So about a week ago, I got a PM from krysohmyz, asking permission to translate my story Daring Do vs Quicksand for Czech bronies. I don't know this language, or anyone who speaks that language, and I wasn't sure what to think. At first, I thought it was a joke of some sort (especially since he had just recently registered). But I, too, have translated things, and I know the amount of work that goes into it; so on the off chance that it was legit, I said sure, just send me a link. Then I didn't think too much more about it.

Well, OP delivered. He recently sent the link to the thread it was posted in as well as the googledoc link for the story itself. I don't speak Czech, so I have no idea how well it flows in another language, but I was able to follow along through the formatting for the most part. If you speak Czech or just want to see what it looks like, there it is.

(do you know how hard it was to not write 'czech it out'? Do you?)

So now Czech bronies are reading a story of mine. This is pretty cool. Soon, my fics shall take over the world! ...if I ever get around to finishing them, that is.

I also don't know how to tell him he spelled 'challenge' wrong without sounding like a complete tool...

So I decided to participate in the Crack Ships, Inc. group's first contest. And apparently, out of all the entries, I am the winer.

Don't ask.

Although no one enters a contest expecting to lose, I kindof expected Rosaceae to win. It was short, sweet, to the point, and, unlike my entry, it actually managed to get to the shipping part. Heck, it even has a reading already.

But hey. I won. No complaints here.

So I guess that'll be the next story I'll be submitting (right now it's published, but not submitted or approved). As soon as I get around to making the cover art, that is... I'm such a slacker why why

Moving on.

I like contests a bit too much, I think. The next one I'm working on is the one the School For New Writers (every time I abbreviate it, it looks like nsfw and I don't really care much for clop) is putting on. Problem is, I am what I call a slave to the random--I have no idea when or whence the idea comes; but when it does, I have to write it. And the idea that came to mind involves FlutterDash (which is funny, because it's not a shipping prompt or anything) and then I thought, mmm, better not, that might lose me some followers. Then I realized, I should write for me, not for popularity. So... yeah. Sorry in advance.

So if FlutterDash isn't your thing, maybe you'll like the idea I have for the contest the group X Becomes a Changeling is putting on. This contest actually is a shipping prompt, so let's see if I can make the old 'zomg Vinyl is akshully changeling!!1!1!!!one!' idea enjoyable. I think I can, but that's not for me to decide, is it?

Either way, both contests end on the 31st of May, so don't expect either of these until the 30th.

And before Tcherno asks, yes, Awkward but Worth It will update before Friday. Finals week and the ensuing gpa kindof killed my enthusiasm for everything but I think I can find my random again. Also, it's at 138 favorites, which is about 118 more favorites than I expected, so I'm happy about that. I'll do something special for 150, if that ever happens.

Winter semester ended today. On an unrelated side note, they say you should write what you know. Well, I guess that means my next story is going to be about getting metaphorically kicked in the teeth, because that's pretty much what this last finals week felt like. Not really. But you know.

So now that school is temporarily over, I no longer have to procrastinate homework for ponies. Instead, I can just poni. Which is kindof depressing, if you think about all the productive things I could be doing. But hey.

Of course, I'm a little too burned out to do much of anything right now, but still. It's a good thought.

Speaking of thoughts... Writing Twilight Sparkle Becomes a Changeling Queen (I know, I'm terrible with titles... my AppleDash contest entry didn't even have a title at first, even my crack shipping contest entry has the worst pun I could think of) has given me reason to expand my changeling headcanon. They can sense and feed off of ambient emotions, so if the ponies surrounding them are happy, they're energetic; if the ponies are angry, they'll feel week or even physically sick if the hate is strong enough. They also love music, because music can cause such deep emotions.

This made me think of a game that I would pay good money for (and keep in mind that I'm the kind of guy that will look for open source / freeware for everything I use; not just because I support freedom, but more because I'm cheap). It's about a changeling who has joined a band, so the gameplay is just like a Guitar Hero game, but you're playing as the changeling (and maybe with Spike as an unlockable character). The difference is, the changeling's movements are related to the crowdpleasing meter on the side. When it's yellow, he's looking around nervously while playing, but trying to get into the movements. The higher in the green it goes, the more he's dancing, bouncing around and ends up acting a bit like the drummer in this video. When it goes down into the red, he ends up just standing there, looking down, almost crying, trying not to mess up. If he fails the song, he collapses, clutching his head and shivering painfully, and the cutscene image is him curled up in the fetal position.

Ok, that sounds a bit cruel. But you see the point, right?

I can't do it. I have no idea how you could even start programming this game. But I would play it so hard.

Otherwise entitled "Shameless Self-Promotion", which means I won't be offended if you don't read this post.

It's funny what people think 'success' means. For example, a person who posts a cover of a pony!song might feel success if mentioned on EQD, or maybe if the original artist comments. For a writer, it might be making the feature box on fimfiction, or perhaps getting an arbitrary number of thumb ups or favorites.

My definition of success was a little lower. You know that little box some users have on their page showcasing their favorite stories? I thought it would be cool if someone put my story on that list.

It happened. And did it.

You might recognize this as the list on bookplayer's page. If you don't know who that is, you should probably go check her stories out. Especially if you're reading this coming from an AppleDash thing I've written.

>implying you already haven't favorited half her stuff already

But seriously. This made me happier than it should have.

You know, just for that, I'm going to post the new chapter early. Right now, even.

...

Oh, right. Self promotion.

It was just my turn in this collab, so you should go read and wonder what the next entrant, The Princess Rarity, will do next.

I just joined the Crack Ships, Inc. contest, too. I was on mobile and I only saw the first two pictures, but that's enough time for randomness to strike, so apparently I'm writing an Applejack x Bon Bon story.

Yeah, I'm not too sure how that'll work out either. But that's why it's called a crack ship, right?

You know, I wasn't even a fan of shipping. I joined this site for the funny stuff. But it's a lot more fun than I thought.

On an unrelated side note, I was also derping around on my hard drive and found a LyraxBon story I'd written a while ago but never finished, so I might post that, too. If I ever get around to making the coverart, that is.

Ok, something random to end this post: It is my firm head canon that changelings do have music (although this area of their lives that was suppressed when Chrysalis came to power), and most of it sounds like Rammstein.

Don't ask.

Sorry for posting twice in one day, but I didn't like that last blog. It made me sound like a whining sack of crap, and I am 97.68% sure that that is not true.

Have an angry Rarity about to give a changeling a generous beat-down.

Eighty three favorites. Awkward, but worth it has eighty three favorites.

That's exactly seventy more than I was expecting. And I have more up votes on this story than all of my other stories combined. (It also happens to have the most downvotes of any of my stories, but the ratio of up to down makes that irrelevant).

I am pretty sure this qualifies as a popular story. It's definitely the most popular one I've ever had.

I have no idea how to respond to this. I'm not hyperventilating but I'm fairly close.

Do I message everyone thanking them for reading? I hate doing that because I feel like a spammer (though I do appreciate them and promise to respond to all comments). I gained watchers, do I thank them, too? And will they leave if I post that Rainbow Factory side story that I was working on a while ago? Or other nonromance stuff? They came for shipping, I think. I really didn't think shipping was my forte. Heck, I dunno if I even have a forte.

I feel awkward knowing that so many people are waiting, watching... It's a new feeling, really.

What do you do with popular stories, anyway? You update them, right? I think so. Yeah, that sounds about right.

Or go on hiatus forever. I don't like that option much, though.

Ok. I'm gonna proofread the next chapter and upload it within the hour.

But what if people don't like the new chapter?

...frick, dude, I'm worse than Rainbow Dash before a flight show.

Next chapter within the hour, chapter after that whenever. I really have no timetable for this thing.

So this morning, I hopped on the site and noticed that I had 30 notifications. My first thought was, ah, some group is rearranging stories.

I then remembered that I set it so I wouldn't get notifications from most of the groups I belong to.

Nope, those were all the result of the last story I posted, Awkward, But Worth It.

I shall now call upon the awesome Rainbow Dash to help me express my feelings.

This was how I looked when I saw that all the notifications were for me.

This was my second reaction to seeing that all the notifications were for me.

This was my reaction to realizing that this is probably what popularity tastes like. It's tasty, actually.

This was my reaction when I realized that there are a lot of people waiting for what's next.

Here goes nothing!

On an unrelated side note, seeing the 502 errors this morning made me feel better about keeping the fimfiction doors in my DooM mod.

New site! New places to find notifications! New colors! New things you have to click otherwise the notifications don't go away... Why, I feel as though I've come to a whole new place. And I'm ok with this. (Well, the green hyperlinks are a bit hard to see. But that's about it.)

And what better way to celebrate a new website than by publishing a new little one-shot? I answer: Nothing!

...well, maybe updating the rest of my stories would be nice, too. It's been five months since I've last heard from Berry Punch. Oh, and getting around to changing my avatar, that'd be cool. Man, I procrastinate a lot. I actually wrote that story in November, but I never got around to publishing it because I wanted to draw an intermission picture for it too but then I realized, no, I'll never get around to that, so I might as well publish it now.

Also, a couple months ago I entered and won the AppleDash group fic contest. I'm still not sure how I pulled this off, as my story was very incomplete and didn't even have a title; but the prize was a picture by an actual artist. I decided to redeem my prize as coverart for that story (which now does have a title). I just got the sketch, and I think it's definitely worth the wait.

But that made me think. It's a shipping story, obviously (I wanted to challenge myself a bit) and I'm worried that people might follow me, expecting more shipping. Of the next group of stories I'm working on, only one has romance in it. The others in that group include angry magical invading griffons (it makes sense in context), an adopted orphan (not Scootaloo), and the Rainbow Factory (whyyyy). So... yeah.

Maybe I worry too much.

tl;dr shiny new site! Eeee!

I didn't even realize this until just now. I didn't even get around to making a celebratory avatar, this is embarassing...

Approximately one year ago exactly, I made the biggest mistake of my life. I decided, 'You know, all these tabs are slowing down my computer. I'd better just bite the bullet and make a fimfiction account'.

Since then, my grades have dropped, my randomness has risen, I've started writing and drawing again, I've wasted time programming a mod that might get shut down anyway, my time has been wasted, I've lost hours upon hours of sleep, all due to ponies and pony fanfiction.

And yet...

I don't mind.

Here's to another year, then.

Not permanently, of course. That would just be silly. I've invested too much time, met too many fun people, and written stories that need updates badly finishing, I couldn't possibly leave. Besides, I wouldn't know where else to go.

But I have organic chemistry tests (yes, plural) this week and a few other projects due, and so in order to ensure that I don't bomb the chemistry test--again!--I have decided to cut back on pone.

This means that if you see me active on this site between now and March 1st, be sure to throw a digital tomato at me or something and say, "Hey, fatty! Get back to work!"  

Also, a little shameless self-promotion for my Rarity vs the Changelings update blog. It's just getting started, but it makes me feel like a real developer. I'm not, of course, but still.