State of the Author/Signal Boosts · 3:17am Oct 6th, 2022
Hey hey it's suddenly October and I think this is the third month in a row that I've posted a state-of-the-author. Or maybe not, I'm not gonna check back and see.*
*Also thanks to the wonder of jet travel, I think I've gotten nine hours of sleep in the last two or three days (it's too confusing to figure out time zones ATM), so typos are a feature.
Doing my best to catch up on comments and suchlike, I think I'll be mostly there by the end of the week . . . we'll see. There's probably some domestic tasks that need doing, too--yesterday when I got home it was too dark to look at my backyard and I didn't today, either; I'd expect that the grass there has done quite well in my absence. Especially since (and don't tell anybody) I haven't mowed about half of it since before Everfree Northwest. Maybe the deer that sometimes come out and graze have kept it in check at least a little.
So as y'all will remember from my last blog post, I was gonna go to Holland. I did go, and I had a lot of fun! Got to ride on trains, got to see antique trains, got to see a couple of modern wind farms from the airplane and also a couple more traditional windmills as I passed by. Spent a lot of time with Snowliason (who also was my Dutch translator and public transit figure-outer and bus fare payer, 'cause the magic train tap-cards don't work on busses), Fiaura was surprised that they let me in the country (I kinda was, too). Discovered that the Dutch have a lot more imagination than I do when it comes to bicycles.
Source
That might be too much imagination
Holland Ponycon had mini linecons, wait until I tell you about Schiphol Airport's linecon.
Anyway, getting to Holland and getting around in Holland was easy-peasy, I even managed to find a train that got me from Utrecht to Bunnik on my first try, deciphering Dutch railroad timetables and route maps. Getting back out of Holland? Well, that proved more difficult than I had imagined . . . there might be a pony story in that.
I can say that I didn't particularly enjoy getting back to work. The Camaro I was getting to put together that someone else took apart isn't in the shop any more (although it's still in our parking lot, which means that there's still more assembly to be done, it just got de-prioritized). My first morning task was to continue on disassembly of a Traverse that was partially disassembled by one mechanic who quit, and then further disassembled by another mechanic, and now it's my turn! The only good news on that one is I've done enough on these particular vehicles to know where everything goes on one of these--the goal is to put a new engine in it, and I've done several.
I also got to do a partial fix on a beat-up Ford F-350, maybe that'll come up in another blog post. And I got to fix the fuel lines on a Silverado, as well as correct a mistake someone else at our shop made when installing the transmission in that particular truck.
On the plus side, it was a rather nice day for early October, and the manager decided to call it quits at our actual quitting time, rather than have an hour or more of overtime. For once, the 'come in an hour early and we'll leave on time' actually was true.
Now for a couple of signal boosts!
First off, hehelover's Alfalfa Haybook Pro M6 (13-inch, early 1000)
It's an almost Not-A-Contest fic, and I'll admit bias since I pre-read it.*
Most of y'all probably don't know who hehelover is; this is the first story that they've published on FimFic. They've done a couple of Chinese translations for me (Fishing and "I Don't Like Cats"). I can't attest to how accurate the translations are, since I don't speak or read Chinese (or any language other than English), but I can say that there were few grammatical corrections that needed to be made, and it sometimes shames me as a dumb American that non-native speakers are often better writers than natives. A few idioms needed to be worked on, though . . . those don't always translate well (and that's a pro-tip for anybody writing a language barrier fic, have some idioms that don't really translate).
The story's about the protagonist visiting a tech mall, which I know about thanks to the magic of YouTube.
Give it a look!
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*While on a fast Amtrak train from Jackson, MI to Chicago.
Second, MasterThief has published his EverfreeNorthwest Iron Author fic. Before I give you the link, I'm gonna say a few words.
Source*, **
Every year I've been at Everfree Northwest and every year I've listened to the readings of the winners (including me, one year), or read the entries pre-judging, I'm amazed at the quality of story our talented fandom can create in only a couple hours given a prompt. I guarantee you that there are many IRL published award-winning authors who would not come close to making the cut.
This story won first prize, and it deserved it. I don't think that anyone who participated in Iron Author would disagree.
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*to save you time: 1. The industrial revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race. They have greatly increased the life-expectancy of those of us who live in (not translated by me, see derpi post)
**I'm not the only one who thinks pony typewriters type in pony-Morse
Finally, just 'cause I was thinking of it today, what types of taxes do y'all think the ponies have?
In case y'all were wondering, the winners of the EFNW Iron Author contest were
3: Keep Burning by Mica
2: The Age of Nefarious by FOME
1: The Origin Of A Species by MasterThief
And the honorable mentions went to
Admiral Biscuit (that's me!) for Guru Gabby Griffon and the Guerrilla Giraffe Gaffe, Scampy for Gaslight Gatekeep Girlboss, and Steady Gaze for Conversation with a Lunar Prisoner.
All the entries can be read here in their as-submitted-to-the-contest format.
They often make better editors too. They tend to care about the grammar rules those of us who use the language every day treat as optional.
I even recommend your Dutch translator as an editor.
Half disassembled Camaro in a parking lot? I love seeing cars in their native environment.
Thanks for the signal boost Admiral! I have to say though, the fic was written in English in the first place. I plan to translate it into Chinese myself, though I haven’t started working on it yet. Idioms are hard to master for a non-native speaker so I might get something wrong, but translating them could be way harder. In fact I don’t think the twenty percent cooler pun could be translated into Chinese at all and I’ll have to leave it as it is in English and hope that Chinese readers can get it. And they should; it’s basic English after all.
Holy moly, hehelover did an English fic on FF already? Not that it's much of a surprise that he described himself as the “Fimtale translator who felt more at home on Fimfiction”. His translation works can be considered part of the Tier 1 on Fimtale since the majority of translators there are still high school students, this one’s experienced and still dedicated to pony fics.
Thanks for the signal boost and the kind comments! (And also the t-shirt!
) Writing that story was an experience, I was basically writing fanfic scripture. I guess if the author gets misty-eyed while writing, it's a good omen.
I didn't know there was a Chinese MLP fanfic community either! This fandom is a wonderfully creative place.
And yes, if there's any one of the Mane 6 who would go full Ted Kaczynski anarcho-primitivist, it would be Fluttershy.
We had fun and I'll miss you, but am glad you got home safe.
List of Taxes
5690629
This is true. Or at least know what the rules are; I have no idea.
Yeah . . .
I hate Camaros.
5690643
I assumed it was, although that wasn't clear with how I phrased the blog post.
Although you do have an advantage of knowing what your intention was in the English version, and can potentially find a similar phrase in Chinese.
I do think that there's a benefit to the author and translator working together. I remember in one story of mine that someone translated (can't remember which one) there was a comment where the translater was confused about something I'd written, one that could have been cleared up with a private message to me.
One thing I just learned while I was in the Netherlands was that not only do lots of people speak English, but it was to the point where some companies just left their slogan in English. The Burger King at the airport had their menu in Dutch, but their sign said "Have it your way" in plain English.
5690658
Now it's your turn
Sadly, I don't get the full experience--I do like to read the translations of my works, but since I don't read Chinese I have to machine-translate it back to English, which changes things up a lot, as you can imagine.
5690662
Oh, I totally agree.
It's amazing! It really is a global community here; I've got friends and followers all over the world.
And she would be terrifying, 'cause she can get the animals behind her.
derpicdn.net/img/view/2015/3/18/851990.png
Notice who's riding the manticore
5690795
We need to do it again!
Trotcon or Holland Ponycon next year, or maybe Galacon?
5691172
Which ones do you figure the ponies have?
'Cause I was just thinking how Sam gets paid in cash, you think there's an income tax she's supposed to be paying quarterly? Or don't ponies have income tax?
5691500
An income-tax can work.
5691502
It could, yeah, but is that a thing that they have?
Or is it all covered by property tax? Or sales tax?
Do ponies have to fill out their HORSE TAX forms every year (or every quarter, since most of them appear to be self-employed)?
5691914
A progressive income tax would be the most fair with MinCome (Mincome has to be large enough to cushion unemployment, but not so large that lazy ponies live on it. A goodIncomeTtax is the SquareRoot of some income level for figuring out the after-tax remainder. The whole system might look like this:
If a pony earns 25,000 Bits / Year, after taxes, the pony gets 5,000 Bits / Year, but if a pony earns 40,000 Bits / Year, the pony gets 20,000 Bits / Year.
5691947
I totally think that if they did have income tax, it'd be progressive.
Funnily enough, somebody recently posted a forum thread asking what the equivalent value of a bit is, given that the show doesn't seem to be consistent on it (no surprise, really).
I tend to dodge the issue by never giving specific prices of things.
5692367
Also, humans in Equestria would notice that many things cheap here, cost dearly, or as the sapient deer say, "deerly", there and vice versa. As your story about Burger King demonstrates, it is hard to find red meat because hoofed animals are sapient, and although some sapient animals are more equal than others in Equestria, it is illegal to eat any of them. Maybe, Equestria should breed a sapient hoofed mammal wanting to be eaten and capable of saying so:
The square-root of a tax-unit seems fairest to me.
5692642
That's the interesting thing of a pre-industrial or very early industrial society--for example, manufactured things tend to be more expensive, since odds are they're custom-made on demand, rather than mass-produced and displayed in a store in the hopes that somebody will buy it.