Celestia Sleeps In--Chapter 9 notes and thanks · 3:18am Apr 27th, 2013
Notes for Chapter 9
Big thanks to the pre-readers! Humanist, my parents, and Woonsocket Wrench.
(These aren’t in the order they appear in the story, since I accidentally wrote two separate entries, so I just cut-and-pasted them together. Sorry!)
Petriculture is a reference to Kwakerjack’s story (and series) of the same name
“three magics” is a reference to Three Magics by Arkensaw Pinkerton.
Aluminum: although it’s commonly used today, and not very expensive or uncommon (making up about 8% by weight of the earth’s solid surface) it’s so reactive, pure aluminum is very rare. Until the 1880s, when a process was found to efficiently extract it from ore (bauxite being the most common ore used), aluminum was more valuable than gold. If you have a time machine, take a couple of dozen pounds of aluminum back with you, trade it for gold, repeat. Profit.
“Breath of Fire” is in fact the closest yoga pose I could find to her sitting position, which is too bad. I was hoping it was something like “Half-rising Lord of Fishes” or “Remorseful Drunken Dog.”
Will a horse eat a sandwich? Yes, it will. In fact, one of our customers had the paint chewed off her truck! by her horses (and the mirror broken when a horse felt the need to scratch its plot). Much like dogs, horses will apparently eat pretty much anything you offer them, especially if they see you eating it. Admittedly, most human foods are unhealthy for them; a steady diet of Whoppers™ will not make for a healthy horse.
As Homer Simpson knows, you can’t spell obsequious without i-o-u.
Fun fact! Peanuts are legumes (beans). IMHO, boiled peanuts taste like lima beans (and I don’t like either). Yes, I know that peanut butter is canon; the HFC flavored jelly and partially hydrogenated vegetable oil would likely confuse Lyra, though. Real peanut butter doesn’t taste like Jif, and real jelly doesn’t taste like the mass produced kind. For those who think I’m being too harsh on human food, compare a piece of processed cheese food product to a slice of real cheese and a piece of iceberg lettuce with any other kind of lettuce, and let me know what you think.
Also, regarding the food situation, you really can’t taste chrysanthemum leaves in a whole-grain cucumber and chrysanthemum sandwich with dill and chamomile mixed into whipped butter sandwich. If you don’t believe me, try it for yourself (I used one salad cucumber and two chrysanthemum flowers).
Eratosthenes of Cyrene (who probably wasn’t a pony) estimated the size of the earth in about 235 B.C. (or B.C.E., if you prefer)
The bird feeder is a reference to Twilight’s Bird Feeder by Hyzaku. Full disclosure: I’m one of the pre-readers.
“the glass blower” is a reference to Cold in Gardz’s brilliant story of the same name.
Tycho Bray is, of course, Tycho Brahe, who proposed that the sun orbited the earth, while dragging the rest of the planets (which orbited the sun) along with it. As humorous as this seems to us now, it fit the observations of the time, and without a good understanding of gravity, it seemed a reasonable explanation for the orbits of the planets.
I actually downloaded part of the flight manual for a Dauphin helicopter (which is, it states very unambiguously, not to be used for real-life reference. Fortunately, this isn’t real life, so I’m ok.).
EDIT: 'cause I forgot!
Thestrals are a Harry Potter reference, since they closely match Luna's bat-winged guards. The good news is, you don't have to be dead to see them. EDIT: You don't have to have witnessed a death to see them.
"Start at the beginning, and when you get to the end, stop," is a reference to Alice in Wonderland.
FURTHER EDIT: I've since noticed that the 'thestrals' are also called 'batponies' and 'nocturine' (which I probably spelled wrong) ponies. According to the wiki, they're not named, but ARE a separate race.
Fun fun behind the scenes awesomeness! I don't know how I miss these posts...
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I've been putting the link in for the last few chapters, but before that usually didn't get the entry up till a while after publishing. There's one for each chapter
I'd like to offer a piece of information you might be interested in, even if it's only a small detail.
It's not being dead which renders the Thestrals visible, having witnessed death is the trigger.
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Of course, you're correct. I should've remembered. Obviously, Harry and Luna could see the thestrals, and while I don't remember exactly how the series ended, the two of them were very much alive when they first saw the thestrals.
Well to be honest, I have compared the so called GMO apples to the real deal and you know what I discovered? There aint no fuckin difference. Please do proper reseach before you go bash everything under the sun. GMO's are safer than what everyone claims. My reasoning behind this? Every plant you farm is a GMO. None of the current favored crops would exist without human intervention. Wheat would just be grass, corn would not exist, oats would be a waste of time and energy. That is the largest killing of the GMO protests, the fact that every single domesticated crop cannot be found in nature. You can find wild versions, I have not researched all the plants, but I have looked up the most populare ones.
You want to agure against somethingvthat really needs to change? Crop dusting needs to go.
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I assure you, I do, over 99% of the time, and I have a legion of pre-readers, idea sorters, and so forth to keep me honest.
This is from Dale's POV, and it's Dale's thought. He's got his own opinions, which aren't always factually correct, nor do they always tally with my own opinions or knowledge . . . but a good character does that (in my opinion). To give another example: in one story, a character claims that the word big is a pronoun, because "it modifies a noun."
I agree. In general, I have no problem with GMO crops. There are a few business practices around them that I question, but lacking any firm evidence of nefarious business practices by the seed companies, I'm not going to make a fool of myself by making a broad statement which may be a total falsehood. A character in a story might, though.
While we both know that when most people refer to "GMO," they mean genetically modified in the lab through artificial means (like Roundup-ready corn), rather than selectively bred. However, we also both know that all domestic crops and animals have been modified significantly from their ancestors over millenia of agriculture.
And I think it's fair to say that with all the world-manipulation the ponies do--on a scale larger than ours--none of their crops are natural, either. AJ can grow a sprout in seconds, if she wants to; Zap Apples put our GMO crops to shame . . . and they control their weather, seasons, and the sun--and they've been doing it for so long, they have to help the birds find their way back North in the spring.
Here in Michigan, one of the biggest problems is over-fertilization, which leads to algae blooms (last year there was a major one in Lake Erie which rendered a few cities' drinking water supplies unusable for a while) . . . and GMO crops have actually lessened the need for fertilization in some cases, which is a major environmental benefit (and also, in some cases, lowered the need for pesticides). Yields are up, as well, which bodes well for everyone. There's only so much tillable land in the world, after all.
In fact, the text in question is based on memories of the giant Red Delicious variety of apple that show up at lower-quality stores. They look nice, but they're too mealy, and don't really have much flavor at all, especially when compared to a Gala or Fuji apple.
2643884 Sorry about starting the argument. I forget sometimes that the words on a page are meant to be the Characters opinion and not the authors. I do like the story, in fact I am reading "Pony Planet" now.m It is just that bashing has become a pet peeve of mine and at that point in the story it was getting kinda heavy.
I loved what I have read and the character development is impressive. Something that is always a nice touch. I hope you keep writing more in the future.
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Oh, no problem. I do make my fair share of mistakes, after all, and I can only learn when readers advise me
Besides . . .
To me, this is about the highest praise I can get -- a character so convincing that you forget he's not real, but simply a figment of my imagination (and yours, now).
Completely understand!
Thank you!
The tip of the Washington Monument is aluminum. At the time it was constructed, there was no metal more valuable nor more durable.
Eratosthenes invented the discipline of geography.
I remembered to come back here because of the comment of horses and sandwiches.
I had a horse (well, to get technical, my parents had a horse, but this was when I was a child anyway, so to me they were my horses) that was always the weird one of the bunch. This horse once stole my brother's sardine sandwich, and also ate a corn dog. He also would stick his tongue out and hold a mouth of water whenever he got a drink, and (uncommonly for a horse) liked you to scratch inside his ear, but that's beside the point. It is VERY true that horses want whatever you're eating -- they're a lot like dogs that way. It helps that our food (especially here in the U.S.) is so high in sugar -- ANY horse will love some Coca-Cola. Sometime's they'll also gnaw on whatever's in reach if they're in need of certain nutrition (I heard of several times less-behaved and less-well-nutritioned horses would gnaw on nearby wood), although this is a behavior not limited to just horses and in fact can happen to people (see: stories of people lost at sea slowly becoming more interested in the skin, eyes, and other normally unappetizing parts of fish). That might explain the car paint thing. Then again, some horses just like to while away the time being mischievous and they don't have a whole lot of options when it comes to interacting with objects.
There's also that video floating around that caught me by surprise (although it didn't surprise my mom) of that horse that just sucked up and ate a live chick.
As an aside, I grew up with horses for the first 15 years of my life, and my mom had them for the first 40 years of hers; after my parents retired and sold off the horses, she dealt with it for a year before getting two miniatures (the difference between a miniature horse and a pony being much like the difference between a midget and a dwarf: proportions). We now have 5 minis, 3 Rottweilers (used to have 5 but for unfortunate passings), a toy mutt we keep indoors, and at least 3 half-feral cats.
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Aww, that’s adorable.
Yeah, I think there’s two things at play with what horses actually eat--one is something that has nutrients that they need, even if it’s not exactly normal food for them--like if they’re needing more salt, I’d have to think that anything that smells salty or tastes salty is going to be appealing if it isn’t exactly horse food. Such as a sardine sandwich. And since they are herd animals and I’d imagine that they see humans as part of their herd--weird horses who know stuff and who they usually have to obey--they’d likely assume that if their humans are eating it, it must be food, and therefore something they might want to eat, too.
Then there’s also the boredom stuff, like gnawing at stable doors and such (cribbing).
At least, that’s what I’ve picked up in my research.
Are you thinking the one where the horse was stomping on them and eating them? Or a different one?
Anyway, I bet it was tasty.
I’ve also seen a video of a horse being fed fish (like, whole fish) and he seems to like them. That’s something that apparently used to be done in colder climates, and I’ve heard that some Icelandic Horses have actually learned to catch fish on their own . . . by stomping on them (horses aren’t very good predators).
I was lacking in that department as a kid (still am, actually); my mom wasn’t interested in pets, so we never had anything that couldn’t be kept in an aquarium (fish, hamsters, gerbils). Nowadays, I suppose I could get animals if I wanted--I’ve probably even got enough land for a miniature horse or pony--but due to my work schedule and stuff, I don’t think I’d be able to spend too much time with them, and I don’t think that would be fair to the animal.
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I forgot to mention, this is the same horse that didn't do more than look back at me when I, two years old at the time, ran full-force into his hind leg. I had another horse that would damn near choke himself reaching down every day so I could pat him on the nose (again, when I was a handful of years old). We had some good horses.
I was actually talking about the one in the Nature is Metal subreddit, where a horse is just sniffing at a bright yellow chick right up until it sucks it up like a vacuum, chews, and swallows. I didn't grow up around farm animals, so I was flabbergasted when I first saw that.
When I was growing up, we always had 4 horses (how we made our living), 1 or 2 large dogs like a German Shepherd or Doberman or Rottweiler, for security, and some toy breed or another probably just for me, but always in the house. Now, as I say, my parents still have a lot of animals (all but the toy mutt are outdoor pets), but I don't really have one anymore. I'd love to have a dog around the house for both security and company, but same as you, I don't think it would be fair to the animal when I'm gone some 11 hours a day.
Interesting side note: horses may not be as intelligent as dogs or cats (mostly from being prey animals), but they exhibit a lot of the same recognizable behaviors, such as stiffening up and getting visibly nervous when you show up and they know they've been doing something they oughtn't. A lot of animals we keep as pets do that kind of thing; so sure they're going to get caught even before you're aware they did anything.
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I watch videos from an Irish couple (Way Out West Blow-In Blog) and they’ve got the most chill horses. Some of that is breed, and some of it is upbringing, I’m sure. There’s one video where she wraps a horse for Christmas, and he’s like, “Okay, whatever, I guess I’m getting wrapped now.” She also uses one for a ladder in one video.
Hmm, I’m not sure which one that is (I’ve seen a few). But yeah, some horses will eat birds and fish and stuff if they can. They don’t generally get a lot of opportunity, though, since they’re lousy predators.
I really feel that this is something more people need to realize, too.
I don’t think that horses are as intelligent as dogs or cats, although they are good at being horses. I think that the herd structure probably informs a lot of their behavior, and presumably domesticated horses learn how to communicate more effectively with humans than feral horses. They’re certainly smart enough to be taught things (like being ridden, how to tow carts, etc.) and many of them also figure things out on their own--I’ve seen videos of horses that have figured out how to turn on the water when they’re thirsty and horses who know how to open stall doors or get out of their halters, etc.