February 26 [bell choir]
February 26
I woke up in the middle of the night totally confused. Even before I opened my eyes I could smell that I wasn't in my room or Aric's room, and it took my tired brain a minute to figure out where I was. Then I saw the spill of blonde hair on the pillow and even without even being able to see her face, I knew it was Meghan.
She was sort of crowded into bed, since I'd fallen asleep almost in the middle of it, and she'd gotten under the covers without even waking me. I must have been tireder than I thought I was last night.
Maybe I should have gone back to my room, but instead I just got under the covers and closed my eyes again.
I woke back up at my usual time. Meghan was still rolled with her back to me, so I nuzzled her shoulder but she didn't wake up. I probably could have prodded her with my hoof, but that would have been mean.
I got out of bed and let myself out of her room as quietly as I could, then went back to my dorm room for my flight clothes. It was really a poor day for flying—there was heavy wet snow gusting around—but it was a worse day for trotting. Orange snow-trucks might spray me again if I was on the ground, but they couldn't get to me if I was in the air.
The airplane controller was reluctant to let me fly, because the visibility was so poor, but she finally relented when I promised to stay under a thousand feet, which isn't all that high at all. Airplanes can't fly that low over the city unless they have special permission, so I'd be safe from them if I stayed low.
Right away I noticed that the blinking light had a very odd effect on the snowflakes: it would look like they stopped whenever the light flashed, and then when it was off they were moving normally again. At first, I tried to tune it out, but the more I flew the more disorienting it became, and I finally had stop and take stock of my situation. I could turn it off, but I wasn't supposed to ever do that. The one time its batteries had worn out was something that I couldn't have anticipated, but pushing the button on its base would be a deliberate action that might make them take away my flight privileges if anybody saw, and I didn't want that to happen.
I tried closing my eyes whenever I thought it was about to blink, but that was nearly as confusing, and I finally had to land. I couldn't fly like this.
So I shut off the light and told the airplane director that I was back on the ground again and then I flew my normal trotting route without the light. Any airplanes that were flying that low were going to hit trees and all the wires that criss-crossed the street.
When I finally got done and landed, I felt fifty pounds heavier with all the snow caught in my coat and on my wings and in my mane and tail. I shook as much of it off as I could before I went into the dorm, but I was still melting by the time I got to the shower. The hot water fixed that right up, and it was really good at melting all the ice out of my vanes.
In climate science class we took a test, and at the end of it the professor told us that the good news was that this was the last test we'd have besides the final exam. There was some groaning at the words 'final exam;' I guess humans don't like them either.
It's funny how quickly time goes by. It was hard to believe that we were almost done with the class—only two more weeks. Already people were talking about Spring Break, and I was looking forward to it myself.
Nietzsche . . . my attention wavered in philosophy class. I felt really bad; I'd been dutifully taking notes like a good pony and the professor was talking about the Übermensch and how people should ignore those who wanted to get away from earth (which offended me just a bit) and I just got inspired and started writing a little poem about Nietzsche.
'I think therefore I am' says Descartes.
'You are not,' says Nietzsche.
'God gives us divine laws,' says Aquinas.
'God is dead,' says Nietzsche.
'This is an ideal chair,' says Plato.
'There are no ideals,' says Nietzsche.
'Everyone can agree on virtues and morals,' says Aristotle.
'Morality is the herd instinct in the individual,' says Nietzsche.
'That's not rain,' says Nietzsche.
I lean over the cloud. 'It isn't.'
Then I turned the page before anybody saw I wasn't paying attention and listened to the professor explain how the Nazis had misinterpreted Nietzsche's philosophy. All I could think was that I was really looking forward to moving on to Sartre.
Some Fridays in the dining hall they try to make something nice for dinner, and other Fridays they don't. I've discovered that you can guess which it's going to be by what's on the lunch menu. If it's the same thing that you already ate once for dinner, then they're planning something special. But if it's something new, they'll serve mostly the same thing for dinner. Today they had leftovers from yesterday's dinner, which was a bit of a letdown, but meant at least they would have something special tonight.
I apologized to Meghan for taking up so much of her bed but she said that it was okay. She asked me if I was coming to the handbell concert tonight, and I said that I was. Then we spent all of class working through two chapters of Daring Do and the Marked Thief of Marapore. I was going to say that they were reading the books out of order, but it really didn't matter. Anyway, I'd watched Star Wars out of order and was watching Star Trek out of order, so maybe humans didn't like things in order.
Dinner was maybe Mexican and maybe Tex-Mex and maybe Southwestern; everyone called it something different. But it was tacos that we could make ourselves, and choose what went into them or on them. There were two shapes of tortilla chips and taco shells and soft tortilla circles and then all sorts of different things that could be put in them or on them. Nobody at the table had the same idea; Sean had tacos full of meat and cheese while Joe made a plate of chips with all the ingredients on top of it and he called that a salad. Christine rolled up the tortillas into a round tube like a spring roll which she said was called a burrito, and Peggy just had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
I just put a little bit of everything except the meat on my plate because hooves aren't very good at rolling up burritos, and the taco shells kept falling over when I tried to use them.
I liked it; it was like Taco Bell food, and that had been really good. There was a Taco Bell near the Maple Hill Mall and I was going to go there someday all on my own.
After dinner, I convinced Peggy to come to the bell concert with me, and we went over to the chapel ten minutes before it was going to start. Instead of the individual seats like the theatre has, they had long benches called 'pews,' which were a lot more friendly. We could sit right next to each other without there being a barrier in the way.
There were several long tables with brass bells on them all arranged from biggest to least, and there was nobody up there until it was time for the concert to start, then a short man with a goatee and glasses came out and announced the concert, and the bell-ringers came in.
I expected Aric to be down by the big bells, but he wasn't. He was near the small ones, and when he picked up four I understood why. His big, clever hands could hold more bells if they were small.
I told Peggy who most of the people were—I knew Aric of course, and Meghan and Becky and Lisa and Amy, and that right there was half of the choir.
They played a bunch of songs, and they switched positions now and then. There was one song where Aric was playing big bells, and another where Becky played six at once, which was amazing to see. Usually they swung the bells and dampened them on their shoulders or breasts (Aric and the other boy were at a disadvantage when it came to dampening the bells) but sometimes they hit them with mallets while they were on the table.
My favorite piece was In the Hall of the Mountain King—it just kept on getting faster and more frantic right up until the very end. Peggy liked Danse Macabre the most, which had the biggest variety of ways to play the bells.
(I've heard that there are even bigger bells in the tower but those had to be rung with a rope.)
Aric was sad that I wasn't going to spend the night with him, since I had to be up early to get to the skiing mountain with Peggy.
All of us hung out for a while at a little restaurant under the main dining hall called the Quad Stop. They offer free milkshakes for rejection letters, and there is a whole wall covered with them. It was kind of sad to see, but I guess everyone whose letter was up there had gotten a free milkshake.
Aric shared a bit of his Stewart's Ginger Beer with me, which really burned my throat and nose, and I sneezed right after I drank some. He thought that was hilarious, then he drank the rest of the bottle to show off.
It was a little late when we said our goodbyes and Peggy and I went back to our dorm room.
Before I went to bed, I copied my little poem about Nietzsche onto a new piece of paper. I thought maybe Conrad would like it.
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Parents, are your teens experimenting with Nietzsche?
There's no reason to drink ginger beer unless it's mixed with vodka and lime juice.
"That's not rain."
So, is Silver Glow fantasizing about expectorating or micturating on Nietzsche?
Something is wrong here... Also, that poem has the best ending.
I know it's the strangest thing to pick out, but I just have to say how much this line spoke to me. When you're in a foreign country, even if you have a good grasp on the language, it takes a lot of effort to go someplace new and strange by yourself. There's that lurking fear that you'll do something wrong and cause problems for everyone and hold up the line.
The reality, of course, is that no one cares if you mess up. The ramen stall owner is more than happy to struggle along with your faltering Japanese and give you the dish he thinks you want, and the people waiting in line behind you are far, far, too polite to ever even think about being upset because the big American is a little slow with his language.
7149407
Yes.
7149410
Correction made; thank you!
Now, now, Silver. Just because Nietzsche is a doo-doo head doesn't mean....
....
...eh. Carry on.
7148264 Couldn't sit down for awhile after that whooping.
Scarcity of decent Mexican food up north is quite a problem. Ask for a chalupa con pueste or lingua anything and they look at you like you suddenly sprouted a second head. And both speak gibberish.
That poem was actually quite brilliant. And it cracked me up
Oh, don't I know it. I have some just next week and I'm reading horse words to keep myself from panicking.
I sympathize with Silver Glow here. The only work of Nietzsche's I have read is Twilight of the Idols which is basically just him mocking previous philosophers in the most childish and immature way possible. Needless to say I was not impressed, though I suppose he served an important role in breaking Western philosophy out of its rut.
That poem.
Why do I get the feeling there was some body language there that Silver completely missed? xD
I suppose it is a valid way of venting frustration.
Hehehe! No you don't!
Well, I suppose that radical freedom could appel to her, but stuff about the absurdity of life or hell is the other certainly won't.
7149402 What is not to admire about him? After all, he is the most Ubermensch man in the world!
Ohh, handbells. Last time I did something like that... it wasn't a concert. It was a comedy skit. I had been pulled out of the audience at the circus by a clown so that I could help perform, along with a few other audience members. That's right, folks-- I literally joined the circus!
I'd have expected her to refer to them as benches.
Typo here. Missing an "s" at the end of "tables".
That song is awesome.
7149579
Mmm... who would you consider the best philosopher, or at least the one who has contributed the most to humanity´s betterment?
7149172 I suppose Admiral Biscuit is using the same definition that he used in OPP, namely, some sort of group with a common interest. Somewhere in the comment for that story he mentionned it could encompass concept like "clan/states/nations" just as well as "friends/companions".
"...They offer free milkshakes for rejection letters,..." I would have weighed three hundred pounds in college...
"...I was really looking forward to moving on to Sartre..." You poor, deluded fool.
Bravo, Silver.
When Nietzsche died someone put an ad in the paper that said "Nietzsche is dead.~God"
Sartre... I could see it going either way with him honestly. His emphasis on freedom might could really appeal to her. But it would be hard to reconcile cutie marks and equestrian norms to Sartre's utter rejection of a priori meaning
Loved the poem. I get the feeling that not only will Conrad and the class love the poem, but people will encourage her to pursue her budding career as a satirist.
I'd be so fat if I had a restaurant that offered milkshakes for rejection letters. I'm at the classic catch 22 of you need experience to get experience.
Dat poem was fantastic.
I bet Conrad reads it to the class.
"Clever fingers"
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Silliness aside, I love coming back every day for my direct injection of Silver Glow. Makes my lunch hour much more enjoyable!
Good! Good! Give into your feelings of hatred and your training towards the dark side will be complete!
So...noone else is going to point out the irony in Silver's poem's final lines, and her later eating Mexican? Just me?
Yup, I must be a terrible person.
That said, fantastic poem, and I'm glad to see others seem to be as unimpressed with Nietzsche as I was.
'In the Hall of the Mountain King' is easily one of the greatest musical masterpieces I've heard. So glad Silver Glow has great taste in music.
I'm just saying this:
That poem would make an excellent comic. Even with the slightly gross ending.
As much as I enjoy reading this story, I can't help but admit that in certain ways, it's been very stressful. There's this tension going on between Silver Glow's interpretation of the human world and how many of us really see it, and eventually, something is going to have to break.
Silver is going to end up hurting Aric. I realize that it's not a certainty, but with her apparent budding interest in Meghan and now Conrad (How old is he? Do ponies see age difference the same way we do?), her lack of a nuanced understanding of human norms on student-teacher relationships and relationships in general, and her lack of an inclination to really communicate the nature of her relationship with Aric, I can only realistically see this as ending painfully.
I suppose the daily update schedule doesn't help. By following the story along in real time, we have to wait as long as it would take in the real world to see how things are resolved.
Silver also displays character traits that I find very difficult to reconcile.
She's good at math and understands meteorology, which I consider an indicator of intelligence, but she also has this dismissive attitude towards many of the things she learns about humans, and assumes that we could easily be doing it better (speaking of gravity and weather as if they are "systems" we chose to put and keep in place, using her senses to conclude that she obviously has a body despite the senses being the very thing Descarte called into question) instead of considering that we may have our own reasons for things, and asking us why, which I consider an indication of lack of intelligence.
Silver has also shown a clear understanding of the use of idioms ("fly around the sky"), while failing to infer that we might be capable of the same when she hears something that doesn't make sense when taken literally ("mind out of the gutter").
In reality, though, people contradict themselves all the time. No one is perfect, or perfectly consistent. Real people have flaws.
So kudos to you, Admiral Biscuit, for somehow making a complex character by using an infuriatingly simple voice.
Also, did the philosophy class ever go over reasoning and argumentation? If I remember correctly, they just jumped into studying philosophers right away. If that's the case, then I find it strange. The very first thing we did in my philosophy GE was spend at least a week on logic, validity, soundness, etc. I think it's crucial to understand the basics so that you can look at the works of philosophers with a critical eye, as opposed to what Silver seems to be doing, which is agreeing with the ones she already agrees with, and disagreeing with the ones she already disagrees with.
Just an FYI you can legally turn off your anti collision beacon when in low vis because of the strobing effect.
7149646
Well I do rather like Mencius, but I don't know how applicable his philosophy is to real life.
I have no idea which philosopher has contributed most to humanities betterment. I think that is too subjective a term to get a good answer.
She knows him Biblically.
Also, I really hope someone introduces Silver to a certain Monty Python sketch about philosophers:
7150168
someone will be getting a free milkshake before the end of the year
7150466 And Philosophers Football. Especially Philosophers Football.
7150168
Pretty much the definition of irony, really.
You know I can totally see a pony, which is a herding creature, not being so enthused about Nietzsche.
I'm starting to wonder about her upbringing in general, since she's used the 'like a good pony' several times now. Nothing bad, it's just another glimpse into her psyche after all. Who raises an eyebrow at uni at somebody not paying attention every now and then? Pegasus discipline I guess.
Love these small mental misfilings and faulty subconscious generalizations that constantly happen while your brain is still trying to adapt to all the 'larger' things and attempting to make life easier for itself. They do add up after a while.
And of course: poem. A+
7148424
You have me intrigued. Could you send me some links?
7150282 insular (or isolationist) xenophobia is the most common form of xenophobia, but not the only kind. It excludes interventionist xenophobes; whom would advocate for taking steps to actively prevent the foreign from being able to approach the domestic. This is the sort that wants to bomb the middle East. I think the last 100 years have been an adequate deterrent to this school of thought.
Verisimilitude is perhaps not the most accurate word to describe what I meant. In fiction, fulfilling the audience's expectations of what something should look/sound/act like is oftentimes more desirable than presenting the literal truth. This is not lying. Authors do not litter dialouge with ums, ahs, and natural pauses and breaks. Swords do not ssshink out of leather scabbards, and guns do not cock themselves when pulled out of holsters, but the audience expects them to, so sound engineers put those sounds into films. In the America of today, when using the language of modern xenophobes, I believe it would feel out of place to not use Trump's rhetoric. Even more so when you consider the mouthpiece for such an argument comes from a flat, static character like the dude in the store.
On the topic of Trudeau and Canadian immigration targets, keep in mind that both Canada and the US have the luxury of an entire ocean between themselves and the middle eat. Such an impressive physical barrier prevents the vast majority of undocumented migrants from ever entering the country, and thus allows both countries to be far more selective in their immigration. The majority of the people being resettled in Canada are families that have been stuck in refugee camps for three or more years, not economic migrants. I don't disagree that the situation in the EU has been an unmitigated disaster, but I would argue that such events are extremely unlikely, perhaps even impossible, on this side of the Atlantic.
I would also argue that the middle East was considerably more enlightened than Europe before being sacked and subjugated by Mongol invasions. Many Muslim rulers were extremely tolerant of those of other faiths, as the special jizya tax they had to pay greatly benefited them, though I would concede that greed is not the most noble of motivations for such tolerance.
As for your last paragraph, I think you're looking for contention that doesn't exist.
7150168
It's possible (though I don't know how likely) that they have a setup like at my school, where a dedicated logic class is a prerequisite to the philosophy courses. If so, this might be a case where they let her in without realizing that her prior studies didn't cover logic adequately.
...Or maybe Silver's just not terribly good at that sort of thinking. That's hardly uncommon among humans either, after all.
7150788
I'd also like to see them, and I suspect a lot of other readers would too. Perhaps it would be possible to make a link-compilation blog post or something?
Nice one Silver!
Are those Dear John letters or rejected college applications? Maybe both?
7151398 Wait, so she will get to see Zootopia the year of her visit? Please let it happen!
How do you even do six at once without a bell tree, I've only ever seen 4 at a time? Unless she was doing the low bells, I've done C2 through B2 by myself before, since it was all half and whole notes with only one/two bells playing at once.
Also, have to give them props for being able to switch positions. I had been playing C3 through D#3 for about a year, but about a month ago I switched to Ab3 through B3, and I still have problems playing piano/pianissimo. I either swing it too slowly to actually make any noise, or end up being mp/mf half the time.
7151368 It is still kinda cold, but at least the weather is mostly sunny since a few weeks and it seems that it will stay that way for a while.
7151458
7151497
It is very vast and changing. Pop culture is not the same depending of the country and in this day and age, new thing get popular fast and fall out of it even faster.
Pop culture class would be more about what makes all these different things and how they are diffused rather then what they are.
7148278
Do it. You've got nothing to lose and maybe everything to gain.
7151604
I can vehemently oppose egregious interpretations of the 2nd Amendment, but the actual crimes have long since lost their emotional impact. I'm just being honest; it's part of growing up in NYC.
I consider it offensively hypocritical to be in favour of "gun rights" in their current form, and then act all distressed at random shootings and offering "thoughts & prayers" on stupid tweets. But it doesn't apply to Peggy in this case, ofc.
7150990 I didn't know there were tiers or categories to being xenophobic. The only thing I have is the definition and links to South Africa on my search results. Have a site that lists them? And from my last paragraph, red flags were going off in my head when it sounded like something someone wanted to obfuscate their real response and belief instead of coming out with a straight answer. It sounded like something a social justice warrior would say since it was talking about "xenophobia in modern thought". Like, how can xenophobia be anything other than xenophobia? It does come in different forms and behaviors because of the different reasoning thoughts behind them, but that sounded like a non-answer to me.
Okay, trying to parse this out since it seems like an over complicated way of saying something. The guy was definitely a xenophobe, but being a Trump supporter only bolstered the idea of that one character being one and not a representation of the author's ideas against supporters or of his supporters. If so, yeah, I can believe it and don't have a problem with it, especially after reading what and why some white supremacists are backing Trump. My first reading of that chapter felt like a backhand. Here it does make a bit more sense.
(Looking at that article, I got to the ad they had on their site where it said, "Diversity is code word for White Genocide". Well, after seeing some evidence, I don't doubt there's a radical, and currently powerful, minority in universities and governments preaching xenophobia against white people. So even racists can be right sometimes. What a world.)
I need to look up if what Canada is importing are real war refugees instead of the economic migrants. If so, I have no problem with them coming over to escape death and war. Makes me wonder though, since looking up Canada, why they have the highest immigration rates in the world. (~250,000\year) And why they would want more than that.
For middle eastern countries having a historical enlightenment, perhaps. I need to read up more history that's over a couple hundred years old to get historical context. It's certainly not true anymore since many countries and governments seem to have regressed into dogma and oppression based upon the more destructive parts of the Koran and anti-Western rhetoric. They certainly need to find an Enlightenment again to be very tolerant and learn that the idea of a secular democracy in itself isn't evil. Sadly, I'm not sure if we'll see that in our lifetimes. Not without a civil war of some kind.
7151515 Thank you. Sorry for being accusatory, but that part bothered me for a long time until now.
7151559 Right! I'm saying that Raising & Lowering the Sun & Moon was an EXTREMELY important job held by TEAMS of unicorns. Which was then stolen by 2 Alicorns, and then 1 Alicorn, before going back to 2 Alicorns. Which is why the Unicorns are the only race in charge of Large Government. They are the only real Nobles in Cantlerlot.
I mean sure the other races Govern themselves a lot, ESPECIALLY the Pegasi in Cloudsdale, but ultimately the large Government power that is held over ALL of them resides in Canterlot with Celestia & Luna, followed by the Unicorn Nobles.
I mean when was the last time in the Show, or the Manga (Which I have seen a lot less of) actually have Pegasi Nobles that were involved in Laws on the scale of Canterlot Nobles. I mean look at the Grand Galloping Gala, which is where all the most important ponies go, and look at the ratio of Unicorns to Non-Unicorns...
7151559
So her classmates would be a herd? They're all together for the purpose of learning, but her friends wouldn't be considered one?
It does make the idea of a Batchelor herd a little strange, In suppose there's a joint purpose in there but I'd think it would be closer to a group of friends who happen to all be of the same age.
I could certainly see a sports team being considered a herd by that description though.