Hei!

I am a brony from St.-Petersburg, Russia. Looking up to Thirty Minute Ponies, I started a Russian writing prompt, which we called simply Russian Pony Writing Prompt. We are writing short pony stories in an hour each Wednesday and Saturday. We started in February and now at Prompt #44, with hundreds of stories written. I created a FiMFiction group for our little project, with hopes to translate some of the stories into English, to bring the Russian brony fandom closer to the rest of the world. If you ever wondered, we do have fandom and fanfiction, just no regular writing prompts before this one. Oh, and I asked Obselescence to give us a first prompt. Maybe you heard of him; he was one of the organizers of Thirty Minute Ponies. Anyway, his prompt was "Celestia has a holiday". The prompt took off immediately; we received 20 entries on that first day. One was a poem even; I was going to have a translator translate it, but haven't gotten around to proofreading and properly publishing on FiMFiction yet; here it is.

I didn't write any fiction on this site, but I read some (not sure if that counts as "a lot") and participated in the discussions in the groups.

So, me and my friend whom I met through this writing prompt are coming to Crystal Fair and we'd like to meet any of you and also, if it wouldn't be too much to ask, probably we could stay with you? If not, then just meeting will be grand. Will there be any brony meetup in Helsinki on 1st or 2nd of June, just before the convention? My friend will work as a volunteer, so he might already get busy on 3rd.

I don't know if the idea of strangers staying in your home sounds weird; I vaguely remember that it was, for me. Then I heard of Couchsurfing. You know, there's this idea that travellers can travel by staying in each others' homes. I remember cautiously reading the gushing Couchsurfer's reviews leave of their travels, thinking something like "are they some kind of brainwashed cultists?" Then I went to a local Couchsurfing meetup in St.-Petersburg and found that these people are ok. I created a profile and travelled to Finland a bit and hosted a couple of people; the experience was awesome. I wish I could travel more; lately I don't have either time or money: I'm working as a freelancer and my schedule is hectic. When you travel without a set plan and don't know where you'll stay next, but it always happens that you'll end up staying with awesome people, it feels like a leap of faith; as if you can fall without looking and the Earth will always catch you with caring hands. This is an illusion, of course, but a pleasant one and harmless, if you know what you're doing: I only met with great people via Couchsurfing and I hope it will stay that way, but caution and common sense won't hurt: I always look into the profile of people I contact, and if I something is off, or the person can't be bothered to spell, or anything looks wrong to me - I pass on these people. So now I am going to tell you all I can so that you can see I'm a nice person and all, and deanonymize myself however I can.

So, where do I start? You know, there's this cartoon I like a lot, that is originally made for marketing toys to girls... Ahem, nope.

Here is my Couchsurfing and a bunch of other profiles; you can check the nice things some people bothered to write about me on Couchsurfing; seriously, I didn't ask them to; I didn't even leave a comment for them (shame on lazy me).

I really like bronies who not only consume, but produce something of their own, be it fanfiction, music or something else, like the plushies this homey is doing (it's a pity he's not coming to Crystal Fair). Even original opinion is good.

I like reading and I like computers; I believe that there is a lot of unexplored potential at the intersection of prose and computers; the potential that only we (as in, humanity) just started exploring in 1980s, but then abandoned altogether. Did you know that Douglas Adams worked with game developers on an interactive fiction title, Infocom's titles were sold in book stores and one interactive fiction won a literary award, back when they did allow interactive works there? I forgot which one that was; I thought it was Amnesia (1986), but that was written by Hugo and Nebula-winning Thomas M. Disch, instead. Anyway, I am sympathetic to the look of one indie game developer who said "We discovered four letters and ran away to write books with them; what we should do is learn more letters, first." Interactive medium that we call games now, he argues, has it own language that is still not understood.

I hope to contribute my humble little bit to trying to "upgrade the prose". I would like to write an interactive piece of fanfiction that is a bit more than text. Maybe something like Almost Goodbye but with pictures and with an ending that you can influence, but cannot change, for a start? And with ponies, of course.

I like science because it works and I like science fiction because it opens us the new horizons and shows what could be; but I think that lately science changed our world so much that people have trouble catching up, and afraid and unwilling to look further still, which is a shame. I think it is quite likely that within our lifetime the scientific progress will change us and the world around us in a way that we cannot imagine; and instead of denying it we'd better make sure that it will be good. If you heard of the idea of intelligence explosion - that's what I think is a likely scenario. But I don't pray to Kurzweil or believe some stupid things you might think I believe. If you didn't heard of Kurzweil or singularity - nevermind; Facing the Intelligence Explosion is a good introduction.

For my "day job" I work for Machine Intelligence Research Institute, a non-profit organization working to ensure that the creation of smarter-than-human intelligence has a positive impact. So when Friendship is Optimal came out, I was thrilled: it combined all the things I loved: science fiction, technological singularity, friendship and ponies! Author is a huge fan and supporter of MIRI and the story is his attempt to promote their ideas more. Of course, I helped to promote the story, organize the FiMFiction and DeviantArt group for it and read all of the side-stories that came out.

About my friend I cannot say much: he doesn't have an up-to-date English presence online, but he'll be a volunteer at the Crystal Fair and he was the first to contact me when I voiced my idea of a Russian Pony Writing Prompt and helped an awful lot: I even had to tell me to skip organizing a prompt, because I was afraid that he's working too much - that's how super nice a person he is!

I will be in Helsinki from morning, 1st to 7th of July. It's may be considered too much to stay with one person for that long, so maybe you could host us for, say, 1-3 or 4-7 of July, or just a day?
We have our sleeping bags and pads, so this is covered: sleeping-wise we need only a place on the floor to crash.

Please contact me via PM, email or Skype if you'd like to host me or talk to me. If you decide you may want to host me or meet me in person, please give me your phone number: I don't know when I'll be able to get online after I leave my home.
my St.-Petersburg phone: +7 921 889-04-71
my Skype: hrenistic
email: listic.pony@gmail.com

If I won't be able to stay with fellow bronies next week, I can always couchsurf: right now I see 1,388 couchsurfers in Helsinki alone, but I think it would be much greater to stay with fellow bronies. If that's okay with you.

P.S. I am a slow and fiddly writer; I quickly jotted down this message and might still be editing it and adding formatting, as you read it.

Hey, if you find it inappropriate for me to come here like this and throw this huge infodump on you - I'm sorry. If idea of a stranger staying with you creeps you out - forget this, how about a meetup somewhere in Helsinki on 1st - 2nd? If even that is too much... You know, my younger brother says 'I don't want to talk to strangers' On one hoof, I understand - don't we all? - but on the other three - 'How are you going to get to know anyone except who you happened to be born near?' - I wonder. So, if you don't want to meet me - that's fine, too, but maybe you could just respond here or something?

Well, personally, I have nothing against you, and I think you're cool. I would gladly invite you to stay with me, but where I believe I'm staying during the days of the con is a small and fairly remote hut with minimal amenities. I've decided to bring my laptop and my PS3 with me (TV included). Otherwise, I would go crazy with boredom . Not sure how we'd fare sharing the same space, though.

3395738 Thank you very much for your response, Suomibrony!
I'm glad to tell you that I have read your story.
If the hut is what I think it is, then I don't see why I wouldn't be good for even 8 people, provided said people are nice to each other. I'm speaking from personal experience here: I've been going with a company of friends to live in a remote hut for a week, around the New Year. Most people in Russia spend their New Year with the family, but we had a company of like-minded people who wanted to escape all that celebrating and just get away from it all. I guess I don't understand the concept of boredom: there's just so much stuff to do to think about, people to see, places to visit, stories to write, at last - I have started a writing prompt, but I hardly have time to participate in it! And on the other hand, isn't a remote hut just the rare occasion to get away from all this technology that surrounds us? To each their own, I guess, but if you do decide to take us, we'll try our best to entertain you. We'll be bringing the latest version of real, printed-on-dead-trees game Twilight Sparkles Secret Shipping Folder.

On the other hoof, is your PS3 of a kind that can play PS2 games? (that would be the older, fatter one, I believe)

If you do decide to be so kind as to invite us, you stll have about 28 hours to tell us your phone and dates that you can host us, before I leave my cozy computer with an internet connection and go to Finland. I will try to monitor this thread afterwards, but it's unclear when I'll get online next time, so, for us to meet reliably, you would have tell me your number and dates before that. We would like to stay with as many people as possible, but moving each and every day can be hard, so can we stay for two? Approximate location would be nice, too, so that we can plan our transportation accordingly.

As I said, we'll bring our own mats and sleeping bags.

3396442
I spent last years eve alone in my home. I had no complaints, since most of the people I know tend to drink themselves stupid during new years eve, and my peace of mind suffers when among the intoxicated.

At any rate, I must stress that that the hut is very small, accomodating one bed that is suited best for two occupants. If I were to guess, the hut is about ten meters long and four wide. It's basically a shed! There's a microwave, but no oven, a fridge, and running water. No toilet though. That business must be done in the outhouse. Last but not least, the nearest convenience store is several kilometes away. Same goes for the nearest bus stop.

The sea is close by, with a sauna (but no shower), so swimming and some bathing can be done (I don't like swimming). Of course, mingling about and engaging in conversations and other activites does ward off boredom, but I "burn out" if I can't withdraw into solitude to recharge now and then, most likely immersing myself in a game or my fic (thanks for reading it, by the way). If I have nothing to occupy myself with, I become restless and irritable. This would be highly undesirable.

Anyhow, my PS3 is not backwards compatible with PS2 games, sorry. I'm still debating with myself on what and how many games I should take with me. Much depends on what company I'll have. Will I be alone, or with someone? Does that someone want to play games as well, and if so, what games are their cup of tea?

3396475 There are a few console games I would love to play, or see someone play. I have interest in games, but I never owned any console, so there is a list of games that I've heard are good, but that's it. They are PS2, but now that I checked some have been re-released in "HD" versions. The ones I could remember right away are:
Fahrenheit, Ico and Shadow of the Colossus (the last two have "HD" versions for PS3, luckily). Should it be straightforward for me to download and burn them to DVD to play on your PS3 or does it require a hacked PS3?

Also, I think it's a shame that they so rarely do games for several players for the console, as it seems to be well suited for them, but that's life. Why couldn't Disgaea for PS2/PS3 be co-op multiplayer?

Does "no oven" imply a) there'll be cold inside when it's cold outside, and b) that you can only microwave the food, but not cook it? I'm ok with both, but it's good to know in advance.

It's a pity that you don't like swimming; I find it very fun, but I'm not sure if maybe the sea would be too cold even for the brave ones?

If you will be sure you can take us on (as I said, we'll be ready crash on whatever flat surface available), please do tell us on which dates and your phone number, so that I can contact you.

Anyone else here willing to host us on another date (I assume, 1-3 is open), or chat in person, or just say hi?

3396491
I haven't played those games, although I've heard a lot about them, mainly good. However, my PS3 doesn't accept illegitimate DVD's, as it's a completely unmodified machine. I have a few games that support split-screen co-op, but they're shooters. Borderlands familiar to you?

No oven means no oven for preparing food. The hut (or shed, whatever), is heated, so there's no worry of being cold. Especially not during summer.

I must state that there's room only for two. It's not a big place.

Borderlands familiar to you?

Heard something about it.

I must state that there's room only for two. It's not a big place.

If you're positive that only one of us would fit, even on the floor, and it's not a case of Finnish people being used to huge apartments, then I'm not sure if it could work for us, as I would really prefer not to get separated from my pal, but thanks for considering hosting me, should you choose to.

Borderlands familiar to you?

Wow, it seems to be a recent and high-profile game. I went to the computer store to buy a new battery for my trusty Nokia and the ads for it were greeting me on both sides on the entrance.

We've found an accommodation for 1-2 of July, still looking for 3-7. Sadly, no brony seems to be interested so far. Hey, anyone wants to say hi or talk about the things I mentioned?
3396617 If you will decide that you'd like to see us at your hut (as I said, we won't take much space) then I'm afraid there's no way around giving me your phone number and the dates your are able to host us (are you staying just for the con, 4-6 of July? 4-5 or 5-6 works great for us, our schedule is still in flux). There's still 24 hours left in which I'll be reliably able to check my inbox, afterwards I may not be able to find you.

3398829
Well, I've planned to arrive on Thursday and leave on Monday. Alas, there's only room for two (me and someone else) in the hut. I'm not sure that's what you're looking for, so your best bet is to keep your eyes open for better accomodating places. Although, if you wish to stay in the hut a night or two, that's fine by me.

I don't hand out my phone number or any other personal info easily. If you like, you can PM me and share your Skype (if you have it) so that we can text chat.

My Skype is hrenistic, I've put it on my phone and bought a Saunalahti prepaid unlimited data plan; it would be great if you have Skype on your phone, too.

My friend is coming later and got another accommodation, after all, so you don't need to host him and things seem to work out well.