The End of February · 3:00am Mar 1st, 2015
Good News, Everypony!
Because let's face it, the last few blog posts were kind of a downer. . . .
February is finally over (in a couple of hours, depending on your time zone). It’s my least-favorite month of the year; all the joy of Christmas season has long since worn off, snow has gotten tiresome, and to top it off, we spent the last two weeks with subzero temps, and the primal fear that maybe this time winter won’t end unless we somehow appease the climate gods weather pegasi.
But it’s done now! Yay!
Well, this first thing probably depends on your point of view. For better or worse, my brother's wife finally got her permanent residency in the United States. Processes like this take time, especially when one is coming from a backwoods country like Canada. I’ve been accused of thinking like a Canadian (hey, we could see Canada from my old house [well, kind of see Canada]), so I don’t know if I should congratulate her on becoming an American citizen, or apologize for the state of our nation.
Specifically, our public health system, which apparently doesn’t believe that a practicing Canadian pediatrician is competent enough to work in an American hospital without first re-doing her residency.
I could probably go on in this vein for a while, but I think since I promised that this blog post wouldn’t be a downer, I’ll stop now.
Second, after my announcement that submissions to Fimfic Authors Are In Your Bed had dried up . . . a fresh font of submissions flowed forth, so we're back in business on that front. I've still got to read through them and get them, but today's update won't be the last.
I'm finishing up the next chapter for Onto the Pony Planet. It's been a while—too long, really—and I do apologize for that. I'm aiming to publish Tuesday night.
I'd meant to have it out to you almost a month ago, but things took a bit of a nosedive, when we got slammed at the shop, had to deal with the hoist guys, and on top of that, I had to catch up on a bunch of training classes for my part-time job. Online, which was nice, so I could do them at home, but it was still probably several thousand power point slides, with quizzes at the end, so that ate up a bunch of my free time.
We got caught up at work, at least for a little while. Come Monday, I'm sure things are going to get exciting again, but I guess we'll deal with that when it comes. I hope I'll be able to get back to a regular schedule by then.
Chicago Ted has an ambitious project for all you linguists/bilinguals out there. He's got a poem he wrote in English, and he's trying to get it translated in as many languages as possible. Sadly, I can't be any help on that front; all I speak is English and bad English. For the rest of you, HERE is a link.
I also consulted—or perhaps 'gave encouraging words' is a better way to describe it—on another fic. It's tagged M, so I obviously can't provide a link, but it's called Jewel of the Jungle (by Enclave2277).
Zecora yearns for a simpler life. A life free from duties and obligations. A life she can call her own. But as the only child of Zebrica's High Chieftain, she's been groomed since birth to become the ideal successor for her father's domain. In a desperate attempt to escape her fate, she flees to Equestria to start a new life. As she's settling down, Zecora soon discovers just how wildly different her culture is compared to theirs. Worse yet, Zecora's definition of casual attire isn't exactly on par with the locals...
It's humanized, so if that's a turn-off, best to move along.
Oh, and as a thanks for sticking around to the end of the blog post, I'll give you a sneak peek of OPP 22. It's unedited right now; I just got done writing this section a few minutes ago and haven't gone back over it yet, so forgive any minor errors. Hopefully, I'll fix them before publication.
Ambrosia and Silver Spanner were both in the bathroom, installing tile over the cut they'd made in the floor to run pipes. Neither of them noticed him standing in the doorway, and he paused to watch them work.
The two were as professional as any construction crew he'd ever seen on Earth. Ambrosia would spread a patch of grout on the subfloor, and then Silver Spanner would levitate over a tile and set into place. Ambrosia gave each a slight nudge to make sure that they were square, and then grouted the edges, before moving on to the next one.
He could see that the tiles they'd already installed were perfectly aligned along the floor, even though neither pony was giving the tiles their full attention. While he only picked up a few words of their conversation, it was fairly obvious given their giggles and occasional hoof-gestures that they weren't talking about the tile.
Pony plumber? Adorable.
You need to get back onto the three week schedule for OTPP...
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I know. I need real life to stop interfering with my writing. Curse you, real life.
It's probably because you said something lol.
No you fool! You have angered the Gah gods! Gah IV: A New Gah coming soon.
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A very small part of me wishes I could kidnap authors and confine them in a small room with a typewriter until they finish writing all their lovely stories. It would eliminate those pesky distractions like family and employment.
Fortunately the rest of me realizes that not only would that not work but it would be unethical.
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See, ya gotta be careful with stuff like that. Otherwise you end up with stuff like this:
static.giantbomb.com/uploads/original/6/63875/1561031-typewriter.jpg