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About this blog

My thoughts, facts, and analyses.

Entries in this blog

 

Equestria is culturally superior. Comic spoiler!

I read the latest MLP comic Feats Of Friendship. Warning Spoilers! It is a simple plot so far, but it made me think. First, a brief summary of the plot. The Young Six are going to participate in a series of games called the Feats Of Friendship. They need a 7th team member so Twilight introduces them to Swift Foot, a female earth pony. It turns out that she is evil (because of course she is) and wants to turn the characters against each other. She talks to each one privately. She tells Silve
 

How I got into FIM

It looks like I never explained how I got into MLP, so with the show ending I figured now is a good time to do that. I will also explain what the show means to me and try to understand why it has become a phenomenon. I think the year was 2012. I know I had gone to BronyCan in 2013 after going to BronyCon, and I don’t remember how many BronyCons I had been to before that. But I guess the exact year doesn’t matter. I was visiting with a friend in Baltimore (of all places!). I had brought 2 ot
Bronycon 2019

Bronycon 2019

Monday. Up at 5:30, out the door by 6:30. On my way to Louisville, KY. 13:17 getting an oil change outside of Louisville, KY. I stopped at a Game X Change and got some games. Going to eat soon. 16:10 Went to some video game stores. Got some Sega CD and Atari Jaguar games. I like getting tshirts from game stores too. 20:04 Eating pizza. What a day. Lots of video games and used books. I found the D&D 2nd edition Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, Monstrous Manual, 1st ed
 

She Ra ideas

She-Ra And The Princesses Of Power season 2 is starting soon. I like that cartoons in recent years have story arcs that go for an entire season. For shows in the past each episode would be a stand alone story and there was little or no development. The new She Ra has interesting characters and a story line that keeps you coming back. This means there must be an ultimate end and wrap up of the story. How long that can go on is the question. Here are my thoughts on how the show could go for the ne
 

She Ra fan fic

I have only seen 7 episodes so far, but I had to write this scene. I hope you like it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------                 The transport craft’s engines whined as Adora pushed the throttle forward. There was a thump on the roof as Catra landed on it, having jumped from the dock. She wasn’t about to let Adora get away from her. Catra opened the top hatch and jumped inside, landing on her fe
 

Proof that irrational numbers cannot have repeating decimals.

Assertion: Irrational numbers have decimal digits that do not repeat, nor do they have a pattern of digits that repeat. An irrational number cannot be expressed as the ratio of two integers.  Proof by contradiction. Assume that the irrational number does have a repeating pattern of decimals. First, consider an assumed irrational number x = a1a2•••am . am+1•••am+l•••x1x2•••xn•••x1x2•••xn••• Where the digits a1a2•••am are the part of the number greater than one. Note the decima
2nd Amendment Brony

2nd Amendment Brony

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Horror Movies Suck

I am working on a hypothesis that horror movies suck. Even fans of horror admit that most of the movies suck. To support this idea, I have compiled scores from Rotten Tomatoes . I plotted the movie score vs release year. I wasn't able to get the movie titles on the charts, but you can cross reference the year with the movies listed in Wikipedia. So far, I look at Friday the 13th, Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and for a comparison Star Trek. I then list what ratio of the movies got a scor
2nd Amendment Brony

2nd Amendment Brony

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AVGN movie analysis

I start by saying that I am a fan of AVGN. However, I have not seen the movie. From what I have seen of it, it does not look like the kind of thing I would pay money for. In general, I do not buy content from internet reviewers. I believe that I could spend my money on better entertainment. My level of enjoyment of reviewer content ends at watching their videos on line.                 Since I have not seen the movie I cannot offer a scene by scene review, not that I would have a desire to
2nd Amendment Brony

2nd Amendment Brony

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RPG Rants

Random Stat Generation   I do not like games where you randomly determine your character's statistics. Dungeons and Dragons is the most famous example of this, and that is the game I will be talking about for the most part. There is a fatal flaw in creating a character this way. The problem is you could end up rolling a really bad character. Who wants to play a character with bad stats? Some will claim that this is not a problem because you could also roll a character with really good stats. B
2nd Amendment Brony

2nd Amendment Brony

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Game Mathematical Analysis 3

I was reading some old rpg books and they had this rule: if a monk hits he has a 75% chance of stunning his target and a 25% chance of killing it. This is a grammar and math issue. The conjunction "and" means both. Therefore if the monk hits then he rolls % dice to see if he stuns. He then rolls % dice again, regardless of the results of the stun roll, to see if he kills. So he rolls the % dice two times, and determines the stun and kill rolls separately. How does the math work on this
 

Sense of smell/taste experiment

I had a bad cold the past few days and I lost my sense of smell and taste. But I learned some things, for science! First, I ate some jalepeños. No taste but I felt the hot. The next day, I ate wasabi. I could not taste it but it still burned my nose, which is weird. Then today we unloaded ammonia at work. I could not smell it, but it definitely burned when I breathed some. Then, at home, I had a bottle of organic vinegar, which is supposed to be good for you. You're supposed to drink a little of
2nd Amendment Brony

2nd Amendment Brony

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The Undateables

There is a British TV show called The Undatables where people with physical or mental disabilities are trying to find a date. It’s kind of sad and I feel sorry for these people because I know what it’s like. Specifically, there are a few people who were good looking but then they had some kind of accident or illness that left them disfigured or disabled. These people talk about how they had no trouble getting dates until their illness. There was one woman who was beautiful, then she had mos
2nd Amendment Brony

2nd Amendment Brony

1
 

Logic and Politics, Chapter 1

Logic And Society Let us review some problems in logic. If it is assumed that “society” must provide a service to a person, then how far must society go to provide that service? Also, if a person is entitled to something, then do they have an obligation to society? How do you determine the limits of that obligation? Take, for example, providing health care. How is health care defined? Must minor injuries be treated, or only major conditions? Go back to basic logic, meaning, model the s
 

Advertising and Marketing Blog 1

I saw an ad for a restaurant that said it had half price appetizers from 2 pm to 4 pm. This is because that is a time between lunch and dinner, so there isn't much business. The restaurant is trying to get people in. I get that. But what if it was advertised as "appetizers are double priced 9 am to 2 pm and 2 pm to closing." In other words, the price structure is the same but it is advertised differently. If an item is $10 normally, and $5 from 2 pm to 5 pm, then why call $10 normal and $5 half?
2nd Amendment Brony

2nd Amendment Brony

0
 

Carrying my pistol around town.

This blog is not intended to give legal advice. If you want to learn more, check your state’s gun laws.   I have been openly carrying my pistol around town for a few months. It is legal to carry openly without a permit in this state. Years ago, I carried my gun in a different state, where it was also legal, and the city police charge me with disorderly conduct, but the city dropped the charges because they had no case But where I live now most people own guns and don’t freak out when people ca
2nd Amendment Brony

2nd Amendment Brony

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Grammar, "this" versus "next."

Assume it is Friday, the 1 st of the month. What does it mean when someone says, “this weekend?” Are they talking about tomorrow, the 2 nd? What if it is Monday, the 28 th and someone asked, “What did you do this weekend?” Do they mean yesterday, the 27 th? Surely not, because in one case “this” means the upcoming weekend, while in the other case it would mean the past weekend. In fact, it makes no sense to say “this X” unless you are in X.   Consider the logic. If you say, “this year” you mea
2nd Amendment Brony

2nd Amendment Brony

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In defense of power gaming.

Power gaming is defined as optimizing the rules of a role playing game in order to create the most powerful character possible. The implication is that this is done with no regard to the story of the game. In other words, the player cares about being powerful and does not care if it makes sense in terms of the plot of the game. Power gamers are often derided and ridiculed. Why? It irks me that people criticize players who do nothing more than read the rules and strategize.   Power gaming, also
 

Looking for new friends.

I'm looking for new friends, people who share my hobbies, interests, values, and beliefs. I have basically turned away from my old friends, mostly because I have nothing in common with them. A couple of them are married. As some of you know when your friends get married it means they are no longer your friends. It means every free moment of their lives is dedicated to their family. No more hanging out, no more playing games, no more having fun.   Besides that, none of my friends are interested
2nd Amendment Brony

2nd Amendment Brony

1
 

Statistical Analysis of Dice Rolls in Gaming

probability.pdf   The attached pdf is the same as the post below, but with the histogram pictures.   I like to do mathematical models and analyses of gaming, and I was thinking of this one lately.   Dungeons and Dragons Next has what they call an “advantage” and “disadvantage” system. For an advantage, the player rolls 2d20 and keeps the favorable roll. For a disadvantage, the player rolls 2d20 and keeps the unfavorable roll.   Advantage System If the player needs the number n to succee
 

Stop saying "literally"!

Just stop! If you think you need to use it, you are probably wrong. The incorrect use of the word “literally” has become an epidemic. It keeps getting worse. I seem to hear it every day. I have started keeping track each time I hear it. It is 11:30 am and I have heard it 4 times today! I listen to a couple of radio programs, and I know one of the guys I listen to uses it a lot. I know that biases my sample, but I still hear it from others as well.   The site www.dictionary.com has 4 definition
 

"Digital download" is a bad descriptor.

Continuing in my line of grammar rants, I talk about the phrase "digital download" or "digital content." The problem is when the term "digital" is used to mean "...as opposed to content on physical disk." For example, a movie package might say "DVD, Bluray, and digital download."   The truth is DVD and Bluray are digital as well. Wikipedia defines digital as information being stored in discrete segments. People say "digital" when perhaps they should say "medialess." I have seen DVDs that say "
2nd Amendment Brony

2nd Amendment Brony

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"Head canon" is an oxymoron!

I hate when people use words incorrectly. The term "head canon" does not make any sense. "Canon" does not mean "back story." The word "canon" is used in the religious context to basically mean official. Using the term for fiction, such as a television show, means that something is officially recognized by the owner of the intellectual property. The only people who have the authority to make something canon are people who own the product, or who have been officially licensed to produce material f