March 1
Today is the first day of Springmonth, or what the humans call March. It was a good day to wake up cuddled by Aric, and I stayed in bed maybe a bit longer than I should have but he wanted some attention.
Then he helped me put on my flight vest and I took to the sky.
It was a kind of blustery day, not quite squalling but it really wanted to. There just wasn't enough moisture in the air.
Flying in gusty winds is always a challenge, because you have to be one step ahead of them, and you have to have a recovery plan in mind for when you aren't. That's what flunks a lot of pegasuses out of storm duty, especially on the coast. Clear days usually aren't so bad; even when it's nasty out you can see where you are. If you're in the clouds, though, it's pretty easy to get disoriented, and sometimes the base of the cloud deck is really low.
I couldn't fly in clouds, so at least I didn't have that to worry about.
If you're flying into the wind and it's clear, you can sometimes get clues about what's gonna happen by seeing how trees and grass responds. Or over water—you can see little wavelets form as the wind whips across them. When you're going downwind, though, you don't get that much warning, just a brief pressure on your tail, and that's all the warning you have. So altitude is important.
I think that's why airplanes always land into the wind, so they can see what's coming.
Back when I was a foal, I used to not care about it so much. We didn't fly on really gusty days, and our kindergarten training area was well-protected. But the next year when I flew more out in the open, I came in for a downwind landing and got caught by a gust just before my hooves touched down, and I went tail over muzzle and crashed in an undignified lump. After that, the reason for what my flight instructors said stuck with me, and I knew that they wouldn't tell us something unless it was important, even if it wasn't obvious why it was important right away.
So I dutifully flew a downwind leg around campus and then landed upwind, dropping a bit more quickly than I'd planned when I saw the tops of the trees by the chapel bend. It turned out I was under the gust (the hill covered me), but I hadn't been sure.
I took a quick trot just around campus—there is Academy Street on one side, and right on the other side is Lovell Street. That's a one-way street, which means that you can only go uphill on it, unless you're a pedestrian in which case you have to go against the direction of traffic so that cars can't sneak up on you.
I got showered and breakfasted in plenty of time for poetry and remembered to get my poem about Nietzsche for Conrad. I didn't want to give it to him at the beginning of class because maybe he'd want to read it right away and delay the class, and then people would be mad at me. So instead I kept it folded neatly in my notebook for later.
He was reciting a poem when he came into class. 'One by one lights of a skyscraper,' he began as he walked through the door.
I wonder what he would do if anybody started reciting the poem with him? I think he would like that. But nobody spoke; we were all listening to his wonderful baritone voice until he finished the poem about the skyscraper and its mistress the night.
The poet was Carl Sandburg, and many of his poems were very short. They were about buildings or places or a new car. Where some of the terms in the older poems had confused me because they were in English that isn't used any more, some of Sandburg's poems were equally confusing because they were about things I knew nothing about. But, Conrad was really good at explaining—and then the poems made sense.
There were two he read us about railroads. One was about a caboose, who follows along behind the train and makes sure that everything stays together and gets where it needs to. And the other was short, and was about the little towns that the train goes through and doesn't stop.
I've always wondered about those little towns. Ponies live there, and to them it's the most important place in the world, because it's their home. When you're on the train, though, it's a little cluster of houses that zips by outside the windows. Sometimes you don't see the sign, so you don't even know the name of the town. It could be anywhere.
Plus it feels weird to be an interruption in their life. Sometimes I see ponies waiting to cross the tracks, and they're probably mad that the train came while they were on their way to wherever it is they were going. But sometimes they wave: on my last train trip I happened to look out the window as we passed through a little town and there were three colts standing in a garden, and the littlest one was eagerly waving at each car that passed him by.
It wasn't just towns, either. There were so many houses I passed by when I was taking a long trot through the neighborhood, or that I flew over, and I didn't know who lived in any of them. I could have been flying over Conrad's house every day, for all I knew.
I would like to see his house. I imagine that he has shelf upon shelf of poetry books.
Class ended too soon, and I gave Conrad my little poem. He read through it and laughed, and then asked if he could read it aloud to the class. I told him that he could—I was flattered that he asked.
In the afternoon, I got a computer letter from Gates that said he was done with editing the video and I could watch it on the link he sent, and then there were a bunch of blue letters that didn't spell any word I knew.
I asked Peggy, and she said it was a hyperlink. It didn't look very hyper to me, it was just sitting there being blue. When she put the pointer on it and clicked, it opened up a new page on the computer that was the video.
We both watched it together, and Peggy jerked back a little bit when I flew up to Olds Upton. The GoPro made it look closer than it had been.
It was interesting to see how I looked when I was in the air. Gates' camera on the ground showed some of my acrobatics really well. I could see a couple of problems with my form, and the GoPro showed that I moved my head a lot when I was flying, even though I'd tried not to.
I thought that next time we should put the camera right on my brisket. There wouldn't be as much movement there, I didn't think.
Peggy used my computer to send a hyperlink to her telephone so that she could show the video at dinner, and when she showed it, everyone liked it. I was going to have to show it to Aric. He also put music behind it, which made it that much more awesome.
Then after dinner, I went over to Meghan's and watched Harry Potter. Lisa wasn't there, but Becky came over and all three of us sat on Meghan's bed.
There weren't really wizards and witches on Earth, Meghan explained. That was all make-believe—everything in the movie was. There weren't any flying broomsticks, and drinking the blood of a unicorn wouldn't really save a mortally wounded person.
I told them that earth pony blood would and they just stared at me in wonderment until I started laughing and ruined the joke.
I could see why Cedric had said I ought to watch the movie. Quidditch was something we could probably play--we’d have to come up with something different for the Golden Snitch, or get a unicorn to enchant something, but all the rest of it was totally do-able. Hoops could be made out of clouds, and of course we wouldn’t need brooms.
And the audience would not be allowed to shoot the players with spells.
After we got done discussing it, Becky went back to her room, and Meghan asked if she could braid my tail.
She took her time, making sure that it was perfect. Also I was pretty sure she was just looking for an excuse to play with it because spa ponies don't spend nearly as long as she did.
When she was done, I swished it a few times—it always feels heavier when it’s braided, even though I know it still weighs the exact same amount. Then because she’d been so nice to me, I asked her if she wanted me to sleep with her, and her face got all red and she didn’t answer so I wasn’t quite sure what to make of that.
So I went back to my dorm room. Peggy said that my tail looked really nice in a braid, and I told her how Meghan had done it after we watched Harry Potter, and we talked for a little bit, and then I went to bed.
i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/828/948/b1e.gif
Uhh... Sillver, sweetie? Just a heads up, you shouldn't sleep with others. Although....
Or does she mean it in the pony way, you know. Innocently.
I wonder how she will comment about zootopia.
7161275 I think we've learned by now that "the pony way" does not always equal "innocently".
7161306 That's what the although was for. I mean they're in college, I'm sure Aric wouldn't mind watching or joining.
This. This is why we love you, Silver Glow
Dammit you adorably pony which sleep with do you mean don't do this to me
"Do you want to get to know me?
Biblically?"
7159437
You're never to old for Legos. Never!
We were discussing Miyazaki recently, do you remember the train scene in Spirited Away, it would go wonderfully well with the poem.
Conrad missed an opportunity to be a "one step beyond" teacher.
I think it would be ironic, if everyone was made of iron.
7161338
7161275
Previously she straight up asked Meghan if she wanted sex, so I'm pretty sure she just meant sleep.
hahaha, that usually means "yes but i'm to shy to say so."
7161330
She is going to make a million bits with a book "Appropriate pony jokes for humans"
When I was a kid I'd read anything. Before artificial horizons & other blind flight instruments were developed flying into clouds was regarded as almost as dangerous as flying into a mountain. The rule was "take your hands off the controls & don't do ANYTHING until you come out of the clouds." This is because humans can't tell up from down or orientation without sight & you would almost certainly put the plane into a spin if you tried to steer.
I suppose birds (& pegasi) can feel the pull of gravity & don't have that problem
My favorite Sandburg poem is "Chicago" although I'm more the Ogden Nash school of poetry
Shake & shake the ketchup bottle
1st none will come & then a lottle
Amusing + informative
If she's going to be watching Harry Potter, give her a real curve ball and something advanced. Have her watch anime.
I wonder what Silver Glow makes of special effects.
This amused me.
I love this Equestrianizing of earth things, her brain parsing earth stuff into a format she's familiar with. Same with the predatory cars that sneak up on you if you're not careful. On a side note, she really has to be an awesome flier and weather analysis expert, going by her descriptions of coastal weather work. She does sound rightly proud of it as well.
This whole chapter is awesome. Train travel, the hyper link, Harry Potter... all gold.
Oh and...
"And then she just asked me if she could braid my tail."
"Oh my, just like that? Forward little thing, isn't she?"
"Huh, so I thought. Would you believe it, after I let her she just stopped?"
"Sweet Celestia! What a tease!"
"And she put in so much effort, it was beautiful... anyway girls, lunch is over. We have a shipping lane to clear."
I dunno. I bet it could add a lot to the sport as a whole. It would at least justify how much professional athletes make. Silver's just biased against Unicorns anyway.
7161898
"I've seen what a raw energy beam hitting a titan with enough power to flatten a mountain looks like and let me tell you, you guys are trying too hard"
7161973
Oh my, I hope this is sorta canon to the story, because it's fantastic.
I suppose braiding a tail would be pretty intimate.
They're taking preorders now for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (the book of the movie. Not the faux-textbook from way back when) and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (the book of the play).
7159344
If SJWs want to fix the imaginary wage gap, they should be studying Petrolium Engineering, not Gender Studies.
Well, thats only if you prescribe to the kind of babyish mathmatics they use to calculate the "wage gap" in the first place.
Thinking of a GoPro attatched to Silver reminded me of a YT video showing an FPV of Superman while flying and saving people. If that is anything to go by, then I'm sure Silver's video would be awesome.
This is very telling of Silver Glow's upbringing.
letters
7162450
The best POV flight videos I've seen are from cameras mounted on hunting falcons and eagles.
I find them more exhilarating than anything I've ever seen in a movie, and I can see why RD likes flying so much. Screw unicorns, pegasi ftw.
7162816 Yeah that is pretty cool.
7162616
(correction made--thanks!)
Hoo boy did I fall behind here.
In any case, lots of enjoyable stuff. Glad I caught up in time to appreciate Conrad's reaction to the Nietzsche poem. Also, this is a bit late, but I love how after Silver seems to think that the makerspace accurately represents modern Earthly manufacturing methods.
7162272
7159344
SJW's aren't real. They fill the same social function that witches, goblins, and devil worshipers did in days gone by. They're boogeymen that trivialize some social issue(s) and demonize the opposition.
7163107
This is real, this is her own personal opinion, and she does identify as an SJW. It's not a myth or conspiracy theory, it is a real ideology. There's other names someone like this can go by as well, like Progressive, Neo-Progressive Activist, Regressive, Cultural Marxist, etc. They're usually a (3rd wave\Intersectional) Feminist as well.
Frankly, I'm waiting for Silver Glow's introduction to Kipling. I suspect that a weatherpony could identify with McAndrews' Hymn or the Hymn of Breaking Strain...
As always, don;t let this comment interfere with your plans for the story - if it's good, use it; if it's not, dump it - but I thought it might be interesting...
7163402
There were people who claimed to be witches, or demon possessed too. That doesn't make them anything except people with deeply odd (at best) or delusional (at worst) ideas. There's a natural progression to this.
People conform to stereotypes about them. For any given person A that says X thing is bad, some people are going to irrationally conclude that A is an asshole, therefore X is good. From there it's a short road to identify yourself as X. From there, X's can start to self segregate and form a community and an ideology. Then either it works and you have an identity like Wiccan, or Satanists, or Christians, or Libertarians. Or it doesn't work, and you have a failed group like Jones-town, the cult of Baal, or Whigs.
SJW hasn't progressed to that point, yet. The primary trait of the SJW meme is ridicule- just look a this conversation. SJW identity is not at the heart of scholarly, political, or artistic debate even in the social issues that nominally form the core of the identity. There's no grandly unifying belief or trait of SJW beyond the consolidation of crazy. Perhaps it's working its way there, though.
7163620 (It's a bit late where I'm at.) Let me make an example to see if I have you right. So when person A says something is bad, but person B doesn't like person A, then the something that person A says is bad, must somehow be good. (I know there may be a word for that.) So take for example the woman in the video. Her response against a society or person who says that masculinity is a good thing and is great for society, she dismisses society or the person and decides that masculinity must be toxic?
So she's willingly deluding herself into becoming an SJW just because she doesn't like her opponents? If so, she's incredibly dumb when she takes on a label that's increasingly becoming a pejorative of its own and when she tries to make the case that masculinity (something that every man has and has many positive features) is inherently toxic or the society that men built up for women like her is somehow toxic. It's also a rejection of logic on her end since she would dismiss evidence for or against said idea and go straight to her own conclusions based on her feelings.
SJW's have built up their ideology and have grown in political power, especially among colleges and governments sympathetic to far Left ideals, to the point where they could band together as a united movement and make a lot of change. (It'd be fucking terrifying if they did.) The problem with them is their ideas are based on Critical Theory, Intersectional oppression, and all the little groups within social justice being about feelings over facts. It ends up with many of them getting too worked up to become some kind of martyr for "justice" and will assuredly tear each other apart over time. Even other SJW's can see the writing on the wall.
I'm not sure I liked the hyperlink joke. Silver has been using computers for how long, and is unfamiliar with not just the name but the concept itself?
Shenanigans! Shinanigans I say.
7163974
Well, yes. It's illogical, irrational, absurd and absolutely the way people work. *Everybody.* You, me, the neighbor, all of us. Think of who and what you are.
You might be an atheist, a Jew, a christian, an American, a conservative, a democrat, a male, a pacifist, a soldier, a libertarian, a hedonist, gender variant, straight, gay-for-pay, upper middle class, white, latino, poor, or an ordained clergy member. Hell, you could be all of those at the same time- especially the mutually exclusive ones! These are all tribes. Everyone is in some tribes, by choice or not. It's no more strange to chose to be a witch, SJW, or even a Satan worshiper than it is to have any other religious or political identity. The process is the same, then logic and rationality come afterwards.
I can imagine an ex nihlo SJW creation quite easily via the internet. Someone says something roughly, "SJW's are dumb because they think niggers and women should have human rights. Hitler was right about a woman's place, top Kek Kappa." Our proto-SJW thinks 'wow, this guys a Nazi. I think everyone should have human rights. Maybe I'm a SJW, if that's what they believe.' That's enough in some cases. But let's say he digs a bit deeper, and tries to learn about SJW philosophy. Maybe he starts a forum or a group on the internet. Obviously, almost all of the SJW "stances" on the internet at first are blatant lies or exaggerations from their detractors. So his community discuss the "true" and rational stances that a "real" SJW would have, coming to some acceptable conclusion. Persecution pulls the group together and an identity is born.
7162135
7163402 I'm glad you've finally admitted, in a short, concise statement, that you believe there's a conspiracy going on called Cultural Marxism.
7164128 It's interesting because while Johnny acts like "SJWs" are a single group with a unified ideology, the term is used by people like him to describe anyone from a mainstream Democratic party member, to a black liberal-capitalist "community organizer", Liberal-capitalist white-centric feminists, to all of the various actual leftists including anarchists, trots, MLs and Maoists.
You know, a wide verity of people with completely different and opposing views on basically every issue there is, with nothing in common except they don't stand for crypto racist concern trolling and misogyny.
Reactionaries like him simply cannot tell the difference between different ideological schools of thought, which is why he tied himself in knots by claiming to be "left of center" and "libertarian" and then argued fascist conspiracy garbage like the existence of "Cultural Marxism". He's just flinging random words at the wall and hoping something sticks.
The after-the-fact coalescence of "SJWs" as a self identifying group happened exactly as you said it. It's overwhelmingly newbies to political activism, with no shared ideas except a vague anti-fascist feeling, and they tend to drop the label except for ironic use after a while of self-education - when they join an actual coherent ideological trend where they know enough to be effective. The ones which don't self educate and abandon the term generally stay useless, which isn't all that bad. Johnny Walker types are the right-wing equivalent, so it balances out.
7164249
Which is why it's more important to define terms and positions than tribes and shaming. Anarchism-fascism, liberal-conservative, progressive-regressive, and so on are all axis on the complex plane of our politics. As long as we can listen, and better understand each others positions we'll come to learn more and more how we agree. It's only when someone self segregates and resorts to the fortress of ridicule that they should be shamed.
7164239 There you go being an accusing judge again. I said that SJW's are also called Cultural Marxists by other people. There was a Wikipedia page for it at one point that explained it well and had a wealth of citations from colleges and old books, before it was taken over and referred to as a "conspiracy theory" that only right wing conservatives and racists believe in. (Sounds more like a conspiracy that the Wiki admins wanted to get rid of it, especially after that original page has been up for 7 years before it was deleted.) It's still a hotly debated topic in the talk section of the Frankfurt School article. It's a label used on SJW's because much of what they say sounds very Marxist in nature, like the referencing of 2 groups similar to the privileged bourgeoisie and the oppressed proletariat in a social or cultural way. (Men v women, white people v non-white people, natives v non-natives, Judeo-Christian v Islam, etc.)
7164249
There you go putting words into my mouth again. An SJW has an ideology, and it's based in Progressivism, Identity Politics, White Privilege, Cis Privilege, Thin Privilege, Ableism, Patriarchy Theory, Equality of Outcome, and Marxism among other things. There is a spectrum to how much an SJW could believe in these ideas, but SJW's in general do do believe in these things and that they exist, at least in their own head. There is an unofficially agreed upon definition of what an SJW is and what they do.
So anyone who doesn't belong in Left Wing politics, or doesn't think like you, are just racists and woman haters? Damn, that's some tribalism you have there.
Oh dear god, you so love trying to straw man the fuck out of me and trying to put me into a box that says "extreme conservative right wing bigot". Yes, I read the dicitonary definition too.
You never clicked the link about the Political Compass and read that I have my own beliefs because I don't fall into a single group or want to be in a group. If I wanted to, I could count myself as a liberal, with some exceptions, because I agree with most of those things and the way that many Western democracies have thrived under that political idea, I'm happy to embrace it. I don't like most conservative principles, mainly because they come from a place of religion and old traditions, but there are some that I like as well, like focusing on family, community, and low taxation. It's not all bad in moderation, and it depends upon the local population that embraces it.
http://www.kirkcenter.org/index.php/detail/ten-conservative-principles/
http://dailycaller.com/2012/04/22/the-eight-principles-of-conservatism/
http://www.theblaze.com/blog/2014/03/03/the-11-principles-of-a-reagan-conservative/
So when I say, Left of Center, I strongly believe in Liberal values more than Conservative, but I don't see the other as something to throw out entirely. And by Libertarian, it means I'm strongly against the values of Authoritarianism, whether communist, fascist, or an oppressive theocracy. But please, go ahead and keep calling me whatever pejorative label you wish, the only person that can label me is myself.
As per your last point: Yes, I'm new to the world of political activism and political movements, mainly based on trying to find out why the fuck my video gaming hobby was called for being destroyed by journalists who seemed to have gone full fucking retard. It's how I got into #GamerGate 2 years ago, and I've learned a lot since then, especially what an SJW is and what they believe in. The first tip off of something being wrong was a link through out those articles was a Tumblr blog post saying that "the gamer identity is ending", which had a link to an "academic" paper strewn with intersectional\identity politics around a perceived "gamer" identity.
Following that trail, I found out about the various other movements and incidents that have popped up since then, and other older ones that had been trashed by Feminism and this crazy authoritarianism. From the Sokal affair and Science Wars, Political Correctness, Evolutionary Psychology, the MRM, MGTOW, Pick-up Artists, the hate filled messages on Twitter\Tumblr, hours of college videos detailing protests, obviously biased news articles, scientists and professors being fired for not enthusiastically agreeing with these authoritarian radicals, professors detailing Critical Theory, critics on all sides of GamerGate, etc etc. I listened to them all, looked at the evidence that was presented, and found myself agreeing often with anti and non-feminist\social-justice activists and people who don't ideologically side, or fully side with social justice ideals.
But the thing that I've taken away from it all is that to me, this isn't a Left and Right issue (and it has devolved into that somewhat in our arguments), but the thing that I hate about SJW's and their ideology is how authoritarian it is. That, is why I'm vocal against those crazy ideas. To me, this isn't a real Left or Right debate, it's between authoritarianism and liberty.
(Anyway, I'm pretty much done talking to you. I will never be able to change your mind and you seem dead set in wanting to adhom me a lot. I gave out my reasons, my evidence, and thoughts. There's not much I can add and I'm considering this closed right here. Getting way too frustrating dealing with your posts.)
7164285 Couldn't agree more with you on that. And I don't think someone becoming an SJW is as simple as that. The ideas these people get don't come from a vacuum and has to come from somewhere. The source that I've found a lot of the time usually comes from Universities and social science professors, which is a perfect place to teach (or indoctrinate) someone about Privilege or modern Social Justice. It makes sense when the average demographic of these people whenever I see them in many videos and blogs are typically 20-something college students.
7167105
SJWism has nothing to do with Marxism, I should know, it grew out of trendy, bourgeois pro-capitalist liberalism.
I normally really like reading comments on stories but why is it every time I look at the comments down here it's some form of argument rather than talking about the story?
7161306
Sex is innocent too, really. The only reason it's dirty is because humans cover themselves in cloth, say their skin shouldn't be seen and then call sex taboo.
If humans were a species of nudists, the bare human form would be irrelevant, and covering it would probably be considered erotic.
I don't know if it's a good idea to ask unicorns to make Quidditch equipment for Silver Glow. Given her hostility towards them, they might enchant Bludgers to do a lot more damage than just knock her out of the air, and feel justified about it.
7161275
The pony way.
7161288
The Zootopia world has a lot in common with Equestria. . . .
7161330
7161338
7161424
That's a reasonable argument. I need a bit more space, and I could build a Lego castle . . . with ponies. Now that would be epic.
7161547
I don't, unfortunately. It's been at least a decade since I watched Spirited Away.
Thinking about it, train travel might be unfamiliar to a large number of Americans.
7161642
It usually does.
That would be such a great book. I'd buy a copy.
7161737
And even now with modern flight instruments, pilots still sometimes screw it up when they fly into clouds.
That's a good question--I don't know for sure. I don't know a lot about how birds navigate. Some of them use visual cues, but I don't know if they rely on them, or if it just makes things easier for them. You can mess up some fish in aquariums by moving the light--they know that light is 'up' and gravity is 'down'; if you put a bright light at the side of the aquarium, some fish will start swimming at a forty-five degree angle.
Nash is a good choice. I might have him be the last poet in the class, or I might go with Langston Hughes. Still debating.
7161973
She is a pretty good flier--good enough to at least make Wonderbolts tryouts if she wanted to--and also good with feral weather. That's a skillset a lot of ponies wouldn't have (there are probably some in Ponyville who are good with feral weather, as well).
7161999
That would only be fair if the pegasi could attack the unicorns back, and if that were the case, the sport would probably turn into a free-for-all pretty quickly.
7162087
I'm just imagining Silver out working on cloud patrol one day when a kraken comes up out of the ocean and swallows a sailing ship whole, then she watches Pirates of the Caribbean and argues that kraken don't look like that and don't act like that. Sort of like in LotR when Christopher Lee explained what really happened when you knifed someone in the back.
7162135
Slightly less of a big deal in this story, but in Sam and Rose (Braiding specifically), that's a factor.