• Member Since 17th Mar, 2015
  • offline last seen January 28th

CoffeeMinion


"Burninating the countryside... burninating the peasants... burninating all the peoples... and their thatched-roof COTTAGES! THATCHED-ROOF COTTAGES!! And the Trogdor comes in the NIIIIGHT!!!"

More Blog Posts198

  • 50 weeks
    Not with a bang, but a whimper

    Hey friends.

    I didn’t used to believe in writer’s block as such. I always thought the phenomenon was a manifestation of something else in a person’s life. I also thought the cure for it was just to sit down and write any garbage you can. Editing should never mix with drafting, and if you can get yourself to stop editing, you’ll achieve more and better drafting—which can then be edited.

    Read More

    10 comments · 232 views
  • 95 weeks
    Ping 2: Live and In Person

    Almost exactly 2.5 years ago, my family and I bought tickets to Whinny City Pony Con 2020. Of course there was no such con, at least not in a physical capacity. But good egg that he is, Charlie Worthley (con organizer extraordinaire) has made it effortless to transfer our tickets from that long-ago time to right now, despite all that’s transpired between.

    Read More

    5 comments · 190 views
  • 128 weeks
    Ping

    I live.

    Time's gotten away from me.

    2020 got weird. My 2021 started with an honest effort to get back to normal. But after I started getting treated for depression, I began to see more and more ways to improve things in my daily and family life that hadn't fit together very well in years. Including some of the core issues that had pointed me in the direction of MLP in the first place.

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    16 comments · 370 views
  • 147 weeks
    Artistic Expression

    It's been too long. Things are great. Really, really great. Not so much for writing, but for different modes of expression and life.

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    6 comments · 287 views
  • 158 weeks
    “Senator, you’re no GaPJaxie”

    As it happens, this fellow over here threw out a request for story prompts, and my own suggestion has garnered quite a few upvotes. Not only did this strike me as a fun thing to see in the venerable Pony fandom in the Year of Our Lord 2021, but it reminded me of

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    8 comments · 371 views
Jul
23rd
2017

#Chicagofail · 1:29pm Jul 23rd, 2017

++ Update: We got out after all, and we did a crazy no-stops drive home overnight, and we're home. Victory!!!++ :yay: :raritydespair: :ajsleepy:

Sometimes the cliche of truth being stranger than fiction feels pretty true. Without spoiling too much, a recent chapter of To Serve In Hell includes a child having a seizure, and shows what their (adoptive) parent goes through as they watch and try to use what little knowledge they have to help. There's an overall feeling of helplessness, because what can you do when something like that just comes out of the blue if you're not really trained to deal with it?

As it turns out, I had that exact experience a couple mornings ago. And I think my big takeaway is that we appear to be able to take Baby Wubs anywhere in the world except Chicago.

We're 0 for 2 now trying to visit Chicago with Baby Wubs. Or 2 for 2 if you're counting times we've had to take Baby Wubs to the ER on an attempted Chicago trip. The first time was back in March/April for Whinny City Pony Con; we didn't even make it into Illinois before a sudden onset of severe dehydration forced us to take the little one to some random ER. This time we actually made it into Chicago, albeit for a less happy occasion: my grandmother passed away last week, and the whole extended family was gathering for her funeral. So we made it into town for the wake the night before, but then without warning Baby Wubs had a seizure on the morning of the funeral. That's never happened before and we still don't know why it happened, but thank God that we turned out to be to be close to a good children's hospital!

Tests are still ongoing. And of course there are issues that come with a short trip (with kids!) that suddenly morphs into a potentially much longer trip. Like there's a bunch of stuff we didn't bring, including any kind of decent computer; and we're out of clean clothes. It's good times.

Overall though, I feel really grateful for the good things that are happening. We have some extended family in the area that we can stay with, and there's a Ronald McDonald House right there at the hospital where my wife is able to stay. And like I never really knew what the Ronald McDonald House is all about before, but let me urge you to consider them in your charitable contributions in light of what I've learned. Simply put, when you're stuck at some hospital outside of town and scared half to death about how your kid is doing and trying to figure out what to do... they have a nice place to hang out near where your kid's being treated, and food (and COFFEE), and a well-stocked playroom for the kids, and a basket of free toys for them. In short, it's everything you need right in that incredibly crappy moment to help get you through what's happening.

Of course I've also learned more about seizures in children over the last couple days than I ever really wanted to. It's actually been enough to change some of my thoughts about To Serve In Hell. While it feels kinda janky going through this with a pretty explicit intent to write about it, the fact is that I needed to do some more research into what might be happening to Scootaloo anyway. And it doesn't change the bigger plot; it just will hopefully help improve Rainbow Dash's arc.

My one big regret is that we missed the funeral. I mean, it couldn't be helped; we were stuck in the hospital at the time. But even against the backdrop of Baby Wubs facing uncertain medical issues... I miss my grandma. And there's barely been any proverbial oxygen to feel that.

So I have to delay again this month. I hate delaying. There's just no physical way to get the current chapter finished up with everything else going on, and given that I'm stuck out here with just my phone. Even in an absolute best case scenario where Baby Wubs could theoretically get discharged later today, we still have to get back home, and we're all going to be train wrecks for a while.

But To Serve In Hell will keep rolling, however slowly. It sounds lame, but this experience just heightens my desire to get the story out there, as it's ultimately a story that tries to explore questions about what to do (and not do) when life completely hits the fan.

Comments ( 9 )

So sorry to hear all that! Best wishes and prayers for a speedy recovery for your young one! I live in the ChiTown burbs (still gonna hold you to coming back to WhinnyCity next year since we had to fill in for your panel this year lol) so if ya need anything or some knowledge on the area hit me up.

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Thanks much! Yes I absolutely want to make it to Whinny City next year. I'm still really glad that Vivid and everyone was able to take over and help things go well. I think we're going to get out of here tonight, which wasn't looking so sure this morning.

Wow.

I certainly hope 'lil Wub recovers quickly and without complications..

My condolences on your loss and the ailment of Wubs. Here's hoping for all the best for your family. Don't worry about the story. I'd prefer that your family is well and that things are in order there than have a scheduled update any day of the week.

Sorry to hear about your loss and about Baby Wubs. I pray that the Holy Spirit gives you help and peace in everything.

Like MisterNick said, get your reality up and running before worrying about the fantasy, we get it. And if you learned something that helps the story, and you are okay with working it in, go ahead, if an artist can't draw in his own experiences for inspiration, what can he draw on?

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Thank you guys. We made it back home overnight, which was necessary because Wubs is now on an every-12-hour seizure preventative that we couldn't get filled in Chicago (and couldn't get an extra dose of from the hospital) due to the wonders of pharmacies and insurance and hospital liability being really stupid. I mean I can't complain about the treatment situation in total, but it was like... we got discharged at about 6pm, which was right after getting the last dose they could give us in the hospital; so we had to get on the road right then, and didn't have the option to wait until morning to rest up and get going.

We drove straight through. I mean, we stopped once just outside of Chicago for the inevitable kid-bathroom-break-and-food-purchase-immediately-after-leaving (You were told you needed to go to the bathroom before we left! You literally just ate dinner! :raritydespair: ), but that was it.

I am total wreckage today, but we've got the meds and Wubs is doing well, and that's really what matters.

Sorry for your loss.

*remembers a Ronald McDonald house creepypasta* uh...

And write on my frien d

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Heh, I'm sure it's possible to creepypasta anything. :derpytongue2: They really had our back, though.

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Anything can indeed be made into a creepypasta. And I'm sure they're really nice ^_^

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