My Birthday, 2021 · 10:12am Dec 30th, 2021
December 30th. Today is my birthday.
🎂
I am 62 years old now.
☛ I have reached Level 62 ☚
And I have so many experience points I can't count them all...
62 years and my life is still
Tryin' to get up that great big hill of hope
For a destination.
Back in the September of 2011 I came across an article about 'The New Sincerity' on some media site. It went on at length about how the internet culture was turning away from trolls and evil and cynicism, and held up the fandom surrounding a new cartoon show - My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic - as the prime example of this new Deep Caring. A revolution of compassion, to change the world.
This drew me to reading a wonderful interview with Lauren Faust about how she played with Pony toys from the very first My Little Pony series, and how she thought of her new Luna and Celestia as Greek goddesses, and how her Equestria was Pony Elysium, right above Tartarus. This made me watch the show and come to a little website called Fimfiction. On November 17th of that year, inspired by several Conversion Bureau stories here, I wrote my first ponyfiction-inspired work ever.
It is a decade later. I think that 'New Sincerity' article that brought me here may have been a little delusional.
Every decade of my life has had a different focus, a different incarnation of myself.
In my 2nd decade, my life began with my transition. Everything before that was just wasted time, basically torture and imprisonment.
The rest of my second decade, I was a game designer. I worked with all the big companies, but I never got to make my dream game.
In my 3rd decade, I was co-creator of HappyPuppy.com, which was, for one week, the most visited games website in the entire world.
I made a lot of money, but most of it was stolen by an investment firm who put it - against our orders - into internet stocks.
They thought they knew better. They kind of did - they made a fortune legally ripping my family and I off for millions.
My 4th decade I was a cartoonist, doing three entire graphic novels on the internet. A global collective put that work together into books
for no other reason than they wanted physical versions of the works.
And in my fifth decade, I became a writer. I wrote just short of a million and a half words - 19 novels, two anthologies and many short stories.
They have been published in eight different languages all around the world. Not for money, obviously. Just because people wanted them.
And now I am in my sixth decade, and I have no bloody clue what I will become. You can never be sure with Regeneration, after all.
For now, until my new adventure starts, I am farting around here and other places, trying things and seeing if anything inspires me.
For all of that time, my three spouses have been the greatest treasure of my life. I am so grateful I get to live in a polyamoric family.
I am grateful to be so loved.
In my previous decades, I have faced a lot of things. I have nearly died, or faced death, dozens of times. I have gone from homelessness to wealth. I have experienced things and seen things most humans will never know and few could imagine. I have been a real life shapeshifter. I have met many very famous people, and been allowed in some very famous and highly exclusive places. I have eaten some of the finest cuisine the world has to offer. And I have played the best board, computer and console games that have ever existed. I have read many thousands of books. I have survived true horror and violence, and I have known true love and enduring friendship. I've been through a lot. I've lived a truly adventurous life filled with wonders and terrors both.
So, I guess I shouldn't complain, but I still do. Privilege doesn't mean a lack of sorrow or escape from grief.
Thank you to all of my friends here, on this silly, grotesque website: you know who you are. I am grateful for you, too.
I really wonder what, if anything, I will do with this decade? I guess we shall see.
- Petal Chatoyance, 2021
Happy birthday
Life's never boring, that much at least is always true.
Here's to the ongoing adventure!
Hmmm... I can't speak for you, but I think I might retire in the next decade. Maybe.
Happy birthday! 🎂
Happy Birthday
Happy Birthday!
♩ ♪ ♫ ♬ Outnumbered a million to one, all of the dicks in this dick town can't keep Jenni down. Men, piled up in a towering mound. None of them once has found a way to keep Jenni down. ♫ ♬ ♪
Figured one good song reference deserves another. TMBG - Can't keep Johnny Down.
Happy Birthday, and here's to many more.
Conga Rats on another solar return
Happy Birthday Chatty, I hope you have a good one.
Happy birthday!
¡Feliz cumpleaños!
生日快乐！
(That's all the languages I know.
I guess you must know a lot more than me. I truly wish you a happy birthday.
)
Here's a cake pic.
i.pinimg.com/originals/97/38/db/9738dbd5c27955ff9bf8d2d9e21020a8.jpg
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The cake is a Pie.
That's wild
Ah, I was there, in that 4th decade, watching the events of Unicorn Jelly unfold. It was quite a surprise to find you here, after that.
Happy birthday!
Remember about cryonics - still very expensive, but very likely only way to continue exist when biological body, that was never designed to provide a decent quality of life for an intelligence entity, stops working because of age or accident. At least frozen brain can be preserved long enough and then sliced in super thin film, scanned and all that giant storage of context rules that was forming all those neural connections though life, can be executed on better non-biological medium (very likely with improved set of emotions, tweaked for needs of intelligent life, and very likely non-human - maybe a tech pony))). You seems to be a kind of a person who flexible enough to endure that concept ).
P.S. Sorry if it's sounds weird - no intend to offence or anything like that.
Happy Birthday, Chat. I'm glad I could have been here to share a small part of your experience with you. I hope you make the next part something truly wonderful and meaningful for you, because in my small time on this world, my own hardships have stressed the importance of finding something personally meaningful in the things I do.
You've affected my life in quite a large way. I found your story when I was young. Something like... around 16-20 years ago, now? And since then, the thought was always in the back of my mind. I've finally accepted that part of myself and am taking my own steps on my journey. Later than you did, but every moment of it is meaningful and important (and filled with my own supportive net of friends and loved ones who keep me going). And despite the fact that the catalyst to finally fully accept myself was another wonderful author's work, it was you who made me realize that it was even a possibility in the first place. You who gave me the first question, that took so long for me to digest and answer. And for that I'll always be thankful.
So know that it's truly heartfelt when I say, thank you so very, very much for being you, for sharing your experiences, for pushing through adversity, for sharing your creativity with all of us, and ultimately, for being a part of our lives.
Once more, I wish you a very happy birthday, and I wish you all the happiness for the future, too.
Edit: Minor question, but wouldn't this be your 7th decade, not your 6th?
Happy birthday!
Thank you for being in this world with us.
It's a pleasure sharing it with you, and seeing the things you do time and again to make it more fun and interesting.
Happy Birthday Jennifer! All the best for 2022!
Happy hatching Day!
Happy Birthday, and never forget that while time is real and material; Our measurements of it, and perceptions of it, are completely relative.
As for what to be in this decade? I vote for more writing, but that may be biased because of how much I enjoy reading what you write.
Happy Birthday!
Neat little Bio-summary, there. We seem to have quite a bit in common, particularly the Golden Age of Game Development™ when the workers stood a fair chance of becoming wealthy. (Thank you so very much, Atari and Crystal Dynamics!)
Looking forward to whatever you do in the coming decade. May it be a delightful surprise to you!
Happy Birthday, congratulations on leveling up once again. I hope it is a wonderful one for you, shared with all of those you love and care about.
Happy birthday to you!
Happy Birthday!
Well, happy (slightly belated?
) Birthday!
Happy Birthday Friend
Happy Birthday!
Happy Birthday 🎉 I'm entering my fifth decade this year and the only thing I have learned about myself and how i work, is that i can only improvise 😂
Happy Birthday!
And Happy New Year!
(all belated, sorry)
...and many thanks for your stories.
С Днём Рождения!
Happy belated birthday!
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Thank you, all, very much for your kind wishes!
I had a very happy birthday! One of my spouses made one of my favorite dinners, 'Pork Sinatra', a take off-on steak Sinatra (meat cooked with artichoke hearts, tomato, mushrooms and bell peppers, served on spaghetti), and we had a really fancy German chocolate cake. Everything was happy and nice.
I had absolutely no idea what I wanted for my birthday - and I felt bad about that, since that made it difficult for my spouses. People like to give gifts, but they like to give gifts that will be liked, and not wanting anything is being difficult!
But, despite that, my family gave me some beautiful things anyway, in addition to some beautiful balloons. One of the balloons had a game controller image on it - so appropriate for me!
I got a lovely - and almost unbelievably detailed 3D color print figurine of my 'Aealacreatrananda' OC from Hero Forge (I gotta say, the most impressive 3D print job I have ever seen in my life), and several curios relating to 'Squid Game' - a miniature of the moneyball piggy bank, and some toy collectable figurines of the guards from the show. But, oddly, the funnest thing was just a simple glowstick toy which I had entirely too much wonder and amazement at. Yeah, glowsticks, big deal... but this one was purple, and it glowed really brightly, and I enjoyed looking up how the things work and why (they are powered by reactive hydrogen peroxide exciting luciferin in the presence of a fluorescent dye), and experimenting with it in regards to temperature and agitation and such. It was just one of those 'moments of perfect beauty' for me. Silly glow-stick, but what the hell - awe and wonder are, like gold, where you find them!
I was also given a cute D&D beholder model - I like Beholders - and a game for my PS5. Kena: Bridge Of Spirits. It's... okay? Looks like a pixar film, but it is very simple, and the fighting is a little slow. Pretty, though. Honestly, while I appreciate the gift, I am currently stuck into Hades - quite the great game, actually.
Thank you all again for happy birthday wishes.
- Petal Chatoyance, 2022!
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And now I have a mental image of a unicorn flipping a purple glowstick all over the place while making all the faces and doing tippy-taps and tail swishes.
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Ooh, will you post pics of the 3D model somewhere? Maybe on Jenniverse?
Happy Belated Birthday!
(Sorry, I'm behind on getting through FIMFiction blog posts.)