Posts

How is everyone doing? It’s been a while.

Woah, what’s this? A new video? And did I return from my slumber just to advertise?
Yes.
Now watch my video.
This is a threat
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jquhuAW_Os0

@97blackbird
She allowed me to sleep right through it. I think that’s my gift. LoL

@97blackbird
Two trukks! Ork ladz gonna be happy this year :)

Happy Hearths Warming day fellow pony fans!
Did the Christmas Derpy deliverymare find you?

@BigBuggyBastage
Yeah, I saw that a few years ago. I don’t really think this is something we can help with, even those that have the power to do so. I think this might be it for my winged cousins.
Sad, so terribly sad. But the disease destroying them is stronger then what could possibly be fought against.

Oh no! I never heard about this!

“I can only imagine how much trouble I’ll be in when my landlord finds I have an endangered species of bat living on the porch…but then, she won’t be able to do much about it, since they’ll be federally protected. :)”

Yep! I’ve had endangered birds in my attic. I waited till they vacated then screened the ventilation holes.

In bat-related news, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has put the northern long-eared bat on the endangered species list! D: Apparently, they’re succumbing to “white-nose syndrome,” which is caused by a fungus that affects their snootles and wings; the bats wake up during hibernation, because of irritation, and then burn their fat stores. They then die because there aren’t any bugs to eat in the middle of winter. If it wasn’t so deadly to the poor little bats, it’d almost be funny, because it kinda makes them look like they’ve been snorting cocaine.

Read about it here: UPI and NPR.

I’ve also read from a related article that their population has dropped by over 97 %, up to 99 % in some areas. If we can’t figure out a way to treat or prevent this fungus from infecting and killing our fuzzy fliers, they could be gone forever in another decade. This syndrome has only been around since 2006, so they went from “doing okay,” to “threatened” in 2015, to “endangered species,” all in the span of 14 years.

FWIW, I’ll be doing my part to help, which admittedly isn’t much: I’ll be placing bat houses at my parents’ property, and at my apartment (or rather, on the outdoor porch I have), this coming spring. The latter points to a small woods, but because it faces north and east, I’m hoping to come up with a way of gently heating it, to be more appealing to the bats. I can only imagine how much trouble I’ll be in when my landlord finds I have an endangered species of bat living on the porch…but then, she won’t be able to do much about it, since they’ll be federally protected. :)

@97blackbird
FIFA is such a corrupt organization, and Qatar has such an awful human rights record, I feel like I’d be contributing to these problems if I watched it.

I have no feelings against the players or teams, though. If anything, I am a bit sorry for them, and think that they deserve better. They’re just caught between a corrupt rock and a stupidly-backward hard place.

@97blackbird
1/3 (if nothing else is available)

Your feelings on the World Cup,

@97blackbird
Happy Turkey Day to you, too! :D Glad you weren’t squished. Traffic these days is bonkers around holidays.

My Thanksgiving was subdued, let’s say.

I’m still shacked up at the ‘rents, because of my ongoing left shoulder issues (frozen shoulder, or adhesive capsulitis). I had it “manipulated” a week and a day ago, under anesthesia, by my orthopedic surgeon. Still going to physical therapy every two days or so, and it’s slowly improving, so my PT assistant/dungeon-master says. All of yesterday though, I was completely knocked out on hydroxyzine, a potent antihistamine. The farmer across the street from us decided Thanksgiving was the day to burn everything he possibly could from his field, and the wind was such that it carried the smoke right toward our house. It smelled like smoke in my damn room, and we keep this place sealed up as tight as we can. After I’d popped my sixth Benadryl, and used my rescue inhaler for the third time, trying to reduce my allergic reactions and wheezing, I said fuck it, and took the hydroxyzine. It was lights-out for over 20 hours, and I barely got up in time for my PT appointment Friday. LoL

No real family get-togethers were/are planned this season, if I’m honest; there’s some drama happening on my brother’s end of things, so we’re not going to pressure him into having to do a party, gifts, etc. with all he’s got going on. Which is fine by me too, really, because I’m looking forward to having a fully-working left shoulder, so I can actually move into my new apartment. Maybe by the end of the year? Here’s hoping.

Happy Thanksgiving! Mine was great (other than the TWO near traffic collisions I avoided). Family, friends, and a lot of laughs! It was a good holiday for me!

Hmm… Coming to windows…
Interesting

Side note: Got beta access to Darktide. My report? Its hella awesome

@Once-Communist Starlight
Is that a Disney thing? I really have no idea. 🤪 Also, do you have any download or magnet links to it?

Also also, I borrowed 97blackbird’s idea of “cleansing my palette” with some G4 yesterday, and it was…illuminating, but not in the way I expected. I watched The Summer Sun Setback [S9E17], can’t remember why that episode specifically, but going (relatively) fresh from watching G5 to that made me appreciate G4 all over again. It also brought G5 down another notch, in my mind’s eye. Not that I was really ‘invested’ in G5, but it’s always disappointing when you watch a new show, especially one with some back-history like this, and it’s not punching up to the levels it should.

EDIT: Misty is still hella-cute. :3

I mean, if the Owl House can make a show that literally everyone can enjoy, why shouldn’t G5?
Also go watch Owl House it’s good

FWIW, it does improve a bit as you go through the Chapter Two episodes.

I get a feeling that the artists and writers are trying to wrap their hooves around what the series is “supposed to be,” making improvements as they go, where they can – take a look at the end credits to see how many people are involved with making the show, it’s kind of amazing by itself. But it’s the writing that needs attention, more than anything. Perhaps they’re struggling a bit to make every episode’s plot fit properly into 22 minutes, without feeling padded, condensed, or unfocused.

I do agree that the target demographic is evident, and it is NOT us, gents. That said, I can enjoy most things, except Seinfeld, Big Bang Theory, or anything by the Kardashians. 🤮

@Once-Communist Starlight
Either you are exercising your abilities in understatement, or I have been lax in my description of this show and robbing you of information for objectivity.

Yeah. My opinion, G5 series has hit its targeted age demographic, squarely, and there’s nothing for anyone outside of that limited age bracket to enjoy, so just get up and leave the room.

Eesh, it doesn’t sound good :T

@BigBuggyBastage
I did go back, and back, and back…. You get the idea…
I finished the first episode in several five-minute or so pieces. I wanted to see the villain’s motivation, which is being kept generic “Mor Powr! Yarr!”
Ugh!
And Hitch’s “Gee, what about this Earth pony magic..?” Yeah, what about it? That might be interesting?
Too bad the show has just thrown a bunch of plot threads into the air and doesn’t seem to care about focusing on any of them.
Kill the dragon. He’s not cute, nor is he any use. He’s a distraction, and not a good one by any stretch.
Gen 5 has aimed at cute and missed. I don’t like the hearts on the hooves, (I’d give it a pass if they were upside down, more to the actual hoof pattern) it’s a cutesy addition.
Ugh! I’m gonna go watch Gen 4 season one again to purge this monstrosity from my mind.

@97blackbird
A bit too close to CoComelon for ya, eh? ;) jk I hear ya. I’m not latching onto it anywhere nearly as much as FiM. I’ve watched the films & all of the Chapter 2 episodes of MyM, mostly out of perverse curiosity, yet also a deep-running, hopeful longing for some good Pone. But yeah, I’m not getting the “OMG this is actually great, and I can’t stop watching!” type of feeling I got from FiM back in 2012. That was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I’m okay with that.

@BigBuggyBastage
Ugh!
The new series!
I just cant!
The dragon is mind-meltingly annoying, both in action and in voice.
I can’t stand the filler chuckling/laughing that’s shoved in to highlight “they’re friends, and they enjoy each other!”
I cringe at the clumsy “Oops! I did it again!” attempts at comedy.
I can’t even get through the first episode.
And I want to give it a shot, but I’m not going watch this just because “Mor Pone!”.

All this does is serve to show how brilliant Lauren Faust is.
It might get better, but I’m not investing any more time into this. And certainly not any money.

@97blackbird
Heh, I didn’t even go that far. I just went over to the Yay Ponies Website and downloaded the episodes to watch at my leisure. :3

“I’m broke, zigga, I’m broke!” 🤣

@Once-Communist Starlight
It’s aboot the G5 poners, primarily: Sunny, Hitch, Izzy (my fave ♥), Pipp, and Zipp, a.k.a the [new] Mane 5. If you’ve not seen the movies – A New Generation, and Make Your Mark – you’ll be quite lost. Or at least I was. LoL You can see both at the link above, I think.

My personal advice would be to do your best to ignore the baby dragon (unless you LIKE watching baby characters doing nothing but babble and/or cause trouble for adults), but otherwise keep an open mind. These are just the first eight episodes of the series, and they definitely DO NOT have the budget of the films. Yet I can tell they have some very talented people working on the show. If they can clean up the animation errors, work toward get the stories “tighter,” i.e. more thoroughly-resolved and fleshed-out plots, this will be a series worth watching regularly.

@BigBuggyBastage
What’s it about?