living on the atlantic coast, so I can ask for regionalism. If it is for nautic term, I'm not so sure I can help, but some of bleeded in the Québec's regionalisms
4701267
Ah, well, it was a hope. Would have made things a bit easier, but that's okay.
4701378
It was for a specific French beach plant, if there are any. I haven't had any luck finding anything other than marram grass.
4701796
You would need a botanist for that I think. Anyway goodluck!
4701849
Yeah, unless I'd gotten lucky and found a local expert. I'll probably just stick with marram grass, 'cause I know that's an authentic thing.
I can hear what you mean, although the guy in the video is relatively easy to understand. Okay my English got a lot better thanks to fanfics and people like you. Even if Granny Smith gets me every time she has some text most times I need a transcript to understand.
If you like I have a video about German dialects, the guy explains it really good and the language samples are authentic.
You have every right to be confused, even I don’t understand some of the samples completely.
I knew Darth Vader was German.
It's funny; my Mom is a pretty good linguist, but I didn't inherit any of that from her. I can kinda pick up a bit of difference in how the different people are talking, although I don't understand a word that they're saying.
Come to the Dark Side we have Andechs Doppelbock (bavarian dark beer), 30 days of paid vacation per year and affordable healthcare for everyone.
4708502
That actually sounds pretty good. It's much better than what we have over here.