Random Ramblings CCCLXXXVII · 11:15pm Nov 22nd, 2019
IN WHICH I SHARE MY BAD IDEAS
I've wanted to write this for the past week but keep passing out. Have some old-style Sabbath.
What would I wish for from Dio besides for him to still be alive? Click "Read More" to find out.
The answer is the ability to actually have creativity and drive to write regularly and not suck at it. Also, Dio died in 2009. There is no doubt in my mind that had he lived a few more years, he would probably have been one of the first singers in the "Metal Scene" (though he never considered himself metal due to his varied repertoire) to support Babymetal and especially its lead singer Suzuka Nakamoto. Dio was only a little taller than Suzuka is, so there's that too. Better to have had her and Moa (plus the now-retired Yui) looking up to him than Metallica. Just like Weird Al, I can't forgive Lars Ulrich.
Anyway, like I said, I've wanted to write this blog-post for awhile but haven't because every time I'm set to do it, it's either the middle of the night or I have to do stuff. Stuff sucks.
Surprisingly (maybe?), I do writing outside of Pony. I've also, as I think I've mentioned before, been teaching myself how to use a subtitling program. I've already subbed about five Ladybaby music videos (just with Romanized lyrics, no translation for the most part because I don't speak Japanese and discovering half the lyrics in "Damedame Tono" were references to classical stories melted my brain). Regrettably, I have no idea how to create hardsubs, so I can't really share the fruits of my labour with you.
My first big project that I've been working on on-and-off since last Christmas is a full gag-sub of the first episode of Sakura Gakuin's Ganbare!! FRESH Monday!. The episode is just short of an hour and I have over forty minutes of it utterly demolished.
Keep in mind Sakura Gakuin has both a lower and upper age limit -- 5th through 9th grades. No active member is older than 15. This particular episode from July 2017 had two 9th-graders, an 8th-grader, and a 7th-grader.
Gag-subs can be difficult if you actually care, because it helps to know what they're saying so you can better convey what they're NOT saying. It's not enough to write offensive jokes; they have to work within the context of the flow of conversation.
In part of the episode the girls IRL talk about accents, so I have one girl from the countryside output subtitiles 90% in Futhorc Runes -- though if you can actually read Runic you'd immediately realize she's speaking proper English, while her "English" subtitles are full-on Redneck. Naturally the teacher complains that he can't read the subtitles. The Class President, who's from Kagoshima (a highly divergent dialect of Kyushu Japanese) slips into Broad Scots, which I did have to research to make sure I was accurate because I'm super-anal about stuff like that.
There are, of course, multiple drug references (mostly their teacher, who I give a lower-class London accent, being drunk). And because the two oldest girls in this episode were known to have a, shall we say interesting dynamic -- the Class President has a history of being a tsundere -- I eliminate the middleman and have them all but say-outright that they're in an extremely kinky sexual relationship. But I have SOME decorum; one of them will usually get cut off before going into too much detail. I'm particularly proud of this exchange.
Megumi: "It's amazing I was able to be on that stage without an accident for once!"
Sensei: "I see."
Megumi: "This year my girlfriend gave me some bomb-ass Tush to keep me regular and sane around the new girls--"
Sensei: "It's 'Kush', you square! Unless… ugh, I see. So it has begun."
Megumi: "Hi."
Sensei: "What you two do in the dorm aside, lets not traumatize the new girls. Or me."
Also this exchange just a minute later…
Sensei: "So, Mori. Care to explain your hate-on for Kikuchi?"
Momoe: "Well this one time, at Sakura Camp… my poor Cock…"
Sensei: "I'm genuinely sorry I asked."
Momoe: "She ate my pet rooster, Cock-Robin. Then she ate my horse. It's still hard to talk about it."
So yeah. Your humble writer is a terrible person who will probably go to jail if he ever actually makes the whole thing public. Plenty more drug and sex references to be found in the file. Not even sorry. It's also a little ironic considering that I largely avoid such things in my stories here.
In addition to slowly trying to figure what to do for the next EQUESTRIA GIRLS story, I'm also thinking about outsourcing creativity.
What do I mean by that? Well, a couple days ago I found an AI program that you can type a phrase into and it spits out half a page worth of story. So I'm thinking I might want to "write" a chapter like that. Below is a great example someone else got using part of Donald Trump's actual handwritten notes from earlier this week. It's hard to tell where the real thing stops and the computer begins (and yes the original is in all-caps; it's not me screaming).
I WANT NOTHING. I WANT NOTHING. I WANT NO QUID PRO QUO. TELL ZELLINSKY TO DO THE RIGHT THING. I WANT NO MONEY. I WANNA HAVE A CHILDREN'S BEDFORD. I WANT AN EXTRA SEAT ON EVERY STORE CARS. I WANT A CUBE.
ZILLA, PLEASE. I CAN'T PULL THE WING OVER MY EYEBALL. I AM NOT SURE IF IT IS REAL.
JANINE RATCLIFF, YOU CAN'T SAY I NEED NO MONEY.
I'LL BUILD MY EYEBALL.
I HAVE HAD A HOBBY. I HAD A MOUTH-WHISK. I HAD A TONGUE-WHISK.
I HAVE A BABY.
I HAVE A
As you can imagine, it would be very interesting to create a Sunset Shimmer story out of this mess.
My other, perhaps crazier, idea is to write out my next Sunset story as lazily as I can but then feed it through a recursive translator (i.e. Translation Party or the like), so it gets sent through multiple language databanks before being spit back out into "English".
Hell, I may do both, at least once I've written actual chapters where the Dazzlings and such appear, since that's vital to the setup of the Universe and I'm not gonna skimp on that any more than I already have. Beyond that, no promises. Same for a publish date for next chapter. Sorry.
Hey. It's easier than working. 
Peace out.
It's really good to hear from you, and I know what you mean. I've gotten barely anything done the past month too.
If you ever want to come party with the Writeoff crowd, we’ll make it a good time.